091. The Fire Service Will Take As Much As You Let It [Part 1]

The job will take as much from you as you let it. In Part 1, Joff Fierro opens up about life: working at a busy station, chasing fitness, riding the highs of competition, and dealing with the burnout that came from trying to carry Fire Athlete for too long. This is a real conversation about staying driven without getting crushed by the weight of the mission.

What You’ll Learn:

• How burnout can sneak up on firefighters who care the most
• Why a strong crew culture makes it easier to stay fit and stay ready
• What Hyrox gave Joff that traditional training did not
• Why online criticism in the fire service wears people down faster than we admit
• How to remember there are still solid firefighters out there doing good work

If you’re a firefighter who is trying to stay motivated, stay fit, and not let the job grind you into the dirt, this one’s for you.

Transcript

TJ: Did you work yesterday? Do you work tomorrow?

Joff: I got off this morning. Uh, go back Saturday and, uh, I'm working Easter for guy on ski shift he can go hang out with his kids and I don't have to

TJ: Good.

Joff: my family. It makes life easier.

TJ: Even better. Yes. Yes.

Joff: a good scapegoat. Without being a scapegoat.

TJ: You could always just tell 'em that you gotta record a podcast episode with me. That's another excuse we can use.

Joff: Yeah. Then I'd cancel on you. You know,

TJ: Yeah. Fact.

All right, so for those of us who don't know you, who are listening, tell me about you. Who are you? Why are you in the podcast?

Joff: I'm JI am a social media content creator, um, firefighter engineer extraordinaire. Uh, All around fun, happy go lucky guy. I think of the time depends on who you ask, I guess. But, um, yeah, dude, I, I run a, uh, a company, well, I, I ran a company, should say called Fire Athlete. Um, I help out with some other pages, um, one of which will not be named and the other is called jbi, MTG, uh, short for jbi Magic the Gathering. And yeah, dude, that's pretty much it.

TJ: I'm super excited to get into the whole magic, the gathering stuff, because I had no idea you were into that. Came outta left field and I'm like, wait, I have so many questions and

Joff: How did you discover it?

TJ: yeah. Magic The gathering or you.

Joff: Uh, the page, my, my new page.

TJ: I think you posted it. Either you posted it on your personal page. I, yeah, I think you were just starting and you're like, Hey guys, follow me. And I'm like, all right, I don't know shit about this, but I gotta support the homie. And now I just show up and I make random jokes that I think fit like counter spell these hands type thing.

And,

Joff: it

TJ: and then of course the algorithm comes to me and it's like, Hey look, card stuff, magic, the gathering stuff. I'm like, dunno what it means, but I'm gonna send it to J and I'm gonna tag him on this

Joff: The, uh, the owner of my gym, um, that I coach at is one of the most

TJ: drive.

Joff: people I know, and she was like, I found your page and I don't understand anything that's going on, but I love your videos and they're great. And I'm like, oh, thanks Katie. That's awesome. That's so nice. you're literally who I make videos for, so that's great.

TJ: And it's hilarious because you, I don't think I'd be able to put you in a mold because when I first met you, you were Mr. Social Media guy slash fire athletes firefighter. And then we got to talking and now we're talking about the mentorship side of things. Something that you wouldn't quite expect and, and what it, like, the culture and whatnot.

And you are in this admittedly very nerdy space where you don't really see many firefighters. So it's like you expect this guy to be Mr. Cool guy tattooed, skater boy, firefighter. And now he's talking about mentoring people and now he's playing nerdy card games. I'm like, my man just keeps redefining himself on the daily and I love it.

Joff: It's all facade, of it. Always keep him

TJ: It's all fueled by Taco Bell.

Joff: Yeah.

TJ: So

Joff: I wish they would

TJ: we've talked,

Joff: happen.

TJ: I mean,

Joff: It's gotta

TJ: you need to start by getting that tattoo, bro.

Joff: I, I will do it if they send me free fucking Taco Bell. Sorry I

TJ: I, you know what? I had Taco Bell for the first time after a show a couple months ago, and when I tell you I picked out, it was horrifying. Now.

Joff: me.

TJ: Ifl. I mean, honestly, inflation has done a number. 'cause I remember one time I, I think I did a go recommend one time, like an 18 hour event and I just wanted all the calories in the world.

So I went to Taco Bell and I spent like 40 bucks. And in 20 14, 20 15, that is like three British tons worth of fucking Taco Bell.

