Intro - Episode #1

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[00:00:56] camera video. It says actual quality would be higher so we'll see. You're coming back to life here.

[00:01:06] Are we looking better? No, let's just... I might look better the way you look but...

[00:01:14] Oh! Alright. That's good. Alright so we're live. I forget how... there's a guy on

[00:01:30] TikTok, you know the weather guy? Franky? No. Yeah. McDonald? Is that his name?

[00:01:37] The dude from Nova Scotia? Yeah yeah yeah. Doesn't he say like, we're live here?

[00:01:42] I don't know if we're the same guy. He might be a different guy.

[00:01:45] This guy's great. He yells the entire time.

[00:01:48] Nova Scotia, New Jersey! You're coming again? You're gonna get whacked! Yeah. That's what it reminded me of for some reason.

[00:01:55] Alright so episode one of The Job That Built Me podcast where we tell stories

[00:02:03] from firefighters all over on how this job has built, molded and influenced

[00:02:12] them into who they are today. So this episode we're just gonna do some

[00:02:17] intros here with my co-hosts Rich Gabriel sitting right next to me and

[00:02:23] Nala Ayers who's coming in from Memphis remotely. So we'll just keep

[00:02:31] this episode short and we'll just go through some intros from us and then

[00:02:37] the next episode we'll bring in a guest and we'll get right into it

[00:02:40] and get in more depth. So we'll let Rich start off telling his story and where he is now.

[00:02:50] Right into the fire here. That's it.

[00:02:53] Not nearly as much as Nala is at this point but so Rich Gabriel.

[00:02:59] It sounds better if you're closer. Yeah.

[00:03:04] Yeah. Right there. Perfect. Alright so we have a lot of technical difficulties here.

[00:03:10] Episode one, part two. We're doing it. Take two. Take seventeen.

[00:03:16] For those of you who don't know we've done a rough draft of this before and

[00:03:24] like a month and a half ago it's been a learning experience for us.

[00:03:28] It's a big process. Electronics exactly don't go so well.

[00:03:32] Electronics and firemen don't go so well. Fireman proofing I think.

[00:03:37] I could do social media but this producing is not easy.

[00:03:43] So where do we start? Me. Yeah so where did you start in the fire service?

[00:03:52] How long ago and go through your story a little bit.

[00:03:56] Alright so started out as a volunteer in a small two-engine house in a one square

[00:04:03] mile town running 200 calls per year with a nice little service contract with

[00:04:08] the city next door. We got a couple fires. Got into it because of my family.

[00:04:14] Put it that way. My grandfather was a past chief.

[00:04:16] My uncle was a past chief. My cousin was in the firehouse.

[00:04:20] I live five houses away. The entire town typical small town USA.

[00:04:26] Everyone did but they could help out their neighbor.

[00:04:29] The guy across the street was an ex chief and fireman. The guy next to me was an ex chief and fireman.

[00:04:34] So the small town kind of revolved around the firehouse.

[00:04:38] And they were good men like at the straight essence of who they were.

[00:04:44] Just some of the best guys you can meet.

[00:04:49] They cared about their families. They're good dads, good husbands.

[00:04:54] Always give them back doing what they could.

[00:04:56] They're involved in the church, the robbery club you name it.

[00:05:00] And just as a young kid they were good roll-ups.

[00:05:04] It was something to look up to and people you want to emulate.

[00:05:09] And it didn't hurt that you're going to fires.

[00:05:12] What more could you get that it's exciting?

[00:05:14] You have to go do something to live life on the edge.

[00:05:16] You need to hang out with some like-minded people and get brought up the right way.

[00:05:20] So I started out in volunteer company.

[00:05:23] I mean I was in the firehousing so I was five years old.

[00:05:27] Joined when I was 14 as an explorer.

[00:05:30] Did that till I got out of college.

[00:05:33] Like get out of college and drop out.

[00:05:35] But did that for a bit and then decided to let every year-

[00:05:39] That's right, I spent a lot of money on a piece of paper.

[00:05:42] And it still hurts actually thinking about it for this day.

[00:05:45] You don't value money until you're an adult.

[00:05:48] It all makes sense kind of now.

[00:05:50] But I got out of college and I did what every aspiring fireman in New Jersey wants to do at that time.

[00:05:57] And that became a cop for a little bit.

[00:06:00] And decided that about five years into that if I had one shot to go be a career fireman.

[00:06:06] A good friend of mine and then towards like hey this is a small city but they're growing.

[00:06:12] It's a good department.

[00:06:14] And I think that's a good opportunity is going forward.

[00:06:16] See if you can get on the job there.

[00:06:18] For Jamie knows civil service purposes in Jersey.

[00:06:22] You got to live in the cities and it's like you can't put all a lot of eggs in different baskets you got to go in all in at one so I moved to the city of Asri Park.

[00:06:33] Tested relatively well.

