FOOLs, Brotherhood, Love, and The Can Report with Michael Goldstein

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Today we sit down with Michael Goldstein.
He is a proud member of the American Fire Service and the
New England Fools. Mike is a super passionate guy.
Mike runs the Can Report podcastand Instagram page, which was
born out of his negative experience with his first
apartment. Please sit back, relax and enjoy
the firemanship. This podcast is for firemen

(00:21):
burning the ships of complacency, laziness and
excuses. We are promoting love and
passion for the job. The information, opinions,
values, recommendations and ideas are of the host and
individuals on this podcast and are not affiliated or endorsed
by the Fire department, organization or the company's

(00:44):
the individuals work for. This podcast is for general
information only, endorsed by the Copper State Fools.
I have the privilege to sit downwith Mike Goldstein.
Mike is married to his beautifulwife.
Chris said. Together they have 15 year old
girl twins. Mike Goldstein has been involved
as a first responder for the last 20 years.
Starring career as a dispatcher and then transitioning into the

(01:06):
American Fire Service, Mike has been a firefighter for 12 years
now. Six of those years was as a on
call fireman and now six years as a career fireman.
Currently a firefighter EMTB forthe town of Derry, NH, Mike is
also part time staff and state instructor for the New Hampshire
Fire Academy. Mike currently volunteers as a

(01:26):
chief of the New Hampshire Emergency Service Explorer
Training Academy, a nonprofit that provides a week long fire
training for use from the ages of 14 to 18.
Mike spends much of his time traveling to various fire
conferences. Fireman Goldstein runs a small
humble podcast as these are his words the can report.
It's amazing. Check It Out, which is based out

(01:48):
of Milford, New Hampshire, focuses on men and women who are
first responders in New Hampshire.
He also has a very successful the grand page the can report it
was born out of the love to bring something positive out of
his negative experience that he's encountered when he was
coming up through the previous fire departments.
Well, that's a lot. Mike, first of all, thank you

(02:09):
for your time. And we're sitting down, right?
We're just yapping about, hey, it's 80° where I'm at and you
just shovel 10 inches of snow. So thank you for your time.
Welcome. And did I miss anything in that
bio, my brother? You nailed it, man.
Defense. I didn't shovel 10 inches out
that Superman stuff right there.I have, I have.
I have a snow blower. So that made it pretty easy.

(02:29):
It was, it was good. You you nailed it, man.
It's just you. You didn't leave anything out.
That's perfect. Hi, Mike.
So good deal. So let's just start off some
let's talk about the let's startwhere kind of how we got
connected first before we kind of go in your history and how
you got involved in the Americanfire service.
So you're on a very successful Instagram page and then you also
have a podcast called the Can Report.

(02:50):
So I started listening to your episodes and you're talking
about the New England fools. And obviously the reason why
this podcast exists is to spreadthe word of the fools
firemanship and then to promote Copper State Fools, which is
fools organization out here in the state of Arizona.
So before we get into kind of how you got involved in the fire

(03:11):
service, let's talk about the New England fools, why you got
involved, what you guys are about.
Let's just quick, quick little deep dive if you don't mind.
Brother sure, absolutely. For me, the joining the feather
England fools, it was kind of like second nature, right?
Like you're in the fire service.You're he joined the fire
service for the brotherhood and the sisterhood and to learn from

(03:32):
others and the New England foolswas just kind of that natural
second step of being in the fireservice.
Rusty Ricker, who runs the fool's chapter here in New
England, He does amazing work. He promotes exactly what I
promote his, you know, ever learning loan the craft, the
brotherhood and the commodity ofthe fire service.

(03:53):
I saw what they were doing when I was just starting the fire
service. I knew who they were and I as
soon as I got an opportunity, I was going to join and to be able
to help support them, to supportthe trainings that they that
that they do. Obviously without the dues
membership that people pay into,they wouldn't have these
training events, they wouldn't have these lectures and

(04:14):
presenters and everything that we'd love to go to.
I just had to become a member tomeet all the the cadre of
instructors and to go to their training events.
They put on some really good informal training events where
you don't have to sit in a classroom and feel like you have
to worry about getting points you getting graded on.
It's just dudes and sisters justsitting down wanting to have
fun, learning more about the craft and getting to also

(04:38):
network and the networking is really an important part of
being a part of the fools, right?
As you got the New England Fools, you got Copper State
Fools, you've got 575 folds. I mean, they're all over the
place, right? And the international is very
good at making sure to bring us all together.
And it's a small price to pay. The dudes is not expensive and
it's, it's an important part of being a firefighter, honestly,

(05:01):
in my mind is to be part of a full chapter in your area
because it, it provides so much and sometimes not even training
either. They do a lot for, for to help
other members out. If someone has cancer or
somebody lost their job or some kind of other issues going on,
you reach out to your full chapter.
They're going to help you out and the brotherhood comes into
play and they're going to do what they can for, for a member.

(05:23):
And so it pays 2 folds really toto be a member and and to help
pay your dues to, to help other members out.
You know, whether it's through, you know, sticker sales AT
shirts, whatever they can do to help raise funds for anybody in
need. So Rusty Ricker, he's he's he's
the man in this area. He's done so much, but he's
extremely humble. Not many people don't even know

(05:43):
what he looks like. If you're not familiar with
Newton with polls, because he doesn't put his face in front of
the camera. He doesn't really have social
media. And we're going to fools is his
social media, but you don't see him and you see all the other
members and that's that's a class accurate there.
That's dude, I love it and just completely off the subject of
the fools real quick. What a freaking kick ass name
for a fireman rusty Raider. Like like I don't know, I don't

(06:07):
know what the guy looks like, but in my head he's 7 foot tall
fireman mustache have ever seen saltiest fireman ever with that
kind of name. So I love it.
But dude, I exactly, we feel thesame way and it's it's funny
because we are as far apart fromeach other as you can get with
in the United States pretty much.
But we have the same mentality because we're both fools
members. That's that's a love and the

(06:28):
passion for the job. And we talk about just with us
too, Like we never we do quarterly meetings.
I'm not sure what you guys do for meeting wise, but for for
the copper state fools, we do quarterly meetings.
They're free for anybody to cometo.
You never have to be a member. I love what you just said that
hey, if you do appreciate what the fools are doing and you want

(06:49):
to support them, become a member.
We never require anybody to be amember.
But you hit the nail on the head.
If you want the additional trainings, if you want us to be
able to put on these classes, weneed the membership to be able
to be there, to have the funds to be able to support strictly
just these classes. So, you know, none of these,
none of these groups are making money.
These groups are just out here to train firemen and to make

(07:12):
them and better. And what I love about you guys
is please explain to the listeners, especially the ones
that not are not on the northeast coast.
So you said New England, fools. And I was born in, well, I spent
some time in Connecticut, but soI understand what New England
is. So explain the guys what you
encompass state wise because you're in New Hampshire.

(07:32):
Yeah, it's, it's, I know every state and everywhere is
different. There's a lot of smaller
chapters out there. But for New England it's
all-encompassing, right? So it's New Hampshire, it's
Maine, it's Connecticut, it's Rhode Island, it's
Massachusetts. So it's it's taking care of that
whole area. We don't have a New Hampshire,
fools. There isn't a Rhode Island

(07:53):
fools. It's it's just one big area that
it all encompassed into the New England area.
New England's fine too, because like we sometimes forget the
other states. Like when you think of New
England, you think of Maine and New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
but it's unfortunate some peoplewill leave out Rhode Island.
So, but it's, that's a big area that we cover, man.
And, and, and it's, it's a big job to do.
But so that's why I like quarterly meetings and things

(08:15):
like that. Like I haven't really been to
any meetings just because it's such a big area and it's usually
meetings are kind of, if they'regoing to have any, they're
farther away from I where I am because Rusty's, Rusty's based
in Massachusetts. I think he might be like an hour
or so away from me. So it's kind of difficult for me
to make some of that stuff. But honestly, I just as touch on
it is like, like you said, you're, you're hundreds of miles

(08:37):
away from me. I was just down in Georgia for
bearers of the oath and we had awhole bunch of fools members
there, you know, from Florida and Georgia and Texas.
And so we had a big group picture of all people who were
involved in Fools. So we had a Fools member
photograph but hindsight we should have done all the helmets
together too. But we.
We had a nice. Group photo of all the fools

(08:59):
chapters and all the fools chapters gathered together is
what someone said. And then the next question was
awesome. Someone said, someone said, ask
yourself, why aren't you a member?
Because they're like, why aren'tyou in this photo?
And someone so bigger questions,why aren't you a fools member?
Right. So like, because honestly,
there's a lot of people who don't know about fools and the,
the, the younger kids who were there at this conference, I

(09:22):
don't think they really knew anything about it.
Now boom, they do. So they're going to go back home
and hopefully sign up and becomea full member so they can get
discounts because right, becausebeing a full's member too is not
just paying dues, just help pay for classes.
But with that membership, you now get discounted rates to go
to these classes. The classes are usually open for
everybody, right? But when you become a full's

(09:43):
member, you get discounted ratesor you get preferential
treatment. So you can, if you, you can sign
up first for the class, you don't have to worry about
selling out and you get a discounted rate of going these
classes. So it comes with benefits and
it's they do a great job with promoting that.
And it's, it's cool too, becausethe international even sends
you, you know, you get your fools card and then you also get
an option to sign up completely free that's involved in your

(10:04):
membership dues, additional lifeinsurance provided by the fools.
You know, it's, it's not a ton of money, but man, you're still
talking of thousands of dollars though.
And that's again, a benefit of just being a member of the
fools, which is what you need todo anyway if you really want to
be that next level fireman, because it opens you up to this
network like we're talking aboutof all these different fools

(10:26):
members, different experiences, different departments, different
instructors. And I mean, I've I've talked
about this. So I've been blue in the face to
multiple people and on on a bunch of different podcast
episodes right now. You know, the the the goal of
these organizations is strictly just to train up the best
fireman periodian. That's it.
It's not a cool kid club, but itis a selective club.

(10:47):
It's that brotherhood inside that brotherhood, you know?
And it's, it's, yeah, it's just trying to silence the mutts
because they're the, the lowest percentile but the loudest of
the group. But more importantly, and we've
talked before, we're trying to grab that middle group.
That's that's not the mutt, it'snot the hard charger.
It's those guys in the middle. They're very easily influenced

(11:09):
on. They could go either way.
Like they could get sucked into that negative.
This is just a job. I freaking hate being here.
I don't want to run calls or this freaking loser again,
whatever the case might be compared to that hard charger.
That's you know, hey, let's train What Hey, what we lacking
on right now? How quick can you mask up with
your gloves on? Let's try right now.
Just whatever the scenario is. And then we run those calls and

(11:30):
we do the best thing we can do for Mr. and Misses Smith and we
leave there. We do a great job because we're
highly trained professionals with a great attitude.
And then we would leave. We're nice.
That's just that icing on the cake.
You know, So it's just it's about the job.
It's just about the brotherhood,the calling and and and doing
the right thing. All right, Michael, so listen,
thank you for kind of going a little deep dive on the fools

(11:51):
because again, that's the only reason this podcast even exists.
So let's talk about because guyslove this.
Let's talk about you. So how did you get involved in
the fire service or read the bio?
Right. You were a dispatcher, then you
did the paid on call and now you're a full time career
fireman. Let's take the listeners down
the path of your journey to the fire service.
But before you go down there, why?

