Fools end of Season 1 Recap

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome everybody, Copper State Fireman Podcast.
It's podcasters for firemen burning the ships of
complacency, laziness and excuses.
We're promoting love and passionfor the job, encouraging
eagerness and mastering the craft of the fire service.
Remember, the information, opinion, values, recommendation

(00:24):
and ideas are the host and the individuals of this podcast and
are not affiliated or endorsed by the fire department's
organization or companies the individuals work for.
This podcast is for general information use only.
Brought to you by the Copper State Fools and sponsored by

(00:45):
Solid Foundation Team LLC Let's go All right, welcome back.
This is a special episode. So this is wrapping up season 1
of Copper State Fireman podcasts.
We're sitting down here with a couple E board members.
We have the president of copper State fools, Kevin Weiss, and I
also have one of our E board members too, Dave Coulson.

(01:06):
You remember him from the secondepisode.
All right, so it it's cool because we started this thing
about six months ago now we're just wrapping up season 1.
And when we started and sat downon day one, season 1 episode
one, it was us 3 in your house, Kevin, right?
And we said that the first episode was going to be 30 to 40

(01:27):
minutes Max, right, including the questions for the end of the
season. And then we ended up going like
an hour and a half with you. Then we did Dave right after,
then went like 2 hours and then had to rerecord you, Kev, you
sound about right, right? So super professional on our
end. But again, we stay in the fire
service all the time. You don't know what you don't
know, right? And it's exactly what comes down

(01:48):
to this podcast. You just don't know what you
don't know. So we appreciate you guys
staying with us, following us, liking us, sharing everything
else. It's, it's a huge thing.
It helps us grow. And we're just trying to spread
the good word of firemanship andbrotherhood.
That's, that's all it comes downto right now.
So I, I'm sitting down here withtwo of the most important people

(02:09):
for the Copper State fools rightnow and we're just going to
scrap about what happened last year, what we're looking forward
to and everything else. So Kev, I'll start with you.
So we have our first calendar year in the books right now.
So we've been around for all of 2024.
We're the only chapter in Arizona right now.
Actually, I'll let you correct that, but it was a pipe dream of

(02:31):
ours we talked about in the beginning and then it's it's
kind of been gangbusters since. So it's picking up a lot of
traction. We expected a lot of pushback
from management departments, unions, you name it.
And it's been, it's been nice tobe the exact opposite.
I know all of us has been approached by multiple people in

(02:53):
different departments in different rank structures and
everything else that has had a chance to listen to the show and
it's been all positive so far. So, Kev, just kind of, if you
don't mind, just talking to the audience about kind of what we
did last year, what our meetingswere about over the last
calendar year and then we'll kind of get into what we're
going to do in the future. How's that sound?

(03:15):
Yeah, sounds good. So we had our quarterly
meetings. We we're probably about 30
members strong right now. And we had a class on search and
rescue. We had a class on EV
extrication. We had a class on Dave.
Help me out. We had.
A tactics class. Tactics.
Was with Noah cats. Yeah, yeah.

(03:36):
The search. So Captain Cats, right?
Yeah. Yeah, of course, the most
important and most recent one isthe one that we just drew a
brain fart on on that one. All right, So, yeah, we, so we
do quarterly meetings, right? You just kind of listen.
So break down to the audience that that that they don't know
they're not fools members. Or maybe considering it, what
exactly entails a Fools meeting?Yeah, so we always start the

(04:00):
meetings out with toast to the fallen brothers that have passed
since the last meeting. So we pull all the line of duty
deaths from the last meeting. We read the names, where they
came from and the cause of death, have a pre scripted toast
that we do for the honor to honor the fallen brothers.
From there we do E board minutesor E board talks.

(04:22):
Everybody says their piece, whatthey have to say, and from there
we introduce everybody that's inthe crowd that attended the
meeting, Have them tell them just their name, what city they
work for, their time on the job,and kind of their why behind,
like why they want to be a part of the Fools and why they
attended the meeting. From there, we usually roll into
the training nugget and then once the training Nuggets over,

(04:44):
it's kind of just camaraderie and brotherhood and just
enjoying it and bracing it all. It's always a beautiful thing.
So as a president and really thethe tip of the spear for the
Copper State fools, right now, you are the pretty much the sole
contacts. So for guys that want to become
members, especially for Copper State fools, because that's what
we're kind of focusing on right now, how would they do that?

(05:06):
They can reach out to us via e-mail at
[e-mail] or follow us on social media.
We have an Instagram and a Facebook.
Send us a direct message or comment on a post.
I usually respond to those within 48 to 72 hours and I'm an
open book. My phone's always on.
My phone's listed on those sitesand call me and text me.

(05:27):
I have people reaching out to meprobably once every couple weeks
asking questions. And I know we have a lot of
people coming to this next meeting that are really looking
forward to attending. Yeah, I just had a bunch of
senior guys approach me within the last week that just happened
to catch a podcast episode by accident.
And then we're really inquiring like, hey, what's this Copper
State fools thing about? And then more importantly, hey,

(05:48):
how do I become a member? And I kind of tell them all the
same thing. And I'm curious on how you how
you look at this. So meetings are free meetings.
You don't even have to be a member to come to the meetings.
You never have to become a member, right.
So when we started this, this isnot for money, this is not for
anything else. The idea behind this was, is to
build this camaraderie, brotherhood inside a

(06:08):
brotherhood. But more importantly, I think
for us, and I'll ask both you guys individually, what kind of
your vision is, is I always looked at it was we don't have
the opportunity out in the area that we are on the West Coast to
have as many classes as the guyson the East Coast have
availability to them. And it comes down to location,

(06:30):
obviously. So if we want to take a class in
New Jersey or so or Pennsylvaniaor something like that, you're
talking $1000 in airfare plus hotels plus time off work, boom,
boom, boom. We all have families, kids, you,
you name it, life in general it,it costs a lot of money.
It's a big ask. So we always wanted to be able
to offer something out here. So that was kind of the, my

