On a cool afternoon I rang the doorbell to a firehouse located in Phoenix, Arizona. I had feelings of anxiousness and was waiting very impatiently at the door. My preconceptions were that I would speak with a very buff male (probably someone who looked as if they were in the WWF), that I would meet nothing but arrogant cocky guys who wanted to be a bunch of heroes, and that I would see them flying down poles and cute white Dalmatians chasing after their “little” red engines that could. All of this was thrown to the back of my mind as the door creaked open.
A small, brown-haired, friendly woman answered in her casual clothes of a t-shirt and sweats saying, “Come on in, you’re Lori, right?” I nodded my head and entered the red brick home. “My name is Gina. Come follow me and I’ll show you around, introduce you to the captain and our team.” She pointed to a few guys in the living room and I smiled and said hello. Their living room had a few nice leather chairs and a good size TV, they seemed pretty casual and were having a good time talking and laughing over a game of baseball.
I followed Gina from the living room into their kitchen. They had a large fridge with just about all anyone might ever want to eat in their lives! It was especially interesting how these fire men/women look tough on the outside, yet wrote their names on each bag of lunch as if they were in third grade again and don’t want anyone to steal what their mommy packed especially for them. We moved from there into the garage, which is where the big red engine sat along with a rescue unit, otherwise known as an ambulance.
The Essay on A Little Elbow Room Please
Imagine being cramped into a small room with barely enough space for two, where you and five others are squeezed in. The smell of sweat and urine wreaks havoc on your nose. Every time you try to move you touch the person next to you. You have no space to stretch. The air is heavy and hot from all the body heat. To make things worse you cant leave the room for another twenty four hours. How much ...
“These are where we keep our fire proof boots, coats, and helmets and we have to keep them in order because we don’t usually have a lot of time when going to the scene of a large fire.” I glanced along the pathway of the engine at the bright yellow jackets, heavy boots, and hard helmets she was pointing to, which were assembled in a specific order. I tried on a jacket and boots that Gina handed to me, so I could get the “full experience,” though something tells me you can never fully prepare for their line of work.
Firefighters work 24 hours straight with one or two days off doesn’t seem like a lot of fun to me. Firefighters can sleep on the job, but it is rare if they reside in a large city like Phoenix. Their life is mainly helping people; they also eat, sleep, and work out-when they have the time, of course. I wanted to find out a true account of what Gina had felt while she was showing me around, so I asked her a few questions.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what’s on your mind?”
“How do you cope with getting to a fire or an accident and NOT being able to help?”
“Well, it’s hard because we’re people. We get frustrated easily and get angry. We push that aside and try to think of the next thing we can do to help, for example helping someone else out of an accident or fire.”
“But don’t you feel like a guilty if you try to help someone and they die?”
“that’s the hardest one right there, helping someone and hoping they make it and then they don’t come through. But the way I deal with that anger and emotion is knowing that God had a bigger and better purpose for them. Firemen are in the business of helping people, and it isn‘t the easiest job.”
After this conversation, I asked Gina why she loved firefighting so much. She said that there isn’t a better field to be in than one that is closely related to helping people. “it’s dangerous, the pay isn’t great, but the rewards are significant.” I found that in the EUREKA Data Base a fire-fighter usually makes between $1,083 to $3,330 per month keeping in mind that 75% of firefighters are not on a salary. EUREKA also explained about personal characteristics a firefighter should have as well as training and skills needed.
The Term Paper on People Helping People
Richard Crabtree Thomas Nelson Community College 2/10/2010 People helping people Looking back over the years when my mother was an RN at our local hospital, I remember that everywhere we went in our town, we would run into somebody that know of her. People would come up to my mother in public and say thank you for taken care of their mom, dad or family member. Hearing people say that made me fill ...
EUREKA data base says that a fireman/woman should have “the ability to manipulate objects, tools or machinery.” They should have “excellent health; physical agility, strength; above average manual dexterity; ability to climb, stoop, reach, hear; ability to demonstrate emotional stability and self-confidence; and perform well under stress.” The training and requirements were a little more difficult to assess. An applicant must be 18 years old with at least a GED or high school diploma. Experience as a volunteer can help you get a job and looks very good on a resume. You can train and also take classes at community colleges to help you prepare for the test, both the physical and mental part. But like I said before, I am not quite sure anything definitely prepares someone for this line of work.
People at an accident scene can be screaming, have limbs dismembered from their bodies, be soaked in blood -or worse yet- even be dead. I hardly think any class prepares you for that. A firefighter must be able to deal with critical situations easily day upon day. One of the most critical situations that has hit home for many firefighters around the world has been September 11th. Firefighters are one big family who love, trust and care for one another like brothers and sisters.
I figured their patriotism on that tragic day would ignite a fire in other’s lives to volunteer as a firefighter more. Yet in the National Department of Labor Statistics I found that “since September 11th, the numbers have decreased significantly for firefighting volunteers.” I suppose maybe they realize just how dangerous it really is.
