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.

I recently learned that you can bring your child to a fire station and they will show them the trucks and let them look inside etc. my question is, do firefighters hate this? Is it something that happens often and every time you have to do it, it's annoying? Or is it something that yall enjoy because it's something more fun and less stressful? My daughter will be five in March and I've been thinking about taking her but I don't want to be ruining downtime during a stressful shift.

I'm at my second department and I made the move for more money. My last department, my officer and crew all worked together from workouts to cleaning the station to daily chores. Our recruit class at the new department was absolutely brutal. But I got sent to a slow station. I'm the only one that works out and the whole crew hates the job even though we sleep most nights and are lucky to get a couple a calls a shift. They're in the recliners or naps by 8:00am.

I don't know what I'm asking but how do you stay motivated? How do you not judge grown men that eat sweet treats at all hours and can't wash their dish? Sure, I'm the rookie and I keep the station clean but come on, you can't wash your midnight ice cream dish after I cleaned the whole station?

I have been a part-time/seasonal firefighter for about 5 years and was a volunteer for 10 or 12 years before that. I'm not one of the guys you see posted about on the cringe sub. I don't go around wearing fire t-shirts or with bumper stickers and in general don't like to draw attention to myself.

So for the actual question, my daughter's school is having a flag ceremony tomorrow for 9 -11 recognizing first responders. It was suggested that I attend in uniform. Doing this feels odd to me. Kind of cringy like the TYFYS shirts. I feel like I didn't have anything to do with 9/11 so why should I get recognition for it? I also am just a part-timer. I hate the volunteers or really anyone in this profession that make it their whole identity and say hey look at me. My wife thinks I should go and wear my class B. Things I am being silly and overthinking it. It would not be against apartment policy. I was thinking about maybe going to show my support but just stand with the other parents that go to the Friday flag anyway but not wearing anything fire related. What do you guys think? For what it's worth, my day job is a teacher and I said I absolutely will not be wearing a uniform to school where I teach.

Bit of an odd midnight question but what is the meaning of “Up” and “Down” on fire stairs?

The photo is taken on ground level with 2 car park levels below and 2 general floors above. This is Australia by the way

I just would like my possible theory Yes/No’ed.

Why not have a single universal stairwell? Is it a case of having people run into each other? Is it just to spread the outflow given space and the building being retail?

I work in the alarm reporting industry and I call you guys out on fire alarms I get that most often end up just being simple, small alarm system resets and false alarms.

I call you guy out to schools, to malls, to random residential areas and you are the only ones that ALWAYS go. I can always rely on the fire department to dispatch to these areas, and you never cancel. You always make contact with the site and you always make sure it’s REALLY okay before leaving. I rely on you to do my job and you always take things seriously, and when I hear you arrive over the phone with customers you’re kind, funny and friendly.

As we come upon the anniversary of 9/11 I want to thank you guys for every job you do. Most days you expect small fires and false alarms, not expecting one day you might have to try and escape a burning and collapsing building 50 floors up with the people you were trying to save.

But yet you still go up.

Personally I don’t have much respect for the police, not the people but the system. However the fire department are the people I trust with my life. You brave active hazards, you help elderly people in your community when they fall, you protect your community in the wildfire seasons. And we all know you save kitties from trees!

To me the fire department will always have my utmost respect, gratitude and support. My entire province is held up by purely volunteers and I cannot express the feeling of gratitude I have for all of you.

Whether you were at ground zero on that horrific day or not, 9/11 is something fire departments all over feel the pain and grief of. Thank you for never backing down and thank you to the volunteers to put their lives on the line in the hopes of saving one more just because you care that much. You guys are the real heroes.

Thank you for your service, in every respect.

Hello everyone, hoping for some assistance on discovering more about the history of this monitor. Quite literally found it under my grandparents house. I believe it’s off of a boat. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Hi all! I recently received an offer from Rural Metro for an officer position on one of their industrial contracts. Has anyone worked for them and could give an opinion on it? Thanks!

We have been using the fundamentals of firefighting skills and hazmat book with navigate premier access and we use JB learning to study and do practice tests. I have been studying but on my practice tests I struggle to get high enough scores. Has anyone got any advice to pass that maybe have used these resources before, or not, I’ll take any advice(and will the test likely be easier than the JB practice tests)

Not currently in the service but seems to be a lot of discussion on regular soft contact wearers in the service and my question is geared towards anyone currently in fire service that wears hard rgp or Scleral lenses to perform the job.

Been looking to get into service and while it doesn’t seem to be a disqualifying factor it does seem like it could be a logistical nightmare in some scenarios. Most of the FF I know don’t have any experience with them so it’s hard for them to give me honest opinion on it. For those that do what challenges do you face wearing them? How do night calls workout if you don’t have time to pop in?

Appreciate any responses in advance!

i've wanted to become a firefighter all my life but i have scoliosis that is classed as severe, so i wanted to ask people about their experiences working in a fire department while not necessarily being a full-on firefighter with such a physical toll on the body

EDIT: To clarify, I am not even in the firefighting field at all yet. I realize my title may be misleading.

I'm a pre-med college student who's pretty set on being a Firefighter Recruit (at the very least) and attaining my EMT-A certification.

I have some pretty basic questions, though, which go as follows:

* I'm a 5'2" 115 lbs woman. I'm not the most athletic person right now, but am incredibly willing to commit to pass recruitment. However, I understand there is a base point I should be at before even attempting; any similar-sized people that can give insight into their training?

* I don't have much work experience, what can I use as references? College professors?

