"I work in a business where I see line of duty death reports all the time. I'm like, I don't want you to die."

Nicole Prorock keeps the books for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the First Responder Center for Excellence. She is also a volunteer firefighter, EMT, and station officer with the New Market District Volunteer Fire Company in Frederick County, Maryland. The person who accounts for America's fallen firefighters spends her nights riding the ambulance, and she has one goal: fewer names to count.

Greg and Amy sit down with Nicole at the FRCE Mental Health and Wellness Symposium in Iowa to talk about the losses that hit closest to home, including suicides at her own fire station, and why you can never tell from the outside what someone is carrying on the inside. Nicole shares her path from CPA to firefighter, the brother she lost to leukemia at 21, and the promise she is keeping on her fiftieth birthday: racing the Ironman World Championships in Kona as a fundraiser in his memory.

She also explains the volunteer fire service most of the public never sees: the unpaid overnight crews, the fundraising for gear and apparatus, and what it takes to keep a suburban community covered when the career staff goes home at six.

And she says the most radical thing anyone has said on this show: that she wants FRCE's prevention work to put the Fallen Firefighters Foundation out of business.

SUPPORT NICOLE'S IRONMAN FUNDRAISER https://ironmanfoundation.donordrive.com/participants/4273

This episode is dedicated to Battalion Chief Joshua D. Laird, Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services, who died in the line of duty on August 11, 2021. "Just do the right thing."

This episode discusses suicide and mental health. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), or call the Fire/EMS Helpline at 1-888-731-3473. You are not alone.

LINKS National Fallen Firefighters Foundation: https://www.firehero.org First Responder Center for Excellence: https://firstrespondercenter.org Battalion Chief Joshua D. Laird memorial: https://www.firehero.org/fallen-firefighter/joshua-d-laird/

Unseen Exposures is presented by SPOKE, a documentary about occupational cancer in the fire service. Learn more at https://www.spokemovie.com

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