My county is always looking for volunteers (we have a mostly volunteer force). I did a night with them on a "ride along". Basically see if you like it and then sign up. (I sign more paperwork for a PCA DE than this event....actually I signed nothing). I signed up for a Friday. We rode in the truck, ate dinner, had some ice cream, run the hose cannon, washed the truck and basically waited for something to happen. We responded to various calls:
- a guy looped his civic on a country road and the police took him to jail for DUI
- a townhouse fire that really was a false alarm....the other company got their first. The burning I smelled was the truck trying to brake from 60 mph! :eek:
- an accident where a family with a little baby was rear ended. We were the first responders till the police showed up.

I thought it seemed like a fun job until I went home and really thought about it. Nobody was hurt and one dumb ass went to jail. What if it went down different? Like the family down the street from me that lost their house when it burned to the ground. What if that baby got hurt? I couldn't handle that ****. No way. I'm glad that there are people that can do that job. It's a hullava adreneline rush on the way there, but I couldn't do it.

Prevention is a key aspect of avoiding accidents while on the job! ;)

I know a young guy who became a volunteer in the past year or so. He went out a bought a bright red 4x4 Chebby and added all the lights and stickers you could possibly add. He ven had a siren for a ring-tone. He purchased a new Harley after coming into some cash. He then traded that one in on a special edition firefighter Harley in, you guessed it, RED. We dogged the crap out of this guy. While we joked about him, I can tell you that people in the town that he responds in know that he will bust a fuchin' wall down to get someone out of a building or tear a car apart to get to someone.

I have 2 firefighters that work for me. We may go round and round at work but I have the utmost respect for them when they are on duty.

No doubt, there are clowns in every aspect of life and this guy might the king but until YOU'VE gone into a burning house or had to discover a dead child.....

Tough to respond to this thread with out being biased,.....but here goes. Ive been a FF for 17 yrs. 8 yrs as a line officer 4 yrs as Chief of Department. Like any profession, you get all types. You get the super motivated and dedicated. The adrenaline junkies. The guys that do it for the camaraderie. The guys that enjoy doing the job. Lastly,the guys that just want the benefits. Fortunately most firefighters fall in the middle to upper range.
The guys that Moses and Ha Ha described fit alot of guys out there. Fire buffs(or "hose homos" as I like to call them) are the ones that set a bad example for us. They are the ones that draw all the attention with thier "personal fire trucks". Running around town like idiots, causing people to point fingers and make snide comments. Most are good guys, and excellent firefighters, but they still dont help our cause.
The most common thing you hear is; "You guys just sit at the firehouse, eat and watch tv all day". True we have many periods of inactivity, but for the times when we dont, people dont see that. When we are not "watching tv", maybe we are out on the highway cutting your dead teenager out of a car wreck.(I had six of those last yr. Two so far this yr.) Ever have to restrain a psychotic parent whos daughter is being taken out of a windshield to be put in a body bag?? Had to do that way too many times. Its not fun. It fuchin sucks! Especially being a parent myself. The cops should be doing that you say?? Nah they are to busy standing there with thier thumbs up their asses, or fighting with us over "jurisdictional authority"

Or while you are home in bed sleeping, we got woken up at 2 AM in the middle of February to fight a fire in someones home, all the time working with equipment and turnout gear covered in a layer of ice.

Or maybe standing with the county coroner, looking at the charred remains of an infant, child or elderly person that we found in a closet or hiding under a bed. You never, ever forget that smell. it lingers in you nose for days. Try facing a young child when they ask you if you found thier favorite pet . Sure you did, it was burnt to a crisp, or suffered smoke inhalation. But its ok, you can try doing rescue breathing on a dog or cat while the poor kid looks over you crying hystericaly.

I dont know Moses guys deal, so I cant support nor chastise him. But I'm just saying dont make a generalization about all firefighters. We do a job that most people would never do or could handle physically or emotionally.

End of rant.. Sorry

You wouldn't believe what the firefighters in California are suffering through right now. The fires are burning out of control and we have a heat wave. Many of them have worked 3 or 4 weeks straight without a break under miserable conditions.

The fact that 650,000 acres have burned and we've only lost 40 homes is amazing. Those guys are doing heroic work and I'm one grateful Californian.

With the exception of major metro areas, most FF are volunteers, like 80% or some ridiculously high figure. Let's not generalize!

Many are also EMT's or Paramedics, so they could save your a$$ someday.

I wouldn't do that either, to be honest. I'm pretty sure i'd rather deploy to Afdirtistan than be a forest firefighter.

You give firemen tickets?

Sounds to me like YOU'RE the dick.

Excellent post VINMAN, I respect the hell out of you and your profession. Personally, I think there are very few jobs that require more selfless dedication to humanity. All of you, even the dumbass ones, deserve every bit of respect associated with the position.

As for pay, I can say for certain that the salary previously posted is not average. My wife's cousin is a firefighter in DFW, I think he started out at $35k or so. His brother is currently in training to join him. Neither of them are doing it for financial gain or hubris, they just want to help people.

