- 1,382
- New Jersey
So earlier this year I joined up my local volunteer fire dept. near my college to try to get some experience for my future of being a paid firefighter which has been my dream for many years now. Its been a seemingly endless trek for me to get into a department. As a senior in high school I tried to join my town's fire department but due to college they said I couldn't do it. That was pretty heart breaking, I actually didn't think I would be able to do it until after college. Thankfully last year as a freshman I discovered that West Long Branch Fire Dept. was gladly taking in students as members so I joined up without hesitation.
Once I signed up I had to wait until this school year to start the fire academy down here which I have been attending for the last 2 months along with my regular college classes. It has been stressful but well worth it. Finally after 3 weeks of delays I got my pager last night so I can respond to calls:tup:.
Fast forward 24 hours of sitting on my behind praying for the pager to sound it did... 3 times!!!
The first one happened right when I was walking back from my car after hanging out with some friends at about 1am. I wasn't quite sure if it was for real but I darted for my car hopped in and got to the fire house as fast as legally possible. Once out of my car I rushed into the station to see the driver already pulling Engine 78 out of the bay. I hopped into my gear so fast I tripped over my own feet on the way to jump into the engine. Only one other guy showed up so we raced with full lights and sirens to the call. Once we got to the call, which was a local restaurant I quickly realized it was just a false alarm and the sprinklers were just faulty. Lucky for me my chief, who is a great guy, took my inside and showed me what happened. He showed me where the sprinkler system was broken and I nodded even though I had no idea what I was looking at. While walking around the basement I think I hit my helmet on every low pipe and light fixture in that basement
.Very happy that I popped my fire call cherry I hopped back into the engine and went back to the station and got undressed and drove back to campus.
Once back I got into bed but not before setting up my jeans, socks, keys, wallet and pager with in arms reach and my shoes in a open area for easy access. Just as I nodded off into sleep another call comes in startling me awake (as well my poor roomate
). I hop into my socks and jeans and shoes and grab all my stuff and haul a** to my car, with untied shoes unbuckled belt and t shirt in 38* weather. But in my sleepy stupor I ran to the wrong lot
. While I turn to run to the correct way I see my friend who is a fire fighter with me driving through the lot with his blue lights on and at this point I'm getting worked up because I didn't want to be late.
Once I get into my gti which is still not even cooled off from when I left it 20 minutes before and rush to the station where I once again get into my gear and fall over myself into the waiting Engine. This time its the driver, me and 2 other dudes from my school who I am friends with who joined the prior year. Off we go lights and sirens blaring again. As it turns out we are going to the same place because the sprinkler went off again -_-. So we go and check it out and everyone is giving me pointers, which was nice. So back to the firehouse again. This time though my friend tells me while we are getting out of our gear to leave it in the trunk of my car because we get a lot of calls to the dorms (hint hint) so I apprehensively do as he says and stuff my stinky gear into my trunk and head off.
Once back me and the other 2 kids walk over to our friends room who is in the academy with me, and got his pager the yesterday like me, room to find his sleeping like a baby where I kindly left him a not that I'm beating him by 2 calls. Me and my friends part ways and I walk, freezing, back to my dorm.
But wait there's more...
Once again, not even half way to my building I hear my pager go off again. This time thinking it will be to the same place as last time but I hear that we are being dispatched to a nearby dorm building. So I sprint like a bat out of hell to my car and fling my sneakers through the parking lot and get into my gear and rush over to the building to find all the students walking quite zombie like (its about 3am by now) out of the building. Once again my two friends and an other kid who's a senior and a firefighter arrive about the same time I do and us 4 do a search of the building and find the smoke detector which was tripped by some unknown source aka false alarm.
As we call it in the fire engine and the chief arrive on scene and tell us we did good
. Apparently my first night has been a success. The other 2 kids in the academy with me didn't even make it to one call. Another plus was seeing all the familiar faces who didn't know I was a firefighter stare over at me in my full gear while they walked back in, it felt good.
All in all I just needed to vent because all this excitement for one night, let along my first on call, really got my blood pumping and most of my friends who I want to tell all about it are sleeping. Im sitting out in my common room of my suite of my dorm with my heart still pounding and my pager by my side waiting for my next call
Just to think in a month I will be out of the academy and getting to run into life fires and get my hands really dirty.
