Firefighters and Public Safety

[NJMedic]

Work

Been working in Emergency Services a long time. Paramedic for the last 15. Done fire fighting and worked health and safety on superfund sites. Deployed to Ground Zero from NJ. Deployed to New Orleans for Katrina. Do SAR with the Civil Air Patrol, love working with the cadets my son got me started when he joined now he is Active Duty Air Force as a loadmaster. Currently a member of the NJ EMS TF. Working full time medic in Trenton, NJ. Seen lots and still have the "bug". Currently healing from foot surgery hope to be back to work the end of the month.

 

[ltngaines]

Full time Gold shift "24,48", Lieutenant on Engine 41 in a town west of Chicago. 26 years and its the best job in the history of man. Be safe.
Oh and a 97 D1.........

 

[ltngaines]

Dude I love Vegas. 10 of my Brothers and I went last year, had a blast. Be safe.

 

[Spikepretorius]

How many do we have on here who are firefighters, paramedics, SAR?

I'm volunteer SAR.
I'm primarily 4x4 based SAR and a SAR Logistics Manager, and training dude responsible for co-coordinating training in the Logistics Group.

Logistics in our set up basically entails everything excluding the tech/field teams (but we also have logistics field operators who are skilled enough to accompany the tech/field teams on foot or by heli when the circumstances call for it. eg setting up comms relays or whatever)

I'm also a relative rookie (one year) in a technical field team for when I'm not busy with my primary role.

My day job when not on forums or in the mountains = building/waterproofing contractor.


Giving LZ training on the side of Table Mountain. That's me talking with my hands

 

[IanKay6]

I work Private EMS as an EMT-B in the Boston area and I am currently in Medic school as well. Which is a lot of fun... but it will be nice to get that over with! If anyone is interested in a great program I suggest Pro EMS Center for Medics in Cambridge MA.

http://www.centerformedics.com/

 

[Fish]

Huh, guess I never replied to this thread. Whoops.

Been with San Diego Fire-Rescue for just over 20 years. Currently a Battalion Chief assigned to Battalion 1 downtown.

Other related duties include being on a Federal Incident Management Team (14 years) and on our US&R team (14 years).

I did spend a little time with San Diego Mountain Rescue back in the late 80's, and some time as a volly in the Midwest and New England in the early/mid 80's.

 

[WASURF63]

Never saw this thread until today, but never really looked either. :smilies27

FF/Engineer/EMT, 12 years with Kent Fire Dept (Kent, WA) Local 1747.
48/96 schedule w/ 12-Kelly Days a year.

Love it every day I'm on duty, but love my time off with family and friends even more.

 

[kellymoe]

23 years with the Los Angeles City Fire Department. I'm a captain on Engine Company 100 in the San Fernando Valley.

 

[Jeff Dodgen]

31 Y/O Firefighter EMT-I for 12 years at Henry County Fire in Metro Atlanta. Driver on A-Shift Station 1 for the Bronto, (Ladder 1).

I also drive this every now and then. Bought it new and EVERYTHING has been done by myself with the help of an amazing wife, a cool brother-in-law, and great friends.

 

[St.-Newfie]

Started training in Wilderness K9 SAR this past November. Just this past weekend participated in my first state-wide SAR sim. Didn't have any idea how much I would love this. Cannot wait to get my puppy certified :wings:

 

[Ruined Adventures]

:Wow1: this thread's been around for a while.

Ponder this...if you had the best job in the world (firefighter), but it was in a city & state that you don't want to live in anymore...would you consider quitting to find a job on the other side of the country?

End of this year I'll be doing just that. My future wife & I both want to leave Texas and get closer to the mountains & our friends/family. We're going to take advantage of being (gulp) unemployed and drive overland thru Central & South America...maybe even Africa if our dollar stretches far enough. I've been a full time FF/EMT-I for the past 6 years, working with a great department but this isn't where we want to live for the next 20+ years. Our options after the big vacation is over, include Portland, Oregon or the Asheville, NC area. Basically being closer to my family or hers. I prefer the NW of course, but I'm open to the Carolina's. I have no idea what the FD's are like in the Asheville/Hendersonville area so if anyone has info, please let me know.

I know it sounds crazy to leave your dream job, but it could be the beginning of a new chapter in our life...anyone know of any good dept's in the Asheville area? Heck, maybe it would even be a good opportunity to break into the wildland side. That's kinda what I wanted to do originally but fell into the city/structural side.

 

[XPEDITIONREADY]

Cant speak to much directly about the asheville FD, but asheville is a pretty cool place to live if you can get by the hippies. I am a FF in Concord NC, north of charlotte, and my wife and I visit asheville a couple times a year for vacation. I know some guys that would know more about asheville FD if you have any specific questions.

On a side note, you could come to the charlotte area, 2.5hours from asheville, and get on with the biggest department in the state. It is very competitive around here as I am sure you already know, so I would be weary of leaving your texas department without a job offer around here.

