i remember when i first started to pursue a firefighter career i remember when i used to think of the crowds to be really excited you know oh we're going to fight fire and get the train got the brotherhood and sisterhood i was really excited about what the job had to offer there wasn't much talk about the negatives you know outside of the dangers of the job there wasn't really much talk about what's the negative sides of a firefighter career so in this video i wanted to take the time to express my personal top five negatives of the job so before i get into my top five i need to put a disclaimer out there the pros heavily outweigh the cons when it comes to a firefighter career okay so just know that but there are some negatives that can truly impact your life that i feel like you need to know about so when i introduce my top five negative topics i'm going to follow it with some positives or some ways that we combat and cope or deal with these negatives within the fire services to kind of give you some context of kind of how we handle that throughout our career so the first negative for me is word travels fast so you got to think of the fire service like one giant high school so if something happens we're telling our buddy next to us they're telling their buddy across the way across the city at a new department work travels real fast and especially within your own organization perfect example is when i was on probation i worked at double so i worked my 24 hour shift and then i picked up and worked another 24 hour shift because the organization needed help so i stepped in as a new firefighter we tend to do most of the work in regards if you know checking off boxes cleaning stations just kind of taking care of station duties and doing all those things so when i went in for my shift on b shift i did all those things in the morning took care of all that stuff before i went to bed i made sure everything was restocked uh make sure that you know everything was clean kitchen was clean coffee was ready doing all those little things on top of obviously running calls and stuff so then the next day c-shift came in and i was working another so i woke up in the morning before the sea shift came in and did all those other things make sure that you know i checked off the boxes make sure we were ready to go for the day make sure coffee was ready make sure i cleaned the station up a little bit more for things that i may have missed make sure everything was ready to go so then i went into the weight room and i started working out so later c-shift came in and i was still in there getting my work on and they were you know putting their stuff on the unit and getting ready to go for the day so we went through our shift everything was good ran a bunch of calls you know ate and trained together did what we had to do typical day so it was about two shifts after that i had one of my mentors call me and say hey you know what are you doing working out when the crew's you know cleaning and restocking the units and i was kind of thrown back because i had a feeling that when i was training that someone was gonna say something because i'm here training as a new probationary firefighter and you know they're just coming in so it wasn't that much of a good look but they didn't understand that i already had did all the things that a new firefighter would do so yeah he was like you know why are you in there working out when they're doing a b c and d and i had to express to them like hey i already took care of those things i was there the shift before and i took care of the things those mornings so i had the opportunity to work out so i got a workout in so the point i'm trying to make is something as simple as any action that you do positive or negative word travels real fast so me being a new member that really wasn't a good look because without knowing the context behind my actions and what actually happened it almost looks like you know i'm a lazy member and i wasn't doing what probationary firefighters have done before me but that wasn't the case and i feel like that's truly one of the biggest negatives within the fire service because things can be taken out of context very easily which can tarnish a member's reputation so in the context of you know work travels fast the fire service can be like one big high school you know ways we kind of combat you know that negative of the fire service is you just understand that you're working with multiple personalities you know on a day-to-day basis so just knowing that you have to do your best to get along at the end of the day you can't please everybody you just got to do your best to make sure that your actions and how you represent yourself is in a positive light as much as possible because you just never know you know who's watching or you know who's judging you and it can really hinder and tarnish your reputation especially if it's a negative and the biggest thing is you coming into the fire service as a new member and as you go on through your career don't be that person that quickly judge somebody's actions or you know goals and gossips to the next firefighter without truly understanding what's going on if you have an issue with somebody go to that person and have a conversation with them and see where they're at see where they stand on things because you can truly hinder and tarnish somebody's reputation by just going and gossiping to your brother or sister and the second being the mental and physical beat down that you take throughout your career and this is really no secret when it comes to the fire service so there's a lot i can talk about in regards of you know what we take on mentally physically but some of the things that i really want to cover is just like the call types okay so for the mental side of it we see a lot of things that