Disclaimer. We'd like to know before the start of this interview that the opinions
about to be expressed by the guest of tonight's Getting Salty Experience Podcast are that
of the guest and do not directly or necessarily reflect the views of the host
of the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast.
Hello, Hello, Susie's back in town. Welcome back to Get Salty
Experience Podcast. It's the only one that brings the fly out kitchen table with
Louis and a golf shirt to you. Make it to you right, I
read go to the kitchen table. Yeah, I do to that on the
left. Uh, not so good today? You know what's not so good?
It's probably like, will be a game for me? What's not so
good? Yesterday? I shot seventy nine believe it or not. Yeah,
trying to tried to have to gilmore that ship. That's what happened. Not
that I didn't play so well today. What's not so well? I shot
like eighty eight today. That's bad. Wow. Yeah, I'll get this
out of the way God, because we suck again. Which what are we
getting out of the way? Because I'm very we got more stuff out of
the way. The Rangers. My friend here, I know, I don't
even know. I'm getting over clumped here. It's getting I wrote a song
for him, No, come on, not in the song did. It's
gonna take a few minutes a loon and so let me get it going.
You're ready. But my heart broke for my best friend over there the other
day, just him Procaccini, just the stream of tears coming down my face
was just my wat's what's the matter when happened? Somebody die? I'm like,
rage just died. Wasn't going good? I wasn't alwayn't doing good.
No, No, I was watching a little bit of game too. I
gotta I was like, oh, man is not happy right now? Away
from the light, little buddy. Don't like a second goal? It was
too nothing. I was like, oh god, loose throw shoot at the
TV. So we're going back and bought on the text do you have I
gotta go see a doctor. I got to go see a doctor. Rangers
one last night they beat the Penguin. A great performance to by the way,
bring nothing, shut out, control the whole game, the entire nobody
can. I love arguing, but I find that hysterical play the rest of
many. If you loves it, nobody cares about that the guy. Rather
hear my talking about jockey hockey, ant you did this maims what nobody cared?
The Rangers a dreable nobody cared hot turns and downs. Then I hear
hocky it is a down ride. Rather hear my youing a line of bores
and John no choice. When I hear your voice feel like drowning. I
think we got the poison. It was tough. It was tough, man.
Yeah, I knew your brother was gonna text me. I call them
roof. Don't text you on the island is lose. I don't text them.
I know. I said. All my cousins were texting me like breaking
my chops, and I was set, and I sent them like one of
those little memes where this little kid is like he's like this, He's like,
I'm fine, I'm fine, and then he goes he stucks like crying
in his hands. Oh h ship, all right, just what I've been
saying. I know, how many times, Oh yeah, next year,
don't worry about it, We're good. How many times can a New York
fans say that in every sport. I mean, come on, it's enough.
I don't know, Oh man, I don't know. It was rough.
It was rough. We had do we put the Panthers logo on all
of our rigs. I was waiting for you to send me something. I
don't know if I'll find one, and I'll rub it in a little bit
later if they go any further. But you know, like I said,
we put on I mean, I hope this. I hope that they shut
down McDavid like they shut down Panarin. But at least I don't know what
he's saying. There's some hockey players have corucials. So we get built Billy
the brain. Heenan in you Billy the brain. All right, we're gonna
listen to mister Vince. Stand by. Here we go. Armor Tough firehouse
flooring was recently installed in Station number seven, the newest of the Dacab County
fire stations in Decatur, Georgia. Meeting Deputy Chief Smith of Support Services,
Vince explained that Armor Tough interlocking flooring is the only floor that is tough enough
to withstand the abuse of fire apparatus along with fire personnel at a very big
station. Chief Smith explained the flooring in all of our stations over the years
gave us multiple problems. We need a floor that can last as long as
the walls and the roof. That's why we chose Armor Tough. The installation
team came from New Jersey and in three days they had completed their work without
any disruption to our daily operations. We were very impressed with not only the
product, but with the workmanship as well. I highly recommend Armour Tough for
your station's floor. Call Vince today for a no obligation quote at nine oh
eight nine one seven seven six nine seven. All right, quickly, let's
play the salty Wire and then we'll bring them in here. Absolutely we go.
The fire Wire app is the go to resource for all news and incidents
in the fire in emergency services. The mobile app is here and available for
download. This long awaited update addresses a handful of concerns in regard to intermittent
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our users with the most accurate and on time information regarding emergency incidents, news
and knowledge on all things fire and emergency services. Our newest edition, in
partnership with a Gatting Salty Experience, brings you salty Wire, where you can
view never before seen premium content from lew and Kobe's and exclusive segments in various
categories. Subscribe today on saltywire dot com. Let's go get out the rescue.
Drop the first part of the rescue. There's three more coming, three
mores, three more coming. The fire Patrol documentary. Don't want to miss
it. Get on the pro Kaccini, stop alligator on and off, and
get the apple your chief best. I've already got a lot of little birdiees
chirping about this next guy. And when I say little, I mean little
like Crooker. He was chirping, the little guy, the little he was
chirping in my ear. I don't think we've had a guy on that's above
five six from Chicago yet, have we. I don't know how to old
Bill is about. Have to find that out. I wonder if you have
this Uh yeah, it was tiny uh and who else moo, Timothy.
Yeah, they're all like on the five to six. We're gonna ask Bill
if you ever had to say this, we'll have to find out as ship
never gets old, man never get old. We ago. You could see
him shaken too. He's got the little shaky yeah, yeah, you know,
you get the face going the lips. Yeah, he's got the fake
I think that that looked like you and you had the remote your hand the
other day when the Rangers were losing. I was in a better mood.
I'm sorry until until three minutes ago. Yeah, let's bring in Misty.
Let's get him in here. Let's do that. You guys ready, oh
all right, coming to the stage. A lot of phone calls on this
guy, he said, this is exactly. Not only did he talk to
talk, but that man walked the walk real hard charger. Did they say
anything like mister h sorry, here we go right. One of them was
the best firefighter I ever saw. Missus there he is, look at him.
The goat got for the goat, waiting years for that wall. Sound
the same to my way. I am a hockey hockey fan, Yeah,
yep, all right, yeah, well we got a three Stanley cups.
I know, okay, how about you? We got three three and four,
got right out your rope. He's gonna throw that right your mush as
soon as it comes on. I'm a Ranger fans who I was rooting for
him, Dallas, go at it. Keyword was was you know what the
Jakes is right, it's that stupid whatever at the beginning, the trophy,
the touch the president's trophe. Can't touch the president's trophy, ron loser.
I'll get patriotic. And then we get into mister Heenan's career. Hit man,
hit man. Oh, you went too soon for that. The word,
by the way, we'll do that man, so we can re that's
it. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to drink. We got a
little early. But then that's so then we get to our patriotic Here we
go. I pleasure allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands, One nation under God, indivisible with
liberty and justice for all. H Kevin Malone wants to know if you're staying
at a what do you say, Holly, It's funny. I talked to
the game the other day, by the way, just to quickly he called
me because he's going to Manhattan to the garden. He wants to know,
is it faith there the train? I'm like, well you for China,
I think you were a marine, and me if it's safe in your subway?
Holy ship, what happened to the Hourah guy? I smell, I
smelled something. I spelled something right, it's called gay. Come let me
get it. Give you a little smack for that. Quick up. Not
bad of it? Ship together, fox, All right, let's go back.
Let's let's rewind. Let's go back to oh ship. We got a
time whin the breath hold on man way too, so I am told.
And all three the other guys say, five eight five million, nice Timothy
ain't definitely ain't of a five six. That's a good man there. No,
they're all listen. Every one of those guys we've had on here,
one better than the next. I cannot. I'll tell you that. All
three good chiefs man, all three of them. Legit, dude. I
couldn't. I couldn't. I don't think I could have had been been as
lucky as I was to work with the guys I did, and my career
was phenomenal. I mean I didn't think it was. I didn't know what
was going to go that way. But at the end of it, I
mean, and even people tell me, man, you you were involving some
crazy ship and and I'd love to hear about that. Let's hear about the
crazy it was. I mean, I just I was in the right place
at the right time sometimes and sometimes in the wrong place a wrong time,
you know. But I mean the guys I worked with always the best man
and I never left the the ghetto or I never left the tough area my
whole career. I mean, it was just I got lucky coming out of
the academy. I went to the West Side, and uh it just from
there just everything went good. I mean the fine lucky yeah, yeah,
exactly, the fine lucky before. Yeah, I know what you're saying,
right well, you want to buy house? Didn't, but it got me
to a good house. But the promotion was overrated. It was good,
man. I mean, I wouldn't have changed the thing, that's how good
it was. I gotta tell you three guys, and they have a common
team. They all chase fire from company to company. Bro right, Yeah,
I mean, you know, west Side was good and then they then
the yuppies started taking over the west Side and then breaking always the freaking hipsters
hips, the yuppies bro the ruined a lot of ships. Yeah, they
killed the black pushing it. They started rehabbing ship buying seven dollar copies.
That's how it starts downhill from there, Bill, that's correct. Go back,
though, go back to Bill, Bill the youngster, Like where did
you grow up? Give us a little about the family, brothers and sister's
dad. What makes you want to be on the job? All that could
ship? Well, I grew up in a city my whole life. My
dad worked, my mom didn't. We had three boys, so he worked
his ass off and we went to public school. There was no private school.
Shit, you know what I mean, There was no money. So
but I know, graduating from high school and there was no college. My
college talk lasted about thirteen seconds. He goes, you're full time now at
the dock. So I started working on the dock with my dad. He
was a truck driver, and I learned how to drive a truck right away,
and then got a job driving a truck. Actually first, when I
was eighteen, I was driving a semi and then took the test right right
around I think I was twenty one, when I took the test twenty or
twenty one, got called at twenty two, which was unbelievable because I couldn't
believe I got called. And then who stage it told the test stage to
the pile itself, Well, I mean check this out. So a friend
of mine, he's like, hey, listen, they're giving a fire and
police test out. He says, we might want to go take these tests,
you know, because we're not going to college, so this is probably
the best next thing to go, you know. So I took the police
test first, that waiting, waiting on that a little bit, and took
the fire test second, and lo and behold. Out of twenty thousand guys
at the time, I finished like four hundred and twenty ninth. Wow,
I thought it was a typo. When I got the letter, I thought
they're missing they're missing a digit here, you know. It's I thought it
was like four thousands. You know. So did your buddy get called?
Yeah, he got called eight years later? What Yeah? Yeah, As
a matter of fact, he was by today. That guy was by by
house today. Bill. That's like the common thing, man, that that
guys take the job like this, like they just out of the blue,
somebody says, heyah, take this test. You know, they have no
idea next thing. You know, they have this incredible career. And actually
I thought my A lot of my family were coppers. So they're like,
oh, yeah, we want you to be in the copper and you know,
and uh yeah, okay, help Yeah I want to be a cop
too. And then I was the first of my family to be a fireman,
and then a couple of cousins after that got called. But I mean
I was the first one in my family to be fireman. Believe me,
it was the best. They cops called me like four years later and they're
like, you want the job. I'm like, even the cop told me,
he goes, you got the best job in the world. No,
I go, no, I don't want that job. I also have too
much fun. Sorry, yeah, you really had no idea about the fire
department. No, I had no. I had no none of my none
of my none of my relatives or firemen. I mean I was the first
one in my whole family, and he really had like no idea what you
were doing. I had no idea what to expect or anything. I just
knew it was a good job. And everybody told me when I got called.
He was, oh, man, you're so lucky, and I'm like,
yeah, I'm pumped. I'm like dumb. Then I got an academy,
you know, and I was like, the guys that I met that
I came out with an academy actually ended up being probably twenty five percent of
the guys I end up working with my whole life. It was kind of
crazy. It was just everybody. And when they gave that test back in
eighty five whatever, it was everybody that got out of my class was one
sixty five and no taller than six foot because you had to hang from a
bar as long as you could, they time John, So all us little
spider monk, the big guys couldn't do it. Yeah. Also the spider
monkeys hung out the little guys baby, yeah right, yeah, guy guys,
the little guys and the short guys. Yeah right. It was That's
how it ended up being all the same you know, same size guys,
and they were all in good shape and we were all like we could hang
forever. So that's how it ended up being, you know, And then
we went through the academy, and back then the academy was only three and
a half months now, it's like almost a year. I mean, but
yeah, they want you to be they want you to be an A m
T. They want you to be this, they want you to be that.
And so I don't know, So I guess said. I went through
the academy, got out passed the firefighter too and all the other stuff,
and ended up going to the West Side. And that's where I end up
working with Timothy. He was on the West Side. And uh so,
how did you do that? Was that all? Luck? How that happened?
