Lot lizards, Funnel Clouds, and Foundation Saves

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In this exhilarating episode, we bring you behind the scenes of first responder life as firefighters and police officers share their best stories filled with humor, heart, and a sprinkle of chaos. From the unexpected twists during seemingly ordinary calls to the camaraderie that develops in the heat of the moment, listeners get an authentic glimpse into what it means to serve and protect the community.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Blue lights from the dead of the night, lying on a
run of dim street light,laughing through the written
reports.
Truth stranger than the wildestcourts, tales from the force
gone astray, caught up in thegames they play.
High speed chases gone awry.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Serious turns into pie in the sky, just out of
jurisdiction when I'm pond, Iwas like, and he wasn't even
really like an mp or nothing, hewas like a security, yeah, like
.
And I was like what are youdoing here?
So this guy from Illinois, hewas a real nerdy dude and he

(00:46):
comes in in Class A.
You know, first day he was likeClass A, Well, he's wearing
like an outer vest.
You know, like Dan Bopitti'sgot the outer vest stuff.
But he was like you don't haveto wear a Class A today, man.
He said it's in our contract Ifwe wear a uniform, we have to
wear this outer vest.
I said you think we're going torat on you?
He said, well, they takepictures.

(01:07):
We didn't know.
I was like our union.
I was like, yeah, I get it, man, but you're in BFE Kentucky man
.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Just don't sign that photograph.
They didn't have cameras ontheir hands.
They didn't have it in theirhand in Camelsville at that
point.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Not back then.
That was the sick DannyRobinson.
I told that story on there.
He got me sick as a dog though,Pooping and puking at the same
time, but still the hardest.
You're cramming teachingprinciples in two weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
It's a four-year teaching degree in two weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, speaking didn't bother me in two weeks.
It's a four-year teachingdegree in two weeks.
Yeah, and speaking Speakingdidn't bother me, it was just
the lesson plans and the up allnight.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
My cousin.
She was just finishing upcollege to be a teacher.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
I'm like how come I teach a degree in two weeks?

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Why'd you go to that four-year plan Two weeks?
You know that's the way you gomy first DARE school.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I had sublimity and I did Cornerstone and my daughter
was in there.
So I didn't read, I didn't read, I couldn't do it.
So we started me and JoshGaylor and his boy.
We started playing music.
So we would do like and Lisawould sing and all we'd do is
get up there and we'd go toCorinth and that's where they

(02:27):
did their graduation, over there.
So we had the DARE band wecalled ourselves.
I was trying to I mean, theyprobably don't remember it, but
it was the Uncivil Servants- yes, they didn't teach me how to
handle this in 5th grade.
You get all kinds of crazy thedare box.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
It's horrible.
We made raid after raid out ofthe dare box my dad sells
cocaine it's amazing what arehis prices?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
bless their hearts.
But there at the end I mean itwas just like alright, you know,
as as the schools got more intolike testing and stuff, they
pushed me like 45 minutes.
And then it's the two classes,like can we combine these
classes?
I'm out, I just can't.
It doesn't work, it's noteffective.

(03:26):
If you don't it's not bad forthe masses, yeah and 30 kids is
a lot, yes, anyway, but then youhave 60 and you're like I just
can't.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
They don't get to participate the way it's
intended no so it's the old DAREschool.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
I've heard one of the funniest things I've ever seen
it.
We went.
We went to dare conferencelater in Bowling Green.
Oh my gosh, here's the head ofdare out there mooning us on the
golf course.
Well, we probably there's.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
We probably.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
There's consequences, you know.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
That was lesson three consequences.
So don't go to the restroomwhile you're at a DARE
conference either.
You'll come back and you'll bethe regional go-to guy signing
all the paperwork.
Oh, by the way, congratulations.
I sat down and DARE couchedlike congrats man.

(04:24):
I was like what he's like.
You're the region guy down hereon the Derek board.
I still get stuff from DAREAmerica.
I'm not taught DARE in five,six years I should have went to
all them big conventions outthere.
It's funny, all right.
Intro is broke you ready.
That's fine, alright.
Intro is broke you ready.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
I got you again.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
Alright, guys, we're back with you with another
episode.
We have finally, finally, gotsome firefighters in here.
We've had a lot of wannabefirefighters, but now we've
actually got some real ones inhere so they can tell their
story.
Heroes.
Indeed, you want to introducethem.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Go ahead.

Speaker 5 (05:11):
You've heard a lot about Fuzz.
He's finally with us afterT-Dot figured out that he was
calling the wrong number.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
It wasn't the wrong number.
He has taken me out of hiscontext.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
He ghosted you.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
He ghosted me or blocked me and then got up with
me on Facebook and finally waslike you've got to text me
because if you call, it'sblocking because I weed all
those people out.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
I started my car warranty being renewed.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
We've got Dylan Turner here with us.
Both combined have I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
7,000 years and one year of experience, though.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Of knowledge.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
Fuzz has done them both.
He's been law enforcement andfire and he finally fulfilled
his dreams All police officershave to finally become a
firefighter.
Dylan was the smart one andstayed away from police Exactly.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Fun stuff.
So they're both.
They both work y'all on thesame shift now.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, station 2.
Station 2.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Big city of Danville.
Yeah, my place.
I wish I was still at.
Yes, cry every day.
It's a good employer it's agood they are.
They really are.
We talked about this last.
You know, last week probablywhat I, when I think about how I
would have liked to set Londonup when I was chief.

(06:44):
It would have been like Tonyand them have set it up there as
far as the police departmentand the way they do it they have
city managers which works awhole lot better.
It's very efficient and reallyenjoyed my short stay up there

(07:07):
and hey you never know, younever know, I may be a
firefighter up there the water'sfine you can go up there and be
daniel's errand I've alwayslisten my problem is I just want
to go out and check firehydrants, like I said, last time

(07:29):
we saw each other.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
You can't pee on them .
I could, I pee everywhere.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I'll get up here and walk out midway and go again.
I think I don't know how Isurvived this last one.
It was a three hour podcast andI didn't get up when we were
finished.
My, my eyeballs were flooded.
I was like I got to go.
We'll start with you, dylan.
How many years?

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Oh gosh, I started as a volunteer in a little
community in southern HardinCounty January 5th of 1997.
So I started then, Then kind ofbounced around the volunteer
world and then finally got mylittle break working at Pleasure

(08:18):
Ridge Park Fire Department,part-time Worked there for a
while and then I met a beautifulwoman at Thunder Over
Louisville and she said you know, we should get married and you
should move to London, Kentucky.
And I was like there's a townthere, Because the only thing I
knew of London was when you wentto Gatlinburg you hung a right
by the dog patch and you justwent on.
I didn't know there was a townor anything, I just thought it

(08:39):
was a few gas stations.

Speaker 5 (08:41):
You're not wrong, no, no.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
I wasn't wrong stations.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
That's it, you're not wrong.
No, no, I wasn't wrong.
So, uh, and then you wereintroduced to the chicken
festival.
Yeah, I went to the chickenfestival one time and I looked
around, I was like you know, mylife is not that bad so uh, yeah
, and I haven't been back since,and that was 13 years ago.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Uh, then I got, uh, I came over here and I started on
the London City Fire Departmentand got part-time in 2012.
Yeah, 2012.
I got hired in 2015.
Worked until 2021.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Is that when it was?
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:16):
It's all together now .

Speaker 2 (09:17):
London they didn't have a paid fire department for.
I mean, it's been the last.
What 10 years or so About thatyou?

Speaker 4 (09:24):
know you had the daytime guys with larry and tony
and carl and donnie and I can'tremember the guys before that.
I know their faces but I can'tremember their names.
They always had a daytime.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Donnie links he was the original yeah, 40 hour week.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, friday they were, did mostly admin right.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yeah, mostly yeah, yeah, it's truck maintenance
yeah yeah, it's on maintenanceyeah, it's on the buildings and
then, just you know, decided,saw a little writing on the wall
and decided to go to danvillein 2021, danville's the smart
man danville's a great likewe've said are you?

Speaker 3 (10:01):
it's just an hour drive, it's just and it's an
easy hour yeah that's not a badcommute.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
No, it's an easy hour .
It's so easy that you findyourself sleeping across a dam.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
Oh yeah autopilot works great.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
I didn't want to if I was driving my wife's car up
there.
It's got the lane assist stuffto keep me in there you have to
drive them by Braille the rumblestrips come in handy, yeah.
How do I have any cars?
You know that little strip,that's the only part that's
tough because it's four lane.

(10:36):
You know it's interstate.
And then getting to, I guess,stanford, then it turns back
into four lane, but there's twolanes.
It's straight as an arrow.
Then it turns back into fourlane, but there's two.
It's two lanes, straight as anarrow.
But that but it when we wasgetting over there, when I had
to get over there by 7, 30 ish,traffic was yeah and it would
get slow and yeah, you're like,I got to pass and the best part,

(10:58):
the best place to pass wasright on top of that dam oh yeah
, like you.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Great visibility.
That's a really good place.
Past the church on the left.
That's one of the prettiestplaces.
It's postcard perfect.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
I used to pull off.
If I had time, I'd pull upthere and just look at it.
It's actually prettier from theroad, though it's pretty up
there, but it's just like it'sgorgeous there.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
Here's heaven right here, that part of the state.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Stanford and all that .
That is Lincoln County rightthere yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Lakes and Lincoln.
You know we were going up therefor a class one day, cold, cold
days, and that lake had ice onit and it had a big chunk of ice
probably the size of this roomand right sitting on top of that
chunk of ice was a bald eagleand I mean I was like I'm late
for class, but you know I'llstart crying.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
If there was a rainbow in the background, I'd
be emotional right now.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
I can't handle it.
What's great about coming homeis once in a blue moon you find
John Wright coming home, so youjust get on his bumper and just
follow him.
Yeah, just ride it.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
He just doesn't know.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
You're back no, he ain't got a clue.
He ain't got a clue, yeah, yeahthat's awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, it's a.
It is a good drive, a prettydrive, straight drive.
So the worst part to me wewould drive to mount burningham
park and switch over there, sitthere in the wintertime waiting
on your car to defrost.
You're like, uh, what a waste.
But other than that, easy drive.
So so y'all drive there.
You still live here in londonyeah, drive up yeah, 24 on 48

(12:32):
off.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
That's right big.
That's a pretty good schedule,not bad.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah, how many calls y'all have, like I mean, I mean,
it's a bigger city.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
3 000 runs a year roughly.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
We're doing more nicholasville, we're doing more
than richmond comparison wise.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
I mean, I don't know, I know what our cad numbers
were, but as far as like londonwas.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
So I think, when I left london we were doing about
800 calls, but now they've kindof changed some of the ways they
operate, so I think they'repretty close to probably being
on the pace of over 2 000 thisyear.
I mean it's yeah you can't getany sleep like that no, no, you
can't, you couldn't in the next

Speaker 1 (13:16):
time.
That's right, so you gottacatch it how many stations are
up there?

Speaker 4 (13:22):
I know two right now.
I think they're going to talkthis summer about building
Station 3.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
And that's kind of what brought.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
I mean, I can speak for myself, I can't speak for
Fuzz.
That's what kind of drew meinto that area where they
realized that they needed totake some steps.
So the city did a study on payand how many stations and
everything like that.
So I think we need what?
Three more stations, two morestations they're saying four for

(13:51):
the population yeah, for thetotal.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, yeah for adequate response times and
things.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah now, when I first went over there had no
idea that danville is probablytwice the size city population
of London.
Yeah, and I was shocked at that.
Well, I think it's maybe 10,000more.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Even when the college is in, it's really up there.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
You know, the main street's beautiful with their,
you know, but it's not likesuper long or anything, you can
walk it easy.
I used to walk from that coffeeshop downtown all the way up to
campus yeah, uh, to campus onit and at center and it's like
10, 15 minutes yeah yeah, yeah,you're like wow, but it's the

(14:38):
surrounding, yeah, um, a lot of.
I don't.
I don't really considerdanville as as a suburb of
Lexington because it's got itsown little thing.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
It's far enough away.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
It's not like Nicholasville or Winchester or
something or Georgetown, so it'skind of got its own thing going
.
And the cool thing about it,you can be in Lexington in an
hour and Louisville in an hourand a half or less.
So it's pretty neat where it'sat, really in central Kentucky
and it's just continuing to grow.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
I mean, there's industry businesses open up
constantly.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's definitely in a growing phase, so the growth of
the fire department.
Then what's the time frame ofhaving four stations?
Because that's that's a lot,seems like I.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
What's the time frame of having four stations,
because that's a lot.
I can see the third station inthe next couple of years.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
It's got to be going up by Walmart somewhere, or up
towards that way it's going overtowards the fairgrounds, like
over towards the Peddler's Malland all of that.
Yeah, I mean we make a lot ofcalls but we're definitely
understaffed and sometimes thatis the hardest thing being

(15:50):
understaffed, just not havingenough manpower to do the job.
And the other thing is when weget a structure fire, used to
everybody that worked forDanville pretty much lived in
that little area and I thinkwhat is there like three or four
now?
So when you ask for a secondalarm you're only getting like
four guys.
It's a little rough.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's the different part of it.
I guess y'all's directcompetition would probably be
what Lexington and RichmondNicholasville.
I mean all these pretty goodsized cities that pay pretty
good, so getting drawn and ourlast hire he came from Berea you
know, so.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
I mean Berea Fire lost him to us, so it's right.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
So it's kind of you, just kind of I would say, it's
right there in that sweet spot,though that keeps everything
honest as far as as far aspaying everything, you've got
enough competition around as faras paying everything.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
You've got enough competition around to where
they've got to keep going andthat's why they have to do the
studies and stuff, to not be arevolving door, a training
ground for other departments.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
There's that competition and pretty much
nobody can beat Lexington.
You're just not going tocompete with them.
So now what Danville has to dois they have to compete with
Nicholasville, they have tocompete with Georgetown.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Richmond.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
I know Wes went over there.
It's a competition.
But then you have Winchesterand all those.
It's a constant competition.
Last two years ago I sawNicholasville's pay scale.
At that time Danville paid more.
Then it came out to Sumber andnow they've tried to beat

(17:28):
Danville by about $5,000.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Which is good for you guys.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Which is good for us.
So now back to the drawingboard all over again.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
So it's that constant competition with those area
departments.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
And like all first responders and you know police
and fire, you're not getting the.
It's harder to get.
I don't know about fire.
I know for police side of it.
Nobody's just really want todive in and do that.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
So the application pool is a lot more shallow now
than what it used to be.
When I applied at Lexington,there were over 1,000 applicants
for 30 positions.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
You're not going to believe this, dylan, but I'm
pretty sure I may have eventhought about applying for
Lexington Fire.
But at the time I think JohnBlanton was already there.
I saw him at a paint store intown, him and his dad.
He talked you out of it.
No, he was like you need to doit.
I was like, well, it's fire.

