Burbank Fire Service Day 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From deep in the Burbank Media District.
It's time for another editionof my Burbank Talks.
This podcast is presented bythe staff of my Burbank.
Now let's see what's on today'sagenda as we join our program.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello Burbank.
Craig Schuert here with you, asalways, and we're at Police and
Fire service day once again,2025, and along with us, of
course, is the honorable rossbenson, who I don't know about.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Honorable, but here I am.
We uh are doing another podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Look at that can you believe that it's great?
And we have our band backtogether again?
So we of course have craigderling with us hey guys, good
to see you.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Gonna be back with the band.
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
craig, we have done this for a us.
Hey guys, good to see you, goodto be back with the band.
What do you think, craig?
We have done this for a coupleof weeks, a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's not our first time at the rodeo, as they would
say no but boy, look ateverything going on.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
This is just getting kicked off.
It's, you know, a little after9, and there's probably a couple
hundred people walking throughalready.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
They start.
They come wandering throughbefore because they've got the
farmer's market going on.
But it's always such a greatday.
You know a lot of people, wesay it year after year.
You know, come here, come toFire Service Day, fire and
Police Service Day.
There's so much to see, so muchto do, and it's always a fun
day.
Get yourself a breakfast, get ashirt, look at some pictures.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Watch some demonstrations.
It's always a fantastic day andit's free.
It's always a fantastic day andit's free.
You know and I'm looking rightaround our table We've got train
display.
A couple of firemen maintainthat we have sidewalk CPR going
on with nurses from St Joe's.
I see the kids down therepumping on mannequins.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, the mannequins, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I looked outside and the PD has a conglomerate of
stuff.
It's just amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, the police department's here.
The airport fire department ishere with some apparatus.
The police department is herewith demonstrations and
equipment you can look at.
There's a fire engine righthere on the apparatus bay with,
I believe Mickey and Minnie aregoing to be making an appearance
for photo ops with the fireengine.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
You know that is a crown, that is one of the maybe
it's.
Yeah, that's a crown, that'sone of the original.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
But it's worth noting because we are in Burbank,
california.
It's the real Mickey and Minnie.
Yes, it is that.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Come here and you know, they look pretty good for
like 70 years old, don't they?
So do we?
That's true.
Well, so I'll tell you whatwe're going to get some real
good guests for you and talk tosome people and find out what's
going on in the city and in theapartments.
So we'll be back with you inone second.
And we're back and we haveCaptain Matt Garland of the

(02:38):
Burbank Fire Department with us,who is first year actually in
charge of doing this entireshindig here, and so far it
looks fantastic.
Ross, why don't you I knowyou've got a couple questions
for the captain why don't you go?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
ahead.
I do.
I've known Matt.
You know I've been around acouple years, but I remember
when you came on.
You've worked, you have gone upthrough the department.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
You've been on every piece of apparatus almost.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
I've been.
July 19th will be 31 years Now.
See the people of Burbank.
Really that is 31 years.
You've committed your life toBurbank Fire Department.
It's one of the bestdepartments.
I know you'll say that 100%.
But you know, today Fire ServiceDay is a very it's a big event
and we'll probably see a couplethousand people come through
here today.
Public education is realimportant.

(03:27):
Burbank fire department that'sa very big thing for that, and
you're in charge of fire serviceday this year as your first
time.
So far it's going real good sofar but during the week you do
other things.
You don't just plan out fireservice day.
You have a very big task I do.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
I do so.
The position is.
The actual title is called FP16, fire Prevention 16, and we use
numbers in the fire service tolike Engine 11, Engine 12, and
so I'm Fire Prevention 16, andI'm in charge of all production
permitting and film in the cityof Burbank.
So, if you're not aware, wehave probably over 80, 90 sound

(04:04):
stages in the city of Burbank.
So, if you're not aware, wehave probably over 80, 90 sound
stages in the city of Burbank ontop of With 16 more coming.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I think too.

Speaker 5 (04:12):
So yes, 100%, 16 more coming from Warner Brothers,
the ranch, what used to be knownas the ranch Right, and then we
also have Warner Brothers,which has 26,.
I think sound stages that is adifferent entity.
They're such a big productionover there that we actually have
a captain like myself assignedto Warner Brothers.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
And that's all he does.
His office is there.

Speaker 5 (04:35):
His office is on the lot.
He's on the lot.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
And I believe Warner Brothers actually pays his
salary.

Speaker 5 (04:40):
That is correct.
That is correct Because, as weknow, obviously we're trying to
bring production back here to.
California, but it's not cheap,and so we found ways.
It's actually a lot cheaper forthem to hire out a captain, pay
his salary, than actually beingcharged for every single permit
that gets thrown their way.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
And many people don't understand the reason.
You have a captain there.
Production companies changethings on the snap of a finger.
You shut down a productioncompany.
It can be millions of dollarsfor an hour, for two hours,
having a captain there workingwith the shows and everything.
They don't have to call up hereand if you're busy somewhere
else you go out there.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
But they have what's the criteria to have to have a
firefighter on the set?
Because you can't have 90 guysout there.
There's 90 things going on atonce, so what's the criteria?
That somebody needs to be onthe set.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
So the way it works is a production company and let
me start off by saying we've gotdifferent levels of production
companies and different levelsof what we do and how they film
out there.
So one of them, right off thebat, is the student film.
So you know we have New YorkFilm Academy.
Here in the city of Burbankthere's AFI, which is American
Film Institute, usc.
I don't know if you've heard ofthat school.

(05:52):
They have a very big filmproduction.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
In Burbank.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
No, no, just in SC.
But what happens is they'llcome over here and use Burbank.
They'll go to Filmingfilmcomand they'll apply for a permit
and they're going to say we havesix kids filming in an
apartment complex but they stillhave to file for a permit
because they're using a cameraAnytime they're filming.
That's something that's goingto have longevity and we charge
them a really really, really lowrate and it's a student film.

(06:17):
The next level comes up and wecall it a temporary production
location.
That would be anywhere in thecity of Bourbon that they want
to film your production location.
That would be anywhere in thecity of Burbank that they want
to film your house, yourneighborhood.
They'll apply for that.
We kind of use a number around50 and that includes, for a fire
safety officer, what you weretalking about the criteria for
there to be a fire safety effortevery FSO an FSO.

(06:39):
Every single film has to bepermitted in the city of Burbank
but they may not have a firesafety officer and the biggest
thing they'll do for a firesafety officer is when there's
an open flame, such as candles,such as special effects, and the
biggest one is a live audience.
So any type iHeart has theirtheater over there with the old

(07:00):
Johnny Carson where Jay Leno wasNBC.
So when they bring in 300, 400people for a concert, we'll have
a fire safety officer assigned.
And every single firefighterthat comes to the city of
Burbank within their first twoyears needs to be FSO trained.
That is a requirement in orderto be a firefighter because
filming is so big in the city ofBurbank, so that's where we'd

(07:22):
use a fire safety officer A lotof times.
If it's under 30 or so peoplethat are filming at a house,
they're doing some interiorshots.
I'll do what, like Ross says,I'll spot check.
So they pay a little fee, theyget their permit that says they
can film and then I will come byor anybody else in the Fire
Prevention Bureau, all of thepeople that I work with and

(07:43):
we'll do a spot check.
And that fee that they paidincludes that spot check we come
.
We just make sure thateverything's on the up and the
up.
You know, the citizens ofBurbank and the people that live
in Burbank know that we film inBurbank and they're on top of
it.
The first thing that theneighbor will always do is
they'll go right up to thatproduction company.
They'll ask who is the locationmanager?
They know more than I do andthey'll say, oh, can I see your

(08:05):
permit?
And they'll show them theirpermit.
It's great.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Talking about that.
I don't know how many of ourlisteners or our followers are
aware we have a lot ofproduction going on in Burbank
Right now.
It's slow Warner.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
Brothers is at 90% capacity right now.
One of the highest capacitiesin all of the studios in
Southern California.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's because of the sound stages too.
Yes exactly, and that's whythey're building those to 16,
because sound stages are needed.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
And also people don't understand special effects.
It has to go through.
You Correct All that sort ofthing.
Production companies just can'tbe willy-nilly.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
Burbank Fire Department is very you know
what's the word we're veryspecific and on top of what
needs to be done and filmed inthe city of Burbank.
And I'll tell you right now wedo have a lot of people that
will see something and they'llcontact me and I'll be like, yes
, they have a permit, they'regood to go.
People that film in Burbank arevery aware of Burbank and they

(09:06):
use Film Burbank and we coincidewith Gina who runs the PD side
for permit, so they are the onesthat actually overall issue the
permit for the city of Burbankto film and we are just a small
entity.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
So in the Bureau, what they call the Bureau Fire
Prevention Bureau, and we arechanging our name recently, so I
don't know if.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
I can introduce that, yet we're going to hold off
what they call the bureau Fireprevention bureau Fire
prevention bureau and we arechanging our name recently, wow,
so I don't know if I canintroduce that yet we're going
to hold off.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
We need the exclusive right here.
Come on now.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
We need it.
Okay, I'll tell you right now.
I told Ross if I'm working onEngine 11 as a captain on Monday
because I'm getting moved frommy spot.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
I'll call.

