Firefighter Thread or (EMT/PD/LEO/Nurse/Paramedic) roll call!

Well that's just mean.

 

Flight Nurse out the U.P. of Michigan here, flying on Spirit II in woodruff, WI

 

Started the FD when I was 22. Got promoted on both of my promotional tests on the first try and was the 3rd fastest to be promoted to Captain in the history of the FD. Just retired as a Captain last month at the age of 46. Worked for the largest FD in the state and ended up having to take a duty disability retirement. Turns out... I'm worth more off the job than I was on the job. So now I'm 47 years old and I'm making more money than I was when I actually had to show up on duty. I'd like to say that I miss the job but in reality I don't miss it all that much. There are certain things I miss but the people that I served with is what I miss the most.

 

Anyone else starting to see Narcan parties pop up?


https://www.google.com/amp/s/wsoctv...80740050?ecmp=wsoctv_social_facebook_2014_sfp

 

Hasn't come down here yet... South Carolina is still hooked on meth...

 

Retire as soon as you can is all I can say. I love the job but I sure don't miss it like I thought I would. I truly miss the people that I served with and I always will. I made friends for life because of the FD. I'll never complain about the money since we made a good living. I'm not sure how your retirement works but if it's anything like ours you will get a raise when you retire depending on what your final average pay is. I ended up making about $400 more a month than I was when I was on the job. That's not counting the money saved by actually not having to go to work every third day, station dues, etc... Add the guaranteed 3% cost of living increase (compounded) that we get every year for the rest of our lives just makes it better.

The freedom to do what you want when you want is amazing. I'm 47 now and I hope to be a burden on the retirement system for a long time.

 

Hello all, I'm James. I work fulltime as a FF/AEMT in Southern Maine. I love it. I have a buddy who is a Feniex Emergency Light dealer. They make great products. My emergency lights, in take-down mode, double as off-road lighting as you can see in my photo. Any other whackers around here who want to show off their lights?

Any better suggestions for mounting my lightbar, other than on a cheap bullbar?

P.S. I realize my username is a little queer. I wish I could change it.

 

man, I saw the title of the thread, and then I came to realize. just a bunch of nozzleheads around here just kidding. small town LEO here! hope everyone who's off is enjoying their weekend!

 

Pardon my double post, but does anyone's communities on here use community paramedicine?

 

This article makes it sound like they are intentionally OD'ing. It is not unusual for opiate users to shoot up in a parking lot right after they score. They're hopelessly addicted. Of course they are going to use as soon as possible. I don't think they are intentionally OD'ing "because they know they will be found" and revived with Narcan...

I guess I can introduce myself in here now. 8 Year full time EMT and new'ish police officer.

 

I'll get in on this. Career EMT for 3+ years. Just started my career as a FF/EMT in the county I live in. Been a volly for 7 years.

As for the boot debate, I wear Haix Airpower station boots. I wear them 6-7 days a week between 2 jobs. By far most comfortable boot ever. I will never buy another brand. And the fact that I can resole them up to 3 times really sold me.

As always stay safe, it's a jungle out there.

 

That was my plan also. I only told one friend what I was doing when I retired. Came in one day and turned all my gear in, signed all my paperwork, and I was out. No one really talks about the stress you are under when you are at the station for 24hrs. Whether it is perceived or not it's there all the time. That speaker could open up at any time and you never know what you are running too. I was lucky during my career and was never seriously injured. I went to the hospital 5 times during my career with the two most serious injuries being a nail that went completely through my wrist and a large dose of anhydrous ammonia that got into my A level suit (long story).

I ended my career as a Captain on the state's only fully staffed Haz Mat unit. The FD afforded me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn't have normally had as a regular civilian. Got my degrees in chemistry and rad-nuc that I wouldn't have had a chance to get had I not been on the FD. When I first came on the job I used to listen to the "old heads" bitching about this or that and think "what are you bitching about???""You come to work every third day???". Now I get it. The further up in rank you go the responsibility grows exponentially. My most important job was making sure that my crew went home safely.
The FD in a sense is pretty straight forward and our job description is pretty easy. We didn't cause the problem and our only responsibility is to keep the situation from getting worse than it was before we arrived on scene. That's really it. A house that is on fire is going to do one of two things. We're going to put the fire out or it's going to burn down. Those are the only two outcomes. We didn't cause the car crash, stroke, heart attack, diabetic emergency, gunshot, etc... So if we can keep the situation from getting any worse once we arrived on scene then we did our job.

But retirement is amazing at 47. I'm (as far as I know) still in great health. I weigh one pound more than I did before I came on the job (185lbs) which is amazing in itself considering how we cooked at the station lol. The freedom to do what you want when you want is the best part by far. Knowing this winter I won't have to drive into work during the ice and snow is great. Knowing that I can lay in bed at night without being woken up at 2:30am on some bullshit frequent flyer is nice also. Every once in awhile we used to get shit from the public saying "well... at least you can sleep at work". My response to that statement was always "Do me a favor... Give me your phone number and I'll call you all night long each time we have to get up due to the alarm going off". "Then you'll see how much sleep we actually get". That usually shut them up.

 

You talking about a dept running a separate truck with a medic and a PA on it that treats in the field? Call a ambulance if needed?

 

No, some communities are implementing community paramedicine to reduce the amount of 9-1-1 ambulance calls that tie up resources and the Emergency Departments. It is more of a paramedic fly-car that will respond to residences and businesses in the area on a regular scheduled basis to assist the public, do check ups, welfare checks, give vaccines etc. I hear it works very well and helps keep ambulances responding to actual emergencies.

 

Why do you have emergency light on your pov?

 

Is that not common where you're at?

 

There's a lot of that here.

Not all of these are intentional, but we are starting to see it here.

 

I don't think it's common anywhere. Why would you run a call in your pov?

 

Most volunteer depts. do that that serve smaller / rural communities. Never had them on any vehicle I've ever owned since I worked for a paid / professional FD and we weren't on call off duty.

 

Ive seen it here. More common in the smaller towns/rural areas.