SFSingleGirl took it to the streets this week y’all! After all that lofty talk of heroes last week, I think it’s time to confess that firefighters actually top my list.  I have always had a thing for firefighters, and for firemen in particular.  Besides the obvious heroics attached to running into burning buildings to save people, they just seem so darn nice.  Playing with kids, waving to people on the street, pulling cats out of trees.  Let’s be honest.  Firefighters are HOT. I decided that some hard-hitting investigative reporting was necessary to find out what makes the average firefighter tick.  What’s in the special sauce and why is it that we (I know I’m not alone) love them?  Well I traipsed my way into a local firehouse to see if I could get some face time with real-life action heroes.

After receiving the necessary clearances (shout out to Mindy Talmadge, the San Francisco Fire Department’s Public Information Officer extraordinaire), I was lucky enough to score interviews with two local fire stations, Station 21 and Station 13.  They invited me in, fed me, let me RIDE ALONG with them on REAL CALLS, gave me a tour of the station, and otherwise treated me better than I ever could have imagined.  Frankly, they made my year.

The Fourth of July, or Independence Day in the United States, in its narrowest sense is about celebrating our independence from Great Britain.  More broadly, we celebrate all the things that make us proud to be Americans—our culture, our history, our progress.  And yes, we have come a long way.  In honor and homage to that annual tradition, today I pay tribute to a special group of people who deserve our deepest respect.

The men and women featured below make up a small fraction of San Francisco’s 1,300+ uniformed firefighters.  Collectively, I spent several hours with them and have enough material to start a book, but today I’ll only be able to share with you snippets from my interviews.  Don’t worry, this will be a subject of continuing interest.  From what I saw and heard, I can tell you without hesitation that we are all in extremely good hands.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did…

INTERVIEW

SFSG: How long have you been with the department?

Station 21:

10 years
21 years
10 years
17 years

Station 13:

I’m on my 10th year.
I’m on my 13th year.
I’m in my 28th year.

SFSG: What made you become a firefighter?

Station 21:

Luck! The right place at the right time. I wanted to be a Hell’s Angel or a Catholic Priest. And I fell somewhere in the middle. I wanted to be a plumber like my dad and my grandpa and my brother, but a friend of mine became a firefighter and handed out applications at a local hangout out and… the rest is history.

It found me, I didn’t find fire. I found it in my early 30s and I was really lucky to be able to make that kind of career change as a mature woman.

Being in the right place at the right time. It just happened. I never thought about it before that. This is it.

I wanted to be a firefighter ever since I was a little kid. I also wanted to live and work in SF since I was a little kid and it’s kind of like a dream came true. It took me a few times to get in but I feel really fortunate that I got in and thank my lucky stars every day that I’m here.

Station 13:

My dad was a firefighter so that’s how I got into it.

As a kid, I always wanted to be one, like most kids but I didn’t study to be one. And then my friend took the test and I just kind of went with him and I guess I kinda fell into that “luck” category. I was fortunate enough to do well, and then I really wanted to do it after that. Now I’m glad.

I was just doing other jobs, was out in the real world for a while, you know 9 to 5, and this came up. I judged what I had and what this offered, and said, this is a better job. You get to help people, and do great things. Makes you feel good inside.

My best friend was a firefighter and he kept telling me, “Dude, you gotta get this job. You’ll love it, you just don’t know you’ll love it.” I tried for seven years and finally got it.

The Captain! I wanted to hug her and say, "You go girl!" I restrained myself.

SFSG: What is it about the job that makes this “it” for you?

It’s not a 9 to 5 grind.  We’re always appreciated. It’s not someone always barking at you. You’re not stuck in an office. You get to get outside and interact with the public. And when you’re doing your work, you’re always helping someone. We’re never there to hurt you, we’re always there to help you. Whether it’s a fire or you have a heart attack or your water’s leaking or there’s been a car accident or your baby is sick, whatever. It’s never a negative thing. Plus I get to work with wonderful people.

Everything. The hours, the work.

SFSG: So the prospect of running into burning buildings doesn’t scare you?

Station 21:

Not at all. It was destiny. I like that kind of stuff.

I hadn’t thought about it really. It was a fluke… When it came time to, it was an adrenaline rush. Better than any drug. You get that pump up, “YES!” and you don’t lose it. You keep getting it, over and over again, every time you go in there, and when you get finished, you get this feeling of accomplishment.

