The next Chapter
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Ok so now I have finalized the first draft of the roster which includes every firefighter ever employed with the City of Roanoke. This also includes the brothers who served before the City took over the fire departments and formed a paid workforce. There were numerous firefighters who served only a day or a couple of weeks. Then there were the firefighters who were hired and left only to come back two, three, and even four times. Interesting differences in the way things are today. It is also interesting how back in the day firefighters were hired any day of the week all month long, of course this was possible since the only training of the day was on the job. Now firefighters are hired for formal recruit schools once or twice a year and the turnover rate is very low. Another interesting dissimilarity is the fact that years ago firefighters did not retire until 35-40+ years. Nowadays most firefighters leave at around 25-30, and I think that in the future we will see more and more firefighters leaving right at 25 years. It will be interesting to see the hiring that will occur 20-25 years from now. I guess the hiring surges from the addition of the 3rd battalion will continue.
The next Chapter
I think that I will begin focusing on historical events in the fire departments past. This will include the big fires, incidents, and any thing else that I might dig up. I might also begin documenting the apparatus of the department. So there you have it, I have mapped it all out.
I hope that the readers of this site find it interesting and informative. I am always open to feedback, ideas, concerns, or your own bit of history to add. If you have pictures you would like to see on the site I would love to add them. If you have pictures of an incident recent or not email them to me and I will see about adding them. If you ran an incident in the city and would like to write something about it then let me know.
