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Cage Kicker posted:I think I speak for everyone when I say Nonono, we have air packs, but we don't have the wildland packs with snacks and candy and shelters.
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May 4, 2012 01:13
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Honey Badger posted:Does anyone here have an experience with wildnerness firefighting as opposed to "regular" work? Is it an entirely different process? Do you have to go through the state / national government as opposed to your local departments? I'm trying to get a feel for all the opportunities in the career field as I prepare to head back home, and it sounds pretty rewarding. (And I'm not going to lie, "smokejumping" looks like an awesome job even though I know nobody starts off doing that and actually getting to that point is probably drat-near impossible) I worked for a couple years on an engine crew and then a long time on a hotshot crew. Its all federal, and if you really want to spend a summer doing it getting a job is not hard. Just go online and apply to a bunch of different places where you haven't been and want to go and pick one. Engine if you want to be fat and lazy or hand crew if you want to be a little less fat and lazy. You will never be a smokejumper sorry bud. The government is trying to phase them out, there are very few bases around the country and most years the bases don't even accept new recruits. Once you become a jumper you are one for life as long as you can run 3 miles every year in the allotted time. Plus the physical demands are loving rediculous... oh you did a mock fire for a week digging line all day with only a few hours of sleep? Good job, now run the 24 miles home! It's kind of like people who are joining the marines to be a SEAL, not going to happen invision posted:Nonono, we have air packs, but we don't have the wildland packs with snacks and candy and shelters. Haha look at this structure guy pssh
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May 4, 2012 18:59
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Should I paint #YOLO on my helmet for this training fire tomorrow?
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May 5, 2012 02:27
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That's p. dumb bro
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May 5, 2012 03:46
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So the fire was a 2 story brick structure. One of the last burns, I'm at the top of the stairs feeding hose to the guys attacking the fire, when some guy who I have no idea who he is walks up the stairs and sits down next to me, dangling his feet where the railing should be. I look at him and said "uhhh...sup dude?" The guy turns and goes "This is Satan's fire, and I'm just sitting here breathing." Then he got up, patted the top of my helmet, and left. What in the gently caress?
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May 5, 2012 19:55
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My Spirit Otter posted:That's p. dumb bro I had to look it up. Dear gods why is that an actual thing? Exactly the sort of attitude I want the guy backing me up on the hoseline at 
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May 5, 2012 21:57
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Hey girl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNN6zQdf6ZY&feature=youtu.be
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May 7, 2012 23:12
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The department does that kind of stuff frequently because they can charge businesses bunches of money for "corporate team building events". http://www.fdnyfoundation.org/2011/05/11/fdny-firefighter-for-a-day-team-challenge/
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May 22, 2012 21:06
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Have some home-made interior video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiMXaPwwY0U
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May 29, 2012 10:50
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Dickhead helmets and mounted face shields to helmets make me laugh. Never been a MSA fan. I prefer the Scott packs. Is anyone else wearing black gear? Seems a lot of places still have tan. We are wearing globe extreme at the moment. It is really nice light and fitting gear. Our "extra" choice boots are the globe leather pull ups as well. Very nice boots.
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Jun 1, 2012 02:57
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Loco179 posted:Dickhead helmets and mounted face shields to helmets make me laugh. Never been a MSA fan. I prefer the Scott packs. Wearing the G-extreme turnouts here. I'm wearing the globe leathers but I really like the leather Pro Warringtons for turnout boots. Those things are like wearing tennis shoes.
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Jun 1, 2012 05:03
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Forget what I'm wearing for boots, but they're awesome. I'll check my gear and report back. Fit like a glove. Only a pain pulling them back off. We're using Scott packs and Morningpride gear - no complaints there.
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Jun 1, 2012 06:02
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Here's our awesome european SCBA's Also I'm using some awesome kangaroo leather gloves that I bought, I think they are Dragon but I'm not sure. By far the best gloves I have used, and only like 80 bucks.
