A neighbor had an atc185 bbq yesterday as his shed burned down. Man did it go! the exposure to his house was about 20 feet, even with the breeze, but when the fire climbed a tall ponderosa pine, i got on the phone. Within a few minutes, there were FOUR engines there, 3 pumpers and one State brush rig, a tanker, a Battalion Chief, and 2 sheriffs cars. They as I, weren't worried about the damm shed, but the fire reaching the top of that tall pine tree and catching the breeze.
WE are way out of town, and the most distant engine travelled 12 miles to get there! the nearest station is 3 miles away.
Just shows how nervous the boys on the west coast are already!

SO i thought, hey, I wonder how many current, retired, full time and volunteer firefighters are on this forum? bet theres a bunch!
I was a volunteer in Bend for 2.5 years about 20 years ago...it was a ball and a curse at the same time, as we were treated like second class citizens by the paid guys - i finally got tired of it. But hey, the Musters were fun! And we worked really hard at getting the paid guys wet on scene, and other such 'volunteer' pranks....hehe

Got a good firefighting story? let's hear it!

 

I'm a Fire Captain certified FF1, FF2, EMT, and a few other things. Small town, we have 4 stations but only 1 is manned 24hrs. Besides fire apparatus we run 3 ALS equipped ambulances from our Central Station. About 90% of our calls are medical. I also would think there are a lot of board members in the fire service since I believe every one on our dept. owns a 4 wheeler. We occasionally have a crawfish boil and do a group ride and sometimes have close to 50 wheelers there. We usually do this in E. Texas on a members hunting lease but have also gone to Mena Ar. and also Lake Greeson Ar. You are right, firefighters can be a different breed. Almost as crazy as cops. Not me though, I'm normal.

 

Raptor 8,

Sorry this is a little off your topic, I got a question for any firefighters on the forum- What are the best steps to becoming a firefighter? About a year ago I tried out for our local fire departments, took the agility and aptitude tests and did very well, but didn't make the final cut. I've thought about joining our local volunteer deptartment to get my foot in, and get some experience. Any advice apreciated.

 

Joining a volunteer dept. can be VERY helpful. Besides the training you get, there are a lot of "networking" opportunities. You will get a chance to meet and sometimes work with guys on the paid department you wish to join. They can give you insight on how they got hired. Most places, "knowing" somebody is not supposed to factor in to the hiring process but it sure doesn't hurt. Something else, the bigger towns around here don't usually hire someone that isn't already an EMT. (They don't publish this fact though). You could go to a local Vo-tech school or Community College and get into a course. Once you have it you could work for an Ambulance company, either part or full time and this experience would be helpful as well.
Good Luck to you.

 

I have a total of 18 years as a volunteer FF, 3 years in a small 15 member 4 truck department in N.D. and 15 years in a 60 member, 2 stations and 15 unit Fire/Rescue Department. Made it all the way up to First Assistant Chief. Got sick of the politics and decided it was time to retire. I still get called every once in a wile to help out with my quad on searches or during big events like the forest fires we had last year.

One of the calls I remember was a missing people call that was placed by a lady that stated her new Husband and her Daughter went out for a hike in the hills the day before and had not returned. Well... When we located them they were getting to know each other VERY VERY Well!!!!!

 

Hooterville- thanks for the advice, very helpful! I'll have to check into what the local colleges offer as far as EMT training. I did notice that alot of the guys that tested with me had EMT training, probably why I didn't make the cut. Once again, thanks for the advice.

 

HAHAHA tricat thats great! and i'm not surprised, Ive seen some wild stuff in my day too. We used to have 4 stations with the darndest collection of hand me down apparatus you ever saw. Nowadays, of course, they had brand new KME engines, 5 stations, 6 ambulances, a drill tower, a dedicated 25 man rescue crew which supplements the sheriff's HUGE SAR group, and all the toys and gadgets they want. Plus tankers, interfaces, brush buggies, you name it.
I can rem driving a WW2 surplus brush tanker to a fire, code 3, and being passed by regular traffic! It was governed at like 42 mph...

 

My brother is a fireman. He started out as a volunteer fireman about 10 or 11 years ago. While he was on the volunteer dept, he done alot of training and became an EMT. He got hired on our city dept about 6 or 7 years ago and has since became a paramedic.

Its kinda nice with him being a paramedic....cuts down on my trips to the ER. He's like my 24hr free doctor.

I personally think he's crazy for going into a burning building or tending to nasty car wrecks...but then again he thinks I'm nuts for jumping 75-90 foot jumps on MX tracks. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

HAHA fair enough i guess! when i was in, you had firefighters, ladder crews, and EMTs. they all specialized. Now you are expected to be expert at all levels.....I'm not sure thats a great idea. Even we volunteers had to be advanced first aid, but not EMT, we focused on FF1.
And i was one of the few who would climb a ladder truck...that singled out my duty some...but now we have superhumans...thay dont seem to have as much FUN as we did....it was a greats stress reliever! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]