Hi antiwork, I'm writing this to kind of vent frustration but also shed some light on how even volunteer first responders still get shit on by those in charge.
TL;DR – Fire Chief begs for new fire fighters but seems to have an issue hiring women.
So to get things started I wanted to point out a few facts that some of you might not know. First, in the United States, outside of major cities, a majority of fire departments are either paid on call or volunteer. Also a majority of these departments are very understaffed, mostly due to the fact that being a firefighter isn't for everyone and it is so hard to juggle your day job, family life and being on call 24/7 to answer the call to help someone in the community. So there is a shortage in most areas and some places are so understaffed that 2 people are showing up to calls that could need at minimum 4+.
Now knowing this information let me tell you the absolute struggle my wife has been dealing with trying to get on our local department.
A little bit about her work back ground, she has 5 years experience in EMS, she has her industrial fire fighter certification, and she has recommendations from 2 different fire chiefs in the surrounding cities that she has worked with in her EMS career. Also she doesn't use drugs, does not have a criminal record, and has a decent work history.
Now she first tried to apply to the fire department around our house back in 2020, she didn't hear back for months and then finally when she kept trying to reach them she was told that there was a new fire chief coming in and once he got settled she would get a call. That never happened. She applied again in 2021, and again never heard anything back. This time no amount of following up got her any information. In 2022, her and I both applied around late August. This time around I heard back within 2 weeks and was fully on the department at the beginning of October after my physical and fit test.
I also want to add that prior to being signed on, I had no prior experience in being a first responder, in fact my day job is in IT.
But like every other time, my wife has to call and call and call before she finally got any word back. They gave her a run of the mill excuse that she was denied because someone gave her a bad reference. This immediately raised a flag for us because everyone on her resume she had as a reference gave her nothing but glowing reviews and were shocked to hear the news. The people are also very trustworthy and no nonsense, so they wouldn't waste their time to be petty and try to tank her career. The other bit of information was that they didn't call any of my references. So we were shocked and thought that something was fishy.
I thought about not pushing forward with being on the department because of this whole situation but my wife insisted saying that she at least wanted one of us to be on and she'll try signing on again later.
So between October of 22 to now, we've speculated as to why they denied her, the first being that there are a few veteran people on the department that also work in EMS that are not huge fans of her and maybe they shit talked her to the chief.
But as time has gone on the new theory is that the fire chief for the township does not want to hire any female firefighters, because a few years ago there was a sexual harassment incident that happened, and it's easier for him to just not hire women vs fixing the guys club attitude that the fire service is full of.
Now don't get me wrong , there are 2 female firefighters on the department, but they were hired before the new fire chief started.
Finally, we have today. We had a district wide meeting and we were able to bring our spouses, so my wife came to give me her support and get to meet some people she knows at the station. The first 20 minutes of the meeting consisted of the Fire Chief talking about the lack of man power and low turnout for calls and talking about trying to get new people on. My wife decided that she would use this opportunity to see if now would be a good time to apply.
So at the end of the meeting she walked up to him, introduced herself and told him that she was interested in joining the department. His response back was “I know who you are and I wont tell you again but we will not hire you”
She replied back with an “oh? Okay?”
And he comes back very rudely with ” Im not getting into this right now but i don't want you on my department, We told you No already and I am not changing my mind”
She was floored. She doesn't know what she did to be completely blackballed by the department and it left both of us in a state of shock. She's devastated because being on a fire department has been a dream of hers since she was little.
So now here we are, both of us are pissed at the situation and I'm even thinking of quitting, again because I feel like his response to her was over the top rude and I worry about what will happen if i get injured or killed on scene. Being apart of a fire department gives you a sense of family and support, but I'm afraid because eof this Fire Chiefs black balling, if something happens to me on a call she will be left without that system.