|
there are around 1,100,000 firefighters serving in 30,145 fire departments nationwide and responding to emergencies from 55,400 fire stations. Of those firefighters, 31% or 344,000 were career firefighters and 69% or 756,000 were volunteers. ==Overview== Fire departments responded to 30,100,000 calls for service in 2011. Two-thirds of those, 19,800,000, were for medical help, 7.6% (2,400,000) were false alarms, and only 4.6% (1,400,000) were for actual fires. Since at least 1980, calls for fires have decreased as a proportion of total calls and in absolute numbers from 3,000,000 to 1,400,000 in 2011, while in the same period medical calls have increased from 5,000,000 to 19,800,000. The professionalization of American firefighting was largely a result of three factors: the steam fire engines, the fire insurance companies, that demanded the municipalization of firefighting, and an ideology which suggested that payment of wages would naturally result in improved service.〔Michèle Dagenais, Irene Maver, Pierre-Yves Saunier. ''Municipal services and employees in the modern city'', p. 49〕 Paid firefighters may be union or non-union. Union American firefighters are represented and united in the International Association of Fire Fighters with headquarters in Washington, D.C. However, many municipalities still rely on volunteer, paid on call, or part-time firefighters. These non full-time firefighters are rarely union, and their interests are represented by the National Volunteer Fire Council. The United States Fire Administration provides national leadership to local fire services. The fire departments report fires and other incidents according to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, which maintains records of the incidents in a uniform manner. The National Fire Protection Association sets and maintains minimum standards and requirements for firefighting duties and equipment. The suppression of wildfires is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is done through the National Wildland Coordination Center. The two million fire calls that American fire departments respond to each year represent the highest figures in the industrialized world. Each year thousands of people die, tens of thousands of people are injured, and property damage reaches billions of dollars. Indirect costs, such as temporary lodging expenses, lost time at work, medical expenses, and psychological damages are equally alarming (The United States Fire Administration 1996). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Firefighting in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|