Last week several students were asking me whether I was really I firefighter. When I said yes, the follow-up question, are you are "real" firefighter? The answer to that is also "yes". I thought I'd take a minute to share a little more about me and what is happening when I'm not at school. Read on if you are interested.
I have served as a Lakeville firefighter since 2002. Lakeville has a structure similar to that of a volunteer department, but it is technically a paid on call department because each firefighter gets paid when we respond to a call. We currently get paid $10/call, irregardless of how long the call is so you can see that none of us are making a living as a firefighter. The per call rate is meant to offset gas, mileage and other minor expenses. Lakeville firefighters complete the same training that our full-time counterparts complete and we strive to provide professional emergency response to the residents of Lakeville.
In addition to serving as a firefighter I also serve as an engineer for my station and the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the department. Station engineers are responsible for maintaining equipment, taking care of the apparatus (aka fire trucks) and driving. The video clip at the top of the post is evidence of what the PIO does, which includes hosting a bimonthly cable TV show (On Call), coordinating public events and assisting with some department functions. You can watch all of the On Call shows that you want to on the city of Lakeville website or by searching 'City of Lakeville" in i-Tunes and downloading our podcast.
I'm proud to be a Lakeville firefighter, enjoy providing a public service and thoroughly enjoy talking about our work, so if you have questions.please let me know. I wouldn't be a good firefighter if I didn't remind you to check your smoke detector batteries monthly and then change the batteries when you set your clocks during daylight savings time.
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