Speaker 5 (09:39):
Okay, we are going to be Fire.
Life and Safety oh okay.
So it's going to be calledbasically the Fire, life and
Safety Division.
And that may be the officialtitle and we're trying to get
away from the prevention side ofthings.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
Right.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Because what our fire prevention members do is fire
life and safety.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
And people don't understand.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
They're the start of what happens, yeah, and I think
that's a great yeah, great forthe public to know what that is
then, and also, one of yourpeople in the Bureau does
schools, another one doeshospital and industrial
buildings.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
That's correct.
You guys, there's what?
Six of you, or five of you?

Speaker 5 (10:14):
Right now we have about six or seven.
We're going to be hiringanother person.
We actually had one inspectorthat just left us.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
You know plus.
People don't understand planchecks.
It goes through the firedepartment, everything,
everything.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
I mean, obviously, what the general public see are
the fire engines and the lifesafety.
And again, burbank FireDepartment is not one of the
best, it's the best.
You get a minimum of fivefirefighters that respond to
your house on any 911 call, andthat's amazing.
Yes, and that's again a minimumof five firefighters that
respond to your house on any 911call, and that that's amazing
yes and that's again a minimumof five.
And then, like like Ross wassaying, the fire prevention
bureau.
Every building that is beingbuilt in this city, which we

(10:54):
know is a lot.
Right now we have the Fry's lotthat's gonna be building a
massive stuff over there.
Go down the five freeway, it'scoming up right.
We've got a bunch of housingover commercial.
All of that needs to beinspected.
Every single portion of thatgets to be finalized and it goes
through our assistant firemarshal, danny King, who's

(11:16):
amazing.
He's been with us for20-something years, many, many
years.
Another dedicated person tothis city, another dedicated
person to this city.
So yeah, that's basically.
It's all-encompassing, besidesjust the EMS and the fire
protection side of it.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Well, I think people that aren't here that are going
to tune into this podcast.
They don't need to be here tolearn.
They probably didn't knowanother facet of Burbank Fire is
your job in the Fire PreventionBureau, so they could learn by
listening to this podcast.
Absolutely so, matt.
I'm going to let you get backto running around and checking
on things.

Speaker 5 (11:53):
I'm going to check.
Oh, I kind of like this.
No one's bothering me, myphone's not ringing.
This is fantastic.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well, we're going to check with you at the end of the
day to see if you still haveblack hair or gray hair and see
what your feeling is oneverything else.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
So far it's fantastic .
And we've got Minnie and Mickeyhere and we've got the obstacle
course.
We've got tons of stuff foreverybody to see and look at and
do.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
And lots of tchotchkes for a giveaway.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh my goodness, and I hope we have some paramedics to
anybody, because I got afeeling we might get a heat
stroke.
It's a little bit hot today.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
So if you are coming, please bring your water, stay
hydrated.
People just aren't.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I know there was a call yesterday up in the hills
21-year-old male heat stroke andit's like you're 21 years old
and you're out hiking on a daylike this.

Speaker 5 (12:39):
Well, our bodies aren't acclimated.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
They didn't think about bringing.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
They didn't think about bringing Exactly, Even
though it was only 85 degrees,and sometimes it gets to be well
over the hundreds here.
Our body's not acclimated tothat heat yet.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Right.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
And 81 degrees feels like 100 degrees.
That's probably what it's goingto feel like today.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
It probably will be.
Well, we look forward to.
I know you guys you haveplanned what we call filleting a
car.
You're going to kind of showshow a little extrication demo
here, coming up.
And what that shows for peoplethat aren't here is what you get
when you get on scene of arescue and somebody could be
trapped inside, how you have tocut it.
Now there's airbags and there'sbumpers that are you know

(13:15):
you've got to watch for, soyou'll be doing that.
I know the truck company is outthere and I see the ladder up.
I think you're going to have afireman go to the tip.

Speaker 5 (13:23):
Possibly a firefighter is going to go up to
the very top and maybe open uphis BA pouch and pull out a
plane or two.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Oh, kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Let me ask you it's really not the jaws of life
anymore.
Is it the hearse tool now?

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Yeah, well now.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
But jaws of life is kind of an outdated term.
It is.
We all know it by Jaws of Lifeand you can continue to use that
if you like.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Right now we have Homatro tools and they're
actually battery-operated.
Which are the batteries thesedays are amazing.
It puts out when I came on, weused the hydraulic lines and it
was a lot of pounds of pressure.
But these battery-operatedtools are amazing.
They're quick, they'reefficient.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
They're probably quieter too.

Speaker 5 (14:08):
Quiet.
Yeah, normally you'd hear thosethings over here.
You will have no clue what.
They're cutting up a car andit's great for the people that
are in the car that are alreadystressed out and they're stuck
and they're possibly injured.
That's the last thing they wantis all the braking, the
crashing, the crinkling.
It's going to happen.
So it's a lot of.
The tools that we use aremodern tools.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
And I think I know out on you got Hazmat out here
People can look at, talk to theHazmat guys.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
That's correct.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
The airport has a class which.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
I've been for over 25 years.
Oh, okay, hazmat specialist.
I was a Hazmat coordinator forfour years.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
You've done a lot of things in your 30 years of being
here.

Speaker 5 (14:43):
Like you said, I've moved up the ranks from
firefighter to engineer, tocaptain.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
And now look what they put you in charge of yeah,
exactly.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
But that's why we love our Burbank Fire Department
, because there are so many guysthat are 20-year guys that have
been in Burbank.
Now you can pass the knowledgeon, of course, 100%, but you
know the city there's, but youknow the city.
You know there's not new guysall the time.
You know.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
No, no, it's great, thank God we got that new
contract.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
The guys want to stay here now, yep, and it's a great
thing.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
The firefighters are very helpful.
We have a very young department, which is great because I think
we're going to see thesefirefighters move up again up
the ranks, yep, and they'regoing to make a future of
Burbank as their home, theirhome.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well, matt, we're going to let you get back to
checking on things.
Thank you, captain, weappreciate it very much.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
Nice meeting you and if you're listening to this,
come on out, Enjoy the day Super.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
And we're back and we have with us Vice Mayor Tamla
Takahashi of the City of Burbank.
Vice Mayor, good to see youonce again.

Speaker 7 (15:46):
How are you doing what's going on?
Thank you for inviting me to beon the show.
I'm excited to be here.
A little warm I think today issupposed to get up close to 100,
but I am so thrilled to see howmany folks are here today.
This is just really.
This is Burbank.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
That's it.
This is Burbank.
This is a a yearly thing.
The second week in May is astandard thing and I've been
doing this since just when itwas a fire department.
But now you got police and fire.
You got people.
See, everything is.
We've seen already probably athousand people walk by us.
They got you know, tons ofdisplays.
So what do you think this is,vice mayor?
Your fire department is thebest.

Speaker 7 (16:28):
Is the best.
We are so proud of our firedepartment and we just got a new
EMT truck for the firedepartment last year.
Our new fire chief, Danny, hasgot that for us and now we have
more coverage for our emergencyhealth services.
So super excited about that andour fire team is amazing.
Our EMT team is amazing.

(16:49):
Very proud of our department.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Well, you know I'd like to bring up right now and I
know you push it quite a bit isthe EMS program.
Yes, and I know you're a realbig advocate of that.
Yes, people don't realize.
Either $7 a month or $82 for ayear if you call 911 and Burbank
Paramedics respond.
If you call 911 and BurbankParamedics respond, you will not
be charged for thetransportation from your home or

(17:13):
anywhere in the city if you'rea member to the local hospital,
usually St Joe's, and nowadaysthat ride is a $1,500 Uber ride.

Speaker 7 (17:23):
Oh, easy, easy.
So fortunately, my family, wehad to use it recently, so we've
used the services and we knowfirsthand.
And what happens is that theyactually bill your insurance and
then, when your insurancecovers whatever it covers, and
then the rest of it is coveredby your $7 a month.
So if you get, if you take a911 call and they come to your
house and you need a trip to the, to the emergency room, they'll

(17:43):
take you in.
But you do have to sign upahead of time.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yes, so you do have to go onto your BWP account and
sign up, and that covers notonly you, but everybody who
lives in your household.

Speaker 7 (17:53):
Everybody in your household, every single person,
for one fee, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
What a bargain.
I remember when they startedMike W Davis actually was our
fire chief that put that in andthey collect about a million
dollars and that helps pay forour paramedic program.

Speaker 7 (18:08):
Absolutely People don't realize.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
these guys need to go to school and maintain not only
the equipment but the rigs,their meds, all that, yes, they
get reimbursed but it's a greatfee, you know.
Burbank did that many years ago.
And yeah, I tell you, you know,you dial 911, you're guaranteed
to see somebody within three tofive minutes.

