A career on fire

Eric Leake

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 | 12:19 p.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 27 - 28, 2004

When Jim Stubler retires as chief of the North Las Vegas Fire Department at the end of the year, he will finish nearly 32 years as a firefighter.

He has loved a career that he says has been satisfying though dangerous. Stubler understands why so many people want to be firefighters.

"It's a great profession. It's exciting. It's pleasing work," he said. "You get to help people and see the fruits of your labor."

Stubler's position will be one new vacancy in a department that, similar to other local fire departments, sees hundreds of applicants for limited positions each year.

The local departments generally test and compile lists of possible recruits in two-year cycles. The Clark County Fire Department is in the middle of that process now.

Applications with the county fire department were taken the first three weeks of this month. Now applicants wait until Dec. 13 to take the written test, a cattle call-like endeavor.

Some will go on to a physical test. Some of those will move on to oral interviews and may eventually be offered a job.

"It's not hard to find firefighters. The challenge is to get the best people you can," said Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the county fire department.

"And because of the number of people that want to get in, it's better for the community because we get a better selection of candidates," he said.

Candidates are attracted because they like the work as well as the schedule, and there's typically good pay and benefits packages. Firefighters typically work 10 24-hour shifts a month, giving them a chance to pursue other hobbies or businesses in their off time.

Leinbach, who started in dispatch, has been with the department for 28 years. Although he does not fight fires, he has been to plenty of them and ridden along on many emergency calls.

"Simply driving to an emergency in this town is pretty hazardous," he said.

Firefighters frequently come face to face with extremely difficult situations.

"They (firefighters) could leave here and go to a suicide," Leinbach said. "They could go to where just the worse kind of human tragedy takes place, and that happens every day.

"Despite all of the good things to talk about, this is a very stressful, demanding job."

As demanding and stressful as it is, people often spend years trying to become a firefighter.

"I've talked to people who have tested for 10 years," Leinbach said. "They have other jobs, of course, but they still want to be firefighters."

Brenda Pappas, county employment manager, said the county usually tests somewhere between 1,200 to 1,500 firefighter applicants every cycle. In the past two years, she said, the county has hired about 100 firefighters.

"There is no specific background," Pappas said, of those who applied and succeeded in becoming firefighters.

The one thing she said they did share was a commitment to public service.

Reports from other local fire departments show the same competitiveness for positions, many of which result from growth -- though some are replacements for retired firefighters.

Few people, Stubler said, quit the fire department.

The North Las Vegas Fire Department reported hiring 22 firefighters last year; Las Vegas Fire and Rescue roughly 100 hires in the past two years; and the Henderson Fire Department averages about six new firefighters a year.

All but the county fire department require applicants to have at least basic Emergency Medical Technician training. New firefighters with the county must complete that training once they're hired.

Anthony Scott has completed basic EMT training. He has tested to be a firefighter twice, once with Las Vegas and once with the county.

He made it to the interviews both times, has yet to be hired and is preparing to take the test again next month.

"I'm pretty confident in advance, but I'm definitely not taking any chances," Scott said.

Scott, who has a degree in international business from UNLV, works as a valet, a job he took in college because it paid well.

Three years ago a firefighter friend from the gym suggested to Scott that he consider a career as a firefighter.

"I wish I had started this whole process before I was 18," said Scott, who is now 29, married, and a father.

"As a father, you want to have a job that your children can look up to and be proud of you for," he said.

"As a firefighter, I can basically show them as they grow up that giving back and helping people is what's important in a job."

Scott said he will take community college fire science classes and further EMT training if that's what it takes.

He has talked with firefighters, he said, and they all tell him the same thing.

"Have you ever talked to a firefighter who does not love their job?" he said.

Tim Szymanski, a firefighter and spokesman for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, is one of those satisfied workers.

"I've been doing this for 35 years and I never dreaded a day of work," he said. "When you are on your day off you look forward to going back to work."

He said firefighters share a particular mentality that finds a thrill and a challenge in the work.

"Everybody else is running out of the building," he said. "We're running in."