May have just been the area but my cousin got to tax deduct some of the gear he purchased. So if your prepared anyway (i.e. already buying cna carrying around a bunch of gear) you can get help that way. The fare department owned items like the fire trucks, pagers, etc were done bya fund raiser.
The local car dealership he worked for the owner allowed employees to take off for fire calls, I would assume he got certain tax advantages for that as well. IIRC business can get reimbrused some amount plus its helpfull if you ever have an employee get hurt on the job you have help right there.