Lucky Breaks, Lucky Charms, and Fire Alarms.

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Step into the world of those who run toward danger with our exclusive conversation featuring father-son firefighting duo Forrest and Colton. This episode pulls back the curtain on the real-life experiences of career firefighters – from heart-stopping emergencies to the surprising humor that fills firehouse life.

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, serious turnsinto pie in the sky, just out of

(00:25):
jurisdiction, left during theconviction?
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Some things are just for showing off.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yeah, he did pay.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
When I was in Belgium , I was stationed over there
after 9-11.
And this guy, he had a sack ofsides and he would choke
everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
And he flashed the first sergeant and they said God
, what's that thing up Something, I don't know what they got man
.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
Maybe he did it because it's blessing and curse
he's just uncomfortable all thetime.

Speaker 6 (01:14):
Two time pass he wanted to walk around naked all
the time come out of the showernaked.
It's like dude.
Nobody wants to see that, butyou couldn't stop looking.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
It's like a train wreck.
It's like dude.
Nobody will see that, but youcouldn't stop looking yeah it's
like a trainer.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
It's horrible to look at but, you can't I don't want
to see that.
Oh my gosh that's horrible.

Speaker 7 (01:34):
Why is it so purple?
I've heard of that before.
Oh, big and blue keep it awayfrom me.

Speaker 5 (01:43):
Well, I'm glad you guys are here.
We're kind of out of practice.
We ain't done one since foot.

Speaker 7 (01:49):
I know it's been a while been on vacation, been
sick, been exploding at bothends the flu again, no, just the
stomach virus no, just whateveris blooming allergies.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
Well, we're happy you guys are here.
My dv-214 is here, so I canwear this legitimately, oh yeah
we're getting ready that I hadto.

Speaker 6 (02:21):
I had to test him for his stories.
He was a little leery aboutapproval from his work but I
just told him you just don't sayanybody's name, you don't even
have to.
I retired from Louisville.
Now I work for another firedepartment.
So whatever I say aboutLouisville, it would definitely

(02:42):
not be negative.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
But and they know my dad, yeah, so yeah, well, he's
got one son, that's on thereyeah, don't ever bring shame on
the fire department, even afteryou're gone.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
Yeah, do we have any other fire departments.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
No, it's the only one I was at a bank.

Speaker 7 (03:01):
We can tell bank which here's, here's the caveat
to that, anything that's said,none of this is live, so it can
be edited out if you decide yeahthere's a couple of days turned
around before I'll have it out,so cool, that makes him work,
so he prefers not to.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
Well, I don't care.
I mean, we won't.

Speaker 6 (03:18):
I'll listen to you guys, you know yeah, yeah, you
try to keep everything.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
Yeah, you try to keep everything we try.
We have not bashed.
It's all been funny stories.

Speaker 7 (03:25):
No, we've tried to stay out of the political stuff.
Nobody wants to get on thereand listen If they're listening
to a podcast.
Nobody wants to listen topolitics.
They don't want to listen toour.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
They do but it's not us.
If they want to hear politics,they can go to Facebook, right.

Speaker 7 (03:37):
Right, exactly, try and give break and kind of kind
of put the humanity back intoeverything.

Speaker 6 (03:48):
And yeah, we're so, oh, congratulations on your, oh,
thank you getting hired.
Thank you, good, we'll see.
I bet you like that it'll be,it'll be good.

Speaker 7 (03:52):
It'll be a good experience too.
He beat me in the job well it'snot hard to beat somebody in
the job that interviews for youalso, so I was like I hire that
guy there sitting there.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
He was sitting there, like I said, I'm here to fill
another spot and say, hire thatguy and if another school
resource officer job opens up,hire me back.
I went for another job thatdidn't exist yet.
I was just keeping my Because Iworked for them before and I
loved it.
I loved them, but just in casethere was something else popped

(04:25):
up, I just wanted to stay intheir minds.
And we got.
We rode up and had a good dayinterviewing for the same job,
carpooling laughter it was funny, so I don't know they.
They're pretty cool.
I think about things.
I think we've had.

(04:45):
We got some interviewsscheduled with them, so I'm
hoping they don't.
I don't think they'll saynothing no, I mean so far.

Speaker 7 (04:54):
I mean one of the detectives listened is listening
to it right now.
So at like two times speed.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
So that's gotta be that speeds my slow draw up.

Speaker 7 (05:09):
Yeah, exactly so yeah nothing was said about that,
but yeah, when we won't, well,yeah, we won't don't.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
If you say, hey, don't put that in, just kind of
give a yeah, maybe went too far,or if.

Speaker 7 (05:22):
Or if you say it and then decide later like hey, I
probably shouldn't have saidthat, then afterwards we'll.

Speaker 6 (05:27):
And me.
I'm not worried, we're justlooking for funny stories, yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Plenty, that's all.

Speaker 7 (05:35):
And well, you don't pass for here, don't pass your
supervisors.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Peers are fair game.

Speaker 7 (05:43):
Just don't light up your bosses?

Speaker 5 (05:45):
no chiefs, no majors yeah, I guess a lieutenant or
whatever y'all have is fair game, I guess, but if they answer
calls with you.
I think they're fair game it'sup to you.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I don't know what's fair game.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
To be honest, it's hard to tell sometimes because
technically we're supposed toget everything approved before
we do anything.

Speaker 7 (06:10):
Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness rather
than permission.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
I just said that, didn't I?
Yeah, I was wanting to buyanother shotgun.
Yeah, about your wife.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
Did you kill anything today?

Speaker 7 (06:19):
What kind.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
TriStar G2 Vapor.

Speaker 7 (06:24):
That sounds like something that the CBO would get
mad about.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
I would say like I said you gotta bypass Congress
every now and then exactlyexecutive orders they'll come
back with it's too much spendingthere.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
I think the judge will say it's overruled.
You're gonna have to returnthat.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
Good guess there, I think the judge will say oh,
it's overruled, you're gonnahave to return that all right,
guys, all right you ready tokick her off?
Yep go for it.
You know these folks betterthan me and I don't know how to
ask fire questions.
I'm, I'm kind of stupid.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, I just we'll wing it we'll wing it and y'all
can do what.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
I'll hand it over to y'all however much of an intro
you want on yourself we won't dothe big Sean Ryan no ain't
nobody got four hours to listento a podcast, so I guess it's
been what it's been a monthsince we did a Ain't.

Speaker 7 (07:24):
Nobody got four hours to listen to a podcast Navy
SEAL, yeah, so I guess it's beenwhat.
It's been a month since we dida podcast, so we're finally back
with another episode.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
This is season two, I guess.

Speaker 7 (07:32):
Yeah, we'll call this season two.
A little hiatus, a littlevacation time, a little respite
Yep, it gives everybody a chanceto hopefully have caught up on
all the episodes anyways.
But we've got another goodepisode with you or for you
tonight.
I got two seasoned firefighterswith us, one more seasoned than

(07:53):
the other.
One may be just lightly salted,but we've got Colton and
Forrest with us.
And Forrest, if you want tokick us off, tell us a little
bit about your journey in thefire.

Speaker 6 (08:11):
I got hired by Louisville Fire Department in
September of 1989.
And I was there for 21 yearswhen I retired, when I retired
and then I went part-time withthe smaller department that's

(08:31):
still in the Louisville suburbsand then in 2015, I went
full-time with them and I'vebeen there since then.
I retired as a captain fromLouisville Fire Department and
currently I'm a captain withthis department.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
Awesome you just want to do.
All you want to do is add me inDouble dips.
What he's doing.
He's like I don't want to be afirefighter.
I want to go work in my county.

Speaker 6 (08:57):
Well yeah, they wasn't double dipping.
I went through a divorce and mypension got cut in half, but
it's all good.
What do?

Speaker 5 (09:07):
they say Marriage is grand and divorce is at least
100 grand.
Give or take it happens.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
It happens, but it happens.

Speaker 5 (09:18):
Yeah, it's tough.
Me and Derek House were talkingthe other day.
We were like how in the world?
He just hit 31 years ofmarriage and I hit 26 or
something.
And he said I just asked him.
I was like how did they put upwith us this long of work?
And it's just.

(09:38):
I was like, yeah, savior isspecial.
And I asked my wife the same.
She's like that's a lot ofprayers, buddy.
Yeah, a lot of grace.

Speaker 6 (09:47):
My wife was fond of saying every third day you were
gone for 24 hours and that wasmy time and you retired and you
were here all the time.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
That's funny.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
That's part of it, though it's the.
It's the hard part of what wedo.
The reality of first respondingis tough.
Yeah, you don't realize howit's a total in your family?

Speaker 7 (10:16):
how much you get used to not being around?

Speaker 6 (10:18):
each other until you're around each other a lot
so yeah, whenever something badhappens, we have to go and our
families stay behind and theyhave to.
If the electricity goes outbecause of a storm, we go to
work, yeah, and the wife has todeal with no power whatever's
going on, yeah, so it is hardwhen you're at home.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
It always happens when you're at work oh yeah, I
need a phone call text picture.
Look at this.
Is this right?

Speaker 2 (10:45):
no, no that tree through the roof.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
It's not right.
But when I, when I deployed,when I deployed to belgium uh,
we've been married just a coupleof years and um, I remember you
know like who in the world isgoing to I'm not there at all
and she did well, took care of alot of things, you know I'm

(11:10):
like, from power outages to yardmowing.
I was like man, she's tough.

Speaker 7 (11:16):
Your wife is a saint though?
Yeah, she is, so I mean so tellus about you.
You don't have to go intospecifics on your agency or
anything.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Okay, it's just, you say I'm a firefighter.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
I'm a firefighter, a lightly salted four-year
firefighter.
I was assigned to an engine forthree years and then I'm coming
up on a year on the truck inJuly and the guy next to me is
my father, well-known fella.

(11:51):
In my fire department.
Everybody's always poking andprodding on me and telling me
stories about him Got big shoesto fill, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
They're bigger than mine.
I love them yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So kind of went through collegeand did all that.
I thought about leaving andcoming back and trying out for
different departments, but stuckit out, got my degree, worked
at a bank, worked in sales for Iguess two or so years.

(12:26):
Me and my dad, we were eatingand I was just like I can't do
this anymore.
He was like what I was like,answering this phone, typing
emails, sitting in my littlecubicle.
I'm going to go nuts.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
I can agree with that .

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Lost my mind a little bit there.
You want me to tell the story.
No, no, no, it's a terriblestory.
Let me, I can agree with that.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
Lost my mind a little bit there.
Do you want me to tell thestory?
No, no, no, it's a terriblestory.
Let me tell it.
We're telling the story this isan embellished story.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
See, Dad, he's so salty.
He's so salty that he's rusteda little bit.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
His stories are just they're a little out there, but
I just kind of keep them onstraight and narrow on some of
these stories.
Now we're going to veto that.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
So anyway, he asked me if we can go to Zaxby's for
lunch and we get our food andsit down and he's sitting there
it was dinner.
He's starting to get loud abouthow he can't do this job.
He's like a hamster on a wheel.

(13:28):
He can't stand being in anoffice and he's getting louder
and louder until people arelooking at us and I'm like let's
go, let's go, let's get out ofhere.
And we go out to the parkinglot and it starts raining and he
starts telling me how he'sthrown his life away.
He's went and got a degree andall he ever wanted to do was be
a firefighter like his dad.

(13:51):
Yeah, and I like, you're 20,what were you?
23 or 24?
I think I was 24 and I'm likebuddy, you're young, you haven't
thrown your life away and he'sjust he's having a meltdown
because he's across the street.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
There's a guy, he's got this little lit office space
and he's just typing away onhis computer it is like probably
seven or eight o'clock at nightand I was like that's what I
don't want.
I was like, look at that, thatguy's miserable.
I was like I don't care howmuch money he makes.
I was like I can't do that.

Speaker 7 (14:22):
No, what's funny about that is I used to dream of
having that type of office jobwhen I was policing, and then I
got a taste of it and I'm likeno, I was wrong.
I don't admit that often.

Speaker 6 (14:37):
Well, and the kind of person Colton is?
He said a very nice thing.
He thought that I was in a badsituation coming out of a
divorce and stuff and he told me.
He said, dad, I just wanted toget a job where I can help take
care of you.
We never cried on this podcast.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
I'll tell you what that was all rain, that was just
heavy rain.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
You're not crying, I'm crying.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Nobody can be prouder of your son.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
He is just an amazing young man.
Well, I grew up watching himand I mean I never really
thought anything about a fireman.
Like that's just what my daddid and like that's just what I
grew up with.
So that's what I saw.
I just thought it was normal,you know.
Oh it, it's Wednesday and mydad's taking me out fishing in

(15:27):
the morning, bringing me homedonuts like this is great.
We're like, we're going to playbaseball or basketball or
whatever, just spending all thistime with me.
I was like this is awesome.
And then he's gone for a littlebit, it comes right back, gets
to do all these different things.
I was like I want that, like Iwant to be able to do things
During the week, not just comehome at 5 o'clock and be tired

(15:49):
and go do whatever for like anhour and go back to bed and do
it all over again.

Speaker 7 (15:53):
I get it the work-life balance of, even
though it's stressful jobs and Idon't know how stressful that
taking a nap and playing Xboxgets.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
You wouldn't believe.

Speaker 7 (16:11):
But the work-life balance is a lot better in first
responder type of jobs, becauseyou do have a stressful job.
You are.
It is high, stress it's high.
You know you're up and downconstantly.
You may be playing xbox andthen all of a sudden you got to
go.
You know keep a house fromburning down, or you know go to

(16:33):
a medical call, and you got toflip that switch immediately.
I'm just picking at you overover that.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
But oh, there's no xbox at my house, but it's no
different than us sitting andwatching a movie at dispatch or
something.