(06:52):
initial vision was to make this eventually this West Coast
juggernaut, you know, even afterall three of us are gone,
hopefully it just keeps rolling.And then that can class that
firefighter Smith wants to take really bad.
Guess what, we can have it out here on the West Coast, right?
So all these departments around here can have access to that
stuff. So kind of what was your vision

(07:12):
for this year? And then we'll kind of get into
the upcoming year for 2025 that we're in right now.
Yeah, I think we, I think we hitour vision.
We hit the nail on the head on that one.
You know, we started out, one ofus from the E board would teach
a class and then towards the endof the year, we had the last two
meetings, we had somebody come in, we had somebody come in and
teach tactics. We had somebody come in and

(07:33):
teach search and rescue. And we're getting bigger and
better names in there and just building upon that and
expanding, trying to offer the best classes that we can because
like you said, there's not many opportunities out here for
training. And even these 3045 minute, hour
long training Nuggets are super impactful.
And every time a meeting's over,somebody's reaching out saying,

(07:54):
hey, this was amazing. We appreciate what you guys are
doing. And we just want to build upon
that and eventually get on to the hands on classes and just
keep building. Hopefully someday a conference,
right? It's just takes time, time and
money. And we're just building funds
right now, get members and acquiring whatever we need to
get that started. That's great.
So I don't know if we've talked about this yet, Kev.

(08:17):
And before I go to Dave, is there going to be any talk about
the future of maybe so we have swag, right?
We have T-shirts, we have coins,we have stickers, everything
under the sun. Is there any way that somebody
from not our region can go aheadand purchase those from from us?
Oh absolutely, I've I've mailed out shirts, patches and coins to
probably 20-30 different states already.

(08:38):
OK, so how do they do that for the guys that haven't reached
out yet? Same thing, just e-mail us or
direct messages on social media,send me your address.
I usually add about 5 bucks to the charge just to cover
shipping and I'll get it out within a week or two.
Just whenever I got a free day to go to the post office or drop
it off wherever. And ship it out.
But yeah, we have shirts, patches, stickers, coins and

(08:59):
hats right now. Yeah, amazing.
And are there pictures of all those items on our website yet?
Yes, on Think on Facebook and Instagram we had there's you got
to Scroll down a little bit, butthere's a post on there and we
do trade patches and coins too. So if people aren't interested
in that, we're always down for that.
There you go. I love that.
That's a firemanship 100% right there.

(09:20):
All right, so we'll switch up a little bit, Dave.
So we got Dave Carlson, Captain Dave Carlson, right?
He was episode 2 talking all about forcible entry.
So, Dave, so the last year for the fools, how'd it go for you?
I had a great time with it. I mean, you guys kind of touched
on this that we started just sitting behind the station and
kind of Kevin approached us of, hey, have you guys heard of
this? What do you, what do you think?

(09:41):
And we all had. And so I think our plan right
from the beginning was we are just trying to pass on the
message. We've all gotten outside of our
own comfort zone and gone to other places to learn and
realize there's so much out there that that you don't know
until you get the opportunity togo learn it somewhere.
And we're trying to just continue that journey and keep
passing on information. And a lot of it is we got a lot

(10:03):
of thing for people trying to come up into this fire service.
But once you get in here, we want to keep that knowledge and
growth going. So given that opportunity to
guys to get involved and come take a class that doesn't cost
you flying across the country. I've I've gone to classes in
FDIC in Indiana. I've gone over to Florida.

(10:24):
Like one. I appreciate my wife letting me
go do those things most importantly.
But yeah, it cost money to to pay for a conference then fly to
the conference to get a hotel room like it adds up quickly.
So we're trying to just bring more of that knowledge and
experience back here so that we can have more local people get
the opportunity to do those things that flying someplace

(10:46):
else to go to class is just not an option for them.
So it's been a good year. I mean, we've gotten to do the
training class. We've had the meetings have had
been great success with the guyshave come in the next two we
have come in. We got Jason Stefan from Gilbert
Gilbert fire coming in do a ladders class.
And then we have Chris Slayer, Battalion Chief out of Mesa,

(11:09):
come to a mid rise class or the next two at our meeting and
they're they're going to be good.
I know those both those gentlemen really well and I look
forward to what comes out of that.
And then over this past year, we've also got one hands on
class that was a forcible entry class that we actually hosted in
one of our E board members houseor sorry, his dad's house,

(11:32):
because he had the space. We had people come up from all
over the all over the state of Arizona for the class and it was
a it was a great class it. Was the farthest that one dude
drove to get to. Sierra Vista.
So how far of a drive was that? Is that 4 hours?
Man, why you got to put us on the spot.
Well, I'm asking because I don'tknow.

(11:53):
Southern Arizona is somehow niceand cool over there, way up in
the mounds. So it's beautiful, let's say two
to four hours, right? But that just shows the, the
need I feel like, or the desire guys have, as much as we might
not hear, sometimes guys are freaking they're, they want
this, they want the training opportunities, they want the

(12:14):
brotherhood, they want the buff,you know, like the hey, I'm into
the fucking job. Let me find guys that are into
the job too, right? And, and that's what we're all
about. And that's what we're trying to
do, spread the message of, hey, it's fucking, it's OK to be cool
and it's, it's cool and it's OK to be into the job, right?
Fire department T-shirts are cool.
You know, it's, I remember coming up from the old timers

(12:35):
and they're like, all you're going to have is fire department
T-shirts. You know, guess what?
All I want is fucking fire department T-shirts,
motherfucker. You know, like that's, that's
all I want. I have like a collared shirt
outside of one collared shirt for work.
But like, what else do I want towear?
Like this is, this is my jam. I've been doing it for, I just
hit 19 years now. And it's just like, I couldn't
imagine doing anything else or talking about anything else.

