Comedy As A Fireground Coping Tool

Stress is part of the job, but suffering in silence shouldn’t be. We sit down with Jason Patton from Fire Department Chronicles and Brent “Firefighter Fenton” Fenton from Fire Department Coffee to talk about why firefighter humor is more than entertainment and how comedy can be a legit coping tool for first responder mental health when the calls pile up. The big theme we keep returning to is identity: being a firefighter is a core part of us, but it cannot be all of us if we want longevity, strong families, and a life that doesn’t shrink to the size of the station. 

From laughs to hard truths, we dig into fireground risk management and why “risk a lot to save a lot” still leads to injuries and line-of-duty deaths. Jason and Brent share what they’ve seen around survivability decisions, training, and how fast conditions can change. We also get practical on scene size-up, fire dynamics, and command discipline, including why some battalion chiefs stay back for a better view, how accountability boards and tactical worksheets help, and why a true 360 and an active safety officer matter. 

We don’t skip the realities of volunteer fire departments either: limited time, limited staffing, and how pre-plans and fire inspections might work with smart incentives. And when the radio debate comes up, both guests are crystal clear: every interior firefighter needs a radio because redundancy is how we stay alive. If you’re into fire service culture, firefighter safety, and the kind of honesty you usually only hear at the kitchen table, hit play, share this with your crew, and subscribe, leave a review, and send us your questions for a future Weekend Wrap-Up.

DISCLAIMER

The views, information, or opinions expressed by guests during this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of AFSO21's Weekend Wrap-up Podcast and its hosts. Furthermore, any views or opinions expressed by guests are their own alone and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, or official policies of any organization, institution, or employer they may be associated with or employed by. 

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_00 0:04

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

SPEAKER_06 0:18

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. We've got some amazing guests on the show today, but at the same time, we're going to discuss

Welcome And Guest Introductions

SPEAKER_06 0:34

some important topics that really affect the fire service. You've heard me talk about these before. We're going to ask our guests some of the same questions 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, 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 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 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 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. If you guys could just go ahead and introduce yourselves to the audience. Whoever wants to.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Hi, I'm a firefighter Fenton. Nice to meet you guys. I'm missing my mustache today, though. I'm I'm Jason Patton and I'm in my car.

SPEAKER_04 3:01

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

SPEAKER_02 3:11

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

SPEAKER_06 3:20

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. As you know, fire department coffee is is one of our sponsors. I don't have my cup here, it's downstairs. I'm I'm dropping the ball on that. But uh yeah, I think he uh correct that.

SPEAKER_04 3:37

Fire department coffee was one of your sponsors. Wow, come on, bro.

SPEAKER_06 3:47

All right, we'll we'll edit that out. Well yeah, funny. I got a Jag and then we got a turn. Come on. Wow, okay. My bad. Sorry. 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. 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 you started making videos as an outlet for the stress that you endured being a firefighter. Um you and I know, Brett, you know, we we all know being a firefighter

Stress, Humor, And A Balanced Life

SPEAKER_06 4:34

is is immensely stressful, you know, whether we're firefighters, paramedics, or anything like that. At the end of the day, you know, most of us were we don't have the opportunity to make funny videos like you guys do. 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, you know, both on and off the job?

SPEAKER_04 5:03

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, but that's not your full identity. So I think a lot of people when they get off, that's all they like. I'm a firefighter all the time. Like, dude, get off, go your 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, but you know, it's like have a balanced life. That that's the best thing I can say.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Yeah, I and I I just echo that. That's that's exactly what I tell people is is knowing your identity, knowing that it don't wrap up your full identity in, you know, just the fact that you're a firefighter, but you're so many other things. You're you know, husbands, fathers, friends, sons, daughters, and and all the other things have hobbies, have and really coping mechanisms, you know. For me, 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 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 and surrounding yourself with good people and just all those things I think definitely help to just have uh an outlet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:41

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, you know. 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

Superhero Bit And Comedy Styles

SPEAKER_06 7:12

it be and why?

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Oh my goodness, on the spot.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Like, are we making an are we making a new superhero or is a new superhero? Your choice. Your choice. 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_05 7:35

What kind of super power is that? Cynical man.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

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

SPEAKER_05 7:52

I don't really know what kind of super power that is. Um the bad news bangers, I'm gonna wreck them. Yeah, like, oh my gosh, please save, you know.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

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

SPEAKER_04 8:16

That might be they might they must need money. Yeah, I was the one you were about to say Hollywood calls and needs you to play Ben Affleck. Are you gonna do it? I'll be like, that would be amazing to see that ginger dude playing Ben Affleck.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Just wow, I have the accent. I bet man. Batman.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

In the dark night. That's a hard, you know, that's that's a hard question to answer, though. Like, what's what superpower would you have? Like a new superpower. Best thing I ever heard was I was out the other night or up in Chicago, we were trying our new ready to drink that we're coming out with fire farmer coffee, and we're all sitting down eating dinner. And this this 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.

