I decided to look up firefighter in the dictionary to see what it meant.

fire fighter n. – A member of a fire department who fights fires.

I thought this was interesting, because it started me thinking about the word “firefighter.” I found a lot of words that rhyme with firefighter. I didn’t know there were so many: all-nighter, backbiter, braillewriter, bullfighter, dogfighter, exciter, first-nighter, gauleiter, ghostwriter, gunfighter, highlighter.

Then I found some more interesting information about the word. The English word “firefighter” has been used since at least 1903.

The goals of firefighting are (in order of priority): personal safety, saving victims’ lives, saving property and protecting the environment. As such, the skills required for safe operations are regularly practiced during training evaluations throughout a firefighter’s career? The history of organized combating of structural fires dates back at least to ancient Egypt. Many people put out fires back in biblical times, but whether people did it for a living is unknown.

Firefighters were known in the Roman Republic but only as privately organized and funded groups operating

as more of a business than a service. This ad-hoc approach was

later revolutionized during the Principate to become the first truly professional firefighting service. Augustus called for the creation of

a trained fire guard, paid and equipped by the state. Known as

the Vigiles, they were organized

into cohorts and also served as

a night watch and a city police

force

In popular literature, firefighters are sometimes depicted with dalmatian dogs. This breed originated in southern Europe to assist with

herding livestock and run along with horses, and in the days of horse-drawn fire vehicles, the

horses were usually released on arrival at the fire, and the dalmatians would lead the horses through traffic and to a safe place to wait until the fire was out. Dalmatians also filled the role of protecting the horses’ feet from other dogs as equipment was being transported to the fire scene.

In reality, most fire dogs were mutts pulled from the street (and thus cheaper to acquire).

 This is somebody’s definition of firefighter (I thought it was pretty good):

• Maintaining the fire apparatus

• Cleaning/maintaining the fire station (bathrooms, floors, kitchen, cutting grass, etc.)

• Inspection/maintenance/repair of fire equipment and tools

• Constant training on all aspects of the job

• Inspection of homes, businesses, buildings and high-risk facilities.

• Public education

• Fire prevention

• Responding to emergencies

• Administrative duties (logbooks, paperwork, reports, etc.)

• Serving the community by any means possible.

 All of this stuff is real interesting, and I learned a few things. I do know that all of my brothers and sisters in the fire service have families, are hard working and love what they do and would do anything to help anybody. I am proud to be a firefighter.

Michael Heath is president of the St. John Professional Firefighters Association.