The other day, I had the privilege of working with a couple of young firefighters at another station. It has become the norm to go to a station and find the combined years of experience to be less than the years of service of a senior firefighter with 20 or more years on the job. This gives the senior staffer the opportunity to teach at all levels of his or her job. This day was no exception; the first training opportunity was when we went out and did some pump training. I’d served as a motor pump operator instructor for over 20 years, and it was good to know that I still knew it, even though I’ve been on a ladder since coming out of the office.

Greater than the previous training opportunity was the chance I got to share why we get dispatched to just about anything. My crew could not understand why we would be dispatched to a cable line hanging over a person’s driveway. On arrival, we met an elderly couple that had been dealing with this problem for about three weeks without success. Though I knew who had to take care of this, I spoke with the homeowners and listened to their side of the story. Their frustration was great over the fact that they could get no one to help them; hence, the reason for our response. Though we left with the problem unresolved, we did offer them a plan, which included my boss for the day coming by to speak with them.

One aspect of our job that I learned early on in my career is that people will call public servants in when they do not have any idea how to handle something. Whether it is a bat in the attic, a squirrel in the house, a strange sound or a wire hanging low over their driveway.

People define emergencies in different ways, and we must realize that there is a reason why we are there. I have never had an issue responding to any call that we were dispatched to. There are system abusers out there that require a bit more patience on our part and the willingness of administrators to address the situation that leads to the best solution for all involved. A system abuser is the person who calls 911 on a repeated basis, calling for practically anything, even though there may be family or others that could take care of the situation. If they call, we still have a responsibility to respond and take care of the need, and that is exactly what we do.

Firefighters are public servants, hired or volunteering to meet the needs in a given locality. We must never lose sight of what we are tasked to do. If there is a fire in my district, then I want to be there. However, I once had a supervisor that always said, “One call at a time.” That philosophy has carried me through the majority of my career. I don’t know if those guys learned anything the other day, but I feel like I gave them the information that they needed to decide for themselves.