Ok, so I have to vent or I’m going to lose it. As I sit here at my desk thinking about today’s history in the fire service. I think about all the times I have taught RIT or LODD case studies and see these blank looks. I see these faces go totally blank when I say places like Hackensack, NJ, Worcester, Ma, Keokuk, Ia, Marks, Ms, & Charleston, Sc. Now the last one, I get someone in the course that says…oh yea, those guys in South Carolina that got killed, right? I sit here today and think about watching the video on TV of them digging for the Worcester 6. I thought back to all the footage from Hackensack, even though it was before my time in the fire service. I look at Charleston and how those 3 fires were so close it seems now and how they were almost 10 yrs apart.
It’s hard to think about those fire and not feel a deep loss. I did not know a single man at any of those locations, but regardless they family. What hurts more than the loss, is the blank look on the faces of young and old firefighters in my classes. I say the names of these fire departments and no one has a clue. We wonder why we keep repeating a large multiple LODD every 10 years or so, WE ARE NOT LEARNING FROM OUR PAST.
As I type this, I just finished writing a letter to my supervisor because a recruit failed out of the academy and he came back and blamed us for not preparing him.
Well, he’s right, I did not spoon feed him answers, he was taught basic firefighter when he came on, he received training on shift, was assigned a book and workbook to study….but I/we did not prepare him. I guess I should give him the answers, hold his hand through PT and make sure we don’t hurt his delicate feelings also.
Hell for that fact, I’ll just leave the right pocket of my turnout pants clear so he can hop it if it gets too hot, too cold, too dark or any thing else at the fire. Hell, he could just sit in the truck and clap when we get done.
Well, if you were wondering why I’m so upset, now you know. We have people in the fire service that think this is just a job….come do your time and go home. What happens when these slackers, that has to be spoon fed cant’ do his job and then we have to pick up the slack.
You know, guys ask me all the time, how hard is your entry test, how hard is the PT test? I tell them, it’s as hard as they will let me make it. I’d hang a sign on the front door saying no slackers need apply, if they’d let me. Then we would have to fire half the staff.
This job DOES NOT suffer people not pulling their weight. So when we get down to it, why do we repeat Worcester, Hackensack, Marks….. Because we will not/can not stand up and say, this job is not for everyone. It may not be for you and that is ok. All I ask is that you recognize it and please move on, someone (a fireman) is out there wanting to come in and do this job. Please move so you don’t cost me or even worse my fellow brother his life.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just pissed over all this and thinking about the past too much today. You guys tell me what you think.