Does your department have different gear for your "Probies" or inactive members? In a day where that budget constraints has placed VFD on limited resources what provisions if any is your department doing to help maintain your work force. Do you try to reserve your newer gear for your active members? Are your radios given to your senior/active members where pagers may be given to probies? How does your department encourage participation along with staying in check with safety standards?

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Our department wears white helmets for chiefs and assit chiefs, yellow for captains and lt's, black for firefighters, and orange for the probies.
Probationary members are issued second-hand PPE. Once they've completed their initial training and their probationary period, they are issued with new PPE. Initial training is wildfire only, so that is the PPE they are issued. After completing the initial structural training modules they will be issued with structural PPE.
Nope, should it be in your opinion?
We issue the same gear to the last guy on the Department the same as the first. There is no substitute for appropriate PPE. If your going to do the job you ed better be appropriately protected or stay in the station. The only Radios given are to our Officers. Everyone carries a pager. We continue to recruit and train our firefighters and in spite of the current economic situation have continued to receive applications for joining our Department. I tend to think that people come to join our Department because they see the work/service we do in the community and want to be part of the professionalism that is portrayed. That is built upon training weekly and encouragement of all our members to continue this process. We need each and every member to get the job done. Recession or no we will still be there to get the job done as safely and efficiently as possible.
senior ff gets newer equipment and radios where as probies and not so active members get pagers.as far as the newer gear seniority takes seniority.however if budgets are getting tight and you have firefighters not showing up to trainings meetings or calls they should be stripped of gear and anything else. and they need to be taken off of the roster and insurance.in this field your either all or nothing.if they are too busy for their department they are just too busy.
We issue second hand gear to probies and Jr's. We don't just give them worn out sets but their gear will pass any necessary inspections that are involved with getting the training. As they prove their worth they will be sized for a new set. Obviously the guys who are most active tend to get new gear more often simply for the fact that they wear it out sooner.
Only officers get issued radio's. We have a few members who have gone out and purchased their own but there are radio's on the rigs for use.
Inactive to me means inactive. What does an inactive member need gear for? To me that is a complete waste of resources. If a member reaches inactive status their gear should be pulled and issued to someone who will get some use out of it. If and when they become quote active again then they will at that time be issued gear(not new but compliant).
We are paid on call deptarment working on a limited budget. Probies, support personel, and those holding only MFR status are issued hand me down gear. Once you complete fire fighter school, you are fit for new gear, and if you are also MFR, some are issued portable radios. A recent gift from a generous family is now allowing us to upgrade our gear. Last year we were able to get all firefighters leather boots, new gloves, and all personel new extrication gloves and traffic safety vests. Being new to fire service I found it a bit shocking the costs of outfitting personel. We have started a rotation that will allow all personel to get new turnouts every five years.
All members both paid and volunteer are issued radio's no pagers. Until a new member has invested time, interest and eagerness in the department we don't issue them radios.
The Board of Director's overrode the Chief's proposal on new turnout gear. We currently wear Globe G Xtreme tan in color. The Chief requested new black gear for all firefighters paid and volunteer with the existing tan gear going to cadets. However the Board decided to purchase enough black gear for the paid only. So now paid will be in black, volunteers in tan. This isn't sitting well with a number of members of the department, in regards to the whole seperation issue.
Helmets was originally setup that non firefighter I & II personnel would wear the Bullard PX helmets then they would get a new tradition bought by the department upon state certification in I and II. But with budget crunches that has been put on the back burner for now.
At Fort Bayou VFD, the only difference between the rookies and firefighters is a flourecent orange helmet. As far as the gear goes, when someone comes in they get what best fits them in the storage room. If there's just no way no how their fitting into anything on hand then we'll buy a set for them providing we know their intentions (whether theyre gonna actually fight fire or take on a support role) When it's time for the new gear to get purchased the boss picks the most active frontline firefighters with the oldest stuff first. After that he'll pick the ones who aren't frontline but participate the most. Then usually he'll order a few "common" sizes just to have on hand. If your not certified, don't bother asking. We got 10 sets last month and somebody asked "Well how do I get new gear" her reply from the cheif was "it's simple, respond to calls"
I'm a probie and I got the same gear as everyone else. I even have a radio and a pager I even got a radio in my truck.
We issue the old "bargain bin" crappy gear to our probies until they prove that they are going to actually show up. After about a year they get brand new gear matching the rest of us. same for helmets they get the old crappy ones and are issued a new traditional style helmet with thier new gear. As for radios and pagers probies only get pagers and are issued a radio after they come off probation if one is available.

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