Career Story: Firefighter
Ky-ree is a firefighter and is considering buying a house. Hear how he’s preparing to fulfill long-term goals while paying off his car loan and credit card debt.
My name is Ky-ree Toadvine.
KY-REE, 25
FIREFIGHTER, LOS ANGELES
I'm a firefighter,
and currently I make anywhere
from 65 to 70 grand a year.
As a firefighter
every day is different,
there is not really a routine to it.
We could be going to a
medical emergency at one moment
which we're in someone's home
and helping them.
Or we could be going
to an actual structural fire
in which we will have
to utilize fire suppression efforts
to put out the fire effectively.
Or even, we could respond
to a traffic accident
in which there is a trapped,
pinned victim
and we need to unpin them.
There's a lot of different things
going on, and it’s always different.
Well right now
I'm just a probationary member,
and it’s not necessarily
a bad thing to be
a probationary member.
It just means that
I'm still learning at the moment.
I'm actually in the field,
I've passed the academy,
and I'm learning the ropes of what
to actually do while in the field.
And my main role I will say
is to learn as much as possible
so that I could be as effective
at my job as I possibly can
after this probationary year.
So, as a firefighter I currently
make 65 to 70,000 dollars a year
just for my probationary year.
There are pay increases
that come in through over time,
about six months in
I'll get another pay increase
and then a year in
I'll get another pay increase.
And then there are other
certifications that we could get,
like our paramedic certification
which will give us a bonus.
If you like to be USAR,
Urban Search and Rescue Certified
then you can also go
and take the classes to get
that certification which will also
give you sort of a bonus.
Same thing for hazardous materials
if you're at that specialized station
then you can get those classes
taken care of and receive
those certifications for that bonus.
I study as often as I possibly can.
There's loads of information
that I don't know anything about.
One such example is
building construction.
I didn't have a building
construction background
coming into this career field,
so I have to take the initiative
to make sure I study it
as often as possible just to make sure
that I don't let the knowledge,
or skill set, slip away from me.
I'm studying
building construction because,
say if we're on top of a roof
during a fire,
we have to ventilate the building.
We have to know what
typical rafter direction is
so that we can effectively
cut the roofing off of the roof
and allow the fire to ventilate
outside of the roof,
or to ventilate vertically.
That will allow us to also tell
if there may be
signs of collapse going on.
Also, I mentioned
being physically and mentally fit.
We have to make sure that
we take on a set of fitness
that's not just aesthetic.
You have to make sure
that its actual, functional,
actually functional, excuse me,
and take that and make sure that
we're actually adaptable
in the field as well
with our fitness and
what we can do in the field.
And it keeps us mentally fit as well
because it allows us to
keep the edge off
and takes off the stress
a little bit as well
so we can continue
to think effectively,
and be effective
in our field as well.
Within our work week,
we work three 24-hour days
out of a five-day work week,
typically.
From that we start our week
with working one day, 24 hours,
having one full day off,
working the next day 24 hours,
having the next day off,
and then working one last day,
and then having four days off.
But that's also not
counting any overtime
in which you may want to pick up
and which we also work 24 hours.
And within that 24 hours like I said
we would be responding
to a number of amount of incidents,
non-emergency, emergency,
maybe doing
community service as well.
So, during our 24 hours
we are at the station
a majority of the time.
That's if we're not running calls.
If it's not a busy day, that we may
be out running calls or
if there is an errand to be done,
then we may need to go out
and do an errand,
or if there's training to be done
we will be out doing our training
with another company.
When I'm working for 24 hours
at a time on platoon duty
we're not awake for exactly
24 hours throughout the day.
We do have times
where we can rest,
and cook or do whatever
we need to take care
of what we may need.
The station is basically like a house,
and we're all there together.
The challenges of a firefighter
within the city
versus say the country,
say LA versus,
like you said, Boise, Idaho,
would be the first thing I think of
is Downtown Los Angeles,
high rises,
they're tough to climb.
It's a lot of different construction
aspects to go into,
it's a lot of different
elevator problems
you will go into as well.
There's a totally different,
well not totally different,
but there is a different approach
you take to structural firefighting
within a high rise as well.
That's the first thing.
And also, a denser
population of people.
You have a lot of
different type of people,
you have a lot of tourists
coming through
so at any moment
you could be responding
to a medical call which we run
80 to 90 percent of
within the department.
But you may be running
on someone who's from Italy
and doesn't even speak English.
Okay, so different skills
and mindset that you need to have
is just more likely
just being adaptable.
You have to know that
there's never going to be
a been there, done that situation.
You have to be committed
to taking in loads of information
that you may know nothing
about at the time.
And also make sure that
you're able to comprehend
what may be going on at the time.
And not freeze up
or anything of that nature
when it's time to perform.
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