You're listening to the Getting Salty Experienced podcast. We go in fact, you
are listening to the Getting Salty Experienced podcast. Thank you Pete for chiming in.
Welcome back to you Get Salty Experience podcast. It's the only one that
you know. That table roof, the one that holds the weight of a
thousand stories. I don't know, there's a lot of one. It could
be a couple of styles. Every world problem. Bro, you're talking about
divorce, sports, news, politics, You talk about it all at the
kitchen table, and there's only one like it. And I don't give a
shit what these other guys said. There's only one place to see it.
It's right here. Well, you carbon copied some seminar bitches. There's only
one original, right tank, Welcome back. That's what happened to tanking?
What happened? I'm here, I'm here. You know you're away for a
while. We are you marrying one of your cousins? What were you doing?
I did that last year. We're almost had a year for that though.
Come off for congratulations, bro, Nice to see your smiley face back.
Any guys who had come back I did. It's going the other way
instead of the other way. Oh you did well, God bluss you in
what you got? A little six head working as six? Seven? Thanks?
You know eight? Maybe it just depends. Beautiful day today. How
was it up there in God's Country? Oh it's great today, gorgeous?
Right? Wou'd you do? Chops and wood? Or I was working in
the gun getting the garden ready and you had you had the sandals with the
black socks on. Very nice. You had the guinea tea right beautiful and
I to do it they do alright? Anything new? What you take before
we move on? Just doing it? Love it doing comments from that crazy
shit show we had the other day. I had a lot of guys call
him said it was very funny. I've not had I've not had the opportunity
to go back and check it out yet. But I'm making what I want.
I want to just give a quick shout out quick to the uh.
I have actually met captain tonight at when you go for your annual medical right
to trade center health. What's going on? What do you got to take
your medicine or something? Yeah? Oh yeah, take your medicine. Yeah,
but I just changed Bird special. I'm missing the early bird special.
Uh So That's where I met Capt Rainey there, and I just wanted to
shout out to all the girls at in Middletown because they do a great job
to counseling unit. All the girls they had, they take your blood,
do everything there. So I'm sure you yeah, oh Middletown. I had
a problem up there in Middletown. I had a problem then, you know.
Yeah, by this I need don't like anybody else. Yeah, I
want to ask one question. I want to I want to ask you want
to do me one favor. I know a lot of guys listened to it,
they don't necessarily watch it on YouTube. Please crying out loud, it's
free. Go over to YouTube and just subscribe and leave some comments. Bro,
it helps us out. You know, this, this podcast, it's
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button. That's all I'm gonna say about that. And you can also do
this. You can that's what you can do all right, take it away.
If you're looking for a gift for that special firefighter in your life,
then head on over to get in salty apparel dot com. Yes, getting
salty apparel dot com. What we have? What we carry? Hand drawn
original T shirts, glassware such as bugs, shot glasses, pine glasses,
engraved Arctic cooler cups, and much much more. There's also a full line
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And if you're a cigar smoking, congratulations, we have partner saw cigar cutters
and humid oors. I think we're done, far from it. We got
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Nice doesn't and listen. Also, for all you guys who reached out to
me on Facebook, semi well wishes the nutbag is doing a lot better.
I really appreciate it. Thrun the men's kangaroos, run the men's Yeah,
it doesn't look like this anymore. So Okay, thank you too. Sorry,
you're good. The First Responders Center for Excellence is not for profit organization
dedicated to protecting the lives and livelihoods of first responders. Their education and research
initiationships aim to bring greater awareness and understanding the challenge just the health, safety
and well being a firefighters, EMS personnel, and other first responders too.
They are an affiliate of the National Falling Firefighter Foundation. Excellent and an old
school health and safety tip tonight. I'm not even gonna read this one.
I thought this one about myself, and this really is aimed I mean at
volleys, but also guys taking details. Dude, don't throw you dirty,
filthy gear in the car where you got your kids cost seats in the back.
Bro, be yourself a favor. Spend a couple of shekels and go
buy gear bag. You know there's some of them that they'll offer a certain
amount of protection. Don't don't do it, you know, go to like
a boys at one source they have gear bags. We gave one away at
Indie. Don't throw all a contaminated crap in the back where you put your
whole wife and failing fits a lot of guys in the fdmy. They gave
us the bags, and guys use the bags. I know that. I
remember when they did that. Yeah, that was pretty late. Yeah.
I meanwhile, you know you're you're you're leaning your helmet on the kid's cost
seat, you know, your dirty hood, something like that. Enegis,
don't do it. That's it. You got anything else before we bring up
guessing? Thank you, Winkie. Got one more. If you win the
chat and you got something to ask for, something to say, hit us
up in a super chat. It's just a direct way to support us.
We love it when you do it, and it's a way to get your
comment put on the screen and your question answered by us. I think that's
it for the pre show. I think it's time we bring this man here
and waiting bring Roy. I'm ready with your yeah, yeah, all right,
straight from I think he's still working. He's seventy seven or seventy eight,
he's still working at the Counseling Unit. Captain Bob Rainy Top Welcome.
I'm working at the counseling unit. This is a judgment free zone, please,
so don't okay, I was gonna have to do a lot of work
here, you know, Nah, not at all. All right, take
let's do it. Let's us if any baby do it? Oosy can you
see by the dnslylight what so bridly we held at the twine lights lastlyming whose
broad stripes and bright stars through the proless find or the ramparts we watched were
so gallus lee streaming and the rocket rackla, the bombs fasting game froof through
the that our flags there, oh say us? That StarSpangled begad what?
Or the land, oh, the friend and the home of the bread full
wonderful? What a great country? Bro? Even this guy come on,
man, can't fuck it up. Bro. As hot as he's trying,
he can't fuck it up. Man. Yeah, all right, here we
go. Let's get let's get an old time machine cap. Let's go back.
Uh, well you got on at seventy three. But tell us about
a little about early life for Katherine. Here where'd you grow up? What
you tak grew up in Brooklyn? And my first one of my first memories
as a child was an Amilans fox pump up hooked up to the fire hydrot
in front of the house. And there was a lumber yard fire brea across
Steve from my house. And I was probably four, maybe five. It's
funny, one of my first memories and that kind of stuff. First big
fire I went to. My father noticed the smoke. He happened to be
home is the middle of a week. I don't remember why he was home,
but he saw a big column of smoke and get mean, come on,
let's go see what's violent. And of course I was already fire department
crazy and I was ten at the time, and we took over turned down.
It was the lucome back of pier fire in downtown Brooklyn at thirty first
Street and East River, and that kind of stuff. We got within I
don't know, ken block, twelve blocks away from it when the thing blew
explosion, right yeah, remember, well, I guess it still is the
largest explosion in the history of New York. And what I remember the most
was the all the glass shattering and all the windows all around me and my
father parked the cart and his people on the street and streaming and all this
other stuff. And he had no training at all, but he knew that
he did the right to trying to calm people down and stuff. We saw
that was he a buff like he was he on the job. I mean
just every now and then you see smoke or something to decide that he was.
So that's how you got ye any family, and I was on the
job. Now I have a grandson that's in Philadelphia now, But it was
the first and only we used to laughter. There was only one other rain
in the whole New York City via an apartment and he spelled his name different.
Oh, so did you come from a big family or just uh,
you come from a big family? Cap or no? Just my sister and
I mom and dad. Typical Brooklyn. You know, if you ever seen
Ralphie on Christmas Story, that was my life. Don't put your tongue on
the pole. Yeah all right, so you got bit by the bug early.
You saw a couple of fires living in Brooklyn. So you decide what
were you doing at the time when you took the test? I was,
you know, school and that kind of stuff. I when I got a
high school again, a job, I get job right away. You know
what parents couldn't have voted some my college or nothing. And I got a
job with insurance company on the Union Square, and I was going crazy,
and so I started hanging out in the Ladder three on thirteenth Street and Third
Avenue, and then got friendly Jack Foberty was there for for like forty years,
and then I got friendly with Jack and they were they were gonna They
found out I was leaving the Vietnam and the Navy, and they said,
come and have a meal in the firehouse. So I went there, droving
from Brooklyn the car and stuff and eating the finished dinner up and box comes
out in for them and they go out the door. So I walked out
to the house watch to seeing what's going on, and they gave a ten
thirty, which and why back then they went too Yeah, well it was
just we got jobs. That's basically what it was. And uh, and
so I hopped on the call. I headed towards it and it was Broadway
in West twenty thirry Street, okay. Uh. Eventually the famous twenty thirty
collapsed. I was there, and I just why I was there, just
one of those things and standing out on twenty third Street just buffing the fire
a few other buffs and some cuffs and stuff, and all of a sudden,
big mess of cloud of dust and smoke, and we came out of
building. We really didn't know what happened. UH three truck had gone into
the basement of under the Wonder Drugs and so I I knew they were down
there, and they can they can sprambling out and they were in the heart.
