September 16, 2025 • 50 mins
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What would you do if you noticed something wasn't quite right in your neighborhood? When off-duty firefighter Garrett Golish spotted smoke drifting through his yard while chatting with his sister-in-law about campfires, he could have dismissed it as someone grilling or burning yard waste. Instead, he trusted his instincts and took immediate action – a decision that likely saved a family with a sleeping baby who had no idea their backyard swim spa was fully engulfed in flames.
In this episode, Garrett shares:
• Why recognizing danger signs quickly can make the difference between safety and tragedy
• Why smoke inhalation is more deadly than burns in most fire situations
• Family emergency preparedness essentials
• Practical safety tips
• The importance of escape ladders for second-story rooms and practicing their use
• The value of After Action Reviews (AARs) to evaluate what went well and what could improve
• Using family dinner conversations to help children develop awareness and response skills
Visit our website for more resources on building character and preparedness in your family.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey parents, welcome back to our show.
Listen, what would you do ifyou noticed something wasn't
quite right while you're just inyour backyard minding your own
business doing yard work?
Well, today in studio, ourguest firefighter, garrett
Golish, trusted his gut andjumped into action when he saw
(00:24):
smoke drifting through hisneighborhood, while off-duty
from his own home.
His story reminds us thateveryday heroes are the ones who
pay attention and take action.
So this episode is all aboutseeing a need and filling it,
(00:44):
not only in emergencies, but ineveryday family life.
Garrett also is going tointroduce us to a powerful tool
used by first responders theAfter Action Review, or AAR, and
you're going to find out howyour family can use it to build
stronger teamwork, communicationand readiness.
(01:08):
So at the time this interviewairs in September, it's National
Preparedness Month, so there'sreally no better time to help
your family get equipped forwhatever comes your way.
So welcome to the Families ofCharacter.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Show Garrett, Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
It's an honor.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yes, absolutely, garrett.
Take us back to that day inyour backyard.
This was just a few months ago.
But if you can kind of putyourself in that situation, tell
us a little bit about what yousaw and what made you stop and
think like something's not righthere for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So I was in my yard actually talking to one of my
sister-in-laws because I hadcalled her to wish her a happy
mother's day and that's just theday that we were able to chat
um and we were talking aboutcampfires, because her sons like
campfires, and we were talkingabout how to put them together
and keep them safe andeverything.
And I'm out in the kind of theside yard and I see a little bit
(02:08):
of a haze.
It was super light at first andthe first thought I had was oh
great, spring and summer inColorado, lots of wildfires.
We always get that haze thatyou can't see the mountains you
can't really see you know, toofar away and very quickly I'm
(02:28):
like that's a bit too thick, toofast for sure, and it doesn't
usually come that often.
You know that early.
And the second thing thathappened was that I smelt it,
and you don't usually smell thehaze very much, at least to that
extreme Right, and so I justsort of walked to where it was
coming from, because the windwas blowing towards me towards
my house and at that point Icould see around my house like
(02:53):
very dark smoke and at thatpoint I thought I don't think
that that's a smoker or a grill.
Um, it's just too much.
And so I wanted to go sort ofinvestigate, uh first.
That's why I told mysister-in-law I said, hey,
there's actually a fire in myneighborhood.
So this has been great.
But I've got to let you go so Ican go figure this out.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow, okay.
So you're talking to yoursister-in-law about a campfire.
All of a sudden you see haze.
Then you smell it and you'regoing, and I know where you live
.
You live in an area wherepeople may or may not, you know
close by be burning trash orsomething grilling out, like you
said.
But you're going, this isdifferent and you assess that
(03:39):
this, the smoke is comingquicker and you can smell it,
and so you just hung up thephone and started heading the
way of the smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah.
So I basically ran down mydriveway and as I got, or yeah,
down my driveway, down thecul-de-sac and as I saw kind of
from that angle, it's like adark kind of building smoke.
That is just like no, there'ssomething on fire.
For sure, it's definitely not asmoker, it's definitely not
just a couple branches thatsomebody cut and they're
(04:04):
lighting in their little firepit or something.
So at that point, that's when Istill had the phone in my hand,
but that's when I called 911and said, hey, I don't know what
the house is yet, but there'sdefinitely.
In my opinion, the house is onfire at this point, based on the
amount of smoke.
And then I just ran through acouple of neighbors' yards, just
kind of heading towards thatspot and honestly trying to
(04:24):
avoid being right in the middleof the smoke because it was
blowing towards me.
So I kind of did like a littlebit of a banana swing to get to
that yard and then that's kindof what I saw.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Wow, OK.
So what was what happened next?
Like, walk us through what youdid.
You see this fire.
It's coming from the back ofthe house.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, so it was the back of the house.
So I ran through the front yardof a house that faces me,
through their backyard, and itwas basically like the caddy
corner or the opposite end, sokind of the backyards met a
little bit at the corner.
(05:05):
So I saw that it was a littlebit more concentrated to a spot
and I could kind of see the backporch door and so I kind of ran
around the north side of it andI realized it looked like some
sort of hot tub or somethinglike that that was fully
engulfed at that point and therewas somebody there, an older
gentleman, that was like kind ofgrabbing the hose and kind of
looked like they weren't sure ifit was on or trying to use it,
and I thought that was thehomeowner, and so I quickly just
(05:28):
went up to him and said like,hey, let me you know, cause I
could feel the heat and I'mpretty far away from it.
And so as I go up to him it'slike, oh, it's way too hot to be
where he is right now, and sowhen I kind of grabbed him, I
pulled him to the side and youcould see that he had, like
since, like the hairs on hisface and some on his chest and
his eyebrows and everything, sohe had been a bit too close,
(05:49):
obviously, and he was just alittle bit out of it, and so I
was thinking smoke inhalation,like she's just going to be a
little altered, and so I'm like,hey, are you the old homeowner?
They're wondering what thisaddress is, and I don't know,
because I ran through some yardsyou know, I know they can ping
my cell phone, but he was justkind of like I don't know.
I'm like is there anyone inside?
And he's like I don't know.
(06:10):
You know, it seemed like hejust was a little off.
So I thought, okay, he had somesmoke inhalation, we need to
get him out of this environment.
And so I had him go with mearound, basically to the front.
And that was after I grabbedthe hose and put just a little
bit of water on it because Ijust thought maybe I could help
a little.
But at that point, you know,your hose is too small for that
(06:31):
big of a fire really.
And so I tried to just spray acouple of things around it to
keep it wet, but mainly to gethim out of the environment.
So I got him out, we went tothe front and then the homeowner
answered the door and, um, shewas like, is this my house?
like, is there something wrongin my yard?
Um, and so, uh, I guess she wasdownstairs working out.
(06:52):
She had kind of checked on theguy working on their hot tub.
That was the worker, actually,that's what I found out.
And then she thought, all right, my one-year-old sleeping in
the basement with me.
Uh, you know, in the room nextto me I'm gonna run on the
treadmill for about 20 minutes.
Um, and then we have a coupleof dogs, and so she didn't
really see anything, cause shewas down in the basement.
And so she um, I just kind oflike went in and told her I was
(07:13):
a firefighter cause I was hopingshe would trust me in that way
and, um, and tell her I was aneighbor as well and just say,
hey, is there anybody else?
Let's just get them out thefront, it's okay, like it hasn't
entered the house yet, it'ssomething outside.
So she grabbed her kiddo, wejust sort of shoved the dogs out
, you know, and just sort ofwent down to the street which is
pretty far offset from herhouse.
(07:34):
So she basically just went to adifferent neighbor's yard and
then at that point it was prettystraightforward.
I mean, I went and just kind ofdid what I would do if I was on
duty at that point.
You know it was like okay, I'mgoing to go open these gates,
I'm going to tell dispatch thatthey can pull the line on the
south side, because the northside has a tall retaining wall.
It'd be hard to get over.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Okay, and then I just kind of helped out.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know they showed up and I just kind of helped
them flick out the hose.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You know, it was pretty straightforward at that
point.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I went and took a couple more looks to make sure I
could give dispatch, like hey,it is starting to hit the house
or not, right?
I mean, it kind of lit thefence there was like this little
garden area and it melted thegutter and it blew out a couple
windows.
So you heard a couple likeexplosion sounds.
It blew out like three or fourwindows, but other than that,
(08:23):
the actual house with the stuccokind of bubbling, it didn't
actually like catch the house,which was awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So inside the house there is a woman, her
one-year-old child, two dogs,and she has no clue about what's
happening, right in herbackyard, similar to me.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
She said oh, sometimes we get a haze in
Colorado.
I just thought that's all itwas.
I could see through, like thelittle window in our basement,
and I just thought, okay,whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Wow.
So with your experience as afirefighter and just observing
how quickly it was kind ofspreading around and the type of
fire it was let's say youhadn't shown up and this guy
wasn't able to do anything tohelp how quickly would that have
spread to her home, do youthink?
Yeah, in a matter of minutes.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So what I found out later was that it was actually a
swim spa, so quite a bit biggerthan a hot tub, because it's
kind of full length and you canswim against kind of that
current that blows towards youthan a hot tub, because it's
kind of full length and you canswim against kind of that
current that blows towards you.
Well, it started to actuallycatch a couple of their
cottonwoods on fire and so itjust sort of escalates, right.
So if it had gone to the eastof where it was, it's sort of
open field, native grass andtrees, so that can be like a
(09:30):
wildfire, which it's springcolorado, right.
So it's windy, so it's awind-driven fire.
It really pushes it hard.
And then on the other end yousaw that the gutter was melting,
the stucco was bubbling and thewindows were breaking.
So you give it, you know, maybea handful of minutes, a slight
shift in wind direction, whichthe wind does, and maybe part of
(09:52):
the house starts to catch,because the fence leading up to
the house was on fire at thispoint, and so a couple of
minutes maybe, and then maybethe house would have started to
catch, and you know, and reallywhat's going to get you first is
the smoke.
That's like for sure the thingthat will kill you first,
because generally that's whatyou either see, first you inhale
it.
It's really dangerous, um, andso that's actually what kills
(10:13):
the most people is smokeinhalation.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I had no idea.
Yeah, so you don't?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
you don't usually die in a fire because you got
burned.
It's usually because youinhaled a bunch of smoke.
And if you hate inhaled toomuch and you're trapped in your
house, sure, then you might passout and eventually you may get
burned, right.
But you'll actually die moreoften at least, or get sick of
smoke inhalation.
So it's more like with thosewindows shattering, well, now
(10:37):
smoke can enter the house andyou definitely want to avoid
that.
So I don't know, it's hard tosay a handful of minutes maybe,
wow.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Just think you're in your backyard minding your own
business.
You see this smoke andsomething just prompts you
internally to go go now.
Go check this out.
Yes, we know you're afirefighter.
So, you have some experience inthis right, you can recognize
it easier than the rest of us,but I mean, what do you think
it's your day off?
