Be a Maverick with LT Ralph Suppa

In this conversation, Ralph Supa, a seasoned lieutenant in the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, shares his extensive experience in emergency services, particularly in special operations and hazmat. He discusses his journey from being intimidated by hazmat to becoming a passionate advocate for safety and training in the fire service. The conversation also delves into the challenges posed by electric vehicles in firefighting, the importance of mental health awareness, and the need for a balanced promotional process in the fire service. Ralph emphasizes the significance of brotherhood and support among firefighters, encouraging new members to take advantage of training opportunities and to prioritize their well-being.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You either have 20 years of experience or you have 20 years
of one experience and you're going to have to call him like,
hey, I need you to rewrite this for super kids.
Couldn't remember it, but it's basically like, yeah, like you
said, like, yeah, oh, I got 20 years experience, but you're in
the same call. You ran the same thing every
single time. So you really you've 20 years of
one experience versus 20 years of experience and going out.

(00:24):
And that's exactly right where you don't want some load because
we just talked about earlier, you do need to go out and learn
different tactics or the evolving of what's going on.
It's super important. Welcome everybody, this is
Copper Say fireman podcast. This podcast is for firemen
burning the ships of complacency, laziness and

(00:46):
excuses for promoting the love and passion for the job,
encouraging eagerness and mastering the craft of the fire
service. The information, opinions,
values, recommendations and ideas are the host and
individuals of this podcast and are not affiliated or endorsed
by the fire departments, organizations or companies the

(01:08):
individuals work for. This podcast is for general
information use only. Endorsed by the copper, say
fools. Welcome back everybody.
I have the privilege to sit downwith Ralph Supa.
He's a seasoned Lieutenant in Anne Arundel County Fire
Department with over 20 years ofexperience.
Ralph is currently serving as special operations Lieutenant,
safety officer and emergency medical service supervisor.

(01:31):
He's a member of Maryland Task Force Team 1.
Ralph has extensive experience in hazardous materials response,
which he has developed through numerous emergency responses and
trainings. He is presented at international
hazmat conferences where he shared his insights on the
differences between leading on the fire ground versus hazmat
incidents. He's attended and participated

(01:53):
in training using live agents for biochemical weapons ranging
from anthrax, plague, rabbit fever, sarin gas and VX.
He's co-authored medical protocols for hydrogen fluoride
exposure and treatment in the field.
Through his career, Ralph has been a speaker at conferences
both nationally and internationally, conferences
such as NFPA Expo, IAFC, Hazmat Conference, National Chemical

(02:18):
Emergency Conference in England.He's received special awards and
recognitions for his outstandingservice, including the Gift of
Life Award, Individual Chief Award and Unit Citation from
Anne Arundel County Fire Department.
And it's a privilege for you to take time out of your evening.
Sit down with us today, brother,and then just just talk the job.
So welcome. And I know that was a long

(02:40):
intro, but did I miss anything important?
Are you kidding me? That was I hope people are still
listening to those. That's all Chat GPTI can't even
take credit for that. I, I'll get paid for ChatGPT
things, but like that's, I was gonna be like, you need to put
like after that I was like, he'sa dude.

(03:01):
He's a dude that knows a dude that talked to another dude.
Well, this dude is the man. So this is Ralph Supa.
He's currently Lieutenant with Anne Arundel County Fire
Department. He is my brother from another
mother grew up in the service with him, Academy brothers to be
exact. So be able to sit down and just
chat with you tonight is honor. My brother and I, I really want

(03:23):
to get into just where let's, let's start with the special
operations side and kind of pivot and go towards where we
want to lead. But so you've been with Anne
Arundel County for 19 years now,correct?
Yeah, we just thought just at 19years, 126.
There you go. So 19 years and then so you

(03:44):
have, you've been part of the special operations team for
quite some time. So just let's talk to the
audience about what you what youdo with the department you work
for and what your responsibilities are.
Then just, you know what, what's, what's your passion when
it comes down to the tech rescueand the hazmat side of the job?
No, I appreciate it and again, love you, man.

(04:05):
This is awesome. I started listening a few days
and I think it's great and it just, you know, keeps the fire
going. So my big thing is I'm a nerd
when it comes to this. I, I like helping people.
And Full disclosure is I was a volunteer in Anne Arundel
before, you know, we got hired on the job.

(04:27):
And you just know, we saw the special OPS guys and they just,
they were cut above, right. And like, you know, they're not
Seals, Rangers or, you know, great, but like they are in the
fire service and everybody looked up to them.
And I was like, when I grew up, I want to be just like that.
So lucky. Luckily enough for me, you know,

(04:49):
I was when I got hired. I was a punk kid at 19, you see.
So I'm grateful that you all didn't like smother me in the
Academy because I little blanketparty at all at 19.
Yeah, yeah. I'm grateful, like grateful for
people still loving me and coaching and mentoring me
through not just those difficultyears, but I'm pretty sure I

(05:10):
make life difficult for some chief officers still today.
Beautiful. That means you're doing you're
right, brother. So for me, like I said, it's it
was always something I aspired to.
Luckily enough, after a few years in the department had an
opportunity to go to SO you know, say I think you're you and
I were pretty much the same timeline.

(05:30):
We kind of got slated around thesame time.
Yes, Sir. So got got some good experience
in one of our busier houses. Initially you were at 18 Marley.
I was at 26 in South Glen Burnie.
And you know, that was back in the days when we were running
cut jobs and fire. It's pretty consistently.
It's awesome. So yeah, we got to cut our teeth
there. And then when the opportunity to
go to special OPS came up, like,dude, I just jumped at we broke

(05:55):
it. We jumped at it, right.
And for me, the funny part is I initially hated hazmat.
Hazmat scared me. I wanted nothing to do with
hazmat. And when I first got, you know,
had to take hazmat attack because it was part of it was
like one of the big things. And the officer that I went to
who's now a captain, Captain Chris Kane, was like, hey, I

(06:17):
already got tech rescue guys. I got guys who do this other
stuff. I need you to be hazmat.
And I was like, no, I don't wantto do hazmat.
Hazmat scared me saying no, you're going to be my hazmat
guy. And I was like, negatives.
I go. It stares me.
So lo and behold, he tells me I don't really care.

(06:37):
And he was an all American lacrosse player.
He's a big dude, He's intimidating.
So for me to tell him no, especially the junior member, it
was like bull strategy Cotton. And what happened was, and this
is something I share in my lectures about leadership, we
had a call. He was actually off.
We had a call on route shaking. For your audience, who doesn't

(07:00):
know that pretty much a main artery, Route 50 runs all the
way across the entire, you know,country, right?
For us in Anne Arundel County, it is a major artery going to
the beach. And one night, it was Memorial
Day weekend in 2010, I believe, and we get a call for tanker

(07:23):
truck leaking, pouring rain. We get there.
The initial engine crew had gotten exposed to something
like, man, we got in this cloud.Our lungs started burning.
You know, they, we had exposuresfor them.
The driver said he's from DuPontand he has experimental
chemicals. So it's like, cool.

(07:46):
It is Sunday night. Everybody's coming back for
Memorial Day weekend. We have now completely shut down
this main artery. State police is freaking out.
The governor's office calls and he's like, you need to open this
roadway up. So we're we're trying to figure
out what's going on. One of our other guys, Mike
Mayer is in the back. He's on the phone with DuPont

(08:07):
and Dupont's like, hey, this is highly water reacting.
If it gets wet, you're going to have if.
If you have a catastrophic reaction, you're going to lose a
half mile to a mile radius in all directions.
Holy shit. So we need to evacuate that,
right. And the officer like, well, that
incorporates Annapolis City. So you're talking about nearly

(08:27):
1,000,000 people. We can't do that.
And they're like, well, good luck.
Well, like I said, it's pouring rain.
So I'm already, I'm the newer guy on the team.
And I'm just kind of like, F this, you know?
Yeah, So and we need a Recon crew team, and I'm not proud of
this, but this is, you know, through personal growth for

(08:47):
Recon. And I mean, I had Homer Simpson
in the bushes, baby. I was no, I'm not No, he missed
no. So luckily the truck driver had
parked it underneath a overpass so it actually protected it from
the guy had truly saved lives and saved US time.

