Disclaimer. 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.
We're listening to the Getting Salty Experience podcast.
Hello, I am not as loud. I'm let's go. Hello, my pipes cannot reach the same volume.
But little sweets welcome, No, Welcome to.
The episode two hundred and thirty nine of the Getting Salty Experience. Unfortunately, Kevin is not feeling too well today. His voice gave out it on him, so he tapped me to substitute to host tonight. And I'm know Kevin Coobler, but I'll do my best. We got a great show on tap and it's always along for the ride. Luba, Ferando and Gonzo on the ones and too even gentlemen, how are you?
It's a Mikey kid. You're ready to go? You get the suit on. I like it, yeah, always like. We actually had uh, we had our show in Long Island, Long Island Expo and uh, it's three days We've met a lot of a lot of good people out there. But you know, you're doing a lot of talking and a lot of pictures and a lot of smooth Maybe Coob's signed a lot of stuff, you know what I mean. He likes that stuff. But uh, yesterday he could barely talk,
like legitly he could not talk. And then uh, this morning he I talked to him this this afternoon and he's like, I don't I don't think, you know, like he's horrible. So I'm like, yeah, we've talked to Mike, Michael zip right in there. It's better looking anyway. It's better to look at him right guns. It's like we've got to look at that crooked nosed all time and everything on Coobler.
It's not good because he's not He's like right up in the camera.
You know, he's always got like the medium shirt on, Like I want to see it, you know, I want to see it. It's nice.
He's probably was right now.
Surprise it's coming in. There's no doubt he's watching.
You know, he's got to pop up in the chat.
You know, show his face on the show.
He might he might, but feel better, my friend.
Yeah, don't feel better. We're good. I'm just kidding. I love you.
See inside voice again. Gun, it's nice.
Stay away from the light, little buddy. We just give it to him now.
Where we're at.
So what we got? All right?
Well?
Anything else exciting the show this weekend?
Oh? Yeah, who was there? I mean everybody was there. Ron Zo he was there. It was true, Daddy Ray was there. I mean everybody was there was Mikey Milana was there. It was a lot of fun guys hanging out, partaking as they might say, perhaps could happened. So yeah, it's a good time. It was good. Good a lot of people.
Yeah, huh, I was this close. I wanted to make it up there, but maybe not, maybe next time.
Maybe I saw some guys from a lot of f d y guys just uh our volunteers on Long Island and stuff like that, so they don't make their way to the shows. There's some classes going on if you guys are teaching. So it was good.
M m, well, she goes. We had a good time. You guys had a good time.
Really had it worked out like you did?
Yeah? Well, we went to dinner with Vince from Arbor Tough.
Oh did did he come off yeah, all right, you like the new commercials? Are you happy with it?
I told we got to cut it down in half. I'm like, how did you send it a minute? Commercially? Like the price is going up, That's what I told him.
Oh, Breck is going up.
To tell the tariff.
I say another thing on the tariff.
My god, please Christ that it's changed. But anyway, yeah, yeah, change, come on man, So whatever anyway, Sorry, So you want to martials, we got, Well, we have FOC and we have Armor Tough. Which one do you want to do first?
A Tough first, and then well we'll do the UH one after that.
All right, Well, let's speaking events here we go.
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I forgot to mention missus Procaccini's husband, was that too, Hi.
Rob, he's hitting me up. I'm trying it, but I'm trying to keep it tight. I almost went, no, jail, I almost changed everything. But that white head ahead, I mean that's really white. It's changing. Yeah. So anyway, uh, all right, here we go, you guys ready for the new next one? Ye? All right, here we go.
The First Responder Center for Excellence is a not for profit organization dedicated to protecting their lives and livelihoods of first responders. 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 Foundations. Okay, I have been tasked with the health
and safety tip tonight. Obviously not a firefighter, so not my place to give that sort of advice. That it's a little bit different. If we can pull up the photo, please absolutely, this is something that it's not necessarily exclusively related to firefighting when it applies to us all, no matter what profession you're involved in. So yep, this is firefighter. Thomas Dunn retired. He worked an engine two thirty four, and I have the following sad information from Chief Fincent Dunn,
of whom was Thomas Dunn's uncle. That quote, My nephew, Thomas Dunn, Engine two thirty four survived both tower collapses on nine to eleven, spent months down in the pile searching for victims. Since then suffered years with asp but breathing problems and recurring scalp infections caused by fumes and soot of the smoldering pile rubble. He took his own life yesterday at three pm, a gunshot to his head.
Never forget end quote from Chief done. First of all, our condolence is the Dune family on this terrible loss. And secondly, mental health, mental health, and yes, mental health. We all have our struggles, we all have our burdens, and sometimes it's easier said than done to share them. But in today's day and age, where there's more of a spotlight on this sort of a thing, it's important to share it. We can't shoulder our load alone. We all need one another.
Well done, Michael, Well done, Michael. So when I saw that, I saw that today somebody had posted it up early, and my first thought was, Holy Michael, that guy's really young to have, you know, sticking cancer or something, because it said nine to eleven. Then when Chief Done posted on the fan page that you know, he had committed suicide,
then it was just like, holy Michael. And you know, we talk about that pretty much almost every show, when you know, whenever we do that commercial, uh, I mean, Coops is really that's his thing, you know what I mean, he talks about that all the time. And yeah, unfortunately, I guess you know, he felt like he was.
At the end of the rope, the taugh job to keep the conversation going and letting everybody know that it's okay to uh to. I mean, I hate it's almos sounds getting very uh common. Yeah, to be okay, but you know, it's the outreach that we have and I was just going to get closer to home for for some of us. But don't be afraid. You out to have the conversation, even if it's a work colleague, my friend, it helps me and I did the same thing, so it helped me.
We all suffer. What we don't want to do is suffer in silence.
That's right. So all right, let's got har all right, So already guns, I am one hundred percent, I think, And he's ready sitting there patiently waiting.
He's like he sleeping.
Now he's get ready and come on, I can see all right.
All right, coming to the stage author and f d n Y Captain Andy Sarah. Guys, say that, fella, thanks for having me. You weren't sleeping back there. Maybe you were reading a couple of them books you got back there.
Hold, he's not a confirmed and I dozing off now, yeah we got here for a second, I was yeah, yeah, I got you. It was terrible news. You know, I agree with you. When I saw I'd say it was very shocking and sad.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean it's almost every day there's some type of funeral. I mean, you know, and you get the messages, right, you get the ufo A sends emails every day. There's one or two related to nine to eleven or something else.
Never a week goes by without one, right, Yeah.
Oh no, it seems like it's all the time.
That's the sad fact, as everywhere you turned becoming very customer.
Unfortunately, gons I got ship to do. Man.
Yeah, I mean I think we all Oh yeah, you mean lying not to make a joke out of it.
Yeah, no, listen, absolutely absolutely, So before we get into your career, cap and of course we'll go, oh.
Let's get patriotic, Coobs.
Yes, 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.
I'll just forgetting about that now, Coops Colone tonight. Before we get into anything involving your career, first take me through and this is a two pronged question. A where you grew up and B did you have any inclinations early on? You wanted to go into simplicervice.
Well, I grew up on Stein Island, and you know, my dad was a truck drivers. You know, I grew up going on the truck with him. You know, it's all I wanted to do, is kid, I think being the truck with my dad, you know, But my mom's father was a firefighter. He retired when I was very young, when we retired, but my mom always talked finally of you know, her dad being a fireman and with the fire department, and it was really her keeping on top
of me and my brothers. You know. She was very use accepting whatever we wanted to do in life, she would have supported. But she had one rule. You have to take the tests. You know, yeah, you kind of turn seventeen eighteen whatever, whatever.
Test, the same thing must be the Talian.
Thing, Theiing thing.
Maybe that era that my mom was Irish, So you know, she had a hard and fast rule. You know, you're taking the test. You could say no wing they call you.
But that's it exactly. You could always turn.
It down, you know, a physical class action lawsuit a few you know, six years later I got the call, you know.
So getting on in August of nineteen ninety eight, interesting time. Of course, the FD and WI is changing. This is right after the squads went into effects. Special Operations Command has has been revamped. City is in a good spot. It's in the middle of a renaissance. So getting down the Proby School, I.
Just want to sit there like I've never heard coops use the word renaissance. In my life forty years, I've never heard them say that smart. It's smart. Mikey, go ahead, Mikey, I love.
You getting down to the rock. Tell me about well, A, the first day and b what sticks out from those three months.
You know, it's It's probably one of those things that you know you hated doing it at the time, but now you look back and love it. You know. It's the call pool in the morning, meeting first thing in the morning. We all met by on the stan Islands side of the Arizona Bridge. There's a big giant monument there. We used to drive there, meet and all getting each other's cars and call pool up to the rock and just a lot of laughs in the car with a bunch of guys that you know, all on the same boat.
I think that test in particular because there was a lawsuit and hiring freeze and stuff by the time they got to it. I did the math. I think when I was there it was one hundred and fifty guys in the proby class. It was me and one other guy were the only two in the whole class that were under thirty years old. You know, I was twenty five. At the time, I was like the youngest you could be because I had just been old enough to take
the test. So it was an older class. You know, a lot of guys who you know, blue collar, you know, swung hammers their whole lives waited, you know, whatever they were doing, even if the stockbroke or whatever they were doing. They waited for this job for a long time, you know,
so everyone was pretty motivated. I think we started on day one with one hundred and fifty two when we graduated one hundred and fifty one, and that was because con One guy left on day two because he had been in conned and they got a race and he went back to Conned. But nobody quit during probey school, you know. So it was it was a good class. It was I think we had you know, we had fun. Now looking back, you know absolutely.
