Should I start a software foundation to help emergency services?

That means spending time in urban, and rural fire stations observing what they use the software for. Pay special attention to integrations with other systems etc. (Assume that, if for example your test site integrates to Quickbooks, that you'll be integrating to "all" accounting systems.

Not only will this inform your own specifications, but will also show keen pain points.

Then attention turns to non-software issues. For example, what happens when the system fails? What level of support is required? Realistically if you have 10, 100 or 1000 customers, what does the support layer need to look like? How is that funded?

Ultimately license fees often include a lot more than just software. You need to understand that non-software layer, and fund that. Yes, people might help write code for free, but that's only one part of the puzzle. Usually the rest has to be paid for.

Then consider "sales". How do you reach that rural station to offer them the alternative? And you planning to visit? Are you planning to support them migrating data? Retraining staff? How are you planning to convince them your solution will work?

Lastly talk to stations about their desire to change. In my experience there's strong resistance to change, even when the alternative is better. Find out if the cost is a significant part of the budget. You've got the number for a rural station, but what about others?

While I applaud your reaction and willingness to do something, I fully expect that the situation is a lot more complicated than a magazine article makes out. Generally speaking the "software" part is the least of the issues. And I expect in most departments the cost is a tiny fraction of overall budget. And savings are not likely to be reallocated inside the station, they'll be reallocated elsewhere.

(That rural budget of 130k is set by the local govt presumably. Saving 10k of software just means the budget becomes 120k. This doesn't incentivise stations to go through the pain of switching. )

Good luck with your mission, but you should not underestimate the scale of what you are proposing, or imagine it can be done for free. Before starting it is good to understand what the end looks like.

I'd also suggest to reach out to the author of the NYT article and look for ideas. They took the time to study the subject and will likely have some insights on what could work (tech or non-tech approaches.)