On: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for rout...

[_lz4k]

To volunteer implies you are already well off enough to have housing and food, thus have the luxury of being able to donate your time to volunteering.

[dls2016 → _lz4k]

Be my guest, go to a small town fire hall and see how “well off” the volunteers are compared to the median HN poster.

[_lz4k → dls2016]

I have been. Not one of them are forced to be firefighters. They volunteer

[stickfigure → _lz4k]

...and FYI, those volunteers get to pick and choose which calls they respond to. Not sure what axe you're grinding, but I'm glad you don't live in my district.

[_lz4k → stickfigure]

If there was a scale representing job difficulty — firefighter would be among the lowest difficult. I can respect those that volunteer but the ones who are career have no sympathy from me seeing that they are easily in the top 5% of society for doing something that 80% of us can do.