Used to work with a lady. Married to a firefighter in Pasadena.

Husband: "Honey, as firefigthers, we need to stay at the station. My schedule is MWF...."

Wifey: "OK. I understand.... I love you, honey."


11 years later:

Knock, knock.

Wifey: "Who's there?

Stranger: "You must be the MWF-wife. Hi, I am the TTHSS-wife." :D




The above is no joke. I guess a lot of his co-workers were also maintaining a 2nd family.

moses i'm not into pissing contest but there seems to be a little more than the fact that he's a firefighter in your eyes ,or the fact that he lives next door to a surgeon !!!
!! i know your a vet in this pelican forum but give a guy a break look at your self ........ i've dealt with E.R Room in my career no prize package there !!!! like'd to know what city you work in ?

Actually my neighbors include two firefighters, a police officer and a carpet installer. All good folks.

My issue is simple. This guy a a highly paid professional firefighter. He wants the world to know he's a firefighter. He drives a fire engine red car festooned with firefighting stickers. He loves everything about being a firefighter. Everything except, apparently, actually fighting fires.

This weekend he's taking a few days off to go camping while his brothers will be doing this;

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1215781817.jpg

I have many friends that are firefighters and all are nice guys that I really like. More than a few have died of job related cancer at an early age. I also have the highest respect for those fighting forest fires. Much different that an urban fire-fighter.

That being said, I live in the rather wet, rainy, damp climate. Fires in the urban and residential areas are damn rare. Way back in the 1960's, firefighters figured out the new building codes and sprinkler systems could make their job obselete. That's when they decided to go into the ambulance and rescue business. In my town, I know for a fact they turn the siren on when passing city hall on a low priority call and shut if off a few blocks down the road. They want all in city hall to think they are overworked.

Another scam is the Fire Depts are in bed with insurance companies. Insurance companies set their rates according to the location, equipment and staffing of the fire stations. A good ladder is two years old, throw it away and spend taxpayers money on the newest and best. The insurance companies say we should. We need a need a new fire station staffed by 8 people 24/7. The taxpayers take it in the shorts again. My county is crying huge budget shortages, but the new fire stations look like a Muslin temple......

In my area, they work about 9 24 hour shifts per month. It's only the 2nd profession where one gets paid to sleep. I worked a lot of night shifts in college and early in my career w/o getting to sleep on the job. They work maybe 8 hrs of their 24 hr shift. Evening are spent in the expensive Lazy boy watching movies, reading, internet, etc.

For this, most in my area make over 100K a yr. with a little overtime.

Like many emergency service jobs, they are paid well because of the risks involved. Moses neighbor should take the bad with the good and be out their guarding the back of his peers!!

The cancer thing is a pisser and statistically significant. I wonder if the stats will change since the profession has 'evolved' and the concept of going in without the mask is not the 'tough' thing to do any more.

Maybe some halls don't get night calls, but I know the night work took a toll on my dad. Every third night, he would rarely get more than a couple hours sleep in a row and if there was an actual fire... you're out for hours. If you get back to the hall, its not like you can easily relax and sleep after being that wired.

As for the 'big money', I think that was the exception. My dad retired as a district chief (large metro area), in charge of 15 halls or so. I suspect that his salary was less than 70k. He has good medical benefits as a retiree, but his pension is in the 40k range.

Moses, your neighbor is a douchbag. Guys like that usually catch a lot of flak from the non-douchbag guys in the hall if they are not pulling their weight. I think the firefighter union sticker is usually a given. My dad was sortof a 'hippie type' and having the afl-cio sticker was usually counteracted by him driving the vw bus... southern cops didn't like hippie types.

And some related articles -

1 - drunk guy impersonates fireman, fights fire with the real ones - http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080710/od_nm/fireman_dc

2 - firemen play with fireworks in the station, including putting one 'tween the cheeks - http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=DB7C65185D9F6ED784803447686B0761 ?contentId=6959520&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

I never exit my car with a ticket book when first contacting a driver. I want to keep my hands free. I don't want to be fumbling with a ticket book should things go bad. In my mind, just having pre-disposition in the first place is a serious officer safety issue.

That's really the best policy, this is the internet afterall.

A source of entertainment and enjoyment. ;)

I'm surprised i warranted such a long response...and i am heartened to know you're not the kind of guy who would ticket your fellow officers and firemen, etc. Cause those guys- and i hope you'd agree with me- are dicks.

Of course.

Trust me when i say i'm not in the business of giving cops an excuse to shoot me in the abdomen. ;)

However, if i was a cop, and got pulled over by a cop who was a complete and total dick, i would most likely roll the dice and punch him dead in the mouth as long as the other cop knew i was also a cop.

Moses, the guy might be such a dick that they politely told him to 'stay by the phones' while they were all out fighting the forest fires.

LOL.

We have one of those guys!:D

Yeah, maybe he's the "Farva" of the firehouse. :) :) :)