The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Why are you here?
I volunteered for my fire department (all volunteer) because there was a need, there is always a need for trained firefighters, when I joined I had no firefighting background. But I was willing to train on my time and my families time. Our training officer took his personal time to train 5 new volunteers for several months to challenge the firefighter exam. After the exam the proctor stated that he had never seen a better trained group of challengers.
I believe, that it does not matter if your a full time firefighter or a volunteer if you have the drive, movation, and training to be the safest, most professional firefighter, you will be. On my time I read as much about firefighting as possible, I use this network as another tool to further my firefighting knowledge, and hope all firefighters use it as a tool for useful purposes. I am currently working on challenging ffII, and hoping to take an EMT-B course that may be offered. All the training, all the hours put into the department, are not paid, we are paid only for our runs, we receive minimum wage for our efforts, and all of our firefighters donate their pay back to the department.
Our department is a small group of highly dedicated, highly motivated firefighters, who perform a thankless service to our community, without any other reason but to help our fellow man, yes, It would be nice to be a full time firefighter, with pay, but not every community can afford that, so we volunteer, on our time, on our families time.
In closing, be you full time, or volunteer, this has to be a job you love, you must keep an attitude of, what can I do?, what will make me a better firefighter to serve my community?, my brothers, You must lead, or follow, in our line of work you cannot get out of the way, you have to know your job, better than anyone, because the community looks to us in their time of need, not asking if your full time or a volunteer, but because your a firefighter
I believe, that it does not matter if your a full time firefighter or a volunteer if you have the drive, movation, and training to be the safest, most professional firefighter, you will be. On my time I read as much about firefighting as possible, I use this network as another tool to further my firefighting knowledge, and hope all firefighters use it as a tool for useful purposes. I am currently working on challenging ffII, and hoping to take an EMT-B course that may be offered. All the training, all the hours put into the department, are not paid, we are paid only for our runs, we receive minimum wage for our efforts, and all of our firefighters donate their pay back to the department.
Our department is a small group of highly dedicated, highly motivated firefighters, who perform a thankless service to our community, without any other reason but to help our fellow man, yes, It would be nice to be a full time firefighter, with pay, but not every community can afford that, so we volunteer, on our time, on our families time.
In closing, be you full time, or volunteer, this has to be a job you love, you must keep an attitude of, what can I do?, what will make me a better firefighter to serve my community?, my brothers, You must lead, or follow, in our line of work you cannot get out of the way, you have to know your job, better than anyone, because the community looks to us in their time of need, not asking if your full time or a volunteer, but because your a firefighter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Terry Lambert on
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Very well put.
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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Awesome post, use the site to learn and since you have a great flair for writing use it to help teach what you know!! Great post
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Permalink Reply by dcltsc2 on
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I like the way you word this but (and there is always a but) I work on a combo dept. The full time guys only want to come to call if their on shift. I work on the County Tech Resque time with Volly's and full time guys. The Volly are there on training nights not getting paid also not complaining. The full timers are getting overtime and complaining that thay have to train on tech resque. It seems to me that the full time guys have lost the passion of firefighting. Now before all you full time guys yell at me I know its not all of you that are like this. This is just the ones I have met personally.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin King on
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Because the Fire Gods say this is were I belong.This thing we do is a calling for most of us its not something that you do as a hobby or for a check.Its a way of life.
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Permalink Reply by Dan Hoey on
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When other kids where learning to throw a base ball or their dads took them camping my dad was lighting fire in the garage and teaching my brothers and I proper search and suppression techniques. LOL what choice did I have!! The reason I mostly do this is all of you my brothers and sisters around the world. Hey is anyone from Ireland I need a favor!!!
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Dear Brother, I agree with you totally but in my states position are Commonwealth of PA makes 6 Billion dollars off of the Firefighters which I would say 80 percent of the Commonwealth is Volunteer Depts and I now have 27 years in or so and I have watched many Brothers get buried from being a Proud man to help their communities and their neighbors out when they have an emergency arrise at ones home but after all my years in the service I asked myself why do the Politicians get all that money off of the work the volunteers give day in and day out to use it as a feather in their hats to make themselves look great to the taxpayers when we are just as important as the police or the E.M.S. and the 911 dispatchers and they get paid and I think its high time the volunteer firefighters get paid because we are as important to the working of the government and afterall when their is an emergency who is the first to get called out and Brother no one thinks of our lives if we get hurt or have to make the Supreme Sacrifise in which I always pray that we never get hurt or killed but I would have to say that is worth a paycheck and benefits to the men and women who are volunteer firefighters when we lay our lives on the Front Line each and every day afterall the politicians never want to say no to a pay increase and benefits and here we are being proud citizens ,taxpayers being proud thinking we are helping out our communties when we are taking one more step and laying our lives on the line to be proud and help our fellow taxpayers and sacrifise the loss to our families every time we answer an alarm. I say if the politicians can live high off the hog and have the best of everything that they want than I think men and women that risk their lives every day truly deserve to be paid with benefits and I am sure we would still be just as proud doing our job but we are now putting revenue back into our states and keeping our local people to work in our own states or does this make to much common sense?? What bugs me is I will watch our fellow firefighters travel three to four hours to work in other states as career firefighters now wouldn't it be better to keep our own residents here in our on state and pay them for the job they do day in and day out and let them be paying taxs to help the states revenue instead of some other state getting the benefit when our home state could be taking care of..
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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jdstamp you are the man, those words warm my heart and I agree with you 100%, no matter how big or how small we are all brothers and here for the same reason:)
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Permalink Reply by Bill Brierton on
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For me being a volunteer fire fighter it is a passion. If I could of been a career fire fighter I would of but it was not meant to be.
I have been a volunteer for 16 years and as long as I feel I am capable of doing what needs to be done I will do so.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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I'm with you all the way! I believe that it doesn't matter if you are Paid, volunteer, POC, etc. As long as you're motivated and committed to the Fire service, we're all on the same team. I hate to see the word, "professional" used to describe full time/paid firefighters. I've known volunteers that are just as professional, and are unpaid. Stay safe Brothers/Sisters!
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Brian I agree but when the States are making big dollars every year off of the volunteers why should we not be paid I have a hard time understanding this because if we got to train and put our lives on the line I feel we are as important as the police e.m.s. and 911 dispatchers who gets paid now can someone please tell me why us volunteer firefighters don't get paid. I really have a hard time understanding this logic afterall are we not as important as the Police and the E..S. andhe 911 dispatchers here we are making the politicians looking great in front of the local taxpayers off all the revenue we save the States would someone please tell me why the volunteer firefighters don't deserve to get paid????? Please explain to me why OUR LIVES aren't as Imporatant ???? Afterall We are darn proud in the Brotherhood why do we always have to continue to get kicked in around because of politics ????? Does Our lives not have as much value in life and I believe we would still be as proud......Hughie 57 House
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