NDOT Episode #60 W/ Adam Yaresh

Join the NDOT Crew and Adam as we discuss faith family and firemanship!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:44

What's up, everybody? Welcome back.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Episode 60. Is that 40 away from 100? I think that was right.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

It is. It is. Well done. Oh. I knew those lessons were. That tutor's worth all the money in the world. That's great. Thank you everybody for tuning back in for checking out. Cooper on the mic getting a little shout-out. Episode 60. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. As always, quick thank you to all of our sponsors. Cooper's Culture, Job Town Graphics, Toxic Suppression, Taylor's Tins. Wouldn't be here without any of you. We talked last time about Command Media Network. That's something we're super, super excited to be a part. So keep paying attention for stuff like that. Once they post out uh the everything that they've got going, just have some pretty cool things down the pipe. So keep uh keep looking for that. We'll keep growing, keep doing what we're doing, and uh keep bringing some some awesome guests on. So without uh further ado, let's bring in our guest of the episode, Adam. Hey Adam, how's it going?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Hey guys, how's it going?

SPEAKER_04 1:51

Oh fantastic. Thank you so much for coming on.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Absolutely. Why don't you go ahead and uh give a little introduction about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Uh sure. Uh so I'm uh I'm Adam Yarsh. I uh I don't know how many of you guys have checked the link and whatever, checked out my bio. Um I guess I got to the fire service back in 2006. I started off as uh as a volley uh out in the middle of the sticks, kind of a country boy out here in uh farm country in south central Wisconsin. Um moved on from there, uh, moved up a little bit, came part-time while still staying pretty heavily involved in agriculture and farming, uh, and eventually moved into the full-time role um at uh city of Brookfield, uh, just a suburb out of the outside of the city of Milwaukee, basically, here in uh Wisconsin as well. Um, you know, kind of ran the whole gamut, got to see it from the beginning, got to see it from the volley standpoint, from the part-time combination department on forward. Um I was forcefully retired, I guess, after I got involved in a car accident. I'm uh I am a quadruplegic. Uh to consider me a full quad, I can use my arms a little bit and stuff, but uh that that happened back in 2023. So at that time I'd been on full-time, just shy of eight years uh on the career department that I was with. Um, and I was operating an engine on the north end of the city at the time. Uh that was kind of my bread and butter. That's where I wanted to be, it's where I wanted to stay operating. Um, but uh other than that, I guess that's kind of that's kind of where I'm at for my intro.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

Absolutely. So it kind of goes right into our first question. So if you want to expand on it at all, however much you want to talk about it, absolutely. Um, but our question is what is what was the hardest part about transitioning from an active firefighter to retired?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Uh, you know, the word retired comes uh, you know, that comes with age, generally speaking. I think that's probably the hardest part of it was you know, uh taking this out of the blue, taking it out of nowhere with being 38 years old, uh having so much passion, so much drive for the the tactics aspect, the the drive for wanting to learn better myself and and have that instant stop at 38 instead of that 53 that everybody's always looking at. You know, that's that was probably the hardest part. Um, the transition was obviously a difficult one given the fact that I went from being a guy that never sat down to a guy that was forced to sit down the rest of his life, basically. Um, you know, I I like to have a good time with it, I like to to to be lighthearted about it, um if you will, more or less. None of that has ever changed. The attitude was always what kept me going, kept me moving forward. But I I think the transition, honestly, to being in the retired role at such a young age was probably hardest on my family. Um, more or less, the the relationship status with with my wife, uh and the kids and stuff. They were so used to me being gone all the time, you know. I'd I'd pick up overtime, and um, I'm actually gonna be doing a stent in uh at the firemanship conference down in Aurora, Illinois. And um I'm gonna expand a lot more on it there with kind of how how the transition worked for everybody. Not I wasn't the only one affected by this accident. Um, my daughter was in the vehicle. Um, she was in the truck as well. We got we got T-boned on the way home from bringing her uh from her, I guess it would have been her freshman year. Yeah, her freshman year um homecoming dance. And we got T-boned by some kids screwing off, running a stop sign and rolled us over. And uh I'd like to say I'm really good about you know being being good with my seatbelt and stuff, but out here on the farm, I was in and out of my super duty all day and night, and uh I'm just gonna say it, I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, guys. It's just it's just what happened. I uh yeah, I I I never lost consciousness or anything during that, but I know I'm kind of going off on a tangent here, and I apologize for that. But um the transition, I guess what I was getting at with with all that is it I think it probably affected me the least out of everybody in the household. Uh my daughter suffered some pretty severe, um, I I would consider I'm not gonna say psychologically, she was she was really really affected. She never she wasn't hurt at all. She she spent one night in the hospital for um, they were just keeping an eye on her, but other than that, she was fine. Coming home uh after about a month and a half in the hospital and then long-term facility for a while. My wife becoming an instant caregiver, and uh, we had to get some extra help in and stuff. So realistically, the hardest transition was just the the timing of it. Uh yeah, didn't fit for me. I I got so much to give yet, and that's why I want to do more and more of this stuff as well.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

