r/maryland • u/PurfuitOfHappineff • Mar 01 '26
MD Flag is the Best Flag "No no, really, we NEED our truck to have blacked out chrome, 3 train horns, 2 pinwheels, the Maryland flag emblazoned on the grill and a picture of a lion holding 2 hydraulic spreaders on the side. Hand over ALL your taxpayer money now, Walkersville!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPTDd_mXU6s193
u/LastGoodKnee Mar 01 '26
It’s a volunteer fire department bro. Let them have their spinning lights
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u/gkibbe Mar 01 '26
What my tax dollars accomplished today:
Bombing children half way across the world
Purchasing a firetruck for the local volunteer fire co.
OP is mad at the wrong thing, or just a bot to distract people.
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u/Accurate_Mobile9005 Mar 01 '26
Not sure about this case but most volly stations in the U.S have to pay for their own equipment, at least in part through donations.
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u/colorizerequest Mar 02 '26
We bombed children…? Are you serious?
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u/comradejiang Prince George's County Mar 02 '26
America bombs children all the time.
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u/colorizerequest Mar 02 '26
Got a link? I’m not seeing it being reported
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u/comradejiang Prince George's County Mar 02 '26
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u/According-Car1598 Mar 02 '26
It doesn’t make any sense to target a girls school on day 1 of precision bombing - either someone shared faulty coordinates intentionally, or was an Iranian rocket that failed to launch - will wait for enquiry on this one.
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u/comradejiang Prince George's County Mar 02 '26
“It doesn’t make sense” Acts of terror don’t need to make sense, the purpose is to terrorize.
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u/According-Car1598 Mar 03 '26
You seem experienced, comrade !!
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u/comradejiang Prince George's County Mar 03 '26
Experienced in US war crimes? Only because I know how to read. If you find it easier to pretend you’re the good guys and never do wrong, feel free, but at least admit you’re doing it.
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u/L2_Troll Mar 02 '26
Why do you jump to defend this? I think that based on the current US and Israel administrations, bombing an elementary school is exactly the playbook. I can show you photo after photo of bombed out elementary schools from the past 2 years alone. That your tax dollars funded.
Also, you're not clever. I've seen the "rocket failed to launch and oh no, it blew up a hospital" defense before. Israel tried and failed to shove that down our throats before we caught on that maybe these hospitals weren't all blowing themselves up. If you aren't directly running defense for Israel, then watch out because you're repeating all of their talking points.
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u/According-Car1598 Mar 02 '26
If you really believe US would just bomb a girls school on day1 just to see all the children die, then no evidence that anyone share would change your mind.
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u/L2_Troll Mar 03 '26
Is day 100 better for bombing a school? Or day 30? Which day is best for us to bomb the elementary school?
I'd say no day is acceptable, but that's just me.
Add this to your pile of evidence
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Mar 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RemmingtonTufflips Allegany County Mar 03 '26
"Tardo"? Embarassing, take a long hard look at yourself, change your life.
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u/comradejiang Prince George's County Mar 03 '26
Didn’t Obama famously order a drone strike on a wedding?
That is pretty monstrous. What’s worse is it isn’t unusual, and it’s fully legal.
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u/L2_Troll Mar 03 '26
Yes, Obama intentionally killed civilians, and I find that just as deplorable as whats happening now. Weird to even bring up and assume I would disagree.
Yes, our government is that monstrous did you not see them defending multiple ICE extra-judicial murders and smearing the victims? Or Trump saying he would level Gaza to turn it into a resort? Or really just anything that has come out of this admin's mouth?
"Tardo," okay buddy. At least I can back up the points I'm making without resorting to name calling. At least I'm not bootlicking a fascist regime.
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u/maryland-ModTeam Mar 03 '26
Your comment was removed because it violates the civility rule. Please always keep discussions friendly and civil.
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u/Bucatola Mar 03 '26
Exactly im pretty sure we didn't do that intentionally. Thats the type of statement that puts idiots in the streets. Headline should start " accidental strike tragedy....."
Not we boma school. Phrasing matters because peabrains cant use common sense
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u/colorizerequest Mar 03 '26
looks like thats according to Iranian state media. Do we know if this has been verified?
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u/comradejiang Prince George's County Mar 03 '26
…Verified by who? Who would be reporting on what happens in Iran besides Iranians?
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u/colorizerequest Mar 03 '26
no idea who could verify that, I just wouldnt trust Iranian state media on anything.
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u/Bucatola Mar 03 '26
Not intentionally id note that.