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Jun 1, 2012 06:25
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 New York plans to make ALL emergency vehicles stop and pay tolls.Article posted:Ambulances and fire department vehicles responding to emergencies on the New York State Thruway now must stop at the toll booths on their way to and from incidents. Full article: http://dailyfreeman.com/articles/2012/06/19/news/doc4fe050944400d063703001.txt I don't even understand how something this stupid gets turned into a law.
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Jun 20, 2012 00:48
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invision posted:
Well thats stupid. Here in Dallas, the FD gets special emergency vehicle tolltags that let us through without sending the city a bill.
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Jun 20, 2012 01:02
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Crazy Dutchman posted:Well thats stupid. Yeah, seriously, every FDNY ambulance I've ever been in has a special EZPass that I assume gets us a free ride on the bridges and tunnels.
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Jun 20, 2012 03:50
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What the actual poo poo? I could understand if it was a non-emergency response, but for actual code-3 emergencies? Well, at least it looks like the "Thruway"'s official policy is "We're not charging them anyways, so whatever." quote:In a statement issues Tuesday afternoon, Thruway Authority spokesman R.W.Groneman said: "The Thruway Authority does not charge emergency vehicles. In a rare instance where a toll is inadvertently charged, this law establishes a reimbursement procedure."
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Jun 20, 2012 04:12
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senor punk posted:Yeah, seriously, every FDNY ambulance I've ever been in has a special EZPass that I assume gets us a free ride on the bridges and tunnels. The orange ones?
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Jun 20, 2012 05:41
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Kashew posted:The orange ones? Yes
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Jun 20, 2012 06:10
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Nice. I thought those were only in state vehicles. Also, I have been charged a toll before in a pumper. We were headed out to do training in bumfuck and the first tollbooth didn't give us a ticket because they were like "Oh its no charge" and the second one tried to charge us the fee for a lost ticket.
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Jun 20, 2012 06:15
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What a pack of nongs. Here (Sydney AU) most of the motorways are now fully electronic tolling. For marked emergency vehicles, the camera takes a photo, the person who checks the photos sees that it's an emergency vehicle, and the bill is sent to the government. If there is a tollbooth, the driver has to stop at the "change given" booth, the operator writes down the plate number and you wave & drive off, with the charge being added to the Government tab - the exception to this is if you're running on a hot job, in which case you just go through the e-tag lane. That's all well and good except for the couple of tollbooths that don't have any operators and also have boomgates. Nobody ever thought about that. I learned, whilst following a Police car responding to a hot job, that if you nudge the boom it will swing out of the way on a hinge. Of course if you are running hot, and angle towards the operator booths, they wave all the queued cars in front of you through without having to pay. Seen that one once or twice. The other motorists don't seem to mind. But making a responding vehicle stop, pay & get a receipt? No, you're just a first-rate nong.
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Jun 21, 2012 13:29
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There are two things that make this even worse: 1. The NYS Thruway Authority carries an executive board of seven members all with salaries well over $100k a year, in addition to a bazillion other inflated costs and 2. The NYS Thruway was supposed to be tolled only until the construction of the thruway was paid off, which occurred a few years ago. However, the state decided it was just a great revenue generator and kept it.
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Jun 21, 2012 17:40
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So for someone who is interested in firefighting, what exactly do I need to do to land a job, or at least get the ball rolling? Is EMT certification mandatory? Do I attend Fire Academy on my own dime beforehand, or is it similar to a Police Academy where they send you if you qualify for the job? Also, are there any issues with qualifications carrying over to other states? Right now I'm living in Texas, but in about 8 months I'll be moving to South Carolina for 4 years. Is it even worth trying to do EMT / Fire Academy stuff here in Texas, or will it be "invalid" or something in another state? I want to be as prepared as I can be as a candidate, but I also don't want to spend an assload of money on something that I don't need to.
