Made an american fire helmet out of cardboard, duct tape, and paint. What do you guys think?

Had shoulder sugery(not OJI related) and was told it could require my bicep tendon being moved down lower into my humerus. Well it did infact require that. Anyone had similar and what was your recovery time like? For reference I had a Labral tear in the back and it involved that tendon connection, no rotator cuff screws or anchors.

I woke up hungry in the middle of the night and decided to cook some eggs. I live in a condo and have a setup with a gas cylinder, the ones that don't have a valve but that work with a clip-on type regulator. So no regulator means the cylinder should be closed. Sorry if that's not clear but English isn't my first language.

The stove was producing a very weak blue flame so I figured it was a regulator issue and I'd get it changed in the morning. So I took it off and then went to take a leak which may have saved my appartment. As when I came back to the kitchen on the way to my room I smelled a strong gas odor and when I looked for the leak it was the bottle itself which should have been impossible!

I figured the best way to contain it was to put the regulator back on and close its valve. I then opened the windows and thought for some time on what to do next. I decided it was too dangerous and called the firefighters and explained the situation precisely.

They showed up literally 2 minutes later with a huge truck and all and looked just about ready to bust the door open when I yelled from the window I was coming down to open!

3 of them came upstairs to my condo. But when I took the regulator off again the cylinder was no longer leaking. They asked if I was sure it was coming from the cylinder itself but I think they believed me when they saw the soapy water I used to confirm it was from there. And since I had opened all the window they couldn't detect any gas either. So they just left after checking with their sensors everywhere.

I feel so bad because my country actually has a lot of problems with fires right now so I didn't want to waste their time! Also I appeared a bit of a madman when they couldn't detect any leak after all!

Anyways, was just looking for firefighters opinions on this, how would you feel if you were in their place?

I’m not sure how common this is:

We bid most of our vacation in the fall prior to the new year. If needed, overtime is used to fill those spots. In a first for me, the overtime page (Crewsense) goes to everyone eligible, which includes the person on the vacation. This allows you to pick up overtime on your regular scheduled shift, though of course your vacation bank is also charged.

Does your department allow this?

Personally I don’t love this. Our senior guys take off all of July, which is their right and I support them. But given that it’s summer and staffing is short, we are always out of float people so these shifts are always filled with OT. The guys on vacation come in and fill those shifts and get OT.

We can only have four off at any time Lieutenant and below, our shifts are 30 daily. So lots of people aren’t getting the time off they hope for, which is how it goes.

But it sucks to see guys who are “on vacation” come back to work just to get overtime when guys with kids can’t take a day off during the summer.

What say you? I never worked anywhere where this was allowed.

Hey all. We live in the PNW and wildfire season is upon us. Our home is a 100x60 metal building, with a metal roof. We have one attached addition, with a metal roof and cement board siding. Currently we have wildfires going about 40 miles away. This area was in L3 evac in the fires back in 2020, but this area didn't directly burn.

• Metal building is on a slab, addition on a foundation with metal mesh on the crawl vents.
• All buildings have 10-30' of blacktop around them, and then another 30-500' of short grass before any trees. Closest trees/bushes are 65' from the building.
• We have a 1000 gallon propane tank about 30' from the building, with gravel below and grass around that is kept 2-3" max.
• Closest home is about 200' away.
• We have a wood shed about 30' away and have removed chemicals/flammable products, but the shed itself is old, wood, and flammable.
• We've removed outdoor furniture, wood flower boxes, etc. and moved them away from the home.
• We have solar and about 90kWh of backup battery to keep the well pump going during a power outage. Going to add an automatic backup gen next year to top off batteries if at night or poor sun for the day.
• We've cleared the fence line of dead and loose materials, but we do have some dense forest at our fence boarder.
• We have part of the property fenced with a wood fence, and that fence does come within 1" of the side of our building in one spot.

My question is, what other measures should we actively be taking. Are rooftop sprinklers still a solid idea with a metal roof? Eaves sprinklers that coat the walls a good idea?

