"You can only cure so many cancers."

Working in Fire Prevention

After seven years on the line, Pat's physical strength began to diminish; she needed to move on. Her daughter was entering her teenage years, making the decision even more necessary. Pat wanted to be there at night so she could spend more time with her daughter and know what her daughter was doing. She put in her application for fire prevention and was immediately hired. Pat still works on the line but in a less strenuous manner. If there is a call and the firefighters need back-up, Pat mans a rig and goes to the fire until the overtime people arrive. The major difference in her job now is that she must stay outside, she cannot enter the burning building (making her job safer and less stressful).

Pat believes very strongly in fire prevention and intervention. She works with children, parents, and the elderly. In order to remain up-to-date with the current issues regarding fire prevention, Pat frequently attends classes and seminars at the fire academy. During her most recent class she heard a quote that inspired her. She refers to this as her new motto: "You can only cure so many cancers." Pat tries as hard as she can to teach kids and parents the importance of fire prevention. Through her intervention she can only teach them so much; the rest is up to the parents and/or guardians to reinforce. Pat believes that since children are our future, she must do all that she can in order to teach them the appropriate way to act around fire.

"When you go in you're wearing an air-pack and you're wearing everything else. You weigh about 30 lbs. extra. And that's before you get wet."

Pat's typical day is much different now that she is off the line. Her day begins with returning phone calls and finishing up paper work from the day before. Then she goes on inspections, if she does not have a set group of inspections then she will pick a random group of places to work. If all goes well Pat takes some time out to read the newspaper... a luxury she didn't always have on the line. After this she works on codes. Codes are the fire regulations that places must follow. Although the department tries to keep Pat separate from codes, on a slow day she is often caught citing people for violation versus teaching them how to avoid fire code violations. Pat hates this and feels it makes her look two faced and she prefers to be the good guy. Pat finds it hard to cite people because you never know who you are citing. You could be citing a ninety-year-old man on welfare, or a middle class family.