April 15, 2025 • 10 mins
Fire-Dex, provides innovative PPE customized to keep firefighters safe. A family-owned company that is committed to the health and safety of first responders. Partnered with their sister company, Gear Wash, the largest Independent Service Provider of PPE care and maintenance in the world, their mission is “to serve those who serve."
Steve Allison took over operational responsibilities for the company worldwide. Allison is a 28-year veteran of the fire service personal protective gear manufacturing and sales marketplace. He joined the company in 2014 to serve as Director of Sales then was promoted to VP of Sales & Marketing in 2016. Fire-Dex continues to grow with a facility expansion finalizing this year.
Steve Allison took over operational responsibilities for the company worldwide. Allison is a 28-year veteran of the fire service personal protective gear manufacturing and sales marketplace. He joined the company in 2014 to serve as Director of Sales then was promoted to VP of Sales & Marketing in 2016. Fire-Dex continues to grow with a facility expansion finalizing this year.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is our radio CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You should know.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Keith Hodgkiss. And when your business is making protective
equipment for fire departments all over the US, your business
really is saving lives. We talked to Steve Allison about
the incredible work that Fire Decks, a Cleveland company, does
every day and how much it means to firefighters and
their families. Steve, we were talking earlier about the meaningful
(00:24):
work that you do at Fire Decks. Right, You're helping
save first responders lives, right, and that's got to be
rewarding in this day and age. Right it is.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I mean, you know, our mission statement is to serve
those that serve very clear to all of our associates
at Fire Decks. It's very clear to our customers that
we really take a servant leadership position and how we
provide ppe and how we design it, the quality of
the manufacturing, and how we focus on trying to protect
the first responders. So it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Stuff first responders, including fire Does that include police ems?
Can you talk a little bit about you know, your
product lines?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I guess yeah, clearly, you know, ninety nine percent of
our focus is on fire, but certainly there are applications
in which law enforcement and military use fire type of products.
So we do get into those spaces, but we don't
do specific things for military and for police. So it's
ninety nine percent fire.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So fire Decks in Medina, Ohio, and I imagine too,
you know, there was a tremendous we think about running
into a burning building or burning home, but there's also
the wildfire situation that's become a lot more and I
imagine you've had to develop products that are helping those
folks as well, right for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So when you think about the product portfolio that fire
Decks provides, that's anything that a firefighter would wear, so
you know, head protection, hand protection, foot protection, and then
the body. The body can be for protective equipment, for
interior firefighting or for wildland firefire. The reality is his
most activity that fire departments do are not structural fires,
(02:06):
their motor vehicle accidents, their grass fires, are wildland fires,
things like that. So we have to provide a full
ensemble of all the ppe that a firefighter needs.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's interesting. I guess I wouldn't have thought that you have.
The majority of fires are not in a building or
a home, right.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, less than ten percent of what a firefighter is
faced with from a hazard's perspective is actually fighting a fire.
I tell people I've been doing this a long time.
I've been doing this thirty five years. Here. Ask a
lot of people when was the last time you saw
a building on fire? And depending upon how old they are,
they may say I've never seen a house fire. It
goes building codes and all the protections that we've designed
(02:43):
in have really done a great job. So the fire
department's main focus a lot of times it's not fighting fires,
but doing a lot of other emergency services, some of
that being ems as well, like the city of Cleveland
provides EMS and so a lot of fire departments do
the medical transport that work as well.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We're talking with Ceveallis and the CEO of Fire Decks.
Can you talk a little bit about the company, the culture,
how this company grew to be doing this important work
for firefighters.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, So we've been blessed to be in business for
this is our forty second year. As we've been in business,
we've got four manufacturing facilities, we've got any other thing
that's important for folks to understand is the Fiedex business
designs PPE and manufactures PPE. But we also have another
business called gearsh What gearwash does is firefighters. Of course,
(03:33):
they get their PPE dirty, they break things, they tear things.
So our gearwash business does the cleaning and repair of
the PPE as well. So we've got these two businesses
that fall under the Fire Decks ultimately the Fiedex brand.