I heard later what had happened. One of the senior members from UH
I think it was sixteen engine was in it's five engine, was in the
cellar. They left him at the door. He said, something's wrong.
Get out, guys. And they've saw they saw the process of getting out
when it collapsed. And you don't even on the job, and you've been
to you don't even on the job, and you've been to two major fires,
and it's just you know, why I was there that night, it
was just happened. You know, I had no way to know that,
you know, I thought, I'm just gonna go have a meal in the
firehouse and was pulled it very nice to them, you know, and that
kind of stuff. And it turned out the bet this tragedy, And did
that change your mind at all? Maybe what I what I saw what they
did. And some guys turned around, got out, turned around the helmet
and went right back there. The guys some of them lost a helmet.
They had no straps and such. So the compression of the bellows, effect
of the floors collapse and blew their helmets off and that. And so the
guys that had no helmets they grabbed one from one of the engine company chauffeurs
or something like that, right back into the in there. That's the brothers
man. But they started down and they were not getting to them, got
to them. Fire spread the entire building. You could watch the fire.
It formed like a shaft through the building. You can see the flag or
a floor floor of war. And then and then they looked up and the
three trucks aerial was up to the roof of the building and they see all
these guys scrambling off the roof and they got down and not long after the
roof collapse. So they curl lost you know it lost twelve, They curl
lost thirty. Yeah you know, yeah, yeah. The pictures of that
tight did did the captain send any of those? OK? Yeah, I
had some pictures like you have some I think which one was it? I'm
sorry, twenty thirty street. Yes, that's the day after the collapse.
That's after that's what That's basically what they were looking at from. That's from
a joining building looking down onto the collapse area. Wow. Another another view
of that. Yeah, that's the one. The drugs drugs. Yeah,
yeah, it was a a wholesale drug place. And what they had done
is they they were wearing the floors away with cots with the drugs, and
so they put a terracotta flora it right right right, and and the fire
was raging below them in a portion of the seller that you couldn't really access
from the twenty third street side, and they were on top of their and
the additional weight at the terracotta and everything like that had been He done,
talks a lot about it. He was there and it went out from underneath
him, and he couldn't figure out where they were, and turned out a
guy from a fire patrol through the building and threw them a diagram where they
might be right to get around the back or fire patrol keeps coming up lately.
Well, you know, I had worked there, and you want to
hear something interesting. I used to teach Fast Team operations. It was up
in George of Vermont, Yeah, Saint Alban's way up off the Lake Sham,
playing there and doing a thing on FASTEAM operations, and a guy I
was talking about this fire and how there was no fastinams back then, and
a guy put his hand out. He's living up in Bemont. I get
the same kind of rough to dig for them chances that's great. There was
no chance of that, so he you know, so I got another perspective
on that and kind of stuff. You know, it's still learning the things
about that for I know, that's what triggered then he done to be such
a student of building Collabal. Yeah. Yeah, But like Louis Lewis was
asking, before you did it make your think twice about going on the job
After you saw that, I saw what how much I cared for each other,
And that's what made me want to be a fireman. I mean,
I always was fascinated with the lights and the thing as a kid would be.
But there I was, you know, there's a young adult almost as
you know, like twenty and and after I got out of Navy, it
kept me going alf of Vietnam and stuff that I want to come back and
want to go on to fight a bob. My mother even sent me an
ad. They were given the test. I am and in you know your
coust get Japan or some damn place throwing out papers, put a stamp on
it where you're well. And I missed. I missed the exam. I
was just getting ready to get out of the Navy and we're coming back from
the Mediterranean. We got caught in a storm in the North Atlantic and we
were late getting back, and I missed the exam. So that's why I
listened. I had to wait until I guess. I took the tests in
seventy one to seventy two and got I was in the first class and seth
I was a veteran, so you get extra points. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, good, all right, So you go in the first US,
you're in January seventeenth of seventy three, you get appointed, all right,
yeah, twenty seven attach, but no big deal. Oh twenty seventh.
Right, you did say that I fucked it up again, Okay, And
there's your pros. I think this is my probly patoon. If not,
it's the same era and that and one of the nice things about the photograph.
You look in front, there's two short scaling ladders. Yeah, and
they everybody had to use. We used to joke only call them scary ladders.
And one of the things you had to do he climbed the building was
scaling ladder. I actually did that in the prob you do it a performance.
I did the same thing cap I didn't have performance as well. Yeah,
and and I thought I'd never see another one night. So uh I
put one on a building once and we didn't get to use it. I
actually did it a fire, but we didn't. You know, they got
that will definitely get your confidence up, you know when you when you're practicing
that at school, right right? Yeah, Now, now they're all hanging
in the kitchen with pots and pants, how you know. Yeah, no,
that the wood ones. Oh my god, it's probably a lot of
money. Yeah, this is the this is the old the old rock at
Welfare Island. My class was the next to the last class at the old
Welfare Island Training Center. Wow. And those guys how cool? Yeah man,
they got you know, the rubber coats and coats to pull up boots,
pull up boots, and the leather helmets. Baby leather helmets leather forever.
I just set you that, didn't I? Hey, fools, right,
yeah, the water leather heads. You come, uh, you get
appointed to engine company twenty seven all right, March twenty fifth, March nineteen
seventy five. Rather, it's near the World Trade Center. We were like
second to with the World Trade Center. It was still just finishing at construction.
And we had one of the first fires of any significance there. And
we had a fire and he started on the eleventh floor and spread up through
the electrical They had a tube to run all the wires up through the building
and the fire were burning in that tube. I don't know what started it.
And and it was very windy night and the doors that the revolving to
us in the front of the building was spinning like you wouldn't believe it.
My company to grab the door to stop the door and put his hand and
they broke his hand. No way. Or when you put a tool that's
before they have them like all motorized now and everything probably obviously yeah, well
like you know, and but when you get that went blown out of the
bottom and then they all the pressure differentials are screwed up because the windows are
rapped? Are they? Are they at the seaport? Is that the one
at the seaport twenty seven? Or no, that's that's that's UH six and
one right six engine and no, well six is right? Six is a
single engine fifteen fifteen truck and they have the decon right, So a single
engine twenty seven was a single engine on hundred seventy three Franklin Street, you
know where Latta ragas right there, an corner from lad of eight and that.
And they heard some movie star bought the building. It's a dress shop
or something. Why did they get They got disbanded, got disbanded seventy five.
Yes, I got laid off on July face of the nineteen seventy five,
and they closed the company the same day. But I was already I
was detailed to the East Lower East Side. I hadn't got a officially set
there yet. I got laid off, So technically I got laid off out
of twenty seven injury. And what did you do? Did you did you
drive a bus like most of the other guys. Did you know? I
was going to uh A college fire science on the gi Bill went to school
full time and I had a friend of mine. It was a forest ranger
for the state of New York. He was a conservation officer. He got
me a job fighting on cool guy fighting foresties. That's pretty good enough the
hill since so Indian tank on my back and all over the place. Pretty
good. Better man than me, I think of those guys out in California.
So it's just been there to a certain degree. I don't no thanks,
and yeah, yeah, no doubt. So you're out for a whole
year, right, it looks like, you know, like eight months.
And then they they if you lived outside the city, they had two programs,
one for city residon and another program for people lived outside the city,
and that was through housing and urban development. And we were hiring into certain
ladder companies to do uh, salvage work. And you would go fight the
fire like everybody else. And then they go sit on the rig and relaxed
and you'll be putting plays. They cup on the windows and at all wasn't
wasn't it happy times? And they they'd want to go to the next fire.
Him, I gotta finish putting the plastic. Now. Was there talk
about layoffs? You know? Was it before it actually happened? A lot
of guys said, oh, they won't let you off. It's never gonna
happen, never gonna close twenty seven engines, any layoffs. And then I
got a bridge to sell you. You think that's true. Any time a
fireman says that will never happen, it's like almost a guarantee. Yeah,
who, who do you have? Great depression? Great depression. They didn't
lay you off, firemen? They did? He really I didn't know,
brough. Who do we have on the guys? Said when he when I
first got there, the old man, the old senior man, said two
things will never happen. We'll never get laid off, and you'll never be
women in the fight upon them. Get who that was? I remember that?
Yeah, I worked. I worked with Brenda Quin the first the first
one's huh when I was in eighteen latter eighteen. She was in seventeen engine.
I didn't know that. That's what my old man was. Seventeen engine.
All right, so year old for eight months and they bring you back
right in uh seventy six, Yeah, like March. I remember the exact
day. They send you over to eleven Truck, which is a great shop.
Right, Yeah, they're doing they're doing a lot of work there at
eleven truck when you get there. No, they did over over seven thousand
runs. That yeah, really busy, a lot of work, a lot
of vacants and that kind of stuff. And I lucky at what were a
ten named Benny Romeo, another good guy him. I want to try to
try to get it on the show, and he was there. And then
when they reopened Rescue five, he was. He was a lieutenant. Rescue
five became the captain eventine of twenty eight out of one hundred eleven truck of
Brooklyn. He so he went from one hundred eleven to eleven as a lieutenant.