Speaker 7 (18:26):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
And you cannot beat Burbank paramedics and fire
department.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (18:30):
Yeah, and I know 87 or $85 is, you know, can be an
extra fee on what you're alreadypaying for BWP, which I know is
tough and you may never use it.
Hopefully you never need it,but if you need it it is really
nice to be able to just say, yes, take me to the hospital and
not have to do that math in yourhead while you're in an
emergency situation trying tofigure out whether you can
afford a trip and whether totake your own car or have them

(18:52):
take you.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
And you don't have to carry any cards, you don't have
to show them any ID.
They do that when they talk toyou and they get your
information and it's kind ofautomatic.

Speaker 7 (19:00):
So that's one thing I know you advocate.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yes, and last year I remember you said you wanted the
fire department to push thatout a little more so we get more
citizens to do that.
I remember you wanted to.
You know everybody in Burbankshould be part of the service.

Speaker 7 (19:17):
Yeah, I wanted to have everyone automatically
signed up.
I'd hoped that that would belike more of an opt-out versus
an opt-in.
But, unfortunately, I guess,it's not legal to do that.
I mean, it seems unfortunatethat it's not.
But yeah, so it is a voluntaryprogram.
You do have to go there andsign up for it, but I do know
that.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yes, excuse me, I'm sorry, you can do it online, oh,
yes, yeah, you don't have tocome to the fire department or
come here.
You can do it all online.

Speaker 7 (19:42):
Yes, yes, you do, yeah and I do know is putting
more information out about thatand making sure that folks are,
at least you know, in the littleleaflet and BWP leaflets coming
out.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Right and I know you're in the middle, or you
started budget session last weekand you guys saw the fire
department didn't ask for a lot.
They want to up some programsand nowadays, with everything
going on, Well, last year theyapproved the fourth paramedic
van.

Speaker 7 (20:07):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
It was only part-time , but it made a big difference.
Yes, we're not bringingGlendale and Pasadena as much
because of that.

Speaker 7 (20:16):
Yes, exactly.
So we share services withGlendale, pasadena and LA even,
and so what happens is, if anyone area is overtaxed, the other
areas come in and step in, butthat both takes away from those
folks' resources and it's extramoney and paperwork and all that
stuff.
So it's just better if werespond.
It's also faster if we respondtoo, for pulling an EMT unit

(20:37):
from LA it takes longer, so it'sbetter for us to have it
in-house.
And then also our folks knowBurbank, so it's better for us
to have our folks responding tothese.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
So yeah, I've used the service and I know the guys
that are paramedics are stellar,top notch.
I mean when you're in themiddle of a medical emergency
you don't want to have to worryand these guys they'll get you
to St Joe's.
I think they say that goldenwindow is a 20-minute.
If you are down and they canget you into a hospital within

(21:07):
20 minutes, they can save yourlife from almost anything.

Speaker 7 (21:10):
If you are down and they can get you into a hospital
within 20 minutes, they cansave your life from almost
anything.
Yeah, you know, and to thatpoint, when they bring you to
the emergency room with the EMTvan and all that, they have a
direct link to the nurses andthe staff there so they can let
them know exactly what the levelof your situation is, Whereas
if you go through the emergencyroom on your own, you're going

(21:30):
to go through their triageprocess which is great.
It's still a great process, butyou're going to get much more
expedited and more targetedservice if you're able to go
with them through that andhaving St Joe's here, I think I
grew up.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I wasn't born there, but I've been there many times.
My son's been there, born there.
Two of my kids were born there.
It's a great service.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Let me turn the page a little bit.
Get off fire and talk aboutanother one of your pet projects
Electric bikes.

Speaker 7 (21:59):
Oh, electric bikes.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Okay, let's move on to that I know we've got that
coming up pretty soon too.
On the council, I've actuallybeen looking at an electric bike
myself.
Wonderful Engineer.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Will you sit down with me in a minute?

Speaker 2 (22:14):
So what do you think about?
What's coming up on the council?
What's going on?

Speaker 7 (22:18):
With electric bikes, right?
Yes, so electric bikes is anemerging technology.
It is a vehicle that has beenaround since before cars, far
along the bikes themselves,right.
But adding the electric part toit, especially at the level
that the electric assist is now,is an emerging technology.
So we're adapting to it, tryingto figure out how to best

(22:39):
manage it so that folks have theaccessibility to use the e-bike
switch which is, by the way,the highest-selling vehicle
class in the country is electricbikes.
But there's multiple versionsof electric bikes.
Some of them go faster thanothers and there's different
uses for them, and so commuting,but also playing around in the

(22:59):
park.
So we have to figure out thebest way to allow folks to be
able to use electric bikes fortheir commuting or for their
getting to the store or whatever, but also recognizing that when
they go fast in certain areasit can also be dangerous.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Well, you know, last week I responded to an accident
15-year-old kid up on Kennethflying down out in the back of a
car.
Parents show up and the policeofficer said, you know, their
hands were raised.
Well, he wanted a bike.
So we gave it to him.
No helmet, nothing.
He ended up out at Holy Cross.

(23:32):
The bike was one of these.
I mean it could get up tohigher speeds.

Speaker 7 (23:35):
Yeah, especially downhill, they all can go pretty
fast.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Climbed in the back of a car and ended up on the
hood.
I mean it's going to happen andwe just got to regulate it.

Speaker 7 (23:44):
Yeah, and those kinds of behaviors too, even with
regulations, are going to betough, because kids are going to
make choices that sometimes arenot you know, they're still
growing brains but, at the sametime, if there's an awareness
around it and an education andunderstanding that these bikes
are not toys I mean, bikes arefun but they're not toys, they
are a vehicle, and so it'simportant to treat them with

(24:04):
respect and to treat ourselveswith respect when we're riding
them.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yep, okay, well, I appreciate you stopping by.
You got a couple of thousandpeople to shake some hands with.

Speaker 7 (24:13):
Yeah, I got to go around and say hi to people in
the 97-degree heat.
Well, I'm glad you stopped byhere real quick and again, happy
Mother's Day for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Absolutely.
Thanks for being part of ourpodcast.

Speaker 7 (24:24):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks, thanks again.
Take care, bye-bye.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Okay, ross.
Hey, we have another guest.
Why don't you introduce her?

Speaker 3 (24:31):
We sure do.
We have Christine.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Alice.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
There we go.
I didn't want to mess that up,but a lot of people don't
realize the different jobswithin the fire department, the
fire department and the policedepartment.
Most of the departments have adepartment administrator.
And what does that departmentadministrator do?
Well, christine, you are incharge of the books.
You do the reports for thechief when he has to address

(24:58):
council.
When things go to order, you'rethe bean counter, kind of right
.
You know fiber bank.
Just you know.
A lot of people don't know thedifferent.
You know parts of the firedepartment.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
Oh sure.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
You have an important part.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah.
So I think most people arefamiliar with the fire
suppression and EMS aspect ofthe fire department, but behind
the scenes we have ouradministration staff, and so my
role at the fire department isthe fire administrator.
I oversee budget and financeand provide administrative
assistant to the chief invarious areas, including our

(25:34):
accreditation process, staffreports to City Council,
preparation of various memos andcorrespondence with council,
the City Manager's Office of thepublic, and I also oversee our
administrative staff, includingour Fire Prevention Bureau
clerical staff.
So there's a whole other sideto the fire department in terms

(25:56):
of, you know, interacting withthe public for fire prevention,
emergency management and thenour administration section as
well.
So I'm hoping the public canget to learn a little bit more
about those areas.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Well, that's exactly it A lot of people don't realize
.
You know, everybody sees thefire trucks, you see it at a
fire.
You see the paramedics hard atwork.
But there is so much to doscheduling and ordering, and you
know, you just don't get a firetruck dropping out of the sky
or a new piece of apparatus thatcomes with you, from you and a

(26:29):
different chief and so forth.
Now how are you enjoying it?
You were previous to this,weren't you?
For the city council?

Speaker 4 (26:36):
So actually immediately prior to this, I
worked for the police department.
I was a senior administrativeanalyst there and then before
that, I worked for the citymanager's office and then, prior
to that, I worked for thefinance department, but I
actually started with the cityat the library department,
really.
So, yes, I started as a clerkand then jumped onto the analyst

(26:56):
track, which I'm so fortunate.
I've had the opportunity towork in various city departments
and really grow in the city andlearn from my colleagues, and
now I feel that I'm continuingto grow in municipal finance and
so we'll see what opportunitiescome up down the line, but so
far I'm really enjoying my timeat the fire department.