[00:06:35] And typical government it takes time I think it was like four years.

[00:06:39] From the time that we took the test till the results came back and in a matter of like a week or two was bang you're on.

[00:06:47] So I got hired in the city of Asri Park which is a small, small New Jersey department depending on where you look in our county it's the biggest but I think we're 52 or 53 guys right now for shifts on 2472s.

[00:07:02] That's all all career correct.

[00:07:04] Yeah, all career.

[00:07:06] They run an engine a truck and then off the engine and truck we staff to BLS ambulances potentially three depending on what our staffing is for the day.

[00:07:16] We'll just wrap up the year right so they think we ran just under 8000 calls total.

[00:07:23] So relatively busy. I mean a lot of it is bed runs but we do act as a part of the county technical rescue team.

[00:07:34] We want to call it that there's a couple different teams around but we all kind of factor and function together as best we can.

[00:07:42] And it's pretty, it's pretty interesting you get to see all the sides of it from a small department.

[00:07:49] There's no assignments for truck or engine for the men.

[00:07:52] You're swapping back and forth.

[00:07:54] Everyone rides in the old unless you're a captain or a chauffeur keeps on your toes.

[00:07:59] You're going to gunshots. You're going to fires you're going to tech calls and then you're also getting freaking fires that make you laugh like you wouldn't believe on a daily basis.

[00:08:10] And outside of that, also volunteer in a town called Tom's River, which is like one of the top 10 largest municipalities and state New Jersey 60 square miles at 100,000 people in it.

[00:08:25] And we have the largest municipal fire training Academy in the state, which I'm very happy to say that they let me join along for the ride and help out with the recruit class from time to time.

[00:08:36] So it's a real man.

[00:08:38] Cool.

[00:08:40] So Noah you're on the other spectrum other side of the spectrum of of riches department. Tell us about Memphis.

[00:08:51] Yeah, so

[00:08:54] actually tell us where you started first. I know you didn't start in Memphis.

[00:08:57] Okay. Yeah. So I started similar to rich. I was 15.

[00:09:02] I got involved in the volunteer firehouse in the county I grew up in.

[00:09:06] I guess I should say my dad's been a fireman my whole life. So,

[00:09:10] was in the firehouse and now as a child, you know, always wanting to do it. And it's,

[00:09:16] and it's something that I pretty much put all my eggs in one basket for.

[00:09:21] Got started at the volunteer department. It's a, it was a smaller volunteer department where 3 stations, but it was super busy. We did for the volunteer department.

[00:09:31] We did about 1000 runs a year started there when I was 15.

[00:09:36] Got a lot of experience got to do the whole junior member thing.

[00:09:40] And then when I turned 18, it moved into the firehouse so we came to live in there.

[00:09:47] And I lived there for 3 years.

[00:09:51] Got to get a lot of fires and do a lot of things and enjoy the whole live in life of the only reason I was working a part-time job was just so I could just feed myself.

[00:10:01] But other than that, I was at the firehouse every day.

[00:10:04] Got hired on at the county fire department that my volunteer department was in at 18. So I was

[00:10:12] working full time for the county that I volunteered in and then when my days off, I was volunteering in the camp.

[00:10:19] Worked full time for the county for 3 years. It was a bigger fire department.

[00:10:25] So at the time we had 3 career stations.

[00:10:29] We covered 560 something square miles did about 12,000 runs a year.

[00:10:35] Made a lot of fires, a lot of cut jobs.

[00:10:37] A lot of med runs.

[00:10:39] So I got to do that.

[00:10:42] Got through some technical rescue classes and stuff while I was there.

[00:10:46] And then after working there for about 3 years, I really wanted to be a big city fireman.

[00:10:54] So I started applying to a whole bunch of different places and Memphis, the lateral thing popped up on Facebook for me one day.

[00:11:01] And I clicked on it and read the stuff. And I was like, I need all these requirements.

[00:11:06] Throw an application in through an application in and went from there got hired on.

[00:11:13] We did a little 8 week lateral, you know, trainee program so a little abbreviated Academy just kind of learning the Memphis way.

[00:11:23] And I was fortunate enough to get picked up out of the Academy by.

[00:11:27] A hot engine company and the special operations battalion so.

[00:11:34] That was that was awesome that went out there to that engine company pretty much right out of the gate.

[00:11:40] And.

[00:11:42] Worked there for I was assigned to engine 25 for 2 and a half years.

[00:11:47] And then that's when I got asked to cross the floor because we were in house with rescue 1 and I got asked to go across the floor to the rescue.

[00:11:55] So, Memphis has a 57 fire houses.

[00:11:59] A lot of opportunity.

[00:12:02] A lot of room for growth and advancement and I'm sure everyone has heard of the crime in Memphis so.

[00:12:10] We get to go to a lot of shootings and stabbings and fortunately we get to go to a lot of fires. I think last year 2023 we did over 500 working fires.