He's also worked that guy. Yeah. So after about a year,
they had to move the guys in these hud trucks out, including myself,
to make room to hire them all guys, and so they offered me eighteen
truck, the same battalion and that kind of stuff, and almost as busy,
you know, I think it's like sixty seven hundred runs wow that year
and a lot of work. We were very, very busy with the talle
Ladder. I wish tell people somebody went to Disney or something that they flew
and they got junior pilots license pins. You know, junior pilots brought them
in the Talleladder book. That's good so much. You have a couple of
photos of eighteen trucks there. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, they took
the They wanted to make it look different, so that one of the guys
was real good crists and he made a wooden front for the rake, just
the right size, I mean, really nice. Put that on the front.
We had that for years. There's a couple of Yeah, this is
a typical Lower east Side fire. We had a lot of tenements and that
uh, I think if I remember correctly, this is of a second alarm.
What would happen sometimes Yet the fire would get in the air shaft and
you get a fire going good in one apartment and the windows at either break
or in the summertime, the win are opened and we're getting that air shaft
and we get these raging fires up the air shaft. Look at the Roman
number rolls on the boom. Yeah, yeah, I didn't even see that.
So uh, this is myself and Bob D. Martini. This was
a fire and not right down from eleven truck and twenty eight engines quarters and
it was a former fellow factory. I always heard breaking at the time.
And and this is, you know, nine o'clock at night. We pull
up to the thing in a couple of couple of rooms, couple. It
was so hot up there that they didn't want us going up until they got
all the lines in positions so we could when we run up, we had
water because it was you didn't want to be up there without water. Pretty
hot. And Bob Martina, the guy in the right, he eventually when
they reopen Rescue five, he's one of the guys that went to Rescue five.
Really good. Good guy came, well, you're worried about you got
the you got the heat shield staff? Yea almost it was almost trying to
tell the helmet around time. Yeah, nice old school. Yeah. But
and this is I think it's the same fire. I think it's Bob on
the controls and I'm on the They he had like a ring for the on
the stag for the have a lot of stream and that kind of stuff.
And this was pretty high. They're gonna use that one tomorrow. Post that
one up tomorrow. That's a good one. A little bit of fighter,
a little bit, just a little bit. I want to go back to
this picture really quick. I'm not gonna you know, allegedly that bucket may
or may not have been used for something, you know, bumping and run.
And you know you can see a couple of little love taps there in
it. Yeah, you're on the number, you know. You know it's
a busy area and that kind of stuff. You see. I had an
EMT patch on the side there. Eighteen truck was one of the they had.
They took a bunch of truck companies and now I had like twenty five
of them in the city of New York, and you had I had two
amts on duty all the time, and you were subject to being a special
called into major incidents. You know, we went to a couple of building
collapses and stuff just wore I am taste at the scene and and but it
was the young bad thing is so that you had to have that patch on.
And you know it had some somebody down the street imbbed a little too
much, you know, perhaps and caught at restaurant doing mouth to mouth on
him or something. Yummy. I'm out who who do we just have on
keV from eighteen truck Home Run. Oh, Mike Barron, Mike, I
the label thing is in the way though. I'm in the middle of the
fresh row, and I think Mike Barone is next to me, and that
this is the members of seventeen Engine, eighteen truck and the chiefs from the
fourth Battalion and then there's the Roman numerals up on the rig again. Yeah,
I see him A great pick from I was skinny in a lot of
chops in that picture that cap. Oh yeah, yeah. We a couple
of hunka Pooh shirts, Yeah, bell bottoms, so you gott oh,
yeah, well we had we were we were in a busy area, but
we were right by the Winning Brig bridge and what would happen if they had
a multiple in the northern part of Brooklyn. They put us on the bridge
and they sent us over and we ended up. But some major fires.
You have some pictures later of some of the big fires we went to.
Uh. One in particular was the we went to uh A fire on the
blackout nineteen seventy seven July middle of July of nineteen seventy seven, major blackout
in the city. We had seven major fires in the one night tour.
Yeah, and and riding was going on. Yeah, they're here, ye
scrolling here we go. Wow, yeah, that's yeah. Uh. You
see the tawe ladder on the on the right there, they had to move
it. It got so hot that's twenty four right, got burned up that
That was a different fire. That was the Bushwook case burning for a right,
right right, right right. I don't remember what truck on. They
didn't they suspended regular alarm operations then look at the cause burning. They did
what they did emergency command procedures. And there's pictures someplace I don't have them
of the the tender from the super pumper operating at this fire. And it
was the heat was so intense that in all that water from the monitor from
the super pump at tender and the street was drying from the just evaporated.
Just wow. Uh and that kind of stuff. Now same forhire. You
see how to how to move it towel out of because there's they fired both
sides of the street and and we went down the block. If you look
in the upper left corns stream, yeah, we'll see a stream that was
us and uh, we were told to try to keep the fire and traveling
down the block, there's mostly real frames and the heat was intense, and
I was, yeah, we were, we were. It was the equivalent
of like a fifth or sixth alarm. But they were, as I said,
they were in emergency command prosiegues where they send teams in it's cops or
National Guard chief then they h an engine, towel out an engine and National
Guard came out Los Angeles about the concept. Yeah, so you wouldn't transmit
us another along and say we need three more teams. You know, we
have audio from that night, right roof. I got to find some more
of it where it's just total pandemonium. It we had set companies to send
you, right, a lot a lot of I have no engines to send
you. I don't know that. I don't know whether you guys know Eastern
Parkway in Brooklyn. Yeah, the fire jumped Eastern Barkway. Wow, that's
like three lanes. There wasn't three lanes, three heat. It was just
there was so much volume of stuff coming out of the fire that members and
stuff, yeah, brands, brands and stuff. And the next scene.
No, they got a second limb on the other side of Eastern Parkway.
But at one point we had a two and a half inch line cooling the
rig. Myself and another guy the office, the office of the two firemen
or in the basket. We're down there cooling the rig with turning the half
inch line. And then and the chauffe of from fifteen inchine fifteen engine was
operating with us. He had a boostle line. He's wetting us now the
rig it was high. Thank you ever get hosed down? I have actually
yes, yes, actually with your clothes on him to yes, yeah,
golden shower. Oh well about that. A week later, a week later
we had I think there's some pictures there. We had the bush took his
burning fire. Yep, this is going see whether you can take you remember
this one, ruffy? Yeah, pictures up. My dad took those pictures.
And your dad he was saying, your dad took the picture, but
I was intriguing about this picture. He stretching an inchines recorded hose line.
Pretty big fire for inches requord Whose line? I think he's trying to stretch
any line? Yeah? Anyone that the towel ladder and the set today that
sladder one twenty four, Yeah, that one's smoking there. Yeah. And
Jim Ellison, who you probably you've heard of him. You ended up a
battalion chief and rescue battalion and super fire him and he made it uh commendous
rescue. He was the officer on duty in one twenty four truck. And
they because they worked in again as they had plastic windows in the rig because
there was always throwing stuff at the rigs and stuff, they had plastic windows
and all the windows melted, melted down out o the melted. That's incredible.
Could you imagine if that up to a rig today, there would be
people marching in the streets for God's sakes. You know what's money. That's
in the middle of the day too, that's all the middle of the day.
You know what happday in July it was hoping. They had a bunch
of fires, and so the companies that normally would have gotten in there early
they were jobs. So they had a cool company. So there was a
delaver response. And that The other thing is if so hot, the kids
had all the hydrants over this, so there's no water pressure, right,
so the cops went out trying to get the kids close to hydrants, and
that they're fighting with the cops over the hydrant and all this other stuff.
And at one point there was fire in thirty two buildings. Not all of
them were destroyed. I think, you know, maybe two dozen were destroyed,
but pretty good sized buildings. I mean that one huge, big building.
Yeah. Once again, that's one of a few times I ever STO
had attended from the super pumper, operating out of fire. That's a picture
of the the at least quantity area and that kind of stuffed the all of
those buildings are on fire, and that stuff we operated. If you see
where the Whetal Avenue elevated trains are, we operated. They had us pull
in underneath the l and operate. There was a McDonald's or a Burkey King
there one story and we run, we put the bucket over there, and
we're trying to control the fire. We had a fire like on three sides
of us, super high like. That's the first time I've ever seen this
diagram. That's I never realized how big that fire was. That's, you
know, not the very biggest fire I ever. The biggest fire I ever
saw was that the ship collision under the Verizona break We got to talk about
that was that was supposed to be a mile of fire on the water.