Like you didn't have to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Oh man, it's kind of funny because people actually
talk about that at work, becausethere's a balance of mental
health that a lot of peopleeither need and for all of us,
right, you know, it's kind oflike any other profession.
If somebody were to call youevery day on your off day and
ask you questions about it, Imean that's just draining, it's
a lot Sure and so, but for me Idon't know, I'm still just young
(11:33):
and love my job still, orwhatever.
But I still will stop ataccidents, I still stop when I
see some sort of problem, that Ithink that me as a human, or me
with some experience orknowledge medical knowledge, as
a paramedic as well that maybe Ican help in a situation and I
think I truly love being afirefighter and paramedic that
(11:55):
any opportunity just is it'slike an automatic, it's like the
Holy spirit like literallypulls my body towards the scene.
There's no stopping it, there'sno delaying or like, oh, should
I go over there and help?
You know, I just go and yeah, Ijust.
I think it's totally stillsomething that I willing to go
help, I guess.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's innate in you, it sounds like, and as a man, as
you know, god created us verydifferent men and women and we
believe that, and inside of aman is this desire and this need
to rescue and protect andprovide.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, we run towards the danger to try to see if we
can help and women are morenurturing and they can keep kids
away from the fire.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Right, right, which was beautiful that you were able
to do both.
You were able to rescue the momand the kid and the dogs and
then go fight the fire and letthem, you know, be in a safe
place while you were helping out.
Wow, I just wonder too, growingup, some people may be going
like why are we talking about,you know, rescuing this?
This woman and her one-year-oldand dogs from this neighborhood
(12:59):
fire right On the families ofcharacter show.
But it really sparked somethingin me pun intended, I guess
sparked something, but I wasjust thinking like the average
ordinary neighbor may have justthought you know, that's
probably Joe cooking somethingon the grill, or I'm sure
(13:19):
somebody's burning trashsomewhere, and I'm also sure
that someone's probably alreadycalled 911.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And we did ask one neighbor and that's what they
thought, because myfather-in-law showed up at some
point and he went and asked aneighbor and he said, hey, what
did you think that all was?
And he's like I thought it wasa big smoker that somebody was
using.
I thought they were justburning some branches you know,
and it's just all that like, um,like, just exactly what you
(13:45):
said, yeah that's exactly whatit was actually making
assumptions.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think we can do that, and part of it is just
like well, I don't want to getin their business or I don't
want to make a big scene, ifit's okay.
But I think it's more importantto err on the side of caution.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And if there's something happening in your
neighborhood go check the factsright.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So often we are making stuff up.
I call it MSU-ing, right?
We just take a situation and wejust make stuff up about it,
and then we excuse ourselvesfrom the responsibility of
having to do anything about itand the next thing you know?
I mean I can't imagine how youwould feel if you just kept
(14:25):
talking to your sister on thephone.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Oh, man, I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
And then realize it was a house fire or something
similar.
There's a mother and a baby inthe basement and you could have
done something.
That'd be horrible, there's noway.
Right, right, terrible.
And so I think this is soimportant for us to just really
expose this story to parents andkids, because we want to train
(14:51):
our kids to be able to see aneed, to identify something's
not right here in myneighborhood or at my school,
and then give them the courageand confidence to speak up or to
move their body in action, tospring forward and help people
right.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
We were called to love our neighbor.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And that doesn't mean just being like, oh, you're so
kind, here are some flowers.
It's like really loving themand serving them in times of
need and checking things out andbeing of service to them.
So did your parents likegrowing up if there were parents
listening and they're goinglike, how do I get my kid to
(15:30):
care?
Right, how do I get my kid toeven notice, like, look up from
their video game or their youknow cell phone or whatever?
How are you raised?
What did you witness with yourparents?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
So I'm the seventh of eight kids and there were a
couple of miscarriages betweenme and my older sibling, the
next older sibling, so they werea little bit older, and so I
just had great examples ofpeople doing awesome things, I
mean even now, you know,becoming parents.
I have great examples ofparents because all of those
(16:03):
siblings are parents, you know,and so I think, each of them in
their own way, including myparents, um, you know, they
always go out of their way tohelp people and they do it in
different ways.
I mean, one sister, you know,went out of the country to
volunteer and other sisters willdo things locally, and it's
just, I feel like, leading byexample, they didn't make it an
announcement.
(16:23):
It wasn't like, hey, I'm goingto go help with the food bank or
I'm going to go donate this orthat.
It's like they would just do it.
We'd kind of find out, or I'dsee them go do it silently,
right, silent servant, and itwas just kind of the way,
obviously, that our parentsraised us.
I mean they were examples firstand then we followed them and I
think the little things mattertoo.
(16:46):
You know, just fixing somethingsmall that you see that's
broken.
I mean, there's a good quote.
I feel like I heard it when Iwas really young, but it said
you should never walk pastsomething you could have fixed.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Because if you have the ability to fix it.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Why wouldn't you just quickly fix it, Even if it's
simple stuff like the loosehandle in the kitchen cabinet or
whatever right, it's like justgo grab a screwdriver and fix it
real quick.
And that obviously grows to howcan I make a bigger impact than
the kitchen handle?
And it's like, hey, there'ssomething I could do.
Someone's pulled over.
(17:21):
It looks like they're fixing atire.
Maybe I could at least offer itlike, hey, you got this, or can
I help you?
Yeah, and it just sort of thatconsistency too, is like, oh,
this is what we should normallybe doing, and so, as I grew up,
I feel like I just sort offollowed in their footsteps,
honestly yes, you, you mentioned, just leading by example, right
, having people to model for youservice and not to be afraid,
right?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I think so often in this day and age we're like, oh,
I see somebody that's pulledover on the side of the road,
but what if they're scary?
What if they do something toharm me?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Right and as a woman.
Maybe we should, you know becautious, cause things have
happened.
Sure, so I get it.
You got to have a little bit ofthat, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
But at the same time, trusting that if I am, you know
, kind of following theprompting of my conscience, the
Holy spirit, whatever you wantto call it, and I feel compelled
to help, then trusting thatyou're going to be okay, and
then maybe this person reallyneeded just you right at that
time.
And so I like the example.
(18:18):
You're talking about smallthings, the handle on the
cupboard door.
You know, just you mentioned toyou have a sister that is just
so thoughtful, she's, shelistens, and you know we'll give
little things, little skittleson your seat.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's Valentine's day or something just like just
something to serve someone in asweet way.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So, um, that's awesome, and I hear that, like
you, just wouldn't have it anyother way.
Like you, you couldn't just sitback and there's no way yeah,
there's.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
there's a few stories that I barely remember as a
young kid, that my mom loves totell, and I don't know if you
want me to share?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yes, please, I love these stories.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So one I was pretty young, I think, I don't know,
five or six or something, I mean, pretty young and I was in my
parents' bedroom, my mom wasgetting ready and I was just
sort of like playing with sometoys or something, and I think
at one point she said therewasn't really, or maybe I wasn't
playing with toys because sheactually handed me a crucifix
and thought, oh, I can have himplay with this, I guess, or
(19:25):
whatever.
Well, the story is that I kindof remember that, but I don't
remember like quite everything.
But she came back and I had thecrucifix, jesus and the nails
and she was like initiallyreally upset because it was like
a nice crucifix, it was a gift,like all these things you took
it apart yeah and she goes likeyou know, what did you do?
(19:47):
and I guess my response was likeI was helping Jesus get off the
cross, you know.
And so I don't know if there'slike, um, that's just how I've
always been where it's like, ifI believe that there's something
I can do to help, I'm justgoing to do it, whether, whether
that was the right thing to do,whether I just ruined you, I'm
sure my dad put it back together, I'm sure.
But you know things like that,you know.
(20:08):
And then the only other onethat she loves to tell a lot I
was 12 years old and I had justfinished at St Mary's, a little
10 where we went to grade school, a babysitting class, and in
that class you also have alittle bit of CPR, the Heimlich,
you know, obviously some goodlike situational awareness, you
know, don't let the kid leaveyour sight, like all that kind
(20:28):
of stuff.
Well, my mom picked me upthere's just her and I and we
went to a McDonald's to getMcFlurryries, just to kind of
celebrate, like sweet.
Now you're going to babysit andit's great.
And while we're there, findingout a little bit later, this is
an 80-year-old woman thatstarted choking and you know,
I'm sitting there eating my foodand my mom was actually the one
that was like Garrett, garrett,like she's choking.
And I kind of look over I'mlike, oh, like she was just kind
(21:01):
of staring forward and I walkedover to her and I asked her if
she was choking, and at thatpoint then she started pointing
to her throat and was likenodding, yes, and so I pulled
her out of the booth, did theheimlich, it removed the object
and I was like, hey, you know,you're doing better now.
And she's like, yes, thank you.
And you know, I went back toeat my mcflurry.
You know, I was like, sweet,that's how it's supposed to work
, right, you do the Heimlich andit works.
And of course my mom was justlike, well, yeah, you just saved
her, or whatever.
I'm like, well, I don't know,it's like there was a need and I
(21:23):
went and fixed it.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And of course then she chatted with us and it was
awesome, but just crazy that itwas like an hour before that I
learned how to do the Heimlich,you know like it was nuts to
think that it was going tohappen that quickly.
And so those are two storieswhere, it's like, you know, I
just sort of, I guess, saw aneed.
And the second one, my momreally told me that there was a
(21:46):
need and so, again, leading thatby example, she knew that I
probably knew the Heimlich atthat point or knew that I could
help, and so she prompted me tohelp, which is just and I'm
going to listen to her.
Obviously right, she's my momand she always helps people, so
I think that's kind of like thebig takeaway.
I guess I would say, wow, wow.
It's just to like, just try,like, just help.
I mean, obviously she wouldhave just passed out and like it
(22:07):
would have just kept escalating.
Yes and as a parent listeningto your story as a young boy at
five and then 12, helping jesusoff the cross, dude you're
nailed.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, I gotta get like that looks like it hurts.
And then, okay, mom, thislady's choking.
I've got to use my skills.
I just learned they're freshhere we go, let's try this yeah,
you know.
it just reminds me of how godreally gifts us in unique ways.
There's some kids that wouldjust be like terrified or they'd
be crying if they saw somebodyin need like that, or wouldn't
(22:41):
even notice Jesus on the crossin that way Right and um and so
for us as parents, just beingable to kind of observe our kids
and take time to notice whatare?
things that they naturally areinclined towards.
Because I have a child who's 18, almost 19.
Just helping him kind ofdiscover what he you know, what
(23:05):
his gifts are and what histalents are and and how to align
that with a career is just areal thing.
We don't want our kids outthere floundering or just trying
to to write, you know, earnenough money to to meet these
certain standards or whatever.
But really, um, life getseasier when you're working in
(23:25):
the gifting that God has Totallythat's more fun.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
You're like you're good at it.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, You're like I, maybe I'm just still young,
still young, I still love my job.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I'm like no, Garrett, I think you landed on like what
.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
God gifted you with early, so also, I mean, I wasn't
expecting the conversation togo this way, but when you
graduated high school, did youfeel pressure to like go to
college and to do what people inyour class were doing?
