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Interior/ Exterior Firefighters
Just a question do you think there should be exterior and interior firefighters? In my opinion i do.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by James L.Hoffman, Jr on
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Jack our dept .if you are on the roof you have to have a pack on! In our area exterior ff play a big role for the interior ff
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Sorry Chief paid or volunteers play a big role in this country remember everbody STAY SAFE and BE SAFE
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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Your so right!
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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I didn't realize there was interior and exterior firefighters... around here everyone gets the job done at the same certification level.
Wait... I stand corrected, we do have exterior only students.... we call them "fire explorers"
What if the whole department was "exterior" is this is what some may have labeled.... cellar savers?
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Permalink Reply by Loyd Dittfurth on
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well Im gonna open my mouth on this one and agree. There should NOT be a difference. You should both be able to do the same job. I can understand if every one is capable of being both and is assigned to Interior/Exterior. But they should be able to switch at a moments notice
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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on
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In our dept., to be crossed over from probationary member to active firefighter, you need to pass an SCBA maze among other things. When there is a fire, probies get bumped for "black hats", or the active guys that are SCBA qualified. Granted, there are black hats that don't like going interior, so they do pump ops, firegound support., etc...but they are still signed off on that stuff.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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I don't think there should be interior and exterior firefighters, but in my county the fact is there ARE interior and exterior FFs.
Most, but not all of the departments in this county require the state FireFighter 1 course as an absolute minimum to be certified for interior operations. In my department, we also require a specialized course in addition to FF1 for someone to be declared an interior FF.
Some departments hold their own mask drills and as long as the person knows how to hold the nozzle, don the pack and breathe air they are "certified" as interior.
In my mind, a properly trained interior firefighter has FF1 certification plus advanced training on self-rescue, RIT operations and most importantly, a mature attitude toward the job along with sober judgement and plenty of live fire experience. The candidate will read and internalize the NIOSH reports on past incidents, and learn from them.
Not all members of volunteer departments can do this. However they CAN run pumps, and drive tankers, and in rural departments these functions are at least as important as the ones who go in.
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Permalink Reply by J. D. Rinard on
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O.K. our department does have members, we are 100% volunteer department, that DO NOT do interior. Remember that to successfully put the fire out you need water! O.k. that means a pump opperator. A tanker truck opperator. A "hose humper" (someone at the door pushing in hose as needed). Someone to hoist ladders. Run and grab extra tools. A safety officer. An accountability officer. If you are afraid of hights i am NOT going to MAKE you go up a ladder. If you are afraid of tight places i am NOT going to MAKE you do interior. There are a lot of OUTSIDE jobs that NEED done to make a fire scene successful. PLEASE do not be narrow minded here. I am proud of our department, and we are far more than a social club. We are firefighters no matter our JOB or TITLE.
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Permalink Reply by Auxman on
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While I think the concept of having limited duty members that are able to contribute on the outside but not do everything is probably better than not having anyone at all (which could be the case for some departments), I'm not sure how practical it is on scene.
You could have a dozen people running around, each with different levels of ability and how is the IC supposed to keep track of that in their head? If they need something done, they should be able to point at any random person not doing anything and say, "Go do X" But, if they have to run through 4 or 5 people trying to find someone with the knowledge or experience to do "X" its really going to be a drag.
Now, if you're in a real tiny department, there may be so few people that this might not be very hard to keep straight, but the more people involved, the more difficult it will be.
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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There are interior and exterior duties. That's a fact. "Firefighters" should be able to take care of both. As mentioned previousely, IC should be able to point to any FF to do X. It's aprt of a FF duties. That is my thinking. When attacking a structure fire, our interior crews are FF1 cert. We usually have 3-5 teams ready, one being RIT. The FF that are not ff1 cert. are performing exterior duties. This doesn't make them "exterior FF". If, for whatever reason, there are not enough cert.FF for interior work, some uncert. FF are "internally" trained for it and can fill in and do the job successfully. There are some jobs that one person may have specifically such as accountability. We have one particular fella who does accountability only. Like I said before, we have good numbers in our dept. and can accomodate those who prefer to stay outside. But with smaller dept's it would be nice to see all comfortable going in or out.
So, to answer the question. In a perfect world, FF should be able to do all aspects of firefighting, therefor my answer is no. But it's not perfect, and sometimes the dept.s numbers are such that it might be necessary to make a position such as "external FF" so they can still fulfill their need to contribute to the fire service and the community.
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we have a 25 person roster ... of the 25 i can only think of about 3 or 4 that is not capable of ladders or interior. The rest is "ALL AROUND" firefighters. But I do not feel these 3 or 4 should step down. Without them we would loose 3 or 4 GREAT firefighters. They show up to runs, meetings and extra events. My feeling that if you do not show up to these fore mentioned is a reason to step down or be forced out.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Cole on
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Absolutely NO. You gotta be kidding, right? It all comes down to the fact that some people want to wear the fireman costume, ride those big trucks, and get behind the yellow caution tape, but also want to stay as far away from the messy stuff as possible. So how about a few of those 'exterior' so-called 'Firefighters' just happen to show up on the same engine and people are trapped?
I guess you' re gonna be justified in saying ..."hold on, the inside folks will be here soon to get you out, we're all just outside fire people" Give me a break.
Being a firefighter isn't a right. It's a skill. A job, a position. The firefighter doesn't pick and choose what they will and won't do. Before you consider joining, you have to have SOME clue that you may be required to climb, as evident by those ladders on the fire trucks, you will have to work in confined, dangerous, dark, hostile enviornments that are hot, as evident by the protective clothing and SCBA, and you will need to maintain a reasonable degree of physical fitness, as evident by the very physical nature of the work required, the equipment needed to do the work, and the enviornment in which the work is to be done.
So why on earth would anyone expect to join the fire department, become a trained firefighter, and claim limitations on what they will actually do?
That's called posing in my book. All dressed up but not really going any place. It's a mockery of the fire service and every firefighter who DOES THE JOB
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