1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,820
This episode is brought to you by Thorne and I have some incredible news for any of you

2
00:00:03,820 --> 00:00:07,960
that are in the military, first responder or medical professions.

3
00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:15,860
In an effort to give back, Thorne is now offering you an ongoing 35% off each and every one

4
00:00:15,860 --> 00:00:19,780
of your purchases of their incredible nutritional solutions.

5
00:00:19,780 --> 00:00:27,280
Now Thorne is the official supplement of CrossFit, the UFC, the Mayo Clinic, the Human Performance

6
00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:31,480
Project and multiple special operations organizations.

7
00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:36,440
I myself have used them for several years and that is why I brought them on as a sponsor.

8
00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:42,080
Some of my favorite products they have are their Multivitamin Elite, their Whey Protein,

9
00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:45,840
the Super EPA and then most recently, Cynaquil.

10
00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,120
As a firefighter, a stuntman and a martial artist, I've had my share of brain trauma

11
00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:55,520
and sleep deprivation and Cynaquil is their latest brain health supplement.

12
00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:02,640
Now to qualify for the 35% off, go to thorn.com, T-H-O-R-N-E dot com.

13
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,460
Click on sign in and then create a new account.

14
00:01:05,460 --> 00:01:09,800
You will see the opportunity to register as a first responder or member of military.

15
00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:14,680
When you click on that, it will take you through verification with GovX.

16
00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:19,000
You'll simply choose a profession, provide one piece of documentation and then you are

17
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:20,920
verified for life.

18
00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:26,640
From that point onwards, you will continue to receive 35% off through Thorn.

19
00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:33,120
Now for those of you who don't qualify, there is still the 10% off using the code BTS10,

20
00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,120
Behind the Shield 10 for a one time purchase.

21
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:41,780
Now to learn more about Thorn, go to episode 323 of the Behind the Shield podcast with

22
00:01:41,780 --> 00:01:45,480
Joel Titoro and Wes Barnett.

23
00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:50,460
This episode is sponsored by Inside Tracker and what makes me smile is before I even started

24
00:01:50,460 --> 00:01:56,240
my podcast 7 years ago, when listening to other wellness conversations, Inside Tracker

25
00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:00,400
was always the company they recommended for comprehensive blood work.

26
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:07,080
Now in 2024, they have begun to offer a brand new first responder panel, which will cover

27
00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:13,000
nine biomarkers hitting several of the pillars of health that affect us in uniform.

28
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:18,040
Stress, heart health, metabolism and gut health.

29
00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:23,960
After a very simple intake form, a blood draw, you will get the results sent to your computer,

30
00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:30,120
smartwatch, phone, not only detailing where you are on the scale from poor to optimized,

31
00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:34,200
but also tips on how you can improve each of these markers.

32
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:40,460
Now this panel is usually $310, but they are also offering first responders 30% off any

33
00:02:40,460 --> 00:02:42,320
of their blood panels.

34
00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:47,080
So that brings this specific panel down to only $217.

35
00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,540
Now I myself went through their ultimate, which is their comprehensive blood work, which

36
00:02:51,540 --> 00:02:56,880
also includes micronutrients, hormones and other areas of overall health.

37
00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:02,040
And I have to say I was absolutely amazed at firstly how easy it was, but secondly,

38
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:07,280
the comprehensive information I got and the actionable information on how to improve each

39
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:09,280
of my own biomarkers.

40
00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:13,760
Now as with all my sponsors, if you want to hear more about Inside Tracker, you can hear

41
00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:20,380
my conversation with senior sales executive Jonathan Levitt on episode 887 of the Behind

42
00:03:20,380 --> 00:03:21,920
the Shield podcast.

43
00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:27,600
So to sign up or simply learn more, go to insidetracker.com and for the first responder

44
00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:33,920
panel, the easiest way is to Google Inside Tracker first responder panel.

45
00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:38,360
This episode is sponsored by 511, a company that I've used for well over a decade and

46
00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,000
continue to use to this day.

47
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,600
And 511 is offering you guys, the audience of the Behind the Shield podcast, a discount

48
00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,400
on every purchase you make with them.

49
00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,000
Before we get to that code, I want to highlight a couple of products that again I personally

50
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:53,760
use today.

51
00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:59,980
One of the most impressive products they just released is their Rush Backpack 2.0.

52
00:03:59,980 --> 00:04:03,000
Now for many of you, whether you're going to the fire station, the police station, whether

53
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,280
you're traveling with your family, whether you're taking training courses, we have to

54
00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:09,920
fly, we have to drive, we have to take trains.

55
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:15,240
And I have to say, I own multiple backpacks, many of 511's different ones, but as far as

56
00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,400
a daypack, this one was the most impressive.

57
00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:20,280
There are so many different compartments.

58
00:04:20,280 --> 00:04:22,920
The way it sits on your back is incredibly comfortable.

59
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:27,360
If you are a concealed carry person, there's also a spot for a weapon.

60
00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,160
So they've thought of multiple, multiple things that a man or woman would have to do on a

61
00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:32,760
daily basis.

62
00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,520
That is in addition to all of the products that I talk about a lot.

63
00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:42,280
Their uniforms fit for men or fit for women in the first responder professions.

64
00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:46,040
The footwear that they offer, whether it's the Norris sneaker or the Atlas system that

65
00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:50,760
is designed for foot health and therefore knees and back and hips and shoulders and

66
00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:52,040
neck.

67
00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:54,480
As a civilian, I live in a lot of their clothes as well.

68
00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,440
Their jeans stretch, you can actually squat down in them.

69
00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:01,560
We live in Florida here, so I wear a lot of their shorts, which again, very, very lightweight

70
00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:02,560
material.

71
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,180
You can get it wet and it will dry almost immediately.

72
00:05:05,180 --> 00:05:08,880
And then moving to the fitness and tactical space, I used to have just a regular weight

73
00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:09,880
vest.

74
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:14,400
Recently, I switched to a 511 vest and actually bought ballistic plates as well.

75
00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,840
My thinking was simply, if I'm going to have a vest, why not have one that protects me

76
00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:18,840
as well?

77
00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:22,440
And that tack vest is trusted by law enforcement all around the country.

78
00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,100
So I mentioned they were going to offer you a discount code.

79
00:05:25,100 --> 00:05:32,440
So if you go to 511tactical.com and enter the code SHIELD15, S-H-I-E-L-D-1-5, you will

80
00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:37,760
get 15% off not just that one purchase, but every time you visit their store.

81
00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:42,320
If you want to learn more about 511, their mission, their products, then listen to episode

82
00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:50,480
338 of the Behind the Shield podcast with the CEO and founder, Francisco Morales.

83
00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:51,600
Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast.

84
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:55,320
As always, my name is James Gearing and this week it is my absolute honor to welcome on

85
00:05:55,320 --> 00:06:01,280
the show firefighter and rope rescue guru, Ryan Allen.

86
00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:05,760
Now in this conversation, we discuss a host of topics from training to become a firefighter

87
00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:14,160
in California, his move to Florida, some notable water rescues, his journey into special operations,

88
00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:19,960
the unique challenges the Orlando Wheel presents for the climbing team, the Central Florida

89
00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,220
Rope Rescue Challenge, and so much more.

90
00:06:23,220 --> 00:06:27,880
Now before we get to this incredible conversation, as I say every week, please just take a moment,

91
00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,680
go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and

92
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:34,560
leave a rating.

93
00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:39,640
Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier for

94
00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:41,120
others to find.

95
00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:46,040
And this is a free library of almost 900 episodes now.

96
00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:51,720
So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so

97
00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:57,040
I can get them to every single person on planet earth who needs to hear them.

98
00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:01,600
So with that being said, I introduce to you, Ryan Allen.

99
00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:02,600
Enjoy.

100
00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:24,520
Well, Ryan, I want to first say it's great to see you again.

101
00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:29,480
Obviously you and I worked together in Orange County several years ago now.

102
00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,120
But firstly, I just want to welcome you to the Behind the Shield podcast.

103
00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:37,000
Thank you very much, James, and happy to be here, humbled to be here.

104
00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,040
So where on planet earth are we finding you on this beautiful Florida afternoon?

105
00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,920
And I say that sarcastically as it's cold and wet outside.

106
00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:48,880
Yeah, that would be unincorporated Osceola County area.

107
00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:56,080
So technically Kissimmee, I guess, but unincorporated Osceola County in the four corners area where

108
00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:00,680
Osceola County, Orange County, Polk County and Lake County all kind of meet up.

109
00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:02,320
So that's where you'll find me.

110
00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,080
Well, I know that you were not born here in Florida.

111
00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:07,240
So let's start at the very beginning of your timeline.

112
00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:08,620
Tell me where you were born.

113
00:08:08,620 --> 00:08:12,520
Tell me a little about your family dynamic, what your parents did, how many siblings.

114
00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:13,520
Yeah.

115
00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,320
So I was born not in Florida.

116
00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:22,280
It was actually Huntington Beach, California, a different Orange County on the other coast.

117
00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:28,200
So we have that coast in common over in California.

118
00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,560
And my father worked.

119
00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:41,380
He worked in a kitchen and bath showroom industry, like working on designing fancy bathtubs and

120
00:08:41,380 --> 00:08:42,880
sinks and everything like that.

121
00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:49,520
But before he got into that, he was a surfer, really, really big surfer.

122
00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:51,560
And that's what he did.

123
00:08:51,560 --> 00:08:59,640
And so when I had an older brother, younger brother and a younger sister out there in

124
00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:01,240
Huntington Beach.

125
00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:11,400
And we all eventually, except my two brothers, we all became firefighters in Florida eventually.

126
00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:19,080
And that comes back to when we were in high school, we were a part of the Explorer Cadet

127
00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:22,000
Program out there.

128
00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:28,680
Really good program, unfortunately, was dissolved very recently.

129
00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:30,560
Was Huntington Beach Search and Rescue.

130
00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:35,560
It was one of the older Explorer Programs that existed out there.

131
00:09:35,560 --> 00:09:40,160
And what was unique about it was it was a police and fire Explorer Program.

132
00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:41,720
It did both of them.

133
00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:47,360
So I actually went into that program wanting to be a police officer and left wanting to

134
00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,320
be a firefighter, strangely enough.

135
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:52,320
It's not strange at all.

136
00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:53,320
Exactly.

137
00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:54,320
Yeah.

138
00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:59,140
Once you do both jobs, they're like, yeah, I'm going to stick with that one.

139
00:09:59,140 --> 00:10:01,480
So that's how that started.

140
00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:06,780
And all three of us ended up through that program at some point in our careers.

141
00:10:06,780 --> 00:10:13,000
And that taught me a lot about the job that I wanted to get into and actually doing ride

142
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:14,000
alongs.

143
00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:15,000
I did police ride alongs.

144
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,840
I did fire ride alongs, full 24 hours in the station, riding with the guys, going on calls.

145
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:23,200
And that gave me a good look about that.

146
00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:25,200
This was the career that I wanted to do.

147
00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:34,880
And when I was 20 years old, graduated high school, I was going in college at the time,

148
00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,360
Rancho Santiago College, Santa Ana.

149
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:39,240
Did you go to Santa Ana for fire standards?

150
00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:40,720
No, I actually went to Orlando.

151
00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:44,120
I went to mid Florida Tech where we're going to be doing California.

152
00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,360
Yeah, I didn't have to do standards.

153
00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,320
They actually took my Florida cert.

154
00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:49,320
So gotcha.

155
00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:50,320
Okay.

156
00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,120
But Northnet was where we do all the training at Anaheim, which is great.

157
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:55,120
So I was Central Net.

158
00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:56,120
Yeah.

159
00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:01,680
So I was at the Central Net Training Center and actually going through all the classes

160
00:11:01,680 --> 00:11:02,840
out there.

161
00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:07,280
And so we're talking, this is 2006 ish.

162
00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:12,080
So yeah, hard to get a job in California at that point.

163
00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:13,680
So I was putting applications everywhere.

164
00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:19,980
I remember trying for Burbank Airport Fire Department and all kinds of different places.

165
00:11:19,980 --> 00:11:24,600
And we used to vacation to Orlando all the time.

166
00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:26,120
Once a year we would come out here.

167
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:30,400
And my brother had actually just became a firefighter about two, three years ago before

168
00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:31,400
that.

169
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:35,960
And he told me, hey, man, you're going to be on vacation coming up once you put an application

170
00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,560
in for Orange County.

171
00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:41,120
So I did and ended up getting picked up.

172
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:45,960
So ended up doing the non-surf program through there.

173
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:47,920
I was a California state EMT.

174
00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:53,240
So I had to redo and do national and go through standards, the Florida way and everything.

175
00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:55,800
And yeah, that's how I ended up out in Florida.

176
00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,680
And then my little brother followed a couple of years later.

177
00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:03,800
And actually my brother-in-law works for the fire department as well.

178
00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:05,920
So it's a whole big happy family.

179
00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:10,880
Well, there's a lot to unpack that I want to start with testing in California around

180
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,520
that time because I got picked up by Anaheim in 2005.

181
00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:20,400
And I came from, so I went mid Florida tech, Orlando, syrup, hired by my, excuse me, hired

182
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:23,480
by Hialeah by Miami for almost a year.

183
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:26,040
And then I got picked up by Anaheim.

184
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:31,960
And when, as we sit here now in 2024, we have a massive hiring crisis.

185
00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:36,920
I think it's really important to underline what recruitment looked like when you and

186
00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:38,260
I were trying to get work.

187
00:12:38,260 --> 00:12:40,280
So talk to me about that.

188
00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:42,720
How many people were going for how many spots?

189
00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:46,360
What were the resumes of these young men and women that you were competing against?

190
00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:47,640
Oh yeah.

191
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:52,120
So I remember, I think it was Orange, it might've been Orange County Fire Authority.

192
00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:53,400
I can't remember which one.

193
00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:59,520
But I remember it was a, you had to pick up the application at Angel Stadium.

194
00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:01,520
It would just like to get it.

195
00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:06,040
And I, you know, it's been years now, but we're talking like, you know, in the tens

196
00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:11,200
of thousands of people, you know, I'd probably say it was probably about 20,000 people or

197
00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:13,920
something that had applied for these positions.

198
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:21,360
And we're talking like a class of like 10 or 15 and just the massive people.

199
00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:27,040
And it wasn't just, you know, people like right off of the street, like all the applications

200
00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:33,200
and, you know, Hey, I had started when I was 15 as an explorer, I was an EMT, I was volunteering.

201
00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:39,000
I worked at the training center, working as like basically a student intern, you know,

202
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:43,760
working with the firefighters, had all this experience and my application looked like

203
00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:46,200
everybody else's.

204
00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:51,480
And so it would just get lost in the whole heap of everybody else.

205
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:55,580
And you know, it was hard to stand out.

206
00:13:55,580 --> 00:14:01,840
So I remember taking classes on interviews and resumes and all that in college on how

207
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:03,480
to get a job as a firefighter.

208
00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:08,480
Like there was entire like multi-day classes just on the interview process, like the panel

209
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:13,040
interviews and everything just to try to get that edge.

210
00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:20,140
And then that is, that doesn't seem to be the case now, as far as a lot more job openings

211
00:14:20,140 --> 00:14:21,680
and applicants, it seems now.

212
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:23,760
Well, I don't want to load the question.

213
00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:29,640
I would certainly impart my kind of perspective after, but you and I have experienced a very

214
00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:31,120
similar thing.

215
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:36,640
I think what helped me was being English and traveling 2500 miles for each of the interview

216
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:37,640
processes.

217
00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:40,680
I think that at least showed, okay, this guy is a little bit committed to this and then

218
00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:41,680
you stood out.

219
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:42,680
That's what you need to do.

220
00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:44,840
You need to do these processes.

221
00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:46,000
What is your perspective?

222
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:51,960
Why are we struggling so hard now to recruit young men and women for the fire service?

223
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:56,680
Oh man, that's a big one.

224
00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:04,920
I think it, you know, I just think it's maybe just a shift in the, in the culture a lot.

225
00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:09,960
I don't think, you know, elementary school kids are, they're growing out of the, see

226
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:11,880
the fire truck and I want to be a firefighter.

227
00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:21,680
They see other things and other ways to make a living that are not that, you know, social

228
00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:28,120
media, you know, everybody wants to be a YouTube star or social media star or whatever, you

229
00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:32,440
know, like, so they don't think, you know, that that's not maybe on the radar for a lot

230
00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:34,780
of people.

231
00:15:34,780 --> 00:15:41,080
And I think just the people we're hiring are different now, you know, it's we're, I, we're

232
00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,560
the people we're hiring now are younger, which I think is good.

233
00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:47,800
I think we have to get them earlier in their careers, which is good.

234
00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:53,400
And they're not coming in with the experiences before, you know, I think when I was going

235
00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,840
through as a lot of people coming out of the military and everything, and I don't think

236
00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:59,040
that's as much as the case now.

237
00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:03,520
So we're having to, I think, recruit younger people that are having less life experience

238
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,960
and we're, I think having to teach them life experience on the job.

239
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:13,680
But yeah, I just think it's a different world and, you know, they're growing out of, like

240
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:19,960
I said, that, you know, I want to be a firefighter and then maybe fall into it later on.

241
00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,760
I think one of the things through my eyes, and again, obviously, it's kind of a unique

242
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:28,160
perspective now with all these conversations on the show and, you know, working for four

243
00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:35,680
different agencies, which most, you know, firefighters don't, is when we first applied,

244
00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:41,240
if you Google firefighter, it would be like you said, you know, just the kind of the hero

245
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:46,000
stuff and then, you know, golden nuggets on how to pass your firefighter interview and

246
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:47,000
things like that.

247
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,840
There was nothing on marriages, cancer, suicide, any of those things.

248
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:56,000
So I think what's happening as well, and correct me if I'm wrong, I mean, you work for department

249
00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:02,140
56 hour work week, no Kelly day, is the reality of the fire service.

250
00:17:02,140 --> 00:17:04,000
You know, we were blind earlier in my career.

251
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:05,760
I never thought about seat deprivation.

252
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,480
You know, the way we've always done it is was good enough for me until it wasn't anymore

253
00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,720
until we started going to Carl's funeral, you know, young firefighters in their twenties

254
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:14,720
passing away.

255
00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:18,480
And then all of a sudden there's this big right hand term and we've got the suicide

256
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,840
starting to really be visible now.

257
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:27,320
And so now fast forward to a young recruit, you know, 2024 and they do the same internet

258
00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:28,840
search that you and I did.

