Episode 364: The Best of The Bravest: Lt. Mickey Farrell (Volume 71)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to the Bike Did You Even podcast hosted
by media personality and consultant Mike Glow. You were listening

(01:02):
to the best of the bravest interviews with the fd
Andy's elite second show of the day. I'm not one
to do doubleheaders, but today's guest certainly made that worth it.
Welcome back. You saw me earlier this morning with Boomer
asiasin from WFN, and that was a fun one because
I used to call Boomer back in the day, hence

(01:24):
the name of the podcast. Like I explained Mike to
new Haven, I was Mike and new Haven, the kid
getting tossed off the air by Mike Francessa talking to
Joe and Evan, Steve Summers and Boomer and Carton back
in the day on FA. So that was a fun one.
This will be a fun one too, is one I've
been looking forward to for a while, and it's funny.
As I was talking about with tonight's guest off the air,
you never know who your show is reaching. And here's

(01:45):
a guy that, as I'll intro, you know, has on
Instagram alone sixty almost sixty thousand followers, has a hugely
successful podcast and he listens to mine, he watches mine,
and I'm like, man, you know, it reminds you of
why you do what you do and reinforces the value
of it if you believe in it wholeheartedly. And not
to sound off philosophical, of course, but it does mean
a lot and I look forward to this conversation. Won't

(02:07):
waste too much time. Good to see all you again
for the second show of the day, Busy day for
the Mike debav podcast. Uh and as always again so
nice when you hear it twice, you heard it earlier,
you hear him again. Billy Ryan Ryan Investigated Group. The
Mike the New Haven Podcast is proudly sponsored and supported
by the Ryan Investigative Group. If you need an elite PI,
look no further than the Elite Ryan Investigative Group, which

(02:28):
is run by retired NYP Detective Bill Ryan, a twenty
year veteran of the Department who served the majority of
his career in the detective Bureau, most notably in the
Arson explosion squad. So if you need a PI to
handle anything from fraud, legal services, and anything else that
you might require, contact Bill at three four seven, four
one seven, sixteen ten again three four seven, four one, seven,
sixteen ten. Reach him at his website or the email

(02:50):
that you see here. Again, if you need a PI,
look no further than Bill Ryan and the Ryan Investigative Group,
a proud supporter and sponsored of the Mike the New
Haven Podcast. And as mentioned before, should you be interested
in partnering up with the program, should you want to
sponsor it. Of course, my contact information is available in
the description of this episode, and I'd love to discuss
it further with you. So with that we segue into

(03:12):
the second show of the day with my next guest,
who is a third generation firefighter whose passion for the
job started in New Jersey as a volunteer and carried
him to the busiest firehouses of New York City and
the FDNY, from his early days on an engine in
Midtown to ultimately leadership roles in the Bronx, and from
teaching ProBiS to traveling the country with top floor tactics
his own companies. Made it his mission to share the

(03:33):
lessons of the fire ground with firefighters, not just in
New York City or the New York City metropolitan area,
but firefighters everywhere. And that's for this volume seventy one
of the best of the Bravest interviews with the ft
and Why's Elite FD and Y Lieutenant and host of
the View from the Top Floor podcast Mickey Ferrell. Say
it welcome, How are you, Mike, Thanks for having me,
Thanks for being here. So we'll get into as I

(03:54):
mentioned the introduction, grew up in Jersey, third generation firefighter.
I don't have to ask you where the love of
the job came from.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, really, that's all I know growing up was the
fire service. And you know, I'm so fortunate to have
the opportunity to grow up in the firehouse and have
mentors not only through my father and my grandfather, but
just their friends, just real real men back in the day,
which I think we've lost over time. But I was
very fortunate to grow up in a time in a
firehouse with that element.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Absolutely absolutely so. I mean the pathway began early for you.
Like I said, I imagine you trained early, not just
in the aspects of the fire ground, but obviously physically
as well to build yourself up. And where in New
Jersey specifically, because I mentioned it's a volunteer house, So
where specifically did you originally start?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
It was a small town just west of New York
City about sixty miles called Sparta Lake Mohawk area.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
But that's where I grew up.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
That's where my family braised me and eventually moved to
the city up from there. But you know, that's where
I grew up, with the high school there, and I
had family throughout the area, but that was my home base.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
So tell me about the fire duty out there, just
to calls in general, where it's part of the type
of department at least back then that was doing EM
mess and condition to box alarms no ems.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Is Sparta, which was kind of unique, and during that
time it was a resort town that was transferring to
more or less a year round community. So there was
some fire duty in like the lake communities as those
homes slowly deteriorated burned down shouldn't say it burned down,
caught on fire per se, and then eventually became a
year round community. So that transition was during that time

(05:22):
when I came onto the fire service.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
So of course, your dream, your ambition was the New
York City Fire Department. Living in Jersey, it's not a
gold that's necessarily out of reach right across the river.
But nevertheless, getting residency is important. Building yourself up for
that moment is important. You did that in Sparta with
the training you were getting out there and at least
gave you a basis in the background. You didn't get
out until two thousand and one, but you moved the
city in nineteen ninety nine and the prep. So just

(05:47):
tell me about going down to the city, taking that
leap of faith and really spending those two years trying
to get up.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
You know a lot of people and other friends like world,
but they went to college and I worked in the
family business. So with that, my college became going to
the city every day and just learning the streets in
New York. And it wasn't so much buffing the fire Department.
It was going and learning the culture of New York
City because I knew that was my bulls eye. That
was my ultimate goal was to be a part of that,
not just the fire apartm but I just love the
energy of the city.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I fought it very inspirational.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
So was that was my college education, the streets of
New York just going there and getting lost for hours
and finding me my way back back to home. And
so that's kind of where I fell in love with
the city and then ultimately moving there in nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
And that's something that you and I share. You know,
I'm a lifelong behave in Connecticut guy, but I live
right by the train station. So anytime, especially during the
summer months, that I can go down to the city,
I do. And naturally, of course, you know, it's funny.
My family worries it's dangerous down there, and I get that,
but nevertheless, I love walking around in the right places,
of course, and I love immersing myself in that culture,

(06:47):
feeling the energy. And I always kicked my mother. I'm like, mah,
you couldn't have given birth to me a half hour
away from here, because if I lived down in derry
Ann or Stanford, oh god, I would have applied to
the FD and Y and a heartbeat, you know. So
you two years doing that, And I'll just ask you
briefly because it segues into you being appointed a month later.
Were you in the city on nine to eleven?

Speaker 3 (07:08):
So this is a funny story.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I actually I don't think I believe ever said before
we're told on any public forum, is that I was
on the way to headquarters that morning. I was going
into the class that was supposed to be going into
the academy just after the September eleventh date.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Something was screwed up with my paperwork.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
So my investigator called me, and I went into the
city and I brought the wrong paperwork, typical me. I'm
not good with the paperwork type of thing. I get
there with the paperwork and they said this is the
wrong stuff. I needed something notarized, So I went home
to get that notarized, and I was on my way
back to headquarters that morning. And then ultimately the date
changed and forever changed the way we live. But that

(07:47):
was my last moment, was going into headquarters that day.
So I never made it into the city. I could
not get into the city as much as I tried
to that day. I was landlocked in New Jersey.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, when you moved down to the city in ninety nine,
we're whereabouts the city that you moved with specifically, you
don't mind me asking.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
My first place was in a story of Queens, did
more section, and then I did a year there, and
then I ended up at Riverdale in the Bronx, and
I spent some time there until ultimately ended up on
the upper West side of Manhattan.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
All right, some nice neighborhoods there, for sure. A story
of Queens is funny because of my guest this morning
was a WFN hoist, and that's where WFN used to
be before they moved to Manhattan Riverdale. I got a
few friends out there as well, and you can't go
wrong with the Upper West Side. I absolutely love Manhattan,
and so segues into an important date in your life.
I remember talking to Italian Chief Phil Parr, who was

(08:33):
in charge of recruitment at this time, and he said
it was amazing, and I'm paraphrasing the groundswell of people
you saw that still, even after an event like this,
wanted the job. You were going to head into the
academy anyway before this, but now the pressure's on for
the whole city. You just lost three hundred and forty
three members who you can never replace. But with those
three hundred and forty three losses now comes the wave