That may have been differentthan what you did.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean a little bit were doing.
That may have been differentthan what you did.
I mean a little bit, um,because most of my classmates
went to a four year college, Umand I and I also played sports
and had college.
Uh, college scholarship offers,um, to play that sport and
things like that, and, um, atthe time, I really just didn't
want to like, for whateverreason.
I'm like man, I like school isgreat and I love education, of
(24:22):
course, but the four year systemwas just like.
I don't know if I want to go dothat yet, you know so.
At the same time, though, someof my siblings, who all went to
four year colleges at least at aminimum we have siblings,
masters and things like that butthey actually told me like,
like, hey, it might not besomething you need to do, like
it's.
It's almost like the intro towhat's currently happening,
where, like trade schools orcertain crafts that you can
(24:44):
learn, versus getting afour-year degree, can be just
fine and just suit you just fineyeah for some people that want
a specific thing, yeah, it'sgreat, go to that college and go
get it.
but, um, for me, I actually wentand I wanted to learn Spanish,
because I'm working inconstruction, because it was one
again something that you seesomething needs to be fixed or
done, and then you go fix it anddo it, and maybe that I thought
(25:05):
that's what I was maybe goingto do the rest of my life.
I don't know.
In construction I had a fewco-workers that only spoke
Spanish and me only speakingEnglish.
It was just hard.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So I'm going to go learn Spanish, you Spanish and
me only speaking English.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
It was just hard.
So I'm like, well, I'm going togo learn Spanish, you know.
And so I went and learnedSpanish, um, and volunteered a
little bit, kind of following ina couple of sister's footsteps,
and um, that's just kind of howit went for me.
And then I just went to tradeschools after that for paramedic
and fire and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Wow, so what?
Where did you learn Spanish,Did you?
Just so?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I asked a professor that some of my siblings had
known a Spanish instructor orteacher and he said Guatemala
was sort of just where he wouldrecommend, just based on kind of
how the language is, becauseevery country right has their
dialects, their flow, slang,it's like sometimes you know I
forget which word it is um, andthey recommended he recommended
(25:56):
guatemala.
So I quite literally justlooked online.
It's kind of similar to just mebeing like okay, this is what I
need to do, so I'm just goingto do it.
And so I looked online andfound a website that's like yeah
, you can go down there, we hookyou up with a host family and
you volunteer and take a spanishcourse while you're there, and
so, not that I would probably dothis the same way, but I
prepaid for everything notreally knowing this website.
(26:18):
I mean I was 19, 18 at the time.
And then I, about five daysbefore the trip is four and a
half months, I went and told myparents that I needed a ride
because I sold my truck I sawyou because I paid for
everything.
So I sold everything I hadbasically to save up for this
few thousand dollar trip orwhatever.
And so I told my mom I think itwas four or five days before
(26:41):
the trip hey, I'm going to be inGuatemala for four and a half
months learning Spanish.
I need a ride to the airport.
She's like wait what?
And that's just part of kind ofgrowing up.
And being brutally honest, asmy mom has always said, is one
of my lovely qualities, I'm sure, but also, just OK, I need to
do this.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So I'm going to go do it Right.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
And once I really want to do something, sometimes
I have like that track vision Iwant this and I'm going to put
everything into it and get thatgoal, and so that's just kind of
how it's always been.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
So I did that Guatemala, and then I did the
kind of similar thing incolumbia the next year.
So I was 19 and then 20 when Itraveled.
So awesome, and I'm hearingthat you made these choices
pretty independent of yourparents and that one of the
things that, um, they offeredyou was like full financial
independence, right Like youwant something you got to pay
for it, you might have to sellyour favorite truck or your
starter truck or whatever, ifyou want to go do this thing
(27:42):
which is another thing that Ifeel like isn't happening
anymore.
It's very rare that parents arelike you're totally on your own
.
You got to work for this, youknow college is on you.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
That's an approach that that josh and I have taken
with our oldest, and we've seenthe same kind of um drive in him
it's like well, if I want toget it done, I have to do it,
and I think it started withlittle things like hey, you know
, you're, I think.
I don't think I got a cellphone until I was 15 or 16 like
I was driving right, yeah, and Iand I get that.
maybe it's a little bitdifferent now but for the most
(28:13):
part that's hopefully what we'regoing to sort of implement as
parents.
But it's sort of started withlike, hey, here's the basic
phone and if you want adifferent phone, you're going to
pay for it and I would pay formy own phone plan.
Um, of course they would helpme pitch it.
I mean, you're, you're under 18.
You're not really working thatmuch like a little bit,
especially in the summer, but Imean there's going to be times
(28:34):
throughout the year where youjust don't have any money, and
so of course they would help outa lot.
Um, but there are definitelytimes where it's like, hey, you
had a full tank of gas at thebeginning of the week and you
chose to do all these extrathings with friends or whatever,
and so now you need to put thegas in like we going to fill it
up, that's right.
Obviously, if I need to get toschool, it would sort of be like
(28:55):
here's a little bit to do it,but it's like slow
implementation, which I thoughtis good, just to kind of help
start that responsibility of OK,money in, money out.
How do I save?
How do I?
You know, and that's kind ofhow you know, lydia's my wife's
really good at that.
Yes, yes, and I'm learning more.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well, you're.
You both are on a great track.
I want to hear, too, about justyou know.
Circling back to the storyabout seeing a need, feeling a
need, being a firefighter You'retrained for emergencies but,
like families, generallyspeaking, are not trained for
emergencies.
For sure this is kind of crazyto think about but you send your
(29:40):
kids off to school and theyhave fire drills right at the
school and they know exactly howto get out of the classroom
Exactly how to do it.
Yep what it sounds like where togo, who the line leader is, and
then you ask a family.
So what's your plan If you havea fire?
What happened?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Dad drives mom.
Dad tried to get out of thehouse, yeah they just run and we
don't we've been for ourselvessure, sure, like natural
instincts is what we're relyingon.
That's right, that's right.
what are a few things thatfamilies can do to prepare
themselves for an emergency, inyour opinion, as being for sure,
and I guess, to start to giveadvice on something like this, I
(30:16):
always recommend, like, go lookit up, go find a reputable
source, of course, because Idon't want to give advice that
ends up being slightly off ornot quite exactly what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Sure sure.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
But just kind of the basics would be always have two
ways out of every room in yourhouse.
So, for example, every bedroom,even to be a bedroom, has to
have an escape window or atleast something that you can
crawl out of or get out of.
You have to have more than oneway to get out of it, okay, so
it's kind of a basic.
The second thing would be smokealarms.
(30:46):
They're making it even moreintense, like, instead of just
one in the hallway by thebedrooms, within whatever it was
like eight feet or so, it'slike one in each bedroom and in
the hallway and you know.
So just more of those, just tomake sure, um, checking them.
You know we've run a lot ofcalls in the fire department
where smoke alarms are going off, but it's not because of smoke,
it's because they're 10 yearsold or the batteries are dead or
(31:08):
something like that.
So sometimes it's just makingsure you check those often and
then talking with the family,hey, if we're upstairs and
there's a fire down here, howare we going to get out?
And so one thing that we havein our house we have two of them
is like an escape ladder.
You know, you just hook it tothe kind of the windowsill,
throw it over the window andobviously you can kind of
(31:29):
picture your own house likewhere's going to be the best
place to do that?
Hopefully there's some grass ormulch or something to where, if
you kind of miss a couple ofsteps, you're not getting too
badly hurt.
And it's not like you'reconcrete and you're 20 feet in
the air, 10 feet in the air,whatever, right, and so I think,
having a few of those things,but also just talking about it,
I mean some people have nevertalked about- it.
(31:50):
Right.
And so I think just in general,like, hey, here's how we can
get out of these situations, andthen here's the meeting point.
So for like in our situation,it would just be like our
cul-de-sac, like out in themiddle, maybe on the sidewalk by
another family's house, yes, soyou're far enough away and if
you know, when emergency showsup, fire, police, everybody
(32:12):
you're out of the way you're notblocking, they're not sitting
there air horning you you knowso and as an adult and as the
parent you know you would be theone calling 911 and just trying
to remain calm, knowing thatwhen you do call 911, which is
something I wouldn't recommendeveryone practices, obviously,
because that'd be the bombard911.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
But there are certain things that they will ask you
immediately.
So, knowing those things, youknow what, what's the location
of your emergency?
Um, what is the emergency,things like that to where,
knowing where you are, theaddress, as I learned in this
one, I just didn't know exactlythe address yes it's hard
because it does take a while tothen ping your phone, like it
just takes a little bit longer.
(32:54):
But the nature of of the call,the location of the call.
They'll ask certain things likethat right off the bat, and so
just kind of being calm andcollected, but also having that
information in the back of yourmind for when you do call.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
And when you said like just being calm and
collected when you're talking to911, answering their questions,
because they're going to promptyou, right?
Not just coming up with yourown thing, but just waiting for
them to kind of ask the question.
Answer wait.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And it's easier said than done.
Sure, in the moment, youradrenaline is going to be way up
.
It's going to be so hard to becalm, it's just getting some of
those basics Exactly Perfect.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Well, and I imagine you know, we have an escape plan
we have.
Just last year, duringSeptember, National Preparedness
Month, we bought the emergencyladders that go in the kids room
and we actually took videos ofthem oh sweet.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Because sometimes there's that fear of like I'm
going to step over the ledge andyou know which I?
Love.
I think heights are just fun,honestly, but it's still like
when you take that first stepyou have to be really confident
and secure that you're not aboutto just topple over.
It is actually pretty intense.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yes, and then just practicing how you get out of
the upstairs and which door yougo out of depending on where the
fire is was really eye-openingfor our kids and how to just
sort of link to each other sothat we're all going the same
direction.
And then also identifying aneighbor, like a block away that
we talked to, to say, hey, incase of an emergency, we're
going to come to your house.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
It's out of show, perfect.
You know, I think, some of thesome of the other things.
You know some people have morethings than other people.
In general, their house mightbe a little bit an easy cause.
We see, obviously, a bunch ofvarieties of home and having a
good access, you know a goodpathway or having access to the
front door and the back door andnot having stuff around the
(34:44):
stove.
You know that's flammableespecially, and you know even
simple things like when you'recooking, if the handles are
pointing outward it's easier tobump that it's.
You know just things like thatto where you're just being
preventative.
I think a lot of things I tellmy family members when they ask
is they ask about how close canthe grill be to the house?
(35:05):
Because grill fires are just,they're common right, and so I
ended up looking it up because Iwanted to make sure I was
giving a good recommendation,because I had just overheard at
work, and basically your grillshould be at least 10 feet from
the home and your fire pitshould be 20.
That's like give or take itsays 10 to 25, but it's like
okay.
So the grill is 10, fire pits20.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
And that's 20 feet from like everything 20 feet
from the tree right there, 20feet from your wood fence you
know, and then obviously ideallyyour fire pit would have like
rock and other stuff around it,but in general you know, the
grill can have pretty big flamesand it's a grease fire, so it's
actually very hard to put out.
