But what if, what if, in those early years of my fire service, I would have been put in a firehouse with a bunch of slugs? Now that didn't happen, and because of that, I'm sitting here on your show tonight.
SPEAKER_02Firehouse Vigilance presents the weekly scrap, a podcast dedicated to the never-ending fight against complacency.
SPEAKER_03Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance, Weekly Scrap number 347. My guest tonight is Dave Dubaski. He began his fire service journey as a volunteer with the Riverview Fire District at the age of 18 in 1984. I'll let you do the math. Dave graduated from the St. Louis County Fire Academy in 85, and it has been a non-stop ride ever since. He is an award-winning fire ground photographer, with several of his photos appearing in Fire Engineering Magazine, Firehouse Magazine, and the St. Louis Post Ditch Patch. Dave has been a member of the Fools International for 20 years and currently serves as president of the Muddy River Fools, as well as serving as secretary on the e-board of the Fools International. After 42 years of service to the citizens of North St. Louis County, Dave retired officially less than a month ago, February 26, 226 of 2026. He is my friend, and I would be remiss, even though he hates it. I have to say, Chief Dave Dubowski, welcome to the Scrap. It's my pleasure to have you on for episode number 347 of The Scrap.
SPEAKER_01It's great to be here, my friend. And it's Captain Dave Dubowski.
SPEAKER_03Fair. I had to do it once. I won't I won't belabor the point, but I had to do it once. Anything I missed besides that, anything I missed in the intro?
SPEAKER_01No, absolutely. That's uh that's quite a bio that that you made me write out for you. So um, yeah, it's it's it's been a good run.
SPEAKER_03I'm enjoying, I'm looking forward to everything we're gonna talk about. But before we get going, I'm gonna read some chat because it's quite a bit of excitement going on for a little bit that you're coming in here. I really like uh Jeremy said, where was it? I just saw it scroll by. Oh, yeah. The show me state represented tonight. Uh there was something about Joplin, there was something about LFGs. There's a whole lot of let's go and a whole lot of action on the front row, like always. So they're excited to have you here, Dave, and I'm excited to have you here. So I'm gonna do the sponsors and then we'll get to scrapping. Let's talk about getting cold. Huge shout out to Fire Cold Plunge. I've actually got one in the garage. I use it every day. They sell to a lot of fire stations for one reason. Their plunge is built solid, low maintenance, small footprint, and it stays freaking cold. Uh there is zero prep. After a workout, after a call, you can just hop in and cool off. Visit them, firecoldplunge.com. Everything in the fire service gets tested. Training, instincts, equipment. That's why Snaptight delivers fire hose that performs no matter the challenge. Durability, packability, kink resistance. Every line is tested before it leaves the factory. Because when you stretch a line, there's no room for guesswork. This April, they're bringing that same mindset to FDIC. Look for Team Snaptight on the show floor and around the city. They'll be there all week to talk hose, fire ground performance, and connecting with firefighters from across the country. Snaptight, it's American made. Firefighter trusted. Firefighter safety and accountability starts with being able to quickly find and identify individual firefighters operating on the fire ground. Identifier safety combines the best in photoluminescent materials for durable firefighter identification solutions that can glow for up to 20 hours, no switches, no batteries, which means being able to rapidly identify firefighters by name, unit, or assignment, even under hot fire conditions. All specifically designed and tested for the rigors of the job. Be seen on scene, identifier safety.com. And then a special announcement for me Vigilante Meetup in FDIC Thursday night. I want to say it's 6 30 to 8 30. Yeah, 6 30 to 8 30 p.m. Thursday night. Uh Vigilantes, of course, but everybody is welcome. Everybody's invited. Come see what the vigilantes are all about. Come hang out. It's gonna be a blast. Hope to see you there. And with all that being said, oh, next week in Pensacola, we'll also have a vigilante meetup after the scrap on Tuesday night. We have the scrap on Tuesday night, then afterwards in the Hilton at the bar. We're having a meetup. We'll do all the things. So there we go. We're ready to talk. Dave, my man, 42 years, and you decided to hang it up. Talk to me about uh the transition, the the the feelings, the talk to me about all of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man. Um, you know, my goal was always to go out on top, top of my game and uh go out on my terms, and and that's what I did. Um me and my wife had had talked and talked, and um, it was on the radar, and and I kind of said, Well, when I get to 60, let's reevaluate. And um got to 60, and the the pension guy said, Hey, you're you're good to go. So yeah, I I didn't never wanted to be that guy on the engine where everybody was saying, man, he should have went a long time ago. So so um so that was my goal, and and I and I felt good about leaving when I did. Um, but man, what a what a ride it was. And uh, like I tell all the youngsters, um, enjoy every minute of it because it flies by. No doubt about it. Yeah, it's uh everybody was worried about me, like I told you, Corley, man. My my you know, my uh my life is the fire service along with my my wife and my my four boys. And um, but man, it's it's been a good transition. Um, I guess the biggest thing is you don't realize the stress that you're under at the firehouse until you're away from it. And um just that not having the stress is uh is huge. Um, do I miss it? Absolutely, but um that that feeling that I had the morning I walked out the firehouse that last time, uh there was definitely a sense of relief, you know, where where we work up in North St. Louis County, it's it's a it's a pretty ghetto area. And um, I just had this uh relief that uh man, I I made it, I survived, and uh, you know, I did it.
SPEAKER_03Right. No, and was it a relief for yourself? Was it a relief from the calls? Was it relief from the the anticipation? Or how would you describe the relief?
SPEAKER_01I think it was a relief of the calls, you know, we stay pretty busy up there. Um, I'm gonna miss, you know, going to the fires, but um, I'm not gonna miss the violence that we see, the shootings, stabbings, and all that stuff. And and just, you know, um, I think my wife heard down at COBC one time, and and I had always told her, I said, even if we're not running all night at the firehouse, I never sleep good, like most guys don't. And um, you know, she just kind of blew it off. But one of the speakers down at um COBC said that one time, and she grabbed me, she goes, Yep, yep, I I I get it now. You know, it took somebody else telling her and not me telling her that.
SPEAKER_03Sure, no, no doubt about it. Uh no, and for me, the sleep, uh, I didn't know that I wasn't sleeping until I because especially as a battalion chief in suburbia, I slept pretty good on shift, like as far as uninterrupted in my I thought, until I actually got you never really sleep.
SPEAKER_01No, no, you don't. And uh, I sleep pretty damn good now, though. Like I say that. Right on, right on.
SPEAKER_03That's the best to me. That was the one of the best benefits. I wasn't, I didn't even think I would notice, and it's been magical is the difference.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is. Um, you know, it's it's I'm at a good place. I I told my wife that because she was worried about me as well. But um, I think after I kept waiting for that magical moment, like it's gonna hit me, it's gonna hit me, but there was never that one moment to where it hit me. And and uh, you know, Aaron Heller up in Jersey coined it the best when he retired a few years back from Hamilton Township. He said, Dave, I'm I might be retiring from Hamilton Township, but I'm not retiring from the fire service, right? And that's where I'm at. I I've retired from my firehouse, but I'm definitely not retiring from the fire service. I I love it too much to give that up.
