speaker-0: Yeah. Here's a few words with Jesse Bond and Stephanie Haldane of Southwest Fire Academy.
speaker-1: So we've got three boot camps still available for 2026. Bootcamp 79, 80, and 81 are still open for registrations with limited spots available. Our 2027 bootcamp dates will be posted by mid-July. So keep an eye out if you're looking to join us in 2027. We've got a hazmat tech course. The online starts on March 30th with the in-class May 11th to the 16th. And Pump Ops is happening May 19th to May 22nd. I want to give a quick shout out to Bootcamp 74 who graduated March 12th. They were a spectacular group of individuals and really looking forward to seeing how far these guys go in their journey. I wanted to mention, we get asked quite often why would I choose Southwest Fire Academy over another? fire academy or college and I think Jesse truly as the leader of Southwest sums it up perfectly. Yeah, I think we do set our students up for success for the provincial testing and all the things that they need for certification. But more importantly than that, we try and take it up another level and set them up for the career of firefighting. And we do some extra hands-on training, you know, we really do focus a lot on search and some extra firefighter survival and writ and flash over and we really try and give a real firehouse experience. And I think a an important part of that is we're owned and operated by actual fire. firefighter. So it's important that we produce good students. We want the best of the best coming out because they may end up in the back of a truck with us one day. So we design our program intentionally to try and really instill the motivation, the passion, the mentality of continuously training in good aggressive firefighting. The biggest sellers are incredible instructors. We have some of the best instructors that you know in the world of firefighting. Scott, yourself, Riley, who this podcast is for. So it's all like minded individuals and it's a good program.
speaker-0: Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 125 of Multiple Calls. I'm Scott Hewlett. The quote comparison is the thief of joy, often credited to Theodore Roosevelt, has its merit, but comparison is also the source of admiration, inspiration, reflection, and introspection. The true power of quotes and memes is found when we pull them apart and find more meanings and perspectives. As with this quote about comparison from Corey Allen, when you're unsure about a relationship, ask yourself why? Would I be okay being more like them? Then you'll have your answer. This applies to any relationship and ties into Jim Rohn's view that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Fire crews spend a lot of time together and affect each other. Don't settle for being around people you don't admire and respect. Negativity isn't neutral. You can either choose to work every shift to try and stave it off. Or choose to put the effort into navigating to be around people who won't steal days of your career from you. Here's my chat with Riley McGilloway. You wanna kick off then?
speaker-1: Yeah, let's get after it.
speaker-0: Okay, so start off with where you grew up and tell me a bit about your family.
speaker-1: I grew up in a little town called Acton, Ontario. Small town, close knit town that everybody knows each other. Not much going on there. We were known actually for our tannery, which was called Beardmore Tannery. You'll actually probably heard the commercials before. ⁓ it's worth the drive to Acton, which was the leather factory and store. The old hot house, yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of our our slogan. Unfortunately, after a hundred and fifty years, it's recently actually closed down, but
speaker-0: Yeah, wasn't that the old Hyde House? That was in your family?
speaker-1: ⁓ nothing no. My family had to do with ⁓ working more at the beardmore tannery aspect, which was bringing in ⁓ in in cowhides and and creating the leather.
speaker-0: Okay, and then providing that to old Hide House.
speaker-1: Yeah, providing it to old Hyde House and I think they distributed all over Ontario and Canada, but their main distribution was to the old Hydehouse in Acton.
speaker-0: Your ⁓ family came over from Ireland?
speaker-1: My great grandfather actually came from Ireland in the nineteen hundreds, most likely because of the famine. He came here on a free ride because he was able to take care of the cattle on the ⁓ boat or whatever he he came here on. And it's crazy because when you do the ancestry on it, you can't really see where he left and how and kind of where he came into. And I think that's because of what he kind of did there with working the cattle and and and making that his thing. But he ultimately landed in here and made his way to Acton and that's where ⁓ my grandparents actually both my grandparents were were born and raised. So my grandpa Eddie, he'd be the ⁓ first generation Canadian in our ⁓ in our family. Yeah, I have ⁓ two sisters, awesome sisters, man. They definitely pushed me as a kid. My oldest sister, she's super, super smart. She ⁓ always was a was a good kid and she was a figure skater, very, very competitive figure skater.
