Full transcript
0:01being a firefighter is like
0:03being the golden child of all of public
0:06safety
0:07everybody loves you everybody comes to
0:09bring you food and snacks and station
0:11visits and
0:12all of that stuff and police have their
0:14own issues and ems is usually forgotten
0:16about
0:17nobody even thinks about the dispatchers
0:18which is unfortunate because the
0:20dispatchers are
0:21that's a tough job but in this video
0:25i wanted to go over seven reasons that
0:27firefighting might not be a good fit for
0:29you
0:29when i first got into firefighting i
0:31didn't know anybody i didn't have any
0:32family connections i didn't have any
0:34friends that were in the fire service i
0:35knew nothing about it and
0:37some of these things are things that
0:38i've learned over the years and some of
0:40these things that are things that people
0:42just don't really think about when they
0:43think about the fire service
0:45so as always if you like this video if
0:47you find it helpful click the like
0:48button below
0:50subscribe to the channel and i hope you
0:52find this content useful
0:54so we'll get right into it the first
0:55thing is firefighting might not be for
0:58you
0:58if you are in it for the money and i
1:00don't mean that
1:01in the way that most people say that
1:03there's this old school
1:05mentality where if you're here for the
1:08money you're here for the wrong reasons
1:09and you shouldn't get into the fire
1:10service at all that's not what i'm
1:12saying what i am
1:13saying is why whatever reason you choose
1:16to to join the fire service maybe the
1:18department in your area
1:19it's a very stable job you know you'll
1:21never lose your job and you make a good
1:22income and that's for you
1:24great and that's your only reason for
1:25doing it do it right doesn't mean you're
1:27going to be a bad firefighter
1:29i'm saying it might not be for you if
1:31you're in it for the money in the sense
1:33that you want to make
1:33a lot of money salaries can vary greatly
1:37across the country i mean salaries can
1:39even vary greatly within the same area
1:41depending on department
1:43um and and i know everybody's seen the
1:46stories of
1:47california firemen i think i saw one of
1:49some firemen in nevada that made
1:52hundreds of thousands of dollars in a
1:53year but those guys
1:56had to have pretty much lived at the
1:57station to do that and that is
1:59that is tough that sucks that would get
2:01old very fast and
2:03most people might think like oh yeah
2:04that wouldn't bother me it would bother
2:06you to be locked in that building
2:08for as many hours as those guys were to
2:09earn that kind of money so that's
2:12that's an outlier so if you're in this
2:14for the money this is probably not for
2:16you
2:17number two it's terrible for your health
2:20and up until recently nobody really
2:22talked about this
2:24few reasons it's bad for your health
2:25number one you don't really sleep at
2:27night
2:28that's something a lot of people don't
2:29realize and don't really talk about
2:31you are up constantly at night you're up
2:34on one call two calls three calls four
2:36calls
2:37it's a really bad night when they get
2:38spaced out perfectly so every time as
2:40soon as you get back to the station
2:41you're going right back out some nights
2:43you don't sleep at all other nights you
2:44might hit the jackpot and
2:46you sleep all the way through the night
2:47like nothing even happened but that is
2:49very
2:49very rare and while an all-nighter here
2:52or there might not be the end of the
2:53world
2:54stack that on top of each other for 10
2:5620 30 years
2:58that's really bad for your health in the
3:00long run
3:01so there's that also poor nutrition
3:04is a chronic problem in the fire service
3:09you might not realize this but the
3:10biggest killer of firemen on the fire
3:12ground is heart attack
3:14not burns not structure collapse nothing
3:16like that
3:17it's because so many firemen are out of
3:19shape and don't take care of themselves
3:21properly that that is the biggest killer
3:24i know when i first heard that that was
3:25shocking to me maybe it's shocking to
3:26you i don't know so
3:29the fires being a firefighter as a
3:31career generally is not good for your
3:33health
3:35number three you're not a people person
3:37now that doesn't mean that there aren't
3:39times that you don't get annoyed with
3:40people anybody who spent
3:42any time working in public safety knows
3:44that dealing with the public at large
3:46every single day constantly day in and
3:49day out in
3:50in a fireman's case in the middle of the
3:51night when you get woken up can get
3:53it can get very stressful what that
3:56means
3:56is you're unable to carry on a basic
3:58conversation with with people as a
4:00firefighter
4:01you are you're a leader in the community
4:03whether you like it or not whether you
4:04think of yourself as one or not
4:06you're going to be looked to as a leader
4:07in the community so if you can't even
4:09just have a basic conversation with
4:11people basic social skills this is
4:13probably not going to be for you because
4:15you're not going to represent your guys
4:16and your girls and you're not going to
4:18represent your department well
4:20also as being a people person you need
4:22to have a certain base level of sympathy
4:25and empathy for people you're going to
4:27see some tough stuff
4:28on this job um and when you do that you
4:32need to
4:32i mean you don't want to be a robot you
4:36you want to be able to
4:38feel for people feel with people um
