mdm911

A few more questions that arise in my mind;
Would you have gotten the same response if the mutual aid company had been dispatched to respond to the incident scene to help? (ie get to go to work)
What if the incident took a turn for the worse and the relocated engine was then requested from the station to the scene to help?
How much help would they have been?
Does the incident commander have any idea of the staffing of the engine during the incident or is he unaware of whether the engine has five interior firefighters or only an exterior driver?
If a volunteer department wants to be seen on the same level of professionalism as area paid departments, they need to respond like the paid departments. Otherwise area departments (paid, volunteer or combination) are going to stop requesting departments that only send two exterior members and request an engine from a paid department where they know they will get a minimum of two interior firefighters(most likely three to four) right away that can go to work. This is not an anti-volunteer statement at all. I know that some volunteer departments in the county have a large number of well qualified members that respond at all hours and other departments are doing the best that they can. However, we need to use some common sense, if a department cannot send an acceptable number of interior personnel, do the right thing and notify the county. If I were in charge of a department and two exterior members responded (to relocate or to the scene) I would have to think twice about requesting them in the future. If the department notified the county and passed the call onto another department, I would have a lot more respect for them. Just because they were unable to respond once, does not mean they will never be asked again. I think everyone understands certain times of the day are better or worse for a volunteer response.