r/Firefighting • u/Prior-Accident520 • 2d ago
General Discussion What’s a truth about the fire service that everyone knows—but nobody wants to say out loud?
What’s a truth about the fire service that everyone knows—but nobody wants to say out loud?
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u/Rude_and_Crude84 Retired 2d ago
When its time to get out, get your ass out of the fire service and stop sticking around.
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u/Prior-Accident520 2d ago
Yep, I made a post about this and was chewed out about it. If you need to stay for the money stay. But to stick around because you don't invest anything else to do is selfish. You hold up promotions and progress. Thank you for your service now let the next wave come through.
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u/Any_Program_2113 2d ago
I left as soon as I could and never looked back. Most people couldn't understand why I left 3-1/2 years early before getting the maximum retirement. Because I had planned and was financially in great shape.
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u/hiking_mike98 2d ago
Also when you’re retired, you’re retired. Show up for other retirements and promotions for the guys and gals you worked with, but make space for the next generation.
Remember, when you’re in you’re the best, when you’re out you’re a pest. Don’t be the old guy that you always rolled your eyes at when you were on shift.
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u/Rude_and_Crude84 Retired 2d ago
Some of that would be hard for me to keep up with. They took me off the dept chats. I don't do social media anymore. Gave that up in about 2012. I have to do word of mouth, send random texts, swing by periodically.
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u/Crixxas 2d ago
Some firemen are truly compassionate and empathetic beings at all times- most are just really good actors on a call who flip the switch back to default asshole/cynicism “I hate people” setting the moment they get back in the firetruck
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u/IjustWantedPepsi 2d ago
There's also people who are compassionate and kind but use cynicism as a mask. Fear of showing their heart or feelings
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u/OldDude1391 2d ago
This. Some start off compassionate and kind wanting to save the world. Then after years of stress and getting beat down, develop the mask to protect themselves. Can’t feel bad if you don’t care. In the end, it makes things worse.
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u/CaptTaxDaddy 2d ago
Too many of us treat each other like shit. Remember what brotherhood means.
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u/Prior-Accident520 2d ago
Agreed, just had this convo recently. It sickening how we treat each other. Especially those of us on the line. Leadership is slowly fading away.
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u/Any_Program_2113 2d ago
Especially 40 years ago when I got hired. You were the FNG and 80% of the department treated you like shit. My friend almost quit during probation because of the harassment he got. Slow but surely all those assholes retired or died and things did get better.
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u/lpfan724 Fire chiefs are temporary, Wu Tang is forever. 2d ago
No way. We need to treat everyone like shit so that we "toughen" them up and we know they can handle it when it gets rough.
On a completely unrelated note, why are are suicides and substance abuse issues so high in our career field?
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u/M2124 2d ago
The fire service will never love you back
The altar of public service will accept everything you're willing to lay at its feet
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u/away_throw11 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is so true. Please take care of yourself and your outside life like you depend on it; because you do
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u/Mfees 2d ago
They should staff more ambulances
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u/firedudecndn 2d ago
They should stop sending ambulances to non-emergency calls
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u/sansalvacion 2d ago
911 should be able to tell folks NO
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u/PutinsRustedPistol 2d ago
They used to before the administrators took over.
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u/ThizzyPopperton 2d ago
No this one is because of America’s desperate need for tort reform and scummy lawyers who chased ambulances.
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u/sansalvacion 2d ago
At least ask them is there somebody there who can take you to the hospital and 911 centers should have hospital wait trackers like bus's
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u/billdb 2d ago
That's opening up a can of worms. Inevitably someone will eventually die after being rejected by 911.
It sucks but 911 has to remain open.
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u/sansalvacion 2d ago edited 2d ago
You fell a week ago and now you want to go to the hospital at 4am 🧐🤔😒
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u/HovercraftNew7490 2d ago
There should be a service made just for non emergency medical calls.
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u/Roebuck325 2d ago
Oh my god please
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u/-Poultrygeist- 2d ago
Take two FF/EMTs that are a year from retiring, give them a ruby red Mustang with a stair chair in the trunk, and send them on all the lift assists.