You have to use chemicalsusually to try to smother it
versus water and it's just.
(35:47):
It can be a pain, obviously,especially if it's up against
your house or underneath like anoverhang, and you know at that
point you're not going to touchit or push it.
It's all metal basically, right, so you're not gonna.
It'd be way too hot.
So keeping things away from thehouse, um, you know girls are
great, but just keep them about10 feet away from you, my eyes
(36:07):
are probably huge Cause I'mgoing the greasy, you know 80,
20 hamburgers were thrown onthere.
Cause yeah, and then.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I'm sending my 13-year-old out there to tend it
and he's like man, this is cool.
The flavor I'm like ugh.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
And for most people how old is your grill?
You're not going to replace itall the time.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I'm not saying I recommend you replace it all the
time.
It's like 10 years old.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
But they're usually at least 10 years old.
Oh, and so you're like yeah,there's a lot of grease buildup
and sometimes it just happens.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Okay, so real quick.
What do you do for a grill firewhen you've got grease on fire?
So if you have an extinguisher.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
That can work, it can help, but usually families only
have well, I guess that was theother thing.
I have fire extinguishers onevery level of the house,
including the garages, butthey're usually the smaller
homeowner ones, right?
They don't last that long, um,and so you might be able to put
a good knock on it as kind of anew phrase that we're maybe
using.
Um, you might be able to knockthe fire down a little bit, but,
(37:06):
um, especially with the lidclosed, you know it still has
enough air to kind of keep thefire going.
So you might not even be ableto get to it necessarily.
Um, but that's kind of the bestthing you do is use your fire
extinguisher, um, something thatactually works more as like a
blanket to try to smother it umversus water cools fire.
That's how it puts out the fire.
It cools it down.
(37:26):
Um, and it just doesn't workwith you know kitchen fires,
usually things like that, and so, um, at that point it's like
you do your best, but if you'renot getting it, hopefully
someone else is calling 911while you're trying to put it
out, okay, and at that point youjust try to figure out, like,
is it safe enough for me to keepdoing this, or do I kind of
(37:46):
need to back out and let FirstSpinner show up?
Firefighter show up.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yes, yes, okay, folks , get your fire extinguishers
today.
Extinguishers today, one onevery floor, one close to the
garage or grill.
Wherever you're, you're doingyour cooking, because you don't
want your kids to be caught in asituation where they're trying
to to help and I think theirnatural response would be water,
water yeah, for sure, and theycould really get hurt really
(38:11):
quickly that water will justsort of like it'll cause like
little explosions when you putit on there so um, you know,
it's okay to try.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
I mean, it could be something else that caught, like
on the grill.
Maybe it was like your theglove that you had right there
that caught.
I mean, who knows, maybe waterwill put it out, but uh, the
extinguisher would be best.
Usually it's an abcextinguisher, which are just
different types of extinguishersbut that's kind of the general
home one.
It sort of encompasseseverything, um, but just you can
get the medium one.
It's not huge like the firedepartment has, and it's not
(38:41):
just a little itty bitty, butjust to have several around the
house and know where they are.
Yes, just read real quick tooof how to use it, because you
got to pull a pin first beforeyou can use it and aim it and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yes, okay, okay, good advice.
Good advice Well let's talkabout that after action review
that you use.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
For sure yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
You know, emergency responders use what is an after
action review.
You have an incident, and thenwhat?
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah.
So we call it an AAR, or afteraction report, after action
review, and it's basically sortof like in sports when the coach
would say, hey, after a game.
It's like, hey, what did we do?
Well, what do we need to workon?
And then you go to practice andyou work on those things right,
but you also try to better thegood things, and so you know, we
have a lot of examples growingup, of course, of an AAR.
(39:27):
We just have the official wordfor it.
So we'll have a fire, even likea maybe a more intense medical
call or something to whereusually a chief or a safety
officer or your lieutenant orcaptain will say, hey, we're
going to do a quick AAR, and webasically just get together.
And oftentimes they ask eachperson hey, from your
perspective, how do you thinkthat went?
(39:48):
And each person will say, hey.
So I was with this crew, wewere assigned this task.
Here's how it went.
Maybe you know it was hard toget over the radio.
The communication was wasmuffled and we couldn't figure
it out, so we kind of just hadto do what we thought was right
initially.
Um, maybe, for that creweverything went well, right,
okay, we thought it was great,and so you kind of go around and
(40:09):
talk to each person and,generally speaking, and
hopefully it's the case wheremost things went well hey, you
know we're trying to do this, sohopefully most things went well
, yeah, but there's usuallyalways something for the next
one that you can make a littlesmoother, a little better, and
if it's trainable versus likehey, these cars were parked and
we couldn't get around orwhatever If it's trainable it's
(40:30):
like, hey, let's go throwanother ladder, because it just
wasn't that efficient when weput the ladder up against the
house initially or whatever.
Then we go train on it andhopefully that next time it's
just one step better, one stepbetter, and you continue to do
the things you did right.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Awesome.
So you're looking back at whatjust happened, everybody's part
in it, everybody's perspectiveof how it went, and then
figuring out what do we want todo the same next time because it
worked.
And then, what do we have roomfor improvement on and can we
train ourselves to improve inthat area?
for sure hello, family life.
If you're listening to this,think about the car ride to
(41:06):
school.
You can do an aar on that.
Think about, uh, havinggrandparents over for the
weekend.
They're staying the weekend and, uh, you know how did that go.
How did you guys enjoy it?
What do you wish that, uh, youcould do with them next time
they're in town or whatever?
And I imagine that this wouldbe, you know, going from one
(41:28):
thing to another in family life,I feel like most of the time
we're not looking back at whatwe just did, we're just focused
on the next thing and we don'tmaybe take the intentional time
to review something that we justdid.
We're just focused on the nextthing and we don't maybe take
the intentional time to reviewsomething that we just did.
And so what a lot of ourfamilies that participate in our
(41:48):
coaching and our community hereat Families of Character do is
a weekly family huddle.
I think you and Lydia are alsodoing the weekly family huddle,
and so what a great platform tojust integrate an AAR, right?
It's just like, hey guys, whathave we done?
Maybe it's out of the ordinarythis week?
Let's just take a look at thatand review it and figure out
(42:09):
what we can do and what we wantto keep.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
And I didn't realize back then, but as kids my
parents would do AARs everynight at dinner, because we
always ate together and havedinner when there wasn't sports
and other things going on.
But when we did eat together,all at the table, all 10 of us
um, it's almost exactly the same.
My dad and mom would sit at oneend you know they're next to
each other and we'd almost sitin order of age in a weird way,
(42:33):
but maybe not.
But they would go around andsay, hey, I want you to tell me
about your day at school.
And they would usually saytheir day at school.
Hey, what?
was something good that you didfor someone else or what was
something just good in generalabout the day, and one fun
example that one of my othersiblings use is a chocolate chip
, which is your God moment.
And so you say you know how didyou see God either work through
(42:55):
you, work through someone elsetowards you, or whatever it was.
You know what was a positive,what was a negative and what was
your chocolate chip.
And so if there was a negative,um, especially with really
young kids, it's really cute,you know to whatever like.
Oh, I dropped my pencil.
You know, I don't know, likesometimes they just don't know
what the negative is and, um,you can then say in that moment
(43:15):
oh okay, well, how can we turnthat into a positive, or how can
we keep that from happening?
Or you know, even if it'ssomeone else that you feel like
did something wrong to you well,do you know that person?
Can you maybe reach out orwhatever?
Whatever the steps are, and ifit's not, we can pray for them
or we can maybe do somethingdifferent so that they don't
react in that way.
So, in a fun way, my parentsactually did that all the time
(43:40):
growing up and now a lot of mysiblings I'm sure all of them do
that.
Now.
You go around the table, justlike we do at work.
You know the leader goes aroundthe table and you talk to the
parents about your day and thesiblings, and it's like the same
thing as an AR.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yes, You're training them from a young age to number
one.
Recognize the good.
Let's celebrate the wins, guys.
Right, I mean, this was a bigfire.
What did we do?
Well, right, it's the samething in a first grade classroom
.
You know like, hey, you thankedMrs Joseph for doing such and
such.
That is wonderful, that's a win.
(44:14):
What was something that washard, right?
So you're just conditioningkids at a young age to notice
the good, recognize where theycan improve, right?
This is sort of like anexamination of conscience, you
know, on a mild level.
It's just where can you dosomething different and do you
owe anybody an apology, or isthere something that you could
do to improve your role on theteam here at work or with your
(44:39):
family, so that everybody workstogether more smoothly, and this
is, we have better outcomes?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Absolutely, and I think the AAR is almost just a
condensed version of whatparents do every day anyway.
So if you see your son, youknow, pick up a bag that someone
dropped at the grocery store orhold the door open for someone
or whatever, you probablycompliment them oh, thank you,
that was so nice of you forholding the door open for them.
And then if they, you know,like me as a young kid, I would
(45:05):
break things or whatever, andthen you'd get in trouble for
breaking something or say, hey,don't throw that's an object
that can break you know, it'snot a ball or whatever.
Yes, and so if you condense thatall down, at the end of the day
it would be don't throw mom'sdecorations because they will
break.
Good job holding the door openfor someone.
And you know you're basicallyjust listing it out, but you do
(45:25):
it throughout the day withoutmaybe realizing.
This is just a way, maybe foreveryone to sort of collect and
realize what happened today as awhole.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yes, and this is bringing awareness to kids.
It's helping them with theirexecutive functioning skills.
Right, If I assess how I didtoday, that helps me plan for
tomorrow and this is a skillthat many of our kids are
leaving home without is theability to plan, to see what's
coming next and then to beprepared for that.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
So this is a gentle, natural, organic way of just
conditioning to them for that.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
I love that.
That is so good, okay, well,we've covered the whole gamut,
man from burning hot tub, swimstructures, to what it looks
like to be gifted in an area andto just naturally respond to
God's call in your life and thenseek a career that matches up
(46:26):
with your past and then alsojust like, okay, the reality of
family life and going indifferent directions and
circling back up and how can wemake good use of our time and
kind of assessing and doingthose AARs?
in order to prepare our kids andto have that unity and that
(46:47):
connection in the family.
So, garrett, this was awesome.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me, it was apleasure.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yes, thanks for blessing us and we're going to
link a little article aboutThanks for blessing us and we're
going to link a little articleabout about Garrett here in our
show notes so that you can seethis in.
You know, live this fire, theflames, the news interview that
he did.
I think it's a really importantconversation with our kids
(47:27):
about seeing a need and fillinga need.
So please be sure to have theseconversations with your kids.
Have a family emergencyreadiness plan at your
fingertips.
Discuss it in a weekly familyhuddle fingertips, discuss it in
a weekly family huddle.
And just remember that you arevery much equipped to prepare
your kids on how to step in andhelp out in just a moment's
(47:49):
notice.