(27:19):
It's a great place to work, notjust for, you know, the things
that I do, the day-to-day job,but the people that I work with.
They create, create such a warmatmosphere and they really
embody the mission of the firedepartment.
So I really admire them forthat and I'm very fortunate to
be working for the department.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Well, I know the city is very fortunate to have you,
like you said, move up fromdifferent departments to where
you are now and that fireadministration job is a pretty
important job.
Your office is literallybetween one chief and another
chief.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
True, yes, it's sandwiched between the chief and
the deputy fire chief's office,and what's great is that I get
to work with the division chiefsso I get to learn a little bit
about every aspect of operations.
And yes, there's a lot ofpreparation that goes into the
budget every year to planningfor replacement of equipment and
apparatus and also emergencyneeds that come up throughout

(28:18):
the year.
We always have to be preparedright.
We don't always want to begoing back to council and asking
for money.
We're also cognizant of thefact that the fire department is
the second largest general funddepartment in terms of budget.
The fire department is thesecond largest general fund
department in terms of budget.
So we have a responsibility afinancial responsibility to
maintain our budget, to lookafter our funds and make sure
that we're providing a highlevel of service with the

(28:39):
allocation that council hasgiven us.
So we always want to beprepared.
So I enjoy working with thechiefs coming up with creative
funding solutions.
You know we have so manyfederal grants that we receive
as well, and we're alwayspursuing these external funding
opportunities to make sure thatwe're continuing to provide a
high level of service to thecommunity.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
And you are.
I mean I always say to a lot ofpeople not too many times you
can dial the three-digit number911, and you are guaranteed to
see somebody at your front door.
You know either a fire engineor fire truck or paramedics or
whatever emergency you need, andthat just doesn't happen, I
mean.
So you have a very importantjob within that chain of

(29:23):
operations and so forth andworking with some great people.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yes, yeah, our administration and staff jokes
that we're third responders justbecause we're in the background
.
And you know, ultimately, likewhat we do, it does trickle down
and affect operations, right.
So it's great to be kind ofpart of that larger mission in
that way.
And yes, working with mycolleagues, that's one of the

(29:50):
best aspects of the job.
You know you can love what youdo, but it's like that work
environment as well that justmakes it even better.
So I've learned so much in myso far.
I've been here for one and ahalf years in the fire
department and looking forwardto learning much more.
And again, I have some greatmentors in the department
working with the chiefs, so I'mreally enjoying my time here.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
I know we're going to get Dave Burke on here, who is
now our deputy chief, and we'vewatched Dave go through the
ranks, you know, and quite a few.
We've had Matt, you know, mattCarlin, who's in charge of today
30 years, he said he's.
You know you come here and timeflies when you're having fun.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
They say Let me ask you a question here.
So you've got a department inthe department, what perception
did you have of the firedepartment before you came in?
That was not like, okay, thisis what it's like, and found out
it's not.
Is there a perception that youhad?
That is not a perception.
And also let me ask you thiswhat is the one thing that

(30:51):
you've learned since being inthe fire department that, oh, I
had no idea about this and thatpeople want to know about?

Speaker 4 (30:58):
So I will say the public safety departments.
Like before I even went to workfor the police department,
public safety was a little bitof a black hole because the
administration staff in eitherdepartment my feeling is that we
don't always have theopportunity to work on citywide
projects or interact with staffin other departments.
That's something that,internally, I think both

(31:18):
departments are trying toimprove upon because it's better
for staff to network and havethose connections.
But coming to the firedepartment, I only knew about
the fire suppression activitiesand the EMS activities To learn
about all the other servicesthat we provide to the community
, like hazardous materialsresponse and the regional
coordination that we have aswell.

(31:39):
The fact that we operate withinArea C and work with all these
Verdugo cities and all theagreements that we have with
state and local agencies forautomatic and mutual aid.
All the agreements that we havewith state and local agencies
for automatic and mutual aid.
That was eye-opening for me,just to see how integrated we
are to fire suppression andresponse.
You know, within the area,within the region as well, and

(32:00):
how much of an impact we make.
So that was eye-opening for me.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
So I'm curious you've been through a couple of
different departments.
You've been through with acouple of different departments.
What do you recommend if ayoung lady is interested, not to
become a firefighter but to,you know, a career path?
People probably had no cluewhat you're doing and you've
shared with us.
And so if anybody's listeningand has a daughter, you know,

(32:27):
and maybe a relative in the fireservice, there's an
administration job thathopefully you're not leaving
soon.
But I mean every department hasa department administrator and
I mean it's a goal somebodycould work toward.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
Right.
I think the crux of what I dois within finance.
So if you are familiar withmunicipal finance, basic aspects
of accounting, budgeting, Ithink that's a stepping stone to
step into this kind of role.
But there's so much more thatcan be done in this type of role
.
When you look at comparableagencies or larger agencies,

(33:00):
there are administrators thatactually go out on strike teams
on larger incidents and theyhelp with these administration
teams, manage, you know, thefinances for a larger incident.
So there are more learningopportunities for roles like
this role and you know, perhapsin the future this role will
grow into something like that.
But there's a wide breadth oftasks and administrative

(33:26):
experience and knowledge thatone can bring into the fire
administrator role.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Well, it's so interesting listening to you and
, like I say, I happen to haveworked with the department
administrator for many years andpeople don't know and I'm glad
you got to share with us.
You know, what do you think?
I know you've been around thefire department here.
You've been here for theprevious fire service.
Can you believe how many peopleare coming out in love?

Speaker 4 (33:53):
I know this is great, even with the heat.
It's great to see the turnoutum, and we're very appreciative
of the support that thecommunity shows us um.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
So you know we hope to to continue that and to grow
our relationship with thecommunity um, but it's great to
see um everyone out here yeah,and I always say you know, when
we have raging fires or we havean earthquake or something,
people want to bring stuff tothe firemen cookies and fruit.
They don't realize there's awhole group of people that are

(34:22):
just as important as those guysthat are out fighting the fire
like your job.
You probably don't think of itthat way.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Right, I think you.
I think even at City Council,when the Chief gave an update
back in January after thewindstorm event, he mentioned
obviously our firefighters thatwent out on strike teams to
assist with the Eaton andPalisades fires, but also our
clerical staff who fielded allthose calls and those concerns
from residents when they werecalling in to see what was
happening.
Would there be potentialevacuation orders in Burbank?

(34:52):
How could they donate?
How could they help?
So yeah, we you know staff inour admin offices we had to also
be kind of that front line andinterfacing with the public
during that kind of emergency.
So I think both sides of thehouse are active anytime some
kind of emergency arises.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Now I'm going to ask you quietly.
You've done police, You've beenover on that side of the
building.
Now you're at the fire side.
Come on, tell me.
I see you're wearing BurbankFirefighter's shirt.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
You're going to get me in trouble?
Well don't.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
I want to just what's your favorite so far.

Speaker 4 (35:30):
Well, I'm here now, so I'll let that be my answer.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Well, there you go.
It's a great department.
I've been around here 50 yearswith these guys and, like I said
, people don't understand.
You know, every time somethingneeds to be ordered, you're the
one with the sharp pencil.
So I want to thank you, greg,absolutely.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
No, nice to meet you, nice to meet you, nice to meet
you.
And I did not actually knowwhat you were doing and
hopefully you'll get on a striketeam maybe We'll see.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
We'll see what opportunities come up for me to
continue to grow in my role, butnow I'm very appreciative of
the opportunity to work for thefire department and to continue
to grow within the city ofBurbank.
It's a great place to work.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Isn't it?

Speaker 4 (36:10):
I mean, and I grew up in Burbank as well, so it's
really nice Go to one of theschools here.
I did so.
I actually went to GeorgeWashington Elementary.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
John Mayer Middle School, and then I graduated
from Burbank High.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Well, craig and I are both and college you're at
where?

Speaker 3 (36:26):
At UCLA, oh, fantastic, yeah, a Bruin, huh.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Very hard to get to that school.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
But you know it's funny because my son went to
Burbank High.
I'm a Burroughs guy, but youknow what Our schools produce?
Some fantastic people.
Yes, great schools yeah, andyou are a perfect example of a
product of our school.
And now look what you're doing.
I mean people, 100,000 people,rely on what you do.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
And you know it doesn't feel like work because I
feel like I'm giving back tothe community I grew up in.
So again, I just count myselfvery fortunate to be able to
work for the city and for thefire department.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Well, you know I want to thank you so much, for I
know I pulled you away fromtalking to Courtney and you were
a little shy to get on do apodcast.
Podcasts are pretty easy,aren't they?
This is fun.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Podcasts are pretty easy, aren't they?
This is fun.
This has been really fun.
It's just like talking topeople that's all yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Well, you know people will listen, except we have 200
million listeners.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Well, the people that will get to listen to this
probably had no clue about afire administrator.
You know, again, they see afire truck going down the street
.
They don't think about your job.
And local graduate of you knowBurbank.
You know, stay right here.
I always find people that havegraduated from here, from our
schools, are great cityemployees.

(37:37):
You know where every street is.
You know what goes on.
This is your backyard, you know, so it's.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah, it definitely helps to have that advantage of
being familiar with thecommunity but also caring and
loving the community that yougrew up in, right, yeah?