(09:08):
So anyway, they go up there, some of it's off jet off gas and
pause Gene, you know, some some nasty stuff.
Anyway, moral of the story, we go up, wait for the subject
matter experts for DuPont to getthere.
Luckily there's only like an hour or so, but we know we have
everything shut down. I grew up on the secondary Recon
team. But you know, for me, I, I was

(09:30):
really upset at myself. I, I cowered, right?
And that's not, not what we're here to do.
So the following shift, Kathy, Lieutenant King comes back and
he said, hey, calls me in the office and I, we had two
officers at the time and they both kind of sat me down.
They're like, what's up, man? What happened?
I was like a coward. I'm sorry.

(09:51):
You know, I got scared. And I, I say this is where a
leader can truly change the trajectory of your life.
A great leader can. Good leaders kind of will.
Great leaders definitely will. And they could have crushed me.
They could have been, they couldhave thrown me off that team.
They, you know, made me feel like garbage.

(10:11):
And they said, OK, what are you going to do next time?
Well, next one, I'm, I'm going to volunteer and I'm going to go
up there and Roger that. You go do that.
You show us. And now looking back, you know,
this is 15 years ago roughly. You know, hazmat is like my main
game. You know, me and a few other
guys went off and started a hazmat training consulting

(10:33):
company. I, you know, had presented
internationally on hazmat. So for me, what's crazy is what
I initially never wanted to do, which scared me the most, has
now become platform and my yes, to quote, you know, captain now
chief Sup Cal, the bread and butter, the meat and potatoes of

(10:55):
my life. So for me, the special op stuff,
like I love it on the task force.
Like that's what I do as hazmat and it's less hands on, it's
more monitoring and everything. But you know, that's where the
slippy and my battery stuff everything.
And you know, Captain King had already said, ain't nobody
retiring and going to do a tech rescue.
Do you want to retire and go do something?

(11:16):
You stick to hazmat. So I'm hoping that sticks true
with what I can do. But.
So you got on the team, right? You said hazmat was the
mandatory that you were terrified of.
I'm just curious and just for the listeners, So what, what
enticed you? What?
What did you think was going to be your favorite modality of the
technical rescue for the department you work for?

(11:37):
I definitely thought it was going to be claps rescue, you
know, the structural claps aspect, like that's where you
did see the FEMA guys going and doing it, you know, when they
had this earthquakes and everything else.
So I wanted to be a rock breakerand you know, that's, that's a
hard, grungy, dirty work. Like that's, that's what it's
about. So I really thought that's what
I'm going to do And well, I lovethat aspect of it.

(11:58):
And the majority of my career, I've been able to run some high
profile calls. I've been on more structural
claps calls than hazmat calls. And to the point of we had a
call where I was actually working at the city officer, I
wasn't even working that grassy that day.
And we had a tree going to a shed slash garage during a

(12:19):
party. We had 21 victims and we got, I
mean, we initially, myself and the other officer were the first
on scene. We walked up and we did 3 black
tags right off the bat. And for those who don't know,
you know, for Stark tree eyes, you're black tagging people.
You're saying we are committed that these people are going to
die. We cannot say them.
We're writing them off. And you watch some videos and

(12:42):
you talk about it. But when you have to make that
call in real time, it is heart wrenching and you're hearing
screams and all that other jazz.So anyway, by a miracle act of
God, one the first arriving cruise, everybody worked
flawless. There was no pride, no ego.
We were able to get all 21 got patients out, 19 were

(13:04):
transported. We had three priority ones, 2
priority twos, but there was twothat were just flattened by this
tree and like completely and like that's where we're like no
way. These two and this one go to
your call myself Battalion ChiefJoseph ACH.
And now we turn to Brett Constantino.
We've actually been lucky enoughthat we've travelled around,

(13:26):
gone out to the West Coast fire shows W presented on this case
study lesson learned. Hey, we, we were successful, but
we still have lessons learned. We're going to teach out at
Nfpas Expo in Vegas and it lookslike we'll be teaching at New
York's Technical Rescue conference.
So for me, again, it's just, it's all these cool things that

(13:47):
we get to do with special operations and either technical
rescue or Haznet. So it's just if you have any
interest in it, you know, with the, the listeners, I say just
you want to jump at it because it's, it's just awesome.
Like firefighting's amazing, right?
It's going in knocking all that out, flapping high fives.

(14:07):
The other aspect is that's like when you're getting to and not
everybody's sport, like there's some people like Hasmet.
No, don't # the same brother. Not for me.
And take Ted Christie, which is fine because there's a lot to be
said for being a student of the craft and those true senior men
and women who who know firefighting legitimately inside

(14:30):
and out beyond my beyond my scope and knowledge, you know,
and I respect them immensely. Yeah, so it's it's funny.
So you go in there thinking you're going to be this big
structural collapse freaking concrete breaker.
Then you end up being this hazmat nerd, right?
And it it it's you go the complete glow worm side.
And it's funny though, because Iremember when I was on the team

(14:50):
with you, it was like nobody ever wanted to do hazmat.
It was just a hazmat pays the bills.
And then everything else is the fun cowboy stuff or whatever.
But. It's still like that, looks even
better. But with that said, so it's I'm
sure this is what exposed you because you just mentioned it

(15:11):
real quick before about Marylandtask force.
So let's start going down that portion of your career.
So you're on the team, you're starting to get a niche.
Everything's going good. So when did you decide, hey, I
want to be on a deployable Maryland task force.
And for the guys that don't know, please let the listeners
know what exactly that encompasses.
Is it a FEMA team? Is it run by the county?

(15:33):
That kind of so are the state and kind of go from there.
Yeah, so Maryland Castle Oaks one is one of the FEMA teams.
I believe there's 27 teams overall.
Californians got like 8 teams out of their state and I believe
you guys have one out of Arizona.
You do correct. And there's, this is like the
cool thing. This is how it was explained to

(15:53):
me like when I finally got in, because it took again another 10
years for one, our jurisdiction had to be approved to get on,
which is a bunch of legal paperwork.
And you know, Montgomery County by us is a powerhouse.
They basically controlled everything.
And it wasn't that they were like hoarding it, but you know,
they, you get a lot of assets when you are the fee and the

(16:16):
jurisdictional management, you know, so we can guys from DC
actually, I don't know if you remember James Hurley from us,
he's Lieutenant at rescue team in DC now.
And from the FEMA, I mean, just absolute stud guy, right?
Love him to death and very deserving.
He, you know, DC got a few people in Prince George's County

(16:36):
for those who kind of heard about that, you know, the
umbrellas, they, they had a few people on the team.
But for us, for Anne Arundel, itwas just, we, we didn't even
have access to it. And we were pushing, pushing.
And there was, you know, there was a few people really trying
to get us on, but it took about 10 years for us to do that.
So this is obviously it's a FEMAteam.

(16:58):
You have your rescue group, you have your hazmat group and you
know, you see them on when the Maui, the fires in Maui
happened. They'd gone to Puerto Rico,
they'd gone. And I, you know, that's where I
say this very I have not been deployed yet.
I'm I'm still new to the team and I'm learning.
But it is just awesome because, you know, it was like, oh,

(17:21):
asnat, I'm like, yeah, I'm a nerd out, but I'll keep you
alive. So you're welcome.
Yeah, we're nerds, but we'll keep you allowed and thank you.
Great. And it's so they run through
different deployment cycles. You're on, you're off.
Most recently, we actually the team got deployed down for the

(17:44):
Hurricanes in Asheville and Florida.
And you know, that is just, theysaid that was just brutal.
But it's basically a FEMA team. You can be put anywhere in the
country now. I believe it is Virginia Task
Force One and I believe it's oneof the California teams are
internationally deployable as well.

(18:06):
So when Haiti happened and everything else like that, yeah,
we can be teamed up with them, but they're the 1st to go.
They're kind of the, you know, the international approved ones.
So it, it's, if you have an opportunity, I'd say again, jump
at it if it's something that's in your desires and wheelhouse,

(18:28):
because it's not for us. It's not mitigation from the
hognastic. It's hey, we need to identify
these hazards because we're going with the search and rescue
guys and we're making sure, hey,we're not in an atmosphere that
we're not supposed to be in, right?
It's can they keep operating here?
Hey, we're going to have a time limit because we, we need to
make sure we're not exposing youall to stuff.

