Milwaukee FD Latest in Reality Series

LINDA SPICE, Staff
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)

A man walking down N. 51st Blvd. looked into the Engine 24 station through the big open door and shouted to 2nd Battalion Chief Tom Jones, who was standing near his truck:

"Keep up the good work!"

Jones was chatting with a California producer who spent 12 days videotaping the work of the Milwaukee Fire Department for his Internet reality show, "The Battalion."

The producer, David Furtado, is not surprised by the public's gratitude. His own enthusiasm for the fire service brought him to Milwaukee - and other cities across the nation - for his 24/7 video shoots.

Milwaukee's department became the first in the Midwest to be featured on the series; the episode was posted Friday and can be viewed online. A new behind-the-scenes look at the Milwaukee firefighters will be posted every other Friday at 7 p.m. at www.thebattalion.tv.

It was through Lt. Erich Roden's efforts to launch an upcoming online trade publication, Urban Firefighter Magazine, that he first met Furtado through other contacts and learned of his plans to feature a Midwestern department. Roden pitched Milwaukee as a possibility and sought help from 1st Battalion Chief Paul Conway, who worked out the details and permission through Fire Chief Doug Holton. Roden is shown in the first "webisode."

Conway said he hoped Furtado's program "shows truly what the men and women of the Milwaukee Fire Department do every day. This is what the servants of the city are doing, and it puts them in a light where people understand or begin to understand that we're here for the greater good."

Furtado sleeps in the firehouses, eats with the firefighters and joins them on runs, shooting footage for each webisode that he later edits with staff back home.

He has profiled departments on the East and West coasts but has had requests from many more. He said Battalion TV gets about 250,000 unique visitors to its Web site per month and has had more than 10 million page views in the two years since it was launched.

Furtado, 58, began to develop the idea for his series about nine years ago. He worked with television production companies but eventually put his time and much of his own money into the Internet series.

"My goal is to open the minds and hearts of citizens across the nation to understand this job," Furtado said. "People see things every day. It's like a war zone."

Friday's episode featured Engine 5 firefighters on a medical call in which they saved a woman's life.

"The whole shoot, it was fabulous," Furtado said. "The department members embraced me and treated me as one of them from the time I arrived to the time I left."

He said he was dedicating the first show to Jones, the 2nd Battalion chief, who suffered a severe head injury in an ATV accident north of Crandon on Memorial Day. Jones, who will be featured in a later episode, was placed in a medically induced coma in a Wausau hospital.

To watch the series

Milwaukee became the first Midwestern fire department featured on the Internet television series "The Battalion" on Friday. That episode is available online.

New episodes will be posted every other Friday at 7 p.m. on www.thebattalion.tv.

Related