Fire Fighters, LEO, Drs., Etc.....

Yeah our guys get $8/hour or a little more depending on your certifications. We are considered a volunteer department but our guys actually work part-time for the city. There's four of us full-time, Chief, two Captains, and me, a Lieutenant. We also have some part-time Lieutenants as well. Rest of the guys are FF's with either a Fire I or Fire II certification. We also have a number of EMT's as well. No ALS in our department.

 

As a career FF for the past 6 years, thank you! It is the only job I've had where I actually look forward to going to work, so I feel undeserving of any thanks, but there are those days and calls that define who you are and make you wonder why this profession.

 

I'm with you Sand...I love going to work and don't feel like I deserve anything more than the paycheck and the personal satisfaction I get.

I'm honored/humbled that others appreciate the things we do...and I'll gladly keep doing them as long as I must!!

 

my dept is a full time maned volunteer station and they give us either $20 or $10 dollars for every 12 hour shift we do, depending on which spot u sign up for and what not.

 

qft

 

Sounds like the department I volunteer at. We have 1 Chief and 2 Captains paid. They only work 8-4 mon-fri which I think is a joke, but they are trying to become a 24 hr station with more people being hired on, but the economy just screwed that (it was gonna happen due to a 1500 home gated community going in). We only have one medic and thats because he is a volunteer who owns an ambulance company.

 

Jeez. 3 full-time and they all work the same days? They should mix it up so the weekends are covered, at least one guy for medicals or something like that.

 

I agree completely, but we do have an awesome response out of our volunteers. Its kinda sad because me and another guy usually roll most all calls and we can beat a staffed state engine out of the bay from our houses. We have something like 32 volunteers and we rarely get 2nd paged. So its worked for 40 or 50 years so I think they are ok with it, but I kinda disagree lol.

 

Damn that's sweet! Yeah our response from our volunteers aren't that great. We only have about 15 on the roster and about 5 of those are active. It sucks when my weekend comes up and have to worry about going on calls, and not "really" having a weekend at all. Yeah I get paid the OT but I don't live to work, I work to live!

 

Ya I know what you mean, I work for CAL FIRE in the summer so on my days off I usually only roll TC's or Fires. Our paid guys rarely respond on their days off, which is ok cuz they dont have to. When I first started all I worried about was going on calls, and now I actually pick and choose (I know, thats bad) what calls I go on lol. You guys get a lot of calls over there?

 

Yeah I picked and chose when I volunteered as well. Ummm, like any other department, our calls are about 85% medicals and the rest are either roll-overs or fires.

 

How many calls you guys get a year?

 

roughly 800. But most of those are building inspections and code enforcements.

 

Nice, we run between 500-600.

 

I see. How many structure fires do you guys average a year?

 

Eh, we get between 5-10 i'd say. We were busy for a while, had like 5 in 3 months, but havent had crap for fires in like 3 months. What about you guys?

 

Jeez!!! 5-10! Thats awesome. We average about 2 a year so not many at all. Guess thats a good thing though.

 

Ya, I have only been on about 5 where I got to actually make entry, 1 was cool cuz I had to use the good ol halogen to get the door open. You ever hear bout that structure in northern ca where 6 people died?

 

Thanks for the support in a world where sadly many do not understand the demands, sacrifices, and plain old BS that comes with the job. I will say that the firemen in my area are real close to their officers as well as our medics. Most firemen here are first responders to medical calls anyway and generally are the first ones to very bad scenes.

We are a tight bunch of people and it does help to receive a "thanks" from time to time as we can only get so much comfort between each other. I will also add that dispatchers have a very hard job and their stress levels often exceed those of the guys in the field. A good dispatcher can make or break a very bad scene so to all the dispatchers out there putting up with our attitudes I thank you as well.....

 

Thank You!!