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, Joe Seleki. That's right. I called on Joe
Selecki from Texas. Roof, there's only steers and queers in Texas. I'm
just gonna say that. You know, hornds On Selucki. Bro, So
you know what I'm saying. Bro, we already got the guy scoped owt
we know he got mad. You met a girl, moved to Texas,
were girl and took them with the with the triangle magnet. Bro, sucked
them all the way down to Texas, left the ghetto a ball triangle magnet.
Where did you pull up? Powerful pi is brother empire is It's time?
From there, I can put them all the way down a thousand elephants,
that's right. And it pulled Joe Selecti all the way to Texas.
Bro, he was doing it. He was doing it. In Baltimore and
now he's doing it Irvine, Texas. He's a Cowboys fan now Irvine,
Texas. Yep, yeah, we got how we foust in there tonight is
a new name, but the old usuals. Proppaccini. You got the from
Rochester checking w W two w W two girls in there. Yeah, she
just came in hot last second there. Pee wee, pee wee, Hey,
buddy, I love pee wee. Listen, I gotta I got a
guy today from coming in from Flint. We got twenty seven years in Flint,
a Flint, Michigan guy. Bro, Excellent, that's gonna be a
heavy hitter. He's a black dude, Bro, third black dude on the
show. They don't like to come on. He's awesome. He sounds awesome.
I know he's gonna be great. You know why he's awesome because he
plays hockey. Oh that's why he's like and he plays hockey, And I'm
like, you lost me there, Bro, nobody cares about hockey. You
got what what the hell do you mean? Gabe having my ship together tonight?
Say hello, Tilly, I have your lunch. Gabe's continue the pictures
from the other day. Bro, Yeah, bullshit you guys could suck it.
Man. I got a call Tilly tomorrow. Listen, you off your
game the other day and I wasn't. I wasn't off my motherfucking game.
Part of my friend. What's the matter with you? Why do you know?
I'm sorry? Well, I told you don't be coops, coops suck
you know we're off it again. I gotta tell you I did it again
today. Remember that I told you the other day with my son, he
dropped the forty five pound playing on his foot. No. Sorry, So
today I wake up my little guy. He goes to my throat is really
killing me. I'm like, yeah, all right, but you go to
school. Okay, you going to school, but it's killing me. I
can barely swallow. He's got the tears in the eyes. And dude,
you did that to me last time when you had to cough. You were
coughing like a madman. As soon as your brother walked out the door to
school. Where did you have like to or something? Right, he's got
strep throat. You're all for two, all for two, all for three.
My other my son, Lucas, when they's played football outside, he
falls, he comes in. He's not that my arm is killing me for
the whole week. I'm like, suck it up, man, for Christ's
sake, suck it up. Cop pound fracture. Take it to the doctor.
He's gotta broke it off. He's in a No, you're right,
your arm is not broken. Can you wiggle your fingers? Broken? Yeah?
Man? Did you give him a free ball, a little compassion?
You know what I mean? It's it's all right, you know I did.
After that, I felt terrible. I just brought him some ice cream.
I said, as you throw a blue buddy, come in, let
daddy's get some ice cream and shove that ice cream up your asshole. Man,
isn't he trying to make the kid lose weight? You're shoving calories down
the straw? What's little little little guy? All right? Yeah, he's
little water, a little guy. Yeah. We got a guy off from
Baltimore City tonight, bro some work you did, guy from Baltimore. It's
a third guy, I think, so freshly retired too. So he hasn't
had the nightmare yet. He hasn't the nightmare about losing You can't find your
bunkie year when you get a run. But he knows we're talking about it.
You lose your whole identity. You come just same old schnook sitting at
the long Yeah, beautiful, what is that velvet? What are you gonna
play this? What are you doing? You know? What do you want
to hear about? Beautiful? I don't want to hear it now here.
When it's Tom cue you to step up your game, bro. I gotta
tell you that much. Coobs is all over you. Listen, He's all
over you. It's just a hair. It's just they all hate us out
there. I mean, I can't help it. What do you want?
You know? I can't I keep all the time. Are you ready?
Are you ready to bring in our boys from New Jersey? I'm ready?
Yeah? Bring his son just got called for the Newark, right, I
think big Jimmy, Jimmy de Guinea oh from yes he did? Yeah yeah,
I mean, uh no, we got to do the ad first.
Yeah, yea yeah, yeah yeah yeah from Jimmy. Established in nineteen thirty
and under the current ownership since nineteen eighty seven, the New Jersey Fire Equipment
Company handles a complete line of fire department equipment and supplies. Headquartered in green
Brook, the company operates full three m Scott Service facilities in Ridgefield Park and
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fully equipped service fans. All New Jersey Fire technicians and sales representatives are active
or retired firefighters, officers or chief officers, career and volunteer. They understand
the business and the importance of their work. New Jersey Fire has represented Scott
since Earl Scott entered the SCBA business at the end of World War II.
Among other leading manufacturers represented by New Jersey Fire, Art Globe and Fireedex turnout
gear, Mercedes Hose, task Force Tips and Akron Brass, Hygenol, fire
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E dot com. That's www dot n j f E dot com. Wow,
we got a Gonzo fanclub. It's true you are a true hater.
Well, they love you just as much I love it. Yeah, Pete's
gonna do a commercial student with his first gun shop. The only thing is
he's not gonna pay for it because hes got You have to pay for lunch
or breakfast. Bro, you ain't gonna pay for a commercial bit. All
right, let's get that guy in here, bro, let's do this all
right, coming to the day, all away from Baltimore City, Lieutenant Steven
Cobo. Hey we go. The flyers are really hot down there. Roughly.
I heard dude only thirty six years on the job. Thirty six years?
Wow, man, you know over eighty two. That Welcome to the
show, Lieutenant Cobo, Thank you, gentlemen. Is a definitely an honored,
approvished to be with you guys. He's got his old Baltimore swag back
there. Look at that. You know he did get it. He didn't
get the man cave totally set up yet because he's uh, you know,
he just really retired retired right. Yeah, his wife is still not used
to having him home at night. Bro, She's like Christ going to the
five house already. Will please please him again? That's why I no hunt.
My wife's like, aren't you going hunting? That's the clue. My
mother does say that. Doesn't his wife get mad that he goes away all
the time. I'm like, no, she probably enjoys it. I don't
know what that's a break, because if you didn't have to have little chicklets
around, you'd be going away. For me, yeah, my kids are
two youngsters when we go to the trade shows. That's it. That's enough
for me. I don't like people with my wife. All right, All
right, let we have we got to get patriot. Where is Susie been
anyway? Anybody? I'm sure somebody will, don't think Darren will probably chime
up and let us know what's going on, But you don't, you know,
remember her husband wasn't doing very well. That sucks. All right,
Well, let's get patriotic for Susie. Here we go. I pledge 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.
Guys are already throwing references in there, Steve, where's the pond?
Soul? Throwing some shit in there? Yes, with but a rookie,
they're gonna hang on your own night. I could see it. Oh yeah,
I love it, we welcome it, we love it all right.
Let's you know what, I don't even have to ask him ro if the
guy came with a very concise maybe not as long as the other guy's timeline
that we had on here, eighteen pages long, but very concise nonetheless.
So he even has a little section here it says family history with bull.
I love that part. That's the part I love the best. I do
too, So take it away, Steve. You tell us the grandfather was
on. Tell us about how you got ut started and how your family got
started. Well, it's younger. My father was in my grandfather on my
mother's side, he was a battanian chief. He was actually was a captain
at six sixteen truck where I used to be stationed. They made battalion chief
and my father got in in nineteen fifty six when he got out of the
Korean War and he came over and so it became a family thing at that
point. And growing up, you know, Dad was always was always working.
That's when they wore the brown khakis and the aluminum helmets. And there
was a few times when when my dad was in Chargia night he was over
eighteen engine he would actually my mother would drop me off at the engine house
and I would actually spend the night sleep there. Oh yeah, Dad was
in charge at night. So that was that was pretty unique. And so
that age of eighteen nineteen, I did a little bit of volunteering and I
say, you know what, I can get paid to do this. So
I went ahead and my father kept me a breast when the test was coming
out. Took the test in eighty five, got hired in eighty seven.
Old Baltimore City, guys. Oh, Baltimore City, Your father and your
grandfather ever worked together, because he said your grandfather was during the seventies and
your father got on in fifty six. Yes they did, yep, yeah,
they work it and I have yeah, same station. No, they
didn't work in the same station, but they I'm sure they were wearing fires
together. And I still have cousins down there, and uh yeah, so
we still have people actually there. So did you get to work with your
dad at all? I did? I did. I did. So my
father moved to Delaware, Uh about five years prior to him retiring. And
uh so, you know, I was doing the job and I was all
excited, and of course my dad was like, you know, I want
to get home because I want to get back to Delaware. He goes,
son, how about your work for me my last night in I was like,
yeah, Dad, no doubt, you know I'll do it. Yeah.
So that is yeah. That was him and his dad of graduation.
Hm wow still around. No, he passed about five years ago. Oh
and uh wow, you know that hair. Look look at your father's face
though. You could tell he's like my boy. Thank god he found his
way somewhere. Get the hell out of my house. Before that? Did
you go to school? Before that? You go to college? What we
went to? No, I went to graduate from high school. I worked
in a grocery store, and uh so I did that for actually for twenty
years. I was doing both jobs. For twenty years. I did the
grocery store, got in the fire department eighty seven, still work at the
grocery store. And then I left the grocery store as a part timer back
in two thousand when my daughter was born. And uh yeah, and then
you know fire remember always picking up by jobs here and there. Guys had
the waking bulls about working in the grocery store, not like spilling Aisle eleven
or something like that. Eleven. It was, it was, it was
good and I was excited about getting in and uh yeah, it was good.
Kevin Brown's lieutenants and then I think we got was always always yeah.
As a matter of fact, I think we matter. We think, oh
here this, look at this. Then moving the station lawn, that's me.
Yeah, pro to do that? What do you what are you doing
out there? I would I had other things for them to do, and
I would get out there. It was all hands, basically, and there
was a lot of grass next to the firehouse. It's probably about a half
acre, and uh so it had to be done and we would split up.
Guys would trim him. And you know, Rake and I always like
jumping on the miller and get it done. Doesn't doesn't the city pay guys
to do that? What are you doing? Pay him? You let him
keep his job. You mentioned that down here, and people are like,
oh, what are you saying? Don't we would go there? What cutting
grass? Grass? Down here at the firehouse. If you guys put the
dishes in the dishwashing by house, probably you gotta worry about cutting grass.