SPEAKER_03Right on. And the phot photography and the fools. So the fool's photography. I mean, you got you got it, you got your feet. I mean, I hope you're gonna keep on snapping pictures and buffing and and uh doing what what you know. Well, the fools, you've got an international convention coming to your city hosted by you, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely hosted by the Muddy River Fools coming up, and that's gonna keep us busy. We got just over six months to to keep the planning going. And uh, and yeah, I I dusted the uh dusted the dust off the camera. So uh trying to get back out a little bit more and do some photos. And um, but one of the coolest things I've been doing, and um I I anybody that knows me knows that I'm a social media hater. Uh I just I just see and hear the stories about that. And um, you know, you see Stantler talking about you know the smacks, the social media assistant career suicide. Um, I just never wanted to place myself in that position. But once I stepped away from the job, uh I got myself a Facebook page and I got myself an Instagram page. So um day by day I I put a photo on each of those sites and um 18,000 pictures. Uh maybe one day I'll run out, but I I I think I've got for a bit.
SPEAKER_03So you're you're posting all of your old, I mean your archives, you're you're you're putting them, you're taking oh, that's awesome, man. What what's the uh what's the what's the Instagram handle to find it?
SPEAKER_01Dave Dubo Photo.
SPEAKER_03No dots or anything, just Dave Dubo.
SPEAKER_01Dave Dubo Photo, and uh that is mainly St. Louis City Fire Department, as well as um like East St. Louis and and a lot of the other places. Um the Facebook page is more of a historical account of the fire departments in North St. Louis County where I worked. So um, yeah, it's been fun. You know, I do a little research every morning, pick out a picture, and and uh the cool thing is I've been getting a lot of thank yous for doing it.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I bet. I bet. Uh you we both have heard it many. I mean, Kurt said it many, many times. Take more pictures, you know, and and and uh not just of you and the people you work with, although that's probably the most important pictures you can take, and the ones you'll miss, you need to you you'll want the most, but just to commemorate the calls, the the the runs, the fires, the all all of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we talk about that kids at our um history class that we give to all the recruits out at the St. Louis County Fire Academy. That's one of the first things I talk about is take photos. Don't don't be Facebook social media stupid, don't get yourself in trouble, but take a lot of photos throughout those 30, 35 years, 25 years, whatever it's gonna be, because you're gonna look back and you're gonna want those photos. Um, my concern with photographs though is um where are all those photos going now? They're going up in a cloud somewhere. Sure. And are those photos gonna be accessible for decades down the road to where they can be used as a historical account of the fire departments?
SPEAKER_03No, it's a great question because I don't know. I uh yeah, I'd be speaking from ignorance to know if there's a good system to make sure that happens or not. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh it's something I think about because not as many people, obviously back in the day, had a camera. Nobody had phones that took a picture, so there was very few people taking fire ground photos. But the ones that did, you know, they went to the the Walgreens, they got their photos printed out, and and you know, the pictures were hanging up on the wall and at the museums, and those pictures have always been there. Everybody's got a phone now, everybody's taking pictures, but very few of us print those photos out. And once again, where are those photos gonna wind up? In in a cloud somewhere, never to be seen again.
SPEAKER_03Never to be seen. No, no, there's something there. Like uh that maybe that's the project for your retirement is you're gonna you're gonna build the archive where everybody can put them.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_03There you go. I like it. I just challenged you with that. There you go. Uh, one thing I've always wished I would have done was journaling. Did you have you ever done any journaling, or did you ever wish you would have?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I did my last year. So I started at the Riverview Fire District, and this was actually part of my retirement speech. Um, my last year at Riverview, I uh I had a logbook and I wrote down every call we had. Okay. Now, um, as I spoke about my retirement party, North St. Louis County was not what it is today, it was a very quiet existence. And and I brought that log book, my little uh you know, calendar book to my retirement party, and and I held it up. And uh like January of 1988, we ran five calls for the month. For the month of January, for the month, February. We ran three calls for the month. Um, but there was no EMS. Right. Um, it was a different neighborhood back then. Um, so that that is the only type of journaling that I ever did as far as the fire department. Boy, you wish every kid that starts would just write down if if not what he does every day, but at least the um exciting kind of calls that he had. Um, I didn't do that, but I but I am a very good record keeper as far as all my photos. I've got you know dates and times and alarms and locations and all that of of all my 18,000 photos.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that and that right there is is is it might as well be journaling because you have a photo and then you got good record keeping on it. So I mean that's that is journaling as far as I'm concerned, because now you can pull those out and you can tell the stories about those and and it recollect you know it it triggers the memory. And I think shoot, that might be even better than journaling.
SPEAKER_01So you know back then it was taking a picture of the fire. Um, now it's 42 years of history of the fire departments in the St. Louis area that I've captured.
SPEAKER_03Now now I got a question coming at you from the audience that I see here, and it's JJ Casseta. Oh no. And he wants to, I'm assuming it's actually Joseph Casseta 935 something, but that's YouTube for you. But uh, I'm pretty sure it's JJ. Ask Dave about his photo albums.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like I said, everybody just kind of takes these pictures now and they go in a cloud. Um, I actually still um print out my photos and uh they still go on a photo album. And I think I'm on about album number 63. So if you ever stop by St. Louis sometime, Corley, we can sit down and have a couple beers and um and look at some photo albums. Um JJ was JJ was just in time or just in town for my retirement party a few weeks back, and and that's what we did, man. We just kicked back and and looked at some old photo albums, and um, but yeah, they're all and I don't know, if you're not a photographer, you don't appreciate it, but um I I double quadruple, you know, triple back up all my photos just so that they are preserved because I do yeah, I do look at them as a historical marker now in the fire service.
SPEAKER_03Uh Mick Gaming, Maddox, Maddox wants to know he's Sam's Sam's getting me the name. Uh, could you put a year on the oldest photo you have in your archives?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 1980, probably about 1980. Um, I took a couple pictures with my dad. My dad worked in downtown St. Louis, and you know, I'd ride along with him a lot of times downtown just to if he had some work to do. And I always had a little Kodak 110 camera, and there was a couple, you know, um fire events we'd see. Um, those were my earliest photos, probably about 1980, but those are just a couple. Um, February of 1984 is when um, you know, I was a volunteer then and got myself a good camera, and that's when the fires started coming in. So, so really about uh early 1984 is when when I started going around, buffing around and taking a lot of photos.
