FIrst Ever Fire?

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Originally Posted by BigGriffC12

I'm not saying go out on a news interview saying "we need more fires" but if I'm BSing with the guys and someone goes " HAvnt had a fire in a long time" or something of that sort I'm not gonna scream arson... A firefighter should want to go to fires, and not be ashamed of it, just like a paramedic should want a code every shift.. I look at it like that person chose a trade, and enjoys it , and when someone enjoys something and are confident in their ability I take that as a good thing.

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And by your thinking if your in the military you should want to shoot someone every time you go overseas....


I don't want paramedics that want codes every shift. I want a paramedic that trains like there will be a code every shift and hope with all his heart he never sees another code in his life.

I love fighting fire, and I would be totally content to never fight another fire outside of training. In one way it would bum me out a bit but if I could cut out all fires all together on every third shift and decrease total fires be a third, I would do it in a heartbeat even if it meant I never got to see fire again in my life. If you don't want to decrease fires than your not doing your job. I understand that people want to go to busier companies. Id love to work at a busier department, but once I got there if their fires decreased substantially or never happened again I would be thrilled.

The goal here is not to be a firefighter with tons of real live fire experience....The goal here is to reduce the number of lives and property lost..

If the number of fires are reduced AND it affects the performance of firefighters due to lack of live fire training than the goal is not to increase the number of real structure fires we see. The goal is to increase our life like training to compensate for the decreased number of real fires.


I can honestly say I hope no one else ever loses their house or their life due to fire, vehicle accident, cardiac arrest, or anything else....but I will be properly trained to handle these situations IF and WHEN they arise.

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Originally Posted by Rialaigh

And by your thinking if your in the military you should want to shoot someone every time you go overseas....


I don't want paramedics that want codes every shift. I want a paramedic that trains like there will be a code every shift and hope with all his heart he never sees another code in his life.

I love fighting fire, and I would be totally content to never fight another fire outside of training. In one way it would bum me out a bit but if I could cut out all fires all together on every third shift and decrease total fires be a third, I would do it in a heartbeat even if it meant I never got to see fire again in my life. If you don't want to decrease fires than your not doing your job. I understand that people want to go to busier companies. Id love to work at a busier department, but once I got there if their fires decreased substantially or never happened again I would be thrilled.

The goal here is not to be a firefighter with tons of real live fire experience....The goal here is to reduce the number of lives and property lost..

If the number of fires are reduced AND it affects the performance of firefighters due to lack of live fire training than the goal is not to increase the number of real structure fires we see. The goal is to increase our life like training to compensate for the decreased number of real fires.


I can honestly say I hope no one else ever loses their house or their life due to fire, vehicle accident, cardiac arrest, or anything else....but I will be properly trained to handle these situations IF and WHEN they arise.

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Oh PUH-LEASE. As was said in another thread....if all I had to do was hope to never get another fire or cardiac arrest, and it'd never happen, I'd pray to NEVER get another call again.

But that's not reality. The reality is fires will still happen, full arrests will still happen, all our calls will STILL happen, regardless of what we think. Do we actively work to prevent them from happening, via code inspections, public education, etc? Of ****ing course.

Do I want anybody to die or have their property destroyed? Of course not. But, knowing that what I think changes NOTHING, and they will happen regardless, I do want them to happen when I'm working, when I have the opportunity to go and do what I'm trained for, and mitigate the situation. And by these emergencies happening, EVERY TIME I can gain knowledge to use for the next one.

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Originally Posted by BigGriffC12

Why would you not want to do your job? Are you afraid? Not confident in yourself or your crew? When I was in Iraq, I would wish for enemy contact every day, our platoon motto was "pray for war". I became a firefighter to fight fires. I train to apply learning to real world situations. Some of you need to YouTube Ray McCormick's FDIC keynote speech. I didn't join the army to sit on the FOB and play XBox, and I didn't become a firefighter to not fight fires.

Kind of like the plumber sitting by the phone scared to death going " oh god, I hope no one's pipes bust today" or the tow truck driver who drives to work thinking " jeez, I hope no ones car breaks down.." Get off your high horse if the kid gets excited riding the big red fire truck going to a fire then so be it.. When you graduate the academy you pray to go to a busy company so you can see action, and learn from the vets.

