Are you at your forever department?

[u/iheartMGs]

EDIT: I really appreciate all the feedback from everyone! Pretty cool to hear all the different responses! Stay safe brothers/sisters and wish everyone the best of luck throughout your careers!

Title says it all. Curious how many members have found their forever depts and why you made it your home for the rest of your career. The culture at my department is simply amazing. The chiefs know every member by first name and your put into a leadership role pretty early on if you’ve earned the trust of the officers. They will send you to virtually any training, deploy you across the nation, etc. Let’s hear what you have.

[u/firefighter26s]

Nope.

Did 7 years with my original small town volunteer department (100 calls a year), I'm at 18 years with my current, larger, Combination Department (1400 calls a year). That'll put me at 45 years old and 25 years in the fire service later in June.

I'll likely be an empty nester by this time next year as my kids graduate this summer; probably look at downsizing as we don't need this big 4+ bedroom house. That means there's a good chance I'll end up moving, maybe closer to work (I own a business), which means the possibility of a new department. My retirement plan was always to find a small department somewhere that needed a Chief so no matter what I figure I have at least one or two more departments before calling it!

[u/iheartMGs → u/firefighter26s]

That’s exactly what one of our BC’s did. Definitely setup for major comfort when both of you decide to throw the towel in. 45 is definitely a great age to retire if you get in at the right time which you did. Bravo brother!