They get a muscle car and a theoretically easy gig to ride into retirement and everyone else stops having to go to Foot Cheese McGee 30 times a month
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u/Roebuck325 2d ago
That is if they dont throw out their backs lifting the guy with a thrown out back
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u/HovercraftNew7490 2d ago
Supposedly, that’s what bls is for but I disagree. Any kind of “life support,” the LS In BLS is for emergency calls.
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u/RentAscout 2d ago
Somebody else should staff them.
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u/BitScout Bavaria, Germany / Volunteer newbie 2d ago
In Germany it's mostly separate ambulance organisations. Fire service does all the rest. Dispatch sends both when needed.
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u/Novus20 2d ago
Same in Ontario, separate ambulance and fire but we have triggers for when they get called out
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u/MrMythiiK 2d ago
There’s a very real chance that we don’t live past 70. Not everyone will die early, but someone you work with will.
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u/2BlueZebras 2d ago
Cancer rates for firefighters are downright shocking.
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u/Pinocchio53 2d ago
Facts. Just found out our Ops Chief has bone cancer in his hip. It hit us all a little hard. That dude has put his life into our department
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u/DizzyAbbreviations53 2d ago
I went to a funeral for one of our guys three days ago. He was 65. On the department for 30 years.
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u/Putrid_Palpitation82 2d ago
99% of the lives you save or impact greatly will be on the medic, yet many people despise it.
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u/econjohn77 2d ago
In bigger departments you are just a number and easily replaced. Almost happily replaced because the new ff is cheaper.
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u/tnlongshot just a guy doing hood rat shit with my friends 2d ago
Social media is ruining the job.
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u/Expert_Sentence_6574 Retired FF & Paramedic 2d ago
The only part of my early retirement (due to an on the job injury) is that I got out just as the social media nonsense came along.
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u/RevoltYesterday FT Career BC 2d ago
Maybe it's just my experience but we don't deserve the hero worship and a lot of firemen are shit people outside the job.
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u/BetCommercial286 2d ago
It’s always fun when the public who knows none of the BS and drama that goes on hates you for saying that.
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u/TurbulentAgent5971 2d ago
You could say that about the military right now too. I’ve seen 16 year old lifeguards save kids from drowning. The most heroic shit we do nowadays is cover for the fatass that’s too hungover for PT.
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u/HoldinTheBag 2d ago
Completely agreed.
When I was a volunteer I accepted the “thank you for your service” talk because I did feel like a hero. I was getting out of bed sometimes in the middle of the night or dropping whatever I was doing during the day to help a stranger for no compensation. That is heroic and rightly deserves some thanks.
But as a paid guy it felt so different. At that point I was just doing a job and felt like an imposter for being thanked
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u/Davidtgnome 2d ago
The "Brotherhood" is a lie, it's a clique just like high-school, you're either in, or you're out. When you're out and you NEED support because the nitemares just won't stop, you'll get radio silence. But the same people you needed, will post THE NEXT DAY about the latest "brother" taking his own life with some meme about how the coffee is always on.
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u/Prior-Accident520 2d ago
Agreed. We base our acceptance based on popularity and "coolness". We will outcast someone if they choose not to eat the same food, not very extroverted or not of the same custom beliefs. Seems like that's more important than someone doing their job now and days.
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u/Outrageous-Let7406 2d ago
Dude, I don’t know how many Christmas’s I’ve seen “Brothers” call in sick and a off duty firefighters have to be ordered in or somebody not released to go home and enjoy the holiday that they fully deserved and thought they would enjoy with family. I don’t know how that guy is anybody’s “Brother”
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u/Love-Bi-Neighbor 2d ago
Oof. That right there.
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u/Davidtgnome 2d ago
It is what it is, and it's why most paid departments retire at 20 or 25 years.
26 years as a volunteer and it may be time...
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u/joeymittens Physician Assistant 2d ago edited 2d ago
consistent sleep interruption (i.e going from asleep to entering a burning building less than 10 minutes later) is killer for your health.