(12:55):
You guys kind of feel the same. Oh.
Definitely, yeah. Yeah, second generation.
This is all I can eat, sleep, breathe.
Firefighting. It's best job I've ever had.
Right. So with everything you guys just
said and I want to hear from both of you, right.
So something that like we've been very busy collectively as a
fool's organization right now just trying to spread the word

(13:17):
and fight any naysayers or much from the beginning and then just
keep pushing the good message. I and I believe we're doing a
good job because of the positivefeedback we've been getting.
So what was an individually, I'dlike you guys to answer what was
your biggest challenge this year?
When it comes down to the fools with I don't, I want, I don't
want to say membership because Iwant to talk about our
membership. I just want to talk about

(13:37):
firemen in general from the beginning of 2024 to the end.
Like what kind of pushback or any issues at all you guys came
across? I'm just curious.
I will say the first thing that pops my head on it is really
just getting people to understand what it is, OK.
I, I mean, we tell people like, Hey, this is what we, what we

(13:59):
have to offer. And they're just like, I don't
get it. Because in this region, the only
thing out there are Infinity groups that are their base to
help people get hired on the job.
So when it's like, no, it's not about helping somebody get into
this career field field. It's it's about firemen who want
to go talk to other firemen about firemen shit.

(14:20):
And that's, that's the hard thing that it's weird that
that's hard for people to kind of get a good grasp on when you
start talking like, oh man, we, we're getting together.
We're going to, we're going to talk shop, we're going to give a
class, we're going to talk some more shop.
We might have a beer or two together while we do it.
We'll definitely have a couple beers together, right For sure.

(14:41):
Yeah. And it's like, as simple as that
is, and then the bigger picture of trying to get all those
training goals that we have beyond just the meetings, like
those are things that it was shocking to me for how many
people had a hard time being like, wait, what?
So why are you doing this? It's like both.
Our only intention is to pass knowledge on and, and gain

(15:04):
knowledge. That is it.
And so I think that's the, I feel like in my opinion, what I
kind of sense from people that was the biggest challenge to get
across. Before we go to Kevin, I'm
curious because I, I know this story and I kind of want the
listeners to hear it. What was the question you
received from a, let's just say a cross bugle right about our

(15:29):
group making money? Yes, I think the question or
yeah, the question was why are you not trying to make money?
Yes. That was the question.
So just talk about that real quick.
Yeah, Long story short, had a very, very good member in front
of me and we were talking about some training things and we were
having some challenges within our department to facilitate

(15:53):
kind of something we want to do.And I was, I was actually not
even a part of the meeting. I was just standing on the
outskirts listening, waiting foran opportunity to chat with
them. And there are a lot of red tape
going through of how do we pay for stuff?
How do we do it? How do we bring in the right
instructors? And I kind of just inserted
myself into it about, hey, what if there was a third party

(16:14):
entity that has instructors I can teach this.
All they're looking is to chargea fee that covers the cost of
putting this on and, and really making, making the magic happen
and get firefighters out there to learn.
And, and he was kind of looking at me very much intrigued.
And he was, he's like, OK, OK, talk more, keep going.

(16:35):
And one of the other, one of theother people in here who is a
fools member, he started laughing.
He's like Chief, he's he's talking about himself.
He's he's talking about the fools.
And I'm like, yes, I said the Copper State fools, we out here
like this is this is what we want to do.
We want to, we want to put on legit classes that we can bring

(16:57):
people from all over the region to run a class.
We at that particular time we were talking about doing a zip
class A0 impact class, which consists of really it's we're
looking at the the 1st in due operations of a truck.
So we're not a truck any companycoming in.
So it is the forcible entry, throwing ladders, hose line

(17:19):
management, moving through a building, moving hose.
So really those first 5 minutes when a fire goes off and unit
gets on scene, that is what it is.
That 0 impact period is has become the name of it because
we're trying to decrease that zero impact period.
And when we, when we talked about that, when that air brake
first gets on scene, how long does it take us to make a change

(17:43):
in that fire? Our goal is to minimize that
because that whole time from theair brake gets there and we
haven't changed that. We're making zero impact on that
fire. So we're trying to lessen that
number as drastically as we possibly can.
And that stuff comes with, honestly, it's the basics, going
back to the basics of getting good with forcible entry,

(18:03):
getting good with pulling hand lines, getting good with
throwing ladders, getting good with moving through a building,
know how to flow water, be in a good way to flow high, flow low
move as a as a unit throughout there.
So that's the baseline of the class that we were talking about
that specific time we talked, hewas loving everything.
And we're definitely working towards doing that in the
future. And then the next conversation I

(18:25):
had with him, he came back and this is the story that you were
asking about his first questions, like Dave, he's like,
I love everything you were saying.
I love what you guys have wantedto do.
He's like, my first question is why don't you try and make money
and. What was your answer?
That's wasn't our goal. Right, that's not what we're
about right. The the goal of this is to keep

(18:46):
our head above water, right? Have enough money to be able to
pay instructors to come out and for material and that's it,
right? And it's, it's to spread the
good word. We're probably the only group
around this area that I know of that's 100% free 100% of the
time. And you never have to join and

(19:07):
you can reap every benefit except for you don't get a
membership card, right? One of the other things about
the fools I really like is the fact that we get to pick our
members. So there are no mots allowed.
No one's allowed just to get a card.
You know, we are unfortunately in the fire service now.
My personal opinion, there's guys out there that are union
members because they have a cardand they feel like it's cool

(19:29):
that they have a card and that'sit and they don't do anything
with it. You know, it doesn't mean
anything. So with us, it does mean
something. And those members that we
identified do not become fools members, period.
The end, you know, so we get to that everybody, but like I said,
those guys don't come to meetings anyway.
I've we've never denied somebody.
I don't imagine we ever would, but it's nice to know that

