Passing the Torch : Eric Kennedy on Leadership, Training, and a Life of Service in the Fire Service

In this episode of Frontline Voices, we sit down with Eric Kennedy, Fire Lieutenant with the Kendallville Fire Department, Assistant Fire Chief of the Corunna Volunteer Fire Department, and Indiana District 3 Instructor of the Year.
With decades of experience in both volunteer and career firefighting, Eric shares his journey into the fire service, the lessons he's learned through leadership, and the passion that drives his commitment to training the next generation of firefighters. From his first major fire at the historic McCray Refrigerator Complex to leading regional training programs in farm rescue, grain bin emergencies, and auto extrication, Eric offers a unique perspective on what it takes to serve and lead in today's fire service.
We also discuss the challenges facing volunteer departments, the importance of mentorship, the role of family support in a firefighter's career, and how strong training programs help build stronger communities.
Whether you're a firefighter, EMT, first responder, or community member, this conversation is filled with insight, experience, and a reminder of the dedication required to answer the call.
Join us as we hear the story of a firefighter, instructor, leader, and mentor who continues to shape the future of the fire service across northeast Indiana.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:04

This is Frontline Voices. Conversations with our local heroes. Here's your host, Matthew Blake.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

Eric, thank you for stopping by, taking some time out of your much very, very busy schedule to sit down and tell us some stories about your experience in the fire service and some of the things that you've got going on. Yeah, it's a pleasure. So starting off, tell us who Eric Kennedy is and what inspired him to become a firefighter.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I'm just another human being. Just another guy out there just doing something he enjoys. I was 17 years old running around with some guys around Corona. One of them, his dad, uh, was on the fire department for years, and his grandfather was the fire chief forever back in the 80s, uh 70s, 80s, and I think even into the 90s a bit. And one day he said, Hey, what do you think about going to be fireman? I said, Well, I don't know, I've never been a fireman. So I we went ahead and you know put in some applications, and uh those two got got we turned they turned in their stuff, and I kind of held on to mine an extra minute, and uh my first application got lost. Um, so I checked back up and reapplied and all that, and I became a corona firefighter in May of 2008. Uh 17 years old. And I don't know, something just hooked, something just clicked, and I've done it ever since. Uh just what I do. I don't know. I don't know much more about it. It's other than it's what I enjoy, it's what I do.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

So, really, from the time that you you got to the working age, that's all you've really known is the fire service getting in and uh yeah, from a volunteer standpoint, really.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Um uh my goal in high school, you know, I wanted to do agriculture, I wanted to wanted to farm, um, but I didn't come from the right family uh to inherit, you know, farming opportunities, or I didn't have enough money to buy it. So I worked uh worked close with a good friend of mine and and did dairy farming and helped him on the farm um till I was about 23 and then uh obviously decided needed to do something different, and so the next option was plumbing. My father was a plumber, my grandfather was a plumber, so I did a plumbing apprenticeship, and all while still being a volunteer firefighter, and never really thought. I thought once about full-time, you know, back in my younger years. I called down the Fort Wayne because your options was Fort Wayne. Um, and you know, they said, Well, we're not gonna do an academy for a few years, you gotta be 21. And then I, you know, heard the stories of you know, thousand people going for 15 jobs and you know, big written exams at the Coliseum, and I said, Well, uh, that's not me. They're not gonna they're not gonna pick me out of all those other people. So I just was content and enjoyed being a volunteer until the opportunity came to in 2018, uh 2017, Kendaville opened up their first outside hiring process, and I had some guys from over that way from Kendaville that kind of, hey, you ought to try this, you ought to do it. And I talked to my wife about it, and she ultimately said I didn't think I stood a chance. Uh she ultimately kind of pushed me into going to do it. And then so I've been doing that now as a career. So I wouldn't say uh it's all I've ever known, but it's been everything I've ate, breathed, and slept for the last eight years now.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

Taking it back to those first days in the firehouse, what was that like walking in and like you know, big eyes? What did you experience?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, I was a little nervous, uh, for sure. You know, you don't know all these people, and there's so many different age ranges. Uh, there were some guys that were I was the youngest one there. Uh the two buddies that I got on the fire department with, in the time it took me with the lost application, they kind of lost interest a bit and kind of went and did different things. So I was now in there with myself and a couple people that were a few years older than me, but also some people in their 30s and 40s. Um, but just a great group of guys that kind of they were just excited to see someone young coming in the door wanting to work and wanting to do it, and I just molded real quick, you know. Guys were helpful. Uh my my assistant chief at the time, Mike Wiley. You know, he brought me in right away. You know, hey, let's go find you some gear, let's get you some stuff, get me got me some gear, got first training, you know, show me how to work the nozzle, all of this. I didn't know any of this stuff, didn't grow up anywhere around it. And then, you know, when we had truck check nights, Mike would take me out driving, you know, drive the truck a little bit. He'd set his, we had this whole tanker and it had just a regular like plywood center council, and he'd set a styrofoam cup of coffee on it and say, if you spill my coffee, you failed the trip.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

You know, a little pressure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah. Uh, but it was just it was just really, you know, the guys really took me in and immersed me in it. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

So going back to that, you you know, you'd mentioned your buddies that had gotten into it and then they kind of fell out of it. What has kept you committed all these years to stay with the fire service?

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I'm too dumb to quit. I I don't know. I mean, so if I don't do it, who's going to? Like, obviously, it became a career, and I love the job. I love the career side of it. I love the guys I work with, I love going to work, um, and being in that atmosphere. But on the volunteer side of it, I mean, it is if I'm not gonna answer the call, who is? You know, who's gonna show up or who's gonna help out? And I know what the department and the fire service did for me growing up, so it's I'd want to give something back to it, you know. My wife has a saying, you know, leave it better than you found it, and I kind of embod I want to embody that. Um, just try to make the Corona Fire Department better, you know, try to make the town people better and help out however we can.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Going into that, which you've kind of touched on, with the many years that you spent serving your community through the Corona Volunteer Fire Department, what does volunteer firefighting mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

