Honestly, I think the main issue with Fire Department is that there's not much to do. I think they deserve a lot of exposure in the city, especially because they're very important to have around. They deserve to be on the news, being interviewed, getting recognition from everywhere possible too. Do charity events, parades to make people know that the Fire Department is there to help them, and seek recruitment that way. Make mini events happen with other factions if needed, associate with them even if it's not expected. A lot of things can happen with a bit of communication and socialization. Maybe a faction leader will offer a small event to happen— just to create a bit of role-play and do something fun.
If there's not much happening, organize a small or large training session outside of the HQ or around LS. The Fire Department should be active around LS, turning down fires or helping victims from car crashes or doing charity runs and parades to reinforce recruitment. They should aim for a hiring increase, and have a way to have activity around the city, or else, it'll be a dry swamp.
I think that's the main issue with any Fire Department on any server. Most of the time, it's neglected in multiple fields; script, public interaction, etc. People don't want to join a faction which doesn't have a lot to do. I'm sure any law enforcement faction is generally more fun to do than a fire department or emergency medical service faction. We're gonna' be setting up our public information team immediately (as soon as we can) and focus a lot into it to ensure that it's holding these public relation events. Besides that, activities rely on the player. Don't be afraid to create your own roleplay, we're more than willing to direct you to make it as realistic as possible.
I can ensure you of the support of the PD and lots of cooperation from our side, with that come of course the willingness to share and exchange information, standards, trainings etc. I believe with the right amount of support between the two factions we can really grow together and make both sides enjoyable, especially when fostering an environment that builds upon trust, understanding and knowledge.
Generally speaking however, I hope LSFD does not turn into a dating department, where every female doctor, medic, engineer or whatever has had a relationship with someone else. Similarly I hope for a quality over quantity approach, and that FD personnel remains professional even under stressful conditions (as the personnel numbers between FD and PD will differ most likely), e.g. not giving out attitude over the departmental radio to PD when there's numerous calls for assistance coming in. I'll make sure that PD won't give out some attitude, so I'd expect the same from the other side.
Don't just have your ambulances and engines sitting at the HQ either, allow them to patrol the city and RP on their own. Visibility is key, then of course I wish for joint training ops and assisting each other in events (e.g. provide medical support for PD academy ceremonies and vice versa).
I'm extremely grateful that the Police Department has given us our support. We need it, considering we are both major factions in the community. To respond to your dating comment, I hate that too. I'm going to be exploring other policies/the legality of those types of policies to enact them. As of right now I don't want to fully outright ban any relationship, though I do want to restrict it (notification to HR, no show of relationship while representing the Department, etc.). We are a professional, municipal department. I also hope that no one gives you lip over departmental, or I'll beat 'em up.
We are discussing the idea of posting units. It's unrealistic for suppression apparatus to be driving around on patrol; though, we won't restrict them our members from passively roleplaying bringing the vehicles out to do quick tasks (food runs, etc.). Ambulances are another story, as major departments such as the LAFD, which you'll see their rescue ambulances around the city, driving, chilling, and the FDNY, which often has their trucks post at certain locations or they'll drive around waiting for a call.
Whenever I drove past our local FD station in the summer, they were hosting barbecues on their porch. Maybe you should just do that lol
On a more serious note, idk how the vehicle system might look like. In SAMP, you had vehicle HP and your car was totalled when it reached 250. It just couldn't move and circumvented the vehicle explosion thing (which luckily isnt a thing anymore as much on V). But perhaps we could implement a similar system with a chance of having your doors stuck etc? So if you crash your car and total it, there might be a realistic chance that your door is jammed and you can't get out without FD interaction. I figure this can be really annoying at times though
We're going to discuss realistic vehicle mechanics (disabling explosions unless a fuelant is in the vehicle's inventory, etc.) with management; this has always bugged me. I'll put the door jamming bit in our little Google Doc we have going on.
Roleplay actual characters, not robots. I wanna see firefighters and PD rping daily lives when off duty.
We're going to be enforcing a realistic, yet fun, environment. I don't want to see any of our members portraying unrealistic characters; we need to be held to the same standard as our law enforcement or government counterparts.
In the US, whenever a 911 call happens of someone being hurt or getting an injury, FD is usually the first to respond and be there. If FD cannot do anything, that's when the EMT is called. They do much more than just extinguish fires. They patrol, take care of their trucks, respond to people being locked out of their cars(hopefully something can be scripted to cause that on an rng basis) and a lot more. I don't mind rping a random building or field fire as well to keep FD busy on summer days but a lot of these things are overlooked.
