Firehouse Roundtable - The View From The Inside

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Firehouse Roundtable – The View From The Inside

What does the job actually look like… once you’re in it?

In this episode of Wind The Q – The Stories Behind The Sirens, we step away from structured interviews and bring it back to where the real conversations happen—the firehouse table. This roundtable episode features a mix of experience levels, from seasoned leadership to newer firefighters still learning the job in real time. The result is an honest, unfiltered look at what the fire service actually feels like from the inside.

This isn’t about what the job looks like from the outside looking in. It’s not about highlight reels, big fires, or the polished version of the fire service people see online. This is about the day-to-day reality—the culture, the expectations, the learning curves, the habits, and the moments that shape you as a firefighter over time.

We talk about what catches you off guard early in your career, the things nobody tells you before you get hired, and how quickly the job humbles you once you step into a real firehouse. From first day stories to the unwritten rules that govern firehouse life, this conversation pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to earn your place and become part of a crew.

This episode also dives into the habits the job creates—both good and bad—and how those habits follow you home. Whether it’s the way you think, the way you work, or even the way you carry yourself outside of the job, the fire service has a way of changing people in ways they don’t always recognize at first. It’s those small, consistent shifts that define who you become in this career.

We also break down what actually makes a good crew—and just as importantly, what can quietly tear one apart. Trust, accountability, work ethic, and attitude all come into play, and this conversation highlights how those elements show up in real life, not just in theory. The firehouse environment is built on more than skill—it’s built on people, and the way those people show up every single shift.

For those looking to get into the fire service, we spend time walking through the hiring process from a real-world perspective. Applications, written testing, the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT), and interviews are all covered with practical advice on how to prepare and what departments are truly looking for. This isn’t textbook information—it’s insight from firefighters who have been through it and understand what separates candidates who get hired from those who don’t.

More importantly, we talk about mindset—because beyond every test and every step in the process, the job is looking for a certain type of person. Someone who shows up, works hard, stays humble, and understands that the learning never stops. That mindset doesn’t just help you get hired—it’s what helps you succeed once you’re there.

Throughout the episode, the conversation stays real, relaxed, and honest. There’s humor, there’s perspective, and there’s a level of authenticity that only comes from sitting around a table with people who live this job every day. Different experience levels bring different viewpoints, but they all point back to the same truth—this job will teach you more than you expect, and it will challenge you in ways you can’t fully understand until you’re in it.

This episode is for firefighters at any stage of their career, from brand new recruits to seasoned veterans. It’s also for anyone considering the fire service and wanting a real look at what the job actually involves beyond the surface. If you’ve ever wondered what the firehouse is really like, what the culture feels like, or what it takes to be part of a crew, this conversation gives you that perspective.

At the end of the day, this episode reflects what Wind The Q is all about—real conversations, real people, and the stories behind the job. No filters, no exaggeration—just the truth from the inside.

👉 Listen, share, and send it to your crew.
Because the fire service isn’t just about the calls…

…it’s about everything in between.

This episode Includes dynamic content. If you feel impressed to help support the show, follow the link below. If not, please continue to like, share, follow, and subscribe for more great content!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2605628/support

This episode Includes dynamic content. If you feel impressed to help support the show, follow the link below. If not, please continue to like, share, follow, and subscribe for more great content!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2605628/support

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Welcome to Wine the Q, The Stories Behind the Sirens. I'm Lieutenant Dodson, engine officer in Northwest Georgia, and this podcast is about real conversations in the fire service. It's about the jobs, about the brotherhood, and the lessons that we've learned along the way. This one's a little different. No guests, no structures, just the guys. So we've got 14 years, 13 years, 4 years, 3 years, 2 years. How long have you been here? 19 years. So we have another surprise guest who has stepped in. So we've got the experience, we've had the learning curves, and we've got a lot of perspective sitting at the table. So there is six co-hosts here today. We're going to go around the table and let them introduce themselves, say your name, say how many years you have here, and what you think you bring to the table.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Hello, uh, I'm Chandler Wise. Hello, uh, I've been in a fire service for about two and a half years now at a department in Northwest Georgia. And um I think what I bring to table is if you tell me to do something, I'm going to do it. No matter how stupid it is or how stupid I will look, I will do it. 100%.

SPEAKER_05 2:03

That's true. I'm Stetson Mailer. Sorry. I've been doing this 14 years, and uh I think I bring a positive attitude and um a sense of calmness around here. Like to help the younger guys. Uh I'm Carson Murray. Thanks for having me. Um I'm a firefighter, been here two and a half years. I was in the same class as Chandler. Um I would just say I'm fairly coachable, so it's fairly important for this job.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

That's inspiring. Fairly, fairly coachable. All right.

unknown 2:48

I've been cutting, and uh celebrated departments. Uh, actually graduated from the class of following Carson.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

And I like to think that the major thing I bring into this department is uh lot of sarcasm. And a lot of knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Maple syrup.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Maple syrup can just go for it. I am Don Witsowinski. I've been in the fire service for seven years, and I've been with this current department for about a year and a half now. Uh I think I provide different perspectives and different ways of looking at different scenes, I guess. We can what I bring to the table.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

All right. Well, tons of experience, um, different backgrounds, different raisins, different knowledge from you know, things we've done here and away from here, but uh pretty diverse group sitting around the table. Uh so let's go ahead and move right into it. Um what's something that you thought you were gonna be really good at at this job and then you found out real quick that you wasn't? Handling adrenaline. I agree with that one.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

I puke every time.

SPEAKER_05 4:13

Yes, he does. Smells. I didn't think smells ever bothered me.

SPEAKER_06 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

Smells are rough. I don't like it. If I can help it, I'm I'm outside looking for the ambulance.

SPEAKER_06 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:24

Waiting on EMS to get here.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

My smell story always goes back to that one we run. That was rough.

SPEAKER_05 4:33

Um yeah, I definitely thought I'd be better at memorizing medical knowledge. And it's there's just a whole lot more than I thought goes into it.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

Yeah, there is a lot. Uh jobs I had, I was uh in a manager role, so I think a big picture view of the theme, and I discovered real fast that uh uh on my first couple of calls I got a ton of vision really badly, and I got hype was totally tongue and little things.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

So picking back on what's done certain smell, you'd be surprised what doesn't mess with you, but then there'd be one certain smell that hits you and you spell I gotta get out of the way.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

What's your smell, man? That makes you warm throw up. I think everyone kind of knows that a warm throw up smells immediating the space.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

It'll happen.

