Argumentative Essay: A Career As A Firefighter

Much like the firefighters in 911 (figure 1); many people would say that a firefighter’s health is very important. Life is a precious thing and before we sit around and let controlled burnings take control, we should protect the lives of those who protect us.

To better understand the background of the contrasting views, we must look at how the fire service has developed around

Fire service personnel, regardless of rank have a duty to protect life and property from fire and other hazards. Other duties include carrying out risk assessments, enforcing fire legislation and educating the community. The fire fighters duties include attending emergency incidents, dealing with fires, flooding, chemical spillages, terrorist incidents and checking water hydrants. All members will need to be disciplined correctly to carry out every aspect of being a fire fighter.

Volunteer fire departments everywhere have staffing problems. If you take a drive past any fire department you will probably see a volunteers needed sign. A fire chief in Pennsylvania stated “I would like to have a greater turnout of firefighters on scene than what we currently have,” he said. “We have a lack of volunteers who are able to respond during daytime hours” (Shawgo, 2014, p. 17). There are several reason that there is not as good of a turnout as there used to be. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the thing to do in town was to hang out at the fire house. There was not as much going on as there is today. People today want to spend more time with their family and go out to the movies or mini golfing, things that family’s did not do as much back in the day. The average amount of training that a volunteer must go through is about 130 hours. Most people see that as too much time to sacrifice. Also, in today’s economy many people work a second or even third job in order to make ends meet. There are also more single parent households then there used to be, which does not allow for hardly any time to volunteer. Due to the reasons stated above it is very difficult to properly staff fire trucks in volunteer departments. The average age of members continues to increase. The few people left who still find time to volunteer often work a regular job during the day, which makes day time emergency calls even harder to respond to with proper staffing. The typical fire truck holds 6

One could say the Fire Service possess one unique quality about how it operates daily and that is the culture and the community that lies within every department. Culture is defined as defined by Miriam-Webster “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations (Definition of Culture, 2017, para. 5).” The many diverse aspects of each department in still’s a variety of cultural differences separating one department from the next. At the heart of all departments, fire service culture is the men and women who work and train hard to serve their communities as prescribed by the Fire Chief. The Fire Chief, however,

With that being said, society has raised its standards on what it thinks that a fire service member’s behavior should look like, and if we don’t meet those standards, we can be

Firemen, while intimidating to the general public, are widely accepted and respected. This means that they serve as an embodiment of the public as a whole. In their hands fire is used to

We are the most technically advanced nation in the free world but yet we have not been able to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities over the years. Its one of the great mysteries of the world today. Our gear is better than what they wore thirty years ago, its better than what they wore ten years ago and we still lose an average of one hundred firefighters every year. I know that not all are dying in structure fires but just one is one too many.

According the agency of the Department of Homeland Security states that motor vehicles crashes are the leading cause of death for an on-line duty fireman. Other significant causes of death are: caught/trapped (10%), fall (5%), collapse (3%), and other (7%). Intentions of firefighters are to make the community safe as possible, but we the people need to think twice before we do anything else when dealing with fire. The other things that it 's a national problem for firefighters is not wearing their seat belts when driving out to an emergency. They are so focused on saving our lives when first it 's supposed to be the opposite, their safety is first, but firemen put their lives at risk.

There have been several popular movies and television shows that portray the lives of firefighters. Some of these such as Backdraft (Howard and Lewis, 1991), Ladder 49 (Russell and Silver, 2004) and Chicago Fire (Wolf, 2012) present life as a career firefighter. However, in the United States, close to seventy percent are volunteer firefighters (National Fire Protection Association, 2014, p. iii). What differences do you see between career firefighters and volunteer firefighters?

Firefighters: Their job is to react when exhales are activated in an effort to control and extinguish their feelings. This is accomplished any numbers of way through alcohol or drug use, gambling, shopping, binge eating. We believe the firefighters are keeping us safe somehow however they are actuality obscuring our heart within us.

Firefighters are ordinary, standard people who put themselves in dangerous situations to save faultless people. For instance, firefighters are rescuers, who are trained to extinguish uncontrolled fires. This

Throughout the many years that we have been the human race there have been fires. When there is a fire there has to be someone to put it out, that’s where a firefighter comes in. A firefighter is person that not only puts out a fire but makes sure that the people that may be in a fire get out safely and securely. Is there a problem with a women becoming a firefighter, many people would seem to believe so but others say why not. Being a woman or a man should not take away from the fact that they are both trying to save lives. So it should not matter whether or not a woman is a firefighter or is trying to become one.

Firefighting is a career that can make you feel proud and accomplished, and it is a career in which I have a lot of respect for. In order to be a firefighter you must be in shape, prepared, experienced, and ready to deal with your job emotionally as well as physically. I chose to be a firefighter because I want to be able to help others and make them feel safe to live in their communities.

The greatest threat facing the Modern Fire Service is the rate at which firefighters are dying in the line of duty. Excluding the terrible event of 9/11 that occurred in 2001 that forever changed the dynamics of the emergency response services1, firefighter deaths have averaged around 100 fatalities each year for the since 1990. This unacceptable rate of firefighter deaths has found its way to be a benchmark in the industry. The problem is that the benchmark should be zero firefighter deaths while on duty and every year that there is a fatality is a year that the fire service has failed its members. The number one cause of firefighter related deaths yearly is proven to be medical, stress, or overexertion related fatalities2. All of these causes of firefighter deaths can be avoided with implementation of training and awareness.