[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Slava

Honestly, CFD is where the funding should go. They get called out to every single thing (it seems), whether it's fire-related or otherwise.

Because the number of fires these days are way lower than a few decades ago. So they need to be kept busy doing something.

… even as the number of home fires has fallen significantly over the past few decades, spending on municipal fire departments has skyrocketed. There are 55% more career firefighters in the U.S. than there were in 1986, according to the National Fire Protection Association. But the number of home structure fires fell 54% over the same time period, due mostly to updated building codes and advanced sprinklers, according to NFPA data.

… Just 1.3 million—around 3.5%— of the total fire department calls in 2019 were for fires, while 24.5 million—66%—were for medical aid, according to NFPA data. But there are now 370,000 career firefighters in the U.S., more than there were four decades ago when there were roughly double the number of fires reported.

https://time.com/6097414/wildfires-f...ters-spending/