259
00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:33,460
But now these dark things come up as well that the hero, the rescues, all the things

260
00:17:33,460 --> 00:17:36,000
that we do it for also come up.

261
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,360
But you learn about the work we learn about mandatory overtime and understaffing and,

262
00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:45,040
you know, you start seeing new stories of firefighters that did everything wrong, but

263
00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:49,000
their organization didn't back them up and they ended up being terminated, whatever it

264
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:50,000
was.

265
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:51,000
Those are there as well.

266
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,760
And so I think one part of the problem is that these young people, as you said, are

267
00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:56,260
a lot more tech savvy.

268
00:17:56,260 --> 00:17:57,740
They can do their own research.

269
00:17:57,740 --> 00:18:00,480
Now they have the whole world at their fingertips.

270
00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:07,560
And when they evaluate the fire service in 2024, unlike me in 2004, they get a very different

271
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,920
picture and they might have service burning in their heart, but they're going to go, you

272
00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:12,580
know, I'm going to serve in a different way.

273
00:18:12,580 --> 00:18:14,560
This doesn't sound like the right fit for me.

274
00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:17,480
I think I don't know what your perspective of that is, but I think that's a big part.

275
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:23,480
We always focus on it's a new generation, but what have we done, the older fire service

276
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:27,640
to do a disservice to recruitment 20 years later?

277
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:32,040
Yeah, that's yeah, there is more information out there.

278
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:36,840
And I think a big part of it too is when we were starting out, we were definitely still

279
00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:40,080
in the shadow of, you know, September 11th and everything.

280
00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:45,720
That was a huge, I think that was a huge component to, you know, a big rush for that.

281
00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:52,040
And then maybe that shadow is slowly, you know, you know, slowly passed over the years.

282
00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:57,560
But yeah, there's you hear all the time, you know, people are on their phones all the time

283
00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:01,600
they're going to hear the stories about, you know, the good, the bad and the ugly, you

284
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,320
know, when it comes to that.

285
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,760
And you know, you know, people can pick their what they want to do now.

286
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:09,760
It's very open.

287
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:16,200
It's not, you know, it's, you know, they're not definitely not niched into one specific

288
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:17,200
thing now.

289
00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:21,200
So, you know, the options are out there where sometimes people feel it's like, okay, you

290
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,840
know, you know, this is my only option to do this is a good steady job, you know, with

291
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:30,560
a good paycheck and all that.

292
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,080
But but yeah, I just think there's more information out there.

293
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,000
Like you said, that's definitely probably a contributing factor for sure.

294
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,200
Well, I think the solution is not doom and gloom.

295
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:40,640
The solution is to fix the things that are broken.

296
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:44,280
You know, as I always say, we used to send children up chimneys and have them work in

297
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,360
factories until someone said, hey, the kids are all dying.

298
00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:48,360
Maybe we should stop doing that.

299
00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:49,720
Well, that's how the fire service is.

300
00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:53,160
You know, when we fix it, then the problem will be solved.

301
00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:57,840
The other side as well, going back to your Explorer program, especially when it comes

302
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:02,520
to the diversity conversation, you know, a lot of people, it's kind of just prior to

303
00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:07,120
my hire, you heard a lot of I would have been hired if it wasn't for this initiative, whatever

304
00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:09,560
it was, if they might be correct, they might be incorrect.

305
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,060
But that was very much the feeling.

306
00:20:12,060 --> 00:20:16,440
What I've seen is a lot of times as a knee jerk, like, oh, we need to hire X amount of

307
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:18,560
this group or that group.

308
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:22,740
And when you drag net like that, you're going to get some fantastic candidates and some

309
00:20:22,740 --> 00:20:26,960
shitty candidates, you know, because you're now deviating from the standards that you

310
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:33,960
set before, where I think we do, you know, we do a disservice by ignoring areas where

311
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:39,500
young potential candidates simply can't access fire academies, training, et cetera, because

312
00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:43,260
of finances, you know, family dynamics, whatever it is.

313
00:20:43,260 --> 00:20:48,640
So the mentorship programs, one here in Ocala that they do three times a week, they meet

314
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:53,000
at a centrally located fire station, as long as a child can get to the station, they get

315
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:57,360
free training, they're given all the gear, the scholarships to fire schools, as departments

316
00:20:57,360 --> 00:20:59,520
wait in the hire on the back end.

317
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:03,660
So I think that is also the answer to not only the recruitment problem, and it's a beautiful

318
00:21:03,660 --> 00:21:07,800
thing because it also helps kids realize if they don't want to be a police officer, a

319
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,800
firefighter, whatever it is, brilliant, check it off.

320
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:11,920
Now at least you've taken a step.

321
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:17,640
But talk to me about the importance of that exposure as a young boy yourself and your

322
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:21,240
perspective of mentorship in the modern day fire service.

323
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:22,240
Yeah.

324
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:28,080
And I think I was kind of alluding to that earlier about having to get people early when

325
00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:33,280
because and I think that's the new way to go for a lot of these departments is a lot

326
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:39,360
of this internal mentorship programs, you know, get them in high school, say, hey, you

327
00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:43,100
know, keep it on the straight and narrow path, you know, don't, you know, don't do drugs,

328
00:21:43,100 --> 00:21:48,240
don't get in trouble, all of that and, you know, say, hey, this is the process because

329
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:56,160
I think the days of, you know, going on your own and doing fire standards on your own,

330
00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:01,840
putting up that money and, you know, you know, most of us probably staying at home or, you

331
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:06,200
know, staying with our parents and then working a job on the wall during the fire academy.

332
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:13,480
I think, you know, those days might be behind where, you know, these intern programs and

333
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:16,360
the non-serve programs are definitely the way to go.

334
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:17,360
Yeah.

335
00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:19,240
And it was just being in the firehouse.

336
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:23,480
I was, you know, going on ride alongs and being like, these are the kind of guys I want

337
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:27,920
to be around, you know, very hard working, you know, the firemen in Huntington Beach,

338
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:29,720
you know, you know, second to none.

339
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:31,920
They were a great group of guys.

340
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:38,040
And you know, this 16 year old kid showing up and, you know, interrupting your day, you

341
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:39,520
know, because it was all day.

342
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:44,880
And, you know, you know, the program at the time, you know, it was 20, it was a 24 hour

343
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:51,400
program and I remember showing up in the morning and my full uniform and everything and lining

344
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:53,440
up my gear in front of the fire engine.

345
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,000
And then the captain came out and did inspection and stuff.

346
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:03,400
And, you know, I just remember how cool that was and, you know, there wasn't any holding

347
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:04,400
any punches.

348
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:08,800
Like there wasn't, they weren't screening the calls that we were going to, you know.

349
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:14,280
So they said if there's a call and because the station I was at that I would go to, they

350
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:17,160
had an ambulance there, they had an engine there, they had a truck company there.

351
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:23,120
And they said, if the call goes, grab your stuff and go whatever unit it was, you know,

352
00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:26,760
there was no like, you know, oh, it's, you know, we don't want them to see this or be

353
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:31,080
worried about this, you know, it was, it was go and run the calls.

354
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:33,920
And I got a feel for it for sure.

355
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,960
And I think a big part of it too that you were talking about is we are a heck of a lot

356
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,080
busier than we were.

357
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,560
You know, the strain on the resources is definitely there.

358
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:50,840
I look at the numbers and the numbers are double what they were when I started and I

359
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:52,840
thought we were busy when I started.

360
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,480
You know, and that's just a strain on people.

361
00:23:55,480 --> 00:24:01,920
And you know, there has to be some relief that way, whether it's, you know, you know,

362
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:07,280
changing work week, changing hours, more personnel, more units.

363
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:09,320
And I'm starting to see that shift.

364
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:11,160
I'm definitely starting to see that shift.

365
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:15,800
I think the writing is on the wall.

366
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,280
Everything we've everything's been stretched so thin.

367
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,760
And now we're starting to see some of the some of that.

368
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:22,920
And I think it's starting to come back.

369
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:24,720
So that is that is hopeful.

370
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:25,720
So absolutely.

371
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:26,720
Yeah.

372
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:32,680
I even heard rumblings of the 24 72 finally being considered, which I've talked about

373
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:37,640
for years now as being the industry standard and giving these men and women the rest and

374
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:43,800
recovery because as we talked about when we were testing in California, not sounding arrogant

375
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:45,240
because I got picked up.

376
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:50,520
But ultimately, if you have that many candidates, you get to choose what you perceive are the

377
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:51,520
best candidates.

378
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,040
Now, you know, you've got to make it through Academy and then probation to prove that you

379
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:57,080
are actually worthy of that.

380
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:01,040
But you know, you you you really get to choose the best people.

381
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:06,360
What I'm seeing is that, yes, they're still kind of barely able to get people in the seats,

382
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:09,840
but no one is having the conversation of we are taking everyone.

383
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,400
And how is that detrimental at the firefighter level?

384
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,520
And as they rise through the ranks?

385
00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:15,520
Yeah.

386
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:16,520
Yeah.

387
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,880
We're like I was saying, you know, we're definitely getting younger people out there and we're

388
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:25,000
having to teach them life skills, you know, you know, never mowed a lawn before, never

389
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,120
started a power tool.

390
00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:29,120
A lot of that.

391
00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:31,080
You know, here's a broom.

392
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:32,520
What do I do with that?

393
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,380
OK, I'll show you.

394
00:25:35,380 --> 00:25:37,680
So they definitely are coming in younger and stuff.

395
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:45,040
And, you know, I wish every single candidate that came in was a former military person

396
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:50,640
or somebody that came in with, you know, it was some sort of background.

397
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:52,240
You know, it's like, hey, I was a roofer.

398
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:53,240
Oh, cool.

399
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,440
Let's you know, let's utilize that resource and everything.

400
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:59,520
But now that's just doesn't seem to be the case now.

401
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:01,360
And then just these departments are getting bigger.

402
00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:07,440
Everything's a bigger, you know, the suburban areas are expanding, you know, more coverage,

403
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,520
more people, more calls, you know.

404
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:15,600
So they're just having to learn on the job and, you know, the guys that, you know, been

405
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:17,920
around like me got to show them the ropes.

406
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:20,960
You know, they're still coming.

407
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,240
Now what about the difference between West Coast and East Coast?

408
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:29,320
I went, like I said, mid Florida Tech, Orlando, which is beautiful because I'm going to be

409
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:34,280
there with you in a couple of weeks in a totally different capacity.

410
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:38,280
But you know, we were taught the Academy way of throwing a ladder, you know, lay it down,

411
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,360
you know, pick it up, suitcase, carry, lay it down front of the building, walk it, blah,

412
00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:42,360
blah, blah.

413
00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:46,520
And then I get hired in Ganneheim, California with an aggressive truck company.

414
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,040
And all of a sudden, you're like, you don't know how to shoulder a ladder.

415
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,800
You don't know how to throw, you know, a 16 foot roof.

416
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,120
And I mean, all these different things are like, oh, shit, my, my learning curve needs

417
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:59,240
to be like a vertical line if I'm going to keep up.

418
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:02,880
And then you, I went back to the East Coast, got hired with count with Orange County, same

419
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,240
as your department now.

420
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:10,480
And I remember, I won't name names, but I remember when the first places I was at, there

421
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,160
was a truck company there, beating their chest about how bad ass they were.

422
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:20,440
And I remember seeing them on scene going, oh fuck, it's totally different here because

423
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,880
a professional West Coast truck company is cutting roofs all the time.

424
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,280
You know, it's a, it's a very unique vehicle.

425
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,960
We did all the extrications.

426
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:33,000
And you know, on the East Coast, when you hear people, I'm talking about Southeast,

427
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,080
it's so dangerous to put someone on the roof.

428
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,720
We don't do vertical ventilation and that creates a very different mindset.

429
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,760
So did you have any kind of experiences of that when you came from originally West Coast

430
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:44,240
train to the East Coast?

431
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:45,480
Yeah, for sure.

432
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,160
The, you know, the biggest one like you touched on is the roof operations.

433
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:54,000
You know, that's, you know, you could definitely say there's the two extremes, you know, there's

434
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,760
probably does every single, you know, you can have the debate, does every single fire

435
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,120
need you on the roof to cut a hole?

436
00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:04,120
My experience, not every single one needs to have it, but I think it's, it's a good

437
00:28:04,120 --> 00:28:06,240
tactic to have.

438
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:12,080
And I remember just when I was, you know, training in California, the rep, the reps

439
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:17,720
of Rupa Rupa operations, you actually cutting on roofs, sounding roofs, that entire tactic,

440
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:22,440
like just like hammering down on it.

441
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,200
Like they, if you're a truck company, like that's what you did like all the time.

442
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:32,520
And you know, utilizing and getting comfortable with the saw and everything.

443
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:37,120
And then it just, it seemed very much like at least the Southern California area and

444
00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:40,280
Anaheim's definitely included in that.

445
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:45,520
All the departments seemed very universal.

446
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,720
Where like they all were in the same uniforms and a lot of the, they were a lot of doing

447
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:49,720
the same thing.

448
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:54,000
So I think if you moved from one part, let's say Hanyu's Beach to Miami or I mean to Anaheim,

449
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:59,200
I think it wouldn't be too much of a culture shock where maybe in the Florida area, the

450
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,880
difference between one department and another are vastly different equipment wise, everything

451
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:04,880
else.

452
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:10,680
You know, so, and then like, you know, you go into California, like, you know, wooden

453
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,840
ladders are still the thing.

454
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:17,320
You know, you, you know, you, you talk about throwing ladders and then you throw a, you

455
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:21,040
know, a wooden ladder at somebody from Florida and they would be like, what the heck are

456
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:22,040
you talking about?

457
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:25,520
This thing is massive and heavy and, and everything else.

458
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:35,000
But yeah, it's different, you know, you know, but one thing I would say is just that all

459
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:39,880
being said, like the opportunities I've had when coming over here and the types of calls

460
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:45,680
I've ran and what I've done out here in comparison, if I would have stayed out there are vastly

461
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:46,680
different.

462
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:55,120
I don't think I would have the experience I have having stayed out there as here.

463
00:29:55,120 --> 00:30:00,560
And, you know, one can say that, you know, that's good and bad, you know, should I've

464
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:06,080
been, should I've run all these calls that I have, but, you know, it's definitely the

465
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:10,000
opportunities are here and sometimes, you know, look back on your career and you're

466
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,680
like, wow, it's, it's been a lot.

467
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:19,880
Well, again, there's that kind of fake machismo when it comes to the fire service, like, you

468
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,200
know, I'm not doing EMS, I'm a real firefighter.

469
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,080
And what I learned when I came out East and, you know, started writing the box, I mean,

470
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,440
she did in Hialeah originally too.

471
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:30,440
That's where you save the lives.

472
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,040
You know, if you drag someone out of a fire and they just leave them on the front lawn

473
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:37,680
and you have no skills to do anything else, then you just did a body recovery.

474
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:38,680
That was it.

475
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:43,920
So the volume of trauma and the volume of patients that you run on as an EMT and paramedic

476
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:48,920
in our area, I mean, again, that learning curve is incredibly steep.

477
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:54,120
And I think that that kind of anti-EMS, you know, sentiment is so bad, especially as,

478
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,080
you know, the last 30, 40 years we've been doing EMS in the fire service.

479
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:02,800
So it's, you know, everyone that's mouthing off now is, was groomed in a generation where

480
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:07,800
this was always a norm, but remove that, you know, that's where ultimately most lives are

481
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,000
saved is in the back of a rescue or an ambulance.

482
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,440
I mean, it's just, it's fact.

483
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,080
For sure.

484
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:16,080
So then walk me through.

485
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:17,680
So you enter Orange County.

486
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:21,320
What was your orientation like, and then where did you find yourself station wise?

487
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:22,640
Ah, gee.

488
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:23,640
Okay.

489
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:24,640
Orientation.

490
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:25,640
Yeah.

491
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:27,240
Went, started non-cert program.

492
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:32,920
So they did a internal EMT and I think it was one of the first times they had done that,

493
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,800
like an internal EMT process.

494
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,400
And so that was rushed.

495
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:42,840
Good for me because it was fine for me because I had done it before.

496
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,640
But I know some people probably struggled if you're coming off the streets and didn't

497
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,000
have that experience.

498
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,200
And that led straight into standards.

499
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:52,800
I think standards pretty much the same.

500
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:57,040
I think they changed the big three into the big two.

501
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:03,040
But it was at, at the time this mid Florida tech central, the central Florida fire Academy

502
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:04,040
now Valencia.

503
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:07,040
But at the time it was the consortium.

504
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:09,240
Yeah.

505
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:10,400
Standards wasn't too bad.

506
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:15,440
It was, it seemed like it was more preparation for the test that, that big three tests that

507
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:17,720
that's what it seemed to be mostly.

508
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:23,000
So and the talk was for the most part, they're like, Hey, we're teaching you every the state

509
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:24,000
way.

510
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,840
You're going to go to your department and you're going to learn the department way.

511
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:31,560
And you know, that seems to be the norm because there is such a vast difference in, you know,

512
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,680
equipment and units and everything else.

513
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:35,680
So I did that.

514
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,240
I made a pretty big class.

515
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,760
I think we had like 30 people in the class.

516
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:43,840
Met some good friends, still friends today.

517
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:45,960
With guys I went with through that.

518
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:46,960
And then went through orientation.

519
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:55,400
I want to say orientation was about six, six weeks, maybe ish six or eight weeks.

520
00:32:55,400 --> 00:33:02,600
And then got to, you know, know the, the systems and units that we had and did it.

521
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:07,080
One unique part about our orientation that we were really lucky with is there was the

522
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:13,600
Mercado shopping district area that was on international drive that was being torn down.

523
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:21,760
And we had like a week there and we got to train there as they were tearing this entire

524
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,540
shopping district down.

525
00:33:23,540 --> 00:33:31,560
So we actually got to go force like real doors, you know, in real environments, you know,

526
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:37,160
do wall breaching and do, you know, searching scenarios and, you know, writ scenarios in

527
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:42,760
real buildings, you know, not, you know, the traditional fire academy rooms and everything.

528
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,560
So I think that was a big part of that.

529
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:51,040
And, you know, just forcing a, you know, a metal, a real metal door on a business and

530
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:55,760
back, you know, with the drop bars and everything else, like the hardest types of doors you

531
00:33:55,760 --> 00:34:01,120
could force as a truck company and getting to practice on those was pretty awesome.

