!Please Remain Calm!

This is it. We are giving you the goods for all of our listeners who are trying to get hired as a firefighter. We have recently retired LAFD Captain Chris Lewis, a 34 year veteran who has sat on countless oral interview boards, both entry level & promotional, even for other cities. He tells us all of the do's & do not do's of the FD oral interview, & there are A LOT. Danny also breaks down how to...

We dive into substance abuse issues on the job, how easily it can creep up on you, then unique circumstances that lead first responders to it and how it can get out of hand. Danny goes in depth on his own personal struggles with this and explains how he hit rock bottom. We hear his personal journey of how he pulled himself out and the difficulties that go along with recovery. Once sober and back o...

We're joined by LAFD Firefighter Paramedic Andrew Tom. Andrew was assigned to Rescue 9 with FF/PM Alex Saenz (Ep 49, The Boyd Street Incident) & was trapped in the building on Boyd Street during a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) that created a giant blowtorch in the building Andrew was working inside of with Engine 9. What's it like to have conditions turn pitch black in a fire &...

We discuss the tragic events that unfolded at the Astroworld Festival 11/5/21 & explain how an incident action plan works, the command post set up, the crowd grid & how the medical assignments work, the chain of command, the kill switch, & how this all has to work together to prevent these tragedies. We talk about how and why crowd crushes and surges happen, including ones that we've experienced a...

It's the "controversy" that won't go away. Our third and FINAL vaccine mandate episode covers the last things we didn't cover in the previous episodes. Mainly the deceptive facts and misinformation posted to social media by the top anti vax firefighters group. We explain how this bullshit works, why even though the staffing numbers in these posts may be accurate, they're blamed on the vaccine mand...

LAFD veteran Firefighter Alonzo Williams gives us a completely different angle to a story we previously heard in episode 44 (Shots Fired) when LAFD Engineer Kelly Kilmartin told us about a robbery and shooting of Light Force 50 at a structure fire during night one of the 92 LA Riots. Alonzo realized they were actually being shot at before they were robbed at gunpoint, then as they were being robbe...

We have comedians, podcasters (Common Ground), married couple, & new parents Rachel LaForce and Alex Gettlin along with baby Jonah, explaining how the baby made it through birth, then how his mom made it. Rachel goes in depth on her first-time mom journey. Everything is going great, so great that the baby won't come out. Rachel gets induced, has a long labor, delivers, then starts to severely hemo...

LAFD Captain Enrique Graciano is a 20 year veteran firefighter, who also has 3 years as an LAPD officer under his belt. He tells us about the scariest night of his life. In September of 2003 he was a young firefighter on Truck 88, assigned to interior truck operations in a supermarket fire with flames and heavy smoke in the rear of the building. In a matter of minutes, conditions severely deterior...

We're joined by LAFD Captain Donald "Dilly" Dillenberger, Pilot Joel Smith, & Firefighter Alex Salas. These guys were the 1st in Truck Company (Truck 73) on a man trapped in a vertical storm channel during a torrential downpour in May of 2015. These guys rush to find a guy hanging onto a wood plank for dear life with water rushing by at 25-30 mph. Firefighter Salas throws the guy a rope from a dis...

We update you on the ongoing lawsuits against the FD with the vaccination mandate deadline passing for city employees. Danny explains how the lines between official and unofficial FD business can get blurred at times. We talk again about why this vaccine controversy exists in the first place, why the logic behind it is flawed, and the lawsuit is going nowhere. We talk again about how good men can...

We finally answer the number one question every paramedic is asked whenever someone finds out what you do for a living. Danny gives you a huge payoff to this question, as he shares the craziest childbirth story ever, along with multiple suicide stories including something you never really consider at the scene until you're there. Then he ends it by expanding on the story of his most personally tra...

Albert Sanchez was a 33 year old LA County Firefighter in great shape, with 10 years on the job, when he was hit suddenly with a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis after experiencing sharp abdominal pains at work. Albert explains his entire ordeal to us, from staying up all night researching his condition, to checking himself out of the hospital and getting into a cancer specialty center. Albert under...

We talk about where we were on 9/11/2001, & realize how old that makes us now. Danny gives insight into what the firefighters felt going into that building & how unique and dangerous the situation was for the FD. He also talks about talking to younger firefighters about that day & how those events changed his view of the job. We talk about the real reaction and feeling that day & week, as well as...