There was nothing wrong with what he said, now if he said " I am going to light fires so I can go fight the big 1" then there would be an issue. We need fires to keep our skills sharp.. Old vets and rookies alike..so when we get the big 1 with multiple entrapment we don't fall on our faces looking like idiots..

If my house goes up give me an aggressive firefighter from an aggressive dept that sees lots of fire then someone who does not want fires.

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Very well said!!!

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And by your thinking if your in the military you should want to shoot someone every time you go overseas....
Obviously you have never been in the military, let alone overseas.

I don't want paramedics that want codes every shift. I want a paramedic that trains like there will be a code every shift and hope with all his heart he never sees another code in his life.
Unfortunately life isn't fair and full arrest are a fact of life. Add to that, I'm not sure what your EMS experience is, but around here, very few arrests are in a well lit, climate controlled class room. I want the medic with the street experience that can perform in the room with 1 dirty 60 watt bulb and the entire family screaming in the back ground. You get that with real world experience.
I love fighting fire, and I would be totally content to never fight another fire outside of training. In one way it would bum me out a bit but if I could cut out all fires all together on every third shift and decrease total fires be a third, I would do it in a heartbeat even if it meant I never got to see fire again in my life. If you don't want to decrease fires than your not doing your job. I understand that people want to go to busier companies. Id love to work at a busier department, but once I got there if their fires decreased substantially or never happened again I would be thrilled.

The goal here is not to be a firefighter with tons of real live fire experience....The goal here is to reduce the number of lives and property lost..
Then you need to get out of suppression and into prevention. You are taking a billet from an individual that wants to do the job that is required of suppression. Not to mention, with your wish of not wanting to be a firefighter "with tons of real live fire experience", how are you going to gain the experience NOT to put yourself or your crew in danger? Let alone the skill needed to make an effective rescue? You are a liability.
If the number of fires are reduced AND it affects the performance of firefighters due to lack of live fire training than the goal is not to increase the number of real structure fires we see. The goal is to increase our life like training to compensate for the decreased number of real fires.
How do you intend to gain this "life like" experience and training? A burn building? Please....

I can honestly say I hope no one else ever loses their house or their life due to fire, vehicle accident, cardiac arrest, or anything else....but I will be properly trained to handle these situations IF and WHEN they arise.

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You may be trained on paper, and have all the certificates in the world, but you would be far from ready in a real word, dynamic, and volatile situation. You have nothing relative to fall back on but what you read in a book.
Good luck, but I wouldn't follow you and that attitude into a grocery store.

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Originally Posted by ATFDFF

Oh PUH-LEASE. As was said in another thread....if all I had to do was hope to never get another fire or cardiac arrest, and it'd never happen, I'd pray to NEVER get another call again.

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What I said in the thread that you're referencing, was in regard to wishing for work. I still stand by that opinion and with what I said.
I don't run from fire and very much enjoy my career. I like breaking into buildings and opening up roofs and performing searches; that is what I entered this career for. What I will NEVER do is wish for fire, of any kind.
People die in fires. People get hurt in fires. How would anyone feel if the fire that was "wished" for resulted in the guy sitting next to them being killed? It happens; it has happened. We each have our own conscience to answer to, and live with.

As far as the original point of the thread, thirty minutes into my first shift we had an appliance fire that spread into the cabinets which we were able to handle with the can. We had a nice first due fire later in the day that involved about three rooms of a 2 1/2 half story, balloon frame house.

My first fire was a 4 fire department mutual aid call for the fertilizer plant portion of the farmer's co-op in town. YES, they had ammonium nitrate. The fire got put out, no explosion occurred.

Look as for wanting fires to occur. That is not how I feel about it. How I feel about it is IF they will occur I want to be there to do the job I have trained for.

I'd be happy if the amount of fires we went to went down by half, but let the decrease be on the other shifts. I don't want fires, I want the ones that are going to happen to happen when I'm working.

