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Workouts are required for firefighter's demanding job


Chris Butler/Idaho Statesman

Boise firefighter Glenn Hargan keeps in shape by working out in a station fitness center on South Five Mile Road in Boise. Working out, however, is only part of the fitness picture for Hargan. He feeds his body carefully but says he doesn't diet. His food choices are part of his lifestyle. He can easily go without sweets; he loves vegetables, raw and without dressing, and drinks lots of milk.

Want to be a firefighter?

The Boise Fire Department requires job candidates to perform a sequence of eight events that mimic the demands of the job. Candidates must perform one test after another in succession. The test is pass/fail, but candidates have to finish all eight elements in 10 minutes and 20 seconds.

Candidates must pass this test, along with a written exam and interview, in order to be considered for hiring. Once hired, firefighters undergo more testing during a year of probation. Elements of the initial physical-fitness test are:

• Climbing stairs. Get on a stair-stepper cardio machine with 75 pounds on your back. Climb 60 steps a minute, and remember, don’t touch the machine handles. Take off 25 pounds of weight and climb 3 more minutes at 60 steps a minute.

• Other elements, designed to simulate the real work of firefighters, include dragging a hose, carrying equipment, raising and extending a ladder, entering a building by force, searching for victims, rescuing victims and breaking open a ceiling.

What does Hargan eat?

A healthy diet comes naturally to Glenn Hargan, the Boise firefighter says. Hargan is single and cooks for himself when he’s not at work. Here’ s what he eats and what he doesn’t:

• Virtually no sugar or caffeine. As a child, his parents didn’t allow him either because they believed it made him more hyperactive. The habit stuck. He doesn’t have a sweet tooth.

• No junk food. Doesn’t “junk” say it all?

• Lots of lean red meat, complex carbohydrates, whole foods and dairy foods. Fresh vegetables, fruits and whole-grain foods are examples of complex carbohydrates. Whole foods are unprocessed or nearly unprocessed foods. One example: skinless chicken breast instead of chicken nuggets.

• Skip the salad dressing. Hargan likes the natural flavors of vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots, salad fixings, avocados, celery, cucumbers and more.

Hargan's favorite meal?

• Barbecued backstrap steaks from a white-tail deer

• Roasted red potatoes

• Broccoli salad with the broccoli raw

By Colleen LaMay

When Glenn Hargan was in kindergarten, he went on a class field trip to a fire department. The visit made a lasting impression. Now, at 27, Hargan is living every boy’s dream of being a firefighter.

But the Boise Fire Department is not for everyone.

After classroom training and a written test, applicants must be able to pull a hose, raise a ladder, carry saws and tote dummy fire victims to safety. The firefighters are required to work out for an hour every work day. Fire Station No. 14 has a gym, as does every fire station, some better-equipped than others.

The job fits Hargan. He was a hyperactive kid, and he still likes to keep moving. His job as hoseman requires him to be ready to drag a fire hose full of water into a burning structure. The way he sees it, firefighters owe it to the public and to one another to be in good physical shape. “It would be a disservice to Roy if I wasn’t fit enough or strong enough to help him out when he needed it.”

Roy is Roy Mitchell, a colleague working out to a DVD of intense abdominal exercises on the station’s TV while Hargan is interviewed. The station, one of Boise’s busiest, is between calls.

On his days off, Hargan sometimes pushes his body beyond his workouts on the job. “I lift harder, and I push my body to an extreme,” Hargan said.

If he were on the job, his body might be too spent to do the job he expects of himself.

He also doesn’t watch television. The unmarried Hargan didn’t even own a TV until his brother moved in with one. Now, he watches a movie occasionally but can’t sit still for long.

“I just stay constantly busy, whether I’m working on building a patio outside or helping my brother do something, or hunting or fishing or backpacking,” he said.

Firefighters work 48 hours straight and then have four days off. Sometimes, the 48 hours are a constant stream of calls — many of them to people’s homes for illness, drug overdoses and the like. Hargan is a paramedic as well as a firefighter.

The climate during a recent morning was relaxed. Dispatchers periodically called out firefighters from other stations — a car accident here, an ill person there.

“We don’t know where we’ll be five minutes from now, three minutes from now,” Hargan said.

He is part of a team of firefighters working to gauge the physical fitness of all Boise firefighters.

The goals include educating them about getting strong and urging them to get annual checkups, all aimed at being ready to save victims in a burning home.

“I love this job,” a smiling Hargan says.