E11 Noele

Noele Smith!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

It's good to meet you. It's Noel, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Yeah, very good.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

I feel like so many people are always like Noel or Noah. So you have a unique name too. So yeah, that's something you could relate.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

That's right. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

I'm good. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Good, good, thank you. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Yeah, sure. Well, I live in Colorado and I'm a mom of four kids. We have three boys and a girl. Our oldest is about to be 19, 14, 11, and 8. So we have kind of the whole spread. I've lived in Colorado almost my whole life. I can't say born, but definitely raised. We moved here when I was four years old. So I would say I'm a native. And yeah, I'm married to my husband, Ty. He works for Aurora Fire Rescue, which is Aurora is like a suburb outside of Denver, if you're not from Colorado. But yeah, so he he rides the back step of Engine 2 there. And I have a career. I'm typically support executives at the top of organization. So and like an executive assistant, personal assistant type of role is what I've done most of my career. Right now I work more a little bit more specifically in a legal space. So I focus on like the legal aspect of an organization, but I typically work in healthcare organizations. So I've worked in, you know, big hospitals. And uh right now I work in a mental health startup that our whole focus is providing mental health care therapy and psychiatry services for primarily veterans and first responders. But my role is all administrative. So it's, you know, supporting those people that are running the company.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

I've seen it on social media. It sounds really cool. It it looks like an amazing initiative. Tell me a little bit more about it.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

So that's what I think what you're seeing on social media is actually like something else. So my day job is with the mental health company. I kind of joke about that. I'm like, oh, that's just my day job. But I also, yeah, I sit on the foundation that supports our fire department. So we have an Aurora Fire Foundation and I sit on that board. And then what you're seeing on social media is my husband and I run a training company, and that is called Mile High Fire Training. So we put on a conference every October and provide training throughout the year for firefighters around the country, right here in Colorado. And then just this year, we've started a spouse track. So I'm behind the spouse track and just trying to create similar to what you're doing, honestly, is you know, just trying to create a space for those, you know, behind the badge essentially, and a place to meet other people and what worked for you, what worked for me, sort of thing. So we're bringing the spouses in the training program now, which I think will be a really cool thing. But that is what you've seen on social media. So that's just, I mean, it yeah, it's a job, but I'm like right now, it's just kind of like our our side business. Well, we both have full-time jobs essentially.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Right, right. Wow. Okay. So on a day-to-day basis, during during the day, you're working for a company that has mental health programs, but also doing this just on your yeah, in my spare time.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Yeah. When I'm like sitting at, yeah, when I'm, you know, sitting on the sidelines at a sports practice or late at night or early in the morning, you know, that is those are the things, you know. It's just like, I think, especially having a lot of kids, you get really savvy with your time. And so it's like, oh, I have five minutes. I think I can do this. And so I'm lucky enough to work from home. Uh, my job is at home now. I used to work in the hospital every single day. So when I transitioned to a new company, that was one of the huge benefits and you know, has provided a lot of flexibility as far as taking care of the kids, dealing with a firefighter schedule, you know, and then running a business.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah. Wow. That's a lot. It's a lot to handle at the same time. How did the Mile Hack conference get started? What was the initial start for that?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

So actually, one of the other firefighters in Aurora had the idea and he had started the conference 10 years ago. And the conference was to benefit the benevolent fund in Aurora for the firefighters or gets hurt in the line of duty, or you have a family member that gets sick or hurt, the benevolent fund does step in and they financially help that find that family, whether that's just like helping them get a plane ticket, or you know, the worst case scenario is stepping in, you know, to help with any needs, basically, if a firefighter is hospitalized or hurt. So that's what the benevolent fund is for. And the the conference was originally started that where all of the proceeds directly go into the benevolent fund. And it has grown and become more and more popular in just a much bigger undertaking. And the gentleman who started it kind of got to a point where he was like, This is this is a lot, you know. I I really am looking to pass it on. And Ty and I were both interested and pretty involved in the department anyway. You know, Ty was already on the Benevolent Fund. I was sitting on a board with the foundation, and we were like, Yeah, you know, Ty had been teaching at the conference for a couple of years at that point, and we were like, we'll do it, you know. And so we've really tried to do him well of his vision, and we took it over last year. And it has been, you know, a learning journey. It's really fun that we get to do it together. You know, it's just like part of our life now, and I think he's really proud to see how it's grown because it has grown a lot, even just in the last two years. So we we saw the amount that the conference was growing and we turned it into a business. So taking it from just a one week in the year conference to being like, oh, okay, well, we can offer training throughout the year at this point. The demand is there for it. So that's yeah, that's kind of how it got started.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

That's fantastic. What kind of training are you are you doing? So I mean, just thinking of how my husband trains at work, they they do training on the job, and when they first start, they're doing the academy, right? So that's how they get the training. So what are what is the Mile High Conference offering?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

So they offer, we offer all different kinds of training. So the first two days of the conference are lecture-based, and we bring in speakers from again, it's like all across, and they're all different focuses. So, you know, last year, for example, like one of our lectures was a mental health focus, and it was a talk from a firefighter on the line of his experience and kind of like what led him to mental health and what treatment he received, and then how that helped. Some of the lectures are a little more tactics-based. So some of them are around, you know, specifically like, you know, engine work and why the stretch of a line is important and why it affects safety or makes the fire ground more effective. So two days are a lecture, and they sit in a lecture hall and they hear six to seven different speakers and all different topics. Some are, you know, based around leadership. So whether that's, you know, a lieutenant or a captain-focused lecture, and some, like I said, are tactics-based. And then the second two days that we call hot. So they're hands-on training. And again, those there's a multitude of different classes that they could sign up for. So those are some are live fire classes. So they do like a live burn and they're, you know, working on whether it's writ skills, where that's the, you know, firefighter rescue training. Some are really truck focused where it is on survival or, you know, forcible entry. Some are engine focused on stretching and hose placement. There's a driving and operating course specifically for engineers. There's a tactical decision-making course that's really focused on like they have them do kind of an intense workout. So they get their heart rate up a lot, and then they basically give them like a size up to do. And they're like, okay, what does this look like? So trying to simulate that same idea of like, okay, the tones dropped, you're headed to a house fire, you have to do this. So there's a wide array of like all different classes, and the people that come essentially pick which classes that they want to sign up for. And then the spouses track this year is its own little piece of that. So the spouse's track is a one-day built-out, similar to the lecture series, but a one-day built-out content piece of, you know, mental health and networking and how to manage when things go sideways when your spouse is on duty, because inevitably, like that happens. A little bit of just like recipe swaps and get to know each other, like, how long have you done this, or how long have you done this? And then the second day is similar. The spouses are going to hit the training ground and get to put on gear and spray a hose and force a door and climb a tower lap and kind of get to feel like, oh, this is hard, or this is what it feels like, or this is fun. And but the neat thing is, is where they're doing that, a lot of the other hands-on classes are happening. So while they get to try it, they can they can like literally turn around and see their spouse doing that exact thing. And you have just a little more, like, oh, you made that look really easy. And it didn't feel as easy as I thought it would be.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Wow. Have you ever tried any of that?