Speaker 6 (16:46):
Scott Cunningham Colton's at a you were at a
house, how many runs?
Did they make last year,darrell?

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Bock, the engine made 4,600 runs Scott.

Speaker 6 (16:53):
Cunningham oh, darrell Bock, so that's 16.
Scott Cunningham oh yeah,colton does that.
Darrell Bock, and the truck'snot far behind.

Speaker 7 (16:58):
Scott Cunningham, no 4,300.
Now, with that, is that medicaland fire?

Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's everything Car accidents, alarms, elevators,
medical runs fires Cats andtrees yeah.

Speaker 7 (17:13):
You know, I've never seen a cat skeleton in a tree.
That's why I say that.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
That's what we always say.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
There was one cat that was actually stuck and I
was like man, I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
This is what everybody makes fun of us for
and I'm doing it.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
And this cat.
I was actually more scared ofthat cat than anything.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
that was on fire for my whole first year.
I was like this cat is going tolight me up.
I was full gear and I grabbedthat thing by the neck and I
threw it over the wall and Ijust jumped over it.
I was like let's get out ofhere.
I'm pretty sure we saw that caton the side of the road later
on that night driving by.
I was like I don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
No, he wasn't standing anymore.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
He was flat.
Should have stayed in the tree.

Speaker 6 (17:59):
The house he's at now .
I was at for five years when Iwas at Louisisville.
It's kind of cool.
I went by and visited for thefirst time and took my wife and
it was.
It was cool seeing the housethat that would have been about
95, so it's been about 30 yearsago when I was there is it one

(18:23):
of the busiest ones?
Yeah, it's probably the busiestin the city, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, I think it's definitely the busiest in the
city.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
How many are they I?

Speaker 2 (18:34):
mean as far as stations, I'm not exactly sure,
I think Louisville has about 17.
Yeah, probably somewhere aroundthere, but some are double
houses, so we've got engines andtrucks, but I'm not exactly
sure how many men's on a crew,usually on a shift.
Four on an engine, four on atruck, unless you're on a rescue

(18:55):
company, which they have, fiveon the truck.

Speaker 7 (18:58):
See all that's different than how it is here,
our little podunk town.
It's just you've got four guyson shift period, that's it.
But they're also not.
I mean, not until recently theyweren't running medical calls
or anything, unless it was anall-call for a 1046 or something
like that.

(19:18):
It would be, they would only goto fires.
Now they've started runningsome medical medical calls and a
lot more wrecks, and just aboutevery wreck that comes out now
or there, there they were.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
So yeah, scary stuff.
I could imagine having that.
We, I think our call volume wedoug doug's here with us, by the
way, and what's our.
Can you remember because weboth admin dumb why we did that?
But I think our most calls forservice in a year for the entire
department was probablysomewhere in that neighborhood,

(19:56):
maybe 8,000, somewhere in thatneighborhood.

Speaker 7 (19:59):
So and you know, yeah which that's you know, and that
sounds like a lot, but it'sinflated a little bit well, you
got everything added on right.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, expert trolls and stuff like that trolls that
you know may have taken fiveseconds so as soon as you get
out, say expert trail is loggedin the cat so that creates a
yeah, a cad number.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
So so a lot of that, a lot of that you know, I would
say half of that, over half.
That probably, though, isofficer responding to something,
and you know even the extrapatrols and the things like that
we we go to.
You know, yeah, we have time to, and I and I've got friends
down in tulsa who will be likethere'll be 50 calls waiting on

(20:42):
the next shift to come in.
Just as far as police, you know, they're that far behind.
They've got to prioritizeeverything Working small town
stuff.
We're able to just go knock itout.
And piggyback it was very rarethat we ever held a call for the
oncoming shift.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
Sheriff's office every now and then would do it.
But it wasn't that many, it wasfar and few we never held if
it's five minutes before we gotoff work and they gave out a say
, a wreck or something in thatnature.
We went.
Now, once we got there and itwas going to take time then the
next ship coming would come inand relieve us.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
The only time that anything's sort of like.
That is, if there's just majorevents going on, if there's like
multiple fires going on,they'll hold med runs for
everybody, just so we don't getspread too thin or anything like
that.
And if it's that bad, thenthey'll bring the other shifts
back in Right and then they'llride on auxiliaries.

Speaker 5 (21:37):
Yeah, that's a big.
That's a lot bigger tandem thanwe're.
It's a big.

Speaker 7 (21:43):
It's a lot bigger town than we're Now you said
that there's assignments fortrucks and rescue and what else.
So, just as far as personnel.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
I mean rescue, special rescues, stuff like that
, special houses, like the truck.
There will have five, Okay.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
And then just regular trucks, like us, like we just
have four.
Then uh, responses with those,or do they all respond they all?

Speaker 2 (22:12):
respond to everything in their area and then if
there's a special event, likethey'll respond, like high angle
rescue or you know, like anextraction team or something
like.
No, we don't just have like arescue team just for rescue
stuff or just like specialtystuff.
Uh, we got specialty housesspread out throughout, like we
got hazmat houses spread out, uh, structural collapse, uh.

(22:34):
So you know, I include trucksand quints, but so quints we try
to keep five on, okay, becausethey're a little bit further out
and the response time fromother trucks would be a little
bit later out there, and you allknow what trucks and engines.

Speaker 6 (22:51):
You all know the difference.

Speaker 7 (22:52):
You can specify, because not everybody knows.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Well, some are red and white.

Speaker 6 (22:58):
When you say an engine that has pump and hose,
so it pumps water and that'stheir main function.
Pump and hose, okay, so itpumps water, and that's their
main function.
A true truck does not have hoseand pumps and it's.
It's got the aerial ladder,okay.
So those guys mainly go in todo the grunt work, ventilate the
building, any kind of researchand rescue yes, they're trying

(23:23):
to put the fire out.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
The truck is doing all of the work that you don't
really see.

Speaker 6 (23:30):
Knocking windows out, cutting a hole in the roof,
putting fans up, lights up.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
So the desirable job for the fire department is to be
on the pumper right.

Speaker 6 (23:40):
For some guys Depends on where you're at, I mean,
once you get later on whereyou're at Once you get lighter
out in a few years, I don't know, you know Louisville, they
always tried to put the biggerguys on the trucks because there
was so much with lifting theladders and stuff.
So that's kind of what I wantedto do, since I was a small guy.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
We're not small.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
I was lucky, I was taller than 10 years on an
engine and 10 years on a truckand I was on the dive and rescue
at that house for five years.
He's amphibious.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
I'm not.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
So that was fun.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
Listen those cats whoever the bridge rescue that
made national news was badass.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, and it may not have been but it was.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
whoever did that?

Speaker 2 (24:30):
It was like a Spider-Man scene.
Yes, it really was.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
That was some ninja stuff right there.
That was awesome.

Speaker 6 (24:41):
That's a lot of training.
I mean, I was there, we trainedat least once a month we had to
do rope training once a month,we had to do dive training, then
we had to do all of ourinspections and all the other
training on top of it.
Then we also had a what used tobe a coast guard boat that we
refurbished and made a fire boat.
This is a Louisville, so they'dsend people down there.

(25:03):
We'd train on that.
But the those high anglerescues, that's kind of rare
when they come in.
But when they do in that case,you're glad you did do all that
training absolutely with thehigh angle rescues.

Speaker 7 (25:18):
Did you all, either of you, ever have to do or
seeing it done with like callyou in on, like suicides of
jumpers and stuff to have torappel down and that?
No, that was well that's what Imean did you see it?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I'm saying that's what the call is for like,
that'll pop up, you know, andyou'll make it with the possible
different side.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, yeah, somebody up for us they'll see somebody
you know.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
A lot of the time they're fossils.
You know somebody's right fromthe street, somebody's windows
open and they're sitting on it,or something like that.

Speaker 7 (25:51):
Well, I mean, you know how john q public, yeah, I
mean this guy's suspicious nowthe one we went on when I was
there was the second streetbridge.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
People would that was their thing.
They would jump from the secondstreet bridge, the house he's
at now.
A lot of times they willrespond there also.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
The 2nd Street, the pedestrian.
Yeah, it's got a pedestrianwalkway.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's very tight.

Speaker 6 (26:16):
Yeah, we would go get on the fire boat and we would
wait underneath in case theyjumped His company, I'm guessing
they probably still do it theywould go on the bridge and kind
of observe from up top, yeah,while usually a police unit
would try to talk them down.
Yeah, yeah, they were dependingon, depending on the unit you

(26:38):
get.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
They're yelling, do a flip.

Speaker 6 (26:40):
So well, when I was there I mean, I remember one,
one of them, it was probably 15degrees and we're out there on
the boat and I was the captainand I am freezing and I'm like
this guy is not going to jumpand all of a sudden splash, he
hits right by us.
I'm like oh crap.
But you know, we had a couple ofguys dressed out in their dive

(27:04):
suit and they went right in thewater and they had to pull him
out of the mud because peopledon't realize how shallow the
river is.
So he hit the water and stuckin the mud.

Speaker 5 (27:14):
They got him out but we were like woohoo, you know
that'll work, but I just startheading toward the the falls
there.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
That's not too far away from the falls, it's not
yeah, that's on the other side,that's more, that's closer, yeah
, they headed towards thehydroelectric NAMM, and that was
now.

Speaker 6 (27:33):
That's something we did.
A lot is in the summertime.
The bodies would float downthere and we would get a call
from Elgini you have to do atrip.
We see a body that's in thestrainers.
Yeah, that was, there was some.
I'll tell a good story.
I was down there one day and atthat time I was a sergeant

(27:55):
which drives.
My captain was this macho man Imean he was, we called him
Johnny Bravo and me and him wereout there and the police.
They had their dive gear butthey kept it in their trunk.
They didn't have all thespecialized helmets like the
super light helmets wherenothing can come in nothing, and
we couldn't get this.

(28:17):
I mean I don't want to be toogross but skin's falling off the
fish are eating, and it's 90degrees out and me and my
captain can't get him in thebody bag and I look over and one
of the cops is throwing up.
I mean, it was that nasty thatwould be me and this guy's this
guy's arm was just sticking upand my captain just he takes and

(28:39):
breaks his arm so he can foldit into the body bag.
And then everybody on the bankwas throwing up and we got him
in there and took him out.
There was no other way to gethim in a body bag.

Speaker 7 (28:49):
You got to do what you got to do.

Speaker 6 (28:51):
Yeah, those strainers were bad.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
I think I might throw it up right now.
That's horrible.
That's when I knew I couldn'tdo rescue and fires.
I was like I don't do well withblood and guts.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
I mean, I've seen my fair share, but I could always
be like go.

Speaker 7 (29:11):
We need somebody quick.
It's more so for me, thisinstinct that when I see
something on fire, I don'tnecessarily want to run into it.

Speaker 6 (29:18):
Yeah, I didn't either .
When I first got on I was likewe're going in there.

Speaker 7 (29:24):
Let's go.
I've spent my whole life sayingthat's hot, I don't want to
touch it.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
What's the tallest building in Louisville?
I mean there's some tallbuildings.
It's changed.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, the name always changes.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
It used to be the Mercer.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's either between the Mercer and the PNC Mercer.

Speaker 6 (29:38):
Yeah, commonwealth building, it's got a dome on it.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah, yeah.
I think it's that one or thePNC building, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (29:46):
It's not the PNC.
I want to say it's about 50stories.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
Is there an aerial that you've got that'll reach
that dome.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
That's a helicopter.

Speaker 6 (29:57):
It will not.
It will not.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
That would be.
Getting upstairs has got to bea tough one, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Quickly, I couldn't imagine.

Speaker 5 (30:08):
I think the last drill school class.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
they did a full, you know high-rise training there
with those recruits andeverything.
They took everything up and Ithink I don't remember how many
stories it is.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
I want to say it's 50 , but I could be wrong.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
I can't remember the exact number, but it sounded
awful.

Speaker 7 (30:29):
I'm out of breath after five stories.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
I'm out of breath just talking about this.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
You reach a zone where you become a zombie.
Your feet just keep moving.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
You don't know how and you're just like I've got to
do this or I won't have a job.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
Is that a rush or something?
I mean, is it adrenaline rush?
As far as the high rise.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
That only and when you're.
I mean, when you're runninginto a fireman, you go yeah
sometimes you're looking at itand you're like I don't want to
go any further.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
I'm you know yeah, the adrenaline, only I don't
want to go any further.
Adrenaline only takes you sofar, adrenaline is like when it
gets knocked out and you'regetting excited and stuff.
Then when you get there you'relike all right, I've got to calm
down and I've got to think.

Speaker 7 (31:13):
I've got to do my stuff.
It's kind of like a good fightor a foot pursuit.
You're only good for so manyyards or so this sucks.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
Yeah, and I remember my first fire.
My captain pretty much drug mein there.
I was going, but I was justlike this whole thing's on fire,
what are we going to do?
We went in there and heimmediately said you're going up
in the attic.
They had a ladder and up in theattic I went and I sucked in
some smoke and heat and I cameback down that ladder headfirst,

(31:47):
hit the floor and startedtrying to yank my mask off and
he jumped on me and wouldn't letme take the mask off.
He's yelling at me don't youpull that off, don't you pull
that off.
I was fortunate.
I had a great captain.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
What was that like?

Speaker 5 (32:04):
your first fire?
Was it a house fire.
What was that Like?
Your first fire Was it a housefire?

Speaker 6 (32:08):
It was a church At that time.
I got out of drill school inDecember.
It snowed the graduation dayand it dropped down to zero
degrees and they had an arsonistdown in the West End and he was
setting churches on fire Evil.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Was this in the 80s?

Speaker 6 (32:24):
So it would have been december of 89.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
Wow so he was going in there just sitting and then
he was setting them on fire.

