Brotherhood of the Fire Service
The tones drop, everyone runs for their assigned truck. They pull out the doors, lights flashing and siren blaring at drivers to pull over. The truck pulls to a stop as firefighters hop off, pull an attack line, and rush into the burning building. They do not stop to question if their fellow firefighters are going to help them or watch their back. The firefighters have a unique bond in the fire service known as brotherhood. Brotherhood is found in many different careers such as the police, fire, emergency medical services, and all branches of the military. Any group that faces life endangerment has a special bond of brotherhood.
What is brotherhood?
Brotherhood can be defined many different ways all depending on who you where to ask. According to Webster’s Dictionary, brotherhood is defined as “the whole body of persons engaged in the same business.” I did not agree with this definition when applying it to the fire service. Being a firefighter I experience brotherhood like no other every day. I would define brotherhood as a strong bond formed between members engaged in life endangering acts to support and protect one another and the purpose of the group. In interviews with members of the fire service, I asked them to define brotherhood in their own words. Their responses were almost identical to my definition.
So you might be wondering why brotherhood this strong forms in the fire service. Firefighters have a long history of traditions that go back to the forming of the fire service in the late 1800’s. They used to race to be the first company there and fight over who would extinguish the fire. Soon firefighters realized that it would be better for everyone if they functioned together. They became a family all their own and formed a bond that has only grown stronger in the service as years pass. When men and women are working side by side in life threatening situations, seeing horrible situations of people in pain, and witness the fury of nature they form a special bond of relying on one another. Firefighters support one another physically, emotionally, and sometimes financially. Physically they work extremely hard beside one another on calls. Emotionally firefighters support one another after terrible accidents and lose. Financially they will raise money for a hurt firefighter to support his or her family while they are struggling. Craig Semon reflected on a fire call where he was trapped in a basement with a fellow firefighter. Running low on air, they sent out a mayday call over the radio. Within minutes almost a dozen firefighters came to their aid, leading them to safety (Semon, Craig).
Resources:
· Byrd, Andrew. Personal Interview. 12 Oct. 2014
· Mckenzie, Kevin. Personal Interview. 12 Oct. 2014.
· Osborne, Lydia. FIREFIGHTERS SHOW MEANING OF THE WORD 'BROTHERHOOD'. Post-Tribune (IN) 27 Dec. 1999, ALL, EDITORIAL: A15. NewsBank. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
· Putnam, Tom; Sanchez, Brenna; BC Smith; Cortini, Alessandro; Eaton, Mark. BURN: A Year in the Life of Detroit Firefighters. CallBox LLC, 22 April 2012, WorldCat. Web. 8 Oct. 2014
· Semon, Craig S.. A life of service - After 44 years, firefighter calls it a career. Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA) 28 Dec. 2006, SOUTH COUNTY, LOCAL NEWS: B1. NewsBank. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
· Wilmoth, Janet. The Brotherhood. Fire Chief. 1 June, 2007. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
The tones drop, everyone runs for their assigned truck. They pull out the doors, lights flashing and siren blaring at drivers to pull over. The truck pulls to a stop as firefighters hop off, pull an attack line, and rush into the burning building. They do not stop to question if their fellow firefighters are going to help them or watch their back. The firefighters have a unique bond in the fire service known as brotherhood. Brotherhood is found in many different careers such as the police, fire, emergency medical services, and all branches of the military. Any group that faces life endangerment has a special bond of brotherhood.
What is brotherhood?
Brotherhood can be defined many different ways all depending on who you where to ask. According to Webster’s Dictionary, brotherhood is defined as “the whole body of persons engaged in the same business.” I did not agree with this definition when applying it to the fire service. Being a firefighter I experience brotherhood like no other every day. I would define brotherhood as a strong bond formed between members engaged in life endangering acts to support and protect one another and the purpose of the group. In interviews with members of the fire service, I asked them to define brotherhood in their own words. Their responses were almost identical to my definition.
So you might be wondering why brotherhood this strong forms in the fire service. Firefighters have a long history of traditions that go back to the forming of the fire service in the late 1800’s. They used to race to be the first company there and fight over who would extinguish the fire. Soon firefighters realized that it would be better for everyone if they functioned together. They became a family all their own and formed a bond that has only grown stronger in the service as years pass. When men and women are working side by side in life threatening situations, seeing horrible situations of people in pain, and witness the fury of nature they form a special bond of relying on one another. Firefighters support one another physically, emotionally, and sometimes financially. Physically they work extremely hard beside one another on calls. Emotionally firefighters support one another after terrible accidents and lose. Financially they will raise money for a hurt firefighter to support his or her family while they are struggling. Craig Semon reflected on a fire call where he was trapped in a basement with a fellow firefighter. Running low on air, they sent out a mayday call over the radio. Within minutes almost a dozen firefighters came to their aid, leading them to safety (Semon, Craig).
Resources:
· Byrd, Andrew. Personal Interview. 12 Oct. 2014
· Mckenzie, Kevin. Personal Interview. 12 Oct. 2014.
· Osborne, Lydia. FIREFIGHTERS SHOW MEANING OF THE WORD 'BROTHERHOOD'. Post-Tribune (IN) 27 Dec. 1999, ALL, EDITORIAL: A15. NewsBank. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
· Putnam, Tom; Sanchez, Brenna; BC Smith; Cortini, Alessandro; Eaton, Mark. BURN: A Year in the Life of Detroit Firefighters. CallBox LLC, 22 April 2012, WorldCat. Web. 8 Oct. 2014
· Semon, Craig S.. A life of service - After 44 years, firefighter calls it a career. Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA) 28 Dec. 2006, SOUTH COUNTY, LOCAL NEWS: B1. NewsBank. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
· Wilmoth, Janet. The Brotherhood. Fire Chief. 1 June, 2007. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.