Ask a Firefighter anything

482 Questions

Last Answer on June 29, 2022

I don't know if you know much about VFD's but when a VFD sends out a page in my town, I think volunteers usually respond in private vehicles with blue lights. Who would drive the apparatus to the scene? How do they know if enough people are coming?

Asked by 123 about 10 years ago

Most volunteer departments have designated individuals that respond to get the apparatus. Each unit would mark up on the radio as responding, but there have been a time or two that I have heard of where someone had to go back and get the truck. My personal opinion is that all go to the station unless a unit is already enroute and no other equipment is needed.

837 Votes

If you show up to a fire and the homeowner says that everyone is accounted for, can you decide to skip a search and go straight to attacking the fire? (If a search COULD be carried out without unusual danger, but you didn't want to waste time)

Asked by 42 almost 10 years ago

If the homeowner is confident on his accountability then suppression would be your next action.

829 Votes

So you wanna be a Firefighter?

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How many different radio channels will be used when a fire happens? Is there a separate channel for the initial dispatching of the units and for the units that are on scene? What about the FFs in the building?

Asked by 345 about 10 years ago

Yes, dependent on the size of the departments they will initially dispatch a call on the main channel and then have units that are responding move to an assigned channel. Firefighters usually operate on a fireground channel that is a lesser frequency strength and keeps communications from ground crews confined to the call. The incident commander will monitor several channels on larger incidents.

828 Votes

Do firefighters have to fill out reports for each incident they respond to? What kinds of things do these reports include?

Asked by Ace about 10 years ago

Yes, We fill out reports called NFIRS- National Fire Incident Reporting System. We have two components that we use. The first one is fire calls which records what type of call, manpower levels, resources reponded and nature of call which if it is a fire it calls for description of what was burning, where it started along with a narrative of the incident. When we respond to medical calls we are Advance Life Support crews and a incident report that records type of call, who and what responded and statistical info of pt along nature of call and what we did for the patient. Our statistics for these calls are used for fire specifics which can be used to determine what you pay for home insurance and the medical is used for medical reporting statistics along with insurance payments. It should be noted that even though we have HIPPA laws the fire reports are public information except the medical reports which are medical records and are not available to the public.

825 Votes

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Hello! I'm doing a research for a story i'm writing on firefighters and what they go through during a house fire. May i contact you via e-mail?

Asked by ----- about 10 years ago

palmettoss@yahoo.com

824 Votes

If a 4-man truck company is told to do search-and-rescue on a burning house, (and they are following the 2 in 2 out rule) will the "2 out" typically be in the same company? If so, will the officer typically go in or stay outside? Same for engines?

Asked by 23 about 10 years ago

Usually you keep 2 expeirence FF on the team, If you can have a full crew together is even better. The Officer typically will go with the first one. Depends on the size of the department.

819 Votes

We'll today an accident at school happend I was dancing in hallway then I bumped on fire alarm and it went on my ? Is will my parents have to pay fine even tho firefighters didn't show up at all

Asked by Alberto Velasco about 10 years ago

Relax no they wont, that is reserved for business nuisance alarms.

817 Votes

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Firefighter

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

I don't know if you know much about VFD's but when a VFD sends out a page in my town, I think volunteers usually respond in private vehicles with blue lights. Who would drive the apparatus to the scene? How do they know if enough people are coming?

If you show up to a fire and the homeowner says that everyone is accounted for, can you decide to skip a search and go straight to attacking the fire? (If a search COULD be carried out without unusual danger, but you didn't want to waste time)

So you wanna be a Firefighter?

How many different radio channels will be used when a fire happens? Is there a separate channel for the initial dispatching of the units and for the units that are on scene? What about the FFs in the building?

Do firefighters have to fill out reports for each incident they respond to? What kinds of things do these reports include?

Also on Jobstr...

Hello! I'm doing a research for a story i'm writing on firefighters and what they go through during a house fire. May i contact you via e-mail?

If a 4-man truck company is told to do search-and-rescue on a burning house, (and they are following the 2 in 2 out rule) will the "2 out" typically be in the same company? If so, will the officer typically go in or stay outside? Same for engines?

We'll today an accident at school happend I was dancing in hallway then I bumped on fire alarm and it went on my ? Is will my parents have to pay fine even tho firefighters didn't show up at all

Firefighter

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

I don't know if you know much about VFD's but when a VFD sends out a page in my town, I think volunteers usually respond in private vehicles with blue lights. Who would drive the apparatus to the scene? How do they know if enough people are coming?

If you show up to a fire and the homeowner says that everyone is accounted for, can you decide to skip a search and go straight to attacking the fire? (If a search COULD be carried out without unusual danger, but you didn't want to waste time)

So you wanna be a Firefighter?

How many different radio channels will be used when a fire happens? Is there a separate channel for the initial dispatching of the units and for the units that are on scene? What about the FFs in the building?

Do firefighters have to fill out reports for each incident they respond to? What kinds of things do these reports include?

Also on Jobstr...

Hello! I'm doing a research for a story i'm writing on firefighters and what they go through during a house fire. May i contact you via e-mail?

If a 4-man truck company is told to do search-and-rescue on a burning house, (and they are following the 2 in 2 out rule) will the "2 out" typically be in the same company? If so, will the officer typically go in or stay outside? Same for engines?

We'll today an accident at school happend I was dancing in hallway then I bumped on fire alarm and it went on my ? Is will my parents have to pay fine even tho firefighters didn't show up at all

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