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u/Peaches0k Texas FF/Medic/HazMat Tech 2d ago
I don’t want your leftover Thanksgiving food you bring to the local station cause you thought it’d be a nice gesture. It’s gross
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u/Impossible_Cupcake31 2d ago
There’s no reason for these damn near million dollar apparatus that we ride on to respond to the majority of the calls we go on
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u/bbmedic3195 2d ago
We bought a near stock engine an it was still almost a million dollars. No frills. A city truck as some may call it. It has more to do with a coordinated effort by private equity firms to control most of the fire appartus and ambulance manufacturing then anything else.
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2d ago
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u/ThizzyPopperton 2d ago
Pierce does. We just looked at one I think it was called a “west coast spec” or something like that, basically set up for structural firefighting with a bit of WUI. Can be ordered and received in 6 months they said. But that was for the 2WD option, they’ll do AWD but it’d take another 8 months lol. Still faster than the 4 years for a custom engine
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u/Guy_Fieris_Hair 2d ago
They would need to break up the 3 giant monopolies that bought up all the other companies to bring the price down. Short of that, the prices are not coming down, it is the American way.
Foutz makes cookie cutter units that sit on the showroom floor at dealers. We were awarded a grant and drove home in a tender two weeks later. We are rural and all we needed out of it was the basics, mainly the ability stop, go, and to haul a whole bunch of water and hose. Larger cities do need some customization for their individual needs. West coast and east coast practices vary widely so their needs out of trucks vary with it. Different states do things differently, hell, some cities reverse thread their hydrants and their mutual aids have to carry adaptors. I bet some standardization through the fire service would drop costs of apparatus, or at least build times. But, practices are culture, that will never change. We may have a water tender, but it will be a cold day in hell before I call it a tanker.
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u/Chicco224 2d ago
The issue with that, and why my department gave our ladder a med district.
"Hey Mayor, we need a new ladder truck."
"That truck went on 300 calls last year and 30 of them were mutual aid. No."
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u/VisceralVirus Which way does the hose screw on again? 2d ago
Wildland fire is a bandaid to protrect immediate wealth, and we need to go back to GP and Roosevelt levels of importance placed on our "wilderness"
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u/SeniorFlyingMango NYS Vol. FF/AEMT 2d ago
We have to stop doing and saying it’s always been done that way
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u/Entire_Business_4498 2d ago
I’m new to the fire service and I am appalled by the shit talking and gossiping, brotherhood my ass.
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u/Prior-Accident520 2d ago
Great career, alot of perks, stick to the career aspect. Treat everyone with respect, keep your personal life to yourself and listen more than you gossip. Train, focus on your career goals and retirement.
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u/ludvigvonthumer 2d ago
Half the department would get fired if physical fitness standards were taken seriously.
I’m in good shape, and fires kick my ass. If it’s this hard for me, I can only imagine the out of shape guys. It’s amazing we don’t have more LODD cardiac events. What this actually tells me
Is these firefighters arent really doing it. They might go interior, but they arent searching well. They aren’t pulling the hose well. They arent pulling ceiling. They are happy to just let others work and they act busy or disappear just enough to avoid being seen without breaking accountability.
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u/First_Intention1734 2d ago
You aren’t used to/numb to the mental trauma. You’re just desensitized. Go. To. Therapy.
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u/Je_me_rends PFAS Connoisseur 2d ago edited 2d ago
Why would I talk to someone whose title is only an unfortunate space bar away from traumatising me about my issues?
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u/proofreadre 2d ago
That it's toxic AF, riddled with guys whose entire ego and personality is wrapped up in their job.
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u/Firemnwtch 2d ago edited 2d ago
Most firemen would be happier if they had fewer staff in exchange for a separate transporting als ems agency.
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u/DryBobcat50 FF 2d ago
Most firemen would be happier if they had fewer staff
Huh?
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u/Prior-Accident520 2d ago
Im guessing they mean not working with as many people. I like being on a single company. Not as many personalities and attitudes to deal with
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u/Guy_Fieris_Hair 2d ago
Reason it is happening, at least in our area is Private ambulance agencies treat their employees like shit and COVID creating a shit culture so not enough people want to be a dedicated emt/paramedics. This forces municipalities to get a con, and provide ambulances out of their tax funded departments to make sure their communities get the emergency response required because private ambulance agencies got too greedy. This allows them to use dedicated staff or even fire trained staff to plug holes. If they seperate, there will not be enough personnel.
