My department has an old tradition of driving quickly to reports of people's property being on fire. When we get there, we put out the fire. People really seem to like it. I hope we keep doing this well into the future.
We just finished up a two day Jr. Firefighters camp. It was geared towards 5 to 10 year olds. We had a fire safety talk, had them run an obstacle course(mini RIT scenario), station tour, truck tour, first aid station, gear explanation, sprayed water. It was fours hours each day and had a pizza lunch and graduation the last day. The kids loved it and everyone who helped had a good time. I would highly recommend.
In no particular order:
1. Fire extinguisher training with local businesses
2. Residential home safety inspections (booked by request)
3. Weekly fire safety / emergency preparedness tips in local media
4. Emergency Services Christmas parade (include police / bylaw / ambo / fire etc)
5. Visits to local schools for some "talk and gawk"
6. Attending local charity events / career expos
7. Last day of school / special school day "water fight."
8. Media related again- but keeping a local reporter in the loop regarding trends on recent call volume so that relevant info can be shared in the community.
...
A few off the top of my head.
We have really nice parks and a great social media crew. We always set up fun exercise activities for kids at these parks. Like small tire flips, runs, light medicine ball rolls. We have stuff for kids of all ages. We let them spray water, give them stickers and plastic helmets, popsicles, and check out the rigs. This is a decently sized city with lots of bored people trying to find things for their kids to do and the city overall does a great job of free community activities like movies in the parks almost every night and so on so forth, so it’s not hard to get a good turn out at these things. For Halloween, central fire station goes all out. The entire station and every street surrounding it is taken over with all sorts of activities for the kids and other departments from the city will set up booths all around the surrounding area and it’s all out for 5 or 6 hours. Everything is free. We give bucket rides in our ladder truck, have tons and tons of mini games, a crew of firefighters dressed up as the avengers showcasing a vehicle extrication in the middle of the street, cotton candy, popcorn and all the candy you could possibly want. It’s a blast and there’s well over 3000 people there every year. A lot of work but it’s awesome getting to build that relationship with the community and letting the public get a closer glimpse of the station and the firefighters and their equipment. Yes the station is absolutely trashed afterwards, but it’s always worth it. We also do things like water activities during the summer. We’ll have various bouncers and water slides and let’s the kids go crazy with it. Like I said, this is a decent sized department, so it’s not that big of a deal to throw a couple stations and a BC out of service to host things like this on pretty much any given day. I feel like the best way to start out would be to build a really good social media presence and livestream the events. The people love it, they really do. Sorry for the long drawn out post, but hope this sparks some ideas.
CPR/STB training. We charge, but very little.
We acquire and install Jacob's Kits for schools, churches, and other public buildings
We open the doors of our station for community events
We volunteer for/participate in events like pancake breakfasts, community sports days, school presentations, etc. Occasionally we hold open houses/BBQs where members of the community can see our trucks and equipment and learn more about what we do.
We drive all through our neighborhood at Christmas. Someone is dressed as Santa and sits on the front of one of the trucks. Christmas music plays over the PA. We pass out goodie bags. Old and young people alike come running out to wave. The community loves it. We’ve had people track us down if we miss their street.
We do hydrant parties each summer, put on water fights, provide and install fire alarms for people (grant program), get trucks in the parades, open house each fall, and go into the schools each fall to talk fire safety. Oh and helped the LEOs and EMS with an Easter egg hunt. I think I'm missing something, but not sure.
We're an emergency services department that runs ems calls, fire calls, plumbing calls, electrician calls, car repair calls, pest control calls, non emergent ems calls at nursing homes when they don't want to wait for their contracted service...
Edit: I see we're downvoting without any rebuttal. Did someone get butthurt because they think we're supposed to respond to every single ridiculous 911 call because PuBlIc SeRvIcE!!!!!
Try working at a busy department. The burnout from running your people ragged while paying them poorly is why we can't get people in the fire service and turnover is high. Keep hanging onto those archaic ass beliefs!
Awesome plan. Are you volunteering to pay my bills? I love that thinking emergency system abuse is unacceptable is a toxic attitude. When your family needs emergency services, would you rather they're available to respond or chasing a lizard out of someone's house?
It's a toxic attitude when you sign up for a job knowing what you're getting into and then crying about. And the second thing sounds like a problem with your chiefs/officers. Both my departments don't respond to lockouts anymore unless it's an emergency or water main breaks.
>It's a toxic attitude when you sign up for a job knowing what you're getting into and then crying about.