(19:52):
you're going to if you do join agroup, you're joining a group of
like minded individuals. It's not a cool kids club.
It's not everybody's club. You know, just like we've talked
in previous episodes, not everybody can do this job.
Not everybody should be a cop ora fools member.
Not everybody. You know, needs to listen to the
podcast, whatever the case mightbe.
But So what with what you were saying, Dave, like the 0 impact

(20:15):
period. Just if you guys haven't had a
chance to listen to go back a couple episodes, Captain Chong
Saeng talks all about the zip class in detail.
And it's a great class that if you ever come across it and find
it, please take it. Nozzle, Ford's another one.
And you said Chief Chris Slayer,correct?
So we talked about him. He's the one that brought the

(20:37):
zip clots to us, correct, For the most part.
Yeah, he, when he first put it together, it was originally
called tactical Hose Management and it was a combination.
He's done a lot of traveling. He's the president of the Fire
Nuggets and he took a combination of Aaron Fields, his
nozzle forward, Brian Brush's exponential engine, and then

(20:58):
kind of took it and adapted it to more of the style and the
tactics in the valley and came up with his his tactical hose
management. And that's what what he worked
on. And then at after a couple years
of that, it was making the adjustment to broaden it into
not just the hose work. Then it was all right, let's

(21:21):
let's actually like open up and start looking at the bigger
picture of what are all the actions that go on in those
first couple minutes. And that's where we kind of add
in the forceful entry, add in the ladder stuff to it and all
of those initial attack tack or not tactics, but past needs that

(21:44):
go on and build it all into one class so that we can just really
kind of hammer all this in how it all comes into play.
That process changed it. He changed the name into the 0
impact period or zip class and that's kind of where has started
from there. That's good.
So I mean we got a good little knowledge and history background

(22:05):
about this, so that's awesome. So Kev, same question, right?
So how was last year for you president of the Copper State
Fools, right? And more importantly, after you
talk about your year, what what was your favorite part of last
year when it comes down to the fools?
Well, the biggest obstacles, Dave stole both of mine.

(22:27):
But I think to elaborate more, like, yeah, like trying to get
people to understand what it wasand then the same thing, like
people were like, what do you mean these meetings are free?
Like, why aren't you guys charging or like, because that's
not what this is about. This is about getting brothers
together and embracing the brotherhood and embracing
firemanship. You know, I think my favorite

(22:47):
part about this last year, one part would be definitely hosting
that forcible entry class. I think that was a huge step for
us. That was fun too.
That was fun. We had a blast with that.
And just like getting the ball rolling on having bigger names
and training and like, you know,the things that come yet, which
I'm sure we're going to get into, like it's everything that

(23:09):
we could have hoped for and our dreams are just coming true, you
know? Yeah, I agree 100%.
Like the attractions gaining andit's all been positive which is
amazing. That's all we wanted, expecting
the worst and then getting the best, which is awesome.
I'm really looking forward to this year and to, to see how we
grow as a, as a membership and as a group.
And hopefully we this year we can have host a bunch of

(23:32):
training evolutions and, but we'll, we'll see facility wise
and everything else. And again, we are in the Valley
in the state of Arizona. So if you are listening to this
and you do work for a departmentaround here and you do need
instructors to teach some of these classes, always reach out
to us. We're more than happy to come
out and help when it comes down to that.

(23:52):
So we talked about last year, Kev, let's talk about,
especially as the president, what is your, what your personal
opinion right now? What's your vision and what
would you love to see accomplished this year because
we just stepped into 2025 now. Yeah.
And I think honestly we're goingto accomplish it already with
this first meeting is I wanted to diversify where we host these
meetings. And this next meeting we're

(24:13):
already choosing a new venue. The reason why I want to
diversify where we host them is to make it more accessible for
everybody in the Valley, right? We've always hosted them in our
city, but if we host them in other cities, it's going to be
easier for outlining departmentsfor people to come in.
All right. And then I think my biggest
vision for this upcoming year isgoing to be obtaining our 5O1C3

(24:36):
so that way we can start using facilities and hosting actual
hands on training and building upon that.
And I think they're going to be excellent trainings.
We have an excellent group here of instructors, all passionate
firemen, all very knowledgeable firemen.
I think I'm the most junior guy with 10 years on the job, you
know, like so tons of experience, tons of wealth of

(24:56):
knowledge that we are super excited to pass on to the new
upcoming firefighters. To do I love it so and again,
anybody listening to We Are, I want to say we're struggling,
but we're learning the steps as we go, right?
So if anybody is listening out there and we haven't
accomplished it yet by that point, please reach out to us.

(25:16):
If you've gotten your 5O1C or you know someone that can help,
please reach out to Kevin Weiss.You can find them on again,
Instagram and Facebook. We're always willing for any
additional help just to kind of get our feet wet in that process
because again, we're learning this system as we go to.
You go with that, brother. Yeah, I agree.

(25:37):
And with that, if anybody is in the social media game, I feel
like we could definitely use some help there.
Yeah, and that's what I'm actually finding out a lot.
Just me personally running the Instagram page for the podcast
or a podcast. It's just like, man, it's like a
freaking job. Like you got to post every day
and like multiple times and you got to share other people's
stuff. It's like, holy cow.

(25:58):
And I've never been a social media guy.
So I've been I've been trying tolearn for sure.
I've been impressed how much you2 have gotten out there.
More so Steve than me. I'm.
He's killing it. And I'm barely treading water
right now. I'm trying, I'm trying.
So, so Dave, what about you? What are you looking forward to
or what would you love to see this year, in 2025 For the, for

(26:20):
the, for the fools? Yeah.
I mean, obviously I'm on board with Kev, with our with our plan
that we've talked about. And kind of what we really want
to kind of see there is I want to see with the training side of
it that we get almost more consistent around the region
that whether two things I'd likeus to to host would be doing a
zip class, doing a ladder Academy as well.