You know what? I Back then, by the time the academy was
over, the chiefs at Randy Academy, they would throw a list out of
the guys that they thought were you know, hey, this guy's gonna work
out, you know what I mean. That's kind of how it was,
I thought back then. I don't know for sure that's how it went,
but I'm sure that's the way it was going. Because all the guys that
mustered are as the academy, all with the good companies. How many guys
that were a little bit of a dog ass they didn't go you know what
I mean? How many guys in your class? Bill? Yeah, yeah,
it was I mean all the guys there was one hundred and one hundred
and three. You were taking a hundred times they we always keep three in
case three failed out or three quid whatever. They tried to get a hundred
every time they did it. You know. But what year was this?
Eighty eighty seven? Eight seven? Yeah? Right, wow? It was
walking out your shams the baron shirt going yeah on that Koobi man. Oh
right, you were to get coming on to twenty two with a bunch of
other guys. It was great. I mean yeah, it was yeah,
it was there. He yes, you did. You know what? So
you went to where where was the first place she went? And they a
single house, double house, single house? Were a chief running out of
an amble and uh, I end up working. My captain was Big Bill
Kosski. His brother was a coach of Duke remember well he just retired as
a coach of Duke basketball. Yeah, brother, his brother was my captain.
It looked just like John Wayne was this a big dude. Was a
hell of fireman, and I mean little intimidating. Yeah, he was yeah,
intimate, very intimate. He had fucking hands like baseball mites, you
know what I mean. I mean always the big hands guys. Yeah,
it was so he was like he goes, yeah, he goes, he
goes, either you're going to be a fireman or not, I'll like it.
And he goes, I'll like you know, So I stayed. I
stayed there with him and I fin finished out my year probation whatever they want
to call it, and uh stayed there. Tek you to catch your first
job there, Bill. I think it was like the second it was like
the second day it worked. I mean I was They put me in the
middle of uh he like a sucking up guy. And after after about two
or three fires that we had, and then put me on a hydroent for
a while. And I was not an engine company, so and then I
ended up on it. Then he liked me a lot, and he's like,
I'm putting on the fucking pipe and I'm like, I'm all in,
you know what I mean. A couple of the other guys that were there
for a little while we're kind of fisted off at me, but I mean
he didn't care. He's like, listen, I like the way you're work.
And he goes, he goes, this is what we're gonna do.
And we did that for a while, and I loved it. Man,
I was. I was kind of like, uh, I was, I'm
like ging, and I'm thinking myself, the pipe guys, where it's at,
Man, you know what I mean. You're in there, You're the
first guy. It's you're in control of what's going on. You know.
I didn't think it was any kind of a better job than that, you
know, And so that's why I stayed on an engine. And then that
area about three years later, four years later, started to slow it down,
you know, and I'm like, hi, and then they would burning
big time on the south side, and a couple of guys from my academy
class are like, hey, listen, you gotta come south, you know
what I mean. There's a couple of openings, a couple of guys are
leaving or they're retiring, and so I put in and I put it.
Actually Mike Timothy talked, I was talked to him, and a couple other
guys are like, hey, put in for engine for ninety Engine ninety five
at that time was really hard to get and I'd had more time at a
job, so that was my first choice. I didn't get and I truck
thirty six that was another basy company and I didn't get that one, and
then I ended up getting into forty five, which was definitely one of the
best boves of my life. I mean I was there with eight other guys
that were twenty two years old. I mean, it was the fucking best.
I mean, we were all hard, hard chargers. We had an
old captain and an older lieutenant and they loved us. Man, they called
those the young guns. We were. We were nuts. We didn't care,
you know, we just everybody's on the same page, right, Yeah,
everybody was on the same age, same page. Yeah. Everybody just
wanted to go to Fighters, man, it's all. It was like.
It reminded me of Animal House, you know what I mean. Everybody just
wanted to be there, you know what I mean. Every day I was
like I couldn't wait to do it to work. I mean, we we
fucked around all day. We jagged each other off all day, and it
was it was fucking each other off all day, I mean, just fucking
with each other. How many guys riding the engine back then? Bill,
we had five on the engine, uh, with your county officer, and
then we had five on the truck. That was a double house. We
had an amble with us that was it was truck fifteen inch and forty five
and and man, we were burning all kinds of ship. It was just
it was all the buildings. What kind of buildings you have over there?
We had everything over there. We had a little bit of high rises along
the lakefront, and then we had that's where I ended up making one of
a good rescue there. But and then we had big apartment buildings, like
big corner units, fifteen twenty unit apartment buildings. Then we did have some
frames stuck in there, so we had a little bit of everything. Man,
it was good, and we're not going to go to past that,
So let's roll back to the rescue that you made before. We just gloss
over that anybody. I'm on forty five. It was a cold night,
was I think it was January twenty sixth I believe. And we had these
high rises that weren't really projects, but there were low, low income high
rises. And we never really went there a whole lot because it was mostly
older people and we didn't get a lot of a lot of fires in that
area. But we had just drilled on that building because it was it was
on a dead end street. It was a ten story building and it was
backed up the railroad tracks. So we had gone to the drill just my
lieutenant wanted to make us familiar with the standpipes and where the hydroens were.
Because it was a dead ends street. It was only hydrants in certain areas.
So we had just drool in that building like two weeks before that,
and it was two o'clock in the morning, forty five mile hour winds.
I remember it was windy as fuck, and I was just gonna ask you
about the window over. The wind was right off the lake because this place
was literally three hundred yards from the lake. So although we're off the lake,
the wind, it was coming. So we get it as a still
and the other company that was supposed to be there still we were supposed to
be secking up, they got they were stuck at a hospital, check the
box, whatever. So we end up being a still company. So we're
going there and we're thinking that this is a bunch of bullshit. It's probably
meet on the stove or because that's usually what it is with these older people.
They fall asleep with shit on a store or whatever. We're driving there
and I remember We had an open cab, so it was cold as fuck.
We're all trying to get downside the cab, right and all of a
sudden, I just happened to get up and take a look, you know.
As we're going, I go, I go, shit, we got
a fire, you know. And they're like, shut up, sit down.
I go, no, I'm telling you, we got a fire,
you know what I mean. And I look up and it wasn't didn't look
like much like a little glow in the window, maybe a mattress or some
shit. But we didn't know that on the other side of the building was
it was blowing out the windows, you know what I mean. So we
come in from the from the south and all the fires on the on the
north side, and so we make the turn into the parking lot on the
north side and people are jumping. I'm like, We're like, what the
fuck? You know. So we pull in and my cousin was the engineer,
and he's like, he's like, we're fucked. I go okay.
So he goes, you got to find a hydrot I go, listen,
I I know exactly what a hydroant is. I says, it's fifty feet.
Yeah, you just you all thought at night. Bill, I'm telling
you. I run to the hydroant, I make the hydrant and I'm looking
up and I'm just watching people are jumping from the forefront. I mean,
it was it was crazy. So as I'm running back to the rig,
my guys are going in with the high ride stuff and I'm my mask on
and shit, and and some guy grabs me and he says, hey,
my my niece is hanging out the window. You got to get a ladder.
I'm thinking to myself, dude, there's forty people hanging out the windows.
I go, we're gonna get to them. We get it's an extra
alarmical people are coming helps on its way. He goes, no, she's
hanging from the window. So he drags me. He literally drags me to
the end of the building and sure enough, this girl. They got this
girl hanging out by two of her hands, like they're holding her out the
window like this, and she's on the sixth floor. I'm like, oh,
there's no fucking way I'm gonna get up there. For one thing,
I can't even get a ladder in here, a hooking ladder, I'm thinking
to myself. So all of a sudden. I run back, and truck
eleven's pulling up a truck four, I mean, and and our truck's on
the other side of the building. They're trying to make some rescues from that
side. And I'm like, I go, listen, we need the banger.
I go, and no one likes the banger. It's a fifty foot
Extenson ladder at weighs seven hundred fucking pounds, you know, bringing that Oh
dude, we're pulling it out of the truck. It didn't even want to
come out of the truck, you know. We're pulling it out, and
we're running with this thing, four of us. It's bouncing off our legs
were bouncing off cars. We had to run about eighty yards with this ladder.
Right. So I'm helping these guys from truck four and and people are
hanging. It's getting worse and worse where they're at, and they're going,
we're gonna we're gonna drop where you gotta catch her. I'm like, we
need six stories. I ain't catching anybody, you know, And so we
throw the ladder up. We start raising the ladder, and my cousin was
the engineer. He's already got the engine hooked up to the building. He's
got it in pumper ready. He comes over and he goes, what the
fuck's going on and go we're trying to get these people out this window right
here. So we start raising the ladder. Well, fifty foot ladder is
only going to go to the bottom of the fifth floor, so I so
they put the arms out on the ladder extension arms to stabilize the ladder.
So I'm standing there and the dude from truck for says, get up there
and get that kid. I'm like, okay, all right. I didn't
even hesitate to tell you the truth. I just I started climbing the ladder.
So I get to the top of the ladder and we're I'm now,
you're not really doing you're in the engine. You're not doing that right,
You're not doing that regularly. Yeah, this isn't this isn't my ladder.
It's not even my company, you know what I mean. They're like,
get up there and get that kid. I'm like, okay, all right.
Yeah. So I climb up and I get to like maybe five or
six feet from the top of the ladder, and that's as close as I
can get to the building. I mean, how many I can't get any
higher, and this poor kid is still fifteen feet above them. I mean,
I'm like, and so I'm now I'm trying to talk to him.
I'm like, listen, stay in the window. We got we've got a
storm will coming. It could probably get back and get you out of this
window. Well, it was the situation, was the tearing. Was it
chugging out of there? I was chugging above their head. I mean,
and I didn't know it, but there was. There was four people or
yeah, five five, four people in that window. I couldn't even see
them, you know what I mean, was like holding her end up being
her brother holding a little ten year old out the window, you know,
And I'm like, don't drop her. I go the chance of me catching
her slim the nun, you know. Next thing I know, I hear
my cousin yell from the bottom of from the bottom of the ladder, look
out, cuz. And all I remember seeing this little girl dress above her
head and she's coming down right at me, and I'm like, fuck.
I stuck my arm out to the side of me, and she landed right
with one leg on each side of my arm. Yeah, listen, in
the meantime, the wind's forty five miles an hour and the ladder is very
unstable. I got some guys trying to hold this me being on the end
of it, making it unstable. And she lands right there. Well,
I mean she's and she's screaming, and she's bleeding all over the place.
I mean, his blood was blood all over my arm, and at first
I thought it was my arm that was bleeding. I'm like, holy fuck,
what the fuck is going on? And all he hears the people on
the gold so it's nice catch. I'm like, what, I'm like,
trying to hang on for dear life. I got one arm on the ladder,
and this poor girl, she's reaching away from me because she's disorientated from
the smoke. She's reaching away from me towards the building and pulling me off
the ladder, you know. And I'm like, I'm trying to talk to
her and she's just screaming. I'm trying to figure out where blood's coming from.
And next thing I know, the ladder starts to slide down the side
of the building. Right, I'm like, you gotta be fucking kidding me,
right, fucking Two seconds later, her sister jumps and goes right past
me. I'm like, so, I look down, I see her hit
the ground. I'm like, fuck, man, that's that point, right.