532
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:12,560
And then after orientation got assigned straight off to a good old engine 51 busiest engine

533
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:13,560
in the county.

534
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,560
Absolutely.

535
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:21,440
It's funny when I came on in 2008 with you guys, the training had devolved and we had,

536
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:23,320
I think it was only four weeks.

537
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:28,520
And this is no disrespect to the instructors because their frustration was evident.

538
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:35,360
But I remember the only hose evolution we did as far as, you know, fire attack was taking

539
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,740
a cross lay.

540
00:34:37,740 --> 00:34:42,720
And if you remember by the, the, the training area where they have the three, four, three,

541
00:34:42,720 --> 00:34:44,380
there's a little loading dock.

542
00:34:44,380 --> 00:34:49,960
There was a shed, a wooden garden shed, and they put a lattice like you would, you know,

543
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:56,240
string tomatoes to, and you had to punch the lattice and then advance the line into the

544
00:34:56,240 --> 00:34:59,120
shed, but you weren't allowed to flow water.

545
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,960
That was my, you know, fire attack training.

546
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:06,960
So I know since then it's got amazing again, but it's incredible how, you know, and luckily

547
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:09,660
I came from, you know, working several years already as a firefighter.

548
00:35:09,660 --> 00:35:14,100
So as you said, it wasn't a big deal, but if someone came on that, that's their first

549
00:35:14,100 --> 00:35:18,440
introduction to it, you know, the, that at that point, the bar was set very low in that

550
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:19,440
class at least.

551
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:20,440
Yeah.

552
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:21,440
Yeah.

553
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,200
Jamal and his team are, are doing great things over there and, you know, a bunch of respect

554
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:27,200
to them because, you know, they're very busy over there.

555
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:28,200
Yeah.

556
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:32,560
But he's got a good program that he's doing over there for sure.

557
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:33,560
Absolutely.

558
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:38,360
Well, then walk me through your engine 51, you know, in the meat grinder, walk me through

559
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,520
your journey into special operations and rote rescue.

560
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:42,560
Yeah.

561
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:47,800
So yeah, engine 51 busiest engine in the county for sure.

562
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:54,120
Always in the top 10 for the country for engine companies, you know, and there's policy.

563
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,840
Politics and that like only each department's allowed to submit one, but you know, it's

564
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,120
still, it's pretty busy.

565
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:05,160
So yeah, did, did the engine company for a while.

566
00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:14,440
And then there was a sort of a mandate coming down that if you had a special operations

567
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:19,500
unit at your station, you needed to be qualified to write it, even if you weren't assigned

568
00:36:19,500 --> 00:36:22,000
to it at the time.

569
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:27,140
And so we had a truck at station 51.

570
00:36:27,140 --> 00:36:31,200
So I'm like, okay, I guess I got to go be truck qualified.

571
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:37,400
So I went out to the central, it was still the central floor of fire academy at the time

572
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:43,400
and got my Robo ops and rope tech classes.

573
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:48,920
And I had had some experience with rope back when I was in my Explorer days, but it was

574
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:50,520
a little bit different.

575
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,900
It was more, I was taught by a bunch of cops how to repel.

576
00:36:53,900 --> 00:36:58,280
So I knew my knots and I knew a little bit of my systems and stuff, but it wasn't, it

577
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:02,840
was more repelling based and not rescue based.

578
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:08,880
So then went over and so it wasn't completely foreign doing the ropes at the fire academy.

579
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:13,840
And I had some, some good people over there, some good mentors that taught me rope at the

580
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,920
academy over there.

581
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:25,200
And then once you had that, then you had to do like an internal, internal academy within

582
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:30,160
the department to learn the trucks themselves, you know, driving, pumping and all that.

583
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:33,440
And that was only a couple of days at the time.

584
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:38,520
You know, it was like a day of driving a day of pumping, you know, and all that.

585
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,160
And then came out truck qualified.

586
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:46,760
So then started a writing truck companies.

587
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:53,680
So they, I was sent down, sent down to 55 and room 55 a lot, cause that was one of our

588
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:59,640
quints and they had a, at the time, all of our, most of our units were three men and

589
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,280
55 was one of the only four van units.

590
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,620
So they always needed an extra guy down there.

591
00:38:04,620 --> 00:38:08,640
So for the first about year and a half, I was truck qualified.

592
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:14,400
I spent a lot of time down over there sending me over to 55.

593
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:21,080
And then came back, started riding the engine again.

594
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:30,040
Once all the engines went for man again, you know, living good life over at 51 and think

595
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:36,040
it's probably been about, probably about seven years.

596
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:39,440
An opening came up on truck 51 on the C shift.

597
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:41,920
I was on B shift at the time.

598
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:46,080
And kind of by chance I got it, I didn't intentionally put in for it.

599
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:52,880
I just, each transfer cycle, I would just put in for the truck, A, B and C and the guy

600
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:57,720
who was on the truck at the time, the senior guy was transferring out and then my name

601
00:38:57,720 --> 00:38:59,720
was on the top.

602
00:38:59,720 --> 00:39:04,520
So then I just moved from one side of the Bay to the other and then been there ever

603
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:09,700
since on the truck company.

604
00:39:09,700 --> 00:39:14,800
And then so rode the truck a bunch on the C shift and still doing that now.

605
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:22,960
And then probably 2017, 2017, I just had an inkling.

606
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:25,760
I wanted to do more.

607
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:27,560
I was always the type of person on calls.

608
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:32,080
If there was like a special operations call, if there was like, Hey, you're not allowed

609
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:37,680
to go into that trench because you're not a trench rescue person or you're not a confined

610
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:39,120
space person.

611
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:40,880
I didn't like to hear that.

612
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:45,520
So I was like, well, let me go start taking the rest of these classes.

613
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:50,800
So then I went out and just started taking all my USAR classes, trench confined space,

614
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,080
VMR, VMR where we reconnected.

615
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:58,200
I remember that over at the state academy.

616
00:39:58,200 --> 00:39:59,600
That was cool seeing you there.

617
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:00,600
It had been a while.

618
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:01,600
They had indeed.

619
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,120
That was the great, the great teachers there too.

620
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:05,120
Yeah.

621
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:06,120
Great group of guys are there.

622
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:10,200
So my, my, yeah, my VMR and then my structural collapse out there as well.

623
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,840
I had a very diverse group of certs from all different places.

624
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:20,440
And I think that did me well, um, uh, getting different perspectives of places.

625
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:28,920
And uh, once I had all my classes, then, uh, I went through, uh, our internal squad, uh,

626
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:33,520
academy, which is definitely, um, definitely challenging.

627
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:38,720
You have to take a test to start out, to even be accepted into the academy.

628
00:40:38,720 --> 00:40:42,360
So you spend all this time taking the classes and then you had to take a written test and

629
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:43,440
you had to be in the top.

630
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:49,600
I think they took eight of us, top eight guys to move to the practical portion.

631
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:55,440
And the practical portion was six weeks, six weeks, Monday through Friday, working on all

632
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:56,440
the disciplines.

633
00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:00,640
Say, you know, the, and the same kind of thing you learned in the academy a certain way.

634
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,680
We're teaching you the, our department's way.

635
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:08,880
Um, and so a lot of, a lot of, a lot of training on that, you know, I think two weeks of that

636
00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:10,960
six weeks was just in hazmat.

637
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,480
So just to get into perspective.

638
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:17,380
Um, and then you had to do a test out process.

639
00:41:17,380 --> 00:41:21,040
So you had to take the written test again, but it was different questions and you had

640
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:23,760
to do better.

641
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:30,320
And then there was, I think it was like probably like 18 practical skills that you had to do.

642
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:35,840
Um, like everything from in the entire process was like a proctor, like reading you a question,

643
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:36,840
like a scenario.

644
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,880
So there'd be a car on its side and they'd be like, you know, candidate, you have 10

645
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:46,680
minutes to use the equipment in front of you to properly stretch this vehicle and then

646
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:47,680
go.

647
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,560
And then you'd have to go and do it.

648
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,440
And if you didn't have your, if you forgot your safety glasses or something, that would

649
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:57,520
be an automatic fail or you weren't wearing your gloves or something like that.

650
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:03,300
And so I think there was about 18 of those practical skills and they crossed all the

651
00:42:03,300 --> 00:42:05,920
disciplines and then you were qualified at that point.

652
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:11,000
So then I started writing squads and, uh, and doing all that.

653
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:17,320
So, so yeah, that's where I'm at doing a special operations for sure.

654
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:19,040
Which squad are you assigned to now then?

655
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,640
No, still on the truck, still on my truck.

656
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:24,820
But then I get floated there.

657
00:42:24,820 --> 00:42:29,080
Depends on the time of year, if it's a time of year, there's a lot of vacation.

658
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:31,240
They'll pop me over to them.

659
00:42:31,240 --> 00:42:36,040
So I'll go to, I go to all of them, all three of them.

660
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:39,080
Who was behind the high level of standards?

661
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,840
That sounds like an intense testing process.

662
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:46,600
And I remember, uh, Haskett and some of the names that seem to be kind of, you know, the

663
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:51,820
movers and the shakers and that, who, do you know who was responsible for maybe arguably

664
00:42:51,820 --> 00:42:57,080
sometimes standards being lower in other areas, holding it very high in that discipline?

665
00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:00,720
Um, I think it's evolved over the, over the time period.

666
00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:08,280
Um, I will say my experience in the, being a part of all the programs, um, and then we'll

667
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:09,760
probably talk about those in a minute.

668
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:17,520
All the programs I'm in, in special operations, what it takes is a very dedicated group of

669
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:22,600
lower ranking individuals, firefighters, engineers, lieutenants that are very passionate and willing

670
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:29,680
to do the work and then presenting that to the management and being like, Hey, this is

671
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:31,160
what we want to do.

672
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:35,120
And then giving them the free rein to do that.

673
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:40,400
And that's where things like, um, the squad, the squad Academy, the current versions of

674
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:45,880
the truck Academy, uh, the dive Academy, and then the rescue climbers, which is one I'm

675
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:49,440
heavily involved in, uh, where that happens.

676
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:56,200
So I think it happens at that lower level and then manage management listens to those

677
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:57,200
individuals.

678
00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:02,000
Um, because we, there's been a lot of rotations of people in, you know, whoever's in charge

679
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,840
of things always changes, but there seems to be that core group of people that stick

680
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:12,880
around, um, that are the movers and shakers and try to be like, Hey, you know, let's try

681
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:16,120
to be the best at this job.

682
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:20,920
Um, you know, so there's always seems to be like, yeah, like a lieutenant level person

683
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:26,160
who is very passionate about something and kind of pushes those programs to, to be as

684
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,240
good as they are.

685
00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:33,440
I was only at the County five years, but the really significant change that I witnessed,

686
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:38,340
um, and I know this is a program that prior to me ever getting there, there were already

687
00:44:38,340 --> 00:44:41,560
people really trying to push this and it was just kind of dead in the war.

688
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:45,600
Uh, when I went there, I got signed 73, which almost killed me.

689
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:47,240
It was so damn quiet at the time.

690
00:44:47,240 --> 00:44:50,480
Cause they, uh, they were only the engine.

691
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:51,480
There wasn't a rescue.

692
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:56,760
So 70 was doing all the heavy lifting, um, ended up at 70, which I loved and I spent

693
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:58,240
my whole career there.

694
00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:03,920
Um, it was, but we had a boat, you know, we had the lake next to us and I came from, you

695
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:08,440
know, uh, a pretty significant lifeguarding background, open water, all that stuff.

696
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:13,480
Um, when we started seeing what we were responsible for and the crew that I was with trained,

697
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:17,080
like John would take us down all the time and we'd, you know, practice back in the

698
00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:21,800
boat in and, you know, doing, um, evolutions and then Wayne Dormany and his brother would

699
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:26,840
come and they actually brought actual lifeguarding mannequins and we did, you know, backboarding.

700
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:31,280
It was amazing, but you remove that crew out of the equation for a second, talk about standards.

701
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:33,500
There was no certification.

702
00:45:33,500 --> 00:45:37,800
Anyone could be floated in this, maybe couldn't even swim no matter, drive a boat or, you

703
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:39,720
know, rescue someone from a lake.

704
00:45:39,720 --> 00:45:43,880
Um, and then even the backboards, they had the backboards that we use in dry land.

705
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:46,080
Well, that doesn't work in the water, you know?

706
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,840
So I remember thinking, how is there such a disconnect?

707
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:53,080
You know, we have, um, brush truck certifications, but not boats.

708
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:55,960
Um, and then chief droves got hired.

709
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,840
And I remember at 50 actually talking to him about this, you know, and one of, like I said,

710
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:04,120
I'm one of many voices, they were pioneers prior to me already trying to put this in

711
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:08,640
place, but that was what was beautiful is that he came in and he listened.

712
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:13,500
And then the rescue diver program started building up, you know, and you had the surface

713
00:46:13,500 --> 00:46:15,080
water and then you had the divers.

714
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:20,360
And now, I mean, I was talking to Wayne just about three days ago and he was saying, you

715
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,960
guys have like one or two rescues a month in the county now, right?

716
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:27,800
Whether they're successful or not, but you have that many cars with occupants in the

717
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:28,800
water these days.

718
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:30,920
So I applaud, I applaud that.

719
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:35,640
Because I mean, again, there was a lot of people that were told no in that journey,

720
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:40,480
but getting a good leader in accompanied by all these people on the, as you said, the

721
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:44,360
lower levels pushing for this, how many lives has that saved now?

722
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:46,960
Oh yeah, that's, that's for sure.

723
00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:50,200
Um, yeah, Wayne is, Wayne was definitely one of the originals.

724
00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:57,960
Um, and then, uh, rock Rocky, Rocky and his father were the two rocks and, um, and, uh,

725
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:03,960
Tyson and then my brother who's in charge of it now, um, they, yeah, they took a lot

726
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,520
of what other people were already pushing and started, yeah, with that surface water

727
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:11,960
program, the, and then the, the, uh, rescue swimmer program.

728
00:47:11,960 --> 00:47:15,880
And that was just kind of little steps, little steps that, you know, has now led into the

729
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:17,520
dive, the dive program.

730
00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:23,360
And now one of the biggest dive programs in the state and also the country, you know,

731
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:27,920
um, and yeah, there are, there's, I know there's a hundred percent, at least, of people

732
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:28,920
who are still alive.

733
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:32,680
But, um, I think, um, I think, yeah, I think that's, I think that's a good way to put it,

734
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:37,360
but I think that's the biggest, I think, the biggest thing is that, you know, the, the

735
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:45,320
first one person alive because of that, the dive program, um, yeah, we should probably

736
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:49,480
get a captain on, you should get captain on here and have them tell that story of the,

737
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:51,440
the kid on St. Patrick's day.

738
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:56,720
But I know that kid that went into that retention pond and St. Patrick's day right after it

739
00:47:56,720 --> 00:48:00,960
arrived, who was a diver, he didn't have his dive equipment on, but he knew what to do.

740
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:04,760
Jumped into the water early, marked the car for the diver.

741
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:08,240
When the diver arrived, all he had to do was swim down to the marker and pull that kid

742
00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:09,240
out.

743
00:48:09,240 --> 00:48:14,680
And, you know, the fact that that, you know, you have a successful drowning like that is,

744
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:15,680
is amazing.

745
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:19,720
And I know for sure that that kid is alive because of that program, you know, having

746
00:48:19,720 --> 00:48:25,240
had my own experiences with water calls and stuff there, the clock is for sure ticking

747
00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:30,240
unless you're down the street and on the road, you know, the time is against you for sure

748
00:48:30,240 --> 00:48:32,080
when it comes to that.

749
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:33,080
But yeah.

750
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:37,560
Well, speaking of that, when I Googled you, I mean, obviously, you know, we know each

751
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:40,080
other, but I always want to kind of dive in a little bit.

752
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:45,440
An EMT award popped up on the search and grab me if I'm wrong, that was a water rescue.

753
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:47,440
So tell me about that call.

754
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:48,720
That was a water rescue.

755
00:48:48,720 --> 00:49:00,240
That was just prior, a few years prior to the dive academy, the dive program reinstated.

756
00:49:00,240 --> 00:49:07,640
Let's see, that was early morning, right, right before shift change, that a car with

757
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:14,440
three people went off the road right next to a school and into a retention pond.

758
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:19,520
Like if you can imagine a small bridge going to a retention pond, it kind of veered off

759
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:23,400
to the right and then crashed through a fence and then flipped upside down and went into

760
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:28,000
the retention pond.

761
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:29,560
So we responded to that.

762
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:35,440
It's not too far down the street from the station, so it was really quick.

763
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:41,280
And we arrived, I was on the engine at the time, had a Probe with me and myself and the

764
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:47,880
Probe, myself, the Probe and sheriff's deputy went in.

765
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:53,640
The car was upside down and basically just the tires were showing.

766
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:58,920
And I originally went over to the driver's side to try to open it, but the door was jammed

767
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:01,880
into the muck and couldn't get it open.

768
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:05,680
And then they were just opening up the passenger side and pulled out the first person who was

769
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:06,680
there.

770
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:11,560
And then the process, so then I came around and in the process of pulling out the first

771
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:17,640
person, I'm, we're hearing my lieutenant of the time, Steve Sherrill on the radio and

772
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:19,520
he's like, hey, kind of giving us updates.

773
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:24,440
And he's like, hey, there's somebody in the car on the phone talking like on the phone

774
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:29,140
with 911 and took out the first individual who was unconscious.

775
00:50:29,140 --> 00:50:31,080
And I was like, well, it's obviously not this guy.

776
00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:32,600
He's not talking on the phone.

777
00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:39,520
So there's obviously more people in the car and in that process, the person who was in

778
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:41,360
the back seat grabbed the hand.

779
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:46,480
I think it was the deputy's hand just reached out and grabbed his hand and scared and scared

780
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:48,440
the crap out of them.

781
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:56,560
And then we managed to pull her out and then talking to her, just trying to get information

782
00:50:56,560 --> 00:50:59,120
like, is there anybody else in the car?

783
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:04,680
And then she's, we were able to manage to determine that there was a third person in

784
00:51:04,680 --> 00:51:09,840
the car at this point, you know, it was deep into the car and the only way in was at the

785
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:12,480
time this, the passenger door.

786
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:19,480
So I went in under the water and there was sort of an air pocket area where the, where

787
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:25,940
your feet would be in the front seat of a car and kind of managed to get a breath of

788
00:51:25,940 --> 00:51:31,120
air in there and then was able to reach around and find a seatbelt and a seatbelt was able

789
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:35,560
to take off and pull the driver out.

