February 26, 2024 • 27 mins
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Blake Hudgins shares with us about her life as a firefighter for Little Elm Fire Department and what an impact LEFD has on our community.
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Episode Transcript
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Steven Killfoil (01:05):
Good morning Cross Roads. I'm your host,
Steven Killfoil. We want towelcome to the show today from
Little Elm Fire Department,Firefighter Blake Hudgins right
now. All right. Yes. I want tothank you, Blake for coming on
the show today. We first met youat this year's Little Elm Fire
Department's Citizens FireAcademy. Would you tell us a
(01:28):
little about yourself and whatyou do as a Firefighter with
Little Elm Fire Department?
Blake Hudgins (01:33):
Sure. Um, so I have been with Little Elm for I
think it's been about 14, almost15 months. There. They've been
just the most wonderful place. Ilove it. Without question.
Before that, I worked in thehospital for about 10 years,
moved here, grew up in Texas,moved to Hawaii for three years
(01:56):
and then moved back and thenstarted this career and it's
been man, I haven't looked back.
It's been great. Awesome.
Steven Killfoil (02:02):
Awesome. Well, I know recently, you've taken
some training classes, becausewe were we had to reschedule
this for today. By the way, howdid you do on the test?
Blake Hudgins (02:11):
You kind of got 100
Steven Killfoil (02:13):
Awesome, awesome. So you just went
through these classes and thistesting? So what was the
certification for and and howdid you go about it and how to
how did it transpire?
Blake Hudgins (02:23):
So to start you, so there's, there's civil
service departments, and there'snon civil service. And so
there's different requirementsfor each. So little elm is non
civil service. And so what thatmeans is, you basically have to
go to the Fire Academy, whichthere's a bunch of them in the
Metroplex, and you kind of pickwhich one you want to go to, and
you apply and you get in. Theyhave different time periods
(02:44):
summer for months, summer, ayear and a half. Like for high
school kids, they offer thosesummer night classes summer
during the day. So mine wasduring the day in DeSoto. And it
lasted from July to I think theend of October. And then I
already had my EMT, which is arequirement for little om. So
you have to have the two ofthose. It used to be you had to
(03:05):
have your firefighter and yourparamedic, but they found a lot
of cities found it was hard tofind paramedics, we have kind of
a shortage of them right now.
And so a lot of departments havechanged the hiring requirements
to firefighter EMT, with theconditional understanding that
when the chief says, Hey, you'regoing to paramedic school, then
you go. And so I started thattwo weeks ago. So when I had to
reschedule with you, we had juststarted and we had a very first
(03:28):
test coming up and I was justpanicked. But it passed with
flying. Yeah, it went great. Itwent great. Hey, yeah. So that's
what our department kind ofrequires. And so we're in our
first two weeks of that which isawesome and scary but you
basically don't go to work forthe whole like eight months that
you're in paramedic school youjust you're paid to be a student
(03:51):
basically and it kind of ups thethe odds of you passing and
doing well to just focus onschool because it's a job
requirement, you know, you haveto get through paramedic school
or, or then you got to go worksomewhere else. So it's kind of
a kind of important to focus soso that's where we're at now.
Steven Killfoil (04:08):
That's amazing.
Well, in in your day to dayoperations, could you share with
us some of the challenges youface as a firefighter.
Blake Hudgins (04:17):
I mean, coming from like the female
perspective, my my day to daychallenges are probably
different than a lot of the guysthat work there. You know, being
a firefighter everything isextremely heavy, and it's hot
and it's stressful and you don'tget good sleep generally even
even if you don't get a call inthe night you still are kind of
waiting for a call and so ittakes a number of years to get
(04:39):
to where you can get like a goodsleep cycle. So day to day just
between our training because wewe generally do like a fire
training one of the two days andthen we do EMS training on the
second day because we work 4896And so fire training on a day to
day is going to be you knowpulling hoses to make sure that
like if we go to a fire we knowwhat the right one Need to pull
(05:00):
a hose. So there's no kinks andyour setup at the door. And, you
know, houses are laid outdifferently as far as they can
be set far back. So you need topull a different length of hose
to get into the house and haveenough to fight the fire. We
also do things like victimremoval. So if we find someone
in a house, we know how to getthem out quickly and what what
good ways to drag them out and away that we can get them out
(05:24):
safely and quickly withouthurting ourselves another one,
you know, so good form whendoing that and different body
weights they may have, they haveclothes that you can grab and
pull them out by or if they justgotten out of the shower and
there was a fire like you needto be able to do these different
kinds of things, differenttechniques. We also work on
things like down firefighters,which is you know, all of our
nightmare when that could occur.
So we practice ways to changethe buckling on their, on their
(05:48):
air packs to where we can dragthem easily upstairs, downstairs
through a window. So webasically practice all that
stuff so that when the momentcomes that we have a fire and
these situations occur, mycaptain kind of always says you
don't rise to the occasion, yourise to your level of training.
And so we train for all thesescenarios that they can come up
(06:09):
with. So that when that momentcomes, you're like, oh, okay, I
remember this, from that daythat we trained it, this is what
I'm going to do. When your heartrates high, and you're kind of
panicking, you can kind of fallback on your training. And so
it's really important. And we'rereally lucky that we get to do a
lot of training, and let aloneto make sure that we're ready
for those those kinds ofsituations.
Steven Killfoil (06:27):
That's great.
I'm going to ask an off thescript question. So you could
give you a chance to reiterateand talk a little bit more about
what's difference between, saylittle m fire department and
say, the Dallas Fire Department,he said, one is a civil service
servicing and you're not civil.
(06:49):
So would you tell our listenersa little bit about the
differences of that? Absolutely.
How it applies to you guys.
Blake Hudgins (06:55):
So there's one big thing about civil service
and that's the the hiringprocess, they basically have a
list of of guidelines, they haveto follow in their hiring press
practice. Whereas like theirtheir pa t has to be a physical
agility test to get hired is thesame every time for every group
that comes through every person.