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u/colorizerequest Mar 03 '26
im reading through a link someone provided that its only being reported on through Iranian state media, so its probably propaganda anyway.
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u/grendev Mar 05 '26
I've been a volunteer EMT. I still don't understand it though. With all the things our tax dollars fund, fire departments shouldn't be an issue. We should be able to pay our firefighters. Not force them to not only do it for free, but make them work bingo nights to fundraise to have equipment to use.
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u/SuddenKoala45 Mar 01 '26
You want your fire fighters to be proud of their rig. Md flag on the grill and the logo on the side don't cost much more than the old school decor.
The pinwheels and horns are because there are way too many people who ignore the normal light bar and sirens, so that's a safety thing.
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 02 '26
Pinwheels as a “safety” thing is just what the chief tells everyone to justify it. The science says they don’t do anything to aid in safety, and in fact, may be actually causing more danger by having too many lights. https://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/fire-apparatus/scene-light-placement-on-fire-apparatus/
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u/SuddenKoala45 Mar 02 '26
Yeah, I'd say the more moving lights the better to get the attention of drivers ahead of you, since they ignore the bar and siren a lot if times.
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Mar 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/xKingNothingx Mar 01 '26
Red and yellow is great, I think Chicagos red and black is peak though
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 Mar 01 '26
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u/marygarth Mar 01 '26
Well, mostly. Wheaton Rescue is white with blue striping (though not quite like this) and BCC Rescue is white with gold striping. They’re the LFRDs mentioned in the policy.
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u/rmsand Mar 01 '26
If you can’t notice this giant truck covered in flashing lights, I don’t think painting it red will help.
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u/tpbrown3 Mar 02 '26
It’s the high schools school colors and the lion is their mascot. The station is directly in front of the high school as well.
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u/Quantity-Used Mar 01 '26
Every summer the Mt. Airy (Frederick Co) fire department has a week-long Fireman’s Carnival at their fairgrounds - it’s an annual fundraiser, just the same as the ones put on by other fire houses across the state. On the Thursday evening of that week is the Fireman’s Parade down Main Street, and every volunteer fire department for miles around (so, so many!) sends a truck and other rescue vehicles to the parade - along with representation from scouts, dance and cheer groups, community businesses, local leaders, etc. It’s quite an event. There’s a huge turnout for it; it reminds us of who we are and helps stitch the community together. It’s also a beautiful throwback to another time.
But my point here is that this truck isn’t any more or less “fancy” than any of the others. The horn and lights are essential equipment, and the paint job is probably a tiny portion of the overall cost. As far as I can see this is pretty much the standard for a modern rescue/fire truck. It’s a distinctive look that represents the community, and something they can be proud of.
TL;DR: The original poster is an idiot.
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u/Quasi-San Mar 01 '26
Do they use the fundraiser money towards vehicles or was OP correct in claiming that taxpayers paid for the upgrades? Generally curious.
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u/Quantity-Used Mar 01 '26
In Mount Airy (and other towns) it looks like taxpayers are not paying for volunteer fire company equipment - https://www.mavfc.org/content/fundraising/ .
But the fundraising is constant.
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 Mar 01 '26
Generally fundraisers, whether a carnival or a pancake breakfast, are used to fill in gaps where the count doesn't give them funding. At least that's how it works for MoCo.
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26
MoCo is a lot different. First off, sorry for this post if you’re MCFRS. If you are please point out if anything is inaccurate. For VFDs in MoCo, MCFRS pays for almost everything. They pay for and own all apparatus at all stations in MoCo unlike Walkersville which owns their apparatus.
MCFRS pays for all vehicles, vehicle maintenance, all initial training (everyone goes through the same MCFRS academy) and continuing education, and all standard equipment like the hoses, medical equipment, SCBA gear, and all your firefighting, rescue, and medical tools. They also cover some facility costs at VFDs. They’ll provide money for major renovations to buildings and some capitol improvements.
The VFD pays for the building like the mortgage, utilities, and other building and grounds upkeep. Some legal stuff is paid by the VFD which can be costly. VFDs in MoCo operate a lot different than VFDs in Frederick County. They have a lot less financial responsibility in MoCo.
