Firefighter

WEBVTT
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What these men and women want and how they live and how they labor through such wild unpredictability each day.
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What is the training like for a firefighter, and what's what was the hardest thing for you to learn?
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It's gonna vary from individual to individual.
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Um require uh what they call a firefighter one and firefighter two certification in the academy, so some of that's gonna be um classroom learning, PowerPoint, um, breakdown of your um firefighters essential book, and then you'll go out and do the practical hands-on component of that.
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So you'll essentially have the classroom discussion and then you'll put boots on the ground and put into play what you learned.
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Okay.
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What for you, what was the hardest thing like in whether it was like in the schooling, the training, or just even afterwards?
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Well I was the last class from the Newark Fire Academy before they started farming everything out.
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So that was 2002.
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So they threw a couple curveballs at us.
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The the hardest thing that we had to do was repelling, which was something that they just threw in there for shit and giggles to kind of uh mess with the new guys.
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Oh yeah, repelling down, right?
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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From how high did you have to do that?
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Like, third story of a burn tower, so approximately 30 feet.
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Yeah, that's scary.
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With a rickety old cargo net below us that somebody actually went through.
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Oh god.
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Yikes.
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Dave Rogers.
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Right.
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What are the different roles for firefighters in the uh in Newark or in general?
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Like you could what are you?
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The primary functions are the engine and the ladder.
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So engines responsible for bringing water to the scene and then stretching a line into the fire.
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They put the wet stuff on the red stuff, then you got the ladder company, it's forcible entry, search and rescue, ventilation.
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Okay.
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We have a rescue company as well, so that's pretty self-explanatory.
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Yeah, okay.
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How big of an area is your station responsible for?
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Well, so with his position, he covers the entire city.
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Yeah.
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So all Muick is about 24 square miles.
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So essentially he's gonna command any major incident, but typically we have it broken down into four sections of the city: the 1st Battalion, 3rd Battalion, 4th Battalion, and 5th Battalion.
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Okay, and so um each each fire each section has the city has a total of 16 firehouses and 25 companies.
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Backwork?
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Yeah, so it's a pretty big department considering the size.
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But uh his level is gonna be controlling the um ages team and and overseeing all those units, you know, correct.
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It depends on the geographic location of the house, too.
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Some companies like here, they actually have a very small radius, maybe a square mile in every direction.
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Okay.
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If you're on a fringe company in the outer portion of the city, like say along the one in line corridor with um with the airport, then you're gonna cover quite a bit of more ground.
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So here is a pretty dense area, so it's you're it's not big.
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Yeah, the houses are close closer together.
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Yeah.
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Um, so there's gonna be some overlap with regard to the Here's a question from one of my students.
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Uh hi, I am a student of Sun Review High School.
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My name is Erici B.
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Amante.
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Why did you become a firefighter and do you like it?
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For me, it's been uh a family thing, a generational thing.
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My grandfather was on the job, and my father was on the job before me.
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I'm the third generation here in Newark.
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Oh, wow.
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Uh so it's kind of born and bred within the family.
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Um, I was following both my parents.
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My both my parents were, I guess, you know, like most people, were primary role models.
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My mother was in teaching, my father was in firefighting.
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I went to college for teaching, uh, and my father anecdotally pushed me towards the fire service.
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He basically uh, long story short, he put it like this I come home from uh college one day on the weekend, get my laundry done, and uh my father's in the kitchen making dinner.
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He was pushing me to put the application in for the exam, just keep my options open.
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He says, Look at your mother.
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She went to school, worked all day, she came home, she had a snack, she's upstairs, she's been grading papers nonstop, and now she's calling parents.
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It's 7 o'clock at night, she's still working.
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She says, Look at me.
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I'm making dinner, I'm on my third beer.
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Who do you want to be?
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I said, when you put it like that, you know.
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Seems like a pretty easy choice, you know.
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Making me rethinking.
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You've got to be under 35 though, right?
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Yes.
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Yeah, too old now.
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Unless you have uh in your vet, it's extended to 40.
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Oh, okay.
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I gotta become a vet this year.
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Join the military and then leave the military.
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Yeah.
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No.
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Um, can you describe an animal rescue that you've heard about or been involved in?
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It's fairly common.
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Yeah.
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One the this one that happens pretty often is like animals get like there's a fence, they'll get their heads stuck on the fence.
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So then we have to use the spreaders to spread the fence, pull them out.
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Or like, you know, you hear the cat in a tree.
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Yeah.
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We've saved a lot of cats in trees, you know, so it's uh it's something that happens often.
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Um oftentimes, I mean, the the dogs will s self-evacuate, you know, uh especially once they feel that the change in environment, right?