(12:12):
How did it even start? Was it?
Did you get bit by the bug as some guys like to say?
I kind of fell into the the dispatching world.
So I was working a dead end job actually in the town of Derry,
which is interesting that I workthere now.
But I, I always felt that calling, you know, like I always

(12:33):
felt that need to, to help out and to to I always wanted to run
to the scene to help people out.You know, some people run away.
I always run towards it. I was kind of a shit growing up.
So I think that maybe that was the case of maybe kind of wanted
to be better than what I was when I was in my youth.
So I always felt that calling but when I was working at this

(12:53):
temp job in. Derry, you know I.
Worked in this, this, this lab and I was, my job was literally
trying to make, we had to make compounds for this
pharmaceutical startup company. So I sat in this industrial
building and we go into a clean room and we make the chemicals.
Then we got to sit in the clean room and fill these, these eye

(13:14):
droplets for hours and you're monitored with all these, these
bacteria collecting pallets. And if you make sudden moves or
you get high readings, you got to trash the whole product and
do it over again. And I would sit in these rooms
for 8 hours, 12 hours. I wouldn't leave till like 3:00
AM because the job has to get done.
It was horrendous. And we're looking through it

(13:36):
was, dude, it was, it was absolutely one of the worst jobs
I've ever had. Because you can you sit in the
cleaning room and you're wearingthese, these the, the clean
clothes and the white clothes and shit.
And you're, you're having to control every little movement.
And if you have to go to the bathroom, you have to stop
everything and do it all over again.
So you have to make sure you drain everything before you go.
And it was bad. It was just, you know, again,

(13:58):
3:00 AM and you're having to be back again at 7:00 AM to, to, to
get the job done because they have a deadline.
The company that's contracting you is wanting their product to
pass all the tests so they can sell it to the public.
So I'm like sitting on break oneday and I'm reading the reading
the water ads and I see a post for Rockingham Regional
Ambulance, which was a big ambulance service provider in

(14:20):
the state of New Hampshire. They had been serviced for a
long time and I saw they were hiring for a dispatcher.
I didn't know really know what adispatcher was, but I was
reading the requirements. I figured what the hell, give it
a shot. I think I can answer a phone and
talk on the radio. And I went in really with no
information, no knowledge at allwhat you know what they wanted,
but they hired me. And honestly it it clicked as

(14:41):
soon as I sat in the dispatcher chair.
It all just really made sense. Some people can do it and some
people can't. And so I have all the respect in
the world for a lot of people who dispatch because, you know,
you see cops and firefighters and EMS, right?
They don't like to be in the dispatch room because it scares
the shit out of them because they don't want, they don't like
that, right? They want to be in the road
helping and they don't want to sit having to hear people

(15:02):
screaming at them on the phone or on the radio.
And the multitasking is crazy. And I just slid in that chair
and it just all made sense. So Rockingham Regional Ambulance
was a private ambulance company,but we also provided 911
services to City of Nashua in Manchester and so they were
contracted with those cities to provide emergency ambulances.

(15:23):
So I worked hand in hand with the City of Manchester and City
of Nashua providing them services.
So I would talk to the dispatchers on those cities all
the time. And I had worked for Rockingham
Ambulance for roughly 8 years and unfortunately they were
forced to close their doors. And I went, continued on to be a
dispatcher for the town I live in actually at Milford Ferry

(15:43):
Communication Center. Dispatched there for about 5
years and then wound up at the city of Nashua dispatching,
which was like my dream job. Working for the city of Nashua
is usually because it's not afraid to do stuff right.
They just need people to pick things up and put them down.
So he's like, he kept pushing meto do that.
And he was really proud of me joining the city of Nashua as a
dispatcher. At that time I was, I had moved

(16:05):
to Milford and the, the department in that town has
called departments, meaning they're, they're kind of
classified as part time employees.
So every call they go on, they get paid an hourly rate.
And since my father-in-law put that bug in my ear, I really
wanted to join. I wanted to be a firefighter.
He made it sound so exciting. Plus, working in my previous job

(16:25):
at Rockingham Ambulance, I worked hand in hand with them,
knowing what the what the job entails for dispatching the
calls and whatnot, and it sounded like so much fun.
Unfortunately, you can't just join any department.
You can't just join City of Nashville.
Like Nashville, New Hampshire isdifferent, where you need all
these requirements before you can join what?
Kind of environments, would you have to, is it like your
firefighter one and two EMT or is it even more?

(16:48):
Yeah, so the way New Hampshire'srun is you need your fire one,
your fire 2, you need to get your seat pat.
But those three things you can start looking around and
applying. But if you don't have your EMT,
at least your EMT basic, they won't even look at you.
Oh, you yeah, you need to get all of that.
And now it's becoming a before when I was looking to join, it
was it was hard to get a job. Like it was very rare, you know,

(17:11):
there wasn't all these openings.And so I had joined the
department in my town and I, as soon as I joined the fire
department there, I was, I was hooked.
It was amazing. You know, we're like, I came
from the city of Nashua. So I didn't use chainsaws
because it was big city. Like I, I, I didn't, my dad and
when I grew up in city of Nashua, we didn't use power

(17:32):
holes because we didn't need them.
Like, I know it's hard to believe, like people think New
Hampshire is like just all, you know, a bunch of bunch of
rednecks or something, you know,a small town living, but we
actually have big cities. And so I don't need all that
power equipment because we livedin the city.
So I didn't need to have to worry about cutting down trees
or anything else. So when I joined the fire

(17:52):
department, first time I ever laid my hand on, on a chainsaw
was when I joined the fire department.
Wow. So they taught me good life
skills, man. They taught me how to properly
use heavy equipment or you know,how to use power tools and how
to drive big trucks and we'd it just I was addicted as soon as I
started. I couldn't I never had finished
it to be the preface tattoo growing up again, like I said,

(18:12):
it was a shit. I had never really finished
anything in my life. I was always like, I do it for
like maybe six months ago. This is too much work.
I'm done right? And then I joined the fire
department and it just felt natural, just like dispatching
when I sat in a dispatcher chair.
It felt natural when I started the fire service, it felt like
this is where I was supposed to be.
So that's what clicked for me islike this is this is what I need

(18:34):
to do. And when the fire department, my
town was looking for a full timepersonnel, I jumped at it.
So I had was working for the city of Nashua as a firearm
operator, was hired as a career member for the town I live in.
So I immediately went to become a career firefighter.
And then, man, I'd sit the ground, remember?
That now with with you guys. So as soon as you got hired for

(18:56):
that, that paid on call department that you're working
for. Did you have to go through and
excuse my ignorance? Was there a regional Academy, a
state Academy? Or is that like on the job
training for for smaller departments like that?
Yeah. So what's great about New
Hampshire is because we don't have like an account, you know,
you can't just like police Academy or the other academies

(19:17):
that are for for fire, like you get hired at fire department and
then they take you to the Academy here.
If you join a volunteer or call department, once you enroll into
those departments, they'll pay for your education in the fire
Academy. So if you want to get your fire
one, yeah, they'll send you to the Academy and they have part
time Academy classes for people who are working.

(19:38):
You can enroll in a fire level one class and it's usually two
nights a week and then like every other weekend.
So you go and and you, you go tothe Academy, do your hands on
part of it. And now they have online
modules. So everything's a lot easier now
where you don't have to take classrooms.
You can do it online. While I was going through it,
you had to go, you had to go up to the Academy or sometimes

(19:59):
departments in the area would host them.
So they would get an instructor at those fire departments and
then you go to that fire department and you would take
your classroom portions there and then go up to New Hampshire
Fire Academy to do your hands onportion.
So the state of New Hampshire has New Hampshire Fire Academy
and they have a great training grounds.
And so you go up there to use their equipment to get all those

(20:21):
practical requirements finished.And then you finish that program
and you graduate as a Fire 1, you get your FIRE Level 1
certification. And then it's broken into
another fire level 2 class. So once you finish, you can step
right into a level two class. And that's still the Academy.
Yes, OK, got you. So what they've changed now
they've been made it easier. They call it on My Time where

(20:44):
you can now do everything online.
You can literally just log into New Hampshire Fire Academy.
Now they have the option where you can log in and get your own
login information and you can literally start the Fire One
program without anything. You can just do it.
That's what talk about way easier than all of us had to go
through. But you still have to do the
hands on stuff. So that the The thing is now is

(21:05):
you could do all the online modules, get your take your
quizzes online, everything. And then once you finish that,
you reach out to a state instructor or a staff instructor
and then they'll help you get you checked off for the
practical portion. So they do make it.
Yeah, they they it helps a lot of people who are under time
constraints. The the kicker of it is that you
have to have, so to get signed off, you need to have your own

(21:28):
equipment, right? So you would need your gear and
you need ground ladders. You would need all these things
which if you're not in the fire service or you're not on your
own volunteer department, you'renot going to have that shit.
So you have to reach out to somebody who would let you use
their equipment. Yeah, that's that's that's
definitely difficult logistic wise because I mean, just, you
know, the difference out here islike you get hired with the

(21:49):
department, you go through theirprocess depending on the city
you want to work for there. It's pretty much all career
around full time career around here.
And it's it's like as soon as you get picked up, the only
prereq is your EMT. That's it.
Then the Academy cover everything.
So you'll get your fire one and two while you're in the Academy
at the very end, you'll test out, you'll get everything you

(22:11):
need for your department becausethey do regional Academy.
So it's even though there is 20 different cities, we all operate
under the same. SO PS Ish.
So with that said, we all basically grab a hydrant the
same way, pulling the tack line the same way, talk the same way.
So the idea is that the have these Academy spread out

(22:33):
throughout the state. They called regional Academy.
So as long as you're close enough there, that's where your
department will send you. Then when you graduate, you're a
full-fledged member. You do your probation and you
know, on the job training from there.
But it's always interesting to see because every, everyone does
a different, you know, and it's,I know like you were, you're
saying, Hey, it was a lot harderwhen we were trying to get up
the fire service. And, and I'm the same way

(22:54):
because I just hit this January,just hit 19 years total on the
job as a fireman. And it was, it was on average,
they, they used to say on average from the day you're
like, hey, I'm going to be a fireman.
I'm going to start getting my classes.
I'm going to do everything I need to do.
I'm going to start testing. At that point, they said it was
like six to seven years typically until you get picked

(23:14):
up because you have to learn thegames and everything else.
And I was lucky enough back Eastwhere they honored, they gave us
points for being prior military.And I am convinced because
you're telling your story. And I'm like going through a
high school, same deal. Like I was a snot nose kid.
I never finished anything. My grades were garbage.
It's until I got in the fire service and it really interest

(23:36):
me that I locked down and was like, man, this is this is cool.
This is why I want to do. And, and I was able to kind of
focus my adult ADHD brain on on this job.
And I know most of us are are geared that way.
That's why we kind of gravitate over here, but not right now.
I'm a recruit training officer at one of our regional academies
and like day one for the kids. We do like the intro Hey and the

(24:00):
RT OS do the same thing. Like how many years on the job?
Where have you been? Why'd you get in the service?
We ask them all the same thing except for Hey, why'd you choose
your city? How long have you been testing
for? And it was always, hey, I've
been testing for four or five years, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. You know the whole thing, these
last couple classes, and I'll use the class that's in the
Academy right now. These the majority are like,

(24:21):
well, I got ingrain it right now.
We just said it's February, right?
So they're like, well, I got my EMT in May, you know, and I
started testing in June and then, you know, they got picked
up in November and you're like, holy cow.
Like these guys are getting picked up in months, not years.
Like like he used to take us because I mean, there's a lot.
I mean, it was just like there was departments that would cap

(24:44):
the applicants like, hey, 1400 applicants.
So you're like waiting when theyopened at midnight, you're
putting your name in because once they hit their cap, you're
done, you know, And now it's like these kids are almost like
shopping departments. I feel like is that you kind of
feel the same in the region you're at Where?
100% And so you're absolutely right.
Like people can now shop around because it's it's kind of an

(25:06):
epidemic, right? Like it's, it's definitely
difficult to get people and not only to get them, but to keep
them. Things are different, right,
Like we have, there's social media where you can make money
off of social media you and it'sa generational thing.
It definitely is where back in the day, you know, people wanted
to get dirty. You know, you wanted to come
home smell like soot, you wantedto be sweaty and you're dirt on

(25:29):
your fingernails and great stories to tell.
And that was really it. And plus it was, it was a bit
easier. Like like I said earlier, it was
kind of if you can pick things up and put them down and lift
heavy objects and climb, not afraid of heights and be able to
climb up the ladder with no ease, with ease and no issue,
come back down and want to do itagain.
That's what they want. But now it's you know, you need

(25:50):
more credentials to get in and who wants to do that work for
sometimes shitty pig, right? So it's hard to.
Like you were saying you can make more money online if you
wanted to, you know, YouTube andI mean, whoever else knows it's,
it's crazy. Or you can work at home.
It's, I remember like 2020, likewe were all in the American fire
service during that time and nobody's doing anything except

(26:12):
for us. We're the only ones still going
to work, you know, us and the cops basically.
But it was like ever since then,it's I remember when the, the
pandemic was officially over or whatever, however you feel about
it doesn't matter, but it's whenthey were like, OK, everyone
needs to go back to work. I remember hearing people going,
they were shopping around them to stay working at home.
I'm like, what? You know, that's insane.

