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Welcome to Macina Island Moments, hosted
by lifelong islander Jason saint Onge. Through

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conversations and interviews with fellow island locals
and residents, Jason will bring you the

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real stories and characters that to find
life on the island. Whether you're a

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seasoned visitor, new to MCAA Island, or even an islander yourself, you'll

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be sure to learn firsthand about the
island with Jason on MCIN Island Moments and

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welcome to another episode of This will
be episode five of the Macina Island Moments

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podcast, the only podcast brought to
you from MCIN Island by a lifelong islander.

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My name is Jason saint One and
today's episode is sponsored by the Mission

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Point Resort, the friendly resort located
on the Sunrise side of mcan Island.

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You can reach out at www dot
Missionpoint dot com. Folks, the weather

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here this last week has been just
consistent with the lack of winter we've been

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experiencing. This has not been my
favorite winter. I'm a big fan of

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winner and what we've just had as
in a extended fall for the last three

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months and it's it's not been it's
not been great. We did get a

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brief return to the snow, and
a lot of errands got finished and a

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lot of stuff got moved around.
But most of the snow in town,

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it's it's now all melted, and
many folks are back on foot and bicycle.

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And let me touch on that for
a moment, because many folks wonder,

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you know, about the horses,
And yes, the dra company runs

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year round and they move freight with
the horses, and the horse drawn taxi

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operates a year round. But you
know, oftentimes a lot of questions I

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get about living on the island is
you know, do you have a car,

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and you know, do you have
a horse? And that answer is

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no, and yes, not many
folks have horses, particularly a year round.

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I'm not sure anybody has a private
horse here year round or that they

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use in a practical sense year round. It's kind of cost prohibitive to own

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and maintain a horse. Most of
the private horses on the island are owned

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by summer residents who have a barn
and and in some case a full time

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stable manager and who kind of you
know, takes care of the horse.

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And so it's it's just not practical, you know, when I was younger,

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there was a few people. You
know, Emma mentioned a few episodes

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ago that they still had a horse. Now when when my dad was a

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little boy, a lot of people
had horses and slaves and uh, and

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a lot of people use dogs.
They'd have they'd own a big dog and

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hook it to a sleigh to all
their their groceries around or whatever errands they

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were getting from town. But that
doesn't go on much, you know that

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the the the addition of snowmobiles has
certainly kind of phased that out. And

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it's it's just not it's just cost
prohibitive to own a horse here in the

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winter. Another question we constantly get
when when you're asked if you live on

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the island, is do you have
a car? And and where do you

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keep it? And the answer to
that is yes. I've never done a

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survey, but I think just as
many people portionally on Macin Island that live

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here own cars as people who don't
live on Macin Island. We keep them

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on the mainland. Of course,
there's no secret hatch underneath the boardwalk where

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all the cars are stored. Folks
keep them on the mainland. They either

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pay to park in the various ferry
lots, or some folks rent private garages

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on the mainland so they can park
their vehicle inside. You know, the

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airport in the winter, the Sintegnas
Airport, Macana County Airport. Excuse me,

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if you go by there, you'll
see that their parking lot is as

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proportionally as proportionally way larger than it
probably needs to be for a small little

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airport. But in the winter that
airport parking lot is absolutely inundated and it's

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just packed, and it's difficult to
find parking out there when we all have

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to move our vehicle out there.
So, yes, we own the vehicles,

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we keep them on the mainland.
We have to pay to the storm

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wherever we store them. And then
you get off the ferry and either catch

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a ride or catch a shuttle,
or you just walk to where your car

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is. So there's another little tidbit. I'm living year round on Macin Island.

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Folks. We just finished up what
we call the annual Detroit Weekend,

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and it's the Detroit Fire Department Weekend. It's a big training weekend that goes

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on between mac and Island Fire and
Detroit Fire. And I got to tell

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you I wasn't going to delve into
the subject of the fire department for at

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least a couple more weeks, but
I just kind of thought this was the

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time, you know, Detroit was
here and we had a chance to sit

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down with Tom Wickman, one of
their battalion chiefs, retired battalion chiefs,

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and I thought, you know what, this is a good time to go

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into it. We get a lot
of questions as well about, you know,

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how it works here on the island, and you know, do you

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have actual fire trucks, are they
horse drawn and all that kind of stuff,

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and which they're not. I'll give
you a little bit of historical background.