So the reality of it is budgets are tight, money's tight, staffing isn't a realistic option for a lot of areas and agencies. Uh, there's a lot of volunteer fire departments that are still fundraising just to provide the essentials they need for their services. So volunteers are a way that we can get quality fire protection, quality uh rescue, EMS services in a shorter amount of time to our communities that are underfunded, that don't have the ability to do that. Um, but it's it's a it's also kind of a way of life thing, and it becomes kind of a family, at least in our department, you know, where these are now the people you yeah, you see them when the pager goes off, but then you, you know, they call you if they need a hand moving something, or if you need, you know, to borrow a tool, or you just got a question or whatever. I mean, then they they become a family to you, and it builds in that environment where these people are, I mean, they're like your second family.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Speaking about that, so you made that transition from volunteer to career firefighter. What makes Corona so special that you you wanted to maintain that relationship there? What what sets Corona apart?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Uh, it's the people. I mean, it's the town, it's the people, it's I mean, some of the some of the firefighters and and officers that I work with there are some of the best salt of earth people I know. Uh Dennis Triesch was the fire chief when I started as a fire chief for 30 plus years. Dennis has talked to me at good times and you know, given me praise, and he's also corrected me and steered me on the right path um and helped to shape me into a better human being. And you know, Sean, our fire chief now, and uh you know, same way uh Mike tell us he's the he's our treasurer. If I need any, if I got any kind of financial quit, I call him. I mean, these are just the people that I I want to be with. I mean, it's fun, it's enjoyable to be there. And if it's not enjoyable, I don't know 100% why I would want to be there, but it is an enjoyable place to be. Uh, the people make it great to be there, and we're also doing work and serving a purpose and making a difference, uh, whether that be emergency calls. But in Corona, uh, we kind of we try to do a lot more commute, we do community-oriented stuff too. You know, we do our kids' day in the park where we spray the kids down and hand out backpacks, and I got some younger neighbor kids that live next to me, and every year them kids start asking about April, you know, once the weather breaks and they're outside, hey, you guys gonna do the park thing? You guys gonna do the park thing? And I feel like we're kind of one of the backbones of the community, it kind of helps hold together. And I like being part of that. I like interacting with the people.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

That's really cool because yeah, community involvement is such a huge thing, and and you know, not trying to throw shade at more of the career departments, but it seems like kind of that that touch starts to fade away once you once you get into that aspect a little bit, not as not as much. Um so taking it back from your experiences from 17 till now, how has Corona changed?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Oh, well, so obviously we changed fire chiefs somewhere in there, which was a huge thing. I know in the volunteer fire service that's not that's not a rarity. Some departments will you know, they change chiefs every three, four, five, six years. Uh, but for us to change fire chiefs was a huge deal. Um, so that's been a big change for us. Uh I've seen a lot of faces come, a lot of faces go. Um, seen kind of a little bit of a change in the guard. Guys like Mike Wiley, like I talked about, Mike. You know, Mike's not been with us for a number of years. Life changed, kids grew up, you know, job and moving. And I mean, Mike, he still stops stops by sometimes, but some of the guys that I come on with, they're gone now. Uh, but we're also bringing in some new guys, and that shoot, we've replaced uh like half the truck since I've been there, you know. You know, we've we've re you know, a lot of things have had have changed, but overall, I wouldn't the quality of people is still there. We still have a great quality of people. Um, you know, we're probably a little shorter on quantity than we'd like to be some days, um, but I think that's a that's a national problem, not just a corona problem, but I don't know. I don't know that a ton has really overly changed as far as the feel of it. Just some faces, some some things, and obviously techniques. You know, we've progressed with the fire service, replaced a lot of our older equipment and you know, battery-powered jaws versus the other, you know, smooth board nozzles and low pressure hose versus our old, you know, cheap hose and you know, fog nozzles and stuff. So, I mean, we've evolved with the fire service, but the department still has that same homey feel to me.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

That's and that that's that's true. The fire service continues to evolve. If you stop, you're falling behind. You gotta stay, you gotta stay with it. So in 2025, you were named Corona Firefighter of the Year. What did that recognition mean to you coming from your peers?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Oh, so I'm I'm not big on recognition, to be honest with you. Um like I said earlier, I'm just another guy doing a job that anyone else would do. If I didn't do it, somebody else would probably pick up the slack. Um, it was nice, it was well appreciated, uh, appreciated, you know, to know that the people that I try to work for and work with, you know, saw something and appreciated it for sure. But uh I'm also, you know, that also with Corona, that puts me on a committee for the next three years to try to pick the next three. And for me, that's more of the excitement is more just being able to now pick three more people and have you know help recognize three more people that are doing something extraordinary for the next three years.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

That's really cool. That's that's cool how that process works. That you get to be a part of that next that next selection cycle and and so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Um you're good.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

So I you already kind of touched on it, but I wanted to ask you as a firefighter, did you have a mentor who shaped your career? And what advice did they give you that still sticks with you today?

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Oh I've had a lot. Obviously, I've kind of mentioned a few of them, you know, Wiley kind of getting me into it, and Sean and Dennis, and you know, then they've just I don't know that I have one specific piece of advice per se. Um just kind of emulating them. You know, I kind of I tell people this find successful people and just kind of emulate what they do, watch how they handle certain certain situations and react to things, and you just kind of do the same thing they're doing, and it really isn't that difficult. I mean, to make yourself better. Um I I like I said, I don't necessarily have one specific piece, but I know there's multiple things where you know different sit-downs with Dennis, where he, you know, where I was a young, cocky, kind of even arrogant, um, you know, young man that thought he really had was something special. And Dennis would he would sit you down, he would talk to you, and you know, a lot of times a fire chief or a boss or an employer will yell at you, and you can walk away and say, Oh, that guy's a jerk. But Dennis would sit there and when he would talk to you, he would make you, it would be like your dad talking to you, and you would he would you oh I'm just I'm disappointed. And you really felt like a piece of crap, like a real piece of work, because you really let down this guy. Um, this mountain of a man is now disappointed in your actions or something you said, or the way you handled something, and it it really did it, it was very formulative towards me, like it helped form me. I didn't ever walk away going, uh, this guy's a jerk. I'm like, I always walked away going, oh man, I need to do better. You know, when and when there might be a bulk address, you know, like we would have he might, and during a business meeting, but hey, you know, I noticed last training or work detail we had, you know, attendance was a little light or something, something you know, kind of getting on us a little bit, like trying to push us. You might have been at that training and you still walked away feeling like, oh man, I I should have done better. I was there, but I still feel bad, right? And you would and I would go up and say, Hey, I'm sorry, Chief. I I you were there. I know, but I'm sorry. No, don't you're fine. You know, he just he had that way about him. Uh it still does, still does carry that same weight, even in with me. I mean, so I I still look to him for advice on different things, um, even though he's not fire chief anymore.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Don't want to disappoint the old man.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

No, no, he's he's a mountain of a man, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

So now, as assistant chief, what leadership lessons have you learned?

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Oh boy. So, leadership over the last several years has been probably one of the biggest things I've tried to better myself in. Because leadership, I the more I found in it, it's about relationships with people and building relationships and building trust and rapport and trying to leadership isn't trying to get things to people to do things, it's trying to build people to do things on their own. Um so become an assistant chief, though, the biggest thing I've you know, come being a company officer in the city and even in can in Corona, it's the political side of things. It's now trying to work with not only the firefighters, they're easy. I mean, we can talk with them like firefighters and we can interact and all that, but it's a different political personalities and the different uh circles you run in, you know, you go to and building relationships outside of the department with other agencies, you know, like with uh with you know, Chief Brand or you know, go to the chief's meeting and talk to other people there, or you know, running into a township trustee or a town board member, and just building those relationships outside of the four walls of the Corona Fire Department has been that's been the biggest adaptation for sure.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Now that you're in that administrative role, I have to ask you, what keeps volunteers motivated when balancing jobs, family, and emergency response?

