By Jim Washko
This letter is in response to Rusty Sullivan’s commentary piece, “Is Our Stagnation Hurting Us?” from November 2012. The sentiments expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position of Fire Engineering magazine.
You have got to be kidding me! This is a perfect example of what is destroying the fire service: greed and ego! Firefighters are not spoiled, overpaid athletes. The fire service is a blue-collar job; it always has been and always will be. Can you imagine if people moved from department to department because they think their smart and have a few pieces of paper that say so? The disruption would be so great that the infighting would destroy the camaraderie and faith in each other that is integral to firefighting. The next thing you know, guys would jeopardize each other’s safety by turning their head so the other would fail.
I have been at this job for 25 years and I took it on because it is what I wanted to do–protect and serve the public, not my own self-interest. I went from construction to the fire service after 14 years of struggling through affirmative action to finally get hired, and took a $28,000 cut in pay. This is what I wanted to do! Guess what? I worked on my days off to provide and I knew when I took the job, it was what I had to do. I took the job of my own free will and never expected anything other than a fair wage. To this day, that is all I expect.
No one ever said come on in, we will pay you millions. The brass just expected you to do your job to the best of your ability and to continue your education to stay up with the ever-changing process of keeping yourself and your brothers and sisters safe. They did not even say they would pay for the education. I chose to do it on my own because I took their expectations seriously. What they did say is: “Most of all don’t think you’re a hero, you chose to do the job; you are trained to do the job, you knew the risk when you took the job, you are educating yourself to do the job, so be humble and do the job.”
Tradition has nothing to do with how the fire service is run; it is done this way because it is the only way it can survive. Can you imagine how bad it would be if firefighters could jump from department to department for financial gain? The loyalty would be gone, the work ethic would deteriorate, and the customer would be the one that suffered. As it is right now we get new kids that come in and, after they get off probation, they think they can run the place and all the chiefs are idiots.
Don’t get me wrong, education is a wonderful thing; it increases your knowledge regarding safety, helps create new processes in customer deliver, and educates firefighters for promotion and leadership in the future. It does not create entitlement. If you got into the fire service for anything other than helping others you are truly in the wrong business. Certainly there are some great perks: great schedule, time off, benefits, retirement, but really the only reason you should be here is to serve others. If that was really the case, though, we would not see the current decline of our status, the ridicule of our wages, the public distain of what we have vs. the public sector, because we would not have gotten greedy and we would still be doing the job for what it is, not for what we want it to be.
The barrage of insults has really just begun towards the fire service. Social media coupled with a lack of self-control and common sense is going to help us self-destruct. Other situations that threaten to undermine the fire service are unwavering negotiations and threats of poor service, the rise in firefighter criminal activity is in there, and the lack of leaders that are willing to hold people accountable for their actions and firefighters not holding their colleagues accountable. Last and certainly not least is the lack of a code of ethics hanging on the wall in our stations to remind people what they volunteered to do.
In my opinion, the true definition of a professional is someone who has put themselves at the top of their game for the betterment of others, not their ego, status, or financial gain, and who is loyal and humble to those they volunteered to serve to the best of their ability at all times without the expectation of a reward.
In conclusion, you need to find it within yourself to appreciate the things you have and motivate yourself. If you are looking for someone or someplace else to create that motivation, be very careful what you wish for. You might just get it and the price might be too high to pay.
Jim Washko is deputy chief of the Coeur d’Alene (ID) Fire Department.
