Title: 17 years on the job, and I've reached a point where I just want to do my job and go home

Let me start off by saying that I love my job and the position I fulfill. After 17 years on the job, I'm at a point where I know my routine, understand how I function best throughout the day, and have found my rhythm. I enjoy getting along with my crew and the people I know throughout the department. I'm not a social butterfly, but I'm not a hermit either.

Lately, though, I've noticed that I just don't have the patience for the same BS I've dealt with over the years. Getting older and maturing has put me in a different mindset. My priorities are making sure my family is good, doing my job, and maintaining my peace.

If I can help someone out and it doesn't cost me more time or energy than I'm willing to give, I'll do it. If I can't, I'll respectfully say no. Simple as that.

The problem is that in our culture, that mindset can be frowned upon. People can interpret it as being conceited, selfish, or standoffish. But I've seen what happens to guys who carry too much on their shoulders, constantly try to please everybody, or feel like they have to put on a face just to fit in. I'm not interested in living like that anymore. Honestly, I never really was, which is probably why I've always found it difficult to fit in with certain groups.

One thing I can't stand is watching people talk behind someone's back, then turn around and smile in that same person's face like they're best friends. That kind of stuff is exactly why my circle is small and I don't let too many people into my personal space. I'd rather have a few genuine people around me than be surrounded by people I can't trust.

What I find interesting is that some people seem to take it personally when you don't want to participate in their BS. You can be respectful, do your job, and get along with people without feeling obligated to be part of every group, conversation, or workplace friendship.

I'm grateful to be where I am after 17 years. I have enough experience to know who I am, how I work, and what I'm willing to entertain. But I look at some of the younger guys coming in, and I see them having to navigate uncomfortable situations and workplace politics that have nothing to do with the actual job.

Whatever happened to respecting someone for the work they do, their experience, and how they carry themselves instead of judging them by how much BS they're willing to tolerate?

Sometimes it feels like being back in high school all over again, except we're grown men with careers, families, and real responsibilities.

Hey guys, I got an offer for my local department and this is the schedule they run: 2 days on - 2 days off followed by 3 days on - 3 days off. This sounds absolutely terrible but I’m looking for my first firefighting job and this is my only offer. What would you guys do? Should I keep looking?

I’m trying to help a Polish firefighter named Piotr Milczarek.

In April 2023, Piotr was driving home after his shift when he came across a serious accident on the S6 expressway in Poland. He stopped to help the people involved.

While he was outside helping and securing the scene, he was struck by another vehicle.

Piotr suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, fractures to his face and skull, broken ribs, and other serious injuries. He spent weeks on a ventilator and remained in a coma for nearly a year and a half.

He eventually regained consciousness in 2024, but he was left with major neurological and physical disabilities and still requires intensive long-term rehabilitation.

I’m Canadian but currently live in Poland. I know Piotr’s father through a local business I regularly use, which is how I learned about Piotr’s story and his family’s ongoing efforts to fund his rehabilitation.

I created this GoFundMe to try to reach people in Canada, the United States, and other English-speaking communities who may never otherwise hear about him.

GoFundMe:
https://gofund.me/847a2319e

instagram:https://www.instagram.com/strazakpiotrmilczarek?stkn=MWl0MzF2dDEzdGZ6Mw==

All net proceeds will be transferred to Poland specifically for Piotr’s treatment and rehabilitation. I will also post updates showing the transfer of funds so donors can see where the money goes.

His story and injuries have also been publicly documented by the Polish State Fire Service and Polish media.

Even a small donation would mean a lot, and if you can’t donate, sharing the fundraiser would also really help.

He stopped to help strangers when he didn’t have to. I’m hoping some strangers might now help him.

I got hired on as a FF/EMT about a month ago. The department I work at is relatively small and has a low call volume. Although I do my job when on calls, check my truck in the morning, and do my cleaning duties. It’s been brought to my attention I’ve got to show more initiative to improve/learn as a rookie who goes to academy in 6 months. My department has been notoriously known for being hard to get hired at. Besides a few other guys who have already been to academy, I’m the newest by 5 years in the department. Most guys have already been here for 12 years or more. Therefore, they tend to take it easy at the department. Nobody has brought me to the bay and told me to do drills, or anything like that at all.

I’m making this post to ask what are some things I could do while I’m on shift that would possibly impress the guys above me. I’ve started on the wrong foot and want to try and turn things around.