Cap Did you have any family on the job. I don't know if we covered it or not.
Prior to, like I said, my grandfather retired, you know, when I was quite young, but uh, down the road, my brother got on the job a couple of years after I did you know, the three of us were three boys. We all took the test me and my youngest brother Rob got on the job.
Did your grandfather ever talk about it? Do you remember talking to me about.
He was pretty reserved about it, you know, here and there a few stories, you know. He had a pretty interesting career. Was different back then. Obviously, he he graduated. They didn't really have an academy, whatever the training they had at the time, he said, a welfare island. They did some training, then they assigned them to a division and they floated, and then the orders came out and he got assigned to a fireboat on the Marine Companies
back then whatever they were called, you know. But uh, he got to sign to a fireboat down and they were part of Battalion flour he said, on the Lower East Side. They docked in Low Manhattan, and uh, they knew the guard that it was like in a docking thing,
and they knew the guard at the front gate. So if the battalion chief came by for an inspection, the guard would telephone them and say the chiefs and it would take the chief like five minutes to drive, and so the had heads up when the chief was coming. You know. He did that for like a year or two, he said, And then he said no, I want to. You know.
Oh he did get out of there, all right, I mean.
He chancewered he chanced it out of there he went to It was before the version A bridge, so I guess getting on the stan Ouen saw it was a big deal and he ended up he went to eighty one truck on steann Ou And he did that right about twenty twenty years there.
Nice.
So that fast forward to November of nineteen ninety eight. You come out of Proby School, your first assignment the Happy Hookers W one thirty one truck and a family made the company going to a Brooklyn company off the Rip, one of the busier burrows of the five of course in New York City, especially at that time. Tell me
about I don't know how long you were there. I know you were on a rotation a little while after that, But tell me how much time you spent there and the key lessons you learned early on from your senior guys.
Well, I went there out of Proby School. I did my first year on the job there and got a probation before we went out.
On the Holy mackerel fifteen. It was a paper or something. Look at you, Holy shit, you're a bait.
Your newsday, just kidding.
It was uh, yeah, you know, it was a very senior house. You know. I didn't think anything of it because I didn't know any better, you know. But uh, Jimmy Perkins in the in the engine had I think forty two years on the job. Wow, he was a senior man on the job. He got on the job. He was the proby class before my grandfather's proby class. You know.
Wowking crazy, you know.
He Uh, he saw the neighborhood come full circle. He got there and they had two rigs, a hose wagon and a pumper and they were doing about five hundred runs a year, he said when he got there, because it was before the war years, you know. And then he got he was there through the war years, and they were doing five or six thousand runs a year by then.
And then by the time we wouldn't even have been there. Probably at that time, right, the Big qu probably wasn't even there because they're right under the pigway.
Yeah, they were probably building it at the time, you know. And uh, the warriors, you know, and then the neighborhood, you know, down by Columbia Street, all the uh, the tenements and all that they burned, you know, and then the neighborhood slowed down a little bit afterwards, you know, but uh so it's about probably a middle of the roadhouse. You know, runs and workers wise when I when I got there, but you know, so the old time was
like that sore of go full circle. You know, there was a good number of guys in the truck that had over twenty years when I got there.
Truck work in a place like Brooklyn is a sweet spot few can never achieve in their careers, let alone of course the department like the ft and wiy. So what I'll ask you is as far as boxes going again, I don't know how long you were there, tell me about the fires that stick out and even just the emergencies where you found yourself saying afterwards, holy crap, that was really something.
Yeah. You know, when you're young and brand new, you never think you're busy enough. You know, I look back now, and especially you know when I was a probe even I caught a good amount of work. That's you know, that neighborhood has a little bit of everything. There's other than private dwellings that has everything else. It has projects, has brownstones and road frames, it has tens, it has factories and warehouses, and uh, I really caught a little
bit of everything that that whole time there. You know, I remember, you know my first fire was in a brownstone building up in Park Slope right by two twenty two, Lou you were telling that story before U we second do to them. You know, I'd been there like a month, hadn't caught anything. Then you think, oh, it's never gonna happen, you know, you get the jitters, and then uh, the senior guy in the truck, Gary Kakey, he said, go lay down. You know, it's like one in the morning.
He says, go lay down. It'll happen when it happens. And next thing you know, it's like six am. The the tones are going off and you know, fire is blowing out two windows on the on the first floor. You know.
Those areas over there, like we were talking about in the pre show again. When I got promoted, I was in the eleventh division in Brooklyn, and uh, I'd say I say it all the time, one thirty one. Like when you talk about busy trucks, you know, you think of Brooklyn, it's always one to eleven. It's the same companies one
twenty right on one O three whatever. But I want my One of my first vacations I did was in one thirty one, and I absolutely love the guys that like I I you know, I went to a couple of little jobs, nothing crazy, and then right down the road they I worked in two oh four engine, which they end up closing. But again, you wouldn't even know that thing was like it was. It was on like a little block that kids were playing in the street like it was an incredible you know, guys are great there.
And the same thing with twenty one twenty two. I told you about the story with the fruit and I forgot my wallet and the guys took care of me like I was, you know, like family. Whatever.
It was definitely a great introduction to the fire department. You know that the house was great. I had great offices.
You know.
My first captain was Marty Ford and Tommy Coleman was my lieutenant, and I learned a lot of them. The senior mental took me under their wing. You know, had some very senior guys over twenty years war years, guys like Jake Sexton and Gary Kakey and you know and then even like the middle of the road guys that just you know, j do the every tour, make sure you're doing the right thing. You know, the guys that stick out in my memory that even today, you know,
it's like Mike jet Ski or Jerry Sweeney. You know those guys they just you know, they really make sure they stayed on top of you and taught you the right way, you know.
And you know, it's funny that you think about those the first guys that you meet. You know, if you've never been in the fire department obviously you know, I was never going to firehouses. I had nobody, same as you. And those guys that you meet for the first time, they really do, you know, like embed themselves, like make a mark for you, like to look back, like when you look back through your career. Now you've been in two thirty one, you've been in Squad one, You've been
in all these places. And yet even for myself too looking back like once seventeen, there's some guys there that really put me on the path, like with certain things that I still think about now, Like I said, wow, you know, and I had some really good jobs. Like again, like when I was in once seventeen similar to you, Like I it sticks out to me even after all that time, you know what I mean?
Yeah, and even bouncing aroun as a covering officer. You really really there's great people everywhere, really dedicated, talented people everywhere every part of the city.
That is true.
And there's knucklehoods everywhere, but.
Different clowns, right, so.
You know, no one has a monopoly on either, you know.
Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Not to jump ahead because I don't want to gloss over your rotation. We have yet to get the squad one as well. But given what would come later in your career becoming an officer in two thousand and four, were these the guys that inspired you to start studying or did you have that in your mind already when you got on.
You know, I don't think definitely like that early on in one thirty one. I think I wasn't thinking studying at that time. I don't think. I think I maybe a little bit later. That came because uh, they had just given a lieutenant's test, I think in ninety seven, so I knew I had a few years to you know, it wasn't like anything was imminent, and uh, you know, I was just happy learning the job and meeting new
people and having fun. It wasn't an initial thought. And uh, and like I said, the truck, you know there there there were guys that got promoted out of there, but a lot of guys just stayed there forever, you know, for twenty something years, you know.
So it's uh, Paddi Lee is always fun.
It's like that.
Too, Like Mike Jizki's in the chest to s and he was a great proby I knew he would have a great career. So Mike jiazekies if I'm pronouncing that right. Apologies from not Yeah, Mike Jeske, Yeah, Mike Jesseke. Sorry.
Like I said, he was one of the like middle management guys when I got there, and uh, you know the guys that just always doing something, always taking care of something, always looking out for the young guys and teaching them. So he's he's definitely a big positive influence.
Let's peel it back. Sorry about that. Let's peel it back to that rotation two thirty one, five night and day two thirty one. You go to Watkin Street. You're still in Brooklyn, so not too unfamiliar given your time in one thirty one truck one fifty five Staten Island, so completely different way of doing things out there. It fluctuates Burrow to Borrow. So tell me about changing the
mentality from where you were in Brooklyn. That's how that's where you spent the early portion of your career to how they did things in Staten Island and what that experience taught you.
Yeah, that was completely the opposite of you know, like red Hook and Brooklyn with as far as building types, you know, one fifty five, it's a it's a busy firehouse, one fifty five and seventy eight.
And uh, is that the hot corner?
The hot corner? Yeah? Nice. They have projects right in their immediate area, like along the way they have a you know, a project development. But then everything else they respond to is pretty much private dwellings and Queen Ann's.