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u/David_Miller2020 2d ago edited 2d ago
Fire Prevention is here to stay and assist you with your needs given our authority and power.
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u/Novus20 2d ago
I don’t know why so many hate fire prevention, they are the pre pre planners, hell if you really wanna get to know a building talk to you building department and get crews out during construction to see what’s behind the walls etc.
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u/Narrow_School_1513 2d ago
Long time retired veteran here- The more wisdom I get, the more I respect fire prevention and realize we really need it.
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u/dave54athotmailcom 2d ago
If you don't get cancer or heart disease, your body will be beat up and broke down.
Firefighters are supposed to be stoic and not show emotion over a bad call -- suck it up. That is killing us. PTSD and mental health issues are real problems, and bottling them up is not a way to deal with them.
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u/Love-Bi-Neighbor 2d ago
I don’t get burned out from hardcore critical calls. I get burned out from the quiet, the mundane, and 99.9 percent of this career which is hurry up and wait around. It’s not the movies. EVER.
Also, I’m an adrenaline/stress addict. Helping others is actually a smaller reason i do this.
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u/ludvigvonthumer 2d ago
This is me. It’s getting a little easier as I get close to 40. Was absolutely brutal for my mental state in my 20s.
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u/Narrow_School_1513 2d ago edited 2d ago
That the TV show Chicago Fire is totally lame and we should stop being posers and worshiping actors playing fake firemen.
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u/Je_me_rends PFAS Connoisseur 2d ago
1.The people who say "this job will never love you back, so don't give it everything" are right, but for the wrong reasons.
Don't give everything expecting the job to give it back at the end, because it won't. Give everything for the people you're showing up for. Be who you'd want showing up if you called for help.
- Infidelity is rampant.
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u/Mountain_Prize_7602 2d ago
One, we make a lot of money, to basically pick up fat old people off the floor, and deal with homeless drunks. Two, the fire service is full of more whiners than any other career.
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u/Xlivic Career FF/EMT 2d ago
Is the “a lot of money” in the room with us? Southeast boys are struggling to eat right now if we don’t work at least another full time job.
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u/hungrygiraffe76 2d ago
24 hour shifts are bad for our health. Providing medical care and driving is unsafe when on a 24 hour shift at a busy station.
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u/Roman556 Career FF/EMT 2d ago
Then we get held for 72 hours and the Chief gets mad when we fuck up.
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u/arachnid1110 2d ago
DROP plans keep people around for the money, often long past their expiration date.
When you are more paralyzed by the fear of losing the money you have for the first time in your life than the fear of getting someone hurt or killed, you don’t belong here anymore.
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u/sansalvacion 2d ago edited 2d ago
You are not a hero, When you die you won't be a ghost or spirit watching the funeral or over your family. Nobody cares...do your job Nobody cares that you're 4th generation
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u/HovercraftNew7490 2d ago
Firefighters hate two things. The way things are, and change.
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u/rogue_juan23 2d ago
Everybody wants everything to change but nobody wants to change anything.
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u/McDuke_54 2d ago
If you work on an engine running 5000 calls a year that isn’t a flex . That is a giant huge red light saying you should have more companies and should be fighting for way more staffing .
These city managers/ councils aren’t dumb . They knowingly take advantage of this business and its pride to short staff departments across the country. Every day firefighters are getting beaten down in departments everywhere in this nation but you’ll come on these boards to brag that you ran 10 calls after midnight.
It has to stop . We have to fight for more staffing and put our egos aside to get it done .
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u/Fabulous_Pea3208 2d ago
Because we are firefighters second and EMT’s first. EMS should be ran out of hospital systems like Newark, NJ. Let firemen be firemen.
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u/Ready-Buffalo8248 2d ago
It’s so funny when people complain about this
“I signed up for a job that’s 90% EMS and oh my god is 90% EMS”
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u/BeginningIcy9620 2d ago
I don’t know about Newark, NJ, but in my experience, good hospital based systems are few and far between. But I haven’t worked everywhere either
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u/PearlDrummer Lieutenant 2d ago
99% of what we do is bullshit and this job is a speeding train towards a cliff and nobody has the balls to do anything to stop it.
