Firefighter interview

The damage that a fire can cause is obvious and this is why firefighter jobs are so important. Fire fighters are usually the first ones responding to any type of emergency and perform many tasks including extinguishing burning buildings, helping out with medical emergencies, vehicle accidents and many other incidents.

Keeping their skills up to date is necessary and they will be continually training with new equipment and techniques. Working together as a team is mandatory and each team member has a different responsibility. There are regular and woodland firefighters, search and rescue fire fighters, aerial firefighters, smoke-jumpers, who are fire fighters who are sent to locations by aircraft and jump to the fire, fire marshals, inspectors, arson investigators and those who train other firefighters.

Because of the extreme conditions and also the stress associated with the emergency situations that arise, the fire fighter definitely needs to stay in shape for the work they must do. They will stay in the fire station while on duty and can eat, sleep, shower and watch t.v. at the fire station, just like at home, unless they need to work on the trucks and equipment.

Fire marshals and investigators usually do not respond to regular calls but will work from an office. Fire inspectors will ensure the buildings in the area are up to codes set by law to ensure they are safe. Job hours usually run about ten or twelve hours and include pulling rotating shifts of three days on and four days off. Then they switch to four days on and three days off.