#91 "The Jobs Is About Making Grabs" With Mike Greco (NJ)

Speaker A: Right now get up to 15% off select storage solutions put heavy duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid impact resistant design prevents cracking and the clear base and sides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find select shelving and Tote storage up to 15% off at the Home Depot. To organize every room in your home from your garage to your attic, visit homedepot.com how doers get more Done

Speaker B: this

Speaker C: episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome?

Speaker D: That's new.

Speaker C: It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses Setup required. Compatibility and availability varies.

Speaker A: 18/Brother just let the firemen be firemen and everything is going to get better. That's it.

Speaker C: You know, it's, it's interesting how simple that sentence is, but how difficult it seems to get that. How, uh, difficult that seems to be an application. It's the most simple thing, I think, and for some reason it just, it seems to get lost in the fire service. I think it gets downplayed and diluted through social media. I think you have guys that go out and do absolutely stupid things and justify it with let us be firemen. Like, it just, it doesn't make sense to me. I think so. Mike Greco, thank you for joining me today. You're going to be episode 91 on the tip of Spear Leadership Podcast. So good, so good, so good.

Speaker D: New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores. Now get ready to save big with up to 60% off brands like Rag and Bone, Levi's, Adidas and free people. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free.

Speaker A: Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack m when you

Speaker D: need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, Use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. That's Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored

Speaker A: Jobs thank you so much for having me. It's an honor, bro. I, I, I watched your last story, listened to your last podcast with Mark Gregory, who's a legend, and for that, being the next podcast after him is truly an honor.

Speaker C: No, you're very welcome. Um, there's one in between. Dave McGlynn was in there.

Speaker A: Dave McGlynn. I saw that.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no worries. No worries at all. So when you're not on social media, driving a ladder truck, screaming at people and being several blocks, blocks away with a black column of smoke, and I mean, context is everything. You know, context, comments and other things, you are obviously very animated, you're very excited. You know, you were just, you know, packed to the gills with, with, with pride and excitement, ready to go to work. And the funny thing is, you know, at least myself and what I've was taught and what I push off is, you know, trash, fire, barn fire, house fire, commercial building, apartment, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. I feel like every time you go out the door, you should have guys around you and you should create a culture of I want to do the absolute best I can. You want to be the, you want me to be the RIT team. I'm gonna be the best RIT team possible. I'm gonna hit all my marks. I'm, um, gonna be professional. I'm gonna be ready to go. I'm gonna be trained on it. You want me to be the first new engine, I'm gonna do great at that. No matter what you do. And I think you know what that call in particular. I don't know what the you do you are or what the call was for, but like, who gives a. You get to go to a fire of some kind. Whether you it's defensive, whether it's just a brutal truck work fire, whether it's a BS outside in fire, a BS, you know, grill in the rear, who cares? Like, it's always opportunities for those reps, fires, reps, calls to get all your reps in at game day speed, even if you end up finding Nothing.

Speaker A: I agree 110%. And you know that video, which was a uh, 15 second video, which was basically almost staged. It wasn't like I didn't see the kid whip his phone out and totally know my job. I know how to do my job. I'm pretty confident at my job. I train constantly. We knew we were going to a building fire. I knew exactly where I was going in there before. Been in that area before, not that address. Um, and you want to know what? It's a pride and excitement to go do what we're going to do. I said this is what it's all about. You know why I said that? I said it for a very specific reason. We have firefighters that go through an academy for anywhere from seven to eight to nine months. And there's so much grueling tasks and schoolwork, and then they start learning about things that have nothing to do with fires, and they kind of get disappointed and they kind of become not interested in the job. And I kind of understand why right now in America, it's not a thing, uh, with just certain departments. I would say it's almost every department, with the exception of about 25 fire departments in America that go to like multiple fires a day. These kids, and when I say kids, I'm talking about 25 years old, maybe younger, maybe a little bit older. They're disappointed. The fire to firefighter ratio is down. So when you have somebody like myself who has some time on the job, who has been a fireman, and I say this is what it's all about, I want to refresh everybody and let them know you went through all these months of training, you did all of this self training, you did all of this reading. You want to know what this is what it's all about. And if my excitement for the job is too much for people, I don't know what to tell them. I love what I do. And the comments on social media, a lot of them were negative. That's fine, Totally fine. We might have a difference in opinion. But, you know, I'm here today to explain what the job is really all about. And, um, you know what the job is all about going to fires.

Speaker C: And it's also about who you go to the fires with too. So, like, you want those guys that are eager go fires, you want those guys that have the take the initiative, have the drive, have the desire, because, you know, as an, as a company level officer, I'd rather pull back the reins of aggression than have to put the push the hooves of an ass. Correct, right.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: You know what I mean? So it is way easier to, you know, curb some tempers and be like, hey, dude, you need to chill the out, slow down, or hey, I don't give a what you think we should be doing. This is our task. This is what we are doing. No one's life is at stake right now. Not, uh, you know, it's not an immediate safety issue, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's no justification to Change what we're doing. We're not doing it. Our job is this. This is what we are. First do third do whatever. It doesn't matter. This is our job, and this is what we are doing. And, you know, the guys are eager and they think it sucks, but they think the situation sucks.

Speaker A: It's not.

Speaker C: They're not mad about the policy. They're not mad at me. I mean, I'm not. Not that I'm worried about them being mad, but, like, they just want to go to fires. They just want to do everything they're taught to do and finally put in an application because the fires are so far and few between. And for us, where I work, we have. We do. We do all of the ems. So, you know, you got these guys going out on these ambulances getting absolutely throttled, and they get a rotation, you know, wherever, whatever the rotation may be, depending on where you're assigned for. I work the rotation's not bad. But, like, you know, anyone that's ever spent any time in a firehouse in the field and actually gave a. About people around them or gave a. About what they were doing for themselves as well, we will know what it feels like when you're, you know, you've been on the truck and the engine four or five times this month, and then it's your one at your ambulance shift, and that's when the station goes to a fire, and you're like, I just rode the damn thing, or I just rode it yesterday, or the inevitable, I'm off today, and they freaking run a rip. Right? Uh, that's feeling that frustrates the hell out of them.

Speaker A: That, you know what? And again, the frustration, The. The frustration level. Even with myself, there's not enough fires to go around anymore. And I'm not saying that we enjoy going to people's worst day of their life, but just like Marines, we train consistently to deal with a situation that is not normal and devastating to somebody else. So if you're going to train for so many years on something and then not get to do it, it becomes frustrating. So I can't tell you how many times I have checked the rig, ran a dozen runs, come back to the firehouse, do all of the things, and then I leave, my tour's over, and 15 minutes into the next tour, they go to a ripping job. It's frustrating, bro. It's right. You have more firemen frustrated than anything. And what happens is they take it out on other people via, uh, social media. So guys are seeing me going to Flyers and being happy about it. They're jealous about it because they want to go to a fire, too. I kind of understand their frustration a little bit. The haters. I get it. I get it.

