FF JOHN “JJ” JOHNSON DURHAM CITY NC FIRE RESCUE

Today I had the pleasure of choppin’ it up with one of the biggest supporters of The Kitchen Table. Retired Durham City N.C. Fire Rescue FF, JOHN “JJ” JOHNSON. JJ was born and raised in Peekskill NY, where his father was one of the first five African American Police Officers hired in Peekskill in 1962-63. He then moved to Dutchess Co. NY and became a Volunteer Firefighter at 16 years old in 1980, with the New Hamburg FD. He was an original Dutchess co hazmat firefighter. Moved to California and attended a self funded fire academy in Costa Contract County. But right Before getting hired there he packed up and moved back east to North Carolina. He was hired by Bethesda Fire in Durham County NC in 2001. Left there to get on with the Cary Fire Department in 2001 and stayed there until 2011. Left the Fire service for 16 months to start his own training business called FULLY INVOLVED TRAINING LLC.     Gets back into the Fire service in 2013 and hired by Durham City NC  Fire Rescue, where he stayed until retirement in 2/2026. He still runs his training company in retirement. And you can find him in the links below. FF Johnson has made numerous rescues and unit citations in his over 40 year career,  between the volunteer and professional fire service. It was a great conversation with JJ and I am honored he sat with me. Thank you and the Best of luck in retirement Juice! #foryou #podcast #firetime #fire #fyp #firefighter #fireman #volley #volunteer #firerescue #durhamnc #durhamfirerescue #durhamfiredepartment #firedepartment #firestation #firestories #firetraining #thekitchentable59 #thekitchentable #firemanpodcast #foryoupage #mentalhealth #fullyinvolvedtrainingllc Chapters: 00:00 intro 02:30 catching up 04:40 early life 14:30 dutchess volley first fire 19:00 dutchess hazmat 22:10 cali contra costa 29:39 Bethesda FD  31:30 9/11 34:53 Cary FD  39:20 rough times in Cary 43:30 rescue 49:30 calls to people 53:00 fully involved training LLC 1:00:00 ev fires 1:05:06 Durham FD 1:12:00 Durham city fire rescue 1:17:15 units citations 1:22:30 miss driving the rig 1:28:00 tanker & quint 1:31:20 dealing with trauma, stress and ptsd 1:41:30 final advice 1:46:20 outro Links to Fully Involved Training LLC: https://www.facebook.com/share/1... https://www.facebook.com/share/1... Therapists links: https://www.thedopeblacktherapis...