4:42so yeah i'll just i'll just leave it
4:43there there's a certain level of empathy
4:45and sympathy that you have to have
4:47and the ability to to speak to people in
4:50just a basic way
4:52number four this might not be for you if
4:53you can't work in a group
4:56whether you like it or not you are going
4:58to be locked into it well you're not
4:59going to be locked but you're going to
5:00be living
5:01in a building in tight quarters with
5:03maybe 3
5:044 5 10 12 different men and women
5:08for 24 hours at least at a time that can
5:11get
5:12very very old very quick especially if
5:15you're on a crew with people that you
5:16don't really like or you don't really
5:18see eye to eye with them
5:20it can get pretty draining so if you are
5:23unable to work well in a group
5:24and just fit into a group and i'm
5:27actually going to make a video on that
5:28that's in in my list of things to do is
5:30how to fit into a group when you're a
5:31new guy
5:33this is going to be a tough job for you
5:34it's going to be really really tough
5:37to live essentially with these people
5:39all the time
5:40number five you don't do well with
5:42authority so
5:43there's a few things about this um
5:46answering to others
5:47if you're if you're someone that that
5:49that just feels like you know the right
5:51way to do things
5:53all the time and nobody else is as smart
5:55as you
5:56don't join the fire service you are
5:58going to be such a problem for everyone
6:00um but also if you're not
6:04able to do well with answering to people
6:07simply because they're senior to you so
6:11there's this old idea in the fire
6:14service that
6:16seniority a lot of time a lot of times
6:19equates to competence
6:21and i strongly disagree with that and i
6:23think anybody who's worked in the fire
6:24service for a time
6:26knows that person on their department
6:28that's been there for a long time
6:30that is treated as though they know more
6:31than everybody else and that is
6:33not the case at all that is something
6:36you're probably going to have to deal
6:37with
6:38in a fire department seniority does not
6:40equal competence
6:42now it does usually equal more knowledge
6:44and that's something you especially as a
6:46new person
6:47will need so that doesn't mean disregard
6:49everybody but
6:50this there's like i said the fire
6:52service is very very seniority based and
6:54if that's something you would have a
6:55hard time with
6:56this might not be the job for you number
6:59six
7:00you like reinventing the wheel if that's
7:02you if you're the person that's always
7:04looking for new ideas and to implement
7:05things quickly and
7:06and and readily and easily you're going
7:10to struggle
7:11the fire service is like a cruise ship
7:12it moves very very slowly
7:16over the last several years they've made
7:18they've made a lot of progress in things
7:19like firefighter health
7:21different firefighting tactics whether
7:22you agree with them disagree with them
7:24but there's been some good progress made
7:26but regardless the fire service is still
7:29a very slow
7:30moving thing so if you come in and you
7:32think just because you
7:34have a fire science degree or you have
7:36some sort of background that you're
7:37going to just change
7:38things like that you're going to be in
7:41for a rude awakening so if that's you
7:44this might not be the job for you and
7:45then finally number seven
7:47is you really struggle with or you can't
7:49handle tragedy
7:51now i didn't realize to the extent when
7:53i first got started in the fire service
7:56how much stuff you see and by that i
7:59mean
8:00the the beauty of public safety is you
8:02deal
8:03you see everything you see the highest
8:06of the highs and the lows of the lows
8:07the richest
8:07the poorest uh i'm talking economically
8:10i'm talking i'm talking everything you
8:13you see some really awesome things and
8:15you see some just horribly tragic things
8:18and it's the hardest part to watch isn't
8:20necessarily the actual tragic event it's
8:22at least for me and a lot of other
8:24people i've talked to the hardest thing
8:26to watch
8:26is the reactions of the fans the friends
8:28and family member of whoever whatever
8:30the event was that happened
8:33and that gets really tough to deal with
8:35now fortunately as the fire service
8:37progresses there's more and more
8:38resources out there for those types of
8:40things
8:41but just know this is if this is the
8:43career path that you choose
8:45that you're going to have to deal with
8:47some pretty tough stuff you're going to
8:48see some very tragic things dealing with
8:51with children dealing with suicide
8:53dealing with drugs dealing with
8:55the entire cross-section of humanity so
8:59if you're the type of person that is
9:01that is very
9:02how do i say maybe just emotionally
9:04fragile and that's something you might
9:06not be able to deal with on a day in and
9:07day out basis
9:08this might not be the career choice for
9:10you so i hope you found this video
9:12helpful
9:13if there's any other things that you've
9:14heard of or you know of put them in the
9:16comments below i'm interested to hear
9:17more about what people
9:18are nervous about maybe not looking
9:20forward to things that uh
9:22they just don't know what to expect
9:24throw them in the comments below i
9:25i read every comment i try to answer as
9:27many as many of them as i can
9:30as always if you like this this video
9:31and you find it helpful give it a quick
9:33thumbs up
9:33and subscribe to the channel and i'll
9:35see you guys in the next video