From the Archives: The Fire Department Coffee Guys

Join AFSO21's Weekend Wrap-up Podcast host Kevin Ferrara as he opens the podcast archives and shares his interview with the comedic duo from Fire Department Coffee, Jason Patton and Brent Fenton. 

Kevin chats with both Jason and Brent about serious topics in the fire service as well as adding some hilarious moments in the mix. 

Both Jason and Brent explain that while comic relief in the firehouse is a must and can be a stress reliever, caution should be expressed so as not to jeopardize your career or tarnish the reputation of your organization. 

Contact AFSO21's Weekend Wrap-up Podcast - 

• Email us at podcast@afso21.com

As always, keep supporting your local fire and emergency services, stay safe, and keep on listening!

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:28

Welcome everybody to AFSO 21 Radio. You're listening to the weekend wrap-up.

SPEAKER_06 0:42

Welcome everyone to another episode of the weekend wrap-up here on AFSO21 Radio. I'm your host, Kevin Ferrar, and folks, this episode is going to be fun. Uh, we've got some amazing guests on the show today, but at the same time, we're gonna discuss some important topics um that really affect the fire service. You've heard me talk about these before. We're gonna ask our guests some of the same questions um and get their input on it. So let's get into it. My guests today are two individuals from Fire Department Coffee Crew, and you've likely seen them providing what a lot of us call comic relief to firefighters and emergency responders literally around the globe. Folks, I'm joined today by Jason Patton. Now, Jason is the vice president of Fire Department Coffee, but aside from producing great tasting coffee, Jason is a career firefighter, a paramedic, and as a lot of you know, he is the creator of Fire Department Chronicles. So Jason, using his God-given talents as a comedian, uh he continues to provide firefighters and emergency responders across the globe, like I said, really a means of dealing with the negatives we often encounter uh while we are responding or on scene of an emergency incident. And also joining me today is Brent Fenton. Now, you're probably thinking, who is Brent Fenton? Well, most of you know him by Firefighter Fenton, the hilarious Boston firefighter who sports, and don't deny it, the the sexy but masculine red mustache. So Brent is also a firefighter and a paramedic, and he just like Jason shares with his fans and firefighters and emergency responders across the globe a different type of comedy, a different type of uh way of thinking than what Jason does, but that you know many of us can relate to, especially when we're operating over there in Jobtown. So, with that, folks, get ready. Let's welcome our two amazing guests, Jason Patton and Brent Fetton. Hey guys, thanks for coming to the weekend wrap-up. We appreciate you being on the show. Um, if you guys could just go ahead and uh introduce yourselves to the audience. Whoever wants to.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Hi, I'm uh Firefighter Fenton. Uh, nice to meet you guys. I'm missing my mustache today now. I'm I'm Jason Patton and uh I'm in my car.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Uh people are probably confused right now. They're like, wait, wait, are they? Like they've been playing this job. I'm Jason from Fire Department Chronicles. Uh, I make funny videos down in Florida. That's who I am.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

And uh my name is Brent. I'm Firefighter Fenton, and uh I also make funny videos, and I'm in Arizona in my car.

SPEAKER_06 3:50

Awesome, awesome. Well, again, thanks, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for uh taking time out of your day to be on the podcast. Um, as you know, fire department coffee is is one of our sponsors. Um, I don't have my cup here, it's downstairs. I'm I'm dropping the ball on that.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

But uh yeah, I need to uh correct that. Fire department coffee was one of your sponsors. Well, come on, bro.