(26:33):
Yeah, yeah. It's, it's crazy.
And but you know, we also, we kind of shoot ourselves in the
foot too to try to make it get on the recruitment retention
part of it is that. I've said it before.
Where we we talk about the doom and gloom of the fire service,
right? We talk about cancer, we talk
about heart attacks, we talk about suicide, we talk about
PTSD, toxicity in the workplace.We.

(26:53):
We. Talk about a lot of the stuff
that's messed us up, and then wetell them all of this and then,
hey, come over here, you know, come join the fire department.
Come over here. And then, hey, we're going to
treat you like shit for about a year because you got to earn
your wings, right? And and then you're yeah, why?
Why would you undo that? And then maybe you can get an
addiction from trying to, to trying to deal with all the

(27:15):
other crap that you just saw, you know, with cardiac arrest
and one of vehicle accidents and, you know, gunshot wounds
and stabbings and fatal fires and anything else you can think
of that can keep you awake. Let's let's throw on pills and
alcohol to make sure that you can fall asleep and come to
shift. Right.
So we talked about the doom and gloom on things and we have to,
I'm not saying we shouldn't. It's important that we're not

(27:37):
hiding what, what we're seeing and what we're doing.
We've gotten better in this world.
I, I strongly believe we're doing better to combat that.
But you talk about this, who 18 year olds going to want to say,
yes, sign me up for that. I want cancer or I want to die
of a heart attack. You know, so it's, it's really
hard to recruit people. Plus, hey, you're also going to

(27:57):
need your medic as well. So you need to go back to school
for another two years and becomea medic.
And that 1802 say, well, screw that.
I can just I can, I can make money on YouTube or I can do
TikTok stuff or I can do DoorDash or I can, you know,
there's a whole bunch of other stuff that I can do.
I don't have to do half that stuff.

(28:18):
Or maybe possibly we're talking on a crappy retirement.
So it is. Always a negative and we are
running into the issue now wherewe have these very young kids
that want to do the job and you have and I don't blame them.
You have mom going, you know, hey, little Billy, I don't want
you to fucking die of cancer. I don't want you to become an

(28:39):
alcoholic. I don't want you to have PTSD.
Can you can you please pick something else?
You know, like, you know, can you please go to college and
then maybe become an engineer, whatever the case might be.
And again, I don't blame these parents because as you know we
are for both parents. We want the best for our kids.
I don't want any harm to come tomy child like any good parents.

(28:59):
So we do a whore. My personal opinion again, I
think it's the American fire service.
We do a horrible job of recruiting just because we never
had to until recently. That's where people can shop
around and go, yeah, you're not offering up for me or I don't.
I heard something about this department, which I don't even

(29:20):
know if it's true, but I'm not going to take a chance on it.
So I'm going to pass. You know, like it's it's a
different world where you compete.
People can now do that and come on and go, yeah, what are you
going to offer for me? And before I was like, what can
ioffer you? Now we have to the department's
now saying to these people, whatcan we offer you to to come over
here or to stay? And it's it's a definitely a

(29:40):
different world. And I think we're, I know that
departments are really trying really hard to, to figure out
what to do to attract and retainmembers to, to come in.
And I, I love that laterals are now a thing.
And I think that's really important because honestly, in
my input, my story, right? Like I the fact that you have

(30:03):
somebody who became disenchantedthe fire service because of
their previous department and looking for a new home, that
it's a benefit to other departments.
Like, yeah, OK, we'll, we'll take your we'll take the people
that you forced out because we know that we can make it better
for them. And that's my story, man.
Like, I left a toxic workplace that was able to go to a

(30:25):
positive workplace. So some of these departments,
they don't know how to roll the punches.
And, you know, you still have that old school mentality that
we're going to, you know, I can fire you whenever I want.
And so, yeah. All right, cool.
Then I'll just leave and go someplace that won't fire me
whenever they want. And I actually appreciate the
work that I do. So Laterals is a good thing.
You're getting better, people. Oh dude, 100%.

(30:46):
And we just started doing laterals recently, the last
couple years out here. And it's it's something that I
wish was available when I came out here because I was 11 years
on the job, moved out here and went through the Academy as a
day one probe all over again, which I was happy to do.
And I played the played the role.
But man, as a lateral coming over and hey, it will honor some

(31:06):
time or we'll, we'll keep your position or whatever the
department's willing to do. Or hey, you can do an
abbreviated Academy or maybe just a on the job kind of thing
is huge because why would we keep somebody in the department,
say they want to be a fireman, They just happen to pick the
wrong department for them. Why would we pigeonholed
somebody in in that department department if they're freaking
miserable, You know, Hey, I thisdepartment is way too busy.

(31:31):
That's not my jam. I need to I want to go to a
slower place really, you know, whatever home, my skills,
whatever the case might be or that guy that's in that slower
department go like I need to runmore calls like this is not what
I signed up for. Insert whatever their why is.
So yeah, but then we do a horrible job as soon as that guy
says, hey, I want to go to a different department where like,
hey, you piece of shit. You know, like how?

(31:55):
Yeah, it's like, well, you know what if, if that works for them,
that works for them. At that point, I'm like, hey, if
you don't want to be here, you don't want to be here by like, I
don't want to. And this might sound mean, but
it's like, I don't want to wasteany more of my time and energy
on you if you don't want to physically be here for either
the right or the wrong reason. Because if wherever I work, like
the department I work for right now, I love my department and I

(32:15):
tell guys all the time, like this job and this department
isn't for everybody. There are different departments
out there for different people. This is the department I like.
We are extremely busy. We run a ton of calls.
You know, it's very hard nosed, but at the same time we put our
members that's straight family. Like we always say that, but we
really mean it. Like when something happens,

(32:37):
that's how it is. We're small enough for about 300
guys where everyone knows everyone's name, everyone knows
everyone's family. And that's something I've really
craved because the department I came from, which I loved, by the
way, was the only complaint I had about them was the size.
It was just like, I would run inguys.
I mean, I had 10 years on the job at one point.
I'd run in the guy a gas station.
And I'm like, I see the hat, I see the ball cap, right.

(32:59):
And I'm like, I don't know this guy.
And I'm like, does he work for us?
Or is that like a brother or is that, you know, a, a kid or
whatever. And then he's like, oh, bro, no,
I got like seven years on the job.
I'm like, I've never met you, you know, like, how is that even
possible? But so we got a little insight
on your department. I love that.
So let's let's do the chicken orthe egg thing.

(33:20):
So which came first? Did the podcast come first or
did the Instagram page come first?
Or let's kind of talk about thatstory?
Sure, I guess the Instagram camefirst because honestly I was
afraid to pull the trigger on the podcast.
So I had built my platform first, so I was slowly
introducing the can report to the world.

(33:41):
So I I built the Instagram page first got my logo out there.
Nobody really knew it was I had talked to a couple of people
around my area about what I was planning to do.
And so people have been texting me going, Hey, I see the can
report out here, but are you doing anything?
Like you said, you're going to do a podcast, But I just see the
Instagram page. So I'm like, I know I'm still

(34:01):
building it. I, I don't know yet.
So it was really difficult to hit that record button.
And so I had started sharing information, doing, you know, my
spreading the knowledge, right? So I'd have my logo up there,
have my Instagram page, share other people's new informational
stuff, share my own informational and stuff as well.
And it was really where I had met up with Jeremy Dodge from

(34:23):
National Fire Radio, but he was up north in the helping out with
the Explorer Academy that I run every year.
And so with that, I, I was talking to him what I was
planning to do. And he's like, bro, you just got
to hit record. And I was like, yeah, I know.
But I'm kind of scared. He's like, no, no, no, he just,
that's the hardest thing man. Just hit record.

(34:43):
Everything will flow. And so I week later after that,
I was like, yeah, he's right. So that's when I finally, I
think it was like 2 weeks later after the Explorer Academy, I
said, screw it, I'm going to hitrecord.
So I made my first like officialannouncement that I was going
for to become A to do this podcast.
And it was actually, I think it was actually shortly after
coming out, I was at Arkansas for the 1st in fire conference

(35:05):
and I had met Carly Moore there and I had the same conversation
and he's like, dude, you just got hit record.
And so that's why I came back. I'm like, all right, I'm doing
it. I'm hitting record.
And so I just after I hit the ground running.
So they kind of both ran together, if you will, where
both were helping build each other because you really can't
have one without the other, right?
You got to, you got to get your name out there.

(35:26):
You got to get your logo out there.
You got to get your content and obviously without social media
presence, you're just not going to make it.
It's that's that's what I'm having podcasts, you know, as if
you want anyone to listen, you're going to have to use
social media to your advantage. And so that's what I started
doing it just I've been fortunate enough to meet up with
a lot of people who have been supporting me.
I met up with Peyton Owens out of De Kalb County, who he runs

(35:51):
the metro Atlanta Fools, and so he helped a lot with helping to
promote a lot of other people's pages store all this.
We're all like the one big. Group where?
Where? We call ourselves Brothers for
Brothers or Brothers Helping Brothers where we're not only
just promoting our own businesses, but promoting other
people's businesses and podcastsand clothing lines and workout

(36:13):
equipment and whatever else is out there.
But we're also doing it so we can help build a fundraising
network as well. So we share each other's
contents, we share each other's pages to help get our algorithm
going and to help spread the word of what we're doing for to
help others. And with that, we talked about
other people in need. And so we build a lot of these
fundraising platforms as well. So we all get together and talk

(36:35):
about what can we do to help fundraise for an event or
someone like for when Blake had his accident from next run, we
all teamed up and said, Hey, let's make this happen.
So we did a bunch of fundraising.
We either donate swag like bro, to be honest with you, like my
Instagram, my podcast, I don't make anything off of this right
now. Like I, I, I lose money, you

(36:57):
know, so I do because I love to do it.
And then when we have these fundraising events, the only
thing I can really do is donate swag.
So I have an online store that notorious fire Lenny Brown, he's
out of Merrimack, NH, awesome dude.
And so he, I reached out to him because he will build you an
online store. So it makes now easier for me to
be able to send things to people.

(37:19):
So I'll be able to, I send my merchandise to like the Metro
line of fools. If we're doing a fundraising,
I'll send it to them so they cangive it and do like a raffle
item. I'm sending in New England
fools. If they need something for a
raffle. I, I will reach out to Rusty and
go, what can I give you? I really have a lot of money to
give, but I can, I can send you items to raffle off if anybody

(37:41):
wants it. And so it helps to build that.
And then of course, sharing whatI do it just it's like a, it's
like full circle. So it all helps and shares and
likes and you know, people clicking on that, that subscribe
page for YouTube and things likethat.
It that's what keeps us going. I know some people don't want to
do it, but I feel like listening.
Those are the things to help us to keep building our content
right? Like anybody who's in this

(38:02):
business will tell you, like if it's not for the people who are
viewing us or listening, we justbe talking to a wall like we
kind of do anyways. But we would be talking to a
wall, but we would just be, it would be a listener of one.
It'd be me. Yeah.
So. Exactly, I mean, I tell guys all
the time, I mean these these podcasts well, and I'm glad

(38:22):
you're in the same boat as I am.It's it's a labor of love
because it actually, even thoughthis podcast exists to promote
the fools organization and then just spread the good word.
I'm VP of our fools organizationover here in Arizona, Copper
State fools. But with that said, I didn't
take a penny from our bankroll because this is just a project

(38:44):
to help spread the word. And and like you said, it's,
it's a labor of love. It costs money.
It doesn't it doesn't make a dollar, it doesn't make a penny.
So, so that's good. So what, what spawned the
Instagram page? Like what happened or what need
did you feel or what were you frustrated with that?
You're like, hey, I want to start this and this is kind of
my goal when it comes down to the report.
Sure. For the can report again, the

(39:05):
the the can report is the that'smy that's my platform.
So that's all together, all-encompassing, right?
The Instagram page is the can report the podcast and all that.
So for many, many years, my previous department, I felt like
I didn't have a voice if I was excited about, you know, going
to calls and, and it's all we talked about the, the, the

(39:25):
certain person there would beat us down and, and make us feel
like crap because we're super excited.
Like I remember one event where we, we thought we're going to go
on mutual aid for instruction fires.
So the guys, we all get geared up.
And we're literally. Sitting in the truck just
waiting for the tones to drop and a certain officer comes
around the corner goes you guys are already sitting in the
truck. Like what are you doing?
Like we're excited to go. We want to go just Buster balls

(39:47):
for it, right? You know, he didn't care that we
were excited for it and many years working for him.
He just was a negative person who, if you made social media
content, if you talked about thejob, if you shared pictures
about the job, if you I didn't think pretty much if you, you
either glorified it or you just promoted it, he would just shoot

(40:09):
you down. And he really didn't have a
voice of anything because as soon as he caught wind of
something, whether he saw something social media he didn't
like, he'd bring in the office and shoot you down for it and
say, I don't like to stop doing it.
So for many years it just felt like I didn't have a voice.
And then once I was able to leave and I probably made the
move to to change the departmentto 45 years old, I changed

(40:30):
departments and became a 45 yearold probie of my new place.
That's really prompted me to saythat you know what?
I have freedom. So it, it took a long time
because I always wanted to get my voice out and talk more, but
I couldn't do it at my previous department because I know he
would have ripped me apart. And so once I joined my new

(40:51):
department, I gave it a while. I didn't want to just start it
when I was still probie. I wanted to focus on being a
good firefighter and complete myprobationary period and make
sure that I'm doing the right thing.
So once things started to calm down with the move and
probation, Barry, period, I started doing this more and I
realized that the people in my current department care about
me. Like they love that I'm

(41:13):
passionate about the job. They love that I love to go to
conferences and go to trainings and talk about fire stuff all
the time. It was just they love me and
they love what I'm doing and love what I'm bringing back to
the department. So all the conferences I go to
and all the trainings that I teach, I bring it back to them
and they are so happy that I bring it back.

