Julius Wehr English 120 Professor M. Refling 10/22/14 The Fire Service The age-old debate in the fire service has, and always will be the paid, or career firemen, versus the volunteer firemen. In the end both do the same thing while one gets paid and the other does not. So the differences are minimal but the service is the same. All firemen train, must be certified, perform similar duties, respond from a firehouse and wear the same gear. But some people just can’t get over the fact that not all firemen are equal simply based on the presence of a paycheck. Working as a volunteer fireman has some serious challenges associated with it. Your free time, family life and energy level at the end of the day are all effected. Volunteer firemen typically work in their own community, or fire district. A fire district can be hundreds of square miles and include all types of structures, such as residential homes, apartments, businesses, corporations or power plants. Each of these types of structures presents its own set of unique challenges. Volunteer fire departments have mutual aid plans so members from one fire district will respond to help at a large-scale incident within another fire district. Learning about your own fire district takes up a substantial amount of time; learning …show more content…
The first step to becoming an interior firemen is getting accepted into the department. This involves a background check, arson investigation, completion of two National Incident Management System courses (NIMS) and a physical examination by the department doctor. After the new member has been approved for interior firefighting they must begin at the county academy. Each county has its own Fire Training Center, or some people call it the academy. At the academy new recruits are taught what they need to complete a task and survive inside a burning structure and on the fire