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I feel like I should be anal about this and say that I was a firefighter (same place as Kashew, for 4 years), and still have hopes of becoming one again (at my current department), but I am not one at the moment. What do you want to discuss anyways? New technology? The decrease in fires everywhere? The death of volunteer service? Fire's drive to take over EMS [and save it's own rear end]?
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Feb 12, 2010 19:26
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Crazy Dutchman posted:I are a fireman If the EMS megathread has taught us anything it's that.... poo poo needs to go in GBS.
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Feb 12, 2010 19:49
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sky shark posted:Being wholly ignorant of the day-to-day aspect of the firefighting field, why is firefighting dying? Marx covered it pretty well. Volunteers really can't do the job that well any more, but are resistant to change. Cities are hurting for money, and the total number of fires is generally down all over the place, meaning the staffing levels of 15 years ago aren't necessarily needed. Firefighting is one of several professions that can't go away, however it's definitely changing. I will consider myself lucky if I can get onto FDNY Fire, since they are facing a lot of obstacles right now.
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Feb 15, 2010 00:13
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Cage Kicker posted:I have actually considered becoming a firefighter post-military. Would any of you please describe the process of becoming a firefighter to someone who is almost completely ignorant? Crazy Dutchman hit the important stuff, just want to stress that the specifics of the process are very dependent on where you are trying to become a firefighter, and it's an uphill battle to get into any paying firefighting position. Unless you already have something else lined up for if firefighting wasn't an option, I'd suggest looking into becoming an EMT, since it's a similar line of work with a much higher potential of a job as soon as you become an EMT. Also, as someone with military experience, you should hopefully qualify for veterans points when trying out for any fire department, that's huge. I know FDNY adds 5 points to your final written score for being a veteran, combine that with the 5 points for being a city resident (assuming you became one) and you're looking at 10 on top of whatever your regular score was going to be, which improves your chances incredibly.
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Feb 20, 2010 18:09
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Crazy Dutchman posted:The process can take quite awhile, even if you do get hired. I got hired in about 4 months beginning to end, but I work for a smaller dept. Large depts will take at least a year, and if you have to wait on a list, years. Before Chicago FD tested in 2006, the last test was in 1994, so the guys they hired in 2005 had been waiting over 10 years. I've wanted to get on FDNY (Fire) since around 2005. I took the written in 2007. I'm sure I'll be taking the next test, whenever it happens. It's definitely not a career that you just jump into.
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Feb 21, 2010 05:09
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revenance posted:What's the primary draw into this job? Some combo of tradition, philanthropy, adrenaline rush, etc? Just from the description of the current state of affairs, you guys are risking an awful lot for whatever the reason is. At least 90/10, most likely higher. And even with the problems and changes occurring in the field, it's still something that is very appealing if you're drawn to it. I personally can't describe what the draw is other than to take the easy way out and say it's just kind of a calling, you either have interest in doing it or not, and beyond that you get paid pretty drat well for what it is that you do most of the time (not a lot).
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Feb 28, 2010 23:33
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Kashew posted:With us its about 99/1. When your coverage area is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the region, combined with a lot of commercial real estate what do you expect?
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Mar 1, 2010 01:12
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Kashew posted:Well with the college, I expected at least a few more real calls related to students. Whatever happened to the weekly drunk driving accidents? It's like crumpled car doors always open, fires put themselves out, water leaks into every smoke detector, and half the town needs to service it's heaters more often. I mean I like living in a safe area, but it's going to hurt the fire service if all the new people in the fire service have dumpster and car fires making up the bulk of their fire experience. So why don't you just take your vollying to the next level, and start making fires? Seriously man I understand the gripe, but it comes off as just wrong to me to bitch about there not being enough human tragedy in your response area. Not to mention you're basically stating one of the major issues facing Firefighting as a whole; improved fire prevention is killing fire suppression.
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Mar 1, 2010 08:46
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Kashew posted:drat. How bad are your knee and back? Volunteer companies take anyone that can pass a physical usually. You're living proof of this!
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Oct 20, 2010 23:11
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Kashew posted:Har har har. I'm not *that* out of shape. After all, you are a shape.