And now the ladder slides sideways about five feet and it hits an air
conditioner and it stops. I'm like, thank God for the fucking air conditioner,
all right. So now I'm trying to tell the guys on the bottom
hold the fucking ladder right, and they're like, we can't, we can't
hold the ladder. I'm like so, and everybody's screaming. Next thing I
know, her brother jumps out of the window onto the drain pipe that's right
next to me. He's above me about eight feet. He's looking at me,
and I got his sister in my hands that I'm trying to stew trying
to corral into the ladder so I can pin her against the ladder to calm
her down. All of a sudden, I see him drop. No,
he goes right past me. Right. I see him hit the ground,
and I see all the people rush over to grab him. Right. I'm
like, holy fuck. I'm like, God, just get me off this
ladder, right, I go. So the ladder they they're trying to push
the ladder back up straight again and they can't. So finally they get enough
people, they get pedestrians, and they're pushing the tormenter bar and they get
it straight again. Right now, I'm like, okay, now I get
control of this girl a little bit. She starts to calm down. I
forget about Mom, who's still in the window. Now fire is over her
head right and she is getting burned. I'm like fuck. So next thing
I know, I'm looking down, she jumps by and takes my helmet right
off. I'm like, fuck, what the fuck was that? It was
Mom? She went head first out the window and she was going by.
She took my helmet off. That's why you see me in a picture.
I ain't got no helmet on. She took it off and she went by.
Wow, And she didn't make it. She died. The brother brother
survived. He broke his legs and his sisters survived. She broke her hip
in her leg. I'm getting out off the ladder and I remember this lady.
She had no teeth. She she comes walking up through me and she
gives me a kiss. She said, that's the best thing I've ever seen
at this point. I was just checking my pants for ship. I was
like, code brown, code brown, dude. It wasn't the air condition
that stopped a lot of It was a giant size bolt that stopped Bill.
How many how many people passed away at that job? I think it was
six six total. I thought it was six yeah, six people. Yeah,
you can't make it out here? It was. Is that the girl
right there in that picture? No? No, no, she was.
She was eight years old, nine years old, eight years old. I
have a difference in a video here, like we'll play a few seconds episode.
There's no issues. But if you guys see you can see her.
She's a pretty big girl, about sixty five pounds. I'll speak to Chicago,
break your own. Ten story apartment building erupts into flames, sending panic
residents racing to the upper floors. That's just the sidewalk below. That's what
we are. The brother, just to the sidewalk below. When you see
me. Let's watch again as the man tries to hope we go up to
here somehow one well. I remember seeing her dress above her head and she's
coming down. I just stick my heart out and she lands right here.
I'm like, oh man, I have got tell you what I said.
But I got her, you know, But the ordeal is an over.
The firefighter is struggling to keep his balance and in the ladder tries to I
never got her in the land, Oh man, I would have said,
good man, wins fall than about forty an hour reaching away from me,
and I'm trying to get her rid of me. I'm trying to scream that
turn around for around, grabby. I don't had one arm, one leg,
got a ladder. I'm like, come on, I can't hang out
forever. You know. He didn't manage just to carry the girl the safety
the mother. You see the mother, I don't put that on there.
Wow, it's not do you talk to her at all anymore? Yeah.
I stayed in touch with her until she was nineteen years old. She graduated,
she graduated college. Her dad. The reason her dad wasn't home that
night, he was losing his job at MCI Phone Company remember years ago MC
Yeah, and he had a choice to go to Arizona and get transferred or
lose a job. So he was in Arizona looking for a place for them
to live. And that's why he wasn't home. That night and a knucklehead
who started the fire just got out of prison for some other bullshit. No,
he had stole some ship from the railroad, stored it in his house
and that's what caught fire. He opened the door, left the apartment door
open, and it placed. It swept right through the whole building. Fine,
upstanding citizen. Yeah. Uh, they gave me the water. Uh
was the order valor? I think it was. I didn't get the lamborn
tree, but it was. It was, okay, I listened. It
was just to get off that ladder. I remember fathering moll Crown. The
priest was there at this fire. It was a five eleven and three specials
or some ship, and the priest was there giving people their last rights.
I mean it was and he see me. He's like, he goes,
you're going to heaven kid. I said, yeah, we'll see it better.
That's better than any metal you got. That. That's what I got
to ask you question, what did the guy who got the top medal do?
How do you fucking top that? What did this guy do? That
was a long story. That was Yeah, it was a long story.
Raya Rosco was the commissioner at the time. It was a great dude.
And uh, he come into me and told me. He says, listen,
he goes, there's nobody that deserves that word more than you, he
says. But this guy that we want to get of the war too,
he uh, he's got an MS and he's going off the job. He
made a decent rescue and we'd like to give that to him. And I
said, listen, Ray, you do whatever you gotta do. I was
good with it. I mean, do you even have that that that that
rescue on video, right? I mean, you know what that's like.
I mean, it's impossible to have I didn't even know it was on video,
uh until the next day. I mean a couple of people had saw
it, you know, and uh and uh. But we went back to
the firehouse after that. We were there all night until the next day,
until the next shift came in and we're still cleaning up and washing down stuff.
But yeah, we didn't even know it was on video. Pretty well.
That engine guy was on the ladder, yeah, you know, that's
that's the truck guy. And the truck guy told him to go up there.
Yeah, okay, I ain't going up you go. Yeah. That
guy ended up being that guy that told me to go up the ladder.
Years later we became pretty good friends. And he goes, He goes,
I should have ever told you that. Yeah, of course hide sights twenty
twenty. Now, yeah, you know what I mean. Maybe he had
butter fingers too. Maybe I was gonna say, maybe he was eating fried
chicken or something. What it was, it was a crazy night. Man,
Bake Billy, tell the raccooler story. For the love of god,
what the raccoon? I've got hit a couple of times for this raccoon story.
It's I thought, I was this is this is a fucked up crazy
story. So he merged his house raccoons. This isn't forty five this,
no, this is when I was at fifty seven. Okay, So the
Captain Big Bill says, when you get off probation, you take a detail
to another firehouse. He goes, you're up now, you you know everything,
You're I'm confident in you. You're up for the detail. We've gotta
send a guy out engineering nine house. And how do you feel about that?
I'm like, now, good kill sell me. You know that's my
turn. I'll go, you know. So he goes, hey, listen,
he goes, you're a big hunter, right, I go. Yeah,
he goes, used to practice the firehouse my body. So, uh,
he goes, Listen, you know behind that firehouse there's like a little
uh preserve back there. You might you might, you know, you might
get a whack at something. You know. I'm like, really, listen,
I'm twenty two years old, right, I'm like, really, I'm
listening to this. This guy's got a lot of time on the job.
He goes, Hey, you might want to bring your shit with you.
He goes, and sit out there. You might get a crack at something.
You know. It's kind of a slow house. They don't do much
there. A lot of old timers. Uh, he goes, yeah,
I go. So, I go, really, so I told my shit
in the trunk, right I go. There, I go. There a
bunch of old guys are all thirty years twenty, you know, right out
the rest of your career. Right. So, I'm sitting outside all day.
I'm waiting for something to shoot at it. Right, I go,
he's sucking. I go, he's bullshitting me, you know. So dinner
time comes the old timer. I'm out read dinner. The old timer says,
hey can you take the garbage off for me. I said, yeah.
So I go out there and empty the garbage and empty the garbage.
Man, I look up, Here comes these raccoons. They're coming from everywhere.
Right, I'm like, holy fuck, it goes to target rich environment,
right, I'm thinking her wild. Right. So I get down behind
the garbage cans. I crawl. That's yeah, right, pop my trunk.
I'm watching these fuckers. They're climbing the fence to come in the yard.
Room Like, oh fuck, I'm gonna whack this fucker. So I
get my bone arrow out. I lower my trunk, reach over the top.
He's he's on top of the fence eating a rib bone whenever he's got
in his mouth. Right, I fucking drop that quack right through that motherfucker.
It goes right through him. Right. He lets out this screen that
like I killed the person. Right, he hits the ground. He's flopping
around right, and I'm like, I go running over. I go,
I got that motherfucker right, fucking I hop over the fence. By the
time I hop over the fence, he's already blood out already right, yo.
Everywhere coon's sixty pounds. I never seen a raccoons big. He's been
eating on the garbage cans for most of his life. Right, I'm like,
holy fuck, is the biggest ratcoon I've ever killed. So I go,
So, I'm trying to get him over the fence. Now it's a
six foot fence. So I'm throwing him over, throwing him over. I
finally get him over. I'm dragging it in my car. Now there's a
big blood trail from the garbage cans all over to my car. Right,
so I thought, I go, fuck, this guy's bleeding all over.
I gotta get I gotta get a plastic bag or something. So I run
in the firehouse, get a garbage bag, come back out, throw up
my trunk, and I throw him in my trunk. Well, the old
timer comes out and goes, hey, what the fuck are you doing out
here? Right? Where's the garbage can at? You know? I go,
hey, I just fucking killed the biggest ratcoon in my life. Right,
he goes, what I go? Yeah, I go. This fucker's
got to be sixty pounds. He comes running over. Right, he looks
in a trunk. He goes, oh, he fucked. I go,
yeah, he's big, and he he goes he takes off. He runs
back in the firehouse. Right, I'm like, fuck's up with this guy?
Right? Next thing, and all all the guys are out there right
swinging miss he stuck him outright, he goes, and I'm like, I'm
over here. I go, look at my trunk. Right, he goes.
One guy coach over. He goes and he picks up his leg and
he turns it over. He goes, that's Rocky. I go, are
you talking about? He goes, you just kill our fucking mascot? Right?
I go what. He goes, We've been feeding that rat coop for
ten fucking years. He goes, why do you think they call this the
Ratcoon Lodge? I go, yeah, man. He goes, you're in
fucking trouble man. We're calling the chief. And I go what, I
what the fuck are you talking about? He goes, you're in trouble man.
What we're sending you back to your firehouse? Right now? Fuck this?
I go, oh boy? Right, So they run in the firehouse.
Right, I'm like, holy fuck, Now, what am I gonna
do it? Right? I'm gonna get fired. I got six months on
the job. I'm gonna get fired for killing him. A mascot you know.
Next thing, you know, guy, they all come out and they're
staring at me. They're like, I can't believe you fucking did. Chief's
on his way. I'm like, holy fuck. So twenty minutes later it
comes to battalion. Chief right walks out in the backyard. He goes,
where's he at over here? Chief? He goes, come on, He
goes, what did you do? I go, obviously I killed their fucking
mascot. I said. Now they want to kill me. I says,
so what are we gonna do? He goes, who told you to bring
your ship to this firehouse? He goes, He goes, He goes,
He goes, who's your officer? I go, Big Bill Koshski. He
goes that motherfucker. He says, he set your He sets your dumb ass
up. I go, I go, what are you talking about? He
goes. He hates this place, he says, and he sets you up,
and you fell for it. Go play a secret and you kill their
mascot. He goes. He goes, they want to kill you in that
firehouse. You know that? Right? I goes, Yeah, what am
I gonna do? Chief? He goes, you got to get the fuck
out here in the morning as soon as you can't, right, So sure
enough, I go back out there. They make me buried the raccoon back
and they fucking back in the dirt. Right, I got to bury a
raccoon. Go back in, take a shower. I'm waiting for six o'clock
in the morning. He get the fuck out of there, right, I'm
trying to sneak out. There's the next shift waiting for me right the bottom
of stairs. I'm like, fuck. They fucking mother fucked me all the
way to my car. Man, Right, so I get my car,
I go home. I'm like fuck, I'm waiting for the phone in the
ring and say you're fired, you know. I'm like fuck. I go
back to the firehouse. The next day, my captain goes, hey,
hey, how'd your detail go? I go. I go, you didn't
fucking hear? I go. He goes no, He's exactly like, you
don't know what the fuck's going on? Right, He goes, who do
you do? I go, you told me to bring my bone and arrow.
Well, I killed their fucking raccoon. He goes, you gotta be
be you dumb fuck. He goes, I didn't. He goes, I
didn't think you were gonna do it. He goes, He goes, fuck
those guys, right, So he picks up the fucking phone. He calls
the firehouse. He's the lieutenant answers the phone. He goes, Hey,
this is Rocky. I'm not gonna beat here for dinner because I'm in dead.
He hangs up. They jagged that firehouse off for about a year.
Many jacked that firehouse. Fucking great, bro, whoa, it was insane.
That might be one of the best fire house has ever heard. Bro,
you killed it. It wasn't at the time. Man, I thought
they were gonna kill me. These old timers were gonna they were so upset.
