The county a decade ago began hiring professionals to improve coverage during the day, when their jobs make many volunteers unavailable. Last Thursday's fire illustrated the difficulty of mustering an emergency response during the morning commute. Firefighters arrived about five minutes faster than they did that morning. A truck from Catlett arrived 13 minutes after the 911 call. One from New Baltimore got there 15 minutes after the call.
Volunteers have to make a living.
They're just not there during the day. This happens all the time. It's 2000, not 1650 when everyone worked at home. They have got to hire more career people. Resignations since last year have reduced that force to six.