A Firefighter? Are You Sure That is What You Want to Be?

Since 9/11 lots of people hear something inside them that says they need to do something for their country, their community. Some folks look at military service as the answer. Many think law enforcement is their avenue. Then there are the people that see being a firefighter as the way to go. Not only does it seem to meet their need to serve, it satisfies a childhood dream. Be a firefighter. Be a local hero. It sound so glamorous

How do you tell someone what it is like to be a firefighter? It is like trying to tell someone who has never been married what it is like to be married. You can't. In a way it is a lot like being married. When you get married you make a commitment to something more important than yourself. When you get married it becomes a totally new way of life. When you get married you become an important part of an even more important team. When you get married you have to make critical decisions that have an impact on other people. When you get married you eat with your partner, you sleep with your partner, you go to different functions with your partner and most everything you do is after you think about your partner. Being a firefighter is exactly the same thing.

Most fire departments are like a family. They work together. They play together. They count on each other to know what to do. They count on each other to stay alive. They clean their quarters together. They learn together. Sometimes, like a family, they don't get along, but they are still family.

Firefighters are strange in so many ways. They run into hazardous situations when everyone else is running out. Firefighters do a job that very few people are able to do, and even fewer are willing to do. They share things with each other that they wouldn't share with anyone else in the world. They stick together. Maybe firefighter Jones just can not get along with firefighter Smith back at the station or when they are both at the mall at the same time. All of that changes when the alarm sounds. Anyone trying to harm firefighter Smith will have to go through every firefighter on the department first, including firefighter Jones.

Firefighters are strange because when a fellow firefighter falls, and not necessarily in the line of duty, all firefighters feel the exact same pain the family feels. Can you imagine loosing 343 of your brothers in one day? Can you imagine what it was like for the firefighters of FDNY to go to work, day after day and look at the empty lockers of their brothers who are no longer with us?

The Detroit Fire Department is the largest fire department in Michigan, by far. Prior to the riots in the mid 1960's Detroit firefighters didn't give much thought to firefighters from other departments. Not because they thought they were better than everyone else, but because they never had contact. The riots came and changed all that. The Detroit firefighters worked side-by-side for as long as 72 hours at a pop with firefighters from other departments. Some of those other firefighters putting in their 72 hours without relief were volunteers. I can tell you from personal experience, after that point in time any firefighter who walked into an engine house in the City of Detroit was treated better than royalty.

The whole point is being a firefighter isn't a job. It isn't just a way of live. It is way more than that. It is a marriage of emotions and passions. You can't possibly understand it until you have done it.

So why wouldn't you want to be a local hero firefighter? You don't have enough time to read all the reasons, but here's a start.

If you plan to join your local volunteer or on-call fire department you had better plan on not seeing your family for the better part of a year. You will be enrolled in training at least two days/nights each week, and at least one Saturday (all day long) each month. Several communities call this particular part of your training the "academy". This training provides you with all of the certifications required by the State and your local department. In addition to that your department might require you to be licensed as a Medical First Responder, Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic. After you complete the fire academy, approximately eight months in length, you can start your emergency medical classes. Depending on what licensure you are headed for this can be from six months to two years.

Sounds like a pretty significant commitment, doesn't it? Well, that is about half of it. You still have to attend your regularly scheduled fire department training at your own department. You have to take care of your share of the fire house duties. Your department probably has membership meetings and special details like charity fund raisers.

Think that's it? Well close, but we aren't there yet. Once you have all of your certifications then you have continuing education classes. All of this and you haven't responded to an alarm yet. In Michigan you can't, legally. You are not allowed to perform any work you haven't been trained to do.

Let's take a little while and talk about responding to alarms. I won't get into the legal responsibility there. Let me just say it is a major concern that you must consider long and hard before you decide to join up.

So you know what the time commitment is like, what else is there that isn't so great about being a firefighter? Let's look at a few more things.

When you are on the scene, doing the job, giving it your all, along comes the neighbor. The neighbor gets right in your face and treats you like you are the reason they can't get through with their groceries. They have ice cream melting in the back seat and it is your fault. It doesn't matter that the neighbor's neighbor no longer has a place to stay tonight.

Some studies indicate that during the first 24 minutes a firefighter is on the scene of a true emergency they use more energy than a professional football player. It is always dirty work. You come home smelling really badly. You hurt. Your significant other informs you that you are not coming in the house smelling like you do. The clothes have to be changed outside and you head for the shower. Oh, and the smell doesn't go away with just one shower.

This might be a good place to mention that the divorce rate amount firefighters is much higher than the national average.

Your local governing body constantly wants to know why the fire department costs so much money to run and why the firefighters think they need improved tools to do their job. I mean they just bought you a new fire truck 35 years ago. Let me ask you this, would that government official drive a rusted out 35 year old Chevy back and forth to work?

All of this and much, much more, and your fire department might be all volunteer.

So why do it? As long as the seeming endless list of negatives happens to be, it doesn't hold a candle to the feeling you get from the few and far between positives.

For those of you who have already made the decision to become a firefighter I want to say one thing. You will almost never hear it again. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.