TBH I’d like to see that be the norm throughout the state. No fire station should have to pay for their own equipment and apparatus through donations and fundraising opportunities. It caused VFDs all over the country A LOT of financial issues in 2021 when they couldn’t hold in-person raffles and events to raise money
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u/HaroldAnous Mar 02 '26
Incorrect. MCFRS does not pay for "almost everything" at volunteer stations. It varies from corporation to corporation, but the general rule of thumb is if the apparatus is not red with all county markings, it was paid for by the volunteer station. The county has taken over the majority of vehicle maintenance but not all. You're correct that training is provided by the county at the PSTA, but volunteers can and do regularly take classes throughout Maryland held by MFRI. It's a partnership with the more volunteer heavy stations paying for more of their own stuff.
Financial independence is a huge deal in the volunteer community. Fundraising is difficult, but it's what allows volunteers to have more say in the day to day operations and look of their department.
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26
It depends on the station and county. For Walkersville VFD in particular the county and state provide a grant for new apparatus but the station pays the rest with money from donations and fundraisers. Their most recent apparatus purchase was a $2 million ladder truck. It depends on the grant but it may pay for 50% of the piece of apparatus. Thats still a $1 million the station has to come up with.
Frederick County pays for about 43% of the operating costs of Walkersville VFD. They also cover the cost of maintenance of their apparatus. The station does have the option to get Frederick county owned apparatus instead of buying their own. It’s a trade off. There’s a bunch of reasons that’s not always viable and reasons why it would be a good idea.
Most central MD counties are almost all full time now with few volunteers. I wouldn’t be surprised in the 10-20 years we see that in Frederick as it becomes more built up and more MoCo residents move out there
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u/Curri Mar 01 '26
This is not Walkersville VFD. This is the Rescue Company, a completely different entity.
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u/PleaseBmoreCharming Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
it reminds us of who we are and helps stitch the community together
What, you all are firemen? The entire town? /s
But seriously, the OP gets at a pretty valid argument that fire equipment has been unnecessarily growing in size and scale over the past 20-30 years, which ultimately forces our roads to be larger and wider and ultimately deadlier.
https://civicwell.org/civic-resources/emergency-response-and-narrow-streets/
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/narrower-lanes-safer-streets
EDIT: Want to point out before some asshat jumps in with claiming I'm being disrespectful to their job, I'm certainly not and it wasn't my intention. Criticizing the problematic culture and idolization of big, giant heavy machinery that makes our public right-of-way unsafe is something I should be able to do and separate it from the service they provide.
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u/dakkster_34 Mar 01 '26
Concern over the size of “city” streets in a place like Walkersville? I totally get the critique in big cities where space is at a premium and large streets mean pedestrian deaths but this really doesn’t apply in a community like Walkersville.
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 02 '26
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of streets being widened so fire trucks fit. On the contrary, most smart departments buy apparatus SO it fits on the streets in their first due area. If they aren’t doing this, that’s an issue that should be addressed with their leadership, not the local DPW.
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u/Loose-Recognition459 Mar 01 '26
Maybe because my father was a lifetime VFD member I’m less reluctant to harp on this stuff, the task is tough, and it’s life threatening work regardless of whether you’re paid to do it or not. It’s also the generally closest you get to seeing Japanese Dekotora in the US, it’s kind of fun to see, even if there is always sort of pissing contest between VFD companies over who’s equipment is bigger/louder/better at least in more affluent areas. (It’s why giant ambulances came to be the norm around here. )
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u/ticianlicious Frederick Mar 01 '26
Not really a fire engine unless you have at least 14 pieces of flair.
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Mar 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/PleaseBmoreCharming Mar 01 '26
"town"
Let's be honest, it's a suburb of a real town (Frederick) that is composed of a couple of blocks forming a grid and some sprawling, single-family housing developments.
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u/pixel_pete Montgomery County Mar 01 '26
There was a time where fire engines around the country were stylish and unique. If anyone has a right to keep that going, it's us. Let those fuckos in Virginia be bland and boring.
I do disagree with it being white/blue with the Maryland flag in a badge. The entire truck should be covered in the Maryland flag. Get your priorities straight Walkersville!
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u/Vast_Builder1670 Mar 01 '26
And people who care about the maybe 10k in cosmetics upgrades this have no idea how much these trucks costs.
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 01 '26
$10k? Maybe for the 2 pin wheels. The lighting package alone was probably $15k.
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u/Vast_Builder1670 Mar 01 '26
Realistically, they were given $750k to buy a truck and by golly, they are going to spend it
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 Mar 01 '26
This is the answer. They actually cost this much, a few maybe cost $250,000 or $500,000 but yes, they are super expensive & for good reason.
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u/OkayHoss2323 Mar 01 '26
Actually the average going rate for a custom build apparatus (which most are) is in the $1M+ range for just engines. Even more for specialty trucks like ladders, rescues, etc.