95-98% of the emergency medical service in the United States is what we call a combination department. That is, the department handles both fire suppression and emergency medical service; their firefighters are cross-trained as both a firefighter and as an EMT/AEMT/Paramedic. We're going to be using this approach as for right now. All firefighters will have their EMT (we're ditching the BLS/ILS/ALS approach which was introduced in earlier roleplaying communities for a more realistic EMT/
Advanced EMT/Paramedic system) and will work both on the ambulance and the engine. You won't need your AEMT or Paramedic, though if you do you'll be open to a better pay. Each battalion (area of stations) will get an EMS Captain which only does EMS supervision. I haven't sat down and thought about this just yet, however I believe we'll only be sending a fire engine to the more critical calls (cardiac arrests, etc.) for manpower. Most calls can be handled with just a standard ambulance.
What if you run some sort of courses that are open to the public? That will keep things fresh and interesting.
I’m thinking something along the line of First Aid courses? Maybe you could have an official LSFD endorsed certificate of completion. And possibly an expiry date of 3 months(?)... that would keep people coming back for refresher courses.
This could tie in with multiple businesses and legal factions that could require certain (or all) members to be qualified in First Aid?
What do you think?
I'd like to see us offer American Heart Association BLS Provider (bystander CPR/AED) and a First Aid course to the public. Anything bigger (EMT/AEMT/Paramedic) would be offered in-house to our members, or to anyone with the condition of employment.
It will always be a tough go with FD as role play can get repetitive and it's not exactly exhilarating. The most success I've seen on previous servers resulted from a core group of people that were "role play creators" so to say. They did things such as host smaller events as previously mentioned in this thread, but they also also focused HEAVILY on character development. This character development aided them in creating strong relationships with other factions throughout the server which in turn brought more opportunities forward for them.
Yeah, it is. In all honesty, all FD roleplay is boring for a lot of people. It takes a certain group of people to make it fun. It makes it even more depressing to play when the non-fire players don't take the initiative to create their own roleplay. I've been roleplaying in fire/EMS since 2015 (roughly), and I've only had one or two medicals (non-traumatic injuries). The rest of my calls on any server have been gunshot wound-falls-stabbings-etc. I hope, too, players come forward and create their own emergencies (getting sick and developing a high fever? chest pain?) for us. Like I said before, we're always willing to guide the player to roleplay a realistic emergency.
I wonder if there’s something that can be explored with automatic fire alarms in buildings?
I know from experience here that our Fire & Rescue department gets multiple automatic fire alarm calls a week. Mostly these turn out to be people burning their toast in their apartment, or even sometimes they’re false alarms.
But the point in trying to make is surely there can be something to explore with the use of, inspection, and call outs relating to fire alarms in buildings and houses?
A lot of calls in real life are Automatic Fire Alarms (AFAs). I'd love to see this in game. It'd give us something to do, and give our Fire Marshal's Office something to do. I think it can be easily scripted with the abilities the client can handle. I'll put it on our Google Doc that we're charting down any suggestions/ideas we have for management.
It shouldn't be hard to code random gas leaks aswell.
So when you enter your house/apartment after a while, there's a slim chance of a message such as "you notice a foul smell" which could indicate that there's a gas leak (or a rotting body in your fridge..) which afaik the FD is responsible for.
Inspection could be a nice thing but I think that'd really clog the FD's schedule and would become boring after the 10th inspection. I think that's something that gives the FD something to do just so they have something to do.
However, I would love to see random firealarms in night clubs or bars. There's always that one drunk idiot who either activates the alarm, actually burns something or the system could short. It'd be fun and interesting and it'd make great interaction
Gas leaks are regional dependent. It may be up to the gas company or the fire department depending on the municipality's contract with both departments. As long as there's no active fire or emergency, then I'd argue that no, it isn't the task of the fire department in real life. However, we most likely won't have a gas agency (at least for now, I hope), so it'd be our duty to turn off the gas and wait for the IC gas company to show up. I don't think it'd be hard script a gas system, I'll bring it up with management.
We're going to be running inspections a tiny bit differently. Generally, Fire Marshals are a division in the department; firefighters would be allowed to apply to that division. We're going to be doing it more realistically, whereas the Fire Marshal will be a separate office under the Fire Chief, and will have 3-4 deputies. Their only duty is to execute the duties of the Office (inspection, enforcement, awareness, etc.). They aren't firefighters foresay, they're unarmed peace officers enforcing fire code, plain and simple. They'll be allowed to have firefighter alts, since - as you said - the duties of a Fire Marshal do become boring.
