Tag Archives: fire service family

Editor’s Note: The following from my fire service colleague, John Murphy, was originally published on LinkedIn and is presented here with his permission. By: John K. Murphy, Esq., Veteran, PA-C, Chaos Manager and Attorney The American fire service is frequently described using familial language. Firefighters call one another “brothers” and “sisters,” departments are referred to as “families,” and leaders often ...

When a firefighter or officer reports for duty at the beginning of their shift they are no longer on “their time.” They are now on the time of whoever is paying their salary. Time during their shift spent on work or activity that’s not directly linked to the job they’ve been hired for is…fraud.

However, there have been several events in the recent past that have caused me to question just how much of a family we really are. When CECFEMS Recruit School #22 graduated this past summer, more than half the seats in the auditorium were empty. Sure, joyous family members of the graduates were there along with most of the on-duty Training Division staff. Missing, however, were members from the shifts and stations where those people, our newest members, would be reporting in a few days to join “the family.”