Speaker C: What's that old saying? What do firemen hate the most?

Speaker A: In Bobby Eckert's words, people who hate firemen the most are other firemen. And it's such a shame. It's such a shame. You want to know why it's a shame? Because you know who hates police officers the most? Other police. Other police officers.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: They're wild. And I see that culture trickling into the fire service, and I hate it.

Speaker B: Bro.

Speaker C: M. There's a guy in my department, and I'll, uh, I'll leave his name out of it because I never really asked him if he'd be okay with me name dropping them.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: He has a saying that I. Once I heard it. I mean, I don't really know or really care what people think of the saying, but I think it's absolutely hilarious. He always says God gives fires to people who can handle it. So if you're not going to enough fires, maybe you need to show God why you deserve them by training and doing good when you get them.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: I was like, holy. That's. I mean, that's. There's the. But it's. It's true.

Speaker A: You know what? I've had so many sayings from senior men over the years.

Speaker C: Funny.

Speaker A: They'll say, and I'm gonna get into that later about guys, about really good, salty senior guys sayings that they've had. Or even one sentence, you'll have a senior man, he'll be in a conversation with you over making chicken thighs, and then all of a sudden he says a sentence about a fire he went through. And then you remember that sentence for the rest of your life, and you're like, oh, wow, you know what? That's applicable to the next fire I go to. And you just remember it. And that guy didn't even mean to teach you that. It just came up in a conversation, which to me is wild. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting how little tidbits will stick with you. I think Andy Fredericks said it, but I heard it from a guy I worked with.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: I think he quoted him. I don't remember a lot of people.

Speaker A: Andy Fredericks.

Speaker C: What's that?

Speaker A: A lot of people quote Andy Fredericks because.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: One of the best fire instructors that ever lived, in my opinion.

Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't know. I. I Didn't know this until recently, but I always heard him say, you know, trashman, don't turn the corner, get excited to see trash. I think that was Andy Frank's quote. But, um, it was always an interesting. Yeah, it was always interesting when people said that and it kind of made me laugh. And then I had another officer that told me, you know, this is a great job, it's a lot of fun, but it's a lot better when you're good at it, so you should put in the effort every day. And he goes, he's like, I don't go. And this guy's older, he was in our department our heyday. I don't know if that's the right way to say that. But when he was a fireman, before he became an officer, he went to a lot of fires. He worked in a really, really good firehouse. And it was usually just two, just him and the driver or, uh, the him and the officer. I mean, like, you know, lot. A lot of fire duty in the area that he worked. And his thing was, he goes, hey, look. He's like, guys getting excited on the radio, they get excited on calls, they get these bell shits. He's like, they told you it was on fire. Like they said, house on fire. You should only go there and then have to back off. You should be leaving with the intention of laying out, pulling a line, being ready, expecting fire, expecting victims. All, all the stuff back before it was cool to say on the Internet, literally, you know what I mean? And it was like, you should be expecting people to be in the house because somebody called, you know, all that stuff. And he goes, they told you it's on fire. He's like, where I would want to hear somebody kind of be caught off guard is if you get called out for an automatic fire alarm, you show up and fires blown out a window. He goes, then I could see you kind of like, all right.

Speaker A: Or.

Speaker C: And this is the same officer too.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: He had a call, they got called out for trouble breathing. So they were running with an ambulance. They get there and through a language, uh, barrier, through the interpreter, somehow, some way, the, uh, guy was having trouble breathing because he was unconscious. He became unconscious in the hallway when his house was on fire and they had smoke blowing out a window when the ambulance showed up. Like those kind of things should jar you because that's. Yeah, like that's, that's not what I expect. You know what I mean?

Speaker A: I've had them before. And you know the Andy Fredericks line Is is very true. There's a difference between becoming excited because maybe you are not ready to perform at the fire. And there's a difference between being proud and happy that you are going to want. So I'm going to one with every intention of doing the right thing and knowing what my job is.

Speaker C: So when I the other thing I was thinking about while you were talking to. And um, I've had a few things going on recently to really make my brain start gearing up. And um, I want you to talk about this a little bit too because I think this is right in line with Let the guys be the guys. Every fire and every call we have that is out of the ordinary, specifically fires, is it always another opportunity to provide and show the guys that I work with why they can trust me. So they always have that saying of you're only as good as your last fire, you're only as good as your last fire, whatever. To me I think it's a continual give and take. I had a situation with a door that was very difficult to force and I helped the guy out, I helped the firefighter out and I you know, did my part, he did his. But like it was only it wasn't going to be a one man show for that, for that to get into this house and you know, being able to be reliable for the guys like you know, you see them strutting, the person wasn't struggling. What I'm saying is you'd like you see one of your guys struggling, you step in real quick, hey, let me tap your bar and yo, let's feed some hoes. Hey, bring the line over here. You know, you make a decision and then another and another and another. And it's just to me you're always paying in to that bank of why they should trust you. And nothing will prove that more than,

Speaker B: than

Speaker C: full speed fires like, like it is on. You know what I mean? You could show up with nothing evident or you could show up with fire showing you have a job to do. And I love those fires because you always have another opportunity to show your guys that you are reliable, you're up to speed, like you're ready to, you know, you, you're there for them.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker C: And you do your part as the officer and that's why guys will be goes only your room or you know, it's just a little bit of this or you know, just a small pile of crap, blah blah, blah blah. And yeah, it's disappointing but those are reps fires. Reps fires are the best Fires, because. And this is the second part, and this is what I wanted you to talk about. You can really get exposed on some reps, fires that look like a lot that are absolutely nothing. You can just provide it at, you know, you can find some. Some kinks in your armor and, you know, show some flaws, and you go back and train on it, and then you're humble about it. You know what I mean?

