30 years...

Happy Easter everybody, I hope you all had a wonderful day.  I enjoyed the day spending time with family and celebrating the life of Jesus Christ. It was a wonderful day.

On April 1^st, 1983 my dad began his career as a paid firefighter. Tomorrow he will celebrate 30 years of service to the citizens of our town.  He has been through good times, bad times, all those in between times… you name it. As you read in my previous post he has also had the health issues he has battled. What is most amazing to me though is through it all he has never stopped loving the job and even on the worst days he still showed up.

He began just like all of us, a backwards riding Firefighter, also had his EMT license but that wasn’t really recognized until later on in his career.  In the mid to late 80’s he began doing public education for local schools and daycares and became quite involved with that. In the early 90’s, he was promoted to Lieutenant and placed in the admin division as the Public Education Officer.

Over the years he has taught thousands and thousands of children and adults from schools to the workplace about fire and life safety. He has become one of the most famous people in our town. He can still walk through a store and hear people yelling “ Fireman Bruce “.

He still holds the rank of Lieutenant/EMT/Public Education Officer and his duties also now include being the department PIO and we will also say go to man for anything that breaks lol. Usually that has to do with computers or communications equipment though.

As I sit hear tonight and think about it the thing I keep thinking about over and over is in 30 years what have his eyes seen? What has changed in 30 years? And, if there is anything at all that he could change about his career up to this point what would it be and why?

I know if he could remember everything he could write a book a mile long. 30 years of knowledge and experience is priceless. I am still young and beginning my career and I ask him questions every day about the job. I am a sponge right now and I believe that you have to know where your department has been to understand why you are where you are today and make the decisions to lead you into the future.

To all you young guys out there, if there is anybody around your department that has 20-30 years or more on the job you need to asking them every question and learn possible thing you can from them today because tomorrow you will be the guy with 30 years and the rookie will be looking at you saying, “ What all have you seen in 30 years, what has changed?”

Now to the senior guys, teach your rookies everything they need to know. They are looking up to you and depending on you. They are the guys that will be replacing you. You want them to keep your department going strong. You need to leave it better than it was when you began.

30 years… I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for me in the next 30 years of my career. I look forward to every moment I get to be a firefighter!

Dad… congratulations on 30 years of service. With no plans of retiring soon you still get plenty of time to keep teaching me. Thanks for introducing me to the greatest job on earth and I am honored to follow in your footsteps. I hope I make you as proud in my career as I am of you and what you have accomplished in yours.

Be safe!

Making Memories...

            Hello everybody, it has been awhile since we last posted so I decided since I had some free time for the first time in a while I would try to throw something together. Here lately I have had a little something on my mind so I will share that with you all.

            In November of 2000 I was beginning my career in the fire service as an explorer with my local volunteer department, my older brother had just joined up as a member of the department, and my now sister-in-law was somewhere along that time frame of joining too.  My brother and I were working on following our dad’s footsteps and excited to do so. Dad was so proud that we were joining up and wanted to do what he does.

            One night on a mutual aid fire, while I was still an explorer, I got the opportunity to do some firefighting with my dad. The fire had occurred at a local lumberyard and they had knocked the fire down but were digging through the hot spots. They decided it wouldn’t hurt to let me get in and dig with them… I am glad they did. You see, that was the first and last time I ever got to do that with my dad, my brothers never got the chance. Not because he passed, but because he received some terrible news and diagnosis with his health and was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  You can bet that I have never forgotten that night though.

            Some time had passed and the doctors decided to do a bone marrow test to see if the cancer had spread to it or not. The day they did the test they took a piece of bone from his backside, they also told him no more firefighting. NO MORE…. WTF!!! That night there was a large carpet store fire across town. He asked me to drive him over there so he could at least watch. Before we arrived they had called for mutual aid from my volunteer department. When we arrived there he told me, “ Get your stuff on and go do your thing!” I did, but then later I returned to check on him. I found him sitting on the hood of a police car and could tell before I got there that there were huge tears in his eyes. That is another night I will never forget.

            Having to see him sit there and know he could never do again what he loved so much was probably one of the hardest things I will ever see in my entire life. If you have never experienced it with family, a co-worker, close friend, whatever, I hope you never have to. As you all know we live, eat, breathe, and sleep fire. That was he also.

            Another issue that hurt was he was told because the chemo would weaken his immune system that he could no longer go into the schools and teach fire prevention classes. That’s his job; he is the Public Fire/Life Safety Education Coordinator. So, BOOM, everything comes to a halt in the blink of an eye. He however overcame this. Kicked its ass!

