For my topic, I interviewed Troy Spinney. Troy is a volunteer firefighter at Bristol Fire Department. I interviewed him in person at his house and asked both personal and professional questions to do with a lot of different things with firefighting. I gained a lot of information just from him. Some information he gave me was information I already had in my knowledge, but some was things I had just found out about.
I did get a couple single word answers but, for the most part I got well explained answers.
1. How do you like being a firefighter?
Troy: "I really enjoy it because I like to help out my community and my time."
2. How long have you been a firefighter?
Troy: "Two years."
3. Do you want to do it your whole life?
Troy: "Yeah."
4. What is the difference from being a volunteer firefighter than a full time firefighter?
Troy: "A volunteer is a department where the firefighters live at home and respond to calls on their own time (or when they can). And a paid full time department, the firefighters live in a firestation/firehouse and respond to calls during their shift."
5. How many buildings have you been inside, outside of training?
Troy: "None. A firefighter must be age 18 or older to enter a burning building that is not a part of training. A firefighter who is under the age of 18 may be able to enter a real life structure fire if their department's bi-laws allow so."
6. How much time do you (personally) spend time a month(average)?
Troy: "4-8 hours a month (average)."
7. What are your emotions when you get paged out?
Troy: "When I first joined, there was a feeling of adrenaline rush when a page went out. You get used to responding to calls the more you go on them. I've learned to keep my cool when responding to an incident, because I want to keep myself and others safe when in route."
8. What made you want to become a firefighter?
Troy: "Um, I have friends who are on the fire department and seeing what they do made me realize that I can be a big part of my community."
9. What age does one have to be to drive a fire truck?
Troy: "It depends on the department's insurance plan and their bi-laws. Some departments require a firefighter to be 18 years old while others require a firefighter to be 21. Also, a firefighter needs to have completed the Emergency Vehicle Operator Course or EVOC."
10. What kind of gear do you wear? (Brands.. etc)
Troy: "Bunker Gear. Consisting of retardant pants and jacket and gloves. Also, a safety helmet with a shield and boots that have steel shanks and toes."
11. How are firefighters ranked?
Troy: "Firefighters are ranked similar to the military because the fire department is a para-military based organization. The ranks go from a firefighter up to the officers ranks. The officer ranks go from Leutenant, Captain, Assistant chief, and chief."
12. Would a chief be able to make a living on being just a chief for an occupation?
Troy: "Well, it really depends on whether it is a full time department or not. Also, it depends on how much the town decides to pay the chief."
13. Do you ever have hallucinations from being around the heat?
Troy: "No, personally I have not. But when you are exposed to extreme heat, you may become dehydrated faster due to extensive sweating. The results of dehydration can be faintness of breath, hallucination, and dizziness."
14. If you were to get burnt on bare skin for not even 5 seconds, could you die?
Troy: "It depends on how bad the burn is. There are three degrees of burns. 1St, 2nd, and 3rd being the worst, which can lead to death in many cases."
15. Can you explain the 3 degree of burns?
Troy: "First degree burns are usually a white plaque on the skin and minor pain. Second degree burns make the skin blister and can involve more or less pain depending on how bad the nerves are damaged. Third degree burns are when the skin is burned so bad that their is substancial damage to the tissue and nerves. The skin appears to be charred and it results in scarring. Also there is a fourth degree burn that includes muscle damage and tendon damage and deep tissue. It is the worst and needs skin grafting to repair the charred skin and tissue if it isn't fatal."
I've been with Troy when he gets paged out on a call and he has to get going quick. When he's out on a call, it depends on what the call was, but he is usually out for about an hour or two. That's only when I've been around. I've never been out on a call with him before, I've always wanted to, but it never worked out that I could.
I did not know the 4 degrees of burns; of course I knew about them but I did not know the facts on them. I am glad I chose firefighting to research for months because I learned a lot about what Troy does and I realized how risky the job is even more now. I saw a video that another firefighter on Troys Department posted online and it was during training when they were burning a building. It was interesting to see and it shows just how fast a building can burn down to the ground.
If a building has more than one floor and a firefighter is inside the building then a whole other floor can come falling down onto a firefighter and they could get stuck. This is in my understanding. Also, same is for the roof, but more for another floor because you have everything else that's on that floor (bed, table, chair, etc..).
