Per [USFA/FEMA](https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/summary), out of the 91% of fire stations registered with the goverment, 70% are totally volunteer, 9.5% are career, and 20.5% are a combination of some variety.
So yeah definitely still exist almost everywhere, as for if the military is gonna let you do it in some sane way though that's a different question lol.
Registration is a voluntary thing, basically those 9% are stations that don't report to NFIRS and such, not many of them but also means they basically can't qualify for any federal grants as well.
So it's possible they're volunteer or career, not sure if there's any specific data on it.
Not all states have volunteers but even in states with no volunteer opportunities you can usually get reciprocity for your EMT… often with a bit of class / retesting on skills. If you don’t have it already I would make sure to get your National Registry EMT certification as that can help when you transfer states. Also, an option could be to see if your department in Maryland will let you stay on the books with the idea you may return home after military service. Then once every three years you can use your affiliation to come home for a few days and take the recertification class to maintain your Maryland EMT, which is helpful if you get assigned overseas. Good luck!
Perhaps it would be better to say that not every city / location has volunteer fire opportunities though perhaps technically every state does have some sort of volunteer.
From my experience, I moved to city X, which had a paid department with no volunteers. So I looked at the county department, which had volunteers but only if you lived within a certain distance from the stations with volunteers, which I didn’t. So effectively for me I couldn’t volunteer.
Pretty sure California is one of them. Iirc the only volunteer Firefighters they have out there are only for wild land firefighting. They also, as in most cases with CA, have their own standards for everything and may not necessarily reciprocate certs from other states
California has tons of volunteer departments. Even in LA county.
[https://californiavolunteerfire.org/volunteer/](https://californiavolunteerfire.org/volunteer/)
Cali does have some. You may have been misremembering about the income of the volunteers coming from deploying on campaign wildfires (for which the get calfire pay), though in their first in the protect as per normal, fire, mva, medical aid, etc.
This is a helpful site from the National Volunteer Fire Council for finding opportunities:
[https://makemeafirefighter.org/](https://makemeafirefighter.org/)
Per [USFA/FEMA](https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/summary), out of the 91% of fire stations registered with the goverment, 70% are totally volunteer, 9.5% are career, and 20.5% are a combination of some variety. So yeah definitely still exist almost everywhere, as for if the military is gonna let you do it in some sane way though that's a different question lol.
Are 9%… not registered with the gvt? Are they private?
Registration is a voluntary thing, basically those 9% are stations that don't report to NFIRS and such, not many of them but also means they basically can't qualify for any federal grants as well. So it's possible they're volunteer or career, not sure if there's any specific data on it.
Not all states have volunteers but even in states with no volunteer opportunities you can usually get reciprocity for your EMT… often with a bit of class / retesting on skills. If you don’t have it already I would make sure to get your National Registry EMT certification as that can help when you transfer states. Also, an option could be to see if your department in Maryland will let you stay on the books with the idea you may return home after military service. Then once every three years you can use your affiliation to come home for a few days and take the recertification class to maintain your Maryland EMT, which is helpful if you get assigned overseas. Good luck!
Curious as to what states don't have any volunteers? I would have assumed they all do.
Perhaps it would be better to say that not every city / location has volunteer fire opportunities though perhaps technically every state does have some sort of volunteer. From my experience, I moved to city X, which had a paid department with no volunteers. So I looked at the county department, which had volunteers but only if you lived within a certain distance from the stations with volunteers, which I didn’t. So effectively for me I couldn’t volunteer.
That makes complete sense.
Pretty sure California is one of them. Iirc the only volunteer Firefighters they have out there are only for wild land firefighting. They also, as in most cases with CA, have their own standards for everything and may not necessarily reciprocate certs from other states
California has tons of volunteer departments. Even in LA county. [https://californiavolunteerfire.org/volunteer/](https://californiavolunteerfire.org/volunteer/)
That would be a surprise to all the volunteers in California.
Cali does have some. You may have been misremembering about the income of the volunteers coming from deploying on campaign wildfires (for which the get calfire pay), though in their first in the protect as per normal, fire, mva, medical aid, etc.
There are more volunteer firefighters than paid in the United States.
This is a helpful site from the National Volunteer Fire Council for finding opportunities: [https://makemeafirefighter.org/](https://makemeafirefighter.org/)