Martin, I have read the comment of the forum members to this point and I read words of the truth. For as far as the Vollies go, it's dying by degrees. Sadly, I'm afraid that we haven't seen the worst of it yet. I've spent the last 34+ years heavily involved the Fire, Rescue, and EMS in North Carolina, both career and volunteer. We are seeing a serious downturn in volunteerism for a myriad of reasons. I suspect that aging of the "Greatest Generation" and their immediate off-spring may be a contributor. While I'm not bashing the youth of today, there's a noticable lack of work ethic. If it can't be accomplished with a computer or a Playstation, not interested. Personal financial issues on the part of young married couples, especially those with children weigh heavily on the ability of the local fire-rescue companies to recruit vollies.
The training requirements are brutual by comparison to when I joined in the mid 70's. I wholeheartedly advocate training and drills as we ( the vollies) are held to the same standards as our career brothers, but where does it stop. Firefighter I & II, HazMat, EMT, Rescue Tech, Emer. vehicle driver, NIMS, WMD, and the list goes on and on.
Another problem that we've seen is the "combination" departments that pay part-time people to work tours in their stations. This keeps a lot of folks who are career personnel out of their home districts even longer or takes them out of picture entirely, because they can do the job and get payed for it, the best of both worlds.
More problems than answers my brother. I could go on forever, but it begins to sound like a rant. Good Luck and be safe.