They will give dish washer, so well you have to probably he's a dishwasher.
Probably a dishwasher. So you go to probably school and this see let
me get some notes. Yet you took the test in eighty five, you
got hided in eighty seven. What was Baltimore like back then? Because that
was a little b about Baltimore because people don't know. You know, from
what I know about Baltimore is you have to eat a habit there which is
beautiful. You step outside anywhere right outside of it, whoa hands over there
with? Yeah, it was it was probably about the same, but you
could expand a little a little bit bigger back in the eighties and you than
you can now. The stadium of course came, Oriel Park, came New
Yards and then Ravens Stadium, so you know, I kind of pushed out
some of the old buildings and they came in, and so it became more
and more tourisy. Uh huh uh so up to people coming state and from
this panic counties were coming in. So yeah, it was. It was
still it was pretty popular. It's not as popular actually in the harbor,
in the Inner Harbor now it's other actually talking about redesigning it, but around
the stadiums is still very popular. So yeah, how far where did you
live in the subwhere outside Baltimore? I did. I lived in northeast Baltimore,
probably closer to Baltimore County, and I lived there tows about eleven years
old, and then we moved out to the county about eleven years old.
And how far is that twenty minute drive? Forty minutes far enough, just
far enough now and now it's it's it's a lot worse than it was back
then, right, I'm sure it is. It is. It's uh well,
you know, you see it on the news. It's uh it.
It's violent real quick and right. So, did you guys go through your
war years in the seventies like we did up here? You know, we
were hitting in the late eighties in like the early nineties. It was the
crack epidemic. I mean it was a lot of gangs from Jamaica and all
that were coming in, you know, claiming turf. So we had a
lot of shootings back in the late eighties early nineties. The crack is whack,
yeah, crack, the whole crack. Academic was amongst us, and
that definitely kept kept everybody busy doing that. How big is the department Baltimore
City. It's about fifteen hundred uniform personnel roughly human stations. It's about thirty
I want to say thirty eight thirty six engine companies and uh fourteen ladder companies
and close to thirty two medic units. And they got they broke it up
in six battalions. Yeah, it's about ninety two square miles. Is actually
discomfort of the city. Rescues one rescue, one rescue. Yeah, I'm
sorry, yeah, one rescue, and they keep very busy. Yeah,
they're always running. They got to be right. They covered, they cover
the whole. They covered the whole, the whole ninety or not ninety well
in the ninety five south of Baltimore Bottembre Beltway. And of course everything goes
into city. You know, they go on first their area that they're around.
They'll go on first storm assignments for building, vowing fires and and whatever
special call that they need them. And how many guys ride on the rig
and an engine and a lot of by your guys. Four so we have
four in the engine and four in the truck. Four and the rescue and
including the officer for including the officers. So when I pull up, especially
when you're your first in first in ladder company, you you're busy your forcefule
entry because you got your uh your two step guys throwing grand ladders or your
tillerman thrown ground ladders, and you have your driver getting the aerow ladder up
to the roof and uh so you're it. You're you're getting the door open.
You got the engine guys coming behind you. So you really got to
be on your game. You've got to be on your game getting the front
end or the front door opened up. And what are they sending on a
on a confirmed building fire. Well, if it comes out as a initial
the initial called initial box still send out four engines U, two trucks,
two Botani chiefs in a Medican. I remember talking with the chief from Baltimore,
that Chief Lega. I remember him saying, you guys still have quite
a few. You know, that's one of the places that still has a
lot of vacants there, right, you guys still have a lot of vacants.
I think the last count I heard was fifteen thousand vacants. Now they've
been they've been working to get them, you know, demolished and brought them
up, you know, do whatever until they could you know, get secure
the owner. You know a lot of these owners are from out of state
and trying to get them, you know, come secure your property, take
care of your property. And so that's always been a challenge. Did they
change, I mean, unfortunately we heard you know, we lost a few
guys and Baltimore the last Yes, yeah, yeah, yes, change they
did. They they changed the run assignments are pretty much the same, but
they when the chiefs assignment, they wind up given the chief aids. So
the chief has aids to help them out, you know, logistically on the
fire scene, second set of eyes and you know drive for them because the
chiefs before then we're driving and trying to work the radio and all by themselves.
So they were were they used the task saturated is the work. Yeah,
that's the name of Chicago. They drive themselves too, they don't they
did they change any of the sps as far as that with a lot of
duty stuff. They did. They they changed it to Now how they you
have to have a companies in the rear said they want to complete three sixty,
especially when it comes to a vacant, they want to complete three sixty
and then the chief on the scene will make the determination if it's secure to
go ahead and go and take lines. And that's two years ago. That's
crazy. I know. The recent deaths were a few months ago with Lieutenant
Dillon, they were a couple of months ago. But we just cell we're
not celebrated. We just had the anniversary of Paul Buttram and Kenny and Kelsey.
Yesterday was two years for them for the three yea in the collapse on
Stricker Street. Wow, and you guys had a tough couple of years.
Yeah five and yeah five and less than two years. Well, it's vacance
thought, a lot of places to drill right practice with the young guys or
they just that lap again, just don't even go in them. They you
know, you can throw the ground, ladders and all that. Years ago,
when I first started, you could pretty much have your way with a
vacant. You know, you could maybe start saws, get something going.
But again it comes back down to insurance lawyers and not too thin. Get
that they when everything kind of you know controlled it the fire Academy and when
certified instructors making sure that that they can see what's going on, make sure
it's it's taught properly. So so let's get back to the academy. You
go into the academy and eighty seven. How long is the academy? It
was thirteen weeks, that's what OZ was, right, do we do thirteen
weeks? It's pronounced like ten months. I think it's what some of the
guys really, I think it is now. I think we I did.
I think we did like week and thirteen weeks. Thirteen weeks, yeah,
including the game. Well, you got your emt with you like two weeks
and then the rest was all you know, fire Suppression, Peace Officer was
like a week or some ship like that. I don't remember. I got
in in October and I got to the firehouse in January or February. January,
I got down in May, and I got on in July, the
beginning of July. It's like thirteen fourteen weeks something like that. Started May,
no, May and June it was eight weeks and then you said July,
right, yeah, on July technd. Oh all right, so ten
weeks, nine weeks something like that. Whatever, So you get into uh,
probably was the class. How big were you the classes? Running back?
My class I had forty five four got a big class, small class
competitive, that average, that was average at the time, it was average.
They try to get three classes a year through if they could, you
know now, you know, being the classes are like nine ten months,
they might get one through. You know. So did you know where you
wanted to go? Did Dad know where you were going? Or how did
that work? Now? I kind of, you know, expressed I want
to go to a truck company, and so I went twenty nine truck and
uh so it was good. It was a good place to start at.
It wasn't overwhelming and it was it was a good place to start out.
So I got the chance right November yep. Uh so you're saying not a
lot of service. Yep, it was a tiller though, Yes it was
tiller, yeah right, acting pump operata. So yeah, so I got
a chance to really work on those things like driving tiller and an active po
because you know, there's those skills are good to have, you know,
especially being a new recruit. Is that kind of keeps you off the medic
unit and you help your company out, you know, if you know they've
got a guy that's from the company in house that can fill in and need
it, so instead of getting somebody. So you had what engine was with
you guys? Four engine? Yea four engine, four engine twenty nine trucks.
So if you if you become a pump operator, it saves your ass
and going right in the medics that night, got a couple of times I
went across the aisle, across the the bay and go over to the engine
and pump operate for him for you know a trick or two. So nice.
So Uh, it says you studied for Emergency Vehicle drive up which means
what like your chauffeur like to drive the ladder truck. Yeah, you it's
EVD Emergency vehicle driver and you drive and tiller the ladder trucks. That's a
promotion. That is a promotion. Oh who is your bosses there that you
remember? Who was your your first captain? Uh? That's going back,
Wow, Captain Dalen was my first captain at twenty nine and I had uh
Lieutenant Lemon and had Lieutenant Coleman were my first officers. And how long did
it take you to catch your first job over that? I want to say
probably three months. Yeah, about three months to three months. Caught a
lot of medics, a lot of medical assists. Uh, but the first
job was about two or three months. Yeah, it was funny. At
the about about a year or two was transfer. I was detailed to a
different company and got to talking to the rookie that was at that company,
and we were talking about my first fire that I had a twenty nine truck
and it was his father's house. So really you went to yeah, it
was yeah, we went to his father's house, bro in the street.
He goes, oh, that was my dad's house, and yeah, we
talked about it. That was kind of unique. Yeah, so it was
what kind of fun was it was? It was a bloom frame construction.
It started in the first floor and it got up, walked its way up
through the second floor up into the attic. So when we pulled up,
we had a heavy amount of smoke coming out the attic, out of the
eaves and uh. Yeah. So it was uh in that area, twenty
nine trucks area was a lot of bloom frame construction homes. So you got
that a lot. So you study, you're promoted to drive, and you
go over to truck sixteen truck sixteen. Ev D, what's ev D?
What's Baltimore? Yeah, it was a truck sixteen was right on the west
east Baltimore line, and it was good. It was a lot of service
and uh because you kind of you were kind of in the middle of the
city, so you could go northeast, south or west pretty easily, and
so got some good work there. Uh, really got a chance to work
on some good truck skills. And uh, you know it was good.
It was good, run good, love an engine there, what you do.
No, we were a single house, single truck, bro truck in
the middle of the in the middle of the city, back in the middle
city. That's awesome. Is it still like that now? No, they
closed it down. It was I'm going to say the one thing that two
things are going to happen. Either they closed them or they stuck an endy
with him. Well, a truck sixteen is still around. But they closed
the house and suck them to where I think in my timeline you have truck
four there. So they right when they were doing closures. So right,
that's right, that's right. And do what that building now? City still
on it. It was a the police originally bought it for training, like
classroom for training, and then it is now I think I think it's probably
I think it's like a like a civic not a civic center, like a
community center. I think they use that. Now, Hey, go this
truck sixteen. Here it is. Yeah, I was trying to find a
better image. But the ones that were popping up are still a little grainy
that. Uh no, that's not a till, is it. Yes,
it is trying to find a good picture of it. Nice. So you
truck six things. You said you had a great shift. Do you guys
work like the ABC shifts too, like a lot of the other guys do.
