The Life of a Firefighter Professor Ramos Blog

The Life of a Firefighter James Butte Ramos English 010 3:00 03 october 2018 Life as a Firefighter In the article â€Å"What to Expect as Your First Year as a Firefighter† (Battalion Chief Paul Lepore) he describes what it is like being a rookie Firefighter and what life will be like on the job. Most commonly firefighters work in 24-hour shifts, reporting to work at 0700 and work until 0700 the next day. Firefighters usually work a total of 56 hours per week†, On the average, firefighters work ten 24-hour shifts each month, leaving them with 20 days off each month. Firefighters are able to trade shifts with other firefighters. (Battalion Chief Paul Lepore) The article â€Å"A day in the life as a firefighter† tells the reader the life of a firefighter in a day’s work. It tells the challenges, different aspects of the job, and also the work schedule. Firefighters have multiple assignments throughout the day. First thing in the morning the crew checks out the fire engines, all their equipment is ready to go. Then they have their briefings from the previous shift. This contains what happened on their shift and gives the oncoming shift a heads up on what they should double check and make sure it was restocked and put back. Once they complete the briefings Firefighters go out and wash the fire engines, this is a huge part in representing the department with equipment that looks good. Once cleaning and checks are complete Firefighters go out and do different assignments like Inspections in different businesses, fire hydrant checks, and also go to the store and get food for lunch and dinner. Once they are back from the store and doing the assignments they have to do training assignments online, they have weekly classes due every week that they must complete, and they also have time for exercising, and training. Dinner is at 6:00PM, Most people think Firefighters eat their food for free but they don’t, they pay their own money and everyone on the crew splits the food bill. Everyone takes turns cooking food on different shifts. After dinner is done, everyone has certain chores to complete like doing the dishes, taking out all the trash, vacuuming, and mopping. After dinner is the Firefighter’s personal time where they can relax, watch TV, study, and have free time. Sleeping conditions vary in different departments. In some departments, the the crew sleeps in the same room, and some departments they have their own rooms. Wake up time is 6:00AM. Rookie Firefighters will get made fun of, scolded if they aren’t up early and ready to go. Some challenges of being a Firefighter â€Å"consist o f challenging training, it is ongoing because there is always new technologies (such as hybrid cars) that we need to know about, so keeping on top of it all can be demanding. Some of the situations that you deal with can be confronting and stressful, and the people in those situations might not be thinking clearly, so that be difficult as well.† (A day in the life as a firefighter). The article â€Å"Lifestyle and safety practices of firefighters and their relation to cardiovascular risk factors† Tells us about the safety practices and lifestyle in relation to cardiovascular risks. In the United States, â€Å"Over 50% of the deaths of on-duty firefighters are classified as sudden cardiac deaths. A holistic view of the multiple risk factors and their relation to the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Consumption of whole grains and alcohol were associated with a reduction of the risk of heart disease, while higher Body Mass Index (BMI) scores and increasing age were associated with increased risk of heart disease.† (Lifestyle and safety practices of firefighters and their relation to cardiovascular risk factors) It is not healthy waking up to a loud alarm, bright lights at times like 2:00AM and be able to get ready in about a minute and be geared up and on the fire engine. This puts a huge stress on a firefighters body and mentally wears them out as well. Some of the stuff Firefighters see is unseeable. Firefighters see people in their worst times, from infants to the elderly, blood, bones you name it. This is really hard to take and just forget about it, some Firefighters consume alcohol to get their mind off of it, make themselves feel better. Departments provide help for these people, rehab, and they have a debriefing after a serious call so they can all talk about it and get their feelings out. Holding this information in can be a bad thing. Research has also shown that Firefighters turnout gear holds all the ash and soot on itself, and effects firefighters health with symptoms like asthma, lung issues. BMI issues are common, there are firefighters that are overweight due to lack of exercise, and poor diet, this also causes problems like high cholesterol, blood pressure. The risks of being a Firefighter consists of Physical dangers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Unstable Work-Life Balance. In the article â€Å"The Risks of Being a Fireman† (Lisa McQuerrey) â€Å"Firefighters are susceptible to burns, smoke inhalation and crush injuries from collapsing structures. They can suffer from heat exhaustion, as well as long-term job-related illnesses such as asthma, persistent coughing, heart disease, cancer and lung damage. Due to the highly physical nature of the job, all matter of bodily harm can befall firefighters in the line of duty. Some physical fallout from the profession may not materialize until years down the road.† (Lisa McQuerrey). Much like soldiers engaged in war zone conflicts, firefighters are susceptible to developing PTSD, This can lead to poor sleep habits, flashbacks, depression, and anxiety. Long work hours may create conflicts with family due to not being home for long periods at a time, this creates stress, and ca n also affect the quality of work provided. From my experience as a Reserve Firefighter, I have spent lots of hours at the fire station getting an idea of what it’s really like, I started working the full 24 hour shifts, and doing the same assignments as everyone else. I can relate to what the article: â€Å"Lifestyle and safety practices of firefighters and their relation to cardiovascular risk factors† says when we get woken up at 3:00 AM to a fire call from completely asleep to fully geared up ready to fight a fire within a couple minutes. By the time I am all geared up my heart is racing, adrenaline pumping. There are also calls where there is some gnarly stuff that the normal person might not ever see, some stuff that you can never unsee. After every call we talk about what happened and talk to each other so we aren’t holding it all in and thinking about it, making yourself depressed. The overall atmosphere of being at the fire station is really cool, we get our work done and keep ourselves busy throu ghout the day. I can see myself being there one day. (James Butte) This is the Life as a Firefighter. Annotated Bibliography â€Å"Lifestyle and safety practices of firefighters and their relation to cardiovascular risk factors.† (http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0sid=6f3d21f5-d84e-4b79-8ba3-9090a1f2e6d7%40pdc-v-sessmgr03bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=101330145db=eih) Tells about the daily life of Firefighters and how it affects their health. The rates of death buy stats and the reasons for therm. It is found at a scholarly website. â€Å"Most commonly firefighters work in 24-hour shifts, reporting to work at 0700 and work until 0700 the next day. Firefighters usually work a total of 56 hours per week†, On the average, firefighters work ten 24-hour shifts each month, leaving them with 20 days off each month. Firefighters are able to trade shifts with other firefighters. This article is very reliable because it is written by Battalion Chief Paul Lepore from the Long Beach Fire Department. http://firelink.monster.com/training/articles/403-what-to-expect-your-first-year-as-a-firefighter (Battalion Chief Paul Lepore) The article â€Å"A day in the life as a firefighter† (https://www.dfes.wa.gov.au/recruitmentandtraining/recruitment/Pages/firefightercasestudy.aspx) This article tells the reader the life of a firefighter in a day’s work. It tells the challenges, different aspects of the job, and also the work schedule. This article is scholarly because it is from a government organization Department of Fire and Emergency Services. â€Å"The Risks of Being a Fireman† â€Å"Firefighters are susceptible to burns, smoke inhalation and crush injuries from collapsing structures. They can suffer from heat exhaustion, as well as long-term job-related illnesses such as asthma, persistent coughing, heart disease, cancer and lung damage. Due to the highly physical nature of the job, all matter of bodily harm can befall firefighters in the line of duty. Some physical fallout from the profession may not materialize until years down the road.† https://work.chron.com/risks-being-fireman-8600.html (Lisa McQuerrey) This article shows the risk of firefighters and what the job will do to your health down the road with Physical Dangers, Mental trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and an Unstable Work-Life Balance.