So if you feel like you're not,you know you're not there or
you don't have that historyyourself.
There's always room to improveand to learn and to journey
along together, to be thatperson to see a need and fill a
need.
So if you found this helpful,please share it with people in
your circles and you can alwaysvisit our website,
(48:10):
familiesofcharactercom.
And again, thanks for joiningus for another episode of the
Families of Character show.
We'll catch you again real soon.
Hey parents, welcome back to our show.
Listen, what would you do ifyou noticed something wasn't
quite right while you're just inyour backyard minding your own
business doing yard work?
Well, today in studio, ourguest firefighter, garrett
Golish, trusted his gut andjumped into action when he saw
(00:24):
smoke drifting through hisneighborhood, while off-duty
from his own home.
His story reminds us thateveryday heroes are the ones who
pay attention and take action.
So this episode is all aboutseeing a need and filling it,
(00:44):
not only in emergencies, but ineveryday family life.
Garrett also is going tointroduce us to a powerful tool
used by first responders theAfter Action Review, or AAR, and
you're going to find out howyour family can use it to build
stronger teamwork, communicationand readiness.
(01:08):
So at the time this interviewairs in September, it's National
Preparedness Month, so there'sreally no better time to help
your family get equipped forwhatever comes your way.
So welcome to the Families ofCharacter.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Show Garrett, Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
It's an honor.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yes, absolutely, garrett.
Take us back to that day inyour backyard.
This was just a few months ago.
But if you can kind of putyourself in that situation, tell
us a little bit about what yousaw and what made you stop and
think like something's not righthere for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So I was in my yard actually talking to one of my
sister-in-laws because I hadcalled her to wish her a happy
mother's day and that's just theday that we were able to chat
um and we were talking aboutcampfires, because her sons like
campfires, and we were talkingabout how to put them together
and keep them safe andeverything.
And I'm out in the kind of theside yard and I see a little bit
(02:08):
of a haze.
It was super light at first andthe first thought I had was oh
great, spring and summer inColorado, lots of wildfires.
We always get that haze thatyou can't see the mountains you
can't really see you know, toofar away and very quickly I'm
(02:28):
like that's a bit too thick, toofast for sure, and it doesn't
usually come that often.
You know that early.
And the second thing thathappened was that I smelt it,
and you don't usually smell thehaze very much, at least to that
extreme Right, and so I justsort of walked to where it was
coming from, because the windwas blowing towards me towards
my house and at that point Icould see around my house like
(02:53):
very dark smoke and at thatpoint I thought I don't think
that that's a smoker or a grill.
Um, it's just too much.
And so I wanted to go sort ofinvestigate, uh first.
That's why I told mysister-in-law I said, hey,
there's actually a fire in myneighborhood.
So this has been great.
But I've got to let you go so Ican go figure this out.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow, okay.
So you're talking to yoursister-in-law about a campfire.
All of a sudden you see haze.
Then you smell it and you'regoing, and I know where you live
.
You live in an area wherepeople may or may not, you know
close by be burning trash orsomething grilling out, like you
said.
But you're going, this isdifferent and you assess that
(03:39):
this, the smoke is comingquicker and you can smell it,
and so you just hung up thephone and started heading the
way of the smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah.
So I basically ran down mydriveway and as I got, or yeah,
down my driveway, down thecul-de-sac and as I saw kind of
from that angle, it's like adark kind of building smoke.
That is just like no, there'ssomething on fire.
For sure, it's definitely not asmoker, it's definitely not
just a couple branches thatsomebody cut and they're
(04:04):
lighting in their little firepit or something.
So at that point, that's when Istill had the phone in my hand,
but that's when I called 911and said, hey, I don't know what
the house is yet, but there'sdefinitely.
In my opinion, the house is onfire at this point, based on the
amount of smoke.
And then I just ran through acouple of neighbors' yards, just
kind of heading towards thatspot and honestly trying to
(04:24):
avoid being right in the middleof the smoke because it was
blowing towards me.
So I kind of did like a littlebit of a banana swing to get to
that yard and then that's kindof what I saw.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Wow, OK.
So what was what happened next?
Like, walk us through what youdid.
You see this fire.
It's coming from the back ofthe house.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, so it was the back of the house.
So I ran through the front yardof a house that faces me,
through their backyard, and itwas basically like the caddy
corner or the opposite end, sokind of the backyards met a
little bit at the corner.
(05:05):
So I saw that it was a littlebit more concentrated to a spot
and I could kind of see the backporch door and so I kind of ran
around the north side of it andI realized it looked like some
sort of hot tub or somethinglike that that was fully
engulfed at that point and therewas somebody there, an older
gentleman, that was like kind ofgrabbing the hose and kind of
looked like they weren't sure ifit was on or trying to use it,
and I thought that was thehomeowner, and so I quickly just
(05:28):
went up to him and said like,hey, let me you know, cause I
could feel the heat and I'mpretty far away from it.
And so as I go up to him it'slike, oh, it's way too hot to be
where he is right now, and sowhen I kind of grabbed him, I
pulled him to the side and youcould see that he had, like
since, like the hairs on hisface and some on his chest and
his eyebrows and everything, sohe had been a bit too close,
(05:49):
obviously, and he was just alittle bit out of it, and so I
was thinking smoke inhalation,like she's just going to be a
little altered, and so I'm like,hey, are you the old homeowner?
They're wondering what thisaddress is, and I don't know,
because I ran through some yardsyou know, I know they can ping
my cell phone, but he was justkind of like I don't know.
I'm like is there anyone inside?
And he's like I don't know.
(06:10):
You know, it seemed like hejust was a little off.
So I thought, okay, he had somesmoke inhalation, we need to
get him out of this environment.
And so I had him go with mearound, basically to the front.
And that was after I grabbedthe hose and put just a little
bit of water on it because Ijust thought maybe I could help
a little.
But at that point, you know,your hose is too small for that
(06:31):
big of a fire really.
And so I tried to just spray acouple of things around it to
keep it wet, but mainly to gethim out of the environment.
So I got him out, we went tothe front and then the homeowner
answered the door and, um, shewas like, is this my house?
like, is there something wrongin my yard?
Um, and so, uh, I guess she wasdownstairs working out.
(06:52):
She had kind of checked on theguy working on their hot tub.
That was the worker, actually,that's what I found out.
And then she thought, all right, my one-year-old sleeping in
the basement with me.
Uh, you know, in the room nextto me I'm gonna run on the
treadmill for about 20 minutes.
Um, and then we have a coupleof dogs, and so she didn't
really see anything, cause shewas down in the basement.
And so she um, I just kind oflike went in and told her I was
(07:13):
a firefighter cause I was hopingshe would trust me in that way
and, um, and tell her I was aneighbor as well and just say,
hey, is there anybody else?
Let's just get them out thefront, it's okay, like it hasn't
entered the house yet, it'ssomething outside.
So she grabbed her kiddo, wejust sort of shoved the dogs out
, you know, and just sort ofwent down to the street which is
pretty far offset from herhouse.
(07:34):
So she basically just went to adifferent neighbor's yard and
then at that point it was prettystraightforward.
I mean, I went and just kind ofdid what I would do if I was on
duty at that point.
You know it was like okay, I'mgoing to go open these gates,
I'm going to tell dispatch thatthey can pull the line on the
south side, because the northside has a tall retaining wall.
It'd be hard to get over.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Okay, and then I just kind of helped out.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know they showed up and I just kind of helped
them flick out the hose.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You know, it was pretty straightforward at that
point.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I went and took a couple more looks to make sure I
could give dispatch, like hey,it is starting to hit the house
or not, right?
I mean, it kind of lit thefence there was like this little
garden area and it melted thegutter and it blew out a couple
windows.
So you heard a couple likeexplosion sounds.
It blew out like three or fourwindows, but other than that,
(08:23):
the actual house with the stuccokind of bubbling, it didn't
actually like catch the house,which was awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So inside the house there is a woman, her
one-year-old child, two dogs,and she has no clue about what's
happening, right in herbackyard, similar to me.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
She said oh, sometimes we get a haze in
Colorado.
I just thought that's all itwas.
I could see through, like thelittle window in our basement,
and I just thought, okay,whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Wow.
So with your experience as afirefighter and just observing
how quickly it was kind ofspreading around and the type of
fire it was let's say youhadn't shown up and this guy
wasn't able to do anything tohelp how quickly would that have
spread to her home, do youthink?
Yeah, in a matter of minutes.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So what I found out later was that it was actually a
swim spa, so quite a bit biggerthan a hot tub, because it's
kind of full length and you canswim against kind of that
current that blows towards youthan a hot tub, because it's
kind of full length and you canswim against kind of that
current that blows towards you.
Well, it started to actuallycatch a couple of their
cottonwoods on fire and so itjust sort of escalates, right.
So if it had gone to the eastof where it was, it's sort of
open field, native grass andtrees, so that can be like a
(09:30):
wildfire, which it's springcolorado, right.
So it's windy, so it's awind-driven fire.
It really pushes it hard.
And then on the other end yousaw that the gutter was melting,
the stucco was bubbling and thewindows were breaking.
So you give it, you know, maybea handful of minutes, a slight
shift in wind direction, whichthe wind does, and maybe part of
(09:52):
the house starts to catch,because the fence leading up to
the house was on fire at thispoint, and so a couple of
minutes maybe, and then maybethe house would have started to
catch, and you know, and reallywhat's going to get you first is
the smoke.
That's like for sure the thingthat will kill you first,
because generally that's whatyou either see, first you inhale
it.
It's really dangerous, um, andso that's actually what kills
(10:13):
the most people is smokeinhalation.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I had no idea.
Yeah, so you don't?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
you don't usually die in a fire because you got
burned.
It's usually because youinhaled a bunch of smoke.
And if you hate inhaled toomuch and you're trapped in your
house, sure, then you might passout and eventually you may get
burned, right.
But you'll actually die moreoften at least, or get sick of
smoke inhalation.
So it's more like with thosewindows shattering, well, now
(10:37):
smoke can enter the house andyou definitely want to avoid
that.
So I don't know, it's hard tosay a handful of minutes maybe,
wow.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Just think you're in your backyard minding your own
business.
You see this smoke andsomething just prompts you
internally to go go now.
Go check this out.
Yes, we know you're afirefighter.
So, you have some experience inthis right, you can recognize
it easier than the rest of us,but I mean, what do you think
it's your day off?
Like you didn't have to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Oh man, it's kind of funny because people actually
talk about that at work, becausethere's a balance of mental
health that a lot of peopleeither need and for all of us,
right, you know, it's kind oflike any other profession.
If somebody were to call youevery day on your off day and
ask you questions about it, Imean that's just draining, it's
a lot Sure and so, but for me Idon't know, I'm still just young
(11:33):
and love my job still, orwhatever.
