Without question firefighting is a calling. It’s a way of life and for some it hold dear to everything that is important in life: putting others’ lives and safety ahead of one’s own. Nothing has ever had the devotion and love and passion as children from playing with firetrucks in the sandpits of our youth, playing a video game steering the back end of a fire truck, eventually volunteering as a firefighter or taking on the profession of firefighting as a full time firefighter. The Thin Red Line begins at an early age. Sometimes it’s because of a parent that also is or was a firefighter and becomes a legacy among family members, for others how to become a firefighter rests with a desire to do something different, pursue a new challenge or perhaps was someone just wanting to experience firefighting jobs which can involve so many things.
Firefighting Pride
It goes without saying. You’re in a career a calling as previously stated that has you running with your crew into a fiery house, building or similar structure and pulling people out to their safety. It’s going up to the Twin Towers on 9-11 and rushing into a place to save others no matter the cost.
Only a firefighter can know and understand what it takes to do this job. The hours of continuous training, the number of stairwells, the endless steps, rolling miles upon miles of hoses even down to the very lunches and dinners prepared from the probes to the station fire Chief. There is no path of excellence quite like that of a firefighter and it goes without saying that to maintain this level of excellence requires a little bit of pride to help shield oneself from the flames and death defying position firefighting places you in daily.
Firefighting History
From the earlies of days as the American Colonies there were the fire brigades. The sounding of a city bell, the rush from every neighbor, farmer tilling their fields, a Colonial soldier, mill workers, and small shop operators as they instantly became a firefighter as they rushed to the scene of the fire. Each was a firefighter at that moment and their one focus as a community was to fight the fire and protect their fellow citizens and homes.
The 1800’s saw immigration rise and the streets of America’s largest cities were filled with people coming to America to find a safe place for their families, raise their children and live in peace. For many early Americans these were the Irish immigrants that took the jobs in firefighting so they could support their families in a job no one else wanted. They took these jobs and with their Old World hard work ethic excelled. Fir Na Tine! Men of fire in Gaelic was often heard among Irish firefighters in the streets of Chicago and New York. Their connection to their European past and the New America became a love and marked the long standing connection between firefighting and the ethnicities of the world that made up the early firefighters of America.
I want To Be a Firefighter
Who wouldn’t want to be a firefighter but not everyone is cut out to be one. That doesn’t mean there isn’t the passion to do the job as a career but the long hours, lack of sleep, exposure to chemicals, fire, arson, being exposed to scenes most people would shy away from is only a part of this path. It’s a career and it’s also a calling like being a nurse where the interest of helping others far and away supersedes their personal safety. That is what’s it’s all about. It’s a team, a family, a brotherhood and sisterhood. It’s firefighting.