cannot be unseen we run a lot of calls where citizens lose their loved ones just that atmosphere and that vibe can really play a toll on the mental capacity of a firefighter and it happens often throughout your career also there's horrific and tragic scenes that we see all the time anything i understand that you can think of i bet you that firefighter has seen that throughout their career running calls those mental images stick with us for a lifetime and it compounds on itself throughout our career and another one is the potential loss of a fellow brother or sister on the job this is a reality being a firefighter in the fire service and not only the potential loss of a fellow brother or sister within the organization but also the loss of their loved ones we're one big family so if something happens to our immediate family back home we have the love and support of the members around us and that emotional and mental rollercoaster is something that we're all a part of and we're all riding throughout our careers in regards of the mental side of it long story short there's a lot of things that compounds on itself going throughout our career okay that we really have to deal with as firefighters just put it in terms like this when we get called on emergencies we're not going there because you know someone's throwing us a birthday we're going there to mitigate an emergency this can potentially be the worst moment in their lives so it's almost a negative so we're just responding to calls over and over and over trying to mitigate these negatives to try to make them a more positive outcome so just understand that that compounds on itself and that just kind of breaks us down and beats us down mentally so we got to make sure we're doing everything in our power to kind of mitigate that and cope with that so we can be healthy and successful throughout our careers and at our jobs now for the physical side it's no secret that our job requires us to meet a high standard physically throughout your firefighter career you're going to have excessive training i say excessive because it's often we have to make sure that we continue to stay up on the latest and greatest you know tools and techniques our fire suppression our ems stuff there's a lot we got to learn because times are changing out there in the world so we got to make sure we stay ahead so we're not falling behind so we can do our jobs great and also simple tasks of getting on and off the truck you'd be surprised at how many firefighters actually injure themselves getting on and off the unit whether it's proper or improper you know hurting their knees hurting their back twisting their ankles those are all things that wear on us think about it in a given shift depending on where you're at your particular city you can begin on and off the truck 40 plus times throughout your shift and if you do that through a 25 plus your career that's a lot so you got to make sure that you're doing everything in your power to take care of yourself physically and also there's fires okay there's no secret there okay wearing all your ppe 75 pounds or whatever other equipment you have on you you know climbing up ladders with equipment cutting holes suppressing fires being in superheated atmosphere and you know being around all these carcinogens and all these dangers just kind of wearing on us you know you can have multiple fires throughout a particular shift as well so say you go and you're out of fire for two hours right you come back home decon clean all your stuff put some new gear on take a shower do all those things you got to do to take care of yourself right when you go back into service you can be kicked to another fire so that can truly happen throughout your career okay and that's just a constant beat down that we take as firefighters and if it's for 25 plus years physically you're just going to be beat so you truly have to understand that coming into the fire service and remember i talked about the emotional side of it okay so if we're drained and beat down emotionally just know that that's going to play a toll on us physically so now when it comes to how we deal or cope with you know the mental and physical beatdown we take throughout our careers you know one of the big things that we focus on is you know proper nutrition and we're making sure that we're on and sticking to a strict fitness regimen so we can make sure that we are you know not just meeting but exceeding the physical demand of the job another huge way we cope with this is utilizing our outlets okay we all have interests and hobbies outside the fire service fishing you know fitness training playing sports like basketball soccer whatever the case is and utilizing our family as well having conversations with them and you know not keeping everything in if we have a problem with something we can you know not only talk to our immediate family back home but also talk to our fellow brothers and sisters within the organization okay those are all important components when it comes to you know dealing or coping with the beat down that we take throughout our career as for the third topic when it comes to the mental and physical beat down we take throughout our career you need to understand that sleep deprivation is a real thing we as firefighters are truly sleep deprived okay not just at home you know outside of our work life but on the job okay perfect example we ran a 24-48 okay so we worked 24 hours on and we had 48 hours off there was a lot of shifts throughout my time on the job where we literally had stand-up 24s okay so we were literally when it called back to back we had training then we had more calls back to back and then when it was time to go down and go to sleep it wasn't like a normal nine-to-five job where you work your hours and then you go home and then