So that it kind of it keeps astrict structure to make sure
(07:17):
that everyone gets seen,everyone's judged fairly, their
interview questions are exactlythe same, their process is
exactly the same every time.
Whereas with non civil service,it gives us a little bit of
wiggle room to kind of changeand choose our own physical
agility test choose our ownlength of the interview process,
which ours is, ours is like twoand a half hours, which is is
(07:39):
compared to everyone in my fireschool, they were mind blown
when I told him how long it was.
But it gives our department achance to really find out your
personality to see if you'll fitwith this family because you
become a family when you startworking together in these long
hours and these stressfulsituations. So they want to make
sure that you're going to fitwith everybody so that it's more
cohesive. So that's a bigdifference between civil service
(08:01):
and non civil service. Butthere's other differences
between, you know, a small cityin a big city like our when I
was in fire school, I was in theinterview part of the hiring
process with Dallas and littleelm concurrently. And the big
reason that I chose little overDallas and ended up withdrawing
from Dallas, his applicationprocess was because I wanted to
(08:21):
be, I wanted to be a face thatmy chief knew I didn't want to
be a badge number that like,that's how they refer to me or
knew who I was, in situations, Iwanted to have this rapport with
the people above us because youknow, they're making all of the
decisions that affect us on adaily basis, being cared for by
a city, because when you seesomeone's face and you know
(08:42):
their name, it just changes theway that you're treated. And
that's just human nature. Youknow, like when you know
somebody, it's going to changethe decisions that you make that
affect them. So working for asmall city, not only do they
know, you and city council, butyour face, they recognize and
there's just something there'ssomething irreplaceable about
that it's just special. So thatwas that's the big difference
(09:04):
between a small city, I think ina big city.
Steven Killfoil (09:07):
Yeah, I'll add one more thing to that this
citizens Fire Academy. Iencourage everybody to enroll in
it. Definitely. And I'm going togive you an opportunity later on
to to go to tell everybody howto how they can do exactly just
that. I'm looking so forward tothe other offerings that they
(09:28):
were telling us about in theclass. But absolutely,
absolutely. I think is so doeslittle on Fire Department have a
program where you visit thelocal schools and teach about
fire safety at home, and haveyou ever had a chance to
participate in one?
Blake Hudgins (09:44):
So we have kind of two different things. We have
one thing where the schools willkind of just set up like a show
and tell and will come with anengine and an ambulance or a
truck and an ambulance or allthree and then PHSI which is the
helicopter service for airflying patients places, they'll
come. And the kids get to kindof funnel out and like walk
(10:06):
through our vehicles and talk tous and ask us questions. And so
there's not as much fire safetyper se, like conversations occur
where we talk about fire safety,but more of it comes from we do
this thing. And I remember theexact name, but it's basically a
clown group. And my chiefsactually part of it also. And
they get to go to the schoolsand talk to them, they put on
like a clown show. So like itkind of, it's more disarming to
(10:27):
see them and like the clownmakeup and the outfits, and it
makes it more fun. And the kidslike their attentions can stay
up with with what's going on.
They actually just went to Vegasand did the clown college. So
fire. Yeah, so firefighters fromall over the country go, and
this big conference, and theylearned basically the best ways
to kind of talk to kids andteach them how important fire
safety and stuff is. But onething I really liked about the
(10:51):
school, or when they come and dotheir walkthroughs at the
department is they usually haveus put all of our gear on,
including our masks, becausewhen you put all that on, it's a
little scary to like kids toyounger kids. So if they see us
in a fire, you know, we looklike astronauts or aliens to
them. And so I put it all on andI get down on my knees. And I'm
usually like, hey, like toucheverything that I'm wearing. And
(11:12):
if you see this ever just knowI'm there to help you. So don't
be scared and don't run, come tome because I'm a firefighter,
and we're here to help you. Andso it helps them to see more
than what they see on TV, whichis just like our big bunker gear
to actually see us with themasks on makes a huge
difference, because it can be alittle scary to little kids. And
so I love doing I love puttingall my gear on letting them see
(11:34):
it.
Steven Killfoil (11:36):
Oh, it can be a little scary for the big kids?
Absolutely, absolutely.
Absolutely. Well tell me, thetraffic and Cross Roads here, as
you know, is very challenging.
With all the construction goingon. Could you tell our listeners
how Little Elm Fire Departmentis dealing with that, especially
with regards to response times.
Blake Hudgins (11:58):
So that's a very valid concern to have with all
the construction, of course. Sogenerally, when construction is
going on, we have so we have ouremail at work. And we're
supposed to check it every day,especially on shift multiple
times a day. And our city sendsemails to us that tell us hey,
this is the construction isgoing on, they tell us ahead of
time, this is where it is thetimes it will be going on. So
(12:21):
that we know hey, this road isclosed and your captain and your
driver are generally very, verygood about keeping up with all
those things. Because, you know,one of our number one things in
being a firefighter is gettingto you guys as quickly as
possible, because we have thisphrase that seconds turn into
minutes. And that can be adifference between saving your
loved one, whether it's a fireor an EMS call. That can be the
(12:44):
difference between saving yourlife and not being able to and
so we keep up with those roadclosures because we know your
lives depend on it. So it's it'ssomething we don't miss.
Steven Killfoil (12:55):
That's great. I mean, the last session we had
actually covered over that. Theytook us outside the showed us
the drones and and the huge.
Looks like a Winnebago.
Blake Hudgins (13:12):
The big white bus. Yeah, the big white things
cool. You'll see it like littleon Park during the summer. And
it's got the big cameras up top.
Yeah, it's pretty neat.
Steven Killfoil (13:19):
Wow! I was really surprised.
Unknown (13:21):
Yeah, but also the other thing is, we emphasize
knowing your districts. So youknow, little elm has three to
three stations. Right now we'rebuilding a fourth. So when
that's your district, we do alot of map and we do, what's the
term that we use? Shoot it justknowing your district,
basically, its familiarity,familiarity of it. And so we'll
(13:46):
just drive around, if we lookfor our training on a day, that
we've been really busy, and wehave an hour, we'll go out and
we'll all of us will just godrive the city and then we'll
come back and we'll draw up themap and not label it. And then
we'll sit at the table and ourdriver will be like hey, what
city what street is this? Hey,what street is that? If that
streets close? What street canyou take that also connects to
the street. And so districtfamiliarity, that is what it is.