Speaker A: Sure. And, you know, there's a number of things, you know, and that's called fire officer trust. And there's a number of things that I could talk about with that. And it actually starts in the firehouse before anything. And we'll go into that. But, yeah, being there to support the guys in a tactical thing. So you're. You're talking about forcing a door, right? I've learned from senior men. All right, you go to force a door. If that door is not taken in about 30 seconds, change tactic. Okay, so you went to gap that door. You went in with the. You went in with the ads, you gapped down. Now you went to go gap up against the pike. It's not working. Now you're switching to forks. Now you're getting banged in. It's not working. You change tactics every 30 seconds. And you should have an officer there not to yell at you, but to tell you, hey, bro, do this. Hey, bro, try this. Hey, let's put this in. But I'm going to tell you something about the fire officer trust. I have. Currently, I work for a captain and I work. Actually, I got to tell you something. Uh, all the guys I work for right now, Captain, Deputy chiefs, everybody, it starts in a firehouse. So it's a 90 degree day. My captain. Hey, you know what? I'm buying ice cream. What do you guys want? My deputy. Hey, you guys, you guys really ran a lot today. I'm getting McDonald's. Here's McDonald's. You know that these guys have your back over the little things. They're. They have your back. Hey, bro, how's your family? Hey, I know your kid was sick. How's everything? They have your back before you even went out the door. You understand? So now when you go to this fire that somebody might get killed at, meaning one of the firemen, they're going to have your back there. Okay? And I have yet to see an administrative problem be an emergency. But I have seen fires become an emergency real fast, and we didn't expect it. Okay? Uh, and so that's why the administrative issues, yeah, they're going to get dealt with and at my job and where I work. They do get dealt with in a timely fashion. But you know what counts first is your sops, your fires and your emergencies. That's first and foremost before everything and training.

Speaker D: This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doomscrolling. Smart Move. Another smart move getting help from one of State Farm's 19,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. I get so many headaches every month. It could be chronic migraine. Fifteen or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more.

Speaker B: Botox Onobotulinum toxin a prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It's not for Those who have 14 or fewer headache days a month. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including als, Lou Gehrig's disease, Myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eaton syndrome and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the rain risk of serious side effects.

Speaker D: Why wait? Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-844botox to learn more.

Speaker C: Yeah, well, I think sincere effort is something that can genuinely carry you through a lot, right? So I think if you know, nine times out of 10 everything, you are exactly what you're supposed to be. And then there's that one time, the one out of ten time where you just shit the bed. You just missed the mark. You, you know, I don't know. You, you, you could be not feeling so great so you're not really up on your game or you just, you genuinely make a mistake and they, they can catch you slipping and like, you know, hey, we're going to go in on this street, we're going to make this right and it should be whatever and then no, no, no, no, you are wrong. You need to look that up again I got it. I know where I'm going. Go to Matt Page, whatever. It should be this street. We're coming off that side.

Speaker A: You.

Speaker C: You need to look that up now, right? They know you slip.

Speaker A: They.

Speaker C: They know they have to add that gap. They know. They know you need them to support you. They need. I got you, Lieutenant. I got you, Captain.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker C: We're good. Hey, you know, whatever. I don't know if I'm really saying that correctly or not. It's easier. It's something you experience before. I think you would. Something you experience before you be able to. I don't have. I don't know if I'm saying this right.

Speaker A: No, I. I understand what you're saying, and I.

Speaker C: You know what I mean?

Speaker A: I could elaborate on it. Um, yeah, so I'm a chauffeur. And excuse my accent, because people tell me I have an accent all the time. My mother grew up in the.

Speaker C: You're from Jersey, dude. I mean, come on. What are you expecting?

Speaker A: No, you want to know what the real thing is? My mother grew up in the Bronx, and she did 25 years of, uh, EMS. Yeah. Why in the Bronx? So I think that's where I get an accent from. So excuse my accent, but, uh, I'm from.

Speaker C: I'm from the, uh, northern New Jersey metropolitan area, and my grandma, aunt, mom all had super thick accents.

Speaker A: My mother's from the Bronx. I mean, she talked this way. I was raised this way. So, yeah, I don't really care. But when it comes to the.

Speaker C: Okay, I think it's. I think it. I think it adds care. It's very careful.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I mean, when it comes to the officer, and I'm the show, right? And I'm. I'm sitting on the other side of the rig over this dog house, when you look at one another, the officer should not look at the fireman. Like, I'm the officer. I'm in charge. You should network with the guy. Hey, bro. What do you think we're doing? Hey, bro. What's the best approach? Hey, bro. And you might spark something in the firefighter's head, and vice versa. So, uh, far, I went to, I don't know, five days ago, and it ended up being, like, a fourth to fifth alarm, whatever it was. I had an officer. I knew exactly where I was going. We ended up getting probably the premier spot on that fire. Well, uh, where I need to position that ladder truck. And he had the confidence in me because I told him, I know exactly where I'm going. Now I've had other fires where I look at the boss. Hey, hey, bro, I'm not sure about this street. Hey, give me a better approach with this. Hey, maybe ask the deputy chief where we should come in from. Whatever. But you got a network. When you don't have that trust between one another, you end up trying to beat each other out and show one another why I'm smarter. Well, I'm smarter. No, I'm smart. And at the end of the day, you know who that benefits? Absolutely nobody. Absolutely nobody.

Speaker C: So what do you think about. And then we talked a little bit and we shared kind of notes and stuff about exactly what you just said. How that would. Keeping it simple. You're not over complicating, as you say, uh, overcomplicating the craft.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: You know what I mean? Like, you're keeping it simple. And that rapport, the trust and the fact that. And you said it very well. It's not. Well, I'm just the driver. Well, I'm just the officer. No, you are a team.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: Like it does not work without the two of you being on the same page.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: And two of you, the two of you being able to work as a fluid machine. Because there's a lot of times where I rely on my driver and he doesn't even realize it. Sure. Hey, is it this street or. Hey, which, what map page you on? Hey, uh, are you gonna come in from this side? No, no, we're coming from the other side. Oh, okay, cool. I, I, um, you know, I wasn't sure. And he'll just look at me and be like, you didn't know? I'm like, yeah, I had no idea.

Speaker A: You know what it is? It's, it's, it's not, it's not for that. During the day at 3 p, a fire alarm. It's the 3am Working. Um, fire with reported people trapped. Yeah, that's what it's about. Because my boss, he's paying attention to the radio, he's paying attention to the computer update cat updates. I am talking to my ov, who's sitting behind me because we have a plan of our own. How he throws ladders. Comes back, how now I throw my ladder. Ves ventilation. Whether we're going to do vertical ventilation or not. The irons man is sitting behind the boss. He has his job. Okay, we're going to a high rise fire, metal door, metal frame. I'm bringing in the rabbit tool. Am I not bringing in the rabbit tool? Everybody's brain is working and that's why it's important to be a team. So now if the officer has to worry about what the chauffeur's doing, the OB's doing, the iron Man's doing, all that, he is overwhelmed. And when you have somebody that's overwhelmed, that's when you start to hear the screaming and the panicking and all of that stuff. Because somebody is overwhelmed, that's almost the definition of being anxiety. And overwhelmed is because they have too much input going into their brain at the same time. That's why you need to work as a team.

