Personality Behind the Profile: FireCaptSteve

As soon as some people gain followers and popularity, they chase the attention and keep going because of the exposure. For Steve Genovese Jr., the drive behind his work has been about the recruitment and retention of firefighters.

Genovese started his social media account, FireCaptSteve in 2022, and has grown to have more than 21,800 followers on TikTok and over 15,500 followers on Instagram.

FireCaptSteve builds content focused on satire based on the stereotypes of being a firefighter. He wants to show his audience that the job is fun and enjoyable, and that comes from the lack of recruitment around the country. Fire departments have seen a major decline in the interest of the fire service and struggle to hire qualified candidates. 

“We're not recruiting people anymore,” Genovese Jr. told Firehouse.com. “We don't have people interested like they used to be. We don't have 5,000 people showing up for a written exam. It seems like the fire behind young people is not there. It's still a great job, it's still a lot of fun, and it has propelled me to do some of this stuff.”

The interest may not be what it once was, but he believes social media is the way to gap that bridge.

"I think the biggest way we could reach out is through social media,” said Genovese. “I think people and agencies should be cognizant of it. We're always going to be one step behind, but we need to be on the forefront of it.”

Genovese has been involved with the fire service his entire life. His father retired as Captain for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and from there, he we wanted to be a firefighter.

“I can still remember the first time that as a young child, I realized my dad was a firefighter, recalled Genovese. “Because, you don't really know what your dad does when you're a little kid and I'll never forget it was the day when the fire engine was going to come, and the fire engine rolls up, and my dad was on it.”

In 2002, at age 20, Genovese was hired on at the Los Angeles County Fire Department as a fire suppression aid. Three years later, he moved to the Oxnard, CA, Fire Department, where he spent five years as a firefighter. In 2010, Genovese was hired by the Glendale, CA, Fire Department, where he currently serves as a captain for the Station 29 B-platoon.

Social media was a personal use for Genovese, mainly posting vacations and family-orientated endeavors. It wasn’t until he was at grocery store, wearing fire department gear, and he was stopped by a few people asking random questions.

"Some of the questions you could ask are almost comical," said Genovese. "I thought this would make a funny TikTok video. I'll just put a bunch of videos of me walking through the grocery store, and then just do some Google Images of random people and tag random questions. The first random person I put in the video was an old lady asking if I knew her son that worked for a fire department in Ohio. I live in LA County with 11 million people, and you're like, yeah, actually, I do know that guy. It's just funny."

His first post was on TikTok with no spelling or grammar checks, which is part of the reason he thinks it went viral, but it blew up overnight. 

From there, he followed up with videos of urban legends, stereotypes and myths that firefighters are coined with. His follower count jumped from 100 to more than 10,000. Shortly after the success on TikTok, he launched on Instagram.

“Our younger generation is not getting news from newspapers. They are not getting news from television,” explained Genovese. “They're getting all their information off of social media. If we can show them that this is this is fun, rewarding, that you have the ability to positively make a change in someone's life and how great a career it is, that's what I really want people to get out of this.”

Genovese isn’t attracted to the number of followers or popularity and is rather attracted to his motivation behind it all.

“I feel like I have a lot of information that I could pass on to our younger generation of firefighters or prospective firefighters,” said Genovese. “The biggest thing is just showing people that this is still a freaking fun job. I truly think it's one of the greatest jobs in the world. It really breaks my heart that we don't have young people that are seeing that.”

He is sporadic about his posting, and it has brought on companies like Dove and Costco, who have asked him to make videos of their products. His favorite part is being able to interact with his direct messages and questions that get asked.

“A kid on my son's baseball team said I follow you on Instagram, and it just cracks my wife and I up,” said Genovese.  “Every time I get stopped by somebody that recognizes me, it’s usually a pretty positive interaction.”

He knows that if he wants to grow that he would have to be more consistent posting and does want to buckle down a bit more in 2026, but he will remain authentic and keep what is true to him close.

“I think the biggest challenge that is affecting the future of the fire service and the fire service in general, is our recruitment and retention of qualified employees,” Genovese Jr. told Firehouse.com. “If we don't do something, whether it's changing hiring practices, changing our recruitment, we're going to fall behind and this career that we're in is not going to be as enjoyable as it was in the past.”