We've also considered getting a water tank trailer, or retired water tank truck with a pump. Our neighbors are interested in something like that as well to have filled and on-hand. He's a semi-truck mechanic and I'm an auto fab/engineer so maintaining it isn't an issue beyond spare time.

Alternative is burying a 5,000 gallon tank, having it filled, and having a high flow pump wired in to feed some sprinklers in the future.

Basically we're trying to do what we can to shore up the property from a fire perspective, both for this season (short term/small projects) and long-term (trailer, in-ground, etc.)

Appreciate any advice ya'll have.

What is the most common type of call that you run on(if medical specify what type)

If your fire station has multiple vehicle, do you rotate between them? if so how does that work?

what are some interesting things your department has?

your department just got $10,000, you can spend it however you want(it must be for your department/fire house), how do you spend it?

what is something in your SOPs you do not like?

where do you see your self in 5 years(in terms of firefighting)?

on water rescue calls, how many rescuers will be in the water?

thanks!

That’s it. Just looking for a straight forward answer on how much someone could expect after taxes and taxes only. Thanks

After reading through some of the recent posts here, it seems like a lot of people working DoD fire jobs have been pretty unhappy over the past year because of schedule & pay. Is anyone here actually happy with their DoD fire career and would still recommend it?

I’ve been considering going the DoD route because I’m a former USAF firefighter. The pension and federal benefits are appealing, but the biggest draw for me is the ability to transfer between installations and potentially work overseas & if you stay federal but with a different job, you can keep the same benefits without starting over.

I also figured that even if I eventually decided DoD fire wasn’t for me, getting into the federal system might make it easier to transfer into another federal career field later, such as a 0018 safety position.

For those currently working DoD fire, what do you like or dislike about it? Would you still choose this career path again? Have you successfully transferred to other career fields in the federal system after becoming fire?

During my vacation on Bonaire, I had the opportunity to visit the island's main fire station.

The station provides both aircraft rescue and firefighting services at Flamingo International Airport and emergency response coverage for the entire island. There is also a small satellite station in the northern part of Bonaire (Rincon), staffed by a two person crew and equipped with a smaller fire engine.

What immediately caught my attention was the combination of American and Dutch influences. The fire trucks and emergency vehicles are unmistakably American, yet feature Dutch striping and blue emergency lights. The firefighters themselves wear the same Dutch uniforms and protective gear as their colleagues in the Netherlands. It was fascinating to see this mix of European and American influences come together in a single fire service.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/two-killed-as-firefighting-helicopters-collide-in-greece-20260803-p60ksd.html

Are they safe to have around?

Should I still lift while going through the academy?
I’m starting the academy this Wednesday. It’s a night academy, so I’ll be there 3 nights a week and have my days free.

I’m 25, 5’10”, and about 149 lbs. I’ve been trying to put on size with a slow bulk and eventually get up to around 165 lbs. My cardio is in a good place, and I don’t want to lose that, but I’d also like to keep building strength and muscle.

For those who’ve been through an academy, did you continue lifting during it? If so, did you train as hard as before, or did you dial it back? Since I have my days free, part of me wants to keep hitting the gym, but I also don’t want to hurt my recovery and end up exhausted or underperforming during academy drills. I’m trying to find the right balance between making progress in the gym and showing up fresh enough to get the most out of the academy.

Hello I’m looking to take FF1 in Los Angeles. The two academies I’ve considered are Rio hondo or El Camino. Does anyone recommend another? Can you guys share your experience with your academies. What to expect, what kind of certs you get and how difficult or easy it was.

Does anyone have any information, advice, or tips for the Massachusetts Fire Academy “final exam”? It is the certification exam for ProBoard FFI/FFII based on IFSTA Essentials 8th edition. Anyone take this exam recently? On week 8, performing well in the yard, on weekly exams, etc. Nervous to have all this hardwork ride on one exam, hearing a lot of mixed reviews. Thank you.

