SF Photography: R-Town: Jim Topoleski, Battalion Chief Redlands Fire Department

As I approached Fire Station 1 in Downtown Redlands, the doors were all rolled up, there's a Fire Truck (not Engine) parked in the driveway and about 4 fire fighters are busy at work washing the Truck and what appears to be cleaning up. I must admit, it's a little intimidating to approach this scene! One of the fire fighters see's me coming and greets me ever so kindly. I immediately say "Is Jim Topoleski around?" He calls for his Chief and then I see Jim as he walks from around the other side of the truck. After greeting each other, I ask if I can photograph him in front of the truck…engine…truck…which is it? He tells me the easiest way to remember is the truck has the ladder, an engine doesn't. That seems easy enough to remember. I snap a few shots of him in front of the truck, and then we head into his office for the interview.

SF: How long have you been a Fire Fighter for Redlands?
JT: For Redlands…27 years.
SF: Wow! Were you a Fire Fighter somewhere else?
JT: Cal Fire
SF: Did you grow up in Redlands?
JT: I grew up in the Del Rosa area (of San Bernardino) and East Highland.
SF: I see you are a Battalion Chief. That means…well is there anyone above you?
JT: Yes, the Fire Chief, Jeff Fraser. Great Guy!
SF: Did you always want to be a fire fighter growing up?
JT: No…I wanted to be a Wildlife Conservationist.
SF: Oh, that's interesting!
SF: I know you guys work 24 hour shifts, so obviously you sleep here at the station. Do you sleep in your uniforms?
JT: No. It's usually some sort of Pajama type clothing. Years ago we used to bring the fire fighting pants, the yellow ones, into the dorm rooms with us while we slept, so if we get a call in the middle of the night we would jump out of bed and throw those on. But because of all the carcinogens that are trapped in those garments, we keep them out of the living area of the building and out by the trucks, because we don't want those carcinogens in the building. Most people in the middle of the night, because we are up all night long running a lot of calls, they usually sleep in sweatpants, shorts, or whatever it may be, jump down the pole and get dressed.
SF: Does anybody have a hard time sliding down the pole?
JT: Some people don't do it, the majority of people still do, but some use the stairs. The landing at the bottom (when sliding down the pole) can be rather abrupt (especially in the middle of the night), or if someone was in the shower when the call came in, and they grab a hold of the pole, they will be ok but the person after them won't. So a lot of people take the stairs.
SF: Because of this job, do you consider yourself a daredevil? Have you ever skydived or bungee jumped?
JT: No, when I was younger I would climb, dive, surf, those type of things. But I never got into the daredevil type of stuff, probably because of this job. I'm hyper-aware of what certain things can do to your body…driving too fast, driving like an idiot, drinking and driving, jumping off of things….those kinds of things I have seen so much of what CAN go wrong, death and destruction and what people have done to themselves, that I choose to pass on those.
SF: What's the worst thing you've seen, or the most exhilarating call you've been on, or the most memorable call you've been on…wow I could ask all three of these!
JT: I can answer all three! You know we have a very cool job, it's adrenaline filled, you are always on the go, always finding a new challenge. The rewarding side of the call is that any call we go on, we get to see direct results of our labor. So whether or not it's a person who's fallen and scraped their knee, we put a band-aid on it. When I was a paramedic, I got a lot of that. You could go on a call and make such a rapid difference in somebody who was on death's doorstep that you could intervene, correct a problem and in the next minute the person is conscience and awake! You know, I've had a career with people trapped in vehicles, people trapped in buildings, suppressing fires all over the nation…I mean I've been all over the place. I've hit every state East of the Rocky's. I was in Texas and was a part of the shuttle recovery process (in Feb. 2003). I spent 26 days in Texas running part of the search and recovery mission. I'm up and down the state every summer, so from the fire suppression perspective, to define one that I can say "yah that one made a difference"…the slide fire comes to mind up in Running Springs (the one that came out of the Green Valley Lake area), we did a lot of great work up there. We saved a lot of homes, and did a lot of tactics to get a certain solution, or to solve a problem in a neighborhood, we were going all night long into the next day. I had a great strike team task force, and we went in there and did a lot of really great work.
SF: You had a lot of different stations come together to work on that fire?
JT: We had units from Victorville, San Bernardino County, three stations from Redlands, and that's fairly typical of our average year when you are assigned to a strike team. I was on a strike team for the Chariot Fire in San Diego late last year, and for the Colby Fire above Glendora which happened the first part of January.
SF: I think that's fascinating because as somebody here in town, I didn't know you went all over to help out so many different states. Do you think a lot of people know you do that?
JT: I don't know… we are a very active fire department in supporting the mutual aid system not only in the state but we also support our personnel in gaining additional qualifications, where they can go throughout the nation and fill a role where there is a critical shortage.
SF: I feel like maybe a lot of people may not realize how much support fire fighters give to other fire departments. I love that support, the brotherhood, of fire departments. Now tell me something about YOU that people might not know or be surprised to know.
JT: I don't know if anyone would be surprised about anything I do. I think that people would be surprised at…well my identity is as a firefighter. I would much rather my identity be as Lisa's husband, and the father to Tanner, Collen and Payton.