Well it finally happened made it into my first fire tuesday morning 11-20, it came in as a bathroom on fire and pulled up stretched a pre connect and i was on the tip with a experienced LT with me and put out the bathroom that was fully involved and another room that was on fire. Definitely the best moment of my life so far and continuing to train for the next one!!

The 1st fire was an hour into my first tour and we had a total of 4 that day. I spent my career going to work and wishing I wouldn't get one. Well, that didn't happen very often.

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Originally Posted by SPFDRum

I didn't play varsity sports to sit on the bench.

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The problem is nobody was killed or injured if you got to play. Nobody lost a home. Nobody lost a vehicle. There were no consequences.

The fact is we should never wish for or want fires. This isn't a game. If we go, there will likely be folks that will lose something so that we can do what we enjoy.

That's why prevention and education, and not having to respond to incidents, is so important.

As far as the question, my first significant fire was a very large mutual aid barn fire that had spread into the house through a breezeway stocked with wood. When we arrived the barn was on the ground and we were initially tasked with setting up a drafting operation and laying a supply line. After that we were tasked to go interior. We were using the MAs department line. After a while it was apparent that is was getting pretty warm and we were not making any headway on the fire.

After we pulled out we looked at the nozzle. Apparently they had assisted the road department a couple of days before and used this nozzle to stick into culverts to unclog them. The nozzle was filled with gravel and putting out a stream similar to a garden hose.

If your in the service to hope you get to fight a fire then do us a favor and walk back out the door. Were here to save lives not risk them. this aint the boy scouts this is the big league. For those wishing for a call to happen, try doing CPR on a guywith his whole family watching knowing your not gonna bring him back. I was like you when i first joined could wait for a call.

I think some people here need to realize that we can wish or not wish for calls all we want, but unless someone here is a wizard, all the wishing in the world isn't going to anything. My conscience is going to be clear regardless of what I "wish for", because my wishes do not magically come true.

That being said, we're firemen. If you don't derive some satisfaction or enjoyment from responding to emergencies and helping others, then why would you get involved in the emergency services?

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Originally Posted by BigGriffC12

I'm not saying go out on a news interview saying "we need more fires" but if I'm BSing with the guys and someone goes " HAvnt had a fire in a long time" or something of that sort I'm not gonna scream arson... A firefighter should want to go to fires, and not be ashamed of it, just like a paramedic should want a code every shift.. I look at it like that person chose a trade, and enjoys it , and when someone enjoys something and are confident in their ability I take that as a good thing.

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I don't know why you'd think a paramedic would want a code every shift, you obviously don't know how much it sucks telling family members that there's nothing more you could do to save their family member. And I've been to Iraq too, and wishing to have contact to me is just warped. Maybe you should watch Band of Brothers a few times, I can guarantee those guys got over having enemy contact real fast. I knew a guy who was in the same battalion as those guys and he sure didn't have that attitude.
My goal every day at work is to help someone have a better outcome to a problem. I don't care if it's cutting off power to a shorted outlet or giving them advice on how to deal with a medical problem. If I get a fire or an arrest, I can deal with it, but I'm not going to "wish" for it.

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The fact is we should never wish for or want fires. This isn't a game. If we go, there will likely be folks that will lose something so that we can do what we enjoy.

That's why prevention and education, and not having to respond to incidents, is so important.

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You really are clueless, you belong in prevention, you have proven over and over you don't have the fortitude or heart for suppression. To stretch what I said into "it's not a game" is a complete bastardization of what I said and you know it.
I work hard at what I do, that comes form actually going to fire and gaining experience. This way, when there is a situation in which there needs to be a rescue, and the risk mismanagement profile is a little more complicated than at what age can I give the kid an eraser or pencil, I have the ability to perform.

