- Hi, I'm Maria Diaz and I'm a Hoboken Fire Captain,
and this is how I work it.
I'm gonna take you through 24 hours
of my beauty and wellness routine.
I was actually the first Latina hired
in Hudson County, New Jersey.
I've been a firefighter for almost 20 years.
I was promoted in 2011,
so that's about nine and a half,
almost 10 years as a fire captain.
As a captain, you have a house that you supervise
with a bunch of different firefighters,
and you lead them into a fire,
and you let them know what they have to do
when we arrive on the scene.
Good morning, it's about 6:00 AM,
and I'm about to get my day started.
It's 6:30 AM right now,
I just finished my stretching
and a little bit of meditation, so.
It's shower time,
I am washing my hair, conditioning, combing it in here,
and then I apply...
Some leave-in, Ouidad,
it's a great product for curls,
it keeps them from being frizzy.
On the days that I'm on shift
my beauty routine is pretty simple.
We just try not to wear anything that's flammable,
we don't wear perfume, we don't wear heavy lotions.
My beauty routine is just a little bit of lipstick
and a little bit of oil-free moisturizer.
Today's hairstyle is brought to you by Pinterest.
I just don't have time to do my hair in the morning
when I'm on shift, but it has to be tied back.
Flyaways.
Almost out the door, headed to work.
Today's outfit is brought to you by HFD,
it's definitely not glamorous or sexy,
but it is practical.
I'm about to add some Mario Badescu... Facial spray.
And this is the outfit pretty much.
Here's my shirt,
my pants are brought to you by 511 and my boots.
My hours I work are... 24 hours on
and... 72 hours off.
I work two 24-hour tours a week.
I works for the city of Hoboken which is a very small town,
it's probably about one square mile,
but the population is over 50,000.
Very charming but also very busy.
We average about 3,000 calls a year.
On an everyday basis, we respond to 10 to 15 calls,
the calls vary from gas leaks to motor vehicle accidents,
people get stuck in elevators,
[siren wailing]
emergency medical calls,
lost pets,
[siren wailing]
lockouts, injured parties, construction sites
where someone's gotten injured,
[siren wailing]
breaching calls, breaking and breaching.
we've responded to mental illness calls,
we've responded to suicide calls,
suspicious packages, a lot of suspicious packages.
[horn honking]
and obviously, we respond to any working fires.
It takes a lot of courage,
and I risk my life every single day
that I go into the firehouse.
And... There it is!
Between 7:00 and 7:45,
all the guys start showing up to the firehouse.
- Good morning, good morning.
- [Maria] And that is Firefighter Perez.
- Morning.
- They start getting debriefed from the group before.
- Good morning Peggy, how are you?
- And about 8:00 AM is when the tones go off,
the tones is kind of the beginning of our shift,
after the tones go off, we check all of our equipment,
so that means checking our SCOTT-Paks.
This is what provides oxygen when we're like in a fire.
This is one of the reasons why we don't put any type of oils
or a lot of lotion on our face because this has a seal
that has to be able to kind of suction to your face.
[air whooshing]
Okay, it's working.
[air whooshing]
Making sure the tools are in the rigs,
[saw revs]
making sure that our batteries are charged
for all of the equipment that we have.
For a gas meter, this is a regulate Sensit meter,
and this is my TIC camera
which the officer carries to know when something is hot,
it turns white.
And then after breakfast is housework,
our firehouse, they have to be cleaned out,
they have to be sanitized.
This is part of our quarters, we're about to clean up.
And then it's usually back to training from one to 3:00 PM.
At about 4:00 PM, I usually get a workout in,
I love working out in a firehouse.
I love working out with my coworkers
because they really do push me,
they make sure that I don't underestimate myself.
We have this comradery I think,
because we have to trust each other.
This is a job where our life depends on each other.
What is the number one killer of firefighter, guys?
- Heart attack.
- Heart attack is the number one killer of firefighters,
only because this job is very physically demanding
and you go from like zero to 60 really fast
on any given call.
Another thing is a high rate of cancer,
we are usually in an environment
where there's a lot of toxic fumes
and our firetrucks, they get diesel fuel, so,
the firetrucks are pretty much in our living space.
The fumes are kind of all over the place,
although the department in city
tried to... Keep it under control with some exhaust,
it's still lingering in the air.
One of the questions that I get asked often is,
"What is it like working with men?"
It definitely is a little different,
there is a lot of firehouse humor, some dark humor,
obviously because of some of the things
that we see on the job.
There's a lot of pranks going around--
going on in a firehouse, plenty of sports talk,
but for the most part, we are kind of like a family,
I spend more time with the firefighters
than I do with my family sometimes.
After my workout, it's dinner time.
So we just finished shopping for lunch and dinner.
So all of it is pretty great,
and then, boom! That's what happens in the firehouse.
[Maria laughs]
This is why people have a hard time losing weight sometimes.
- That's what I'm talking about.
[Maria laughs]
[firefighters chattering]
- My career is very physical,
and we do try to stay healthy as much as we can,
but the issue is that we have residents
and people from the town who are always dropping off
cookies and cupcakes,
there's always all kinds of temptations in a firehouse.
