Volunteer Firefighter

Never been one. My father did it for over 30 years for the government. They also assisted city, county, and volunteer firefighters. I always hung out with them in the summer and had all my training. I would stop with dad. He was required to stop and help.

When my dad retired he wanted to move back to his home town. We lived in a very small, very rural area. The game warden shook my dads hand and teared up. He thanked him for saving his son years earlier.

Volunteer fire fighters are essential people. They piss me off sometimes though. Ummm. I got gravel in my driveway for a reason jack ass. Thanks for tearing my yard up.

I did it for just under 12 years. Left after an injury leave. While I do miss it, I agree with several others that there are pros and cons.
Pros
Great way to serve your community
Great way to meet your community
You may save someone's life.
Usually great group of folks who may become life long friends.
Learn some really cool skills (like how to do a 5th door removal or get into a van with an air chisel)
Cons
Lots of time. Depending on how your department does it, you will probably meet at least once a week for normal training. Then there will be hose testing(every 6months) re certs, and fundraising. And of course calls. I know you are in my general neck of the woods. A barn fire may be a 12+ hours. And there is hose washing, restocking, reports, etc that can take hours also.

You may be called to testify in a lawsuit. That sucks, lol.

You will see death and despair. My first bad accident was semi vs Blazer. Semi won. Turns out my buddy's dad was driving the Blazer. If I didn't recognize his vehicle, I wouldn't have know who he was. Several suicides. You will NEVER forget the things you have seen.

Politics. Every group has politics. About 5 years in, my department had a huge fight about a truck. Literally split the department in half. Have to admit it wasn't as much fun after that. I moved to this area so I wasn't on one side or another. But most everyone else grew up here so that played into it as well. I have belonged to lawfull groups and unlawfull groups. All groups have politics.

If you get hurt on a call, you are FUCKED. The insurance Co will demand a drug test. We had that situation.
I spend my life on the other side of the fence now. But will always be glad I did it.
WE

wascaptain said:

dont get me wrong sir....
but no way i would do it for free.
its always the working stiff that volunteer.
how many doctors and lawyers you ever met a volley ?
i was a pro and never met one in 25 years

hats off to you for wanting to help your fellow man!

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Used to hear that all the time if we had a mutual with paid guys, lol.

yo
wilderb, my favorite pros were the food discounts we got while on duty, and the chicks we got off duty

wascaptain said:

yo
wilderb, my favorite pros were the food discounts we got while on duty, and the chicks we got off duty

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LOL. Maybe I did get friendly with a couple of EMTs. And I do have to admit that being a FF got me out of being charged with a DUI. And the fact that the cop"s cousin owned the tow company. Most expensive tow I ever had but still way cheaper than a DD.

I managed a bar for most of the time I was on the Dept. So after late night events, we would go down and have pizza and couple of beers. Then we got a new cop in town and he put an end to that.

The years I was on saw lots of big changes. When I first joined, we drank all the time. If we had a structure fire, the owners usually had beer for us afterword. We had beer at the dept and hung out after meetings, calls, etc.

After 911 things changed of course. Lots of grant money for stuff but lots of strings attached to that money as well. So rules came into play. While I'm sure it made it safer, it meant we hung out less together.
When your a pro, you do things on a regular basis. As a volunteer, we could go months without a fire, although that was unusual for us . People get rusty. Nothing scarier than being on a nozzle and not being sure of the guy behind you.

When I got hurt, only one guy from the dept came to see me. Now my other life, those guys were there so much that the nurses knew to get ready for "dem crazy bikers". I was only on for a few months after that and still got jacked on my pension. Despite having my years in and for 8 years I was in the top 3 for call volume. Politics.
WE