SPEAKER_05 5:33

It will definitely happen. Stanley goes missing.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

You know what's going on, but it happens like 20 minutes after we're done working. He's like, hey, I'm gonna go over there and throw up. Okay. Weirdest thing. So there's driving, there's pumping, medical calls, radio traffic. Um, I have messed up radio traffic so many times. Um Chandler may have been here. Chandler, was you here the night I messed up on the radio and I got like tongue-tied? And I didn't even let off the button. I said, dispatch, let me just start over. Like I've done that a few times. It's kind of embarrassing.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

My favorite one was teeth, whatever he's gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Oh, yeah. Yeah, he got he got sidetracked too.

SPEAKER_05 6:20

I do try to talk as much as possible on the radio because I'm I get nervous and bad. You gotta run it through your head. Yeah. I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna say this.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Wait till your first scene sides up on a fire.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Uh, what do you think humbled you the fastest? Like you thought you come in thinking, yeah, I got this, and then you just kind of realized like what was the one thing that humbled you? Because we kind of talked about this a little bit a while ago, but at some point we all I think we realize maybe I wasn't as ready.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Um Brett Ramply, we were doing uh like a in rookie school, you know, and Brett's like 43, I think. Super old. Yeah, but yeah, super like ancient. But he's very like, he went to college for sports and stuff, so like he's very, you know, athletic. And he beat me in some sort of like race that we were doing, and it kind of like kind of hurt my pride a little bit. I was like, okay, I was like, I just got beat by an old man. And then also we were wrestling one day, and he ended up putting me in a chokehold and I couldn't get out of it too. So that kind of I was like, wow, I just got beat up by an old man too. So I'm gonna draw an ass friend.

SPEAKER_05 7:43

Why would you ever mess with Brett?

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Because we uh we have a friendship that goes past uh the department, and uh our families know each other, so I like picking on them, and also because he's old and I'm younger.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

But you gotta watch the older guys. You do. We ain't gonna fight fair. Mm-mm. I know we're too old to fight fair.

SPEAKER_05 8:05

I don't know at the beginning, but what'll humble you now is age.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

It's just you're getting older every year, and it's it gets harder and harder to keep up, stay in shape.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

It sure does, realizing you can't keep up the way you used to. And especially when it's a particular thing you hadn't done in a couple of years, and all of a sudden you think, yeah, I got it. And then you realize real quick you don't. And then you're like, Oh man, I got paperwork. Chandler, take care of that. But everybody walks in early and thinking they got it all figured out, and the job fixes that real quick. But I think sometimes we come in kind of kind of going along those same lines of being humbled, but we think just in general, big scope, hey, we got this figured out. We don't. Um, so what are some unwritten rules of the firehouse? This should be this should be pretty funny. Um, because I feel like there is a a ton of things that are not some, you know, not really on paper.

SPEAKER_05 9:10

Just do the opposite of what Chandler does, and you'll be all right.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah, you should be fine. Should be fine with that. Stirring up the water in the tank, make sure it don't get stagnant.

unknown 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Find the hose extender.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah. Everybody in here staring at you, Chandler, waiting on you to answer.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Um, I'd say probably if somebody asks you if you've been busy. I actually it's the unwritten rule, so you I don't want to say it, but y'all know what I mean. Alright. You never say the uh the certain certain words, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

It's exactly what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Since we're on ship right now, I don't want to say it either.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

And also, because I just hate ten crystals, so yeah, we did have crystals for supper.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Anybody? Some unwritten unwritten things. Don't sit down first. Don't be the last one up from the table. Stay busy, be doing something. Always walk with a purpose. It don't matter if you go in the bathroom, walk like you're going to do something. Always move with a purpose. And we all we all have days where we get slacked. We come in, we're not a hundred percent, but we try to do our best.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Um, there is another unwritten rule. Do it. Do not flip the trash bag open uh over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

If you can't open a trash bag in two flaps, you need to find something else to do. Hey, you're a sick little woman if you can't open it.

SPEAKER_05 10:55

It's only this shift. Only this crew. That is a rule wherever I'm working at. I heard about this rule before.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

I even I don't know why that drives me insane, but it does. So what is the most annoying thing somebody can do at the firehouse? I'll go first. It's trash bags.

SPEAKER_07 11:21

That's why you guys want to give you girls and bunch boys.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

That's true. Yeah, that's all I got, is girls. They flap trash bags on purpose, though.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

I think I could start off with this one. Other, either just grown men or grown people in general not cleaning up after themselves.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, some people are nasty.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Our specific bedrooms are just leaving stuff around. You know, we all, yes, it's your room, but at the same time, you know something's coming in after you. You know, yeah. We're we're all we're all adults here.

SPEAKER_05 11:50

So Yeah, we're all dudes. So we're not the cleanest hum beings in the world, but don't be a slob.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Yeah, there's hair on the toilet after you get done, wipe it in the toilet bowl. Don't leave it on there.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

Thank you for the specifics, Chenny.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

We've like, and we've we've said this before, because we'd on the weekends downtime, we do whatever. You know, it maybe wash our truck or whatever, but we can do whatever, but clean up after yourself. We had a little swap around on shifts a while back, and um the guy who moved into my bedroom, I come in for my shift, there's dirty underwear and socks on the floor, and he's gone. And that happened about two shifts, and I called him and I said, dude, you got to you gotta do something about this. I pick up after my kids, I ain't picking up after you.

SPEAKER_05 12:40

That's right. Take you off on my taxes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Did you smell them?

SPEAKER_05 12:44

No, I didn't. Gross.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

But I think you just kind of highlighted something there. There are people that if they have a problem or an issue, they won't say it to your face.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Everybody else except you. That's right. Yeah, that's that's pretty aggravating too. Just come to me and tell me. I mean, I'm not perfect. Absolutely. Carson is grinning like crazy. You got something on your mind?

SPEAKER_05 13:11

No, I was just gonna say when people leave food in the fridge and up the whole fridge for two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Oh, that did stink the other day. Yeah. Yeah, I smelled it. And it's I left it in there hoping y'all would get it, but I mean I smelled it.

SPEAKER_05 13:24

I gotta put my food in there because it's gonna soak up that mount.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

All right, so let's help somebody that may be trying to get this job. So we'll walk through each step and we'll talk about each step, and um, I don't want to rush through it because I've actually got messages with people who have questions about getting into the fire service and stuff like that. So I want to go through it really slow. So there's a few different phases of the hiring process. There's the application process. So it's been 13 years since I went through and did all this stuff for myself. But as far as the applications, what what matters the most about that part? It's kind of cut and dry. There's not a lot of room for whatever, but what matters the most? One thing sticks out to me, but y'all go ahead. Truth.

unknown 14:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

I always truth truthful.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

That has caught up with people before. Because they will find out. Speaking from experience, they will find out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Don't give an answer that you think is correct. Just give the answer that you're meant to give. Don't try and sound political. Don't just just give the answer you're supposed to give you showing it. Because they can sense you can kind of sense fakeness real, real quick.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

Are we talking about like interviews too?