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Yeah, and uh the visibility, the terriers they're you know, comfortable with the layout of the house and they know how to get out, and someone obviously went out and left the door open, they'll follow right out.
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Um there's times you'll find them uh under beds or in closets, you know, even sometimes deceased and quite oftentimes alive as well.
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It's uh it's it's actually something that um there was one time we had a uh it was a house fire in this third floor apartment, and this was like a big German shepherd that was up there, and I forget what the other kind of dog was, but these dogs were not friendly.
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But it's in those moments, right?
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Yeah, that this dog would never have he was just so grateful to get brought in down, you know?
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Yeah, and um that happens often.
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I remember that that fire we it was a German shepherd, I believe it was a dolverman, and it was a cage with like four ferrets in it.
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Um bring all of them out, you know.
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Um and so it's it's it's nice because it doesn't ever come up quite often if you've got outside properties where people will bring in security dogs, right?
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Say you got four or five tractor trailers on fire within that lot, those dogs want out of that lot, right?
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They might be the most vicious, ferocious things you see on a typical day-to-day basis, but yeah, they're waiting at that fence for you to cut it, and the minute you cut it, they're running right past you out of that lot.
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You know, they just want to hightail without a dodge.
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One of the big misconceptions we get when we pull up the scene is people say, My baby's inside, right?
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And you know, the natural reaction is their baby's a baby, right?
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You know, their baby could be a parakeet.
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But uh in the moment, they're having difficulty articulating that efficiently.
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Yeah.
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Hi, my name is Eddie, and I'm a student on Summerberg High School.
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I'm a freshman, and I will like to ask you two questions about your job.
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How do you help too many people at the same time?
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I was a firefire.
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What do you like about your beginning a firefire on your job?
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We've got the luxury that on tour we've got roughly a hundred members plus.
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So when we respond to a scene that we would call a signal 11 structure fire, it's our basic level response.
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I'm gonna get seven companies there on the scene automatically.
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We're gonna get four engines, two ladders, and a rescue company.
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Okay, then we also have what we call a writ team, a rapid intervention team, and they're there specifically for firefighter rescue.
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Okay.
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So we've got plenty of resources on the scene, it's basically gonna be where the victim is located, okay, and then the order of the companies respond there.
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Okay, there'll be a general flow.
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The first line's gonna go to the seat of the fire, the second line is gonna back that up, the third line is gonna go above the fire, okay, and then the rescue companies will search off of those lines, unless we've got somebody hanging out of a window, in which case it's a direct shot.
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Okay.
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So it's a roof, whatever the case may be.
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Yeah.
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So you and one thing to just touch on that, the beauty of it is right, um, you know, it's not only just a major structure fire, but when it comes to helping people out, um it's total strangers.
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And yeah, at a right now, we're a second away from a call where we're gonna treat them as if they were our own family.
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Yeah.
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You know, we just take a lot of pride in that job.
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Definitely.
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No, part of the process as they're coming to the academies, they'll be introduced to the rules and regulations and the standard operating procedures that the department runs by.
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So depending on, again, the proximity to the scene, the each company's got a designated role.
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Okay.
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And what what did you what do you like about your job?
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We call this the best kept secret.
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There's not much not to like.
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Uh, you know, guys got a reputation for being good cooks in here, you eat very well, the schedule, um, you're getting a full-time salary for essentially a part-time job, and we're here eight days a month before we take any kind of vacation or leave.
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So you've got the advantage if you've got a craft or a skill, um, or you own a business, you've got plenty of time to be able to have an additional um source of income to help support your family as you get to that stage of your life.
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Do uh do you can you say any of the examples of ones you've heard of of people doing like a craft or a hobby or another job that they enjoy?
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Sure, he's got a construction business.
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I own a gym.
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I mean, there's everybody's got some sort of niche that they're into.
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Oh, cool.
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But the internet gives you tens of outlets for things that you can do now.
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Yeah.
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One of my uh co-workers who I used to believe had a plumbing business, so there's guys that came from the trade uh world into this job.
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Before I did that, I substituted taught before I had the gym.
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Oh, okay.
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Cool.
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Uh are people grateful for your help?
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I would say so, yeah.
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I mean, it's a little different than the police.
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Generally, when they show up, it's it's not so warm of a welcome.
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But we're also showing on people's doorsteps on the worst day of their life.
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Right.
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So any aid that you can render them, any empathy that you can show towards them, they're gonna be receptive and appreciative of that.
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What uh we were talking about this a little bit earlier downstairs, people were recalling COVID.
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But what was COVID like as a firefighter?
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A strange time, a lot of issues with guys in the house.
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You know, there's department protocol with regard to personal protective equipment, you know, there was a mandate on going through with the vaccines, which many people didn't agree with.
