The Fire/EMS world is a step above the law enforcement world. When it comes to training, terminology, and the scenes you deal with are way more advanced than LEOs.
Kinda like why the courts are dying, a lot more work and terminology to learn.
Not many people want to do it unless they have the passion for it.
This too. FFA is kinda pointless as we only have ONE fire department. Unlike POST.
Maybe two fire departments in countyā¦. Wonāt happen but still. One offers what the other doesnāt like LEO departments do.
I mean considering Ive been in both for going on a year for legal and 2 years for tacticalā¦
unless your saying thereās a less toxic sector out there
Externally things get a bit spicy but internally weāre (wellā¦ i speak from SWAT and MP experience) pretty chill
DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE NOT THE OPINIONS OF THE ENTIRE FIRE DEPARTMENT HIGH COMMAND, THESE ARE MY PERSONAL OPINIONS AND SHOULD BE TAKEN AS SUCH.
Why do you not want to join SCFD?
This was the question presented in the thread, and throughout my time serving in command within the Fire Department Iāve asked people the same questions upon graduating who did not apply or did not show interest in the Fire Department starting from around June of 2020 to now. The most common answer Iāve gotten was āI am not interested in the department, I got my certification to give medical care.ā This is a perfectly reasonable reasonable response and I understand entirely, while I served in the Senate I went through the Firestone Medical Academy for my Paramedic certification as I did not wish to join the Fire Department at the time, however through the academy and riding along with members (namely Swag, Fighting and Reeseman) it sparked a love in the department and the field to which I call my home today.
Why and how did SCFD fall from grace?
I have not been in the Fire Department for as long as any of the other members in this post, I was not in under the āgolden ageā of Mack and the beginning of Zips leadership, I cannot speak on what happened then, only on the downfall. Throughout 2020 when the pandemic first struck, SCFD exploded in members with new individuals flocking to the State in droves and with mild interest in the Fire/EMS scene. SCFD in spring/summer of 2020 reached an all time peak of 134 members, excluding founders. With an influx of individuals to a certain aspect of the state comes huge differing personalities and huge standards for the department to uphold. Throughout the Spring to the Fall of 2020 the department had countless reports from members and endless drama during that time, to which I personally believe marked the beginning of the end. Most complaints filed were for harassment, corruption, failure to act from command and a single instance of nepotism. With endless in-fighting and endless drama within the department, between the months of June and October (4 months), the department witnessed 42 resignations (namely veteran members), only accepting roughly 25 candidates in that same time time frame. Between October to the point when the Current Fire Chief was confirmed, the department suffered another 38 resignations with more veteran members leaving. In under 12 months, more than half of the department had resigned with candidate intakes not happening often enough to fill the gaps of the members whoāve left. The point that marked the end, personally, was on December 15th, 2020 when former Deputy Fire Chief swaggermanfighter stepped down from his position who then later went on to resign on March 2nd, 2021, leaving a hole in the department that nobody, not even myself nor zeppelin could ever hope to fill.
Where is SCFD now?
SCFD is between a rock and a hard place as it stands, something that the current administration has been working tirelessly on attempting to remove ourselves from. Sitting at only 42 commissioned members (excluding high command), It truly pains me in my heart to say that the current administration is running a dying department that without external help, will completely crumble to nothing. The current administration has amended out nearly all of the Zip era SOGās and implementing new ones that the department and its command has input on that is listened to. We really believe that we have been making great strides in progress for the department, but from seeing dwindling numbers and interest in the department something is not working somewhere. Myself and the rest of the Fire Department administration will continue to work tirelessly until the department is back on its feet hopefully before the release of V3, though at this point it is doubtful.
What does the future of SCFD look like?
To be frank, I cannot comment on the future. I, at this point in time, do not know how things will play out however after reading replies to this post, we (the High Command) plan to implement immediate changes to the department to include;
It is hopeful that this department can return to the family that it once was. Command has grown distant from their lower members, High command even further. When everybody in this community is competing for limited positions, people will find any reason possible to get somebody in hot water to tarnish their promotability and itās an issue that a solution has not been found yet.
I think this is nobody else except FFAās fault. People canāt find FFA amusing and nobody wants to be a staff member. Many members of FFA and its command are soft and will jump the gun, hell iāve done it too. Overall, scfd doesnāt feel like a family anymore
I think that more people would be interested in joining SCFD, if the material was easier, and not so long to learn. A lot of people want to join SCFD to be a Firefighter, not a paramedic. The thing that is turning away a lot of people is the requirement for medical certifications, for someone who just wants to be a firefighter. I personally do not want to learn how to save someone who is having a heart attack on Roblox. But I do want to become a Firefighter in SCFD, but I donāt want to learn and take so much time to memorize and study the medical parts of it.
The Department of health should be the primary medical department, with SCFD being the secondary medical department. Fed says that SCFD has primary command on medical calls. This would make it, so SCFD can focus more on Firefighters, instead of paramedics.
Personally, I resigned just because of the Firestone Medical Community itself. It wasnāt what it use to be; itās not the same āfamilyā anymore. I also resigned due to the general loss of interest because medical stuff wasnāt done enough; everything was too repetitive. Especially with civs, they get extremely repetitive and boring because its the same thing everytime. Either explaining the medical or the same cases. The cases that FD command makes also arenāt as enjoyable due to the constant threat of having our certs revoked.