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Well, we'll get to interviews. But just the that initial just putting in the application. Yeah, you said that.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

I mean, if you're gonna write it out by hand, need legible writing. Don't smart.

SPEAKER_05 14:54

And this is blue.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

This is this is a representation of you as a professional before they've even had a chance to look at it.

SPEAKER_05 15:00

This is a professional but also blue collar. You say, you know, um don't have an email that is silly. Yeah, you know, um, I wish I could remember some of them. Remember Lynn, she would say them, she'd just go, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

You know, that was that like when I teach CPR, I have to get everybody's email address. And most of them are like their name at Gmail or whatever, but there's some that I know they've had for a long time because they'll be like AOL.com and it will be the most random.

SPEAKER_05 15:31

Don't hate my still AOL.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

I got an AOL still too, but the most random goofy stuff people use for emails. That was cool 15, 20 years ago, you know, when they made it.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

But I think it'd be on time, be punctual.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, absolutely. A little bit early. Yeah, be ready to go, yeah. Um resumes, make a good resume. Don't just piece stuff together. There's plenty of help online. Guidelines and yeah, and you're not gonna have a ton of stuff to put on there, but still make it look presentable. One thing I thought about with it is, and I've done I've done this filling papers out, it's pretty embarrassing. Like I didn't do it on my job application here, but I've done it for other stuff. But they give you this application. Well, the first thing on the application is your name. And you have to follow directions to fill this out, and you write your name in the wrong box. That is the most embarrassing thing.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Last name first, and you write your first name.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah, and you have to take it back up there and say, I've already messed it up. Can you give me can I get another one? That is the most that's terrible. Um, we all mess up at some point, but um yeah, if you if you just blow it, then you've messed up before you even really got started. And written test is next. I assume it's still that way. CPAT, CPAT first, C Packet. Well, let's talk about CPAT. So CPAT catches a lot of people off guard. And I I found this out the other day that a lot of states, I think, Ian, I think you were telling me this, maybe I can't remember, but some states have a statewide standard CPAT. Everybody does the same thing. I can't remember who was talking about that. Never heard of somebody here, but I don't remember who it was. But um, but yeah, every CPAT in the state has to meet that same criteria. Uh ours, I I guess it's determined by the authority having jurisdiction. Some of them differ, they're whatever. Um, a lot of people come in. We see the most failures, I think, from the people who come in buffed up thinking they're fixing to just smoke it.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

And then we see the the scrony little skinny guys, they usually do smoke it.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Are you talking about me and? No.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

No, just in general. That's for the most part, there's exceptions, of course, but for the most part it works out that way a lot. But what do you think it is that catches people off guard the most?

SPEAKER_02 18:00

There was this one dude who never so I was it was the second day and the last person to go. There's this one dude, he was some short fella, shorter than Seth. And he was like, Yeah, he was like, I just got done uh squat 400 pounds uh the other day or whatever. He's like, Man, I'm nervous. He was like, I'm I'm gonna go uh smoke some cigarettes before before I go. So I think that's what caught him off guard. It sounds like a terrible idea. But I was just the uh for me, this job was more than just a job. Yeah. So I think that it's just the determination, like the wanting for it. Like, not just, oh man, it'd be cool, you know. Like I believe that we're all put here and for a reason by God. And yeah, I feel like it's just that that will to draw.

SPEAKER_05 18:53

It's not just physically tough, it's mentally tough too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

So uh before I applied here, I had applied to another uh larger department, and uh for their C pad, instead of using an actual flight of stairs, they used a stairmaster, yeah, and they would put a 50-pound vest on you, I'll lay down at your shoulder, and it was okay, you're gonna do this for three minutes, and you're not touching the rails. And half the people that showed up uh couldn't even do that. Yeah. Um, so it's people don't realize how tough it can be, but like Jandler said, it's very much a mental game. It's like you only gotta do it for three minutes.

SPEAKER_05 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

Just do it.

SPEAKER_05 19:29

Get through it.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

A lot of people will neglect their cardio. Yeah, like you said, that someone who can come in and bench 400 pounds and then it's gassed after two flights of steps. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

I think I mean you've gotta have some strength about you, but I think the cardio is the biggest part of it. Yeah. Just being able to keep going, keep going, keep going.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

I think it's the mixture, because some people focus only on cardio, then others only on strength. They get to the they get to the dummy and then they're yeah, the amount you're lifting while moving is what I think gets most people.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

It's like us in gear, uh it's completely different. You're 60 plus pounds heavier.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:06

And it you get tired after like five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah. I remember when I read when I run mine, because you do the hard stuff, you drag the dummy, you drag the charge hose line, do all that stuff. And then you end up over there rolling the hose for 200 feet, and that is so simple. There's nothing to it. You ain't even got to pick it up. You just roll it. That was the hardest part of the CPAT to me because I'm gassed and I'm sucking wind and I can't breathe because I'm bent over.

SPEAKER_05 20:33

You gotta drop your butt.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yeah, you gotta drop people, it's even worse. Yeah, the taller you are, the harder it is. Yeah, but I remember getting to a point, like, and I don't remember exactly where it was through that CPAT, but getting to a point like, all right, are I really how bad do I want this? Because it gets it's tough. And you either get to that point there or you get to it at usually some point in rookie school where you start, and we've talked about this before, but where you start thinking, all right, is it a lot easier to go back to what I was doing. Do I really want to keep doing this? And I think if you're meant to be here, you push through it, you know, because usually those points where we hit that wall, it's all mental. Mine was in the connects, hung up and running out of air and controlled environment. But it was in my head. Yeah, I was stuck. So I think at some point we all hit that little hit that little wall. Anybody else? Y'all got anything?

SPEAKER_03 21:30

I think it's a lot like kind of going to the athletic side. It's the way you're moving your body. Like everyone's got every people lift, people run, nothing. Yeah, but you're not, it's it's different. You could be a weight or jump, you'd be the strongest guy on the football field, but you're everyone's the worst ones on the field in terms of actually performing. All this job is is performing.

SPEAKER_06 21:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

So it's being able to move your body in different ways. You're using muscles, you have to use it.

SPEAKER_07 21:57

Awkward ways. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

I think that's what gets people like like we've been saying, you can you can kind of prepare for it, but there's no nothing like actually doing activity that you have to do during the seatbelt. During training that we have on the fire thing until you're doing it, it's can't really replicate it.

unknown 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

Well the seatbelt. Is it what, twelve minutes now?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah, I think 11 minutes.