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, just kind of being around it a lot. You know, I get to I get to play sometimes. I haven't done I've never been on air and I've never gone into a fire. I have not done that. I would, you know, at this point, I'm like, yeah, like I'm kind of curious to see what's in there. But yeah, you know, I've picked up the irons and played with them. You know, my kids love to force the door. They think that's like super fun to do that. And so we have, you know, drag dummies for training. And my daughter thinks it's really funny to like drag them around the house to train. She really wants to be a firefighter.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And well, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Yeah. So I am also dragging a dummy, just like removing it so I'm not tripping over it in the middle of the house, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

So like a room and see like a a body.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah. I'm like, you know, hopefully no one comes in here to search my house because they'll have to be like, hey, just you know, that's a training dummy, it's not a body, like six feet in the door.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

That must be so scary. I would I'd freak out.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

I don't you get pretty used to it. You're just like, oh, this is our life.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Nice. So how did you and Ty meet?

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Ty and I actually grew up together. So we grew up in a small town above Boulder, Colorado. And so I've known him since the second grade. We didn't date in grade school or high school. We did go to a really small school, so we knew each other pretty well. But my younger sister and Ty's younger brother are very, very best of friends. And kind of years after we graduated and lived a little bit of life, they set us up kind of in a scheming way, convinced me to go to a birthday party for him. That wasn't really a birthday party. It was just a date with the two of us. And yeah, we've been together since the date, you know, it just worked out. We you it's kind of nice when you grew up in the same small town and similar in a similar way. It was like I already knew him in a way, but you know, we just it worked. So we've been together since then.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

That's a nice story, and you know the family well because your sister already. That's really sweet. That's great. Was he already planning to be a firefighter? Did you know what you were getting into?

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Yes. So Ty had already been a firefighter for several years before then. He was actually a firefighter. He had moved to Hawaii and he was a firefighter in Honolulu for several years. And then he had just come back to be closer to family. And I was still in Colorado. So when we started dating, he was on probation with Aurora. So I had never like had any experience with the fire service. You know, I don't have family in the fire service or anything like that. But I worked in healthcare, I worked in the hospital. So the whole like 24-7, 365 idea wasn't a huge issue. Like that wasn't a huge adjustment for me because that was the life of the hospital. Even though I was in an admin job, like, you know, you still have to go to the hospital on Christmas. Like, people need help. So that I think that made that transition a little bit easier. But yeah, he was on probation when we started dating. So we've been together through his whole career at Aurora.

unknown 12:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

And what do you think? What have you thought going in compared to now? How are things different?

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Yeah, it's I mean, it's really interesting. I think I went to school to study medicine. So I've always had kind of an interest in that world and helping people. So for me, it was it was more interesting than I would say like intimidating necessarily. And it was fun. You know, I think I had the same natural reaction that like a lot of people have is just like, oh, this is cool. Like he's a firefighter and he helps people, you know, and you're just like, oh, neat. And then I think as time goes, you know, by your adjustment and perspective changes too. And I've grown with him along with his career so well initially, you know, when we first got married, and you know, you're like really proud that he's a firefighter. And I would say I'm still really proud, you know. Of course, like, you know, I've listened to all of your guests, and I think all of us would say that simultaneously. Naturally, you're proud of what they do, you know, how he shows up for his crew and the community and is is wonderful. But I'd say the transition over time is now I'm really proud to be like the anchor of our family, and for him. So I take a lot of pride in being like, you know, the entire world is expecting him to show up. And when he shows up, he is their sense of hope, or they can he can fix something or maybe make their day better in an absolute like worst moment. And so for me, I'm the person he can count on. You know, like the whole world's counting on him, but he could count on me. And I just think that that's that's where my pride lies is like, you know, the fire service is unpredictable. I don't know what his shift is gonna look like. I have no idea what kind of calls he's gonna run or how busy it is, or you know, the schedule, you you do have a good idea ahead of time, but yeah, you could get mandatory or anything like that. But if I'm able to stay steady and, you know, keep us moving day to day and keep the house under control and have the confidence and independence to be like this is what needs to happen and shift quickly, that allows him to stay focused there and do what he does best, you know. So I think now, like what the world sees is the lights and the sirens and the turnout gear and the hero, and that's amazing. What they don't see is the system behind it. And you know, the families are are the system behind that. And so now I would say I'm really proud to be that, you know, that system for him.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

And you should be. I mean, I think one of the things I'm picking up on with talking to all the previous guests is you know, there's a lot more to it than when you first get into it and you don't realize oh yeah, you know, yeah, it's glorious in the beginning, the the fame and the glory kind of thing. But yeah, there is so much, so much that needs to happen for that to even be possible. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think I've asked people this before? I've asked if you think your kids would want to be firefighters, and it sounds like your daughter does. Do you think any of your kids would marry into a fire family?

