"Stop calling firefighters 'heroes.' " (A cush job most of the time)

Slate ^ | Oct. 31, 03 | Douglas Gantenbein

[churchillbuff]

Stop calling firefighters "heroes." By Douglas Gantenbein Posted Friday, October 31, 2003, at 12:05 PM PT

A cush job, most of the time

When California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the state's catastrophic wildfires a few days ago, he uttered the phrase that now accompanies any blaze as surely as smoke: "The firefighters are the true heroes."

It's understandable why he said that. As fires go, the California blazes are scary. They are moving incredibly quickly through dried brush and chaparral that practically explode when they ignite, threatening the life of any firefighter nearby. Steven L. Rucker, a 38-year-old firefighter and paramedic for the town of Novato, was killed working to save houses. Elsewhere, thousands of firefighters have worked for hours on end in 95-degree heat, dressed in multiple layers of fire-resistant clothing, sometimes without enough food or water because of the long and shifting supply lines.

Given all that, it may seem churlish to suggest that firefighters might not deserve the lofty pedestal we so insistently place them on. We lionize them, regard them as unsullied by base motivations, see them as paragons of manliness (and very tough womanliness). They're easily our most-admired public servants, and in the public's eye probably outrank just about anyone except the most highly publicized war veterans. But the "hero" label is tossed around a little too often when the subject is firefighting. Here's why:

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Firefighting is a cushy job. Firefighters may have the best work schedule in the United States—24 hours on, 48 hours off. And those 24 hours are usually not terribly onerous. While a few big-city fire stations may have four, five, six calls, or more during a shift, most aren't nearly that busy, giving firefighters time to give tours to school kids, barbecue hamburgers, wash fire engines, sleep, and pose for "The Firefighters of [Your City Here], 2004" calendars. Indeed, fire officials devote much of their time to figuring out how to cover up the fact they're not getting the hoses out very often. So we have firefighters doing ambulance work, firefighters doing search-and-rescue work, anything but Job No. 1. Meanwhile, the long days off give many firefighters a chance to start second careers. That makes it easy for them to retire after 20 years, take a pension, and start another profession. I've known firefighters who moonlighted as builders, photographers, and attorneys.

Firefighting isn't that dangerous. Of course there are hazards, and about 100 firefighters die each year. But firefighting doesn't make the Department of Labor's 2002 list of the 10 most dangerous jobs in America. Loggers top that one, followed by commercial fishermen in the No. 2 spot, and general-aviation commercial pilots (crop dusters and the like) at No. 3. Firefighting trails truck-driving (No. 10) in its risks. Pizza delivery drivers (No. 5) have more dangerous jobs than firefighters, statistically speaking. And fatalities, when they occur in firefighting, often are due to heart attacks and other lack-of-fitness problems, not fire. In those cases where firefighters die in a blaze, it's almost always because of some unbelievable screw-up in the command chain. It's been well-documented, for instance, that lousy communication was a huge reason why so many firefighters still were in the burning World Trade Center when it imploded, and well after city police and port authority police had been warned by their own commanders of an imminent collapse and cleared out.

Firefighters are adrenalin junkies. I did mountain rescue work for several years and more than once was praised as a "hero." Oh, give me a break. It was fun and exciting. Firefighting is even more of a rush. Sharon Waxman, in an excellent article in the Washington Post, interviewed firefighters in California. Every one was in a complete lather to get to the next hot spot. "It's almost a slugfest to get in there," one told Waxman. This urge to reach the fire is not entirely altruistic. It sure beats washing that damned fire truck again, for one thing. Plus a big fire is thrilling, plain and simple.

Firefighters have excellent propaganda skills. Firefighters play the hero card to its limit. Any time a big-city firefighter is killed on duty, that city will all but shut down a few days later while thousands of firefighters line the streets for a procession. In July 2001, I witnessed the tasteless spectacle of Washington state firefighters staging a massive public display to "honor" four young people killed in a forest fire (one absurd touch: hook-and-ladder rigs extended to form a huge arch over the entrance to the funeral hall). For the families of the four dead firefighters—three of whom were teens trying to make a few bucks for college—the parade, the solemn speeches, and the quasi-military trappings all were agony. "It's just the firefighters doing their thing," one bystander said to me later with a shrug.