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Jun 21, 2012 21:16
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If you can find an EMT class that will complete before you leave, I'd try to get that out of the way. You should be able to take the national boards, and have an easy time achieving certification (or already technically have it) in whatever state you wind up in. It should be about 5 months or so of classes, more or less depending on how many hours per week your course runs. Firefighter training will likely take you far longer, be more spread out, and isn't likely to transfer if you don't clear it all in the same state and get your national certification. As for training - if you want to get paid, you'll likely need to find a major city, join their department, and go through their certification program. Take any national boards offered by that training. You'll need that state's equivalent of Firefighter I and you'll definitely want Firefighter II as soon as you can get it. You'll probably need to get some kind of Basic Vehicle Rescue class in before you can test on FFII. If you aren't living in a major city that offers that, you'll want to find a way to get the prerequisite classes to test on FFI and FFII. Check with your local community college - they most likely will have a program being offered. In this situation, it might be a better idea to become a volunteer while you get your certifications - it will give you access to the equipment you need to take your classes. Up here in PA, to get a job with any location that isn't a major city you pretty much need First Responder and FFI to even get consideration for the job. Our newest hire has Fire Officer II, Fire Instructor III (or somewhere thereabouts) and had to promise to get EMT certified by the end of the year (he had First Responder instead). Not to overload you with too much information, but as soon as you get FFI, you'll want to take a FF Survival class ASAP. Right now I'm a volunteer, with my FFI and BVR (and Special Vehicle Rescue, because cutting apart buses is FUN!). Hopefully I'll be able to take EMT in the Fall, and test out on FFII in October. I just need to finish the FFII application, which in PA is the most difficult part of the test.
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Jun 22, 2012 00:39
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I'd like to point out that a lot of Volunteer departments will either pay for your training (including EMT certs) or help you out with the cost. My department doesn't do either, but we have a deal set up with the local community college that gets me something like 70% off of EMT and fire academy, plus I don't have to rent out bunker gear. Plus, I have all kinds of HAZMAT and rescue certifications from TEEX, which is provided for free through the department/TEEX via grant money. If I didn't have my GI bill, I could literally move about 3 miles and join a different department that will pay for everything. I might wind up doing that anyway since they run EMS and it would be nice to get time on the boo boo bus while I'm going through the fire academy.
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Jun 22, 2012 01:07
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Certs vary state to state. Paramedic though is pretty much accepted everywhere though the NREMT bullshit. Most large departments have their own recruit class or school. We put everyone ( even certified ) though EMT and Firefighting class. We do this because of the quality of training involved. The end product has to be good or the old guys will eat the training guys for lunch...lol I know Texas is a very Paramedic heavy state. Where I live ( Indiana ) is not a very paramedic heavy state. I always always advise anyone to get their paramedic. Fire training is ok but quality varies greatly and large departments know this.
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Jun 22, 2012 02:18
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Texas and South Carolina are both IFSAC states so the seals should transfer (but you should check with the states fire commission to be sure) for fire certifications, and they also both use NREMT certifications, so whether you get your training in Texas or NC, you should be able to transfer it to the other state. If you plan on coming back to Texas, definitely get your Paramedic certification, because you'll end up with one along the way more than likely anyway.
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Jun 22, 2012 02:32
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So a while back I was talking about how we should charge civilians money to get to pack out and go in the burn house. Today I found this: http://www.incredible-adventures.com/firefighter-adventure.html $995 dollars for one day of playing with the jaws and going in a burn building and rappelling.
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Jun 22, 2012 06:57
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invision posted:So a while back I was talking about how we should charge civilians money to get to pack out and go in the burn house. They've got something like that in an old hotel in NY that everyone used to rave about at the FD. I can't remember the name of it, but senor punk would know more about the place I'm talking about.
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Jun 22, 2012 07:17
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Thanks for the very helpful replies, I had never heard of a volunteer service subsidizing certifications before. Is that common? I had looked at volunteer FF as a way to test the waters and see if it is something I could see myself doing as a career, but I saw a lot of people saying not to bother. If I could volunteer and get them to cover some of the costs of certs that would be perfect. I was also a little confused by how you get into volunteer work; some sites made it sound like it had an application / screening board like any other job, and some made it sound like literally anyone who wasn't a handicapped felon could stroll in and start.