SPEAKER_03No, that's awesome. The uh Kyle Piverall has a great question since we're on the retirement. Before we pivot off the retirement, and he says, Cap, first of all, he says, What's it like being retired? I think you touched on that a little bit, but I like this part of the question. He says, What in your opinion are ways to make it all the way to retirement with passion and health?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, dang, that's that's you know, wow. So many answers to that. Um back in the 80s when I started, um, you know, we still weren't wearing Nomex hoods. Um, we had the three-quarter boots. Um, we were doing a lot of stuff without SCBAs. Um, and a lot of guys paid for it now. Luckily, um, I I've been very healthy with a couple of sprains and strains my whole career. Um, things are different now. And and I was always very anal, strict, whatever you call it, with my younger guys, because maybe the damage has been done to us, but we can protect these younger kids these days with proper PPE and using it, wearing it, not just showing up, you know, and having an air pack on your back. And like Mike Champo says, that air is free. So so use it. But um, man, there's so much now to offer as far as physical fitness programs, uh, mental health programs, all that stuff that we didn't have back then. So I encourage everybody coming up through the fire department now to take advantage of everything that's being offered and use your PPE, man. I mean, just be smart about it. We one of one of the worst days of my uh career was um we were up on the highway for a call, a lot of highway calls, and we got struck, and one of my guys went flying through the air and wound up being pinned under a car. And uh there's other crews that show up on the highway with just their street clothes. Um, not my guys. Um, my guys were always head to toe with their bunker pants, their coats, their helmets, and everything. And I still swear, and he knows it too, that if he wouldn't have had all of his gear on that day, he would have been a lot more injured. So, so wear your stuff that they give you and uh take advantage of everything that's out there. And and if you do, I mean, we know stuff happens, but if you do, um you'll get to where I'm at and and be happily retired.
SPEAKER_03Well, there you go. And Hump, I I think you kind of covered your question there. So get another one in the queue and we will continue on. I love and I love this question from Daniel. Daniel wants to know, Dave, do you have a favorite photo out of all of your photos? No, no, too big a question.
SPEAKER_01No, it's uh, you know, I I bet I could pick out maybe um a top 20 or something like that. Uh sitting in my office here. I probably got about eight or ten um that are hung up that that are some of my favorites, but um, you know, every one of them tells a story. Um, I I wish I had a better answer. There's a couple. Um I I was really honored one year I won the uh the IAF Media Awards contest, first place. And uh it wasn't the picture of a building burning down or a fire truck, you know, um pumping in a fire. It was uh this firefighter named uh Ron Fritz, and it was a real cold St. Louis winter morning, and it was a pretty good house fire, and it was probably about zero degrees out. Really good house fire. And and Ron, you know, one of the best firemen in town, he came out of that house fire and knelt down to just, I forgot if it was just taking his mask off, but I caught him just as he was kneeling, and all that steam from coming out of that hot fire, out of that cold temperature was coming off. And and uh that's that's probably one of my favorites right there.
SPEAKER_03No, and I and I haven't seen that photo that you sent because and that's what I like Dave did send a whole bunch of photos to be shared, and I told him I said, Man, most people listen to the scrap like on their commutes and stuff, and only a small percentage actually watch, and so I try to keep it as audio as as possible instead of visual. So, and he understood that, but uh I love uh one of your friends here, or I don't know if you claim him as a friend, but his name is Dana Larkin. He has a question coming at you, and it is uh any plan. Oh, it's Jim Platt. I thought it was Larkin. I'm sorry, sorry, I got it mixed up. Jim Platt asking it. So anyway, any plans of publishing a photo album with a backstory of the pics? Okay, so yeah, it was Dana. Sorry, there's two questions.
SPEAKER_01You know, um, all of a sudden that's on the radar because um if you think about it, um I've been taking these photos for 42 years now, and in eight years, I've already got the name of the book, 50 years of fires. So um, I don't know. It's just on the radar, and and maybe in eight years, fellas, you'll you'll see a book called 50 Years of Fires, and and that'll be my stuff. Nice.
SPEAKER_03Do you have a well have you given them? I don't want to I don't want to dig into it too much. Are you gonna do a story with each of the fires or is it strictly gonna be uh I can't what's your do you have a do you have a vision for it at all or is it still in the germination stage?
SPEAKER_01No, I think there's a vision, it'll be mostly a pictorial book, right? But you know, there'll be a short summary of of each incident and stuff like that, like you see with a lot of the fire books that are out there. But I don't know. I mean, in eight years, will anybody be looking at books anymore? Who knows? No, it's a great, it's a I think so.
SPEAKER_03I hope so. I hope so too. And I think there's something about the physical page turning, and don't get me wrong, there's great ways to to read digitally and see stuff digitally and things like that, but nothing replaces that that tactile uh yeah, just having it in your hand and physically owning it.
SPEAKER_01Right, I agree. I've got my book picked out for our flight down to uh to Pensacola already, so. I'll be good to go.
SPEAKER_03Right on. Right on. Which uh well, I can ask you that when we talk about book or books, or what book is it? I can't wait now.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's actually a military book. It's oh, I don't have it here, but it's uh it's a it was written by a German that was in the trenches in World War One. Okay, and I saw it when we were visiting my son up in Kansas City at the bookstore. We were just walking around Barnes and Nobles, and uh I thought I had it here, but it's up and I I forgot the name of it, but it's uh it's from a German soldier's perspective, a trench warfare during World War One.
SPEAKER_03I I'm pretty uh man, I was I want to try and rattle the name off, but uh I'll be getting it wrong. And it was the Jim Platt asked the question, and then Dana Larkin asked a very similar question. Now that you're retired, would you be starting to write a book? So that's where my confusion came from. Yep. Uh boom. Jim Platt wants to know have you captured a photo that was later used in a significant way to educate firefighters? Now I know you've had covers of magazines and stuff. Have you had them be used for educational purposes and things like that?
SPEAKER_01Or yeah, um, I'm hoping to do more of that now, but um back in the 1990s, um, Frank Shaper was the deputy chief of the St. Louis Fire Department, and Frank was a really good writer. And and me and him teamed up, you know, back in the 90s, man, St. Louis had some was, you know, it's still burning, but back in the 90s, there was a lot of big fires still in St. Louis, a lot of multiples constantly. And uh, and it was before I had kids who I was down there all the time taking pictures, so so I would take some pictures and and Frank would write the article, and and we were being published in Firehouse magazine on a very regular basis. Um, so but you know, that was back in the 90s. Um, the year 2000 happened, and we moved out of St. Louis about 45 minutes out of the city. Um, you know, then we had four kids, and um, so obviously um my days of picture taking were were far and few between. So there was quite a lull there in a in a lot of the photos um that I was taking in fires, right? But but like I said, I've been getting into it a lot more lately. Um, I've had a couple things in fire engineering. Um, you know, I had that that Buff the Boss article that the chief Jason Hovelman really encouraged me to write. And it just kind of talked about that, about how my photos, you know, made me a better company officer by going to these fires and just as an observer and capturing what other fire departments were doing, um, just how it made me a better company officer. And then by sharing those photos too, you know, you know, now it's you know, it's everywhere. But back then it wasn't so much. You know, you had to wait three months, you know, to get a firehouse magazine. And, you know, if you got your August firehouse magazine, it was a fire that happened back in in March. So there wasn't that instant photography and and videos like we all see now.
