There are about 18,000 fire fighters in Minnesota. About 1,800 of them are career fire fighters. Volunteers are any other people who fight fires. Usually, volunteer fire fighters have jobs and careers outside of fire fighting. In other words, there is no legislatively mandated state director of street cleaners.
Localities decide on their own fire protection services.
The Legislature does regulate fire fighters' pensions. Volunteer fire fighters can get pensions if the fire department has organized a pension plan for them. These private, non-profit associations for volunteer fire fighter pensions are called relief associations and are managed by fire department trustees. There are over 700 relief associations in Minnesota. Mike Karter, who runs NFPA's annual survey says that the information comes from answers to a survey sent out to fire departments.