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Jr's & Explorers: Why do you want to become a firefighter?
I'm not sure how many juniors/explorers we have on FFN. It seems that we only notice the obnoxious ones and they tend to portray all Jr's in a bad light.
So, this is a chance for you to step up and be noticed. Tell us a little about yourself and why you want to become a firefighter. There is no right or wrong answer and while I assume that everyone will give the standard "I want to help my community" answer, I urge you to go deeper than that.
Try to analyze why you REALLY want to become a firefighter, let us know your thoughts, emotions, reasonings, agenda's and whatnot. Tell us what being an Explorer means to you, what you do as an explorer, what you hope to learn, and where you see yourself in 5yrs and 10 yrs.
What is the most rewarding part of being a jr/explorer? What has been the most stressful or the hardest to deal with or overcome? Is it what you expected when you first started?
And lastly, what do you expect, want, need or desire from us (the senior members of FFN)? There is a heckuva lot of knowledge and experience represented here and most of us are willing and eager to help teach and mentor others. But, and here is the big BUT, in order for us to be willing and able to help there needs to be a certain commitment on the part of the junior/explorer.
* you must show respect
* you must thank those that help you
* you must THINK about your question first (your department should be your first source of information)
* you must write in PROPER ENGLISH. Your post and writing style will reflect your education, intelligence and professionalism and will help garner more help and support.
* you must NOT ARGUE. stating a disagreement is ok, but if you disagree you must provide your reasonings behind the disagreement and/or offer alternatives or suggestions
* you must be willing to PARTICIPATE - if all we see are posts about asking for pagers or what color is such and such than you will either be ignored, ridiculed or snapped at.
So, how many of you Explorers and Juniors are willing to take up the challenge and participate?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by kyle maxton on
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Bc it runs in the family. and i want to risk my life to save others and become a hero.
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Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on
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It is realy good to see that there are juniors out there that are worth paying attention to and I am pleased to find so many positive posts that were well thought out and well presented. Until the last post by Kyle Maxton. Can one of our more experienced explorers help point out what is wrong to KYLE.
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Permalink Reply by Maryann Telesh on
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It might just be me, but if you are in this to become a hero, you are in the wrong group. Too often we barely even get a thank you. You won't stay in this long once you see that. You just might just become a risk to yourself and your crewmates.
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Thank you Maryann
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Permalink Reply by Mark Belton on
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i have firefighter blood in side me cause my grandfather was a fire fighter my whole room was all cover in fire trucks
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Permalink Reply by Chelsea S on
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I'm Chelsea, I'm 16 years old. I've been a member of Cheshire Volunteer Fire Department in New York for 2 years, almost 3. I'm not really sure why i joined. I had no idea what i was getting myself into, but i found out quickly that i love it. Seeing the little boy in the house next to me die from a fire when i was about 6, i think had something to do with it. He was my inspiration i guess.
As a restricted member in my department, you aren't very limited on what you can do. You can take all the training courses, you can respond to calls and actually do something. I've been on many mva's that i've been able to use the jaws. Not only is this helping people, but it's a great learning experience. I've become more and more interested in the medical aspect of firefighting and rescue as well. I'll be going for my EMT as soon as i can. Hopefully i'll be a paramedic one day and work for a volunteer department for the rest of my life.
I think as a 'junior' you're faced with all the crap that most people don't want to get past which is the steriotypical, obnoxious teenager junior member. Most people, as you said, are judgemental and don't take the time to get past this. It's even harder for girls, i believe. Firefighting is a "Man's job." And we're just trying to do it. That's what i heard when i first joined. "You can't do this. This is a man's job, why did you get yourself into this?" type of thing. I think many people in my department have gotten past that for me. They're all very helpful and they want to see me go far and do well in this now that i've committed myself to learning and working hard.
As far as expectations go for FFN members, i don't have any. Respect and honesty is all i could ask for.
Chelsea from Cheshire.
