The Pros And Cons Of Volunteer Fire Departments

Spending twelve successful years as a wild-land firefighter, I am here to share few thoughts about this adventurous career. Well, you might be wondering why I called this career as adventurous? I know sky-diving, trekking, bungee-jumping are adventurous things but believe me, job of firefighters is more than that. We are risk takers and there is nothing more adventurous than taking risks. After all, accessing areas engulfed by fire, running and hiking with heavy equipments, making ways through the thick smoke, rescuing people and animals, stitching wounds, clearing blocked airways, etc. isn't a simple task. I still get goose bumps remembering those days. Through this blog, I would like to share important details with you about this profession. Like how to be a wild-land firefighter? How much they earn? What are the

Over the past couple of years, our small city of Granbury has seen a drastic spike in population. This recent growth has not only caused an unemployment crisis, but it also has influenced a greater risk of devastating fires for both homes and businesses. However, if the city of Granbury were to adopt full time fire departments, all citizens and businesses would benefit in numerous aspects. By adopting these full time departments, it is clear that our cities proficiency, productivity, and safety will increase greatly. There is a little over 400 volunteer firefighters at seven departments spread across Granbury. This not only means that these hard working heros do not receive a paycheck for their excruciating efforts, but it also reveals that these 400 firefighters are not stationed at their departments which indicates they must travel to the station to be able to then respond to a call causing a slow response time; opposed to career departments that always have their stations manned which is proven to generate a quicker response time. Not only do these full time departments ensure proper response times to emergencies, but they will also correspond with companies insurance codes which allow their franchises to be opened in cities only with these career departments. Many companies such as Target, Academy, Olive Garden, Main Event, etc… all require professional fire departments for their stores to be built in that city. Also, the lack of recreational opportunities prevent social

The Golden Fire Department (GFD) is proud to introduce our newest employee Kathleen (Katie) Quintana! Katie Joined the GFD Fire Prevention Bureau staff in mid June 2015. She worked for the City and County of Denver for 10 ½ years, there she held a variety of clerical and administrative positions. Her last few years with Denver, Katie worked for the Denver Police Department doing photo enforcement, after that she was a 911 call taker. In 2005, she accepted a position with the Aurora Fire Department (AFD) as a front desk receptionist. Shortly after she was hired, she was promoted to fire inspector. Katie spent eight years with the Aurora Fire Department. During her tenure, she became an ICC and state certified Fire Inspector II, she also received

Fire Chief Rick Pavick gave me insight about general information related to the Texarkana, AR fire department. According to Chief Pavick, there are 57 full-time firefighters, however they are still understaffed by 16 at this time. The fires in this community is low in all categories but more house fires occur and is the primary concern. The average response time is 5 minutes on average. There is not a central water supply but there are fire hydrants. The Insurance Services Office (ISO) fire rating is a 5 for this community. The community’s low support for the department financially is related to the community not being aware of the needs of the fire department. The department does offer fire prevention education for the community and adequate

Based upon the research results obtained regarding policy issues of how funding of grants is obtained and the policy processes that are in place. There are areas of these said policies that are being reformed after going through a process called, lessons learned. These lessons are learned from prior disasters/incidents through a hazard mitigation process that is always going on before, during, and after an incident. In past incidents some policies are not existent and need to be produced through the use of policy tools from the support of the private sector and government agencies collaborates with one another to build a new policy such as FEMA grants for use by state and local governments. The grant funding process is important to the

The need for help is always there at all hours of the day and night. A firefighter has to be able to shift from dead sleep and when the call comes through, he must be up, mentally prepared and completely focused on the job and performing it as expected, no matter what time of day, or how little sleep he has gotten. The average working conditions involves responding to residential areas to provide medical services, as this is the majority of the tasks of firefighters. According to the NFPA, 2 out of 3 calls a firefighter responds to are medical assist related calls. Firefighting has a large number of dangerous aspects in the job, as that is what the firefighters know and acknowledge when entering this field. There may times that become unpleasant, but when the job is done, you feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction knowing that it was you that made the difference in a humans life.