Keep in mind this is also without any tools that will generally run another 200,000+
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u/Sage_Nickanoki Mar 02 '26
We can't even get a new ambulance for $500k now, let alone $250k. I'm on an apparatus committee for my vfd and our rescue squad will likely be $2m invoicing the tools on it. Spending an extra $4k on a second roto ray is a small drop in the bucket.
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u/CTeaYankee Mar 01 '26
I know, right? If we wanted to talk about cost, our friends in Europe have smaller trucks that work exceptionally well for them. Swapping to smaller trucks will save far more than griping over a paint job.
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u/Vast_Builder1670 Mar 01 '26
20+ years ago my small town enacted a 1% splots tax. They didn't realize how much money it would generate. They built a water park...
They also bought a full sized ladder truck, but the tallest building in town was a 5 story bank...
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u/CTeaYankee Mar 01 '26
Hey man, I buy used jeans a size too small, in the vain hope I'll be motivated to exercise more. Not so far... but I really can't judge a town for trying to manifest the change they're hoping for.
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u/Grouchy-Station-4058 Mar 01 '26
Their trucks have been blue and white for decades. It certainly makes their company stand out.
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u/Tecumseh119 Mar 01 '26
Likely use it to make 10 grocery runs a week.
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u/Accurate_Mobile9005 Mar 01 '26
Groceries they pay for themselves.
Also this is HEAVY RESCUE.
You know the engine that would pry you out of your mangled car on the side of 70 while you're bleeding out.
Show some respect or don't comment at all if you don't know what you're talking about.
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u/LegitSince8Bits Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
They're ALWAYS in the store. Like every single day. Why don't they just stock up or idk, shop on their own time and bring food to the station.
Edit: since apparently the fire dept, or at least their fans, have gotten as soft as the police and their fans, I didn't say anything insulting here. It's a fucking honest question and i have no issue with them? They're taking this big expensive piece of machinery, on our dime, to the store 10 times a week. They could just as easily shop on their own time and bring food to the station rather then play cool guy driving the rig around and parking out front the store holding each other's hands the whole way through. Now that's insulting right? Can we all agree my original comment was less aggressively insulting? Ok then. Stop being so damn soft.
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u/LastGoodKnee Mar 01 '26
It’s literally all their own time. It’s volunteers
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u/LegitSince8Bits Mar 03 '26
I'm sorry but how tf do you know what station i see constantly and what their title is?
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u/Tecumseh119 Mar 02 '26
Not where I’m at. Completely social net paid by the tax base.
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u/LastGoodKnee Mar 02 '26
What? It’s a volunteer fire department.
Yes there are paid fire departments. This one is volunteer.
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u/Curri Mar 01 '26
That’s because it’s a constant rotation of personnel in the door for an extended period of time. It doesn’t cause anyone any harm, and they will respond to calls when they’re out.
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u/Tecumseh119 Mar 01 '26
I get that they need to go, but it’s wild that they always take the most expensive machine that needs the most maintenance for these tiny runs.
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u/Bozodogon Mar 01 '26
I don't know about Walkersville but when I volunteered, crews stayed with the their assigned vehicle in case they got put on a call. So if that crew wanted to get food, they drove the apparatus. Some meals, it's a squad cooked meal, so whoever turn it was to cook, same thing, had to take their assigned apparatus to the grocery store. And yes, we frequently had to leave a cart full of groceries behind when put on a call. Most of the time, the store was kind enough to stash the cart for us when we returned.
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u/Recovery_or_death Mar 01 '26
I'm not in Maryland, but where I work we usually take the tower (which is our most expensive unit) to get groceries. It's the slowest unit in terms of call volume so it's the least likely to get put on a run while out of position. I have to drive it around behind the station to do my morning check out anyway so it's kind of killing two birds with one stone.
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26
Why not just send someone in their POV or have the station buy a car for that specific purpose? It does seem a little ridiculous that time cannot be allotted for one person per week to go get groceries and be unavailable for any runs. Or on someone’s time outside their volunteer shift. “Hey man, it’s your turn next week. Go grab groceries and bring them in before the start of your next shift”.
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u/Recovery_or_death Mar 02 '26
We're a very poor department, we run minimum staffed rigs, if we drop one person the whole rig goes out of service for man power. Additionally there's liability involved in driving a POV while on duty. Do I still get paid? If I crash my car who's insurance covers it? Shit like that
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 02 '26
I mean the answer to that would be your personal insurance if it’s not for official fire department business.
