Being A Firefighter
About Moritz
Moritz is 21 and he is already a respected fireman. Moritz is courageous, intelligent, and Loyal. But do not let him drive a manual truck!
'‘People see you differently if you have been in the same situation as them”
Do you remember what jobs you first wanted to do when you were a kid? Why?
“As a kid, I wanted to be a zookeeper. I just like the aspect of managing something… I also liked the animals and just having a zoo for myself. I just liked the idea. I thought it was kind of neat. Yeah.”
When did you first become interested in becoming a firefighter?
“After the military, a comrade of mine. He told me, “you know if you want to be part of an organization, that's a bit like the military and has the same camaraderie, has the same feeling of you know, doing something for, for the community.” You told me that there's not that much to do, you know, you don't waste off of your day there. You just do a few hours every, every week, or a few hours per month… And so I, I signed up”
Do you think you're treated differently by people when you're wearing a uniform? So do you feel privileged?
Well, not that much by people… they just want to find out what happened. They do not respect the authority to just do a little bit of grumbling and then they go away. But, I think the more privileged position is with the police. They are a bit in a situation like we are... they're not gonna stop you if you, for example, forgot your wallet with your driver’s license, or run over a red light. If there's no one on the street, other than, you know, they know that you don't have time to just wait there two minutes, for it to turn green.”
Um, so do you think that impacts the way you see the world around you? How can you give an example?
“In regards to the alarm, you know, every, every time, uh, something that I previously thought was just normal and, uh, or didn't think about it at all, for example, a storm or, or a, thunderstorm or lightning, something like this. Uh, I didn't think at all about it, or like, uh, um, with thunder, I thought it was kind of, um, kind of relaxing to listen to the heavy rainfall down, but now I just think about, uh, you know, there was one time was, uh, there was a bolt of lightning, um, which struck a house and then we had to get out and, and, uh, it went on until three o'clock.”
Um, so do you have any advice for your younger self or people who want to be a fireman?
Yes. Well, uh, for my younger self, I have to advise that or people in general, uh, you know, you, you don't, perhaps you're scared of going in a house it's or extinguishing a fire it's dangerous and that everything, but I, you know, you're, you're being taught the first two years. It's just teaching, it's just learning. And, uh, they’ve really put in, uh, a great effort to, to just know what they're doing. And at the end of the, um, the, the apprenticeship or the the the, uh, uh, the, all these exercises at the end of all these exercises, you really feel like, you know, you know what you're doing as well.
But like, where you were in uniform, did you ever get stopped or questioned by someone?
Uh, no. you don't, it's clear you don't drive like a Jackass, you just in the heat of the moment you have more adrenaline, so you drive a bit faster. But you will not unreasonably stop…”
So what is a difficult decision you have made in your life, and how did you handle it?
“Well, in regards to fire fighting, so the first time that there was, an alarm that I couldn't attend. I was in Zurich, I got the message that there was an alarm in Wädenswil, and I know exactly I can get there by train and there's, it's gonna be half an hour to one hour till I'm there. And, it's just this feeling, you know, should I go there? Should I, should I not go there because, well, because I would arrive too late, for, you know, these little things, like, for example, there, there was a tree on the street, so I knew in one hour, they've already cut it up… And I think now I have a much better feeling, because I know if there's something small if there's something that's, that gets dealt with quickly, but I will always stop by to see if anyone needs more help.”
So what was your greatest failure at like regards to being a fireman?
“Well, I'm, I'm not, uh, I'm, I've, uh, joined a year ago, so there are not any grave errors that I made or grave mistakes. The only thing that I felt, uh, really, really, uh, embarrassed about was when, uh, we were driving somewhere and they said, you know, uh, you can drive, uh, the car. And then I got in and I saw it was a manual, uh, you know, with, with a stick. And I haven't, I haven't driven any car with a stick in like 2, 2, 3 years. So I got in, I tried to, to, to drive and after 100 meters, they just noticed that I just couldn't, So they just relatively quickly, they said, you know, I think there's, have, you know, what you're doing. And if you work in a team and really be safe about everything, and, uh, the greatest priority is always to, to get everyone outta life unharmed. So they really know what they're doing. It's, it's, I think in the whole of Switzerland, it's very, very, very rare for a fireman to die. Uh, and it's really, yeah, it's, it's just, they're really safe about everything and it's, it's reassuring because they all