(08:54):
of impending retirements too, which would take place in early
two thousand and two. So it's a wordlin of the time.
Your journey officially began October twenty eighth, two thousand and one.
Tell me about before we get to the whole Academy
experience of what it was like just that first day down.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
There, as far as first day when going into the ACA,
the academy, so you know, we always hear about the
job before and after that date, but no one really
talks about the dooring. And I saw a job that
was stripped down towards rawest form, like a brotherhood, like
no mother. There's no words, just action and passion. And

(09:31):
that came from from Joe Higgins. He was the di
He was the more eleven truck guy, just a real,
real New York City fireman. So that was your first day,
was He's meeting this marine like this guy that's larger
than life, real sacrifice.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
He lost his brother at the trade.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Center, yes he did, but he was there to give
back and to rebuild that job, and that was his mission.
So seeing that in real time, it's a deeper understanding
of what it meant to be a New York City fireman.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
So that was a little different.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I always wanted that job, it was my dream job, obviously,
but you entered the academy and have a man like
that was the first first introduction to the job. It
really made you realize that and to refine the job,
that the job is so much bigger than you as
an individual.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
So at that time I know now it's eighteen weeks.
At that time though, where they still doing the program
where they would have you spend seven weeks in an engine,
seven weeks in the truck or had that kind of
gone away by that point.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
That was gone.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
So that was a few classes prior we went in.
I think at the time it was eighteen to twenty
three weeks. Our class was obviously and they needed the
manpower in the field. I think we got through there
in six to eight weeks. Maybe we were in and out.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Oh wow, So it's a very quick turnaround. You go
to MIDTALM Manhattan Engine twenty six at the time, So
just tell me about again, even without that tragedy, mid
TOALM Manhattan. No matter the time, no matter the season,
is always a busy place to be depending on where
you are. It's not just the fire duties I covered before,
a lot of pedestrian traffic. There's a lot of different
calls that you can go to for MBAs or now
with the ft andy doing ems, plenty of msdo go

(10:55):
around in a densely populated area like that. Tell me
about getting down that company, the type of calls they
were doing, type of fire duty they had, and really
the senior guys and officers who helped you learn early on.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
So when I came out of the academy, my dream
always was to go to a Bronx engine company. That's
what I always wanted. But during that time it was
very different. Obviously, right the job had changed overnight. They
needed people all over them, so it didn't really matter
who had hooks and who didn't, So you kind of
just went to backfill companies that lost people, which is
an odd thing to be that. Probably walking through that door,

(11:29):
the senior guys though of that company, some didn't even
speak to you, Some said what are you doing here?
Why would you ever take this job? And then some
embraced you with tears that are ice, thanking you for
being there. So that's when I'm talking about coming on
this job during, not before after. It was a really
unique experience to walk through those doors and then see
the faces of these men that have lost so much

(11:51):
and so happy that you're there.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
And again, you know it means a lot because it
took him especially, and I know this is going to
sound sappy, but it's true. Rather was being a New
York City police officer during that time, Port Authority police
officer during that time, or a New York City firefighter.
It'so a special person because naturally you would look at
a tragedy like that, and it's not just you, your
family saying to you, you know, if something like that
were to ever happen again, you're gonna be on the

(12:15):
front lines. You're going to be right there. Still so
many of these guys in gal some of which like
yourself are still working today, went forward and took that leap,
and which was, you know, again a very noble thing
to do during an otherwise very dark time. Now you
weren't foreign to fire duty. You had that in Sparta.
But as far as New York City firefighting is concerned,
tell me about if you remember it.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Your first box I do was smoke from a church.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
I'll never forget it, and the guy next to me
and said, don't worry, Cave, We're going to get to
wearing these calls around here. Which, looking back relatively in
the sense of that neighborhood changing over those times, that
was when the Hell's Kitchen was really changing. There was
a ton of vacant work, which at the time I
wanted more. We always want more and more and more, right,
But in that moment, I didn't realize how lucky I was.
I was going to fires. Those tenements were burning, they

(12:58):
weren't as burning as much as they liked it to be.
But I got a good base of the engine company work.
In that company, I can countless fires. Thinking back to
you think, well, could you go to an engine midtown.
It's big fires, right, and crazy fires and those lifetime
fires that you think about and you read about. But
I was going to fires and tenement work in health's
kitchens during that time, so the job was very different.

(13:19):
I'm very grateful for that volunteer, that base, that foundation
I had because the senior guys, but they're all my
dad's friends, they were great, great men, and they set
me up for success when I did get to New
York City. But it was a learning curve and it
probably as far as a tactical sense, I had to
relearn the job completely different, and that was the challenge.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
It was that transition was kind of tough.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
To be honest, I can imagine and I'll get to
of course, going to the Bronx in a moment. But
as far as high rises Manhattan, King of that pass,
Dan President, how many high rises in your district alone?
At least first do area in.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Twenty six engine? Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
We had Times Square was the first two for us,
and then we had the Empire State Building was second
to So we had that all right there.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
We had the biggest buildings in the world.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, and again, high rise firefighting is no joke. But
the FD and Y, particularly with standpipe operations, I feel
that's their bread and butter. There's a lot of other
aspects to it too. But with that many high rises
in such a condensed area, I'd be remiss if I
didn't ask you about that. So before you ended up
in forty three in the Bronx, how many years ultimately
did you do in twenty six I think.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
It was three years, maybe four years, three and a half,
four years before I got up there, remember going first
grade in forty three, making my dinner first grade fireman there,
So I think I did three and a half years
or so, all right.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
So that brings us to about four h five getting
a forty three engine in the Bronx Midt Manhattan, the
Bronx night and day. For those that don't know outside
of the New York City area, what part of the
Bronx are we talking here for forty three? What's their
first two.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Mors Heights section of the Bronx. So ten minutes, h types, taxpayers,
private dwellings. We had it all on forty three.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Engine and I imagine an increase even though you were
going a decent amount of work in twenty six, an
increase by your standards of the work in forty three. Yes, yeah, yeah,
tell me about again, fires out there. You mentioned the
building types, and just gradually as you're getting more comfortable
and that transition starts to become a little bit easier.
Just fires that stick out, or even just besides boxes,

(15:09):
other incidents of note that stick out. Working in a
very busy area like that, You.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Know, people, I just had this conversation with a friend
recently and we're talking about what a career fire was.
And this guy's from the war years, you know, he's
seen it all, really and I asked him, just in conversation,
what's that career fire you? And he laughed, he goes,
I don't know what a career fire is. Every fire
is a career fire to him.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
You know.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, during that time, we went to a ton of work,
you know, in the in the sense of where I
was coming from to where I ultimately ended up. And
I think that career fire, or those fires that stand
out are pretty much the fires that define you good
or bad.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Not always the biggest or the worst.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
It's just the ones that were your training paid off
for everything was found that moment of zen or that
an impact where you actually actually help someone in the end.
Those are my career fires. I have one or two
that really stand out. One was a Valentine ad was
you know, a row of frames going. That was a
career fire. As far as ones that really stand out,
I remember who had every position from the nozle, the officer,

(16:06):
that chief working. But ultimately those fires that stand out
to me are the ones that measured who I was
in the moment, you know, the ones that you're always
searching for and many of us get, some of us get,
and others are always be looking for that one fire.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
And I feel I love you saying that. And we're
talking with Lieutenant Mickey Farrell here and the Mike The
New Event podcast is volume seventy one, of the best
of the bravest interviews with the Ft and Wives Elite
And again, if you have a question, that chat fire
away because I feel like every fire you learn something.
Even if the fire went well, even if relatively speaking,
operations went exactly as they were supposed to go, there's
something you can take. Okay, this went well. The next

(16:44):
time we get one, let's make sure we do this
the situation calls for. And then obviously there's always room
for improvement. As someone once said, you can never learn
enough about a job that can kill you. So you
can say you can look at things and say, Okay,
we ran into this, maybe we don't want to do
this at the next box. So I like what he
said there that senior man. Every fire is your career fire,
because that's how you keep learning and growing.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, you know, I say, humility is always the fid
progression of today's fire service, and we can adapt humility
into everything we do. Every fire we go, do we
make a mistake, I don't care if you're the chief
of Department of you're the first day pro We were
making mistakes. But that's what makes this job so addictive
is because once the adrenaline wears down right, crawled the
couple hallways, put a couple of rooms out. Now we're
on the front bumper, taking up low, reflecting, and then

