Part Time Hero: Firefighters, Football, and All of the Above

My kids, much like most kids, at some point in their life have wanted to be a firefighter.  I don’t know if it is the idea of being the hero and rescuing people or riding on the truck and using all the cool toys they work with.  When I was growing up, one of my favorite shows was Emergency.  I loved watching all the big fires and daring rescues.  I wanted to be a firefighter.  I got to meet “Roy” from Emergency and got his autograph.  I have no idea what happened to that after all these years, but I still remember going to a fire station in Wichita, Kansas, and meeting him.  There is something about the idea of being a firefighter that has always been intriguing.   Perhaps that is why there are so many shows about firefighters.

My youngest son likes to pretend he is a firefighter, rushing to put out a big fire and rescuing the trapped victim while risking his life and narrowly escaping as the building explodes.  He, of course, is always the

hero.  But, like all young boys, he has other dreams as well.  I introduced him to another idea.  A group of heroes that always go above and beyond.  A group of heroes that are passionate about saving lives and rescuing those in need.  Not because it is their job.  In fact, they do it for free.  It is their passion and love of service, the thrill of being that hero that keeps them going.

Volunteer fire services serve the vast majority of our nation.  Men and women who give of their personal time to serve their community.  According to the National Fire Protection Services, 69% of all firefighters are volunteer and 85% of the nation’s fire departments are volunteer.

There are 27,256 fire departments listed with the National Fire Department Registry.  An interesting fact I learned researching this post.  The first thing was that there actually was a National Fire Department Registry, which worked out pretty nice for me as all the research had already been done for me.

Of the 27, 256 fire departments:

• Only 9% are career departments
• 5% are mostly career with some volunteer
• 16% are mostly volunteer with some career
• 71% of the departments are all volunteer
• The state of Delaware is 98.3% volunteer fire
• My home state of Texas is 71.7% volunteer

So now my son is excited about being a firefighter again.  As a volunteer firefighter, he can have another career and still get to be the hero.  Now he can play football for the Texans, soccer for the Dynamo, fly with the Blue Angels and still be a firefighter on his days off.

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