A Pizzazz Magazine Exclusive

Publisher Don Lemmon

Pizzazz Magazine: First of all, what is a day in your shoes like? What do you do from waking to hitting the hay each day?

FireFish Jeffrey: I get up at 6 AM and do the usual hygiene stuff and drive to work on an Army Post. Go to the Fire Station and find out my emergency response assignment for the day. Drive the fire engine or the brush truck. What buildings I should do a fire safety inspection on. Helicopter stand-bies if any. Other maintenance, house keeping, administrative assignments.

Then put my fire fighter clothes on the appropriate apparatus and do the daily checks on the vehicle assigned to me. Lunch sometime between 11 and 1 depending on circumstances. Work out at the gym at 2 PM usually. Dinner could be anytime from 5 pm till 10 pm.

Always listening for a fire alarm to come in. Assisting people that come in for directions or to visit or with fire safety questions. Respond to living quarters around the post to help with all sorts of problems that real people call plumbers, electricians, exterminators, etc for.

Every day is different. You never know what might happen. I like the days when nothing happens as I am in aggressive training for retirement.

Pizzazz Magazine: What would you say is the highlight of your life so far and how does it compare to your overall goals?

FireFish Jeffrey: I spent a year working and living at McMurdo Station, Antarctice. The work was challenginf and I was surrounded by amazing people. I always try to do my best and be a positive member of my community. That year I succeeded.

Pizzazz Magazine: Who was the first person to tell you getting into what you are known for was a crazy idea? At what point did you agree (even if it was momentarily)?

FireFish Jeffrey: I started this job with the Navy. My Dad told me I was crazy. He never forgave the Navy for keeping him in Florida for the whole time he was in during WWII. I never agreed with him on that. I got to travel around the world and learned how to do things I had never even considered being able to do.

Pizzazz Magazine: Have you made contacts using the internet that you know you wouldn't have if it weren't for the web being so accessible?

FireFish Jeffrey: Absolutely

Pizzazz Magazine: Funny how it usually works. We grow up wanting to be firefighters or nurses, then due to the glory of media, rock stars, actors, etc. and then reality sits in... We end up being ourselves... Good or bad... What's your story?

FireFish Jeffrey: I wanted to be either a forest ranger or underwater welder on oil rigs. Instead I ended up being a fire fighter. Strange world.

Pizzazz Magazine: What one thing haven't you done you would still like to?

FireFish Jeffrey: I want to fish the Great Barrier Reef and go on photo safari in Africa and the Amazon Basin. The standard stuff everyone wants to do.

Pizzazz Magazine: Tell me one of the negative aspects of your field that everyone needs to know. Do not say there are none! The biggest lie about your work is:

FireFish Jeffrey: That it is a large unified fraternity of heros. There are some very bad people in this job and a lot of just average people. The stress in this job does not come from the danger of the work but from the people you work with.

Pizzazz Magazine: Tell me something people do not realize about you, maybe it's not a secret, maybe it's not anything special, but it is something no one else has ever asked you about until now. What's boring to you is news to everyone else...

FireFish Jeffrey: Despite being fat, I sink like a rock in fresh water.

Pizzazz Magazine: What's the craziest thing you have experienced in your work? Maybe it's something you witnessed and didn't participate in, but what would shock us, make us laugh or show us another side to things besides the obvious...

FireFish Jeffrey: It is amazing how stupid people with advanced college degrees can be. Hang out at your local fire station and listen to the guys tell stories. Smart people do the dumbest things. Like try to shoot a bat with a shotgu inside their home. That guy is now serving as a judge.

Pizzazz Magazine: Anything embarrassing happen when YOU were trying to look cool? What? Embarrassing and crazy are different things!

FireFish Jeffrey: Some years back the Shift Captain and I went to investigate a report of a strange odor in the arts and crafts building. This captain was the stereotype of perfect social behavior at all times. But he responded to the call on the radio by asking if the arts and crafts staff were standing in a circle "farting"? We did not know the phone line was still open at the fire station. When we walked in the building, the staff, all female, were standing in a circle. The director turned and said loudly that they were not "farting".

Pizzazz Magazine: The biggest PLUS FACTOR about your line of business is:

FireFish Jeffrey: I get to help people when they really need help.

Pizzazz Magazine: What question makes you crazy whenever asked and hopefully saying so here will prevent it from being asked again?

In my business there are no stupid questions.

Pizzazz Magazine: Who do you see on TV, in film or hear on the radio that just makes you wonder how in the hell they got where they are?

FireFish Jeffrey: Just about all of it these days

Pizzazz Magazine: Tell me a joke!

FireFish Jeffrey: Why do fire fighters wear red suspenders? To keep their pants up.

Pizzazz Magazine: What music group do you listen to most often and what is their best album?

FireFish Jeffrey: Jethro Tull - Songs from the Wood.

Pizzazz Magazine: Who should hang up their hat in your business? Why?

FireFish Jeffrey: My Fire Chief. He is not doing his job.

Pizzazz Magazine: Tell me your favorite movie genre, name a few titles, think video rental or dvd's you own and watch the most:

FireFish Jeffrey: Anything Sci-Fi or with attractive women

Pizzazz Magazine: What TV show do you miss from childhood... I used to love Land of the Giants and Dance Fever (kidding on that one)....

FireFish Jeffrey: Variety shows like Red Skelton, Ed Sullivan

Pizzazz Magazine: If you were anyone besides yourself, who would you be (even for just a day, on a good day, of course) and did you emulate them growing up or is this a recent admiration you have acquired?

FireFish Jeffrey: This never appealled to me. I have an identical twin so I had to fight very hard for an individual identity.

Pizzazz Magazine: What did we forget?

FireFish Jeffrey: Nothing.