GETTIN' SALTY EXPERIENCE PODCAST Ep:245 | RESCUE 2 | CENTENNIAL

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.

You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast.

Hello, Hello, all you fire buffs boss, Welcome back, Get Salty Experience Podcast.

Stories. Come to the right place you want history? Yeah, come to the right place you want to rescue? Too hard charges Roofie again. I tell you you come to the place you have. You're not gonna get this anywhere. You're not gonna get this on the kitchen table, the fire out, even though we like him, we love that guy, but you're not gonna get it there. You're not gonna get it as other podcast. But only here do we get the true present day legends of the job and the history and maybe an author of too.

Like half the show already know.

We got plenty more, bro, plenty of story, plenty history. So they got your notebooks in a pre show we should have been taking out that was that's a show.

Itself, I said it.

Yeah, man, for sure.

Yeah, what's up?

Fell different grown though. I'm sorry I'm disappointing him. Sorry, but you know, if you want to take a look at this thing.

Wow, you're gonna show me that I had that on my I take that on my deathbed.

Bro.

That head of hair for crime white.

It's almost as white as my light. That's back here.

So we won't have a show. And I think Chris Ruffi and I will be out in Indianapolis Buffalpalooza. Come out and see us.

Yeah, I'll be there too if you if you care, you come, uh huh yeah, and I'm coming to Indianapolis.

You are.

Are you buying? Uh?

Is it my turn? I don't know me maybe?

I mean.

Hooked us up lunch today. Oh yesterday we had me and my boys.

You get to the end and when the bill comes and all of a sudden, you don't see guys, he's in the bedroom somewhere.

I don't know. I just picked it up. We picked up something breakfast or something I did breakfast when we first met.

Yeah, that's right. When Pete wouldn't go into his pocket.

No, he would just sit there look at you guys.

Remember that, Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. I'm not that guy.

I was playing to marshals because we got a lot to get to.

Time.

All right, let's get to Vince. We'll start off right here.

We go.

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Vince is a great guy.

Listen.

Vince will be out in Indianapolis too. He will be at booth one nine seven. And if you go to Vince and you go up to him and give him the secret password, which is Salty Salty, He's gonna give you something you ready, free, free, fine and love free. He's gonna give you something free. Nineteen oh seven. Go up to Vince will find because he's a really short little guy. So look hard and you'll see him and say the word sualtie and he'll give you something impervious.

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 Foundation.

All right, tonight's old school health and safety too, Because I've said this one before, but it stands repeating.

It's repeating.

The jobs all over the country offer services for mental health. But always think about your wife and kids too, because you bring a lot of that stuff home and you may not think, but the kids are like sponges and they pick up everything. So they also off for services to the whole family. So keep an eye with your kids and uh, you know, like we say all the time, it's it's not frowned upon that and go get yourself

I would tell you I attended best uh Bill Gustin's funeral on Tuesday, and I can't tell you that they are stressing the importance of it on both sides, more so obviously for uh for individuals struggling, But they make it a part of the funeral service now where it didn't really come up. You know, I was very surprised to see that. Even the chief of the fight department down there made oh he was he was talking about it and help and said it came up several times during the service.

So the culture is changing.

Yes, hi, rough bringing our scheme, guests, we got what.

Do you want to do first?

Yeah?

The author? We'll do the author first.

Yeah, sure it awes. Just make sure you say it right, because you know somebody was saying it.

Usday in coming to the stage, Usden whoa Okay, next up coming to the stage, Jimmy Sandys last last, but not least, Lieutenant Mike Penna.

We gave him the let's do this before we get go. We gotta get patriotic, you know the deal. Yes, the greatest country in the whole face of the earth.

Just check your mic there, coops, you might be a little low on line.

Here we go.

First, 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.

Excellent, excellent sound.

Thank you, gentlemen. Welcome to the show. Jimmy, I knew we get you somehow or another. I knew we'd somehow wrangle.

You, n bro.

I believe it air over this.

Show, but nothing, but in the pre show we couldn't. We were gonna have to get the hook on him. I don't know what was going on.

He was he was wrong, right, I don't know why we can't get him on just say hey, come on and tell you stories.

Right, It's like he's like.

Today, it's Jimmy Sanders. Tomorrow it's Jay Fishler. Who knows so one wrote this cool book because as you know, we just recently had the hundred the centennial for Rescue too. And it was a good turnout, right.

Man, Yes, absolutely, very good turnout.

A couple of hundred people there, guys, like three four hundred of them.

What did the whole day consist of?

What?

What was the ceremony like?

The ceremony consisted of you know, Chief Department and very as well as Captain Flowerty speaking on behalf of the company in regards of the past hundred years, what the company is, how it was formed, how was organized, and what progressed during the course of the those one hundred years. And and then afterwards everybody just got together and had to get together at a location. It was a great day, great time. Yeah, great to see old timers that were there.

And who was who was the oldest living Rescue two member do.

We have at at the party? I believe it might have been in Jack Dylan or Dylan maybe yeah, Tom Dylan. It's it's a toss up, right, like yes, well.

When I see yeah, right, Oh, is he he's got to be eighties, right, yes?

Mc roy was eighty nine or is it?

Oh my god?

Yeah, Paula McFadden was there. He's in his mid eighties.

Yeah, yeah, Tom, what do you call John Dooley. I think he's ninety two, but because of his health he couldn't come. But he does attend breakfast now and then we meet once a month.

So he was what what what decade was he there?

In his sixties?

Seventies?

Wow?

So do you guys listen to you guys are listen to.

Listen to those stories, and there's plenty of them.

Yeah, right, And then you want to tell a story like rather go than Men's Bad? Yeah?

Wow, guys in the eighties and nineties.

Huh from the rescue.

Who is the oldest captain that still comes.

Gallica?

Yeah, Gallagh?

Yeah, it's only four, you know Gallagher then and Chief Fishler and Captain Flowery. Those are the only living ones.

Another guy. I'm hot after him. I get him someday. I'll get him. Talk to my agent all the time. I'll tell you what.

That's the funniest thing ever. He can't stop telling stories though, that's the best part. He can't stop.

I can't get him out of my booth. He's telling story for crying out loud.

I don't know why you don't do I don't know.

That's all in for lunch. You'll just and sit him down and just capture him.

That's where I should though, right, I'll put a camera in then just let I'll put the camera in my booth. Actually, God, so you'll have a camera in Indy. So when he comes over, just stop filming him and.

There, don't even don't even don't even let him know.

Right, let him know, be like, hey, you know what's this?

I have to do it for my phone.

They wouldn'tcognize it because we'll see the GoPro or something like that.

I was so cool.

Yeah, Cools, you want to We'll just have the guys just go quick through the timeline, just real fast, like where they you know, when they got on, where they were who.

Was there first, Jimmy Sanders or Lieutenant Penna, No.

Like s we have the old timer.

All right, Ultimate, let's talk. Even though we've had you on the show, I'll listen to it every time over and over. Give us a little brief description when you got out of the job, where you worked, how you got the rescue too, how you had to hitch the ring, et cetera, et cetera.

Sure got on the job in nineteen eighty one July. First assignment was to lat A twenty Lower Manhattan and Hells. Andre Dacos spend some time there, and then I was able to escape and transfer over to one seventy six in the old Tin House. And it was a great time there. A great bunch of guys learned a lot

Were you in the Tin House when they closed up the doors on Super Bowl Sunday?

And No, I was actually in Rescue two at the time. I had left all that. Yeah, it's probably about two years prior. And so you were able to go.

God over at Calton Avenue.

Actually, how did that go?

You called over there first?

You asked him or I actually, you know, find out he was working and called him up. When your mindset if I come over and talk to you, he goes, Nope, come on over, and he went over in a day tour. And that firehouse, I don't know if anybody's been in it recently, but it's really tight. You talked about one twelve and you know seventy one, the same thing front and rear, a small little kitchen in the back. It was an old old firehouse, you know, getting up to the old office upstairs.

Uh.

You know again old timidation, like everyal goes through the same thing, you know, sitting before him, and like, you know, asking to come to a rescue company. You know, I only had about four years on a job and thinking we'll take about two or three years to get there. But luckily and unluckily, you know, one guy got hurt and they didn't expect him back and I was able

You should have told the guys, hey, listen, while you're moving the stuff forward, could you grab my stuff over at one seventy six and bring it out.

Well right, yeah, well I had I had to look for my gear also, so it wouldn't it wouldn't it wouldn't have been able to find it either.

The brothers found out that.

Once they found out, you know that that my helmet was shiny and anything else, you gotta love it. Yeah, no matter why you hit it or lock locked it up, they found it, so they Yeah, everybody goes through it.

Who was I was assigned to tent? No, I can't remember his name. Who was the guy the Italian guy who was a good cook over there?

Oh yes, a.

Short, little chubby guy and yeah, man, yeah he was for years? What was in the engine and it was an engine show for for a long time.

Yeah, yeah, I want to say, like Dino, well, oh ship, I can't. Yeah, we're gonna come to us, right, thinking guys came from to t that went the ask you right, A lot.

Of guys, A lot of guys you know, went seventy six. Also we had about I think twelve we counted on.

All three as well. Yeah. Jimmy Gerzbeck, Jimmy.

Back came from to ten first and that he went to ten.

Romeo came from two.

Ten Larry o'donald. Larry o'donnald was in two ten, and Jimmy Schwick I believe was in two ten. They all went to one.

Oh yeah right, I just remember the office upstairs, were like, wow, I got there after you guys left. So but it was cool. You still see the remnants of Rescue two up there. The bulldog the office is awesome.

So ten years in Rescue two, uh until I got promoted in nineteen ninety five, and then you know, bounced around and uh before I got the spot and Rescue one in Manhattan.

How long did you work in one?

Probably about five years by six years now comparatively.

What the main difference between one and two other than the odd buildings and stuff.

Like that, the operations, Uh, Brooklyn was more on the fireside, you know some emergencies. It was more emergencies in Manhattan than it was on the fireside. But when you got to fire in Manhattan, it was, you know, one.

