NRA - in my opinion a 'firie' is a firefighter whether they be vollunteer, retained or paid-fulltime. all of those types of 'firie'
can be professional, although all three types also show a complete lack of professionalism at times as well... (this could be any number of things, following SOPs, wearing of correct PPE, not acting like a tool on the job, etc)..
if someones 'paid profession' is as a firefighter, then im sure everyone would agree that they should introduce themselves as a firefighter. i should hope that vollunteer firefighters dont go around saying "hi im bob, im a firefighter" (insinuating that they are paid-fulltime) as this does make them seem like a tosser as far as im concerned.
RTW -
With all the crap that goes about on here, it's just jealousy. We who get paid are ultimately real. No need to hide the, on the dole, or trolley collector job.
unfortunately i think all the problems along these lines on this forum are caused by the paid firies bashing vollunteers of both SES and CFS... i havent seen any cfs members on here start the flinging dirt around (except possibly for the seaford/mfs thread). it would be nice if we could all act nicely and realise we all do the same job to protect our own areas, whether we are paid or not hopefulyl we all have the same objective in mind, protect life and property.
also... trolley collector job? lol, u crack me up mate.