Another idiotic comment! The teacher may not run but how about members of the custodial staff? " when the town is paying you to serve the town get to work" what do you call volunteering.? That is serving the town! volunteers are considered employees! Your most rediculous statement " would you still go if your job stopped paying you?" , we are talking about a volunteer fire department, they respond and don't get paid. They get up in the middle of the night when they are not being paid to sleep and respond to alarms. No one is crying yet! The taxpayers will be when they have to pay for a fully staffed fire department. Career departments are necessary in certain places and I hope those firefighters get the best pay and benefits. But, the volunteer service serves the majority of this country and many places can not afford a paid department. This thread is not about paid vs volunteer. We can both make stupid statements about the other side. This is about a municipality depending on a life saving volunteer service but not being willing to let there own employees volunteer. It just does not make sense.