firefighters: what piece do you ride?

*New recruit*
Half way through FRA in a metro Atlanta county. Hopefully, I will get into a double house and in a few years be riding a truck.

 

I'm currently assigned to an Engine in one of our City's most industrial areas. I worked on trucks briefly in my career but was assigned to our Heavy Rescue for 7 years. I just wrote my Lt's papers so it's time to go on tour again.....On our job the Junior A/Lt's move around filling in when Bosses are on holidays or out sick so my bags are packed.

Started my 23rd year in January.

 

Congrats!

 

Thank you very much.

 

Im on a volunteer company, and with the state forest fire crew.

As volly, we run 2 engines,brush truck, urban assault suburban and a fully functional fire boat, as well as our extremely last due, 1928 Athrens fox(still in service as last due, last ditch effort to save the town)

For the state, Its just a normal GMC 2500 with 900 gallons of water.

Check out our website if your intrested in pics..www.ihvfc.com

 

Wow I haven't been on in a while im surprised this thread kept going...
As far as the 80% volunteer comment, I think its like 4% of the country has paid only fd's. The other 96% is a mix of paid/call/volunteer.
As far as myself, I am fortunately part of the 4%, but I would gladly be a volunteer (or more likely paid on calls, that's more common around here), I mean I did it before I got the job. So more power to you guys, doing all that for free, that's outstanding, enough said. Thank you.
As far as the inter agency teasing, if we didn't have that, what would we talk to the cops about? I always give them shit, and they give it right back. It's all part of the job. It's no different than the very cadence you have sung time and time again, praising your unit, your branch of service, your MOS, etc...
I respect all Public Safety, regardless of the job description. Once you break it down, we're all doing the same thing, just providing people peace of mind. Whether protecting them from the enemy, the crime, or the fire, we all got into it for the same thing.
So as long as the comments remain light hearted and humorous, then what's the problem? You find me a Public Safety Professional that cannot take this kind of teasing, and I will find you someone that go into the wrong line of work.

 

I agree with the need for a thick skin, especially in professions where gallows humor is so prevalent. On the other hand, there is no need to come into a FF specific thread and start talking out of your ass about how FF's are overrated. Start a new thread for that debate.
I love seeing my cop buddies on a call. We'll stand around talking over a cup of coffee afterwards back at the station or on the side of the road waiting for the ambulance to clear so we can re-open the road. There is a lot of smack talk that goes on, and it's taken in good humor, and we know where the line is drawn.
If I knew the poster who put the comment up about cops v. FF's then it might be different. Had he worded his post differently, we could have laughed it off as part of the fun we poke at each other. He didn't, and NM Taco and I called him on it. There is something to be said about FF's sticking together as well.

 

Word. I would buy you a beer anytime, should you come out west. +1 for y'alls... for having a brothers back.

You know... I generally try to be polite to people I dont really know, but that was just juvenile. I could have been a little more PC. But whatever...

It actually sounds unfortunate. It must really suck where homeboy lives Cause if the firefighters are that bad where he lives,then imagine how bad everyone else is. Haha. JK!!!

Which reminds me of somthing I've seen posted quite a few times before, but still relevant, and even applies to me. The Irony is rich.

 

I am a Volunteer Firefighter for Ludlow Falls Fire Department in Ohio. We are a small department so I ride anything that has an open seat.

 

Full-Time Dispatcher @ Hanover NH Police Dept, I tell all you guys where the fuck to go! hahaha our dispatch center does 23 towns and 68 Agencies, Police/Fire/Medical. I'm only 20, but want to be a cop in the worst way, only another year :/

 

Crash trash - P19, Striker, P-23
Engine occasionally

 

How do I get the little symbol under my name, for Fire Rescue?

 

I know im what the guys at work call a "spark" but I find it interesting to see how different departments run different calls and what type of apparatus go to certain calls. i still have a bit of confusion about county fire departments, I see alot of them in the magazines and such, so is your district the county? is it all one dispatch? i mean like i said before im in a little city and I cant imagine trying to juggle an area that big with that many locations, so I mean you dont gotta break it down barney style but fill me in on how this works...