That also goes back to my original question then. If you’re running at minimum everyday then wouldn’t it make more sense to just coordinate before coming in? One guy is scheduled to get groceries this week. He gets them before his shift or the day before and then brings them in at the start of his next shift.
That way people aren’t running out of a grocery store dropping everything right before they get to the cash register leaving the workers there to put back all the items.
Just seems odd and a waste of money especially for a poor fire department
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u/Recovery_or_death Mar 02 '26
Exactly, why should I risk the hit to my personal insurance when I'm on the clock? The union would never stand for that. Same goes for going out shopping before shift. My first day off is completely dedicated to sleep and recovery from the day and night before, why take my precious little free time out of my second day to go shop for 13 people on my second day before going back for another 24.
As for leaving stuff for the workers, we have a good relationship with them. We know the nature of the call we're going on when we get dispatched, so they'll either hold our cart at customer service if it's gonna be quick or they'll roll it back to the walk in for us if we're gonna be a while. All that said, I hit 7 years on the job in April, this has happened to me maybe 10 times in my entire career.
As for the waste of money, it's a grand total of like 2 dollars in diesel. I use more doing my morning check out
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u/Grouchy-Station-4058 Mar 01 '26
I know that our company uses their ambulance because it has the most room. Source my wife used to be an EMT
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u/PleaseBmoreCharming Mar 01 '26
It would probably be cheaper for them to use a van procured by the department or even the rest of the government fleet.
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u/GauntletofThonos Mar 02 '26
Ok. So take a van and a fire breaks out. Drive the van back to the station to get the truck. Seems like a waste of time. Minutes are precious when lives are at risk.
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u/Tecumseh119 Mar 02 '26
That’s great to know. The companies in my neighborhood are always blocking the entire grocery store parking lot w/ the largest Fire truck.
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u/FeelingBlue69 Mar 01 '26
What would you rather them take instead? Would you rather this "expensive machine" sit and rot instead? They are made to be driven and do better when driven regularly.
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u/Hockeyfan_52 Mar 01 '26
It wouldn't need all that if you would just put your phone down and pay attention to the road.
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u/Saint_The_Stig UMES Mar 01 '26
Funny enough fire departments are actually a big contributing factor to road collisions. North American firetrucks are entirely too large (something that has been tested at European bases with local trucks showing NA designs are significantly worse at responding to emergencies, which is kinda a big deal.), because they are so large they dictate we need larger roads. That naturally increases speeds, which increases traffic collisions in a big feedback loop.
The worst part is that they'll send this big ass truck on medical calls, which is most of their calls statistically.
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u/Hockeyfan_52 Mar 01 '26
So massive and all them flashing lights and you still manage to not see them as you're scrolling on your phone at 60mph.
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u/Extreme_Teacher_4892 Mar 01 '26
That's gotta be the cheapest part of the truck they're complaining about. The money was probably all obtained through community fundraising anyway.
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u/blessed_favored_6020 Mar 01 '26
That appears to be heavy rescue truck and not FD truck, heavy rescue trucks are typically kept quiet a bit longer than average EMS transport truck or fire truck because its not utilized as much. The grill, and emblems are typically apart of the package the wheels appear to be coated aluminum most fire/ems vehicles shiny wheels are aluminum and not chrome.
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u/Resqguy911 Mar 01 '26
Considering this volunteer department was able to run the previous squad for over 20 years says a lot about their ability to make good decisions about finances. Some nearby departments have been thru 3 or 4 replacements over the same time. Station pride attracts new members. If Frederick DFRS had to staff and operate every unit/station 24/7 with no volunteers you’d definitely be bitching about the tax increase.
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 01 '26
How do you know any taxpayer money went to it? This screams a volunteer thing.
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u/armadaos_ Mar 01 '26
Says volunteer on the side. Ding ding ding. We have a winner.
They paid for it themselves. They can bling it themselves
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u/Curri Mar 01 '26
Volunteer on the side doesn’t mean anything, really. It is mainly staffed by career personnel and they do get money from the county government.
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26
That doesn’t mean a whole lot. Montgomery County for example has volunteer fire stations but they’re funded entirely by the county. There’s only a handful of volunteers countywide so the volunteer stations are staffed almost entirely by career personnel. It’s the same with Howard and PG. I’d imagine Frederick County is the same way
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u/Certain_Site_8764 Mar 01 '26
A lot of the volunteers are career firefighters in other jurisdictions.