SPEAKER_03Right, right, right. Oh, no, so much. Uh tons of questions coming at you. This one is coming at you from Rob Working Man. That's it. Rob Workingman Fisher. He says, question, Dave, through your lens. What moments best capture the soul of the fire service that words never could. That's Rob Deep Deep Questions Fisher. What kind of question is that? That's Rob. It's Rob. You know, Rob. I can't, I there's no putting a leash on Rob's questions.
SPEAKER_01You know, the uh the expressions of the guys, um, look at my Facebook page. Um, I posted a picture a couple days ago. It was at a middle school fire over in Ferguson, um, the famous Ferguson that back in 1988 wasn't famous any, you know, any more than any place else. It was a little quiet town, but they had a good three-alarm middle school fire. And uh, besides all the photos that I took of the buildings burning, I snapped a photo of Chief Johnny Thomas and I posted that the other day. And it's probably got more comments than a lot of my other pictures of just buildings burned down. There's Johnny Thomas with his white helmet and his white coat with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, talking to you know, Lori Waters, who was this smoking hot St. Louis television reporter with her London fog trench coat, and it just really captured the era of back then.
SPEAKER_03Well, just your description of it captured the era back then.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, yeah. So it's a cool moment in time, but I think the the pictures of the guys and and ladies on the job and their facial expressions, um, those are my favorite pictures.
SPEAKER_03No, and I my favorites are when you can when when the photographer captures those moments of emotion, obviously. That and and I don't know what it is about firefighters, but they carry so much emotion in their in their look, in their vis in in their in their you know, just their features, if that makes sense what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. And it it's it might not be um exhaustion, it might not be agony, it might just be three guys at the canteen truck with a huge smile on their face after a big fire. Do a good job, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03All right, more questions coming at you. This one's from Maddox. How has it been being that high up in the fools? I know you have helped our chapter grow in this past year, so also a big thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_01Well, um, you know, I I don't look at it like being that high up. We're just, you know, the eboards five guys, and uh, we're just firemen. Um, and when we have troubles with a rogue chapter or something like that, just as you do with any organization, you just have to remind who we're dealing with. We're just firemen. You know, we don't get paid to be on the international. I think I've got the best job on the international secretary. Um, I'm the guy that people come to when they want to start a chapter. So I can do that. I can provide the information and the mentorship and the encouragement, encouragement to get that chapter going. So I've never looked at it, and nobody on the e-board looks at it like, you know, we're we're five big shots or anything like that. We're just we're just firemen that just happen to fall into a cool place at a cool organization.
SPEAKER_03No, that's awesome. And so is it are are you the contact point? Are you the best contact point if someone's like, hey, what do I what do I need to do to start a fools chapter in my area? I don't the closest one's an hour and a half away, and I want to start one here.
SPEAKER_01Are you the man? I'm the man secretary at foolsinternational.com. Uh that's by email, and uh all the info is on the the Fools International website as well. There's a little icon on there starting a chapter. So um, but yeah, that's it's it's fun. And um, I I don't, you know, just I I compare it to the fire department. I I I was very happy to be an engine company captain, and that's where I wanted to stay. Um, so many of my really good friends that went to higher ranks on the fire department, God bless them, you know, they all say, Man, Dave, my best days on the fire department was right in that right front seat. And and I never had to give that up. And I feel the same way with being secretary for the Fool's International. I don't have any aspiration to be vice president or president. Um, it takes a special person for those positions. Um, I think I'm pretty good at what I do as secretary, and and I enjoy it, so I'm not gonna give that spot up until you know I'm ready to, or somebody better than me, you know, steps up and takes over.
SPEAKER_03I love it. I absolutely love it. Uh I want to go Fisher, of course. Fisher's coming at you. He wants to talk about quince. He said, speaking of St. Louis fire, please share your thoughts from the perspective of a fire buff, the total quint concept the St. Louis fire department went through in the late 80s through the 90s.
SPEAKER_01So here's the hidden secret. St. Louis today has the same number of firehouses that they did back in the 1980s. And there's not many major cities that can say that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So St. Louis has been declining since probably the the 50s and 60s, and certainly through the 70s and 80s. Population was close to a million at its height. Now it's they've lost two-thirds of the population. The population of the city of St. Louis is down under 300,000. Yeah. But all the buildings were still there and all the fires that came along with it. So um the fire chief back in the 80s, he had the, you know, he was going to be the one that had to start closing all the neighborhood firehouses. And um Chiefs Botanics developed the total quint concept in 1987. And um, you know, it worked. There was, like I said, there were still a lot of big fires going on in St. Louis. It was so cool to go to a warehouse fire and see 10, 12 quints up just doing their thing time and time again. But once again, they weren't running the EMS calls back then.
SPEAKER_03Right, right.
SPEAKER_01And as the the fire service evolved and the St. Louis fire department evolved, um, EMS started becoming a thing, and the amount of the big multiple alarm fires went down. So um, probably about, I don't know, 12, 15 years ago, St. Louis started getting away from that total coin concept to where they do some traditional engine companies now. But but back in the day it made sense, and and that's why they did it. It was to keep all the neighborhood fire houses open, and and all 30 of those houses are still open today.
SPEAKER_03I love it. No, and it's the history and the reasons, and like you said, that it's not anything happening in a vacuum, there's reasons for everything that's going on, and it's fun to peel back the layers, hear the perspective at the time, and see the differences as they come through. So now I want to pivot to you. You talked about five career calls over the past five years. So talk to me about these five career calls in the last five years. You went 42, but go, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, you know, you you think about those career calls, those those days that you'll never forget. And and uh when we do our history class at the County Academy, we we tell some of those kids, we tell all those kids that you'll have those days. You're gonna look back and say, man, that was that was a day I'll never forget. And if you are lucky, you'll have one or two or three of them. Um well, all of a sudden, we were starting to get those career calls every year over the last five years of my career. And um, the the first night that really sticks out was uh July 4th of uh 2021. And and 4th of July is always very busy in St. Louis. And uh if we're not working, we we still make it a point. That's uh that's one of our big buff nights to go down in the city of St. Louis because there's gonna be fires. It just happens, and it's it's crazy the amount of money people spend on fireworks that night, and there's so many vacant buildings, so um, it's a busy thing in St. Louis. So um, yeah, we were working July 4th, 2021, and you know, just during the day, it was you know, just typical calls, EMS, and stills, and and you know, just the usual. And then once the sun went down, man, about nine o'clock it started popping off, and we went through our first structure fire. It was a good um first due, uh two-story apartment building, heavy fire showing. The boys made a great job. So from nine o'clock that night until six the next morning, we went to six really good structure fires. Wow, and it was us or the company that was next to us, it was us tag team, and it either us first do or them first due all night long. Wow, and and I just mentioned a couple minutes ago about that photo that captures the smile, you know, on the guy's face. Right. And the photo that I've kept on my screensaver at the firehouse the last five years was that next morning. Um, it was six o'clock. We'd had those six structure fires the night before, going from one to the next. And uh, you know, it was an hour until quitting time. And I grabbed all eight of us, you know, four on my rig, four on the other rig, and I said, Man, we gotta take a picture. So there's a photo of us standing in front of one of the rigs. Um, and everybody's either smiling or they got that just look of complete exhaustion on their face. Right. And and I didn't take the picture, but it's just one of my favorite photos, and and that was that was year one of career calls.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's year one, six six after 9 p.m. So no, that's awesome. Yeah, okay. So let's let's let's advance to career career call number two.
