Lake Wales Fire Department (Chief Smith) - #013

Today, we're talking with Chief Smith on how Lake Wales' Fire Department helps the citizens, how someone can become a firefighter, and the kind of heart for people that our firefighters have!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

All right, hello, Lake Wales, and welcome to episode number 13, actually, of the mayor and the manager. Time's going by quick. And of course, this is a podcast that is a part of Providence Voice, which is the media ministry of High Point Church. And we created this podcast as a way of helping you as citizens get to know the people that you have elected and the people that you pay to lead the city. And today, we are honored to have as our guest Chief Shad Smith, who is the current uh chief of the Lake Wales Fire Department. And uh before we started this podcast, I was just having an interesting conversation with the chief. By the way, welcome, Chief. We're glad that you're here.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Thank you, sir. Good morning.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

And uh, and I was expressing my confusion over Jonathan and Shad. So if you go on the website, they're not going to see Shad Smith. So why don't you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Okay. Uh, like I was uh explaining to the mayor, uh, my dad, his name is John Smith. Uh and everyone knows how common the name John Smith is. And he felt that way his entire life. And my mom um was very adamant about me being a John Jr., in which he did not want that. So the compromise was she got to name me Jonathan, and my dad got to pick my middle name, and the middle name he picked was Shad. Now, I don't know where and why he picked the name Shad. I just think it was because he thought it was interesting. But beyond that, and then the other thing I explained was uh the first portion of my life, being a young man and you know, wanting to be cool, I didn't think the name Shad was very cool. So I told everyone my name was Jonathan because I thought it was a little more sophisticated, if you will. Okay. And then later on in life, I figured out that everybody thought the name Shad was pretty cool, so I kept saying that. So here we are, this many years later. Some folks call me Jonathan, some folks call me Shad.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Okay. But if they call you chief, you'll answer that too. Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

It took a it took a while whenever I became deputy chief for someone to say the word chief and for me to actually turn around and look. It took a minute, but now, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty automatic. Okay, and that's not been that long ago that you became our chief. Uh no, uh, as far as the actual fire chief position, no, sir. I was promoted in November of last year. Okay, very good.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Well, okay, so that's a great lead into the first question I thought we'd talk about together this morning. I just want you to introduce yourself kind of to the tell us about yourself. Well, you've already started to do that. And how did you get interested and involved in being a firefighter and how long you've been doing it?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Okay. Uh like the mayor said, Jonathan Smith or all of my friends and family call me Shad. Um, I was promoted to fire chief in November of 2025. I actually started with the Lake West Fire Department in November of 1998.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Um, interesting story. The person that got me interested in becoming a firefighter, we actually got hired at the same time. Uh initially, I started college just like any young person does, thinking all the big thoughts about all the cool things that I was going to be when I grew up. And not a single one of them had anything to do with the fire service. Okay. I had no aspirations of doing that at all. I bumped into an old high school buddy and asked him what he was up to. And he told me he was working for the Seabrink Fire Department. And I said, Really, that sounds really cool. That sounds kind of amazing, actually. Okay. And he kind of explained to me what he what he was doing and how he got to that point. And so I mentioned it to my parents, and my mom just so happened to have gone to school with uh the gentleman that was working at the Lake West Fire Department at the time, who was the head of the volunteers. So uh I went up there, introduced myself, became a volunteer, uh, went through standards and EMT school in 1996, and then interviewed in 98 and got the position as a firefighter. And the person that I got hired with was Paul Byrd. Um, okay. And we were hired together, and he just recently retired a few years ago, and I believe now he's operations manager in C Ring Race way now. Oh, okay. So, but yeah, that's that's the story. I I had really no aspirations of being in the fire service, and then um I bumped into someone and yeah, fate took its took its turn.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Okay, 1998 then.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, okay. So yeah, so um no this November I'll be 28 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

And I think that if I recall correctly, when I sat with our chief of police, he began working with the uh Lake Wales Police Department in 1997. So you all came aboard about the same time. Yeah, no, that sounds about right. So it says something, I think, about the city of Lake Wales that that our uh our first responders hang around for so long.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

It it does, and and we do. And I know for myself, once I decided to go into the fire service, I had there was no other department I wanted to work at. Um, and there's there's folks out there that don't feel the same way, same way, mainly because they have friends and family that live in their hometown, and it concerns them to be in a situation where they actually may have to run a call on that person. And I understand that, but I also know that for me, my drive was to be the absolute best I could be, the best version of that person I could be. And who better to run that call than the person who's striving to be their best, you know? So I I I kind of felt the opposite as far as, and plus, this is my hometown, this is where I grew up. I'm a fourth generation, and um, I wouldn't have it any other way.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

So okay, okay. Now, when you were describing your um kind of like your uh your start there at the Lake Wells Fire Department, you used the word volunteers. So I don't think that exists anymore, does it?

