A day in the life of a firefighter: More than meets the eye

By COLIN MURPHEY
A 24-hour shift for firefighters at the Franklin Fire Department in St. Mary Parish begins as one might expect.
Copious amounts of coffee at 8 a.m. sharp followed by meetings about recent emergency calls, briefings about training and upcoming classes, maintenance chores and a list of the day’s station duties.
There is also, of course, the usual high school locker room banter and good-natured, brotherly verbal hazing often seen in close knit environments where the everyday activities can range from playing pool during downtime or continuing one’s training regimen to placing your life in another man’s hands while trying to save lives and property.
Most people know what firefighters do when the call goes out. They respond. They run into the burning building as everyone else is running away. They save lives. These are not clichés. They are a part of everyday life for first responders such as EMTs, police officers, sheriff deputies and firefighters.
What is not well known is what firefighters do in between calls to respond to a house fire or a car accident or any other emergency. And while they may be decked out (rightfully so) in their common area with comfortable amenities, one would be hard-pressed to find one of Franklin’s firefighters lounging around.
That’s because the better part of their days is spent engaging in other responsibilities out of the eye of most members of the community. If not continuing their training through classes or other forms of on-the-job education, fixing a tire on a fire truck or finishing up a pile of paperwork, they can be found all around the community fulfilling other obligations that go with the job of being a firefighter.
And while signs of the start of school may be obvious from the activities of parents, students, principals and teachers in the area, the impending idea of hundreds of people packed into relatively small facilities on the minds of parish firefighters may not be so obvious to the casual observer. That’s why they have spent the last few weeks inspecting area schools to make sure they comply with fire regulations.
This is what FFD Firefighter Bill Thomas, Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Hildreth and all the other FFD firefighters were busy doing this week. As teachers and faculty were busy preparing classrooms for students, Hildreth, Thomas and their colleagues were busy looking from floor to ceiling for fire hazards. Thomas said while fighting fires and saving lives is obviously part of what they do and what they are primarily known for, he said it is about ten percent of the actual job they perform for the community.
“Everyone knows that we go out and fight fires,” Thomas said. “That’s only a small fraction of the time. Most of it is training and trying to make improvements to the city to keep bad things from happening. The majority is prevention rather than responding.”
From checking sprinkler systems to inspecting kitchens and extinguishers to checking every classroom from top to bottom, Thomas, Hildreth and other FFD firefighters went door to door making sure every school would be as safe as possible before students ever walk through the door.
Thomas also said part of their job is to locate and identify fire hazards within the community including houses that are beyond repair that pose a danger to neighboring structures.
And despite the dangers involved with the job of being a firefighter as well as the long hours in between training, classes, vehicle and equipment maintenance, paperwork and not to mention sweeping out and mopping the floor of the garage every day; Thomas, who at age 23 already has nearly a decade of experience under his belt, said he couldn’t think of doing anything else.
“We have a lot of support from this community,” Thomas said. “Everywhere we drive down the street, people wave at us. It’s just really cool that no matter what is going on, you show up and people are happy to see us. Right now, there’s some bad things going on with some people targeting civil servants. Cops are getting shot at. There have even been some threats in some places made against firemen. But, we have a good standing in Franklin. The people here are great.”