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Your Neighbors

Fighting fires in more than just the community

3/6/2024

Aaron Johnson and his father, Andy Johnson, at his drill school graduation.

Being a firefighter is considered a dream job to many children. Firefighters have many duties during their time of service. They act as paramedics and emergency drivers, and, most importantly, they perform fire prevention. Local firefighter Aaron Johnson detailed his journey to service and some of the overlooked aspects of firefighting.

After being born in Des Moines, Johnson moved to Iowa City at a young age. After graduating from high school, he made the trip back to Iowa’s capital to attend Drake University. Johnson played on the offensive line for the football team and graduated with a degree in law, politics and society while minoring in rhetoric, philosophy and business separately. 

Three years ago, after working several jobs, Johnson was accepted into a drill school and training program to become a firefighter. Why go into firefighting?

“One of the guys I played football with got hired,” Johnson said. “I used to work at O’Donnell’s Ace Hardware up in Beaverdale. I worked there on the weekends and, you know, a few other guys (firefighters) would come in. One of the guys in particular, Ahman Douglas, was always just real positive. He said, ‘Hey, man, you should be a firefighter.’ I thought, OK, I’ll think about it. And, you know, I wish I had done it a lot sooner.”

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Being a firefighter is no easy task, regardless of the station or city. Johnson works at Fire Station One, located at 1330 Mulberry St. in Des Moines, serving the main downtown area. In 2023, the fire department received a 10% increase in fire-related calls with Fire Station One being the busiest.

“I just got moved to Station One at the beginning of the year,” Johnson said. “My first shift, we had 19 runs on the engine and 23 on the Medic Unit. With the Medic Unit, that’s a call every hour, basically. I think I slept 45 minutes that night.”

Despite the challenging work and hectic schedule, Johnson loves his job.

“Being able to spend time helping people in the community makes the day go by fast, even when the days are long,” said Johnson.

While being known for trucks that fly around town with sirens blasting on their way to a call, sometimes people come right up to the station doors looking for help.

“You get everything from people asking for directions, stopping in to drop off food. We’ve cut rings off of people that have got a ring that stuck, or we’ve had a few people show up not breathing. It’s like, OK, well, here we go,” Johnson said.

The uniqueness of the job and the moments that happen as a result don’t always stick out in his mind, but his ability to bring peace of mind to those he is helping does.

“Usually, they stick in your head because you got to do something really cool, like save somebody’s life, or you did something really fun together,” he said. “There’s a lot of the crew dynamic that people don’t realize goes into it. If you’re on an EMS call and someone’s having a heart attack, if you can bring them that kind of sense of calm through your demeanor, where you go and say, ‘Hey, I know what I’m doing. We’re going to take care of you, and we’re going to have a good time doing it.’ I think that really kind of puts people at ease, which is helpful.”

He added that one of the most important aspects of being a firefighter is the ability to stay calm in crucial moments, not only for who they are helping but to help themselves make better decisions. 

Johnson works 24 hours on, 48 hours off, meaning he spends every third day, or 120 total days a year, with others at the station. For reference, in a normal 9-5, Monday through Friday work schedule, an employee would spend roughly 86 days with coworkers. Being able to balance that schedule and time with family is important.

“You just do what makes you happy,” he said. “You’ve got to take time for yourself, you’ve got to take time for your family because, otherwise, it would be pretty easy to get burned out. You’ve got to love the job and love the work and then you’ve got to love the time off and figure out productive and meaningful things to do with that time off.” 

Johnson doesn’t have many plans for rising up the totem pole at the moment. He enjoys every aspect of being a firefighter equally and wants to continue honing his craft in all aspects of the job before he considers moving up. 

“I love being a firefighter,” he said. “One day, I’m on the medic unit. One day, I’m driving the engine. One day, I’m riding backwards on the truck. The farther you climb up, the more you get put in one position. That’s very rewarding for some people, but, right now, I like the variety.” 

As of late, Johnson is heavily involved in the fire department union and their recent push for additional cancer coverage. 

“The city provides us really good health insurance that will cover those cancers,” he said. “The deal with cancer coverage is that some cancers are defined as a presumptive disability through our pension system. Firefighters are at a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer than the general population. The thing about it is when this law was created for our pension system to cover some cancers, but not all cancers, there wasn’t the statistical information to pick and choose why one is covered and one isn’t. So our push to the State House is just to say, hey, cancer means cancer, cancer doesn’t mean XYZ. When I say I’ve got cancer, the pension system should step up and help us out.”

Under the current system, depending on the type of cancer firefighters are diagnosed with, they would still need their shifts covered. Phillip “Mike” Broderick recently passed away after his battle with liver cancer.

“He had a form of cancer that wasn’t covered,” Johnson said. “So when he got diagnosed, what that meant was, we covered his shifts because we didn’t want him to have to take his sick leave because eventually he’d run out and eventually he’d get terminated.”

Johnson added that the city did work with them to change Broderick’s shifts to be eight hours instead of 24 so they were more easily covered by firefighters who volunteered to take over those shifts.

“We’re all one big team, and just trying to get through and take care of each other is something to make sure we strive for,” Johnson said. ♦

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