(17:25):
the adrenaline wears off and you start to think about
everything that you could have done better.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Every fire you go to you have this moment. Well,
I shouldn't say every fire.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
The ones that truly truly love the job, they're the
ones who have this moment with reflection. And again, that's
what it makes it so addictive, because you can't wait
for the next one to go and correct everything that
you thought you did wrong, even though from the outside
looking in, the guys that you work with probably like
that was the flawless fire. Everyone should own that moment.
And I think that the humility side of that is
when we start sharing these moments with one another. That's

(17:54):
how we collectively get better as a company.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Oh yeah, the more you know, the better you know.
And again it's night and day. How they do it
the Bronx differs from how it's done in Brooklyn, how
it's done in Manhattan, even Staten Island, you know in Queens,
which gets their fair share of work. Depending on the
areas that you're talking about, you can always pick up something,
especially considering the fact you never know where your career
is going to take you. At that segues into the
next chapter of your career. You got your dream working

(18:16):
in an engine company in the Bronxes, which you wanted.
It didn't happen right away. You started in midtown, but
eventually you got there. You could have stayed there for
the rest of your career if you wanted to, because
it sounds like you were having a ball, but you
across the floor and you started to do truck work
in fifty nine. Truck truck work is a different beasts
no matter where you are. I'll never forget one of
my deputy chiefs down here in Connecticut telling me Chief
bay Zani and shout out to him, truck work is

(18:39):
for the bulls, and he's right. You ought to be
a bull to work that truck is when it's time
to do work. It's time to do work. Tell me
about truck work in the Bronx and what the guys
of fifty nine taught you specifically.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Man and those are some of the greatest fire men.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I think anyone listening to you can agree that fifty
nine truck and the truck's in the one Ape Tie
and the Bronx in general probably have some of the
best firefighters in the entire world, and most of them
are coming from these trucks that I got to ride
with that I was working. Not only in fifty nine truck,
but you take a detail and you walk in the
the fireouse and you see walls and walls of men
doing amazing things.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Right, So, just being at these fires.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
We talk about experience all the time, right, and you
talk about these legendary firemen, But even if you're the second, third, fourth,
through truck or the fire whatever it may be, just
being at some of these fires with some of these
legendary firemen, smelling that smoke just like they smelted, or
that bitter cold on your face on a cold winter's day,
those are all experienced notions of what that fire was.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Going to fires with these giants.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Fifty nine truck has some of the greatest truck he's
ever to walk this earth. So being a young fireman
in forty three watching these guys go to work, just
watching how they performed, there was a level of professionalism
it's no other. With some of these trucks and engines too,
I'm not just cruting the engine, just that area of
the Bronx. I was working an engine in a truck.
It didn't matter. In my opinion, they were some of
the greatest firemen ever.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
And I don't disagree with that at all. I mean,
especially considering the high call volume that they were dealing with,
you know again, and that segues perfectly as well into ventilation,
forceable entry search. That's really the bread and butter of
any truck company worth its way, especially one and not
just New York City, any reasonably densely populated area, we're
gonna get a decent amount of fire duty. That's one

(20:15):
of the main priorities. It's the core of truck work.
So just tell me about again. You mentioned those guys
were some of the greatest firemen that you work with,
some of the greatest firemen in the world. How specifically,
because every truck company is different, they wanted you to vent,
they wanted you to search, and what they showed just
specifically tactics wise, any nuances, but forceable entry.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
So with the engine company, we see the under company
is the infantry of the fire service and the company
integrity in the engine company is incredibly important. If things
go wrong in the engine, if you make a mistake
in the engine, not only people die, but firemen die.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
That's something we have to understand.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
So we always discredit the engine, right, always talking about
the truck, But there's a dialed sense of performance with
the engine that's so important. Now moving over the truck though,
that's more of a dance. We're dancing our way into position.
The engine has ampo, the truck has a rhythm, and
together we find that flow state which is so important.
So with the truck it allows you to work remote

(21:08):
from the other members of the truck company. So again
that's where this humility comes into play. How many fires
do we go to We're operating remotely from other people
making mistakes in the moment.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
No one even knows about those makes.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
I can't tell you how many time, and I think
ones that are listening to our firemen, have you know,
gone to a bathroom and take a mirror glass sticking
it's a window, trying to vent that room, and you
just chocked it up and say, you know what, I'm
not telling anyone about that, but I'm pretty sure that
happened to a few truck He's listening to this right now.
So what I'm getting at is that the truck is
more of a dance, more of a waltz, where the

(21:41):
engine's more of a cadence and more of a march.
And when you find professionalism in firefighting, that's when it
all comes together.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
You know.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
I also wanted to touch on pre plan with you
because and this became and not to say it wasn't
important before, it certainly was. It became even more prescient
following Black Sunday and five to where sometimes you walk
into these buildings there's an illegal alteration, there's an illegal
apartment that you know, you didn't know anything about until
there's fire rolling over your head. So I don't know.

(22:10):
I mean, I know it's part of an engine company's
operations as well, But as far as the pre planning went,
and just the b I of course for those of
you that don't know it's building inspection went, would the
truck company do that and did that allow you to
spot some dangers before they became dangers?

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Every run I go on with my guys today, and
I think every run that I went on with the
officers that I worked for before became an officer was
a drill. We're always looking at a building like it's
on fire, regardless if it's not. Where they're on a
water leak, gast league, a CEO run, I'm looking at
that building like it's on fire. So as we're doing
our duties, we take care of the actual quote unquote
emergency in that moment. But as we're doing that, I'm

(22:45):
telling guys, take a look at that, take a look
at this. I can't tell you how many times I'm
in the building. I tell my chauffeur to go ten
eight and we're in there for five minutes, just drilling,
talking about if this building was on fire. So I
treat every building like it is on fire, regardless of
the run. So that I picked up from going to
work with someone of the greatest officers in fifty nine truck,
and I carry that on to where I work today.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I'll get a little bit to your promotion in twenty
twenty two to lieutenant. But sometimes that journey to becoming
an officer starts early on, and it doesn't matter where
you are a PD or FD if you want to
be a boss. Some people know they want to be
one early on. Some people have really good shining examples
like you've talked about and said, you know what, I think,
I want to be an officer someday. So even though
it happened after two decades, which is totally fine, you

(23:26):
had a lot of experience packed into those two decades.
Did the process start working in forty three and fifty
nine for you'd ultimately want to take that step someday?

Speaker 2 (23:35):
You know, I always think that leadership comes from within
the company, and they had some really great senior guys
that were leaders from within. And I learned that through
working with these great firemen that leadership does come from
in We had great officers as well, but they allowed
us to be led by our senior members. So that's
where it kind of came from. And then as time
progresseses like I didn't necessarily want to become a boss.
I was having so much fun being one of the

(23:56):
senior guys in a great company, teaching, learning, if you
fire were going to we're laughing and having a good time.
I loved being in the kitchen. I wasn't ready to
go upstairs. It happened over time, and I'm very grateful
for the time I did spend, and I'm glad it
did come towards the end of my career or maybe
a rebirth into my career. But yeah, like during that
time leading up to that was very beneficial of working

(24:18):
with some of the greatest officers.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
So I'll segue back to something you mentioned. Becoming a
senior guy. You blink, Oh wow, I've been on the
job ten years now, Oh wow, it's been fifteen years.
Oh wow, I'm coming up on twenty And you get
the chance to give back and learn, and not learn,
but rather teach these guys and bring them up that
are coming into the firehouse as rookies the same way,
you know, as was the case with you when you
walked into twenty six engine all the way back in

(24:42):
late two thousand and one, early two thousand and two.
So what were some of your favorite things to go
over with newer guys, Not just about of course truck
company operations and understanding that, but ultimately the firehouse as
a whole and just culture as a whole.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Buy in that was my main thing, right, just buy
into it. The outside world is really pushing into the
inside world. When it comes to the firehouse. Everything behind
that reg red door is it's sacred. We have to
buy into it though, And you know the generation coming
on the job today, they want a list of everything,
that's what the rules are and why we do things.
And I get that that's good. We should have a

(25:19):
list of rules and regulations so we're all on the
same page. But a lot of things aren't written down.
It's kind of like grandma's sauce, right, It's passed down
over time, but you don't really get to write it down,
and when you learn it, it's better than what it
was when you first learned it. But you have to
understand learning it comes from making it and making mistakes
with that sauce until it actually is perfected. Right, So

(25:40):
everything we do it's not a subsquential step in order
of success. That's the main thing with the young firemen
coming on today that I try to instill them and say, listen,
just buy in. It's all going to work out in
the end. Good people gravitate to great places, and if
you do the right thing, you will end up what
you're supposed to be. That's the cultural standpoint. The tactical
side of the young firement is just understanding getting a

(26:02):
foundation of the.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Basics is critical.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
We're so quick to look at steps ten, eleven, twelve
and read about him and learn about him. But we're
overlooking steps one through three and getting that good foundation
of the basics.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Absolutely. Our guest is Lieutenant Mickey Ferrell from a View
of the Top Floor View from the Top Floor rather
podcast and of course currently serving as a lieutenant with
the New York City Fire Department. This is volume seventy
one of the best of the Bravest Interviews with the
Ft and Wives Elite. I saw this question the chat
earlier comes from Delray fifty three, who retired as a
police officer. He was just asking in regards to you know,
NYPD cops transitioning into the New York City Fire Department.