SPEAKER_05 9:22

Addendum! It's like that's that's the greatest thing I've ever heard, bro.

SPEAKER_06 9:29

Oh gosh. See, folks, I I told you this podcast is gonna go go awesome. So 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, 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,

Smart Caffeine Use And Favorite Flavors

SPEAKER_06 10:04

why? And then there's a follow-up to that. Oh, great.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

Um, and if they were, what superpower would they get? So uh uh I think that the an appropriate amount of caffeine is the best way to go, even though I own uh a coffee company, 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. And in fact, we're gonna have a heart attack right now. So um I think you should drink the whatever 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 10:59

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

SPEAKER_04 11:09

Flavors. Medium roast is actually my number one, it's our biggest seller. I love it, it's just got a good flavor to it, it's not bitter, like the stronger you make it, the better kind of thing. But dude, I gotta tell you, man, I I love our spirit infused line and our vanilla bean bourbon has been my absolute favorite up to this point, dude. It's 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. Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

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

SPEAKER_02 11:43

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

SPEAKER_04 11:54

A lot of people that that don't try, uh haven't tried the donut shop. It's awesome. The the blend, the blends is amazing, and what it does with that donut shop is it really brings out a lot of sweetness, a lot of the the coffee 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 12:14

All right, question for you, Fenton. Um, in 2019, you were interviewed by Jim Cross from KTAR News about wildland firefighters, 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. Why do you think, and Jason, you can chime in on this as well.

Why Firefighters Still Take Big Risks

SPEAKER_06 12:44

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, putting themselves at undue risk. You know, you know, why why do you think that's that's a trend that's still ongoing?

SPEAKER_02 12:59

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, risk a lot to save a savable life, risk a little to save savable property, and we won't risk anything to save what's already lost. You know, I I can't really speak to the line of duty deaths that happen. I I know that there's a number of things that can that can attribute to that. It can be a lack of training. I I often say that we just work in the field of, you know, stuff happens and it happens. I mean, 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, there's a lot of factors I think that play into that, why we why we still see line of duty death. 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, 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, you know, it's I think it's one of those things that it is a nature of the business, unfortunately. You know, we we definitely want to see those numbers come down. I I know on the West Coast where we are very different in just our approach to structured fires in general, just from guys that I've talked to back east and just just all kind of all around the country, 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 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 it's it's an option to go inside. 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 there's a number of things that go in there.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Yeah. No, I do exactly what he said. Here's 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, 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 if you walk in and and uh the uh structure is fully involved, 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 under a pillow or under a door inside of a pillow, and the baby was alive. So, and if we would have done defensive, there's no way that baby would have survived. So, you know, it takes training, it takes a lot of training, is the number one thing, 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_03 16:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 16:50

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 scene size up? Because you know, throughout my career, I've seen you know the blinders

Scene Size-Up And Command Positioning

SPEAKER_06 17:19

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_04 17:39

I mean, we have a battalion, you know, battalion chief that arrives on scene along with Captain. Captain normally does a 360, 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. I mean, 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, took over the command, they would be almost at the front door calling, calling commands or whatever, calling for FPL and 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 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 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 can, you know, because they're watching for structural integrity, stuff like that. Plus, you have a safety person walking around as well.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Right. Yeah, and and out here in the valley, it it's like what Jason said, we we always try to make it a point to see at a minimum two, but we try to get three sides of the building on on arrival. You're always doing a 360. The first two company establishes command. Again, you're you know, you're looking for all the the sign, the standard signs that we're looking for. But like you said, we also we have 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 departments do that, but it's the 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 doing a 360 wall cruiser interior fighting, reporting back to the battalion chief. Obviously, sectorization is a big thing. And then they also have tactical worksheets that they fill out. So they're and they 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 that's really the way that that's kind of how we attack scene size up and just kind of handling a fire scene.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

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 go in and they're doing your basic pre-planning, making sure you understand what's going on in the buildings, locations of you know, any big fire hazards or 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 when people were starting to do like 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 or 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 fault because I can't get injured.

SPEAKER_06 21:01

So you guys, I mean, you guys have the luxury, I think, you know, being in a in a career department, a paid department to where you have fire inspectors, you know. Here 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. 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,

Pre-Plans, Inspectors, And Hidden Building Hazards

SPEAKER_06 21:41

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. Uh how do how do they fix that?

