You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience podcast. Hello, Hello, will you
Coony the Looney Welcome back to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. We got another
go what it before? Roofie embarks on a hiatus before he leaves us,
like a long hiatus too. Yeah, he's got to kill things. He's
got a need, you know, he's rough hunting wabbits. Boy, is
it cold up there? You don't put the heat on again. What's going
on? You got the fire on? You do? All right? Well,
you know what you're at. We're at the get in sold the experience,
the only one in the world. I said, I say it was
the best in the world. Right, ruff, I'm gonna double down on
the best fire podcast in the world. He and I. Nope, I'm
not. I'm going there right. How are you doing that? Gowns?
So you get your condition around down there? Yeah? I actually it turned
it up. It was a little chilli. It was you down there.
Bro. Let me take a look for you. You got a little nipple.
It's eighty degrees holy right now at eight o'clock at night, it's eighty
degrees degrees. Man, it's got a little bit of a coolness in the
air. But it's not like what's going on up there. The hair is
looking a little bit. It's a little more exceptional tonight. He's got a
little goop in it. Baby, I got something. There's always gooping.
It makes a darker I told you Gray, let him put the goop in
it. It's as white as the walls behind me. Really, yeah,
interesting, just a little comb over. Why are you leaving rough next week?
Are you here on Friday? I forget I'm leaving Friday morning, Friday
morning for the low journey. It's Ohio, Iowa, Iowa. So you're
not honed. Oh it's Iowa. Right, you own the property in Iowa.
You hunted Ohio and somebody else's property. Corrects all the He's got all
of that too, I think, so ship. I like to say I
wish I was going, but I don't really wish I was doing whatsoever.
But you know, you got the ranging game out there to watch for two
weeks. What do you can do it? Of course? Come on,
what do I look like? Who's going? You and who? Well?
Sweet boys? Me and me myself? When I first go up, yeah,
I have to close on the house. Oh his other property, you
know, God's whi's the gun. He's gotta close on the house. That's
gonna be the double that's gonna throw here's a stack. Yeah, and then
you got the gun. That's like, well, where should we fly today,
Rosie? I don't know who? We should go to the house in
Iowa. Let's go down yeah yeah, hell, let's go the property down
in Florida. Yeah, a couple of anchors down in Florida. Yeah.
Yeah, he got a very funny guy on tonight. Man, they got
what is it to send the other squad? Second second, busiest squad of
Queen's Yeah, man, yeah, trying to move my money around. I
got money everywhere I lose money. I think he got to be the senior
guy over there, big shot, big cheese. You know. Yeah,
he's he's felt the same way I did. Like you had to take a
stick of dynamite to blast his out of that seat. Bro, I just
paid five and on the job. Yeah. I had a couple of jobs
with him. We're we're gonna have to discuss. I had a couple of
good ones with him. Actually was he yelling like a little school girl.
I had to calm him down. You know, when you're in the second
busiest squad. You got to calm them down a little bit, you know
what I mean? You do right? Just take it? Is he sleeping
back? Then? What is he doing? He's out there. You just
got a nice hair, I can tell you. He's got the grays in
and I looked distinguished. Well, it was just in Italy for a couple
of weeks. There. It was drinking a lot of red wine and that's
a lot Lensky, give me an espresso. Should be doing a fucking poker,
eating cabasa. What's he doing drinking wine and going nice poker? Polka
poke? Maybe you heard one of my hits, Poka, Poka, Poka
in the front, greatest hits, Poker in the front on I'm giving I
was waiting, no poker. It's John Candy. Maybe you've heard some of
the greatest hits. All right? What was that from? That was?
That was from home alone? And she that was alone? She hates the
ride with in the back and the time. Yeah, yeah, we're poka.
Maybe you heard some great hit? Was John Candy? Yeah that's right,
dad, he's not available for over time. Yeah, all right,
let's let's get our commercials done, so we can bring the mazin. Al
right, he's a Jets fan too. You guys pulled one under your Yeah.
I even bothered to Cole Jose because he was hitting me early on.
I said, I don't be a typical Giant fan. It's not like the
first three minutes into the game that tested me. Please, you can't do
that, man, Get a wait, all right, let's listen to home
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That's what I'm saying. I happened to look up for a second and
the number was two seventy the amount of people watching live right now. Off
off, I see what you do there. Four time indictment Champion yeah,
all right, rough, bring them in, bring them as the Mazaroni,
the Mazarinsky coming to the stage p D. Pete Muslinsky. Yeah, he's
fresh off the Italian Guinea gag plank. He was Guinea tour. Will you
talking about your hands? Ab out of that, bro, Like, forget
about doing over there. So when I go on the job, I was
dead doing it with me around forshing doors. I was told feel I was
doing it all in Italy, but you ain't doing what I'm doing brow that
much. Thanks fellas. Good still look good, bro, you still look
good. There were times treating you well. But it is tough, right,
paycheck to paycheck, trying to make it by I think we get paid
tomorrow. Oh we do, Thank god. Man. My kids were really
hungry. I was tightening their belts. I don't think they were going to
make it another week. They can get candy tomorrow, Oh they can.
Tomorrow is Halloween. Let's get patriarchic before we get too far away from this,
bro. All right, hold on, here we go. I plague
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
which it stands, One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for
all. All right, so let me just do one response to you.
Twenty one truck little man, I mean tiller man. He was from Squad
two seventy not to eighty eight. So if you get a break, balls,
get it right. My little man, my little my little opal lump
a friend. All right. So what's the word of today? Bro?
I'm gonna show you this before we got into the hockey. So he has
a twenty dollars wager for for lou here. So right, I did?
He texted me, asked me what I thought the scarter game was going to
be. I so I wrote Rangers in win in ot. I think he
said Canucks winning three to one. And he has a man who's true to
his word. You brother? Excellent? All right, get guys, now
play the word of the day. Oh, here we go. Mister k.
Why we'll let you in on what the ky. I don't see him
in the chat yet, so I don't know. Maybe he is he's just
being quiet. Yeah, all right, Kevin yos that's Kevin yos K.
Why Kevin Jose Jelly? Okay, why Jelly? Let me pull up mister
Ma's timeline here all right, fella, so let's go back to Proby School.
You know, let's go before Proby School. What did you do when
you get out of high school? Where'd you grow up? I think you're
an island guy, right from the islands, Long Island. And what made
you want to be in the fire service? You're all man. Your brother's
what I could say it like five or six. My uncle's were Valey's right.
We'd be over their house and I just remember siren going off whatever and
then running out the door. And then I'd say about nine or ten,
got a bike, so you can he the sirens and all the volleys,
you know, all the companies around, and uh, we're just like the
sirens are golf and you just like get on your bike and start riding and
see what's going on. And uh at about I was passing the fire volley
house I'm in now, and one of the guys are sitting out front and
we just stopped to talk and he say, hey, you want to join
the junior fire Department. I'm like, what's that? And he's so he
gives me any applications and I joined him in seventy six at eleven years old.
Wow, dude, why do you set it up for us a little
war, be a little more descriptive, Like did you have the bike with
the baseball cards on the big had the big banana seat right down the handleballs?
Well that was a swim That was a swim with it was a big
banata seat, right. I was a I was, I had what I
had that he was Pope? What time was that, Mat linden Hurst.
I grew up in Northern Hurst. Oh not that south of the No,
that's trash down there. Bro, you don't want to go with the So
you have any brothers and sisters your own child? Tell us a little about
the early days. There was Lutsky household, five sisters, five I've sent
the estrogen running around in it. Where were you? Mom was divorced.
It was those six of me. Oh my god, Holy Christ. So
you were doing a lot of fighting whatever and one bathroom everybody where were you
in the pecking order? Right in the middle smacked it. You had to
smack a few guys around, I'm sure at some point, right or no
boyfriends? Yeah? Yeah, everybody everybody was like the two older ones,
three older ones were you know? By the time I was eleven or twelve.
They were already eighteen and oh all right, yeah, yeah, right
to household. A lot of polker going on in the house. But what
was going on in the house? Bro okay, pop boss, poking hole
in this wall, poking hole in that wall. What's going on? What's
your mom? Battalion or something? Was your mother? No, my mother
was Irish, So you're an Irish Irish and Polish Irish Polish hip. So
you had either you had just like boiled meat or you're eating cabasi one or
the other. Yeah, probably most likely Chucks Coutts Chicken college. College can't
go wrong. Brot gold golding the juniors at eleven. What are you doing
in the juniors at eleven besides sweeping the floors? Uh, they're bringing you
down for drills. You're doing uh, you know as what we're still doing
now today with the kids. Uh, come down. Actually back then,
we actually we didn't go on the fire trucks, but we'd come down to
help them pack hoose if they had something right, you know, you got
a little part of it and uh, just doing a little bit of training
here, and I mean it was a little you know, just like the
job was. It was like, you know, you set your kids off
with these guys and uh, you know they're they're lighting up a car fire
in a parking lot and we're putting it out. You know, So ain't
doing that now? You do with any of your friends, and you did
it by yourself. Oh, I just joined and then I met all the
guys in the fireous. Yeah, they were all guys I had known any
guys from the job that we know today or no, nobody, nobody was
on a job from over there. Really, I was just going to ask
that question to him. You must have, like, because it seems like
a lot of the guys out in Long Island they when they joined, especially
our ages group, they always had a lot of like the senior guys that
were on our job in the in the volleys already. Yeah. No,
there was some guys that are on in the valleys now that are on but
not back then. No, No, at least nobody's find the really.
Yeah, and then what did you become? Like, what'd you graduate to?
What's what's there? The junior firefighter at seventeen you become a fine regular
firefighter. You have like a probation still too at seventeen eight years, oprobation
for six months or a year or something like that. But you get it
earlier than if you come up the streets, you joined at eighteen. If
you're in the juniors, you joined at seventeen. So you were pretty accustomed
to fire. When did you get your first job, like, you know,
yeah, in the volleys? Yeah, I don't actually remember my first
one. I do remember the first fatal We actually it was came in as
a brush fire and we get there and it's actually a fort going along the
railroad tracks. But we're still like, all right, so we've start to
put it out and I don't know, I guess the parents my kids were
over here before they were in the fort oh ship and two of them are
inside that. Oh that's we didn't know. We're going to put it out
and get ready to go home. And it wasn't for the parents telling us,
like I think my kids were in there. We're like, okay,
we'll check, but we're like, we don't think so. And then all
of a sudden we've seen them. So was there like a little clubhouse or
something that they built at least a long island everybody lived, you know,
in the woods because he built forts and your hu yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, you know, drinking, smoking weed or whatever they were doing.
You know, it was not on the beach, you know. And
yeah, people would build ford so you know, get some plywood and throw
something together to protect themselves from the elements, I guess, and wow,
I don't know, they fell asleep with a candle or something. Probably like
I got in in late eighty two, eighty three, so that was probably
like eighty three eighty four. You know. So what did you do at
the high school? What kind of jobs did you have before you got on
the job. So two days after high school I joined the I got in
the town of Babylon, which is the highway to Pontment, you know,
patching holes and cutting grass and did that. Took the test in eighty seven
and three thousand on a list and everybody's telling me, oh, you gotta
get hired. Three thousand, you're good, You're good. And it took
me to the end of ninety four to get on. Yeah, I was
on that list. I was seventeen forty two and I got on in May
of ninety three. Because they weren't hiring on that list, they would do
one hundred at every three months or something crazy. Yeah, it would do
BS numbers and and for some reason, I don't even remember why I do
it about it today. I didn't I didn't take the ninety one or ninety
two tests. I didn't take it, so I thought I was going to
get high right, and uh. Then the last class was supposed to be
July ninety four, and Juliani actually extended it to classes. Thank god for
Giuliani. Bro. Yeah, still you would have still been he was what
what was your number? Mass eighty? Did my cousin? Was my cousin
in your class? Louis Rofrano? I think he was the last class roof
was he? Well? Maybe I remember he was. He was three thousand.