Firefighters are just another interest group. Firefighters use their heroic trappings to play special interest politics brilliantly. It is a heavily unionized occupation. Nothing's wrong with that, but let's not assume they're always acting in anything but their own best interests. In Seattle not long ago a squabble broke out between police and firefighters when both were called to the scene of a capsized dinghy in a lake. The firefighters put a diver in the water, a police officer on the scene ordered him out to make way for a police team, and all hell broke loose (yes, the cops were at fault, too). The dispute wasn't over public safety, it was over who got the glory. New York firefighters, admittedly deep in grief over lost co-workers, exacerbated the challenge of body recovery operations after 9/11 by insisting on elaborate removal procedures for each firefighter uncovered, an insult to others who died there. Not long before that, in Boston, a special commission released a scathing report that detailed a 1,600-member fire department up to its bunker gear in racism, sexism, and homophobia. Since then the department has bitterly resisted reform efforts.

None of this is meant to dispute that firefighters aren't valuable to the communities in which they work. They are. But our society is packed with unheralded heroes—small-town physicians, teachers in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, people who work in dirty, dangerous jobs like coal-mining to support a family. A firefighter plunging into a burning house to retrieve a frightened, smoke-blinded child is a hero. But let's save the encomiums for when they are truly deserved, not when they just show up to do their job.

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

I would like to punch the author in the mouth. There are not a lot of life-risking jobs out there, and those that are, especially those that protect and help others, are heroic no matter what that asshole (if the mods will allow me this) thinks

Working at McDonalds is more dangerous than being a fire-fighhter. Sorry, but the author is dead-on right. Being a firefighter is a cush job, completely overpaid, hardly work.

[Porterville]

You have know idea what you are talking about and you make me want to puke. You must be a FLAMER.

[IronJack]

"Go, stranger, and o Sparta tell,
Faithful to Her laws, here, we fell."

Inscribed (in Latin) on the monument at Thermopylae. Now THERE were some HEROES!!

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

You have know idea what you are talking about and you make me want to puke. You must be a FLAMER.

Actually, I know exactly what I'm talking about. The risks of injury of working at a retail establishment as a cashier are higher than working as a fire-fighter.

[Let's Roll]

This guy's wife - if he had one - probably ran off with a fire fighter.

[Let's Roll]

This guy's wife - if he had one - probably ran off with a fire fighter.

[HardStarboard]

Really Really BIG Twerp Alert!

[Porterville]

Okay, what are you talking about??? What do you know about being a firefighter?? What do you know about building construction??? Parapett walls, retrofited buildings, truss construction, the 100-150 firefighters who die yearly on duty??? What do you know about the years of commitment just to get an oral interview with a department??? The late hours, ripped up marriages??? What do you know??? You know nothing. YOU KNOW DIRT.

[IronJack]

Does your statement include volunteer firemen?

No. Volunteers are not paid. Firefighting is not their job. They take the risks for the rush, for the altruistic payback, for something other than the salary and benefits. I still don't see them as heroes, mind you. But I respect their dedication more than that of professionals who take no greater risk for substantially greater reward.

Also, firemen don't just put out fires, they respond to automobile accidents when the Jaws of Life are needed to pull people out of there cars. Firemen also respond to medical emergencies and chemical spills.

None of which constitutes heroism, in and of themselves. Certainly some may behave heroically in the performance of those duties. But mere performance of the duties does not a hero make.

[pageonetoo]

"...you'll see that the physical edurance and work required to be a FF would break your back."

Probably wouldn't break mine. I hike two miles every morning. Up the mountain one mile, and then back down.
Yesterday, I paddled a 3 1/2 mile lake from end to end to end, in my kayak. Today, I paddled the Potomac for about two hours, and walked around DC for half a day. I do that most days. I also have gainful employment.
Your general statement cannot be applied to me, sorry. I also know many firefighters that cannot do what they did long ago...

