A lot of folks often wonder about our life in the Firehouse. Have you ever been inside a Firehouse? It’s like a REAL house! Who knew, right?
A Firehouse, is just what it suggests, a house…..a BIG house, with lots of family members. We have a kitchen, where we fix all our meals, and a huge dining room table so we can all eat meals together, just like a family! We also, of course, have a bathroom, well, actually two bathrooms (Men’s and Women’s) with several sinks and a couple showers and the all important ‘bathroom seating’! Some of our newer Firehouses (we have five in all) have a shower in the women’s bathroom too, which is very convenient. My Firehouse is a little older, so I have to use the showers in the Guy’s bathroom. They are great about respecting my privacy, so no problems there.
We also have a tv room for relaxing when we are not busy. There’s a laundry room for washing our clothes and bed linens. There’s an office for doing our business….actually, it is the Lieutenant’s office where he does all his Lieutenant stuff. There is a Dispatch area, where the radios and maps are and where our calls come in for the ‘runs’ we make.
So, the most popular question I get as a Woman in a Firehouse full of men is, “Where do YOU sleep?” Well, I sleep in the Bunk Room, where everyone else sleeps! Yes, it’s true! Don’t worry, it’s not like all the beds are pushed together or anything, lol. We each have our own ‘space’ and our own bed and locker where we keep our clothes, toiletries and whatever else we need or want that is personal to us. It’s like a little ‘cubby’, if you will. We are all adults, and I am lucky enough to have a group of guys who are very respectful.
So, last but not least, there is the Apparatus Bay, which is where the Fire Trucks and Ambulance are parked and ready for action! Every morning, when we get to work, we have someone that we relieve from duty. They’ve been on duty for 24 hours, so they are ready to go home, and we are the oncoming shift. So, we find that person, and they tell us all about what happened while they were on shift, like, how many calls they made, what kind of calls they made, if anything was used off the truck (or ambulance) and if it was replaced or not. Also, if anything was broken or fixed, and so on. Once we, as an oncoming shift, get the rundown, we tell them, “Ok, I’ve got it”! Then, they can go home, and we are there for the next 24 hours.
After we get all our information, we can then start our day. Each of us have our own responsibilities for checking our equipment to be sure it is all ready to go in a moments notice. The Paramedics check-in the ambulance, the Firefighters check in their airpacks and personal turnouts (or bunker gear), and other ‘extra’ apparatus we have at the stations. We, have the Air Service truck and trailer. The Air Service Truck/trailer houses mobile air compressor and tanks to refill our bottles we carry on our backs when we fight fire. Most bottles only last maximum of 30 minutes, so they have to be re-filled so we can keep working.
I am the Driver at my Fire Station on my Shift, so, my responsibility is the -Fire Truck. To check-in the Fire Truck, I start from the Driver’s seat and work my way around the truck in an orderly manner, checking to make sure every compartment has all the equipment it is supposed to have in it, and that it all is in working condition. If something is not, it is written up and sent to be fixed. It’s very important that we have everything we need for just about any situation we may encounter, and we encounter a lot of interesting things.
People who do not actually know, think that we spend all our time laying around the Station all the time, sleeping and eating. Yes, we do our share of eating and sleeping, but it’s not actually the way they imagine. Some folks do take a nap during the day at times, because we may not get to sleep during the night! Folks don’t think about us having to be called out at all hours of the night to pick Grandma up off the floor because she has fallen while trying to go to the bathroom, or to treat Dad’s Diabetic Crisis because he took his insulin, but forgot to eat. We may get called to Extricate a family or a couple of teens from their wrecked vehicle because they left the roadway and hit a tree, or to fight a fire in a family’s home because of faulty wiring, or food left on the stove.
Besides making calls, we also do a set number of hours of schooling and training every year, we test every hydrant in the city once a year, and we do company inspections of businesses in our territory. Some of us are studying and training to get ready to test for a promotion, which can be very time consuming. Some are in Paramedic school to get their license to practice. So, that’s ‘the rest of the story’, of how it really is around the Firehouse!
So, I think I have hit on most aspects of the Firehouse. Hopefully, that gives you some sort of a clear picture of what life in the Firehouse is. If any of you have any questions for me, on maybe something I forgot to mention, or just something else you would like to know, PLEASE send me your questions! I would love to hear from you!
If you have never been to your local Firehouse, go! We are glad to show you around, and we like meeting folks in a more ‘relaxed’ state instead of always during a crisis.
So, until next time! Stay safe and be Blessed!