Joff: yes.

TJ: And I spent as much this time and I only got like four or five things, but I got dude Chicken Kiss Diaz, I got this massive crunch wrap Supreme. Uh, I don't, dude, it was so much.

And I was like an hour away from home that I'm like, I'm gonna shit myself on the drive home, guaranteed. Like, this is just gonna be awful. Luckily it wasn't.

Joff: Uh,

TJ: But it's like, dude, I am brave trying this out. After like 10 years on a whim, far from home with like a long highway in between me and the next toilet.

But the T bell did not let me down. It was delicious and it did not hurt my tummy.

Joff: That's how it should be. People who can't eat Taco

TJ: So we've,

Joff: week have weak bloodlines. I just want that to be known. Uh.

TJ: with that sort of promotion, they better fucking sponsor you.

Joff: Dude, I

TJ: I.

Joff: hope so. That would be so rad. There's some girl that, uh, my buddy knows that she streams, um, video games. Like she's just one of those people on Twitch that plays video games and people watch, which is, if you can get people to pay you watch you play video games, more power to you. That's nuts. Taco Bell literally sent her a message and was like, yo, we wanna send you like two grand for just to like, update your studio, get some new headsets, get some new monitors, you know, a bunch of RBG lights, like let do it up. And then also free Taco Bell. And she's like, alright. So yeah, I, I don't know what I have to do to do that, but it's gonna, it's gotta happen.

TJ: I think you need to start one of those series that is like day one of trying to get Taco Bell to sponsor my magic twitch and then legit just don't stop.

Joff: Dude. I so. Yes, I want to do that. But literally we, since we started streaming the magic, the gathering games on of the pages, I probably have Taco Bell once a week now, and I was, I was like, I should probably not be eating this every single week. Like this used to be like a once a month treat as like a, you know, like a silly little guy thing. And

TJ: Yep.

Joff: people are like disgust, you need talk? I'm like, dude, with both hands. Like I love it. And they're like, oh, gross. And then I started doing it like once a week and I was like, this is excessive. I should probably slow down.

TJ: Be your cheat day though, right? That's the day where macro don't count.

Joff: I mean, if you believe in cheat days, but definitely my cheat day.

TJ: We've talked a lot about fitness and hiring and rookie culture and everything that firefighters talk about In the last couple years that I've had you on

Joff: Yeah,

TJ: since then, since 2025, what's life look like for you both at work and outside of work?

Joff: 2025 was a good year for fitness. Um, at and off on the job and off the job. Um, I believe at the of 2024, I took a spot at Station 27 in Phoenix. Um, me and one of my buddies worked over there in the backseat as the BLS firefighter and, uh, my, my, uh, my good friend the captain there too, we were like, Hey, the engineer spots open it up. It'd be cool if you took the spot. I was like, on, dude. Put in. It's a really busy station. I realized why I got the spot so easily because nobody wants to work there. Um, not because of the guys, but because of the first due and, you know, just the call volume is incredible, incredible and a terrible and good way all at the same time. um, dude, there's a bunch of duds over there. Uh, and then the captain, that captain went to a different station. We got another captain, um, who is just a beast of a human being. And the, uh, the want to stay physically fit, um, at this station is, is high and I love that. Um, so, you know. It keeps you, it keeps you motivated because you know, every, every other shift we're in turnouts, um, every shift we're pulling lines, every shift we're doing some kind of metcon workout, um, lifting, doing something right.

And you know, there's the occasional, oh my God, dude, it's Sunday schedule. I'm so tired. Can we please like, can we just sit in the straddles today? And everyone's like, yeah, I do. That's good. Um, but dude, like having a bunch of guys, around you that just constantly want to train and be better and keep working is just such a breath of fresh air as a rover. Um, and then dude, off, off the job.

TJ: Off the.

Joff: I did, uh, three hierarchy since we've talked last. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's three. I've done four officially. Uh, yeah. All partner, single. 'cause I'm. A coward. Um, but the, uh, my buddy who I, I do these, um, these oxes with, uh, is just a cardio animal. He, he just goes and I try to keep up and he makes me better. So we were doing like that, we were doing that for a while. Um, other than that, dude, I coach it, uh, across the gym. That's not a CrossFit gym anymore. Um, and yeah, dude, just trying to stay consistent. I'm not gonna lie. I, uh, the last few months since my last high rock, I've kind of fallen off the wagon a little bit, just to be completely honest.