You don't want to go different.

On the top floor, like you can go for a oor of smoke and spent two days walking around the building. That's hard.

That's his story because you sent me a lot of stuff when I was doing the rescue this documentary, How did you come such a history of the rescue?

Just reading and you know and rescue too, going to the reunions and things like that, talking to the old timers and you know, asking them questions what it was like back then, and what odd jobs they went to and things like that. So I piqued my interest with that, you know, reading the old Department orders, the old Metal day books, and you started, you know, remembering a lot of things and asking people more questions, and you just kept on rolling right and us.

It becomes a passion, like an addiction, like I'm always looking at the old was it the Brooklyn Eagle, looking at the Brookly newspapers? New York Times. Uh, you know, it becomes such an obsession looking back. And we had a Hairshagen to do Hashagen's corner on the show every now and again. It's just it's an amazing pass that a lot of guys don't realize took place on this job.

If you ask them today, you know absolutely. And it's basically the history of the company too. You know, you're you're proud of being in the company and you want to learn the history, and you know, the guys that came before you.

Any any like at any given day. Well, I'll say this, on your busiest day, how many jobs would you go to arrested two.

Busiest day? You know, if you do it twenty four hours, you know, maybe five six, seven, eight jobs in the daytour and probably about the same amount ten jobs and at night you know, and you know, not come back for twenty four hours, go from job to job. We never took time, We never changed. We just you know, stayed wet and dirty the whole twenty four hours and went from job to job. We used to have ten

Oh the matter building, man, they must have loved that.

Yeah, we brought to the chief. Chief you don't need this anymore, he goes, Oh, no, we don't need you. You guys get good. You know, I think we got earunder control now, not realizing that we gave you ten seventy five.

Yeah, Brooklyn the rest too, Where are you? Yeah? And takeing uh, Warren, Right, I mean it didn't matter. Yeah, make a left by the McDonald's over there and go down two blocks and get the hell out of that. Was not helped.

Happened a lot, Warren. All the distatues in the Brooklyn cl were they knew where we were quite a time, and they knew if something else came in. We got directed many times to you know, a job that you know, a multiple fatalities and things like that where we were right there.

But he wasn't abuff there? Where was he aboff?

Later on?

Yeah? Later on?

What he says, you know what you're saying now, it's uh, you know, saddle up.

Saddle up looks like.

Up in the old days used to be pull up your boots over the voice along. Yeah, that's how he started. And then with the bunker gear, he couldn't pull up you boots.

And I gotta call him. I haven't caught him in a while. He used to call me regularly.

Yeah, we gotta have a bottle of the dispact to have him and the beef man on it.

And that's absolutely.

Let's get Jimmy in.

Yeah there, all right, Jimmy gives you a history. When did you get on the job. Actually, what made you want to be a five? And then he was, we haven't got your whole history.

Well, I was a volunteer first. Yeah, we write that.

Down four Team Carricter two.

Joined them volunteer Fire Department back in nineteen seventy four when there was I guess there was nineteen. The person who talked me into joining the volunteer Fire Department in Hempstead was Brian Faye.

Yeah, I hear, really yeah, So it.

Kept us out of jail in Juvenile Hall. And back then, you know, it was a pretty busy place to go to flyers. It still is Hempstead, it still is, but not like it was back in the seventies and eighties. I mean, the busiest apartment's probably back then was besides Hempstead was Freeport and Long People. Really, yeah, it was unbelievable.

Know you were a junior man.

Yeah, this was a man like always and when I got on a job, unfortunately, no one in our class we were the first class to go to one hundred and fifty guys because of a lawsuit that was still in effect on me. So our class was the first class. In nineteen eighty seven we went up to one hundred and fifty guys. Before that, I think it was like fifty or seventy five guys in a class, and our class,

Oh Man, Yeah, I think is that right?

Firehouse? And that's where I went. But what was weird was the last twenty guys in our class never went to the firehouse. From probe school, you went to fire prevention for ninety days and you did oil burner inspections.

Well, so where did they stick us?

They stuck us in Crown Heights, Bedsty and Hawk Slope, So you used to walk and have to inspect the oil burners for the day. Yeah, and then from there you went to the firehouse after ninety day detail. And then I wasn't even in the firehouse. I don't even think two weeks. And I was detailed from there from two twelve to one to do my rotation in the truck. I never got to one to twelve until like almost September October, and then I spent the year there and

Wasn't that Captain Years or something like that.

Macarno, Yeah, Tony Macarno. And I told him, I go, I got to get out of here or else. Let's see what we can do. He called the transfer desk in Brooklyn, and uh, things are different back then. Transfers are almost once a month, and they promoted you, well, you got transferred by your grade. And back then it was only three grades of five. It was third grade, first second grade, and first grade fireman. So when I called, I was from being the third grade to a second

I don't care what.

I'll get you in a firehouse next week. There's transfer coming out next week.

I'll get you there.

I like, all right, I go, where am I going? He goes to seventy seven. I go, okay, And then within the guy was dead on his word. Within a week, I was out of there.

You know.

I was on Nicko Boker revenue. I got there in December to nineteen eighty eight, So I got there. My first tour was a night tour, and Mike worked in one seventy six. It was busy my first night tour. I think we had three jobs before midnight.

Wow.

And then it just.

Grew.

Yeah.

It was so firehouse. I mean it was one of the few firehouses that Yeah, it was a single day firehouse. And the engine in the truck were you know, back to back. No, yeah, that's how it was. And uh, turnouts were super fast. Whoever was in the front you just got on the rig. Whoever was in the back, you stop the traffic and that was it.

Did you guys race to get back to the firehouse so you weren't in the front.

So yeah, so big you know you're going behind now yeah, well was you.

Gotta remember back then the engine would do rs.

Ah right, yeah, hell yeah it was the truck.

Saturday night you do twenty RS boxes. So the truck would race back to the firehouse because they wanted to move that rig was we'd be in a front went into all these RX boxes RS boxes. The truck gets one run and they go to a second along.

Yeah.

Because the area was so dense with engines, I mean you could walk to a lot of the engine companies. You could walk to two fifty two to eighteen to twenty two. I mean you rode your bicycle. You got to two seventy one.

Whoa whoa bicycles Yeah, West carac too, let's all you can't find it. I can't mentioned bicycles without that guy.

It was so dense with engines. But the trucks, I mean you had one seventy six who moved from the tinhouse to rock Away, and then you have one twenty four in one eleven and that was it. Yeah, I mean one twelve was second. Dude, the two seventeen's quarters. That's a whole yeah. No, But I stayed in the engine till nineteen ninety two, and then I went across the floor.

Who were some of the guys that were there when you got there.

It was funny because when I got there, I didn't have a twenty four partner, So Stevie Morrell was in the truck. He goes, you want to do twenty four? So I go, yeah, I'm into it. He goes, let's go and talk to the captains. And we sat down with the captains and we told asked them if it's okay if we you do twenty four between the companies. They go, as long as we got bodies, we don't care. Yeah. So half my tour being the engine and half the toy being the truck, and vice versa with Stevie.

More was both companies when you got there.

So when I got there, there was a guy they nicknamed him Topo Ggo because he was short surge this stuff. I remember his last name. He was the engine he was the truck captain and Tom Brennan was the engine captain. And then we both transferred out of the company on the on the same transfer.

Order Tom Brennan from one eleven.

Tom Oh, no different, and uh, both captains transferred out in the same order. And then the next captains that came in was was Mike Leagan and Frank Ross and uh, two tough guys.

Man.

Yeah, didn't cross the line. Because you crossed the line, you got the right cross.

That one.

That's a good one.

Andy Potter was there.

He had the hair.

He had the hair and then he still had the hair. It was all black back then. He probably died of but it was all black. The engine we had three officers. They were all from one fifty five truck. Roger Olin, Uh, Tommy, Tommy Kokner.

Dave Russell.

Dave Russell was in the engine.

That somebody was mentioned in Kevin Brown cooked us up with.

He was the captain of one twelve. And then Norman of course. Yeah, those are the three lieutenants.

Norman, he was my captain in two tens. Norman, dorm and Norman of course.

And then in the truck the lieutenants for Marty help ke Larry McCarthy and then Chief killed off. Yeah, that's right, he's your best friend. You call him saying, all right, I respect that little bit.

Him this morning?

Do not call him Ed this morning?

Yeah?

Did you call him?

Ed?

Noll him?

I know, let's get them. He said, I can call him and I do not call him.

You say that he's a gentleman, but I didn't say it.

I didn't say he's always the chief always.

But you see what they're doing over here, Glenn, he's just patially waiting.

I was saying, we're trying to we're trying to get Sanders for everything he's got because we know he's not going to come on the show. So we'll be like two hours. We are gonna we are gonna talk about rescue too at some point, but we're trying to get.

Right now.

Just totally different atmosphere in that in that firehouse, I mean, everybody there. All we want to do is go to fires. Yeah, so you know, and then the truck. You know, we became known as no because we didn't want any of that stuff. You know, they sent the Hurst tool. What do we need a Hurst tool for? So when the guy from Fleet Maintenance came and delivered it, we told me he's got the wrong firehouse. You got to deliver that thing to rock Foray Heavy.

I don't want that thing here.

Is down, it's wait.

We make a turn.

So that's what you know, that's what we did. Then that's where the name. We didn't want any We just wanted to go to fires, and that's what we did, you know. And the engine was just as great man. Well, I mean Camaradi was was really tight.

What year you go across the floor? How long you spend across the floor anyway you're working mutuals over there?

Yeah, well you went between the rikes. I went there in ninety two, in one twelve, right, and I spent four years there. And then the captain came was uh Mark Faran. Wow, yeah, captain kid.

Man smart.

And he was so smart and he was great, but he just kept going up a lot of so fast. Yeah, but taught us well listen to him.

All the time.

And why did you start getting the inkling?

So when I kept seeing those guys going more fires than we were going on at the Boxer, they were.

Leaving going up from going to going to penance via then you're like wait a minute.