(14:08):
And so, we do that a lot too,regardless of the road closures,
but it just in case that dayhappens or there's a big party
or a rack and we can't getthere. There's always another
route to get there. And we makesure that we know how to do
that. And so it's kind of a teameffort.
Steven Killfoil (14:22):
Yeah, I remember when I was 18. And I
first moved to Dallas, one ofthe things that I did was a
bought two large paper maps,Rand McNally, and I pinned them
up on the wall in my apartment.
And every weekend I would driveand I would mark where I'd gone.
And I just started puttinglittle landmarks so that I could
(14:44):
familiarize,
Blake Hudgins (14:47):
The same thing we do.
Steven Killfoil (14:48):
I was from a real small town we had 12 whole
streets down our Main Street anda lot of stoplights and that's
about it. The back of your hand.
Oh yeah, I could drive itblindfold like out to the
metroplex, I was blown away.
Yeah. So I really learn it.
Blake Hudgins (15:05):
Our Captains and drivers are like that they they
know their districts like theback of their hand. And then on
top of that, you need to knowthe other districts, because we
get called with if, you know,Medic, two I met and I'm at
station one. So if if engine twoand and Medic two are all on a
call, and we get called to theirdistrict, we need to know, their
streets also. So knowing thestreets in the whole city, it
(15:29):
can be a lot, and maps help alittle bit on your phone and
stuff. But, you know, technologyfails. We found that time and
time again. And so knowing yourdistrict, which I am still
working on, I'm not the posterchild for knowing districts. But
luckily, I'm writing in theback. And so I don't necessarily
need to know like the back of myhand yet. But that day is coming
(15:50):
and working on that day iscoming where I need to know like
the back of my hand. And so it'syeah, it's a lot even for a
small town like little town.
There are a lot of cities orcities, small streets. A lot of
sites. Yeah, it can be a lot.
Steven Killfoil (16:01):
Yeah. that reminds me. Where on 720 is
station number four going to bebuilt?
Unknown (16:09):
Oh! she asked me for that one. I honestly don't know
what the cross street is. I canpoint it out. If we're driving
on it. I can be like, that's theright there. Yeah, man, there's
gonna be a ton of homes going upkind of around it and behind it.
I actually couldn't tell you thecross street and I'm sure I'm
gonna get chastised for that.
Steven Killfoil (16:27):
That's fine. I put you on the spot. I'll I've
still got I guess when I go tothe class tomorrow. I'll ask him
again. Hey, can someone pointout? Yeah, because we were all
kind of like wondering, okay,well, we know what's going in on
720. Well, do you know is itgoing on the east side? West?
Blake Hudgins (16:46):
It's going in on the if you're headed north? It's
so it's going on the west side?
On the west side? Yeah. 720. Iknow that for sure. Oh, and like
I said, if we were driving, Icould point at the plot of land.
Steven Killfoil (16:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I have a good idea whereit's at, but I just wasn't quite
sure. So now my next questionis, would you recommend that our
citizens get more involved withthe little fire department in
the community by signing up forthe Citizens Fire Academy? And
how exactly does a person goabout doing just that?
Blake Hudgins (17:19):
So the second part, I actually don't know what
that process is, as far assigning up. I'm sure that I can
easily get you an email that youbasically probably send it to,
and then they send you theinformation. But as far as doing
it, yeah, absolutely. Like, Ikind of wish that my parents
even would get involved insomething like that. I'm from
Rockwall. And I wish they woulddo it. Because even Honestly,
(17:40):
even as a firefighter, I didn'treally know what I was signing
up for, like even going throughfire school, that kind of opened
those doors a little bit as faras understanding. But citizens
Fire Academy really gives you anidea of why we do what we do.
Because even before I was afirefighter, I didn't understand
why you had to have an engineblocking lanes of traffic on a
(18:01):
highway. And then once they getto school, it's like, oh, well,
obviously, it's protecting usbecause we do get hit by cars,
often more at wrecks. So peopleget annoyed by that. Because
they're like, gosh, they'recausing so much extra traffic
that could have just taken onelane, why'd they take three and
there's a there's a methodbehind the madness with
everything that we do. And it'sgenuinely because something bad
has happened. And then that gotput into place to protect us,
(18:22):
which is unfortunate that it'sretroactive. But that's the way
the world works. So yeah, Iwould suggest anybody sign up
for me. Not only is it I'vehelped be a part of it in the
last year, it's fun, becauseeveryone's kind of, you know,
laughing and talking, getting toknow each other and going
through these things. But also,you're learning what it is
exactly that we do. Becausethere's so much more behind what
(18:43):
we do than I think people evenrealize. And like I said, even
when I started, I didn't evenrealize how many things that we
do that they don't talk aboutbecause you don't see it on TV.
Obviously, it's prettyunrealistic on there. But yeah,
you finally get to see you getto see the weight of the hoses
that we use. Once water is inthem. You get to see what how
(19:04):
heavy our ladders are. You getto do our pa t tests that we had
to do to get hired. There's justso many things you get to do
that you're like, oh my gosh,like I had no idea I thought you
guys just grocery shopped andslept at night and you know
occasionally went out there andyour gear you get to put our
gear on and feel how hot it isand how heavy everything is. And
it's just it's it's a greatexperience to gain kind of
(19:27):
understanding and respect forsomething that you didn't know
about whether it would bebecause we do also for police.
So to to kind of see anotherworld that you aren't familiar
with. It's it's always a goodthing. You know? Oh, absolutely.
Steven Killfoil (19:42):
And I hadn't if it hadn't been for this Academy,
I would have never met you. Iknow who you are.
Blake Hudgins (19:49):
It was meant to be absolutely.
