There are never ending benefits to becoming a firefighter, but in this article I want to highlight seven benefits to becoming a volunteer firefighter.
Thousands of kids across the United States dream of becominga firefighter when they grow up. Unfortunately, not as many actually do!
If you would be interested in pursuing a firefighting careerand are motivated by an urgent need to serve your community, becoming avolunteer firefighter might just be for you.
Table of Contents
Benefits To Becoming A Volunteer Firefighter
- Opportunityto learn and build your resume
- Serveyour local community
- Buildmore than just friendships
- A senseof pride
- Aflexible schedule for work-life balance
- Greatopportunity for career growth
- Somefinancial aid
Becoming a volunteer firefighter is arguably one of the mostrewarding and fulfilling positions you can fill in your community. What’s evenmore encouraging about it is that it requires little to no experience to getstarted.
The primary objective of fire departments is to help preventthe fire from taking lives and destroying property. A volunteer firefighter isan individual who voluntarily provides his/her services to protect thecommunity.
Research has indicated that nearly seventy percent of theUnited States fire service staff is made up of volunteers. For several reasons,the number of volunteers keeps decreasing while call volumes are on the rise.
This implies that there is an urgent need for a new group ofvolunteer firefighters and the opportunity waits for those who are willing toserve. Of course, the best place to begin is where you live.
Most fire departments have strict residency requirements andwill only give you a chance to volunteer if you reside within a certain mileagefrom their central response area.
The primary reason behind this is simple. Fire departments need someone who can conveniently receive an alert and act fairly fast to respond to an emergency call.
Despite being an unpaid service, volunteer firefightingcomes with a lot of potential benefits. So, if you are currently wonderingabout the possibility of becoming a volunteer firefighter but haven’t made upyour mind, below are seven great reasons why you should become volunteer firefighter.
A great opportunity to build your resume:
Experience is a word usually thrown around in college classes and job interviews (especially during the firefighter interview), and if you are an aspiring firefighter, you should take this very seriously.
Experience is a critical factor, especially when it comes tosecuring a position with a career department, and without an adequate amount ofexperience, you risk getting passed up for a job vacancy you are actuallyqualified for.
Don’t let a great opportunity pass you by, get the experience you need for your dream job by becoming a volunteer firefighter to gain some experience.
The prospect of working at your local fire department is agreat step toward becoming a career firefighter. If you didn’t know, when tryingto get hired at a career department, fire chiefs and officers almost alwaysfavor the candidate who already has some level of experience.
Working as a volunteer firefighter provides you theopportunity to interact with other career firefighters who are volunteering tohelp in their community.
What’s more, while working as a volunteer firefighter, youwill likely undergo additional training to hone your skills even further. Youwill receive wildfire training, operational training, advanced medical trainingas well as leadership training.
Simply put, being a volunteer firefighter is one of the bestways to get the much-needed work experience and build your resume for betterfuture opportunities.
An opportunity to serve your community:
Being a volunteer firefighter can be a hugely rewardingexperience and a unique way to serve your community.
However, it does require lots of dedication, leadership,sacrifice as well as immense mental and physical stamina.
Many communities depend on firefighters for protectionagainst fire hazards and other disasters and individuals must volunteer tobecome firemen at their various local departments.
Volunteer firefighters not only serve their community butare equally more visible and active members of their community. This isprimarily because the work that fire departments perform in the community has adirect impact on the people you know and interact with daily.
Saving lives and property and serving people is arguably theprimary reason why you would want to enter into a public safety career. Whenyou work as a volunteer fireman you will have a fantastic opportunity to dothis almost daily.
There is nothing more satisfying and fulfilling than beingable to work as a volunteer, and also knowing that you are a highly valuableasset to your community.
An opportunity tobuild more than friendships:
When you are working as a firefighter, the chances are veryhigh that you will meet with other like-minded individuals and this allows youto create lasting friendships as well as strong professional networks.
Volunteer firefighting is a great way to strengthen andexpand your professional network. When the time comes to seek a professionalreference, someone to help you out with a project or something similar, or evena career recommendation, you will have potentially endless people andaccomplished experts to turn to.
Your circle grows even stronger and bigger when youregularly attend firefighting community events where you get to interact withall kinds of people. And all these people can be your great source of help whenyou need it the most.
A sense of pride:
As a volunteer firefighter, you will benefit from a sense ofaccomplishment, pride as well as an achievement that comes with the type ofwork you’ll do.
You will learn new skills from the best firefighting experts, make new friends, be part of a dedicated department, give back to your community, become a pillar and make a real difference in the community where you live.
You will earn more respect from people within your communitybecause you work for their safety and overall welfare. What’s more, yourprimary mission will be to make a major difference in the lives of the people,and such a rare accomplishment will likely give you an immeasurable sense ofpride and satisfaction.
A flexible schedule ideal for work-life balance:
If you didn’t know, when you become a volunteer fireman youhave much more control over the amount of commitment and involvement you wouldwant to offer the department.
Fire departments and stations usually design flexible working schedules for their firefighters that allow you to take part in other activities.
Typically, they offer hours for monthly commitments forvolunteers. And it is upon you to actually choose the best schedule that suits you.This, of course, gives you a great opportunity to involve yourself in otherpaying jobs and also carry out your daily family responsibilities.
Opportunity forcareer growth:
As we previously mentioned, while recruiting careerfirefighters, most fire departments often give preference to candidates whohave previous experience in fire or EMS.
Whether you are a rookie firefighter, new to the world ofpublic safety or boast tons of experience, volunteer firefighting offersadvanced to basic rescue, fire, leadership and EMS courses through state andfederal programs.
These courses are free of charge to active members of fire departments and provide an opportunity for progression through various operations, ranks and roles.
It is also important to note that the valuable and extensivetraining you get as a volunteer firefighter not only helps you in your careergrowth, but in your personal life as well.
Some of the areas you will encounter are sure to includehazardous materials, fire investigation, firefighting and rescue skills,operating the available fire apparatus, conflict resolution, wild-land fireawareness and response and emergency operations.
Simply put, being a volunteer fireman enhances every aspect of your life.
Financial aid:
Even though volunteer firefighters technically don’t getroutine monthly paychecks, they usually do receive some form of financial aidto help compensate them for their service.
Your fire department knows and understands that you not beable to get the time to engage in other paid jobs and have to carter fortransportation costs to respond to your work station.
Though the actual reimbursem*nt is likely to vary from onestate to another and from department to department, volunteer fireprofessionals normally receive some amount of payment that is based on callresponses.
It is also worth to mention that fire departments andstations usually provide numerous tuition reimbursem*nt programs to theirvolunteers.
You will also may be given some cash for attending meetingsand pieces of training as well as for the amount of time spent on shifts.However, the amount of reimbursem*nt is usually at the discretion of the fire department.
These are just seven benefits to becoming a volunteer firefighter.Volunteer firefighters play a significant role in the fire service and this iswhy they are in high demand nationwide.
You have every reason to apply for a volunteer firefighter position, especially if you are physically fit, have a relevant educational background and don’t have any criminal record. And who knows, you could even be offered a full-time firefighter position based on your performance.
For more information on volunteer firefighting check out the National Volunteer Firefighting Council here.
