A day in the life of a volunteer rural firefighter

With fewer paramedics available for emergency situations in rural Alberta, firefighters in these communities are taking on more. CBC Edmonton’s Ariel Fournier went on a ride-along with the volunteer firefighters in these communities and saw what they are up against when responding to calls.
www.cbc.ca/1.6742658
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[@TraceyFougere]

You have to work with what you have... and I wish more people donated to their volunteer fire dept because that's how they get the gear they need to save a life. I volunteered with my dept and was trained as an Advanced MFR. In small communities we rely on each other and our dept members are greatly appreciated.

[@fridayfriday3948]

Here in our small town in BC, about 70% of our calls are Medical First Responder calls. We are all volunteers, and we do our First Responder, and also our fire practice every week. All of us have to train to at least level 2 fire fighter, which takes a lot of our time and dedication.

[@hayhay2640]

Im now a 3 year volunteer in a small town rural department in MB Im happy that this is being covered alot of stories in those small rural departments is something i wish was further covered.

[@j.h.d.2153]

Thx so much for the dedication and continued selfless commitment of showing up!!! Yes, the need has risen and yes more resources are needed...these continued news reports hopefully get seen by Gov agencies and back up help will reach every community that's in need.

[@the32712]

Volunteer Firefighter and EMR here in a very rural Appalachian mountain community. During the day there's typically 3 people available in my department to respond to within our remote community of 1000 people. One of those 3 is me. Our response times within our district vary from 5 minutes to 20 minutes due to narrow, 1 lane dirt roads. There's times we have to wait 1hr for an ALS ambulance. Other times all the ALS units are tied up, so our BLS unit, if we even have enough EMS personnel on scene, will have to transport. And we're 100% volunteer like every other department in our county.

[@johndowner2196]

Good show 👍🇨🇦

[@TinaAM333]

Canadian Heroes- 24/7

[@luebke69]

Absolutely the best thing I ever did, I was on a Volunteer Department for 26 years, and yes there were many times I knew the victims, it rips your heart out, I always tell the young guys just think if we weren’t there for them. Must have rubbed off on the rest of my family, my son has been on a full time department for the last 13 years, my daughter is a ER Nurse along with being a EMT on 2 Ambulance services. We just think it’s normal to give back to your community.

[@MountainRangerOne]

In the US we have private ambulance services as well as city or county operated, the sole purpose of private ambulance services is convalescent transport from hospital to hospital, might be worth looking into to take some of the stress off.

[@raccoon.878]

I’ll be a firefighter in Calgary Albert

[@LindaFirefighter03]

WHY on earth are the firefighters not already qualified as EFR or MFR? I have never heard of such a thing.

[@artisticdriver4218]

🤗🤗🤗🙏🙏🙏don’t carry it beyond the cross😢❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹front lines at home

[@user-sn9fx1vg6v]

I belong with the best volunteer fire department ever anywhere Lemoore fire in central Valley of California, 33 years firefighter EMT our cars are not equipped with lights and sirens we go from wherever we are to the firehouse put our bunker gear on and jump on a apparatus pumper all our trucks are equipped with the Hirst tools crash trucks and most of our calls are medical aide And we mutual respond with Kings County fire, and Lemoore NAS federal fire, we respond to Naval Air Station Lemoore and Steve Perry from journey and his dad donated our airbags equipment

[@youmadbro742]

A woman should not be any sort of chief for a start Josh needs to shave his beard, dude is the definition of HIHFTY with that beard

[@Moto-Hobo]

Did they fire you?