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Date:         Fri, 28 Aug 1992 14:56:44 -0500
From:         AIRBORNE THE FIREMAN IS BACK <CDUNBAR@UNTVAX.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: 18 year olds

Joe,
   Our department had more restrictive qualifications for applicants between the
   ages of 16 and 18 than some of the ones I have heard on this server.  The onl
   y
way, and I mean the ONLY way, that an applicant between the ages of 16 and 18
can join the fire department is if at least one of their parents is an ACTIVE
member.  Junior can't ask dad to sign up just so junior can play on the fire
engines, in other words.  In the SOP's, a firefighter between the ages of 16 and
   18 is considered a junior member and has some restrictions:
        1) Junior members can not enter a burning building or other hazardous
           area outside of training without permission from the captain, chief,
           and the incident commander, AND, he or she must be accompanied by
           an adult
        2) Junior members can not operate any fire apparatus in an emergency
           response situation or on any public roads (drivers training in a
           parking lot with an officer IS permitted)
        3) If the number of non-junior members exceeds the capacity of the
           fire engine's seating capacity, all junior members must yield their
           seats to full fleged members and must remain at the station
        4) Junior members can only respond to calls with captain's and parent's
           approval
        5) The purpose of being a junior member is to train.  All junior members
              must maintain a minimun of 30% training hours and 30% runs (this w
   as
           later to include ALL firefighters, broadenning the minimum
           requirements for everyone)
Personally, I found out that SOP's aren't ALWAYS followed to the letter...
I was fortunate;  My mother was training officer and later captain of our
station;  I got along well with the other firefighters and was treated as an
equal, and I got to know the chief and other staff officers very well.  All in
all, I got away with very many things.  I suppose I can self-incriminate
myself here, but...  there might be someone from my department reading this =)

Basically, all I am saying is that you can write into your SOP's all you want
about restrictions on junior members, but when it comes right down to it, base
your restrictions on the individual applicant, not overall statistics.  We are
all humans in this business.

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Chris Dunbar                          Bitnet: CDUNBAR@untvax
University of North Texas             Internet: CDUNBAR@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
3rd year Computer Science Major
Cypress Creek Volunteer Fire Department        Argyle Volunteer Fire Depar
Cypress Creek Volunteer Fire Department        Argyle Volunteer Fire Department
         Houston, Texas                                   Argyle, Texas
                       Level I Certification, Texas
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