(18:51):
So every once in a while you getto do some rock breaking is what
I've heard. But we're just, hey, we're,
we're the nerds of it working with the IT people and hey,
dropping pins and all that jazz.So I'm excited and it's, it's
truly a dream come true because the way they explained it on day
one is like, welcome to the major leagues of the fire

(19:12):
department. And like you're, you're now in
this, there's not even a team for every state, right?
There's only 19 states have teams and some have a few teams.
So it's, it's pretty cool and it's an absolute honor.
And there's people who, you know, whatever, not for me.
Hey, teach their own right and so.

(19:32):
So you said that you're on the team now.
So what is what was that processlike for you?
Is it just a seniority thing youjust have to wait your time out?
Is it someone has to recommend you like what's that process
look like to get on the team? So the process was about eight
months and you submit. So they have to have a vacancy

(19:54):
in the team and they actually had a few because they had some
people come off. You submit a written
application. You basically submit all your
all your trainings. Hey, you know, again, like.
ChatGPT your bio and you have tobe recommended by chief officer
gives me if they go through yourapplication and say, all right,

(20:15):
somebody went on an interview, you go through two separate
interviews, interview pals and then they go off that.
And the interesting thing to me was when I went for my second
interview, you know, you're you're all kind of rigid and
everything, but they this is what they say.
Hey, listen, all right, we understand, you know, technical
stuff. Your second one.

(20:36):
Tell us about yourself. And you basically have to sell
yourself to say, I could spend 10 days with this guy and not
want to murder him after day three.
I love how she were in. Yeah.
And this is it was so cool when they were explaining it.
They're like, we people, we wantto be around.
We want competent hard workers, but we don't want the people who

(20:58):
were like negative Nancy's. And you know, we want people
that we're in the, we're in the stuff and it's day 7 and life is
miserable and we still want to be around these people.
And it was like, basically, are you, are you a dude or not?
And if you're not, we don't wantyou on this team, even if you're

(21:20):
one of the high performer, like highest performing people,
because if you're negative, if you're just complaining or
toxic. And there were some people that
are way more qualified than me that did not get selected.
And I'm sure it was because theywent in there and they either
had were arrogant or had some, you know, treatment.

(21:42):
They were like, Nope, not for us.
Dude I I love that because the department I work for right now,
like the most enticing thing is a fireman get to pick who the
future fireman is. If that is literally like
interview number one for us was questions geared towards
basically, are we willing to spend 24 hours with you?

(22:04):
So I love the fact they're like,hey, I want to know if I can
spend 2 fucking weeks with you and not want to literally choke
the life out of you slowly. So I think that's, I mean, it
makes a lot of fucking sense because in all reality, I would
much rather have a really fucking good dude that might be
just not as knowledgeable as theother guy that he's a fucking

(22:24):
pain in my ass the whole time. So understood.
Good for them. Yeah, I, I was, I, I thought it
was a really cool aspect of it where, you know, again, they,
they ask you questions and I, I don't want to divulge their
secrets, you know, over share. But it was like, hey, you've
been given this crappy assignment.
What would you do? And I was like, and I didn't

(22:48):
know what they were looking for.Oh, that's an awesome thing.
I love this. And they just start laughing and
you know, another question they asked, it was like, well, how
would your family do with you being away for 1014 days?
And I said, well, my wife keeps telling me to apply to Survivor.
So I'm going to go with, she's going to be thrilled with it
because she's already trying to get rid of me for 40 days or

(23:10):
something. So I'm probably playing with
house money if it's only 21. And you know, I'm still trying
to win a million if I do that. But for this one at least I'm
getting paid overtime for most of this trip so.
Yeah, this is this is good, thisis pensionable.
We're we're a solid. That's like, so you know, they
got to kick out of that and they're like, because again, it
was like, how do you do in living in horrible conditions?

(23:31):
I was like, I'm going to go backto that last answer where I was
like, my wife is trying to send me on Survivor so.
Do you think? I'm going to go with.
It's probably about the same. My God, that's awesome.
So dude, first of all, Congrats to get on the team.
Like I said, I know it's you're you're new on the team, but
seriously, congratulate fucking relations because that's
awesome. Now I remember when I worked
with you, it was an honor to geton Maryland Task Force 2 and I

(23:54):
know we worked for a double lieutenants that were on that
team back in the day. But so I was, I was super
excited when I I'd read that on social media that you on the
team and I'm so fucking proud ofyou, dude, And you're freaking
killing it right now. But it's now we're we're full
fucking retard Hazmat, right. So you start doing a deep dive
down the EV route. So let's talk about your

(24:15):
experience, your training, what you've done, and really the
insights you have now on the EV room, because that's obviously a
freaking super hot topic in the American Fire Service right now.
And I'm sure the East Coast is the same as it is out here.
But West Coast, man, we've had agood amount of very unfortunate
incidents that we did a poor jobon that we've learned tremendous

(24:36):
things of from these EV cars. So please let's let's kind of
pivot that angle and let's starttalking about how you got into
it and then what you've done kind of from there on out,
brother. Absolutely.
So the way I got kind of into EVwas, you know, lithium ion
battery started being a buzzwordand hazmat and I started kind of
diving down that. And this is where I again, I

(24:59):
think the majority of the audience can appreciate you.
We still need Mavericks in the fire service.
When I say Mavericks in the fireservice, it is, it's this very
delicate, awesome power. And you need to be able to trust
and give your people room for run.
And when they bounced outside ofthe lines, you're bouncing back

(25:20):
in. And sometimes that requires true
discipline. But other times if you don't
have people who are true, like who are Mavericks who are trying
to push the line all the time ortake that next step, next step,
you're just, oh, well, that's how we've always done it, right?
And that's how we kill firefighters.
That's how we keep making these same mistakes.
It is the balance of tradition with moving forward and adapting

(25:44):
to them. New, right?
We don't wear three quarter boots anymore.
We wear SCB as on everything. It's it's different realm, it's
a different world. And it's you know, and I'll take
a straight side thing like you and I growing up, we didn't wash
our gear. And looking back now, I got 3
girls. I got to pay for three weddings.

(26:05):
Like I pray a lot of everyday and I look back at the stuff we
did and I'm like, I can't go back.
I can't go back and change that.But I'm like, I thought, man, if
I make it to 40, I'm playing with house money now.
I'm like, F this dude. I'm going to make it another 40
plus. And I just look at like what I
did and it's like, you know, can't go back, can't change it.
It's just going to learn from itnow.
Dude, I was, I was just confirming your story.

(26:27):
I mean, I was in the same boat. It's like the shit that we did
when we first got hired and like, you know, like the old
school, but your gear got cleaned.
If you pissed somebody off and then they cleaned your shit, you
know, like to embarrass you. So it's nuts.
And you're you're right. I'm doing the same thing bro.
Like I just, I literally just got remarried and then I have my
stepdaughter now is 6. So I'm like, man, I got a, I got

(26:49):
a lot of life going on right now.
And I'm like same deal, early 40s going.
I'm just, I'm freaking. I'll borrow time at this point.
But it's like, holy cow, I wish I knew.
Obviously all of us wish we knewwhat we know now, you know?
Yeah. And it it's like you said, we
can't go back now. We just, it's our job to pass it
on to the newer members. Hey, listen, it was I do as I

(27:09):
say, not as I do. And that's even as being a
safety officer. I can't tell you any times we
were like, I've seen you do this.
And I'm like, I know that, but this is, I'm trying to stop you.
This is wisdom. Don't do that because you're
going to get hurt or something. And bad, sort of like leaking my
batteries. I start running down this route
and I'm like, OK, this is in scooters.
You know, FDNY comes out with their symposium, really good

(27:32):
information. But it's like, what can we
actually do? Because FDN YS, you know, the
powerhouse, especially the United States, if not the world,
looking in the cell block. So I brought up all this stuff.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, cool.
Hey, I got quotes. No, sorry.
You're stepping out of your lane.
And it's like, no, it's like come on, help, help me help you.