Speaker 4 (18:30):
I was kind of scared of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's hot, it's hot, it's hot.
But he told me he's like it wasso competitive because they
paid really well and they hadthe days, because they paid
really well and they had thedays you know, it's the cool
stuff and they were like theymay only take 30 out of these
thousands that are there andthen they may.
You may not even get to theinterview because they may go

(18:55):
even in odds to just getnarrowed down to something, that
rule of fives that they had.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yeah, that was it.
It was rule of five.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, and you're just like I don't know, see me and
John.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
we went through the same academy class up there.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Man, you went to the academy with everybody.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yes, I've been trained, and trained, and
trained.
You made a career of training.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Oh my gosh, what was the craziest fire that you've
ever had to deal with, dylan?
Just one that scared you orjust freaked you out?
Dumpster fire sounds like yesno, I you know after you've done

(19:35):
this for so long.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
You sit there and think well, you know that one
wasn't bad, but you know I'mtrying to remember all these.
There's a couple that come tomind back one august saturday,
when I was still inelizabethtown a little town
there called glendale we had apallet factory catch on fire

(19:57):
yeah, and, and it was just hotand miserable all day long.
We had a Jif peanut butter fire.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
I bet that smelled great for a while.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah, yeah, for a while in Louisville and we got
the call where we were likepeanut butter doesn't burn, but
when you got there it was theoil on top of that.
You know, weavers, thatdefinitely wasn't fun.
You know, I guess the one thathere recently in the last

(20:30):
umpteen years was the Reams Lanetrailer fire with the kid.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
That was a terrible situation altogether.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
Yeah, that one wasn't fun just because conflicting
reports and then everybody inthere searching on their hands
and knees, face to the rug, kindof trying to find the child,
and then in your mind thinking,well, maybe they all got out and

(20:59):
then come to find out where thechild was.
Yeah, those are those are.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
Yeah, that was one of those calls that you know
police yeah, that experiencethat, yes, well, and yes, yeah,
just as bad

Speaker 4 (21:15):
and then y'all were talking about Joey Robertson.
When we first got hired, larrywould make us go up there to
that pool and swim in themorning, yeah, and it was like
10 degrees and the county gotcalled out for a structure fire
and they called us because theyhad limited manpower.
So we went to the structurefire in swimming trunks drenched

(21:36):
in water and every time wewould try to take a step to go
to that house fire.
You body would fill up with icejust a little bit more.
And I can't remember how hardit was, because it wasn't that
the fire was bad, it was just Ihad wet swim trunks on and it
was 10 degrees and I had noshirt on, no socks, none of that

(21:57):
.
So you know, you know, I couldprobably think for hours on on
different fires that weredifficult.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Were y'all doing that more as a rescue squad deal the
swimming quals?
Or was y'all just getting inshape up there Just PT?
Cardio training To me.
I don't know if I'd havefirefighters and water the only
water I want them is pointing atsomething, but I get it it it

(22:24):
at something, but I get it itwas hard work.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
I think it was a little bit of PT and justifying
why the rescue school had a poolup there.
That was the other thing but itwas.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
That's a good place to go get your swim in multiple
agencies got to utilize that.
I don't remember the policedepartment getting invited to go
swim with yes, yes, I don'tremember the police department
getting invited to go swim withyou guys.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
You weren't missing anything you all don't listen to
the lifeguard.
That's why you think the rulesdon't apply.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
So so we have fuzz gold.
Go back probably well, thebeginning of my career, but I've
known you probably a little bitbefore that.
Get in my career, but I'veknown you probably a little bit
before that, and it seems likeso.
You went to the cat, you wentto your the police academy.
We'll get all this stuffsituated with our, with one of
our last guests, of course, joshgalo, back in 97 98 98 the next

(23:18):
to last 10 week class.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
It was class 268, okay, so did josh that right, or
he?
Did.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
I was proud of him because he didn't take notes
there, and then y'all, so youstarted at the sheriff's office.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
As far as I mean, there's probably other stuff you
did before policing, I'm sure Imean you probably did.
By other stuff you did beforepolicing, I'm sure I mean you
probably did fire.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
The 1990s is when I got in the volunteer fire
service in August of 90.
And that January of 91, went toEMT school, started working EMS
here locally, worked there forabout a year.
Rc Walker was willing to giveme a job in corrections so I
worked corrections for about ayear.
Rc Walker was willing to giveme a job in corrections, so I

(24:05):
worked corrections for about ayear.
And then Gene Holland, in late94, let me become a transporter
and such with the sheriff'sdepartment, part-time and from
there went into full-time at theSO.
Left the SO.
Left the SO to go to LexingtonFire.

(24:27):
What year did you switch?
to, so just a couple years soyeah, it was 94 when I went
part-time at the SO, wentfull-time about 95 and went to
the academy because that waspre-pops.
I mean, the academy wasn'trequired.
And so you know, I'd worked theroad for several years before I

(24:52):
got to go.
And then, when it come time togo that was when Spanky was
hired on William and he's like,well, he doesn't have any
experience, so you're alreadyworking the road.
He's going to the academy first.
When he gets done with theacademy he can start working the
road so that you can go.

(25:12):
And so I went, but next to lastclass, I mean PT, back in that
day.
As long as you walked to thetrack, you got credit for PT.
I mean it was strenuous attimes.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
I mean that's a lot.
He said when he went to theacademy PT a lot of the guys
were walking around the trackdoing PT, smoking a cigarette.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
I mean, you didn't even have to walk around the
track.
You could sit on the bleachersas long as you walked to the
track.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Did you ever do your PT over on the old driving track
?
There was an old driving track.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, because they had the new model city or
whatever, with the railroadcrossing and everything in there
.
Yeah, that was the old drivingtrack.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
We'd do some traffic stops out there.
Skip pad, yeah, like academylike in-service class would go
out there and do like academy,like in service class would go
out there and do like practicetraffic.
You know traffic stops andtraffic stops revisited.
That's when Danny lit me up.
She tried to like shot me inthe hand.
I was like dude, I was justgetting.
I was like but I did have them.

(26:22):
You know I'm left-handed but Ihad the simulator, you know the
pistol, the seven-dition gun,the seven-dition gun in my right
hand.
So when he saw this hand cameout there was no way he saw that
he just was going to shoot me.
It didn't matter.
I was like, golly them littlepaintballs.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
They hurt.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
That was some of the training, though I learned real
quick to wear gloves on thatstuff.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, it's like three years.
I was like I had a knot on my.
You're crazy.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
You shoot the threat that you see you know I mean
that hand was the threat that hesaw.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
He was not gonna let me get out there when we went
through rapid deployment, burkegot the uh the short straw on
being the the hostage taker.
He spent like four hoursgetting shot in the back of the
head and face it happens.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
So you spent some time on the at the uh sheriff's
office laced in fire how longdid you start?

Speaker 3 (27:17):
uh, september 11th of 2000, so my one year
anniversary was september 11,2001.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
How's that I mean?
Did y'all have to?

Speaker 3 (27:28):
I mean I was off shift that day.
I was actually at a class inHazard over meth lab awareness
because meth labs were justbecoming cool back then, and so
when it all started, class gotcanceled and we tried to rush

(27:49):
back because they were talkingabout possibly landing regional
jets in London because Lexingtoncouldn't hold them all.
I mean, they were just puttingevery plane on the ground so
they ended up not landing any inLondon.
Lexington was able to come down, I remember.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
I wasn't policing yet .
I was still working for FedExground or home delivery at the
time.
I was in the National Guard.
I was listening to the radiowhen all this was going on.
I was listening to Bob and Tomor something when all this was
going on.
You're hearing all this stuffand the first thing I did I was

(28:22):
full of packages.
I was in the National Guard.
I drove straight to the and Iwas in the National Guard.
I drove straight to theNational Guard.
I was like we're at war, wheredo I go?
They were like go home.
I was like but I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
And then, when it was time to go, I was like I don't
really want to go.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
It's that frontline attitude right, I was ready.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
But then I was like yeah, this might not be the rest
.

Speaker 5 (28:47):
This will make you feel young.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
I was in sixth grade so, yeah, I worked lexton fire
then up until 03, and when Ileft lexton fire I went to
bluegrass Airport as a publicsafety officer for a $10,000 a
year pay raise, because that wasbefore the union had their

(29:10):
bargaining rights and stuff inLexington.
Worked there until 05.
I had an opportunity to gethired with KVE here in London,
Took that job and worked KBuntil KSP absorbed us, merged,
took us over whatever Hostiletakeover, hostile takeover.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
I would say that's probably a hostile takeover.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
You don't have to say it, I'll say it.
It was some hurt feelings.
I'll take over that, youremember I was working
interdiction a lot with you guysdown there at the scales.
I came very close.
Uh, that captain almost had meconvinced just to come on board,
which would have been a greatjob at the time and may still be
.
It was the best law enforcementjob that I've ever had, I mean

(29:56):
it could have been and, uh,because I was down there working
interdiction and we just satthere and then all the you know
the inspectors would pull over atruck and I'd be like I may go
out there and look at that, butI'm not allowed to get in.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Oh, I am yeah that constitution Don't matter when
it's commercial vids.
That's exactly right.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
We hung out down there more than how the
interdiction team sit on theside, oh yeah.
The place to go was scaleBecause we were looking for team
sit on the side of the place togo with scale, because we were
looking for not going to get runover over there.
That was thousands of pounds.
What we's looking for because,because somebody gets something
out in western kentucky, you'relike it's an every big truck
going by, there's a thousandpounds of you go to that snow

(30:38):
place, oh my god I've let thecartel survive for
years did you go to some of them?
Oh yeah, they were good classes.
Get your hopes up, joe.
David, that owner Out in theland of milk and honey On I-15
or whatever, there wasn'tnothing going by but dope out of

(30:59):
Tijuana, that's right.
It's like shooting fish.
We thought that was what wasgoing to be on I-75.
It's everywhere in every truckgoing by.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
So then, 2016, I started work with the fire
commission as area coordinatorup in hazard.
Did you write all this down?
Oh, it's burning's burned inthere, I'm telling you I can
remember the history good.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
I just can't remember what I'm supposed to do
tomorrow.
Long-term memory.
Short-term memory.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh my gosh, how long did you work there.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Until 21, and that's when I went to Danville.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Man, do you remember when me and Doug went by you in
that car chase?
Oh yeah, I swear, you threwyour papers everywhere.
That's what I'm telling you mayhave given back to that guy.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
I told that driver.
I said this is your lucky day,brother.
Here's your paperwork.
And I threw it at him and Ijumped in the vehicle to join in
the pursuit Because I was notgoing to let the pursuit pass me
.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
What we didn't tell in that story.
I did say we were at a pipeline.
You know a lot of firefightersthere.
There was a lot of firefightersin that car chase.
I just want to dime them out.
Anybody been?

Speaker 5 (32:16):
to Exxon.
Could have been Dylan.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
I don't know, but there was like I don't know,
should we say something?
I think you might have caughtback up with us, but it was a
wild one for sure.
Did you go all the way to whereit ended Up in Rock?

Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yep, I was trying my best to talk to him.
I was like we're good, let'sjust pull off here.
Puffed.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
That was the thing about Greg Howard, the
commissioner of vehicleenforcement.
He's like if you're chasingthem, don't stop until you catch
them.
That's awesome.
And I mean I've chased intoTennessee multi-counties.
I mean once the chase was onyou run out of gas or you caught
them.
That was fun.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
It's different, and I'm sure it's different now with
them guys.
Oh yeah, I mean everythingchanges.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Different world of policing, then let's see here
when do you want to go?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
you want to go with some some Academy stuff.
Where did you go they'll?
Where'd you go to?
Like fire Academy, does that?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
so I didn't have to go to a fire Academy right yeah,
well, yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
I did not, didn't?
The fire commission has anacademy now it's actually been
open.
How long, I mean, it's beenopen?

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Three years, I guess.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Three years, but before that they had like a
week-long class, and when we gothired, troy Rutter, the mayor,
wanted us to go out there andspend like a week, which is a
great idea, except the day thatwe left was February 14th of
2015.

(33:53):
And on February 14th it was aSunday day and we had to be
there on Monday and we got sixor eight inches of snow and
damble on across Kentucky thatday.
So it was me, brandon Wagers,joey Robertson and Austin Hale
and we met up at London FireDepartment.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
What a crazy, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
And it was six to eight inches of snow on the
ground and we used the Tahoe andI'll never forget Larry said if
you wreck it between here andthere, just don't even come back
.
So it's encouraging.
Yeah, the four hour trip toEaster Kentucky was an eight

(34:40):
hour trip, going 25 miles anhour.
We had a candlelight Valentinedinner at Tumbleweed and Bowling
Green and we finally yeah, Isthat where the National Guard?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, same place.
Place up there.
Yeah, I've been out there.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
Yeah, when you check into the gate, it's right across
the road.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
Oh, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
They got a pretty good chow hall over there, oh
yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
It wasn't bad.
I mean well else to eat.
What's that town called?
I can't remember.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
We caught whiffertick was what the base was called
with with its Western Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, it's like whi tec with yeah, yeah, we went out
there, it's got a Hampton Innthere?

Speaker 4 (35:22):
yes, because that's where I would always stay when
we go evaluate if sex skills andsuch but yeah, we went out
there for a week and did someclasses that I kind of got
grandfathered into that I neverhad to do and then we came back.
But when I got started, thefire commission you know Fuzz
was a coordinator and kind ofunder Fuzz you've got little

(35:42):
instructors and stuff like thatwho are part-time employees.
There's one here in London andthat's who I work for.
So you go out to all thesedifferent volunteer departments
or different places and teachclasses.
And that's how I got certifieddriving to different departments
and stuff like that, justgetting my hours that I had to
have.
So by the time I made it toLondon I think I needed like one
or two other classes to getthat career hours where you get

(36:05):
that hazardous duty and you knowthat was my academy.
It was driving to differentdepartments and stuff like that
in the volunteer world, so Inever really had to go to an
academy.
I don't know what academy lifeis like.
I've heard it's fun Academy.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
It wasn't when I made it there.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
See, when I went to the academy, though, I got
elected in as one of theco-class leaders Me and Murray.
He ended up being a captainwith KSP and stuff, but he was
with a city department at thattime and so me and him were the
co-class leaders that oversawand such, and Greg Howard was

(36:50):
over the academy then before hewent to KVE.
The co-class leaders thatoversaw and such.
Greg Howard was over theacademy then before he went to
KVE and he had left Lexington PDto come there, and so the
academy life, I mean it was allright.

Speaker 5 (37:12):
I'd been policing for several years when I went, so
it kind of you know secondhandnature.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yeah, a refresher you know anyway, oh, a jc3 okay so,
yeah, this is all the stuff I'dforgot already.
Yeah stuff I'm supposed to be.
Yeah, you know, and they gotthe guys from London PD and and
me went, and so I mean thesheriff had kind of gave me a
pep talk before we left.
You know, fuzz, be on your bestbehavior, and such, and it

(37:36):
seemed like they were justdrawing complaint week after
week, you know, and so they weregetting Friday they'd have to
go to the PD and visit with JimYoung.
I'd go they come back.
I'd go home About four weeks in.
The sheriff tells me to come bythe office on Friday.
He's like Fuzz.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
I just want to brag on you, I've not had any
complaints on you, but yet thecity's getting hammered.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Just better than I did.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
You were a little smarter than him.
By the time we got up there,all the fun had been sucked out
of it because you guys had beenup there and made so many
policies.
Yeah, my roommate.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
I mean he was top notch, I mean he slept beside
the doors.
When they'd do the room checkhe'd crack the door open.
So it was true you weren'tthere, they'd say Reams and
Raleigh.
He'd say yep, yep and theyclose the door, you know so they
didn't come in.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Stick pbts in your face, no, he didn't blue falcon
you.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
And then you know there was a 10 30 curfew, yeah.
So I mean you had your littlekey cards.
I mean they could see when youcome in and out.
So there was a maintenance cardthat was available that you
could use it to come in and outafter 1030, and it looked like
the maintenance guy was comingin and out.