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Well, so yeah, I will say that being a wife in the fire service is one thing, you know, trusting your spouse and letting them walk out the door. You, you know, you've had a couple other old wives mention this is like that that thing in the back of your head, right? Where you're like, oh man, like please come home safe. It's not something we talk about a lot, but it's something that we do live of, it's just a reality of it. My oldest son, who is 19, is in the final testing process for Aurora right now. And so that is a huge transition, I would say, going from being a wife to a mom, you know, you're letting your kids walk into this world. And I'm incredibly proud to have him do that. You know, it's very selfless thing. It's a community that I treasure and I very, very, very much trust. But also, you know, you know what he is going to see and experience. And those are the things as a mom you work so hard to protect your kids from. So you're like, it's that fine balance, right? Of being like, okay, like you're ready for this, but also, oh my gosh, that's that's my kid. So yeah, I am currently walking those those footsteps of a mom in the fire service now. And my daughter absolutely wants, you know, she's very vocal about it. She has been, you know, she's eight, and I would say since five years old, even younger, but really at five, you know, she she spends all the time at the station. She has her own gear. She, she's, she's for it. You know, when my husband, when my son was interviewing, when he was practicing his interviews, she wanted to practice interviews with him. Like she, you know, she has a class A jacket and she put it on and she's like ready to go. So I very likely have two legacies in the family. Mary Man, I don't know about the other two boys. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised at all. It's very much our life, it's very much our family and our friends. So I think that's a comfort circle for them. And they found a lot of trust and community there. So I would be, I'd be so proud if they did, and it wouldn't shock me at all. But I think at this point, we call them our bookend, so our oldest and our youngest. More likely than unlikely that you know they will they will be legacies.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

I mean, congratulations. Good for them. Best of luck.

unknown 18:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Like, I can't even put myself in your shoes right now. I I think if you've listened, you know my kids are young, so I'm not there.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Yeah. How old are they? How old are they again?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Four and almost nine months. So they're little.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Oh yeah, very, very young. I think it goes, I'm sure everybody said that, it goes fast, and all of a sudden you're just like, oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

They're 19.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I don't have a 19-year-old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

That's what everybody tells me. And my my four-year-old certainly acts like she's a grown-up.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

So yeah. Yeah, especially with girls. Yeah, having three boys and then the girl, and like my my eight-year-old little girl, some I mean, she's so mature, and some days I'm just like, How are you eight? Like, I feel like I'm having a conversation with a 20-year-old.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

That's a big age gap, 19 and 8. Wow. How was that for you? Yeah. Um, great.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

So it has worked out to where it's so funny too, because the 19 and the eight-year-old, my oldest boy and my youngest girl are also very, very similar personalities. They're not just the fire service, but just their like likes and interests are so similar. They're thickest thieves, you know. And for her, it's the coolest experience in the world, right? Like her older brother puts her in the car and takes her to get ice cream, and they, you know, that's I was the oldest. And so I'm like, you have it so good. Like, you know, she she has this older brother, three older brothers that really just like let her, you know, rule the roost and she loves it. Um, but they're each spaced out enough where it works so well for us, you know, and we just got lucky with that. I think, you know, their boys are all into kind of different, they play different sports or they're they have different interests per se. But yeah, they're all buddies and they're all old enough where they could kind of help the next. And so that was huge. You know, when they were younger, obviously. When my daughter was born, my oldest son was 10 years old, and you know, then I had a six-year-old. So it was, you know, super helpful. Like the 10-year-old could get snacks, and it just it just makes the whole thing a lot easier, you know, when there's so little, that's tiring, it's exhausting, you know. And so the age gap for us works nice.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah, that's great. That's really good. Now, what do you do in your free time, which I'm sure you don't have a lot of? What kind of stuff do you want?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Well, most of my free time, like I said, is around the training business or I sit on the board of the foundation. But when it where I go to my kids' sports, you know, my daughter plays softball, my 14-year-old plays baseball, our other boy who's 11 plays rugby and football. And so I spend a lot of time at sports fields. I love yoga. I don't get to do it very often, but we have a local yoga studio that when I get a slice of time, I will make a yoga class and try to, you know, just breathe amongst like the chaos that that lives. And we spend a lot of time at the firehouse. I'm really, really close to several of the spouses on our crew and on the job and a couple of the other ladies that work alongside my husband. So we often find our way down to the firehouse. We don't live in Aurora, but we live like 20 minutes away from the station. So it's really easy for us to get in the car and just be like, you know, we're let's go visit. And sometimes we go visit dad at his station, and sometimes we go visit like an auntie that's working at a neighboring station because I'm like, eh, we're gonna go see her today. So yeah, I I just I'm around it a lot. So I do spend a lot of time there.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

What is Ty's schedule like?

SPEAKER_02 22:02

So he's uh 24 hours on, 48 hours off. And then he's on a Kelly schedule. So I don't know if you're familiar with the Kelly schedule. They essentially based on rank bid a day. So like Ty's bid day is Saturday. So if Saturday was his shift day, he won't work that day. So he'll land a five day then.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

So it's like 24 on, 48 off, 24 on, 48 off, just sequentially. So we have three shifts A, B, and C shift.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

He's on C shift. And then yeah, every it's usually like once a month. Sometimes it will land twice a month. It kind of just depends on how the schedule falls. But yeah, he so if he was working on Wednesday, essentially, he'd be off Thursday, Friday, and then he'd work Saturday. But because Saturday is his Kelly, he doesn't work. So he'll be off Wednesday. He'll work Wednesday, then he's off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. He goes back Tuesday. So we land a five day.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Okay. And that's every Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Every Saturday, yeah. So you get to bid a day based on seniority. So like now we've hit the point where we can bid a weekend day, which is obviously the hardest days to get. But it's you also get to bid depending on like your rank, and you know, it has to be like so many lieutenants get this day, so many paramedics or whatever. But Saturdays work for us because we have a lot of sports on Saturdays. So it's just nicer because a lot of times we're dividing and conquering. You know, I'm at a softball field and he's at a rugby field or something like that. But and then if we don't have anything going on, he, you know, he can pick up overtime on his Kelly and end up working it if we need. But that's what his schedule looks like.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And if somebody calls out on his Kelly, does he get forced to come in? Or no, he'll never be forced to work a Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