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Firefighting isn't about being a hero. Saying that makes it seem like you're better then the rest of us. Firefighting is about doing something you love to help someone out. I understand the want to continue the family thing, but that shouldn't be the only reason.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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you can respond to calls and actually do something. I've been on many mva's that i've been able to use the jaws. Not only is this helping people, but it's a great learning
Right there is a big reason one sees many so called "anti-junior/explorer" comments here. That is a big problem if your dept is allowing you to operate on a fireground or emergency scene. This is an extremely high liability and frankly, there is no reason to allow kids on the scene to operate in any capacity.
Now the typical retort is..."but our dept lets us" or "how else are we to learn" bull crap. Because your dept lets you speaks volumes for the type of dept it is. Either it is too messed up it has to rely on children or the leadership is too messed up to fail to see the issue in allowing children to operate.
The "how else do you learn" is easily explained with drills and training. One does NOT need to be on an emergency scene to learn. There are many great FF's out there that never once assisted on a fire scene as a minor, nor was even a jr or explorer. The same jaws "learning" you had on an actual scene can be done in a controlled environment for training...no need to be on a scene.
That is the issue. There are just too many kids who either "A" don't know any better and think what they do is fine because their dept allows it. or "B" are too arrogant to look at the fact that what they are being allowed to do is wrong and think they are entitled.
I am NOT against junior or explorer programs. I myself started as an explorer, but also followed the rules as established by Learning for Life. I was able to do ride alongs and go on calls, but my role was strictly observation, as it should be. We drilled on things like hose advancing, jaws training, ladders, forcible entry etc....yet none of this on actual emergency scenes. There is just no reason for doing so. I will continue to show people the errors of their thinking or kids the reason for being allowed to operate is wrong. Plain and simple, there is NO reason for a kid to get hurt.
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I do see what you're saying, I never really thought about it that way. So thank you.
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Devon,
I understand the principle to which you are referring, and you are correct, regarding the use of "there" to really be "they are". However, I believe the true purpose of asking for proper grammar wasn't about being the grammar police, but to limit the text type of lingo, laziness, etc, commonly seen by many today. Everyone has typos and it is easy to hit "POST" without proof reading, etc, some things are easily forgiven, but it is another thing to be taken seriously with a post is like:
"hay yall i want 2 b a firfighter bcaus i think thay ar kool and i want to be a hero an sav other peple. i am a jr but i think i shud b abl to go in a fire caus we r the futur of the fire serv and how els r we to lern"
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Not out of line, just keeping things in perspective.
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Permalink Reply by Beau Doss on
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Hey, my name is Beau Doss. I have grown up around the Fire Service all my life. My dad has been a paid firefighter since I was one year old when he first got on and now he is an engineer, in his 16th year. So I am 16 about to turn 17. He was involved in Fire/EMS way before that too. My grandfather was a firefighter back in the 60s and was a real "smoke eater". So I will be a third generation in the Fire Service and there is nothing else in this world that I could imagine myself doing. I have loved it ever since I could remeber and since I was very little. As I grew up, I loved going to the firehouse to see my dad and climb all over the trucks. Also, anytime a fire truck would go by, I would watch like any kid but I also would just go nuts. When I turned 13, I joined the Fire Explorer Post at my dad's department and have been in it for about four and a half years now. I am currently trying to get ranks put in place among our Explorer Post; I am the second most senior guy in the group. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot and have been on a ton of calls. I could talk all day about it but you guys probably don't want to read this forever. Haha. I am also a Junior Firefighter with the Lascassas Volunteer Fire Department and I have been on there a little over a year now. So i get double the experience and training. It is a lot of fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I take up any oppurtunity that I get to do anything Fire related or go to anything Fire related. I love it and can't get enough of it. The most rewarding part of being involved in both of these Organizations, is that I get to help the community and experience what I have dreamed about my whole life. There hasn't been anything that was really hard to overcome even though I have been on some tough calls. In the next 5 to 10 years, I hope to see myself as a paid firefighting job, I would love to work for a big city and be on a truck company. There is so much that I could still say or type but I will end it at that. Thanks for reading and stay safe out there.
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