So we've got four manufacturing facilities and in our gearwash business,
we've got fourteen locations throughout the United States that we're
(03:53):
growing as well. And so here in Madina we've got
excuse me, the entire associate out for the companies about
five hundred and fifty. Here in northeast Ohio, we've got
about two hundred associates.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's great where Fire Decks is serving customers all over
the US. Can you talk about how about how many
fire departments you serve? I imagine they're your customers, right,
the fire chiefs and those folks that are doing purchasing, right.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Sure, So you know in the United States there's about
thirty thousand fire departments. Pretty much every one of those
fire departments have a product from Fire Decks. When you
think about the entire head to toe ensemble, or if
they're using gear Watch. So we tell people pretty much
one hundred percent of the fire departments throughout the United
States have some contact with our company. We just try
(04:38):
to sell them more products and services. That's our goal.
As we continue to grow and get more and more successful.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
What do you see as some of the more advancements
in technology to keep people safe, like what's happening down
the road.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, so this has been a journey that we've been
on for the last few years. So we've had phenomenal
growth the last five to ten years. Most of that's
been anchored in material science in which we're trying to
lighten up the ppe for the firefighter. So again another
fact that most folks don't know about their fire department
is most line of duty deaths are from cardiovascular stress
(05:16):
on their cardiac events. And so we lose about one
hundred to one hundred and ten firefighters a year in
the United States and most of it's a cardio event.
And so what we've been focused on is lightening up
the load for the firefighter, keep their core temperature down,
keep their blood pressure down as they're doing very strenuous work.
And so you know that one degree of core temperature
(05:37):
or that blood pressure spike is very hazardous to the
wear and to the users. And so what we've developed
is a product that allows us to lighten up the system.
The products called tech Gen And not to get too
deep into it, but how the product works is that
blocks the heat on the outside, so you can lighten
up the system, make it lighter, more flexible on the inside.
(05:59):
And that's how to huge impact. Firefighters understand that, they
understand the concept and they've really adopted it across the market.
So moving forward, I see the next development around material
science being the biggest impact that we'll see happen.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, I mean, look, you're talking about hotter than ever
wildfires that are happening more and more areas of the
country and Canada for example, and they are very unpredictable,
and so anything you can do to help lighten the
load and make it easier for these brave men and
women is a great thing. Where do you see as
far as like expansion for other product lines continuing to go?
(06:37):
You mentioned tech Jen, Are there other products that you're
going to be expanding in for other departments?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, I think you know. Right now, we continue to
look at the product portfolio, and you'll see things like
you know, for example, wildland firefighters. One of the other
hazards that firefighters have outside of cardiovascular stress, is a
very high rate of cancer. And so one of the
things that the industry has been working on is how
do we make sure that we block particulates either getting
(07:02):
onto the firefighter or inhaling those. And so wildlin firefighter
is a fighting is a place in which we're doing
some neat development in which we're not only having the
thermal protection to block the heat, but also particulate blocking.
With some next generation of nanotechnology, it'll block the particulate's
getting onto the firefighter. So that would be I think
(07:24):
one of the most obvious thing is we continue to
see more and more Wildlinde firefighters of having a particulate
blocking jacket and pant that's lightweight for the wildline firefighters.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
This is really meaningful work. Steve Allison, CEO of Fire
Decks providing high quality and important life saving PPE equipment
for firefighters and other first responders. Steve, you know, one
of the things we talk about on CEOs you should
know is how folks in these industries, you know, there's
stressful jobs you're supporting people that have stressful jobs, and
(07:54):
being the CEO is stressful. How do you find time
to sort of center yourself and grind yourself in work?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, I think, you know, we really got to focus
on the culture. You know, at fired X, and I
think all of the companies that have long term growth
suc success, it's always anchored in healthy culture and powerful cultures,
cultures that feed the associate in the customer base and
then how the culture gets fed by the associates and
(08:22):
the customer base. And so my role as CEO is
really to make sure that the culture is healthy and
strong and vibrant as we move forward. So staying grounded
for me is making sure that we've got great transparency
about the mission statement which we talked about to serve
those that serve understanding our core value. So our core
value acronym is fire and it is fun, integrity, respect
(08:47):
and excellence and making sure that we have that in
front of our customers as well as our associates. And
so when the stressful times do come, the playbook is
pretty simple, you know, serve those that serve, have fun,
have high integrity, respect each other, including our customer as
well as excellence and if you keep it simple, it's
(09:07):
just like any play in a playbook. Depending up on
what your sport is, you're able to go back to
that muscle memory and the organization will excel and do
well in those RESTful times.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I'll be honest, it sounds like a great place to work.
Maybe I'll look into places, but obviously, as you're hiring,
can you talk about the website and how people can
get ahold of you and see where and potential customers
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, please come to our website www dot firedex dot com.
