Firefighters Share SHOCKING Stories with Mike Rowe | The Way I Heard It

Guys, I retired at 66 and joined a VFD. I an currently working on getting my Firefighter 1 certification hopefully in July. I have an intense drive to make my own community better. Great show. I'm forwarding this to my Chief.

I am a 64 year old woman. I just volunteered to my local fire department. What drove me to volunteer was what I had witnessed here at Lowe’s in my little town. The firefighter standing in line in front of me had his jacket on and looked very proud. The attendant at the counter asked him if he was a first responder, and of course he said “Yes!” She replied, are you in the military or a policeman? He responded with I am a firefighter, (very proudly!) She replied oh, I’m sorry, we do not give discounts to firefighters….I gasped! That made me so mad! Why would they not give a volunteer firefighter a discount when they have no benefits, they have no healthcare, and are risking their lives for their community? I am committed to a resolution, this just breaks my heart.

I was a volly for 15 years in PA in a small dept that was in serviced for 50+ years. We responded to 150 calls a year with no EMS calls. All structure fires and MVAs. Our dept went bankrupt because the dept fell behind in taxes and we went under. We saved the government (state) $100,000 of thousands dollars in funding a fire department and the government wouldn’t help the department and we closed our doors. Now all the residents in our area have delayed response times waiting for the next closest department to respond. Senseless. We were all self funded and it didn’t cost the state “$0”. Makes me sick

I work for a class 1 railroad, and in 21 years, you wouldn't believe what I've seen.

they should do programs/presentations at high schools and jr colleges, especially in small towns

My dad first started his firefighting training in the Korean War then eventually became a captain for LAFD. If you start young and get your 25 years in you can retire with a great pension then move on to another career if you'd like or work a second job while on the department because of the shift patterns and retire in your fifties. Who wouldn't want that?

@4:32: I’m a retired school police officer and one morning one of our officers heard a call go out of a car vs. train accident. Since he was close, he responded to render whatever assistance he could. The vehicle in question was pushed up onto the center raised median which significantly damage the right side of the car. The woman driver received only minor scrapes and bruises because the (almost a mile long) train was only traveling about 25 mph but took almost 1/4 to stop. She had stopped on the tracks when her light turned red (note: a plethora of “DO NOT STOP ON TRACKS” signs were very visible at this crossing. After all the first responders arrived, L.A. Co. fire dept., C.H.P., L.A. Co sheriff, school police, and railroad police, the true cause of the crash was stated by the driver to the railroad police. The woman driver, when asked why she didn’t just go straight, turn right, or back up to the investigating officer, she said “I thought the train would around me.” Said with a straight face. You can’t make this stuff up!

Career firefighter here. Calls are skyrocketing because: aging entitled boomers, rapidly growing welfare class, rapidly growing idiot class who can’t fend for themselves. The type of calls we,get dispatched to is mind blowing.

A friend of mine was a volunteer firefighter now he's a paid firefighter

Part of the problem is healthcare in general...especially in rural areas with a higher rate of families on welfare and medicaid. Medicaid requires an upfront fee or co-pay when you see a family dr or go to an urgent care center. But they don't require that fee if you go through the ER. And anyone who's been to ER more than once knows the wait is a lot shorter in the ER if you're being wheeled in by a medic than if you are a walk-in. So they're using 911 as a cheaper way to seek medical care. Also I think there's a lack of education regarding medicine in general. I was brought up in a family with medics and nurses, so I grew up knowing what constituted as an emergency and what did not and was taught to never abuse the 911 system. They also taught those things in elementary health class. Those lessons aren't being taught in school anymore. Some counties are circumventing the shortage of personnel by requiring their medics to also have fire training and their firefighters to also be an emt.