speaker-0: And yet a couple sisters?
speaker-1: very well at what she did. And she she was that kid that ⁓ made my parents super proud with 90% of the stuff they did ⁓ she did. Then I had a second sister, my my middle sister Kaylin. She's a little bit more of the rebel child. She's more like my dad, I think. Kind of a short temper. She's she's not one to mess with. And then I think that when I, you know, for me I'm more, you know, I got a little bit mixed up with my mom and my dad when it comes to, you know, being a little bit more compassionate, but I I definitely don't have the biggest fuse, that's for sure. Yeah.
speaker-0: Do you guys all get along?
speaker-1: I mean we didn't, but I mean it's it's like any family time. My parents ran a tight ship. They expected us to ⁓ to behave and you know, we were a church family. We went to church on Sundays but I would test their limits, you know, as their brother, the little brother anyways. I was dragged to the arena a lot to watch their skating and you know, I'm I'm sure it was a pain in their butt just as much as they were a pain in mine and but they definitely helped me shape who I am today and I look back at growing up with them and I I can't help but think that they made my childhood so great.
speaker-0: Did mom and dad both work at the Jannery?
speaker-1: My dad worked at the tannery when he was young and he actually ended up getting his pipe fitting certificate. My grandpa was a laborer there, worked there from the start till he retired when he actually was forced retired because the tannery actually closed down. At that point, when the tannery closed down, he was already a a volunteer firefighter as well as my grandfather. They had a couple of different options, but with the family, he had to kind of chase a career that was a little bit more lucrative than the fire service at the time. So He ended up getting on with the region of Halton in the water water department. So it kind of went full circle for him because he ended up working with flushing hydrants and hydrant maintenance. So, I mean, he still to this day can tell you every hydrant in town and kind of what the flow is coming out of it. So it's pretty awesome. My teachers would always say if ⁓ he'd be a great student if he would apply himself. I was busy.
speaker-0: How was school for you?
speaker-1: I got tested there to see to see if I the A D D and the the O C D and w and all that. And you know, it turns out I I did and I still do. And it's a tough thing to have, right? I I got a busy mind, but I'm very organized in in other ways. So
speaker-0: And as long as you can focus on something you get hyper dialed in.
speaker-1: Like that's where I I know that my strength is, is that, you know, if I have a focus on on a certain task, I put my heart and soul into it. I just don't complete it. I try and complete it to above and beyond. Right. And I you know, and I'm not saying that I did that as a kid, but it's something I definitely have like developed as ⁓ as I grew up and in high school and things like that. Like the classes I liked, I I would work hard at, right? And I would I would push myself to to kinda be better. But That also being said, I I was easy to lose focus and I was easy to join the gang of chatting in the back or causing mayhem.
speaker-0: You said your sisters did figure skating. Did you do any sports?