But then we were distanced away from them, you know, so we never had any issues or problems or nothing, you know. With the rescue, we got along. We never had an issue, and then Rescue two only came. You know, Rescue two came to our boxes. But even though Squad one was was there, you know, they were operating, they didn't come to the two eight. They only came up to the three seven battalions. So the only special unit that ever came in is Rescue too. And then I

Do you need guys?

I'd be interested coming over and then he would tell me. This was like September. He goes, I'll tell you what it's nice to you're you know you're asking, but you're looking like twelve, at least two years away. I go, oh my god, two years. I go, okay, I figured I asked, and then I see him and then the fire like two weeks later. I go, hey, Cap, what's going on? Hey Jimmy, what's up? I go, still got a long waiting list over there. He goes, well, i'll tell you what it's down to like maybe a year

I'm gonna wait two.

More weeks, another six months com playing golf with a bunch of guys and someone turns me and goes, hey, did you hear now?

You gotta remember it.

Back then it was only the five rescues, Squad forty one and Squad one. That was it. They go, hey, that they're going to increase the manpower and the rescues and the squads the twenty eight guys. They're going to add three guys. They go, oh, that's interesting. So my first tour back in the fire house, capt your job, she fished, you know, Captain fishers work.

I go, Cap, what's going on? Is it true.

That the rescues and the squads again? Three guys?

So he goes, I'll tell you what.

Uh yeah, I go, So, how's it looking?

So you go, I'll tell you what.

You're six months away? I go not, there wasn't a month and a half.

I'm down to a year and a half.

And then it was a Thursday night, my phone rang, and home my wife goes, he is a guy named Jay Fisherly wants to talk to you.

They go okay, boom boom boom boom.

Boom boom boom boom. I put a suit on, so you know.

He goes, I'll tell you what, Jimmy, you're still interested in coming over. I go, yeah, cap I'm interested, really interesting coming over. He goes, okay, Monday morning. I go, what what Monday morning? He goes, Monday morning, nine o'clock, come to rescue too. I'm like, you're.

Playing mind games with me at nine o'clock at nine or what?

He goes.

Now he goes, come over.

I go okay.

So I hang up the phone.

Two minutes later, the phone rings. It's Pete Long. I go, hey, look what's up. He goes, Jimmy, I just got a word that you're coming here Monday morning. I go, okay, Captain just called me. So he goes, there's no paperwork on you. There's nothing on you.

I go, yeah, that's how we do it school.

When did you ever come here and see him? I go, I never saw him in the firehouse. I just spoke to him all the time at jobs. He goes, Oh, this is gonna be interesting coming on Monday morning when you come in this firehouse. I go okay, man. And then when I walked in, of course all the dinosaurs were working. Richie Evers and Baby Van boys, Billy Lake was there.

And who you didn't it didn't go good? Boy? Oh boy? I get nervous before I walk in the kitchen and like throw your cake in the garbage.

No, then the sense in the park lot. But how'd you get here? I go, you know, being the typical idiot that I am, said, I got my car this morning and drove here. Oh no, So like, okay, you gotta be it.

You know, is this where we're going?

I go.

You asked me how I got here? I told you how I got here. So Richie ever has asked me a question. I gave him a stupid answer and he wiggd out. He walked out of the kitchen and Davy Van voices, you know, he's been here two minutes and you're on a pistol off to see you man. I go. He goes, just shaking his head, laughing. And then Richie came downstairs and says, there's no paperwork on you nothing. I go. Never came for an interview. I just we

Really, how long did it take you to feel like you were comfortable.

With It was total they had you had to give, you know, to show that you're.

Just gonna say that, Jim, you gotta you gotta like your first job yourself.

And yeah, I proved myself. You know.

It was just.

Totally And Michael tell you it was tough, you know, until they gained your respect and you proved yourself and then once you did that, you were basically welcome into the family. So it took me, I'd say like maybe two months month and a half. And we caught a ripping jab down on East to two and oh Man, right off the belt Parkway. I'll think of the name of the street. This place is raw and we get up to the second floor and the engine said, we're running out of air. You guys take the line who

They always told, never say who you are?

Well, it's.

I gave it a line because he ran out of air.

I was packing him up.

He gave me the line. He ran down and grabbed his tank and knocked down two mbs of fire by myself, and some guy's yelling at me, who's got the nozzle?

I go, it's me.

Well who knew?

I go find out And it turned out to be Timmy Higgins. I want to know who it was. And then that was it. That was the proving point.

That's it?

So, oh.

Who was the other guy?

Old? Got to remember the things.

It'll come back to you, don't worry.

That was it? Boris and East too?

All right, you want to we'll get to Glenn and then we'll come back to Sandis. We'll sucked. So how did you come up with the idea? How did this come? How did they come to you? Kid?

So, Jimmy and Danny Potter worked together in one twelve and Dane and I had just done the book They Saved New York, and Jimmy uh spoke to Dan and at funeral and said, hey, can I can I get Glenn's phone number and contact and Uh, dames like sure. So we called me up one day and he said, you remember me Rescue Too? Of course yeah, because we

So took the trade up.

He met me at Barkley Center and walked into quarters and an hour later I had had had an assignment with Rescue Too. And it was a really different than doing my own book because in the in the vernacular, I couldn't fuck it up and I had to be right.

And then you know when when when Liam.

Flattery puts his hand on your shoulder and says, you're gonna take care of this for us, You've got to take care of it.

So I started, some of you guys know, I started in the Massive Peka Fire.

Department and I still little skinny Jewish kid from Nasau Show's Massive Pequa.

You know, I wanted to I wanted to get on a job. I screwed that up. But I've been around a job for fifty plus.

Years, and I spent Listen, they're going to a job.

Who massive peak job me, I said, every.

I just met and we met up in the captain's table with Curtis, and you know, Lieutenant Quinn was there, Liam was there. Mike Myers just a gem of a guy. He's out of one twenty.

He's uh.

He was pretty much our contact in the company there.

And the message that I have is that what we did for Rescue two, every company in the fire service needs to be able to do that.

And and to be able to take one hundred.

Years of history and put it together was a really really it was an honor to do. And we did in writing what Louis Koobs does every twice a week on the show. So that's that's that's my story. I'm sticking to it. What do you think of that firehouse? I mean, were you there?

Did you move there? Jimmy, you were gone already when.

They moved to the new I worked in the new firehouse.

What do you think of that fire house?

It was interesting and we going to the size of it. But and Mike will tell you if Bergin Street was unique in itself because all the guys are so close together, right because of the size of the quarters. And that's the only downside. You would say, the new files is so big and large that.

You know, did you take the staircase out of that? I always felt like that staircase was like no. But I remember staying the wood like worn out from all of the guys going up down there. Yeah, incredible.

There was no there was no poll in the fireouse to slide from the second floor to first you ran down the stairs. Yeah, so it was unique in itself.

Almost left me there like three times.

Yeah, it wasn't waiting, so I have to tell you that.

Yeah, yeah, you're in the detail. Yeah you got the door, all right, no problem. As soon as the rig pulls out, just jump on the back, okay, no problem. Wise out I hit the button and I am in full sprint, and I weighed like one hundred and seventy five pounds and I just barely made grabbing out to the back of the rig.

Like good, you stood on the you know, you stood on the back step and we hit it. You would swing.

Down as far as the proximity to get now quick and getting at the boxes quick is it a better location.

It turned out to be a pretty It turned out to be pretty good or an excellent location, right because you're right at the foot of being in Brownsville, East, New York, going up to Crown Heights. You had King's Highway. You could shoot right down at the Flatbush.

It was perfect.

No, definitely closer to one twenty over there, right, I mean are they running into them like first and second?

Do now run in first?

Do with them?

Well?

And it was perfect because you hit all the major thoroughfans did. Eastern Park where you can King's Highway, you can hit Atlantic Aby, but you know into Borough if you needed to shoot into Queens. So it was the ideal location to go. You hated to leave Bergen Street. Yeah, but you know, times they changed and the firehouse is falling apart. There's nothing you can do.

What are they going to do with that building now? No nos, no, friends of firefighters were trying to get a hold of that somehow, friends of firefighters.

I don't know.

That's a lesson.

I know the community was trying to get it itself too.

They were too Yeah, you get a community center or something like that.

Really is the only building on the block there. It's like pretty funny, actually it is.

And I think of one time the parks department wanted to get that property back because of a ball field.

Yeah, right across the street.

Right, Well, you guys, you guys took the front door of Bergen and put it in.

I didn't know.

I was already gone.

That's cool.

We took the front door, just like Rescue one took when they burnd they fireouts down.

They took the whole front of h No, I didn't know that. That's cool. I didn't see that.

Yeah.

Hey, Glenn, let me ask you a quick question. When you were doing the book, what were you when you get you know, we're given this uh task? What what was your what was your plan? Like what we did? Did they give you the the outline or what they wanted or.

Did you and Lieutenant Pettit did a lot of research, right, yeah.

Yeah, I think what what Jimmy doesn't take enough credit, but Jimmy with with a lot of help, Jimmy uh wrote the history.

Of the company, and so I was more of a coordinator, and I coordinator editor, publisher, photo editor, and and put everything in order.

So from the first book that I did, I learned, you know what what actually makes makes a book? And uh, then this was this was this was application of the lessons learned. So I think what and it was funny because Jimmy and I had a lot of time talking about this. They Save New York was basically about the ninety people that are in the book, and so I wanted to take a little bit of.

The characters because you know, a firehouse is a firehouse. You know, a rig is a rig. But everything about Rescue two is a piece of guys. And four hundred or.

Three hundred and ninety eight others has been four hundred guys who've been members of Rescue Too since nineteen twenty five.

Says, four hundred guys.

That's pretty crazy, man. And so we wanted to do.

Something and celebrate, celebrate both the history of the company and I wanted to do a lot, you know, just put a little bit of the people and get that that's that's the thing that That's what I brought to the project, was putting putting the people in there, because it's the it's really the company.

Like I said, there's a rig and they go to fires and there's.