SPEAKER_01Let's go to the next one. So it was getting close to fourth of July again, and um we were sleeping that night, and um, you know, just like down your way, there's there's thunderstorms always coming through, and and I remember thinking I just heard some thunder outside. It was probably about midnight or so, and then all of a sudden, man, the tones go off for a structure fire, and we were gonna be first or second due kind of thing, and um getting several reports, and and nothing was really telling us though exactly what was going on. Well, we roll up on this this big one-story ranch house, just going from one end of the next with debris everywhere. Well, the fellas uh at this house, um, they were taking M80s, so you know, fireworks about the size of a roll of quarters, and they were transferring all the gunpowder out of that to make fireworks about the size of dynamite stick. Wow. So it blew up, and four folks sadly died that night. Right. But we were first doing on that, and uh man, here we go. That's that's career call number two. You go two years in a row, and uh yeah, it was a very tragic event, and uh, but it was uh it was something, man, to pull up on that and and really not knowing exactly, you know, right off you think it's a gas leak, right? Because calls like that are usually from gas leak. But then you start to see all the debris around all these little quarter-sized rollers, coin roller things that was from, you know, were from where they were making the fireworks from.
SPEAKER_03Wow. The uh I was on one structure fire that was an explosion, and but the thing was the explosion was before we got there. So it came in as a structure fire. We showed up and the people had moved out of the house, and when they moved out, they didn't shut off the gas, so they pulled the stove and just let it blow. And uh, of course, when it blew, it just blew all the walls down, just just like just like a cartoon almost. Blew all the walls down, and the roof just came down right on the right on the slab. So it was not near as dramatic, but I'll never forget it, like you said.
SPEAKER_01Sure, exactly, exactly. But yeah, there was a lot of fire that night. The walls, you know, hadn't come down.
SPEAKER_03It was basically a fully involved uh that was that was gunpowder too, not not a natural, yeah. So yeah, oh and yeah, so 2022 is in the books.
SPEAKER_01Let's hear 2023. We never go to Illinois. I mean, Illinois is just across the Missouri or the Mississippi River from the firehouse, and um, we just don't go over there. They don't call us and we don't call them. Um, but one day we're in an EMS class, and um boom, we get toned out about five St. Louis County companies to go assist Madison, Illinois, which is probably a good, I don't know, probably 15-minute drive across the Mississippi River Bridge. And boom, as soon as we pulled out of the house, I mean, it looked like a tornado. Well, it wound up being about a 10-alarm warehouse fire, and uh it was a recycling center with batteries and tires and everything else. And you know, they they were having reports of seeing the smoke, you know, 50 miles away. But um, it's a small volunteer department. They had a couple small volunteer departments assisting them, but but just not a lot was going on. And uh I'm pretty proud of what we did that day. Obviously, there wasn't, you know, this huge effort to save this, you know, huge building that was under or fully involved. But but we got there and we started getting things done. And uh between the St. Louis County companies that showed up, man, we uh we ensured that the uh the railroad tracks were down. There was about eight sets of main line railroad tracks that ran in front of this building. So uh the guys handjacked four five-inch supply lines across the tracks. Wow. And here we are now in a city we've never been to before. And the only thing that saved us, I remember, were the streets they were numbered like 8th Street, 9th Street, 10th Street. So it was Izzy, hey, you know, this engine go to 8th Street in Maine, this engine go to 9th Street in Maine. So we got engines on all the plugs, we ran the lines across the tracks and and and start getting some water on it. And and I still remember one of the radio transmissions that uh one of our battalion chiefs had, but he was kind of made his way as around to the um the Charlie side. He said, Hey, just to give you guys a heads up, uh, our Charlie exposure is a lumber company. So uh yeah, yeah. And uh there there are some pretty cool pictures uh of that fire and some pretty cool videos and such, but but that was probably the biz or the the largest fire. I mean, our our fires are you know 900 square foot single family residences, um that's our bread and butter, three-story garden apartments. That's our bread and butter in our town. We don't go to you know two block long warehouses fully involved.
SPEAKER_03No, we go into tin alarm fire, like you said, it's a career call, and it's it's the third year in a row. So you got the six and one night, you got the expl the gunpowder explosion, then you got the tin banger on the warehouse over in it across the river. So let's move to 2024.
SPEAKER_01Let's do it again, man. Uh Jamestown Mall. It's uh it's the mall I grew up in, it's the mall I used to take the bus to. It's the mall when I got my driver's license, we'd hang out at on the weekends. And it was like um, you know, the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High in St. Louis. It was the 80s, and we lived in that mall. Um, well, just like so many other malls, uh, they just don't you know work anymore. So um probably about 10 years or so ago, you know, that was the the death knell for for Jamestown Mall. And it was a big mall. There was four, you know, anchor stores there, you know, Macy's and Penny's and Sears and Dillard's and all that. Um, but it just kind of closed down and it became this huge, vacant monstrosity, and it became a um a destination for all these urban explorers. I mean, the boys were doing some technical rescues, kids were up on the the roof of you know and falling through skylights and stuff like that. And uh early in the year, the uh the other shift had a uh a two or three alarm fire there, and you know, two pretty significant fires were set at each end of the mall. And but then it was our turn, and it was uh right around dinner time or so, and we get the call for Jamestown Mall, and and I remember the boss showing up and just heavy smoke showing, and and it was, dude, it was just this heavy, heavy column of black smoke that we could see for a while, and uh all the skylights were gone, so it was just pushing through there. And pretty much what had happened was all the urban explorers and vandals and everybody had taken just every bit of furniture, trash, um, everything in that whole mall, and just piled it into this one large center court area from the mall. And it was this huge bonfire, basically. It wasn't the building burning, right? It was just this massive fire that was burning inside. And um, you know, we stretched the two and a half inch through the loading dock, and I still remember the the double steel loading dock doors, just seeing orange, you know, all around the the frame of the building and stuff. And once again, it was it was some stuff that we didn't get to do on a normal basis, forcing double steel doors up, stretching, you know, the big line, you know, and stuff like that. So so that was another night.
SPEAKER_03Once again, massive square square footage, massive square footage, tons of airflow. Yes, and and and I was gonna ask you how the deployment went, how how bad it was to access and stuff, but it but yeah, so that's four for four. So let's let's fast forward to last year, 2025.
