View Single Post
Old 01-31-2004, 10:40 PM   #3 (permalink)
Rodney
Observant Ruminant
 
Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town
My brother-in-law is one. It's a hard job to break into, but if you get some schooling first (take classes through community college, help with fire reserves or a volunteer department) and are willing to move to where the work is early in your career, you can get in. My BIL had to move a few hundred miles for his first job, but after he got a couple of years' experience he was able to get a job back in our area.

You have to be in pretty good shape to get in, but you don't have to be superman. The joke is, once you're in you can pretty much let yourself go to pot and nobody'll say anything. Like my brother-in-law, who's got such a huge pot-belly now that his back is constantly killing him.

My BIL, and the few other firemen I've met, are basically guys who like action and like getting their adrenaline up. There are fires of course, but depending on your locality there may also be medical emergencies, and a whole lot of stressed-out people to deal with. The BIL was having some health problems, but he wouldn't transfer from the ghetto area stations to the quieter, suburban stations because he liked action too much. They're not all like him, but most people don't become firemen because they like sitting around....

Different fire districts have different rotations. Some do 24 on/24 off for several days, then give you three days off. Some departments do several days on, several days off. It can be kinda hard on family life, but not as hard in some ways as being a cop because cop life can wear a guy down and make him bitter and hard to live with, while most fireman are really _into it_ and like their lives. My brother-in-law, for example, has a whole room devoted to firefighting collectables, equipment, and so on.

One thing I noticed about my BIA is that he could always take time to go off on a trip when he wanted to, because he and his coworkers constantly trade shifts. So if he needs two weeks off at the end of the month, he can work extra shifts for some other guys, and they'll cover him later. Like I say, this kind of arrangement can be hard on the spouse and kiddies unless you all have some kind of special arrangement. The BIL and my sister have no kids, and she's kind of independent anyway, so it works out. Also, she's the one who really likes to travel, so she understands if he works a lot of extra shifts to build up time. And if she really needs to see him, she stops by the station.

And it can be dangerous. My BIL almost died once that I know of -- got out of a burning building about one second before the floor he was on reached flast point after stupidly ignoring the recall signal. And I knew this woman firefighter, a competitive bodybuilder with a really strong build, who had her back (and a few other things) broken when another fireman fell off a roof and landed on her. She had to retire on disability. She had been so muscled up that her spine was fairly well protected, and the break didn't permanent damage her spinal cord. But she never really walked right after that -- kinda painful to watch. Keep in mind, these things can happen.

Last edited by Rodney; 01-31-2004 at 10:50 PM..
Rodney is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360