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Oct 20, 2010 23:27
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FooGoo posted:Speaking for large municipal departments (Los Angeles specifically), I've been hearing more and more that you really need to have your Paramedic nowadays to be competitive. I also know of candidates working as EMTs, with fire certs and academy, HAZMAT, Explorer and volunteer work not being able to find a job. I can't speak of the LA or California market specifically, however I'd say the easy days are over for people looking to get into any big city department. With the lower rates of fires and tight budgets many cities are looking at layoffs or staffing decreases through attrition, making getting on that much more challenging. If at all possible you should do whatever you can to make yourself more marketable to the department(s) that you are trying to get on. If LA staffs FF/medics then do your best to try and become a medic, as well as the other certs.
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Oct 22, 2010 22:12
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Marx posted:Yeah, attrition is pretty big right now. This past year we've retired 8 dudes, not looking for any replacements either. I believe Albany NY is and has been 20 people under full staffing for years now. It was only when they got to 35-40 under that they hired 20, to get back to their maintenance level. FDNY currently staffs 60 5 man engines (5 FFs+ the officer), with the rest of the engines being 4 man, however the city wants to kill the 5 man engine altogether and then close companies.
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Oct 26, 2010 04:57
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Kashew posted:I'm not sure about that. Usually when the dispatcher says something like "fire coming out of the windows", the fire is coming out of the windows. The fact that you relate someone describing an actual structure fire to "crazy sounding BS" shows just how few fires your department does  I agree with Crazy Dutchman
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Nov 9, 2010 23:03
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invision posted:Okay bros, what are yalls workout plans? A little subforum called W&W... Though for actual content. I'm still pretty much a fatbody, and would probably fail the training academy right now if I tried, but when I'm at the gym I do deadlifts, squats, bench press, military press, and cardio/strength endurance stuff (pushups, pullups, crunches, stair master, row machine, kettlebells). Endurance is more important than pure strength.
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Nov 16, 2010 22:11
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Marx posted:There's one like, once a year. Most of us bs in the GBS EMS thread though. Which is now in Goon Doctor. There have been regular ask/tell's, but they just never last. This has been the best so far, and it's not really keeping much momentum.
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Nov 18, 2010 18:48
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invision posted:Also what's your guys opinion of vollies having lights and sirens on their POVs? Personally, I think it's kinda "look at me" but it seems like everyone else out here has some kind of set up going on with their vehicle. (Not that I'm about to go drop money for anything, I think flashers + living ~3 minutes away from the station is good enough.) Depends on the area being covered and the people with the lights. The department I volunteered at stopped giving people permission to have lights at some point, and while everyone that came after that bitched, I really think it was the right move. Too many people wanted to just use them to drive wayyyyy too fast to the firehouse (cough cough Kashew cough), or in other irresponsible ways. If you are in a rural enough area where members respond to the scene in their personal vehicle and one person gets the apparatus there then I can see a greater need for it. Ultimately consider the risk you put yourself at in order to try and respond to the station that much faster. How many times does your department get a "real" call? Is it worth risking your life to make it on the engine for the false alarm?
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Dec 1, 2010 04:15
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This thread makes me miss my jolly volly days. So much hope. Now 4 years since I stopped being active in that stuff I'm just another cynical rear end in a top hat doing EMS because that's where the jobs are. Maybe someday FDNY Fire will hire people again  .
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Dec 8, 2010 00:50
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Kashew posted:Just don't come back. It's terrible. I know, I do have facebook.
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Dec 8, 2010 01:40
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invision posted:Is it wrong to want to get toned out to something? In a sense yes, but it's somewhat expected.
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Dec 25, 2010 04:53
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Kashew posted:I mean, you can wish for a fire alarm without feeling bad, but who wants one of those? All I ever wish for is an elevator, a patient that walks, or BLS backup. After that it's all good.