Speaker 6 (32:32):
They're catching, you know, I don't remember.
Uh, the fire stopped so theymust have it's.
And you know, it's funny, anarson guy.
I him.
How do you guys catch arsonists?
He goes.
We usually go to the gasstations in the area and we look
back through their film and welook for somebody filling up a

(32:53):
milk jug with gas, see how closeit is to the place catching on
fire.
That's usually our guy, wow.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's pretty smart.
Why did we think that?
I don't know.
You remember the firebombing wehad?

Speaker 5 (33:07):
Yeah, that was investigated.

Speaker 7 (33:10):
I had no idea what I was doing.
Then Danny handed that over.
He was like here this is yourcase.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
I was like I don't know what I'm doing.

Speaker 7 (33:17):
Firebombing Out here, maultabing people's houses and
cars.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
Out here.
Yeah Geez, I don't know if theyever caught him or not.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
We handed it over to an arson investigator, the arson
guys.

Speaker 6 (33:30):
they had some interesting stories.
I remember they had a couple ofkids in Louisville and every
once in a while they would goover and they would let these
kids start a fire on their grillat their house and that would
satisfy them.
But whatever that was they hadthey wanted to start a fire.
That would pacify them.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
You could tell me that there's probably a lot more
people like that.
I mean, I love watching fires,but I don't have a desire to go
burn your house down.

Speaker 7 (33:57):
That is exactly what your problem is.
That is why you pee in the bed.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
so much I do pee in the bed.
That's a different story.
I do pee in the bed.

Speaker 6 (34:07):
That's a different story.
Supposedly there's a real powerin watching the destruction of
it go and knowing that youstarted it.
That kind of feeds, that,whatever that is, I mean I can
get that Fire does fascinate me,but I've never wanted to burn a
.

Speaker 7 (34:22):
Yeah right, Because we're mentally somewhat stable.
I don't know if I can get thatFire does fascinate me, but I've
never wanted to burn a yeahright, Because we're mentally
somewhat stable.
Yeah, I don't know if I'd gothat far.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Like you said, fire is beautiful and scary at the
same time it's like it's alive.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
Yeah, it is, and you can probably tell it when you're
inside.
It is roaring, it's loud, it'snot just a quiet, I mean it's.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
Popping and cracking like a fire.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:51):
Plus, I guess the wind it's pulling in and it
roars it does yeah.

Speaker 7 (34:55):
Do you get in there and get kind of tunnel vision,
though you have no vision Likeauditory exclusion kind of like
you have no vision, you can'tsee.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
It's funny.
All people walk up and they'relike oh man, yeah, I watched
Chicago fire this night.
I'm like those are the clearestlooking fires I've ever seen,
because I have never seenanything other than it's either
fire or it's just.
I can't even see my hand infront of my face.
There's just smoke everywhere.

(35:22):
So you're really just going inthere blind, just trying to find
your way around.
So when it's like a hoarderhouse or something, you're
basically just swimming.
I was swimming throughornaments one time, just
crushing all of them in thisattic, just trying to get I
don't even know where.
I was just trying to figure outwhere my captain went, just
swimming.
He's like what are you doing,alan?
He's here.
I'm like I think I found theornaments cap yeah, you, you

(35:51):
can't see inside, and it's.

Speaker 6 (35:54):
I mean you could get lost in a closet.
I'll tell you it was.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Uh, the fire was.
I mean, even when the out.
I mean all that smoke is stillsitting in there unless it's
properly ventilated or whatever.
But most of the time, a lot ofthe times you get to it quick,
the smoke's just filled up theroom or whatever.
Like it's just hard to get someof that out.
Some of these windows are you.
Just you got the fire out.
You don't need to just bebreaking windows left and right
so that smoke's just kind ofstuck in there.

(36:25):
And we were going through doinga secondary search, so they'd
already done the primary search,so we're just kind of walking
through and checking other rooms, make sure nobody's in there,
and it's real smoky on thatsecond floor and not hot or
anything like we're not scared.

(36:48):
No fire or nothing.
We're just walking around, justwalking around, looking.
It's pretty well taken care ofat this point and these
departments.
They just got weird stairwellsand weird places and, uh, my
captain's like I'm over herewhen you're walking, I've got
him like within arm's reach, Isee him and I'm in this room and
then all of a sudden I justdon't hear him, don't see him
anywhere and he comes walking orhe comes out of nowhere like
right in my face.
He goes hey, I found the stairsover there.
And we walk out and he goes.
I was like did you fall downthose stairs?
And he's like yeah, I swear.

(37:12):
I was like I was going to say Ican see you playing today and
then, all of a sudden, you werejust gone.

Speaker 7 (37:19):
Can't be cool like him.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Found them.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
That's how you find stairs.
Sometimes you fall right down.

Speaker 6 (37:26):
Yeah, you fall down them.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
All right.
What is the scariest fire thatyou've been in?

Speaker 6 (37:36):
For me, and this was all my fault.
It was my last two weeks in thefire department at Louisville
and it was a hoarder's house,but we did not know it, and it
was a three-story big mansion inthe Highlands which is kind of

(38:00):
a yuppie trendy area.
It's a nice area yeah it's likeon the third floor and again, we
didn't know it was a hoarder'shouse and I had a new guy of
less than a year in and I gotway too cocky and we were on the
landing and I ran up pasteverybody up onto the floor and

(38:25):
kicked a door in and when Ikicked that door, in the whole
place all I saw was red and Ithought my new guy was with me
and all I remember is the stairsweren't there anymore and I was
in the hallway and I was downon my stomach and all I could
see was red and I was trying toget out and I went back into

(38:52):
what was the bedroom?
I didn't know it was a bedroom,but it was so thick with books
and clothes and and I couldn'tfind a window and I thought I
was going to burn up and I'myelling for my new guy because I
thought he was up there with meand I did not want to leave
without him and finally, all Icould think to do was crawl back
towards the fire, hoping tofeel that open there where the

(39:15):
stairwell was, and I did andeverybody was piled up on the
landing.
I rolled down the steps and Istarted yelling and then I left
my new guy up there and Iimmediately hear no, you didn't
Cap.
I'm right here, I never went upand I'm yelling and screaming at
him, calling him a coward.

(39:36):
We had a guy that had two yearson that retired from the
Louisville Police Department andgot hired on the fire
department and he was standingthere with a hose.
I was yelling, screaming at himbecause I thought he opened the
hose while I was up there andsteamed me.
I don't know if you've evergrabbed something out of the
oven with a wet rag.
It'll burn.
Yes, that's what getting steamedis.

(39:57):
And uh, so the next morning I'msitting at the table waiting
for shift change to happen andI'm just sitting there and all
them guys are sitting theredrinking coffee and I said, I'm
done.
They're like, you're what?
I said I'm done.
I thought I was going to die.
I laid up there and made mypeace with God and one of them

(40:21):
goes oh sweet seven-pound babyJesus, please, baby Jesus, let
me in heaven.
Oh.
So then another one startssaying it and I got mad and got
up, went home and said I'm done.
I dodged the bullet, I'm done.
That was one of the scariest,but that was one time I thought
I was really going to get burnedup and I retired.

Speaker 7 (40:41):
That was the decision maker there that was it, that
was it, and then you went back.

Speaker 6 (40:47):
I got divorced and I went back.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Had to go back To another.
Get into my head, god wasn'ttelling me to retire.

Speaker 6 (40:57):
He was telling me don't run up there ahead of
everybody next time and kick anoar in, just take a break is
what he was saying yeah, take abreak Chill out.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Be the leader.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
Not the tip of the spear anymore.
Isn't that hard to do whenyou're in leadership to allow
others to?
You want to be the guy.
You want to still be the guy.

Speaker 6 (41:22):
Yeah, we just had a car wreck last day at work and
it was on its side and the guywas really messed up and the
major there told me to give theSawzall to the new guy because I
was cutting the roof off and Iwas like what he goes, give it
to the new guy.
And he told me later I don'twant you up there doing the

(41:43):
grunt work all the time and I'mlike it's hard not to.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
What about you?

Speaker 6 (41:51):
man.
He told me one I know he's gotone already.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
I've got a good video .
Do you want to watch it later?

Speaker 3 (41:58):
We'll definitely check it out, it's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
It's a GoPro, so I was on a different engine, so I
was still.
I think I only had it maybe ayear on the streets or a year
and a half from the streets, andit was a big it was a shotgun
house but it had like 10 footceilings, like there's no second

(42:21):
floor.
It was high ceilings and I guessit was a hoarder because there
was stuff all throughout thisplace.
But the fire was in the rearand we were on the address side
and so I flaked out a line andthe truck captain who's my
captain now went in with hisfirefighter who's now my senior

(42:41):
firefighter on the truck andthey went in and I followed him
with the line and you knowthey're asking.
We got a line in here and it'sjust pitch black and I guess
they moved.
They moved I guess it was afridge or something in front of
this door or dresser and my, mytruck firefighter now we call

(43:03):
him Big Country, big strongfella.
He's a cow farmer out there inMount Eden and he rips this
dresser, throws it across theroom.
Luckily he didn't hit me,couldn't see me, and the fire
just comes running through.
But when you got your mask onit's hard to like.
Your depth perception's kind ofoff.

Speaker 7 (43:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Because you're technically not even really
seeing, like because you don'texpect to see anything, and the
fire's, like I see it, and I'mlike, oh, there it is, it's
right there, like I'm about tohit it.
And then I like realize, no,it's two inches from my face.
Like it's right here.
And so I kind of turned my headand I'm like, oh wait, no, it's

(43:46):
everywhere, it's to my right,everything.
So that then the captain I waswith he's a very confident, very
aggressive guy and, uh,fighting fire, and he, he goes
get out.
And I was like now I know we'rein trouble and I just laid down
and opened up the line and justlaid down on the ground and
just sprayed and they got out ofthe way, I guess, and then I

(44:09):
felt somebody was tugging on theline so I just kind of crawled
over.
I say that I did the right thingby laying down and opening the
line, but really I fell and Ijust opened up the line and just
sprayed as high as I could justtrying to cool everything off
and we got a pretty cool videoof it.
But it's literally just likefire everywhere.
You can't tell the entrancefrom where we're at.

(44:31):
It's just fire everywhere.
It's pretty cool.
We'll check it, but yeah, thatwas definitely the scariest I
was.
And then we're sitting thereand they're like smokes pouring
out like ready let's go back in.

Speaker 7 (44:41):
I'm like all right, you said it was a gopro video.
Uh, yeah, there's a coupledifferent videos.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
We got a video with a drone that shows the fire
pushing from the back all theway up to the front and it just
kind of blows out the front, uh,the top of the, the door that's
on the front, from like all theway, basically like if you're
looking at this table, it justgoes all the way through the
shotgun, and then it's got aGoPro video.
That's do you guys?

Speaker 5 (45:07):
pretty cool.
Do y'all wear GoPros a lot, or?

Speaker 1 (45:12):
for training it's.

Speaker 7 (45:13):
Yeah, that's what I was.
Yeah, so we brought.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
We watched that over the critique, because we did a
critique on that one, becausethat was a pretty unique event,
because that doesn't usuallyhappen just like anything fire
related.
But if you got a, GoPro we useit, certain people use it, but
yeah just like anything firerelated.

Speaker 7 (45:32):
It's the opposite of police related.
Body cams are never good fortraining or anything.
They can be yeah, they can beTrain what you did wrong, that's
right.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Don't do this.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, that was a good one, that was a good fire Fires
.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
It's just a little it's like Doug was saying it's
just kind of it's its own thing,it is it does what it does.
It's wild and I'm sure there'sthings Different fuels and
things that happen but Iremember fire doesn't want to
die either, does it?

Speaker 6 (46:12):
No, what it does.
And what it did when I kickedthat door in, it sat in there
and it burned until it used upall the oxygen.
And when it does that, itstarts smoldering down and it
sits there.
All the heat is still in thereand it's just sitting there
waiting for you to kick a doorin so it can burn that oxygen
comes in and when it does, itfires it.

(46:33):
That's what blew me back andthat's what was complete red and
chased me back into the back ofthe house where I couldn't get
out, and then it was going withhim.
I would say probably.
What happened is, when theycame in that door, it got the
fuel and it ran towards them andthat's why, all of a sudden, he
was just overcome.
So it's running towards thesource cause it wants to get out

(46:57):
, it wants more oxygen and yeah,it's just it's just like yeah,
it's one reason.
when it builds up heat like this, it's one reason you see us go
to the roof and cut a hole inthe roof.
We're making a chimney, sothat's the purpose.
Right, that's the purpose,because then, all of a sudden,
it can go up and out Instead ofrunning towards a door or a

(47:19):
window.
The heat gets out.
You can do a better job.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
I always wondered why they've done that.

Speaker 7 (47:26):
I said they're destroying a perfectly good well
, I always thought how would youget on top of a burning house?

Speaker 2 (47:32):
yeah, that's I, I loved you can see the smoke too.
It starts.
It goes from, you know, pullingout the front of this house, at
the top of the door entry, andthen you see it just start to
come down and keep coming down.

Speaker 7 (47:44):
I would imagine you can see the fire retreat and
then you see it just start tocome down and keep coming down.
I would imagine you could seethe fire retreat back and then,
when it blows out, it just goesup the top because it's looking
for that oxygen With fullturnout gear and everything on
what's the temperatures you canwithstand, that's a great
question Before you start.

Speaker 6 (47:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (47:59):
Before you start turning into a baked potato.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
I haven't turned into a baked potato.

Speaker 6 (48:03):
I haven't turned into a baked potato yet, so I'm not
sure exactly what the heat islike we wear a hood now a Nomex
hood and we get our mask on,then we pull that hood up, then
we have our helmet and it hasear flaps so we can take more
heat, which I remember.
The old-timers always said thatwas a bad thing because we
would stay longer in the fire.

