“It was like walking into a giant family with open arms.”
That’s how Noah Tardiff, 20, described joining Luling Volunteer Fire Department two years ago, at age 18.
“If I need to talk to somebody, I can talk to anybody there,” Tardiff said. “They have a lot of experienced people, and you really just learn from their experiences and what they’ve done when they were your age, you know, growing up into the department and whatnot.”
On March 21, Tardiff graduated from the New Orleans Fire Academy. He now works in New Orleans and Luling as a firefighter.
Firefighting was a unique path for Tardiff. He is the first firefighter in his family. But Tardiff said he knew he wanted to be a firefighter from a young age. “Firehouse Dog,” a movie about a teenager whose dad is the fire chef, was one point of inspiration.
“It really inspired me,” he said. “I knew I wanted to make firefighting my career one day.”
If his parents had concerns about Tardiff joining the fire department, they kept those concerns to themselves, Tardiff said. Instead, they offered their full support. Tardiff said his siblings were proud of him, too.
Tardiff is a triplet and has a younger sister. Growing up as a triplet was hard, he said. Arguing and trying to get his way with his two brothers was difficult. But there is a lot of good things about being a triplet, Tardiff said. The best thing is having brothers who look out for him.
The Luling Fire Department is also like a big family, Tardiff said.
“I guess the fact that we’re all in it for one goal,” Tardiff said. “And that’s to protect life and property in St. Charles Parish, and to be there for the citizens, you know?”
When a call comes in and the department responds, Tardiff said the adrenaline starts pumping right away.
“And then when we arrive to the call, that’s when you gather more information and figure out what needs to be done,” he said. “Do you have to put out the fire? If someone is trapped in a vehicle, how are we going to stabilize and extract them? If there’s a gas leak, you have to figure out where the leak is.”
Tardiff said there are incidents that stick with him.
“I mean PTSD is a very real thing within the fire service,” Tardiff said. “There are steps a firefighter can take. You know, they could talk to somebody, go to counseling for it. You know, and just talk about it to your family members, the people at the stations, all the volunteers, and other firefighters.”
But Tardiff said he would tell anybody interested in firefighting to go for it.
“Don’t look back,” he said. “Because once you do it. I mean, it’s the green path ahead of you, you know? Endless.”