Speaker C: Well, there's also, I mean, I'm not an expert at it, but there's also the whole human performance thing when it comes to. You get into a different. You get in a condition black. When your heart rate gets to a certain, a certain beats per minute, you, you start to have auditory, auditory exclusion. You start to have, you know, there will be things that you hear and see or that you hear and see that you don't remember. And then later on you'll start to remember them. Um, I mean, there's so many things that go on. There's so many things that, that, you know, create chemical reactions in your brain that make you go into autopilot. But autopilot, I think if I, I don't, I hope I explained, I say this correctly. Autopilot isn't something that you hope for. Autopilot is your training in your experience. Like me specifically, like when I'm, um, I've been on fires where I know it needs to get done and there's things that need to happen, but I have to. I've actually caught myself saying I can't, I don't. This guy needs to do this or I need this done. This guy is currently here, but I need somebody else to do this or these two people are here. I don't know who that guy is or this guy's not my company. Where's my guy? Oh, hey, my guy. Go do X, Y and Z.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: You know what I mean?

Speaker A: Correct. You know, like what's best is when you're working with a crew that you've already trained with over and over and over again as to what they're going to do with the fire. And a lot of tasks are getting done without you knowing about it. For example, if myself or my OV or whomever, I'm bringing a 28 foot ladder to the two side of the house. Okay. I got fire blowing out the back. As I'm walking down the two side, I take my pro Warrington boot and blow out the basement window. Why am I blowing out the basement window? Because if I blow out the base window and black smoke comes out of it like a locomotive in the basement, guess what? I got a basement fire. That's an urgent message now. So we just did, you know, and a lot of people love to talk about size ups, which also drive me crazy. That's a size up. So I blow out that basement window with my boot. I got heavy black smoke coming out the basement. Guess what? Lot of one show for the command. Urgent. Go ahead, you got a basement flyer. So now the guys in the engine that are on the first floor now, they know they're operating over a basement fire, which is an extremely dangerous way to work. So now when you go on Facebook and Instagram and everything else and they go, oh, uh, well, Mike, you're yelling and screaming out the window. That's dangerous. No, no, no, no, no. I just said a sentence right now that I guarantee you a lot of you don't do. A lot of you don't do because there's true dangers of the fly servers that are being overlooked for the, I call it the low hanging fruit, the 15 seconds video on the freaking social media. Okay? So maybe, maybe as a firefighter, you should be doing a proper size up, like kicking out a basement window. And it's a simple two second operation that'll let you know exactly what's going on in that house. Because basement fires, as you know, are, uh, dangerous, especially if you're operating over it. Because guess what? Now you're on the floor above, which we both know is also dangerous. It's just simple stuff like that that I've been taught. Hey, bro, I didn't come up with it. Somebody taught me that. You understand what I'm saying?

Speaker C: It does. No, I do. And I think they're very minute things that you may not. You may not appreciate and have the mindse. Mindset to think about doing them, teaching them, or talking about them without experiencing them first. And you get that from being a young guy, a young guy being able to work with somebody like yourself, or work in a busy firehouse with busy guys, or even working in a slower firehouse with, you know, older guys that are just ready for a slowdown, that worked in busy stations. They're like, yeah, you know what? I'm at a slower station now, but I have 30 years of experience of being a backstep guy. That's still a significantly valuable resource. Worth their weight in gold, as long as they're motivated. Because time on the job doesn't equal experience, blah, blah. You know, I get all that. But if he's the right guy that definitely wants to teach, he, he, he. And the way, the way they carry themselves and how they talk, you can pick it out in a matter of seconds. You said that before. We talked about that before this record a couple days ago we were on the phone and um, you made that comment. I can tell in, you know, a matter of minutes if the person knows what they're talking about. So you also have to vet some of those guys. Vet some of those guys to be able to learn from them. I mean you can trust them, but validate it a little bit, you know, you will. I think, I think you'll never get to a level of kind of what you're getting at. I don't think you get to that level without having others around you helping you. Like it takes a village almost.

Speaker A: You know what it is. Again, you just said it takes a village. Right. So it takes a village to raise a baby. Right. It takes a village to raise a very good fireman. And that's what I try my best to do on my job because I want the guys to be as good as me, if not better. And then one day I'm going to retire and I hope that those lessons carry on. I had a great mentor of mine, John Davis and Frank Fiorenzo. They taught me a lot of stuff. They would have a conversation over coffee that would teach me something that probably saved my life.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And they're, they're retired now and their lessons live on and we still practice their tactical considerations still to this day.

Speaker C: You know, it's, it's wild because we're on. I was talking to my guys over the last couple shifts and we talked about a uh, multi, multifamily dwelling fire on the ladder truck and priorities and search and some other stuff. And guess what we ran within a few hours.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker C: One, we ran one. So the next shit, you know, then you know, shift or two later we talked about being third. Third arriving engine. What our department does. Long. I mean I am a long layout fan before I would ever run through backyards and jump fences if I can help it.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: I mean I'd rather, I'd rather lay out a thousand foot of four inch and then be able to rock it off. Be able to run with my four, uh, hundred foot attack line and hit everything in the building. Because it's rapid, it's simple, it's the least amount of steps. But anyway, so we were talking about that. And uh, within a few hours we did it. You know, yesterday we were talking about how important it is the first line on the fire. Fire between water and the victims. What, you know, garage fires are what outside infire. We're just talking about all kinds of stuff and just the mentality of as the first arriving engine that line has to get off and protect the. Put the line between the livable space or uh, the fire and the livable space, primary means of egress, all that. And we were talking about that and how like we can't fuck that up. And within a matter of hours we ran one. So it's so interesting to me. I mean you need to go out and do the things that you train. It can't just be tabletops and talking and looking at YouTube and looking at this and looking at that like it can't be all that. It has to be a healthy amount of practical training. And then those table talk, tabletop talks, back of the bay talks, kitchen table talks, bumper talks, waiting on the police and we're for a medical and we're just talking about what we would do if this was a house on fire. All those things are icing on the cake. You know what I mean? You know the most important part that I, and uh, I think guys over may or may not overlook, I think it may be a little overlooked is how important that you know, post fire talk is too because you get a good fire, the guys are going to talk about that for more than one shift and that's what you want because then they're gonna start double and triple double checking and, and, and evaluating and, and, and look, well, I did this well, you did that well. I could have done this better. I could have done that better. And then you also, you kind of get the, you get the fish tales where it was like a room off, but it was two rooms and all that stuff. But like the un. The non verbal communication of like hey man, like you pulled your weight. I pulled my weight too. We did a great job. I don't give a. Those people say I don't give a what that is. I don't give a about that. You know, these were the mistakes we made. We're gonna rock and roll. But you know, as the officer stepping back, like especially when they're racking hoes and they're talking and joking and chucking and driving and enjoying each other, you get to sit back and listen. You get to sit back and observe and watch and, and those post fires, when they go, when the Things go right for the most part. Cause not everything's perfect. And they do a good job. Watching that swell of pride and, and, and the happiness and, and, and, and the connection you all make is a level of, it's just a level of validation. I, I can't, I don't think you can put into words unless you've experienced it. And then from being a fireman too, knowing I did my part, my officer and my geyser, they're laughing with me, they're joking with me, they're busting balls. We're laughing and joking, having fun and, and you know, you, yeah, I tripped in the front yard and you're making fun of me over it and we're all laughing about it, but we're laughing together. That's a huge thing of creating that, that bond and, and why these fires are so important and why this training is so important and why going out and actually doing what we talk about is so important versus just talking.