But, I did not intend to cast aspersions on anyone. I simply tried to place a little perspective on the use of the word "hero".
They are firefighters. Its their job. Some get to be heroes. But they all have a job of their choice. The training is part of it.
The little WV soldier girl that is being feted as a "hero", with tv and book rewards, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She is being hailed as a hero, because she had to endure the results of being in a wreck, detained and maybe assaulted by the enemy, and then she was "rescued", with cameras rolling. I do not know what heroic acts she performed, but I understand their were many heroes that day that were NOT hailed as such.
who decides?
One of my clients is a 23 year old female firefighter, married to a cop. When asked about having kids, her reply to me was that she would become a volunteer, because she loved riding the trucks! Putting out the fire was just incidental to the job.

[Porterville]

Iron Jack you are a soft as a bowl of oat meal.

[Porterville]

Read about Firefighters and try to know what they do before you believe you understand. You'd wet your panties if you had to deal with what FF deal with on a weekly basis. Oh, is panties too hard??? I'm not suprised.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Are they routinely exposed to AIDS, Hep C, etc...? Yep.

How?

Fireman/hero bump.

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

Okay, what are you talking about??? What do you know about being a firefighter?? What do you know about building construction??? Parapett walls, retrofited buildings, truss construction, the 100-150 firefighters who die yearly on duty??? What do you know about the years of commitment just to get an oral interview with a department??? The late hours, ripped up marriages??? What do you know??? You know nothing. YOU KNOW DIRT.

I have several close friends who are firefighters. For the most part, they laugh about what a great job it is. TONS of time off, incredibly easy over-time, incredible benefits, guaranteed pay and pay raises, and 99% of the time, nothing to do. The vast majority of the calls they respond to are not even fires, or dangerous.

Firefighter doesn't even rank in the top most dangerous jobs in America. Its more dangerouns to be a crab fisherman, a timber cutter, a fisherman, a farmer, a construction worker, etc. Fireman doesn't even come close.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P63405.asp
http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/03/0903worksafe.html

Of course the oral exams are grueling - that's because being a fireman is such an incredibly desirable job. It's one of the last remaining jobs where you don't have to have any education whatsoever, and you can easily make over $100,000 a year.

Don't kid yourself for a minute. The 911 tragedy has done one thing for sure - been used as an emotional blackmail tool by government employees in the fireman/paramedic/police lines of work to force even higher pay, benefits and lack of responsibility on the job.

Fireman in the United States, especially in populated states like California and New York, is one of the most creampuff jobs in the world. That's why its so incredibly difficult to get a fireman job.

[pageonetoo]

I know about firefighters.

I also recognize an intolerant, ignorant person. You have no idea what I do for a living, nor my work history.
Turn down the wisecracking and use the noggin for creative thought, not simple puerile potty talk. If you have something to add to a conversation, use what education you have, use true wit, or use a little wisdom to present it. Please don't think you get any points for attitude, or being a smartass.
I doubt if you could keep up in a real debate, dude!

[Porterville]

"I have several friends that are firefighters"

Is that like having several friends that are black?? Mexican?? or Gay???

What the hell does you knowing a firefighter have to do with you thinking that their job is cush??? I dare you to tell them that their job isn't dangerous... I dare you to say that they aren't heroes and that pumping a 300lb woman's chest at 2:30 A.M. isn't a heroic act...

Aww, you just make me sick, I can just picture the type of person you are, envious, sickeningly envious...

[tbird1]

Golly gee! Just how long have you been a firefighter???
You seem to know all about it!!!!
You shouldn't let all these secrets out. (sarcasm)

Seriously---talk only about what you know.
tbird1

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

What the hell does you knowing a firefighter have to do with you thinking that their job is cush???

Please feel free to read the links I cited. Its a well known fact that fireman is nowhere near the top of the list of dangerous jobs. It's a cush job, incredibly well paid for very little real danger.

[Porterville]

You know, being a lawyer or a CPA doesn't make you a hero... I recognize an ignorant intolerant person also... I will lean on the side of firefighters, you stick up for whatever it is you stick up for...

Fire Fighters are always vigilant and alway honest...