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The New York City Fire Department has added 43 new names to its memorial wall, bringing to 341 the number of FDNY veterans who died from Ground Zero-related ailments. On Sept. 11, 2001, 343 FDNY members were killed. In related news, two more victims of the terrorist attacks have been identified, the first since 2021.
Boston firefighter Daniel Ranahan had heard about colleagues getting cancer but he was stunned when doctors discovered a tumor in his chest.
By the time he was 18, Chris LaDue had the definition for his perfect life.
“If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Lethal Weapon,’ you know Martin Riggs lives on the beach with his dog and his truck and a camper,” he said. “That was my choice. That was like, ‘if I can do that, and work in a drug task force, I’d be stoked.'”
Then, his friends convinced him to join a local fire department in San Clemente, Calif., as a volunteer firefighter. At first, he said he stayed on the job for the adrenaline rush. But then that San Clemente volunteer job led to jobs in Chicago and two other southern California fire departments.
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A big grant is hoping to bring in volunteer firefighters across Kansas.
“If not you then who? Somebody has got to be able to do this job,” Steve Hirsch, KSFFA, Treasurer, says.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded the Kansas State Fire Fighters Association over $1.3 million in grant money to help recruit and retain volunteer firefighters.
And now the KSFFA is asking Kansans to step up and volunteer.
JASPER COUNTY, Texas — Firefighters have been working nonstop to keep Southeast Texas communities safe as wildfires continue to be a massive threat to the area.
On Labor Day, crews were battling a 300-acre fire in the Cairo Springs Community near county road 633 near Buna.
Many of these firefighters are actually volunteers who are trying to balance their duties, their families and their professional lives, all at once.
A U.S. military firefighter for 32 years, Kurt Rhodes trained and performed his duties with aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF — a highly effective fire suppressant that he never knew contained PFAS chemicals, now known to be harmful to human health.
Calaveras County consists of 10 volunteer fire departments:
The CCFCA fire agencies are located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 188 miles east of San Francisco and 135 miles west of Lake Tahoe in California. Found midway on State Highway 49, between Sacramento and Yosemite, Calaveras County links the two towns of the California Gold Country. With an average of 6,000 fire and emergency service calls a year, our 11 fire districts serve a rural area of 45,578 people. We provide fire protection and rescue service to 1,020 square miles of rural area. Our 11 volunteer agencies respond to structure fires, wild land fires, medical emergencies, water rescue, technical rope rescue, hazardous materials spills, public service assistance calls and other emergencies. The Calaveras County Fire Agencies protects an area that is 66% rural wild land, 21% residential, and 3% commercial, including Calaveras Big Trees State Park, a preserve of Giant Sequoia trees, located in the county several miles east of the town of Arnold.
Below is a list of the selection criteria each department requires in order to consider an application for volunteer firefighter. Read the criteria and make sure that you qualify, then click the Apply button to complete your application online.
Although local governments and departments establish different selection criteria, many departments require that volunteers:
Time requirements vary by department. Time commitment will depend on several factors, such as the number of calls the department receives, training requirements, shift versus on-call structure, and community activities in which the department requires volunteers to participate.
Volunteer departments prefer that volunteers have the ability to respond to calls 24 hours a day, although most departments still accept volunteers who are unable to leave work or other obligations to respond to a call.
Typically, departments pay for training and firefighting equipment. Volunteer firefighting is an unpaid position; however, some departments may provide stipends or reimburse volunteers for certain expenses.