Yeah, at that time I had well, right now it's ABC and
D shift. We had four shifts, and at that time it was two
days on, two days, two nights off, four two days, two
nights off four and two days too nights and y're all four that's the best
schedule. Yeah, it was seven, you know, seven to four,
seven to five, and then usually got into about three four o'clock and you
work till six next morning. You relief usually got into about six and you
know, get you home and then they went to the twenty four hour shifts,
so we did. Now they're on the shift twenty four hours. It's
twenty four one, twenty four off, twenty four one, five days off,
it's five days off. That's that's not bad, all right? Rough?
Yeah, bad, and you're going to fives? Yeah, that steal
firehouse, right, I just wanted to sixteen at sixteen original there was original
sixteen truck right there. Yeah, now it's a it's a brewer. I
think it's a brewery. Now. It looks like there's a little sign right
out front there. They turned it into I think they were calling it like
Ladder sixteen brewery or something like that. He might have seen it once or
twice, right ever known to go about who are so many guys in sixteen
truck that you latched onto him? Yeah? I had, Uh, well,
Al Chaney he was the first acting guy and he was he was great.
He really really showed me around. Yeah. Beanie Muller he was a
wild man, hell of a fireman, but he was a wild man.
And uh, and I had I just had some really really good guys there.
And Charlie la Hatt he was a really good fireman. And I had
all good fireman there. It was a good house. Steve Savalla was there,
so it was good and got a lot of service and actually learned a
lot being there coming from nine truck to go there. How long were you
there for? Originally I was there for about two years and I went when
I got in the what they call the heat team. It's called the high
Rise Emergency Aerial Team. I think I have that in my lineup eighty three.
So the heat team we did like high angle, below grade, confined
space and we worked with the Maryland State Police to do like rooftop you know,
extrication stuff like that if they need anything for the high rise fires.
So the rescue was big into that. So I for you know what,
I'm really enjoying his heat team. Let me go to the rescue so I
could be there with the rescue, and you know, with the heat team
you kind of stemming from that. So I went to the rescue and it
was good. It was a good run. I was on the Heat team
I guess maybe five years, four or five years, and then kids came
along and it really eat up a lot of time and I had to focus
wore on always the kids, bro, you know what I mean. Well,
now the rescue have their own quarters and in with somebody else. No,
they were at Steven Station, right near Oral Park. Came New yours.
We caught the super house Steven Station. Uh, it's pretty big.
It housed at that time probably four four suppression units to medic units. And
it was across from where the they used to have the what do you call
the trade show they had the Yes, you got right across the street,
right, I remember, off from that place. Yeah, that's where the
rescue was. Wow, that's richinally it used to set up. Yeah,
so it was a good one and the rescue was good. You got a
lot of fires in the rescue. We did, we did we uh,
we went to again. You were sent on initial boxes, but a lot
of times they would pick you up and uh and send you out on spend
any were in the city. If you got a special call, you were
going and being the only rescue, you kept busy. A lot of elevators,
you did a lot of elevator runs and uh so you kept busy.
It was good. What was the role of the rescue When they roll up
to a fire truck work truck work, go up and help them work,
yep, ventilate, uh, forcequ entry, go to exposures and that's pretty
much problems. Yep, fix the problems take solves up up top, you
know, go into either either side on on the exposures and you know whatever
else the the once team commander needed you to do. So, so how
do you get to the rescue? Yeah? How'd you get over there?
Being on the heat team? I was on the heat So I got on
the heat team prior to being on the rescue, and so I put in
for it because they needed a driver an e v D and uh they said,
yeah, come on over. So I was when the spot came open,
I was able to get in. Who was your boss was over there?
That you remember? I had? I had Captain Riccado, Joe Briccado,
he was my captain. Uh good good, good fire really good fireman.
And uh he was a captain there when I was there, and he
was good. I had Steve Gibson, he was my actual lieutenant and he
since retired. And uh so I really again we had great, really good
cruise. I have I have your first show for experience for you. There
you go. I was ample for that. I was out after that.
Looks on the game tonight, you see that had a little smack him around
a little bit. And then now all of a sudden we got the old
Gonzo Vera. I missed you. Gonza was welcome back. Yeah, yeah,
so the kids come, so you want to you want to we'll go
up back to the truck work. Is that lit I did? Yeah.
I had an opportunity to go to Truck four. And Truck four was you
know, you had, you know, a couple of truck companies in every
every city stand out, and Truck four was one of those companies that stood
out. I mean, great fire service, great officers, you know,
great fireman and I had an opportunity to go there. There was a guy
that wanted to do like a mutual swap. He wanted to go to the
rescue, and I wanted to go back to a truck company. And Truck
four opened up and he wanted to go to the rescue, and so we
did a mutual swap. So that happened for me, and it was a
good time. It was a great time. It was a really good time.
I was going to ask you, I thought, was I just gonna
ask you? Holy shit? I just looked down at my notes for a
second. I didn't know if you wanted to discuss because you kind of we
kind of flip past it going through his timeline. But when he was a
truck sixteen, he had the job at the clipper mill fire. Yeah.
Bro, hold on, I have a notable. So let's go to the
clipper mill fire in September ninety five while you were in trup sixteen. Yes,
we uh I remember that night, go well too well. Actually it
was September ninety five. Was kind of like a night what I'm seeing out
here now, rainy, foggy, was terrible, terrible night. And we
get a call for a building fire and clipper mill which is kind of like
off kind of in the center of city. So we get there and it
was a it was an old foundry building that they used to back in the
days to make cannonballs, actually make the spilling. Yeah, and it was
I would it was about three hundred feet long. It was huge. It
was huge, had the big foundry stones. And since then they converted it
into businesses. They had like artists in there, and they had a couple
like auto shops in there. So they had that broke the building up and
the you know, different businesses that went in there. So we get there
and the whole, the whole back of the place is off and we get
to the front of the building and I'm with thirteen engine here and there you
go, that's it. Wowow the big building man. And uh. We
get there with thirteen engine and it was myself, Paul Novak and his crew
from thirteen engine. So I get there. I was sixteen truck. We
forcedble entry, roll up doors, you know. We make our cut.
We get inside and ten Novaks asking for two and a half. It's a
lot of fire, so we go ahead and we get two and a half
stretched. We have about I want to say, six to eight guys inside
the building at that time, and we get about maybe thirty feet in thirty
forty feet in, and we open up the two and a half and we're
just trying to keep it from going, you know, more or more,
and we're knocking it and then you just heard this like sounded like a freight
train. You know, you could look at the back of the building.
You could just watch the building like start to collapse on itself, and Lieutenant
Know it was like it was coming, that was coming right at you.
And Lieutenant Novac turned around and screamed it always get out, get out its
phone in. So we had been in the hose line. We all ran
out towards the roll up door that we had cut, and just as we
were getting out, Uh, it collapsed right up where we were. And
I remember being pushed out into the street from the debris and the big huge
foundry stones that were that were making that made up the walls, and so
I got pushed down into the street. When I ran out, I was
actually next to air schaffers. We were running out, and I wound up
going straight eight. Eric broke to the right. He ran along the wall
to the right and and then the rest of the building collapsed during Lieutenant Novak
and his crew and it was it was they definitely Guy was down there watching
him that day on that crew, because they were right at the door when
it collapsed. So the the roll up door kind of like enveloped them.
So they weren't, you know, crushed by the degree. Yeah, they
were like in a cocoon, protected almost. Yeah. Yes, it was
crazy. And so this thing collapse, you know, I Uh, Captain
Gnostic from thirty three engine he was there, and I'm sprayed out on the
ground and he picks him out and throws him further back out onto the road
because the debris still falling. So we get up and we're like, wow,
you know, we got a gas leak, and it's probably a two
inch main gas. It's robbling. I mean, it's it's kicking and that's
rolling. It's we got hose lines busted in the street. So I looked
behind me and won of the paramedics from Medic sixteen. He calls over and
says, hey, give me a hand. So we got the captain from
twenty five truck. He's knocked out and he's face down in a puddle and
he's actually in cardiac arrests. He stopped breathing knocked out and he was so
we rolled him over and we started doing CPR. We brought him back right
there before we got him back in the medical union, and then it was
basically scaring the fire ground, looking, hey, you're screaming out people,
and it's funny we were screaming out we did. At this point, we
didn't know where Eric was, and we didn't know where Lieutenant Novak and his
crew was either, and you know, we were hollering for him, and
it was something you would see out of a movie. Next thing, you
know, you see this hand coming up through the debris from the building and
he's waving his hand like that. You that's all you saw was his hand.
It's like wow. So we ran over to where that door kind of
made a cocoon over these guys and uh moving the debris, and we got
him out and him and his uh, his two guys were secure underneath that
door. Was crazy. You know, they were banged up right, and
it could have been a lot worse. I hope they played a lot of
that day when they went home, brother something. It was just seeing his
handcome it was something you would see, you know. It was crazy.
And what happened to the other guys who broke right here? Eric Eric broke
right and he was on the rescue and uh so now we were looking for
Eric and we we didn't find Eric until about maybe forty minutes into it,
and uh, you know, it's basically just rolling debris over and you know,
trying to see where he might have went and and he so we found
him about forty minutes into it, and yeah, he was he was crushed
by the founder stones. Wow. It was crazy, crazy, night crazy.
That's one you're not going to forget. Bro No the bosso called to
get out. I mean Lieutenant Novak, I mean he saved. He shaved
a lot of guys there. Yes he did, Yes, he did.
Yeah, he's he's a very he was probably one of the best fireman officers.
Yeah, to do the job. The guy is, he's got he's
got two sons in the job. Now he's on the job A bunch after
that. I want to say Lieutenant Novak left probably six seven years after that.
We did, after I made lieutenant in two thousand. I think he
retired two thousand and one, two thousand and two somewhere around there. And
his two boys and then his youngest son is out a thirteen engine where his
dad was, and his older son is the is a captain at the fire
communications dispatch. So how did you not have that in your list of Oh
ships, you almost almost big. He could have went in that one,
brot close, that could have been in your close call section right there.
It was. How did you h just a quick thing like we've had that
a lot. I mean, I know personally guys at the trade center who
were standing with guys, whether they were in the hotel, at the lobby
or if they were standing in the command post, and all of a sudden
everything started happening and we just yeah, one guy went one left and one
guy went right. You know, like, how did you handle that?