SPEAKER_00 17:33

They gotta have there's gotta be something there for them. So I don't believe the volunteer fire service is uh dying due to money. Uh we changed the policy, uh, worked with the town, Dennis and Sean did, and they began paying us to go to runs uh a nominal amount. That didn't change run attendance. Uh they pay us to uh you know do some certain things. That didn't really change anything. You didn't see anyone come out of the woodwork all of a sudden. The same people did the same things. So I don't think it's money that motivates them. I think there has to be, like I said, it's gotta be in fun. There's gotta be something in it for them. Uh what that is, you know, it it varies from person to person. Some people are join a volunteer fire department, they have a career goal in mind, and they're working through to try to get to that job, get their training, get experience, all those things. Uh some people, it's a bad thing. Maybe they don't have a great home life. You know, they're younger, maybe they don't have great, you know, role models. So they get in with some people and they get a fat balance of things, and that changes for them. There's just there's gotta be, and it's it's different for everyone, like I said, but there's gotta be something that makes it enjoyable, something to why they want to come back. And it's to feel like they're part of something bigger than just themselves. I think that's what we all want. We're humans naturally, we want we want to be part of something other than just us. So we want to be around people we want to be around, we want to enjoy the people we're around. And yeah, be honest, they don't mind doing work when they're around people they like, right? You know, the work isn't bad when you like the people you're with, when you have that connection. So I think I think that's a big thing is you know, building connections with people and figuring out what motivates them, what makes them want to be here.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

Right on. Yes, absolutely. I I 100% agree with you on that. This next one, I need you to switch hats. So take off the white hat. Great, put on the I'm assuming it's red. Your lieutenant hat.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah, yeah, it's it was red at one point. Okay. The guy's joke, it's a little more burgundy now.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

So you're a lieutenant with the Kennethville Fire Department. Yeah. What does that mean for people that aren't familiar with the fire service?

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Well, so within our organization, so I'm the company officer. So typically that would be a person in charge of an apparatus or a sh for a station. Uh, for us, we have one officer per shift. So I am the officer for the C shift. Uh anyone that knows C shift is the greatest shift, okay, or do that with any other career person. No. Uh, so I oversee kind of the day-to-day with the guys, you know, making sure they got what they need, helping them get the things that they need, and it just, you know, getting the things done, our trainings, our truck checks, our emergency runs, uh, you know, pre-plans, inspections, all the things, station projects, and just kind of being that that middleman, you know, taking trying to take their issues from the bottom, um, looking for a solution to take to the top, and then taking the the solutions that the top wants fixed and trying to implement them to the bottom. Kind of that middleman a little bit, and the buffer. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

I like that the buffer. The buffer that works good. Okay, going back, your first major fire with the Kennelville Fire Department was the McRae refrigerator complex fire in 2018. What do you remember about that incident?

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Oh, I can close my eyes and go back through a lot of that. So I started April 16th of 2008, which is or 2018. I don't know why I can remember that date, but I can. Um, and I started on a day shift, uh, as all the career guys did. At that time, the staffing for the Kentville Fire Department was uh 24 hours a day. We kept one person in each firehouse. And then during the day, we would have three chiefs and a day, one or two-day personnel when we were fully staffed. So at night you were by yourself and you were the operator of the truck and all that kind of stuff. So that's why we started everyone on days. Well, I come in with quite a bit of driving and pumping and operating experience, and there were some things we were trying to move around. So I had started my 24. Our shifts about four shifts prior to that Sunday. And I say it's Sunday, I always remember it's Sunday, it's actually Monday morning. So they did we did that just so I had those first four shifts with people around during the day if I had questions and and you know things. And we had chiefs that showed up after hours, and we had our our volunteer and our part-time staff that showed up frequently. So it wasn't really a big deal to be by yourself, but there were times where you were by yourself, and so trying to figure out how to be a Kendall firefighter and how they work that was a bit of a challenge. So we were pretty slow back then. Uh the administration we had, we didn't do a lot of medic assist calls. There was some uh budgetary reasons and some things that they cut back on some of our responses. So I had slept every night, went to bed at 10, 11, woke up 5:36, cleaned up, went home. Slept every first four nights. That Sunday, same thing. It was a slower day, you know, by yourself, still kind of figuring out that element, right? Um Sundays I said were solitary confinement because you just there was no one around 24 hours. And I went to bed that night, and I remember waking up, and it's the first time we had we had a buzzer, like a factory loud buzzer in the hallway and a bell in the bedroom, and it was very loud, and it would startle you a little bit, but you kind of heard the pre-alert on the pager. And this is the first time I'd ever heard this thing from a dead sleep. And I sat straight up in bed screaming, it scared the ever living bejesus out of me. And I just remember hearing a possible fire in the area of uh the old Calwell building, which Calwell had moved in there for a period in the 90s or so, uh prior or after McCrae had left. And I honestly, in my head, I was thinking like a shed fire or like a burn barrel. I wasn't thinking much of a building fire. I misheard the page, probably of my startledness, whatever. Um, so I took the wrong truck. Uh, that should have been a ladder truck response, but I I took the engine. I I still get uh harassed about that to this day, but I took the wrong truck to the biggest fire of the city as I've seen. And I remember rolling out of the station, kind of listening to it, and I remember turning on Main Street off Drake Road. I was working on it once. And when you got to Main Street, is when you could when I really saw the glow. And as I came down Main Street, it was kind of like one of those videos you see of the California wildfires where that's just raining the big embers and and all that's raining down, and it was it was raining fire. It was one of the most bizarre things I'd ever seen. And I I kind of went the memory goes a little blank from there. I don't remember clearing the intersections. Um, I remember we were we were moving in. Uh the chief at the time had called the first alarm, and then within five seconds of letting the radio up, called for a second. Uh, and I showed up behind engine 12, the truck out of twos, and he was unlocking the gate to go into the complex. And this thing's heavily involved in fire, a ton of fire. And there's no, there's not a chief there yet. You know, there's just there's volunteers uh showing up, and they're getting their personal vehicles and getting stuff. And and Doug he was focused on his hydrant, and I said, Where do you want me to go? as he drove away. And I had no idea what what I really was supposed to do. Um, so I went down, I found a hydrant, and we started spraying water on uh there's a a storage building and an old abandoned building, a little pawn shop right there. We started you know setting up for defensive uh protection on those. And yeah, I just it was a long, long day spraying a lot of water. Uh they obviously set up a lot of uh defensive operations or exposure protection downtown, all those embers raining down on all you know historical Main Street, all those hundred-year-old plus buildings. Uh, it could have gone really sideways on us. They had a couple small spot fires on roofs that they were able to contain and put out. Um, and then it was just a long, long, long day. Uh as more aerial devices showed up, the fire at that end of the building had died down. Some I remember hooking up to a different hydrant about another block down. Um, and I sat there and pumped, I don't know, probably a couple million gallons through Huntertown's ladder truck. And then we finally moved into the courtyard and worked on overhaul and and cleaning it up and trying to get in some more, and then we were even there the next day. Uh the day after that, we were there for a few hours in the afternoon on some hot spots, um, and then right back to shift on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Wednesday we didn't go back out there. We did not have to go back out there Wednesday, but then the rest of the summer, uh, we ended up in and out of there at different times during the cleanup project. Um, whether they needed just some water soaked on some things as they were, you know, cleaning up or dust control, or obviously hot spots were done by then, but it was a very long process for the whole fire department for the whole year. But yeah, it was a lot. Uh, I remember guys coming up to me ask, you know, what what do you want? I I don't really know what we're gonna do here, you know. Uh it was organized chaos. But I will say I talked with Lumpy, we call him Chris Smith, he was our deputy chief. Then um I I remember talking with him afterwards, I'm like, man, that really went really well. Like, really, really well. And he goes, Well, it should. We've been planning for this for a long time. So I think a lot of the pre-planning that you know Chris and and Bobby Combs and uh had done working with the fire chief Mike Green, they kind of really had a good plan for this thing. So when it did happen, it really I mean, yeah, we we literally I I tell people we burnt four city square blocks and only four city square blocks. Uh nothing that was unattached was armed.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