(27:53):
This is we're going to be calledon this and it's going to be a
hazmat response. And you know, does it always
need to be? No, but let's work together.
And man, I got shot down and it was like, all right, whatever.
So the next thing kind of comes up with EVs and when I first got
assigned back in special operations as an officer, my

(28:15):
crew and I started counting Tesla with every shift.
You know, the first like 6 marks, you get like one or two
because I was like, guys, we're going to study EVs.
We're going to, we're going to be so ready for when we get a
cut job because it's just going to happen and we're going to
know exactly where to cut and all this other stuff.
And then we're like, oh, all right, now we're getting like
1520. And then we, we got like four or

(28:35):
five shifts in at 9 months that we're getting like 70.
And we're like effort, we're notcounting anymore.
And now we're getting Ribbians and you know, all this other
stuff and I was like, oh man, this is we haven't gotten a cut
job yet for this. We need to be ready.
So we I just started diving downthat the crew same thing, like
we just hard dive into that inflammation and then starting

(29:01):
to travel. It was like, what about fires
and, you know, these damage to the batteries because men you're
seeing. Yeah, he's it wasn't just a
crash. It was like, OK, crash, but we
didn't cut anything. And then six hours later, this
is sitting back either in a junkyard or at their house.
It catches fire and then everything's up in flames.
So that to me is what really kind of caught my knowledge.

(29:23):
It's like, oh, this is like a two-part thing.
You know, now we need to be careful when we're cutting these
things so we don't cut, you know, high voltage lines or, you
know, these high pressure pistonsystems.
And there is no, with a like that's again, where there's no
consistency. Every manufacturer does a

(29:45):
different, you know, there's no standard and the apps that are
out there, very few are updated.So you don't even know if you're
getting the true updated information.
So for me, that became my passion project where I was
like, I'm just going to start diving into this.
And then luckily for me, I, you know, you and I go back far.

(30:07):
I try to treat everybody right. I try to I'm pretty happy go
lucky. I like I said, I piss people off
because I tend to overstep, but it's mostly chiefs above my rank
is who I usually piss off. I the the rank and file I think
usually have pretty good opinions on me because if I'm
pissing off the chief, it's probably because I'm defending
somebody. Because you're being a fucking
goddamn fireman. So yeah, he's a fucking great.

(30:31):
Yeah, and it's like you said, it's I try to do the right thing
because I've been very blessed where I've had great officers
and leaders who have shown me the right thing to do and to
defend your people and you take care of your people.
So there's this guy who's a volunteer captain for us, but
he's a retired ship commander from up in in Massachusetts or

(30:51):
New Hampshire. Thanks, Craig Blake, awesome
guy. And one day he's like, hey, I
work for Ford as an engineer. You know, like, this is how
smart this guy is. He's an engineer.
He's already retired as a shift commander from another
department. Jesus.
Now he's just volleying as a captain.
And, you know, he's OK I'm goingto put on this EV class for you
guys, and we're going to bring the whole battalion.
Roger that. Awesome.

(31:12):
Cool. Love it.
We're in. So we go to Ford.
He shows us the Ford Lightning breaking down the battery pack.
And by happenstance, he's like, Oh yeah, Later this fall I'm
going to go out to U LS campus and we're burning EVs.
And you know, God, I was like, when's that?
Yeah, hello. And he's like, oh, this.

(31:33):
And I was like, can I come? He's like, I mean, do you want
to? And I was like, yeah, it's like,
well, let me ask, I'll call him,make some calls.
So like a week later he calls. He's like, hey, man, if you're
if you want, you're in. He's like, Roger that.
But he's like, we're going to burn a Tesla Model 3A, a Kia
Kona, a Ford Mach E, and I forget the other one right now

(32:00):
off the top of my head, but he'slike, yeah, if you want to come,
they they'd love to you. And it's a whole panel thing.
And I was like, dude, awesome. So I luckily talked to my wife
and I'm like, hey, it's going tocost money.
This is an amazing opportunity. But man, that is an experience
that if you ever have an opportunity to go out to UL, not
only do we get to set EVs on fire.

(32:21):
And this is a three phase study,which actually FDIC, they're
going to be releasing like all the information because a lot of
it's still in their computers and they're being careful what
they want to share right now outand about.
But at FDFDIC, if any of your listeners are going out there,
FRSI Fire Rescue Safety Institute will be releasing all

(32:41):
this information and it is hacked stuff.
So the first one they did was just burning, just straight
burning EVs. The second phase was only using
water because they were like, what is just every Firehouse,
every fire department is going to have water, whether it's
hydrogen or tanker or whatever. But this is what we want to see.
How does it react with just water?

(33:04):
And then later the third phase, which is coming up actually just
before FPSC is other methods. Now they're testing the gear,
they sensors on the gear, so they're measuring high metals,
how well they can decon initially, how well gear
detractors. This is just pullings a pact of
information. So we weren't told that is

(33:25):
awesome. And it's just it was so cool to
be a part of that. They captured all the data of
what was off gassing in these plumes.
Then they gave us a tour of all of UL and that was super cool
because you just you have an idea of what UL does.
It's crazy and they'll play again.
They just show you and whether it's roofing material or

(33:48):
computer material or whatever, it was super cool.
So again, if anybody has a chance to go out to U LS
testing, do it. I will say I have nothing but
the utmost respect is like Tesla's team, like their people
were there nicest people I've ever met.
You know, they're working on making sure they care about the

(34:10):
emergency responders, Ford, obviously, but like these cars,
they, you know, the manufacturers are not.
They're like, listen, we're trying to get this information
out to you. We want to make our cars safer
for the consumer for you guys. It was just it was awesome.
So be nice to keep going. You'll get, you might get to go
and do some cool things. It's a world of bad story.

(34:32):
And be kind to rewind for those so you can remember that.
Oh my God, dude. It's.
Yeah, I was. I remember I saw that you went
to that on social media and I was freaking immediately jealous
because I accidentally fell intothe hazmat TV world by accident
because I was getting ready to teach an alternative fuel

(34:54):
vehicle class. And then we had a disaster of a
Tesla car fire in our region andit lately pivoted.
Hey, now, this block is now thisand hey, since you're doing
that, you might as well researchthis.
So just went on a deep dive. But dude, I saw that you went to
go down there and like I said, son of a bitch, like how we kill
to go there right now, like thatwould be so cool to go through

(35:16):
that entire experience. So it's it's so crazy what the
fire service allots us in our lives, you know, like what other
profession would would allow youthat experience?
Like I I can't think of anything, no.
And that's where I jokingly tell, you know, I, I coach high
school kids in baseball and you know, the big things like when
am I going to use this? And I'm like, I use everything I
learned in high school. And like, no, you don't.

(35:38):
I'm like, promise you, everything I learned in high
school is, is actually my job. And whether it's hazmat for
chemistry and I don't like geometry, but geometry for
collapse rescue or, you know, algebra for all that.
And vast correlation numbers and, you know, cross sensitivity
to, you know, again, gym. Obviously, I think that one

(36:00):
music might be the only one, butthat's because I like to listen
to music. So I'm like, no, I'm listening
to music and I can't carry a pitch, but it's somewhere in
there. I don't know.
It'll work. One of the other great things I
pulled out is I got to go to a few seminar while I was out in
the UL realm on EVs and I know Arizona is very familiar with
this. We surprised Arizona the best

(36:21):
system or best battery energy storage system.
Yes, Sir, which those things arepopping up all over the place
and like one in California that just burned, which again like
almost got minimized because of all the wildfires, which again
do those do your crews that are out there doing that like
immense respect like Bud and normal structural burn a house

(36:43):
2-3 down. Those guys lose communities in
bad days. They're just some I utmost
respect for everybody who does our profession, but especially
those ones where no, we don't have any water.
We're just going to, you know, Hoff it and you know, be at the
mercy of Mother Nature. Yeah, well, I mean, but like,
but once you do the cross stuff,that's where, you know, this

(37:03):
wild, wild land, wild land urbaninterface is so much coming
together. And one of the conference I was
at a Battalion Chief from Bostonwas talking about how Boston
proper was getting a brush fire into theirs and they had to run
it. And he's like, I don't know what
to do. So he called his forestry guys
and was like, yeah, I need some help.

