Washington DC area FDs - general information I think this is the general history of Washington DC area FDs
Each county has a countywide fire dispatch center. I think these centers were started in the 1950s and 1960s. Probably with the advent of radio paging systems and the closure of local telephone company manual exchanges. As the number of volunteer firefighters went down, or as the number of fire calls went up, the countys formed "fire commissions" or "fire agencys" which started to hire fulltime firefighters to work in the volunteer fire stations. This scheme is widespread in Maryland and northern Virginia. New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania all have the countywide fire dispatch centers, but AFAIK they do not have the county FDs. On the Maryland side of Wash DC, both Prince Georges County and Montgomery County still have lots of "volunteers". On the Virginia side of Wash DC, Arlington County and Fairfax County have phased out most volunteers I think. Loudon County VA and Prince William County VA Fd still have lots of "vols". I think. Not positive about that. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
