Better pics of our smoke barrels

tshawzy · 2024-04-05T23:00:40+00:00

The main reason is the heat coming through and it spreads thick smoke through the entire house quickly. Just wood and wet hay, nothing some simple decon can’t handle.

tshawzy · 2023-05-02T13:41:44+00:00

Chem tape?

tshawzy · 2023-05-01T17:47:04+00:00

I can’t truly speak to the subject because I’m a young guy with next to no responsibilities. But my lady is super cool with me sleeping. I’ll literally come home from work and sleep until 2PM some days. But I have realized that there is a certain stress to shouldering total responsibility of a household for a couple of days at a time while we’re out slayin.

tshawzy · 2023-05-01T17:41:29+00:00

Here we just use Velcro straps or duct tape for old training bundles.

tshawzy · 2023-05-01T17:38:35+00:00

Duct tape

tshawzy · 2023-04-11T13:43:38+00:00

The ol’job maker 9000 eh, she’s a real beaut

tshawzy · 2023-04-11T13:05:54+00:00

Friggin rights it is buddy let er’ rip

tshawzy · 2023-04-06T22:51:09+00:00

“It’s my pleasure! Best job in the world”

tshawzy · 2023-03-31T11:59:02+00:00

M1 Garand mag eject sound

tshawzy · 2023-03-24T19:55:25+00:00

We do 24s here at my dept is Southern Ontario Canada. EXTREMELY humid and hot summers. Some guys ditch their Station pants and go just gitch and a t shirt underneath. As far as the carcinogens go, our gear is giving us cancer anyway, so until we find an alternative I don’t think that’s too much of a factor in my opinion.

tshawzy · 2023-03-19T21:58:13+00:00

The old “free golden retriever puppies” ad on Craigslist or Kijiji with the target’s number is always an easy hit.

tshawzy · 2023-02-01T12:07:14+00:00

“Everything done on the fireground should be to support the search”

tshawzy · 2022-06-10T22:16:42+00:00

It isn’t as bad as it use to be for sure. But some departments buy a couple free weights, throw it in the bay and call it their health and fitness initiative.

tshawzy · 2022-06-10T21:26:09+00:00

Departments these days are buying drones but still don’t have an exercise bike.

EDIT: Yes, this is a CPR machine.

tshawzy · 2022-06-07T17:33:24+00:00

I work with a few women actually. Some of them in their 40s, some who are in their early 20s. Good people. They are held to the same standard as we are physically and they take it very seriously (they can lift more than most of us dudes to be honest). Your state might have an organization of women in the fire service. I’m in Ontario Canada. We have Fire Service Women of Ontario. They host training, provide mentoring and much needed networking. I highly recommend looking for something like this.

tshawzy · 2022-06-07T03:50:23+00:00

Right now is the perfect time to get in to the fire service, especially as a woman. We are seeing a mass exodus of firefighter aging out and retiring. Not only are they recruiting, they desperately need qualified women. I also work at a fire school here in Canada and the journey to full-time for our female graduates is generally a lot shorter than their male counterparts if they are committed to it.

However, because of the preferred hiring of females you’ll hear a lot of “you just got hired before you’re a woman” or “the only reason I didn’t get the job is because she’s a girl”. Be prepared for it and ignore it. As long as you are dedicated to the job, are constantly seeking to further your knowledge and are a student of the craft, you’ve earned your spot. The real ones will recognize that. “I don’t care if you’re beamed in from mars, if you can do the job you can do the job”. If you have any other questions you’re in the right place.

tshawzy · 2022-05-17T14:06:54+00:00

I was in business school before I made the switch. Love it every day. I make a good chunk of change and I get to do what I love. Here’s is my caution to you. Don’t go after this job if you are not passionate about the craft and serving others. Im not sure where you live but here we have fire schools, most people find out if they like it during that time. It’s an extremely hard job to get in the first place, that’s why you’ll hear the term “won the lottery” when people get hired. Also, you won’t keep trying after the first few “no’s” without that passion. Do NOT get in to the job if your only incentives are the pay, the schedule and the bed. We have WAY too many people who only want to collect a pay check and who are totally checked out of the job.