790
00:51:35,560 --> 00:51:39,160
And with the assistance of everybody else, get them up on shore.

791
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:42,320
Cause even just getting them up on shore was difficult because it was like rocks, like

792
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:46,320
large boulder rocks leading down to the retention pond.

793
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:52,960
And then proceeded to work two codes at the same time with us and the rescue.

794
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:57,320
And then me and the Probe soaking wet, you know, no shoes on and everything else.

795
00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:05,020
And then, and then what, what, then this Calvary started coming, but it was a very, it felt

796
00:52:05,020 --> 00:52:10,040
like a very long, like two, three minutes that we were up on the shore alone and kind

797
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:17,480
of splitting, splitting all the equipment we had between all of us, we're working that

798
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:18,560
call.

799
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:27,280
And then, and then ended up riding in on one of them still soaked to the bone, no shoes

800
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:31,760
on riding in the back of the rescue.

801
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:39,880
And then, so we got pulses back on the one, he eventually passed later on, like a few

802
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:41,760
weeks later.

803
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:50,480
The other one, the other one was called at the hospital and then the other lady was,

804
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:56,720
the other lady was ended up being fine, which is pretty crazy that that happened, you know?

805
00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:04,840
And there was a lot of, a lot of media that came along with that and ended up getting

806
00:53:04,840 --> 00:53:11,000
EMT of the year for the state of Florida through the department of health that year.

807
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:19,040
So it was a, it was a crazy call, went very quickly, you know, a lot, you know, so it's

808
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:20,040
amazing though.

809
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:22,960
I'm glad I asked that question because you left out the whole part where you and your

810
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:25,520
crew had an amazing rescue.

811
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:26,520
Yeah.

812
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:30,280
So yeah, that lady was fine, you know?

813
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:31,280
Brilliant.

814
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:37,240
Well, I want to get to, you know, the, the very unique rope rescue team that you're a

815
00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:40,680
part of, but just before we do, I mean, obviously there's been.

816
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:44,920
The op tempo, as they like to say in the military, when it comes to orange County is extremely

817
00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:45,920
high.

818
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:48,720
I mean, we have so many crazy calls.

819
00:53:48,720 --> 00:53:52,920
What are some of the other career calls that you've had up to this point?

820
00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:55,160
Excluding the wheel?

821
00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:56,760
No.

822
00:53:56,760 --> 00:54:00,000
Jeez.

823
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:09,000
Most of them are, are just the small ones like, you know, the, like the amount of different

824
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:14,480
types of house fires and stuff in unique areas, apartment fires, you know, just the amount

825
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:19,920
of those or the unfortunate, you know, violent calls and stuff like that, that, you know,

826
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:24,880
you encounter unfortunately on too regular of a basis.

827
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:30,880
But you know, Oh, here's, there's one of my favorite ones.

828
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:35,840
Pirate ship dinner or pirate dinner adventure on international drive, which I used to be

829
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:37,160
a pirate in that stunt show.

830
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:39,160
You were a pirate in that, there you go.

831
00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:40,160
I was Benjamin blue.

832
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:41,160
I always got the girl.

833
00:54:41,160 --> 00:54:42,160
Okay.

834
00:54:42,160 --> 00:54:43,160
Yeah.

835
00:54:43,160 --> 00:54:45,800
Uh, that was a crazy call.

836
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:49,320
Um, we responded to that.

837
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:55,800
Um, it was at the time, I think if you can picture, um, if people know medieval times

838
00:54:55,800 --> 00:55:01,760
or I think Dolly Parton has one of those shows to those dinner shows, uh, where there's like

839
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:05,400
a show and then they bring out food to you, uh, during it.

840
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:10,160
And this particular one is pirate themed and it's an amphitheater and it actually has a,

841
00:55:10,160 --> 00:55:13,880
it has a cloth cover or a canvas cover over it.

842
00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:17,920
Well, the canvas cover was damaged and one of our hurricanes.

843
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:19,400
So the place was shut down.

844
00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:27,120
Uh, so they had just replaced the canvas cover and, um, they were doing repairs inside and

845
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:34,080
the repair man, unfortunately, I think he was doing some hot work, caught some of the

846
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,960
decorative, uh, rock on fire.

847
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:42,400
Cause if you think this decorative rock is basically foam gasoline for the most part

848
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:45,080
and he caught one of those on fire.

849
00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:49,960
And I give props to the guy because later on when I went in there, I found like six

850
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:51,800
empty fire extinguishers.

851
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:54,240
So he tried to put this out, poor guy.

852
00:55:54,240 --> 00:56:01,400
Um, and then the place went up and, um, we arrived there as the first truck company.

853
00:56:01,400 --> 00:56:04,320
I think I had just transferred over to the truck.

854
00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:10,760
Um, and you know, big old hole in the ceiling of this canvas, uh, amphitheater and, uh,

855
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:18,760
the pirate ship was on fire and myself and my lieutenant at the time, uh, ducks, um,

856
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:23,080
went in and had to do primary search on this giant building, you know, so you've got to

857
00:56:23,080 --> 00:56:30,520
think it's a amphitheater backstage area, um, pre-show area, and then like a kitchen,

858
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:32,120
you know, you're familiar with that.

859
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:33,120
It was amazing.

860
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:34,120
Yeah.

861
00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:36,240
I was, luckily I was familiar with the building.

862
00:56:36,240 --> 00:56:39,840
I had known people that had been in that show and I had been there before.

863
00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:46,600
So I had a general idea at the time of what the layout was and we had basically searched

864
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:49,620
everywhere except the main building.

865
00:56:49,620 --> 00:56:54,500
And I was kind of able to convey to my lieutenant kind of the, what we were going to expect

866
00:56:54,500 --> 00:56:56,240
when we went in there.

867
00:56:56,240 --> 00:57:01,320
And it has sort of a double door, uh, like almost airlock with the way you get into that

868
00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:02,320
place.

869
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:05,640
So there was like no smoke anywhere except that because of this, the way the double doors

870
00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:06,960
were.

871
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:10,320
And we went in there and sure enough, like, you know, we're talking pitch black, which

872
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:16,720
is this glow in the center of the, the, um, pirate dinner show on fire with a pirate ship

873
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:17,720
on fire.

874
00:57:17,720 --> 00:57:19,440
And we're like, all right.

875
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:21,880
He's like, my lieutenant's like, all right, you go left, I go right.

876
00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:23,760
And we'll meet back up here in the middle.

877
00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:27,040
Um, luckily nobody else, nobody was in there.

878
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:33,400
Um, uh, but I remember later on when we looked back, um, the moat that's around the boat

879
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:38,420
was drained and we saw some of the areas people were walking in were very close to falling

880
00:57:38,420 --> 00:57:41,260
into this 15 foot pool.

881
00:57:41,260 --> 00:57:43,920
So that was definitely a unique experience.

882
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:47,640
Not every day you show up and there's a pirate ship on fire.

883
00:57:47,640 --> 00:57:51,260
And then just knowing these unique buildings that are in your area, if you're working

884
00:57:51,260 --> 00:57:57,760
in like near these heavy, uh, heavy touristy areas, you're going to have these strange

885
00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:02,960
buildings like, you know, you know, the Ripley's building that's on its side or the, you know,

886
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:06,640
wonder works building that's upside down, these unique structures that are out there,

887
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:14,480
you know, that aren't your normal, you know, two, three bedroom house, you know, you know,

888
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:21,120
it was interesting when I came back to America from Japan and I went to the fire academy

889
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:22,560
and then I got hired.

890
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:25,560
Well, was it before?

891
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,160
I guess it was when I came back to Orlando.

892
00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:32,160
Anyway, um, they, they were hiring for medieval times.

893
00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:35,480
Bolly Partons was a Dixie stampede, which didn't last very long in Florida.

894
00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:40,200
They get shut down pretty early and it was a pirate show, but I had sword training and

895
00:58:40,200 --> 00:58:42,720
you know, stump work and stuff and I could ride.

896
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:46,520
So I went to medieval times, but they have a program where no matter who you are, you

897
00:58:46,520 --> 00:58:47,640
start as a squire.

898
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:49,680
You just shovel shit and you work your way up.

899
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:51,600
I respect that, but that's not going to work.

900
00:58:51,600 --> 00:58:53,720
You know, I got time to do that.

901
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:57,360
Dixie stampede, my, my ex, my wife at the time, she auditioned.

902
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:00,680
I was literally there just to watch and they were hurting for male writers.

903
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:01,680
So they asked me if I'd ride.

904
00:59:01,680 --> 00:59:03,680
And again, I'm not a great writer by any means.

905
00:59:03,680 --> 00:59:09,200
I just can ride a girl up on a farm and I got the job and she didn't, but you know,

906
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:13,080
running around on an ostrich carrying an American flag again, wasn't really the stunt work

907
00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:14,080
that I wanted.

908
00:59:14,080 --> 00:59:18,440
So that's how I ended up in, in the pirate show because I tried for all three, but that

909
00:59:18,440 --> 00:59:19,440
was the one.

910
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:23,320
It was, I mean, the, the actual show is dangerous.

911
00:59:23,320 --> 00:59:27,440
Like you said, the, the moat and everything we would do the high, not high fall, a fall.

912
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:31,880
It's not really called a high fall 18 feet into a mat that looked like a postage stamp

913
00:59:31,880 --> 00:59:35,440
when you were up there, like 30 foot sword fight up on a mast.

914
00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:40,320
And it was a great place to learn to be a stunt man, but man, those people in there,

915
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:43,000
they get paid way too little for what they do.

916
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:46,440
Cause it's literally 90 minutes of solid stunts.

917
00:59:46,440 --> 00:59:48,240
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

918
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:51,160
Sometimes two, two, three shows a day.

919
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:52,160
Yeah.

920
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:54,040
That's a, that's, that's a hard life.

921
00:59:54,040 --> 00:59:55,040
Yeah.

922
00:59:55,040 --> 00:59:56,040
I do remember when it burned though.

923
00:59:56,040 --> 01:00:00,280
And I remember going, huh, it needed a renovation anyway.

924
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:01,280
So it was probably a blessing.

925
01:00:01,280 --> 01:00:02,280
Yeah.

926
01:00:02,280 --> 01:00:03,280
It was good just to know.

927
01:00:03,280 --> 01:00:05,880
And I, I got to tell this story to this day.

928
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:10,540
My, my people I work with laugh at me for this.

929
01:00:10,540 --> 01:00:15,200
We went out and then there's different divisions set up.

930
01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:18,360
So the battalion chief that was in charge of that side of the building we were working

931
01:00:18,360 --> 01:00:23,040
on was working on a, one of those giant wooden spools that holds wire, like using that as

932
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:25,560
a table, like as the construction guys were used.

933
01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:28,080
So that was kind of his command post.

934
01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:31,800
And I just remember I was coming out and I was on the radio and I was bonking because

935
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:35,200
a million people were talking about things that were unnecessary.

936
01:00:35,200 --> 01:00:40,440
So I walk out to give a, you know, just a report of what we did and the way they describe

937
01:00:40,440 --> 01:00:41,440
it is right.

938
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:47,600
So you took your hand and then you pushed off all the junk that was on this wooden spool.

939
01:00:47,600 --> 01:00:52,160
And then you pulled out of your pocket, a magic marker that nobody had knew you had

940
01:00:52,160 --> 01:00:53,160
and proceeded.

941
01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:58,220
I proceeded to draw a map of the building and show them, Hey, this is what it looks

942
01:00:58,220 --> 01:00:59,220
like.

943
01:00:59,220 --> 01:01:00,220
This is the fire.

944
01:01:00,220 --> 01:01:02,640
And then this pirate ship is on fire and the guys still make fun of me to this day.

945
01:01:02,640 --> 01:01:05,520
You're like, you just pulled out a marker and started drawing a picture.

946
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:07,480
It was a pirate map.

947
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:09,520
It's a treasure map in fact.

948
01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:11,320
Yeah, exactly.

949
01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:12,320
All right.

950
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:17,600
Well, I touched on it before just up the road from the pirate show is the Orlando I, is

951
01:01:17,600 --> 01:01:19,000
that what they call it?

952
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:21,400
I think it's that icon now.

953
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:26,440
I think it's icon currently the wheel, the wheel icon park, the wheeled icon park, the

954
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:27,440
current name.

955
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:28,440
Yeah.

956
01:01:28,440 --> 01:01:31,440
Cause in Orlando, I mean, sorry in London, it was a millennium wheel originally and it

957
01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:32,440
became a London.

958
01:01:32,440 --> 01:01:33,440
I know that.

959
01:01:33,440 --> 01:01:34,440
So 400 feet.

960
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:35,920
Have I got that right?

961
01:01:35,920 --> 01:01:36,920
Tall.

962
01:01:36,920 --> 01:01:37,920
400 feet.

963
01:01:37,920 --> 01:01:38,920
Correct.

964
01:01:38,920 --> 01:01:39,920
So educate me.

965
01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:42,000
I'm going to go to Orlando, Orange County.

966
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:46,160
Hey, we're going to be building this very large Ferris wheel.

967
01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:49,640
Walk me through the inception of the team.

968
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:53,080
The testing I think is very important and the fitness standards for the team.

969
01:01:53,080 --> 01:01:54,720
And then let's go into some of the rescues.

970
01:01:54,720 --> 01:01:55,720
Yeah.

971
01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:56,720
And everybody's going to be surprised.

972
01:01:56,720 --> 01:02:00,520
I went through this, most of this podcast hadn't talked about rope yet.

973
01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:04,280
We're going to get to a long podcast.

974
01:02:04,280 --> 01:02:10,120
So 20, about just before 2015, cause 2015 was when they built it.

975
01:02:10,120 --> 01:02:16,560
They wanted to build this giant 400 foot Ferris wheel on international drive.

976
01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:20,600
And it was the team that owned the London Eye at the time that were kind of a part of

977
01:02:20,600 --> 01:02:21,680
it.

978
01:02:21,680 --> 01:02:24,920
So that was coming.

979
01:02:24,920 --> 01:02:31,600
And then with that came the unique rescue challenge that that would be.

980
01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:36,880
Cause even your Ferris wheel at like a fair or something you can get with a ladder truck

981
01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:37,880
and all that.

982
01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:44,720
But now you have a 400 foot wheel and London has their own rescue team on standby for that

983
01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:45,960
as well.

984
01:02:45,960 --> 01:02:50,720
So with that, so they were decided they were, they were going to build this wheel and then

985
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:55,860
they contacted the fire department and wanted to make a rescue team.

986
01:02:55,860 --> 01:02:58,840
So instead of going like the private rescue team route, they're like, Hey, we'll just

987
01:02:58,840 --> 01:03:04,200
have the local fire department do it and we'll bring in people from London to teach the firefighters

988
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:06,040
how to do the rescue.

989
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:10,360
Well the difference is every single one of these giant Ferris wheels is built differently.

990
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:13,440
There's not a, it's, you know, everyone is custom.

991
01:03:13,440 --> 01:03:18,140
The one that is in Florida is different than the one that is in Las Vegas and is different

992
01:03:18,140 --> 01:03:21,520
than the one that is in London and everything else.

993
01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:24,960
So everyone has its own unique challenges.

994
01:03:24,960 --> 01:03:31,040
So what we found was that it would be a unique challenge and you needed a certain type of

995
01:03:31,040 --> 01:03:33,200
person to do rescues on this.

996
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:41,160
Cause you need somebody who can basically carry 50 pounds of gear, climb up 400 feet,

997
01:03:41,160 --> 01:03:48,920
crawl into a hole that is 18 inches, an 18 inch opening on the top of one of these things

998
01:03:48,920 --> 01:03:54,880
with all that gear proceed to evacuate, you know, five, six people climb out of that hole

999
01:03:54,880 --> 01:04:01,000
climb to the next one and do it again and potentially do that multiple times.

1000
01:04:01,000 --> 01:04:07,840
And so with that comes some, you know, stamina and some knowledge to be working independently

1001
01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:11,960
because most likely you're just you and your partner or you and two other people.

1002
01:04:11,960 --> 01:04:18,760
So they wanted to develop a unique team that could focus on the unique challenge that this

1003
01:04:18,760 --> 01:04:20,600
ride would present.

1004
01:04:20,600 --> 01:04:29,760
So they had a testing process for that, that involved initially the ladder mill.

1005
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:33,280
And if people aren't familiar with a ladder mill, if you've been to your gym, like a Jacob's

1006
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:38,240
ladder, imagine a Jacob's ladder straight up and down or a treadmill, but instead of

1007
01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:41,080
replace the belt with a bunch of rungs of a ladder.

1008
01:04:41,080 --> 01:04:43,920
So it's just an endless ladder that you climb.

1009
01:04:43,920 --> 01:04:49,800
So you had to climb this for you had to climb 400 feet on the ladder mill in under 10 minutes

1010
01:04:49,800 --> 01:04:59,800
and then after that, do some rope rescue like skills and then had to climb the or Bronto

1011
01:04:59,800 --> 01:05:05,960
truck that is a unique shape to it was the testing process at the time that since that's

1012
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:11,320
has since developed into more where it's the ladder mill.

1013
01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:14,320
And now there's multiple different skill stations you have to go to.

1014
01:05:14,320 --> 01:05:24,720
We have a knot tying section, a pickoff section, a like a system section.

1015
01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:30,320
And then, you know, you have to demonstrate your ability to know those rope systems.

1016
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:35,960
What happened when they did all of this was they brought down the people from London to

1017
01:05:35,960 --> 01:05:41,740
teach us and they basically looked at the way North Americans at the time do rope rescue

1018
01:05:41,740 --> 01:05:49,320
and saying you guys are in the Stone Age and they proceeded to show us equipment and techniques

1019
01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:53,880
that vastly improved the way we do things.

1020
01:05:53,880 --> 01:05:59,640
So what would take going from, you know, a system to pull somebody up and then changing

1021
01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:04,520
that system to lower somebody down would take five minutes to change from one system to

1022
01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:11,080
the other where this equipment we have now and that they introduced us then can do it

1023
01:06:11,080 --> 01:06:13,720
within five seconds.

1024
01:06:13,720 --> 01:06:20,480
And that introduced us to just a whole new way of doing doing things and that you could

1025
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:27,520
take what was normally multiple fire trucks showing up to a call pulling out giant bags

1026
01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:35,280
of equipment and would reduce that to you carrying all the equipment on you.