I mean, if the staffing was low enough, he could get forced. They wouldn't force the Kelly's, first of all. They just force it on like a mandatory list. So, you know, your name hits the top and you're the next up, and then you go to the bottom of the list essentially and work your way back up. Luckily with our department, we haven't experienced a lot of that. Like people like to pick up over time. So, you know, you don't get mandated a whole lot. Sometimes in the summer, if the wildland, you know, guys are deployed, then that will occasionally happen. But most folks like it's been a it's been a while since we've gotten mandatory.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Yeah. Oh, it's definitely nice.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, that's really nice. Does it make it does it make it less predictable what the schedule is going to be? Because I guess for me, I already know this, like I can tell you the schedule for the rest of ever until Robbie wrote.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yeah, I could do the same thing. Yeah. If Pies stays on like his shift, C shift, it's the exact same thing. Like, unless we were to bid a different Kelly day. So unless we're like, oh, we want Wednesday, you know, that would change that one day. But no, I can look out for as long as I want and I know, you know, what days he's working. So I think a lot of people say the schedule is unpredictable, where I say the schedule is very predictable for at least our department. Like we don't get mandatory and stuff a lot. What's unpredictable is you know, the calls or the volume. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

And if they come home on time or not. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. Yeah. I always say that I'm like, oh, he'll leave about six. I'll see like six in the morning. And then I don't expect him home before 10 a.m. the next day.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Even though the shift has like ended, you know, probably at seven or eight.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Now going back a little, you mentioned you you studied medicine in school. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Yeah, I did my undergrad in pre-med. Okay. So I intended to go to medical school. I wanted to do pediatric trauma medicine, but I ended up having my oldest son. And so kind of made that decision in the moment of like, okay, do I pursue medical school or do I have this infant? And I had a decent career at that point in time and made sense to be like, I should stick with this career and do that. And then I can always go back. And I never ended up going back. And now looking back, you know, I'm I'm glad I didn't being a mom in emergency medicine is is brutal. You know, I have a couple friends that do it, and it's just it's really hard. You know, once you have kids, seeing that every day is rough, especially with now paired with, you know, what Ty does. Ty's in a really high volume, really high cutie house. He is a paramedic. And so I think having two people experience that on a daily basis would be challenging.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah, I can see that the stress level in your home would be maybe not sustainable.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Yeah, yeah, it'd be tough.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

So is everybody on his department a paramedic?

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Not everyone is a paramedic, but it is an ALS department. So I would say the majority of the department do have a paramedic. Yeah. That's a that's a seat you would sit in. So there's a firefighter, there's a paramedic, and then the the engineer, the chauffeur, and then the officer, whether that's lieutenant or captain. So a lieutenant rides on the engine, the captain rides on the ladder.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Okay. So will will it be, because I'm just kind of thinking compared to NADIC. So Robbie's lieutenant, he's on the ladder. Okay. But some shifts, he'll be put on the ambulance and somebody else will be on the ladder instead. Is that kind of how Ty's department works?

SPEAKER_02 27:19

No, not necessarily. So Ty, so Aurora is has the medical control for the city. So whenever there's a medical call, fire shows up. And like Ty, for example, is the paramedic, so he's the attending medic for that call. And then they have an ambulance company that's contracted that just transports the patient. So if it's a patient that's critical enough, Ty and another firefighter who's an EMT would get in the ambulance and ride with the patient to the hospital. If that's not necessary, then that ambulance and EMT can just transport the patient at that point. But they never get roved to an ambulance. So they're always on their assigned apparatus, whether that's the engine or the ladder, which is really nice. I mean, for them at that point. But they they still arrive and they take care of the patient and they they do all of that. I the easiest way to describe it is the ambulance is kind of like an Uber. Like, you know, it shows up and it's just there for the transport, but the fire department is providing all the medical care.

unknown 28:17

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Do you like to hear about the things that he does at work?

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah. Yeah. We, I mean, having an interest in medicine to begin with, I think helped. So I've heard a couple of the other wives talk about this. I am very much a radio listener. I'm pretty savvy listening to the radio. Enough so that I think it's funny, like some if we're somewhere together, the other wives, you know, they'll be like, What did they just say? What did what did that mean? And I'm like, oh, they're just doing this. But I do. I like to listen, I like to know what's going on. Not of curiosity and interest. You know, I have an interest in medicine. So I I will like to kind of talk through stuff with him, but you know, also obviously to just like kind of know where he's at and what's going on. But yeah, we we have a pretty open communication system. So I have a pretty decent idea of what he's seeing when he comes home.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Now, if you've listened, you've heard some of these questions before. Best part, worst part. I like hearing that kind of stuff. What what have your feelings been about it?