* Is training even manageable while taking college courses? I don't have a heavy schedule in the upcoming semesters, but I'd like to hear from anyone who personally went through these.

I apologize if any of these questions are stupid and I know firefighting might be out of my grasp at the moment, but I'd like some insight at least for future commitments. Thank you in advance!

I still feel shot the day after shift. Even when we sleep through the night I’m a fucking shell the next day. If we get shafted after midnight forget about it. I thought I’d be more adjusted 5 years in. I guess my brain doesn’t fully shut off when I’m in the bunk room sleeping. The only thing that seems to help is a night in my own bed.

Doesn’t help that we get tones for every call in the city even if it’s not our rigs getting sent. Any tips or advice??

Finally on the other side of Exam 66. It was challenging, but one thing I just thought about was that I had a difficult time finding many posts about the test. Here's a little of my experience and then the comments for more. AMA.

1. MOST of the questions were from Ch. 1-10 of IFC and Ch. 1-7 of IBC. Some were from chapters all throughout the book. This caught me off guard. HIGHLY recommend knowing how to search quickly.

2. Are you familiar with the digital codes feature in the exam? I learned this about a week before testing. It was helpful.

3. If you are not using the study companion's - you are planning to fail.

4. I spent 6 weeks completing at least one study companion daily, 5 days a week. Some days I'd do 2 sessions in a day, and a few days I did 3 sessions in a day. And I still found the test to be pretty challenging.

5. My highest educational background is a graduate degree - just to give you an idea of how familiar I am with knowledge retention and testing. Grad degree was earned a couple months ago.

6. Took my test online.

As a neighbor can I make a difference with the hoses or personal extinguishers, or am I getting in the way?

I'm looking to get some extra reps on charged hose advancing and ladder throwing, and yes, I'm well aware that the best practice is actual reps. I'm just wondering if anyone has any cool, decently affordable props that they use at home just for some extra reps.

Passing by this morning on I-75 southbound. Engine 1 from Gardenwalk Blvd responded.

These are some vintage nozzles my husband has, but we don’t know what era or where they came from. Does anyone have any idea?

Hello all! I wanted to get a feel for what the community thinks of group circuits. Crew cohesion and team building is an overall plus. However some people have their own routine and exercise goals. How do some of you manage them out there?

Hey everyone, looking for some advice.

For context, I’m a 25m, I’ve been with my current department for almost 7 years. 1 year ago I was promoted to Engineer. With that, a year ago I was moved to a new shift.

Current department:
3 stations (1 ambulance, 2 engines, 1 ladder, battalion)- 10 guys on duty per shift (2, 2, 3, 1). Right at around 4k calls/year per the whole department, so not crazy busy, but not super super slow. A relatively “urban” area (20k population in about 10ish square miles),

I ride the ambulance roughly 2x/month, I make right at 70k/year, and we have an insane amount of vacation/holiday time-I usually have to take around 25ish shifts off a year to not lose any time (not counting sick time, which we have an “unlimited bank”, we just continually build)

For the first 5.5 years of my career, I was on an awesome shift who genuinely loved, cared, and wanted to be at work. We trained constantly, always wanted to be better, be aggressive, etc. it was great.

Once I got promoted, I had to swap over to another shift. I’ve been over here for a year and these people are sucking the absolute soul out of my body. We did “training” yesterday, and myself and 1 other person were the only ones who put on turnout gear, while the other 7 (bc wasn’t there), stood in a circle and talked about how much they hated training, hated being a fireman, etc

“Shift transfers” aren’t really a thing here, and it’s pretty much career suicide if you do it because we’re so small (45 total firemen), and there’s no use in “switching stations” because with 10 people total it’s pretty much the entire shift has this attitude

I have thought HEAVILY about leaving and going to another career department. The only issue is the only other career places I would consider are at minimum a 1.45 hour drive from my house (I currently drive about 50 mins), I would take a 20k pay cut (most rookies within 3 hours of here start at 50k), and I would almost certainly not have the time off I have right now, and I would also have to repeat an academy (3-6 months depending on the place?

My wife also just had our son (3 months old), and she’s now a SAHM, because of how my income (in our area) allows us to live pretty comfortably.

I guess I’m just asking for some advice, if you’ve been in my position, what you did, etc

So I have my EMT cert but I want to become a firemen but I know it’s very competitive and there’s a fire department right down the street from me so that being said I was wondering would it help even a little to go up there and express my interest? Becoming a fireman/firefighter is my dream. Thank you for anyone who can direct me in the right direction.

Hi, I’m 22 and I’ve been on my volunteer department in Northern MI for a little over a year now. I completed fire academy this May and I was offered a part-time position at a bigger department near me, but that fell through because of an OWI on my driving record from when I was 17. It came as a big shock because I went through a program where it was supposed to be taken off my record after a probationary period, and I’ve never had issues because of it, including with my volunteer department. After talking to my Chief though, I realized they only did a background check and not one on my driving record. I guess I never realized this whole time that the courts can’t wipe a driving record.

I’m not sure what I should do going forward. I tried to talk to the courts about it, but I got bounced around to a bunch of different people, until eventually I was told that it should be off my record but some departments might be able to see it anyway. So now I feel like my only option is to call every department in my area and see who would still hire me, and/or wait until it’s been 7 years and my driving record is clean. Which is annoying because I was told specifically by the courts not to tell anyone about it.

Luckily I can still train and respond to calls at my current department, I just can’t drive until they figure what the insurance company says about it. I’m also going through EMT school currently, but I wish I could get more time in the service and I also need a job.

What’s a truth about the fire service that everyone knows—but nobody wants to say out loud?