SF: Awww….I think that's very sweet. And you don't hear that very often.
SF: So I have to confess, I snooped on your Facebook before meeting up with you (and by the way we only have 9 mutual friends), and I already knew you liked baseball, but are you a Red Sox fan?
JT: No…I'm a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.
SF: Ohhhh….I saw something that made me think you were a Red Sox Fan.
JT: Well, for one, we were at Fenway last year, and two, when the World Series was going on, I am not a Cardinals fan and Lisa's family is from St. Louis and they are avid die hard Cardinal fans. The Pirates got beat by the Cardinals so I was not going to root for the Cardinals so I was going to root for the Red Sox.
SF: After going to Boston last summer, I just loved Fenway and just LOVE the Red Sox. I was so happy to see them win the World Series! We visited St. Louis as well, and I loved their stadium and their fans are amazing, as well.
JT: Having been fortunate enough to travel across the mid-west to the Eastern sea board, St. Louis has some of the most amazing people. They are friendly, out-going, they have great European culture influences, and I really like that. I like New York, the city, the people aren't quite as friendly, but Boston, that place is just phenomenal. The people are friendly, the city is clean, the subway system was easy to follow, the tour at Fenway and the surrounding area was just incredible! Such a great city!
SF: I completely agree! Boston is just an amazing, historical place and I would love to go back! Would you say that Fenway is your favorite baseball stadium?
JT: Fenway, yes, definitely.
SF: Ok…I digressed. Let's get back to the fire department. I feel like the Redlands Fire Department is really involved in the community. They support various athletic programs here in town, in fact one year when I was helping out with the REV Football program, I had brought a few of the football players and cheerleaders here to do a quick picture for their program and after the picture you guys gave them a ride around the block in the truck. My kids were little and were with me and they got to go as well. They all loved it! You guys are always so hospitable and do so much around here. I know you do fill-the-boot as well…
JT: Yes they do fill-the-boot, Spark of Love, the Car Show in the downtown area with the proceeds going to The Burn Foundation, and they did a bowling tournament this year that was incredible and these guy are constantly engaged and involved with the community and our community is great because they donate. The department participates in the Believe Walk as well. The firefighters sell the pink t-shirts and the proceeds from that then go to the Believe Walk. They are dug in deep. It's all about getting money, and giving it away. They do a great job!
SF: What time of year is Fill-the-Boot?
JT: It's in the Fall, and it's for Muscular Dystrophy. Occasionally, they will do one if something comes up like the Yarnell Firefighters or firefighters that died. They did the one for the Arizona Firefighters (the Yarnell Fire) and drove the money back to Prescott and donated about $30,000 to that one.
SF: Wow, I was going to ask, (a more serious question), the 19 firefighters in Arizona that lost their lives, when something like that happens, what does that do to the moral of your station, what happens to your brotherhood?
JT: The first thing is, there are firefighters dying constantly throughout the nation. We get email on it every morning. We see what's going on. When there is a significant loss of life like what happened at Grand Mountain or even the Esperanza fire, especially when it's close or there are connections to it, it causes everyone to pull in ranks and say "what they heck just happened?" we just took a big hit and you know that everyone wants answers as to how did this go wrong, or what went wrong, what are we going to do to fix it. It takes awhile for all the information to unravel and you try and make sense of everything, but during that time period, you are at a heightened sense of awareness of "hey this job can kill us." It causes everyone to stop and take a look introspectively, it causes us to look at what we do on a regular basis, while on fires. It makes us stop and say "could we have been in the position that they were in? What could we do better to prevent that type of tragedy. What didn't they see, or what did they do, to prevent that tragedy? So it really fosters more in a training environment. We take these incidences and can learn from them.
SF: What are other hazards of this job?
JT: Cancer rates in firefighters are really high, heart disease from going essentially from a dead sleep to going 150 miles an hour in a minute isn't really good for the heart. So that's why we have a strong push for staying physically fit for our job. There is also a greater awareness of nutrition and staying healthy. These firefighters are all amazing people, and you look at the things they do and have seen, and it's unfortunate. These guys are essentially deployed every day they are at work and see people torn apart, people who are sick, their buddy getting hurt. The cumulative effect of that takes a toll on their stress not only here but spills over into the home. Just in the City of Redlands we have 70,000 people. 37 square miles and we run 9000 calls per year.

This was an amazing interview. To hear Jim talk so openly, I am so grateful. I've learned so much. And to top it all off, as I'm getting some last minute photos, the station gets a call and I am talked into going on the call with them! So I hop in the truck, buckle up, they give me a head set and we are on our way! I don't get out of the truck while at the call (I don't want to get in the way and really wouldn't know what to do with myself) so I sit in the truck and wait. It was a quick call (not a fire) and we return to the station within about a 1/2 hour. But that, for me, was crazy! and so fun! Thank you so much Jim for your time! It was such a pleasure to talk with you!