(41:34):
Every time I go to someplace, that's the first thing they
always say to me. Make sure you bring that back.
Previous department. My, my chief never said that.
He never said make sure you bring this back because I want
you to teach this. It was when I would go to a
conference and I would come backto work.
He didn't ask me anything about it.
He didn't give a shit. He just he wouldn't even ask me

(41:55):
like hey, how was Florida? He didn't care.
And when I changed departments, that was my really eye opening
experience. Like I'm I'm free.
I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders that I actually am
able to talk about my experiences that and maybe some
people in my department. I must say that they are, but if
they are, if they were, they don't make it known that I

(42:15):
irritate them or not. They they're all really so
supportive of what I do, what I bring to the to the fire service
that I've heard nothing but positivity out of it.
So for me, the can report came out of something negative and I
wanted to turn that to that to apositive thing.
So for me, it's it's talk about the positivity that's in the
state of New Hampshire. The positivity is all around us

(42:36):
that that it's not just a negative thing in one department
that I've learned that it's guy was just one horrible milestone
in my life that now I, I'm, I feel more I had this this new
life to me. I'm rejuvenated and I wanted to
get that out. So I only knew the way I knew I
could get that out was with the can report was to sit in front
of the camera and talk to peopleabout my experiences, but then

(43:00):
hear about other people's experiences.
And really what's prompted me tocontinue this, and I feel so
energetic about it, is that whenI make posts or talk about my
personal experiences with mentalhealth, workplace PTSD, or when
I talk to somebody else who's experienced the same thing, I
get responses back about. Thank you so much.

(43:20):
I really appreciate you making that post on mental health.
I had struggled for many years with a toxic work environment.
I thought I was the only one. I'm so happy I'm not.
I'm glad that I'm that you foundyour place.
I'm looking for that. Do you have any advice?
Like people would have been turned to me and asked me, how
did you do that? And that's so important to me.
If I can make a difference for one person, that's, that's,

(43:45):
that's my payment right there. I don't need money for that.
If I have one person said I helpthem, then I'll keep going and I
don't need money for that. I that's that's my payment.
That that's amazing. I mean, it's that whole PTSD
talk and everything else and theguys are willing to share their
experiences and be vulnerable and just put it out there.
That's the key right there because like you said, you help

(44:05):
one person, you don't know the the true impact that might have
really had over the span of their life between their
marriage, their kids, their job performance.
I mean, you name it, on what route they could have gone down
if nobody gave a fuck. Or more importantly, they didn't
feel like anyone experienced thesame thing they experienced.
Which I believe why it's important that we talk about
that kind of stuff like it then how firemen deal with it and

(44:27):
what we need collectively as a group, because we are different
than the regular population, at least I believe.
I'm curious on how you think about that.
But it's, you know, we are, we're a slightly different
group, but more importantly, we are exposed to things.
And I don't necessarily mean toxic exposure is that also, but
that mental exposure, that PTSD,the calls, the sets, the reps,

(44:49):
everything else. We are exposed to that for so
long that the human body is never designed to experience
that much trauma over and over and over again.
So it's in the. Yeah, absolutely we are.
And so for me is like, I don't take the calls personally.
And obviously when it involves achild or a youth, like I have

(45:10):
kids, you know, so it hits different.
Even if I, if I work a code on, you know, someone who's around
my mom's age or my dad's age, yeah, that's going to hit me.
You know, it's I'll, I'll, it's,I have to shake it off a little
bit, but it's, it's difficult because you don't want to get in
your mind and that's hard. Like, again, that's what that
mental health comes in. So us is first responders,
that's exactly what we have to do.

(45:30):
As soon as you finish that code,you got to shake it off and you
got to go to work. You got to go to the next call.
And if you start thinking about Oh my God, that, you know, that
was my dad's age and Oh my God, that would that woman seemed
just like my mom. You're going to start thinking
about that. You're going to cry or you're
going to get really upset. You got you got to get back in
an ambulance or back in an engine and go to the next call.
And you got to, you have to havea strong mind to be able to, to,

(45:53):
to shut it down and go to the next one.
But how many times you have to keep shutting that down and, you
know, and stuffing it down and stuffing it down to the layers
become so deep that it's going to spill over.
So for me, I, I tried not to, todo that.
I try to shut my mind off with those situations.
But for me, what was my personalexperience was again, the
workplace environment was dealing with a lot of negative

(46:16):
shit that went on inside the walls of the Firehouse.
That's where I take personally. I can be on you can I could be
on any call and they can they can tell me I'm the dumbest
asshole in the world. They can motherfuck me to death
if they want to. I don't know them, they don't
know me. And I'm totally cool with that.
I will be the most Thomas chill person you could find on those

(46:37):
environments because it doesn't affect me.
They don't know my they don't know anything about me.
And I keep it that way. But when you get back to the
Firehouse and you have especially an officer that
attacks you personally, you takethat personally because that's
your world, the back of the Firehouse, that's your life.
That's your, they know you personally.
They know your wife's, you know wife's, they know your kids,

(46:58):
they know where you live, they know your passions, they know
your struggles. And when they make fun of you or
they put you down, that's where that comes in.
And that's where it's hard to fight back because especially
when it comes from an officer or, you know, the chief, what
are you supposed to do as a linefirefighter, right?
Like you have that, that you always been drilled in, you're

(47:19):
supposed to have respect and youdo not talk back.
So how do you not talk back to somebody who is in that position
When And then especially when itcomes to small departments, it's
even more difficult because likewhere I came from, we didn't
have a union. So I couldn't go to a union Rep
and say I'm being mistreated. And HR, let's be honest, HR for
the most part is a joke, right? Human resources, they don't see

(47:42):
it, they don't know it, they don't live our life.
And you can complain. So for me, if I want to complain
to HR, you know what they're going to do, right?
They're going to go to back to that chief and say, hey, Mike
Olson just complained about you for calling him a faggot.
Care to elaborate? And then he's going to go back
to me and go, what are you doinggoing to human resources
complaining about me? You know, I was just joking.
Now you got me in trouble. You know what?

(48:03):
You don't need to come to work tomorrow.
That's what's that's what would have happened to me.
So I was in fear of retaliation to ever make a complaint because
I would have, I had fear of losing my job because I was
reminded on a regular, if you don't like it here, you can
leave. Cora can fire you.
New Hampshire's in that real state and I can fire you
whenever I want to fire you. I don't need you.
You're replaceable. I mean, I would told that on a

(48:24):
daily basis. So that's what was difficult for
me was to try to have a voice. And I again, years of being
abused as a child mentally and physically, it was hard for me
to fight back because it made mefeel like I was when I was 12
years old dealing with those issues when I was growing up.
So I I couldn't fight back vocally because I was afraid of

(48:47):
what he would say to me. It made me feel like a child
again. Yeah, it's, it's that you're
basically triggered. You have that trauma response
trigger from your childhood. And you know, it's then I, I
believe people like that, like those muddy officers that you're
talking about, they recognize that and then they harp, you
know, they, they'll hone in on that.
Like I know what gets them, you know, and, and they'll just
drive that because it's a power trip to them or whatever the

(49:10):
scenario scenario is. And I'm I'm happy that.
And at least on this side right now, I believe that the fire
service is is doing a 180 right now where we're trying to
transition back to the brotherhood, the family,
addressing stuff in house between the guys when it comes
down to PTSD and things along those lines, being able to talk

(49:31):
about stuff. And then more importantly,
introduce not necessarily new, but different tactics for fires,
EMS, whatever you want to say that maybe some somebody other
either across the country or thenext state over, the next county
or fire district over is doing that.
You're like, hey, let's entertain that instead of the
old school. We'll know because we do it this
way because that's the way we'vealways done.

(49:53):
So I feel like we're doing that 180 right now, which is good.
And it takes guys like us right now to keep preaching that word.
So these younger kids coming into the fire service understand
that that is, that is the direction that we should be
going and that we need to, and the only way we're going to be
successful is that they get on this young crew gets on board
because I tell them all the time, these, especially the

(50:14):
recruits to your fire department, you know, I'm, I'm
going to be gone before you are.And it's if you don't like
something, you can effective change.
You know, if you love something,you can hold on to it.
But it's, it's your department now.
And it's like, if they don't, orif we don't instill those values
in them, then the fire service will die as we know it.
You know, they're they're OG fire departments, but I'm

(50:36):
talking about the American fire service when we're talking about
the enrichment of arch traditions.
So he do you kind of feel the same way?
Are you seeing the same thing orhow is it in the Northeast where
you are? The Northeast has gotten a lot
better. Yeah, it was definitely, it was
we, you know, it's cold up here during the winter and we can, we

(50:56):
sometimes could be cold in our own firehouses and cold to
change. And we've gotten a lot better
with the younger generations moving in.
It's been to the better. And I've said it before, like
I'm, I'm excited for the future.I think the, the younger
generations that are coming intothe Firehouse, they actually do
their homework. They give a shit.

(51:16):
They, the fact that they got a computer in a palm of their
hands now makes it better because they're, they're,
they're researching the material.
They are watching YouTube videos, they're watching us.
They're watching, they are watching the old older people.
They're, they're listening to our stories.
They're listening to our tactics.
They're watching our tactics. They, the younger generation,
they are doing their homework. We may not see it because again,

(51:39):
it looks like they're just on their phone screwing off, but
they're actually watching TikTokclips of how to pull hoses.
They're watching YouTube videos of how to put out a fire.
They're they're listening to podcasts of you and me.
You know, like these are amazingthings.
They're amazing times that we'reliving in.
And I was talking about proper workplace, that's a huge part of

(51:59):
it as well, like. We can.
You can teach. Anyone to pull hose line off a
truck. You can't teach anyone to be a
good human right. That has to be learned.
That has to come through years of working with the right people
to guide you down that road to be a righteous person.
If you're if you work with a shitty toxic negative person,
you then are going to be a shitty toxic negative person.