That's really wow. Yeah, that's not talking about having your pre pre-plans ready, ready to go, and and being able to execute. How did that experience shape you as a firefighter?

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Oh well, I think it kind of helped drive home some of the emphasis of pre-incident planning with me a little bit, you know, like making sure you've got your ducks in a row. Um and helping to make sure that guys kind of knew the pre-planning a little bit. Like I was so green and new into this thing. And honestly, at that point, I think we were a little bit letting our guard down on that building because they were already starting the process of removal of the building. So they had been getting the asbestos remediation done, and the city had purchased it and was in the process of uh they were selling the brick, the hardwood uh timber, because it was a lot of hardwood, you know, old style heavy timber building in there that they had were selling for reclaim. So I think in my head, I kind of didn't think much of it. So I think that's another kind of not letting your guard down a little bit, um for sure. And then just under I don't ever um I don't ever not throw some type of secondary shoes in the truck to a fire now. I mean I had rubber boots on that day, and I remember begging someone to go back to the station to get me something better than rubber boots because they were I had shorts on and they were just chafing my legs, terrible. Um, so I try to remember to throw my boots in the truck once. That doesn't always happen, but be prepared for the worst. Being a little prepared, yeah. You don't know what you're gonna get into when you leave.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

So you are heavily involved in firefighter training. What drew you towards the teaching element?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Um, so it started as a requirement. Um when I became a lieutenant, I had to get my instructor one. Okay, that's fine. And then I kind of I just kind of enjoyed it. You got a got a little bit of enjoyment out of it, you know, teaching and learning, and it became the betterment of other people that really kind of drew me into it and watching people progress and move and do better, um, and helping with classes. I helped out a little bit with some classes. I actually took my instructor one here in Ashley with Mike Miller back in the day, and and he was big into the district stuff, so he gave me a couple opportunities to go help with some classes, and I found that it helped make me a little bit better, uh, made me a better firefighter because I was having to go through and keep myself updated on some of the curriculum, some of the changes. Um having to demonstrate the skills obviously means you had to be proficient at them, so makes you drives you to be a better firefighter. But then just the more into it I got, the more getting to watch people, the betterment of other people has been has been what's the drive for it. You know, seeing things that we train on and watching people do the things we train on and execute them with uh good outcomes. With I wouldn't say flawlessly, we're never none of us are flawless, but watching them execute them, those skills, it just makes you feel like man, we're making a difference and we're we're doing better for the community and and for ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

With that, how has training changed over the years?

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Oh boy. So the fire services changed so much, and I think we're so much more data-driven now. When I come into things, you learned about what the guys in your firehouse did, and you would read a fire engineering article here and there, but there wasn't a big social media presence. I mean, Facebook was just hitting the market, but people didn't have it on their phones. You would, if you wanted to go on Facebook, you would read it at night. Right, you know, you would get on the computer and read it at night. So um you didn't have a lot of information out there. There wasn't the big groups and all that kind of stuff. So, in the last, I would say five to ten years, we've had more change and more understanding of things than we have in the last 20. So we now have more understanding with UL and with FSRI on fire behavior and how technique and how our water mapping works and how fires behave and how how things react, um, air entrainment and hose streams and all these different things. So we've learned so much more about the suppression, and then out came the guys with the firefighter rescue survey, and they brought in now they're up to 5,000 uh surveys of data from actual real-world rescues of where they're finding people, times of days, conditions, how they're removing them, and all this information. So it's no longer as much opinion as it is there's so much more data to it. We can drive it home with data rather than just Matt Latham says that the smooth board nozzle is the nozzle you need to use, right? Or uh, you know, Chief Brand says most victims are found in their bedroom. Why are you sure? Like, you know, Chief Brand, well, you pulled out five people, right? You know, I mean, we're not making grabs all the time. So now we can say, no, no, no, out of 5,000 people, most were found in here. Or the smooth board nozzle reacts like this and has you know, holds larger droplets and less air entrainment and does XYZ. Not because Matt or Dave or I said so, but because data and science says so. So it allows us to present things in a more data-driven manner. And I think the newer, younger generation, they they eat that up a bit. I I think I mean millennials got picked on for years. Now it's Gen X or Gen Z, sorry, that everyone picks on. And I'm a millennial and I and I know I like numbers, I like data. You give me data of a why behind it, I can sit there and eat into that. And I think the younger generation does just as much. So everything's now data driven, and our tactics have evolved and changed with it. Um, it hasn't replaced the hands-on element. I mean, there's still uh you can bore them to death with target solutions and uh, you know, fire fire rescue, fire rescue one academy stuff and online LMS trainings and all that, but it's we still gotta get out and do the hands-on. You know, you you can't no computer can put the muscle memory into throwing a ladder or stretching a line. Um so I think I think it's a blunder there, for sure. Uh the science is good, but I think we still gotta get hands-on.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Now that you've put on several academies, what are some of the missteps that that the young, inexperienced firefighters are making?

