Should a volunteer be forced into doing something they don't feel comfortable with?

My questions to anyone is this:

Should a volunteer member be forced into doing something that they don't feel comfortable with? What if they are being told that if they do not do this, they will no longer be a member of the department?

Here's what it going on (just to paint you the picture)...a member of the department who is medical only is now being told that if they do not do something, they will not be allowed to be a member anymore. This person gave up fighting "The Beast" a few years back due to an incident on a grass fire gone wrong. After that incident they gave up firefighting and pursued medical.

This person has been doing medical for 6 yrs now and there has never been an issue with that. Now, they are being told that they also have to become a firefighter again. Once again, if they do not follow this, they cannot be a member of the department. The issue cannot be taken to someone higher, i.e. county fire marshal, as he is the acting chief of the department during re-organization. The new S.O.G.'s for the county state that all members must be at least FF1 certified AND at least FR; preferably EMT-B.

The acting chief has been made aware of the circumstances as to why this person does not do firefighting anymore. He said he understands the reason, but that was as far as it went. Now, I'm not saying that an exception has to be made to accomidate for this, but if someone has the desire to help out their community as a medical responder, shouldn't that be taken into consideration? Shouldn't their loyalty in that part of the department be enough?

Yes, this person could leave the department, but it is the only other medical unit in the county that is run on a volunteer basis (2 other departments have medical units, but both are in the cities). The other county volunteer fire departments are just that, fire only.

In your opinion, what do you think that this member should say and/or do? Should they just walk away from something they love to do, or try to fight this battle and see where it goes? I would love to hear what you have to say to all of this. Any and all ideas/opinions would be greatly appreciated on this issue.

Laura

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Permalink Reply by FETC on November 23, 2009 at 3:12pm

Captain, I work with a combo department and to be honest most paid officers think their shift is the best.... another thought for you, in my department all of us are cross trained, and not to the minimum. And all of our paramedics are highly trained firefighters as well.

Last time I checked, they pretty much knock eachother down to get inside a burning building.... matter of fact I spend most of my time as an officer trying to hold them back from danger with the lack of fires these days.

So I am not sure of your comment about not everyone will go inside when they are supposed to, whether volunteer or paid. - Hmmm thats a pretty broad statement that is clearly false around here because with our minimum manning it wouldn't be too hard to figure out who needs a career change.

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Permalink Reply by Antonio A on November 23, 2009 at 3:22pm

As far as I know you don't loose your FF1 credential as it does not have to be recertified, so you can have FF1 and EMT-B and just practice EMT.
Our County has a similar rule, if you get FF1 you must take EMT-B within a year and they enforce it on a pretty strict basis. But we have tons of people that got their EMT and don't ride the ambo which is fine as long as the keep up with re certs.

You were not specific at all on what the incident was on the grass fire, but it seems to be if this "incident" was bad enough to stop him from fighting fire he should have been contacted by the debrief team or contact EAP to work on those issues. It is important because it may even affect him on the medical provider side if he encounters a patient under the same circumstances.

I would try to work with them instead of seeing it as a fight.

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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on November 23, 2009 at 4:42pm

Yeah, I HATE heights, but it's part of being a firefighter, so.....yeah, gotta do the ladders too. And the first time I did a SCBA maze with the hood over my mask and couldn't see, that was pretty unnerving too, but you do it again and again, and you get more used to it.

Point is, I knew going in there would be things that would scare me, but I wanted to serve my community in two roles instead of one, and in my mind I knew I had to do all of it or none of it.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on November 23, 2009 at 6:03pm

Fear is a healthy thing....BUT...you must respect it....If I have someone come up to me and being honest tell me they are NOT comfortable doing something I respect that...would rather have that happen then to have him/her attempt it and because of fear get hurt in the process or have someone else get hurt....If I know you don't like to climb I am NOT going to send you up a 36 and have you rip the eves open....iF i DO THAT IT SHOWS MY DISRESPECT FOR YOU AND THE MEMBERS OF THE TEAM...There are others that may be more qualified or "comfortable" in this task....the same goes true in the opposite direction as well...if you have someone trained and qualified to do a task do you stick them on traffic at every call..? Do you use them as gofers at the fire scenes...? Then you bitch when people quit going to training....Hmmm is this a problem or mearly a symptom....?? Think about it......Paul

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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on November 23, 2009 at 6:39pm

I know what you're saying...what I'm saying has already been said in this thread...I have to ABLE to climb that 36' and rip those eves if I'm the only one available, or as someone else said, what happens when we show up on fire with a light crew and there's someone trapped...I personally don't like heights, but if I'm the one there, then I need to be the one going up the ladder and getting that person.

I'm not trying to be dramatic here, but really, these guys make a good point. There probably NO cop in the country that's comfortable at all with a gunfight, but it's a rare, necessary part of the job. They can't say "i'm not comfortable with this, I'll let the next cruiser in handle this one".

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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on November 24, 2009 at 10:40am

fire⋅fight⋅er
/ˈfaɪərˌfaɪtɛr/ [fahyuhr-fahy-ter]

–noun
a person who fights destructive fires.

It sounds like your dept. is doing away with the 'single-role' position. The reasons for this could be many. Could be an old timer who believes that the fire service doesn't belong in the EMS field. Whatever the reason, that person needs to conform to the standards of the dept. or seek opportunities elsewhere.

You'll notice that at no time did I refer to this as a volly/paid situation. It isn't. A person, by definition, is either a firefighter or not.