Firefighting

Firefighting has been part of my life since 1994 when he was a Senior in high school. Eric Campbell who drove me to school sometimes told me I should apply to the Midlothian Volunteer Fire Department where he volunteered. I said ok not knowing exactly what it meant. Ever since becoming a member it has been in my blood. Midlothian Volunteer Fire Department http://www.midlothianfire.org/pages/399124/ is a station located in Chesterfield county, Virginia. I volunteered there until being hired by Roanoke Fire-EMS in Roanoke City, Virginia March of 1999. For a year up until being hired I worked for American Medical Response who was contracted to The Richmond Ambulance Authority http://www.raaems.org/. This gave me a lot of experience in EMS in a short time. I really enjoyed working there because of the constant adrenaline running through my blood because of all of the different medical calls. However I knew I had to be a paid Firefighter. Which as most people know that Firefighting includes EMS. I am now a Lieutenant on the Airport Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) crew at Roanoke Regional Airport. I look forward to the day when I am returned to the suppression companies in our department. Until then I will learn everything I can about ARFF response. Just to show the difference between me being a firefighter and now a Lt. on the ARFF crew I went from an Engine (1400 calls a year) and Ladder company (800 calls a year) station to the ARFF (54 calls last year). Not exactly the place for a very go get 'em type A personality who has 20 years left before I can retire. I hope it is a short assignment, but I guess life could be worse. I will be travelling to Salt lake City, Utah in May to complete my ARFF training.