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I don't think anybody knew what to make heads or tails of it because I mean it was an unprecedented event.
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Yeah.
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I don't know if it's anything like that but before.
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Also some of the longest stints where I was put out on sick leave.
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I think I'd tested positive three times over the course of that period.
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Zero signs or symptoms.
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Yeah.
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I got a free vacation, my wife banned me to the basement and slid food underneath the child safety gates.
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So it was a weird dynamic at home as well.
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I missed the garbage.
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Yeah.
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People were uh scared and confused.
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Definitely.
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We were one of the few businesses that didn't shut down.
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Yeah.
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Essential services carry on no matter what.
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Yeah.
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What is the most annoying part of your job?
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Dealing with the people.
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Yeah.
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Like annoying uh people in the town in the city, or there's an old adage in the fire service, 10% of the people do 90% of the work.
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Okay.
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You can do the math on the rest of that.
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Yeah.
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When you hear the word fire, what do you think of first?
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You want to take that one?
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Yeah, I mean um it's it's it's I mean, it's definitely something that you know, when we when we hear fire, right, and we get a report of a fire, initially we're already doing a size up, you know, and pre-planning.
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Most of the time we're planning ahead of time for any kind of major incident, especially in his role, you know, his experience.
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So he's gotta take control of that scene.
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So I'm his eight, right?
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And he's already thinking about tactics based off of if there's a lot of callers, you know, and if there's reports of people tracked, you know, now we have to have a more aggressive approach, right?
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And the houses are very close to each other.
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So a lot of the times it's like, okay, if we have potential exposure problems, we have to like, you know, start to think if we have a house that's fully involved, yeah, then we have to really now protect that exposure, maybe more of an offensive attack on that one.
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The main fire building, that'll be like a defensive attack.
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We're not gonna commit the resources to it, but it's um a lot of it's planning, a lot of it is just really uh there's a myriad of considerations, you know.
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The construction type, the occupancy, the time of day.
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Um obviously you can have a different response to a three-family home than you are a hundred thousand square foot chemical facility.
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It's gonna require a completely different deployment of tactics.
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You know, so it's gonna be very situationally dependent.
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How is Newark different than other towns and cities?
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Like, are there a lot of is residential stuff the main thing, or is there more or less industrial or chemical places?
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You've got pretty much everything you can think of here.
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We've got major highways that run through here, we've got high-rises, we've got the downtown business area, you've got a private sector, you've got tons of hazardous materials.
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You've got railways that run through here that are both passenger and cargo.
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You've got the seaport you name it.
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It happens here.
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Yeah.
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It's funny, I'm actually uh taking courses now.
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I just finished up the building inspector, and as they've given us examples of types of buildings, yeah, and they're like, you probably wouldn't see this in your career.
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And I start to think it's like everything that they give an example of, New York has been.
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You actually have data centers as a top of the round.
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We have a couple of them, you know.
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Everything you can imagine, yeah.
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So Newark is different than other towns and cities precisely because it has like everything that you could possibly see.
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Exactly.
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And then it's very homes are tight.
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Yeah.
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You know, um, a lot of traffic, and uh it's just so many a lot of things to really consider.
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And another big thing that we have compared to a lot of departments, this is a fully paid department.
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Okay, right.
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You may have a lot of, you know, in the the fire service is probably predominantly volunteer, but when you're dealing with areas like this, yeah, um, New York, you know, big cities, urban environments, you're gonna have a paid department.
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Yeah.
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How do you navigate or like what tricks are there for navigating all the traffic and tight turns of a city?
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Lights and sirens, okay.
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Hope that people yield to the emergency vehicle.
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It's a different animal in the city, though.
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Time of day, you start to think about certain traffic patterns, certain schools letting out at certain times.
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So you have to really adjust your tactics for that.
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And even as we're driving, there's a lot of road construction going on.
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We announced that in the air so that the company is and you can hear that.
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So if they're responding, and then that the major intersections block after the construction, you have to start planning already.
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That's part of that pre-planning.
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It's gonna be interdependent again on the time of day, like Carlos brought the light there.
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Between six and nine in the morning and three and six in the afternoon, it it's virtual gridlock pretty much everywhere.
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Yeah.
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Um that may affect, again, response and tactics.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.759
You know, three o'clock in the morning, it's a lot easier to access a one-way street the wrong way.
00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:54.159
Yeah.
00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.599
Whereas five o'clock in the evening, that's not even a consideration.
00:17:57.759 --> 00:17:58.000
Yeah.
00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:00.319
It's gonna cause more of a problem than anything else.
00:18:02.399 --> 00:18:02.879
All right.
00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:08.480
Uh could you describe a memorable non-fire emergency that you helped with?
