Special Interview: Firefighter (Part 1)
Bill worked as a firefighter in Calgary for 30 years, including five years as Captain. Here is the first half of his illuminating interview about his experience.
WBS: What got you interested in becoming a firefighter? Was it something you wanted to do as a kid?
Bill: I was going to university, working on a Statistics assignment about Fire Alarm Locations and I thought: I would rather go to a fire than do these statistics. I knew a Firefighter then and from that moment, I worked to gather the skill set I needed to apply. It was like winning a lottery. I love/loved that job, my time doing it, opportunities it gave me and what it did to me as a person.
WBS: What's the training like to become a firefighter? What sort of requirements do you have to meet?
Bill: How to get hired changes with time and society. When I tried to hire on the first time, it was the usual HR and Mechanical Aptitude questions and fitness tests but the final Practical Skills Test was run like a Track Meet. The first 24 were hired; I finished 30th of 48. I had to wait another year before my chance to join the job. Training was about 2 months, the start of a One Year Probation. In a class of 24, you were introduced to the skills you needed by Firefighters who had left the Fire Floor to join Training. It was a blend of theory and practical. One change in Training that happens now is when SCBA training (self-contained-breathing-apparatus) is taught. It was left to the end of the 2 months, after considerable time and money had been invested in a Recruit. SCBA training involves wearing a blacked-out mask, crawling around, sometimes with real fire in a toxic environment, through obstacles designed to help you get lost, often to practice rescue of a victim or a downed Firefighter who needs to be dragged safely out, all while the clock ticks and the air in your tank is fast depleting with the strenuous effort and 50lbs of gear you have on. 20 minutes goes pretty fast. It freaks some people out. Not everyone enjoys making mental maps, the tactile nature of that environment, the intensity of that aspect of Team. Sometimes the reality of the job became too real for a recruit, they did not want to do this job now, so this discovery is moved nearer the start of the 2 months.
From that foundation, you went through different Fire Halls as Rookie, where your transformation was completed. The novel skills, situations and experiences were made better by being part of team. Through my time on the CFD, to be successful, you needed to learn how to make the team successful.
WBS: What's the schedule like for shift work? I feel like it's 4 days on, 4 days off - is that right? And do all firefighters have to work night shifts sometimes?
Bill: The current CFD works 24-hour shifts. I worked 2 10-hour days followed by 2 14-hour nights for my 30 years. In both iterations you get to live at the Fire Hall. It is like life at home: you cook, clean the hall, look after your equipment, educate yourself, work out, look after your Fire District with Building and Hydrant Inspections. Night shifts, working nights, part of the job, for every Firefighter who is front line. I enjoyed the nights with their extra challenges: the dark, your own Circadian Rhythms, winters cold.
WBS: What's the procedure when a call comes in? How fast do you have to be out?
Bill: The Tones come in and you go. A study done in my tenure there said that starting low tones that got louder were better for our stress and it was better than the sudden loud blast. Even then, it still gets you going. With the Tones, the Hall was prepared for action and our departure; lights that were dimmed at night came on and gas valves were closed in the kitchen. You hear the Tones, you go, you drop what you’re doing as fast as you can, listen to 911 Fire Dispatch describe where and why you get to go somewhere as you’re moving to the apparatus floor, getting on to your vehicle, getting into your gear. Driver and Officer confer on a route, information comes into the truck via dispatch and plans are formulated. One Captain I worked with had a “30 seconds to the truck” rule but then one of his Firefighters fell off a Fire Pole. I always sought a balance between fast and safe for myself and when I had a crew: my Chute Times were never questioned.
WBS: What were some of the most common types of fires you went to fight?
Bill: Most calls that the CFD has are medical calls. Large fires were not the most common, house fires were our most common structure fires, car fires were not uncommon and there were the nuisance fires like Dumpster fires. A distinction for fires is exterior or interior: a car fire on quiet road was a different set of problems than a car fire in a parkade. A house fire in an older constructed home was safer than the newer constructions with their lightweight and glued flammable materials. A warehouse fire was a challenge with its size and collapse potential. An exterior attack at large industrial fire on a -25°C winters night held a different kind of suffering.
All that said, fires held challenges and excitement in applying your problem-solving skill sets: when dispatch said that “we’ve had multiple calls on this,” you knew you were in for a life-changing experience.
WBS: How many guys in a truck? Did you like driving it?
Bill: There are different trucks staffed for different jobs. While I was working, a District Chief drove around solo, but front line apparatus had at least two Firefighters on board. Rescue Trucks, Aerial ladders had two, an Aerial Platform may have three. Engines, the core of any response, had four. Specialties like Hazmat had two initially, Aquatic Rescue could have four initially. Calls could require one Engine, four people, or be augmented with any combination of Rigs depending on the iteration of what was initially thought to be an adequate first response. Staffing on apparatus of late is changing as society changes, with more staff on the vehicles and on the Fire Ground.