A firehouse and a bunch of different quarters. But it's the people, it's the characters, it's it's the there's no other company in the city that has more more metals.

I mean, that's it.

And you know and and but you want to rescue one?

No, I think so, Mike, Really.

We would have to refer to hashegan on that one? Would I wouldn't even try against metals?

Right, Well, we could just look at hash As Lapel and we could understand that that's what I'm already.

So I'll throw it out to you. Who was the most time and rescue?

Two?

What fire fighters spent the most time in rescue?

Too?

Uh?

Dwayne Wood really would do? What time that I did? What do you do? I think over twenty five? Twenty five?

Wow?

Because he had like four I think he was in two ninety he went there, I think with four or five years. So whatever he ended up having, that's how much time he did over there.

I think eighty.

Let's I could be wrong though.

What he got on in July ninth of eighty seven, he was in the class behind me eighty seven.

He got there.

He had twelve years on.

A job when he got there.

Oh, he did have that much. Say, you know, what then what he.

Did over twenty five.

Wow.

You know, I'm not pat myself on the back by no means, but I did just try at twenty four.

Wow.

Yeah, And that goes to show like when they Glenn said there was four hundred you know, firemen assigned to rescue too. You know, a lot of these men stayed there for many years. It wasn't like, you know, two or three years and they went somewhere else.

You know what it is, Mike, when you're in the busiest place on earth, you know, you don't really take promotions maybe sometimes you know what I mean, or I mean Liams, I mean that probably happened more times. You know, guys hauled off or they postponed, you know, because that's that's a chance of a lifetime, right, I mean that's the truth.

So, yeah, a lot of guys spent over ten years there as almost like an average.

Yeah, that was the average over ten ten years and plus was the average.

Yeah, because guys wouldn't want to study, right, You wouldn't want to study until you felt like, all right, I got a good taste. I'm I'm good, you know what I mean, Like it's time to get a change. Maybe or something, you know what I mean, like everybody sometimes yeah, and.

You know when when the twelve percent came along, not that we asked for it because we were there before it. But why would you want to study? You're the busiest company in the world and you make it almost lieutenant's pay, right, why would you want to leave there? I would want to leave.

There exactly, And then you would get big turnovers, you know, like in Mike's you know, Eric in the late eighties or mid eighties to nineties, what was there eight or nine guys on your promotion list for lieutenant, right, Mike, So they was almost eight to ten guys just on that promotion list. So now you got to backfill, right, you know, So you know, it's pop job for a captain, Like where am I going to pick from?

And who am I going to pick?

Speaking of that gym quick, not to cut you off, but I think we say this on the show all the time, like there's like I loved every part of the job all my time, but there were times in my career where there was like these sweet spots where it was a couple of years, you know, where everything was on the same thing for you, Mike, Like it was just these you came to work, everybody was on

Mike could probably back me up. When you work with the same guys, you get to know them. You get to know when you go to fires, I knew where if I had the irons, and whoever had the hook, I knew where he was going, and vice versa. So we were always in each other's minds and we fed off of each other, and so far as we knew somebody, you know, one of our company members always had our backs. We always had made sure that not only for ourselves

I think that also comes and then we'll get to Mike now because I want to hear his story. Two with that, I think that comes from the fact that you had such long times there, right, Like some firehouses you could you could have turnover in three or four years. You can have like half the guy's gone, right. So that's where I'm saying, Like you get the new influx

And what happens too, is the longer you're there, you move up in seniority and you know, new guys start coming in all over, and like what Jimmy said, you get out of your comfort zone a little bit because you're so used to the guys that used to work with. When I first arrived, it was all senior men. You know, Jack Cleehouse, he bonded, you know, Leiolpi, all these guys.

That guy's name comes up a lot.

Man, my goodness, he is phenomenal.

He's probably smart, quiet right quiet, you know, extremely.

Extremely talented, extremely aggressive. There was nothing he couldn't do.

A lot.

You know, he was battle tested. And now with the new guys, now now you feel like, well they're not tested yet. You know their experienced fireman, but you really don't know them personally, and so you get used to them and work with them, and then you know, you get that comfort zone back. But you know, on my end,

Everybody.

Everybody takes it a different way and it depends on not only your fire house but also your family life.

But that's getting back to my point. Is it changes, right, So you went from this sweet spot to now you get promoted and then now you're in a new play. You're bouncing around, maybe you get a firehouse, and it takes a while to get that comfort back, you know what I mean, It does take some time to before you really in that you know, where you really got.

Jimmy worked with right until they knew that they could trust you, where they knew that they would test it. They probably felt the same, Where is this guy going to be where he's supposed to be? You know it took a while absolutely trust him.

Never got comfortable because if you got comfortable.

Got that you dropped your guard.

Yeah, so you never and then like if you knew everything.

You did, yeah you never know.

You never know everything.

You learned something every day. I don't care how many you chat on the job. Every day you walked in that files, you learned something.

M hmm.

If you knew everything, then guess.

What you don't.

How great is Woody Man? How great is that?

One of the best?

Uh he just retired. I mean I don't, I don't he's gonna tell me to go fuck myself, but it's I freaking love that guy.

He's just so like we had almost founded guys.

Dude, he's such a job the biggest heart, right. I know he does. I know he does. I always had a good relationship with him, But I just know from like in the we have the group, the group me like for for the two ninety one oh three, you know he's in there and he'll just like every once in a while he'll just throw like a one line out that's just perfect. It just lacks everybody back like a little bit, you know, it just classic shit. He's just a forty bastard.

Yeah, one of the best, one of the most talented guys. You could build anything. Wow, you know he was so andy.

You doing anything, well, you'll still be going, right, he'd still be going.

Yeah.

Did you drive, Jimmy? Will you show for there?

I think I was just show for maybe ten years?

There you were?

Yeah, so you drove?

I just Liam.

Then right after that I drove. I drove Captain Rouvlo, and then I drove you know, Captain Flowery. Definitely.

How different were the captains from each other?

Like?

Are they do? They have a lot of similarities, are they? You know, like officers could be totally different.

They were unique in the in themselves. They had totally two different personalities. But you learned from both personalities if that makes sense? Sure, you know, but yeah, I mean both excellent captains.

How long has Captain Flowery there? He's there a while?

Now his biological clock is going backwards.

You just had a kid right out. Bless him, God, bless him.

I told him, God, bless you.

Man.

I don't biological clocks going backwards to me.

To me, having a kid right now is like going into a triple subseller, Like I don't want no part of it.

I think and rest you want a couple of times, hey, rescue is it a triple subseller? Get down there?

The same amount of stands going down? Or is it going up?

I literally got something to answer to what you were the question you were asking and when you when you were on a rig and and rescue too. And it's really unique when you're.

Going to a fire. The concentration on the back.

There isn't a side word spoken everybody, and it's it's, you know, different than riding in an engine or a truck because everybody's sitting on the bench seat, but there isn't a side word spoken. Every year is on the department radio and the handy talkie radio and they are listening, and it's just it's just different than than any other

Of the rescues.

And you know, it's just it's a it's just almost like I think Mike and Jimmy will uh agree with me, it's a higher calling and and what you know, what what the rescue's job is. You know, everybody has a good time but when when the ship really hits the fan, rescue is going to work. And and rescue too gets more work than anybody else, so they do it a lot. But it's it's it's really it's a concentration. It's just

One of their capabilities. I know what they're going to do.

I know and what Jimmy said earlier, I know what they're going to go do, what they where they're going how they're going to do it. And he said, I don't. I don't let details in the company. He said, when I'm he said, the guy's either a rescue guy or a sock guy. He says, detailed guy from from you know, whatever truck companies isn't coming to work and Rescue.

Two, you know, for the night.

And that's pretty intense. And that is it, you know, a dedication to what you're doing and how you're doing it. And I think that's part of the the the special that you know that that not the allure of Rescue two, but it's it's really a special place. You know, these two guys who worked there, you know, they they they they lived it. I just was a keen observer there.

Mike would tell you too, Listen, we were blessed, We were lucky guys to get there. We were blessed to work with the men that we did work with, and all the information that they taught us to become better fineman. We were, you know, we were fineman, but we became better through all their learning and teachings apart that they set down upon us over the years working with them.

So, yeah, it's a long I mean you just go through the legendary guys. I mean we've talked. We talk about it every every week. I mean you think about all of the guys I LP and the Vidge and you know, Danny Murphy and you know you can get boy Solomon. I know so many guys Clearhouse, Clearhouse, you.

Know, like Yankee.

You know, oh time is.

Like that guy's even better.

That's the baby, that's the baby. Yeah, yeah, no doubt man.

They never and I would say as well as myself probably Mike, we never thought of ourselves like that. We just thought of ourselves as regular fine and doing our jobs.

Stackpole. I was thinking about him, you know, I was just thinking about that too.

You know his son is in the company now.

Yeah, wow, yes, I didn't know that. Yeah, sorry, Miking.

When you go you talk about you know, you guys at that have served and Rescue two, you go back to the origination of the company, right, you look at those men coming on board, right, and what they went through. You, No, they set the stage for everybody started right.

They started right exactly, and their.

First mission as a rescue company, starting with Rescue one, was you know, to resist take firement on the scene. Yeah, so that's where that you started when Glenn was speaking about, you know, looking out for firemen. So that was the original mission statement for a rescue, right.

So you just continued doing so much success that the city said that I think it's time for another rescue. And the difference between one and two, I believe is that their own training in house, so they weren't trained like Rescue one was trained at a location before they went online. I think that one of the uh uh the account of maybe the last school or wherever they were trained. But Rescue too did all the training in house before they went online, right.

And the first rescue, like Rescue one, they had similar to the squads, they had tryouts, right, and they selected their members that way, and then they went to the school and trained. And you know, when Rescue one was formed, they had a fire in a submarine in the Navy yard, correct, And what happened is, you know, it took him so long to get there from where their location was on Great Jones Street, that you know they got time they

And you had a couple of guys from Rescue one who had been promoted. Right, I believe it will work correct.