speaker-1: Actually, funny story. ⁓ I I was super sport involved. Like my family was like ⁓ my my dad is big time into sports, my uncles, my grandfather. I grew up playing hockey, triple A hockey, my my from as young as I could get on to midget. Also played high level lacrosse as high as I could. So lots of learning curves with it. It's funny. Our lacrosse team was, you know, number one, two, three, top three every time, every year in Ontario. And my hockey team was bottom three every year in Ontario. So you'd be going into Niagara to play them in hockey and they'd beat you 10-0. And then you'd go then plead them, play them in the cross, and you'd beat them 10-0, right? So you know, I think the sports had a big way of shaping me. They talk about like how kids' brains develop and how you you I mean, you but you develop a lot of the skill sets you use in the future. When it comes to sports, I I definitely think the biggest thing that I had and the biggest problem that I had with most of it is I just needed the right motivator. We always had a different coach, it seemed like when we when it came to hockey, because we were looking for different options and different reasons to make the team better. Where, you know, we had a coach in the cross. They would ask my parents, how do you let that guy coach your like how do guys let him coach? He he was a little offside. But he knew how to to push me to to to put me in a in positions to win. Right. He didn't expect me to do things that wasn't my job. He he built systems and s and and structures that allowed us to perform as a group and a team. We're hockey, we didn't really have that. I was a half decent hockey player and I felt the weight of the world on me a lot because I was committed to the team for a long time. Right. So I definitely think when it comes to mentally and how, you know, I I take criticism, that's definitely something as I've grown up, it's been one of the biggest eye openers to me is that as a kid, I remember my grandfather always saying to me after hockey games, being like, What we're telling you is not to bring you down. They're trying to help. But that being said, my dad ran up skating school. I was on the ice every day. Right. I had no excuse not to be decent. And you know what? When I I felt a lot of pressure in hockey, where you know, in lacrosse, I felt I had to do my job and be good at it. But hockey, I had to almost do above and beyond what I needed to do ⁓ to make the team successful. But I was taking it personally, right? It's like having a craft and someone kind of getting on you about it. So if you if you if you've put some time and some skills into something and and and it's it's your passion, you know, hockey was my passion, but it I obviously didn't know how and I suffered with taking criticism. Now it's funny because now as a father, I look at this as a teacher and as a coach. I always want the guys to know, listen, I just want you to be better. I want you to be the best you can be. At the end of the day, though, I think you're a great human being, right? Yes, you should have back checked on that last goal, right? But guess what? Next time, right? Yeah, I mean, you have to straddle the line of that, obviously, especially in competitive sports, but there's ways to to get people to to excel and there's ways not to. And you know, I feel the mental side of the game is just as equally as important as as the physical and the and the you know the skill sets. And definitely even with firefighting, I feel the same way. Anytime I'm doing teaching and stuff like that, I I'm a vibrant person. I I I give you a hundred and ten. I think that my energy feeds into your energy and and and with that comes high performance. But if you screw up, yeah, I'm gonna give you a ⁓ maybe a little bit of a tough time. But guess what? As soon as you get outside, I'm gonna say, Yeah, you screwed that up, but guess what? You did this, this, this, and this right. Guess so guess what? It's a win. So we just hone this little skill here and guess what? Now you're well rounded. You got the full circle. We should be a little upset that things aren't didn't go necessarily perfect, because that means you care.
speaker-0: And no one's ever perfect.
speaker-1: No, no one's ever perfect. And it's just how you take it, right? I still struggle this day. I get help because I struggle with it. And it's the understanding that it's not who you are. It's it's something that you've done and it's something you can work on.
speaker-0: Yeah. It's awesome that you came to that self awareness though and you actually work on it 'cause some people don't.
speaker-1: It's the hardest thing ever to do. It's not it's not easy. It's not it's not easy knowing your flaws and and you know it's it's it's almost like you know, they get into I don't want to get into too much of it, but you you read about the neuroplasticity of your brains, right? The contribution of what you have from birth to over your childhood and and and the way that you're wired. And the way I was wired was to during conflict kind of shut down or take it personally. Growing up and and and trying to be a leader in that way. Wearing a captain as a hockey player or a lacrosse player, you have to lead in the way of being able to accept those things and not take them personally, right? So I suffered, man. I I I suffered greatly with it bogging me, right? So I knew, you know, especially moving into a career that's very, very on the edge of everyone kind of giving each other some words, right? Yeah, yeah. But you have to be able to take it.
speaker-0: And there's high stakes.
speaker-1: Right. And I still again I even at at the job I struggle with it sometimes too. Right. Because when you make something your baby and and and it doesn't go right, it it hurts. And and I get it.
speaker-0: What jobs did you do before the fire service?