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The MIFD has a pretty neat history. As you may be aware,

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the territorial government granted or recognized the
inception of the village of Mackinaw in eighteen

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seventeen. Eighteen seventeen, I mean
at this point, you know, the

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city of Detroit maybe had fifteen hundred
people, in Chicago probably had only one

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thousand people in eighteen seventeen, and
mac And Island was a thriving city or

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village due to the fur trade that
was going on. The first actual organized

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government on the island. It came
that early. So local historian Brian dunnagain

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was doing some research at I believe
the Clark Library on the campus of Central

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Michigan University, and he uncovered some
archives that had the first inception of that

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government. And not long after the
city commemorated our two hundredth year of local

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government. The modern day city had
a little ceremony to commemorate two hundred years

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as an incorporated or at least incorporated
government. I reached out to Brian and

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I said, you know, Brian, I understand the village was platted in

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eighteen seventeen and incorporated. When is
the Do you have any data on the

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first mention of the word fire department? And he got back to me and

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he says, very vague, vague. He did have some ordances that were

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passed in eighteen nineteen in regards to
various fire safety implementation. You know,

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chimneys have to be this height,
things have to be so far from each

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other, and that sort of buckets
of water must be kept near a side

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door, that sort of stuff.
So fire safety was implemented. But he

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couldn't find anything specifically citing the department. And then he did email me again

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and said, I have uncovered in
the archives that the village decided that they

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need to pay This was in twenty
eighteen twenty one. They needed to pay

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for the fire engine that they acquired
in eighteen nineteen. And I said,

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well, if they had a fire
engine in eighteen nineteen, it sounds like

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the folks were already organized, at
least in the awareness and hopeful defeat of

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any fire related emergencies. So that
said, we commemorated this department commemorated two

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hundred years in twenty nineteen. We
had a little celebration in some commdorce of

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pins made. So so the MIFD
has been around, you know, almost

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two hundred and five years now.
It's kind of exciting stuff for us,

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I guess. The department responds via
pager and radios from Central Dispatch. Central

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Dispatch is located about twenty five miles
north in the Upper Peninsula. The department

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runs out of two stations. There's
the Market Street station, which is between

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City Hall and the police Department,
and inside that station is Squad one and

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Latter two. Latter two is a
seventy eight foot rear mount about a half

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a mile to the north is another
station, Station two that houses another ladder

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truck, a seventy eight foot smeal, our brand new rig and engine one.

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We currently have about twenty five firefighters
that live year round on the island

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and then several part time guys that
were members of the department but decided to

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move to the mainland but kept their
job here. And you know, we

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thought it was awful foolish that they're
on the island eight to five during the

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day. They're trained with us,
they know our SOPs there. They're what

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we call our part time members.
And we currently have seven members in our

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in the Mackinac County Fire Academy that's
being taught right now, the Firefighter one

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and two Academy, and so we'll
hopefully welcome on seven more here. On

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average, we run about one hundred
calls per year, and I should mention

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at this point that ems the ambulance
is it's a different division completely. Those

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folks run around five hundred times a
year, with the bulk of them being

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in the summer months. Do we
have one hundred fires, No, not

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even close. But we respond to
all the alarms from the hotels and the

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commercial properties that you know, they're
often found to be inadvertent or false alarms.

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In addition to that, we we
back up ems, we call in

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on special calls with them with they're
they're running multiple calls at once, or

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they have a really heavy patient.
We're trained in high angle rescue. We're

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trained in airport situations, wild land
fire. A real macromae of sit suations

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can arise here on a yearly basis, and so we try to stay up

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on all those. The good thing
is we don't spend a lot of time

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on car extrication training here. We're
probably the least trained car extrication fire department,

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if not in the state, maybe
in the entire country. You know,

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we get a lot of this pretty
much the same calls as everybody else,

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but we do have a busy harbor
and the airport's pretty busy as well.

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There is a rescue boat that's a
separate department called mcinnamarine Rescue and they

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handle assortment emergencies throughout the straits.
We get an occasional fire in the woods,

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and you know, fire protection is
taken very seriously on the island for

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obvious reasons. Not only is a
town primarily made of wood, but it's

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old wood. And of course the
bigger issue is getting help if we're overpowered

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and we need more manpower, getting
mutual aid in how does mutual aid work,

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Well, it depends. It depends
on the time of day, in

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the time of year. In the
summer, during the day, when mutual

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aid is needed, it's not that
hard. We can we simply call our

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nine on one coordinator, Bryce Tracy, get him on the radio and tell

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him what we need. And you
know that guy's done this once or twice,