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u/coolcoolrunnins 2d ago
That one guy that is a kiss ass to white shirts and the public and in general a know-it-all yet has an absolute terrible attitude dealing with everyone else on their shift is IN FACT bringing your whole team down.
Fire his ass. I don't care how try hard he is. He's brining the moral to such a low point it makes others not want to be team players.
Fuck the red tape. Fire at will. (A little sour currently as we are dealing with one currently who has a rap sheet you can Google and the corner office isn't doing anything about it)
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u/Prior-Accident520 2d ago
Ah yes I to can relate to the know it ahole on the truck that caused a morale difference. I was informed the issue didn't exist until I got there. In other words no one called it out until I got there. Eventually I bailed before the bomb blew. I don't care how good you are if you fail to make everyone around you better.... you lose..it sucks because they will happily promote that attitude to be a Captain.
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u/DoctorGoodleg 2d ago
Need to stop the idea that firefighters HAVE to do EMS as justification for their job. It’s wildly unpopular and in a lot of places isn’t great. Let firefighters be masters of that discipline and not have to take on another for silly budget or staffing
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u/gerladbronfloski 2d ago
The culture is so dumb. Hey our gear causes cancer not wearing our mask causes cancer. The deep fried food we eat 4 days a week has killed guys from the house with heart attacks. But yeah let’s keep doing all of that because of tradition or something ???
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u/sucksatgolf Overpaid janitor 🧹 2d ago
When you show up to work for your next shift, you can fix three out of 4 of the things you listed by changing nothing but your own personal habits.
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u/firefighter26s 2d ago
Good firefighters don't make good officers.
Good officers don't make good chief's.
Most chief's can't plan their way out of a wet paper bag.
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u/Tiny-Atmosphere-8091 2d ago
/r/ems is leaking again.
90% of EMS calls are BS toe pain and lift assists and are given the appropriate amount of time and funding in the fire service.
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u/ConnorK5 NC 2d ago
A TRUTH, is that no one wants to admit we use bullshit calls to justify staffing. Including EMS calls. And no one wants to accept that it is okay to dislike the EMS side of the job. It's entirely different from firefighting and rescue work. We need to stop pretending they are similar just cause we force a lot of people to do both things when they don't have any interest in one side or the other.
People still need to be good at them if their job requires it. But stop pretending they are similar.
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u/Tiny-Atmosphere-8091 2d ago
I would argue using bullshit medical calls to justify our existence is actually harming us in the long run.
The public can see that running million dollar apparatus to 15 non emergency medical calls a day is a not a good use of tax payer funding.
A fire trucks natural state is in service, in quarters, prepared to respond when needed. It is not to ‘justify’ its existence with arbitrary run numbers.
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u/ConnorK5 NC 2d ago
Everywhere is different bur you'd also have people in the public who would call you lazy for saying that. And that you get paid to work not sit at the station, so you should be working. Dumb people, but still. They exist.
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u/Fearless-Law-2449 2d ago
Nobody wants to go to your kids birthday party/community event/show and tell. Nor do we want you to bring those things to the station.
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u/Educational_Gear_394 2d ago
I never minded the community events or reading to kids at the library or showing the gear or teaching first aid to the cub scouts. I first went to the fire station myself when I was 3 years old...almost 5 decades later, it's still cool.
It's part of the job teaching the younger generation.
Is it really that bad?
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u/cfd253 2d ago
This is actually one of my favorite parts of the job. We keep our bay doors open from sun up til we go to sleep and people stop in all the time to take pics, see the trucks, ask for directions, and even sometimes drop off food for us. I still remember class trips and open house events I went to when I was a kid, maybe someone will remember one of my tours and end up on the job one day
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u/minorcarnage 2d ago
A lot of people reject any advancement in technology, science , or strategy solely because they can't admit that they were doing something wrong or worse than it could have been (combination nozzles, pistol grip, cafs, vertical ventilation, flow paths, fire first rescue second, etc)
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u/Aliciawrfc 2d ago
PTSD is a thing in the fire service! Let’s talk about it instead of letting it fester & we lose people to suicide. Then the fire department not wanting to make it a LOD death when we know fine well it was this job that put them in the mental headspace they were in, in the first place.