speaker-1: I actually had a pretty awesome life when it came to having different jobs. My first job was actually for one of my best friends. ⁓ his dad ran a plastic company. Now when I look back, I'm like, ⁓ my God. I was running a big bandsaw and cutting plastic and throwing it into a grinder. So we're just recycling plastic. It was nice because my actually my mom, she was a stay at home mom. She ⁓ she she raised us during that time also. She was ⁓ babysitting my cousins, so my cousins would get dropped off in the morning and she was a she was a nanny for them type of thing. But she eventually ended up working at the same place that I did. And it was close to close to my house. I could walk there from the bus. So that was my kind of my first job. Looking back though, you know, I I built r responsibility and work ethic. And you know what? Not everyone would now when I look at it, not everyone would go and run that saw.
speaker-0: work ethic.
speaker-1: The blade would fall off sometimes and it would be terrifying. Let me just tell you that. Then from there I moved over to working at home hardware. To this day, one of probably my one of my favorite jobs I ever had. Yeah, because like home hardware typically hires your guys that had a good career at something and go there and they love just the the social aspect of it. They're there for that.
speaker-0: Honestly, wow.
speaker-1: As well as they have some skills, right? So they all have a little bit of ⁓ something that they the plumbing section or they kind of take the the each section to their to ⁓ as their baby. So that's where I kind of really dove into everything. I I wanted to kinda ⁓ get a skill set and understanding of plumbing and electrical and driveway salt and painting and and all that. It wasn't the the easiest job too. I actually had a a boss there that was she was Pretty hard ass to be honest. She she she kept it straight and narrow and she tuned ⁓ me and a couple of my buddies that worked there in a c a few times, right? But looking back now, again, I it's those things that you think about when you're older, I don't necessarily agree with how she did it. I understand why she would have done it in different ways, but it's something you add to your brain or your your your your arsenal of how you want to treat people as a leader. And you know, it shapes you. So
speaker-0: Yeah, it's interesting to look at experiences you've had through the lens of them as an adult and you start to understand, ⁓ even if you don't agree with it, you might understand, okay, I understand why you were that way.
speaker-1: Yeah, it's wild. I was working actually for a guy there, ⁓ the boss who owned the place, awesome guy, a huge, huge mentor of mine when it comes to like lifestyle. Like he was working ⁓ as a lineman for ⁓ electrical, ended up getting a hardware store and just and just grew and grew as a businessman and an entrepreneur and and and you know what he worked his butt off to get where he is and and now his life is is something I I I'm envious of. He's an awesome, awesome guy and gave me so much opportunity. Thinking back on other stuff that I did. Like I when I was working at the plastic factory, I used to go and weed eat at this guy's ⁓ this guy's house as well and run a weed eater all day, right? And get paid thirty bucks or whatever. So you think now you're like, not a shot. No way. Right. But I mean again, it's those things that, you know, you you'd sit there and you'd weed eat all day and then you'd get there and you have thirty bucks and you'd go, Okay, you know what? I need to get I need to get a good job because that sucked, right? But
speaker-0: You wrote that you did farm maintenance and you were around racehorses. Tell me about those.
speaker-1: Like I said, he owned home hardware as he grew. He ended up having a smaller farm, but then he moved into a big ⁓ racing training facility. And when that happened, that's kind of where I dug I dug deep into maintenance side of stuff. So I was already kind of involved with the hardware store, but and and liking, you know, electrical and plumbing and and and all the all the above. But then he needed me to go and work more at the at the farm. So he I mean, he was offering me hours at the farm, which was just like cutting the grass and weed eating and And doing different things around the farm. But again, I was in I was I loved it. Some days weren't the best, you know, cutting grass all day or you know, weeding all day. But you'd be like, hey, go cut that tree down. Right. I'm a 15, 16-year-old, 17-year-old kid looking back now. I'm cutting this sad, but I had to cut this willow down. And I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, I and I look back at the pictures and I'm like, figured it out. Right. Like again, ⁓ I was always envious of people that had skills that would they would figure it out. They did a bit of research. They and you know they put themselves in a situation to win. So I gotta give them credit for bringing me to the farm and and doing that because I figured it out. I I never ran a ran a nail gun. Next thing you know, I'm running a nail gun and putting all the fence posts back in. I never did shingling or siding, right? Next thing you know, he's got me driving around the barn and and putting the roof back together or or driving some some siding screws in, right? It's just those those little things now. I look at them and say how much they have impacted. who I am and what skill sets I've been able to develop.