[00:12:20] And you get a rescue on every fire and we have three so I've been assigned to the rescue now for over a year.

[00:12:28] Loving it get to go fires every day and.

[00:12:31] Get to do what I've always wanted to do so it's been good.

[00:12:36] But it's pretty much it nothing exciting.

[00:12:39] Yeah, we get the text all the time picture of a header.

[00:12:43] That's it just sends a picture of a header and then that's it.

[00:12:47] Like thanks. Thanks a lot.

[00:12:51] I just want you guys to know what's going on.

[00:12:53] We know what's going on.

[00:12:56] You guys have the citizen app down there.

[00:12:58] We used to actually we had the citizen app when I first got down here and it was awesome.

[00:13:02] And then they stopped covering Memphis I guess.

[00:13:06] I think they get it somehow just.

[00:13:08] That's my friends.

[00:13:10] It was awesome when we had it.

[00:13:14] But I will say.

[00:13:18] Downfall of your working in this big city is got to ride the M1s too.

[00:13:23] So I know how you feel rich.

[00:13:26] But it's only 12 hours.

[00:13:28] If we didn't have the ambulance, I would probably get bored from time to time.

[00:13:32] Oh yeah.

[00:13:34] I'm pulling in.

[00:13:36] I work in a square mile city give or take.

[00:13:38] We do some mutual aid over running about 2000 fire calls a year, which I guess it's busy.

[00:13:44] Oh yeah.

[00:13:46] But.

[00:13:48] Smells and bells you're back in the house in five, 10 minutes, right?

[00:13:51] Right.

[00:13:52] But the ambulance call and catch blood up.

[00:13:54] The actually you have moments of impact where you get some wins, which are pretty neat.

[00:13:59] Like you get to go hands on we just had one.

[00:14:02] Two weeks ago, a gentleman made an exit from the fourth floor of the building to the ground.

[00:14:07] And he was Pols was at me.

[00:14:10] My man was not with us at that point.

[00:14:13] We did hands on CPR.

[00:14:14] We got halfway down the block.

[00:14:16] No shocks.

[00:14:17] He was back.

[00:14:19] Like breathing on his own.

[00:14:21] I was like, that's a moment of impact that I otherwise wouldn't have had and you change somebody's life.

[00:14:28] Right.

[00:14:29] So like it keeps us busy.

[00:14:31] And granted, sometimes it's frustrating because you get those 12 to 17 after midnight and it's there's no sleep.

[00:14:38] You're going to home mad because you're just a grumpy person.

[00:14:42] There's stuff and cake in your face at four.

[00:14:45] It's your sleep or eat some sugar.

[00:14:48] Might as well eat.

[00:14:50] We're the worst for it to load up on sweets.

[00:14:53] Whatever is in the fridge.

[00:14:55] Yeah.

[00:14:56] So, but.

[00:14:57] It is what it is.

[00:14:58] It's a necessary evil and at my department and I'm calling evil, right?

[00:15:02] Like you're still we're making a difference at the end of the day.

[00:15:06] Yeah, somebody's got to do it 100% and not for nothing.

[00:15:10] You couldn't pay anyone but firemen to do it because the load it puts on you as it's just an EMT there's got to be some other benefit to it than just monetary value.

[00:15:22] So we I relatively well.

[00:15:26] I can agree with you on the on the fun part of it.

[00:15:29] You know, it gets you out of the house and at least here you get to see we get to see the whole city here.

[00:15:34] You know, no ambulance really has a designated area.

[00:15:36] So it's definitely a blast.

[00:15:38] You just got to make the best of it.

[00:15:40] No doubt 100% like if you wrote a book about it.

[00:15:44] Nobody believe you nobody.

[00:15:47] And this is a podcast for all firemen but we can't go into detail.

[00:15:52] Some of these calls because you just can't.

[00:15:57] The general public has no idea what is happening with our are regulars and like how funny they are the stuff they say you just you can put that out thanks HIPAA and everything else but

[00:16:12] Funny I've never really have so hard that I have in the back of an ambulance with some of the stuff that goes on.

[00:16:17] Yeah, I know.

[00:16:19] It is necessary evil for sure.

[00:16:22] I'd be sitting around thinking about other things to get in trouble or do the fire as we didn't have the animals.

[00:16:30] The man himself though the guy would cover firemen.

[00:16:35] Yeah, well, it was previously faceless.

[00:16:39] I mean, it didn't it didn't start as a page about me.

[00:16:46] Still isn't about me.

[00:16:48] It's definitely not about me.

[00:16:50] I could be perfectly fine being faceless but to expand a little bit.

[00:16:57] I figured I'd put myself out there.

[00:16:59] I'm not a very outgoing person, but definitely this is something out of my comfort zone.

