initial interest in firefighting

[TC1875PVFD]

What was everyone's initial interest that prompted you to be a firefighter?
Mine was of course the show emergency coupled with living about 300 feet from a dept. when growing up. Whenever they did live burns I always managed to be able to watch them while my other friends would leave I would stay for hours.

[FireLt1951]

It's the family business. 3 generations and now my son is the 4th. It's in the blood. I hope that one day my grandson will be the 5th generation.

[Neptune 33]

I too was born into Firefighting. I am a third generation firefighter. So, I grew up around the sounds of the fire station, and many of the members I have known as long as my parents (well, ok, maybe not) My mother was also a firefigther up until a few years ago, so i made a few runs before i was born. ;-)

[SWPetty]

Initial interest? Well, I am also a third Generation FF, with family past including a chief. Almost my whole family has or is involved in FF, including a career ff/medic. I"ll be in it forever..and hopefully my son will follow in my footsteps

[8thDistrictKid]

I'm adrenaline junkie by nature. I'm shortly training to fly 'birds in the National Guard, and i figured this would give me my excitement fix on the weekends. I gave it a shot for fun and i love every minute of it whole heartedly, will stay for life now. Go figure.

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"You go..... we go"
Shawn
8th Utilities District
Manchester CT

[FF_ONG]

My initial interest was from watching my brother in law go out on calls or listening to him tell me about calls. He convinced me to go become a volunteer and ive been doing it ever since. My brother in law, now a FF/Medic has since moved on to bigger and better things, but im still at the all volunteer department. ive grown very fond of it.

FF Ong
be safe out there!

[SFDE12]

My desire came from watching "Emergency!" as a child.

[PlattsFire1]

When it comes down to it, I was always just fascinated by fire trucks. Still am.

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Mike

[WTFDFF10]

My initial interest was from the time I was 10 or so by a combination of "Emergency", a cousin that was an Air Force FF/Medic and neighbors that were volunteers.

Got away from it for many years with family, job, etc. and also living in a city with a career dept. that didn't seem to hire much.

Finally got back to it last year when we moved to a suburb with a volunteer dept.

Now I'm sorry I wasted those 22 years

[This message has been edited by WTFDFF10 (edited 05-14-2001).]

[570eck]

Yep, it's a family thing. 3rd gen also. My dad was always called the bear and now even though we live quite a distance apart and quite some time has pasted whenever I visit his station I'm still the cub. I guess when you're around it when you're younger you can't help but want to be in it when you can.

[BucksEng91]

A combination of "Emergency" and more importantly my dad being a fireman in Philadelphia (I got to hang out at the station a lot!).

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J. Black

The opinions expressed are mine and mine alone and may not reflect those of any organization with which I am associated.

[cfr3504]

I grew up in it. I can't imagine life with out it. My stepdad is a volunteer when he married my mom, I was 5. I was always at the station. When I turned 16 and was able to join as a Jr. being brought up for membership went something like this. The chief said " Well he's 16 now, I guess we should make it official, y'all ready to vote?" And that was it.

[NFDLT55]

Firefighting is in the blood.
3rd Generation firefighter here. Hopefully if i have son/adughter, he/she will be the fourth.

[lady_in_turnouts]

My mom was a cop, and was friends with a lot of ff's. And my grandpa is a "firenut". He would sit by the scanner and when a good call was going down would grab me and we would go watch(he couldnt join because of health restrictions).Just the sounds of the sirens and the roar of the engine would get me running. Then when I was 17 I joined the Navy, started doing firefighting there and loved it. Been doing it ever since, and my heart still races and I love the thrill of it, even after all these years. Nothing like it in the world.

[PMThor]

When I was growing up I lived in a house that borded on a very wooded area. I would say that about the time I was 6 years old the woods caught on fire. I remember from that time the fire was pretty well contained and I was lying in bed looking into the woods at my bedtime (at dusk). It was fairly dark but I could see some of the hotspots still being dealt with by the firefighters. The silhouette of those guys in the woods stuck with me. It was my first experience ever with firefighting and peaked my interest at a very young age. Thus here I am.