Station 13:

Didn’t know. One of our classmates, first fire he went to, he quit. You don’t know.

You really have to do it to feel how harsh the environment is.  It can be scary.

I started humming the theme to Mission Impossible. [Laughs.] I knew it’d be all right. Crawled down a hallway humming the theme to Mission Impossible. My captain was telling everybody. I was having fun.

I guess the fire thing didn’t scare me because I didn’t know what it was all about. Then it intrigued me, and it sounded exciting. So I was up for it. I wasn’t too worried about it.

I never thought about it until you’re in it. Then you’re like, Wow, this is cool! Things are a bit dangerous here, man. We’re taking some high risks here. But then you know after years of training and camaraderie with your fellow firefighters, you feel trust in them. I got your back, you got my back. That kind of that thing. We feel confident. But still respectful of the fire.

Described by his colleagues as an "adrenaline junkie." No fear!

SFSG:  But you don’t feel any fear? I don’t understand.

Station 21:

Yes, you do, you feel fear, but it’s more respect for the fire than I’m scared of it. I don’t want to run away from it, I want to combat it. It’s like a war. You’re in it to win it.

Station 13:

We have like this feeling of invincibility. My mom hates that. I’m like, “Mom, don’t worry, I’m invincible! She’s like, don’t say that!” You know? But I think you kinda gotta have that kind of cocky attitude, at least… ‘cause other people don’t have it, and they’re depending on you to go in and get them. You know? I don’t even think about it. There’s a fire coming out… you’re so nervous about doing the right thing that you just follow the crew. In the beginning… You don’t want to let anyone down. In the very beginning, I think it’s more that you just don’t want to mess up. You don’t want to drop the ball. Like in Backdraft, “He dropped the ball!” You don’t want to drop the ball. But now, we’ve all worked here for quite a while, we know what everyone is going to do, how everyone attacks things, and we just go. With not even a word spoken. We just go.

SFSG:  What other kinds of calls do you go on besides fires?

Everything. It’s the public’s inability to be able to handle whatever situation on their own and they’re calling for help. Now that can be a battery is broken in their smoke detector, their building needs to be inspected…

They’re lonely. They’ve been stabbed.

People think we ride around, lights and sirens just for the heck of it, but it’s because someone called 911. You just never know.

Station 13:

Auto extrications.

SFSG: Using the Jaws of Life?

Yeah, those are fun. They work great.

Elevator extrications. People stuck in elevators. I know a couple little ways to get them open from the inside, but you don’t always want to do that.

Our engine crew sometimes will go to the Bay for a Bay rescue, along the water, like off Pier 17. We’ll throw ladders down or jump in. We get a little bit of everything down here, it’s kind of cool. We have Chinatown, North Beach, that are older, wooden, burn really well. You have hi-rises like you just saw, hi-rise fires. We cover all the way to Pier 39, all the way up Grand, Stockton, to just South of Market, and the Bay. [Pauses.] I’ve got to step out, you hang out. [He jumps out to help guide the truck back into the garage.]

Basically every day you come to work, you’re going to help somebody in some way. You don’t know how, but you know you’re going to help someone. And that’s cool. That’s the draw. At least for me. The fire thing? It doesn’t happen often. It’s exciting but it’s a small part. And it’s not an everyday thing. But helping someone is. So it’s kind of like, wow, we’ve got the best job in the world. You know?

[No, I don’t know. But what I do know is that I freaking LOVE this man.]

Petite powerhouse. Not afraid to chase down bad guys with guns.

SFSG: What’s the craziest thing someone has ever called you for?

[Laughter.] Someone confined to a bed called us to pick up a remote. Someone had a headache for two weeks and they called at 3:00 in the morning because they needed a ride to the hospital.

SFSG: Is there a particular kind of person who is drawn to the department?

It’s a total mix.

There’s doctors in the fire department. There’s lawyers, there’s nurses. [This is echoed by Station 13.]

Models, actors.

Carpenters, electricians, plumbers. Any kind of trade you can imagine. The knowledge you have from whatever you’re doing will help you in this job somehow.

SFSG: Of the “helping” professions, firefighters seem to be the nicest. Like way nicer than the police.  Do you have anything specifically in your training regarding interaction with the community?