[00:17:06] But I think it's, I think it's something good. It can aid in this what now turned into a company aid this company and trying to make some sort of difference in the fire service for the positive.

[00:17:20] Even if it's something small.

[00:17:23] It's better than nothing better than sitting back and not doing anything.

[00:17:28] My story is very similar to riches.

[00:17:32] We grew up relatively in the same area, I guess, since we're in the same count or same state different county.

[00:17:40] But we're fairly close. He grew up. It's probably about 40 minutes south of where I grew up.

[00:17:47] I grew up in a small town, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

[00:17:51] Just like rich right around the corner from the firehouse.

[00:17:54] I'm a third generation fireman.

[00:17:57] My grandfather until his passing was the oldest active member in the volunteer company that I started in.

[00:18:06] My father still is an active member of the volunteer department that I started in.

[00:18:13] It's West Long Branch, New Jersey.

[00:18:16] It's a couple square mile town.

[00:18:20] A few thousand people.

[00:18:23] Two house department.

[00:18:26] The department back then was very, very active.

[00:18:32] We had a great group of guys the firehouse I started there when I started hanging around there when I was probably 1011 years old.

[00:18:41] My father would always bring me down.

[00:18:44] I was a call I'd, I'd race down the street and try to try to see the fire trucks.

[00:18:49] But we had a great group of guys there.

[00:18:53] I started as a explorer when I turned I think 14 or 15.

[00:19:01] The department, like I said, had a great group of guys with there was always guys hanging out there.

[00:19:07] We, when I turned 18, I went to the fire Academy.

[00:19:11] And the, the Academy back then.

[00:19:16] So change a little bit since, but it was a decent Academy.

[00:19:23] So teeth a little bit better now, but it was volunteer mostly volunteers in the Academy.

[00:19:29] Actually, we are class had all volunteers in the Academy.

[00:19:32] But I went to the Academy with my best friend who I grew up with.

[00:19:36] We started to became friends back in kindergarten, Danny Milachi.

[00:19:41] Danny passed a couple years ago of ALS at 30 years old.

[00:19:48] But we grew up together. He was my best friend. We went to the Academy together.

[00:19:54] We were always hanging out the firehouse spent a lot of time there events.

[00:20:01] The call volume wasn't, wasn't too, too heavy at the time.

[00:20:06] I thought it was a lot, but it really is not compared to where I work now.

[00:20:11] We, we average right around 350 calls a year.

[00:20:16] There's a university in town where they kept us busy during the school year.

[00:20:21] We'd at least get a run or two or day on average.

[00:20:26] But it was fun. We had a good time, did a lot of training.

[00:20:31] Had a lot of laughs together. But eventually you start to realize if you really want to be a fireman,

[00:20:38] you got to go to the neighboring city, which is the city of Long Branch where the call volume is quadruple of what, what West Long Branch was.

[00:20:48] So a lot of the members of West Long Branch, they were members of Long Branch to get the experience to go to fires.

[00:20:58] But I eventually joined Long Branch.

[00:21:01] It was only a year. I think I joined within the same year as I joined West Long Branch was later on in the year, but I joined over there.

[00:21:10] I got a lot of experience there as volunteer. It's a combination department.

[00:21:16] So the, they're right now back then it was, they had multiple houses where there was one firefighter, one career firefighter in each firehouse and they acted as, as the chauffeur.

[00:21:30] But since then it has changed all the career firefighters are in one house.

[00:21:35] It's a good department to six square mile city.

[00:21:40] The city is currently expanding greatly just like Rich's city. That's growing.

[00:21:49] There's buildings going up on every other block and it's a great place.

[00:21:56] That's where, so that's where I currently work.

[00:21:59] I got picked up there in 2015.

[00:22:03] But I volunteered there up until I got hired.

[00:22:07] But like Rich said, the civil service system in New Jersey, it's definitely different. It's, it takes a while. You really do have to commit.

[00:22:21] So I moved into the city. I took the test in 2010. So it took five years. I got very lucky that our list got extended.

[00:22:32] Usually the, the testing process is every two to three years. But our list got extended.

[00:22:39] I got very lucky took five years, but I finally got hired 2015. So I've been there for, I'm in my ninth year now.

[00:22:48] I've been there for, for nine years and it's, it's great. Love the guys that I work with.

[00:22:56] We go to a lot of calls. I think this year we did just over 1600 runs all fire runs. We don't have an ambulance.

[00:23:05] Unlike Rich and Noah do. I don't know what an ambulance is, but the, it's a one career house in the city, the rest of all volunteers still, but we have six personnel on each shift.

[00:23:21] We ride an engine and a quint. I know quint concept is it's a touchy, touchy topic where we're not going to get into it now.

[00:23:31] I don't want to upset somebody else that we know.

[00:23:38] But yeah, we ride a quint in an engine three on each, but we only have one officer on each shift. So the officer rides the quint. That's, that's the our first, first in apparatus.