I don't know if you can make that out, but this was the
the group. Yeah, I don't know if he Yeah, he was.
He was. Yeah, you would remember him, you know, angry guy,
Yeah, not very smiley. Yeah, you would have known him.
Yeah. Well I think that was like thirty right after the thirty something hundred.
I didn't make that one with rough. I had to take it again
in ninety ninety one, and then I was in the first class and the
next one, so I was right behind you. Yeah, two classes behind
you, and then you guys did rotation. Right. Yeah, that was
a bad day though, bro. I actually liked it. Man, I
got to see different parts of the city. I worked in Manhattan, I
worked and assigned to Brooklyn with to Manhattan and a truck in Queen's. I
didn't think it was that bid get to see on the job. The only
thing that was bad was, you know, you were on probation for three
years basically, you know what I mean. I just felt like every every
guy that came in, I always felt like, this guy's getting screwed,
you know, so we're try and make him feel better because he had already
done is you know, yeah you empty third year, you guys are still
looking at it. You like, shid the funk, I'm just getting there.
Yeah, And especially if that wasn't your company, they didn't want to
really invest that much time because you will leave it anyway, right, you
know, unless you were good. I mean, there were guys that we
try to keep you, try to keep you and the next class of coming
there and be another five guys you wanted to keep all yeah, right,
yeah, and then everybody thought they were going back to the busy shop.
Yeah yeah, I'm like, okay, maybe unless you had a guy like
who was a lightning rod. And you know who my lightning rod was,
right, Roofy, Remember little Frankie Deseason. Yeah, yeah, he walked
into the fire house with me. He's like, listen, I'm not gonna
be hit off from the Bronx. I'm a seventy three engine. This is
really how we do it up in the Bronx. I was like, thank
god he walked in bro that was it took the pressure right off here.
Yeah, he didn't get the memo keep your mouth shut and keep your mouth
shut. Oh shit. You always need a guy like that. You need
a lightning rod, you know, even in Proby School, you need a
lightning getting somebody to fuck up that you're just gonna pay attention to all the
time. Right, Who are you in Troby School with guys? Anybody?
Uh? Guys that Well? I went want to one A four with this
guy Kevin Hogan, who ended up being like just such a great guy.
We have twenty four part in Forever over there, but uh Joe swinging like,
guys, I know, I don't, I don't. I'd have to
look at the picture and see exactly you know it was it Jerry O'Shea was
in our class, all right, yeah, yeah, I don't know if
he's in the picture. Did you guys know Wally Moreca Yeah, Wally was
one O three. Yeah, while he's over there, what's up? Bro?
Where's Wally's while he's on the right, all the way on the right.
Oh, I see him? Yeah, yo, bro, you know
if you if your eyeballs have seen as much fire and because he went to
the doctor how to get glasses, And I says, yo, Wally,
what's going on with the glasses? He goes, listen here, bruff.
If your eyeballs are seen as much fire and smoke as these eyeballs, you
need glasses too. Did he wind up the rescue too? Yeah? Yeah,
So one O four was a tilla right, yeah, tell you and
uh what do they what do they call that? The something south side?
South side? But during the hey day, they would do a lot of
work, right, They had a lot of unit citations that worked there a
couple of times on details they they they did a lot more before I got
there, but we were still like figures we got I think Eddie anzelone told
you you were like trapped between the East River one nineteen want to wait and
one forty six. It was like he was surrounded by them. So the
hare he was pretty small, right, if you caught something, it was
occupied because everything over there was occupied at the time. A lot of people
came out in one oh four. We keep talking about that. I bring
up every time somebody says one o four. I talk about the guy who
bought up the Brownstones across the street, you know, when they were all
vacant. Yeah, that's in the eighties. I'm sure about what seventies o
that. When I was there, I can't not remember saying somebody, Uh
it was uh, it was like the senior guy in the engine and he
he was still there when I got there. No ship. I didn't know
that you'd go cross check everything out. No ship. That's awesome. On
the on the on the City's time, thank you. Allegedly alleg happened.
I heard it happen to somebody, right right right, Yeah, he was
actually doing b I Roofy wouldn't know. He was expecting inspected. See what
you could have you could have invested it if you had Doug building in specially.
Yeah, who knows what money you would have found, not any more
money, but yeah, is that what they do is that? I remember
I think I worked there at the time that they do the burning of the
bread in the corner. Well they did nineteen. They do it throughout Williams.
No, it wasn't in one nineteen. It was in It was in
the engine where one O four is I think twenty one. Yeah, and
I walked down. The guy was laughing, and I'm like, what's up.
What's the funny? Guess you'll see, don't worry. Like fifty runs
and the leave it like six am and they wouldn't be back to like no
ship. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's they're supposed
to burn bread, but they're throwing chairs in there and furniture and there and
everything in the pile. You know. So all you do is go from
one rubbish fire to the next. Yeah, that was a night toll.
You didn't want to work. You remember your first job there peting. Yeah.
So we get there and my captain was Wick of Cobs. He was
he was a character, but that's a name. Yeah, he was a
one thirty two guy, one o two guy, like you got a great
uh pedigree and I get there and he's a bull breaker and he's and he's
just he's he's in your face a little bit. He's busting chops. Uh,
and it's like I got there. Well. To start off, my
wife's intro to the fire department, which is the same thing, was I'm
there like a month and Ray Scheibel gets killed. All right, right,
I remember that. So the first time we got to do anything with the
house is his funeral, and she's like, what did I just get myself
into? You know? Uh? He was in the engine right engine his
that story. I'm again, I'm just kid from Long Island. I don't
know anything looking at these buildings, going that hel Am I doing it right?
And uh the door knocks, So I opened the door, hit the
door comes up, I said, can I I don't know he's right.
I didn't really know him yet because I hadn't worked with everybody. And in
that time, he goes, can I help you? He goes, you
can't help me? Kid walks right past me. I had similar similar experience.
It was up and that was the night he was going to two sixteen.
He grabbed his stuff and he was going he was working to sixteen at
night and the job comes in and for some reason they're relocating us to want
to wait like really like five blocks away. With that, then made a
somehow we get a may day on the radios and we just take it in
and when we got there, he was out on the sidewalk and uh,
like, I want to see you, guys, Jimmy Burt jumps in the
ambulance with him and a couple of the guys. We take the rig to
the you know, to the hospital and he ended up not making in it.
But uh, yeah, that was my wife's intro. That's great man.
Yeah. A month and a half in, she's like, just like
it was all the time. No, no, I hope not. Couldn't
believe it what happened with him. Hot Sola was working on him, right,
yeah, and they had debated him down the room too, right yeah,
and uh they used didn't get air into his lungs. Do they have
a heart attack? I don't remember. He went down. I don't know
if it was considered a heart attack, but he went down in the job
and they had him out pretty quick. He was a big boy, but
they got him out and they had him out on the sidewalk. I happened
to be there because it was their neighborhood, so they were there and uh
whatever, you know, just went south. So uh. But the first
job where it's like march, these guys are like, you're never gonna catch
a job. They break my jobs, and uh, it just comes in.
I think it was South athon Bury and it's like the sixth floor and
uh it's me captain and this guy Mike Smith, big towel guy. He's
got the irons. I got the can and uh, he's like, come
on, you know, six flog climb all the way up. I'm like
huffing and puffing, and he's like, let's go start hitting the you know,
I gott to force the door. I'm I'm hitting and catch my hangs
down and smoke comes out and I don't even do this with my face piece.
And the captains get the fucking it with the can, get in and
I'm going I'm like, a I get in there. He's like, when
I open his door, you hit the bedroom? Was going. That was
it? With that, the windows start crashing in from the ov coming in
the rear rode the fire escape, I'm like, what is going on?
It was attacking, right, attacking. It was out in two seconds.
The engine came up, knocked it down. Was only one room, but
it was what just the hell just happened? He and yeah, And you
know it's crazy, is you had a little bit of an inkling of like
going to fires, you know, somewhat not like that, probably, but
you know you have that a little bit of experience. Like Matt, you
get a guy from the city. We had no idea and I did the
same exact thing. The guys yelling at me, you know, get in
here. I'm like, what, Like, I didn't even get my mask
on you. I'm trying fumbling around. The guy's grabbing you, pulling you
in. It was the first time, you see. I mean, I
don't know what he had, but he didn't He didn't have a mask on,
but he knew he didn't need it. You know. He was one
of those old, smalthy guys that didn't need it at that point, you
know. And uh, he just yelled at me. I mean I could
tell you yelling me with no mask because he's like, get the fuck and
uh. But you know, it all worked out and you came up,
put the rest of it out, and uh, but that's the kind of
fire you walk for you first five ye not something that's gonna you know,
and then you're done right, like you shell shot you hope for a one
bedroom job. I mean, those guys, they were the ones that told
me. Those senior guys here, Johnny Rizzo, Mickey Moran, Rizzo,
Frank Rizzo. Yeah, so I went to so John Rizzo was the senior
guy in one four. I went to Provy School with his son, John
Jr. And when I got a sign, He's like, my dad's there
you go, you know, and I'm like, all right, thank you,
like you know, and uh. And John was just a gentleman besides
being a senior guy, was just a gentleman. And he was like,
you know, how you do things. You know, you don't want to
wear your mask all the time because eventually in your career something's gonna be wrong
with it. So you gotta know how to take a feed. You know,
whether it's only for two seconds, but you need to learn because if
you just if you panic. Yeah no, yeah, So we didn't you
know, we didn't really put on mask on too early that we tried to
save your aad you had thirty minute bottles at that time, you know,
so that was great. We had the little bottles then, right, yeah,
baby bottles. Yeah, that was great. You know. Was Danny
Kruger that at that time? Was he the boss there at any time?
Or no? Not that I remember now, all right, So he must
have got there before or right after you left there, because he got promoted
out of one seventeen and then I know he worked in one off. He
was there for a number of years, but you might have been out of
there ready. He uh, I'll tell you what they did. So you
know, here's the kid from Long Island doesn't really know anything. I'm reading
the books in Provy school. I'm getting them down, passing all the tests,
it's no problem, but I'm still like not understanding what the hell is
a row frame. I'm like, I don't know if this is here.
I can see an MD, but I don't really like I'm looking at it.
I understood the three windows with the fire escape, but the four windows
and everything else they understood that is passing them. So when I get there,
I'm like, can you guys just take me and show me what the
hell of oa framements? Because I really had no clue and over there.
We drove over to Green Point and you know, five stories and yeahs long,
you know, this is what they do. It was great, you
know those guys. And at that point too, we had what they called
over there Wally World, which is it was off of Kent Avenue. It
was just all vacants and uh, we go to we go to cut a
car up one day and it's a vacant. It looks like he was there
about five years, you know, play with the Hurst tool and we're gonna
cut it up. And we start cutting it up and some guy comes up
to me. He looked like almost right, and he's like, what are
you guys doing? And we're like, it's just I'm like, I was
like, let's go. Everybody back up. Allegedly, you know, he
used to that much. We were just starting and he's like, what are
you guys doing in my car? And they're like, in your car,
holds it out. Remember Hoppy Hopkins used to like to do that, you
remember Johnny Hopkins. Yeah, So we get to we get a run to
in front of O'Neill's one time called smoking, right, So we go up
there and sure, off, it's just it's smoking. It could be radiating.
