WESTFIELD- A local firefighter has launched a new online service that pairs firefighters looking for side work with people in need of a skilled tradesman they can trust.
www.GetJakes.com was founded by Ben Hogan, a local firefighter that frequently saw the need for such a service. According to him, most firefighters are skilled in some sort of trade, and usually do some work on the side in addition to being a firefighter.
“There is a huge issue with skilled trades right now,” said Hogan, who launched the website at the end of 2018, “We feel like the fire service is an untapped resource of people with backgrounds in trades.”
Hogan has been in the fire service locally for 14 years. He first started as a reserve firefighter before working his way up to being full time. He said that his father often asked him if he knew of any of his fellow firefighters who had skills to solve problems he needed solving. The answer, Hogan said, was almost always yes.
The Get Jakes website offers a directory of people skilled in everything from carpentry to accounting. Hogan said that his website is for people in need of various services who do not want to trust a stranger from the internet. He said that, of all people that one should trust to come into your home or property, it would be firefighters.
“People don’t like to hire people they don’t know. Especially the older crowd,” said Hogan, “They may be more inclined to use such a service if they knew it would be a local firefighter.”
“Jakes” is a term of endearment among firefighters that was coined in New England after World War 1. Many firefighters returned from service in the war having been familiar with a street-corner fire alarm box system that was modeled off of the telegraph. Inside these alarm boxes were a telegraph key, commonly called the “J-Key,” which was used by firefighters to communicate with their headquarters while on the scene of a fire.
J-Key eventually became Jake and is used to refer to a firefighter who is cool under pressure. In the context of the time, it was used to refer to a firefighter that could be trusted to send clear, legible more code under pressure through the telegraph box.
Hogan’s website currently operates mainly in Western Massachusetts; however, he has begun expanding into the eastern part of the state as well.
“We’ve been getting emails from all across the country asking when the service is coming to them,” said Hogan, “We just added two Jakes to the site from eastern Massachusetts.”
The website is currently free for homeowners to use and is currently free for firefighters to use while they are in their trial period. Eventually, Hogan said that firefighters will have to pay to be listed in the form of either a monthly fee or annual discounted fee. After the fee is paid by the firefighter, however, any money made on the job will go to the firefighter. Get Jakes does not take a cut.
Hogan said that, since the site launched at the end of last year, more than 60 firefighters have been listed and performed about 150 jobs thus far.
“We’re expanding,” said Hogan, “Slowly but surely.”