SPEAKER_04 21:53

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 what I would truly say is, you know, a lot most departments or a lot of volunteer departments are going to, 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 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 firefighter, hey man, I'm 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, man, how many of those can you knock out? Good things so you can knock out 10 of them a day.

SPEAKER_05 23:03

That's good, that's that's a good amount of money, man.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

People will be knocking down the doors to want to do that. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Yeah, that like you said, that is that is a difficult question, especially in the volunteer sector. You know, 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 and 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's a big thing that I always tell new guys is like, hey, even when we're just out and about shopping or for any reason, anything in your own personal life, especially if you live in your do, 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.

SPEAKER_06 23:56

Cool, good advice. So, one thing, you know, I I've had Billy Goldfetter 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, 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 when you're you know

Making Volunteer Inspections Actually Work

SPEAKER_06 24:28

interior or even exterior?

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Absolutely not. No, okay. No, I yeah, you for for my for for me, I mean, it's all the system that I've ever known is it's not an option to have a radio. You have to have a radio. I mean, I do understand that that financially that may not always be a reality for departments, but in my opinion, I communication is key. You have to, you have to have that's your lifeline. I mean, uh, other than your own skills and abilities and your air pack, you know, that's your lifeline to help.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

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 25,000 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 crew 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 don't think it should be an option. Cool.

SPEAKER_06 25:53

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 uh maybe a third comic on air, female comic?

SPEAKER_05 26:20

Dude, tell her

Radios, Redundancy, And Interior Safety

SPEAKER_05 26:22

to come out. Like, yeah, we're not we're not resting now.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

I'm not saying you are, but yeah, no, I just hey uh you know what?

SPEAKER_04 26:33

I welcome we welcome anything, like it's just fun. Like, I love like I love what Fenton does, you know, and it's funny because Fenton has a different style of comedy than I do. I mean, obviously it links together because we're 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. So it's it's really, really cool. So absolutely, we'd love to see the female side of it. That's that is it. So there's the 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.

SPEAKER_06 27:14

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Awesome. There, there it is, folks. All right, so don't direct message me personally. Go through my fiance first, and then for me, uh same same for Brent's through his word.

SPEAKER_06 27:30

So for the the those that are listening and watching, fire department coffee is a veteran-owned business. And you know, as a veteran myself, you know, I can't think what you guys are doing enough out there, you know, you know, supporting veterans and everything. You know, a lot of my listeners are veterans, military firefighters. What message do you guys have for veterans, particularly military firefighters who are, you know, fans, or we need to get them to be fans, you know, of fire department coffee, of each of your shows. You know, what what do you have to say to those folks?

SPEAKER_04 28:02

We're just like you. That's worse. 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. 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 ballot system. That's that's us, man. That's fire department company.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Yeah, thank you for your service. And Jason's exactly right. We are exactly like you guys, you know, and and 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?

SPEAKER_04 28:53

So I love, you know, I veterans, those that have served, 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 dad. Like, uh, but anyone who signs, I went to 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, you know, you're gone for four years 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 no point in time can you just go, oh, this is nice. Like it's just high alert all the time. So, man, that that's an incredible thing to do. Every single person that ever signs that document that that 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. You go to Fenton's house, I'll give you his address, just show up there. And we're only wear only allowed to wear boxers. Let's just put that now.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

You know, all right, guys.

SPEAKER_06 30:17

This part of the show, before we before we wrap up here, you get to answer two questions, two random questions, and they're would you rather? And the the first question is would you rather accidentally laugh loudly at a funeral or fart while giving a speech at a wedding?

SPEAKER_04 30:39

Well, first off, I was hoping you would say, Would you rather be a cynical superman? Or

Would You Rather And The Paramedic Brain

SPEAKER_04 30:46

I 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 be like, ah guys, you know, marry it's Mike.

SPEAKER_05 30:58

That's how I feel about them getting married.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

What if he's done both already? No, I'm just kidding. I you know it was la so it was laugh at a funeral or fart during a wedding speech. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

I feel like I I'll just I would say yeah, fart fart during a wedding speech, I think is I think it's that's a classic.

SPEAKER_04 31:34

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, uh that's gonna that's gonna be hard to talk about or brush off. Like here, I was thinking about that last thing he said right before he died.

SPEAKER_06 31:56

I was like 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 paramedics, so this is an interesting question. Yeah, that's hard because I'm into dead people.