The one guy had tears in his eyes. I'm like you, I
heard work today. It was fucking crazy, oh man. And a good
shot though. Yeah, yeah, it was one one. Are you clean?
That's what that what it did. That's pretty much what it was,
Frocky. Oh my god, that's fucking hilarious. Bill. How much time
did you have on the job when you made that crib? Uh? I
was it was nineteen ninety six. I had roughly just over ten years.
Oh wow, yeah, nine years actually nine years yep. That just like
I said. That was just to this day, I still don't know I
did involve that ladder. It was insane, man, Three times that ladder
came away from the wall, I'm thinking, I told I looked at that
little girl. I said, well, hopefully the trees are going to slow
us down on the way. Yeah. You know. You know what's funny
is when we're talking about it, you're like, yeah, you know,
but when you're up fifty feet hanging off like this, and you know when
you say when a lot of came off, a load of came off the
wall a few times, or slid to the right or slid to the left,
go up and clean your gunner like twenty feet and have the load of
slide over like two inches and you you're ready. I remember when when when
the brother and the sister went buy me, I actually had time to watch
them go all the way to the ground. That's all high. That's great.
Yeah, it's crazy, man, for them to to live. It
was was really incredible. Did cross your mind that all I got a drop
your kid? I'm sorry, but all I thought about was if the ladder
goes backwards, which I thought a couple of times. It was going to
go. There was some trees about at the thirty foot level. I figure,
well, we're gonna hit the trees. Well, that's gonna slow us
down. That's what I was thinking. I'm thinking, this is it,
man, because three times that ladder came away. Then it hit the air
conditioner and I'm like, I gotta get I gotta get down. I hit
the tree and I don't get a branch in my rectum will be all right?
Yeah right, then again, I probably would have welcomed the branch of
my rectum at that point. Dave Box hoops, don't know what this is?
Double lung on a pope and young raccoon. Pope and young is like
when you shoot like a yeah trophy, big a big buck. Yeah yeah.
So it's like a double lung on a pope he spelled poop and young.
Yeah. So I get off. The land of the fire is over.
We go back to the fire house. The video hits hits the news
and it's chaos. Dude. I get home in the morning there's nine news
trucks in front of my house and it just went it went crazy. I
mean, I had a one year old daughter at the time, and my
wife's like, what the fuck's going on? I go, well, I
made it. I think it's because I made this rescue. I don't know.
And these people like chase me to in the front of my house.
I mean, they wanted the story first, you know, Channell ABC,
NBC. I'm like, I just went in the house and then Ray called
me. The Commissioner's like, listen, don't talk to anybody. I'm standing
a car to get you. I just seen this thing on TV. Incredible.
He says, we gotta do a press conference and some you know,
some bullshit like that. And I'm like, well, are you sure,
Chief. He's like, I'm telling you, it's good publicity, it's good
for the fire department. He says, you need you need to talk to
somebody. You need to talk to the media, you know. So that's
what I did. And then I met the father. He got had gotten
back by that, and he came to me and he's like, I just
want to hug me and thanked me. And I told myself, I'm sorry
I didn't do anything for your wife. I said, I kind of had
my hands full, I says, and your daughter and your son jumped,
and there's gonna be okay. You know he's like, listen, I seen
the video. He says, incredible. He says, I'm just halfy.
You saved the water, you know, so, I'll bet you missus Sheenan
was looking at you different. You know what I mean? Is that where
you got the name hitman? From your sorry? How did you get the
name hitman? You know what I want? At the firehouse one day,
uh, one of my partners started calling me that and from from from wrestling
and ship like that. He goes, I hit man, the Mitch,
and then mitchuh, Mitch Crooker took it a step further. He called me
all the time on the radio, you know, so it was it kind
of stuck with me, you know, I see Rookie a little, but
we'll keep it going. So h And then I stayed there for nine years
at forty five sous. And then some of my some of our guys started
getting promoted, and I end they started rehabbing their neighborhood. Things slowed down,
and that's when I went to Engine eighty four, which was the next
house. That was really when they tore the projects down. Everybody moved that
way, and that's when the fires really started happening at eighty fourth house,
and me and my partner and one of my partners went there for the next
six years there. How close was forty five and eighty four. They weren't
they weren't that. They weren't fired at all. Probably I'd say maybe a
mile and maybe a mile or two apart. Really, you have the guys
feel about you leaving to go from one to the other. Well, we
were the last Me and my other partner were the last two of the original
young guns crew that we had there. Guys had gotten promoted and uh so
there were all a bunch of different younger guys that were there. So we
told them we were leaving because we got recruited by a good cat, a
good friend of mine, Captain Terry mcpolland, And we got kind of recruited
by him to come there, and uh that's how we ended up there,
me and Kevin Lee and my partner. So and then that's when I got
sucked up in a fire, you know, and that was a great way.
Where are you here, bro without that beard? I can't tell you
which one. Right now, right next to the guy in the hat,
that's my partner already in the hat. Who's the boss? Uh? So
we got Tommy Darwin already me uh, Sean Hey, Johnny Glennon and Joe
Atkins. So which guy is the opposite the guy right in the middle,
the black guy Sean, Okay, that was what That's what. I ended
up on the squad much later. So, oh, I didn't even know
you're on the squad? Where was that? Was that squad for thirteen years?
Holy moly? Look at this? Yep. You know when you when
you think, when you think you've learned everything as a fireman, uh,
you go to the squad, and when you're not on a squad, you're
a squad hater. You know, everybody's a squad hater. You know,
a squad you definitely turn into the squad. Unbelievable fireman. I mean,
you do a lot more than just your leadouts and your ladder and your roof.
I mean, you're yeah, I mean, it's just yeah, it's
just you know, I mean, I look at Gon's got dog piling on
the rabbit bro just look. You know. I was challenging the chats to
make sure we make backdraft references tonight. So yeah, a few there.
But so we went to eighty four and and they were that's was really busy.
We were really busy there. And that's when I got kind of fucked
up in a fire. And this is where I like to tell a lot
of young guys I go At the time I got fucked up in the fire
in two thousand, I was pretty confident I could do anything I was on.
I was on two inches two busy in three busy engine companies, and
I was on an injine company there. And my partner, Kevin that came
with me over there. He was behind me. He was my heel man.
We got there. We had beat the Still Company in to their fire
and they had got detailed around some traffic whatever. So we get there first
and it's a good fire, right. So we go to rear because we
figured they were going to the front because they were Still Company. So we
get to the rear and Kevin's like, hey, man, they're not here
yet. This is our fire, right. I'm like, yeah, we
got it, you know. So he goes, Hey, we got people
gonna be goes We're gonna fuck with them all day, right, he goes.
So we kicking the door. It's a back wooden door, and and
and and I go back on this because the signs were there for a disaster,
and I kind of ignored them because I was too much in a hurry
to get in there and put the fire out. And the other company,
well, that's really I cannot tell you how many times I've done that where
I wasn't really paying attention because I was so happy I was screwing the other
company out of the right way. That's that's big competition, you know.
So we kicking the back door and it's sucking in the air like like you
can't fucking believe it actually made a tunnel all the way through the kitchen.
Because I was kitchen was right there. I could see the fire in the
dining room. I could. That's how much I didn't even have my mask
on. It was that clear, right. I crawl in there without my
mask. I pull on the line in lines charge, I bleed the line.
I'm good to go. I look back at Kevin. I go,
we got this man. We are gonna fuck with these guys right. No,
sooner, I said, I go listen, I'm gonna put my mask
on. It's gonna get shitty. Soon as I started hitting this, I
go, you might want to put your shit on. As soon as I
put my mask on, opened the pipe, a guy hit the window in
the basement. Fucking the fire was in the basement. They had loaded it
up with gas. We didn't know it. It came right up the backstairs.
It hit us. I still to this day don't understand how I didn't
go through the wall. That's how fire, that's how fast that fire came
up. So it blew Kevin out the back door because he was by the
back door, pulling me line in because I needed more line. And when
that thing blew, Holy fuck man. All I remember is hitting the wall
ahead of me, losing my helmet, and it was fucking fire everywhere,
and I'm like holy and my hood slid down like halfway down my face when
my helmet came off, and the heat. I just remember, the heat
was so intense. All I could do was cover up. I just covered
up, and I'm trying to find a line. I lost the line,
and I'm like I finally found a line, and it was going crazy because
it was open. I get the line and I'm curl up in a corner
and I'm just trying to hit it and they're all screaming the fires behind you,
Kevin jelling fires behind you, and I'm like, I'm thinking myself,
fucking fires everywhere on me, everywhere, you know. And then I'm trying
to find my helmet while I'm trying to me it was it was everywhere.
I mean, fucking it was. No, it was just fucking orange everywhere.
And so I fucking now I'm burning off. I'm like, fuck this.
I dropped the fucking line and I started to crawl. When I started
to crawl, they always say follow the line in, you follow the line
out right, So I'm following that's correct. When I'm following it out,
the refrigerator blew on top of the line. So I'm crawling as low as
I can. Oh my refrigerator, and ran right in the frigerator. Oh
god, I'm getting nervous. Listen. I knocked myself silly. Right now,
I'm thinking I went the wrong way. I crawled back into the fire,
tried to grab the line again, and everybody's screaming, h h h
hit it, hit it. I go, what the fuck do you think
I'm doing. It's not doing anything. Now i know I'm at the right
end. So now I know I got to get back the other way.
I started crawling the other way. I feel the frigerator. Well, I'm
telling you something. Refrigerator was two feet high. I tried to go over
that refrigerator four times. I couldn't fucking make it. That's how fucking hot
it was. My ears were on fire. My fuck, the side of
my face was on fire. I'm like the third time I passed out on
top of the refrigerator, Kevin saw me. He crawled into the fire,
grabbed me, and dragged me out. I was in I was in a
burn unit for five fucking days in intensive care. Then I was in the
hospital intensive care for another ten days. And I'm telling you that was the
most horrific fucking thing I ever fucked. And I was only in a room
ten by ten guys, and I couldn't get the fuck out. That's how
fucking fast shit hit the fan. And that's why I always tell you these
young guys. When I went down to the academy, made a few speeches,
I go, listen. You might think you know everything, and you
might think you think of the baddest motherfucker there is, But when mother Nature
unleashes some shit on you, you ain't gonna have a fucking so you better
remember all your basics self, rescue this that, because you're gonna need it.
So every time you feel like, yeah, every time you got to
figure it out, you ain't got figured nothing out. You ain't got nothing
figured out. Man, sh that's pretty crazy. I was thinking about that
as you were telling the story, and I don't know anything about that story.
When you get back to the refrigerator and you're saying, as soon as
you said it's two feet high, I already knew where you're going that you
can't even get over it. That's how hot it was. The temperature in
that two feet was yeah, incredible, man, I mean it was just
and I'm goin to burning my ears up and in the side of my face.
You couldn't even ship with the line. That's how crazy that is.
Like to think that you couldn't stay with the line open, You couldn't even
stay there. You felt like, this is it. I stayed there for
about I'm telling that this whole thing took maybe maybe sixty seconds. From all
that shit that happened, and all our members fucking get I remember waking up
for a second out of the back porch where they were trying to get my
shit off me because it was smoking. They're trying to get me out of
my ship. And I passed out and I woke up five days later in
intensive care. That's the last thing I remember. Wow, So sixty seconds
felt like sixty minutes. Oh, you ain't fucking kid. I was just
a guess that they had had the loaded that what they did was they loaded
up the basement. We found out later from the investigation they loaded the basement.
