Did you know firefighters work 48-hour shifts?
Firefighters have to be tough to deal with the heat of flames, but you’d be surprised how much firefighters actually do! These public heroes often obtain degrees in fire science (fire is more complicated than you might think) and respond to a wide variety of emergency and non-emergency calls.
The old myth that firefighters lounge around the station playing video games until a fire call does a disservice to them. These are the people who keep our cities safe. And they not only risk their lives fighting fires, but they also deal with incredible mental strain as well.
If you ever wanted to know what a day in the life of a firefighter is like, keep reading for more.
A Day in the Life of a Firefighter
So what do firefighters do during the average day? There’s no such thing as a normal day for our public servicemen, but it does follow some general guidelines.
Since firefighters usually work 48 hours and take 96 hours off, the first order of business when coming in for the day is to exchange information with the current shift. They discuss any ongoing situations, such as forest fires. They receive any particular assignments before beginning their day’s work.
Firefighters are all about communication. The team might be spread out across the city, working with a variety of calls. This means long-distance communication is paramount.
Physical Fitness
Firefighters don’t slouch when it comes to physical fitness. They exercise every day to make sure they’re in prime condition for when an emergency strikes. When a firefighter might be carrying as much as 200 pounds in the event of an emergency, physical fitness is of the utmost importance!
Firefighter training includes not only bog-standard gym workouts, but they’ll also exercise while wearing a mask to simulate restricted airflow. They also do exercises in full gear lugging oxygen tanks and heavy coils of rope.
Sometimes firefighters will compete with one another to see how quickly they can perform a certain task in extreme conditions.
Daily Errands and Maintenance
Usually, firefighters take care of their own things. They cook or chip in to buy lunch as a company. They do gear inspection, engine maintenance, and shopping for supplies.
The tools firefighters use need regular maintenance, too. Fighting fires doesn’t work if your gear is superannuated and broken.
Firefighters can receive an emergency call at any time, so downtime is an excellent moment to get any work done that needs doing. If you see firefighters lounging around the station, chances are they’ve just dealt with a tough call, and need to recover!
Education and Inspection
Firefighters are not just there to save lives; they’re there to educate people on how to save them!
Chances are you visited your local firehouse as a child. Or, firefighters visited your office to do an inspection and teach people what to do and how to evacuate in the event of a conflagration.
Firefighters spend a great deal of their time doing educational seminars. They teach not only firefighting techniques, but medical skills, how to handle hazardous materials, and how to rescue people in different situations.
Firefighters regularly inspect businesses to make sure they are compliant with fire regulations. They perform hundreds of these inspections a year.
And again, if they’re not doing this, they’re back at the base working hard to make sure they’re prepared when emergency strikes. That’s why firefighter equipment has to be tough like them.
Fire Calls
This is the one you were waiting for. Firefighters exist for fighting fires, after all!
In most cases, fire calls are false alarms. Someone smells something burning, or a small kitchen fire breaks out that the employees succeed in dousing before the professionals arrive. Don’t let that dissuade you from calling the fire department, though, since it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Firefighters might receive a call to a car crash or a burning building in another precinct. Every call is different, so firefighters have to be prepared for a full-day affair at any time.
Non-Fire Calls
Firefighters often serve as auxiliary EMTs, paramedics, or professionals to help at the scene of a bad car crash. They can help to capture dangerous animals or clean up hazardous spills. They may come to the rescue of a hiker that has gotten lost or to save someone who has fallen into an area where they can’t get back out.
That’s why it’s important not to think of firefighters as experts in fighting fires and nothing else. Firefighters often receive training in a wide variety of skills so they can respond to all sorts of emergencies or non-emergencies.
End of the Day
Assuming there has been no major emergency, a firefighter’s day is not over once they’ve finished fire safety training or taught people about the tools firefighters used.
There is paperwork to fill out, dinner to cook, and still plenty of little things here and there to keep in order. But usually, firefighters are winding down for the day. They’ll do some team bonding and then try to get some sleep if they can.
Honor Your Servicemen
Now that you know what a day in the life of a firefighter is like, you can appreciate the dangerous and physically demanding job for what it is. Firefighters sacrifice a lot to serve our communities, and without them, we’d be in a much worse place.
A firefighter’s tools are extremely important. When fighting forest fires, radios are the only way for teams to stay in close communication. Get a quote for a radio system that will save firefighter lives today.
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