Speaker 3 (37:52):
And that's don't you get that?
You know I was talking toCourtney and she said the same
thing.
Today, fire Service Day, thisis community, just great seeing
all these people happy.
Come see what the firedepartment does.
Normally they don't get to seethis Only time most people
interact is either they've beeninvolved in a medical problem or
a fire or something they don'tget.

(38:13):
You know that firemen live here.
Firemen buy their own groceries, but there's everything else
that goes with it.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
It's true, most people interact with public
safety on what's often like theworst day of their lives, so
it's great for them to come outand experience the department in
a positive way.
I'm so happy to see families aswell, because you know, these
kids may be inspired one day topursue a career in firefighting
or on the administration side,and it's great exposure for them

(38:41):
as well.
So I hope it inspires them.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
Well, yeah, it does, and you know I always love to
see our firemen that areapplying.
You know we have that.
You know you can't hire arelative within the city
Nepotism.
You know nepotism law.
But you know the people that wehire are top-notch guys and you
know you work with them.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
Oh yeah, and they go through such a rigorous testing
process as well.
And the department we're veryproud of the fact that we
facilitate our own FirefighterRecruit Academy very proud of
the fact that we facilitate ourown firefighter recruit academy.
So there's so many stages thatthese candidates need to go
through before they become anofficial firefighter with the
burbank fire department.
So it means that we ensure thatwe get the cream of the crop
yep, exactly, and we do.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
I mean they're great.
Yeah, they're great.
Well, I'm gonna let you getback to enjoying.
You know what's going on here.
I appreciate you coming on over, thank you.

Speaker 4 (39:30):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Thank you very much Very nice chatting with you,
nice to have you on the air.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Okay, ross.
Well, we have another guest andone of our great paramedics in
the city.
Why don't you introduce her andstart the conversation?

Speaker 3 (39:45):
You know I am so happy we have with us joining us
Jennifer Hoffman.
I've known Jennifer since shecame on Burbank Fire Department.
She is the second femalefirefighter for the city of
Burbank.
She has been a fireman, afirefighter, and then she.
I remember we talked about herlove and blood.
That's a joke between us.

(40:06):
She never wanted to be aparamedic because that was not
in her realm.
We talked about it but then shewas a paramedic and have been
and still are certified.
Yes sir.
And now she is just promoted tothe rank of engineer.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
In some cities.
And what does an engineer do?

Speaker 3 (40:25):
We're going to ask you.
Some cities call themchauffeurs.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
That is pretty much what I do but you are, but at
the fire you're actually the onerunning all the equipment, the
hose lines everything else.

Speaker 9 (40:36):
We have a lot more responsibility than just getting
there safely to the call.
We obviously have to thinkabout considerations for where
we put our rigs and incomingresources.
We don't block other resources.
So those are the first things,and we have to provide enough
view of the structure for ourcaptains.
So we've got a lot ofconsiderations where the hydrant
everything going through yourmind at once.
Once you arrive on scene, it'syour job to learn and know how

(40:57):
to operate the pump.
So when they start pullinghoses off, it's your job to get
them connected, get them water,depending upon the different
lengths of hoses, differentsizes of hoses, they all run at
different pressures and you haveto be able to calculate that in
your head quickly and get theright pressure to the right hose
line so that they can haveadequate water for the fire.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
And as an engineer and you're down at station 15
right now at Verdugo andBeachwood, Since you are driving
the rig, you have to know everystreet in this city.
Yes, sir, you have to knowevery, and down there there are
some strange ones by the rancharea.
Yeah, there is so you have toknow every street in advance.

Speaker 9 (41:36):
For me.
Currently I have somecomfortability being at 15s.
I've been at 15s at least thelast five years riding an
ambulance RA-15.
So I'm very familiar with myfirst 10 streets.
I know all the streets ofBurbank.
But there's times where I maylook up and yeah, that's down
that road and I go this way, butin 15th District it's like the

(41:56):
back of my hand.
So that helps out as well.
It relieves a little bit morestress than you can think about
other things.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
I'm bringing in your other half, I don't know.
Come on over.
This is your gorgeous son, cody, paid, paid, I'm sorry.
And your other half, lillian,and you support her.

Speaker 9 (42:20):
I remember before she came on and it's kind of neat,
it is, yeah, you need a lot ofsupport, and when I got my
pinning the other day standingup on that stage, I said you
don't get into the profession,you don't get a promotion
without a village of peoplebehind you, and that's kind of
what this job is all about.
So now that you know, when youwork your way up the chain, you
throw it back down and you takepeople out and you help them

(42:42):
learn how to do the things thatyou didn't previously know how
to do, and that's how we makeeach other better and our
department better for our cityand I remember you and I talking
about paramedicals.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
You've seen anything and everything.

Speaker 9 (42:52):
A lot of stuff.
Yes, sir.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
A lot of stuff and it's task-oriented.
Get through a task.
You have a job to do and allthe blood and the guts and
whatever else you got to gothrough that.
But you have a life to try tosave and you've done that many
times.
I know that for a fact and inyour new job as an engineer,
that's a real important job.
The next step is captain.

(43:14):
But doing what you're doing,raising a family it's a lot.

Speaker 9 (43:20):
It's a lot yes, sir, but it's a great job to have.
I wouldn't trade it.
I have a family that supportsit.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
And I'm happy to say, are, you know, the second
female firefighter for Burbankand you've been an excellent
example to so many others.
We now have a new fire femalefirefighter, which is great and
it's nice to see.

Speaker 9 (43:38):
Yes, sir, and Kelly Kelly was the first Kelly Morris
I'm sure she's been on thepodcast or people have heard her
name and and she had, you know,left big shoes to fill for me
and I just saw her at my pinningthe other day.
It was great to reconnect and Iremember the days we rode the
RA together and it was reallyfun and I enjoy.
I enjoyed having her there tokind of ask questions and get me
through, you know and help meout.
So in the early, early years.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Did you have to, really, did you have small
little battles to get thingsdone for yourself?
I mean sleeping quarters or allthose things?
No, the Burbank.

Speaker 9 (44:13):
Fire Department's been great.
I've had no curls and even if Idid, I probably wouldn't talk
about them on the air.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
But the guys are great.
Nowadays we look at girls andguys and say you know what?
Anybody can do anything.
It didn't used to be that way,so you kind of blazed a trail
for the next generation.
I hope so.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Well, I know you guys want to get back to enjoying
Fire Service Day.
Jennifer, I know you've alwaysbeen so sweet to me.
You've said hi to me on thefire ground or wherever we are,
you've always waved.
I appreciate the friendship.

Speaker 9 (44:46):
Of course we're here for the community and the
friendship.
That's what we do, it's who weserve.
Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
We appreciate it.
Congratulations on thepromotion.
Thank you, sir.
All right, have a good one guys.
Okay Ross, we're back with avery special guest, somebody
who's been very helpful to mybrink over the years, battalion
Chief Dave Burke.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
Well, not any longer.
Battalion Chief, that's thething we get.
To introduce him as DeputyChief for the Burbank Fire
Department, really, I did notknow.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Congratulations, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 6 (45:15):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I'm very happy for you.
Thank you, sir.
You really deserve that.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Thank you very much you grew through this fire
department.

Speaker 8 (45:26):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
And now you're the second man, kind of the one in
charge.
But you know, danny kind ofruns the department but you run
the day by day and I don't thinkpeople realize the importance
of a deputy chief.
I mean, it takes a lot to run afire department.

Speaker 10 (45:42):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, and I think I can't start
without saying it's really basedon the good work of our people
first, right.
So what we do day in, day out,night in, night out, is respond
and handle emergencies, all-riskemergencies, and that's really
on the backs of our men andwomen that are serving in all of

(46:02):
our fire stations and all ofour fire stations Additionally,
all of our administrative staff,our fire prevention staff, our
mechanics, our analysts, ourexecutive assistant, our clerks.
We're pretty deep in the numberof people that are committed to
the mission of this agency andthat's why we do the things we

(46:22):
do and we do it so well isreally because of those people.
My position is really at the topof all those people and I
supervise multiple divisionsthat oversee all those people
and really empower them to dothe things that they know how to
do and need to do and do, likeI said, day in, day out, night
in, night out.
The three operations battalionsare the A shift, b shift and C

(46:44):
shift, and so there's threebattalion chiefs that each run
each one of those shifts.
I supervise those gentlemen, Isupervise our fire prevention
bureau, and who runs that isbattalion chief Jim Moy.
He's the fire marshal alsosupervise our EMS division
that's run by battalion chiefPete Garcia, and I also

(47:05):
supervise our training andsafety division that's
supervised by battalion ChiefPete Garcia, and I also
supervise our Training andSafety Division that's
supervised by Battalion ChiefTrey White.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Well, that's one.
I don't think a lot of peoplerealize this.
Last couple of years thingshave changed.
You guys, we didn't have EMS,you know, chief, and we've added
a couple of Chiefs which youneed to when you bring on more.
You and I know, but you havebeen in all those positions.
You were fire marshal when youwere in charge of the Bureau, so

(47:31):
you had that experience.
You know the studios darn well.