They were rehabbing a place, they ran out of money. They said,
fuck it, we're gonna burn it down, and they loaded the basement
up. But they had plastic on the windows, and they had plastic on
all the windows on the inside because they were doing work. So it burned
itself out. And then when we opened the fucking when he hit the basement
window just for the hell of it, I guess he was just in the
check to see that the fire was in the basement. That led all the
air and it fucking needed and that fucking shit came out like a fucking All
I can tell you is you remind me of the Space Shuttle. The pack
of the Space Shuttle. That's how fucking it came up the backstairs. I
remember turning around and hit me right in the face, and I remember scrambling
after that, and I went back there after. I was so fucked up
over that fire that I wasn't going back to the fire apartment. I told
my wife, I says, you know what I'm done. I had a
one year old. I was sucked up. I was fucked up in the
head a little bit, and I said, you know what, I'm going
back to driving the truck. Fuck this. I go, No, that
was just too close for me. And she's like, you do whatever you
think. It was comfortable. And I remember father McCrow came and saw me
and he's like, listen, you're not the first guy to go through this,
and you won't be the last guy. He says, you need to
sit down, relax, take your time, let your fucking shit heel,
and you need to go back to the fire apartment. He goes there,
He goes, you're a good fireman. He says, this is just something
that's fucked up. You know, So or after you I noticed you were
standing in a lake of gasoline. Yeah, crazy happen before or after you
realized you were standing in a puddle of the gasoline. Take it easy,
Arnold, that's so funny. But anyway, so I went back and it
took how long we out for bill? Uh? I think I think I
was out for six months before my that's legit, man. And what was
it that that took place in your head that you're like, I gotta go
back? What was it was there? The finning moment? Yeah? You
know, I just everybody was calling me and telling me, hey, listen,
you know you're gonna be okay. And I'm like, listen, man,
you have no fucking idea what that was all about, you know,
I'm like, And then when I got back, man, and I was
back back on the line again, I was very hesitant, man. I
mean for a while there, Kevin would be giving me a little bit of
a push. You'd be like, come on, dude, it's not going
to blow up on you. You know what I mean. It took a
while, man, took it took a little while, you know, but
I got my confidence back, and in uh, in the rest is history,
you know what I mean. But I tell it, that's just one
thing I tell the young guys. I just don't fucking don't think you're the
best. I don't think you're you're untouchable because you're not, you know,
socause that was kind of like the job that we had where it's just funny
that you say, like I remember looking around and everything was orange, like
there was nowhere to go, There was nowhere to go behind us. I
remember nowhere to go, and I remember, you know, getting hot,
like really fast, and I remember like covering up and just thinking to myself
like really fast in my head like fireman die in Massmith Blazes or whatever the
heck. It was just like best friends together. I remember saying, like
the news flash, that's how fast it happened. And if the line they
didn't open up the line from outside like into where we were in the in
the doorway like because the fire was the same similar thing the fire wrapped around
us. They were they were polyurethane and the floors or some ship like that.
And we went in and he come around us and we couldn't get the
line back around us, and it was just crazy. But like you say,
like how fast, how fast that happens, Like you think you have
everything under control and you've been through a lot of fires. And then me
and Kevin were laughing. We're thinking about how we're gonna fuck with these other
guys. Yeah, you thought you were listen. That's what we all tried
to do is break somebody's balls by beating them to somewhere or making a grab
or something, right right, right right, I mean we were laughing.
I just put my ma thank god, it put my mask on. I
just put it on, and fucking you should hit the fan. I'm like,
if I didn't hand that out, I had to burn myself all up.
Man, you could see where my mask was. It burned them all
the way around. I'm like, fucking like I got a ball. That
motherfucker bubbled up and fucking fuck, I don't know, man, it was
fucking it was crazy. So well anyway, I mean yeah, I mean
I went back and things got back to normal, and like I said,
the rest was history. I had a great like, I moved. We
stayed there at eighty fourth House till they closed it the city and the closing
is closing the house down, so we were like, where the fuck are
we gonna go now? So we end up going to Truck twenty, which
was right down right down the road from Yeah me, Yeah, we all
went there, me and him, and then he actually actually Kevin went to
another firehouse and then I went to truck twenty. He's like, listen,
I'm done. I'm gonna take it. Take it ease a little bit more,
baby, he says. Uh, he goes, we we did enough
already. I'm going to truck twenty. Man, they're fucking burning ship down.
I'm going, you know. So I went to truck twenty and that
was great that. I mean, that was my first time on the truck,
and I always wanted to learn the truck. And so we went to
truck twenty and they're busy as hell. Man. So we we did good
there. And that's where Mitch was at. He was a chief at and
we had, like I said, I had good officers, man, good
chiefs. Never had a bad officer. That's to go thirty five years and
never have an officer that you always said that, that's have one. It's
unheard of it. I mean. And even even the crews I worked with,
man, oh, good guys. They wanted to be there. There
was no guy like I didn't want to be here. You're you're a busy
firehouse dude. Everybody wants to be that's why they're there, you know.
So Truck twenty was great. We had fun there, and then then I
got a call from the squad and they're like, hey, we got an
opening watch to come on over. And that was hard, man. It
was hard to leave Truck twenty. It's hard to leave a good crew.
They're all giving you ship and they're like, what the fuck? You know?
You you don't want to be a squad guy. I'm like, those
guys are blow drops? Man? How many know how many guys getting you
fit in the five billion? Bill? At least five more? I always
said the squad at least five more, at least five more. I forget
how many squads out there in Chicago. Scagner's four squad one, two,
five and seven seventh at the airport. They don't leave the airport. Air
airport that's kind of an airport, so it's really one, one, two
and five. That's it. And where'd you go to squat five? Five?
Yeah? I don't want to put you on the spot here, Bill,
but business, which is the busiest squad? Five? No doubt?
Think about that. Hold on it. Let me ask you again, which
which the busiest squad? Listen? I'm gonna get all kinds of ship.
But Squad five is it? They know it? Yeah, they know,
they know deep down in places they don't like to talk about it. Party,
they know that's it right there. You got it. That'd be one
of those guys is a great fireman. Nice actually made the call to you,
Bill who called you from? So what happens is on the shift,
like you guys know when when when a guy Leias gets promote whatever, they
start recruiting, you know what I mean, And we want to recruit somebody
that's gonna you know, that can do a good job. So they sat
recruiting guys, and of course is by seniority, you know. So I
at that time I had twenty twenty years, you know, and really nobody
goes to the squad with twenty years, you know, usually do that when
you're a little bit younger, you know, right. And I'm like like,
fuck it. I I mean, and a couple of my guys that
I worked at forty Vice House had been officers there. They're like, listen,
dude, you gotta come. You should have came years ago. You
got to come now. So I'm like, I fuck it, you know,
So I put in for it and got it, did the interview with
those guys, and and you had a lot of time by that time.
How much time did you have and end up getting on a squad? And
I had twenty years when I got on the squad. I was, wait,
twenty three I think it was twenty three years or something like that.
Yeah, so I did thirteen years in the squad, so yeah, twenty
or twenty yeah, I thirty five, yeah, twenty two years? Yeah,
yeah. So I mean and then you think you know a lot,
you know, I mean, you go there though, and fuck, it's
another it's another ball game, you know what I mean. You're now you're
in the rescue and this and that an extraccasion and you know, confined space
and you know, diving in the lake, and it was it was,
it was it was another step up, you know. I mean I definitely
learned a lot more. You can learn a lot. But the school where
do they send you to the schools or is it in hou? It's training.
So when when you went went to the squad, it was certain classes
you had to complete, you know, collapse, confined all that ship,
tunnel ship, so the I F S I we would go down there for
the classes, complete each class. Then school was another class you got to
take. The city has their own scuba uh certification that you do. You
got to be a patty. Then you go through their scuba stuff and then
uh you do you complete all their classes and that's how you end up.
But now it's a little different. Now you got to have all that up
front before you even before they even consider you. And a lot of guys
can't get it because the city just ain't given as given a given the classes
anymore. So. I mean when I when I put in for the squad,
probably two hundred guys put in. That's that's how popular it was.
Now when I left, five guys put in. That's it it was.
It's they have to get the training first, is that one? Yeah?
Yeah, they got to get the training first. The city doesn't give him
a break before. Like if I if I was missing a couple of classes,
I would get him while I was there, you know what I mean.
I'd take my my daily day or make a trade and go do the
week long class and get certified whatever. But now now they don't do that
anymore. So, and it's it's pretty sad because we see my opinion.
When I left, uh, Squad five, there was a kid that wanted
from Squad one. He he uh, He's like, listen, let me
know when you're leaving. I really want your spot. And he's there now,
he's and he's a good fireman and he was on Squad one. But
this whole generation to me, just doesn't doesn't just doesn't get it, you
know what I mean. They're not they're not hungry. We were. We
wanted to go to busy firehouse. Now they walk in the firehouse say what's
the internet code? I mean, don't you want to know what's on the
rig or where the tools are at, or what you're gonna be doing today,
because you're not. You know your details. It is, it's it's
it's way different. I remember when I got to forty five house, the
old timers told me, they go listen, you better have a side job,
and you better be taking care of your family. And if you don't,
you'll be out of here. And if you don't, if you can't
find a side job, you can work at one of the concrete guys,
one of the fucking drywall guys. Everybody had a side job. When I
left the firehouse. It's squad five. There's only two or three guys that
had side jobs. The rest of them were stay at home moms and bullshit
like that firehouse and told told my cab i'mna stay at home day. That
would have been it. You'd put a foot in my ass. And you
know what I mean. It's just a whole different. Yeah. The generational
definitely changing, like it real quick. They just just did the hiring process.
Twenty nine people showed up for the my department to come work out of
seventy people. They just they're just not showing up, people declining. It
sounds incredible to me. It's incredible, right, I couldn't wait to get
at a job. I mean when I got called, I was fucking I
was telling everybody what I was, what I was gonna do. You know
Now it's like they call five hundred people to get fifty and then out of
fifty, like you said, twenty five show up. Half of them camps.
That's the other element too. So you know, you try to hire
X amount of people and you know, you get at a fifty, you
get twenty five show up, twenty show up, you know, fifteen pass
and you gotta try to hire twelve of fifteen. It's just it's a coming
harder and harder. Yeah, a couple of times now, like they can't
get guys that take the job. It's like like paid places like about how
I know they can't get volunteers anymore, but like to get a paid five
department job like Saint Louis somewhere. Like these guys they you know, they
show up at the show at these expos and they're like, yeah, we
can't even get guys to come to the fight the you know. That to
me is like absurd to come. It is by far the best job in
the world to me. I mean I did all kinds of ship travel,
truck work, to doc roofing, help guys with talk and tell you there
is nothing compares to it, man, I mean, and I never had
a bad day. I have different breeds of people that you know, work
their assholes when they're fifteen years old. Time give me a cell phone.
That's all the cure. Shit about you know, job that you can't wait
to get to your job when you're home. I mean, I think we
said them before. They could have paid me and I would have went to
that to work my first My wife was like, you're crazy. You can't
wait to go to work. I go, Yeah, I go. It's
fucking great. You know they're paying me for this ship. Speaking of Yeah,
wait, wait, you're in the top three of the I Married Up
Club. You are in the top echelot of I Married Up Club. Bro,
good for you. I'll give you a little. I'll give you a
little. That's all you gotta do. You gotta make a one arm grab
and next thing you know, you got the babes. You know what I
mean. That's all you gotta do. He must have went home and cried
a little bit or something. He had to do something like to get her,
you know, in a heart. Oh he walked in that door.
He goes, I don't know if you know who I am, but I
just grabbed the kid with one armor sixty foot lad, and she melted it
right here. My time thirty five years is up, and I was walking
around like a cripples. He's like, it's time to go. Yeah.
There was no doubt about that man. Yeah, things hurt a lot more.
Oh, you ain't kidding. Every fucked up I already had one.
He replaced the yellow ones gotta be replaced. Well, I'm going in January
for my hoops. Could walk over a hydrant? I can walk over It's
so funny. We go to the show is just a couple of weeks ago.
We were in Harrisburg Way. When he's walking in front of me,
I swear to god, his his legs are like like talking talking, run
right through them sideways. Not even that sound like sideways. Goddamn bit,
get a job already, for God's sake. When you got to, uh,
the squad, who was the senior man, Dad, you have a
lot of time or were you? No, I wasn't senior man. It
was it was a couple of guys that were older than me. Uh,
they were there. I was right there though. I mean, like you
said, a lot of guys don't go there that many years. But it
was a couple of I mean a couple of yeah, a couple of guys
older than me and a couple of guys younger than me. But uh,
that was that was a hold. It's a whole different way of thinking.
