I'm a Firefighter!

I went to the fire hall last night around 7pm, hung around and chatted with folks for a bit, then had one of the captains come over and inform me that first Tue is the monthly business meeting, for members only. The good news, he said, was that they'd be voting on my application, and that he should be able to give me a call by 9pm and let me know, and then maybe I could get my gear and pager and get started next week.

So I went home, played with my kids, and went out to walk the dog before it started raining. When I walked in the door, Diane said "they'd like you to come back down to the fire hall". I pretty much floated out to my car, and went back, at which point the captain was there at the back door, and told me that I'd been accepted!

Yes, folks, I'm now a firefighter!

Actually, I'm a probationary firefighter, or probie. I'll be on probation for the next 6 months, and will be expected to do a good bit of training during that time before becoming a full FF. For my first few calls, I'll be asked to ride in the squad vehicle (rather than on an engine), until I understand what's what.

They gave me a pager (a Minitor II, in case you were wondering), and showed me how it works. There's a setting to receive just our dispatches, a setting to receive all fire and ambulance dispatches for the county, and a setting to receive fireground transmissions (which at the beginning of a call, will likely be the chief arriving on-scene and giving information to County and our arriving apparatus as to what's occurring).

They gave me a "training manual", which is largely a checklist of things I'll be expected to learn in the first few months. I'll be using that at the station, mostly, while I'm going over equipment and such, to know at least some of the right questions to ask, and for me and them to assess my progress.

The first training course that I need to take during my first 18 months is Essentials of Firefighting, which, by sheer luck, is starting next week at a neighboring company, and I was told that there's room for me to go. So I'll actually miss our training night for the next few weeks as I attend that.

I got my turnout gear last night as well: pants, coat, boots, 2 pair of gloves (one fireproof, one lighter weight for non-fire/clean-up work), Nomex hood (fire resistant, to wear under my helmet) and helmet. Got a flashlight as well. Got shown how to store the gear on the rack, and got given my own space on the rack, complete with name tag.

So now I'm ready to run calls. When the pager goes off, I drive (safely, obeying traffic laws) to the station, get my gear on, head for the squad vehicle, and follow instructions given to me by pretty much anyone else.

I'm a firefighter!