!Please Remain Calm!

This is it. We are giving you the goods for all of our listeners who are trying to get hired as a firefighter. We have recently retired LAFD Captain Chris Lewis, a 34 year veteran who has sat on countless oral interview boards, both entry level & promotional, even for other cities. He tells us all of the do's & do not do's of the FD oral interview, & there are A LOT. Danny also breaks down how to prep, what to wear, how to wait in the waiting room, how to walk in the room, how to greet the panel, how to shake hands, EVERYTHING. But the big prize here is this, we give you the tricks to a killer opening statement. The one that got us both perfect interview scores. We explain what an opening statement is, how to use it, & then show you how to write yours, practice it, & deliver it to knock out a perfect score. Captain Lewis also breaks down how to crush your zoom interview, including the difference in prep for zoom, getting your room ready, how to present yourself online. He also explains the main things that can get an otherwise good candidate bumped. We give up all the goods here to get you hired. Take notes on this one

We dive into substance abuse issues on the job, how easily it can creep up on you, then unique circumstances that lead first responders to it and how it can get out of hand. Danny goes in depth on his own personal struggles with this and explains how he hit rock bottom. We hear his personal journey of how he pulled himself out and the difficulties that go along with recovery. Once sober and back on track he is placed with a new partner goin through the same struggles with [pain pills after an injury. We talk about how often that scenario un folds in the fire service and how it can lead to tragic results. Danny recounts his former partners saga, which is a road mapper how these things are dealt with in the FD. This episode is full of honest introspection and personal accountability.

We're joined by LAFD Firefighter Paramedic Andrew Tom. Andrew was assigned to Rescue 9 with FF/PM Alex Saenz (Ep 49, The Boyd Street Incident) & was trapped in the building on Boyd Street during a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) that created a giant blowtorch in the building Andrew was working inside of with Engine 9. What's it like to have conditions turn pitch black in a fire & then hear what sounds like a freight train coming thru? To know you have one way out, & seconds to escape? What goes thru your mind when you don't escape? When your path is blocked? Andrew gives us the full details of every firefighter's nightmare, to be caught in flashover conditions. How did he get stuck? How did he finally escape? How did it feel to know he was alive? What was the scene outside? What happened next? It's a fascinating story from his perspective. He shares his real emotions and the PTSD that followed and how he dealt with it all. You will never forget this episode.

We discuss the tragic events that unfolded at the Astroworld Festival 11/5/21 & explain how an incident action plan works, the command post set up, the crowd grid & how the medical assignments work, the chain of command, the kill switch, & how this all has to work together to prevent these tragedies. We talk about how and why crowd crushes and surges happen, including ones that we've experienced as concert goers. We get a lesson on the history of music festivals and raves in LA, & discuss how we had to stop the show at our own rap festival, Camp Flog Gnaw, for 45 minutes during a Post Malone performance to stop the crowd surge. We talk about what could've gone wrong at Astroworld & how this can be prevented in the future, & who bears what responsibility. You also learn how people die in these situations and exactly what a human crush injury is & how it happens.

It's the "controversy" that won't go away. Our third and FINAL vaccine mandate episode covers the last things we didn't cover in the previous episodes. Mainly the deceptive facts and misinformation posted to social media by the top anti vax firefighters group. We explain how this bullshit works, why even though the staffing numbers in these posts may be accurate, they're blamed on the vaccine mandate when the truth is these numbers haven't changed for DECADES. We explain the real reason for these staffing shortages thru the years & show how this type of deceptive posting is actually part of a political media strategy ultimately designed to turn outrage into fundraising dollars. We explain how the goodwill built up over decades by the fire service is being hijacked and torpedoed for this "cause" & this can result in a negative outcome for the image of firefighters as a whole. We also talk about how a lot of these guys were actually friends of Danny & still considered great guys, only to now find themselves separated by this made up controversy. Don't wait for further research on this episode, get it in your system now.

LAFD veteran Firefighter Alonzo Williams gives us a completely different angle to a story we previously heard in episode 44 (Shots Fired) when LAFD Engineer Kelly Kilmartin told us about a robbery and shooting of Light Force 50 at a structure fire during night one of the 92 LA Riots. Alonzo realized they were actually being shot at before they were robbed at gunpoint, then as they were being robbed at gunpoint their Captain actually refused to hand over their radios at first, and was nearly killed in front of the crew. Then when the decision was made to bail out of there, Alonzo was separated from his crew. A firefighter just off probation, who just escaped a machine gun attack at a structure fire, was now running for his life alone in uniform in South Central LA during the 1st night of the riots with no police in sight and no other firefighters around. Alonzo runs to the nearest fire station to find it empty and locked. He decides to run back to the scene of the shooting, with rocks and bottles being thrown at him and cars gunning their engines toward him if he tries to cross the street. He finally finds his crew hiding in a family's home nearby. This is a wild story that not only captures the insanity of firefighting during major riots, but also the racial undertones and tension of the LAFD in the early 90's as well as LA as a whole. It's also an incredible tale of survival in the craziest circumstances.

