(Excerpts from Firefighters' Unified Retirement System Handbook, put out by the Montana Public Employee's Retirement Board in November 2000):
"The Firefighters' Unified Retirement System (FURS) is a public pension plan for Montana firefighters employed by first- and second- class cities and other cities that wish to adopt the plan. In 1981, the Legislature created the FURS to grant a retirement, disability, or death benefit to plan members and their beneficiaries."
As of August 10, 2006, membership of the FURS consisted of 498 active plan members working for 16 participating employers - Anaconda, Billings, Bozeman, Butte/Silver Bow, Columbia Falls, Glendive, Great Falls, Havre, Helena, Kalispell, Lewistown, Livingston, Miles City, Missoula, and Whitefish. New hires for the Montana Air National Guard Airport Firefighters in Great Falls are also eligible to join FURS.