Recently I was told by a FF of 25 years to keep my mouth shut, and eyes and ears open. We wont say who it was but you can find out if you check out a recent post of mine titled Good ol Boys of the Firehouse. After I read his comment in entirety, i have to admit that I felt pretty bad. I thought, maybe this guy has a point; maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and learn as much as I can. After I read his comment a few more times, I really just got pissed off. After being called a smartass piss kid along with a few other names; i thought to myself, "wait a minute, this guy is exactly the kind of FF i was writing about." You see, I wrote that post about some of the older officers and FF's around the service that dont believe we need to follow rules and regs about anything because they know exactly what they are talking about all the time and dont need to be told any different. I was really upset by the comments made by this guy and spoke to the captain of a VERY well respected firehouse that is my district. The captain told me that anyone who thinks that they are too good for training or too good to hear someone else's ideas does not belong in the fireservice. Thats kind of the feeling I got from the comments the older FF left me on the first post. That he had every belief in his mind that he has been in enough fires to know everything about them. Well, I titled this post Rules are there for a reason because the fact is that NO ONE knows exactly what might happen, NO ONE has been in enough fires to know exactly what to do, and NO ONE is experienced enough to not listen to rules and standards that are set down. Now im not saying that expierence doesnt mean anything because IT DOES. What im saying is that no experience, no matter how great, is enough to disobey a rule or standard that has been set forth. Once again, I will go back to the situation that brought us here in the first place, I was told on a firescene to tear down a ten foot wall using a ten foot pike pole. I was taught that you MUST use a pike pole 1.5 times the size of the wall you are tearing down and it makes sense to do so. Now the "all knowing" FF that told me to keep my mouth shut said that I should have just listened to the officer that told me to do so. By doing that I still think that I could have been seriously hurt or killed by pulling that wall down. That's why i questioned the officer and ended up not pulling down the wall. So in reflection to all of this, I just want to say that Rules are there for a reason. Be using the right size pike to tear down a wall, packing hose a certain way, or just simply wearing your seatbelt on the rig; DO IT!!! Seriously wear your seatbelts LOL. Rules are put into effect because more then likely, someone was hurt or killed because they broke that rule. So please remember your training, follow the rules, and dont ever think you are too good for training or the input of someone else even if they are just some stupid piss kid who doesnt know anything.