SPEAKER_05 22:22

So it's twelve minutes of suck is what it is. But on a structure fire, you got ten or twelve minutes of suck.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:30

And then I mean, hopefully you swapping out with somebody or hopefully got the fire out by then. But those first ten or twelve minutes, it's tough.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

That's what we Real tough. We work hard in phases. We don't we don't kill it every single day. We don't run multiple structure fires every shift. But we work in we work really, really, really hard in stages. Um and that takes some getting used to too, because coming into this, I thought, well, if I ain't moving, I ain't making money. I gotta be moving, I gotta be doing something, gotta be working. It's a little different mindset. But I think, yeah, I think that plays a part in catching people off guard too, is the intensity of how we work and then the frequency of how we work that intense. Um, I think I could catch you off guard for sure. Biggest thing, I think my biggest advice for CPAT is pacing. You know, prep for it and train for it, but don't come out of the gate wide open. Find your pace and just try to keep that pace the whole time. You're gonna get slower, but try to keep your pace.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Well, you bet every every second of those 12 minutes you can get it done.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

I was about to say 12 minutes you can get it done in 12 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Yeah, absolutely. Um, how would you how would you prep for the written test? Because the I the initial very first written test that you take here is not fire service related test. It's more aptitude test.

SPEAKER_05 24:05

Yeah. I would say it's more like I don't want to downplay it, but I kind of see it. Yeah, it's just kind of like, hey, can you read this and actually get and comprehend what's your and answer the question? Besides a little bit of math.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

The comprehension wasn't in trouble, but I stupidly enough went back and like double checked can I remember to be long division by eight?

SPEAKER_01 24:31

And since you're a retired astrophysicist, you didn't really have a problem with that.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Well, the math part got me.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

Oh, I have no idea if I got the map any of the math correct.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

On the written test.

SPEAKER_05 24:43

I don't did we have a written test.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Well, we had work ready test. Did you have to go do that?

SPEAKER_05 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Work ready testing Georgia to a college, and I can't remember what I was on it, but you scored like silver, gold, platinum, maybe, and it was like it was set up in that same way where it was like math comprehension. I do remember that now.

SPEAKER_05 25:08

Yeah. I think I got like brass.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Probably the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah, just standard test that what they're talking about is back in 1802 whenever they were born.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Yeah, right before I died of dysentery.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

I think it's more of a psychological thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

It might be.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

And it's more like, yes, I mean, you probably need to pass the test, but half of our job here is psychological. And so if you can't calm yourself down and just do a simple test, you know, things like that, kind of work your work yourself through it, that's gonna kind of show, obviously, later on, well, this may not be the best candidate. So my advice would be just kind of go in with an even head, cool calm, try and be collected. Obviously, it's gonna be stressful, you're going for a job you want, but try and just keep in the back of your head, all right, this ain't this isn't gonna be the hardest part of me going through becoming a fireman. This is just the next step. And as long as you keep that thought process going, I think you'll end up better off afterwards as well.

unknown 26:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Well, I think they test you like on the application stuff is kind of the professional introduction. You see how you can do a resume and see how you feel your stuff out and if you're professional. And then you're tested over the physical side and some psychological stuff with the CPAT. And then the written test, kind of seeing how you work through that stuff, and then interviews, and it's all testing a different part of you. Um, but yeah, on the written, stay calm. You know, it's it's should be simple stuff, it's nothing in-depth fire-related. Uh, and we we get into that sometimes going to classes. We we think going to the class, we should already know a bunch of stuff. Once while we're going, nobody wants to go look like an idiot, obviously, but um, we can't let that get in our head either. So on the interviews, I want to touch on this pretty good because one of the messages I got was specifically about interviews um going into this process, but where do you think people lose it in the interview? It just goes sideways. What do you think they missed or they should have prepped on?

SPEAKER_03 27:33

They're not used to having to sit in front of eight to twelve, ten people staring at you on the spot. That kind of activates people's flight fight or flightness. Yeah. I agree with that.

SPEAKER_05 27:45

Definitely could be intimidating. Yes. Um if you've never been put in that situation. Yeah. You know, you got a bunch of guys just sitting there staring at you, waiting on you to answer. Yeah. And give them the answer they want to hear.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

We've we've heard some crazy stuff in interviews. And I think it's people try to fill their time up by talking, and they get to a point where they only make sense. Like they're just rambling to say stuff.

SPEAKER_05 28:09

I think it's also they there's all these videos online like how to do these interviews, and they're like, hey, set yourself apart. And I'm like, everyone is now trying to set themselves apart. They all sound the same now. Yeah. Every single one of them.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Something I noticed on interviews, and I I don't condone somebody being arrogant, but you have to go into it with some self-confidence. Don't walk in there like you own the room, obviously, but you've got to go into it with some self-confidence and let them know that you're comfortable being there. Maybe not comfortable, but you're confident being there, you're confident in being able to handle yourself through that situation. Because it is nerve-wracking.

SPEAKER_05 28:51

I agree. Oh, it was the worst part going into it.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

Honestly, I always treat these interviews as a conversation. Yeah. It's yeah, you're being interviewed, and yeah, they want to get to know you, but at the same time, you're getting to know the person that's interviewing. You're learning more about the job from people that are back to the other rather than just like a great market. So you just sit down and you know, they're gonna have certain questions and bring questions of your own, right? This is your chance.

SPEAKER_05 29:14

Yes. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. It's you ask them questions at the end, and it makes you seem like you're interested. Yeah, you know, you want to know more, you would learn more about it.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

And if you've wanted this job, you've done some basic research, so you should be able to talk kind of on their level. I mean, a point when I was being interviewed of talking about the different colored hybrid tops around the city. I was like, hey, could you tell me more about that? Because I've seen those going on. That was a great kind of way to kind of broach into the fire department, the work they do outside of just fighting fires.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

It's there's so much information now online about every department other than maybe some little tiny rural department, but know something about that department when you go into interviews. Because every interview you ever have, you'll have an opportunity to say something. Say something. And if it's that initial first interview, yeah, ask a question about the department or or make a statement about the department just so they know where you're at and that's okay, he's been looking into us and doing some research on stuff. And again, stay calm, they can't eat you. I mean, they're we're all we're all human, you know. Everybody on the panel has sat in the seat you're sitting in at some point. Uh they know it's nerve-wracking, they're trying to rattle you a little bit. And I'm gonna throw this out just for whatever. If you walk in an interview room and there's a waded up piece of paper on the floor, you better pick the piece of paper up. Don't leave crap laying there. Pick it up. There may be other things too, but I'll throw that one out. It's all about testing you.

SPEAKER_05 30:56

Sit up straight, good posture.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Good posture, just like your grandmother told you.

SPEAKER_04 31:01

Don't lean back, cross your legs, and dress like you want the job. Yeah, dress in the professional approaching a professional organization. If you're dressed in like, you know, like your dirtiest ripped jeans, you have scuffs all over your shoes. What kind of wore? How does that show in about you?

