I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do from that point on. The hands on, dirty work, and adrenaline rush was my calling. The history and knowledge of the fire service amazes me every time I learn something new. I worked very hard on my first EMT class with the Sacramento fire department. It was not until I was 19 when I got my first job on a transporting BLS ambulance. When this happened, I started to learn about the streets and what training you do and don’t use when you’re out there.

Some of the problems I see new EMT’s face are not ones of pure class and textbook material, map reading, or defining complex medications. It’s how dedicated they are and how bad they want the next step. With firefighting and the hiring process, they [fire departments] do not just look at how many certifications you have, but what kind of person you are. A fire captain once told me, “As soon as you start training to become a fireman, it’s as if you are wearing your uniform all the time.” Everything you do defines who you are. From drinking, fighting, getting speeding tickets, disrespect to strangers, and not acting appropriately all define you who are.

We all do things when we were young that we regret. In the end, its all about manning (or woman-ing) up to what happened in the past and not making those same mistakes in the future. Some of the most positive traits you may have, may never be seen by your peers or superiors; but at some point they will pay off. Examples of this would be: Showing up early to shifts, getting held over on a shift without getting upset, running that extra call, cleaning the rig, checking out the rig, and so on it goes.

The advice I would like to give to the new EMT’s, Medic’s, Firefighter’s, Peace officer’s, and other public safety officers is to work hard. You want to be the professional you trained to be, correct? Then show the rest you are. If your at a BLS (Basic Life Support) company and your dream is to be in the 911 system, let NOTHING stand in your way. Keep applying to 911 positions ALL OVER. Not just the county or city you want, but anywhere that you can become a 911 provider. If you’re at a small town fire department and you want to work at a big department, make it happen. Go to paramedic school, take the engineers test, do whatever it takes to make that next step. You can see my angle on this subject.

Despite the ease of falling into a comfort zone, with this line of work you must not become “comfortable”. You have to constantly take classes, brush up on your skills, train with your fellow coworkers, and continue to better yourself. I understand that people have families, wives/husbands, children, other jobs, money problems, time commitment issues, and other obstacles that stop you from taking that next step. The goal is to work through it despite the fact that it will difficult. It may not fit you for that current time and may not be what you want at the moment, but think about the future and what lies down the road.

My experience becoming a 911 EMT was not an easy task, and it took at least a year to get hired due to the economy. I was working at another ambulance company for a good amount of time before I was hired. I made the tough decision of leaving a secure full-time position to go into the unknown. I knew making this switch was the right thing to do, and it was only one in a long line of hard decisions I would have to make.

I was hired on as a float EMT. My job would entail me from working: Days, Nights, 24 hour shifts, swing shifts, and half day shifts. I would also have a different partner every day. My partners’ titles ranged from: EMT-B, EMT-P, CCT-RN, and Paramedic Supervisors. The first three months were hard. Sleep was rare and still is, though I continue to better myself by teaching CPR to lay rescuers, taking classes to keep up my EMT skills, and most recently enrolling in the LMC fire academy.

My advice to future public safety workers… Stay safe, stay smart, and work when no one is looking. This will be your future career; you are becoming a professional in your skill and field. People will depend on you night and day, whether you are tired, hungry, or sad. You are going to become (or already are) a part of society that is held to a higher standard. You will be remembered for your mistakes before all the things you have done right. Your integrity, wisdom, ethics, and morals will be tested. You will be pushed harder than you ever have.

Good-luck to your future, and hope to see you 10-97 (on scene)!

Day 3 –  Union City Fire Department Captain, Ricky Hurtado ran this evenings class and packed our heads full of information on the topic of fire behavior.  I can’t begin to transcribe all the notes I took that night, but I can comment that Capt. Hurtado was an excellent instructor and knows how to lecture so that you don’t fall asleep.  He’s interesting, full of knowledge, but grounded and effective in connecting with his students.  I look forward to seeing more of him in the academy.

Day 4 –  Here was a biggie.  Day 4 was a Saturday and retired Chief Joe Robinson was with us for 10 hours (not counting breaks and an hour lunch) of fire prevention and investigation education.  Whooooo, it was a long day at information station!  The most amazing thing about it is how Chief Robinson can pull it off.  Anybody who can effectively lecture on a single topic for such a substantial amount of time is a dedicated man in my book.

As an instructor Joe Robinson (who I’ve discussed in other parts of this blog) is a downright wealth of information packed into a single human being.  He gave us such a massive information dump, there would be no way to retain it all, had it not been for his extremely organized and to the point Powerpoint presentations.  Chief is also a very courteous and laid back guy with a subtle sense of humor.  It seemed obvious to me that he enjoys teaching and appears to be doing a good job of keeping busy while loving retirement.

Day 5 –   Another of my previous fire instructors, San Jose FD Captain, Don Torres, ran Tuesday’s lecture covering ICS (Incident Command System) in a through and to the point manner.  He had to as there was a ton of information to cover in only 4 hours.  Taking notes was a challenge, but my approach was write down key words and points and review them later.  Most of all I wanted to make sure I was hearing what Mr. Torres was saying.

If you happen to be a student at Los Medanos College, I highly recommend taking ‘Building and Construction for Fire Protection’ with Captain Torres.  He’s a fun teacher who appears to me to be at the top of his game.  He also let us know that we could earn our ICS-100 certification through FEMA online.   FEMA offers a study at home course and certification for this and other progams.  If you haven’t done it, you might want to spend some time on that.