“But to go into a call is to see a different world, to deal with other people’s problems, and by applying a vast skill set as a team, to make their worst day better, to leave a situation better than you found it.”
Driving a Fire Truck, from the outside it looks great. And it was. The fastest driver was the smoothest driver, working with an officer to navigate a route and the hazards along the way. Wariness of traffic, road conditions and the unknowns of human response when you’re suddenly behind them, all grill, with the serenade of an air horn. Multiple skill sets go into delivering a Fire Crew safely to The Scene. Patience and understanding of “where do they think I’m supposed to go to get out of their way,” made arriving at the call faster than “pushing” grid locked traffic. It was important to remember that your actions behind the wheel of a responding Fire Truck were individual, but the Public saw a Fire Truck: it was vital to behave as a professional, good PR, to represent. I stayed as long as possible in “driving hall,” downtown because there were multiple Fire Trucks, instead of a Single Bay Hall, so more opportunity to drive. I treasured my time behind the wheel of a Fire Truck: even if it was a false alarm or we were cancelled on route, my shift that day involved the deeply satisfying application of my skills. I moved on to other jobs, supervisory, and missed the driving myself, but could appreciate it vicariously when training a new driver, seeing things click for them, seeing the look in their eyes as they mastered one of the more exciting things people get to do.
That said, it’s important to say that, “being on the back,” of Fire Truck, you got to go into the call, while the Driver did not. Driving meant you stayed with your Rig, you ferried equipment in, you liaised with incoming agencies or if you were lucky, pumped water into a building. But to go into a call is to see a different world, to deal with other people’s problems, and by applying a vast skill set as a team, to make their worst day better, to leave a situation better than you found it. Not driving wasn’t without its rewards.
WBS: Was there much downtime at the fire hall between calls? If so, what sort of things would you do?
Bill: Downtime in a Firehall was an opportunity. The most successful Firefighters were self-regulating, self-improving: every call was a chance to see that you could do better; the very nature of an emergency scene is not enough information, a best decision that has to be made quickly and a constant reorganization of the choices made. In essence, the individual “fails” at every scene, so often, “downtime” might find a lone Firefighter taking a tool or manual in hand to become more expert with how to do it better, pretty soon other Firefighters wander up and a lively discussion develops, laughs are shared, learning and teambuilding blossom. This is the anatomy of a successful Fire Crew. I once was the butt of family joke, that I didn’t have time to fix my bread machine now, so I would take it to work and fix it there: I was teased lovingly about what was my job really like. Well I did take that bread machine to work and as with most things in the Hall, I worked on that bread machine, a group gathered with varying values of advice about the machine and my waistline, and that soon devolved into a general discussion of electrical panels; that discussion helped put out an electrical fire in an apartment building the following Tour.
“It built trust: seeing and experiencing a range of emotions after a practical joke that would pay dividends later; when your eyes were met by the light of a flashlight in a blistering hot, smoke-filled basement fire, you had already experienced and shared real emotions, and come through it.”
The collegial nature of the Hall, the Job itself, led to group activity, on and off the job. In the Hall, there was hijinks: put high-functioning individuals (I worked with former Olympians) in a confined space, within the safe psychology of a team, and testing each other’s limits and skills just happened. It built trust: you could fail and know everyone had your back; after experiencing a masterful practical joke, perfectly tailored to one of your idiosyncrasies, you were embraced and you knew they were keeping an eye on you. It built trust: seeing and experiencing a range of emotions after a practical joke that would pay dividends later; when your eyes met by the light of a flashlight in a blistering hot, smoke filled basement fire, you had already experienced and shared real emotions, and come through it. The intensity of some of the practical jokes in the Fire Halls would not translate to the other outside work places. A water cannon in a coffee cup cupboard is a test that does not translate easily to many downtown offices. Downtime in a firehall almost always was a way to build team, to enjoy the opportunity of self-improvement with people who were investing in you, themselves and the world we had chosen to serve.
WBS: Any particularly exciting or memorable stories from calls you responded to?
Bill: I guess I have inadvertently sprinkled some through the other questions. One thing I see missing as I reread, is car accidents, MVC’s. I was amazed often at how resilient people are after a crash: they are having a terrible time but still seem to have a way of dealing with the stress and find ways to get along, to help each other. That along with the structure of traffic control, the technical rescue with “the perfect tool for the job,” and how quickly a Fire Crew could accomplish that “Golden Ten Minutes,” all contribute to an “enjoyment.”