Uh, just like every once in a while, dude, when you just go and go and go and go, you're just like, I'm tired, boss. Like, my body hurts. Like, you, you, I stay consistent with lifting and. I ride my bike to work and I run every once in a while, but right now I'm just kind of taking it a little bit easier on the training. than that, dude, that's fitness right now,

TJ: If you get to ride your bike to work, how close is your firehouse?

Joff: it's 10 miles away.

TJ: Jesus.

Joff: This is a rehan endeavor.

TJ: Okay. You're insane. But then granted, I think my firehouse was 32 miles away, so

Joff: Sounds

TJ: that would've been, yeah, you might have more bikeable areas than we did. 'cause that'd be stuck on I 70. I would be somebody's hood ornament day one.

Joff: Good point. Dude. You need to come out here and see how people drive. It is horrendous.

TJ: I've been to Phoenix once. Went to visit a girl, of course, years ago,

Joff: That's

TJ: and. I stayed, what was, is it Thunderbird Lake? There's some casino and hotel out there, uh, at some place where like, instead of having race tracks, you guys have like a lake where people race speedboats and shit. Um, it wasn't like a southeast ish area

Joff: Roosevelt,

TJ: the city.

Uh, I dunno, let me pull up the minute.

Joff: I believe you. I, I don't know you're talking about.

TJ: I think it was Thunderbird Lake. Uh, Phoenix

Lake.

No. Somehow put me in Oklahoma City. That's not where I want to be, but um, yeah, that was, it was interesting. It was, I went there in like. May I wanna say,

Joff: Yeah.

TJ: and I'm used to humid Maryland summers and um, when I got to the airport and we were driving around the, like we had the windows down and I thought I was gonna die 'cause it was like a hundred degrees.

But I was like, wait, it's not humid, this is fine. This is akay.

Joff: you either gotta love the heat or. That's, that's it, man. There's, there's

TJ: then my flip flops melted to the asphalt,

Joff: Yeah, that too. I think you can fry eggs on the, uh, the manhole covers in the streets. I'm pretty sure.

TJ: I'm sorry, not Thunderbird, Firebird Lake off of Wild Horse Pass Boulevard.

Joff: Uh, yeah. Okay. I know what you're talking about now.

TJ: So South, that's where I stayed. And then I spent time in Sedona, of course. And then that was, and uh, also Lake Havasu City, which is a very unique place. It was

Joff: Drink. Spring

TJ: not my jam whatsoever, uh, around there. I was dating a travel nurse at the time, so she was out there for a few months and I was visiting and, uh, it was, yeah, it was interesting.

It was quite a unique place, not, not my cup of tea,

buddy. Yeah.

Joff: Yeah.

TJ: And also the hubris of somebody being like, I want the London Bridge in Arizona, so let me move the entire London bridge stone by stone to a, a manmade lake in any whom.

Joff: that makes total sense, right?

TJ: Ooh, we digress. We digress. So we're just catching up right now and I want to know, I, I have an idea what it's gonna be 'cause it's two thi well, three things, your wife, taco Bell and Magic, the Gathering.

But what's bring in, in this season of life where you're at, what's been bringing you the most joy, and what's been kind of like testing you and forcing you to grow?

Joff: Oh, dude. So guess a couple things. Um, I guess for like career wise. I, I was considering with a heavy consider, medic school. Uh, I don't know if I'm gonna do that. I might end up just, um, maybe promoting to captain. I don't know if this soon. And that's, if I even get, I, I take the test or whatnot. I really enjoy being an engineer, dude. Um, it's kind of like I really enjoyed being a backseat BLS firefighter, right?

Like you, I want to perfect and I stay perfect with a, a grain of salt because nobody's perfect. I want to perfect that portion of my life. I want to be able to do my job without having to

TJ: Job without having.

Joff: to the point where I can pass that down to future generations to make the job as good as it was when I got on right, and so on and so forth as an engineer. I very much enjoy this craft right now. Um, I, I have been sitting on a few fires in the past year where I'm like, Ugh, I wish I was in there. I want to be in there right now. Like, I don't need it. I don't need it. You know, like that sort of feeling. You're like, I need it. Uh, but dude, we my, my first due as an engineer is so big that we have the ability to be on a fire by ourselves for upwards of 10 minutes, which for the civilians out there, that is a long time to be on a fire by yourself, especially if it's a good one. Um, you can do a lot of, you can do a lot of work with 500 gallons of water. You know what I mean? Um, so as an engineer. I, still get to play. I still get to have fun. It's not like I just sit there and twiddle my thumbs and, oh yeah, there's, there's a house bar that's water on the fire. It's out. Okay, cool.