(52:22):
If you work with a person or an officer who is is a joy to be
around that love to love their job, loves to come to work,
loves to run calls, loves to train and makes it fun.
Well, yeah, then that kids goingto do the same exact thing.
So it's up to us to be that light for them to to show them
how much we love this job and tonot be a bully if someone

(52:42):
doesn't get things right, to notmake them feel like shit because
they couldn't throw that ladder.But it's up to us to say, let me
show you how to make this betterfor you and stay and say, hey,
you're screwed. That up, do it again until you
get it right. That's not going to work because
now they have training scars. Now they're just going to say,
well, I don't want to do this anymore because he yelled at me
five times in a row. I mean, man, when I was learning
how to drive the engine, I had ashittiest time trying to back it

(53:05):
into my department's, my old department's bank and my Fire
Chief at that time, he made it would piss him off and he'd make
me feel like shit because I couldn't do it.
And I remember him telling my partner, take Mike around the
block five times in a row until he gets it right now literally
you have to bat, you know, plow the Bay, go around the loop
backing in a lot again. And he just kept doing that and

(53:26):
doing that and doing that. And then, yeah, I, I learned how
to do it. But the same time I felt like
shit because, you know, he made me feel like shit.
But it wasn't fun. It was monotonous.
It was a chore. And and bullying is no place for
any of that. So I think for for us, if you
want to keep the fire service, like you said, growing and we
don't want to lose it, the American Fire service needs to

(53:48):
understand we, we don't have anytolerance for bullies and for
putting people down. And that training, you know, if
you don't do it right, can come off like feel like you're being
bullied. And some people call it
pussification of America and pussification of fire service.
I call it being the right. I call it being a good person
that the pussification is that that's a old school term that I

(54:11):
don't even like I'd never use anymore because that's what
people used to think about in the day, right?
But today we're better, we're making people better, we're in
the business of helping others, business of helping our brothers
and sisters grow. And I want to see them fulfill
their dreams. But I want to see them make it
till retirement and enjoy their grandkids and enjoy the fruits

(54:31):
of their labor of working 25 + 30 years and be able to enjoy
the retirement and enjoy a happyand healthy moment with their
grandkids and their wives and travel and enjoy the fun in the
sun with workplace toxicity and or all the other crap that we
see. And they don't know how to get
it out. They might not make it to
retirement because they might dosomething stupid.

(54:51):
You know, make that final resolution that we don't want.
You're, you're 100% right. So I mean, it's, it's, I feel
the same way. And I've been trying to, and
it's, it's hard for me personally to stop saying, hey,
this generation because I kind of feel like everyone's like,
Hey, it's a generational thing. And, and I don't think it is,
It's, it is, it's just how things are now.
And so we need to adapt. Like the kids learn different

(55:12):
than you and I learned when we were growing up, you know, and
again, their access to information is immediate, which
we didn't have because so if a 20 year captain told you
something that was gospel, right?
He had no way to Fact Check if he was a good fireman or not.
He had no idea. You're just assuming because he
has a lot of time on the job that equates to experience,
which we know doesn't, right? You can have two years on the

(55:33):
job and be very experienced or 20 years on job and very, you
know, limited experience or you only have the same experience
over and over and over again, which doesn't make you that
well-rounded leader, fireman, whatever position that you might
might fall into. So when you did the Instagram
page, you started the can report, you know, you talked to

(55:53):
so Corley Moore, I've talked himto a great guy and just hey,
trying to get feedback on the podcast and tips and tricks and
everything else. And he he said the same thing to
me, you know, like, hey, hit record, do the episodes, you
know, everything else kind of falls in the line.
So what was your goal? So you did the Instagram page,
you started the podcast Now is this just for New Hampshire

(56:13):
fireman? Like tell the tell the audience
really what the vision was. And then maybe your plans for
the future of your podcast, if you kind of have that road
dialed out yet? Sure, man.
Yeah. So that was my original vision
was it's going to be solely based New Hampshire stuff.
But as I was starting to progress with this and starting
to really come up with my content, what I wanted to put

(56:34):
out there, I knew it had to be all-encompassing.
I knew like I just can't do New Hampshire.
But doing this is brought New Hampshire onto the map, right?
Like it's people are now hearingall the stories from people from
New Hampshire, but people from New Hampshire are now being
educated about outside trainingsand other people from states
they haven't been to. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's

(56:55):
two folds where people learning about New Hampshire, but people
from New Hampshire learning about others, right?
So I'm bringing best of both worlds together.
So there's a lot of people in New Hampshire who don't know a
lot of the fire conferences thatI go to.
And so when I promote these fireconferences and I talk about
them on my podcast or I share them on my Instagram page, the
people who are up here, especially the younger ones who

(57:17):
don't know about these things, now they they know about it
because it's all this guy. I know Mike Goldstein and he
does this and he has his podcastand I see his Instagram page.
Oh man, he was just at Bears of the Oath.
What is that? And they click on the pictures
Now all of a sudden they know about bearers of the oath and
they've seen they get to see what kind of training I just did
there. Now they want to go and they can

(57:37):
maybe next year they'll they'll sign up and want to go to bears
of the oath or they want to go to Daddam or they want to, you
know, wherever they want to go. But now I'm bringing light and
education to New Hampshire, as well as New Hampshire, educating
others outside. So New Hampshire for me was is
such a holds a great place in myheart.
And that was my my initial push of starting this was I want

(57:59):
people to know about the great, the Granite State.
New Hampshire has got so much tooffer.
We have the people that work forNew Hampshire are so dialed in.
They love what they do. And the fact too, we have not
just career departments that we have a lot of Volunteer Fire
departments in our area. There's more volunteer
departments than there are career here.

(58:20):
And these volunteers and call members, they also work as
career members as well. So they're doing both because
they started as a volunteer and they got their jobs as a career
fire member. So it's, it's great to see that.
And they still do that and they love it.
And I want people to know about,man, there's, there's so many
people like I've asked some people, some people don't feel
like talking on, on social media, right on podcasts.

(58:41):
Yeah, I've reached out to a few who just don't want to be on it.
But the people I reached, they have such amazing skill sets and
we all know Dave. Quick, right?
So like. Dave Quick is one of those
people who put New Hampshire on the map.
He's from Manchester, NH He loves to stay in New Hampshire.
He travels all over the place spreading his wealth of
knowledge. I mean, that dude is so

(59:01):
incredibly intelligent and knowshow to deliver his content and
his message. And people know whenever I say
I'm from New Hampshire that use the person, they say, you know,
Dave Quick, Yeah, I sure do. You know, Like he's put that on
a map. So he's made New Hampshire look
great. And so when I go to conferences,
it's the same thing. I want to make New Hampshire
proud. I don't care.

(59:22):
It's not. I want people to know about
Michael Olsen. I want people to know about New
Hampshire. So when I go to do these really,
these difficult trainings or these labor intensive trainings,
I want to make New Hampshire proud.
Do I? And when I walked away that
week, I'll ask myself, did I make New Hampshire proud?
Are they the people that I met? Are they going to say New
Hampshire's dialed in? They got their shit together and
that's what I want people to understand is that we have such

(59:45):
a big area and we do so much, right?
Like, you know, because, you know, the Arizona and Hamster
are so different, right? Like we have basements, we have
the attics, we have ice rescues,you know, we have big old lakes
we got to deal with. We got mountains and obviously
mountains covered in sheets of ice and snow.
Where? People have to go in and do
rescues off the side of the mountains and or hike up during

(01:00:08):
the summertime and kill people off the mountain who got
injuries. And a lot of times those are,
you know, our Fish and Game officers, EMS, police and fire,
they're all working together to help rescue people off mountains
and pull them out of lakes and pull them out of frozen lakes.
And so much dude. And I love talking about that.
So I want that was my biggest push.

(01:00:29):
But it's not just New Hampshire based.
Like my guests are from Texas. My guests are from Florida, from
Georgia, from California. People reach out to me and they
say, can I be on here? I think I got something cool to
say. Yeah, let's do it.
Like I had Ricky Boba on and he's from Michigan.
He reached out to me and we weretalking and I loved what he
does. I love the message that he
preaches. I had never beckoned before, but

(01:00:51):
this dude is a solid guy. Yes, I love what you have to
say. And I love talking to people who
want to talk about training and tactics and operations.
But my being my biggest push is I want people to learn about
people. And whether you're New Hampshire
based or you're Texas based, wherever you are, I want people
to learn about their stories, their triumphs, their struggles,

(01:01:13):
their the way they succeeded. They might have had medical
issues and didn't think they'd be a firefighter.
And they overcame that. And now they're, they're pushing
hard and they're moving up in the fire service world.
Those are the stories I love to tell.
And it doesn't have to be just New Hampshire based.
It's all over. And I I love the fact that now I
can talk to people who are just not from New Hampshire, but also

(01:01:33):
from other states as well. That it's great before we kind
of wrap up this episode, you yousegue perfectly for me.
So you believe, like I said, youlike in your in your heart, you
love the American fire service, especially in New Hampshire.
So tell the listeners that don'tknow about New Hampshire.
Is the entire state kind of operate tactically the same?

(01:01:55):
And then if not, how did like iseveryone different?
But then more importantly, kind of how the tail end of that I
want you to talk about tactic wise, how do you guys do it in
the department you work for? So mostly what we're going to
talk about, let's just do our bread and butter house fire
because that's always the the kind of the go to.
And I and I find it interesting on how different all of us are

(01:02:17):
from coast to coast department department.
So say, you know, a house is reported to be on fire in the
department that you are for currently.
What gets dispatched? How do you guys operate?
Is it predetermined? Do you use names?
I mean, kind of break it down for the listeners how you guys
operate. So on our department we use blue

(01:02:38):
card that's not New Hampshire based.
So it's all department specific.So yes, each department does run
differently. So a fire and dairy is going to
be command wise a little bit different than it's a for
Nashua. Nashua doesn't run blue cards.
Nashua is super aggressive and they have their bigger
department. There's their city of Nashua and

(01:02:58):
they have 6 stations and they have like 150 members there and
they they are top notch department.
They are dialed in and so is thedepartment that I work.
And we got a lot of young hard chargers that just love to get
in and get work. They're just dying to get
something done. So because operational things
like that, like command structure, dairy runs a blue
card environment and now it doesn't does that change the the

(01:03:21):
structure? No, it just changed the dialogue
of what command is saying. It doesn't change the fact that
we're still going to go to the house and put the fire out and
try to make rescues, right. For my town, if we have reported
structure fire, it's going to bewherever districts in.
So if it's in the central area of our headquarters area, the
engines going to be dispatched first and that's 1000 gallons of

(01:03:44):
water. You have 3 cross layers on that
piece or speed tray. So we have an inch three
quarter, a 2 1/2 and a 2 inch line.
So obviously we're our bread andbutter.
We're going to be pulling 2 1/2 inch line, I'm sorry, inch three
quarter line and go to work. So your typical bread and butter
room and contents, fire engine ones would be approaching the

(01:04:04):
scene. We have our Battalion Chief
who's on duty. We always have a Battalion Chief
that runs on calls to those bigger calls.
So he'll most likely be on scenefirst telling us what we got,
you know, right, can do the samething as any good command
officer would do. Give us the update of what he
sees do his 360. And what's really cool about my
department, there is no micromanaging like we pull up

(01:04:26):
the officer on that truck knows what to do.
He's going to talk to the tail border.
We run three on that on that engine usually.
So the drivers already be dialedin.
He's approaching wherever he needs to set up his truck,
right. We're not parking same thing.
We're positioning that's usuallykind of a global thing now
anyway. So we've been trained to
position that park Central area is very good.
So that's actually I'll touch onthat real quick.
Is that be in New Hampshire and in my town as well?

(01:04:49):
We we don't have everything is not hydrants.
So farther district you go, outskirts of our town, we are
also have what we call cisterns and dry hydrants.
So there's areas where there isn't a hydrant there, a
pressurized water source. So a dry hydrant is literally a
pipe that comes up out of the ground that's usually connected

(01:05:09):
to a static water source like a pond or a lake.
And so we have to draft out of that to get that water.
And for cistern is pretty much aconcrete pond in the ground that
holds about 15 to 30,000 gallonsof water depending what size
they have for that community. So again, you have to pull that
water up. So you have to draft out of

(01:05:30):
there to suction that water up and get in your engine so you
have an actual water source. So depending where we are in
those communities in our town, we have to operate a little bit
differently because not everything's got hydrants.
So like in city of Nashua, again, I'll use them because
they're big, they're a bigger city.
They have majority are all hydrants.
They don't have to worry about not having a water source, so

(01:05:50):
they have the luxury of having hydrants.
The town of Dairy doesn't have hydrants in every location.
Our downtown area does, but we're like the station I work
out of. We do not have hydrants.
We have sisters and dry hydrants.
So you catch what I'm saying so far.
Absolutely. So when you guys are pulling the
draft out of those hydrants, just for the listeners that have
never pulled the draft, but you do enactment from hard suction,

(01:06:12):
Yeah, yeah. So the for the dry hydrant,
yeah, exactly is a pipe that goes underground and it kicks,
it goes all the way underground to the water source.
And so we have to be able to pull that long drafts.
We're using hard suction hose like a big black straw, right?
And we're attaching that to the the port of the dry hydrant and
having to create that suction toget into the engine.

