Quote from: Buzzard905 on April 08, 2011, 02:09:41 PM
Quote from: CivvyFSO on April 08, 2011, 01:40:22 PM
Quote from: Galeon on April 08, 2011, 10:17:18 AM
I agree with you Wiz , and what gets on my goat is all this nonsense he was a formally a retained firefighter , whats that got to do with anything but cloud the issue.
It is either meant to represent:
a) Being ex fire service he should be an expert, therefore should have known better, or..
b) Being ex Fire Service doesn't make you an expert!
Depends on how you look at it.
I would assume it was for impact and to indicate (a) when actually,through experience,it means (b)!!
I would never blame the firemen themselves for this.
The general public look up to them as gods (often with good reason) who are experts on any subject with the word fire in it. Some firemen even start believing it themselves! They are the 'dangerous' ones.
Just claiming to be a fire-fighter or even an ex fire-fighter does not necessarily make you an expert in anything.
There are as many variations in types of fire-fighter competency as there are in every trade or profession.
For example. Someone could join a LA FRS as a retained trainee. Do three weekends training then go on the run for a year or so. Possibly they will complete a 10 day, BA course in that time, possibly not, then, leave due to their full time work, or family, commitments; (a very common scenario in my experience). They will attend some fire calls in that year or so; varying from about 10 to about 1000, depending on their station’s location and call frequency. Many of these calls will last only a few minutes and be either false alarms, car fires or very small rubbish fires. In fact it is entirely possible for someone to claim on their CV that they are ex-fire service and never have entered a burning property. . E.g. a standalone retained station in my FRS quite close to where I live only receives about 50 calls a year, and many or those are back up to the local high risk WT station and the retained pump is often returned without arriving . How useful/safe are these under trained minimally experienced staff? (rhetorical question)
On the other hand there are ex-fire-fighters, both whole time and retained, who have 30 years plus service, a multiplicity of experience and recognisable qualifications in fire science, engineering, management, training etc etc etc