(26:42):
That would be amazing right there.
It'd be, it'd be great and it'd be a great opportunity for all
the region out here. And I know, I know the biggest
thing when it comes to actually putting these classes on and
getting agencies to send people is if we can actually have them
planned out. So we do say we do one in the
spring and one in the fall and it's a consistent thing that

(27:03):
then other agencies can actuallyforecast, hey, we want to send
ten people to this and this is what it cost.
April, November. These guys host something right
you. Don't want to do it in the
summer? No, I'm going to speak up now
and say no. You know how?
Many forceful entry classes I'vetaught in the dead of heat and

(27:23):
the the first one I did when it was just miserable August,
Arizona and I was like, oh man, you guys want to wait?
And the, the other gentleman that I was talking to, he was
just like, Dave, if people don'twant to sit in the heat and do
this work, they're not going to come.
But all of us that, that want togo, we don't care.

(27:44):
I'm like, dude, I'm in, let's dothis.
Oh, there you go. So yeah, we got a little extra
water and kept going. So, yeah, if we can do if we can
do like a zip class at one end of the year and a ladder Academy
the other end and then make thata consistent thing year after
year. And we can build the cadre,

(28:05):
obviously build build the knowledge base in the valley and
really just have a consistent effort going out there from
everybody that that wants to be a part of this and and grow and
build a whole nother level of new instructors that want to
come up and and be the next instructors, be the next RT OS
throughout the valley. It just what it can grow for the

(28:29):
fire service around here I thinkcould be amazing.
And then and it'll just honestly, it'll ease some of the
load for some of the administrations out there when
they're like, man, we really want this training.
We can't host it ourself. We can't put it on ourselves
because of the cost of it. Or liability or.
Liability or I mean there's so many, there's just so many

(28:50):
pieces to put some of it together.
But if it, if we're having a good product and we have a
consistent thing they can forecast like, you know, we
don't even need to worry about that.
It's it's coming. It's going to come in this time
for here in the Valley, while wealways have Arizona State Fire
School that agencies plan to send people there.
So they're sending there's a number of different classes over

(29:13):
there. And so that's a great thing.
And it's, it's kind of the same sense of not that we're, we're
trying to compete, we're not competing with anybody on
anything, but bringing other, other avenues to everyone to
actually start putting some workin and, and getting some more
knowledge. Yeah, I love it.
I love it. You got anything to add to that
Kev? I'd like to see a search class

(29:33):
for. Sure to be a search.
That would be fun. So it's funny, I literally
yesterday just taught targeted search then enter isolate,
right? So we all know that VIS we call
a targeted search out here to a bunch of captains that never had
experience. I'm talking 15 different
captains. The craziest thing about it from

(29:54):
all different departments, right?
Every single one of them was like, holy fuck, why are we not
doing this already? You know, and I'm like, yes,
exactly. And it's crazy, like as long as
vent enter search has been around the American Fire Service
and then vent enter isolate search, we came couple years
later. That's still been around for

(30:14):
eons, right? It is brand new out here.
And it's crazy because I remember when I first got hired
out here, that was my first question.
I'm like, why don't we go through windows, right?
And literally everybody said thesame fucking thing.
It's too, bro. It's too dangerous.
I'm like, what? What you mean it's too
dangerous? Like, are you fucking kidding
me? That's the easiest search

(30:34):
technique there is. I don't have to go through the
entire house. I don't have to worry about
hoarders. I don't have to worry about
who's like management. I have to worry about shit.
I'm going exactly where to the box I want to be in, right?
And now, finally, I don't know where the switch or what
happened when the light bulb came on for our section of the
country, but thank God it did right?

(30:54):
Do you guys have any idea like what happened?
Because the only thing I can think of, because it's not just
that it's the zero impact periodclass.
It's it's, it's a bunch of different things, right, that
are popping up that had been done on other coasts or in the
American fire service for years and years and years and things
that we just never did here. And then all of a sudden it's
now coming. I believe, and I could be dead

(31:17):
wrong. I believe that within the last
five years, we have been pullinga lot of younger instructors and
then instructors from other parts of the country that have
come out here here to work. And I kind of feel like their
influences finally affected the valley.
I don't know if that's right or not, but that's why I feel like.
What do you guys think? No, I definitely think that's a
piece of it. Another one is, I'll say my

(31:37):
first ten years on the job, I never even heard of anybody
going to a fire conference. It was never a conversation.
It was like, why would we need to go anywhere else?
Like we know everything and and I say that not as a a negative
thing, but we don't know what wedon't.
Know it was just the culture. It was, it was 100% just the

(31:58):
culture. And I think that's, that's all
changed. I think with the fire Nuggets
that we have here with some of the other conferences that have
come here, more people have gotten out of here and gone to
conferences to learn things. So we're starting to just branch
out and get some more of that, more of that information just
flowing back and forth. And, and so I think that's kind

(32:19):
of playing into some of the stuff that like, oh, hey, this
is this, this is some good stuffout there.
We'll say we we change across the valley vertical ventilation
and the type of cuts have changed.
I'd probably put it about 20, 10and which is ironic because
that's when I got to a ladder truck.