Speaker 10 (47:34):
Yep, I was on there for a while.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
And then you've been on the line as a platoon chief
and now as the deputy chief tomake the decisions, and all.
Now I've got a question for you, yep, to make the decisions and
all.
Now I got a question for you,yep, you replaced a great deputy
chief that I worked with for 30years?
I think, yeah, mark Hatch.

Speaker 10 (47:55):
Yep, he's something special, what a guy.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Those were some probably hard shoes to fill.

Speaker 10 (48:00):
Yeah, you can't fill them.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
You can't.
I mean I still Mark was andstill is.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
But you bring your own perspective of the job also,
which is really good.

Speaker 10 (48:08):
For sure.
It's funny that people willcome in with a challenge and I
won't have the right answer andI'll say what did Mark do?
And then I'll go okay, and thenI do it my own way and I should
have done the way Mark did it.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
So I'm curious.
Here's a tough one.
I'll make a really toughquestion.
Okay, now Mark retired asdeputy chief.
You're now deputy chief, yes.
Is there a retirement date, orare you going to be in that
position for a while?

Speaker 10 (48:36):
Well, let's put it this way, I'm going to be kind
of slick here.
I came on the same class withMark.
Oh, okay, yeah so I know helooks like 10 years older than
me and acts like he's much olderand I I I'm going to get a copy
of this and send it to him, butwe did come from the same class
and we had the same years on,and so, uh, retirement is in my

(48:58):
future.
Um, when I would?
I would say sooner than later.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
And I know you just recently had a hip replacement.

Speaker 10 (49:05):
I did.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
I need one very, very bad.

Speaker 10 (49:08):
I suggest you do it as soon as possible.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
You know, and you came back.
I mean pretty quick.

Speaker 10 (49:12):
Yeah, within a month .

Speaker 3 (49:17):
That's just amazing now.
But we have a fantastic firedepartment.
I don't care what anybody says.
You know you dial 911, you'reguaranteed to see some fantastic
people.
For sure it might be the worstday of your life and it doesn't
matter to them.
They're going to treat you withthe best treatment that is
available to mankind.

Speaker 10 (49:31):
Absolutely Like.
We're so fortunate In SouthernCalifornia, california in
general, the fire service is soprofessional and so great.
But I'll specifically talkabout Birdman because it's where
I work and, like you, talkabout the strength of our
organization and you can't sayit enough, it's our people and
if you look around at everysingle uniform that's in this
place and there's a lot ofpeople that are off-duty here,

(49:54):
that came in off-duty, that arenot working today, that are
firefighters or support staff,and they also come here and they
all care about this department,they care about the people they
serve and they're amazingpeople.
And you're right, ross, whensomeone calls 911 and we go out
the door, you're getting thebest of the best.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah, and you know you don't get put on hold when
you dial Burbank's 911 service.
You talk to a human when itgets transferred our Verdugo
fire system.
A lot of people don'tunderstand.
We're part of a communicationsystem that does 14 cities
dispatches for about 14.
And I mean when Burbank getsbusy, yesterday was a good
incident that they were realtied up.

(50:34):
I mean they came from Glendale,pasadena like boom.
I mean.
There's no question.
In fact there was too muchrolling and the chief had to say
thank you for coming you know Iguess most people don.
People don't realize rescuecushion.
Not every city owns one Correct.
Burbank handles hazmat Right,Glendale has hazmat, but
Pasadena has heavy use air USAR.

(50:56):
That means a rescue cushion.
Correct, they use that.
They put that on the freewayyesterday.

Speaker 8 (51:01):
If needed, yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
And and then I guess Glendale 29 has a cushion that
they started responding.
It's just amazing and a lot ofpeople.

Speaker 10 (51:12):
There's no city lines anymore.
Yeah, the fire service probablyreally does that, really really
well, compared to a lot ofdifferent departments.
You could argue law enforcement, police do it well, water and
power do it well, but I thinkfire has led the way for a lot
of years, just because inCalifornia, with earthquakes and
wildland fires and floods,oftentimes you do not have the
resources in a particularmunicipality or jurisdiction to

(51:35):
handle the emergency that hasemerged and we need to rely on
others, and we've done thisforever.
And so the system in Californiahas gotten well developed and
well used and it functionsreally well on us sharing
resources and asking for helpand departments giving help.
So we see it on a day-to-daybasis.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
And it is seamless, totally seamless, 100%.
Greg and I listened to Verdugoand we have for many years the
dispatchers over there.
They're top-notch.

Speaker 10 (52:03):
Yeah, they are.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
I mean, yes, it's computer aided but it takes a
brain to talk and put stuff out.
And they are just top notch andthey can work.
An incident in Burbank, lundale, pasadena, it could be Brush,
it could be something at theairport and it's just, it's a
great team.

Speaker 10 (52:18):
Yeah, and it's amazing, they're really amazing.
So when you listen to the radioand and I listen to the radio,
obviously, on duty, all day long, but I also listen to the radio
when I'm off duty there arecertain things I need to listen
to and you hear veryprofessional people on the
Verdugo side, on the dispatchside, but they're humans and
amazing, amazing people.
If you go into that dispatchcenter and you talk to the

(52:39):
people, from the top to thebottom, they're amazing people
that are committed to helpingpeople and when you hear them,
they're almost robotic on theradio and there could be
multiple incidents going on afire, a USAR, resources being
moved around amongst the cities,regional requests for equipment
, and they are the same day in,day out and you never hear their

(53:03):
voice tremble at all.
They're on point.
And then when you go over thereand you talk to them and you
see the human side of it, you'rereally amazed that they aren't
robots over there.
They're really good, veryprofessional people that are
committed to the mission to help.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Well, they're treated very well.
I mean they're treated justlike firefighters.
Their workstations arefantastic where they think about
that, and now they have a dogthat stays in, cooper, the
dispatch dog who lives with oneof the dispatchers.
But you think about it whenyou're handling some of the

(53:38):
calls, you're talking.
You can take a call from ascreaming mother that their
baby's not breathing and thestress that they're dealing with
and they have found good oldCooper comes sitting next to you
.
That dog can tell.

Speaker 8 (53:50):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
You know when they're stressed out and just having
that dog there.

Speaker 10 (53:54):
Yeah, you know, eases a lot of tension and is
good for them, I know you'vegone over there.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
I've seen you a couple of times gone over there
and visited.

Speaker 10 (54:02):
For sure, we go over there.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
And you know we can round this out.
Go ahead, greg.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
I want you to jump in your DeLorean for a second Go
10 years into the future.
We have the Fry's project 777front.
We have the stuff, Plus we need25,000 more housing units for
SP35 purposes for Burbank.
Where do you see the firedepartment?

(54:28):
We have six stations.
There's another 30,000 people.
What do you see in 10 years?
Are we going to have to addstations or equipment?
What's it going to have to have?
We're lucky enough to have fourparamedic vans, but what about
everything else?

Speaker 10 (54:45):
Burbank's going to expand in the next 10 years For
sure that's a great questionwhen I came on the job and it's
going to be 31 years hereshortly.
You don't look it, buddy, yeah,thanks.
I started with the feds beforethat, when I was 18, so it's
been a little longer.
But long story short, the waywe did business and the way we
looked at what our downrangeneeds were were well-intended

(55:09):
and well-thought-out, but theywere really anticipating, based
on expected need.
That hasn't changed.
But what we do now is thingsare based more on analytics.
We know there's going to beneeded changes.
There's going to be changesthat we'll need to do in the
future and it will need to bebased on analytics.

(55:29):
Things like how many more callswe are going on, how much our
resources are committed andunavailable for another call.
There are a lot of metrics thatwe have to take into account as
we determine what we're going toneed in the future.
Make no mistake about it we'regoing to need in the future.
Make no mistake about it, we'regoing to need more in the
future.
But it has to be based on data,analytics, things that are on

(55:54):
paper.
Mathematically you can say,okay, we need this, this and
this because of this, this andthis, and fortunately the fire
service in general has realizedthat and as we look down range,
we are really relying on beingaccurate and looking at our data
, looking at our response times,looking at how much our
resources are committed, beingagile enough to recognize we're

(56:17):
seeing a trend where our RAs arenow being committed this amount
of time and are unavailable foranother call.
We have this response timeshave extended and being quick
and recognizing that quickly andthen being able to ask and
forecast that hey, we need tomake changes here.
This is what we need, fromstations to people, to resources
.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
Well, you know, it's really.
People see fire trucks, seefires or see a paramedic at an
accident.
They don't realize all thestuff that goes on to make that
all work and you being a deputychief, to make sure and to keep
that class one status too.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
You keep things running even keel yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
I have to explain what does class one status mean,
because Red Bank worked hard toget that and they have it on
the rig Class 1, it's just notshowing off.
It actually does mean something.