1027
01:06:35,280 --> 01:06:37,560
It was a unique change for sure.

1028
01:06:37,560 --> 01:06:42,920
And reducing that team from like 15, 20 people to multiple small little teams of individuals

1029
01:06:42,920 --> 01:06:51,200
working and with that reintroduced me to rope rescue and my passion for rope rescue and

1030
01:06:51,200 --> 01:06:56,600
it's led to all kinds of things that I do now.

1031
01:06:56,600 --> 01:06:59,000
Just jumping on that topic for a second.

1032
01:06:59,000 --> 01:07:05,160
One of the most nauseating things that you can hear from American firefighter is the

1033
01:07:05,160 --> 01:07:11,280
ridiculing of the European fire helmet when we're wearing and I see over my shoulder there

1034
01:07:11,280 --> 01:07:18,200
you got a patent of the leather helmet and it's from the 1930s.

1035
01:07:18,200 --> 01:07:20,720
And you know, all for artifacts and more for history.

1036
01:07:20,720 --> 01:07:22,100
That's why we have museums.

1037
01:07:22,100 --> 01:07:26,600
But when it comes to being progressive, you know, finding the best innovation, just like

1038
01:07:26,600 --> 01:07:30,880
you said, if it's truly for them, you want the best equipment.

1039
01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:37,240
I find it nauseating when someone will not only push against but even ridicule innovation

1040
01:07:37,240 --> 01:07:38,240
that's far better.

1041
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:41,440
You know, in those helmets, they've got comms, they've got visors, they've got all the things

1042
01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:42,440
built in.

1043
01:07:42,440 --> 01:07:44,880
They're incredible and they're light and they're low profile.

1044
01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:51,440
Bearing in mind, I wore West Coast helmets, I wore East Coast helmets, I had all the helmets.

1045
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:56,960
Talk to me about that knowledge sharing because I think there's a lot of ignorance, borderline

1046
01:07:56,960 --> 01:08:01,880
narcissism sometimes in the American fire service and you know, more concerned about

1047
01:08:01,880 --> 01:08:05,920
looking like Kurt Russell than actually being the best version.

1048
01:08:05,920 --> 01:08:10,000
And I always say you don't see Navy SEALs wearing tin helmets for a reason.

1049
01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:13,360
And if you're so, you know, stuck on tradition, why are you wearing a BA?

1050
01:08:13,360 --> 01:08:14,840
Go do it old school.

1051
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:16,080
You know, good luck with that.

1052
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:22,280
So I think it's a very important point, the humility to listen to an agency that arguably

1053
01:08:22,280 --> 01:08:26,920
is just doing it better than you in that specific area.

1054
01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:31,520
You know, how was that information delivered and how was it received in the team?

1055
01:08:31,520 --> 01:08:36,040
Because I think sometimes ego gets in the way of progress in our profession.

1056
01:08:36,040 --> 01:08:38,120
Yeah.

1057
01:08:38,120 --> 01:08:42,640
So at least what they were showing us was just so beyond what we were doing.

1058
01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:48,080
And it was just kind of like this exists, like at least as far as the rope part of it

1059
01:08:48,080 --> 01:08:50,080
was.

1060
01:08:50,080 --> 01:08:52,600
You know, they sent down three really good guys.

1061
01:08:52,600 --> 01:08:58,080
And what's funny is I've reconnected with some of them over the years through different

1062
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:02,400
avenues and I still talk to them this to this day and they make fun of us.

1063
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:06,920
They're like, we showed up and you guys are using bar racks and all this other stuff.

1064
01:09:06,920 --> 01:09:12,720
And it was just so beyond what we were doing that there wasn't really much pushback, at

1065
01:09:12,720 --> 01:09:17,560
least from us as an internal team from the rescue climbers.

1066
01:09:17,560 --> 01:09:23,200
Now taking that information, what we were doing, it definitely took time for us to transfer

1067
01:09:23,200 --> 01:09:26,920
that information, let's say to the rest of the department.

1068
01:09:26,920 --> 01:09:30,940
That cell was a was a lot harder for sure.

1069
01:09:30,940 --> 01:09:39,320
But I think at least as far as the rope goes, sometimes you just have to show people and

1070
01:09:39,320 --> 01:09:43,720
you know, sometimes just demonstrating it and doing it side by side against the old

1071
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:48,320
way and the new way and then, you know, even if they don't like it, you know, even the

1072
01:09:48,320 --> 01:09:52,720
the staunchest critics will kind of shrug their shoulders a little bit and go, okay,

1073
01:09:52,720 --> 01:09:54,160
maybe this isn't so bad.

1074
01:09:54,160 --> 01:09:55,640
And it's little bits.

1075
01:09:55,640 --> 01:10:01,480
If you want to make a change in your agency with something, it has you, you have to do

1076
01:10:01,480 --> 01:10:05,640
it slowly because it's not going to be an overnight thing.

1077
01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:06,640
For sure.

1078
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:12,900
It's you know, you, you have to little bits of information at a time and, and then make

1079
01:10:12,900 --> 01:10:19,160
it not just so, you know, so drastic of a change.

1080
01:10:19,160 --> 01:10:26,120
But you know, the way Europe and other parts of the world do fire service is very different

1081
01:10:26,120 --> 01:10:27,120
than the US.

1082
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:31,840
Like a lot of them are, you know, military or branches of the military.

1083
01:10:31,840 --> 01:10:36,400
I know in my experience of guys in France and stuff, it's basically military guys that

1084
01:10:36,400 --> 01:10:37,400
are doing it.

1085
01:10:37,400 --> 01:10:44,080
It's a completely different mindset and they're telling you we do it this way because this

1086
01:10:44,080 --> 01:10:46,680
is the military and this is how we do it.

1087
01:10:46,680 --> 01:10:49,360
So there's no like, you know, well, I'd like to wear this helmet.

1088
01:10:49,360 --> 01:10:50,360
I like to wear that.

1089
01:10:50,360 --> 01:10:52,560
It's like, no, this is this the way it's done here.

1090
01:10:52,560 --> 01:10:57,960
And that mindset is very different culturally all over with that.

1091
01:10:57,960 --> 01:11:02,200
I think that military influence a lot of the fire departments in Europe and all that.

1092
01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:08,320
But yeah, it's at the time, yeah, it was so drastically different than we were doing

1093
01:11:08,320 --> 01:11:10,200
that it kind of blew our minds.

1094
01:11:10,200 --> 01:11:14,600
And the only pushback that I ended up seeing was when it tried to expand beyond our smaller

1095
01:11:14,600 --> 01:11:16,080
team that we had at the time.

1096
01:11:16,080 --> 01:11:17,080
Yeah.

1097
01:11:17,080 --> 01:11:20,560
Well, I think the, the differences, like you said, you, you had seen it work.

1098
01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:21,560
There was no ego.

1099
01:11:21,560 --> 01:11:23,840
There was no, you just, Oh, this is better.

1100
01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:24,840
And don't get me wrong.

1101
01:11:24,840 --> 01:11:26,360
This, you know, that's not saying it's a one way street.

1102
01:11:26,360 --> 01:11:30,960
There's a lot of things that we do that I know over the years, many departments around

1103
01:11:30,960 --> 01:11:33,320
the world have taken, you know, but that's the thing.

1104
01:11:33,320 --> 01:11:37,400
It's a humility to knowledge share, you know, the rising tide lifts all ships.

1105
01:11:37,400 --> 01:11:44,120
But if you are dogmatic about the way you look rather than your ability to perform that

1106
01:11:44,120 --> 01:11:45,960
then in my opinion becomes a problem.

1107
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:47,680
Oh, for sure.

1108
01:11:47,680 --> 01:11:48,880
For sure.

1109
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:53,520
So before we go to, you know, your advancement in the rope rescue side, what about the actual

1110
01:11:53,520 --> 01:11:57,960
rescues talk to me about, you know, if there's any that stick in mind, cause you're 400 feet

1111
01:11:57,960 --> 01:12:02,600
up, you've talked about, you know, ascending, you know, with gear on your back, obviously

1112
01:12:02,600 --> 01:12:09,240
the fitness side is, you know, is clear, but now you're courting through 18 inch spaces.

1113
01:12:09,240 --> 01:12:14,560
How are you getting the riders from these places back safely down to the floor?

1114
01:12:14,560 --> 01:12:16,120
Oh yeah.

1115
01:12:16,120 --> 01:12:23,120
So that goes a lot into, um, uh, look, we, the best way you can deal with a lot of these

1116
01:12:23,120 --> 01:12:25,520
unique structures is pre-planning.

1117
01:12:25,520 --> 01:12:31,560
So all the gear to rescue a lot of these, these, these people is already in the cab.

1118
01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:34,100
They just don't know what it's sitting on top.

1119
01:12:34,100 --> 01:12:39,680
So you have to climb, you know, all the way to that individual cab, crawl in, introduce

1120
01:12:39,680 --> 01:12:46,280
yourself to these people that are going to be scared and, um, and then proceed to tell

1121
01:12:46,280 --> 01:12:52,520
them to go to the back of the, uh, to the back of the cabin and open up the doors and

1122
01:12:52,520 --> 01:12:57,160
use the ropes that we have to build a system to get them down.

1123
01:12:57,160 --> 01:13:01,520
Um, and with that came smaller ropes than what we were used to at the time in the fire

1124
01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:06,000
department switching from half inch rope to 11 millimeter.

1125
01:13:06,000 --> 01:13:10,520
So which doesn't seem a lot, but you know, when you have to carry that rope potentially,

1126
01:13:10,520 --> 01:13:15,360
you know, there's a big weight difference in that.

1127
01:13:15,360 --> 01:13:17,660
Um, so yeah.

1128
01:13:17,660 --> 01:13:23,720
And then pre-planning the each one of these rides on how to get people down, um, the system

1129
01:13:23,720 --> 01:13:28,040
that we built, if people aren't familiar with it, it's sorta, you know, basically like a

1130
01:13:28,040 --> 01:13:32,880
controlled zip line, you know, there's kind of a tracking line, um, and then a way to

1131
01:13:32,880 --> 01:13:36,720
lower people down and then you reset it and then send the next person down.

1132
01:13:36,720 --> 01:13:41,280
And you have to have a system that works for all types of people, everything from a small

1133
01:13:41,280 --> 01:13:44,520
child to a, you know, to a service dog.

1134
01:13:44,520 --> 01:13:48,440
You know, you could potentially be rescuing, um, on these rides.

1135
01:13:48,440 --> 01:13:58,200
Uh, we are really good as a fire department rescuing, um, you know, 175 pound, uh, male

1136
01:13:58,200 --> 01:14:01,720
person because you know, that's what you practice on you, you know, you're not going to get

1137
01:14:01,720 --> 01:14:04,780
the biggest person or the, you know, to rescue.

1138
01:14:04,780 --> 01:14:08,160
So we're really good at practicing that, but we're not really good at rescuing children

1139
01:14:08,160 --> 01:14:13,460
or service dogs or, you know, um, uh, different size people for sure.

1140
01:14:13,460 --> 01:14:19,200
So that's the unique challenge that, uh, these theme parks and everything give us.

1141
01:14:19,200 --> 01:14:23,960
So are you, are they literally going from the cabin that they were in all the way to

1142
01:14:23,960 --> 01:14:24,960
the ground?

1143
01:14:24,960 --> 01:14:25,960
All the way to the ground.

1144
01:14:25,960 --> 01:14:29,360
Well, to the roof of the building, uh, of the building.

1145
01:14:29,360 --> 01:14:34,600
So almost all the way to the ground, but yeah, to the roof of the building that they, the

1146
01:14:34,600 --> 01:14:36,000
attraction building.

1147
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:37,940
So we have anchors pre-staged on there.

1148
01:14:37,940 --> 01:14:41,000
So, and then from there there's, that's a two story building.

1149
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:43,080
So it's a few stairs on the way down.

1150
01:14:43,080 --> 01:14:50,240
So these people getting in have no idea that they might be doing a 360 foot external repel.

1151
01:14:50,240 --> 01:14:51,240
Yes.

1152
01:14:51,240 --> 01:14:52,240
No idea.

1153
01:14:52,240 --> 01:14:53,240
No idea.

1154
01:14:53,240 --> 01:14:54,240
Yeah.

1155
01:14:54,240 --> 01:14:55,240
That's crazy.

1156
01:14:55,240 --> 01:14:59,480
That's the whole part of it too is, um, is being able to, you know, do all that.

1157
01:14:59,480 --> 01:15:06,080
And then if you're physically fit to do that, you're not going to pop in like sweating bullets

1158
01:15:06,080 --> 01:15:10,000
and you're breathing super heavy, you know, like if you can come in and you come in calm

1159
01:15:10,000 --> 01:15:14,280
and collected, people are going to trust what you're doing more, you know?

1160
01:15:14,280 --> 01:15:18,240
And that was the whole part of our program about implementing the physical fitness standard

1161
01:15:18,240 --> 01:15:23,200
and everything was we need you to do the climb, but then once you're there, that's when the

1162
01:15:23,200 --> 01:15:26,060
work starts, you know, the climb is just getting there.

1163
01:15:26,060 --> 01:15:32,720
You need to be able to perform, you know, perform the rescue and then exude confidence.

1164
01:15:32,720 --> 01:15:37,440
And we have to be able to trust because, you know, there's not a safety captain climbing

1165
01:15:37,440 --> 01:15:38,440
with you.

1166
01:15:38,440 --> 01:15:41,600
You have to trust what you're building is correct, you know, and you have to be able

1167
01:15:41,600 --> 01:15:46,000
to, to do that and have the stamina and not have like, you know, lose that dexterity in

1168
01:15:46,000 --> 01:15:48,040
your hands because you've been climbing so much.

1169
01:15:48,040 --> 01:15:55,360
So that was the big push in why we specifically have a team just for this kind of stuff.

1170
01:15:55,360 --> 01:16:05,000
In my last place where I worked next to my station was a 28 story hotel and the mentality

1171
01:16:05,000 --> 01:16:09,400
of quite a lot of the department was, oh, if we have something, we'll just take the

1172
01:16:09,400 --> 01:16:10,400
elevator.

1173
01:16:10,400 --> 01:16:14,880
There was a guy who came in briefly, sadly passed away not long after, but he set up

1174
01:16:14,880 --> 01:16:18,200
high rise training in a two story building.

1175
01:16:18,200 --> 01:16:22,760
And I remember asking him just a quick question, how are we simulating the exertion of getting

1176
01:16:22,760 --> 01:16:27,200
a hundred pounds of gear to the fire floor before we even start working?

1177
01:16:27,200 --> 01:16:30,440
And he said, oh, we'll just walk around the building a couple of times first.

1178
01:16:30,440 --> 01:16:35,600
And, you know, internally I face palmed, I wasn't disrespectful, but this is the big

1179
01:16:35,600 --> 01:16:40,280
disconnect to, you know, the, the physical fitness.

1180
01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:41,280
And you talk about dexterity.

1181
01:16:41,280 --> 01:16:45,000
I mean, also just the, the clarity of thought to be able to put the system together and

1182
01:16:45,000 --> 01:16:46,000
not make a mistake.

1183
01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:49,760
And, you know, a fatal mistake is a huge part.

1184
01:16:49,760 --> 01:16:55,400
So it's really interesting to hear in the, the wheel example, the really mirrors high

1185
01:16:55,400 --> 01:16:56,400
rise and everything else.

1186
01:16:56,400 --> 01:16:59,960
And shortly after I left that place, they had an incident where the elevators roll out

1187
01:16:59,960 --> 01:17:00,960
and they had to climb.

1188
01:17:00,960 --> 01:17:04,840
I don't think it was 28, it was a different, different hotel, but it was, you know, I think

1189
01:17:04,840 --> 01:17:08,480
15 floors with all their gear.

1190
01:17:08,480 --> 01:17:09,480
So yeah.

1191
01:17:09,480 --> 01:17:12,560
I mean, so then when you look at the absence of fitness standards in the fire service as

1192
01:17:12,560 --> 01:17:19,720
a whole, yeah, you might be fine making entry on a single story, you know, 1950s house or

1193
01:17:19,720 --> 01:17:23,560
running a medical aid, but what happens when you have that fire in the bank of America

1194
01:17:23,560 --> 01:17:29,880
building or, you know, some kind of catastrophic event in the millennium wheel, you know, where

1195
01:17:29,880 --> 01:17:33,200
you actually, maybe you're not assigned to that team, but you yourself have to get up

1196
01:17:33,200 --> 01:17:36,400
there too, because they need all hands, you know, that's what we should be training for.

1197
01:17:36,400 --> 01:17:37,400
Oh yeah.

1198
01:17:37,400 --> 01:17:41,360
You know, adrenaline and you know, rise, you know, adrenaline will only take you so far.

1199
01:17:41,360 --> 01:17:45,280
And they always say you'll rise to the level of your training and stuff.

1200
01:17:45,280 --> 01:17:49,520
But if you haven't trained to that level, then how are you expected to rise to that?

1201
01:17:49,520 --> 01:17:50,520
Absolutely.

1202
01:17:50,520 --> 01:17:51,520
Absolutely.

1203
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:52,520
All right.

1204
01:17:52,520 --> 01:17:53,520
Well, you touched on the passion for ropes.

1205
01:17:53,520 --> 01:17:57,760
So you're first exposed to it, the truck program, you get on the squad program.

1206
01:17:57,760 --> 01:18:00,160
Now you're on the the climb team.

1207
01:18:00,160 --> 01:18:06,440
How did that continue to evolve to, you know, becoming the core of your passion?

1208
01:18:06,440 --> 01:18:09,120
And we'll obviously then talk about the event.

1209
01:18:09,120 --> 01:18:11,480
Yeah, it was slow.

1210
01:18:11,480 --> 01:18:16,280
Like I originally when I was introduced it as an explorer, as a cadet in California,

1211
01:18:16,280 --> 01:18:17,560
I really liked it.

1212
01:18:17,560 --> 01:18:21,640
And then, you know, kind of went to the wayside until I got involved in the truck program

1213
01:18:21,640 --> 01:18:22,640
and stuff.

1214
01:18:22,640 --> 01:18:27,340
And that evolved into rope access training.

1215
01:18:27,340 --> 01:18:32,760
Everybody on our team is eventually set to sent to rope access training and is certified

1216
01:18:32,760 --> 01:18:37,060
with SPRAT, the Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians.

1217
01:18:37,060 --> 01:18:39,320
It's not a fire department course.

1218
01:18:39,320 --> 01:18:40,920
It's not a rescue course.

