LEO and Vol Firefighter - Too much at once?

[SmallCityCop]

Hell, most of the cops I work with are volly squirrels on the side! :-P

No offense, I was once, myself.

[PhoenixCadet]

Yes, you are maker a bigger deal out of it than you should. You go to school in the day and you run a shift or two in the evenings or at night.

Got it. Thanks.

[PhoenixCadet]

PhoenixCadet- Keep in mind you are in Ca., or at least that's what your current location is listed as. The responses are coming in from all over the country and as you know, we are not like the rest of the country. I'd suggest researching the question exactly where you plan to do it. Be prepared for responses a little different from what has been posted.

I definitely understand and plan on doing that. I've already contacted the department I plan on volunteering at - I was just hoping to get somewhat of a general answer.

Thanks!

[exdrip]

Good timing for this. I just got onboard as VFF yesterday, glad to hear its quite common

[ArkansasFan24]

How does it not conflict with being in college, though? I'm sure all departments vary in this area, but I would be sure that all have a minimum call response requirement of some sort.

With my situation, I'm hoping to go to college in NYC, but the area I'll be living in and being a member of the VFD is 20 minutes into NJ.

Am I making a bigger deal out of this issue than I should?

When I was in college I did not live on campus nor did I want to. I commuted due to other obligations and desires. I commuted 45 minutes each day compared to your 20. When I got up in the morning to go to class I did just that. I didn't carry a pager with me as I'm sure it wouldn't have received a tone out anyway, plus I was preoccupied with formulating the future of my life.

When I got back home each day I again became a member of the community and when paged I responded to fires. I recall two different occasions where I was paged to things at about the time I had to leave for class. On one occasion because I was in a position to skip class without any penalties I did just that. On the other, I pressed on to class and took my exam as scheduled. I remember a car fire one morning when the pager sounded at the exact same moment my tv came on, as programmed, to wake me up. From a clouded, sleepy 20 year old mind it took me quite a few moments to figure out exactly what was going on. Because I had to shower, shave, and all of that so I could get to class I skipped the fire call. Why? I was a volunteer. I had obligations, and there were other people that could respond.

The nature of a volunteer fire department is just that - volunteer. These types of departments understand that you are sacraficing a lot more than time by being a member, and they also understand that sometimes you're required to commit to things other than the fire department.

What I did get absolutely sick of was working 48 hour weekend shifts while then teaching middle school five days a week. Sensory overload! Made good money though.


I'm on a different volunteer fire department now (after moving) by request more so than choice. I deal with it when I can.