(01:06:33):
So usually though, we have there's a filter at the end of
that to hopefully keep fish and debris out of that tube and that
that's underground. So usually we have to burp it or
push water back into that pond 1st to make sure we're pushing
all that crap out. Sometimes as you're drawing a
lot of water, you can actually draw a drop organic material and

(01:06:54):
you can drop fish. So you have to be conscious of
that. Where I've done practice and
training where I pulled up probably 4 catfish out of a pond
and immediately they'll, they'llpress up against that suction
dude up against your your pump and it'll shut that water right
down. And you have to be a good pump
operator to know what just happened is that, Oh my God, I
just lost water. You got to retrace your steps.

(01:07:17):
Why am I losing water? Sometimes you can actually see
the fish swimming in the hard suck if you take your flashlight
and sign and and show it on there.
But you'll have to shut down. And that's what sucks, right?
You now have a water established.
Now you have to shut it down. Disconnect your hard suck, get
those fish out of there and thenplug it back.
Out too, right? You save them for dinner later.
I'm not a. Big fan of catfish, but if you

(01:07:38):
like catfish, sure. But so those are things like,
and that's again, and I'm glad you asked that question because
that's what makes New Hampshire a lot more different than say
Arizona, right? You're not having to worry about
pulling up catfish out of a pond, correct.
When you're drafting. So, and then same thing and, and
again, and our bigger cities in,in New Hampshire, they, they are

(01:07:59):
very trained on how to do that as well.
But they don't have to do it as often because they are bigger
and they have, they have that water source around them.
But they have to understand how to do that because we do mutual
aid. So if the city of Nashua comes
mutual aid to say Milford, NH and they go to a part of
Milford, NH that doesn't have a hydrant, that operator needs to

(01:08:20):
be very well trained on how to be able to pull a draft out of a
pond. So that is a huge difference for
New Hampshire. A lot of us as pump operators
are cross trained to know how tobe able to pull water out of a
static source and not just hydrant work.
So it's obviously more labor intensive to pull water out of a
static source and then just hooking up a hydrant, open up
the hydrant, you got water. So it's it's a it's an art.

(01:08:43):
I believe pumping for is an art.And I believe that being a pump
operator or engine operator, especially in the state of New
Hampshire or any of your kind ofcold environment doesn't have a
hydrant source is an artwork like you have to be able to work
through. Problems.
Like you have to really walk outon the ice and take an ice auger
and drill in there and be able to pull water out of a pond when

(01:09:04):
you know when it's frozen over because that's your own only
water source. So you have to, you have to
really use your head and you have to be smart as a pump
operator up here. That's great.
And I mean what a drastic difference from where I'm
currently working right now where none, probably not a
single member has even operated a ice auger period.
Forget the fact that you actually using it and then

(01:09:25):
having to put a hard suction down and pull a draft.
How many tubes can I go? I mean the knowledge base is
insane. So that's why I love so.
So if that house, if you get that reported structure fire and
it is a hydrogen area, how many pieces of equipment do you get
initially dispatched? Is it just a single engine or do
they fill out or do they do theywait for the engine to fill the
box assignment or what? What do you guys call that or

(01:09:47):
how's that work? Sure.
Yeah, it's if command finds, if it's if, if dispatch confirms on
the phone or the caller is saying my house is on fire, like
they're going to dump this, they're going to dump the whole
town, right? They're going to immediately
send a personal response, but say if it's only a single
caller, he says I think my houseis on fire.
We still send the 1st 2 responses.
It's going to be an engine, it'sgoing to be the ladder, It's

(01:10:09):
going to be a pre. Again, still a first line
response. But as soon as he sees smoke, he
sees the header going. He's going to dump the whole
town and then we start working off the run cards.
The 1st 2 engine men, they're like any other town or other
city or in the States, they're going to work.
They're they're pulling that line, they're getting their
hydrant going. Again, we have a three man
company. So it's the officer and the tail

(01:10:30):
border, they're going to work. So the officer's doing 360.
That guy's got to pull that lineoff the truck, stretch it
correctly, go to the door or wherever it's side they need to
enter. And that pump operator is going
to be helping to stretch that line off the side of the truck
and then getting that water going into the hose line.
And the officer will come aroundand help force that door if need
be. And then they make their they

(01:10:50):
make their push in and that the pump operators got to get a plug
going. So he's going to look for his
hydrant and get that water established.
And then the pump operator, honestly, that pump operators,
he did hardest working man on the ground until another unit
shows up. He's going to be helping to get
ladders thrown. He's going to be making sure
that line stretched in there. He's going to be looking do it.

(01:11:10):
He's going to be doing a 360. To be honest with you.
If I'm a pump operator, it was my fire scene.
As soon as I get that water established, I'm I'm looking
around and making sure I've got aggressions looked at.
Or if there's, if I see someone hanging out a window because my
command officer is going to be super tied up because he's going
to as we dump the town, Battalion chiefs will then be
coming in on their days off. And our if it's like an off day,

(01:11:33):
like say if it's a Saturday, we don't have our cheats on duty,
right? Our assistant chief is out on
duty. So luckily for us, our higher
staff actually lives around the area.
So they can be there super quick.
So they're going to come right into town and help out.
They're going to get in their trucks, They're going to go to
scene and help command this, this whole event.
And then we do an all tone as well to help with any other

(01:11:53):
personnel coming in. We're only a 60 plus member
department. So once that once our initial
response is gone and we're got agood fire going, we're going to
need more people to come in and help because we have other calls
coming in too. So a mutual aid's going to come
in. We have a joining town, we have
Londonderry, Salem, Atkinson, the Hampstead, Chester, Auburn,
they're going to get we, we get Nashville coming in, we get

(01:12:15):
Manchester come in. So we get a lot of communities
that come in with their apparatus as well.
And, and to get the job done, but that we're going to get the
least our, our initial responseshopefully also not tied up in
medical calls because again, we crossed that.
So we hope that our like say our, our ladder truck that's
station 3. Hopefully they're not a medical
call because if they're on a medical call, that means they're

(01:12:36):
on an ambulance and then no one's there to get the the
ladder. But we do have two quints, We
have a ladder, we have a tower. But they would still get
dispatched. So hopefully they're all in
quarters. They would go to the scene, set
up to the their best advantage and then again, everyone's
coming and getting the job done.But we are an aggressive
department. As soon as we get fired, we love
to go in and get get it done. There's no, there's no hidden

(01:12:58):
agendas or anything like that. It's just people want to get
jobs right? People want to put fires out.
We're well trained, we're well versed.
So that initial structure fire, if we're going, if it was myself
working, then I'd probably have been driving on the tail board.
So you're trained to be able to,to handle that emergency.
And we do a great job with training our drivers.
We're very. Thorough.
With driver training, everyone has to get certified in pumps,

(01:13:20):
driving and getting their CDL. So they're very knowledgeable
what needs to be done and how toflow water and the tail board
sink. The same thing.
Like we make sure that our guys are well educated and well
cripped to handle that fire. They, they do a great job with
what we have. Again, we're only usually three
people on a truck, but they get the job done and we're just,
it's, we're firefighters, right?Like you say, fire and it's

(01:13:41):
going to be a good one. We're going to work.
We're, we're aggressive. We want to get the job done.
We're hungry, you know, we want to get that work in.
We want to go in and show our our chiefs what we're working
and that we we love our department, we love serving and
we love to fight fire. So for my departments, we go off
run cards. We use blue card as well.
Our dispatchers are very good about able to call audibles if

(01:14:02):
need be, even without having to ask command because usually
command is pretty busy. So our dispatchers come into
play as well, which are super important.
If you don't have a good dispatcher that can call all the
bowls, right, that know what's going on the scene and has to
ask command for every single thing, you're not going to have
a good day, right? That dispatcher is probably
going to not going to like the conversation he has afterwards.

(01:14:24):
So you have to be able as a dispatcher to be able to read
the scene even though you can't see it.
So that comes down with good education and good knowledge and
good training. So our dispatchers again are
also top notch where they're, they know what needs to be done.
They know what to send the run cards.
They have a lot to do with the dispatchers get to to study them
and they get to to have a say ofwhat should be done next.
Or if something else is out of service, they can call that

(01:14:47):
audible and send something else in their place.
Right. So two questions I really want
to ask. So your dispatcher, since it
sounds like they have a lot of responsibilities and pretty much
from what you're saying that a good dispatcher will make your
your guys's life a whole lot easier.
Are they are they firemen or arethey civilians?
Your dispatchers? Good question.

(01:15:07):
So they work for the town of Derry on the fire department.
So our dispatch center actually just doesn't dispatch.
The town of Derry, they also dispatch for Auburn, Chester and
Wyndham, so other, these other communities as well.
So they get pretty busy. Like, you know, not only are
they dispatching our structure fire, there is one, but they're
also dispatching for other communities emergencies.
So they get tied up with a lot of stuff because other towns

(01:15:31):
can't afford to have their own dispatch center.
So we get contracted for that. So the dispatchers are they,
they are town employees. They're covered under the the
town of Derry and they work, they are members of the Derry
Fire Department. They are, they're in our union.
They are the wear uniform. They are treated with the utmost

(01:15:51):
respect and treated as if they were riding a fire truck.
But some of them actually do have do or have worked for other
fire departments like they, theymight volunteer for the other
fire departments so they have some knowledge of what it
happens when they're on a fire truck and what they're going to
see. That's why I think I love
dispatching because I did the fireside, but I was also a
dispatcher, so I knew exactly what was and I could picture in

(01:16:14):
my mind so I could help him out a little bit more.
So I knew that commandments could be busy.
So I'm not going to ask him every freaking question that I
can be able to deal with it myself and get to him the
resources he needs without him even asking.
That comes with experience of dispatching those comes with
experience of writing in a fire truck, right?
So our dispatchers, some are on departments otherwhere and some

(01:16:35):
aren't, but they do a great job of just educating themselves and
and reading up and watching videos and absorbing as much
information as they can to make them the best they can be to
make the job easier for us. That's that's awesome.
I was just wondering because it kind of seems like they really
need a good solid knowledge baseto really perform well in that
job. So I was wondering if they were

(01:16:56):
actually full-fledged fireman that and that was like a
detailed spot. And the reason I ask is because
the department I cut my teeth in, I grew up in our dispatchers
were firemen. You know, that's so that was an
assignment they would bid, but and it worked out really good
for us because, well, depending on who was in dispatch and I
can't, I can't talk for how theyare now.
But at least when I worked for him, you knew if your buddy was

(01:17:19):
in dispatch because as they're receiving the phone call, they'd
call the house real quick, right?
And they would just say literally box and they would say
a number like box 26 one and then hang up and they're like
you get on intercut box, you know, and you're literally
suited up on the apron leaving for that general box area while
he's getting dispatched. And like, so your boys would
hook you up. So, so so we talked about

(01:17:41):
dispatch. So the last little key that I
really want to the listeners to know.
So you guys said you're super aggressive.
That's freaking awesome. What is your primary function of
your ladder company when they first arrived?
Then if it's that bread and butter house fire they typically
get in your roof report, maybe set up for ventilation, are they
primarily worried about search? What's their kind of go to on

(01:18:02):
that mundane or bread and butterhouse fire for you guys?
Great question man. So what they're going again,
it's going to be 3 on that truck.
So if that ladder truck's going,it's only three.
So the the operator on that piece, he's going to be setting
up to his best advantage. The command is going to be
telling him as they're showing up what they want or where they
want him, right? So they need to set him up to

(01:18:24):
get to the roof for venting. So that ladder operator do that
as soon as we as soon as they position that ladder truck, the
the two other members they're getting off and they're going to
work, then that's going to be search.
If they got, you know, they, they're going to go in the right
there and that's what they're going to do.
That lot of operators will be set up that aerial for the best
advantage he can get to set up for ventilation.
But right right off the bat, they're more likely going to be

(01:18:46):
set to search. Obviously right conditions
dictate whatever they got for reports, but for the most part,
it's going right to search. We don't want to waste any time
on that because we can get another crew to go right up that
ladder and start and start venting.
But we want to get search in there.
And that's the most important, right?
You know, the data shows that the books that we've got out
now, it's so important is we want to make sure search is
getting done. The engine company and they're

(01:19:07):
got their hose line in same thing.
They nobody needs to tell us, hey, search while you're going.
That should be automatic. So if I'm on the hose line with
my officer, as we're deploying that hose line and we're making
our push in, we're searching, we're searching for the fire,
but we're searching for victims as we're going in.
We're not straying too far from the hose line, but we're making
sure that we're keeping eyes, ears and open and that we're, if

(01:19:27):
we got a victim, we're calling victims and we're pulling them
out. There's nobody that needs to
tell us that we need to do that.Like command knows, like my guys
are going to go in there and they find somebody, They're
going to bring him to a point ofsafety and make sure the call is
like, hey, I'm bringing the victim up and go back with your
nozzle man and get to work. Same thing with our truck guys.
If once, as soon as they show up, they're going to, they're
going to get off that truck and man, they're running in, they're

(01:19:47):
getting searched on. And then the second crew that
comes in, again, it might be mutual aid too, depending where
our other crews are at. So if mutual aid gets to the
scene, second to us or third to us, then they might go straight
up to that roof and, and either they might do search or they
might do ventilation. But it's obviously, like you
said, conditions dictate what's going to be done, but.

