GETTIN' SALTY EXPERIENCE PODCAST Ep. 233 : FDNY CAPTAIN | LARRY TOMPKINS

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We'd like to know before the start of this interview that the opinions about to be expressed by the guest of Tonight's Getting Salty Experience Podcast are that of the guest and do not directly or necessarily reflect the views of the host of the Getting Salty Experience Podcast.

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Hello below, Roofy, Welcome back, while the only one that brings the fire house kitchen table to you guys, with all our loyal fans in the chat.

We got Mike Radcavid, we got twenty truck, We've got the Red Paul my Ber, we got Rob Procaccini, Missus procaccini husband, Missus Procaccini's husband is don't forget the mister Jose Jose Gabe and the lovely Polo. Right, oh, miss whatever.

What happened to from?

So this is the last show before Christmas?

Fellas, No, we have one Monday.

Oh this is not the last show. We got one?

What's Monday? What are we doing Monday?

Oh?

Chief Rice on from seventeen.

Oh right right, right, all right, yeah, you're right you.

We got a hot charge of tonight.

Bro.

He's never really seen any fun doesn't seen.

You'll get it.

Oh ship, don't you're going down its holy ship. He's like a China.

I got it.

You didn't even have to be that.

We have any who.

We got a hot jodge around tonight Brooklyn. Guys started in Manhattan, then he went to Brooklyn.

You know, well worked. Did you guys run in with guys hunt Tree?

I never heard they.

Run in with one.

I was still figure out what the company is.

Yeah.

I used to see him all the time.

Ah, so he was hipty as ship. He knew all about you.

Yeah, you know, so they got like this.

Even back then with all the hate, we were like that.

Yes, that's Louis on top.

Mm hmm, there we go. What do you who?

Before we get to commercials, I gotta tell you I watch all the time on YouTube. One of my biggest things. I love guys who are doing personations. They see those guys on TikTok, I love it. I had no idea that Rob Procaccini does fucking impersonations. So I gotta actually a picture. I have a video of him doing the personation of of a fire siren. So John's pulling up. Here's Rob Procaccini.

Atl siren, A supercoring no siren.

Where did you find that thing?

Brockie Katy said it to me, And there he is. Bro He's like this some person that you see to spin fall out of his mouth.

He was excited.

It's almost if we should do it again. It's almost like it's almost like we should do.

It again, tornado siren, do one more time.

I got to help that guy out with his dental plan. I don't know what's on.

Let me just make sure that's Brockie Jay very volley about.

Oh what the hell? Oh no, oh no, hold on, hold on, here we go.

Okay, guys, let's do a tornado siren, a supercorin o siren.

Oh nice, I like it bad.

He's pretty spot on. I'm not gonna lie. That's I think that's what close.

Siren.

If I have a solid bro.

Somebody in the chat that's from that area, verify that for us.

Let us know that's Frankie, Frankie boy, it's frank Nice job, nice job, frank.

He is artistic. But you know that's all good. Give a little giving him, giving him some nice fame, right now, that's what we do.

Give him up.

We get him on the show. I can get him on the show to do the super Tornado siren.

He would, he would be honest. I'm sure.

All right, let's get to the commercials quick. It's the captain's waiting around. We can't like that sitting in the back.

We're gonna do New Jersey Fire first.

Here we go, okay.

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Hi, what are you going with now? Capital?

Uh? Yeah, let's knock out Capital. We'll do Uh, we'll do homok tough for the end?

All right, we go here we go.

Founded in twenty ten, Capital City Industry specializes in serving the fire service through custom helmet work, helmet sales and repairs, gear tools, and apparel. They are a firefighter family owned and operated company, with the majority of the crews serving in the City of Hertford Fire Department in Hartford, Connecticut.

There you go.

And you know, Audits a Shapiro family, bro, it's a family run business. We love those guys. And me and Louis were next to him in the booth and watching them do the helmet thing. It's frecking amazing, Bro. They will take any helmet and retro fitted for your dome. I didn't know your cousin. Is that a relative of your as the artist Sukolotski? I mean you pick that up, didn't you?

Uh?

Yeah? You see god, this trace? He didn't pick that up right away?

A well known artist Slatsky Wow Gonzo.

And his brother Hal how'd you like a kick?

All right, enough of the again, let's get into captain you already.

Let's go all right, coming to the state, our good friend, Captain Larry Tompkins.

Give the old baseball one.

What's up kids?

Captain going, guys, you're still here after you saw that siren bit.

That's pretty good. I like to have his head on the front of a rig the way.

I have a bunch of his stuff, so I'll send some more to you.

You gotta have him on the show, Frankie.

All right, but let's get patriarch before we dive into uh the captain's career.

Yes, sir, here we go.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Yes, Hi, Cindy Drake, see you in the chat.

All right, cap welcome to the show.

To Merry Christmas, guys.

Merry Christmas to you as well. The cheese I told you the cheese Man would be in there. He's called what does the shove mean?

And if I didn't have a good comeback, I'd push it.

There you go.

You can't shove the cheese to farnt move when he was Yeah, he's the immobile, is a brassler box up, but yet he's still a beautician.

He cuts hair.

Remember he's not a barber.

No, no, no, no, Captain. Let's dive into the early years of Captain Tompkins. Where'd you grow up? Tell us a little about the family life. Hey, you got involved in the fight Apartment?

Well, I had no I had no family on the fight Apartment was. It was something that I have no idea why, but I always wanted to do. I always talked about I read Dennis Smith's book. My brother had it, and I read that book as a young kid. It was just something I talked about doing. But I was a knucklehead when I was young. I was just want the fine knucklehead.

I'll let you know if you were bigger knucklehead than me, I haven't been arrested all.

Luckily I was. I was. I was a smart knucklehead. I was able to evade the authorities.

Nice right.

Where'd you grow up?

I grew up in merrick Long Island and then uh and then when I was thirteen, we moved up state New York.

Oh by Louis.

No, but by Albany, up by Albany.

All.

Yeah. My father was in the FBI and he retired. He had to retire because of age at that time, and so he transferred out of New York before he retired up there because they paid for you to move if you did it. But what he do in the FBI, he was an agent for thirty years.

Come on, he was a g man.

As a matter of fact, he worked with Patty Brown's father. He was friends with And I met Patty Brown before I before I got on the job. I was on the list to get on and this girl we both knew introduced me to him and he took me to my first fire house. But I didn't know until years later that uh we friends.

Yeah, really, you didn't know that Patty Brown was a superhero at the time.

I didn't know. I mean I got to know, you know, obviously, I got to see after.

Wow, how come did you did you feel like you wanted to go to the FBI when.

You were a kid?

No, no, I don't know why. I mean, I think that Dennis Smith book, and even before that, it was like little kids talk about it. And I tell you what, I shouldn't say this on the internet, but I, uh, I remember having a dream of carrying this girl out of a burning built building one time, this girl I liked, and.

Oh, my hero.

Boo boo.

I want to be a fireman.

I want to do but yeah. And then actually a friend of mine whose brother was on the job. I was bouncing around doing crazy shit and I was wound up driving a truck out in California. And uh, a friend of mine in New York, one of my best friends, said, listen, I signed you up for the test. You gotta come back.

Come on.

I didn't always the way ruffy his brother. His brother was on his brother was a great fireman out of one thirteen Mark Connaway. But signed me up for.

The Dude, that's pretty crazy. I never heard that before.

Signed you up.

Yeah, I signed up for the test. You got to come back.

And he wasn't dreaming of picking any chicks up in a truck.

On what kind of truck it was.

I don't know that true. Okay, I take that.

The guy signed you up.

You're in California, Yeah, yeah, and you fly back just to take the test.

I did it so the only Yeah, I came back to take the test, and uh, they got drunk the whole weekend and passed the test, and then and then the physical and then there was a delay with the physical. You remember Louis right. A couple of guys died.

Yeah, the one guy died doing the physical and they delayed it.

Yeah, so there was a big delay. And then did you fly back to California? No, I stayed. I came and I boughtended in New York. I got, I got an apartment and bartended in New York.

You live in the Vita Loca bartender in New York. You live pla macha an Irish ball.