Steven Killfoil (19:51):
Well at the firehouse you told us a little
about your work schedule. Wouldyou share with the listeners?
How your life at the firehouseruns the hours, your days off
how the firehouse is very muchlike one big happy family
Blake Hudgins (20:06):
it is, you know, sometimes happy, sometimes
little less happy when you spendso many hours together you get
on each other's nerves, but wework 48-96. So that's two days
on with four days off. Andsomething unusual about little
home is we do a 10am shiftchange, whereas most places do a
7am shift change. And the reasonthat we did that it was kind of
(20:26):
for a trial year to see if therewere benefits to to that side of
it, having that leadershipchange. And our chief found that
there was a bunch of benefits,things like if we have calls all
night, you get to sleep in alittle bit later before you have
to get up and get going for youjust start the day and stuff.
And so you know of the thingsthat are important for the human
(20:46):
body. Mental health, nutrition,physical health, sleep, sleep is
the number one like mostimportant thing about your day
to day life it is if you get ridof all the other things which
you shouldn't. As long as youhave good sleep, you are going
to stop so many different badthings from occurring in your
body, whether it be Alzheimer'sor you know your hormones,
because in sleep you you processthrough your stress hormones,
(21:09):
hormones, your your muscles cancan regenerate. Like there's
just so many things that occurin sleep. So our chief did that
to see if there was a greatbenefit. And there was everyone
loved it so so we get there, youalways get there an hour early
before your shift change. So forus, we get there at nine, some
of us get there at eight so wecan work out before shift. So
we're not having to do a 5amkind of thing or six and like
(21:31):
most apartments and so it's beenawesome. But yeah, it's like a
little house. I mean we have, wehave our own beds in there. The
officers sleep on one in onearea and we sleep in another
area. We have our own rooms withcurtains. We have a kitchen we
have kind of like a media typeroom with recliners so that we
can relax at night and likewatch TV or watch football,
whatever it is. We have a gymwhich is really cool. We've got
(21:55):
a computer room for doingcharting or whatever kind of
stuff we need to do online havea computer in front of us. So we
really just we have everythingwe need. I mean it's a home away
from home and you have your ownlockers for your own food which
is which is great because thatway no one's stealing from you
on the other shifts, which isalways a fun little battle we
have with each other the doorsare locked, showers, bathrooms.
(22:16):
It's it's great. We're very,very, very fortunate in little
home to have a facilities thatwe have.
That's awesome. Well,
Steven Killfoil (22:24):
you heard it from Little Elm Fire Department
Blake Huggins today, thank youagain for coming on Cross Roads
Podcast Blake and we wish youthe best of luck as you and your
fellow Firefighters and EMTswork hard making Cross Roads a
safe place to live. Forquestions and comments. Email us
(22:44):
at Crossroads podcast 2020three@gmail.com Or if you want
to get on the show, call medirect 469-230-5956 Make sure to
check on the town websitewww.crossroadstx.org for local
meeting times. Here are someupcoming events to mark on your
(23:06):
calendar. April 20th, TownCouncil will be meeting at 6pm
Cross Roads meeting hall, March30th, The Eggstravaganza at the
town park Tune in next week iswe'll have more amazing guests
on that show. For local meetingsstarting tomorrow, or I'm sorry
(23:28):
starting on March 4 Town Councilwill meet at 6pm at the Cross
Roads Police Department meetingroom. Tuesday March 5th,
Planning and Zoning will meet at7pm. At the same meeting room
Wednesday, March 6th, Parks andRecreation will meet at 6pm at
the Cross Roads PoliceDepartment meeting room. Don't
forget to mark your calendarslike I said for Wednesday, March
(23:51):
13th to Tuesday, March 19th.
between the hours of nine tothree, you want to come out and
watch an artist at work. Comeout and watch Kevin Roach, who
is a chainsaw artist, Turn anold dead oak tree into a
wonderful memorial of artworkdepicting our local woodland
creatures. So that'll be at theCross Roads Town Park between
(24:11):
March 13 to march 19, between9am and 3pm. So you want to come
out and watch that that's goingto be an amazing thing to watch.
And it's going to be prettycool. We'll have the only one of
those in the parks in our wholearea that I know of. Hey, cool.
So he he's a master carver anddoes it with Chainsaw
Blake Hudgins (24:35):
and I've seen videos on it and it's it's
pretty cool. Yeah, so
Steven Killfoil (24:38):
he's gonna probably give us an eagle. Oh,
that's
Blake Hudgins (24:41):
gonna be awesome cute little creatures.
Steven Killfoil (24:43):
It was a live oak tree. It was an old one had
been been here a long time andyou know that that cold snap
just kind of killed it. So we'regoing to turn it into something
really beautiful out of it.
Blake Hudgins (24:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
Steven Killfoil (24:54):
Quick traffic reminder for those traveling on
the 380 corridor as 720 OakGrove lane, read your traffic
announcement. That's still goingto be closed. Doesn't look like
traffic's opening up yet. It wassupposed to tomorrow but we'll
see knock on wood. Easter'scoming around the corner so
(25:16):
don't forget. Saturday, March 30at the park in Cross Roads
between 9am and 12pm. TheyEggstravaganza sign up for your
kids on signup genius. Come tothe Parks and Rec meeting for
more information on March 6th.
For events around the town, theBrass Tap here in Cross Roads
this week, February 28th, IsMusic Bingo at 7pm come on out
(25:38):
and have some fun. Thursday,February 29th, 7pm at the Brass
Tap here in Cross Roads, TriviaNight. Or go and see my buddy
Jimerson up at the Pilot PointCoffee House Tuesday, February
27th at 6pm Coffee HouseSessions. If you're a musician
and you want to get out and jamwith some over the local
(26:01):
musicians, bring your guitar,your fiddle or whatever you got
out there and strike it up withthem. I know I plan on being
there. Soon as I get the new setof strings put on my 12 string
Thursday February 29 CoffeeHouse Game Night go up there
challenge Jimerson to game achess he loves playing chess. So
(26:23):
until next week, I'll see you atthe topC! Cross Roads Podcast!
