Everything You Should Know before Becoming a Firefighter
On that particular fire department we employed the use of fifty or more vehicles and some of these rigs carried a price tag upwards of a million dollars. Equipment sold to the fire service comes at a premium and "made in China" wasn"t an option for a loyal union shop like ours. Firefighters are brothers in arms. We took care of each other and we maintained our equipment as though our life depended on it. Sometimes it did.Every morning, after roll call, each crew would look over the equipment they would be driving during that shift and take notes. The checklist typically consisted of ten full pages of items look at. Every individual item had a place on the list and, believe me, a fire engine or fire truck carries a great deal of equipment, from the smallest pair of slip joint pliers to the largest ladders on the side (or top).
Training is an ongoing concern for most departments and many various scenarios have to be expected at any time of day or night. Shifts lasted for 24 hours each and at least several hours of training would be conducted during most shifts. Some would concentrate on fire tactics or on the conduct of fire safety inspections. Many involved first aid and other lifesaving techniques.
My favorite drills were the actual hands-on operations. Bringing out the "Jaws of Life" for a mock-MVA (motor vehicle accident), cutting the steering wheel off with the hydraulic cable cutter or the door with the 12,000 pound cutting shears was always a rush. No one can say the job wasn"t fun at times.
According to some surveys, firefighters are fairly well respected (as a profession) and, I must admit, it always felt good to know my job involved helping people in some of their most serious times of need. But there"s also a certain amount of stress involved in this job and you can see many things that are both devastating and sometimes horrendous.
Becoming a professional firefighter isn"t an easy process. The field is HIGHLY competitive. Those who make the cut are a different breed and I"m proud to count myself as one of them.