As the Kitchen Turns

Firehouse kitchens are famous for hosting solutions to the world’s problems. A steaming Bunn coffee maker and with coffee cups in hand, Firefighters around the country discuss the difficult news of the day along with ways to resolve the issues. Sometimes the issues are department related, while other times, it’s U.S. and worldwide issues. One thing is common though, we always have a solution. Most of these topics never have a clear and obvious solution, but firefighters know how to make decisions. We are calculated and decisive. We are masters of organizing chaos and we are proficient at resolving dire situations.

It’s in the coffee. We stumble into the fire station, grab a cup joe and find a place to sit or stand. Activity picks up as the off-going shift is rolling out and the incoming-shift is getting their mind together. We sip on a cup  and off we go, deep into conversation of the do’s, the don’t’s, the why’s, and the what-if’s of the happenings during our time apart between last shift and today. Who’s kids didn’t sleep the night before? Who’s truck broke down the first day off? Who’s wife burnt supper earlier in the week. Maybe make a verbal jab at the rookie for not introducing the girl he was with at the bar the other night?

It literally happens around the world, firemen come together under a roof and as trained problem solvers we offer tips, opinions and jokes. Around the kitchen table, topic after topic is brought up throughout the shift and handled or solved one way or another. There is always a solution. Its part of being family and gaining trust with your brothers. That table talk is the closest we get with our brothers. Jokes roll, jabs are made, officers cringe at things they immediately try to forget, and a bond is built. After tough calls the coffee is there, the table  is willing to catch the tears and the exhaustion from grown men who have been beaten by the last run. If the kitchen walls could talk, they could write more than a book of stories. Shift after shift, month after month, year after year, firehouse kitchens around the globe are the center point of solving the problems of the world and all amongst a bunch of firefighters.