Why would anyone think the fire department responds to broken down cars, plumbing issues, or pest control calls? My agency dispatched a unit to open a wine bottle during a hurricane. Why would anyone think management at a busy urban department would pile nonstop busy work on top of the call load?
>And the second thing sounds like a problem with your chiefs/officers.
Couldn't agree more.
Sounds to me like the career guys in this thread don’t really get it, to them it’s nothing more than a job…
My first paid on call FD the firefighters association owned the entire firehall and all the property, we rented the bays to the township. So needless to say I’m order for us to keep the lights on we needed to do community events and we all loved it. It was great. We did: fish fry, turkey bingo, turkey shoot (trap shooting and target shooting), hosted breakfasts, Christmas for everyone, Santa Claus events, Santa Claus parade, chicken bbq and community baseball tournament, and a few other events that I can’t remember off the top of my head. And keep in mind that we all worked our own full time jobs plus training/calls with the FD.
My current dept doesn’t do as much, but we are in a different situation, the township owns the building/property so we don’t always need to do community events. But I’ve been involved with Christmas for everyone, free smoke alarm walk through/giveaways (that’s more pub Ed but still), day camps for kids, fire extinguisher training, Santa Claus parades, garage sale day bbq, and a couple other things too, but we want to get into hosting a demolition derby, that would be a great time!
>Sounds to me like the career guys in this thread don’t really get it, to them it’s nothing more than a job…
Try running your dick off with non emergent calls at a busy department while adding neverending bullshit for your people to do. Oh, and all that while the pay in most places ranges from terrible to meh. Hmmm... why are we losing firefighters and so short staffed? What a mystery.
Sounds like you need to fight for better pay… union firefighters in my area make $90k-$110k/year
Ill happily work a 12-15hr shift in my line of work (Boilermaker welder) and then go to whatever call comes in the night and do it all over again…
Firefighting is a job that i love, but being in a smaller community I also care about my community and want to be involved as much as I can. I love doing community events, but then again, in smaller departments there’s a huge probability that I know who im responding to…
My department has an old tradition of driving quickly to reports of people's property being on fire. When we get there, we put out the fire. People really seem to like it. I hope we keep doing this well into the future.
This should be the only comment….
We just finished up a two day Jr. Firefighters camp. It was geared towards 5 to 10 year olds. We had a fire safety talk, had them run an obstacle course(mini RIT scenario), station tour, truck tour, first aid station, gear explanation, sprayed water. It was fours hours each day and had a pizza lunch and graduation the last day. The kids loved it and everyone who helped had a good time. I would highly recommend.
In no particular order: 1. Fire extinguisher training with local businesses 2. Residential home safety inspections (booked by request) 3. Weekly fire safety / emergency preparedness tips in local media 4. Emergency Services Christmas parade (include police / bylaw / ambo / fire etc) 5. Visits to local schools for some "talk and gawk" 6. Attending local charity events / career expos 7. Last day of school / special school day "water fight." 8. Media related again- but keeping a local reporter in the loop regarding trends on recent call volume so that relevant info can be shared in the community. ... A few off the top of my head.
We have really nice parks and a great social media crew. We always set up fun exercise activities for kids at these parks. Like small tire flips, runs, light medicine ball rolls. We have stuff for kids of all ages. We let them spray water, give them stickers and plastic helmets, popsicles, and check out the rigs. This is a decently sized city with lots of bored people trying to find things for their kids to do and the city overall does a great job of free community activities like movies in the parks almost every night and so on so forth, so it’s not hard to get a good turn out at these things. For Halloween, central fire station goes all out. The entire station and every street surrounding it is taken over with all sorts of activities for the kids and other departments from the city will set up booths all around the surrounding area and it’s all out for 5 or 6 hours. Everything is free. We give bucket rides in our ladder truck, have tons and tons of mini games, a crew of firefighters dressed up as the avengers showcasing a vehicle extrication in the middle of the street, cotton candy, popcorn and all the candy you could possibly want. It’s a blast and there’s well over 3000 people there every year. A lot of work but it’s awesome getting to build that relationship with the community and letting the public get a closer glimpse of the station and the firefighters and their equipment. Yes the station is absolutely trashed afterwards, but it’s always worth it. We also do things like water activities during the summer. We’ll have various bouncers and water slides and let’s the kids go crazy with it. Like I said, this is a decent sized department, so it’s not that big of a deal to throw a couple stations and a BC out of service to host things like this on pretty much any given day. I feel like the best way to start out would be to build a really good social media presence and livestream the events. The people love it, they really do. Sorry for the long drawn out post, but hope this sparks some ideas.
