Firefighters have to give more than they receive.

Chief Kingman Schuldt began his career in North Syracuse, NY at 18 years old as a volunteer firefighter. Within weeks on the job, he went on a call that hooked him and he has been in the fire service ever since.

After a short period as a volunteer in North Syracuse, he moved to Florida where he became a career firefighter in the city of Miramar. Today, he is the Fire Chief of the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District.

In July of 2013 Chief Schuldt was recognized by his colleagues as the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association Fire Chief of the Year, and in 2014 as the Florida State Fire Chief of the Year.

“Only enter the fire service if you really want to make difference in the community and help people. Don’t join the service if you are joining for the schedule or the benefits,” Chief Schuldt knows that you have to love your job in order to handle the difficulties of being a firefighter.

It’s a young person’s ‘sport’ that is very physically and mentally demanding. You don’t see older firefighters on the truck because their body’s take a beating.

Chief Schuldt wants you to understand the true dangers of firefighting. He has seen way too many friends in the fire service die from all types of cancers.

The general population may understand that it is a dangerous job, but they don’t know the true impact and the toll that firefighting takes on firefighters.

Research suggests that the lifespan of firefighters is 10-15 years less than the general population. Additionally, firefighters and law enforcement officers are three times more likely to die on the job than other workers (Source).

One way YOU CAN HELP is to subscribe to receive email updates from the U.S. Fire Administration each time there is a firefighter fatality (signup here). This will help you understand the true impact of firefighter fatalities. This is especially troubling now with dozens of firefighters dying from COVID-19 as a result of treating patients. You can find the stories of some of these heroes here.

Although the fire service is dangerous, Chief Schuldt wants you to remember that firefighters love their job. They are not asking for pity, they are asking for support. And we can only support them if we understand their job and the difficulties associated with it.

Chief Schuldt shared the story of that call that hooked him when he was a green volunteer. The siren in the town rang, notifying the fire department that there was an emergency they needed to respond to (yes, a siren in the middle of the town is how they used to receive alerts). As an aside, when Chief Schuldt began, civilians wouldn’t call 911 when they had an emergency; they had to dial a 7-digit phone number with their rotary phones which called the local fire station.

By the time he and his colleagues arrived at the scene, the two-story home they responded to was fully involved in fire. The home belonged to a family of six: two parents and four children.

Somehow the parents were able to get two of their children to safety from the second-story window. Meanwhile, the fire was rapidly consuming the home and there was no way for the firefighters to get to the parents and the other two children. Unfortunately, the parents couldn’t save themselves or their other two children and all four of them lost their lives that night.

Chief Schuldt moved to Florida shortly thereafter and found himself in the ocean-side city of Miramar. As he was reading the paper one day, a story caught his eye. Two children from North Syracuse, NY survived a house fire that killed their two siblings and both parents. They were moving to live with their grandparents in an ocean-side city in Florida — Miramar.

This was when Chief Schuldt learned that whatever he did as a firefighter may come up again. He’ll never forget that story and it helps him remember that firefighters are held to a higher standard… Anything less than excellence just doesn’t cut it.

You never know when your actions may come full circle.

Nearly every single interaction with the fire department leaves the civilian in a better place than they were before the fire department arrived. It’s important to remember this and remind ourselves of how important their work is and to show our appreciation for what firefighters do for us.