We’re supposed to be courteous. We’re not any different.

SFSG: But firefighters wave, they smile at children… they pick up kids, I’ve seen it!

We’re just waving back. They wave at us!

We wave back.

We’re happy, we like what we do. We’re proud of our jobs.

A little bit of that niceness goes a long way. If the police did that… I mean they’re not always going to be thought of as nice people, but it would help their jobs a lot if they reached out to the community a little bit more. And walked around and talked to people.  It’s hard to do something bad around someone that is friendly and talks to you. I’m not advocating that the cops are bad and we’re good, I’m just saying that we come here and we try to be nice to the community because that’s who we’re serving. We’re civil servants. And whatever they call us for, that’s what we have to deal with at the time, you know?

They [the police] are looking for trouble. And we’re trying to prevent trouble. No one looks at us and thinks oh no, they’re going to bust us.

Earnest and well-spoken. Top person.

SFSG: I used to live in New York and remember a time when firefighters used to hang outside of firehouses, or just inside with their doors open and frequently interacted with community members.  This doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.  Usually the doors are open, but you don’t see firefighters “hanging out” anymore. Is this deliberate?

Station 21:

It depends on where you are in San Francisco because if you go downtown where there are people, you hang out.

We’ve had some shootings across the street. So we certainly interact with the community but we also try to protect ourselves.

We’ve had people shot right in front of the doors of the fire station.

There’s not a lot of foot traffic here.

SFSG: Do you feel appreciated? How do people thank you?

People call, they stop by, they send cards. Cookies! Last night, someone brought cookies.

[They bring over a plate of heart-shaped cookies to share with me.]

It doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens. These came from someone who was served recently.

[They also show me a handwritten note with a picture of a family.]

Their kid got locked in a bathroom and we came by, and they were happy that we got him out. It was very nice.

People come in, they bring us stuff. They drop off a Starbucks card. Little things…People will give us Giants tickets. Drop by and say, “Hey, can anyone use Giants tickets tonight? We’re like, Uh, we can’t, but we can call somebody! Yeah, they’re great. People are real appreciative. Especially like right after 9/11, oh my God, it was like off the…” [We’re interrupted.]

[We had a separate  convo about 9/11. Really inspiring stuff. I said I was there in New York and watched the buildings go down and that I couldn’t imagine running into the Towers while people were running out. He said,

“You don’t even think about it. You just go. You just start hoofing.”

Captain/Chief for the Day. Quiet. Every bit as good-natured in person as in picture. Always smiling. Move over George Clooney.

SFSG: How are we doing on time? Do you have to go yet?

No, only if you see and hear a tone… you’ll know. If the lights come on, it’s unmistakable. [Laughter.]

SFSG: Do you still have fire poles? And you still slide down them?

Station 21:

Yes, two of them in the station. Every day.

The hard part is getting back up those things. It’s a work out.

[It takes me a minute to realize he’s kidding.  I’m surrounded by jokers. I love them. ]

SFSG: What’s the hardest part of your job?

Dealing with the city. The budgets. And the Board of Supervisors deciding whether they’re going to close fire stations. Just worrying about our livelihood and being able to do our jobs the way we’re trained to do our jobs. And protect the city the way the city should be protected.

SFSG: So it’s not anything to do with the job itself? Running into burning buildings…?

Not really.

We don’t like bad things to happen, but…

That’s someone’s property being burned up in that house. All of us live here in the city and it’s very dear to us, our community. Even though we live in different neighborhoods, we don’t want someone’s stuff to burn down. We want to get there and deal with it and keep it as small as possible, as quickly as possible. It’s hard watching people standing there in their pajamas looking at a pile of all of their burned stuff on the street.

Yeah, that’s probably the hardest thing.

If a fire does happen, we want to be there. We want to be first in.

And try to mitigate the circumstances. But that’s where it becomes professional. If you felt too much emotion, you really wouldn’t be able to do your job. But you definitely feel sympathy for people. So there’s a way of compartmentalizing things…

SFSG: Yeah, like doctors…

You have to. But when it becomes personal, that’s when you can’t do it.

Invited me to lunch. On cook duty that day. Turkey meatloaf sandwiches. Yum! Wielding a saw. Kind.

SFSG: What’s the training like? In Backdraft [Laughter.] (“Don’t pay attention to the movies.”), there are some training scenes where they’re running up and down the stairs with hoses. Does that happen?

