Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Allen on March 13, 2009 at 11:17am

Before we were a paid department we had in our By-lays that you were required to make at least 50% of all calls and 50% of all trainings or you were put on an in-active status.

The problem is as it is in all industries, "The 80/20 Rule". 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people. One thing to try is making it fun....everybody likes to have a good time. This comes from a good training officer....

You might try a numbers game. Rifle thru a bunch of folks and just keep the good ones. This business you either "Get it" or you don't. The keepers become obvious really fast.

Good luck and always remember.....Be Safe....

Permalink Reply by Zack Spalding on March 14, 2009 at 12:54am

We don't have any one who currently is just a translator but once an while it would be a nice resource to have. The closest we have to your situation is one guy just wants to do traffic control, but he comes to every call he can make to see if he is needed. Because there have been times even for a few routine medical calls that traffic control has been needed to make things run more smother and expediting care to the patient.

In you case I would suggest have them become a social members and just keep his phone number handy. If you have ever have a situation you need to translate you can always call them and pass the phone around at the scene between you and person you want to speak with. Assuming you have reliable cell phone coverage in your district.

Permalink Reply by Padre Pete on March 19, 2009 at 9:37pm

Hi Matt, Is your ability to provide the best service to some victims and patients is incumbered by your inability to understand them? Would your ability to provide good service to some victims and patients be inhanced if you knew exactly what they needed? If the answers are "Yes", I think this applicant has a specialty that would serve as a real value to your team. Keep The Faith.

Permalink Reply by Dave on March 23, 2009 at 7:42am

Hi Matt. You are stuck with a problem thast plagues many departments. Both problems. We fortunately have a few good bi-lingual members, that respond a lot. As far as letting them on the department......I'm like the others, you need people for assistance in other places along with that. Keep their cell phone or land line number on speed dial. If they want to help bad enough, they should be able to do that at least. Good Luck.

Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on March 24, 2009 at 7:01pm

We have not ran into anyone who does not speak english YET. Guess if we do will have to call my son (who is in 1st grade) to come translate. LOL

Permalink Reply by Matt Smallz on March 24, 2009 at 9:42pm

Isn't that sad.. I wish now that i would have gave more of a crap in school, just never thought that it would be the language of the majority......... Enough said!!

Permalink Reply by Stephane M. Goulet on March 27, 2009 at 4:26am

In todays volunteer fire departments you have to be flexible. we are not all just ( firefighters ) your department can benifit with people with diffrent skills. like some one that is retired and was an accountant. they want to help there community and want to do the book work for your department. ( do you turn them away? ) no you get them involved. on a limited basis. with your situation I would make it so that people who want to translate are members but not issue any gear to them exept a pager. they would be limited to translation duty and thats it. and if pagers are a rare commodity maybe even just make a refrance / call list you can go down if you need to contact a translator. Then down the road these folks might get more involved / intrested to be more of a firefighter once they really see what you do. and in your situation a language barrier can mean life or death.

Permalink Reply by jdstamp on March 30, 2009 at 3:49pm

We're a small fire department in Northern Michigan and we are fortunate enough to have a firefighter that is bi-lingual, we had two but his full time job required him to move from the area.
Our Capt. is the translator and does translate for the county also, And he is a valuable asset to our department.