I was on line looking up some firefighting items and I came across this question and thought it was interesting. If you had to have only one image...one icon...to represent the fire service as a whole...what would it be? Dalmation? Leather helmet? American LaFrance? Brass pole? Maltese cross? Ahrens-Fox?? Others??
It's also NOT what the Explorers and young folks should be seeing here either. Is that the image you want to present to your daughters and your sisters who hope to be or already are firefighters? Is that the image your mother has of you at work?
You'd be talking about the juniors nad explorers who are more tech savvy than you and I will ever be? The ones who know their way around the internet better than you and I? The same ones who could use a seacrh engine and find way (and I mean WAY, WAY!) more explicit and inappropriate pictures than that one?
We're professionals, not blowup dolls with their genitalia exposed to the world. Someday maybe you'll grow up and be a professional too.
Don't you ever question my professionalism based on a response on a website like this.
PS And to all who not doubt will say "Lighten up, it's just a joke" - Tell that to your Chief. It doesn't fly or excuse bad judgement when you post or joke like that in public places.
Lighten up! It IS a joke...
Permalink Reply by FETC on December 1, 2008 at 1:43pm
Pretty much in the USA the Maltese Cross is... all I am saying is I do not need a stupid backdraft t-shirt design with the non-scba using "Bull" character saving a child in fake ass smoke overlaid on a St. Florian or a Maltese Cross as my Universal Image.
And not every fire department provides the same level of professional services either... I have seen some FD's have only one or two interior firefighters, are they providing the same level of S and R as a big city department? Would a picture depicting a firefighter making a grab equate to false advertisement? Some FD's do not do EMS at all? So the medics who want a star of life, sorry can't be on the design... Some do not do Level A Hazmat Entry, some don't do Trench, High angle, Below grade, Confined space, ARFF and so on and so forth...
Maltese Cross and let the local agency provide the media (thru PR) as to what level they can handle or do... some choose not to promote because they don't care or are hiding behind what little services they actually provide...
Wait!! I thought the point was to pic 1 Icon for firefighters. If we start on the level of service . . . or WHERE the service is provided then we have to have many icons.
EMS is done by some FDs but their/our main function is Firefighting. Most everyone recognizes the star of life as a symbol for EMS.
So much for finding a "UNIFIED" symbol for fire fighters.