Firefighters are real-life superheroes, especially in the eyes of the people that owe their lives to them. If you love impacting people's lives, firefighting is one career path you should consider. According to the people that have worked as firefighters, it is one of the most rewarding careers.
But not all aspects of being a firefighter are rosy. It is also one of the riskiest professions there is.
This guide paints the good and not-so-good aspects of being a firefighter you should know as you make the noble decision of choosing firefighting as a career path.
Three Reasons to Become a Firefighter
1.You Get to Save Life and Property
Not many professions involve saving lives, but firefighting is one of them. Whenever a person is in distress, the first people to get on the scene will be the police, ambulance services, and firefighters, whether in a fire accident or a crime scene. A firefighter's sole role in an emergency is to attend to the injured.
When attending to a fire, the persons caught up in the fire are the first thing on the mind of a firefighter, and that's where their superhero characteristics emerge. Besides saving lives, firefighters help put out fires to prevent extensive property damage.
2.You Get to Interact With People
You will love working as a fireman if you are a people person. The very nature of a firefighting career entails working with other people as a team.
By working and spending time with your team, you get to build relationships that can last a lifetime. Besides interacting with colleagues, you also get to interact with the community you serve and understand their challenges and concerns.
3.Good Remuneration
The average pay for a firefighter is $50,000 but can go as high as over $100,000 yearly, depending on the state, experience, and rank.
You also get to choose how much you can work, meaning you can make much more than the set salary by working overtime. Firefighter remuneration is relatively attractive compared to other occupations with a similar education bar.
Three Risks You May Not Expect
1.Increased Risk of Cancer
Cancer is one of the least thought-about dangers firefighters face in their careers. Cancers can result from several factors, such as fumes inhaled while fighting fires. Besides the fumes, the material used by firefighters to contain the flames, such as the Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), can cause cancer.
While it can take a few years of frequent exposure, firemen have the highest risk of cancer from firefighting foam, while many compensation lawsuits have been successfully filed on behalf of veteran firemen, it’s still a common risk as a result of exposure to toxic AFFF chemicals.
2.Psychological Trauma
Like soldiers on the battlefield, firefighters face people in all sorts of distressing situations, such as severe accidents, cases of severe domestic violence, shootings, drowning, etc.
With time, exposure to distressing situations can take its toll on firefighters' psychological well-being resulting in some suffering mental problems such as stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.
3.Physical Dangers
Firefighters and other first responders are always at the risk of physical dangers that come with being in risky situations. A firefighter's most obvious physical danger is suffering burns when fighting a fire or having a situation get from bad to worse while answering a distress call.
A good example is 9/11. Of the almost 3,000 people who died on 9/11, 343 were firefighters that had come to the scene to assist. Other dangers include getting hit by a motorist when attending to accident victims on the road.