 

We're a township department. We cover 36 square miles of territory, including a state park and a federal highway. We have two stations, one that is manned during business hours, and one that has a live-in. That way we are guaranteed at least one truck to respond as a "first run" while the other volunteers go and get another truck. We have a railroad that basically splits the township in half, with a station on each side. Whoever lives on that side is assigned to that station. At my house we have 2 engines and a brush/medical truck along with the mule for offroad rescues. The other house has an engine, a brush/medical, and the squad for extra support on scenes.

Hope this made sense and helps a little bit.

 

We aren't a county dispatch, but more of a regional dispatch center. We do 65k calls for service a year throughout our dispatch center, the city of Hanover has 14k full time residents and is home to Dartmouth Hitchcock medical center and the ivy league school Dartmouth college. We border Norwich vt so we dispatch for a bunch of fire depts in Vermont too. Our dispatch center has two dispatchers on all the time except for Sunday nights from 2300 - 0700. Basically we just take calls as we get em.

 

oh i see what youre saying, you just work with the individual depts as the calls come in, rather than having one giant are to dispatch and then determining which piece to send to it. that seems like a great cost effective measure, eliminating the need for a few extras dispatchers who would otherwise handle a few hundred runs a year...
ok im gonna go out on a limb, like i said in understanding some of the rest of the countries methods. ill describe how we do ours here in the metro boston, and it almost sounds like the same as a regional or county dispatch, but with the added dispatch at each city level. (sorry i know it might be hard to read)
but anyways, we have a about 30 or so cities and towns, with boston and its surrounding areas, known as metro fire. it encompasses a few different counties, but not all towns in each county, as entry into the metro fire is on a town by town basis. each town has its own fire and police dispatch, but there is a metro fire dispatch, who for the most part, does not dispatch anything, until certain events transpire. if a community has a fire, the IC has to update fire alarm, and update metro (through fire alarm) on a constant basis, to establish what resources he might need. the communities dont necessarily communicate with one another, but they all use metro fire dispatch. metro fire is responsible for the mutual aid assignments, and running cards and the like, while individual city dispatch is concerned only with the city theyre in.
now is county dispatch like that, minus city dispatchers? i know everyone is different, but you guys are counting whole counties in your fire district and that blows me away, does that mean you could respond for like say 30 mins to a call across the county? (we have done that in the past, but theres gotta be one hell of a fire going first)

 

Sorta off-topic...
jackwithcorona, are you ever assigned to Engine 50 on the Freedom Trail, or whatever it's called?
I was out there a few years ago with some friends and walked into the house. I mentioned I was a firefighter and they handed me a cup of coffee and we stayed and talked for 3 hours, gave me a tour of the house (badass ticker upstairs btw) and basically made me feel at home. That's one reason I love being a FF. You go to most any house in the country and get welcomed, no matter if you're a volunteer or a paid dept.
I make it a point to go to the local FD anytime I'm visiting somewhere new, and anytime we have FF's from other departments show up we have the coffee and show them around. It's worked in St. Louis, Austin, TX, and Boston so far.

 

no not engine 50 for me thats boston... i know a guy there though, amazing how small the community really is, and how awesome the brotherhood can be. anytime you come back this way come by newton (borders boston to the west) and we can grab a cup of coffee or a beer... but youre right about the at home thing... its amazing how all of ems gets together, whether it be cops, emts, nurses at the hospital, or other ff's, the level of respect given to each other on a daily basis for the big and small things makes me love our profession. the fact that you can go to any station and they treat you as one of their own, all the way down to the sense of urgency and utter thoroughness when the call comes for one of our own, its just awesome, and i wish that all of society was like this.
on another note, not quite as extreme but the respect between service members is evident across the country too. whether its someone to chat with at the airport or even a ride home from it, its things like that that really bring us together.
and for all of this, its the reason i think that everyone should do some time in the service, military or civilian

 

I work for San Miguel Fire District in San Diego County. We have 8 Stations. I work out of Station 19 as a Eng Co Captain. We are 3 person staffing and Average about 15 calls a shift. We ride on a 2005 Ferra, love the Engine. 515 H.P Detriot Diesel, she gets up and moves!!

 

Fort Lauderdale Fire Department. 12 Houses, 2 of which are duel company's,
TRT, Haz-Mat, Dive Rescue, SWAT and bike Medics, ARFF truck, 43,000 calls per year. And about 400 paid fireman on shift "way understaffed". We only run 3 men on engines and our ladders, and 2 men on our rescues. Except for hazmat engine 4 guys. Only been on 6 years but still loving every minute!