(48:24):
They liked having their earsexposed and that's how they said
oh time to get out.
I can feel my ears burningRight.
And when I first came in thatfirst year, we did not have to
wear a Nomex hood and I liked itbetter.
Now some people would say, oh,you're stupid.

Speaker 7 (48:41):
Well, it gave you an indicator.

Speaker 6 (48:43):
It kind of gave you an indicator you can be in there
when, when you shouldn't,shouldn't be right, because
they've made our gear so good.
So that's, that's a good thing.
It's a lot better than when Icame in the gear.
Uh, the guys right before Icame in they wore the rubber
boots and they would just pullthem all the way up and then
they had the long fire coat overit.

(49:04):
They didn't have the pants.
Those days are over, and that'sa good thing.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
You're showing your salt right now.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
I know.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
A little pepper too.

Speaker 5 (49:17):
It's got some steak sauce, yeah, but that like okay,
this is a silly question, itmay not be.
I wear contacts.
That can't be good in a fire.
It'd have to melt.

Speaker 6 (49:28):
Well, they've got the mask, so your mask covering,
but also you can get a.
I don't have it, but I thinkguys get a prescription, almost
like on the goggle part of it.
Well, they fit right inside themask, okay, but if they've got
their contacts, they're not.
I'd hate to be slanted, yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:48):
Most of the time you can't see anything anyway, so
most of them aren't too worriedabout it.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
The contacts.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
They're fine with contacts behind the mask, I mean
, if those contacts are melting.

Speaker 7 (49:57):
They got some serious sear mask, yeah, okay.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
I was just wondering, because I was like man, I've
been hot where I gotta get theseout of here.
You know just from well, thatwas grilling, I didn't have any
eye on too much lighter fluidtoo much Boy Scout secret.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
That's exactly.
Too much lighter fluid, toomuch.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Boy Scout secret.
That's exactly right.
Oh my gosh, I've done dumbstuff on fire Well who hasn't?

Speaker 7 (50:32):
Speaking of dumb stuff we were talking about a
hypothetical question beforeeverybody got here.
It's a good one.
Yeah, it's a good one.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
So you all watch Saturday Night Live.
Well, I don't.
I don't either.
This is an good one.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
Yeah, it's a good one .
So you all watch Saturday NightLive.
Well, I don't know, this is anold one.

Speaker 7 (50:44):
Yeah, I don't know how old it is, so there's a skit
that they had on there, but itbrings up a good hypothetical
question.
Now I know how we would respondto it, and that is to leave and
let you all handle it.
I've been there, but you're atthe top.
You're at a water park at thetop of this big, you know, I

(51:06):
don't know how many.

Speaker 5 (51:07):
It was several stories.

Speaker 7 (51:08):
Several story water slide.
You got a guy who has a heartattack, dies at the top of the
slide.
Big, big heavyset guy.

Speaker 6 (51:15):
I know I don't know where you're going with this
Hypothetically, do you carry himdown the steps?

Speaker 7 (51:22):
No, or do you push him down the steps you need to
let me answer this.

Speaker 6 (51:29):
You don't want this coming back on you.
You push him down the slide.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
No we'd use a stair chair and we'd get him down,
secure him properly.
That's the PCA chief.
Actually, if he had a heartattack, we'd have him on a
stretcher.
We would be carrying himbecause he'd have to be able to
do CPR.
But you could probably getenough pressure in that slide?
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (51:51):
Seriously, we would probably try to get some harness
on, put a rope, I mean, ifyou're being serious and ease
him down the water slide.

Speaker 4 (51:59):
Yeah, so let him go down a slide.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
Yeah, you would just push him and say whee, you know,
obviously that was not anoption that was presented in the
skit, that would be it.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
And that's why he's a firefighter and I'm a captain.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, he makes the decision not to just fire.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
It was a good skit.

Speaker 7 (52:20):
I recommend it.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
That would be a unique situation, though that
would be interesting, like Isaid, I know how we would handle
it.

Speaker 7 (52:24):
It's all right, boys have fun.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
They have a water park up there at the Kentucky
Kingdom, don't they?
They do.
You got to think through thesethings.

Speaker 6 (52:33):
We used to go there all the time they had trouble
with a roller coaster and there,all the time they would, they
had trouble with a rollercoaster and it was a pretty
frequent trip to go up and haveto get the people out of it
because it would stop, it wouldget stuck and it would hang
upside down, upside down.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
Yeah, yeah, that is definitely.
Yeah, that are coming off trackoh god yeah nobody ever fell.

Speaker 6 (52:56):
Uh, they didn did have one incident with that
parachute drop type deal where agirl Got her legs, got her legs
cut off.
I think it was her feet.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
It was her legs or feet, yeah, but Louisville was
like the number one footsurgeons in the world.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
I think at that point I'm sure that made her feel
better.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
I don't know if they were just making that up, but
apparently Hopefully she gotthat thing, reattached that up.

Speaker 7 (53:18):
but apparently, how was he got that thing reattached
?
Could you imagine being on theground level of that?

Speaker 4 (53:21):
and somebody's foot, just come flying by your hand
what about if that had happenedto him?
Oh god, died drunk, you know,right, huh, what shoulder man he
put it on your shoulder, yourfriend.
Oh.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, he's not talking about his foot, though.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
No.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
That was a conversation we had before we
started recording.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
I think oh yeah, yeah , that was just.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
Oh no, we were recording.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
No, oh yeah.
Yeah, it could be.
Oh, Doug, we were recording.
No, oh yeah.

Speaker 6 (54:01):
Yeah, it could be, oh , okay.
As you say, Doug, I think Ileft my truck unlocked.
Can you go?

Speaker 5 (54:06):
out and check it, please.
All right, we've hit someserious, scary ones.
Let's hear some fun ones.

Speaker 6 (54:12):
Some fun ones.
Oh, yeah, man, I've got thoseAll right.
Yeah, we were known for pranksone of our favorite pranks and
again, since you're not on wewent through a lot of
broomsticks, because we wouldtake broomsticks occasionally
and we would cut them to thesame size as the bed rails and

(54:33):
we had a small mattress and boxspring.
That was our bed place and weput three or four of those on,
shoved a wedge in so the bedwouldn't move, and tied a rope
on it.
So then, when whoever you weretrying to get would fall asleep,
we called it going for a ride.
In the middle of the night youtake off, running, and it

(54:54):
happened to me once where Icouldn't breathe, the rush of
being yanked out like a rollercoaster taking off, and you
think you're dreaming and whenit's over, you're laying in the
middle of the floor andeverybody's giggling and
snickering like a bunch oflittle girls and you're in the
middle of the floor and youdon't know what happened.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, super soaker guns guysget.

(55:18):
When they get bored, they startcoming up with games, dumping
flour on each other, just haveyou got some funny stuff in my
department in alaska thanks formaking the trip, by the way.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Oh yeah that's funny, because my my department is
Anchorage Middletown.

Speaker 6 (55:41):
Oh yeah, we consider.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Alaska posers.
Yeah no, we don't do any pranksup there in Alaska.
You have to remember runs.

Speaker 6 (55:58):
Weird amount of runs in Anchorage.
Alaska Non-fire departmentpranks as far as that like runs.
So I got a new guy one time.
His name is Donnie and the areaof town we were in has a lot of
people who are.
You got a lot of homelesspeople, a lot of people who are
kind of unstable.
And we're coming back from thegrocery store I pointed out two

(56:20):
high rises and I said, hey, whenwe make a run there, you're
going to see some stuff youmight see.
You might see some naked stuff,you might see drunks, you might
see all kinds of stuff.
So sure enough wasn't.
A couple hours later we go towhat's called york towers I'll
just say it for a fire alarmsounding and, uh, we go up there

(56:43):
and old guy answers the door.
He's completely naked and he'sjust standing there and I said,
hey, uh, man, you got an alarmgoing off in your apartment and
your air condition is out yeah.
I said do you think maybe youcould go put some clothes on?

(57:04):
When he just looks at me, Isaid could you please put some
clothes on so I can come inthere and check it?
He walks away.
He comes back with a blackt-shirt on.
I still remember his t-shirt,that was it.
It he's still standing therehalf naked.
How do you like this?
It looked like somebody holdinga frog up.

(57:25):
I'm just like good grief.
I said you know what it looksgood in there to me.
Let's go.
We had a lot of those, a lot ofnudity involved in runs you
sure you weren't in Mount VernonKentucky?

Speaker 4 (57:49):
I said, one came out on Mike Bryant.
You know, mike, she came rightout the back door on him, naked
as a jaybird we had a couplethat um, older, slightly
disabled.

Speaker 6 (58:02):
they both had recliners that the seat would
lift up to help them get up andthey would sit around naked all
the time because probably aboutevery other shift we'd have to
go to help one of them up offthe floor and you could see the
streak stain on their seats.
And my guys were so quick.

(58:25):
I know they were thinkingbefore we ever got there and I'm
thinking, okay, we're going tohave to help these people up.
That's not how they're thinking.
They're thinking, hey, I'll getthe left arm, you get the right
arm, and that will leave Cap atthe back.
And it never failed.
And there I'd be in the backtrying to lift up this naked
either the man or the woman, andit was just consistent every

(58:48):
time and they would snicker andgiggle, gotcha every single time
you got to tell the story aboutthe.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
I don't remember what his name was, but you.
He was a cool guy.
He became a police officer.
He retired from louisvillebecame a police officer yeah,
you pranked him with the coke inthe funnel above his bed.
Oh no, he pranked me.
Oh, he got you.
That's a good one.

Speaker 6 (59:12):
That's even I like those ones, yeah louisville's
got a really old house and it isnow a bar called Silver Dollar
Saloon and the bedrooms were upon the second floor.
I think all of them pretty muchwere in the old houses.
So he comes in on his day off,he climbs up in this nasty attic

(59:33):
which I didn't even know thosefirehouses may be built in like
1900.
It still had the horse stablesin the back.
That's awesome, wow, that is.
And uh.
He's up there and and drills alittle hole above my bed.
He takes a two liter cokebottle and he cuts the bottom of
it off so that it's more like afunnel.
He fills up a latex glove andties it off like a water balloon

(59:58):
.
He puts that in there, sticksthat nozzle in that little hole,
puts a hook on the side of itand runs a string across the
attic and lets it come down towhere his bed is.

Speaker 5 (01:00:14):
This took some time this took some time.

Speaker 6 (01:00:15):
And so when we came back to work, I'm in bed and I'm
asleep and I wake up kind ofout of it because something is
dripping on me and it's dripping, and it's dripping and then all
of a sudden it wasn't drippinganymore.
He got that latex glove to ripand that water comes down and

(01:00:36):
soaks me while I'm half asleepand then he had this funny laugh
because Jorge was Puerto Ricanand he was from New York and
he's ooh ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, I got you.
Yeah, I did get him back.
Yeah, I won't say what he did.

(01:00:56):
He played so many jokes.
He put weight plates in yourpillowcase and you go in there
and you get in bed and as soonas you laid your head down on
the pillowcase, you're hittingwhat was usually a 10-pound
weight plate smacking your faceon it.

(01:01:16):
Yeah, and it would hurt, and onenight I pulled that thing out
in the dark threw it across theroom and hit him because I heard
it thud and he's like, oh God,oh God, oh God, and that was the
end of that.

Speaker 5 (01:01:29):
But he retired.
I don't know what's moredangerous the firehouse?

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
or the people that work there, oh yeah, when he
retired he got on the LouisvillePolice Department and I won't
try to tell the story, but hehad a story where he had to
fight the red man Guy in a suit.
Well, I'll go ahead and tell it.
He failed it twice I think, andthey told him three times and

(01:01:55):
you're out.
And they told him three timesand you're out.
So, if I remember right, hewalked in, threw the baton at
the guy's feet and put his handon his gun.
Instead they're staring at himand said get it.
And they were like all right,you pass, because they told him
you've got to get this guy undercontrol.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
So he says, pick it up, pick it up Pick it up.

Speaker 6 (01:02:15):
Now, you know, got to get this guy under control,
yeah, so just pick it up, pickit up.
Pick it up Now you know howtraining is it wasn't a real gun
, so let me put that out there.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
Right, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:02:26):
It was a red gun as well.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:02:29):
With Redman.
For anybody who's not familiarwith it, it's what police
training goes through, when youlearn your defensive tactics and
things, and it pretty muchequates to you going in with a
foam pool noodle as a baton andthen them commencing to throw in
a whooping on you for the next15 minutes and you trying to

(01:02:50):
survive.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
If you do well, you'll only end up with a couple
nice hits to the head, and ifyou're able to use your baton
correctly, they'll, they'll callit yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:03):
but if you don't use the baton correctly, you, you
will pack that whipping yeah youwill regret it so yeah, and
jorge was a great guy, one of myfavorite firefighters, so we
had this good friend.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
We had this little guy.
He worked for the Department ofthe Park Services.
We was in the academy.
We had this legendary man.
They named the gym after him upat Richmond LJ Weber.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
He's a great guy.
He's a great man.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
Weber would say gentlemen, a real, proper guy.
I don't even know if he'd everbeen in police.
I don't think so.
Just badass.
I mean that's what.
He was hired as a little man.
I mean just a little guy.
But every recruit that everwent through was scared to death
of him because he was like aninja.

(01:03:57):
He was like Chuck Norris to us,I mean he was awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
He had that respect.

Speaker 5 (01:04:03):
And this guy kept swinging that pool noodle and it
would glance off his shoulderand hit him in the head.
He said, sir, the next time youhit me in the head with that,
there will be consequences.
He was ripped alive, he wasn'tdone.
He was ripped alive, he wasn'tdone, he was a wreck.
So they're attacking him.

