9 minute read
ERIC CAMPBELL A LEADER ON FIRE
A LEADER ON FIRE
By Martha Chapman
F ROM FI R E BU G
TO FI R E FI G H T E R
Ask Eric Campbell about his childhood and he’ll tell you a story of such sadness and brutality it might bring tears
to your eyes. Yet today Campbell is a successful firefighter/ EMT in Montgomery County, Md., a former coach to Olympic athletes, and Instagram fitness guru with over 45,000 followers.
HIS IS A REMARKABLE LIFE.
“I was born in Miami 1973 and never saw my parents in the same room until my college graduation. My father left my mother when she was pregnant with me – I’m an only child – and my mother had a boyfriend who was a drug user, maybe dealer. He was very abusive to us and that’s what I lived with, on a daily basis.”
Not knowing how to deal with his anger, when he was eight or so, Campbell began to find solace in
starting fires. It started quite innocently, he recalls, with leaves and paper bags. “And the urge grew and grew. The more my mom was beaten on, and the more abuse I saw, the stronger the urge became.
“I SET A FIRE IN MY CLOSET. THEN I SET A PILE OF TRASH ALIGHT BESIDE OUR NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE, NEVER THINKING IT COULD HURT ANYONE.
"At one point, my mom tried to escape with me to Atlanta, but the boyfriend followed her. One time they had a huge fight and the next morning her face was not recognizable. That day I went to school crying and had to sit with the principal and counselors and eventually got brave enough to tell them what happened. The police came to our home and when they left both my mom and her boyfriend beat me for letting the authorities know what was going on.” That made him an even angrier child, he recalls, and one day he went back to the school after classes were over and threw a rock to break a window and set the schoolroom on fire. Officials figured out who was responsible but knowing about the abuse at home, decided that instead of punishing him he should move back to Miami to be with his dad.
“And that’s when my life changed. It pulled me out of that environment. It’s not an exaggeration to say it saved my life.”
Campbell describes his father as a Vietnam veteran who was very strict, and the move back to Miami as “the best thing that could have happened to me. I stopped wanting to burn things down because of the pain, and stopped wanting to be the bad kid skipping school. I never lit another match.”
Not only did Campbell successfully settle into his new life and new school, but he also discovered sports. Part of his motivation to succeed was thinking of his mother, wanting to make her proud and forget some of what he calls his “knucklehead behaviour”. Within a few years he was a top track and field athlete at the high school level, winning the national championship trophy for triple jump. Several universities wanted to recruit him, and Campbell accepted a full scholarship at the University of Miami, spending four years there before transferring to California Baptist University where he graduated with a degree in kinesiology.
I NEVER LIT ANOTHER MATCH
After graduation, the University of Miami immediately hired Campbell as a track and field coach, and during his seven years there, he coached some remarkable athletes including football players such as Ed Reid, Santana Moss, Vince Wilfork and Sean Taylor.
All the while, he dreamed of being – of
all things – a firefighter. After moving in with his father, he realized that he no longer needed to set fires because he was angry, and actually felt he was built for firefighting. Campbell laughs: “How many professions are there where you get to express so many facets of your personality in a single day? I get to break things, help people, think critically, and jump out of windows!”
Because he was nearly 40, Campbell assumed he was too old for the job and turned to the next best thing to mesh with his personal pledge to serve people: nursing. Having moved to the Washington D.C. area, he’d started the nursing training enrollment process when firefighting came up in a conversation with a friend. That friend encouraged him to give it a go. And that’s when Campbell’s life really changed.
He enrolled in an EMT program at Georgetown University, thinking that he should have that training before applying for a firefighter position. As luck would have it, Campbell’s lead instructor at Georgetown was a firefighter captain in Montgomery, Md., about 30 minutes outside Washington, and that captain encouraged him to apply. Within a year Campbell was in
the service.
HE WAS 43.
What does he love most about firefighting? “Pure and simple: the opportunity to serve my community. It’s about helping and protecting others and I’m willing to risk my life to do it.”