00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:11.839
Most of the stuff is uh it's NC17.
00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:18.879
You know, it's not really for a kid's audience, but whatever you feel comfortable sharing.
00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:27.920
Yeah, a city a city like this, you know, you do get so much activity, yeah, and there's so much that goes on, you know.
00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:34.640
Um I mean, I I I think of I think of one that comes to mind often uh when I was at engine nine.
00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:37.360
I'm mainly a truck guy, but we call it loud.
00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:42.880
But when I was at engine nine, um there was a a pretty bad dirt bike versus a car.
00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:51.440
And um, you know, there's two people there, and they they both flipped over, then they weren't wearing helmets, you know.
00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:57.759
Um I don't know in depth we can get into some of the details, but it was a lot of people outside.
00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:05.920
Yeah and it was really like tensions were starting to kind of escalate, and the battalion chief that was on duty at the time also works for the hospital.
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:11.599
He made kind of an executive, you know, decision to okay, we're gonna transport both these people right away.
00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:12.160
Yeah.
00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:15.680
And and uh he goes, Carlos, I need you to drive that ambulance.
00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:17.360
I've never driven an ambulance before.
00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:27.360
So it was just uh it's something that always comes to mind that like you know, he knew exactly what to do, what to say, even with dispatching to connect connecting to the university hospital.
00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:34.240
And uh it was just uh it was a pretty intense scene, but it's just that's one that kind of comes to mind, you know.
00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:38.160
Yeah that's a non-fire related because we we do get a lot of car accidents.
00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:55.920
Yeah you know, um you know there's there was times that I could remember I'm being I'm I'm handy with construction, you go into a basement and it's like they have a major flood or something pretty major going on electrical problem-wise, and just trying to like mitigate that situation at that moment.
00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:59.279
It that's that stuff is kind of fulfilling, you know, to be able to do that.
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:00.160
Yeah.
00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:03.200
Maybe you can take a cheat.
00:20:05.360 --> 00:20:12.880
You become numb and you kind of desensitize yourself to a lot of the stuff, but you know, to his point, some of the scope of response that we'll go to.
00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:22.799
You'll you'll go to EMS assists where you have a unresponsive adult that hasn't been heard from or seen for five or six days, and you know, you'll find uh a DOA within the unit there.
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:26.240
Uh guys going on suicides, things along those lines.
00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.200
You've had some really gnarly accidents over the years.
00:20:29.360 --> 00:20:32.480
You know, you've uh dismemberments, things along those lines.
00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:43.519
So and then and those aren't necessarily like police responses, those are well how why is it that the fire department responds to those things?
00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:45.360
Like that's part of your job.
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:58.640
Sure, we've got a forced entry, I mean, you might have a a police pursuit where drugs or guns are thrown on top of, say, an overhang on a um on a gas station, and they'll call us out there to go retrieve the evidence.
00:20:58.720 --> 00:20:59.920
You know, you oh wow.
00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:13.360
Um after a a shooting or stabbing, if it's in front of a a business, they'll have the companies come and what they call a wash down, remove the blood and the contaminants from the street into the sewer system.
00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:18.240
So the there's a lot of different factors that will come into play with this type of stuff.
00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:20.079
Yeah, wow, I never thought of that.
00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:24.880
Construction accidents, I mean anything you can think of.
00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:25.920
Okay.
00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:29.120
So do you work where train collisions?
00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:30.480
Oh, train, yeah.
00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:34.000
It's like a lot of things that can go wrong.
00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:42.960
Yeah, we we took a rail car training uh class not too long ago, and it's like every what is it, every every 13 seconds or something like that, somewhere across the country, someone gets hit by a train.
00:21:43.120 --> 00:21:44.960
It's it's it's crazy.
00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:47.279
That's pretty startling statistics out there.
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:50.960
Um okay.
00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:54.799
Uh can you describe your first fire experience?
00:21:55.279 --> 00:22:02.720
Like the first time you're like a full, you know, regular, maybe you're a probational officer or something, but like it wasn't training anymore.
00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:03.680
It was like you went.
00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:06.319
My my first fire job I'll never forget it.
00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:06.960
It's a doozy.
00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:11.120
It was a two and a half story wood frame up here in the South Ward.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:13.759
It was one of our first days out of the academy.
00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:14.240
Okay.
00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:16.960
My captain took off and left me, so I went up by myself.
00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:22.319
I was making my way down an alley, and there was guys above us horizontally venting, so they were busting glass out.
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:26.960
So I had glass ranning down in my head, got sliced on the back of my neck within a couple of seconds.
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:29.039
Eventually made it into the building.
00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:34.480
Um, by the time they got the fire under control, there was a it was a two and a half story frame, so it was a half story in the rear.