you have a full night's sleep no that's not how it works so when it was night time you know we get ready to go to bed you know shower brush our teeth do what we have to do get in bed boom tones go off we have to go and it literally carried on throughout the night just understand that you coming into the fire service that's a reality for us okay that that's not something that's abnormal okay it's normal that we're up multiple times throughout the night and we're not getting quality sleep you know being on the job okay so just understand that throughout your career it's 25 plus years now okay it's a third of your life that you're going to be waking up you know running calls that's just a reality okay so when it comes to sleep deprivation that really wears on us so the emotional and mental side of it we're just constantly beat from that and not only just on the job you know being sleep deprived on the job you know at home say you have a family at home perfect example when i was a new firefighter you know i had a wife and a son at home that when i got off shifts you know after we got beat the whole entire day and the entire night i had to go home and you know support my wife and help my wife and take care of my son and do all those things that a father and a husband does and not only that you know throughout the night she needed a break because she was a nurse as well so she had her time that she had to get ready for her shifts so i was getting up with my son so it just didn't change and it didn't stop so yeah i wasn't running calls at home but my sleep wasn't the same either so you just got to understand that you know life happens and understand that on the job sleep deprivation is a reality okay and it can really tarnish and hinder you know the mental and physical beatdown that we take as firefighters throughout our career so ways we kind of cope and deal with sleep deprivation is first of all we just understand we know what we signed up for okay so with that being said we do our best to sleep when we can okay and that's coming you know in between calls if we can go down for a second to get a quick nap in that's what we got to take advantage of and when it comes to being at home you know doing your best to get on the sleeping pattern and get as much sleep as you possibly can at home because that's really where you recover okay so on the job you're working your butt off you know fighting the good fight and then when you go home that's kind of when you recover and regroup so when you come back to work you're ready to go as for the fourth topic it's the dangers of the job k and this is probably one of the most well-known negatives within the fire service so i'm just going to give you some quick examples of you know when it comes to the dangers of the job perfect example is responding to calls okay so we're responding code three to a lot of our emergencies so that's lights and sirens you know getting there as quickly and as safe as we possibly can so with that being said we're dealing with the citizens driving out there in our community so some of them aren't the best drivers which pose a hazardous not only to them but to us as firefighters so that aspect of it is a huge negative of the job because that's a hundred percent of what we do as firefighters also we're dealing with the patients that we run on in those emergencies some of them are dangerous or considered to be dangerous you know whether they have weapons they have you know uh drug sharks on them or they're in some sort of diabetic or mental emergency to where they don't really know what what's going on and they're being combative you know all these different things that we deal with that pose a hazard and danger to us also it's no secret when responding to structural fires you got superheated gases you got a lot of smoke carcinogens hazards you know structural collapses explosions all those things when we are responding to those calls and we're trying to you know suppress fires those are hazards that we have to deal with as firefighters when it comes to the dangers of the job long story short you really just gotta look at it like this when there's danger you tend to see people run away or retreat from danger we as firefighters first responders we are running toward the danger okay so just understand that anything under the sun you can expect that firefighters and first responders are going to be there trying to mitigate those you know hazardous or dangerous situations so when it comes to how we deal or cope with you know the dangers or hazards of the job there's a lot of things that i can talk about but there's a few that i want to cover so the first one is being you know filling out exposure reports so any times you know we run calls on fires or we're exposed to potential you know substances or whatever the case is we go back and we utilize you know our charts and we put ourselves in for exposure to you know those carcinogens or whatever the case is so we kind of have a log of those exposures throughout our 25 plus year career so just in case something happens to us whether we you know develop cancer or whatever the case is we have you know a log in history of kind of what's happened throughout our career so we can be protected another huge one is you know following our policies following our sops our standard operating procedures and following our general orders making sure that we're staying up on those and making sure that we are abiding by you know our doctrine or our laws within the fire service another huge one is being a lifelong learner okay continually educating ourselves and learning as much as possible remember i talked about the excessive training that goes into a part of it it's not just physical training but also you know studying staying up to date you know on you know new tactics