Yeah smaller departments can't afford to spare too many guys or else they leave their area of responsibility undermanned. We provided mutual aid to departments in Eastern Washington several times serving in either direct wildfire attack operations or covering fire and aid to the local town freeing that department and all their resources to focus on the wildfire. I preferred covering the fire and aid calls because it was different and the injuries were often unique compared to the "city". Oftentimes the rural departments had more appropriate, task specific equipment and they spent more time drilling in wild land operations than we did so they were better suited to that and we ran a lot of aid calls and had at least one or two paramedics with us so we were better utilized in town.
You're probably better off being available as needed locally Jim, than you would if you were across the state. Either way stay safe my friend.
