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Explorers/Jr’s Calling them selves Fire Fighters?
Maybe I am the only one who sees it this way but am I the only one who gets rubbed the wrong way when these young kids who are on an explorer post. walk around claiming to be fire fighters. I mean don’t get me wrong I think explorer posts are a great program. I used to belong to one, and it helped me a lot. But you but your butt, if any of the members of the department heard an explorer refer to them selves as a fire fighter and not an explorer that your butt would be walking out of the station looking like an idiot in front of the entire department.
When I was an explorer, we didn’t get pagers or billboard T shirts with the department name. We were there to be seen and not heard. We were there to clean trucks, hand jack hose, clean the bay, incident reports ETC…. and if you proved that you were willing to shut up and learn maybe get to do some structural drills, auto extrication training, and class room training.
Yet when did the title of fire fighter just start getting passed around. I work for a paid department. I spent 14 weeks in the academy, I’ve spent the past 5 ½ years working 24on 24off training my butt off, running master alarms, EMS calls, auto accidents, and working fires. I did my one year probationary period cleaning toilets, mopping floors, stand-bys in the alarm room, stuck on OT during the holidays when every one else was at home with there family’s. I have earned my right along with many other great men and women to be called fire fighter, and half the time when people ask me what I do, I just tell them I work on the base, and leave it at that. I don’t want my back patted and told how good of a job I do. I don’t want people coming up to me and thanking me every Sept. 11th. I just want to go do my job, help people and come home to my family the next day. I don’t know maybe it’s just me.
I know this is probably going to make a lot of the posters mad cause from the grammer and spelling errors I see in most of these posts I would be willing to say about half the people who post on here are kids. So how do you feel about it?
When I was an explorer, we didn’t get pagers or billboard T shirts with the department name. We were there to be seen and not heard. We were there to clean trucks, hand jack hose, clean the bay, incident reports ETC…. and if you proved that you were willing to shut up and learn maybe get to do some structural drills, auto extrication training, and class room training.
Yet when did the title of fire fighter just start getting passed around. I work for a paid department. I spent 14 weeks in the academy, I’ve spent the past 5 ½ years working 24on 24off training my butt off, running master alarms, EMS calls, auto accidents, and working fires. I did my one year probationary period cleaning toilets, mopping floors, stand-bys in the alarm room, stuck on OT during the holidays when every one else was at home with there family’s. I have earned my right along with many other great men and women to be called fire fighter, and half the time when people ask me what I do, I just tell them I work on the base, and leave it at that. I don’t want my back patted and told how good of a job I do. I don’t want people coming up to me and thanking me every Sept. 11th. I just want to go do my job, help people and come home to my family the next day. I don’t know maybe it’s just me.
I know this is probably going to make a lot of the posters mad cause from the grammer and spelling errors I see in most of these posts I would be willing to say about half the people who post on here are kids. So how do you feel about it?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bulldog324 on
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look i was an exploer when i was 15 i was one of the original ones in my littel town that i lived in . even thought we trained with the guys and did the same things as the guys we were not aloud to perticipate in some of the things we were dispatached to ie house fires, barn fires, and auto accidents due to the insurance issues and not being of age.in our deptment the guys thought of us as one of them i had gotten my certificate to fight fires (firefighter 1) at the age of 16 even being certified we still could not perticpate in what was going on ,on the fire ground.yes i have rolled many an hose and whased many a truck but we were concidered as ff by the guys in the dept.so weather you are an junior or an exploer it shouldt matter what you are being called you are still one of the guys or gals
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Permalink Reply by Kim on
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I'm not a fire fighter I'm an E.M.T. and I had to go to class to become one! I personally know of someone who says she's a fire fighter and she's not she's an explorer. The fire fighters on the Dept. are upset because they've offered to send her to school twice and always something "came up" and she didn't go. Being anything in this world takes more than just hard work you have to do what everyone else did to earn it!! Yea she's worked hard but she hasn't completed the tasks to be called a real fire fighter.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Jackson on
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i agree with steve 100% on this because im a cadet for my deptment and i do tons more than most and ive been called a firefighter tons of times just for all i do
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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I read all the comments, there are a LOT of them. Somewhere in there I saw that the older members who don't actively don an SCBA, pick up a hose & make interior attack shouldn't be called firefighters either. What DO you call them? Future firefighters & past firefighters? I understand everything that goes into being a fire fighter. Been there & done that & the t-shirts are all worn out or too big. I still meet people who ask if my husband is a firefighter or IF I actually fight fire after 20+ yrs of being a firefighter myself. Believe me I do know what being a firefighter IS. I received my recertification card last week. My state card says the same thing everyone elses does Volunteer Fire Fighter, just like the guy who got his first card last year.