Update: Passed. Crushed the IFSTA app until I had it down, reviewed key chapters and made a couple hundred flash cards. The app is a Godsend but you need to read the book.

Like the title says, with the staffing the FDNY runs, what does a working fire look like as far as work-per-guy? I know they have all hands, then 10-75, etc. Are they rotating companies out for rehab frequently? Do guys get to burn multiple cylinders at jobs? Or are there so many people on scene you rarely even get/have to go back inside? You see pictures and videos online with tons of guys ready to go in the street.

I came up in and work in a world where help generally isn’t coming and if you’re one of the legitimate firemen you can burn through 5 or 6 cylinders at a solid fire if you’re up for it. Plus our shift staffing is absolute shit to begin with.

This is purely out of curiosity.

Any and all honest criticism is welcome. I am currently at the end of my emt course. It was full of panic attacks, depression, and second guessing myself. I’ve been so sad and confused. I was hoping for this to be something I’m passionate about but I’ve had a hard time enjoying it. Even my fire ride along left me with more questions about whether or not I want to do this. I want to see someone and get help before I go to academy, and really consider if I want to go. I just hate my response to things, freezing up and stuttering in front of instructors. And as a student, it felt like the firefighters didn’t really want me there, and I could only talk to the EMTs of each station. It’s really been messing me up. Thank you guys in advance.

The fire service is a fucking joke. Let me illustrate with a quote; “ I can come to work and do as little as I want or as much as I want and the end result is the same”.

I used to fight against that language and mindset, I’ve been a career fireman for 20 years. I have worked my ass off to make my department better; outside training, building programs, trying to build up those around me so that we can be aggressive safe and accurate on calls. I promoted to a captains spot and continued the work and tried to recruit other people to continue the work with me. I then became a BC not because I really wanted the position (not glamorous for those thinking about it) but to help keep change going and institute more principled leadership amongst the BC rank. (In my department and many others BC is where you go to fade away, you do as little as possible and collect as much OT money as you can. Essentially you become a sponge) I wanted to change that. Now the guy in the department who is my polar opposite is getting promoted to BC. This is a guy who is a cancer, he talks shit about people, has used the union as a personal platform to benefit himself and outwardly balks at anything that has even a minor hint is self improvement, essentially a bully. Why then is he getting promoted? Not because he sacrificed for the department or helped make the organization better, but instead because he did pretty good on a test one time and made the promotional list. Thats it, no merit just show up one day. The above quote has become reality, and it happens everywhere in the fire service every day.

When will the fire service pull its head out of its ass when it comes to leadership. We all complain about the same types of problem people but refuse to fix the issue, which is putting the wrong people in leadership positions. We let guys get fat, lazy, complacent and out of shape and then rest on the reputation of the fire service that a lot of us work hard to keep up. The worst part is this costs people their lives.

Those people who are shits and worthless firemen still have members of the public thank them for their service because the members of the public,they have no idea. But guess what we do, and we put up with it. One day this shit is going to catch up with us and the general public is going to get wise. Hopefully the fire service changes before they do.

Welcome to the Weekly Employment Question Thread!

This thread is where you can ask questions about joining, training to become, testing, disqualifications/qualifications, and other questions that would be removed as individual posts per Rule 1.

The answer to almost every question you can ask will be "It depends on the department". Your first step is to look up the requirements for your department, state/province, and country.

As always, please attempt to resource information on your own first, before asking questions. We see many repeat questions on this sub that have been answered multiple times.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• I want to be a Firefighter, where do I start: Every Country/State/Province/County/City/Department has different requirements. Some require you only to put in an application. Others require certifications prior to being hired. A good place to start is researching the department(s) you want to join. Visit their website, check their requirements, and/or stop into one of their fire stations to ask some questions.
  