What a shot right around the block for my for my first fire house still by seven? Yeah, get that though.

All right, so you take the test and you get called in let's see ninety.

Yeah, I came back in eighties right after I took the test, and I came back and then I bartended, And.

Uh, how long did you wait before you got called when you took the test?

Three years? But I was in the second class off the list. But it took three years because of the delays.

Right, but living the life, you know, doing whatever you're doing, you know what I'm saying, as a bartender living in Manhattan.

Yeah, oh yeah.

And the job calls you, who's in your proby class? Anybody that we might know?

Yeah, well, it was the second class there the front they did one hundred, and then in our class they did three hundred, but it was split into like an A and B.

Right, we had that too.

Brillian Lately. It was a William Flaherty, Jimmy Ellison, Billy.

Robert Fiery Ellison, Liam Liam.

Class bro was Pickford in that class too.

Pick No, Pickford came a year or so, a year after, I think a year after.

So you had Flowery Ellis.

Charlie, a guy that came in that class.

Who's that Arngia to ninety Johnny Argia?

It could have been man. I think he was in ninety.

Yeah, I think he was in ninety.

But uh yeah, it was good. It was you know, it was a good class. I knew nothing.

Oh my god.

That's Mike Sullivan. He went to one seventy.

Oh my god, I remember him. He was there forever, that guy too.

Right, Yeah, he was. He retired out of there.

Yeah, he was there forever. I remember his face.

Yeah. He I remember in probably school, like going through the mass confidence and I'd never done anything. I wasn't a volley and nothing, and he like watching watching some guys go through, I'm like, shit, how do they know how to do this man and some of whom had been you know, they never mentioned it obviously.

It was all where's that other picture us?

Who is it? Steve Elliott?

Oh there's another guy Russey, you know, Rusty from two fifty seven Louis Probably he was a senior guy in the engine.

Oh yes, I do know, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember him too. Who is this young this young fella? And I don't mean you.

It's my nephew is now in his mid thirties.

Nice on a job.

No, no, you know, I I at one point he's upstate New York. He's working for the state up there in albody. But he uh, I almost got him, and he's and my sister in law put a knick to it, tish on it.

Yeah, Larry, how old were you when you got on?

Uh, nineteen ninety. I was twenty eight, twenty eight, that's like me. I got it later too, I was older.

A lot of guys was, some guys you know, like, uh, they were very young. They were like twenty one or something.

Yeah, my brother just turned twenty one the month before.

Like, oh, I wish I wish I'd done an early attest.

So you get into Proby School and then you get assigned, you got to go to Proby School.

Stories before he moved out to Provy School.

No, no, nothing, nothing really spent. Well, there was one guy, yeah, one guy there. One of the instructors, Don Glennon, was a one twenty guy, and he was the most to me. He was the most like influential instructor I had there. And I always remember that's the first I started to hear about that company. And then, like there were other times in my career that I and I wound up getting there eventually, but that's the first I was impressed with him. He was a like squared away guy and just.

So that planted the seed of one twenty ag.

Yeah, and then then there were other seeds planted. But when I got to seven Truck I was very lucky. That was a great firehouse, seven sixteen and the day the day went with my cake. When you get the assignment, I go there and they get a run and you know, they say hop on the rig and it's a job. And it's at twenty third Street and Broadway, which is where they had the twenty third Street fire. Oh shit, the twelve FIM. There was a job it's no longer

Know at the time or they told you afterwards?

You know, they came out, they showed me a play afterwards, they showed me to.

Show you a plaque.

N right, So but I went there. Who else James Hurley, a guy who did like thirty three years there went He just retired last year. And Steve Marsso is a chief now who also went with me at the same time. But I'll firehouse.

How long it take you to catch your first job when you got there?

I don't remember how long. I remember my one of my first jobs that was really like a job job.

And what was it?

And I remember it was there were a lot of s ros at the time in that area. And uh, the Manhattan was different. It wasn't the way you know, it wasn't the realest, It wasn't May yet in the real estate.

Wasn't Disney World.

Yeah, and then uh, there a lot of s ros and we used to get the regular amount of work was usually a s ros kent the ken Moore elt in these and My first job was in one of them, and I remember going down the hall and it was like a wall of smoke, and we stopped to put on masks on, and I thought, what the fuck am I doing here?

It is that at one time you do it, the first time you do that, it is that what the hell is going on?

This is for real? Like this is really for real, right, yeah?

And I said to I said, well, if I get out of here, that means this whole thing's over. So I guess I gotta go. And then I went, and then it's you know, I did what I had to do, and then I was all juiced up and I was excited.

And you know, you get the first just one under the belt.

Yeah, you know, I remember.

I remember in ninety three I got on. I was the first class in ninety three, and we were probably our numbers were probably too far apart, but they were only making one hundred a year or whatever the heck they were doing at the time, two hundred a year. But I remember them talking about the new technology that was coming out, which was the thermal pain windows. Right,

Do you remember there were definitely some tenements it was You know that that area around seven Truck has a real mix of occupancies. They have everything from the high rise in one section, high rise, residential, commercial tenements, brownstones, just regular occupancies, commercial occupancies. Yeah, there were in some of those older buildings that was pretty good though, right they would break. I mean.

I remember guys talking about it, like most of the when I got to I was at once eventeen. When I got there, I would say probably like half the three corners already had those the thermal panes, right, So, but every time I would take one of those other windows, I would hit it so hard that I would almost lose the tool or the can because you were trying to hit it so hard, and meanwhile there was nothing there, you know what I mean.

You already lost the can when Patty threw it down the hallways.

Live up your toolry, don't give up your tools.

Yeah, right away, bro, my can's here somewhere exactly.

So you had any fires that stand out in your mind that you went to.

Yeah, I mean, like I'm not the best, and there were a lot there were the first three years or so before things started changing a little quickly in Manhattan. There was there were some good fires because you know

Yeah.

Uh, but so there were a bunch of multiples over there, and I and I had Yeah, there was some good you know, sub basement fires and something.

Whoa, whoa, whoa wait, whoa those sub sellers look for Louie.

They were good. They were good fighting in that fire house, very good. You know. They weren't like Buffy types, and they were they you know, when there's something was happening, they were good.

A lot of senior guys did when you went there.

Were like this guy Eddie McCaffrey was a tough guy. He wound up. He did twenty something years there and then he went to uh forty nine Truckers of Lieutenant. He stayed there almost another twenty years. But a tough Vietnam. That guy Don Carcone and the engine. H a lot of a lot of mid level guys that were about my age or maybe a little bit older, but they got on younger. Mike d is that guy that's still

Murphy's showing up here. I could see.

We get it. And then three o'clock in the morning, boom, we get a job. And it's on thirty sixth Street between Second and Third Avenue, and it was two three story buildings like tenements, and they would connect, but they looked like and with the doors on the left side of each one. But there was a common wall balcony metal that looked like a fire escape between them. So

A fire Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

But it stuck with me like about that. And I remember one of these senior guys, ed, the senior guy, Eddie McCaffrey, said to me, he said, Larry, you know how he become an experienced fireman.

By going to Yeah, exactly with six months on the job. Seven months on the job, I mean as long as you learned from it, right, I mean, like.

You said, kept the whole goddamn career.

Yeah, she survived. It turned out her husband came walking back in the middle of fire with a little kid that I think he lit the place. It was like a stairwell, a stairwell fire. But yeah, that one sticks out, and then there were just and then just you know, there was other stuff. I'm sure I forgot, but there was one that stuck out two weeks before the First

We did do we didn't do we didn't do so good there.

No. I think somebody from rescue, say, uh, grabbed the guy from twenty four truck that got turned around in the lobby on the floor above.

Hank is saying that he was at the job. Coobs, you're you're muted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was in rescue one at the time. Brew Snowberry, I think, yeah, it was a bit it was. And also it was one of those ones where the you know, they had the h that whole thing when you read when you're studying about the HVAC shutting on the fans and uh, and they they did that in the in the stairwell. When we first went in, it sounded like an airplane in the stairwell going up. It was pressurized. They pressurized it and then they shut it down.