(26:38):
We talked earlier about the difficulty that the FD and
Y face but ultimately having to get manpower in one
to oh two. He just wants to know how those
cops are treated, where they welcomed with open arms when
they were lattering over.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I think the NYPD and the FT and why we
have a great working relationship despite what many may think.
I kep looking bad to say about the b cops,
the ESCU, they're all great, great. I think that a
lot of that that AUTOMOSTI comes from years and years ago.
I think today it's a benefit having a guy from
PD coming the ft because they understand the streets. Number one,
there's an edge to New York City street that not
everyone understands and that takes time to learn. They already

(27:11):
had that edge coming into the job.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Right, So that answers you. I hope that answers your question.
Del Ray fifty three. Thank you for submitting it. So
moving forward, you know, to understand the truck as an officer,
you have to understand a truck is a firefighter. But
I also didn't want to ask you. You spent a
lot of time on it where you was chauffeur at
one point once your career progressed.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
I waited as long as I could to be a showfeer.
I'll be honest with you. I didn't go to sholf
for school to I think I had seventeen eighteen years
on the job, and you know what it was. I
had guys that wanted to go. It wasn't like we
didn't have shoulfers. But if I was up to go,
i'd so I'll go, but I'd rather someone else to go.
And the wosso always said, well, if you find someone
to take your spy, take your spot. You know, I
just wanted to be on the back step. I wanted

(27:50):
to have the irons. I just I wanted to be
that firefighter for as long as I could. I regret that, though,
I'll be honest with you, I was so one sided.
I didn't realize that taking that show for a role
was such a huge responsibility. It's learning a whole nother position.
But you are the eyes and ears of the company.
You are the eyes and ears of your officers, so
you run the company. As far as a tactical standpoint,

(28:10):
a boss is making decisions on the fly in real
time under stress. The chauffeur runs the company, though in
the sense where he goes to where the outside team is,
he fills in those gaps. He's seeing things a little
bit differently. And I didn't really understand Aggrass that and
twit took on that role and realized, just driving there
is just the beginning. Getting positioned, that's just the next step.

(28:31):
But truly being the ambassador of the fire ground becomes
the chauffeur.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
And not even that, just getting there, and with how
unpredictable New York city streets can be. That's the main
mission before anything else. Get there safely. You know, you
get taken out of the game with an MVA changes
the whole ballgame. Seconds count, seconds count. So as far
as driving is concerned, you got to know your officer.
I mean, I know what kind of differs. Sometimes you

(28:57):
have a captain on the truck, sometimes you have a lieutenant,
depending on where you are. Tell me about the you know, again,
there's one of the more sacred aspects of the FD
and why really any fire department is a relationship between
the driver, of course, and the officer up front. Telling
about the officers that you got the chance to chauffeur for.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
I've learned so much from just watching them, even talking.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
On the radio where they would talk on the radio,
just calm, cool and collective, and you know, good officers.
They were always in fifteen nine Trick, we always had
good officers there. I was almost intimidated to drive some
of these great officers because the chauffeurs that were came
before me and they were incredible. So it's really hard
shoes to fill, especially I was never a seated chauffeur,
which means you are the chauffeur. I was a filling chauffeur,
so I was the backup to our senior guy. He

(29:37):
retired with forty three is on the job, so it's
like trying to fill in that gap was almost impossible.
So I was always little intimidated. But the main thing
is a good officer. The ones I worked with, they
would calm you down. They would just say, brother, take
a breath, you know, if they felt you're going a
little too fast, or yo yo yo, and give you
a little heads up this and that. They never told
you how to position the rig. They never told you
what block to take it when not to take a block.

(29:57):
They just let you do your thing. And I for
that today where I'm operating today as the officer on
the other side of the front, and I have the
greatest chaffeurs in the world, I feel, and that comes
from my officers when I was driving allowed me to
be the chauffeur.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
And that brings us into April twenty twenty two. You
making lieutenant. By this point, you have almost twenty one
years in the job, So, like I said earlier, a
lot of experience packed into those two decades. I always
like asking this to anybody who makes boss on either
side of law enforcement or the fire department. Of course,
you're not in a permanent house yet. You're bouncing around
for a little bit, you know, until further orders. But

(30:32):
just tell me about gaining a feel for the rank
where you bounced around for a little while, and ultimately
when you finally did settle into a house, which that
house being of course forty three truck currently, when you
finally felt like, Okay, now I feel like I got
the hang of this whole fire officer thing.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I don't think I found it yet, I'll be honest
with you. I mean in rank three and a half
years now, three years or so, and every day I
go to work, I'm challenged with something. It does help
with the environment. I'm working in the neighboard and we're
is it's a very challenging place to work. The third
division where I'm at is incredibly and challenging. One day
you're in Harlem one day you're in mid tawn, the
other day on the west Side. So there's so much

(31:09):
variable in what you do. That's been a learning curve.
Where I come from Morre's Heights section and Bronx where
most of our fires were, you know, not routine, but
they would you know the fires you were going to.
Now all of a sudden you're commanding a company and
going to a building that's commercial building, class to building,
no private dwellings. But I'm being challenged every run we're

(31:29):
going to. Right, So on top of learning the codes again, right, So,
as a fireman, anyone listening to this that's studying or
on the list, I recommend study the codes because you
take it for granted, because you're your officers communicating with
the with command or the dispatch with using codes. As
a fireman for twenty plus years before I got promoted,
I kind of dismissed. I know the good codes, right,
ten seventy five, ten to seventy seven, ten seventy there

(31:50):
were the codes I knew, all those little codes that
I never paid attention to. Well, now you're in that
position to make decisions and to give reports and be
the eyes of the ears for the chief. It comes
down to understanding the codes. In the language in which
we speak. The dialect has a different type of everything
that let me rephrase that. The dialect if each burrow
is a little different, but the burrow and division you
work in is a dialect and how you speak to

(32:11):
achieve learn that dialect when you get there.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
So I'll ask you in that vein sitting in that
front seat for the first time, even if you were
bouncing around for a little bit on the UFO, as
most newly promoted officers will. In most cases at least,
do you recall your first fire as an officer and
decisions you had to make.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
That my first fire, it wasn't anything crazy, but I
was working in an engine company and I forgot to
call for water. The NAZA man call for water, and
I was sizing up the door how to force the
door for the truck. So it just shows you after
twenty plus years of working in a truck company, now

(32:47):
transitioning to the leadership of an engine company officer, there's
a big learning curve, right, So those are small little
mistakes you make in the moment that aren't a big deal.
Right when you work in a good engine company, the
NOAZA man also is going to call for water. He's
going to call for water. Right, I'll never make that
mistake again. So that was my first fire. It wasn't
a big deal. Then now he has been called for water.
I beat myself up over it, obviously, but little things

(33:10):
like that in that first fire, right and coming from
a truck to an engine I think if I had
my first fire in a truck, maybe things were a
little bit smoother.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
But you work in a good place, in a great area.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
The guys fill in the gaps when the officer is
unsure of himself, and any officer that tells you he's
unsure of something, especially in the beginning, he's lying to you,
I'll tell I mean straight up lying to you. There's
a sense of uncomfortable in this knowing that now you're
responsible for this entire company. As a fireman, you're responsible
for yourself, yes, your company, but you're worried about yourself
and getting your task done, whatever that task may be.