Like knowing that you were that close with him at that spot and it was
just you know, obviously it's luck at that point. Yes, it was
pure, pure luck. It was I was I had an angel next to
me that night, that's for sure. But you didn't really think about it
at the moment. And then, as you know, as time went on
and there was a lot of people that were injured that night. I mean
they the light rail was rapped by by clipp Or Mill. They were they
actually took the light rail and they were loadingly injured onto light rail cars and
taking him down to Shot Trauma Center instead of trying to do the whole medic
thing getting out of there, so they just load him up one when the
light rail and sent them down to trauma center. That way. A lot
of people, a lot of guys got pensioned that night, and of course
hapened rest is soul. We lost Eric and we almost lost Kat in the
twenty five truck and uh, you know that was give him back, right,
I mean it was crazy. We rolled him over and he had that
gray ash. He looked and it was like what they tell him, stay
away from the light, little bike. Yeah, so that was that was
uh yeah, great, at least one good thing came out of Yeah,
Steve, sorry, Steve, this picture was from that fire, just so
you know, but we went from before. I don't know if that you're
in this image or not, but I'm not sure. I just wanted to
know what it was in case you Yeah, I wanted to talk about it.
It was. It was quite a night. And okay, yeah,
now I think they I think it's condos or departments or something. How they
were, but they got a really what they did was they put a really
nice plaque and a memorial to Eric Schaeffer there. It's it's very very nice.
So it's it's in memory of That's good. It's nice. All right.
So let's Discovery channel. Let's switch gears a little bit. Oh yeah,
fun, Discovery channel. You did a lot of stuff while you were
in truck to the teen or truck four, right, trump four became truck
sixteen when at the truck four was quarters correct, yes, when they closed
truck four right, and then so what happened was they they closed truck four.
So they came to us like, I don't know, two days before
they were closed up. We're gonna your guys are budget cup, we're closing
you. So they're just going to keep the house single the thirteen engine.
So you know, we were able to get first DIBs on where we wanted
to go, and I said, well, I'll go back to Truck sixteen
because they had an open ev D spot. So I was able to go
back to Truck sixteen in the middle of the city. So I went there.
And about a year later, they had a fire up on might actually
might have been less than a year. They had a fire up on Utah
Place and there was no truck available to get up there. And it was
about six seven in the morning. There was a woman trapped and she was
in the bottom apartment and it was one of those doors. It was a
great it was a bar door, but where you had had the key to
open the door, and of course, you know, she was being engulfed
by smoke and everything else. She'd had no way to get her key,
and she perished. She died, you know, at that door, and
so the city went uh oh, so they went ahead and moved us,
you know, back over to Truck Forth quarters, you know, shuffling some
companies around because the councilman over there everybody and rightfully so made a big stink
and the truck should have never left there. So they put truck sixteen there
and so I continued as an EVD over there. All right, So what
about the Discovery only you did value in truck sixteen? Tell us about that?
Oh, it was, it was. That was a good time.
We were. We had the opportunity to uh there was a film crew from
a part of Discovery Channel. They were from Great Britain and they came over
to her and I think they want to stayed, I want to say six
to nine months. And they basically they rode with us, and they rode
with the meta units, they rode with the rescue, they rode with thirteen
engine, and they rode with sixteen truck and I think they rode with the
FIV. So they kind of got a taste of of you know, kind
of different aspects of Bournemous City Fire Department. And so yeah, it was
neat to hand, you know, the whole camera set up, and they
had guys following you around, and uh, they were a lot more friendlier
letting the actual camera crew go into somebody's well. And I think there's a
clip in there where the actual camera guys actually going in. We had a
store the second get to that that was and y, let's play that video.
We got guns. I have both, so we'll play the bounce and
drugs. You can write a thousand books on that. Here. It's it's
it's it's a lot. There's a lot of it here. Who the hell
was that guy? You want to know? You're working here? Kid?
Your stunt double? Do we need to see that again? Yeah? I
gotta see that. Get the stunt double with Cobo. Get out of there,
Limited, Pty Limited. Put the other one on it. Here we
go. Truck sixteen has one hundred foot ladders and two drivers, one at
each end. Steve Cobo is the tiller man. He steers the rear by
the truck. Work I think is very exciting in itself, but being back
there driving the back of the trucks exciting. It's like being on a big
amusement ride. You've got to constantly watch where you're turning, and the tillerman
has to turn the exact opposite of what the driver is turning. So if
the driver is turning left, the tillerman has to turn his wheel to the
right to bring the rear end of the truck over to the right. And
then when the driver finishes his turn, well, then the tillerman has to
bring the wheel back and line himself back in line with the driver. So
your hands are moving all the time. Back then line under stick. And
I thought she said that she hurt the guy in there, all right,
do the stick. I like the job of a firefighter. It's something exciting,
always different every day, a third generation of firefighter in the family.
And I guess it's kind of in the blood. So they say, I
don't know, we had a robe star here. That's a good time.
I'll get your autographic later there. Run with you guys. Oh yeah,
yeah, we called it. We called a couple of fires. Again,
there's a lot of clips in there in the discovery. You see it on
YouTube, But yeah, we call a lot of fires. And h pick
that up. I know, I know that guy called his career was great.
It was a great experience. And yeah, absolut It was good.
It was good. Wants to know if you missed the orange and white rags,
the little pee wee wants to know. Yes, absolutely, Yeah,
they were talking about that signified Bortimer City, the orange and white signified Bonimer
City. You said they might be going back to that, right, we
might go talk that. They're talking about going back to the orange white.
They were kicking. They're kicking it around. A little birdie told me he
still got you need it, you need it? Yeah, talking about uh,
now, this is when you're in truck one. Wait a minute,
when did you got step We were just actually getting into truck one. Actually
that's when I made lieutenant two thousand. Oh you did, all right,
So we segue into this because your oh ship moments happened in truck one.
So ye, truck one. So you get promoted, you go and do
that thing called studying like Roof had to deal. I don't know why,
but you get study, you get promoted, you go to truck one.
I had babies defeat. I had had to get studied. All right,
I understand what you're saying. It's a bad thing, you know, if
you want to Some guys got on a power trip, you know whatever,
you guys. So tell us about the Dawson family fires a wire and truck
one yeah, truck one, yeah, Dawson, Dawson family. It was.
It was killed the whole family. It was a drug dealer, uh
that to the Dawson The mother kept calling the police, you know, wanting
them to, you know, investigate the drug dealer was going outside in our
house. She had like five kids and very concerned, rightfully so. And
so the local dealer there, you know, came to come to find out
that that was the one that kept calling on him. So in the middle
of the night, he took it wasn't much from what I'm hearing from f
I b was like a sprite bottle of gasolet. It wasn't much. And
he poured it around the front door of the house and the side door and
lit it off about to in the morning and we get the call and it's
the night kind of like we have now. It's very it was very fog.
He's about to in the morning. It was very fog. He couldn't
couldn't see your hand in front of you. So we're going up Caroline Street
and you could smell it. You can see it banking down and uh,
next thing, you know, this orange glow goes past in front of the
truck. One so I told my driver stop, you know. So we
stopped and we got out and it was the father jumping out the third floor
window close. So we did not thank god, we didn't run him over.
He wind up past it anyway. But so we get there and yeah,
all three floors are off and running and wind up killing all five children,
the mother and the father. Oh wow, crazy. And they took
they took the house. They gutted it out, and they made it into
a community center. You touched the guy, they did? They they caught
him and he's in jay. Yeah. I think he was might have been
eighteen or nineteen. He was a young guy. He wasn't like he was
you know, in the twenties or thirties. He was a young guy.
Can you imagine that someone driving down the street was that. Yeah, it's
exactly what it was. Fuck is that? And yeah? Yeah, wow,
yep, almost ran overy. But yeah, that was that was a
moment. That was a very interest. I had a job like that where
we lost it was I think it was seven people. It was five kids
and two parents. And it wasn't even two cents worth the fire. It
was like a TV that was smoldering, like it was like some stupid thing
that you know, the little fire in like the TV stand set up.
You know, it wasn't anything. And I tell you right now, I
took the girl out of that and it was at the time to say she
was about the same age as my daughter. And I drove home that morning
because we got it was in early in the morning with his stomach. Oh
my god, I couldn't even You talk about some jobs that stick out to
you, that was one that you know to lose. And you know what
screwed up was? I think it was six kids. One of the boys
was alive, like the guys brought them back like, uh, there was
kids all over the whole. It was in the projects. It was kids
all in the lobby and uh, they were working on all the kids.
And they had one that had you know, when we were all standing there
after the job, you know, they had said that one they had got
a pulse back on the kid. And I was thinking to myself, is
that good or bad? Like you know what I mean, Like like holy
shit, man, I mean, do you even like what kind of I
mean, you don't want to say that, but it took a while for
us to find those kids. And then the mother had just, you know,
everything disintegrating in the house, the drywall, you know, the what
was was plaster and all that, and that was an old home, but
everything was on top of them and and it took a while to sift through
what was material and what was you know, children and a mother crazy night,
kids unsee those things, Steve. That's the nature of the job,
right, yeah, yeah, exactly. Could you answer me one question if
one more guy throws up the pine sol and a check in, what is
the love of pine solt? Okay, here we go. I can't probably,
baby, I'm very in my house. When I was twenty six truck
I I lived and died when I wanted to. I went to the firehouse
clean. We got to live there twenty four hours, and I wanted the
firehouse clean. So my thing was pine sal. Pine sal kills everything,
you know, along with bleach, and so I would always order cases of
pine sal and make sure the guys every morning, make sure you pintsal.
Make sure you pine sal. We scrub out on Saturdays, make sure you
pine salt. You know, I went to bathrooms. Make sure you pine
sal everything with pine sal. And if you're going to be remembered for one
thing after thirty six years, it might as well be pine sal, right,
rubber or wine. The firehouse is twenty six. Truck has been one
hundred years old. He was nineteen twenty five when it was built. But
I tell you what for a hundred year old fire ass, it's a clean
fireass. You got to live then pine. So there you go. Yeah,
before before we go crazy, did you have a drive for has mat
up there? I did not. I want to make sure you were whind
the wheel of this story. Hey, hey, god, what's going on?
I don't know where that one video that I sent you, the last
video just uh put that up, the one where he's working the tool and
the uh somebody sent me that to all right, give me a couple of
yeah, yeah, yeah, when you hit start your thing. Let me
let's talk about the I eighty three single car action. Yeah, that was
one early two thousands, your lieutenant truckle. That was crazy. Yes,
So he was about you know, in the middle of the night. It's
probably about three in the morning. The bars were were cut loose out of
the Inner Harbor. So one of the thoroughfares that folks used to get out
of the city and get back up to the county is eighty three. And
so we get a call for a single car accident up on eighty three,
right around where Penn Station is up on eighty three. So truck one crew
we get out there. We're going up eighty three and I see one police
car. I'm like, all right, I'm thinking, okay, this signal
be bad. I mean, I see the car into the jersey wall.
