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I’m Exhausted…anyone else?

There is a reason you don’t see the Fresno video up on our page right now. I knew it would be widespread and easy to find for anyone looking to learn from it. What I knew was going to be even more common was the flood of “brothers” that would watch it and just let the expert comments rain on all forms of public media about each and every detail that they thought this Captain did wrong in the video clip.

I don’t have the energy or the interest to spend all day trying to argue with someone that has a perspective so flawed and an ego so big that they feel they must pull up the old keyboard and fire away on Facebook/internet instead of simply sitting back and reflecting on how easy this job could sneak up and bite you.

I watched the video several times and had an immediate knot in my stomach. I watched once completely horrified that one of our own would have to go through that including all of the other members on scene. I watched several more times trying to learn and understand what went wrong. I took the time to sit back and think about the whole situation and learn a little bit about Captain Dern and the Fresno Fire Dept. Then IN PRIVATE with trusted mentors, friends and crew members we sat and talked about everything and did our absolute best to learn and do Captain Dern some justice. From what I have read about Capt Dern it seems like he would want each and every one of us to learn from his situation and try our best to prevent it from happening to ourselves. He sounds like a leader, mentor and student of the job. Friends don’t describe you that way unless it’s true.

I will tell you what we didn’t do. We didn’t discuss this on Facebook, we didn’t blindly kick around assumptions, and we certainly didn’t compromise respect and brotherhood because “thats how we all get better”

I have sat and watched different so called firefighters today broadly claim how poor fresno tactics are and in the same line state they have never done roof work in their 5 years on the job. I have watched others say “not to monday morning quarterback” but instead I will beat the piss out of everything in this video.

On the positive side many productive discussions have gone on about tactics, roofs, ventilation, etc, with experienced and trusted firefighters leading the discussion. They managed to do it without even coming close to disrespecting Fresno or Capt Dern. All in the name of truly learning without assuming. Funny how that works huh?

I don’t have any specific route I am going with this post other than to say please take a step back and think for just a few minutes. If you are someone claiming to be on this job but can’t handle but to blast his actions all over the internet than you should really reevaluate yourself. At least do me a favor and the next time you want to wear your favorite FD shirt out to the bar and say cheers to brotherhood, take the time in your toast to let everyone know that the brotherhood ends at the door when the drinks aren’t flowing and there is no one around to see your sweet ass hero t-shirt.

Irons and Ladders trys to keep ourselves separated from politics, money grabbing, making a name for ourselves, Facebook Likes, or any other self serving characteristic that can infiltrate our profession. We appreciate the followers we do have and think your a good bunch of people that probably believe in the same mentality that we described above.

Support Capt Dern and Fresno Fire however you can. Learn from the video and his situation the best you can in private. Keep a bold line between yourself and the ones out there that just can’t hold up to that end of the deal.

Hang tough Captain, a lot of us out here support you and can actually understand how things go wrong.

-Royal