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Jun 22, 2012 08:25
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Honey Badger posted:Thanks for the very helpful replies, I had never heard of a volunteer service subsidizing certifications before. Is that common? I had looked at volunteer FF as a way to test the waters and see if it is something I could see myself doing as a career, but I saw a lot of people saying not to bother. If I could volunteer and get them to cover some of the costs of certs that would be perfect. Here's my opinion on volunteering before deciding on it as a career: Some people honestly just can't handle it. Emotionally, physically, or otherwise. I think it takes a special kind of hosed-upness to be able to pull a dead person out of a car then go back to the station and eat dinner. Over the past year, we've had 3 or 4 guys join, work their first MVA, or go to the burn house, and decide that it's not for them. I'd much rather go through any of that as a volunteer and decide it's not for me, than spend tons of money on training and certs, spend time getting hired, then you finally grab a hot one and it turns out it's really just not your thing. TONS of people go from the streets to the academy and love it, others leave pretty quickly, but at that point you've already spent the money on it. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion on it, and I'm still pretty new to the fire service. The way to get in to a volunteer department is either call and ask when their next meeting is, or go to the station and ask someone. Show up to the meeting, ask someone "how do I apply?" and they should get the ball rolling. It varies a lot on the process though. Some do background checks and all kinds of other poo poo, and then there are other departments like mine, where if you have a pulse and aren't a complete shithead, you're probably getting voted in. Some places might have a recruitment officer, others might not. Where in TX are you?
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Jun 22, 2012 08:46
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invision posted:Here's my opinion on volunteering before deciding on it as a career: I'm in Austin right now, but I'm planning to be in Columbia, SC by the end of the year. So far it sounds like my options are either A) do my EMT cert here and then go through Fire Academy / Paramedic stuff in SC, or B) Head to SC and volunteer, hopefully getting the chance to have my certs subsidized a bit in the process. I can certainly do the EMT cert there too (it's actually cheaper since I'm not in district for Austin Community College anyways, but apparently the fall class in SC has been full for a long time already so I'd have to wait a semester to get my EMT certification). I'm still kind of in the research phase of everything because firefighting has always been something I kept at the back of my mind but never thought I really had a shot at, so now I'm scrambling a bit to learn and prepare as much as I can, but this thread is really helpful.
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Jun 22, 2012 09:03
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My volunteer department pays for any course that I go on. But that being said, this island is 95% volunteer firefighters. I'm sure if there were more paid fire departments that things would be different.
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Jun 22, 2012 15:46
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Honey Badger posted:I'm in Austin right now, but I'm planning to be in Columbia, SC by the end of the year. So far it sounds like my options are either A) do my EMT cert here and then go through Fire Academy / Paramedic stuff in SC, or B) Head to SC and volunteer, hopefully getting the chance to have my certs subsidized a bit in the process. I can certainly do the EMT cert there too (it's actually cheaper since I'm not in district for Austin Community College anyways, but apparently the fall class in SC has been full for a long time already so I'd have to wait a semester to get my EMT certification). If you go to a VFD meeting, there will definitely be someone there who knows the whole process/can point you at someone who does. Plus, volunteering is by far some of the best networking I ever did. The fire community is pretty small.
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Jun 22, 2012 16:10
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Cage Kicker posted:If you go to a VFD meeting, there will definitely be someone there who knows the whole process/can point you at someone who does. Plus, volunteering is by far some of the best networking I ever did. The fire community is pretty small. Going to the monthly meeting...may not be the best way to form an opinion about your prospective FD though. All the petty fights and crap.
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Jun 22, 2012 17:14
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NVM
invision fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 22:37
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Just got done on a structure fire, a fully involved trailer house. My loving hood burned, and we didn't even go inside. invision fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Jun 25, 2012 |
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Jun 25, 2012 23:21
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'Fully involved trailer house' is a redundant statement.
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Jun 26, 2012 01:51
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I guess that will give you an excuse not to have a pussy pink hood.
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Jun 26, 2012 02:28
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Dim, Tired, and Elderly posted:I guess that will give you an excuse not to have a pussy pink hood. Just ordered another one. 
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Jun 26, 2012 03:03
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