Captain O'Leary was the first that he was one of the original members of Rescue one. And when the lieutenants, the original lieutenants Rescue two was from Rescue one, also.

Right, and then Kissing Berger.

Oh, Kissing Berger too.

Oh.

He was a legend. You know. He came from Rescue one to Rescue two, gets promoted, goes to Rescue one, slide opens up and Rescue two and he comes back as a lieutenant Rescue two.

Wow.

And that's when they were. They were originally on.

J Street, I think Elton, and then they went to J Street and they came back to Carlton and.

The one that Ornate firehouse coops. That's that big.

Yes, Yeah, that's headquarters. It had the round of round opening right. It was a Carlton Jay and then back to Carlton and over to.

Bergen as Sandy's what that guy? That guy that Tommy Donnelly.

That was at nine o'clock in the morning the night the night tour. I think we had three seconds and two old hands. Wow, and that was the day of the I knew what do you call it? Took that picture Sandy Williams because that day was sad. He was the Belmont Race, so he would always go to Belmont Race and come.

In and ride with us.

Who's that? Who's that boss there?

Jim Tony was a Fineman rescue too.

Kevin o'rooke didn't fit the mold. He was too nice of a guy.

Man, that guy wasn't man.

Yeah, he's the best.

You know, yell at him.

Kevin would apologize for them, you know, don't you know they're all right, they're very.

I didn't fit the rescue too bold, that guy like he's.

Too Tommy Donald, Timmy Higgins, myself, Louis Sherriff.

Yeah, Tommy Donald's another humble dude.

Man.

He just every time I you know, I send him a text or something. He always texts me back. I know he's got a lot going on. I think he's doing some political stuff. But uh, you know the.

Guys a twist, yeah, mister Steele and sex appeals that they say right, that same to be.

That seemed to be a common theme too, like guys from two going to one? Right, quite a few guys that and did that Mike uh, Tommy Donald did. Billy Ryan was Billy Ryan, and two he was right?

Three?

Was it three? Yeah?

Yeah, right, the one time you had all the lieutenants from Rescue one and four all Fineman and Rescue two.

Yeah. Today she did the opposite, he went from one to two right, m hm oh the fisher Gallagher and.

Ye yeah, Keith Gallagher will come to breakfast. You know he comes to breakfast now and then uh huh.

He's like a button people talk to you.

Yeah, everyone goes because they want to listen to his stories.

Coobs always says to me, you think he at the chief chief. Gally Freddy was his his son was my chauffriend when I was three. For a long time, I'm like, yeah, I don't I don't know if I could get I don't know that would be too Uh you think he would come on Jim, Probably not right.

Don't you know?

You'd probably call him, he'll answer the phone. You know. Yeah, he showed up, you know what, a hundred down of versery. Afterwards, you know, he sat down and was talking with everybody. I think he was, you know, in his glory that day, seeing everybody from when he would working when he worked there in the rescue too.

Only one way to find out.

Rough who's the who's the other guy? Coves that? Uh? I never remember the fucker's name from the four one? Uh, Jack Pritchard Pritchet That guy.

Picked up the phone once. Hey you can have I'm like.

It was funny because how many chiefs who were fineming and rescue too become chief in the four one battalion had Jack Pritchett clear.

House, right, you had this guy Tom.

Oh boy just drew a blank. I'll think of it. No, oh boy, I just drew a blank. Ah. It was a Tom and a Bob there caught that same last name.

Three off, I said, I think of it.

Let me google real fist. Lou We were talking about Captain Gallaghermly was a fireman and rescue too, and was a chief and a four one battalion that was.

Like the plane crash though there was got What were you saying, Mike.

Well, we're talking about Freddy Gallagher earlier before he started the show. He was instrumental and turning around the rescue company from more of a special unit to you know, what the rescue should be. And he wrote the mission of the rescue company like nineteen seventy four when he first got there as a captain. He was a fireman there as well. I didn't know that in the sixties.

Did you I didn't see it in the book here, but I had read in the Brooklyn Eagle that their very first job though that day they almost died.

What's that they almost all died?

Yeah, they almost. The first job that they went to, it.

Was a full story loft building in Furman Street, and they were called on a second along a special call, and they were assigned to the top floor of the fire building. And it was a captain and two of the firemen that wound up getting, you know, unconscious on the fire floor. There was a backdraft that almost blew two other fire rescue two firemen off.

Yeah, and then they actually pulled them out down the portable right now and.

Had recesitatum in the street to were transport at the hospital and recessitated there. So it would have been the life of rescue two at that time, could have been just seven days.

Yeah, there's a picture in the Yeah it's in the Brooklyn Eagle of them laying in the sitting in the street. I have that our company.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen that, that picture before you guys went to Now they went to the plane crash and this party within like went to a couple of weeks.

Days, three days.

I remember we talked, We talked about that, Yeah, talking about that.

It was they think two days later.

Uh, Bobby Mosa was also in the four one.

Bobby Mosa was in the foll one right, but they said the deck was so hot that boots were melting.

Wow.

Yeah, that was a tough fire We did that with We did a whole show on that and that was a crazy fire man.

Like what those guys did to get to Again, you're talking about how many nineteen sixty like they had nothing, you know what I mean, Like you saw what that that ship just looked like right there. It was like incredible, you know.

Yeah, And that's why Lieutenant Hamilton was him in uh Hemmy's archer. Hank Searcher started rescuing the people below deck and when Lieutenant Hamilton passed out and Hank Searcher had to put him on his shoulder and carrying up the ladder when he was unconscious, and both were received. I think class once for that rescue.

Murphy as I help downing strong guy. Somebody squinting there, I think that's Sandas Cameron. We didn't talk about Cameron. He's seeing a guy, one of the senior guys, Cameron.

Man.

Now they got a shook. Guy did too, I did.

I have to say.

When I watched the the uh the centennial day and everybody was getting up and speaking, I thought that Jimmy Love, I think he did a great job. Yeah, I did a great job.

Man.

Is this Paul By the.

Way, that's Charlie Williams.

Charlie Williams.

Took it up.

I think that's a U. Two photographers.

You got to mention all the all the great photographers who contributed to to two guys who went over and above and found pictures from this era actually three Bobby Dispatcher and of course Warren Fuchs and uh John Dwyer and.

You know to guys is Grogan and Lloyd Mitchell.

Takes great pictures.

He's down.

Put my glasses on over God, Wow, you need to get some prescription, chick.

The way I got into doing is, you know, he had to be stole upon you.

So after the death of Billy Moon, and you know, Kevin, when you lose a guy in a fire or after fall this day fire, you know, your minds are going in ten thousand different directions. So after Billy Moon passed away, I figured, you know what, I'll see what I could do to help them out. And I called Paul Hairshaken, who I've known for years, and I went over his house.

There was a lot of stuff, and you know what it is that all that stuff is digitalized now digitized digitalized, so he could send that in an email Twitter.

What was funny was he gave me a list of all the medal winners as well as unit citations, and I sent them back an email and said, you left three guys out that won medals and you left out three unit citations.

Really, so he calls me up.

He goes, I don't know.

I go, I'm telling you, I'll tell you where to find them. He goes, I got to research this. And two days later he called me up. He goes, you're absolutely right. There are three more medal winners that you found as well as three unit citations.

That's pretty good.

Where's Freddy Galla?

I'm sorry, right next to the chief on the right there.

The chops put that door back up there. Can you imagine if you had that door right now? Uh huh.

That's that's in the new firehouse, Is it that?

What was in the office that was like from nineteen save us some history there, man.

And then I go back to the picture of Christina Moon and her kids.

They gave me one second. It's a little further down there.

We go, oh.

Yeah it.

So after I did all this, I went to the firehouse and I told him, listen, I know your plates full. I go, I had nothing to do. So here's the company history. You could read it if you like it. Fine, if you don't, there, throw it in the garbage. And it wouldn't offend me at all. And then they, like a week later they called this. They called me up and they go, it's pretty impressive the amount of work that you did.

And uh, I go, all right, then we'll just run with it.

You guys want to add the leite change, that's your job, that's your firehouse, whatever you want to do. And then Mike helped me out. And then, like Glenn said, all the guys that had pictures, you know, they Jim Reagan, you know Bobby Dannis. Bobby Dannas was a big buff back then before he got on the.

Job, killing me, killing me. He never comes on he's killing me.

You gotta be.

Kind to him.

Yeah, did you feel a lot of pressure right in this.

No, none at all.

As a matter of fact, it became addicting. It does, right, I told you, yeah, I started nine o'clock and the next thing my wife would say, you know it's six thirty.

You get lost looking at old articles and researching. You get lost in it, man.

And what you would find. I mean, like Mike said, they you know, when the rescues became what they were back then in the twenties twenty five and twenty six, their main job was to save the firefighters because of the amount of ammonia.

That was in the buildings.

You got to remember all the warehouses that was their refrigeration system emmonia, So you get ammonia leaks as well as it was in the housing of some homes. Yep, they get ammonia leaks that they would have to go out. So they had these pulminators and they had these inhales to revive people, and they would work on people. You read the stories, they'd be working on these people in the street for two three hours to try to revive them when they When you.

Guys first went online, did you have the got brave thought? The helmets, the smoke helmets, smoke helmets, helmet they still use it those with rescue two first one online.

Rescue.

Yes, there, they were still using the smoke helmets, I believe, So that was a i know, rescue one that was a large majority of the calls ammonia leagues in the beginning.

Ammonia exactly, and that was the whole process of you know, not only emonia leaks was prior primary for the smoke helmets, but also to find space and below ground fires. But the main focus was.

Ammonia because you get them out. They would always send the rescues.

In with the smoke helmets exactly exactly. And rescue too also had an incident with mustard gas that they used a smoke helmet. Yeah, somebody set over an explosive in a theater in Brooklyn and it contained mustard gas and people were overcome from that.

Wow.

So the smoke helmet was, you know, the primary tool they had at that time.

Yeah.

And you looked, you know, either buck, so you look at your the officer's lapel pins. That's what's on that is the smoke helmet and the what do you call it rifle the rope gun.