So absolutely keep it on kind of that same thing that you're getting into. Uh, how did your family help you navigate those days after the accident?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Uh you know, the the word family, that's that's that's really important um right off the bat because I will say my family in in in the traditional sense being my wife, my children, my my parents, my siblings, um, that's one one side of it, but the extended portion of that, obviously the the brothers and sisters in the fire service, I mean, yeah, it was insane. That the if you want to see, you know, we talked about that um you know, brotherhood is a verb, talk about that that concept, and what we saw from the outpouring of of the union and and the the family from the firehouse, like I don't know. I I don't I don't know if I had could put it to words honestly without bringing tears with with what they did for my immediate family and my my wife and my children and you know the overwhelming concept of paperwork and um and and you know filing to get all of my all of my things all my ducks in a row to get get retired and um get get all of my sick time figured out and I I can't I can't describe to you what it was like obviously I wouldn't I'd be nowhere without family I wouldn't be nowhere or wouldn't be anywhere without the with with my drive if I didn't have a reason for it. Uh you know obviously that was that was simple that was that was easy, but the only way it was easy was because of the backing from the from the guys and gals at the firehouse as well.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

So yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. I know we we talked about it all the time, and like you said, it's that that brotherhood, like that's the the biggest drive, and I think connection to this and what brings people to this. You get people come out of the military and all of that, where like doesn't matter what happens, that's your family as well. Like we spend all this time with them, it's a third of our lives we spend with them as well, and it's just the second family, like that where it gets used so much, and it's definitely unfortunately in the worst times that you see how much it really impacts, but that that's really where where you need it the most.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

What uh how did your not kind of switching gears? You talked about how you've been helping out with some of the departments now with uh uh your kind of new role. How did your faith help you recover from the accident?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

You know, that's uh so I don't want to say that's a difficult um it's a lot that's a lot more complicated because what what I learned after my accident was I was doing it wrong the whole time. Um my my faith my faith was present. Uh when it comes to the firemanship conference, um my my segment is gonna be faith, family, and firemanship. And one of the things I planned to touch on down there a little bit more on is I feel like I was living that backwards. I was putting the job way above the things I should have been. Uh the accident happened, I was a little bit bitter, I was a little bit depressed. Um, I went through some pretty dark times with that as well. Um, but you know through it all, I stayed positive, but I felt like I was it was somewhat fake. I felt like I was wearing a smile um during the day, being being my normal self to to the point where I would be in bed at night and just kind of really thinking really deeply, man, you know, why why why did I why did I survive? Why, you know, why does it have to be like this? Why why couldn't I have just been you know called the call home, if you will, at that point. But it wasn't actually until about um a year and a half after the accident. I had surgery on my hips bilaterally. I had uh I had a condition called heterotopic ossification where I grew this extra bone in my hips, and long story short, they had to go in and remove that bone. And they did that. I developed a severe infection, um, and I got put on vencomycin. I was on vencomycin at home. Something got messed up. I got basically OD'd and it shut my kidneys down. I was unresponsive. They hauled me back into the hospital as unresponsive and in and uh in and out of consciousness um for nine days, which I remember none of. But that was when that was when the faith thing really came to be. Uh, because it was 3 33 in the morning, they would leave my TV on for background noise, but I woke up, I was kind of looking around, and I'm like, uh back in the hospital. I knew where I was in the hospital, I had been there before. Um, and it was insane to me because there was this moment where I was I had that out-of-body experience that you guys, you know, you hear about it all the time. I was looking at myself, I was looking at the hospital room, and I was like, gosh, you know, sweet, this is it, you know. And I got smacked so hard back into my body, like woke up, came to uh my nurse came. I pushed the call light, the nurse came in, and uh he was he was in like almost in tears, and I was like, what's going on? You know, like what's the deal? Doctors started coming in and more staff, and they called in people from home, and they said, You were we thought we were making end-of-life choices for you. Your wife was figuring things out, and your kidney function had been reduced to uh 28 percent, and you were requiring a kidney transplant, and if not dialysis for the rest of your life, and all of these things. And my doctors are coming in with tears in their eyes, and I'm like, What did I miss? You know what I'm saying? And they drew blood and they said my cognitive ability hadn't changed at all. Um, they said, Yeah, you know, we got to look into things, but just be prepared. You're probably gonna be on dialysis because your last blood work was terrible. And yeah, you know, they pulled that blood, and I had uh I was at 98% kidney function. Um, nothing wrong, no, no deficits, no anything. I I went home a couple of days later after I, you know, they made me try to get some food in and and and whatnot. I had a I had a feeding tube for that nine days, and that was the moment when I really really realized like where the importance of faith came in for me. Um you know everybody believes in something, and what you know, I don't I don't push it on people, I don't force it on anyone. Um but if you can't believe in something higher than yourself, you know, there's there's a lot to be there's a lot to reflect on, I think. But I I took that opportunity as realizing, you know, there's a reason that I'm still here, there's a reason I'm still around. Uh God hadn't called me home yet for yet again for another reason. And it was really when I at that point decided I need to start working on doing more with with sharing it with others, with sharing my story. Uh and I went through and I I I I'd be started working more with uh chaplaincy and um doing a lot more peer support and things like that. Um, I work on the state level with the um the map team for mental health and cool. And just you know, this culmination of of everything was just totally not of me. It's not of me at all. It's totally a god thing, and that's without faith, where where would where would we be or where would I be honestly? And when I have these conversations with with people, again, you gotta be, you know, tip not necessarily tiptoe, but everyone's entitled to their opinions. But I'm gonna share that till till the day I die. Uh it's that's just how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

So absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

Yeah. Going into uh the other side, you said you're going into chaplainship, but you're also working on uh helping with the out with mental health and at the state level, which is awesome. What is the if there is one, what is the most common mental health issue that you've seen from the fire service? And how do you think we can address that better as that brotherhood?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

You know, that's uh I don't want to say that's a tricky one either, but obviously, you know, we we we see the stigma of of suicide. Um suicide prevention's always huge, but the one that I've always been really kind of curious about, and you know, we we talk about it in our trainings for the peer support and and the chaplaincy stuff, but like I really think we need to worry about taking care of things at home. And and I mean we look at our we look at these things like for all of us, all the guys in the service, all the more I I would say it's more the more the men and the women that we see in the fire service, but like dude, there's there's I don't know a single guy that's not surviving on nicotine and when he's not at on the job, when he's not got a zin in his mouth, he's at home and he's drinking or or or whatever. But we look at we look at these divorce rates. We look at we look at the the difficulties that families face. Um I think that's a big thing is leaving leaving the job at the door when you get home. Uh leaving the job in the firehouse and coming home and being the dad, being a husband, and taking care of those relationships, because otherwise you start falling down with with depression, you start falling down with not cultivating your relationships and and and you start depending on those things with substance abuse or or or whatever. And that just that just amplifies the suicidal tendency, suicidal thoughts. Um but that's the that's huge for people to know that there's always somebody out there that's willing to listen to them. They're willing. I mean, I'd take a phone call at two o'clock in the morning from anybody about anything, just to get their mind in the right place. But I think we we tend to be our own worst enemies when it comes to some of that stuff because we fuel the negativity uh the negativity from the firehouse, from whether it be peers or or whatever, um we fuel it with with with all of those other things when realistically you put that faith, family, firemanship, and you put that in the correct order, and it's hard, man. It's hard to put firemanship at the end, especially, you know. I would love to be sitting here and talking to you about tactics and talking to you about roof ventilation and true truck operations and searching ahead of a hose line and you know, forcible entry. That's not where my that's not where I fit as much anymore. I mean I I will. I'll talk to you guys about it all day because I love it stuff.