John's like taking a part. Take the hood off, you know,
cut the doors off, cut it, cut it all off. Next day,
next morning, the doorbell rings, the door. The guys like,
yeah, you cut my car up last night. It was another job,
so you know, it was a piece of ship. I don't really care,
but yeah, you could have came in the ball with THERESD fucking card
is before you took the whole fucking car. I hope they took took up
some money for the guy, for God's sake. Yeah, oh man.
But Wiley World was also good because of the vacance. We were up there
cutting roofs all the time, bracks and that. You know, it was
a couple of rolldowns where it would cut, you know, it was.
It was a good place to learn. Those guys were phenomenal. Then It's
not like that now over there. Bro probably the really right state's insane over
there. Now, Yeah, you could have You could have left some dead
bodies over there at that time, you know what I mean, in the
eighties nineties, you could have left dead people laying in the street. Nobody
wouldn't even know for a week. Louis, you would you brought up something
a little bit before. And it was true. You learned real quick,
like not just the proby, but you're the low guy even when you're not
the proby anymore. And uh, the captain or the boss would be like,
all right, somebody go get the elevator, bring it back up,
and we're just standing around and then you know, you guys, everybody go
like this, no, but you go, he's looking at you about that.
Yeah, I was talking to you. That was a big Dominican area
there, right, it's is it still it was? Yeah, it was
a firehouse. And then when you got like on the other side of was
it broad when the bridge came off the Waivesburg Yeah, yeah, then it
became it was all the Civics over that pretty much. But I think the
Acidics owned all the buildings by us, I said Dominican. I thought it
was a heavy. No, it was kind of shovel by us, right
right right right. I don't know, yeah, yeah, I don't know,
but it was they had big buildings there. They had a lot of
six story jobs like lining like for block after block, like one fifty four
area, you know, like they were yeah, yeah, yeah, a
lot of head and popularly too over there. When you start to get the
roof there, it was, you know, the show was doesn't matter if
they were to foreseen you guys or or anybody. The ladders going up,
we could be gasleak. The lad's going up, climbing like you were climbing
out ladder all the time. The only thing they're like, all right,
what do you want to do here? Uh? All right, try to
enjoin the building and bring some says it just in case the fences, you
know, like you went through the motions on every run, every run.
That's good teachers here, right? You did? You know? I couldn't
believe it like gas leaks, ladders were up, you know, you know
the did they still do that now? You know? I mean again,
I'm sure that it depends on who's you know, who's working. You know,
which guys are working each If you could have the best company in the
world, it depends on who's working, you know what I mean? It
doesn't eighteen B team. If the shows were taught by the guys before them,
I would believe they still are. You know, you didn't get the
roofs over there? I think I got it, like I almost a probation
first time. I got the room, you know, like you were saying
though p D that they're kind of like hemmed in there, you know,
like they they got that. It's like once seventeen was the same thing.
You know, you had one sixty three, you had one sixteen, one
fifty four. They although they had a big area, it was just you
know, you didn't get much like going different areas like you were. You
were kind of stuck in that corner there, right, Yeah, yeah,
yeah, you got the you know, you think you go into that box
and your you know, second truck on the second along. You know,
you're like sun up. Who was telling us that they used to drive by
boxes that weren't their boxes to go to another box. Who the hell was
just telling us that? Be stan ryback when he was in two seventeen.
He said they would go like three blocks down it wasn't their box, you
know, but they would go two blocks further and it was their box.
It made no sense. One forty sticks had a bigger area. I think,
yeah, in that area. Yeah, it was good. It's good
working over a working in tow Laddy got a little bit used to that,
you know, but uh, nothing beat the ov man in the Tailler driving
to Tailler. It was the best you were doing your Kramer, What do
you doing? Thumb thumb stand at packing up of the thumbs, backing up
the thumbing. I don't I never did it. Why did they? Uh
you know hollow? Are you there before they allowed you to beat it?
I don't think. I like, so they would bring the you would have
the OV and maybe you'd have the roof so the OV would lock in.
When is Pompier sit back there with you? And then just like we drive
to the store to get the meal and they let you drive, you know,
but uh, I couldn't even couldn't even tell you the first time I
had the ov OV, you know, but and then it was on you.
It wasn't bad going straight, it was fine. It was back into
that flyouse you you might make sure you didn't hit the wall or anything.
We'll be driving again anytime soon. So you have any other job before we
talk about the job, brother? Uh? The only answer, Uh,
we had a picture of Bronco before we were talking about although he called now
Bronco was in one forty six, Yeah, yeah, he was. This
was actually this might have been Ray Scheibel's black dedication. This picture. So
you know him prior to the to the yeah job. Yeah, and so
he calls me up first day, Yeah I fucking had a hair holy ship
there, pet Yeah, waff So he goes, uh so they go Maslenski
department phone. So I picked up. I go literally the first day like
probably there like a half hour. Hello. Is that the way you answer
the fucking department phone? Hello? I forgot I forgot school. Nobody told
you how to answer the department phone. Like, it's a department what's called?
He's like, it's Bronco, just breaking your jobs? So how did
you know him from outside the job? Yeah? Outside the job, Yeah,
we we knew each other. He was a Hempstead guy, but we
had we have mutual friends and stuff like that. Right. He was on
the football team, right, Yeah, at that time he was a big
dude. He was big, but he was just he was just a gentle
guy. And where was he working at that time? When he went out
of Provate school he went to one forty six. I think he was on
before you, Pete. Yeah, I think he was like a two years
before me, a year and a half before me, something like that,
right, yeah, because he was off probation by the time I got there.
So I used to love h he was in fourth and rescue fourth and
we'd get off of something like a Roco the other red helmets. It looked
like a fucking peanut Chell on top of the yama on the top of his
head because he was so big, a little red yama. Yeah. I
mean, the the clientele over there was insane. The It was amazing how
they came out for fires and they just were everywhere. And we had we
had one job I had. I had richiemcdata at the OV. I think
I had a roof and they toil us on a farm and get reports to
people trap blah blah bah. So it ends up being a like a ten
story high rise over there towards one nineteen, and I think they were out,
so we got in first and uh, they're just pouring out of the
building, rolling out of the building. So there's people to win though,
like eight stories up, and I well, I'm not using the you know,
it's it's an isolated building. But I guess I gotta take the stairs.
So I get lucky and I go I see like, uh, super
tennis. I'm like, go, how do you get to the how do
you get the roof? He's like, right there, it was like a
sideway stairs the door that went in. So I go in that door and
it's like two couches in the basement, roaring by the elevator. So it's
nothing. I'm like, it's two couches, two couches in the basement coming
on the fore side. So I may start making my way upstairs to the
roof to open it up. I get down, my look and it's just
a c you know, It's just its like a feast, right, like
like San Gennaro feast, that's what. And Richie mcdaide, we're talking about
the job a little bit, and Richie's like, do you see what happened?
I go now he goes. They he was trying to put the air
the job, was trying to put the area up. Richie was gonna start
climbing it, and they took like a chair and threw it through the window
right just fires nowhere new and they were getting ready to drop their kids,
like eight stories to people below. And he got to the end of the
line. He's like, stop, we got it. We's not stayed there,
stay there, And they stayed there, thank God, it's almost like
they're like they don't I don't even know what the hell. It's like they're
like they're grown ups, but they're like got a mentality of like a five
year old, no idea. There was so many, so many seeds right
over there. Yeah, I don't get talking about Yeah, Matt Petie,
I had. I had one of my first jobs as lieutenant. I was
in one nineteen covering and we get a report, same thing, multiple calls.
I think I said this on the on the podcast at some point,
and the towel out, it couldn't turn into block. We got stuck on
the corner. It was too you know, like with there was double park
calls or something. We couldn't get in. So I get out and the
smoke was down in the street. Was like a foggy, rainy day.
I couldn't there were so many people. I couldn't even find the fire building
I had, Like I could barely make out where the engine was. And
when I got there, I had to follow the line to the fire building
because there were people, I mean like shoulder to shoulder, like shoulder when
you said they were pouring out of the building. It's unless you've seen it.
You wouldn't believe that that's it's even possible. And they're all like,
there's like three thousands of them out there, there's not. When I worked
in in uh, who's one nineteen to eleven? You go on like building,
it's aunt you come out. One kid, one a city kid.
We'd running down the street with my helmet on. The other kid would have
my buck gear running this way, or they would take whatever they get taken.
They're just running all around the rig with what the fuck is going on?
What I saw kill somebody that's grabbing They're all they're all in the ring
like you get out of the ring. They're all in the ring. It
is. I would never believe here's this kid from long now ago? What
the hell is going on here? Before? What is going on here?
It was? It was insane. They're like zombies. They're like they're like
they don't answer you when you talk to them, they don't say anything.
It's like they're yet. They're like walking, they're like five year olds.
Yeah, they just want yeah, there's the fire, where's the fire?
How many going on? Miss Lensky, aren't you one of us? And
Miss lensk oh, he's one of the Polish shoes. Nobody can he's one
of the Polish shoes. Oh you're looking for the Millers? Which what are
you looking for? This? Hold on? I had it there Loo got
miss Lynsky. He's like nit with I'm clodding up the ladder with Lynsky.
So when when did you start to uh, let's let's get to the h
When did you start to feel it? When did you feel We got to
talk about his grab and what O four? Oh I didn't even know he
had a grab? No, what's going on? Pitch, let's Charlie Hendry.
Hey, bro, we got to us about his grab. Bro.
Season one, you have two thousands for a grab bug January first, bro,
he Uh, when we're gonna work in the NEAs? Even his day,
you know, Uh, kid was young, My son was young,
so we weren't doing anything. So word his day and the guys are great,
right, So going and I got the roofs to night tour Patty Williams.
I think he's a battalion chief now he wasn't the rock for a while
he is now but super super sweetheart guy. And uh we do to night
too. I think we went to one bs job nothing crazy. Uh,
getting get in the morning, and Tommy Montgomery came down from fourteen truck.
He was assigned out place another superstar, another Greek guy. You think he
worked a night too with us. So he goes, all right, mass
you got the roof again, and I go, I look at Williams,
are like, fuck kidding me. You can leave me on a roof of
twenty four And he goes, all right, take the ions right. Literally
five seconds later, boboo, you go out the door way. Yes.
Literally, it's like like nine oh five in the morning, is it right
after it was the first tour of you know, ninety nine, and uh,
we go out and we get out Paddy Demic and Patty demics. They
I had the audience because pat went with the boss to the fireroom and uh,
I said, I'm going left. He's like okay, and he went
right. And again I think it was only one or two rooms. It
wasn't crazy. And I go left and I'm feeling and I feel a bed
and I'm like, god, I got I got nothing. And then all
of a sudden, I go, I think I feel something, and then
I go for the foot like I grab it, and I got a foot
and I go, I got something with that. The boss come back.
He goes, you got something. I'm like, yeah, I got somebody.