But I had the wind up putting the fire.

Up the the UH seven truck, and I think another towel out of got it from the outside because it was on the seventh floor.

Wow.

But then two weeks later the first trade sent happens. So that was ninety three Super Bowl Sunday ninety three, and I think it's about two weeks later the first trade cent it happened working just you know, that just went in too. Well, were you working for the first trade I was. I wasn't working. No seven truck went down. They walked all the way up to the roof and took down some kids from the roof a class, some kindergarten class or something. But now I wasn't working that day.

I know it could have been picked for he can't walk that high, bro.

He might it might have been he might have been working.

Yeah, gotta throw the bus whatever.

Pickford was a good man. He was into it from the Yeah.

I drove him all the time. Pickford funny motherfucker.

Tongue on the job. I think one of them he's quick. Yeah, he will cut you. You don't even know your cut and bleeding.

How was that kitchen table that was a tough That was a tough kitchen He'll tell you that was a tough kitchen table. There were guys they were like, they were like Muhammad Ali with the mouth there. I I flew under the radar. I was old enough to like, you know, just and I would take I take some hits, and I take them good. You got to make the hits and then then it's okay if you react badly to the hits.

Yeah, it's like a gazelle and.

Don't plow on the rabbit. You're done.

It's like ten lions looking at the gazelle and has a little blood coming out off his body.

And they took the first captain there, the guy's captain, O'Shaughnessy. The guy was like, he's always talking about how good his gas mileage was on his car coming into work. So the guys they would and they were adding gas to his car. And then they started to do the opposite.

Oh my god, I freaking love it.

Brothers.

That's freak. That's great. That's no.

It was a great fire. It was a great fight. Still has a great firehouse there.

For eight years, right, you spent Yeah, and then and then we had I had great offices.

Vinnie Fowler was there, uh, Kazlowski, George Vallabona, and then we got eventually we got Jim Manahan one twenty guy and al Hey, both one twenty guys. Al Hey took who they both became staff chiefs. They that al Hay had the engine and Manahan had the truck. And when they came it really they were good buddies. It really. It was good for the house. It's good for the house.

A lot of Yeah, you had Vallabona. There was he the guy from rescue too.

No, no, no, he was Uh he was an eighteen truck guy, a big guy, good, very good officer. They're all good there. They're all good and good, a good house. And you know they still that that first week I went there, like and every October they still celebrated. They didn't celebrate, but they had a memorial mass for the twenty third Street fire. One of the guy's sons worked there, Joe Finley worked there. His father was a lieutenant in seven. Uh that day, I mean that was a that was

So what you just didn't that on your own? Did you talk to any of the captains prior or how did that work?

No?

I did. My Mike off Checked, who wound up being a fifty five truck guy and then he was in the Union, really good guy. He was on the football team.

He was always school with Mikey's off check.

Yeah, yeah, he he was. He had been in two fifty two and he told me, you know, you should try to go over there, and he decided not to do it. He went back, he went to fifty five truck. But uh so, yeah, I did talk to the captain and I went over there, and I was it was a great It was a great you know, that was a great time. You guys did it too. I mean, you know, you trained with every buddy and a lot of you know, I was only there for less than four years, and it seemed like a lot of stuff

Atlantic Avenue fire Right. We were talking in the pre show with Too eighty eight. You guys went as an engine, but I think you guys operated as a squad, right or did you operate a squad?

They were pulling out, they were pulling out guys.

Yeah, And we got relocated to three thirty two that night, so we we were listening to everything the whole time.

I mean, we ended up staying there the whole time.

But yeah, yeah, no, that was that was then. There was there was other starret City a year later and I was at that one and uh, and somebody was just saying, it's the anniversary had just passed.

The Yeah, it just passed. Yeah, yes, exactly.

Yeah. There was a lot of a lot of stuff I learned over there. There were a lot of row frames, which were you guys dealt with some of that too, right in two eighty eight, which I which is a different kind of fire and and uh.

Some of my best row frames was when I was at two eighty eight and you guys were first two over there, and we came over there, you know, I came there with quickly. A few times it would, you know, be three or four of them going. It was like it was great every time.

Good. The companies were very good at that over there, you know, I mean getting ahead of it and fighting them. But how was it?

How was it over there? Because by us, like I mean, you guys in two fifty two, you're engine two fifty two.

Now you squad two fifty two, but you're running with companies like one eleven, you know, I.

Mean, yeah, there was a little oh yeah, yeah, there was. There was a little like they're looking at I'm sure they're looking at us, but what was good. Is so many guys stayed in that company and they knew the guys, you know, and there was some you know, Tommy Kvecas, who had been a one seventy five fiveman for twenty years was there and he was a great, a great, great fireman. And there was guys that had respect there. So uh and we when we were an engine, we

Me for everybody.

Yeah, but I think there's a period where we had to find where we belonged. You know what I mean, Like when you first show up as a squad, number one, they don't know what to do with you, and number two, you're so new that you don't really know what to do, you know. So it was a long period before we found where we were supposed to be.

I think, yeah, exactly, That's that's what it was like for us over there. And then there was some you know, I had never been in an engine, so I got I got lucky enough. I got a bunch of nonzo jobs over there, which was exciting. And I'll tell you, I also gave me a respect for the engine because I realized, I it's not just so I just assumed like you didn't have to learn anything. You just had to tump on the rocky, I know.

I mean, it's it's pretty close to that though. I'm just saying I'm gonna say.

I'll just say it.

So you see that there's guys that are better at it. There's like techniques and stuff they do, you know, to keep that line moving. So yeah, that was a lot. That was a lot of fun. And then.

Little hidden gem over there two fifty two too, because you know, on paper there was the engine, but they do they do first do work over there, man.

Yeah, they had a very small first do area. That's because Brooklyn had so many engines. Yeah, in that way, but there was a good area for fire so yep.

I mean we really didn't see much first do work. Caught a little bit of here and there, but not like I mean, you guys were in a perfect place to seventy was in a perfect place first do work.

Yeah, I'd say that's where more of the competition was. Was like you had you learn in that Brooklyn thing. You had to get out the door and move quick man. You had to get respond quickly to make sure because there was another engine close by.

Yeah, who did you who did you get close to? Like, uh, well, when you when you first got there, who was somebody?

Uh well, the whole you know what I got along. I really liked that it was different because you got to know everybody quicker because it wasn't a double house, you know, right. Uh But I became really good friends with Tommy Covecas and uh but but almost all of them, John d Filippo, John Fihn, Kevin. I loved there was nobody I I really didn't have problems with anybody in that house. I really loved and had Pete Martin as a lieutenant. Legendary guy over there.

Man, yeahs was good too, maybe.

Was the best, Yes, him along with U. I've had great captains him Calamari. I mean I think of those guys. Different styles, but great captains, great captains.

Yeah, Calmar, take you eighteen minutes to tell you, like three things.

How was Norton?

And the chief one was my It was my mutual partners. So I didn't work with him that well, oh ship, I could be bed Yeah, No, I love Norton. He was great. He was great.

Man. He was another one too. And Richie Meyers came over from two fourteen. That was another thing. They're both from one eleven, two fourteen.

That happened.

What about the fatness?

Who's the fatness?

Fish?

The fish fish from there till later even I had to say who's the fatness?

He didn't come down till later on.

That's my partner.

I love that.

Yeah, I loved him. But he came there like the year I was leaving. The year I left, he came in. Well, no, when I got burned when I was there and I was out for a bit. He came during that time. But uh yeah, Richie Sweeney, Michael Rosea just was there, right, was there?

Yeah?

He was great. I worked with John a lot, he was. We worked together at Joe Harris who became a big chief. We worked together at uh the Star City fire, and that was that was something that was like a wait, that was my first fire where fatal fire. I wasn't at the Atlantic Avenue fire. So but uh, I just come out of rescue school. We just had the you know the stuff where you do all the May days

Yeah.

We talked about the Vendealia Avenue.

Yes, yes, and we were and we h I had Paul the covering Captain Paul Hagund, who was a Rescue four guy.

Yeah.