SPEAKER_04 22:03

We'll get into it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

All right, good. Um but I think that's the biggest thing is taking care of each other, taking care of each other at home, taking care of each other at the firehouse. You know, you know damn well between sitting at the dinner table, you know, all so-and-so down at down at 23s is you know, they're they're such a pain in the butt, or this guy's so negative, or whatever. But you know, in reality, you're you're you're doing the same thing that those negative people are doing. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Um we've all got them. Every station's got them, every every department has them. Doesn't matter, even the volunteer department's running 100 calls a year. The department I was with was it it was it was great in the aspect of just the right size. You know, we were at three stations, five fifty, five hundred calls a year, something like that. And everybody knew everybody, you know, you got these huge departments, you know, you talk to like these FDNY or or Chicago, they don't know each everybody knows each other, but the the small mom and pop shop, I'll say set style or size departments, it doesn't matter how big or how small, they've all got the negativity, they've all got a downside, and if we could just learn to take care of one another, that's that's really the huge thing. Instead of instead of talking all the crap, yeah, spreading all the rumors, but yeah, simplify just being a good person.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Um yeah, just going to work, be a good person, treat everyone with respect. I think that'll go a long way in the firehouse. Yeah, sometimes in the negativity, but I think that's the thing a little more positive and four. We all go through some same shit.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

So the big four, it's a real thing, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Awesome. Well, uh Brennan's got some questions for you now. We'll get into a little bit more of the firemanship stuff, uh, and just some some questions that we like to ask everybody to get different perspectives on.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

All right, so here's the first one. No, um, you can take this however you want to take it. Um, we're not gonna give you any nudges or pointing in a direction. So why are we here is the question.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Why are we here? Oh man, that one almost goes back to uh that one almost goes back to the faith conversation. But uh when it when it comes down to it, I guess in the long and short of it, obviously we're here for what? We're here for the citizens, we're here for the people, we're here for uh putting them in a position above ourselves. Um we are here to take chances, uh we're here to be stewards of the cities and townships and uh environments that we serve in.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Um I think that's that that that really is just the culmination of it in itself.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

But we are here to put others above ourselves, to protect, to serve and to be everything we can on people's worst day, right? I mean that we we talk about that all the time. You you become desensitized to it, right? But you're realistically, you are in a position where you're you're at the front door of somebody's worst day of their life, you know, whether it be a P and B or uh you know a kid call or a house fire or losing a pet or whatever it is. Uh but that's what we're here for. We are here to be a we're here to be a mop. We're here to clean up, soak up, and deal with all the stuff that people can't deal with on their own. And that's another thing to keep in perspective all the time as well.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Awesome, yeah. I love that answer. Absolutely. All right, next one. Looking back, uh, what advice would you give yourself when you first started?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

You know, uh when I first started my journey in the fire service, it was, you know, the like I talked about, we were out here in you know, dairy country, Wisconsin. You know, I live out in Johnson Creek now. I still farm. Um, I've I've got I've got 64 acres here, and we actually raise North American bison. Um but yeah, it's pretty wicked, but the uh keeping my roots. I don't think that I would consider myself having gotten my start until that phone call came where it's hey, do you want to come and do this? Do the best job, do the coolest thing in the world, and actually get paid for it and get paid very well. Uh that was what I would consider the start of well, my career realistically. And if I had to go back and give myself advice, I'm very humbly gonna sit here and tell you that I wouldn't change anything because my first crew uh was a group of guys that I knew they they taught me early on. They they showed me, they said this, they they said this is what you need to do. You're the you're the new guy, you're the cub, you know. I wasn't the only cub on the crew at the time, but first up, last to bed, cleaning, the willingness to learn, the willingness to change, the willingness to do everything. And it really hit home for me when I was finishing up my probationary year, and those guys that I worked under, what they had said to me was that the way that I did things was good enough that they were now telling new people that were coming on if there was someone to emulate, and I'm I'm speaking as humbly as I can, but if there was someone to emulate as a new guy, it was it was me. And that I mean that that meant the world to be coming for some of these veteran paramedics, and I guess one thing I I guess I I will say that I you you could say I would change would be that when the when there's something you're not necessarily confident in, ask questions, um, always always be willing to admit that you're not comfortable with something. That was I was a new med, I was a new paramedic at the time, and um I told those guys right off the bat, I said, you know, this scares me, this stuff scares me, but they respected the heck out of me for being able to tell them that, and we worked through that every every step of the way. But looking back, the vite the advice for myself, do it again and just do it better. Um, and don't fall into the pits of of people that are gonna want to tear you down. There, there are some gonna be some crotchety old fellas that are gonna want you to feel really bad about yourself, but most of those guys are on their way out, and all those guys that I worked with that I started with that trained me and taught me, they've all they've all promoted. They're all um I would say the two biggest guys that impacted me the most early on on my crew are both wearing white helmets now. So it's kind of crazy to think about that, but I know that was a really long way to get to that answer, but that's that's kind of it.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

No, absolutely, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Uh, what is the best way to pass on knowledge in the firehouse?