And then we pack up and go home. I get to help with utilities. I get to pull extra lines. I get to, you know, throw ladders, do engineer things. Um, but I want that, you know, the, the, to answer the question, I want to be better at that before I can think about moving upwards and onwards. Right? But there ha there is this, this want to constantly be better.

And as much as I enjoy being BLSI, I really wanted to become a medic for a little bit. And then I kind of went back and now I'm kind of back to maybe wanting to be a medic again. Just because handing out Band-aids and ice pack is a lot of fun. get me wrong, but I also would love to be able to tell somebody that, hey, like, yeah, you're actually having a heart attack.

Yes. These are the drugs that I'm gonna be giving you. Yes, I have medical interventions where I can save your life besides pumping on your chest. Um, I, it's just one of those things that I, I'm thinking about, but I really like what I'm doing. You know what I mean? Like, BLS engineer is a good life and everybody knows that. Um, that's why BLS stands for best life saving something, something. yeah, dude, CareerWise, that's kind of where I'm, I'm headed. Uh, Lifewise. It's just fit. The whole fitness thing, dude, is just this constant evolving. Rotating door of, this looks exciting. There's, here's a shiny rock I'm gonna go over towards this shiny rock and check out and see how good I can be at this thing Which was, which is now High Rocks for me. Um, and there's other fitness events out there. Like I was doing CrossFit competitions for a little bit and then that turned into High Rocks, and now there's some other events out there. I'm Cons, I pretty, pretty that, I'm pretty set that I will be running a marathon at the end of the year with my High Rocks partner. Um, so we'll see how that

TJ: Dear God.

Joff: Yeah, dude, it's just like, I don't, I don't like being bored, you know what I mean? Which is constantly like the whole A DHD thing, I'm sure you know.

TJ: I was gonna say you'll have an A GHC bro.

Joff: dude, it's wild. It's wild. Like my wife is just like. Your fixations are just too much. And I'm like, yeah, I know, but heaven forbid I'm bored.

TJ: Right?

Joff: forbid somebody has a hobby, but the hobbies are expensive and you know, I, but yeah,

TJ: Let's, let's go back to High Rocks

Joff: Yeah,

TJ: because that kind of took the world by storm and I think, I don't wanna put any sort of thoughts in the listener's minds, but I think the majority of the people by this point are at least aware of CrossFit. For those that don't know what the hell is high rocks.

Joff: so, so rock, on who you ask, ask, it's just CrossFit light. Um, CrossFit is technical sport. Um, you have to have a lot of, um, damnit what is the word that I'm looking for? All my CrossFit coaches are yelling at me right now. it's a, it's a lot of skill. You have to have a lot of skill. Sorry, I don't know why that was such a hard word to remember. very, very skill based, right? You have to be able to do lots of heavy workout movements that 99% of the population cannot do, which is why the CrossFit games are so highly thought after and decorated. Um, or at least they used to be, uh, with Roc. Roc is a race for literally everybody. And when I say everybody, I mean everyone.

And CrossFit definitely used to be that way. But, um, when you say like CrossFit, people think burpees and snatches and box jumps and butterfly pull-ups and 80-year-old grandmas go, oh no, I can't, I can't do that. you know, there's always scaling, but with High Rocks. The exact same thing every single time. Same weight, same distance across the board. A hundred percent of the time there is no deviation to the race. So it is actually a race for everybody. Um, you know, like if you're in like the men's pro category, obviously your weights are a certain weight, women's pro, certain weight, um, but it's due, it's uh, eight events, a thousand meter run in between each event starting with the run, and then eight, the eight events.

Um, and it consists of body weight movements, uh, and then a few things like wall balls, um, farmer carries, uh, rowing, skiing, and just a couple other things, So it's a blast. it is, it is challenging. It is very challenging.

TJ: Sounds like it, especially with all that running. For somebody who might hate running, like this guy right here,

Joff: Yeah, I get it.

