From: When does the "new guy" become a firefighter?

[JFLYNN 681]

I know that I'll probably be burned in effigy for this thread but I'm going to ask the questions anyway.

When does a new member of a volunteer fire department become a "firefighter"? The distinction is clear in a career department; they're not a FF until they complete the academy so therein lies the issue.

Is a new member with no training a "firefighter"?

Does one become a firefighter after completing the minimum training required for that position? OK, that's a reasonable definition, so what's the minimum training?

Does the designation as interior qualified make one a FF? Why or why not?

If you say that every member of a fire department is a firefighter I'm going to call foul! If we deceive ourselves and our constituents by leading them to believe that there are X number of firefighters in the department because that's how many members we have we're doing everyone a disservice. How many of the members can actually be called upon at any hour of the day or night to perform all of the duties required of a firefighter?

Do you require that everyone who joins to become a firefighter become interior qualified? Is there a timeframe? Again, why not?

Does your department's workers compensation insurance apply to all members or just those designated firefighters and fire police? If you have 300 members but only 100 are firefighters and/or fire police are you paying to cover the 200 other members as well?

There have been many threads on many of these topics and these questions have built up so I'm doing spring cleaning for my question box – don't worry though, there'll be plenty more.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Chris192
Just a quote, no new content.