SPEAKER_01 31:20

I I would at a minimum say a collared shirt. Oh, 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

What about what about if a guy how what would y'all think about if a guy just got off of work, like and it was a long day, and like that, he literally just got off and he wasn't about to make it, and he showed up in like dirty clothes.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Tell us that. Yeah. We all we do this, but we all do stuff outside of this too. We get it.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yeah. If you're if you got off at 3 o'clock and your interview was at 3 15 and you whatever, tell us that. And people are understanding, they get it. You didn't have time to go put on khakis in a nice shirt.

SPEAKER_05 32:03

But be here 15 more than 15 minutes early.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, just be straight up about it. People understand. That's good stuff. Anything else?

SPEAKER_05 32:15

I might have blacked out during my interviews because I can't remember them all.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Do not say Batman is your hero. Uh, me and Greg had a guy tell us Batman one time. I promise you. Are you talking about me? Batman. It was not you. Did you say that? No, I didn't say that. He did say that. There was another one. Like me and Greg still talk about it. That is legitimately that is what he said.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

On my on my defense, I asked him, like, like heroes, like made up, or like real life? They said both. So I said Batman. Batman. Because it was it was Batman because I said uh he is a normal dude by day, but by night he puts on his uniform and he was Batman. But I didn't say butt, but I said butt three times.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Well, the guy, the guy that said that to us in their interview said, Yeah, man, he does all this cool stuff, but he don't have any powers. Like he has to work. We all just stared at him like, okay. Also a billion.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

I was about to say, yeah, it's amazing how much money you will kind of fix that right there.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

All right. So they're not hiring they they uh let me back up just a second. It shouldn't be hiring the best test taker. It should be the whole process should come into play. And it and I think for the most part it is, but um the test does not always tell the whole story. We've seen this for people getting hired and promotional stuff and whatever. Um we want to hire people that will sit at this table with us and have our back and know their job and know their truck and know what they're supposed to do and do it and all that. And sometimes you can't tell that in one hiring process, and you get people that just don't fit. And most of the time they weed themselves out. Um sometimes they stay forever. Kind of goes both ways, but uh final advice. So, what's one one piece of advice for somebody trying to get hired? Number one, your Chandler, your best piece of advice. Remember why you started.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

There was a point in rookie school and never sam borne. Uh we just got done doing a hard workout. And they said, Everybody get uh get y'all's uh turnout gear on and go to the stairs. And it was hard. Like, and I got to the top and I was sucking wind and I couldn't breathe, and I had to remember like my reason why. Yeah. And I just feel like if you always remember that reason why, even you know, you're gonna have bad days, it's a job at the end of the day. But as long as you remember that reason and you want to help people and you're here so that you can be that light on somebody's darkest day, then I think that that's the best advice I could give.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Good do. That's good advice.

SPEAKER_05 35:24

You're talking about like for an interview process too?

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Well, just whole process. Somebody that is is wanting to get hired here. What's your best piece of?

SPEAKER_05 35:34

I said it earlier, but I think being punctual, being on time. Yeah. And just say you turn applications in and it's two weeks. Goes by, you don't hear anything. You can call up here and say, hey, just wondering. Yeah, just won't follow up. You can call up here and talk to Chief. You can call up here and talk to somebody, hey, you know, my name is so-and-so. I'm still, you know, I'm interested, just wondering what's going on, what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

And that may actually help you.

SPEAKER_05 36:02

Yeah. It makes it seem like you, I mean, you are interested in the job. Yeah, keep your name in their ear. Even before you, you know, you know things are coming up. Come up here and meet, talk, shake hands, and show that you're interested.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 36:20

Um, I'd say probably just effort in general. Um like on the CPAT, some of the best ones, they might not have great time, but seeing how much they put into it and actually finished it when they were obviously spent. I think that's just the best value, effort and everything you do.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Yeah, I agree with that. Determination. Uh just going through the whole process, you're gonna run, you're gonna get speed both you know, you might be delaying her back from something you might not do as well on a test as you wanted to do. You might get into the interview and feel like you completely bombed it. But that whole way through, you just you don't quit. Just you look at what you want and you remember that, just keep going.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

I think just go through the process of being yourself. Don't try to be some image of what you think. Yeah, oh, this is what a fireman looks like, or this is what they want. Be yourself, and then ultimately, if you know, like you said, we want to breed a culture, we want you to gel with the department. If you're being fake the whole time, it's kind of hard to make that judgment on you.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

But if you're answering wholeheartedly given truth yourself, and it may not even be the best answers to the question, but there's no doubt that you answered it, I think you're gonna answer it, then at the end of the day, I feel like that looks better on you than you just giving some politically correct answer of what somebody else wants to hear. It shows kind of like when you said more of that self-confidence of this is who I am, you know, I'm obviously gonna build throughout this whole process, but at the end of the day, it's still up to me, and you've got to be your own person to get through it.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Yeah, that's good stuff. I thought about when Carson was giving his answer about the determination. I remember doing a CPAT years ago when there was a guy that was a truck driver. Um, he came out there to do his CPAT. We were working it, and his wife and his little girl was there.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

I remember I was there.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

He um so the the very first thing you do in our CPAT is pull a three-inch hose, 50 feet, maybe a hundred feet. The dry hose. Dry hose, yeah, it's not charged or anything. You pull it to a station where you just couple two of those together. I think it's two, three inches. You just couple them together. So you run the whole CPAT, and then the very last station is uncoupling those two hoses. Well, he came out there, and I mean, he had a hard time, but he would not quit. And he drove and he drove and he drove. And he got to that last station and he was uncoupling the couplings on that three inch and run out of time. I mean, he was what three seconds. He missed it by. And we talked to him later and we said, Hey man, did you prep for this? Did you get ready? No, I drive a truck. I ain't I had time to to get ready. He was, and I hated it for him, it was sad, because he was all heart, like 100%. Like he was spent, but he wouldn't quit. And that impressed me, and that's kind of what I was talking about a while ago when I said that a test shouldn't determine everything. Um, there's so much more involved in it than that. Um, I I like to see somebody in a CPAT, even like you said, if their time's a little slower, they get to a point where they're like, Man, I I can't do it no more. And you say, dude, you got you gotta grind. How bad do you want this? And they finish the CPAT. Because from that point to the very end, it ain't nothing but heart and drive. And that's what we want to see. Even if it takes you an extra minute, everybody else finishes in nine and you run it in 10 or 1030. I want to see you not quit. Like that's to me, that's the most important part. And it don't matter if it's interviews or written test or CPAD or whatever, even once you get on a truck, just don't quit. Keep pushing. It's like Stetson said a while ago, it's rough for this short amount of time, but then it'll all be worth it.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

Yeah, I still remember Tim being my proctor for the CPAT and him like encouraging me when I was really struggling on the stations. Yeah. But yeah, when that one did not work.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

That's something that's always impressed me about this department is when I went through it and then being on the other side working on how encouraging everybody is. Like it's not even being on this side going down there and working on, it's not you're trying to smoke everybody down there. Like everybody is really, really encouraging, and I think it's I think it's awesome. I don't think that's the time to smoke people. Encourage them to do their best and push and dig and drive. They're gonna get smoked in rookie school. We can do it later, but in that moment, that ain't the time to do it, I don't feel like.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Also, something just to touch on it, something we didn't touch about going back to preparing, go to the walkthrough day.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 41:31

You know, show up against it.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

There are like you said, the coupling of hoses. It's not just your normal garden hose either. Some it's a kind of a little bit of a technique, you kind of need to do it once or twice.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Well, us three didn't get a walkthrough day, so I'm going out there. Back in the day, knowing how it goes back in the day.