It was a jeep, like a jeep wrangler, and I see it into
the jersey wall. I'm thinking, oh this, this think will be bad.
We'll get you know, get them at medics on its way, you
know, we'll get to take care of And I see you get cops standing
out in the middle of eighty three, jumping and raise, you know,
waving his hand frantically. I'm like, come on, it's a one car.
What could be so bad about this? Right, So we parked the
truck and I go over and it's like, oh shit. So what happened
was the jeep wrangler the driver veered to the right and he went up on
the jersey wall with the jeep Ryant because it's you know, the big tire
set of blow. So he was able to go up on the jersey wall
a little bit and he hit the jersey wall and there's a fence on top
of the jersey wall that separated eighty three from Penn Station from the train tracks.
So he hit that at an angle to where the pipe that holds like
the chain link fence. He caught it at an angle to where it broke
cleanly right at where the two connections were. So the pipe, it was
about I don't know, maybe a two inch inch and a half pipe,
went through the front windshield of the geep. So his passenger is passed out
in the front seat. The pipe goes through the windshield, he goes into
his mouth and then out the back of his neck, and the pipe lodges
in the rodcage or the rollbar that the jeeps have in the back. So
I's like, oh, ship, and he's still breathing. There's still a
lot Oh my god, something ship. So that I asked her to rescue
right off the bat as for the rescue real quick, and asked for you
know, give me an ms officer and then I I was gonna up the
oxygen to the pole, but it's going, So I asked for the go
team. I don't know if you guys had that New York City, but
we have a uh it's a surgical team on standby out of the trauma center.
So when you get weird ship like this, amputations things like this,
trains people on trains on top of people, they call the go team and
they come out and do surgical procedures and and get airways going. So so
I called for the go team and they said, oh, there's gonna be
about a half hour, you know, And I'm like, ship, I
don't think we have a half hour. So uh, the rescue got there.
So we used as all and we wind up cutting about right past the
jawl line and then right behind the neck. Uh. We did a cut
from the bar and then we just kept wrapping, you know, secured him,
put him on the backboard, got him down to Shot trauma. So
we weally we wheel him into Shot trauma, and so the shot trauma doctor
and you know those guys they've seen it all right, So we laid the
guy who on the gurney. So he's laying there and the shot trauma doctor
comes up. You got team of nurses, you got an steadiolog, just
got everybody there, and he just kind of like looks around, walks around
the other side of the h The stretcher goes around the other he goes hmm,
and he takes this nice neatly wrapped a bar that we that we did
for this guy at the scene, pulls it and just pulls it right out
of his neck. Yeah. We're thinking, oh my, just like that
here, we're thinking, oh my god, a sergeant to perceived this is
gonna be hours in the ear, you know all that. Now, he
just went up and pulled him right out of his living No, he died
like three days later. Ship. That was crazy. I could have done
that, doc. That's what we were all thinking. We all kind of
you always say, never pull anything out right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
so you know, we patched it real good. But yeah, that
was like a you know, one of you saying you think it's routine and
you you get there and it's like, wow, okay, here we go.
Is a probably good chance that that we hit a major artery in that
area? Yeah, I mean they pulled it out. I mean, even
if you hit him in the neck. I mean, he's got to be
paralyzed or something. It was. It was really weird. Look, it
was very it was. It was it was haunting looking. It was weird.
Yeah, like a horror show or something. Oh oh, I remember
this, you're right. So we had are was about seven in the morning.
I was a twenty six truck and everybody come, yeah, dear.
Somebody comes running up and says, hey, there's a meer caught the fence,
look at it. There we go and uh so right up by the
firehouse is Gordon style apartments up by the firehouse. So, uh we go
up there. We take a look and it's like okay, So we brought
the tool up, brought the matro up. Yeah, and then we were
able to spray and that was go to move. Yeah, it's great kid
kids. Get the head caught and you don't know how to get the head
in it, but the heads caught the thing. The mantra was awesome.
Manto is great. So we spread it and and off the off the dear
put yourself in for a metal good job. He didn't know that I was
on the other side in the woods. Did he did? You stop and
look back at you. You know, it's funny you say that. At
the time that we were trying to get it was a fun. It was
a new one. It was still it was it was a fun. The
mother was probably fifty feet away one, just straight at the woodline, staring
and looking at us while we were doing this. And then when her baby
left, then they went off together. So yeah, so she kind of
like waited there and it was kind of good old woman fuzzy with that one.
He's that woman fuzzy. He's like, mister get the old ship moment?
How many? Yes? One? Two? He's got one, two,
three? I got three? Here was there four? A whole bottom
three? Now there's three, oh ship moments. You ready? Rough,
Yeah, I'm ready. Let's get him. Let's get them. Steve reel
me in. Set the whole thing up. Steve a good storyteller. I
like it. Do it? Which one you want to do? The uh?
Truck one and truck twenty nine? Haven Street? Hey? Oh yeah,
Haven Street and Baltimore Street. Yes, so we get Uh. We
had multiple dwellings off uh and have in Baltimore Street. I think we had
like three dwellings off and we get there, and you're starting to put a
knocked down on the fire. So I go to two doors, you know,
yeah, two doors down, and to do a search in the twellings
on that side. I went by myself and I get inside, and I
get up to the second floor and it smokes pretty thick. It's bank down
and I get up there and they got the whole place cut up in two
apartments. So I start going along and the battery on my leight goes out.
Boom, there's one one thing right there going I'm like shit, So
all right, So now I'm feeling around and everything kind of you know,
becomes all right. Was I here, and you know, you get this
orient and you got this oriented, and so I was not getting panicky,
but I was all concerned. I said, all right, I'm not really
moving anywhere. I feel like I'm in the same place I was, you
know, you know, thirty seconds ago it was this orient wasn't I wasn't
finding my way out. So I kind of stepped back, took a few
you know, took some are in I had. I was on my bottle
and I get on the I get on the radio and I asked the battanion
chief. I said, hey, uh, just I'll let you know.
I'm a two doors down up on the second floor. Can you send somebody
over to kind of helped me from my way out? And uh, he
said. The tank chief said, Lieutenant, go ahead and activate your past
device. So back then, the past devices weren't in a raided in with
the SCB as like they are now. Remember I think you might remember,
they weren't cut It was on your belt. It was on the cliff and
it had like the pool thing and it went off and if you motioned,
if you stop moving for sixty seconds whatever, it will go off. Well,
as I was getting out of one truck, it came off the no
my god, So I didn't have fucking past device. Lights Murphy man when
he shows up, Man, he shows up, I have no light.
I look around, I'm going shift and I get back on the radio.
I said, I have no pass device. And there was like a tool.
There was there was a pause, you know, and the chief and
there was a old pause. He said, we'll be able to find you.
Hang tight and so yeah, banged my tool. I did that and
you know, created some noise and uh and uh, my ev d Alex
Darini. He was Uh, he came and Joe Joe Miller, the first
acting guy. They came up and pull me out or you know, system
me out and help me get out. Yeah, so uh, in case
of beer or something after that. Well, you know you said all these
things, you know, the light and then the past device. You're right,
Murphy here he came, right, don't we say all the time?
Is like when you're get in that situation, don't be too prideful that you
know you don't want to wait, Well, it's too far along where now
you don't. Now you have no choice because it's really getting shitty out,
you know, And I'm looking at the gauge from a bottom. I'm like,
okay, y got time. You know, that's a good way to
do it. Hopefully some guys out there they could you know, you could
word it delicately like that, so it doesn't sound like you're you got some
time, but help get there, get me out. You want to avenue
or do you want to do Northeast Baltimore fire? What was he knew?
What was it? The Avenue North? The other one is Northeast Baltimore.
That was Pineer Avenue. I was at I was a twenty nine truck and
uh we had a report of a fire dwelling. It was a run home
and it was into the group. And it was that again two in the
morning, one two in the morning in the morning. Everything happened. Nothing
happens good every morning. So we get there. We got coming at the
front door or the front door. We had a forst entry where we have
heavy smoke coming at the second floor, first floor, and uh, they
confirmed that it was a they had a basement fire. So I get four
sm entry in. I got forty three engine behind me with the line work,
the work, the bar, get the door open and start going in.
I immediately start heading up to the second floor, and I got guys
strong ground ladders. I got my driver throwing the aera ladder. So immediately
start heading up to the second floor. It's two in the morning, whereas
usually everybody at during the morning up in the bedrooms. So I start heading
up to the second floor and I get up there and then forty three engine
comes in behind me and I'm going to start breaking off search the bedrooms,
and I just feel this tremendous amount of heat. I mean it was it's
a tremendous amount of heat. And I looked behind me from the stairway coming
up you could just see that rolling flame just coming up your you know,
coming right up your ass. And I've got forty three engineaire, I'm like,
crack the line, cracked the line. But they cracked the line.
No water, they had a dead hydrant and Murphy again, Murphy again.
So I'm like fuck, So it's getting tremendously hot. So I turned around
the guys with forty three engine. I said, go go, go,
get down, get down the stairs, go go go. So they went
ahead and went down the stairs. I was right behind them, like really
fast, right behind them, and we started heading back out towards the front
door. And what had happened is the first four collapsed into the basement,
so that's where that tremendous amount of heat got released as soon as the first
floor collapsed in the basement from the basement fire. So forty three engine gets
out. So I'm coming in behind him, coming going for the front door
behind him. So the house was a had all hardwood floors, so the
shellac that they had on the floors has now become liquid because of the heat.
So I go to go out the front door, I'm slipping. I
can't get out the front door because of the sillac on the floors. So
now I'm falling down into the hole. I'm at the front door and I
I'm actually going back. I'm falling back down into the hole, and I'm
like shit. So Chief Campbell was Mike Campbell. He was the tank chief
in the side a front of the building and him and Wayne Brubeck for the
four engine. They physically came in and just reached in, grabbed my arm
and just acting like and pulled me out that step, which, oh,
hold on a seconds. Ah, there we go, you go. Look
God is on his gate. Buddy's leaving. My mind went back in.