TJ: that's the guy who's gonna run a marathon, don't even

Joff: No, dude, I like, I, I understand why people don't want to do that though. 'cause like, you go like, yeah, it's, it's, it's, uh, you tell 'em about High Rocks and they're like, that sounds fun. And I'm like, yeah, but like there's an accumulation of five miles throughout the entire race. And they go, oh, nevermind. That's, that's the, that's the one thing that I tell people if they're gonna, if they're even gonna consider, like, run. You can do all the other stuff, dude. You can do everything. It's, everybody can, it's easy. Easy. The running destroys people. It destroys me. It is, it is the hard part. It is how I keep up my partner paces than I keep up with him. So.

TJ: interesting. Interesting. I'm definitely not gonna check it out because there came a point that I realized that CrossFit was just messing with my head.

Joff: Yeah.

TJ: 'cause I would leave work, you know, and you're at work like wound up tight waiting for the tones to go off. So it's at like time compressed environment type thing where everything matters right now.

And then you show up to the gym to decompress and relax and you're like, cool, but you only have 10 minutes to do this and more pressure's on and do this. And you're like, fuck. So I'm in an era where I just go, I listen to music, I lift what I lift, I run what I run. It's just, it's a vibe. Probably get back to any, some of that stuff later on.

But for now you can keep your high rocks and I will keep my regular good old bro split shit.

Alright, we're talk about fitness. Let's address the elephant in the room. Let's talk about fire athlete.

Joff: Oh. So my athlete was is it's, it's still around. Don't get me wrong. It still exists. The page is still there. the workout programs are still there being run by Adrian, um, who was and is and will continue to be a fantastic captain and even better programmer of fitness. Um, a stud of a human being and an incredible captain and mentor. Um, here's what I've been telling people. They're like, Hey, man, like fire athlete hasn't been posting. And I'm like, dude, you wanna talk about being burnt out? This is, this page burnt me out more than all the other pages that I've run. And here's why I can create a page about magic, the gathering, right? And make goofy little silly videos that I love doing because that's just my, how my brain works.

That's, I found an outlet for it a niche. Game. Um, another, another niche area of the internet that I found, right, besides Firefighter Fitness. Um, and people can go in the comments and tell me, oh, you didn't play that card, right? This, this video's stupid. This thing is, this doesn't make sense, blah, blah, blah.

And we can argue about it, and that is totally fine to me. Um, because you're either right or I'm right, and there's no in between. I, if I'm wrong, I'm like, oh, yeah, dude, I didn't know that. Like I played that card wrong. Holy crap. Thanks for telling me. Even if you're a dick about it with fighter athlete, dude, we, would put my heart and soul into some of those videos.

Like we would have the best messages behind it. The, it was like training videos or fitness videos or like just a good brotherhood, sisterhood message, right? And you'd get that, that niche following of people that were like, hell yeah, brother. We love this. They're like, this is awesome. Thanks for posting us. then you'd get the people in the comments, which I used to tell people it didn't get to me 'cause I didn't care, but it did. And the number one thing

TJ: Good number

Joff: right in, at least in ours is it depends. What do you guys do in this situation? It depends. What do you do with this patient if this happens? It depends, right? So if I make a video about pulling a hand line to a fire in Phoenix, Arizona where we do Phoenix, Arizona, firefighting things, some guy in Podunk, Louisiana is like, this is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm like,

TJ: words.

Joff: don't do the same. That's okay. You have different hose loads, you have different hose length, have different tools.

You have different tactics. SOPs, what is the point of getting on this page and telling me that I am the worst, dumbest firefighter you have ever seen in your life? What's the point? Like if the message isn't getting to you, then it's probably not getting to the other 50% of Podunk County firefighters that want to talk shit. And even big city guys, you know what I mean? Like, all this is cringe. Back in my day, firefighters never did this kind of shit. And I'm like, yeah, well welcome to 2026, dude. That sort of shit. Uh, it just, it, it got to me, dude, and I thought it wouldn't. And it did. And it was just one of those things that I'm like, Hey man, there's other endeavors out there that I can go focus on and this will continue, like when I have like fundraisers, like the 24 hour rows that we do, or if Adrian has a good

TJ: Which is insane.

Joff: dude. This last year was hard. That was a rough, rough year. But, uh, 24 hour rows, charities, good events. the local has a post, the, the union has a post, we'll post, stuff like that. Right. I will continue to do that. And then Adrian obviously has his, um, his workout programs. So as the page continues, that, that's fine. I don't have to be the voice of it anymore.

