You might be interested to know that around 75% of the firefighters in the country are volunteers. EMS numbers vary, but many EMTs are also volunteer. It is much like the National Guard in that you must commit training time, and you have to train to the same level as a paid Firefighter/EMT and earn national certifications.
Generally large metropolitan cities are staffed with paid people full time, because they can't afford to gamble on Volunteers, but smaller cities rely on them heavily, smaller towns (10k people or less) absolutely depend on them.
If you're serious shoot me an email at jeremymorgan at gmail. It's very rewarding and chances are some agency nearby needs you.