Speaker A: You know what. And it's again and again we could, and we, we've had training where we could talk things to death or whatever. I've been to some serious fires. Particular is because I went to the one apartment building on the CFR run, we call it CFR first responder. I, years ago I went to there on a CFR run and that's how I knew the layout of the apartment. That's how we made.

Speaker C: Is that a medical, A medical for your fire truck?

Speaker A: Certified first responder. Okay.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So you know, I went there on a CFR run years and years and years ago. So now fast forward, I'm on the ladder company and I got the irons and I'm doing a primary search. I know the layout of the apartment. I know that to the left is going to be a kitchen. I know straight ahead there's going to be a bed and it's 3 o' clock in the morning. Chances are there's somebody going to be in the bed. It's very simple. It's just a simple math and I think that we, right now it's not so much, it's not really where I work but I'm watching on social media. We are over complicating such a blue collar job. This was a blue collar job. And I'm going to tell you something else. Most of these tactics were figured out around 1968 to 1970. And we have taken tactics, we have taken fire apparatus, we have taken attitudes, we have taken so many things and tried to warp them into something that they're not. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you come from, you're still coming back from that fire sooted up, filthy, wet and exhausted. No matter how much we tried to turn this into a different job, it's still a blue collar job. Keep it with the basics. The more basic you keep it, the more successful you're going to be. Because like I spoke to you before about the constant influx of information which makes people panic. When you have just enough information to do your job properly, you're going to do it properly. You're trained again. The marines, they train constantly to do a job. The fire department is very similar. And you find a lot of military guys succeed in the fire department because it's a similar thing. And again, I've been to a ton of fires. I could give you a ton of war stories of stuff that went correct and some stuff that didn't go, that didn't go correct. And you know, when you get back to the firehouse, you talk about it, you talk about it right then and there. And let me tell you what, what we say all the time is, man, we're put, we've put this fire out six times already, you know, because we talked about it over and over again.

Speaker D: Tomorrow morning is knocking. Stock your fridge now. How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink? Or a sweet vanilla smooth caramel maybe? Or a white chocolate mocha. Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries at. Ollie, we've got wellness down to a science. From PMS to pregnancy to menopause, our women's wellness line offers science backed support, support for every stage. No judgment, no shame, none of the stigma. Just supplements designed to meet you wherever you're at. Ollie, choose science over shame. Find support at a retailer near you or on ollie.com. that's o L-L-Y.com.

Speaker C: well, that's. But that's the best part. And that's the whole point of why, why the fire service is the way it is and why it's so unique. Like the fires. I mean, I like going to fires and everything, but like, if I don't like who I'm going to the fires, I'm, I don't. If I'm not, uh, trusting and enjoying who I go to the fires with, what's the point? You know what I mean? I don't know if you've ever had it. I'm sure you have in whatever scenario. Like if you go and if you go to something that is absolutely rip roaring and it is on it's time. You, you are going to step up or step aside for someone else to do it. You know, and you're in the back of your mind, you don't trust who you're with. It's a terrible feeling.

Speaker A: It's not worth it. It's not a good feeling. But I gotta tell you, the good part of where I work is that we're, we're a small aggressive department. So there's really nowhere to hide. Everybody has to know their job. Uh, you don't have a choice. We're rolling in with four rans and four, four engines. A lot of company and rescue company one. You got no choice. You have to know your job. You have to know your SOPs. You have to do your job because there's nobody else coming. We have, we have people coming but there's nobody else coming for that initial attack right away. So I think that's, there's a smaller departments out there that I watched them do a great job. Englewood, New Jersey is another one. They do a great job because they don't have that many guys. They have no choice but to do the right thing. Yeah.

Speaker C: What, what do you think, can you think of a fire that really made you appreciate who you work with because of the trust and the rapport you built over time?

Speaker A: Yes. And it's, it's, it's kind of lengthy but it's, it's rock and roll. So we get a fire, it get, we get a reported fire. So right around 4:30 in the morning, which is pretty much the witching hour. That's when people are on REM sleep. That's when houses are occupied. We got to report a fire at this at an address. We are halfway there. Our deputy chief gets on scene, he gives a quick size up. I got a two frame, I got fire showing up out the first floor and I have fire showing out the rear. Okay. So that means to me this place is jumping. Right. I don't really need a size up that says I got a two story frame and the house is yellow and it is. And it add and it is. And I don't need that because you want to know what the tactic is going to be the same. The truck is going to do the search and stretch a line. I don't really need these ultimate size up. So he gave a perfect size up. Then the report increases. I got people tracked. I get out of the rig, I'm um, the irons man at this fire. I Look, I see a police officer breaking a window with the flashlight. And he is waving the flashlight into the broken window that has black smoke coming out of it screaming, we're coming for you. We're coming for you. We're coming for you. So now I'm the Irons man. So I'm like, oh, wow, I'm conf. Now it's confirmed in my brain. Somebody's trapped in this house because the cop is yelling at somebody, get to the front door. I go to force this front door. I am having an unbelievable amount of trouble. Can't get this door. My OV he's setting up a 28. He's going to go through the window. Because at this point, we have people trapped. We have a cop yelling, standing. There's people trapped. I grab the OV by the shoulder, brother, I need you to. I need you to hit me in, uh, give me a couple good bang bangs to this Halligan tool. He hits it. I don't have to force his door anymore. The door is unlocked. The door was stuck because it swelled into the frame from the heat. I open the front door, I'm expecting to find victims to my left because this is where I saw the cop yelling, the heat is floor. It immediately drove me to the ground. Not to my knees, to the ground, face piece, to the. To the ground. Hottest flyer I've ever been in to the point that it's not normal. I do a quick prime. Now, when you're in heat like that, your brain kind of goes sideways. When you're in heat that feels like you're getting a tattoo on your ear, your brain kind of goes sideways a

Speaker C: little bit on top of what it's already doing.