Uh, what happened when they hit the tanker. The tank it just empty
to all this stuff onto the water and that started burning. And they had
a tremendous floating fire with two ships and them. Well that was the Brussel
and the Wicked something a yeah, s Brussels and the alb the Alvocate,
the Sea Witch that was a wich and and that that's yeah, that's look
at the size of that gaping hole all and that was full of oil and
all that came out and you can see it's all and that poured out.
I remember when we were jumping back time wise here we uh we were uh
sent from Manhattan. We came out of the bookal Battery Tunnel and you go
to the Guanas Expressway. We're high. Yeah, you're coming up over the
top, right over the top, and we can see the fire there and
we're riding a back step back then and one of the guys says, the
bridges on fire. Du the Berizono for people who don't know the Arizono Bridge.
Is it huge? I think I think it's bigger than the GW one.
I think it is. It is bigger than it's not the biggest bridge
in the world, but it's used to be used to be yeah, at
one point in time, and here he had the fire under the What eventually
happened is as a as a tied one out and the cart went out.
The two burning ships went under the bridge, then passed it, and eventually
we ended up down at the There was a EJ. Corvette store that was
built on pilings out over the bay and the fire was starting to get underneath
the pilings. They were afraid of losing the store, so they had to
operating a stang azzle land trying to couple other companies. They finally got in
one of the fireboats and that eventually burning cause on the bridge. Right there
was cause burning on the four fire on the bridge. It was a fifth
alarm in Brooklyn and a third alarm and sat Island eight big tank part.
There's a couple of questions before we get too far out of a couple of
questions in the chat, M John Paul is asking cat were you at the
fire on Valentine's Day? In nineteen seventy nine off Broadway eighteen was an exposure
three taken a beaten from a loft building fire M. That's I gotta think
about that one a loft building fire. I didn't have a lot more building
off uh okay, I think another one we end up in the area.
The problem, the exposure problem with with loft buildings is a lot of times
in the Rea they got real strong walls on the on the you know,
the left and the right on the exposure you know, uh, B and
D whatever you want to cause the problems in the rear of the building,
and you want to try to get a lineback there because otherwise it jumps into
the building on the into the rear of the building on the on the street,
and they haven't got a lineback in there. But the towel out it
couldn't reach. Those buildings were so deep towel lost name all the times you
couldn't reach the rear of the building with the stream too deep. They would
be over one hundred feet deep, some of them a big building, heavy
timber, and that they had metal shutters on them to to prevent that exposure
from building the building and that and I remember seeing the metal shutters low and
red like the fourth of July sort of cool, we'll look at but maybe
not he and this we didn't do so good there is Yeah, these quarter
in thick metal shutters. Yeah right like that, there's a lot of heat
behind it. Yeah, yeah yeah. There's also a comment from Hank in
the tank, well we get to do that when we get to that company.
All right, right, right, right right, all right my bit.
All right, so from eighteen truck you go, you're in a great
spot. You know, I want to be a lieutenant. I want to
get promoted. So it's got one good story out of a good story about
you do it. When they had a great picture in the fourth Battalion of
when you were on the list for promotion, they would, if possible,
detail you up to the battalion. So they would so you could learn to
start to learn the paperwork. And I understand more than just being a firement.
And it was blessed. I had a chief named Already Meadows who was
we're really beloved guys in New York City fired apartment. Somebody told me he
was Tuskegee, ammon, So this is quite a guy. And then while
I'm driving him and may this is twenty seconds street and like second an avenue.
What they had done is they had taken about five or six old tenement
buildings and we moved the fronts of them and made them into one big building.
And they put a hallway to transverse all the the all the five buildings
and that kind of stuff. And five guy had gone really good, and
they had all these voids in there, and John Soccer and eleven Truck was
there, and a guy named Freddie Schwarzrak who was like six foot four from
eleven truck. He went down to smoke and when I was and John Soccer
pushed him up through a scuttle, said there's no way. And I think
I remember that doing that, the heat that John was exposed to, because
that was like the only one of the few vent points for all of five
in this building. Now this is the roof operation and that kind of stuff.
I remember a little chunky up there, cap huh oh, it was
it was bad. What say, pretty fred sports Rock is two e MS
guys that happened. I think they were volunteer firements, so they were not
afraid to climb an area ladder. They went up the aerial ladder and started
two medics and started treating Freddy on the roof. It hadn't but then Manning
might die. John's good action and John got a medal for it. And
so this is when John was in the eleventh truck. People know John soccer,
but he's a real deal. I could testify that good guy. And
then he's yeah, but uh. And I remember getting up to the roof
that he said the chief told me to get the resuscitated the oxygen and bringing
it up to the roof. By the time I got to thank god,
these medics were up there, and so do people on the roof. I
started give an oxygen and people on the roof and I remember the woman.
I'm giving a woman an oxygen. There's other people, so you know,
she's stone up. Hey, I've the oxyte. Didn't do another one.
She wouldn't let go. She's like this, she's we're not let that mask
go and and she said, I never realized what you guys didn't. Yeah,
I'm glad you were right. You know what you're gonna say. Cap
Kevin says all the time he got to ride with his brother. His brother
was a deputy and he got to ride with him his last year on the
job, And similar to what you're saying, like when you get to ride
with the chief, you kind of get a sense of what is going on
outside of you know, just being a farman or boss, you know,
constantly, just you got an outside look at what's really happening, you know,
and you got a great chief like out of meadows he's going now.
And but he was worked in the South Bronx. He started when they started
fifty six truck and the war and the beginning out of the war years.
He was the first captain of day. He was very well respected man.
But he knew so much and he you know, after the fire was over,
commit we come here, I want to show you this, you know,
he'd show you around and that kind of stuff. So I tried to
do that sometimes my own guys with me. Yeah, you learned that from
from him and pass it on, you know. Oh yeah, good stuff,
all right? Uh and the other stories from eighteen cap before you jump
into you get promoted. That's I got promoted right after that. I mean,
we had lots of fires and a lot of the same. You get
these tenement fires you'd have pretty much, especially on a weekend, you were
guaranteed one or two fires a nighttime in the weekend. You were going to
have a job. Just what's going to happen I mean that area was and
that time was just incredibly a lot of a lot of buildings. That's why
eighteen spent so much time in the up in the air with the dwell had
a bucket because I can imagine they were busier companies on the job, but
we were with all those vacant buildings, and that after Marty Selik was killed
on Eighth Street and that we dramatically reevaluated the idea going into vacant buildings.
Then he done just said something I had never heard before. He said,
all the years, you know, forty two years on the job, he
says, I never took a body out of a vacant building. So this
idea of making this commitment into vacant buildings all the time, the people that
that they're squatting in those buildings, they know to get out. They live,
they lived with this stuff all the time. So you know, maybe
it's some truth and maybe we need to you know, if it's as savable
life, I get it right on the risk reward, right, Yes,
all right. So you get promoted April seventh, eighty four and you're covering
in Battalion twenty six, Division sixty in the South Bronx again now where I
think they were a little behind. That's where it was really starting to get
busy, right early eighties. In the South Bronx. It was still busy.
When I say it started in the in the late late sixties, early
seventies, and it was by the late eighties it was a lot less.
They toured down a lot of buildings and but yeah, I my first first
They when you got promoted, they used to force you to go to fire
prevention for like ninety days. So the only time I got to work on
the firehouses over time on the weekends. So I'm a lieutenant like the week
and they sent me to the ladder nineteen work all the time and a Sunday
afternoon, okay, Sunday afternoon should be all right. And then we pulled
out of quarters and there's a H type bart house. I get them all
H type apartment house going the whole top floor is going fire through the roof
and that kind of stuff. And my transfer the ten seventy five, my
first, my first run a gold tennel went to the ratio well fly.
I only had the one flour five put it bringing the roof off the building
and stuff roof smoof. How you guys do it up here in the bron
Yeah, we did. You're trying to trench the roof, you know,
like you guys know trenching and that kind of stuff. I don't know whether
the tank you know you from your trenching, yes, yeah, and that
kind of stuff. We always said you gotta get it early, right roughly.
Oh my god. How many times did they work cap? Not too
often. I'm gonna say it's probably seventy five per maybe a corner at the
time. We got it before it gets past it. But yeah, So
where else did you work up there cap before you get assigned? Well,
like another there a lot of busy companies. They have forty four Frock nineteen
ninety two engine fifty engine that was in with fifty eighty five engine twenty nine.
No. Eighty five was a single engine, single house and they were
ten house on Boston Road right right right station. Yeah, and and eighty
three are good. They were good companies. They could you know, you
knew they were gonna put the fire on, you know, and it was
funny. I would tell guys up there, wait, do you wait,
you wait? Oh? You worked the first division. They had no idea
what we're doing in that reside. They just had no idea. But after
a while, you know. But the one good fire I had with a
nineteen truck, I was covering the vacation there. I think you have some
pictures, a series of pictures from the air if it's uh Melborose Avenue,
Yes, I just gotta scroll one find them. There we go. Well,
I'll give the story while he in we were were at another incident,
uh at in front of the old quarters of Engine seventy one out of fifty
five on Park Avenue, fifty ninth Street, and the elevator had fallen.
