By Cris Greer

WKTV Managing Editor

greer@wktv.org

EDITOR’S NOTE: WKTV recently spent an afternoon at Kentwood Fire Station 3 on Eastern Ave. as part of a documentary we produced called “Voices from the Front Line,” where we interviewed Lieutenant Jeff Bouwkamp and Engine Operator Andy Biederman. We talked about all the details of their job as a firefighter … from the most routine calls to the most dangerous, and everything in between. This is Part 2 of a two-part series on our very interesting and informative conversation below.

Let’s talk about the dangers of being a firefighter. When I walk through the doors at my office I don’t have to worry about saving lives or putting out fires. How often are you and the team put into dangerous, life-threatening situations? 

Andy Biederman, Engine Operator (a Kentwood firefighter for five years):

Every call we go to could potentially be life threatening or dangerous. We definitely don’t really know what we’re getting into once that alarm goes off. We’ve had times where we’ll get dispatched for a fall, and when we get there it’s a cardiac arrest. So, we have to be on our toes and be able to adapt to every different kind of situation. It’s no different if we get a burning complaint for somebody in the campfire in their backyard. And then when we get there, it’s a structure fire. Each call has its own different type of variables. It’s hard to pinpoint what’s going to be life threatening, or what’s going to be, you know, your run of the mill call, because I think these calls can turn into something that they’re not.

Talk about the physical and emotional toll. How do you deal with the stress and anxiety? Is there help or counseling available? 

ANDY:

Something that they’re trying to promote and push better is the whole mental health situation in the fire service. And with any kind of first responder or police officer they have seen a lot of suicides in this job, just due to the amount of stress and types of calls that we see, it starts building up. The older firefighters out there typically used to hold their feelings back, suppress them and not talk to anybody, when really that’s not beneficial. It’s easier to talk to somebody and get that information out to help you help other people. So it’s been a growing trend just to help talk to somebody and go that route.

Jeff Bouwkamp, Lieutenant (a Kentwood firefighter for 30 years):

We’re always watching each other … we’re that close. If somebody’s having a bad day you can tell. I pay close attention to the people that I’m working with because they’re very important to me. Because at one point or another we’re going to do something, we’re going to be out there together. I’m going to be relying on them, they’re going to be relying on me. We have to be there for each other. And I think the mental health aspect is a huge deal. So, I’m watching out for each one of the people here and each person is watching out for the other ones, because you may pick up on something and that’s huge, because yeah, that never used to happen. Or I can’t say never, but that really wasn’t in the forefront. People don’t talk about it.

Does the stress help you better manage your personal life stresses, if so, give an example?

ANDY:

I think the types of calls that we see here and having to think on our feet definitely helps at home. I tend to be a lot more relaxed, but I think that’s just a big factor from working here. Just seeing different things that happen and reacting to it. Because if you start freaking out on a fire scene or on a medical, you’re not helping anybody. You’re making things worse if you start running around or yelling; it doesn’t do any good. But if you remain calm, you can think clearer, you can figure out what’s going on and then go from there and make a plan.

JEFF:

The stuff that we see or the stuff that we come in contact with or the stuff that we train for, this definitely helps me when I’m out of here, because it helps me be like, ‘Oh, sorry, we’re gonna get through this, we can make this happen, we can make this work. It’s going to be okay.’ I don’t sweat the small stuff; not downplaying anybody’s issues outside of here, but it’s helped me out a lot. The firefighters that are here, the family that they have at home, I give them a lot of credit because I’m sure at some point or another they do take stuff home. And that’s what they have to deal with. I know what’s helped me out a lot is the crew that I work with because there are times I tend to get a little excited. And it’s really nice to be able to feed off these guys to where it helps keep me in check as well. And that’s part of where we all kind of watch each other. And last year, we ran 5,000 calls. You can take and divide that up between 365 days, and you can find an average, but there are days where maybe we run three or four calls. And then there’s days where maybe we run 10 calls. There are some times during the whole shift, the whole city may run six calls. And then the storm comes through, you know, and we run 25, there’s no routine. That’s one of the great things because you just never know. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve made dinner and it’s quarter to five, and we’re getting ready to eat and you end up running something and then you’re back at 10 o’clock at night, and okay, well, that’s ruined. There is no routine, but that’s just what makes this job so great.

Talk about the amount of hours it takes to put fires out and what’s the longest time you’ve spent doing so?

ANDY: 

Every fire call is different. I think on average you’re probably looking at around an hour, give or take from start to your last unit cleaning up. And I say this is a typical fire of about an hour, but not every fire’s typical. We’ve been on fires that have lasted eight hours, nine hours, you know, just the magnitude of the call.