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Yep
Sorry, to clarify what I mean. The volunteer stations are staffed almost entirely by career MCFRS personnel. There’s only one true volunteer station up in Hyattstown on the Frederick border and that’s probably going away soon
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u/neonKow Mar 01 '26
If they're not getting paid to do that job, then they're a volunteer. I don't see how their career changes if they are a true volunteer...
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26
They are paid. Sorry, I don’t think I explained this clearly enough. A career employee is full time. They’re paid by the county or municipality. It’s their full time job. A volunteer is just that. Someone who volunteers in their free time.
For example, in Montgomery County there are very very few volunteers anymore. Even though fire stations may be called Volunteer Fire Departments, they are staffed by career firefighters/EMTs and paramedics. Only one fire station in MoCo, Station 9 in Hyattstown, is all volunteer. Every other station is staffed 24/7 by career personnel.
This is how it is in PG, Howard, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore City and County. Volunteers are disappearing in urban areas which tbh is a good thing. Obviously, Baltimore City is all career and has no volunteers.
I was just looking up Frederick County and they have 30 stations throughout the county with 25 being run by volunteers. That doesn’t mean everything is paid with donations. The county still provides funding to volunteer stations. For example, Walkersville VFD has a $300k operating budget with 43% of that covered by Frederick County. They pay for all their apparatus (their most recent ladder truck cost $2 million) but the county pays for the maintenance and provides grants to help purchase apparatus like the ladder truck.
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u/neonKow Mar 01 '26
As someone who lived on the West Coast for decades before Maryland, it was weird that there were unpaid first responders at all, yes. So if those stations are fully staffed by people who are paid for their time, why are they called volunteers? Is there partial volunteering? I am pretty sure I am missing something.
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u/RangerRedskin Mar 01 '26
First off, yea it’s insane that we still have VFDs around. We used to have a good amount of volunteer cops and seasonal cops believe it or not. But the amount of annual mandatory training got to be so much that it made volunteers not really possible. It’s getting to be that way for fire departments.
In MoCo, Montgomery County Fire/Rescue Service (MCFRS) career personnel staff every single station in the county 24/7. Even if it’s a VFD. Volunteers are used to assist and backfill basically. They’re great for manpower surges for large incidents and give some staffing flexibility.
MCFRS pays for and owns all fire apparatus at VFDs. They also pay for all vehicle maintenance, initial and annual training for volunteers, and all equipment. The only thing VFDs pay for is the building, utilities, some building upgrades, and some legal and administrative stuff.
Why hasn’t the county just absorbed all VFDs completely and made MCFRS 100% county owned with no volunteers? It would cost a lot of money and there’s some legal and political issues that prevent that.
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u/armadaos_ Mar 01 '26
This close to big cities it tends to change big cities. It tends to change.
However, out in rural most stations tend to be volunteer staffed, volunteer owned equipment, and volunteer-owned building.
Generally speaking the closer you get to big cities the more and more professional they get as the urban sprawl turns things into suburbs that were once farmland.
With that urbanization, and sprawl the rural county starts taking up responsibility for things and developing its own practices, procedures, and even full fire stations. Generally speaking, the population starts to pay more in taxes for this professionalization....
Volunteer fire stations eventually start to close down, either. Don't have the same volunteers, they age out, or they just stop becoming profitable enough to replace their equipment. Probably all three.
And in that period of time when the volunteers fade out, you find a lot of stations increasingly mixed volunteer and county responsibilities and funding. Normally one of first things to go is volunteer stations start to pick up career staff during the day while maintaining fully volunteer firefighting in the evening. Then eventually careers start doing more and more and it becomes 24/7 with a minimum career maning while there may be occasional or frequent volunteer, only units to supplement. Then eventually the stations have difficulty paying for new apparatuses, and split ownership with the county (generally speaking, in that case the county owns it, but the volunteers reserve some rights to operate it with their people). Then eventually volunteer stations sell the land that the firehouse is on to the county, typically for an upgraded building. And at that point in time the volunteer station really becomes career only, in practice.... There may still be some volunteering but it tends to fade out as recruitment fails before the VFD dissolves.
So there's a wide spectrum .... But the general trend is almost always VFD-> Career.
There's of course exceptions, this entire field is full of exceptions... West Coast may be more organized and career centric due to wildfires or culture.
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 01 '26
Baltimore county is one of the rare split departments. Volunteer stations don’t have paid employees by the county. Some have paid EM’s staff that are paid by the station using county reimbursement revenue, but they aren’t county employees.
Also I pointed out the volunteer thing since most counties wouldn’t sign off on this amount of bling due to the cost, so it’s likely this was done with station money.
