The word firefighter may seem self-explanatory, but many people don’t always understand the complexity of firefighters’ jobs. While a firefighter’s job description is to put out fires and protect community members, there are other less well-known aspects of the job that people tend to overlook. If you want to become a firefighter, make sure you know all there is to know about what you’re getting into before making your final career choice.
Firefighters have to be able to put out fires, so they go through extensive training in order to put out fires effectively and save peoples’ lives. When a fire fighting crew receives an emergency call, there are a number of steps that have to happen in the process. Firefighters must first get ready, gather equipment, and get in a fire truck in record time in order to be swift and efficient. They then have to be able to drive quickly to emergency scenes, which means operating large fire trucks. When they arrive at the scene of a fire, they have to connect hoses to fire hydrants, operate hoses and pumps, use ladders to get to multi-level building fires, break through crumbling walls and debris, and assess situations to rescue individuals trapped in a building that has caught on fire.
If an emergency situation is extensive enough to where people have been injured, firefighters often have to help treat people until ambulances are available to take victims to the hospital. All firefighters must take emergency medical technician training in order to become firefighters.
Firefighters have other components to their job that typically involve follow-up work or prevention work. For instance, they often have to write reports following incidents and make sure equipment is maintained and cleaned in-between emergencies. They also conduct drills and go through physical fitness training to make sure they are always fit to fight emergencies. A huge component of their job is public safety and education. All firefighting units are available to talk to companies and schools about fire safety in a number of situations. Some firefighters even specialize in education as their primary job and work in emergencies as a secondary aspect of the job.
Firefighters in every community are on-call at different times of the day and week. So if you’re thinking of becoming a firefighter, you should recognize that it’s not the kind of job that requires or even allows a 9-5 workday.
Many firefighters consider their job to be very rewarding, because they are in the business of protection and safety. It’s easy to feel great for helping other people, but it can also be a dangerous job. Weigh the pros and cons before making a quick decision, but also know that firefighting is a great profession in service to communities.