Lyle gun.

Yeah, So that's you know, two significant things that they relied on back then.

Right, Well, the other tool is a torch. You're actually settling torch to cut the bars well on the factories as well as well as the shutters on the buildings.

Another chief that was there too.

The department came out of rescue two.

Incredible, We had three, right, we had chiefs.

We had three chiefs of the department.

To come out of res Tommy Richardson two of them.

Yeah, right, Tommy richards Pete Hagen and John o'hagen.

John o'hagen, John o'hagen.

Right.

He's a love hate guy. Some guys love him. I think he did a lot of good for the I mean he brought the towel ladders, right, he brought a lot of stuff.

Into Andy talking his tower ladders, satellite super bumper.

He got stuck. I knew him personally.

He got stuck in a bad place between the politicians and the money being counters and.

The Rand company, the Rand Corporation.

Ye screwed him and he's just he was. He was a stark guy. And you know at the end he do so well, treated us so well.

Man. He gave his call blunt that to go down to the Academy to film there. He's great. We had him on the show a couple of times.

Right, the Rand Corporation, right was the wiz kids.

Yeah, let's close firehouses or because let's firehouse.

I want to win your WESTCA truck Meisenheimer from to make those prank phone call at least from what I heard back in the day before nine eleven.

But it was funny back then, you know. And then someone wrote a book about it. I read it in college about the Ring Corporation, yep. And there was the whiz kids that were all from M I. T. And if you look today, I don't know if they're still there, but I knew as like three or four years ago. Yes, it was still in city Hall. The whiz kids really

It was cheaper. It was cheaper to burn them down that to buy them out. Let them burn them out, and will we gentrify like like they did the Lincoln Center And then all that burned and they built up Lincoln Center. That was all housing crazy, right, it's petetin. Yeah, that's.

When when he was in.

Yeah, coops.

When you're talking about the equipment, when Rescue first came online in the nineteen twenty five you know, you talk about New York City, you know, with the progression of equipment. You know, when I got to Rescue two in nineteen eighty five, we were still using the same techniques for ammonia gas. It was like a punk lighted. It was this flame to go out, no smoke, but when you walked into ammonia situation, it would start smoking again. That's when you knew really.

Nineteen eighty five we were using the.

Same equipment they were using in nineteen twenty five.

I'm going to put all my chips on that.

In the subsellar, yeah, in the subsellar, we had another situation where we had defined space hopes. It was a high pressure.

Hose hooked up to a three hundred cubic foot air cylinder, looked up to a manifold, and then we had a fifty foot or one hundred foot of air.

Holes that we've hooked up to a backplate. Use a regular regulator on it and going to confined spaces. That was there when I got to rescue too.

Wow.

It was also used in nineteen sixty three. Lieutenant Hamilton used it to rescue somebody out of a submerged car off Shaw Parkway and Brooklyn. It was the same exact hose that they used in nineteen sixty three where he hooked it up, went into the water with the mazed mask.

He move into the water to rescue that it.

Took somebody out of the car. Yep, this is the same equipment we were using in nineteen eighty five when I got there for confined space as well. Probably the same hose.

That's what I was using the manholes in. I think at the kind of in eighty seven, that's who we're using right well, when we rescued once started, I'm sure rescue too. A lot of it was all hand tools. Saws, pride bars, snips, all that stuff was all hand tools that they had. Absolutely that was above what the regular companies were carrying.

You know, correct, You know the big tool at that time was the settling torch.

Yeah, can tackle all that stuff.

The grip oist was when the tools started.

Yeah, even regular jacks they had that other companies didn't have. But mostly, like you said, the settleinge torch was big, even rescue one. I have an early when they first went online, a video of them using Oxlene style to oxy settling torch to get somebody out of window. Boss.

Right.

It was an early tool that they had.

To get to the company when it was first organized. You had to know how to use the torch.

Right.

That's one of my best, my favorite pictures right there.

Yeah, this thing is classic, man.

And then their first drill was with the with the torch.

Yeah, they did it drill for a newspaper I believe, with the torch before they were actually calling a rescue squad back then.

That's Hobby Richardson coming out of the building.

Yeah.

No, that's a great picture man.

So you know the story behind his picture. Hommy's coming out of the building after he made the roof rescue. That's the fire where he made the roof rescue.

Man.

Yep.

Yeah, this was definitely a my favorite one.

I think Lieutenant Pennet, let me ask, I'm gonna ask Jimmy the same thing. What firefighter did you work with that most impressed you? Like, Holy shit, man, this guy is real deal.

Pe Bondy, pe Bondy.

What about you, Jimmy boy, that's that's tough.

I know, you got a big list to choose from, and it's.

Like having a fifty two card deck of you know cards and bab bruth.

Yeah, I mean it's you know, when I first got there, Jimmy Higgins Man taught me a lot. Richie taught me a lot. The guy was Davy Van Boss and Mike you could right. He was so quiet, but the man was just always on it, on his game. Taught me a lot.

I tell the story all the time. I was in one seventeen a week and rescue for was. This is when they moved over to two sixty two's quarters because they were working on their quarters and all of a sudden it seemed like there was a fire around the firehouse over there all the time. Like so they basically took our first two boxes right, and we end up going to a job and the fires out the front door and we pull up the first doo to sixty two. I think I think I was just tell him Polly

He still remember we caught a fire on the borderline.

That guy was the real deal too. I didn't mean he'll get you in the spot quick too, right. Those guys are getting you in trouble.

But get you.

I remember we caught a job on the on the border of Brooklyn, Queens and we came out and some guy was standing next to me and goes, hey, check that cowboy out.

I go what she had? Checked that cowboy out over there with his helmet.

He always had his helmet crooked, right all the time.

That guy over there, that cowboy had that cowboy. We tell you something, if you think you were gonna die, you better make sure that guy is working.

His helmet was.

Always crooked, was Glenn Harris.

No doubt that guy.

You better pray if you thought you were in trouble, he was gonna work that day because he's coming after that man.

Yeah, I should say him one and Quickie too, probably you know. But now now I'm doing the show, Bondi's name, Peter Bondi comes up. It's like every week, it's weekly, you know.

Unfortunately I didn't have the privilege to work with him. But man, that's way you ever heard, you know, he e Van Vorce stories all the time? Man, they were they were the real deal. I mean all the guys. I mean, I was blessed. Like I said earlier, I mean I worked with three different captains. I don't know how many lieutenants, maybe twenty lieutenants. I worked with almost sixty five guys in my career there, and you know what,

Look what the what's unique about the guys at the Rescue, especially when I got there, and the majority of seenior guys that actually a lot of them you have to have worked under Chief Gallagher Captain Gallagher at the time, and the other half we brought over by Downey. You know, we talk about the quiet professionals. You know, it wasn't a lot of gregging going on. And I did this, I did that. We come back from the job and just talk about positions, We talked about tools, we talk

Wow.

And you know I had Jack Cleaehouse on one side, Peep on the O the other side, and the two quiet professionals. They were you know, their actions spoke valumes and you know you learn more from just watching them than actually you know, talking to them. So it was, you know, a unique situation and unique place to work, especially back then with you know, these guys with so much experience they had from the seventies going into the eighties that there wasn't a fire that they didn't feel

You never really hear rescue two guys being like like you say, matter of fact, do their job hard charges. You never hear guys like we've had guys on the show say I don't think it'll be good guys. Those are the best guys that the modest guys like. We never heard of rescue two guys breaking them. I mean they break out balls when we became a squad. Sure, but yeah, Bobby's little yellow friends.

I worry about that. What's that I gotta start off to run at night.

So on nine to eleven, of course, the company went, you know, responded, and all the guys came into quarters, start showing up in quarters, and.

Uh Captain Uvlo was there, and uh uh.

Bob Gallion showed up, and a Tommy Donelly showed up and showing up and they don't have a rig because the rigs at the at the at the World Trade Center. So the Tommy Donald and Dan Murphy go down to the end of Bergen Street and they fled down a city bus and they tell this bus drive of her, get everybody off the bus. You're taking us down to Lower Manhattan. You know, there's been a horrible fire accident, tragedy. So she says her name is Barbara Bird. She sits there,

Down by city Hall.

Right.

She gets them all the way to city Hall. They get off, get off the bus. They said that she was for a while. One of the guys was, I don't know who was Tom or Dan was gonna drive and they couldn't. They couldn't even they didn't know how to operate the controls of the bus. So they just said you drive, And she said you could have could have driven the rig to get them all the way stolen.

It gets better.

It gives them all the way to city Hall. They get off the rig. They stayed there till nighttime. She waits for them all day and all night.

Finding around eight thirty nine o'clock at night, she takes her all dead.

She said, she said, I ain't coming home. She goes back to the bus garage in East New York Parks. The bus never tolds us. Tells a soul what she did, and I don't know what was it. Five years later, six years later, the guys in the company were at the bus garage and they were at shift change and.

Somebody said, that's her. No way they grabbed her. She had her boss one second of that story. She just like that was like her little thing.

And they they they went to the supervisors at the NTA and they said, we're doing something for her, and they got there a plaque on the on the bus on the bus garage there in East New York, dedicated to her. But when you said about the guys in restage too, and they were like, that's just that's what we do that, that's what we do, that's how we do it, and that's the way they are and and that's you know, they said.

That this lady she could have driven the rig she was and it was just, you know, it was just.

A little glimmer of humanity in the worst tragedy imaginable.

And in that edit never once said anything about it till we went there that afternoon, and you know, we saw her and spoke to her, and the supervisors had no idea. She never told her because she thought she would get in trouble and not returning the bus on tar. Yeah, I mean, we talked about Captain Rubault. Can you imagine being a commander. We lose you know, six guys in your company and then guys get promoted and we lost

You got to get them all trained up, right, I mean your own rescues, you go scuba at the high angle, you get everything. You got to get them all trained up.

Can you imagine what you know, the amount of stress that he went through just to do that, to get the company back up and running again the full right. Then it took us, you know, as a company, but to at least two years to get to where we were full strength again. But you have to hand it to him, you know, he went out and got the guys and made the company strong once again.