SPEAKER_05 41:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:49

And then also it's kind of to what I say, you can kind of go in even acute when you kind of know what's about to come. You're not surprised around each corner. If you go through that walkthrough day, they kind of explain what's going on. You can even actually put hands on it that first day, too.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Yeah, putting hands on stuff.

SPEAKER_05 42:06

Yeah, everything you're gonna do, you can actually do it that in the practice round or practice day or whatever. Put your hands on it, drag it, lift it, roll it.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah, our dummy's 180.

SPEAKER_05 42:18

I think it's 175.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

175. That's that's heavy.

SPEAKER_05 42:22

Dang heavy.

SPEAKER_01 42:23

The charged hose is heavy. The hydraulic tools can be heavy, especially after you're spent from everything else. Put hands on them and see what it feels like if you ain't never done it before. All right, that is that's as real as it gets. That's good stuff. So kind of pivoting away from that initial phase. What do y'all think makes a good crew? From a bird's eye view, the whole entire crew. What makes a good crew?

SPEAKER_05 42:55

Everyone knows their job.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Okay, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 42:59

You gotta like each other. Yeah, that's that helps. That's important.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Yeah, that does help for sure.

SPEAKER_05 43:06

Staying together.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

I've had crews that we didn't.

SPEAKER_05 43:10

You know, come out for supper and then go back to the room. Yeah. You know, staying together, playing, just doing silly things.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Playing video games together.

SPEAKER_05 43:21

I feel called out. Don't don't go to your room by yourself and play video games all day. Yeah. Just never by ourselves, man.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

I will I'll say it's gonna sound sappy or whatever, but love for sure.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

No, I agree with that 100%. I think that that makes it a little more real. Yeah. Because I mean, we're here, we live with each other a third out of the year.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Every three days we live with each other and stuff. So I mean, and you know, I expect y'all to have my back, and I know y'all expect me to have your back. You know, we have a dangerous job. If anything goes wrong, you know, expect you to, you know, be there. And yeah, whenever time gets tough, uh like going back to the determination and the um, you know, the process to getting on is are you going to whenever it hits the pan and stuff gets real, are you gonna quit and run out on your partner land there or are you gonna d drag him out or Almost risk your life trying to get him out.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Do what you gotta do. Yeah. I think about that last fire that we ran. Because me and you made entry and you were putting fire out. But there was a couple of seconds in there that I took a step back to look at something else. And you know, we were s we still talked to each other. We weren't like across the house from each other, but I know in that moment it was a little bit like you wasn't exactly sure where I was at, even though we probably could have touched each other. I mean, I was I was literally four feet from you, probably. But it was so smoked up you couldn't see nothing. And I know, I mean, you've had what, three fires now? Four. Maybe four. So it's still like you're getting those under your belt. Exposure is everything. But still in that moment, I I knew it was a little bit weird for 10 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

It did feel a little weird, and especially the part whenever the hose flopped me on my back, whenever I dropped back after the ceiling fell. Yeah, I it felt a little weird then because then I was soaking wet because it was just hitting the roof and coming back down on me. But uh, yeah, but I mean I knew I knew you were right there. And uh, I mean, every every time I got to that point, I was like, I don't know where he's at. I mean, you'd let come here and let me know, you know, where to spray the water and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

And that's that's the biggest thing, especially in that situation. You can't see each other. Yeah, I think Stetson and them was cutting a hole, and this happened within the first 30 seconds of being in the door because y'all had the hole cut so fast. Uh, and then we got that lift, but that's just where that trust comes in. You know, we we couldn't see each other. There's a lot of stuff going on, but we both knew all right, yeah, he's good, he's right there, you know, he's doing what he's supposed to be doing. Stetson N's on the roof, they're doing everything right, and you know, you just trust everybody. We spend so much time together and you learn each other and stuff. So yeah, good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

I think we all naturally push each other.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:17

Like we're even if we're doing training and working out and anything like that, it doesn't feel forced. It's all we all want each other to do better and be better and be the better person at the end of the day. And we're we all kind of get into that same mentality when we're doing that different stuff. Yeah. And you kind of notice being on other crews sometimes, they don't really do that for each other. They just kind of show up like it's a job. Yeah, that's right. But I feel like, especially with us, we all like to push ourselves and make make each other better and be better at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Except for leg day.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

Years. His upper half ain't that appealing either. All right. I hope on a row machine, that counts in legs. I'm just kidding. Y'all got something? Are you good? Okay, all right, good talk. What do you think? And we'll we'll kind of rapid fire this one real quick, but what do y'all think kills a crew?

SPEAKER_05 47:24

Gossip. Drama.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Good one, good one.

SPEAKER_05 47:28

Bad attitude, yeah. I think that's the worst, actually.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

Laziness.

SPEAKER_05 47:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

I think the laziness leads to bad attitude.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

It does. I think it does too.

SPEAKER_05 47:37

Bad attitude suck all the air out, which is not fun to be around.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

I think you can you can sense that sitting on the bench. Like we've got that bench in the bay where we shift change and we have good conversations and bad conversations, but you can sense it, somebody walking in the door like immediately. So yeah, there's that.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Carson Murray. Yeah, you can tell when he's walking in the door, he's having a terrible day.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

All right, so I said rapid fire. Here's y'all some rapid fire questions. What's the best firehouse meal?

SPEAKER_05 48:15

Rapid, rapid, rapid. Keith Gordon's Keith Gordon's uh fish pasta, whatever. Red fish pasta. God, it was good. Yeah, he put old bay in his eggs, too. Uh no, not the eggs. Shepard's the red fish pasta.

SPEAKER_04 48:28

Blackwell's chicken broccoli castle. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 48:31

Oh, that's good. It's better than mine. That's good.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

I mean, uh you're just I've never had yours. I must have gone broadband rice. It was good.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Make it twice a month. I must be gone. Well, Carson's gone at least twice a month.

SPEAKER_05 48:51

I say breakfast. I'm a breakfast guy. Yeah. Yeah, breakfast.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

Regular breakfast, man, is just so good. Yeah. New recipe for biscuits. Yep. The new secret recipe. We can't talk about it. Yeah, I think mine's breakfast too. It's just that getting here early and eating together and spending that time together. And there's something about breakfast. It's weird. Reminds me of being a kid, you know, at home and stuff like that. It's just something about it. But yeah, that's that's probably my favorite one.

