Absolutely true and if that’s cool and you enjoy it join your local volunteer firefighter organization! As a volunteer you aren’t allowed inside a burning building without extra training but are allowed to help outside where it’s much safer and still pretty epic. The US is short roughly 700k volunteer firefighters, and many areas simply cannot afford paid staff. There are areas that have only 2-3 volunteers every 50 sq miles.
There’s tons of fun stuff to do outside like breaking down doors, breaking windows, cutting through the roof with a chainsaw, and connecting to some kind of water supply. There’s also vehicle rescue with cutters and spreaders, search and rescue, vehicle maintenance, and a ton of community relations stuff like fundraising and teaching folks how to use fire extinguishers. My station has volunteers who only do equipment maintenance, some who only do community relations, and some who only respond to calls with rope rescue like cliffs and trees and stuff. Some of our volunteers only drive the engine or tower, and operate the pumps. Since you’re a volunteer you get to pick what you want to do and can say no to anything. There’s an extremely low fitness bar to volunteer. This isn’t FDNY. Half our volunteers are 65+. We’ve got members who are >350lb. Some can’t move a charged hoseline but are great at going to schools to teach fire prevention week classes. Some just show up to cook meals and write fundraising letters. I cannot express enough how much effort it is to keep a station going, there’s something for everyone and there would still be hundreds of jobs left undone.
It takes a bit of time, but the community at my station is filled with folks who are extremely tight knit. I’ve never felt anything like it and have enjoyed my years as a volunteer immensely. I can’t recommend it enough. Folks were weird and standoffish for a year but once they realized I wasn’t going anywhere they opened up and now we’re constantly hanging out together. My TTRPG group is from the firehouse. A bunch of us go to Renfaires together, or Rough and Tumble, and vacation together. It’s pretty wild how tight knit you get after a few years of actually trusting each other in dangerous situations.
Also if you get into it long enough, usually your station will get a grant for you to get interior firefighter cert so you can wear an SCBA and go inside a burning building. That’s when it starts to get even more exciting and fun because now you’re going into a dangerous atmosphere and having to really think on your feet.
Absolutely true and if that’s cool and you enjoy it join your local volunteer firefighter organization! As a volunteer you aren’t allowed inside a burning building without extra training but are allowed to help outside where it’s much safer and still pretty epic. The US is short roughly 700k volunteer firefighters, and many areas simply cannot afford paid staff. There are areas that have only 2-3 volunteers every 50 sq miles.
There’s tons of fun stuff to do outside like breaking down doors, breaking windows, cutting through the roof with a chainsaw, and connecting to some kind of water supply. There’s also vehicle rescue with cutters and spreaders, search and rescue, vehicle maintenance, and a ton of community relations stuff like fundraising and teaching folks how to use fire extinguishers. My station has volunteers who only do equipment maintenance, some who only do community relations, and some who only respond to calls with rope rescue like cliffs and trees and stuff. Some of our volunteers only drive the engine or tower, and operate the pumps. Since you’re a volunteer you get to pick what you want to do and can say no to anything. There’s an extremely low fitness bar to volunteer. This isn’t FDNY. Half our volunteers are 65+. We’ve got members who are >350lb. Some can’t move a charged hoseline but are great at going to schools to teach fire prevention week classes. Some just show up to cook meals and write fundraising letters. I cannot express enough how much effort it is to keep a station going, there’s something for everyone and there would still be hundreds of jobs left undone.
It takes a bit of time, but the community at my station is filled with folks who are extremely tight knit. I’ve never felt anything like it and have enjoyed my years as a volunteer immensely. I can’t recommend it enough. Folks were weird and standoffish for a year but once they realized I wasn’t going anywhere they opened up and now we’re constantly hanging out together. My TTRPG group is from the firehouse. A bunch of us go to Renfaires together, or Rough and Tumble, and vacation together. It’s pretty wild how tight knit you get after a few years of actually trusting each other in dangerous situations.
Also if you get into it long enough, usually your station will get a grant for you to get interior firefighter cert so you can wear an SCBA and go inside a burning building. That’s when it starts to get even more exciting and fun because now you’re going into a dangerous atmosphere and having to really think on your feet.