So he gives the forty five take it down, and somebody says the
dog's dying, So we take the dog down, right, can come back
up? Fires out two sixteen worked on her. I think they were in
the medal day book that that next year they worked on her and got it
back. She was out, and uh so Williams is like, you fucking
kidding. I think I would say the same exact thing literally, because I'm
gonna have the roof for twenty four, really pat, And he's like,
because I think he was gonna have the audience for twenty four And he's like,
all right, take the allions and no shit doing this later. Yeah,
and uh again it was it was an okay grab. I wasn't crawling
through anything crazy, right, I just went to left and uh, you
know, what'd you get? What'd you get? Nice? And Tommy Montgomery
ended up passing away uh a year and a half later from pancreatic cancer brutal
and uh he he knew a couple of the big cheese really well. And
that's probably how I got it, like you talked to him like he wanted
the house to get something. Yeah, that's the most important thing. That
was the one thing. I don't know if when was the last time like
the house had gotten something. So he was really pushing it. And I
think once he got sick it like to me, it was I felt like
it was one of his dying bushes, you know that it made sure it
happened because he passed away before Metal Day. Oh he didn't get a chance
to see it. Yeah, I mean that is one of the best one
of the best things that can happen to a firehouse, right is if somebody
gets him out, don't even matter. It's such a prideful thing that uh,
you know for everybody turns out, you know, it's it was.
It was great. It was great. You know. Uh the guys took
care of me because I was already in uh to seventy when they announced it,
like yeah, so uh and the guys called me up right away like
we got you. Because I think Donna Schneider was in two seventy. He
was like the commiser. He's like, you know, we'll get your limo
if you want. I said not to one of four has already told me
they got it and everything else. He's like, okay because to seventy already
had a few guys going the medal day that year, and uh so both
both houses were great, you know, and it was a great day,
you know, wow great. Yeah, and uh he had ended up Uh
it was a long day. Did the woman end up living or did she
passed away? Yeah? Yeah, I think she lived. Wow. Wow,
you never talked to her? No, No, that that was one
thing, like my wife would say, like she didn't even come by the
fire house and thank him, like tell you know, she who knows,
you know, like screw this, I'm going to a Ruba or something.
She's alive. So and uh so, what like Ruffie said to you before,
when did you get the thought that maybe you wanted to go to SOCC.
I knew he wanted to do more work, you know, and I
loved one of four, but I just wanted I wanted to do more work,
you know. And uh so I knew, uh Chief Richson uh out
on the island. That's not a bad guy to know. No, No,
it wasn't. And uh so you called Tommy uh huh yeah, probably
not how No, so uh. You knew each other through the volleys,
and he he seemed somewhere and he's like, hey, uh you about the
new stars And I'm like, no, I didn't hear anything. He's like,
they're opening up, and uh, I think I'm gonna be the captain
of one of them. And I go, you're gonna leave two thirty four,
but you got your mind, you know, like, and he's like,
yeah, you know, it's gonna be a good thing. And I'm
like, oh, he goes, you know, he just threw it out
there, like, hey, little bit, what do you think I go
a lot of training right He's like, yeah, I go, I just
had my son. I don't I know, it's gonna be a lot.
I don't think I can do it right now, you know, cap he
was a captain and he's like, all right, you know, so you
know, don't worry about it, but you know, if you if you
you know, just think about it, you know, down the road.
So, like a year later, my son was going to be two.
We had like a bunch of babysitters set up. So I gave my buddy
a call and I said, hey, remember me, I'm still interested that
we had Yeah, yeah. So he was like, hey, I got
a guy. I just got a guy from Rescue three, and I got
some other guys, but you know, definitely, you know you're going to
be on the list. For me, it took me a year to get
there. You know, it still took me. Yeah, I got there
and March at twenty twenty twenty. But uh, he just got over Dave
Dangerfield. All right, I'm not even in that room. You know.
That guy was came over from Rescue three. I guy was like, you
know, it's a superstar. You know, I'm just happy I got there
eventually, you know. So we just waited and waited and then like it
was like March or twenties, early March, and he's like, you know,
he calls me on the department phone. Hey bro, Yeah, that's
how he hit That's exactly how we would do it. All right, Bro,
you're coming over in two weeks. I'm like, get the fuck out
of here. He's like yeah, I said, oh my god, that's
awesome. Thank you. He goes, yeah, you're coming over with a
guy from two twelve. I'm like, oh, He's like Richie Wiley.
I'm like, get out of here, right. So I'm like, that's
insane, hang up the phone. Yeah if I oul. Later we go
to like a frame job, go over by one forty six, Good job,
catch a good piece of it. I come back with hanging out and
it's some phone Ma's department phone, Hey bro, how is that job?
It was great? And he's like, all right, so you know we're
gonna do a lot of work over here too. I said, oh,
I know. I'm I'm psyched up, you know. And then I think
I was working that day at night, and then we ran in with two
twelve somewhere and maybe a call fier. So I'm like, hey, boys,
just when I actually three five is real tight. You knew all those
guys, they knew the race Seeis and Tommy Bones And want to wait,
you were you worked everywhere? You guys probably did the same thing wherever you
were. You know, the battalion was tight, like we knew a lot
of guys in different places, especially if he there four five years, you
know, yeah, right, no doubt. I'm saying, hey, I'm
gonna be uh And I didn't know, No, he didn't tell me why
he was coming over. Sorry, So I found out that night and I
go yeah, I'm gonna be leaving a couple of senior guys at two twelve
because I had worked there for like forty five days to equalize manpower, like
two summers earlier. So he was like, uh, They're like, yeah,
Richie Wiley's going And I'm like really, and that's what I found out
And I'm like really, He's like, yeah, he's coming over two weeks
ago and he did it, came over with me. We were twenty four
partners together. We got who was there when you got there? Uh,
it was tired of rich It was Christopher Goalie, Jimmy Earle and Dougie Sloan,
the original bosses. Just seely Bell, Cecilia Davey, Tommy Bone,
Tavella, you know Lee Polliatta, Widow Pickford, look at Pickford. Yeah,
yeah, who was that on the back step standing up? That's a
kid? My actually kid went to Provy School and he came over from one
twenty five. Mike Rudlico. I'm so sure I don't remember him. Yes,
I think he made it like six months and it just wasn't for him
and he went back. Uh, but Bobby Lang made it. Bobby Langes
right next to Pickford is right there. Yeah, Moyak's right there. That's
where we got the hay Fellas from. Was huge for hey, hey fellas.
Everybody was Fellas. It was great love, he was great. We
did it all the time. And so says he coming with like, hey
fella, you know he was Uh, this is a little later on.
This is probably like four or five maybe, Yeah, Peer is that Peer
there? Yeah? Wow, how young he looks. He came over right
before. I want to ruin his day, but he probably I know he
was there for nine to eleven, so he probably came over like that the
spring of one maybe right. Who's on the outside there? I don't know
who that is? Which one all the way though? Next to you?
Yeah is Kurt Warner? Yeah, I don't know if I remember him either.
And Richie's still there, right, she's still there. Yeah. If
Andy retires, which there's rumors he might go, uh, and he's gonna
be seen, you guy. He's been there that long. Huh. Yeah,
he got there. He was like he was there like it was like
two years on a job and he got over. Wow, came from the
Bronx. I didn't realize he was there that long. Asi. Yeah,
as rumors you might go, so wow, and then the other guy's with
her. You know, he was a good guy, right, It was
there one thirty two, another probably school guy with a yeah. Yeah,
he was good with that's in the middle, right. Yeah. Goalie was
first because he called us away because we didn't catch any work for like two
months, and he was like, you two white clouds got to get out
of here doing nothing. He was breaking out chops. Uh. But finally
when we broke it. I don't know when Richie broke well, I can't
remember my first one there, but uh, it was insane. Uh.
And then all of a sudden he just kicked in, like you guys,
all of a sudden you were just yeah, it was great. It was
unbelievable to us. I mean I'm talking two to three, not a lot,
but not what they were doing, you know, warriams, but two
to three felt like it was good for you guys because you guys were get
the rescue to all the jobs. Right, So yeah, we had we
had to compete up right. You know, we're close, so we might
get in before them at one job, but not on the other job.
Whereas you guys, uh, you know, you could get into all of
those dollhouses all the time. So it's good. Yeah, we have a
little shot through the good guys, Petie. How how many jobs we catch
together? We caught a couple of jobs together, right, Yeah, we
did. We did a decent amount. Yeah. Uh you I think I
caught I probably called two or three and eighty eight working in and was always
like for your Christmas party. I'm talking. I worked at two seventy and
you were driving and we caught a couple of good jobs. I know that.
Yeah, it wasn't too bad too. You had the division in with
you, right, so that that had to work out for you. Yeah.
The guys made it. Uh you know, before I got there,
they really uh founded a good relationship with the thirteenth and yeah, they took
care of us. You know, they felt like putting us in the building
and put us in that they knew it was nothing, you know. So
it was you know, the officers and the senior guys that got there to
to start the company, you know, the chiefs. I think they really
liked them, you know, and it was all as good as they were
able to see firsthand the capabilities because you were drilling on the operas floor right
for us visually fourteen really wanted them the dust the beginning. It was tough,
it was, it was crazy, and it was it was great to
me. I don't know, you got sock to me. Was it was
nothing better? Yeah? It wasn't anything better. I talked about first two
truck work first. Who had you worked? That's fine, but you know
I was. I was very fine getting in, you know, right after
the first two companies and doing a little work. I didn't have to do
much, you know, Yeah, made the move and uh, you know,
I'm trying to think back now, I'm trying to remember. We had
a job I was working in two seventy and we had the job where I
think, what what is it where the where the clear view comes down to?
What street is that over there? Where the clearview? Oh? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. So there was a bus accident there you remember the
bus like went into the fruit store over that. I wasn't working that.
Oh you are all right, I thought you right now? Right then you
went to a job. Yeah, yeah, So that we're standing there and
to eighty eight and I think they came because of the has matter or something
I forget, but we were there and we set up all the grip poists
and all that stuff, but somebody else, not yours. Yeah, I
don't remember exactly all the little things, but so this is the best.
Is my company is there? I'm working in two seventy, right, And
all of a sudden a box comes in for a baya like I don't know
what it was, like six eight, ten blocks down the road, whatever
it was, right, and they're getting, you know, a lot of
calls. Right, So I go over to the chief again. Now this
is the thirteenth division, Is that right? Because it's right, you know,
that's not too far from you. I mean it's far, but it's
not that far. It's further than to eighty eight. So here I am
thinking, I remember Wren was working a couple of guys from two eighty eight.
And I fucking go over to the chief and I'm like, Chief,
you know, I mean, it's everything's hooked up right. You don't need
us the rescue here, you know whatever. And he's like, yeah,
Louis, you don't. You guys could take that job and go ahead.
So I turn around and I'm like, let's go, we're up. I
could have swore you were working Pete, you weren't working that for that.
So we jump in the rig and I remember I remember looking out the window
and I think about Mike Everett. He's like, when you're in your company,
man, you know, that's the best company in the earth. When
you're not working at that company, it doesn't matter where you are, that's
the best company on the earth. And we turn out we go through this
job and uh uh turned out to be a pretty good job, you know
what I mean? It was just and then that's right, that's right three
got it? How did you remember all the ship? That's right? Rescue
three got into the box. And then I think Scotti had it, Maxwell
had it. I think I think I told him about it. But I
remember, like like one after the other with PD two, we were going
we went to one job and we were going to the box. I think
it turned out to be nothing, and all of a sudden, another call
came in and I remember you saying, I don't think you remember this one.
You said to me, well, that's going to be a job.
I think it. What's what's the last outpost? What company is that?
Fifty one? Yeah, so that's your company, right, two fifty one?
