why be structured

Warning:  The following is a bit more of a rant than a humorous observation of life.



So, theres a forum of many that I usually check online, and one day feeling froggy, I decided to start a new thread on a firefighting/ Emergency Service one about truck checks.  I mentioned how my boss might occasionaly insert a quarter into one of the hoses on my engine to make sure that not only is the pump being ran but also water flows thru said hose and nozzle. Then asked if anyone else does anything similar to keep crews on their toes to make sure that the truck is thoughly checked.

Cue birrage of other firefighters chiming in about neglagence, being irresponcible, putting the crew in hazard of life risk, "really really stupid", written procedures, ect. I whittingly said that if thats the case, hose packs (backpacks stuffed with fire hose) can always be pulled and used in such an event on a fire that a hose doesn't work. Cue more posts on neglagence, sending anonymous emails to my city, and more of putting crew life in danger. I responded by mentioning that its done in controlled situations and used as a learning tool.

While feeling angered I looked at some of these respondent profiles and noticed a few similarities, they live in the north east, and are structure firefighters.  Now knowing this I have come up with a reasoning as to why the responses always talked the way they were.

A. They were primarily structure firefighters. Hence, think they're all high and mighty and think that they're top shit. Also, being structure the day of fun in the firehouse of pranks and ass grabbing are gone and replaced by the days of walking on pins and needles around your fellow crew mates as to not hurt anyone's feelings and to make sure that they stay P.C.

B. Theyre big city east coast, can you say political situation?  I mentioned in my last post on that thread about letting houses burn on fires if its not safe, lets see how that goes.

To sum up, if any of my 2 readers are single and female, don't date structure firefighters. They're douche bags to the fullest. Also, back to the all high and mighty side of it, you know what they're doing at the station when not on a call? Being paid by your tax dollars to sit in a chair and play COD all day long, while wildland ff are out in their response area treating the area to keep a future fire from getting too big, or making public contact with recreators or going to schools and telling kids about Smokey Bear.  You can also tell the difference in the vehicles that firefighters drive, structure guys typically have huge jacked up trucks with firefighter stickers all over and a personal firefighter license plate, they may as well have a giant neon sign too, its almost like they're compensating for something....hhhmmmm..  Wildland guys usually don't have brand new trucks, but said trucks are tough, seen more off road that their counterparts, maybe a sticker somewhere saying wildland firefighter-maybe, and definitly not compensating, we're happy and proud of it.  A final difference is that the structure guys always as their personal trucks have something "firefighter" on and are overly pround and like to brag about it.  We're proud of being wildland as well, and may occasionally wear a shirt, but don't go out saying "look at me! I'm a firefighter!" but if you ask us we'll tell you what we do, we don't brag, we're modest.

Ahh, I feel a little better now, thanks for that.