Some people were hurrying, so we're second too. We're just standing in the
street. Cop comes up to me and says, you know there's a fire
at one Melrose Avenue, one hundred fifty second street. You guys know about
it. I said, I didn't hear anything, and you have anything.
Come over the radio. I called it, dispatcher, and I said,
you have a box in for one, five, two and Melrose And the
despatcher said, no, we don't. I just got a verbal along from
a police off the Saint as people trapped and cops trapped in the thing.
So I called it the chief of the fire we rat and he says,
yeah, go ahead. So I said, you know, I told us
boy, we're available to take it in. We get there. We got
there along because it wasn't that far. We were one five nine in a
park and that's one to five two, so it's not four. Pull up
and the fire. The fire at a store. If you showed a picture,
there's you I think we go back one. There's one with the all
of well that's later in the incident, doesn't matter. That's one more picture
is the right one. I look at that fire just off the off the
fire escape there, all those people are coming downright happened? What had happened
was if you go there's one one another picture that shows the people on the
fire escape. These pictures were taken by a housing police officer that happened to
be there and took a bit. Yeah, and you can see the people.
There's people on the fire. It's hard to see because the smoke and
that kind of stuff. At this point, the fires in the store on
the first floor and then the apartment on the second floor. The main entrance
to the building was around the corner. Because there's no way to get off
the fire escape up down on the front fire escape. They trapped on the
fire escape and fires rolling up underneath them, and now they can't They don't
want to go back in the building because it's full of smoke. They can't
go up because there's no place to go. They came and it's you know,
fifty people above them. So the chauffeur from the truck from nineteen truck
called a lalla and I forget, I can't remember who the outside the man
was. Anyway, throw the area ladder up and start taking them off.
There the fire escape and no engine on the scene. We go around the
corner myself and the forstible entry team. We found the two cops crawling around
me and in a staircase coffin, and we sort of led them to the
duover. Hey, we are good now because we have people trapped, and
we pulled about I think we pulled them about eating nine out and most of
them were conscious and lay but uh, what happened was somebody was pissed off
and touched the store. They were angry at the store romer and it's you
know, it's nine o'clock at night. These people are trapped above the fire
with no way out, and they kept somebody asking in the chat that your
first run as a boss, how was your ten seventy five? Were you
a little uh? Were your calm? Cool and collected? I had very
little out in my mind what was needed. I almost thought, I'm up
saying did you give a good Did you give a good ten seventy five?
Or was it a little shaking you know? Yeah? No, I said,
I told him we had You got to say we had it. We
have an h type, We got the entire top floor, we got fully
involved, and then ten seventy five, as long as it wasn't a screaming
ten seventy five. You didn't get the screaming one, right, He's like,
I worry, but but you know that was a good nineteen truck,
a really good company, a lot of guys someone else gotta called Alalo I
think became a chief. There was a show for that night, and then
got the excellent firefighters, Joe Rio and a lot of really good guys.
I wish from my whole career in nineteen truck. But I'll tell Milner,
huh, don't tell Mikey Milner. Okay, Yeah, you know a good
place. But what happened was, you know, I only had a couple
of years as a lieutenant, so even more time to put in when the
spot opened up, something else, some more time, whatever, they got
it. Now I'm without at home again. So you know Jim, you
know, we'll know Jim Cullen from the Ye firefighters. Yeah, and we
were friends because I used to help them out with some of the burn Center
stuff. So he saw, oh, Bobby, you didn't get nineteen truck.
He's a spot twenty one truck, and rescue one was in quarters with
him that they had had that that lovel a long fire had destroyed their quarters.
They answered, they've in quarters with an engine thirty four twenty one.
And Jim says, you know, we're sharing office and stuff. And he
was a friend. This is great, so he put a word of I
mean, that's how I ended up with twenty one truck as ten. And
they were they were pretty busy. Yeah, tow allowed us in New York
City. You're gonna you're gonna pick up some work every now and then.
Yeah, even at that time, yeah, even now, but back then
much more, I would say, right, definitely, I mean, and
we got the picture with the hankle. Isn't that picture two Hank at it?
Yeah? Uh? At least say oh yeah, has Hank Malay is
the second one? Uh? Paul Wilt, big guy. Paul Wilt is
a big guy next to him as Hank Malay. They wasn't called him Molly
the volley very good. He tanked and he put something there. Yes,
the guy in the middle with the light colored thing is h uh put that
back up tank right? Oh? Spanking mission John Mcallison. Everybody called him
spanking, so they they this picture was up in the firehouse and for a
while and it was spanking in all the game they put it. That's cat
Melon Elson on the Jimmy Allison is the captain. I'm right there. Ronnie
Bouka is right now extore, I mean right from rescue one. H huh.
I'm pretty sure. Ronnie and I got to be friends with both Vietnam
vets. And we all know about Ronnie Buco with on nine to eleven making
enough to the upper floors and super good fire And right after this picture he
fell off a fire escape four stories and it survived. And the reason he
survived he had been an airborne ranger and he was used to as they fall
through trees or something, the airborne the train to grab things to Robert fall.
Yeah, right there fall and that's what saved him. And he also
landed on all fours, which I never thought of. He said, if
you land on your legs as you can break your legs or your back,
you land at all fours, you're putting all that energy out into the whole
fours. But to think to do that when you're falling for stories, you
know, wow, that's a good picture man. That that big guy.
What company was he in next to Hank? Was he Paul Well? No,
he was in twenty one truck. The canswered the engine. Canswered to
the engine. I like to get behind him, and he had the nozzle.
You ain't doing shit right. Just hang on. I don't feel any
heat. That's perfect. I had for a short period of time after I
lost the spot in in nineteen truck. They had me teaching at the rock
at Proby School and he was one of the Proby so that I taught it.
Big big fella, Yes, Cap Hank. Hank is in the chat
and he says to tell you hello, hyeah, Yeah, good guy,
Hank good people. I think he is the good Frank Molly the Valley is
a good dude man. Yeah. And that's that's Rescue one one. They
were in courts. Wow, look at that thing. Holy shit, beautiful
truck. That was my like one of my all time favorite the rescue rakes
beautiful truck. We Uh, I don't think we talked about this already.
I was occasionally I'd go across the floor and I'd work in Rescue one mutual.
And it happened to be doing that one night. And it's about the
same time that photograph was taken. We got sent up to Way North for
them one hundred thirteen Street, Yampsterdam Avenue for a fire and a triangular building
and we got said help them such the top floor. So I think this
is the same fire. It looks like the same fire. I'm not absolutely
sure, but a very similar situation. And the fire took off and they
ordered everybody, everybody to get off the top floor and one of the officers
from one of the truck companies up there didn't get the word. He got
hit by the towel out of stream and he got knocked around pretty good.
And and and uh, I think it might have been George Crucchit had found
him and he had sort of crawled into a closet to get away from the
towel out of stream. And and but I had a guy him with me
named Jackie Theobald, who was in rescue one and who were searching this upper
floor apart when we find a woman in there. She's trapped and they we
go to take her out the fires in the hallway. So we're thinking about
Lauren or with a rope and that, but she was handicapped and and oh
boy, yeah, he's gonna have to hold on to him. I'm gonna
have to lower him and and that. But they eventually the engines good engines
hauling engine companies really good, and they got up to him and they got
the fire knock down kind of stuff and we got her out. We got
the officer was, yeah, do you go to any fires that don't look
like you're plunging into haities or that any small fires? No one room drops
the rule. I have just rule. I have go bigger, go big,
big or nothing? All right? Oh man, stuff, I see
more fire fire with second line of the volleys. About two weeks ago,
he's still going seventy still doing it up by roof is Yeah, I think
stop, I'm not going to pulling ceilings and pushing hose lines. But the
eyes are still good. So look at he's still doing it. He's doing
it or something that's it's you know. I people say to me, you
know what are you? And I said, I'm a fireman. That's what
I am. You know, some people adopted some people in nurses and look
broadcasting. And I just had this conversation with my mother just you know,
my dad was a fireman. A Sun's roll finment, a fineman born or
they made. I think you're born with that. But that's a good question.
M I think it's a little probably a little bit they said early in
my life. I rolls my eyes and still see that old one's box bump
up hook up the high ground in front of my parents. I remember pulling
the box on the corner that you pulled the box. I know the guy.
The truth comes out. I know that cookie probably beat your ass.
Bro Well, I told you when when I first spent the Captain, I
went to I went to get my medical done for the year. This was
the last couple of weeks ago. Yeah, and uh, I had taken
all the most of the time you got to sit due the computer, right,
So I had already done that at home. So I went in.
