Suburban houses? questions

[Ambrose]

I realize its hard to get a career job as a firefighter but im wondering how much action does a firefighter in a suburban area see? i live in colorado(aurora/denver area) and of course my preference would be to work in down town denver but i also dont want to limit myself to the point its going to be virtually impossible to get a job.

so obviously i really want to be in an area that sees some action so im not just sitting around alot/only answering EMS and car fire calls.

could someone let me know what a firefighter in a suburban area sees on a day to day basis?

[scrubbintoilets]

depends I work for a small city (all full time) 30,000 and the Township outside of us mostly volunteer gets more fire than we do It seems like they always burn stuff take in the factors of every city that burns median income and education, poorer and less educated areas generally burn more stuff down although there is no way to predict even in most townships in my area you are still looking at maybe 20 fires a year that amount to any loss in property. This is all an estimate from observation I dont have hard facts so you may have to do some leg work for your area!

[5ltretr]

My station gets 3 or 4 fires a week and about 8 to 10 calls a shift. Im the same way as you on being slammed but we seem to stay fairly busy....Needless to say I love it anyways. As always there seems to be days where we get nothing all day, over all still not bad.

[BCLepore]

As a general rule, the nicer the area the slower the fire department. The more economically challenged areas are much more busy.

[Buddy10]

I just want to let you know that you will not be fighting fires every shift, if you are you might be at FDNY where they run 500,000 plus calls a year. You will run EMS as a majority of calls, no matter where you go, even Denver. Suburban fire departments can be better in many ways, advancement, more training, more hands on skill work on jobs, so don't limit yourself to the "glamour" of big city departments but look at departments that you might fit into. Also, just to let you know, Pueblo is hiring here soon, so is Cunningham. Good luck

[5ltretr]

Buddy10 hit it right on the head, our dept as a whole is 70 percent medicals. Does FDNY rigs even run medicals or is it just the ambulances?

[MemphisE34a]

Buddy10 hit it right on the head, our dept as a whole is 70 percent medicals. Does FDNY rigs even run medicals or is it just the ambulances?
They do and from what I understand there are not even many houses in NYC that see fire on a daily basis.

[eaglesrule1024]

They do and from what I understand there are not even many houses in NYC that see fire on a daily basis.

You esp. won't see a lot of fire if you are in Staten Island...

rob

[jerry4184]

As the chief above said, the more ghetto, and run down areas are where the majority of the fires tend to be.

NYC does it's fair share of fire though, and they are a pretty busy department. I've looked through their run stats, and even some of the slower companies, burn way more a year than a lot of department's I'm familiar with.

[MemphisE34a]

NYC does it's fair share of fire though, and they are a pretty busy department. I've looked through their run stats, and even some of the slower companies, burn way more a year than a lot of department's I'm familiar with.

Ever heard of Detroit?:cool:

AND........I bet they don't have very many long driveways which is the topic of this thread!!

[jerry4184]

Detroit's it's own animal.

I think he's gotten his answers though. If he's gonna be in the suburbs, he'll get fires, but they will most likely be fewer, and farther between than if he's working, well, Detroit.

[fireman4949]

As a general rule, the nicer the area the slower the fire department. The more economically challenged areas are much more busy.

I can certainly attest to that.

My station is on the poorest side of town and we catch more jobs than just about any other house in the department. :D
Busy days...20 calls or more isn't unusual. Slower days...maybe 10-12.
Still, about 60% of the calls we run are medical.

Big cities have their slow stations. Small towns will have their busy ones. It all depends upon the demographics. ;)

[Ambrose]

thank you, i did get the answers i wanted.

alot of people that i have asked (people that dont know anything about the fire department) are always saying that in suburbs you MIGHT get 2 or 3 structure fires A YEAR. their reasoning is "how many house fires have you ever seen?" and i have to admit iv never seen one. there was a tire store on fire here about 3 years ago but thats all i can think of lol.


this was reinforced by the episodes on rescue me where tommy goes to the staten island house and the most exciting thing he sees is a tiny car fire.