00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:34.799
Okay.
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:39.680
There was a 400-plus pound woman who was bedridden up there.
00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:56.160
They had to take out a window, make a cut, secure two ground letters together, bring them up and have two additional ground letters to bring fire department service members up onto the roof, package her up, bring her out onto that gurney.
00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:02.240
It took six guys to lower her down two ground ladders and before she could be turned over to EMS.
00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:07.279
Remember going outside and uh going to Bobby Carter who was the battalion chief at the time and saying this, but I think, oh, like this.
00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:09.360
Because no, you had a rough start to your career, kid.
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:10.559
It's not always this bad.
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:16.000
So you had to attach her, like like it was yeah, it was baptism by fire, literally.
00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:17.759
No pun intended.
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:18.480
Wow.
00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:24.160
Can you describe um it's a physical and a mental job.
00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:25.279
Obviously.
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:33.039
Um, so can you describe how you recommend people or how do you deal with the emotional labor of your job?
00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:44.319
Well, guys usually come back and we have um a critical stress debriefing, will be the technical term for a quote where you kind of hash out what just went on, anybody's got any concerns.
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:55.519
We've got an employee assistance program, so if someone wants to speak to a qualified professional or a peer who's gone through some level of training with regard to how to handle these matters in a sensitive fashion, okay.
00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:57.440
We've got those opportunities available to them.
00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:05.440
That's part of my job anytime they're exposed to anything that could be traumatic that they may take home, and there may be some lasting mental effect on.
00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:11.759
We always make sure to offer them these outlets of support should they choose to take advantage of it.
00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:19.360
Can you describe do you have any rituals or traditions or like charms or superstitions?
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:20.640
No.
00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:23.360
No.
00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:24.799
No, no, no.
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:25.680
You?
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:26.799
No, you know what?
00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:28.640
Um, I would say just routine.
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:29.360
Routine.
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:31.759
I like routine, uh I like structure.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:38.640
So it's like that's what's nice as far as like just kind of sticking to like a similar routine, you know.
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:45.440
Um but no, it's you know, just like just getting ready for work, you know, and you know, when you're at work.
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:48.640
Uh I'm very routine oriented with the way I do things.
00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:50.000
I think he's probably very similar.
00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:52.799
So it's a lot of repetition of muscle memory, you know.
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.000
It's just like running a business.
00:24:54.079 --> 00:25:01.360
You put systems in place and then you you you know refine and tweak them when new situations arise.
00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:02.000
Yeah.
00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:05.200
Everything's a fluid situation, right?
00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:06.720
Nothing's a ever a final product.
00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:07.200
Yeah.
00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:08.000
That's tough though.
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:11.519
Some jobs it's it's well every day here's right.
00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:13.839
Your day might be a little more predictable, right?
00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:18.000
You know, you've got these classes at these times, you've got your prep here at this time, your lunch at this time.
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:21.200
Our schedule is gonna be totally fluid.
00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:21.599
Yeah.
00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:30.319
Teachers, we think that we everything could something crazy can happen, like two kids are gonna fight, or you know, three kids have to go to some other thing.
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:32.480
But um, every shift's a unicorn here.
00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:33.519
Yeah, really.
00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:35.360
Okay.
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:40.240
Um, have you ever had to use your skills off duty in some way?
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:42.559
Recently, I think.
00:25:43.120 --> 00:25:43.680
Funny you say that.
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:46.799
My my neighbor's house caught on fire a few weeks ago.
00:25:47.120 --> 00:25:47.599
Your neighbors?
00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:49.440
Right across the street from my house, yeah.
00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:54.000
And um he was delayed in getting out, he was sustaining some burns trying to put the fire on himself.
00:25:54.079 --> 00:25:57.519
I actually had to go in and pull him out, call the fire in.
00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:00.079
My neighbors came over, told me the neighbor's house was on fire.
00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:02.799
What do you want me to do?
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:05.440
I mean, did anybody call that one?
00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:06.720
No, he can't even got a chew.
00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:16.640
So I had to make the call, I had to keep him uh you know, relate this to their dispatch, what was going on with the phone, saying that he lives by himself, single occupancy home.
00:26:21.120 --> 00:26:23.920
I went in, made a quick sweep at the house, asked him if he had any company over.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:27.120
No, removed him from the building, he's sitting on my front porch, so there's no life hazard.
00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:28.799
The guys can come in and do their thing.
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:30.079
My town's a volunteer town.
00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:32.160
So um the response is actually very quick.
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:33.839
They're there in three or four minutes.
00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:38.000
There's a house that's located right in my my nook of the woods there, so to speak.
00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:42.000
Yeah, that's did you ever imagine something like that happening?
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:44.799
Or no, I mean what are the odds, you know?