Yeah, very good guy he you know he uh we got in and we we hiked it up. The elevator wasn't working and we got to the ninth floor. We went to the command post and I think your your buddy, that Chief Coward was the chief yeah, nine, yeah, yeah, and uh, we get to the command post, and just as we got to the command post that you heard Bop give a may day, and you could tell, I mean, I never heard anything like that, Like it was, you know, like he was suffering given the may day. And that

And so I went in with two lines after after a certain period of time, after.

A certain period of time, because it's I think they couldn't even. And then what happened is we Haglin said let's go the other stairs, which was like two hundred feet down, and we went up. And when we went up, one of the guys from one seventy, another guy I think had not the inside team, came out, you know, came stumbling out of there, and it was like a freight train in that hallway, and the doors were open in between and the elevator lobby, so it was just

They were you know, they thought the rabbits, Oh yeah, yeah, but that was you all right, right?

But then uh and we got him, me and John Fie and I think worked him on the floor below. But unfortunately, and I think he that was Bop and he was the furthest away from the flu. You know, it was a fire the back of the building. It was on the back of the building and they I think they opened up a door across the hallway got opened up and it created a flu and they were right in that flu and Bob probably would have been the only one to have a shot, but he didn't.

I was, I was, I was working, I was working that night, and I remember hearing hearing the job and then we were listening to it like in the kitchen when it was going on, I remember, but and then.

Yeah, but but yeah, there was a lot of stuff that happened after that. They they they tried one of those deep briefings at the rock like two or three days later, which was a big mistake. It almost wound up being a brawl. But sure, but it was not a good it was not It was not a smart thing to do, I don't think. But uh, but yeah, those were a lot of shit happened in that time in those years there two fifty two and then I got like a year later, I got burned at a job.

I worked that one.

Yeah, yeah, so I mean that was crazy, like there was a lot of multiple death fire deaths those years. But so I got promoted. Uh yeah, I love the company. I love the guys there. They'll be friends for the rest of my life. And uh, how they caught that that kid though, right, they caught him that night round. Yeah, but there were there were.

Oh my god, he was lighting up Bushwick for a long time, man.

Yeah, and that night he finished with like there were like two or three second alarms, a third alarm. It was just one right after the other. M uh bastard. Yeah, and then you.

Always use a few of those guys, I said it loud. That's ship. Don't get all larry. You can't remember which one is which.

But let's see from that. So that when I came back, I came back my last store. I was lucky enough to get an ancole job. Yeah.

Look at his job when he comes back and he gets promoted.

Yeah. I got promoted with John D. Filippo and I'm not sure may or June of May of u two thousand and one. And then I got assigned to the fifteenth and I always remember the fifteenth we went to see the deputy.

Uh.

And the overtime then was the average overtime was fifteen hours.

Yeah, that much. I remember, it was always under one hundred. It was always under one hundred.

And then they and then they said, you know, if you want to get a spot in the truck or you know, it takes you four or five years like

Playing field many Yeah, I sure did.

But uh yeah, so the trade center actually on the trades of the day of the Trade Center, I wound up Raschweiler put me back in two fifty two. I wound up going down there with guys from two fifty two because I stopped by the fire house. I think I told you before that morning, just as they were going out the door. And so we went down with a couple, uh, John Fienn, uh Chiusano, Rob McDermott. We went down.

Uh.

One of the guys had a volley rig and we went down and we got there right before, you know, a few minutes before the second collapse. But uh so then I wound up staying with them and uh for about six weeks. They went in there as a lieutenant. But uh, and I got a little trouble my first time, geting a little trouble.

You poke somebody.

What kind of trouble could that be? No, you know, I think you just you're talking earlier about they had. At the time they had, you might have had the same stuff in two of the eight they had. California Los Angeles fireman and Phoenix firemen were coming too at a time to the house, and they were doing the right they were professional firemen. They were doing the right thing. They were cleaning the house while we were going down to the site, cooking meals, driving guys home or doing

Uh.

One of the guys left his Phoenix t shirt on, and by the end of the day I was out of sock.

I never liked yous Phoenix.

But the trade center lost a whole crew. Guy's seven truck that I worked with, Vinnie Princiata, Richie Muldoonney great fireman Freeport Fireman, Vinnie Princiata, George Kane Burne, Richards great lieutenant from seventeen truck that was fireman seventeen truck, Chuck Mendez, and I'm sure Bob Fody, all good five and all great guys who lost all those guys. And then I knew a ton of guys from Manhattan, and then we knew it then you like everybody, we knew a ton

You know, it's funny say that, because I got I got promoted in junevo too. So we finished up pretty much at nine to eleven. Right, We finished up at the ground zero for the most part. And then I got around may I. You know, I heard that they were promoting you know, the guys, and uh, I say this all time because I told this to other guys too. Kat Murphy came to me and said, hey, Lou, you know you probably could stay in Sock if you want, right, but go out, go out in the field.

If you can get to Brooklyn, go to Brooklyn.

He was always a Brooklyn guy, and he said, become a boss, like become a lieutenant first, because like you said, it's how are you going to come back?

And you know, these are your guys that you work with, right, they're your friends.

And now you're going to be in You're gonna have to make tough decisions and it just can get sticky initially, you know what I mean, like so fresh.

So I did that.

I I as soon as I got promoted, I went to Brooklyn and I stayed there for almost eight years.

I think, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. At first I was upset, you know, I mean, because I just lost all those guys, and I'm like not you know, but a couple of days later, it was almost like a little bit of a relief.

No, I wanted to get out of there. Oh yeah, I wanted to get out of the yeah, yeah. And uh.

And then I actually wound up going down to the trade center in December for they had like month long details from the different divisions that were going down, and you'd watch the grapplers and you know, looking out for right, right right, and I had something actually happened down there. At like four o'clock in the morning, all the grapplers were taking a break and this is in December, and I see I see something. It looks like just a

And first of all, I never heard that. Yeah.

Yeah, this guy William Languish, I remember his name in the Atlantic magazine and he made he then jose, Oh no, people told me. I didn't say it was true. I said people told me, but it was. But these guys all die. I know, the guys from Fort Truck died trying to rescue people from an elevator in the South Tower. But uh, but just unbelievable that they'd say like like yeah in the middle of like.

Ye, yeah, they're gonna stop and steal jeans. That's what we're doing. Yeah, God give me you, Dick.

Oh, I was al wasn't ready for that, but I got you coming.

I got you coming, beauty, Dick.

So I'll keep moving from there. I went back. I went back to the fifteenth and I bounced around and it was great and like you said, but I needed to. It took me every rank. Took me time to get used to that rank and become better at it, definitely, And I wound up getting into one twenty, which was a blessing.

How did that happen? Well, take Closs over that one there we got.

Yeah, well I was friends, good friends with Dennis going that helped.

Oh that doesn't hurt.

Yeah, so it was good friends with Dennis. And then also uh Rob McDermott from two fifty two helped me out. He had a relative that helped me out.

You, they helped you out.

Looked it looked like you. It looks like you were boxing Tyson in this one. I don't know what the help.

Do we have to pay that for that image? Getty just I don't know.

I don't want to.

I didn't pay for it.

They shouldn't know.

But yeah, so I got you know what it was too. There was unbelievably you know, Louis, there was just like not the amount of and then suddenly the overtime took off the same thing. There was not then competition, and some people were afraid of one twenty because of the elevators and there's a lot of running.

Listen, you runner. Not everybody wants to do all that either, you know, like you take a certain person to do that.

Ship I covered in one seventy five, which is a great nice yeah, but I'll tell you the truth. They didn't run that much, which no, they don't run the run.

The work ratio was awesome.

Yeah, Glary, they had I remember that there the box that they had the the elevated tools in had dust on it.

I'm like you right, one O three or two old and what.

Twenty we were going like this to elevate its like all night right, like the one to notice and uh, you know one O three we were in the start every goddamn day, man, all the shit and working and all those goddamn projects over there.