(33:44):
Opening the roof, getting to the rears of the old
v of course in the door, you have a task
oriented firefighting. As an officer, it's about management, it's about
being a supervisor, very different role. So my first fire,
I learned very quickly that my role as an engine
company officer is to make sure my company is safe.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
I called for water. I tell the chief we have
water on the fire. That's it.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
There's other variables like I went to that, But that's
the main key we have to worry about in the
truck company a little different.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Fighting the fire. That's our number one priority.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Locating that fire is number one for the fire officer
the truck company.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
So that first fire, do you remember?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
And every fire we go do we make mistakes, like
I said, but I'll never make that mistake again again.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Like you talked about earlier, every fire is a career
fire because there's a nugget you can take from it,
good or bad. And there was an example there. I
did want to just go back a second before I
continue talking about your career and this rebirth, and I
love how you put that earlier. As an officer, you
were a firefighter during the pandemic, so just working during
that timeframe, which was hard on everybody, especially those in
the front lines. Rather it be nurses, rather be firefighters

(34:47):
or police officers, what was that like?

Speaker 2 (34:49):
In the Bronx, we have a code ten ninety nine,
which is you know, we're not operating, we're out of service,
we're operating in a box for thirty minutes or more.
That's given for CP are most times you can give
it for other things, but that CPR is being performed
ten ninety nine over the radio. You would hear ten
ninety nine to over the radio every four or five minutes.

(35:11):
It was a NonStop so it was very challenging emotionally. Physically, yes,
but emotionally it was like the world was frozen in
time in the Bronx. Other places adapted differently, the Bronx
was frozen in time. And I can't really pinpoint it
and put it into words, but it was really like
going into a thirdwell country to work because it was

(35:32):
frozen in time and there were people dying everywhere.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
And again, I'm sorry you had to go through that,
but thank you briefly for touching on that. Now as
a lieutenant, before I get it to course forty three truck,
you've got the chance to give back, as we were
talking about a little bit off air and going down
to the prob school, and it's always a full circle
moment when somebody's able to do that, because again, before
you get to any position of note on the job, tenant, captain,
chief and so on and so forth, everybody starts there

(36:00):
going down there and teaching this new generation. You have
different classes you do just in general down there that
aren't necessarily geared towards pro beast, but geared towards guest
firefighters from other departments as well. What do you most
enjoy about teaching and is that a passion you've always had?

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Teaching was not a passion for me. I always was
into the job. I kept a journal for many years,
and you know in school, you come on and give
you a journal.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
I kept that journal throughout my career. I still keep it.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
So looking back at that journal and realizing that there
were so many mistakes made that I learned over the
time that I.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Need to be able to share these mistakes.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
So when I had the opportunity to go to the academy,
I didn't want to go. I was a firehouse guy.
We were going to fires. I was having a ton
of fun. But I gave it a shot and it
was the best thing I ever did. Probably the pinnacle
of my career was teaching at the New York City
Fire Academy. And I think when you talk to most
instructors that really embraced it, they tell you the same thing.
And it wasn't about giving back. That's a big part
of it as well. But when I look back at

(36:55):
all the firefighters that I had a part in molding
that early few weeks of their career. There's thousands of them.
So like I walk into any firehouse now in New
York City, I know one or two guys and that's
kind of overwhelming. It's humbling in the sense, but it's
overwhelming thinking like, wow, me and my team from you know,
the Academy, we've really had an impact because people still

(37:15):
pull me aside and say, oh, you were a MI instructor.
I remember this, I remember that I learned that from you.
You said this, you said that, and I remember how
influential mind structors were during that time as well. I
just talked about Joe Higgins. That was twenty four years ago.
So it's being that first face they see. It is
something that is you can't put it the words. Just

(37:35):
knowing that you are the face of the FD and
Y and these young kids are coming to you looking
at you with the biggest and brightest eyes and they
want to know everything that you can tell them. And
there's something so powerful about that.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
And even in now, in this generation, doesn't matter where
you are, there are so many people I would throw
myself in there that really doesn't matter where. Lot the job,
love the job, love the profession, and are eager to learn,
you know. And again, for as much flack as sometimes
gen Z can catch, and deservedly at times, admittedly, there
is a small segment of us that we just want
to be sponges. We just want to learn. So anytime

(38:08):
anybody's willing to teach that, and anytime anybody's willing to
pass not just a tactical aspect not but the traditions
on as well, which are just as important as we
talked about earlier. We love that, we need that. You know,
we're not going to be anywhere without that.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, I mean again, just going back to just thinking
about that as you were talking, is that Joe Higgins. Yeah,
I haven't spoken the man since that day, but I
think about it almost every day I'm gonna work. And
that's so powerful that when I go to fires, I
see people on the fire floor that are looking to
me and say, hey, that was the guy that taught

(38:42):
me this, That was the guy that taught me that.
So anyone that's thinking about possibly going to an academy
doesn't have to be the New York City Fire Academy.
Wherever you are a firefighter. Understand the engagement you're going
to have, but the impact you will have as well,
and how important and how serious you have to take it.
But the main thing is make sure that you pass
on that this job is so much bigger than an individual.

(39:04):
That's the most impact you can have someone is telling
them that this job is bigger than you. Because most
people come from whatever world they're in prior to the
fire department, it's about them. Then they come to the
fire department and they realize it's about the mission and
you have to be able to bridge that gap.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
For them, especially in the paramilitary organization that prides itself
on that. You know, again, what's the military about the
same concept passing those same traditions and values on to
the fire service, which is paramilitary. As I said, it's
just as important and just as critical. Speaking of teaching,
one of the things that's really your hallmark, and I
wanted to break it down here if we could, is
the line between safety. Of course, that's the point you

(39:43):
want everybody to go home. Like I said earlier, it
is a job that can kill you. But also making
sure that in the process of maintaining safety, aggressiveness is
not sacrificed. So for you, as an officer and as
a teacher, where is that fine line between making sure
we're safe and making sure we're still aggressive.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
You know, the word aggressive gets thrown around the fire
service often. You know, people write books on it. Some
people even have it in their mission statement from their department.
To me, aggressiveness, it's being good at your job. It's
understanding your job, it's being safe within your job. We
have this anti safety pushback and this safety culture. There's
a difference between safety overreach. That's a problem in today's

(40:22):
American fire service. Safety overreach. It's the government stepping in.
It's staff stepping in and saying we have to do this,
this and this, and with that, the civilians will be
a jeopardy, but we have to protect ourselves first, right,
that's safety overreach. The safety culture, though, is wearing your
gear the right way, getting dressed for every run the
same way, going to a fire and doing a job

(40:44):
and being good at it.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
That's safety to me.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
So that word aggressiveness versus safety, the lines get blurred
over time. So I think aggressiveness comes from many, many
years of making mistakes, correcting those mistakes in real time
discussing the mistakes with the company and then stacking them
all together, and then eventually next fire you go to,
you're gonna be able to navigate that fire a little
bit better than the last one, which from the outside

(41:08):
looking in that looks like aggressiveness, but from inside looking out,
that's just being good at your job.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Very well said, very to the point. Getting back now
to forty three truck, of course you're still in the Bronx,
so you were able to stay in the Bronx and
once you were able to settle in after the UFO
sted tell me about the first two area in forty
three and what you most enjoy about the guys you
work with.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
So forty three truck is in Spanish Harlem, across the
river and just over yeah, just over there, and we
run into the Bronx here and there.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
But it's more or less the same type of buildings.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
We don't have the big h's and that was my
bread and butter was Big H type fires.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
So I do miss those fires. But forty three truck.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Man, I can't put it into words how honored I
am to be a part of that company. That company
is a company of legends and the legends is the
other where that gets thrown around the fire service quite often.
But I get to walk up the stairs to my
office after every rum and they have a wall of
every fireman that never worked in that firehouse, and I
walk past some of these names and I'm like, Oh