SPEAKER_04 32:23

But uh so one part of my life goes there. No I think uh I I well brent, you have you asked you I went first last time, but you can answer.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

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. Biz busiest trauma room in the ER in the country. I think I could do that just because well, I think my superpower there would just be perfect. No, make the dead people, man. If you're gonna have a nice guy, yeah. 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 trauma room in the ER, it's fun to just get after it. And 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, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:25

No, we uh I would I would probably go trauma room as well. I I think 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 of 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 hurting. Really? 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.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

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. I had a call specifically one time where it was it was a it was a lady who was being very, very dramatic. She we'd been on her multiple times. I I think she was just lonely, but she was saying she had a headache. It 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, like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 35:06

Oh yeah, you know what I'm excited for before we go on to the next question is uh you and your cheese office, and like and like one of the things.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

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.

SPEAKER_05 35:20

Well, uh, tell me about the boom.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Nah. Oh, it was more than more than seven years ago. Statute of limitations is well, guys.

SPEAKER_06 35:36

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, you know, the the time is yours. Be yourselves, be your characters, whatever you want to do. We'll I'm gonna give wrap up, we'll wrap up the show with you with you guys.

SPEAKER_04 35:58

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

On-Scene Games Plus Social Media Rules

SPEAKER_04 36:07

firefighter, 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.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

And if you get fired, you did it to yourself. So just remember those things. That's exactly what my team said to me.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Oh, yeah. Yep. I completely and 100% agree. When I actually first started out, 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 because it showed where I worked, it showed everything. And so learned a lesson on that one. But yes, I totally agree. Don't show where you work. Don't do anything stupid. You know, be yeah, 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 9-1-1 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 abusers, I just point out the hilarious things that happen when it comes with those kind of calls. So, yeah, just respect profession, uh enjoy yourself, keep it clean.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Yeah, I mean, you could 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 shouldn't. Back away, man.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Like exactly. But yeah, I mean, enjoy it. And like we talked about at the very beginning, remember your identity is not the job. There's so many, so much more things to that.

SPEAKER_04 38:34

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 firefighter, paramedic, all the fun stuff. But I do other stuff too.

SPEAKER_06 38:46

Cool. Well, guys, that's gonna do it for the show. I 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, you know, as firefighters, paramedics, and especially the comic relief, because you know, with COVID, with you know, the incidents that that we get bombarded with every day, just being able to vent, laugh about some things and and move on. De stress. I mean, that that's important. So you you have definitely helped, 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. Appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 39:31

Well, folks, there you have it. Another great episode here at Apisode 21 Radio, the weekend wrap up. What can I say? You know, Jason Patton and Brent Fetton, again, thanks to those guys for coming onto the show, taking time out of their day. The comic relief that they provide is just so amazing, inspirational. It gets a lot of firefighters through the day. So, you know, hats off to them. So stay tuned. We are still being sponsored by Fire Department Coffee, despite me not having

Wrap-Up, Listener Requests, And Sponsor Offer

SPEAKER_06 40:00

my coffee cup during the show. I'm gonna hear about that a lot, probably from Jason and Brent. But stay tuned for a few words from our sponsor, Fire Department Coffee, and then also our parent company, AFSO21. So be sure to give us a like, whether you're listening on the podcast, whatever channel you you subscribe to, and also here on YouTube. Make sure you hit that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up. Go ahead and comment as well. We look forward to you know the comments that that listeners provide. And as always, if you have a question or a topic you want here on the show, go ahead and send us an email at podcast. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T at afso21.com. That's podcast at afso21.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.

SPEAKER_07 41:05

Firefighters work long shifts. That's the nature of the job. If your station is like most, coffee is what keeps you going. That's why you should check out Fire Department Coffee. Veteran-owned and run by firefighters, Fire Department Coffee offers a wide variety of delicious coffee, including their signature line of spirit-infused coffee, all roasted by hand and delivered right to your door. Even better, 10% of net proceeds from every sale goes to benefit wounded, ill, or injured firefighters and other first responders. And they've got a special deal for the weekend wrap-up listeners. Enter discount code APSO21. That's AFSO21 at checkout to get 10% off your next order at Fire Department Coffee. FireDepment Coffee.com. That's fire D E P T Coffee.com.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Venture-owned and operated AFSO 21 Agile Fire Service Organization for the 21st century applies their extensive background in fire protection and emergency services to deliver support with identifying, developing, implementing, and maintaining strategies and techniques essential to operate and sustain an emergency response organization. APSO21 services include staffing analysis, risk assessment, standards of cover, training, management, and financial reviews. APSO21 is prepared to support your organization with increasing your capabilities' values. For more information, please go to APSO21.com. That's AFSO21.com.