Right? But we were all the way out there for a different box,
so we were so close. So you're like, yeah, it's gonna
be a job. Let's we'll start heading that way. So we start going
that way, and sure as shit. You know, two one ten seventy
five, now two fifty one is kind of like the country of Queen's you
know what I mean. There's like big houses with big yards like Queen Ann
style. We turned the corner and they're just stretching the line. They're the
only company there, and we pull up. You don't remember that, PD,
I'm surprised you remember that. And then I mean literally, we get
up to the door, a couple of guys. We popped the door and
I put my my face pieces on. I remember looking over at the guy
from two fifty one. He's like, how the hell did you get here?
Like I could see it in his face. And we went in and
uh, it was a great job. I remember saying like, that's how,
that's how you got to get those jobs, right, You got to
sneak around and get in there. Now, yeah, we caught we caught
a few of them that we're coming back from another job. You know,
we just we just caught it right, you know, coming down the right
straight right street and then you here come in and you just start heading that
way. You know. The thing is you don't want to be if you're
doing that. You know it's a squad job at least for the show.
You're like, you're like all go, and I'm like, fuck that.
I don't not fucking getting in first do and got to be the engine sho
he hang out. We did that. We did that with the job with
the may Day. We had the may Day there the guy from uh Praya
one five right, that was the job where we pulled up when we heard
that. We heard that box we were going to a pull box or something
or a call fire or something. We were going to. It was like
a it was like a barbecue, but it wasn't our area, and I'm
like, why are we going to a single engine? Were going to the
stupid box, Like what the hell's three o eight? Then their box came
in and I go, oh that might be a job. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, it was only like five blocks from the barbecue. Right,
Yeah, we go we got a piece of that too. Yes, we
pulled up to that and it was blown out everywhere and we heard like a
may day, And as we were walking up, I think Pete said to
me, did you hear that may day? I said, yeah, I
heard the may day. And we walk up and the chief was like he
didn't hear it. Yeah, So we just said, hey, chief,
this somebody just gave him may day. And uh then the alpha got on
and said whoever it was, like, he just gave him may day?
And that kid ended up scrambling and he was hard behind the couch, ran
into three O eights like backup or something, and they came out the back
door. Yeah, we set up the stang on the first two engine.
I remember telling the shuffle put the stang in the front window there because the
guy was who was coming out everywhere, and then we ended up going through
the front window, right, We went through the front hinder and and he
wasn't going to charge that snag. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I'm
like, put it in the window, brother, there's a guy in there.
Put it in the window, man, it don't matter. At this
point. The guy that might have been also uh like a covering guy like,
hey, we gotta we got to back out and regroup, and we're
like what ud, that's right, pd, That's right. We talked.
We talked about that. I'm like, that's what I want to hear when
I'm hiding behind the couch. All right, everybody, let's back out and
regroup. I'm like, where the hell is it said? I want to
hear guys saying, lets get everybody moving this way. Not I remember him
saying everybody's back out. And we talked about that with the division that night
at the Yeah, that's right, I forgot about that. Bro hedn remember
that ship man. He's like a fucking no, I don't remember a lot
of stuff. What I don't remember a lot of stuff. You guys started
at one point doing a lot of enjury work too. Man, you getting
first to work? We still do. Yeah, call me BEDI the pumpercause
every time you guys got down, he was a boss in eighty eight.
You get down, He's like, yeah on a pump panel again. I'm
like, yeah, yeah, stuck here? Yeah, yeah, you guys?
What about uh? Like the work you guys had a little more I
think problem that we did with what other first two trucks and companies around right,
Yeah, it was I don't know what to tell you, like you
know it is what. I'm not going to get into it, you know,
like they just I don't know, they didn't like us for whatever reason.
And that was way. But you know that was the two years before
I got there, right, you win' were never going to straighten it out.
So it is what it is. Oh, it's like what uh what's
his name? Gallione said? Listen, he didn't want nobody nobody wants anybody
taking any of the way. He did say that, right, that's what
you thought about this clock common sense? Yeah, I wouldn't. Can you
imagine being like one thirty six and you know two eighty eight opens up down
the road, or you know one twenty six and two seventy opens up down
the road. Come on, you don't what but you know it's hard enough
to get into work, you know. Now you got five more guys trying
to squeeze pasture at every fucking you know opportunity. So if you're smart,
you you moved in the right way. Go in the front door, man,
Come on, man, Yeah, we had a we had another one.
Uh. Rolie was working again, Jimmy Rankman, and we get we
get down it's south of Rockaway towards wood Haven and it's it's a good basement
job. And uh it's Howie Carson's at five one, and he loved us
and he was just like that guy went to like I do don't know if
you had Billy on it. That guy went to He had every fire in
Queens when he was working. It was insane. It wasn't like one room,
he had every fire. It was like nine rooms and buildings. And
that's that's who you want. Rights. We just wanted to look at the
fight, look at the Ryan List, Carlson's work, and a good chance
we're going to work tonight. This is a cold day. And we get
it in and uh only goes to Chief calls and he's like, see if
you know, squad's here, and he's like this go go like so we
just go. He knew he's gonna put us to work. So me and
Rank would make the first floor and we come in the back door. We
make the first floor and we do a search and it's got louver doors,
right, so they're really not protecting it. But it burns through the first
woe in the living room and it now takes the front bay window and it's
out the bay window because the engines make it a good move, but they
gotta go from the rear entrance all the way to the front of the house.
So they're doing it, but they just it's taking a little while.
And then we were here, so we're in like the other side of the
front door, and he comes the second line, the third line or whatever's
coming in the front door. And they got good fire in the living room
because it burnt through, and so we close the louver doors. I didn't
really do anything for us, and so all of a sudden, we had
a line behind that front fourier door and we're like shut it down, shut
down, and they're like you can hear him, like is that somebody in
there? And we opened the door for them, and then we're like,
come on in, fellas, and and then the truck came like whatever truck
he came in. I'm like, boss, the front room's done searched.
Whatever you just got, you know, we started the other stuff. He's
like, all right, thanks, but yeah, they we opened the door
for them, like we just came in the back door. It was wide
open, so it was real easy. But they were couldn't comprehend that we
were behind that door, that they were trying to come in. It wasn't
that bad, you know, it was. It was great though. Another
great story that me and Jimmy laugh at. You know. It was who
are you guys over there? Reckman and Greco and yeah right Ollie, yeah,
uh well, me and Vinnie were real tight when he was you know,
before he got promoted. It was the one thing with the job,
right, he got tight with guys and then for whatever reason, left,
but they got promoted retired. It's like, you know, you get tight,
like me and Vinnie are still tight. We still break each other's chops,
but we were pretty super tight, you know, like he was.
He was kind of running that company full of the nine to eleven like he
was. He was. He was the guy who needed to, you know,
make statements and make sure guys were going to stay and stuff and break
balls if he had to. And uh, strong personality, so that's why.
Yeah, and he was good and he you know, he never backed
down from anybody, and he was just told it like it was. You
know. And I think somebody actually sent me a picture of you with Reco.
Can you pull that up? Oh? I do? I think I
have that one. Bully. Yeah. Oi was another guy. So I
was there, which one do you want first, the color one or the
other one? The real one? This one? Yeah? Where is that
from? That was totally shots. I think that was his retirement party.
Somebody put it up at and then it made it to my retirement party.
My god, that is awesome. Nice sweater. Yeah is it? I
don't know. I always got you have a Bronco thing. I was gonna
say Bronco look like American Airlines. But there was also the other picture.
Bro, then you have this one. Yeah. Well I didn't call you
Piggy the brain because Paully was the little guy with the brain. He was
like, I'd like the brain. I've never seen that before. I showed
us that. Yeah, oh my god, we had When we had Anthony
on he was talking about you know, we were saying that too, that
you know, his old man seemed to have. He was like, and
I got some of the some of the stories from you, you know,
like he ran all of the stuff for the hockey game and all that stuff.
He was squared away, right, he did it all. Yeah,
he he was. He was so audamant because he came from a single house
and like there was guys that like, all right, you know, we
we got to cover the company for whatever the Christmas party. I'm like,
no, we can't because that's six guys that won't be there. And then
if for some reason four guys don't show up, that's ten out of twenty
five. It's gonna what do you call it, like a circle jerk or
whatever you called it, Like, look good, it's move shot. It's
nothing, right, like what are we doing yet? He was absolutely adamant,
like everybody off, get tours off, you know, blah blah blah.
For one night, everything will be just flying in Queens South Walking place
is not gonna die, you know, and uh we And he was adamant
like everything we did, picnics and stuffing that had to be off. And
he because he came from guys, a lot of guys that came from double
houses. If you don't if you don't have ten guys show up, you
don't even miss them, you know, yeah right, yeah, yeah house,
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you are gonna be You're gonna look
like yeah, like yo, to a picnic with fifteen guys in their wives
You're like, what is this? You know? Yeah? Right right,
it makes sense. He ran it. He ran it good, and you
know, he had some you didn't have runnings with bosses. But they were
like, you know, like, hey, I think we need to cover
the company. No, we're not covering the company. We're gonna get guys
to work. And they were all sock guys and they all can handle it
and we'll be fine, you know. And and he was he was great
like that, you know, and uh like so yeah, so we became
super tight. So the good story is, uh so he's we're getting there,
like we're getting with we'll be coming closer and stuff and getting to know
his family and stuff. So he goes, uh, what are you doing
Saturday or whatever day it was. I'm like, nothing life, Yeah,
you want to come to Pj's graduation party? High school graduation party? I
said, mushrooms and mung beach, whatever it was. I go in the
problem. He's like, yeah, I need to cook. That was a
good way to wiggle around it. Maybe yeah. He uh they come down.
I'm like, yeah, no problem doing it. I'll help you,
like, no big deal, like he and I gotta do this. I
gotta talk to people. I gotta do this. I can't I go Yeah,
no problem, I got you. I'll cook you know. It was
easy fergus chicken, no big deal, get it all done. Big quill
was actually first. I was like six feet, will only put like nineteen
bags of charcoal, and that thing was roaring. It was hot feet.
It was over it like what the hell did you do to you? We
were throwing chicken on It was like a minute on each side. He pulled
the judge, smells on you. Daddy wanted to come over my house this
weekend and maybe you can uh mow my lawn. So he uh, so
we're leaving. We had a couple, you know, we're hanging out all
day and uh, he goes, uh, I can't fit the keg in
the thin Can you put it in your car? I go, I had
tudo jeep at the time with the back seat. He yeah, we'll just
throw it in the back seat. And I don't have the cover on summer.
I don't have a cover on. I got no top on a jeep.
I go, two, fucking you're standing like we'll throw a top on.
I got all right, it sounds got I have a We start driving.
It goes to top make it from Long Beach to his house in Massa
Peak. Well, I'm like, I'm gonna get what could happen? What
you know? We got to the house and we pretty much finished up the
cake. It was great. He was uh, he was one of the
kind and we, like I said, we really became tight. Guys.
Put that picture up of a polly when he got burnt? Which one is
that one? Refresh my memory because it was like three guys in the pop.
I got you to give you a second, I have it more just
burnt. Here we go. Yeah, so I'm checking. He goes,
I think I'm burnt. I go, yeah, you're burnt. Yeah,
you're pretty much burned. Yeah, on his ears and stuff around his neck
and he had his hood on and everything. So this job, this job,
it's like ten fifteen degrees out the middle of the day, nasty wind,
right and uh that's Jerry Kennelly from forty one. He always Irish progue.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like fucking poorn, you're pulling
off, you're tripping party, you're dripping. Oh it's fucking crazy. I
was dying. So uh this is this is we're out and uh so we
go there get We're getting reports of people trapped and we got philled De Luca
as a captain. I think Widow was driving, and uh we turned the
corner and we got a De Luca goes ten seventy five. We got people
at the third floor window. I forget about that. He just jumped and
uh. We pull out. We stretched the lines on the second floor.