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Yeah, best part. I think a lot of wives have said this. The best part is fire family, like hands down. I work in what you would call corporate America. You know, it's not necessarily corporate, like a hospital system or what and whatnot, but I work in a business environment. And I have great coworkers, they're very kind, but the fire service is different. You know, I have spent a decent amount of time really getting to know a lot of the firefighters that work for Aurora and especially Tys Crew. And, you know, these are people that I can, without a doubt, trust my children's lives with in a minute. And that's, you know, that's heavy when you're a parent, you know, having that confidence in people and trust. And they're also just like, you know, they get it. They live this life, they understand the challenges, they understand difficult calls or the sense of humor, or, you know, just what the culture is like. You can show up and be really tired and you don't have to explain why you're tired. You can cancel plans, you know, last minute because it's like, ah, this doesn't work, or hey, you picked up over time. And these are the people, too, that are just, you know, they're showing up for my kids' birthdays, my kids' graduations. Like they are the people that are there without question, whether it's a celebration or whether you, you know, you need dinner made because your kid was just in the hospital and you're, you know, try and just hold together. So yeah, I'd say the fire family without a doubt is the best part. And, you know, it doesn't start overnight. You know, when I first started going to the station and visiting, I did not know anyone. I was did not grow up in the fire service. But it does grow over time. The more you go and the more you show up. And you know, like one day I just Ty's whole crew has a group chat and I just asked him, I was like, Can I have the wives numbers? I just made a group chat. Like someone's just gotta do it, you know? And if you don't want to be on it, you didn't have to, like, no sweat. But if you wanted to, great. And it's a great resource. It's like, hey, does anybody know who our eye insurance is? Or hey, like, did you guys see that wreck on the highway? Are they on that? You know, or you know, they're on duty. Does anybody want to get together and have pizza? Like, so it can be a wide variety. Sometimes it's silly memes we just send to each other, and that's great. You know, like it just takes time. It takes time to to build that. But I think one of the coolest parts too is now, you know, initially you would see some of the younger, like the newer wives come into the station and they're tentative and they kind of hang by their person, and you know, they're trying to stay out of the way. And Ty's house, especially, it's a double company house. There's a battalion chief that runs out of it, and it's the Hazmat house. So it's it's busy. You know, their tones are dropping a lot, it's loud, it's chaotic, it's busy place. And so it can be intimidating when you're like you haven't experienced that. But watching those wives who came in tentatively and they start to get to know some of the other wives in the culture, and like, you know, a couple of times later they come in and it's like they pass their kid off to another wife and they sit down finally, or they go cook something in the kitchen, or they set up a coloring table for the kids. Like all of a sudden they're at home and they're comfortable and they get a break. And watching that transition has been so cool. So, you know, getting to experience it yourself is awesome, but also kind of like cultivating that for other people that are coming in, I think is is equally as awesome. But yeah, I'd say the best part, if you don't live this, you can't explain it to somebody. You know, I've tried very hard to explain it to coworkers, and they're just like, what? But yeah, we're very, very lucky to have a very, very awesome fire family.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

That's great. That support, you can't you can't do it without it. No. Right. What about the worst part or the hardest part?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Yeah, I'd say the hardest part is aside from just like the exhaustion, you know, I think a lot of the other spouses have mentioned that whether it's physical or mental, you know, they might not go on a ton of calls in one shift, but it could be two calls that are just really mentally exhausting. And you just have to learn to like ride that wave and what that feels like. And I think as the spouse in the family, you get really good at doing that, or that starts to get easier. It's it's harder as you know, the circle expands, right? You know, family don't always understand like, why are you so tired? So that is that is hard. But I'd say the most challenging part that I didn't necessarily like consider coming in is perspective change. So, you know, once you've been in this for a while, you you do look at the world a little bit different. You know, you you understand what can happen in a split second and you're a little more aware, right? It's like you go somewhere and you know where the exits are, or you know what, you know, what happened here, what happened there. It's like you're just your senses are a little more heightened and it's a balance of living your life and you know, not being scared, but also being aware of what can happen and you know, knowing, knowing just how quickly things can change and how many people just don't, you know, they don't have any idea of of that side of it. And so I think that's probably the most challenging is that you just your your perspective does change.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

I never considered that. We have a fire plan, you must have one, but I've got a lot of families.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

I've had a fire, yeah. Yeah. This actually is very recent, and so I joke about this in my spouse track thing, is I call it shift happens because I'm like everything goes wrong on shift today. And this is a shift today. I was taking my kids to school and putting them in the car, and I noticed that right by my car it smelled a lot like my husband's gear. And like, I don't know, like you, I'm sure, can understand this, but like the gear smells a really specific smell. It doesn't just smell like a like a campfire, like grass, you know, you're like, oh wow, that stinks, you know. And I was just like, wow, that's really strong. And I thought, I wonder if he had brought it home to switch it out or something, you know. And we have a door that looks out of our garage to our back. We live on like three acres. So we have a big barn and a pasture. And as I looked outside, our barn was on fire. And we had we have ducks, and we just had this heat lamp that caught our barn on fire. And so, yeah, I mean, I ran out there and like I said, we don't live in Aurora, so we we live in like a neighboring city. And I knew right away where I could tell where it had started based on the smoke. And I poked my head in the door, and I knew by the smoke, I was like, Oh, I need to keep this closed because if I open up the garage door, the you know, the man door, like I'm gonna lose this whole thing. And it in the moment, you know, you're just like going about these things. And I did, I called Ty and I was like, Hey, barns on fire, I gotta call 901. And such an, you know, he's like, What? Okay, and I did. I just called it in. And even calling it in, it was just like, Hey, yeah, you have a barn fire, like there's no people or animals in it. This is where it started, but it's full smoke. Like you, you have a full fire response, you know. Very casually, just you know, it probably didn't sound as casual then, but even just a lot more so than I think the average person being like, Well, yep, this is what's going on. Did you see? Yeah, and luckily we I saved the ducks. Our ducks were like in a little pin on the backside. I don't know how our ducks survived, to be really honest. They was wild, but they did. I just ran in and grabbed them and put them in a little like metal barn trough thing. The ducks are fine, they're doing great, they have a great new home. Um, and we will re fill. But it was, you know, after it was all said and done and going through, you know, dealing with insurance and like inventorying all of your items and just all of and when they do show up and you're so conditioned to be like, please do this, please do that, you know, you know what's supposed to happen. It feels almost, I don't know, like more slow motion because you're just like in my head, I was just waiting for like all of these steps to happen that I've listened to so many times or I've, you know, talked through so many times. And so that part is really hard because it also wasn't like our crew, our guys, you know. But it does make you have a lot more empathy for the folks that he's running on this with, you know, it's just like, oh, this is what they experience when you show up to their house and having a little bit more, just like, okay, that's hard for them to watch that, or this is gonna be a long road, but this will turn out okay, or you know, don't just throw everything on the ground to try to see what's behind here, like be cautious of their belongings, you know? And so I think trying to make light out of what was kind of a bummer of a situation, you know, it wasn't our house, it was our barn, our animals were fine, we were fine. So we got very lucky in all of that. It could have been much worse. And yeah, just I think taking away the positive lesson of just like, okay, well, you know, we're always on the other side of this, right? And so how do you show up a little bit differently or be a little bit more empathetic in that moment to those people that are standing on the curb watching all of their belongings burn, you know?