SPEAKER_00 6:13

It does, but only in in certain places. Uh the Northeast is still very heavily covered by volunteers. And you have to understand there's a whole different world that goes on in the Northeast as far as volunteers goes. They have very sophisticated departments. Um, they just and they have volunteers.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

When you say the Northeast, you mean the Northeast of the United States.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Of the United States, okay. Yes, that that area is still heavily volunteered up there, you know, the New Yorks, the New Jerseys, the those places up there. Um, for us, um one of the reasons why volunteers was such a a big part of the Lake Wellsfire Department in the beginning was, I mean, our staffing was relatively low in comparison to what we were actually covering, the amount of city and county areas we were covering at the time. So it was very important. Um, some of the rules that were set forth early on, um, living how far away a member of the department could live, and also having volunteers on staff so that when we did have significant incidents, we were able to call in people off duty to come and assist, as well as volunteers to come in and assist. Okay. So that was a huge part of the beginnings and even my beginnings at the department, because when I started, we were only running five per shift at the time. Okay. So and we were covering our city of Lake Wells as well as all the OPA areas, which encompassed around 50 square miles. It was relatively large. Okay, so OPA means outside protected areas. Okay. It was it was a portion of the county that we used to um cover for them and several years ago. Um they did away with that. They had started spursing out um more stations and started covering that. So we just strictly are covering the city like Wells now.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Okay. And that's becoming a bigger challenge all the time, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Well, you know, uh it is. It always is. Um, but thankfully, like we've said many times in all of our ribbon cuttings and and groundbreakings, you know, luckily we have administration and leaders who are have their eyes wide open and know that infrastructure has to grow along with the city.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So yeah, so let's keep pursuing that a little bit. You mentioned that, of course, 1998 you began back then, there was a more of a an active presence of volunteers. That's something that has changed quite a bit. You also mentioned you were all only running five firefighters per shift at that point. What does that look like now? You've been with the department for almost 30 years. So tell me some of the most significant changes and shifts that you've seen in the Lake Wales Fire Department while you've been there.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Well, our current um shift staff staffing is 12. Okay. Now that's 11 line firefighters. Well, technically, that's eight line firefighters, um, two lieutenants and a and a deputy chief. Um so as far as the differences between then and now, we cover less area, but we run a significant more amount of calls, you know, and you're looking at the difference between my first year as a firefighter, we ran less than a thousand calls for the whole year. And last year we ran well over 4,000 calls. Wow. Okay. So, you know, that type of thing has changed significantly over the years. And then, of course, uh it was development of station two, you know, Lake Ashen was coming into play. Um, and we needed a presence in this area. So station two.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

And now in the beginnings, we were having to travel back and forth every single morning at shift change to go back to the station to swap out personnel and swap out um um equipment, as well as you know, filling up with diesel. And then, of course, when we built the the um site-built station, which we recently was able to expand, that was another huge difference. Um, as far as just general things over the years, I mean, just the equipment has changed. I mean, so much more sophisticated now. Um, we're able to employ so many different things. Ticks, thermal imaging cameras has become a huge part of what we do in the service. Our rescue equipment is all battery operated now. Okay. Um, we used to have to take up an entire compartment just to house a couple of tools with all the hose reels and also the power unit that went along with it. Now we store all of our rescue tools in the bumper of the engine. Oh. So easily deployed on any vehicle accident. You can almost nudge right up to the vehicle if there unfortunately needs to be some type of extrication and employed. So but beyond that, of course, well, and I started. We had two actually, technically, we had three computers. We had one computer inside the dispatch, we had one computer in the chief's office, and one computer in the in the captain's office. Yeah. And they had just recently started um fire uh our fire programs reporting system, but we were still doing reports on three by five cards as well as a backup. So there was that. And then, of course, the dispatch computer, it was more of a word processor than anything else. Yeah. Um, there was there was no internet, there was no, I think JavaScript was around during that time period, and that was about it. Yeah, that's like hieroglyphics. Well, that's why I joke with folks when they say, they say, Well, why is your email address J Smith? I said, because there was no email addresses when I got hired here. Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So so yeah, I man, I could go on and on about how many different things that we do now in comparison. And I think more than anything, the most important thing that we've continued doing is we've continued paying attention to the line, firefighters, paying attention to the rank and file, making sure that they are 100% happy with the environment they're in, with the equipment that we use, the training they receive, all that stuff. Because I think that's what makes us the most successful. Sure. I mean, all this equipment's great. I love everything that we that we are able to, I mean, technically afford now. Um, but it's it's the people. Yeah. Because we're one big giant team, realistically. If you you don't do anything in the fire service by yourself, right? It's always at least a team of two. And so there's never a time where, you know, Bob's out there doing something by himself. And so it's so important that that part of this stay the same. And it has stayed the same for many years. And I'm I'm very excited to see that. And it it's dear to my heart because, like I said before, this is my city as much as is the you know the other folks. And I'm so happy that we've been able to maintain that through the years. Um, that part of it's the most important.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