speaker-0: Yeah, it wasn't just the thirty bucks for the day of work.
speaker-1: No, and it led to so many things. And it also brought me towards the horses, right? My family has no ties to horses. One thing leads to another. Next thing you know, you're you're out there or you're helping I was helping ⁓ my next job, which was in the barn, helping out. So working with horses, grooming horses, ⁓ training them specifically. ⁓ I was ⁓ I was what they called a a rider. So I would take the horses and exercise them ⁓ every morning, be out there on days minus forty of it on the out on the track, just freezing, putting five, six, seven, eight miles into them and getting them ready to go. And that's kind of where my work came when it came to anything with horses kind of gave me that foot in the door to eventually get into what I'm doing now is the with the farrier work. Right. So and then actually it's I got one more job that I had before I got the two more, but we'll make them we'll make them quick. The the I loved every job I really had. I mean there was one job that I I I didn't like and I didn't stay long. So but I had another job working actually as a line painter. Again, one of those things where, you know, I feel like I've always walked into places that they've given me opportunity to do more. Even with line painting. Like most guys go there and they drive what we call a blocker truck. So if you see a line painting ⁓ on the road, they usually have a couple blocker trucks, depending on the speed limit, obviously, right? And then they have their center line, which is the paint truck. Day one, I'm in the back of this thing. We're on ⁓ we're between Guelph and Kitchener. And I'm painting, I'm painting just the white line, right? But it's like I've never sat in this thing before. I have no idea. There's put out the dolly. I'm like, I don't even know what that means, right? But it's like anything else. If you just jump at it and you try, I I will I get so ⁓ as O C D as I was, I'd get so worked up, man. I would and I was working with a bunch of guys from Newfoundland. So you know, they you know how that goes, right? So so like these guys would come down and they'd put in a season, right? We would line paint. We'd leave ⁓ Sunday night and we wouldn't get we'd usually get home Friday morning, but we would eat as much time as we could. And I had an awesome crew. But you had to, you had to. You had to stay positive and happy and and get after it because it just made it go by faster. Right. Again, another job that I I I loved. I I I still go there, I bring them coffees all the time and and and and bug them. And you know, they they make fun of now, say that I'm semi retired as a fireman, but It was a job that definitely as well like got me in the rigs, man. I was driving trucks. We also did like line removal. So I was blasting lines off the road on the middle of the 407, 10 o'clock at night. And I learned traffic control. And ⁓ man, we were in some situations that ⁓ were pretty, pretty scary at some points, but we had fun, man. That's the moral of it. It was fun to go to work and do, and that's why I enjoyed it. And then my last job actually before I got on fire because I really needed to focus on finding a job that would give me flexibility, specifically with fire, because ⁓ you know, I I got fired on as a part-time firefighter. And your resume is based on how much you show up at the station, right? So being on the road all week, line painting. I couldn't I couldn't commit, right? We were in North Bay, we were in we were everywhere. I gotta give credit, you know, big time, huge. Credit where credit's due. My sister's ⁓ fiance. He builds firefighter killers. Okay. He builds roof trusses. All right. All right. We forgive him for that. Okay. The gusset plates and the wood. But that's the job I had before I got on as a firefighter. All the credit to credits due to him because he would be like, dude, that's more important. Go. Right? My page would go off. I was, you know, 11-minute drive from the station, and he'd go go, dude. Like he knew. This day and age, kind of people are getting fussy about it, right? Especially in the volunteer world. There was nothing that he would never make me feel