[00:23:51] So we're stretching off the quint. The engine company with the three members on the engine company, they establish a water supply on every working fire.

[00:24:01] Because we don't know, we don't know who's coming. It's, it's very tough to say, oh, we'll let the water supply be handled by the volunteers or a mutual aid company.

[00:24:14] It's, you don't know how long you're going to be there. So our engine company establishes a water supply.

[00:24:21] The quint will stretch and then the members of the engine company will bump up onto the onto the hand line or do other tests that need to be accomplished.

[00:24:31] But so yeah, we'll keep it short. I won't.

[00:24:35] Our first take of this episode was was almost two hours.

[00:24:38] The enemy called us short and our cameras are in out of battery. Yeah, so we'll keep this one short. I'll go into more depth of the operations in the city along branch.

[00:24:53] But yeah, it's a great city to work for love everybody that I work with. And yeah, so we'll we'll keep it at that.

[00:25:00] I just want to interrupt real quick with a quick word from our sponsor for this podcast. This podcast is sponsored by RCD group solutions at RCD group solutions.

[00:25:12] Our teams made up of experienced public servants who have experience in various forms of government and emergency services.

[00:25:19] Our experts work collaboratively with organizational leaders to identify goals and conduct needs assessments that best fits the needs of the organization.

[00:25:27] Experts identify strengths and areas in need of development and builds a plan custom fit to the organization.

[00:25:35] The development of long term goals and objectives is necessary for all budget processes that have become a very competitive process.

[00:25:44] Check out RCD group solutions at RCD group solutions dot com or find them on Facebook and Instagram at RCD group solutions.

[00:25:54] But I just want to touch on one thing before we close out this first episode. So I just want to ask both rich and Noah, what are your influences in the fire service like who who influences you or what influences you and and to make something better or to keep going.

[00:26:21] What are your influences?

[00:26:23] Rich.

[00:26:27] Oh, see, can I ask a hard question?

[00:26:29] I get involved for all this.

[00:26:31] Yeah.

[00:26:33] All right. So influences in the fire service.

[00:26:35] I think you have to look over it like the course of a career or if you when you get involved, whether you're a volunteer or you're a career paid guy.

[00:26:46] It's a career like it is a job, whether it's volunteer or it's not. So from the time you start to the time you end right and I was lucky to start at 14 but I had the firehouse influence when I was literally a little kid used to run to the corner and watch him drive out and bug everybody at the firehouse.

[00:27:04] I'm sure both of you did. Like obviously I know that but from a little kid, they were the in a volunteer house in a blue collar community, right? They're the hardest working guys I know.

[00:27:19] They're breaking their ass for their family to provide for them and then when they're not doing that, they're down at the firehouse watching the rigs raising money do whatever they could do to support the operations of the firehouse.

[00:27:31] And then they're answering calls. So I thought that was extremely admirable at that point like we had Hurricane Sandy hit Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

[00:27:44] Those guys weren't home for days on end and I just I was in the middle of college. I came back to help out how I could and those guys just way left their family to make sure they were taken care of, but they did everything they could for their community and their neighbors.

[00:28:00] And that was to me super admirable something I hoped if I could be half the men that they were, I'd be doing pretty good.

[00:28:10] So that kind of took on its own little car or something out right and it sat with me that that's the kind of man I hope to be and I strive to be.

[00:28:20] And I took their example and I just picked up what I could from them and there are guys a guy I met then first time I met him. His name is Jimmy Gillespie.

[00:28:30] He's a deputy chief in Atlantic City, but he's also a volunteer fireman in this small town that I grew up in. He had just joined a company and they said the water was up.

[00:28:40] There was people trapped in their houses and be prepared to pull bodies out of houses and addicts and stuff like it was a pretty crazy uncertain time, especially as a 20 21 year old kid.

[00:28:50] And I go, you're all in it for the excitement at that point. I got this is great and then when it turns into actual life safety, it's a little it's a humbling experience.

[00:29:00] And my man Jimmy comes in first time we ever met and we're talking about like, oh, we gotta go get people or hopefully it goes.

[00:29:06] All right, let's put the suits on and go get him.

[00:29:08] And from that point on he was so focused on doing the right thing for everyone in that small time for my man.

[00:29:14] And I learned from this guy.

[00:29:16] And then the timeframe since that was 2012 it's now 2024 12 years. Jimmy's a gigantic, gigantic mentor for me.

[00:29:27] It took me to my first fire conference because I come on kid stick with me and we're going to go see what this is all about.

[00:29:32] And you go from talking about it. Now I'm having a beer with him. Ray McCormick, John Salka sitting there, Kurt Isaacson, Mike Turpac and Frank Fascuso on a rooftop in Pensacola.

[00:29:45] All Jersey guys for the most part with the exception of Ray Mack and Salka. I do I guess.

