1991 - The Beginning of an Era

In a lot of cases, firefighting is a generational disease. I can identify many members of our fire department and other local departments as second generation - or greater - carriers. On our department we have a fifth generation firefighter, and currently we have one father and son team.

So it goes with me. My father was a member of the same department when I was younger. On my wall hangs a photo of the department from 1966, my father among those pictured. I remember a few occassions when he would return from a fire somewhere in the general area, exhausted from the effort and covered in ash and soot. I remember one house fire where my mom packaged up us kids in the night and we drove the few blocks across town to watch the battle.

The foundation was laid, but I didn't fully realize it until my late teens when I was in California and would watch the engine companies and truck companies and ambulances, etc., zoom around taking care of whatever emergency they had been called to repair. That's when it became clear that I was going to be a firefighter too.

I returned home from California in late 1990 and after a few months I applied for membership on my home town department - via a visit to the Fire Chief's home one evening to express my interest in joining. The chief had served with my father and being from a small town atmostphere he knew me as well, but it can be a serious matter as to who is offered a position.

The process I began is similar to the process our department uses today: We'll try you out and you try us out and see if we all fit together. After all, we're going to have to count on each other to work together to save a citizen or another firefighter when the occassion arises ..... And so I was invited to attend fire drills with the department twice a month and begin learning the ropes.

How excited I was! It was great to be learning and then understanding what it would take to be a firefighter. Just training and practicing was enough to have me hooked, but then came the first fire I was allowed to respond to. A small shed behind a residence caught fire of an evening. The alert tones sounded; the pagers sounded; and as if my adrenalin wasn't pumping fast enough, the town's fire siren sounded. I was involved in the suppression and overhaul, it was great!

I began to consider firefighting as a career. In those days firefighter certification was helpful before applying for a position, but not always necessary. EMT certification was needed, so I obtained that and began testing while I attended the courses for firefighter certification. Then came the problem - just where would I want to be hired to work? As a newly married with a wife who is from Northern Utah, and me being a stay in Cache Valley kind of person, and with one career department in the valley staffing only one station at the time, positions were few and far between.

I did branch out and test with Ogden, Utah and a nearby private company that staffed a fire department, but mainly stuck to the local testing sessions in Logan. For all my work and effort I only reached the top of the list once - for Ogden Fire Department - but the hiring roster expired before the next position opened. I decided that I was still enjoying living in Cache Valley and my volunteer experiences enough, so thus ended my efforts to become a career firefighter.

Over all, I think that was a good choice. I may seem to be justifying my decision, but the life of a firefighter can be jam packed with trials and troubles on a day-on-day-off or two-days-on-two-days-off work schedule, as can be any type of job. I haven't always enjoyed the jobs I've done instead of continuing the dream, and maybe I could have avoided some of the trials that came to me if I'd worked harder and reached my goal, but I can't worry about that now.

I've come to realize that it's the character of the person that makes them suited to the position, not just the knowledge of the job. I believe I would have been an excellent career firefighter, and many others commented to that effect as well. As evidenced by events that would come a few years after this time of life, I still had some growing to do and the founder of it all had a different plan for me.

So, I enjoy teaching the training meetings twice a month, I try to help the department be ready for the few calls we will get each year, and believe it or not I still get an adrenalin push when the tones sound. Whether it can be classified as a disease or not, I'm proud that my father served the community as a firefighter and that I can too.

Welcome To My World ....

There are a lot of things that define us as a person - hopefully. Sometimes there is one main defining point.

Imagine a room with several occupied chairs placed in a circle facing each other. One of the occupants stands up, all eyes focus: "Hi, my name is Greg. I'm a firefighter. I've been a firefighter for 17 years ......"

17 years. All of my post-21 years. Starting as a volunteer with my home town department; Certification courses; bi-monthly training with the department; more certification courses; responding to calls; more certification; accepted the training officer position; selected as an officer of the department; more certification courses; more teaching at training; officer duties and meetings ......

If I had been diligent enough to keep testing until I was hired by a career department, I'd be eligible for retirement in three years. THREE YEARS! Retire at 41 or keep working if I wanted to. For circumstances present at the time I did not continue testing and was mostly happy all these years with the relative calmness of my home town volunteer fire department.

17 years later; countless hours of training and response; obsessing about this or that fire department related issue; balancing work and family and fire department with strange priotization rules. I am changing a little bit, I hope.

I think I have a better focus on my priorities. I don't concentrate on fire department issues as much as I used to. I think about other things more than I used to. As an officer of the department I can't totally blank out, but I don't have to obsess like I used to.

Thus, my re-definition process has brought me to the option of this blog. Of course I will talk about my firefighting experiences - past and present - as much as I feel is appropriate, but I will also spend time with other things that interest me. Family will be part of that, but as limited as possible to protect the innocent ....

If you are lucky(?) enough to land on these pages, maybe you will find something interesting here. If not, good luck elsewhere!

As for me, it's time to take up the hose and head back to the station until the next conversation.