bad. He knew that was my passion. Now, that being said, though, building roof trusses, I don't know if a lot of people know how they are built, but what happens is they're they're cut at one side of the shop, then they're put on carts and the carts are wheeled over, and then they're set up in what we call a jig. So the jig gives you your setup, right? You'd stand at one spot and you you would put your piece of wood up and you'd put your gusset plates on on this ⁓ metal pan and they'd the guy would come around and he'd crimp them into the wood. And yeah, that was your day. I'm a pretty happy guy, go lucky guy. I like to see the good thing. I love the guy too, and he's actually a really good guy, but when he's working, he doesn't say a word. I will tell you right now, as much as I love that place, I couldn't wait till it was the end of the day either because Building these trusses and doing what we did there. ⁓ my gosh, it led to some long days. When you hear the same song on the radio by the third time in the day, you know you've put in one, right? So but you know, again, that was a sacrifice that it made it all way so worth it because I was able to go and to to chase my dream. I I hold those guys huge, man. To this day I still tell them all the time. I'm like, Man, you you gave me the opportunity to be where I am today. I I I I can't thank him enough.
speaker-0: You were exposed to the fire service obviously through your family really young, but just talk to me about what that experience was like and what drew you to wanna do it.
speaker-1: cliche to say, but ever since I was a kid, I had two options. I I wanted to be a professional hockey player or lacrosse player, or I want to be a fireman. You know, you look at my yearbook for grade eight or whatever it's called, right? And it says firemen or or in the NHL.
speaker-0: What do you remember about being around the firehouse?
speaker-1: So yeah, so like I would almost always think to myself, you know, as a even as a kid, this is kind of the direction I want to go. I gotta be honest with you, it's it's it's addictive to watch the pager go off and and to watch someone change into Superman from for my whole life, and not just one person too. Acting used to be just ⁓ by itself, it eventually amalgamated to what it is now. So ⁓ my dad ⁓ my grandfather actually worked both together for Acton Fire Department originally until it was amalgamated and actually they have one thing on me as well. Within Acton with a Beardmore ⁓ tannery like we talked about, it had its own fire service. Yeah, they had Beardmore Fire Department in there. So they always would tell me all the time, ⁓ I wear two hats. I I was some ⁓ I I you know I you're you're you're you're all right, but you know what, I was a fireman twice. So ⁓
speaker-0: ⁓ no way.
speaker-1: It's like anything else, man. I think that y you're either drawn to your parents' careers or or you're not. You you want nothing to do with them, right? But w the way I see it is I always respected and I always looked at as a kid to the people that had generational stuff. I don't know if it's an Irish thing, but we love that tradition. Johnny's dad's a blacksmith, so you know, he wants to be a blacksmith. Jessica's dad's a dentist and and just so she w you like that that's the type of stuff that I love that. So I had no real pressure into it, but dude, I was The biggest thing that I regret is not being able to smell what I smell when I was a kid. You know, you walk into that fire station the first time and I'm nose blind to it kind of now. And man, as a kid playing hide and seek in those fire trucks and grandpa and dad losing their minds saying get off it type of thing, right? And them washing their vehicles there. And I was drawn to it, man. I I I loved to watch it. My uncle, three of my uncles were firefighters there. My other uncle's actually a cop. So we I mean, he he gets hammered all the time. We we give it to him, right? And his actually his son is going to be a cop too, so
speaker-0: When you wrote to me you said that you got into it initially for the general reasons, helping people, adrenaline brotherhood, but then you matured and some more stuff came out of it for you. What about that?