00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:45.519
Yeah.
00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:50.000
Uh I live on a dead end street with six other houses.
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:54.480
So it's kind of a needle-in-hastack situation.
00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:55.039
Yeah.
00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:59.680
What are some of the important tools that people have to learn how to use?
00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:06.400
Well, it's again, it's gonna be company dependent, you know, on the engine side of things.
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:10.880
They've got to obviously learn how to use the the pumper, the pump panel.
00:27:11.120 --> 00:27:16.000
You've got to be able to stretch line, spanner wrenches or hoses, a hydrant wrench to open and close the hydrants.
00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:19.120
On the truck side, there's a lot more tools with the forcible entry.
00:27:19.360 --> 00:27:21.200
They're always carrying a tool when they get off the rig.
00:27:21.360 --> 00:27:41.200
So it's either a halligan bar, which is a pry bar we use to force entry, a hook that they use to open up ceilings and walls with uh saws, whether it's a wood or metal blade on there, whether we're uh breaching a fence or um metal window or door enclosure, or they're from vertical ventilation, you know, cutting a hole in the roof.
00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:43.759
There's a ton of tools you're gonna go through.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.480
There's duck bills to break locks.
00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:53.120
I mean use the steel uh metal blades to force um roll-down door in a commercial environment.
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:55.519
Sure.
00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:03.360
I've got hydraulic tools to be able to, you know, lift the dashboard off of someone or pop a door if someone's wedged into their vehicle in an accident.
00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:07.519
You've probably heard of the jaws apply for tools like that.
00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:12.559
Who how does cooking work and who cooks here?
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:15.440
Everybody generally takes a turn.
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:22.880
Usually there's a rotation, so if there's four guys in the company, you know, one guy will cook this door, next guy will cook the next door.
00:28:23.120 --> 00:28:28.799
So, really, if you got two or three good meals in your repertoire, you're only gonna eat a seat once or twice a month and nobody really get tired of it.
00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:29.120
Okay.
00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:32.319
What's the worst time of year to respond to a fire?
00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:36.720
Like in terms of comfort or access or things like that.
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:38.559
You'll have different opinions on that too.
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:40.160
Some guys I would say snow.
00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:40.880
Snow.
00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:51.360
Snow is the most difficult because we have to have chains on the apparatus, and then the streets are not paid paid, I mean, uh cleaned, and when they are paved, a lot of people throw the snow back into the streets.
00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:55.279
So it's uh it it creates the biggest hurdle for us.
00:28:55.680 --> 00:29:04.720
Aside from that, um the way our our structure is as far as the response, like you were saying before, you have you know a lot of companies that are showing up.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.759
Um even if some companies were out of service, doing training, or doing anything.
00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:13.440
But I think for me, I would say the snow is the biggest obstacle.
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:18.160
You know, some guys like the heat, some guys await the cold.
00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:18.720
Yeah.
00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:27.519
When when someone is scared at work, what what what what do you do if you're scared or you're doing something scary?
00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:34.000
I mean, I think that um a lot of this is scary and you have to respect it.
00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:44.960
You know, um someone who says that they're not scared, I mean, I you know, I thought, you know, i everyone looks at it differently, but um in the heat of the moment you got adrenaline pumping.
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.759
I mean, yeah, you have to understand there's a job to be done.
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:54.960
A lot of times, you know, muscle memory just kicks in, uh, your training takes over, and you just respond instinctually.
00:29:55.519 --> 00:30:07.200
I like to really, when we have some of these major scenes, just actually take the time to calm down and be as cool and collected and not try to get emotional at those moments.
00:30:07.360 --> 00:30:10.400
It's just thinking about tactics, you know, slowing everything down.
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:13.120
Some guys get very animated and that kind of trickles down.
00:30:13.360 --> 00:30:16.000
I try to maintain a very even keel demeanor on the radio.
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:26.640
I mean, it could be, you know, all hell breaking loose, but if I'm projecting fear or anxiety, okay, or hesitation, yeah, that's gonna trickle down to the membership as well.
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:36.000
So even though it may look like you know, fire and brimstone here, we're trying to make it seem, you know, like it's uh sunshine and rainbows the best we can.
00:30:37.360 --> 00:30:42.640
Uh what do you think is something that might surprise a regular person about being a firefighter?
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:44.480
Because it's in the movies, it's in person.
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:47.839
The biggest thing, and you hear it often, right?
00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:53.279
Most people at a fire are running away from a fire while we're running towards it, right?
00:30:53.360 --> 00:30:53.599
Yeah.
00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:59.920
So unless you really are a firefighter, there's something that you really can't relate to, right?
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.079
Um, it's a very unnatural thing.
