I rank Firefighters tops for bravery.

[trumad]

What a courageous job.... what a courageous job...

[Myrina]

1. Yep. My dad was a firefighter and then a chief, and then an instructor ...

.... we have pictures of him after fires, covered in soot, sweaty, and in one instance - after a New Year's Day fire - frozen into his coat. My mom literally needed to use an ice-pick on the hooks to get the coat open. I remember a couple times when he was the first one into the building - no youngster, he must have been in his early 50's by then.

And he was the first fire chief in the state of WI to hire a female Firefighter (she was one of his pall bearers 10 years later), then after he retired from the department, went on to teach fire science at the local technical college.

[trumad]

2. Awesome Dad...

Very cool

[Myrina]

3. I don't think it's a profession ... it's a calling ...

It's a part of 'who you are'. The risks are so very obvious, I don't think anyone would arbitrarily choose it as a means to a paycheck.

Thankfully he was never seriously injured, nor were any of his crew. Nor were my uncle (dad's brother) who was a Lieutenant, my brother (who's now an Assistant Chief in a different city) or my nephew who's a volunteer in his hometown. It's almost literally in our genes.

I can't begin to imagine what the families in Arizona are feeling.

[byeya]

4. I fought over 250 forest fires in my career and the protective equipment has greatly

improved so that each firefighter has an individual fire shelter with him/her but when a fire gets this hot and the fire is moving so fast then there is little you can do.
It's devastating to lose coworkers and I wish the best for the families and loved ones in this terrible time.

[HappyMe]

5. My uncle was a firefighter

in Chicago for almost 40 years. He's retired now. I can't imagine running toward fire or into a burning building.

[Octafish]

6. Volunteer Firefighters, too.

They'd give their life to save another human being's life.

[byeya]

7. Volunteer firefighters especially. In rural areas, the people usually can't afford to pay for both

the firefighting equipment and firefighter salaries. They may be a couple of paid fire dept members but most are volunteer and spend a lot of time - their days off - in training. The field, both building fire and wild land fire, has changed so much in the past 40 it's scarcely recognizable from - say - the 1960s. It's safer but still dangerous work and to a large extent performed by public spirited volunteers.