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Explorers/Jr’s Calling them selves Fire Fighters?
Maybe I am the only one who sees it this way but am I the only one who gets rubbed the wrong way when these young kids who are on an explorer post. walk around claiming to be fire fighters. I mean don’t get me wrong I think explorer posts are a great program. I used to belong to one, and it helped me a lot. But you but your butt, if any of the members of the department heard an explorer refer to them selves as a fire fighter and not an explorer that your butt would be walking out of the station looking like an idiot in front of the entire department.
When I was an explorer, we didn’t get pagers or billboard T shirts with the department name. We were there to be seen and not heard. We were there to clean trucks, hand jack hose, clean the bay, incident reports ETC…. and if you proved that you were willing to shut up and learn maybe get to do some structural drills, auto extrication training, and class room training.
Yet when did the title of fire fighter just start getting passed around. I work for a paid department. I spent 14 weeks in the academy, I’ve spent the past 5 ½ years working 24on 24off training my butt off, running master alarms, EMS calls, auto accidents, and working fires. I did my one year probationary period cleaning toilets, mopping floors, stand-bys in the alarm room, stuck on OT during the holidays when every one else was at home with there family’s. I have earned my right along with many other great men and women to be called fire fighter, and half the time when people ask me what I do, I just tell them I work on the base, and leave it at that. I don’t want my back patted and told how good of a job I do. I don’t want people coming up to me and thanking me every Sept. 11th. I just want to go do my job, help people and come home to my family the next day. I don’t know maybe it’s just me.
I know this is probably going to make a lot of the posters mad cause from the grammer and spelling errors I see in most of these posts I would be willing to say about half the people who post on here are kids. So how do you feel about it?
When I was an explorer, we didn’t get pagers or billboard T shirts with the department name. We were there to be seen and not heard. We were there to clean trucks, hand jack hose, clean the bay, incident reports ETC…. and if you proved that you were willing to shut up and learn maybe get to do some structural drills, auto extrication training, and class room training.
Yet when did the title of fire fighter just start getting passed around. I work for a paid department. I spent 14 weeks in the academy, I’ve spent the past 5 ½ years working 24on 24off training my butt off, running master alarms, EMS calls, auto accidents, and working fires. I did my one year probationary period cleaning toilets, mopping floors, stand-bys in the alarm room, stuck on OT during the holidays when every one else was at home with there family’s. I have earned my right along with many other great men and women to be called fire fighter, and half the time when people ask me what I do, I just tell them I work on the base, and leave it at that. I don’t want my back patted and told how good of a job I do. I don’t want people coming up to me and thanking me every Sept. 11th. I just want to go do my job, help people and come home to my family the next day. I don’t know maybe it’s just me.
I know this is probably going to make a lot of the posters mad cause from the grammer and spelling errors I see in most of these posts I would be willing to say about half the people who post on here are kids. So how do you feel about it?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nick Ryan on
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I think that we all put to much stock in the title. I've been in the service for 3 years now. Not long enough to be the one really saying what's right and what's wrong. But if I have a Jr. firefighter(cadet, explorer...what ever the term is being used)come to my station claiming to be a firefighter, A. I would be proud that the department has a good enough influence in the town to make a high schooler want to come and VOLUNTEER his time to help out, and B. be happy that I'll get to have an influence in this young mans life/possible career. The fact that he is calling his self a firefighter isn't a bad thing, i mean we are all here for the common goal right? Because of his age should he now be part of the brotherhood that we are all so proud of?
I get where your coming from but i think that we should all take a look and decide if hazing them and making them hate the fire service is the right decision, or helping build and instill values that will make him in to the firefight that we are all so proud to be?
love and peace
nick
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Hey, Flatly I don't care if they call themselves the Pope.....the fact is they are NOT Firefighters.....not yet anyways....when they have attained certain certifications and experience then they may adopt the title....but not as 16-18 year olds....and to be honest....well you asked for my opinion and I gave it to you.....Paul
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Permalink Reply by Christopher on
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opinion noted and appreciated
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I think its funny that you get defensive as well. Every one is taking this post as a personal attack on Jrs. and explorers, but its not. You as well as others have shown your ignorance to the situation at hand. Why would I be jelouse. Its not a matter of jelouse its a matter of some thing that just rubs me the wrong way, and I wanted every ones opinions.
Yet there are those out thre who care to take my statements as a personal attack on them selves. Come on people this is the fire service what ever happened to the days of leather thick skin. You want me to kick my dog, then talk to the chief and give my department a " Time out."
Im guessing you want me to also sit in a circle on our little carpet squares, pass out cookies, and juice boxes, at our next training sesion. Come on people. Why are most of you takeing so much offense to this. I guess im just suposed to forget about everything and start handing out T shirts and bunkres to every one who walks in the station. You know my son comes and visits me at work some times, I usualy put a little sparky badge sticker on his chest, a plastic helmet on his head, and let him sit behind the wheel on the truck I drive at work. Can I call him a fire fighter now. I guess I can just turn my pension package in tomarow cause any one can get a title, gota make room for the " FRESH BLOOD". Like I said earlier. I have NO PROBLEMS with kids in the station. I like the idea that they come out to better them selves. I like that they strive to want to learn. Thats great. But when I pull the truck up to the elementry school durring Fire prevention week and pass out stickers and helmets, those kids are infact. " Striving to learn about fire safety, they are bettering them selves by going home and practicing fire safety. I guess we can call them fire fighters too.
