What has happened to the Community Firefighter?

I read something this morning that made me think.  What has happened to the "Community First Firefighter"?  Yes, I know there are still those of us who understand that we are here for the Community.  I see Firefighters, including Line and Chief Officers, who complain about having to go out of their way to do something for the Community.  I had a conversation with a co-worker who brought his son to our Firehouse to show off the trucks and let him sit in the seat.  The boy left with a huge smile and a memory for life.  This Co-worker told us a story about driving down the road and his son seeing a neighboring department (a very large department) and asked can we stop there Daddy?  So they stopped and knocked on the door (bay doors shut, front door locked) and a SENIOR guy opens the door asks "can I help you?". They asked if they can have a tour of the house and look at the trucks.  "No sorry we do not allow tours of the fire station and cannot let you look at the trucks."  The son was visibly upset, and will have that memory as well.  Which gets me back to the question, "WHAT happened to the Community Firefighter?"  I remember as a VERY young boy asking my parents to take me to the firehouse down the street from where we lived.  We would go down that house and the bay doors were open, the crews were in the bays either cleaning the Engine or doing something that must have been very important. Well, to a four year old, anything to do with a fire truck must be important!  The cool thing was that they would stop whatever it was they were doing and show me the Engine and truck. At that time I didn't understand what the difference was, just that they had a big red fire truck and an even BIGGER red fire truck! They would answer every "what is this?" and "what does that do?" question I would ask.  They made my time as if it was the most important thing in the world, even if it was just saying Hi. Special thanks to Santee Fire Department and Lakeside Fire Authority for those memories. 

  

We get a lot more calls today than back then, I get that, I just do not understand why a Firefighter can not take 5 minutes out of the day and let a little boy or girl sit in the officers seat and give them their own fire helmet that says Jr. Firefighter on it. We have the opportunity to put that spark in the next generation of Firefighters. Why are we not doing that?  Another large department here in Texas just did a testing for Certified Firefighter/EMT's and had less than 70 people test that particular day. Back in the day they would have had 700 test on that day alone.  Do we want the kid that has wanted to be on the Job his entire life, or the guy who says "Sorry kid the park is closed, the Moose out front should have told you"? 

                                                                                                                         

Are you the best Firefighter you can be or are you just showing up?

Photo Credit to Kim Fitzsimmons 

So this is my first attempt at a Blog.

Pride and Tradition is something that in some departments excel in and then other departments seem that they cannot even fathom the words.  That being said, Are you the best Firefighter you can be or just getting that check.  That seems like a simple question doesn't it?  But are you the best you can be?  Think about it, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Are you willing to acknowledge those weaknesses?  What are you doing to work on those weaknesses?  You have to be 100% honest with yourself.   I have been fortunate to have some great fire service mentors in my life. When I work on my problem tasks and I am not getting the results I am looking for I call these guys. 

We are always advancing forward; we do not want to take that step back.  To quote Chief Rick Lasky “take pride in your department”. How do you take pride in your department?  Are you coming in and making sure that you and your crew are combat ready before the bells go off.  Are you doing it by learning the tricks of the trade? TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN, talk to those “Salty” guys who have love for the job and are not there for the paycheck but because they WANT to be there.  Be willing to do what it takes to learn those skills. When you see the truck is dirty WASH IT, I could talk to you about Pride and Tradition all day but you have to learn what those two words mean to you, Pride and Tradition.  The fire service is a very special organization and one that is second to none. The public trusts us. They trust us with everything! Not only do we owe it to the public but we owe it to our department, house and crew. Firefighters have worked hard to get the fire service to where it is at today; for that very reason, we need to protect it. We need to protect what we’re all about.

We need to ask ourselves some questions. We need to be honest with ourselves.

Chief Jim Payne and Capt. Arthur Ashley passing on the knowledge

Who owns your fire department?

Do you own your fire department?

Do you have that pride, that love for the job, or do you just show up?

There’s nothing else in the world like being a firefighter. It is the best job in the world!   

Go to the house tomorrow and be the BEST firefighter you can be.