FF/EMT in upstate NY, as a volunteer... until (1) I got too busy at work and (2) got too bored w/ the lack of "real" calls. Though I did respond to two small-to-mid sized wildland fires while volunteering.

The New York State protocol requires that basic firefighters have wildland/wilderness training, and courses are offered reasonably frequently for those interested.

Yes, you wear different gear (I can't imagine hiking through woods in bunkers), and you use different tools and skills, but it's not rocket surgery. If a trained FF were placed on a team of wildland-specific FF, there really shouldn't be a problem. The wildland guys would be keeping the eye out for wind changement/slope/etc., and the noob would be raking and putting out spots. Point is, he could take some of the load off of the wildland-trained guys.

My instructor was a FF in California for 10 years before coming to NY, and he's got a LOT of wildland experience. His prognostication --> look for a fire of epic proportions in the Adirondacks at any time. Too much ground cover, DEC doesn't allow clearing, and it's ripe for a mega-fire.

Re: your neighbor... if he just doesn't want to go into the woods, I can't blame him too much. There are a number of not-very-obvious-to-the-layperson specialties in firefighting, and whatever his is, he may have chosen it specifically b/c he doesn't want to go into the dayum woods. As long as he is serving in the capacity he is assigned (which I don't know, and don't know if you can know) then he's a firefighter, IMHO.

I'm sure Ron will have two cents when he sees the thread, but those are mine.

JP

Beyond the fire, the breath and scope of what you guys see at the personal level (accidents, broken kids, etc.) absolutely disqualifies me from your profession. I can handle the physical, not the emotional. I do wish you all the best.

In many professions there are poseurs...weeding though the chaff is always hard, be it doctor or plumber or fire fighter. Is there anything worse than the vanity plate proclaiming, "Dr"?

Yes... Yes, there is. The wife of one of my favorite colleagues has the following license plate: "MRS ESQ". "Hey world, I'm married to a lawyer!!!" :o

JP

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

Wow:eek:

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Local VFD saved my Dad's life when he was t-boned by a drunk driver on a motorbike..

Had to cut him out of the car and stop the bleeding - the whole bit.

I think in most towns they respond to more accidents (most of them cars), than they do fires.

I would expect a Police Officer to treat all the people that are pulled over for a violation the same, regardless of profession. What aspects of a person's day job gives them a pass to break laws?

TG --
Your expectations simply don't comport with reality. For starters, LEOs, by and large, take care of other LEOs -- whether it's in the same uniform, that of a different state, or state vs. federal, etc. It's idealism to believe otherwise.

"... a pass to break laws." is a bit of an overstatement. Mostly, what LEOs will do for one another (and, often for FF or other public servant types) is abbreviate the hassle of punishment. So, you're pulled over (let's say) talk to the cop, find out you share a public service commitment involving periods of imminent danger to your life/health and s/he says "just slow down." Or "here's a ticket for stopping on pavement, instead of 85 in a 55".

You got pulled, spoke to the cop (the pointy end of the law enforcement/executive branch spear) and s/he used his/her judgment. It's what the DA/prosecutor/whatever is going to do when you get to court with a ticket anyway...

This courtesy amongst brothers in blue shouldn't get someone out of a more serious crime, obviously, but it's part of how people just get along. Why would you "expect" differently?

Cops also let civilians off with warnings all the dayum time. And thank Jeebus for that!

JP

What should the cops be doing exactly? In these parts, it pretty common for the handling officer to make notifications to the families and it's the rare thing (for obvious reasons) when fire beats the cops to the scene of an accident or fire. I'm not exactly sure what Jurisdictional authority there is to fight about. You as fireman have a job and the officers there have a job. I've been on the other side for 17 years and have never seen that issue.


I agree with some of the others comments. Just because he didn't go to the wildfires doesn't mean he isn't providing a valuable service in another capacity at the firehouse or to the surrounding community.

Mike, my comment was not meant to disparage all police officers. I'm the last person to bash a cop. So please accept my apology. :)
Here in NJ, the fire dept is in charge of all accident scenes, until the victim(s) and fire /hazmat dangers has been removed, and the scene stabilized. It is State law. I have went head to head numerous times with the police on who runs the scene, and what to do at an incident. Not every cop, but a few of them, especially the younger guys. They expect the fire fighters to direct traffic for them while they oversee the scene. BS!! At one serious accidenton a major busy hwy, I wanted two lanes shut down and traffic diverted, because the traffic was too close to where we where working on a victim. One of my men was almost run down. The officer refused. Said its his road, he will make the decision. I was adamant about it. He got in my face threatened to lock me up. I stayed calm, walked to my vehicle, got on the phone with the police chief. Four mins later the road was being shut down. After the scene was cleaned up, he came over and apologized.
One of the things I expect them to do is some crowd control, not letting onlookers too close to the scene. Which Ive encountered alot. I look for the officers and they are stannding off by there cars talking and laughing.
Like I said the vast majority are good , but a few just really pi$$ed me off.

True, majority of our incidents are accidents and similar stuff.
We don't get as many fires like we used to . That has quieted down alot. Thanks to better building codes and construction, and fire education within the general public. A Firefighters job has become way more technical and diversified then the way it was when growing up in NYC.