(38:57):
So you know, there's waysaround the key cards.
So I hear Allegedly.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Y'all stayed over there on campus, though.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
We stayed in the dorm on campus.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Judges pile up and drive across to the academy.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
There'd be a carpool convoy going to the academy.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
then them guys them dang parking enforcement at EKU.
Oh yeah, you didn't park in theno parking.
They will write you, they'llticket the official tag.
They are jerks.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
They've kind yeah, they'll ticket the official tag
yeah, they are jerks.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
They've kind of alleviated that when we got
there, we had our own parkinglot and everything by then.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
But you had to have them stickers in.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
I don't know, john, check your weapons in like over
at the shooting range.
Yeah that's it At the armorythey had Right.
Well, yeah, we were supposed toyeah, if you got there, if you
didn't keep them in the trunk ofyour car that's where you
exactly well, one day, when Igot, when I got, andy forreston

(39:59):
was one checking our firearms.
Okay, so yeah, that's a good,he's got I'm going up there, I'm
trying to call him.
You let him know I've reachedout.
I'll let him know, because he'sducking me now.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
He's got me blocked.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I don't even have my number program.
I think he just contacted me byemail, right.
But he said I don't know if hewas checking his.
I'm sure he was, because allthem guys over at Skills and he
was a firearm instructor and I'msure it's him checking us in.
But when I, when I got almostgot deployed again I missed

(40:33):
those couple days my classcoordinator saltzman.
He was like you need to, youneed to go over and check your
gun.
I was like where I said thearmory's closed man, you, you
have to do that.
On Sunday I had to take mineover to EKU PD and check it.
And check it and I'm like theytold me to bring this to you.

(40:55):
I was like I don't know how I'mgoing to get it back.

Speaker 5 (40:59):
It always.
It always amazed me that theywanted you.
You're driving around in amarked unit.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
But they wanted you unarmed.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
We don't want you unarmed.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
I'm pretty sure I left it there over that weekend
when I came home and I was likeoh yeah, so I had to go over to
EKU PD, get my gun and thencheck it in the armory when you
went back on Sunday.
Oh, we did yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
We left ours there.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
Fridays and Mondays was the only days that we
checked ours in and out.
Left them for that, just keptour duty where our off duty in
the car.
Because do we call Derek?

Speaker 2 (41:30):
do you know what they want us?

Speaker 5 (41:31):
to do it.
He's like, yeah, it's stupid,just keep it check.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Honestly, I was like they're gonna.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
This is gonna be the shakedown, yeah they were
already after it class 324 theyhad our number.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I do, yeah, it's because of Danny, I guarantee
you, but we had a, it was fun.
You know, the police academy isfun and sometimes I look back
at, and that was 2002, 2003.
Sometimes I feel like it wasyesterday and that's what's
weird, how you're like that wasjust, and now you're like man,

(42:04):
that's been 23 years or 22 yearsago.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
I'm like man, the guy that sat beside me in the
academy Rodney Richardson.
He's chief of Richmond PD now.
Oh really, and he was there asa Richmond PD officer you know
which he lived in Richmond, sohe didn't live in the dorm, he
got to stay at home.
That's bull crap.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
They should have made him live.
Well, I mean, if it's goodenough for him, it's good enough
for me.
The way I saw it Exactly, I canonly live 45 minutes a week.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
And I've got a gas car.
But yeah, it was a good timeyou networked across the state.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Some of them got.
You know, you're like I wonderhow this guy's doing, how this
guy's doing.
And you know, when I was, Iwent to the Chiefs a little
introduction to the new Chiefsthing, yes and made good friends
with some of them.
I knew from, like I saw one guyfrom the academy there, I saw
another guy from Sargent'sAcademy there and from West I

(43:02):
don't know, up somewhere inLouisville.
I was like that's not even realtown is it?
It's like this littlesubdivision just pretty close to
Churchill Downs.
I was like I don't want to gothere, man, because he's like I
need a night shift sergeantright now.
I said, man, I'm good, I'lljust stay right where I'm at.

(43:23):
But the guys out in westernKentucky that you know, when I
left they're like, hey, comeover, come on out.
I was like I'm pretty surey'all have way too many
tornadoes out there.
I'm pretty good out here, but Iappreciated them guys doing
that stuff.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Yeah, those are flatlands out there.
It messes with your mind andeverything like that.
I don't know what to do with it.
You know, just sitting herethinking how many police
departments because I know firedepartments for the most part
how many police departmentsacross the state have their own
academy?
Besides, like I know,Louisville and KSB?

Speaker 5 (43:54):
Louisville, Lexington .
They just started a WesternKentucky DOCJT Really yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Bowling Green started one.
Oh, okay, that's been probablyBecause it was such a drive for
all your Western agencies.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
I have they open the one out was yeah, it's, they're
running their first class rightnow what's that?

Speaker 2 (44:14):
it may maze, maze field or some of like.
We're the tornado, yeah and acouple years ago, you know, I
think it's right there.
So they're doing a WesternKentucky one.
Bowling Green has one, but it'sjust for Bowling Green PD.
Yes, which surprises me, butthat's a pretty good size.
I don't know how many officersthey got.

Speaker 5 (44:33):
Then you've got Louisville, metro, lexington,
and then if you transfer, likeif one of us was to transfer
from here to Louisville orLexington, they still make you
go through a two-week course.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Is that it Like a lateral?

Speaker 3 (44:51):
Yeah, a lateral course.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
You still got to do your little pops and shoot.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
So I was in class with guys from Hopkinsville.
I was in class from NorthernKentucky, from Sturgis, oh yeah
been to Sturgis.
I only thought Sturgis was inNorth Dakota.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
I didn't even know, there was one in Kentucky.
You're not missing anything,not at all.
Well, the guy that's in ouracademy class he was from
Hopkinsville but he's a formerNavy SEAL, according to him
Didn't portray that image, butthat was his story, was he?

Speaker 5 (45:28):
more like a gravy seal, yeah, so you know he's
like team six.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
I don't want my name on this academy shirt because I
don't want a bunch of rednecksin eastern kentucky to see that
and come and try to hurt me ormy family or whatever.
And I'm like I don't know howy'all do it out west in the
flatlands, I said, but in thehills, I mean, we actually get
in vehicles that say sheriff onthe side of them and police and

(45:54):
such.
I mean that's good with thisyou know?

Speaker 5 (45:56):
yeah, you're pretty well targeted if you're going to
be talking when we get out ofthe car they kind of know who we
are, and so on on.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
Because I was over the t-shirt there, so instead,
instead of his name, we put TopSecret.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
That's funny, well, I had gotten the same deal from
Hop Town.
I think he was with I don'tknow Delta or something I don't
know, but he was like I don'tknow guys, I don't know about
that having my name on thatstuff I was like you hop.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Yeah, it's got to be a community vibe or something.
There they're all specialforces.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Yes, I feel safer already but I mean I might as
well be in Tennessee over therein that area.
So it's uh, I remember, gosh,some of the academy guys.
There was this older guy and hefailed out on and he was not

(46:57):
from Hopkinsville but one of thetowns right outside the Fort
Campbell Gate right there.
So it was real close to that.
But whatever little town thatis right there and he was a
great dude man.
Him and Greg Turner used to goon smoke breaks together every
hour on the island Big team.

(47:21):
Let's go smoke, buy me a pop.
He will not come on thispodcast for some reason, but
anyway, I mean great dude, greatdude, and we go to skills and
there's two parts of that.
You had to do the use of forcecontinuum.
You know, know it.
You had to write it down on thepyramid.
Yeah well, the pyramid.

(47:41):
You know most pyramids go thisplace but he just inverted it
and he went.
He had it perfectly right.
He just had it flipped over andthey that was a fail.
And then he goes into the likethe practical stuff of cuffing
or something I thought I didgreat and he's like we tested
him on this.
Well, that instructor had noidea that he'd also just failed,

(48:04):
that his force inverted it.
Yeah, we're in last week andthey kicked him out.
We had like two days left.
I was like jerks man.
He did well, the whole academyclass, great guy.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
And bang bang he's done.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
I was like wow.

Speaker 5 (48:23):
Cold hearted that may have been a blessing in
disguise.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
He would have been a good officer, but it's just one
of them deals man.
I don't know if he got to comeback.
Could you imagine, though,going through we were 16 weeks?
Sorry, but 16 weeks.
You're in your 16th week andyou're out.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
You're unemployed.
That's crazy.

Speaker 5 (48:47):
I mean that was unlikely for me at 16 weeks,
yeah we have a very ten weekswas forever.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Okay, I'm just telling you, 23 was a long time,
and what made it worse?

Speaker 5 (48:59):
is 23.
Wouldn't have been that badstraight through, but we caught
it at the right time to where wehad the two-week break for
Christmas and then a week offfor Thanksgiving, so it was
three weeks of just extending mylife.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
I just want to get out and get on the road, so I'd
been to the academy.
I just came home from Belgiumon our front line fighting the
Moroccans.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
So I've been gone for Frontline, Frontline dude
Fighting the Moroccans.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
The Moroccans, damn Moroccans.
So I've been gone, for you knowwe've almost gone a year and
been home like a couple monthsbefore I started the academy.
So I mean, I was married.
You know, we'd been married acouple years and I was like so
we've been married now for 26years, but really just 25

(49:49):
because it was a full year.
I never even saw her.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
You were non-existent .

Speaker 5 (49:54):
I was.
She was wife and dad alone.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I mean it was tough, but we made a habit.
She would come up on Wednesdaysup to Richmond because I was so
scared to go home.
Yeah, I was scared to death toget caught.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
I don't know, yeah

Speaker 3 (50:09):
that's yeah, that's worried, which they were calling
in on us a lot too actuallyrunner would come to me and go

(50:30):
hey, so so-and-so, you probablyneed to go talk to him Because
they're getting ready to getchecked, I mean.
So he was a good liaison, yeah,I liked Runner.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
He was a good guy For sure, man, I wonder.
I think he retired during ourclass.
Yeah, finally he finallyretired.
I think he retired during ourclass.
Yeah, finally he finallyretired.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
So Lexington Fire had an academy, so how's that?

Speaker 3 (50:58):
That's a long one, isn't it?
It is, which I mean.
When I got hired at Lexington Iwas already a level two
firefighter and had EMT all that.
So for EMT you just had to sitthrough the lectures and didn't
have to test Well being, a fewother guys actually drew

(51:24):
training incentive because wewere already certified
firefighters when we got hired.
I mean, I was teaching for thestate, as a state instructor
even, and so we were gettingthat incentive check.
And one of the guys that satbeside me you know we got our
checks and mine's more than hisbecause the incentive was tagged

(51:44):
on it but he didn't know thathe was, you know, brand new to
the fire service.
So I'm like check this out,cecil, what are you getting paid
more than me for?
I said I guess they're paying.

(52:06):
Uh, understand, yeah, but goingthrough the academy and then
the entire lexton firedepartment's going through
survival and rescue is when thatclass first came out from the
state of kentucky and they hadstate fire come in and teach it.
Well, I was one of theinstructors that taught that
class and so.
But the instructors are likelisten, reams, you can't wear

(52:28):
your orange helmet for thisclass.
You're going to have to wearyour state helmet.
I'm like, okay, I mean this isnot uniform, but all right.
They said, because an orangehelmet can't teach firefighters
what's going on, you're going toqualify for that Not an orange
helmet I'm glad that there's

Speaker 1 (52:48):
always an orange aspect.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
We had orange guns and they've got orange helmets.
But orange helmets, you werethe probie, I mean, you were the
new guy.
You're like hang on a second.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
When you're sitting back at first and you're like
yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
All right, guys, I got something to do.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Let me teach you all how to really do this now.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
All right, recruit, go ahead.
Lee Cruz came out and did aninterview that morning with us
and so I was doing the windowbailout and he's sitting there
talking about it and he's like Ican see where this would be
effective.
You know, if you're at yourgirlfriend's house and her
husband comes home, you'reneeding to get out the window
quick.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
You know I'm like great your girlfriend's house
and her husband comes home.
You're needing to get out thewindow quick is he still on?

Speaker 2 (53:32):
is he still got a show on?
Yeah yeah, that's funny.
He was funny guys so you wentwith some crazy stuff.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
I know it's got to be wild up there, but y'all had to
meet precincts and stuff whichI mean we had 21 stations while
I was there and I was riding thebuggy one day and we get sent
to a domestic at one of thelittle roach motels and we come
pulling up, we get out of theambulance and this girl that was

(54:10):
into drug activity and intoprostitution we go walking in
the room and this girl looks upand goes hey Fuzz.
And I'm like what who?
It's like walking with RichieRiddle in a chicken face hey

(54:30):
Richie, hey girl, so come tofind out she was originally from
East Bernstadt and I arrestedher for prostitution down at the
truck stop in Corbin beforewhen I was before my Lexington
fire days.
But she recognized me, so theother guys on the buggy were
like so how many prostitutes uphere in lexton do you know?

Speaker 5 (54:52):
yeah, I didn't know.
I knew that one.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
It would be easier to count the ones I know but you
know it's hard to be cool whenthey call you by your nickname
in the door.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Speaking of that, oh Eddie we gotta tell them, eddie,
he knew him down there at theoh yeah, he was the original
prostitute police, so he was, hewas vice yes, he was the vice
squad he washe brought me down.

(55:24):
Well, I was on Derek's squad.
I don't know if he was working,well, I know you've been there
when he's pulled these antics.
Yes, so it could have been anydeputy, it could have happened
to any officer, you just didn'tknow Right.
Hollers up to the PD and we wasall just sitting around,

(55:45):
hollered up, said hey, derek,y'all, come down to the
sheriff's office.
We don't know what we got.
We wouldn't really listen towhat they had down there, you
know.
And Corbin the pilot, and he'slike hey, come in, sit down,
close your eyes, guys, closeyour eyes we think he's going to
surprise us with like some food.

(56:06):
No man, this girl comes out.
I open my eyes up and there sheis topless Like some food.
No man, this girl comes out.
I open my eyes up and there sheis topless.
I was like, oh my gosh, Derek'sover there, like what are you
going to do?
I was like I don't know, I justran out.
I was like you're going to getme in trouble this podcast is

(56:29):
still going to get me in troublefor that, and he's still
getting me.
But man, he could get them.
Man, I don't know if he justlistened to them.
I don't know he was the bestguy.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Well shoot, that's 98 , the year I went to the academy
.
I rested 42 that year.
Oh my gosh Jeez.
And that was in full uniform ina marked car.
I mean, it wasn't undercover.
Just listening on the CB, justlistening on the CB, and I would
park and kind of walk in backin the back in the safe haven

(57:02):
area and stand in the edge ofthe parking lot and watch the
girls go truck to truck.
You know, and you could sitthere and listen to them on the
little handheld CB and wheneverthey'd make a couple, three
stops, then go beat on the doorand bring her out and she'd have

(57:22):
her money stuffed in her sockbecause that was the only part
of her costume she didn't takeoff stuffed in her sock because
that was the only part of hercostume she didn't take off.
It's awful, but the one you'retalking about that was willing
to put on the escapades orwhatever.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
It was just the right .
I don't know why I was a new,really new officer.
It was just like we're going toget him.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
He was like a dragon he was like dragon possums or
whatever.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
It was like eddie's gonna get you good with yes, he
would with it with his workinggirls.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
well, I arrested the same girl one night and she's
like where's officer eddie?
I said officer eddie's workingday shift now because he
wouldn't arrest you women and I.
That's why I'm working thatshit.
I had Mark Parks riding with meand so I had the screen opened

(58:15):
up, but she kept reaching up andplaying with his ears and stuff
.
He was so uncomfortable he wasready to jump out the window.
He was ready to walk back toLondon for Corbin.
She was just messing with himthe whole way.
Oh my gosh, wow.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
That's awesome.
Here we get you in the.
Oh my gosh.
Do you remember when he aboutcut his hand off or jabbed that
knife in his hand?
That was the first time I drovea police car.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
Is that right yeah?

