FFighterRob
12-16-2005, 02:35 PM
Tradition in the fire service is a tradition. There are things we have done for years that nobody alive knows why we do them. Traditions die hard.
I remember hearing a story about a guy just promoted to engineer in San Francisco in the mid 80’s. He was told to go out and hose off the tires every night at 2100hrs. He asked why and was told, “Because it’s what the engineer does, they always have”. Well being a new engineer he did as he was told, but also started looking for the reason. A few months later he found the reason, and it was a good one. The wheels were hosed off at night because the paint would peel off after getting horse urine on them. You see the first motorized vehicles in S.F. were the fire engines and there was tens of thousands of gallons of urine put onto the streets each day. But they were in the mid 80’s and it was still being done because it was a tradition.
When I was hired back in the late 80’s we had new Duplex fire engines that had two rear facing seats for the firefighters. We were still made to ride on the tailboard because it was a tradition. “The firefighter should be back with the hose” is what I was told. It was fun in the summer, but a real bummer in the rain at night.
Fire engines are red and most have gold leaf. Why, because of tradition. It is common knowledge that green or white fire engines show up better at night and in low visibility situation, but just try to change tradition.
Every department has different set of traditions, or the culture of the department. They can be tremendously different even in neighboring departments. But there is one tradition that is almost universal, and that is what is expected of the new people coming into the fraternal order of the fire service. Just because you have a badge and a paycheck doesn’t mean you are in, it takes a while. But once you are in, you are in, and there is not much you could do to get kicked out, although some do try.
The best way to fit in and be accepted is to learn the culture first. This means you are a big set of ears and eyes and a little mouth you only use to ask questions. You don’t have enough time to have an opinion. There are 10,000 unwritten rules in the fire service and even though you are not given the manual when you get hired, if you violate a rule you may find it had to get through probation successfully. Your attitude in your first year is what will decide if you stay or go. I get calls from a good number of people who failed probation and I cannot recall one that was for some kind of manipulative problem. They were all attitude problems.
Let me paint a picture for you. I was working with a newly hired firefighter. He's working through his probation and has a great attitude. He won't sit in the recliners in front of the T.V. Never. If we watch a training video he would bring in a kitchen chair. You see he is aware that perceptions of others are very important to your reputation in the fire service. An engineer, from another shift was working with us and told him to relax nobody would care. Not 15 seconds latter he began telling us about someone else just hired that was spending all their time in the easy chairs. I asked him if he'd seen this. He said no, he'd just heard about it. He proved the point right there.
You could do something once and have someone see it, tell someone else,
and suddenly your " Easy chair Charlie". Probation is hard enough. Don't make it harder than it has to be. As Captain Bob says " You can do hard time or easy time. The choice is really yours".
Good Luck, Capt Rob
nrtc@sonic.net
707 869 1330
www.myfireinterview.com
I remember hearing a story about a guy just promoted to engineer in San Francisco in the mid 80’s. He was told to go out and hose off the tires every night at 2100hrs. He asked why and was told, “Because it’s what the engineer does, they always have”. Well being a new engineer he did as he was told, but also started looking for the reason. A few months later he found the reason, and it was a good one. The wheels were hosed off at night because the paint would peel off after getting horse urine on them. You see the first motorized vehicles in S.F. were the fire engines and there was tens of thousands of gallons of urine put onto the streets each day. But they were in the mid 80’s and it was still being done because it was a tradition.
When I was hired back in the late 80’s we had new Duplex fire engines that had two rear facing seats for the firefighters. We were still made to ride on the tailboard because it was a tradition. “The firefighter should be back with the hose” is what I was told. It was fun in the summer, but a real bummer in the rain at night.
Fire engines are red and most have gold leaf. Why, because of tradition. It is common knowledge that green or white fire engines show up better at night and in low visibility situation, but just try to change tradition.
Every department has different set of traditions, or the culture of the department. They can be tremendously different even in neighboring departments. But there is one tradition that is almost universal, and that is what is expected of the new people coming into the fraternal order of the fire service. Just because you have a badge and a paycheck doesn’t mean you are in, it takes a while. But once you are in, you are in, and there is not much you could do to get kicked out, although some do try.
The best way to fit in and be accepted is to learn the culture first. This means you are a big set of ears and eyes and a little mouth you only use to ask questions. You don’t have enough time to have an opinion. There are 10,000 unwritten rules in the fire service and even though you are not given the manual when you get hired, if you violate a rule you may find it had to get through probation successfully. Your attitude in your first year is what will decide if you stay or go. I get calls from a good number of people who failed probation and I cannot recall one that was for some kind of manipulative problem. They were all attitude problems.
Let me paint a picture for you. I was working with a newly hired firefighter. He's working through his probation and has a great attitude. He won't sit in the recliners in front of the T.V. Never. If we watch a training video he would bring in a kitchen chair. You see he is aware that perceptions of others are very important to your reputation in the fire service. An engineer, from another shift was working with us and told him to relax nobody would care. Not 15 seconds latter he began telling us about someone else just hired that was spending all their time in the easy chairs. I asked him if he'd seen this. He said no, he'd just heard about it. He proved the point right there.
You could do something once and have someone see it, tell someone else,
and suddenly your " Easy chair Charlie". Probation is hard enough. Don't make it harder than it has to be. As Captain Bob says " You can do hard time or easy time. The choice is really yours".
Good Luck, Capt Rob
nrtc@sonic.net
707 869 1330
www.myfireinterview.com