Speaker A: On, uh, top of what it's already doing. So now I do a primary search of this entire first floor. And now I ran through the first floor. There's no furniture in this house. Okay? But I'm not even realizing that there's no furniture in this house because I'm doing a quick primary. I'm happy I got the primary done. Primary proves negative on the first floor. Now we're going to move to the second floor. The ov, I hear the window crashing, so I know he's going in. Okay, first line, Engine Company 2. They're going in. I hear the water starting to flow. We get up to the second floor, borks are starting to melt. Face pieces are starting to discolor. The OB went into the room, the room flashed. He got burned. And because of his training, he was able to exit that window. In a hurry. He ended up getting burned very bad. Ears, neck, face, back, hands. I mean, not often do you have a fireman get burned through his firefighting gloves. That's not an awe. That doesn't happen. Okay, his Scott, his scotch straps burned. I mean, uh, this, this, this, this guy came out. I mean burned. Okay, so now we make it to the second floor. Edge of company four is a second line. They're coming upstairs now. We're not. They're knocking fire down. Okay, so now we're doing it. So now, okay, I'm going to get the search. The rescue company is assigned a floor above on every fire where we work now, I make it to as a the truck company. We make it to the second floor with them. This is a bad fire. Obviously we're going to cut this in half, try to get the primary search done. Engine company four stretches a line. The nozzleman disappears. Disappears. So now I am searching and I find the end of a hose line. A nozzle. So what does every fireman think when they find the end of a hose line? Let's go. I get to play. Now the officer of Engine Company 4 transmitted a mayday. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. I have a lost member. Turns out that the floor of the second floor was cut out because they were doing renovations on the house. Okay, so we're rapidly figuring out now it's smoke floor to ceiling. We can't see anything. But we're rapidly figuring out that we lost the fireman through the floor. Okay, I yelled to my left to the rescue chauffeur Mike Maglio. Bro, give me a door. Right? Because counter practices to take a door and throw it over the hole. I take the floor, I throw the door, and I don't hear the door hit anything. Okay, so now windows start getting taken. We look, half of the second floor is not there. It was cut out due to construction. So now the nozzleman from four falls through the floor. We get, we confirm that the primaries are negative. I come outside, I meet with the fireman who got burned. I meet with the fireman who got fell through the floor and the three of us are completely fine. I mean, the fireman that got burned, he ended up going to the burn center and a whole bit. But he was coherent enough to speak. The guy who fell through the floor, he was coherent enough to speak. I said, bro, what happened to you? He goes, I fell through the floor. Said, all right. Well, they called him mayday. We got it. We got to clear that Mayday. Mayday was Cleared. We ended up knocking that fire down with. I would say I, I believe there was three lines that knocked that fire down. But we could have lost two firemen at that fire and the nozzleman at that fire. I'll never forget it. Engine company too. When I came back down the stairs, they were screaming through the face piece. And I couldn't understand what they were saying. Again, it was. The heat level of this place was unbelievable. Still to this day. Hottest fire I've ever been in my life. Miles, man was screaming, so what does every fireman think? This nozzleman's getting ready to bail. I'm going to get the nozzle. And I said, what's up? What do you need? You need relief? No, I need you to pull more line into this house. Okay, beautiful. So we're all on the same page. Uh, we're going to put this out. We put the fire out. You had every indication that people trapped. You had cars in the driveway. You had air conditioners and windows. You had every indication of people trapped. You had a police officer yelling into a window that were coming for you. I don't know what other more indications you need that people are trapped. So this is why the VES was performed aggressively. This is why we were venting for life. And guess what? There was nobody trapped in this house. They were away on vacation because the house was being remodeled. So you can do everything right. You can be aggressive as you need to be. You could go based off of reports and size ups and everything else. And guess what? You could still get killed. You could be the best fireman that ever lived. You can still get killed. And that's one of the fires that stick out in my head. One of the fires. Another. Another fire. It was, uh, one that I wasn't at that happened July 1, 1988. That I learned a lot from where we lost five. Five of our guys were killed from Hackensack.

Speaker C: So you had a fire. Unknown. I was taking notes while you're talking.

Speaker A: Sure, sure.

Speaker C: Unknown. Unknown. Entrapment. Unknown. Late. I mean, you knew, you probably had a general idea of how it was construct, what the construction was.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: You had a guy that was a possible mayday. Weren't sure. We have a whole maybe. Really couldn't get a big, you know, assessment, um, of what you had. It was only you. You could only figure out what you had with working in between your hands, like basically right in front of your face.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker C: And you're doing all the skills that you were taught because again, I think you were out of that conscious thought process and you were into that, you know, falling into the level of your training and you. All your experience was coming out and things still happened. Like all those guys were in that mental space and, you know, that cop was in that mental space yelling, we're coming for you. He didn't know if anybody was in there. He had his adrenaline rush. His brain took over and he started yelling and screaming. And I think, I think it's a great example. And I say that because there were so many moving parts. And I'm not saying people can't. I'm not saying people can't make decisions rapidly or I'm not saying people can't, you know, field all that information all the time, but it's a lot. And for you to be able to have the wherewithal, to be like, okay, mayday, okay, we're missing guy. Okay, hole in the floor, grab a door. Okay, this. Okay, that you're continuously situation assessment, decide fix. Situation assessment, decide fix. Like observe oriented side act, blah, blah, blah, Whatever your conscious decision making. You just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I mean, it sounds. I don't know, man. I mean, it sounds like you guys thing you could.

Speaker A: We did everything, but.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: We did everything. I don't think anybody would did anything different. And again, as we spoke before about officers, when they're inputting too much information in their brain is when the. Is when the panic, the yelling, the scream and all that stuff sets in. Right? So we're getting all this report now. I got a cop screaming into a window, everything. And you want to know what? I'm not going to blame the cop.

Speaker C: No.