(01:20:11):
Right, Search is search is primary for us.
We want to make sure we are getting that search in there.
So for us, that ladder crew, that's usually the second truck
in they're going to be, they're going to be doing their search
because we don't, we don't want to miss.
I love it and you know, everyoneoperates a little different and
and for me like a big eye opener.
That seems strange to me, but I love the idea because I love any
sort of aggressive fireman tactics.

(01:20:32):
Is the operator setting up the stick, but a different crew
going up to ventilate. That's something that I've never
seen happen, but I'm like, why? Why couldn't it?
You know, just for some reason, the two systems that I've worked
in, it was like if you're on theladder and you're going to if
somebody need to ventilate that,it was that ladder company with
that ladder crew. So they would actually, if they

(01:20:53):
were involved in inserts, they would pull them out, be assigned
them to ventilate, you know, so I, I love the idea of, hey, the
operator's busy setting everything up for success.
Strong ground ladders, put an aerial up, whatever the case
might be. And then if that ladder company
is actively working, yeah, the next new company can climb the
stick and and cut a hole. Who?
Why can't you, right. So I, I love that you.

(01:21:15):
Why literally I'm thinking myself like, why the fuck don't
we do that? Like we could do that right now.
Like so that that's and again, hence why I love platforms like
this because you always learn something.
So last the question I have about your search, you guys have
so uberly aggressive. Is your ladder company searching
with or without a hand line? And I know again, conditions

(01:21:36):
dictate actions, but I know a lot of departments have like
hard steps. Like, hey, if you're on a ladder
and you're searching, you're absolutely not doing it with a
hand line or you're absolutely doing it with a hand line.
How do you guys operate? Yeah, I mean, the hand line's
already in place, like right, The, you know, as the first line
goes, so does the fire, right. So the engine companies already
in there that search crew is searching, they don't need a

(01:21:57):
hand line for that. So that we that is our primary
goal is, is for citizens, is forretrieving victims and making
sure we have a positive outcome.So it's, it's, it's going in
search. We, we, we don't have a hose
line. We don't have standards in place
that you have to have a hose line on search.
You're going to go in there, you're going to do your search.
We, we train a lot on searching.We do a really good job with

(01:22:19):
that. And so we, our members know that
when we get called for search, if you're on that truck company
or even engine company, you're, if you're assigned to search,
you're going to go in and search.
You're not waiting for a hose line and going in there.
We're trying to bring the the culture of searching with a can.
We've been talking about that more a couple of my officers and
we're trying to bring that in. I just again, I was down in

(01:22:40):
Georgia, we're doing some training with the bears and we
there was one of the classes about searching with the can
using the can for that. Eric Wheaton talks about that
with the can confidence course. That's something I want to bring
more into our culture for where we are at.
I think it's super important to have that.
It does pay dividends to help atleast slow things down so we can
make our search in there and talk about obviously, you know,

(01:23:02):
preventing flow pass that. That's why we're not hell bent
that you have to have a hose line because we're smart now,
like we know, like, hey, close the door.
We can, we can prevent, we can make it easier for us if we just
shut that door. If we find a fire room at it
with the can knock it or knock it down, wet that door up, you
know, especially you can and then keep on searching.
And you've made that you made our conditions just a little bit

(01:23:23):
better by controlling that flow path and closing that door.
So we are definitely strong in search.
We're definitely strong in searching without a hose line
and making sure we can find victim and and pull them out and
make a positive impact to somebody.
You guys search through windows,then enter, search, targeted
search, whatever you guys call it, you do entertain that or
not? Oh.
Absolutely. Sorry.
So we because we're not like a big city, we have to be cross

(01:23:46):
trained on everything. So just because you're on the
ladder per SE for like, say our station 3 has the straight
stick, you're not, that's just not what you know, like you know
everything. We have to know everything.
So you have, because you might be assigned to the engine next
day. So you're doing engine work,
you're doing ladder work, you'redoing all of it.
It's not just one thing. So we we train everybody to, to

(01:24:08):
understand that everything's going to be fluid on the on the
fire ground. And so if you have to do VIS,
you're going to throw that ladder and going to get up
there. And we are actually new.
That's the really good thing about New Hampshire and New
England area. All in general is New England is
really good about DEIS. We talk about a lot.
We train about that in New Hampshire fire Academy with our

(01:24:29):
new people. We, we show them how to, to do
that and the, and make sure thatthey're doing it safely and
understanding the why behind it for, for my department, very
strong culture in that. We preach on that, we talk about
it and we we train about it. And that way, when the time
comes, we're prepared to to be able to do a window oriented
search. Cool, good deals.

(01:24:51):
We talked for a good period of time here.
I think the listeners got a chance to get to know you now
they can check you out if they haven't already, subscribe to
your Instagram and absolutely your podcast because it's just a
wealth of knowledge of a bunch of good guys on there just
talking firemanship tactics and everything else.
So before we get into the the questions for the end of the
episodes or anything that's pressing on your brain that you

(01:25:14):
want to talk to about the listeners before we kind of wrap
up to for today. Oh yeah.
Sure. So I touched on the Explorer
Academy. That's something that's near and
dear to my heart. We're then we're going to be
coming back to our third year starting in June.
That's 55 cadets from the age of14 to 18 that we house at the
New Hampshire Fire Academy from June 22nd to June 28th.

(01:25:35):
They come in for a week of learning to live a firefighter
life for a week. They stay at the dorms and they
learn how to move hose lines. They learn about nozzles.
They learn how to throw ladders.We do, we smoke out one of our
buildings. It's theater smoke, but they
actually get to get geared up and then do a search in there
and actually put out kitchen fires.

(01:25:55):
It's propane fed. We teach them how to treat each
other right. So this is not just fire stuff,
but it's actually just also learning about how to work as a
team. And it's a different environment
right. When you're, you're, you're set
up in the, in the Academy for a weekend, living in the, the
dorms. We teach them how to be
respectful. We teach them the officer status
and that this hierarchy that youhave, you have to answer to

(01:26:18):
lieutenants and captains and chiefs.
So I, I had started that I had been a part of that for now to
be my third year. And it was something that I
never knew I liked until I did it the first year.
And it was honestly an awakening.
It was one of the best experiences that I had ever have
because I was going through somereally dark times in my life.

(01:26:39):
And I spent a week hanging out with 55 kids that just loved
everything about the fire service world.
And they honestly, they look up to you like you're, you're the
shit. And it was so meaningful, like
you feel like you're nothing. And then you're hanging around
these kids, 1418 years old and they're hanging on every word
you say. So you have to treat them right.

(01:27:01):
And you if you're treat them like crap, then they're, they're
not going to respect you. So it taught you actually how to
be some something better and to treat pet people better.
And so, yeah, the third year is coming up in June.
I'm really excited for it. While our members are starting
to work on getting everything ready.
We're going to have a great year.

(01:27:21):
We we have some guest instructors going to be coming
up out of Texas that are going to help us out to show kids how
to move hose. And that's going to be a lot of
fun. And I'm not going to drop the
name yet, but it's a it's gets closer.
I will perfect. I mean, I just dropped the hint
that he's out of Texas, But that's my big thing.

(01:27:42):
That's my really my big thing that's going on is the explorer
Academy. But honestly, coming touching
real quick is I just had a revival.
Honestly, man, leaving bears of the oath.
I just got back yesterday spending the week down in
Georgia with Shane Bentley and awhole bunch of amazing people

(01:28:03):
that I, I was so excited to meet.
Shane Bentley invited me to say a morning prayer the 1st morning
to lead off the whole hands on training for the week.
And I had never done anything like that man.
And that touched my heart so much.
That made me feel so special to be a part of that group and for
Shane to trust me to do something like that because

(01:28:26):
he's, he's, he's, he's faith-based and he, he holds
Jesus in his heart. And you know, I've, I've never
really been a religious person, but that whole week of being
down with all them, the stories that people are telling, the
testimonies that people are talking about, it was important
because I talk about my negativeexperiences that I've had in the

(01:28:47):
fire service world. These other guys who I look up
to are talking about the same thing.
And that really hit home. Like I was, I was very moved.
I was very touched. And I mean, I shed some tears,
listen to people's stories and how moved I was about them
sharing their soul and their burden that they had gone
through to complete strangers. So I had met a lot of people

(01:29:08):
over the weekend. I, I walked away with 200 new
family members. So I was something really
special to me. That's freaking amazing.
So real quick and we'll put everything in the show notes
too, but I want you to actually say it.
So just give a quick rundown to the listener.
So how do they find you? Instagram podcast and then
please share the information about the Explorer program and

(01:29:30):
then Bears of the Oath also. Sure.
So my podcast is available on Spotify, it's available on
YouTube. It's also available on the Apple
platforms as well. So I'm on every single platform,
Instagram, Facebook, on TikTok as well.
I share videos and share how to I try to add tips on YouTube as

(01:29:51):
well, pulling hoses, pushing hoses.
I try to try to add more informational knowledge on there
as well, much as podcast and talking, but also about how to
actually do some little extra tips and tricks of the job and
the Explorer Academy. You can find us on Facebook and
on Instagram. We're we're just right now
asking for sponsors and donations.

(01:30:11):
We are a nonprofit program. So if anybody's looking to
sponsor or donate, you can follow our Facebook page.
So it's New Hampshire Explorers,just literally Google New
Hampshire explorers will come right up.
It's a long winded name. It's NHESETA for those acronyms,
but you can reach out to me as well.

(01:30:33):
You can just literally message me on my Facebook page.
I'll get back to you. And then you can ask me about
how to be a sponsor and how to donate.
It's super important that we actually get sponsors because
again, it's a nonprofit. And if we don't have those
people donating money and we couldn't have this program,
which is honestly, we, we do this program because it actually

(01:30:55):
goes back to the fire service. These kids that are going
through the explorer programs around the state, they end up
becoming firefighters. So they're filling those
vacancies as they get older. So it does pay dividends.
It does help for people to, to, to come through these programs
because they then become firefighters themselves.

(01:31:16):
So we really appreciate everybody who's helped us out.
And if you're ever looking for donation for donations, please
reach out to me and I'd love to be able to talk to you about it.
Yeah, that's amazing. It's amazing what you guys are
doing, what you're involved in. And like you said, it's it's
reaping benefits for the American fire service period.
Then, you know, these kids are becoming sure of the fire
service. And, and if we expose them to

(01:31:37):
how we want the fire service to be, with respect, traditions,
aggressiveness, everything else,it's our duty to do that.
Because if not, it dies and thenit doesn't happen.
So who's to blame? Where to blame?
My e-mail. Real quick, yeah, I mean,
absolutely. You have to keep it going.
It's it's a cycle. We have to keep it wrong.
We have to keep it going and giving back.
In my e-mail for the New Hampshire Explorer program is

(01:32:01):
m.goldstein@nheseta.org and that's the New Hampshire
Emergency Services Explorer Training Academy.
Again, it's long winded name. Oh thank God, they just did the
acronym and said the entire thing so that would've been
horrible. Exactly, brother, like I said,

(01:32:24):
we'll put everything in the shownotes to for guys to reference
so you can go ahead and right and and more importantly, if
you, if you're you have the ability to donate and become a
sponsor, please do it sounds like an amazing program.
Again, this is future. The fire service doesn't matter
what coast you're on. It's a great program.
Please, if you have, if you're able to donate, contact Mike.