See God's good job. I didn't know for it was time. I believe
we're going like this, Steve going like this. I guess he was holding
you. Oh my god, I was. And it was just having those
guys. It was, you know, lucky that they were able to grab
me before I stroll that in there and couldn't find out the the folks were
on vacation, so there was nobody inside. Listen, we're making fun of
that, but you know, when you're when you're when you're dangling going into
the basement. It's it's when when you're slipping slide you were. It was
the Sillac from the damn hardwood floors, and it was in fly Away and
we had I think the same one. I had one twenty nine truck another
one which one we talked about. Don't these Ultimore fire Northeast Baltimore. That's
uh you had like nine lives this guy. But I tell you it was
like I said, Murph short and follow me around. And uh so we
had fire in the middle of the night and I get up, get forced
entry. I go inside, and I start going up to the second floor
to my search. So I get to break I break off to the left.
I go into the bedroom to the left and I start my search.
Got my tool coming around, you know, right hand to the wall,
doing my search, and I'm coming around, coming to the front door so
I could go to the next bedroom. And I searched the bed, under
the bed, all that stuff and smoke. You can't you can't see anything,
and everything's by field, and uh so I get around and I'm sure
I'm going around this room a long time. You know. He was like
God, damn. The front door was rap. The door was right there.
So I go around again, no door. I'm like, shit,
I can't get my way out of here. Where the hell did the door
go? So my first acting man, Aaron Edwards, so I kind of
called him, like nonchalantantly on the radio. I said, hey, yeah,
can you come up on the second floor? Man, get me right.
So he comes up on the second floor and you know, I'm banging
my tool and he comes in. He's able to. He got the door
and came in, and then after we got out, got the scene cleared
up. What had happened was when I went into that bedroom, there was
a forty five pound weight bar bench bar that was in the corner of the
room. So when I went around and did my search, that bar fell
against the door and shut the door. So I couldn't from a way out
because that door became shut from the bar, And of course, you know
you can't see anything from you. I'm looking for the window, trying to
open the window up with my tool, and uh yeah, So that was
another yeah, thanks fucking got murdered. The whole idea is he didn't wait
until it was really getting to the point where it's too late. Yeah,
that's the key. Yeah, yeah, and you know it. I used
to say every once in a while I was in a pickle, I'd be
like, Freddy, where are you or whatever? You know, get your
ass up the scream. Didn't want to make a big deal. Yeah,
Aaron, I know, Aaron was close by. I know he's plenty of
time to scream. We have plenty of time to scream. Steve, what
is this? And after all those close calls of fires an old watch deest
that took him out of thee thirty six out at thirty Oh yeah, oh
my god, yes, so I get uh. So when they went to
this twenty four hour shift, twenty four and twenty four off twenty four,
so they came up with this what they're called impact days. Have you heard
of them? So they do him like Houston's. So since you get that
five days off, they wanted to make up those hours the city does,
so they schedule you. You basically worked free to get your hours back up
to a full ninety six hour work week in a two week period. So
they put an extra day in each month, so it was a it was
an impact day. So it was at thirty six engine on West Baltimore.
I'm not familiar at all with it. I don't even think I was even
station there at all. Was a fireman. So I get there and we
had a call and I get back. It was a car accident. I'm
gonna turn out pants and everything on. And I step off and there was
a a an old old watch desk, so I had the old concrete floor
that was there, but the watch desk was since gone. The walls and
you know everything else that went with it. So I step off the wagon
and down I went. I cut down crazy and I got up and I
was like, and I went to move my shoulder, and I went,
that ain't happening. Ain't happening. And uh he had tour rotator cup,
tour rot cuff. You guys, slip slide on your thane lacker. That
doesn't do nothing. Tour to watch that that does it? Bro. It
was probably pine sole on the floor, so probably put how much slacker did
you put on that thing? That was a hell. I'll tell you what
that's that's a hell of an injury, pulling, tearing your rodtar. I
had that. That's what I had. Yeah, rot partial, I had
a partial and a labor that sucks. Man, it's probably ten months loom
something like that. Oh yeah, oh, no doubt about it. It
was a year that was finally did you in. No, you know,
I recovered from it and the back. Yeah, I went back. Yeah,
I was. I was cool. You know, I had kids in
college. It was like, okay, you know, I gotta I gotta
get back, you know. And uh so I made it back and it
was good, real good that somebody on the end of the career. No
one is that. The latter forty nine was while I was a truck one
is lieutenant. All right, good, so you're good. So Hollywood came
to Baltimore and we had John Travolta, We had Joaquin Phoenix, we had
Tim Guinea, and we had a couple of whoa, whoa, whoa was
Guinea? What t Guinea? It was Guinea. He was one of the
actors. He actually was played the character of the captain went to Bolt to
me chief, so so we uh they they brought the crew to Hollywood crew.
They brought him in and they had like Joaquin and a couple of other
extras like Tim Guine and all that go through the fire Academy kind of getting,
you know, wearing an s c B A because they were going to
be wearing s cb as while they were filming. And so they put Joaquin
with ten truck and they put Tim Ginn with us at one truck to ride
as you know, get some experience, you know, get some firefighting experience,
see how it's done real real time. And so one night, Tim
Guiney or not Tim Guiney, Joaquin was going to ride with one truck.
So he stayed for like a half hour, and it was about seven o'clock
at night and he's like, nah, I'm going back. So they stayed
at the Marriotte Inner Harbors where they ever put up. So Tim Guinny,
the one actors, said I'm staying with you, Steve. You know,
We'll stayed the whole night. So about midnight, we we catch a fire
up off of Greenmount Avenue and we wound up pulling like two or three people
out of that house. And Tim Guinny, the guy that was the actor,
he woind up helping us pull people out. It was it was pretty
pretty weird. So you know, of course whya Que misses this. You
know, he's at his hotel room all snuggled and you know whatever. So
we we get downe to fire. We clear a fire scene. So I
said, you know what, let's ride down to the Marriotte in a harbor.
So it's about like smoke like smoke. So we go back two three
to morning. We go down to the Marriotte into harbor. Waquen's up on
the tenth floor and so we bang on the door. We kept our turn
at gear on. So he opens up the door and uh we go in
and tackling, and you know, told him what you know, how much
you miss you basically smelled my ship and he missed a rescue and uh yeah,
yeah, I mean that's a that's some job to miss. Holy ship.
His face, it was great. It was good time. It was
a good time. How was How was John Travolta? Guys want to know
how John Travolta was? Man, He was great. John Travolta was great.
He very He was great with everybody, very you know friendly. Uh
wasn't snobbish at all. You know, want to know about everybody, like,
you know, hey, I many kids, you got your personal life,
how long you've been doing the job, you know? He uh,
he was great, He was really really good and enjoyed, enjoyed being around
him. What the firets did they film that? Out of thirty three and
which was on Gorsage Avenue. It's now closed down, but I actually was
closed down. Why they were using They used that closed firehouse as the uh
as their prop. So they had construction crews go in, get the firehouse
up, you know, get it to where they could film and uh yeah,
so that was where they filmed it out. I saw that movie once
or twice. I gotta watch that movie again. Yeahs, don't you don't
have a cameo in there, do you, Steve No. It's one of
the big the big scene they had down at the the Inner Harbor with the
the the green silo on fire. They had guys like us running in and
out the scene. You got paid over time. And let me tell you,
guys, they fed you well. The caterers that come from these Hollywood
uh movie sets. I mean they they feed eighteen wheels there. I mean,
whatever you want to stay, shrimp, lobster. I mean it was
like, whatever you want, and they paid you well a lot over time.
On over time. It was good. You know how many times,
how many opportunities you get a chance to do something like that, so not
too often, but a movie like that that was pretty iconic too. I
mean that's up. Yeah, you know, I mean, yeah, a
good movie, very good. So yeah, way quin he was. He
was a good guy. And you know, all the actors were great,
great with us. They showed a lot of appreciation when they left. And
uh so it was it was good. It was good for the city,
good for the fireman, and good for Hollidwood. So that's two things.
You gotta watch that. Watch that again at forty nine. And we got
to watch him on the year was that two thousand and four? I don't
even know it. Yeah, it was after nine to eleven, I think.
Yeah. One another picture. Gosh, where's that picture with the no
shirt? Where's that picture? Whoa look at Steve's face. He's like a
ship. There's a lot of little birds. Steve sending me stuff. I
gotta tell you. With the ovenproproved, I am, I am the other
clean. My house is very clean, guys, I wouldn't say so.
Man. Yeah, no judgment here, but why just just gonna throw this
out the white cleaning with no shirt on? Just I'm curious. It was
hot. I'm going to say it was hot. Yes, Hey, you
know that guy that's sitting down, he doesn't look like he has any interest
in looking at that stuff. Steak coming out of it. Yes, I
was gonna say so, but he might know. Yeah yeah, yeah.
One other pictures that I have guns. What was that from moving a car
from the scene in an accident and they were tied up and we had to
get the medic unit in there, parked on a hydrant. Again, I
said, hey, you know, give me your keys on move before the
wanted you wanted to feel how it felt for a second. Yeah, let
me just give the guys grid out of his face. He smiled away.
Topological indicator right there. Yeah, you got more. Yeah, I got
this one. Ah. There's my man right there, that Jason Stevens.
He's he he grew up in the Bronx. He's uh, he's a lieutenant
in Barniber City. He grew up in what's that Highview Towers? Is that
so right off of the university and in the Bronx. Yeah, he uh.
He came to Baltimore when he was about twenty and he was my first
actor. That great guy. You know, I love him like a brother.
He's uh studied hard. He made lieutenant little over a year ago and
he was a fifty two engine and then uh, we kind of timed my
retirement to where he had a year in grade at fifty two engine as a
lieutenant because he wanted to come back to truck twenty six, and I timed
it to where his year came in and then I left and he came at
the spot. Yeah, I tell you what there is that is a great
fireman right there. The guy's diamond class and they don't make them any better.
Now, look at that definitely there roughie, I've seen a couple of
ye there's a two that twenty six. Well that's you know what I wanted
to talk. So just uh after you you got we're in truck one as
lieutenant for seven years. You went back to twenty nine truck where you were
where you first got on the job. What was that like? It was
good, it was you know, going back as an officer. Of course,
nobody was there, you know when I was, it was a fireman.
So it was good. It was good to get back there. And
that's because they were still in grammar school when you were five and there.
Yeah, exactly. I te you're older. I'm just telling you. I'm
not saying thirty six years. There was a good friend of mine who was
a captain there, Captain Gregory. He's a tank chief now, but Captain
Gregory was a captain thereon. He was a good friend of mine and they
had a spot come open and he, uh, you know, he asked
me, said, hey, you interested about coming back up here? And
I was like, yeah, sure, I'll come back up you know.