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Um so this year's been a little bit challenging uh with this year's academy. Some we've had some different personalities and stuff. I think sometimes the students they don't take it as serious as they should, or they just kind of blindly go through it a little bit, or they got a little bit of I don't want to say arrogance, but a little bit of cockiness to it, to where they they think they're pretty good, they think they've got it, and I don't think they understand the muscle memory things that have to come from it. Just because you can do it once right on the training ground doesn't mean you've conquered it. Um so I I I kind of tell each academy there's three things that make it a bad firefighter. Uh, three traits it's incompetence, arrogance, and laziness. And if you have any of those, any two of those three, you'll never progress to be a good firefighter. You know, if you're arrogant and you're lazy, you're never gonna want to do better. Right. You know, incompetence is fixable. There's nothing wrong with being incompetent. I'm incompetent in certain things. I guarantee you there's things I don't know, but I could do better at. Uh, but if you're incompetent and lazy or arrogant, you'll never have the drive to be better. So I think it's avoiding those three things, you know, making sure we're not being lazy, we're not being arrogant, and we're understanding our incompetence to be and and knowing where we're falling short and doing better to be better.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

I see, yeah, that's that yes, that makes a lot of sense. Um, so with that, I have to ask you, what is more important, skill or attitude for these students going into attitude, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

I tell students this every day. I your ma, your mother and father raised you to be a person and and raised you with uh initiative and integrity and you know having a good attitude. Those are all personality traits. Um skills, skills can be taught. We can teach people how to stretch lines, we can teach people how to throw ladders, how to search buildings, how to operate a pump, to drive a truck. I mean, all those are things that are are doable if they have the right attitude. If they don't have the right attitude, the right you know, mindset, they'll never want to learn it, they'll never want to do it, they'll never really progress beyond just being mediocre at best. Um attitude 100%. You know, when I look at an individual, I want someone who who's motivated, who has initiative, who wants to be there, who wants to do better. I'll I can invest in that person and we can teach them all the things in the world. But if you got someone that doesn't, you're just spinning your wheels.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Right on. Right on. So I have to ask you what did it mean to you to receive District 3 instructor of the year then?

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Oh so that one was a little bit of a blind side. Um first off, they'd never done any awards like that. Uh I just got a call from uh from TR or or Director Schaefer. I don't remember which one, but it was basically a hey, can you be here this day at Indy, uh Plainfield? Um, we're having lunch. We want you to come down. And I'm looking at my schedule, trying to figure this whole thing out. They wanted me there at 8 a.m. I didn't get off shift till seven, and uh, I have no idea what the heck's going on. And it was, it was Director Schaefer because I remember talking to TR. I'm like, Whoa, whoa, what am I getting into here? What the heck's going on? And he said, Well, do you have anything going on? I said, Well, I don't think so. No, I well then just go, just do it. Um, so Joel and I, uh Joel Updike, our district coordinator, we we you know carpooled down there because he had to go down for the same meeting, and yeah, they started handing out awards, and then obviously it became as a we're district three, so as they handed out a couple, it started to become a little bit obvious maybe what I was there for because they you know, guys, you know, TR, Joel, they kept looking at me a little bit, you know. But it it did mean something. Obviously, there's uh when I started doing the district stuff, you know, we still had the council, and I became the county rep for Noble County. I remember the first we just started onboarding employees, and there was 50 people that got onboarded as state contract employees in district three that that year at that time, and there's a lot of people there. And I really I'm just a guy doing a job. I really don't look for the recognition. Don't I say I don't care about it, it's appreciated. Don't get me wrong. I the plaque hangs on the wall. You know, I do like someday my kids look at that and find pride in that, and I like that they find pride in that, but I'm just another guy doing a job, so I didn't really see it coming, didn't really think of myself as being deserving, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Well, it it seems that the education is very important to you because uh aside from teaching the future generations of firefighters, you also spend a lot of time teaching children and community members about fire safety. Why is prevention so important?

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Well, so the fire service is the only business, you know, out there. We're not really a business, but we're only we're only a group out there trying to put ourselves out of a job. You know, law enforcement to a to an extent, but the plumber doesn't come to your house to check for leaks to make sure that he doesn't have to fix a a bigger leak, you know, or or you pay him to do it, you know. So we're we're just out there trying to do that. And I got kids. I I don't want to see anything bad happen to my kids, nor do I want to see anything bad happen to other kids. Um so it kind of just kind of fell into it a little bit. I a lot of people don't like they're timid, they don't want to go up and talk in front of the group of of kids or adults or anything like that. So I just one we went and did a presentation and I started talking, and and I don't remember who was there that day. They're like, hey, you did great, you should just you just keep doing them, and I just kind of built in a little routine in that, and it's not really it's it comes natural, a little bit more natural for me where it doesn't for others. So that's one area where I enjoy it because it's not really overly difficult, but then I like interacting with the children, the kids, and getting them to understand what we do and and watching the the enjoyment they get out of you know, seeing the trucks and going out and doing that kind of stuff, and knowing that they actually retain the stuff, and that really made a big difference because when my oldest she started going to preschool, she went come home one day and they did fire prevention. I don't remember the fire department there had come in and done some fire prevention stuff, and she came home and she can rattle off all these things and remembered them very well. And I was like, holy cow, these kids actually pay attention. Like, we're this is make this is really, really making a difference. So then that was like cemented it in like whole, like now, this isn't just you know fun and frills and getting to go out and play with children. This is like they actually get it, they understand it. Um and then giving them some assignments and some stuff, you know. Like I every year when we do fire prevention, I tell them, you know, they need to do three things. They need to one, they need to go home and have their parents help them check the smoke arm. Uh they need to number two plan their their evacuate escape route, and they need number three have an escape, have a meeting place. And the one year we did it, my we did it at Country Meadows and came home and I had to do all three of those things. I forgot all about 'em. Um and we had to do all three of those things that night, and I said, Well. I mean if my you know five, six year olds are doing it, maybe there's other kids. Maybe we are making a little bit of a difference.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

These interactions with children, what is one thing that you hope that they take away after meeting the fire department, after after seeing the guys in their gear and stuff like that? What what do you hope is the thing that sticks with them the most?

SPEAKER_00 44:24

Uh that we're better than cops. No, um, that that we're that they want to be around us, that they trust us, that they know that no matter the situation, that they can come to a firehouse or a fire station or talk to a firefighter, know that we'll find a solution or work on a for their problem. They know that we're the good guys. And it doesn't, it could be anything. Yeah, I mean, obviously, if your house is on fire, your your mom's sick or whatever, yeah, we're gonna show up and do the things. But you know, if you if you have a chain pop off your bike, we'll we'll help you put it back on. You know, we we do we working at once there, we're on Drake Road, we get all the middle school traffic coming back and forth. We've bandaged skin knees, we've put air in bike tires, we put chains back on, we fixed uh a few bikes every year. We yeah, like I said, little things, but knowing that that's a place of refuge, a safe place that it doesn't matter what you need. Need to get a drink? Yeah, there's a drinking fountain there. Yeah, we'll get you a bottle of water, great. You know, we're just we're there to help people. Whether that's a fire or something minor.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

Right, right, absolutely, yes. Uh so for this this this question, it's more of a PSA for the public. What's something families can do today that helps make tomorrow safer?