(01:04:24):
He hits, smack, boom hits him.
And our pitcher, our academyclass pitcher he's got a black
eye, completely black eye, hadto go to the hospital and get
cut.
He just swung him up.
He just bah.
He was like bless your heart.

(01:04:46):
But he warned him.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
Twice, he was good though man.
Yeah, he was.
He wasn't the police.
There was always rumors flyingaround that he came from the CIA
or something of that nature.
He was an expert in all this.
He was our Chuck Norris man.
He was.

Speaker 5 (01:05:06):
You didn't have him, did you?
No, gosh, he was scary.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
He was going way before I got there.
I was like they had a scenarioI don't know, Doug.

Speaker 5 (01:05:15):
He was a shoplifter and you're a single unit.
You had to arrest him, okay,can you?
Sir?
Can you please turn around andput your hands behind you?
Nope, I'll do anything.
I'll go with you, but you'renot putting handcuffs on me, sir
.
It's our policy that we had tohandcuff you.
Nope, I think six people hereis back.

(01:05:38):
Send everybody Send everybodySend everybody.
Nobody wanted to just gohands-on and he was going to
comply.
That was the scenario.
He would have complied, but hewasn't going to be handcuffed,
but he wasn't going to handcuffhim.
Nobody would be like well,let's go, buddy.
Everybody's like oh, I got ahandcuff.

Speaker 4 (01:05:55):
Now if you was in Mount Vernon you would.
Everybody's like, oh, I got ahand cut now.
If you said Mount Vernon, youwould, because I've done it many
times, you should say that.
But I have a poor old guy I hadup there give a call and he's
the guy wandering around onhighway 70.
Just, he's intoxicated,according to the people.

(01:06:16):
I mean it is peephole in therain, I mean it is gushing down,
it's like two o'clock in themorning and I'm aggravated
anyway because it's like 15miles away from town.
So I go out that way and TimmyCameron, who y'all don't know,
timmy you might.
I've heard the name he was withme.

(01:06:37):
We get out there.
It's on Highway 70, right atthe Rock Castle and Pulaski line
.
We pull up there and, sureenough, there he is.
He's just dancing around.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
He's having a good time.

Speaker 4 (01:06:53):
I won't say who he was because his brother's kind
of high up and things.
I won't say who he was becausehis brother's kind of high up in
things.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
So I get up there and I roll my window down about
like that, because I mean it'sstill point.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
I said what are you doing?
I'm dancing in the rain, baby.
I said, well, you can't bedoing that, you're going to have
to go with us.
So I said, said open the doorand get in.
He opens the back door, jumpsright in, we turn around, head
back to the jail, out, lodge himand away we go.

Speaker 5 (01:07:29):
that's happened many times yeah it's kind of like a
Mayberry in a way so what I hearis it's raining outside and if
he said no, doug wouldn't get inthe house just keep trying,
somebody keep trying now youain't, you're jammed yeah, try
to avoid the traffic if you can.

Speaker 6 (01:07:48):
Of course, there wasn't no traffic at that time
and I had no idea oh my god,yeah, you talked about those
like that guy being a tough guy.
I was lucky.
When I came through drillschool we had guys that were
finishing up their career, thathad been in, been in vietnam,
and they were.
They were tough guys and theywould put their hands on you in

(01:08:09):
drill school.
So I there was.
I had one drill instructor andif you look down when you're
raising a ladder, he'd startkicking you in the shins and, uh
, it hurt and you couldn't letthat ladder go.
You just have to take thiskicking in the shin and he's
yelling and screaming.
He was, he was mean, I mean,really mean, and all of them I

(01:08:33):
was most guys were scared of himand something you'd hear from
the old guys all the time.
If you had an argument withthem they'd say you want to go
out back.
I mean, you come out of theirmouths so fast.
Let's go out back and fight.
You're like I'm not going outthere.
Because they all grew up in theboxing gym in Portland, there in

(01:08:56):
Louisville, or what they calledthe South End.
They were just rough, roughguys and I remember when I was
brand new there was three of us.
Hey, new boy, you want to godrinking with us?
We were getting off work andI'm like 8 am baby.

Speaker 7 (01:09:12):
I'm brand new.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Speaker 6 (01:09:16):
I'm brand new and I'm thinking, you'm thinking I
better do this.
So I go, and after a couplehours I need to get home.
So I go home.
Well, two days go by.
I come back into work.
I come in and those three guyshave pulled chairs into.
We had a community shower withfour shower heads.
They're all sitting in theirchairs in the shower with the

(01:09:39):
same clothes on that they left.
That first morning when I wentto the bar with them, them guys,
they would go down dixiehighway to those bars and they
would tear the bar bars apart.
They were just rough guys.
Now the funny thing is the guywho sat there and would kick you
in the shins the firedepartment I'm at now I work

(01:10:03):
with his son.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
You kicked him in the shin.

Speaker 6 (01:10:06):
No Retribution, no because a couple of years ago
that guy, his dad, sent me amessage on Facebook Messenger
and he said hey, I'm reachingout to all the people and I'm
sorry about the way I treatedyou back then and I thought,
well, this guy's probably foundJesus, yeah.

(01:10:27):
And I told him I appreciate theway you treated me, I think it
was good, I think it was goodfor you.
I'm not the guy that would putmy hands on somebody, but I no
regrets about having those guys.
They made me better firemen,absolutely.
And you know you can't beputting your hands on people,
but for me it didn't bother mehim kicking me in the shins, I

(01:10:49):
just took it and went on madeyou, made you aware that you're
not supposed to be doingsomething.
Yeah, yeah you know and I, whenI see that guy guy they moved
him out of the house I'm at nowand moved me in there I try to
always ask him how his dad'sdoing, because his dad's
probably 80 now.
He probably looks back on hislife and thinks he could have

(01:11:10):
been nicer.
But that's a lot to reach outto somebody and say I'm sorry
about what I did to you 30 yearsago.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
Obviously, you're right.
He probably did reflect findthe Lord make some amends.
I've had to make those calls.

Speaker 6 (01:11:28):
He probably called a lot of people and I thought good
for him.

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
That's good.
It's hard to eat.

Speaker 6 (01:11:35):
I love them, old guys like that they were tough
Reminds me of the scene fromBilly Madison.

Speaker 7 (01:11:40):
He's what I call that guy.
Forrest O'Hare putting on hislipstick.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
Saved my life.

Speaker 5 (01:11:57):
Now.
Where did you say you were nownow?

Speaker 6 (01:12:00):
it's Anchorage Middletown fire department,
middletown and it's it's in thesame.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Yeah, yeah, that's one of the houses.

Speaker 6 (01:12:07):
Yeah, great department.
We merged with five otherdepartments, so now we are the
third largest department in thestate, behind Lexington and
Louisville.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
Wow, wow.

Speaker 6 (01:12:21):
Yeah, we've got.
I should know this.
We've got 10 houses and weshare a house with St Matthew's
Fire Department, so we have acompany in one of their houses.

Speaker 5 (01:12:35):
Did you all have to respond to the accident that
Scotty Schaeffler got arrestedat at Valhalla?

Speaker 6 (01:12:41):
Yes, and I don't know anything about it, really about
what happened there.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
I wouldn't even say yeah, I try not to say too much,
since I'm there right now.

Speaker 6 (01:12:51):
But, it's a great department.
We've got some great peoplethere, matter of fact, and it's
growing.

Speaker 4 (01:12:57):
That day something big was happening, wasn't it's
growing?
Yeah, that day something bigwas happening, wasn't it other
than that?

Speaker 6 (01:13:03):
it was the uh, well, it was the golf tournament.

Speaker 4 (01:13:07):
Yeah yeah, but there was office coming there for some
reason or other.
Oh seinfeld, oh yeah, that'sright.
Yeah, yeah, we went and sawseinfeld at the palace.

Speaker 5 (01:13:17):
That's right yeah, that's yeah.
We went and saw Seinfeld at thepalace, that's right, yeah,
that's right.

Speaker 7 (01:13:20):
The palace.
I love that palace.
How was?

Speaker 6 (01:13:22):
that, by the way, was it good?
It was good.
It was.
Yeah, that's one of my bestfire stories.
They had just finishedrenovating the palace.
It was beautiful and I was atwhen I was saying the rescue
house it's at 12th and Jeffersonand they sent a call out in the
night that the palace was onfire and I had Johnny Bravo,

(01:13:46):
captain.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
Now, the palace is right there, down from Galt
House, right, yes, it's on 4thStreet, on 4th Street.

Speaker 6 (01:13:53):
Yeah, just if you're coming from the river, it's just
up from 4th Street.

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:13:58):
Yeah, just if you're coming from the river.
It's just up from 4th Streetline and I remember my captain
saying don't let truck two beatus there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
And that's the house he's at.

Speaker 6 (01:14:11):
And Anchorage will have to.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
Yeah, truck two, so they had.

Speaker 6 (01:14:15):
We both had a truck where a guy steers in the back
as a tillerman.

Speaker 3 (01:14:19):
Oh cool, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
So I'm driving the front and here we're flying,
don't you let them beat us,don't you let them beat us.
And we hit an intersection atthe same time, where 4th Street
is that you turn, and I turnedright in front of him.
He's like, yes, you beat us.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
And I pulled right up in front and things have
changed a lot we don't racenowadays, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
So I pulled up in front of it and I got right up
against the curb because we haveto put these outriggers out.
And he's like what are yougonna do?
I said I'm gonna put that outon the sidewalk, we'll be fine.
He takes off inside because Igot to put the aerial ladder up
and because we got what's calleda ladder pipe and it usually
flows about 800 to a thousandgallons.

(01:15:06):
I think now it's maybe 1200,but wow.
So so I was gonna put that onthe roof.
That's where you can see thefire and he takes off inside and
pretty soon he comes runningback out.
Don't you lose the?

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
palace.
Don't you lose the palace.

Speaker 7 (01:15:22):
That's how he would talk and I would say hey, I got
this Go back in.

Speaker 6 (01:15:30):
So that was one of my proudest moments.
And actually the palace shareda common wall with another
building and that's where thefire was coming out.
That wall kept it from goinginto the palace but there were
companies up on the roof thatsaid, man, we heard a train
coming and we knew that ladderpipe, because that thing, you

(01:15:52):
can demolish a building with it.
It will put so much water outReally.
Oh yeah, they heard that thingkick on and they were running
for their lives up there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
They were still on the roof, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
That's what's supposed to happen.

Speaker 5 (01:16:06):
Don't worry about you guys.
We can't lose the house.
Don't lose the house that'slike the Notre Dame up there.
Oh yeah, it's beautiful, ohyeah.

Speaker 6 (01:16:16):
It's beautiful.
Seinfeld was great.

Speaker 4 (01:16:21):
Had one troublemaker right at the end, one
troublemaker had to be she couldnot make it for like five or
ten more minutes just hecklingstarted heckling him foolishness
he was great he just blew itoff though.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
Jerry's great Louisville's like.
I like going to Louisville, meand my wife like to go up.
I hate to say this, but the YumCenter is a little better than
Rupp Arena as far as watchingevents.
Oh, yeah, well, it's much newer.
Yeah, it's newer, it's got allthe stuff.
But I've watched Stapleton upthere.

(01:16:57):
It was one of them Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 5 (01:17:00):
Yeah it's a good one.
Good one right there.
It's a cool venue, but nothinglike the Palace, of course.

Speaker 6 (01:17:06):
Right For me.
I prefer Neyland Stadium.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
But, none of you guys are Tennessee fans.
No, oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (01:17:15):
This podcast was good .

Speaker 6 (01:17:20):
I grew up most of the time in Soddy Daisy, tennessee,
which is close to Chattanooga,and so in my interview for
Louisville we had this guy.
He was the assistant chief andhe was a jerk, full-blown jerk,
scary just to be around him, andLouisville did not hire
volunteers.

(01:17:40):
When I got on and he asked mein the interview, he said are
you a volunteer?
And I said yes, sir, I grew upin Chattanooga and he looked at
me.
He goes what I said.
I've been a volunteer since Iwas a kid.
I loved their football.
He goes are you stupid?

(01:18:02):
And I said no, sir, I grew upthere.
I love the balls he goes.
I'm talking about a volunteerfireman, you idiot.
And I said oh no sir, I don'tknow anything about that.
And he goes he's just sittingthere shaking his head.
He said you can go now.
And I stood up and I reachedacross his desk to shake his

(01:18:23):
hand and he just sat therelooking at me and I pulled my
hand back and I left.
I went home, I got the paperout and I started looking in the
classifieds for a job.
I told my wife at the time Idon't think I'm getting hired,
I'm like what?

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
I'm a little bit new, I'm a little bit idiot.
I'm Rocky Top.

Speaker 7 (01:18:45):
That's like your ID story.

Speaker 4 (01:18:48):
Oh, about the guys on the.

Speaker 7 (01:18:50):
Yeah, the guys that you stopped with the.

Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
ID.
Jesse's there with me on thatone, these two birds.
I don't know what we're outthere for.
We're just stopping cars.
That one, they, these two birds.
I don't know what we was outthere for, we just stopping cars
.
But it was this third shift andwe always hang out on the
parkway because Clay Countybunch they kind of wild over

(01:19:12):
there.
Well, this car goes by.
I don't remember if I stoppedit for speeding or what the deal
was, I just don't remember thatpart of it.
But I pulled this guy over.
Jesse's got one pulled over onthe other side of the road and
by the time I get out I'mwalking over to him and I look
in there and that's two big old,rough-looking fellas Touch hogs

(01:19:34):
is what I call them Big oldbeards.
He's just some rough looking,rough looking overhauls in the
works and I said that's kind oflike.
One of the folks said youbetter send me help.
I might have help with this guy.
He's got tattoos and everything.

