I heard a former Chief say that all volunteer fire departments can do is work toward compliance.  There is no way possible to do the training and certification to fully meet Illinois regs unless you are career.  I made some comment and his response was it was driven by the unions.  They had pushed changes through that forced departments to go career which then meant they had a chance to unionize them.

 Most volunteer services are operated by folks who do it because they care about others.  There is the "gung-ho", the adrenaline junkies, and the folks who just want to belong to something bigger than them.  The long term folks (I avoid saying guys because our little fire department has 4 women on it) are there because they see a need and someone has to do it. And to paraphrase Jessie Jackson (one of the few times he and I agree on anything) they are somebody.

So are you. Get involved. The life you save may be a friend or family member.