(32:40):
So yeah, that's that's so I throw that time out there.
So you did it. Yes, because before that I
didn't know anything about it. I learned in 2010, but a lot of
that was that all started and shifting how we do it did our
vertical ventilation here in thevalley, because I'll be honest,

(33:00):
it was it was Randy Fresetto from Surprise Fire.
He went and did a lot of knowledge that he gained over in
LA in that California region where ladder work is a lot of
heavy work over there. And he brought that here.
He started a lot of the the ladder ladder cadre that was
going on at that time and bring in basically building a ladder

(33:23):
Academy and passing that knowledge on to agencies all
around here. So I feel like that that was
kind of the shift if there it took somebody to kind of take
that burden on and really just hammer it home and and give us
the information. It wasn't for any benefit to
him. It was 100% the benefit for all
of us. So I think that's kind of the
start of it, is it? It takes somebody to step out

(33:46):
and just find that information and realize how amazing it is
and then get one person to 1st listen to them.
And then that person's going to start talking to another person
and start spreading that word and see how far you can take it.
Kind of kind of like this sitting at this table.
I'm curious too, do you guys think it's people like how we

(34:08):
refer to the outsiders? Yeah, 100%.
I honestly feel like the like the outsiders have finally are
starting to finally make a difference.
And I think it just took time because you bring in firemen
that have been firemen elsewhere, right?
And then you vet them and then you give them some time and
realize, all right, they're fucking, they're the real deal.

(34:29):
They're a gamer. And then you start listening
maybe, right. That could be part of it, but
it's I love it. And the crazy thing, just
Speaking of ladder work, real quick ladder work here in
Granite. I only got here in I went to the
Academy here in 2016, started testing out here in 2015.
But my biggest eye opener when it came down to being aggressive

(34:53):
in our system here was our ladder work because back east we
cut holes, right? But that was not our primary
ladder function as our first end.
It was ladder and windows, second means of egress, then
enter search, you name it, right?
A pride from the department I came from was you.
Like you look at the back of theladder at the end of the job and

(35:13):
there's not a fucking single ladder in there.
And we would take you to an extreme, which was strictly a
prideful thing. Like we would literally throw a
A3, fly 35 to a single story window because there's only a
single story. I don't know what degree that
is, like 160° or whatever, but God damn it, it's not on the
fucking truck. It's in the fucking window.

(35:33):
Like completely useless. That's awesome.
Again, it was it was a prideful thing.
And it's funny, I remember coming out here, I probably in
11 years back East cut less thantwo dozen holes, right?
And shit, there's been two dozenholes cut within the first year
here. You know, it's like, holy cow,
you know, like we ventilate a lot.

(35:54):
And I fucking love it because for the naysayers, for we're
talking vertical ventilation, right?
For the naysayers on that or theguys that get nervous when they
see a huge fucking fireball coming out the roof, This is why
I always tell them right, if thefire is going up and out, it's
not on the boys. So I'm happy with that.
I don't give a fuck what it looks like on the outside.
I'm current concerned about the guys on the inside, right and

(36:15):
how effective they can be in a search, right, and I'll get on a
quick little tangent. We got to remember like the hose
line and this might rub Dave thewrong way because he's a
freaking engine buff. Kevin, there's going to love me
for saying this, but my personalopinion again, and this is
always our personal opinions, right?
The hose line support search, the ladder company support

(36:35):
search, ventilation support search.
Because the only reason that we're there is to search and
find victims, right? The house is secondary, you
know, but we're there to find victims and everything else.
So that's my little rant on the ladder company stuff.
But again, it's it's crazy, likeall the stuff that's coming out
here. We've always been uberly
aggressive, I believe, especially in the department

(36:57):
that we work for. Thank fucking God, right,
because that's the biggest, the issue I keep hearing on all
these different podcasts about guys are struggling and two and
two out. We have to worry about that.
Thank God, right, Or struggling with chiefs, like literally not
even let them go in interior. You know, we always, typically I
say 99.9% of time default to aggressive interior tax.

(37:19):
We'll pivot if we have to, but typically we're very successful
with those. Rarely do you hear any of us
going defensive, especially on ahouse fire, anything like that.
You got anything to add, Kev? No.
I was just going to say that's why they call us the engine
angels. Yeah, you feed me too.
I, I just said that shit the other day to a bunch of nozzle
nerds around here, right? Because we were doing hose line
management and I literally said those exact words I said.

(37:41):
Because remember, when you look up and you see the Halo, that's
us, motherfucker, right? You're welcome.
Yeah, I can play on both sides of it too.
I'm going to have every rescue so I get to play with my engine
and a heavy rescue. Yeah, you're right.
So that's the best of both worlds right there.
No, I think there's something I want to talk about that you
mentioned is like, yeah, please.I learned in terminology in a

(38:01):
ladder class once that it's not self vented, it's burnt through.
Just because it's burnt through doesn't mean it's an adequate
ventilation profile. And I've been on multiple roofs.
I've, I haven't cut as much as Isounded just because I became a
senior fireman right away and wegot the booters cut.
But I've been on multiple roofs that were burnt through.
And then when we cut, when we got done, the Andrew crew was

(38:23):
like, thank God for that hole because as soon as you cut that
hole, we had immediate relief even though it was already
burned through. Right now, obviously within
safety precautions, like we're on a tenable portion of the
roof, we're not going to the port that's burnt through, we're
not cutting right next to that, but a portion of the roof that's
tenable and we can create an adequate vent profile like why
not? Yeah, that's it's crazy.

(38:45):
Speaking of ventilation and ladders, I'll talk about your
ladder for a second. So it's funny, your ladder went
ahead and ventilated on this single family dwelling, right?
It needed ventilation. A different city was interior,
right? Those two crew members had done
a face to face because over the radio, the Battalion Chief that

(39:07):
was running that call had said, hey, make sure you coordinate
ventilation with interior, right?
They did a face to face literally as a captain for a
ladder company is transversing the roof.
So hey, we need a fucking hole, right?
Copy. So no more communication.
We talk too much on the radio asit is around here, right?
So good for them. Like strong freaking work from
this, this company, they get up the roof quickly and this video

(39:30):
is out there and I've seen it all over social media, which
gives me a fucking chubby, right?
Because it's my fucking department, right?
It's my favorite fucking ladder company.
So it's like hell yeah. So it's made it all the way
around. And I love reading the comments,
the good ones and the bad ones. But anyway, the funniest thing
about that, that was a great hole, a needed hole.
Amazing freaking work from thoseboys up there.