Speaker A: Maybe over the police ban. They told him there's definitely people trapped in there or whatever. I wish the cops wouldn't do things like that because I don't go to bank robberies and tell everybody that they're going to be okay. I mean, I don't, I don't do that. But again, when you, when you roll up on that and see that, I don't think any other father plumber would have done anything different. The one thing that I do have a lot of pride in is that that got. That fire got put out with three lines and that deputy chief trusted us to do that with three lines, not pull everybody out and, you know, blare a bunch of air horns and set up a ladder, pipe and a tower ladder and just destroy the house. So I do give the deputy chief, any officers at FY a lot of credit. They let us do our job and we, once we reset, we figured out, okay, nobody's killed here. We've accounted for our, for our firefighters that, ah, were hurt, we've accounted for. There's an then. Primary searches and secondary searches are negative. All right, now, now, now we're going to get this fire. And we got it. And we did our job and we went back to the firehouse. Granted, we had a guy go to the burn center. We supported him. We had a guy, the guy that fell through the floor, we supported him. And there was a lot of lessons taught after that that the safety and training chief at the time did an after action report. And you, uh, print out an after action report. And he actually had a, he actually had a PowerPoint presentation on it. And we drilled on it as, uh, the entire fighter call, all four crews, we drilled on it. What happened here? What happened here? What would we have done different? What can we practice on? Stuff like that. So a lot of fire departments will take things and turn them into an administrative issue. They're not administrative issues. Nine times out of 10, you got a training issue someplace, not an administrative issue.

Speaker C: Yeah. And you know, the other thing that I think when there's shortcomings and I mean, I don't know how you feel about this, but, like, the higher ranking people are, the more they're accountable for what happens, right? So like a company, a level officer, you're, you're directly accountable. You're responsible for what happens within your scope of practice. A battalion chief, it's multiple companies, a division or deputy shift commander, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Significantly more. They have to. And look, and they have to see things differently. They have a standard they have to hold and they have, they have a boss to answer to. Ultimately, whether you agree with what that boss has to say or what they have to say, it doesn't matter. Were grown adults in jobs or volunteer organizations, if you will, you have bosses, you have citizens to answer to, you have stakeholders, you have commissioner, whatever, you have people to answer to. And, uh, what I'm getting at with this is, you know, you have a fire where three guys got burned, you have a fire where things may not have gone so great, but things ended up working out in the end and in the moment. You did the best that you had, you know, whatever, but they didn't like the outcome. Where I think the gap, where the gap becomes is when you come to me with accountability, you come to me with standards, and you come to me with problems, but you don't come to me with, hey, this is what I would have done if I were you. When I was a company officer in X year X year X at station X, I had similar fire. This is what I did. Look, man, we gotta do better. This is why you gotta do better. This is what I did.

Speaker A: Uh-huh.

Speaker C: Moving forward, you know. You know, however they say it, that's significantly different than demanding answers, demanding why you did something the way you did it, not knowing the full context and not asking people what happened. And I'm not talking about anything in specific, just to be clear for anybody that's listening. These are generalities. This is 12 years of being a station level officer. I had probably my favorite chief I've ever worked for that I worked for him for years. He'll know who he is. And we had some rough times. They weren't so great in the beginning. I got kind of, um, adjusted by another officer in the battalion. And between those guys kind of roping me in and getting me on the straight and narrow, I worked very diligently to be better. And then it went from, obviously there was, I wouldn't say not trusting, but I was not providing a reason to be trusted. And then over time, once I was, hey, Mike, you're screwing up. This is messed up. What the hell was this? You get to the point where it was, it started, the pendulum swung the other way of, um, hey, this does not look good. Or what. What were you thinking for this? Because I don't understand your thought process. So it went from not being trusted being what happened to, hey, this looks bad. I need you to tell what. What went on.

Speaker A: All, uh, right.

Speaker C: You know what, I understand what you're saying moving forward. You can't do this. This is why, this is what needs that, you know, whatever. And that, I think, is what creates that rapport of, if you're coming at me, you're coming for me for a mistake. I'm going to want to listen to what you have to say because it's going to be an opportunity to learn. I'm not going to. Going to get berated. And it's a chief or a company officer, if you're a firefighter, that can show, can tell you what's wrong, why it's wrong, provide examples of their experience and what they would recommend for next time. Is a significantly different culture than somebody that comes up and points everything out, says, see you later, and there's no context. You just get a bunch of shit and it's all, uh, right, see you later. Bye. Well, I, which at that level, I get it. But that's just mediocre. If you want to be a good one, you would add all that context,

Speaker A: like I don't know, uh, I have an opinion on that. You know, you have. It is very easy at the end of a fire or watching a video of a fire to say what I would have done different. When you arrive to a working building fire, you are in an uncontrolled deadly environment. It's not going to go perfect every single time because it is actually more evolving and faster than a football player in the NFL. And uh, we talk about Monday morning quarterbacks. That's exactly what we're talking about, the NFL. But it applies to the fire department because we. The fire department, as I've said in another podcast, is a team sport. But conditions are changing second by second by second. It's a deadly. And um, here's the word. I want everybody listening to this to understand uncontrolled environment. We're there to control the environment and we're really there, in my opinion, to make sure that we make grabs. The job is making grabs. The fire department was invented so we can go inside and search for people with specialty equipment to make sure everybody's out. We're wearing SCBAs on our backs and fire retardant gear to go inside and save somebody's two year old. The insurance company will rebuild your Cape Cod house. They're not going to bring your two year old back. Okay, so if my house here in New Jersey is ripping on fire and the firemen pull up and they don't put an ounce of water into this house, but they ves like animals through the second floor and got my three kids out of the house and the entire house burned down. You wouldn't hear one complaint out on me because that's the core mission and values of the fire service is to rescue trapped civilians and animals too. I love animals.

Speaker C: So people before animals.

Speaker A: Yeah. Uh, and you want to know what I, I believe that we have. I don't want to say we're shifting in the wrong direction, but I really want people to understand that that are listening to this, that the fire service is about people rescuing people. You can absolutely go into a house flow 180 to 190 GPMs, put out that fire, be successful at it. And that's great. That's wonderful. I applaud you. The job is making rescues. The job is identifying and knowing building construction so another fireman doesn't get killed or injured. And that's something that I can go into about the Hackensack Ford fire. Because I learned a lot from afar. I wasn't at. You see what I'm saying?

Speaker C: No, I 100%, I 100% agree with what you're saying. Uh, and, and I think, you know, to kind of add to that a little bit and I think this will be a nice place to wrap this up for part one.

Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure.