And I got some good work there, you know, I think two or three times in the in the time I was there, and we rolled up on like Queen Ann's, fully involved by ourselves, us in the truck for like ten minutes because the second do companies are coming from so far away, you know, So it was it was a good learning experien and the guys there know what
they were doing. They you know, you think I had just my second stop was in two thirty one, so you think, all right, I think I got to handle on engine work and this and that, and then I remember a good job I caught one fifty five. I had the control and I couldn't get the cap off the hydrant. It was just seized on, rusted on, and uh, in my mind I was, you know, I guess in Brooklyn most of the caps were missing, but you know, but uh, I couldn't get it off, and you know,
I didn't have that much experience to know. You know, I turned to the show for uh, this guy Dougie Spanel, he was one of the showfers in one fifty five. I said, Doug, I think we need a ten seventy. And you know, I'll watch my language on the air here. You know his idea of a ten seventy. You know,
he told me where to stick it. You know, he opened the compartment, he takes all out and like you know, like a baseball player, goes get out of my way, and he swings the mall and hits you know, the head of the mall dead onto the nut of the four and a half cap cap and as soon as he does it, I see like the rust flakes fall out of the reds. He goes open it now and I put the ranch on it. I opened right up. We hooked up, and you know, the fire went out.
You know, it's like no matter how no matter where you worked, how busy it was, or what you think, you know, there's always someone who knows more or what experience you can learn from. You know, all over the city it was. That was another great place to work.
How long were you in two thirty one for not to gloss over that?
A little over a year. It's weird the rotation. When I started, if you remember, there's a fire, I had Danny Wets. Yeah, Timmy ridden was the boss there and Danny dunleavy was with me. It was my second stop on rotation. Then they changed the dates. It used to be October to October and then they made it January to January. So I ended up being in two thirty one for like fifteen months or something like that on my second stop. So I was, you know, having fun there.
Didn't majorady kind of like I know when guys did the rotation. Then from having a few guys on did you kind of already feel like you gravitated to You're going to go back there at some point, or you were saying I was going back to one thirty one.
You know. It's one of those weird things. And coming from one thirty one, where I loved it, I loved the guys there, you know, and then I got to two thirty one and saw, you know, another great house, another great group of guys, and the tradition there through the war years. You know, I loved it there too, you know, so you're kind of your heart's torn. You know, it's like you're going back to company functions and in one thirty one meeting those guys and you know, so
you know, time went by. It's uh, the way it worked out. The rotation ended, I went to one fifty five, and then I I, as much as I loved it in one thirty one, I just felt like, I think for my career, you know, I think being as busy as I could at the moment, would you know, was would it be beneficial? So I actually wanted to go back to two thirty one. And then my officers at one thirty one were great, you know, they were supportive, Captain Ford and Tommy Coleman all and uh they helped me.
I put in the paper and all. But then in order came it didn't happen, And then nine to eleven happened, and right in September of O one and uh after that, I was in one thirty one and we lost, you know, we took a big hit on nine to eleven, and uh, you know I wasn't gonna leave then, you know, I you know, with the guys, we had guys missing, we had funerals to plan, families to take cares. And then I knew, you know, if I was gonna I was gonna stay in with you know, my company and my
house there with them. And it wasn't until a few months later, Uh, Lieutenant Tommy comb And pulled me in the office and uh he said, you know, I know you you talked in the past about you know, being as busy as possibly he goes. He showed me a I guess in order that came out of something that Sock was looking for volunteers at the time. Of course, you know, they took such a big hit on nine to eleven, and uh, you know, I thought maybe it was too soon to leave it to nine to eleven.
We had so much going on still at the fire house. This was maybe December of one, and he said, no, you know this this is you know, good for your career, and he helped me a lot. Tommy Coleman and actually Marty four too. He called the captain the squad one at the time, and I got an interview up there in January of one. I was I went to Squad one.
So you know, this is at a time when of the ninety seven Special Operations Command deaths that happened on nine to eleven when the towers collapsed, quite a few of them were from Squad one. Squad one was decimated on that day, so getting there, it's already hard to go to a squad company or a rescue company and that does that type of work, because it's not an easy transition as it is with this as the backdrop, it's tens times harder, and it's pedal to the metal
because there's a heightened state of alert. So it's quite literally trial by fire. Being in a company like that during a time like this. Tell me about those early months of just trying to keep your head on straight while your world is still spinning from what happened to your previous company and trying to mesh with guys who in their own way or grieve.
In the.
Yeah, it's it's such a unique, it's it's it's hard to explain that whole time. You know, I'm sure you guys agree, like, and there's so many you know, there's
a million stories on this job. Right if there's a you know, something terrible happens and somebody gets killed and then the new guy comes and takes his locker or you know, but now you multiply that by In Squad one's case, they lost twelve guys on nine to eleven, you know, literally half the company, so in a single house, so half the firehouse really and even the guys coming there, most of them were coming from houses that lost guys.
So everyone's like in this very you know, unprecedented situation where you know, and there was there were moments for sure where it was it was I guess hard or surreal, you know, to be knowing that you step, you know, stepping into someone else's you know, someone who's died, you know, following in their footsteps and all, you know, But it's also like it was such a huge loss in such an unpressed ented situation, and there was no time almost with half the company gone, they had to work so
hard to rebuild so quickly that there really wasn't a lot of time to dwell on it. It's like we're gonna getting a bunch of new guys in and we're gonna work hard, we're gonna train you know, you.
Know, Andy, it was I was thinking about that too, like like when you went there in January that that's still to me, that that whole like, I don't know, like for everybody, it was like eight months, seven eight months, Like it's a blur, right, I mean, you guys were going we were going down like still on the rotation, like a squad or a rescue was going down every night or every you know, in the morning, at night.
I forget what it was, but we were constantly still going down there all the time, right and looking and doing all that, and like like I'm sure a squad was doing and then you still will probably going to one thirty ones stuff if you know, if they had a master funerals, yeah, memorials, if they didn't find somebody and then they find them, then you got to go to the funeral again, and it was just it's.
Now a whole new you know. Squad one had had a couple before January, but I think the most of them were after January. There funeral was a memorial.
So it was just and then you got to learn all the you try to jump in and learn you know, high angle, and you're trying to learn collapse, and you're trying to learn confined space and shit you never did. On top of going the fires and everything.
You know, now counter terrorism too.
Well, your brain is half not concentrating, you know, for the most part, you know what I mean. It was a weird, weird time man, Like you said. So all those guys that came to eighty eight, you know, they they did a lot of great things to you know, to help prop up the you know, the company, because it allowed the guys who were there to maybe take their mind off of all the other crap to focus on teaching these guys stuff, you know what I mean.
And I noticed that morning there were you know, there was so with twelve families to to take care of. You know, some guys in the flaass just they had their hands full with that, you know, and then other guys. You know, everyone pitched in on everything, of course, you know, but other guys were more focused on let's let's train the new guys. Well, let's you know, let's you know, I guess like any other flass, everyone was.
A good distraction, right, It was a good distraction from all of the loss and pain, like to have guys that were motivated to be there and you know, teaching those guys and watching guys. You know, even for myself, I was only there until junevo two, I got promoted. But even those six months, like some of the guys, I think, uh, John McCoy bones call him bones. He's
still been he's been there. He was one of the first guys that came, and he's a senior guy there now still you know, I think he's getting out pretty soon. But yeah, he you know, I think about going, you know, teaching him and going to fires and stuff like that. He won the Gancy Medal for God's sakes, you know what I mean. I felt like he was my son, like it was my father, you know, like I was
a father, you know figure to him. You know, so, uh, you know just what you're saying, you guys were important for the company to to be a distraction in a good way, you know what I mean?
If that makes sense, Yeah, I could see that, Yeah for sure.
One thing, well, and a couple of questions. Is it pertain to Squad one. You spent a couple of years there. The dust figuratively, there's a great photo after a job of assuming dust figuratively and literally settles in the spring of two when the last beam is removed, and slowly but surely emergency agencies across the city start to get back into the normal day to day of things. Was there a point in time, even though you weren't there too long, where you finally felt, Okay, I'm settled into
the company. I feel like I belong here.
Yeah. You know, we had a great, a great crew there at the time. We were very close to There was a bunch of us that were all right around the same age, similar time on the job, and most of us lived on stann Awland and uh in the same neighborhood. We hung out a lot together, We did a lot of stuff together. Uh. It was a lot of fun going to work then, and we were busy, and you know, it was it was hard to leave
that it was when the promotion came up. But uh, you know, I think we got into a good groove once once, you know, the like you said, getting used to the new company and the new type of work settled in a little bit. I probably wasn't there long enough to feel like, you know, I definitely didn't feel like, you know, oh I got this, this is you know, a piece of cake.
You know.
I was still on the upcurve of learning, uh the SoC world, uh in uh this you know, May of four when I got promoted. But I definitely felt like it was I felt like I was a part of the company, you know, and I felt like I was there.
Yeah, I would say it's about a year until you feel comfortable, you know, so more comfortable and they could throw you know, you still learn it, obviously, and you don't. It's not like you know everything. But if you've been drilling and doing what you're doing, you know, you definitely start to feel more comfortable obviously. You know.
One thing I wanted to touch on too, is that, lou you felt this when you got the two eighty eight, both as an officer and as a firefighter there, but really being in a squad any of the squads throughout the city. There's eight of them now with the addition of the squad on Staten Island. It really does feel like the world is your oyster because you have your first two area, but you have city wide and at the drop of a hat, you can go anywhere. And being a young guy at the time, it's still learning
and trying to be a sponge. I imagine that had to be your Camelot.