Mmm hmm. At the Tower.

Yeah, that’s like basic training. When you first get into the Department, you don’t go straight into a station. You have say about 15 to 19 weeks down at the Division of Training. And they teach you all the basics. Equipment. How to carry, how to load. Basic stuff. Then you get the rest of your training for the first year that you’re in the Department. You have 4 months on an engine, 4 months on a truck… and you go back after each one and get tested on that specific apparatus.

It never ever stops. We’re constantly training. We’re always doing medical training. They light things on fire and we put them out…

SFSG: Do you all have families? How does this impact your family?

Yes.

We’re on call 24 hours at a time. You can choose to switch with someone, so you can do a 48-hour stretch, but it’s by a choice within the SFFD. Because they only schedule you 1 day, then you’re off for 2 days. So there’s a rhythm inherent in our schedule. So we have a privilege of choosing to work more time or overtime.

We can choose. If someone needs the day off, they have something going on, we have a sign-up board…say I need this day or that day…and the person who took the day will owe that person.

My kids are older.  [Cheers all around.]

You get childcare.  I was just texting my 6 year old and she has a play date and sleepover with a friend. You’ve got to get these things lined up.

SFSG: Do you have a sense that you get more calls from people who live alone, or single women, or is it all over the map?

It’s all over the map. I most certainly don’t see more women than anyone else. More likely, it’s going to be someone who lives with someone else. More so than I see single anybody.

Family man. Comedian of the group. Had me laughing from the time I arrived to the time I left.

SFSG: Do you have any safety tips for people living alone? For single women with children?

Make sure you have smoke detectors. Especially if you have young children, or younger kids who are at home by themselves. And have a plan of action.

SFSG: What kind of person is most likely to succeed in this job? Best suited?

Station 13:

All types.

Persistent.

Someone who is outgoing, aggressive. Willing to go the full mile.

There’s a spot for everyone.

Person who is willing to take risks.

[At this point, a horn goes off and everyone stops talking. It’s a call for a fire at hi-rise downtown, at the Omni Hotel. There’s a sixth floor smoke alarm that has gone off. They invite me along for the ride. I hesitate as I don’t want to get in the way, but eventually muster up the courage and agree to accompany them.

The firefighters suit up. They’re explaining stuff to me in the truck, but the siren is wailing and I’m only half-listening. Truth be told, I’m scared shiteless.  It’s a beautiful, sunny San Francisco day and I’m overdramatizing the situation, thinking that these awesome guys that I just met could be burned to cinders in the next moments. In the end, it turns out to be a false alarm.

Later that day, I go on another ride-along that is a medical call.  They treat the person and all is ok. By then, I’ve pulled it together and was able to watch the whole thing without having heart palpitations. Pretty exciting stuff. Almost made me want to grab an application.]

Station 21:

You’d have to be motivated. The person least likely to succeed is someone who is timid, and controlled by their fears. Who can’t get past it.

[Presumably, “it” is the whole running into burning buildings part.]

I’ve seen people who have a fear of heights. And in the Tower, you have to go up the ladder. And it’s outside…

SFSG: How high is the ladder?

To the roof of a seven-story building.  So, you have to go up. I saw one, and she’s just pacing, pacing. Crying.  ‘Cause she’s scared of heights. If she couldn’t get past that, she would not have gotten in. But she sucked it up and she did it. And when she did it, she was like “YES!” So she got past it. I’ve seen someone else who couldn’t stand to have a mask on their face because they were claustrophobic. Couldn’t get past it. Out. You have to be able to get past those fears. You have to want to get past those fears. If not, this is just not for you.  And it’s time to go.

*********

Verdict? I’m in love. With ALL of them. I’d follow any one of them into a burning building tomorrow. Especially this one.

Convinced me that maybe Prince Charming does exist. A true gentleman.

No fear. All heart. Beautiful manners.

THANK YOU SFFD. WE LOVE YOU.

A night fire in my neighborhood. While we're sleeping, they're protecting.

(Author’s Note: For the sake of their privacy, I’ve left out names. Any quotes should not be attributed to any particular picture. I apparently have few qualms with spreading my business all over the Internet, but out of respect for the men and women here, I’ve kept things nice and vague. Cheers.)