I feel like the firefighters who refused to help with the fire or go to the heart attack victim’s house should be criminally prosecuted at the least and should definitely lose their jobs.
Isn’t there a reasonable obligation to try and save people if you can do so without harming yourself, even more so with police and firefighters? I guess this makes sense in the context of Uvadale.
Neat thing I learned when researching this: Some states (like Oklahoma) have laws on the books that state that volunteer firefighters “who are called to fight fires are not required to use any accrued leave or make up any time due to the performance of their volunteer firefighter duties.”
Doesn’t mean they’ll continue to get paid while they’re working fires but at least they won’t have to make up hours or lose vacation over it 🤷
It’s insane to me as a non-American that a) one of the most critical jobs employ lots of people without paying them and b) that person has no responsibility to actually do that critical job.
What if surgeons decided they don’t want to operate on someone because they just don’t feel like it or like the person? Society is usually built on trust the in an emergency you can count on others.
Honestly it feels really scrummy that people who do firefighting might not be paid.
Want more rage? In my community in East Tennessee, I don’t have municipal fire service.
There’s a private for-profit fire department that “serves” me. I have to pay a yearly subscription fee to them. Granted, it’s not expensive, but it’s the principle - Why the fuck do I have to pay for something that, everywhere else, is covered by taxes?
Now… I can choose not to pay the subscription fee. And that’s fine. If I have a fire or need to be cut out of a car, they’ll still respond and still do whatever needs doing. But then they send a bill for $2000 per hour per apparatus that responds to the call, billed from the moment they leave the station to when they pull back in. So if I have a car wreck and the car catches fire, I can expect a bill for $2000/hour for each of a rescue truck, a pump truck, and a tank truck, assuming they don’t send two rescue trucks for some reason.
That’s $6000/hr, and they scene may be active for two or three hours. That’s $12,000 - $18,000 dollars BEFORE we even start talking about our garbage predatory healthcare system. Do I need an airlift to the trauma center? Whoa buddy… That’s a minimum of $20,000 before they even start the engine on the damned thing. Plus, the helicopter doesn’t take off from accident scene, so I’ll need ambulance transport to the aircraft LZ, so that’s another $2,000. But it’s okay, because the air evac company has a subscription plan too, and as long as I pay them my protection money every year, they won’t ruin my life if I have an accident.
I’m SOO FUCKING TIRED of this shithole profit-driven country.
I feel like the firefighters who refused to help with the fire or go to the heart attack victim’s house should be criminally prosecuted at the least and should definitely lose their jobs.
A lot of firefighters are volunteers. I have no idea about this case but maybe they would try to use that as a defense, if so.
Side note, it’s utterly baffling that such an essential function basically runs off of charity. What a joke.
On the other hand, internal motivation is often more powerful that monetary compensation for many individuals.
Isn’t there a reasonable obligation to try and save people if you can do so without harming yourself, even more so with police and firefighters? I guess this makes sense in the context of Uvadale.
Volunteer firefighters have no legal obligation to respond to a call. Even if it’s the house next door.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/local/communities/blogs/webster/2017/01/07/being-a-volunteer-firefighter-myth-vs-reality/96296984/
Neat thing I learned when researching this: Some states (like Oklahoma) have laws on the books that state that volunteer firefighters “who are called to fight fires are not required to use any accrued leave or make up any time due to the performance of their volunteer firefighter duties.”
Doesn’t mean they’ll continue to get paid while they’re working fires but at least they won’t have to make up hours or lose vacation over it 🤷
It’s insane to me as a non-American that a) one of the most critical jobs employ lots of people without paying them and b) that person has no responsibility to actually do that critical job.
What if surgeons decided they don’t want to operate on someone because they just don’t feel like it or like the person? Society is usually built on trust the in an emergency you can count on others.
Honestly it feels really scrummy that people who do firefighting might not be paid.
Roughly 70% of the Firefighters in the US are volunteers.
Want more rage? In my community in East Tennessee, I don’t have municipal fire service.
There’s a private for-profit fire department that “serves” me. I have to pay a yearly subscription fee to them. Granted, it’s not expensive, but it’s the principle - Why the fuck do I have to pay for something that, everywhere else, is covered by taxes?
Now… I can choose not to pay the subscription fee. And that’s fine. If I have a fire or need to be cut out of a car, they’ll still respond and still do whatever needs doing. But then they send a bill for $2000 per hour per apparatus that responds to the call, billed from the moment they leave the station to when they pull back in. So if I have a car wreck and the car catches fire, I can expect a bill for $2000/hour for each of a rescue truck, a pump truck, and a tank truck, assuming they don’t send two rescue trucks for some reason.
That’s $6000/hr, and they scene may be active for two or three hours. That’s $12,000 - $18,000 dollars BEFORE we even start talking about our garbage predatory healthcare system. Do I need an airlift to the trauma center? Whoa buddy… That’s a minimum of $20,000 before they even start the engine on the damned thing. Plus, the helicopter doesn’t take off from accident scene, so I’ll need ambulance transport to the aircraft LZ, so that’s another $2,000. But it’s okay, because the air evac company has a subscription plan too, and as long as I pay them my protection money every year, they won’t ruin my life if I have an accident.
I’m SOO FUCKING TIRED of this shithole profit-driven country.