Why did you become a firefighter?

Firefighter Gary Candela began his professional career as a sheet metal mechanic in New York City. He always had a deep respect for firefighters and he learned about the profession from his friends who were in the fire service but he was happy with his job and didn’t want to leave it to become a firefighter.

On September 10th, 2001, Gary’s son, Jack, was born. Living in New York at the time, Gary knew many firefighters and civilians who lost their lives on the tragic day that followed Jack’s birthday. One of the brave firefighters who lost his life that day was Lieutenant Patrick Lyons, a very close friend of Gary’s family. Several years later, Gary lost his uncle, Ronald Spadafora, an FDNY chief who lost his life to cancer that he developed from rescue efforts during 9/11.

Seven years later, Gary found himself living in Maryland with his wife and two boys in the midst of the deepest economic recession his generation had ever seen.

The company he worked for as a sheet metal mechanic gave him notice that they wouldn’t have a job for him much longer so Gary began looking for work. One day, he saw an ad in the news paper: the local fire department was looking for firefighters. He took the first step and never looked back.

At 35 years old, Gary began his journey in the fire service. This journey changed his life and allowed him to be there for his community members in their most desperate times.

What advice do you have for other firefighters?

“Stay as sharp as you can, and always prepare for the ‘what-if’ situations. Training is the key to everything.”

Gary played many sports growing up, focusing mainly on baseball and football. As a lifelong athlete, he clearly sees the parallels between team sports and firefighting. You have an opponent, you’re trying to win, the stakes are very high, everyone plays a position, you have a coach, and you have players on the field. One difference is: you don’t always know what position you’ll be playing when you arrive at the scene of an emergency.

Another difference is how high the stakes are. It is certainly crushing to lose in the Super Bowl, but the effects of a loss on the fire ground are MUCH more costly. We can mitigate risk and prevent losses by training.

“If you train to master the basics, improvising becomes easier,” Gary’s words of wisdom highlight training’s importance.

Another important piece of advice that Gary shared is to not be afraid to improvise and try new things. “Things change and there is always another way to do something. It might even be a better way… Why not try it?“

This mindset helped Gary create an invention that has since been purchased by fire departments across the country and NASA…

Jack Strap: Life-saving innovation comes from improvisation.

In 2017, during countywide down firefighter training in Howard County, Maryland, nearly every rescue ended up dislodging the down firefighter’s SCBA mask. Gary knew this was a serious issue and he had a solution.

Gary approached one of his safety officers, “I think I can fix that.”

“OK, then. Show me your idea,” the training officer was intrigued.

Gary was off to the races. He immediately went to his department’s gym and grabbed a weight belt, a couple of handles, some carabiners, and duct tape. Within just hours, he had his first prototype and his safety officer was impressed with the solution.

At this point, Gary had a great idea but there were looming questions that stymied his product development.

How do you carry it? Who will have it? How do we ensure it’s available when we need it?

A short while later, Gary was examining the RIT bag during his weekly check. He noticed that the RIT bag had carabiners that were very similar to the ones he had on his first prototype…

Boom. He had the answer!

Since the RIT bag would always be on scene, his strap would always be there when they needed it for a rescue.

“That was the turning point. When it went from a ‘good idea’ to ‘this could be an industry standard.'”

Jack Strap was born, named after Gary’s first-born son, Jack. His younger son, Nick, earned his fame as well with the name of the organization being his initials: NLC Rescue.

Today, Jack Strap is the standard in Howard County, where Gary works and is being used by fire departments all over the country. Besides all of the fire departments, Jack Strap has another purchaser that stands out: NASA. That’s right, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration purchased Jack Straps for testing in their own facilities.

All of this came from Gary’s refusal to accept subpar standards. If you see something that should be improved, improve it. You’ll thank yourself later (and so will all who benefit from your innovation) — just ask Gary!

You can find more information on Jack Strap here.