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and he has all the boat captain's
phone numbers in his phone and starts

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moving guys around and moving boats around
as needed. At night, it would

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be a little more complicated. We'll
have to wake up a boat captain and

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a crew and get a boat fired
up, or the McLam Marine Rescue can

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go over, depending on what we
need, and so it takes a little

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bit more time. In the winter
season, if we need mutual aid or

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if we're going to give neutral aid, it's either respond on the ice if

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the ice is there. If not, it's airplane. And of course the

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airplane is at the mercy of the
weather. So the scariest thing would be

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to have a major fire when they're
in the winter, when there's inclement weather

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and no help can come. And
if that's the case, you're just going

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to have to make do with what
you have. It's not ideal, but

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I hate to say a redundant quote, but it is what it is.

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That is the prime t'mary reason our
department is so proactive on training and we

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train in aggressive interior assault tactics.
We try to mitigate any fire growth obviously

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as quickly as possible. Thankfully,
because of the location of where many of

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the firefighters live and work, we
generally beat all the national standards for arrival

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of an apparatus. The truck's generally
getting route really quick. Sometimes in the

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summer, you know, it's tough
to get the trucks down the street because

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a lot of people see a fire
truck coming on mack And Island and they're

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dumb struck because you know, they
were told there's there's no motor vehicles here.

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Well, the fire truck, the
ambulance, the police car, and

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some service cars do. Service vehicles
do exist, so they often stop and

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just stare and take pictures. And
I've had a lot of folks reach out,

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reach out and say, you know, why don't you, Why don't

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you run your siren or run the
air horn. We really can't because that

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can spook a horse or scare a
horse. And I'm gonna touch on that

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for a second. About spooking a
horse and scaring a horse. Some people

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think or maybe they don't understand what
scaring and spooking horse means. It doesn't

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mean that the horse is upset and
there's going to need to see a horse

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psychiatrist and we'll have a hard time
sleeping with the lights off. What happens

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when a horse gets spooked or frightened
is the horse takes off. It leaves,

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and it leaves in a hurry,
and it doesn't care who is riding

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on top of that horse, who's
hooked to that horse, who's on the

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buggy that hooked to that horse,
doesn't care what that buggy runs into or

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that dre runs into. So the
last thing we want is a horse to

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take off and cause yet more trouble. We have a really great relationship with

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the folks that operate the different horse
fleets and various stables, and they know

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when we get a run which way
we're gonna go, and they start moving

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immediately to move those horses out of
the way. It's organized chaos, but

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it really works for us. So
I'm going to talk about the Brigadoon fire

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because only because that fire received more
social media attention and more photographs because of

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the spectacular nature. Of course,
many of you may have seen the article

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that was done about the wedding that
was disrupted and how the Highland kind of

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came together to put that wedding back
together. And I just I've never been

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part of an incident that was more
reported on, and it was probably done

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so because it was you know,
mo Day memorially weekend rate at six o'clock.

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So for the sake of the firefighters
out there, who at this point

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are probably the only one that's still
listening in, I'm going to talk about

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that fire and perhaps it'll answer a
few questions and enlightened what exactly went on

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there. At six oh one pm, re received the box alarm of a

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fire at the Stingle residence. They
said, smoke coming out of the roof,

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And I got to tell you,
I kind of thought at first that

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maybe Jay was having a fire.
Jay Stingle and his wife Chanon owned the

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Brigadoon and they're just they're lovely people. They keep that cottage up meticulously.

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You know, it's well over one
hundred years old, and there's not a

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flower pedal out of place in the
summer when they're here. But Jay really

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likes to have fires in this fireplace, and so it's not uncommon to see

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smoke coming out of the chimney in
June or July. So when I initially

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heard that, I kind of thought, you know what, the dispatcher is

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gonna call me back in about ten
seconds and say we just talked to the

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homeowner and they're having a fire and
their fireplace. And the dispatcher did call

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me back in about ten seconds and
said the people are evacuating the home and

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there are flames visible. That is
not what I wanted her to say back

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to me, But the hand we
got dealt. So I jump on my

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bicycle. If that doesn't make you
laugh, I jump on my bicycle and

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leave British Landing immediately. And I
know we're going to be overmatched, partly

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because this is a large wooden structure. The interior contains a lot of bead

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board trim and it's been varnished.
And not only that, It's Memorial Day

211
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weekend, so we're gonna have crowd
issues, and you just never know if

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we few guys that might have gone
away for the weekend, and we keep

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pretty good contact in that, but
you never know. So I immediately radioed

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in a second alarm and get the
get Saint Agnes fire department moving. And

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I looked over towards Saint Agnes and
I saw a little bit of smoke trickling

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up over there, and I thought, that's not good. And the dispatcher

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called back and said, I just
sent Saint Agnas on the fire of their

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own and I said, well,
give me, give me somebody else.

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Then she said, well who do
you want. I kind of laughed,

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who do you got? You know, So they started getting mac City going.

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Uh. Saint Agnes fortunately mitigated their
issue pretty quick and then still was

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coming. So so that was good. When I got to town, I

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got there right around the same time
all these uh, just crazy pictures of

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these thirty foot flames coming out every
direction and coming up out of the roof.

225
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And you know, I knew from
listening to my radio that latter two

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was already unseen, and they were
stretching the line into the house. Now,

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what a lot of people didn't understand, and I want to give some

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credit to the guys who stretched that
first line. They had a rapidly growing

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fire on the third floor of a
one hundred over one hundred year old house,

230
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and instead of grabbing the pre connect
off the truck, which is an

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inch and three quarter line, they
stretched two and a half inch hose off

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the back of the truck and grabbed
a smooth board nozzle. Now a lot

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of guys are going to think,
oh, that's old school, why did

234
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you go that route? And what
our guys on the scene knew that a

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lot of people didn't don't take in
consideration is you know, Brigadoon is about

236
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seventy feet from the street, so
let's call you know, closer to one

237
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hundred from the truck. And it
sits up on an elevated lawn and so

238
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when you and then there's a flight
of stairs to get up to just to

239
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the front door. So we're we're
already one hundred feet out and we're two

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stories up, and we still got
to get to the third floor wind through

241
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the staircases. And those guys made
a heck of a judgment call to grab

242
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that two and a half. We
had a tremendous volume of fire, and

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if they would have grabbed the pre
connect, we'd had to pump two hundred

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pounds of pressure probably to have any
sort of effective push. So with the

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smooth board nozzle in the two and
a half, they knew they were gonna

246
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have big water where they had big
fire. And I credit those guys for

247
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what they did. It was a
good call. And I'll tell you what

248
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I want to mention those guys' names. It was Ben Moseley's a deputy chief,

249
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.880
Travis Vartanian was a lieutenant, and
firefighters Colton Fisher and Johnny Morris or

250
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the first ones up to the third
floor with that line. And you know,

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I was really happy to know those
guys are there. It's kind of

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my you know, some of my
bread and butter guys, the guys you

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want on that job. And they
got to the bottom of the stairs of

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the third floor, the stairs that
lead to the third floor, and they

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00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.319
did an old tactic, a little
trick, and they shot some water up

256
00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:44.799
straight up above them to see what
happens. And what I meant by see

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00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:48.079
what happens is see how much water
comes down, so they you know,

258
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they flowed that nozzle just a second
or two, which a two and a

259
00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:56.559
half of the smooth board. They
probably sent fifty sixty gallons skyward and none

260
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of the water came down, none
of it. And they knew then they

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were they were going into a pretty
hot situation. So they made a big

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loop in their hose to get ready
to push up those stairs. Just about

263
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then is when I'm showing up unseen, and I asked, I thought,

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somewhat rhetorically, if we had anybody
still in the building, because it was

265
00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.440
bailout time, and uh, you
know, the guy said, yeah,

266
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Ben, and Ben and his guys
are still up in there, and the

267
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first two guys are still in there. And I thought, no, no,

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no, we got to get them
out of there right now. And

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so I radioed up, you know, one o three from one oh one,

270
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need to get out of the building
right now. And Ben Ben is

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a he's a guy's guy, okay, and he radios me back it us

272
00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:40.440
five more minutes, Jeeve, and
I said, no, no, no,

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get out right now. I mean
there was there was fire blown out

274
00:18:42.039 --> 00:18:45.359
all over the plate. So those
guys, they have no idea what I'm

275
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looking at on the outside and uh. Anyway, we got him down and

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Sam Barnwell was running the ladder two
and he was going to put his master

277
00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:56.640
stream. Now, for you lay
people, the master stream is that that

278
00:18:56.599 --> 00:19:00.480
water nozzle on the end of the
ladder. It can you know, effectuate

279
00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:04.160
up to a thousand gallons a minute. It's a pretty powerful tool to use,

280
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but it's a lot of water.
And what a lot of people don't

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know is you can't put that to
work. Well, you still have people

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in that building, you know,
a lot of people, including a local

283
00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:18.839
loudmouth making comments afterwards about you know, why did they wait so long to

284
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:22.640
put their They called it water cannon, which that's not really what it is,

285
00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:26.200
but why do they take so long? And people don't understand. You've

286
00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:29.400
got to make sure everyone's out because
if you start dropping a thousand gallons a

287
00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:33.160
minute on that kind of fire,
you're going to create a steam bath that's

288
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:37.400
going to literally cook everyone like a
lobster inside that building, and it's not

289
00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:40.559
going to be good. So,
considering the volume of fire and what was

290
00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:42.279
going on, I don't want to
just hear yeah, Ben and his guys

291
00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:45.519
are out. I need to see
them. So you know, they got

292
00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:48.000
down to the ground floor and they
walked out of that building. Okay,

293
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.240
there they are. I've now seen
these guys. So they put the master

294
00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:56.920
stream to work. We didn't know
there was a brick chimney near the rear

295
00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:00.640
of the building and the master streams
started hitting some of the brick and was

296
00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.039
spraying bricks around the backyard. And
I tell you, I was a little

297
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:07.400
surprise to get to the backyard to
check on that side of the operation,

298
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:11.000
and I believe it was Joseph Colin
Dave Johnson were back there and there was

299
00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:15.160
bricks all around them that the hose
had knocked off, and fortunately didn't hit

300
00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:18.839
any of them. Anyway, we
put the master stream to work, and

301
00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:22.720
because of the smoke, you know, it was tough to get the right

302
00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:26.599
angle on it, coming from almost
a level with it to arc over.

303
00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:30.599
But they started knocking some heavy fire
down. Around this time, Saint Agnus

304
00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.480
and Max City started to arrive and
our guys were able to take a knee

305
00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:37.039
and rest, which was good because
they were pretty beat up. Once we

306
00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:40.640
had that fire and check, I
looked to my left. I could not

307
00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:45.839
believe the crowd there had to be
two thousand people watching from Marquette Park in

308
00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:48.160
the street. I never seen anything
like that in my life. I actually

309
00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:51.920
had to joke, I said,
who opened for this fire? The rolling

310
00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:55.119
Stones? Look, I mean,
look at all these people. So we

311
00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:57.319
started to gain on it, and
you know, there was a little touch

312
00:20:57.319 --> 00:21:02.640
and go there for about fifteen minutes
that we were gonna start to lose another

313
00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:07.279
building or some of the branding would
would go up on the bluff. Anyway,

314
00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.279
once we started getting a handle,
put guys back on the first floor

315
00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:14.359
and start getting heirlooms and antiques and
paintings and anything we could get out of

316
00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:18.240
there before the water damage started to
you know, make it make everything worse.

317
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And I saw the stingles. I
saw Jay and Janet standing on the

318
00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:25.039
sidewalk, and I went to spoke
speak with him briefly, and I got

319
00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:27.519
to tell you, I was struck
by how they were coping with watching this

320
00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:32.759
happen. You know, they're not
only are these seeing their their house,

321
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:37.079
you know, their treasured home going
up and they're going through just a terrible

322
00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:40.599
time. But imagine going through this
terrible time and there's two thousand people watching

323
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you go through this terrible time,
and I got to tell you, I

324
00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:47.839
was struck by the grace that both
of them displayed. They they were very

325
00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:53.240
stoic and and Jay was immediate and
resolute that they will rebuild. And I'm

326
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:56.240
not sure he wasn't on the phone
with an architect before the last fire truck

327
00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:00.640
left that night. And and they
did rebuilt. And I'll tell you it

328
00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:04.000
was a little over a year later
and the Stingle family invited the members of

329
00:22:04.039 --> 00:22:07.240
the department down for a private reception
in their house. They had it catered

330
00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:11.880
and bartender set up. It was. It was unbelievable, and they brought

331
00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:17.759
the department back to kind of be
like the first guest of the rebuilt or

332
00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:22.839
repaired Brigadoon cottage, and it was. It was nice. So anyway,

333
00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:26.279
that's the story. It really wasn't
that big of a story. It just

334
00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:30.200
was that big of a story on
social media. But so I told you

335
00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:33.279
all that to tell you this.
About twenty five years ago, I met

336
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.279
a Detroit firefighter by the name of
Fabio Muscat. He's he's a legend in

337
00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:41.000
the Detroit Fire Department. We became
friends, and I went down and wrote

338
00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:44.519
with them once or twice, and
I got to know him and a lot

339
00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:47.160
of the other guys, and you
know, we'd always say, hey,

340
00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:48.440
we got to get you guys up
to the island for some training. And

341
00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.759
finally, a guy by the name
of Bernie Storm, another Detroit firefighter.

342
00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.519
He had stopped by the mclon firehouse
one day and we got a chatting,

343
00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:02.160
and he was a lieutenan on the
East side of Detroit at the time,

344
00:23:02.200 --> 00:23:03.640
and he said, yeah, we
got to make this happen. We got

345
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:06.880
to make this happen. And you
know, it'd been in the talk for

346
00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:11.599
ten or twelve years. So finally
that winter that February, four or five

347
00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:15.119
guys came up from the City Detroit
Fire Department to train with us, and

348
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.200
you know, everybody just hit it
off instantly. They were just a lot

349
00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:22.960
of guys, guys, and you
know, a lot of the same level

350
00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.559
of sense of humor or maybe immaturity, however you want to gauge it.

351
00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.559
But anyway, we're now in our
eighth year. They come up every year

352
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:34.519
the end of February and you know
it's called our training weekend. It's a

353
00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:37.599
great time. The guys come down
Friday night. We put on a meal.

354
00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:41.480
This year, you know, Grand
Hotels and A Sandwiches down for Friday

355
00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:48.640
night. Arnold Freight transported these guys
across for nothing above Macina Condos hosted them

356
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:55.599
in their luxury condos. And the
show stealer every year, Folks is Mission

357
00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:59.559
Point Resort. You know, they
have brought their staff and to cook us

358
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:03.160
lunch between our morning and afternoon sessions. And they don't they don't hold any

359
00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:07.000
they don't pull out, they pull
out all the stops. Just a tremendous

360
00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:11.079
lunch. And then and then Liz
uh, you know Liz Ware from the

361
00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:15.000
family. Not only was she cooking
us lunch, they give us a gift.

362
00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.200
Well, then they paired with the
Bay View Yacht Club, who you

363
00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:22.000
know is celebrating their one hundredth running
of the Baby to mac and A yacht

364
00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:26.079
race this year. And uh,
this year they presented us with brand new

365
00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:30.839
lockers, the entire department brand new
metal lockers that the two organizations purchased and

366
00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:36.279
presented us. And you know,
then we have dinner that night and our

367
00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:40.799
mayor Margaret Dowd, who's who's been
the mayor here for a couple of minutes.

368
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.000
She always calls up and says,
tell the men and the women were

369
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.559
gonna I'm gonna pay for their primary
dinner tonight at the Mustang. So,

370
00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:52.359
I mean, can you beat that
when you're when you're mayor is supporting you

371
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.920
like that. You know, it's
it's just amazing the folks here. We

372
00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:00.680
have volunteers, We have ten or
twelve locals volunteer to play our victims at

373
00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:03.759
the at the scenarios we do.
And you know, the Mustang's very Mustang

374
00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:07.559
Lounge is very instrumental and the hospitality
end of things, and you know,

375
00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:12.960
the whole town just the hospitality and
the outpouring of you know what what can

376
00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:18.240
we do is just it's amazing and
it makes it easy to work in a

377
00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:21.519
place like this, you know,
to be a part of this department.

378
00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:25.640
By the way we're supported is you
know, it's it's tough to beat and

379
00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:30.359
it's certainly appreciated. So to that
end, we have Tom Wickman joining us

380
00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:33.920
here in just a second, and
we're going to talk about Detroit Weekend and

381
00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:40.359
you know what it entails, and
it's it's just been a real good time

382
00:25:40.359 --> 00:25:45.799
for us. So joining us now
from the Detroit Fire Department retired Chief retired

383
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:51.200
Battalion Chief Tom Wickman, Tom,
welcome to the show. Thanks for having

384
00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:52.920
me, love and being here.
It's great to see you. So,

385
00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:56.720
Tom, we just finished up our
annual Detroit mackinaw We call it the Detroit

386
00:25:56.759 --> 00:26:00.079
Weekend around here. We just finished
up the Detroit Training Weekend. This is

387
00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:06.400
our eighth year to my knowledge.
And do you do you get tired of

388
00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:11.400
having fun with these guys or you
know what, everything we do is fun,

389
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:15.119
the job, the training, everything
about it. You make it fun.

390
00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:21.559
It makes learning more enjoyable. It's
very true. So you know,

391
00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:23.000
I talked a little bit at the
beginning of the show about you know,

392
00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:27.359
the department and then and how we've
struck our friendship with the City of Detroit

393
00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:30.880
Fire Department, and uh, you
know, folks, we we have a

394
00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:34.680
couple of meals, of course,
and we do some training and it's it's

395
00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:40.119
almost invaluable. As I mentioned,
you know, these guys are the probably

396
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:45.400
the busiest structure firefighters in the world, and you know, for them to

397
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.480
come up and hang with this,
we don't we don't talk about plane crashes

398
00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:53.200
and boat fires and wild land fires, and that's the sort of stuff we

399
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:59.559
we certainly don't talk about vehicle extrication. But we we we specifically focus on

400
00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:03.319
struct firefighter training and these guys are
are the best at what they do.

401
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:10.039
I'm sure that's going to cause some
complaints and some comments on social media,

402
00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:11.920
of course, for me to say
something like that, carte blanche, but

403
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:17.000
it's it's probably true. And and
Tom, I'm sure I don't know how

404
00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:22.720
many thousand stories you have, but
you're retired about two years ago, I

405
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.960
think two years ago this month.
Okay, do you do you miss Do

406
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:30.160
you miss it much? I missed
the job. I don't miss the politics.

407
00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:34.880
Well, we certainly can understand that. So Tom, tell us a

408
00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:37.319
little bit. You're coming from the
city, you know, working in the

409
00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:41.559
city of Detroit, and uh,
you're the first weekend here. What did

410
00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:45.799
you think when we did our first
drills together and you're with you know,

411
00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:49.000
MC and Island Fire. What was
going through your head after the first twenty

412
00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:53.880
minutes. To be honest with you, really had no idea what to expect.

413
00:27:53.960 --> 00:27:59.640
I had never really worked with a
volunteer fire department before. I've been

414
00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:07.079
training for years with and with outside
agency, with Ford Motor Company and Detroit

415
00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:11.240
Firefighters, but to come up here
with people that are volunteer, my first

416
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:19.400
taste and what to expect. I
really had no idea. We were putting

417
00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:22.000
it all out on the line,
and let's see how this turns out.

418
00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:29.640
Yeah, it's it's funny and the
friendship we've we've forged between our department and

419
00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:33.880
your department. So there's a there's
a rumor that that goes around that getting

420
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:38.640
the Macanon training weekend is a coveted
detail in the Detroit Fire Department. Any

421
00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:45.160
truth to that is a very large
truth. I didn't realize it the first

422
00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:49.079
couple of years we did this.
We grabbed a handful of guys and guys

423
00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:53.319
that had been up here before and
visited and you knew them. Jason met

424
00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:57.000
them, and we said, hey, let's get these guys together, bring

425
00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:03.119
them in and let's do some training. And it's not because they were trained

426
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:08.480
trainers and they were learned, but
it's the experience. Jason, you had

427
00:29:08.519 --> 00:29:14.480
mentioned before how Detroit's the busiest fire
department. We don't break about it.

428
00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:18.880
We know things because we do it
so frequently. Right, So to learn

429
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.920
from somebody you're going to learn from. You want to learn something from somebody,

430
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:26.119
it does it a lot, right, You know, I'm a fervent

431
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:27.759
believer, and you know, it's
tough to go to a class, and

432
00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:30.960
you know this happens a lot in
this part of the state. You might

433
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.920
go to a class and it's being
taught by a guy who probably hasn't actually

434
00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:41.599
experienced the subject and what he's training
you about. So you know, when

435
00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:47.039
you guys are here, it's it's
absolutely great to have you and you talk

436
00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:51.559
real world experience, real world fires, and it's really tough to beat.

437
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.920
So I mean, do you do
you look forward to the weekend or is

438
00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:00.119
this on your calendar from starting the
way back in March or how's that word.

439
00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:04.960
I always look forward to this weekend. Any time I get a chance

440
00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:11.400
to share the wealth or the knowledge, I love it. Right. Uh.

441
00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:19.880
My biggest thing is I've always always
been a very stern believer and very

442
00:30:21.240 --> 00:30:29.160
I back up the volunteers because these
guys are coming from a job doing whatever

443
00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:30.960
God knows what, and all of
a sudden you're going to a fire.

444
00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:36.920
Right. I have huge respect for
that. And there have been people in

445
00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:40.839
the past that are full time firefighters
that have just frowned about it. Oh

446
00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:45.960
you're a volley Uh yeah, But
you're not really taking this song into consideration.

447
00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:49.599
I have deep respect for volunteers,
So chief, when when we uh,

448
00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:52.640
when you know when you're back in
the city or back home, I

449
00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.000
should say uh. In the and
you hear the word mac and Island and

450
00:30:56.039 --> 00:30:59.720
it pops up? Do you do
you catch yourself saying, boy, do

451
00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:02.960
I have a We'll have a story
for you folks. People ask me about

452
00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:07.799
Macnaw Island and I have friends and
family that have never stepped foot on the

453
00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:11.000
island and have lived in Michigan their
entire life, which to me, I

454
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:18.119
find that, Wow, I can't
believe that. But then I get to

455
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:22.319
add additionally to that because I feel
that I have a little part of me

456
00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:29.000
on the island. I'm an outsider
looking in, I'm an outsider coming in,

457
00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:33.559
but yet I still have I feel
I have roots here with your department

458
00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:38.279
because we've shared so much together over
the last eight years, developed a great

459
00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:44.519
friendship, a great family perspective.
There is no better family or closer family

460
00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:49.759
than the fire department, right and
it's worldwide, not just department wide,

461
00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:55.480
citywide, however, you want to
say that, so for me, anytime

462
00:31:55.559 --> 00:32:00.839
that anybody mentions Macnaw island. I
feel that. Yeah, I'm proud.

463
00:32:00.039 --> 00:32:05.680
I feel a minor part of mcna
Island, that a part of me is

464
00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:07.839
there and a part of this island. And a lot of it has to

465
00:32:07.880 --> 00:32:15.559
do with the outreach of you guys
as the Islanders, and your hospitality is

466
00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:23.839
incredible. It is by far better
than anywhere and anything and anyone has ever

467
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:30.200
come across you. People have welcomed
us in here, total strangers, into

468
00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:39.000
your homes, your lives, and
every minute I still remember that, appreciate

469
00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:45.039
it and respect it. God bless
you guys. Yeah, you're you're You're

470
00:32:45.079 --> 00:32:47.799
not wrong about the family of the
of the fire department, and that's I

471
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:52.240
would say almost everywhere you go.
It's it's a great big family, and

472
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:58.119
guys are and gals are real accommodating
and real friendly for you know, the

473
00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:01.160
folks listening. Tom is he can
back up what he's talking about. I

474
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:04.839
can't tell you the number of times
if we've caught a big fire here,

475
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.519
or or if we're experiencing a loss
of a member. You know, we've

476
00:33:08.599 --> 00:33:12.559
had a few guys pass away over
the few years, and I can tell

477
00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:15.920
you invariably, I almost as soon
as it hits you know, it gets

478
00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:21.519
out or it hits social media.
Tom reaches out immediately what he needs to

479
00:33:21.559 --> 00:33:22.359
do. What do you need from
Detroit? Will be up there in the

480
00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:27.759
next boat. What do you need? And you can't put a price or

481
00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:31.000
an expression of gratitude on something like
that. It's a it's a great group

482
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:34.559
of guys. And I'll tell you
what, this is one of my favorite

483
00:33:34.559 --> 00:33:38.799
weekends all year, no question.
And we're really happy and really thrilled with

484
00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:43.119
how this is going. We people
reach out a little bit and say to

485
00:33:43.160 --> 00:33:45.440
these guys, take their show on
the road. Where else do they do

486
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:50.680
training? And and I don't know
yet Tom. Tom hasn't established an LLC

487
00:33:50.839 --> 00:33:54.880
to take this show on the road
just yet. But boy, yeah,

488
00:33:55.079 --> 00:33:58.960
what's the old expression? If if
you can get them, they're they're worth

489
00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:01.680
it. But Chief, thanks for
being here, Thanks for coming this weekend,

490
00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:07.400
and thanks for all the laughs.
I couldn't have picked a better place

491
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:13.159
to be at this given time and
to share what we do with you guys.

492
00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:17.360
I appreciate the sentiment. Chief folks. This has been another episode of

493
00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:22.360
the Macin Island Moments podcast. I'm
Jason sat and coming to you from Macin

494
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:27.039
Island. The only podcast that originates
right here on mac Island, by a

495
00:34:27.159 --> 00:34:30.719
Macan Islander. We want to once
again thank our sponsor, Mission Point Resort,

496
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:36.480
and not only for sponsoring today's show, but for the profound support and

497
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:40.480
sponsorship of the Macin Island Fire Department. Liz and Mark and the rest of

498
00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:46.679
the Ware family. We thank you, everybody. Good day,