SPEAKER_02 31:53

I would say the best way the best way to pass on knowledge in the firehouse.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

That's uh so many different ways I could take that right now with what's going through my brain. But I would say that leadership by example is huge. Um getting getting under a good boss, a good depending on the department, a good lieutenant or or captain or whatever that you've got, however your ranking system works. But um I thought I went so far when you'd work with guys that that are out ranking, but they're the ones that want to do the do the teaching and and share the knowledge and and share what they know.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

But you know, the sorry, I'm just kind of thinking a little bit here.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I leadership by example is just I mean that's the first thing that's just coming to my mind because I know there are uh some guys that were probably the best at the job, depending on what their title was, but they were I'm really trying to find the right words for this because I think these are also everywhere. There are guys that know the world inside and out with with whatever it is, specifically the ones that I'm thinking of are uh they were equipment operators full-time before the position was absolved, and um they knew everything. They talked a lot of crap, they said a lot of hurtful stuff, they did things the wrong way, they knew everything, but they would never share it, they would never tell the next guys. You would ask them, you'd say, Hey man, you're you're really good at this. Can you show this to me? And it was always met with some sort of resistance, and I think that's ridiculous. Like, yeah, I think we see that a lot. There's and again, the majority of that generation seems to be kind of on their way out. Um, and there's two ways of that generation. There's the guys that are all for it, and then there's the guys that are like, man, these young guys, they think they know everything. But they won't share it, they won't share it. They they they know it, but it's like it's a secret, like like they hold it over your head, but leadership, leadership by example and teaching by example is huge. Absolutely. You know, that's I guess the long and short of it for that one.

SPEAKER_04 35:05

Yeah, I think kind of like you said, something I firmly believe in, like you said, with that leadership by example, but the phrase of do as I say now as I do, to me just loses all credibility. Like once, especially in our job, like you can make the argument when you're when you're teaching somewhere, if if they give you these objectives you're supposed to hit, you can whatever say that. But like on the job, someone starts that off, like training new people. It's like then show then why aren't you doing this right way? If you're showing them this way, like why aren't why aren't we doing it that way? So that's like you said, just that example is is the most important thing for for people to see because as soon as you say that phrase, the person's like, well, then why am I learning this stupid way?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Like, and that's that's uh that that hit the nail on the head there too. I um, you know, I'm sure some of I'm sure some of the guys from from my department will will you know see this and hear some of this stuff, and that some will agree and some will disagree, and it is what it is, but I'm a firm believer in I think SOPs are the dumbest thing there is. I can live with I can live with SOGs all day long, I can live with guidelines procedurally. I'm I that's something that really and and again, this is we're going into a direction that it doesn't even have anything to do with this question, but it it's kind of it's kind of coming to me this way, like procedure versus guideline, and guidelines are in place for what they're in place for yeah, follow the rules, be you know something to fall back on, right?

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Yeah, a good guideline should be your plan A. Yeah, that's we we know there's B through Z that we still get to, but a good guideline should be flexible enough for B through Z, but give you a nice plan A that everyone's on the same page to start off with.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

It's it's exactly the thing that's going through my brain right now with it. It's just like the ways, the number of ways to skim the cat. Stop bringing, I mean, stop bringing safety into a job that never involved safety. Um that's the generation also again that that's either gung ho to teach or or not that generation, those guys that were taught, you know, like um combat tactics or slicers and all those things, those guys are like, this is how it has to be, this is the way it works, and this is the way we do it. But the guys that were taught like stuff like in the 90s, like, man, that's like that's we need to get back to like the 1960s fire service. I'm not saying I'm not saying you got to go into a burning building with three quarter boots and a cigar hanging out of your mouth. No one signed up for this job because it was safe. No one signed up for this job because I mean, no running on the fire ground, like okay, what what is that? So I I I have a huge passion for operating. That was when I where I left. I was I was in the driver's seat. Um and I I had enough seniority and stuff figured out I was gonna stay there. They I had the opportunity to stay on a promotional list. I tried it. I did a bunch of acting acting slots as a as a lieutenant riding up on uh on the engine. Um, I I I would be what I'd consider myself a guy that would want to be on a truck full time at heart. But let's be real, a truck isn't a truck around here, it's a quint where I'm from. Um operates more as an engine. There's there's a lot of frustration there where I actually moved out from that station off the truck and I went up to be on the engine. Um skipped out, pulled myself off the lieutenant list because I mean a monkey could ride up in the front of a fire engine and do a first do a first in report and make a couple of quick calls. But when it came time to the stuff of like sitting in the office and like corrective behavior with members that are your friends and stuff, I hadn't I had wanted nothing to do with that. But yeah I got in trouble a lot verbally, more like scoffed at by I was kind of an HR nightmare, and the other guys, some of these guys will some of the guys are gonna agree with that right off the bat, too, because like I was I would park truck, park the engine, I should say, and we'd flow water, and I'd get that truck or that truck doing its own thing, and I was all about working. Like, yeah, absolutely. I was watching three sides of the building, I was throwing ladders as a EO. I was you know setting up for the incoming Rick crews. I was I was doing all that stuff, and some chief said, Man, hey, nice job. Like, how did you how how are you doing it? And other guys are saying you weren't wearing PPE when you put that ladder up there. You see these guys in like Boston and stuff, and they're like they're wearing like t-shirts and shorts and climbing down ladders with fire blowing over their heads. It's crazy, but I know again, totally went off topic. I just it was just one of those things that it's like it really hits home for me where I feel like everybody's always so reined in, and um, I don't even remember what you even asked me at this point. No, it's good.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