(01:19:55):
But anyway, I won't say whothat was.
I know who it was.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
You know who it was.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
But anyway, I said, jesse, you might want to come
over here.
So he gets done.
He wails around over there towhere I'm at and we walk up.
I walk up to the passenger sideand I talked to him.
I said I need to see a licenseand he hands them to me and I
looked at first do you have anyID?

(01:20:23):
And he looks at me, says aboutwhat?
No, I need to see youridentification too out of his

(01:20:57):
beard they were good, just goodold boys.
But yeah, I wound up, no ID Iain't got no idea about that.

Speaker 5 (01:21:03):
We have all kinds in here.
I'm sure y'all have them too.

Speaker 4 (01:21:11):
I can't imagine doing the.
I think it goes both ways thefire department gigged the
police, we gigged the deputy,but it's all good.
We've always had a good workingrelationship with each other
until they blocked the roads,and that gets on my nerves.
Yeah.
With each other until theyblock the roads, and that gets
on my nerves, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:21:29):
And I'll tell you one we had.
There's a neighborhood there inLouisville called the Portland
Neighborhood.
It sits on the river and it'skind of rough working class
people.
They said we had a fire, ahouse fire.
So we pull up, we're running inand I see all these growing

(01:21:51):
lights and there's rack afterrack after rack of marijuana
plants.
The whole house is a marijuanahouse.
We're growing Indoor yeah.
And I've got a line and I'mstanding there looking around
like, in slow motion, thedevil's less.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
The devil's less.

Speaker 6 (01:22:09):
I see all these cops in there with guns.
They're doing their thing andwe're kind of.
They got there first and theyparked out front.
My sergeant's trying to yell ata cop.
What are you parking out front?

Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
You're blocking you know, and.

Speaker 6 (01:22:23):
I finally had to say man shut up.
Yeah, I said shut up dude Radiodid not tell them and they
didn't tell us, they just sentthe fire dispatcher and the
police dispatcher.
They sent us both to the samerun.
Somebody had set a little fireon the outside trying to burn
down this operation Really, andthey sent us both in there and

(01:22:47):
that was scary.
That gets dangerous.

Speaker 3 (01:22:51):
Yeah, I was like alright, let's get out of here.
That could have been aninteresting call.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
They blocked the house.
We want to grow on fire.

Speaker 4 (01:23:00):
We got some plants in here.
We had an incident up at MountVernon one time and the mayor
was a female.
I won't say who she was, butthey had a fire and anyway,
she's going home.
Of course they had the roadblocked.
Well, they didn't have the roadblocked, but they had the fire

(01:23:21):
hose across the road.
Yeah Well, she drives over it.
Oh oh, honey, you thought theworld was coming to an end.
Oh yeah, oh, you thought theworld was coming.
Oh yeah, you thought the worldwas coming to an end.
Yeah, I was there.
One of the fuck.
She ran over the fire hose.
I said so.
You still got water but, anyway,I pulled her over and it was

(01:23:46):
the mayor.
She's.
What are you pulling me over?
For yeah she says oh, what's?
That gonna hurt anything, shesaid I had to get home.

Speaker 5 (01:24:02):
I said well, I bet them things are they're.

Speaker 2 (01:24:05):
They're not cheap at all.
You know what?

Speaker 6 (01:24:10):
I don't know what.
I guess I should know, like thebigger one, the five-inch
sections.

Speaker 2 (01:24:16):
It's about $1,000, I think.

Speaker 6 (01:24:18):
But I mean, we make something that you can put there
.
That's like little ramps.
They can drive a car right overit.

Speaker 4 (01:24:26):
But yeah, I didn't know it was a big offense, oh
man.

Speaker 7 (01:24:30):
We learned that one chicken festival.
That's what I was going to say.

Speaker 2 (01:24:33):
I think it's a felony .

Speaker 5 (01:24:36):
Because if that hose goes out, well, I'm pretty sure
it can damage the pumps as well.

Speaker 6 (01:24:43):
If it sends the pressure back.
I think that is the biggestpart of it?

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
I think so, and that's a very expensive piece of
machinery Because you'repumping it and then that just
stops it while the pumps arehitting it.

Speaker 7 (01:24:55):
It's probably rebounded that pressure back in.

Speaker 5 (01:24:59):
Yeah, one of my things not to do.

Speaker 3 (01:25:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:25:06):
I had a pretty big fire and blocked.
I got in a little bit oftrouble because I took a hydrant
on the other side of the streeton what's called Bardstown Road
and it's the happening placewhere people cruise up and down
on the weekends and it was aFriday night and it was the only
one I could take.
It was a restaurant with anapartment above it.

(01:25:26):
But it's kind of a funny story,my sergeant.
He got in the habit every timewe would come up on a report of
a fire I'd be looking at thebuilding to make my call in and
he'd go.
We got a working fire and I'dbe like just messing with me
playing around.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
I'd get mad at him and after a while.

Speaker 6 (01:25:48):
I'd just go off on him.
I'd say stop doing that.
So we pull up in front of thisrestaurant and I'm looking and
he goes.
We've got a working fire and Ilooked at him and I said I said
to stop saying that when I'mtrying to call in and he goes,
no, it's coming out the roof.

Speaker 4 (01:26:09):
And I look, I'm like oh God oh God, he cried wolf too
many times.
He did, he did.

Speaker 6 (01:26:15):
And I called it in and we had to put our line to
the other side of Bardstown Road.
Take the hydrant, nobody couldcross it and me and my
firefighter went inside.
We're running air and we've gotour masks on.
It's a little bit smoky in therestaurant part and everybody's
sitting there eating their foodand you can see the smoke is

(01:26:36):
starting to kind of bank down.
And I look around and I said,hey, building's on fire, get out
.

Speaker 3 (01:26:51):
And nobody moves, they just sit there looking at
me and I'm looking at them.
All the non-smokers are outsidealready and everybody's like
what's?

Speaker 6 (01:26:58):
wrong man.
I'm standing there looking atthem all and nobody's moving and
I said I said get thebuilding's on fire, get out.

Speaker 7 (01:27:09):
Still nobody moved.
This is $80 a plate.
I'm going to take my chances.

Speaker 6 (01:27:12):
So, yeah, and I lost it.
I yelled get the out of hereand I started kicking tables
over and knocking them.
They all, just they scatteredrunning outside and I think we
fought that fire for almost anhour.
Even the chief showed up.
They had tongue and groovewalls, ceilings.
We're in there with chainsawstrying to get in the walls.

(01:27:36):
But yeah, I came back out andit was about 10 degrees and
first thing I hear is why'd youblock Bardstown Road?
And I said it's where thehydrant was.

Speaker 7 (01:27:45):
Yeah, that's never happened.
Yeah, after you had to dealwith all that, yeah, yeah, that
would have been pissed off rightthere.

Speaker 5 (01:27:52):
I was working up in Mount Vernon.
Was it Gene's restaurant?

Speaker 4 (01:27:55):
Yes, but it burned.
Oh, was you working there then?

Speaker 5 (01:27:57):
Yeah, it was in 2012-ish and I came in.
I saw this guy come in fromLondon heading up that way.
See the fire.
There was still people eatingin there.
They had delicious breakfastand they were not going to
because kitchen caught.
Yeah, you know it.
Just all that grease and allthat stuff.
Yeah, well, they stayed inthere.

Speaker 4 (01:28:17):
Think they get it out that was a good place to eat.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
I never replaced it.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
I get it If it's good food.
You can't get it.
Money's worth a gift.

Speaker 4 (01:28:34):
This is the last time we're going to be able to eat
here.
Get all you can get baby.

Speaker 5 (01:28:43):
Pizza Hut's still there.
Yeah, I guess I'll eat up therein a little bit.
Yeah, fun stuff.
I think it's been up there alittle bit.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
Yeah, fun stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
I'll tell you, the scariest fire.
I don't know if he was workingthat third shift when Main
Street no, down on Middle Street, next to that little Mexican
restaurant over the house.

Speaker 4 (01:29:04):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:29:06):
This guy.
He said my baby's still inthere and this sucker is fully
like dead.
It is bad, my baby's still inthere.
His four fire department gotthere and we were about ready to
go in and we couldn't get in.
It was that.
I mean, we were like we'regoing to die if we go.
I remember us freaking out,freaking out.
Well, baby wasn't no baby.

(01:29:27):
He was probably 17, 18 yearsold and he was in there smoking
cigarettes.
He didn't tell his dad.

Speaker 1 (01:29:34):
He ran out.
He didn't tell his dad my baby.

Speaker 5 (01:29:37):
My baby might kill him, might kill us.
I was like that was thescariest I've ever been in a
fire club.
I remember thinking I don'treally like this.

Speaker 6 (01:29:51):
Yeah, I've seen people call their cats and their
dogs babies.
My baby's in there and you'relike, oh my God, where's the
baby at?
What's my dog?

Speaker 7 (01:30:01):
What Let it be?

Speaker 4 (01:30:02):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (01:30:08):
They usually come out when that door opens in the
front.
They're smarter than us.
Amen to that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:12):
We made an apartment fire and actually it was like a
condo but it shared a wall Withthis other apartment and the
roof.
I guess the attic was on fireand you could see it kind of
coming out and we were rollingup.
We were about to go in and theengine is rolling up with the
line behind us and I see theirnew guy masking up and I guess I

(01:30:35):
turned around before I saw ithappen.
But he told me it was eitherone of the cats that the lady
was saying was inside or it wasa raccoon that was living in the
attic or something.
But an animal of raccoon sizewas living in the attic or
something.
But an animal of a raccoon sizeflew off of the attic, knocked
his mask off while he was tryingto mask up Because the captain
was like what's?
taking you so long to mask up.

(01:30:56):
We've got to get in here.
And he's like I just got hit inthe head.
I don't even know where I'm atright now.
I mean, I could guess.

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
Came flying off the roof and I was like, oh man,
that's awesome, just attack me.
I was like that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:31:10):
That's a unique video .

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
Yeah, I wish he had his GoPro on for that one that
would have been good.

Speaker 5 (01:31:20):
Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
Fun stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:31:23):
What else you got?
I know you got something elsefunny.

Speaker 7 (01:31:26):
You told some stories there the garage door story
with the paramedic.

Speaker 3 (01:31:33):
Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 6 (01:31:36):
That's hilarious.
I've not heard this At one time.
Now Louisville has closed thishouse down, but it was the
oldest active fire house in thecountry and I want to say it was
built in 1872.
Oh, wow, and I actually spentabout nine years total at that

(01:31:59):
house.
But it's kind of hard topicture the overhead doors where
we would come in and out of.
They would take and they wouldmake a little small entry door
in those.
Those doors were metal and ithad a little key key code.
You just punch them in.
So when you need to get inyou'd punch that in and you'd

(01:32:19):
open this little door up and youwould step over about a
six-inch section where thislittle square was cut out,
almost like a little doggy doorfor people like yeah yeah, yep
and um.
So it was summertime and it washot in this house, but I wanted
to take a nap.
Take me a little nap on thecouch there, good, yeah, yeah,

(01:32:41):
come on now.
I knew I'd be running all nightlong, wouldn't get much sleep,
so I opened that door, probablyabout six inches, because the
neighborhood's a little rough.
I didn't want somebody just towander in.
You could open the door up andhit the stop button, but there's
an electronic eye that goesacross them also in case the

(01:33:03):
truck is going out and they'recoming down, and it immediately
takes it back up.
So that overhead door issitting about six inches off the
ground and I'm asleep and theambulance pulls up out front and
the ems girl.
She gets off the ambulance,punches that coat in, steps over

(01:33:25):
into the firehouse and tripsthat eye.
Now she's got one leg in andone leg out and that door takes
off and goes up and catches herand now she's riding this door
up and luckily, because thatlittle entry door was swung

(01:33:49):
inward, it jammed at the top andthe motor's sitting there
running trying to go all the wayup and at the time I didn't
even realize how dangerous itwas.
I hear her yelling out there andI get up and walked out there
and I looked up there at her andI said what are you doing to my
door?
I said You're going to break itand I've got to write this up.

(01:34:13):
She started yelling at me youbetter get me down, you, mother,
I'm going to kill you.
I'm looking up at her like, ohGod, this is bad.
I go over and I'm trying to hitthe down button but it won't
come down because I'm trippingthat eye and again I'm tripping

(01:34:35):
the eye.
Pretty soon the other guys comeout and she's losing her mind,
screaming and yelling at us andall of a sudden the knockout
goes off.
We're making a run and I said,hey, we got to go Now.
She's really mad, you betternot go so real quick.
I called and said we're out ofservice.

(01:34:56):
We got her down.
I think she smacked me in thehead.
Maybe she was ready to beateverybody up and you know we're
all like, oh my God, this couldhave been really bad.

Speaker 5 (01:35:09):
You were just, you were right in the middle of a
three-hour nap when thathappened.
Yeah, three hours.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
Maybe you had a half-dream right there, so you
weren't really.

Speaker 7 (01:35:24):
He's getting naked REM sleep, oh man.

Speaker 4 (01:35:27):
Of course he is a sweeper man that crew, those two
girls.

Speaker 6 (01:35:33):
They were so much fun because they were more ornery
and prank playing than we were.
My sergeant one day he'sstanding there and that one.
I think they were watching therocky movie where he eats the
raw eggs and he goes oh I can dothat, she goes.

(01:35:55):
I'll bet you won't.
I'll give you five dollars ifyou do so.
He cracks an egg and swallowsit and she's like I can't
believe you did that and he goes.
You want to make your money backand she's like yeah he goes um,
I'll bet you can't swallow aspoonful of cinnamon.
Oh my gosh and I.
I had no idea.

