A young volunteer firefighter recently was presented with an opportunity to attend a top-notch fire training academy that would give him an excellent chance to achieve his number-one goal in life — to be a career firefighter. The application asked for an essay explaining why the firefighter wanted to attend the academy. The volunteer always had difficulty putting his feelings in writing and pondered many different approaches to this essay, but he finally thought that it would be best to open his heart and just start writing:

“I remember the first time I ever considered a career in firefighting. I was about eight, and my mom and I would always go to fires with my dad, who was a member of Engine 3 in my hometown. Well, this one was a big one: An office building had caught fire and when we got there smoke was billowing out of the windows, which looked to be at least 10 stories up. (Well maybe not that high; I was eight after all.) My mom and I watched as the firefighters did their thing, it was amazing. I always will be fascinated by the organized chaos that is firefighting. Then I heard my mom say ‘watch that window; here comes your dad,’ and then bam! Out of the smoke I saw my father. It was like a scene from a movie; he looked so cool, his mask was off, coat disheveled, helmet crooked, and face covered in soot. It was then when I first thought, wow, I want to do that.

“Over the years after that, I played fireman dress-up with my cousin Jason — well not my real cousin. His dad, ‘Uncle’ Gary, was also a member of Engine 3 along with my ‘Uncle’ Billy, ‘Uncle’ Bobby and, well, you get the picture. The ‘family’ and brotherhood aspect is another reason I want to be a firefighter.

“Well, years went by and I went away to school and lost sight of firefighting, thinking, ‘Well, when I get home I will volunteer.” Then someone said why wait? So I volunteered in the combination fire department where I went to college; this is when I knew I wanted firefighting to be my life, not just my avocation. This is because I have felt so rewarded in helping people, and I am not just talking about saving lives. Last week, we had a lift assist and when we got there; a poor older lady was just lying on the floor. She could have been there for days if she did not have the ‘I've fallen and I can't get up’ necklace. After we got her up, she was so thankful. The feeling of pride in my work that day was indescribable. Not to say I don't love the rush of a working fire and the feelings one gets when the tones drop. We all get that, but what I am saying is that there is more to this career then the ‘big call.’

“Furthermore, I like hard work and to break a sweat, knowing that when I get done and have put it all out there I have performed a great service. Firefighting gives you an opportunity to do this every single day.

“In conclusion, I feel that this fire academy is a great opportunity for me to better my skills and make me more proficient in firefighting so that I can better serve those people in my community and make the worst day of someone's life a little easier.”

This volunteer is one of the new generation of firefighters, the ones that more experienced firefighters and officers make many not-so-friendly comments about. They admittedly do things differently than us old-timers do, and experienced firefighters are sometimes very confused when it comes to the motives of the new generation of firefighters.

But we must understand that rookie firefighters are as soft as clay and can easily be molded by their environment. They enter the fire service with the same ideals as the young firefighter who wrote that essay. They look up to the more experienced firefighters, and just as an infant learns from his or her surroundings at an phenomenal rate, a young firefighter who enters with enthusiasm quickly learns things like attitude, dedication and values from the station environment.

The slightest comment about a “frequent flyer” or boring alarm calls by experienced firefighters — especially officers can change the attitude of newer firefighters from enthusiastic to complacent. Grumbling about fire inspections, public-education duties and open houses will quickly change the attitude of a young enthusiastic firefighter from very positive to extremely negative. This will result in an uncaring individual who performs shoddy work and has lost that sparkle in the eyes. What are the odds that the child of a dysfunctional family will find it easy to be a positive individual and a productive member of society? So too go the odds of a young firefighter being a dedicated, service-oriented, hard-working member of the department if that department or station is dysfunctional and has lost the enthusiasm for the job and all its aspects.

We must think of a young firefighter as a newborn. A newborn doesn't enter the world with any prejudices. A newborn enters the world with the need for diversity training. A newborn doesn't enter the world with many likes and dislikes. A newborn doesn't enter the world with a genuine negative attitude toward certain things and certain people. All this is learned. Parents — at least good parents — are aware of this and carefully raise that newborn to be a happy, healthy, positive and productive member of the family and society.

Officers and experienced firefighters must be constantly aware that they are being observed and listened to by younger, less experienced firefighters. These young firefighters are constantly being influenced and molded by their officers and the senior firefighters around them. They will soon talk and act like them. They will assume their attitudes, or at least assume the attitudes that they think these senior firefighters and officers have, based on the surface translation of what they say and do.

Officers and senior firefighters must be constantly aware of the influence they have on new firefighters like our young essay writer. It's the obligation of every member of the fire service to consciously preserve the spirit of the job. We often talk of succession planning when it comes to officers, but we all must be aware of succession planning when it comes to filling our ranks with dedicated, enthusiastic, community-oriented firefighters. We all must actively mentor new firefighters and strive to keep that sparkle in their eyes. Just as there are train-the-trainer activities to develop effective instructors, it's also important to train the mentor by effectively mentoring. Every firefighter should be a mentor whether it's active or passive mentoring. Passive mentoring is done by always portraying a positive attitude.

I urge you to go back and reread the essay and notice how the spirit of service and enthusiasm for the greatest profession in the world rings out. This spirit and enthusiasm must be preserved so that the fire service will continue to be the honorable and community service — oriented profession that it is. The task of preserving this spirit is up to each and every one of us, and the daily challenge is to be aware of the influence we all have in our department and station. We should all commit to preserving this all-important and essential spirit.

Chief Mike Chiaramonte, CFO, is a 40-year member of the Lynbrook (N.Y.) Fire Department and a past chief of the department. He's currently the chief fire inspector, where he's responsible for code enforcement and prevention education. Chiaramonte was a past chairman and board member of the IAFC Volunteer and Combination Officers Section Board and president of the IAFC Eastern Division. He's also a National Fire Academy Instructor and an adviser to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Chiaramonte is a state EMT-B and an instructor at the Nassau County EMS Academy. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston and a master's degree from Hofstra University, both in communications education.