1219
01:18:40,920 --> 01:18:47,360
It's actually an industry course for people that, you know, if you wanted to hang lights

1220
01:18:47,360 --> 01:18:52,880
in the middle of the Gaylord Palms, you know, if you want a Christmas tree hanging in the

1221
01:18:52,880 --> 01:18:59,620
middle of that atrium at Gaylord Palms, you would have rope access technicians do that.

1222
01:18:59,620 --> 01:19:03,640
So we were sent there and I was part of the first class that did that.

1223
01:19:03,640 --> 01:19:11,360
And what was unique about that program is it is not a pay money and get a cert program.

1224
01:19:11,360 --> 01:19:13,340
It's a five day course.

1225
01:19:13,340 --> 01:19:18,080
Four days you're trained and on the fifth day you're tested and you're not tested by

1226
01:19:18,080 --> 01:19:21,120
the people you're trained, that trained you.

1227
01:19:21,120 --> 01:19:25,540
You are tested by an outside evaluator that has flown in that has nothing to do with the

1228
01:19:25,540 --> 01:19:29,880
agency that you that you that just tested you.

1229
01:19:29,880 --> 01:19:33,740
So you're trained in all these different rope climbing techniques.

1230
01:19:33,740 --> 01:19:39,840
So basically, you know how to climb rope, how to go rescue people, move horizontally,

1231
01:19:39,840 --> 01:19:41,960
you know, laterally through rope.

1232
01:19:41,960 --> 01:19:45,380
And then you're taught about like 15 different skills.

1233
01:19:45,380 --> 01:19:48,920
And then you have to perform those in front of this evaluator.

1234
01:19:48,920 --> 01:19:54,660
And basically, it's it's you know, it's baseball, it's three strikes and you're out.

1235
01:19:54,660 --> 01:19:58,640
And then sometimes if it's a really bad offense, they'll just cut you right there.

1236
01:19:58,640 --> 01:20:04,280
And it's like, hey, sorry, I know you paid $1500 for this class, but you can come back,

1237
01:20:04,280 --> 01:20:08,800
you know, so it's you feel like when you come out of that class that you actually earned

1238
01:20:08,800 --> 01:20:10,200
your certification.

1239
01:20:10,200 --> 01:20:15,280
And I have hence continued with that program and progressed through the different levels

1240
01:20:15,280 --> 01:20:18,320
to level three of that.

1241
01:20:18,320 --> 01:20:26,200
And so I just started getting involved in ropes and I got involved with some guys out

1242
01:20:26,200 --> 01:20:32,520
of Canada that I work with, the guys wrote a rescue out of Canada that teach advanced

1243
01:20:32,520 --> 01:20:34,360
rope rescue classes.

1244
01:20:34,360 --> 01:20:42,120
And then they got me involved or kind of showed me rope competitions, rope competitions exist

1245
01:20:42,120 --> 01:20:45,720
and they're all over the place.

1246
01:20:45,720 --> 01:20:52,920
There's currently there's one in the US, there's one in South America, there's a big one in

1247
01:20:52,920 --> 01:20:57,920
Europe every year, and then there's China and Japan.

1248
01:20:57,920 --> 01:21:02,880
And so I started getting involved in those and I put together a rope competition team

1249
01:21:02,880 --> 01:21:14,200
in 2021 to go to California and compete against 11 other teams on the USS Iowa, I think it

1250
01:21:14,200 --> 01:21:21,960
is in LA Harbor over there for a two day rope rescue competition against teams from all

1251
01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:24,760
over the US and all over the world.

1252
01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:28,100
And that was an awesome experience and it was all on a battleship.

1253
01:21:28,100 --> 01:21:32,400
So that was pretty cool.

1254
01:21:32,400 --> 01:21:38,640
And then since I've been involved in other ones and let about last year, March of last

1255
01:21:38,640 --> 01:21:45,120
year I was actually in Japan and competed with my friends out of Canada in the competition

1256
01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:46,920
in Japan.

1257
01:21:46,920 --> 01:21:52,120
And we were the only North American team and I was the only person in the competition from

1258
01:21:52,120 --> 01:21:53,120
the US.

1259
01:21:53,120 --> 01:21:59,320
So it was mostly teams from Japan and Asia up there.

1260
01:21:59,320 --> 01:22:00,920
So which is crazy.

1261
01:22:00,920 --> 01:22:04,760
And we're not talking just, you know, hey, the patients there go get them.

1262
01:22:04,760 --> 01:22:11,440
We're talking, you know, our hour and a half scenarios to get some of these people out

1263
01:22:11,440 --> 01:22:13,580
and only five people to do it.

1264
01:22:13,580 --> 01:22:16,440
So very cool and unique thing to do.

1265
01:22:16,440 --> 01:22:18,460
And you carry all your equipment with you.

1266
01:22:18,460 --> 01:22:21,120
You have to carry everything with you so you can bring whatever you want.

1267
01:22:21,120 --> 01:22:24,000
You just have to be able to carry it on your back.

1268
01:22:24,000 --> 01:22:28,560
What did you notice about the difference with the Asian teams versus you?

1269
01:22:28,560 --> 01:22:32,720
When I think of Japanese firefighters and rope and obviously this isn't what we're talking

1270
01:22:32,720 --> 01:22:38,720
about, this is kind of more the militant drill training, but the incredible speed that they

1271
01:22:38,720 --> 01:22:42,920
do the rescue harness and some of these things in there, what I would imagine is probably

1272
01:22:42,920 --> 01:22:45,080
their academy.

1273
01:22:45,080 --> 01:22:47,760
But it seems, you know, I know I lived in Japan for 15 months.

1274
01:22:47,760 --> 01:22:52,400
They're very, and I say this, you know, compassionately, they're very obedient.

1275
01:22:52,400 --> 01:22:55,520
They don't really question authority as a culture.

1276
01:22:55,520 --> 01:22:58,960
There's a kind of respect for hierarchy there.

1277
01:22:58,960 --> 01:23:06,680
And then you've got a very high level of respect to what did you notice a contrast or any differences

1278
01:23:06,680 --> 01:23:12,120
between the kind of the Western side and the Asian side?

1279
01:23:12,120 --> 01:23:18,120
So the Japanese teams are amazing.

1280
01:23:18,120 --> 01:23:25,120
They take it to a regimented level on how to do things.

1281
01:23:25,120 --> 01:23:33,240
It is the way they can climb rope and at the speed they can climb rope is amazing.

1282
01:23:33,240 --> 01:23:38,400
Their concept of rope rescue is very young for the most part, at least knowing this stuff,

1283
01:23:38,400 --> 01:23:43,960
but they have taken over the past like, you know, five years, you know, something that

1284
01:23:43,960 --> 01:23:49,280
wasn't a big deal and created an entire culture in Japan just around rope rescue.

1285
01:23:49,280 --> 01:23:54,200
And they've taken it so they literally went around and saw what everybody else was doing

1286
01:23:54,200 --> 01:23:59,560
and took all the good parts and created their own thing, which is amazing.

1287
01:23:59,560 --> 01:24:02,920
There's a, if you want to watch it, there's a YouTube video.

1288
01:24:02,920 --> 01:24:08,120
We had a videographer follow us in Japan and there's a YouTube video.

1289
01:24:08,120 --> 01:24:11,880
It's a Ronin rescue.

1290
01:24:11,880 --> 01:24:18,040
Look up Ronin rescue on YouTube and it will be under a Grimp Japan, Grimp G R I M P Japan.

1291
01:24:18,040 --> 01:24:22,040
And it's a two part, two part documentary.

1292
01:24:22,040 --> 01:24:26,360
So it's about like each episode is like 45 minutes and you can see there, like we do

1293
01:24:26,360 --> 01:24:27,440
a test.

1294
01:24:27,440 --> 01:24:32,840
We do like a practice run with the guys because they invited us down to train with one of

1295
01:24:32,840 --> 01:24:34,640
the other teams there.

1296
01:24:34,640 --> 01:24:40,080
And so we did a little side by side competition against each other for practice and they smoked

1297
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:42,640
us completely smoked us.

1298
01:24:42,640 --> 01:24:43,640
It was almost embarrassing.

1299
01:24:43,640 --> 01:24:48,040
It was actually kind of embarrassing, but you know, it, it's amazing.

1300
01:24:48,040 --> 01:24:53,180
And they were, they were all very cordial to us and you know, opened up, opened up their

1301
01:24:53,180 --> 01:24:55,480
training facilities for us to train in.

1302
01:24:55,480 --> 01:25:00,780
And then even helped us out getting some equipment because traveling across the country or across

1303
01:25:00,780 --> 01:25:05,840
the world to do some of these competitions, you're talking each person's carrying about

1304
01:25:05,840 --> 01:25:07,360
50 pounds of gear.

1305
01:25:07,360 --> 01:25:12,440
And then each person has, you know, 300 feet of rope plus a stretcher and, and everything

1306
01:25:12,440 --> 01:25:13,440
else.

1307
01:25:13,440 --> 01:25:14,440
It gets kind of costly to do it.

1308
01:25:14,440 --> 01:25:17,680
So if you can have some local support of where you're going for some of these comps, it makes

1309
01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:19,600
all the difference in the world.

1310
01:25:19,600 --> 01:25:23,680
So they're very, very cool guys.

1311
01:25:23,680 --> 01:25:28,160
And they've even competed their top teams over there have competed in Europe.

1312
01:25:28,160 --> 01:25:33,840
The main competition is a Grimp over in Belgium that they do every year.

1313
01:25:33,840 --> 01:25:41,640
And I think one of their Japanese teams two years ago, you know, won it straight out.

1314
01:25:41,640 --> 01:25:45,160
It was very, very, very good, very, very good and well deserved for sure.

1315
01:25:45,160 --> 01:25:49,560
Well, that underlines what we're talking about before and having the humility to go.

1316
01:25:49,560 --> 01:25:53,640
And I think this applies to the fire service, the country, I mean, everything, you know,

1317
01:25:53,640 --> 01:25:57,480
you're doing this really well, you know, teach me about this thing, you know, whether it's

1318
01:25:57,480 --> 01:26:02,040
I talk about this a lot, Norway's prisons, Finland's education system, the NHS in the

1319
01:26:02,040 --> 01:26:07,320
UK, when it was originally planned and still funded well, the actual principle, you know,

1320
01:26:07,320 --> 01:26:10,440
there's all these systems that do work really well if they're like I said, if they're supported

1321
01:26:10,440 --> 01:26:14,640
properly and having the humility to say, you know what, you know, for example, healthcare

1322
01:26:14,640 --> 01:26:16,920
in America, we're doing something wrong.

1323
01:26:16,920 --> 01:26:22,640
70% of our country is obese or overweight, you know, our prescription drugs are insanely

1324
01:26:22,640 --> 01:26:23,840
expensive.

1325
01:26:23,840 --> 01:26:27,320
People are dying of cancer and losing their house, you know, all these things like we

1326
01:26:27,320 --> 01:26:32,960
need to make a fix here, you know, which country is great at this and having the humility and

1327
01:26:32,960 --> 01:26:38,280
the the community to interact humbly with each other and these other countries, whether

1328
01:26:38,280 --> 01:26:44,440
it's a fire department or a nation and knowledge share, then as I said, everyone benefits everyone.

1329
01:26:44,440 --> 01:26:46,600
Okay, well, let me teach you about this.

1330
01:26:46,600 --> 01:26:51,460
While you're here, Japan, you don't seem to have gangs murdering each other on every corner

1331
01:26:51,460 --> 01:26:52,640
of your street.

1332
01:26:52,640 --> 01:26:54,040
Talk to me about your culture.

1333
01:26:54,040 --> 01:26:56,200
What are you doing right that we're missing that you know what I mean?

1334
01:26:56,200 --> 01:26:58,840
So I think that's the that's what we need to do.

1335
01:26:58,840 --> 01:27:02,120
You know, we've got politicians beating their chest saying we're the greatest country in

1336
01:27:02,120 --> 01:27:03,120
the world.

1337
01:27:03,120 --> 01:27:05,940
But our statistics don't back that up.

1338
01:27:05,940 --> 01:27:09,680
We are a beautiful nation full of incredible people.

1339
01:27:09,680 --> 01:27:13,000
But there are also other beautiful nations full of incredible people around the world

1340
01:27:13,000 --> 01:27:17,120
that we can share knowledge with and have the humility to learn from.

1341
01:27:17,120 --> 01:27:18,760
And everyone would benefit.

1342
01:27:18,760 --> 01:27:23,480
And that would also just like you with the teams that you've interacted, improve relationships

1343
01:27:23,480 --> 01:27:27,360
with other nations and maybe down the road even prevent some of these conflicts.

1344
01:27:27,360 --> 01:27:29,800
Oh, yeah, for sure.

1345
01:27:29,800 --> 01:27:34,800
And yeah, that's, you know, you know, what little we do in the in the rope world.

1346
01:27:34,800 --> 01:27:42,760
But you think the the the Belgium competition, you know, you have the UK team, those, the

1347
01:27:42,760 --> 01:27:45,020
intervention of the UK.

1348
01:27:45,020 --> 01:27:49,040
They're another great team, really good group of guys over there.

1349
01:27:49,040 --> 01:27:54,240
And so you have like at that competition, you have, you know, a team from Wyoming, which

1350
01:27:54,240 --> 01:28:00,240
ended up winning Michael Rush, those guys, you know, against, you know, the best in the

1351
01:28:00,240 --> 01:28:08,400
UK, the best in Japan, you know, France, you know, you've got the the Belgium Fire Brigade,

1352
01:28:08,400 --> 01:28:14,880
all these different departments coming in one spot, you know, in in Belgium to compete

1353
01:28:14,880 --> 01:28:17,720
for a week in rope rescue company.

1354
01:28:17,720 --> 01:28:22,880
You know, it's it's amazing, you know, the connections that you can make and the friends

1355
01:28:22,880 --> 01:28:27,940
that I've made in doing all this stuff is is really cool that you can.

1356
01:28:27,940 --> 01:28:31,500
And then some of those guys on the UK team were the guys was one of the guys who came

1357
01:28:31,500 --> 01:28:34,100
down and taught us rope rescue stuff back in 2015.

1358
01:28:34,100 --> 01:28:35,600
And I saw him at a competition.

1359
01:28:35,600 --> 01:28:38,240
I'm like, like, we I know you.

1360
01:28:38,240 --> 01:28:39,880
He's like, yeah, I came down to Florida.

1361
01:28:39,880 --> 01:28:45,640
And sure enough, you know, hanging out and meet each other in California after, you know,

1362
01:28:45,640 --> 01:28:46,640
you know, six years.

1363
01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:48,680
So it's funny how that works out.

1364
01:28:48,680 --> 01:28:49,680
Amazing.

1365
01:28:49,680 --> 01:28:54,900
Well, you touched on the fact that a lot of people just can't afford to send teams full

1366
01:28:54,900 --> 01:28:57,760
of climbers with all that gear.

1367
01:28:57,760 --> 01:29:01,680
So talk to me about the creation of the Central Florida Rope Rescue Challenge.

1368
01:29:01,680 --> 01:29:02,680
Yeah.

1369
01:29:02,680 --> 01:29:10,720
So after we did in twenty two in twenty one when we competed in in Los Angeles, we had

1370
01:29:10,720 --> 01:29:14,960
a good we had an awesome time and we had a lot of support from different people to get

1371
01:29:14,960 --> 01:29:16,520
us there.

1372
01:29:16,520 --> 01:29:22,920
And I've always been one when I do something like that, if I go to a class or sent to a

1373
01:29:22,920 --> 01:29:25,880
convention or something like that, I want to bring something back.

1374
01:29:25,880 --> 01:29:27,440
So I met with the team.

1375
01:29:27,440 --> 01:29:32,080
You know, we all talk to each other kind of on the way home and we're like, how do we

1376
01:29:32,080 --> 01:29:33,080
do this?

1377
01:29:33,080 --> 01:29:40,120
Is there is there a world where we could do a version of this for, you know, teams that

1378
01:29:40,120 --> 01:29:42,040
wouldn't be able to do this?

1379
01:29:42,040 --> 01:29:46,360
You know, because you end up you have to send five people plus an evaluator plus a victim.

1380
01:29:46,360 --> 01:29:48,040
You have to bring your own victim for these two.

1381
01:29:48,040 --> 01:29:50,920
So you've got to send seven people across the country.

1382
01:29:50,920 --> 01:29:58,160
So we talked and it was myself, Chris Ramey, Jeff Hansen, Donnie Krantz, Evan Peck and

1383
01:29:58,160 --> 01:30:01,920
then the the Ronans.

1384
01:30:01,920 --> 01:30:07,480
And so we thought, hey, let's see if we can do a version of this in central Florida for

1385
01:30:07,480 --> 01:30:10,160
the local fire departments.

1386
01:30:10,160 --> 01:30:13,160
And there's sort of a pipe dream.

1387
01:30:13,160 --> 01:30:16,720
But we met with the the fire academy.

1388
01:30:16,720 --> 01:30:21,920
So currently, Valencia, the fire people at Valencia, and we kind of told them what we

1389
01:30:21,920 --> 01:30:23,760
wanted to do.

1390
01:30:23,760 --> 01:30:25,960
And they said, yes, kind of right off the bat.

1391
01:30:25,960 --> 01:30:31,680
They're like, as long as we do it on a day that doesn't interfere with their normal operations.

1392
01:30:31,680 --> 01:30:33,880
So basically had to be a weekend.

1393
01:30:33,880 --> 01:30:38,360
And they said, yeah, well, we'll do it and we'll help you guys out with advertising and

1394
01:30:38,360 --> 01:30:39,360
everything else.

1395
01:30:39,360 --> 01:30:40,800
And we're like, OK.

1396
01:30:40,800 --> 01:30:41,800
They said, yes.

1397
01:30:41,800 --> 01:30:48,960
So then we had to figure out a way to to do this and get sponsorship and create from scratch,

1398
01:30:48,960 --> 01:30:50,080
utilizing the facility.

1399
01:30:50,080 --> 01:30:54,280
We had an event that would be worth having.

1400
01:30:54,280 --> 01:30:56,440
So we did our first time last year.

1401
01:30:56,440 --> 01:30:59,560
We did we had eight teams.

1402
01:30:59,560 --> 01:31:00,560
It's a one day event.

1403
01:31:00,560 --> 01:31:07,920
We have five events and we had basically teams from all over central Florida come together.