(37:24):
But it's, you know, it's we're seeing it more and more where
it's just overcoming the wild land and now getting into the
urban section. And US says, you know, urban,
rural, structural firefighters, structural firefighters have to
be adapting to that as well. But the big thing that I love
and I knew you said it was time to life.
Anybody who says they know how to truly handle these lithium

(37:46):
ion batteries or EVs is being hubris.
And this is like one of the manufacturers, experts, truly
experts. And he's like, I'm going to tell
you right now, this is changing so fast.
And yeah, lithium ions right now, but we're moving to, you
know, it's like SST, which is solid-state, solid-state.
And he's like, so if you just feel like you can't keep up,

(38:08):
you're actually in the perfect state because you just have to
keep learning. And they're like anybody who
says they had figured out is just lying.
And you should probably stop listening to him right off the
bat. Wow.
We're going to give you a bunch of ideas.
And it was just, it was really good to hear that.
Where how often in our profession or you know, subject
matter experts don't like to saywe don't really know, right?

(38:30):
It's we don't like to say that, but it's just evolving that
we're like, well, sometimes you put it in water, but sometimes
you don't put it in water and sometimes you put it in mineral
oil. That'll work, but you don't want
to do this. And it's like, well, but if it's
on the third Tuesday and you know, the weather is this,
you're we're good. So that was that was really
good. Yeah.
So with the, I'm just curious before we kind of segue off, but

(38:54):
so currently either the department you work for or if it
was, hey, you're king for the day and you get to make whatever
rules for the fire service you can.
So if you were to come across the EV car fire right now, like
today, with what the knowledge that you currently have, what
would be your tactic which let it burn?
Would you try to cool it? Will you lift it?

(39:15):
Like what's where's your where'syour mindset at on that?
Just curiosity. No, great, great question.
So I'm going to say it's going to depend on where it's at.
If it's against something that is not with critical
infrastructure, I'm probably going to let it burn.

(39:36):
It's going to go. It's going to get done a lot
faster. The the run off.
Is this supposed to be hazmat? Is it not?
Again, I don't. It depends on who you talk to in
what day. The run off is going to have
metal in it. OK, yeah.
You know, a lot of stuff we havetoxic, you know, run off from
any, even a minimal car fire. So if it's nothing critically of

(39:57):
infrastructure value that it's affecting, let it burn.
I mean, you're going to have better traffic flow.
You're going to have to explain it to people.
But that's the big thing is like, can your CIO and those
teams really explain? Listen, we understand you think
it's weird that we just left this month.
We actually saved your traffic pattern and you didn't have to
spend 3 1/2 hours in traffic, but only 45 minutes.

(40:18):
So you could probably make it toyour kids soccer game or you
know, football game. If it's against something
critically significant, I want to knock it down.
And the big thing that we saw inthe study was you do have to get
it at like a 45° angle to get somewhere in that battery pack
and kind of hit it to make that initial knock down because it

(40:41):
almost operated like when I was again watching it.
And they this is the first time they were like, you can't take
pictures, you can't take videos,anything else like that.
It's trying to. And they said like this is
everybody's like this is very out of the ordinary, but they
wanted to keep everything together and not have different

(41:01):
releases of information which like I can appreciate, you know,
it's yeah, I was able to get some knowledge.
But like, hey, you got to be very careful with what you share
right now. So take again, I'm here to tell
you, I'm not an expert. I'm just going to tell you what
I saw as a fireman. It operated like a gas fed fire

(41:21):
where you just saw the when theywould hit it from one side, it
would push it to the other side.So if they were able to lift it,
if you had somebody protecting with a hose line, you could get
a chain underneath, lift it and it wasn't that hot burning.
And then once you got that hit, that's when the fire knockdown
happened really significantly faster than just if it was just

(41:42):
sitting on all four tires. The other big thing that I took
away was if you have a rescue, you want to have some sort of
four gas or gas meter, especially Co sitting in the
wheel well or sitting right in that passenger compartment.
So you're going to get a little bit of a burp before you have a
thermal runaway if you have somesort of fracture or damage to

(42:04):
the batteries. So that was like, OK, you have a
tick focused on it too. So if you start seeing anything
pop up and if you did have that,one of the best things was
flooding the passenger compartment with water, making
it like a pool. Now, mind you, if somebody
you're still trying to rescue, however, comma you were going to
buy that person inside that compartment more time.

(42:27):
That was something that I take away from it.
So you make it like a bathtub. That's going to prevent it from
burning up because it shouldn't have enough protection
underneath, but it's still one of the weaker points.
You can have weak points in there.
So you're going to buy time if you make it a bathtub.
So that was something interesting and like I was like,
all right, this is this is how I'm going to approach it.
Again, don't take this as gospel.

(42:47):
Take this as do your own research, look into it and see
what you know. Do what your department says is
proper thing. Follow the fucking yeah, just
follow the fucking rules. But no, it's funny.
She's the person and you can usually explain everything else.
Later. Yeah.
If you make a grab, you're not going to be that much in

(43:07):
trouble. You're.
So you're OK? No, it's hard, Yeah.
Yeah, but it's I was literally just going through this EV
conversation with a bunch of recruits today.
And it's funny because at the end of the conversation, it's
mentioned a lot of these hot topics that we're talking about
right now. But at the end of the
conversation, I said, all right,so this is merely interesting.

(43:28):
And robably, 2 years from now I'm going to sit here and tell
you that everything I taught youwas wrong and now this is what
we're going to do. And then a couple years after
that I'm going to say don't evenworry about E VS fucking
hydrogen. Fusion is really going to be a
disaster for us. Like are you guys going down
that route already too or no? So I had not gone down hydrogen
much until I went across to England and they have a lot more

(43:51):
knowledge and are doing a lot more of hydrogen stuff than we
are. So that was where I, it was not
really on my radar. It's still kind of it's on my
radar now because it's like, OK,hey, this is something that it's
not here yet. It's not necessarily here in my
jurisdiction or even jurisdictions that kind of touch
us, but it's not there and we need to be paying attention to

(44:14):
it. So like, the way I look at it
right now is I'm looking at these Amazon and all that, and
it's like, OK, And we have some natural gas, like buses, which
we've had two files like that where, you know, the natural gas
buses go up. And so for me, I think you're
absolutely right. I think hydrogen's just slowly
creeping in, and it's going to depend on who wins this tech

(44:37):
battle of batteries versus hydrogen.
Good call. That's what that.
And again, like, hey, take this with coarse grains of salt,
maybe, you know. Yeah.
Fireman. Yeah.
It's just, yeah, just the fireman's opinion.
It doesn't mean anything at all.It's just what we think right
now. It's OK.
That would, dude. So listen, first of all, what a

(44:58):
fucking hell of a career you've had so far.
And it sounds like you're doing just bigger and better things
every day. So let's go to let's transition
off the topic. We'll go into the questions for
the end of the episode. So let's do the.
Let's do the why. So I got to meet you literally
on day one because we went to the Academy together.
But I don't even think I ever asked you this question.

(45:21):
So why did Ralph Supa decide to be a fireman?
Like, what? Did the bug bite you?
Like what? What's that story?
So what's the why? If you join the American Fire
Service, great. Question for me, I have nobody
in my family in the fire serviceand I know this is going to be

(45:43):
again people are going to be like, all right, it's like I'm
done listening to this guy now Ifor some reason when I was
younger, I don't know if I had like multiple run insurance with
the ambulance crews. I mean, I had quite a few trips
or times where medics were coming to show to take care of
me whether I was hurt or you know, I did dumb stuff and
continue to do that to this day.But from the from as young as I

(46:06):
can remember, I wanted to be a paramedic and one of my best
friend's moms was a paramedic. And I just do like, that's cool.
That's it's helping people. And again, it sounds so cliche,
but the truth, I was just like, no, it seems it seems awesome.
And I think it was like 6th grade.
We did a project and was like, what do you want to be when you

(46:27):
grow up? I didn't mind being a pyramid.
So for me, the dream was like, Iwant to be a paramedic.
I want to help people, you know,Nerd loser.
And then I went to Community College, start taking class and
you're like, hey, you need to govolunteer somewhere so you get
the rides. And I went to Early Heights and
you're like, well we don't want you riding the ambulance 6 times

(46:50):
and leaving. Would you be interested in
taking firefighter one? I was like, yeah whatever.
And I'll never forget it. Got in that burn building.
I was like, paramedic, this is the greatest thing ever.
Like in my game, this is I am sodumb.
I have now seen the light literally and figuratively.
And I was just like, this is what I want to do.