(42:08):
my god, I cannot believe it work in this firehouse.
It's just that firehouse, you know. I always say, every
firehouse you work in should be the greatest firehouse. It's
twenty six engines was the greatest firehouse to me, forty
three engine best company in the Bronx, fifty nine truck,
best truck in the Bronx. Now I'm in my best
company I've ever worked in, because that's my company. Don't
be fooled when you're always looking for what the next
best thing is in life, stop and smell.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
The roses and realize you're very lucky to be where
you are.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Many times I happen to think we're the best truck
in the country, best truck in the world.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
That's my company. That's how you have to look at
this job.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
But I am in a wall of giants when I
walk up that and I can't even when I pull
up to that firehouse. Sometimes I take a breath and
just say, all right, I work here, because there's been
an ultimate dream come true. When I got promoted, I
necessarily wasn't going to take the promotion, but I said,
if I ever do take this promotion, I would love
to work a forty three truck.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
And the stars aligned and here I am. So I'm
so grateful to work with.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Not only the best senior guys that came along before
me there, but they said a standard in forty three
truck that it is still there today and the runs
we're doing, it's relentless. We're doing relentless runs on this job,
forty three truck. We're doing the most runs in the city.
And every run I get off, my guys are right there,
standard set and they're always performing. I'm so proud of them,
and I'm so proud to be a part of them.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
And once again, very well said Vicky Pharaoh's our guest
here that Mike and we have the podcast Best of
the Bravest Interviews with the Ft and Wise Elite, volume
seventy one. And thanks for saying that, because that's not
just a problem in the fire service. That's a problem,
you know, just in our culture overall, and I'm guilty.
I'm an offender in that regard, as we know. And listen,
my story is an open book. I was in the

(43:46):
Academy this year. Unfortunately it didn't work out for me,
and I was like, oh, it's six weeks left and
it sucked, and it's heartbreaking. But for as heartbreaking as
it may be, you know, as a lot of people
have told me, hey, it's not the end. Are still
young enough to be able to get the job, which
I fully intend to do. And on top of that,
look how far you've come, you know, look how far? Again,

(44:07):
there was a point in time I couldn't even bench
the bar, and I'm open about that too. Now I'm
able to bench one hundred and twenty pounds at least.
That maybe lightweight to some people, but it's a huge
step forward for me. So just even being able to
take stock and how far you've come in the previous
years and the progress you've made, and how far that
progress bar has come, as opposed to focusing on what's

(44:28):
ahead and what you haven't done. You know, it's a
mindset tweak a lot of us have got to make.
It's not just a fire service thing. But it's just
as critical to the fire service because it reminds you,
like you said, just how good you have.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, I mean, every day I go to work, I'm grateful.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
I still look down on my arm and see the
patch and say, holy man, I'm a New York City fireman.
It never gets old to me, never gets old. I
think the day when it gets old, it's maybe it's
time you shall put the paper in. But I think
that being in the moment and being a part of
the greatest far department in the world, in my opinion,
there's so much honor on that again, bigger than you,
and that was sent on from many, many years of

(45:04):
working with the greatest guise. But also looking across that river.
My grandfather was a Hoboken firement. I remember going to Hoboken.
I loved Hoboken, but looking across at that river and
saying I will work there someday.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
And then growing up.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
In the valleys, they would say, oh, you're just a
New York City wanna be And I used to always say, no,
I'm a New York City going to be And that
was my always my might come back to them, right.
But still when I'm driving to work, get to the firehouse.
I take that moment and just take a breath and say,
thank God I'm here.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
From that, you know, that first day with Joe Higgins,
all the way back in two thousand and one to
where you are now. It's quite the journey. And like
I mentioned, the introduction of you and we could talk
about it now here in depth. It's one thing to
teach at the level of terms of where you're working.
You've taught in New York City firefighters. Now to expand
that country wide, as you've done with top floor tactics
you mentioned earlier. Teaching wasn't something that was originally on

(45:54):
your radar, but it's become part of who you are
and it's grown into something quite wonderful. Tell me about
the decision to expanded to not just where you worked,
but also the country as a whole.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
So I was kind of in a slump in my career,
which sounds crazy. I'm talking so much love for the job.
And it's not that I different love the job, but
I think that everyone goes through a slump or a rut,
and they tell you they don't they're probably lying to you.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yeah, I was in that rut. I was in that slump.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Still loved being a fireman in fifteen nine, love going
to work, love going to fires, and then't won't do
anything else.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
But I started thinking what's next in life? And never forget.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
I was in my garages hanging out one night and
just scrolling through and I come across the podcast and
I said, what is this? And it was National Fire
Radio who Jerremany's become a dear friend of mine? And
I watched that and I said, what is the subculture
of society or firefighting that this exists?

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Right? So I started to reach around.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
I went on Instagram, which I had Instagram at the time,
but I didn't follow any firefighting things. And I searched
and there was a few from going back that's eight
years ago. So I go back and I find a
couple of things here and there. I started following that,
and I really, you know what, there's a subculture of
the society that I love and they love it too,
So I dove into it and again going back to
I had that stack of journals, right, So I've been

(47:10):
documenting all the mistakes, all the fires, all the successes
I've had since the beginning of I got on the job.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
So I put a couple of those.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Into writing like the outside the journal, and then I
created an alias account whinch.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
It was Top four Tactics.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
I didn't put a name to it because back then
social media and of course the way the job looks
at each other. Right, there's a funny thing about fireman.
No one hates a fireman, lind and like another fireman,
So especially to put yourself out there, it's putting a
bull's eye on your forehead, you know.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
So I didn't quite do that. Yeah, that came years later.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
But I just wrote six or seven posts, I followed them,
and then I post them consecutively for a few days,
and it just took off from there. So my writings
from my journals were being shared on a national level,
and that was remarkable. Then I became a platform to
be have the senior guy in your hand on a
national level. So everything that my senior guys have taught

(48:03):
me and all the mistakes I made, I was able
to share that with whoever wanted to read it. And
a lot of people were struggling. A lot of people
are struggling looking for that guidance, looking for that senior man.
Now the senior man is the palm in your hand.
And I think that's a remarkable way of social media
and the fire service. There's a lot of bad with it,
but there's also a lot of good.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
When you see the growth. Like I mentioned off there,
you're almost at sixty thousand followers or has to be
a momentary just say to yourself, holy crap. Much like
you look at that patch, you still feel pride of that.
You gotta feel at least the same amount of pride
with how far you've been able to grow that page.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
You know, I don't even think about the followers. The
impact is when I wake up every morning and I
have a few dms and those that are listening that
I haven't gotten back to you. I apologize because they
come in and they open and they get and they
get filed a lot of times, a lot of times
and never even get them because they get buried into
the junk mail. I just want to get that out
there because I don't have a chance to tell people
that that I'm not ignoring you.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Send it again.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
But I do wake up to dms with people saying
I have a question about this.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
From a tactical standpoint, I had a fire last night.
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Or hey man, I got this going on my life,
can you help me? Or like real personal stuff that
I can't even talk about on here, that I become
the sounding board. That's when you realize the impact you have.
So I forget about the followers a lot of times,
but I do see the reach where I am talking
to people in different countries reaching out to me, and

(49:28):
I don't know, I guess it is.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
I'm not discredit it.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
I'm just saying that the real impact comes from the
messages I received from people, or when I'm traveling in
other places teaching, people pulling me aside and say, hey man,
I really enjoy the podcast. And you don't realize, as
you know, having a podcast, you have no clue the
reach you have. You really don't until someone pulls you
aside and says, hey, I really enjoy the show. I
got this out of it, I got that out of it.
So then it feels like all these long nights you're

(49:52):
doing this and time away from your family, when you're
questioning why you're doing this, when you truly love the job,
when you love the American Fire Service, it's a good feeling.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
That's a very good feeling, and I'm grateful that you
shared that as well. A lot of good nuggets for
you tonight. And it's funny because in line of what
you're talking about on the podcast, a friend of mine,
Jerry cam retired at YPD sergeant one day made my
hear when he said, you know what, Mike Cologne is
the Henry Kissinger of the first responder community. How do

(50:22):
I know that? He says he's the only guy with
one hundred ESU friends and one hundred FD and WI friends.
You know, when you're able to grow the show to
such a degree that you got both following you, it
means a lot. We talked about that because having it,
and this is this what I wanted to ask you
as well, Having a podcast is not easy because there's
a lot of work, a lot of legwork that even
if you have people helping you, goes on behind the

(50:43):
scenes just to make conversations like this possible, and just
starting one can be intimidating. So for you, especially what
you mentioned earlier, with social media policy being what it
was the time, was your trepidation starting one. And now
that you've come as far as you have, how do
you look back on that decision to start it and
where do you want to go now with it?

