Welcome

Again, welcome and thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. I’ve read so many different Substacks and newsletters this past year I never imagined this dumb firefighter would be writing one. Yet, thanks to a few friends encouraging me on bird app here I am.

Alright so who am I and why should you listen to me?

Well, you shouldn’t. I am just a cartoon firefighter doling out info I have learned from almost 15 years of experience in EMS and Firefighting.

I have worked many different places. I have worked in urban environments running an insane amount of calls and also worked in slower, sleepy mountain towns. I have lived and worked in 3 different states each with their own unique types of calls. Every system has its own “flavor” per se. Currently I am a paramedic FTO assigned to one of the busiest stations in one of the busiest departments in the nation.

I have also taught Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Life Support, EMT-B and Paramedic school.

And I am still learning.

Background

I know The Jungle is mostly finance related. I also know that many Jungle frens grew up poor and that’s what has given them this insane work ethic.

I grew up in a upper middle class household. My mom was a SAH mom (love you mom) and my dad owned his own company. My old man was extremely smart, like stupid smart. He got his PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford after failing out of junior college years before because, and I quote “The surf was good and I was high all the time.”

I love to brag about my dad, but the reality is we weren’t that close growing up. He worked all. the. time. He would go to work from 8-5 and then once he was home he was holed up in his office working more. I hated that.

So I vowed to myself to never have an office job and to find a job that pays the most while having the most time at home with my family.

Along came Firefighting

I met my mentor when I was going to junior college. I was working at In-N-Out Burger, trying my hand at being a business major with no real direction at the time. I hated business. I hate math and it reminded me of my dads job. No thanks.

My mentor said “hey you should go to EMT school, see if you like it, if not no big deal. But if you like it and want to become a firefighter, you only work 11 days a month.”

Sign me up.

So I went to EMT school, loved it, wanted to drop out of college and pursue firefighting full time. My parents said in so many words they wanted me to finish college. I switched majors to history because it was the easiest to transfer and I actually didn't mind reading and writing. Transferred to a 4 year, graduated, and two weeks later I was working on an ambulance.

My first full time EMT job was working for a private ambulance company doing IFT's (Inter-facility Transfers). It was a great gig. I worked nine hour shifts shuffling geriatrics from nursing homes to hospitals and vice versa. After about 6 months I was ready to go to paramedic school. In hindsight I probably should have worked longer as an EMT and gained more 911 experience but I was young and thought I knew everything and felt like I was ready to be a paramagic kek. I'll go into detail of what paramedic school entails in another post, but lets just the amount of info coming at you is like trying to drink from a fire hose (no pun intended).

Now, many aspiring firefighters use their "P-Card" as a means to an end, that is just to get a fire job. Nine times out of ten they suck at medicine and I wouldn't let them touch my family with a ten foot pole. Don't get me wrong, I eventually wanted to get that badge, but I also wanted to be a safe, competent medic first.

Once I got that beautiful P-Card I ready to promote from being an EMT to Paragod. Then the company I worked for went on a hiring freeze.

D'oh. Perfect timing.

A friend told me about a public ambulance service out of state that was currently hiring and that I should test out there. I tested and was given an offer and decided moving halfway across the country would be a cool little adventure. My wife of less than 6 months and I packed up and moved. It was a great experience. In this system, many times you were the only medic on scene so everyone looked to you to make the decisions. This was contrary to the the dual medic system I worked for in the past (one medic on the fire engine, one on the ambulance). It was a steep, quick learning curve.

After a few years we missed home and decided to move back. I returned to the private side and worked there for a bit while I tested for various fire departments around the state. I was picked up by a small mountain department and once again we were moving. This department was a far cry from the high speed urban public ambulance company I previously worked for. I wasn't used to the slower pace and many times we would go a whole shift without running a single call. This just isn't how I am programmed. I wanted to do the job.

I eventually (I say eventually because there is a little time gap here that I will go into detail later with some good life lessons for younger folks trying to get into the fire service) was hired at the current department I am at now. I love my job currently. It is fast paced, urban environment, fun, and plenty of room for career advancement opportunities.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully I didn't bore you too much with my ramblings.

What can you expect from this (hopefully) weekly newsletter?

Well, I'll be doing deep dives into various medical and trauma situations and simplify assessments you give you the tools you need to hopefully save a life some day. I will talk about lessons learned and how to apply these lessons to various situations in life. I love teaching and training and I hope I will be able to do this adequately through this forum. I will also be writing about how to protect yourself and help mitigate various fire related emergencies. Whether it is hazardous materials (yuck), kitchen/structure fire, electrical, wildland; I'll be covering it. There will also be tales from the front lines. Station life, calls, near misses, it's all going to be covered.