Pagers & Radios in Church?

[FireDawgEMT22]

I carry my pager with me everywhere. The only time I don't respond is if I am out of district. I look at it as part of the commitment I agreed to when I joined the dept. Most people understand as long as you are respectful. In church vibrate...in other places I do have it on tone alert, but as soon as it goes off i turn it down, so as not to bother others. My question for everyone who leaves the pager in their car...how do you know how many people are in area to respond, or how do you know there isnt 4 runs at once, and they need as many people as possible. Secondly, for those who only go when they can help...cant you always help. I understand with the FF who are not EMT's not going for ambulance runs, but you can always help...and how do you know again, how many other people are avail to respond??? There have been many times we have had a run and we were the only 4 people to respond...

[whitesox4life]

For the past year or so that I have been attending church regularly, about half of the congregation has frowned at me keeping my pager with me during church. They changed their minds really fast this past sunday when a member of the church who very seldom misses a service wasn't there and we were called to her home for a house fire. She was found before she sustained any injuries more serious than smoke inhalation. Now ALL members of the church are thankful that I kept my pager with me and on because I was first on scene and was able to get her out (she was in first room inside door). I am kind of a hero at church but nobody realizes that we are only doing what God wants us to do and that is to help others.

[LCFD302]

I wear it in church, I keep it on vibrate and low. I guess I looked at this way, some of our members belong to a particular church and one time when the pagers went off and the firefighters left the priest stood up before the congregation and said a prayer for the safety of the firefighters, if it bothered him my guess is he wouldn't of said the prayer. I also feel after a particular experience that I am here in this role for a reason.

[nursecave]

Hubby keeps ours on vibrate ( I have an old Minitor that doesn't vibrate- it stays in the car). If we leave my mom and dad take the kids home with them. I only leave if we need traffic control. It is a real traffic stopper to see a lady in a dress flagging traffic! Hubby leaves for structure fires, but I stay at church and go after service if the fire is still active. If all of our members left their pagers in their vehicles, noone would be available to respond to calls. We each attend one of 4 churches, all of which are in our district, so at least there isn't a mass exodus of all members leaving the same church. The church members and pastors are understanding at each of the churches. They all feel we are helping others, which we are commanded by God to do.

[RoughRider]

Get a Minitor V, set it to privacy vibrate and there's no reason to turn it down, it's silent; nothing comes out of the speaker on this setting. The page is saved and you can play it all you want after you leave.

BTW, the only thing I'll be in church for without a pager is my funeral. Even that's not certain yet, maybe I'll take one with me

I have one and it hasnt worked right since I got it!

I ordered 10 new ones and had to send them all back for service.

[Chief2100]

Its always interesting when we get paged while at church half the congregation are firefighters including the preacher who serves as our chaplain. The pager will go off and he always stops and explains to everyone else that were leaving because we have a call. We always have predetermined people depending on the call which leave i.e. if its a medical call then 3 respond from Church and well anything else everyone goes with the exception of our pastor who usually comes on as soon as hes able.
We also leave all pagers on vibrate and no radios worn into the buiding (were paged alphanumeric and voice tone) and sit toward the back and always at the end of the aisle and if a call comes in we casually get up and walk out no running or dramatics save that for the parking lot!!LOL
But it has always worked out fine for us fellow church members who all live in the community would frown on us if we didn't they expect it because they know it could easily be someone close to them were responding too.

[beetlebz]

It's my personal belief, and my experience, that people that are put off/inconvenienced/disrespected by my pager and/or me leaving to go to a call have never had the displeasure of requiring the services of my town's public saftey services. We all use our common sense with vibrate or what not.

Its no different than having people not give way to our blue lights and/or red and whites from our apparatus... their reaction would be alot different if we were enroute to their house.

[CdnFD24]

Speeding in a residential area is a no no. He should know this.

Some areas have laws allowing emergency vechicles to go 20km over the limit when responding to an emergency with all warning devices activated and driving defensively. This does not apply to POV's, whether your running lights in your POV or not. You may not get pulled over, but it doesn't mean it's legal either, it means the cop isn't doing their job if they let a speeder go because they are a firefighter.

What's next? When he runs over a child in his POV while speeding to a call, is he going to pull out his "Ky Vol. Firefighter" plate and cry immunity?

He needs to things. 1) A swift kick in the ***. 2) Some common sense.

[DeputyMarshal]

Still OT but interesting anyway... Maybe a Mod could split the thread, please?

No,he swears he doesn't exceed 10 over the limit.

IOW, he's speeding. I would think that would explain why he keeps getting pulled over for speeding, neh?

Most jurisdictions seemed to have winked at people with Vol FF plates on their cars.

Shame on them. That's an unprofessional practice and it gives both services a bad name.

Another possibility is that the deputies doing the stops simply didn't know he was on the department and since at the time there was no ID card issued,he'd really have no way to prove it outside of going to court.

We're back to the part I don't understand again; why is his membership in the fire department relevant to him speeding? Speeding is speeding. Belonging to the fire department is irrelevant.

[doughesson]

No,he swears he doesn't exceed 10 over the limit.It might be true,but then he'd come down through a residential part of our district that is limited at 35 mph so that might have something to do with it.
Most jurisdictions seemed to have winked at people with Vol FF plates on their cars.I am sure that they do stop people hurrying to fire calls,the aformentioned friend is a case in point.
Another possibility is that the deputies doing the stops simply didn't know he was on the department and since at the time there was no ID card issued,he'd really have no way to prove it outside of going to court.

O.T.: "even though"? What does having a KVF license plate got to do with being pulled over for speeding? License plates don't provide immunity from speed limits in KY, do they?

[DeputyMarshal]

One of them keeps getting pulled over for speeding when he responds even though he has a "Ky Vol. Firefighter" license plate.

O.T.: "even though"? What does having a KVF license plate got to do with being pulled over for speeding? License plates don't provide immunity from speed limits in KY, do they?

[rescuedawg]

In my church the priest stops anyway , as we are only half a block from the siren and a block form the firehouse. My new pager is on vibrate anyway my old one the vibrate didnt work, yet no one ever seemed to care. I guess its a good thing that so many of us go to church.

[doughesson]

Recruit your clergy member and they will better understand you sitting in the back and leaving in the middle of the sermon.
How many volly squads have a chaplin?

In my three man in-house basic class,we had two guys that took over the pastoral duty for our department.One is Pentecostal and the other is either Methodist or Unitarian,I can't recall at this time.It didn't matter to me.If I needed someone to vouch for me to God,I wasn't going to be concerned as to how they prayed.I know He will hear the prayers.
One of them keeps getting pulled over for speeding when he responds even though he has a "Ky Vol. Firefighter" license plate.
Another church going member used to have a pager that didn't have the vibrate function but his fellow parishioners had a sense of humor.We'd get tapped out and someone would be sure to ask them later if "We weren't sure,Mike,were we ALL supposed to go with you?".

[Haweater]

Get a Minitor V, set it to privacy vibrate and there's no reason to turn it down, it's silent; nothing comes out of the speaker on this setting. The page is saved and you can play it all you want after you leave.

BTW, the only thing I'll be in church for without a pager is my funeral. Even that's not certain yet, maybe I'll take one with me

[Remthedays]

I have always carried my pager (Vibrate,volume low) in church, restauraunt, store, etc.. You have to almost program your mind to get in the habit of doing this. We even have made this part of a class with the new recruits. We tell them it is only being respectfull for others around them. And as far as their church they should talk to their minister/priest and see what THEY want for that member to do as far as the pager during services.