N.Y. General Municipal Law § 200: Defining qualifications of exempt volunteer firefighters

§ 200. Defining qualifications of exempt volunteer firefighters. An

exempt volunteer firefighter is hereby declared to be a person who as a

member of a volunteer fire company duly organized under the laws of the

state of New York shall have at any time after attaining the age of

eighteen years faithfully actually performed service in the protection

of life and property from fire within the territory immediately

protected by the company of which he or she is a member, and while a

bona fide resident therein, for a period of five years, as provided in

this article, or, if such company shall have been sooner disbanded upon

the organization of a paid fire department, for a period of at least one

year and shall also have been a member of such volunteer fire company at

the time it shall have been disbanded; but the limitation of one year's

service shall not apply to a volunteer firefighter who was a member of a

fire company which was disbanded prior to January first, nineteen

hundred two. The foregoing residence requirements shall not apply (1) to

a volunteer firefighter who has been duly elected to membership in his

or her fire company as a non-resident member residing in territory which

is afforded fire protection by his or her fire company pursuant to a

contract for fire protection, as authorized by paragraph three of

subdivision c of section fourteen hundred two of the not-for-profit

corporation law or by subdivisions two and three of either section

10-1006 of the village law, section one hundred seventy-six-b of the

town law or section sixteen-a of the general city law, (2) to a

volunteer firefighter whose membership has been duly continued in his or

her fire company as authorized by paragraph three of subdivision c of

section fourteen hundred two of the not-for-profit corporation law or by

subdivision five of either section 10-1006 of the village law, section

one hundred seventy-six-b of the town law or section sixteen-a of the

general city law and (3) to a volunteer firefighter who has been duly

elected to membership as a non-resident as authorized by paragraph three

of subdivision c of section fourteen hundred two of the not-for-profit

corporation law or by subdivision six of either section 10-1006 of the

village law, section one hundred seventy-six-b of the town law or

section sixteen-a of the general city law. The foregoing requirement of

five years' service shall not apply to a volunteer firefighter serving

as such at the time of his or her entry into the military service of the

United States or of one of its allies in world war II, or during the

period of hostilities as defined in subparagraph three or subparagraph

four of paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section eighty-five of the

civil service law, who, as a result of such military service, shall have

become incapacitated for performing the full duties of a volunteer

firefighter, or to a volunteer firefighter who, as the result of the

performance of his or her duties as such, shall have become likewise

incapacitated, but any such volunteer firefighter shall be an exempt

volunteer firefighter even though he or she may have served as such for

a lesser period than five years, and he or she shall be entitled to a

certificate as provided in section two hundred two of this article

which, in addition to the specifications contained in said section,

shall set forth the facts in reference to his or her military service,

if any, as aforesaid and that as a result of such military service, or

as the result of service as a volunteer firefighter, he or she was

incapacitated for performing the full duties of a volunteer firefighter.

The term "military service" as used in this section shall mean the same

as the term "military duty" as used in section two hundred forty-three

of the military law, except that it shall relate to service for an ally

of the United States in world war II as well as to service for the

United States.