(27:31):
For those who want to be in theknow who's your daddy!?
Good morning Cross Roads. I'm your host,
Steven Killfoil. We want towelcome to the show today from
Little Elm Fire Department,Firefighter Blake Hudgins right
now. All right. Yes. I want tothank you, Blake for coming on
the show today. We first met youat this year's Little Elm Fire
Department's Citizens FireAcademy. Would you tell us a
(01:28):
little about yourself and whatyou do as a Firefighter with
Little Elm Fire Department?
Blake Hudgins (01:33):
Sure. Um, so I have been with Little Elm for I
think it's been about 14, almost15 months. There. They've been
just the most wonderful place. Ilove it. Without question.
Before that, I worked in thehospital for about 10 years,
moved here, grew up in Texas,moved to Hawaii for three years
(01:56):
and then moved back and thenstarted this career and it's
been man, I haven't looked back.
It's been great. Awesome.
Steven Killfoil (02:02):
Awesome. Well, I know recently, you've taken
some training classes, becausewe were we had to reschedule
this for today. By the way, howdid you do on the test?
Blake Hudgins (02:11):
You kind of got 100
Steven Killfoil (02:13):
Awesome, awesome. So you just went
through these classes and thistesting? So what was the
certification for and and howdid you go about it and how to
how did it transpire?
Blake Hudgins (02:23):
So to start you, so there's, there's civil
service departments, and there'snon civil service. And so
there's different requirementsfor each. So little elm is non
civil service. And so what thatmeans is, you basically have to
go to the Fire Academy, whichthere's a bunch of them in the
Metroplex, and you kind of pickwhich one you want to go to, and
you apply and you get in. Theyhave different time periods
(02:44):
summer for months, summer, ayear and a half. Like for high
school kids, they offer thosesummer night classes summer
during the day. So mine wasduring the day in DeSoto. And it
lasted from July to I think theend of October. And then I
already had my EMT, which is arequirement for little om. So
you have to have the two ofthose. It used to be you had to
(03:05):
have your firefighter and yourparamedic, but they found a lot
of cities found it was hard tofind paramedics, we have kind of
a shortage of them right now.
And so a lot of departments havechanged the hiring requirements
to firefighter EMT, with theconditional understanding that
when the chief says, Hey, you'regoing to paramedic school, then
you go. And so I started thattwo weeks ago. So when I had to
reschedule with you, we had juststarted and we had a very first
(03:28):
test coming up and I was justpanicked. But it passed with
flying. Yeah, it went great. Itwent great. Hey, yeah. So that's
what our department kind ofrequires. And so we're in our
first two weeks of that which isawesome and scary but you
basically don't go to work forthe whole like eight months that
you're in paramedic school youjust you're paid to be a student
(03:51):
basically and it kind of ups thethe odds of you passing and
doing well to just focus onschool because it's a job
requirement, you know, you haveto get through paramedic school
or, or then you got to go worksomewhere else. So it's kind of
a kind of important to focus soso that's where we're at now.
Steven Killfoil (04:08):
That's amazing.
Well, in in your day to dayoperations, could you share with
us some of the challenges youface as a firefighter.
Blake Hudgins (04:17):
I mean, coming from like the female
perspective, my my day to daychallenges are probably
different than a lot of the guysthat work there. You know, being
a firefighter everything isextremely heavy, and it's hot
and it's stressful and you don'tget good sleep generally even
even if you don't get a call inthe night you still are kind of
waiting for a call and so ittakes a number of years to get
(04:39):
to where you can get like a goodsleep cycle. So day to day just
between our training because wewe generally do like a fire
training one of the two days andthen we do EMS training on the
second day because we work 4896And so fire training on a day to
day is going to be you knowpulling hoses to make sure that
like if we go to a fire we knowwhat the right one Need to pull
(05:00):
a hose. So there's no kinks andyour setup at the door. And, you
know, houses are laid outdifferently as far as they can
be set far back. So you need topull a different length of hose
to get into the house and haveenough to fight the fire. We
also do things like victimremoval. So if we find someone
in a house, we know how to getthem out quickly and what what
good ways to drag them out and away that we can get them out
(05:24):
safely and quickly withouthurting ourselves another one,
you know, so good form whendoing that and different body
weights they may have, they haveclothes that you can grab and
pull them out by or if they justgotten out of the shower and
there was a fire like you needto be able to do these different
kinds of things, differenttechniques. We also work on
things like down firefighters,which is you know, all of our
nightmare when that could occur.
So we practice ways to changethe buckling on their, on their
(05:48):
air packs to where we can dragthem easily upstairs, downstairs
through a window. So webasically practice all that
stuff so that when the momentcomes that we have a fire and
these situations occur, mycaptain kind of always says you
don't rise to the occasion, yourise to your level of training.
And so we train for all thesescenarios that they can come up
(06:09):
with. So that when that momentcomes, you're like, oh, okay, I
remember this, from that daythat we trained it, this is what
I'm going to do. When your heartrates high, and you're kind of
panicking, you can kind of fallback on your training. And so
it's really important. And we'rereally lucky that we get to do a
lot of training, and let aloneto make sure that we're ready
for those those kinds ofsituations.
Steven Killfoil (06:27):
That's great.
I'm going to ask an off thescript question. So you could
give you a chance to reiterateand talk a little bit more about
what's difference between, saylittle m fire department and
say, the Dallas Fire Department,he said, one is a civil service
servicing and you're not civil.
(06:49):
So would you tell our listenersa little bit about the
differences of that? Absolutely.
How it applies to you guys.
Blake Hudgins (06:55):
So there's one big thing about civil service
and that's the the hiringprocess, they basically have a
list of of guidelines, they haveto follow in their hiring press
practice. Whereas like theirtheir pa t has to be a physical
agility test to get hired is thesame every time for every group
that comes through every person.
So that it kind of it keeps astrict structure to make sure
(07:17):
that everyone gets seen,everyone's judged fairly, their
interview questions are exactlythe same, their process is
exactly the same every time.
