said by LazMan:As I mentioned above - it's not at all unusual for members of a department to do fundraising to get new or upgraded equipment...
In many areas the fundraising also involves rescue squads and EMT services.
These services are always in need of new equipment, training to meet ever-changing state requirements, etc.
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I have lived much of my life in places that have volunteer fire departments and rescue squads.
I try to contribute when I can---in my current town fundraising is mostly by mail---
Sometimes people want to tell the town board to deny money to fix the fire station or buy a new truck. That's nuts. The local people should be glad that the firefighters are volunteering---the least that the citizens can do is pay for the facilities!
Paid fire departments would cost far more....
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I used to live near Chesapeake, Virginia, at a time when that city had combined the job of police officer and firefighter. I think they gave up that experiment.