To be perfectly honest, Crosslay hit it perfectly. I joined FFA because originally I actually intended on joining SCFD, but through 2 classes, Iām leaving FFA with just an EMT-B, and hereās why. When you ask around you quickly realize that SCFD isnāt what it seems to be, so many people talk about the issues in the department, and honestly it puts a lot of us off. Next up is the fact that FD is so RP based that it really takes away the fun of everything, If we look at being an LEO, there isnāt a lot of *does stuff* when you do your job, 90% of it is chases and talking with people. But if you look at the FD side of things you have to memorize a bunch of RP things which has very little gain and sometimes doesnāt even feel rewarding to do.
SCFD is definitely not the same as it was over a year ago. I have been here since August of 2020, way past the āgolden ageā but it was still a great department to be in. Now that I am a company officer some 14 months later, things have changed mainly for the worse and have only just started to lick its wounds are get going strong again. Iāve heard all of the arguments about why SCFD has āfallen from graceā and why weāve lost so many members. Now that I think about it, they are all invalid. I feel that a return to somewhat stability within the department is very unlikely, however, some of us have decided to stick around and how things would play out. Overall, Firestone and Law Enforcement (and some aspects of Fire & EMS) are starting to die out, as many of those involved in it are moving on with their adult lives, such as higher education & actual jobs and responsibilities. Some 50,000 people are going to see the inevitable end of the State of Firestone. Mayflower has already fallen, Aigio is dying, Firestone prevails, but at what cost?
Itās time to reminisce on the good times, as they most likely will never return.
why fight fires constantly when you can murk idiots
its gets stale, the reason im still in SCFD is because I havenāt found time to get my POST cert, and Iāve already made moves away from SCFD, I just joined two different departments that Iām focusing more time into and having a better time in. another reason while Iām still there is because Iām one of those guys that was of what you guys call the āgolden ageā and Iām trying to pass that knowledge down to other people so they can be better firefighters/paramedics. firefighting is my thing, iāve been doing it for a very long time, and Iāve had occasions where Iāve almost left the state entirely for job offers for fire depts that fell through, and im stuck in SCFD because there isnāt really any better place to go. But SCFD, if you donāt get promoted, is kind of a dead end job.
i think thereās only like 3 OGs still in the department? everyone else has either left firestone or moved to better and greater things, and Iāve been kind of striving for that to.
I left because I felt like it became a chore to do a weekly 1-hour log. At first, I felt happy to do them cause the RP was good and the dept activity was good. I never had much of an issue with the material from FFA, maybe more what we did and did not have equipment-wise. I guess the main reason I left was boredom. After a while of people leaving, fewer calls came in, and they kind of started to repeat. Another main factor as to why I left was the lack of events. Not many mass shifts, no more MCIs, stuff like that. The most interesting one I saw was the gas explosion. I also wouldāve liked something like the 2019 Halloween event and an outbreak and whatnot, but that is more on a dev/founder level. But to conclude, it was mostly lack of interest, boring calls and lack of stuff to do, no events, and real-life stuff.
you change the fucking curriculum every two weeks and if you forget the smallest change cert gond. i quite literally forgot a word in a size up and got yelled at
i agree, it is also pretty harsh, thereās a lot to remember and curriculum is all out of whack.
EMS roleplay is agonizing at times. this is definitely something that v3 will fix though
Aigio is dead, firestone is dying.
V3? 2037.
Iām just a commerce suck up so
Currently, Iām an SCFD Candidate and thus far Iāve enjoyed my time thoroughly. Because of my minuscule amount of experience in SCFD, I wonāt be commenting on the departmentās operations based on past experience, activity, etc.
I personally have some comments about FFA. Though it is efficient and good at teaching you things (if you care enough), it definitely doesnāt prepare you for the things you are to expect in SCFD or DOH. Those really only come with experience but thatās to be expected considering weāre learning actual procedures based on real Red Cross algorithms and procedures and whatnot.
Yes, FFA is quite harsh and itās hard to understand, however, I definitely liked learning real things because it gave me an opportunity to learn some shit through a block game. I learned how to take ACLS vitals and how to identify an elevated ST-segment through FFA. Obviously, not everyone comes to FFA for the learning experience but thatās why I went. If there was a solid āhalfwayā point where it wasnāt TOO complex but still complex enough to make some relative sense in an actual medical scene, then I believe that a lot more people would go to FFA and fill SCFDās ranks. Iād also like to say if we were to make EMT-P and EMT-B certs easier to comprehend, then CCEMT-Pās would need to be much more common for people like me or people who want to treat at an advanced level of care through a lego game (for whatever reason). This brings up a conversation about DOH and FMA and all that shit but thatās not why weāre here.
Basically:
EMT-P and B more simple = More CCEMT-P
EMT-P and B stay the same = No people go to SCFD and DOH and etc.
Iād also like to make a small note about dev support. SCFD hasnāt seen a lot of love recently from the devs and I believe that a good rig upgrade or some new incentive to SCFD would increase candidacy and application numbers. I personally have seen the V3 rigs and they look fucking just :mwa:
Once SCFD gets some updates, FFA makes some major changes (no shots on FFA admin or cross), then Firesotne Paramedicine would be a whole lot more interesting and incentivizing.
Sorry if this whole rant about FFA and SCFD and shit is hard to read Iām tired and I have PSATās tomorrow. Ly gn
On a medical call command is usually the first unit on scene or the highest level provider on scene. SCFD EMT-Bās arenāt like senior to SCMS EMT-Bs. I do see your point though, I have heard other people say that they donāt want to do medical, which is reasonable. For FF/EMT-B though you donāt need to do that much medical and there isnāt that much medical to learn (Itās literally just one FFA tier). As a firefighter on a medical call, chances are EMS are already there so you pretty much just do what they tell you to do. I do understand that some people are put off doing FF cert as they have to do EMT-B as well, but thatās kind of unavoidable.