Whereas with non civil service,it gives us a little bit of
wiggle room to kind of changeand choose our own physical
agility test choose our ownlength of the interview process,
which ours is, ours is like twoand a half hours, which is is
(07:39):
compared to everyone in my fireschool, they were mind blown
when I told him how long it was.
But it gives our department achance to really find out your
personality to see if you'll fitwith this family because you
become a family when you startworking together in these long
hours and these stressfulsituations. So they want to make
sure that you're going to fitwith everybody so that it's more
cohesive. So that's a bigdifference between civil service
(08:01):
and non civil service. Butthere's other differences
between, you know, a small cityin a big city like our when I
was in fire school, I was in theinterview part of the hiring
process with Dallas and littleelm concurrently. And the big
reason that I chose little overDallas and ended up withdrawing
from Dallas, his applicationprocess was because I wanted to
(08:21):
be, I wanted to be a face thatmy chief knew I didn't want to
be a badge number that like,that's how they refer to me or
knew who I was, in situations, Iwanted to have this rapport with
the people above us because youknow, they're making all of the
decisions that affect us on adaily basis, being cared for by
a city, because when you seesomeone's face and you know
(08:42):
their name, it just changes theway that you're treated. And
that's just human nature. Youknow, like when you know
somebody, it's going to changethe decisions that you make that
affect them. So working for asmall city, not only do they
know, you and city council, butyour face, they recognize and
there's just something there'ssomething irreplaceable about
that it's just special. So thatwas that's the big difference
(09:04):
between a small city, I think ina big city.
Steven Killfoil (09:07):
Yeah, I'll add one more thing to that this
citizens Fire Academy. Iencourage everybody to enroll in
it. Definitely. And I'm going togive you an opportunity later on
to to go to tell everybody howto how they can do exactly just
that. I'm looking so forward tothe other offerings that they
(09:28):
were telling us about in theclass. But absolutely,
absolutely. I think is so doeslittle on Fire Department have a
program where you visit thelocal schools and teach about
fire safety at home, and haveyou ever had a chance to
participate in one?
Blake Hudgins (09:44):
So we have kind of two different things. We have
one thing where the schools willkind of just set up like a show
and tell and will come with anengine and an ambulance or a
truck and an ambulance or allthree and then PHSI which is the
helicopter service for airflying patients places, they'll
come. And the kids get to kindof funnel out and like walk
(10:06):
through our vehicles and talk tous and ask us questions. And so
there's not as much fire safetyper se, like conversations occur
where we talk about fire safety,but more of it comes from we do
this thing. And I remember theexact name, but it's basically a
clown group. And my chiefsactually part of it also. And
they get to go to the schoolsand talk to them, they put on
like a clown show. So like itkind of, it's more disarming to
(10:27):
see them and like the clownmakeup and the outfits, and it
makes it more fun. And the kidslike their attentions can stay
up with with what's going on.
They actually just went to Vegasand did the clown college. So
fire. Yeah, so firefighters fromall over the country go, and
this big conference, and theylearned basically the best ways
to kind of talk to kids andteach them how important fire
safety and stuff is. But onething I really liked about the
(10:51):
school, or when they come and dotheir walkthroughs at the
department is they usually haveus put all of our gear on,
including our masks, becausewhen you put all that on, it's a
little scary to like kids toyounger kids. So if they see us
in a fire, you know, we looklike astronauts or aliens to
them. And so I put it all on andI get down on my knees. And I'm
usually like, hey, like toucheverything that I'm wearing. And
(11:12):
if you see this ever just knowI'm there to help you. So don't
be scared and don't run, come tome because I'm a firefighter,
and we're here to help you. Andso it helps them to see more
than what they see on TV, whichis just like our big bunker gear
to actually see us with themasks on makes a huge
difference, because it can be alittle scary to little kids. And
so I love doing I love puttingall my gear on letting them see
(11:34):
it.
Steven Killfoil (11:36):
Oh, it can be a little scary for the big kids?
Absolutely, absolutely.
Absolutely. Well tell me, thetraffic and Cross Roads here, as
you know, is very challenging.
With all the construction goingon. Could you tell our listeners
how Little Elm Fire Departmentis dealing with that, especially
with regards to response times.
Blake Hudgins (11:58):
So that's a very valid concern to have with all
the construction, of course. Sogenerally, when construction is
going on, we have so we have ouremail at work. And we're
supposed to check it every day,especially on shift multiple
times a day. And our city sendsemails to us that tell us hey,
this is the construction isgoing on, they tell us ahead of
time, this is where it is thetimes it will be going on. So
(12:21):
that we know hey, this road isclosed and your captain and your
driver are generally very, verygood about keeping up with all
those things. Because, you know,one of our number one things in
being a firefighter is gettingto you guys as quickly as
possible, because we have thisphrase that seconds turn into
minutes. And that can be adifference between saving your
loved one, whether it's a fireor an EMS call. That can be the
(12:44):
difference between saving yourlife and not being able to and
so we keep up with those roadclosures because we know your
lives depend on it. So it's it'ssomething we don't miss.
Steven Killfoil (12:55):
That's great. I mean, the last session we had
actually covered over that. Theytook us outside the showed us
the drones and and the huge.
Looks like a Winnebago.
Blake Hudgins (13:12):
The big white bus. Yeah, the big white things
cool. You'll see it like littleon Park during the summer. And
it's got the big cameras up top.
Yeah, it's pretty neat.
Steven Killfoil (13:19):
Wow! I was really surprised.
Unknown (13:21):
Yeah, but also the other thing is, we emphasize
knowing your districts. So youknow, little elm has three to
three stations. Right now we'rebuilding a fourth. So when
that's your district, we do alot of map and we do, what's the
term that we use? Shoot it justknowing your district,
basically, its familiarity,familiarity of it. And so we'll
(13:46):
just drive around, if we lookfor our training on a day, that
we've been really busy, and wehave an hour, we'll go out and
we'll all of us will just godrive the city and then we'll
come back and we'll draw up themap and not label it. And then
we'll sit at the table and ourdriver will be like hey, what
city what street is this? Hey,what street is that? If that
streets close? What street canyou take that also connects to
the street. And so districtfamiliarity, that is what it is.
