Firefighter Life.

I am a volunteer firefighter and have being this 'job' for almost 20 years now.  It's been a blast most times and other times it's like any job, it can have it's down sides.  Normally it's after a tough call where the situation didn't go as well as you had hoped it would go.  Sometimes it's just the weather, hampering your efforts.  Recently the volunteer fire service as a whole has been in a slump.  There used to be more volunteers than you knew what to do with, now we're running low.  Adults are far to busy working more than one job, taking classes towards a degree or additional degree, taking their kids to their various sporting events and school events, no one has time.  Now, teenagers and young adults have also been dwindling in numbers in the fire service, this is mostly due to a lack of caring, effort and the willingness to put down their iPhone for a few minutes to realize that there's more to this world than Facebook.

At my station we are lucky enough to have a streak going of several volunteers that are not yet adults but are willing to spend additional hours training, on top of school work, to be a part of a service that helps members of their community and surrounding communities.

Last night for drill we spent the night training with hoselines and ground ladder placement for various types of scenarios.  Being "Juniors" they aren't allowed to enter a burning building but they are allowed to help outside as much as they can.  It was a pleasant surprise to see almost all of our junior members show up to drill ready to learn, we were missing several senior firefighters but it's understandable as not everyone can come to every drill or call.  The few senior firefighters that were there went through the basics and techniques we've been taught over the years and have used on the fireground before.  It went well and it seemed that they got some good training out of it to hopefully prepare them for down the road when they attend fire school and eventually go on emergency calls as active firefighters.

At the end of the night we went to the local Dairy Queen and then our Deputy Chief took part in something going around as of late known as the 'Cold Water Challenge'.  It's where you get hosed off, or jump in a pool or lake before it gets warm enough for swimming in honor of our fallen brothers and sisters in the fire service.  The person called out also donates $100 to the Fallen Firefighters Foundation and calls our five other people for the challenge.  This was a great moment for me, you get to see the fun side, the honor and brotherhood of firefighters and the bond we have.