1404
01:31:07,920 --> 01:31:12,120
And we had a team from South Florida that was our winners last year.

1405
01:31:12,120 --> 01:31:16,960
And we had our friends over at Reedy Creek who got second place in the city of Orlando

1406
01:31:16,960 --> 01:31:19,400
got third place last year.

1407
01:31:19,400 --> 01:31:23,320
And we got a lot of good feedback from our first time doing it.

1408
01:31:23,320 --> 01:31:29,240
And we were discussing this year about doing it again.

1409
01:31:29,240 --> 01:31:31,440
We were thinking, oh, should we take a year off?

1410
01:31:31,440 --> 01:31:33,400
You know, it was a lot of work.

1411
01:31:33,400 --> 01:31:40,120
And then I had a conversation with Chris and it came down to, hey, the first one was successful.

1412
01:31:40,120 --> 01:31:45,640
And if we don't do it this year, we'll probably never do it again, you know, because the momentum

1413
01:31:45,640 --> 01:31:46,640
was there.

1414
01:31:46,640 --> 01:31:53,800
So we put it back together and now we have 10 teams this year and we have a bunch of

1415
01:31:53,800 --> 01:31:57,760
them are newcomer teams as well that have never done it before.

1416
01:31:57,760 --> 01:31:58,960
And they'll show up.

1417
01:31:58,960 --> 01:32:05,720
They have no basically pre-knowledge of the scenarios that they're given.

1418
01:32:05,720 --> 01:32:06,720
They're given out a bunch.

1419
01:32:06,720 --> 01:32:11,680
They're sent them a bunch of rules about like how to do things safely and per the rules

1420
01:32:11,680 --> 01:32:13,800
that we set up for the competition.

1421
01:32:13,800 --> 01:32:18,560
But they're going to show up in five person teams and going to compete head to head against

1422
01:32:18,560 --> 01:32:21,640
another team and during five different scenarios.

1423
01:32:21,640 --> 01:32:25,480
And we'll see who comes out on top.

1424
01:32:25,480 --> 01:32:29,600
And a big part about when we were setting this up was we obviously wanted to bring the

1425
01:32:29,600 --> 01:32:37,440
event to central Florida, but we wanted to, you know, also have it mean something, you

1426
01:32:37,440 --> 01:32:39,160
know, give back as well.

1427
01:32:39,160 --> 01:32:46,640
So each year we pick a charity where all the money that is collected from the teams goes

1428
01:32:46,640 --> 01:32:48,840
to a specific charity.

1429
01:32:48,840 --> 01:32:55,000
So everybody that goes as volunteers, we take a little bit of the money to pay for like

1430
01:32:55,000 --> 01:32:57,480
the food and the t-shirts and everything.

1431
01:32:57,480 --> 01:32:59,840
And then the rest goes to our charity.

1432
01:32:59,840 --> 01:33:08,320
Last year we had the UCF Restores, which is the PTSD center over at UCF, the help first

1433
01:33:08,320 --> 01:33:09,600
responders.

1434
01:33:09,600 --> 01:33:15,820
And then we had Give Kids the World, which is the it's a make a wish resort for kids

1435
01:33:15,820 --> 01:33:21,140
with the Make-A-Wish Foundation that want to come and visit the theme parks.

1436
01:33:21,140 --> 01:33:25,600
And then this year we wanted to put it all into one charity so we could give a bigger

1437
01:33:25,600 --> 01:33:26,600
check.

1438
01:33:26,600 --> 01:33:30,920
So this year we're going to do just Give Kids the World to give them the check.

1439
01:33:30,920 --> 01:33:34,320
So and then next year we'll see about maybe, you know, somewhere else.

1440
01:33:34,320 --> 01:33:36,360
But yeah, it's a great event.

1441
01:33:36,360 --> 01:33:43,200
And then we're going to have a new master of ceremonies yourself come in to join and,

1442
01:33:43,200 --> 01:33:44,960
you know, trying to make this a thing.

1443
01:33:44,960 --> 01:33:46,640
So it's going to be exciting.

1444
01:33:46,640 --> 01:33:48,160
Yeah, I'm excited.

1445
01:33:48,160 --> 01:33:49,160
I really am.

1446
01:33:49,160 --> 01:33:55,120
Obviously, having been a, you know, recruit, you know, a wannabe firefighter one day in

1447
01:33:55,120 --> 01:33:56,120
that same place.

1448
01:33:56,120 --> 01:34:00,120
I mean, I've been there for the Orlando Fire Academy and, you know, being on there not

1449
01:34:00,120 --> 01:34:02,200
as a young firefighter anymore.

1450
01:34:02,200 --> 01:34:05,760
But that's going to be kind of a cool, you know, circle round to now be in part of this

1451
01:34:05,760 --> 01:34:08,120
incredible competition that you've put together.

1452
01:34:08,120 --> 01:34:10,600
And I think also props to Reedy Creek.

1453
01:34:10,600 --> 01:34:15,680
I mean, they've done really well in you mentioned the ladder mill.

1454
01:34:15,680 --> 01:34:19,520
Rick's fire sled equipment, you know, he puts on a challenge every year.

1455
01:34:19,520 --> 01:34:22,880
And I think Reedy Creek have won it like one or two years in a row.

1456
01:34:22,880 --> 01:34:25,640
You're saying that their high angle teams is excellent as well.

1457
01:34:25,640 --> 01:34:32,860
So kudos to anyone, whether they do or don't get support from their department still taking

1458
01:34:32,860 --> 01:34:34,560
upon themselves to chase excellence.

1459
01:34:34,560 --> 01:34:36,320
I think that's admirable.

1460
01:34:36,320 --> 01:34:37,320
Yeah.

1461
01:34:37,320 --> 01:34:41,600
And, you know, competition can bring out, you know, can bring out the best in people

1462
01:34:41,600 --> 01:34:46,600
because especially the first year, you know, people are very apprehensive about doing this

1463
01:34:46,600 --> 01:34:51,580
because, you know, you think internally, you know, you might be good, but you're going

1464
01:34:51,580 --> 01:34:55,900
out there and I have respect for any team that does one of these competitions, you know,

1465
01:34:55,900 --> 01:34:59,320
no matter how you do, because you're putting it on the line, you know, you're going out

1466
01:34:59,320 --> 01:35:05,000
there and saying, I'm going to put my skills to the test for everybody to see.

1467
01:35:05,000 --> 01:35:07,340
And this is a very small world.

1468
01:35:07,340 --> 01:35:11,660
You know, there's it's not like most sports that have all this, you know, infrastructure

1469
01:35:11,660 --> 01:35:13,080
to look at and everything.

1470
01:35:13,080 --> 01:35:16,020
There's no real book on how to do all this stuff.

1471
01:35:16,020 --> 01:35:20,800
You just have to be like, OK, I'm confident in my team's ability to do this and let's

1472
01:35:20,800 --> 01:35:25,800
see how we do, you know, and can come out going, hey, I saw what these guys did.

1473
01:35:25,800 --> 01:35:26,800
They did this.

1474
01:35:26,800 --> 01:35:28,040
This was a lot faster.

1475
01:35:28,040 --> 01:35:34,100
And then the biggest change I see is seeing that filter out what we were doing into all

1476
01:35:34,100 --> 01:35:39,440
of these departments where now most of the departments in the central Florida area are

1477
01:35:39,440 --> 01:35:45,240
using the smaller diameter 11 mil rope and a lot of the equipment and ideas that we have

1478
01:35:45,240 --> 01:35:49,780
implemented in my department and in the in the companies I teach with.

1479
01:35:49,780 --> 01:35:54,500
I'm now seeing a lot of that in the area and is expanded outward.

1480
01:35:54,500 --> 01:35:58,040
And that's kind of what we wanted to do.

1481
01:35:58,040 --> 01:36:02,280
And to have that to be a part of that's pretty cool.

1482
01:36:02,280 --> 01:36:07,680
And I love we got some teams that not from the central Florida area coming this year.

1483
01:36:07,680 --> 01:36:08,760
And I think that's awesome.

1484
01:36:08,760 --> 01:36:09,760
And that's what I want.

1485
01:36:09,760 --> 01:36:13,440
You know, if this grows and we have people from out of state one year, that would be

1486
01:36:13,440 --> 01:36:15,560
really cool, too.

1487
01:36:15,560 --> 01:36:18,520
One more area I want to hit before we go to some closing questions, because it's important

1488
01:36:18,520 --> 01:36:24,880
because I'm seeing the the the fire academy of mine right now.

1489
01:36:24,880 --> 01:36:31,080
What I have observed in some places that I've worked, Anaheim was phenomenal at training.

1490
01:36:31,080 --> 01:36:35,160
We trained constantly, as you said, if you're going to be on a truck company in California,

1491
01:36:35,160 --> 01:36:39,520
you're constantly cutting roofs, you're constantly brushing up on building construction, you're

1492
01:36:39,520 --> 01:36:44,680
doing fire service and all the things to make sure that you are being as safe as possible

1493
01:36:44,680 --> 01:36:48,200
and you're you're effective on a roof and you get off the roof straight away.

1494
01:36:48,200 --> 01:36:52,040
So therefore you do make it a safe operation or as safe as you can.

1495
01:36:52,040 --> 01:36:55,400
Conversely, there are areas where there's box checking.

1496
01:36:55,400 --> 01:36:58,560
You do an evolution once for your annual training in the fire department.

1497
01:36:58,560 --> 01:36:59,560
All right, you did it.

1498
01:36:59,560 --> 01:37:00,560
You're good.

1499
01:37:00,560 --> 01:37:01,560
You're slow.

1500
01:37:01,560 --> 01:37:03,720
And a lot of times maybe with zero realism as well.

1501
01:37:03,720 --> 01:37:08,360
You go search a completely empty burn room with a bale of hay in the corner and then

1502
01:37:08,360 --> 01:37:19,080
you go talk to me about the courage of being willing to fail on a training ground, because

1503
01:37:19,080 --> 01:37:23,480
I would imagine there's a lot of apprehension in some of these new teams and they're overcoming

1504
01:37:23,480 --> 01:37:25,220
a fear of looking stupid.

1505
01:37:25,220 --> 01:37:28,120
Doesn't mean they're going to look stupid, but we always have that little mind like,

1506
01:37:28,120 --> 01:37:30,000
oh, everyone's going to know you're actually a bit shit.

1507
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:32,640
I have that very strong in my mind.

1508
01:37:32,640 --> 01:37:36,440
But you show up anyway, because there's no better place than the draw ground to make

1509
01:37:36,440 --> 01:37:39,680
mistakes even if you do correct them, learn, get the reps in.

1510
01:37:39,680 --> 01:37:43,400
And then when you're out in the real world with someone's life is in the balance, hopefully

1511
01:37:43,400 --> 01:37:45,160
you'll actually execute properly.

1512
01:37:45,160 --> 01:37:50,440
So what have you seen as far as fear, fear of looking stupid, getting in the way of people

1513
01:37:50,440 --> 01:37:53,080
actually getting better as firefighters?

1514
01:37:53,080 --> 01:37:56,480
Yeah, that's that takes that's a lot.

1515
01:37:56,480 --> 01:38:02,480
That's a hard hurdle for a lot of people to get past about looking that it is OK to fail

1516
01:38:02,480 --> 01:38:05,760
in training.

1517
01:38:05,760 --> 01:38:10,080
And then there was there has been I've seen a lot of apprehension about doing it and that

1518
01:38:10,080 --> 01:38:11,080
is OK.

1519
01:38:11,080 --> 01:38:12,520
Nobody's going to make fun of you.

1520
01:38:12,520 --> 01:38:15,080
Nobody's going to like it.

1521
01:38:15,080 --> 01:38:17,240
If I'm involved in it, it's not going to be that way.

1522
01:38:17,240 --> 01:38:19,840
It's I want people to learn.

1523
01:38:19,840 --> 01:38:25,080
And you know, that documentary I told you about the bus going to Japan, you're going

1524
01:38:25,080 --> 01:38:26,760
to see a screw up.

1525
01:38:26,760 --> 01:38:28,040
You are going to see a screw up.

1526
01:38:28,040 --> 01:38:32,880
You're going to see in that, you know, it doesn't always go well, you know, especially

1527
01:38:32,880 --> 01:38:35,320
you put pressure on people to do stuff.

1528
01:38:35,320 --> 01:38:39,440
You know, it's you know, they they kicked our butts and that's OK.

1529
01:38:39,440 --> 01:38:45,760
But I can I can tell somebody who's going to, you know, potentially, you know, say like,

1530
01:38:45,760 --> 01:38:50,280
well, you know, why did you go if you ended up not placing or anything like that?

1531
01:38:50,280 --> 01:38:55,400
It's like I got to go to Japan and hang out with, you know, all these wonderful people

1532
01:38:55,400 --> 01:38:56,400
from all over the world.

1533
01:38:56,400 --> 01:38:58,520
And I put it on the line out there.

1534
01:38:58,520 --> 01:39:05,620
And it just just because, you know, you know, we didn't place or whatever, you know, anybody

1535
01:39:05,620 --> 01:39:10,880
who has the, you know, courage to participate in one of these competitions and put it out

1536
01:39:10,880 --> 01:39:19,200
there, even if they don't do well, is going to is going to be successful in a real operation.

1537
01:39:19,200 --> 01:39:25,440
You know, like the the type of rescues that are being asked to do in some of these competitions

1538
01:39:25,440 --> 01:39:30,320
that are supposed to be done within an hour or an hour and a half are like multi hour

1539
01:39:30,320 --> 01:39:33,040
rescues in the real world.

1540
01:39:33,040 --> 01:39:38,300
And the fact that you can limit now down to you only the equipment you carry and you only

1541
01:39:38,300 --> 01:39:40,640
have five people.

1542
01:39:40,640 --> 01:39:46,240
You know that if you can work under those conditions and under that pressure and do

1543
01:39:46,240 --> 01:39:50,240
it, it's going to change the way when you go back to do real rescues, you're going to

1544
01:39:50,240 --> 01:39:53,880
be like, oh, this training evolution doesn't need to take three hours.

1545
01:39:53,880 --> 01:39:54,880
We can do this.

1546
01:39:54,880 --> 01:39:58,240
This is easy to train for the really hard stuff.

1547
01:39:58,240 --> 01:40:02,240
And then when you show up for the easy stuff, you're like, oh, we got this.

1548
01:40:02,240 --> 01:40:06,440
But yeah, it's it's OK to fail.

1549
01:40:06,440 --> 01:40:07,960
It's OK to fail in competition.

1550
01:40:07,960 --> 01:40:09,920
It's OK to fail in training.

1551
01:40:09,920 --> 01:40:15,400
I, you know, rather have people do it there than in the real world and see it on the news.

1552
01:40:15,400 --> 01:40:16,400
Yeah.

1553
01:40:16,400 --> 01:40:22,200
Like I said, you watch the documentary, you'll see us grew up a bunch and it's awesome.

1554
01:40:22,200 --> 01:40:24,800
I have no problem putting it out there.

1555
01:40:24,800 --> 01:40:27,600
Yeah, no, I think but I think you learn more from failures.

1556
01:40:27,600 --> 01:40:31,400
I used to do martial arts for years and I would train much harder after a loss and a

1557
01:40:31,400 --> 01:40:35,920
win because when you win, you kind of you have that voice going, oh, OK, you're good.

1558
01:40:35,920 --> 01:40:36,920
You're not good.

1559
01:40:36,920 --> 01:40:37,920
But, you know, you keep going.

1560
01:40:37,920 --> 01:40:39,920
So if you have a few bad days.

1561
01:40:39,920 --> 01:40:40,920
Yeah.

1562
01:40:40,920 --> 01:40:41,920
Yeah.

1563
01:40:41,920 --> 01:40:43,560
And you got to, you know, I like the way of being tested, too, because, yeah, now you

1564
01:40:43,560 --> 01:40:46,960
change the way you do this, now you have the humility to listen to some of the instructors

1565
01:40:46,960 --> 01:40:50,960
or other students that are in and you see things differently.

1566
01:40:50,960 --> 01:40:57,000
And actually, when we did VMR, that was my second VMR class when I was at the creek.

1567
01:40:57,000 --> 01:41:01,520
And the guy that I went to to get, you know, the the permission to think it was the, you

1568
01:41:01,520 --> 01:41:05,200
know, the education incentive I was using, he's like, well, why do you want to do this

1569
01:41:05,200 --> 01:41:06,200
again?

1570
01:41:06,200 --> 01:41:07,200
You've already done it.

1571
01:41:07,200 --> 01:41:10,880
I'm like, therein lies the problem because I did it three, four years ago.

1572
01:41:10,880 --> 01:41:13,040
I want to be proficient on the tool.

1573
01:41:13,040 --> 01:41:17,640
And no other place, you know, can you get a week's worth of tool time in a decay?

1574
01:41:17,640 --> 01:41:21,440
No, in a department, you might get, you know, five minutes on a tool, then you got to hand

1575
01:41:21,440 --> 01:41:23,080
it off to the next person.

1576
01:41:23,080 --> 01:41:26,680
So and I want to keep screwing up and I want it because I can't remember how to do a clamshell.

1577
01:41:26,680 --> 01:41:27,680
It's been three years.

1578
01:41:27,680 --> 01:41:29,440
Yeah, I don't have that kind of brain.

1579
01:41:29,440 --> 01:41:32,200
So I think it is a beautiful place to fail.

1580
01:41:32,200 --> 01:41:34,960
And if someone's laughing, then you just take him out the back, give him a smack in the

1581
01:41:34,960 --> 01:41:36,760
head and then bring it back.

1582
01:41:36,760 --> 01:41:40,760
Because you shouldn't be laughing at people that have shown up willing to fail.

1583
01:41:40,760 --> 01:41:44,160
You know, I don't care if it's in a gym and they're showing up and they're out of shape,

1584
01:41:44,160 --> 01:41:45,660
but they're in a gym.

1585
01:41:45,660 --> 01:41:49,280
Or if they're trying to, you know, remember how to tie a bowlin, if you're there showing

1586
01:41:49,280 --> 01:41:52,720
up, you are doing the right thing, whatever level you're at.

1587
01:41:52,720 --> 01:41:53,720
Yeah.

1588
01:41:53,720 --> 01:41:58,920
And every time like we something like this happens or internally as a department, if

1589
01:41:58,920 --> 01:42:03,680
you're doing some kind of like testing coming up or something, there's suddenly an increase

1590
01:42:03,680 --> 01:42:06,920
in training and everybody starts doing it, you know, and everybody starts practicing

1591
01:42:06,920 --> 01:42:10,680
you over doing rope assessments in the truck program again, all of a sudden there's

1592
01:42:10,680 --> 01:42:13,680
ropes hanging in the bay and everybody's practicing again.