That squad thing, it's it's it was kind of crazy at first. I'm
like, I wasn't sure what was going on. I'm like, Okay,
you're not you're not making a roof out of it like like a ladder truck,
or you're not you're not you know, you're not leaning out with the
engine. You're search and rescue or you're going where you need it kind of
like a free safety, you know. And I'm like, it's kind of
weird, you know what I mean. But then you fall into that mode
and you learn you see a lot more too. You see a lot of
ship that should be happening that ain't happening, you know what, And uh
yeah, and you see h you know some things you don't want to see
what people you think are supposed to be doing, what they're doing. You
just you just took the words right out of my mouth. You're like,
oh, what are you doing over there in the corner? I remember,
I remember we had a meet. We had a good bungalow fire and we
were in our second bottle trying to make this attic. It was cut up
into a million rooms and we were just there was ship everywhere. A guy
was a hoarder. There was supposed to be people up there, and me
and my part, the whole squad's up there. Switch No, not this
one. What's just like that though. Right we're inside, I was going
on there, we're gonna talk about it. So we're up in this attic
and it's cut up into a million rooms and we're trying to find supposedly somebody
that's in there, and there's clothes and all kinds of shit. So we
we're switching out on the pipe. This is how long we've been up here
right, trying to We're not making any progress. And so I come out
to change bottles for like the second time, and there's there's I'm not gonna
say his name, he's standing outside with his pipe in his hand. He
goes, how's it going in there? How the fuck you think it's going
going to change my bottle for the second time? You know what I mean?
I go. I wanted to fu right in the face. You know.
He's like, how's it going in there? This is your fucking still
you motherfucker. I I didn't have time. I go, I fucking deal
with you later, you know what I mean. I fucking go about change
my bottle and go back in again, you know, And this fucker's standing
outside. I'm like, I don't know. It's just like I said,
not everybody can be a fireman, right, so they can send the fireman
at the bar. They can sit there and tell people that the barer or
a fire you can wear the shirt. Well they wear the shirt. Well
that's correct. I was just gonna say, yeah, holy shit, I
don't know when you went from the truck to the squad. Was it the
amount of work really that much more? Or oh yeah fuck yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, yeah, that's that's squat five man. We we were.
It was. It was incredible, man, sometimes four fires a day,
it was. Yeah, it was. It was nney. You go
from fire to fire. I mean, we were recovered whole We were in
the middle of Englewood, which was in any direction was fire potential, so
all the companies around us were busy. We would go to all their fires
and then we'd go way out south where Mo was. Mo was out in
the twenty third Battalion. That was actually a fifteen minute lights and siren and
ride to get to Mo. That's how all the way Indiana is where he
was pretty much at. We would end up all the way out there,
you know what I mean, and had to deal with his ass, you
know what I mean? And yeah, yeah, another Napoleon syndrome. Yeah.
I think he's five to five. I don't know what. Yeah,
I tell you he started me. That motherfucker. I tell you that.
Oh my, oh my moo. Was good though. We like, like
I said, I have Pat O was arb Itttalion chief. Excellent chief.
Uh, I mean, Timothy was great. We I had so many good
chiefs, man. It was they let us go to work. I mean,
so some chiefs. That's another thing. Near the end of my career.
They promoted some of these guys that didn't have them. They won't let
us go to work. They were panicing all the time. Everybody on the
building. That's pac key hole right there. Yeah. And that was my
partner already. I mean, I mean two of the best guys, man.
I mean Pat went. Pat retired a year before I did, and
then Arty's going next year. So he was was all the guys, you
know, And that's a problem too. We lose all the good guys got
experience, experience, man, I'm telling you when you when you lost Pat,
you lost Mitch, you lost Timothy, you lost a lot of hundreds
of years of experience. Yeah, I mean, and then you got a
chief that lets you go win and go to work, or you get a
chief that as soon as he sees something that they pounded in his head at
the chief school, everybody's out of the building. And now we just say
the foundation. You know what I mean. I mean, there's the thing.
Who is the chief of the special operations out there right now? Or
who was for low Brian mccardo. Brian mccardo, he was on Squad five.
No, there's another guy that somebody gave his number. I'm almost sure
he was a Chicago guy. No, I was. I have to,
I have to. I saw the name not too long ago. Actually,
there's a special officer right now. Oh you were talking about Jamar, the
big chief. Mm hmm. No, an Irish name. I think special
office was Brian mccardo. He was, he was a specialized No, Brian
Cardo was when I left. He was. He was five one that name.
I think I've been talking to him. He just doesn't he doesn't want
to come on. So he does, but he says, let some other
fireman come on, John Fox, somebody, Mike Fox, Mi MI.
He was? He was? He was. He's the one that actually when
I want to go, when I was going to go on the squad you
go talk to him first. Yeah, well you gotta you gotta go catch
the ring. Yeah, pretty much, that's pretty much. You guys are
throwing names in here, like crazy John Collins, Johnny Collins. Yeah he
was, Yeah he was five one five toy. Yeah Maloney, that's Pat.
Malone's a bad lieutenant, remember that movie to Bad Lieutenant. But he
was lieutenant. He used to come by forty five sauce. When we're all
younger. We would get him as so much fucking ship. We thank you.
Jimmy Reagan, Jimmy Reagan, I know Jimmy. Yeah, we see
Jimmy at Indie all the time. What a great man. Yeah, Jimmy's
a good dude. Yeah. He used to go, uh so, Melodi,
you know a little push to come on, Billy, He said he
will. But another guy who played for the Chicago Bands, I think who
was a fireman too. I think who that was? Pat Maloney gave me
his number, I got, I got a look. Pat was Pat's very
good, very it was a good chief, good lieutenant. I mean I
watched him get promote all the way up from he talks to him every day
for cooking up. Let's go he talk to him every day. Why don't
you talk the show? Jack? I talked to Pat now too long ago.
Uh, he's he's a good dude, man, he really. He
doesn't like a little push Mitch your jack big? What's that? What's that?
Let's get back to that picture that guys, it's kind of making a
little bit. What was I telling you Bill when we came across this picture?
A little sweat cover off his I'm not gonna show what's going on.
Let's see here we go boom. So we were down this fire here we
were down the street at another fire, and I looked down the I looked
down the block and so it's a couple of other people. Listen, we
got another fire on the block. So that's how I ended up on the
roof and a squad. I was in a squad that day. We we
got there first because we were the first ones to get out of where we
were at because we were parked where we could get out at. And then
the truck came afterwards. So that was me and already and a couple other
guys up on the up on the roof. We already knew the fire was
upstairs. There was like a couple of bedrooms up there, and uh supposed
there was supposed to be a lady in there, but she actually got out
after we fucking went searched into the whole place. She actually got out.
But that place was just it was just rotten upstairs, and it took him
a while to get in there, but it was We were cutting holes one
after the other. It looks like you took the window, so I mean,
I'm not going to say they cleaned it out that well. I'm just
gonna is gone. At least somebody could have thrown a rock from the ground.
I have no idea, but you know, it could be a brick
from the from all. But but here, here's a Gene Roll that played
for the Bears. Oh yeah, Gan, Yeah, he was Well,
thank you. Jim Reagan's the best. Get him to Jim. I I
called him a couple of times. Roll. Yeah, he's a big boy.
Well he played for Chicago Beds. You gotta be I forgot. I
totally forgot about that. I know more about Chicago Bill. What are you
doing? Man? Come on, I didn't go too far off my comfort
zone, you know what I mean? Like you do you get every grace
I could afford you, no problem for you. But uh yeah, I
mean everything was everything that I was actually pretty lucky. We made a couple
a couple of rescues after that, and I remember so we had I was
with Momo as a matter of fact, he was a little tenant. So
we get a fire in a twelve flats apartment building. It's fucking rolling all
the way through the third floor, right, So we're all jammed up in
the hallway as usual. Everybody's trying to get in there and do ship.
No, come on, no, was the manager yelling at you. By
the way, Momo's yelling and screaming and fucking the lines tangled up and this
and that and fucking the next thing. You know. Some I go outside.
I go, just gotta be another way to get into this place.
I go outside, and this lady grabs me and says, hey, my
mother's in that apartment up there. It's the last apartment that's not burning yet,
right, I go, you gotta ship And she's like no, she
and she's paralyzed. I go, and I go, I go, yeah
you sure day? Yeah she goes She's like, uh, she can't walk
either, So I know she's up there. So sure enough, menas me
and Billy Grant who got killed on the job later on. Yeah, great,
dude, skinny little fucker like me. We throw this. We throw
this twenty five foot to the just up to the window ledge on the third
floor. Right, So I call up there, I go, I cawl
in the window. Sure enough, man, this old lady is in her
bed. It's pretty shitty up there. She's two hundred and eighty pounds.
I knew that. I knew you were gonna say that, right. I
get to I cawl over to the bed. She's actually sitting there looking at
me, and she goes, what are you doing here, sonny? I
go, I'm here to get you. You know what I mean. She
goes, you can't pick me up? Right, she says that to me,
right, I go, listen, she goes, I've lived a good
life. Leave What she was right to check out was ready? Yeah,
She's like, she goes, I live a good life. You're never gonna
get me out of here. And she and it was. The fire was
right coming right down the hallway. Right. I go, listen, I'm
not leaving here. So so I grab her under the arms and holy fuck,
man, I get her off the bed and boom, she right on
the floor. Right. I'm like, fuck, So now I'm dragging her.
I'm trying to drag I get her to the fucking window, right.
I yell out to Billy, who's at the bottom of the ladder, and
go get up here. I go, I need help. Right. So
he comes up the ladder. He goes, holy fuck man, how are
you gonna get her through this window? You know? And she's the whole
time, she's telling us, leave me, leave me here. I'm good.
I'm eighty something years old. I'm good. Don't you guys get killed
over me? Right, I'm like, I go, no fucking way.
So I get her paralyzed legs up on the window. Right, Billy's pulling
on her legs. I'm behind her trying to get her up on the ladder.
Right. I finally get her up on the window ledge and I'm fucking
I'm done, right, I'm fucking it. I've exhausted myself, right,
you know. I give her a little push. She goes off the window
and Billy ends up face first right in her monkey. Right. How are
you doing? Yum? And he is like, what the fuck? I
go just get down the fucking ladder. So he's got her straddled on the
ladder and his face was right between her legs, and I'm trying to hold
her from the top, and it's like it's like a bold yellow you know.
And it's like, I'm like, we get it all the way down
finally to the fucking ground, right and a daughter comes running over there and
she's like, I can't believe you guys got my mom out. I'm like,
Billy's like, yeah, we see more than we wanted to see.
By the way, he has no wonderwork. Oh yeah. It was fucking
crazy. And they gave us. They gave us a good they gave us
some kind of crazy award for that. But the bottom line was the two
he was maybe six years later before Billy got killed. The rig got t
bone. He was on truck fifty one at eighty four's house and uh,
the truck got t bone. He flipped over, he got up, he
went out the window, and the truck landing on him and Squad five end
up getting him out. They call it the pin in. So but what
a good dude man, good fireman, fucking this way kid all down.
A lot of was clamb in his face. Yeah, he says, I'll
never forget that. He says, looked like it looked like home plate.
He said, home plate. It hangs down like a wizard sleeve. I
mean, just unfortunately we buried. We buried a couple of good guys,
and I mean, I know what you guys went through, but we end
up bearing some good guys too. It was fucking I guess there's no way
around that. But nah, this job takes no prisoners. Man, it
doesn't matter if you're aggressive. If you're aggressive, fireman's chances are ship ship's
gonna happen. You know, I mean everybody that before you can do everything
right and it just goes fucking side. You have no control over it,
right, It's no controller, right, dude, is heard from laughing so
much crazy And that lady, so check this out. That lady. When
I got burned up, that lady's daughter came to see me in the hospital.
She goes, you saved my mother. I said, really, yep,
she was. She came to the hospital and says, I just wanted
to come here and thank you again and make sure you were okay. It
was it was crazy. She goes, you don't remember me. I go,
yeah, I kind of do. Just you saved my mom. Remember
the big fat woman. I go, yeah, he goes, yeah,
I just heard about you, and I came. She came to the hospital.
It's pretty crazy, Billy. He din't making friends one of the time.