SPEAKER_00 45:58

Um, smoke alarms. Smoke alarms are are one of the biggest things, but I think we see it all too often. Um they get forgotten about, they either don't get installed or they don't get maintained, they don't get checked. Uh we jokingly, not jokingly, but I we try to remember back how many different times we've gone to fires and you don't hear the smoke alarm going off in the background of the house. You know, and and I can think I can't think of one in the I can think of one, honestly, off the top of my head. Um, and it was a commercial apartment building where I can remember the smoke alarm going off in the background during the fire, but there's a lot of times we don't hear that. Um, so it seems like that's something that's very underutilized. Uh, and then just good communication. Talk to your kids about you know closing doors and staying low and you know, having two ways out, and then the meeting place, you know, those those three things. Plan ahead a little bit, you know, you don't go on vacation without you know packing your bags and making sure you got all your stuff, right?

SPEAKER_03 47:02

You know, have a little bit of a plan for your family. So continuing on with the education aspect, you've helped coordinate farm rescue, grain bin training, and large-scale auto extrication training. Why is that so important for rural Indiana?

SPEAKER_00 47:20

So these were all kind of just some little niche things that we talked about. They were some pipe dreams, and they were also areas of opportunity. So uh the first extrication training we did was a school bus extrication class. That came to me because we had uh one of our volunteers in Kendaville work for East Noble, and he said, Hey, we got a school bus that I think we could give you guys for extrication. And as much as the Kendaville guys and gals would be excited about that, we looked at what's that mean beyond Kendaville, right? Because we're not the only one with school buses, every community has a school bus. So then it just kind of took off and and brought into a bigger thing. Um, and we ended up purchasing a couple more school buses um from the school system at a very, very at scrap price because we were able to turn around and scrap and we had no money into it. We had to we had to exchange some dollars, and Chief McKinley was real helpful in in executing that and and figuring that out. And I saw how well received it was. So the grain bin thing came about uh the next year. I wanted to do something ag related. Obviously, I had an agricultural back background. Um, one of the guys on my shift, uh, he's he's got an agricultural background, he's worked for different farmers, he worked for grain facilities, so he really likes that kind of and we got to talk in a little bit. And someone got me hook uh in with uh farm bureau, and I got in with the local farm bureau, and they're the ones that kind of suggested these couple paths, and so that's where the green bin class came from. We we worked with uh Mark Baker from Stateline Farm Rescue and myself and then uh Tyler Terry, the chief from Stro. He they've got some equipment, um, they were able to purchase it and they got some training when they got it, but he said, Man, we haven't got a lot of training in in years either. And it was important to him because they have multiple facilities in his first two, and he works full-time for the city, so we got to collaborate on this project and go out and find the money. We had to find like $10,000 um and put that together, and once again, just seeing the the result of it, and it kind of became something that now all of a sudden we have to do it. Like we set the bar for 20, we did bus extrication at 21. We did the the grain bin class, and then it's just kind of evolved into that. Uh, I know the last what two years we've done an extrication class up here. You know, Chief Brand got a hold of me and said, Hey, what do you think about this? And I said, Well, I think we got some options, and that formed into a great relationship with McQueen and their instructors, and uh, I've learned so much just from those guys on auto extrication, um, and and their one guy, Carl. Uh, Carl taught me more about a four by four piece of cribbing than I ever thought I ever needed to know. Um, putting debunked so many myths, and so then I'm learning stuff from it, and now we're getting more people together from smaller areas, working together, interacting together, we're having fun, we're building camaraderie, but we're also learning stuff, we're getting skills, and I and then you get to see people do their skills, you know. You get to see departments every once in a while talk about an extrication or something. You know, oh wow, there's a couple guys from that class. Hopefully they were there, you know. Hopefully they may were able to help with some of their new techniques and stuff. I know we've seen it with some of the guys uh in our department, you know, different things. And I I think both Corona and Kendall, I think we're pretty darn good at auto extrication, and I think we train on it regularly, both agencies, and I I mean we're pretty darn good.

SPEAKER_03 51:13

Yeah, I have to say, I was I was uh one of the students in that first that first year of that big auto extrication class down here, and and the amount of education that is bestowed upon you is is kind of mind-blowing, and there's so much, I mean, that's just a a sliver of of the knowledge that the instructors have and stuff like that. So, I mean, yeah, you could spend days learning from them. So I I very much appreciate that class because it for me personally it expanded my horizons and and what I know about auto education.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

And it's almost overwhelming. So I would say, like, we've gotten I've seen some people that have come once and then they've come the following year, and I'd encourage that because I guarantee you didn't pick up on everything that was taught in that eight-hour day. No, I guarantee if you come back, you'll find something new, you'll pick up some piece of the puzzle that didn't quite click or you didn't even think about. Like I said, two years of teaching it, I learned more last year than I think I did the first year. Uh, just because of I got to work one-on-one with Carl. And and I I've made sure of that because Carl retired after that, after that class. Okay, you know, that was a guy that had seen more, done more than I ever could have imagined. So I've I won't work with Carl because the guy that worked with him last year was like, oh yeah, he's great. And I did, I learned more about underrides and cribbing and stabilization and all those types of things we take for granted. We always talk about cutting a car out, but all the other stuff, it's fascinating. So there's take the same class a couple times, even. You know, you'll pick something up, right?

SPEAKER_03 52:51

Yes, yes. All right, so we've talked about a little bit about the career, we've talked about the education aspect. Now let's let's delve a little bit into the family aspect. Your wife, Katie, is also heavily involved in fire and EMS in the in the fire and EMS profession. How has that influenced your family life?

