I'm a volunteer EMT with a local volunteer ambulance company on Long Island, in the suburbs of NYC. I work closely with the combined volunteer/career department one town over (they provide fire suppression and heavy rescue coverage to my district).

Back in the day, there were plenty of "blue collar" jobs locally, where it was relatively easy to make it to fire calls, and many fire houses were "blue collar country clubs," i.e. the center of the social life for many in the community.

The fact of the matter is that there are many fewer people around here who make thier living locally anymore. Most folks are commuting into NYC.

Our squad is now predominately commuters, and while we have no trouble getting a crew out at night or on the weekend, we often have trouble during the work day. Our automatic mutual aid during the day goes to the combined department in the next town, which has a paid crew to respond, but they take twice as long to get here than we would, if we had a crew.

There are no easy answers. If we go to a paid crew during the day, taxes will invariably go up. I work locally, and own my own business, so I am often able to respond during the day, but at what cost to my business?

As an aside, in New York State volunteer firefighters (and EMTs) get $200 off their state income taxes (not a big number) and after five years get 20% off their property taxes (potentially a big number).