[00:29:52] But now you're sitting with some of the most notable guys in the fire service. And as a 22 year old kid, you're picking their brains and how can I be the best I can be going forward?

[00:30:06] And they're getting their information as a fire service. It's a big world. But as you get into that big road, you find out how small it is.

[00:30:14] So that's snowballed into its own thing, right? And you start seeking like minded people and you are who you surround yourself with.

[00:30:22] And I'm lucky that the places that I belong, I have some great mentors.

[00:30:28] My career department Bob Pascar, I was a battalion chief. He's brilliant smart.

[00:30:35] Unbelievable smart. He's just to see the way he thinks and processes information and to make it usable for our operations.

[00:30:47] Same Chris Parklow is a great fireman too. He's one of our battalion chiefs.

[00:30:52] Reggie, Reggie was Reggie Hammond was our senior guy up until September when he retired.

[00:30:58] The amount of information that he unloaded in a two and a half year span for me sitting at the kitchen table was incredible.

[00:31:06] And then you go from those guys to my volunteer house or the fire Academy.

[00:31:12] The volunteer house and I work, I go to and Silverton Tom's River.

[00:31:18] There's Richie Gorman who's a battalion chief in Jersey City. He's got like 40 years on the job.

[00:31:22] You're going to have to drag him off the job. They're going to have to force him out because he loves the job that much.

[00:31:29] And I got Sean Keating's the chief of the department. He's retired police.

[00:31:34] We kind of bent to a hell of a lot of fires in Patterson and Bisse, in Garfield, New Jersey.

[00:31:40] Who else is there? I mean, it's there's so many guys that have taken their cup figuratively imported into mine to make me a better person, better person, extra.

[00:31:52] Straight out and then a better firing on top of it. And they encourage you the whole time. Hey, keep going. Go get more information.

[00:32:00] It's there's plenty of negative stuff in the fire service, but a good senior man and good mentors.

[00:32:09] You just can't beat. You can't beat a guy that you look up to who are you or who you respect saying, Hey, you're on the right track.

[00:32:18] I would do this if I were you. If I could do it over again, this is what I would do.

[00:32:23] Or hey kid, bump the brakes a little bit. Like don't go so hard on this one. Maybe maybe you're going to piss some people off of you're presenting it poorly.

[00:32:33] You're not winning any arguments by telling people they're stupid. Like it's just doesn't work.

[00:32:38] But a senior man's wisdom is where like it just helps the junior guys so, so much more.

[00:32:48] And I'm very lucky to be in a position of him and then on the greater scale, you get involved in the fire service where you start having friends across the country.

[00:32:59] Now you're picking the brains of, you know, picking Noah's brains or you start getting talking to guys in the circuit.

[00:33:05] Like I was just talking to Jeff the other day because there was a job and we made a removal of a victim.

[00:33:14] He didn't live, but Jeff's pretty up on it with search.

[00:33:18] And I'm like, Jeff, what do you think?

[00:33:20] And we went through everything and Jeff asked me the hard hitting questions that to actually make me better.

[00:33:25] It wasn't just God, dude, you did your best. You did your best.

[00:33:28] And I'm like, what would you have done different?

[00:33:30] Do you think you're training, preparing for this?

[00:33:31] And he went down and like, dude, you're hitting you with the hard ones.

[00:33:34] But I appreciate it because it's, I now have to look at myself when I'm magnifying glass.

[00:33:40] So like the motivation is doing the right thing for the public and for the guy that you're going to jobs with, your guy or girl.

[00:33:50] And for your family because like you've got to come home at the end of the day.

[00:33:53] Like I can't just go to work and say, oh, I did my best.

[00:33:56] I did enough not a knowing I didn't because it's it's a slight to my family.

[00:34:01] It's a slight to the guys I work with. It's a slight to their family. It's a slight to the public.

[00:34:05] At the end of the day, that's what matters is doing the right thing.

[00:34:11] Even when it's not considered the right thing by some people, right?

[00:34:15] Like the boundary lines of all my truck can go there, but I can't go here or you know, someone's in trouble there.

[00:34:23] But just do the right thing for the public.

[00:34:25] But the motivation is honoring like the investment that people have put into me and then passing it forward and doing what's right for the public.

[00:34:39] Because at the end of the day, like that's all you got.

[00:34:41] Like why are we here other than to save, protect lives and property to believe it better than we found it in the move the ball forward.

[00:34:49] So yeah, so that's a good couple minutes I think.

[00:34:53] Yeah.

[00:34:55] I'm I'll save Noah for last and I'll just go through. I have one huge influence in the fire service for me.

[00:35:05] Many I've many, many influences but the biggest one is my father.

[00:35:10] I see the dedication that he has put into something outside of his family.

[00:35:20] So actually his second family if you think about it that way, but he did the amount of time and years that he has put in it really shows me that it's something that's.