But but you know what, it was better for me because I was still I was like eleven twelve years on the job. I was a young lieutenant. I need that was no good for me to just do three runs a day, you know what I mean, even if it was you know, you had good ratio fires as you get older. That's a good firehouse for an office. Oh yeah, but for young office I needed and uh And I'll be honest to you. After losing, you know, after so many guys, a part of me didn't wasn't

Oh my dude, that that place. I talk about that place. It's like forty four truck. It's like one of the pinnacle firehouses, right that The alumni is incredible, Right, the firehouse is incredible as it is, but the alumni is incredible. You know, they do snuff together all the time. It's just it's a perfect it's perfect place.

Man.

Yeah, It's like the place. The place is bigger than any personality, any one personality. And then the first captain was there was Harry Werner, and Dennis Gordon was an officer and Tomas squadro.

And he was there forever Dennis, right, he was ridiculous.

Amount of tteen seventeen years, Yeah, exactly, and uh, but then very senior. It was very senior, John John Narva, John Coelely, Kevin Cannon, a lot of senior guys in the truck when I got there, and they treated me like I'm sure you probably had the you know, they treated me if I was a young younger than all of them. They treated me like with respect right away that I didn't even deserve.

And uh makes the job easy, right.

Yeah, very easy. And they talked and they had roll calls. They always talked about fires. They were always looking, you know, they've admitted mistakes. They were always looking to get better. And I love that atmosphere. And then seventeen guys got promoted out of the truck during the time I was there.

Wow, that's a lot, I know.

So they it's always been a big study house too, so they a lot of young guys came in and the young guys were great, and that that might have been.

Like the place fresh. Yeah, that's the best time, right, you're just fresh. Everybody's learning. You're bedrilling all the time. You're going to fires, talking about.

Fires exactly as a lieutenant. It's very good because it gives you something to And they were so enthusiastic, these guys one.

Two oh to the four to four K.

We got a ghast sleeking apartment for David. I'll get your name in a second. They're making an eighteen for a ten to forty goat too.

Him.

I love it guy.

And then when he came, when he comes, and then Bobby Higgins.

Had been Higgins loved that guy too.

Man, the two of them, it was the same thing like going back to my first fire house, Like when you got two captains in a house like that that were so great. And they were great captains, I mean great. And Calamari always stand like you know, he could he like anybody. He could have a favorite or you could get along better with certain guys. But he was fair across the board. He was squared away this. You don't

I used to I used to work in the engine things too, I used to say to the captain, and he played hockey. I played hockey. I used to see Captain Higgins all the time. And his son played in the NHL.

Right, oh yeah, yeah, so.

So I remember I used to I remember saying to him like, how are you still doing this cap? Like for years? Like how much time did he have? He was running around like he was in phenomenal shape.

I know, but it was just like you think to yourself, like, holy mackerel, Like at so point you might go to like three thirteen in or somewhere.

You know, like not that guy, you know that, not that guy?

Well, no, and he was he was too like he with the people in the neighborhood that he was like a saint. He was like a saint. He was such a good Yeah, he was such a good uh a good guy man. He was just such a good him on the show.

Yeah, I got I gotta work on we gotta work on him.

Yeah, he's a real class act. Him and him.

I'll get callam married to work on that. The squid, We'll get the squid to work on that.

And then a lot of a lot of the young guys, and now they're all stars today. You know what I mean? Will Hickey, I don't know, you know, Will Hickey.

That's myself's cousin, Will Hickey. Oh brother, Yeah, his cousin or his brother either one.

Oh Will Hickey. Yeah, he used to live next to my sister.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, great guy. He uh. Rob Petroca, I have all that, all these names down there, you of the young guys. I don't want to forget him. I wrote down the name of just about everybody I work with.

We don't care.

Yeah, I mean in the engine Mike Prolophone with phenomenal Chauffa, Al Garracio, backstep guy for twenty five years, Mike laughing. Now the great great guys there in the in the in the truck. Rob Brown went there after Dennis Gordon left, that's right, and John Philly, John Dooley, Larry Schneckenberger, Mike Kelly, John Narbert, Don Michelley, Danny Wetzel.

We might know, yeah, I know he.

I always joke about him. He would like they have the roll calls every day and they'd be like a half an hour, guy's talking about flyers or whatever. And then and Danny was always talking, always talking, and then the day they'd always let the guy, you know, if you're getting promoted, you know, okay, you're the officer for the day. I'm going to ride the backstep. But he's got to run the roll call. And then he gets to run the roll call the day He's like, I, no, I can't say.

So I came out with him. I came up with Danny.

You came on with wil Yeah.

So we were pretty close.

And then you know, the seat when I got to two ninety and we would run into you know, we're first and second two uh for quite a few boxes over there, and uh, you know, they would break my ball, you know, especially like you said when I first got there.

But for me to be in the engine when I first got there.

And Larry was in the truck and Dennis was in the truck, and there was a little you know, it was a little bit here like this.

You know.

I remember one of the first runs, we would come down the block, uh the right way, and then one twenty would come down. I forget what the building was. You probably know what's what I'm talking about. Yeah, they would come in. They were first two on that side because the block was down there, and we would meet like this, and I remember we didn't have a hydrant. You know, I would say, you know, we get on the radio and say one twenty we don't have a hydrants.

Uh you know, the ups operations or whatever. But I was get along Wallet.

Levy, Yeah I did too. I mean, uh with you guys. And I remember after we had a fire in the firehouse at one time you guys were over giving us kitchen stuff. There was competition there, but I think especially between the trucks with the engines. Different story. But the guys always banging. But I wasn't in the engine, so but uh, but with one O three I not, you know, I mean there's times we banged heads, but.

Uh, you're like this story I had.

We had unfortunately in two thousand and five when Uh, we lost Richie Sklofani and uh again same thing. Like you said, all the firehouses were great, right, cooking meals and doing stuff for us and everything. And we made plaques up for everybody, right, for all the firehouses for doing the right thing.

Right.

So we were going to one to your place, and uh, I think it was Rob Brown was working and we were just like a block away, and sure shit, a fucking box comes in for a fire right down the block. I don't know if it was like just past Pickin or some one of those blocks. I mean a couple of blocks. I mean we are right there, we're second due. We turn, you know, we're a couple of blocks from your fire, from from the block you guys are on, and all of a sudden we come.

I got the plaque in my hand.

I put the plaque on the on the dash, and as we're coming up to your I'm like I told Freddy was Freddie Gallag, I'm like, Freddy, just heads up in case they're coming out obviously, you know what I mean, be frying out here for a fire, right, And you guys are just pulling out and I see Rob as I'm.

Driving by, I look down the block and he makes eye contact with me and I could see his face. He's like, ah shit, you know what I mean, we're just like sicknings.

And we get up to the block and now I could look in the mirror and I can see they turned onto the onto the onto a picking or whatever we were on.

And I stayed up. Freddy. I'm like, stay, you know, stay right here. Let them in. I'm like, one twenty. You guys are first. And it was almost like he was like what yeah, yeah, he was in shock.

And then he went in and then I we we we came in second, dude, and uh. I remember going up to him and he was like, it turned out to be like a little bullshit job anyways, but thank god.

But because you know what you could have done with that plot didn't do that.

He said to me. He said something to me, He's like, Louis, thanks a lot, man, I appreciate it. You know, we'll forget it. I'm like, don't fucking forget their ship. I'll tell you right now.

The guys the backstep say to.

You, bro, nah, they were cool, man. They did yeah, they were right there, they were pulling out, they were right there.

But maybe I love that time. I love that part of Brooklyn. I love I love the competition. I loved I loved all that ship.

The competition is good. It makes everybody better.

Yeah, bros, what happened when the spots came right? We made everybody better around us?

You know?

Yeah?

What did?

What did?

Happy used to say? It's called aggressiveness. Get used to it.

Yeah, to us, it's called aggressiveness. Get used to it.

I will, I won't. I won't go into Uh. I broke my arm. We had a little accident, and I won't go into that too much. But I broke my arm and and my plan was just to stay in one twenty the rest of my career. But because I broke my arm and I got in a little trouble again.

But you and louis what you guys are actually parallel.

I was mentioned and yeah, one other five before that, I got in trouble. Uh well on hins Hillsdale and you guys Hinsdale, you guys weren't there, I think, uh Hensdale. It was shortly after Richie Scoffani, like a couple of

Uh times, Yeah, yeah, right, hymes better, it's much better.