(01:32:44):
He's a great guy. So thank you for sitting down.
Let's get into the questions. We kind of answered the first
one by accident early. So it was your why you got in
the service. So we'll hop right into the
second one, which is a good one we've been talking about all
day. So traditions, right?
Fire, fire department traditionsmore importantly, right?
What is Mike Goldstein's favorite fire department

(01:33:04):
tradition? But more importantly, why?
Fire, Fire department tradition,I think probation, to be honest
with you, I think it's a great tradition.
What do you like the best about probation?
Having gone through it twice, the second time was better, to
be honest. The second time was better, but
it's if you don't make them earnit, then it's too easy and then

(01:33:26):
you don't teach them how to be better.
I think probationary status isn't just about checking boxes
on your book, but it's learning about your brothers and sisters.
It's about fire culture. It's about if you, if they've
never done the job before and you don't have them go through a
probationary phase, then they don't learn anything.
They just start riding on trucksand away they go.

(01:33:48):
And they're going to have to askall these questions about life.
And, and if you just give them the, give them the keys to the
castle, the keys to the truck and they start driving, well,
people are going to get hurt. People are going to get injured
and you're not going to teach them anything.
And if you don't treat, you got to treat somebody like a probe,
right? You got to have to, you're going
to have to coddle them a little bit or, or in a way baby them.

(01:34:10):
You're not treating them like crap, but you're you're teaching
them how to how to cook food. You know, it's not going to be
especially for for teenagers, right coming into the fire
service. It's not about, you know,
cooking macaroni and cheese, butyou're going to have to cook
real meals and you're going to have to learn how to shine your
boots and you're going to have to do all these things that some

(01:34:30):
people's parents had never shownthem how to do it.
Maybe they didn't have parents. So being a probie is, is not
just checking the boxes of of your book.
And I think that goes lined though with the people who are
in charge of them. And for me of the tradition I
love that goes with the probation side of it is on my
department, we have mentors. Those mentors are in charge to

(01:34:52):
make sure that they're probationary members are doing
what needs to be done. And again, it's not just making
sure that they're reading their probie manual, but that they
understand what is expected of them.
And that mentor needs to understand that, you know,
you're going to have to educate them that again, lay down
expectations. I expect you to be able to be up

(01:35:12):
with us at this time. And I expect you to have a broom
in your hand when there's downtime.
Or I expect you to be able to cook us a meal or I expect you
to clean up after I've done cooking.
But it goes hand in hand. Probationary period is not just
for the probie, but it's for thementor and everybody else as
well to be able to bring that bond together and not just

(01:35:34):
forget about them. And I love the probationary side
of the traditions that we have and the fire service.
And then when the probie finishes and the fact that we
have like either you have a party, you dump water on them or
whatever they do, you know, people's traditions they have.
But for us, as we hand them their shield and for our
tradition for the probie is we give them their shield.
It's a big deal. We have pictures taken, but when

(01:35:56):
they first get their probie shield, the probie shield that
they're getting has names on the, on the underside of it of
everybody else in the departmentwho had been a probie.
So that probie gets that shield and holds significance because
on the back you can see all the other names that went through
the probationary period. And you have to, you have to do
them right. So you're constantly reminded

(01:36:18):
when you're looking at the back of your shield, all the people
who came before you and you got to respect them and be able to
do the job that they did. So it's a constant reminder that
this isn't just about just aboutyou, but it's all the people who
came before you and make them proud.
And then when you get off probation, you get to sign that
shield that was on your helmet, your probie shield, you get to

(01:36:40):
sign and then that goes on to the next probe.
So the tradition that we have inour dairy in our town of dairy
is we pass off those probationary Shields to the next
probie member. But it's not just a blank
shield. It's got people's names who went
to the process. That's that's awesome.
I've never heard of that tradition before, but I freaking
love it like it. That is the guys that paved the

(01:37:00):
way before you and now you finish.
Now it's your responsibility to continue that.
That's dude, that's amazing. I love that you guys have that
enriched in your department. That's freaking cool.
Since you said probation, right,Next question kind of goes
towards that member. So if you could only tell him
this is this is the hardest partof the question.
You going to tell a member with less than five years on the job

(01:37:23):
one thing? What would it be?
But why? Appreciate the process.
OK, expand. Appreciate the.
Process, right? It's, it's long, it's tedious.
Having less than five years, you, you're at that point where
you think you know it all. You get those two year guys or
you call them the two year lieutenants, right?
Like they, they think they've seen it and done it all and they

(01:37:44):
start, you know, mouthing off orthey, they start having getting
a little cocky, but they're not appreciating the process yet.
They've learned the basics and that's why they get cocky.
They think they've mastered it, but they're still going through
the process. Now comes the part of
appreciating that next part of it, which is the process of
putting it all together. And you have to continue to grow

(01:38:08):
and, and only having five years on, that's not, that's nothing,
right? It's dropping a bucket and you
have to be able to appreciate where you came from and now
where you're going. And that process takes a long
time. That's not just throwing ladders
of pushing hoses, but now it's learning how to drive, learning
how to pump, learning how to treat people right, learning,
learning more advanced skills like continuously learning about

(01:38:31):
the job. And if you don't appreciate that
part, and if you feel it's too long, you're going to start
taking shortcuts. So you're going to start really
pissing people off because you're they're not going to
want. If you act like I know it all,
then when someone's trying to teach you something, they're
just going to shut down and go, well, forget it.
This guy doesn't want to learn. He apparently knows it all.
Every time I try to tell him something, he, he shuts me down
and says I've already done it. So appreciate the process.

(01:38:54):
Appreciate the people that are trying to give you the knowledge
and the skills to be better. Because if they didn't care and
if they didn't give a shit, theywouldn't give you that
information because they see something in you.
So you got to appreciate that process of people wanting to
educate you to further, to further your education, to
further your skills and to further your career.

(01:39:15):
So the process is a long road. It's, it's still, I mean, for
me, it's still, it'll be ever going.
So you got to appreciate that process of your whole career of
how to get where we're at today.I love it.
I mean, you're, you're representing with that answer.
You're representing the basics of the fools, that constant
learner. That's what you're saying.
They're like, Hey, I know for a fact me personally and I I agree

(01:39:37):
with you wholeheartedly. I need to learn every day, You
know, there is no such thing, especially lately, I'd say
within the last five to 10 yearsin the American fire service.
Things are so much different andchanging rapidly between just
the nature of the calls were going on between the climate,
the political climate being different electric vehicles,
stored energy insert everything that the old timers did not have

(01:40:01):
to worry about that we're now presented with and we're we're
learning on the fly, you know, so it's it's.
If anything before it's like, hey, you have to be willing to
change. I think the time is now.
But like you said, trust the process because it's it's ever
dynamic right now, you know, so dude.
It's we're we're, we're forever the student of the craft.

(01:40:22):
Any good firefighter workers, weight and salt will always be
the student of the craft. Whenever you say you're done
learning or you know it all, it's time to retire.
There you go. I love it.
And so we're. Always learning.
And I've run into some of those guys were like, you know, I'm
done. Be like, well, you should retire
now, you know, so it's good. So with that, let's get to the
last one last question. This is my favorite question.

(01:40:43):
So if you could snap your fingers right, king of the day
magic, right through FM fucking magic, something would change in
the American fire service. Get rid of something, add
something, literally it doesn't matter.
But through no sweat equity, immediate gratifications.
What would it be and why fire? Prevention.
No, I'm just kidding. Honestly, I guess I'd go back to

(01:41:03):
I I go back to our original topics we were talking about
would be workplace PTSDI think that if I could stop my fingers
and get rid of that and that where everyone could love
everyone and we stopped eating each other, that would be it.
That's awesome. Yeah.
And like I said, and we do a really good job of eating our
own. I don't know why we just we have
and it's just I, I don't know ifit's a personality of the guys

(01:41:26):
on the job or, or what, but yeah, it's the eating of our own
sucks, you know. So I, I, I think that whole PTSD
coming forefront. Yeah, like no one said that yet.
That's awesome. So just completely eliminated.
We could be immune to it and that would be, I used to think I
was immune to it when I was younger.
You know, I'm sure you were probably in the same boat, just
buried deep. And then wash it down the cores
like you're good to go, right? Exactly, dude, like I didn't and

(01:41:47):
get like because well, back in the day too, like I love to, I
love to get in fights. So if anyone ever pissed me off,
I would get in a fist fight. Well, I can't do 1.
You know, being older, you got kids, you have a career.
Like you can't be fighting everybody.
And honestly, you can't really be a Dick to everybody either
because it's not going to go, it's not going to bode well for
your career. So I wish that if I could snap

(01:42:08):
my fingers and change something,it would be that we live in an
environment and the fire servicewhere we stop eating our own
social media wise, especially social media do right.
Like I know, like it's crazy to talk about fire service and
social media, but it's become a big, big process in our world
and it's good and bad. But the problem is we got people
that just will, will destroy youon social media and they'll try

(01:42:30):
to take you down if they don't agree with you.
And it's same thing in the fightinside the Firehouse.
People are really good about talking behind your back.
And once it gets to you, it hurts a lot.
And I've been there, I've dealt with it.
And honestly, it's, it's, it sounds weird, but been kind of a
blessing because if I didn't go through the struggles I had with
my previous department, it probably wouldn't be where I'm

(01:42:51):
at today. You know, I, I wouldn't have the
can report probably. And I, I wouldn't have such love
that I have now to learn from those difficulties and the
negative impact, You know, again, I can't say enough.
Turning a negative into a positive is what I preach daily.
Because if you've never experienced it, it humbles you

(01:43:11):
greatly. And learning humility hurts.
And if you've never been humbledand you've never learned
humility, and then you get to be40 years old and it finally
happens, some people might not bounce back from that.
It's it's a slap in the face, dude.
And as, and anybody out there who's never been humbled, once
it happens, this job will humbleyou real quick.
You think you can go 20 years without ever going to happen.

(01:43:34):
All of a sudden, you know, someone will approach you or
something will happen to you in the in the fireground.
And Mickey Merrill, literally just Mickey Farrell just talked
about that, about being humbled on the fireground, about not
wearing a PPE correctly. But I'm talking about personal
shit and like the workplace PTSD, the toxic work
environments, those are the things if you are a bully.

(01:43:55):
And finally, when someone tells you that, it'll help you real
quick. So that's my biggest thing.
I would love to make sure that we could add that.
And if I could snap my fingers, that'd be one thing that I would
love to see eliminated from the fireworld is our mental health
issues. Well, listen brother, that's it,
You know, thank you so much. We sat down for almost 2 hours.
I, I love the fact that every time I, yeah, every time I sit

(01:44:18):
down, I'm thinking it's going tobe like an hour Max and it's, it
never is. So like especially when we get
on tangent, but that means it was a good conversation.
More importantly, dude, thank you so much for taking time out
of your Sunday to sit down and talk to me.
Like I said, I love your podcast.
I listen to it. It's on my list.
It's going to end up being on myreferred list now for this and

(01:44:40):
do keep keep doing a strong workin the Northeast.
We're going to keep plugging away on the West Coast and I am
super excited to run into you ata conference here in the near
future. Hopefully, brother.
Yeah, I certainly hope so, man. It's been a pleasure.
I'm a talker anyways, that's my job now, right?
So I love to talk, and talking to people like you makes it
easy. And I still have family that
lives in Scottsdale, so maybe ifI get to visit them I can make a

(01:45:04):
visit to to over to your side and make the words stop.
Absolutely. If I'm at the Academy, you can
be a guest instructor a day. If I'm back on the truck, you'll
just ride with us for the day, brother.
We'll figure something out. Deal and deal.
We'll make it happen. All right, dude, we'll listen.
Thank you again so much. Everyone listening.
Thank you. Please check out Mr. Goldstein's

(01:45:24):
Instagram and definitely the podcast, the Can Report.
Awesome, dude. And we will catch you in another
two weeks. Thank you so much.
Bye, 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

(01:45:46):
and fitness, and the people we are sworn to protect, imagine
what this job would be like. See you in two more weeks.

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