(01:36:16):
I'd never heard that prank.
But she takes a spoonful ofcinnamon and I look over at her
and, like a dragon, she'spuffing it out of her nose and
she can't breathe.
CPR, oh my gosh, and he'slaughing so hard.
She can't get water down, shecan't.

(01:36:37):
And as a captain you alwayslook and say, yeah, this is bad.
I've got to manage these kidsplaying pranks on each other and
she was finally able to breathe.
But I think he took a bit of awhooping.

(01:36:58):
But they're the ones that gotme drinking coffee.
I was 45 at the time and myin-laws in.
They would take in missionarieswho would come back to the
country and they took in somefrom Columbia and they brought a
big bag of coffee.
I didn't drink coffee, Nobodydid, so I took in the firehouse.

(01:37:20):
I'm upstairs in bed.
It's about 1 in the morning andall of a sudden that bedroom
door flies open.
The two EMS girls run in there.
Get up, Get up, Get up.
You've got to try this.
You've got to try this.

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
That Colombian coffee must have been pretty powerful.
Yeah, Go following themdownstairs and they would shove
a cup Like meth.

Speaker 7 (01:37:38):
Yeah, it was the weirdest coffee they'd ever seen
you grind it up and it's white.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
Yeah, it's cocaine.

Speaker 6 (01:37:45):
Yeah, Buddy they shoved a cup of coffee under my
nose at like 1 in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
They said drink this, drink this.
And I'm like.

Speaker 3 (01:37:51):
I don't like coffee.

Speaker 6 (01:37:52):
They said we're not asking you, we're telling you
drink it, drink it.
And I drank that coffee and Iknow when I got off that morning
I went and did like a six-milerun through the park and it may
be the fastest I've ever run.
I think I did that six miles inlike five and a half minute
miles.
I was flying and from then onI've been a coffee junkie.

(01:38:13):
There you go, but it's got tocome from really bad coffee
Forrest.

Speaker 4 (01:38:17):
you've been on some big runs, right, I have Like
what.

Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
The GE Fire, I think he's talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:38:26):
Oh, those kind of runs, no, I'm talking about Fire
Run.

Speaker 4 (01:38:30):
He's talking about Run and Run.

Speaker 6 (01:38:33):
I've done.

Speaker 3 (01:38:34):
He done Run Doll.

Speaker 6 (01:38:36):
I've done the Boston Marathon a couple times and I've
done it's no coincidence hisname is Forrest yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:38:44):
Run, forrest run.
How much you got that?

Speaker 6 (01:38:47):
lot.
Oh yeah yeah, I finished fiveIronmans and about over 20 half
Ironmans.
They have a big one atLouisville, don't they?

Speaker 5 (01:38:56):
they do?
They had an.

Speaker 6 (01:38:57):
Ironman at one time.
That happened in October.
They lost it and they broughtback last year a half Ironman to
kind of take it's place so fourIronmans, where have you been
with them?
Chattanooga, louisville,chattanooga, louisville, oh,

(01:39:24):
north Carolina and Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:39:27):
Didn't you do one in San Diego?

Speaker 6 (01:39:30):
I did a fireman there on Coronado Island.
I've heard it's the only timethey let people in on the Navy
SEAL base where they train.
They had one there Did you runthe beach there?

Speaker 5 (01:39:43):
Yes, that's beautiful right there with the hotel.
I was stationed at San Diego,so we go there every now and
then, yeah, what is that hotel?
The Hotel Del, the Hotel DelMar?
Okay, the big white one.

Speaker 3 (01:39:55):
Yes, victorian looking.

Speaker 5 (01:39:56):
Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful, it's right there and
the Navy SEALs will run thatright in front of them.
Right, because you can sit outthere and watch them train.

Speaker 6 (01:40:04):
Yeah, we went in the beach to swim, right where they
go in, that's cold water.
Yeah, it is.
It don't matter what time ofyear, the Pacific Ocean is
frigid.

Speaker 3 (01:40:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:40:14):
Wow, and you've got to contend with the great whites
out there.
It's awful.
They didn't tell you that,though, did you?

Speaker 6 (01:40:23):
He went to school in Los Angeles.
He decided to go out there andI moved here from California.
When I got out of high school,I decided I wanted to go see it
for a summer and I ended upstaying five years, Wow.
And then I moved back here andthen he went to school.
Where'd you go to school?

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
then Biola University , b-i-o-l-a Bible Institute of
Los Angeles.

Speaker 7 (01:40:46):
Okay, I think there's a song B-I-O-L-A.

Speaker 2 (01:40:53):
Go Eagles.
D2 baby.
We were in LA Pretty big deal.

Speaker 4 (01:41:01):
Then you came, left there and came to.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Came back to God's country.
Yes, sir.

Speaker 6 (01:41:07):
Tell them what you.
What you told me one thing youlearned because you were
homesick.
Oh I learned.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
Everybody out there thought I was the biggest
redneck ever out there.
They're like man, you saythings funny and I'm like you've
got no idea.

Speaker 3 (01:41:24):
I was like you've got no idea.

Speaker 2 (01:41:27):
I'm a city suburbs guy.

Speaker 6 (01:41:29):
Well, colton's an old soul and he told me one time he
said you know, dad, me and youare alike.
He said you don't live in themoment.
He said I was in SouthernCalifornia.
I had the beach, I had themountain and all I could think
about was I want to be back homein Kentucky and I did not live
in the moment and enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:52):
He said you need to live in the moment.

Speaker 6 (01:41:53):
He's wise beyond his years, live in the moment.
I think we all have a littlebit of that.

Speaker 7 (01:41:56):
The grass is always greener.
Oh yeah, what city is?

Speaker 2 (01:41:59):
that college, La Mirada.
So it's in LA County but it'sLa Mirada California.

Speaker 3 (01:42:04):
Is that up north a little bit?

Speaker 6 (01:42:06):
No, it's right on the line.

Speaker 3 (01:42:08):
It's really close to Fullerton.

Speaker 2 (01:42:10):
It's like 45 minutes inland from like Beach Boulevard
.

Speaker 5 (01:42:13):
So I'll tell a story about.
I was coming home and thecheapest airport you know, san
Diego airport was expensive tofly out of and you usually had a
long, weird layover.
It was weird.
It was a smaller airportcompared to LAX, so I decided to
go up to fly out of LAX for$100 cheaper.

(01:42:36):
I was not thinking about thegas money and stuff.
So I got my buddy to drive myvehicle up there, flew home,
came back to LAX, they came andpicked me up and we're coming
down to 405 and we need gas andwe get off on Crenshaw half a

(01:42:56):
day.
Oh, there's only one way backon and it was like legit, here
here we are boys, I mean boys inthe hoods.

Speaker 3 (01:43:04):
They were like how do we get back?

Speaker 4 (01:43:06):
on this interstate.

Speaker 3 (01:43:07):
They were like go.

Speaker 5 (01:43:11):
They were quite different.
It was all opening.
It was just.
It was everything you thoughtof.

Speaker 1 (01:43:16):
I mean, I watched the movie.

Speaker 5 (01:43:17):
I was like we're here , it was just different.

Speaker 3 (01:43:21):
Yeah, it was different.

Speaker 5 (01:43:22):
It was in the wrong, you know just wrong exit.
We didn't know we just neededgas.
And in the wrong.
You know this is the wrong exit.
We didn't know we just neededgas.
And it did not come back ontothe interstate it was.
You had to go all the way downand then back.

Speaker 4 (01:43:31):
so so you had to go through that we went through it
we went.

Speaker 5 (01:43:35):
We made a couple blocks down before we got back
where we needed.
But I thought this is it?

Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
it was different.
Biggest thing I missed wasgrass how green it is here and
like every time I came back Iwas going out in deer stand with
dad, like right away, didn'tmatter how cold it was, I mean,
the deer stand was frozen.
Yeah yeah, january, it was likethe last day we could hunt.
That's three or four inches ofsnow, oh yeah that's let's go.

Speaker 6 (01:43:59):
Yeah, that's one of the things that I missed when I
get outside, because where?

Speaker 5 (01:44:03):
you were at, you can be in what you could be a big
bear in like four hours or soyeah, so we went to big bear one
morning and snowboarded, andthen we were on the beach I mean
, there's definitely greatthings about it, like if I could
afford to live there yeah, Imean

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
it'd be great to live there but like everyone's, like
oh man you come.

Speaker 2 (01:44:22):
You know, you went out there and where are you
coming back?
Why are you coming back here?

Speaker 1 (01:44:25):
I'm like well for one , I'd be homeless if I lived out
there.

Speaker 2 (01:44:26):
And they're like why are you coming back here?
I'm like well for one.

Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
I'd be homeless if I lived out there.
Yeah, absolutely.
I was like I can afford to livehere.
It's a great life here.

Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
It's like don't get it twisted, this place is
awesome and everybody comes backto Louisville.
Nobody asks what college youwent to.
They ask you what high schoolyou went to.

Speaker 6 (01:44:42):
Everybody comes back.
Did you go?

Speaker 5 (01:44:48):
to Trinity or St X.
It's true.
Yeah, it's different,california's different.
I could be at the beach, onbase there at Camp Hamilton, and
we could go out, hit the 15 upto San Bernardino, go up the
mountain and be up there At BigBear.
Yeah, snowboarding, that wasawesome, awesome.

(01:45:08):
Or trying to snowboard greatfish.

Speaker 6 (01:45:11):
Yeah, yeah, that was one thing I missed.
And I was living in a condo andthey had a pond.
And I'm walking around firstday on there and I see all these
huge bass in this pond in thecenter of the condo complex.
So I shot to.
I guess it was maybe a walmart,bought me an ugly stick and

(01:45:34):
some plastic worms.
Man, I'm out there, people areyep, people were up against the
fence at the pool looking at me.
I'm pulling bass out like crazyand here comes a condo manager
Excuse me, there's no fishinghere and I looked over and I got
a big bass.

Speaker 1 (01:45:53):
I said oh yeah, there is.
I said, look at these.

Speaker 6 (01:45:56):
Look at them in there , she goes you're not allowed to
fish here.
I said there's no way you can'tput bass in your largemouth
bass like this and thinknobody's going to fish.
She goes I don't know what theyare, but there's no fishing
like this and think nobody'sgoing to fish.
She goes I don't know what theyare, but there's no fishing.
I said you don't have a sign up?
She goes well, it should justbe known.
Do you even live here?

Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
I said yeah, I live here.

Speaker 6 (01:46:19):
And she said where are you from?
I said Soddy Daisy, tennessee.
She goes, you can't fish here.
I'll call the police on you.
I was like.

Speaker 7 (01:46:31):
I looked at her and said I'll be back tonight and
smiled at her.
I mean it's not posted, we'renot in the Saudi.

Speaker 5 (01:46:36):
Arabia anymore, my wife she's a Navy brat so she'd
been everywhere in the world InCalifornia from San Francisco to
San Diego, virginia Beach.
She was born in Virginia Beachbut moved back here when she was
like 13 and developed quite thedifferent twang you know, had a

(01:46:57):
little of everything.
She's a hodgepodge of differentaccents, but when we moved back
to San Diego, when we gotmarried, she went out there with
me from our last year.
It was great.
I mean, there is nothing likeauthentic Baja Mexican food.
Oh yeah, nobody knows, fish,tacos and stuff Lobster burritos

(01:47:18):
oh yeah, but we were.
She went into some storelooking there was a help wanting
and they were like they hiredher on the spot because of her
accent.
No kidding, you store lookingthere was a help want and they
were like they hired her on thespot because of her accent.
No kidding, like you'reprobably not the most qualified,
but we know you can sellwedding dresses because people

(01:47:40):
are gonna be like where are youfrom?
It's true, it was awesome.
They were like if you went outin town, you're in the marines,
because you're obviously notfrom here the way you talk.
So, it was a unique experiencethat we had out there.
Now, fire-wise, out there therewas some major, you know brush
fire.

(01:48:00):
Just fires came in and Iremember watching it.
We went to on base, we went outto this area and this thing,
this fire was coming at us.
There was a big tarmac where wewas at and there was a
maintenance shop.
Nobody was getting panicky andI was like that's big guys.

(01:48:20):
I was like that's not a big fire.
And it came right up to thetarmac and it was over.
They were like that's a bigfire.

Speaker 3 (01:48:27):
It was putting up to the tarmac and it was over.
They were like that's a bigfire over there.
It just went up in the mountain.

Speaker 5 (01:48:30):
I was like wow, but you know how it is the rainy
season's in June and then it hasall summer and winter to dry in
the fall, and that's why whathappened out in LA and some of
these other places my first yearthere, it never rained once.

Speaker 6 (01:48:47):
Not one time did it rain that first year.

Speaker 5 (01:48:50):
Yeah, it's desert.
The June gloom out down in SanDiego It'd be cold in June.
We're watching baseball gameswith sweatshirts on Watching
Padres games and then it'd behot inland, but it was never
really Well, they don't inland,but it was never, never, really.

Speaker 6 (01:49:09):
Well, they don't have air conditioners there.
No, for the most part along thebeach, that's uh got a natural.
What was that guy?
Uh, they call him the nightstalker.
He was, yes, and he was gettingin people's windows because it
was a little bit hot and theywere leaving their windows open
because they didn't have airconditioners.
And he was one street over fromwhere I lived, on one person.

Speaker 3 (01:49:33):
Really oh yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:49:37):
That's scary.
California's it's different.

Speaker 5 (01:49:44):
Some of the best people.

Speaker 2 (01:49:44):
They got a little thing, a little bit of
everything out there.

Speaker 6 (01:49:47):
Oh, I worked in the factories there and I was like
the only white boy there, yeah,and it was all Mexicans.
A lot of them did not speakEnglish, but when they found out
I was from Tennessee, theycalled me Tennessee Tuxedo
because they knew the cartoon.

