[Eric]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

And therein lies the problem, all these people require paying, regardless of participation, on duty, laid off sick etc, etc. Added to this there's all the support staff who sit in an office but don't provide physical hands on action, eating up resources that could be better employed.

The Germans have a regular fire service but for a Country about three times the size of UK their "Paid" manpower isn't anywhere near comparable to UK. The practicality behind this is due to the Germans maintaining, training & investing in an exceptionally good volunteer force of fire fighters functioning on the same principal as the UKs RNLI. "Freiwilligen Feuerwher" can be found in virtually ever town & village & are supported, sponsored & integrated into the major framework of the German fire service with regular training & advancement of their volunteers.

Interesting ... same over here too. This unit fighting the big fire in my neighbourhood was manned by volunteers from Kingston's west end: