Volunteer fire department

A volunteer fire department is a fire department consisting of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained firefighters are expected to be on call to respond to emergency calls for long periods of time, and are summoned to the fire station when their services are needed. They are also expected to attend other non-emergency duties as well.

Volunteer firefighters contrast with career firefighters, who work full-time and receive a full salary. Some volunteer firefighters may be part of a combination fire department that employs both full-time and volunteer firefighters. On-call firefighters who receive some pay for their work are known as call firefighters in the United States, and retained firefighters in the United Kingdom and Ireland.