Comedian Zach Miller tells us about an ass whooping, his own ass whooping. He explains a unique scenario, where he happened to be celebrating his bday on the same B Dubs patio as 4 marines home from Iraq, who wound up having alcohol fueled words with him. Those words soon led to an attack on Zach, who walked out the door & woke up in an ambulance after getting assaulted by the 4 men, in front of h...

It's just the 2 of us talking about the latest controversy sweeping thru the FD ranks, vaccination mandates. Notably, we discuss a recent social media video posted by a member of Danny's department. We talk about the motivation behind these videos as well as pandemic clout chasing, checking sources, fake news, algorithms, doing your own research, & knowing who pays the person you're listening to....

Comedian Tony Klein becomes our 1st two time guest (Ep 3 "Get the Jaws") as he tells us about his own motorcycle crash in Hollywood, one morning before work. Flying over the hood of a car, waking up in the street with his bike on top of him, he literally dusts himself off & goes straight to work at LA's busiest breakfast cafe with his chin split open to the bone. We talk about Tony's treatment ody...

Kevin Green was a rookie firefighter with the LAFD who was off duty one night out on a date when he witnessed a car crash on the freeway late at night. After pulling his truck over to help, a drunk driver crashed into the disabled vehicle, knocking it into Kevin & crushing his leg against his own truck. What happens after is a story of survival, recovery, & the importance of the fire family as Kev...

We're joined by Dr Bob Kilroy, a chiropractor who was teaching his daughter to surf one Sunday at Venice Beach when the unthinkable happened. On an otherwise clear day a cloud appeared & started a light drizzle with a single lightning strike that hit the waters of Venice Beach, right next to Bob! Struck by literally a million volts in the equivalent of a bathtubs distance, Bob goes into cardiac ar...

We're joined by Santa Monica FD Training Chief James Altman. Who recounts a day he'll never forget as a HazMat Captain, working on a special security detail for President Obama's visit in 2013. Just 6 minutes after the motorcade passes thru a quiet Santa Monica, California neighborhood, they get a call for shots fired and a shooting victim over the radio, followed by a call for a structure fire in...

We're joined by triple threat (Paramedic, Water Polo Ref, MAC guy) Jeffrey Molina who tells us about an ordinary high school water polo tournament where one match tried to go into sudden death in the 2nd quarter. A 14 year old boy struggled to get out of the pool during a substitution in the 2nd quarter. When he needed 3 teammates to pull him out, Jeffrey the Referee noticed something was wrong, &...

We're joined by LAFD Firefighters Alex Saenz & Ryan Ramirez. These men barely escaped a nightmare scenario, caught inside a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion) that blew a huge fireball thru the building they were inside of and on top of for a full 33 seconds of constant flashover flames with 8 men inside the building and another 6 men on the roof. We get the full story of how a seemi...

We get more firefighter life lessons as Danny breaks down a call that could've gone a couple of different ways but had a positive outcome as he got a meth addict into recovery. We also talk mentoring, what made each of us quit drinking and partying too much, the LAFD tattoo policy, why Danny tells patients he's from the hood, why you can't always cancel the engine or truck company on a "routine" m...

We talk code 3 emergency response driving, the do's & do not F&#%$ng do's for regular motorists, and all of the dangers involved with maneuvering giant emergency vehicles at a high speed thru rush hour traffic. We explain exactly how a tiller truck works, and how crazy it is to haul ass thru traffic sitting high up in that back chair with only a steering wheel. We talk about EVOC training (& a lac...

We get some good firefighter life lessons from Danny for people starting out on the job who want to hear from an 18 year LAFD veteran. We talk about the levels of a fire career, how important mentorship is between young firefighters and veterans, what it's like when your dad has a big reputation with the department, how people are inspired by Danny on social media but not by Ben, Subway tuna, chau...

Comedian and podcaster Madison Sinclair (Madison PI) tells us her mystery medical history going back to when she 1st thought her dream of getting boobs had come true, only to find that they were actually full of benign tumors of an unknown cause & had to be removed. Then years later she moves to Hollywood, and begins having bad sinus problems and congestion, including black sputum coming out of he...