(47:14):
So that is kind of like what it was, you know, just so happened
that like I said, they they toldme, hey, we don't want to ride
the ambulance 6 times and leave and would you take firefighter
1? And I was like, sure, whatever
guy in that burn building. I was like, Oh yeah, this is, I
mean, this is it. Yeah.
I mean, and the crazy, the craziest part about this is if
you ask any of my family growingup, I was a hypochondriac.

(47:38):
I didn't like roller coasters. I didn't like.
I mean, I was just like I was, you know, I hurt myself running
around in stupid stuff, you know, concussions and
everything, like playing football inside a gym.
Cracked my head and gave myself,you know, split my head open.
Got a concoction from that explains a lot about me.

(47:58):
Doesn't. It.
So my family was like, wait, wait, you don't like roller
coasters? I would get scared of
thunderstorms. Like growing up, they're like,
you're going to be a firefighter, OK, whatever.
And now they see like going intotechnical wrestling in the
hazmat where, you know, you saidit like I wouldn't, you know,

(48:20):
mess with. We went to a level 2 bio
facility and we're messing with anthrax and you know, plague and
everything. What who is this?
Like my parents to this day that's like the big joke is like
scared of thunderstorms now messing with the plague.
We're climbing to the top of theChesapeake Bay Bridge, hung the
outstanding like hanging off a rope system of that.

(48:40):
And it's like, Yep, definitely didn't see this one coming.
So for me, I think I also, I took my fear and I was like, I'm
scared of this. I need to overcome this fear and
I want to take this courage. And again, like, this is where I
try to preach to everybody. If I can do it, I promise you,
you can do it. Because I was scared of

(49:01):
thunderstorms, of fireworks, like terrified.
And this again, like one of the things that I think goes back to
why I want to do a paramedic is in second grade, I had a really
good friend have a stroke, whichagain, like, yes, that's like
one of my classmates. And then in 7th grade, we had a
kid have a massive brain aneurysm at school, landed the

(49:24):
helicopter, everything like so there, you know, there's some
trauma to it, but I, I just remember being like, that's what
I want to do. So and it inspired a lot of
their nation. They inspired it caused a lot of
hearing on me and me. But for me, the way I was like,
I need to just go straight at these fears because I don't want
to live this way anymore. And that's, that's really where

(49:47):
I think it the drive for me, whether it was just I wanted to
help people, but then it was like, I need to push past this
so I can be better. Dude, that's that's freaking
awesome. I didn't know any of that about
you either. Which is, yeah.
I'm. Like I'm thinking I'm I.
Mean, I'm sure in Wow. Yeah, like man, that way to

(50:08):
heaven never in, you know, my wildest dreams would have
thought that was your back story.
So that's that's fucking super cool.
All right, so that's that's the why.
So now you're on the job. So what is your favorite fire
department tradition? But more importantly, why is it
your favorite? We'll see man.

(50:29):
My favorite tradition, I would have to say truly like the
brotherhood and sisterhood and Iknow it ebb and flows and it
breaks my heart. So you know, we just lost a guy
from Montgomery County for Sagan's master firefighter in
Montgomery County. So he and I actually volunteered
together. I I say this with I was given

(50:50):
the greatest honor of my life where I was able to speak at his
service. And the only reason I was chosen
was because the other guys who were mentors to me and Chris was
a mentor to me with a bunch of sissies and they were too scared
to get up there. Like they're like, listen to
you're going to be the one you go and teach all these things.
We need you to just do this because.

(51:11):
And I was like, I don't belong up there.
And they're like, we need you todo this.
Showing back. Yeah, right.
And again, like, truly one of the greatest honors I've ever
had. And you know, Chris, the
brotherhood that was shown through that.
And again, like going back over the memories we've had, which
again, most of them I couldn't share because one going to have

(51:32):
to statue of limitations for some of the stuff was expired.
And like Chris is obviously off the hook, you know, but the rest
of us are like what's going to be fired jail time?
I don't know, but I am like whenyou are part of and when I say
said in my in my circus and was there was something called The

(51:52):
Dirty dozen and it was it was 12individuals, both career and
volunteer, kind of a mix up. But it's a changing and ever
evolving like the members change, but the mission and the
fraternity never did. And when you're a part of
something special like that, which I got to be Mandy, you
just that's a drug you could chase.

(52:12):
And it was the true brotherhood,sisterhood.
And those years were so formidable of my life where, you
know, getting cleared on the Rescue Squad there my first day
one week one there, I walk in. I was like, Oh, we have two fire
engines and the guy looked at meand he was like, Mel bro, we got
a fire engine and a Rescue Squadand I'm like, all right, I don't
know what that means. And you know, so like you, you

(52:33):
start with this day one week, 1 moments, then you're getting
cleared on peace of apparatus. And they say it was Chris and a
bunch of the other guys sitting around.
They got the inventory list and I'm a little, you know, eager
Beaver and all right, Ralph, go find me the hammer do and I'm
like, yes, yes, Sir, And I'm running around the Rescue Squad
and I'm like, where though, where is this?

(52:54):
I'm like, I can't even remember talking about God.
I can't come back to them. And like after a few minutes, I
walk back like head sulking. I'm just embarrassed.
And I'm like, I can't find it. And I'll never forget.
Chris is like, you can't find this piece of equipment on this
Rescue Squad. You don't belong on here.
I'm disappointed. And they're like, come on.

(53:15):
And then Chris goes, do you knowwhat this piece of equipment
does? You know what the hammer do?
And they just start busting out laughing.
They're like, I don't know what's a hammer do?
And listen again, where you've known me long enough, I still
wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to pick up.
And I was like, I don't know what's a hammer do?
And they're like, and then they're like, they kept fooling
me. They were laughing each other.

(53:36):
They stopped laughing. They're like, seriously, what's
that hammer doing? I'm like, and you know, again,
we laughed. That was 20 years ago.
And it's it's those moments, it's, you know, those kind of
things where truly that brotherhood and sisterhood and
being a part of something special.
You know, I still chase it. I want my cruise to be like
that. And I think we, you and I both

(53:58):
your C shift, my B shift, but you get to be a part of
something special crew like thatand you just you chase it.
You want to recreate it, and that's what my favorite
tradition it's, you know, it's sure the biggest eternity in the
world. And you know, it's sad that it
shows most when we lose one of our brothers or sisters.
Yeah, unfortunately and this freaking well, again, sorry for

(54:23):
your, your your guys's loss. That was absolutely horrible
and. No, it's thank you.
It's the biggest thing. And this is where those of us
who have lost, you know, people,his, his wife Lisa is just an
amazing woman. She's been super strong.
But yeah, they have a 7 year oldand a 5 year old and those kids

(54:45):
like, you know, I said, I said, you know, we know mom's going to
share it with your aunts, your aunts and uncles of the fire
service somewhere. And like that's the biggest
thing is like, it's not a burden, but it's the
responsibility that we have. This goes back to that
brotherhood thing where and the sisterhood now it's our
responsibility that and we make good on what we've said we were

(55:06):
going to do. And you know, your heart just
breaks for the family, but you're like, we just need to,
this is where we need to shine. And it's not just a it's a
straight up marathon because it's forever.
It is man, it is so I mean, you guys, it sounds like you you
have the family taken care of. So again, that's it's a horrible

(55:28):
situation. Good little shout out to the the
squirrely heights. I like that.
So we'll get on to the the next question.
So this is if you could, if you could tell one thing, just one
thing to someone with five yearsor less on the job.
And we kind of picked that because that's the majority of
the American fire service right now.
What would that piece of advice be?

