Chief Jose “Pep” Prado | Hillsborough County, FL

“It’s very simple. You just have to eliminate the things you do that cause you and your family pain.”

Health and Safety Chief Jose Prado

Chief Jose Prado is no stranger to the struggles many in his profession face.

Prado, the Health and Safety Chief of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue in Tampa, FL, has dealt with his own mental health struggles, learned to be open about them, and encourages others to do the same.

His passion for his work and commitment to helping other firefighters with mental health problems has given him the tools he needs to become one of Hillsborough’s finest.

Why did you initially join the fire service?

Thirty-five years ago, Chief Prado felt stuck in his warehouse job. He had wanted to be a firefighter since he was a kid, and his friends in the fire service urged him to sign up. At the time, however, he felt he couldn’t because he had a family to provide for, and his job paid well.

Eventually, his job started going south, and he knew it wouldn’t last forever. He could see the writing on the wall, so he signed up for the fire academy and worked the late shift to make up for it. His efforts paid off, and in 1988 he was hired at Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Chief Prado has always had a deep love for sports, a passion that led him to run marathons and wrestle professionally for a time. His athletic family includes a grandson who plays multiple sports, a brother who is an athletic director, and a brother-in-law who plays professional baseball for the Yankees.

Sports are so crucial to Chief Prado that he and his team have created recruitment videos starring several athletes-turned-firefighters. He believes there are several parallels between athletes and firefighters in that both must possess qualities of teamwork, diversity, and discipline to do their jobs efficiently.

“Some of the greatest firefighters that we've had throughout my career certainly come from sports,” Prado stated.

What sort of message would you like to deliver to firefighters and rookies?

Firefighting provided a life for Chief Prado and his family that he wouldn’t have been able to have otherwise. However, the discussion of mental health throughout most of his career has historically been non-existent.

When Prado retired last March after 33 years, a new position opened that centered primarily on mental health which, Prado said, was overdue. This position brought Chief Prado back into the fire service and gave him a new area to focus on.

He says the young men and women in the service see things that not many people see. They need encouragement to address the difficulties that come along with what they are exposed to.

“Mental illness and mental injury are no different than a shoulder injury.”

He feels proud of those in his profession who are successful, influential, and educated, especially when facing the challenges brought on by the pandemic. COVID has impacted everyone, but fires didn’t stop just because the world was put on hold.

“Firefighters didn't go home,” Prado pointed out. “We were still out there on the front lines. That says something about the type of individuals we have in this profession.”

Can you share a bit about the IAFF Center of Excellence in Maryland?

“I get very emotional when I speak about that place,” Chief Prado said. “But I speak about it all the time.”

Prado was the first individual from his department to visit the Center of Excellence, which he says was difficult initially. Being the union vice president, he had to explain to his subordinates and colleagues why he was leaving for a month and learn to be open with others about his struggles.

“I went up there for 30 days not knowing some of the issues that I was confronting, but I knew that I had to change something in my life,” Prado recalled.

His time in the Center changed him, however, and he counts it as one of the best experiences of his life.

“The best decision that I made, other than going up to Maryland for those 30 days, was the fact that I've been completely open about everything that I encountered in my career and in my life,” Chief Prado stated. “I did not ever imagine that so many people would count on me or share their issues with me. And the promising point of going to one of those places is to be able to share your knowledge and share your experiences with others and see them get the help that they need.”

The importance of dealing with mental health issues cannot be overstated, according to Prado, because it’s not only firefighters, police officers, and the military who deal with it. Our entire society is struggling.

“If we don't have those programs in place to help people, we're going to suffer from it,” Prado highlighted how critical programs like the Center of Excellence are.

What would you say to someone who is struggling to make that first step and get help?

“I was one of those people who was hesitant,” Chief Prado admitted. “I was hoping that there wasn't going to be anybody on the other side of that phone call.”

For Prado, there was. After he made the call to the Center of Excellence, he was able to get the help he needed. Prado reminds those who are struggling that they don’t need to go away for 30 or 60 days. If they have less severe symptoms, they can talk online with a therapist from the comfort of their home. The important thing is that they get help.

“It’s very simple,” Prado said. “You just have to eliminate the things that you do that cause you and your family pain.”

Looking down the road, what changes do you see coming to the fire service?

Chief Prado says the dynamic of what a department looks like is one of the significant changes coming to the fire service.

“Thirty-five years ago, our department was made up of mostly white males,” Chief Prado thought back to when he began with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue. “And now we have the greatest women that work for us that are unbelievable firefighters.”

Diversity goes beyond gender. Since firefighters spend so much time together, several factors are present now that weren’t before.

“We have different religions and other differences that we never even spoke about years ago. So today, it's very complex. And we have to make it available for everyone for all to be able to work together.”

Do you have a story you’d like to cap this article off with?

Twenty-five years ago, Prado went on a call where a child was involved in an explosion. At the time, he considered himself a “tough guy” but says this call touched his life like nothing he’d ever experienced.

Even though Prado kept in touch with the child over the years, the experience stuck with him and affected him in the long run.

One night, Prado was sitting at home on his couch watching TV, and the memory of the call hit him when the program he was watching portrayed events almost precisely how he experienced them.

“It came back to me, and I was a total mess,” Prado remembered like it was yesterday. “No matter how tough we think we are, we’re still human beings. We suffer from a lot of things that we don’t like to talk about.”

But Chief Prado is optimistic. Despite the difficulties that come with the profession, so much good also comes from it. The prize, in the end, is the chance to help others and change peoples’ lives.

“That’s worth everything I do,” Chief Prado says. “That’s why I came back.”