00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:05.200
You know, if you're in a bad situation, you're gonna run away from it.
00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:14.240
Yeah, where we actually embrace it, and um, you know, it's it's you know, in a city like this, I mean I'm very grateful for.
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:35.599
We have um great companies, great firefighters, and you know, you're not these kind of things we're not really uh thinking about that feeling, you know, you're kind of kind of honing in on what you do, and you don't wish fire on anyone, but you know, we train for this day in and day out while we're working, while we're not working, we're thinking about it.
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:40.799
So um I I I do think that um we are the best in the business personally.
00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:42.240
I'm I'm biased, right?
00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:44.640
But I I'm very proud of the city.
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:52.079
I love the city, I love this apartment, and um that's what I think that most people are not gonna ever be able to relate to.
00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:56.640
Even thinking about it, talking about it, yeah um until you're actually doing it, yeah.
00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:03.759
It's a totally just um unnatural, you know, kind of reaction to things.
00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:10.079
Uh something may be a little off the cuff, most people won't think about it, but the the family dynamic for a lot of people is very difficult.
00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:13.920
And again, you're you're away from your wife and kids for 24 hours a day.
00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:19.599
Um, how people cope with on-the-job stressors, you know, the divorce rate in our profession is probably higher than most.
00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:22.319
Um there's drug and alcohol issues.
00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:29.519
I mean, you see that pretty much everywhere, but it may be a little bit more prevalent, especially with people that have coping issues with some of the things that they're gonna see here.
00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:33.920
And that's gonna lead to, you know, obviously some some turmoil and fallout within home.
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:42.559
Having good communication and uh a strong rapport with your significant other and your children is something that you want to establish early on.
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:46.880
I mean the the number one killer of fire fighters is cardiovascular disease.
00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:53.599
Okay, and and then um whether it's a heart attack, whatever the case may be, the second is suicide, you know.
00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:57.759
So it's something, and that that that applies to any first responder.
00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:03.279
Uh it's it's a lot to process, so some people do not process it well.
00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:21.360
And that's that's why, you know, again, this department does give you so many different outlets, like the chief was mentioning, EAP Employee Assistance Program, um counseling, peer counseling, and you know, just being able to debrief with some of the guys that you work with, it's uh it's nice.
00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:28.000
It's it is a brotherhood, you know, sisterhood, but it's brotherhood, you know, that just it's very family-oriented here.
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:31.360
You have to learn how to numb yourself and kind of disnect with some of these things.
00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:43.200
Just we were just talking to Captain Bastos last day, and he was here, he was telling us a story that not long ago they responded to an elevator call, and while they're approaching the building, they heard a few noises pop off.
00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:50.880
So, no, it sounds like gunshots, and they look to their left and there's a bodega and there's a man coming out of the store and a guy following behind them, gunned them down right in the street directly in front of them.
00:33:50.960 --> 00:34:00.559
You know, so that something that was completely unrelated to your call that you come across just to, you know, being in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the right time, however you want to look at it.
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:01.360
Wow.
00:34:01.599 --> 00:34:06.319
What does it feel like to be in a place that's on fire?
00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:08.559
Uncomfortable, hot.
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:09.279
Okay.
00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:11.119
It's not like you see in the movies.
00:34:11.279 --> 00:34:11.599
Okay.
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:14.159
Uh your visibility is zero, you can't see your hand in front of your face.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:17.839
You know, the temperature can be upwards of uh several hundred degrees at the floor.
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:18.079
Okay.
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:22.159
You're not you're not standing up, you're on your belly crawling or on a knee sliding.
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:25.599
Um it's uh your your senses come into play.
00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:27.119
Okay, you've got to be tactile, okay.
00:34:27.279 --> 00:34:28.880
Again, we talk about sizing up the building.
00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:44.400
Okay, once you start to understand how building construction is, and you go into several of these buildings, a lot of these homes are cookie cutter, they're done by the same builder within the same area, so you know you've got rear road apartments where you've got stairs on one side, and when you enter the apartments, generally when you enter, you're moving into the living area, you can make your way through the kitchen.
00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:50.079
Okay, you've got one center hallway where it'll be room to room to room, and then you've got your bedrooms and your bathrooms off that hallway in the rear.
00:34:50.239 --> 00:35:02.239
So understanding your orientation, staying within your training, okay, venting properly so you can remove some of those products from combustion, get some fresh air, get some visibility into the environment, are all crucial components.
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:13.279
Police get a lot of, it seems like police get a lot of funds for like anti-terrorism things and like for big machines and vehicles.
00:35:13.679 --> 00:35:17.199
Uh, what equipment does the fire department get or want?
00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:17.920
Here, nothing.
00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:19.519
Okay, with a redheaded stepchild.