TJ: Why do you think firefighters specifically act like that? And I say that firefighters specifically because we see that a lot. We see the whole eating are young and we see we're just eating each other. Where if, like you mentioned, if I don't like the way you pull the hose in Phoenix. I'm gonna call you out and tell you that your lineage is weak and that you know you should shit your pants after eating Taco Bell, because that's not how I would pull a hand line.

Why? Why, why, why? What's the point?

Joff: have a couple

TJ: I.

Joff: for that. I think there's just a handful of trolls out there, which, you know, whatever that, that part doesn't bug me. But when like you have an actual message or like I, you are actually trying to like present something to the general public, like with fire, fire athlete is. Not a private page. Like if it was a private page, it probably wouldn't have as much, um, you know, viewing as it did. And it gives and other firefighters and young firefighters and old firefighters an opportunity to see that there's people out there training and trying to do the job. is the point of fire athlete It literally says in the bio promoting, proudly promoting fitness in the fire service. That is our, our slogan, the end, dude, that's it. Like train, be a good dude or check and work out the end. But people love to get in there, dude. And we, we have naysayers, we have trolls, have people who think it's like a superiority complex, like, we're not doing it this way, then nobody should be doing it the any other way. And it, that just gets frustrating. And you see that in like every department, man. It, it's just what happens. But yeah, I don't know. Keep your peace to yourself. I guess that's what the internet's for though, right? So I can't really complain much.

TJ: I, I can't believe you are not doing things the way that FDNY does them. Come on, man. You fucking loser. You fucking pose her.

Joff: it's, it's one of those things, bro. Like when I went to the world target firefighter at the Arnold, I think we went three years in a row. I can't, I think it was two or three years. But one of the coolest things that I brought back from that amongst, you know, like that fitness is alive and oil in the fire service that I was talking to firefighters in unk, Louisiana. Sorry, I shouldn't say that. In Louisiana, you know, in smaller rural departments, much more rural apartments, right? And I was talking to firefighters from the Philippines and Ireland, and I remember sitting down at dinner, one of those nights where we all got together for like the, the, you know, the events afterwards so they could toast to the winters and whatnot.

And some of the Irish firefighters were sitting down and, you guys work? Oh, Phoenix, Arizona. Oh, that's awesome. work for Ireland. You know, Dublin fire department. That's so cool. Dude. What a cool thing to say you can do. And they're like, do you guys run on little Memaw at three o'clock in the morning that pooped all over themselves? I'm like, yes, brother, yet we do. And they're like away, dude, we all do the same fucking job, all of us. You know what I mean? Every single fucking one of us does the same exact job, but we somehow find a way to shit on each other because we think we do it better. And it's wild. It's wild, dude.

TJ: I know how to follow that. Okay.

Joff: I should, I should follow. Let me follow up. There

TJ: Okay. You follow up.

Joff: There is the other half out there that wants nothing more than to just be coherent and consistent and have good attitudes and just be a great firefighter. And I love that dude. Like, there's the, there's the side that eats their own and there's the side that's like, no, dude, we're not gonna do that.

We're gonna keep working. We all do the same job. We're the same people. We are one big, you know, brother sisterhood. keep that going. That's it.

TJ: What I've noticed is that the other side of inclusion and brother and sisterhood and caring for each other is a lot quieter because they're doing the work. They are not immediately jumping to eat somebody. They might take that step back and say, okay, is this real applicable to me? No. Okay. Does it bring value to me?

Makes me chuckle. Okay, fine. Whatever. And I think that's why we see the, like the trolls are so loud because they just have to say stuff and they just have to go out there and put their thoughts and you're like, bro, what? When in reality. The people who support are there, where they're just quietly supporting and doing the work.

And it's, it's so easy to forget that. And what you talked about, talking to the, the Dublin firefighters and the Philippines firefighter and, and to all those folks, it kind of brings you back and be like, okay, these good people exist and the world is not just full of self inflated egos and assholes.

Joff: There's good, there is good, hardworking men and women out there that just want to do the job and go home and do it well, and then there's everybody else.

TJ: All right, so we're kind of talking about the culture of the fire service and um, that's one of the questions that I had here as it relates to fitness. You've been around for a bit now, you're up there in that, in that seniority, you're not Mr, you know, salty 26 year guy, but you've been around the block a time or 50 type thing.

From your perspective, what have you seen in terms of the evolution of firefighter fitness? Has it gotten better? Are we still stuck in the same old routines? Are we on a downward spiral? Where are we sitting there?

