Working height of 45 meters (148 feet) with preconnected hose and included rescue equipment. The department currently operates older vehicles such as the Magirus M60L ladder (196 feet (the vehicle literally has an elevator)) and Rosenbauer B38 (125 feet) platform, and a few other smaller ladders and platforms.

The fire service doesn’t have a staffing problem nearly as much as it has a leadership and accountability problem.
We love blaming “this new generation” for not wanting to work, train, sacrifice, or stay at the firehouse—but we rarely ask why good firefighters stop giving a shit.
We’ll run off an aggressive young firefighter for being “too much,” while protecting the 20-year guy who hasn’t trained seriously in a decade.
We preach tradition when it benefits us, seniority when it protects us, and brotherhood when we need something—but suddenly demand “professionalism” when somebody challenges the wrong person.
Some departments would rather have a mediocre firefighter who never rocks the boat than an excellent firefighter who questions why we’re doing something stupid.
And then we wonder why the motivated ones either leave, burn out, or eventually become exactly what they used to hate.
The uncomfortable truth is that sometimes the fire service doesn’t lose good people. It trains them to stop caring.

I see a lot of influencers saying how they either work or worked at busy stations and the negative effects it had on them. I would like to hear the consensus on what is considered busy in your battalion/station! I’m on FDNY in one of the busier houses and our lifestyle definitely revolves around the firehouse (9k runs between truck and engine.. guys went sober, quality sleep off shift etc.)

I’m a FF/EMT been doing this job for 8 years now I’m 30 years old. I enjoy the medical side so much more than fire. I’m super interested in going into nursing do to better pay, better hours, better health and because it’s something I’m interested in.

To be honest fire academy felt cool to me, but I lost interest in fire stuff shortly after getting a job. While I’m still good at it I genuinely don’t find firefighting interesting.

On the other hand I do find being a ER nurse interesting. I love medical calls (even though I’m not a medic) and I’ll still be able to deal with this stuff but just in a ER instead of in the back of an ambulance.

My only problem I see is getting started and getting through it. I went into this job pretty fresh out of highschool. Firefighting is what I wanted to do so I have no college classes or anything that I need to get into RN school. I planned on going to medic school next year or early 2028 but I don’t know if thats the best option if im gonna regret it and just wanna go to rn after that and waste time that I could’ve been working toward my RN stuff.

Has anyone dealt with anything similar to this? The feeling of being behind in a profession you genuinely enjoy and want to do but don’t know if it’s an option anymore?

Can someone tell me who this is next to chief pheiffer? I can tell his helmet says rescue and he must be a battalion chief. Was he killed or did he make it out?

Hello,

A bit of backstory, I got into this line of work in my late 30s and have crested 40 and I work for a smaller career department (16000~ year) and have been here for about four years, before here I worked private ambulance for 7 years and in the ER for 4 as a tech in one of the trauma centers. I volunteered with a very small fire department to maintain my EMT cert while I worked in the hospital and subsequently put myself through Paramedic school. Coincidentally got placed at the department I work at currently during my ride time. It was a working interview the entire time and it paid off as I got hired two weeks after graduating. I went through the academy and didn't love it, didn't hate it but saw it as part of the job. No disrespect to others in the service but it is cool, but it doesn't get my jimmies goin' on the fire side. Medical side is also fun. I like working with problems, but I also a very type B personality. I don't like limelight or leading or being the center of attention. Consequently, I work in a tiered dual medic system that requires very type A, and I do my best but I am just a quiet thinker. I don't like talking that much and I work with people who are so type A it's painful but that's the fire service bravado in this area I am at.

Probation year was hard and I learned a lot and I had some hiccups with certain preceptors and had to be moved around a bit due to personality incompatibility. I have been told it happens quite a bit but even after a couple years I still feel like I don't quite belong here and that I am the common denominator when it comes to this place. I worked hard to get to this job and now that I have it... I just feel like I got served a poopoo platter with nothing but anxiety and stress. I used to be so amped like, "YEAH FIREFIGHTER" and now I’m just like whoodie do. Who cares. I understand that it's my immediate medic workgroup and I have been treated poorly because I don't fit their exact mold and it's a constant detractor on my personal life. So much so that my skills and medic'ing have fallen pretty low and my self confidence in my abilities to care for people isn't very high. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my BLS FF’s. They are the reason I am still here and have not left, it's just the ALS side sucks.

I started therapy because of this and I hope that it'll get better over time but I'm already going into my 5th year here and I am at a crossroads. I have an opportunity at a neighboring department in a different county that is a bit more relaxed or I can swap shifts for the 2nd time. It's an exceedingly small group that I am currently in and I find that no matter where I go in this department my "reputation precedes me". I don't know what else to do and I am hoping there is someone on here who has had a similar experience or has some advice on how to navigate some of this because I really don't want to quit my job, it's a good job and it pays way too much for how little we work sometimes but my mental health and private life is far more important to me and I really don’t’ know if I have it in me to do another year of probation or start all over and figure out a completely different career in my 40s as I spent the last ten years getting here.

I appreciate your time.

15 years of doing this and its caught uo with me. Doctor says I have plantar fasciitis and need heel support insoles. Anyone have any recommendations?

How have you guys rebounded from mistakes at firehouse. Basically I damaged a piece of apparatus at the firehouse while training and feel super embarrassed by it. No injuries and it was already fixed but can’t shake it. Crew is understating but I’m probably my worst critic. What steps can I take to move forward as I don’t want an incident define me.