SPEAKER_06 4:18

Shoot. Um okay, we'll we'll edit that out. Well yeah, funny. I got a Jag and then we got CERN. Wow, okay, my bad. All right, so take two now. Um, you know, just just some well, you know, we'll start off with a couple, you know, somewhat serious questions on here. Um, and Jason, you know, for you for you, um, you know, on the fire department coffee website, it's mentioned in you know, in some news and in your bio and everything that you you know you started making videos as an outlet for the stress um that you endured being a firefighter. Um you and I know, uh Brett, you know, we we all know being a firefighter is is immensely stressful. Um you know, whether we're firefighters, paramedics, or anything like that. At the end of the day, um you know, most of us were we don't have the opportunity to make funny videos like you guys do. Um, you know, there's some comics in a firehouse and stuff like that. But but what should you know, what words of advice to do you guys have for individuals to I guess handle stress a little bit more, um, you know, both on and off the job.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yeah. Well, I mean, personally, I think a well-balanced life is the way to do it, man. You know, you you gotta have your outlets in multiple ways. Comedy is is a huge one. We know dark humor. Like you said, there's comedics in the fire station all the time. So you got somebody making a joke, which that's that's I think it's multiple things. I think if you put multiple of the same personalities, whether they're males or females, with all the same type of personality, you put us all together, someone's gonna be making a joke or something like that. But just having a well-balanced life, man, understanding that you're a first responder, right? You're a firefighter, and that's who you are, a police officer or EMT or paramedic, whatever you are, dispatchers. Um, but that's not your full identity. So I think a lot of people when they get off, um, that's all they like that I'm a firefighter all the time. Like, dude, get off. Go, you're a golfer as well, or you're a dad, go have fun with them, you know, go go do stuff. You mean don't murder people at night or anything like that. That's weird. Uh, but you know, it's like have a balanced life. That that's the best thing I can say.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Yeah, I and I I I just echo that. That's that's exactly what I tell people is is uh knowing your identity, knowing that it don't wrap up your full identity in, you know, just the fact that you're a firefighter. Um, you're so many other things. You're you know, husbands, fathers, friends, sons, daughters, um, and and all the other things have hobbies, have uh and really coping mechanisms, you know. For me, uh again, like comedy is a big outlet for me. It's it's my art form, if you will. And I think Jason would agree with that. And um, and you know, I I I have my faith. And so there's a lot of there's a lot of things that that uh you can lean into um and surrounding yourself with good people. Um and that just all those things, I think uh definitely help to just have uh an outlet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

Cool, cool. So for you, Fenton, you know, it's some of some have said, you know, because of your your your bossed and accent, I can't do it. Uh you know, um, you sound a little bit like Ben Affleck in the movie Goodwill Hunting. And you know, Ben's been in a lot of roles. He's he's done a lot of roles. Most recently we saw him as the Dark Knight Batman. So if Hollywood were to call you up today and say, hey, we want you to play a role of a superhero, who would it be and why?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Oh my goodness, on the spot.

SPEAKER_04 7:57

Uh, like, are we making an are we making a new superhero or is it superhero? Your choice. Your choice. Um, I think the new superhero, I would be firefighter Fenton, and I would just be absolutely just cynical and salty about everything going on around me.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

What kind of superpower is cynical man?

SPEAKER_04 8:27

It's just, you know, it's you know, people, you I yeah, I didn't think that answered through too well.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

I don't really know what kind of superpower that is. Um cynical man, I would just work three days. You ever remember the bad newsbakers? I'm gonna wreck them. Yeah, like, oh my gosh, please save, you know.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

Somebody's somebody's robbing the bank or whatever. Like, yeah, well, that's your problem.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

I'm not they must they must need money. Yeah, I was open. You were about to say Hollywood calls and needs you to play Ben Affleck. Who are you gonna do? And I was like, that would be amazing to see that ginger dude playing Ben Affleck. Just I'm not bad.

SPEAKER_04 9:20

Wow, I have the accent. I bet man.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

More on the dark night. That's a hard, you know, that's that that's a hard question to answer, though. Like, what's your what superpower would you have like a new superpower? Best thing I ever heard was um, I was out the other night or up in Chicago. Uh we were trying our uh new ready to drink that we're coming out with firepark coffee, and we're all sitting down eating dinner. And this this uh husband and wife are with us, uh Glenn and his wife, man, they're amazing, they've been together for like 30 years. But every time he tells a story, she's like, That's not true, and like comes in and interjects something. And he's like, after like six hours of this, he's like, you know what? If you had a superpower, you would be addendum because that's all you do. You just you just addendum into every story that I have. Addendum! It's like that's that's the greatest thing I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_06 10:13

