Private Equity Finds a New Source of Profit: Volunteer Fire Departments

Reaction to private equity in emergency services

• Many see PE ownership of volunteer fire department software as “parasitic,” life‑threatening rent-seeking layered on already underfunded services.
• Some argue this is just capitalism working as designed; others say it exemplifies why “large-scale financial engineering” is socially harmful.
• A minority push back that PE is operating within laws intentionally written to favor it, and blame should include legislators and voters.

Systemic critiques: capitalism, PE, and law

• Proposals range from banning PE outright to more targeted steps: ending carried-interest tax advantages, restricting debt-loading of acquisitions, and tightening rules against asset-stripping.
• Debate over whether “capitalism is essentially evil”:
  • One side claims capitalism tends to destroy real markets and concentrates power.
  • The other insists critics rarely understand economic basics, conflating capitalism, markets, and money.
• Some note a pattern where both direct regulation and incentive changes are proposed, but entrenched interests block both.

Volunteer fire departments, funding, and rural politics

• Strong frustration that rural departments must run bake sales for trucks and maintenance while wealthier suburbs pay full-time firefighters.
• One camp: rural voters repeatedly elect anti-tax, anti-safety-net politicians, so their underfunding is partly self-inflicted.
• Counterpoint: this blames the powerless; both major parties serve capital, information is constrained, and many rural residents (including minorities, LGBT people, immigrants) don’t fit the stereotypical “redneck” profile.
• Broader question: is it fair or sustainable to provide expensive services to very low-density areas without higher local taxes or stronger state/federal redistribution?

Why firefighters are volunteers

• Explanations: in rural areas, needed staffing scales with land area, not population; incident volume is low; full-time staffing would be idle and unaffordable.
• Some note other countries also rely heavily on volunteers, but usually with government-funded equipment, not fundraising.

Government vs open-source software solutions

• Several argue this niche is ideal for open source, developed by firefighter–developers or a multi-department consortium, especially if regulations (e.g., NERIS compliance) are public.
• Others question why individuals should volunteer coding labor for communities “too cheap” or too politically opposed to funding basic infrastructure.
• Some suggest governments should provide standard, open-source reference implementations whenever they mandate data/reporting systems.
• Skepticism exists about governments’ technical capacity, pay scales, and political vulnerability of internal dev teams.

Do departments need this software at all?

• A few ask whether specialized systems are overkill for small volunteer departments that historically operated with paper, spreadsheets, or Airtable.
• Others respond that regulatory and reporting requirements have effectively made such software mandatory, enabling regulatory capture by vendors.

Skepticism about the article

• At least one commenter warns NYT narratives can omit context or contain factual errors; without industry knowledge, readers may not see the full picture.