your opinion is exactly the type of opinion im looking for. i see your point, although i wasnt thinking the graphics to be seen more.

lights and siren get you noticed not the paint on the truck.

 

and plus, if your truck is easily recognized, then you can't steal anything, like gas, or egg cars.


geeezzzzz

 

i would take texasfiremedics advice. we dont let people use lights on their POV around here. certain volly depts still allow them, but there are strict requirements. a girl actually killed someone about a year ago while responding in her POV. my advice would be to drive safely to the station and pull an apparatus

brett

 

The only thing i think a P.O.V. should have lights for would be to mark scenes. i wouldn't run code. that puts to much liability on you and the department you work for. thats just my $.02 and i was a voly for a very long time before becomming paid so i know where you are comming from. At first i wanted to do it to my truck till i was told the things that could go really bad really quick. anyways good luck and stay safe. And don't think that you are going to be running into houses just yet, training is number one. get as much training as they will give you so if you ever want to go paid that will make that much more you will know and that will help with job hunting.

 

whats up fellow smoke eater's.....?

first time to look at this thread and I see there were good number of you from Texas. I've been around the Pasadena VFD most of my life but recently moved to LaPorte but havent joined up with them yet. going to school 3 nights a week from 6-10pm and working fulltime, oh did i mention a new baby also. anyway, its nice to have good company around here. not just truck guys, truck guys that like to play with fire! great combo.....hahaha

 

So I heard a stat that 70 percent of the country is volly. and the rest is paid. anybody else heard that?? just thought that was kinda wierd, not many vollies in Georgia, except really rural parts.

 

we actually have city departments here in Ohio that are volly. at least the one is in the city that i live.

 

I believe the number is closer to 75% volunteer. Paid departments protect about 85% of the population however.

 

That is probably true. I might not make any friends right now with what I’m going to say but this is how I look at volunteer depts.

First things first, volunteer depts. do a valuable service to the communities that they serve. They are the last line of defense for a rural community with fire and EMS calls and they do it for no pay and almost always on call.

But there are some volunteers that I have run into that are the most gung-ho people that I have ever met. These are “usually” the people that can’t get on a paid dept. and have their vehicles stickered up with all kind of F.D. stickers and lights on top of their 76 Ford Granada letting the world know that they are firefighters. They are the people you see in Wal-Mart wearing some kind of F.D. T-Shirt and BDU pants with all kind of rescue stuff hanging off of them just so everyone in the store “KNOWS that they are “firefighters”!!!! These guys are a joke. 99.9% of these people have never been inside of a burning structure and wouldn't know what to do if they ever had to. They have no idea what heat is.

The volunteers that I respect are the ones that you don’t know are volunteers. They are the ones that do the job quietly with no fanfare and ask nothing in return. They are the ones that get up in the middle of the night and go perform CPR on one of their neighbors (whom they’ve known for years) or pull some 16 year old son of their best friend out of a car that he has just wrapped around a tree because he is…. well….. 16.

Just know that if you are one of the ones that advertises all day every day that you are a volunteer firefighter that everyone else is rolling their eyes at you. Trust me, it is a big joke at the station (even among volunteers that work for us). I live in a county that is protected mostly by volunteer depts. I even worked for a volunteer dept for a while (in Ar. if you are a professional firefighter you count as 2 volunteers) before I moved and there were plenty of both kind of firefighters that I described. And I guess you know which one earns my respect. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in what you do. I do. My screen name is a indication of that. But if you ever run into me in public, you'll not know that I work for the largest F.D. in AR. I promise you though, I can go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and see at least 3 or 4 Volunteers with one of the smallest depts. in Ar. with all kind of stuff hanging off of them. I'm impressed

So there, I said it. Flame on (pun intended)

Britt

 

whats up guys and gals....

glad to see this thead and glad to see so many in the prefession here at DTR!

