Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by bobby poth on September 4, 2007 at 12:11am

I personally think to be a volunteer you have to be dedicated.Who else would work 8,10,12 hours a day,go home to relax,go to bed and at 2:00 in the morning the pager goes of,he/she gets up makes the call that lasts a couple of hours,goes home gets ready for another long day at work and doesn't gripe about it...I can't think of anyone else but a volunteer.

Permalink Reply by Crazy4Fire on September 4, 2007 at 9:55am

That is so true but the dedication I'm concerned about is those (and they know who they are) who pick and choose their runs they respond to. There are some that only show up for the big fires and other big incidents, and then there are those who respond regaurdless of the nature of the call such as CO detectors or illegal burns, or even an alarm drop that everyone knows that 9 times out of 10 is just a false alarm. Sure, as a volunteer we have that choice of picking and choosing the runs we respond on. I know that we all have personal lives outside of the service we provide but if we're not busy at the time of a call there should be no excuse for picking and choosing what type of run we respond on. No offense to anyone but in my opinion picking and choosing doesn't hold much water and shows lack of dedication to the service we provide from the goodness of our hearts.

Permalink Reply by bobby poth on September 4, 2007 at 1:34pm

I completely agree with you,if you are going to be a member of a volunteer dept. when a page goes out, no matter what the situation you should be there,I know there are cases when you can't,I'm an otr trucker and it bothers me that I can't do any more than I am now,but I do what I can when I am at home, what I trying to say is if your going to be a volunteer then you should BE A VOLUNTEER,not just join so you can tell your friends that you are a member.I hope you there is more dedication amoung volunteers,and if I steped on anyones toes I'm sorry,but thats the way I see it.

Permalink Reply by Kevin King on September 4, 2007 at 3:55pm

I'm a trucker also,when I am home the tones drop I'm gone no matter what it is.We all have those that pick and choose,always have and likely always will. you can do more when your out read training books,watch training vids,when you are layed over go visit the local station,I have never had a bad experience walking in the door and introducing myself to the crew,outside agencies are a great sorce of information.

Permalink Reply by Jack Linthwaite on December 11, 2007 at 8:14pm

Unfortunately all volunteer departments have the same problem and concern when it comes to volunteer commitment. All volunteers on my department have day jobs through the week which puts a real problem when we have a mid week fire. I know of no real solution to this problem other than maybe we should ask the question of all new prospects and that is are willing to commit to whatever it takes to be a true volunteer firefighter and if not then this may not be for you. Family support is critical for a volunteer firefighter because without it you will lose the commitment you started with because now you are being forced to choose between going or staying when tones drop.

Permalink Reply by firefighter739 on December 11, 2007 at 8:51pm

i myself work 10 hours a day+storm work if needed. i do powerline work during the day and run calls when not working. i don't pick and chose i just go no matter what time in the day or night.to me dedication also requires committment. that dedication is 24hrs a day... no matter when that pager goes off....so in all actuallity you have to be committed to your community and department. we are all that stands between devistation and protection of our communitties..... thanks and stay safe

Permalink Reply by firefighter1213 on December 28, 2007 at 9:06pm

I cant even begin to count how many family functions, Cub Scout meetings, Ballgames, Birthdays etc... that I have missed because my pager goes off. How much sleep has been lost. But I figure if you Volunteer for something you should give it your all. Its a shame that Fire Companies loose so much money and time to train and equip some people, only to never see them again, or only see them on nice days or for the big ones!My 7 yr. old twin boys luckily love what I do. They understand that I do what I do to protect and try to help and save others.

Permalink Reply by Brandon Taylor on December 30, 2007 at 3:24pm

I have also missed tons of events and luckly my family understands. I don't know how many times my family has been with me on fires and all other sorts of scenes because I go straight to the scene since I am an officer and if we are going out to eat or back from some where or just to the store and the tones drop and we are close then I am going to the scene no matter what the call is even if it is a simple nose bleed. I may be wrong but my feeling is that you have no idea who is going to be responding so I am going to feel horrible if I don't respond because it is not convienent for me at that point in time and nobody else reaponds either. My wife has people that she calls to come and pick her and the kids up if it is going to be a long scene. And getting back to the reason for this post is that I don't understand why everybody that is on the department can't make the same commitment. I get tired of hearing the same complaint over and over again that we are volunteers so that means that we don't have to show up to everything just to calls when they are bored or it is convienent to them. One of the things that I tell people when we are interviewing them is that the only thing to this job that is voluntary anymore is the fact that we don't get paid. With all the training and the amount of runs anymore I don't know how you can call it volunteer, it is a full time job with no pay which I love.

Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on December 30, 2007 at 10:26pm

Brandon:
I admire your dedication.
With regards to not understanding why others can't have your same commitment:
It won't happen, unless you are cloned 20 to 30 times. That's why there should be minimum membership requirements for your department.
Here in Illinois, we must have a minimum number of training hours every year, but the by-laws for the fire department are set higher, because it is felt that the state requirement is too low. If members are cherry picking calls, missing meetings/training and nothing is being done about it, then problems are on the horizon.
I hope taking the family to calls is infrequent, because if it isn't, consider taking two vehicles to your functions. They are at risk or worse; they might see something that maybe they shouldn't. Sounds like a pretty understanding group, though. That's cool.
TCSS.
Art

Permalink Reply by Jack Linthwaite on January 9, 2008 at 7:50pm

Hey Chief,
Our volunteer fire department just changed our trianing requirements fro our sog's. The new requirements state that if you miss 1 training session in one quarter and do not attempt to make it up that firefighter goes to probationary staus immediately unitl the trianing hours are caught up. thsi puts the reponsibilty of each firefighter to make sure he/she for making sure they make up trianing hours when they miss a training session. Since we have 12 trainings per month it is not hard to get 36 hours of training per year.We hope this will encourage our memebers to keep their triaining in good standing.

Permalink Reply by Rob Knight on January 9, 2008 at 10:36pm

That is so true and sadly, especially where I come from, a lot of people aren't that dedicated, I understand that most of you guys have families and other dedications, but when those tones go off, whether it's during the night or during the day when you joined your department, whatever the reason may be, you are telling your chief and your fellow volunteers that not only are you dedicated, but you are also committed to perform your duty to the best of your ability, and if that's not one of the main reasons then why in the world would you join in the first place?