SPEAKER_01Probably my favorite. Okay, 314 day. You know, 314 days uh they say it's a big thing in St. Louis because that's the area code, 314. But um, but March 14th, 2025, um, you know, had the weather advisories going on for high wind warnings and and such. And and it's right about the same time, if not the same day, Corley, where you guys had that that massive conflagration right outside of Oklahoma City down there where those hundreds of homes burned.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we didn't have hundreds, but um we we pulled up first due after going to several other, you know, pretty good, you know, weed or brush or yard fires and uh, you know, a couple small structure fires. Um, we pulled up on what wound up being 14 uh 14 houses going in one neighborhood. And it was the the neighborhood I grew up in, actually. And these are all you know post-World War II, you know, one-story frames, about you know, eight, nine hundred square feet. And um, dude, once again, we'd never seen anything like it to have you know a structure burning where you maybe get the the Bravo um struck, you know, uh exposure going or the truck exposure going on some new construction, but the wind was whipping about 50 miles an hour that day, and one house was lighting off on you know after the next, and you'd look down the street and uh there's another one going. And it was it was something to see, dude. And uh it's a day I'll never forget. And it's the first and only time we'd ever heard our dispatcher. Now you gotta remember, we're we're very resource friendly in St. Louis County. There's you know 80 something paid engine companies alone just in St. Louis County. And I think after the second or third alarm that wound up going to a fourth alarm, um, I think after the second or third alarm at the dispatch center says, we don't have anybody else to give you.
SPEAKER_03Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wow. No, that's in that's uh yeah, the wind, man. I can only imagine. Uh dude, that is now I I really want to know this on your and if you don't, you got to do this, but on your social media accounts, do you have pictures that go along with these? Are they up there telling the story yet? Or if not, you need to make that happen.
SPEAKER_01You know, maybe, maybe someday. The you know, right now, just need more time. Yeah, I'm just kind of bragging on myself with posting my photos up there. Okay, okay. But um, you know, maybe on the anniversary of you know, some stuff like that, we could throw some stuff up about that. That that would be pretty cool. That definitely needs to make it in your book, so uh but but no absolutely the only regret I had on 314, um, the boys did an incredible job. I mean, they got ahead of that fire. I remember grabbing one of the other company officers by the collar and said, the fire's stopping here. And uh, and we made sure it stopped there. But um, you know, there was severe weather coming in that night, and I wish I just would have grabbed my phone and took a video of it as the boys were packing the five-inch on top of one of the rigs as the the tornado sirens were going off.
SPEAKER_03Going off in the in the background. Woohoo! Yeah, that's getting it. That is getting it. Uh talk to me about so since I mean we're we're I'm going all over the place, but I want to hear about uh in January, you were out there for the Palisades fires, the Eaton fires out there in California.
SPEAKER_01Trip of a lifetime, no doubt. And uh, you know, it's kind of ironic. Everybody saw the interviews with the mayor that said she didn't know anything. It it wasn't, you know, she didn't know it was coming. Well, if a guy from St. Louis and a guy from Boston, my my fellow photographer John uh knew what was gonna happen, you'd think the mayor of Los Angeles would too. But um, no, my buddy John, he follows the weather big time and follows uh, you know, the Santa Anna. And uh the Saturday before it all went down, he he texted me, said, Man, Santa Annas are gonna hit Big Tuesday out in Los Angeles. And um he's known I've been wanting to do this. John's been out there on a couple other wildland fires, but um I've just never been able to make it happen. So um I I asked Peggy, I said, Hey, you mind if I go to LA Tuesday? And she goes, What for? And I showed her the forecast from the National Weather Service, and she says, Go, just go. So um, we kind of kept the forecast on, and John was monitoring it. And um, and by Sunday, the next day, um the National Weather Service had it hit this like purple alert to where it was uh apocalypse was gonna happen to LA. So uh we booked our flights, and um I was gonna meet John out in Los Angeles and he had the rental car and the hotel ready. And I've got this photo of uh me coming into LAX um about 90 minutes after the the Palisades fire started. Wow, yeah, talk about timing.
SPEAKER_03Now you got the those are your photos. You have you posted those yet or are they are they coming?
SPEAKER_01I did post a couple of those on Instagram at the one-year anniversary. So back um was that January 7th, 8th, 9th, I guess it was. I posted a couple photos of our first three days out there, and um, dude, it was it was nothing like I've ever experienced. And um, you know, what those brothers and sisters do out there is is nothing, you know, like like we do here, what they're up against. And um it was just incredible.
SPEAKER_03And you know, we no, it's got was there any point where you were in danger, like you were worried about actually getting caught?
SPEAKER_01Or well, I I always felt comfortable with John. I mean, we had our full you know PPE on head to toe. I had to borrow somebody's wild land gear and you know, goggles and Nomax hoods and everything. And um, this this nice older couple, they um let us, you know, kind of watch things from their backyard. Um, you know, that's where the fire was blowing up at. And finally John says, Hey, you guys are gonna have to get going. And um, they you know had two garden hoses there. So me and John both had a garden hose in one hand and a camera in the other. And um John finally said, Hey, you guys need to go. And so they left. Now it's just me and John, and this fire is roaring up this canyon at us. And John's like, Well, Dave, when I say go, we drop the hoses and we go to our safe place. And stupid, naive, naive me. I said, Well, John, what's our safe place? He says, We go out to the middle of the street, Dave, because we're not gonna burn up in the middle of the street. And the freight train came and I said, John, what's that what's that sound? And it did sound like a freight train, dude. Wow, and he said, Drop the hose, and we both went out in the middle of the street. And um, those are some I I don't shoot a lot of video, um, but I got some pretty incredible footage on my phone that night. And um, he was right, we didn't burn up out in the middle of the street, but but that neighborhood in the Palisades just was one of the unlucky ones where we were up there for five hours and and we never saw one fire truck.
SPEAKER_03Right, right. Oof, oof. Uh okay, I'm switching up, I'm switching up. I'm going back to, I mean, uh the five fires, five five years, five fires is pretty awesome, man. I'm glad you got to go through them all. And not only that, but you did it very succinctly. It was very concise. Wasn't that so very that kudos is all I can say. But I want to get to this. And uh Maddox is coming at you. He says, Captain, we have not really got to talk about operations much. What would be your advice to new officers slash young firemen testing this year in this day and time?
SPEAKER_01Man, there's just so much opportunity to learn. Um, be prepared. And when I went to my retirement party, I talked about the two defining moments of my career. And and the first was going to FDIC um way back in 1996 and getting out of my bubble because I I all I knew back then was what was going on in St. Louis and St. Louis County. Um, you get up to FDIC and you soon find out there's a whole lot more out there. And back then, that was it. There was only just a couple of conferences, but now, you know, there's conferences all across the country. That these regional conferences that are available to everybody is is just incredible. So my best advice is get out of your bubble, get out of what just your department does, and learn out you know, what's out there. And, you know, obviously with social media now and the internet, you could see what's out there, but just prepare yourself in a good way on what's going to be coming down the road at you and take advantage. If your department has a training budget and nobody else is using it, you know, take advantage of it, dude. And use all that money and get out there and learn from some of the best of the best that are out there in the country and guys that have been through it before and uh guys a lot smarter than me. I'm just kind of winging this as I try to give you some of my best advice, but but man, that would be my best advice is just get out there and learn from some of the others that have done it before.