(14:08):
And so, we do that a lot too,regardless of the road closures,
but it just in case that dayhappens or there's a big party
or a rack and we can't getthere. There's always another
route to get there. And we makesure that we know how to do
that. And so it's kind of a teameffort.
Steven Killfoil (14:22):
Yeah, I remember when I was 18. And I
first moved to Dallas, one ofthe things that I did was a
bought two large paper maps,Rand McNally, and I pinned them
up on the wall in my apartment.
And every weekend I would driveand I would mark where I'd gone.
And I just started puttinglittle landmarks so that I could
(14:44):
familiarize,
Blake Hudgins (14:47):
The same thing we do.
Steven Killfoil (14:48):
I was from a real small town we had 12 whole
streets down our Main Street anda lot of stoplights and that's
about it. The back of your hand.
Oh yeah, I could drive itblindfold like out to the
metroplex, I was blown away.
Yeah. So I really learn it.
Blake Hudgins (15:05):
Our Captains and drivers are like that they they
know their districts like theback of their hand. And then on
top of that, you need to knowthe other districts, because we
get called with if, you know,Medic, two I met and I'm at
station one. So if if engine twoand and Medic two are all on a
call, and we get called to theirdistrict, we need to know, their
streets also. So knowing thestreets in the whole city, it
(15:29):
can be a lot, and maps help alittle bit on your phone and
stuff. But, you know, technologyfails. We found that time and
time again. And so knowing yourdistrict, which I am still
working on, I'm not the posterchild for knowing districts. But
luckily, I'm writing in theback. And so I don't necessarily
need to know like the back of myhand yet. But that day is coming
(15:50):
and working on that day iscoming where I need to know like
the back of my hand. And so it'syeah, it's a lot even for a
small town like little town.
There are a lot of cities orcities, small streets. A lot of
sites. Yeah, it can be a lot.
Steven Killfoil (16:01):
Yeah. that reminds me. Where on 720 is
station number four going to bebuilt?
Unknown (16:09):
Oh! she asked me for that one. I honestly don't know
what the cross street is. I canpoint it out. If we're driving
on it. I can be like, that's theright there. Yeah, man, there's
gonna be a ton of homes going upkind of around it and behind it.
I actually couldn't tell you thecross street and I'm sure I'm
gonna get chastised for that.
Steven Killfoil (16:27):
That's fine. I put you on the spot. I'll I've
still got I guess when I go tothe class tomorrow. I'll ask him
again. Hey, can someone pointout? Yeah, because we were all
kind of like wondering, okay,well, we know what's going in on
720. Well, do you know is itgoing on the east side? West?
Blake Hudgins (16:46):
It's going in on the if you're headed north? It's
so it's going on the west side?
On the west side? Yeah. 720. Iknow that for sure. Oh, and like
I said, if we were driving, Icould point at the plot of land.
Steven Killfoil (16:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I have a good idea whereit's at, but I just wasn't quite
sure. So now my next questionis, would you recommend that our
citizens get more involved withthe little fire department in
the community by signing up forthe Citizens Fire Academy? And
how exactly does a person goabout doing just that?
Blake Hudgins (17:19):
So the second part, I actually don't know what
that process is, as far assigning up. I'm sure that I can
easily get you an email that youbasically probably send it to,
and then they send you theinformation. But as far as doing
it, yeah, absolutely. Like, Ikind of wish that my parents
even would get involved insomething like that. I'm from
Rockwall. And I wish they woulddo it. Because even Honestly,
(17:40):
even as a firefighter, I didn'treally know what I was signing
up for, like even going throughfire school, that kind of opened
those doors a little bit as faras understanding. But citizens
Fire Academy really gives you anidea of why we do what we do.
Because even before I was afirefighter, I didn't understand
why you had to have an engineblocking lanes of traffic on a
(18:01):
highway. And then once they getto school, it's like, oh, well,
obviously, it's protecting usbecause we do get hit by cars,
often more at wrecks. So peopleget annoyed by that. Because
they're like, gosh, they'recausing so much extra traffic
that could have just taken onelane, why'd they take three and
there's a there's a methodbehind the madness with
everything that we do. And it'sgenuinely because something bad
has happened. And then that gotput into place to protect us,
(18:22):
which is unfortunate that it'sretroactive. But that's the way
the world works. So yeah, Iwould suggest anybody sign up
for me. Not only is it I'vehelped be a part of it in the
last year, it's fun, becauseeveryone's kind of, you know,
laughing and talking, getting toknow each other and going
through these things. But also,you're learning what it is
exactly that we do. Becausethere's so much more behind what
(18:43):
we do than I think people evenrealize. And like I said, even
when I started, I didn't evenrealize how many things that we
do that they don't talk aboutbecause you don't see it on TV.
Obviously, it's prettyunrealistic on there. But yeah,
you finally get to see you getto see the weight of the hoses
that we use. Once water is inthem. You get to see what how
(19:04):
heavy our ladders are. You getto do our pa t tests that we had
to do to get hired. There's justso many things you get to do
that you're like, oh my gosh,like I had no idea I thought you
guys just grocery shopped andslept at night and you know
occasionally went out there andyour gear you get to put our
gear on and feel how hot it isand how heavy everything is. And
it's just it's it's a greatexperience to gain kind of
(19:27):
understanding and respect forsomething that you didn't know
about whether it would bebecause we do also for police.
So to to kind of see anotherworld that you aren't familiar
with. It's it's always a goodthing. You know? Oh, absolutely.
Steven Killfoil (19:42):
And I hadn't if it hadn't been for this Academy,
I would have never met you. Iknow who you are.
Blake Hudgins (19:49):
It was meant to be absolutely.
Steven Killfoil (19:51):
Well at the firehouse you told us a little
about your work schedule. Wouldyou share with the listeners?