Oh gosh. See, folks, I I told you this podcast is gonna go go awesome. So um, so you know, you talked about, you know, Jason, you you briefly mentioned there real quick, you know, you got uh a new drink coming out. So, you know, you walk into any firehouse, you're gonna see firefighters drinking coffee. Hopefully it's fire department coffee. Yeah, um, you know, they sit around the table, they're out in a truck bays, they're they're they're they're you know doing whatever they do out there. Yeah. Do you think more firefighters? Now you're probably a little biased here. Do you think more firefighters should be drinking more coffee? And if so, why? And then there's a follow-up to that.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Oh, great. Um, and if they were, what superpower would they get? Um, so uh uh I think that the an appropriate amount of caffeine is the best way to go. Even though I own a coffee company, um, I don't want to see, you know, I don't want to see people screw themselves up by drinking too much coffee. Like again, coffee, just like anything else, is a part of a well-balanced diet. You know, I like a couple cups in the morning, you know, a couple cups in the morning. And if I had a rough night, I may need, you know, a few more, then whatever. But we all know what happens when you drink too much. It's that feeling where you're like shot out and you drink two cups of coffee and you just feel your brain like, ah, but your whole body's like, I'm not doing anything else. In fact, we're gonna have a heart attack right now. So um I think you should drink the whatever uh is an appropriate amount, two, two cups, three cups a day, that kind of thing. But don't be out there mainlining the stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_06 11:45

Got it. So the the follow-up to that is in your opinion, what are your two favorite uh flavors?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Flavors. Medium roast is actually my number one, it's our biggest seller. I love it. Um, it's just got a good flavor to it, it's not bitter, like the stronger you make it, the better kind of thing. Um but uh dude, I gotta tell you, man, I I love our uh spirit infused line and um our vanilla bean bourbon has been my absolute favorite up to this point, dude. It's that it's actually tied between that and Irish whiskey, but I like am a huge whiskey fan. So um, but yeah, I I those are my probably my top ones right there.

SPEAKER_06 12:27

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Cool.

SPEAKER_06 12:29

What about you, Fenton? What what what are your favorite flavors?

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yeah, uh the medium roast for sure. That's that's the the one that you see the most in our house. Uh the vanilla bean bourbon is that is very, very good. Uh and we like the uh the donut shop.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

A lot of people that that don't try haven't tried the donut shop, it's awesome. The uh the blend the blends um is amazing, and what it does with that donut shop is it really brings out a lot of sweetness. Uh, a lot of the the coffee uh type that we're using for that brings out the sweetness in the coffee itself, man, and it's really, really, really good. Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_06 13:07

All right, question for you, Fenton. Um, in 2019, you were interviewed by Jim Cross from KTAR News about wildland firefighters. Um, and you stated, and I quote, we're going to risk a lot to save a lot, but we're not going to risk anything to save what's already lost. And we've heard that similar statements throughout the fire service, you know, across the country. But yet we continue to see and hear firefighters injured or losing their lives unnecessarily. Um, why do you think, and Jason, you can chime in on this as well, you know, why do you guys think you know, firefighters continue to be injured or you know, unnecessarily, you know, they're they're losing their life, um, putting themselves at undue risk. Um, you know, you know, why why do you think that's that's a trend that's still ongoing?