[00:35:37] Not for everybody, but it's in your blood and it's in your DNA.

[00:35:42] And I believe it's in my DNA.

[00:35:45] I don't know if it's because I've been around the fire service for so long.

[00:35:51] Even back when I was a young kid 20 over 20 years now.

[00:35:57] But I just see, see that dedication that he has put in and he's continuing it to this day.

[00:36:05] He's still active and he's well over 40 years in the fire service.

[00:36:11] I want to say yeah, yeah, he's probably over 40 or 45 years in the fire service.

[00:36:18] He was chief of department.

[00:36:21] My grandfather was chief of department.

[00:36:23] Just seeing my family put that dedication in really drives me to keep doing what I'm doing.

[00:36:32] That's that's my biggest influence.

[00:36:35] But there's many, many other people in the fire service that are mentors of mine.

[00:36:41] They influenced me still.

[00:36:43] But the huge one is my family and not only my family, but also my family.

[00:36:49] The huge one is my family and not only, not only my father, my mother is not in the fire service, but she was in public safety for 35 years.

[00:36:59] She was a dispatcher.

[00:37:01] But just seeing the lifelong dedication of my family members really influences me to keep it going.

[00:37:09] But that, that's pretty much it for influences on my side from fire service instructors and other senior men in my firehouse.

[00:37:20] And but yeah, so Noah who who influences you?

[00:37:26] Yeah, I got a lot of influences.

[00:37:28] I guess to say that my dad was a big part.

[00:37:33] My dad never pushed the fire service on me.

[00:37:36] He never, you know, was trying to get me to be a fireman or anything like that.

[00:37:39] It was just it was just something that I fell in love with on my own.

[00:37:43] You know, so I'm very appreciative of him for that to kind of allow me to find my love for the job.

[00:37:48] But without him, I wouldn't have known anything about it.

[00:37:51] So at the end of the day, my dad is huge influence for that and forgetting me started it.

[00:37:58] And when I got started in my volunteer house, you know, I had a whole bunch of guys that took me under their wing and taught me the right and the wrong and and made me a good fireman or not a good fireman, but made me realize what good fireman were at a young age.

[00:38:15] I don't think I'm a good fireman by any means, but those dudes definitely pushed me in the right direction.

[00:38:23] You know, Neil Bailey and James Ploof and guys like that were a big asset to me.

[00:38:29] And then same with the when I got hired on full time at the county.

[00:38:33] I had a lot of guys that were that were pushing me to be better and I'm very fortunate for that.

[00:38:38] But right now my biggest influences are from when I came to Memphis.

[00:38:46] There's two people that I have learned so much from and I'm able to go in and, you know, look at them every day and talk to them every day and just it's amazing.

[00:38:58] And that's my first lieutenant on the job is Jeremy Herbert and that dude is a fireman's fireman.

[00:39:04] He's a fireman's lieutenant. He is a he's a great officer and a great guy and he's definitely given me a lot that he doesn't know about.

[00:39:14] And if I told him he'd call me an idiot that I was talking about him like that, but that dude is amazing, you know, and I can call that.

[00:39:21] I just got off the phone with him about the fire we made yesterday just to talk to him and kind of get his idea and his perspective on things.

[00:39:27] I don't he's not in the same house as me transferred out because he's an ass, but I can still I can still call him up, you know, and I get to make a lot of fires with him still.

[00:39:37] But he was a big influence for me coming into a department like this.

[00:39:41] And then my current lieutenant is I mean, salt of the earth. He's got 31 years on the job and he's not retiring for four more years and rescue one lieutenant in the city of Memphis.

[00:39:51] I mean, that dude is just a wealth of knowledge and he comes into work every day with a positive attitude.

[00:39:59] And for everything he's had to put up with throughout his career and deal with just to come in every day and have that refreshing positive attitude of someone that's so just experienced and has such a wealth of knowledge.

[00:40:15] It's great. And that's that's what motivates me is to come in every day and see that. And I'm like, I got to live up to that right there because that's that's what motivates me is just trying to be like that guy, you know.

[00:40:29] And then just a couple of things that I've heard it throughout my career is just, you know, there was a lot of firemen before us that molded the way, you know, so we can't let that go.

[00:40:42] We can't we can't put a disgrace to that. That's a big thing for me is not it's corny, but not a lot of people will hand you the child that's not breathing, you know, without anything, you know, and then they'll do that for us.

[00:40:56] And that's stuff like that is is what definitely has I've wanted to upkeep that oath that we've all taken and try to be the best I can be. And then another thing that I was told after a fatality fire that I made years back was.

[00:41:11] We're not God and we can't dictate who lives or dies, but it's a but it's our job to give them to arrange the meeting. You know, so that was that was something like that.

[00:41:22] What that kind of resonated with me and really stuck with me and I'm going to arrange that meeting every time you know I'm going to do the best I can to make that happen.