Baby. Yeah, people don't you do something crazy. People don't forget
you know, yeah, would you would? You would be like fuck this
by a buzz. She was a tough old broad man. She just said,
you know what, I'm good man, just leave. I could see
somebody saying that to me too, like when when they're they're good with it,
you know, like you said when she said that I had a good
life, don't worry about it, like she made Sonny, there's no way
you're gonna pick me up. I says. We're gonna get you to that
window, I says, and I go, I got another guy by the
window. I mean to balance her out the door, out the window and
down the ladder. It's pretty just in the way you did it. It
was. It was very It wasn't very pretty. Has the job though,
it never is? Bro Yeah, we probably we probably did more damage getting
her on than it was, you know. And she would have stayed keep
your head out the window and breathed. Well, it was crazy. Fron
the line over or something was Amo remembers that fire. So I don't know
where he is, and I thought he'd be in the chat tonight. Little
Yeah, he was all over me telling me ship. So you got,
I got, I got a couple of good Oh that was, yeah,
that was. We froze our balls off that night. Were we're we're up
in the basket for a long time being already. What the hell happened to
your front piece? It's got sucked up over the years. You know,
I didn't never discover your fake It looks like a fucking waffle on your head.
Listen. They tried to change my helmet like five times and I wouldn't
let him. Yeah, he's got another one recurring. We got this shrinking
that's what he looks. It looks like a shrinking dick. Where's that helmet
now, Bill, It's in my basement. Man. They tried to They
say you can keep to them, motherfucker. I said, you're right,
I'm keeping right up keeping. They protected my dome for a long time.
Man, we got on your head. You can see the difference in the
helmets. My buddy came on after me, and they started going to those
bigger ass helmets that were heavy as fun on your head. You know,
dude, that that looks like I don't even know what that looks like on
your head right there. I don't think I've ever seen them more burnt up
helmet than that. That's pretty funny, man, you know what, I
think these guys might be right you walk the walk, bro, Yeah,
for sure, I know. It was good. I had fun, you
know, just the guy that was standing out there. So how's it going
in there? Yeah, no, no, I'm just kidding. I know,
but I'm just kidding. Already knows who I'm talking about to because he
was at that fire, because I've seen it. This is a little harder
to see, but that was Yeah, that was the train crashed, that
old hair aport. Me drove the L train up the escalator. Wow,
that's a big yeah. Yeah, trying to drive an L train. Oh
my god, how the fuck did that happen? Yeah? Wheel right,
yep, she fall asleep. That looked like a drill like or something.
The platform, right through the dead end and up the rail over the platform.
It fucking took the wheels right out, the front wheels and the rest
of the train push it right up the fucking thing. Momentum, It looks
like a little bit momentum. We fall asleep against the throttle handle, saying
full sweep. Anybody dies. No, But there was a canine cop supposedly
at the top of the escalator ready to come down when the train came up.
He's not a whole fucking thing, so wow quick. Yeah, we
have a couple. I go through them, dons. I like to a
little harder to make out. This is your forty one pick couple guys.
We worked at another fire truck forty one another another good company. That's where
my buddy already is now. He's a lieutenant there one truck. They're busy.
Yeah, they're pretty busy. Yeah, yeah, right next to Squad
five. Sorry you have this was your Yeah, that was my my all
night two day fire. It started on a Thursday and we ended up putting
it out on a Sunday. I think some bullshit like that. I worked
at forty eight for a guy and I end up staying there for two days.
They all go out potentially nice, nice coops, unless they jumped the
street. You know, another another coal ne up in a basket, you
know that we had. And how cold does it get up there? Broll?
Which is tit? Sometimes twenty below zero? You know it's nuts.
Yeah, you know you guys know you get up in the basket and you're
up there. He's coming down. He ain't coming down. Fuck, you're
up there, you know. So got this guy this part. Yeah,
there's another that's an old picture from the battalion Tower thirty nine. And I
think I showed this one already, Yes we did. We got this one
right here. Oh that was that was a good fire man. So I
was telling you guys earlier the dead rat in my hand when we were crawling
in the rats were coming out and they were crawling over us. We were
hacking them with our Hellican myers. Yeah I should have blew that up.
Yeah you can see that. That was the biggest one we killed. Right
there? Is that a rat? That is a rat in your hand?
Yeah? Rat? Yeah, fucking nasty rats on the place was a ship
family's rats, right yeah. And they were coming out of there like a
like a fountain. Man. They want to know if they hit man worked
in the twenty twenty. Yes I did, Yeah, yes, I did.
That was a good night. I was on a task force that night.
So they put together these task force. Uh and they and they had
us all go to Comminsky Park where White Sox Park is. We all met
there. Squad five was working their thing, and I was actually they were
taking guys off the squad and guys that were on daily day and putting them
on a task force and with a bunch of other guys. And there were
so many fires that night that they had four task force. One went north,
one went west, one went east, and one went south. And
I was on the one went south because I knew that I knew the area.
And uh and pac Keejo was working that night. He was in the
sixth Battalion. And I'll tell you something, guys, you I seen ship
I ain't never seen in my life. Is that night of the riots.
Man. I mean, I never wanted to beat the fuck out of more
people. I mean, just nonsense, this's crazy nonsense that were I mean
I seen old ladies stealing ship and they would rob a place and just say
on fire, we burned down. I believe six walgrains that night and six
CBS's it was every liquor store burned down, every cell phone store was burned
down. We went from fire to fire. I think that night, let's
see that night. I think I went to the squad, went to about
fifteen fires. They were just there. They were going from they need a
snorkle, here, they need because everything was I don't know, I didn't
know why they were burning everything. They would just rob the ship out of
it and then set it on fire. And it was the police did nobody
was doing nothing. It was I mean, it was. It was literally
chaos. I was the summer of love, man, Remember it's just summer
of love. It was insane and they're telling us don't interact with people.
I mean they were throwing bottles of piss at us. I mean frozen bottles
of water. I need these young kids with me that night and they and
two of them hardly ever been to a fire. They were from companies that
didn't really do too much, and they that there at night. They told
me to go. That was the best night of our lives. I go.
I told you keep your helmet on and pay attention to and we we
we let out I don't know how many times. And what they were telling
us to do with the task Force was just knock it down as best you
can and move on to the next one. And that's that's pretty much what.
Yeah, this is the kind of kind of fucking ship. It was
nuts. And that went on for two days. Wow. What was that
from? Is that the Black Lives Matter thing? Yeah? That was Yeah,
that was that was the George Floyd riot ship, not like making a
statement like burning down your own town. It really said the method. And
the bad part about it was some of these I mean I was back in
my old neighborhood, squads by his neighborhood with the Task Force, and these
poor people that helped these people out, you know, they gave them breaks
on buying ship. They burned down all their businesses man, and then they
wondered why none of them came back. Nobody did nobody. Don't hear about
any of that anymore. It was it was terrible. I see I seen
somebody sword ons out in front crying and he knew the people that were robbing
him. They're like and there telling him, wait, why are you robbing
me? And they're like, it's a free it's a free for all,
you know. It was. It was insane. I mean the first night
was downtown, downtown, Chinese restaurants went down, coops, everything went down
everything. I'm gonna say, no, Chinese restaurants usually there packing yeah,
yeah, yeah, you up, Brom, it was nuts. The first
night was downtown and that was a bunch of fucking white, crazy ass fucking
skateboard kids. That or Antieth, Yeah yeah, yeah, no doubt.
I mean I told him, I told my you've ever seen a teetha guy
on a skateboard on him over? I swear to guy, I know the
needs a beaten, Yeah, beaten. They were ignorant and fucking It was
just crazy, man. Then the second night, Inglewood caught on to what
was going on downtown and they burned. They burned that place, They burned
the whole South Side down. It was it was insane. I never see
anything like that in my life. It was total chaos. It was I
heard anything about that, Uh what's that? None of it exactly what It's
like, Fairy dutched, nobody got arrested, nobody knows nothing. Why would
you Mysteriously none of the cameras worked. There's cameras everywhere. In every corner's
got a camera is thing in life is wasted talent. Nobody cares. Nobody
caresol is the real deal. Somebody sai as a fireman. It was a
good night. Yeah, no doubt man, you were. You just went
from fire to fight. It was crazy. We would we would, We
would have to even bed to hose. We were throwing a pile on top
and go right down the block to the next fire. I think the closest
thing that we ever had to that was the blackout in seventy seven when they
were burning everything down. Well they had the blackout and what two thousand that
was? That was pretty close, two thousand and three or four, it
was. It was we're so in the shopping There was a shopping like a
strip mall right. We had a Sally's beauty supply that they had robbed every
hair extension out of it, took every everything out of there, right,
and they set it on fire. So I'm trying to watch these two young
kids, because they were very inexperienced. I'm trying to keep an eye on
them and their throat. There's just crazy shit going on all around us.
I'm watching they backed up to this Bank America atm thing like a little little
hallway without ATM in it. They they ran the car, threw the ATM
thing, shamed up the ATM and dragged it out right. They were driving
around the parking lot where they chained up, trying to smash it open.
And I remember we had two state troopers with us that we're trying to follow
us to every fire so we wouldn't get killed. He's like, listen,
who was that ATM? Breaks open? It's gonna be utter chaos, he
says, So hurry up and put this foot so we get the fuck out.
It was insane, man, they're dragging this ATM around, making me
know, Yeah, I saw you had a little sweat there coming down.
Hey, you hit man, He said, he's the real deal. Whoever
the big easy is? Oh that's Eric Mason, My buddy. Eric is
at h he's a lieutenant. Now, he was at Tower thirty nine.
He's asking about the Rocky Raccoon story. But he came in too late.
Bro, you already, Yeah, I hit him up. That's a great
story. Eric's he's a good fireman. He's a lieutenant now. I mean,
uh, that's that's one thing I wished the fire apartment would. I
mean, across the board anywhere you should you should get promoted by your experience
should count for everything. I think. I mean, don't get me wrong,
you take a test, that's all bullshit, I think. But I
mean the good guys, A lot of good guys ever get promoted, right,
It's just you mean, then he got a lot of good guys stay
with good companies. But I mean, I know a lot of guys that
should have been promoted and a lot of guys that shouldn't have been promoted.
You know, I was just talking about this with my wife who watching the
show Band of Brothers the other day, and like, you know, those
field promotions mean more than a guy who just gets promoted out of a school
or something like that. You know, right, you know? How do
you? How do you? I mean, sometimes it's not your fault.
You go to a slow company, okay, and it takes time to get
out of it because you need time to get a good spot, right.
But you're promote a guy who's been at a company that really doesn't done shit,
and you're gonna put them in charge of some guys that might not know
much either, and that's when you end up with your may days. You
know what I mean. I mean, to me, there's just a lot
of a lot of talent just went to the wayside because we gotta go,
we gotta do it this way. Oh, we got to have so many
of these guys, or we got to have so many of these guys,
you know what I mean? What about they're in charge of people's lives,
man, I mean, come on, let's you work yours, You work
your ass off at a busy company. After maybe fifteen years, you should
be a lieutenant somewhere you mean, or whatever. I mean, that's just
my feeling on that. But that's the one never no, no, I
mean, I mean everybody agrees with that. Obviously, you want to be
with the bosses, you know, who who have the most experienced, right,
because you feel the most comfortable with that. But yeah, right,
you know, yeah, that's why when you when you when you get a
good chiefer like we had Pat and Keo and Mitch and we know all the
good chiefs around us. I mean, and then when you when you see
that, you see these guys leave and sometimes you see what gets replaced,
and you see what happens at a fire. Thinking of myself, this this
should never happen, you know, or when the chief asks you, how
do you think we're doing? What do you mean? What are you asking
me for? I don't know. How do you think we're doing? Chief?
You're not doing good? Chief? We didn't do so good yet,
I don't know. I mean, we say Bill all the time. If
you want to go to work, even if, like you said, if
you don't have any hooks or you don't know ship and you get stuck in
the slow house, and like you said, it does take time to get
out of that, you will find the work right. You might not be
in the busiest place, But if you want to go to work, can
you make it your point that you want to go to work. Listen,
if you're the captain of a company and some kid keeps showing up every week,
you know at your place, who are you going to take? You're
going to take some kid who you're absolutely right. So I gave a little
speech at an academy class and Clay Whiteley, who was on squad fire for
us for a while, he's running the academy now, which is he's a
great guy and he does a great job, and so he says, you
got to come down here and talk to these kids, you know. So
I go down there and I told him, I go, can I say
what I want because I'm not going to power coat it and tell you what
the city wants you to hear. You know what I mean. So I'm
going to tell him how I you know, what my experiences were and what
I feel. And I told him, I said, listen, there's eighty
of you in his class. I go, I'm gonna be honest with you.