Speaker 2 (58:47):
I'm pretty sure I'd drive it up to the hospital
Because he wasn't able to.
His grandkids are my niece andnephew.
It was their birthday party.
My dad he had a new case knife.
He was trying to open up apresent.
Dad's like that's a prettysharp knife.

(59:07):
My grandpa's like he's takingit right here, deep right there.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
He didn't know what to say Really, let me see, he
came out and was like, oh mygosh.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
So yeah, that's the first time I drove a sheriff's
office, the only time I thinkI've ever drove a sheriff's SO
car.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
I was driving it because he's had to drive my car
up to the hospital.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
I was bringing it up there so I could get back home.
Oh man, it was awful.
It was awful.

Speaker 5 (59:35):
I was like what's going on?

Speaker 2 (59:37):
it was good, I miss that guy.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Mm-hmm, he was something.
He was definitely entertaining.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
He was a legend he really was, so we, so you had.
Now you went from there to theto the airport.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
I worked this.
Me and John Blanton wereworking together at the, SO yeah
, and then he applied forLexington Fire and I'm like you
know that that's a pretty goodsalary there.
I believe I'll try that too.
And John he always, when wewould work together, he would

(01:00:19):
always say, Fuzz, you're killingme.
I mean, I can't count the timesthat he went home early because
his blood pressure was high dueto my antics with him.
That checks out.

Speaker 5 (01:00:33):
And so he would tell everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
He'd say I got a bullet with Fuzz's name on it.
It's just for him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Hey, I saw him at a basketball game.
I was going up there, I thoughtabout it my brother's called
the basketball games on theradio and stuff and he was up
there he's part of the hardwoodclub or something that's out and
he was like I said, hey, youready to come on the podcast?
Man, he's yeah, I guess I don'tknow what are you going to ask?

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
me.
I was like I don't know, yeah,I'm going to ask Denny about it,
it's coming, it's coming,they're coming on, but they just
don't know it yet.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
He was notorious for setting a dispatch on second
shift, and so if we went ondomestic, if one of us was off,
we'd have to take a city unitwith us.
Out in the county We'd havesergeants.
I mean mean, supervision wassupervise yourself, and so be
good back in the good old days,you know but uh, I yelled at

(01:01:36):
chris edwards and I'm like youknow, can uh, eight, eleven,
eighteen, have authority to backme up on this call out in the
county?
And he was like, yeah, becausewe shared the same frequency and
stuff then.
Well, that pushed John'sbuttons again you know.
And so he shows up, the maidenwoman they've been fighting.

(01:01:56):
I pull in, john pulls in rightbehind me.
They're out in the yard, sothey kind of split up a little
bit.
Well, john gets out of the carand start pointing at me, coming
at me, going Fuzz, I'm going tokill you if you ever do that
again on the radio.
So here's this man and woman.
They're like man.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
These two guys have got issues, somebody's going to
have to break them up.
We're trying to have our owndebate.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
We're trying to have our own fight.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
They're still in our thunder, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
We can work through this, honey, it's I never
thought about that, but thattactic might work.

Speaker 5 (01:02:35):
I mean, it killed him off guard.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
So John tells everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
he was trying to go to Lexington to get away from me
for his health, and then I gothired and went with him so he
didn't escape.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
He finished up there, he retired.
I don't know how many years hedid up there.
We'll have to ask him.
He's coming on okay we're gonnahave him.

Speaker 4 (01:02:57):
I'm sure he's got some great fuzz stories too see
if you can't get like a call inby that time.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
So you can call in and ask him different, different
questions and all that we cando can call in and ask him
different questions and all thatwe can do.
A call in, I might sit you downand call you and just watch him
.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Maybe we'll have a UMS stand-by.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
We'll have them here with us.
Oh gosh, lexington Fire, I mean.
So you rode a buggy a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Actually, I probably rode a buggy a handful of times,
especially for a new guy.
I got to be in charge of thehose warehouse, so whenever they
ask for volunteers to go toparamedic school.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
That sounds kinky.
Who's in?

Speaker 5 (01:03:47):
charge of the hose.
Is that an alternativelifestyle?
Diversity my orange helmet.
That orange helmet had afeather in it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
Call me dead.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
But yeah, they're like okay, we need volunteers to
go to paramedic school.
Well, john, he volunteered, andmy sub-mate there, cecil, he
volunteered.
I'm like I'm really booked withthis, keeping the hose repair.

(01:04:38):
So I dodged paramedics schoolwhile I was at Lexington.
You know they had a chief therefor a while that everybody was
gonna go, you know, and I'm likethat's too close to being a
doctor for me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Yeah you go to paramedic?

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
no, no, but I was gonna say I was up there
teaching a class I guess earlylast year and talked to one of
the chiefs and it's like westrongly urge and then when we
don't get that, then we voluntoin, told people that they're
down a paramedic school do youfeel like that's beneficial to
have fire EMS, or should it befired and then EMS be it, and

(01:05:16):
either an add-on or a, you knowit's separate entity.
If, if Danville did that, wewould be what six, seven fire
calls a week.
I mean we would.
We wouldn't have anything andsee, that's what London's doing
to get those numbers up mm-hmmyou know, you got a show.
Commissioners and councilmembers, hey, we're busy and

(01:05:37):
we're doing all that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
You know it's.

Speaker 5 (01:05:41):
It's a good way to get quick response oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, I mean it's becausefrom an outside standpoint I'm
like yeah, if you can getsomebody that can save my life
faster than yeah, get them thereyeah, because I mean ems may be
coming from the other side ofthe county.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
I mean they're not always at the station exactly
and you know.
So I mean for the city you'vealready got that service in play
and more and more departmentsacross the nation are doing fire
EMS.
In Danville we do fire andfirst responder EMS.
We don't transport in anambulance but we stabilize until

(01:06:20):
the EMS gets there andtransports.
I can see where it's justified.
It's a good use of resourcesBecause if it was just strictly
fire, I mean 80% of our runsright now of the 3,000 are EMS.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
It would be boring.

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
It would be a nightmare to survive 24 hours of
thumb twiddling and you take astate like Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Florida is like 96%.
95% of the departments arefirefighter, paramedics.
I mean it's huge, a lot olderpopulation.

(01:07:05):
There too, you've a code.
You know something like that.
A lot of times the Danville PDis beating us there and starting
CPR and different things likethat before we get there.
So it's great.
Those guys are great to workwith.
I will definitely say they are.

Speaker 5 (01:07:22):
We had a pretty solid relationship there at one time
between PD and fire departmentlaw enforcement, fire department
and then something happenedthat became a pissing match and
then then we got back back ingood graces again.
I don't know what, but that wasalways.
You see that on TV and all thatyou know, all the stuff, the,
the pranks and stuff going onback and forth and that was

(01:07:44):
always fun.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
We just had to bring Richie though, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Richie's the most fun to break.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
He would bash you guys, but yet he'd be the one
down there hiding his cruiserinside the fire department.
Yeah, it was just a big showfor him.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
Why does somebody become a police officer?
Because they can't pass thefirefighter exam.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
I agree.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
That's what made Joey bitter.
I will say that wholeheartedly.
I believe that the firedepartment POP standard is a lot
more difficult than police.
I was down there.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
I was like I'm going to get on that stair climber.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
I was like I did it Three minutes ain't forever.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Until you put 80 pounds on your back, brother.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
And you're not allowed to use the handrails.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
I was like it's going to take me about a year to get
that.
Yeah, you need to feel it thatpace picks up pretty good and
you're like, okay, I'm all right.
Then, hey, put this weight veston, oh, by the way.
Oh, and then you jump off thatyou've got the wobbles whatever
you've got to go.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
I'm like.
I think I'm just going to gotake a nap I sit on the bottom
step for a minute and catch mybreath it's different and I get
it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
You've got to take all that stuff up lots of stairs
.
Police are just like you guys?

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
good, yeah, you show up, it's awful hot out here I'm
going to block this road aboutthree blocks back the other will
pull up right in the middle ofthe road ain't nothing like a
fire department jacking up anentire good road that you can
get everybody around though herecomes three buggy or three
trucks up there and be likesafety first they're on the

(01:09:28):
shoulder man.

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
I used to get so aggravated about that you'd have
a, you know a single vehicle 45on the yeah and we couldn't
signal eight anymore.
Yeah, so it's like.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
It's like it's just a 45, I don't need everybody, and
then I've got the wholeinterstate blocked now because
in the yes but at the same timeit was nice to have you know a
truck there so I know I don'thave to get worried about some
idiot hitting me I'm sure y'allhave caught the brunt end of me
mad on 192 or something like.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
Why y'all here, oh my gosh and then just go sit down,
be like you.
Good, yeah, I'm all right now,I know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
Thanks for coming I'll be up there after a while
playing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
PlayStation.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
We had a wreck here in Danville one day on the
bypass down towards Colton's.
It was a pretty good accident.
I think it was nighttime andall of a sudden a Danville PD
unit comes flying by our firetruck pulls right up next to the
patient.
I was like that's got to besome kind of London guy.
Sure enough, it was Jacobgetting out of the car right
there.

Speaker 5 (01:10:28):
Yeah, a London guy.
Sure enough, it was Jacobgetting out of the car right
there.
Yeah, a London guy Front rowparking we were used to getting
to the tall cars.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Yeah, what are you up to here?

Speaker 5 (01:10:38):
We would joke around and be like we're going to get
the information for the evidenceeradication team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Can we roll with you?

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Jay.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
I went to like what's the supervisor classes of ICS?
So I remember going down andVigger was teaching a class down
at down there by the lake.
What's not, what's that firedepartment?

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
ball drop and I was like it's two different worlds
down there by the lake.
What's not past Cold.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
Hill, what's that?
Fire department?
Bald Rock, bald Rock, yeah, andI was like it's two different
worlds.
On the class started on.
It was a weekend class, so theclass started like on Friday
Uh-huh, uh-huh, and you couldn'teven the smell in.
There was horrible, yeah.
And then all them old guys.
I just went and took theSaturday bath the next day it
was great, Thanks guys.

(01:11:29):
But I was sitting there and Iwas talking to them.
I was like you know, we're justtrying to preserve, we're into
evidence preservation here.
We want to preserve the scenehere.
Why do you guys come and justwreck everything Life?

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
comes first or whatever.
Yes, life is the priority.
I was like I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:11:50):
I've seen stabilizations on down the line,
which is actually that makesmore sense but when you're
trying to get insuranceinformation all this stuff that
don't really matter.
They're looking too.
You're dying.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
I don't care, I need your insurance because I've done
it as an officer.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Can you get his license and his insurance card
out of his wallet?
I don't care, I need yourinsurance Because I've done it
as an officer.
I've been up in the back of thebuggy.
Can you get his license and hisinsurance card out of his
wallet for you all to?

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
take off.
It was just two differentapproaches on that scene and
it's good to talk about becausecops are like I've got to work
this wreck.
Fire is going to get here anddo what they have to do put the
fire out, maybe have to do CPR,just tend to wounds or whatever,
and, of course, cut every dooroff.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Yeah, the top off again makes it easier on the
adjuster to total the car andthere at the end it would be
everybody be in a circle aroundthe insurance card because the
EMS had to have it too here yougo.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
I got a picture of it .
Who's?
Unit one, but it is you don'ttalk about.
Hey, I don't understand why youdo this, and this is why we do
this you don't do, you don'tpass them on the way to the call
.

Speaker 5 (01:13:04):
That was Cody, wasn't it, that was.
Cody Cody definitely got hispee peepee smacked over that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
You should probably go into that car.
Which one was it?
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:13:14):
Ricky was driving.
Ricky was driving the buggy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
He was driving a big truck.
Was it a full truck?
Yeah, it was a full truck, Ithink.

Speaker 5 (01:13:23):
So yeah, and Cody was running signal and got behind
him and I guess Ricky's justdriving trying to get to the
call too, he just whips aroundand passes and goes to oh man,
it created World War three.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
That's how.
That's how.
That's why there's boxingmatches between fire and police.
Yeah, stress relief.

Speaker 4 (01:13:42):
Yeah, the day that you all stopped canceling us on
vehicle fires.
That was a terrible day for me,guarantee, because I had the
contract on the city fireextinguishers and I mean you all
were going through them leftand right, so is making money,
and oh yeah, I mean we werestill gonna use the fire
extinguisher.

Speaker 5 (01:14:01):
Yeah, this up, but yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
I think Rick Cochran told you just wait on the fire
department.

Speaker 5 (01:14:05):
I was like no, rick, let them put that out.
Let them put that out.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
I can't sit there and wait.

Speaker 4 (01:14:11):
Use every extinguisher you got.

Speaker 5 (01:14:13):
This is the closest I've ever kicked to being a
firefighter, that's exactly it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
I don't know how many fully involved cars.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
It's like I gave it my best.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Everybody wants to have a dream you remember the
old bike shop that was on town,not the one downtown, but it was
on down the road a little bitand it was me and Darryl Kilburn
were working night shift and wewas coming back down the road
and we see a fire up the side,like the electric caught on,
like the box, you know fuse orsomething.
It caught on fire.
The side of it, like theelectric caught on, like the box

(01:14:48):
, you know, the fuse orsomething, it caught on fire at
the side of the building andDarrell grabs his you know his
fire extinguisher out and I grabmine I'm on the radio.
He jumps the fence Three.
No, maybe a foot behind it.
You could just walk around.
I was like, is that thefirefighter moment?
Yeah, a walk around.
I was like you just had to be afirefighter moment.

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
I was like Darrell why don't you just walk around?
Too simple.
The music was playing.
I mean you had to make theentrance.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Was you out there as a rescue call, but I know y'all
went to one.
The kid got caught in a pondout there behind um, behind
Lowe's, that you know.
There's a pond way back outthere.
Yeah, ricky jumps in like hey,I mean it's just mud and it was.

(01:15:41):
He flopped like a frog yes.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
I didn't remember that yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:15:47):
I never seen a guy more muddy.

Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
He got stuck in the pond too, got the kid, but he
had to be dragged.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
I've never seen more people muddy in my life oh yeah,
it's a swamp back there.
It's awful but he's fogging outthere.
I was like golly heroes, I waslike.
I'm not going.
Y'all don't get me out.

