We had the pleasure of interviewing one of Seattle Fire’s Firefighters, Tori Rogel Schneider at Station #24 on February 11, 2012. In company was Tori’s husband, Firefighter/EMT and Fitness Coach, Kevin Schneider (of South Pierce Fire) and Firefighter/EMT Hunter Chumbley (of East Pierce Fire).
Growing up with a miltaristic father and three brothers on a farm in Enumclaw, Tori was the second oldest and with all boy neighbors learned fast and played hard. This would eventually help in her future fire fighting career. Little did she know.
It all began for the former stay-at-home Mom and semi-pro Soccer player having gone through a rough divorce leaving her with little kids in her care, that a wise friend who one day was running stairs with her suggested she look at firefighting as a career. Who could pass up the great hours, benefits and flexibility in schedule of a being a Firefighter?
Boom. The training began and survival mode kicked in. Tori would spend the next year-and-a-half training with a Football Coach doing endurance powerlifting that would eventually help her enter into Fire Recruit Class. Over the next three months, she rose through the ranks in her class impressing those who only gave her a small chance of making it through the Training only to prove them all wrong! The 5’4″ female Recruit showed them how it’s done by throwing a 26ft. ladder. Now, that’s impressive!
It hasn’t been all that easy for Firefighter Rogel Schneider. On Graduation Day, the most proud day in your career and having your family there was a sad day for her instead. Her father’s funeral was on this day and unable to attend. She then went to 18’s on Ladder 8 the following week. One of the funny stories she says happened when she first arrived when they saw how short she was. At 5’4″ is considered to be short, they challenged her to reach the baby ladder on top of the truck. They all said it wasn’t possible. With her own way of doing things, she completely proved them wrong! Again, awesome.
Inspiring to get through the survival mode, she credits her kids Payton (now) 11, Johnny 15, Angus 16 and Kate 19. Many other great things have occurred in her life such as being a former Figure Competitor, a great part of her life. More recently, marrying Kevin in August 2011 and their partnership as Distributors with Advocare (see their website www.firefightersdoadvocare.com) have made the future much brighter.
Tori is also involved with the BELEVE – Tree House Foundation, Crossfit with Mike Bergenner (ADVOCARE) and helping people with healthy eating, supplementation and coaching, as well as a Distributor with ADVOCARE. See them at www.firefightersdoadvocare.
(c) 2012 First Alarm Images & (c) 2012 The NW Fire Blog. No portion of this blog may be reproduced, transmitted or downloaded without the express written permission of the author. Permission is only given to the subject of this story for non-commercial purposes only.
NW Fire Blog 