I think one of the things that um when I have my own discussions with our city manager, Mr. Slayton, that we're I'm the most, I think it's the most underrated that we should be proud of. Um, and is unique to a city like Lake Wales, is the um high quality service we get from our first responders, that we have our own departments that are well maintained and well run and well staffed and well equipped. And that's that's not as we take that for granted, but that's a big fight for local municipalities to do that well, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

It very much is. And I can tell you, it all starts with morale. It all starts at the bottom where the the newest folks are right there with the rest of us. The morale of the department, it it steers the whole ship all the time. Because if you have a group of people that are happy and that are wanting to come to work and be successful and be efficient, I mean they care about what they're doing, they care about the citizens they're serving, it makes my job especially so much simpler. And I think it starts with making sure you take the time to say, hey guys, so what's going on? You know, what's what's I mean, because I I joked with my my uh officers recently in an officer meeting. I said, you know how things go in everyone, everyone's going, yeah, good. I said, I I can't fix anything unless you tell me. I said, because sometimes it can be fixed with a trip to Walmart.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Maybe somebody's upset about one tiny little thing and it's a trip to Walmart and it's a it's a $10 item. Now I've just taken a whole shift whose morale is not very great, and I flipped it on its head because of one simple $10 item from Walmart. Yeah, I don't know that's a simple illustration, but it can be the truth. Yeah, you know, and I think it's I think it's you know relevant in most professions, but so much for us because we're all right there together in the same house for 24 hours. You kind of live together, you know. We joke about it being a family, we joke about, and you know what, families, we squabble. We squabble sometimes. We get in we get in arguments and things like that. But at the end of the day, no matter what the squabble is about, everybody leaves patting each other on the back, saying it's gonna be fine, everybody's gonna be okay. But yeah, I I think that it starts with morale in the department and it continues with training because you know, most people they might complain about, oh man, it's really hot about to train today or it's raining or this. But deep down, people that are starting in a service like we do, whether it be law enforcement, fire service, EMS, people that actually care about what they do, they want to train. They are so excited about that because they're ready to take that, they're always ready to take the next step. They always are ready to learn that new thing to figure out how to use this new piece of equipment. And I think that's the next step around the training, make sure everyone is 100% as efficient as they could possibly be. I never understood um like veteran firefighters who didn't want to teach the newer folks everything that they know. They always were wanting to hold back. And I don't understand that. Right. Because for me, I want you to know everything I know because I'm not always gonna be available. And you know what? I'm gonna take all my years of experience and all the things that I've learned over the years and all the little tidbits that all those instructors conveyed to me over these years, and I'm gonna pour it all into you and give you everything I've got. Now, whether or not you accept it, that's up to you. But I'm gonna do all of that because you know what? Tomorrow, I may not be there, or tomorrow I may be the guy you're pulling out of the fire because something went wrong. Right. You know, because I can tell you, I used to, I used to, you know, always joke with the the younger folks about the percentages of common sense versus actual knowledge that you needed to be successful in the fire service. And over the years, after doing it for so long, I started adding in 10% of fate. Because there's 10% that it doesn't matter. You can go somewhere and you can do everything exactly right. And it's just not gonna work. Yeah, it's just not gonna be right because we don't live in this nice little box with a neat little bow on top. It's a very gray area that we live in, unfortunately, with what we do for a profession. And sometimes that 10% fate can can really um spin your head around. Yeah. Um, but I I I joke about that with them, but then on the same token, I'm very serious because I think that one of the most important things that anyone in this service can have is critical thinking skills. Yeah. I like to call it critical thinking skills because I think it hurts people's feelings whenever you tell them that you need to have more common sense. Common sense, yeah. But when you say critical thinking skills, they think, oh, okay, yeah, that that sounds a little better. But realistically, if you have a decent head on your shoulders and you have a little bit of common sense, yeah, most of the time we can figure our way out of things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Um, so well, and it's interesting as you just as you describe and talk about um your leadership and the needs of the department. Um, you know, we've made, since I've been on the commission, a lot of investments um equipment-wise financially into the fire department just because it's necessary for us to continue to serve our citizens well. We've, you know, we bought a brand new fire engine a couple of years ago. We've expanded the North Station. We're getting ready to build a station to the south of the city. Um, we and we invest in a lot of those kinds of things, but you talk about the people. It's about the people and about building their morale and the investment that that's the most important thing. So, one of the things that has always impressed me as I have to give a state of the city speech every year, is when I see the statistics on the training that's provided to the firefighters that serve Lake Wales. I'll give you, for instance, the high percentage of our firefighters who are paramedic, trained paramedics. That's unique, isn't it? That's unusual.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