But I still will stop ataccidents, I still stop when I
see some sort of problem, that Ithink that me as a human, or me
with some experience orknowledge medical knowledge, as
a paramedic as well that maybe Ican help in a situation and I
think I truly love being afirefighter and paramedic that
(11:55):
any opportunity just is it'slike an automatic, it's like the
Holy spirit like literallypulls my body towards the scene.
There's no stopping it, there'sno delaying or like, oh, should
I go over there and help?
You know, I just go and yeah, Ijust.
I think it's totally stillsomething that I willing to go
help, I guess.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's innate in you, it sounds like, and as a man, as
you know, god created us verydifferent men and women and we
believe that, and inside of aman is this desire and this need
to rescue and protect andprovide.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, we run towards the danger to try to see if we
can help and women are morenurturing and they can keep kids
away from the fire.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Right, right, which was beautiful that you were able
to do both.
You were able to rescue the momand the kid and the dogs and
then go fight the fire and letthem, you know, be in a safe
place while you were helping out.
Wow, I just wonder too, growingup, some people may be going
like why are we talking about,you know, rescuing this?
This woman and her one-year-oldand dogs from this neighborhood
(12:59):
fire right On the families ofcharacter show.
But it really sparked somethingin me pun intended, I guess
sparked something, but I wasjust thinking like the average
ordinary neighbor may have justthought you know, that's
probably Joe cooking somethingon the grill, or I'm sure
(13:19):
somebody's burning trashsomewhere, and I'm also sure
that someone's probably alreadycalled 911.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And we did ask one neighbor and that's what they
thought, because myfather-in-law showed up at some
point and he went and asked aneighbor and he said, hey, what
did you think that all was?
And he's like I thought it wasa big smoker that somebody was
using.
I thought they were justburning some branches you know,
and it's just all that like, um,like, just exactly what you
(13:45):
said, yeah that's exactly whatit was actually making
assumptions.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think we can do that, and part of it is just
like well, I don't want to getin their business or I don't
want to make a big scene, ifit's okay.
But I think it's more importantto err on the side of caution.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And if there's something happening in your
neighborhood go check the factsright.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So often we are making stuff up.
I call it MSU-ing, right?
We just take a situation and wejust make stuff up about it,
and then we excuse ourselvesfrom the responsibility of
having to do anything about itand the next thing you know?
I mean I can't imagine how youwould feel if you just kept
(14:25):
talking to your sister on thephone.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Oh, man, I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
And then realize it was a house fire or something
similar.
There's a mother and a baby inthe basement and you could have
done something.
That'd be horrible, there's noway.
Right, right, terrible.
And so I think this is soimportant for us to just really
expose this story to parents andkids, because we want to train
(14:51):
our kids to be able to see aneed, to identify something's
not right here in myneighborhood or at my school,
and then give them the courageand confidence to speak up or to
move their body in action, tospring forward and help people
right.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
We were called to love our neighbor.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And that doesn't mean just being like, oh, you're so
kind, here are some flowers.
It's like really loving themand serving them in times of
need and checking things out andbeing of service to them.
So did your parents likegrowing up if there were parents
listening and they're goinglike, how do I get my kid to
(15:30):
care?
Right, how do I get my kid toeven notice, like, look up from
their video game or their youknow cell phone or whatever?
How are you raised?
What did you witness with yourparents?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
So I'm the seventh of eight kids and there were a
couple of miscarriages betweenme and my older sibling, the
next older sibling, so they werea little bit older, and so I
just had great examples ofpeople doing awesome things, I
mean even now, you know,becoming parents.
I have great examples ofparents because all of those
(16:03):
siblings are parents, you know,and so I think, each of them in
their own way, including myparents, um, you know, they
always go out of their way tohelp people and they do it in
different ways.
I mean, one sister, you know,went out of the country to
volunteer and other sisters willdo things locally, and it's
just, I feel like, leading byexample, they didn't make it an
announcement.
(16:23):
It wasn't like, hey, I'm goingto go help with the food bank or
I'm going to go donate this orthat.
It's like they would just do it.
We'd kind of find out, or I'dsee them go do it silently,
right, silent servant, and itwas just kind of the way,
obviously, that our parentsraised us.
I mean they were examples firstand then we followed them and I
think the little things mattertoo.
(16:46):
You know, just fixing somethingsmall that you see that's
broken.
I mean, there's a good quote.
I feel like I heard it when Iwas really young, but it said
you should never walk pastsomething you could have fixed.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Because if you have the ability to fix it.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Why wouldn't you just quickly fix it, Even if it's
simple stuff like the loosehandle in the kitchen cabinet or
whatever right, it's like justgo grab a screwdriver and fix it
real quick.
And that obviously grows to howcan I make a bigger impact than
the kitchen handle?
And it's like, hey, there'ssomething I could do.
Someone's pulled over.
(17:21):
It looks like they're fixing atire.
Maybe I could at least offer itlike, hey, you got this, or can
I help you?
Yeah, and it just sort of thatconsistency too, is like, oh,
this is what we should normallybe doing, and so, as I grew up,
I feel like I just sort offollowed in their footsteps,
honestly yes, you, you mentioned, just leading by example, right
, having people to model for youservice and not to be afraid,
right?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I think so often in this day and age we're like, oh,
I see somebody that's pulledover on the side of the road,
but what if they're scary?
What if they do something toharm me?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Right and as a woman.
Maybe we should, you know becautious, cause things have
happened.
Sure, so I get it.
You got to have a little bit ofthat, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
But at the same time, trusting that if I am, you know
, kind of following theprompting of my conscience, the
Holy spirit, whatever you wantto call it, and I feel compelled
to help, then trusting thatyou're going to be okay, and
then maybe this person reallyneeded just you right at that
time.
And so I like the example.
(18:18):
You're talking about smallthings, the handle on the
cupboard door.
You know, just you mentioned toyou have a sister that is just
so thoughtful, she's, shelistens, and you know we'll give
little things, little skittleson your seat.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's Valentine's day or something just like just
something to serve someone in asweet way.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So, um, that's awesome, and I hear that, like
you, just wouldn't have it anyother way.
Like you, you couldn't just sitback and there's no way yeah,
there's.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
there's a few stories that I barely remember as a
young kid, that my mom loves totell, and I don't know if you
want me to share?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yes, please, I love these stories.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So one I was pretty young, I think, I don't know,
five or six or something, I mean, pretty young and I was in my
parents' bedroom, my mom wasgetting ready and I was just
sort of like playing with sometoys or something, and I think
at one point she said therewasn't really, or maybe I wasn't
playing with toys because sheactually handed me a crucifix
and thought, oh, I can have himplay with this, I guess, or
(19:25):
whatever.
Well, the story is that I kindof remember that, but I don't
remember like quite everything.
But she came back and I had thecrucifix, jesus and the nails
and she was like initiallyreally upset because it was like
a nice crucifix, it was a gift,like all these things you took
it apart yeah and she goes likeyou know, what did you do?
(19:47):
and I guess my response was likeI was helping Jesus get off the
cross, you know.
And so I don't know if there'slike, um, that's just how I've
always been where it's like, ifI believe that there's something
I can do to help, I'm justgoing to do it, whether, whether
that was the right thing to do,whether I just ruined you, I'm
sure my dad put it back together, I'm sure.
But you know things like that,you know.
(20:08):
And then the only other onethat she loves to tell a lot I
was 12 years old and I had justfinished at St Mary's, a little
10 where we went to grade school, a babysitting class, and in
that class you also have alittle bit of CPR, the Heimlich,
you know, obviously some goodlike situational awareness, you
know, don't let the kid leaveyour sight, like all that kind
(20:28):
of stuff.
Well, my mom picked me upthere's just her and I and we
went to a McDonald's to getMcFlurryries, just to kind of
celebrate, like sweet.
Now you're going to babysit andit's great.
And while we're there, findingout a little bit later, this is
an 80-year-old woman thatstarted choking and you know,
I'm sitting there eating my foodand my mom was actually the one
that was like Garrett, garrett,like she's choking.
And I kind of look over I'mlike, oh, like she was just kind
(21:01):
of staring forward and I walkedover to her and I asked her if
she was choking, and at thatpoint then she started pointing
to her throat and was likenodding, yes, and so I pulled
her out of the booth, did theheimlich, it removed the object
and I was like, hey, you know,you're doing better now.
And she's like, yes, thank you.
And you know, I went back toeat my mcflurry.
You know, I was like, sweet,that's how it's supposed to work
, right, you do the Heimlich andit works.
And of course my mom was justlike, well, yeah, you just saved
her, or whatever.
I'm like, well, I don't know,it's like there was a need and I
(21:23):
went and fixed it.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And of course then she chatted with us and it was
awesome, but just crazy that itwas like an hour before that I
learned how to do the Heimlich,you know like it was nuts to
think that it was going tohappen that quickly.
And so those are two storieswhere, it's like, you know, I
just sort of, I guess, saw aneed.
And the second one, my momreally told me that there was a
(21:46):
need and so, again, leading thatby example, she knew that I
probably knew the Heimlich atthat point or knew that I could
help, and so she prompted me tohelp, which is just and I'm
going to listen to her.
Obviously right, she's my momand she always helps people, so
I think that's kind of like thebig takeaway.
I guess I would say, wow, wow.
It's just to like, just try,like, just help.
I mean, obviously she wouldhave just passed out and like it
(22:07):
would have just kept escalating.
Yes and as a parent listeningto your story as a young boy at
five and then 12, helping jesusoff the cross, dude you're
nailed.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, I gotta get like that looks like it hurts.
And then, okay, mom, thislady's choking.
I've got to use my skills.
I just learned they're freshhere we go, let's try this yeah,
you know.
it just reminds me of how godreally gifts us in unique ways.
There's some kids that wouldjust be like terrified or they'd
be crying if they saw somebodyin need like that, or wouldn't
(22:41):
even notice Jesus on the crossin that way Right and um and so
for us as parents, just beingable to kind of observe our kids
and take time to notice whatare?
things that they naturally areinclined towards.
Because I have a child who's 18, almost 19.
Just helping him kind ofdiscover what he you know, what
(23:05):
his gifts are and what histalents are and and how to align
that with a career is just areal thing.
We don't want our kids outthere floundering or just trying
to to write, you know, earnenough money to to meet these
certain standards or whatever.
But really, um, life getseasier when you're working in
(23:25):
the gifting that God has Totallythat's more fun.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
You're like you're good at it.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, You're like I, maybe I'm just still young,
still young, I still love my job.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I'm like no, Garrett, I think you landed on like what
.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
God gifted you with early, so also, I mean, I wasn't
expecting the conversation togo this way, but when you
graduated high school, did youfeel pressure to like go to
college and to do what people inyour class were doing?
That may have been differentthan what you did.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean a little bit were doing.
That may have been differentthan what you did.
I mean a little bit, um,because most of my classmates
went to a four year college, Umand I and I also played sports
and had college.
Uh, college scholarship offers,um, to play that sport and
things like that, and, um, atthe time, I really just didn't
want to like, for whateverreason.