Speaker 2 (51:03):
So honestly, every day I wake up, I question why
I'm doing this and if I'm making the right decisions
doing this. Sometimes it's nice if I could just go
to work and nobody knows who I am. And I'm
not saying that everyone knows who I am, but sometimes
you walk into the firehouse and you can feel the
room get quiet, or they say, hey, I know who
you are, and it's just a weird feeling. So that's
where I wish I could take some of it back sometimes,
but I never let it get in a way, like

(51:24):
my number one priority is my job in my men period.
So this could go away tomorrow. I don't care as
long as I take care of my people. But the
way it's grown and the podcast in general and doing
this was just a push from people saying we love
the content, we love the content, we love the content.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
But then the main thing was for me is when
I became.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
An outlet for guys from my job reaching out to
me and say, hey, I like what you're doing. I
got a question for you, and then we start talking
job stuff on the side. So it was really hard
to put yourself out there when I made it transition
from just top floor tactics, now I'm Mickey Foul. I'd
put my name to it because ultimately I felt like,
you know what, I'm starting to talk about some things here,
I'm starting to get a following. I have to own

(52:09):
this because if I do something wrong, I want to
know that I'm doing it wrong, or if I'm doing
it right, I want to know I'm doing it right.
But there's ownership and everything you do. That's where we
get confused with social media and training. In the fire services,
there's no ownership. You have to own it. And if
you stay in your lane and you protect the integrity
of what you love. I love the New York City
Fire Department more than anything in this world. I protect

(52:31):
that integrity at all costs. So when you protect the
integrity of what you love and you own your mistakes,
I realize that it started to open up doors for
other people. And I started seeing other pages popping up
from guys from my job. And that's important, and that's
great because I feel that we're so worried what people
think of us. It's natural and I'm not saying I
don't care if people think of me. I think it's

(52:53):
important to have a board of directors where you have
a certain a certain group of men and women who
you respect. They keep you in chap and if they
see something that's not in character for you, they let
you know. I have a board of directors with some
very dear friends that when they see something I do
a little off center, they say, bro, that's not your style,
and I usually take it down. So it's important to
have that as well. But that success going from a

(53:16):
small little Instagram page, growing nationally speaking, and then being
able to have a podcast, I think it comes from
staying your laying and being honest and really just just
owning it.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
You have to be able to own it and own it.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
You do certainly do so. As far as your career
is concerned, you're at a sweet spot being an officer,
being an officer at a great truck company. At that
you've got almost twenty four years on October, it'll be
twenty four years. Goal wise, as far as your career
is concerned, what do you want to do? Have you
what do you feel you have yet to accomplish that
it's really on your list to get.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Done That's a good question, and I think about that
often because I met that twenty four year mark. Guys
are starting to retire. That I came on the job
with we staw twenty five years sounds good. I can't
imagine retiring next year on that rig until I can't
get on anymore. As far as studying, really not in
my radar. I'm really happy where I am. There was
a senior captain that worked in my place prior to

(54:09):
I got there, and those are listening probably know who
he is, but a legendary captain from the job, legendary
family on the job. But he said four three truck
ruined his career because he made captain and he didn't
want to go anywhere else because it's that good of
a place, man. The guys alone treat you like I
came in for words to it. It's such a great
place to work. So I really don't see myself going
anywhere anytime soon. I'm incredibly happy there. I'm going to fires.

(54:32):
I work with great guys. It's a type of place
that we're all come down around eleven thirty at night,
and I like to come down to the kitchen around
eleven thirty because That's usually when the guys are hanging
out and they have a question they didn't want to
ask you throughout the day for whatever reason, or they're
thinking about something, or at that time of night, they
already had the entire day tour going into the night tour.
They probably had some things that went wrong on runs
we had they want to talk about, maybe talk about

(54:53):
a fire we had the previous tour.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
That's the time to talk.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
I always hung out in the kitchen around midnight when
I was a fireman, a young fireman learning, and those
senior guys would be up to two to three in
the morning talking with you. It's such a special time
on the firehouse. Kitchen is around that time. So that's
the type of place where I come down at eleven
thirty at night. Not only are they sitting their waiting
to talk, usually they're doing a drill, they're talking fire,
They're doing something that I'm like, Wow, this place is

(55:16):
really dialed in. We just did fourteen runs in a
day tour and they're still doing a firefighter remove a
drill at eleven thirty at night. And it's not that
they're into the job as a buff sense. There's a
standard set there long before they all got there, and
they know that and they want to maintain that standard.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
And never forget something that Kevin and Lou talked about
on Salty with their late Captain Vinie Onngaro, who died
of nine to eleven cancer sadly a number of years ago.
It's three o'clock in the morning. He's doing lock picking drills,
you know, because that was something that they could encounter
on different boxes, especially as a squad company. They could
have gotten their butts kicked over the course of the day.
And Vidi wasn't doing it to be a jerk. He
was doing it because that was just a standard. You're

(55:51):
a special operation squad. This is These are type of
things that if we weren't able to get to it earlier,
we got to get to it because we got to
know how to do it. So I love that because again,
tradition is a huge part of any mission that you have,
but especially in the fire service, tradition is kind of
the impetus and the kickstarter for so much of what
needs to be done. We have flown through. We haven't
even hit the hour mark yet, but we've covered just

(56:13):
about everything. And it's funny because I'm looking at the
rapid fire. I'm gonna have to tweak it a little
bit because he answered so much of what I was
going to ask you previously. So the rabbit fire will
consists of a few different questions, some similar, but a
few different ones, nothing crazy. First one is you've gotten
the chance. I mean sometimes in the ft and y, really,
the fire service as a whole, first responders as a
whole ems police. Yes, you see some really really rough things.

(56:35):
But despite those rough moments, counteracted by those rough moments
or some really uplifting things. What's an uplifting moment or
call from your career that stands out is like, Man,
I am so glad I get to be on the
job for days and moments like this.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
When someone knocks on the firehouse door to fill up
the bike tire or fill up to basketball, that's a
moment when I'm like, we really do make a difference here.
This is a safe place for people that don't have much.
They come here because they know it's safe. That's important
we have that. It's really hard, especially when you're doing
a run volume like we're doing in the New York
City Fire Department, to stay positive at all times. It's

(57:11):
a challenge we challenge you with every time we go
to work. We are challenged. But that as well as
all the runs were going on, is staying positive. Kindness
goes a long way on the fire floor. The floor
is above the fire, but kindness in the neighborhood. That's
when I really realized that I love this job. When
you see the kids waving, or you go and you
open up a sprinkler on a hot summer day and

(57:33):
you give them a sprinkler cap and everyone's very grateful.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Those little things like that, that makes the job of
the job.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
As far as again, your era, you love your era.
It's evident. So besides the time and place in what
you're working in now two thousand and one to the present,
if time machines existed and there's any other era in
FDNY history, you can go back to. What era would
you pick? It's working.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
A lot of people say the Warriors. I'm going to
go towards the end of the Warriors. I'm going to
say the eighties because a lot of my friends now,
my senior friends, per se guys that are retired, my
board of directors for Top Partagas, they're all eighties guys.
These guys are the smartest, most greatest fireman I've ever
worked with or hear their stories. I've worked with some
of them on the end of their careers. I wish
I could come up with the ranks with them and

(58:16):
go to the same fires with them and learn as
they learned, learned side by side, which I feel are
the giants of this job.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
So I would pick the early to mid eighties.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, eighties and nineties firemen man, especially in New York City,
that was an interesting era. Even as the city got
safe for the nineties, there's still plenty of work to
go around. So yeah, not a bad answer there at all,
all right.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Yeah, just real quick, that's the generation for me that
romanticized the job, right, long coats, three quarter boots, leather helmets,
and that was that romantis that was the job. That
was the era that romanticized it for me, And I
wanted to be so bad and then when actually accomplished it,
I look back and say, I can't believe that I
am the new guys of that generation, you know.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Yeah, no, And it's for me too. Watching the Still
Rioting documentary, even though it was filmed in early two
thousand and one. Of those guys are those rescue companies,
some of which, like Bob Gallyon, I'm blessed to know
those guys weren't eighties and nineties guys, you know, so
I completely echoed that centum one hundred and ten percent.
Third question, the rapid fire doesn't matter where you are.
What's the one drill no matter what company a guy

(59:15):
or gal is working in, that every firefighter should master,
in your opinion.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
The basics of stretching a line and the basics of
forcing a door. That alone, if we can get that found,
we can get that solid and sound and understand that
that puts more fires out than anything else. We gotta
get into the fire building. We gotta get water on
the fire. All the other drills are good. That's what
we have to have dialed in every single time we