(55:50):
But more importantly, why? So this one is a tough one.
And I say that because there's, there's so many things that it's
like, no, learn from my mistakesor hey, this is something that I
really wish. And like, it's sometimes it's
like those financial things likedidn't do deferred comp for like
what we talked about earlier. It's like, man, you don't need

(56:12):
to be a leatherneck and not wearyour mask.
You have nothing to prove like, and you're actually stronger and
better if you don't do that. So I really, I showed you this
one because I'm going to say this is going to be, I know you
guys said for one and this right, push my batteries.
I'm going to say I'm going to say two things.
I'm going to say it's going to depend on it.

(56:34):
The first and most important thing is I would say wear your
mask, especially on car fires, whether it's lithium or you
know, you wear your mask all thetime.
Air is free. We say it all the time and get
your year clean because you don't, especially young people
when you don't have a family, when you don't have a wife, you

(56:55):
do think you're invincible and you think it's not going to
happen to me. And then again, you get to our
age, our time in the service, and we're watching guys in their
40s get cancer. Got, you know, and they have
young families. And it's like you want to talk
about your fears being realized and you are no longer in
control. And the things that you've done,

(57:16):
whether it's eating poorly and you know it's, it would be like
clean your gear and take care ofyour body because and get your
stands done. Yes, it's not fun to find out
you have cancer or you have something precancerous or some
blood work that's easy. But if you catch it early

(57:37):
enough, you can make a difference on that.
So it would be the biggest thingis don't think you're
invincible. Do these things and it's not to
scare you. And it's easy to say that
because again, I just told you and I told man, I lived in fear
for a long time. It's not a healthy way to live.
But this is taking it and using it to your, you know, face what

(57:59):
you fear. I don't like going and getting
sands done when they do the ultrasound and they sit in the
area too long. I'm like, definitely cancer
right there. It's definitely he's been there
too long. That's that's not normal.
I fear those things, but I stilldo them.
And my wife makes fun of me. She's APA.
Like, do this to yourself. It's stupid.

(58:20):
I'm like, yeah. And I do stupid things all the
time. So I would say that the other
big one is if you were unmarriedand don't have kids or married
and don't have kids, go in thosefirst five years, knock out as
many classes as you can and justfigure out what you want.
Because for me, I was able to dothat.

(58:42):
I had no strings attached. And that for me set such a good
foundation that I think that helped me go to where and like
obviously it was great mentorship, great people being
around me. But the fact that I was able to
knock out these classes and someof these classes are gone now.
Like that the one class that wasin Dugway, Utah has been

(59:04):
disbanded. And that was the one where I got
hands on with Plague and you know, Anthrax and the X stuff.
And like, you can still go to the CDP, which I highly
recommend you do. Well, that that class has gone
now. And when I show that, when I
show that certificate of that class that I took, dude, that
thing is a gold thicket right now.

(59:24):
That is like Charlie and the chocolate factor gold thicket
basically like, holy smokes, youwent to this VOD training, you
went to this. Roger that.
And they're like, OK, I I mean, that has opened so many doors.
So if you have the opportunity where you are again, young or
even just you're not tied down or your kids are a little bit
knock out these classes, figure out what you love to do because

(59:45):
you might take a class with a poof gone.
And then when you have that class and people see it like,
oh, shoot, all right, cool. Like that is, I'm telling you
right now, that would be something I would say just one
down and figure out what you like to do because it's it'll
help you keep that passion throughout your career, which is
a lot harder sometimes than we make make note of.

(01:00:08):
Dude, I fucking love that answerlike that's the best thing I've
ever heard Like I even think someone would say that like just
bro, I love that. Like just take the classes, like
get it done now. That way you can enjoy your
family. And you know, when you that's,
and that's obviously anyone that's listening and they're a

(01:00:28):
fireman. We know we're typically outside
of Ralph, we're typically on oursecond, third or fourth marriage
at this point in our career. So it's, it's insane.
So I love, I love the advice he gives.
So all right, so last question, brother, this is my favorite 1.
So if you could snap your fingers, right, no sweat equity
at all. Instant gratifications.
There is one thing you could change in the fire service.

(01:00:50):
What would it be and why it? Would probably be the
promotional process for most apartments.
OK. So expand upon that for the
listeners. And this is where I'm going to,
I'm going to, this is my I'm going to laugh when I say this
and you're out this Eagle. I just finished first.
So not for our captain's process, right.

(01:01:11):
And when I did the lieutenant's process, I finished third.
And they asked me then, hey, is there anything you would change
it now? Same question.
What would you change? And I was like, I would change
the promotional process. And like, didn't you just
finished third out of you know, I'm like, yeah, it's, it's
stupid. We've definitely gotten better.
We've definitely gotten better at for our jurisdiction.

(01:01:34):
But the fact that we preach health and safety, right?
What kills the most firefighters?
Exertion on the fire ground. Cardiac.
So cardiac, cardiac arrest and cancer, right?
Why? Why is nothing to do with our
promotional process have to do with physical health and be like
doing the job? That blows my mind.

(01:01:55):
I think that's insane. I think you should have very
similar to the military. You have to have some sort of
standard for fitness because youand I both know these people.
You don't want to see a leader who's fat and overweight.
That's not a leader. You're not looking at them as a
leader. And they might be a great
fireman. I'm not saying that, not saying
that at all. But who are you more likely to

(01:02:16):
follow? Somebody who's in really good
shape or in decent shape? Because you know, they, if
they're going to take care of their body, they're probably
taking care of their mind as well.
So that to me is just one of those big things that I think is
completely inaccurate. I think there needs to be a
better balance of your educationand your experience.

(01:02:38):
I think there's no substitute for experience.
There's people that pH DS who are chief officers.
And I'm not trying to throw shame at them.
We all know that. You know, for those who know
Mike Madison, who he's a captivefor us, he was a chief of Kent
Land. And you can say he looks at the
building and sees a million things that even the 20 years I

(01:02:59):
don't see. He sees way more than these
chiefs who have pH DS because they've read it in a book or
whatnot. And it's like there needs to be
a better balance in balancing experience with education
because that's what scares me, right?
You have chiefs who and she's not a shade.
This is just, yes, in my opinion, be curious, not

(01:03:21):
judgmental. People who promote super fast,
you don't get those time and grades to get that experience.
And when you don't have that, it's almost a false sense of
bravado because you're like, what I took this class.
I'm obviously no. And I was like that coming up.
And it was actually, again, I had a really good officer that
was like, you're still the little brother on the shift.

(01:03:42):
I know you've taken all these classes, but you don't have the
experience to match up with it. And it's humbling to hear that.
And I didn't want to hear it, and I didn't hear it for years.
And now where I'm at, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I get it.
And even when I first got promoted to Lieutenant and
wanted to come back to Special operations, it was, you know,
Chief Supco and Captain Madison who were like, you're not ready.

(01:04:03):
You need to spend time and Gen. Pop and get some reps to learn
how to be an actual officer before you just come back here.
And again, these are these humble things that you don't
like to hear, but they're the truth.
And if I could change one thing,it would be the promotional
process and having a better balance of physical, some sort
of physical test to it with balancing experience with

(01:04:26):
education. So that's that's one that I just
because I think it makes better leaders that way too.
Dude, I I can't agree with you more because you have both sides
of the argument. You got the guys there like,
hey, because I have a fucking masters, I get X amount of extra
points for the chiefs test or whatever the case might be.

(01:04:47):
Boom boom, boom, boom, right. And then you got the guy on the
complete opposite side that saysthis should be seniority based
only and because I've been here for fucking 35 years, even
though I'm a fucking load, I should be promoted to this
position, right? So it's like both extremes.
So it's like it should be a no brainer and and every
department, I believe probably struggles with this trying to

(01:05:09):
find that fucking balance. But brother, yeah, preach.
It's like he has to be the knowledge and the experience
together mixing. And then how do they physically,
you said how can they physicallyexecute it?
Do those, I don't know, like a tactical, practical kind of, you
know, scenarios as part of the process.
I mean, who knows? So whatever, whatever they would

(01:05:29):
decide. But something you're right to to
prove that what you could do thejob is that kind of where you're
at. Yeah, it's it's to do that
because again, and I'd like major Dick winners band of
brothers. He used to run 3 miles every day
because he was like, if I'm physically fit, I'm going to
have better stress inoculation and better response to stress in

(01:05:52):
general. And it's the truth.
Like it when we're working out, we are better mentally.
So we're going to usually make better decisions when we have
that, you know, that outlet and everything else.
So it just, that's where, like for me, it really rings true.
It's like, well, this guy's considered one of the greatest
military leaders ever and he's like Nate, I ran through.
Now again, I don't run 3 miles. I probably should.