Sorry if this has been done before but if anyone else has any storyies feel free to share
Some pictures for you all
I am center with the orange shield on the helmet
Once I signed up I had to wait until this school year to start the fire academy down here which I have been attending for the last 2 months along with my regular college classes. It has been stressful but well worth it. Finally after 3 weeks of delays I got my pager last night so I can respond to calls:tup:.
Fast forward 24 hours of sitting on my behind praying for the pager to sound it did... 3 times!!!
The first one happened right when I was walking back from my car after hanging out with some friends at about 1am. I wasn't quite sure if it was for real but I darted for my car hopped in and got to the fire house as fast as legally possible. Once out of my car I rushed into the station to see the driver already pulling Engine 78 out of the bay. I hopped into my gear so fast I tripped over my own feet on the way to jump into the engine. Only one other guy showed up so we raced with full lights and sirens to the call. Once we got to the call, which was a local restaurant I quickly realized it was just a false alarm and the sprinklers were just faulty. Lucky for me my chief, who is a great guy, took my inside and showed me what happened. He showed me where the sprinkler system was broken and I nodded even though I had no idea what I was looking at. While walking around the basement I think I hit my helmet on every low pipe and light fixture in that basement
.Very happy that I popped my fire call cherry I hopped back into the engine and went back to the station and got undressed and drove back to campus.Once back I got into bed but not before setting up my jeans, socks, keys, wallet and pager with in arms reach and my shoes in a open area for easy access. Just as I nodded off into sleep another call comes in startling me awake (as well my poor roomate
). I hop into my socks and jeans and shoes and grab all my stuff and haul a** to my car, with untied shoes unbuckled belt and t shirt in 38* weather. But in my sleepy stupor I ran to the wrong lot. While I turn to run to the correct way I see my friend who is a fire fighter with me driving through the lot with his blue lights on and at this point I'm getting worked up because I didn't want to be late. Once I get into my gti which is still not even cooled off from when I left it 20 minutes before and rush to the station where I once again get into my gear and fall over myself into the waiting Engine. This time its the driver, me and 2 other dudes from my school who I am friends with who joined the prior year. Off we go lights and sirens blaring again. As it turns out we are going to the same place because the sprinkler went off again -_-. So we go and check it out and everyone is giving me pointers, which was nice. So back to the firehouse again. This time though my friend tells me while we are getting out of our gear to leave it in the trunk of my car because we get a lot of calls to the dorms (hint hint) so I apprehensively do as he says and stuff my stinky gear into my trunk and head off.
Once back me and the other 2 kids walk over to our friends room who is in the academy with me, and got his pager the yesterday like me, room to find his sleeping like a baby where I kindly left him a not that I'm beating him by 2 calls
. Me and my friends part ways and I walk, freezing, back to my dorm.But wait there's more...
Once again, not even half way to my building I hear my pager go off again. This time thinking it will be to the same place as last time but I hear that we are being dispatched to a nearby dorm building. So I sprint like a bat out of hell to my car and fling my sneakers through the parking lot and get into my gear and rush over to the building to find all the students walking quite zombie like (its about 3am by now) out of the building. Once again my two friends and an other kid who's a senior and a firefighter arrive about the same time I do and us 4 do a search of the building and find the smoke detector which was tripped by some unknown source aka false alarm.
As we call it in the fire engine and the chief arrive on scene and tell us we did good
. Apparently my first night has been a success. The other 2 kids in the academy with me didn't even make it to one call. Another plus was seeing all the familiar faces who didn't know I was a firefighter stare over at me in my full gear while they walked back in, it felt good.All in all I just needed to vent because all this excitement for one night, let along my first on call, really got my blood pumping and most of my friends who I want to tell all about it are sleeping. Im sitting out in my common room of my suite of my dorm with my heart still pounding and my pager by my side waiting for my next call
Just to think in a month I will be out of the academy and getting to run into life fires and get my hands really dirty
.Sorry if this has been done before but if anyone else has any storyies feel free to share
Some pictures for you all
I am center with the orange shield on the helmet