[00:41:30] So those are just a few, you know, a few people and a few things that I've heard and been told over time that really motivate me and really keep my drive and my passion going and keep me wanting to be better every day.

[00:41:43] That's huge.

[00:41:44] I think like if we can protect that for all the junior year, the young guys coming on about it. I guess there's so much that you can get bothered by and like angry about with the fire service. But at the end of the day, this is the best job in the world.

[00:42:01] Yeah. Whether you're a career guy or a volunteer and we're all volunteers one point, some of us still are career guys, but like has nothing to do with the title. It's the best job.

[00:42:14] I get this.

[00:42:15] I loved it so much that I wanted to make it a career 100% like my fee.

[00:42:19] That's what it is.

[00:42:20] Yeah.

[00:42:21] It's not the fact that I don't want to volunteer. It's the fact that I loved it so much that I wanted to make a career out of it and do it for the rest of my life and not have to worry about working another job pretty much is my fiance.

[00:42:33] Even though we all still have other jobs, but still all my jobs are firing certain stuff.

[00:42:38] Your job.

[00:42:39] Right.

[00:42:40] Or how do you start a fire service? Yeah.

[00:42:43] I don't know sports. What sports?

[00:42:45] Yeah.

[00:42:46] It's just it's fire servers or nothing.

[00:42:48] It doesn't turn off.

[00:42:50] Ever. I can be on the phone with my buddy and I've heard her, his wife in the background. Does he talk about anything else?

[00:42:56] No.

[00:42:57] I'm like,

[00:42:58] My wife is sick of it, but I just keep it going.

[00:43:01] Yeah.

[00:43:02] But it's got to be protected just like the guys who get just a little disherage.

[00:43:08] You got to bring them back because like at the end of the day, like we do make a difference.

[00:43:12] And like that gets lost.

[00:43:13] It's like, Oh, you know, that was already gone. They were already dead, but et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's no do like you.

[00:43:21] You make a difference like absolutely at the end of the day.

[00:43:24] And whether it's it's not and people say it's not our emergencies.

[00:43:31] They are and they aren't like you got to make it personal to the point where you don't take it personally, but you make it personal.

[00:43:37] Like you look at everyone as if there's one of your family members or it's like extended family.

[00:43:42] Like what would you want for them?

[00:43:44] Because their emergencies we give them every day.

[00:43:47] Like we go to the dead kids or CPR or some progress or fires with entrapment, bad pins.

[00:43:54] We see that and like we're professionals.

[00:43:57] You're good at maintaining that level of professionalism where you don't lose your cool.

[00:44:02] You do your job to affect the best outcome.

[00:44:06] But these people, this is the worst day of their life.

[00:44:09] Like period, whether it's the burnt Thanksgiving turkey or they're somebody trapped.

[00:44:16] Like it's one of the worst days.

[00:44:18] Coal and aisle one for someone is the worst day of their life.

[00:44:21] And you are the steward that is there to make that difference for them.

[00:44:26] There's nobody else where they're less their last person.

[00:44:28] They're trusting you.

[00:44:30] And it's an absolute privilege and it's one of the most incredible feelings in the world to be able to be that solution.

[00:44:38] So respect it and honor it and it's an awesome thing.

[00:44:43] So what the fire service has given me, I can't even give back 10% of it.

[00:44:51] Put on my child.

[00:44:53] All we could do is try.

[00:44:55] That's my motivation for blue collar fireman.

[00:44:59] It's just to use this platform that has been built and try to keep making positive impact.

[00:45:07] There's a lot, a lot of negative and we can only try to push them push them out by adding more positive to it.

[00:45:16] That's pretty much the only way there's always going to be negativity.

[00:45:22] But the, a lot of the online negativity.

[00:45:26] You just got to ignore it.

[00:45:28] Ignore the, the online negativity there. They're, they're asking for engagement.

[00:45:34] Ignore it and keeping positive. And it'll, it'll really benefit the fire service.

[00:45:41] But we'll, we're going to, we're going to wrap up this episode.

[00:45:46] Episode 1.2.5.6.

[00:45:51] Yeah, pretty excited. This one actually.

[00:45:53] It's a process.

[00:45:54] Success.

[00:45:55] How many times my phone has gone off as a killer? What's the pockets?

[00:45:58] We're trying. We're trying.

[00:46:00] Yeah. Plus I had COVID, I had COVID two months in a row.

[00:46:04] This has been, this is a success here just, just getting this, this recorded here.

[00:46:10] So I'm very happy that we were able to record this.

[00:46:14] So we're, we're going to, we'll get somebody on here next time.

[00:46:18] And we'll, we'll go in depth into their story and,

[00:46:22] and we'll keep pushing these episodes out as much as possible.

[00:46:25] But thanks guys for, for getting this done today.

[00:46:28] And we'll, we'll have some fun in the next one.

[00:46:33] Thank you.