Allan, I fully agree with you, and admit that I was indeed painting unfairly with a broad brush. I certainly realize that the majority of volunteers throughout the country are dedicated and qualified. I also realize that they provide a critical service to their communities. I may be a little biased in favor of paid professionals. As someone who used to be involved in training and evaluation (on the law enforcement side of public service), I have seen first-hand the results of inadequate training and questionable dedication among volunteer firefighters. The problem seems particularly bad in the mid-atlantic and southern parts of the country where metropolitan suburbs are overtaking rural areas. In one example here in Maryland recently, two rival VFD's responded to a fire and got into a fistfight over which company had control. The result was that a small fire that would have been easily extinguised spread to cause about $3,000.00 of damage. The battling firefighters however, caused over $10,000.00 of property damage as a result of their fighting. IMHO, the volunteers I have seen are more show than go. I only suggest that a career professional has more at stake and is therefore more likely to stay current with his/her skills. This may have more to do with necessity than heart. I apologize for the generalizations in my previous post and would like to make it clear that my observations pertain only to those individuals involved. Robb *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Aug 07 2000 - 19:10:58 PDT
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