I want to become a volunteer firefighter/in the field And i am also a mama to my 2 year old. I am married too!

Question

I would love to do this, but is this out of my leuage because i am a mother to my young child? does the job require you to up and leave from where ever your at? Should I wait until my child is older? Can I do something else in volunteering on my my time and teach my child about helping the firemen and women?

Answer 1

I agree with the others. It does take a lot of your time and if your a firefighter you have to be able to drop everything you are doing so you can go fight fires! So I would suggest waiting until your child was older. But in the meantime, get ahold of your local fire department and explain your situation. Tell them you are interested in one day becoming a firefighter and ask if there are things to do that you can help with. I know at my department they let you stay on the dept for 2 years, before they require you to take the classes. But you can still train with them, also ask about a women's auxiallary. They might have one and if they don't think about starting one. They do alot of the fundraisers and help out with whatever they can. You could even ask them about Fire Prevention week. Most of our local fire depts. go to grade schools during that week and teach them about fire safety. All in all, go talk to the Fire dept and find out if there's anything that you can help with. In the future, when your situation is better, the fire dept. will gladly accpet you because you would have already done so much for them! Good Luck!

Answer 2

Yes, it requires you to leave anywhere you may be at the time. Emergencies don't stop because your busy. Just because your a mother does not mean your out of your league. If this is something you are truly interested in and you can pass the physical agility testing than go for it. If you feel its too life threatening and may leave your child motherless than don't do it. However you only live once. I have two small children I am a paramedic and my husband is a volunteer firefighter.

Answer 3

Aside from needing to drop everything to go on a run, there is another issue.

The training requirements for firefighters are pretty fierce, even for volunteers. You'll need to pass an initial class that will take 4-6 months of your time (in my case, 6 months, 2 nites a week plus half of the Saturdays).

After you get to that point, you'll spend at least 1-2 nites a month in further training, plus at least one or two saturday mornings.

It is entirely possible that in the average month you'll spend more hours in training than on runs.