speaker-1: Obviously joins the fire service and they ask you that question. Why do you want to be a firefighter? And you, you know, you hammer that that answer. ⁓ you know, I want to save the community and I wanna this and I wanted that. I think that the fire service is the perfect example of you never can know enough. Like I said to you, most of these jobs that I liked and I did, I tried everything. And the fire service has never-ending tryings of everything. If that makes any sense to you, right? Like, let's face it. You can literally create or do or put yourself into a different situation pretty much every shift you go in and work. For me, it's having the the skill sets that we need to know and not necessarily honing the basics like we always do, but it's it's expanding the basics as well. Here's a good example. PPE. Yes, putting on your face mask and your helmet and your gloves and your gear and all that stuff is so important. And here's a way that I do it, but that doesn't mean that's the way you have to do it. Right. And that's a good example I always give to people is that PPE is personal protective equipment. Personal. How do you do it? Do it so you do it good, essentially. Right. And that to me, like in in in all aspects, right? Yeah, I might hold the the halligan a little bit differently than you in some variation or form, but it's how we can make those skill sets happen. I loved always learning. I loved gathering information. I loved learning other people's ideas of how to do something. To this day, I still even teaching, I'm like, that worked better than how I would do it. Right. And that to me, that's the biggest growth of all. Man, teaching is the greatest, it's the greatest, most humbling thing ever. Because sometimes you're like, Wow, this probably isn't in your head, you're, ⁓ this maybe not work. It does. And you're like, huh, wow.
speaker-0: I guess I'm doing it that way now. Yeah.
speaker-1: Well, I guess you what, there's another way I can teach it. It's the never ending skill set. If you're bored, it's your own fault. If you if you don't have passion or if you don't always something again to do. There's always something you can go and make yourself self proficient at. And the number one thing you can work against is complacency. Am I being complacent by sitting here and doing nothing? Absolutely.
speaker-0: Sure, sure. If you're bored it's your own fault.
speaker-1: Again, on the twenty four hour shift, it's it's it's I don't expect everyone to be that person that's grinding and I tell people all the time, I'm like, I don't want you to be like me. Unless you want to be, no problem. But I I have just as much respect for the people that go to work that work twenty-four hours and do their thing. They have their skill sets, they hone their skill sets, they work as a team, they work out as a team, they fill the rig up together, they eat dinner together. I hope they get a shutout. They get up in the morning, they go home and they turn it off. That is perfect. Not everyone has to want to go to work and leave work and and want to think about fire helmets and, you know, fire trucks and fire conferences and all the things that go about it, right? I still sometimes drive myself a little crazy with it, but I've noticed that as a kid, as I said to you, I learned I'd learned a lot of different skill sets, but I put all my apples and oranges and everything into this basket. So, you know, I walk with it proudly. And that's kind of where I'm at at with with this. I I like I said, I don't want everyone to be like me. And the guys that are like me, they seem to we we seem to be together. So, you know, we're gravitated towards each other. So
speaker-0: What was the hiring process like?
speaker-1: Well the hiring process for me, it I was at the time where it wasn't easy. I I still remember telling my mom I'm gonna go to firefighting school and her her kinda going, I I don't know why you'd do that. Actually it was fuel to my fire because I remember and she you know, I mean she hates this, but I remember vividly, she had someone that worked for a different municipality in the HR department. And she mentioned to them that I you I'm gonna gonna go to firefighting school and They basically said to her, he's he's better off to go try and be an astronaut than a fireman. She kind of tried to I mean, that and being with a firefighter and my grandfather and being raised in the family, and they're not as obsessed with it as I am necessarily, but they when the pager went off, it was game time. So we we missed dad and and grandpa a lot. But that drove me nuts, man. Like I have a better shot of being an astronaut than a fireman. There you go, the fixation. The you can't do this. And I still live that way. You can't do this. You you you don't deserve this yet, right? And and that's where I ended up going, you know what? I'm going to fire school and I'm going to go the farthest one away so I can do my own thing with it. So I went to fire school and then only did the pre-service program with Lambton College. So I'm a I'm a Lambton lion through and through. So, you know, there's the gut everyone kind of kind of wears their their school on their shoulder. So, you know, shout out to Lambton College, but getting out of school. So I had the the the bare minimum to do all that, right?
