Help Me!!!!!!

The tones

So I'm gonna start by saying that I was a fire fighter!! Cool right!!! Most think of fire fighting as a hero job or scary or crazy people. But what most don't know is, it's non of that. It's not about heroism, or glory or even fame. It's about community, friends, family, safety. It's about the trucks, the people, the time shaved off because of training. Being a firefighter is about being the best you can be because you want to be, not because your paid for it. It's about sometimes alienating your whole family because you put the tones, call, and sometimes complete strangers first. It's about running into burning buildings,and towards crashed cars when others are running away. Being a firefighter is and can be the most thrilling and satisfying job in the world, but it can also be the most scariest, terrifying job, if not done right. I was 18. A Rookie or Probe is what they call us. We are on probation. A full 90 days to evaluate what we learn and how we react to certain situations. It can be a train wreck. One move in either direction and a life can be lost or saved. Gear not properly maintained could spell disaster for you, your crew, and a patient. It's a rush that you have to learn to control because we all know you don't control fire. You coexist with it, learn from it, and manage it. But you will never control it due to so many factors that you sometimes can't see or miss. Even the most experienced firefighters have misjudged a fire and people have paid the price. My uncle was a firefighter and I remember him telling me that he was so proud of me, but to always stay vigilant never lose focus or I could lose my life. And he was right. Flash overs, back drafts, and explosions are a true and real part of firefighting. They can rock your world if you are unprepared. And if you are prepared they can still shock you in ways you have never imagined. There is one thing that I still dread and miss to this day, and that is the tones. The tones are what we call the sound that wakes you up at 3 am. You just fell asleep from a hard day at work. You're exhausted from being on your feet all day. You slam down in your bed and are almost asleep when you hear them, beep beep beep. You slightly come awake thinking you're hearing them in a dream. Beep beep beep, you hear it again but this time you know they are real. You jump up grab clothes and rush out the door slinging them on as you race to your car. Speeding down the rd your listening to your pager and the 2-way to understand why you have been woken up on a rainy cold winter morning. You get to the station, sliding sideways from the ice on the rd and barely miss a ditch. You're not worried about your safety. You're worried about the person on the other end of that call that you were jerked out of bed for. See we don't do those things for glory. We don't do them for fame or riches or medals. We do them because people's lives hang in the balance and we are the ones that tip the scales. We are the ones that make a difference to so many without so much as a thank you, and we do it because we want to. We do it because of the tones.