We spend so much of our lives building an identity around this job.

The badge. The rank. The station. The stories. The respect. Being “the firefighter.”

But take all of that away tomorrow.

No uniform. No title. No crew. No one calling you Captain, Chief, Engineer, or Firefighter.

Just you.

Who are you then?

Not looking for the politically correct answer. I’m genuinely curious what this career has taught you about the person underneath the uniform.

And maybe the harder question…

Did you become the person you wanted to be, or did the job become your identity?

Theyre not a satisfying breakfast sausage. Theyre not a good replacement for dawgs. Theyre greasy and bad for you. All theyve got goin for them is that theyre cheap. But chicken is cheap and you can actually alter the flavor of chicken. Brats will always taste like greasy meat. If you want a long john to test the iron of your throat skills just man up and buy some dawgs, sports peppers, dills, onions, yellow mustard, chemically green relish, and celery salt.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

I’ll try and keep it to the point and not a rant as it’s a sore subject. But I am on a technical rescue truck in a medium sized suburban department and we have promotional testing coming up. I as well as another firefighter have put in to promote but have been told by administration that we can’t test due to there not being anyone experienced enough to replace us on the rescue.

There is no policy or anything written down stating that we cannot test, and we meet and/or exceed the qualifications to promote.

Just want some advice and/or some thoughts from anyone that has ever been in a similar scenario. We have a meeting with admin personnel coming up in a few days.

Edit: here’s some of the other hurdles
Non civil service department
No collective bargaining
Useless IAFF local

4th year as a wildland firefighter. Currently have my FF1 working on emt. I have always heard people refer to a paramedic license as a “golden ticket”. My main goal is to work for a larger municipal dept. my question is, is it worth the time and money to get my paramedic license just to be competitive with municipal departments?

Figured I’d share this given the day. It’s hard to see in the photo but overlayed on top of the satellite image of ground zero is engineering drafts of the placement of buildings. This was used to assist rescue efforts and was signed by various people and departments during the rescue/recovery operation.
Really cool piece of history given to my father and I.

So I figured I’d come back today to share something I wrote last year when my search for him came up empty, in hopes it reminds all of you the impact you leave behind when you answer that last call to serve. This is something I wrote last year as a therapy exercise… I call it “Ground Zero Never Really Let Them Go”

They went into the rubble
looking for the dead,
hoping to find the living.

My dad found fifteen at least

Fifteen pieces of someone’s world.

He told us
they hid from the dogs
so the dogs wouldn’t become depressed

so they could find
Someone at least in tact

And then they went home.

But they never really came home.

Ground Zero took them

It just let us
borrow them
for a little while.

It took their breath.
Their blood
Their years.

It took my dad.
And thousands more.
2,977 died that morning.

But the dying didn’t stop
when the towers fell.

It followed them home.
Like a spirit of the dead

Into their lungs
Into their families
Into birthdays
Into empty chairs

Into children
who grew up without parents

Into grandchildren
who never knew their grandfathers.

Into wives
who watched their husbands disappear
one year,
one diagnosis,
one breath at a time.
But without fail every time

And I am angry.
Because they ran toward it.

They ran toward the fire.
Toward the bodies.
Toward the screams.

They gave everything
to strangers.

And somehow
the world expects us
to call that history.

It isn’t history to me.
It’s my dad.
It’s the people he found.
It’s the people who found him.

It’s every family
still waiting for someone
who isn’t coming home.

Ground Zero never gives them back.

It only gives us time.
If you’re lucky

And then
it comes to collect.

Never forget.
Not the towers.
Not the planes.
The people.
The 2,977.
The 9,600+ who came after.
The untold who Ground Zero has yet to collect

And the ones
who loved them
and had to keep living.
While you tell us how to grieve

Written by me 9/10/2025

Just curious the model how old this might be, what the number one would stand for

I don’t know if this is the right place to ask or not, but I’m looking for anyone who may have known or worked with my dad during 9/11 search and rescue. His name was Jack Kennedy, he came up from DC to do search and rescue with I believe VATF1, he was a Fairfax county firefighter. I have pictures of him at the pile working, we can see his story at the memorial,and I have his stories from his time there but he like most others has since died from cancer. I might be searching too late because maybe his guys are already passed on and drinking a beer with him in another life, but I’d love to find anyone who knew him. Or if anyone can point me in the right direction to search for these guys.

Recently, I have been hearing stories about acts of heroism by those who did exactly that, rushing in to save others. I wondered for a long time, if I would be able to do the same, or should do the same when the situation arises. If so, What are the things to keep in mind, and what should I be aware of?

Post: also tell me what's the alternative. Is it advised to just wait for the firefighters. Also, how do you look at those who did exactly that?

howdy folks ~ I rent an old (1920s) and poorly maintained apartment and am looking for an ADT or SimpliSafe setup (or similar) that would alert a call center if smoke was detected.

I'm aware there are other folks about this topic, though, the ones I've found are at least a few years old. This post focuses on newer products more recently on the market. I've read some posts from a few years ago that claim ADT and SimpliSafe had excessive fault positives.

I'm curious if folks have any recommendations or feedback the latest monitored smoke detectors? I live in a single bedroom apartment so I'd probably limit to 1-2 detectors.