I'm like man, I like school isgreat and I love education, of
(24:22):
course, but the four year systemwas just like.
I don't know if I want to go dothat yet, you know so.
At the same time, though, someof my siblings, who all went to
four year colleges at least at aminimum we have siblings,
masters and things like that butthey actually told me like,
like, hey, it might not besomething you need to do, like
it's.
It's almost like the intro towhat's currently happening,
where, like trade schools orcertain crafts that you can
(24:44):
learn, versus getting afour-year degree, can be just
fine and just suit you just fineyeah for some people that want
a specific thing, yeah, it'sgreat, go to that college and go
get it.
but, um, for me, I actually wentand I wanted to learn Spanish,
because I'm working inconstruction, because it was one
again something that you seesomething needs to be fixed or
done, and then you go fix it anddo it, and maybe that I thought
(25:05):
that's what I was maybe goingto do the rest of my life.
I don't know.
In construction I had a fewco-workers that only spoke
Spanish and me only speakingEnglish.
It was just hard.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So I'm going to go learn Spanish, you Spanish and
me only speaking English.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
It was just hard.
So I'm like, well, I'm going togo learn Spanish, you know.
And so I went and learnedSpanish, um, and volunteered a
little bit, kind of following ina couple of sister's footsteps,
and um, that's just kind of howit went for me.
And then I just went to tradeschools after that for paramedic
and fire and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Wow, so what?
Where did you learn Spanish,Did you?
Just so?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I asked a professor that some of my siblings had
known a Spanish instructor orteacher and he said Guatemala
was sort of just where he wouldrecommend, just based on kind of
how the language is, becauseevery country right has their
dialects, their flow, slang,it's like sometimes you know I
forget which word it is um, andthey recommended he recommended
(25:56):
guatemala.
So I quite literally justlooked online.
It's kind of similar to just mebeing like okay, this is what I
need to do, so I'm just goingto do it.
And so I looked online andfound a website that's like yeah
, you can go down there, we hookyou up with a host family and
you volunteer and take a spanishcourse while you're there, and
so, not that I would probably dothis the same way, but I
prepaid for everything notreally knowing this website.
(26:18):
I mean I was 19, 18 at the time.
And then I, about five daysbefore the trip is four and a
half months, I went and told myparents that I needed a ride
because I sold my truck I sawyou because I paid for
everything.
So I sold everything I hadbasically to save up for this
few thousand dollar trip orwhatever.
And so I told my mom I think itwas four or five days before
(26:41):
the trip hey, I'm going to be inGuatemala for four and a half
months learning Spanish.
I need a ride to the airport.
She's like wait what?
And that's just part of kind ofgrowing up.
And being brutally honest, asmy mom has always said, is one
of my lovely qualities, I'm sure, but also, just OK, I need to
do this.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So I'm going to go do it Right.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
And once I really want to do something, sometimes
I have like that track vision Iwant this and I'm going to put
everything into it and get thatgoal, and so that's just kind of
how it's always been.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
So I did that Guatemala, and then I did the
kind of similar thing incolumbia the next year.
So I was 19 and then 20 when Itraveled.
So awesome, and I'm hearingthat you made these choices
pretty independent of yourparents and that one of the
things that, um, they offeredyou was like full financial
independence, right Like youwant something you got to pay
for it, you might have to sellyour favorite truck or your
starter truck or whatever, ifyou want to go do this thing
(27:42):
which is another thing that Ifeel like isn't happening
anymore.
It's very rare that parents arelike you're totally on your own
.
You got to work for this, youknow college is on you.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
That's an approach that that josh and I have taken
with our oldest, and we've seenthe same kind of um drive in him
it's like well, if I want toget it done, I have to do it,
and I think it started withlittle things like hey, you know
, you're, I think.
I don't think I got a cellphone until I was 15 or 16 like
I was driving right, yeah, and Iand I get that.
maybe it's a little bitdifferent now but for the most
(28:13):
part that's hopefully what we'regoing to sort of implement as
parents.
But it's sort of started withlike, hey, here's the basic
phone and if you want adifferent phone, you're going to
pay for it and I would pay formy own phone plan.
Um, of course they would helpme pitch it.
I mean, you're, you're under 18.
You're not really working thatmuch like a little bit,
especially in the summer, but Imean there's going to be times
(28:34):
throughout the year where youjust don't have any money, and
so of course they would help outa lot.
Um, but there are definitelytimes where it's like, hey, you
had a full tank of gas at thebeginning of the week and you
chose to do all these extrathings with friends or whatever,
and so now you need to put thegas in like we going to fill it
up, that's right.
Obviously, if I need to get toschool, it would sort of be like
(28:55):
here's a little bit to do it,but it's like slow
implementation, which I thoughtis good, just to kind of help
start that responsibility of OK,money in, money out.
How do I save?
How do I?
You know, and that's kind ofhow you know, lydia's my wife's
really good at that.
Yes, yes, and I'm learning more.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well, you're.
You both are on a great track.
I want to hear, too, about justyou know.
Circling back to the storyabout seeing a need, feeling a
need, being a firefighter You'retrained for emergencies but,
like families, generallyspeaking, are not trained for
emergencies.
For sure this is kind of crazyto think about but you send your
(29:40):
kids off to school and theyhave fire drills right at the
school and they know exactly howto get out of the classroom
Exactly how to do it.
Yep what it sounds like where togo, who the line leader is, and
then you ask a family.
So what's your plan If you havea fire?
What happened?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Dad drives mom.
Dad tried to get out of thehouse, yeah they just run and we
don't we've been for ourselvessure, sure, like natural
instincts is what we're relyingon.
That's right, that's right.
what are a few things thatfamilies can do to prepare
themselves for an emergency, inyour opinion, as being for sure,
and I guess, to start to giveadvice on something like this, I
(30:16):
always recommend, like, go lookit up, go find a reputable
source, of course, because Idon't want to give advice that
ends up being slightly off ornot quite exactly what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Sure sure.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
But just kind of the basics would be always have two
ways out of every room in yourhouse.
So, for example, every bedroom,even to be a bedroom, has to
have an escape window or atleast something that you can
crawl out of or get out of.
You have to have more than oneway to get out of it, okay, so
it's kind of a basic.
The second thing would be smokealarms.
(30:46):
They're making it even moreintense, like, instead of just
one in the hallway by thebedrooms, within whatever it was
like eight feet or so, it'slike one in each bedroom and in
the hallway and you know.
So just more of those, just tomake sure, um, checking them.
You know we've run a lot ofcalls in the fire department
where smoke alarms are going off, but it's not because of smoke,
it's because they're 10 yearsold or the batteries are dead or
(31:08):
something like that.
So sometimes it's just makingsure you check those often and
then talking with the family,hey, if we're upstairs and
there's a fire down here, howare we going to get out?
And so one thing that we havein our house we have two of them
is like an escape ladder.
You know, you just hook it tothe kind of the windowsill,
throw it over the window andobviously you can kind of
(31:29):
picture your own house likewhere's going to be the best
place to do that?
Hopefully there's some grass ormulch or something to where, if
you kind of miss a couple ofsteps, you're not getting too
badly hurt.
And it's not like you'reconcrete and you're 20 feet in
the air, 10 feet in the air,whatever, right, and so I think,
having a few of those things,but also just talking about it,
I mean some people have nevertalked about- it.
(31:50):
Right.
And so I think just in general,like, hey, here's how we can
get out of these situations, andthen here's the meeting point.
So for like in our situation,it would just be like our
cul-de-sac, like out in themiddle, maybe on the sidewalk by
another family's house, yes, soyou're far enough away and if
you know, when emergency showsup, fire, police, everybody
(32:12):
you're out of the way you're notblocking, they're not sitting
there air horning you you knowso and as an adult and as the
parent you know you would be theone calling 911 and just trying
to remain calm, knowing thatwhen you do call 911, which is
something I wouldn't recommendeveryone practices, obviously,
because that'd be the bombard911.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
But there are certain things that they will ask you
immediately.
So, knowing those things, youknow what, what's the location
of your emergency?
Um, what is the emergency,things like that to where,
knowing where you are, theaddress, as I learned in this
one, I just didn't know exactlythe address yes it's hard
because it does take a while tothen ping your phone, like it
just takes a little bit longer.
(32:54):
But the nature of of the call,the location of the call.
They'll ask certain things likethat right off the bat, and so
just kind of being calm andcollected, but also having that
information in the back of yourmind for when you do call.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
And when you said like just being calm and
collected when you're talking to911, answering their questions,
because they're going to promptyou, right?
Not just coming up with yourown thing, but just waiting for
them to kind of ask the question.
Answer wait.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And it's easier said than done.
Sure, in the moment, youradrenaline is going to be way up
.
It's going to be so hard to becalm, it's just getting some of
those basics Exactly Perfect.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Well, and I imagine you know, we have an escape plan
we have.
Just last year, duringSeptember, National Preparedness
Month, we bought the emergencyladders that go in the kids room
and we actually took videos ofthem oh sweet.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Because sometimes there's that fear of like I'm
going to step over the ledge andyou know which I?
Love.
I think heights are just fun,honestly, but it's still like
when you take that first stepyou have to be really confident
and secure that you're not aboutto just topple over.
It is actually pretty intense.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yes, and then just practicing how you get out of
the upstairs and which door yougo out of depending on where the
fire is was really eye-openingfor our kids and how to just
sort of link to each other sothat we're all going the same
direction.
And then also identifying aneighbor, like a block away that
we talked to, to say, hey, incase of an emergency, we're
going to come to your house.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
It's out of show, perfect.
You know, I think, some of thesome of the other things.
You know some people have morethings than other people.
In general, their house mightbe a little bit an easy cause.
We see, obviously, a bunch ofvarieties of home and having a
good access, you know a goodpathway or having access to the
front door and the back door andnot having stuff around the
(34:44):
stove.
You know that's flammableespecially, and you know even
simple things like when you'recooking, if the handles are
pointing outward it's easier tobump that it's.
You know just things like thatto where you're just being
preventative.
I think a lot of things I tellmy family members when they ask
is they ask about how close canthe grill be to the house?
(35:05):
Because grill fires are just,they're common right, and so I
ended up looking it up because Iwanted to make sure I was
giving a good recommendation,because I had just overheard at
work, and basically your grillshould be at least 10 feet from
the home and your fire pitshould be 20.
That's like give or take itsays 10 to 25, but it's like
okay.
So the grill is 10, fire pits20.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
And that's 20 feet from like everything 20 feet
from the tree right there, 20feet from your wood fence you
know, and then obviously ideallyyour fire pit would have like
rock and other stuff around it,but in general you know, the
grill can have pretty big flamesand it's a grease fire, so it's
actually very hard to put out.
You have to use chemicalsusually to try to smother it
versus water and it's just.
(35:47):
It can be a pain, obviously,especially if it's up against
your house or underneath like anoverhang, and you know at that
point you're not going to touchit or push it.
It's all metal basically, right, so you're not gonna.
It'd be way too hot.