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Dec 25, 2010 17:48
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What frustrates me the most is when we get calls that come from PD or other similar agencies. I've been dispatched to calls in subway stations where all we get are an intersection and nothing else. Show up at 42nd St and 7 Ave (the middle of Times Square), ask a dispatcher where our "sick" patient is, only to have them ask us if there is a subway station there. Cue 20 minutes of walking up and down the largest station in the system looking for someone, who they had ended up taking to an office deep inside the station. What if the person had actually been sick? Every thing that was done on that call made it more difficult for us to find the person in question. That's actually one of my pet peeves about our dispatch system. No matter where the call is we always get an intersection or some sort of address. If you see W178 St/Fort Washington Ave you are supposed to know that is the George Washington Bridge. If you see Imlay and Browne Street in Brooklyn you are going to the Cruise Ship terminal and potentially on a boat (motherfucker!!). A friend once got dispatched to JFK airport from Manhattan and if I remember right was given the address of JFK Expressway/JFK Expressway. WTF!
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Jan 24, 2011 23:42
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Kashew posted:The most fun I ever had was in a basement filled with 2 inches of heating fuel. We dumped so much loving kitty litter down there. We basically filled the basement with 3 inches of it. I stopped by the firehouse last night to catch up with some people and I noticed your stats for last year were non-existent. Are you all burned out?
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Jan 25, 2011 18:17
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Kashew posted:Y'all need iamresponding. I saw that when I stopped by the firehouse the other day. Interesting concept, and not surprising in the least that they bought into it, since that department has to work to find ways to spend all the loving money that they get each year.
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Jan 27, 2011 03:08
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Kashew posted:It's so hard to get FF jobs right now. It's so hard to get any public safety job right now, really. FDNY EMS is continuing to hire at a normal rate  Probably because our attrition rates seem pretty terrible 
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Jan 28, 2011 23:35
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Kashew's pic is at least 10 years old, but has a good story (from what I can remember). Garage fire, department managed to keep it contained to just the garage, which as you can see was a total loss. The old woman who lived there was so thankful that she left a large sum of money to the FD when she died, and they were able to buy an engine because of her. The ironic part is this is the department that has such a large tax base (because many residents are very well off) that even with a low tax rate the loving place has more money than it knows what to do with.
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Jan 29, 2011 01:09
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invision posted:Am I gonna have to have a class B CDL to drive that too? Nope! Just 4 hours of EVOC.
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Jan 29, 2011 01:23
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Kashew posted:Y'know, they made it so difficult for me to get qualified that I never did. Apparently, I'm a terrible liability behind the wheel. :sarcasm: Lets not go down this road man, I know more than enough about your vollie career to bust your balls terribly here, and I don't really want to do it (alright I REALLY DO WANT TO, but I'm trying to be an adult). If you can't fathom why some of the people in charge didn't want you behind the wheel then I don't know where to start.
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Jan 29, 2011 01:51
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Kashew posted:I am not worse than any of our current drivers. That's for sure. I doubt your driving ability had anything to do with it.
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Jan 29, 2011 02:55
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invision posted:do I really want to get my EMT-B? Yes. If you have any expectation of ever trying to get paid to do this poo poo then accept EMS into your life and get on with it. I got my EMT on a whim because the FD would pay for it. I quickly took a liking to it and decided to change majors to paramedicine since I hated what I was doing at the time, and I figured being a medic would increase my job prospects. I loving love being a medic, I love EMS, and even if I do manage to make it over to the other side of FDNY I plan on continuing to work as a medic somewhere else. edit: Also, a good friend, who is a paramedic captain in the EMS department where I volly'd, and was a chief of my fire department when I was starting out there had something very wise to say about it. If you are in this business hopefully a part of why you are here is because you have some desire to help people. With Firefighting you often do not interact with people directly. How often do you go to calls where it was an alarm system malfunctioning? Or a sprinkler that was accidentally set off? Often firefighting involves dealing with things, but not people. Every EMS call is for a person that needs (or at least... wants) our help, and it can feel very rewarding to help people on a much more personal level. /End of me sperging about EMS in the Firefighting thread. senor punk fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Jan 29, 2011 |
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Jan 29, 2011 03:18
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invision posted:In the next month I have hazmat ops, pipeline emergency, an SCBA class, ISO tanker shuttle, and clandestine drug lab class. You remind me so much of myself at 18  . I was going through paperwork and my filing cabinet over the weekend and when I came across my fire training certificates I had to laugh. I took just about anything they offered for a good year or two... and then everything dropped off when paramedic school got tough.
