►
From YouTube: BFD hires full-time firefighters
Description
The Bloomington Fire Department recently hired 20 full-time firefighters as it starts to transition from a primarily paid on-call department. Meet some of the firefighters and learn about their intense 4-week training to help keep Bloomington residents and guests safe.
A
C
D
E
In
the
past,
the
Bloomington
Fire
Department
has
been
predominantly
paid
on
call
Firefighters.
As
the
years
have
progressed,
it's
been
an
increasingly
tougher
to
recruit
and
retain
paid
on
call
Firefighters,
and
so
there's
been
a
need
to
hire
full-time
firefighters
to
get
in
the
station.
So
we
can
have
a
quicker
response
and
be
able
to
serve
our
customers
and
our
guests,
the
city
of
Bloomington,
better.
We
were
able
to
get
a
real
good
blend
of
folks
from
different
backgrounds.
D
B
F
Was
already
on
the
paid
on
call,
I
fell
in
love
with
a
job
and
I
wanted
to
make
it
into
a
career,
and
I
just
took
that
chance.
Knowing
that
I
only
have
a
year
of
experience
before
BFD
I
was
a
plant
manager
at
a
chocolate
factory
in
Apple
Valley,
so
I
had
no
fire
experience.
No
first
responder
experience,
I
just
decided
to
say
you
know
what
I
want
to
be
a
part
of
something
bigger.
I
want
to
be
part
of
a
bigger
team,
and
here
I
am
I.
C
B
C
A
Not
only
have
to
be
good
at
EMS,
we
have
to
be
good
at
problem
solving
when
it
comes
to
extrication.
As
you
see
today,
we've
got
live,
fires,
there's
a
lot
of
skills
that
we
have
to
work
on
to
be
good
at
so
there's
always
something
that
can
be
worked
on.
It's
always
something
that
can
challenge
me
personally
as
an
individual
that
I
find
very,
very
rewarding.
E
What
I
like
to
tell
these
firefighters
that
we
hired
is,
after
the
four
weeks
your
training
doesn't
end,
it
only
begins
you're
going
to
have
routine
firefighting,
train
EMS
training
and
Rescue
Training,
and
we
try
to
train
weekly
and
I,
say:
there's
probably
close
to
40
training
events
throughout
the
year.
I'm.
C
I'm
also
really
excited
to
just
encourage
and
cultivate
a
culture
where
the
younger
generation,
boys
and
girls,
but
especially
girls,
considering
there's
not
a
lot
of
us
to
show
them
that
it
is
possible.
It's
been
a
lot
of
hard
work
and
I
could
not
be
more
proud
of
myself
and
the
support
I've
had
but
I'm
so
thankful
for
the
Department.
That's
also
believed
in
me,
during
the
times
that
I've
struggled
to
believe
in
myself,
but
that's
just
what
a
great
team
does.
The.
B
G
D
I
think
there's
a
lot
of
opportunities
here
for
more
advancement,
more
training
being
able
to
start
a
culture
that
we
want.
We're
going
to
set
a
nice
positive
place
to
work
for
live
positive
place
for
families
and
and
the
people
around
us
I
think
it's
really
exciting
to
be
able
to
have
that
opportunity.
Honestly.