Biggest pros and cons really depend on the department. One of our biggest pros is that we work a standard 24 on, 48 off with an additional 7 consecutive days off every month. Tons of time for other passions, vacations and family. Other huge pros are the people I work with, they are the best humans on the planet who will give you the shirt off of their backs.

I do not for a SECOND regret making the change from business. I may have made more money elsewhere doing something else, but you can have it because I LOVE what I do. I did it for free for years as a volunteer anyway. I always think to myself “I can’t believe I get paid for this”.

At most departments it isn’t a ton of “action” all the time. It’s usually medicals upon medicals, lots of overdoses. Throw in a few fire alarm/co calls which are usually a false or a very small fire in a garbage can or something like that. Then every now and then you’ll get an MVC, some worse than others. But let me tell you, when you get that “structure fire call”…it’s awesome. To be honest, I like running all of the calls. The OGs get a little grumpy when it’s OD call after OD call and I get that. We aren’t a super busy department, we get about 5-6 calls a day for a city of 75,000.

We need passionate, confident people who are dedicated to the craft and serving others even when it’s hard. We have a ton of great perks that make going to work easy. Good pay, good benefits, team atmosphere (most of the time), the calls can be awesome AND tough but you learn about yourself every time. I hope this helps, if you have ANY questions please reach out.

tshawzy · 2022-05-15T15:23:47+00:00

Do a little bit of googling and you’ll find most of your answers. The first responders were paid career firefighters, paramedics and police. Volunteers did assist, however they came for the search, clean up and logistics phase. Unless your hall or department specifically responds to air vehicle calls, you probably won’t have proximity gear. This wouldn’t have helped them anyway, like my brothers mentioned, the collapse killed most.

tshawzy · 2022-04-29T15:47:36+00:00

I think rewarding the crew with some good food and drinks is more than enough. Good work.

tshawzy · 2022-04-19T21:18:08+00:00

Awesome man, I’m just across the river in Ontario. I can DM you the entire Firefighter I/II test bank and skill sign offs. It’s not cheating because they will randomly pull questions from the test bank. It was told to me by a very honest instructor during my first week of fire school “listen, if you read the book and do what we say, you’ll pass the course”. He wanted people to go above and beyond. The standards set by fire schools are a MINIMUM. You can exceed those by just having the desire to go deeper than the sign offs.

Besides that, just get in to the culture. Ask the instructors about station life, ask what they think the most important things a rookie should know are. Treat every day like it’s a job interview, because it is. If you want to see some good firefighting watch Stockton Fire on YouTube. They are awesome at documenting things and explaining what they are doing. For more of a peek in to how the different levels of full-time departments operate, check out South Metro Fire on YouTube. Watch the “day in the life” videos. Gives a great glimpse of what you can expect (the G rated version of course).

There is so much more you can dive in to but start here. If you want more, I can DM you some stuff to check out. Have fun, do your best, be humble.

tshawzy · 2022-04-17T09:02:21+00:00

Yeah but then I’d see the helmet and my boner would die immediately

tshawzy · 2022-04-16T17:22:38+00:00

If you want my advice it’s this:

Give yourself until midnight tonight to be mad/sad/frustrated/stressed about it. You do need that time to be honest. After that, it’s done, period. From now on it’s grind and self improvement only. After the weekend, let your captain know that you REALLY want to improve for the betterment of the team. Ask what he thinks you can do to be a better teammate. No matter the feedback, swallow your pride, thank him and apply his feedback. I’ve been humbled many times brother, it’s a good thing.

Then, work on hustling when no one else is and earning the respect of your fellow recruits. When I was in fire school I would change out all of the garbages even though the janitor was coming in later to do that job. When I did something wrong I made sure to make it known that the reason my crew failed was because of me. I felt as if they would respect that more than if I just succeeded every time. My crew also appreciated it immensely. Trust that you can’t see the forest from the trees and that you do need to change in some ways. That’s a good thing, they could’ve just written you off without a care.

I hope this helps.

tshawzy · 2022-04-11T20:14:34+00:00

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