We like this.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Um you know that's just that's just my heart. That's what my heart tells me about about the stuff is like I pick on, you know, one uh one guy that's uh really near and dear to me is is uh Jerem Jeremy Wachtel. He's he's you know Lieutenant Jeremy Wachtel was I drove for him uh for a little while, and I mean we was a great, great experience. And then he became Chief Jeremy Wachtel, and then it was one of those things where he's still a really good friend. I talk to him almost daily, and uh great wealth of knowledge, great man. But you know, the one time I threw the my last fire, my last fire before the accident, I brought him water up to the front door when they were coming out from inside. I brought bottles of water up and he asked me why I wasn't wearing a helmet, and I about lost it on him. And I hope he watches this. I hope Jeremy, Jeremy, you're wrong. I know you're chief somewhere else now, but you were wrong. I could bring you water without a helmet on because the helmet's not gonna do nothing to me anyway. A little piece of leather ain't gonna save my life from whatever. I don't know if the tree was gonna fall on me or what, but I'll just say that.

SPEAKER_04 43:18

So I mean, like you said, we we've talked about a lot on here. Safety, safety isn't holding back, it's when you train and you educate and you're prepared. Like that's how you're safe. I mean, all of our we all know JD. JD's been a huge mentor for us, and he has been on the head, especially with the class he does now where he he talks about that. But he his his thing he always talks about is the fire gets a say. Like you you can train every day. You could you could be a single guy that literally eats, breathes this 24 hours a day, uh seven days a week. And at the end of the day, the fire gets a say. You go in, you could be doing everything right, and something can go wrong. And that's exactly what this job is. Like you will never we will never see zero line of duty deaths. It it's not it's not gonna happen. And the Solution isn't oh let's back off and and do less because then we're being we're open ourselves up to more risk because we're not prepared or not ready for this stuff and we end up being more dangerous when we try to be more safe.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

Yeah, I think that's that's exactly right. It comes down to uh it realistically just comes down to exactly what you just said. Do you that there's a difference between between being a cowboy fireman and and being reckless? I'm all about cowboy firemanship. Like I'm all about it. Like I don't know. I near and dear to me. I absolutely I I I don't know. I think about stuff all the time. I dream about stuff all the time still. I I just I run scenarios all day in my head. I watch I watch podcasts and training videos and things still to this day. And I've been I I got back on, you know, rescue me is back on. I I I honestly I honestly never saw it until until recently. I started watching it and it kind of kind of cracks me up a little bit, but you know, I I watch that and I fall asleep to watching that, and I wake up and I'm I'm totally thinking about some some tactical error that I saw what I saw on the TV, you know what I mean? It's ridiculous, but whatever.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

That's awesome. Well, we've got uh our last two questions for you. So these questions we've got our one from our previous guest, and then uh you'll have to come up with one for our next guest. So the question from our previous guest was our good friend Jeremy Sanders. Uh he said, or he asked, How have you found that you can use your story to make a positive impact on others?