Day 6 –  Communications was the topic and Dave Watson (also known as “The Punisher”) of Walnut Creeks Engine 1, was the instructor.  This was an interesting night because unlike all the previous days, this evening was broken up by groups of us going to the 911 dispatch center in Pleasant Hill.  Dave had Firefighter Nick Grillo assisting him that night.  Grillo (Captain Mike Grillo’s son) accompanied us to the dispatch center while Watson stayed back and lectured/Q&A’ed with the remaining cadets.

At the 911 center, the very friendly (for some reason I expected them to be grouchy) dispatchers explained what all the bells and whistles did, and details about how dispatchers work.  I was amazed to learn that their schedule is just like the firefighters.  They’re currently working 48/96′s which basically means they’re on for 48 hours straight and off for 4 days afterwards.  Some love it, other hate it.  Either way, it’s pretty amazing.  When we were there, there were only 3 dispatchers working (and I assume there was one sleeping somewhere).  Very interesting experience.

Listening to the calls come in, you get a better understanding for why firefighters struggle with the information they’re given by dispatch.  It’s simple – dispatch is essentially relaying the information they’re given from whatever panicked Joe calls in, and often they have to relay that information super fast in order to get to the plethora of other calls that may be flooding their lines.  It’s a tough job and one I hope to become more acquainted with in the future.

Before I conclude Day 6′s wrap-up, I should do my own relay job and tell you what Firefighter Dave Watson told us about his “Punisher” nickname.  The story is a simple one, and not so focused on the nickname itself.  Apparently during the last LMC academy, Watson must have been pretty hard on the group because that night they dubbed him “The Punisher”.  The next morning Dave showed up for work at the fire station and everybody there knew all about his new nickname.  Not even 24 hours had passed and he was getting phone calls from others in the service joking with him about his new tag.

The moral of the story Watson explained goes like this…. “Telegraph, Telephone, Tell-a-firefighter”  The point here being, news travels fast; really fast!  Especially in the small world of the fire service so think before you act or speak.  He joked that firefighters are worse than high school girls when it comes to gossip and if you make a mistake, everybody will know within hours if not minutes.  Fortunately for Watson, being nicknamed “The Punisher” is pretty cool, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

It was my hope at the start of this blog that I would be able to write a post for every day of the academy.  That is clearly not going to be possible, but I will try and stay on top of things at least in blocks of days.  Today’s post will be on Day 2 of the academy, but in this posts and future posts  I’ll generally focus on a few things: What we’ve covered in class; class/training instructors;  personal wins/losses (blunders); other highlights.  In addition, I’ll also try and get the quizes we’ve taken so far posted on the quiz page so you can test your own firefighter knowledge.  Remember – anything less than 70% fails.

Day 2 – This was the actual first day of “class”.  Day 1 was our 10-hour orientation.  In this class Captain Grillo covered the history of the fire service from 24 B.C. to current day.  There’s a lot that we covered and I’d love to post the notes here, but that would take a lot of time I don’t have.  That’s a project for later, but I can tell you a few highlights regarding the history of the firefighting and some of the interesting trivia that goes along with it.

• The earliest recorded history of firefighters was in Caesar’s Rome.  The “Familia Publica”, made up of 600 slaves (not like the African-American slaves of American history.  They were more like servants of the commonwealth.) stationed around the city and kept watch nightly for fires.  They put them out by throwing buckets of water on them.
• The Corp of Vigiles eventually replaced the Familia Publica and served Rome for about 500 years.
• The very first fire pump ever was called the Siphona Syringe (invented by Ctesibus and Hero the Alexandrian) which was basically a giant syringe full of water which was pumped by multiple men onto a fire.
• Former Captain of the Romain army, Florian, became known as “Florian, Patron Saint of Firefighters”.
• Dalmatians, the fire service mascot was originally used to keep horse teams on path and calm at the scene of fires.
• Ben Franklin is commonly referred to as “America’s First Fire Chief” as he started the first fire department in Philadelphia, PA.
• Boston, MA created the first paid-on-call Fire Department, let by Thomas Atkins – America’s first Fire Captain.
• The word ‘curfew’ comes from the french saying “couvre feu” meaning “cover fire”.  In Medieval England the curfew bell was rung meaning it was time to cover and extinguish your fire, so that homes would not catch on fire in the night.
• Andrew Gratacap invented the first fire helmet made of leather with the primary purpose of keeping water out of your eyes.
• Cincinatti, OH (1853) is credited as being the the 1st paid, full-time Fire Department.
• San Francisco’s Daniel Hayes invented the 1st hydraulic aerial ladder in 1870.
• In 1973 America’s growing fire problem was finally explored in depth in the monumental “America Burning” publication.  It’s conclusion was that our fire problem which is worse than any other industrialized country, stems from our own apathy.
• 345 firefighters die in the terrorist attacks on 9/11.  6000 people died in total.
• Today there are approximately 33,000 fire departments in the U.S. and 1 million firefighters (two-thirds are volunteer)
• The are approximately 2 million fire calls per year in the U.S.
• A popular saying in the fire service goes “200 years of tradition, unhampered by progress.”
• “Semper Vigilans” is the motto of the fire service.  It means “Always Vigilant”.

Class went smooth.  Nothing significant to tell beyond the