Long story short, I have though for a long time that I should join the local volunteer fire dept. On Saturday, I was at the fire hall with my youngest and picked up an application. I want to do this, but I've never done anything like this before.
Does anybody on here do this? What sort of experiences do you have?
I haven't but I think you should. Gets you out of the house and is good for the community. Seems like a win/win.
Check with them about who owns the gear. The last one I looked in to you had to buy your own, @$2500, and if you went out on a certain number of calls per year you could write most of it off. At the time it was a big hit and with my schedule a high chance of not being on the calls made it financially impossible.
Between the Navy and being on the fire brigade at two nuclear power plants I've been through way more training than most volunteer guys get and it bugs me to not be using the training. I think I will look into it now too...
I joined a volunteer department in January, one of the best things I've done. Do it
My old man, uncle and a bunch of their buddies made up most of the fire department in Colstrip, MT in the early 80s. Half the fun for them was getting to put up the blue gumball and speeding like hell to the station.
My nephew and his buddies from high school did this when they hit their mid 20's. At the time he worked as a HD truck mechanic. They enjoyed the experience so much that he and his buds now work full time as paramedic/firemen for a Chicago suburb. Plus my nephew still gets to use his mechanical skills by working on the fire trucks on his "off" days and gets well paid for this "extra" service.
I did it. Do it. Make sure you go through fire school too. You will learn a ton, die alot, and never look at the world the same way, not to mention it is a frickin' blast.
I think I'd enjoy the physical/strategy aspect of it, but I'm not wild about seeing death and destruction on the highways. I always thought I'd make a better forest fire fighter than a highway clean up crew.
In reply to PHeller:
Most of the calls are medical calls. Fire departments are first responders so you see some things. But if you make any contacts in AZ for forest fire, could you let me know. I would like to do that as well. Its actually the reason I joined my volunteer dept., as a stepping stone while still in college
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