No offense, but you don't yet have the big picture about the US.
Small town where I grew up, incorporated in 1635, undoubtedly by some of your disgruntled ancestors who left town!
Since about the time fire was invented, fires were fought by local folks turning out with buckets. Since sometime dating back to the mid 19th century, they have had an officially organized volunteer FD. The equipment was paid for by donations, including some contribution from the town. My father was involved from 1946 until he retired in '72. During those years, the town always paid to purchase hoses, made some other contributions, including probably the land the station is on. Also, the town pays a modest hourly wage to firefighters when they do respond to fight a fire. Most of the operating budget was raised from contributions and fundraisers like bingo. In those early days, some of the equipment was left over from the army.
Today, the town is still quite small, but has grown to about 5000 population. They actually employ 2 full time paid firefighters. The rest of the force is still volunteer. They have an armada of equipment which in a big city would require 100 full time people to man the companies. Who the hell is going to pay for that? So the volunteer concept makes it all work.
http://www.firegold.com/tub1.htm This shows the type of fire engined used from the mid 19th century to the early 20th. Couldn't find a pic. of Newbury's Protection One, but TO THIS DAY, these old pumpers are brough out annually at competitions to see which can still pump the farthest.