Coops definitely never used that word. There is no way that's two Renaissance and Camelot. There's no way. I mean, it's very refreshing. It's it's better than they all dribble that I get use.
Coobs as a color backdrop or something something like.
That, just like, oh God, I love it.
Sorry about that.
No, no, Mike, We've said it. I'm sure Andy feels the same way. It's like Disney World, you know what I mean. Like Squad one is uh is the one and only right, it's uh they have the lowest runs UH to work ratio, you know what I mean.
I mean it might have changed a little over the years with like they got second and third do engine boxes now and some different things. But when I was there, we were going.
You were going out the door, it was going to a fire.
The numbers was we were doing like nineteen hundred runs a year and we were going over three hundred fires, you know, like all hands.
Are better know, Yeah, doubt.
That's a pretty pretty great ratio there, you know.
And it was such a great neighborhood. I mean, forget about if you were single over there, like you know, too bad you didn't buy any houses back then, you know what I mean, any buildings. Yeah got six Holy shit, there's freaking buildings over there, five, ten, twenty million dollars, right, some of those those Brownstones or whatever the heck they got on the holy shit.
Oh, that whole neighborhood. Yeah, even when when I went to one thirty one, a couple of guys, you know, the the real estate had already started on the upswing by the time I got there. But there were a couple of senior guys, three of them in the early nineties. We're going to chip in I think five grand each and buy a Brownstone for fifteen thousand dollars, and oh my, one of the one of them talk the other two out of it. At the last minute.
We had we had a few guests kind of talk about doing it.
There's been a few guys, I know, one oh four there was a guy who bought there was like a whole row of vacants across the street and I think they were Brownstones and he knock on wood. Hopefully he's still uh, he's doing all right, you know, fishing somewhere, playing golf somewhere, doing something. But yeah, it was always like those areas, like especially with the Brownstones. I mean, goodness, gracious,
the architecture. Now, you can't you can't. And that's that's one thing I say about like some of those areas in Brooklyn. There was a lot of good people. Well you know that, right. You would go to some buildings and there was a lot of good people, you know,
stuck in a crappy situation and they hung on. And you know it's a good thing because uh, you know, hopefully they got paid, you know what I mean, because all the hipsters came into some of those areas and uh, you know they pay, you know, now they're millions of dollars though some of those buildings.
Yeah, yeah, they pay. Before you go further with Squad one, I just realized we missed this picture from two thirty one.
You want to touch, Yeah, that's from I think it was a summer of two thousand. I was on the rotation in two thirty one, and I figured Louis would get a kick out of this story. That's me on the bottom, on the bottom right, that's my back there, and uh.
Put the white helmet there is that you?
Yes, Yeah, that's East New York.
It's afternoon and early summer, and we want another box. And then this comes in. So now Mike Pullarphone was driving two thirty one. He's driving about one hundred and fifty miles an hour down Picking Avenue. The skinny of the rig gets yeah, and I'm sitting I got the nause I'm sitting with my back to the officer. And opposite me in the jump seat is Mike Callen, who I think he's a battalion chief. Now, Mike, and we're, uh,
we're flying. I'm trying to put my coat on while we get there, and uh, while we're going down the roads and we're you know, hitting bumps and bouncing and all. I stick my arm in the sleeve of the coat and I put it my arm out the window so I could get my home in the sleeve, you know,
the little slide window next to the backward seat. So I stick my arm out the window, and right at that moment, Mike pula Frond must have swerved to go around a car or something, and he hits a street sign, you know, like a no parking sign, and scrapes the whole side of the rig, and sparks were flying like they came in the window, sparks that the whole I had just pulled my arm in the window. I'm like, it's a second second before and now I'm like, I see the sparks are buy. I look up at my
Accallen's face. His face is white and blank, staring at me like I almost lost my arm on the way to the box. So we get there. If you're looking at this picture, the building on the left was the original fire building and it's occupied, and the building on the right is Exposure four, which was vacant, and three seventy five were first. Two and three thirty two did the right thing. They stretched into the original fire building.
Course it was occupied, so they went in there. So then us and two ninety pull up right around the same time, and we both decide that we're entitled to the half that line on the top floor of Exposure four. So we both companies stretch an inchant reecorder and we both go into Exposure four on the top floor, and it's burned through the roof. The ceiling's mostly gone, you know. We take the front and I guess it was two apartments.
We take the front apartment here and come back. We put out that room of fire in the front and then start hitting the fire that's above us in the cock loft. Two ninety must have done the same thing in the back. But now we're basically opposing each other with hand lines hitting this fire in the cock loft. And we were probably up there for about a half hour, just pushing fire at.
Each other, push fire.
Yeah, got so much hot water built up on the floor. I was kneeling and I ended up burning my knees. And uh so, now the fire is knocked out and knocked down, and I tell the boss was coming office. I said, look, I got to get these pants off. My knees are burning, So al right, go down and I hand the nads off. I go out to the street. I'm about one hundred feet away across the street and they're hosing down that top floor that Now there's hundreds
of people outside. There's cops, civilians, everyone. It's like a third alarm. And uh, they open a line on one of those front windows and uh, a part of the window frame comes off, is a two by four like three feet long. And if flies end over end across the street. While I'm pushing my bunk pants down around my ankles trying to get these pants off, was the burn in my legs.
And this.
Like like an episode of the Three Stooges, hits nothing but my head. I never lost consciousness, but I was just completely knocked out with my bunk of pants around my ankles. So now one twenty is the fast truck. They they picked me up. They stand me up there, you know you are right, and I'm like yeah, yeah, you know, okay, So now I got burns, one head track open.
Oh my god.
Anyway, they put me in the in the ambuss to send me to King's County and I'm in there with Jimmy gurzback from two ninety.
He was.
He told me the story, he said, and uh, you know we're laughing about you know, the top floor in the hose lines and Uh. He said it was his last torn the engine because he had the order had come out. He was going across the floor to one O three, but it hadn't taken effect yet, so it was his last torn the engine. So we rode in
the ambulance together to King's County. And then a couple of months ago, I am back to work and uh, you know, the bag comes and there's an envelope in the bag for me, uh, with that picture and a note from uh from girls. You know Andy, I thought you might like this. Stay safe, Jimmy. You know it was nice.
Girls is like one of the most incredible chauffs. When I got there, he was in the truck already. I mean that guy could drive that rig my goodness, like so like incredible, like incredible, you know when you think back in your career too, like guys that really drove well, you know what I mean, like like could drive fast but under control.
Somehow that's the key combined.
Yeah, well guys who tried to drive like him, who were out of control, you know what I mean. Like I always felt when he was driving, he was so in control, you know, And and he's just great fucking guy. Man. You know girls is a great guy. Yeah, but that's a funny story, dude.
Like that one.
I love the opposing lines, like, but that's listen. I mean that's plenty of fire for everybody boys.
Right, especially in that one story and fully involved too. That top floor is really going.
Yeah, wait, Mike, you're gonna be doing that in a couple of months.
You're gonna be able to do it.
I have a little dingo Berry, You're gonna be like, oh my, you know, I was stupid.
That brings us into the spring of two thousand and four, and it's bittersweet because you're loving your time in Squad one. You're back in Brooklyn too, where you began your career, so that had to feel pretty sweet too. But there comes a great opportunity that you did not pass up and you ended up getting promoted to lieutenant. So covering for a year, that's a way to get your feet wet.
But then comes the time when you go to two thirty one Engine And what's interesting about that for you is that now it's a permanent assignment and now there comes a second kind of rookie phase that as an officer you're new, not as necessarily as a firefighter. So tell me about trying to prove yourself to a brand new crew as someone they could count on and look after their best interest.
Yeah, it's uh. I was thrilled to be able to get back to two thirty one.
Uh.
I think, I tell people all the time, I think my a lot. I had a lot of good things happening in my career, but a lot of the good things that did happen came from great captains who always looked out for me. You know, my first captain, Marty Ford, he made a phone call for me to get me
the squad one to uh. He was friends with the captain at the time, bar cod And then when the bar Cood got promoted, Richie Portello became the captain of Squad one, and you know, he ended up becoming a great mentor and friend for me for my entire career.
You know. So when I got promoted to lieutenant, you know a lot of guys you saw going to get promoted out of SoC like the job wanted to put them, you know, in somewhere where they never worked before, like to you know, move guys around, and you know, and I wanted to go to the fifteenth division. I wanted to you know, I still felt I was young on the job and I wanted to be as busy as possible to learn as much. And uh, you know, Richie Portello was able to make some uh he called the
Brooklyn Bow Commander. You know, he's never shoy about anything, Uh, Richie, so uh he called the brook and Borough commander at the time and pleted case. What you know, he said he was actually able to use uh my time in the job in my favor. He says, you know, he's he doesn't have that much time in the job. We could use some more experience and whatever. He said. It worked because I got assigned to the fifteenth, so that
was good. And then I'm bouncing around and uh, you know I didn't mention when we talked about two thirty one before, you know, I was lucky to go down in the rotation and throw. The captain was Bobby Higgins at the time. Oh, and you know he's just legendary captain and I loved working for him, you know, And you know, in some ways he was the oldest guy in the firest because he was like everybody's grandfather. That's just the presence he had. But really in other ways.