Speaker 10 (57:11):
Yeah, for sure.
It's the ISO and it's basicallythe way that they rate a fire
department's ability to handleemergencies, specifically fires
an insurance servicesorganization, and there's a
criteria where they come in andevaluate the department and
Class 1 is the highest and it isa big win for us to be a Class
1 and maintain a Class 1.
There isn't a higherclassification, I remember the

(57:33):
work that went into it.
The Burbank Fire Department isthe highest class and there's
not a lot in the United Statesthat are Class 1.
Burbank is one of them.
It's something to be proud ofand it's something that we do
have to work hard to maintain.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
Um, and that's one of my jobs, along with everyone in
the fire department, to helpmaintain that well, you know, I
think, of all the differentpositions you have been in for
craig and I, I got to thank you.
You know I want to thank you onon the podcast you have been.
You know when we've called youor text you, you've gotten back
to us.
It's been in the middle of thenight or the next day.

(58:08):
We kind of push you.
Sometimes you don't have allthe facts and figures or what
started the fire, you don't know.
But we appreciate your position.
Just know that my Burbank doesappreciate everything you do,
and so do our readers becausethat's who actually wants the
information.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yeah, I appreciate you.
You do, and so do our readers,because that's who actually
wants the information.

Speaker 10 (58:28):
Yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that and
you guys have always been verysupportive of the fire
department and we can't thankyou enough.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
All right, Well, thank you, Dave and don't retire
before the end of the month.
And Deputy Chief.

Speaker 10 (58:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, thank you guys All right,Thank you.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,absolutely yeah, fantastic,
thank you guys.
All right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Okay, ross.
Well, we have somebody a littlebit different from a
firefighter here.
We have an RN from St JosephMedical Center, providence, st
Joseph Medical Center, one ofour great advertisers, tabitha
Kovach, who's a registered nurse.
Welcome to the show, thank youvery much.
Ross take over.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Tabitha, you know I have been out with your team
with our Sidewalk CPR.
That's what you're here todaydoing.
You team up with several nursesto teach Sidewalk CPR.
People don't know it's no more.
You know, jumping oncompressions, throwing in their
mouth, Correct.
And let's talk a little aboutthat place called SJMC, you know

(59:25):
, or Providence.
Now there's that TV show thateverybody's watching, the Pit.
The Pit and you know, I knowthey use part of the old ER.
Yes, I remember when the firstbuilding was built over there I
photographed for the hospital.
But St Joe's is an amazingplace.
Yes, I know a lot of people.
Some people had I've lost afamily member there, but life

(59:49):
goes on.
But in case of an emergency man, you're going to be taken care
of and sidewalk CPR can save alot of lives and it does so.
Explain to us just.
You know how it's changed andyour mission coming out.
You probably saw 500 peopletoday Not all of them doing

(01:00:10):
compressions on people.

Speaker 6 (01:00:12):
So we now only do hands-only CPR.
We've stopped providing breathsto people.
We've learned that that timewe're taking out of compressions
is actually pretty detrimentalto mortality.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
So we want continuous circulation throughout the body
until advanced life support Isthat because the beating of the
heart helps the oxygen in thebrain, the oxygen, the blood.
Yeah, helping the breathingreally doesn't help, because if
you're circulating the blood,then that does the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Correct, okay, you can do CPR.
I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
There you go.
Actually, I'd use the old Lucasdevice over here and plug that
thing into the wall, huh.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Well, that's, you know you could probably talk
about because that's newBurbank's, got it a couple of
years ago, but that saves someguys' backs.

Speaker 6 (01:01:02):
Absolutely, and it allows them to focus on
different aspects of the patientcare.
It frees up their hands toestablish an airway and to start
an IV and be able to administermeds a lot faster, so that
they've progressed their patientcare further by the time they
get to me in the ER.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
How long have you, let me ask you, how long have
you done that job?
Because that can take a toll onyour life.
But I know nurses, andespecially trauma nurses or ER
nurses you've got to have aloving for life.
I mean, it's a challenging jobwhen people don't make it and
some of the things you see isjust heartbreaking.

(01:01:41):
And you probably have seen itbecause I know what goes over to
St Joe's.

Speaker 6 (01:01:46):
I've actually been in emergency medicine for almost a
decade.
I was an EMT before I everbecame a nurse.
I was an ER tech and I've beena nurse since the beginning of
2021.
So I was a tech through thepandemic and a nurse through the
pandemic as well, and I stilllove my job just as much as I
did, you know it's a calling itis.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
People say, say, like firefighters, who wants to wake
up at three in the morning togo pick up somebody that fell
out of their bed and has to goto the hospital?
They call grunt runs orwhatever you know.
But these people are living alot longer.
You know, I have relatives thatare living a lot longer.
Now St Joe's, as we know, as Iknow.
Some people say well, why isn'tit a trauma center?

(01:02:26):
People don't understand.
It was at one time, many yearsago, long time ago.
But it takes more than an armyto be an authorized trauma
center.
You have to have a full medicalstaff.
You can't call somebody and say, hey, we've got somebody coming
in.
You've got to be prepared to goand that's why watching these
TV shows it's kind of likewatching any other tv show.

(01:02:48):
There's a lot of drama there,yes, but you know how team
members work and everything.
Good friend of mine, angelinecamp, and I tell you, talk to
anybody that can control andshe's amazing, didn't she?
yeah you know, and I've calledher and text her on questions
and she's still to this day,even now she's retired or
semi-retired.
But I will tell you, you guysdo a hell of a job.

(01:03:10):
Thank you you know coming outhere today and teaching people.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
And you were talking about TV shows.
Have you seen the Pit?

Speaker 6 (01:03:18):
I have seen the Pit.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
yes, how about Code Black?
I have not watched Code Black.
Okay, Are there any showsyou've watched that you think
you know what they pretty wellhave captured?
What goes on, I think?

Speaker 6 (01:03:27):
we all agree, the pit has actually done a very good
job, reflecting emergencymedicine.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
And we all love Noah Wiley in that role from his ER
days.

Speaker 6 (01:03:35):
Yeah, of course there's still dramatization, but
it's actually been the mostaccurate so far, I guess, since
ER.
Really yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
Well, it's funny.
I was watching a couple weeksago.
I'm addicted to it, like a lotof people.
They brought in a patient and Ihappen to have fatty liver
disease and varices or whatever.
Varices yeah, and they had onthe show a person that it had.
What it is is veins running upyour esophagus to your brain and

(01:04:05):
I have bulges, minor bulging,so they've gone in.
I've been in your gastrodepartment many times, Dr Fisher
, a great doctor, and he saidI'll be in, in fact, the end of
the month to go in and justmedicine nowadays.
So I'm watching, you know, onTV and they bring in somebody
that had blood everywhere.

Speaker 6 (01:04:30):
And they don't shy on use blood.
But it that's what.
Honestly, in that situationit's pretty accurate, um, and it
requires a lot of resources.
Really fast, it requiresimmediate blood from blood bank.
I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
It requires a lot of team, um, teamwork, yeah, and
those situations can go so bad,so fast and we have such an
incredible team well, st joe'shas been an advertiser in my
burbank for many, many monthsmichelle hoker from your
communications team and we runarticles all the time and I
guess I just heard recently theygot to tear down one of the

(01:04:58):
buildings because earthquakesafety and all that and how do
you raise funds for that and soforth?
People don't realize we have agreat hospital there, folks.
I mean we hear when people Wellthey say thanks for the hard
text.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
St Joseph's is the Cadillac of hospitals and stroke
.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
Now People don't realize the time when somebody
is cared to on stroke and themedicines.
You can put one of your owndoctors there at a stroke and it
was fully functional in sixmonths and to me that's in St
Joe's is one of those and thatwas one of the big reasons of
building the new ER, so youcould do, don't have to go to

(01:05:36):
the basement, you know, and youcan bring CT scans and all that
it just.
You know St Joe's.
Like I said, we're so fortunate.
Uh 501.
You know Buena Vista, or BuenaVista in Alameda For the team,
for the nurses.
You know everybody looks atparamedics out there in the
field, but when that box showsup at your back door it's your

(01:05:57):
show.

Speaker 6 (01:05:58):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
It's literally your show.
As a lifelong Burbank citizen,I love it.
I had two grandkids and my son,you know, was born there.
Wonderful, it's just a greathospital and you probably your
team that you work with even outthe camaraderie with all the
doctors and nurses.
It's incredible.
It is Well.

(01:06:19):
Thank you for what you do,thank you for being here
teaching sidewalk CPR and I knowif anybody is interested,
interested.
You guys do it not only here atFire Service Day, sometimes
down on the Paseo they've doneit, they've gone different
places.
They could always check thefire department website.
They kind of put that out.
So again, tabitha, I appreciateyou coming on air with us and

(01:06:41):
what you do.

Speaker 6 (01:06:42):
Absolutely.
Thank you very much, I hope notto see you anytime soon.
Not either.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Ross another guest.
Why don't you introduce him?

Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Well we are.
I'll tell you we've had somefantastic guests on today in the
Burbank Fire Department.
We just happened to havesomebody that came from Glendale
Fire Department retired as abattalion chief, I believe
several years ago we won't sayhow long ago, is that how long
ago?
And Tom is now the chief overat Disney Studio.

