relatives suck

[ladder51]

have any of you guys tried getting on a department were you are related to someone . i guess in southwest missouri its unheard of

[cfdeng3]

That must be one of the only areas of the country with that rule. I can't think of a department in this area that doesn't have a father/son, brothers, or cousins working for it. My department has all three. My dad retired as the assistant chief and I got on one year before he retired. There are at least 5 or 6 other guys that followed their fathers foot steps in my city and several sets of brothers.

[dave32881]

Yeah, thats the first i've heard of that it has to be just there. I belonged to a department in Lawrence Co. PA where my dad was an Asst.Chief, my mom was
QRS Captain, my aunt V.P. and both of my younger brothers were Jr, firemen.

Thanks, Dave

[RadRob]

Down here you aren't supposed to work for a relative. Meaning if your relative is a battalion chief for example, you cannot work in that station. You are allowed to work WITH them, just not FOR them. Something about fair treatment and not wanting the guys to go running to daddy.

[LRFPD60]

Ladder51 where at in southwest missouri are you talking about. I know Springfield Fire will allow it unless they've changed something in the past year or so. They wont allow you to be under the direct supervision of a relative. Also the City of Springfield will hire family member but no more than 3 of the same family. It's weird but that's the rule.

[RFRDxplorer]

I have never heard of this before. At many departments around here there are father/son, brothers, etc.

[doughesson]

My volunteer department didn't have that problem.(I left to help my folks at home,not due to any problems)Our Chief's wife is a member and while she doesn't make many calls,she does handle her EMT jobs pretty well from what I could tell.No patients died on her lookput,anyway.


Down here you aren't supposed to work for a relative. Meaning if your relative is a battalion chief for example, you cannot work in that station. You are allowed to work WITH them, just not FOR them. Something about fair treatment and not wanting the guys to go running to daddy.

[ladder51]

my uncle is a captin at joplin fire and I have another uncle by marriage thats a captin at carthage fire. both cities tell me i cant work for there departments because its there city protocall

[ChicagoFF]

My brother is on the same dept as me and my nephew is waiting for the next test. There are MANY families with father, son, brother, sister, even wives on the job here. Some families have 4 or 5 of their people on. The only rule I think is that you are not supposed to work at the same house on the same shift.

[gunnyv]

On an 85 member dept, we have tons of relatives. 2 sets of brothers on my shift, 1 set were hired when their dad was on the job before he retired. We have a guy who married the Chief's daughter, his brother is now on the job. One of the guys I was hired in with, his dad was my captain. We had a male and female FF marry each other-since divorced.
My dept won't let brother's work on the same rig, supposedly so they both don't get killed at a fire. Ridiculous, because we run 3 man engines, one would always be the pump operator. The week after that order came down, we had an apt fire. I have a picture of 3 pairs of brothers in the same room overhauling :D When you only have 23 on a shift, it doesn't matter which rig they're on, they're coming to the fire.

[CaptainGonzo]

Relatives don't suck.

Antiquated nepotism laws do.
Mutts who caused nepotism laws suck.

[HOSER303]

Relatives don't suck.


Gonzo you took the words out of my mouth....Family is number 1.

[thratz]

Gonzo you took the words out of my mouth....Family is number 1.


AMEN - without the family you have nothing.

[ChicagoFF]

Nepotism is fine (as long as your family has some clout!) Otherwise it sucks!!!! (unless I can marry into the right family, then.....) Nepotism rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ladder51]

dont get the wrong idea i love my family i didnt mean that actually hated my family for being firefighters . im proud of it ist just seems to be a tradition to hire family in the fire service everywhere except here

[ndvfdff33]

Kind of a screwed up system if yah ask me

[LRFPD60]

ladder51, why don't ya come on over here towards Springfield. Trust me, that rule doesn't apply, only the one where you can't work under a relative. Not sure when the next test will be but probably sometime in September like this year. All the vollie dept.'s around here allow family as well. Just a suggestion.

[CaptainGonzo]

Nepotism is fine (as long as your family has some clout!) Otherwise it sucks!!!! (unless I can marry into the right family, then.....) Nepotism rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On my FD, we have father/sons, father/daughters, cousins, uncles, in laws, out laws...

and the fact that we have relatives who work on the same FD never stopped us from putting out a fire or responding to a medical, accident, etc.

[RadRob]

My volunteer department didn't have that problem.(I left to help my folks at home,not due to any problems)Our Chief's wife is a member and while she doesn't make many calls,she does handle her EMT jobs pretty well from what I could tell.No patients died on her lookput,anyway.