He was the youngest. We'd show up at hockey, you know, he'd change and great biceps out to here and on the ice heat skate circles around anybody, you know. But so he was a great captain worked for And it's
funny story. I'm I'm bouncing around, uh the fifteenth. You know, I worked in two ninety and one or three A lot I worked and uh, I worked in a lot of the sock support companies at the time because I was one of the few covering officers who had the training, because I got promoted at a sock But uh, so I was bouncing around for about a year and I'm home, uh and uh on off day and my phone's ringing, and I'm getting out of the shower dripping water the
towel and I'm running for my phone. It picks it up and uh andy, I said, yeah, he goes it's Bobby Higgins. And it didn't even reg No one calls him Bobby, you know, he's cap you know's It didn't even register in my head. Like Bobby, I'm like, hey, Bob, you know.
Funny what you remember? It's funny what you.
Come in here?
Yeah.
Uh you're coming to two thirty one to cover vacation and wanted to see if you want to set up some twenty four as I said, Oh yeah, yeah, I didn't even know I was going to two thirty one. Uh, the sequence hadn't come out yet, you know, so Uh then it's like, you know, never called them Bob again.
Obviously even now with him, he's not Bob.
I went there for a vacation which turned into one of the guys had knee surgeries, one of the lieutenants, and I stayed there for like five or six months, left for a week and that's when one twenties rig flipped over and uh, Larry Thompkins, you had a couple of weeks ago, Uh for a while, and you know, Captain Higgins talked to Captain John Colermarray and said, you know, Andy's back to the wind, why don't you if you need somebody in one twenty And they got me one
twenty for UFO until Larry came back, and then uh there was an opening in two thirty one, and uh, I wasn't sure if.
I was all timing kid, right, Yeah, you know, let's be lucky that yeah, hell yeah, it's all.
I guess nobody gave it a I don't know if maybe because I was on the rotation in two thirty one, nobody it was under the radar that I had worked there as a firefighter. But h you know I put in for it when it opened there. Captain Higgins was kind enough to give me his endorsement, and uh it went through. Maybe because he's the guy who endorsed it. They pushed it through, you know, and uh.
I went back.
You know, it's it's you could think, oh, you're going back as a lieutenant Louis. You would know this, you know, somewhere where you worked as a as a firefighter. But you know, most of the guys I worked with in the engine had gone across the floor, you know, but there was still a good amount left. But uh, it was never an issue.
You know.
My regular chauffeur was Billy McLaughlin. They call him Poppy.
You know.
He drove me in as funny is. We got on the job almost around the same time, but he had like maybe six months or a year more than I did, you know, and uh, yeah it was He's a gruff guy, and you you would think, like, that's the guy who would give you a hard time as a lieutenant that we were firefighters together, you.
Know, right, a little more time than right.
And he could not have been batter you know. It's it's like he come downstairs, you know, guys, lieutenant wants to go out and Joe and you know he makes sure they're on the rig and you know anything, you know, what do you what do you need?
Lou?
You know it's like, uh, well, really a special play, like we talked about it. There's a few firehouses you know that stick out to me like that. Really they got great alumni, right, I mean they have a lot of tradition. You know, two thirty one and one and one twenty, you got forty four truck and and ninety two. You know, there's a lot of firehouses around that are good, but there's a few that just really stick out that and that's one of them. They have the battalion there forever.
They got legendary chiefs there. So it's like again that that type of place is Disney World. It kind of runs itself, right. The guys really police everybody. There's no shenanigans going on, there's no bs going on. If there is bs, it doesn't even get to the captain. It's taken care of by the senior guys because there's a lot of senior guys usually there. It's not like, you know, the senior man has you know, twelve years on the job in some places unfortunately. So you know, that was
one of those things. Somebody was asking if we h what year you got there, if we ran into each other, and I do remember running into you, but I think by that time, two thousand and five, I was already in the truck so I wasn't really competing with you anymore. But there was more Tompkins and Rob Brown and uh yeah, and the squid man. You know, I was always trying to get to the squid you know. So I love all those guys were great man. I always loved you know, it was such a.
Great place to work. And you know, like you said that Larry Tom we had we were probably worked together for maybe three years. And the office up there, there's a door between the engine and truckle house, but it's never closed, you know. So and Larry, you know, like has very similar interest to me. Like we'd be up till one o'clock in the morning every like talking about books. We read or politics or you know, just anything and anything.
You know, It's like it was, you know, just one of those places where you know, there's always something.
A few times I worked in the truck over there, and uh and and Catain Higgins. You know, he used to like you said, you could talk right across from you. You know, you just walk right through the door and you're in the office obviously, and he used to talk about his son. You know, I played hockey, so he used to talk about his son right playing and you know, obviously later on he ended up getting drafted and you know, playing with the with the Canadians, I think, and the brain
is or whoever. And but the b boop would go off, and that guy again, like you would just run, just running, like like how many runs the engine would do on a night toil there, right the truck would get saved a little bit right without the ems. But and I would he would come up first, guy in the rig, I know, he would throw the ticket on their thing and you know the same thing that we were doing
over there too. But I just felt like, you know, I was there, you know forty maybe you know what I mean, thirty five or whatever, and this is this guy was like sixty and like you said, he's got you know, he looks like he's one hundred pounds, soaking wet. You know, he's a short guy. But like you said, he was just running up and down going on all these runs. And I always just had every time I saw him. He was always a gentleman and uh, you know,
really special guy too, you know. So you guys were lucky to have you know, some good officers over there too, you know what I mean.
Yeah, always great offices and great chiefs.
You know it's uh, oh chiefs too, right, I mean incredible stuff, good stuff.
I did want to talk about this with you as well, cap and that. And it's interesting regardless if it's a lutenant, a captain and a trucker an engine. And this comes with time, the more time you gained it as an officer. But your size up process rather be tene minutes, cock losts taxpayers asn't matter. There is that size up as soon as the run comes in. So tell me about learning how to hone that based off what you learned when going over books and what you learn from watching
your officers over the years. To measure up properly when it came to not only a box, but any kind of major emergency.
Yeah, I mean it starts with you trying to read the sids. You know, that's us not that you know, sometimes it's confusing or hard to read it. But I at least wanted that first line in my head, you know, m D. Sixth story, twenty five by one hundred, class three. It's like, all right, we got a tenement, you know, And in my mind, I'm like, all right, I'm in tenement mode. You know, it's like going there, you know,
or you know, twenty story class one nights. You you know, you're in that mode already, and now you just that's the toolbox you grab. And now you know, you don't know what tools you're gonna need yet, but you know you have that toolbox tenement, Brownstone Project building. So that's already a big leg up pulling up, you know, just clicking your mind over to mode. That's why I always liked putting in CIDs, even if there was nothing crazy
about a building. At least put that first line of sids in there.
That way you're getting this Michael, Yes, all right, right, get that heads up about what you know, you could get your thinking on the way there, you know, and I think that goes a long way.
I suppose they're getting off the rig not knowing anything and trying to play catch up. You know. It's always because.
You're gonna skip stuff a lot of times because.
You're yeah, that's gotta have the same process, the same approach, kind of a systematic thing.
God, do you have the same thing? Right? Does every building have sids down by you or do you have to put it?
So we are a little we were a little behind the april. We've made a lot of progress over the last couple of years with our uh pre planned software that our inspectors do and that information that's in there. We were trying to get our dispatches to do it. But it's a lot of information. I was involved with it a little bit, and we want to I just want to specific information that's gonna give me information so I could plan my tactics. No stamp pipe, stampipe for example,
kind of thing. Could have determined some stretches sprinkler building, non sprinkled building, you know, those those kind of immediate information that's going to play into my tactics when I get arrival. Kind of that I want to know those couple of things right off the bat. So trying to narrow that down always a challenge for us because it was there was so much ship that the chiefs wanted to put on it, I mean, lack of a better term. But we're getting better at it. We didn't have as
as fine too. Yes, we copied the wife for this.
That was one good thing about our kids was you can only put so much characters in there, right, Like you had to abbreviate everything to the point where almost you didn't even know what the hell it was because you're abbreviating because you wanted to put so much on it. But I guess it made sense not to put too much, you know what I mean.
I don't think more would have been better, But there were times where it's like you had to make a decision what's more important.
Right and abbreviate stuff down to like, you know, down to three letters, you know what I mean.
Like to me, just give me a couple of three bullets the most right, you know, I want to know. But like I said before, we had some chiefs nothing to get on a soap oper. One of our chiefs was a very he'd burned houses down every building in the city. He's burned down one hundred times. So as he's writing the SIDS reports, he was the one main guy doing our tactic specialists. You know, he's given novels because in his mind he's burned it down and he
wants everybody to know. So just you know, it becomes a little a little much. The intent was great, but like I said, you got to shut shut it up a little.
Bit, absolutely, And that segues into twenty ten. Another interesting transition to your career. A dozen years on at this point, you get promoted to captain in February of that year and you go down to twenty truck. Now, we talked earlier about going from Brooklyn to Staten Island and the change in mindset from Borough to Borough Manhattan. Same thing, and even though it's a little bit further in your career. A reason why I mentioned it's the same thing is
because firefighting every borough is different. It's not just the box alarms of Manhattan, it's every other emergency you can think of that can happen. And of course in a borough like that where sometimes the calls are very unique. So tell me about first, the good feeling of getting that promotion and then having a transition again to another house, another crew, and gaining their trust and respect.