All the social channels Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel. I'm sure
there's another channel I'm missing, but certainly all of our
social channels are very active and folks can come find
us there.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's been great talking with you today, Steve Allis and
CEO of fire Decks doing meaningful work to protect our
fire men and women first responders as well. So Steve,
thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
All right, thank you, and this.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Has been IHET Radio CEOs. You should know today's show
was produced by Bob coatesaid, I'm Keith Hotchkiss. We'll see
you next time.
This is our radio CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You should know.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Keith Hodgkiss. And when your business is making protective
equipment for fire departments all over the US, your business
really is saving lives. We talked to Steve Allison about
the incredible work that Fire Decks, a Cleveland company, does
every day and how much it means to firefighters and
their families. Steve, we were talking earlier about the meaningful
(00:24):
work that you do at Fire Decks. Right, You're helping
save first responders lives, right, and that's got to be
rewarding in this day and age. Right it is.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I mean, you know, our mission statement is to serve
those that serve very clear to all of our associates
at Fire Decks. It's very clear to our customers that
we really take a servant leadership position and how we
provide ppe and how we design it, the quality of
the manufacturing, and how we focus on trying to protect
the first responders. So it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Stuff first responders, including fire Does that include police ems?
Can you talk a little bit about you know, your
product lines?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I guess yeah, clearly, you know, ninety nine percent of
our focus is on fire, but certainly there are applications
in which law enforcement and military use fire type of products.
So we do get into those spaces, but we don't
do specific things for military and for police. So it's
ninety nine percent fire.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So fire Decks in Medina, Ohio, and I imagine too,
you know, there was a tremendous we think about running
into a burning building or burning home, but there's also
the wildfire situation that's become a lot more and I
imagine you've had to develop products that are helping those
folks as well, right for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So when you think about the product portfolio that fire
Decks provides, that's anything that a firefighter would wear, so
you know, head protection, hand protection, foot protection, and then
the body. The body can be for protective equipment, for
interior firefighting or for wildland firefire. The reality is his
most activity that fire departments do are not structural fires,
(02:06):
their motor vehicle accidents, their grass fires, are wildland fires,
things like that. So we have to provide a full
ensemble of all the ppe that a firefighter needs.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's interesting. I guess I wouldn't have thought that you have.
The majority of fires are not in a building or
a home, right.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, less than ten percent of what a firefighter is
faced with from a hazard's perspective is actually fighting a fire.
I tell people I've been doing this a long time.
I've been doing this thirty five years. Here. Ask a
lot of people when was the last time you saw
a building on fire? And depending upon how old they are,
they may say I've never seen a house fire. It
goes building codes and all the protections that we've designed
(02:43):
in have really done a great job. So the fire
department's main focus a lot of times it's not fighting fires,
but doing a lot of other emergency services, some of
that being ems as well, like the city of Cleveland
provides EMS and so a lot of fire departments do
the medical transport that work as well.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We're talking with Ceveallis and the CEO of Fire Decks.
Can you talk a little bit about the company, the culture,
how this company grew to be doing this important work
for firefighters.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, So we've been blessed to be in business for
this is our forty second year. As we've been in business,
we've got four manufacturing facilities, we've got any other thing
that's important for folks to understand is the Fiedex business
designs PPE and manufactures PPE. But we also have another
business called gearsh What gearwash does is firefighters. Of course,
(03:33):
they get their PPE dirty, they break things, they tear things.
So our gearwash business does the cleaning and repair of
the PPE as well. So we've got these two businesses
that fall under the Fire Decks ultimately the Fiedex brand.
So we've got four manufacturing facilities and in our gearwash business,
we've got fourteen locations throughout the United States that we're
(03:53):
growing as well. And so here in Madina we've got
excuse me, the entire associate out for the companies about
five hundred and fifty. Here in northeast Ohio, we've got
about two hundred associates.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's great where Fire Decks is serving customers all over
the US. Can you talk about how about how many
fire departments you serve? I imagine they're your customers, right,
the fire chiefs and those folks that are doing purchasing, right.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Sure, So you know in the United States there's about
thirty thousand fire departments. Pretty much every one of those
fire departments have a product from Fire Decks. When you
think about the entire head to toe ensemble, or if
they're using gear Watch. So we tell people pretty much
one hundred percent of the fire departments throughout the United
States have some contact with our company. We just try
(04:38):
to sell them more products and services. That's our goal.