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If your in the service to hope you get to fight a fire then do us a favor and walk back out the door.
So what did you join the fire department for if it wasn't fighting fires? Something more grandiose like getting laid? Do us a favor if you don't want to fight fires and back out the door. Because that very attitude is the root of complacency. The history books and accident reports are littered with injuries and deaths caused by just that.
Were here to save lives not risk them. this aint the boy scouts this is the big league.
Then you had better get you head in the game and realize the truth of the matter, there will be fires. The sooner you grasp that, the sooner you will take it serious, do the training and gain the experience that brings you home. Until then, you are fairly useless on the fire ground. No matter how full your closet is of the latest whacker wear, or the number of lights in your car.
For those wishing for a call to happen, try doing CPR on a guy with his whole family watching knowing your not gonna bring him back. I was like you when i first joined could wait for a call.

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Is it just me, or did we have a period in which we hired or attracted a bunch of wanna-be's just here for the t-shirt and prestige?
No matter, I will continue not to sit on the bench, I will continue to learn, I will continue to train, and I will continue to go to fires and gain experience. Not because I have some secret desire to see someone else's life turned upside down, but because I realize there will always be fires, and the most important things I can do are protect the lives and property in my city, and bring my guys home.

I really HATE to see someone's home or business on fire.

I really LOVE to put it out.

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Originally Posted by EastKyFF

I really HATE to see someone's home or business on fire.

I really LOVE to put it out.

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And there lies the conundrum.

That's why eastern variety less-than-an-acre grass fires are kinda fun. You get to deal with the red devil, sometimes with a sense of urgency, but in most cases all that is lost is some dead grass.

I've often said that many a small town volunteer social club , errrr, fire department would be a far different organization if they caught several workers each week/month instead of each year.

It was in my second month on the job. We had a long response time because some of the guys had taken the horses out to tame the West and we had to wait for them to get back. :)

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Originally Posted by SPFDRum

You really are clueless, you belong in prevention, you have proven over and over you don't have the fortitude or heart for suppression. To stretch what I said into "it's not a game" is a complete bastardization of what I said and you know it.

I work hard at what I do, that comes form actually going to fire and gaining experience. This way, when there is a situation in which there needs to be a rescue, and the risk mismanagement profile is a little more complicated than at what age can I give the kid an eraser or pencil, I have the ability to perform.

The trick is I still am in suppression. I don''t go on many EMS calls anymore or the garden variety vehicle fire, but I still respond out on brush fires, MVAs and structure fires with my combo department when not delivering pub ed programs, and all types of fires as a company officer with my VFD.

And the funny thing is I still train on suppression operations. I train on performing my role as a company officer. And I train on education, prevention and juvenile firesetting intervention.

You stated that you didn't join the fire service to "sit on the bench". In reality, the best thing that we can do is "sit on the bench" as that means we are responding to fewer incidents. My point was that it is a far better thing that we never run on any more fires or rescues. You say that they will always occur. I believe that we can and should do a whole lot more to prevent them from occuring so that we do spend a lot more "time on the bench".

As far as your charecterization of prevention of simply giving out pencils, have at that idea if you want, but anyone on here knows that there is alot more to a prevention program than putting on a show.

There are some that seem to view it as a game and they "should" have fires in order to keep them satisfied. I doubt that is the case with you, but you and I both know that there are those who feel that way.



Is it just me, or did we have a period in which we hired or attracted a bunch of wanna-be's just here for the t-shirt and prestige?
No matter, I will continue not to sit on the bench, I will continue to learn, I will continue to train, and I will continue to go to fires and gain experience. Not because I have some secret desire to see someone else's life turned upside down, but because I realize there will always be fires, and the most important things I can do are protect the lives and property in my city, and bring my guys home.

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And so will I, though I go to a limited number of incidents now.

But I will never wish that we have more fires.

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Originally Posted by tree68

And there lies the conundrum.

That's why eastern variety less-than-an-acre grass fires are kinda fun. You get to deal with the red devil, sometimes with a sense of urgency, but in most cases all that is lost is some dead grass.

I've often said that many a small town volunteer social club , errrr, fire department would be a far different organization if they caught several workers each week/month instead of each year.

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You would have loved it here then from 2009 until just a few months ago.

of course, most of them were just a tad ovver 1 acre.

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Originally Posted by LaFireEducator

And so will I, though I go to a limited number of incidents now.

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Blah blah blah. I fought more fire than you've seen on TV. Please don't try to pass off your faux expertise as something valuable.