SPEAKER_05 49:24

It's probably because we cook for all these kids around here. Probably so, yeah. Yeah, most of the channel.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Most of the little nerds.

SPEAKER_05 49:34

He got it out of the package.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

And he did a good job.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

He didn't cut his finger. That's all the wings were praising him.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

We had a bird on there standby, but he pulled toy. Oh my goodness. All right. Worst call type. You ain't got to talk about your worst call that you've run, but the type of worst call. We probably all agree on this one. Pediatric. Yeah. Probably mine.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

Yeah, I fortunately haven't had one of those yet. Yeah. Um, but that can yeah, that's probably the worst. They're hard. You don't want you don't want to do that.

unknown 50:22

It's not hard.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

They're uh it sounds bad or cold. You expect things to happen to older people. Just whether it's life or whatever. But with pediatric patients, man, it ain't never. It's hard. Hard, hard.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

Another one, um, it's it's not necessarily, you know, we expect, you know, it's gonna sound bad, but like, you know, older people to die. I mean, as it's it's the way that life works, especially whenever you're older, but yeah, I just said that. But it's their um, it's their significant other.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

Like the other day, um, I kind of it kind of hit me hard a little bit. Yeah, it does. It was like, you know, they've been together for 40, 50 years, you know, and he doesn't know what to do now, you know, or she doesn't know what to do now because they've been together so long, you know. They've been sleeping beside each other for however long, and it's that kind of hit me a little hard the other day.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

I run a call, I've mentioned it here before, but it wasn't long after I started. Um early in the morning, I think it's on Sunday morning, and call comes in for unresponsive patient. So we get there and walk in, and as we're walking in, you see pictures and stuff sitting around the house, you know, and it's an older man and woman, their 50th anniversary pictures and stuff, they're hanging on the wall and their kids. Well, we get in there and the wife, they're in their 80s, maybe they're older, and she's deceased in the bed, and he is sitting in the corner in a chair just telling us jokes the whole time. And come to find out he had Alzheimer's, and he didn't even really understand that she had passed away, and like that stuck with me even now, like I remember it, because they they had this life together, and they raised kids and all of this stuff, and then she's gone, and and I know it it it wasn't something he could help, but he didn't even realize she was gone like that. Like that was heavy for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Well, and I would almost say too, not that pediatrics aren't bad, but I feel like we just run more suicides.

SPEAKER_06 52:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:44

I feel like that almost is slightly worse because of kind of what Chandler said, there's a lot of time there kind of is a family member on scene or somebody on scene who knows the person, yeah, which kind of makes it doubly worse.

SPEAKER_06 52:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

So I think that that's I'm weighing because I've been on both sides with both of those type of calls, and it's kind of you don't you don't really know. Pediatrics are the worst, but you run a lot of the suicides.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

So I think a lot of times it's just seeing the family. They're having to deal with what's going on. Yeah, it's it's terrible, it's sad, but seeing the family left to deal with it is maybe the hardest part for us. Um, that's rough. Yeah. Yeah. I think uh so intentional.

SPEAKER_05 53:36

I think too. Run into someone you know or knew, that's that's too.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

Yeah. Yeah. I I think we're we're good at disconnecting. But if it's somebody you know or your cantor or whatever, you can't disconnect from it.

SPEAKER_05 53:58

Like you're Yeah, that's the cons of if you grow up in the area now that you're at that apartment. Because I ran a call like that the other day, but during the time I had no idea what it was. Like because I think I just compartmentalized this work. I've done it after, and I was like, oh crap, like I knew him for years.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

I run a I ran a family member years ago and I didn't realize it was her until Mindy called me later and she said, Hey, you run so-and-so tonight. And then I yeah, I did. I sure did. I like I drove the ambulance to the hospital and didn't Yeah, people ask how they're seeing that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 54:37

I'm like, you literally just kind of shut it off. Like if it was if I wasn't at work, it'd be completely different.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 54:44

But seeing stuff here, you're at work, so it's just you kind of do your different too, because I ran some call with Ms. Burr, and the post three, four hours afterwards was a lot different post call than our normal post calls. Mostly because we had to sit at the hospital for example that we kept more familiar. It was obviously very genuine circumstance in a very kind of specific situation. But that kind of leaves a different taste in your mouth afterwards because that's not kind of like all these other calls that are uh what's that low QD high risk? Yeah, those are the ones that kind of stick with you. That call turned more into that because of what happened afterwards.

SPEAKER_06 55:37

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

All right. Engine or truck? Engine, baby. Truck. Engine. Truck. Truckies. We keep them on the far end of the table. I'm an engine guy.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

I like the engine. Hey, first in, son, put put that water on that fire. I ain't up there cutting no holes in the roof, standing there with a pike pole in my hand. So you said engine seat. What's the best seat on the engine? Backwards, for sure. Because you're in your posit in your position, the scene is on you. It's a lot of pressure. And I I can understand that. Pumping, I don't want to pump. I don't want to drive the truck. You better get ready. I I it's coming, but I don't I don't want to do that. I want to be a dude, hey, go put a hole in that wall, or hey, go put the water on fire, or hey, find that victim, or do this. You tell me to go do something, I want to do it. I want to be the first one in.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

All right. I'll remember that. Tell someone about you, basically.

SPEAKER_05 56:48

Oh, truck driver.

unknown 56:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 56:51

I'm driver for life. Driver, yeah. D4L, driver for life.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

All right. What about you, Carson?

SPEAKER_05 57:00

Uh it's kind of hard to say. I've never been in the position of driving. I don't think I'll hate it by any means. But as of right now, I can only see me, you know, doing firefighter stuff. Yeah. Being the guy that's told what to do. That's all I can see myself as.

SPEAKER_04 57:15

Yeah, I haven't been here very long at all, so I haven't had the chance to experience a lot of that stuff. But uh, I'm excited to learn how to drive on a phone. Uh that really appeals to me. But yeah, I love my job now. I love running backwards. I get to do all sorts of cool stuff and you know, just do my job really, really well.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Yep. That's good.

SPEAKER_03 57:32

I love driving.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

Driving's fun. I always loved it too. I I did.

SPEAKER_03 57:37

You get to do a little bit of everyone's job, I think, as a driver. Yeah. Driver, you can, depending on when you show up or this, that, and that, hmm, end up doing anything on a scene. Versus, you know, if you're an officer, you kind of gotta leave. You know, if you're a battle fireman, you're gonna go to the fire. Should driver you kind of depend on when you get there.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

Are you wanting to say freelance? Is that what you're wanting? All right.

SPEAKER_06 58:16

I gotcha. What about you?