And uh so it was good and that's you know, spent spent many years.
There's wear a lot of couple of these incidents with the uh the the
old ship moments. Uh yeah, there it was good house. It was
a very good house. So why did you transfer to twenty sixth then?
Because he finished from sixteenth to twenty three, which is a decent amount of
time. And in twenty sixth truck twenty six truck, it was uh something
different. It was a straight truck. It wasn't a tiller truck. It
was a straight truck. So he had kind of like everybody up front,
two guys on the step and then your your officer, and then your driver
and uh they were getting a brand new truck and had an opportunity there and
you know, go a little bit further east, a little bit closer to
home, you know, coming off ninety five and uh so, yeah,
so it worked at you know, be a little bit closer to home.
So it worked out good. I knew at that point that was going to
be my fine. It was a Swan song. Twenty six was going to
be the swansong. Twenty six was going to be Swan. Good guys,
great guys. I gotta tell you, they treated me well. We had
a great cruise, good fireman, Captain Burgette, uh you know, great
fireman. Just you know, everybody there. I had had a I was
very fortunate to work with great fireman like I did throughout my career. And
what made you want to pack it in then, Steve? You know,
the kids were finished college. It was thirty six years and I was turned
at sixty, and it was a good time to die. It was it
was hard, you know what I mean. Everybody always time they say that,
you know, if I would if I would have stayed like another year,
year and a half, it would have made maybe forty five hours different.
So when on your pension each month it wasn't a whole lot, you
know, and uh, you know, it was trying to do something.
It was time to start that next chapter of my life. And my wife
was like, you know what, you pulled the tiger's tail a lot of
times and yeah, yeah, man, hell yeah again. Yes, now
you get up, you make breakfast for the wife. And yeah, that
lasted, guys, I gotta tell that lasted about two weeks. I would
so I would get there and uh, I would get there and and she
my wife works out of the house. She's a nurse, and so she
has an office here set up in the house. So you know, I
would get up in the morning knocking the door, Hey what you doing,
and she would look at me a glass and drop down. I'm working.
About two hours later knocking the door, Hey what you're doing. You want
to get coffee? She's like, no, I'm working. I'm like,
damn. So about the second third day into that, she goes, you
got a job, you got different, you know. And so I had
a great I had a great opportunity. Guys, all kindside. I had
a great opportunity. There is a you went back to the supermarket, No,
didn't. I wind up? I wind up. Had a couple of
guys approached me that that worked for Harbor of Grace. We called home.
It's called Harbor Grace. What it is, it's a wellness recovery center for
police and fire and UH first responders. And it was, uh, it
was a great opportunity for me to go there and you know works and I
kind of, you know, I said to the owner Ken, I was
like, you know, what what could I you know, possibly add here?
You know, you know what could I do? And he said,
Steve, all your time that you've had in the fire department, all the
situations you've been in, and and the way you dealt with different circumstances and
events in your life, you know, you can help these young guys out
know, and any older guys that come through here and uh, you know
that need help, you know, navigating their way through. And so I
got a great opportunity. It's the place is awesome. It's a Harbor Grayson.
It's a wellness center and it's uh. People come from all over the
country to uh to come there, and uh it's it's a great place.
And I'm very fortunate. Yeah, it is. I'm about three days a
week, so it's good time. Yea on yourself. Yeah, right,
exactly, it's nice. It's it's good time. And uh you torture and
your wife. So no, no, no, I'm up out of half.
I'm not knocking on the door. And uh oh Jonathan right here he
is, Okay, you had you had to grab your last day, my
last day. Isn't that something? It's like, what holy ship you forgot
about that? He's like, yeah, oh yeah, a couple of grabs.
You can't you can't write this ship. I'm telling you can't write that
up. That's incredible. So it was my last day, I mean my
physically, I am retiring, my last day. You know, they're talking
about having a dinner for me that night. Well they were having a dinner
for you that night, so so they they they, So we get about
six thirty in the morning, seven o'clock in the morning, we get a
call for an apartment fire up off of Sinclair Lane. And as we were
going up the road, you know, communication comes back and says, you
know, companies b vised, we got poor to people trapped. I'm like,
all right, so you know, lean over the guys in the back,
I said, guys, we've got people trapped, you know, you
know, have a shit ready, you know, we got people trapped.
And so we get there and it's a three story guarden apartment and we pull
up. We don't see much from the front at all, so we make
it up to the second floor. We kicked the door into the second floor
apartment and a lot of a lot of smoke, not a lot of fire,
a lot of smoke, some heat coming out of the the kitchen area.
So I'm prowing in and I see a pair of feet and we had
truck third He was in there as well. Uh Sampson. John Sampson from
truck thirty UH got in there with me. Actually he got He was the
first one to get in, so he crawled in. I crawled in behind
him, and you see these pair of feet hanging out the uh the kitchen
area, and so he's down. I was like shit, and John's hollering,
you know, the attendant's over here, is over here. So we
go to pooling. John picks him up from behind. I get him from
you know, underneath the uh you know, his knees. John picks him
up from the uh from the front, and his skin just keeps calling up,
coming off in John's hands, and I mean he was you know that
kind of burn. He's picking him up again, drop him again, pick
him again. So finally we just drugging over to the uh the uh the
apartment door, and then uh, Lieutenant Hagley, Vince Hagley helped us grab
him down. We took him down to the front lawn. He was not
breathing, so we started bagging and we brought him back and the medic unit
got him and uh we had him breathing all the way to the hospital.
So, yeah, it was grabbed my last day. Crazy, you guys
es, No, he was I think he was seventy two years old,
and his whole upper body he had probably a lot of inholation burns. And
he was third degree. I mean he was thirty. You guys get the
metals for when you make grabs or you guys write each other up. It
all depends on the chief, you know. Sometimes they do, sometimes they
don't, you know, most of the time they do. I'm not sure
on this one. You know, again, it was my last day,
so I guess I'll find out, you know, when they announced metals day.
But yeah, whatever, you know, it's all good and uh no,
we had last day, grab crazy, make that ship up and went
back and you had some shrimp palms and a couple of tails, right,
yes, yeah, they had. I'm a steak spaghetti guy loves spaghetti.
They had a spaghetti dinner for me, and uh had invited my family down
and there was probably guys, I'll say probably that fifty sixty people showed up
the fire house at night. Again. Captain Burkette the cat in there.
He he really put on a show for me and all the guys there.
And I was very far. I'm very fortunate to work with such a great
crew. And yeah, very very fortunate, Sean to have you on the
show here, fella. It was a great Korea. It's a good time.
But you know, you learned, like I said, you learned a
lot of things on the way. I can tell you a story where I
was a sixteen truck and you know, just going showing you know some of
the the older you know chiefs, the older guys that were around when I
was, you know, learning the job. That kind of you know,
kind of brought me along. We had a chief Maritz, Mike Maritz,
and we had a report of a fire on riggs Avenue and Kerry Street.
So we get there to wind up being a pot of food. So I
was on sixteen truck, but we had to fill in officer. He was
from another company somewhere, remember his name. So we had a filling officer.
And you know, you always take ladders off the truck, you know,
I mean, whether you're going to the front or the rear, ladders
come off. And that was Chief Maritz's big thing. I don't care what
you do, you better have at least two ladders off, if not three.
So we get there. So the officers saw, you know, first
company in the first truck company in ten truck say, you know, it's
pot of food. You know, we're going to handle it. One and
one, And so we go to get the ladders. We're taking the ladders
to the back and lieutenant that was working that was filling in, he goes,
now, now we don't need them, go ahead and throw them back.
Throw them back. We don't need him. I was like, okay,
you know, boss said put them back. So did that. So
Chief Merits and I'll tell you what that guy there, hell of a fireman,
I said. His two boys were in the job in the FDNY and
he uh, he comes up to lieutenant and he says, lieutenant, what
the what the fuck? Where are my ladders? And he said, well,
you know, it was a pot of food. Chief and goes where
are my ladders? And he just bringed him in the ass. And he
told all the companies to leave after it was done. Everybody leaves sixteen truck,
you stay right here. So we took every ladder off the truck and
ladder deb building twice, not once, but twice. So we're talking to
thirty five foot and thirty foot, twenty four foot, sixteen foot, the
comb ladder. Okay, you know, the attic ladder, the the attic
ladder, and the comb ladder. Every ladder, every ladder had to come
off that truck, even the little giant you used it like for inside,
like a closet or something like that. Every ladder came off that truck.
Then he made us put it back on and we're like, okay, you
know, I'm embarrassed at this point, and he's like, all right,
do it again. Off comes the ladder again. And I like this guy.
He was. He was a hell of farm. He moved wind up,
moving up to Manhattan and his boys are or word, did you have
to think I know that last name. I definitely know that last somebody just
said that they're on the job A great great chief. That was guys I
got you learned from, you know, that was guys that and in you
know Chief Lego, you know my last battalion chief when I was a twenty
six truck I mean, awesome guy. I worked with him when he was
a lieutenant at thirteen truck and uh, you know, just those guys you
learned so much for and I was, you know, I was fortunate enough
to learn the way that you know that they were teaching, and I was
able to you know, pass it on to my guys like Jason Stevens,
who's uh, you know, he's an excellent, excellent fireman and uh so
yeah. So if I have anything to say at the end of the day,
it's, uh, you know what these guys, you know, got
some go some good knowledge that will hopefully carry them through and that they themselves
will pass it on. You know. Uh you know Timmy Kletch kid,
he's in Baltimore, right, I think no, it was they have oh
yes, yes, his sons and Captain Yeah, good guy. His problem
was I think a lieutenant rescue three. Does that sound right? Oh?
Yeah, t Carago. He was captain captain to fifty. Okay, he
was a captain, and he wound up moving down to the eastern sure Maryland.
I met him a few times. Oh that's right, that's where he
was going, right right right? Yeah? He uh talking to that guy.
I mean I wish I had ten to fifteen hours a day to talk
to that guy. I mean, just the wealth of knowledge that We'll go
back to the episode that we had him on. You can listen to him
for two hours. Yeah, he was, you know, just sitting there
helping at the times that I have met him, and uh yeah, just
a wealth of knowledge, you know, just just wealth knowledge. And his
his son's a hell of a fireman, health an officer. So he did
him pray out, he'll do well, he'll do real well. Steve.
