VIDEO: When you picture a poet, a firefighter might not be the first person you think of. Even if you did, Gary Wedemeyer probably wouldn't be the first firefighter coming to mind.
"If you put me in a lineup with a bunch of firefighters and said pick the one who's writing poetry, I'd probably be the last one they'd pick," Wedemeyer said with a smile. He's been a firefighter for 37 years and works as a captain at Fresno Fire's Station 6 in northeast Fresno.
He got the idea to write poetry after reading a book of poems written by an American soldier in Iraq and thought it might be healthy for him to do the same.
He says he's written seven or eight poems to this point, all based on experiences he's had in the field. Some rhyme and some don't, but all are a somber, sobering look at what first responders see.