SPEAKER_03Beautiful, beautiful. Larkin fire, Dana Larkin coming at you says, Can you explain the buffing concept? Maybe I just am naive, but on the West Coast, I don't think that's a thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's definitely not a thing of Comano Island, Washington, where where Dana's from, you know. But um, you know, up in the Northeast, it's it's a very big thing. There's uh, you know, the buff clubs, and I think back in the day there was a buff club in St. Louis, but um way before my time that the fire buffs were just enthusiasts, um, guys that maybe were insurance executives or lawyers or stuff like that that were for making um or had a um a career outside of the fire service, but they really enjoyed you know the fire service and and liked seeing what the fire department was all about. Um, that's how a lot of the buff clubs started out there. Um, to me, it's about the photography end of it. Um, you know, it's it's just what I've done a whole time or done a long time, and and I do it. And um, you know, there's not a lot of us out there, I don't think, but a lot of us have found each other. Um, you know, that's where I met JJ Cassetta the first time. Um we were on a trip up in Detroit with Kurt, and um, you know, that was 2012, and here we are 14 years later, and and JJ's become, you know, one of my best buddies. And um, we did a little fire buffing when when him and Kurt were in town here a couple weeks ago, and um Kurt had to go to bed early that night because he was teaching the next day. But but myself and and JJ, my buddy Kelly Foster, we we caught a real good first due fire and um got some good pictures and some good video that night. So, but I guess you gotta be somewhere where there's fires. If you want to be a fire buff, you gotta be somewhere where there's fires. Gotta go where the fire's at. I love it. You gotta be in it to win it.
SPEAKER_03Hump coming at you from Missouri, from Joplin, he says, uh Jeremy Humphrey says, You've spent a lifetime serving the fire service. What does legacy mean to you? And what do you hope you've passed on to the next generation?
SPEAKER_01Well, um the one thing we didn't talk about that I wanted to talk about was that trajectory name words.
SPEAKER_03That's where I meant to start, but go ahead. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01And um it really hit me at my retirement party. You know, when I'm up there getting ready to talk and I look out, and and there were some really special people in that audience, and and there were some very special people that I didn't know were coming to my retirement party. But um that day and and since then I've been thinking about my trajectory and if legacy is part of it, I don't know. But but what if, what if in those early years of my fire service, I would have been put in a firehouse with a bunch of slugs. Now that didn't happen. And because of that, I'm sitting here on your show tonight. But one of the first guys I was introduced to that told me that he was going to be a fireman is a guy that just loved the job to death, Phil. And he went on to work at a very busy fire department, and he just retired at well as well. Um, my first captain, Steve Smith, um, he was a young captain, very influential in my career, and he was a huge influence on my career. Another guy, Mark Freshner, who I met at community college, was a really big fire buff, but he was also a St. Louis City firefighter at one of the busiest companies in the city. And me and Mark, yeah, we did a lot of drinking on our days off, but we also went buffing a lot of fires too. So, what if my trajectory in those early years would have been a little different?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, what we have to recommend is with these new kids coming up, we really gotta do our best to surround them with the right people. Because how many times have you heard it? Yeah, he's a good kid, but he's with the wrong people. Yeah. So I don't know, maybe if if my legacy is is anything, it's that early on I got put with the right people. I kept surrounding myself, maybe on purpose, maybe not with the right people, with those like-minded firefighters. Um and and if if my legacy is a guy that's just you know been around the right people for a long time and and has always loved the job because the people that I'm with love the job, and other people see how much I love the job, you know, maybe maybe that's my legacy. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03And I guarantee you this, Dave, is that for some young firefighters, when they got assigned to you as their captain, not chief, as their captain, uh, I guarantee you you had that impact on them. I guarantee it, because I just known you too long and known your mindset. And so you had that same impact that those the fact that they didn't get assigned to a slug.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Trajectory. Trajectory. That's that's it's I had to look it up in the dictionary just to see exactly what it meant. And it's it's there, man. It's there. Which way is that young kid gonna go in the fire service?
SPEAKER_03No, and it and like you said, what I really love about what you said is where would you be now if it hadn't been for that? You know, the trajectory that was set. And wow, no, there's a lot of depth to that. And I love, love, love the fact that you uh brought it up, even though we hadn't talked about it yet. I love it.
SPEAKER_01So did I answer that? Did I answer that full question?
SPEAKER_03I think so. I think you answered it beautifully, and great question from Hump. I think it was Hump. I've already yes, uh 100%. And I want to go to books. We talked about one book already, which man, I wish I could. That's gonna that's gonna be stuck in my my ADHD loop as I can't let go of the the the German book. Uh World War One, Sam, Germany, written from a German perspective, World War One book. And Sam's on it. I I know Jack read it because he's talking about it, but I can't think of it right now. But book I let it go, let it go, Corley. Book or books that you think firefighters should be reading, Dave.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, um, there's so many. There's so many books.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, oh yeah, I love that answer already.
SPEAKER_01And I've read so many. I've I'm you got you know, my bookshelf behind me is just one of four bookshelves in my office right here. Um, you know, obviously the go-to is report from Engine Company 82. Um, everybody needs to read it. Um looky, but along with that, there you go. Do you have the pictorial book that goes with that though?
SPEAKER_03I don't think so. I think there's a few in the middle. No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01Well, see, not a lot of people know there's a book called Firehouse out there by Jill Friedman. Now, you read the book, but you don't get the full pictural stuff, you know, uh image of what's going on. Uh, this photographer named Jill Friedman rode with engine 82 and and and uh 31 back in those days, and she put a book out that went along with Report from Engine Company 82, which not a lot of people know about. Well, luckily, it just got republished a couple years ago. Nice, it's simply called Firehouse, and it's by Jill Friedman, and it's basically all the characters and all the fires that you see in the book put together in a pictorial book.
SPEAKER_03Oh, wow, wow, no, I had no idea. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good one.
SPEAKER_03All right, beautiful. So, as you uh are you gonna leave it there? You want to talk about it? You know, there's so many, but I know that's why I didn't want to cut you off if you did, but you if you're also leaving it with that, that's beautiful. I'm gonna go there with the number one. I love it. Uh there's a thing we do called the five questions for firefighters. There are no right answers to these, they are just your opinions. And so, Dave Dabowski, are you ready for the five questions for firefighters? Yes, sir. Number one. You can be anything you want in the world except be a firefighter. What would you choose to be?
SPEAKER_01Shooter. And I'm not talking shooter McGavin. I'm talking the guy wearing the yellow jacket on the aircraft carrier who gives the final signal for takeoff. That's it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay. I love it. I love it. And that's the first time here. That's the first time it's been said. Shooter. Uh, max points right out the gate. Easy peasy. Number two, it's job town. It's time. You're in route and responding. Think of the scene from backdraft where he's slapping that cassette tape into that tape deck. What song are you playing while in route?
SPEAKER_01I hope this is another first too. Vehicle by the Ides of March.
SPEAKER_03I I'm I'm guessing it's a it's a first because I've never heard of it. Vehicle by the Ides of March. Can you describe the style?