They took my blood, did all that stuff, and then I had to
wait to go see the doctor and some other other girls. So they said,
oh, yeah, you can go ahead. Now you can have some
coffee. You go sit inside. So I went inside and the captain was
in there, and immediately we sit down. He's happening. He's sitting across
from me, and I could tell it's bubbling up out of him. It's
just coming out of him. He can't worry, just work. He's smell
of smoke on my clothes. I said, where's the fire cap? Is
that your cologne? O? You know what old fuego? But I could
tell so. And then when I went in to go see the cold mattress.
When I went to go see the girls, uh, one of the
girls had said, you know, like, what are you doing now whatever?
So I said, I have to. You know, I started a
podcast whatever with my partner, and uh, she was like, are you
the salty guy? And then I'm like yeah, She's like you gotta get
bob on. I'm like, you know, I was talking him before and
I think I'm gonna ask him to come on, and they were like ecstatic.
So I'm glad. I'm glad he came on. It was you know,
my, my, what you guys do here, And it's it's it's
full of fun, and it's it's about the reals. I loved some of
the people that you've you've had on. I mean, you know, I
can't say every good things about Paul Hashager and I'm with good friends and and
that kind of stuff. And he's apparently he's still fighting fires in Freeport.
You know. Yeah, guys are all crazy. Yeah, yeah, I
don't know. You know, everybody different walks, you know, different folks,
right, I mean, likes to go kill boy de fentials animals.
This guy likes to go. And seventy seventy still taking care of the brothers
at at the counseling unit, and he's running at the fights. Maybe possibly
we we had what was called a certainteam in the New York Fire Department Critical
Incident Response Team, and we would they'd activate us if something happened, something
bad happened, they had a real bad multiple death fire, or they had
lie duty death, something suicide, something bit real bad, and we're gonta
visit the firehouses because they'll usually talk to us. And I kind of talked
to some of them psychologists or something or social worker initially, you know,
and but and then after nine eleven, I was actually on the pile and
I came off the pile. I come back, You were retired already,
nice, I was retired, but I you know, I had a lot
of training. I was UF following a lot of seven as a captain when
they were doing some of their rescue support training. So you know, I've
been around a while and a lot of building collapses. So I told them
what I could, but the the the need to be there and do something
was there. And I come off the pile, and I'll tell you a
quick story. I got back to my firehouse and I'm staying out in the
front, so covered with all the dust and stuff. And since it was
a really nice sorry makeing emotional over it even and I'm staying out there.
All the neighbors that donate food, so they're heating the food and I'm staying
outside. I'm drinking to call. Old man walks up with a cane and
that comes, puts flowers down. So I said thank you sir, you
know, he says. He says with a British accent. He says,
I understand. I said, okay, thank you. No, I really
put his hand on my hands. I understand. He says. It was
a fireman in London during the blitz. Wow, and he said three times
over they lost every member of London Fire Brigade. That's what he said.
I don't know whether that's true, but that's what he said. He said,
The reason I survived is I went into London five rigrade late in the
blitz. So I survived. And he says, so I was burying my
friends all the time. Yeah, those bombs were falling. Imagine that too.
I mean that's incredible, right, And you think this isn't going on.
Take a look at our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine. Ukraine,
I always see it. We talked, uh yeah, have you uh if
you've had any collapse training, you know, we're all at collapse procedures.
Oh yeah, yeah. We had Nigel snowy On and we from he's from
uh somewhere over there. And we had the other guy who wrote a book
about the five rigame. We actually, uh, we had a couple of
shows about that cap where we learned a lot about that, like a lot
of the techniques and stuff that we do about like you said about fight fi
and those types of buildings, collapses and stuff. If anybody knows that guy,
tell him to reach out to me. He wrote a book on the
on the Blitz. I'd like to get him back on the show, like
I don't know where's yeah, yeah, no we will. I'd like to
read that until Yeah, this kind of stuff. I was in London with
the wife and I went by a firehouse, so that low and that different
or a little bit different world five pumps and all other stuff. They got
the high low. Where are yeah? Where are we? Coops? Where
are we? He's about to be promoted to captain? Yeah? One captain
signed up the third division because I had it was a little tenant and third
division and stuff. And as I said, I have bouncer. A couple
of companies ended up in seven trucks for a while, and I thought it
was going to get the spot there. Same thing happened as nineteen trucks.
Somebody more senior already got the spot. And that's so I'm coming against sort
of battalion commander of the seventh Battalion who knew me from when it was in
twenty one truck asked me to come and take twenty six engine and I said,
okay, I'll take it, like for a year. And you know
I got there. I loved it. The guys, good guys, and
a bat cave, right, fun place, a bat cave. And it
was the reason it was about that cave. It was we had bats,
really terminator and at a hostile Yeah. I don't know now that you looked
at the river, that building, it looked like Gotham City. The only
thing you didn't You didn't have the batman thing on the on the clouds,
you know, the searchlight, the Batman. That's all you needed, it
really did. It looked like Gotham said gawk and black and that kind of
stuff. But we uh, good years. I had a great bunch of
people there, single engines. Nice as a captain because you know, you
just have you you only have twenty five eiets to work. Worry no,
and I'm kidding. They were good guys. But good years. Sometimes much
time, many years? How many years did you? Eight years? Yeah?
Eight years? There and that kind of stuff. A lot of a
lot of a lot of fires there. I didn't get a chance to get
all the pictures into you, but you know we want to a lot of
fires. Uh there was another picture crazy thanks. I remember one July fourth,
we had a bloom crash, a blimp crash, like a big fourth.
Yeah, joly to fourth, that's a good story. I don't have
the I have the picture and I didn't send it to you. But July
to fourth, one of my lieutenants was going to a family party, said
you're working tonight because you come in around. He's like sure. I was
like, hey man, they helped my look tann down and then I'm righting
and that kind of we get called out. We put it in an aircraft
down and it's like forty fifth to forty sixth Street and ninth Avenue or something
like that, and oh god, that's gotta be man. We get there
that the faded deflated blimp hanging off the side of a building there and find
out the story. Uh it was the fourth of July. So they have
the upsail and all other stuff, and then fleetweek and stuff. They there's
like a million people along the Hudson River. They're gonna watch all the tall
ships and stuff, and then they gonna stay there for the fireworks. As
he frozen. I think he's frozen. He'll come back, come back,
half Jack, come back doing something. She couldn't care about it too much.
Frozened that right. I was just gonna be can he get can he
get back on himself? Was he? Uh m hm? I probably have
to call Yeah. Probably we were doing so good. I don't know what
happened, all right, I give McCall tell him. I'm gonna play the
commercial in between. Yeah, sure, I'm gonna you know what, Yeah,
kick him out? You kicked him out, all right? Cool?
Yeah, put yourself on mute. We'll play the commercial. Ball What do
we gotta play? That's the old school tip of the day, brought to
you by which will be coming up White Charlie. He's a firefighter, this
guy. I love it all right. Dragon hook Sport Fishing. He's an
all inclusive, family friendly fishing charger specializing in walleye catfish and steelhead fishing on
Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio. Owned by Josh Myers, a full time
fireman and licensed US Coast Guard. He brings over twenty years experienced fishing the
area and it's a supporter and sponsor of Walleye for Wounded Heroes that provides Purple
Heart recipients as well as all fors responders injured in the line of duty three
days of all inclusive lodging and fishing each year. Checks out on Facebook at
dragon Hook Sports Fishing or online at dragon Hook sports Fishing dot com. Mentioned
to getting salty ad or receive fifty percent off your personal charter excellent. I
think we have his phone number somewhere, don't we. Yes, we have
a banner with that. He's a fireman. Bro. Come on dragon Hooks
phone number four four zero five two two five nine four zero. It's my
man at dragon Hooks. We catch a couple of fish, one or two
or three fish. And I was setting the show up last week when I
was that day I was working and you sent that text about that. I
was like, what does that have to do with the old school tip or
the word of the day. I was like, that's an interesting word of
the day. Can we hear that story. It's just a guy who wants
to promote his business, fight to own business. We're all about that.
Well, we have a way that people can contact us if they want to
promote their business. Oh, Hanks in a bullpen again, just in case
that was on slowboll this. Hey, you know I've been the bullpen,
he says. He's just he's ready to be. I thought you had to
go pick up your old lady at the airport tonight. What happened, Hank,
Hank? You miss RUF has got him? Got him good? Delilio
M hmm yeah, man M. Maybe should have five minutes of fewer between
Hank and Ray. Oh, it's been happening. He's coming back. Yeah,
he should be on in the second perfect. He's got a couple of
guys had mentioned in the face and Facebook too. He had a helicopter story
too. I just asked him. He said that's different than what he's talking
about now. So he's gonna talk about that too. So remind me right
now I talk about the bribe. See if you can find the thing on
YouTube about the blimp? What you was it? Any pictures? I don't
know what it was it had to be about. You can probably find that
for us July first of ninety two or three, I don't know. Blimp
crash New York City. I can help by MC's face. He's looking for
it. He's got that searching face on. He does ninety three. Pee
said ninety three. There we go. See it a pizza hut blimp,
the blimp. I remember that. Actually I don't. Oh that's before the
merchant too. Man, he's back, he's back in still loading. I
was heard at work today by the Pete Thomas Hern. I was heard at
work today. I was heard at work today. I had a hit playing,
Oh boom, MCS boys right there. I wonder MC pro this video?
