NASHVILLE – Not everyone is cut out to be a firefighter and a group of dedicated firefighter candidates moved a little closer to figuring out if they were up to the task.
On Sunday a group of dedicated young people from all over the country who were either looking for work as a firefighter or where newly hired, meet at the Nashville Fire Academy to participate in the Future Firefighters Experience as part of Firehouse Expo’s Ambassadors’ program.
“The fact that you are here and have made the sacrifice to be here put you ahead of everybody else,” said Brian Helmick, a co-owner of Fire Alumni, a recruitment, retention and career solutions provider who is also a Battalion Chief with the East Contra Costa County, CA, Fire Protection District. “Getting a job as a firefighter doesn’t just happen by chance. It takes a lot of work and preparation.”
Firefighter candidates came from northern California, to Idaho to Illinois and a local county about an hour away to participate in Firehouse Expo Ambassador Program. As part of that arrangement, the recruits got a full day of guidance on how to get and keep a firefighting job and learned a bit more about themselves and whether they have what it takes to do the job.
“If you can’t answer the question, ‘how did I get here,’ you can’t be a firefighter,” Helmick said. “Firefighting is a lifestyle it’s who you are. …If you don’t think you can make the commitment, do yourself, and us a favor, and don’t apply for a fire service job.”
Fire Alumni was founded by Helmick and Bob Atlas who is a battalion chief with the Contra Costa, CA, Fire Protection District. Its mission is to help individuals make and pursue career goals in the fire service. More recently, Judon Cherry, a fire engineer with the Contra Costa, CA, Fire Protection District, has become an owner of Fire Alumni and serves as the team’s audio visual person as well as some design and internet work.
As one of the first tasks as a student of the Fire Alumni class, Cherry taught the students the importance social media as a vehicle for finding a job and keeping in touch with each other, mentors and gaining valuable career information about their career.
“Fire careers are very competitive,” Cherry said. “Networking will help you get a job.”
Bob Atlas, a battalion chief also with Contra Costa, CA, Fire Protection District, is an owner and founder of Fire Alumni, saidd the students were in the class already had a leg up on their competition just by attending.
One of the first speakers to address the students at the academy was Mick Moffitt, a retired assistant chief with the Midlothian, TX, Fire Department and CEO of Training Division.com, a firefighter-owned emergency services training company. He spoke on the topic of
He challenged the students to come up with one word to describe the career they were pursuing. Some of those words included hero, caring, values, brave, courageous, honorable, integrity, respect and similar words.
“I’ll tell you what, you’re not going to learn any of this in firefighting 101,” Moffitt said. “And yet, they will carry you all throughout your career.”
Moffitt said most fire departments expect firefighters to come equipped with most, if not all of those attributes. People can be trained how to pull hose and fight fire, but it’s nearly impossible to teach character.
“Why do you think it is so important to possess quality character,” Moffitt quizzed. “Because unlike any other business, we have access to people’s homes and their personal assets. …We are the good guys and, for the most part, we are respected in the community.”
Moffitt said when fire departments are seeking to hire new recruits they are looking for people with good character, who can handle giving a tour of the station to a group of Boy Scouts or help out anyone who has needs.
“You need a good hand shake and be able to make eye contact,” Moffitt said.
Honor is not an easy thing to achieve and not easy to actually feel. Moffitt related a story where he tangibly felt honor. He was a pallbearer at a firefighter funeral. As he lifted the casket off the back of an apparatus and carried it through a sea of nearly 600 saluting firefighter, led by bag pipes he felt honor.
“It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” Moffitt said. “I knew I was in the presence of honor.”
Moffitt said there’s a proverb that before honor is humility and that comes when a person respects themselves and earns the respect of others.
He also stressed the importance of personal integrity and how it should be a “pillar of life” for firefighters.
“We call this a brotherhood,” Moffitt said, adding that it really is synonymous with family, embracing sisterhood too. “It relates to all genders, all races, everyone. The brotherhood is one family.”
Expanding on Moffitt’s words, Atlas said “integrity to me is doing the right thing all the time, not just some of the time, all the time even when no one is looking.”
Atlas said firefighter must exhibit integrity, courage and commitment at all times and do what they say they will. He related a story about a close personal friend he lost due to a line of duty death.
The two friends had committed to each other to be the ones to inform their wives should the unthinkable happen. Obviously, Atlas didn’t die, but he rolled an apparatus five and half times and was seriously hurt and his friend, Scott Desmond, had to tell his wife of the mishap.
But his friend Desmond did die in the line of duty trying to rescue people from a structure fire and Atlas said he had the responsibility to tell his friend's wife.
“It was just like in the movies,” Atlas said. “We pulled up in a chief’s vehicle in Class A uniforms and… when she finally answered the door, she fell immediately to the ground.”
Atlas said he honored his commitment to his friend and fulfilled his obligation. He also made a commitment to strive to never have to deliver an LODD notification by doing his job to the best of his ability and keeping his crews safe.
He said the students in the class were there because they want to help and make a difference in people’s lives.
“We all want to help people,” Atlas said, noting that firefighters are different. “You want to help people to the point you are willing to die for it.”
That willingness to lay down one’s life for another comes from a deep commitment to the profession.
“It’s easy to quit when it just you,” Atlas said. “But you can’t quit on Mrs. Smith. You’ve made a commitment to her and the public.”
Throughout the course of the day, students were given practical tips on how to get jobs, how to keep fit and hydrated, how to take written and oral exams.
“The most important thing is to show me why I should hire you over the hundreds of other applicants,” Helmick said. “We’re making an investment in you. Tell me how you are going to fit in to my department and what you bring to the table. It’s like a pot luck, you bring something to the table, you take something from it, but you have to bring something.”
