Welcome to this special mini episode of the Plan Strong podcast.

What I want to do right now is read to you all the opening chapter of my first book,

The Engine 2 Diet, that came out on February 25, 2009.

And I open up the book with one of the worst fires that I encountered in my 12 years as an

Austin firefighter. So here you go. It's just a couple minutes. The evening of January 5, 2000 was bitterly cold. A night no one in the Austin Fire Department will soon forget.

At the time I was working at Central Station, the city's

largest. Central was called the Animal House because we firefighters were

notorious for our bizarre antics from launching water balloons at passer-byers,

from the second-story rooftop, to breaking rookies down until they burst into tears.

There were no boundaries and no barriers. The weather was bad

when we went to bed in the firehouse dorm that night, but by early morning it was worse.

A freezing rain was falling and temperatures were heading towards record lows. Then at 4.20 a.m. A heavy box alarm Sounded.

The word Box refers to a home.

A regular Box alarm signals that a single family house is on fire.

But when a heavy box alarm sounds, it means a fire at a larger building such as an apartment

complex.

Just as at the start of an athletic competition, all my senses went into overdrive. My heart rate jumped, my stomach churned, my mind raced.

Normally I'd leap right out of bed, jump into my bunker pants and pull up my suspenders,

but because I was going to be driving this shift,

I had only enough time to stumble into my station pants and cotton shirt before sliding

down the 18- foot brass fire pole. I was preparing for the worst.

The real burners generally occur between midnight and 6 a.m.

...