A Life Dictated By the Bell

As a firefighter, I'm mentally prepared for anything. But at 50, I just hope that my body can keep up.

By David Fraser | NEWSWEEK

We all remember learning about that Pavlov guy, who taught dogs to respond to the sound of a bell. For 30 years now I have been doing the exact same thing. Not so much the teaching part; I've been the dog. Way back in 1978, I received intensive training on how to respond to a bell by immediately stopping whatever I was doing and jumping onto a fire truck. Often the bell rings while I'm doing paperwork or in some form of training. That's not so bad. The time I least enjoy hearing the bell ring is when I'm in the shower. But as time has gone by (and a lot of it has), what really seems to be getting to me is the bell that rings in the small hours of the morning and forces me to jump out of bed. Many firefighters work 24-hour shifts. This requires fire crews to spend every third day of our lives away from home. In my case, that's 10 years spent waiting to produce a Pavlovian response. Lately I've developed a cautious fear of these. It's funny, the things I've worried about as I close in on my 50th birthday. Fifty may not be that old in the private sector, but it's not the perfect age for throwing ladders against buildings or crawling through crashed cars in the middle of the night. I'm not just worried about my overall health—I'm also concerned for the welfare of my specific parts. My prostate, for instance. Thirty years ago I would not have known that a prostate has a fairly predictable life span. Now I know that it is an organ designed to live a happy life of about 50 years until it swells up and keeps you from properly using a bathroom. I doubt that either evolutionists or creationists can account for that flaw in intelligent design. And then there's my heart. I can't help but wonder what jumping out of bed all these nights is doing to my ticker. I have always been pretty good at waking up quickly for emergencies, but how many more times can my heartbeat nearly double in response to the bell without some kind of problem? Imagine having your spouse wake you up every third night several times to tell you that he or she thinks someone is breaking into the house. Now spread that angst over 30 years. Jumping out of bed is where some firefighters' careers (and lives) end. In all honesty—and I know this sounds both selfish and melodramatic—if I'm not going to live long enough to see a pension, I think I would rather perish following the performance of an act that at least I was proud of. Who wouldn't want to be remembered as the guy who "gave it all" after rescuing someone from a burning building? It sure sounds more respectable than "that poor old firefighter who had a heart attack trying to get out of bed." My career has had some interesting highs and lows. I have had the honor of taking part in saving lives under dangerous and stressful conditions that I would not wish on anyone (those are the highs). I have also been injured in ways that they never mentioned in the fire academy. I have been bitten by dogs and people. I've been kicked, punched, vomited on, overcome by smoke, burned and nearly electrocuted, and I have fallen through floors; one time I was nearly hit by lightning. Those were the lows, but for some reason people seem to enjoy those stories the most. Believe me, I'm not complaining. There are plenty of firefighters not lucky enough to still be here to tell stories. It's been a great career, and I wouldn't change a thing—except maybe the guy who bit me. It would be hard not to love being a firefighter. I appreciate the public's trust, and I'm especially grateful that I've come through the years relatively unscathed. I just hope I can continue to keep all my parts intact long enough to wrap up this career. As with everything else we enjoy in life, the trick is knowing when to stop and go home. Without a doubt, my heart has always been in my work. I just hope that the two of us are able to leave the firehouse for good someday, and in proper working order. So until the day that I get to go home and stay there, I'll continue to arrive at the firehouse every third morning prepared for anything. In recent months I've found myself staying awake at night later and later. I don't believe it's due to fear that my heart might not want to wake up as fast as necessary when Pavlov calls. I just hope that if I become a firefighter health statistic, it's for being one of the lucky guys, who enjoys his pension for at least as long as he did his career.

Do Americans Think Your Job is Prestigious?

By Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com writer

Let?s admit it: We all need to feel special sometimes. Well, if you?re a firefighter, scientist or teacher, you should. After all, a new Harris poll indicates that plenty of Americans already think you are.

U.S. adults, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, see firefighters, scientists and teachers as the most prestigious occupations while bankers, actors and real estate agents are the least prestigious occupations. The 2007 ?Most Prestigious Occupations? poll measured the public perceptions of 23 professions.

Participants were asked to rank these professions as having ?very great prestige,? ?considerable prestige,? ?some prestige,? or ?hardly any prestige at all.? They could also opt not to rank them or say they weren?t sure.

Sixty-one percent of adults consider firefighters to have ?very great prestige,? making this occupation the most prestigious on the list. Five other occupations were ranked as having ?very great prestige? by over 50 percent of the adults surveyed: Scientists and teachers are considered very prestigious by 54 percent of adults, followed by doctors and military officers, who earn the prestige of 52 percent of Americans, and nurses, whom half of all adults consider very prestigious.

Among the least prestigious occupations are real estate brokers, actors and bankers. Only 5 percent of survey participants ranked real estate brokers as very prestigious; 9 percent gave actors this label, followed by 10 percent for bankers. Accountants, entertainers, stockbrokers, union leaders, journalists, business executives and athletes all also ranked low on the list: Less than 20 percent of adults consider any of the aforementioned occupations to have ?very great prestige.?

Consequently, five occupations are perceived to have ?hardly any prestige at all? by at least a quarter of adults: stockbrokers (25 percent), union leaders (30 percent), entertainers (31 percent), real estate brokers (34 percent) and actors (38 percent).

Harris Interactive started conducting its ?Most Prestigious Careers? survey in 1977 and included only 11 professions. The most significant change since the survey?s inception is that, with the exception of teachers and clergy, the perceived prestige of every one of the original 11 occupations has actually decreased over the years. The most drastic drop occured among scientists, lawyers and athletes, whose prestige dropped by 12 points, 14 points and 10 points, respectively. Clergy members are considered prestigious by one percentage point more of the population than they were 30 years ago, while teachers? perceived prestige increased by 25 percent.

Understandably, the year-to-year changes are less drastic. Scientists? perceived prestige hasn?t changed in the last year, and despite a significant jump from 1977, teachers? perceived prestige has increased by only two percentage points. Bankers and athletes showed the most drastic drop in prestige: Both are down seven points from last year. The profession that saw the biggest increase in prestige from 2006 was that of farmers, who rose five points.

While the survey measures the degree to which certain occupations are considered prestigious, it offers no indication as to why people consider certain occupations more prestigious than others. For more information and to see the complete results of the survey, visit www.harrisinteractive.com.