I guess I should clarify. On paid departments, the rule is applied that you can't have relatives working under the command of another family member. On my volly dept, we have the Chief and his son working together. Works fine for us too, but I think they are trying to avoid favoritism when promoting or to prevent the subordinates from giving orders with their daddy backing them up, causing rifts between the crew members. That's one thing I have seen in business settings. One person telling someone else what to do because they think that having daddy as the boss somehow gives them authority. If it comes down to having to drop the axe on someone, who do you think it will be? Not daddy's little boy.

[DennisTheMenace]

For better or worse, and mostly for the better, but still a little bit for the worse, Nepotism is dead. or atleast dieing in most of the country.

[CaptainGonzo]

For better or worse, and mostly for the better, but still a little bit for the worse, Nepotism is dead. or atleast dieing in most of the country.

How many qualified firefighters are being bypassed because of antiquated nepotism laws?

What if the Military said that you could not have a son or daughter join ther armed forces if you were still active?

What if private industry said you could not have sons or daughters work for the same company?

What if the Medical profession did not allow the sons and daughters of physicians to become physciains themselves?

What if you could see that your opinion is flawed?

[DennisTheMenace]

How many qualified firefighters are being bypassed because of antiquated nepotism laws?HOw many qualified guys were kept out of the departments because less qualified sons, daughters, nephews, and grandkids were GIVEN the positions?

What if the Military said that you could not have a son or daughter join ther armed forces if you were still active?What about when a promotion board gives the edge to a guy/gal because they are all in awe of the kid's father, the general.

What if private industry said you could not have sons or daughters work for the same company?What if the company said that you could not have the promotion to senior position because the general managers kid wanted it?

What if the Medical profession did not allow the sons and daughters of physicians to become physciains themselves?What if the old boy network filled the Medical Schools up with less qualified children of doctors, so that there was no space for others.

What if you could see that your opinion is flawed?My opinion as stated shows that I see positives and negatives in the subject. It can be taken too far, but it also needs to be watched for unfair advantages.

[chrism8922]

Capt. Gonzo, any chance you're a FOOL!!??

I'm with you, brother!



Chris

[Engine58]

My Department we got brothers,Fathers, Just very recently Daughters..Uncles,cousins,Gran dfathers....all throughout the 5 stations in my town. If they had that kind of rule here we'd be basically screwed. Especially in my firehouse where my brother is Captain and I am 1st Lieutenant, this goes for other firehouses also Fathers capt sons 2nd LT...I do see everyones point though....this kind of rule is good and bad....I see mainly bad...

[ResQUrCat4Free]

When you only have 23 on a shift, it doesn't matter which rig they're on, they're coming to the fire.

23!? Heck, thats almost twice the number on our whole department! :D

[DrParasite]

just ask Chief Woods what his thoughts are of having family members in the fire service.....

[wiexplorer18]

Also the City of Springfield will hire family member but no more than 3 of the same family. It's weird but that's the rule.

I've never heard of anything like that before...ever.

[2andfrom]

Seemed to work exceptionally well for a very long time for Saddam Hussein and family.
The Kennedy's didn't do too bad either--mind you Chappaquiddick put a dampener on a certain individual(but only for a short time)

[doughesson]

I understood ya but thanks for the expansion.
If you think the fire service has problems with people wearing their daddy's or husband's bugles,you oughta look at a Navy wives' club.I was going to marry this one girl while in the Navy. She started showing up at the meetings while we were still planning and got hacked at the women that acted like their husband was this officer or Chief and that entitled them to head of the line at the Navy Exchange.Fortunately,the CO and the Command Master Chief's wives watched for that and kept tabs on who was doing it.
It happens and a good command structure works to limit it.


I guess I should clarify. .....One person telling someone else what to do because they think that having daddy as the boss somehow gives them authority. If it comes down to having to drop the axe on someone, who do you think it will be? Not daddy's little boy.

[WR23SFD]

I have two relatives who are both now retired from the department I am in... My mom tells me about them both all the time...If I met(which I know I have) them I don't remember them... My family has gotten smaller over the past 10 years...Everyone on my mothers side are or were volunteer firefighters... I just want to carry on the torch and make all of them proud of me...I am living a dream... Something I have wanted since I was a child...

My favorite story my mom tells me is from long before I was born... my grandfather who was a volunteer, loved to drive the engine... So because he loved to do so, he would race to the fire station(which wasnt probably more than 1 mile from their house) to get there first...

Well one night, the Alert went out and he went racing down the stairs... When my grandfather got to the door, he turned around and said "Louise could you throw me my pants!"

My grandfather was a great man (at least to me) and I hope that he would be proud of me...