You people who don't like me don't know me. And 90% of the time your mad at some one you don't even know, your not mad at them your just mad about some thing in your life, that the person your mad at has struck a sore subject. So again your opinions are appreciated and noted.
Thank you
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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We have had an Explorer post in the past & we did refer to them as Explorers. The FD members do vote on applicants for membership AS JR MEMBERS. They are covered under the umbrella of our insurance just as the Auxiliary & associate members are. Associate members & Jrs train with us and respond to emergencies as FD members. WHAT THEY DO on an emergency scene is what is important. Or what they don't do perhaps is the key. They do traffic control, are gophers, grab hand tools to take to the crew or clean them & put them back on the truck, help with rehab. . .
No, the don't fight fire but they do drag hoses. They don't don SCBA but they help with air management. They don't throw or climb ladders but they carry them to where they are needed. The same thing any other member does until he becomes a certified fire fighter. They do the same things the older members who aren't able to don an SCBA & drag a hose do.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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i disagree with you because when i was 16 still a junior or whatever you want to call them i was taking firefighter one and then it all went on from there i believe that different places have different rules for them but back my way the only thing we couldnt do untill we where 18 was go inside and go on roofs but we did the same as everyother firefighter there so i think that considered a firefighter in my book i had more classes by the time i turned 18 than alot of the regular firemen did so i think that they can call themselves firefighters in my book........
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Permalink Reply by Scott on
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Okay well heres my question to you personally i do consider myself a firefighter. Right now im 17 and in around 6 months i will be hitting 18. Ive been in my volunteer company since i turned 16, about a year and a half now. Ive taken several training course including weeks of firefighter one and i do plan on continue my training as well to move on to become a career when im finished with high school and college. Ive also done some things that go beyond the call for my company such as getting some severally needed turnout gear, helping us get more on track with some of our equipment and gaining our company alot more need positive PR. I also rank as #2 in calls responded to behind the head chief (well actually me and another FF are in 2nd were tied). So in you opinion have i still not done enough to earn the title of firefighter or am i still a jr until i hit 18 ?
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Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on
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I have my card from the state...but i was a firefighter long before i got it.
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Permalink Reply by PAUL IVEY on
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At my department we just recently got rid of our explorer program due to the lack of numbers. But , when they were there they were called explorers and if they said they were firefighters they got put in their place same as probies. I still call the ones that have made it through their probationary period with out working a big fire or good call probies cause that is the way they act when they go to little bs calls. They get all wound up just cause they ride in a fire truck with lights on. Unfortunately i got stuck with most the guys i run calls with all being newer to the department and i have to calm them dwn like a bunch of kids going to a ice cream shop on the way to calls and on the scene. So i agree to the most part.
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Permalink Reply by anne potter on
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My son was 17 and by the time he was 18 had already had ff1 and ff2... Also same rule applied no inteior till 18... In the same respect these are different rules for different places,,So I have no clue what they do in other places so I can't dink onto them for their rules.. He came on and asked a simple ques and got mutilple answers... Did he find what he was looking for no clue,but everyone needs to settle...... Still in my book they are the next generation of ff's....
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there is a man in my dept that has been fire fighting since the 60s and he does not have a certification card but i would trust my life with him in a fire every time. I dare you to tell him hes not a firefighter.
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Christopher,
I have replied to this discussion a couple of times. I don't get "bent out of shape" although I do try to make my point.
You really are exaggerating the issue talking about giving the kids stickers & calling them firefighters. It isn't that I don't like you, as you said, I don't know you. Everyone IS entitled to their own opinion. I don't necessarily disagree that jr members are not firefighters yet. But I think you've gone a bit over the edge with the comment that the older folks aren't ffs either.
Someone said that you don't call a med student a doctor. That's right. But - unless you research a physician you don't know what level of expertise he has in his field even though he is a DOCTOR. People who see a uniform associate it with that field, not with a particular rank within that area. A security guard will be seen as law enforcement even though he isn't a policeman or a deputy. They see the uniform & the badge so he's associated with the law.
WE know the difference in an EMT-B, EMT-I and a Paramedic but the public will call them all EMS or EMTs or Medics because they don't know the difference. To them EMS can save their life, the initials won't matter.
Which was my point about different levels of Firefighters. To the world @ large we are all firefighters because we belong to a Fire Department. John Doe on the street doesn't know if you are a probie or if you've had years of experience & completed 1000 hrs of training. If their house is on fire they expect firefighters to put it out. It is all a matter of symantics. Symantics don't save lives, people do. On a basic level we are all people who want to save other people if you are a junior member or a Chief officer the sentiment is still the same.
I really don't think people get as bent out of shape as others imagine. I don't know WHO ever said that using captitol letters is a crime or that its yelling or that it reflects IQ, neither is use of improper grammer or spelling errors. As long as you get the point, why challenge someones intelligence by commenting on their lack of typing skills? Face it, some folks aren't as inept with a keyboard as others. It is a social network, there are no warnings that proper grammer & perfect typing skills are required.
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