A rookie learns fast that mistakes burn but listening to your brothers just might make you a better firefighter
I am sitting at the back of the firehouse listening to all the veteran firefighters share stories. It’s a great place to sit as a probationary firefighter and take in all their knowledge. The alarms ring. I race to my bunker gear. I am putting on my bunker gear the way I was trained. Veteran firefighter and friend Dave Degard yells at me, “Pick it up probie, we are going to miss the engine.”
We missed the engine. We were able to make it on the rescue as we pulled out of the station. My first fire, and it sounds like a confirmed structure fire. I was pumped but nervous at the same time. I was a career police officer now in the world of fire. As the rescue raced down Harrison Street, the first engine and truck confirmed the one-storey home was on fire. Heavy smoke and flames are already coming from the structure.
A Rough First Fire
Dave, Jim Lilly and the other firefighters looked out the window and showed me the glow of the flames. I wanted to make my brothers proud. I put on my SCBA mask, and when we pulled up, there were two engine companies and two truck companies on the scene. The house was in the middle of the block, and we were at the end of the street. I jumped off the back of the rescue and looked for a tool to grab.
Dave had his axe, and the other firefighters had the halligan. I grabbed a pike pole. I was taught in Firefighter 1 and 2 never leave the equipment without a tool. We ran to the staging area where Chief Ed Yerga assigned us to do the secondary search. As we began walking up the front stairs, the alarms began to yelp. Someone was out of air. It was me.
Chief Yerga told me to go get another bottle and assigned another firefighter to the search team. I walked back embarrassed and upset. I let the team down. And it was my first fire. When the overhaul was complete, the long ride back to the firehouse was a quiet one. On my first day, I let the team down. It looked like my fire days were over and I was back to being a cop.
When we got back, I went to hang up my bunker gear, which was now blocked with several empty SCBA bottles. All the guys laughed. I laughed on the inside but was devastated inside. Dave, Tommy Westbury, Mike Crowley and other veteran firefighters told me it was OK and that we learn from this. It didn’t take long to prove myself. The alarms rang again. This time, I was ready.
Stepping Up
I bunkered up and made the engine. Mike Crowley, the officer, assigned me to follow veteran firefighter Curtis Minchuk on the nozzle. Tommy Westbury was driving the engine. And driving he was. We arrived in minutes.
As we pulled up, the second floor of a two-storey residential home was on fire. I followed Curtis closely. We made our way up to the second floor in pitch-black darkness. We moved forward as Curtis began putting water on the fire. It was hot. As I could start to see again, a large firefighter was standing over me and helped me up. The veteran firefighter told me to keep pushing and stay with Curtis. It was Brandon Jurs. Brandon was full time on the Gary Fire Department Truck 4. He was a machine. When the fire was struck, we went back outside.
Brandon noticed me sitting on the ground and told me to go with him. We were now on the roof finding fire behind the siding. Brandon instructed me on how to use the axe, and we found more fire. When it was over, Brandon noticed I was a new guy and introduced himself to me. Brandon told me, “Learn all I can from those that fought fire before me.” Then, he was gone.
I listened to every word he said. I learned from all the veteran firefighters and just listened. I listened all day and night. The fire kept coming.
A Culture of Learning
I had the honor to finally attend FDIC in Indianapolis. I met and listened to some of the best in the business. John Salka, Ret. FDNY Ray McCormack, Ret. FDNY Kevin Shea, Ret. FDNY and Fire Chief Rick Lasky. I just listened.
When I was not at the firehouse, I was at home, reading. When not reading, I was watching tapes from some of the best firefighters who gave their lives on 9/11. Capt. Terry Hatton, Lt. Dennis Mojica, Dave Weiss from Rescue 1, and Kevin O’Rourke, to name a few. I listened to Phil Ruvolo who was the captain at Rescue 2. Chicago firefighters were also some of the best.
When I started my first responder career, it was in an ambulance on the southeast side of Chicago for Stat Ambulance. Many of my partners had family in the Chicago Fire Department. We stopped at many firehouses during that time and every firefighter at every firehouse wanted to teach me something. I just listened. The one thing I pass on to new probationary firefighters when asked is to listen and just learn from your brothers.
August “Augie” Stovall served as a police officer/firefighter/EMT and is now a safety director and instructor working hard everyday to make sure “we all go home.”
