Jesse Correira is a busy man, working full time as a firefighter while owning his own plumbing business.
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How do you possibly juggle owning your own plumbing company and working full-time as a firefighter? Well, Jessie Correira (@theplumbingjake), owner of Correira Plumbing, Taunton, Mass., has been a licensed plumber in Southeastern Massachusetts for 20 years with a focus on residential plumbing and heating. Prior to his work as a plumber, he had multiple jobs across a few different trades, such as a repair tech at an electrical motor repair company while in high school, an electrician’s apprentice, and as a manager at my family’s hardware store. Additionally, he has worked across multiple municipal and private ambulance companies as an EMT since 2000 and as a professional firefighter since 2002. Jesse Correira’s commitment to his dual careers exemplifies the dedication and hard work found in the trades.
Firefighting
Becoming a firefighter was something that got Jessie’s attention when he was a teenager living in South Florida working in an electric motor shop after school. “One of the other guys I worked was in his mid-20s told me he was going to go down to the local fire academy at the end of the week to sign up for the local fire academy (Broward Fire Academy). He told me that it takes years just to get a test date and to get accepted so if I had any interest, I should go down and sign up with him and get the ball rolling. So, I did,” recalls Correira.
Fast forward a few years, “I’m 19 and get a letter from the Broward Fire Academy telling me I’m eligible for the class starting in three months,” says Correira. “I spend the next few months getting myself in good shape and crush the physically abilities test, start the full-time, three-month program, and eventually test out with the state for a Firefighter Eligibility Card for the state of Florida. That turned out to be the easy part. It’s very competitive for full time firefighter jobs in Florida and I wasn’t getting much traction so I sent back to Massachusetts.”
Upon his return to Massachusetts, he took the Massachusetts Civil Service Firefighter Exam and placed near the top of the list for a job. “I worked days at my father’s hardware store during the week and went to EMT school at night and eventually started working for a private ambulance company in Boston part-time on the weekends.”
A few months later, Correira started his plumbing apprenticeship at his father’s plumbing company while waiting for a spot on the city’s fire department. It took a little more than two years until he got a full-time position at the Taunton Fire Department. “We have five fire stations and 120 full-time employees. I have been there 23 years now. I work two, 24-hour shifts on a rotating eight-day schedule (24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on, 5 days off),” says Correira.
The Plumbing Start
In the summer of 1999, after having graduated the Broward County Fire Academy and returning to Massachusetts, one of Correira’s family’s rental properties was destroyed in a fire. Correira’s father, who had recently started a new local plumbing company with a partner—Anytime Plumbing & Heating—had asked him to work with them on the plumbing and heating systems for the building during the reconstruction.
“At this point in time, I was working weekend shifts at a local ambulance company while waiting to get hired on my city’s fire department so I spent the next month working as a plumber’s helper on the installation of the plumbing and heating system for the building. I really enjoyed the work and at the end of the project was asked to stay on with the company full time as a registered plumbing apprentice. I spent the next two years doing plumbing full-time Monday through Friday, going to plumbing school two to three nights a week, and on an ambulance Saturday and Sundays until I got hired as a full-time firefighter in 2002 for the City of Taunton Fire Department.”
Over the next couple of years, Correira finished up his plumbing apprentice time and schooling on his days off from his fire department job. “I tested and successfully passed my state’s Journeyman Plumbing exam in late 2005, and soon after started working for myself as a Journeyman Plumbing on my days off from the fire department,” says Correira.
Venturing Out on His Own
How did Correira know it was time to start on his own? Correira started working for himself very shortly after getting his Journeyman Plumbing license. His fire department shifts have always been two 24 hour shifts a week which gives him five full days off each week to do as much or as little plumbing as he wants to do. “We have a lot of guys on the fire department that work other trades, but few plumbers so I got a lot of referrals from my co-workers. I wasn’t doing any advertising, my van wasn’t even lettered, and I had more side work coming in than I could take just from word of mouth alone. That level of demand had made it an easy decision to start my own business,” says Correira.
It stayed that way until 2009 until Correira got burnt out running his one-man plumbing business and working full time at the fire department so he started passing on new builds or large remodels and just focused on service/repair work, which was less stressful and easier to schedule around his fire shifts. “When my son was born in 2012, I took time off from plumbing to enjoy my time with him during that early part of his life. I didn’t start taking on any plumbing work again until he started school full time, but again stuck to small projects,” says Correira.
When Covid-19 hit in early 2020, Correira started getting a lot more calls for plumbing work—new builds, remodels, repair, etc. The demand for plumbing work was huge, but the materials shortage and the problems with getting inspections in some communities created a good amount of stress for tradesmen. It was certainly an interesting time as a business owner,” says Correira. Now, Correira does a small number of new home projects, a couple dozen remodels, a few dozen tank-style water heaters, five to 10 wall-hung, tankless units, and a lot of re-pipe and fixture swap outs jobs.
Correira is adamant about taking it slow and not over-extending yourself, especially if you’re going to be a one-man shop. Taking on too much too fast will just stress you out, says Correira, and that will affect your work, your reputation and your personal life. “Fast work is rarely good, and good work is rarely fast. Provide quality work at a good price and you’ll always be busy.”
Nonetheless, Correira admits that the time is right for entering the trades. “The industry is probably at the best place it has ever been in regard to attracting more people to the trades. Wages for skilled labor are the highest I’ve seen in the last 20 years. Companies are making better tools and materials that allow us to provide quality work faster and safer. Trade schools are more abundant and better funded, and I feel that interest will continue to grow organically year after year,” says Correira.
But back to the original question: how do navigate family/work time, let alone plumbing and firefighting? “Balancing time is very important to me, but admittedly some weeks I lose the battle. I try not to fill up my plumbing schedule so tight that if a job goes bad or I get called into work at the fire station unexpectedly that it puts things out of balance. Moreover, my son plays basketball and does martial arts and I don’t like having to miss those events. In fact, the last time I said it was a great day was earlier this week while throwing the football with my son in the backyard in the afternoon sun. His spiral is progressing nicely,” says Correira.
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