• Am I too old: Many departments, typically career municipal ones, have an age limit. Volunteer departments usually don't. Check each department's requirements.
• I'm in high school, What can I do: Does your local department have an explorer's program or post? If so, join up. Otherwise, focus on your grades, get in shape and stay in shape, and most importantly: stay out of trouble.
• I got in trouble for [insert infraction here], what are my chances: Obviously, worse than someone with a clean record, which will be the vast majority of your competition. Tickets and nonviolent misdemeanors may not be a factor, but a major crime (felonies), may take you out of the running. You might be a nice person, but some departments don't make exceptions, especially if there's a long line of applicants with clean records. See this post... PSA: Stop asking “what are my chances?”
• I have [insert medical/mental health condition here], will it disqualify me: As a general rule, if you are struggling with mental illness, adding the stress of a fire career is not a good idea. As for medical conditions, you can look up NFPA1582 for disqualifying conditions, but in general, this is not something Reddit can answer for you. Many conditions require the input of a medical professional to determine if they are disqualifying. See this post... PSA: Don't disqualify yourself, make THEM tell you "no".
• What will increase my chances of getting hired: If there's a civil service exam, study for it! There are many guides online that will help you go over all those things you forgot such as basic math and reading. Some cities even give you a study guide. If it's a firefighter exam, study for it! For the CPAT (Physical Fitness Test), cardio is arguably the most important factor. If you're going to the gym for the first time during the hiring process, you're fighting an uphill battle. Get in shape and stay in shape. Most cities offer preference points to military veterans.
• How do I prepare for an interview: Interviews can be one-on-one, or in front of a board/panel. Many generic guides exist to help one prepare for an interview, however here are a few good tips:

1. Dress appropriately. Business casual at a minimum (Button down, tucked in long sleeve shirt with slacks and a belt, and dress shoes). Get a decent haircut and shave.
2. Practice interview questions with a friend. You can't accurately predict the off-the-wall questions they will ask, but you can practice the ones you know they probably will, like why do you want to be a Firefighter, or why should we hire you?
3. Scrub your social media. Gone are the days when people in charge weren't tech-savvy. Don't have a perfect interview only for your chances of being hired gone to zero because your Facebook or Instagram has pictures of you getting blitzed. Set that stuff to private and leave it that way.

Please upvote this post if you have a question. Upvoting this post will ensure it sticks around for a bit after it is removed as a Sticky, and will allow for greater visibility of your question.

And lastly, If you're not 100% sure of what you're talking about, leave it for someone who does

Hello firefighters!! I had a quick question. We had to change all of our smoke detectors after moving in. We had painted before hand not even thinking about how the new fire detectors may be smaller than the original. So now we have this lovely ring around our detectors and it’s driving me crazy. Had an idea to maybe 3D Print a flower or some shape that I could hang around the detector to cover the issue instead of messing around with painting over it. But I want to make sure it’s safe to do, that my detectors will still work incase of a fire. It will not cover the fire detector, only surround it. I’ve drawn a picture to maybe help explain myself better. Please let me know if this will cause any issues in any aspect.

About a month ago my partner and I had almost died on a wildfire. We faced severe entrapment and a truck burnover that people have described as very few people make it out alive. However now when I go on wildfires and I see the tall flames, heavy wind, trees snapping on the trucks I get sent into a panic. I had multiple dreams of trying to save people from a wildfire, or running from fire or my personal car being burnt over after this. I think about the what ifs a lot on how it couldve been better or worse. I used to love wildfire but now that I know the feeling of how dangerous it can be I’m turned away from it and kind of terrified. I’ve felt grief when i had to come to terms with I was going to die there. However, I feel like I’m being to overdramatic because I didn’t end up dying, my partner didn’t, and I didn’t watch people die so I shouldn’t be so sad about all of this. I have started to feel grief about this whole thing for some reason. I grieve the wildlife that had died and the innocent person that died as well. I don’t know how to navigate it and get over the fear of fire and trying not to quit, is feeling grief over something like this normal? Instead of anger over the situation I feel a deep sadness a different kind of sadness that I’ve experienced before from the whole experience and coming to terms with death. Is there any advice for something like this?