Is he loaded in ki tank? His little square has popped up,
but his picture is not showing up the screen? Away run into the window?
Is he on the video? That's the problem. All you could take
that off of that. I'm done with that crap. Let me see if
I hadn't do the screen, what happens? No, nothing, just a
black box. Oh look it's Mike. Who it is? I saw that
gesture. CUIs met up when ESU came up. Leave me alone? You
know, I love equally. I love both. Hi everyone, by the
way you do. I figured I can hang out with you guys until he
comes back. I haven't had this much technical difficulty before, but at least's
more was to make it pass by. Though I didn't know that happened either.
I might need to do a show on that in the future. I
didn't know how blim crashed in Manhattan. Wow, bro, you know with
the program I thirty, it's thirty years this year too, Yeah, thirty
years ago. Wow. Yeah, nineteen ninety three yet old nay three was
a good year my opinion. Well you were born that yeah, oh yeah,
that's good. Yeah, that was Yeah, that's that's interesting. Whether
well, I guess he'll tell us when he comes back on. I wonder
if there's any fatalities there. Well, so one guy to stretch it,
yeah, yeah, a law board. But that was pre emerged everything too,
because e MS had emerged with a yeah and orange and green uniforms.
Housing police were still separate from NYPD. So yeah, that was a different
time the city. But Bob, yes, mcbob is here. Chat is
happy to see you. I'm happy to see them. Thank got him?
All right, Well there brings after the show, all right, you can
hear me. We're bringing it in bad problem. Sorr just just dropped me.
Yeah, I saw that all right, And I haven't seen that video
for a long time time. We had a lot of there was a lot
of joking going on around us. Somebody called it limp blimp, somebody else
guys calling Jurassic condom. Did anybody get seriously hurt their camp or yeah?
They Uh, there was two crewmen in the blimp, be the you know,
the gondola thing on the under the bottom of it, and we saved
them. Was two cops. Two cops were watching it and saw that it
was spinning in and uh, they ran up to the roof and one of
the cops was a private pilot table to shut the fuel and everything off.
Saved them and that kind of stuff. But the interesting things we coursed.
They took gunfire. Somebody uptown Manhattan was shooting at it. Really one fire,
shocking, and it started leaking on one side and so it started circuling
circular. Imagine that old ship moment from those guys, And they just kept
losing it and the opening just spread and so was leaking all the descending.
So what he was trying to do is catch it just right and put it
down into the ocean, into the river, into the Hudson River. There
and that but landed on the funny story. There's a couple sunbathing on the
on the roof of the building in beach chairs, and she was topless.
Apparently, whoa, there's always a silver lining before she thought they were watching
time. You know, yeah, I bet they were, though, thanks
here and the chairs were crushed. Stupid point and that it wasn't Broccini's old
lady, was it? I don't know, I don't know, I don't
know, I don't know. All right, there's a helicopter story you want
to talk about too. We had a few of them over the years.
We had that thirtieth Street helicopter. We were at thirty seventh Street, so
we get occasionally we go down There was a thirtieth thirtieth Street and the Hudson
there was a sight seeing a helicopter operation and and uh New Year's Eve.
We go down there one time and that it's absolute pandemonium. He could this
speak and we got there. What had happened the helicopter was It's New Year's
Eve. All these people wanted to get up in the helicopter and fly around
New York over Times Square at twelve o'clock and all this other stuff. And
the guy was pulling the helicopter and wind hit him and the blades went through
the waiting room. Boom, the blades from wom woom, and you could
see it looked at So somebody took the big axe and went through the walls.
That there was glass and everything. There must have been sixty people sitting
in this waiting room. Wait, everybody get taught. Everybody get decapitated.
No oh people people Uh it was high enough over their heads. But they
got scraped away, glass and sheep rock and everything you can possibly imagine.
And we had, you know, every gow. And then we get a
helicopter down in the river. I remember, we get you go screaming over
there, crazy screaming over there. You see blades sticking out of the water
and this kind of stuff, and it's nobody Dan, it's no other cop
comes up to me and it's oh, yeah, that was there, that's
been there for two days. Somebody's thanks, well, fie. But ye
was the one that Hashagen talks about with the oh yeah, the traffic brol
You weren't there yet. We were in court. We're watching uh uh uh
television traffic reporter Jane Joranacker on television and that and all was that she shouts
scream and hit the water, hit the water, hit the water, and
and uh it uh. And they took off when we saw where it was
because they're watching live on television, and they got there real quick. U.
When they got there, just the blade was sticking out, and Paul
Hashagen and I'm trying to know who else went down. Bobby Shaffer who was
from twenty one truck, he went went in the water too, and Jackie
Theobald, like four or five guys go in the water there. And Paul
followed the blade of the helicopter down and he got it was on its side,
and he got the pilot first, pulled him out, brought him up
to the surface, and a bunch of all the people greater and he went
back down. Let's try to get the reporter and she had been under too
long. They couldn't save They saved the pilot. I was a real deal.
Yeah, Well, wow, was you spent a lot of your time
in Manhattan? Yeah? You know, it was never a dull moment,
that's for sure. And you s you saw everything you worked in every every
uh you worked in hallm You worked in the Lower east Side, you worked
Midtown, you worked. No, I didn't want a lot in them.
I didn't work a lot in Brooklyn. I you know, I covered there
two fifty engine in Brooklyn and uh and that kind of stuff. That was
my own neighborhood in Brooklyn. It was so cool to go back there.
Very different than it was back then. When did you move up state?
Uh? Right, I had about year on the job, so it was
like seventy four and that was really the country, you know, gals walking
around the backyards and stuff. That's before the riff raff moved in right there.
Oh the other one, yeah, before before the guineas came in basket
they're growing. Yeah, they're making a gravy on Saturday at Sunday mornings.
Had stories you want to share, Oh, there's a lot of them.
Um. We we had we had a fire in the old b Altman store
and that was right off a fifth Avenue and I don't know, like thirty
third or thirty but north of their thirty fifth or thirty sixth street and it
was a fur of wall b awthworn. I don't know whether you guys remember
b Altmans was a big department, so I remember the name. Yeah.
Anyway, they we're going to convert it into something else, so they of
doing working Man. This is medd A night we get called to this and
other companies were out. We ended up the first year on the scene and
we go up and the fires up on this area and we know what was
bartning. We had no sids about that. Everybody knows who sids is?
Uh computer or I was saying, it tells us what's going on with the
building. We got up there and we're moving on on the fire. We
can't put the fire. App couldn't figure out what the fire was. Now
we ran our air. We started to back out and the chore start all
across our heads. So we had to turn the nozzle back on, back
out with the line on to protect ourselves. We got out, like what
the heck? We couldn't put this thing out, you know, two and
a half in line on this kind of stuff turning out. There was like
a four story fur wall built on the roof of the old Altman store and
it was refrigerated and you would pay b Altmen and its store your mink,
you know, and then and it was safe and secure, but it was
chilled. So they had quake insulation about a foot thick all around the I
think that's what we're burning. So here's this thing, you know, forty
feet by forty feet by forty feet with a foot of qualk insulation, and
wonder we couldn't put the chore app and then and it had a concrete roof.
Truck Me tried to open the roof, open the room and ended up
to rescue company with Jack Allas and stuff. Managed to get some ventilation in
there and that gouts up. Well, we got we got burned back and
out because we had to put the right over our head of fire literally running,
you know, rolling over our heads. So we had to back out
with the line on. We opened had the one to finally put it out.
Just I think what happened more than anything is they just sort of held
their position through companies in there for a while and then eventually burned up all
the four. It helped when the rescue companies got the roof open right,
and and that was have another big hot fire. You know, couldn't saying
either too. You know, it's it's oxygen deprived there, you know.
You you almost wonder whether we could have had, you know, a backdraft
or something like that comes up. It was like no ventilation for this thing.
Crazy stuff in Manhattan. Right, you had sent some pictures of a
collapse. We got some pictures of the collapse. Right, what was it
that? The uh? Oh them which West thirty one Street collapse street?
Yeah? Uh? Where were you working with the hotel? I was in
twenty one truck. I was medically I got into the fire or sick,
I don't remember anyway. So I went to the medical office. My son
came in with me, and he was gonna go up and take the physical
for the fire. Pum ended up being a coup, but he's gonna take
that. And we pull up to thirty first Street and like seventh Avenue and
my son, Kenny system means that little smoke there, and I looked over.