It's a staircase going up and then going to the side. It wasn't that
bad. Uh. We get to the door, we open it and uh
and the fucking sliders let loose in the rear and that wind was howling about
forty It was like a blow torch coming out around Paul. And he's like,
I'm burning up. I go, you're doing good, Bo, You're
doing good. You don't get him, He's like, And all he has
to do is make the doorway and put the nozzle to the right around the
door right. He's really not hitting the seat at the fire. He gets
it there, and he does it and he just puts it out. He
leaves it there for like thirty seconds, just to try to knock the room
down a little bit. He got it out. He did a great job.
And then he's like, I think I'm burnt. I'm like, God,
I go outside. Look, no, yeah, you're burnt a couple
of little bit so it wasn't bad. I think he only did that night.
I don't even know if they kept him. I can't remember, but
he's like, don't tell Mary, Jane tell me. I'm like, I'm
gonna say nothing. I gotcha, I'm going home that night. That night
is the he was working. They hired somebody the sixth alarm that burnt that
building in the Rockaways was fire on every floor. He was mad that he
missed that job. Of course, what do you mean you kidded me?
I missed this job because it a stupid day. He was like, yeah,
he did a great job on it. It was it was ron And
I believe that fool got down on there and made a grab on the third
floor. Uh Jimmy, not Jimmy Butler, Tommy Butler, maybe tom something
like that. For some reason, I remembering that he made a grab up
on the top floor. He was raw. Well, I don't know how
he got there because he wasn't going up the interior stairs, so I don't
know if he got in a affordable or something like that. It was a
three story guard in the palmis. They have over there, like we for
one O one one fourteen over there. There's a bunch of them, all
those different blocks. So they, uh, they did that. We got
that other picture too with all the boys there from the Chesney concert or something.
Right. Yeah, yeah, he would run this too, dude,
he'd run this. He'd get this whole thing going on. You know,
everybody had to bring certain things, you know. He was like, got
the chops. Yeah, and that gay band he has on his arm.
You'd love to say that. Uh. And then so I don't think it
was this year. So we go one year and I bring my wife.
Uh. He was not a big country brand, right, and uh,
he's going through it Billy's air and he's I think he's already living in Minnesota.
I think he moved. He was already retired. And we come back
and Mary Jane still busts my chops. So we get out and with the
year before we had lobster tails. Nice, So I go, I'll get
him again. He's like all right, great, So we get him doing
it. We're cooking them up. He's like, all right, where's the
butter ship Lobster tails without butter? Like, oh man, He's like,
who the fuck does that we got We got together one of those concerts,
right, me and you we met, we were we were in a country.
Yeah that's what we do. Yeah, you know we go to high
Falluton seats to do it. Yeah. Yeah himself. Well he always got
like six houses. Now like that. I pull up a couple of volley
pictures, the scary ones. I don't know if I was scary ones,
but I didn't see any of these. So a couple of them. That's
Eddie Fouldford for one seventy five as retired. Now he's a good friend.
That was a couple of years ago in the summer time. What is that
like they burned the houses or that's a job. No, that's a job.
Yeah, like a Sunday morning, like ten o'clock in the morning the
morning. Probably good that they burned it. Look at that place, Yeah,
it was that kind of a little dumpy get Yeah. You're still active
there. No, we do. We go to some work like to other
places, but we we do maybe maybe two jobs a year. No,
but you're still active with the volleys. Oh yeah, I'm still active.
Yeah, yeah, here we go here he is he shock, you've been
there a long time? Huh. Yeah, and he's been there a while.
Yeah, yeah, and he got there. I think, oh three,
he's there twenty years. Richie's there. Richie's there twenty Richie's like the
longest guy ever, I think right now, I believe is that right?
What is he? He got there in two ro three, so he's there
at least twenty twenty one. I just did twenty then I got out.
Yeah, any are there any art of members that are still there and any
No, I wasn't even a charter member, no I was. I wonder
if I even was still even all the job from that on the job,
I don't believe. Is Martin still there? Dave? Yeah, yeah,
Dave still there. He's got to be one of the senior guys. Yeah,
yeah, he's up there now. Yeah, but it's still like so
it's I think it's it's Andy, Ritchie probably John Hoffman and hof is still
there. Oh, I forgot about how and Trevor maybe is now? Kills
isn't there anymore? He's not there anyone? Well, let me ask you
a question. Is there a difference in a in a sea truck in Queen's
and a sea truck in Brooklyn? Yeah? Right, that's half. Yeah,
that's the half. You know what the difference is you would taught the
job the right way. Oh, there you go. That's all I wanted.
A little birdie stuck that in my head. Yeah, haf I know,
I get it. He would say that all the time. Sea truck
is a sea truck. I go, okay, except you don't go up
you know, you don't get off the rig with any mask on. Right
now, that's I got another question. Feeling two seventy was always perceived as
a company that was hard on the new guys and like we had a brutal
fucking kitchen table. So much truth to that, or you know, was
it? I wouldn't. I wouldn't say we were super hard. I would
just say that, you know, you you had I learned from Pickford,
so I kind of tried to continue what he did. And he he made
sure the guys know what they were doing, and if they didn't know what
they were doing, uh, you give him a chance, like pretty much
enough road to hang themselves, you know. And then and you know,
I know we have to. We had a lot of guys come and go
through and stuff like that. But you know, you know, I just
don't. I can't say I chased everyone away. Maybe a few, I
you know, if I if I chase your way and and then I don't
know what, you know, you didn't really want to stay because all you
had to do is to the guys that stayed and at least enjoyed my company.
I think I was fine, but you know, if you if you
weren't the right guy, and then that was on you that I don't know,
you know, so gotcha before I just wanted to go back to the
volley pictures for a minute, so I got them from a pool he loves,
and he said that I wouldn't. I wanted to tell the story about
every time he would try to take a picture from the front. You would
do this in a picture, right. So there's as one of the guys
in a neighboring departments. He's a photograph. It was a fire photographer.
So he takes pictures all the time, so he buffs a lot of work.
So he would be like, uh, yeah, he flipped me off
when you know when I take a shot. Yeah, so he would he
come in and seventy was known for like they'd get the volley like that Fire
News magazine and they just looked to it to see what was in it,
you know, and you didn't want to be in it because then by the
time you made it, it was hanging up in the kitchen, it was
somewhere. So I would go to a, mazing, don't you fucking put
me in that fucking I don't care, don't because then then they take pictures
and then they post it on the website. Guys can buy them. I'm
like, don't put any of my pictures in there, because there was they
wouldn't buy them, but they definitely would, you know, photoshop it and
take it off and do what they had to do. Photo shopping was big
then when that stuff first come out, like when you could first cut a
picture off, you know, they had all put your head on something else,
like yea, even like the pictures with the sweaters on, that was
a photo. Amazed at the end, yes, amazed at the end.
You know what the best is when when you look at some of those sometimes
that you can't really tell, like like Paulie's face there looks like he's got
this yeah, look perfect. Yeah. So when I retire May, I
think May's came up to me and he's like can I finally take a pictures?
I go, yeah, now it's fine breast. Oh wow, you
got the more stores, more pictures. Well, no, we have what
we got is ok? Why oh you get it? Hit one of the
pictures we got? We got more. The captain he said, he's gonna
watch so it is a is a decent story. Two seventy pictures. Blah
blah blah. Johnny Drew comes over. But you guys knew John right,
Love John, love him, love them, love him. I loved them
like I was so happy he came, so heppy. You got after for
a while, it was great. So he comes over and he goes,
we're driving back from somewhere. He just feeling out the company. He's like,
so what do you do you just seeing a guy? You're like,
wait, like third and I go, now I'm the senior guy. Now
the thing is were Paul might have been there, but I so I had
more time in Pollie, but I would give Polly because he had four more
years than me. So she said, poly got it. Whatever you want
to do, we'll work together. And he was fine, but we always
we always work together, just fine, you know, And so he goes,
so is it so I go, well, I got most time in
the company. But Paulie's right there, blah blah blah, and he goes,
what about that old guy? And I go, what old guy?
H G? Andi doesn't have to see And I go, no, he
looks he's It was great. It was a great John Drew thing. Man.
I was dying, what about that old guy, that old guy,
because and I'm like, no, no, he looks all the way.
I mean, he's got some time in company, but he's not the senior
guy. Because I thought that guy was a senior guy. It's just one
of my favorite guys too. Man. I thought he was like eighty years
old. Who's that in there in the chat? And he's in the chat?
Now? He was there. He was hid in the back there he
is. I'm going to see him Saturday night. That's book signing. Oh
nice, we're going only out the corn. Huh? Is that fun from
Low Beach? Uh? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? What other pictures we
got there? Guns? Which what do you want to start? Actually,
let me go back to this one I have. This one is kind of
probably a cool one. Yeah, here you go. So that's in on
the south side. It's Tony Travlary. Tony Cavs was in Rescue five right
one that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh Tommy Patty Sean McPherson
was a guy who was in two ninety two for a little bit and if
you remember him, yes I do, Yes, Johnny was right next to
Tony, my buddy Jimmy Butler's behind a guy with the police and full on
can you tell her that is No, it's Harrison ford Is. Yeah.
What was he playing in the movie. Yeah? Yeah, they were filming
The Devil What the Devil's Own? Right right on our streets. Oh wow,
it was good. Ben Solo, Yeah, yeah, it was great.
So we can hold to see what they're doing. No, it don't
work hard. Yeah, more than got let's get that's some old but we
have let's do we have this guy right here a good one kind of keeping
And that was Greg. Is that Greg Haynes? Greg Haynes yep ta t
bone in the back? No, on the left, No, that's him.
Oh ship fucking crackhead. It looks like fripall t. That was a
five Foundation after Metal Day. They do it every year for the medal winners.
So actually because Kenny Barry next to me had gotten a medal. Jimmy
Earl got the medal in greg Ayines, So we went there. We had
a bunch of guys from the company. We went there. That's Ken Barry
Yet Oh my god, dude, that don't even look like him. Holy
mackerel. Nice, you talked about Middle Day. This is and this is
Metal Day. This is with the south Side. This is great. It
was such a great day. That's Nigro. He's probably the reason why I
got the medal because he was really good friends with Montgomery. Yeah, that
was his first stint. Uh, he was I don't forget what he was,
chief of VMS, the chief of not I don't know where he was
at that point. Oh yeah, great day. So you see that guy,
who's that guy? Ski? Another Polarka. We yeah, we grew
up together. Yeah, we knew each other and then we actually whatever's high
angle school that was we were in together because he was in he was coming
to you guys, or he was in you guys already. Yeah. He
lives in Florida now I think yep, Yeah, he lives in Florida now.
Yeah. Nice, yeah, pick for it again, Old man Gie
you rually, old man and Ei nice. Yeah, Wow, g Andie
looks young. Yeah, ship right, Oh my god, we're getting old.
Is that what he looked like? Damn damn sons. So I just
got it. I just got there. That was a good Yeah. Bodilli
was there already. Joe Vicarroll was still there. Oh the Carol. He
was another good guy. Man. I liked him. Hey, hey,
MoMA, probably just got there. Maybe maybe just got there. I think
that's uh Timmy. The guy ran in front of me. I believe that's
Timmy. You know he want to end up going up to forty one and
drive. Is that O tool? Oh tool Timmy Ool? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I believe that's tim o'tool. It does look a little bit.
