there are 2 types of fire stations in the USA - or more - or more 1. there is at least 1 firefighter at the station before any emergency calls are received - the firefighter is doing paper work and maintain the equipment or whatever until a call is received
1A. there are no firefighters at the station before any emergency calls are received - this is a 'volunteer' station - or an 'on call' station - a few fire departments (FD) in California might call these 'auxiliary' stations or 'reserve' stations 2. the fire station is dispatched to any nearby emergency medical calls - probably 90% of the stations are dispatched to nearby emergency medical calls 2A. the fire station is NOT dispatched to nearby emergency medical calls - some stations are only dispatched to CPR calls - like FDNY - some stations do not respond to any violence related calls such as shootings, stabbings, or assaults - like Boston FD 3. there is an ambulance at the station - 50% of ambulance service in the USA is provided by fire department - like FDNY - like Chicago FD - like L.A.FD - like Philadelphia FD 3A. there is no ambulance at the station - ambulance is provided by a 'third service' or by a private (for profit) ambulance company 4. the fire station has a Ladder truck - maybe 5% of stations have ladder trucks 4A. if there is no ladder truck - then one must be provided for you - LOL - thats what the head of the FBI might say - idiot 5. the fire station is a wildland fire station - the staff is not trained nor equipped to handle structure fires, emergency medical calls, nor rescue calls - these stations are primarily operated by the federal and state levels of the government - there might be 4 or 5 locally operated 'wildfire only' fire stations in the USA - maybe Boulder CO and Austin TX might have them 5A . probably 35% of the structural fire stations in the USA operate small fire trucks - they are called 'brush' trucks or 'boosters' or 'minipumpers' or 'field units' or etc - they are small and typically have four wheel drive - they are intended to drive on dirt roads and paths in the woods and forests etc 6. the fire station has a satellite phone or a short wave radio - lol - you can count on 1 hand the number of fire stations that have this equipment in the USA 7. the station has a tanker truck or a rescue truck - maybe 5% of stations - actually - maybe 5% on rescue trucks - maybe 20% on tanker trucks - many rural fire stations have 1 pumper + 1 tanker + 1 brush truck 8. the fire station has a 2nd pumper - that is much more common in the suburban and rural areas - the 2nd pumpers are used as spares or in disasters - they are typically 20 to 30 years old - it is very rare for a city fire station to have a staffed 2nd pumper - maybe 0.5% of stations 9. the fire station is staffed by firefighters (FF) who have passed their FF1 or FF2 test - this is a test to show that the FF has taken basic firefighter courses - maybe 5% to 10% of volunteer stations cannot meet this goal in any meaningful way 10. off duty firefighters are equipped with pagers or apps to receive emergency alerts - this is common in rural and 50% of suburban areas - but unheard of in the major cities - so you have huge pools of available trained manpower who have basically no timely means of being alerted to nearby emergencies 10A. no one at the FD responds to any calls unless a jetliner crashes into their neighborhood 11. there is a hazmat truck at the fire station - this is very rare - each major metro area has only 1 or 2 hazmat trucks 12. there is a foam truck at the fire station - this is very rare unless at an airport or petro refinery - just FDNY and LAFD have foam trucks - and they just have 1 or 2 of them - and they might not even have a foam pump - and they are only staffed when needed 13. the station has a scuba team - very very rare - maybe only 500 FDs in USA have SCUBA teams - of course - scuba calls are very rare 14. the fire station has a helicopter - again very very rare - for example - there are no fire department helicopters in the northeastern USA - except that Maine State Forestry has 5 helos to handle forest fires - and Maryland State Police have 7 helos that can carry bambi buckets and have hoists - in fact - the only fire helos operate by structural fire departments east of the Mississippi are at Chicago and Miami and Palm Beach County - and they primarily do EMS work and we could go on - but we have hit the highlights - imho correct me if I am wrong -- 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 view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/massfire/CAFXWwKbdzAm%3Da%3DDw_Nq_tEu9-Fj-dgD2d%3DGN%3DNMfMxRH-GnCbw%40mail.gmail.com.