00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:23.279
The average age of our apparatus, uh, they're old enough to buy alcohol.
00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:28.400
Um thing is hard to come by.
00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:30.239
We try to go through alternative sources, grants.
00:35:30.319 --> 00:35:35.519
We put several proposals through that are revenue generating, uh, mainly targeting the private sector and not the taxpayers.
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:42.400
And it's hard to get traction with some of these things from the upper echelon, members of the department and the uh and the city government.
00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:44.960
And here's another question from one of my students.
00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:47.599
Uh I'm Dana, a high school student.
00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:50.960
How long you need to study to Varium Pai?
00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:53.440
Uh, do you like your job?
00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:57.599
I was gonna say, like uh, and you know, she mentioned how long you have to study.
00:35:57.760 --> 00:35:59.360
You technically don't have to study at all.
00:35:59.519 --> 00:36:05.440
You need a high school diploma, okay, and um they usually give you residency preference for the city that you're applying for.
00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:05.760
Okay.
00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:08.159
But um, in the academy they train you.
00:36:08.240 --> 00:36:12.880
You know, when prior to taking that, you do have to fill out a civil service exam when it opens up.
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:19.840
And uh the one that just passed recently, it opens it usually opens up June 1st, and then it'll close on the end of August.
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:20.079
Okay.
00:36:20.240 --> 00:36:31.920
So it allows candidates that want to pursue the job to fill out this application within this three-month pro the time frame, and then they'll get um scheduled to take a civil service test.
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:39.920
So you want to score as high as you can on that, because if you score high enough, then you can move along to uh taking the physical portion of the test.
00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:46.880
And right now it's just um it used to be timed, where it still is time, but you just have to do it within five minutes.
00:36:47.039 --> 00:36:47.360
Okay.
00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:56.000
Before that, they would take your time and the fastest time to complete it on top of your your score, and then you would that's how you start to place.
00:36:56.480 --> 00:36:56.719
Okay.
00:36:56.880 --> 00:36:59.519
They do give preference to veterans on the list.
00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:05.760
Um but yeah, as far as there's not like a you know, it's good to be familiar with it so you know what you want to do.
00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:10.159
Yeah, but that's uh there's plenty of different services for hire that'll prepare you for the exam.
00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:11.920
You go for a two or three-day weekend class.
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.840
It's essentially basic reading comprehension, basic high school math.
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:25.840
Okay, then they have what they call biodata or character profile assessment where they're gonna ask you, you know, is the sky blue four or five different ways and see if your answer is consistent.
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:26.400
Okay.
00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:28.800
What were the other two questions I think?
00:37:29.039 --> 00:37:31.679
Um she said, uh, do you like your job?
00:37:32.240 --> 00:37:33.119
I love my job.
00:37:33.519 --> 00:37:34.079
Best job in the world.
00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:35.440
And you're gonna hear that often.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:36.800
This is the best job in the world.
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:40.000
You know, I mean, I think that I look forward to coming to work, you know.
00:37:40.240 --> 00:37:50.480
Yeah, every it's it's uh funny how difficult the job can be to the outside public and obviously to yourselves too, but how every firefighter I've spoken to loves their job.
00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:57.360
Like it's just it's very high job satisfaction despite being uh scary, yeah, potentially dangerous.
00:37:57.599 --> 00:38:02.800
Yeah, well to his point, we spent 25% of our lives together, so the people that you work with become your family over time.
00:38:02.960 --> 00:38:03.280
Yeah.
00:38:03.599 --> 00:38:10.719
If someone's interested in becoming a firefighter, right, there's ways that you can explore the service before you do it.
00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:12.000
You can volunteer.
00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:14.400
There's a lot of volunteer departments.
00:38:14.639 --> 00:38:24.240
Um you can some districts have an explorer program like they have here where you can go into it um through like a high school or vocational sect.
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:25.039
Okay.
00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:28.400
And it's a very rewarding career.
00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:32.000
Um, I didn't want to become a firefighter, I actually wanted to become a police officer.
00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:38.480
And my father was a police officer, and I came into the fire service, I'd done construction, and this is actually my call for.
00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:45.039
And you know, I'm very glad that I didn't join the police force and decided to come to the fireside.
00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:47.760
This is a very rewarding career, like I was saying.
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:50.719
Well, thank you guys.
00:38:50.800 --> 00:38:54.559
I really look up to you and I appreciate um this and everything you guys do.
00:38:54.639 --> 00:38:56.960
And I'm happy that it, you know, you found your calling too.
00:38:57.039 --> 00:38:57.440
That's awesome.
00:38:57.519 --> 00:38:57.840
That's great.
00:38:58.079 --> 00:39:00.400
It's a way better schedule over here than the police schedule, too.