Speaker C: Um, this is a great place to wrap this up where, you know, going back to the NFL, the NFL has a timeout. The NFL has quarters. The NFL has two minute warnings. The NFL has the ability to communicate with quarterbacks in a fairly controlled environment. The NFL works towards the Super bowl for 16 weeks or 8, 20 weeks. I think it ends up being with playoffs, whatever it is with us. The fire has a say in everything. The building construction has a say in everything. Your life before the fire has a say in everything. You know what I mean? You could be going through a divorce. Not in your right state of mind. You're stressed out, you're drinking, you're eating too much, whatever. All that plays a factor into your super bowl fire. You can have two super bowl fires back to back. Just because you had a good fire that really tested you, that challenged you, may put you in a bad spot or had you thinking, eh, uh, I don't know if I'm gonna make it out of this one or this one really got me. Does not mean in 10 minutes you can't go on another one that could get you. Doesn't mean you, you could go on, you could go on a house fire where you show up with a room off and you flow some water, blah, blah, blah, blah. You come back, you back in, you, you clean up, eat something, you lay down, close your eyes and you can go right back out. With kids trapped and obvious rescues. You can go, hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from M. Mint Mobile. Now I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.

Speaker A: So I thought it was would be

Speaker C: fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal.

Speaker A: Uh, so there goes my big idea for the commercial.

Speaker C: Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment

Speaker D: of 45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 for 12 month plan required. $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy. See terms. You want to get your backyard summer ready, but you don't want to break the bank, Wayfair gets it. Planning on dining al fresco or relaxing poolside? Wayfair has everything you need to prep your space. Shop now and save up to 70% off during Wayfair's 4th of July clearance. Score huge deals on outdoor furniture, area rugs, and more. We're talking thousands of products for every style and budget, plus surprise flash deals. July 6th. Don't wait. Shop Wayfair's 4th of July clearance now through July 6th at. Ah. Wayfair.com Wayfair Every style, every home.

Speaker A: No, there's no rhyme or schedule. No.

Speaker C: Yeah, there's no schedule. There's none of that. The fire service doesn't care about any of that. It doesn't give a.

Speaker A: It goes that, uh, way at work.

Speaker C: You have to step up and you have to perform.

Speaker A: It goes that way with all emergency services. You know, a rescue company. I. I went to my volunteer fire department. I had a. I had a child unfortunately die from a motor vehicle accident that happened on September 3rd, my birthday.

Speaker C: I'm sorry to hear that.

Speaker A: September 1st. And I'm talking about 20 something years ago.

Speaker C: Still tough.

Speaker A: September 1st. The next day, 24 hours later, we had another motor vehicle accident where two people under the car died. You might not go to that in 10 years. And then all of a sudden, you go to that one September 3rd, and that's September 4th. You see what I'm saying? And. And this happens with fires, you know, So I cut a roof out of fire. We backed a rig in. Now we're going out for another fire, and I cut the roof in that place, too, so. But I might not do that again for another 10 years where I'm going to two fires at the same time. You see what I'm saying? So, like.

Speaker B: No, I do.

Speaker A: To your point. To your point, you're exactly right. There's no rhyme or reason. These things just happen when they want to happen.

Speaker C: And you. You know, it's. It's the. The old stoicism mindset. Uh, and we're gonna. We're gonna wrap up and end with this.

Speaker A: Sure is.

Speaker C: You can never, ever control anything that happens to you. You can't control what happens in the world. You can't control where the fires are, when they are, who you're with, who you're with, who's around, who's on the box, time of day, occupancy. You can't control any of that.

Speaker A: Correct? Correct.

Speaker C: All you can control is how you react to it. Uh, and. And how you've prepared prior to it.

Speaker A: Correct. 100.

Speaker C: Mike, we're going to come back for another. Another part. This will be part one. Absolutely. I greatly appreciate your time. I'm glad we were able to make this happen after three years of trying to get it figured out. Uh, too much. Too much stuff, too much craziness.

Speaker A: I love having these tactical conversations. I don't think people have them enough.

Speaker C: No, I agree. I don't. Well, I don't think you can ever have enough.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: You know, that's the other thing. The other thing. And I'm pretty sure. I think that's what you were getting at. I just. You just. You can never do enough. And, And I think if you limit yourself to just the guys you work with and don't expand into other areas, I, uh, think you're doing yourself a disservice, not only because you're learning from other people, but you can teach other things that you've. You've learned to other guys. So social media can be a bit toxic. Um, especially from, you know, people that have more time in social media than they ever did running calls and other things are more shocked at social media than they ever were on a fire. But social media is a lot. There's a lot of good out there, and there's a lot of really, really good people.

Speaker A: You take the good one bad, and you want to know what, when you put. When you put yourself. I'm sorry, there's a fire at work right now, and that's why there's a fire, and that's why I'm getting, uh, I'm getting a. I'm getting a thing. But you know what? Social media is good and bad. And you got to know something. When you put yourself out there on social media, expect negative comments. Don't get mad over it. So I put myself out there. I got negative comments. Hey, guess what? It went viral because of all the negative comments.

Speaker C: Yeah, well, you. You know, the other thing, too, is I, uh, think it's all in. It's genuinely in the eyes of the observer of what they want. Like, you put it out there because you liked. You're proud of it, you know, whatever it is, you put yourself out there, you create a podcast, you create a social media whatever, and, you know, you're entitled to that. It's the First Amendment right of the United States of America. You're life, property, pursuit of happiness. Like, you're allowed to do it. Maybe even a little freedom of the press, I guess it could tap into. I don't know if you're A, uh, expert. If anyone's an expert on constitutional law, please, by all means, hit me up and correct me if I was wrong on that about that. But anyway, you know, it's. It's a. It's a valuable resource when used correctly, and you validate the people, and it all comes down to whether you know what you're looking at or not. So the blind leading the blind is what the. The genuine problem is. I think out there is the fire service as a whole, not just social media. I don't want to harp on that,

Speaker A: but yeah, sure, sure, absolutely.

Speaker C: But, um. But yeah. All right, Mike. We're gonna come back, everybody. We're gonna get a second part in here. Yeah, don't. Don't go anywhere real quick. We're, uh, gonna. I'm gonna close this out. You know, we're gonna come back. It'll be 90, number 92. This will be part one of the jobs is a. The job is about making grabs part one. So that's what this is. We'll come back with the jobs about making grabs part two, and, uh, we'll kind of get into some of that and a little bit of everything in between, and anything has to do with just being a firefighter and enjoying what we do. So thanks, guys. We'll be back, and, uh, hope to. Hope to see you soon. I don't know why I just said that.

Speaker A: Hope you are.

Speaker C: Come back to listen soon. All right, thanks, guys.

Speaker A: Thank you. Good.

Speaker C: Uh,