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Feb 2, 2011 20:21
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invision posted:Well it was more like "Hey invision, we know you don't really do anything so uh, you're coming to these classes. Oh yeah,and the tanker shuttle. You're welcome." Yes I do, just like I said.
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Feb 2, 2011 21:19
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invision posted:gently caress those suits. What's wrong with 'em?  I'm actually mulling over putting in a request to get Haz-Tac certification at my job. We have Haz-Tac ambulances that have all the necessary gear for them to be able to suit up to class A if need be. It's bullshit, but it looks good on the resume and is the first step to becoming a "Rescue Medic", and those guys get a 12% stipend for their fancy title.
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Feb 7, 2011 07:00
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Kashew posted:Hazmat tech was incredibly boring in the classroom. I majored in biochemistry, so hearing super basic explanations of chemistry for hours on end drat near drove me to tears. The only thing I will enjoy about the training is the suits, and I think the fact that it's 1-2 weeks of paid training and not having to work the truck.
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Feb 7, 2011 07:27
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Kashew posted:Montour Falls is pretty drat sweet. It's seriously like the NYS Fireman's Resort and Training Facility. Granite urinal dividers, that's all I'm going to say. Hah, I wish we got sent away for training too. Everything is in house and done at Randall's Island.
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Feb 8, 2011 08:13
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Kashew posted:You missed out. It's in the middle of nowhere. The grounds are awesome. The beds and stuff are pretty comfortable. The lounges were sweet. The food was loving *fantastic*. We had some real good steak one night. And for those over 21(I wasn't at the time), there's a bar right across the street that everyone goes to at night. Dude I stayed multiple times at the NYS Fire Academy on SRLFD's dime before you ever thought of being a member. I know you're lying .
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Feb 8, 2011 18:03
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invision posted:Hey,do you guys have any interest in starting an A/T thread with me? I feel like if we had a well put together A/T thread we might be able to generate a little more interest than this thread being tucked away in a forum that no one visits. A/T about what exactly? And there's been A/T firefighting threads here and there for years, none of em last. edit: Kashew posted:Oh. I thought you were saying you never got the chance. Meh, whatever. I thought it was an awesome place. I would go again if someone was paying me to go out there, but unfortunately my department does about 99.9% of things in house. senor punk fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Feb 9, 2011 |
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Feb 8, 2011 19:51
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Kashew posted:I could never do it as a career. There's just too much politics in it. That's in the volley world, not the paid world.
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Feb 15, 2011 07:40
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Kashew posted:It always felt like some people higher up were political appointments/favors and that they'd chase out anyone they didn't like. Hell, the town supervisor subpoenaed emails from some medics that were critical of the town's current leadership to have them fired or some bullshit. Your complaint has nothing to do with emergency services and everything to do with entrenched politicians, nepotism, cronyism, etc. Also it's frequently the case that higher ups are actually appointed positions.
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Feb 17, 2011 02:08
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invision posted:any opinions on that unpaid internship thing that I posted up there? Am I reading right that you live rent free all the time, not just when on duty?
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Feb 18, 2011 00:20
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invision posted:Yeah. I've been thinking about it a lot today, and I'm going to call up to their station tomorrow to try and talk to the guys that are doing it. The way I see it is that I get free rent/utilities/etc, free EMT-B and FF1, in return for working 24/48, which would also look good to a career dept. The only thing I'm really worried about is what the gently caress kind of part-time job would hire around that schedule? That would be my concern. You still need to eat and pay some other bills, and rotating schedules like what's common across Fire/EMS are tough to deal with. Flexible part time/per diem work can be hard to come by. For me really the only thing I can really manage to do ontop of my horrible odd rotating schedule is to be a per diem paramedic somewhere else, which isn't my choice, but when the pay is $25-30/hour it's hard to argue with doing EMS all the loving time.
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Feb 18, 2011 03:11
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