Firefighter

A firefighter is a person who is trained and equipped to put out fires, rescue people, and in some areas provide emergency medical services. The fire service, also known in some countries as the fire brigade or fire department, is one of the emergency services. Firefighters are sometimes referred to as firemen, although women have increasingly joined firefighting units.

Miscellaneous

In popular literature, firefighters are usually depicted with Dalmatian dogs. This breed originated in southern Europe to assist with herding livestock and run along with horses, and in the days of horse-drawn fire apparatus the horses were usually released on arrival at the fire and the Dalmatians would lead/direct the horses to a safe place to wait until the fire was out. Dalmatians also filled the role of protecting the horses` feet from other dogs as the fire equipment was being transported to the fire scene.

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Firefighters often refer to law enforcement officers as "blue canaries", tongue in cheek, because one can evaluate a hazardous material incident from a distance by watching the police—they always drive right up to the scene, and if their cars don't stall, it's not an oxygen deprived atmosphere. Then they jump out of their vehicle, and if they don't die, it's not a poisonous atmosphere. Then they start lighting flares, and if there isn't an explosion, it's not an explosive atmosphere, and if the car doesn't melt into a puddle, the atmosphere isn't corrosive, and the firefighters can move in. This is a reference to the practice of using canaries to test for oxygen depletion in early mines.

Related Topics:
Hazardous material - Canaries - Mine

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Another tongue in cheek reference is the "New Jersey Taste Test", where a firefighter or police officer walks to a hazardous material, dips up a little with their finger, then tastes it. See "blue canaries" above.

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The "Hazmat Rule of Thumb": If you can hold your thumb up and still see the incident, you are still too close.

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Roughly 72% of fire departments in the United States are all volunteer.

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Fire hydrants are referred to in some regions as "fire plugs". This term originated with the advent of the first municipal water systems, in which the "pipes" were often actually hollowed out logs. For firefighting purposes, cobblestones were removed from the street or sidewalk to access the wooden water main. A hole was drilled into the log and then "plugged" with a wooden plug or stake. In the event of a fire, firefighters would locate the "fire plug" and unplug it to obtain water.

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