MOGD student Jonah Quaale (class of 2024) is a volunteer at Little Fork Volunteer Fire and Rescue and
has agreed to share with us his experience as a firefighter!
What inspired you to get into firefighting? Are you considering continuing with firefighting as your
career path?
I volunteered at my station for two reasons, I didn’t have many extracurricular activities and I wanted to
do something cool and interesting. Also, I had always thought being a firefighter would be really
awesome, so I wanted to try it while I had the opportunity. I don’t plan on making it my career, I plan on
becoming a mechanical engineer, but I am considering going into fire equipment and apparatus
engineering. I think it would be very interesting to design new equipment for the fire service. However, I
think I will continue to volunteer and staff in the future.
What was the training process like? What were/are some physical or mental abilities that were
crucial to develop?
I’d like to make it clear that currently I am still not a certified firefighter yet, however I am finishing my
training in two weeks, at which point I will be.
As an uncertified firefighter I can run all fire calls and help with all tasks, except going interior on a fire.
(I cannot go inside a burning structure until certified)
I didn’t start as a firefighter, my first certification was as an EVOC driver, which means I’m certified to drive
ambulances and fire engines. Our station runs both EMS and Fire calls, but most calls are EMS. I started
my fire training in September, so by the end of January it will have been five months. Every Tuesday and
Thursday we have class from 6:30 pm to around 10 pm, then most Sundays are “practical days.” On
practical days we perform actual tasks that we’ve learned about in class, for example, the 7th of January,
was our ventilation day. We covered cutting holes in roofs using our chainsaws, and putting out car fires.
One thing I’ve realized through firefighting is that there is a special kind of competence that is crucial to
being successful at it. It’s a quick on-your-feet ability to make decisions and judgment calls. If you lack
this you won’t be able to make it, things just happen too fast to keep up otherwise. Perhaps equally as
important is just plain old physical ability. It’s hard to describe how exhausting it is to be in full PPE (fire
gear) and be breathing air through our packs while performing already difficult tasks like moving charged
hoselines through buildings and up stairs. It’s kind of like trying to run a marathon in a ski jacket and ski
pants. Basically you get really hot and sweaty and there’s no way to cool down unless you undress (which
you can’t do).
What does a typical shift look like as a firefighter?
It depends, as a volunteer station we are unique in that we have people staffing 24/7, but sometimes it can
be difficult to find coverage, since we all have jobs and lives outside of volunteering. But, ordinarily
someone like me would be on call as a driver and I would drive the ambulances on medical calls, but if a
fire call does come in we almost always wait until people show up to help. As volunteers we have
something called home response. Basically, I get texts all day about every call we get. If I see a fire call I
take off and drive as fast as I can to the station, fire calls require a lot of personnel so this is kind of the
only way to do it.
What misconceptions do people commonly believe about firefighting?
Probably one of the biggest ones would be that we regularly carry people out of burning buildings haha. If
we do end up saving someone it’s usually a grandma or some disabled person, not a baby or something.
Also that our gear makes us totally safe from fire, if it gets hot enough our gear will fail and there’s
nothing we can do, everything melts at some point, even our PPE.
What has been the greatest challenge in firefighting?
Probably the practical days. They go from 8 am until whenever we are finished. On one practical day, it
rained the entire day, so naturally our gear got soaked and felt ten pounds heavier, and we didn’t finish
until 7:30 pm. The practicals consist of intense drills that have pushed me to my limits multiple times.
These days are the biggest driver of dropouts, we’ve gone from a class of 24 down to 13. Some have been
kicked, others just quit.
Has firefighting taught you any lessons that are applicable to other areas of life?
Definitely, that either you are a part of the solution, or part of the problem. This is something our
instructors have been adamant about, unfortunately, things can get very serious fast, and people can die if
someone does their job wrong. When someone doesn’t pull their weight they drag the entire class down.
This has led to a lot of peer pressure in class, but I realize this is necessary, because people can get really
hurt if someone unqualified were to become certified.
What is your favorite part about your job?
I really love the adrenaline rush it gives. there’s nothing quite like barreling down the road in an engine
with lights and sirens blaring. It’s a great feeling.
What advice would you give to someone considering looking for a career in or volunteering for
firefighting?
Probably just make sure you’re mentally and physically ready for it, we’ve already lost almost half our
class. All of them thought they could do it, but the reality is that not everyone is cut out for it. Of course
that’s my experience in my county, the training and work isn’t the same everywhere. After all, firefighting
isn’t the only thing we do, you can become an EMT, driver, or do one of the many other jobs in the fire
and rescue field.
