,,,The Roof is on Fire: Dangers to the Volunteer Emergency Services After Mendel v. City of Gibraltar

Abstract

The idea of the emergency responder is deeply rooted in American culture.2 As shown in the prevalence of emergency responders in popular culture, the American cultural consciousness of emergency responders runs so deep that it has been called a modern re-cast of a classical archetype, typifying the “American Hero.”3 But what is not well known is that just over 800,000 (70%) of the more than 1.1 million firefighters4 and 49% of the 826,111 credentialed emergency medical responders at the EMT-Basic level are volunteers.5 These volunteers are critical to our communities. However, recent court decisions threaten the stability of the volunteer fire departments that they work for. In Mendel v. City of Gibraltar, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that because volunteer firefighters were paid an