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Well, so when I met my wife, she was a senior in high school, and she was gonna go out to be an RN, and that was her goal. She was gonna go be a nurse and all that kind of stuff, and financially, I sure wish she would have. But she got into the fire department a little bit, and she's obviously going up to the station with me a little bit, she took an interest in the people up there, and then she got, you know, okay, so she wants to do paramedicine instead, and evolving into that, it can be a little hectic with our schedules now. Uh, fortunately, you know, she took in 2020, she took the EMS training coordinator position at Fort Wayne Fire, which puts her on a Monday through Friday 8-4 schedule, which is not common for EMS. Um, that that's helpful in in some regards, but she also is a pretty pivotal part of the Corona Fire Department. I mean, obviously, we have two young children, so we can't both go to calls. You know, we have to make that work, however, that does. Um, but she is our secretary and she puts on a lot of the different EMR classes. Her and Melissa McCann put on EMT classes, and now they're doing an EMR class, which still has some seats open. Uh, shameless plug there. But but so she does that and working with all that kind of stuff. And so between the academy schedule and the fire department schedule and the EMR class schedule, it makes it a little bit challenging juggling the family life side of things. Um, but I there's no way I could do you know half of what I'm able to do in the fire service if it wasn't for her. You know, she's the rock in our household that kind of keeps everything organized going. Um, I come home with a check and do the thing she asks, and she's got it all figured out, and I couldn't do any of this without her for sure. Uh and it's nice when I'm able to reciprocate it, you know. They do have the EMR class coming up, so she'll have some nights where she'll be teaching, which is great because now I get to have some one-on-one nights with the girls. It's my slower time of the year. I get to go have some nights with them, and you know, we can do enjoyable things. Uh they like hanging out with dad, and I feel like I don't get they don't get enough of it sometimes. So I look forward to that a bit. It's a balance, it is a balance, it makes our marriage challenging some days, um, for sure, especially with the 24-hour shifts. You know, I'm gone every third day for 24 hours. Um, but there's no way I could do it without her. She's she's a rock, she's a saint. For sure. She's the backbone of it all.

SPEAKER_03 56:01

That's really cool. And you've you've kind of touched on this. How important is family support in the fire service?

SPEAKER_00 56:10

Holy cow. Uh it is important. Um especially, you know, on the in the career side of it, it it's easier. It's it's a job, right? It's a paycheck. You go, you go out, you get paid, you come home. Um, and and the the wife has to deal with all the things for those three days, for those, you know, 24 hours every third day. But and back that up a little bit. If it's gonna go wrong, it's gonna happen on your shift day. Every single time, okay. If you're gonna have if the furnace is gonna go out, the water heater's gonna fail, the tire's gonna blow on the car. I guarantee it's gonna be the day you're on shift.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:49

Um, so that that side of it, yeah. I mean, there is there's support there, but on the volunteer side, it's so hard because you'll have plans, um, you'll have things you're getting ready to go do, and sometimes those get derailed a little bit. So to have a spouse that's understanding and gets it and is able to help with that is great. I think one area maybe we fall short in a little bit in the fire service and the volunteer side is maybe we need more family involvement. It might be easier to go to that work detail or that training or other things if there was a way that maybe the family was incorporated a little bit, or you know, I had our fish fry work details. It's nothing to show up there on a Thursday night and four or five kids playing tag in the bay, and husbands and wives are you know making tartar sauce and breaking fish and doing all the things. That makes it a lot easier because my kids eat that up. My girls love going to the fire station if I if they know it's Thursday, they know they've heard talk, you know. She's my oldest is seven now. She kind of understands a little bit about time and relevancy, and you know, she'll hear us talk, oh yeah, fish fries Friday. She'll are we going to fish fries prep, and they love it. So I think as a fire department, if we can make more opportunities for that, and I get it, we can't have kids playing tag at fire scenes, you know. We're doing training, we can't have kids running around the training ground. It's it's not a safe atmosphere, but um, you know, maybe ways that the wives could, you know, build in together a little bit, you know, to where maybe they could go do some events together and with the children while the firefighters are out doing stuff, or husbands or whatever that may be.

SPEAKER_03 58:47

So this next this next section, I'm gonna ask you to put on that white helmet again and and talk about some of the things that affect affect the firehouse. So what qualities define a strong fire service leader?

SPEAKER_00 59:05

Um servant leadership, first and foremost, like a good leader is there for we, not not he or I or her or whatever. Um, so having a leader that a person that wants to build other people, invest in other people, and put people in places to do things. Um delegation, I think, sometimes is is is given a negative connotation, like we're delegating tasks out because we don't want to do them. Well, that's not that's not what we're that's not it. Uh sometimes we can delegate things out to people so that they can have a purpose, they can have something to do, something to make into their own a little bit, which does happen regularly, but it's how that delegation takes place. And remembering that just because it's not the way that I would do it or you would do it or anyone else would do it, doesn't mean it's the wrong way. Um so I think I think giving people room to grow and giving them the tools to grow and betterment are are definitely things that help foster strong relationships and better firefighters. And it's an area I struggle with a little bit uh in some regards. Like I like giving people things to do, I like I love watching people take on tasks of their own. Uh, but I'm sometimes I get I get it's not the way I would do it. And it's not that I think that I'm better than you, it's just hey, listen, I've developed a way of doing this. It it's not that your way's bad, but I've done this, it works really well. And it's not that I had lose faith in them or I don't think they can do it their own way, it's just sometimes I have to remind myself that it doesn't matter. You know, let them do it. If they start to fall short, or they do fall short, we'll pick them up and let them learn from it. But maybe uh not that no micromanaging, right? Right. You know, not let them let them go down a path for a little bit. Don't let them go too far. Let them go down the path. See how it works out. And I found the more that I do that, the different re the better the results are.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:15

Right on. Yes. So we've talked about leadership. I want to know how do you create a culture where firefighters want to stay and grow? How do you build that culture in in the firehouse?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:32

You gotta invest in the people, you gotta you gotta invest in them. Not not necessarily monetarily. Um like I said, most people aren't driven. There's not an amount of money that's really gonna monetarily make them stay. Not not that we can afford. Right. I mean, sure, if we if we paid them, you know, sixty thousand dollars a year, we'd they'd stay and show up for their shifts just like anyone else. But we're finding that even that doesn't always in the career side of it. You're seeing a lot of jumping around. Guys are going to different departments because they can make more money or they feel like they have better opportunities or this and that. So it's really not always money. I I think it's it's you just gotta believe in people and invest in them. You gotta talk with them, you gotta build relationships. Like I said with Dennis, like one of the big things with Dennis, I don't ever want to let the guy down. I want to, I want to always feel like he can count on me, like I'm doing the things I need to do. And it's building those relationships with people. So the new guy comes in or gal, we gotta have someone that they really build that relationship with. And it's not always gonna be the same person. Personalities click and they don't click. There's some people that I'm not gonna click off with, but someone else will, and vice versa. So I think if we can build those relationships and just get people to believe in other people and have those bonds, and it it'll it'll it'll grow. It really, really will. But we gotta be open to those. We gotta be open to those conversations and not just you know bringing them on and expecting them to understand, but maybe taking some time to take them in under your wing, invest in them. You gotta invest in the new people as they come in a bit. Uh, recruitment is important, but good retention fixes recruitment. If I I we I did a survey and I asked guys why who who brought you here? What brought you into the firehouse? And most people will tell you in the fire service that someone else on the fire department is what drew them in there. I would say 70% of them. So if we have a group of people that really, if it's a great thing, right? You go to you go to the local burger joint and you go, that's the best hamburger I ever had. What are you gonna do? You're gonna go back and say, hey man, let's go grab a burger down here at Billy's. Bill's has got the best burger. If you go to the firehouse and you go, this is one of the freaking coolest things I've ever been a part of in my life. You're gonna go back to your buddy and go, hey, let's go down to the firehouse. You gotta beat these guys again. You're gonna love it. And if we can do more of that, our recruitment starts to starts to kind of fix itself a little bit, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:20