Yeah, Manhattan was definitely a different world for me. Like you said, I did two ranks in Brooklyn, so I had in the interim I had moved to Manhattan. I met my wife and when you know, I was living on Staten Island, she was living in Manhattan. So we got married and I moved to Manhattan. So and I kind of always thought, you know, that I had missed out on something, having never really worked in Manhattan, so I wanted to experience it and give it a try
and see some different things. So I think it was, you know, a natural fit to to try and get into Manhattan. And I asked for the first Division, and I was, you know, I was lucky enough to get it, and not knowing anything about it, I really very soon came to love it, you know. I love working in
the first Division. The chiefs. The division chiefs were all phenomenal the whole time I was there, from from day one to the day I retired, every single one of them, and even the aids in the first Division were great, and all the battalion chiefs were great, So you know, they they made it an easy place to work as
far as even administrative. You think it is a lot administratively, and there is sometimes, but definitely the chiefs understand that and they work with you and they know what they're talking about.
You know.
I always felt comfortable that at jobs and operations that they they knew what they were doing and had the experience, you know, for the situation. So getting to know the area, you know. I bounced for about two years as a captain, and once I had heard that the captain of twenty truck was on the list for a battalion chief, I spoke with the division commander at the time, Jim Daily, and he agreed. He says, okay, twenty truck, I'll hold
it out for you. He put me UFO in a midtown engine engine twenty six for a while, but he kept his word. When twenty truck opened, he he moved me down to twenty and I never looked back. It was probably, you know, just I mean, every stage of my career I loved and everywhere I went. I love the guys I worked with and the people I met along the way and learned a lot from. But I think it's a very special time too. I'm very proud to have spent my last eleven years in twenty truck.
I think it's like one of the best kept secrets on the job. It's a great crew and we really went a little bit of everything.
You know.
It's that young guy that I remember seeing a while ago. What that one? That one wow, tough paper route kid to what happened? Yeah, post I don't do it to you, no doubt about it.
In the New York Times, that's how did how did you deal with?
Uh?
Before we talk about the guys in in twenty how did you deal with the traffic? I always ask the guys like did that drive you out of your mind at all?
You know, it's luckily like Midtown they're coming doing that UFO stint in twenty six engine that they probably have the worst. They're on thirty seventh Street, which leads to the Lincoln Tunnel.
And oh my god, what about two pm?
Two about eight pm Monday through Saturday, it's just a parking lot. You know, it's uh, you know one in twenty four, fifty four and four of those companies just you know, that's a whole other level. Twenty truck you know, we were able to get around the neighborhood most of the time. Sometimes, you know, some traffic jams down by, like Broome Street for the Holland Tunnel, or you know, there's be a particular day or Broadway would be backed up. But most of the time we were able to get around.
You know, the worst you know, in Chinatown or a little Italy if someone would double park, we couldn't get around them. That was frustrating. But the actual traffic itself, believe it or not, we having a tiller helped. For sure.
I was gonna say that's a till, right, yeah, right.
Definitely helped. Be surprised though we were able to make turns that some engine companies couldn't make even you know, m I.
Do want to say, moving away from the emergencies for a second, just the neighborhood. Lafayette Street one of the more unique neighborhoods, not just in Manhattan but in the city. And it's often been said, you know, the f and hy greatest show on Earth ft and why's got a backstage passed? So in working in a neighborhood like that, what did you most enjoy just about the area alone?
I loved that everyone was almost everyone was interesting.
You know.
It's like in Brooklyn, you know, you get the fires, you get this a little bit, but then you get a lot of routine runs that are you know, elevators and project buildings. It's like the same run over and over again. Right, you go there, you shut the pal, you pick the door, and it's like in twenty it's like every all the you know, even the emergency runs.
Everything could be you know, you go to a loft building with an elevator in between floors and you got twelve people stuck and you got to get the top hatch and pull them up, and you know, and you go to another run, you're in a loft and you got a movie star you know, or somebody you know. And then you go down to Chinatown and you got one hundred and fifty year old tenement building that's never
been renovated. That's and they have that. You know. So it's like you have such a mix of everything, and.
You spent the bulk of your career there. That was the longest shitting that you had from twenty twelve up until the end. In twenty twenty three. Rob Procaccini has a question the chat that stands out And I was gonna ask you this, so you read my mind. Rob in this regard says, what was the captain's most memorable job or running either structure, fire or anything else that stands out from that time on?
I mean, you know, it's there's some you had to have, like a fifth alarm in Chinatown at some point down there. I mean they have one, like one or two a year down there.
Like, yeah, there's always some crazy ones. You know, we call it the annual Chinatown. You know, eighth alarm, there's always one usually, you know, and uh, there was a couple of those. It had with just you're running around from building the building, apartment apartment, coming in, you know, changing your bottle going back in. You know, it's just because there's so many shafts and and hidden voids and stuff, and you know, have to have to the battle in
uh in that area is finding the fire. You know, it's uh, most of times in Brooklyn, the fire finds you.
You know, it's uh, they got sub cellars over that.
A lot of sub summers they over there.
They need to do those.
I mean a funny it's kind of funny story. It's a great uh Manhattan story. We uh it was I think a fourth or fifth alarm going on. So we get relocated and it's over by Chelsea. It's it's not you know, in any other borough, we would have been second dude truck at it, but you know here it's Chelsea, and uh, we're not even on the the third alarm, you know, so it's well, we're not on the second alarm anyway, So we get relocated and then we end
up getting sent to the job. It's uh, it's like a five story loft building when the top two floors are just fully involved in fire, burnt through the roof and everything. The tower laddering it from the front, but it's got Exposure two, three, and four are all taller buildings that uh, you know, high rise buildings that that butt right up against this thing. So they want every you know, they want to protect these buildings obviously. So
we get there and they send us exposure three. So we have to go on on on the other street behind it and come in in this building that butts up against the back of it. And we go up there and we get up on the I guess like the fifth floor and there's these the window's actually open, and it's an older high rise building, and the windows slide open, and there's fire blowing up higher than the windows, you know, because it's through the roof of this building.
And we see fire all around. And now it's just us on this floor, you know, with these one hundred year old single pane giant windows keeping the fire from getting in this building. So I turned to my guys, and no one else is there yet, and I said, I stretched the house line from the from the stairwell, and we'll bring it in this area here, and we'll just protect this area in case one of these windows fail. So now we stretch the line and then we're waiting.
There's nothing to do, there's no fire in there yet. We give our reports a waiting waiting. Now an engine company comes up. They hook up to they got a two and a half on out of a standpipe of a different stairwell and there by one set of windows, and a chief comes up and uh, they open up. They slide one of the windows open and end up opening the line out the window to knock fire down that's burned through this roof. So now I'm standing there with this house line and uh, the rescue battalion chief
that night was Jim Yakimovich. He shows up, he comes up and uh he comes up on the floor and he looks. He goes, Andy, what are you guys doing? I said, what, Chief, We stretch his hose line here. But I'm kind of feeling left out, and I said, uh, I think we could put out a lot of fire in this corner here. No one else is hitting this side of the building. The towel ladders can't reach it, and that line's only hitting that side. He looks at it, he goes, you know, yeah, yeah, go ahead. So, uh, I send
the guy back to the alley. We open up this house line. We slide the window open, and for about forty minutes, the six of us in the truck, all of us are up there show for all of us. We have a proby with us like little kids taking turns fighting over this nozzle, you know, masking up. One guy's holding your back. Actually, I think we were hitting fire bending anyone because we could turn that little hose
around and you know underneath like into the cockle. After this, this uh giant loft that was burning and like a half hour, forty minutes with Finally a deputy comes up, you know, Chief Jakamoalva. She had gone do something else. The debty comes up. He goes, twenty truck, What the hell are you guys doing? So I felt like remember in the Hansens and slapshot. You know we're putting on the foil coach. You know we're putting that fire chief, you know, he goes, I'll give you a real.
I'm listening to the song, so I'll.
Give you an actual hose. So he gets an engine up there. They stretch and they replace us. So now there's really nothing for us to do up there. He sends us down. We go back to the command post. And who's the chief of the chief of the apartment at the time? I forget, but it was before Leonard, right before Leonard, and uh not sudden maybe it was Chief said Nick. Yeah, but you know it was what year, the wee hours of the morning, and he wasn't you know,
he wasn't in his most chipper of moods. And he's by the command post and I'm I don't want to talk to him. I don't want you know, I'm standing there. You know, we we had worked for a while up there and uh, chief, come over you. He comes over again. Yeah, he said, Andy, what's going on? I said, now they sent us down.
He goes. He looks at me.
He goes, you want to get out of here, don't you? I said? He goes, wait here. So he walks over, and now the chief sudden.
I got to get you, got to call ya up. Get him.
He whispers something in the division ads And then I watched him take the magnet, you know, twenty truck moved off the thing, put it in the released units and he turns, gives me the thumbs up, and we leave and it's funny my show for Chris Burke. He turns me. He goes, Okay, how the hell'd you do that? I said, what? He goes, we show up late, we put out fire, and then we leave early. And I said that it's a squad train, baby.
We don't have to pick up the hose. We're out of here. Yeah.