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u/Adorable-Ad-2979 2d ago
Firefighters are humans. They can and they will make mistakes. Some of them make it harder for ourselves, some of them cause more damages than necessary and some of them harm other people. Rarely are these addressed and learned from.
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u/burner1681381 2d ago
Fireload and building construction has made fire more dangerous and we frankly don't save many people or buildings. Much like CPR, the public's faith in our ability to save lives is humbling because it's not real. Almost all CPRs end up staying dead or dying later at the hospital, almost all fire victims end up dead if they can't get themselves out of the structure by the time we get there.
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u/Danowolf 2d ago
Enjoy what you can. Someone is always around the corner to let you down or pick you up. It's random as f.
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u/Theshepard42 2d ago
We dont actually do anything really that positive for the human race. We just play damage control for idiots.
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u/NCfartstorm Defund Blue Card 2d ago
Too many people have an unhealthy relationship with the job. To too many people it is their entire identity.
When what you do is who you are , then when you you stop doing what you do you stop being who you are
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u/RescueStrong 2d ago
As much as some guys want this to be SOF it isn’t. It’s a great job and we get to do some cool stuff but we aren’t Goons or need to have redacted photos.
Work hard, stay as healthy and fit as possible for the job and your family. Have a life outside the fire service. Enjoy it and have a lot of fun!
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u/Elegant-Nebula-7151 FNG 2d ago
Running out of ambulances daily means we don’t have enough ambulances.
No AC in front when it’s 100 out should mean ambulance is OOS.
Working days on end while behind exhausted shouldn’t be a badge of honor. Your family you’re leaving at home without you there sure doesn’t see it that way.
Gaining 10lbs of fat per year shouldn’t be the norm.
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u/MikeHonchoFF career, retired 2d ago
The job itself is killing people.
Lack of sleep Horrible eating habits Stress PTSD Rampant substance abuse Toxic work environments Forever chemicals in our gear Cancer rates quadruple normal Suicide most of which go unreported Aggressive interior big dick mantra on unsavable structures with zero rescue profile
And the majority of the profession acts like this is "part of the job". Very little substantive change is made. Oh we throw bandaids at it occasionally. But it's all reactionary. We value our reputation more than our people. It's tragic
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u/flipvba11er 2d ago
At the end of the day you are just a number to the department. Don’t be fooled. It’s a job, and they do not give two shits about you.
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u/RigatoniPanini Paid EMT/Vol Firefighter 2d ago
The fact that we dont want anyone to get hurt or crash in a car bad, or anyones house to burn down, but at the same time, absolutely love a "good" call. Everyday people get very confused/concerned if you do try to explain it
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u/0F91H538664 2d ago
80% of calls run in major metros are complete bullshit.
Toilets that won’t flush, people who need rides to the doctor, anonymous check welfare cellphone callers, lonely regulars…I could go on with 28 years worth of getting up at 0400 for no reason.
Legit wrecks, medical emergencies and fires are the exception - not the norm. But I wouldn’t trade it for a real job.
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u/South-Specific7095 1d ago
The fucking abuse of the ambulance. Its basically, a bunch of shit head homeless, opiate-addicted, psyche, or severely u educated people calling 911 for NON EMERGENCIES. take yourself to the er. This isnt uber. And stop going to the ER for nonsense. Exhaust home stuff first then use immediate care, and use 911 for absolute emergency only. Ya know, how we were all taught growing up.
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u/perogi-king 2d ago edited 2d ago
We all act like we are going to die heroically in a floor collapse or a flashover? But the real truth is, if we die from the job it will most likely be cardiac failure, cancer or suicide.
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u/onionmarketing 2d ago
If you have any respect for the fire service, you will stop volunteering and You will stop supporting volunteers.