Speaker 8 (01:07:15):
Captain.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Captain, excuse me, a lot of people don't realize
that Disney, like WarnerBrothers, has a fire department
as a fire department, thevolunteer.
But you know they do the samething.
You know inspections andbuilding checks and everything.
And you have been.
You just like you said justkeep going.

(01:07:36):
You know, you're like anever-ready bunny.
And then you also for years didthe burn relay.
I remember being involved withthat, with you for many, many
years 23 years.
Now that ranch building isn'tthere anymore, that's right,
that kind of changed.
Isn't that how that whole?

(01:07:56):
Tell us what's going on atDisney and what you're loving.

Speaker 8 (01:08:01):
Well, thank you Ross.
Thank you for having me.
I did a 35-year career inGlendale Fire, retired and then
had the great opportunity towork for the Walt Disney Company
.
I'm assigned to the BurbankStudio Campus.
Our fire department consists offour paid fire captains

(01:08:22):
covering all the Disney lots,including Burbank, glendale and
over in Los Angeles, and then wehave our fire chief that leads
our team.
We do have, as you mentioned, avolunteer corps.
We have now about eight to tenvolunteers that have signed up
and are actively involved thatwe can access during large

(01:08:42):
emergencies or incidents that weneed additional resources that
maybe Burbank Fire can't supply.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
And you were telling me earlier, you have a new piece
of apparatus, right?

Speaker 8 (01:08:53):
Yeah, we just ordered a new engine.
Our current engine is like a1989 Ford and we've been in need
of a new engine, so we justordered that.
It's supposed to be arriving inNovember, so hopefully you can
come and see that, but that'llbe exciting to get the new piece
of apparatus on the lot.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
And people don't realize.
Even though you have the Disneycampus I mean the building and
so forth and the offices, youhave stages there you have a big
piece of property, a bigresponsibility, and people don't
kind of understand.
When an alarm goes off, yes,Burbank is responding, but that

(01:09:33):
first initial size-up comes fromyou guys.

Speaker 8 (01:09:34):
Yep, that's correct.
Our studio lot is 51 acres.
We have seven sound stages.
Not huge, but we do have a lotof activity there and
fortunately I believe that withmy past experience in fire
service, that when we do have anemergency I just roll into
action like I did before.
When Burbank does respond, I'mfamiliar with most of the

(01:09:57):
responders, they're familiarwith me.
So it kind of makes it seamlesswhen they come in and need to
take over and jump and do whatthey need to deal with.
But I can provide them access,I can give them some direction
on utilities, egress, differentgates to use.
Just try and make it easier forthem.

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
And when you were at Glendale you were in charge of,
you were a platoon battalionchief, as I recall, and that's
where I think you and I met eachother many, many years ago and
I think we've shared it ontoday's podcast.
There's no city lines anymore.
If you need a rig, you can getGlendale, you can get Pasadena.

Speaker 8 (01:10:36):
And the fortunate thing was working Glendale with
a lot of these Burbank personnel.
We worked seamlessly there aswell, so getting to know these
folks here in Burbank was agreat help, and now with Disney,
when they come in, it's justseamless as well.
I know most of the respondersthat come in at least at the
captain or the chief level, andit just assists our interaction

(01:10:58):
with them to run a lot smoother.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
You know it's well.
I know you know the rigs theseguys train and you know if you
need to send something aGlendale guy to a Burbank rig,
it won't be unfamiliar.
They know They've trainedtogether.
They do brush responsestogether.
You know I listen to the radioall night long or 24 hours a day
and it's real seamless.

(01:11:22):
And when they're goingresponding to a piece of Disney
property property you know, andCraig and I are usually water
flows and they don't need toroll everybody.
You're there pretty quick andand keep doing it for a while.

Speaker 8 (01:11:36):
Well, yeah, you know it's fun and it keeps me busy.
It's exciting work.
It's a great place to work.
The Walt Disney Company is anoutstanding employer.
I enjoyed it.
It's interesting.
You see unique things that Iwouldn't have seen otherwise,
and it just makes it fun everyday to go to work and see what's

(01:11:57):
going to be happening there.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Well, you know, many, many, many, many years ago I
was a fireman at Warner Brotherswhen it was the Burbank Studios
and people, you, you know I cango watch a show.
Now, no fun watching the show,because you know, you know how
they're doing it and how theeffects are and everything.
And, like you say, when youleave working for a municipality
like glendale, you go work on astudio and everything is

(01:12:19):
controlled.
I mean you shut off a valve oryou, you know it's totally
different, but it's a totallydifferent perspective filming.

Speaker 8 (01:12:28):
Yeah, yeah.
One thing I realized quickly ismunicipal fire department is a
lot different than a corporateenvironment.
You know there's pros and consto both, but there is specific
procedures and ways to do things.
On the street a lot that you'rereally not going to mess things
up, you knowidentally have afire alarm go off during a

(01:12:50):
corporate executive meeting at ahigh level that you really
don't want to have happen.
A lot of communication, a lotof things coordinated, but it's
still a fun, great environment.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
Like you say, where are you located here in Burbank,
working with Burbank Fire asyou do, and you know the
surrounding area so well.
It's super Well.
We started off.
We talked to Matt Garland, wetalked to some nurses from St
Joe's, we talked to the firedepartment administrator, dave
Burke, in his role.

(01:13:20):
Now we're gonna end it withCaptain from Disney.
A lot of Burbank has peopledon't realize We've got studios
here.
Disney has their own, warnerBrothers has their own, airport
has their own.
So it's all encompassed.

Speaker 8 (01:13:37):
It's a great team and we do get great support from
the city of Burbank FireDepartment.
I work closely with them.
They come often to the lot,some as a casual visit, some as
official business, but we followunder their jurisdiction and
authority.
So we want to make sure thingsare done right and safe, to keep
them happy and to make surethat all of our cast members go

(01:14:01):
home safe each night to theirfamilies.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Well, you just said it, you work with Mickey and
Minnie, literally Literally.
You've seen Mickey and Minniedoing many, many things, but
it's kind of different overthere, just the Disney
psychology and how they operateversus you know, warner Brothers
, how they operate as a rentallot, you know and so forth, and

(01:14:23):
it's kind of neat that I don'tthink a lot of people that
follow my Burbank podcast do youknow they drive by the studio.
What goes on inside?
They have no clue.

Speaker 8 (01:14:33):
Yeah, and it is a closed lot where other studios
have tours available.
Disney Studios does not allowpeople just walking off the
street for tours, but if you area member of their official fan
club, the D23 Club, then theyhave tours available to that
group and organization.
But other than that it's aclosed lot.
So, yeah, a lot of people driveby and wonder you know what's

(01:14:55):
going on in there, and there's alot of great stuff happening
every day there is, and we are,the media capital of the world.

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
I mean Glendale's, a near close, but I mean here,
with all of our studios, andDisney has been home here since
the 50s.
If I recall right 1940.
I remember when Walt Disneychose to set up shop here.
And you guys own a big place.
How many acres?
51.
Wow, that's a big piece ofproperty.

(01:15:21):
Well, tom, we're wrapping up.
You are a gentleman to stop byand give us a little update and
brief on the Disney FireDepartment.
Stay healthy and stay high tothe mouse in the house.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
Thanks for all the work you do.
Thank you, Captain, weappreciate it.
Well, Ross and Craig, we'vedone it Now.
Craig, I know you weren't inthe interview today but you were
here, I wish, Dealing with allthe people coming in and showing
them all the great stuff thatwe do at my Burbank, and you've

(01:15:59):
done it yourself and everything.
So we appreciate that.
Wish we could have got you outa little more on the show Me too
.

Speaker 1 (01:16:04):
Sorry I couldn't.
I'm glad you were here.
I'd be here in the middle part,so Ross, what did you learn
today?

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
I learned a lot.
I learned a lot from ouradministrator, Christine, and
everybody Talking today.
Burke is always a pleasure.
We got to talk to somedifferent people and what a
fantastic day.
I saw smiles, Never heard a kidcrying out here.
We were kind of lucky to be inthe fire station, where it was

(01:16:32):
at least 30 degrees cooler thanout in the back lot, and you
know what a great day.
2025.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
How many of these have we done?
Oh, we've done a few, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
Fire Service Day 2025 is in the books and we've got
to thank the Burbank FireDepartment for allowing us.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
Absolutely Every year .
They always use a great placehere and very accommodating, so
we thank them.
They're gracious hosts.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Yeah, danny, we want to thank Danny Alvarez.
I know he wasn't on headset,but Dave Burke was Pat Garland,
who did a great job this yearhis first year.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
He did a great job, and just everybody and
everything.
So that's it for another yearFor Craig Durling and Ross
Benson.
This is Craig Sherwood sayingthank you once again for
watching and listening.
Hit the Like button, Subscribe,Like, Follow, Subscribe, Do all
that stuff.
We appreciate it and we willtalk to you next time.

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