I'm not true that smoke, but it was it was that dust.
The building collapse as all as dust. So he's a big guy, you
know. We go running over there and there was a car there and the
tail lights were on the car, So thinking where somebody's in the car?
Tail lights are on? Right? What happened? So much material had gone
into the car that the bricks and stuff were pushing on on the brake and
that kind of stuff. So remember that I looked as a woman climbing off
the top of the pile, pregnant woman climbing off the top of the pile.
And she scratched up and stuffing. She's not hurt there, and she
says, I said, where were you? She says, was on the
fourth floor when the thing collapsed. She just wrote it down like a child
slide. Basically pregnant. Well, I mean like eight months pregnant. And
we sort of helped her up and that kind of stuff. So, you
know, I didn't have any gear with me or anything. The company started
arriving and that kind of stuff. I just said, I got to do
something here. I got her name. I sall get names because we had
to try to figure out how many people are trapped. So there's a picture
there of a bunch of guys in the circle their tank. Yeah, uh
this is eight hoursn't in the incant I think the guy with with no helmet
on, I think that's uh uh bran o'flower to the captain rescue one.
Anyway, is this women members is walking across the pile and uh, all
of a sudden, somebody grabbed his leg. A pot no. I think
we had John Norman on here talking about yeah yeah, and he going he's
going past the the thing and the brushes, and she grabbed his leg.
I knew the guy. I can't kept thinking of the name quickly, but
and that kind of stuff, and they realized she was still alive. This
is eight hours into the incident. Wow A, Doug and Doug eventually what
they did, it's hard to see in the picture. There was a professional
photographer on the building next door and he was looking down from above and Cook
that's how we got these pictures. Well, I was able to get copies
of his picture and and I got him to ray downy. You all know
who he was, and that kind of stuff, and he was he loved
these pictures, you know. And I'm trying to remember who was in rescuer
one. I know Jay Fishlip was the was the lieutenant working really good.
Eventually became a battalion tie. He's the guy who would get on too.
We're not talking about him, we're not asking him again. We see him
at the shows and we received at all the shows. He said, talk
to my agent, he said, I think the Valley was at the thirty
first Street collapse too. Yeah, I can't remember all the names and it's
yeah, it's forty years ago and stuff. But it just, you know,
like I said, here we are stopped for traffic light and the building
collapses. You know, it just you had just had and hat was crazy
like that man, and then you hit something and and you know I used
to call me to I go after some nice company needs cover a vacation and
I have four fires and in two days and stuff. We like you,
Cap, but please leave you. The other places would be like, CAP,
you gotta put your paper in there. Yeah, they're going get that
out of all right, Cap. Before you get to the old school tip
of it day, let me ask you, if you could go back,
would it be anything that you'd want to try that you didn't get a chance
to try while you were on the job, or a company you wanted to
go to that maybe you would have liked, not that the company that you
I would have liked to work at Rescue. To be honest with you,
I when when Spots opened, I was already on the Captain's list and they
weren't gonna you know, and I would have liked that because I you know,
I I just liked doing that work. And I got to work with
some wonderful, wonderful guys and rescue one and some of the best ever.
Yeah, and some of them are going someone them settle around and that well,
I wish you would have made chief was on the list, and politics
being what they got left on the list, you know. And that's why
I decided to get out when I did, you know, I got a
little anguag all the time, and uh and that and I was I was
until I phraced of two thousand and eight the list, and so I had
no chance that everyone has studying again and when me in to the state capa
and and that kind of which was twenty six is fine, but you never
know, I mean twenty of the guy to replace me and into twenty six
and all the guys except for the show that we're working, we'll lost on
nine to eleven and never found on you so happy for the reason I had
no way to know. But you know you did what you did. Yeah,
it's just basically Russian roulette. At that point. You don't know when
you could be working. Who knows. Now, I think it might be
time. Is it ready? Are you ready for you? Your spotlight there?
Okay? All right, hold on, it's the old school tip of
the day. All right, get away. I think I should salute first,
well the king, now, I I was saying, no, one
of the things. I started looking at videos a lot, and you noticed
something. If you can back the engine company into the job so that you
keep the hosebed facing the fire, it's a lot better. You don't have
as much problem stretching the hose around rigs and this kind of stuff. And
then when I first thought of it, I was watching a video from San
Francisco of a large multipleall on fire and the companies were reporting into the fire
and before they ended the block, they stopped and backed down the block.
So what's going on? So I looked up their pastieges and that's pasiegues for
San Francisco fire. Upon you try to back into the block, you want
to keep the hosebed facing the fire as much as possible. Okay, So
that's the engine part. A lot of company. But one of the things
you see a lot, and I've seen it all over the place in New
York City and Upstate New York and everything. Fire events itself through the roof,
and they put a towel ladder up or a lodder pipe up and they're
hitting the fire's fanning through the roof. The fire is ventuing through the roof.
That's a good thing. You don't want to have that driven back into
the building. The best thing to do if the fires venting through the roof
is put a stream in. Whether it's a tweladder stream, that's the best.
You can move it around easy or a ladder pipe and aim it at
the top floor ceiling so you're blown the things out through that vent hole through
the roof. The sky doesn't burn. Guys. You may have a total
exposure that you need to protect. That would be one reason. But other
than that, there's no reason to put a stream onto the roof of a
building if you have a total building and you got to protect. I understand
that, but don't don't be pushing the bad stuff. We went out of
the flyer back into the fire with your stream in the one hole venta.
Yes, that was Are you finished that, captain? Yeah? That was
Chief Haye. I remember Chief Haye. That was his uh his old school
tip was in commercial buildings, you know, one story two story. Same
thing, you know, like get the bucket down at the street level,
pointing it up in there, not not putting it down into the shaling similar.
Yeah, no doubt you blow in. You just got to watch for
collapse. That's the thing, right, correct, bucket slow. I worked
in towelous for a long time. I'm telling what actually works, and that
works. All the ceilings down and let all the bad stuff go out of
that hole in the roof. Excellent cap. It was a pleasure. I'm
glad you finally got on. I'm glad I ran into you at the medical
office. Yeah. It was serendipity. It was very good and serendipitous.
I like it. That's why the council works. People, it's working.
Another drink rough. You gotta these shout outs, buddy, I don't have
anything for tonight. Now, all right, we gotta do again one last
time Harrisburg Lancaster Expo. Uh it will be let see the fifty first Annual
Expo. Next weekend is next weekend May nineteenth and twentieth. We will be
in Booth four thirty six and the keynote speaker will be none of them than
Louis friend of mine, Deputy Chief Danny Sheridan will be the keynote speaker.
You can either buy tickets online, you can buy them at the door.
Come see to get Soulpie brothers and deput Chief Danny Sheridan will be the keynote
speaker. Secondly, we have the New York State Chiefs Association one hundred and
seventeenth Annual June fourteenth through the seventeenth. Roofie will be there with me up
in Syracuse at the one Center, the on Center whatever on Center, So
come up and see us up there. I don't have the booth number.
I don't have to get that from my wife. We'll be I'll be plugging
that all the way up to the day. So those are the two shadouts
I got, and I don't want to thank wholeheartily Captain Bobby Rainy for coming
in and up sharing his his career with us. Great career I got.
Yeah, you got a lot like always good stuff. Shout out the engine
fifty four in Philadelphia. My grandson's watching the thing to I ran. He
ran into us at the show at FDIC. Oh, that's right, he
did. That's right good doing it down in Philly doing it they're doing work
down too. Do it to work in Philly? All right? Real food
do we have on h I'm working on a few people right for Monday,
So the eighteenth, next Thursday, we don't have a show Monday. I'm
working on a few things. It's a little tight because a Mother's day.
But I'll see, we'll figure out something. We'll get something going. We'll
bring some quality enter team and for you guys, that's how we go.
All right, I got something real quick next week. Yeah, I'll be
in Pensacola. See if TC will BC hanging out with chiefly, No big
deal. We'll just be out joining the Sunshine, right, there'll be a
little training hang it out. Hello, all those what is the FTOC?
What do you? What is the FTO? C E I E I O.
I mean everybody if you know you know County Fire Tactics Command Officer boot
Camp. It's uh fire training on Pence Coffee. Oh, you and Frank
are going down there. Yeah, and I'm taking the wife with me.
She's getting to go to her first fire conference with me. I'm shame she's
got to out rank you. Yeah good, feel all right with me?
All right? Tem close us out, Yeah, do it kid. Thank
you guys, hang on cap we got one more video to show real quick
that MC has made up for us makes life a lot easier for us.
Well, thank you first and foremost for tuning in to another episode of The
Getting Salty Experience. Think we rout a good content? Far from it.
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stay low and your happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and your wives and
your your mothers and all your ladies whatever. All right, we'll see it
the big one. Everybody, see you on the fire floor.