Feel free to pm me with any specific questions you have, always glad to help a fellow FF/expo member :smiley_drive:

Ben

 

[WASURF63]

red87,

How old are you, ie.. longevity left in this profession? Do you really want to go thru the whole testing/rookie/probie thing again? Can you take a "leave of absence" while pursuing another fire job? It can all be done, but it's not easy. I know first hand.
I got my start as a wildland FF in California (yes it's fun, but hard work/young mans work IMO, and doesn't have as good a work schedule or pay close to what city jobs do), then moved here to Washington and worked for another FD, before landing a better job at my current FD. I started here as a rookie at the age of 35, competing with others in thier 20's and pulled it off. Long story, short, I've been here 12-years and I'll probably be on the job until I'm 55 or 60 just to have a semi-decent retirement.
My advice... don't leave your current, stable fire job until you're at the point of being offered another one, hopefully somewhere you want to live for the next 20+ years. Do your homework well, as the economy has greatly affected this profession also, ie.. Camden, NJ layoff of 67 firefighters.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/camden_struggles_with_lack_of.html

Good luck brother! :victory:
Regards,
Walt Bagnall, Kent Fire Dept, Kent, WA

 

[Ruined Adventures]

Cant speak to much directly about the asheville FD, but asheville is a pretty cool place to live if you can get by the hippies. I am a FF in Concord NC, north of charlotte, and my wife and I visit asheville a couple times a year for vacation. I know some guys that would know more about asheville FD if you have any specific questions.

On a side note, you could come to the charlotte area, 2.5hours from asheville, and get on with the biggest department in the state. It is very competitive around here as I am sure you already know, so I would be weary of leaving your texas department without a job offer around here.

Feel free to pm me with any specific questions you have, always glad to help a fellow FF/expo member :smiley_drive:

Ben

I was raised by hippies, so I suppose I can put up with them :coffeedrink:
pm sent! thanks

red87,

How old are you, ie.. longevity left in this profession? Do you really want to go thru the whole testing/rookie/probie thing again? Can you take a "leave of absence" while pursuing another fire job? It can all be done, but it's not easy. I know first hand.
I got my start as a wildland FF in California (yes it's fun, but hard work/young mans work IMO, and doesn't have as good a work schedule or pay close to what city jobs do), then moved here to Washington and worked for another FD, before landing a better job at my current FD. I started here as a rookie at the age of 35, competing with others in thier 20's and pulled it off. Long story, short, I've been here 12-years and I'll probably be on the job until I'm 55 or 60 just to have a semi-decent retirement.
My advice... don't leave your current, stable fire job until you're at the point of being offered another one, hopefully somewhere you want to live for the next 20+ years. Do your homework well, as the economy has greatly affected this profession also, ie.. Camden, NJ layoff of 67 firefighters.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/camden_struggles_with_lack_of.html

Good luck brother! :victory:
Regards,
Walt Bagnall, Kent Fire Dept, Kent, WA

There's no chance for a "leave of absence". We've even had guys go to Iraq as contract FF's then come back, having to test again, start over as a tailboard FF, going thru probation and the whole nine yards.

I'm 27 so I suppose I've still got a few years left in me. I've got no problem starting from scratch, going thru probation and all that. I don't look forward to testing, but it's just part of doing business I suppose.

I tested in WA during 2009, but it costs so much money to test thru PST & NTN, then flying up there constantly...I spent about $5000 just on flights that year, and then there was a hiring freeze at Vancouver, WA and Kennewick, WA switched from PST to NTN. The whole deal got me frustrated. Living 2000 miles away, you have to pass on a lot of testing opportunities and hold out for the big ones that you really want because it's not feasible to fly up there so often. Some of the smaller departments don't exactly give enough time to get up there either. I pretty much had to back out of one process because each step was within a week or two of each other and I wouldn't have been able to give my current employer a proper amount of notice. I'd hate to just quit within a week.

I've pretty much decided my best bet will be to just roll the life dice and relocate, then volunteer with a combination paid/vol. department & hope that I can earn my way into a paid position. Then I could test for all of the nearby depts whenever there's an opening. That's pretty much how I landed my current gig. There's a big combination dept in the Portland area that I've been looking into. They seem pretty legit and I've heard good things about them. As long as I'm humble, work hard, and make good impressions I should be able to land something within a year or two. I'll do whatever it takes to pay the bills until it happens. My girlfriend is an RN so it should be 10x easier for her to find work. Luckily my retirement is in a 457 so I can keep building it no matter who I'm working for...besides, a whole year of unemployment is really an excuse to get some traveling out of my system!

Funny thing is, I wouldn't technically call my current fire job "stable" because we're losing a big chunk of our territory to annexation in 2015 and possibly more in the future. There's no guarantees that everyone will keep their jobs when it happens. Even before I was hired, there's always been talk about the possibility of losing jobs because of annexation.

 

[WASURF63]

Yah, the LOA thing was ruined here a while back also. Just thought I'd throw it out there in case it was an option.
You sound like you've got a great adventure ahead of you :smiley_drive:, a plan when you return, and a great attitude in general.
I wish you and your gal a safe journey and good fortune when you return. Hopefully you'll land another career gig in the future with a FD you really want to stay on with.
Regards :sombrero: