WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:04.799 Disclaimer. We'd like to know before the start of this interview that the opinions 2 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:09.119 about to be expressed by the guest of tonight's Getting Salty Experience Podcast are that 3 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:13.839 of the guest and do not directly or necessarily reflect the views of the host 4 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:34.000 of the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. 5 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:48.679 Hello, Hello, Susie's back in town. Welcome back to Get Salty 6 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:52.880 Experience Podcast. It's the only one that brings the fly out kitchen table with 7 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:58.159 Louis and a golf shirt to you. Make it to you right, I 8 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:02.759 read go to the kitchen table. Yeah, I do to that on the 9 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:07.959 left. Uh, not so good today? You know what's not so good? 10 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:11.400 It's probably like, will be a game for me? What's not so 11 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:15.040 good? Yesterday? I shot seventy nine believe it or not. Yeah, 12 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:19.519 trying to tried to have to gilmore that ship. That's what happened. Not 13 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:26.000 that I didn't play so well today. What's not so well? I shot 14 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:32.159 like eighty eight today. That's bad. Wow. Yeah, I'll get this 15 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:34.959 out of the way God, because we suck again. Which what are we 16 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:37.319 getting out of the way? Because I'm very we got more stuff out of 17 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:42.280 the way. The Rangers. My friend here, I know, I don't 18 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:45.760 even know. I'm getting over clumped here. It's getting I wrote a song 19 00:01:45.799 --> 00:01:49.840 for him, No, come on, not in the song did. It's 20 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.319 gonna take a few minutes a loon and so let me get it going. 21 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:57.079 You're ready. But my heart broke for my best friend over there the other 22 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:02.159 day, just him Procaccini, just the stream of tears coming down my face 23 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:06.560 was just my wat's what's the matter when happened? Somebody die? I'm like, 24 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:15.360 rage just died. Wasn't going good? I wasn't alwayn't doing good. 25 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.199 No, No, I was watching a little bit of game too. I 26 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:23.120 gotta I was like, oh, man is not happy right now? Away 27 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:29.000 from the light, little buddy. Don't like a second goal? It was 28 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.039 too nothing. I was like, oh god, loose throw shoot at the 29 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:37.919 TV. So we're going back and bought on the text do you have I 30 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:40.360 gotta go see a doctor. I got to go see a doctor. Rangers 31 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:44.319 one last night they beat the Penguin. A great performance to by the way, 32 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:47.520 bring nothing, shut out, control the whole game, the entire nobody 33 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:54.879 can. I love arguing, but I find that hysterical play the rest of 34 00:02:55.080 --> 00:03:12.199 many. If you loves it, nobody cares about that the guy. Rather 35 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:30.319 hear my talking about jockey hockey, ant you did this maims what nobody cared? 36 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:40.080 The Rangers a dreable nobody cared hot turns and downs. Then I hear 37 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:51.000 hocky it is a down ride. Rather hear my youing a line of bores 38 00:03:51.159 --> 00:04:08.400 and John no choice. When I hear your voice feel like drowning. I 39 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:12.840 think we got the poison. It was tough. It was tough, man. 40 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:16.399 Yeah, I knew your brother was gonna text me. I call them 41 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:20.920 roof. Don't text you on the island is lose. I don't text them. 42 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:27.040 I know. I said. All my cousins were texting me like breaking 43 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:29.160 my chops, and I was set, and I sent them like one of 44 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:32.120 those little memes where this little kid is like he's like this, He's like, 45 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:38.120 I'm fine, I'm fine, and then he goes he stucks like crying 46 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:43.560 in his hands. Oh h ship, all right, just what I've been 47 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:46.079 saying. I know, how many times, Oh yeah, next year, 48 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:48.759 don't worry about it, We're good. How many times can a New York 49 00:04:48.839 --> 00:04:51.759 fans say that in every sport. I mean, come on, it's enough. 50 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.040 I don't know, Oh man, I don't know. It was rough. 51 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:01.439 It was rough. We had do we put the Panthers logo on all 52 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.720 of our rigs. I was waiting for you to send me something. I 53 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:11.319 don't know if I'll find one, and I'll rub it in a little bit 54 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:13.720 later if they go any further. But you know, like I said, 55 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.040 we put on I mean, I hope this. I hope that they shut 56 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:21.639 down McDavid like they shut down Panarin. But at least I don't know what 57 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:30.879 he's saying. There's some hockey players have corucials. So we get built Billy 58 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:32.800 the brain. Heenan in you Billy the brain. All right, we're gonna 59 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:38.240 listen to mister Vince. Stand by. Here we go. Armor Tough firehouse 60 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:43.399 flooring was recently installed in Station number seven, the newest of the Dacab County 61 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:48.199 fire stations in Decatur, Georgia. Meeting Deputy Chief Smith of Support Services, 62 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:54.879 Vince explained that Armor Tough interlocking flooring is the only floor that is tough enough 63 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:59.920 to withstand the abuse of fire apparatus along with fire personnel at a very big 64 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:04.800 station. Chief Smith explained the flooring in all of our stations over the years 65 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:09.959 gave us multiple problems. We need a floor that can last as long as 66 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:14.720 the walls and the roof. That's why we chose Armor Tough. The installation 67 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:18.360 team came from New Jersey and in three days they had completed their work without 68 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:24.439 any disruption to our daily operations. We were very impressed with not only the 69 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:29.199 product, but with the workmanship as well. I highly recommend Armour Tough for 70 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:33.680 your station's floor. Call Vince today for a no obligation quote at nine oh 71 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:44.120 eight nine one seven seven six nine seven. All right, quickly, let's 72 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:46.360 play the salty Wire and then we'll bring them in here. Absolutely we go. 73 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:50.079 The fire Wire app is the go to resource for all news and incidents 74 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:55.160 in the fire in emergency services. The mobile app is here and available for 75 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:59.680 download. This long awaited update addresses a handful of concerns in regard to intermittent 76 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.240 crash is, jurisdiction areas, map settings, notifications, and more. This 77 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:08.759 iteration displays our newly designed user interface with the focus on expansion, as we 78 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:12.680 want to cover your neighborhood, city in county. Our goal is to provide 79 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:16.800 our users with the most accurate and on time information regarding emergency incidents, news 80 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:21.199 and knowledge on all things fire and emergency services. Our newest edition, in 81 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:26.439 partnership with a Gatting Salty Experience, brings you salty Wire, where you can 82 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:30.480 view never before seen premium content from lew and Kobe's and exclusive segments in various 83 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:40.040 categories. Subscribe today on saltywire dot com. Let's go get out the rescue. 84 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.079 Drop the first part of the rescue. There's three more coming, three 85 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:47.680 mores, three more coming. The fire Patrol documentary. Don't want to miss 86 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:51.399 it. Get on the pro Kaccini, stop alligator on and off, and 87 00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:57.399 get the apple your chief best. I've already got a lot of little birdiees 88 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:00.319 chirping about this next guy. And when I say little, I mean little 89 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:03.639 like Crooker. He was chirping, the little guy, the little he was 90 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:07.040 chirping in my ear. I don't think we've had a guy on that's above 91 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:09.879 five six from Chicago yet, have we. I don't know how to old 92 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:13.399 Bill is about. Have to find that out. I wonder if you have 93 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:20.560 this Uh yeah, it was tiny uh and who else moo, Timothy. 94 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:26.000 Yeah, they're all like on the five to six. We're gonna ask Bill 95 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:35.720 if you ever had to say this, we'll have to find out as ship 96 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:41.000 never gets old, man never get old. We ago. You could see 97 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:45.279 him shaken too. He's got the little shaky yeah, yeah, you know, 98 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:46.600 you get the face going the lips. Yeah, he's got the fake 99 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:50.960 I think that that looked like you and you had the remote your hand the 100 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.519 other day when the Rangers were losing. I was in a better mood. 101 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.919 I'm sorry until until three minutes ago. Yeah, let's bring in Misty. 102 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:03.759 Let's get him in here. Let's do that. You guys ready, oh 103 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:07.600 all right, coming to the stage. A lot of phone calls on this 104 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:11.919 guy, he said, this is exactly. Not only did he talk to 105 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:15.960 talk, but that man walked the walk real hard charger. Did they say 106 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:22.799 anything like mister h sorry, here we go right. One of them was 107 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:33.759 the best firefighter I ever saw. Missus there he is, look at him. 108 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:43.519 The goat got for the goat, waiting years for that wall. Sound 109 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:50.440 the same to my way. I am a hockey hockey fan, Yeah, 110 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.159 yep, all right, yeah, well we got a three Stanley cups. 111 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.360 I know, okay, how about you? We got three three and four, 112 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:03.840 got right out your rope. He's gonna throw that right your mush as 113 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:05.799 soon as it comes on. I'm a Ranger fans who I was rooting for 114 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:15.159 him, Dallas, go at it. Keyword was was you know what the 115 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:18.320 Jakes is right, it's that stupid whatever at the beginning, the trophy, 116 00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:24.600 the touch the president's trophe. Can't touch the president's trophy, ron loser. 117 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:31.120 I'll get patriotic. And then we get into mister Heenan's career. Hit man, 118 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:35.039 hit man. Oh, you went too soon for that. The word, 119 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:43.679 by the way, we'll do that man, so we can re that's 120 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:45.120 it. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to drink. We got a 121 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:50.320 little early. But then that's so then we get to our patriotic Here we 122 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:58.720 go. I pleasure allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and 123 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:07.759 to the Republic for which it stands, One nation under God, indivisible with 124 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:22.519 liberty and justice for all. H Kevin Malone wants to know if you're staying 125 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:31.600 at a what do you say, Holly, It's funny. I talked to 126 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.279 the game the other day, by the way, just to quickly he called 127 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:37.240 me because he's going to Manhattan to the garden. He wants to know, 128 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:43.720 is it faith there the train? I'm like, well you for China, 129 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:48.559 I think you were a marine, and me if it's safe in your subway? 130 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:58.240 Holy ship, what happened to the Hourah guy? I smell, I 131 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:05.799 smelled something. I spelled something right, it's called gay. Come let me 132 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.720 get it. Give you a little smack for that. Quick up. Not 133 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:16.799 bad of it? Ship together, fox, All right, let's go back. 134 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.360 Let's let's rewind. Let's go back to oh ship. We got a 135 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:26.720 time whin the breath hold on man way too, so I am told. 136 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:35.200 And all three the other guys say, five eight five million, nice Timothy 137 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:41.600 ain't definitely ain't of a five six. That's a good man there. No, 138 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:43.720 they're all listen. Every one of those guys we've had on here, 139 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:48.000 one better than the next. I cannot. I'll tell you that. All 140 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:52.759 three good chiefs man, all three of them. Legit, dude. I 141 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:56.600 couldn't. I couldn't. I don't think I could have had been been as 142 00:12:56.679 --> 00:13:00.919 lucky as I was to work with the guys I did, and my career 143 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:03.039 was phenomenal. I mean I didn't think it was. I didn't know what 144 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:05.759 was going to go that way. But at the end of it, I 145 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:09.679 mean, and even people tell me, man, you you were involving some 146 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:13.399 crazy ship and and I'd love to hear about that. Let's hear about the 147 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:16.440 crazy it was. I mean, I just I was in the right place 148 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:20.080 at the right time sometimes and sometimes in the wrong place a wrong time, 149 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:24.320 you know. But I mean the guys I worked with always the best man 150 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:28.519 and I never left the the ghetto or I never left the tough area my 151 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:31.120 whole career. I mean, it was just I got lucky coming out of 152 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:35.600 the academy. I went to the West Side, and uh it just from 153 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:41.320 there just everything went good. I mean the fine lucky yeah, yeah, 154 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:50.519 exactly, the fine lucky before. Yeah, I know what you're saying, 155 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:58.039 right well, you want to buy house? Didn't, but it got me 156 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:03.080 to a good house. But the promotion was overrated. It was good, 157 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:05.879 man. I mean, I wouldn't have changed the thing, that's how good 158 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:09.159 it was. I gotta tell you three guys, and they have a common 159 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:13.759 team. They all chase fire from company to company. Bro right, Yeah, 160 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:18.240 I mean, you know, west Side was good and then they then 161 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:26.759 the yuppies started taking over the west Side and then breaking always the freaking hipsters 162 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:31.480 hips, the yuppies bro the ruined a lot of ships. Yeah, they 163 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:39.000 killed the black pushing it. They started rehabbing ship buying seven dollar copies. 164 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:46.519 That's how it starts downhill from there, Bill, that's correct. Go back, 165 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:50.399 though, go back to Bill, Bill the youngster, Like where did 166 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:52.000 you grow up? Give us a little about the family, brothers and sister's 167 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:54.039 dad. What makes you want to be on the job? All that could 168 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.960 ship? Well, I grew up in a city my whole life. My 169 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:01.480 dad worked, my mom didn't. We had three boys, so he worked 170 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:05.120 his ass off and we went to public school. There was no private school. 171 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.399 Shit, you know what I mean, There was no money. So 172 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:11.600 but I know, graduating from high school and there was no college. My 173 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:15.480 college talk lasted about thirteen seconds. He goes, you're full time now at 174 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:18.399 the dock. So I started working on the dock with my dad. He 175 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:22.879 was a truck driver, and I learned how to drive a truck right away, 176 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:26.440 and then got a job driving a truck. Actually first, when I 177 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:31.360 was eighteen, I was driving a semi and then took the test right right 178 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:33.480 around I think I was twenty one, when I took the test twenty or 179 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:39.279 twenty one, got called at twenty two, which was unbelievable because I couldn't 180 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:43.639 believe I got called. And then who stage it told the test stage to 181 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:45.960 the pile itself, Well, I mean check this out. So a friend 182 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:46.519 of mine, he's like, hey, listen, they're giving a fire and 183 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:50.000 police test out. He says, we might want to go take these tests, 184 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:52.519 you know, because we're not going to college, so this is probably 185 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:56.039 the best next thing to go, you know. So I took the police 186 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:58.080 test first, that waiting, waiting on that a little bit, and took 187 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:03.080 the fire test second, and lo and behold. Out of twenty thousand guys 188 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:07.519 at the time, I finished like four hundred and twenty ninth. Wow, 189 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:10.399 I thought it was a typo. When I got the letter, I thought 190 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:15.159 they're missing they're missing a digit here, you know. It's I thought it 191 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.519 was like four thousands. You know. So did your buddy get called? 192 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:26.080 Yeah, he got called eight years later? What Yeah? Yeah, As 193 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:27.240 a matter of fact, he was by today. That guy was by by 194 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:30.240 house today. Bill. That's like the common thing, man, that that 195 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:33.559 guys take the job like this, like they just out of the blue, 196 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.519 somebody says, heyah, take this test. You know, they have no 197 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:41.799 idea next thing. You know, they have this incredible career. And actually 198 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:45.519 I thought my A lot of my family were coppers. So they're like, 199 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.240 oh, yeah, we want you to be in the copper and you know, 200 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:49.399 and uh yeah, okay, help Yeah I want to be a cop 201 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:52.200 too. And then I was the first of my family to be a fireman, 202 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:55.799 and then a couple of cousins after that got called. But I mean 203 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:59.919 I was the first one in my family to be fireman. Believe me, 204 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.599 it was the best. They cops called me like four years later and they're 205 00:17:03.640 --> 00:17:06.920 like, you want the job. I'm like, even the cop told me, 206 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:07.519 he goes, you got the best job in the world. No, 207 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:12.640 I go, no, I don't want that job. I also have too 208 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:17.480 much fun. Sorry, yeah, you really had no idea about the fire 209 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:18.960 department. No, I had no. I had no none of my none 210 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:22.079 of my none of my relatives or firemen. I mean I was the first 211 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:26.119 one in my whole family, and he really had like no idea what you 212 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:29.799 were doing. I had no idea what to expect or anything. I just 213 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:32.720 knew it was a good job. And everybody told me when I got called. 214 00:17:32.759 --> 00:17:33.359 He was, oh, man, you're so lucky, and I'm like, 215 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:37.119 yeah, I'm pumped. I'm like dumb. Then I got an academy, 216 00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:41.400 you know, and I was like, the guys that I met that 217 00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:47.480 I came out with an academy actually ended up being probably twenty five percent of 218 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:49.279 the guys I end up working with my whole life. It was kind of 219 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:53.079 crazy. It was just everybody. And when they gave that test back in 220 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:57.640 eighty five whatever, it was everybody that got out of my class was one 221 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:03.400 sixty five and no taller than six foot because you had to hang from a 222 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:06.279 bar as long as you could, they time John, So all us little 223 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:08.680 spider monk, the big guys couldn't do it. Yeah. Also the spider 224 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:15.240 monkeys hung out the little guys baby, yeah right, yeah, guy guys, 225 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:18.640 the little guys and the short guys. Yeah right. It was That's 226 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:22.039 how it ended up being all the same you know, same size guys, 227 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:25.480 and they were all in good shape and we were all like we could hang 228 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:27.440 forever. So that's how it ended up being, you know, And then 229 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.240 we went through the academy, and back then the academy was only three and 230 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.279 a half months now, it's like almost a year. I mean, but 231 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:37.400 yeah, they want you to be they want you to be an A m 232 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:38.160 T. They want you to be this, they want you to be that. 233 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:44.240 And so I don't know, So I guess said. I went through 234 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:48.119 the academy, got out passed the firefighter too and all the other stuff, 235 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:49.960 and ended up going to the West Side. And that's where I end up 236 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:53.640 working with Timothy. He was on the West Side. And uh so, 237 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.400 how did you do that? Was that all? Luck? How that happened? 238 00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:00.559 You know what? I Back then, by the time the academy was 239 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:04.519 over, the chiefs at Randy Academy, they would throw a list out of 240 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:08.720 the guys that they thought were you know, hey, this guy's gonna work 241 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.480 out, you know what I mean. That's kind of how it was, 242 00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:12.799 I thought back then. I don't know for sure that's how it went, 243 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:15.160 but I'm sure that's the way it was going. Because all the guys that 244 00:19:15.559 --> 00:19:19.240 mustered are as the academy, all with the good companies. How many guys 245 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:22.359 that were a little bit of a dog ass they didn't go you know what 246 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:27.359 I mean? How many guys in your class? Bill? Yeah, yeah, 247 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:30.599 it was I mean all the guys there was one hundred and one hundred 248 00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:36.480 and three. You were taking a hundred times they we always keep three in 249 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:40.079 case three failed out or three quid whatever. They tried to get a hundred 250 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:41.599 every time they did it. You know. But what year was this? 251 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:47.680 Eighty eighty seven? Eight seven? Yeah? Right, wow? It was 252 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:59.519 walking out your shams the baron shirt going yeah on that Koobi man. Oh 253 00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:03.920 right, you were to get coming on to twenty two with a bunch of 254 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:08.319 other guys. It was great. I mean yeah, it was yeah, 255 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:14.640 it was there. He yes, you did. You know what? So 256 00:20:14.759 --> 00:20:18.799 you went to where where was the first place she went? And they a 257 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:22.119 single house, double house, single house? Were a chief running out of 258 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:26.559 an amble and uh, I end up working. My captain was Big Bill 259 00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:30.759 Kosski. His brother was a coach of Duke remember well he just retired as 260 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.480 a coach of Duke basketball. Yeah, brother, his brother was my captain. 261 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:37.759 It looked just like John Wayne was this a big dude. Was a 262 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.039 hell of fireman, and I mean little intimidating. Yeah, he was yeah, 263 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:45.519 intimate, very intimate. He had fucking hands like baseball mites, you 264 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:51.359 know what I mean. I mean always the big hands guys. Yeah, 265 00:20:52.359 --> 00:20:56.680 it was so he was like he goes, yeah, he goes, he 266 00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:59.200 goes, either you're going to be a fireman or not, I'll like it. 267 00:20:59.319 --> 00:21:02.279 And he goes, I'll like you know, So I stayed. I 268 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:06.680 stayed there with him and I fin finished out my year probation whatever they want 269 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:08.880 to call it, and uh stayed there. Tek you to catch your first 270 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:12.400 job there, Bill. I think it was like the second it was like 271 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:15.640 the second day it worked. I mean I was They put me in the 272 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:21.759 middle of uh he like a sucking up guy. And after after about two 273 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:23.680 or three fires that we had, and then put me on a hydroent for 274 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:26.559 a while. And I was not an engine company, so and then I 275 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:29.559 ended up on it. Then he liked me a lot, and he's like, 276 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:33.079 I'm putting on the fucking pipe and I'm like, I'm all in, 277 00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:34.160 you know what I mean. A couple of the other guys that were there 278 00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:37.000 for a little while we're kind of fisted off at me, but I mean 279 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.039 he didn't care. He's like, listen, I like the way you're work. 280 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:44.079 And he goes, he goes, this is what we're gonna do. 281 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:45.880 And we did that for a while, and I loved it. Man, 282 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:51.599 I was. I was kind of like, uh, I was, I'm 283 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:52.960 like ging, and I'm thinking myself, the pipe guys, where it's at, 284 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:56.000 Man, you know what I mean. You're in there, You're the 285 00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:57.720 first guy. It's you're in control of what's going on. You know. 286 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:00.200 I didn't think it was any kind of a better job than that, you 287 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:03.759 know, And so that's why I stayed on an engine. And then that 288 00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:07.400 area about three years later, four years later, started to slow it down, 289 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:11.839 you know, and I'm like, hi, and then they would burning 290 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:14.640 big time on the south side, and a couple of guys from my academy 291 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:15.599 class are like, hey, listen, you gotta come south, you know 292 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.359 what I mean. There's a couple of openings, a couple of guys are 293 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:22.279 leaving or they're retiring, and so I put in and I put it. 294 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:26.799 Actually Mike Timothy talked, I was talked to him, and a couple other 295 00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:29.640 guys are like, hey, put in for engine for ninety Engine ninety five 296 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:32.680 at that time was really hard to get and I'd had more time at a 297 00:22:32.759 --> 00:22:34.759 job, so that was my first choice. I didn't get and I truck 298 00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:38.440 thirty six that was another basy company and I didn't get that one, and 299 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:42.240 then I ended up getting into forty five, which was definitely one of the 300 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:48.119 best boves of my life. I mean I was there with eight other guys 301 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:51.240 that were twenty two years old. I mean, it was the fucking best. 302 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:53.400 I mean, we were all hard, hard chargers. We had an 303 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:57.720 old captain and an older lieutenant and they loved us. Man, they called 304 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:00.279 those the young guns. We were. We were nuts. We didn't care, 305 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:06.279 you know, we just everybody's on the same page, right, Yeah, 306 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:11.200 everybody was on the same age, same page. Yeah. Everybody just 307 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:12.000 wanted to go to Fighters, man, it's all. It was like. 308 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:15.880 It reminded me of Animal House, you know what I mean. Everybody just 309 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:18.599 wanted to be there, you know what I mean. Every day I was 310 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:22.799 like I couldn't wait to do it to work. I mean, we we 311 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:26.720 fucked around all day. We jagged each other off all day, and it 312 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:38.920 was it was fucking each other off all day, I mean, just fucking 313 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.200 with each other. How many guys riding the engine back then? Bill, 314 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.680 we had five on the engine, uh, with your county officer, and 315 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.319 then we had five on the truck. That was a double house. We 316 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:52.839 had an amble with us that was it was truck fifteen inch and forty five 317 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.160 and and man, we were burning all kinds of ship. It was just 318 00:23:56.599 --> 00:23:59.039 it was all the buildings. What kind of buildings you have over there? 319 00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:00.440 We had everything over there. We had a little bit of high rises along 320 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.200 the lakefront, and then we had that's where I ended up making one of 321 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:07.680 a good rescue there. But and then we had big apartment buildings, like 322 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.480 big corner units, fifteen twenty unit apartment buildings. Then we did have some 323 00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:15.000 frames stuck in there, so we had a little bit of everything. Man, 324 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:18.160 it was good, and we're not going to go to past that, 325 00:24:18.279 --> 00:24:22.279 So let's roll back to the rescue that you made before. We just gloss 326 00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:29.319 over that anybody. I'm on forty five. It was a cold night, 327 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:33.519 was I think it was January twenty sixth I believe. And we had these 328 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:37.119 high rises that weren't really projects, but there were low, low income high 329 00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:40.559 rises. And we never really went there a whole lot because it was mostly 330 00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:44.200 older people and we didn't get a lot of a lot of fires in that 331 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:48.160 area. But we had just drilled on that building because it was it was 332 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:51.400 on a dead end street. It was a ten story building and it was 333 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:55.359 backed up the railroad tracks. So we had gone to the drill just my 334 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:59.119 lieutenant wanted to make us familiar with the standpipes and where the hydroens were. 335 00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:00.880 Because it was a dead ends street. It was only hydrants in certain areas. 336 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:03.440 So we had just drool in that building like two weeks before that, 337 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:07.440 and it was two o'clock in the morning, forty five mile hour winds. 338 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:11.880 I remember it was windy as fuck, and I was just gonna ask you 339 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:15.160 about the window over. The wind was right off the lake because this place 340 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:18.920 was literally three hundred yards from the lake. So although we're off the lake, 341 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:22.000 the wind, it was coming. So we get it as a still 342 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:26.720 and the other company that was supposed to be there still we were supposed to 343 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:30.720 be secking up, they got they were stuck at a hospital, check the 344 00:25:30.759 --> 00:25:33.880 box, whatever. So we end up being a still company. So we're 345 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:36.519 going there and we're thinking that this is a bunch of bullshit. It's probably 346 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:38.720 meet on the stove or because that's usually what it is with these older people. 347 00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:42.559 They fall asleep with shit on a store or whatever. We're driving there 348 00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:45.200 and I remember We had an open cab, so it was cold as fuck. 349 00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:49.720 We're all trying to get downside the cab, right and all of a 350 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:52.240 sudden, I just happened to get up and take a look, you know. 351 00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:55.279 As we're going, I go, I go, shit, we got 352 00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:56.920 a fire, you know. And they're like, shut up, sit down. 353 00:25:57.319 --> 00:25:59.839 I go, no, I'm telling you, we got a fire, 354 00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:02.920 you know what I mean. And I look up and it wasn't didn't look 355 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:06.359 like much like a little glow in the window, maybe a mattress or some 356 00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:10.359 shit. But we didn't know that on the other side of the building was 357 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:12.720 it was blowing out the windows, you know what I mean. So we 358 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:17.079 come in from the from the south and all the fires on the on the 359 00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:18.960 north side, and so we make the turn into the parking lot on the 360 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:23.440 north side and people are jumping. I'm like, We're like, what the 361 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:27.720 fuck? You know. So we pull in and my cousin was the engineer, 362 00:26:29.640 --> 00:26:32.920 and he's like, he's like, we're fucked. I go okay. 363 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:34.440 So he goes, you got to find a hydrot I go, listen, 364 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:37.799 I I know exactly what a hydroant is. I says, it's fifty feet. 365 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:44.400 Yeah, you just you all thought at night. Bill, I'm telling 366 00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:47.720 you. I run to the hydroant, I make the hydrant and I'm looking 367 00:26:47.799 --> 00:26:52.640 up and I'm just watching people are jumping from the forefront. I mean, 368 00:26:52.759 --> 00:26:56.200 it was it was crazy. So as I'm running back to the rig, 369 00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:00.599 my guys are going in with the high ride stuff and I'm my mask on 370 00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:03.720 and shit, and and some guy grabs me and he says, hey, 371 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:07.400 my my niece is hanging out the window. You got to get a ladder. 372 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:11.079 I'm thinking to myself, dude, there's forty people hanging out the windows. 373 00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:14.799 I go, we're gonna get to them. We get it's an extra 374 00:27:14.839 --> 00:27:18.440 alarmical people are coming helps on its way. He goes, no, she's 375 00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:22.079 hanging from the window. So he drags me. He literally drags me to 376 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:25.519 the end of the building and sure enough, this girl. They got this 377 00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:27.880 girl hanging out by two of her hands, like they're holding her out the 378 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:32.200 window like this, and she's on the sixth floor. I'm like, oh, 379 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:34.119 there's no fucking way I'm gonna get up there. For one thing, 380 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:37.960 I can't even get a ladder in here, a hooking ladder, I'm thinking 381 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.079 to myself. So all of a sudden. I run back, and truck 382 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:45.039 eleven's pulling up a truck four, I mean, and and our truck's on 383 00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:48.519 the other side of the building. They're trying to make some rescues from that 384 00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:51.400 side. And I'm like, I go, listen, we need the banger. 385 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:53.200 I go, and no one likes the banger. It's a fifty foot 386 00:27:53.240 --> 00:28:00.000 Extenson ladder at weighs seven hundred fucking pounds, you know, bringing that Oh 387 00:28:00.119 --> 00:28:03.720 dude, we're pulling it out of the truck. It didn't even want to 388 00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:04.759 come out of the truck, you know. We're pulling it out, and 389 00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:08.599 we're running with this thing, four of us. It's bouncing off our legs 390 00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:12.319 were bouncing off cars. We had to run about eighty yards with this ladder. 391 00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:17.640 Right. So I'm helping these guys from truck four and and people are 392 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:19.839 hanging. It's getting worse and worse where they're at, and they're going, 393 00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:22.680 we're gonna we're gonna drop where you gotta catch her. I'm like, we 394 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:26.359 need six stories. I ain't catching anybody, you know, And so we 395 00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:30.799 throw the ladder up. We start raising the ladder, and my cousin was 396 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.880 the engineer. He's already got the engine hooked up to the building. He's 397 00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:37.079 got it in pumper ready. He comes over and he goes, what the 398 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:38.799 fuck's going on and go we're trying to get these people out this window right 399 00:28:38.839 --> 00:28:42.119 here. So we start raising the ladder. Well, fifty foot ladder is 400 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:45.720 only going to go to the bottom of the fifth floor, so I so 401 00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:52.279 they put the arms out on the ladder extension arms to stabilize the ladder. 402 00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:55.680 So I'm standing there and the dude from truck for says, get up there 403 00:28:55.720 --> 00:29:00.400 and get that kid. I'm like, okay, all right. I didn't 404 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:03.440 even hesitate to tell you the truth. I just I started climbing the ladder. 405 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:06.559 So I get to the top of the ladder and we're I'm now, 406 00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:08.680 you're not really doing you're in the engine. You're not doing that right, 407 00:29:08.759 --> 00:29:12.079 You're not doing that regularly. Yeah, this isn't this isn't my ladder. 408 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:15.880 It's not even my company, you know what I mean. They're like, 409 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:18.480 get up there and get that kid. I'm like, okay, all right. 410 00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:22.519 Yeah. So I climb up and I get to like maybe five or 411 00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:25.480 six feet from the top of the ladder, and that's as close as I 412 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:27.480 can get to the building. I mean, how many I can't get any 413 00:29:27.559 --> 00:29:32.720 higher, and this poor kid is still fifteen feet above them. I mean, 414 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:34.359 I'm like, and so I'm now I'm trying to talk to him. 415 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:37.440 I'm like, listen, stay in the window. We got we've got a 416 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:41.400 storm will coming. It could probably get back and get you out of this 417 00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:45.960 window. Well, it was the situation, was the tearing. Was it 418 00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:49.440 chugging out of there? I was chugging above their head. I mean, 419 00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:52.400 and I didn't know it, but there was. There was four people or 420 00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:56.559 yeah, five five, four people in that window. I couldn't even see 421 00:29:56.599 --> 00:30:00.759 them, you know what I mean, was like holding her end up being 422 00:30:00.839 --> 00:30:03.200 her brother holding a little ten year old out the window, you know, 423 00:30:03.880 --> 00:30:07.440 And I'm like, don't drop her. I go the chance of me catching 424 00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:11.000 her slim the nun, you know. Next thing I know, I hear 425 00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:15.000 my cousin yell from the bottom of from the bottom of the ladder, look 426 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.839 out, cuz. And all I remember seeing this little girl dress above her 427 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:22.160 head and she's coming down right at me, and I'm like, fuck. 428 00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:26.599 I stuck my arm out to the side of me, and she landed right 429 00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:32.519 with one leg on each side of my arm. Yeah, listen, in 430 00:30:32.599 --> 00:30:36.240 the meantime, the wind's forty five miles an hour and the ladder is very 431 00:30:36.359 --> 00:30:41.000 unstable. I got some guys trying to hold this me being on the end 432 00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:44.519 of it, making it unstable. And she lands right there. Well, 433 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:48.799 I mean she's and she's screaming, and she's bleeding all over the place. 434 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:51.480 I mean, his blood was blood all over my arm, and at first 435 00:30:51.559 --> 00:30:52.799 I thought it was my arm that was bleeding. I'm like, holy fuck, 436 00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:56.799 what the fuck is going on? And all he hears the people on 437 00:30:56.839 --> 00:30:59.480 the gold so it's nice catch. I'm like, what, I'm like, 438 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:02.720 trying to hang on for dear life. I got one arm on the ladder, 439 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:07.799 and this poor girl, she's reaching away from me because she's disorientated from 440 00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:11.720 the smoke. She's reaching away from me towards the building and pulling me off 441 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:14.279 the ladder, you know. And I'm like, I'm trying to talk to 442 00:31:14.359 --> 00:31:17.799 her and she's just screaming. I'm trying to figure out where blood's coming from. 443 00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:21.599 And next thing I know, the ladder starts to slide down the side 444 00:31:21.599 --> 00:31:25.079 of the building. Right, I'm like, you gotta be fucking kidding me, 445 00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:29.839 right, fucking Two seconds later, her sister jumps and goes right past 446 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:33.400 me. I'm like, so, I look down, I see her hit 447 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.359 the ground. I'm like, fuck, man, that's that point, right. 448 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:41.160 And now the ladder slides sideways about five feet and it hits an air 449 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:45.160 conditioner and it stops. I'm like, thank God for the fucking air conditioner, 450 00:31:45.319 --> 00:31:48.799 all right. So now I'm trying to tell the guys on the bottom 451 00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:51.880 hold the fucking ladder right, and they're like, we can't, we can't 452 00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:55.279 hold the ladder. I'm like so, and everybody's screaming. Next thing I 453 00:31:55.359 --> 00:32:00.599 know, her brother jumps out of the window onto the drain pipe that's right 454 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:02.920 next to me. He's above me about eight feet. He's looking at me, 455 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:07.359 and I got his sister in my hands that I'm trying to stew trying 456 00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:09.680 to corral into the ladder so I can pin her against the ladder to calm 457 00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:13.400 her down. All of a sudden, I see him drop. No, 458 00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:16.359 he goes right past me. Right. I see him hit the ground, 459 00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:20.519 and I see all the people rush over to grab him. Right. I'm 460 00:32:20.559 --> 00:32:22.960 like, holy fuck. I'm like, God, just get me off this 461 00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:27.759 ladder, right, I go. So the ladder they they're trying to push 462 00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:30.440 the ladder back up straight again and they can't. So finally they get enough 463 00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:35.440 people, they get pedestrians, and they're pushing the tormenter bar and they get 464 00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:37.759 it straight again. Right now, I'm like, okay, now I get 465 00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:40.680 control of this girl a little bit. She starts to calm down. I 466 00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:45.440 forget about Mom, who's still in the window. Now fire is over her 467 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:50.839 head right and she is getting burned. I'm like fuck. So next thing 468 00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:53.119 I know, I'm looking down, she jumps by and takes my helmet right 469 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:58.079 off. I'm like, fuck, what the fuck was that? It was 470 00:32:58.200 --> 00:33:00.400 Mom? She went head first out the window and she was going by. 471 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:04.039 She took my helmet off. That's why you see me in a picture. 472 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:06.559 I ain't got no helmet on. She took it off and she went by. 473 00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:09.599 Wow, And she didn't make it. She died. The brother brother 474 00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:14.599 survived. He broke his legs and his sisters survived. She broke her hip 475 00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:19.640 in her leg. I'm getting out off the ladder and I remember this lady. 476 00:33:19.960 --> 00:33:22.200 She had no teeth. She she comes walking up through me and she 477 00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:27.079 gives me a kiss. She said, that's the best thing I've ever seen 478 00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:30.079 at this point. I was just checking my pants for ship. I was 479 00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:34.640 like, code brown, code brown, dude. It wasn't the air condition 480 00:33:34.759 --> 00:33:38.559 that stopped a lot of It was a giant size bolt that stopped Bill. 481 00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:43.839 How many how many people passed away at that job? I think it was 482 00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:47.279 six six total. I thought it was six yeah, six people. Yeah, 483 00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:51.680 you can't make it out here? It was. Is that the girl 484 00:33:51.799 --> 00:33:53.079 right there in that picture? No? No, no, she was. 485 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:55.359 She was eight years old, nine years old, eight years old. I 486 00:33:55.400 --> 00:33:59.319 have a difference in a video here, like we'll play a few seconds episode. 487 00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:00.920 There's no issues. But if you guys see you can see her. 488 00:34:01.640 --> 00:34:06.359 She's a pretty big girl, about sixty five pounds. I'll speak to Chicago, 489 00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:10.199 break your own. Ten story apartment building erupts into flames, sending panic 490 00:34:10.280 --> 00:34:19.239 residents racing to the upper floors. That's just the sidewalk below. That's what 491 00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:23.800 we are. The brother, just to the sidewalk below. When you see 492 00:34:23.880 --> 00:34:28.440 me. Let's watch again as the man tries to hope we go up to 493 00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:34.159 here somehow one well. I remember seeing her dress above her head and she's 494 00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:37.000 coming down. I just stick my heart out and she lands right here. 495 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:39.840 I'm like, oh man, I have got tell you what I said. 496 00:34:39.880 --> 00:34:44.920 But I got her, you know, But the ordeal is an over. 497 00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:52.000 The firefighter is struggling to keep his balance and in the ladder tries to I 498 00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:55.760 never got her in the land, Oh man, I would have said, 499 00:34:55.880 --> 00:35:00.960 good man, wins fall than about forty an hour reaching away from me, 500 00:35:00.360 --> 00:35:02.559 and I'm trying to get her rid of me. I'm trying to scream that 501 00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:06.320 turn around for around, grabby. I don't had one arm, one leg, 502 00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:07.599 got a ladder. I'm like, come on, I can't hang out 503 00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:12.280 forever. You know. He didn't manage just to carry the girl the safety 504 00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:19.519 the mother. You see the mother, I don't put that on there. 505 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:23.559 Wow, it's not do you talk to her at all anymore? Yeah. 506 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:28.719 I stayed in touch with her until she was nineteen years old. She graduated, 507 00:35:28.840 --> 00:35:31.199 she graduated college. Her dad. The reason her dad wasn't home that 508 00:35:31.360 --> 00:35:36.719 night, he was losing his job at MCI Phone Company remember years ago MC 509 00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:40.159 Yeah, and he had a choice to go to Arizona and get transferred or 510 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:44.039 lose a job. So he was in Arizona looking for a place for them 511 00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:46.599 to live. And that's why he wasn't home. That night and a knucklehead 512 00:35:46.599 --> 00:35:51.719 who started the fire just got out of prison for some other bullshit. No, 513 00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:55.000 he had stole some ship from the railroad, stored it in his house 514 00:35:55.079 --> 00:35:59.159 and that's what caught fire. He opened the door, left the apartment door 515 00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:02.199 open, and it placed. It swept right through the whole building. Fine, 516 00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:07.159 upstanding citizen. Yeah. Uh, they gave me the water. Uh 517 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:12.039 was the order valor? I think it was. I didn't get the lamborn 518 00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:15.119 tree, but it was. It was, okay, I listened. It 519 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:20.599 was just to get off that ladder. I remember fathering moll Crown. The 520 00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:23.199 priest was there at this fire. It was a five eleven and three specials 521 00:36:23.320 --> 00:36:27.960 or some ship, and the priest was there giving people their last rights. 522 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:30.079 I mean it was and he see me. He's like, he goes, 523 00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:34.559 you're going to heaven kid. I said, yeah, we'll see it better. 524 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:37.760 That's better than any metal you got. That. That's what I got 525 00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:40.480 to ask you question, what did the guy who got the top medal do? 526 00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:44.559 How do you fucking top that? What did this guy do? That 527 00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:47.239 was a long story. That was Yeah, it was a long story. 528 00:36:47.800 --> 00:36:51.400 Raya Rosco was the commissioner at the time. It was a great dude. 529 00:36:51.960 --> 00:36:53.320 And uh, he come into me and told me. He says, listen, 530 00:36:53.400 --> 00:36:57.760 he goes, there's nobody that deserves that word more than you, he 531 00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:00.679 says. But this guy that we want to get of the war too, 532 00:37:00.519 --> 00:37:06.320 he uh, he's got an MS and he's going off the job. He 533 00:37:06.440 --> 00:37:08.719 made a decent rescue and we'd like to give that to him. And I 534 00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:12.599 said, listen, Ray, you do whatever you gotta do. I was 535 00:37:12.639 --> 00:37:15.079 good with it. I mean, do you even have that that that that 536 00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:19.800 rescue on video, right? I mean, you know what that's like. 537 00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:22.320 I mean, it's impossible to have I didn't even know it was on video, 538 00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:28.559 uh until the next day. I mean a couple of people had saw 539 00:37:28.599 --> 00:37:31.280 it, you know, and uh and uh. But we went back to 540 00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:34.880 the firehouse after that. We were there all night until the next day, 541 00:37:34.920 --> 00:37:37.920 until the next shift came in and we're still cleaning up and washing down stuff. 542 00:37:37.960 --> 00:37:43.000 But yeah, we didn't even know it was on video. Pretty well. 543 00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:45.760 That engine guy was on the ladder, yeah, you know, that's 544 00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:47.519 that's the truck guy. And the truck guy told him to go up there. 545 00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:52.199 Yeah, okay, I ain't going up you go. Yeah. That 546 00:37:52.280 --> 00:37:54.559 guy ended up being that guy that told me to go up the ladder. 547 00:37:55.199 --> 00:37:59.880 Years later we became pretty good friends. And he goes, He goes, 548 00:38:00.039 --> 00:38:04.119 I should have ever told you that. Yeah, of course hide sights twenty 549 00:38:04.199 --> 00:38:06.159 twenty. Now, yeah, you know what I mean. Maybe he had 550 00:38:06.199 --> 00:38:08.239 butter fingers too. Maybe I was gonna say, maybe he was eating fried 551 00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:14.559 chicken or something. What it was, it was a crazy night. Man, 552 00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:17.280 Bake Billy, tell the raccooler story. For the love of god, 553 00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:21.199 what the raccoon? I've got hit a couple of times for this raccoon story. 554 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:25.119 It's I thought, I was this is this is a fucked up crazy 555 00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:30.440 story. So he merged his house raccoons. This isn't forty five this, 556 00:38:30.599 --> 00:38:31.760 no, this is when I was at fifty seven. Okay, So the 557 00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:37.119 Captain Big Bill says, when you get off probation, you take a detail 558 00:38:37.159 --> 00:38:40.320 to another firehouse. He goes, you're up now, you you know everything, 559 00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:45.199 You're I'm confident in you. You're up for the detail. We've gotta 560 00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:49.159 send a guy out engineering nine house. And how do you feel about that? 561 00:38:49.199 --> 00:38:52.079 I'm like, now, good kill sell me. You know that's my 562 00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:53.800 turn. I'll go, you know. So he goes, hey, listen, 563 00:38:53.880 --> 00:38:57.559 he goes, you're a big hunter, right, I go. Yeah, 564 00:38:57.559 --> 00:39:01.480 he goes, used to practice the firehouse my body. So, uh, 565 00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:06.519 he goes, Listen, you know behind that firehouse there's like a little 566 00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:08.920 uh preserve back there. You might you might, you know, you might 567 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:14.320 get a whack at something. You know. I'm like, really, listen, 568 00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:15.199 I'm twenty two years old, right, I'm like, really, I'm 569 00:39:15.239 --> 00:39:17.440 listening to this. This guy's got a lot of time on the job. 570 00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:20.239 He goes, Hey, you might want to bring your shit with you. 571 00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:22.119 He goes, and sit out there. You might get a crack at something. 572 00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:24.159 You know. It's kind of a slow house. They don't do much 573 00:39:24.199 --> 00:39:28.000 there. A lot of old timers. Uh, he goes, yeah, 574 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:30.000 I go. So, I go, really, so I told my shit 575 00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:32.400 in the trunk, right I go. There, I go. There a 576 00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:37.400 bunch of old guys are all thirty years twenty, you know, right out 577 00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:39.599 the rest of your career. Right. So, I'm sitting outside all day. 578 00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:44.199 I'm waiting for something to shoot at it. Right, I go, 579 00:39:44.599 --> 00:39:47.880 he's sucking. I go, he's bullshitting me, you know. So dinner 580 00:39:47.960 --> 00:39:52.000 time comes the old timer. I'm out read dinner. The old timer says, 581 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:53.000 hey can you take the garbage off for me. I said, yeah. 582 00:39:53.400 --> 00:39:57.719 So I go out there and empty the garbage and empty the garbage. 583 00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:00.719 Man, I look up, Here comes these raccoons. They're coming from everywhere. 584 00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:05.440 Right, I'm like, holy fuck, it goes to target rich environment, 585 00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:10.159 right, I'm thinking her wild. Right. So I get down behind 586 00:40:10.199 --> 00:40:16.719 the garbage cans. I crawl. That's yeah, right, pop my trunk. 587 00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:21.280 I'm watching these fuckers. They're climbing the fence to come in the yard. 588 00:40:21.360 --> 00:40:24.360 Room Like, oh fuck, I'm gonna whack this fucker. So I 589 00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:29.119 get my bone arrow out. I lower my trunk, reach over the top. 590 00:40:30.039 --> 00:40:31.760 He's he's on top of the fence eating a rib bone whenever he's got 591 00:40:31.800 --> 00:40:37.800 in his mouth. Right, I fucking drop that quack right through that motherfucker. 592 00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:40.239 It goes right through him. Right. He lets out this screen that 593 00:40:40.639 --> 00:40:45.000 like I killed the person. Right, he hits the ground. He's flopping 594 00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:46.000 around right, and I'm like, I go running over. I go, 595 00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:50.559 I got that motherfucker right, fucking I hop over the fence. By the 596 00:40:50.599 --> 00:40:52.920 time I hop over the fence, he's already blood out already right, yo. 597 00:40:53.079 --> 00:41:00.280 Everywhere coon's sixty pounds. I never seen a raccoons big. He's been 598 00:41:00.280 --> 00:41:02.239 eating on the garbage cans for most of his life. Right, I'm like, 599 00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:07.480 holy fuck, is the biggest ratcoon I've ever killed. So I go, 600 00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:08.280 So, I'm trying to get him over the fence. Now it's a 601 00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:12.159 six foot fence. So I'm throwing him over, throwing him over. I 602 00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:14.800 finally get him over. I'm dragging it in my car. Now there's a 603 00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:17.199 big blood trail from the garbage cans all over to my car. Right, 604 00:41:19.119 --> 00:41:21.280 so I thought, I go, fuck, this guy's bleeding all over. 605 00:41:21.320 --> 00:41:22.760 I gotta get I gotta get a plastic bag or something. So I run 606 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:25.320 in the firehouse, get a garbage bag, come back out, throw up 607 00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:29.039 my trunk, and I throw him in my trunk. Well, the old 608 00:41:29.079 --> 00:41:30.400 timer comes out and goes, hey, what the fuck are you doing out 609 00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:32.519 here? Right? Where's the garbage can at? You know? I go, 610 00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:36.960 hey, I just fucking killed the biggest ratcoon in my life. Right, 611 00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:40.519 he goes, what I go? Yeah, I go. This fucker's 612 00:41:40.519 --> 00:41:44.199 got to be sixty pounds. He comes running over. Right, he looks 613 00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:45.559 in a trunk. He goes, oh, he fucked. I go, 614 00:41:45.719 --> 00:41:50.519 yeah, he's big, and he he goes he takes off. He runs 615 00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:52.880 back in the firehouse. Right, I'm like, fuck's up with this guy? 616 00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:55.079 Right? Next thing, and all all the guys are out there right 617 00:41:55.760 --> 00:42:00.239 swinging miss he stuck him outright, he goes, and I'm like, I'm 618 00:42:00.239 --> 00:42:04.039 over here. I go, look at my trunk. Right, he goes. 619 00:42:04.719 --> 00:42:07.000 One guy coach over. He goes and he picks up his leg and 620 00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:10.519 he turns it over. He goes, that's Rocky. I go, are 621 00:42:10.559 --> 00:42:15.199 you talking about? He goes, you just kill our fucking mascot? Right? 622 00:42:15.960 --> 00:42:19.639 I go what. He goes, We've been feeding that rat coop for 623 00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:22.719 ten fucking years. He goes, why do you think they call this the 624 00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:30.039 Ratcoon Lodge? I go, yeah, man. He goes, you're in 625 00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:32.360 fucking trouble man. We're calling the chief. And I go what, I 626 00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:36.639 what the fuck are you talking about? He goes, you're in trouble man. 627 00:42:37.480 --> 00:42:38.840 What we're sending you back to your firehouse? Right now? Fuck this? 628 00:42:39.239 --> 00:42:42.559 I go, oh boy? Right, So they run in the firehouse. 629 00:42:42.639 --> 00:42:44.840 Right, I'm like, holy fuck, Now, what am I gonna 630 00:42:44.880 --> 00:42:46.760 do it? Right? I'm gonna get fired. I got six months on 631 00:42:46.840 --> 00:42:50.440 the job. I'm gonna get fired for killing him. A mascot you know. 632 00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:52.800 Next thing, you know, guy, they all come out and they're 633 00:42:52.840 --> 00:42:57.480 staring at me. They're like, I can't believe you fucking did. Chief's 634 00:42:57.519 --> 00:43:00.360 on his way. I'm like, holy fuck. So twenty minutes later it 635 00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:04.599 comes to battalion. Chief right walks out in the backyard. He goes, 636 00:43:04.599 --> 00:43:07.679 where's he at over here? Chief? He goes, come on, He 637 00:43:07.800 --> 00:43:13.039 goes, what did you do? I go, obviously I killed their fucking 638 00:43:13.119 --> 00:43:15.880 mascot. I said. Now they want to kill me. I says, 639 00:43:15.960 --> 00:43:20.000 so what are we gonna do? He goes, who told you to bring 640 00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:30.679 your ship to this firehouse? He goes, He goes, He goes, 641 00:43:30.239 --> 00:43:35.719 He goes, who's your officer? I go, Big Bill Koshski. He 642 00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:39.519 goes that motherfucker. He says, he set your He sets your dumb ass 643 00:43:39.639 --> 00:43:43.079 up. I go, I go, what are you talking about? He 644 00:43:43.199 --> 00:43:46.039 goes. He hates this place, he says, and he sets you up, 645 00:43:46.199 --> 00:43:49.760 and you fell for it. Go play a secret and you kill their 646 00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:52.880 mascot. He goes. He goes, they want to kill you in that 647 00:43:52.960 --> 00:43:55.119 firehouse. You know that? Right? I goes, Yeah, what am 648 00:43:55.119 --> 00:43:58.239 I gonna do? Chief? He goes, you got to get the fuck 649 00:43:58.280 --> 00:44:00.519 out here in the morning as soon as you can't, right, So sure 650 00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:02.800 enough, I go back out there. They make me buried the raccoon back 651 00:44:02.840 --> 00:44:06.360 and they fucking back in the dirt. Right, I got to bury a 652 00:44:06.480 --> 00:44:09.400 raccoon. Go back in, take a shower. I'm waiting for six o'clock 653 00:44:09.400 --> 00:44:12.360 in the morning. He get the fuck out of there, right, I'm 654 00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:15.079 trying to sneak out. There's the next shift waiting for me right the bottom 655 00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:17.679 of stairs. I'm like, fuck. They fucking mother fucked me all the 656 00:44:17.719 --> 00:44:21.599 way to my car. Man, Right, so I get my car, 657 00:44:21.719 --> 00:44:22.920 I go home. I'm like fuck, I'm waiting for the phone in the 658 00:44:22.960 --> 00:44:27.199 ring and say you're fired, you know. I'm like fuck. I go 659 00:44:27.320 --> 00:44:29.800 back to the firehouse. The next day, my captain goes, hey, 660 00:44:29.840 --> 00:44:31.559 hey, how'd your detail go? I go. I go, you didn't 661 00:44:31.559 --> 00:44:35.119 fucking hear? I go. He goes no, He's exactly like, you 662 00:44:35.159 --> 00:44:37.960 don't know what the fuck's going on? Right, He goes, who do 663 00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:39.880 you do? I go, you told me to bring my bone and arrow. 664 00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:43.559 Well, I killed their fucking raccoon. He goes, you gotta be 665 00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:47.159 be you dumb fuck. He goes, I didn't. He goes, I 666 00:44:47.199 --> 00:44:51.039 didn't think you were gonna do it. He goes, He goes, fuck 667 00:44:51.079 --> 00:44:52.880 those guys, right, So he picks up the fucking phone. He calls 668 00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:55.880 the firehouse. He's the lieutenant answers the phone. He goes, Hey, 669 00:44:57.280 --> 00:45:00.480 this is Rocky. I'm not gonna beat here for dinner because I'm in dead. 670 00:45:00.920 --> 00:45:04.840 He hangs up. They jagged that firehouse off for about a year. 671 00:45:04.960 --> 00:45:09.599 Many jacked that firehouse. Fucking great, bro, whoa, it was insane. 672 00:45:09.719 --> 00:45:13.280 That might be one of the best fire house has ever heard. Bro, 673 00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:15.840 you killed it. It wasn't at the time. Man, I thought 674 00:45:15.880 --> 00:45:20.000 they were gonna kill me. These old timers were gonna they were so upset. 675 00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:22.880 The one guy had tears in his eyes. I'm like you, I 676 00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:29.679 heard work today. It was fucking crazy, oh man. And a good 677 00:45:29.719 --> 00:45:34.880 shot though. Yeah, yeah, it was one one. Are you clean? 678 00:45:39.159 --> 00:45:42.639 That's what that what it did. That's pretty much what it was, 679 00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:49.760 Frocky. Oh my god, that's fucking hilarious. Bill. How much time 680 00:45:49.800 --> 00:45:52.679 did you have on the job when you made that crib? Uh? I 681 00:45:52.920 --> 00:45:58.239 was it was nineteen ninety six. I had roughly just over ten years. 682 00:45:58.519 --> 00:46:04.639 Oh wow, yeah, nine years actually nine years yep. That just like 683 00:46:04.719 --> 00:46:07.719 I said. That was just to this day, I still don't know I 684 00:46:07.719 --> 00:46:12.840 did involve that ladder. It was insane, man, Three times that ladder 685 00:46:12.880 --> 00:46:15.119 came away from the wall, I'm thinking, I told I looked at that 686 00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:16.679 little girl. I said, well, hopefully the trees are going to slow 687 00:46:16.719 --> 00:46:19.960 us down on the way. Yeah. You know. You know what's funny 688 00:46:20.039 --> 00:46:21.719 is when we're talking about it, you're like, yeah, you know, 689 00:46:22.760 --> 00:46:28.320 but when you're up fifty feet hanging off like this, and you know when 690 00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:31.239 you say when a lot of came off, a load of came off the 691 00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:34.960 wall a few times, or slid to the right or slid to the left, 692 00:46:35.039 --> 00:46:37.719 go up and clean your gunner like twenty feet and have the load of 693 00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:42.920 slide over like two inches and you you're ready. I remember when when when 694 00:46:43.320 --> 00:46:45.440 the brother and the sister went buy me, I actually had time to watch 695 00:46:45.519 --> 00:46:50.119 them go all the way to the ground. That's all high. That's great. 696 00:46:50.199 --> 00:46:52.360 Yeah, it's crazy, man, for them to to live. It 697 00:46:52.480 --> 00:46:57.360 was was really incredible. Did cross your mind that all I got a drop 698 00:46:57.480 --> 00:47:01.159 your kid? I'm sorry, but all I thought about was if the ladder 699 00:47:01.199 --> 00:47:04.800 goes backwards, which I thought a couple of times. It was going to 700 00:47:04.840 --> 00:47:07.920 go. There was some trees about at the thirty foot level. I figure, 701 00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:10.760 well, we're gonna hit the trees. Well, that's gonna slow us 702 00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:14.159 down. That's what I was thinking. I'm thinking, this is it, 703 00:47:14.280 --> 00:47:15.679 man, because three times that ladder came away. Then it hit the air 704 00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:19.679 conditioner and I'm like, I gotta get I gotta get down. I hit 705 00:47:19.719 --> 00:47:22.559 the tree and I don't get a branch in my rectum will be all right? 706 00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:24.880 Yeah right, then again, I probably would have welcomed the branch of 707 00:47:24.960 --> 00:47:30.039 my rectum at that point. Dave Box hoops, don't know what this is? 708 00:47:30.119 --> 00:47:35.920 Double lung on a pope and young raccoon. Pope and young is like 709 00:47:35.960 --> 00:47:38.760 when you shoot like a yeah trophy, big a big buck. Yeah yeah. 710 00:47:38.840 --> 00:47:44.719 So it's like a double lung on a pope he spelled poop and young. 711 00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:47.159 Yeah. So I get off. The land of the fire is over. 712 00:47:47.320 --> 00:47:51.800 We go back to the fire house. The video hits hits the news 713 00:47:52.320 --> 00:47:55.440 and it's chaos. Dude. I get home in the morning there's nine news 714 00:47:55.480 --> 00:48:00.360 trucks in front of my house and it just went it went crazy. I 715 00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:04.039 mean, I had a one year old daughter at the time, and my 716 00:48:04.079 --> 00:48:06.320 wife's like, what the fuck's going on? I go, well, I 717 00:48:06.400 --> 00:48:08.760 made it. I think it's because I made this rescue. I don't know. 718 00:48:09.079 --> 00:48:12.320 And these people like chase me to in the front of my house. 719 00:48:12.559 --> 00:48:15.440 I mean, they wanted the story first, you know, Channell ABC, 720 00:48:15.800 --> 00:48:19.840 NBC. I'm like, I just went in the house and then Ray called 721 00:48:19.880 --> 00:48:22.199 me. The Commissioner's like, listen, don't talk to anybody. I'm standing 722 00:48:22.239 --> 00:48:25.880 a car to get you. I just seen this thing on TV. Incredible. 723 00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:30.679 He says, we gotta do a press conference and some you know, 724 00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:32.000 some bullshit like that. And I'm like, well, are you sure, 725 00:48:32.159 --> 00:48:36.480 Chief. He's like, I'm telling you, it's good publicity, it's good 726 00:48:36.519 --> 00:48:38.960 for the fire department. He says, you need you need to talk to 727 00:48:39.039 --> 00:48:43.360 somebody. You need to talk to the media, you know. So that's 728 00:48:43.400 --> 00:48:46.360 what I did. And then I met the father. He got had gotten 729 00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:50.159 back by that, and he came to me and he's like, I just 730 00:48:50.199 --> 00:48:52.159 want to hug me and thanked me. And I told myself, I'm sorry 731 00:48:52.159 --> 00:48:54.880 I didn't do anything for your wife. I said, I kind of had 732 00:48:54.960 --> 00:48:58.960 my hands full, I says, and your daughter and your son jumped, 733 00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:01.039 and there's gonna be okay. You know he's like, listen, I seen 734 00:49:01.079 --> 00:49:05.639 the video. He says, incredible. He says, I'm just halfy. 735 00:49:05.679 --> 00:49:08.079 You saved the water, you know, so, I'll bet you missus Sheenan 736 00:49:08.159 --> 00:49:13.079 was looking at you different. You know what I mean? Is that where 737 00:49:13.119 --> 00:49:22.840 you got the name hitman? From your sorry? How did you get the 738 00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:25.239 name hitman? You know what I want? At the firehouse one day, 739 00:49:27.519 --> 00:49:31.199 uh, one of my partners started calling me that and from from from wrestling 740 00:49:31.239 --> 00:49:35.519 and ship like that. He goes, I hit man, the Mitch, 741 00:49:36.199 --> 00:49:38.760 and then mitchuh, Mitch Crooker took it a step further. He called me 742 00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:43.039 all the time on the radio, you know, so it was it kind 743 00:49:43.079 --> 00:49:49.840 of stuck with me, you know, I see Rookie a little, but 744 00:49:49.960 --> 00:49:54.320 we'll keep it going. So h And then I stayed there for nine years 745 00:49:54.360 --> 00:49:58.239 at forty five sous. And then some of my some of our guys started 746 00:49:58.280 --> 00:50:02.159 getting promoted, and I end they started rehabbing their neighborhood. Things slowed down, 747 00:50:02.679 --> 00:50:06.760 and that's when I went to Engine eighty four, which was the next 748 00:50:06.840 --> 00:50:09.960 house. That was really when they tore the projects down. Everybody moved that 749 00:50:10.039 --> 00:50:13.679 way, and that's when the fires really started happening at eighty fourth house, 750 00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:16.039 and me and my partner and one of my partners went there for the next 751 00:50:16.079 --> 00:50:22.360 six years there. How close was forty five and eighty four. They weren't 752 00:50:22.360 --> 00:50:25.039 they weren't that. They weren't fired at all. Probably I'd say maybe a 753 00:50:25.119 --> 00:50:29.119 mile and maybe a mile or two apart. Really, you have the guys 754 00:50:29.159 --> 00:50:31.000 feel about you leaving to go from one to the other. Well, we 755 00:50:31.079 --> 00:50:34.360 were the last Me and my other partner were the last two of the original 756 00:50:34.519 --> 00:50:37.800 young guns crew that we had there. Guys had gotten promoted and uh so 757 00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:42.039 there were all a bunch of different younger guys that were there. So we 758 00:50:42.119 --> 00:50:45.960 told them we were leaving because we got recruited by a good cat, a 759 00:50:45.960 --> 00:50:50.400 good friend of mine, Captain Terry mcpolland, And we got kind of recruited 760 00:50:50.400 --> 00:50:52.800 by him to come there, and uh that's how we ended up there, 761 00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:58.280 me and Kevin Lee and my partner. So and then that's when I got 762 00:50:58.320 --> 00:51:00.800 sucked up in a fire, you know, and that was a great way. 763 00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:02.239 Where are you here, bro without that beard? I can't tell you 764 00:51:02.320 --> 00:51:06.000 which one. Right now, right next to the guy in the hat, 765 00:51:06.039 --> 00:51:09.360 that's my partner already in the hat. Who's the boss? Uh? So 766 00:51:09.480 --> 00:51:16.920 we got Tommy Darwin already me uh, Sean Hey, Johnny Glennon and Joe 767 00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:22.159 Atkins. So which guy is the opposite the guy right in the middle, 768 00:51:22.239 --> 00:51:25.280 the black guy Sean, Okay, that was what That's what. I ended 769 00:51:25.320 --> 00:51:29.440 up on the squad much later. So, oh, I didn't even know 770 00:51:29.519 --> 00:51:31.320 you're on the squad? Where was that? Was that squad for thirteen years? 771 00:51:32.079 --> 00:51:37.119 Holy moly? Look at this? Yep. You know when you when 772 00:51:37.159 --> 00:51:42.119 you think, when you think you've learned everything as a fireman, uh, 773 00:51:42.519 --> 00:51:45.039 you go to the squad, and when you're not on a squad, you're 774 00:51:45.039 --> 00:51:47.559 a squad hater. You know, everybody's a squad hater. You know, 775 00:51:49.400 --> 00:51:54.880 a squad you definitely turn into the squad. Unbelievable fireman. I mean, 776 00:51:55.199 --> 00:51:59.559 you do a lot more than just your leadouts and your ladder and your roof. 777 00:51:59.800 --> 00:52:02.199 I mean, you're yeah, I mean, it's just yeah, it's 778 00:52:02.280 --> 00:52:07.719 just you know, I mean, I look at Gon's got dog piling on 779 00:52:07.800 --> 00:52:12.159 the rabbit bro just look. You know. I was challenging the chats to 780 00:52:12.239 --> 00:52:15.800 make sure we make backdraft references tonight. So yeah, a few there. 781 00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:21.400 But so we went to eighty four and and they were that's was really busy. 782 00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:22.960 We were really busy there. And that's when I got kind of fucked 783 00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:25.159 up in a fire. And this is where I like to tell a lot 784 00:52:25.199 --> 00:52:28.960 of young guys I go At the time I got fucked up in the fire 785 00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:32.440 in two thousand, I was pretty confident I could do anything I was on. 786 00:52:32.599 --> 00:52:36.480 I was on two inches two busy in three busy engine companies, and 787 00:52:36.559 --> 00:52:38.400 I was on an injine company there. And my partner, Kevin that came 788 00:52:38.440 --> 00:52:40.840 with me over there. He was behind me. He was my heel man. 789 00:52:42.360 --> 00:52:45.519 We got there. We had beat the Still Company in to their fire 790 00:52:45.559 --> 00:52:49.119 and they had got detailed around some traffic whatever. So we get there first 791 00:52:49.119 --> 00:52:52.440 and it's a good fire, right. So we go to rear because we 792 00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:54.239 figured they were going to the front because they were Still Company. So we 793 00:52:54.320 --> 00:52:57.320 get to the rear and Kevin's like, hey, man, they're not here 794 00:52:57.440 --> 00:53:00.679 yet. This is our fire, right. I'm like, yeah, we 795 00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:02.760 got it, you know. So he goes, Hey, we got people 796 00:53:02.800 --> 00:53:06.320 gonna be goes We're gonna fuck with them all day, right, he goes. 797 00:53:06.320 --> 00:53:09.360 So we kicking the door. It's a back wooden door, and and 798 00:53:10.039 --> 00:53:15.760 and and I go back on this because the signs were there for a disaster, 799 00:53:16.039 --> 00:53:20.079 and I kind of ignored them because I was too much in a hurry 800 00:53:20.559 --> 00:53:22.519 to get in there and put the fire out. And the other company, 801 00:53:22.639 --> 00:53:25.960 well, that's really I cannot tell you how many times I've done that where 802 00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:30.039 I wasn't really paying attention because I was so happy I was screwing the other 803 00:53:30.079 --> 00:53:32.440 company out of the right way. That's that's big competition, you know. 804 00:53:32.920 --> 00:53:37.800 So we kicking the back door and it's sucking in the air like like you 805 00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:42.480 can't fucking believe it actually made a tunnel all the way through the kitchen. 806 00:53:42.519 --> 00:53:45.039 Because I was kitchen was right there. I could see the fire in the 807 00:53:45.079 --> 00:53:46.719 dining room. I could. That's how much I didn't even have my mask 808 00:53:46.760 --> 00:53:50.440 on. It was that clear, right. I crawl in there without my 809 00:53:50.519 --> 00:53:52.639 mask. I pull on the line in lines charge, I bleed the line. 810 00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:54.760 I'm good to go. I look back at Kevin. I go, 811 00:53:55.079 --> 00:53:59.119 we got this man. We are gonna fuck with these guys right. No, 812 00:53:59.360 --> 00:54:00.719 sooner, I said, I go listen, I'm gonna put my mask 813 00:54:00.760 --> 00:54:04.159 on. It's gonna get shitty. Soon as I started hitting this, I 814 00:54:04.239 --> 00:54:06.840 go, you might want to put your shit on. As soon as I 815 00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:09.800 put my mask on, opened the pipe, a guy hit the window in 816 00:54:09.840 --> 00:54:15.159 the basement. Fucking the fire was in the basement. They had loaded it 817 00:54:15.280 --> 00:54:19.039 up with gas. We didn't know it. It came right up the backstairs. 818 00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:23.199 It hit us. I still to this day don't understand how I didn't 819 00:54:23.400 --> 00:54:27.360 go through the wall. That's how fire, that's how fast that fire came 820 00:54:27.480 --> 00:54:30.000 up. So it blew Kevin out the back door because he was by the 821 00:54:30.039 --> 00:54:34.000 back door, pulling me line in because I needed more line. And when 822 00:54:34.039 --> 00:54:37.960 that thing blew, Holy fuck man. All I remember is hitting the wall 823 00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:43.840 ahead of me, losing my helmet, and it was fucking fire everywhere, 824 00:54:44.559 --> 00:54:50.280 and I'm like holy and my hood slid down like halfway down my face when 825 00:54:50.320 --> 00:54:53.039 my helmet came off, and the heat. I just remember, the heat 826 00:54:53.159 --> 00:54:57.199 was so intense. All I could do was cover up. I just covered 827 00:54:57.280 --> 00:54:59.679 up, and I'm trying to find a line. I lost the line, 828 00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:02.400 and I'm like I finally found a line, and it was going crazy because 829 00:55:02.400 --> 00:55:06.599 it was open. I get the line and I'm curl up in a corner 830 00:55:06.679 --> 00:55:09.559 and I'm just trying to hit it and they're all screaming the fires behind you, 831 00:55:09.800 --> 00:55:13.719 Kevin jelling fires behind you, and I'm like, I'm thinking myself, 832 00:55:13.760 --> 00:55:16.480 fucking fires everywhere on me, everywhere, you know. And then I'm trying 833 00:55:16.519 --> 00:55:22.719 to find my helmet while I'm trying to me it was it was everywhere. 834 00:55:22.760 --> 00:55:24.920 I mean, fucking it was. No, it was just fucking orange everywhere. 835 00:55:25.440 --> 00:55:30.320 And so I fucking now I'm burning off. I'm like, fuck this. 836 00:55:30.039 --> 00:55:34.400 I dropped the fucking line and I started to crawl. When I started 837 00:55:34.400 --> 00:55:37.239 to crawl, they always say follow the line in, you follow the line 838 00:55:37.280 --> 00:55:42.639 out right, So I'm following that's correct. When I'm following it out, 839 00:55:42.920 --> 00:55:46.039 the refrigerator blew on top of the line. So I'm crawling as low as 840 00:55:46.079 --> 00:55:51.159 I can. Oh my refrigerator, and ran right in the frigerator. Oh 841 00:55:51.559 --> 00:55:55.360 god, I'm getting nervous. Listen. I knocked myself silly. Right now, 842 00:55:55.440 --> 00:55:59.440 I'm thinking I went the wrong way. I crawled back into the fire, 843 00:56:00.639 --> 00:56:04.360 tried to grab the line again, and everybody's screaming, h h h 844 00:56:04.760 --> 00:56:06.760 hit it, hit it. I go, what the fuck do you think 845 00:56:06.760 --> 00:56:09.119 I'm doing. It's not doing anything. Now i know I'm at the right 846 00:56:09.239 --> 00:56:12.079 end. So now I know I got to get back the other way. 847 00:56:12.360 --> 00:56:15.280 I started crawling the other way. I feel the frigerator. Well, I'm 848 00:56:15.360 --> 00:56:20.119 telling you something. Refrigerator was two feet high. I tried to go over 849 00:56:20.199 --> 00:56:22.960 that refrigerator four times. I couldn't fucking make it. That's how fucking hot 850 00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:25.639 it was. My ears were on fire. My fuck, the side of 851 00:56:25.679 --> 00:56:30.679 my face was on fire. I'm like the third time I passed out on 852 00:56:30.840 --> 00:56:34.400 top of the refrigerator, Kevin saw me. He crawled into the fire, 853 00:56:34.880 --> 00:56:37.440 grabbed me, and dragged me out. I was in I was in a 854 00:56:37.480 --> 00:56:40.800 burn unit for five fucking days in intensive care. Then I was in the 855 00:56:40.880 --> 00:56:46.079 hospital intensive care for another ten days. And I'm telling you that was the 856 00:56:46.159 --> 00:56:50.639 most horrific fucking thing I ever fucked. And I was only in a room 857 00:56:51.079 --> 00:56:53.519 ten by ten guys, and I couldn't get the fuck out. That's how 858 00:56:53.599 --> 00:56:58.079 fucking fast shit hit the fan. And that's why I always tell you these 859 00:56:58.159 --> 00:57:00.519 young guys. When I went down to the academy, made a few speeches, 860 00:57:00.800 --> 00:57:02.840 I go, listen. You might think you know everything, and you 861 00:57:02.960 --> 00:57:07.239 might think you think of the baddest motherfucker there is, But when mother Nature 862 00:57:07.280 --> 00:57:09.920 unleashes some shit on you, you ain't gonna have a fucking so you better 863 00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:15.559 remember all your basics self, rescue this that, because you're gonna need it. 864 00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:19.840 So every time you feel like, yeah, every time you got to 865 00:57:19.840 --> 00:57:22.639 figure it out, you ain't got figured nothing out. You ain't got nothing 866 00:57:22.679 --> 00:57:28.320 figured out. Man, sh that's pretty crazy. I was thinking about that 867 00:57:28.440 --> 00:57:30.159 as you were telling the story, and I don't know anything about that story. 868 00:57:31.119 --> 00:57:34.800 When you get back to the refrigerator and you're saying, as soon as 869 00:57:34.840 --> 00:57:38.840 you said it's two feet high, I already knew where you're going that you 870 00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:44.159 can't even get over it. That's how hot it was. The temperature in 871 00:57:44.199 --> 00:57:46.679 that two feet was yeah, incredible, man, I mean it was just 872 00:57:46.920 --> 00:57:51.400 and I'm goin to burning my ears up and in the side of my face. 873 00:57:51.679 --> 00:57:53.280 You couldn't even ship with the line. That's how crazy that is. 874 00:57:53.599 --> 00:57:57.960 Like to think that you couldn't stay with the line open, You couldn't even 875 00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:00.199 stay there. You felt like, this is it. I stayed there for 876 00:58:00.199 --> 00:58:06.719 about I'm telling that this whole thing took maybe maybe sixty seconds. From all 877 00:58:06.800 --> 00:58:10.000 that shit that happened, and all our members fucking get I remember waking up 878 00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.280 for a second out of the back porch where they were trying to get my 879 00:58:14.320 --> 00:58:16.239 shit off me because it was smoking. They're trying to get me out of 880 00:58:16.320 --> 00:58:20.679 my ship. And I passed out and I woke up five days later in 881 00:58:20.719 --> 00:58:23.880 intensive care. That's the last thing I remember. Wow, So sixty seconds 882 00:58:23.880 --> 00:58:28.079 felt like sixty minutes. Oh, you ain't fucking kid. I was just 883 00:58:28.159 --> 00:58:31.400 a guess that they had had the loaded that what they did was they loaded 884 00:58:31.480 --> 00:58:36.000 up the basement. We found out later from the investigation they loaded the basement. 885 00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:37.559 They were rehabbing a place, they ran out of money. They said, 886 00:58:37.599 --> 00:58:40.280 fuck it, we're gonna burn it down, and they loaded the basement 887 00:58:40.360 --> 00:58:44.039 up. But they had plastic on the windows, and they had plastic on 888 00:58:44.119 --> 00:58:46.360 all the windows on the inside because they were doing work. So it burned 889 00:58:46.400 --> 00:58:50.400 itself out. And then when we opened the fucking when he hit the basement 890 00:58:50.440 --> 00:58:52.000 window just for the hell of it, I guess he was just in the 891 00:58:52.079 --> 00:58:54.559 check to see that the fire was in the basement. That led all the 892 00:58:54.599 --> 00:58:59.719 air and it fucking needed and that fucking shit came out like a fucking All 893 00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:01.280 I can tell you is you remind me of the Space Shuttle. The pack 894 00:59:01.320 --> 00:59:05.800 of the Space Shuttle. That's how fucking it came up the backstairs. I 895 00:59:06.119 --> 00:59:09.840 remember turning around and hit me right in the face, and I remember scrambling 896 00:59:09.880 --> 00:59:15.639 after that, and I went back there after. I was so fucked up 897 00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:19.679 over that fire that I wasn't going back to the fire apartment. I told 898 00:59:19.719 --> 00:59:22.599 my wife, I says, you know what I'm done. I had a 899 00:59:22.639 --> 00:59:24.719 one year old. I was sucked up. I was fucked up in the 900 00:59:24.760 --> 00:59:29.079 head a little bit, and I said, you know what, I'm going 901 00:59:29.119 --> 00:59:31.840 back to driving the truck. Fuck this. I go, No, that 902 00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:36.079 was just too close for me. And she's like, you do whatever you 903 00:59:36.159 --> 00:59:38.840 think. It was comfortable. And I remember father McCrow came and saw me 904 00:59:39.280 --> 00:59:42.920 and he's like, listen, you're not the first guy to go through this, 905 00:59:43.199 --> 00:59:45.039 and you won't be the last guy. He says, you need to 906 00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:50.440 sit down, relax, take your time, let your fucking shit heel, 907 00:59:51.119 --> 00:59:53.239 and you need to go back to the fire apartment. He goes there, 908 00:59:53.239 --> 00:59:58.000 He goes, you're a good fireman. He says, this is just something 909 00:59:58.079 --> 01:00:02.840 that's fucked up. You know, So or after you I noticed you were 910 01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:15.800 standing in a lake of gasoline. Yeah, crazy happen before or after you 911 01:00:15.920 --> 01:00:22.920 realized you were standing in a puddle of the gasoline. Take it easy, 912 01:00:22.039 --> 01:00:29.920 Arnold, that's so funny. But anyway, so I went back and it 913 01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:32.360 took how long we out for bill? Uh? I think I think I 914 01:00:32.440 --> 01:00:37.280 was out for six months before my that's legit, man. And what was 915 01:00:37.360 --> 01:00:42.760 it that that took place in your head that you're like, I gotta go 916 01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:45.719 back? What was it was there? The finning moment? Yeah? You 917 01:00:45.800 --> 01:00:49.000 know, I just everybody was calling me and telling me, hey, listen, 918 01:00:49.079 --> 01:00:51.760 you know you're gonna be okay. And I'm like, listen, man, 919 01:00:51.800 --> 01:00:52.920 you have no fucking idea what that was all about, you know, 920 01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:57.840 I'm like, And then when I got back, man, and I was 921 01:00:57.880 --> 01:01:00.400 back back on the line again, I was very hesitant, man. I 922 01:01:00.480 --> 01:01:02.960 mean for a while there, Kevin would be giving me a little bit of 923 01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:07.119 a push. You'd be like, come on, dude, it's not going 924 01:01:07.199 --> 01:01:08.360 to blow up on you. You know what I mean. It took a 925 01:01:08.440 --> 01:01:13.199 while, man, took it took a little while, you know, but 926 01:01:13.639 --> 01:01:17.039 I got my confidence back, and in uh, in the rest is history, 927 01:01:17.079 --> 01:01:20.800 you know what I mean. But I tell it, that's just one 928 01:01:20.840 --> 01:01:23.440 thing I tell the young guys. I just don't fucking don't think you're the 929 01:01:23.519 --> 01:01:28.199 best. I don't think you're you're untouchable because you're not, you know, 930 01:01:28.760 --> 01:01:32.840 socause that was kind of like the job that we had where it's just funny 931 01:01:32.880 --> 01:01:37.679 that you say, like I remember looking around and everything was orange, like 932 01:01:37.760 --> 01:01:40.800 there was nowhere to go, There was nowhere to go behind us. I 933 01:01:40.920 --> 01:01:45.559 remember nowhere to go, and I remember, you know, getting hot, 934 01:01:45.760 --> 01:01:49.159 like really fast, and I remember like covering up and just thinking to myself 935 01:01:49.239 --> 01:01:53.159 like really fast in my head like fireman die in Massmith Blazes or whatever the 936 01:01:53.199 --> 01:02:00.360 heck. It was just like best friends together. I remember saying, like 937 01:02:00.440 --> 01:02:02.360 the news flash, that's how fast it happened. And if the line they 938 01:02:02.360 --> 01:02:07.719 didn't open up the line from outside like into where we were in the in 939 01:02:07.840 --> 01:02:12.039 the doorway like because the fire was the same similar thing the fire wrapped around 940 01:02:12.119 --> 01:02:14.800 us. They were they were polyurethane and the floors or some ship like that. 941 01:02:14.960 --> 01:02:17.559 And we went in and he come around us and we couldn't get the 942 01:02:17.599 --> 01:02:21.639 line back around us, and it was just crazy. But like you say, 943 01:02:21.800 --> 01:02:23.360 like how fast, how fast that happens, Like you think you have 944 01:02:23.440 --> 01:02:27.760 everything under control and you've been through a lot of fires. And then me 945 01:02:28.280 --> 01:02:30.760 and Kevin were laughing. We're thinking about how we're gonna fuck with these other 946 01:02:30.800 --> 01:02:35.519 guys. Yeah, you thought you were listen. That's what we all tried 947 01:02:35.559 --> 01:02:38.599 to do is break somebody's balls by beating them to somewhere or making a grab 948 01:02:38.719 --> 01:02:42.320 or something, right right, right right, I mean we were laughing. 949 01:02:42.400 --> 01:02:44.679 I just put my ma thank god, it put my mask on. I 950 01:02:44.800 --> 01:02:46.840 just put it on, and fucking you should hit the fan. I'm like, 951 01:02:46.960 --> 01:02:50.440 if I didn't hand that out, I had to burn myself all up. 952 01:02:50.480 --> 01:02:52.400 Man, you could see where my mask was. It burned them all 953 01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:57.199 the way around. I'm like, fucking like I got a ball. That 954 01:02:57.360 --> 01:03:00.239 motherfucker bubbled up and fucking fuck, I don't know, man, it was 955 01:03:00.280 --> 01:03:07.480 fucking it was crazy. So well anyway, I mean yeah, I mean 956 01:03:07.519 --> 01:03:10.119 I went back and things got back to normal, and like I said, 957 01:03:10.639 --> 01:03:14.239 the rest was history. I had a great like, I moved. We 958 01:03:14.360 --> 01:03:16.960 stayed there at eighty fourth House till they closed it the city and the closing 959 01:03:17.039 --> 01:03:20.800 is closing the house down, so we were like, where the fuck are 960 01:03:20.800 --> 01:03:22.840 we gonna go now? So we end up going to Truck twenty, which 961 01:03:22.960 --> 01:03:28.840 was right down right down the road from Yeah me, Yeah, we all 962 01:03:28.880 --> 01:03:32.000 went there, me and him, and then he actually actually Kevin went to 963 01:03:32.039 --> 01:03:36.239 another firehouse and then I went to truck twenty. He's like, listen, 964 01:03:36.280 --> 01:03:37.480 I'm done. I'm gonna take it. Take it ease a little bit more, 965 01:03:37.559 --> 01:03:40.840 baby, he says. Uh, he goes, we we did enough 966 01:03:40.880 --> 01:03:44.519 already. I'm going to truck twenty. Man, they're fucking burning ship down. 967 01:03:44.559 --> 01:03:46.400 I'm going, you know. So I went to truck twenty and that 968 01:03:46.599 --> 01:03:49.639 was great that. I mean, that was my first time on the truck, 969 01:03:50.039 --> 01:03:52.559 and I always wanted to learn the truck. And so we went to 970 01:03:52.599 --> 01:03:55.800 truck twenty and they're busy as hell. Man. So we we did good 971 01:03:55.880 --> 01:04:01.440 there. And that's where Mitch was at. He was a chief at and 972 01:04:02.360 --> 01:04:05.079 we had, like I said, I had good officers, man, good 973 01:04:05.199 --> 01:04:10.800 chiefs. Never had a bad officer. That's to go thirty five years and 974 01:04:10.920 --> 01:04:15.800 never have an officer that you always said that, that's have one. It's 975 01:04:15.880 --> 01:04:18.360 unheard of it. I mean. And even even the crews I worked with, 976 01:04:18.480 --> 01:04:20.880 man, oh, good guys. They wanted to be there. There 977 01:04:20.960 --> 01:04:24.599 was no guy like I didn't want to be here. You're you're a busy 978 01:04:24.639 --> 01:04:28.039 firehouse dude. Everybody wants to be that's why they're there, you know. 979 01:04:28.800 --> 01:04:31.679 So Truck twenty was great. We had fun there, and then then I 980 01:04:31.719 --> 01:04:33.599 got a call from the squad and they're like, hey, we got an 981 01:04:33.639 --> 01:04:36.920 opening watch to come on over. And that was hard, man. It 982 01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:40.440 was hard to leave Truck twenty. It's hard to leave a good crew. 983 01:04:40.599 --> 01:04:44.000 They're all giving you ship and they're like, what the fuck? You know? 984 01:04:44.239 --> 01:04:46.199 You you don't want to be a squad guy. I'm like, those 985 01:04:46.239 --> 01:04:49.719 guys are blow drops? Man? How many know how many guys getting you 986 01:04:49.760 --> 01:04:55.440 fit in the five billion? Bill? At least five more? I always 987 01:04:55.480 --> 01:05:00.760 said the squad at least five more, at least five more. I forget 988 01:05:00.800 --> 01:05:03.880 how many squads out there in Chicago. Scagner's four squad one, two, 989 01:05:04.440 --> 01:05:08.519 five and seven seventh at the airport. They don't leave the airport. Air 990 01:05:08.519 --> 01:05:12.039 airport that's kind of an airport, so it's really one, one, two 991 01:05:12.119 --> 01:05:15.000 and five. That's it. And where'd you go to squat five? Five? 992 01:05:15.599 --> 01:05:18.559 Yeah? I don't want to put you on the spot here, Bill, 993 01:05:18.639 --> 01:05:24.519 but business, which is the busiest squad? Five? No doubt? 994 01:05:25.320 --> 01:05:27.400 Think about that. Hold on it. Let me ask you again, which 995 01:05:27.719 --> 01:05:30.320 which the busiest squad? Listen? I'm gonna get all kinds of ship. 996 01:05:30.599 --> 01:05:34.559 But Squad five is it? They know it? Yeah, they know, 997 01:05:35.480 --> 01:05:39.320 they know deep down in places they don't like to talk about it. Party, 998 01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:43.880 they know that's it right there. You got it. That'd be one 999 01:05:43.920 --> 01:05:49.800 of those guys is a great fireman. Nice actually made the call to you, 1000 01:05:49.880 --> 01:05:54.400 Bill who called you from? So what happens is on the shift, 1001 01:05:54.480 --> 01:05:57.960 like you guys know when when when a guy Leias gets promote whatever, they 1002 01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:00.039 start recruiting, you know what I mean, And we want to recruit somebody 1003 01:06:00.079 --> 01:06:04.119 that's gonna you know, that can do a good job. So they sat 1004 01:06:06.280 --> 01:06:10.679 recruiting guys, and of course is by seniority, you know. So I 1005 01:06:10.800 --> 01:06:14.239 at that time I had twenty twenty years, you know, and really nobody 1006 01:06:14.280 --> 01:06:15.559 goes to the squad with twenty years, you know, usually do that when 1007 01:06:15.559 --> 01:06:18.400 you're a little bit younger, you know, right. And I'm like like, 1008 01:06:18.519 --> 01:06:20.119 fuck it. I I mean, and a couple of my guys that 1009 01:06:20.159 --> 01:06:24.440 I worked at forty Vice House had been officers there. They're like, listen, 1010 01:06:24.519 --> 01:06:26.559 dude, you gotta come. You should have came years ago. You 1011 01:06:26.639 --> 01:06:29.280 got to come now. So I'm like, I fuck it, you know, 1012 01:06:29.679 --> 01:06:31.280 So I put in for it and got it, did the interview with 1013 01:06:31.559 --> 01:06:34.599 those guys, and and you had a lot of time by that time. 1014 01:06:34.679 --> 01:06:36.800 How much time did you have and end up getting on a squad? And 1015 01:06:39.559 --> 01:06:41.760 I had twenty years when I got on the squad. I was, wait, 1016 01:06:41.840 --> 01:06:44.079 twenty three I think it was twenty three years or something like that. 1017 01:06:44.599 --> 01:06:46.760 Yeah, so I did thirteen years in the squad, so yeah, twenty 1018 01:06:46.880 --> 01:06:49.280 or twenty yeah, I thirty five, yeah, twenty two years? Yeah, 1019 01:06:50.039 --> 01:06:53.360 yeah. So I mean and then you think you know a lot, 1020 01:06:53.400 --> 01:06:55.599 you know, I mean, you go there though, and fuck, it's 1021 01:06:55.599 --> 01:06:58.239 another it's another ball game, you know what I mean. You're now you're 1022 01:06:58.280 --> 01:07:01.639 in the rescue and this and that an extraccasion and you know, confined space 1023 01:07:01.840 --> 01:07:04.760 and you know, diving in the lake, and it was it was, 1024 01:07:04.880 --> 01:07:09.119 it was it was another step up, you know. I mean I definitely 1025 01:07:09.559 --> 01:07:15.480 learned a lot more. You can learn a lot. But the school where 1026 01:07:15.480 --> 01:07:16.599 do they send you to the schools or is it in hou? It's training. 1027 01:07:17.480 --> 01:07:20.159 So when when you went went to the squad, it was certain classes 1028 01:07:20.239 --> 01:07:24.079 you had to complete, you know, collapse, confined all that ship, 1029 01:07:24.119 --> 01:07:28.159 tunnel ship, so the I F S I we would go down there for 1030 01:07:28.239 --> 01:07:30.440 the classes, complete each class. Then school was another class you got to 1031 01:07:30.480 --> 01:07:35.320 take. The city has their own scuba uh certification that you do. You 1032 01:07:35.400 --> 01:07:40.199 got to be a patty. Then you go through their scuba stuff and then 1033 01:07:40.400 --> 01:07:44.159 uh you do you complete all their classes and that's how you end up. 1034 01:07:44.199 --> 01:07:46.119 But now it's a little different. Now you got to have all that up 1035 01:07:46.199 --> 01:07:50.119 front before you even before they even consider you. And a lot of guys 1036 01:07:50.360 --> 01:07:55.519 can't get it because the city just ain't given as given a given the classes 1037 01:07:55.559 --> 01:07:58.920 anymore. So. I mean when I when I put in for the squad, 1038 01:07:59.559 --> 01:08:03.519 probably two hundred guys put in. That's that's how popular it was. 1039 01:08:03.800 --> 01:08:09.960 Now when I left, five guys put in. That's it it was. 1040 01:08:10.320 --> 01:08:13.880 It's they have to get the training first, is that one? Yeah? 1041 01:08:13.960 --> 01:08:15.279 Yeah, they got to get the training first. The city doesn't give him 1042 01:08:15.279 --> 01:08:18.920 a break before. Like if I if I was missing a couple of classes, 1043 01:08:19.079 --> 01:08:20.920 I would get him while I was there, you know what I mean. 1044 01:08:20.920 --> 01:08:25.960 I'd take my my daily day or make a trade and go do the 1045 01:08:26.000 --> 01:08:29.880 week long class and get certified whatever. But now now they don't do that 1046 01:08:29.960 --> 01:08:34.239 anymore. So, and it's it's pretty sad because we see my opinion. 1047 01:08:34.720 --> 01:08:40.359 When I left, uh, Squad five, there was a kid that wanted 1048 01:08:40.399 --> 01:08:44.000 from Squad one. He he uh, He's like, listen, let me 1049 01:08:44.039 --> 01:08:46.800 know when you're leaving. I really want your spot. And he's there now, 1050 01:08:46.920 --> 01:08:50.039 he's and he's a good fireman and he was on Squad one. But 1051 01:08:51.359 --> 01:08:57.760 this whole generation to me, just doesn't doesn't just doesn't get it, you 1052 01:08:57.880 --> 01:09:00.840 know what I mean. They're not they're not hungry. We were. We 1053 01:09:00.039 --> 01:09:03.840 wanted to go to busy firehouse. Now they walk in the firehouse say what's 1054 01:09:03.880 --> 01:09:09.800 the internet code? I mean, don't you want to know what's on the 1055 01:09:09.880 --> 01:09:13.359 rig or where the tools are at, or what you're gonna be doing today, 1056 01:09:13.359 --> 01:09:16.680 because you're not. You know your details. It is, it's it's 1057 01:09:16.760 --> 01:09:20.079 it's way different. I remember when I got to forty five house, the 1058 01:09:20.119 --> 01:09:24.039 old timers told me, they go listen, you better have a side job, 1059 01:09:24.199 --> 01:09:26.920 and you better be taking care of your family. And if you don't, 1060 01:09:27.159 --> 01:09:29.760 you'll be out of here. And if you don't, if you can't 1061 01:09:29.760 --> 01:09:31.119 find a side job, you can work at one of the concrete guys, 1062 01:09:31.359 --> 01:09:35.479 one of the fucking drywall guys. Everybody had a side job. When I 1063 01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:40.640 left the firehouse. It's squad five. There's only two or three guys that 1064 01:09:40.720 --> 01:09:43.520 had side jobs. The rest of them were stay at home moms and bullshit 1065 01:09:43.600 --> 01:09:49.640 like that firehouse and told told my cab i'mna stay at home day. That 1066 01:09:49.640 --> 01:09:54.800 would have been it. You'd put a foot in my ass. And you 1067 01:09:54.840 --> 01:09:59.840 know what I mean. It's just a whole different. Yeah. The generational 1068 01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:02.600 definitely changing, like it real quick. They just just did the hiring process. 1069 01:10:02.720 --> 01:10:08.319 Twenty nine people showed up for the my department to come work out of 1070 01:10:08.399 --> 01:10:13.199 seventy people. They just they're just not showing up, people declining. It 1071 01:10:13.319 --> 01:10:16.000 sounds incredible to me. It's incredible, right, I couldn't wait to get 1072 01:10:16.039 --> 01:10:19.399 at a job. I mean when I got called, I was fucking I 1073 01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:23.039 was telling everybody what I was, what I was gonna do. You know 1074 01:10:23.439 --> 01:10:28.119 Now it's like they call five hundred people to get fifty and then out of 1075 01:10:28.239 --> 01:10:30.840 fifty, like you said, twenty five show up. Half of them camps. 1076 01:10:31.560 --> 01:10:33.560 That's the other element too. So you know, you try to hire 1077 01:10:33.640 --> 01:10:36.239 X amount of people and you know, you get at a fifty, you 1078 01:10:36.319 --> 01:10:40.000 get twenty five show up, twenty show up, you know, fifteen pass 1079 01:10:40.159 --> 01:10:43.800 and you gotta try to hire twelve of fifteen. It's just it's a coming 1080 01:10:43.880 --> 01:10:46.319 harder and harder. Yeah, a couple of times now, like they can't 1081 01:10:46.399 --> 01:10:51.359 get guys that take the job. It's like like paid places like about how 1082 01:10:51.920 --> 01:10:57.560 I know they can't get volunteers anymore, but like to get a paid five 1083 01:10:57.640 --> 01:11:00.800 department job like Saint Louis somewhere. Like these guys they you know, they 1084 01:11:00.880 --> 01:11:03.600 show up at the show at these expos and they're like, yeah, we 1085 01:11:03.680 --> 01:11:06.720 can't even get guys to come to the fight the you know. That to 1086 01:11:06.800 --> 01:11:12.640 me is like absurd to come. It is by far the best job in 1087 01:11:12.720 --> 01:11:15.159 the world to me. I mean I did all kinds of ship travel, 1088 01:11:15.199 --> 01:11:20.199 truck work, to doc roofing, help guys with talk and tell you there 1089 01:11:20.319 --> 01:11:24.560 is nothing compares to it, man, I mean, and I never had 1090 01:11:24.600 --> 01:11:27.680 a bad day. I have different breeds of people that you know, work 1091 01:11:27.760 --> 01:11:30.560 their assholes when they're fifteen years old. Time give me a cell phone. 1092 01:11:30.600 --> 01:11:34.000 That's all the cure. Shit about you know, job that you can't wait 1093 01:11:34.079 --> 01:11:39.000 to get to your job when you're home. I mean, I think we 1094 01:11:39.079 --> 01:11:41.680 said them before. They could have paid me and I would have went to 1095 01:11:41.760 --> 01:11:45.800 that to work my first My wife was like, you're crazy. You can't 1096 01:11:45.840 --> 01:11:47.039 wait to go to work. I go, Yeah, I go. It's 1097 01:11:47.079 --> 01:11:53.279 fucking great. You know they're paying me for this ship. Speaking of Yeah, 1098 01:11:55.560 --> 01:12:01.680 wait, wait, you're in the top three of the I Married Up 1099 01:12:01.720 --> 01:12:06.520 Club. You are in the top echelot of I Married Up Club. Bro, 1100 01:12:06.760 --> 01:12:13.079 good for you. I'll give you a little. I'll give you a 1101 01:12:13.119 --> 01:12:16.840 little. That's all you gotta do. You gotta make a one arm grab 1102 01:12:17.119 --> 01:12:19.039 and next thing you know, you got the babes. You know what I 1103 01:12:19.159 --> 01:12:29.880 mean. That's all you gotta do. He must have went home and cried 1104 01:12:29.920 --> 01:12:31.199 a little bit or something. He had to do something like to get her, 1105 01:12:31.279 --> 01:12:33.880 you know, in a heart. Oh he walked in that door. 1106 01:12:33.960 --> 01:12:35.439 He goes, I don't know if you know who I am, but I 1107 01:12:35.560 --> 01:12:40.800 just grabbed the kid with one armor sixty foot lad, and she melted it 1108 01:12:40.920 --> 01:12:45.199 right here. My time thirty five years is up, and I was walking 1109 01:12:45.199 --> 01:12:48.520 around like a cripples. He's like, it's time to go. Yeah. 1110 01:12:48.600 --> 01:12:51.640 There was no doubt about that man. Yeah, things hurt a lot more. 1111 01:12:53.119 --> 01:12:58.199 Oh, you ain't kidding. Every fucked up I already had one. 1112 01:12:58.279 --> 01:13:01.159 He replaced the yellow ones gotta be replaced. Well, I'm going in January 1113 01:13:01.239 --> 01:13:10.479 for my hoops. Could walk over a hydrant? I can walk over It's 1114 01:13:10.520 --> 01:13:12.920 so funny. We go to the show is just a couple of weeks ago. 1115 01:13:12.920 --> 01:13:15.960 We were in Harrisburg Way. When he's walking in front of me, 1116 01:13:15.079 --> 01:13:21.279 I swear to god, his his legs are like like talking talking, run 1117 01:13:21.359 --> 01:13:34.199 right through them sideways. Not even that sound like sideways. Goddamn bit, 1118 01:13:34.359 --> 01:13:38.920 get a job already, for God's sake. When you got to, uh, 1119 01:13:38.960 --> 01:13:42.079 the squad, who was the senior man, Dad, you have a 1120 01:13:42.119 --> 01:13:45.199 lot of time or were you? No, I wasn't senior man. It 1121 01:13:45.319 --> 01:13:47.840 was it was a couple of guys that were older than me. Uh, 1122 01:13:48.319 --> 01:13:51.159 they were there. I was right there though. I mean, like you 1123 01:13:51.199 --> 01:13:54.960 said, a lot of guys don't go there that many years. But it 1124 01:13:55.079 --> 01:13:57.039 was a couple of I mean a couple of yeah, a couple of guys 1125 01:13:57.079 --> 01:14:00.319 older than me and a couple of guys younger than me. But uh, 1126 01:14:00.640 --> 01:14:03.479 that was that was a hold. It's a whole different way of thinking. 1127 01:14:04.399 --> 01:14:06.920 That squad thing, it's it's it was kind of crazy at first. I'm 1128 01:14:06.960 --> 01:14:10.319 like, I wasn't sure what was going on. I'm like, Okay, 1129 01:14:10.359 --> 01:14:13.239 you're not you're not making a roof out of it like like a ladder truck, 1130 01:14:13.279 --> 01:14:15.800 or you're not you're not you know, you're not leaning out with the 1131 01:14:15.880 --> 01:14:18.439 engine. You're search and rescue or you're going where you need it kind of 1132 01:14:18.479 --> 01:14:21.119 like a free safety, you know. And I'm like, it's kind of 1133 01:14:21.159 --> 01:14:24.359 weird, you know what I mean. But then you fall into that mode 1134 01:14:24.399 --> 01:14:28.119 and you learn you see a lot more too. You see a lot of 1135 01:14:28.119 --> 01:14:31.239 ship that should be happening that ain't happening, you know what, And uh 1136 01:14:33.079 --> 01:14:38.159 yeah, and you see h you know some things you don't want to see 1137 01:14:38.159 --> 01:14:40.760 what people you think are supposed to be doing, what they're doing. You 1138 01:14:40.960 --> 01:14:43.399 just you just took the words right out of my mouth. You're like, 1139 01:14:43.479 --> 01:14:45.680 oh, what are you doing over there in the corner? I remember, 1140 01:14:45.760 --> 01:14:49.039 I remember we had a meet. We had a good bungalow fire and we 1141 01:14:49.159 --> 01:14:53.319 were in our second bottle trying to make this attic. It was cut up 1142 01:14:53.359 --> 01:14:56.760 into a million rooms and we were just there was ship everywhere. A guy 1143 01:14:56.880 --> 01:14:59.439 was a hoarder. There was supposed to be people up there, and me 1144 01:14:59.479 --> 01:15:02.319 and my part, the whole squad's up there. Switch No, not this 1145 01:15:02.439 --> 01:15:05.319 one. What's just like that though. Right we're inside, I was going 1146 01:15:05.399 --> 01:15:11.399 on there, we're gonna talk about it. So we're up in this attic 1147 01:15:11.439 --> 01:15:15.119 and it's cut up into a million rooms and we're trying to find supposedly somebody 1148 01:15:15.159 --> 01:15:18.399 that's in there, and there's clothes and all kinds of shit. So we 1149 01:15:19.119 --> 01:15:21.760 we're switching out on the pipe. This is how long we've been up here 1150 01:15:21.840 --> 01:15:26.119 right, trying to We're not making any progress. And so I come out 1151 01:15:26.159 --> 01:15:30.479 to change bottles for like the second time, and there's there's I'm not gonna 1152 01:15:30.479 --> 01:15:32.800 say his name, he's standing outside with his pipe in his hand. He 1153 01:15:32.840 --> 01:15:38.199 goes, how's it going in there? How the fuck you think it's going 1154 01:15:38.840 --> 01:15:41.920 going to change my bottle for the second time? You know what I mean? 1155 01:15:42.560 --> 01:15:44.840 I go. I wanted to fu right in the face. You know. 1156 01:15:45.760 --> 01:15:47.439 He's like, how's it going in there? This is your fucking still 1157 01:15:47.479 --> 01:15:53.039 you motherfucker. I I didn't have time. I go, I fucking deal 1158 01:15:53.079 --> 01:15:55.520 with you later, you know what I mean. I fucking go about change 1159 01:15:55.560 --> 01:15:57.760 my bottle and go back in again, you know, And this fucker's standing 1160 01:15:57.800 --> 01:16:01.680 outside. I'm like, I don't know. It's just like I said, 1161 01:16:02.039 --> 01:16:08.199 not everybody can be a fireman, right, so they can send the fireman 1162 01:16:08.199 --> 01:16:10.319 at the bar. They can sit there and tell people that the barer or 1163 01:16:10.319 --> 01:16:13.239 a fire you can wear the shirt. Well they wear the shirt. Well 1164 01:16:13.279 --> 01:16:17.399 that's correct. I was just gonna say, yeah, holy shit, I 1165 01:16:17.439 --> 01:16:24.000 don't know when you went from the truck to the squad. Was it the 1166 01:16:24.039 --> 01:16:28.159 amount of work really that much more? Or oh yeah fuck yeah, yeah, 1167 01:16:28.439 --> 01:16:30.560 oh yeah, yeah, that's that's squat five man. We we were. 1168 01:16:31.159 --> 01:16:34.399 It was. It was incredible, man, sometimes four fires a day, 1169 01:16:35.279 --> 01:16:38.279 it was. Yeah, it was. It was nney. You go 1170 01:16:38.399 --> 01:16:41.279 from fire to fire. I mean, we were recovered whole We were in 1171 01:16:41.279 --> 01:16:45.439 the middle of Englewood, which was in any direction was fire potential, so 1172 01:16:46.000 --> 01:16:49.159 all the companies around us were busy. We would go to all their fires 1173 01:16:49.239 --> 01:16:51.840 and then we'd go way out south where Mo was. Mo was out in 1174 01:16:51.840 --> 01:16:57.640 the twenty third Battalion. That was actually a fifteen minute lights and siren and 1175 01:16:57.800 --> 01:17:00.960 ride to get to Mo. That's how all the way Indiana is where he 1176 01:17:00.079 --> 01:17:02.479 was pretty much at. We would end up all the way out there, 1177 01:17:02.960 --> 01:17:05.439 you know what I mean, and had to deal with his ass, you 1178 01:17:05.479 --> 01:17:12.960 know what I mean? And yeah, yeah, another Napoleon syndrome. Yeah. 1179 01:17:13.680 --> 01:17:15.760 I think he's five to five. I don't know what. Yeah, 1180 01:17:15.359 --> 01:17:18.600 I tell you he started me. That motherfucker. I tell you that. 1181 01:17:18.760 --> 01:17:25.119 Oh my, oh my moo. Was good though. We like, like 1182 01:17:25.199 --> 01:17:28.800 I said, I have Pat O was arb Itttalion chief. Excellent chief. 1183 01:17:29.399 --> 01:17:32.159 Uh, I mean, Timothy was great. We I had so many good 1184 01:17:32.239 --> 01:17:34.920 chiefs, man. It was they let us go to work. I mean, 1185 01:17:35.039 --> 01:17:39.279 so some chiefs. That's another thing. Near the end of my career. 1186 01:17:39.640 --> 01:17:42.920 They promoted some of these guys that didn't have them. They won't let 1187 01:17:42.960 --> 01:17:45.039 us go to work. They were panicing all the time. Everybody on the 1188 01:17:45.039 --> 01:17:46.399 building. That's pac key hole right there. Yeah. And that was my 1189 01:17:46.479 --> 01:17:50.439 partner already. I mean, I mean two of the best guys, man. 1190 01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:55.359 I mean Pat went. Pat retired a year before I did, and 1191 01:17:55.439 --> 01:18:00.800 then Arty's going next year. So he was was all the guys, you 1192 01:18:00.840 --> 01:18:02.319 know, And that's a problem too. We lose all the good guys got 1193 01:18:02.359 --> 01:18:08.359 experience, experience, man, I'm telling you when you when you lost Pat, 1194 01:18:08.439 --> 01:18:13.359 you lost Mitch, you lost Timothy, you lost a lot of hundreds 1195 01:18:13.359 --> 01:18:15.479 of years of experience. Yeah, I mean, and then you got a 1196 01:18:15.520 --> 01:18:17.680 chief that lets you go win and go to work, or you get a 1197 01:18:17.760 --> 01:18:21.399 chief that as soon as he sees something that they pounded in his head at 1198 01:18:21.399 --> 01:18:25.840 the chief school, everybody's out of the building. And now we just say 1199 01:18:25.920 --> 01:18:29.279 the foundation. You know what I mean. I mean, there's the thing. 1200 01:18:29.880 --> 01:18:33.039 Who is the chief of the special operations out there right now? Or 1201 01:18:33.079 --> 01:18:36.359 who was for low Brian mccardo. Brian mccardo, he was on Squad five. 1202 01:18:38.960 --> 01:18:43.079 No, there's another guy that somebody gave his number. I'm almost sure 1203 01:18:43.119 --> 01:18:45.600 he was a Chicago guy. No, I was. I have to, 1204 01:18:45.720 --> 01:18:46.640 I have to. I saw the name not too long ago. Actually, 1205 01:18:47.760 --> 01:18:50.560 there's a special officer right now. Oh you were talking about Jamar, the 1206 01:18:50.640 --> 01:18:58.560 big chief. Mm hmm. No, an Irish name. I think special 1207 01:18:58.600 --> 01:19:02.760 office was Brian mccardo. He was, he was a specialized No, Brian 1208 01:19:02.920 --> 01:19:06.159 Cardo was when I left. He was. He was five one that name. 1209 01:19:06.199 --> 01:19:10.680 I think I've been talking to him. He just doesn't he doesn't want 1210 01:19:10.720 --> 01:19:13.880 to come on. So he does, but he says, let some other 1211 01:19:14.039 --> 01:19:18.000 fireman come on, John Fox, somebody, Mike Fox, Mi MI. 1212 01:19:18.359 --> 01:19:21.640 He was? He was? He was. He's the one that actually when 1213 01:19:21.640 --> 01:19:24.800 I want to go, when I was going to go on the squad you 1214 01:19:24.920 --> 01:19:28.199 go talk to him first. Yeah, well you gotta you gotta go catch 1215 01:19:28.279 --> 01:19:30.199 the ring. Yeah, pretty much, that's pretty much. You guys are 1216 01:19:30.279 --> 01:19:33.840 throwing names in here, like crazy John Collins, Johnny Collins. Yeah he 1217 01:19:33.920 --> 01:19:40.920 was, Yeah he was five one five toy. Yeah Maloney, that's Pat. 1218 01:19:41.000 --> 01:19:43.960 Malone's a bad lieutenant, remember that movie to Bad Lieutenant. But he 1219 01:19:44.119 --> 01:19:45.840 was lieutenant. He used to come by forty five sauce. When we're all 1220 01:19:45.920 --> 01:19:49.600 younger. We would get him as so much fucking ship. We thank you. 1221 01:19:49.680 --> 01:19:54.039 Jimmy Reagan, Jimmy Reagan, I know Jimmy. Yeah, we see 1222 01:19:54.119 --> 01:19:56.640 Jimmy at Indie all the time. What a great man. Yeah, Jimmy's 1223 01:19:56.640 --> 01:20:00.640 a good dude. Yeah. He used to go, uh so, Melodi, 1224 01:20:00.239 --> 01:20:08.239 you know a little push to come on, Billy, He said he 1225 01:20:08.359 --> 01:20:13.479 will. But another guy who played for the Chicago Bands, I think who 1226 01:20:13.600 --> 01:20:17.039 was a fireman too. I think who that was? Pat Maloney gave me 1227 01:20:17.119 --> 01:20:20.199 his number, I got, I got a look. Pat was Pat's very 1228 01:20:20.239 --> 01:20:24.239 good, very it was a good chief, good lieutenant. I mean I 1229 01:20:24.359 --> 01:20:28.359 watched him get promote all the way up from he talks to him every day 1230 01:20:28.399 --> 01:20:31.880 for cooking up. Let's go he talk to him every day. Why don't 1231 01:20:31.880 --> 01:20:36.119 you talk the show? Jack? I talked to Pat now too long ago. 1232 01:20:38.760 --> 01:20:42.239 Uh, he's he's a good dude, man, he really. He 1233 01:20:42.319 --> 01:20:47.960 doesn't like a little push Mitch your jack big? What's that? What's that? 1234 01:20:48.279 --> 01:20:50.600 Let's get back to that picture that guys, it's kind of making a 1235 01:20:50.640 --> 01:20:56.039 little bit. What was I telling you Bill when we came across this picture? 1236 01:20:56.279 --> 01:20:59.960 A little sweat cover off his I'm not gonna show what's going on. 1237 01:21:00.399 --> 01:21:03.279 Let's see here we go boom. So we were down this fire here we 1238 01:21:03.359 --> 01:21:09.000 were down the street at another fire, and I looked down the I looked 1239 01:21:09.000 --> 01:21:11.760 down the block and so it's a couple of other people. Listen, we 1240 01:21:11.760 --> 01:21:14.720 got another fire on the block. So that's how I ended up on the 1241 01:21:14.800 --> 01:21:16.439 roof and a squad. I was in a squad that day. We we 1242 01:21:16.560 --> 01:21:19.359 got there first because we were the first ones to get out of where we 1243 01:21:19.479 --> 01:21:23.359 were at because we were parked where we could get out at. And then 1244 01:21:23.800 --> 01:21:26.760 the truck came afterwards. So that was me and already and a couple other 1245 01:21:26.800 --> 01:21:29.600 guys up on the up on the roof. We already knew the fire was 1246 01:21:29.680 --> 01:21:32.600 upstairs. There was like a couple of bedrooms up there, and uh supposed 1247 01:21:32.720 --> 01:21:35.840 there was supposed to be a lady in there, but she actually got out 1248 01:21:35.920 --> 01:21:41.760 after we fucking went searched into the whole place. She actually got out. 1249 01:21:41.800 --> 01:21:45.560 But that place was just it was just rotten upstairs, and it took him 1250 01:21:45.560 --> 01:21:47.640 a while to get in there, but it was We were cutting holes one 1251 01:21:47.680 --> 01:21:56.159 after the other. It looks like you took the window, so I mean, 1252 01:21:56.359 --> 01:21:58.600 I'm not going to say they cleaned it out that well. I'm just 1253 01:21:58.680 --> 01:22:03.720 gonna is gone. At least somebody could have thrown a rock from the ground. 1254 01:22:03.760 --> 01:22:08.600 I have no idea, but you know, it could be a brick 1255 01:22:08.720 --> 01:22:13.760 from the from all. But but here, here's a Gene Roll that played 1256 01:22:13.800 --> 01:22:15.399 for the Bears. Oh yeah, Gan, Yeah, he was Well, 1257 01:22:15.640 --> 01:22:19.720 thank you. Jim Reagan's the best. Get him to Jim. I I 1258 01:22:19.880 --> 01:22:25.159 called him a couple of times. Roll. Yeah, he's a big boy. 1259 01:22:26.199 --> 01:22:30.439 Well he played for Chicago Beds. You gotta be I forgot. I 1260 01:22:30.720 --> 01:22:33.840 totally forgot about that. I know more about Chicago Bill. What are you 1261 01:22:33.960 --> 01:22:38.239 doing? Man? Come on, I didn't go too far off my comfort 1262 01:22:38.319 --> 01:22:43.079 zone, you know what I mean? Like you do you get every grace 1263 01:22:43.159 --> 01:22:47.279 I could afford you, no problem for you. But uh yeah, I 1264 01:22:47.399 --> 01:22:53.279 mean everything was everything that I was actually pretty lucky. We made a couple 1265 01:22:54.039 --> 01:22:58.119 a couple of rescues after that, and I remember so we had I was 1266 01:22:58.159 --> 01:23:00.800 with Momo as a matter of fact, he was a little tenant. So 1267 01:23:00.960 --> 01:23:05.119 we get a fire in a twelve flats apartment building. It's fucking rolling all 1268 01:23:05.199 --> 01:23:10.159 the way through the third floor, right, So we're all jammed up in 1269 01:23:10.199 --> 01:23:13.039 the hallway as usual. Everybody's trying to get in there and do ship. 1270 01:23:13.359 --> 01:23:15.880 No, come on, no, was the manager yelling at you. By 1271 01:23:15.920 --> 01:23:19.880 the way, Momo's yelling and screaming and fucking the lines tangled up and this 1272 01:23:20.039 --> 01:23:24.840 and that and fucking the next thing. You know. Some I go outside. 1273 01:23:24.880 --> 01:23:27.000 I go, just gotta be another way to get into this place. 1274 01:23:27.439 --> 01:23:30.359 I go outside, and this lady grabs me and says, hey, my 1275 01:23:30.439 --> 01:23:32.920 mother's in that apartment up there. It's the last apartment that's not burning yet, 1276 01:23:33.039 --> 01:23:35.960 right, I go, you gotta ship And she's like no, she 1277 01:23:36.119 --> 01:23:41.119 and she's paralyzed. I go, and I go, I go, yeah 1278 01:23:41.159 --> 01:23:46.920 you sure day? Yeah she goes She's like, uh, she can't walk 1279 01:23:46.960 --> 01:23:50.039 either, So I know she's up there. So sure enough, menas me 1280 01:23:50.119 --> 01:23:56.000 and Billy Grant who got killed on the job later on. Yeah, great, 1281 01:23:56.079 --> 01:23:59.079 dude, skinny little fucker like me. We throw this. We throw 1282 01:23:59.119 --> 01:24:01.439 this twenty five foot to the just up to the window ledge on the third 1283 01:24:01.479 --> 01:24:03.920 floor. Right, So I call up there, I go, I cawl 1284 01:24:03.960 --> 01:24:08.199 in the window. Sure enough, man, this old lady is in her 1285 01:24:08.239 --> 01:24:12.920 bed. It's pretty shitty up there. She's two hundred and eighty pounds. 1286 01:24:13.000 --> 01:24:15.800 I knew that. I knew you were gonna say that, right. I 1287 01:24:15.880 --> 01:24:19.079 get to I cawl over to the bed. She's actually sitting there looking at 1288 01:24:19.159 --> 01:24:23.319 me, and she goes, what are you doing here, sonny? I 1289 01:24:23.439 --> 01:24:25.600 go, I'm here to get you. You know what I mean. She 1290 01:24:25.680 --> 01:24:28.760 goes, you can't pick me up? Right, she says that to me, 1291 01:24:28.880 --> 01:24:30.359 right, I go, listen, she goes, I've lived a good 1292 01:24:30.399 --> 01:24:36.000 life. Leave What she was right to check out was ready? Yeah, 1293 01:24:36.119 --> 01:24:39.159 She's like, she goes, I live a good life. You're never gonna 1294 01:24:39.199 --> 01:24:42.319 get me out of here. And she and it was. The fire was 1295 01:24:43.039 --> 01:24:45.560 right coming right down the hallway. Right. I go, listen, I'm 1296 01:24:45.560 --> 01:24:49.880 not leaving here. So so I grab her under the arms and holy fuck, 1297 01:24:49.960 --> 01:24:53.600 man, I get her off the bed and boom, she right on 1298 01:24:53.720 --> 01:24:56.359 the floor. Right. I'm like, fuck, So now I'm dragging her. 1299 01:24:56.399 --> 01:24:58.760 I'm trying to drag I get her to the fucking window, right. 1300 01:24:59.319 --> 01:25:00.800 I yell out to Billy, who's at the bottom of the ladder, and 1301 01:25:00.880 --> 01:25:03.039 go get up here. I go, I need help. Right. So 1302 01:25:03.359 --> 01:25:06.119 he comes up the ladder. He goes, holy fuck man, how are 1303 01:25:06.119 --> 01:25:10.359 you gonna get her through this window? You know? And she's the whole 1304 01:25:10.399 --> 01:25:13.039 time, she's telling us, leave me, leave me here. I'm good. 1305 01:25:13.439 --> 01:25:16.159 I'm eighty something years old. I'm good. Don't you guys get killed 1306 01:25:16.159 --> 01:25:18.359 over me? Right, I'm like, I go, no fucking way. 1307 01:25:18.560 --> 01:25:25.159 So I get her paralyzed legs up on the window. Right, Billy's pulling 1308 01:25:25.199 --> 01:25:28.279 on her legs. I'm behind her trying to get her up on the ladder. 1309 01:25:28.359 --> 01:25:30.560 Right. I finally get her up on the window ledge and I'm fucking 1310 01:25:30.840 --> 01:25:33.760 I'm done, right, I'm fucking it. I've exhausted myself, right, 1311 01:25:34.560 --> 01:25:39.119 you know. I give her a little push. She goes off the window 1312 01:25:39.640 --> 01:25:45.720 and Billy ends up face first right in her monkey. Right. How are 1313 01:25:45.760 --> 01:25:50.159 you doing? Yum? And he is like, what the fuck? I 1314 01:25:50.239 --> 01:25:54.239 go just get down the fucking ladder. So he's got her straddled on the 1315 01:25:54.319 --> 01:25:57.680 ladder and his face was right between her legs, and I'm trying to hold 1316 01:25:57.680 --> 01:25:59.880 her from the top, and it's like it's like a bold yellow you know. 1317 01:26:00.279 --> 01:26:01.520 And it's like, I'm like, we get it all the way down 1318 01:26:01.680 --> 01:26:05.800 finally to the fucking ground, right and a daughter comes running over there and 1319 01:26:05.920 --> 01:26:10.000 she's like, I can't believe you guys got my mom out. I'm like, 1320 01:26:10.640 --> 01:26:12.920 Billy's like, yeah, we see more than we wanted to see. 1321 01:26:14.560 --> 01:26:23.560 By the way, he has no wonderwork. Oh yeah. It was fucking 1322 01:26:23.640 --> 01:26:27.279 crazy. And they gave us. They gave us a good they gave us 1323 01:26:27.319 --> 01:26:30.359 some kind of crazy award for that. But the bottom line was the two 1324 01:26:31.079 --> 01:26:36.159 he was maybe six years later before Billy got killed. The rig got t 1325 01:26:36.359 --> 01:26:41.000 bone. He was on truck fifty one at eighty four's house and uh, 1326 01:26:41.399 --> 01:26:44.159 the truck got t bone. He flipped over, he got up, he 1327 01:26:44.199 --> 01:26:47.239 went out the window, and the truck landing on him and Squad five end 1328 01:26:47.359 --> 01:26:53.000 up getting him out. They call it the pin in. So but what 1329 01:26:53.159 --> 01:26:57.239 a good dude man, good fireman, fucking this way kid all down. 1330 01:26:57.279 --> 01:27:00.039 A lot of was clamb in his face. Yeah, he says, I'll 1331 01:27:00.079 --> 01:27:04.119 never forget that. He says, looked like it looked like home plate. 1332 01:27:04.279 --> 01:27:14.319 He said, home plate. It hangs down like a wizard sleeve. I 1333 01:27:14.399 --> 01:27:19.000 mean, just unfortunately we buried. We buried a couple of good guys, 1334 01:27:19.039 --> 01:27:23.319 and I mean, I know what you guys went through, but we end 1335 01:27:23.399 --> 01:27:27.039 up bearing some good guys too. It was fucking I guess there's no way 1336 01:27:27.039 --> 01:27:30.039 around that. But nah, this job takes no prisoners. Man, it 1337 01:27:30.079 --> 01:27:32.880 doesn't matter if you're aggressive. If you're aggressive, fireman's chances are ship ship's 1338 01:27:32.920 --> 01:27:38.560 gonna happen. You know, I mean everybody that before you can do everything 1339 01:27:38.680 --> 01:27:41.640 right and it just goes fucking side. You have no control over it, 1340 01:27:41.760 --> 01:27:47.319 right, It's no controller, right, dude, is heard from laughing so 1341 01:27:47.439 --> 01:27:53.840 much crazy And that lady, so check this out. That lady. When 1342 01:27:53.920 --> 01:27:58.359 I got burned up, that lady's daughter came to see me in the hospital. 1343 01:27:59.000 --> 01:28:00.960 She goes, you saved my mother. I said, really, yep, 1344 01:28:01.159 --> 01:28:04.039 she was. She came to the hospital and says, I just wanted 1345 01:28:04.039 --> 01:28:08.439 to come here and thank you again and make sure you were okay. It 1346 01:28:08.560 --> 01:28:10.720 was it was crazy. She goes, you don't remember me. I go, 1347 01:28:10.880 --> 01:28:13.000 yeah, I kind of do. Just you saved my mom. Remember 1348 01:28:13.039 --> 01:28:15.119 the big fat woman. I go, yeah, he goes, yeah, 1349 01:28:15.159 --> 01:28:18.279 I just heard about you, and I came. She came to the hospital. 1350 01:28:18.279 --> 01:28:21.520 It's pretty crazy, Billy. He din't making friends one of the time. 1351 01:28:21.600 --> 01:28:27.000 Baby. Yeah, people don't you do something crazy. People don't forget 1352 01:28:27.039 --> 01:28:31.319 you know, yeah, would you would? You would be like fuck this 1353 01:28:33.880 --> 01:28:38.119 by a buzz. She was a tough old broad man. She just said, 1354 01:28:38.159 --> 01:28:40.439 you know what, I'm good man, just leave. I could see 1355 01:28:40.479 --> 01:28:43.960 somebody saying that to me too, like when when they're they're good with it, 1356 01:28:44.159 --> 01:28:45.079 you know, like you said when she said that I had a good 1357 01:28:45.159 --> 01:28:49.720 life, don't worry about it, like she made Sonny, there's no way 1358 01:28:49.720 --> 01:28:54.039 you're gonna pick me up. I says. We're gonna get you to that 1359 01:28:54.119 --> 01:28:56.079 window, I says, and I go, I got another guy by the 1360 01:28:56.119 --> 01:28:58.760 window. I mean to balance her out the door, out the window and 1361 01:28:58.960 --> 01:29:00.239 down the ladder. It's pretty just in the way you did it. It 1362 01:29:00.319 --> 01:29:04.720 was. It was very It wasn't very pretty. Has the job though, 1363 01:29:05.119 --> 01:29:10.880 it never is? Bro Yeah, we probably we probably did more damage getting 1364 01:29:10.880 --> 01:29:16.000 her on than it was, you know. And she would have stayed keep 1365 01:29:16.039 --> 01:29:20.279 your head out the window and breathed. Well, it was crazy. Fron 1366 01:29:20.359 --> 01:29:26.359 the line over or something was Amo remembers that fire. So I don't know 1367 01:29:26.399 --> 01:29:29.199 where he is, and I thought he'd be in the chat tonight. Little 1368 01:29:29.239 --> 01:29:32.760 Yeah, he was all over me telling me ship. So you got, 1369 01:29:34.279 --> 01:29:38.600 I got, I got a couple of good Oh that was, yeah, 1370 01:29:38.640 --> 01:29:43.239 that was. We froze our balls off that night. Were we're we're up 1371 01:29:43.239 --> 01:29:45.920 in the basket for a long time being already. What the hell happened to 1372 01:29:45.960 --> 01:29:48.319 your front piece? It's got sucked up over the years. You know, 1373 01:29:48.399 --> 01:29:54.760 I didn't never discover your fake It looks like a fucking waffle on your head. 1374 01:29:57.199 --> 01:30:00.720 Listen. They tried to change my helmet like five times and I wouldn't 1375 01:30:00.760 --> 01:30:06.000 let him. Yeah, he's got another one recurring. We got this shrinking 1376 01:30:08.640 --> 01:30:15.960 that's what he looks. It looks like a shrinking dick. Where's that helmet 1377 01:30:15.079 --> 01:30:17.720 now, Bill, It's in my basement. Man. They tried to They 1378 01:30:17.800 --> 01:30:20.039 say you can keep to them, motherfucker. I said, you're right, 1379 01:30:20.079 --> 01:30:24.800 I'm keeping right up keeping. They protected my dome for a long time. 1380 01:30:24.920 --> 01:30:31.520 Man, we got on your head. You can see the difference in the 1381 01:30:31.520 --> 01:30:34.319 helmets. My buddy came on after me, and they started going to those 1382 01:30:34.359 --> 01:30:36.920 bigger ass helmets that were heavy as fun on your head. You know, 1383 01:30:39.399 --> 01:30:41.760 dude, that that looks like I don't even know what that looks like on 1384 01:30:41.840 --> 01:30:44.319 your head right there. I don't think I've ever seen them more burnt up 1385 01:30:44.359 --> 01:30:48.600 helmet than that. That's pretty funny, man, you know what, I 1386 01:30:48.680 --> 01:30:53.479 think these guys might be right you walk the walk, bro, Yeah, 1387 01:30:53.600 --> 01:30:55.720 for sure, I know. It was good. I had fun, you 1388 01:30:55.800 --> 01:30:58.279 know, just the guy that was standing out there. So how's it going 1389 01:30:58.359 --> 01:31:01.079 in there? Yeah, no, no, I'm just kidding. I know, 1390 01:31:01.199 --> 01:31:05.039 but I'm just kidding. Already knows who I'm talking about to because he 1391 01:31:05.079 --> 01:31:11.000 was at that fire, because I've seen it. This is a little harder 1392 01:31:11.039 --> 01:31:14.319 to see, but that was Yeah, that was the train crashed, that 1393 01:31:14.359 --> 01:31:17.520 old hair aport. Me drove the L train up the escalator. Wow, 1394 01:31:18.199 --> 01:31:24.279 that's a big yeah. Yeah, trying to drive an L train. Oh 1395 01:31:24.560 --> 01:31:30.520 my god, how the fuck did that happen? Yeah? Wheel right, 1396 01:31:30.840 --> 01:31:34.079 yep, she fall asleep. That looked like a drill like or something. 1397 01:31:35.760 --> 01:31:40.960 The platform, right through the dead end and up the rail over the platform. 1398 01:31:41.600 --> 01:31:44.920 It fucking took the wheels right out, the front wheels and the rest 1399 01:31:44.920 --> 01:31:47.239 of the train push it right up the fucking thing. Momentum, It looks 1400 01:31:47.239 --> 01:31:51.760 like a little bit momentum. We fall asleep against the throttle handle, saying 1401 01:31:53.199 --> 01:31:59.399 full sweep. Anybody dies. No, But there was a canine cop supposedly 1402 01:31:59.680 --> 01:32:01.880 at the top of the escalator ready to come down when the train came up. 1403 01:32:03.479 --> 01:32:09.520 He's not a whole fucking thing, so wow quick. Yeah, we 1404 01:32:09.600 --> 01:32:13.279 have a couple. I go through them, dons. I like to a 1405 01:32:13.319 --> 01:32:16.439 little harder to make out. This is your forty one pick couple guys. 1406 01:32:16.479 --> 01:32:20.520 We worked at another fire truck forty one another another good company. That's where 1407 01:32:20.520 --> 01:32:25.199 my buddy already is now. He's a lieutenant there one truck. They're busy. 1408 01:32:25.720 --> 01:32:29.119 Yeah, they're pretty busy. Yeah, yeah, right next to Squad 1409 01:32:29.199 --> 01:32:32.560 five. Sorry you have this was your Yeah, that was my my all 1410 01:32:32.640 --> 01:32:36.800 night two day fire. It started on a Thursday and we ended up putting 1411 01:32:36.840 --> 01:32:40.840 it out on a Sunday. I think some bullshit like that. I worked 1412 01:32:40.840 --> 01:32:44.000 at forty eight for a guy and I end up staying there for two days. 1413 01:32:44.520 --> 01:32:48.600 They all go out potentially nice, nice coops, unless they jumped the 1414 01:32:48.680 --> 01:32:51.960 street. You know, another another coal ne up in a basket, you 1415 01:32:53.000 --> 01:32:58.560 know that we had. And how cold does it get up there? Broll? 1416 01:32:59.119 --> 01:33:02.720 Which is tit? Sometimes twenty below zero? You know it's nuts. 1417 01:33:02.840 --> 01:33:06.479 Yeah, you know you guys know you get up in the basket and you're 1418 01:33:06.520 --> 01:33:10.479 up there. He's coming down. He ain't coming down. Fuck, you're 1419 01:33:10.560 --> 01:33:14.560 up there, you know. So got this guy this part. Yeah, 1420 01:33:14.560 --> 01:33:19.760 there's another that's an old picture from the battalion Tower thirty nine. And I 1421 01:33:19.880 --> 01:33:25.399 think I showed this one already, Yes we did. We got this one 1422 01:33:25.479 --> 01:33:28.800 right here. Oh that was that was a good fire man. So I 1423 01:33:28.920 --> 01:33:31.600 was telling you guys earlier the dead rat in my hand when we were crawling 1424 01:33:31.640 --> 01:33:34.000 in the rats were coming out and they were crawling over us. We were 1425 01:33:34.039 --> 01:33:39.560 hacking them with our Hellican myers. Yeah I should have blew that up. 1426 01:33:40.159 --> 01:33:42.840 Yeah you can see that. That was the biggest one we killed. Right 1427 01:33:42.880 --> 01:33:45.399 there? Is that a rat? That is a rat in your hand? 1428 01:33:45.560 --> 01:33:50.239 Yeah? Rat? Yeah, fucking nasty rats on the place was a ship 1429 01:33:50.520 --> 01:33:55.079 family's rats, right yeah. And they were coming out of there like a 1430 01:33:55.520 --> 01:33:58.760 like a fountain. Man. They want to know if they hit man worked 1431 01:33:58.800 --> 01:34:02.840 in the twenty twenty. Yes I did, Yeah, yes, I did. 1432 01:34:04.119 --> 01:34:08.720 That was a good night. I was on a task force that night. 1433 01:34:09.079 --> 01:34:12.279 So they put together these task force. Uh and they and they had 1434 01:34:12.359 --> 01:34:15.319 us all go to Comminsky Park where White Sox Park is. We all met 1435 01:34:15.359 --> 01:34:19.079 there. Squad five was working their thing, and I was actually they were 1436 01:34:19.119 --> 01:34:21.560 taking guys off the squad and guys that were on daily day and putting them 1437 01:34:21.600 --> 01:34:26.239 on a task force and with a bunch of other guys. And there were 1438 01:34:26.279 --> 01:34:29.600 so many fires that night that they had four task force. One went north, 1439 01:34:29.880 --> 01:34:31.680 one went west, one went east, and one went south. And 1440 01:34:32.239 --> 01:34:34.279 I was on the one went south because I knew that I knew the area. 1441 01:34:34.800 --> 01:34:39.399 And uh and pac Keejo was working that night. He was in the 1442 01:34:39.399 --> 01:34:43.000 sixth Battalion. And I'll tell you something, guys, you I seen ship 1443 01:34:43.239 --> 01:34:45.239 I ain't never seen in my life. Is that night of the riots. 1444 01:34:45.279 --> 01:34:48.000 Man. I mean, I never wanted to beat the fuck out of more 1445 01:34:48.039 --> 01:34:54.880 people. I mean, just nonsense, this's crazy nonsense that were I mean 1446 01:34:54.960 --> 01:34:59.960 I seen old ladies stealing ship and they would rob a place and just say 1447 01:35:00.119 --> 01:35:05.520 on fire, we burned down. I believe six walgrains that night and six 1448 01:35:05.720 --> 01:35:11.439 CBS's it was every liquor store burned down, every cell phone store was burned 1449 01:35:11.479 --> 01:35:16.159 down. We went from fire to fire. I think that night, let's 1450 01:35:16.159 --> 01:35:19.319 see that night. I think I went to the squad, went to about 1451 01:35:19.359 --> 01:35:24.319 fifteen fires. They were just there. They were going from they need a 1452 01:35:24.359 --> 01:35:27.800 snorkle, here, they need because everything was I don't know, I didn't 1453 01:35:27.800 --> 01:35:30.279 know why they were burning everything. They would just rob the ship out of 1454 01:35:30.359 --> 01:35:33.880 it and then set it on fire. And it was the police did nobody 1455 01:35:34.000 --> 01:35:38.760 was doing nothing. It was I mean, it was. It was literally 1456 01:35:38.880 --> 01:35:42.119 chaos. I was the summer of love, man, Remember it's just summer 1457 01:35:42.159 --> 01:35:45.079 of love. It was insane and they're telling us don't interact with people. 1458 01:35:45.600 --> 01:35:49.079 I mean they were throwing bottles of piss at us. I mean frozen bottles 1459 01:35:49.119 --> 01:35:53.159 of water. I need these young kids with me that night and they and 1460 01:35:53.680 --> 01:35:57.079 two of them hardly ever been to a fire. They were from companies that 1461 01:35:57.119 --> 01:36:00.000 didn't really do too much, and they that there at night. They told 1462 01:36:00.079 --> 01:36:02.640 me to go. That was the best night of our lives. I go. 1463 01:36:02.760 --> 01:36:08.279 I told you keep your helmet on and pay attention to and we we 1464 01:36:08.560 --> 01:36:11.319 we let out I don't know how many times. And what they were telling 1465 01:36:11.399 --> 01:36:14.680 us to do with the task Force was just knock it down as best you 1466 01:36:14.720 --> 01:36:16.600 can and move on to the next one. And that's that's pretty much what. 1467 01:36:16.840 --> 01:36:18.880 Yeah, this is the kind of kind of fucking ship. It was 1468 01:36:18.960 --> 01:36:24.000 nuts. And that went on for two days. Wow. What was that 1469 01:36:24.079 --> 01:36:26.640 from? Is that the Black Lives Matter thing? Yeah? That was Yeah, 1470 01:36:26.720 --> 01:36:30.439 that was that was the George Floyd riot ship, not like making a 1471 01:36:30.479 --> 01:36:34.880 statement like burning down your own town. It really said the method. And 1472 01:36:35.119 --> 01:36:38.920 the bad part about it was some of these I mean I was back in 1473 01:36:38.960 --> 01:36:42.399 my old neighborhood, squads by his neighborhood with the Task Force, and these 1474 01:36:42.439 --> 01:36:45.239 poor people that helped these people out, you know, they gave them breaks 1475 01:36:45.279 --> 01:36:48.720 on buying ship. They burned down all their businesses man, and then they 1476 01:36:48.800 --> 01:36:53.960 wondered why none of them came back. Nobody did nobody. Don't hear about 1477 01:36:53.960 --> 01:36:57.840 any of that anymore. It was it was terrible. I see I seen 1478 01:36:57.920 --> 01:37:00.319 somebody sword ons out in front crying and he knew the people that were robbing 1479 01:37:00.399 --> 01:37:03.039 him. They're like and there telling him, wait, why are you robbing 1480 01:37:03.119 --> 01:37:06.760 me? And they're like, it's a free it's a free for all, 1481 01:37:06.840 --> 01:37:11.239 you know. It was. It was insane. I mean the first night 1482 01:37:11.319 --> 01:37:15.960 was downtown, downtown, Chinese restaurants went down, coops, everything went down 1483 01:37:15.279 --> 01:37:19.439 everything. I'm gonna say, no, Chinese restaurants usually there packing yeah, 1484 01:37:19.560 --> 01:37:29.039 yeah, yeah, you up, Brom, it was nuts. The first 1485 01:37:29.119 --> 01:37:31.760 night was downtown and that was a bunch of fucking white, crazy ass fucking 1486 01:37:32.000 --> 01:37:35.319 skateboard kids. That or Antieth, Yeah yeah, yeah, no doubt. 1487 01:37:35.359 --> 01:37:39.840 I mean I told him, I told my you've ever seen a teetha guy 1488 01:37:39.880 --> 01:37:43.039 on a skateboard on him over? I swear to guy, I know the 1489 01:37:43.159 --> 01:37:48.319 needs a beaten, Yeah, beaten. They were ignorant and fucking It was 1490 01:37:48.439 --> 01:37:53.199 just crazy, man. Then the second night, Inglewood caught on to what 1491 01:37:53.359 --> 01:37:56.960 was going on downtown and they burned. They burned that place, They burned 1492 01:37:57.159 --> 01:38:00.359 the whole South Side down. It was it was insane. I never see 1493 01:38:00.359 --> 01:38:04.399 anything like that in my life. It was total chaos. It was I 1494 01:38:04.479 --> 01:38:12.039 heard anything about that, Uh what's that? None of it exactly what It's 1495 01:38:12.079 --> 01:38:16.279 like, Fairy dutched, nobody got arrested, nobody knows nothing. Why would 1496 01:38:16.319 --> 01:38:25.279 you Mysteriously none of the cameras worked. There's cameras everywhere. In every corner's 1497 01:38:25.279 --> 01:38:29.640 got a camera is thing in life is wasted talent. Nobody cares. Nobody 1498 01:38:29.760 --> 01:38:34.079 caresol is the real deal. Somebody sai as a fireman. It was a 1499 01:38:34.119 --> 01:38:38.319 good night. Yeah, no doubt man, you were. You just went 1500 01:38:38.359 --> 01:38:40.720 from fire to fight. It was crazy. We would we would, We 1501 01:38:40.760 --> 01:38:43.560 would have to even bed to hose. We were throwing a pile on top 1502 01:38:43.680 --> 01:38:45.800 and go right down the block to the next fire. I think the closest 1503 01:38:45.840 --> 01:38:48.640 thing that we ever had to that was the blackout in seventy seven when they 1504 01:38:48.680 --> 01:38:54.079 were burning everything down. Well they had the blackout and what two thousand that 1505 01:38:54.199 --> 01:38:58.159 was? That was pretty close, two thousand and three or four, it 1506 01:38:58.319 --> 01:39:01.920 was. It was we're so in the shopping There was a shopping like a 1507 01:39:02.000 --> 01:39:06.359 strip mall right. We had a Sally's beauty supply that they had robbed every 1508 01:39:06.439 --> 01:39:10.640 hair extension out of it, took every everything out of there, right, 1509 01:39:11.479 --> 01:39:14.960 and they set it on fire. So I'm trying to watch these two young 1510 01:39:15.039 --> 01:39:16.680 kids, because they were very inexperienced. I'm trying to keep an eye on 1511 01:39:16.800 --> 01:39:21.039 them and their throat. There's just crazy shit going on all around us. 1512 01:39:21.279 --> 01:39:28.520 I'm watching they backed up to this Bank America atm thing like a little little 1513 01:39:28.600 --> 01:39:31.720 hallway without ATM in it. They they ran the car, threw the ATM 1514 01:39:31.840 --> 01:39:38.199 thing, shamed up the ATM and dragged it out right. They were driving 1515 01:39:38.239 --> 01:39:40.920 around the parking lot where they chained up, trying to smash it open. 1516 01:39:41.520 --> 01:39:44.359 And I remember we had two state troopers with us that we're trying to follow 1517 01:39:44.439 --> 01:39:46.359 us to every fire so we wouldn't get killed. He's like, listen, 1518 01:39:46.600 --> 01:39:49.760 who was that ATM? Breaks open? It's gonna be utter chaos, he 1519 01:39:49.800 --> 01:39:54.119 says, So hurry up and put this foot so we get the fuck out. 1520 01:39:55.199 --> 01:39:59.720 It was insane, man, they're dragging this ATM around, making me 1521 01:39:59.800 --> 01:40:02.960 know, Yeah, I saw you had a little sweat there coming down. 1522 01:40:03.119 --> 01:40:06.239 Hey, you hit man, He said, he's the real deal. Whoever 1523 01:40:06.279 --> 01:40:11.279 the big easy is? Oh that's Eric Mason, My buddy. Eric is 1524 01:40:11.319 --> 01:40:13.880 at h he's a lieutenant. Now, he was at Tower thirty nine. 1525 01:40:14.399 --> 01:40:16.439 He's asking about the Rocky Raccoon story. But he came in too late. 1526 01:40:16.479 --> 01:40:18.640 Bro, you already, Yeah, I hit him up. That's a great 1527 01:40:18.680 --> 01:40:24.439 story. Eric's he's a good fireman. He's a lieutenant now. I mean, 1528 01:40:24.560 --> 01:40:28.600 uh, that's that's one thing I wished the fire apartment would. I 1529 01:40:28.680 --> 01:40:33.560 mean, across the board anywhere you should you should get promoted by your experience 1530 01:40:33.560 --> 01:40:36.720 should count for everything. I think. I mean, don't get me wrong, 1531 01:40:38.199 --> 01:40:40.680 you take a test, that's all bullshit, I think. But I 1532 01:40:40.800 --> 01:40:44.520 mean the good guys, A lot of good guys ever get promoted, right, 1533 01:40:45.079 --> 01:40:47.520 It's just you mean, then he got a lot of good guys stay 1534 01:40:47.880 --> 01:40:50.680 with good companies. But I mean, I know a lot of guys that 1535 01:40:50.800 --> 01:40:54.039 should have been promoted and a lot of guys that shouldn't have been promoted. 1536 01:40:54.319 --> 01:40:57.000 You know, I was just talking about this with my wife who watching the 1537 01:40:57.039 --> 01:41:00.439 show Band of Brothers the other day, and like, you know, those 1538 01:41:00.560 --> 01:41:03.680 field promotions mean more than a guy who just gets promoted out of a school 1539 01:41:03.880 --> 01:41:09.640 or something like that. You know, right, you know? How do 1540 01:41:09.720 --> 01:41:11.800 you? How do you? I mean, sometimes it's not your fault. 1541 01:41:11.840 --> 01:41:14.680 You go to a slow company, okay, and it takes time to get 1542 01:41:14.680 --> 01:41:16.000 out of it because you need time to get a good spot, right. 1543 01:41:16.359 --> 01:41:20.039 But you're promote a guy who's been at a company that really doesn't done shit, 1544 01:41:20.520 --> 01:41:24.520 and you're gonna put them in charge of some guys that might not know 1545 01:41:24.680 --> 01:41:27.800 much either, and that's when you end up with your may days. You 1546 01:41:27.840 --> 01:41:30.119 know what I mean. I mean, to me, there's just a lot 1547 01:41:30.399 --> 01:41:33.640 of a lot of talent just went to the wayside because we gotta go, 1548 01:41:33.720 --> 01:41:35.760 we gotta do it this way. Oh, we got to have so many 1549 01:41:35.800 --> 01:41:39.079 of these guys, or we got to have so many of these guys, 1550 01:41:39.359 --> 01:41:42.600 you know what I mean? What about they're in charge of people's lives, 1551 01:41:42.640 --> 01:41:46.399 man, I mean, come on, let's you work yours, You work 1552 01:41:46.439 --> 01:41:50.159 your ass off at a busy company. After maybe fifteen years, you should 1553 01:41:50.159 --> 01:41:55.279 be a lieutenant somewhere you mean, or whatever. I mean, that's just 1554 01:41:55.359 --> 01:42:00.720 my feeling on that. But that's the one never no, no, I 1555 01:42:00.760 --> 01:42:03.399 mean, I mean everybody agrees with that. Obviously, you want to be 1556 01:42:03.479 --> 01:42:06.359 with the bosses, you know, who who have the most experienced, right, 1557 01:42:06.359 --> 01:42:09.720 because you feel the most comfortable with that. But yeah, right, 1558 01:42:10.079 --> 01:42:12.479 you know, yeah, that's why when you when you when you get a 1559 01:42:12.479 --> 01:42:16.920 good chiefer like we had Pat and Keo and Mitch and we know all the 1560 01:42:16.960 --> 01:42:19.600 good chiefs around us. I mean, and then when you when you see 1561 01:42:19.640 --> 01:42:24.159 that, you see these guys leave and sometimes you see what gets replaced, 1562 01:42:24.640 --> 01:42:27.600 and you see what happens at a fire. Thinking of myself, this this 1563 01:42:27.640 --> 01:42:30.039 should never happen, you know, or when the chief asks you, how 1564 01:42:30.079 --> 01:42:32.439 do you think we're doing? What do you mean? What are you asking 1565 01:42:32.520 --> 01:42:36.039 me for? I don't know. How do you think we're doing? Chief? 1566 01:42:38.720 --> 01:42:42.239 You're not doing good? Chief? We didn't do so good yet, 1567 01:42:43.840 --> 01:42:45.279 I don't know. I mean, we say Bill all the time. If 1568 01:42:45.279 --> 01:42:47.479 you want to go to work, even if, like you said, if 1569 01:42:47.479 --> 01:42:49.760 you don't have any hooks or you don't know ship and you get stuck in 1570 01:42:49.800 --> 01:42:53.319 the slow house, and like you said, it does take time to get 1571 01:42:53.319 --> 01:42:56.199 out of that, you will find the work right. You might not be 1572 01:42:56.319 --> 01:43:00.119 in the busiest place, But if you want to go to work, can 1573 01:43:00.159 --> 01:43:02.239 you make it your point that you want to go to work. Listen, 1574 01:43:02.279 --> 01:43:06.640 if you're the captain of a company and some kid keeps showing up every week, 1575 01:43:08.319 --> 01:43:11.760 you know at your place, who are you going to take? You're 1576 01:43:11.760 --> 01:43:15.119 going to take some kid who you're absolutely right. So I gave a little 1577 01:43:15.119 --> 01:43:19.680 speech at an academy class and Clay Whiteley, who was on squad fire for 1578 01:43:19.800 --> 01:43:23.439 us for a while, he's running the academy now, which is he's a 1579 01:43:23.479 --> 01:43:26.039 great guy and he does a great job, and so he says, you 1580 01:43:26.119 --> 01:43:28.039 got to come down here and talk to these kids, you know. So 1581 01:43:28.119 --> 01:43:30.520 I go down there and I told him, I go, can I say 1582 01:43:30.560 --> 01:43:32.319 what I want because I'm not going to power coat it and tell you what 1583 01:43:32.720 --> 01:43:35.279 the city wants you to hear. You know what I mean. So I'm 1584 01:43:35.319 --> 01:43:38.960 going to tell him how I you know, what my experiences were and what 1585 01:43:39.079 --> 01:43:42.039 I feel. And I told him, I said, listen, there's eighty 1586 01:43:42.079 --> 01:43:45.479 of you in his class. I go, I'm gonna be honest with you. 1587 01:43:45.079 --> 01:43:48.239 After you will be fireman. After you will be content wherever you go. 1588 01:43:49.119 --> 01:43:50.760 That's just the way it is. I go, you want to be 1589 01:43:50.840 --> 01:43:55.439 a fireman in this job? You can be a fireman you find, like 1590 01:43:55.520 --> 01:43:58.119 you said, you find your way to a place, and you'll be there. 1591 01:43:58.520 --> 01:44:00.479 If you get to a place and you're content, don't want to do 1592 01:44:00.520 --> 01:44:02.479 ship, well, you could be a load too. And and say you're 1593 01:44:02.479 --> 01:44:04.479 a fireman at a bar and do whatever the hell you want to do. 1594 01:44:04.840 --> 01:44:08.159 I says, but like you said, you want to be a fireman. 1595 01:44:08.720 --> 01:44:12.760 You could be a fireman and you will find the work. You will find 1596 01:44:12.760 --> 01:44:15.640 the work exactly. And and one kid say, one kid says to me, 1597 01:44:15.760 --> 01:44:17.920 goes, how can you say that? I go, I'm telling you 1598 01:44:18.159 --> 01:44:23.279 because some people in my class never became fireman either. They found a place 1599 01:44:23.279 --> 01:44:30.399 where they got comfortable and never moved. I says, what, it's a 1600 01:44:30.439 --> 01:44:33.000 safe for every ass. There's places that need you know, slow houses, 1601 01:44:33.039 --> 01:44:39.600 you need a guy there will need figgs too, Danny, that's why judge 1602 01:44:39.600 --> 01:44:45.079 sales. Listen, whatever you want out of the job, right. But 1603 01:44:45.239 --> 01:44:47.720 I you know, I just got a couple of emails from a couple of 1604 01:44:47.800 --> 01:44:50.800 kids, uh, within the last week. One of the guys, I 1605 01:44:50.840 --> 01:44:54.960 think he said he was from Ohio's he's in the FDNY academy and he wants 1606 01:44:55.000 --> 01:44:57.600 to know what he should do. He wants to go here. And I 1607 01:44:57.640 --> 01:44:59.960 said, listen, you got to be in the top ten percent, probably 1608 01:45:00.239 --> 01:45:03.159 fifteen percent of that class if you don't have a hook to try and be 1609 01:45:03.239 --> 01:45:06.000 able to get to a division that you want to go to. But in 1610 01:45:06.119 --> 01:45:12.439 the end, if you don't, you just have to make the noise. 1611 01:45:12.520 --> 01:45:15.279 You're going to get that. But you can you cannot, like you said, 1612 01:45:15.359 --> 01:45:18.520 be content. It has to be on your mind all the time. 1613 01:45:19.199 --> 01:45:23.159 You you know, you're practicing all the time, you're you're working at the 1614 01:45:23.199 --> 01:45:27.680 firehouse, even if it's slow all the time, and then you go on 1615 01:45:28.000 --> 01:45:30.600 interviews, you talk to people, and they're going to know that you have 1616 01:45:30.720 --> 01:45:33.520 to get out of there. I think they're worth anything. How many people 1617 01:45:33.560 --> 01:45:35.239 have you said, listen, man, you got to get the fuck out 1618 01:45:35.279 --> 01:45:38.720 of here. You know, to die here, you know. I told 1619 01:45:38.760 --> 01:45:41.319 I mean, we were a couple of the chiefs that we used to work 1620 01:45:41.319 --> 01:45:45.960 in downtown because clas squadify enough to get putting in Downtown's district, which some 1621 01:45:45.079 --> 01:45:47.640 of the downtown companies don't do nothing right. So I tell these kids, 1622 01:45:47.680 --> 01:45:50.119 when I'll go to squad one, if you take a detail of squad one, 1623 01:45:50.119 --> 01:45:53.319 I say, listen, man, tell the chief you want to get 1624 01:45:53.359 --> 01:45:56.079 detailed. Get the fuck out of here. You're sitting here on the couch 1625 01:45:56.920 --> 01:45:59.000 talking about what you want to do, but you ain't doing nothing about it. 1626 01:45:59.039 --> 01:46:01.800 I go every answer, order, put in, put in. Eventually 1627 01:46:01.840 --> 01:46:05.079 you're gonna get something. And it happened to my neighbor's son right right over 1628 01:46:05.119 --> 01:46:09.600 here. He was he got putting one of the worst I'm not gonna say, 1629 01:46:09.640 --> 01:46:13.760 well company yeah in the city, and he was stuck there. I 1630 01:46:13.800 --> 01:46:15.920 go, listen, just keep putting in. I call me, tell me 1631 01:46:15.960 --> 01:46:18.880 what's on the vacancy I'll tell you what you got a shot at. Sure 1632 01:46:19.000 --> 01:46:23.199 enough, he slowly got out of downtown. Now he's at a busy truck 1633 01:46:23.239 --> 01:46:25.720 company. Took him five years, but he's there. And you know what 1634 01:46:25.760 --> 01:46:27.199 he told me. He called me the other day he says, you know 1635 01:46:27.239 --> 01:46:30.239 what you were right? I love it here I go. I told you 1636 01:46:30.399 --> 01:46:33.640 there's there's When you get to a good firehouse, you'll fucking know it. 1637 01:46:33.840 --> 01:46:38.880 You know what I mean, Right, If you do the right thing, 1638 01:46:39.159 --> 01:46:42.880 maybe somebody notices it. Yeah, and they'll they'll they'll make a call for 1639 01:46:42.960 --> 01:46:44.640 you. If they see that, you know, they'll say, hey, 1640 01:46:45.079 --> 01:46:46.600 I can help you. Got to get out of here, vouch for you. 1641 01:46:47.000 --> 01:46:50.560 Right. Some kid is like, you know, comes up there, 1642 01:46:50.560 --> 01:46:53.479 you say, hey, hey boss, so you know I'm looking. I 1643 01:46:53.479 --> 01:46:55.479 want to try and get over here. I'm like, listen, man, 1644 01:46:55.840 --> 01:46:58.720 you need a lot more work. You better start getting your game up because 1645 01:46:59.119 --> 01:47:01.159 I'm not value for you. We go over there and vice versa. If 1646 01:47:01.199 --> 01:47:03.760 I know that a kid is worth, he's got to get out of here 1647 01:47:03.800 --> 01:47:08.319 because he's he's going to be good. You can see, yeah, you 1648 01:47:08.439 --> 01:47:11.239 know, you know you want to He's got to get out of there right. 1649 01:47:13.239 --> 01:47:16.439 Unfortunately, honesty is good honesty. Man. Unfortunately, in the city 1650 01:47:16.439 --> 01:47:21.079 of Chicago, twenty percent of the fire department works and the rest of it's 1651 01:47:21.720 --> 01:47:25.039 what it is, you know what I'm saying. That's when we say that 1652 01:47:25.159 --> 01:47:33.000 all the time because it's less. Yeah, is extraordinary. We got about 1653 01:47:33.039 --> 01:47:38.079 eighty percent ordinary, and like ten percent really suck. So it's about you 1654 01:47:38.159 --> 01:47:41.840 know, we only got about ten percent that really are like extraordinary guys that 1655 01:47:41.880 --> 01:47:44.560 you're like, holy shit, those are the guys who try to get on 1656 01:47:44.600 --> 01:47:49.359 the show. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's unfortunate that some some 1657 01:47:49.520 --> 01:47:51.680 day some fire house just staying busy. It's just the way it is. 1658 01:47:53.079 --> 01:47:56.479 But like you said, you find a way if you want to listen, 1659 01:47:56.560 --> 01:48:00.359 name of the busy places that were historically busy, even in New York are 1660 01:48:00.880 --> 01:48:03.199 not as busy, you know what I mean. So, I mean, 1661 01:48:03.239 --> 01:48:05.680 if you're going to go somewhere, you still have to go there because that's 1662 01:48:05.720 --> 01:48:10.640 where there's more work. But it's not like it, you know, anything 1663 01:48:10.680 --> 01:48:12.560 close to what it was. And you know what the other thing is, 1664 01:48:12.720 --> 01:48:16.840 you have to you can't let the other guys eat you down to conframe to 1665 01:48:16.920 --> 01:48:20.119 them. Because when I was in thirty nine or sixteen. I used to 1666 01:48:20.600 --> 01:48:24.960 repack the life saving rope for the engine and the truck, and the guys 1667 01:48:25.039 --> 01:48:26.960 used to make fun of me all the time. Oh oh yeah, the 1668 01:48:27.079 --> 01:48:30.640 edgines for I wouldn't doing the engines for or I cleaned the tools on both 1669 01:48:30.720 --> 01:48:32.680 rigs. And the captain of the truck saw that, and he's the one 1670 01:48:32.720 --> 01:48:35.000 who got me over to the squad. Saw what I was doing. I 1671 01:48:35.039 --> 01:48:39.159 would sit down on every drill engine and the truck, and he got me 1672 01:48:39.239 --> 01:48:42.039 over to the squad because he saw that I was. I was looking for 1673 01:48:42.119 --> 01:48:45.199 something else. Don't let the don't let the guy fucking beat you out, 1674 01:48:45.199 --> 01:48:46.960 because they'll make fun of you. They'll try to press you and to not 1675 01:48:47.079 --> 01:48:49.760 doing anything. You know. Yeah, they'll say, hey, what do 1676 01:48:49.760 --> 01:48:53.039 you want to leave here for? We got it made here or some bullshit. 1677 01:48:53.239 --> 01:48:56.199 Yeah yeah, oh. People take it personal when you We say that 1678 01:48:56.319 --> 01:48:59.039 all the time. Like, you know, if somebody put a transferring, 1679 01:48:59.079 --> 01:49:00.680 you would be like what the hell? Like yeah, right right right, 1680 01:49:00.960 --> 01:49:02.680 I mean you're like, why why are you leaving? I go? Well, 1681 01:49:02.960 --> 01:49:06.319 ships slowing down? I mean I was in four neighborhoods that slowly got 1682 01:49:08.039 --> 01:49:12.000 you know what I mean getting slowly. You got to follow the fires man. 1683 01:49:12.239 --> 01:49:15.560 Whatever. Bill my lieutenant Patty Lee from once seventeen when I was a 1684 01:49:15.640 --> 01:49:19.319 proby, he just wrote, we were over quoted with a Talian, so 1685 01:49:19.399 --> 01:49:21.439 we had to let them go. I was said, for a minute, 1686 01:49:24.399 --> 01:49:27.479 I always gotta throw that one hooking man. You know, he's got that 1687 01:49:27.640 --> 01:49:32.520 one. Haymakers a bitch. I think he got me grouped in with the 1688 01:49:32.600 --> 01:49:35.760 mother Ginzos. That's the problem. You got me. He's got me grouped 1689 01:49:35.760 --> 01:49:39.439 in there. Well you were probly Ginzos, I know, but no, 1690 01:49:39.960 --> 01:49:43.800 you know, I'm just saying it's still it's still. I mean, it's 1691 01:49:43.800 --> 01:49:47.039 still like uh, once you get once you get a good firehouse, it's 1692 01:49:47.159 --> 01:49:50.600 just like it's like, I'm not every firehouse I went to, I'm thinking 1693 01:49:50.640 --> 01:49:56.000 I'm never leaving here, and then the neighborhood changes and it starts getting up 1694 01:49:56.079 --> 01:50:00.119 a fight or whatever, and then next thing you know, you got to 1695 01:50:00.159 --> 01:50:02.319 go to this place that's where shit's happening, you know, I mean, 1696 01:50:02.359 --> 01:50:05.760 I slowly. I don't believe for the first firehouse I went to, which 1697 01:50:06.119 --> 01:50:10.319 that was only one on the west side, everything after that was only within 1698 01:50:10.399 --> 01:50:12.840 a mile of where I was at you know what I'm saying. I never 1699 01:50:13.000 --> 01:50:18.800 went out of that three or four the Band of Ginzo's, the Band of 1700 01:50:18.880 --> 01:50:28.399 Brothers. Nice. Nice. You wind up retiring two thousand and twenty one. 1701 01:50:28.880 --> 01:50:31.000 Yeah. Wow, it don't suck, though, Bill, right. 1702 01:50:31.079 --> 01:50:33.680 I mean, obviously it don't suck being retired. Oh it doesn't suck. 1703 01:50:33.880 --> 01:50:36.520 Yeah, I mean, I yeah, that was my walkout right there, 1704 01:50:38.159 --> 01:50:41.680 because the last time I walked I went on Ashland Abby for a while. 1705 01:50:41.960 --> 01:50:45.520 So anyway, you know, it wasn't bad. I mean I was getting 1706 01:50:45.079 --> 01:50:49.119 so at the point that I left Squad five, the whole squad was in 1707 01:50:49.199 --> 01:50:55.159 their fifties. You fucking believe that. I mean it was crazy. I 1708 01:50:55.279 --> 01:50:57.359 mean I'm thinking. I looked at it. I told the guys one time 1709 01:50:57.359 --> 01:51:00.279 in the kitchen table, I go, do you realize it's like one or 1710 01:51:00.319 --> 01:51:02.680 two guys here in their late forties. We're all in our fifties. I 1711 01:51:02.760 --> 01:51:05.840 mean, one Billy Monica who just got promoted. That's why he left. 1712 01:51:06.159 --> 01:51:11.960 He's getting forced off the job. He was sixty at the time. I 1713 01:51:12.039 --> 01:51:15.159 mean it was I mean, that's insane. I'm thinking to myself, we're 1714 01:51:15.199 --> 01:51:18.119 going to sometimes two three fires at night, getting our asses whooped, and 1715 01:51:18.239 --> 01:51:21.319 I'm thinking, we're all in our fucking fifty and we're still doing this crazy 1716 01:51:21.359 --> 01:51:25.840 shit. You know, that's how much you love it. You don't want 1717 01:51:25.880 --> 01:51:28.720 to leave. You know what made you want to pack it? And then 1718 01:51:28.760 --> 01:51:31.000 what was the determine? In thirty five years, my knees were killing me, 1719 01:51:31.520 --> 01:51:35.239 and one was really bad. I mean I felt to me, I 1720 01:51:35.279 --> 01:51:39.800 felt like I was really getting really getting slow. I mean, I was 1721 01:51:40.119 --> 01:51:42.560 still doing the job, but man, I could feel it. I mean 1722 01:51:42.720 --> 01:51:45.720 I was living off ibuprofien, you know what I mean. I was every 1723 01:51:45.800 --> 01:51:47.319 fire. I was taking eight hundreds, man, just so like, you 1724 01:51:47.399 --> 01:51:51.359 know, just stop some of the paint and shit. But i mean thirty 1725 01:51:51.399 --> 01:51:54.640 five years and like I said, my guys, a couple a lot of 1726 01:51:54.680 --> 01:51:58.560 my guys were leaving and got promoted. So it was it was time. 1727 01:51:58.840 --> 01:52:01.920 I mean, I mean what else. It was just it was just that 1728 01:52:02.079 --> 01:52:05.119 time. You know, when it's time, it's time. Bill and then 1729 01:52:05.960 --> 01:52:10.159 pat My was my chief. He retired year before me. I was supposed 1730 01:52:10.159 --> 01:52:12.840 to go that year and I am hanging. They talked me to stay in 1731 01:52:12.880 --> 01:52:15.439 a year and I'm like, then they tried talking to anywhere again. I'm 1732 01:52:15.479 --> 01:52:17.239 like listen, man, it's time. Man. I still want to do 1733 01:52:17.359 --> 01:52:19.159 things. I still want to be able to walk and do things, you 1734 01:52:19.199 --> 01:52:24.279 know. Right. So, but then my wife was on me a little 1735 01:52:24.279 --> 01:52:27.079 bit time for you to go, you know. And the last year I 1736 01:52:27.159 --> 01:52:30.239 got my hand smashed. You know, I got a guy drop a window 1737 01:52:30.279 --> 01:52:32.840 from the second floor on my head. I'm like, this is a sign 1738 01:52:32.920 --> 01:52:39.119 man, you know what I mean? Speaking of time, you know what 1739 01:52:39.199 --> 01:52:41.680 time and it's gone. I think I know what time it is. You 1740 01:52:41.720 --> 01:52:49.000 know what time it is. Time, it's time for of the day. 1741 01:52:53.239 --> 01:52:57.039 My old school tip is my last year on a job, we had three 1742 01:52:57.079 --> 01:53:00.239 may days. When you're in a fireman, stay with your friend ends, 1743 01:53:00.399 --> 01:53:02.760 stay with your partners, and know where you're at in the building. That's 1744 01:53:02.920 --> 01:53:08.560 my tip of the day. Sweeks short and to the point, excellent, 1745 01:53:09.399 --> 01:53:12.720 Phil. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you in your career. Get over the 1746 01:53:12.800 --> 01:53:19.119 refrigerator. Get yeah, son of a bitch, did you check that refrigerator 1747 01:53:19.199 --> 01:53:27.239 face? Oh man, You'll never forget that refrigerator, no way. Uh. 1748 01:53:28.079 --> 01:53:30.439 I enjoyed the show. They were right, you live. You guys 1749 01:53:30.439 --> 01:53:35.000 are all the same Korea. You guys are all the same. All of 1750 01:53:35.039 --> 01:53:40.479 them, every one of them is almost exactly the same. You can listen 1751 01:53:40.520 --> 01:53:43.279 to. Yeah, I said, I couldn't ask for a better career. 1752 01:53:43.359 --> 01:53:46.119 Man. The guys I worked with unbelievable. Man, nobody that I ever 1753 01:53:46.640 --> 01:53:49.920 ever looked at that I worked with, saying oh, he shouldn't be here. 1754 01:53:50.159 --> 01:53:53.319 These guys are all good guys. I mean I didn't, Like I 1755 01:53:53.359 --> 01:53:56.920 said, I stayed in a busy area my whole career and worked with a 1756 01:53:56.960 --> 01:53:59.239 lot of the same guys for probably thirty years. Some of the guys you 1757 01:53:59.279 --> 01:54:01.119 know, and yeah, here and there, wherever you switch companies, whatever, 1758 01:54:01.239 --> 01:54:05.079 but you knew all the guys you know, So now enjoy collecting your 1759 01:54:05.119 --> 01:54:09.479 pension with that beautiful wife you We just got to keep waking up now, 1760 01:54:09.560 --> 01:54:14.239 baby. That's every morning I go for my checks. And that's one thing 1761 01:54:14.319 --> 01:54:16.640 I do. You know. We got to check the cancer bullshit and trying 1762 01:54:16.640 --> 01:54:23.680 to stay on top of that ship and get and and you know, and 1763 01:54:23.800 --> 01:54:25.840 like I said, I missed the guys. I don't know if I missed 1764 01:54:25.880 --> 01:54:29.439 the circus, but I missed the clowns. You know, the game. 1765 01:54:29.520 --> 01:54:30.720 I have to say, me and Koobs are lucky because we get to do 1766 01:54:30.840 --> 01:54:34.680 this and it kind of really keeps us tied into a lot of the job. 1767 01:54:34.840 --> 01:54:38.359 So when you know, I'm always like a you know the time. 1768 01:54:38.439 --> 01:54:41.000 It's great. I don't really miss it, yeah, because I'm doing this 1769 01:54:41.319 --> 01:54:45.520 with fine and every you know, every week about the job all the time, 1770 01:54:45.600 --> 01:54:46.600 you know. Yeah, you guys, you guys do a good job. 1771 01:54:46.640 --> 01:54:55.760 I like it. Man. It's night and day. They're always firemen 1772 01:55:00.079 --> 01:55:03.680 game tonight, bro Gonzo like his hat tonight though. It's something going on 1773 01:55:03.720 --> 01:55:06.000 with the hand. Yeah, it's little. There's a little you don't got 1774 01:55:06.039 --> 01:55:10.600 no product in it, very low. It's got a little something going on, 1775 01:55:12.000 --> 01:55:14.319 all right. So who do we got on Monday? Brough, I 1776 01:55:14.319 --> 01:55:18.560 don't even look Thursday. You guys having me on, man, Bill. 1777 01:55:18.640 --> 01:55:24.319 I really enjoyed it, man, Dennis, it was fun. You havens 1778 01:55:25.479 --> 01:55:27.800 out there to watch it. Listen, Man, you guys keep it up. 1779 01:55:27.840 --> 01:55:30.039 Man, you guys doing a good job. I don't know if you're 1780 01:55:30.079 --> 01:55:32.720 in uh you ever make you wait in New York. But in August we 1781 01:55:32.800 --> 01:55:35.520 have a for all the guests we had on for the year. We have 1782 01:55:35.600 --> 01:55:39.960 a boat ride on a fireboat around the Statue of Liberty. No ship. 1783 01:55:40.319 --> 01:55:43.600 Yeah, man, So often I don't suck now. Good. Yeah, 1784 01:55:43.920 --> 01:55:45.920 I want to come there anyway. I want to see I want to see 1785 01:55:45.920 --> 01:55:48.319 the memorial. Don't don't worry about bringing your wife too. She's invited as 1786 01:55:48.319 --> 01:56:00.359 well. You know that's not the love, just got it. You gotta 1787 01:56:00.359 --> 01:56:02.439 take a newspaper and just smack them coops, you know. No, it's 1788 01:56:02.479 --> 01:56:06.279 every once in a while, that's all. Let me know about that. 1789 01:56:09.319 --> 01:56:11.920 Eves will go out. I have your email, so the evites will go 1790 01:56:12.000 --> 01:56:16.119 out. Okay, the guys keep. Some young kids are gonna learn some 1791 01:56:16.199 --> 01:56:19.960 ship. Yeah, Sunday, August fourth, then okay, he shout any 1792 01:56:20.000 --> 01:56:24.319 shout outs rough, ah, shut up the guys. There's a couple of 1793 01:56:24.319 --> 01:56:26.840 New York guys down here. My buddy Terry mcpol and he's down there. 1794 01:56:27.039 --> 01:56:30.560 A couple of New York guys are down there listening all this. Shout out 1795 01:56:30.560 --> 01:56:32.319 to my young gun buddies. At forty five, they're all retired now. 1796 01:56:34.319 --> 01:56:39.439 Shout out to all the guys I worked with man Squad five truck twenty eighty 1797 01:56:39.520 --> 01:56:42.560 four. I mean, had a great career. Man, I couldn't ask 1798 01:56:42.600 --> 01:56:45.079 for anything better. I don't think you call him young guns anymore. You 1799 01:56:45.159 --> 01:56:47.000 have to mind might have to talk. Yeah, rusty pistols might be more 1800 01:56:47.119 --> 01:56:53.239 like. We hear that. We hear that a lot. Now, all 1801 01:56:53.319 --> 01:56:56.319 right, gods, what about you any shout outs, No, sir, 1802 01:56:56.439 --> 01:56:59.079 I do not at the time. No, the next time, put a 1803 01:56:59.079 --> 01:57:00.439 little soul blow on that. Well, yeah, you got them. So 1804 01:57:02.800 --> 01:57:05.079 maybe I need to get a haircut. I don't know. I'll figure it 1805 01:57:05.119 --> 01:57:09.319 out. Maybe it's the angle of the camera. Just because I don't know, 1806 01:57:09.359 --> 01:57:12.880 I'm blaming something other than my head job. All right, all right, 1807 01:57:12.920 --> 01:57:15.279 boys, I appreciate it. Man, be safe out there. Don't 1808 01:57:15.359 --> 01:57:18.039 hang up yet. All right, guys, we will see you on Thursday. 1809 01:57:18.159 --> 01:57:23.199 Until then, stay low and go right. All right, thanks again, 1810 01:57:23.199 --> 01:57:25.319 we'll see it the big one everybody. Thanks guys. All right, 1811 01:57:25.399 --> 01:57:27.079 guys up. Sounds like work.