Fire Fighters No Longer Fight Fires?
July 20, 2012 in Daily Bulletin
Alex Tabarrok has a fascinating article where he looks at the evolution of fire-fighters in America. Highlights include:
- In the past 35 years the number of fires have rapidly declined while the number of firefighters have even more rapidly increased.
- Every time a fire truck is called it costs around $3,500 – and 25 calls in 24 hours is not uncommon.
- The number of false alarms has doubled.
- To give firefighters something to do they’re increasingly involved in activities such as responding to medical emergencies, dealing with gang violence, and even teaching.
To read more including many more details, several informative and fascinating graphs, the state of volunteer firefighters in the United States, why it’s hard to negotiate with firefighters, how Washington State is changing how it does things, what else firefighters do with their down time, why you can’t just have them lounging about, and the role of unions, click here.
Source: Marginal Revolution
Jeez, chill out, man
Im a volunteer firefighter and I found much of the comments in the previous article offensive. I even find the concept of the article offensive. We may not have a fire very often but people forget we do more. We conduct water rescues, help establish landing zones, do vehicle extrication, ice rescue, and many more. We also come to your kid’s school and teach them about fire prevention so that we can prevent fires. Would you people rather there be more fires in the US because you all would be singing a different tune if your house catches on fire and no one shows up. So you should all shut up and thank us for being there instead of bashing us. Especially volunteers who have full time jobs or are in school and still find time to go to hundreds of hours of training, leave their families at the dinner table and risk there lives. You should all be ashamed for what you all have said.