Not only doing that, but now you got to go to funerals. You gotta, you gotta, you know hardest. You got to take care of the families. You got to rebuild the company. It was a tough time, man.

You guys all know what.

We went to find the guys. Yeah, you went to the few went to the memorials first. Then they found the guys and then you had to go to the funeral.

Yeah, yep, I remember they were thinking about merging the squads into the rescues, right, I mean, at one point in the beginning we get get rid of the squads and just merging whatever guys were left into the rescues.

It was the hardest time. Is probably an odd well, you know, being on the dog that we all went together.

And when you were working, you spent some time taking ships going down to the pile, right time, going down to the pile.

Mm hmm.

That was sometimes when you look in the book. One day, Jimmy and I are at it was a sun I'll never forget.

It was a Sunday morning in October and uh, we're we're at a session. We're at the Captain's desk upstairs, and I don't.

Remember who it was.

When somebody went into the UH the store room up in the second floor at the quarters, and they walked into the UH to the desk and.

They laid out in front of me the company blog books from nine to eleven and opened up the page and that's in the book.

I put I put those in the book, and it's just you know, you're reading this history, you're reading the guys who.

Reported for duty and the night tour on September tenth.

It was cool I saw that in the book and.

Then on September eleventh, Captain Rublo's description and I think he ended.

It with, you know, we know we're going to do everything we can to recover our fallen brothers.

It just you know, that's that's that's history, that that you know we're never we're never gonna hopefully ever see again.

And to just have hold the log book in your hand on.

The office record that's the Office record journal too, they have that, Like I remember looking at on Garo did that for us for two eighty eight. I remember, you know, years later when I came back to his lieutenant looking at all the stuff that he did, Like again, you know, we were just going down to the pile As farm and we didn't know what the hell was going on really, but those guys were trying to keep the place to

Yeah, I forgot to add to all of that stuff. Anthrax runs were going on the white What else could you possibly add to that mix of craziness?

Right, alcohol, That's what you could add to it, A lot of alcohol. Holy shit.

Some stats I had written down in two We had ninety six winners. Four members won the James Gordon Bennett which is now the Chief Peter Gancy Medal, right, one hundred and thirty eight members, one meritorious class ats either one, two or three. We had sixty four company unit citations. We had fourteen company commanders. We had the first person in the FDNY ever to win two medals in one year, and that was rich Dunovan back in nineteen thirty four

To metal on it. That's exactly what I did.

Like and from one story that I mean, when I was finishing, was up to five hundred pages. So there's no way you could print five hundred pages. You need, you know, somebody that carried a for you. So we got it down to two fifty or two in a quarter. But the one story that you know was left out. But the story, the newspaper article was in. It was the first Gordon Bennett winner that was in it. Bosure and that guy if you read his story, they just happen to be out. They catch a fire on the

He gets a medal.

The poor guy who is the anchorman zero.

The dope on the rope every time, right, I mean, I mean you read these stories.

Like there were so many guys like that Jimmy that people have never heard that this is what we do in Hashe.

We call it all. He does a great job. Dude from the eighteen.

Ever heard of who have done things like that hang out a window, or guy's holding on to his shoe and he grabbed somebody.

Else, or off a scaling ladder, like putting a ladder on top of a scaling ladder.

Like Also you never heard this guy's name in your life, I mean, like this guy was I mean.

And then now let's get you addicted to do this.

The next story. And then you read that next door.

It's gonna be coffee with Sanders next and you show with them, you show did God say this? Though?

And and it's really important is that when when Jimmy and I got together, there were so many people that had a part of telling the history and were involved in the book.

I know, you guys know Mike Martin Ellie right from New Jersey. He's like the new the.

FDA apparatus guy. So he provided all the rig pictures and got that for us. You know, there was just just twenty thirty people in the company. The company put out a call for photographers and close to twenty or thirty photographers put stuff up. So that the amount of people who were involved in this project is incredible. They're all named in the book. I'm not going to name.

All of them. But the lesson that I think that I hope that.

That people were watching tonight get is that you don't have to do something as fancies what we did, but record and put that that history stuff down because if you can't, if you don't have it, it's gone.

And when when Jimmy and I went.

Into the firehouses and started working on a book round the end of the summer last year, they're just boxes and boxes of pictures came out and stories and newspaper clippings and you know, all this other stuff so that you know that you know the whole.

Story about Takes a village.

But so many people, you know, helped Jimmy with the with the history and help me with the photos, and and you know, we have a question and somebody would answer it, so it you know, it really is a group effort.

And I just wish more companies, you know, you know, like I said, you don't have to.

Go to I have a two hundred and thirty page hardcover book, but you can put something together for your for your company. And I think everybody, I don't Mike It and jim are proud of what we did. It was just a lot of it was a lot of work, and when you held the thing in your hand, You're like, this was worth it. You know, this is this is

You're gonna be. I think Louis said you would like to actually hold one in his hand, didn't.

Where do you buy these books?

What funny you could ask? It's a w w W dot rescuet book dot com.

We put that in the chat for put that in the chat for you guys.

And if any anybody that's watching is going to be at Allentown on Sunday, I'm gonna be there with the books.

I have a stand there where we have these books. And also, uh, they save New York book we're almost that we're almost out of they save New York, but one hundred of these.

And so I'll be there on Sunday morning in Allentown at the well they call it down a spring melt.

And then and I know the company is going to have at the Harrisburg. So it's yeah, it's pretty cool.

But are you're going to have them at the FT I c I'm okay, I have a couple out there for you.

Couple.

I know a guy who can hook you up.

You do, yeah, because I know I got a guy.

Through the appreciation before you signed on. It might be a little controversial. I might hurt a few feelings here. I don't really care. I said that in my opinion, I believe that Rescue two is the busiest company, fire duty wise, in the history of the fire service. And I gave this example because we all know that the neighborhoods go through transitions, right, and different companies are really busy.

I would say, right, Mike, I would say if you looked at the amount of firework. I'm not talking about the amount of runs, but if you look at the amount of firework that we we saw duty and operate at as well, you know, fire duty. Yeah, I don't think that many people can come close to what the company did, and we're not and I'm not, and Mike will tell you do to pat ourselves on the pack.

That's just company history.

And that's why we wrote the book, to let people know what the company was all about.

Right, the company has one hell of a reputation, that's for sure.

I mean, you could look at the amount of runs that we did, even I think the first one we could find was nineteen thirty nine when they used to put out the runs and workers and things of that, and from thirty nine to recently, the numbers really don't change.

No, I have the more not I have moll sitting right over there.

Our runs never change. They didn't fluctuate by thousands, maybe by a few hundreds of.

That you've seen. You've seen busy truck companies go from ten thousand runs and well, they didn't do OSW back in the day. It was workers OSW came about what in the late eighties, early nineties, something like that, ninety yeah, nineties, but then substantially lower, like you see busy, busy companies go, I mean six seven thousand runs are busy today. Back then in seventy seven, seventy six, seventy seven, it was ten thousands.

It's not listen on the bottom line is you can't keep listen to when one O two was busy. Uh huh, Right, Rescue two had their first aware. Let's say Rescue two had their area and one O two's area, so they got w amount of fires, right, right, it's right. So but then they also have one eleven's first to area, then they have one O threes first to area, then they have one So there's no you can't there's no explaining, right, there's no you don't have to explain anything. Every company, if.

There's a job, we'll say, oh, guy might not get there.

They might not get there, they might not do work work to be done. They're going to do something.

Like one fifty seven is doing all the work. Now, well, guess what rescue teams going there back in the day when one of the three was doing all the work. Matter what did you say before about Brooklyn being the fifth What was that.

The fifth busiest?

It's the fifth biggest largest city in America.

It could be in the world.

People in Brooklyn.

It's crazy.

And one of the things too, if you look at the statistics, really don't go by them, because I can personally attest to this, that majority of the jobs we went to we never put in the book. Right, so you look at the numbers, how busy you are, it doesn't account for every five we went to so many many times. It also would just come out and throw half of one pocket in the bag, but one pocket in the.

Book back, come back for like nine. The ain't putting this in the brought up something four.

Like you know, when you're ride in the back, you'd always listen to the radio and you guys would come into the company and they go, what do you you know, what should we be doing? I go listen to the radio and they go, why they go, because we're going to out of part of Brooklyn. Listen to what they're saying on that radio.

I got a little something.

That is the thing because if you went out to let's say, out to the three three or you know, uh what else was out there, the three three or four three, and they would tell you, you know, fire is doubtful, give me an extra engine and truck they.

Don't have.

They're not getting that fire knocked down. So when you make the turn on the block, get ready because you're going to work.

Right, you know, how you how'd you guys feel when Rescue five took those boxes over?

For you guys, that was way before me as Mike not good.

Talks about that.

Not good.

It was all borrow.

Right, and it was a little underhanded by those guys over the bridge and had they come about what do you mean? They wanted to get a little bit more work, I believe, and they you know, get into Coney Island a little bit into the you know, three three battalion and uh they put a you know, pitch in and went through the political side of the house and it went around a lot of fire department officials type of thing.

I'll say, you probably missed some jobs coming back.

Then being only yeah, yeah, for one job, you might miss two, right, And for us it wasn't worth it. So in the long run, it wasn't that bad that you know, five took over that area, right, But it was just an insult coming into our borrow type of thing.

And you know, we learned to have a green point.

With three rescues come in.

Yeah, right, I was just going to say, they rescue fall comes at the green point.

Takes sell the green Point Rescue three, Rescue five comes over the bridge and handles all.

You guys got a lot of work. You gotta spread it around me. Come on, you can't.

Spread around a little gags.

You could try this question. What's this question from Dave Beata.

He wants to know if Bill Hewittson, if I say it right, has any family on the job. He was asking Mike and Jim.

Dave, I don't believe he has anybody on the fight department. Billy did have a brother in UH Highway and YPD Highway that we met when Billy was very sick, and his father was in the NYPD also, I believe, and his father, from what I heard, was the one that designed the Emergency Service Unit patch well logo really back when.

