Fire-Police: The Unsung Hero's Of The Fire Service

Years ago when I first joined the fire service as a "knob" as we were known back then, I was going on one of my first calls as a very young firefighter. As we got close to the scene I noticed that traffic was being directed by what seemed to me to be a very old man with a vest on. I was always used to the police directing traffic at all emergencies. I asked who he was and was told fire-police; when I asked more about this I was told that when firefighters got too old to fight fires, they were relegated to directing traffic at fire scenes. I could never envision myself doing anything but fighting fires (we all know how it is when we are very young--we are never going to grow old) so I put it out of my mind. Spin ahead 39 years later; my days of going into burning buildings are over; I'm more of a liability inside a burning building as opposed to being outside staring in as the young knobs go running into a building. In the career service, most men or women my age would be retired in most cases, but for me it's too tough to let go of something I love doing. After a few months of standing around being frustrated because there wasn't anything useful I could do on the fire ground I seriously contemplated leaving the fire service for good. As I was telling another fire fighter at the fire station of my intentions, a fire Police officer who was there overheard me and approached me and explained that while I might not be able to fight fires anymore, there was always something you could do that would be very useful to the fire department and that was to join the Fire Police. I thought about it and figured I'd give it a chance; hell, if i didn't like it I could always resign and leave the fire service. After joining I quickly found out that fire police officers did a lot more then directing traffic; in addition to their traffic control duties, they crowd control duties, prevented looting on the fire scene, assisted the local and state police agencies as directed, kept the fire ground safe for the firefighters/EMT's, protecting evidence at potential crime scenes and other duties assigned to them. What an eye opener for me! Additionally, in New York State, all Fire-Police officers are sworn Peace Officers, which means they have full powers of arrest when on duty, which makes us a part of the Law Enforcement community. Many, but not all, Fire-Police officers take additional training aside from the state mandated 21 hour Fire-Police training course, to help them enhance their skills on the street. When you think about it, they really perform a very valuable service not only to the fire service but to the law enforcement community as well since it frees up police officers to do other things that are important as opposed to standing directing traffic. The Fire-Police motto is "first to arrive, last to leave"; I think in many cases, fire-police officers are under appreciated not only by civilians (only because many of them don't realize what they actually do) but also by the fire departments in which they serve. Next time you see a fire-police officer directing traffic, remember the contributions he/she makes to keeping things safe for you and your family.