Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by TPot2522 on October 23, 2007 at 12:45pm

Yeah was brought into it about the same way but onw of my friends dad was a firman and i would go to the station with him and i loved it and i became a junior volunteer at his station in munford al then i moved to white plains and joined there i love the job i do i dont care that i dont get paid it just has to be in your heart if you are going to do something like volunteer.

Permalink Reply by Adam Bitnun on October 24, 2007 at 2:49pm

I never really was into the fire service until my older brother started dragging me with him to his explorer meetings. After going to the meetings for a few weeks I really got into it, and now I can't get enough.

Permalink Reply by Springwater#10 on December 27, 2007 at 11:18pm

I was always interested in the fire service since i was a little boy. I would get up in the middle of the night when i heard the siren going off just to see where they where going. Now that I am a volunteer I love it and don't know what i would do if i couldn't be anymore. Being a volunteer firefighter is a great feeling not only for helping people but also for brotherhood. Their is a certain bond that everyone has that i have never seen anywhere else.

Permalink Reply by Springwater#7 on January 26, 2008 at 4:24pm

I like most grew up in the fire department. I was attached to my fathers hip at all times. I experienced my first fire when I was just a toddler. My fire dept. is just like a family to me. I wouldn't have it any other way! Firefighting is ment for certian types of people...Most cannot handle what we see or do... I am glad to be one of those people!!

-Angie

Permalink Reply by Christin on February 20, 2008 at 11:09am

I have always had the utmost respect for anyone in this field... It wasnt until my junior year of highschool, when i series of car accidents claimed the lives of 9 of my friends, that i decided to join my local fire department to help others. I saw the devestation that the community felt as a result of all of the deaths. I took the pain and heart ache and turned it into motivation to do what I do.

Permalink Reply by Robert Owens on February 22, 2008 at 10:22am

My Dad has been a firefighter for 30 years vollie and career. We always knew he was a firefighter but he never really pushed it on us so we didn't go by the firehouses as kids much. One day when I was 15 I said he can I go to the firehouse with you he said yea and the rest is history. I joined as a cadet firefighter and 5 years later was a career firefighter.

I can't think of doing anything else with my life. Sometimes I joke with my buddies that I wish I had a job that I didn't care about so I could leave it all at work everyone who knows me knows its just joking. But it is true fireman are always fireman. People who wash cars leave that at work but we carry it with us always it makes us unique. We always have a friend no matter were we are. It really is the best job in the world.

Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on February 23, 2008 at 11:24pm

I had always loved seeing the fire trucks when they came to my school when I was little, adn I have always enjoyed helping people. So one day I saw that there was people at the hall and I pulled in the drive and signed up and I havent looked back and I never will!

Permalink Reply by Aric Stewart on February 26, 2008 at 5:34pm

i grew up in the fire house my uncle is the chief and my grandfather was a firefighter. Since i was young i knew that i wanted to be a firefighter and to help people. My first fire was when i was about 7 or 8 i was at the scene with my grandfather and watched them work it was awsome. Now i have been a firefighter for 7 years.

Permalink Reply by Wesley King on February 29, 2008 at 8:03pm

The reason I got involved in the fire service may be a little different from most firefighter's. I never grew up around a fire station, and none of my family members were ever in the fire department that I can remember. Most of the men in my family were in the military. After I signed up for the U.S. Army and then dropped out of basic, my family was very dissappointed in me. I ended up getting into some trouble with the law, and going to prison. When I got out of prison, a high school friend of mine came to visit me and told me that he was the chief of our local volunteer fire department. He told me how they were needing some more volunteers and talked me into joining. At that time, I was only joining because I was an adrealine junkie. I have never been afraid of much of anything. I grew up always wanting to be a storm chaser. It wasn't until after I joined my local volunteer fire department, that I learned what the fire service was really all about. I began finding classes to attend and going to class every chance I got at my own expense, even though no one else from that department were ever interested in learning how to do their job safer and more effectively. Every one from that little town knew of my past and really looked down on me for my mistakes, and it made me feel like I had no purpose in life.
But I feel in love with the fire department and every time I went to a different department for class, I would ask if they were hiring. It took a few years, but I finally lucked up and one night just before class, I was at the fire department that I now work for waiting for class to begin, and they got a call. The chief of that department told me that I could tag along if I wanted to, so I did. Before we got back to the station for class, I had a new job ! I had more calls in one week with this department than the volunteer station that I started out with had in a whole year. Now I feel like I have went from being a burden to society to actually having a place in it. My family and I barely get by on the pay, but I am happier now than I was when I was making $2000 - $3000 a week. I wouldn't trade my job for anything in the world because for once in my life, I am actually able to help someone besides myself. Firefighting is definetely the best job in the world.

Permalink Reply by Pat Showers on March 1, 2008 at 1:28am

I have been around it my whole life, my dad worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 50 yrs. as a wildland firefighter and a forest ranger in northern idaho. I started my career as a wildland firefighter in 1985 and graduated to structure fire in 1991. My brother has been on a neighboring dept. for 11yrs. I feel that firefighters are born, not made. It is who you are, not what you do. some people take longer than others to realize that their calling is firefighting. For me, thats all I wanted to do. In 23 yrs of service I have done it all, from being a probie to a Chief and I still have the same desire now as I did back then. I have 28 yrs. to go to beat my dad it will make me 68 yrs old. MOTOVATED AND DEDICATED MY BROTHERS!!!!!!!