and new strategies that we can utilize and you know fire suppression or whatever the case is making sure that we're sharpening our ems skills and you know staying up on the latest equipment whether that be you know a new monitor or you know new equipment to mitigate specific you know emergencies whatever the case is just making sure that we're doing everything in our powers to continually stay educated and probably one of the biggest ways we try to you know deal with you know the dangers of the job as you can see as firefighters we run in crews okay so for me for instance we ran of a crew of a minimum of four firefighters okay you'll have a captain an engineer two firefighters and everything we did we were either together as a unit or it was two in two out that was literally the standard case so that's one way that we kind of make sure that we mitigate those dangers while always having a fellow brother and sister next to us okay to help us get through and deal with and mitigate you know those emergencies and dangers that we are a part of as for the fifth and final topic and i feel like it's truly the most important topic is the family side of it okay we as firefighters know what we're signing up for okay we can sit there and educate our family as much as we possibly can but they won't truly know you know what it's like you know within the fire service and being a firefighter if they're not in it themselves okay so just know that every time we leave for our ships our loved ones are gonna be worried okay they're gonna be thinking you know what if this what if that oh i haven't heard from you know my significant other since two hours or whatever the case is i know for my wife in particular every time i left she worked okay and if i didn't you know text her or call her at a specific time that i normally do that's when she would really work because she would feel like something happened to me but that's just a reality of the job okay there could be days where we're constantly running calls or we have some sort of training to where i'm not able to you know reach out and update my wife as often as i normally do okay and that does cause concern for her but that's just a reality of being a firefighter within the fire service there's a lot that i can cover in regards of the topics of being a firefighter and the effects on the family but the worrying aspect of it is the biggest and most concerning the worrying that our family is going to be dealing with is to be expected okay you as a new firefighter coming into the fire service and going throughout your career you truly need to understand that any call that you respond to could be your last call okay so you have to do everything in your power making sure that you're abiding by all those laws and those policies that i talked about in regards to the fire service okay make sure that you're doing everything in your power to be safe i'm not here to be super negative i'm just here to truly educate you on what's real in the fire service okay and that's real and when it comes to the family that's something that they have to deal with and that's truly something that you need to understand is happening within the background okay so be there to support them and update them and teach them and educate them on what's expected of them throughout your career so that ties in perfectly to how we deal or cope with this particular topic being a firefighter in the fire service first and foremost just like i just said making sure that we are updating our family as often as we possibly can and informing them on you know what's expected of them throughout our career what's expected of them throughout the academy and all those different things also you have fire department support okay so depending on your particular fire department you're gonna have specific resources that are there to help and guide you and aid you throughout your career okay perfect example is just you and your fellow brothers and sisters you know sitting at the table eating a meal you know utilize them to you know bounce things off of and and de-stress and and get that load off yourself and the biggest one being taking advantage of every opportunity you have to spend with your family loved ones okay going out and doing family things you know game nights going to a movie you know playing sports laughing together and the biggest part is telling them that you love them every single day as often as you can giving them a hug and kiss especially if you have a wife husband significant other and kids do that really take that to heart okay because life is truly taken for granted all of us do it as humans you just do your best to understand that you being a firefighter within the fire service anything can change at the flip of a coin okay so you have to do your best to make sure that you take advantage of all those opportunities because things can change in an instant so depending on who you're talking to in the fire service there could be a lot of different you know negatives of the job the list can be totally different just understand that this is my personal top five that i feel is the strongest and i just wanted to educate you on why i felt like they were important and it's just a reality of something that you can experience throughout your career i'm not here to be super negative you know that i'm typically a positive person energetic but i just felt like this video was truly important and i really wanted to get this information out to you so those of you that are seeking you know employment or you know have the ambition of becoming a firefighter you know the true facts and some of the negative sides of being a firefighter in the fire service all in all continue to work hard stay consistent and i'll catch you on the next one good luck future firefighter [Music] [Music]