Speaker 4 (01:16:06):
No See, it was out in the county.
One time we went to a guy thatwas on bath salts and he got
completely naked and ran througha bunch of briars and climbed a
tree and got stuck and a womancalled about 10 o'clock in the
morning and said y'all mightwant to come out here.
I've heard a guy yelling allnight long and get out there and

(01:16:29):
she's like, yeah, he's beenyelling, since you know nine
o'clock at night.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
I just thought it was some kind of crazy guy.

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
But surely enough, he had got his foot stuck between
two limbs and fell backwards, oh, and was still conscious, but
he was on bath salts the wholenight.
I'm surprised he didn't gnaw itoff no but when they uprighted
him and everything, I think heended up dying on the way over
to.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
St Joseph.

Speaker 4 (01:16:53):
Oh my gosh Jeez, just the things that People wait to
call.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
One time I was me and Derek and I think Stuart was
working night shift.
It was a weird shift.
I was catching all the calls.
Of course, this guy's out atthe shopping center by Burger
King.
The security guard called hourslater and said hey guys, I want

(01:17:24):
to come out here.
A couple hours ago this guy'sbeen out here just howling at
the moon like a werewolf.
I was like what he.
He had, uh, went to thehospital for some back pain.
He was off of off of greyhoundbuzz, was he?
And ate his fentanyl patch.
You remember they used to givethem out all the time.
Ate that sucker.
He went over there and got wildand he's dead.

(01:17:46):
I was like, man, you shouldhave made me call like this when
you first saw him wolfing out.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
That's my fault.

Speaker 5 (01:17:55):
That was weighted because, it was werewolf.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
As far as the city of Namble, you cannot take a nap
in your vehicle.
Oh God, no, or you're inoverdrive.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
Do they put the signs up?
That's like a city ordinance orsomething over there.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
If you see somebody taking a nap, call 911.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
In London.
That's just for dogs.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
I can't count the number of runs I've made on
sleeping people that wereoverdosed in their vehicle.

Speaker 5 (01:18:23):
You've got to leave a note up Don't nark candy on him
taking a nap.
You got to leave a note upDon't narc candy on him.

Speaker 4 (01:18:27):
He's taking a nap.
We got one about 9 o'clock inthe morning one day down Maple
Avenue towards Bob Allen and weget down there and I forget
which officer was with him.
He was waiting for theconstruction crew to show up.
He was the flagger.
He had just sat in his car,just, you know, chilling out,
just going to take a quick nap.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
But between like in.
In five minutes people calledoh, we got a, he's out here.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
He's you need to get out here.
He's a self-conscious.
Yeah, yeah, I mean Five starright there on the bypass.
Oh, they'll call all the timethey're so used to it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:01):
Here they're just like.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
Back towards that five star, back towards Tractor
Splat layer.
I would go out there from theschool for the deaf.
Houstonville road and that wasmy I'd go get.
I'd go get my favorite blackbuffalo.

(01:19:27):
That's where I discovered thatsnuff and no nicotine stuff.
I said, heck, yeah, that's theonly place I've ever heard about
it.
That's where I'm going, not asponsor, but it could be.

Speaker 5 (01:19:39):
It could be but they had.

Speaker 2 (01:19:43):
I had that cruiser I drove, had green on it to match
the school colors.
So I'm setting that thereiser.
I drove had green on it tomatch the school colors.
Yeah, so I'm sitting up thereand I'm fuel there.
So I was getting gas and thisguy comes up and he's like where
are you from?
I was like Danville, what doyou mean?
He's like Danville.
Virginia.
I was like we're in Danville,kentucky.

(01:20:05):
Well, I've never seen a greencruiser in Danville.

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
I was like, ah, I thought they were just in London
we've pulled up on calls andbeing a reserve engine and the
people in the house be like,well, where's engine 12?
And I'm like it's broke rightnow.
That's why we're in 17.
And I mean, I'm like it's brokeright now, that's why we're in
17, and I'm like these peoplekeep up with their apparatus and

(01:20:33):
their cruisers and such.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
Danville City Police is a lot blue or whatever you're
driving a green car, you don'tmatch.
Are you an imposter?
Yes, I am.
I'm from London, that's truewhere's five or six of us up
there there's a

Speaker 4 (01:20:53):
large presence in.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
Danville now between fire and law enforcement.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
So we were allowed to , you know, park park cruisers
in in Mount Vernon, so it got tobe where there was five or six
cruisers sitting in that parkinglot up at the 911 center More
than what was at the PD.

Speaker 3 (01:21:09):
isn't that what?

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
it is.
When John Rock went up there,he was the only one, so he used
to park at the sheriff's office.
Then another one comes.
So they were like, hey, wedon't have any room here.
Can you guys move up to 911?
Yeah, so they had this niceparking lot and then I'm pulling
out and the county judge andthe 911 director come out.
They were like, well, there's abunch of you up here now.
Huh, I was like yeah, he's likeyou know that part.

(01:21:33):
We on that building right downbelow you, right there too.
I was like you want us to move?

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
Well, there's 12 of you up here.
Too nice to come out and ask.

Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
I said I'll tell them , Since you thought of it

(01:22:09):
no-transcript.
So you went from Lexington Firethen to Lexington Air Force
Bluegrass Airport.

Speaker 3 (01:22:16):
yeah, For money?
Yeah, because I mean it was a$10,000 pay raise to go to the
airport because Lexington Fireat that point wasn't paying
nearly what it does today, rightnow, did you have to?
Work eight as an officer thereand 16 as a fire you did the 24
48 schedule, but eight hours ofyour 24 was as a patrol officer.

(01:22:40):
Yeah well, I was the new hire,so guess what I got?
Third shift.
I mean third shift.
Third shift's been my lawenforcement shift my entire life
, don't?

Speaker 2 (01:22:49):
they shut that gates down.

Speaker 5 (01:22:51):
Yeah, that's why third shift's the place to be
Third shift was always the bestshift in law enforcement.

Speaker 3 (01:22:58):
You know, at 1230 at night the last plane had landed
and the people had cleared theirluggage by midnight.
You know, midnight 30 at thelatest.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
That's incoming because TSA leaves now like mine
.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
Yeah, so you would lock the front doors of the
terminal and the only people inthe building were the cleaning
crew.
And so from 1230 up until 430or so 4 or 430, the terminal was
locked down.
So 4 or 4.30, the terminal waslocked down and you'd go back
over at 4 or 4.30 and unlock thedoors so that people could
start coming in to go throughTSA for the 6am flight.

(01:23:35):
And so I mean, for 4 hoursyou're sitting over at the
firehouse watching infomercials,you know, hanging out.
It was a long shift, but theyhad their own dispatch center.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
They bought P90X.
Yes, what else was?

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
going on, the girls gone wild man.
They were on their back.

Speaker 4 (01:24:00):
I wonder what kind of reception you can get off of
that big Doppler radar.
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:24:06):
But you know you had your own dispatch there.
So one of the complaints I hadat the airport you know they're
like okay, now listen, we knowthat you've been a police
officer in southeastern Kentuckyand the airport's a little
different.
You know we're more customerservice.
You know it's a class five citythe airport is, so it's got its

(01:24:28):
own government.
You know the airport boardstheir governing agency and all
that.
So they've got their ownnumbers.
But we had this guy that didn'twant to pay his valet parking
fees and so he's raising aruckus.
Well, they call dispatch, saidwe need an officer out here for

(01:24:48):
an unruly subject.
And I get there, he was a fratboy from UK that didn't want to
pay.
He said that's, that's too much.
Well, right, there's the signon the side of their little
building that tells you thedaily rate.
You've been gone for a week, sothat'd be seven times 15.

(01:25:09):
You know that's what you owe,right?
Yeah, I said the economyparking's back there and you
park it yourself.
So you decide to valet and thisis what you get.
Well, I'm not going to pay it.
I said, well, that's fine, youdon't have to pay it.
I said, well, that's fine, youdon't have to pay it.
I said but this is privateproperty and we're going to be

(01:25:33):
closing up so it's time for youto leave so I can escort you out
to man O' War and you can gowherever you please, but you're
not going to stay here.
Well, I got to get my bag.
So we go to the airline deskthere because he hadn't got his
bag yet.
And he's standing there talkingto the clerk at, know, at the
register.
Well, I'm standing there behindhim because I'm going to escort
him off the property and heturns around and kind of

(01:25:55):
flinches forward at me and he'slike that's not even a real
badge.
We had embroidered badges, youknow, it looked like lexington
metro badge.
He goes, I ain't afraid of thatbadge.
I said it's not the badgeyou've got to be afraid of.
And so I'm just standing there,you know, letting him do his
thing.

(01:26:15):
He gets his bag, he turnsaround and flinches again and
chest bumps me.
Well, I assist him down to theground so I can check and see if
he's got any weapons, cuff himup.
Well, while I'm doing that, atthe airport there's cameras
everywhere.
So dispatch monitors those.

(01:26:36):
Well, they yell out you know,all units 411 needs assistance
and about that time he's slammedand cuffed and I'm standing
back up.
They're like never mind he'sslammed and cuffed and I'm
standing back up.
They're like never mind he'sgot everything under control.
So the guy's girlfriend comes infrom the outside.
She's like what?
What's going on?
I said I'm gonna give him aride.

(01:26:56):
She's like where to?
I said, well, he's going tofayette county detention.
I said, uh, the cab line isright down there if you need a
ride out of here.
And so she ended up catching acab and going home and he went
to jail that night because hewanted to play chest bump with
the police they didn't have tobring you in and be like that

(01:27:21):
wasn't very good customerservice.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
Or they're like oh, that's how policing goes on.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
We don't get to see that very often, yeah, I mean
it's.

Speaker 5 (01:27:30):
You know, even with community policing and being
more lax, you still can't letsomebody.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
Yeah, no, I mean that's.
He had every break he could get.

Speaker 5 (01:27:42):
As soon as they lay hands on you.
It's yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:45):
Once he made contact yeah, he bought the free ticket,
so yeah I couldn't even uh, soyou did that for a couple years
and then went to vehicleenforcement as an officer here
in london, yeah, and thenpromoted to sergeant, you know
so that was fun we.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
We were some down there at the scale house
together they'll find Tom's.

Speaker 3 (01:28:08):
We saw, yeah, it was the best law enforcement job
ever, and I mean with the KV itwas the land of milk and honey.
I mean that's it's a good.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
It was a good, I'm sure still good.
I don't know what they do.
They don't, they don't hireanymore now.
They don't know the tro, dothey're?

Speaker 3 (01:28:26):
absorbed.
Now they don't hire anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:28:27):
No, they don't.
No, I think they teach youTroopers.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
Get taught now they actually show the troopers how
to do it.
Now, that was Jason Van Hook'sbig thing, you know, because we
were wanting equal pay.
He's like well, you can't.
You know, you've not been tothe state police academy.
You can't have equal pay.
I said now listen.
I said I put on any policeuniform and somebody's just as

(01:28:49):
arrested I'm I'm pop certifiedin kentucky.
I said you can't put on a cvuniform and do an inspection on
a big truck because you've notbeen trained.
I said now who's?

Speaker 5 (01:28:58):
better trained.
That's it.
I think we need more moneythat's an argument when when
they would talk about the, uh,the guys that went through leap
class, they're like well,they're only half troopers, Well
, they've got 36 weeks oftraining.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
You've only got 20.
Yeah, they're half a trooper.

Speaker 5 (01:29:16):
They give some heartburn for the guys that have
been through the entire thing,but they've got way more hours
of training.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
They're right of passage through there.
It's more like going through abud's hell.
Yeah, I mean it's it's real.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
I mean that's they don't want you to be there if
you don't yeah, they encourageyou to leave if you don't want
to really be there I got, youknow, I got marine buddies that
said it was tougher.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
Yeah, oh, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
I've heard that many times.
This is a lot tougher than anyboot camp of any branch of
military.

Speaker 2 (01:29:47):
They told me that I was like I had to do extra time
there, getting hurt and stuff at.
Marine Corps boot camp.
I ain't gonna do that, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (01:29:54):
I was like yeah, I'm good, guys, you can have this,
that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:02):
I'll go back and be a city kid the other day.
Did you?

Speaker 2 (01:30:07):
go.
Yeah, I went, I don't remember.

Speaker 5 (01:30:07):
That must not have been long no, it wasn't, it was
long enough hey you gotta try,you gotta try.
I remember I was up there andyou're all standing in the
hallway at attention, you've gotyour little packet.

Speaker 4 (01:30:23):
Oh, I remember when you went yeah, your OAL and all
that you're standing atattention.

Speaker 5 (01:30:26):
You've got your little packet and all your, your
oh well, yeah, you're oh well,and all that you're standing at
attention, they're come throughthere one of the instructors
looked at me and he just grabbedmy stuff and all the way down
the hall so papers wenteverywhere and he's like you got
15 seconds to pick all thatback up.
It's like, well, I might aswell just assume the position,

(01:30:46):
yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30:48):
It's a lot easier.
How many do you want?

Speaker 5 (01:30:51):
Yeah, let's just cut to the chase.
How many towel slides?

Speaker 2 (01:30:56):
I would say that then the OCJT would be more like
going through the Air ForceAcademy.
Then They'd try to just messwith you with testing and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:07):
If you don't pass this.
I mean they would kick you out,but it was not as physical.

Speaker 3 (01:31:13):
And I mean really as far as education in law
enforcement, working as abailiff.
I learned more in the courtroomas a bailiff that makes sense
On what the attorneys werelooking, looking what loopholes
they tried to pick on and such.
You know.
I mean having a couple years asa bailiff really helped me, I
think, as far as being a roadunit, because you learned who

(01:31:35):
the repeat offenders were, youknow and such.
I mean I had a year incorrections, a couple years in
the courtroom and it.
It just helped me to interact.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
I guess use that verbal judo for an academy term,
you know to to work throughsome things keep you out of some
bad tickets, some bad caseworks.
Never thought about that.
Start as a bailiff.
Yes, listen, I've said it fromthe beginning.

Speaker 5 (01:32:04):
If if you can get to where an agency that'll let you
work on the road or what let youwork.
Do something before you go tothe academy, you're better off,
you're just.
By the time you get out to theroad, you're just.
You're so much better thansomebody just come out green.

Speaker 4 (01:32:19):
That's kind of how ems is in the fire you know, you
have so much interaction withthem and you, you work some
calls with them and you, when,by the time you go to EMT school
, you kind of like, okay, yeah,I kind of understand this, I got
a, I got a gist for it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's, you get that that on-job shadowing,
I guess, is what you needreally more than anything.
You learn more that way, then,because you come out of the
academy and I mean, and theyteach you a whole lot and some
of it you use and some of it youdon't, but most of it is.
I remember you know most of theinstructors were well, this is
what we're going to teach you,but when you get to your

(01:32:52):
department they may havesomething different.

Speaker 3 (01:32:54):
So it's like then, all right, you know it's, and as
a sergeant and fto, I meananytime we had a new hire that
was coming out on fto.
I listen, not everybody wantsto kill you.
Even though the academy hastold you this, you're ready to
draw down on granny after church.
I mean she's probably notlooking to take you out.

(01:33:15):
So you know, trying to get thatreset in the mind, I mean, yes,
obviously, be on your guard.

