Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

One of the advantages of being a father of three young children is I stay up to date with the latest and greatest in all things Disney.  I can name every Disney princess and I often catch myself singing songs from Disney movie sound tracks.  As I was walking through the house the other day, my oldest daughter was watching one of her all time favorite Disney movies, Snow White.  As I walked by the television, I overheard the Evil Queen stand in front of the mirror and say her famous line, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?"  Of course, we all know the story, the mirror usually appeases the queen and tells her that she is the best thing since sliced bread, but on this occasion, the mirror drops a bomb on her and lets her know that she's really not all that great.  I tell this story, because I believe that a lot of firefighters look into a magic mirror every morning before they go to work.  When they look into the mirror, the reflection they see is not themselves, but rather a fictitious Hollywood character who would have a leading role in Chicago Fire or maybe even Backdraft.  They see a firefighter who is in great physical shape and can handle any and all types of emergencies.  They see a firefighter who can easily drag a 300 pound victim out of a burning building or make a cylinder last to its fullest because of their superior cardiovascular conditioning.  But the reality is, many firefighters are looking at a distorted image.  I like to listen to sports talk radio on my way to and from work.  One of my favorite times of the year to listen to sports talk radio is during late July and early August.  It's during this time that fans from all over call in and explain to the talk show hosts how their favorite team that went 6-5 in the previous year is going to win the National Championship this year.  They don't look at the reality of the situation, they simply live in their fantasy world.  They wear their favorite team's colored glasses and it distorts the true facts at hand.  I believe that many firefighters wear Backdraft colored glasses.  In their minds, they are physically capable of handling anything that the next call can throw at them, but in reality, they are a ticking time bomb waiting to become another statistic.  In 2011, 83 firefighters were killed in the line of duty.  Out of these 83 firefighters, the cause of death for 49 of them was either a heart attack or stroke.  That accounts for nearly 60% of all firefighter fatalities in 2011.  Now I realize that there are times when diet and physical fitness levels are not the root cause of the heart attack, but how many of those deaths would've possibly been prevented through a healthy lifestyle?  The fire service has become a safety first society where we focus on Risk vs Reward and the tenability of vacant structures, but how often are we looking at the number one killer of firefighters, ourselves?  In 2011, only 8 firefighters actually died inside a burning structure fire by getting caught, trapped, or running out of air.  That's less than 10% of the total deaths for the year.  Yet, 90% of our training focus is to prevent these 10% of deaths.  I'm not saying that Risk vs Reward and learning when to go defensive aren't important, but I feel like we have become the Pharisees that Jesus talked about in the Bible.  The Pharisees were too concerned about the speck in their brother's eye instead of worrying about the board in their own eye.  If we truly want to reduce the number of line of deaths, we are going to have to begin looking at what is really killing firefighters.  We need to stop looking through our Backdraft colored glasses  into our magic mirror and face the reality of who we really are.  The reason I am writing this is because up until 6 months ago, I was waking up every morning looking into a magic mirror.  At 5'9", my weight had ballooned to 225 pounds.  And even though I was "working out" every week, I struggled to run 2 miles without stopping.  I was in no way ready for anything the next call could throw at me.  My magic mirror gave me a reality check and told me that I wasn't battle ready.  I made a conscious effort to make a change.  I changed my diet and got back on a solid physical fitness regime.  Over the course of 6 months, I have lost almost 40 pounds.  Also, in December, I completed my first half marathon.  I am nowhere near a Men's Health Magazine cover model, but I've made great strides in changing my lifestyle.  And the changes that I've made are more than just to make my pants fit better.  I want to make sure that after that next structure fire that I go home to my wife and three children to watch many more Disney movies.  What about you?  What do you really see when you step out from behind your magic mirror?  Do you see a firefighter who is doing all he can in the area of physical fitness and a healthy diet?  Can you make it more than one cylinder before tapping out and going to rehab?  Are you physically strong enough to drag another unconscious firefighter out of burning building by yourself?  Preparation starts long before those tones drop.  It starts every day when you make the decision to get in shape and live a healthy lifestyle.