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Right. I mean, I've never been near a fire, so I don't know what it feels like, but imagine that it would be just the most terrifying thing in the world. So good for you for keeping your cool. That's pretty awesome. You'd be a great firefighter. I don't know. So any funny stories, any things that you want to share, anything that comes to your mind, knowing um, well, I mean, yeah, that we have the barn fire, the shift happens.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Like I said, Ty is at a high volume, high cutie house. He runs a lot of stuff. I often joke that I'm like, you know, we're in Colorado, we're like a landlocked state, we're nowhere near the ocean. And I say oftentimes I'm like, he could come home at this point and be like, there was a great white shark in the road today, and be like, oh, okay. Like, you know, it's there's just enough wild things that you're like, yeah, not surprising. One of my, I will say, favorite stories is they do run on a homeless lady who lives in a culvert that is kind of on the on-ramp of like the main, one of the main highways through Aurora. So they run on her often. She is homeless, you know, and she likes to start fires in that culvert, usually probably to stay warm or, you know, whatever she's doing. You know, sometimes it's a medical call to take care of her, but they've gotten to know her. And over getting to know her, you know, they like, I think a lot of people don't always realize that they do get to know several people in the community. There are, you know, these people that call a lot. And they talked to her and found out that she loved painting and had talked to her about painting and stuff on this one call. And, you know, a couple shifts later, they were coming back from another call, and sure enough, like fire in the culvert. So the crew stopped, and they've got to talk to this lady and be like, please don't light fires in the culvert. Like, cars are gonna have in the freeway. We can't do that. And she had lit a fire because she painted them a picture and she didn't know how to get a hold of them. She's homeless, she doesn't have a phone. So she was like, If I lick this fire and you guys would come, I saw you drive by. And so they had to have the conversation of like, okay, well, we can't do that. But she gave them this photo or this painting that she had done, and it hangs in the firehouse. And it's, I mean, it's kind of just like a cool thing, like she is summoning the community that they are serving, and it's a good reminder that you know, these are people, right? And so, and it's there, and everybody kind of has a chuckle about it, like, oh, there's the culvert painting, you know. But yeah, you just you never know. There's a bazillion things, you know. If we don't typically watch the like fire shows on TV we have every now and then, and it's almost maddening because you're like, they could have way better stories than this. Like, this is nothing, you know.

unknown 41:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

Yeah, I feel like they're just not realistic most of the time. The things they say and do not never happen in in any fire department. One question that I often like to ask is any advice you would give? And it sounds like you have a I I love the group message, so that's maybe advice to give to start a group message with with other fire spouses. Anything else that comes to your mind?

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Yeah, I mean, I would just say get involved, just go. Like, just go to the station if if that's okay with the department that you know your partner works for, obviously. But if there's a walk-off ceremony or if there's a promotional ceremony, or if the anything, like just go, just go, just show up and go because there are other people that are looking for connection. Like there are. And so the more you go, you'll start to recognize faces and introduce yourself. Introduce yourself to the firefighters and the spouses. You know, I will say that some of my very, very, very closest friends are other female firefighters that work alongside my husband. And so it's not just spouses that I've made friendships with, you know, it is the other people on the line. But yeah, go. And then really, like we started showing up to the station, and then Ty was working holidays, you know, that naturally happens. And he just asked, you know, one time he was like, Hey, does anybody want to see if their family wants to come down for dinner? And a couple of us were like, Yeah, we'll come. Like, why not? And it started as like two of us throwing up, two or three of us, you know, years ago. And it's grown into like that is a hard tradition now. Like, you know, a lot of spouses I think say they hate when their firefighter lands a holiday. And my hot take would be like, I absolutely love when Ty works holidays. Firehouse holidays are my favorite holidays. So, like Thanksgiving, for example, if Ty doesn't work Thanksgiving, whether because it's three shifts, so he's either gonna work the shift before the shift after. We do Thanksgiving, like full stop. And so the spouses, and but that's how I got the spouse text message thing started was like I had met like two or three wives, and I just asked Ty, I was like, Can you ask so and so if they can just send me their wife's number? And then I just started like slowly being like, Hey, as I be like, Do you want to be in our group chat? Like, sure, you know. I would just add them. And I tell people too, I'd be like, if you don't want to, like, please don't feel like you have to be included. But that's kind of how the group chat got started is like we would show up and we're like, what did they get to cook? What are you know, like if we could talk about this, it'd be a lot easier. So but now yeah, we do Thanksgiving and Christmas together every year. And the spouses show up. We show up early and we cook. So we all pitch in cooking together. The guys will like get stuff started, but they're busy running. So it's like now nothing has to turn off. So we all cook together in the kitchen and some of us cook, some of us, like this last year for Christmas. One of the other wives set up a gingerbread making thing in the bay, which for all the little kids, which was super fun. And our kids range from, like I said, I have a 19-year-old, but all the way down to like babies, you know. And we have a bunch of three to nine-year-olds, a bunch. But yeah, we they made gingerbread houses. So one wife is doing that, and sometimes we're just hanging out, but we cook, we can cover them the food when the crew runs out, and then we uncover it. But the kids show up in their pajamas, they run around, and by the end of the night, they're tired. So we get to take them home, put them to bed. It was easy for us. There's no cleanup, it's favorite plates, so it just goes in the trash. Yeah. But yeah, we that's really how that's grown. I would just say show up, or if there's a holiday, just be like, hey, is it okay if my family comes by? Even if it's just for dessert, like if they don't want to cook a whole meal or whatever, you know, it's like, bring a dessert, you know, bring cookies or bring brownies or whatever, and it you'll get to know people, and that's it's so fun. And you know, now I have a really close group of friends, and my kids have friends that are the other firefighters' kids, and that's awesome. You know, it's it's easy for us. Last year he worked Easter, and so we showed up at the firehouse, all the wives, and instead of having to like do our own Easter egg hunts, we clipped eggs to the crew on all of their uniforms and then let them loose and let all the kids like pull the eggs off of them. It was hilarious, it was a blast. And again, it like was easier for us because we were all there. Like some of us brought eggs, some of us brought like squirt guns, whatever, you know, bubbles. We kind of just divided and conquered in the group chat and then showed up. And the kids left happy and exhausted, and we had done it. And like the spouse doesn't miss out on the holiday, right? You know, they're not like, oh man, my family's doing this. It's like, no, you you spent the day with your family.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