And yes, I would say yes and no. Uh for a department that doesn't require it, yes, it is very unique. Okay. Um, I know most of the most of the city departments, um, they don't necessarily always require it, but there's a lot of departments out there that actually require it that you have a certain amount of time that you have to be a medic within. Um, and this uh this is a uh a topic that's very close to my heart because um I was one of the first medics at the city of Lake Wells when we decided to go ALS, or I shouldn't say we, I should say the administration at the time. They it's something that I had wanted to do from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

What does ALS mean?

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Uh advanced life support. Okay, thank you. Um and so I have always held the notion that I do not want to force anyone to be a paramedic because just like being a part of the fire service or being a law enforcement officer or being a construction worker or a steel worker, not every job is for every person. And you know, it's easy to go take a class, pass a class, and be out on the other end with the certification, but it's a lot more difficult to do all of that and then be successful at it and be very efficient at it if you don't want to do it. Right. If you're being forced to do it, if you're that person is saying, hey, if you want to work here, you got to do this, even though you don't really want to do that kind of stuff. Now, granted, I understand that they they could certainly make the decision not to work at that location, but hey, maybe they've been searching for a job for this many years and it's like, okay, I really want to get in somewhere. So we're gonna take this leap and we're gonna do that. But it all comes back to the point where if you're in a position where you're being made to do something like that, I don't know that you're ever going to be as efficient as you possibly could be, because doing what we do, it takes want to. You have to want to do it. Okay. You know, granted, over the years, our um the financial aspect of working in the fire service has changed significantly. And I'm so glad for that too, because I I know that in order to continue to recruit folks, we were going to have to at some point. And thankfully, the administration before us was really good at doing that, and that he was able to get us to a point where we were very um, I can't think of the word of the mouth. Competitive. There you go. That's the word. Very competitive in the realm of the other departments around here and pay. Right. And that has really assisted us. The thing that I feel like has always has always been something we've always had is the actual, okay, we know that we have a good department. know we have a good group of folks so now we have to um unfortunately play on their materialistic aspect and we have to we have to lure them to say okay you're not only gonna have a good experience here but now you're gonna be able to be paid make a decent living a decent enough living to where you can sure you know and I hate for it to be that way but it it's unrealistically it has to be yeah you know there's nothing wrong with that when I started I was making less than seven dollars an hour working at the fire department and you know I hear guys there's no way I would do that I was like but do you know what yeah on the two days that I was off all I could think about is why do I have to have two days off I'm ready to go back to work now you know so whenever you've decided that that's it for you it to me it really doesn't matter. And I know we all have to make a living but um but yeah that was that was something and I don't honestly don't know where I was headed with that but it kind of veered off there.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

That's no that but that's I think you're getting right to it it still comes down to people and those are the kind of people you're looking for uh because no matter what you do for a living no matter how passionate you are there will come a time when it does become a grind where the where the fine for the material rewards are not enough. If that's what you're in it for they're not enough. So there has to be something in you especially in these lines of service work where you it's just like I it's all it's more of a calling than it is a career isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 23:30

