What Does the Term Volunteer Mean?
The fire service in the United States has a rich tradition of volunteer fire departments (or companies) dating back to the days of Benjamin Franklin. These volunteer fire companies provided fire suppression services through the time and talent of the members of the community. As time progressed and some areas grew, the need for full-time (or career) firefighters developed. This occurred mainly in medium to large cities where the industry and tax base both required and could pay for a full-time staff. In other areas, volunteer departments continued to provide quality cost effective services to their community. While there are very many variations of ‘volunteer’ departments, the most common in this area is the paid-on-call department. This is the system used at the Hamel Volunteer Fire Department today. Paid-on-call implies that the firefighters are on-call employees of the Department who are paid an hourly wage for certain activities. Presently, members receive minimum wage for all time
