Firehouse Food

After dinner we were sitting around talking about the amazing eating habits of some firefighters. One guy in particular seemed to create the most stories and examples of power eating. Since this guy is only about 175 pounds, it makes the quantities even more startling. One example given was an occasion when he opened a new jar of strawberry jam and ate the whole thing on his waffles. A quick check by the ever-observant fellow firefighters pegged the caloric intake at just over 3000 calories for the jam alone. Of course you could not have just waffles without a few glasses of milk and orange juice.

Ice cream is considered a staple a firehouse, much like salt or flour would be in some other kitchens. In this fellow's case, a half gallon is good for only about one serving. Just to make sure to infuriate the other firefighters, you have to leave about one spoonful wilting on the bottom of the container before returning it to the freezer. Ice cream is standard fair if you work a shift of overtime, have a birthday, get your picture in the paper, or about any other excuse your crew might make up.

Speaking of ice cream, a story is told of Keven, one of the senior firefighters, when told he had to go do a physical fitness test on a stationary bicycle, took a half gallon of ice cream to eat during the test. This legendary firefighter has an amazing story which I shall try to relate more at a later date. In one case he did a training video about rescuing large victims in which he played the victim. As the two other firefighters in full gear (likely about 260 lbs each) introduced the video segment, after about 3-4 minutes of intro, the camera pans back to show the two heavily laden firefighters had been sitting on Keven's shoulders throughout the intro presentation. Keven was simply standing there with 500+ lbs on his shoulders and a huge grin on his face. More about Keven later...