SO, YOU WANT TO BE A FIREFIGHTER

(M.W. Moorhead has 17 years of firefighting experience in which he has served as a career, paid-on-call and volunteer firefighter. He is currently Fire Captain with the Uniontown Fire Department. He wrote this article for possible indoctrination of fire service recruits.)

So, you want to be a fire fighter? Maybe not. Before you become one of us, we want you to know what you do not.

 We cannot offer you the pay or benefit packages of more typical employers. You should also know that you “volunteer” to belong—everything that follows in the fire service is “mandatory”. It has to be. The services we provide quite literally involves life and death; including your own. Buildings burn with more intensity, hazardous material content, and risk of collapse than ever before.

Belonging will be time consuming. Training. More training. Always training. Fire fighting is a “gamble”. The only means you have of placing the “odds” in your favor is education. Knowing how fire burns, clues of color and smoke, building construction and all the other things may save your life and the lives of others.

 It also takes time to respond to alarms, do your duty, and then get all the equipment and tools of the trade back in services. The work doesn’t end when the fire goes out. Time is needed for station and vehicle maintenance, prevention, inspection, investigations, record keeping, parades, and fundraisers. There is never enough money. Time. The fire service requires lots of time.

 Fire fighting is physically demanding. Not all of the time—just each time you step foot on the truck to answer a call. Your heart pounds, adrenalin flows, and if you are sane, you are also scared. You’ll wear almost 50 pounds of protective equipment. While wearing it you will pull, push, climb, stretch, carry, lift, crouch, crawl, and breath harder than you thought possible. Smoke and soot become your cologne. You will learn a new meaning of what it is to be truly “cold”, “hot”, “sore”, and “tired”. You may bleed, you will sweat, and sometimes; you will shed tears.

 Fire fighting can be ugly. It can be blinding bright or blinding dark. It can be deadly silent, or have a deafening roar. You will see suffering and carnage in fires of the future—like those before.

 So, you still want to be a fire fighter? Then you might make it, you can make it; many have. The “bad” in fire fighting is part of the “good”. It is what makes us different. We do what others can’t. If you become one of us, you’ll share challenges, comradery, and when we’re successful, a sense of accomplishment that is second to none.

 Your family becomes ours; and ours becomes yours. In our breed, you will experience an often-strange sense of humor, and you’ll develop pride. Not boastful, bragging, cocky pride; rather an inner pride known only by those who have worn the gear. You will develop a respect for your co-workers across the nation, and their job, that exists in no other profession.

It is often said “fire fighting gets in your blood”. That’s not true. If you become one of us, it gets in your heart. 

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