It paces out better, but so it was crazy. And then so we go to we got to go to the top floor with second duwe truck and it's crawling over bags and and uh, we get up to the top floor and one seventy six who didn't have a.

Assignment that's time that they just followed us in and they oh yeah, And it's the only room that's not on fire on the top floor is is kitchen in the back, and and we don't have a line though.

They can't even get a line. It's so crazy. They can't get a second line past the first line. It's just craziness. So we're up there and we're bumping into each other in that kitchen. It's ridiculous. Two inside teams.

I didn't poke nobody. Believe that coup.

Oh you didn't poke nobody.

But but then I got in trouble one more time there.

But the the uh wow, trouble follows shit.

But because and I had two or.

Three months essay after I broke my arm, I had a couple of months essay. So I studied because I was essay and they would give me a lot of overtime. There was a lot of overtime at the time, so I was able to study. That's the only reason I became a captain is because of that, because I wouldn't to.

I didn't ruined it. So you get your study and you get promoted captain.

In seven o seven.

Yeah, and you aside to the first division. Yeah yeah, And uh, did you work in the first division?

I did. I worked. I worked in the first division and I was at the Starrets. I worked in three truck to day of the Starret City fire. But uh, we we got down were they sent us like on the third alarm which was delayed delayed arm, and we didn't the guys actually do it was right around change it to was. I was listening to the initial calls that sounded bad. Then there was nothing on the radio for about twenty minutes, and then all of a sudden the third alarm. The guys thought it was like for relief,

Yeah, yeah, it's not good.

So when we got it was crazy too. The trade center site was all construction site still and you had to break through these walls even to get close to the building. And uh we got in and actually chief who's now a staff chief, ol hey, uh Pitt got three truck and we went up the staff like it was weird all the stairs because I think it was the first building they ever did a demolition and a uh, you're talking about Deutsch the Deutsche Bank building.

Oh, I didn't know you were talking about the Deutsche Bank. I took something else.

But it was the worst of it. The worst of it was all but when we got there, I mean it was still going on, but the worst of it. I think they'd gotten the guys onto the elevator but uh yeah, And the stairways were sealed at each floor. Yep. It was a really strange thing.

That was a mess. Man, that was a mess waiting to happen. And the sprinklers won't I mean, the staf piso were working.

Yeah, it was great.

It was That was a real mess. But I don't think they'd ever done a demolition and a it's best this removal at the same time like that. It was crazy what they were doing. And they had they had fans in there that were like that were still working. They were like a vacuum. They almost looked like they were like ten or fifteen like well, it looked like washing machine sized fans that were like pressurizing the area. And I think that's what's made everything screwed up, you know.

But I can't imagine we had a few people on that talked about it, but I can't imagine, Like you get out into the hallway finally, right, you think you're you're free.

And then you go down and then there's like, yeah, I mean it just like a sheet apply with across.

You can't even force your way out of the thing, and you're only have a certain amount of air and nothing is where it's supposed to be or or I mean that's gotta be. Yeah, it is a nightmare. You can't even get out out to the scaffold. Some of the guys did get out on the scaffold. I remember the conversations.

But yeah, there's one guy, I forget his name. He's one of the most senior guys on the job. He was in I think sixteen truck.

Uh.

He saved a bunch of guys, got him out into this Kenny Rwayne, Kenny Ruwayne.

Yes, I've been trying to get him on the show.

Yeah, he wasn't give me his double.

I worked with him.

He's a great guy.

Yeah, Byzeldo was that guy. Do you know Kenny fail into in your neighborhood? Oh yeah, yeah, did name the street aft him that?

Yeah?

He died in the trades and he was a seven truck guy.

Yeah, he was in two That's how I know that name.

Yeah, he retired, he I mean, he passed away. He was in two seventeen, but he was working. He was paying back a tour and uh downtown Brooklyn. Yeah, but uh, anyway, that that was and then I just that year I did Ah, I was going I thought I needed college credit, so I was going to school. Uh and I uh and I wound up working at headquarters under Chief Hey there in safety command. But that was interesting because I

I was getting out.

He was there at the same time for a month.

We were at first. Yeah, we were there for a short time. I think I was leaving and he was coming in. He was you were leaving Rex, right?

Yes, yeah, I.

Worked with Rex and Keysling, I think for sure, you know, however it worked out on their times, I think.

Yeah. So I had Rocky and that's how I wound up like meeting Rocky.

You got a picture of Rocky day guns, Yes we do, Sorry about that.

And I said, I said, right, if I ever get a spot, you know, I'd go for Rocky. Right, because Rocky kind of like flew in underneath a lot of these guys didn't know who he was. He had a ton of experience.

Oh my god, does he have experience? This guy. You would never even believe it. Like I used to say all the time, cous.

Cous, and he remembers and he remembers fires like he remembers details. He's got a good memory.

Yeah that's crazy.

But uh so, Yeah, the rest of the school was good for me too, though, because I didn't I didn't you know, I've been out of sock all those years, and uh, I didn't remember the the special operations stuff so much, did you.

No.

I was just saying with you, like, you know, doing the trench stuff and you know all the other ship you know, even the ropes, like doing all that stuff. When I came back, we did the uh Firefighter removal class. Right, you did all those the new classes that they had that they came out with.

You know, that was brutal and that was and it was.

A lot more advanced than than when we first did that stuff.

Oh yeah, the collapse stuff was all different.

Right, I want you to go back to soccer.

What's that? Because I moved upstate?

Oh? Is that what it is?

He kept calling me. He's like, dude, you got to get out of you got to get out of it. You got to come back to SoC you got to come back to SoC.

So he would he would tell me too, it's like a kindergarten class.

Yeah.

I got a fucking constantly guys fucking coming in the office.

And it was three hours, like three hours to get home. Like you said, the work even started to slow down a little bit. It wasn't as you know, after Richie passed away, it was a little different, you know, like had changed a little bit. And uh I said, you know what, maybe I need to I need a change or something, you know, and uh I called chief off of me, you know, similar to probably what you did, and Uh, and that's how it worked out.

Yeah, it was good for me. It was good for me. And I was impressed too by it, Like these guys that the extent that these guys, uh you know, the guys that teach the classes and ship that how much they knew and the and the effort the guys put into the collapse simulated.

It is crazy.

That is true. That's unbelievable. I mean, I'm not. I don't. I wouldn't even compare myself on any level to those guys that.

I mean, have you been down there lately at all to see what's going on down there?

Now?

The last time I was there, I think there was something the plane for.

Yeah, it's amazing.

But uh, yeah, no, I'm very impressed with the level of all that ship with those guys. But uh, and then then I was out there bouncing around, which I loved. I loved bouncing around soccer.

Man.

You go, you know, you meet everybody, everybody treats you well, and you go into good companies, got a shot at you know. When I was bouncing around, I worked everywhere, and then I caught the most fires in rescue five bouncing around. Really yeah, I had a really good string over there. I had crazy ship and I also had you know what they get over there, the using the Hirst tool jobs over there, they get a ton of that riving with their arms out there.

Up doing the lean.

I was saying that a roll call with one of the guys. I was saying, I can't believe how many you know hers two jobs I'm going to here. It's like every tour, I'm going to two jobs and we're working, we're doing something, and as I'm talking to the guys in front of the firehouse, you hear a car flip. Here we go. But had good why there. I was there for a couple months, but and then you know, Rescue one was opening at the same time, and as forty one, and Captain Murphy was really unfortunately he got

I mean that place is that area is a shithole.

I mean it's like not it just around that is incredible, Like it's incredible, Like what's going on around there, And.

The fact that they shoot over the bridge to Manhattan too is like, oh, no, brain bro.

And and you know what's good there? You know what's good there, which I didn't do a lot of ever before. It was good because totally new borrow for me. And it's a different world up there. You had to get used to it. But uh, but the the age types, there's always a lot of places for the squads to go. There's always places for companies to go there because there's so much you know, routinely, you know, you get a second, third, fourth,

House, are you lieutenants there?