After you will be fireman. After you will be content wherever you go.
That's just the way it is. I go, you want to be
a fireman in this job? You can be a fireman you find, like
you said, you find your way to a place, and you'll be there.
If you get to a place and you're content, don't want to do
ship, well, you could be a load too. And and say you're
a fireman at a bar and do whatever the hell you want to do.
I says, but like you said, you want to be a fireman.
You could be a fireman and you will find the work. You will find
the work exactly. And and one kid say, one kid says to me,
goes, how can you say that? I go, I'm telling you
because some people in my class never became fireman either. They found a place
where they got comfortable and never moved. I says, what, it's a
safe for every ass. There's places that need you know, slow houses,
you need a guy there will need figgs too, Danny, that's why judge
sales. Listen, whatever you want out of the job, right. But
I you know, I just got a couple of emails from a couple of
kids, uh, within the last week. One of the guys, I
think he said he was from Ohio's he's in the FDNY academy and he wants
to know what he should do. He wants to go here. And I
said, listen, you got to be in the top ten percent, probably
fifteen percent of that class if you don't have a hook to try and be
able to get to a division that you want to go to. But in
the end, if you don't, you just have to make the noise.
You're going to get that. But you can you cannot, like you said,
be content. It has to be on your mind all the time.
You you know, you're practicing all the time, you're you're working at the
firehouse, even if it's slow all the time, and then you go on
interviews, you talk to people, and they're going to know that you have
to get out of there. I think they're worth anything. How many people
have you said, listen, man, you got to get the fuck out
of here. You know, to die here, you know. I told
I mean, we were a couple of the chiefs that we used to work
in downtown because clas squadify enough to get putting in Downtown's district, which some
of the downtown companies don't do nothing right. So I tell these kids,
when I'll go to squad one, if you take a detail of squad one,
I say, listen, man, tell the chief you want to get
detailed. Get the fuck out of here. You're sitting here on the couch
talking about what you want to do, but you ain't doing nothing about it.
I go every answer, order, put in, put in. Eventually
you're gonna get something. And it happened to my neighbor's son right right over
here. He was he got putting one of the worst I'm not gonna say,
well company yeah in the city, and he was stuck there. I
go, listen, just keep putting in. I call me, tell me
what's on the vacancy I'll tell you what you got a shot at. Sure
enough, he slowly got out of downtown. Now he's at a busy truck
company. Took him five years, but he's there. And you know what
he told me. He called me the other day he says, you know
what you were right? I love it here I go. I told you
there's there's When you get to a good firehouse, you'll fucking know it.
You know what I mean, Right, If you do the right thing,
maybe somebody notices it. Yeah, and they'll they'll they'll make a call for
you. If they see that, you know, they'll say, hey,
I can help you. Got to get out of here, vouch for you.
Right. Some kid is like, you know, comes up there,
you say, hey, hey boss, so you know I'm looking. I
want to try and get over here. I'm like, listen, man,
you need a lot more work. You better start getting your game up because
I'm not value for you. We go over there and vice versa. If
I know that a kid is worth, he's got to get out of here
because he's he's going to be good. You can see, yeah, you
know, you know you want to He's got to get out of there right.
Unfortunately, honesty is good honesty. Man. Unfortunately, in the city
of Chicago, twenty percent of the fire department works and the rest of it's
what it is, you know what I'm saying. That's when we say that
all the time because it's less. Yeah, is extraordinary. We got about
eighty percent ordinary, and like ten percent really suck. So it's about you
know, we only got about ten percent that really are like extraordinary guys that
you're like, holy shit, those are the guys who try to get on
the show. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's unfortunate that some some
day some fire house just staying busy. It's just the way it is.
But like you said, you find a way if you want to listen,
name of the busy places that were historically busy, even in New York are
not as busy, you know what I mean. So, I mean,
if you're going to go somewhere, you still have to go there because that's
where there's more work. But it's not like it, you know, anything
close to what it was. And you know what the other thing is,
you have to you can't let the other guys eat you down to conframe to
them. Because when I was in thirty nine or sixteen. I used to
repack the life saving rope for the engine and the truck, and the guys
used to make fun of me all the time. Oh oh yeah, the
edgines for I wouldn't doing the engines for or I cleaned the tools on both
rigs. And the captain of the truck saw that, and he's the one
who got me over to the squad. Saw what I was doing. I
would sit down on every drill engine and the truck, and he got me
over to the squad because he saw that I was. I was looking for
something else. Don't let the don't let the guy fucking beat you out,
because they'll make fun of you. They'll try to press you and to not
doing anything. You know. Yeah, they'll say, hey, what do
you want to leave here for? We got it made here or some bullshit.
Yeah yeah, oh. People take it personal when you We say that
all the time. Like, you know, if somebody put a transferring,
you would be like what the hell? Like yeah, right right right,
I mean you're like, why why are you leaving? I go? Well,
ships slowing down? I mean I was in four neighborhoods that slowly got
you know what I mean getting slowly. You got to follow the fires man.
Whatever. Bill my lieutenant Patty Lee from once seventeen when I was a
proby, he just wrote, we were over quoted with a Talian, so
we had to let them go. I was said, for a minute,
I always gotta throw that one hooking man. You know, he's got that
one. Haymakers a bitch. I think he got me grouped in with the
mother Ginzos. That's the problem. You got me. He's got me grouped
in there. Well you were probly Ginzos, I know, but no,
you know, I'm just saying it's still it's still. I mean, it's
still like uh, once you get once you get a good firehouse, it's
just like it's like, I'm not every firehouse I went to, I'm thinking
I'm never leaving here, and then the neighborhood changes and it starts getting up
a fight or whatever, and then next thing you know, you got to
go to this place that's where shit's happening, you know, I mean,
I slowly. I don't believe for the first firehouse I went to, which
that was only one on the west side, everything after that was only within
a mile of where I was at you know what I'm saying. I never
went out of that three or four the Band of Ginzo's, the Band of
Brothers. Nice. Nice. You wind up retiring two thousand and twenty one.
Yeah. Wow, it don't suck, though, Bill, right.
I mean, obviously it don't suck being retired. Oh it doesn't suck.
Yeah, I mean, I yeah, that was my walkout right there,
because the last time I walked I went on Ashland Abby for a while.
So anyway, you know, it wasn't bad. I mean I was getting
so at the point that I left Squad five, the whole squad was in
their fifties. You fucking believe that. I mean it was crazy. I
mean I'm thinking. I looked at it. I told the guys one time
in the kitchen table, I go, do you realize it's like one or
two guys here in their late forties. We're all in our fifties. I
mean, one Billy Monica who just got promoted. That's why he left.
He's getting forced off the job. He was sixty at the time. I
mean it was I mean, that's insane. I'm thinking to myself, we're
going to sometimes two three fires at night, getting our asses whooped, and
I'm thinking, we're all in our fucking fifty and we're still doing this crazy
shit. You know, that's how much you love it. You don't want
to leave. You know what made you want to pack it? And then
what was the determine? In thirty five years, my knees were killing me,
and one was really bad. I mean I felt to me, I
felt like I was really getting really getting slow. I mean, I was
still doing the job, but man, I could feel it. I mean
I was living off ibuprofien, you know what I mean. I was every
fire. I was taking eight hundreds, man, just so like, you
know, just stop some of the paint and shit. But i mean thirty
five years and like I said, my guys, a couple a lot of
my guys were leaving and got promoted. So it was it was time.
I mean, I mean what else. It was just it was just that
time. You know, when it's time, it's time. Bill and then
pat My was my chief. He retired year before me. I was supposed
to go that year and I am hanging. They talked me to stay in
a year and I'm like, then they tried talking to anywhere again. I'm
like listen, man, it's time. Man. I still want to do
things. I still want to be able to walk and do things, you
know. Right. So, but then my wife was on me a little
bit time for you to go, you know. And the last year I
got my hand smashed. You know, I got a guy drop a window
from the second floor on my head. I'm like, this is a sign
man, you know what I mean? Speaking of time, you know what
time and it's gone. I think I know what time it is. You
know what time it is. Time, it's time for of the day.
My old school tip is my last year on a job, we had three
may days. When you're in a fireman, stay with your friend ends,
stay with your partners, and know where you're at in the building. That's
my tip of the day. Sweeks short and to the point, excellent,
Phil. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you in your career. Get over the
refrigerator. Get yeah, son of a bitch, did you check that refrigerator
face? Oh man, You'll never forget that refrigerator, no way. Uh.
I enjoyed the show. They were right, you live. You guys
are all the same Korea. You guys are all the same. All of
them, every one of them is almost exactly the same. You can listen
to. Yeah, I said, I couldn't ask for a better career.
Man. The guys I worked with unbelievable. Man, nobody that I ever
ever looked at that I worked with, saying oh, he shouldn't be here.
These guys are all good guys. I mean I didn't, Like I
said, I stayed in a busy area my whole career and worked with a
lot of the same guys for probably thirty years. Some of the guys you
know, and yeah, here and there, wherever you switch companies, whatever,
but you knew all the guys you know, So now enjoy collecting your
pension with that beautiful wife you We just got to keep waking up now,
baby. That's every morning I go for my checks. And that's one thing
I do. You know. We got to check the cancer bullshit and trying
to stay on top of that ship and get and and you know, and
like I said, I missed the guys. I don't know if I missed
the circus, but I missed the clowns. You know, the game.
I have to say, me and Koobs are lucky because we get to do
this and it kind of really keeps us tied into a lot of the job.
So when you know, I'm always like a you know the time.
It's great. I don't really miss it, yeah, because I'm doing this
with fine and every you know, every week about the job all the time,
you know. Yeah, you guys, you guys do a good job.
I like it. Man. It's night and day. They're always firemen
game tonight, bro Gonzo like his hat tonight though. It's something going on
with the hand. Yeah, it's little. There's a little you don't got
no product in it, very low. It's got a little something going on,
all right. So who do we got on Monday? Brough, I
don't even look Thursday. You guys having me on, man, Bill.
I really enjoyed it, man, Dennis, it was fun. You havens
out there to watch it. Listen, Man, you guys keep it up.
Man, you guys doing a good job. I don't know if you're
in uh you ever make you wait in New York. But in August we
have a for all the guests we had on for the year. We have
a boat ride on a fireboat around the Statue of Liberty. No ship.
Yeah, man, So often I don't suck now. Good. Yeah,
I want to come there anyway. I want to see I want to see
the memorial. Don't don't worry about bringing your wife too. She's invited as
well. You know that's not the love, just got it. You gotta
take a newspaper and just smack them coops, you know. No, it's
every once in a while, that's all. Let me know about that.
Eves will go out. I have your email, so the evites will go
out. Okay, the guys keep. Some young kids are gonna learn some
ship. Yeah, Sunday, August fourth, then okay, he shout any
shout outs rough, ah, shut up the guys. There's a couple of
New York guys down here. My buddy Terry mcpol and he's down there.
A couple of New York guys are down there listening all this. Shout out
to my young gun buddies. At forty five, they're all retired now.
Shout out to all the guys I worked with man Squad five truck twenty eighty
four. I mean, had a great career. Man, I couldn't ask
for anything better. I don't think you call him young guns anymore. You
have to mind might have to talk. Yeah, rusty pistols might be more
like. We hear that. We hear that a lot. Now, all
right, gods, what about you any shout outs, No, sir,
I do not at the time. No, the next time, put a
little soul blow on that. Well, yeah, you got them. So
maybe I need to get a haircut. I don't know. I'll figure it
out. Maybe it's the angle of the camera. Just because I don't know,
I'm blaming something other than my head job. All right, all right,
boys, I appreciate it. Man, be safe out there. Don't
hang up yet. All right, guys, we will see you on Thursday.
Until then, stay low and go right. All right, thanks again,
we'll see it the big one everybody. Thanks guys. All right,
guys up. Sounds like work.