r/Firefighting • u/Launch_Rockface • Jul 10 '25

General Discussion Unpopular Opinions In the Fire Service

I am curious what other peoples unpopular opinions of the fire service are? I know there are alot of things we are doing or trying to do to improve the fire service as far as training and wellness, but I also know alot of it is just not that great in my opinion.

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u/LikeAPhoenixFromAZ Jul 11 '25

Most instructors and third party training organizations are just bullshitters who talk a good game and only MMQB every other agency including their own without providing their own game plan. They don’t really give you any quality instruction. They just teach because they have the credentials of being a Lt or Captain with some big agency and want to make money doing any easy gig.

18

u/Launch_Rockface Jul 11 '25

Agree, It seems that firefighters love to sell shit to eachother and that really shows with the endless number of training companies who keep coming out.

12

u/LikeAPhoenixFromAZ Jul 11 '25

And they all teach edgy stuff. I’m making this up but they’ll hook you telling you something like, “Why is your department still using irons for forcible entry?” or “Deuce and half should be the only handline on an engine. Everything else is inferior.”

6

u/theopinionexpress Jul 11 '25

True. A lot of edgelords pushing their edgy hot take. Giving some half-baked motivational speech.

If I’m going to a class I want hard skills. I don’t want to waste my time.

I’m a company officer myself and I try to cut through all the fluff as much as possible and get directly to what we need to do when I conduct some company training. Most of the things we do can be done a hundred different ways. I like to crowdsource our techniques with my crew. I’ll offer up how I do something (how I used to pump, or force a door, pull a line, search) and between the 4 of us I’d like to come to a consensus on the best way for us for whatever task were trying to do. I believe in empowering and trusting your people, working as a team. As a junior ff, this was unheard of on my department and STILL IS.