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Oh man, that's uh that's pretty easy for me, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

I think that's if you take everything we've talked about and kind of roll it up into a ball, it it all kind of fits together. And I think my story, my story can impact on so many different levels, and I've it it took a long time to realize that. Um man, I was embarrassed for a long time going out in this wheeling around in this chair and stuff, and you know, I've got goals and things ahead of me for getting back, getting into a manual wheelchair and stuff like that, but um the impact of my story, I didn't realize had already reached so far as far as it did until people started telling me, and you know, I that was really the part when it clicked for me, like man, I need to do I guess I need to try and do this more. I need to I need to do better at at sharing my knowledge and sharing my my abilities and sharing my goals and you know talk about faith and talk about family and talk about the stigmas in in the in the fire service and you know leaving it at the door and taking care of your family, take care of each other. I think um that's that's that's to be said for anyone. I don't know did your did did did your last guest know that it was me coming on and he knew the situation, right?

SPEAKER_04 47:55

So he knew a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Okay, so I think that question can be answered by anybody. Okay, that it doesn't matter whether you're paralyzed or what what what's your story gonna be? What what is your imprint? And I think the biggest thing is the footprints that you follow. You know, it's more like wheel tracks for me nowadays, but the footprints that you follow, like can you make bigger ones with a bigger impact? Um and how are you doing that? And yeah, I again it can be anything. It can be it can be from from the tactic standpoint, or it can be from the standpoint of what's in your what's in your head, what's in your heart, getting it out there for everybody else to to to know they're not alone. You're not you're not the only person that sat around that thought about man, would this world be better off without me in it? Am I that much of a burden to people now? Am I am I hurting my family? Am I hurting relationships? And I think we can all look at that. We can all look at it, whether you're in a wheelchair, whether you're still wheeling a fire engine or a ladder, or you know, whether you're still busting doors down, whatever. But I it really comes down to that yeah, faith, family, firemanship, and absolutely. I don't know, I don't know. I don't I don't think there's anything else that peek people, or at least for myself, I don't think there's anything that could be more passionate about, honestly.

SPEAKER_04 49:48

So absolutely awesome. Well, now's the uh the hardest part. This is the one where you got to come up with a guest for our or a question for our next guest, sorry, and that is uh Jeff Wiffelmeyer of St. Louis Fire. He's a captain on truck four. And uh yeah, he's uh he's a true truck guy. You said you like you always wanted to be truck guy. Let's let's see what you got for him.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

A true truck guy, so like there's no pump on that thing, correct?

SPEAKER_04 50:16

I would assume not.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

I would assume not too. I don't know. I I mean you're in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_04 50:25

Isn't St. Louis like the the birthplace of the quint? Isn't that right? Where I'm pretty sure St. Louis is like where we're a little pump on it. So we'll see. We'll see. Maybe it's probably more whatever.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

But let's like like look let's let's make that let's make that pump secondary, right?

SPEAKER_04 50:41

I mean, I hope I hope I'm right and I didn't just slander St. Louis. I hope I hope I'm right.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

If if you did, it's okay. I mean, I think I think you'll be fine with it probably, but um let's see here. A good question for a truck guy. That's a fair one. Um and especially, you know, especially with St. Louis. I'd be curious about their you know, that's the cool thing about these kind of conversations that we can have is like everybody's got a different way of doing things in their in their setup and and uh you know what what are your what are your standard house offsets? What are the what are the lots like and things like that, but um I'm gonna have to go with man, I wish you guys would have told me I had to do this before.

SPEAKER_04 51:53

This is what we love.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

We love we give you a are are you gonna are you gonna are you gonna edit out all this air time?

SPEAKER_04 52:02

Not at all. No, we'd love to do this.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

This is awesome. This is awesome, he says.

SPEAKER_04 52:09

Um it's it's the hard hardest part from all of our guests. We like getting the the true questions for them, um, and just just coming up with them. I mean, they're like you said, everywhere is totally different, but at the end of the day, we're all firemen, so we all just want to know a little bit more. So we like uh we like getting it from you, and uh we can force you to ask the question because every time we ask our watchers and listeners to ask, you guys don't send in questions.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

Well then I have to come up with questions.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

I I actually I actually had a guy reach out to me that said, I saw they were wanting questions. How do I submit them? And I'm like, I don't know. I said go to the page and comment. Um so chief, I don't know if uh I'm I'm not making fun of you or nothing, but you didn't get your question in, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 52:57

Yeah, well yeah, I guess we'll we'll tell everybody in case the in case they're new here, don't know. You can message us, you can comment, you can email, you can go to our website. There's there's so many ways you can do it.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

So okay, here I I do I have a question for him. And now this is from the perspective of whether whether or not I don't care if this if this truck four is a is a quint. I don't care. Um I I want to talk about I want to I want him to I'm sorry, what was his name again? Jeff.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

Jeff. Jeff, I would like you to talk about your feelings on searching ahead of the line with a can, or do you search with the line on the with an engine company?

