§ 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.