(01:06:14):
I was thinking like, actually, I'm going to do it.
I still don't do it. I'm going.
To dumbest thing I've ever heard.
No one's, no one's fucking chasing for three miles.
Stupid. So dumb.
Just lift heavy weights, fuck. Slam them down.
So yeah, it's and you're actually right.
Like for those again, like this name, Andy Lee Nail.
He's the GOAT manhead. Andy just talked to him the

(01:06:37):
other day. He is he is amazing, incredible
and his his saying is you eitherhave you either one now I'm
going to mess up this gosh darn it.
You either have 20 years of experience or you have 20 years
of one experience. And you're going to have to call
him like, hey, I need you to rewrite this for super because I

(01:06:58):
couldn't remember it, but it's just like, yeah, like you said,
like, yeah, well, I got 20 yearsexperience, but you're in the
same call. You're in the same thing every
single time. So you really, you're 20 years
of one experience versus 20 years of experience and going
out. And that's exactly right where
you don't want some load becausewe just talked about earlier,

(01:07:18):
you do need to go out and learn different tactics or the
evolving of what's going on. It's super important.
That's where I don't think that that should be discredited by
any means, but it has to be a balance, a better balance.
Because for us, we did the assessment center and I'm here
to tell you, I realized you're an actor.

(01:07:40):
All I had to do was act like we want a guy.
I don't know if you remember Andy Mcgillan, he's an amazing,
you know, again, he's a fireman's fireman.
He, he's got way more experience, like if something
were to go bad and he's one of those top people that I know
would come get me and Get Me Out.
And he was like, Oh, this is a bread and butter fire.
And I was like, Andy, I told thesecond alarm, I think I like pop

(01:08:03):
green smoke. Like I, I was like, I called
for, but he's like, why? And I was like, that's what they
want you to do. And he's like, no, that's
stupid. I was like, Andy, I, I know it's
stupid, but you're an actor. They said I should get cried on
the radio at one point and just and you know, you're like, I

(01:08:23):
came out with like one of the highest scores and he's like,
yeah, I guess I should do that. I was like, I was like, but
Andy, I mean, like tactically Andy is so much further than me.
That's like, and that's where we're again, like I get a kick
at him because they're going to like, how do you think this
could do better? Didn't you just finish?
What do you, what do you mean this?
Yeah, no, this. I played your game and I won.

(01:08:44):
But you know. Yeah, but I don't like your
game. It it should be a different
game. Yeah, yeah, it should be a
different dude. That that was the best thing
ever. Well, dude, so that's it, man.
So first of all, thank you againfor your time is before we close
out here, is there anything you want to leave the audience right
now? It's just a bunch of fucking

(01:09:05):
firemen, right? So any words of advice or career
tips or tricks or anything like that before we sign off?
I will say the biggest thing forme is, you know, for those
who've watched Ted Lasso and youknow what, women be curious, not
judgmental. It's, it's, it's a saying, but
it's, and the more the older I get thinking people have done

(01:09:27):
any wrong in my ego taking over.It's, it's really just kind of
enlightening where people are usually they're not as bad as
you think they are, whether it'sour patients or fellow
firefighters or officers. I just, I just messed up at
work. You know, Steve knows about
this. I'm getting disciplined.
And it's, you know, I went 19 years with no discipline and now

(01:09:50):
I, well, year 19 has been rough to say the least.
And again, my own doing and you know, I, I'm getting suspended,
which again, like I write, writeintentions, but it doesn't
matter. It's the wrong tactic, but just
own your mistakes. And the other thing is when I

(01:10:12):
went through paramedic school, we did a mental health day and
like SYSM and I was like, this is the stupidest thing.
If you can't handle it, go do something else.
I was 2425, you know, thought I knew everything again.
And man, take care of each other.
It is if you're struggling, everyone is.
My biggest thing is like when I became a new dad, if I wanted

(01:10:35):
kids, you can ask my wife the toughest 345 months, she's
probably going to say like 7 in the background.
As I say this, I did not bond with my first daughter and I
didn't understand shaking baby syndrome until having kids.
And I'm not giving a pass to anybody.
But like, these are things that you don't realize.
And because we don't talk about them and if you ever need to

(01:10:56):
talk, like I'll give Steve my, you know, Steve has my contact
info. I'm not going to tell you I can
solve your problems, but I tell everybody who's becoming a new
parent, listen, you're not alone.
You are going to see things and these children will ring your
bell with their screams that you've never heard lung in your
brain before and it's OK. But nobody talks about it.

(01:11:16):
And, you know, we talked about the really tough stuff that we
see constantly and there's definitely been a bigger push.
And I think that's awesome. But it's somebody again, like
this is where learn from me, where I used to think that that
was just a bunch of garbage and you couldn't have it.
I'm going to tell you now, it's humbling and it's, you know,
it's, you got to talk about it. This is where the brotherhood
and sisterhood is super crucial.But there's stuff where you a

(01:11:39):
lot of us need professional help.
And my wife, God bless her, one day she realized when I was in a
bad spot. Hey, you're not saying you need
to go talk to somebody. And I went on medication and I,
you know, I, I want to say, I hate to admit that, but it's,
it's, it's a stigma, but it's like she sometimes need help and
we always think we can handle everything we can't.

(01:11:59):
And it's checking that ego. So just making sure you take
care of each other with your mental health when there's tough
calls and everybody has different calls that affect them
differently. One of our guys hates to see old
people die. And we're like, once you're old,
what's wrong with you? The theatrics don't bother.
You're like what? Is wrong with that guy?
Jesus, this is great. It's Mike.

(01:12:21):
It's, it's honestly, is it any of those?
Mike Mayo? Come on, Mayor.
It may Well that makes sense because Mayor fuck fuck yeah.
Jesus. But, you know, like everybody
gets affected by calls differently and that's like
that's what I would say is talk.And if you don't want to talk to
somebody, you know, I'm sure you, you know, again, reach out

(01:12:45):
to somebody on some of these podcasts, like the, the people
I've seen on it, the people I know and the people I don't
know. You just got great people that
are willing to help. And again, it's not that we
think you can solve your problem, but we can hopefully
get you in the right direction because the world is a better
place with you here. And you don't ever we, we miss

(01:13:06):
everybody when they're gone. And I just don't want somebody
to suffer in silence because I have done that for a while and
it is brutal. And I'm grateful for my wife and
really good friends to recognizethat and have tough talks with
me. So that's kind of my last little
sphere. Well, hell yeah.
First of all, thank you for sharing that.

(01:13:28):
Especially at the end. That mean that that takes a lot.
And it's it's the fucking truth.Like if if you haven't figured
it out by now, you definitely know at at the end of this
podcast, Ralph's a fucking just a great God damn dude and a
fucking hell of a fireman. So thank you brother, for
sitting down and yapping with ustoday, spreading some love and

(01:13:48):
knowledge out to the community. And that's that's the entire
reason why we exist. So again, thank you, brother.
Hope everyone has a great evening and we'll catch you
again in two more weeks. Have a good one.
All right, So real quick. Thanks, Steve.
Love you, brother. I love what you're doing.
This is amazing. And somebody who just gets after

(01:14:09):
it all the time, immense respect, love for you buddy.
And I love what you're doing. And again, I'm truly grateful.
My wife always says you don't use the word because I like
saying humbled. I get to be a part of this.
But it's truly, like I said, dude, you're doing amazing
things and you love seeing good people do be successful and
watching you do this is is awesome and I love doing it.

(01:14:31):
So thank. You, Oh no, thank you again and
thank you very much for the kindwords.
But again, thank you again for the inspiration for anybody
listening and then inspiration to me and then just a service to
the fucking job, brother. So again, thank you all for
listening and we'll catch you again shortly.

(01:14:51):
Thanks for tuning in. If we in the fire service would
set our egos aside, stop hating on each other, and focus on the
important things like our crews,our department, firemen, health
and fitness, and the people we are sworn to protect, imagine
what this job would be like. See you in two more weeks.