How your life at the firehouseruns the hours, your days off
how the firehouse is very muchlike one big happy family
Blake Hudgins (20:06):
it is, you know, sometimes happy, sometimes
little less happy when you spendso many hours together you get
on each other's nerves, but wework 48-96. So that's two days
on with four days off. Andsomething unusual about little
home is we do a 10am shiftchange, whereas most places do a
7am shift change. And the reasonthat we did that it was kind of
(20:26):
for a trial year to see if therewere benefits to to that side of
it, having that leadershipchange. And our chief found that
there was a bunch of benefits,things like if we have calls all
night, you get to sleep in alittle bit later before you have
to get up and get going for youjust start the day and stuff.
And so you know of the thingsthat are important for the human
(20:46):
body. Mental health, nutrition,physical health, sleep, sleep is
the number one like mostimportant thing about your day
to day life it is if you get ridof all the other things which
you shouldn't. As long as youhave good sleep, you are going
to stop so many different badthings from occurring in your
body, whether it be Alzheimer'sor you know your hormones,
because in sleep you you processthrough your stress hormones,
(21:09):
hormones, your your muscles cancan regenerate. Like there's
just so many things that occurin sleep. So our chief did that
to see if there was a greatbenefit. And there was everyone
loved it so so we get there, youalways get there an hour early
before your shift change. So forus, we get there at nine, some
of us get there at eight so wecan work out before shift. So
we're not having to do a 5amkind of thing or six and like
(21:31):
most apartments and so it's beenawesome. But yeah, it's like a
little house. I mean we have, wehave our own beds in there. The
officers sleep on one in onearea and we sleep in another
area. We have our own rooms withcurtains. We have a kitchen we
have kind of like a media typeroom with recliners so that we
can relax at night and likewatch TV or watch football,
whatever it is. We have a gymwhich is really cool. We've got
(21:55):
a computer room for doingcharting or whatever kind of
stuff we need to do online havea computer in front of us. So we
really just we have everythingwe need. I mean it's a home away
from home and you have your ownlockers for your own food which
is which is great because thatway no one's stealing from you
on the other shifts, which isalways a fun little battle we
have with each other the doorsare locked, showers, bathrooms.
(22:16):
It's it's great. We're very,very, very fortunate in little
home to have a facilities thatwe have.
That's awesome. Well,
Steven Killfoil (22:24):
you heard it from Little Elm Fire Department
Blake Huggins today, thank youagain for coming on Cross Roads
Podcast Blake and we wish youthe best of luck as you and your
fellow Firefighters and EMTswork hard making Cross Roads a
safe place to live. Forquestions and comments. Email us
(22:44):
at Crossroads podcast 2020three@gmail.com Or if you want
to get on the show, call medirect 469-230-5956 Make sure to
check on the town websitewww.crossroadstx.org for local
meeting times. Here are someupcoming events to mark on your
(23:06):
calendar. April 20th, TownCouncil will be meeting at 6pm
Cross Roads meeting hall, March30th, The Eggstravaganza at the
town park Tune in next week iswe'll have more amazing guests
on that show. For local meetingsstarting tomorrow, or I'm sorry
(23:28):
starting on March 4 Town Councilwill meet at 6pm at the Cross
Roads Police Department meetingroom. Tuesday March 5th,
Planning and Zoning will meet at7pm. At the same meeting room
Wednesday, March 6th, Parks andRecreation will meet at 6pm at
the Cross Roads PoliceDepartment meeting room. Don't
forget to mark your calendarslike I said for Wednesday, March
(23:51):
13th to Tuesday, March 19th.
between the hours of nine tothree, you want to come out and
watch an artist at work. Comeout and watch Kevin Roach, who
is a chainsaw artist, Turn anold dead oak tree into a
wonderful memorial of artworkdepicting our local woodland
creatures. So that'll be at theCross Roads Town Park between
(24:11):
March 13 to march 19, between9am and 3pm. So you want to come
out and watch that that's goingto be an amazing thing to watch.
And it's going to be prettycool. We'll have the only one of
those in the parks in our wholearea that I know of. Hey, cool.
So he he's a master carver anddoes it with Chainsaw
Blake Hudgins (24:35):
and I've seen videos on it and it's it's
pretty cool. Yeah, so
Steven Killfoil (24:38):
he's gonna probably give us an eagle. Oh,
that's
Blake Hudgins (24:41):
gonna be awesome cute little creatures.
Steven Killfoil (24:43):
It was a live oak tree. It was an old one had
been been here a long time andyou know that that cold snap
just kind of killed it. So we'regoing to turn it into something
really beautiful out of it.
Blake Hudgins (24:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
Steven Killfoil (24:54):
Quick traffic reminder for those traveling on
the 380 corridor as 720 OakGrove lane, read your traffic
announcement. That's still goingto be closed. Doesn't look like
traffic's opening up yet. It wassupposed to tomorrow but we'll
see knock on wood. Easter'scoming around the corner so
(25:16):
don't forget. Saturday, March 30at the park in Cross Roads
between 9am and 12pm. TheyEggstravaganza sign up for your
kids on signup genius. Come tothe Parks and Rec meeting for
more information on March 6th.
For events around the town, theBrass Tap here in Cross Roads
this week, February 28th, IsMusic Bingo at 7pm come on out
(25:38):
and have some fun. Thursday,February 29th, 7pm at the Brass
Tap here in Cross Roads, TriviaNight. Or go and see my buddy
Jimerson up at the Pilot PointCoffee House Tuesday, February
27th at 6pm Coffee HouseSessions. If you're a musician
and you want to get out and jamwith some over the local
(26:01):
musicians, bring your guitar,your fiddle or whatever you got
out there and strike it up withthem. I know I plan on being
there. Soon as I get the new setof strings put on my 12 string
Thursday February 29 CoffeeHouse Game Night go up there
challenge Jimerson to game achess he loves playing chess. So
(26:23):
until next week, I'll see you atthe topC! Cross Roads Podcast!
(27:31):
For those who want to be in theknow who's your daddy!?
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