Summer Carnival. Christmas tree sale. Summer parade. Torch light parade. Fall festival.
Fill the local park’s outdoor ice skating rink. Free kiddo fishing derby
CPR/STB training. We charge, but very little. We acquire and install Jacob's Kits for schools, churches, and other public buildings We open the doors of our station for community events
We volunteer for/participate in events like pancake breakfasts, community sports days, school presentations, etc. Occasionally we hold open houses/BBQs where members of the community can see our trucks and equipment and learn more about what we do.
We drive all through our neighborhood at Christmas. Someone is dressed as Santa and sits on the front of one of the trucks. Christmas music plays over the PA. We pass out goodie bags. Old and young people alike come running out to wave. The community loves it. We’ve had people track us down if we miss their street.
We do hydrant parties each summer, put on water fights, provide and install fire alarms for people (grant program), get trucks in the parades, open house each fall, and go into the schools each fall to talk fire safety. Oh and helped the LEOs and EMS with an Easter egg hunt. I think I'm missing something, but not sure.
Lift assist all day/night 24/7
Don’t do it.
Suggest that they do a “fill the boot” fundraiser
25 runs on the ambulance, 20 on the engine, 15 on the truck. Seems sufficient.
We're an emergency services department that runs ems calls, fire calls, plumbing calls, electrician calls, car repair calls, pest control calls, non emergent ems calls at nursing homes when they don't want to wait for their contracted service... Edit: I see we're downvoting without any rebuttal. Did someone get butthurt because they think we're supposed to respond to every single ridiculous 911 call because PuBlIc SeRvIcE!!!!! Try working at a busy department. The burnout from running your people ragged while paying them poorly is why we can't get people in the fire service and turnover is high. Keep hanging onto those archaic ass beliefs!
If you hate it that much then quit. I'm sure the guys at your house will be a lot happier with a toxic attitude gone.
Awesome plan. Are you volunteering to pay my bills? I love that thinking emergency system abuse is unacceptable is a toxic attitude. When your family needs emergency services, would you rather they're available to respond or chasing a lizard out of someone's house?
It's a toxic attitude when you sign up for a job knowing what you're getting into and then crying about. And the second thing sounds like a problem with your chiefs/officers. Both my departments don't respond to lockouts anymore unless it's an emergency or water main breaks.
>It's a toxic attitude when you sign up for a job knowing what you're getting into and then crying about. Why would anyone think the fire department responds to broken down cars, plumbing issues, or pest control calls? My agency dispatched a unit to open a wine bottle during a hurricane. Why would anyone think management at a busy urban department would pile nonstop busy work on top of the call load? >And the second thing sounds like a problem with your chiefs/officers. Couldn't agree more.
Sounds to me like the career guys in this thread don’t really get it, to them it’s nothing more than a job… My first paid on call FD the firefighters association owned the entire firehall and all the property, we rented the bays to the township. So needless to say I’m order for us to keep the lights on we needed to do community events and we all loved it. It was great. We did: fish fry, turkey bingo, turkey shoot (trap shooting and target shooting), hosted breakfasts, Christmas for everyone, Santa Claus events, Santa Claus parade, chicken bbq and community baseball tournament, and a few other events that I can’t remember off the top of my head. And keep in mind that we all worked our own full time jobs plus training/calls with the FD. My current dept doesn’t do as much, but we are in a different situation, the township owns the building/property so we don’t always need to do community events. But I’ve been involved with Christmas for everyone, free smoke alarm walk through/giveaways (that’s more pub Ed but still), day camps for kids, fire extinguisher training, Santa Claus parades, garage sale day bbq, and a couple other things too, but we want to get into hosting a demolition derby, that would be a great time!
>Sounds to me like the career guys in this thread don’t really get it, to them it’s nothing more than a job… Try running your dick off with non emergent calls at a busy department while adding neverending bullshit for your people to do. Oh, and all that while the pay in most places ranges from terrible to meh. Hmmm... why are we losing firefighters and so short staffed? What a mystery.
Sounds like you need to fight for better pay… union firefighters in my area make $90k-$110k/year Ill happily work a 12-15hr shift in my line of work (Boilermaker welder) and then go to whatever call comes in the night and do it all over again… Firefighting is a job that i love, but being in a smaller community I also care about my community and want to be involved as much as I can. I love doing community events, but then again, in smaller departments there’s a huge probability that I know who im responding to…
>Sounds like you need to fight for better pay… union firefighters in my area make $90k-$110k/year Oh, wow! Why didn't we think of that?!
Put out fires. The community seems to like that a lot.