buddyhfx said:
I think you were mislead at the recruiting center. But like you said, I don't know, I've only been in the trade for 17 yrs and every year I see new faces joining up, either OT's or direct entries and most of them don't have any FF background including firefighting education. If everybody needed a degree, their wouldn't be a need for our fire academy.
There's a difference between job experience and life experience and life experience is what I was reffering to. To do your job while travelling in different part of the world and getting paid for doing this, to me, this is a part of getting life experience. I had a kid on my crew the other day telling me that he was getting frustrated because he hasn't seen any dead bodies yet. I told him that the first priority of a firefighter is to try to not see dead bodies and that maybe the reason for this was probably because we were doing a good job as far as prevention is concern, which is a bis aspect of our job. Maybe he's not ready to see dead bodies and he doesn't know that yet. For me, I've seen enough on deployments, that I don't wanna see one corpse anymore.
You seem to think that we all live in a trailer and that we don't have a life. I'd be willing to compare you life with mine. I've been getting a pay check twice a month since I was 17. Never been on welfare or unemployment. I've known a lot of people ''getting into their 30's'' that can't say the same. I'm 43 now and i'll be retiring quiet comfotably in 10 yrs or less, what else should a person want?
If you're not ''impress'' with this system or this is not to your standard, you've made the best decision of your life. The military is not for everyone. It's not for the one that wants a life base on the same daily routine over and over. We have people like this at this time in the trade and when the time comes for them to deploy or get posted, which is part of their jobs, they always find a way to get out of it. Wich means, somebody else has to do their jobs for them.
Good luck to you.
Cheers....
Those kids are everywhere. I had the enormous benefit of starting as a volunteer and gaining experience and instruction from a former Dartmouth District Chief. He taught me more about
how to do the job than anyone, any book or video ever could.
I had to deal with a nasty experience last winter. We had been called to a rig that had blew out in Northeastern BC. Simple logistics said that we wouldn't arrive on scene for at least 12 hours. When we did arrive we found out that three guys didn't make it off the rig. We were staying in the same camp that these guys had and I found it very tough to be in the same building as some of the people (Camp cooks and attendants, other rig crews) that had worked with these guys. Early into the project I overheard two of my guys talking about the simple devastation of the rig itself, how hot the fire got, the amount of stones and small boulders that the well blew out, etc. The thing was that they were talking about this in the smokers shack while some of these other camp tenants were.
I chalked it up to my guys being relatively new, first big project and excitement. But to see the faces of the other people as they discussed this had a tremendous effect on my as a person and as a professional. I took the guys aside and had a word with them about it and cut that talk off right there. No gallows humour as long as others are near, no talk about the job unless asked and even when asked be very vague. Too often the young guys just get horny, for lack of better term, and get all wound up in the Kurt Russell syndrome. Luckily for me, when I started as a volunteer, I had men like that former D/C to reign me in before I got started! I carried that into my paid work.
buddy, I have had the same sorts of "kids" around me before and I can say, from first hand experience, that they usually aren't as prepared as they might like to think they are to see that body. It usually ends up with someone puking or with a CIS Intervention at some point. What goes along with the seeming desire for carnage (from the young fells) is the attitude that "It can't affect me" or "What will the guys think if I am a bit messed up over this?" What follows is a rapid downward spiral and, alot of times, those guys leave never to return.
It's a funny job we have. Waiting for someone elses day to turn to complete ratsh*t. How do you test yourself? Training? Well, yeah, training accomplishes some of it. But most guys yearn for that true test - the full blown structure fire, the one you have to fight from your belly, near flashover conditions, spongy floors, steam burns, soot an hot, hot, hot. I liken a firefighters job to playing highschool sports (Bear with me) Imagine what it would be like always practicing for that basketball game but never getting to play. Think of it that way and you may understand why the young guys get "horny".
I feel for the young guys having been one not so long ago. Having to listen to the war storied and some of the more ignorant members telling them that they "don't measure up" I went through that with some but also had that wise old D/C right there telling me to ignore them. It's hard being new and wanting your shot. You've had all the training and want to put it to that test. You want to sit at that table with the old guys swapping war stories, you want to graduate from "Johnny the Probie" to a role of mentoring the new Johnnies and telling them your war stories. I am sure we have all felt that at one time or another.
When I teach (I am now a Captain of the training division in my Vollie Dept) I teach by telling the guys how I screwed up, not telling them how many puppies I had saved. Take that, FWIW. I just find the guys have an easier time relating to me because I am not up there beating my chest, I am showing humility, something that can be very important in the fire service.
I like
helping people who feel that they have no one else to rely on. That is why we are called, right? And I love it so much that I would do it for nothing. In fact, I do fight fire for nothing as a volunteer, but I also have the paid service that I am in. But, truth be told, I don't need millions, I just want to be comfortable. I am just as happy being able to pay the bills as I am having all the extras to be quite honest. I am happy to be back home with family and not on the road at least 250 days a year. The bottom line is that I fell in love with the job and everything, or almost everything, that comes with it. There are times that suck but the joyous and enjoyable moments far outweigh the bad.
Here's my free advice: You want to try for big bucks? Go west young man, go west. Get on with an oilfield outfit and you will have your shot at money and glory. But be wary. It ain't easy. Turnover is at less than two years now because guys either burn out or can't hack the pace. You are paid fantastically for your work but earn every penny (Not saying others don't) I lasted over four years in the field ops side before jumping to management/supervisory roles and I only did that because I have a very patient wife, I can drink alot of coffee without having to pee, I can drive long distances in big fire trucks without smashing them, can stand having crude oil all over everything for 16 hours a day, and so on.
They say pictures are worth 1000 words? Well go here: www.safetyboss.com I got my start with these guys before they merged with another, larger company. Take a look at some of the pics.
I hope some of this helps. I'd be foolish to compare my job to anyone elses in the fire service and won't even try to. Each job has its own unique challenges, rewards, maddening things, thuds, etc. It's up to you to find out which is going to suit you. I caution anyone reading this though: Firefighting is not a hero's job. We are ordinary people who have chosen, by time, to put ourselves into extraordinary situations. Some do it for love, some for money, some for both. It's a job, just like driving a schoolbus or being a mechanic or nursing. They all have challenges.
I'm done and feeling quite winded.