Been so that was what, you know, it sticks out. Just funny things like that, you know, and so many fire you have to be reminded of something to think of a fire. You know, you walk by your building or see it, and then you're reminded of it.
Did you have a lot of senior guys over there at that time? Did you have a lot of senior guys you can count on?
You know, it was a good mix of guys when I got there. The senior I want to say, the senior guy when I first got there was Randy Reagan had about twenty years. There were a couple of guys, you know, pre nine to eleven guys for sure, you know, and they you know, they were the scenior guys. And then but then it was a block of guys who had got there in like o to to five, you know, so like the heart of the company when I got there, and twenty twelve had from like eight to twelve years ago.
That's a good time.
And most of them never left, you know. So the whole time I was there, I had this this great core of guys that you know, and uh, they were just really professional always you know, and and always did what we had to do. In the fly house.
They were you know, always just said chief Dale and that the interrupted Andy was a great grade and twenty truck. He loved his company. He had a great crew of young, prideful firemen. They were a great company.
That's Uh, I guess said. Jef Dale is a great gentleman. You know, he looked out for me, and uh, he's exactly right with twenty truck. You know, it's just always professional, always drilling, always learning something, always into the job. You know, kept the big squared away, kept the fire house looking great. It was h I can't say enough good things about the place.
I gotta ask you. You know, it's it's very rare that we have a guest down that was working during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Not an easy year for anybody, especially for those on the front lines. So you're twenty twenty. How was a twenty truck impacted by that?
Was it?
Were you guys in the heart of the storm, so to speak, or not hit as heavy in terms of responding Right now?
It was real now we were in a ghost town down there. You know, we'd come in for whole twenty fours and you know, you look outside and it's like the movie was the worst. What's that?
It's like congestion pricing maybe not, maybe I don't know, maybe it was.
You know, the neighborhood was a complete ghost town. All the storefronts were locked up, it was. It was surreal, you know, those first few months the lockdown there was there was really nothing going on down there. You know, it was working whole you know, steady twenty fours with the same crew. You know, it's uh. You had to really stay on top of being motivated and taking the guys out. It was hard to get in buildings. Everything was locked up, but you do your best you can.
We had a couple of brand new Proby's and made the best of it, but you know, trying to just even trying to find restaurants to order food from to support it wasn't easy. You know, it's a it was a it was a crazy time. Man.
Were you still living in Manhattan at that time or did you?
Yeah, I'm still living in the same place in Midtown. Yeah.
Nice, cool cool.
Well, as before we get out of that, you know, we get back into normalcy, things kind of stable out a little bit. And that brings us into June of twenty twenty three, when you called it a day after almost twenty five years, just under twenty five years. So I got to ask you, was it a series of moments, even without the pandemic, that made you say okay, you know,
what I've had my fun time to go? Or was there one specific moment where it was light bulb bull going off over that saying all right, I'm done, I've had my fun.
No, it was exactly the opposite. Until the second I handed in my paper. I was this close to not doing it, you know, I was. It was a real, real tough decision. You know, I loved work and I could have done it more. It was tough a lot of different reasons. You know. I just I thought maybe it was time. But you know, you know, the kids are still young. You know, with the family, we like to travel, and you know, the schedule is always unpredictable
with the fire departments. So I feel like I think this was probably a good time to make that move. But it wasn't an easy decision though.
I can imagine you had a lot of You had a lot of fun. You have to a lot of great houses that you worked in, and it's never easy to walk away. One thing that I guess we can touch on now is that, in addition to your firefighting career, you've written two books. As Lou mentioned the introduction of you, you are an author. So the first book is Finding John, which guns. If we could share the screen and highlight that. No,
that'd be great. Okay, you go finding John by your truly captain Andrew Sarah so clearly as you can tell by the cover related to the September eleventh, two thousand and one attacks. I'll let you tell the story on it.
Well, it's a story, not the whole story, a little bit.
Just so nice they got the book. They go out and get the book from Amazon before you go for Andy's website.
Yes, it's you know, I'd been writing for a while. It's always been like a passion in a hobby of mine writing. I actually put out a historical novel in twenty twelve, was my first one, and people had asked me all along the way, said, oh, you know, do you ever think about writing about nine to eleven? And you know what your experiences? And I never really thought I could write about nine to eleven, you know, definitely it was I thought it was too soon. I didn't
think I could really formulate the thoughts. And a number of things happened, and really the the impetus for this book was getting back to two. When I was with Squad one, like Louis said, we were doing the rotations down on the pile. They were sending sock units down on a rotating basis twenty four hours a day. We won an overnight shift in March two when I was with Squad one and while we were digging, we found the remains of Firefighter John Tipping from Lat of four.
And it was, you know, it was a moment. I think it always stuck with me. It was just, you know, I never met him in life, obviously, but it was I felt like just being there for that moment. And later in the morning, his dad, who was retired firefighter, came and carried a stretcher out, and uh, I always that moment always stuck with me. And uh, you know, I know you guys touched on this story with Larry
Tompkins a few weeks ago with the latter four. You know, in later in o two, a story was published that four truck had been uh looting genes from the department store while you know, while the buildings were before the collapse, and while the buildings collapsing, they were stealing jeans from the store. You know, that was what they pulled up and decided to do rather than help people. And you know,
like all firefighters. At the time, I knew the story was a lie, and it just ate away at me for years, you know, when everyone, you know, the book got a lot of press at the time. There had been an article here or a store, some pushback on it, but I never really felt like those guys were fully vindicated, you know. And and years went by, and like I said,
I always, you know, was into writing always. And one day, it had to be about twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen, I was sitting with my laptop and I said, you know what, you know, I think enough time has gone by now I'm just going to write one chapter and see what happens. And I sat down and I wrote all in one you know, I just banged out the first chapter flows right up. You know. I think I
can do this, you know. And so then I paused, and I spent like the next year doing research, and I tracked down witnesses and physical evidence and written records of I didn't know that all I could find about four truck, And you know, I learned a lot the things that you know, people had known. It's not like I didn't uncover this truth. These truths were out there, but I wanted them all in one place, telling one story of who these guys were from for Truck, and
I was able to put the story together. Not only were they not looting jeans when they died, they were you know, they're one of the few companies that we actually know what they were doing. They were using the hearst tool in the lobby of the South Tower to open up a jam elevator car. They had rescued at least one woman for sure, and maybe even another. They
had rescued from this stole elevator. One had fallen, one had gotten out of the elevator, and then because the elevator wasn't lined up, she fell into the pit underneath. It fell like twelve feet and there was fire because the jet fuel was yah and members of the ladder four one of them was held by the ankles and lowered in and pulled her up and she survived. She tells the story, and she remembers the four on the helmet, and she remembers a guy with blue eyes, it's probably
Mike Lynch from four Truck. As as they were taking her out and put her in an ambulance, the amage drove away and then the South Tower collapsed, but uh, they were still working on that elevator with that hearst tool when it came down. So they, you know, heroes up until the last second of their lives, the last they gave everything. And uh, some.
Shuk wrote a fucking you know, an article you know wherever they got these information from, like to try and.
You know, I also I wanted the book to not just be you know, two hundred pages of me saying layer lawyer pants on fire. You know, I tried to
get into where did these accusations come from? You know, they came from somewhere, and you know, I tried to get to the story and like you would know that we like there were basically three groups down there, right there's police, this fire, and this construction down there, and at various times, for the most part it was cooperation, but there were heated moments and there were and the people who in it, on all sides had their own concerns and their own priorities, you know, and I think
part of that friction created an environment where some resentment grew. And some of these rooms and the reporter who wrote the story of the looting of the genes was embedded with the construction crew. So he's hearing their gripes, hearing their you know, they're annoyed because the firefighters keep slowing us down, they keep you know, so he's hearing their gripes. And that's where this rumor started to take hold, you know.
And but as a show like there were no genes found in the compartments of the rig, that was all nonsense. And you know, so I tried to put all of that evidence down in one place and hopefully, you know, clear the air on their story.
Well, thank you for doing that, because to add context and do it as well, it's worth noting every firefighter from Battalion nine four truck and fifty four engine that went that day did not come back. Every one of them from all three companies perished. So what's even more horrible about that, not to dignify this person, not even to mention their name, is these guys aren't even alive to defend themselves. So I'm glad there was someone there to clear their name. Thanks And I.
Can imagine the heartache of the families of losing losing your loved one. But then six months, eight months later having to read in the Internet that they were there thieves and just you know this, you know, uh, it's like the ultimate betrayal of duty to do something like that when people you know are dying and need help.
Yeah, disgusting thing, but thankfully some good came out of it with your book. And again, thank you for doing that.
And where is it for sale? Guns?
It is for sale on Amazon? And actually, let me do this.
How much it's on sale? I saw it was on sale. These guys are like that.
Not free you some bits you can off your wallet.
But the money from Finding John goes to a good cause. It's all the proceeds are going to the Ray Fifer Foundation.
Yes, there you go, fifteen bucks, get it up.
Look, say, definitely worth the investiment.
You're thing, but you get you wallowed up.
And folks, it isn't the only book that he's written. Another one is another historical work that brought.
My mind hype out. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Ninety years before the tragedy of the World Trade Center in two thousand and one, there was a tragedy of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire which still, even though none of us were around for it, is a reference point for firefighting, not just in New York but everywhere across the country. So tell me about doing a deep dive into this tragedy that stuck out for the twentieth century, and of course putting it into a book.