(39:51):
Everything's said and done. That Battalion Chief initially
had a lot of fucking heartburn about that because that was a
face to face. So he didn't hear it on the
radio. So he's assuming that our ladder
company, right, self assigned, whatever you want to call it,
right, freelance and just cut a hole.
And that wasn't the case. At the craziest thing about it
though, is on the tail board, which a lot of chiefs like to do
now, you know, after the fire, if you guys don't know what it

(40:13):
is, do a quick little, just wash.
Hey, what was good, what was bad, what can we learn?
They're super beneficial. This Battalion Chief at the time
had heartache about it and was making it clear in front of
everybody, right? The coolest thing about that is
a different city, right? A different captain, and that
was the city that the Battalion Chief was from, woke up and

(40:33):
said, no, I did a face to face with that skipper, right?
We needed that hole. And thank God because if not,
and then he listed like 10 different reasons that if they
didn't cut that hole, how it would walk that whole attic
space and they probably would have lost the house or maybe had
to pull out, right? Because they were met with a ton
of fire that was running multiple rooms.
And they were the only engine company interior at the time,

(40:55):
right? Super early in the call.
So it's just I love seeing that stuff.
But more importantly, I love thefact that here in the system
that we work with, we can build those kind of relationships
where it's a completely different city, a much larger
city than we work for. And they go ahead and was like,
yes, and they're talking to their battalion going, no, they
did the right thing. That's what we needed.

(41:16):
This is the aggressive work and we all talk about it.
If we are really aggressive fromthe get go, we're going to be
successful. It's those aggressions or those
holes that are cut super late inthe game.
They are the ones that end up onInstagram, Facebook, and you
know, that typically don't turn out good or near misses or God
forbid, a line of duty from one of those things.
So with that said, we'll kind ofstart wrapping this up.

(41:39):
So I'll start with I'll start with you first, Dave, what are
you looking forward to this yearbesides the additional classes?
But what would what else would make you kind of happy on on our
vision for the following year besides getting a couple classes
then? You know, the one thing I want
to see is just the meetings growand I love seeing new people at

(42:01):
everyone, but continue to grow with them.
I mean, that's that is that's the grassroots that we're
looking for. So it's fun to see all the
people that come out to the meetings and ones that return to
it. And I think the complaint that
we all get the most is it's we always do it on somebody else's
shift. We they're mad they can't go,
But you know, we have those opportunities just to see those

(42:24):
meetings get packed and, and actually make a harder
scheduling issue like, hey, we want to go to this place, but
man, we're expecting 80 people and we can't.
Like that would be cool in my book that we just keep getting
to the point that we're getting pushed into a different location
because we we don't fit in thoseones.

(42:44):
So before I go on to Kevin, justto talk about meetings that I'm
going to follow with a question for you real quick, Dave.
So my favorite part of the meeting is when we do the round
Robin, right? So the round Robin is, hey,
Kevin always says the best because he always introduces
that part. Hey, if you've had any sizable
call at all, doesn't matter whatit is, a legit trauma, right, a

(43:04):
fire, whatever the case might be, let's do a little round
Robin. I think every meeting we've had
for the past year, we had someone had to grab right that
none of us would have heard about because they were in
outline cities or counties or fire districts or whatever.
We would never heard about unless they were there at the
fools meeting. And I know personally, I learned

(43:26):
from every single one of those calls.
So what about you, Dave? What's your favorite part of the
meetings? Yeah, no, I mean, that is, I
think one of the coolest parts. I I, I would have picked that,
but I'm going to have to go to something.
Oh, you can't. I know.
I got to, I got to go with a newone real quick.
Oh. I like shaking hands with
everybody. I mean, I got to say, I like the

(43:47):
the training class part the mostfor me, but that's biased
because I'm the one who has to figure out what that is and it
happens. So I like the people that we're
getting to come in and doing it.It's it's not on us and we're
not trying to be the, the peoplethat are the, you know, know,
all of everything. No, we're, we're reaching out to

(44:07):
beyond us and find people who are subject matter experts and
certain things are, are good instructors in, in areas and we
want to bring them in. So that's the part I like, but
that's probably because I put a lot of work into that side of
it. You set it up all right, Kev.
So, yeah, round Robin, same deal.
So what is your What's your favorite part of the meetings?

(44:28):
Honestly, I think it's the brotherhood, right?
Like where I came from, I came from a small organization,
single station, like 21 guys at the time, but we were the
tightest knit group of firemen that I'd ever seen.
Like, on our days off, we were together, Christmas, we had our
own Christmas party at kids birthdays, we were all there.

(44:48):
We were all, you know, I was Uncle Kevin and multiple kids.
Yeah. I love it.
You know, And like, at first that was kind of a culture shock
for me here. But then I just kind of realized
that we're just so big and we'rea roving fire department.
There's no consistency. Like, it's hard to build that.
But I've made that a personal mission of mine at my house.
And like, we meet by almost monthly now.
We go to someone's house. We go out somewhere.

(45:09):
We're going out to a movie this weekend.
We're having a party in a few weeks, like just getting the
brothers and sisters together and seeing that at the meetings.
Like guys from all over the valley coming out and just like
hanging out, talking the job, sharing life stories, asking
about families, like truly what it means to have brotherhood.

(45:30):
And we're seeing that at the meetings and I absolutely love
it. And that's, I mean, that is
thoroughly important the, the amount of shit we have to deal
with. And then I always hate saying
this, but the shit we see, whatever, it's part of the
fucking job. Like you're going to see shitty
stuff, but it runs a fucking toll on all of us over the
fucking years. You know, all of us have done
this for a very fucking long time now, right?

(45:52):
But that brotherhood and that fellowship for me personally
makes it all worth it, right? Because they're like, no one
understands truly, even our significant others, our family
members, unlike you, because your dad is actually in the fire
service. But outside of situations like
that, they, they think they understand, but they have no
fucking idea because we don't tell them everything.