I I feel like it is and kind of getting back to the to the ALS the paramedic aspect of it you know the department as a whole over the years whether whatever aspect of the department we have always set a very high standard you know um we have never been the type of department to say ah that's good enough yeah you know we've always set a very high standard when it comes to that type of thing and I we've set the same standard with our ALS program in that if once you've gone through school and you've gone through all of the field training aspect of it and you've been passed by the county as far as through um our medical director now I need I need to hear from my seasoned paramedics and my seasoned um field training officers that yes, they're ready. Because when all that's done, I need to hear it from the people that I trust that I know have got the city the citizens of Lake Wales their best interests at heart need to know okay yes this person is ready to go. They're ready to to be put out into the city and to perform and we know they're going to be performing at the level that we're wanting them to perform at so how many firefighters do we have in the city of Lake Wales? See currently the whole department we have 40 40 members. Okay. That includes myself and the three members of the um prevention department okay okay so beyond that we have the 36 that include the deputy chiefs the lieutenants and all the line firefighters okay all right okay um we actually have two individuals two more individuals in paramedic school now we have two more that are going to be starting um very soon I believe in it's in August they're gonna be two more um then we are actually we for the first time in quite a while knock on wood hopefully we don't run out of paddles here um but we are the first time in a long time we're actually full we actually have no open spots yeah and it came just in time for us to get a really cool um recruitment flyer from our communications department but uh they did a great job putting together that for us and um about the time that we were able to to kind of put it out there we hired our last two individuals. So um fingers crossed and um with a little bit of help from um James we're gonna be hopefully putting some more folks on um after the next budget. Yeah and um that way whenever we get our third station um we can staff it to where we're wanting to staff it at so well we just did the ribbon cutting on the expansion on the North station and I'm excited about the one that's coming to the south too.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

As I am as well I just uh you know our city manager and our city administration just continues to understand how critical it is for a growing city like Lake Wales to be well served and and speaking of that you know I think everyone has an idea uh of what a typical day in the life of a firefighter is what y'all do and it's it's always about rushing out to put out fires which is part of it.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

You mentioned 4,000 calls last year but tell us what does what all does the fire department do all the different ways that you respond to the needs of our citizens um aside of obviously emergency calls um we do um what they consider citizen assist calls on a regular basis okay and um they can range from anywhere between I my cat stuck in the tree to um we've had issues folks will call us um I have water in my house I have a leak in my roof I have there's there's a there's a multitude of things that we actually get called for um so sometimes we refer them to say the water department you know in the and it's that those type of situations um we actually um provide a service we do unlock vehicles okay um between the hours eight and five um if for some reason that would have come handy for me about a month and a half ago yeah if if for some reason um you know you got distracted and you left your keys in your vehicle um we will come out um we try to encourage the citizens that if we do come out that like you know this is something we offer as a as a free service so you know we prefer you not to abuse it but you know it it happens from time to time um so uh we also on a regular basis do um smoke detector battery changes um smoke detectors depending on the situation if it's just kind of a plug and play situation then we're able to do that sometimes when the electrical wires get um involved we have to unfortunately let them say hey you're gonna have to reach out to an electrician for that aspect okay but we do change a lot of batteries um for folks around um then we have all of our fire prevention department handling well over twelve hundred um uh inspections a year for all the different businesses throughout the city okay helping to keep everyone in compliance with that aspect of it as well as them visiting schools and giving um um presentations a lot of times on not only fire prevention things but as well as career opportunities as well um we've just recently started um having presences at the different um schools that offer that type of um training such as you know fire standards and EMS we've had officers um we have our recruitment flyers like I said before and they were they were nice enough to to put a QR code on there so it's makes it very simple for them to go to um the city website and they're able to fill out applications that way. And you know what everything else that the city calls on we we're there I mean I it's funny duties as a sign. Yeah it's kind of a and I I joke and many times I've joked about this is the one um the amazing thing about working at a relatively small department is that when the citizens call they will call you from all the way up until and including an alien invasion because when they see the spaceship land they're gonna go well who do we well don't call the police that'd just scare them don't call we don't need an ambulance call the fire department they'll know what to do.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

There you go yeah they'll know what to do so all right well and you know something but that's part of public service I am again firefighters you have an image just like you would have an image of what does the mayor respond to but it you're a you're a servant of the citizen. So we are we are very much so you get calls about all kinds of things that really are not related but your job is to serve.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