SPEAKER_04 13:54

Um, you know, yeah, like you said, it's like for for us, especially in the valley, that's that's the number one thing. That's our risk management profile. Risk a lot to save a lot, uh risk a lot to save a savable life, risk a little save savable property, and we won't risk anything to save what's already lost. Um, you know, I I can't really speak to uh the line of duty deaths that happen. I I know that there's a number of things that can that can attribute to that. Um it can be a lack of training. Um I I often say that we just work in the field of, you know, stuff happens and it happens. Um and there's things that we can't, there's things that we can't control. So, you know, I think things happen, you know, and there is an element, you know, we're all human and we make mistakes. And sometimes, you know, you we pick a bit the worst day to have a bad day and you make that mistake, and that could be the the one that that ends it all, and you make that ultimate sacrifice. So, you know, uh there's a lot of factors I think that play into that. Um, why we why we still see line of duty deaths, you know, we're all type A personalities, we want to get in there and get after it. We everybody wants to make the save, make the grab. And um, you know, we're we're more willing to put ourselves in harm's way because ultimately what we want to do is we want to, we want to, we know we're all about life safety. And so um, you know, it's I think it's one of those things that it is a nature of the business, unfortunately. Um, you know, we we definitely want to see those numbers come down. I I know uh on the West Coast where we are very um different in just our approach to uh structure fires in general, um, just from guys that I've talked to back east and just just all kind of all around the country, the firefighting, it it at its core is the same job, but there is a lot of different things. And so we the big thing that we do out on the west side is we take a look at the buildings from the outside and try to get as much information based on what the smoke and the fire and everything is showing us to decide one, is that even a survivable environment that we're gonna go into? And to make that decision of whether or not uh it's it's an option to go inside. Um, we would rather figure that out from the outside than go in, take two steps in the building, figure out we shouldn't be in here, and it flashes, the ceiling comes down. You know, there's a number of things that go in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

No, I think exactly what he said. Here are the facts. We we work in a high-risk business, right? And it doesn't matter how much training we do, we can minimize it, but but you know, uh unforeseen events, uh, you know, rapidly changing environments. I mean, those are all things that we've that we've trained for or attempted to train for, so on and so forth. But the fact is that this is what we do for a living. It is high risk. Unnecessary death is 100%, like you said, you know, if you walk in and and the the uh structure is fully involved, um, pretty low, pretty low possibility that anyone's gonna be alive in that. But the issue is that we always work on the 2%, right? We always work on the side of 2% survivability, you know, that kind of thing, or that there is a possibility that the person's alive. And I have personally pulled up to a apartment that was completely fully involved, blowing fire out of every window. And there were reports that babies were that there was children inside. We did a really strong attack, should have been defensive, but we went offensive, went in and found a one-month-old uh under a pillow or under a door inside of a pillow, and the baby was alive. So um, and if if we would have done defensive, there's no way that baby would have survived. So um, you know, it takes training, it takes a lot of training is the number one thing. Uh, lowering machismo, getting people to cognitively understand what they're getting into, how you know, again, are they going in, not understanding proper egress? Are they getting too excited, not understanding where they are in the building, you know, stuff like that. So, but again, you can train all day long. Inevitability, we're in a high-risk business. Someone's gonna die, you know?

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 17:54

So it's it's it's a little coincidental that you know you you guys you guys bring up, you know, about scene size up, looking at things from the outside, because because NFPA recently came out with 1700 with the online training talking about fire dynamics and everything. Do you think the fire service, you know, have you seen well? Let me ask you this. What what do you guys do in your respective departments in terms of the the scene size up? Because you know, throughout my career, I've seen you know, the the blinders are put on, you know, firefighters see that fire, they see that doorway, they think, oh, we got to get in there, and they're not seeing the signs that indicate, hey, this isn't safe to go into. So, what do you guys do in your respective departments to educate, make sure people are doing the situational awareness, the constant scene size up?