Yeah, I believe it is the guy with the glasses. What's his
name? Eighteen? I thought he was from eighteen, that guy, the
guy that looked like that Scotty McGregor, might peacock. Yeah, I don't
remember. I remember the guy with the glasses, but I don't know where
I remember it from. He came from one a wait, Scotty. He
was there for a while. Uh he it was probably there four years.
He retired out of our place, did he eighty five? Years. I
forget when he got out, I know, and he came after the nine
to eleven, so he was, Uh, I don't know when he got
out. I can't remember these guys. You talk to a guy now and
you're like, when'd you get out? When I got out? No?
Nine, I'm like, get out of here. Yeah, no, it's
crazy, right, that's pretty crazy, guy he got out. You don't
even realize. Not bored. Yeah, I'm about ten years ready, bro
decade crazy. I just left. I remember coming up to you guys all
the time, and those those Salvo drawings of you, well first of all,
of everybody, the whole company. Yeah, that was insane. Alaska.
This is Alaska. Looks like it looks like the deadliest catch. Deadliest
catch what I was trying to say. Yeah, so this is February of
sixteen. I got the can for the night because I'm on Rasta and we
go down to this We go down the rockaways like three times, and we
can't find a new ship that's ran around because it's it's so foggy you can't
see it right. And finally on the third time down they see it right.
A coast guard, smaller coast guard actually flip their boat trying to get
to it, so they had to pull them out. They swam to show
those Coast Guard guys, and then we're standing here and all of a sudden,
Tony's like, all right, we're gonna put the suits on, going,
I go, look got on? What I mean? What what fifteen
waves there? It was insane? Well, it was like ten degrees out.
I'm like, what, we gotta get the crew off. I go,
we gotta get the crew off? What Like, who's insane? So
we go out there and uh, the Coast Guard helicopter comes from Jersey,
right, and uh they're like all right, they're gonna uh, I'm gonna
drop a basket. And I think they had to get like four crew members
off. The captain was staying with the ship. What a nice guy.
Right. Meanwhile, there's diesel all and that thing's leaking diesel everywhere, right,
So I'm in this diesel infested water and uh, all of a sudden,
we start me and this guy Scotty Edwards who came from two thirty four.
We're in the water in suits and we here yelling from the short They're
like, oh, go, what are they talking about? And then we
turn around. We see a guy in the water, and so Scotty starts
like running through the water to get to them. What you running to bro
like like we're gonna dead. So we get he gets to him and he's
like, are you okay? And yeah, the guys guys like, get
the funk away from me. Swimmer for the fucking coast. You're gonna fucking
drown me. Kid a helicopter and then he was, he was hanging out,
he was. It was insane. And then they just took him.
They the basket, they took it over and we were there forever it was.
And then that's when I got sick and uh got an infection in my
ear, and uh, six months later I was almost off the job.
Really yeah, I got infection in my ear. I go, you got
real up right, like really like infection I got, Uh I got I
go to I'm like, I'm ignoring it. It hurt, it doesn't hurt,
but I can tell her I remember that. And uh, I finally
go, I got like two days of hazmat training coming up in August,
so I gotta get this done, because they were you gotta get it done.
You gotta get done. So the night before my neck locks up and
I can't. I can't move, and I'm like shit, like all right,
I'll just go and I'll go to things. So I see Johnny Drew's
in there and he's like, all right, now I can't move. I
just think I have a stiff neck. Right, So we go through the
whole training has Matt don't care. They're like, get a suit. I'm
like all right, so I'm hopefull they're gonna let it go, like take
it easy on me. No, So and John's like, listen, we'll
go to and then we're Monday, Tuesday, and Tuesday night we were going
in for twenty four. So John gets in, Hey, listen, anything
goes wrong, you know, just telling me and we'll go sick cause I'm
like, all right, no problem. Loop and UH went to some stupid
railroad tie run on the l nothing crazy find they knocked it down. We
didn't do anything, came home, came back, and then like five in
the morning, I wake up and now I got pain. I never had
it for my life. So I wake up and I'm like, all right,
I think the career is doble. I'm sitting in the couch just pondering
my career, and I'm like shit, and I go, oh shit,
I gotta go tell Drew before we get a run because I can't drive the
rick. I can't drive it. I can't even turn my head. So
you'll see as I'm gonna do it, I'm like, boss, what's it?
I said, I gotta get a MS. I can't. He's like,
all right, I'll be right down. So he does it. You
know, the great guys at two seventy. I woke him up. They
come down into the kitchen. They're like, you're got to fucking weak or
soup like like, they're like complaining that they had to get up. That
was just what they did. They broke my flores all the time. So
they take me to hospital and my wife gets there. You know, it's
nine to eleven. It's nine to eleven, and uh, this guy,
this one doctor's like, all I think it's a you know, a muscle.
We're gonna just give you some muscle, relaxes and send you home.
She's like, the fuck you're not. He was at nine to eleven.
I don't know what's wrong with him, but he ain't leaving him without an
MRI and blah blah blah, whatever you gotta do. And the guy was
like, okay, like relax and he's like you want to get mr I
go, yeah, what if you want to do? So we ended up
getting it and they've seen it and two days later I was in nine and
a half hours of brain surgery. Really yeah. The infection got out of
the ear and was around the juggler and uh they did a crany ottomy at
the bottom and uh they say, and I told my wife five hours and
ended up being nine and a half or something like that. I remember that
I didn't even know that. Bro wow. And they were great. Kelly
was great. Doctor Kelly was She was the best. I mean some people
might not like that. I thought she was great. Uh. She sent
her captain there right away whatever and he's like Pete, if this is cancer,
we're gonna have you, and Sloan like right tomorrow you all right?
But it ended up not being cancer, thank god. But they were great.
And then uh, what they actually do. They they had to cut
they cut all back and the infection he had to cut away. The infection
was around the juggler and my year. So they had two neurosurgeons working on
that and a near doctor who came in later to clean it all up anything
that was in the year. So they they had to cut it away from
around a juggler and clean it all out because they said, within two more
days the affection would have got into the juggler and went right to thee.
Yeah, so they did all of that, and he took a little piece
of my skull and then he was going to put it back. He cleaned
it up, and he's like, well, if it still has infection,
then I'm just putting it back in there. So he didn't do that,
and then it gave me a little tummy tuck, which my wife was laughing
at. She's like, so they took a little fat out of my belly,
honey, and uh they stuck that in there, and uh, you
know it was I was done nine and a half and in nick you whatever
it's called, and I nero, I see you whatever it is for two
days and then to the hospital for a week. So and that was it.
And but Kelly was great. She was you know, I got to
meet her finally. I had never met her, but you know, dealer,
I just dealt with her the whole time I was out and I walked
in the first time. I didn't see it till like December. This was
August. She just stay home, take another month, take another month,
take another month, and then she's like, all right, once you come
in. So I came in and I'm like, well, can I go
the infamous doctor Kelly? She goes which one because I didn't know there was
too? Yeah, there is ye Kelly. Right, she operated on me.
There's two of us. I go, well, whoever you want.
It's like that. She was great and she took care of me, and
uh I was able to get back. You know. I don't think I
was going to be able to, but I was able to get back.
And she's like, you, sock guy is a nuts man, Like you
have any residual problems with it? Like here? No, no, I
just with what here? Yeah? Yeah, I did a problems now,
but yeah, you know I didn't. Uh. I had to like kind
of like finagle around that, you know, because I didn't want to.
Uh. So they just keep pressing the button, Petie. It doesn't work,
doesn't bro. So here's the here's a great story with the I'm I
have I have what's the hearing in my ear? And I'm taking a medical
down above pointy truck right back that back in the old day for yeah.
Yeah. So I'm up there and my one of the guys I knew was
like duty in the medical office, and he was. He was a senior
guy on the job. But learning the time, he goes, all right,
you're all set. The guy inside is gonna take Katie hearing. He
was working that day. I'm like, okay, because that was That's all
I was nervous about was that. So I get in and he takes it.
He goes, you just can't back then, he couldn't let the chot
go above a certain number. Okay. The guy covers the shot with my
folder. Who covers the machine. So I'm like, so, I'm just
like this, like I'm not right and keep Yeah. He looks at machine,
he looks at the thing, he looks at me. He goes,
are you the guy? I go, yeah, I'm the guy. I'm
not. I'm a guy. I'm He goes, okay, don't let it
go past here. Oh my god, it's me. I'm the guy.
And then I was pretty much clear. Yeah, he got a little hard
of hearing, but that was about it. Yeah, all right, well
this is it's a good segue for this. There we go. That was
my last job in two seven. That was Freddy was working SAPO, my
last captain. We actually went to Provy School together. Uh, Frankie out
to Gary, Darren Harsh, mister Maden, Big Big Cheese now Brandon Frolic
and Bordilly's brother Dandy on the end and it looks just like him. Holy
ship. And we came in and uh, it's all the way on the
other side of h was it friend not for any loose Springfield. So it's
like it's like eight in the morning, like we're not doing anything here,
and I turned the corner one of the avenues and I can see it's it's
still out the second floor. I go, we're gonna get the pieces.
So it's just see the fire and I'm driving towards it. But that Freddy's
like, it's a fucking dead end stopp and I'm like, ship, so
I've had to back up a little bit, go around the block. We
got in. We got a piece of it, hop hop through the yard.
That's all I'm worried about it. Yeah, we were on a high
note, bro. Yeah, it was great. You know, we got
we got a chance to do that, so let's take a picture. So,
uh that was you know, it was a good job for us,
fatal somebody passed away in that the top floor room. Not good for them.
Yeah, I got Uh, I got in and Darren's in the back,
and uh, I don't know what was going on on the second floor.
I just I don't know who it was. I didn't really care.
And uh with the guy had the line and Mike, he's not making a
room and move into that last room. So I'm just like, bro,
make the fucking move. Let's go make Then Darren's in the bag, he
tells me after the job. He's like, I thought I was at like
the fire academy the way you were fucking like yelling at Then he turns around
to me, he goes, I'm the fucking boss. I go, where's
your guys? He's like, I don't know. So I go back to
the stairs and go who's in blah blah blah company, And two guys are
like right here. I'm like, you might want to join your boss,
help him out a little bit like wash down now you put the whole fire
off. You don't like, I don't know what that happened? They got
separated, they were at the top of the stairs. They just went with
the line and it's Sapo still there. Sapo's still there. No shit,
Yeah, I don't know how much longer he's gonna go. Oh I think
he's maybe I don't want to say that. Maybe sixty two so he can
go another three. I don't believe he's gonna go another three, Like,
but uh wow, a long time. How many years you out now,
Pete? I'll be out. Louis was four today right tomorrow tomorrow for I'll
be four in March? Oh shit, yeah, what is that? October?
Tomorrow's Halloween? I got out in Halloween? Oh, I got out
the week before Halloween? Was Halloween? Yeah? Were you on the order
with me to get on at two seventy on Halloween? Were you on a
Halloween order in two thousand? Do you want to that order? Who me?
Yeah, to go to eighty eight? Or were you an original eighty?
No? I was original? Yeah, okay, because I thought you
were you on the order? Yeah? Maybe come back? Were you back
by then? I came back two thousand and nine. I came back two
thousand and eight. In the two thousand and nine. I came back at
to eighty eight as I looked at the order not the other day, like
when I have it somewhere, and me and Winey got on the order and
then I didn't. And there's a couple other guys, but dwayn Wood was
the one that stuck out. He was from two ninety to two, same
order. I mean, I don't know how long he was there waiting,
but he wasn't there one. Maybe it was your cousin Louis were from.
I could have been my cousin went to one thirty two at that time.