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u/HaroldAnous Mar 02 '26
Stop running your mouth. You clearly know nothing about how MoCo volunteer stations work - you admit as much in a prior post.
Again, volunteer stations are not funded entirely by the county. The level of volunteer participation varies by station. Participation ranges from a few providing 100% volunteer staffing nights and weekends to staffing a single unit a few times a week or month.
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u/wwj Mar 01 '26
In my town the VFD has all capital equipment and infrastructure paid for by local taxes. You think they raised the $1-1.5 million for this from spaghetti dinners?
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u/armadaos_ Mar 01 '26
Good for you.
Spaghetti dinners tend to be a thing only if you can't do the big money maker, Bingo.
....or raffles.
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u/rzrshrp Mar 01 '26
and even if so, I'm wondering how much, train horn plus pinwheel plus some art (which is most likely to be no taxpayer cost)?
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 01 '26
Considering most fire trucks cost well over $1million these days, I’m willing to bet this truck was likely closer to $2million given all the bells and whistles.
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u/LastGoodKnee Mar 01 '26
You thing horns and lights added an additional MILLION ?
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 01 '26
No, I think the size and type of unit, plus the bells and whistles, added up to that much. 1 million is basically the “base model” price.
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u/LastGoodKnee Mar 01 '26
It’s literally bells and whistles and lights. It ain’t space technology
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u/Hibiscus-Boi Dundalk Mar 02 '26
Clearly you have no idea how much things cost and how much the companies that build firetrucks up charge for things that you don’t think should cost so much, so why don’t you take your downvote and go build a firetruck and see for yourself.
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u/LastGoodKnee Mar 02 '26
The truck was paid for with fund raisers.
I think it’s pretty clear you’re the one who doesn’t understand these things cost.
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u/IrishBuckett Mar 01 '26
Fire departments are pretty much the only ones who can spend all my tax money and I wouldn't give a single shit.
Looks excessive now, but when they show up with the only equipment capable ripping a steel frame apart without hurting anyone on the other side you'll realize it's worth it.
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u/armadaos_ Mar 01 '26
It's a volunteer unit.
Meaning it is was paid for by a volunteer company and their saved funds and donations. Not taxpayer funds.
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u/blessed_favored_6020 Mar 01 '26
Not true, volunteer organizations get allotments from the localities, typically a majority of the truck funds come from the localities also.
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u/armadaos_ Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Not in my volunteer unit or any of the volunteer units we worked with. Not sure where you're pulling that from.
While every volunteer unit is special and has a different agreement, generally the land and/or the apparatuses are paid for by the company.
Generally staffing is volunteer as well but in many places the country can send their own people to staff units, if the volunteers aren't operating it. That's where any kind of allotments come in, to pay for maintenance and operations related to county work.
NOT purchase of units. Generally if the unit is bought by the county it doesn't say VOLUNTEER on the side anymore, but will still designate its station number.
This is supported by their website where they go into detail about their purchase of units.... That's also why the volunteer stations do BINGO for fund raising...
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u/Curri Mar 01 '26
Wrong station, bud.
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u/armadaos_ Mar 01 '26
Good catch, Station 24 is here.
... and says the same exact thing about their funding and unit purchase history.
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u/ImAMistak3 Mar 01 '26
Nah. Walkersville gets a large allotment from Frederick county. Specifically they get a large portion of billing money from any transport, the big caveat here is that it's staffed by county personnel 24/7 and the career employees run the majority of their calls. So while they do their own fundraising, the fact that county employees earn a volunteer corporation money and free up funds for them to make ridiculous purchases like that squad is definitely a problem.
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u/got_to_schnikes Mar 02 '26
The MD flag is 180 degrees off. Black square should be in top left corner!
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u/Mundane_Republic1804 Mar 02 '26
The lights and decals are such a small part of the price that they are irrelevant.
The cab, pump (if equipped), chassis, radios, tools and equipment, and tool and equipment mounting hardware might cost $1.3 million, and decals $10,000, so less than a single percent.
You have to put the reflective stripes, department name, unit number, and department/city/county seal on anyways so when it comes time to pay that bill a department might ask "hey can you put a bad-ass lion on the side too?" and the shop will usually reply "yeah sure it'll be $9,250 instead of $9,000 is that ok?" so you hold another round of bingo to pay for it.
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u/fireslayer03 Mar 01 '26
So not defending the shiny stuff other than the lion I’m pretty sure is the high school mascot, they (walkersville) is a good company and are very well trained I have been on several calls with them and can tell you too I would happily have them show up over the Frederick county career guys and their equipment
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u/Historical_Note5003 Mar 01 '26
Of all the stupid shit they buy with our tax dollars, this one doesn’t bother me.