After dinner time,
then it's usually responding to different calls.
[siren wailing]
Throughout the entire day actually,
from eight o'clock in the morning,
we'll respond on calls.
[siren wailing]
There are times where I'm responding to a call as an officer
and literally somebody will be standing
like right in front of me,
and they'll kind of look over my head to speak
to one of the other firefighters,
and it's pretty funny because my coworkers,
the guys know, so they'll be like, no, she's... You know,
she's the officer.
But then I have moments that are wonderful,
I have times when I'm in a firetruck,
we're going on a call and these little kids are looking
at me or little girls and they're like,
their eyes just open up really wide,
and they're like, oh my God, is that a girl on a firetruck?
And that's a really great feeling,
they can physically see that you can do this job.
The most rewarding part of my job
is being able to help the public,
to be there for them when they're having
probably one of their worst moments
or one of their... Scariest moments
and for us to be able to solve it for them
and to see the relief on their faces
is probably the most rewarding part of my job.
And then my nightly routine at a firehouse is basically
just maybe showering,
we might sleep if we get a chance, we call them safety naps,
because we know that it's not really restful sleep
until we get a call in the middle of the night.
After working a 24 hour shift,
I usually go home and it's time to kind of decompress
and get out of that fight or flight feeling
that we have while we're in a firehouse.
The day after the firehouse,
I usually try not to schedule anything for myself.
I will go home,
I'll try to sleep at least two or three hours,
and then I will wake up and get my day started.
So my routine in the firehouse is very different
from my routine at home.
Moisturizing in the morning,
Trader Joe's oil-free facial moisturizer.
So, I apply some rough,
then I use Jergens lotion that keeps my skin
from being ashy.
My day usually is either having some coffee,
I make sure that I'm going to go work out,
I do have a second job where I groom dogs, I love it!
I have such a high stress job that when I'm grooming a dog,
it calms me down and they make me very happy.
I am grooming today, I have two appointments.
This is my setup for grooming,
and some of my grooming supplies.
There is Teddy, who I am about to groom!
I'm hoping to maybe launch my own business next year.
It's super important for me to be able to take care
of myself mentally and physically.
I carry equipment that's very heavy,
an extra 65 to 75 pounds of gear,
and we have to go up the stairs,
whether it's walk 5, 6, 7 flights sometimes,
with all of this heavy equipment,
I try to make sure that my endurance is good.
I've also ran a few 5k's,
I love running because it totally clears my mind.
I had like this terrible knee pain
that I just couldn't get rid of,
a friend of mine suggested acupuncture,
and it's probably one of the best things that I've done it.
So this is Nurturing Life Acupuncture,
this is one of the things that I do for self-care,
I get weekly acupuncture.
This is Bill and Lauren,
my acupuncturists, they are really great,
I love the sessions here
and I'm about to get some self-care.
My knee pain after a few sessions,
pretty much went away and it helps with my anxiety
and anything else that is going on with me mentally
or physically.
After that, it's usually making dinner
or going out to dinner with my friends
or my 26 year old son, who is an amazing kid.
I do have a career that is non-traditional
and it's dangerous at times,
so there are moments where I worry
and I just want to make sure that I get home safe for him.
Because I'm in a firehouse with men all of the time,
I try to make time to spend with my girlfriends,
which I love!
It's one of my favorite things,
I get to talk about makeup,
I get to talk about boys,
I get to talk about all different things,
for that... I really love getting dressed up,
when I do get the opportunity to get dressed up,
it feels amazing!
If I am going to meet my girlfriends that day,
I will put on a little bit more makeup than I usually do,
I'm pretty simple when it comes to makeup,
here's a Fenty primer,
some concealer by Youngblood,
I just try to cover that up,
blend that in
I have Neutrogena press powder,
I go for some blush,
you have Covergirl soft mink.
Then I curl my lashes,
I use the natural clear mascara by Covergirl,
My favorite lip liner is NYX,
I have a bunch of different products from them,
then I add my lipstick,
L'Oreal cinnamon toast,
one of my favorite colors, because it's pretty neutral,
but it brightens up my face just a bit.
I check that and that is pretty much my makeup routine.
Since I'm a shift worker and I work 24 hours a day,
two days a week,
sometimes it's really difficult to kind of fall asleep
because I'm always in that kind of fight or flight,
I was getting insomnia,
for that I have learned to do quite a few things for myself,
I've done meditation right before bed,
I also turn... My TV off,
I make sure I'm not on a phone before I go to bed,
I'm very big on essential oils.
These are some diffusers I used,
This is Amico and it was recommended by my acupuncturist,
It's lavender,
there's cedar wood, I have eucalyptus, just various,
and some candles also.
I try to go to bed at the same time when I'm not on shift,
which is about between 10 and 11:00 PM,
and I just kind of try to keep a ritual.
It is 10:30 PM and my day is winding down,
a couple of things I do for my nightly routine
is wash my face, moisturize and then SkinMedica is a product
that my esthetician recommended,
it's called retinol complex, look it's .25 milligrams,
so I add that to my face and that is how I work it,
and that is my routine for the evening,
thank you for coming on this journey with me and peace out.