Oh? I had well originally Mickey, Sean Genoviez and Timmy Grant, which were they were all great. And then rock when Timmy left shortly after he got promoted, Rocky came in to me. That's like it's like the New York Mickey, Yeah, there he is. Mickey was what what you know? I learned a lot just watching the way he operates. And then I got Then he went to rescue three, so I got to go to fires with him. But uh, just so squared away and and uh, you know.

He is pretty I mean he's one of the top uh fineman on the job, always has been. And on top of that, he's he's such a great instructor. Like I remember, like like you said, like sitting in on stuff that he was teaching at. You know, he was always out there teaching doing stuff.

You know.

He enjoys that and he did a great job with that.

He retire, he's oh he's still working. He's like sixty three. And he got in good shape again, he got in good shape. But he he was just always squared away, like you looked at his gear was always set up exactly right. I mean he was and just he was always in the right place. And he didn't have a big ego. I mean he always wanted to be in the action, there's no doubt. But he you know, I saw he gave up grabs to the first two companies and stuff I seen him do. But uh, just a

Great he was there forever Sean right, Yeah.

He was there as a fireman and then uh, then he went to sixty one when the initial squads, and then he came back over after nine to eleven and he was there a long time, great great fireman. And then Rocky too. Rocky fit right in.

So and it took me.

I'd say, it's a different rank, you know. I mean at fires it's the same when your captain as a lieutenant, it's the same deal at a fire. But in the firehouse it took me. You know, I had to get used to the rank. And I think that's what's you know, I had to retire early for medical stuff, but I I felt like I was just kind of getting used to that rank. Because when you're bouncing around, it doesn't mean anything because you know, a captain, you just found

I learned so much from guys doing the right thing, like in every in every facet of everything, you know what I mean, no matter what it was, and everybody was accountable, right, you know what I mean? Like it initially it forces you to do it, and then after that you just do it, like you don't even think about showing up the stuff, and you know, doing the right thing, like you said, you know, sure.

What do you think you caught the most fire duty cap you know?

I don't, I don't, I don't know, because it's it's all. I caught good fires everywhere I was. I'll just talk about a couple of fires at forty one that were interesting. One of the last fires I was at was row frames in the bronze help but the upper level of where we would forty one response area. And I thought we saw Brooklyn were very good with frames because they had so many of them. But up there it was it was on a hill, which they didn't have. They

Wow.

And that was that was some fire. And then uh, then I had and we got in quick on that and and like within you know, so quickly it was in the fourth frame already and moving so quick there weren't enough lines to go anywhere, but uh.

We didn't there.

Yeah, it was a tough one the hill. But then then I had a one in Harlem that was a weird one too. It was a fire on the first floor, like underneath the stairwell in a tenement in the back apartment on the first floor. As soon as you walked in and we came and thinks, oh, it's like nothing. It seems to be like knocked down. And then the chief says, you want to check the upper floors. And we go upstairs and the stairwell is like burnt. It's

Was yeha, remind me the live chief, I don't know, that's.

What I said. The chief did like almost didn't believe me, and I said, yeah, we got an apartment going on the fourth bloys at the fourth floor and uh and then unfortunately, uh, Danny Pritzker found on the fifth floor, he found a girl had stepped out and throw. What had happened is the hallway lit up. Uh fro came out and lit I'm not sure what caused it to do that, and uh, it lit up. And then it just was like craziness because there was trouble getting lines

Does Rescue three go across to HALLM.

Too, Yeah, they do, but we what we would. But what was good is we were a lot low. We beat them into you go right over that bridge day right ato halem right, yeah, And so we we could beat them and we get in pretty quick. And the same thing for like lower HALLM. Like for Rescue one, had a long way to come up, so we we get in there quick. I mean it was a great great How far.

Did you go down?

Like what street was like like approximately eightieth on the east side and ninetieth on Wow.

That's pretty far down.

Yeah, I know.

I didn't know that either.

Yeah, it was good. If you look at Squad eighteen for them to get you know what traffic's like in Manhattan for.

Them to get all the way from downtown up to HALLM.

Yeah. No, it's in the middle of the day and night. It's one thing, but in the middle of the day it's.

Wow, that's a huge area.

Man.

You guys said, no, it was, it was. I just want to take a look to see if I'm forgetting. I'm sure I forgot multiple things. I mean, the guys in forty one, uh, Brad, Brad Daily, John Barret, Jimmy Deschuelo, Jerry Connelly, Jimmy Smith, Smitty Chris Brown, Steve Poris, Danny Pritzker, Scott Hickey, Mike Lindy, who went to three Timmy, Timmy o'tours my chauffeur.

Is he still on the job, Timmy?

Yeah, he's on it. He's getting close to getting out. He's got about thirty five years.

He was.

He was great. He would he was my chauffer most of the time. He'd start telling me a story writer. As we're back in the rig into the quarters, he'd start a long story, Jess. As we're back into twice, why do you tell me? Like we just drove five Yeah, I'm a really good guy on man. Great. Yeah, yeah, very talented guys that very u I had. I had

I've got the Midget.

Place.

That place is crazy around that place, Yeah, freaking crazy there.

I talked to Mike and he tells me all the time, what's going on ore, it's Mayhem over there.

Oh it's crazy. They got the there are I supposedly they said that K two was coming back, you know that.

Yeah, yeah, nice, Yeah, that's good.

That makes people. Zombies are for me and you good good, good find. But the guys are a lot of fun too. There's a lot of joking around, Like Scotty Altman, I remember we had on one four ninth Street. You had a like some e MS run and uh, the the guys. The guys are working on the guy in the street and I'm trying to write the paperwork and this guy keeps on tapping me on the shoulder behind me and he's got like a he's trying to sell cell phones or something. I'm like, you know, like all right, I

So if you go back to any point in your career, where would you go, what time would you go?

Let me see?

It's stuff to say. I mean nine to eleven screwed everything up right? Yeah, I hate to say, but you know what, like I said, like after nine eleven, then the best medicine for me was getting a spot in a firehouse like blocking street, because I thought, I didn't, you know, to my two companies I've been in lost everybody and you guys know you you lose all that, and I was just like I wanted to know all these people again and uh being a company like that again.

Oh you got that in seventeen Yeah.

While seven years so we did.

We did the same amount, he is too, twenty seven years Yeah right, you did twenty seven.

I did, like this, you guys man.

But but it's one of those things you think, I think, you know, unless I did everything to the Rocky rode it out to the last minute, I always feel like I should have done but it could you know, it is what it is.

You have to you know, sometimes you gotta go when it's not Yeah, you.

Know, happens the way it's supposed to happen. And lucky, you know, we're lucky. We get to spend time with our families. A lot of guys, a lot of guys are gone that you know, we all knew.

And it's but uh, I tell my wife that all the time.

This is all all these twenty years, these twenty three years or whatever the heck it is twenty four years now, it's all gravy. Yeah, right, if you think about that that, like, how how easy it it could have been?

Just luck of the draw. Right, it's all gravy, man, Everything we're doing is all gravy.

Oh yeah, I think you were talking about black Boy. I think that he used to have that thing on the T shirt. Don't sweat the small stuff, and remember it's all small stuff.

Yeah yeah, yeah, no doubt it could be worse.

So tell us about your family liaison.

It could have been my liaison, that could have been my wife.

I mean, I'm not saying that, but ageah, what are you gonna say?

Hey, Larry?

What tell us what we were talking in the pre show. You were saying, even going over to uh to France. Now you got some stuff going on over there. Tell us what you don't read.

Yeah, well, my my wife's she's Italian actually, but from France. We uh so, yeah, she inherited a house over there. I've been visiting over there like I used to do it, like every other year, go and visit. Then we're retired. We uh, I happened to be over there when COVID happened, so we stayed for a long time, and then uh, she inherited this house. So we fix them up the house and been spending half the year over there.

That's all on the Mediterranean.

How's how's your French?

It's not I'm taking that's not so good. After thirty something years, it's not.

But you're getting there. You can understand what's going.

On generally, Yeah, I could, but I had trouble initiating conversations sometimes. But I can pretty much understand.

Most understand when they say Medican.