So keeping things away from thehouse, um, you know girls are
great, but just keep them about10 feet away from you, my eyes
(36:07):
are probably huge Cause I'mgoing the greasy, you know 80,
20 hamburgers were thrown onthere.
Cause yeah, and then.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I'm sending my 13-year-old out there to tend it
and he's like man, this is cool.
The flavor I'm like ugh.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
And for most people how old is your grill?
You're not going to replace itall the time.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I'm not saying I recommend you replace it all the
time.
It's like 10 years old.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
But they're usually at least 10 years old.
Oh, and so you're like yeah,there's a lot of grease buildup
and sometimes it just happens.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Okay, so real quick.
What do you do for a grill firewhen you've got grease on fire?
So if you have an extinguisher.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
That can work, it can help, but usually families only
have well, I guess that was theother thing.
I have fire extinguishers onevery level of the house,
including the garages, butthey're usually the smaller
homeowner ones, right?
They don't last that long, um,and so you might be able to put
a good knock on it as kind of anew phrase that we're maybe
using.
Um, you might be able to knockthe fire down a little bit, but,
(37:06):
um, especially with the lidclosed, you know it still has
enough air to kind of keep thefire going.
So you might not even be ableto get to it necessarily.
Um, but that's kind of the bestthing you do is use your fire
extinguisher, um, something thatactually works more as like a
blanket to try to smother it umversus water cools fire.
That's how it puts out the fire.
It cools it down.
(37:26):
Um, and it just doesn't workwith you know kitchen fires,
usually things like that, and so, um, at that point it's like
you do your best, but if you'renot getting it, hopefully
someone else is calling 911while you're trying to put it
out, okay, and at that point youjust try to figure out, like,
is it safe enough for me to keepdoing this, or do I kind of
(37:46):
need to back out and let FirstSpinner show up?
Firefighter show up.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yes, yes, okay, folks , get your fire extinguishers
today.
Extinguishers today, one onevery floor, one close to the
garage or grill.
Wherever you're, you're doingyour cooking, because you don't
want your kids to be caught in asituation where they're trying
to to help and I think theirnatural response would be water,
water yeah, for sure, and theycould really get hurt really
(38:11):
quickly that water will justsort of like it'll cause like
little explosions when you putit on there so um, you know,
it's okay to try.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
I mean, it could be something else that caught, like
on the grill.
Maybe it was like your theglove that you had right there
that caught.
I mean, who knows, maybe waterwill put it out, but uh, the
extinguisher would be best.
Usually it's an abcextinguisher, which are just
different types of extinguishersbut that's kind of the general
home one.
It sort of encompasseseverything, um, but just you can
get the medium one.
It's not huge like the firedepartment has, and it's not
(38:41):
just a little itty bitty, butjust to have several around the
house and know where they are.
Yes, just read real quick tooof how to use it, because you
got to pull a pin first beforeyou can use it and aim it and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yes, okay, okay, good advice.
Good advice Well let's talkabout that after action review
that you use.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
For sure yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
You know, emergency responders use what is an after
action review.
You have an incident, and thenwhat?
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah.
So we call it an AAR, or afteraction report, after action
review, and it's basically sortof like in sports when the coach
would say, hey, after a game.
It's like, hey, what did we do?
Well, what do we need to workon?
And then you go to practice andyou work on those things right,
but you also try to better thegood things, and so you know, we
have a lot of examples growingup, of course, of an AAR.
(39:27):
We just have the official wordfor it.
So we'll have a fire, even likea maybe a more intense medical
call or something to whereusually a chief or a safety
officer or your lieutenant orcaptain will say, hey, we're
going to do a quick AAR, and webasically just get together.
And oftentimes they ask eachperson hey, from your
perspective, how do you thinkthat went?
(39:48):
And each person will say, hey.
So I was with this crew, wewere assigned this task.
Here's how it went.
Maybe you know it was hard toget over the radio.
The communication was wasmuffled and we couldn't figure
it out, so we kind of just hadto do what we thought was right
initially.
Um, maybe, for that creweverything went well, right,
okay, we thought it was great,and so you kind of go around and
(40:09):
talk to each person and,generally speaking, and
hopefully it's the case wheremost things went well hey, you
know we're trying to do this, sohopefully most things went well
, yeah, but there's usuallyalways something for the next
one that you can make a littlesmoother, a little better, and
if it's trainable versus likehey, these cars were parked and
we couldn't get around orwhatever If it's trainable it's
(40:30):
like, hey, let's go throwanother ladder, because it just
wasn't that efficient when weput the ladder up against the
house initially or whatever.
Then we go train on it andhopefully that next time it's
just one step better, one stepbetter, and you continue to do
the things you did right.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Awesome.
So you're looking back at whatjust happened, everybody's part
in it, everybody's perspectiveof how it went, and then
figuring out what do we want todo the same next time because it
worked.
And then, what do we have roomfor improvement on and can we
train ourselves to improve inthat area?
for sure hello, family life.
If you're listening to this,think about the car ride to
(41:06):
school.
You can do an aar on that.
Think about, uh, havinggrandparents over for the
weekend.
They're staying the weekend and, uh, you know how did that go.
How did you guys enjoy it?
What do you wish that, uh, youcould do with them next time
they're in town or whatever?
And I imagine that this wouldbe, you know, going from one
(41:28):
thing to another in family life,I feel like most of the time
we're not looking back at whatwe just did, we're just focused
on the next thing and we don'tmaybe take the intentional time
to review something that we justdid.
We're just focused on the nextthing and we don't maybe take
the intentional time to reviewsomething that we just did.
And so what a lot of ourfamilies that participate in our
(41:48):
coaching and our community hereat Families of Character do is
a weekly family huddle.
I think you and Lydia are alsodoing the weekly family huddle,
and so what a great platform tojust integrate an AAR, right?
It's just like, hey guys, whathave we done?
Maybe it's out of the ordinarythis week?
Let's just take a look at thatand review it and figure out
(42:09):
what we can do and what we wantto keep.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
And I didn't realize back then, but as kids my
parents would do AARs everynight at dinner, because we
always ate together and havedinner when there wasn't sports
and other things going on.
But when we did eat together,all at the table, all 10 of us
um, it's almost exactly the same.
My dad and mom would sit at oneend you know they're next to
each other and we'd almost sitin order of age in a weird way,
(42:33):
but maybe not.
But they would go around andsay, hey, I want you to tell me
about your day at school.
And they would usually saytheir day at school.
Hey, what?
was something good that you didfor someone else or what was
something just good in generalabout the day, and one fun
example that one of my othersiblings use is a chocolate chip
, which is your God moment.
And so you say you know how didyou see God either work through
(42:55):
you, work through someone elsetowards you, or whatever it was.
You know what was a positive,what was a negative and what was
your chocolate chip.
And so if there was a negative,um, especially with really
young kids, it's really cute,you know to whatever like.
Oh, I dropped my pencil.
You know, I don't know, likesometimes they just don't know
what the negative is and, um,you can then say in that moment
(43:15):
oh okay, well, how can we turnthat into a positive, or how can
we keep that from happening?
Or you know, even if it'ssomeone else that you feel like
did something wrong to you well,do you know that person?
Can you maybe reach out orwhatever?
Whatever the steps are, and ifit's not, we can pray for them
or we can maybe do somethingdifferent so that they don't
react in that way.
So, in a fun way, my parentsactually did that all the time
(43:40):
growing up and now a lot of mysiblings I'm sure all of them do
that.
Now.
You go around the table, justlike we do at work.
You know the leader goes aroundthe table and you talk to the
parents about your day and thesiblings, and it's like the same
thing as an AR.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yes, You're training them from a young age to number
one.
Recognize the good.
Let's celebrate the wins, guys.
Right, I mean, this was a bigfire.
What did we do?
Well, right, it's the samething in a first grade classroom
.
You know like, hey, you thankedMrs Joseph for doing such and
such.
That is wonderful, that's a win.
(44:14):
What was something that washard, right?
So you're just conditioningkids at a young age to notice
the good, recognize where theycan improve, right?
This is sort of like anexamination of conscience, you
know, on a mild level.
It's just where can you dosomething different and do you
owe anybody an apology, or isthere something that you could
do to improve your role on theteam here at work or with your
(44:39):
family, so that everybody workstogether more smoothly, and this
is, we have better outcomes?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Absolutely, and I think the AAR is almost just a
condensed version of whatparents do every day anyway.
So if you see your son, youknow, pick up a bag that someone
dropped at the grocery store orhold the door open for someone
or whatever, you probablycompliment them oh, thank you,
that was so nice of you forholding the door open for them.
And then if they, you know,like me as a young kid, I would
(45:05):
break things or whatever, andthen you'd get in trouble for
breaking something or say, hey,don't throw that's an object
that can break you know, it'snot a ball or whatever.
Yes, and so if you condense thatall down, at the end of the day
it would be don't throw mom'sdecorations because they will
break.
Good job holding the door openfor someone.
And you know you're basicallyjust listing it out, but you do
(45:25):
it throughout the day withoutmaybe realizing.
This is just a way, maybe foreveryone to sort of collect and
realize what happened today as awhole.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yes, and this is bringing awareness to kids.
It's helping them with theirexecutive functioning skills.
Right, If I assess how I didtoday, that helps me plan for
tomorrow and this is a skillthat many of our kids are
leaving home without is theability to plan, to see what's
coming next and then to beprepared for that.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
So this is a gentle, natural, organic way of just
conditioning to them for that.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
I love that.
That is so good, okay, well,we've covered the whole gamut,
man from burning hot tub, swimstructures, to what it looks
like to be gifted in an area andto just naturally respond to
God's call in your life and thenseek a career that matches up
(46:26):
with your past and then alsojust like, okay, the reality of
family life and going indifferent directions and
circling back up and how can wemake good use of our time and
kind of assessing and doingthose AARs?
in order to prepare our kids andto have that unity and that
(46:47):
connection in the family.
So, garrett, this was awesome.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me, it was apleasure.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yes, thanks for blessing us and we're going to
link a little article aboutThanks for blessing us and we're
going to link a little articleabout about Garrett here in our
show notes so that you can seethis in.
You know, live this fire, theflames, the news interview that
he did.
I think it's a really importantconversation with our kids
(47:27):
about seeing a need and fillinga need.
So please be sure to have theseconversations with your kids.
Have a family emergencyreadiness plan at your
fingertips.
Discuss it in a weekly familyhuddle fingertips, discuss it in
a weekly family huddle.
And just remember that you arevery much equipped to prepare
your kids on how to step in andhelp out in just a moment's
(47:49):
notice.
So if you feel like you're not,you know you're not there or
you don't have that historyyourself.
There's always room to improveand to learn and to journey
along together, to be thatperson to see a need and fill a
need.
So if you found this helpful,please share it with people in
your circles and you can alwaysvisit our website,
(48:10):
familiesofcharactercom.
And again, thanks for joiningus for another episode of the
Families of Character show.
We'll catch you again real soon.
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.