Vol. Dept member ...Acting Cpt. here. FF for 4 yrs/Engineer for 2/Acting Cpt for 6mo. now....boy i want to be an Engineer again...lol much more fun...

just got off shift 0800 this morning after a nice shift of 1 medical,1 veh roll over and a nice 67 acre wildland fire....good times...(got to pump)

handled it with one alarm...although we were there much longer than if we elevated it....pride you know it bites you in the rear...lol (white hats u know)

anyways....i would love to check in from time to time.

take care and be safe

NCA

 

ha i can't believe i've missed this thread for over a month now. i work for rome fire deparment in rome, ga. it has amazed me how many of us are on this site.
here's some links to some videos of calls that we have responded to.
http://archives.realfastnews.com/

http://www.romenewswire.com/index.ph...nomy/tag/fire/
Ross

 

These guys are a joke. 99.9% of these people have never been inside of a burning structure and wouldn't know what to do if they ever had to. They have no idea what heat is.
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I'll stand firm with you on this one. In 1999 we had an 11 alarm fire that involved 23 buildings, the smallest was a 4 story block, there was so much burning at once that the fires were making huge fire tornado's and carrying burning embers 3-5 miles from the fire ground causing all kinds of other stucture fires. Command ordered a regional response which brought mutual aid from 20 other communities including volly's. Some of the volly's did a bang up job and performed their assigned tasks well, while the ones that got assigned to actually fight fire with me and the crews from my station refused to go into an apartment building that had fire in an apartment on the 4th floor, 2 bedrooms and a living room were involved , we were out of the apartment in 40 minutes incuding overhauling, the volly captain stated it was to dangerous for his men to go in there, . We repacked the piece wet and went to the next job while the volly captain and his crew got in their piece and returned to their town.

To the Volunteers that actually do their job I say thank you and tip my hat to you, to the wanna be's I say, stay on the side walk across the street, we will show you how it is actually done.

Stay safe, Tim

 

X2.

nicely said. aside from my union sticker on my truck, thats the only thing i ever have with me that says im a fireman. i dont wear any fd tees, stickers, hats etc. thats just my job. i will not let it be who i am. i am brett, a beer drinking party boy that has fun. when im at work, im 100% professional but i do not let it identify who i am. but thats just me.

i know i couldnt be a volly though. call me lazy, but when im home, i wouldnt want to be woken every couple hrs to go to some bs call. my hat goes off to those guys that make the sacrifice for thier community for little to no recognition.

that other thing that gets under my skin (now im sure its my turn to take the chance at getting people upset) is the volunteers, that expect to get paid what a fulltime fireman should earn. at my part time job, if theres an opening on the duty-crew, then a entry cleared volly could fill it for $50 a shift. thats ok, but now they want to be paid for every call they make, and some see it as a part-time job. they have zero certs in some cases and at best an eca! they want to do our job, with our pay and no schooling! oh well. as long as the check doesnt bounce, im happy

brett

 

WOW...you all are lumping alot of people into that stereo type....

i could say the EXACT samething about PAID PERSONEL and it goes all the way up the ladder to the WHITE HATS.....

what really gets me going is the PAID personel that feel this job is a oppertunity for a calender shot and a free ticket to heroism....they are your good old beer drinking bar hoping boys professing to everyone that will listion that they are "FIREFIGHTER" of the year....when they look more like Ricky Rescue...they got this cert, that cert,i am Haz-mat this, vehicle extracation that...but dont know how to get a person out of a roll over, couldnt roll a dash, and hit a room and contents with a fog stream....

you know what the worst thing about it is.....when the PAID guys treat others just the way you all discribed...could care less about them on the scene of a fire, act as if they dont belong, and generally stick their nose up at them....

most PAID staff, forgot where this profession got its start....and likewise where they got thiers, i have seen it all to often....and even at my department....we have a mixed staff, paid and non.....and once those paid guys got that sticker to put on thier truck...they acted as if GOD himself had appointed them the end all and be all to the fireservice....truly sad.

personally i cant count the times i or my crew has had to bail out a paid crew from another city on scene of a call, either they dont pratice it enough or they got FAT AND LAZY because of that nice salary they get....i pride myself and my crew on they fact that we can RUN CIRCLES around most any paid crew on most any call.....how many times have i bailed out an ENGINEER on there OWN pannel because they think it is the COOL thing to do to become a driver.....lights and sirens, and the girls will love me.....well that isnt gonna cut it.....

ok.......enough...i could go on for EVER.....about PAID and VOL....i do agree vol firefighters seem to be more of the yahoo's out there, but PAID staff isnt that much better....it is just different....

NCA

 

NCA

i was laughing all the way thru your post becuase of how true it is! theres alot of "professionals" out there that do not do the service well, but yet they talk like they are tommy gavin! i think every dept has some bad with the good, and i have noticed myself how some vollys that get certified act better than their uncertified coherts. that makes me mad. we are no better than anyone else and we all need each other!

brett