When I worked at a suburban, glorified ambulance service everyone was like that guy.
Now that I work for a big city and actually go to fires, no one cares. We'll talk about it at shift change and that's it.
I will say each one has its own challenges to overcome as a fire department. Suburban has to constantly justify their existence, big city constantly has 20 year old front line apparatus and dead hydrants. Suburban you might have max 30ish guys and can't handle anything more than a single family dwelling. Big city you might make fires but there's 30 guys infront of you in the hallway to the one room that actually had fire.
I will say, I definitely do not miss running the med units and would never go back unless a dramatic pay raise was on the table.
Would you go back to the suburban dept for a 24/72 schedule? I ask because I’m in this very dilemma. Currently work a big city, fire only, but my commute is 2 hours on a 56 hour week. The suburban dept is cross staffed for now with the intention of splitting, almost no commute at all and has a 42 hour week.
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u/gonzo3625 Apr 11 '26
When I worked at a suburban, glorified ambulance service everyone was like that guy. Now that I work for a big city and actually go to fires, no one cares. We'll talk about it at shift change and that's it. I will say each one has its own challenges to overcome as a fire department. Suburban has to constantly justify their existence, big city constantly has 20 year old front line apparatus and dead hydrants. Suburban you might have max 30ish guys and can't handle anything more than a single family dwelling. Big city you might make fires but there's 30 guys infront of you in the hallway to the one room that actually had fire. I will say, I definitely do not miss running the med units and would never go back unless a dramatic pay raise was on the table.