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Age and The Ability to Perform
Should a persons age be a facture in determining if they can or cannot perform certain tasks for the fire department? What about a persons weight? Or should it be if you can perform your task performances in the allotted time no matter how old you are or how much you weigh? I have been reading a discussion (and participating in it) where if you are older you are more stubborn, and over confident in your abilities. What about those who are younger fresh out of school and academy should that same comment apply to them?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Márcio Teixeira on
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the reality of my fire department is as follows:
6 of 6 months, I test cooper (12 minutes), pushups, situps, flexibility test, then check my weight and muscle mass and there fat. When I service, I work 12 hours and 48 hours rest, all the elements of my shift, have physical preparation ... is part of our duties. At the end of the year plus the two tests I did during the year, if my evidence is not satisfactory, the note of my service is affected, and need a good grade to be eligible to graduate above the mine. The age range of ages in my FD, ranges between 20 and 55. there are few peers 55.
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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on
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p.s. the joke you made a few pages back about the headache and similar topic actually got my laughter up to a slow boil a few days back and this joke is what tipped me over into a rolling laughter boil
just in case you are gauging your joke performance level ;-)
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that is all that counts really ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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Marcio, we have 19 to no top age, if you can still perform you job you can still work. But Americans like to work themselves to death. In Europe you are much better at takeing time to relax and enjoy life.
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Permalink Reply by GARY HANSON on
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Maybe you ought to get out of your cushy little area and visit some "Rural VFDs". I am not trying to be mean but the number of people wanting to do service for their communities isn't flush enough to be very choosy.
Don't criticize a man who has a limp, till you have walked a mile in his shoes.
Our fire district covers 400sq miles with 5 little villages and one town. We have 12 reporting stations with 15 station houses. We can put 30 apparatus on the road if we had the people. The main town has a population of nearly 3000 people. Should we have a surplus of excellent candidates, wanting to join the FD, to choose from? I would think so but we struggle to field 10 volunteers to man our "central" station. The outlying stations are even harder pressed to recruit and hold members. We cover this huge area with around 50 active members - some who have full time jobs. Most of the daytime coverage is handled by those of us who are retired and more available.
We don't take walking wounded but a large percentage of our rosters are people who couldn't make it in a paid-professional fire department. AND WE FIND JOBS THEY CAN HANDLE! !
The statistics show that rural VFDs suffer a larger percentage of LODD due to cardiac arrest. That figure is a little misleading because if you look at the statistic of the average age of VFDs you will find the majority are over 60.
SEND US YOUR YOUNG REJECTS ! ! (:>
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Perfect photo for the "attitude".......
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Acctually Gary it is "don't critcize a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, then you are a mile away and you have his shoes!"
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Permalink Reply by Ocie D Nash Jr on
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I am an older F.F...but I was injured in 1998 and now I am a driver/enigner....and do what ever I can on outside and ground crew, I still go to training and train and train to be all I can be to my deptment, I may not go in side to attack the fire now but still i can contribuite to the commuinty and help my brothers and sisters to be all they can be. 52yrs and in classes I am able to hang with most younger bros. not because of my physical prowles but useing my abilitys smarter. but i would still have the younger more fit guys going on the attack, but I would be there to back then up in a heart beat if needed...........with less of younger guys steping up to be vol. fire figthers I say don't sell the older experanced and willing to do any JOB, be it in the front lines or the back ground where NOONE see's it being done short. if there able to do the task then work with them on doing what they can...if not able to perform the task then move it to someone that can and find somthing they(older or what ever the case is) can do to HELP in some way to free up the younger more fit to attack the fire. Lets fight smarter out there......REMEMBER EVERONE GOES HOME....be safe out there !!
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Permalink Reply by Patti Walz on
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Here is the rundown for my area. Our district has three out stations and one main in town. Of these fours stations we have approximately 15 paid staff and 90 volunteers. One out station has only two volunteers on its roster, mine has three, and the other out station has 10 with the remainder of the volunteers stationed at the main house. The time between each station is about 15 to 20 minutes depending on how you drive.
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In my district this is what we do. It is what we have to do in order to get the job done and go home safely.
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I appreciate your humor and I get a kick out of reading your posts... Love the giggles.... :)
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