SPEAKER_01This this oh, it's it's it's dude. Every you're gonna listen to it and you're gonna want to play it in every rig in America. Vehicle is the name of the song, and the band is the Ides of March. You're gonna love it. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03It's uh you'll get max points, A, because it's original. I have no idea if the song is any good, but I'm taking I'm taking your word for it. You've been spot on all night, so your your reputation is carrying you on the on the song choice. Number three, it's a cold weekend at the station, rig checks are done, training is done, PT is done, food is simmering in the car in the pot, and everything. I mean, basically, that you're not being lazy, but it's one of those lazy days at the firehouse, and you're clicking through the TV, and what is the movie? No matter where you're at, in no matter where it's at when you get to it. What's the movie that you always finish? No matter how many times you've seen it before. What's that movie for you?
SPEAKER_01I bet this is gonna be another first for you, too. Dr. Jivago. Really? You're going old school 1965. It's as it's as old as I am.
SPEAKER_03Dr. Zivago. I and I I'm gonna be 100% transparent with you here. My dad loved that movie, I've never seen it.
SPEAKER_01It's it's a long movie, but um, I you know, being a big history buff, it's uh it's about World War One and the Russian Revolution, and um it's it's it's pretty good stuff, man. But you gotta watch it, you know, a couple times to really get the gist of it. But it's it's definitely a long movie.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I remember as a kid, my dad loved it, and I was always very slow to me as a kid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, that's and it's Dr. Jivago with a Z for anybody wanting to check it out. Dr. Jivago.
SPEAKER_03I think it might have won some awards back in its time.
SPEAKER_01I think it probably did. It's that good.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Number four, this one's on the clock. You see the clock, you have one minute to answer. If you go over or if you talk, you know, explain your answer, blah, blah, blah. So basically, yeah, you got one minute to give us your four people that you would put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service.
SPEAKER_01All right, Alan Brunacini. Um, going to community college back in the 80s is when I first heard about this Alan Brunacini out in Phoenix, Arizona. Um, his fire command book came out in 1985, and and I was a brand new firefighter then. Um, that book was huge in the fire service. And then, you know, in the 90s, his his customer service book came out, and uh it became a big part of my customer service in the fire service as well. Um, do I have to answer all four in one minute? Yeah, okay. Um, but I don't like blue card. Okay. Um, the next uh Dennis Smith, uh report from engine company 82. Love it. Um FDN wise Ray Downey, Downey, and then of course, FDN wise Andrew Fredericks. Boom. If I get more time, I'd love to talk to you about a chance middle night had with Andy Fredericks.
SPEAKER_03Go for it. I'd love to hear the story. This is you you got max points with those four names, and uh, I love the way that you you you were on Bruno. You said, wait, I gotta do all, and then you crushed it. So go.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, little droplets of water, the garbage band doesn't get excited. Um, you know, if you put the fire out, you don't have to jump out windows, yes, you know, all phrases we've heard. Um, but man, in those early days of FDIC, I had no idea who this fella Andy Fredericks was. And me and my buddy Rich were walking by it used to be a hula hands in downtown Indy, and it was middle of the day, and we just stopped by to have a beer, and there's two fellas sitting at this table. They were the only other firemen in the hula hands, and we just said, Hey, you mind if we join you? And we just start talking. Well, the one fella was Lee Hollands, and he was there, and then the other fella just turned out it was Andy Fredericks. Okay, just this chance meeting, and the best I can figure, it was back in 1999, just about two short years right before 9-11. So that's my uh my one chance meeting I had with Andy.
SPEAKER_03Wow, dude. And and and to to not even realize it, I mean, because like you said, yeah. No. That's an amazing. I want to say who who was it that did the other was it Shannon Stone last week or was it Rick's the week before that did uh just another? I thought it was one of the best Mount Rushmores of all time, but that one definitely is in the running for my opinion, one of the best Mount Rushmores of all time. So number five, it's the final question. It's the question that never changes. It is heavy fire and searchable space. Would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES?
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's an easy one, nozzle, because good things happen when you put water on the fire. Water on the fire.
SPEAKER_03And that makes it officially five four five. In case I wasn't clear, five for five max points. One, two, three, four, five. Absolutely crushed it. And that officially puts 347 scraps in the books. Dave Dubowski, thank you first of all for sharing your evening with all of us. But if someone wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do so?
SPEAKER_01Um, Dave Dubo1, the number one at gmail.com, d A V E D U B O one at gmail.com, or secretary at fools international.com, or hook me up at the District tap anytime during FDIC. Right on, right on. I love it.
SPEAKER_03All right. Housekeeping time. Go to patreon.com/slash the vigilantees. Become a vigilante. If you're not a vigilante, why not? They are the like-minded souls. This is what I'm starting to realize about the vigilantes and the ones of the vigilantes, about half of them make it to the Discord. Okay. And the Discord is where the power and the magic is at because it's like all the good side of social the media without all the downside, without the confirmation bias, without the echo chamber, without the divisiveness. So I absolutely love the Discord for that reason. You can hook up with like-minded souls, ask questions in the forums, get your questions answered, give people answers to their questions, and just generally support each other. So I can't say enough good stuff about it. Go be a part of it. And the best part of the being the vigilantees is you get to come to the after party where Dave Dabowski is invited to come and join us. And if he comes and shows up, we will roast him for his performance on the scrap this evening. So that's one of the best parts about it is the after party. Next week on the scrap, it is some times for dose of leadership talk. Chris Bloom coming on, and that's going to be a good time. And then the following Tuesday, no, that one will be in Pensacola. Sorry. That one will be in Pensacola next week. Next Tuesday evening, I will be doing it from Pensacola. After the interview is over, the after party will be live in the hotel lobby there at the Hilton. So two weeks from tonight, speaking of leadership, it was supposed to be one of my favorite people, Chief Jason Hovelman. But because he is who he is, an amazing person, he has commitments to his people that he wants, and it is more important than the scrap. And it is. And so he is not going to be able to join us. So I'm going to right now I'm not sure who it's going to be. So if you digilands, get on the Discord and give me some suggestions for who I should reach out to to fill in for two weeks from tonight because I've got a blank spot to fill in. So enough jabbering for me. Let's get to the after party. Thank you once again, Dave Dubowski, for an amazing conversation.
SPEAKER_01Man, it's been a great time. And thanks so much for uh letting me share a bit of my story. And uh a big shout out to Chief Jason Huvelman. Even though he stiffed you, he did hire my son Michael at Florence and Valley Fire District.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's an awesome guy. Again, like he lives what he says, and why he's having to skip it is because he has something more important because of his people, and that's just that's just who he is, man. 100%. So I respect it immensely. Uh okay, you got me gone another rant. Audience, thanks for showing up. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for asking awesome questions. You do it week in and week out, you make the scrap magical each and every week. If it wasn't for you, it would just be me talking to my friend Dave, and that would be awesome. But you guys are the ones that really bring the secret sauce, and I love you for it. Thank you for tuning in live. Remember, mutts don't scrap. I hope the tones stay silent unless it is burning. This job is not safe. So stay smart out there. Thanks for listening to the weekly scrap. Please subscribe and please share. We'll see you at the next episode.