Any Fire Fighters here?
Discussion
Hi there,
I am looking at becoming a firefighter, I have application forms to become retained at my local station and wanted some info from the people who really do the job everyone expects the obvious fight a fire, get someone from a crashed car but what else is involved that people rarely mention?
I have also thought about the RAF fireservice so anyone who is part of that and can give me a heads up as to what really happens because the RAF website is useless so what kind of things do you spend your time at work doing? how often do you get sent to different countries? what is the quality of life like? what do you have to do in the tests etc would be very helpful
Thanks in advance
Lewis
I am looking at becoming a firefighter, I have application forms to become retained at my local station and wanted some info from the people who really do the job everyone expects the obvious fight a fire, get someone from a crashed car but what else is involved that people rarely mention?
I have also thought about the RAF fireservice so anyone who is part of that and can give me a heads up as to what really happens because the RAF website is useless so what kind of things do you spend your time at work doing? how often do you get sent to different countries? what is the quality of life like? what do you have to do in the tests etc would be very helpful
Thanks in advance
Lewis
Hi,
I left the retained a few years ago, after 6 years in and to be honest i still miss it now. The fire service is brilliant, The friends you will make is one of the strongest points of joining. Being retained is ok, depending on the station. I was in a village which in my opinion was better than the town/city stations, ok not as busy, but we used to be alot closer than the firefighters at the bigger wholetime stations.
The job itself is very demanding, always "on the job", your either down the pub with felow ff's talking about the job, at home with the missus and kids wanting to be on a job, or actually on a job. You tend to become very sad and every time you see an ambulance drive past on blues, wish a shout comes in to get the blood rushing through your vains.
Its not all action, alot of shouts will be AFA's (automatic fire alarms) at 2a.m, or hoax calls, and there is ALOT of relief calls, going to a haystack fire and taking it in turns to stand by the pump or LWP that is plugged into the local canal.
However, when a job comes in i.e RTA persons trapped, house fire - persons Reported, the feeling is incredible, and the feeling of all ff's pulling together as a team is something else.
I have always said there is no other job like it, the family feeling, the adrelalin, and feeling part of something is well worth putting 110% in to get through the exams.
Definatly join the regular fire service, RAF so boring zzzzz :-)
6 years on, and i could still talk about it for hours, and i am still young, maybe i will join back up one day.
The only thing better than the retained, is joining Wholetime!!
hope this helps, and other questions, i will gladly try and give my experiences!!
I left the retained a few years ago, after 6 years in and to be honest i still miss it now. The fire service is brilliant, The friends you will make is one of the strongest points of joining. Being retained is ok, depending on the station. I was in a village which in my opinion was better than the town/city stations, ok not as busy, but we used to be alot closer than the firefighters at the bigger wholetime stations.
The job itself is very demanding, always "on the job", your either down the pub with felow ff's talking about the job, at home with the missus and kids wanting to be on a job, or actually on a job. You tend to become very sad and every time you see an ambulance drive past on blues, wish a shout comes in to get the blood rushing through your vains.
Its not all action, alot of shouts will be AFA's (automatic fire alarms) at 2a.m, or hoax calls, and there is ALOT of relief calls, going to a haystack fire and taking it in turns to stand by the pump or LWP that is plugged into the local canal.
However, when a job comes in i.e RTA persons trapped, house fire - persons Reported, the feeling is incredible, and the feeling of all ff's pulling together as a team is something else.
I have always said there is no other job like it, the family feeling, the adrelalin, and feeling part of something is well worth putting 110% in to get through the exams.
Definatly join the regular fire service, RAF so boring zzzzz :-)
6 years on, and i could still talk about it for hours, and i am still young, maybe i will join back up one day.
The only thing better than the retained, is joining Wholetime!!
hope this helps, and other questions, i will gladly try and give my experiences!!
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