Right. And happen to also be working.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Right. And so it's like, that's awesome, you know. And at least here, I mean, I don't know what it's like in Natick, but holidays can can be rough, you know, they can be really busy call volume days, or and so I think even for the crew, it's like you don't know what they're coming back from, but when they come back and they pull in the bay, it's like, you know, we're all there having a time, the kids are running around. And so it's just a nice like little switch, I think, to be like their kids run up to them, they're excited to see them, they're chasing them around, they're playing basketball, gives them that like however long it is, whether it's five minutes or 20 minutes, like that reprieve of just like a reset.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Right. It reminds them of real life.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then they're a little more like ready to go for whatever is coming next. And you know, I wasn't sitting at home alone and trying to do this all by myself, and they weren't there feeling like they'd missed out. And so we don't like I don't go do holidays with family on my own. You know, we do holidays together. Like, so if ties on duty, we go to the firehouse, and then we do Christmas on another day, and that works just fine.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Yeah, right, especially when they're young, it really is not a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

No, and they grow up around it, like your, you know, your kids are so little, you know, mine grew up in it too. And I think they have a great sense of like empathy and understanding now, and pro like that is how they get the pride, right? Of just being like, oh no, like somebody really needed help. This is a fun day, and they're not having a fun day, but we can help them, and that's how they're helping them is being understanding that dad or mom is the one that has to go and help out for a few minutes and they'll be back. But you know, I think that's that's how you build that pride instead of like resentment.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Now you mentioned that some of the female firefighters are some of your best friends. What advice is you know it can be hard being married to a firefighter, right? They're gone or at least I imagine most firefighters two days out of the week. What advice would you give me? Yeah, two or three days, right? What advice would you give to a new firewife who has trouble with the idea that there are females on the fire department, right? Like somebody get to know them.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Yeah, I would say get to know them. Um, they can be your absolute like best resource and advocate. You know, they they're doing that job, so they're seeing what your spouse is seeing and they're living that same experience. But also, like a lot of times, they are a mom or they are a wife, or they are they do have a female perspective. So, you know, it's just different. You're able to say, like, oh, what's going on with this, or why was this, you know, I think asking a question, they're able to translate it maybe a little bit differently. Because, you know, we like from my experience, girls will ask a lot of questions. Like, we want to know all the details, right? And I think you don't always get that. So you're like, what was this? You know, how how was the night? And it was one great. And sometimes that's an okay, you know, that's the answer, and it's okay. But you're able to be like, oh, you know, what's to deal with this, or and I just think, yeah, the more you get to know them, you have much better understanding and comfort for you know, having them there and just the trust that you can have in them. And I think that's that's all that needs to happen. Is once you once you go and talk to these ladies and get to know them, a lot of times you're just like, oh wow, they're they're awesome. Like they're great, you know. And it could be like that in any job. You know, I work with executives, and so it's intimidating, you know, they're it no matter what world you're in, you know. Yes, they live together, they eat care meals and all of that, but you know, the they're awesome, I would say. Just put yourself out there and get to know them because they're they're probably feeling a lot of the same way, right? Like they see the spouse come in and they're like, oh no, you know, I'm sure it's nerve-wracking for them. So the more that you just are open and be like, hey, I'm so-and-so, you know, like I need to meet you. I think it just like brings the room down a little bit and makes everybody feel a little more comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

I think you're probably right. And even just kind of hearing how Robbie talks about some of the female firefighters that he works with, like they are they are one of the guys, right?

SPEAKER_02 50:57

They're yeah, I mean, they'll always say they'll be like, This is like living with my brothers. I mean, and that's exactly how I imagine it. I'm like, I have a little girl and she has three older brothers, and I see how she interacts with her little brothers. And when I go and hang out with my girlfriends who are on the job, I'm like, gosh, you're just like my daughter. Like, just you know, that is they're that's exactly how they interact. It's like living with their brothers, you know, they're like they tell them they're like, You're smelly, or you're stinky, or you're the you know, like that's exactly the life they're living. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

And I love that, right? And I just think there should be any field where it's a big deal that there are female or male, whatever it is, but that's the world we live in. And so I just, you know, it's nice to see people making strides in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm a huge, huge advocate of the ladies on the line. And it's important to me too. You know, I have a daughter who wants to do this, and yes, her dad does it, and she's super excited to follow in her dad's footsteps. But, you know, when she sees her Auntie Lindsay geared up and doing that, you know, my goodness, like that is just the coolest thing in the world for her, you know. That is that is she gets to see herself doing that. And so I'm so appreciative of them doing what they do because it does give her that exact, like, you can do this role model. And I think that's that's so awesome, you know. And she calls them all our kids, you know, all the fire crew, they're either uncles or aunties.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

So I like that.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

It's really fun for the schools if you do that. Like my poor daughter's teachers, they're like, How many uncles does your daughter have? Like, she's like 40 uncles. I'm like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

That's one of the fire uncles.

SPEAKER_02 52:30

Yeah, I'm like, yeah, she has this into enormous. But to her, you know, like they are, they are just like my husband's brother and my sister, you know, they are no different. And that's exactly how I view them too. You know, they are no different, they are her uncles and aunties, and I love that, you know, even we're so lucky where we are that, you know, even to the chief of department knows her by first name, and he is Uncle Chief, you know, and I think that's just like the coolest thing, you know, he he's all about like the family side of it too. And uh it's it's really cool that the kids get to experience that. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Yeah. Now, am I making a big assumption that everybody in your family must ski a lot?