SPEAKER_02 18:44

I mean, we have a battalion, you know, battalion chief that arrives on scene along with the captain. Captain normally does a 360, uh, can normally see two to three sides as he pulls up, then he does a full 360 before he even lets his crew go inside. Um, you know, we got to make sure there's nothing ridiculous going on. But what I have actually appreciated about our battalion chiefs over the last five years, they've changed their the way that they approach things. 99% of the time, and I don't know what is another or the way it was before was we roll on scene when the battalion chief came on, took over, um, took over the command, they would be almost at the front door calling, calling uh commands or whatever, calling for FPL and um asking for updates and stuff like that. They stopped doing that. Now they pull up, they're nowhere near the scene. They're they got a full uh best-fit view they can get, and they sit at the back of the vehicle and they have their accountability board, they call for things, get their benchmarks and everything, but they're never involved with the scene, which I actually really appreciate because it allows them to stay back. In fact, I've had battalion chiefs that stay inside of the vehicles the entire time and watch, and they don't have any outside stuff that's affecting their ability to judge whether or not they, you know, because they're watching for structural integrity, stuff like that. Plus, you have a safety person walking around as well.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Oh, right. Yeah, and and out here in the valley, it's like what Jason said, we we always try to make it a point to see um at a minimum two, but we try to get three sides of the building on on arrival. You're always doing a 360. Uh, the first due uh company establishes command. Uh again, you're you know, you're looking for all the the sign, the standard signs up we're looking for. But like you said, we also we have um a fairly robust system out here. We've got you know, the battalion chiefs show up, they they park at a centralized location where they can see the scene. They also there it's a two-man rig. I don't know if most um departments do that, but it's uh there's also so it's a battalion chief and then it's a fit or an ISO on there. They have it's a field incident technician, but basically he's the uh incident safety officer of the scene. So he'll be out um doing a 360 wall cruiser interior fighting, reporting back um to the battalion chief. Obviously, sectorization is a big thing. And then um they also have tactical worksheets that they fill out. So they're you know they're actually writing down, they're drawing a picture of the scene. They know who's in staging, they know who's assigned where, they have their accountability records out. And so um that's really the way that that's kind of how we attack uh scene size up and just kind of handling a fire scene.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

But I also think a lot of scene size up that people forget comes from you know, pre-planning and understanding the buildings that you're going through. Obviously, large buildings, we all know, you know, you're going in there doing your basic pre-planning, making sure you understand what's going on in the buildings, locations of uh, you know, any big fire hazards of fire loads or stuff like that. But you know, fire inspectors, huge for them. We had a fire inspector that was that would go around uh when people were starting to do like uh certain constructions, or they would just go into buildings and see how things are going, they go into one and they're like they had to send out this big email. Do not go into you know XXX Fourth Street. When you go in the second story, they had burrowed out a hole. So uh because they were working on stuff. So if you walked in there, you're going down to the first floor. So like these are things that that are really important because let me tell you, I don't know about you guys, but if I go in and my partner disappears, I'm like, what the heck happened? Let me go in after him. Now we're both on the first floor. Hopefully, you know, he breaks my fall because I can't get injured.

SPEAKER_06 22:12

So uh so you guys, I mean, you guys have the luxury. I I think, you know, being in a in a career department, a paid department to where you have fire inspectors, you know. in central pa we don't necessarily have that you know a lot of the departments are volunteer departments and they don't have you know actual fire inspectors and and often we don't see you know company inspections go out and do walkthroughs um do you do you think that should you know it I think the answer is yes but I'd like to hear it from you you know how how does the volunteer service fix that you know if they can to to where these inspections go out there and become more aware of you know incidents or you know issues like that that that hole in the floor to where you know if they just go in blindly next thing you know they've got crew members down yeah how do how do they fix that?

