I was a Firefighters daughter/ helper!

I can still recall the sirens also, I have one positioned near my house, I remember as a young fella climbing the tower{as young boys do} when it went off and nearly had me jump of it altogether. the dogs were the funniest thing, they purse their lips like a whistler and howl their guts out.

Wow, that is interesting. I've known families of both fireman and policeman but never actually thought of how the family members are involved or effected other than concern for the safety of their loved one.

I would be interested in hearing more about your experience - it seems it would be stressful for a teenager taking such important and possibly disasterous phone calls.

You have painted a beautiful picture of a part of your life.
I hope to see more.
My Aunt and Uncle are voluteer firemen in small region of another province.
They are contacted by cell phone. Susan

That sounds very interesting. It takes a breve man to be a fire fighter. I commend your Dad. I would be interested in hearing more about the calls you took.

You had a lot of responsibility for your young age. It does sound like an exciting time, but I can't imagine you got much sleep. I would like to hear more about this, as it is really interesting.

I too am a fireman's daughter.My dad became a fireman after leaving the military for I believe 7 or 8 years before he had to leave for health reasons. We also had to put up with those loud sirens all over town. I was so grateful when they got rid of them,lol.I would love to hear more on the fire calls you took.

I do not have any relatives as far as I know who are working in the fire service. I say as far as I know as I am tracing my ancestors and I know there are so many branches going off now that somewhere there are people of similar age to me who are probably distant cousins so many times removed! You really had an interesting experience of having a father who was a fireman. The only comparison I can share is working and living in at a conference centre in the 1990s and having the fire alarms go off several times, once because a group of young people were smoking in one of the bedrooms and it set off the smoke alarms which then set off the fire alarm in the middle of the night. I can imagine that the dogs were afraid when the sirens kept going off because they knew something was wrong. You were very good taking calls and what would now be done in this country by the emergency service operators on the 999 call centres. I bet you have some stories to tell about those times when you took calls for your father on behalf of the fire brigade.

That sounds fascinating. I had no idea that that is how firemen used to do it!
Do you do any radio dispatch work now for emergency services?

We have a daughter who is a firefighter/paramedic. Although I am extremely proud of her, I do worry when she's on duty. When she first became a paramedic, in a bad part of town, had trouble sleeping. She worked the night shift. The calls she responded to were sometimes of a dangerous nature even though the police entered the situation first.

There are females in this male dominated field more and more and they have to pass the same tests as the males so the ladies are out there doing the same tasks as the males. It's not an easy job! Do we appreciate their hard work? Why certainly we do. During the holidays many people are just so kind to bake or bring by meals to the firefighters who are on duty during the holidays. I can tell you firsthand the medics/firefighters sure appreciate it too. Thank you to all who have help support these hard working people when they can't be at home for the holidays.

Did you live in a small town, jenny? Never heard of someone answering a fire call but never really thought about fire marshalls and their families. Guess those calls have to come to a private residence.