Los Angeles Fire Department’s Olin Jones Jr. was recently named Paramedic/Firefighter of the Year by Dignity Health, a nonprofit health care organization with more than 40 hospitals and 500 care centers, according to its website.
Jones, a Chickasaw citizen, said the criteria for his selection was based on the number of people he and his crew saved over the course of the year.
“It was data driven,” Jones said. “I think it’s from the interventions I did with our patients and the amount of ‘saves’ we had.”
This number included some who were thought to have expired but the team revived.
“We delivered them to the hospital, and they were alive. Luckily, I was the lead medic on a lot of those calls,” Jones said.
His initial impulse to get into the lifesaving business came quite literally by accident — in fact, a car accident.
“When I was a kid, I was your standard 16-year-old boy. I rolled my car. I wasn’t hurt, but paramedics pulled me out, cleaned me up and took me to the hospital. These guys sat down and talked to me. They were so cool, and they affected me in a way that changed my life,” he said.
A second motivation came Sept. 11, 2001. As a shocked nation watched televised images of hijacked passenger planes destroying the Twin Towers in New York City and firefighters scrambling to save their occupants, Jones knew he had a decision to make.
“I wanted to be a part of it. I sat down and asked myself if I was going to join the military or serve here in the states. I thought, I’m going to be a firefighter.”
Jones admits he was something less than a stellar student growing up. That changed when he entered firefighting school.
“No pun intended, but I smoked the fire academy,” he laughed. “All of the instructors were talking to me about applying for their fire departments. I was getting recruited while still in the academy. I thought, this is it. I found my calling!”
His first job was at a small fire station north of Los Angeles. Soon he yearned for a bigger venue with more day-to-day action.
He began working in Los Angeles when he was 26, and the uptick in action was a thrill. Jones said an even bigger thrill was the ability to help people.
“It is kind of a selfish thing, because it makes me feel good. It starts with you wanting to help people, which I really do. The feeling you get when you help people becomes an addiction and you want to help, do and give more and more. It’s a feeling that never gets old.” That said, there is a certain cumulative reality that sets in, particularly after responding to a series of tragic incidents.
“Every first responder has a little PTSS (post-traumatic stress syndrome) and has been exposed to something people should never see,” Jones said.
He likens it metaphorically to carrying a backpack that gets heavier with each incident.
“On every call you put a pebble in your backpack and every call represents another pebble,” he said. “Some of them are bigger than others. Some of them are big rocks. Eventually that backpack is going to break because it can only hold so much.”
The department has a psychologist on call, but Jones says the best therapy comes from his work family.
“We declare ourselves unavailable to take calls, grab a cup of coffee and sit around the kitchen table to talk. Your guys, they know you. You live with them. My crew knows me. They know how I make my coffee. They know how I like my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We know everything about each other and would die for each other.
“We run into burning buildings to save each other if we get stuck or something happens. They are truly my brothers.”
Jones said his faith also plays a huge role.
“I’m a Christian and pray a lot, and Jesus helps me. He is the foundation of our family.”
Jones and his wife Melissa make their home in Tulare, California. They have two sons, Brady and Casey.
Jones traces his Chickasaw heritage to his father and grandfather.