I just started as a volunteer firefighter for my local department in a small rural midwestern community.
I would really appreciate if any other volunteers out there can give me your experiences with balancing riding and training with your duties and being on call. How do you handle long rides? Do you take your pager with you (if your dept. uses them). Do you find that you need to keep your volume lower to make sure you have the energy to respond effectively?
Thanks in advance!
How does volunteering work in your department? Is there an understanding that you have to be available in x minutes? Or is it more on a volunteer basis?
Honestly, nobody cares if I show up for a call or not. I mean the leadership cares that enough people show up and they are always a bit concerned that they have enough members, but they are not concerned if specific individuals show up or not. I just live my life like I would not be on call. If a call comes and I have time, I go, if not, I will not go. In the end nobody pays me to wait for a call that maybe could come, so why should I alter my life? If you discover in one or two years that you miss every call, you likely should reflect if being part of a fire department makes sense and if yes, perform steps to be available for some calls.
Could also be that the culture in you fire department is vastly different, so there might be other expectations. Maybe talk with your colleagues how they handle normal life.
I’m on 24/7 on-call duty for a full week from time to time. The approach that works best for me is to align that week with a planned recovery or deload period. That way, if a call comes in, I can handle it without stressing about missing a workout the next day.
During these on-call weeks, do you ride outside or stick to the trainer?
I’m trying to work out how to balance riding outside, and potentially being hours away from the station, with handling calls.
Thanks for the input!
There is no set response time. There is a general expectation, I think, that anyone who isn’t at their regular job or otherwise seriously unable, will drop what they are doing and respond. The department is very short of volunteers right now. This is one of the reasons I joined. I also feel a strong expectation for myself that I respond to every call that I can since I am new. I want to make a strong start and get experience.
I think I will figure this out more as I become more familiar with the department and the other members and how they view their expectations to respond. I wanted to see if I could get the unique perspectives of training cyclist here who are also volunteers.
Thanks for your input!
For me it is hard requirement to get into action in 15min. If I am not responding, call chain starts going up in management tree, up to CEO 
But I have made agreements with team mates: during working hours, when everybody are online anyway, i’ll take ~2h free time during which they cover for me and I’ll try to return favor during their shift. But it is always specific person, not as in “anybody from team” i.e. responsibility is clearly assigned.