Speaker 5 (01:33:23):
Yeah, don't get complacent.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
And I would tell mine .
I said I want you to talk toevery person, like you would
your grandmother, until theygive you a reason not to talk to
them, and you know.
As far as complaints, as youknow, when I was a sergeant, I'm
like if I'm not gettingcomplaints on you, you're
probably not working hard enough, right, you know, because
people are not going to be happyto see the blue lights.
I mean that was vehicleenforcement, I mean we were a

(01:33:52):
high-ticket, you know productionpart of the crew, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
If we was running into a call right now and one of
y'all was behind me with bluelights and we was running signal
nine somewhere, I'm like, ohgosh, we're going to the same
car I used to.
There's a dread about seeing apolice officer behind you like
is everything okay?
Did I pay my?
How fast am I going?

(01:34:20):
And then that cop's back theregoing.
God, I wish this guy would hurtme.

Speaker 1 (01:34:24):
We got stopped over in Indiana and I mean I was, and
then that cop's back theregoing.
God, I wish this guy would hurtme, just go on.
We got stopped over in.

Speaker 5 (01:34:28):
Indiana and I mean I was.
I knew I was getting stoppedbecause we passed head on and I
seen the brake lights, I said ah, here we go.
So I pulled over and I mean Iended up not getting a ticket,
but it's a professional courtesybusiness.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
If he was in Virginia , he was getting one.
Oh yeah, they brought their own.
They don't care, they don'tcare.

Speaker 3 (01:34:47):
They get gold stars for riding their own.
They get a stoplight when theyturn around.
That brings back a story onZanet, on Darrell.
So this is 03, because I justbought a new truck and the temp

(01:35:07):
tag was in the window orsomething like that.
I mean it was a brand-new truck, that we were in East Bernstadt
because it was Larry Walls'bachelor party and we dropped
Larry off and I was headed backinto London and met Darryl there

(01:35:27):
on 490 and Darryl was like hewas profiling because he said I
saw a brand new Chevrolet truckin East Bernstadt.
I knew it didn't belong here.

Speaker 5 (01:35:38):
you know they say not to profile and you shouldn't on
some stuff.
But 90% of the time it works.
So he pulls us over and youshouldn't on some stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:35:46):
But 90% of the time it works.
It works.
So he pulls us over.
Well, nick Minton was in theback of the truck and he sticks
his head out, squalling.
I won't say Dougie Jones wasriding with Daryl that night.
I'm sorry, oh no.
So I drop it down in first gearand pop the clutch and off we

(01:36:10):
go as he's making his approach.
I mean, so there's gravelsflying off the front of Daryl's
car.
I mean he's jumping back in tocall in pursuit and as we're
coming up on London, I'm like Ibetter pull over, because city
police will will be up here andthey're liable to shoot a man as
he comes into town.

Speaker 5 (01:36:31):
Different times.
Yeah, it was different timesback then, or?

Speaker 3 (01:36:35):
maybe not.
He said that Darryl's knuckleswere white.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
the rest of the night , though, because he was made,
he turned around after he sawwho it was my first ride was
with him you know the police andI was like, oh my gosh, I was
getting car sick from the get go.
I remember him thinking I waslike I was like you gonna stop

(01:37:01):
that.
I wonder if he's gonna stop hiscar.
It was like taking out theditch line.
He's probably just on his cellphone he looks good.

Speaker 4 (01:37:13):
He dropped something looks good from my house we've
had some fun times.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
Yeah, I placing in this county different world.

Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I can speak, even fire everything
about it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:39):
It's like if it's gonna go crazy, it's gonna be
right here it's gonna be right.

Speaker 5 (01:37:42):
Yeah, I don't know why it's such a.

Speaker 3 (01:37:46):
Bermuda Triangle.
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:37:48):
If bad weather's going to come.

Speaker 1 (01:37:50):
It's a magnet.
It's going to happen, it'sgoing to come right here there
you go?

Speaker 2 (01:37:54):
I went to.
You.
Don't go to East Bernstead ifthere's a tornado to watch.
Yeah, no, no, yeah, I was likehey, mom, my wife had went to
somewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:38:09):
And the ones in when was that?
2011?
Whenever it was the big, was aheavy bill.
13, tell me.

Speaker 2 (01:38:12):
Well, 13 somewhere in it up and I was like my wife
and daughter around town.
My son was younger and I waslike I just go down, mom and
dads, and you know they got anice big basement.
I didn't too, but they had likerecliners and tv stuff, so we
just go hang out down there.
We're down there on filterplant road, like we've touched

(01:38:32):
down, like right across theriver or the creek down there.
Which creek?
We and dad was like what in theworld?
Lights just flicker and we wentout.
I was like, oh my gosh, it wasa meth bubble at one time.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know, Idon't know, I don't know what
you're blaming it on now.

Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
Yeah, but the man said, the storms follow that
Rock Castle River.

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
He said that's what it does that water draws?
The storm.
Was you working on when it hitCarnaby Square?

Speaker 3 (01:39:00):
I was working that day and then I was working on
when it hit East Bernstadt too,because they were asking for
people to shut down Arthur Ridge, and so I'm like I'm good for
this, so I take my cruiser, justpark it sideways in the road
and nobody's going to come inBecause they're like we got all
the help we need.

(01:39:20):
I don't know if the ambulancescan even get out once we get to
the patients, and mean peoplewere pulling up and saying we're
trying to get up there to help.
I'm like no, unless they'veasked for you specifically, go
find you someplace else.
This, this road's closed andyou know it's gave a few people
heartburn, but that that waswhat they needed.

(01:39:42):
They needed fewer vehicles up onthe ridge.

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
It was more of a Hendrix to have more people
helping.

Speaker 2 (01:39:49):
It was awful.
I mean, I was up there andyou're like I've got to get down
.
I'll never get back.
Good luck, mom and Dad.
It's like when we had theinterstate shooting a couple
months ago.
I'm down at Mom and Dad's again.
Which the 49 mile marker.
We're on filter plants, we'rewhat?

(01:40:10):
Three, four miles.

Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
Yeah, because of crow flies.

Speaker 2 (01:40:13):
Yeah, maybe closer.
But we're like Mom, dad,there's been a shooting down
here at the interstate, don'tknow what's going on.
Me and my brother went downthere and watched UK play
football and already upset aboutthe loss there.
So we're sitting down there.
We're like there's beenshooting down here, there's

(01:40:34):
active shooter stuff going on,so stay put.
But I was like I got to get outof here because I know what's
coming.
They're going to shut downeverything.
And I was like I just want toget back to town.

Speaker 1 (01:40:47):
I want to get home.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
So me and my brother, we leave, and I called Mom and
Dad Y'all good, y'all okay,we're stuck in traffic.
Where did you go?
We went and fed the cows upfrom the second bridge, I'm like
, but I didn't think nothingabout it.
I've been stuck in traffic forlike four hours.
I was like we should put thatmemo a little bigger.

Speaker 3 (01:41:14):
Paint the picture a little clearer.
You're going to get stuck.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
if you leave, you're going to get stuck out.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
We left a ball game.
We were at the UK football gameand had to go to Nicholasville,
to Lancaster, lancaster,stanford all the way down to
Pulaski County and up and over.

Speaker 2 (01:41:30):
That's a long drive, but it was faster than coming to
us.

Speaker 3 (01:41:33):
Yeah, it was the parking lot of I-75.

Speaker 2 (01:41:36):
Yeah, and traffic was bad on 80 that night you know
people going around differentthings, diverting, yeah, and
that's what this town if there'sanything that happens on I-75,
this place locks up like noother and I don't know if that
happens in Danville.
If something happens on thebypass, people don't get
diverted to go downtown usually.

Speaker 3 (01:41:57):
They try to avoid downtown.
You can circle around kind of.

Speaker 4 (01:42:01):
Yeah, really, I can't remember where we've had a big
traffic problem.
Knock on wood.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
Really, I can't remember where we've had a big
traffic problem.
Knock on wood Because we'reworking hard Tomorrow.
Let's go.
Let's go, let's wake up.

Speaker 5 (01:42:11):
Your ears are burning .
It'll be me and Dylan goingthat got it.

Speaker 4 (01:42:15):
But you know the funny story about that tornado.
We went to Bradford Road I'msorry, arthur Ridge, no, and me,
joey Robertson, dylan Blair andJustin Vanna.
We went down.

Speaker 1 (01:42:30):
We had to go down low Arthur Ridge because they said
yeah, there's some houses backthere and it got tore up.

Speaker 4 (01:42:34):
We crawled under trees, over trees, all that
Finally got to a house backthere and that's about time the
sheriff's department got theirhummer.
Yeah, and what's the guy fromDanville PD that used to work
Sheriff's Department?

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Grigsby.
Grigsby came back here andpicked us up.

Speaker 4 (01:42:50):
We didn't make it a mile through a field and that
damn Hummer was hung up.
We had to walk two milesthrough a field just to get back
to the rescue truck.

Speaker 2 (01:43:01):
During the floods out in eastern Kentucky, we went
out there and worked.
What was that?
Cold, run Cold.

Speaker 5 (01:43:09):
Run, so they got flooded this time.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:12):
So Cold Run had a Hummer and they gave it to
Wattsburg and I'm like I'mdriving it Because I was in the
Marines.
I was like I don't want todrive them suckers.
I get in there and I'm like Iforgot how absolutely
uncomfortable these stupidthings are.
And dusty.
I was like, ah, and we onlydrove maybe a half mile.
I was like, ah, I'm just goingto let this sit here.

Speaker 5 (01:43:33):
If you're the least bit husky, we'll say you don't
fit in there very well.

Speaker 4 (01:43:40):
No, I think that was the most important one.
Okay, we're good.

Speaker 2 (01:43:43):
Yeah, let was make sure we wouldn't hold our time.

Speaker 5 (01:43:46):
Yeah no we've had yeah, we got it.
We got in there, all kitted outwhen we went.

Speaker 2 (01:43:52):
Yes, too much and that was, yeah, getting in there
, I think I had this much roomin between my carrier and my
they had it built to shut, butnot enough because we went
through this big.

Speaker 5 (01:44:07):
I've got a video of it.
We went through this big waterhole so the Carnegie Square.

Speaker 2 (01:44:13):
This was before you came down.
How old were you in?
Like 2001 or something?
Third grade, so that one?
Now I hadn't I'm.
Was it 2000, 2001?
It's one of them years, becausethe next year came the big ice

(01:44:34):
storm, so I think it was 2002.
So 2001,.
We're sitting there.
My wife had just come in fromBig Lots over there and then we
were buying the house we're innow, so it was in the paths
because it and then I rememberall the debris being across Main
Street and stuff in front ofHardee's, I mean in chunks, yeah

(01:44:54):
, and I lived there on MorganStreet.
So I mean it's coming.
That's where hog head livedover there.
Jason J Mac was living overthere.
Lodge was building a house andhe was living in the apartments
that I was in.
Josh Gaylor lived right behindus.
I mean it was like a lot ofcops lived there and I'm sitting

(01:45:19):
there and I'm like, oh my gosh,what is this absolute?
You know, I remember coming outand Jason McAllen's on his
radio.

Speaker 5 (01:45:29):
There's nothing to see here, just looking down
there and they were just, it waslike it was just crazy cuz
there's debris everywhere andthat storm.

Speaker 2 (01:45:38):
It was so sunny outside mm-hmm and it just just
whooped up one right quick, andthen the sun came back out, came
back out, came back out.
I was like what in the world?

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
But it tore up one in there pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:45:50):
On those streets right there it might have been a
mile and a half two miletornado, is it Yep?

Speaker 3 (01:45:58):
So you was working on that one?
Yeah, because I won't say thatwas when I lived on Morgan
Street too.
Oh, you were there too.

Speaker 2 (01:46:05):
Everybody lived on Morgan Street too.
Oh, you were there too,everybody lived on.

Speaker 3 (01:46:07):
Morgan Street.
I lived in a basement apartmentthere at 108 Morgan.

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
Yeah, you were right there downstairs like we're the
next ones.
I was at 106 or whatever rightthere 104.

Speaker 1 (01:46:21):
That was my little dungeon apartment that I kind
of— Is that where Sam's— Becausethere were no windows or
anything in it?
Is that where Sam's room was?
Because there were no?

Speaker 3 (01:46:26):
windows or anything in it.
I mean, it had one way in oneway out.

Speaker 1 (01:46:31):
It was a fire nightmare, so I kept my gear in
the apartment in case it caughton fire.

Speaker 2 (01:46:36):
I could find my way out Was that in those big brick
ones.

Speaker 3 (01:46:39):
Yeah, where the storage buildings are in front
of it now.

Speaker 2 (01:46:42):
We were neighbors then.
I was upstairs and L lodgelived right there.

Speaker 3 (01:46:46):
Yep, and then you were down in the dungeon I had
an electric bill that was like20 bucks sweating the 20 bucks
too.

Speaker 4 (01:47:00):
So we were.

Speaker 2 (01:47:01):
We were neighbors that day.
Yeah, that's right norm fromthe high, yeah, from the middle
school, lived upstairs.

Speaker 3 (01:47:07):
He was right there beside me.

Speaker 2 (01:47:08):
Oh, that's a great place.
You said you were there.
We were neighbors, didn't evenlisten.
I got some questions.
Now I need to answer.

Speaker 4 (01:47:17):
Great sounds.

Speaker 2 (01:47:28):
Those weren't peacocks after all, that was a
dungeon in there.

Speaker 5 (01:47:32):
So, you were there.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
Liza was right above you.
If you came out of your dungeonhe was right there.
I think my father-in-law wasliving there.
It was just crazy Wild storm.
My dad saw it.
He left Country Club.
Or dad saw it, he left CountryClub or Crooked Creek.
He'd been out golfing with mybrother, he's like what in the
world's?
That over there Just a bigwhite cloud.

(01:47:54):
He was like I think it's thetornado, Dad.
Nah, it can't be, it's sunny.
Then all of a sudden it wentthrough those trailers over the
manufacturer homes over there.

Speaker 3 (01:48:06):
I had that manufacturer Holmes over there,
all that company.
I think that's a tornado.
Yeah, that's a tornado, itstarted lifting it up.

Speaker 2 (01:48:12):
Wow, what else you got for us.
I know you got something.

Speaker 5 (01:48:15):
We've talked, somehow we've still ended up talking
police stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:48:22):
We're just going to go where I'm comfortable.

Speaker 5 (01:48:25):
Let's get into some good fires.
How?
Long have we been we've got anhour and 48 we can do a two part
police.

Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
Now we're going to fire you asked him about a fire.
I can't ask questions on fire,except for what's the craziest
fire you went to, because that'smine that's all I know how to
interview on a fire.

Speaker 5 (01:48:45):
We don't know anything about a fire.

Speaker 3 (01:48:49):
I've got two on the fires and the the first one is
the clubhouse out at LeviJackson.
When that tone dropped, orwhatever, we responded out.
John Blanton was there andthere were five of us that
responded that day I mean,volunteer department, when

(01:49:09):
everybody's at work, you get asmaller turnout right and so we
pull up and start making attackon the fire.
We go in I mean I'm laying onmy belly, spraying the nozzle as
hard as it will go, whippingthe nozzle around, and I'm just
like, okay, it's not cooling offany, if anything it's, it's.