            After he beat it he was released to start teaching in schools again, could respond to fires (without active firefighting), could get back into a groove. That is what he has done too. Has had a few health issues here and there but has been to work nearly every day even when he was feeling a little under the weather. The man is unstoppable.  The day he got released was a memorable day.

            The last memory I want to share happened just the other day; last shift actually. In October I was hired at the department dad works at, the department I had grown up around. Until last shift I hadn’t caught a working fire yet. But, that all ended the other night. Right as we were preparing dinner at the station we caught a structure fire. We responded, put the fire out, and as I exited the building to doff my equipment the first person I seen standing at the bottom of the steps was my dad, smiling at me with a smile that was full of pride, joy, and love. You guessed it; I will never forget that.

            Not everybody is as fortunate as I am to get to work with his or her father, mother, brother, etc. If you are however, never forget the memories you get to make together on the job. There will come a day when you won’t be able to anymore.  I just started and dad will have 30 years on April 1^st. he has no plans of retiring soon but I know he will one day which means I have to be making the best of time and get in as many memories as I can with him on the job.

            Thanks for taking the time to read this post and letting me share this with you.

Be Safe!!! 

Growing Pains

March 1st, 2013 will be a big day for my department. This day will be the first shift for the paid members of our department. We have had an all volunteer department since 1977. A combination department is something we never thought would happen. We have worked for years to get paid members and have always been shut down.
So what now? Are things really going to change that much from the department I have known for 13 years? I am sure they are, but for the better...I hope. S.O.P changes across the board, restructure of  some duties for the personnel, and finally addressing issues that have been put on the back burner because of lack of time or people to do them are some positives coming from this. With the positives are also going to come the negatives. The hurt feelings by those that don't end up getting a paid position, the egos or power trips between the paid and volunteer members, and the " it's not my job" mentality that some are going to have are just a few negatives. We are going to have to work through them all and change the negatives into positives.
Is the transition going to be all lollipops and rainbows? I don't think so, but it will all work out if we make it work. Some people are going get mad and feeling will be hurt. We all have to remember that we are all in it for the same reason. We are still a family and just like any family we are going to have growing pains. My hope is it will bring us closer together as a department. We will see but we can only get better.

Until next time, be safe

Are you prepared?

At a recent fire department meeting our Chief had everybody stand up and move against the wall if they would be retiring due to meeting their required years of service or meeting the cities retirement age requirement within the next 10 years. As I looked around I noticed the wall was full.  Counting them up there is 21 people who will be retiring. To fill these positions it will take 41 promotions. There is going to be some major changes in our department and the impact will be huge.

Moving these 21 men to the wall and looking around at the other members it is very easy to see we are a very young and inexperienced department without the guys that are nearing the end of their careers. As a matter of fact at least 50% of our department has 5 years or less on the job. Which has got me thinking that we are already behind when it comes to preparing to become the next leaders of our department.

Today fires in a lot of areas are few and far between. Due to advancements in fire retardant construction materials, sprinklers both commercial and residential, codes enforcement, public fire safety programs, and many other factors fire just don’t happen like they did 20-30 years ago. Fires today are also different in the way they burn. They are hotter and burn faster than fires of the past, mainly due to materials involved such as synthetics.

Today’s firefighters will not see the fires that the firefighters of the past have seen.  That is why the experience, knowledge, and tactics to name a few that we will lose over the next 10 years are so invaluable.  No matter what we do now to prepare us for the future we can still never make up for what we are losing as these guys retire. We must start preparing ourselves right now to step up and become the leaders we need to be to take our department into the future, because we are the future and its rapidly sneaking upon us. This is the time we should make ourselves like a sponge to absorb everything that the experienced guys can teach us and pass on. 

We must also look at where the fire service is going and how the types of calls we respond to in the future will be different than today. Think about the future of lightweight construction, sprinkler requirements, automobiles, etc. The list of all this could go on. To know where we are going though we have to understand where we have been and then make the necessary changes.

This is not a problem that is only effecting my department, this is, has been, and will be going on all over the country. As my chief stated to us… “ It is up to you to decide where you want to be in this department and then make it happen. Prepare yourself today because tomorrow you will be the one calling the shots.”

Are you prepared?

Be Safe!

Burn Room Bad Ass

Burn Room Bad Ass….

