I am in a career where I went to school, received a degree, took an exam, receiving National Certification. I must obtain yearly continuing education to maintain my certification. Now, one could go to the state and apply for a license, pay the fee and do what I do as well. I work in a potentially dangerous field, where one that wasn't sufficiently trained could cause serious harm. I would not call those people professional. I imagine that the firefighters that have gone to school, trained, applied for and received a job, have that same mindset.

Except that most of the firefighters in our area did not go to firefighting school, or train, before they became firefighters. Most of them got their training on the job, at taxpayer expense, unless they became volunteers at a Fire District and spent their own time getting training. I have a great deal of respect for the commitment and motivation of the latter group.

I always thought the union license plates with "professional firefighter" on them were a bit tacky. It implies that anyone who's not in the IAFF is not professional. It would have been better to have said "IAFF Firefighter" or "Union Firefighter" or even "Career Firefighter."

With that being said, however, I don't understand why the volunteers would want one. Why would a volunteer want a license plate that has the IAFF symbol on it? In any case, the IAFF does have ability to specify who can and can't have the plates since they created them. Any group who creates one of those specilized plates can do that.

Professional in that they're doing it for money. Or would the term "mercenary" be more apt?

I know little about all this but have questions. Aren't volunteer firefighters actually paid for their hours? Or is that only true in some volunteer operations? Do volunteers pay for their own training? I also thought the volunteer departments paid for their training. Or is this something that varies?

I'm not sure about all the departments on the Harbor, but I know there are some departments that do pay an hourly "stipend" whenever their volunteers respond on a call. A lot of departments are finding this is the only way to keep volunteers in this day and age. Monte in particular has some volunteers that make a decent side job out of being a volunteer. They're paid an hourly wage whenever they go on an ambulance transport. Volunteers in Washington also have a pension system. I don't think it's much, but it's a good incentive (I heard once it was about $400 a month after 25 years service, but that could be off). As to training, I have no idea. I would assume most departments, volunteer or not, pay for the training of their personnel.

Thanks. $400 a month pension is pretty good for an on-call job that's not full-time, imho.

Do you know of any other union that is allowed to have its own specialized license plate in the State of Washington? The Teamsters? AFSCME? I don't. I usually notice the IAFF plates when I am being paseed by a huge pickup or SUV going about 10 miles over the speed limit.

I have seen them on smaller vehicles, but those aren't as noticeable.

They're actually Washington State Council of Fire Fighters plates. Only WSCFF members can purchase them. While all WSCFF members are IAFF members, not all IAFF members belong to the WSCFF.