Since there has not been a train derailment in the city of Oxnard before, first responders and partnering agencies were facing an unfamiliar incident. In the hours post-collision a number of major tasks were achieved. The Oxnard Fire Department (OFD) responded and the Battalion Chief assumed Incident Command (IC), he immediately declared a level 3 Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) and set up a unified command structure, requesting numerous additional resources (National Transportation, 2016c, p. 10). In accordance with the Ventura County Emergency Medical Services (VCEMS) MCI plan “A medical communications officer (MEDCOMM) was assigned at the scene and base hospital contact was initiated with Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC)” (Ventura County,

Firefighters are considered as one of the leading occupational fatality rates in the United States since firefighting activities contribute to the death of 100 lives every year. For on-duty firefighters, the main cause of death or fatalities is coronary heart disease in addition to other illnesses and injuries originating while they are conducting the duties of the fire department. Coronary heart disease accounts for approximately 45 percent of the on-duty deaths among firefighters. The risk of coronary heart disease in firefighting activities is usually associated with the fact that firefighters are generally exposed to smoke, psychological stressors, and physical exertion (Kales et. al., 2003).

The Council Bluffs Fire Department earned 39.3 out of 50 possible points in the 2014 ISO evaluation. Details of the credit earned in the Fire Department section are found in Table 8.

The fire service is a institution intertwined with tradition and bravery. The men and women in this line of work are worth of praise and a raise but is it all for the right reasons? Does the community want a firefighter willing to kill him or herself for their empty buildings or a fireman willing to work with the community to prevent the fire from ever taking place? The ideal hero in American society is often one that flirts with death day in and day out but that is not a safe mentality to demand. The firemen themselves can often get caught up in the moment and decide that lights and sirens mixed with daring rescues and jumping out of flaming windows is going to be their lifestyle.

On or 6/17 the CIW Fire Dept was down to 2 “trained inmates” Leaving us 3/0 Staffed . Fire Chief Joel Johnson had the CIW Fire Department start doubling up fire captains on 6/20. At Noon on 6/20 central control contacted us via land line that there was a trash can fire between visiting and the Admin building. Being that this was the weekend the inmates had the day off and we do not house inmates at the fire house. Capt Smith and myself responded to the fire alone . When we arrived at scene we had heavy smoke and fire showing from 40 yard roll off dumpster with immediate exposure threat to the admin building which encompasses the Out Patient Housing Unit, Other direct exposures were 2 additional 40 yard roll offs dumpsters that were also over

The days of fire departments only responding to structure fires is a distant memory. The dynamic economy and increasing customer expectations demand fire departments be more versatile by offering more services and provide excellent customer service. To meet these new requirements for more services, most fire departments now offer a variety of services ranging from fire station tours and blood pressure checks to building inspections and smoke detector battery changes. These additional services greatly enhance a fire department’s presence within a community and provide numerous opportunities for citizens to interact with the fire department. One of the easiest means for customers to learn a fire department is through the

Firefighters evolved from a necessity of the community’s appeals for someone to come to their aid when called. If they don’t come in the time of aid they should not be firefighters. If the purpose of government is to provide protection to its citizens, then it only makes sense to take a standing group of employees

I truly enjoyed reading the material for this week 's discussion. I found it fascinating to read how these people of passion were so revered as leaders. Something I found difficult while reading the stories of these various leaders was the details of what they did within their respective industries that made them successful. Although I recognize the importance of the details, I found myself continually fanaticizing about how the many different approaches would directly translate to the fire service. Because of the uniqueness of the fire service as an industry, I found it easier to relate to themes and concepts rather than the details. 'Strengths Based Leadership ' by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie For example Simon Cooper stated: "people create memories, not things. If we ask guests what color the carpet was in their guest room, they probably won 't know. The real value comes from the ladies and gentlemen (employees) who bring that hotel to life. Ten percent is the platform, but the rest is people. (Rath & Conchie, 2008, p. 43) As I read this I couldn 't help but think of the fact that our customers in the emergency response world (fire service) likely remember more about how we treat them than what uniform we wear or what kind of apparatus we arrive in, so long as we bring true caring and compassion to their bedside. In addition Cooper 's people over platform approach was obvious in this Rath & Conchie description: "then when he talked of the night-and-day difference that a

Looking at the changes in fire service little has been done in totality to address firefighter deaths. In fact one of the most