BY BARRY S. DASKAL
So it’s your first day sitting at the big desk. It seems so far from the day you first climbed onto the rig, threw on your turnout coat and helmet, and smiled inwardly listening to the sound of the siren. You had achieved your dream of joining the volunteer fire department.
A few years later while pulling ceilings after a hard-fought “job,” you think about what you had just lived through: forcing the door to the fire apartment, advancing down a hot dark hallway, and conducting your search. The engine came in and put out the fire that was rolling over you, turning it into a boiling steam that rushed past you as the heat lifted. Now here you are with the pike pole in your hands and you realize for the first time, “I can really do this; I’m getting good at this.” You work harder, train harder, study, and take every course you can at the local fire academy. You decide you are growing into a leader instead of being a follower.
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