I'm not paid, but I still want to be a professional!

May 9, 2012 9:09 AM

I just joined my local volunteer Fire & Rescue Squad. What should I be reading to get up to speed on this dizzyingly complicated new field?

Despite deep-seated lifelong academic inclinations, I've just started training with a volunteer rescue squad in a medium-sized Southern town. Because the professionals are few and far between in the surrounding counties, it looks like the squad is called on to do it all: first responder, EMT ride-alongs when they need an extra pair of hands, firefighting and rescue, marine assistance and rescue, high-angle rescue, vehicle extrication and everything else under the sun.

I know there's no substitute for hands-on training, which I will be doing a lot of for the foreseeable future. But I'd also really like to get acquainted with these concepts and practices in any way that I can! I'm looking for things that will impart a certain amount of technical knowledge in an easy-to-digest way, but perhaps also books that give me an idea of what to expect and the 'flavor' of what it's like to do rescue work. So, dear paramedics, firefighters and other adventurers of Mefi, do you have any books to recommend?

posted by WidgetAlley to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

Essentials of Fire Fighting and Fire Department Operations is the text used by many (maybe all?) fire training academies. I used the 3rd edition of this book when I went through the military fire academy in 1995. That would be as good a starting point as any, I'd think.
posted by EKStickland at 9:44 AM on May 9, 2012

I tend to stay away from the many memoirs that endorse the profound mythology of the field, painting us as tormented heros fighting burnout from the many terrible things we see, saving others but barely able to save ourselves blah blah blah. One book I enjoyed was So Others Might Live: A History of New York's Bravest - The FDNY from 1700 to the Present. Despite the title, it's a well-written and matter-of-fact account of how firefighting has changed (and in some ways, remained unshakably the same) through the centuries. Many amazing stories of fighting catastrophic fires are mixed in with interesting tidbits on the social changes that transformed the department and the city, and how events like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire left a lasting legacy on the nation.
posted by itstheclamsname at 9:46 AM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'd also like to recommend three websites where you can learn a lot about fire and rescue tactics.

VentEnterSearch collects "tricks of the trade." Some may not be applicable, some are controversial, but there's good information to be gleaned and lots of fodder for discussion.

Firegeezer and Statter911 tend to aggregate media reports on fire and show "raw video" of firefighting efforts. As a field, we tend to be ruthless armchair quarterbacks of the decisions others make under tough conditions, but you can learn a lot from watching and discussing their tactics. If you don't run lots of fire, observing fire behavior in these videos can help you learn how to read smoke, a skill that may someday save your life.
posted by itstheclamsname at 10:04 AM on May 9, 2012

Not a technical manual or a "how to" book, but Population 485 really captures what it's like to be a small-town EMS member. You'll be responding to calls and treating people you know. You'll be called at all hours and in all conditions. The author does a great job of portraying not only the physical demands of the job, but the mental strain it can place you under as well.
posted by cosmicbandito at 10:31 AM on May 9, 2012

I work in a vocational high school that has a criminal Justice and Public Safety class. The teacher there offered this suggestion: "It really depends on what they want to focus on, it is such a big field. If they already have their Fire Fighter certificate and want to focus on Rescue, then the question is USAR (Urban) or MSAR (Mountain). I'd suggest any of the books available from CMC Rescue"
posted by jessamyn at 7:33 AM on May 10, 2012