(59:40):
go to work, is that stretch is so important and
getting access to the fire building is so important.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Besides New York City, So New York City's out. You
can't pick that favorite city to.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Teach it, favorite city to teach in. Well, I had
a really good time in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
Very unique there.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Guys are great, different culture than I ever experienced. Now
I've been all over and that place stands out. But
I think that my favorite place, believe it or not.
It's a small little town southern Alabama coast called fair Hope, Alabama.
Just the hospitality, the people, there's really nothing like it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
I can't even compare it to anything else. It's a
very unique little place.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
So if you ever are in southern Alabama, be sure
to stop in Ferris Hope. And I shouldn't advertise it
because it's the best kept secret I feel like, but
it just really mark really great people.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Awesome, awesome, And I guess the other aspect the Rabbid
fire wanted to ask it. You got some great cooks
in the firehouse, I'm sure so fa firehouse meal to have.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
A lot of firemen say chicken palm, and that's not
my favorite. It's a good one, but favorite firehouse and
meal probably anyone the truck's making. I'll pass on the
engine meal. Now I'm kidding. I think Sunday sauce, I
think got your tradition we kind of got away from
over the years. And you know, most fire houses that
we did like a Sunday sauce on Sundays the football

(01:01:02):
in the winter. All that I see a firehouse at
getting away from that. If you are a firehouse that's
not cooking anymore, please bring that back.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
Because even the meal.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Prep is a drill in itself, where if you want
to take a day off from drilling, I'm cool with that,
but you better make a meal because prepping that meal
is a drill on its own. Where you walk in
and the guy's chopping, chopping peppers. One guy's chopping onions,
the next guy walks in peppers onions. Let me get
the grill started, to get the sausage going. It's understanding
where you fit in, right, those tones go off, you
go out the doors understanding where you fit in. That

(01:01:31):
makes a great firefighter. But if the only thing you
do that day is prep the meal, I'm okay with that.
Once in a while for a drill, all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Right, sounds good, sounds very good. This would to getting
the hour flew right by. This is a heck of
a conversation before I say goodbye to the audience. If
you have any shoutouts that you want to give, befoorish yours,
my friend.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Just the great, great firefighters that came before me. The
standards that were set long before me that I try
to instill. And obviously my father for showing me the
love of the fire service.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
All right, my shout out besides the audience is to you.
Like I said, I listened to the show. I love
the show, and I appreciate the fact that you watched
this show. And again, I never know who the show
is reaching, but when you, of all people, mentioned that
you'd listen on a regular basis, that means a lot.
So I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
I'm following Boomer and you had Roger Clemens on the
other day.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
I mean, come on, try my best, try my best
with it. You know, Let's see how far we could
take the show, how far we can grow the show.
Let's stick around. We'll talk off here again. Thanks to
all of you for not one, but two shows today.
Today was a doubleheader, so I appreciate those of you
the two this morning and those of you that came
back for the nightcap coming up next to the Mike
new Even podcast. He worked the entirety of his thirty

(01:02:35):
year career with the FBI in the New York Field office,
and at a time was the spokesman for the New
York Field Office of the FBI later went on to
WNBC Television after he retired. And that'll be Joe Valiquett
this Friday for the fourth show of the week, Busy
Week for the program, that'll be All You Made, Team
to Beat Profiles of Police nation Wide, and Monday, we're
going back to the best of the Bravest. Someone I've

(01:02:56):
worked a few years to get and someone I'm excited
about spend a long, long time in Special Operations Command
Chief Freddy Laphamina is going to join the program for
volume seventy two of the Best of the Bravest Interviews
with the FT and Wives Elite. Both of those shows,
both with Agent Valiquette and of course Chief lap for media,
will be six pm Friday and Monday, respectively, Eastern Standard Time.
Don't you dare miss it. In the meantime, this has

(01:03:18):
been volume seventy one of the Best of the Bravest
Interviews with the FD and Wives Elite and on behalf
of FT and Y Lieutenant Mickey Farrell. I'm Mike Colone.
We will see you next time. To everyone, Stay safe,
good night.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
Oh yeah, I'm with this. I'm just gonna sit here
and laid back to this nice mellow beat you know,
and drop some smooth limits because eighty eight.

Speaker 5 (01:03:41):
Tom said it straight. No I'm saying and it ain't
no half stepping work. I'm ready, fat will step in summing.
They want to get some, but I'm the cane, so yo,
you know the outcome. I'm not the big degree. They
can't get with me some day because you are the
poet to get cold to beat me, it's gonna take
a miracle and step in tim me.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
You're that's a wrong move.

Speaker 5 (01:04:04):
So whatt you on? Harf? Don't a dog, don't little
on a competition. I'm just the prower, like a pitfall
against such a power.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
That's when it comes to the end. Don't hot mals,
I got it good. Now let me tell you who
I am.

Speaker 5 (01:04:16):
Look I tv H double d y K a eddie, dramatic, asiatic,
not like many.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
I'm so it don't compare me to another because they
can't hurt.

Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
Word to the mother at least it's not big. The
principle and this pedigree. So when I roll on your raptus,
you better be ready to die because you're petty. Because
the mother knife, I'm a machete. This name by gins
to wait until'll bring you try the fun so I
can shop into your body just because you try to
be basing writing the thirteen, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
Gonna play chasing. What's time.

Speaker 5 (01:04:45):
I'm gonna joke that game, pussel of petto. The name
is Big Daddy, Yes, big God little so the fine it.
There's your walking papers, Sign it and take a walk.
As the King's start to talk. Because I'm a big
bat and I'm the big back. As I'm the big pack,

(01:05:13):
marms are so open, and the rappers be hoping to
sound like me, so soon I'll have to open a
scull of them singing for those who want to be
in my fielding caught, then a general second thought, that happens.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
He's coming out sounding so similar.

Speaker 5 (01:05:25):
It's not abusing for you to remember the originator and
boyd hat purple Trader.

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
But I'm much greater the best.

Speaker 5 (01:05:32):
Of Yes, I guess suggests the best Your festival mess
gonna test your high nests unless you're jests are dressed
with best Vanessa and blessed them paragraphs.

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
I'm manifest and rap crime men and stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:05:43):
Some say center stuff non stopping the groove until Winn's
the climax climax flax and she'll have a break from
a take of me acting hell brain cells are lit.
I did start to hit next to the formation of
words that fits at the table sick making it legit
and w am a penning it in the paper. I'm
not stand strong over and see it's in the vowel

(01:06:03):
with the power of hercules or Sampson. Well, I go
further the left because you can just got my cameo
and I still have stress. And no, that's not a mypfing.
If you try app or getting with the man with
the given gift of gab your mote cab.

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
I only ignore be sleeping on your mom still an
start to snore. You can't awake me or.

Speaker 5 (01:06:21):
Even make me fear your son because you can't do
me none, So think loud of it you're trying to
go when you want to step to me, I think
you should know that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Set up.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
I'm a big tat, I'm a big dat.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Set up.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
I'm a big cat. I'm hearing right here and scar
and den a man must.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
Tear that with better compare put an d and there
up there he can't see Claire get up here, idea
or near still Jill, you want to be gonna be
com particular. Just trying to step to me must be
on a mission. I'm on the stage where I'm a
pitcher at me. You think I'm losing pitcher that and

(01:07:25):
listen to see step till me.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
Your name is big Daddy. You know that's in your problem.
So when you hear a death.

Speaker 5 (01:07:48):
From believes that I'm the author, I grabbed the mic
and make him sez sapporate me. The one of people
say names that Frapple is great, that we get a
conjunctor of poetry, etcetera, etcetera. It ain't easy to being
made speak clearly so you can understand put words together
like let them man, I that's temptation.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
What's sitting to my innovation?

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:08:07):
Like the buffer m sees that are an imitation of
an animation, a cartoon of me.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
But when I'm finished, I'm sure that you I sooner
see reality.

Speaker 5 (01:08:14):
I see which technique because I always speak with mentality.

Speaker 4 (01:08:18):
I put my title in your face day you can
face sent it. You're trying to get it. You know
I'm gonna show you who's willing.

Speaker 5 (01:08:23):
So if you know, like I know, instead of messing
around playing like doing Rogerson, Slow down yourself, Abreak or
someone else will take your title, namely me, because I'm homicidal.

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
That means murder. If something the hurder number in sleep
to try to keep with me, I'll just bring them
and make them and break them and take them and
hold them and make them hold up the peace side.
Chalona wait

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Episode 364: The Best of The Bravest: Lt. Mickey Farrell (Volume 71)

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