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Yeah, that is an assumption. My husband, Ty, was a competitive skier in high school, and he he did that a lot. But I think after doing it so much in high school and competing, you know, it does take a toll on you. And we we grew up very, very close to a ski resort, and so it was our life growing up, but then after that, you're kind of just like, well, over it. So we don't actually ski. Yeah, I don't ski at all. The kids we've taken once or twice, but yeah, we don't get up there too often.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

It's also really, really expensive. It's so much money, it's crazy. Yeah, my husband ski, I'm not a skier or a snowboarder or anything, but I think Colorado is one of the places that he either went or wanted to go skiing or something. So I you know, I know it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

It is, it is, and it's pretty, but I I don't love the really cold. So I'm always like, oh, I'm I'm good without it. But yeah, we don't we don't ski. We spend a lot of time outside, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

What's the summer like there?

SPEAKER_02 54:18

This summer it's gonna be real hot.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:21

Usually Carto summers are beautiful, but it's just gotten really hot early. So it's been like the 80s in March, which means in the summer it'll be hot and dry. And it is really dry here, really, really dry. So yeah, it'll be July not, I guess they're gonna be real hot and real dry, but springs are beautiful, you know. It's like 60, 70, 80 degrees and blue sky, and it is pretty. It is a it's a pretty place to live.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Um any last thoughts, anything that you wanted to mention?

SPEAKER_02 54:55

No, I like I said, I think it's cool what you're doing. It is it's interesting to listen to the different episodes in here. Like you said, trends of similarities of wives. I think there is a lot of similarity amongst most of us.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

You know, the takeaways and stuff. But yeah, I would just say, if anything, yeah, get involved. And when you find when you do, when you find your community, it just makes it so, so much easier. And not even easier, but just like rewarding and something that's awesome. You know, it's not just about being easier, but it is about like this is your life, you know. Your your spouse may be a firefighter, but your life is the fire service. It really is, it impacts a lot of aspects of your life. And so, you know, make it good. You know, get involved and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Right. You're not just the supporting character, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:47

Like it's also No, no, you're absolutely a part of fire service. Yeah, like you're in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

Yeah. Wow. Anything you'd want me to talk about with future guests? Anything that you wish I would ask people? Gosh.

SPEAKER_02 56:06

I think, like I said, the the I joke all the time, the shift happens. Just hearing other like what's gone wrong for you and your spouse is on duty. Sometimes it's a good one. It's funny then it's nice to be able to like look back and laugh. You know, both times my daughters need stitches, my spouse is on duty. Like when my son broke his arm, my husband was on duty. Like it's inevitable, right? But I think it just gives you a little like, oh, okay, I'm not alone. Like that happens to everyone aspect, but it's it's also sometimes funny. I bet I bet you could get some wild stories of things that go wrong inevitably. Yeah, you totally can. Yeah, I always joke that that's you know, I'm like, oh, shift happens, like it just goes sideways, and the universe knows. Yeah, so that's kind of fun. I think your questions, though, they do they do span the experience, and that's awesome, you know. And where people are from, that's really interesting. It seems like a lot of the guests you maybe know from Natick.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

So I started it off, it's it has mostly been the Natick Firewives. Yeah, that's cool. Which is cool. It's it's been fun for me, but I also recognize that people who are listening don't know these people. So it's maybe not quite as fun for them to listen to it. But for me, it's been great to get to know people one-on-one because I go to conference, right? And I get to know them, but a lot of times it's hard to get that like I never would have thought to ask one of them, hey, what did you go to college for? Right. So we're busy and talking and a million things. So so that part has been really fun for me. But I've been trying to- Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 57:41

Yeah, it was interesting because like I had never heard of Natick, you know, and I'm in Colorado. I know Boston, we have we have some buddies on the Boston Fire Department. So I was like, Oh, how close is that to Boston? So I was doing my research. I was like, how big is it? You know, like how many stations do you have? Just to kind of get an idea. Because that's another thing, right? Like your experience, it depends on you know what city are in, how many stations. So it's like, oh, okay, how similar is it? Oh, well, well, it's like, you know, Natick in my world would be like, oh, okay, that's kind of like Boulder, you know, I can relate that to be like, oh, okay, got it. So I think that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

For sure. It's been super different depending on who I talk to. I think it sounds like Aurora is a little bit busier, a little bit wilder than what Natick sounds like, but just from the stories that you're telling.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

Yeah, so Aurora has like they're getting ready to open their 18th station. Oh wow. So just for like context, like my husband's station is an engine and a ladder, and then the hazmat. And so the engine he runs on ran 5,600 calls last year, just the engine he ran, he runs on.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

I think that's the end that kind of made it glass year or something along those lines.

SPEAKER_02 58:51

But it's yeah, so it's just like, but he's also in a really busy spot, you know, as you get to the outskirts, he's a bit slows down just like any other like department there. But yeah, it it's busy, you know. They we share borders with Denver. And so there's a lot of mutual aid between those two departments where it's like, oh, this might be Denver, this might be Aurora. But yeah, we're we're growing, fasting on it is Aurora can continue to grow. So that'll be interesting as that happens.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

And I mean, the fire service gets busier and busier every year, right? They get so many. It really does.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Yeah, but it is interesting. I mean, whether you're in a like you said, you know, Nadick's a little smaller, or we've we have friends in Boston, we've been to New York, like it is so interesting that you know, you can visit a firehouse across the whole United States, and it's kind of the same thing no matter where you go. You know, when you go in, it's like, oh yeah, this is just like home, you know, that you find the similar similarities pretty quick. But I think that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Yeah, for sure. I also would say the opposite, though. I mean, how how they can all have completely different schedules, it's the same, in theory, the same job, right? But it's completely different. It's so crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

Yeah, I'd say just like the you know, the vibe, I guess, the personalities. Yeah, when you walk in and you're just like, oh, okay, this is a fire world. Yeah, it's very much so. It's like and it's like they know you walk in and they're like, Oh, where do you work? And like everything they know right away. There's no hiding it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Yeah, right, exactly. Wow. Well, thank you so much for your comment. This was so nice. Thank you for reaching out for everything. So good luck with your conference. I hope it goes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

Yeah, like I said, reach out if you have a name thing. You're doing awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Thanks. Good luck to the conference. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

Okay, bye. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed being here as much as I did. If you have any questions for me or if you'd like to be interviewed, please reach out at the firewivespodcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Tune in next week for the next episode of Firewives.