There was some one what was the question that Jeff head Pope, Yeah,
thank you guns ask him. Uh if he was working there during the freight
train fire under the city that burned a few days. I was that happened
in July. It was hot. I remember the hot July day that was
probably I can't remember what years in the nineties. No, I was off.
I was in vacation at the beach. Nice better than you don't be
no freight. I will tell you about that train. Can I tell you
this story about that train tunnel. Yeah, this was after the incident with
the with the train car in the tunnel, so this was probably maybe a
year or two later. Right, So we get a call for that same
train tunnel for smoke in the tunnel. I'm thinking, oh shit, here
we go again, you know, here's train tunnel. So we get there.
I'm on sixteen truck and we get down. It's like two in the
morning and it's a single, single, single company called Just Truck sixteen in
the morning again. Yeah, two in the morning, just investigat you know,
smoke smoking the tunnel. Right, So we get there and the officers
with us. So we look up and we looked probably about maybe one hundred
feet into the tunnel. You could see glowing hate. You can see a
glow of fire burning. I'm like, all right, so, uh,
we go ahead, we get our tools, get our bottle, we go
in. We go in, we start walking in. Next thing, you
know, you see this light coming at you. It's getting bigger, bigger,
running out of the taxpayer. There's no train there's no train tunnel,
I mean the train tunnel. There's no you have nowhere to really no clearance,
yeah, clearance, there's nothing there. So we turn around. Oh
ship, So we are running full steam ahead, running out of this train
tunnel. Why this train light is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And
we were we were able to get out of the tunnel before I would fire
wind up being some some debris or trash that was burning. That's funny,
my boy, John Johnson, he says, what I like about this podcast
is everyone is always on this podcast is always talking about that guy that helped
him through the years of service. Yeah, that's what it's all about.
Man. Yeah, I had I got to listen names here, guys,
I mean you know, I had to answer names of course, Uh,
Chief Mike Ritz, you know, Rick Lego, Jacksoppo got rest his whole
health of fireman, great guy, Jerry Smith health a fireman, he's an
e v D. He's a good and of course you heard me mention Paul
Novak and uh you know, a great great lieutenant and him and Cole Carter,
he was my officer on for truck. You know, just you know,
you learn from these guys, and you learned a really good way of
doing it. And and they held you accountable, you know, they it's
they held you accountable. And uh so it was good. It was it
was fun. It was a good time. What was that other question?
Guns? It was they were asking about on the job? Mm hmm uh
No, there was well, lieutenant Novak, captain I'm not sure which twenty's
talking about. I don't know which captan he's talking about on that one.
I know the fib captain retired captain from the rescue. He's retired. He
moved down to Florida. But Paul Novak, he was a lieutenant thirteen engine
he was. Guys, I do have one more for you while we're we're
not out this last question. Somebody wants to hear about the raccoon around Duncan
Dune. Yeah, we had a raccoon. It was rabbit. It was
a rabbit raccoon. So we in the morning always made a tradition with the
guys, you know, you kind of you know, my thing was in
the morning with the guys. You know, you get checked in, you
know, get your stuff together. Everybody you know, has their stuff together,
go through the payroll, kind of like morning routine. And then we
would always go up to uh Duncan Doughnut took the road, Yeah, just
a little us time, you know, coffee, tea, you know whatever.
And uh so a lady comes out. We were in the Duncan Donuts.
She comes in, she goes, there's a raccoon running around the parking
line. So we go out there and it's, uh, it's it's rabbit.
It's got itself up against the wall. It's like rearing itself up like
it's going to strike at you. So we, you know, we get
a couple of ceiling hawks and we kind of there, we kind of you
know, shooting away and the meantime among the film communications calling up, you
know, get the animal control here, you know, kind of get this
animal out and off the street, because there was like it was like a
little shop, little storefront shops right there, and uh so you wind up
running in the woods. So yeah, that's you need old raccoon. Yeah,
I think it might be that time for him to part some words of
wisdom on our young I think, so, well, you know what time
it is, Oh, let's let's do it. It is that time for
of the day. Day, all right, I'll see folios. All right,
old school tipp of the gay guys. Here we go, Tip of
the day. Check your ship, you know, I want to. I
say that to uh the guys. Uh, you know, and anybody that's
listening now. You know, check your ship when you get in in the
morning. You know, Uh, folks tend to take things for uh.
You know that that everything's okay. The night shift before me didn't have any
runs. You know, I don't need to check the air mask, I
don't need to start the saws. I don't need to check your tool,
the medic you know, those kinds of things. And I got to tell
you a few times, you know, I've seen companies, along with myself,
have gotten caught to where you know, you go to get the tool,
you go to start saw, you go to put your SCBA on,
which happened to me. You put it on. We had a fire and
it was uh, it was stuck in the free flow position at something very
avoidable. If I would have taken a moment and check it, and I
usually do, but that morning, I for some reason didn't. Something else
was going on. So yes, so if I had the tip of the
day, check your ship, make sure your tools are right, make sure
your gears right. You have everything, and check out s C B A
man, that is your that is your ticking home. Uh, make sure
you check that. I can't I can't emphasize that more. So, yeah,
all right, you know it's funny they say that what I I found
and it happened to me was I used to just put the bottle on right,
shut the bottle off, purchase the mask, and that was it right
right. And then but I never put the mask on all the time I
got you know, you get into habits. And then one time, I'm
not going to say, but I was working in a different firehouse. Of
course guys checked my bottle for me. I watched them checking the brig.
But I always checked my bottle, even in the different firehouse, obviously,
And I did the same exact thing. And uh, I had a kick
asstra I was first do second alarm, and I went to put the mask
on, and there was some type of apparatus in the mask that I couldn't
put it forrally to my face. So I had to actually I had to
turn it around and use it as it was because it was all part of
the face piece, so I had to actually hold it. It was actually
like that allegully, and you know, I lost my eyebrows. I came
out looking like this microphone and uh, you know, I couldn't do the
job. And it was pretty shitty, you know what I mean, like
really scary, like I thought. You know, I actually tried to get
a face piece off of one of my My company ended up responding that I
tried to get the face piece. Now again, the guy who that was
apologized up and down to me. But in the end it was my fault,
I mean. And from that time on, from that time on,
get into your case. From that time on, it did matter. I
always put the fake the mask on, took a few breaths, made sure
it was good, took it off, shut it, purged it, and
it was right, you know, put it in a position that I wanted
and I knew it was ready to go. You should have done was check
your ship, check your shit, shit check your ship. And it's agath
alright, God, we gotta do the health and safety tip, please sir,
Yes, yes, we do. Let me get the by stand by.
I don't go nowhere, you're ready, Here we go. The First
Responder Center for Excellence is a not for profit organization dedicated to protecting the lives
and livelihoods of first responders. Their education and research initiatives aim to bring greater
awareness and understanding the challenges to the health, safety, and well being of
firefighters, EMS, personnel, and other first responders too. They are an
affiliate of the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation. This one's very near and deed to
my hot guns. Ready here is the health and safety tip of the day.
Firefighter health and wellness is critical to ensuring the safety and effectiveness of firefighters.
Do not underestimate the power of sleep. Assistant and adequate sleep helps maintain
alertness and cognitive function. I will be cuddly, waterly under my blanket and
about fifteen minutes, bros, so nice, That's what I'm saying. All
right, don't forget put that up too. Guns will come out and see
me and Louis on the second, third, and fourth of February. You
got your little finger guns. There is second through the fourth that's at Colisee
and we are in booth one four to two. We have people come by
all their laws and heavy hitters come out and see us. We may have
Paul Hairshagging out there signing his book. I will let you the next show
he's gonna make it and he will be signing his book, one hundred Years
of Vour. Just post up that go fund me. Somebody said this to
me. I don't know much about it. I just figured guys could take
a look at it. Okay, yeah, I'm good. I'll just get
there's something for you in there in the private chat as well. There,
hell me pull it up for me. You guys can read it. I
don't know if you want to touch on it. It was just what I
have, what I did for you guys. I have this and then that
was the actual So it's on go fund me. Shoulder the weight for Tim.
Just check it out. I'm not sure exactly what the situation is,
but it was sent to me from one of our listeners, so I just
wanted to throw it up there. Okay, yeah, I know the thing
is, but there was a picture of I don't know if you guys wanted
to talk about I'll pull it up really quick. Not a big deal.
It was this pick right here there. You go, oh, look at
that there go, yeah, Italians Dallion. That's where I first met him
at the at the show, the trade show, the well Alan show.
He was with Timmy Klett. Okay, yeah, I think he's he works
for Niosh now. I think that's what he's doing, since he knows how
to do it. There you go. He's a good, great, great
fireman, great leader, just all around great. I mean, you don't
make them like chief lay guys. What do we have on Monday? Bro,
I didn't even look, you know, off the top of your head.
I have so many guys, I know, police so much coming on.
I got a lot of big guys coming on. We had a lot
of big shows. The Rescue documentary is coming out. We got some big
news possibly coming down to Captain Silvino. Oh, Captain Silvino. Bro Louis
he's the real deal. Bro. I love his email Italian something right to
eighty three. Got a lot Oh yeah, goals, All right, don't
forget to come out and see us booth number one forty two, second third,
fourth of February. Come on out. Maybe we might be drinking the
booth. Maybe we won't. I don't know. We'll see what happens.
Oh right, guys, great job, man stories. It was, it
was, it was. It was a great run. And I wouldn't do
it any other way. We do it any and now we have your story
for posterity. We got to hear it in the files in the bank,
in the can back for the old poop of the back of the Rolodex days.
Yeah, then we say not show getting salty. You talk about Rolodex.
We men, you Rollodex with the academy. Look at me, funny
like, Oh, I just mentioned something the other day about the library,
the Dewey decimal system. My sounds like what draws box? Nothing? No
box assignment cards that used to be in the firehouses. Oh yeah, yeah
yeah when you relocate. We used to relocate you to get that card.
Take your cards. Yeah. Listen, I gotta get into bed because fire
in neat sleep. You know what I'm saying, bro, even retired,
fire in neat sleep in the can in the can. So we'll see you
on Monday night. Thanks for coming on, Steve. Until then, stay
low and go peeps. All right, everybody will see it, the big
one. Thanks you. He's gonna see the big one. Saddle up,
gentlemen. Sounds like work and ladies. Sorry forgive me. I'm gonna keep
our name going. I'm gonna all the ones that you guys have done.
Thank you, John Ze. Alright, guys, stay safe, you're next.