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Do you do it simultaneously or no? That ain't gonna be the right way to do it either.

SPEAKER_04 54:15

No, that's that's I think it's good.

SPEAKER_01 54:17

Does it do is what I'm is what I'm saying making sense? Yeah, if you're on a truck, if you're if you're on a truck and if it's a quint and you're first in, are you still searching ahead of that line or are you pulling a line and searching?

SPEAKER_03 54:30

Yeah, yeah, I like it. Fair point.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

And if if it's not a quint, if if you're just gonna be a true truck, are you searching ahead of that line being a first in truck company?

SPEAKER_04 54:45

If I I mean it's gonna be a great, a great question, a good answer. Because if I remember correctly, they when we uh last heard them teach and talk, um, they were talking about how St. Louis was phasing out. But I did confirm they did make the total quint concept popular. And so I think there, I think it is a true truck now. Um, but he's been there long enough that he probably has experience on both ends. He's probably he may have rode a quint before, and he's probably on a truck as well, he's on a truck right now. So I think we'll have a great insight for that because like you said, they're sneaking in everywhere. I mean, everywhere is not of true truck, especially in Wisconsin. Um, it's very rare to find true trucks that are fully staffed and do truck stuff, but yeah, it's it's uh it's good. You you did good. You did good, don't worry.

SPEAKER_01 55:29

Yeah, I I I think that's uh that's another that's another big thing too. It's like just because it's gonna pump, I mean, I started getting this idea that like quints are just trucks, they're true trucks. You could treat them as true trucks, but they're also uh that way, like when a uh frontline engine goes down, it can it can fill its spot and be considered an engine. You can still separate the two. Um you could treat it as whatever you need to treat it as. You know, you gotta go to the roof, go to the roof. You gotta you gotta pull a line, pull a line. Um, I guess it is what it is, but absolutely I have yet to see a quint that's fun to repack LDH on.

SPEAKER_04 56:19

So yeah, I yeah, I I ride one on our our house because we got our three houses, and the one on where I ride is that, and yeah, it's it's awful.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

Yeah, absolutely. That's that's fair.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

Thank you so much, Adam. Uh, this last part that we have is what we just call the kitchen table. So if there's anything else that you want to to quickly hit on or any shout-outs you want to to let people know, either people, conferences. I know you mentioned firemanship, you can shout out your class. Um, just anything that you want to share before we uh wrap up.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

Um, I guess you know, I you know, shout out uh to all my guys from uh city of Brookfield, local 2051. Um, you know, we've uh we've been through a lot thick and thin together, and you guys were there for me and my family when we most needed it and appreciate it and love all you guys. Um also to the all the guys, you know, training guys that that I know, you know, uh I guess a lot of guys that come to mind. Um some of the some of the harder chargers in my life, you know, that that impacted me. I I've talked about these guys before, and they don't even know how much they impacted me, but uh, you know, Chad Butzine, City of Watertown, uh Matt Pieper, the city of Watertown as well. Um, you know, uh JD, he's been a great, get, great guy to have good conversation with. Oh, yeah, you know, Justin McMeneman with the Bruce City fools and and uh and those guys, but uh uh Cody Trestrel, he's uh you know, he's the brothers in battle. He's he's been a huge mentor and support of mine as well. Uh, and that'll lead me into the firemanship thing. I'm I'm gonna be down there. I'm just going down for the day, I believe, uh July 20th. Um they're doing they're doing kind of the the faith family firemanship thing is getting really big with the with the spouses as well, which is kind of cool. Uh they're doing a lot of spouses classes and things like that, but I'm gonna do uh something in the afternoon, I think, with with just that conversation in general. Um but that'll be on the t on the 20th. Keep uh keep training, keep uh keep trying. Um even if you guys aren't seeing it, you know, the tabletop, I think, is the best place that we have our conversations and discussions in the firehouse about about anything. You don't have to be swinging, swinging at fake doors or you know, using the the halligans in your hands to actually have good conversations about how you want to do that and what you want to do. Um I guess keep swinging for the fences and uh you're you know you're never gonna you're never gonna disany disappoint anybody but yourself, and it just makes you want to be a better person, a better fireman, and um keep doing doing your best, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 59:42

Awesome. Love that. Thank you for coming on for taking some time to to share your message. Thank you everybody for watching and listening. And uh as always, don't be a shit bag.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Thanks for coming on, but yeah, thanks, guys.