JEFF:

We wear a suit that’s made of Nomex, which is fire resistant. During the winter, it’s nice because it’s a little bit warmer, and during the summer it gets hot. But it protects us from the heat, from the fires. So that’s the nice thing with technology. We get to a fire and we get a little protection. Gotta remember that we’re getting into a burning building, we have to be really careful that we’re not in there too long. We also have the SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) that we wear on our back. It’s been nice because with technology the bottles have gotten a little smaller, they’ve gotten a little lighter, but they carry about 30 minutes of oxygen in them and that helps out.

ANDY:

The thing that we have to remember, too, is we have all this equipment and the person that potentially is in the house fire doesn’t. So, it’s our job to effectively and efficiently search that house and try to find them to remove them as quickly as possible. Because not only do they not have any protection, there’s all that smoke and all those dangerous toxins in there and stuff that’s not conducive for life. It’s our job using that equipment to get them out. And it’s kind of scary on how good our equipment is and how much heat we can take without really knowing how much heat we’ll truly take. I don’t think there’s a statistic about it. I think it’s all situational. It’s all dependent on the fire, where they are in the fire. And there are a lot of factors that are just very endless because not everybody will survive a house fire. But it’s our job to give them the best chance that they have.

Can you give our readers some fire safety tips:

JEFF:

There’s a fire safety message that we push. 

*Have working smoke detectors inside bedrooms and throughout the house. There’s no reason to not call your local fire department if you don’t have them. Tell them, ‘Hey, my house doesn’t have enough smoke detectors or I don’t think they’re working.’ Call them and they’ll come out. And (you should) test them every month.

*Have working carbon monoxide alarms. 

*Don’t have anything near your stovetop. 

*Space heaters: Unplug them when you’re not using them and keep them 3 feet away from bedding, drapes and furniture, and combustible items. 

*Have exit drills in your home. We go into all these schools in October, November for Fire Prevention Month and we teach them about fire safety. We talk about exit drills in the home; have a plan to get out, have a meeting place.

Get Out, Call 911 and Don’t Go Back In!

ANDY:

Another thing, too, is to close your doors. It’s better to close your door at night in case you’re dealing with fire, you’re gonna have less fire spread to that room. And then when you’re leaving, try to close your doors as well, because that’ll help contain the fire in that room, ideally. Now, there are obviously circumstances where that doesn’t happen, but you’re usually in a panic, you want to get out as fast as possible, but closing your doors can help affect the limit and the spread of fire.

How often does it turn into a domestic situation?

ANDY:

There are situations where one person might be mad at the other … and now they’re yelling at each other. And so we have to attend to that emergency. But we also try to keep them apart and try to figure out what the best course of action is. We’re not police officers, but we’re also an advocate for patient care and advocate for them. It’s everything … from having a grandma or grandpa that falls all the way to a cardiac arrest. We are here for the citizens of Kentwood. If you call we’re going to come and help you out as best as we can. We’ve had kids who lock themselves in the bathroom, we go there and help them unlock it. It’s a wide variety of calls. 

Can you explain the certifications and training necessary to be a firefighter, and how much time you spend keeping up on that training and keeping equipment up to date?

JEFF:

We do a lot of hands on training, and a lot of it we do here. We can’t light a fire here, but we’ll practice pulling lines off the engine. Out behind the strip mall by the station there’s a hydrant we hook up to and we’ll practice pulling lines, we’ll practice stretching the lines, advancing them. A couple times a year we do what we call a block training where we’re off shift, we come back and do various strains. And during the wintertime, we do EMS training and codes. During the summer we’ll practice something that we can do outside. We’ll go to a training tower in the city of Wyoming or we can go to the city of Grand Rapids where they have some burn containers and we’ll do some fires there and practice. 

Fire Call Crossovers with other cities?

JEFF:

We have a mutual aid agreement. And there are areas where we’ll run a certain distance into Wyoming, and they run a certain distance into Kentwood. If we were to get a possible structure fire they would automatically be on that alarm. There are times we do that with Grand Rapids, we have it with Cascade, and we have it with Cutlerville and Dutton. We have all our neighboring departments, and it’s a good thing, because we help each other out. And then sometimes we actually will run into those municipalities and run calls for them when they’re tied up, and they don’t have the resources to get to them. So that’s kind of a nice thing, too, because they will reciprocate that to us. If we’re tied up somewhere, we have a fire or something and all of our equipment is in a certain area, and maybe we can’t get to it very quick … they’ll turn it over to a neighboring department, and they’ll run it as a mutual aid call. And they’ll cover that for us.

Talk about the calls that stick in your head?

ANDY:

I Think any kind of call that deals with children is a call that kind of sticks in the back of my head. Typically, we don’t like running calls that involve kids, because a lot of us have them. I think it hits home, and you know, all the pediatric calls that I’ve run, I remember them. But as long as you give your best and you do what’s right for the patient, I can sleep at night.

JEFF:

I’d have to say kids’ calls are the worst. A couple of things that just stand out in my mind are kids calls and just needless accidents that happen. People being careless.

EDITOR’S NOTE: To watch the entire program, click here: “Voices from the Front Line”