Campbell’s mother died of a heart attack in 2003, and he says that was a factor in motivating him to live a life of service to keep her legacy alive. He’d always wanted her to be proud of him. “I remember how much pain I was in as a child, setting fires – and here I am, fighting fires. It closes the circle, and I find that pretty poetic.”
When it comes to the cliché of the firefighter calendar boys and girls, Campbell says even he had something to learn. Like a lot of people outside the service, he thought everyone would have a chiselled physique and be in top form. “But it was the complete opposite. One of the reasons I train now is because I realized the culture was not the hunky guys and gals, but a lot of people who do a very difficult job and don’t have a lot of time. They’re dealing with sleep deprivation, and poor diet. They don’t want to be unfit, but they find it hard to take care of themselves. And their health suffers as a result.” You can’t, as he puts it, be fit enough for a job that can kill you.
Campbell works shifts – four each week from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesdays and weekends off. He may no longer be coaching athletes, but he has, as he puts it, brought an athletic mentality to firefighting. And so rather than helping college and Olympic athletes reach their goals, Campbell coaches colleagues right at his own fire station as well as aspiring firefighters at a local fire academy.
Campbell trains every day, though as he approaches 50 he says he’s changed his routine from super-heavy lifting to more functional firefighter fitness workouts including the “Big 8”. Designed to improve fireground task ability, reduce injuries, increase resilience and improve recovery, they comprise: push, pull, carry, lift, drag, core, capacity and flexibility.
As well as working out, Campbell says that these days he focuses on swimming 1,000 meters a week. He works on his box breathing (see sidebar) and takes 10 minute ice baths three times a week. And at the other end of the thermostat, he visits a sauna once or twice a week.
Campbell also helps his fellow firefighters every shift by doing a 20 to 30 minute workout with them, incorporating Peleton bikes or cardio. “We’re lucky because Montgomery County Fire and Rescue do a tremendous job of ensuring we have all the resources. When they see my videos, most people think we’re in a gym!”
WHAT IS BOX BREATHING?
Recommended to help with anxiety, stress and even depression, box breathing can be done by almost anyone, anywhere. Eric Campbell says it can be hugely helpful to firefighters during incidents, as it gives them the ability to control their breathing, not only helping maximize air use but also calming them down. “Obviously I can’t do it all the time during an incident but when I find myself panting I try to control my breathing.”
HERE ARE THE BASICS:
1 2 3 4
Inhale through your nose for a slow count of four.
Hold for a slow count of four.
Exhale through your mouth for a slow count to four.
Hold for a slow count of four and inhale again.
When it comes to food, Campbell is mindful but not fanatical. “I don’t follow any fancy diet…I just try to stay wholesome. I stay away from sugars, processed food, and coffee. My plate is always two thirds fruit or veg.”
He acknowledges that shift work can be detrimental to anyone’s fitness regime. But he also points out that it’s a mindset, that you have to, as he says, make a decision and a commitment to yourself to set aside the time you need. Coming in an hour before your shift, or staying after you get off is one way to manage your routine. He suggests that not going to that game or out to the bar but instead, doing a workout can pay big dividends over time. Maybe you could find the time to meditate or even get therapy.
Campbell himself saw a firefighter therapist a couple of years ago. He had a sense of unhappiness and was smart enough to know something was wrong emotionally. “Sometimes
it’s good to have someone to bounce things off.”
When asked if he could change one thing about the firefighter culture, Campbell takes a moment to reflect. “I’d always heard about this ‘firefighter brotherhood’ and when I became one, I didn’t get that. I got ‘every man for himself’.
I WOULD LOVE TO SEE US SUPPORT EACH OTHER MORE AND BECOME MORE TEAM-MINDED.
The system is broken in that it is not putting enough emphasis on self-care. And not enough firefighters have the means or resources or education to retire healthy and productive.”
Not surprisingly for such a thoughtful guy, when asked where he’d like to be in 10 years, Campbell takes a moment. He reflects on how he was struck, on first joining the service, by how much rank mattered.
