Firefighter Adam Catica was one of thousands that helped combat and take down the various fires that occurred in January. Catica, stationed in North Hollywood’s Station No. 89, grew up surrounded by the firefighter life. Catica’s father and grandfather were firefighters, influencing him to pursue this career. He has had experience being an EMT and as a paramedic, making him very familiar in this field and able to serve his community.
The UT Community News had the opportunity to get to know more about him, his work as a firefighter, and learn insights on the L.A. fires that took place last month.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Where are you from and what was your upbringing like?
I live out in Rancho Cucamonga now, but I grew up out here in Highland Park and North Hollywood. I went to Marshall High. They had a bunch of youth programs; back then they called it the explorer program [and] now they call it the Cadet Program. You learn about the fire station, fire departments [and] station life since a lot of kids don’t know that you start at 6 o’clock in the morning, but you don’t go home until 6 o’clock in the morning [the next day].
What did you want to be growing up and was it always a firefighter?
It was, it was always a firefighter. Ever since I was a little kid and I went into high school, did all the youth programs, became an explorer, became a cadet, volunteered with the fire department. I did all the college stuff, college academies, college courses, and then I got hired about a decade ago.
What does a regular day as a firefighter look like for you and is every day the same?
No, every day is certainly not the same. We have especially here [in Station 89], we’re very busy with medical runs. Fires, structure fires, bush fires, wild land fires – we’re urban search and rescue here at this particular station. We prepare for earthquakes, natural disasters, floods [and] mudslides. We’re always drilling, which is another word for training, as well as doing all of our normal stuff that you would expect. We live here, we work together, and we’re always doing something. Training never stops. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I’m still learning something new every day.
What was your role, if any, in combating any of the recent wildfires?
I was here for most of them. I think my shift was working the first day, the big winds started to happen. We had a bunch of less, smaller, but significant incidents going around here up in Sun Valley. We were in Sylmar for a couple days, all those big commercial buildings up in Sun Valley. During that time, I was here for 10 days – it’s called a recall. There’s so much going on. If I’m over there [at the fire], well someone still has to come work here [at the station]. We still have a duty to the citizens, that’s part of the commitment we take.
Since you were on scene for the fires, what was going through your head?
We always shoot for an end. How we operate in that moment is when it dictates what we do in the future. Are we able to get around this thing? Are we able to accomplish something? The winds were not allowing for that. Mother nature will win. For situations like that with the winds, we can’t really train for that.