It could have been him. Yeah, maybe, well yeah, something like
that. I have to look at the order again. And uh what else
she got before we get to that time? Pete? Uh oh what we
got here? We got his day two years ago. I got to finally
march with my daughter beautiful. You know, I was waiting for one of
the guys to be like, she's not allowed to walk, but nobody said
anything, so, uh it was great. It was a good time.
He looks like a mother. Yeah. And then uh, you know the
man dnkle on a right, he got out right, you guys know that
did he get out to think stuff got out to Think, got out the
end of September. Another one of my favorite guys. Yeah, he's another
great guy. I didn't know he got out. Yeah, he got out
the end of September. He his wife's got a really good job, and
he wants to hang with the kids and you know, and and around them.
The kid the kids. I know that kids. He's like five years
old. Really. His uncle's in the volleys with me, and he was
around the volleys and he's always been just like the greatest kid. He's not
a smart kid too, Like he handled all the with the Sock Task Force.
He did all the computer work for us, thank god, thank god
for all the time. Great and he just uh, he's just a home
run. And I'm just like, I said, you ready for this?
And I talked to his uncle the all day and he's like, he seems
fine, and you were ready. If you were ready, you know it.
I'll just tell you what. Yeah, So I think I told you
a little bit. I know, Johnny Wolf just posted my picture ship I
forgot you know. I had that written down too, bro, Thank god
you remembered it. What was that? What you doing about? I remember
you said you had down forget. It's not a good good story for John,
but because this guy never had any luck obviously, Right, So I
come up. I'm in the has mat for the night. Uh what was
the old saying to you? Hungry? Yeah, hanging out and all of
a sudden, ire like masked. Yeah, come down, like what's up?
All right? You're going to you're going over the squad. You know
what happened, Johnny? Leave it? I know John, but I think
he he fucking hit something with the hot water or the spaghetti and burn.
Yeah, he was pouring the pasta out of the from the Yeah. Remember,
so he goes to the hospital like you got the control. I'm like,
huh sounds good. Like a half hour late again, just like the
Metal Day one, we go out the door to Grand Avenue for a job,
right, and it was uh what was the day? It was?
H was it Vinnie? Was it hot? Garrol? Was it hoppy?
That night? I don't remember you remember the job? Where was the job?
The job was down towards you know, you was still first too,
but it was down, like I guess with Grand starts to split it with
South of the l A, you know. And it was a store going
and well, first do I hook up? I helped the show if I
don't know who was driving hook up across the street to come over, and
you guys are making a push into the store. So I'm just standing there
a little good right, And with that kid comes walking by and he's got
the saw running, and I go, bro, you gotta cut these rolldowns.
I got to find my boss here. And he gives me the roll
I don't cut it. And with that Ungaro or Happy whoever it was,
come out. They're like, what the fuck are you doing? I go,
not our sore? He thought, I grabbed it off the ring.
Oh I got you there? You not our saw, dude, not the
thing. He was like. I come out and you're like, you got
the saw. I'm like it was it was Hoppy was happy. It was
happy. That job was across the street from dunkin Donuts. I remember that
job. Now. He actually ran up now that you say that, he
ran up the stairs. It was the store and then it had the the
uh, the stairs that went up to the second floor. He forced the
door. Hoppy ran up the stairs, checked upstairs, quick came back down
and uh and then we put the store out. Yeah, I don't know
what was fromming and I don't care. I got that actually actually rolled downs
and he's like, I gotta find my boss here. Okay, what did
he want this do? Again? He did something with the calendar right like
he poured the He had the pot of spaghetti and he was gonna pour it
into the calendar and he missed the sink and it went down his pits.
Yeah, in front of his leg with boiling water. He didn't skin graft
for that. I forgot about that. I break his balls all the time
ago. Was that the one the leg that you lost? Was that the
one you had the skin grafts on because you wasted that fucking skin For Johnny
w we gotta have him back on for a revisit. What is the car
Crash's supposed to play that? When we're talking about Johnny w oh me,
I'm a little behind the game again. That's the Johnny water the pirate peg
leg. Can you can you imagine like like they're like, you know,
nine to eleven stuff with Ray and everything and Sealy. He was just like
he was so good, you know, he kept it, kept you,
kept you in the game, you know, with his with his little shots
like that. You know, it was insane. Somebody, somebody sent me
this. Where is the thing? I mean again, it's you say to
yourself, is it too soon? Right? Like? He like you're talking
about Ray right, He will come at you with yeah. So somebody sent
me this today and they're like, too soon, swimmer and not a swimmer.
I'm like and they're like too soon. I'm like, but you have
to when you're in this game, you have to be able to laugh at
the worst things, because otherwise they just keep building up on you. You
know what I mean. That's how we processed the ship. You can do
it, you know. So the other night my wife yelled at me.
The next day. The other night at the concert, we're meeting people for
drinks the concept and we're hanging out and this guy comes in and he's but
with a buddy of mine that I know, And so he comes in and
we're talking and I'm like, hey, Bobby, how old are you?
So Bobby's like like, They're like, you're the oldest guy. Go no,
I think so, I think Bobby is. So my buddy Bobby goes,
were you October fourteenth? I said, I'm the twenty seventh so you're
the senior guy tonight. Right. So with that, the guy goes,
how old are you? I go fifty eight. He goes, I'm forty
six. And whatever he says. I go, you had a tough paper
bro, not a fireman or nothing. And my wife's like, you see
his face. He got se offended by that. And I'm like that all
the time for my wife. Bro, We're not in the firehouse anymore.
This is not the firehouse. They don't get it. keV okay. I'm
like, I text my friend the next day. I'm like, hey,
dude, I'm sorry about your friend. Like, I hope I didn't offend
him. He's like, da, I don't worry about it. I was
very angry with him. Oh shit, that's funny, man. No,
I think it might be that time gone. I think it might be that
time all right ready or the I got the old school stiff of the day
day day, tell you a penny, all right? So all I got
is, uh, what I learned when I first got on a job.
I'm a senior guy in one of four. When I finally got the OV
he was like, dude, you got to know how to read smoke.
You're gonna go in that window, you gotta know what you're doing. And
uh, he told me how to force it, tell me how to take
the window top to bottom, told me to look at it like, if
it doesn't lift in a certain amount of time, uh, it's probably coming.
You know, it's not. It's not. It's not that far away.
You have to realize that, you know, look at the conditions of
the of the smoke too, he says. But if you take the window,
the whole window, and in thirty seconds to a minute later, if
it hasn't started lifting off that sill, it's coming. And you just gotta
remember that. Being the ov He also said, like, you know,
you have to make the decision if you're going to go in that window.
But you meanwhile, I was like, and you better be in that window.
So it wasn't you know, unless you had fire blown out as soon
as you took it. You were going in the window. You might not
make it very far in the room, but you're going in the window.
And that was just just so I think it's a lost thought. You gotta
read smoke, You red smoke from windows. You gotta resmoke from buildings,
and you can tell a lot just from smoke what's going on. A lot
of times you can tell where the fire is in the building, you know,
without even seeing flames, just by reading smoke. And the The only
other tip of the day is being a chauffeur. I knew my area.
I knew my first two engine area. I knew my hydrants in my first
new engine area like the back of my hand. And I think that's what
you need to do. I'm not you know, second do, third do?
You might not know them all that well, but if you're going to
be a chauffeur, you got to take it seriously. You got to know
your routes. How are you going to get there? And uh I still
have guys today they called me to be like, hey, this job was
out here, how would you have gone? And I tell them my way
and they're like, yeah, we went that way. Or you know,
there's some new stuff going on in the city with all these curbs and all
these flower plants and everything else. But you still need to know your at
least your first two area and your hydrants, you know, And uh I
did, guys can go out the door. I'm going home and it you
know, it might sound like work I'm like, all right, there's a
hydrant over there on one eighteen and one on one right on the corner most
side. And a lot of guys are like, how the hell you know
that is? Because that's that was my job to know that, you know,
And uh, that's my biggest tip of the day. That's it,
brother, we'll tip bro. I like that. Don't be afraid to be
a good engine shoulf in the squad. Yeah, you got we're doing You're
doing a decent amount of work either way. And you know, three o
eights out or two nine fours out, it might be first anyway. You
know. So what about hair products? You haven the old school tips to
the dad hair products because I gotta get me whatever you're taking. Bro.
You know, it was just in Italy. The guy you know what I
mean, he had a little olive oil. We know how to do it,
we don't. We know what's going on here. And the Louis just
wears a hat just cause oh and I just cut him. I got a
good hat, so I still got good half. You should have a hat.
Yeah, you should wear the hat. Listen, you're not in the
flyinghouse anymore, all right. Everywhere the girls we had on for the calendar
conso had a wig on. We got got yea three US for shout outs
even Okay, all right, so I got my boy Bug from San Antonio
Fly. I met him mack Aniston and the Cobra, the Cobra class right.
Oh man, Well you get to see everybody naked at the end.
Yeah right. I had to go to that twice because the hurricane came in
just as you cut short. You see everybody naked at the end. That's
why I have to go back down. All right. So my boy Bug,
my brother Jason from Jacksonville Fly, huge Hazmac guy. He's retired now,
but this guy is like you talk about your guys over there, like
the Johnny Cassidy's and the other guys. This guy is right there, man,
and he still does it works like CSX Railroad and all sort of stuff
as a retired guy. Jason Kirk, he's uh, he's truly one of
the brothers. And uh. Pete Gazelle from Long Beach Fire out in California
was a friend of mine. They're watching the show. At least tell him
to watch the show. Oh yeah, I told him about it today and
they said we'll tune in. So it's not like, hey, where do
you see that at? So they must know about it. I can subscribe,
that's all I said. You see who's in the chat, Roofie,
I mentioned them the light at all, My boy Frankie de Sis, who
was in there, bro the lightning one. I got some good uh guy
that me and Louiso from the neighborhood was on the job. The stories you
were at thirty eight firehouses, you might have, I swear my knees his
eyes. He used to say all the time. That's what we got.
I don't know, Roofie. He said, you'll be here for Thursday.
Yeah, I'll be here Thursday, and then it's a touch and go for
the following two weeks. Uh. We got the chief of the apartment,
Hodgen's active chief of the apartment on the ninth coming on, so make sure
to see that one. No, he's he's not acting, he's active,
I said active active. Oh I didn't even acting the other ear. You
gotta get in the other active space. Thank you. Some of the jokes,
right, yeah, no, no, what happened? You heard?
Right? This is like since the first grade, So it's not it's worse.
It is first grade, right, oh ship, that's all right.
Voice. You did two seventy proud one oh four pete, great show.
I laughed a lot, Thanks man, great Koreer. I'm glad heless like
you said, it was painless. I told you it goes quick, brother,
And yeah, I know you don't get the half your stuff. I
told you. I'm looking at the clock. I'm like, oh, I
can't believe it's uh. You can do. You can do two hours like
that. You're both big radio fans, right, yeah, yea guns is
here. You know. I was just gonna we get it there it is,
oh next to to cares about one. Yeah, I was trying.
I was trying to build it up. And then hockey hockey. But you
are a Jets fan, right. I remember going to a Jets game with
you one time. Yet sloppy yesterday, but we won, that's all I
know, sloppy we went. Alright, guys, we will see you on
Thursday. You get that buck call better popped up. I got it.
I don't like you, but you'll love it. All right, I'll see
you, guys. We'll see until until then, kay low ego, all
right, everybody will see it the big one. Thanks again, Peaty,
next job Kid, Thanks guys. All right, guys, we're gonna stay
safe. Next way,