Darren Deboer

His Work: Firefighter

“Living with these guys, you get to know them. When you start staying in the same facility, it’s like living in a house. You’re eating together, sleeping, working out, everything, talking all the time whether it’s over a cup of coffee or while you’re working on training. So it’s kind of more like a family than anything else.”

As a firefighter Darren Deboer works 24 hour shifts at a time and I ask him what that’s like. He says “with the 24 hours you kind of have a continuous reel where I feel like I get a lot more done because I can get projects done and get going on, like I said we have training and stuff we have to do per quarter so you’re able to knock it down. It’s just like crash studying for your big final test as long as you’re not distracted you seem like you can slam through a lot of information but if you go 6 hours or 5 hours and all of a sudden you have something else, you’ve got something else to go do, it just seems like the productivity doesn’t get there.”

I ask Mr. Deboer to tell me about his workspace and he says his workspace is the whole station both inside and out, and sometimes they go to other stations for training exercises. “Computer wise, work wise, our desk areas- each person has their individual desk area.” “we have a small gym fitness area downstairs to work out and lift in. Then we have our living quarters, our rooms and closet space.” “Once we got into this department it was definitely made known that fitness is a big thing here which is great, that’s one definitely well utilized areas is the fitness areas.”

I ask about the balance of how much he is out in the field from the various calls they get and how much time he spends in the station. He says “it depends on the day. Right before you got here we had a call.” He tells me how there may not be calls all day long and then there could be 6 calls in the afternoon over a short period of time. Mr. Deboer says “there’s no rhyme or reason to it. It just depends on the public and what they’re doing.” I comment that it sounds like there’s an opportunity for something different every day. He says “it’s ever changing” “It’s exciting. I wouldn’t call it an adrenaline rush but it’s something that keeps you on your toes. Don’t feel like you’re just sitting in a stagnant spot.”

I ask Darren Deboer about this ever changing workspace out in the field. He says “you don’t know what to expect, you walk into someone’s home or an accident on the street cars going by. In that home, you don’t know what kind of home you’re walking into whether it’s well kept or there’s paraphernalia all over the place. You don’t know what you’re walking into.” He tells me that you need to be alert and aware.

I ask Darren Deboer about his relationship with the community. He tells me “being in the fire department, its one of those things where to a little kid it’s a hero job. So you become more aware of your situation, yourself situation, how you act, how you carry yourself and not only when you’re in your uniform but also when you’re walking around. People tend to know, in the area where you live, they tend to know ‘ok he’s a fire firefighter’ so if you carry yourself real lackadaisical and aren’t really responsible you kind of carry that to everybody else. You do start carrying yourself, being aware of what you’re doing and what you’re saying and that kind of thing.” He tells me the community has been great, very supportive and happy to see the firefighters. He says the little kids smile and wave. “I think it’s just a great setup they’ve got here especially in this city, everybody’s real supportive of each other, at least as far as I’ve seen you know, like I said we’ve only been pulling shifts here for a month.” Darren Deboer took classes to gain an associate’s degree in Fire Sciences. He tells me that the screening, interviewing, testing, and training process is rigorous and full.

I tell Mr. Deboer that it sounds like he has a great physical and social environment and he says “Oh it is, it’s awesome.” “I feel very fortunate where I ended up, especially just the situation economy wise and everything. But yeah, if I’m going to spend 30 years somewhere, and so far what I’ve seen here, I think it’s a great place.” I ask if he sees the next 30 years in the fire department and he says “yeah, especially making it a career it’s going to be a 30 year career.” He smiles and seems to really enjoy his work. He says “it’s fun, like I said it’s a blast.”

I ask him to put his experience with his work into a few words and Mr. Deboer tells me “it’s been a motivated, ever changing, awesome experience. I think its life shaping too.” He tells me that you have to be motivated to be here, there are a lot go getters and there’s no sitting on the sidelines.