Speaker 3 (01:50:05):
Tennessee, tuxedo and they knew Elvis.

Speaker 6 (01:50:08):
So yeah, sometimes I'd make a guitar out of a piece
of cardboard or something andI'd do my Elvis thing and they
loved it but, they'd invite mehome to have dinner with them
and their families, big familiesand they were the best.
Oh, I had to go to the doctorbecause I started getting an

(01:50:30):
ulcer because the food truckthey call it a roach coach.

Speaker 5 (01:50:34):
Yeah, that's what we called them out there.

Speaker 6 (01:50:35):
Yeah, they'd come in there with them breakfast
burritos.
Oh my gosh, I got that.
I got that, yeah, with thepeppers, and I'd sit there and
sweat and wipe the sweat offuntil finally I had to go to the
doctor.
I told them my stomach's upsetand they're like you're not from
here, you can't be eating thepeppers and stuff with the
Mexicans.
Dude, the doctor's like yougotta start drinking milk.

(01:50:57):
Then you can eat the burrito, Iguess, but no more maybe my
favorite food.

Speaker 5 (01:51:07):
You go to them taco stands.
They have like Arriba's, andall these little taco stands.
You know what I'm talking about.
Get those giant carne asadaburritos, hot peppers and
carrots.

Speaker 6 (01:51:21):
Oh yeah, mochada, Big bag of churros, oh my gosh.
And you could go down toTijuana then, when I was there,
I could too.

Speaker 5 (01:51:29):
I don't know if it's safe, I wouldn't go now.
I was down there one time andwe were coming across and we was
trying to get all these Marinesback across.
We came down there and my buddyhe just stops right in the
middle of the strip.
You know how the strip kind ofgoes that way, then back that

(01:51:50):
way towards the border.

Speaker 6 (01:51:51):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (01:51:53):
And there are all their cylinder chiclets and
stuff like that, and my buddyjust decides he had to pee and
decides to pee right in themiddle of the strip.
Well, a federali, a femalefederali sees him comes over
there and is, like you comingwith us, and we were like, yeah,
no, no, no, please, no, no, andum, I bribed her with five

(01:52:15):
dollars.
We got out of there, though itwas, uh, I like we can't take
you to Tijuana.
No, put a diaper on if youcan't hold it right.
So yeah, I had brought a policeofficer before.

Speaker 3 (01:52:36):
It just wasn't Mexico , it don't matter.

Speaker 5 (01:52:38):
Does it even count there and on my polygraph?
I was worried about that, so Ijust admitted to him.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
I said I have paid off a police officer before.

Speaker 5 (01:52:50):
Because I was so scared I was going to fail that
Whenever you ever committed acrime and stuff like that you
don't ask that stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:52:55):
Well, really it wasn't a crime.

Speaker 5 (01:52:56):
No, it was Mexico.
But I was like I did bribe apolice officer in Mexico one
time.

Speaker 7 (01:53:03):
They looked at me like what is wrong with you?
I?

Speaker 5 (01:53:05):
was like I was so scared I fell on a polygraph
International, Internationalcriminal here.

Speaker 6 (01:53:17):
Interpol is here for you.
We had to do a polygraph atLouisville.
Yeah, I was such a nervouswreck that it showed I was even
lying about my name, where Ilived and I remember that I
guess he was a retired cop.
He threw his pencil at me andhe said just get out, it's good
enough for government work.
He said I can't even tell ifyou know what your real name is

(01:53:38):
anymore.

Speaker 7 (01:53:39):
You got to calm down, sir oh yeah, it's a fun time.
I know when I went through minethey ask you if you ever smoked
marijuana or had anything.
Well, I know when I wentthrough mine, they ask you if
you ever smoked marijuana or hadanything.
I'd never been around it as akid so I'd never smoked it,
never tried it, still haven't.
We spent an hour on thatquestion because he did not
believe me.
He's like I don't care what itsays, I don't believe you, you

(01:54:02):
grow it, don't you Really?

Speaker 3 (01:54:04):
You're from eastern Kentucky, I know you.

Speaker 7 (01:54:07):
Have you grown it?

Speaker 2 (01:54:08):
Well, that's a different question.
We're not there yet.

Speaker 4 (01:54:14):
I freaked out on that question, though it was pretty
bad that's like one of the guysat the PD said when he went
through his polygraph he's oneof the upper ranks.
Now they said they asked himabout if he'd smoke marijuana.
He said yeah.

(01:54:37):
He said well, how much?
He said I don't know.
A little bit here and there myguy went how much marijuana have
you smoked?
He said what about 15 pounds?
Oh gosh, there's something inthat name.
He said what about 15 pounds?
Oh gosh, there's something inthat name.
He said that much you want meto tell you.
So there it is.

Speaker 6 (01:54:55):
I mean that could be over a 10-year period or
something Smoked a truckload, Idon't know.

Speaker 4 (01:55:01):
That's funny.
I said you didn't tell themthat.
He said oh yeah, I told themthat he said you didn't tell
them that.

Speaker 6 (01:55:11):
He said oh yeah, I told them that.
He said they weren't going toquit until I told them something
I probably would have lessenedit.

Speaker 5 (01:55:14):
I smoked probably three pounds in my lifetime.
Well, we've sidetracked, Iguess we could call it now,
unless you've got something funelse?

Speaker 6 (01:55:25):
No, not really.
I would say that people used toask me what I liked about being
a fireman and I rode my bikeand ran and swam so much that I
would always tell them all myfree time.
But you know, then when my boyscame along, it switched.
I didn't hesitate.
I said all the free time I haveto do stuff with my kids.

(01:55:47):
I I got to spend the time withmy kids.
Now I'm away from them 24 hours, but then I was there.
I could do carpool a lot of thetime and that was it.
And I've got two really goodsons.
I'd like to think some of itwas pouring myself into them,
but I always tell people don'ttake too much credit when they

(01:56:08):
turn out great and don't taketoo much blame.
But I'm very proud of my sonboth of my boys.
But Colton followed me in myfootsteps.
I'm glad I did not do anythingbad and I always say don't bring
shame on the fire department.
It's bigger than you and it'sprobably the same way with

(01:56:28):
policemen.
Don't bring shame on the placeyou work and I seem to have a
pretty good reputation.
Colton always says that and Ialways get feedback from people
about how good he is Awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:56:43):
Yeah, we try not to bring shame on our department.
I can't say that they sometimeshave a way of doing it
themselves.

Speaker 4 (01:56:49):
Yeah, we can all say we were proud to do what we did.
Yes.
I mean it's an honorableprofession it is, and you make
it what it is and some peoplemake it good and there's a small

(01:57:09):
handful, a very smallpercentage, that makes it bad.

Speaker 5 (01:57:14):
That's what it is.

Speaker 4 (01:57:15):
That's in every profession

Speaker 5 (01:57:17):
but it seems like when you're doing first
responding careers, it seemslike the spotlight gets put on
you when you're bad.

Speaker 7 (01:57:28):
You're held to a higher standard, yeah and that's
fine.

Speaker 5 (01:57:32):
We, we didn't do this for the money, no, no.
So I think our hearts were allright, you know when we, when we
, did our job.
So that's a it's.
I appreciate what you're stilldoing and you, I mean somebody's

(01:57:53):
got to be out there on thefront lines and we're sure glad
to meet you and have you on thepodcast today.
It's going to be a hopefullynow.
Here's the idea when we come upthere to your house one day and
talk to some of these old catstoo, I'd love just at your oh,

(01:58:13):
not your house.

Speaker 3 (01:58:14):
You know I don't want to go to anchor jelaska.

Speaker 7 (01:58:16):
Well, you can ask.
You can ask for permission inanchor jelaska and see if
they're okay with it

Speaker 5 (01:58:22):
and then we might make a visit, but yeah I think
your, your department, might bea little bit more flexible.

Speaker 6 (01:58:28):
My house is very young, the guys are young,
Where's the old chief and themaround?

Speaker 5 (01:58:34):
They might sit around with us.

Speaker 6 (01:58:36):
They might, and actually they used to do a
podcast.
Not too long ago we just hireda public information officer
that retired from Louisville.
He just started the other day.

Speaker 2 (01:58:47):
I was going to say you can get a bunch of retired
guys.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:58:51):
That's where your stories are.

Speaker 6 (01:58:54):
I had a roommate for for nine years and he was in the
West End.
He retired after I did and heactually I don't know if y'all
told it, but I married Doug'ssister last summer and my
roommate got his minister'slicense so he could marry us.

Speaker 7 (01:59:20):
That's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:59:22):
And his name's Harold Boy.
He's a funny guy.
He's got a lot of story.

Speaker 1 (01:59:27):
He is, yeah, he's hilarious and he, I'm for it.

Speaker 6 (01:59:31):
I've said something to him about we need to come
down here and do this, but he's,he just got the last of his
stuff out.
He's yeah, he's told, he's toldmy wife.
You know, you really ruined agood thing.
We never had a single argumentthe whole time.
She's a homewrecker.
Yeah, she just was Doug'ssister.

(01:59:52):
My wife, she's tough, she givesit right back to him when she
don't back down.

Speaker 2 (02:00:00):
Harold's house was like apparently a rumor.
I wasn't around for it, but ifyou got detailed to that
particular firehouse down thereand the other fellows were there
, you were terrified, like theywere terrified, to get detailed
down there, sent down there,detailed, like you get sent from
your firehouse down there tofill a spot and they said they

(02:00:21):
did all kinds of stuff.
You'd be trying to cook andyou'd have your recipe, and
you're trying to cook a goodmeal and all of a sudden one of
them will come up, crumple it upand just eat it.

Speaker 6 (02:00:29):
Oh yeah, you're flying blind halfway through.
Yeah, we had a guy that lovedLucky Charms and Harold loved
Lucky Charms marshmallows.
So we get up for shift changeand that guy's coming on duty,
but he's not there yet.
He had one of them.
Great big, giant lucky charmsboxes up on top of the

(02:00:49):
refrigerator, yeah, yeah, and Iwalked in there to get me a
coffee and harold's sittingthere with a big bowl picking
marshmallows and he's justsitting there not saying
anything and I'm drinking mycoffee watching him.
I'm not sure what's going on.
Finally he takes and he dumpsthe cereal back into the box and
sticks it back up there and heate every one of those

(02:01:12):
marshmallows out of that bigthing.
That guy come in there and got abig bowl, dumped his cereal in
the bowl, poured milk all overit, sat down and took about two
bites and he's looking in it andhe jumps up and he throws the
bowl of milk, everything in thegarbage and walks out of the
room.
And Harold's just sitting there, kind of chuckling, that's

(02:01:35):
awesome.

Speaker 5 (02:01:40):
Well, you see how our podcast is set up here, so we
want, let's do it.
We can travel easily.

Speaker 7 (02:01:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's what we want to do.
We want to keep these guysrelevant too.

Speaker 5 (02:01:50):
These old cats Retired guys Retired, guys like
us, me and him.

Speaker 6 (02:01:55):
Yeah, Harold is he's funny.
I actually asked Harold tomarry me once.

Speaker 4 (02:02:00):
What do you mean, huh ?
What do you mean by that, chuckand Larry?

Speaker 6 (02:02:10):
Just when I said I had something to marry.
So Harold has a safety business.
He's in all the Ford plants.
I mean he's really done well.
I know in the Louisville areahe hires about 60, some firemen
to work in these differentplaces.
Jim Beam Wow, but just a greatguy.
We went the wrong route.

Speaker 2 (02:02:31):
We got the run of the litter over here.

Speaker 6 (02:02:36):
There was a lady here in Kentucky that refused to
issue a marriage license to twomen.
He would always talk about howhe has to file his tax as a
single.
And we're sitting there on thecouch watching this news story

(02:02:56):
and I looked over at him and Isaid we want to check him out?
Yeah, I said hey, man want toget married.
I said I don't care if youcheat on me, I'm going to cheat
on you.
I said we'll file our taxes asa married couple.
And he's sitting there and he'snot saying anything and I can

(02:03:21):
see the wheels are turning.
He's really contemplating thisyeah and finally he gets up
because I have a walkoutbasement and he's got the whole
basement finished basement.
It's a pretty nice setup.
He gets up and goes downstairsand I'm just sitting there on
the couch and I'm like I think Ijust got turned down, I'm
opposed and he turned me down.

(02:03:43):
So I don't know, three or fouryears later, when I married his
sister, doug's sister, he's kindof grumbling about how, you
know, we never had a problem.
We never.
You know, you wash dishes, Iwash dishes, I fold your laundry
.
I said you do remember that Iasked you to marry me.
He just shut right up, didn'tsay anything, and I'm like it

(02:04:05):
wasn't so much.

Speaker 7 (02:04:06):
you had your chance, buddy it wasn't so much the
wedding he had a problem with.

Speaker 3 (02:04:10):
It was the consummation yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:04:17):
It happens Sometimes you get dumped or don't know
who's lost.
All right, well, it's been ablast, oh my gosh, this is fun.

Speaker 7 (02:04:32):
We'll definitely do it again sometime next time
y'all are down and next time.

Speaker 5 (02:04:37):
I think we need to get up.
We need to get Harold, becauseI like road trip.

Speaker 7 (02:04:41):
I'm all for it.
I'll have a lot more time offnow too.

Speaker 6 (02:04:44):
I loaded up about four bottles of Pappy that he
had down in the basement he saidhey, bring it, pappy, over to
me, will you?
I'm like it's a couple ofbottles that are missing, buddy
it's like that barrel that wentmissing around here.

Speaker 7 (02:05:00):
Yeah, oh I remember that well thank you, alright,
guys thank you, we'll catcheverybody on the next one thanks
guys.