SPEAKER_02 23:05

I mean look that's a difficult question right because you want to say they just need to do it you need to volunteer your time if that's what you do then you volunteer and go out there. But you know it's hard to get people to do that for free right because they have nine to fives they have other jobs they have families they want to go spend time with so um what I would truly say is you know a lot most departments or a lot of volunteer departments are going to uh you know paid on call you get paid five bucks a call or 10 bucks a call or whatever I mean I don't know the numbers but um that needs to happen right you need to tell people like hey the the local businesses you have a fire inspection every year that you're gonna get it costs you$20 to have your fire inspection it's mandatory and you pay that guy 20 bucks or whatever it's$50 a year guy pays$50, you know, and you show up it's better for you it's better for us it's better for your business it's better for the businesses around you you make it a mandatory thing and you make it to where the businesses are paying$50 a year if you told a a firefighter hey man I you're gonna go to these inspections you're gonna get paid$35 per inspection you know$15 goes back to the department to pay for you know ancillary stuff but dude 35 bucks man how many of those can you knock out good things say you knock out 10 of them a day that's good that's that's a good amount of money man people just knocking down the doors to to want to do that.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Yep yeah that like you said that is that is a difficult question especially in a volunteer sector um you know uh it's it's if you don't have a reason to go into a building you know like for us you know if we we get assigned in firehouse hey we're gonna go do check out this building go do a walkthrough but we also have we have fire investigators we have a fire marshal so they handle all that stuff for us but they will sometimes ask us to go and and check on something or whatever but that a big thing that I always tell new guys is like hey even when we're just out and about um shopping or for any reason anything in your own personal life especially if you live in your do uh just be looking around checking things out always thinking about you know always kind of doing a size up or a pre-plan on anywhere you go yeah cool good advice so one thing you know I I've had Billy Goldfeder on here before and I forgot to ask him this question and I've actually discussed it on previous episodes when it comes to communication radios um you know the there's some back and forth discussion on this a lot of debate should every firefighter you know at the minimum those that are interior have a radio or is it safe to just rely on one person with a with a radio um when you're you know interior even exterior absolutely not no i yeah you for for my for for me i mean it's all the system that I've ever known is it it's not an option to have a radio you have to have a radio I mean I do understand that that uh financially that may not always be a reality for departments but in my opinion I I communication is key you have to you have to have that's your lifeline I mean uh other than uh your own skills and abilities and your air pack you know that's your lifeline to help well it's funny because we well a it's it's for you it's for the safety of you but it's also for the safety of the people around you right our entire business is built off of redundancies everything like you know your your rope is is is meant for 5,000 pounds but has the ability to withstand 2500 pounds like you know what I'm saying like those are the right numbers but like that everything is built on redundancies and especially when it comes to crew integrity and cruise safety that's you know that's why at least for us it's two in two out right like you got two people right to go at the door that kind of thing so yeah I get it man you know financially you you work with what you got but if it's an option like you should absolutely because dude if if your buddy goes down you it's gonna be really awkward for you to be trying to get over his body to find his radio and key up you know and put yourself in a worse situation that kind of thing so yeah I I don't think it should be an option.

SPEAKER_06 27:09

Cool yeah all right guys some of the some of the listeners you know they they're they're asking we've got yourselves on the show you know as as as you know comedians and you know with with you know fire department chronicles and on fire department coffee they want to know when are we gonna see the female side when are we gonna see a maybe a third um comic on air female comic dude tell her to come out like yeah we're not we're not depressing that comic I'm not saying you are hey i you know what i welcome we welcome anything like it's just fun like i love like i love what fentan does um you know and it's funny because fentan has a different style of comedy than i do um i mean obviously it links together good for firefighters but you know he his reaction videos to stuff is incredible his music the music videos I can't I like I again I I I can't even process how much work that is um so um it's it's really really cool so absolutely we'd love to see the female side of it that that's that is it so there's the uh any female firefighter that wants to start making their own page we will support you come on on the fire department coffee we'll we'll help you out so anytime awesome awesome there there it is folks uh all right so don't direct message me personally go through my fiance first and then to me uh same same for Brent's it through his so for the the those that are listening and watching fire department coffee is the veteran owned business and you know as a veteran myself uh you know I can't think what you guys are doing enough out there you know you know supporting veterans and everything um you know a lot of my listeners are veterans military firefighters what message do you guys have for veterans particularly military firefighters uh who are you know fans or we need to get them to be fans um you know of fire department coffee of each of your shows um you know what what what do you have to say to those folks we're just like you that's you know that you know when you wake up in the morning you look in the mirror you're like I'm the sexiest idiot in this place that's us that's we think the same thing just like wow that and our coffee's the best that's that also like if you like good strong coffee it keeps you caffeinated makes you makes you poop too it's great for the ball system um that's that's us man that's fire department coffee yeah thank you for your service and Jason's exactly right we are exactly like you guys you know and and um we just happen to make funny funny we just happen to know how to work a camera and edit some videos and make funny videos on the internet but yeah I mean my wife still looks at me when I make videos and she says there is freaking something wrong with you and yeah I always say I always say hey well you know what you married me so what does that say about you so yeah but no I love you know I veterans those that have served um you know I you know again I I I always hate I I do want to thank people for the service but when I say thank you for your service it's become such a negative thing in my head because people on the internet have ruined it for me because they're all like thank you for your service like no but anyone who signs I went to uh military school boot camp I was a bad kid and I was gone for it was six months it was nothing and and I could not imagine you know signing a piece of paper that says yo you're gone for four years or or six years or whatever and not only are you leaving but you're not gonna you're gonna be nowhere near your family you're gonna be in the middle of nowhere that you don't even understand like and it's gonna be a crap show you know and you have at at no point in time can you just go oh this is nice like it's just high alert all the time.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