Goes hand in hand.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

Right? But it's a balance, it's a balance between we ask a lot out of the firefighters. Um I know in our department, we bring a new guy or gal on. You know, we got fish fry prep. Um, and we got meeting training nights, and then they're going to classes, and boy, we just we load them up really, really hard. And it gets I think it can be a little overwhelming. I I know if I was to go back through it now at 35, there's no way I would I would go back in and go through all the classes and and all that with the wife and kids and balance and all that. It's a way of life now, but to make that change, it would be hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:02

Right, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

Yeah so it's a balance, and I don't know what the right answer is because we you know we're not funded to the ways that we cannot fundraise, and we gotta have our training and we gotta make calls. So I don't I don't exactly know what the right answer that is.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

The way you finished up that last question, it might stem into this next one. What concerns you most about the future of the fire service?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

Um obviously volunteer numbers are dropping. So we gotta look at how we're funding this thing and how how can we sustain it? Because I would say most volunteer fire departments are not on a great trajectory for success. They'll make it work, they'll continue to get by and they'll continue to do it, but they're not fostering an environment for a great. Growth of the fire department, their environment are fostering an environment of getting by. But on the same token, more money means more taxes. So to take more taxes from you know fixed income people, we all know money's not exactly just flowing out of out of trees to in today's environment, day and age. Inflation's high. And so I don't know where that is, but I think we got it, we really got to look at a fundamental way of how we're gonna fund this thing and continue to foster these departments because there's a lot of them scraping by. And a lot of them we do a really good job of not letting anyone know that either, as the public. Um, we do a really good job of talking about, hey, we had this fish fry, hey, we bought this piece of equipment, hey, we're we're doing this, this, and this, but we're never telling the stories about how, hey, we put in uh you know 50 some hours, you know, last year uh per person uh fish fries and all the man hours we're putting into doing and acquiring the monies and all those types of things. I know that's what I know that's what people in Corona love about the fire department is they see our our community some of the best patrons around. Um I've not hardly run across a single person in our two townships or town that doesn't just love the fire department because they see the tenacity we have to go out and and make it happen and make it work, but I don't know how long that's sustainable realistically.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:43

Right, yes. So what advice would you give to someone considering joining the fire service today?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:53

Do it just just go do it, give it a try. Uh don't be lose the timidness, lose the fear of it. Just go outside of your comfort zone and go try it. Go see what it's about and give it a good, honest effort. Don't show up once and go, ah, I don't know about this. No, if there's something that completely you know turns you off from it, okay, that's fine. But give it a good, honest try. You're gonna find something in the volunteer fire service. There's a niche for every single person: old, young, male, female, physically fit, ripped, too, maybe not as in great a shape. There's a job or an area or a niche, niche, niche, however you want to say that, that we can find for everyone. Um, just go see what it is. Spend a little time looking for it. You know, I've met people that they have they don't like fire. I got a guy in the fire academy right now. He's he's a great firefighter. He does really good in skills. He's the hardest working guy, one of the hardest working guys there. He had a toothpoline, an emergency extraction, uh, four hours, three hours before our last skills day, and showed up and put a mask on. And I had to physically tell him to sit down. I said, You're done. You you you you're good, you've you've completed your stuff. Sit down. But we're talking, and he says to me, they say 1070 building, you know, house fire. Okay, I don't really get too excited, you know. But I like those medical calls, you know, car accident, medical calls, and I'm looking at him like, are you nuts? Like, like, okay, but that's his thing. That's what he likes. All right, let's let's find ways that we can make him more useful. So just go try it. Find your niche. It's there. Guarantee it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:53

Just yeah, just open the door and and give it a shot. All right. So as we're coming to a close here with the podcast, this next section, and I tell everybody this, when I first asked this question in the very first podcast, it was more of a self-evaluation tool to see, you know, what your thoughts were about yourself. But then as time has progressed over the last several podcasts, I've found out how important it is in the event that something does happen. Okay. So at the end of the day, when it's time for you to take the helmet off and hang up the bunker gear and and all that, how do you want Eric Kennedy to be remembered? Not only in the fire service, but by your family, by your by the public. What what do you want people to remember about you?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:43

Just that I cared. I I tried, I did the best I could. I I cared about people. Um I want my kids to know I love them. My wife to know that I my wife and kids both that I love them dearly. Um I just want people to look back and go, you know what? That was a guy that was he was reliable. He cared. He showed up, he gave a crap. You know, he he cared enough to try. I don't care if anyone knows any accolades or even if I have any accolades. I just want people to look at me and say that that's a guy that that devoted his life to something and tried and really, really cared. Um yeah, yeah, that's really it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:29

I mean well said. Well said. Alright, last question. We'll take off the heaviness of the last question. If there is any one person or milk multiple people that you would recommend to sit in that seat for the Frontline Voices podcast, who would it be and why?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:47

Um, I I'm telling you, probably one of my favorite guys I've got to know and work with the last handful of years, Mike Adams. He Mike is a salt of the earth firefighter. He's he is that blend of that old school get it done, hard charging with that new understanding of modern, you know, fire service. You know, you you it's hard to find a guy that was fighting fire in the 90s that'll advocate for the firefighter rescue or the smooth bore or the data behind it. Uh Mike was Mike's a guy that's seen more, done more than I'll ever understand um or ever learn from. I love to just sit there and talk with the guy about anything. We we can tell stories and talk shop, and there's the guy's just a wealth and knowledge that he really underplays for himself. Um, for sure. He's one of probably one of my favorite uh firefighters out there right now, as far as his the way he helps out uh with our academy. You know, he's there every skills day, uh, one of the first ones to show up. Just really, really just assault of the youth kind of guy, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:03

Mike Adams, adding you to the list, my friend. Well, Chief, Lieutenant, instructor. Eric's good. Eric, thank you once again for stopping by and sharing a little bit of knowledge about what you've got going on and and you know your your story. I very much appreciate you coming by.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:23

It was a pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:24

Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:29

This has been Frontline Voices, conversations with our local heroes. Brought to you by Matthew Latin. We're proud to share the stories of those who serve, protect, and answer the call. Stay ready, stay safe, and we'll catch you next time.