Yes I agree that there are differences in FFs & FD members. Someone referred to the t-shirt brigade the other day. They have been there for years & probably always will be in the VFD world. In my dept we now have "associate members". These are the folks who want to help, want to support the FD but don't want to take the training to actually enter a burning building. We have a troop of jrs (not explorers) who do a lot of work & learn everything they can. Many of them will become fire fighters in the near future. The patch on their uniform is exactly like mine. They have a right to wear them.
Perhaps what Christopher is saying is that people need to identify themselves by their EXACT rank. (I have visions of people having Capt or Jr or Probie stamped on their foreheads) Most people will instinctively understand that a teenage kid is a Jr or Explorer. That they haven't actually walked into a burning building. They will also realize that the 70 yr old who still proudly wears his badge probably isn't on the first entry team but has in the past. From the tone of the original post a person should have to show their card to purchase a Tshirt that says FIREFIGHTER. Oh I bet the novelty vendors would love that.
Somewhere in life you learn to fight the battles you know that putting your energy & passion into will make a difference & that sometimes even trying to change the world leaves you with a headache from banging your head against a brick wall. IS it REALLY such a discredit to you if someone who doesn't have the same level of training is called by the same title?
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Jenny...It is very hard to put into words...It is sort of like calling it a "Brotherhood"...We have worked very hard to achieve the title...and to be honest....YES, I find it a little insulting to those that have put in the sweat and hard work involved to EARN the title for someone who isn't qualified to carry the same title. It may seem petty...but once you go through it and have seen the flames and felt the heat you may understand....I am sorry if this doesn't make sense to you but I am sure that once you put yourself through it you will understand....Just my take but there it is for the world to see and slam as they see fit....I am a FIREFIGHTER....I can take the heat.....Stay safe and remember to keep the faith.......Paul
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Permalink Reply by becky kuchefski on
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i thinkthat you are wrong that was back then i think that jr firefighters should beable to participate if they have to be voted in and that is how it is they still dont get pagers but they have to complete certain paperwork to be able to ride a truck
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i agree cause that is how itis in pvfc down in pa we are not allowed to certain things but we can still respond
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How do you get your insurance to cover a minor on a piece of fire apparatus...?
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Permalink Reply by ECB on
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I would think that this is an internal issue. We call our Junior Firefighters just that..."Junior Firefighters". We don't permit them to refer to themselves as anything else. We issue them T-shirts that say "Explorer". Their turn out gear is labeled "Explorer". There is no doubt in anyone's mind what they are classified as.
Now, as a Chief of a fairly busy volunteer fire department, I am DAMNED glad to have them and the older firefighters. I have a limited number of interior firefighters and I utilize them in the most effective manner, on the hose lines. The other firefighters are used to make the water supply, ladder the building, change air bottles, and the other hundreds of other tasks that need to be accomplished on scene. I refer to them all as Firefighter (unless they are a Junior Firefighter, then they are Explorer or Cadet).
As I stated in the opening of this monologue, its an internal thing. We will refer to them as we have for years. Others may do as they see fit.
Oh, and my Assistant Chief and Deputy Chief routinely refer to themselves as a Chief with the department. They have earned to the right to do so. I am secure in my position, I am not bothered by it in the least. The letterhead says I don't have to be!
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I think it is different State to State. We have them covered by the Boy Scouts, as they are part of that program, as well as an insurance rider on our departmental policy.
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Permalink Reply by bobbyg on
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WELL CHRIS I DONT THINK YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE GRAMMER AND SPELLING ERRORS FROM ME I THINK PEOPLE LIKE YOU HAVE NO ROOM TO TALK IN THE FIRE SERVICE BECAUSE AS A TRAINING OFFICER FOR OUR JRS I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY AND WHAT THEY THINK. I GUESS ALL YOUR OLD TIMERS HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS AND YOU KNOW IT ALL AND THAT YOU COULD NEVER LEARN SOMETHING NEW FROM A JR. IT IS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT JRS IN THE STATE OF NJ THEY CAN NOT BE COVERED BY THE STATE INSUREANCE BECAUSE THEY FEEL THAT THEY DONT BELONG. CHRIS WAS A JR DRIVING THAT OVER TURED APP. OR WAS IT ONE OF THE GUYS THAT KNOW IT ALL. PLEASE PUT WERE YOU ARE FROM.
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