(01:49:33):
Drove me into the floor.
So I tell the, the guy that'sbehind me, I'm like, listen, we
got to back out, we're notwinning here, we we're going to
get hurt.
Was it John?
John was pumping the truck, wesWheeler, god rest his soul.
He was the one that was behindme and he was a probie at the

(01:49:54):
time.
So I mean he had never hadexperience with fire and he was
crawling along.
Well, I come out and my gearwhen I went in was the gold
color, pbi gold.
Well, it was jet black and theleather helmet I had was white
when I went in and it wasblistered in black when I come
out.
I mean it was so hot.

(01:50:16):
When I took the air pack offyou could see the gold of the
turnout gear coat under thestrap and on my back where the
tank was on my back.
It was still gold in color, butthe gear had pretty much burned
up.
And so we come out.
John's like we're out water.

(01:50:36):
Uh, you got anybody coming tous for water supply.
He's like nope, ain't had time.
So I get on the radio.
I'm like dispatch, we needmutual aid for water supply.
They're like who do you want topage?

Speaker 1 (01:50:53):
I said I don't care.

Speaker 3 (01:50:55):
If they want to bring water, they're more than
welcome to come to the party.

Speaker 2 (01:50:59):
Y'all at London or y'all at County.
We're at Laurel County.

Speaker 3 (01:51:02):
And so London City had the street sweeper tanker
back then.
So they brought it out, theybrought an engine out, they laid
two, three-inch lines from thathydrant when you first come up
the hill there at Levi, all theway around to where the
clubhouse was, and that hydrantain't much, I mean, it's just a

(01:51:23):
trickle.
So filling two, three-inchlines, it was not a trickle.
So so fill in two, three inchlines, it was not a happy
hydrant.
We successfully burnt the entirebuilding down to the foundation
.
I mean there was not a lot ofcleanup to do after we got
finished.
I mean it's and but but you hada lot of thank yous on that and

(01:51:48):
I tell people, you know, herethey get this brand new
clubhouse and there wasn't aplaque or anything thanking the
fire department for thisopportunity to get a brand new
clubhouse.
Just a mention of the insurancecompany but yeah, that was one
of my, you know, more notoriousfoundation saves, because that's

(01:52:16):
about all that was left, Iremember did you ever go to
church camp or any camps outthere in those little small
buildings?
In the little cabins and you'duse that clubhouse for lunch and
stuff for lunch.

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
yeah, that's where the meals were served, which I
mean it was a lot of reasons, itwas a lot of cabin buildings,
all that you know.

Speaker 3 (01:52:35):
Clear coat on those logs and everything I mean.
There wasn't no putting thefire out, it was cooking.

Speaker 2 (01:52:41):
I remember seeing more wattenberger hanging off
the back of that thing talkingto the campers as they were
lined up all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:52:47):
There on the rail, yeah, on the rail.
So there was that one.
And then Lucas Apartments on4th Street.
Yeah, you know when it caughton fire.

Speaker 2 (01:52:57):
That one.
I was in the academy when thatone went down.
I remember thinking I'm gladI'm not working in the street
because that was cold that night, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:53:08):
It wasn't in the attic.

Speaker 4 (01:53:13):
Pretty warm up there, pretty warm up there.

Speaker 2 (01:53:16):
There was an iceberg for like a week or two after
that off the side of the house.

Speaker 3 (01:53:22):
But Hoghead and myself, I know we were upstairs
and we'd made it actually intothe attic with a
two-and-a-half-inch line, alarger line, and we're sitting
there fighting fire.
Well, they sound the evacuationsignal, so we come out.
I'm like why we were makingadvancement on this thing.

(01:53:43):
You know, we're putting thefire out.
They're like well, there's fireshooting 60 feet out through
the hole in the roof.
I said, well, that's 60 feet offire.
That's not burning me in theattic.
You know where I'm sprayingwater.
Let it burn out in the sky.
Yeah, you know.
And they're like no, it's notsafe, the building could come

(01:54:06):
down, you know, know, and allthis.
So the the picture in the frontpage of the Sentinel, you know,
shows me pointing up there,because I'm sitting there
yelling at a couple saying, up,there's where we're gonna have
to go to put this fire out.
We can't stand out here on thesidewalk and extinguish this
fire.
And so you know, danny's, Iremember that.

Speaker 2 (01:54:22):
I remember that.
I remember that.
I remember that.
I remember that Sentinelpicture.
It's probably in the firedepartment now.
It is yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:54:29):
Danny Spurlock.
He was the chief at the timeand it was not uncommon for him
any structure fire that we wentto.
He would grab me by the airpack strap and say now, fuzz,
don't you get.
None of my guys hurt what youthink.

Speaker 1 (01:54:43):
I'm just that reckless in there or what I mean
.

Speaker 2 (01:54:45):
I've got a.

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
I've got a purpose.
I'm going in to put the fireout.
Well, I'm not trying to loseguys.

Speaker 1 (01:54:53):
They're too hard to come by.

Speaker 3 (01:54:54):
But yeah, my firefighting tactics made him a
little nervous, I think, throughthe years.
Oh my gosh, as far as justbeing aggressive, we've got to
get the fire out yeah, usingusing the guys as fire blankets
here.

Speaker 2 (01:55:10):
You lay down on that you fought fire like you pleased
, oh yeah yeah, it was fullthrottle, that's, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:55:19):
That's how many fires you think you've like big
structure fires is I mean inlexton when we were in the
academy we had a old funeralhome that caught on fire and we
got to respond to it on a secondor third alarm.
You know, as as recruits eventhat's how shorthanded they were
, you know.

(01:55:40):
And so the the uk adminbuilding when it burnt, I got to
go to that fire.
So I mean there's been some bigcommercial fires through the
Lexington times.
There We've been lucky.
At Danville there's not been a—You've had it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:58):
Yeah, knock it off yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:56:01):
But you know, cta, that anniversary just passed.

Speaker 2 (01:56:06):
I saw that on Facebook or something.
I was like I can't believethat's been.
Has it been 22?

Speaker 3 (01:56:13):
Yeah, it was 03 when it happened, so 22 years.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:56:18):
I was in the police academy and everybody's like are
you from London?
I was like yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
You know, these guys that know me in the county are
like you know where this placeis.

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
It's kind of it's kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:56:29):
Yeah, I've heard of it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:31):
I'm like man is it blown up.

Speaker 3 (01:56:33):
I was like huh.

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
It's on the news at the Quackers over there, I was
watching it.
I was like oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:56:41):
Yeah, but yeah's, I mean that that was probably one
of the most fatalities.
I mean there's, there's beenwreck after wreck.
I mean from being an accidentreconstructionist, yeah,
commercial vehicle side of it, Imean I can't count all the the
big fires or reconstructionsthrough the years.

(01:57:01):
I mean they, a lot of them run,but then there's others that
stand out, just like it was lastweek.
I mean that's so.

Speaker 2 (01:57:11):
And it's hard when, like I don't know how many times
you've been in the, you knowthose Lucas apartments have been
there forever.
You know there's still an emptylot there to this day Weavers
you mentioned that there's justan empty lot there that you grow
a beating at that place andyou're like all those pictures
and stuff that were on the wallwere your grandfathers.

Speaker 3 (01:57:31):
Yeah, you're like gone, the history of that
Disappeared.
Disappear in place andovernight, least chicken, least
chicken.

Speaker 2 (01:57:39):
Yeah, that was a big fire.

Speaker 4 (01:57:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57:41):
And the worst one of all time in London to me.
Well, weavers and I'm going tosay Chinatown, yeah, chinatown,
chinatown was a touch of gold.

Speaker 1 (01:57:52):
It hurt me bad because I loved it and it was
dangerous for the firefighters.

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
Did it spark up a couple times yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:58:01):
I mean they had talking to some of those guys
you know that made entry on thatone.
It was, you know, a hot, nastyfire and I mean it was just
dirty kitchen, you know I meanlots of grease spilled up.
I mean, it's just when youspray water on grease it just
spreads you know I only knowthat from accidents.

Speaker 2 (01:58:25):
Not because I'm a firefighter, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:58:26):
so I only know that from accidents getting on the
lighter side though what'swhat's probably the funniest
call as a firefighter I mean Iknow everybody jokes as you, you

(01:58:49):
know responded to cats andtrees and things like that,
which we've had our fair shareof cats and trees, and my reply
is have you ever seen a catskeleton hanging out of a tree?

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
No, exactly.
So it's you know Well fucking,but we had an overdose not long
ago that they Narcan the gal andshe's naked whenever we show up
because they've doused her withwater, ice water and stuff the

(01:59:22):
age-old overdose treatment Icecube in the butthole age old
overdose treatment Ice cube inthe butt hole.
I don't know what it is aboutthe ice cubes and orifices, but
it does not work.
Apparently, that's on the blackmarket.

Speaker 1 (01:59:34):
That's the way to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:38):
So we are getting ready to pick her up, to put her
on the stretcher.
We're picking her up.
She comes back too Things totry later.
And so she wakes up and I'msitting there holding her hands
and she's looking at me andshe's like what's going on?

(01:59:58):
I said well, I think you havebeen dead for a little bit Now
you're back with us.
She's like this happens to meevery time I get Narcan.
I wake up naked.
Well, number one every time.
So that means it's happenedmore than this time.

(02:00:18):
So this was not her first timeof being Narcan'd and brought
back from the dead.

Speaker 2 (02:00:25):
I just want to know what officer is taking her
clothes off, that's what she'sprobably wondering.

Speaker 3 (02:00:32):
Poor thing, Every time she gets Narcan'd she wakes
up naked.

Speaker 1 (02:00:36):
It's like Danny.
Every time he drinks, he getsup naked.

Speaker 2 (02:00:41):
What about you?
What's the funniest one?

Speaker 4 (02:00:44):
The funniest one actually involves law
enforcement.

Speaker 5 (02:00:48):
Of course, of course, it does.

Speaker 4 (02:00:52):
There in Elizabethtown, I think it was
originally like a furniturestore or something like that and
it caught on fire.
So we go and by the time we getthere it's well involved.
We tried to go to the roof,start cutting a hole to vent it
and stuff like that and itdidn't.
Let me back up a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:01:11):
At that time.

Speaker 4 (02:01:12):
I was living with a buddy of mine and he had just
recently divorced.
It was an ugly divorce andeverything and he was the
assistant chief and we had twostations in that volunteer.
So he went to the south stationand I went to the north station
, deer, so he went to the southstation, I went to the north
station and uh, when I left toget my vehicle to go to the
north station, he, uh, he was inthe bathroom putting his
contacts in.
He goes, I'll see you out there, all right, great.

(02:01:33):
So, anyways, we, we get to thefire.
It's, it's not a, it's not agood one at all.
And uh, by the time we tried togo to the roof, the roof
collapsed.
So, uh, we're cleaning up andeverything, fire gets out.
And uh, one of the otherassistant chiefs goes, uh, have
you seen frank?
and I was like, uh, no, no, nowthat I think of it, I haven't.

(02:01:53):
So we start looking around.
Can't find frank.
We're panicking, we're.
We take this buildingcompletely apart trying to find
him.
And we can't find him.
And we call hospitals and he'snot at a hospital and ask EMS,
did they take him?
No, nothing.
So we eventually called thelist town city PD and they

(02:02:15):
hadn't seen him, because wherewe lived in it was in the heart
of Elizabethtown and you had todrive through.
They hadn't seen him.
So we eventually called theHardin County Sheriff's
Department and they said, yeah,we've seen him.
Oh great, where's he at?
Well, he's in the Hardin CountyDetention Center.
What do you mean?

(02:02:36):
He's in the Hardin CountyDetention Center?
One of our deputies pulled himover and arrested him for car
theft and we're like, why?
Well, it's a little bit of amisunderstanding.
What had happened is he hadgotten his car.
He went to the South End,turned his siren on.
Remember the little square boxstruggles?

(02:02:57):
Yes, he had one of those.
Well, in the midst of goingdown what was Main Street in
Lisbetown, the strobe quit butthe siren was still going.
So a sheriff's deputy saw thatand thought it was a car alarm,
thought he had stole thatvehicle, pulled him over.
His ex-wife had not sent himthe papers to pay his tags in

(02:03:18):
his car and not sent him thepaper because when he bought
that car the title went to hisold house and his wife had
gotten rid of that, so that thename of that car was still in
the car lot.
So he tried to explain to thatdeputy no, I own this car, I'm
on my way to a fire.
No, no, no, you're not lockedhim up and took him to the
detention center.
So that was the best one.

(02:03:39):
And that poor sheriff's deputyI think he caught a lot of crap
over that fire right there yeah,yeah, yeah good faith, yeah,
good faith.

Speaker 1 (02:03:50):
So I'm sure he wouldn't be the first, he
wouldn't be the first officer toarrest or threaten to arrest a
firefighter.

Speaker 5 (02:03:56):
Yeah, yeah, was that jason jason?

Speaker 3 (02:03:58):
yeah, oh, yeah, yeah he's done it multiple times, it
wasn't just a one-time thing.

Speaker 2 (02:04:04):
Yeah, he fought more fire than anybody.

Speaker 4 (02:04:06):
Yeah, but he didn't have nothing for them if, if he
was dressed in gray, he didn'twant nobody beating him to the
scene, so that's hilarious Ithink drew uh threatened to
arrest larry once scene yeah, Imean we could sit here and I

(02:04:31):
mean just looking back on allthe good stuff.
That that's half the fun of thejob is the stories.
Well, we had a.
I now think of it.
We had a guy we got called to aguy down in a yard in Jefferson
County out by the river.
If you ever go to MikeLenning's, the fish place out
there, it's out there.

(02:04:53):
So we get out there and there'sthree or four couples arguing in
the front yard and there's anold man just not breathing in
the middle of the yard andthey're arguing, bickering,
complaining and everything backand forth, back and forth, and
we're like what happened?
And they just stopped yard andthey're arguing, bicker and
complaining and everything backand forth, back forth and we're
like what happened?
And they just stopped.
They're like we don't know andthey went back to arguing.
So we started working this guy,get him in the back of an

(02:05:15):
ambulance.
We had to take him.
I think at that time it waslike st Mary's, I think it's
like st Joe's South or somethingnow and when getting we get him
in the ambulance.
We're driving, driving andthere's a car bumper to bumper
and we can't stop, if notthey'll rear-end us.
We end up shocking him in theback of the ambulance.
A .38 revolver falls out of hispocket and it was a domestic
argument on who was going to getthe house when he died and he

(02:05:39):
ended up dying in the yard overthe argument.

Speaker 2 (02:05:46):
They distressed him out so much he had a had a heart
attack and died right there.

Speaker 5 (02:05:48):
I want to think I got that settled did he sign the
will?

Speaker 1 (02:05:54):
yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:05:54):
yeah, I mean you could.
You could go on and on, butthat's what's one of the best
parts of this whole job, whetherit be law enforcement, ems,
fire, it's the stories.
That, yes, and that's why we'redoing this.
Yeah, so we don't forget it,don't forget it, because you
know it's not.

Speaker 2 (02:06:10):
This is much.
You know.
I've said this every time.
It's therapy for me.
It's getting together withfriends that I haven't.
We don't get to hang out asmuch as we used to.
Yeah, and telling these oldstories A lot of I haven't heard
because I've not worked withyou guys, like I have some of
the PD guys, so I'm like this iscrazy, but other people need to

(02:06:34):
hear this stuff too, just toput the human side of who we are
and what we've done, because alot of people I don't know how
many times they're like oh Inever knew what you looked like,
right, unless you've got auniform on or something.

