Swede studies US fire service

[Guest feraldan]

Didn't he just request that we move on.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Can we just drop the brotherhood issue? I'll be a good little boy and shut up now.

Mike...you did a good job bro with posting that article. Don't let it bother you none of its personal. You just made a strong statement and some disagreed with you. Doesn't necessarily mean you are wrong. You should be proud of yourself...you made a thread that has 2 and problably will end up with 3 pages of discussion. And...it didn't have anything to do with lights/sirens or police cars.

And yes he did make a request to move on. And that request by some posters was apparantly denied.

[Guest feraldan]

If it wasn't obvious by the way, Future Fireman, I was in agreement with you. Svensson was looking at it from a totally cold, logical and admittedly foreign point of view. To him its just a job, but as any fireman in America can tell you, its a brotherhood to us. Doesn't matter whether you're doing it to put food on the table or doing it because you just want to help.

That's like saying the military is just a job. Anytime you're put in the position where you need to rely on someone else to come home alive, it goes beyond "job" status.

Edited August 31, 2007 by feraldan

[RescueKujo 130]

This gentleman made some very good points. But beyond health and safety issues, the big thing also needs to be education. How many people entering the fire service know the difference in contruction types? I know it's anecdoctal, but my supervisor's husband in a 28 year firefighter. He was telling us about a fire where one of the newer firefighters (he didn't say his experience level) was told not to stand in a certain location. When he continued to stand there, he was grabbed and pulled out of there. As this was happening, the roof came down right where he had been standing. he turned to Warren and asked how he knew. You need to have an education to do this job.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

any fireman in America can tell you, its a brotherhood to us. Doesn't matter whether you're doing it to put food on the table or doing it because you just want to help.

That's like saying the military is just a job. Anytime you're put in the position where you need to rely on someone else to come home alive, it goes beyond "job" status.

To a point bro...its still my job. The fire service is a family make no mistake. But its also generally a huge dysfunctional one.

As far as the military goes...you are right, I made bonds with the guys in my unit that I will never be able to match anywhere else. Including the fire service.

But don't get one thing confused. It is a job and as a Marine we always referred to it as "our job." One that we take extremely fbombing serious. One that we always said. "Lets go do our job." And sometimes the job wasn't always pretty and one that many get to sleep well at night because there are young men and women willing to do unspeakable things in their names.

As a wise man once put it..."Marines are like my Terrier....every morning he gets up...wants to dig a hole...and kill something."

[Guest feraldan]

I didn't say it wasn't a job, I said it was more than a job. You can call it a job, but its got another level to it. You don't go work at McDonalds and form bonds like you do in the fire service or military (or any other very dangerous job where you need to rely on other people.) Its a job with another level stacked on top.

That was my point.

[ny10570 745]

At the start of this thread an article was posted where Stefan Svensson PhD said "instead of teaching 'use a lot of water on the fire, the more the better,' firefighters should be trained to ask 'why is it burning and how do we put it out in a safe way?"

Looks like not everyone is Sweden picked up on all this training. Assuming a reliable water supply around here by the time that TL was up there would have been at least a 2 1/2" or 2 on the ground and some real flow out of the bucket on a fire this size. I don't think there's a dept around here that would have gone in spraying a stream like that on this much fire. Then there's the bucket placement. Use all that damn ladder to get up and away from that roof.

http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o299/AR...sweden_fire.flv

Edited October 12, 2007 by ny10570