Don't quit your day job. Part-time firefighters in rural Norway

Part-time firefighters (PTFs) in rural Norway are employed in minor positions, have little formal training and often few resources. Still, they respond to a wide array of incidents in an impressive manner. Based on interviews of 24 informants in three municipalities our analysis shows how three small rural fire departments organize their work in a situation where most of their crew have 2% positions (sometimes less) as firefighters. We analyze the value of diversity of day-time jobs, the “practical” orientation of the PTFs, how they draw on social networks to the community and develop a community of their own. In some situations, their primary jobs provide directly applicable skills. They also contribute indirectly to group-level capabilities. We find that social relations to the community, and among the firefighters, are characterized by reciprocity and communal values. Social relations are a key explanation of the PTFs motivation to serve, and an important element of the effectiveness of the PTFs in doing so. The fire and rescue services (FRS) are woven into the fabric of the communities they serve, and this embeddedness is shaped by peculiar local circumstances, in terms of both resources and hazards. The paper describes and analyzes how social networks and reciprocal relations mobilize the resources in rural communities for emergency preparedness. The findings are relevant to contemporary processes of re-organizing FRS’ into larger units, by pointing to risks of losing important, but largely invisible, qualities of today’s PTF-based services. Also, it illustrates how the embedded nature of such response organization can be a key factor to understand community resilience, particularly in rural areas. Prelude: While his colleagues try to secure a collapsed building after a landslide and watch out for new landslides, a schoolteacher, on a 2% contract as a part-time firefighter, and his colleagues − carpenters, a janitor, plumbers and others− have dug their way through the mud, rubble and tangled furniture-remains and secured an improvised tunnel-like entrance into the devastated building. They have jacked up some building remains rescuing a man intricately stuck under the debris. Now, they carefully use an electric saw to safely free a 2-year-old that has been stuck in the mixture of building remains, furniture and clay for hours. This is what emergency response can look like in rural Norway. - Vignette based on interviews and news coverage.