Speaker 5 (02:06:46):
However, if you listen to us tell all these
stories, they may be like.
I don't know that.
I want to call these guysanymore.

Speaker 3 (02:06:52):
I've had people say I didn't recognize you with
clothes on Wait a minute.

Speaker 1 (02:06:57):
Without a uniform, they'll say.

Speaker 3 (02:06:59):
I'm like, okay, let's make that clear.

Speaker 2 (02:07:02):
That's so crazy clear .

Speaker 3 (02:07:04):
One of the funny ones that I remember from the county
fire department days, when itwas on simple street, you know,
in the McLean building, is whenthey paged druthers out on fire.
Oh, man, that was.
And me and a couple of the guyswere sitting on the front
bumper of the truck, had the baydoor up and stuff, you know.
When the tone went off and soWilson Rollins was chief then

(02:07:27):
and he goes on scene smokeshowing.
Well, I yelled these two guys.
I said get in the truck.
They said what we're doing?
I said we're going for driver'straining right now because, I
mean, it's a city fire, yeah,we're the county fire.
So so we get out, go straightup the hill, make make a right
turn into Carnaby Square thereand there's Wilson waving us in.

(02:07:48):
I'm like, oh, looks like theywant help from us, since we're
here in a fire truck.
So we got to pull in andactually drag a line in and
start fighting fire, you know,without being requested, so to
speak.
But that was kind of my mindsetwas okay, it's time for
driver's train, let's let's getup here, did.

Speaker 2 (02:08:09):
It did gosh the only druthers left in this world that
I know of is in Campbellsville.

Speaker 4 (02:08:18):
Yes, go down south somewhere.

Speaker 3 (02:08:21):
Yeah, it's that was just a bathroom fire.
We, this one, got knocked out.

Speaker 2 (02:08:26):
It reopened so I've heard about some shenanigans
that happened at druthers backin the day from people that used
to work there.
Yes, I reckon it was a wildplace, a good place to work, wow
.
But yeah, I think, uh, man,some of some of these places,

(02:08:46):
like my neighbor's house catcheson fire and I got accused of
that one man it's fascinating tosit there and be like the
destruction that's happening andpeople are running in there
Like that is dangerous stuff andI guess the big comparison I
have as far as firefightingversus law enforcement, law

(02:09:10):
enforcement is a lot moreuncontrolled because I mean like
working 75, I mean we'vestopped people

Speaker 3 (02:09:18):
with bloody knives in the trunk that have killed and
stolen a car in North Carolinathat wasn't even reported stolen
yet.
I mean that was foiled here inLondon.
But if the building's on fireand it's really on fire we may
take a defensive stance and stayout in the yard and spray water

(02:09:40):
until it goes out, save thefoundation, but it can be
uncontrolled.
But I feel like that if youlook at it, size it up and stuff
, you can make better educateddecisions on what you're doing.

Speaker 5 (02:09:56):
You know what you're getting into A fire is a fire.

Speaker 3 (02:10:00):
Fire chemistry is the same.
It's going to do pretty muchthe same thing.

Speaker 5 (02:10:06):
You don't have a female in a domestic, that is
now the aggressor because you'retaking baby daddy to jail.

Speaker 2 (02:10:14):
There was some kind of electric.
There was smoke coming out.
It was over a building overthere around.
I can't remember.
It was in Carnaby Square,behind where Brothers was and
that little that section thatstrip mall there and night shift

(02:10:34):
.
I went over there, I was thefirst one there and I'm like it
was a plug, that was.
You know, something wassomething was hot over there and
I'm like I'm getting ready firedepartment, don't you bust that
.
What's going?
on don't you give it no air.
I was like, oh, they probablyblow me up in the cemetery but

(02:10:55):
you know that that.
But experience and knowing whatthat's, what's going on, that's
the key to that where I'm like,hey, there's a fire, I a fire.
I need to put that out.
I'm sure I have my fireextinguisher out, yes, ready.

Speaker 1 (02:11:12):
It's like I'm ready, guys.
Tactical approach.

Speaker 2 (02:11:15):
We're good with fire extinguishers.

Speaker 5 (02:11:16):
Don't forget to keep six feet of separation.

Speaker 2 (02:11:18):
Yes, I've seen I used to to when I was in the Marines
.
They had that aircraft fire andrescue guys worked.
You know, I'd see them up atthe PX or out at Chow Hall or
something and they were the bestsoftball players in the world
because all they did was playsoftball, that's right and they

(02:11:41):
would come in with their bootsalready unlaced and look like
well.
I sure should have tried harder.

Speaker 3 (02:11:53):
When I started at Lexington, you know, at the
airport I'm like because we'reout there with the ARF trucks
working the joystick, you knowthe turning on the roof and
stuff Fans blowing on you, airconditioned in the cab I'm like
man.
I said this is whatfirefighting's all about.
I said that whole crawlingaround on your hands and knees
in the ashes, that's the thunder, all you know.

(02:12:15):
That's silly.
Yeah, sitting in the AC withthe fan while you blow.

Speaker 5 (02:12:23):
This is the way to go .
They have to use the foam andstuff from there to you know you
get the foam and everything, solife's good.

Speaker 2 (02:12:31):
That was the first place I ever heard had fire and
policing together.
Now there's towns and stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:12:38):
Yeah, that have that used to have public safety
officers that carried fire gearin the trunks of the police cars
and stuff and and I would hateto do it in a city or county
environment- there's like littleisland towns and stuff off the
coast and stuff that do thatyeah, it would be cool, though,
to be cross trained.

Speaker 5 (02:12:58):
I'm not saying that I want to do it, but to be
trained to do it.
That would be pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (02:13:03):
To know how to do it and not ever have to do it, that
would be pretty cool To knowhow to do it and not ever have
to be in the academy Goes backto those academy classes.
You can't ever have enoughacademies, that's right.

Speaker 2 (02:13:11):
Maybe one day I'll go be a volunteer.

Speaker 5 (02:13:14):
Just be a wealth of useless information.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
I talked about this on the podcast.
I know exactly what to doExactly.

Speaker 1 (02:13:22):
I got this.

Speaker 4 (02:13:26):
I tell you, another fire.
That must have been funny whenwe were there.
The log cabin fire across from,uh, gondoliers.
Well, that was right in themiddle of haunted house, so they
shut haunted house down.
So it must have been funny towatch a bunch of clowns and
ghosts and all that walking inthere.
Yeah, and the bad part about itis I think they left like they

(02:13:47):
shut everything down the hauntedhouse, lights, everything and
there was like six people inthere stuck in there could you
imagine, they're still in there,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and the
night that the haunted housecaught on fire.
That was another I didn't knowyeah, oh yeah, yeah, it caught
on fire I know that slide at thehaunted house.

Speaker 2 (02:14:05):
My daughter had some complaints on that.

Speaker 3 (02:14:08):
That was there.
Come off, that sucker.
She said I have to bring mycats.
That's the Chanel Reamsdepartment.

Speaker 1 (02:14:14):
You have to file a complaint with her.
Yeah that's how the daughter ofmine.

Speaker 4 (02:14:19):
That one must have been a funny thing to watch us
walk in there with face paintand everything else.

Speaker 5 (02:14:23):
Yeah, I never thought about that.
But yeah, if you all had torespond to something while that
was going on, oh, yeah, he gotshut down.

Speaker 3 (02:14:30):
See the houseboat factory.
That's where the college is now.
When it burned it was onHalloween and I was with Bush
Fire Department back then andput on a set of their proximity
gear.
So it's the aluminum coveredgear you know.
So we've got the fire knockeddown and everything sitting
there joking and smoking at theend, you know, and they're like

(02:14:54):
what the world are?
You wearing Fuzz?
I said, listen, I'm the onlyoriginal one here on Halloween,
because the rest of you dressedup as firemen.

Speaker 1 (02:15:02):
I said I'm dressed up as a tin man.

Speaker 5 (02:15:05):
You're actually looking like a baked potato.

Speaker 3 (02:15:08):
Y'all copied each other.
I don't know what you'rethinking on this costume party,
that's awesome Fire, fire's.

Speaker 2 (02:15:17):
The.
You guys are always.
It don't matter how good we do.
If police do something and youknow this from coming that side
there's always some kind ofcomplaint or something.
Yeah, you guys can burn it tothe ground.
What was y'all?

Speaker 4 (02:15:32):
doing I tried.

Speaker 5 (02:15:33):
Thanks for trying.

Speaker 4 (02:15:33):
You really tried hard .
I've never seen it.

Speaker 2 (02:15:36):
I mean, and we still joke.
But here comes the heroes guys.

Speaker 5 (02:15:39):
It's just jealousy, it's 100% jealousy.
I can't tell you how manyvideos I've been sent from Dylan
Blair of him recording a firetruck going by and yelling get
them brothers.

Speaker 3 (02:15:52):
which Dylan Blair he'd come out of the car seat as
a firefighter with his dad.

Speaker 2 (02:16:02):
I don't, it's the exact opposite.
We don't get the get thembrothers, it's more the.
If you brothers, it happens, wedo.

Speaker 4 (02:16:14):
I don't know.
There's some of those hot dayswhen you're standing in that
turnout gear and the police aresitting there in short-sleeved
shirts and you know, pants, andyou're like maybe I might try
that job.

Speaker 5 (02:16:27):
If you're on blacktoptop, though, our feet
were on fire.

Speaker 1 (02:16:29):
Those course rams oh gosh, I would just go sit in my
car well, chance mcpeak, hewould ride with me every once
and again.

Speaker 3 (02:16:38):
You know, yeah, and it's july, like july 4th weekend
or something, and he's a we up.
He's going to ride Saturdaynight or whatever.
He grew up in it too, man, andhe was an explorer, I mean at
the US, and all that.
So I mean he's been exposed hisentire life.
I'm like, well, bring a jacket.
He's like it's July 4th.

(02:16:58):
I said I don't care, I don'twant to listen to you whine all
night.
Bring a jacket.
And so he gets in the car.
You know, and because of my ac,it had to be on 110 oh yeah,
because you never pull off withthe vest.
I mean, there just ain't enoughheat comes off of it and there's
so many little v power, j hoseor whatever I'm like man that

(02:17:21):
would have been so nice to haveback in the day of them.

Speaker 5 (02:17:24):
So many times you can't cool off, you can't warm
up with them and they stink sobad, oh yeah there's a unique
odor, the only other place youcan get that smell is at a
football locker, it's just whenwe finally went to Outer Cares,
I was like, oh, thank godbecause you could get a breeze

(02:17:47):
yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:17:49):
I don't know, fire guys heroes it's a lot of fun if
I volunteer, I'm going tovolunteer up at Danville.

Speaker 3 (02:18:00):
They even have that they may start a program or
something just for you a ridealong, poor little fellow.

Speaker 2 (02:18:08):
They may start a program or something Just for me
, just for you, a ride along,just like that poor little
fellow.

Speaker 1 (02:18:12):
He don't know nothing .
It's funny.

Speaker 3 (02:18:15):
We know some people up there, we'll throw in a word
for you.

Speaker 1 (02:18:17):
We'll get you in, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:18:20):
I need to go back and visit.
I got to go talk to Andy.
I got to go.
Yeah, how much, hey, how much.
You think you're got me someother fire guys up there would
talk to us, to you, I'm sure ohgod, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:18:35):
Well, you know firefighters, you know how they
are yeah, I mean it's well, weneed to go to a fire within five
seconds of the conversationyeah, but we need to do this at
a firehouse because they willfeed us really well, you won't
be involved.

Speaker 2 (02:18:49):
I was catching all my all my firefighting stuff
that's coming from you guys froma distance and like, hey,
you're awesome.
And I've been watching TacomaFD on Netflix and I'm like
that's exactly, it's a littlebit more.
I was telling my son that'sexactly, it's a little bit more,
but that's it.
I was telling my son that'sexactly how Firehouse got up,

(02:19:13):
the shenanigans and the pranking.
I said, yeah, of course they goover the top on some stuff.
It'd be funny.
I was like that's it, they'venailed that.
I'm like eh.

Speaker 3 (02:19:24):
I'm a regular watcher of the Tacoma FD it's, it's not
, it's not.

Speaker 2 (02:19:30):
Fire and police are very similar when it comes to
the pranks and the goofinessthat we well, it's the same type
of personalities.

Speaker 5 (02:19:38):
Yeah, it's an alpha person to be an emergency
responder yeah, you're used totaking control of a scene and
that whole saying of work hard,play harder is definitely true,
I agree.

Speaker 4 (02:19:57):
Now we have a very interesting gentleman we could
probably send your way.
He is a fireman and he's alsoplanning a run for governor
We'll be there, we couldprobably get him to come down
here and talk to you Now we'recoming up.
He is a fireman and he's alsoplanning a run for governor Huh.

Speaker 2 (02:20:09):
Yeah, we'll be there.
We can probably get him to comedown here and talk to you.
No, we're coming up.
Okay, so the plan is I'd loveto go up there, I want to do
Todd and I want to do Andy and Iwant to do Merle from the
police department.
Yeah, I want to come in thefirehouse and ask.
Jill.
Yeah, and and just see what'sgoing on?

Speaker 4 (02:20:23):
We can do a little roundtable discussion.
That'd be fun.
We can do it.
Yeah, definitely we can get yousome good people, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:20:33):
Very entertaining stories.
Y'all got anything else, orwe're going to cut her down
Because I don't know how longwe're supposed to go.

Speaker 5 (02:20:42):
We just wing it at this point.
We're having fun.

Speaker 4 (02:20:53):
Surely you've got enough to fill a block.
We were a two-part story,that's all you know.
We were two parts, mm-hmm, yeah, okay, yeah, this is fun.

Speaker 2 (02:20:57):
Yeah, yeah, we got a surprise last week when Joey
came in, when Jake came in, hewas like oh yeah yeah, somebody
had to keep joey restrained, soI mentioned green, but I didn't
know if you would or not, soit's good, I'm glad yeah, I'm
glad again this is not this isawesome.

Speaker 5 (02:21:14):
I've enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (02:21:14):
Much respect to you guys, yeah yeah, and I'm sorry
about your next shift becauseit's gonna be it's gonna be bad.

Speaker 5 (02:21:22):
What time do y'all start?

Speaker 1 (02:21:23):
7 in the morning about 7.30.

Speaker 2 (02:21:25):
I'll call and say it's awful quiet use that Q word
they ain't heard nothing fromthem it's awful quiet out there
every old building of this,danville's maybe the oldest, I
don't know, I don't think it'sthe oldest town in London, but
it's up there and everything'syou know, because I look at real
estate up there there's a lotof historic Everything's like

(02:21:46):
built in 1814.

Speaker 4 (02:21:49):
Pre-Civil War.

Speaker 2 (02:21:50):
Yeah.
So I mean I'm like that'sawesome, it's a very good town.
Y'all are blessed to be there,for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:21:57):
It's definitely a cool little city.
I mean, the people are great.
Yeah, it's a nice place to bethey are truly pro-fire and
pro-police very much.

Speaker 2 (02:22:07):
That's what I appreciated about it so much.
They really have your back upthere.

Speaker 5 (02:22:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:22:14):
We'll end it there.
It's been fun Guys.
Thank you all.

Speaker 5 (02:22:18):
Thank you guys, catch us on the next one you.