As we continue to grow and get more and more successful.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
What do you see as some of the more advancements
in technology to keep people safe, like what's happening down
the road.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, so this has been a journey that we've been
on for the last few years. So we've had phenomenal
growth the last five to ten years. Most of that's
been anchored in material science in which we're trying to
lighten up the ppe for the firefighter. So again another
fact that most folks don't know about their fire department
is most line of duty deaths are from cardiovascular stress
(05:16):
on their cardiac events. And so we lose about one
hundred to one hundred and ten firefighters a year in
the United States and most of it's a cardio event.
And so what we've been focused on is lightening up
the load for the firefighter, keep their core temperature down,
keep their blood pressure down as they're doing very strenuous work.
And so you know that one degree of core temperature
(05:37):
or that blood pressure spike is very hazardous to the
wear and to the users. And so what we've developed
is a product that allows us to lighten up the system.
The products called tech Gen And not to get too
deep into it, but how the product works is that
blocks the heat on the outside, so you can lighten
up the system, make it lighter, more flexible on the inside.
(05:59):
And that's how to huge impact. Firefighters understand that, they
understand the concept and they've really adopted it across the market.
So moving forward, I see the next development around material
science being the biggest impact that we'll see happen.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, I mean, look, you're talking about hotter than ever
wildfires that are happening more and more areas of the
country and Canada for example, and they are very unpredictable,
and so anything you can do to help lighten the
load and make it easier for these brave men and
women is a great thing. Where do you see as
far as like expansion for other product lines continuing to go?
(06:37):
You mentioned tech Jen, Are there other products that you're
going to be expanding in for other departments?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, I think you know. Right now, we continue to
look at the product portfolio, and you'll see things like
you know, for example, wildland firefighters. One of the other
hazards that firefighters have outside of cardiovascular stress, is a
very high rate of cancer. And so one of the
things that the industry has been working on is how
do we make sure that we block particulates either getting
(07:02):
onto the firefighter or inhaling those. And so wildlin firefighter
is a fighting is a place in which we're doing
some neat development in which we're not only having the
thermal protection to block the heat, but also particulate blocking.
With some next generation of nanotechnology, it'll block the particulate's
getting onto the firefighter. So that would be I think
(07:24):
one of the most obvious thing is we continue to
see more and more Wildlinde firefighters of having a particulate
blocking jacket and pant that's lightweight for the wildline firefighters.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
This is really meaningful work. Steve Allison, CEO of Fire
Decks providing high quality and important life saving PPE equipment
for firefighters and other first responders. Steve, you know, one
of the things we talk about on CEOs you should
know is how folks in these industries, you know, there's
stressful jobs you're supporting people that have stressful jobs, and
(07:54):
being the CEO is stressful. How do you find time
to sort of center yourself and grind yourself in work?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, I think, you know, we really got to focus
on the culture. You know, at fired X, and I
think all of the companies that have long term growth
suc success, it's always anchored in healthy culture and powerful cultures,
cultures that feed the associate in the customer base and
then how the culture gets fed by the associates and
(08:22):
the customer base. And so my role as CEO is
really to make sure that the culture is healthy and
strong and vibrant as we move forward. So staying grounded
for me is making sure that we've got great transparency
about the mission statement which we talked about to serve
those that serve understanding our core value. So our core
value acronym is fire and it is fun, integrity, respect
(08:47):
and excellence and making sure that we have that in
front of our customers as well as our associates. And
so when the stressful times do come, the playbook is
pretty simple, you know, serve those that serve, have fun,
have high integrity, respect each other, including our customer as
well as excellence and if you keep it simple, it's
(09:07):
just like any play in a playbook. Depending up on
what your sport is, you're able to go back to
that muscle memory and the organization will excel and do
well in those RESTful times.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I'll be honest, it sounds like a great place to work.
Maybe I'll look into places, but obviously, as you're hiring,
can you talk about the website and how people can
get ahold of you and see where and potential customers
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, please come to our website www dot firedex dot com.
All the social channels Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel. I'm sure
there's another channel I'm missing, but certainly all of our
social channels are very active and folks can come find
us there.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's been great talking with you today, Steve Allis and
CEO of fire Decks doing meaningful work to protect our
fire men and women first responders as well. So Steve,
thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
All right, thank you, and this.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Has been IHET Radio CEOs. You should know today's show
was produced by Bob coatesaid, I'm Keith Hotchkiss. We'll see
you next time.
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