Oakland FD or "How To Not Run a City"

I grew up in Berkeley. I know most of the East Bay cities pretty well. OK, well at least Berkeley, Kensington, Alameda, Oakland, El Cerrito and Emeryville. Having said that I know that a lot of the hyp over the safety in Oakland is highly blown out of proportion. I'm sure peopel in the midwest think Oakland is this terrible place where anyone is liable to get shot or at the very least shot at. I've always thought Oakland to be a normal city that just happens to always get bad publicity. Although there is truth to the high risk of being a Law Enforcement officer in that city. The fire department however was somewhat of a mystery. I did my reasearch and found out that I had a few friends who worked in the department.

Turns out Oakland is pobably one of the most forward thinking department in the Bay Area when it comes to Minorites and community involvement. Honestly, it was a bit shocking. The more I learned about the department the more exited I became when the prospect of even turning in an application came closer.

Fast forward to two days before the application deadline of Saturday Dec. 1st 2007. It was a known fact that Oakland was only going to accept 1000 applications. My friends had been calling and texting me. Informing me that the line was rapidly growing. Oh, and by the way, they started texting me on Thursday morning. I ended up sleeping on the streets for 2 nights along with close to 4000 other applicants from all over the nation. Oakland Police circled Ogawa plaza all night blaring a message over their loudspeakers stating that this line was not official and not approved by the City of Oakland.Basically saying that we were S.O.L. I braved the 45 degree nights for what had to be the most unjust and disorganized hiring process of all time.

I really didn't get much sleep. My true friends hung out with me during the middle of the night. We played games, talked and just hung out. It was in the wee hours of Sat morning that things got rough. People who had been standing at the back of the "line" which was now more of a mass had begun to creep up to the front. Before we knew it all hell was about to break loose.

There were now hoards of people at all 5 entry gates into the plaza. No one really knew which was the official entrance so people just crowded. It was awful. What this whole ordeal turned into is what is probably the one event that has marred the reputation of the City of Oakland and the Fire Department. People were being randomly picked from the crowd. People, like myself, who had spent the nights on the street were up against the knuckle heads that just woke up and came down. I personally saw a guy roll up on his motorcycle get picked within 20 minutes and was done in less than 45 minutes. I on the other hand was one of the last to be picked; it was 3pm on Saturday.

The Realization or "How To Walk Into a Wall"

I had hard times for a few years, nothing went right. I can't say who or what started the snowball to avalanche to epic devastation. All I know is, I got through it. And I type here today reflecting on those few years as a learning experience. Every now and again we all have tough times, you might think. Yeah, every now and again. Mine happened to be a non stop barrage of events that left me on a proverbial ground. cold, beaten and lonely. It was a hole that I had to get out of. In the process of getting out of that hole and even learning to "walk" again after being beaten and held down, it was that I realized the path I was on was not one that I wanted anymore.

In this "healing" time I had much to reflect on, people I have met, things I have done and careers I have pursued; I wanted to be happy again. I thought searching in material things I could find happiness, but I realized that I had to be passionate about it. I thought of a lot of jobs that I have held that made me happy. Firefighting was something I had pursued.

I took it upon myself to do a number of station visits, get my EMT-1 cert and get back in shape. It just turns out that this year, 2008, is the year for getting into a fire career. And so it began.

Put The Fire Out

In 2001 I had pursued a fire career but for what I now realize were all the wrong reasons. SO here I am again. I have found myself at a point in my life where I can return to pursuing this career and this year is the year to do it.