Anyone here a volunteer firefighter?

That wasn't my major and this is not my career path. Have you ever volunteered Diddy?

my dads been a volunteer firefighter for my hometown all my life. he started right out of high school. worst thing about it IMO is the radio going off at all hours of the night to go out too fight a fire. I've thought about doing it a few times, but it's hard to find time

dad's also been a member of our county emergency squad all my life, where he's the chief of it now. he keeps the county helicopter at his hanger and fly's it to look for drugs and bad guys. I've thought about getting into the emergency squad as well

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I'm curious how the paid guys treat the volunteers. I don't want to go through all this training to be treated like a tard by the career guys.

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man I can't speak for all volunteer fire departments, but I've never heard of the new guys where my dads at being given a hard time.

they have a Christmas party every year for the volunteer fire department that I've been too a few times. the new guys are recognized and welcomed to the squad. other than that they're not treated any differently that I'm aware of

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But my family has a history of civil service and I want to give back

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awesome. good luck with it

If you've ever been paid to cut grass or paint a house you're pretty much already a fireman.

One of my buddies was one and he was first one scene for a guy who wrecked his motorcycle and he used his finger to plug his main artery in his arm until paramedics got there. Saved the guys life.

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I'm curious how the paid guys treat the volunteers. I don't want to go through all this training to be treated like a tard by the career guys. But my family has a history of civil service and I want to give back

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I'll start my 17th year as a volunteer ff/emt in July. I've served in both a small combination department (mostly vollie with a few career) and all volunteer.

My experience has been excellent. I've always had the desire to serve but "substandard auditory perception" (tinnitus since an early teen) at both an Air Force and later Navy physical kept me out of the military. I got involved in the fire service at age 30 and it really fills that desire to serve quite well.

In case you don't know, from a training standpoint in Alabama there's fundamentally no difference in the career firefighter I and certified volunteer firefighter courses. All someone with a vollie cert needs to legally work as a career firefighter is to pass CPAT (candidate physical aptitude test) and take a 2 week refresher course. On the EMS side, my EMT-B is exactly the same as someone doing it as a full time job. Note that most large departments make all candidates (even those with valid career fire and EMS credentials) go through their academy to learn that department's particular way of operating. If someone treats you like a tard, it is going to be either because they're either an asshat or you're an actual tard. It won't be due to any difference in training level.

Vollie/career relations in a combo house can vary wildly. Some are very good, others are downright toxic. It just depends on the department and the people involved. When it is bad, the blame can rest on either or both sides. Far too often vollies in a combo house will see the career staff as the paid maids and not want to help with all the cleanup and work at the station after the fun stuff is done. On the other side, some career guys will view the vollies as scabs and/or wannabes.

It sounds like you've already got some exposure to the department, so just look around. Do the career and vollie guys interact with each other or is it a high school lunchroom where all the cool kids sit at a table by themselves? That interaction will go a long way towards telling you about the everyday environment.

As I said earlier, I love the job. My only regret is that I didn't get involved 10 years earlier but it definitely isn't for everyone. The time demands for both training and catching runs are significant. You WILL miss personal events and have cold meals several hours later than planned. It will also change you. People don't call the fire department just to say they're having a great day. Anybody that says they aren't impacted by constantly being a participant in the worst day of someone else's life is either a liar or a lunatic. Going further, if you're in a small community you're going to personally know a lot of those people.

On the positive side, you'll develop a tremendous sense of gallows humor that only those others in emergency services can appreciate.

Hope this helped.