By me that they're not the like Parisians, they're.

Not the study snoody French.

No, it's like the Southern. It's like Southern.

Uh.

It's it's a different world down there. All right, but uh yeah, no good, a very good, very You know. Her town is like the a place where people her mother who died at ninety nine years old, wow, still new people that she went to kindergarten with in that town. I mean people, you know, it's that kind of place.

They don't move. Yeah, they don't move.

Yeah.

They all stay there.

And good and just and from the get go like they they treated me like family over there.

You spend any time at the French firehouse over there.

I did. I had done some couple of things. Yeah, I went to a place up above. I think I told you. I went to like World War One battlefields up there, up in above, like the poorest part of the coal mining part of France. And they and the patron saved for firemen, and Saint Bob has the same saint for coal miners. So they had me. They have like an annual thing. And I got invited up to that and that and and the guy, uh, one of the guys, one of the firemen from up there that invited.

So it was like, wow, no, not no, he came to he came to Oh.

He came to you.

Oh well, that's good for him to tell me. It's like that every night.

The Roofie used to tell me one three, it's like this every night.

Kid.

But let me just say, I just see if there's anything.

I yeah, check it out. Check do we have? Was there any other pictures that we had to go over gon?

So that was it we had. Actually we have the Billy or Sully rather.

Yeah, we had Bryan Sulvan, a great, great addition to the company, a great guy from the get go. He he came over from two fifty two and uh phenomenal guy. Fit in like uh fit in like the day.

Nobody cares.

We don't just whispering that.

And then we have a little story behind this one.

Oh yeah, that's the guy on the left. There is Vinnie in Siata from that was seven truck. We used to do the high rise high rise unit things that was in the books. That was never put to use eva, but it was you know, like if there's a high rise fire, they would drop the NYPD would meet us at the rock and you'd get in there with you know, certain it's in the books. I don't even know if it's still They have certain tools and they drop you off on the roof and so once a year it

So that's pretty wild.

Yeh go, this is Kevin Brown check it in the high rise roof.

Team h r RT. Yeah. I don't know even know if they still do that. They never used it. So Brad Daily, Scottie Oatman, Scooter, I'll tell you a quick Scooter story. He was always like he was like the social worker, like if somebody if we went on an EMS run, he was always like sympathetic to the people. So we go on an EMS run. There's an older woman, Hispanic woman. She doesn't speak English. She fell out of bed and she probably broke in the middle of the night.

Scooter all right now right, guns, Yeah, it's just fucking signus thing. But and then we get three pictures, so we have two of this particular incident training thing here.

Oh yeah, that's just uh they were doing uh confined space at the top of the one of the towers on the Brooklyn Bridge, and uh they wanted us to do you know that in case they're they were doing some special because inside the towers there there's rooms, and so they sent they sent me and Liam and Timmy Grant up there. So we got to walk up the walk, up the cables and go, uh, go to the top of the bridge there me.

He did that on a fifteen ice street bridge. I'm not a fan of it.

You don't like heights to you, No, that's.

Why you got to first, because if you sit there waiting to get it, you.

Let him build up the anxiety and the last but not least.

That's a recent a couple of months ago, two fifty two old man dinner at Zoom stompish nice.

Did you have to stay ta ta No?

I don't even know. You know, you never that's the problem with these things. You never get to really eat. Everybody's talking.

And how about the labor casing or the South Broughton.

I think I had the sal Brown.

You just say to me, I don't like it. I'm gonna take his offensive.

You said to me, you go get some hot tea something.

Yeah, ship chief talk.

But with Louis I had a very similar path to you, right, I mean you were in a regular company, which was great. I'm sure you loved one seventeen, right, I did, and then went to the squads and then to Brooklyn and to get then back to.

Socc back to sick.

We retired, uh, pretty much almost the same time. I think I got out in night. So it was just.

It's good when stuff keeps me from being totally uh. You know, hearing the other guy's talk. You know a lot of the guys and hear him talk about stuff. It keeps it alive.

That's why we like doing it keeps us in the game.

Glad he did it.

M hm, great story, great career. So you know before we let him go, wisdom.

You take it away, brother, I guess for me, like going back to that first fire, I talked about where I didn't notice ship, you know, like where I let a lot of stuff like I just blew. You know, my head was on fire, My head was going going full speed and I just blew past it. A lot of stuff I should have noticed that, you know, my whole career, I always tried to slow down enough to catch stuff like that. And there was one other thing I just want to because it's similar to that I

Job in there and that's crazy.

Yeah, we go up and we know exactly that where the holes are, and we can go along the side of the building to the back. If it's bad, we can hop out this window, fall on this roof next door. Just because we looked at it, you know. And it's not like we were you know. It's just because we'd seen it that we're able to do it. But so that sting. Just know your buildings and uh and take takes take a few seconds to size something up, soil you catch it.

Next great job.

Before we get to the shoutouts and thank you, let's play the last two commercials.

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Their education and research initiatives aim to bring greater awareness and understanding the challenges to the health, safety, and well being of firefighters, EMS personnel, and other first responders too. They are an affiliate of the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation.

All Right, the old school health and safety tip tonight is ready for this. Start a program, whether it's exercise.

Or a diet.

Don't start too harsh, don't set the goal high. Start little increments. Start with your diet. Cut one thing out of your diet. If you start exercising, train once a week, twice a week. If you set the goal too high, you're gonna make yourself miserable and you're gonna feel like you failed when you can't complete what you've set. So set it low and then always build up.

There you go.

I like that one, Koby, thank you.

All right.

We got a couple of shout outs.

The first one I have is actually for Captain Graham's nephew, the little boy, Coop Cooper. Uh, he had cancer and we've got a message from Captain Graham that he is doing fine now, thank God. So all the prayers and this is a Christmas miracle because he had a very aggressive form of cancer.

And like I said, to all the prayers and uh he is right now, he's doing well. And the more we see he is in remission. So thank God and good dudes, thank you, good news.

It's a Christmas miracle. And unfortunately we have a line of duty death. We have standby. Uh, mister kobl Oh, that's my dad. The Chattanooga, Tennessee Fire Department was his most senior member, Captain George Early over the weekend and a line of duty death. He died of a heart attack while on shift working.

Out at his station. Uh so we're gonna give the five bells to Captain Turtley. He was the most senior man in Chattanooga. Stand by.

Rest in peace, brother, Captain Tompkins. Great show, I was awesome, career, great stories.

Thank you for coming on. Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you, guys man. It's good to h it's good to talk about that stuff.

Yeah, come on, we'll have you back on again. We'll have like a training episode.

Make sure you're around in August.

We have a boat around the Manhattan. We have the John J. Harvey we got out of fire boat.

Awesome.

Every guest from the past year is invited on. So we'll see the first or second week of August.

I don't know what it is.

First week in AUGUSTA, yes, anyway, you gotta shout outs rough, No, we got a.

Show on Monday, correct morning, Christmas.

Chief Rice, last one before Christmas, yep, seventeen truck Guy and then Coobs is off out of the country, going to Spain, Europe doing it. I'll be doing a show from Spain to film a show in the Spanish chef Fight department.

I thank you, guys, was too. It's the anniversary of the Start City. Are you going to say something about that? Or yes?

God that you had it right Vandalia Avenue.

I have a picture of it. Yes, I figured you can just uh, excuse me. I'll share the image if you want to. Just read off the names for me. I had the other image on there, but I had to remove it. So is twenty six year aniverse was actually yesterday?

Oh my goodness gracious.

Yep, that's Bowhead Bob what cavaliery?

Yes, yeah, I had them up earlier, but I had to chase to change the image out.

All right, I can't even believe that that's long.

Yeah, it's crazy how fast time?

That means you're old in Franto, not me, No, not you, no forever young. All right, guys, cats, stay stay tight, we'll in the in the post show. Guys, be safe. We'll see you Monday night before Christmas. Yes, we love you too, Cydy Drake and all you guys in the chat. Until then, you know what I say, stay low.

And go Merry Christmas.

Thanks again, Larry, Merry Christmas.

To you.

We'll see it, the big one. Everybody all right, guys, have a great weekend.

Good Night,