Yeah, as long as though you can bring up that picture. It's a black and white picture. Billy's standing on the on a turntable. It's a black and white vertical picture. Up the whole bunch, I'll show you who Billy is.

Billy was a phenomenal fine and extremely aggressive. He got just pains one time at a fire. We carried him out at the fire, you know, getting ready for the ambulance. He goes, wait, wait, stop, stop, what do you want? He goes, I just want to have one more cigarette before.

I go to the hospital.

Billy, you're having a heart attack.

You know.

He was one of those guys who was as soon as get.

Out of the job.

I love those guys, bro with that face, all black with a cigarette, like they didn't get enough.

That's not it.

It's a real close up off him coming down the area by himself.

Yeah, he's on he's on the on the turntable.

Hey, Jamie, I'll throw a little question out to you.

Okay, who who originally trained.

E s U when they first came online?

Do you have a title? His name? Billy by chance?

No, there is is right there just in the middle.

That's Billy Goodwidson.

Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't know him.

I don't I don't know that. That face, yeah, that's nineteen eighty five.

It's got the old mask. Yep.

Yeah, in nineteen eighty five, we were going back and forth between the two point two Scott masks, the old ones and the four point fives at the time, so half of the guys that were there already always kept those masks on and us new guys if Gonzo. Keep that picture up for a second, sure, And we go back and forth between those two types of masks until eventually everybody went to the four point five because it's so much lighter, right, But I just want to call

Right.

He worked at the fire the LNG explosion in Staten Island, I think it was nineteen seventy three. He was in this little basket. You see the guy's holding the basket on the sides. He had the rope tied to him, right, he had a radio. And what they did they lowered him into the LNG tank that exploded where forty men died.

Because they were dead. And then they lowered this guy right into the into the right into the middle of it.

Yeah, and this in the little tube where a radio that didn't know if it was going to work or not. And you know, and he said when they got down to the bottom, it was like going to hell. All was his body, body parts and just fire everywhere. And you know, they pulled him out and then they wound up waiting for the fire knocked down a little bit more to him and someone else went down later on to do a search and try to.

Find help a lot. Look at that helmet on his head.

Yeah, and Billy was a fine a fireman, a rescue toom before he got bolted. He came back as a lieutenant.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

So the question I threw out the gym he was who originally trained e s U when they when they first went on.

So back, what I read was rescue one and Rescue two. Yep, took turns training ESU, you know, to make them what they are today because of all the running.

They would go way out. I mean you can remember they.

Were the only two rescues in four Burroughs at the time, so anything that was further out they're required, not fire you know, incident, but any type of incident. That's what they trained the pled and eventually I think there was twenty one s U units back then, So.

Any time of ESU got used any ship. You say, we don't want to train you guys, we started.

I'll take that face piece off, get out of my fire apartment, get your rig off the hydrant, sell them.

Yeah, we're the ones that trained them back in I think it was in the mid thirties, you know, because of all and back then, and the reason was because of the amount of traffic and congestion getting through the streets. They couldn't make it. So they trained the PD to handle all the emergencies.

He Jimmy is on it, he is.

We got we gotta get the new We got to get the new lingo like coffee with sand.

It's Jimmy show.

I got to come up with a with a little little You need a slogan, you need a good one.

He's on the shows. But you know, we might have forgotten one or two. And you know, we didn't mean to do that for getting those people.

But there was a lot of.

People involved in so far as behind the scenes making this book what it is and what it is today. You know, even the guys in the flyoffs and rescue too. You know who knows to those guys, they did a lot. People don't understand or what they did, but they were the guys behind the scene, you know, to make it what it was and what it is today. Look, we got I haven't been in the new file. Its pretty interesting, man.

It's like it's like amusement park for firefighters. That's crazy Affle day and it's unbelievable when I went.

Back and it smells like smoke.

I smoke.

Firehouse and I'm like, something's different here. And I'm looking at the walls and they one wall they bricked from one end to the building to the other. So you go, that wasn't there like three months ago. They go, not we did that?

They go, man, it's pretty interesting.

They got so much Memora Bailure in there too.

For Rescue.

What they want to do is they they want to make the firehouse, the inside of the fires look like an old firehouse. The dune brick on the other well, to make it look like an old tiny flyouse.

It before that. How much talent, right, there's somebody came up with one on I said, it's a cup of Joe with Jimbo. I like you with Jimbo, Baby Joe.

One of the things I can add with the guys in the house, they did an outstanding job putting that centennials together, absolutely getting the imitations out and everything else. And they did an outstanding job. And one of the things with rescue, whether it's nineteen twenty five or twenty twenty five, you know, it's the same attitude. It's the same bunch of personalities. It's just different names, right. I think the tradition is always going to continue there and just before it is rescue too.

That that is a testament to the members.

Dad man passed very did Mike, You're absolutely correct, dead on accurate.

Yeah, I don't know, Louis Les now to get yours.

What imitation right?

Exactly?

I tell you right now. I thought the commissioner was great. I thought the commissioner was he.

Is two allergy. Now you're gonna start.

The way he's gonna be. He's gonna be texting you. I might even text you every day. But Joe with Jim.

Uh you guys, Uh did you guys talk to the commissioner at all?

I didn't. No, I didn't get a chance to.

He is a cool guy, man.

I didn't have a chance to speak to him.

You know, his speech was very you know, very comfortable. You know, he seemed like one of the guys.

He's a big buff man. He loves the fly service a buff.

Yeah, he's an incredible guy.

He started his his mom was a uh worked for Mayor Koch and they lived up on the Upper East Side and Uh, one summer his mom goes, you ain't staying.

Home all summer you're going to work. And I know a lot of you guys know him.

You know, Kenny Fisher was the supervisor dispatcher in the in the Manhattan CEO and the commissioner spent the summer working in the Madden CEO.

And uh, that's sweet.

You might know him and you might be able to help me get him on the show.

Cricket, Cricket, gosh, cricket. Let me find it for you because he I mean, he loves the job. He was, you know, he was, he's I've gotten that. Had a couple of conversations with him, and he's a good guy like that.

I said, hey, Glad, did you get me in contact for him? Three hours later, I don't even need the commission. I've had Penna and Sanders on the show. Rough can we do better than that? We can't?

No, I need.

I I know, ye, Jimmy had a good time.

It's just gonna say that you took the work right out of my mouth.

I had a good time after I did. I had a good time with you guys.

Baby. Danny Murphy will follow.

I don't know who I've been working on Murph. I've been working Murph's a little time. It's gonna be time.

The Commissioner's day that on March first was the company presented the word a company jacket.

So the commission Oh I had the tough guy jacket. I saw that.

Yeah, no more tough. We didn't give him jean jacket. Oh no, that's a tough guy jacket.

Like wear those things did you wear?

Like onesies?

I got.

Let him have it. I love it, I love it.

I would a smile on my face. We got the dread to and the rescue Michel.

It sounds like a job, like a job. It's just coming in there. Three rescue sounds like what's.

Before he wraps up? I got to get talked tonight.

Yeah, it was great.

Where we get the book again?

Oh, the book, the book.

Book.

It looks like this is what it looks like a case for you don't know.

This is what looks like. I'm bringing a couple of the they saved New York. If you want me to bring a couple of rescue twos, you gotta get up to.

Me over the I know the address, I know the place.

I know the place.

You know the guy.

The rig They all break back like from nineteen thirty goes, Hey, Jimmy, is that you driving the rig?

Thanks you.

I love the race. I have all the pictures of the race from the exception all the way up some briggs that they had in the beginning, Well, unbelievable.

Hash put in the book, Mike right, that Rescue one when they had that one rike, they made it across town in like record time. Really right, It's it was in Rescue One's book that hash frote that they had. I forget how fast he, the person who was the show at the time, made it across Manhattan.

M hmm.

Yeah. Well, one of the things I always said with the when they responded to that submarine fire in Brooklyn, I said, if if hashtaggen or Kevin Croft were driving, there wouldn't be no rescue too.

Definitely cross Man, definitely Crossing.

Definitely definitely talking about this rig year this one.

No, it was when the older older let me see, I take up like something out of the Little Rascals.

I have it.

I don't know where it is. It's best. Yeah, before we go, guys, we gotta play for Lancaster.

Well you speak, I've heard it.

I have a ready Me and Louis will be We will be in Harrisburg the fifty third annual Fire Export,

A lot of old there's a lot of old, crusty guys telling fire stories.

Appreciate August second.

Great time with you guys.

Put it on Oh you know I already invited you August second. Put it on your calendar.

We'll see you there a Sunday night again or Saturday.

It's a Saturday Saturday.

Yeah, Unfortunately, I will not.

Suck in my throat.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

How we got it once? We know we got it. Bro Friday had a good time.

Second manner in the back going. But he'll r bubbling, unbatterman. It's bubbling.

We call him always reliable. Pana. Anything you need, everybody go all right, rough any shout outs tonight.

I don't got nothing. We're gonna be away next week. So we got no show next week.

All right, we're going away, Indy.

Yes, come out and see us. Ft I s we'll see them.

I might show up three.

What's that you know?

What?

Booth wearing ten thousand, same booth we're always in ten thousand.

Come and see us you can have pizza cutters.

How we have pizza cutters. We're gonna send gimmy a pizza cutter.

Sold.

Oh it's a partner, sow pizza cutter. You'll love it. Hang on now, he's like it takes a kid right now, you know the price is right.

Welcome to my world, Jim, Welcome.

To my I.

We'll send something to out a pan. All right, listen, we'll see you in more than a week and a week and a half from now. Don't cry, you'll miss it. Thank you so much. Alright, God, guys, I'll see you. Uh, we'll see you in Indy. Yeah for sure. All right, rough, guys, have a great night. You know what I say. Stay low and go.

We'll see it the big one everybody. Thanks again, guys, Thank you very much.

Al Right, guys, have a good night. Remember leave the job better than you find it, my friend, have a good night.