“If you lead yourself with character and an unquenchable work ethic, you’ll be successful.”

Why did you become a firefighter?

Chief Jacob McAfee planned to be a professional football player when he was younger, but after a year of playing college football, he decided to switch career paths.

His friend had just returned from the US Marine Corps and delivered an elevator pitch that sold Jacob on joining the Marines. The fact that he had to go to class in addition to playing football was also a motivating factor to find an alternative to college — ironic, given that he’s a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is currently finishing his dissertation for his PhD in Emergency Management.

Upon joining the marines, he chose to become a firefighter. “The work-ethic and competitive nature of firefighting drew me to the fire service,” Chief McAfee recalled.

Today, Chief McAfee is the Deputy Fire Chief of the North Central Fire Protection District in Fresno, CA.

What words of wisdom can you offer other firefighters?

“If you lead yourself with character and an unquenchable work ethic, you’ll be successful.”

The fire service is very competitive, but don’t let that discourage you. As cliché as it may sound, it’s not your physical ability or academic strength that determines your success as a firefighter. It comes down to drive and determination at the core of it all.

Get up every day and tell yourself that you’re going to out work those around you. With this mindset, you will accomplish anything you set your mind to.

The only bar is the bar you set for yourself. Chief McAfee grew up in a low-income area, joined the marines, became a firefighter, and is now pursuing his PhD. That only comes with wanting to be the best and driving yourself to out work those around you.

What are the biggest changes you foresee in the fire service?

The service delivery model. With the difficulties posed by Covid-19, the fire service will need to make a cultural shift and reach out to other organizations for a helping hand.

Everything from service delivery, to culture, to technology is always changing to stay relevant. With Covid-19’s impact on fire departments’ ability to budget, the fire service is going to have to adjust even more to continue delivering the level of service that the communities need.

Fire departments and municipalities need to partner with supporting organizations at the local, state, and federal levels. This is happening sooner than expected because budget cuts due to Covid-19. New tech is very expensive.

Chief McAfee and the North Central Fire Protection District put this into practice when they needed more firefighters but didn’t have the budget to afford them. The local community college offered a work-study program and some students were training to become firefighters.

Chief McAfee, who is also an adjunct professor at the college set up a partnership between the fire department and the community college which sent the firefighters-in-training to the fire department to work alongside the career firefighters. The students received the best education the could receive — experience, the college was able to offer an attractive work-study program, and the fire department filled their need for employees without spending money it didn’t have.

Everyone wins when you work together to combine resources.

“If they fail, you fail.”

In 2000, while in his own recruit training at the academy, there were a few cadets struggling with an exercise. While working on an interior structure attack scenario, a firefighter in training was unable to handle the pressure in the hose. This was largely because the back-up firefighter was not giving them the necessary slack, content to let the person in front struggle because they had already passed.

After failing twice, the struggling firefighter had just one more chance to complete the exercise, or get dropped from the academy. The instructor then approached Cadet McAfee at the time and requested that he serve as the backup. And if there was a third failure, McAfee would fail too.

Cadet McAfee’s immediate thought: “What happens to me?”

McAfee lamented the unfairness internally, thinking that all of his hard work prior could be undone by another person who “didn’t work as hard.”

Cadet McAfee spent time figuring out the issue, utilizing a better technique, and they passed the exercise.

Reflecting back on this moment now, McAfee is struck by his initial selfishness. Instead of thinking about solely himself in that moment, he realizes now that the fire service is not about the individual, it’s about everybody.

“If the person to your left and right aren’t performing, it’s just as much your responsibility to make sure they perform, because if they don’t perform to the same level that you expect them to, you both may not be going home after that call,” Chief McAfee drives home the importance of teamwork in the fire service.

“Ultimately, you should care just as much about the success of everybody in that station as you do your success.”

He realized that he was selfish with his thoughts in the beginning and learned that the best teams care about each other more than themselves.