1593
01:42:13,680 --> 01:42:15,360
And that's what it is.

1594
01:42:15,360 --> 01:42:22,080
You know, I want to focus away from, you know, it's like, I want you to come in with the

1595
01:42:22,080 --> 01:42:25,160
knowledge like if, you know, if we have to teach you how to tie knots and we'll teach

1596
01:42:25,160 --> 01:42:28,160
you how to tie knots, but that doesn't need to be the focus.

1597
01:42:28,160 --> 01:42:30,200
I need you to see the bigger picture of this.

1598
01:42:30,200 --> 01:42:34,900
This is just, you know, the idea of you being able to tie a certain knot is whether or not

1599
01:42:34,900 --> 01:42:38,080
you know how to uncouple a hose or something.

1600
01:42:38,080 --> 01:42:43,760
Just putting it all together to fight that fire or to put the, to do that rescue is what

1601
01:42:43,760 --> 01:42:44,760
we want to see.

1602
01:42:44,760 --> 01:42:49,160
And we saw some amazing things last year from, you know, departments that are not involved

1603
01:42:49,160 --> 01:42:55,400
in the way I am in competition and stuff, because you put a time limit on people and

1604
01:42:55,400 --> 01:42:59,120
restrictions and they, they will rise to that.

1605
01:42:59,120 --> 01:43:01,760
They will, you know, we're like, Oh, well, I guess we have to make them a little bit

1606
01:43:01,760 --> 01:43:04,760
harder next year because they're doing so good.

1607
01:43:04,760 --> 01:43:06,760
So, and they will be harder.

1608
01:43:06,760 --> 01:43:07,760
Brilliant.

1609
01:43:07,760 --> 01:43:08,760
All right.

1610
01:43:08,760 --> 01:43:12,440
Well, the first of the closing questions, is there a book or are there books that you

1611
01:43:12,440 --> 01:43:13,440
love to recommend?

1612
01:43:13,440 --> 01:43:18,040
It can be related to our conversation today or completely unrelated.

1613
01:43:18,040 --> 01:43:20,600
Books.

1614
01:43:20,600 --> 01:43:23,400
I like it.

1615
01:43:23,400 --> 01:43:27,480
Probably somebody's probably mentioned it on here, but there's a, I think it's 6,000

1616
01:43:27,480 --> 01:43:31,880
or 3000 degrees about the Brewster Cold Storage fire.

1617
01:43:31,880 --> 01:43:33,640
Somebody recommended that one.

1618
01:43:33,640 --> 01:43:38,280
That's a very good book about that fire that they had in Massachusetts.

1619
01:43:38,280 --> 01:43:40,520
I think it was 99 or something.

1620
01:43:40,520 --> 01:43:44,800
Fire department related, really good story, you know, and then people know it usually

1621
01:43:44,800 --> 01:43:50,440
from the story about the battalion chief who blocked the doorway from other people going

1622
01:43:50,440 --> 01:43:51,440
into that fire.

1623
01:43:51,440 --> 01:43:54,440
Cause they ended up losing, I think six guys, if I remember correctly.

1624
01:43:54,440 --> 01:43:57,920
And he basically stood with his arms in front of the door and said, nobody's going in.

1625
01:43:57,920 --> 01:44:02,040
And, you know, the, the way the, you know, the cojones it would take to say something

1626
01:44:02,040 --> 01:44:07,040
like that because it's crazy, but that's a, for any, you know, somebody listened to podcasts

1627
01:44:07,040 --> 01:44:08,040
like that.

1628
01:44:08,040 --> 01:44:09,040
It's a great book to read.

1629
01:44:09,040 --> 01:44:11,040
I think it's 6,000 or 3000.

1630
01:44:11,040 --> 01:44:12,040
Yeah.

1631
01:44:12,040 --> 01:44:13,040
Brilliant.

1632
01:44:13,040 --> 01:44:14,040
All right.

1633
01:44:14,040 --> 01:44:15,040
What about film?

1634
01:44:15,040 --> 01:44:19,120
You mentioned a documentary overseas about your, your Japan competition, but what about

1635
01:44:19,120 --> 01:44:25,640
other films and documentaries?

1636
01:44:25,640 --> 01:44:30,520
There is, I think there's, there's that one.

1637
01:44:30,520 --> 01:44:39,680
I think it's called brotherhood about, FDNY post 9 11.

1638
01:44:39,680 --> 01:44:45,520
I think it focused a lot on their special operations companies and then them rebuilding.

1639
01:44:45,520 --> 01:44:51,240
And it was like only like a year or so out of after 9 11.

1640
01:44:51,240 --> 01:44:56,040
And like a lot of guys were having being put in roles and having to step up and changes

1641
01:44:56,040 --> 01:44:59,640
about a crazy incident that they had out there.

1642
01:44:59,640 --> 01:45:01,760
And I think that's a good one to watch.

1643
01:45:01,760 --> 01:45:06,080
And for sure, that's kind of related to what we're doing.

1644
01:45:06,080 --> 01:45:09,680
I just had Mickey Farrell on the show, FDNY truck.

1645
01:45:09,680 --> 01:45:11,440
I think he's Lieutenant.

1646
01:45:11,440 --> 01:45:16,140
And he was literally in the Academy, either side of 9 11.

1647
01:45:16,140 --> 01:45:17,640
So they ended up working in the pile.

1648
01:45:17,640 --> 01:45:22,040
And so he's now assigned to a firehouse, you know, basically like the replacement in the

1649
01:45:22,040 --> 01:45:24,300
world war II, you know, unit, you know what I mean?

1650
01:45:24,300 --> 01:45:29,320
And it was such a raw, unique perspective to come because, you know, he's, it was going

1651
01:45:29,320 --> 01:45:33,040
to be a wide eyed rookie going to go there and have the senior man, you know, mentor

1652
01:45:33,040 --> 01:45:34,360
him and all this stuff.

1653
01:45:34,360 --> 01:45:39,880
And now the firehouse is full of, you know, broken, grieving men and women.

1654
01:45:39,880 --> 01:45:45,400
You know, so hearing what it was like day one to be immediately after 9 11 was extremely

1655
01:45:45,400 --> 01:45:46,400
powerful.

1656
01:45:46,400 --> 01:45:50,140
And you really kind of got an insight into not just obviously the three, four, three

1657
01:45:50,140 --> 01:45:53,040
in the funerals, but like all that knowledge has gone.

1658
01:45:53,040 --> 01:45:55,920
And where did these young recruits even start to learn again?

1659
01:45:55,920 --> 01:45:56,920
So it was really powerful.

1660
01:45:56,920 --> 01:45:57,920
Oh, yeah.

1661
01:45:57,920 --> 01:45:58,920
Under those conditions.

1662
01:45:58,920 --> 01:45:59,920
Yeah.

1663
01:45:59,920 --> 01:46:00,920
All right.

1664
01:46:00,920 --> 01:46:03,960
Well, then speaking of great people, is there a person that you recommend to come on this

1665
01:46:03,960 --> 01:46:09,040
podcast as a guest to speak to the first responders, military and associated professions of the

1666
01:46:09,040 --> 01:46:13,200
world?

1667
01:46:13,200 --> 01:46:19,080
I think you should get Captain Troy Broadway on here from he had that rescue.

1668
01:46:19,080 --> 01:46:20,880
He was part of that rescue.

1669
01:46:20,880 --> 01:46:26,280
And maybe the guy, some of the guys that were involved in that dive rescue call, I think

1670
01:46:26,280 --> 01:46:28,600
that would be a good one to have one here.

1671
01:46:28,600 --> 01:46:34,880
And then could probably my friend Mark Pfeiffer from Canada.

1672
01:46:34,880 --> 01:46:37,440
He's got his own little podcast that does rescue stuff.

1673
01:46:37,440 --> 01:46:44,520
And I do a lot of what I do and have a lot to think of that man who is who does nothing

1674
01:46:44,520 --> 01:46:50,680
but freely give information about all the about what he does.

1675
01:46:50,680 --> 01:46:56,360
And he he was the first he took the first team, the North American team to Europe and

1676
01:46:56,360 --> 01:47:01,120
for rescue competitions for Grimp and brought it and went over there and had a lot of the

1677
01:47:01,120 --> 01:47:02,800
same experiences.

1678
01:47:02,800 --> 01:47:07,200
You know, they're like, oh, well, these guys are doing things a lot better and has since

1679
01:47:07,200 --> 01:47:11,880
brought a lot of that back to North America and has been like an advocate for that and

1680
01:47:11,880 --> 01:47:13,760
freely gives out information.

1681
01:47:13,760 --> 01:47:19,480
Anybody who does rope competitions, you know, contacts him and, you know, he goes, yeah,

1682
01:47:19,480 --> 01:47:20,480
this is what you need to do.

1683
01:47:20,480 --> 01:47:25,800
He's very open with his information and and has like podcasts on stuff that he's done

1684
01:47:25,800 --> 01:47:28,760
in competitions and he goes over it and all that.

1685
01:47:28,760 --> 01:47:30,200
But yeah, I can talk to him.

1686
01:47:30,200 --> 01:47:31,880
Mark Pfeiffer, good guy.

1687
01:47:31,880 --> 01:47:32,880
Let's make it happen.

1688
01:47:32,880 --> 01:47:33,880
Both of those.

1689
01:47:33,880 --> 01:47:34,880
Thank you.

1690
01:47:34,880 --> 01:47:35,880
All right.

1691
01:47:35,880 --> 01:47:37,760
Well, the last question before you make sure everyone knows where to find you and obviously

1692
01:47:37,760 --> 01:47:41,800
the competition, what you do to decompress.

1693
01:47:41,800 --> 01:47:43,480
What do I do to decompress?

1694
01:47:43,480 --> 01:47:47,520
I love the beach.

1695
01:47:47,520 --> 01:47:50,760
I love the beach if it's just me.

1696
01:47:50,760 --> 01:47:54,840
I live really close to the theme parks, so I sometimes will just take my daughter or

1697
01:47:54,840 --> 01:48:02,800
my son and we'll just walk around the theme park for a while and be outside and, you know,

1698
01:48:02,800 --> 01:48:09,360
and then I listen to a lot of audio books and podcasts and stuff and go on my runs over

1699
01:48:09,360 --> 01:48:10,840
here in the central Florida area.

1700
01:48:10,840 --> 01:48:16,640
I got a couple of running paths over near the attractions and I like to run in the evening

1701
01:48:16,640 --> 01:48:18,000
when the fireworks are going off.

1702
01:48:18,000 --> 01:48:20,080
There's some good running paths over here.

1703
01:48:20,080 --> 01:48:21,320
So yeah, that's me.

1704
01:48:21,320 --> 01:48:26,640
Just be with my family and, you know, the beach is nice and all that.

1705
01:48:26,640 --> 01:48:29,080
We started in Huntington Beach when I was there.

1706
01:48:29,080 --> 01:48:33,600
They just officially named themselves Surf City USA.

1707
01:48:33,600 --> 01:48:35,600
I think it was.

1708
01:48:35,600 --> 01:48:38,720
I think it was to the contention of some other areas.

1709
01:48:38,720 --> 01:48:40,600
But it's funny where I live now.

1710
01:48:40,600 --> 01:48:43,160
Ocala calls themselves Horse Capital of the World.

1711
01:48:43,160 --> 01:48:45,440
I don't know if the rest of the world agrees.

1712
01:48:45,440 --> 01:48:50,760
But anyway, do you still surf now, now you're on the East Coast?

1713
01:48:50,760 --> 01:48:53,680
I do not as much as I would like.

1714
01:48:53,680 --> 01:48:56,920
I probably only get out there a few times a year.

1715
01:48:56,920 --> 01:49:01,120
It's just a little bit more of a drive than it used to be before.

1716
01:49:01,120 --> 01:49:06,040
We're talking my high school was a block from the beach.

1717
01:49:06,040 --> 01:49:07,320
So it's definitely a lot easier.

1718
01:49:07,320 --> 01:49:11,720
So now it's more of an ordeal and getting the kids out and all that.

1719
01:49:11,720 --> 01:49:16,240
So but I try still still got my boards if I ever needed to dust them off.

1720
01:49:16,240 --> 01:49:21,040
So maybe as my kids get older, I'll get back into it a little bit more, but wish I would

1721
01:49:21,040 --> 01:49:22,040
do it more.

1722
01:49:22,040 --> 01:49:23,040
Brilliant.

1723
01:49:23,040 --> 01:49:24,040
All right.

1724
01:49:24,040 --> 01:49:26,400
Well, then the competition then firstly, where can people find that?

1725
01:49:26,400 --> 01:49:30,900
I know that it's free to come and watch and then, you know, to tell me if someone's interested

1726
01:49:30,900 --> 01:49:34,280
for planning for next year, how can they actually send a team?

1727
01:49:34,280 --> 01:49:35,280
Yep.

1728
01:49:35,280 --> 01:49:37,480
So it's going to be March 2nd.

1729
01:49:37,480 --> 01:49:43,080
I would say get there about 7am and it's at the Valencia College Fire Rescue Institute

1730
01:49:43,080 --> 01:49:51,000
on 2966 West Oak Ridge Road, Orlando, Florida, 32809.

1731
01:49:51,000 --> 01:49:55,680
And I would say it's free to come out and watch.

1732
01:49:55,680 --> 01:50:01,520
If you want information about it, you can follow me on Instagram, rope underscore rescue

1733
01:50:01,520 --> 01:50:04,280
underscore guy on Instagram.

1734
01:50:04,280 --> 01:50:07,880
And that's where I post all the stuff.

1735
01:50:07,880 --> 01:50:15,120
And usually coming up, probably it's usually we start thinking about it in like fall is

1736
01:50:15,120 --> 01:50:18,120
when we start kind of planning it for the upcoming.

1737
01:50:18,120 --> 01:50:19,760
So we give plenty of advance notice.

1738
01:50:19,760 --> 01:50:23,200
So if you follow me on Instagram, you'll get all that info.

1739
01:50:23,200 --> 01:50:26,140
And yeah, it should be a really good time.

1740
01:50:26,140 --> 01:50:27,140
Come out and see.

1741
01:50:27,140 --> 01:50:28,140
It's fun.

1742
01:50:28,140 --> 01:50:30,120
We got a relay, our rope relay.

1743
01:50:30,120 --> 01:50:34,080
It's probably the big draw for people to watch.

1744
01:50:34,080 --> 01:50:35,760
And yeah, we're going to have food out there.

1745
01:50:35,760 --> 01:50:37,160
It's going to be a really good time.

1746
01:50:37,160 --> 01:50:43,160
And the rope relay is two teams at a time, head to head, head to head, doing a currently

1747
01:50:43,160 --> 01:50:47,920
undisclosed set of skills going through.

1748
01:50:47,920 --> 01:50:51,380
So that's really cool to watch them go head to head like that.

1749
01:50:51,380 --> 01:50:53,680
And that's kind of how the whole competition has worked out.

1750
01:50:53,680 --> 01:50:56,140
Each scenario has its mirror.

1751
01:50:56,140 --> 01:50:59,040
So two teams do the same scenario at the same time.

1752
01:50:59,040 --> 01:51:03,600
It helps us get through the day faster.

1753
01:51:03,600 --> 01:51:06,440
But you also so you have a kind of a ticking clock next to you.

1754
01:51:06,440 --> 01:51:10,000
So we have to figure out scenarios that kind of mirror each other.

1755
01:51:10,000 --> 01:51:11,880
So it's limiting on what we can do.

1756
01:51:11,880 --> 01:51:13,520
And we have to be a little creative with that.

1757
01:51:13,520 --> 01:51:18,760
But we're able to get more teams by doing it that way.

1758
01:51:18,760 --> 01:51:22,880
But I do find it fun to do it right next to another team because that's how they did it

1759
01:51:22,880 --> 01:51:26,280
in when I was in LA.

1760
01:51:26,280 --> 01:51:29,600
We had a we went head to head against another team.

1761
01:51:29,600 --> 01:51:32,080
And that does amplify your stress levels.

1762
01:51:32,080 --> 01:51:35,040
And I think it brings out the better in you.

1763
01:51:35,040 --> 01:51:36,040
Absolutely.

1764
01:51:36,040 --> 01:51:37,800
Well, Ryan, I want to say thank you so much.

1765
01:51:37,800 --> 01:51:40,280
It's so funny that we're having this conversation now.

1766
01:51:40,280 --> 01:51:45,400
I mean, you know, I think you were hired a couple of years before I got to Orange County.

1767
01:51:45,400 --> 01:51:47,160
And I remember being at 51 a lot.

1768
01:51:47,160 --> 01:51:49,860
So obviously, that's where we passed and shift change normally.

1769
01:51:49,860 --> 01:51:52,760
And then, you know, fast forward a few years, we're doing VMR together.

1770
01:51:52,760 --> 01:51:57,000
And now here we are, you know, about to be part of your amazing event in a couple of

1771
01:51:57,000 --> 01:51:58,000
weeks.

1772
01:51:58,000 --> 01:52:00,320
So I want to thank you so much for being so generous with your time and coming on the

1773
01:52:00,320 --> 01:52:01,320
show today.

1774
01:52:01,320 --> 01:52:03,400
Oh, no, thank you, James.

1775
01:52:03,400 --> 01:52:04,400
Thank you.

1776
01:52:04,400 --> 01:52:06,280
And I think you were just starting out this podcast.

1777
01:52:06,280 --> 01:52:07,280
I think it was brand new.

1778
01:52:07,280 --> 01:52:10,480
I think you're handing out cards and saying, hey, I'm doing this thing.

1779
01:52:10,480 --> 01:52:11,480
I still do that.

1780
01:52:11,480 --> 01:52:12,480
Good.

1781
01:52:12,480 --> 01:52:13,480
Yeah.

1782
01:52:13,480 --> 01:52:14,480
Good for you, man.

1783
01:52:14,480 --> 01:52:17,940
Good for you and everything you've been doing and being an advocate for first responders

1784
01:52:17,940 --> 01:52:18,940
and everything.

1785
01:52:18,940 --> 01:52:19,940
Well respected.

1786
01:52:19,940 --> 01:52:20,940
So glad you're going to be a part of this.

1787
01:52:20,940 --> 01:52:35,240
I'm looking forward to doing it.