SPEAKER_07 58:18

I'd say driver, probably all in all, like he was talking about. It's uh it's more universal depending on when you get there. You could still be first in, first UN, or second in, and you could go in with your crew, make attack on that for Stetson's point. As far as on the truck driving, you get there, and you could also roll in and and be active in the fire fight too. You get to roll up as an officer when they're out. So on them chances, you would be for you could be first in. So all around, drivers probably the most universal.

SPEAKER_01 58:53

Yeah. I liked it too. And we so we have relief drivers, FAOs, where they ride backwards and then due to staffing or whatever the case is, they may ride up and drive for that day. And then our sergeants drive primarily, that's their job. But as if the officer is out, then they step up and they're in the seat that day. So uh some kind of floating back and forth between those positions. But I always like driving, pumping too. I pumping was always a challenge. Like I wanted to see how good I could do it, and I enjoyed doing that a lot. All right. So this may not apply to the younger of you, but you can answer anyway. What's something you didn't understand your first year that makes sense now?

SPEAKER_05 59:48

Is this anything about the job? Yeah. I was I was not good at uh searching my first year at all. I get so disoriented whenever I'm in it. I can't see, it's my sense of direction is horrible.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:04

Are you better at it now? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:06

That's what matters. I think it takes a while to figure out your search technique. I think everybody does it, and and not necessarily we're left hand, right hand, but how you're what your search crawl is, how you're gonna move, what are you gonna take with you? I think it that's a little more personal. I think it takes us a little bit to kind of figure out what works for us too. But the disorientation is it's not good. No. I'd say scene awareness.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:39

Yeah, okay, that's a good one. Like whenever uh we had a OD one time, uh, it was all of us, and Sean was like, hey man, why grab that knife out of his uh pants? Yeah, and then you know that dude shot up right after we removed the knife and there was needles laying around, and there's other calls like that. And I mean I'd check, you know, make sure there was no guns around or anything, but I wasn't very precise on making sure this whole scene was safe.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:06

I'd say learning how to stay cool, yeah. That's a big deal and calm and don't let your nerves get the best of you. The adrenaline, of course, you're gonna have adrenaline. Yeah, we still do. I mean, it don't matter. But don't let it get the best of you. Um just learn how to control it. I've don't get tunnel vision and everything that goes along with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

I've said before the best feeling is when you get through your first few fires, and then you get out of the truck on a fire, and you can not that we're taking our time, but you can work through that process and you can make entry in the door and you can go find the fire and you can watch it for five seconds and see what it's doing and remember what you actually seen when you get back to the station.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:52

Yeah, because sometimes you don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

No, uh-uh. We we had a guy a few years ago, quite a few years ago now. His very first shift, we caught a structure fire at like nine o'clock, and we caught a hydrant on a main road here in town, caught the hydrant just like textbook, laid a line down the road, fought fire, did all that stuff. So we laid that line, he got off the truck, pulled a skid load, and then he got in the back of the truck and sucked O2 the rest of the car. Like he was he was done. Well, later that day we get back to station and we're talking about it, and he said, Hey, why didn't we catch at hydrant? Like, like we're supposed to. And I said, We did. And he couldn't remember none of it. Like none of that. He and I like I watched him do it and he didn't remember none of it. It's crazy. But yeah, I agree getting to that point where you kind of settle down and control yourself a little better and and see the scene better, work through the stuff better. I thought you were gonna say puking. No, I'm talking about after that. Once you get through that stage, yours has been going on three years now.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:00

But I think those are the two main things you get to do early on in your career. Those are the two major things. Everything else is kind of adjacent to that, but calls slowing down and kind of knowing what you're doing are kind of a you kind of are starting to figure out this job. I think those are the big ones off the rip.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

And there's still gonna be those calls that come in as difficulty breathing, and they've been shot multiple times, or comes in as difficulty breathing, and you walk around the corner of the house, and it is a traumatic injury caused by a camping chair, and that is not what you expected when you walked around the corner of the house.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:41

Those calls are still gonna happen, and you're still gonna get that dump when you realize, holy moly, this is not or unknown problem, and tree is across the house. Yeah, crushes the house, and it's an unknown problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

Yeah. So there's still gonna be those calls that are shockers, not what you're expecting. Because I mentioned this in the last podcast. We try to game plan going, you know, based on what we've done before and what worked last time and what CAD says and all that stuff, but that's not to say when you get there, that's what it's actually gonna be, and then you gotta change what you're doing. Good deal. That's good stuff. All right, if you had to explain this job in one sentence, how would you do that?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:28

Probably long periods of the money followed by very short periods of the hardest work you'll ever do.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

That's a long sentence, but yeah, that makes sense. I was just gonna say awesome. Okay, that's a short sentence, but that makes sense. No, that's good stuff. I say every third day is a party with the boys.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:49

Boys club, is that what you're saying? Well, that's not really a sentence. That's a okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:54

Did you say one sentence or one word?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

I said one sentence. One word, you can say one word.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:03

These young guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

I know what like fishing we brothers' kids. Hey, go. All right, Stasen, you got one for us.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:13

Everything's run through my head, but I can't just what keeps popping out is whatever you learn, learn it to 100% the first time. Don't escape by, don't halfway learn it, and then think later on you're gonna catch up and learn the rest of it. That's true. If you got a question, ask. Absolutely. Because you may not get a chance. Something may happen, and you may have to use what you just learned. If you only learned half of it, then you're screwed.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:46

Yeah, that's very true. How many how many times have we gone outside and trained on something and run that call?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:53

Oh, no doubt. What about their training on it?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

Yes, that is true.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:57

And then it happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:59

And our old training chief used to say that practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. And I think that kind of goes back to what you're saying. Do what you're doing a hundred percent the right way, the whole way through.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:16

Swallow your pride. Yeah. Everybody's not perfect. You don't lie the first time. And if you don't get it, you say, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yes, do that again. Yeah. Because I did not catch that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

And you are not gonna know everything about this job, even by the time you retire. You're still gonna learn something.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

By the time you learn something, it's gonna change anyway. Well, good deal. At the end of the day, different experience levels, but we all got the same job. We may have a different role, and our task and priorities might be a little different, but we're all firefighters. From brand new guy to the chief. At heart, we're all firefighters. Uh so man, that is awesome stuff. This might be one of my favorite episodes because it's just talking conversation. We are actually at the kitchen table where so many good conversations have happened. Like my whole career. Uh, so man, awesome stuff. This job will humble you quick. Well, I appreciate all of you coming on. I got a whole batch of t-shirts to get made now. Y'all hit me all at one time. Uh, but I appreciate all of you taking part. And this is the whole, the whole crew. This is the truck company and the engine company and the battalion. Uh so yeah, I appreciate it very much. Uh, thank you for listening to Wine on the Q. Stay safe. Take care of your crew and take care of yourself.