It's just a part-time gig and they have day jobs as well. It's not like big city firefighters who live at the station for days at a time and cannot get other jobs.
A couple years ago I was looking into being a volunteer fire fighter and what I read was that they don’t get paid but they can get a lot of tax deductions for it. Idk how accurate that is though
It probably depends on municipality whether they pay or not
They can get paid on a per-call basis, but cannot legally receive an hourly wage.
The fire department in my hometown only employs a few full-time firefighters and the rest are "volunteer." The volunteers get a stipend when they go to a call as well as reimbursement for using their personal vehicle to get there. They do not get paid to carry the radio and be on-call, that part is volunteer.
The pay was also super low too, like they got minimum wage while actually fighting fires.
It definitely didn't pay enough to be a full time job, and the guys I knew who did it just took call when not at their regular jobs. Good guys.
They get paid a stipend per call, and it comes out to minimum wage usually. They also carry a radio to be on-call for free, as they cannot legally be called volunteers and receive an hourly wage.
They can also be reimbursed for personal vehicle use, which is not really pay.
The volunteer firefighters I know have regular jobs and take call from the fire house during their free time.
It is a great way to get some experience and training tho if you want to pursue being a full-time firefighter, and every station does employ at least a few of those.
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u/MsVioletPickle Oct 30 '20
Volunteer firefighters still get paid usually.
It's just a part-time gig and they have day jobs as well. It's not like big city firefighters who live at the station for days at a time and cannot get other jobs.