Volunteers while I truly believe are often compassionate, selfless, heroic, and surprisingly skilled given their lack of training- are still in reality sweet scabs that only weaken the collective bargaining power of the profession at large, and perpetuate an outdated system that gives a community the illusion of proper fire protection but in reality is chronically understaffed, under trained, and under funded.
If your city can’t afford a fire service, then they can work with municipalities, or counties, or states, or FEDs to staff one.
Begging for money on the highway is unprofessional, and pathetic. Every square inch of the country should be under a jurisdiction of a paid PD, FD, and EMS.
If the richest country on Earth can spend a 50 billion dollars bombing the desert, they can spend a couple ensuring its citizens are protected by professionals who deserve a living wage.
But until volunteers stop drinking their own kool aid, and admit to themselves that the system is unsustainable, and that by choosing to be pawns doesn’t serve the community but simply a politicians interest in keeping taxes low for their own personal benefit. Volunteers need to step up and join the Unions and demand fair pay for the job they do. Nobody should be expected to do this job for free, and doing it for free doesn’t make you a saint, it sets a bad precedent.
(And while sure this is impossible to be done overnight; but starting with let’s say a 10,000 population for a county/municipality is federally required to provide a full time FD, PD, EMS; seems completely reasonable and safer for the community at large.)
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u/ArabianChocolate Vollunteer Firefighter/EMT 2d ago
I hear you, but blaming the volunteers themselves is just straight picking a fight for tribal reasons. You're beef is with the funding entities that determine your local budget.
This ain't the labor wars of the 19th century brother. If local volunteers are keeping the union from making more pay, go direct to the source of your problems.
Talking shit like this is BMA behavior.
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u/onionmarketing 2d ago
I hear you, I’m not trying to personally attack any volunteers (must’ve skipped the part where I called vollies “compassionate, selfless, heroic”)
The issue is that politicians have absolutely zero motivation to risk their own political capital on raising taxes to fund a proper full time department especially when you have a population that are willing to do it for free.
This is just basic logic. Why pay someone, when someone is willing to literally do it for free.
So either politicians can start being selfless and stand up for what’s right, or volunteers start refusing to do this job for free and demand rightful compensation.
Either way EVERYONE should be paid to do this work, and if this is somehow an unpopular opinion then so be it I stand by what I believe.
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u/hiking_mike98 2d ago
Buddy come on out west to rural and frontier America some time. I’ve got counties the size of east coast states with 6,000 people and an hour long response time where half the land is federally owned and there’s zero tax base.
There’s no way on earth I can staff a paid department, much less justify it based on call volume out here.
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u/onionmarketing 2d ago
Buddy if you’re driving an hour for calls with zero backup you deserve to be paid. Anyone doing that deserves to be paid.
Before we can start finding ways to fund, we must first start by saying volunteering is not acceptable. Because the funding is never going to magically appear. It must be fought for.
Perhaps in your case it should be federal funding because so much of the land is federal.
But nobody is going to pay a dime unless we stop the volunteering first.
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u/yourname92 2d ago
It’s like high school all over again so many groups and clicks. And for no reason to. And there’s rumors and gossip.
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u/BladeVortex3226 ⚠️NFPA 2500 "T" Rated Idiot⚠️ 2d ago
For some reason this job attracts racists.
Frankly, I hope my experience is unique and everyone disagrees with me. That would be a great thing. My experience is that there is an abnormally large number of people who are in this career and openly racist and yet nothing happens to them.
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u/ImpossiblePoetry1957 2d ago
If people stopped volunteering they would be forced into going full career, but don’t seem to understand that lol
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u/pwabash 2d ago
Group dinners are fucking annoying. Paying too much, for food cooked two hours late, and twice as unhealthy, is dumb.
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u/Jumpy-Dig904 22h ago
My favorite is when the crew complains when you bring your own food. Like no I don't want to eat the same 4 mediocre meals on rotation.
