See you need to just go full time on a dept. Nothing better than gettign paid to do the Job you love. Nothing aginst a vol. dept they work great in a lot of places. I'm guessing you are a Capt. by the red helmet?
everyone asks that , and the answer is no , for some reason our comissioners decided that standard issue for all firefighters in out department was gonna be red helmets , we are the only department in the county that does that , everyone one else is like this
Black - Firefighters
Yellow - Lieutenants
Red - Captains
White - Chiefs
our department is
Red - Firefighters
White - Chiefs
and yes , being in a paid department would be nice , but the closest 3 paid departments from my hous are either 15 mins to the city that is our county seat , which does not hire too often , or a half hour to 45 minutes in either direction to either of the major cities , so i just stick to being a volunteer