You know who I am talking about. I love these guys that will go into a burn room and stand up just to melt their face shields/bourke's. Then they come out and say… “ Dang it was hot in there!” Well… DUH!  What the hell did they expect? That’s not the bad part though. They will keep their burnt shields and helmet stickers on their helmets to make it look like they have really been in some heat or had a good working job. They think they have something great. I have a news flash for you…. You look like an idiot! We all know you haven’t done crap. All you did was stand up so you could melt your helmet and look cool. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have melted my shield and stickers in a burn room but I didn’t stand up on purpose to do it. It just got that hot, and we shouldn’t have been in there when it did. But I have always replaced my melted stuff with new stuff. Will I ever melt something again... more than likely yes, but I will not parade it around, and will replace it asap.And not that a face shield/bourke's is much good anyway but when it is melted and you cannot see through it, it is no good to you that one time you might could use it.  This equipment is expensive and it is our lifeline to going home or being made into worm dirt. Take care of it; it could save your life. If you want to be a " bad ass" do something extraordinary and worth telling. If you want to be a dumb ass... well just stand up in a burn room....

Be safe! 

All In

It's been a few weeks since we have had a chance to post anything. A busy holiday schedule didn't leave much time for anything extra. Between work, Christmas, New Years, birthdays, parties, and sickness, something's just had to fall behind. Now we are well into the new year and its time to look at things with fresh eyes.

Being that it is a new year it's time to take a close look and reevaluate your role in your department. Are you in for the long haul or the quick trip around the block? I have known guys that are just in it to have the title of firefighter and a t-shirt with the departments name on it, and the guys that only wants to make a run if its a house fire. That's all fine and dandy, but what about the MVC's, brush fires, investigations, and special events? Those are part of the job as well, right? These are the individuals that usually want to stir the most shit as well.

What about training? It's part of the job too, the most important part. Lets say you have a guy the that shows up to every training session and every class offered but you never see him on the foreground. Or the guy that makes every run but never seen him at a training session or class. ( yes we have training requirements but you all know how that plays out in a volly dept) are either one of these guys doing your department any good? Simply put, no! The guy training and not on scene is useless. He has the skills but is not helping the team out one bit by not being there side by side with them. The guy making the runs but not training is useless as well. Sure he is a warm body with a heartbeat and a pair of hands, but without the training is a liability and a safety hazard to everyone on scene.

Coming from a volunteer agency I understand that not every training or every run can be made, but coming from a fire service home growing up I understand that a commitment was made when I signed up for the job, not a pick and choose what I want when I want commitment, but a do what you have to do because you said you would commitment. That is what's owed to your department and the  citizens in which you protect.

So what do we do? Easy, up hold your end of the deal and encourage the rest of your department, shift, company, or whatever to do the same. We all have to hold each other accountable. As an officer, I have to do better at getting my guys in gear an making sure they are ready when the tones drop, but they have to make sure I'm ready as well. You can't swim in the pool standing on the edge, you have to jump in and get wet. The same applies to this job, you have to go all in or go home.


Until next time,
Stay Safe

Attention to Detail

I have heard it said “it’s the little things that count”. This holds true in all aspects of life and also holds a lot of weight in the fire service as well and should with every member of your organization.

Attention to detail is defined as accomplishing a task through complete concern for all areas no matter how small. It shows 1) you have pride in yourself and 2) pride in your job. It should show in everything you do from your appearance to your apparatus to your station. It matters, and believe me it gets noticed.

I am a stickler when it comes to appearance. Not in a vain kind of way but in looking professional. My biggest pet peeve is boots being shined. It doesn’t take but just a minute to slap a coat of polish on your boots. It may not seem like a big deal to you but to your officer in charge, chief, or even the public it is. It shows that you care about your public perception and the job you represent.

I have also been accused of being anal when it comes to apparatus cleaning. I know some that do the bare minimum when it comes to cleaning the rigs. Just spray it with water and back it back in and call it good. Some that give it the white line special (wash from the white line down) because that’s the only part that is seen up close. I believe in washing the whole thing and drying it because I hate water spots and then finishing it off with tire shine. Yes, I am all about the tire shine. It looks better and stands out, shows you care.

Do you make sure the engine room is swept, mopped, everything in its place? Do you knock off the sheetrock debris from the tools from the last fire, and wipe the tools down?

I know it seems like it doesn’t matter but the attention to the little things pays off. Some may call it OCD or petty but to those that matter your attention to detail shows caring and pride in what you have and what you do. It gets noticed, trust me.

Until next time,

Stay safe