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u/harfordplanning Mar 01 '26
Gonna be honest, that is hilarious, I wouldn't mind our public agencies having a sense of humor in design like this
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u/capitalsfan Mar 01 '26
Reminds me of the Chestertown Police APC thats probably still collecting dust.
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u/Low_Actuary_2794 Anne Arundel County Mar 02 '26
If you want to focus on something more appropriate but nuanced, you’d be amazed to discover how AA County procured these via a sole sourced contract.
$6 million dollar purchase, allegedly no RFP, no bid process. Weird lol.
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u/Fathead5f Mar 02 '26
this is from awhile ago, but Aberden Police had a "show" vehicle. oofff. https://patch.com/maryland/aberdeen/photos-new-ride-for-aberdeen-police
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u/MDRetirement Mar 02 '26
Someone or some bot really has it out for the Walkersville fire dept. This video is a year old and isn't paid for by taxpayer money.
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u/LingonberryUpset482 Mar 02 '26
I'm just trying to figure out why it took 50 seconds just to clear the garage door. All the lights in the world aren't going to fix that.
And I will mention that I've bumped into two fire stations that have "volunteer" written on the front of their building that haven't been volunteer stations for years. A lot of them are full-time employment now because there is so much work for them.
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u/600George Mar 03 '26
This baby is gonna really wow 'em in Ocean City next summer! Isn't that what really matters?
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u/Bucatola Mar 03 '26
What flavor koolaid you have today mr Jones. Your a purebred dolt. Just full of hate take a breath babycakes
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Mar 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Saint_The_Stig UMES Mar 01 '26
Or fit down side streets or fit past two SUVs. These trucks are getting so large they are getting in their own way.
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u/roccoccoSafredi Mar 01 '26
I HATE that every first response org has gone over to strobes. They absolutely fuck with my night vision.
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u/Saint_The_Stig UMES Mar 01 '26
It's legitimately becoming a detriment. I bet they are causing more crashes now from that. They should have used some of the money to invest in that system that automatically syncs responder lights so they don't need to be as bright or numerous, especially once on scene.
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u/Resqguy911 Mar 01 '26
There is ZERO STROBES on this vehicle
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u/roccoccoSafredi Mar 02 '26
What are the rapidly flashing lights called?
The older ones had a slight ramp up and down and didn't pulse as fast.
Yes, these get your attention, but when it's on the other side of a divided highway you still need to be able to see what's actually in front of you.
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u/Resqguy911 Mar 02 '26
They are LEDs, powered by normal 12v DC and they may or may not have an integral flasher. Strobes are more 80s-90s technology and require a xenon gas-discharge tube and a trigger of close to 600v DC from a power supply with dedicated wiring to each lamp. And I agree, we do have the technology to dim/reduce lighting when parked. It needs to be implemented more often. Entire studies have been commissioned on this topic.
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u/roccoccoSafredi Mar 02 '26
Good info, but whatever they are, they need to address it. It's a real problem masquerading as a safety measure.
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u/Tecumseh119 Mar 02 '26
This post started by OP wondering why a pubic funded vehicle gets a tax payer funded “Pimp my ride”treatment, while teachers pay for stuff out of their own check. So, it’s also fair to questioned why this multi-person crew can’t preplan their meals and not put more wear and tear on this tax payer owned customized hot rod.
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u/Hta68 Mar 02 '26
I mean in the grand scheme of things, what’s the difference in paying 500k vs 520k? Once you start getting into those numbers, trying to penny pinch a horn and some wheels isn’t going to net you much in return but a truck that maybe functional, but looks like crap.
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u/theRemRemBooBear Mar 01 '26
The weirdest thing about Walkersville is that the entire inside of the station is also baby blue.
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u/MCJOHNS117 Mar 01 '26
Can't wait to hear the train horn every time Walkersilles football team scores a touchdown. /s
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u/Tylanthia Mar 02 '26
That outlying villages have really nice paved roads, fire departments, and other infrastructure is a sign of how rich of a country and state we are. It's not like this is most of the world. That's why America rocks and why we should strive to keep it this way.
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u/Alternative_Rate7474 Mar 01 '26
Several years ago my local VFD bought this huge, fancy tower truck that cost god knows how much; a couple years later, when it was literally climbing through the woods behind five houses on fire, dumping water from five stories up, we were all very happy they bought it.