(46:13):
Like we talk collectively as brothers, like, and then at the
meetings, I think it just lets us expand that brotherhood even
deeper. I don't know, but that's just
me. I I think on that it was a cool
thing Avondale had an entire crew come together.
Yeah, Yeah, that was, that was pretty awesome.
I mean, we need to get more of that.
All crews coming as an entire crew to the meeting, Yeah.

(46:34):
And like duty if yeah, I like to, I like to call it different
fire departments right now too, because it's like, I believe,
and just correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe
wholeheartedly Buckeye right now.
They're they're probably they'rekilling it when it comes down to
attendance and meeting and the desire for the knowledge and the
brotherhood and the fellowship and everything else.

(46:56):
And they're one of the farthest departments from us where we
work currently and where we hostthese events until the next, the
next meeting. But it's, I love that stuff.
Like, so you take these smaller departments and they're freaking
they're looking for this information and this, this
brotherhood and this desire to learn and be better, right?
And now we're finally an offer in it.
And it's, it's great to see people take advantage of that.

(47:19):
Like I hope and shout out to Buckeye fire department.
You guys are fucking killing it right now.
But I hope with that said, like other departments start stepping
up too and be like, yeah, dude, everyone's getting on board with
this. This is better for everybody,
everybody across the board, you know, so, but so with that said,
to try to wrap up a little bit, we just finished season 1.
So the idea behind this is at the end of every single season,

(47:42):
we'll do one of these roundtablewith typically E board members
as we get some more shows and we'll try to pull back more
popular guests. But it's this is strictly just
to let everybody know what we'reup to, what our plans are,
really just put our information out there again so they can
reach us. And again, we cannot do any of
this fun cool shit without support from you guys.

(48:02):
Listening. Please listen, please, like,
please share, talk about it. Come to a meeting if you can.
If not, just just reach out to us for the information or more
importantly, if you have something to add to us, please.
We are sponges, you know, so there's something that you
haven't heard us talk about thatyou feel is direly important.

(48:23):
Reach out. You know, if you want to be on
the podcast, reach out. People reach out to us every
single day. We'll just going to vet you to
make sure it's good information and it's what we desire.
And then we'll we'll get you on the show.
So Season 2 is already in recording.
Now we'll do another 13 episodes, maybe more.
We'll kind of see how it shakes out.
So before we close out Season 1,I'll start with Dave.

(48:45):
You have anything to add to the audience?
No, I appreciate y'all listeningto us.
I mean, it's it's been a great year for the Copper State fools.
And Steve, you've done an amazing job with the Copper
State Fireman podcast. It's thank you everybody for
listening. I mean, if nobody listens, yeah,
there's no point in US doing this.

(49:06):
And this, and I mean this is a labor of love because this
again, just like the fools, thismakes us no money.
This actually cost money. But it's worth it because the
whole idea behind this is to spread the word.
That's it, you know, and if you can't make a meeting, hopefully
this is the adjunct to it. Something else before I get to
Kevin too. So our next plan for Copper

(49:27):
State Fireman podcast is we're going to start putting some of
these training classes that we have on PowerPoint and then host
them on our YouTube channel witha audio in the background.
So it's almost like taking a class online.
So that's something that's coming this year for sure.
The first one will probably be targeted search actually won't

(49:48):
be. It will 100% be targeted search.
That'll be the first training nugget that we'll put out on
YouTube, followed by most likelyEV class.
And then we'll kind of we'll kind of go from there.
So we'll dig deep, but everything will be narrated.
So you can take a training classthat'll take an hour or so in
the comfort of your own home. So that's kind of the next
progression for us for the podcast.

(50:10):
I'm Kev. What do you have to add, buddy?
I just wanted to piggyback off of what Dave said like you're,
you're killing it with this podcast and it's it's made fools
so much more known. I'm getting asked about it all
the time. People are asking about the
podcast. People are asking how it's
going. Like it's been a phenomenal
experience. But the only thing I wanted to
add is our next meet is coming up January 27th.
Reach out to our e-mail or social media.

(50:32):
We'll send you all the details of the location and time.
I think it's at 6:00 PM. And like Captain Coulson said,
it's going to be over. Ground ladders will be the
training nugget. But other than that, it's just
going to be embracing the brotherhood and sharing stories
and remembering what this job's about.
All right, so I'm going to put you on the spot here, right?

(50:53):
And I'll edit it out If you fuckit up, it's OK, wink, wink.
I won't. But anyway, so this episode will
100% not air before that date. So January 27th was our last
meeting, right? It was ground ladders.
We'll talk about it later on howawesome it was because I know
it's going to be What's our following meeting?
April 15th. There you.

(51:14):
Go. That'll be taught by it'll be on
mid rise fires. Mid rise fires by who?
Chief Chris Slayer. There you go.
So, Chief Chris, Slayer, April. What was that, 15th?
15th, 6:00. April 15th, 6:00 PM.
If you need any additional information, reach out to our
President, Kevin Weiss on Facebook and Instagram for

(51:35):
Copper State Fools. And then that's going to wrap up
season 1. So again, thank you for everyone
listening again. This place would not exist
without you guys without your support.
Please keep coming, please keep commenting, share, come to a
meeting, hang out with the brothers.
There is no strings attached. It's just cool guys talking

(51:56):
firemen shit. And our only goal is to make
sure that you become a better fireman.
That's it period, the end. And in in all reality, we're
hoping to learn something from you too.
So with that, Kevin, thank you, brother Dave.
Thank you guys are awesome. And then we'll catch you guys
here shortly for Season 2. Have a great one.

(52:18):
Thanks for joining us. Always remember, the most
important grab you'll make in your fire service career is
saving a complacent firefighter from themselves.
Catch you next episode.