It is and you know I that's something and sometimes it may just be the deputy chief may jump in the command vehicle and ride over there and take a look at it. We may not have to take an engine over there for things like that. But more often than not I mean when someone calls a station and they have an issue then we're not going to say no. Yeah you know I just that has never entered into the equation for us. Yeah we have to go over there and we're going to at least give them you know an avenue to fix it.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

So okay so you mentioned that um right now you know thank the Lord we're fully staffed at the city but that does that's not going to be a static situation probably and never and even if it is for quite some time um we want and need more people who have a heart to to do this kind of service. So if a young person were to approach you and say Chief I'm I really want to be a firefighter tell them tell me what you would say what are the steps like if they if you were recruiting them for the city of Lake Wales what would you be looking for?

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Well first and foremost um you know we abiding by the state of Florida rules and regulations when it comes 18 years old at least um a good nice clean driver's license a driving record is is a must okay um completing all the different steps as far as the training aspect goes um most departments not I shouldn't say most a lot of departments don't necessarily require you to have an EMT license when you're first but they do require you to have a state certified um fire or excuse me firefighter one and two okay so that's the very least and then beyond that you're going to start getting into more um localized SOGs some folks like I said require paramedic and things like that. Us ourselves you know you have to have your EMT within 18 months. And an EMT can be gotten how? Most of your local state colleges okay um Polk State South Florida we have Hillsboro um of course Ridge has started a a program recently where they're actually doing standards and EMT as well now. Okay. So um we actually have some of our folks do that as a as a side a side type job. So um but beyond that you know I think more often than not what I talk to and what I tell younger individuals that are wanting to get started in the service is just what we were speaking about earlier as the heart aspect of it. You know, not to discourage them in any way but to kind of probe around a little bit and find out where their heart and their minds at you know why exactly do you want to do this? And the canned answer is always oh because I want to help people. Yeah. I'm like okay so now that you want to help people now tell me the real reason why you want to do this for a professional sure because some folks want to do it because it's exciting you know some folks want to do it because it's diverse. I think that for me personally it was a little bit of of all of that. You know I would like to think I've always had a helping spirit even as a young person. And then getting older I I started to realize you know doing type these types of things was was exciting for me. And that was something that that really appealed to me on that aspect. And so I was like hey this is sounds like a great idea. Yeah let's go run into a burning building. Yeah there you go so so I think I want to help too but I've never had that thought so you know I think more than anything whenever I'm speaking to someone who's really wanted to get in the service I I want to kind of probe their mind as far as you know what are they looking to do? Are you looking to just be you just want to be a firefighter you know because there's folks out there that that like the idea of it but when you start to really kind of get down to the nitty gritty and kind of explain to them what's about to take place then they start to think huh do I really want to do this? Because and once again not to discourage people but beyond that though we all know that if you're doing this because your heart is leading you to do that then we know you're going to be more efficient at it and you're going to want to excel at it you know from the from the very beginning. But once you've completed all your schooling that aspect of it I mean most departments you know you'll get hired in at an entry level and then everything else is just on the job training. Yeah just learn how to do it. And you never stop going to school you never stop education in the fire service or law enforcement or EMS. It's constant you're either recertifying um you're either they've come up with a new class so now you're gonna be taking that class um we have target solutions as our platform um for our in-house um training some of our in-house training as far as on the computer goes and there's a multitude of classes and they're constantly updating them you know now which you know with the with the creation of all the um electric vehicles that's becoming a more common class to to start taking in things like that so it's it never stops. Yeah so you know if someone says hey I want to I want to do this because I just want to take a couple classes and then be done with it and this is definitely not the profession for you but I can tell you it never ends. Right, right I'm 28 years in and I'm still doing it sure every year.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Well Chief I I really do appreciate you taking the time and to come and be on the podcast. Again we're providing this so that the people that live in Lake Wales know a little bit better about what's done. I think our city is well served and uh and uh it is good to see that there is a commitment to excellence I think from the top down and it's good for them to know that you have people in these critical first responder departments that are so highly committed to their job. So we appreciate the work that you do. Thank you sir. Appreciate you taking the time to come in and and share with us today. Absolutely anytime. All right thank you folks we'll talk to you later thanks for listening to this episode of the Mayor and the manager. The goal of this podcast is to keep you up to date on all that is happening in the great city of Lake Wales. To that end we would love to take questions from you and take the time to answer them. So if you have any questions just click on submit a question in the description above this podcast