So man that that's an incredible thing to do every single person that ever signs that document that that goes goes for that contract man that's such a cool thing dude you should be super proud of yourself when you wake up in the morning and and we appreciate what you're doing if you ever whenever you come back to the to the states come out of Florida I'll buy you a beer um go to Fenton's house I'll give you his address just show up there and only allowed to wear boxers let's just put that now you know all right guys uh this part of the show before we before we wrap up here um you get to answer two questions two random questions uh and they're would you rather and uh the the first question is would you rather accidentally laugh loudly at a funeral or fart while giving a speech at a wedding well first off I was hoping you would say would you rather be a cynical superman or uh I'm gonna go with uh I'm gonna go fart at a wedding speech all day because I would turn I would just keep I'd be like I got you know married Mike that's how I feel about them getting married um what if he's done both already no I'm just kidding um I you know it was laugh so it was laugh at a funeral or fart during a wedding speech yep oh man um I feel like I I'll just I would say yeah fart fart during a wedding speech I think is I think is that's a classic. You can because everyone in that room is probably gonna laugh because if you're speaking at a wedding it's probably the same idiots that you are just you know different faces but the uh but laughing at a funeral that's gonna that's gonna be hard to to talk about yeah or brush off like here I was thinking about that last thing you said right before you died I was all right second question would you rather work with dead people in a mortuary or work with the busiest ER trauma unit in the world now you're both paramedic so this is an interesting question.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Yeah that's hard because I'm into dead people um but uh so one part of my life goes there no um um I think uh I I've well Brent you at US you I went first last time you can answer man I working with dead people on the mortuary that I I don't know if I could do that I I that's just gross I could do I could do the busiest trauma I think bus busiest trauma room uh in the ER in the country uh I think I could do that just because um well I think my superpower there would just be perfect no you gotta get the dead people man if you're gonna have a look at this guy there well you know I there would be a lot of weekend at Bernie's going on if I was working with the dead people but if I'm in the if I'm in the uh the trauma room in the ER it's fun to just get after it and uh yeah I mean I I I am kind of known to be a little probably inappropriate on scene sometimes I mean without the patient knowing it's yeah yeah um no we uh I would I would probably go trauma room as well I I think uh just because that would be cool man to see like like the knowledge base you would get in there like the camaraderie you would get with people high stress environment that kind of thing man I think that would be super cool by the way speaking of on scene really fun game to play beginning a shift you you pick a word okay and obviously not like any like really bad calls or anything but you pick a word like ketchup and you gotta slip that word in somewhere on every call so you know whatever's going on like yeah my toe's been hurt really that's fine did you like hit it on anything like maybe a bottle of ketchup or something like that before you know you fell like gotta get it in there every time we've done that and we've done the uh the boop where the goal is to boop somebody on the nose at some point in the call at some point in a call throughout the shift if you can make it happen they pay for your dinner um I had a call specifically one time where it was um it was a it was a lady who was being very very dramatic um she we'd been on her multiple times um I I think she was just lonely but uh she was saying she had a headache wasn't any particular bad headache she just had a headache she didn't have time at all really just wanted somebody to talk to her but got in there and I looked at my crew and I kind of winked I was like I've got this and it was like go ahead I'm like you know gonna do the pen light with the pupils so I check her pupils and I was like all right go ahead and watch my finger and I was like this way this way I'm like out and boop and I was like you're good and I just looked at my crew and I winked and and everybody was like oh my good you know what I'm excited for past we go on to the next question is uh you and your chief's office and like and and like one of the I was dude I was just gonna say chief if you're watching this I totally made that story up it's not true never do that well uh tell me about the boobs no oh it was more than set more than seven years ago statute of limitations is well guys that's that's all the questions I got I mean this is this is the point where you know the guests I give you free reign whatever you want to get off your chest whatever you want to say to the audience uh you know the the the time is yours um be yourselves be your characters whatever you want to do um we'll I'm gonna give wrap up we'll wrap up the show with you with you guys oh I'm gonna give people a quick uh piece of advice because people always ask me this they're like especially uh for the up-and-coming female firefighter um you know uh paramedic or emt comedian I'm gonna give you the same three pieces of advice my chief gave me all right because everyone's like how do you start it's very simple okay don't do anything stupid like you know don't write on top of the ambulance or anything trying to surf it uh for a video don't put your department or your agency in any of it never show your patches nothing like that and if you get fired you did it to yourself so just remember those things that's exactly what NTV said to me oh yeah yep I completely and a hundred percent agree uh when I actually first started out um there's actually a social media policy at my department because of me and the very first video I ever made because we made the video for a banquet I put it on YouTube for the people that couldn't come to it and it blew up overnight um it because it showed where I worked it showed everything and so learned a lesson on that one but yes I totally agree. Yeah uh don't show where you work um you know be yeah don't don't do anything stupid be respectful the biggest thing is remember that you represent us all and so don't make us look like a bunch of tools I mean and that that may sound like I'm being a hypocrite because I make jokes and we me and Jason make jokes and make funny videos but we always are respectful to firefighters to the profession to things like that we don't we don't go out there and parade around like we hate people that call 911 and things like that. We like we will show I will show myself in some of my videos like the lighter side or the monotony and that of things that happen and we all know the system abuses and things like that. I never say I hate system abuses I just point out the hilarious things that happen when it comes with those kind of calls.