We have comedians, podcasters (Common Ground), married couple, & new parents Rachel LaForce and Alex Gettlin along with baby Jonah, explaining how the baby made it through birth, then how his mom made it. Rachel goes in depth on her first-time mom journey. Everything is going great, so great that the baby won't come out. Rachel gets induced, has a long labor, delivers, then starts to severely hemorrhage & needs emergency surgery. In between we learn about doula's, birth plans, advocacy, massages that become vision quests, shaman women, why OB's are super chill all the time, how to stop a pregnant woman bleeding with your arm, NICU's, giving birth on the nurses last day at work, where to put placentas, what "Full Frat Dad" mode is, plus Danny tells some stories where a home birth went wrong. Rachel & Alex are great guests & really funny, & baby Jonah joins us for the whole show but didn't chime in much. This episode goes full term.

LAFD Captain Enrique Graciano is a 20 year veteran firefighter, who also has 3 years as an LAPD officer under his belt. He tells us about the scariest night of his life. In September of 2003 he was a young firefighter on Truck 88, assigned to interior truck operations in a supermarket fire with flames and heavy smoke in the rear of the building. In a matter of minutes, conditions severely deteriorate, and when the order is given to pull out, he gets separated from his company, and is unable to find his way out. With time & air running out & the smoke and heat getting worse, Enrique realizes he may not make it out alive. He tells us in detail how the whole incident unfolds. How you can follow orders and procedures perfectly and still find yourself lost and trapped in a fire. We also talk about aggression vs caution, when and how to call for help in a fire, & what happens when that call goes out. We also talk about the importance of experience and knowing your crew, as Graciano's own guys from Truck 88 found him. We also talk about life in the "squirrel cage" at LAFD Fire Station 88, the biggest in the city. What's it like to have your life flash before your eyes? Or to barely escape a fully involved supermarket fire that still had customers shopping inside when you showed up? This is the definition of a close call with death.

We're joined by LAFD Captain Donald "Dilly" Dillenberger, Pilot Joel Smith, & Firefighter Alex Salas. These guys were the 1st in Truck Company (Truck 73) on a man trapped in a vertical storm channel during a torrential downpour in May of 2015. These guys rush to find a guy hanging onto a wood plank for dear life with water rushing by at 25-30 mph. Firefighter Salas throws the guy a rope from a distance, in the pouring rain, over a fence, down in the river, and hits the guy square in the chest just as he loses his grip on the plank. They then attempt a rescue that is not advised in any manual, has not been attempted before, and is not practiced. They have to save a man trapped in a storm channel with completely vertical walls, NO rescue or access point, in rising, freezing, rapid water, in pouring rain, with no stable anchor points to tie off a rope. Firefighter Smith puts a harness on Dilly, who says an epic line and jumps in the storm channel and grabs the guy. Now the rest of the guys have to get Dilly and the victim out, with no time to spare, and the freezing water raging on both of them. Here's where the story really gets crazy & has roof ladders being lowered, & Smith almost falling in. We have audio clips from the incident (and video) & Dilly gives great insight into the Swift Water rescue plan and system within LAFD. Including the incident that set the whole plan in motion. We also learn why teamwork and knowing every part of your job as a firefighter is important.

We update you on the ongoing lawsuits against the FD with the vaccination mandate deadline passing for city employees. Danny explains how the lines between official and unofficial FD business can get blurred at times. We talk again about why this vaccine controversy exists in the first place, why the logic behind it is flawed, and the lawsuit is going nowhere. We talk again about how good men can be led to believe that voluntarily quitting their dream job is not only logical, but their only choice. How principles aren't really principles without consistency, & the irony of giving up your career because you're being advised to refuse a life saving vaccine, by people who were vaccinated themselves. Then we look back after 60 episodes at some of our forgotten early episodes (the 1st 15) & break down why they deserve another listen (except the 1st episode we agree was a mess). It's a great insight into the early days of the pod when we laid some amazing stories on our listeners before people really grasped what we were doing. Danny marvels at Ben's ability to remember every episode and guest in order, & we tease an upcoming episode with guys who will expand on the craziest and most overlooked rescue story ever on the show.