Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Patience Ryan on February 14, 2009 at 6:04pm

lol thanks Mary Ellen. I'll probably have a few dogs to go with all the cats in the woods. want to team up? probably safer for two women with two shotguns living out in the woods. ;)

yeah, all the training days and everything are in my planner. That way I don't accidentally schedule a conflict. If I do, the FD wins out hands down before most everything but family stuff. I'm also in the 'rider program' so those scheduled shift days I take off work for if I can. Or as with my last shift monday I went almost straight to the station after work.

what was that? ""My name is Patience, and I'm a fireholic" lol. nice to meet you all too. :)

Permalink Reply by elmer john panther jr. on August 16, 2009 at 2:29am

i'm elmer and i'm a fireholic...i joined to help people in need .my defining moment was about 2 years prior,i happened to see a policeman responding to a call with lights and sirens. acar pulled out in front of him and his dog.causeing a bad mvc. immediatly called 911 and seen the oficer climb out of his car seemingly stunned thankful he had an airbag and seatbelt.the other car wasnt so lucky the driver was killed instantly and his two passengers were injured.all i could do was tell them to lie still till the ambulance got there .seemed like an eternity.i remember thinking i wished i had some type of training so i could help.then shortly after that i got coerced by a cousin to take a first responder course.i did.now i 've been in it for one year and 8 months. im 39 now and i wished i could go back in time and start when i was 18. i love what im doing.and now i'm a lifer. be safe out there everyone.

Permalink Reply by Justin Scott on August 16, 2009 at 10:14pm

well i joined because the fire chief asked me to. i started off running with the local vol ems service because volunteering in the emergency services has always ran in my family. well i moved near the local fire house and one day the fire chief asked me if i would join " just to help out with the ems side of things" since there was only about 5 or 6 emt's. so i agreed. then they talked me into trying on an scba and i thought that was pertty cool, so before long i got talked into going to the fire academy (which im glad i did) and since then iv been hooked.

Permalink Reply by jared m snyder on September 3, 2009 at 7:39pm

I became a firefighter in California back in 1996, while living in the small town of San Juan Bautista, Ca. The local fire chief who ran a volunteer department was a regular customer of mine at the Saddle shop I helped run. He convinced me to come to a meeting or two, telling me that since i was in town during the day on a regualr basis, i would be a perfect addition to the small department. Although our town had emergency back up from CALFIRE (which was formerly known as CDF) and the San Benito County Fire Department, first response was SJBFD's responsibility... Well, here I am 13 years later and back to being a probationary firefighter... I love the job of being a firefighter.... I love the adrenaline rush of heading to a scene, the camaraderie between myself and my crew and the sense of knowing I've helped make a difference in my community....

Permalink Reply by Thomas McBride on November 13, 2009 at 8:10pm

Well I will try to make this short. I wanted to join about 15 years ago and a friend of mine who was in the Dept talked me out of it. Now we jump to last June a firefighter comes into where I work and we talk, I end up telling him my story and he says "it isn't hard to join just fill out an application, I will sponser you". So I did, I went to the firehouse and got an app., filled it out and was told they had to do some background checks then the village board had to approve it, then the members would vote. If they voted me in then I would be sworn in as a firefighter. Ok so I filled the app. out, now I wait what I thought would be a month, turned out to be 6 months (my app. got misplaced). I was ready to give up on being a firefighter when I got a call from the Fire Chief to set up an appointment for a security interview. I was tickled I was getting in, (wasn't sure what was driving me yet) Well they aproved me and I was sworn in in January 09. I have been there for 11 months have taken scean support, Haz-Mat opps., and I am now finishing FF1 on the 21st. Why did I join? It is now the same as when the Assistant Chief asked me, I want to help people. Plain and simple, yes I am addicted to the adrenalin rush when my pager trips, yes I am addicted to that dead tired feeling when I get home in the wee hours of the AM from a call and need to get ready for work, yes I am addicted to being one of a few people that can make someones day by helping them get through what might have been the worst time of their life.

I as others said here, I treat this part of my life as I do my family, Job and any other aspect of my life I enjoy, respect and hold dear to me. Firefighting to me is being able to help others in a way noone else can. and I can post this now because I have reached a point in my training that I can do some things without much thought.

Another addiction I found (and I can't believe I am going to say this) I am addicted to training. I already signed up for two more classes that will take me into spring and when we get the spring scheduale I am already planning three more classes if they are offered. I also want to take the driver training our dept. offers.

Well I think short is out of the question but I needed to answer the question honestly.

Thank you for listening to me rant.

Permalink Reply by Keith "Blinkers" Benkleman on March 26, 2010 at 12:16pm

My name is Keith and im a fireholic... I joined because of a fire in my basement in second grade. I was only a kid then but loved when the firefighters let me sit on our now "old" pumper #1. I vowed that day that I would be a ff. I am ashamed to admit that i waited till i was 21 to do it but hey, better late than never.

I have been heavily involved in my volly dept and have taken alot of classes. My passion is to become a fire investigator or arson officer. I also have a fondness for specialized rescue work such as ice/water rescue, search and rescue, and hazmat. As evidence of this myself and a few others took it upon ourselves to start an ice/water rescue team and we are currently looking to expand and work with our neighboring departments who currently have a head start on us. I am looking forward to joining NFSAR(Niagara Frontier Search and Rescue) team as I have just completed the class to assist the rangers in searches.

These interests are fondly over-shadowed by my addiction to smoke and fire though and am glad to start the family tradition as the first firefighter. I have two house fires(one unfortunately fatal) and have a few smaller brush and vehicle fires under my belt. I know thats a drop in the bucket to what I hope is a long and safe membership.

No matter where i go and what my paid job is ill still find a way to be a volly somewhere.

Stay Safe!

Permalink Reply by Keith A. Morrone on December 20, 2011 at 12:37pm

After moving to upstate NY from  So.Florida my buddy who lives across the road asked me if i thought about joining. As a former Marine SAR member i said yes. just being able to help someone "works" for me, its a good feeling is all i can say.

Permalink Reply by Jared micheal freeman on February 20, 2012 at 3:44pm

hobbie

Permalink Reply by Kaitlin Reick on September 20, 2012 at 10:01pm

I joined because of my uncle and the fact that I have been wanting to be one for as long as I can remember.

Permalink Reply by Nathan Enyart on September 28, 2012 at 1:16am

Well where do I start? I started as a Probie in Orange lake Fl, in 1986 Spent about 12 years on a vol, Fire Dept down there. Even got as far as a Second Lt. 1999 Was my last Structure fire down there moved back to Indiana messed up my back had to back surgeries took a while to get back on my feet messed around with a couple dept's dropped it for a while but it was still in my blood so I had moved to another part of In, and decided to give it another try.But now due to my health COPD and age (sorry) I am Chauffeur and ambulance driver. That way I am not inside where someone has to put there butt on the line to save mine.But I am still in the brother and sister hood. Oh yeah so now I am Probie again. Does this bother me? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Times change tactic's change training never stops. I am already finding out a lot of things have changed since my last one.                              Stay Safe Stay Low 

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