Well, you know, when I retired, you know, I figured I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to, you know, starting at a writing project, and they say, oh, you know, stick to what you know. And it's like, well what do I know? And like and just coming off off the heels of retiring, and I'm like, well, I know about lad of twenty, you know, and that's such a you area of the city and the loft buildings and the history of them, and I'm like, well,
how do I bring that into a story? And I definitely wanted to tell some of that story. And I started from there. And then I'm like, well, what's the one of the biggest events, you know, you need something, some kind of hook of a story. And one of the biggest events in the latter twenties history for sure was the Triangle shirtwaist fire. They were the first truck on the scene at the job and and that's it all grew from there, and I said, okay, well, you know,
how do I tell the story? Who were the people that were there, from the seamstresses in the building, the owners of the factory, you know, what do they have going on? How did we get to this point and to the to the firefighters, you know, the members of a lad of twenty and even I found who very interesting was Chief Edward Croker. He was, you know, very interesting figure.
You know, it was an almost mythical figure among firefighters nowadays, but even at the time, he was like this TABLEAUI he'd figured well known, he was the authority on fires. You know, he had grown head. It's a funny story, like he'd come You would think he was like from this like the Tammany Hall cronyism because his his uncle was the the boss of Tammany Hall. But he grew into a very respected, very professional, you know chief, and he was the chief of department for like eleven years
and uh, right up and through the Triangle fire. So I thought that was an important part of the story, like a very interesting So I tried to just tile these things together and tell the story of these lives. You know that the actual fire and uh, you know, I include the details of that but there's a lot of great books on that stuff, and I know you've had a Chief Jonas on here. I was just going to such a great I you know, I spoke the
Chief Jonas early on. He was very helpful, you know, and gave me some great ideas to focus my research because, uh, you know, he knows a lot about this fire, you know, so I wanted to. I figured how I could maybe add something new to it was to highlight, you know, the actual lives of the people who were intertwined in this tragedy.
And they get forgotten. Of course, unfortunately, because people said to focus so much on the event, they forget and they look at the number of casualts and forget that behind one.
Hundred and forty six it almost becomes statistic as opposed to realizing it's one hundred and six people families that had devastated.
You know, yeah what one hundred and forty six people like lined up on the floor, you know, like in front of it. You know, when you just say one forty six, it doesn't seem like that much.
The same thing with three forty three, righteah, right, absolutely. So again another another thing, I was glad that we were able to dive into with you. So two books in there. It is of course on Amazon. You can go and get it, and we can put the link in the chat too, so you guys can go and buy that, and of course uh finding John Now two books down, anymore to go? Any other projects you're interested in taking on?
You know, I haven't really uh decided yet what the next project.
We do need a break, Mike, you know what I mean, they need break, so.
I'm sure he'll uh, I need to write another book.
I'm holy kidding.
I was all like kidding.
I saw the kiddy.
Good stuff drew like, looks like keep doing You're doing all right. And your retirement we just got to keep waking up right, like we were saying.
Yeah, you know, people sending me all the time, you know, like, oh there's good things about being retired and bad things about being retired, and I am enjoying the good things, you know. Oh yeah, schedule and you know, able to spend time with the kids and work on my books and you know.
And nice to be home for Christmas, right, it's nice to yeah.
Right, the first time in the plays and twenty five years, I didn't have to worry about which which part of the Christmas holiday I'm missing or if.
I'm going to be missing a play, right, missing the play and all that stuff. So how.
It's fifty fifty whenever, Sorry at you more years ago.
Man, I'm like sixty when I go.
Well, as long as you're able to make that walk to the pension section, that's important.
There's a lot of your mouth to god. Bro.
Just got to keep running, that's it. Just keep running. Don't walk, run it, run to whatever you gotta do, man, just get it done. Good stuff, Drew.
Yeah, thank you very much, cap for your time. Any shout outs you have to anyone or anything.
That time, Oh we forgot, I forget it's time.
All right?
Uh yeah, I'll give two quick tips. I was thinking the other day I saw something written about a frozen hydrogen and something, uh no time had taught me one time whenever I had to control in the engine, I used to keep under my seat old newspaper and a road flare. And if you you know, you're checking the hydroen and it's frozen, you can take the four and a half cap off and stuff it with a loosely rolled up newspaper. Just stuff it. Use the road flare
and light the newspaper on fire. If if the barrel is completely frozen, it's not gonna help. But uh, if just the turning mechanism on top is a little frozen, or the magnet won't drop because of some ice, you know, just a quick thirty seconds of flames will loosen that up and you'll be able to open a hydrant. And uh, the second tip, I'll be a completely different turn is you know. For young guys, just remember that the you know, the firehouse, it's it's not just a bunch of co workers.
That's your family. And if you walk in the door every day with that attitude, I think you'll retire someday with ten thousand brothers and sisters and a lot of great.
Memories friends, that's for sure, and the memory bank sure all it.
Listen, you gotta work up with Tello for me too, you know what I mean, like, uh, trying to get them. I don't know it's gonna happen or not.
He's got a lot of a lot of stories and a lot of great knowledge to tell.
You to touch on what you just to touch on what you said. I think the fd N Y is at a busy year with the the throwing units, all kinds of ships all over YouTube with them now do frosting fire hydrantsuff and see it like crazy?
Are they really haven't even?
Are they really the whole little thing with the I just happened to watch it the other day. I'm like, oh, that they got obviously you have a special unit that goes out and and uh, from what it was showing on a couple of jobs going up, I've.
Seen guys use the road flats quite a bit. I remember seeing guys like when the couplings were locked up, they would put it near the exhaust and stuff like that, you know, like let the coupling sit down.
But I've seen guys take a roll to it. I'm just kidding, road flash man. Well that's great stuff.
So nice job boys, nice job. Joke. Hop you get with the books.
Get off your wallet, gentlemen, ladies too.
That we're going to put that in the description. It's in the description. Like the description description.
I put the names of the books in there, and I can add to it before we close tonight that they can get them at his website and on Amazon.
All right, cool, So I get a little push, give a.
Little push you know and spend span spend, spend spend, But we do have a quick little shout out for your little reminder of your Lancaster X fire ex post still in May sixteen to seventeenth. This is your what do you call?
This is your that's right, come out and see us May sixteenth and seventeenth. I wasn't partaking, but I know a guy with bow legs and uh who might have been a little out of his mind there signing books and stuff hats last time down allegedly had We had a good time. His kids, both his kids would have younger kids, and they did a great job.
Man.
They were out there hustling selling stuff, so nice. All right, we were chilling.
One quick last photo of Andy something you may want to ship.
Where the hell was that?
I found it on the on the internet earlier? Mike, Okay, I think he used like, I don't, I'll let you tell the story.
I don't.
Yeah, it was I was in the city with my wife and we saw the graffiti wall and she just called over, said hey and snapped the picture and uh. We ended up using it for the book jacket for one of my other novels. A couple of years ago.
Nice. I figured it was nice sports a little ship because I was like, look at this thing.
Looks I've heard the seventies professional shot, right, Yeah, looks.
Like it's from the seventies or so. There's graffiti. Still, there's no graffiti anymore.
I don't know what what do you call graffiti?
Well, these days, not to get too deep in the weeds.
Yeah, he's coming back, Mike.
There's not as much order in the Five boroughs. Let's just see it.
Order.
You say, no law for that much either, But that's another story for another day.
Yes, So all right, Drew, thank you very much for coming on. We appreciate it. Great story, great career, Good luck with the books, keep going, keep writing. Coobla, nice job tonight, going in. I don't know. I think the guys in the chat were like, uh, they're ready to take a vote. Coobs is out, Cologne is in.
Well done. Nice job as always. I guess I guess you had a John. I can't pronounce his last name, Gadeas Gadias. He passed away. That's what pelsas a brother was like the rest of today from one twenty.
Four we can highlight Mike wrap cabbages common as well as the thirty five year anniversary of firefighter John ninety who was killed at a fire of one thirty one truck. Dan Potter had a good post about that, so.
I did say that.
Actually, yes, the ten you know, when I got there, it was about nine years before and uh, we were just getting ready for the ten dinniversary when I was a proby and in a sad story it's going, yeah, crime flies by, you know he I I read about it today again. One of the guys posting, Uh, you know, he.
Was on Chief Norman.
Charlie Meaghan was on overtime, so he uh, John had to see but he let he let Charlie drive because he was a senior man. So John had the o V.
Yeah. I just I think Chief Norman posted that. That's what I read it this morning. Yeah, that's good that we got a lot of guys out there that are posting. You know, really social media and social media ain't total cancer, you know what I mean. At least we got some stuff that reminds us prayer and never good and bad. Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. All right, boys, I guess I will lead us.
I will.
We Thursday. We're not going to have a show. We got to show the following week.
We don't know what. You don't have anything schedules right now. I know you're working on something, but.
I think I got it all right. Well, uh, we'll see the big one. Everybody. Thank you again, Cap.
Thank you.
Alright, guys, I'm gonna close out before Colomba. Remember we're rolling heavy here in South Florida.
Al Right, So this one's a special one for my buddy Andy Would. I promised him I would do this. Signal seventy five. I'm on scene. Signal seventy three, working fire.
Oh good NIGHTED one No