Joff: That's a tough one, man. I, I had a lot more insight on this when I was out there roving when we talked last and roving is, what do you guys call it? Rovers?

TJ: Uh, floats

Joff: Floats

TJ: because you float from one station to the other. Well, I mean, that's what we do. I, somebody in Louisiana's probably gonna come and be like, that's not what we fucking call, and it's like. Okay, well, we call ours rookies. You guys call them booters and other people call 'em probationers. So you basically did not have a home.

You are homeless.

Joff: Yeah. I was getting set to good stations. Um, and you know, every once in a while I was getting sent to flow stations, which were still good 'cause there's people at flow stations that wanted to work and there's people that didn't. Um, but for the most part, always, I was getting sent to good stations with guys that wanted to work, that wanted to train, wanted to that comradery. Eat good food on good calls, at night hopefully. And you see it a lot out there. And then when you get to a spot, you don't have your finger on the pulse of the city as much as you used to. So when like one of our guys is out, we'll get a rover for the day, like a backseat BLS guy or a medic. Um, and generally it's, it's all the same questions. How's mama? How are the kids? Where have you been? Where have they been spending you like getting any good fires lately? The exact same questions and it's always funny, but like, um, getting some of these younger guys that come through here, and by younger I mean like a couple years on the job, these are full grown men and women. it's, it's always interesting to, to see like when you get an like an older a LS captain on the job that's been on for 20 years and wants to come in and, Hey, you guys doing a skills course today? You guys getting in turnouts and training and we're like. Fuck yeah, dude. And he's like, let's get it. And then you get like that guy who's doing his, uh, his best three years, who, you know, he's, he's working a lot. Um, and they, kind of come in and they're like, dude, I'm, licking him right now. And I'm, I've got, I'm at 40%. I got 40% today. And we're like, we got you brother. Like, as long as you got a good attitude, you wanna run calls and you work hard on a fire, we'll take care of you. That's how, that's how it should be, right? Um, and then you got guys that come in and are just kind of mope around the station sometimes. And this is few and far between, I should say. We have, I have not, we haven't had issues like this which I love. Um, but every once in a while, dude, there's, there's one of those people that just of doesn't get it. And you kinda ask a couple questions and they don't have the right answers. And you're like, all right, well, okay, have fun. see you in another year or so maybe. Um, we, uh, we went down to the academy the other day on a Sunday to train, um, do a, like an academy skills course, which depending on who you ask, is a harder skills course or an easier skills course depending on what station you go to.

'cause some stations around Phoenix have very hard skills courses comparatively to the academy skills course, which is cut and dry. Same thing every time. Um, and we got a guy that roved in and he wasn't having the best morning, but he's the newer guy on the job, younger guy on the job. And I'm like, Hey man, like, coat off.

Take your bottle off. Like, keep your bunkers on. Um, keep, you know, keep your helmet on and your, your gloves. Like, let's keep working until you can't. And it, it got, it, got a little bit farther into it and he's like, dude, and you know, you know how it is. Like I did the same thing. guys. I just, I didn't sleep good last night.

I didn't eat well this morning. And excuses are like yls, right? Everybody's got one. No one wants to see it. Um, and he gets to the point where he's like, I'm hurting. I'm like, all right, captain. And I tell him to go sit down over in the corner, over in the shade, drink some water. We'll catch up after we're done. Um, and as we're finishing, uh, he starts walking up I walk up to him and I go, man, when the skipper asks you what happened, don't fucking make an excuse. I don't care that you didn't eat well this morning. I don't care that you didn't sleep well last night. You show up for you in the morning and you show up for us. That is how that works. Nobody wants to hear why you weren't ready to do this today. And I'm sorry those things happened. But you're here for 24 hours, dude. We need you to work. You're the youngest guy on the job. You're gonna be working your but to the ground on a fire. Like, that's just how it is. So when he asks you don't make an excuse, you just look him in the eye. You say, sir, I'm sorry. It won't happen again, and I will try harder next time I'm at your station and thanks for having me. And he said, oh, absolutely dude, I'm, I'm so sorry. I'm like, don't apologize. It, it fucking happens. It's happened to all of us. For me to sit there and be like, oh dude, this fucking guy, on act like it's never happened to. Every single person on this truck is an asinine thing to say

or act like. You know what I mean? Like if it, now, if he keeps coming back and it keeps happening and you're like, Hey man, Then it's an issue, but until then, l let's.