alright, no one asked for this, but I feel like some people don't get this kinda of stuff right (and because i haven't updated in a minute). a lot of people are like, "oh, firefighters are big, brawl - y men". in most cases, yes. bigger men help carry people out when we must do search and rescue (ill explain what that is in a sec) but that's not always the case.

and note: I'm a volunteer, I do not get paid, and I'm still learning. I've been in the fire service for almost a year now, and yes, I still have trouble and I'm still learning. do I go on calls? yes. but does that mean I'm absolutely sure about everything I'm doing? no. that's why I'm always supervised.

first of all, a firefighter is exactly what you hear in the name. we fight fires. but thats really just scraping the surface, we do a lot more than that.

1) first thing to make your scene in your book seem real for firefighters, is have one of your firefighters speak or radio the word, CHAOS. for firefighters, this means, Chief Has Arrived On Scene. this is important for us. lets say if I'm on a call with a department that isn't mine, i have to report to their chief and mine. i have to tell them my name and what department I'm from. It's something to help with seeing who all made it out of the fire if i do search and rescue.

2) search and rescue. if you haven't made the connection yet, search and rescue is basically a certain number or group of people going into the house, or into the fire to search for any civilians that had trouble getting out and rescuing them. this is the hardest part of our job. we may not know how many people are in there, where they are, how long they have left before they lose consciousness due to oxygen loss and smoke intake; how we're gonna get to them, and how we're gonna get them out. 

3) it takes about 30 seconds to one minute of smoke inhalation, especially if the smoke is thick, for you to pass out due to a lack of oxygen in the air. smoke inhalation kills in just a few minutes and also quickly obscures vision, creating disorientation that can prevent a safe escape. the victim may be rendered unconscious very quickly, leading to rapid death. 50–80% of fire deaths are the result of smoke inhalation injuries.

4) some people may not look the part. and if you're wondering, it's true, there aren't many female firefighters. in my VFD, there are only three females. in another department near mine, (thats not even volunteer) is only one female. it's not that us women can't do it, it's just not the ideal job we want to do. we don't get paid very much and a lot of us would rather get more money.

5) and before you ask, yes, we do have firefighters with asthma. which makes the job even more dangerous for these people, but they are still able to do the things we can do. the only thing that changes is that they're more supervised and watched while a volunteer. once they start a career from this, it's obvious they can handle it.

6) now, also remember that we don't just do search and rescue when we get on a scene. we also do ventilation. which means that some of us will get on the roof, with and axe or whatever tool to pierce the roof, and start to basically take out chunks of it. we mostly do this for structure fires. we do this because it removes a lot of heat, smoke and fire gases from a structure, and also increases victim survivability, visibility, reducing fire spread, etc.

7) note that we're not always gonna show up in those huge ass ladder trucks you always see in tv shows. sometimes, we might pull up in an engine. that might be because our ladder truck is down or because simply, we're dealing with a small fire. engines aren't really that different from the ladder trucks, they're just significantly smaller and don't have a ladder on the top. but they're used for the same purpose. 

8) some of our firefighters are EMR (emergency medical responder) certified. as in, when we have a public assist (which means, someone is injured or hurt on a scene) they're important. they're like medics on a scene if there is no fire. 

9) the stuff we wear is what we call: structure gear, turnout gear, bunker gear or just gear and usually has our last names written across our asses (dunno why they thought that was a good idea). we also have wild land gear, which is for brush fires (fires in grass) and wildfires. most important pieces of our gear, is that we have to wear an SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) which is just an air tank strapped to our backs. one thing to help your scene seem real is note this: an SCBA is motion censored. so when i'm wearing it, it detects my movements, and when I'm not moving for more than 5 seconds, it lets out this loud ringing noise to help others find me or know that I'm not moving. 

10) another important thing to note is when someone is spraying down the house, brush fire, or wherever the fire is: make sure to go from side to side with the hose. make sure to have more than 1 man on the nozzle (the place where the water comes out of on a hose). 

11) make sure to include: 

people yelling (orders to other firefighters or civilians yelling about their kids or family members)

sirens, very loud and reoccurring sirens from trucks and ambulances

have people crying hysterically

have medics preforming CPR (at some point, this makes it so much more real)

mention a million times about how hot the fire is, but don't be annoying and constantly saying 'it's hot' no, IT'S FUCKING STEAMING ME LIKE A VEGETABLE. (describe it in different forms so the readers get the idea. because fires are fucking hot.) 

any questions?

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