Hacker News Reader

It's a town of 8000 people, of which 4000 are college students and staff.

When you gather that many social justice warriors together in a location where there is no actual injustice to prosecute, they will creatively invent some so that they can do the thing they enjoy doing.

You see a similar pattern with firefighters. When there haven't been many recent fires to put out, you start seeing more firefighters getting arrested for arson.

View on HN

Fire fighters are 94% volunteers. So not sure why they'd do that...

As a former volunteer wildfire firefighter we definitely had instances of (former) volunteers engaging in arson for the thrill of putting out fires.

Many small towns pay their volunteer firefighters when they respond. They just don't get paid when there's no fire.

See here:

"It is important to know that most of the fire stations/departments do not pay for the services of a volunteer firefighter. However, they may get reimbursed for attending training and meetings, responding to fires and emergencies, and time spent on shifts. The amount of reimbursement is generally at the discretion of the fire department."

https://www.firesciencedegreeschools.com/how-to-become-a-vol....

Citation needed

For the firefighters? Here's a starting point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighter_arson

Reply on news.ycombinator.com