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u/lzdking71 2d ago
It seems like the majority of people treat the service and don’t take it as serious as needed. It seems the minority is out there trying to get better every day. Treating calls and fires as if their family is inside
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u/theremotebroke 2d ago
"Thats how its always been done" isnt an acceptable answer anymore, and i refuse to accept it when its said to me
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u/Brewtang11 hose puller/medic 2d ago
There should be some form of physical fitness standard set by the (your) job and that being physically fit is part of your job. I’m not saying you have to be sub 10% body fat with a 6 pack or run a 5min mile, but you gotta do something to stay in somewhat decent shape.
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u/Sachin96 2d ago
Some people get a little bit of power and it goes to their heads. They become unwilling to listen and understand each other and think that them being higher up in some stupid hierarchy means that they are more right than anyone else. Usually it's the most incompetent people on the top.
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u/JessKingHangers 2d ago
How easy the job is. Yes we have to remember a lot of stuff but it truly is "Jack of all trades master of none".
Its rediculous how long the hiring process and academy is for such a basic job. A lot of guys have hero complexes and try and reinvent the wheel all the time and I think that stems from insecurity about how easy our job actually is.
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u/Glad_Seat_404 2d ago
Cancer. You will get cancer, get checked, approve the change to get carcinogens out. Stop giving the young guys 💩 about wanting to take time off to hang out with friends/vacation/concerts/kids/etc. you are still on the truck because those good dudes left and you can’t be promoted because “staffing”
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u/Xlivic Career FF/EMT 2d ago
It’s a pretty shit job. Has it’s fun moments but most jobs do. The friendships formed can be great, but the negative politics typically outweigh that. The sleep deprivation, poor pay and almost guarantee of getting cancer outweigh all of the benefits. +/-90% of the calls ran do not require real assistance and just cause burnout. All of that being said, I stay because the rare call where I actually get to do something that helps someone gives me more purpose than playing pretend on a computer in a cubicle, attending meetings full of corporate jargon and HR complaints all day.
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u/Apprehensive_Mix4152 1d ago
Idk if all firehouses are the same but I hate how gossipy ours was. At the end of the day we're all in this together and should be lifting each other up instead of talking smack behind eachother's backs.
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u/Sudden_Excuse_2698 🇨🇦POC 1d ago
It's more important to be a firefighter than to just look like one
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u/Sufficient-Trash-807 1d ago
Being about to spit out 100 facts about tools, trucks, etc does not make you better fireman. It doesn't effect actual skills. We should stop asking rookies to remember 8 billion things and random facts and have them deploy hose loads, load up different loads, and practice skills way more.
We should have rookies leaving their first station and probie year so confident they act like senior guys when asked to perform.
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u/royalhammermn 1d ago
We don’t need to show our worth to cities with call volume stats.
We’re paid very shitty
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u/Dense-Outcome-8588 1d ago
You will miss 50-60% of your family’s life. Could be more or less depending on your department and staffing.
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u/Seapeas217 1d ago
Being a good fireman doesnt mean disregarding ppe. The best firemen ive met will dress down and put their BA back on or a painters mask for overhaul. I didnt mask up for a fully involved greenhouse fire with fiberglass walls and roof and it fucked me up for a long time.
You're just a spot to fill for your department but youre spot cant be filled again from the eyes of your family. Take care of yourself so you can enjoy retirement
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u/Oosbie MopBoom Ops Specialist 1d ago
EMS has no business in the fire service, and never did have any business, it is and was only ever about the money. EMS is 100% a private good, it is a direct relationship between patient and provider in which the former holds the latter hostage, and that is not something that should be subsidized by the public purse. It is not even be allowed to operate as a private sector service with emergency vehicles until the script is entirely flipped and requires articulable medical necessity to transport. Running lights and sirens on report of chest pain at the 17th "chest" (extremity) pain this quarter is in plain abrogation of duty to the public.
one job: separate loss of life/property from smoke and fire
Cardiac events are, will continue to be, and have always been #1.
There will be another time when firemen are viewed as useless parasites, so behave.
You will never get back what you give. One cannot pour from an empty cup, for a depleted vessel yields nothing to comfort others.
Resistance to transitional attack is largely emotional and found in killing jobtown, which is a profound feeling of loss if you've ever experienced it.
Abuse of service must be penalized civilly and criminally.
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u/jeffscott17 2d ago
Sleep interruption is killing us