SPEAKER_06 39:34

So yeah just respect profession uh enjoy yourself keep it clean yeah I mean you can look you can we can all make fun of each other you know and people push the line we've all pushed the line at some point in time so just just literally whatever you put on the internet if as you're getting ready to hit post or send if the thought in your head is should I post this you probably shouldn't post you probably should yeah back away man like exactly but yeah I mean enjoy it and like we talked about at the very beginning remember uh your identity is not the job there's so many so much more things you are a firefighter but that's not it you're many other things and enjoy it be proud of who you are because I you know I'm proud to be a firefighter paramedic all the fun stuff but uh I do other stuff too cool well guys that's gonna do it for the show I uh I definitely appreciate it like I said you know as a veteran I appreciate what you guys do uh to support our veterans out there I appreciate what you guys are doing um you know as firefighters paramedics and especially the the comic relief because um you know with COVID with you know the incidents that that we get bombarded with every day um just being able to to vent laugh about some things um and and move on uh de stress I mean that that's important so you you have definitely helped um I think the fire service emergency responders as a whole just providing that comic relief that that de-stress so thanks thanks for what you guys do awesome appreciate it man yeah thank you so much thank you well folks there you have it another great episode here at episode 21 radio the weekend wrap up uh what can I say uh you know Jason Patton and Brent Fetton again thanks to those guys for coming onto the show taking time out of their day um the comic relief that they provide is just so amazing inspirational um it gets a lot of firefighters through the day uh so you know hats off to them so uh stay tuned we are still being sponsored by fire department coffee despite me not having my coffee cup during the show um I'm gonna hear about that a lot probably from Jason and Brent um but stay tuned for a few words from our our sponsor fire department coffee and then also our parent company AFSO21 so uh be sure to give us a like uh whether you're listening on the podcast whatever channel you uh you subscribe to and also here on uh YouTube uh make sure you hit that subscribe button give us a thumbs up go ahead and and uh comment as well we look forward to uh you know the comments that that listeners provide and as always if you have a question uh or a topic you want here on the show go ahead and send us an email at podcast that's podcast at afso21.com that's podcast at afso two one dot com so with that folks as always stay safe keep supporting your local fire and emergency services and until next time we're out of here firefighters work long shifts that's the nature of the job if your station is like most coffee is what keeps you going.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

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SPEAKER_07 43:36

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