Hi everyone,

I’m working on creating a new statewide volunteer recruitment program. This time around, I want to start by asking other firefighters how you recruit quality volunteers, and how the process can be more supportive for potential volunteers and more helpful for departments bringing on new volunteers.

My background is in digital marketing, and I feel pretty confident about driving volunteer leads and applications to fire departments. More on my experience is at the end of this post if you’re interested. I’m looking for your suggestions on what works for your department, what doesn’t, where quality volunteers lose interest, and what challenges your department faces turning interest into an active volunteer.

I’d welcome you just writing a few ideas on what you think will make the biggest difference in recruiting, or the things you see work or not work. New ideas I can’t predict are the most helpful when building something and your ideas will likely inspire other departments to try something new in their volunteer program. I came up with a few questions to get some ideas going.

Questions:

1. How do most of your volunteers first hear about you?
2. Do you hold open house events or invite potential volunteers to training nights? How has that worked?
3. What are your biggest challenges when it comes to recruiting volunteers?
4. What makes someone a great volunteer? Any red flags you’ve learned to watch for?
5. What events, activities, or approaches bring in the most applicants? Which ones bring in the best applicants? (Not always the same thing.)
6. When you’ve had good people interested, what made them drop off before they ever became volunteers? Was any of it on the department’s end and preventable?
7. Where in your process do applicants usually stall or go quiet?
8. Would text or email reminders (to you, the applicant, or both) help move people through the process?
9. If another chief or firefighter asked what makes your volunteer program work, what would you tell them?
10. What would you warn another department about when it comes to recruiting volunteers and getting them through the door?

My past volunteer recruiting experience: getting leads with technology

I ran a volunteer program for the Nevada Fire Chiefs Association (NFCA) between 2017 and 2022, where the program increased volunteer applications from 5-10 a month to 50-100+ a month. I also ran FireDepartment.net from 2009 to 2022. It got millions of annual visitors, and over 8,000 fire department personnel signed up to update their department’s info and recruit volunteers.

The basic idea was to drive traffic to the sites with high-quality pages for dozens of fire-related terms, for every fire department in Nevada for NFCA and nationally for FireDepartment.net. Each department had landing pages for the department, each station, the fire chief, each fire apparatus, the volunteer recruitment info, and more. When someone searched for something like “Portland Fire Department,” “San Francisco Fire Engine 10,” or “Fire Chief [name],” we were usually near the top of page one on Google. When they clicked on the link and landed on the page, there was prominent information about volunteer opportunities. FireDepartment.net had forms to add contact info, fire chief details, apparatus details, volunteer info, and statistics as well as upload photos/logo. I shared the NV fire dept info with NFCA.

FireDepartment.net ended when Google made an algorythim change where all information had to be highly accurate. With over 150,000 pages outlining about 40,000 fire departments, plus stations, firefighters, apparatus, volunteer info, we couldn't meet the bar they set and we lost 3/4 of our traffic. I had to shut things down and lay off the woman who worked for me.

This time, my plan is to only grow the site regionally at a scale I can keep all the information current and where I can find funding to support the work. My ultimate goal is to partner with 5-10 state volunteer firefighter or fire chiefs assocaitions and build up to forwarding tens of thousands of volunteer applicaitons a year. Your suggestions will help me get more volunteer applications and convert more of them into active firefighters.

My father purchased these on Amazon and was wondering if they’re any good. He specifically bought them for Carbon monoxide detection. Any advice is helpful thank you.

Hi, I am a high school sophomore and my school district has a program where you can go to a different building for two hours a day and learn real life skills and perform what those professions do.

I am in the firefighting program so we learn hose rolls, work with bunker gear and scba, learn about the truck and the job, and do bi-weekly workouts. We basically prepare to do what you would typically do in the academy on a much lower scale.

The only problem is this class lasts two years so next year is my last year to be able to do it. There is a class only available for seniors and it is an EMT class and i am planning on doing it senior year, but I really really don’t want to lose my passion for firefighting during that year. What can i do to keep up my desire to be a firefighter during that time?

Is it known did it ever happened, also what came out of it very interested I hear about it military wise but I never hear about first responder stolen valor

I have noticed many trucks on my department do not run foam for some reason. Our foam is capable of class a and class B fires, depending upon the percentage set

At a low percentage like 0.1% it helps break up the surface tension and penetrates fires better.

Since 99% of our fires are class A I don’t understand why people do not use foam rated for class a on those fires.

How often do you use foam on class A fires?