speaker-0: Is it the Lambton Lions? It's so funny that Lamb and Lion are in the same name.
speaker-1: Lambton Lions, yeah. Yeah, no, the Lambton Lions. Yeah. Yeah, the Lambton Lions. Yeah, yeah. Lamb and Lion, yeah, Lambton Lions. Yeah. So at the time they had like the in my opinion, they had like the greatest facility going. When ⁓ my sister ⁓ had a boyfriend that went there, no, he'd come home and show me these videos, and yeah, it's funny because you have no idea, right? So I'm looking at these big industrial fires with tankers and stuff like that, and I'm like, ⁓ my god, that's great, right?
speaker-0: Land on land. Yeah.
speaker-1: Meanwhile, ⁓ it's because of Chemical Valley and they're doing all their training on that, right? But don't regret it at all. ⁓ phenomenal burn ta ⁓ burn tower there and and facility. ⁓ we didn't have the new facility yet. We were still out in the in the can. It used to be ⁓ quantit hut, most of their training and as well as the portables for their tra like for their teaching. We were still at that aspect, but with some awesome guys. Huge shout out to my man Braden McKenzie. One of the best firefighters, man, I know. He's he's One of those guys, man, he's just well rounded. Was ra his dad, I mean, you ⁓ if you don't know Braden, his dad raised him right and he he comes from a generational of fireman, right? So he was super focused at school. He kind of kept me in line with making sure that I made good decisions. I was never as smart as him. I still am not as smart as him, but I gotta give him a huge shout out to getting me through school and helping me ⁓ develop and and and get to where I am today too. So yeah, I finished up school and that's when You sh would still have to go to either Brock or you would have to go to York. Yeah. Was chasing those. I'm not I'm a hands-on guy. Right? I struggle, man. With with testing, I will be the first to tell ya. I I am lousy, dude. Even with like to the to this to this day on but I'm a good arguer at these tests too, right? Like to this day, even writing like any of my tech level stuff, I'm like Two answers to this, right? And my brain always goes to the one that doesn't obviously make the make the right call sometimes, right? But I struggled, man. I spent like nine thousand in testing. Wow. I finally cracked a few tests. And it wasn't because of me getting smarter, it was because of me kind of knowing what was to expect. It's not looking back now, I probably could have done a little bit more help when it came to that stuff, but and what I did was put in the effort and and and put in the time to try and just
speaker-0: Head down and hammer it.
speaker-1: Down and hammer it, right? I didn't have a lot of money when it came to putting money towards getting the help at the time either, really. So head down and and do what I can and spend the money on the tests and and make it happen. And so I ended up passing a couple of times, but then failed later on in the interviews, right? And interviews getting hammered on interviews and questions. And you know, I was a kid. I didn't know. I I thought I was doing great. I sat down with someone and kind of went over their questions and mine. I was like, ⁓ man, I'm way off. The cool thing about that too was developing thick skin for an interview, right? So when you fail and fail and fail and you don't suc succeed at something, right? I was building that mental callous that what do I have to lose? Right. Like you get in there and you he eventually, you know, I always loved those people that got the job first time because good for them, man. If you got in there and you cracked the code, good for you. And but I was never that guy, you know, I I'm still not that guy. I will never be that guy. I'm not really. Wired that way, I gotta work. But interviews were more though probably my my strength than my writing of stuff. Like interviews-wise, like I can I kind of have the gift of gab when it came to especially now coming around a bit more full full circle with that. But I eventually got some interviews and ⁓ you know failed a bunch. My dad has some some friends throughout the fire service and they that have interviewed me. So I talked with them now and They kinda tell me like, you know, what I did right or what I did wrong or where I went wrong. And you know, some of them I was just young. And that's why they didn't they they said you did a great interview, but you were just you were you were a kid, right? So and you know, it's tough to hear that as a kid because you're like, what can you do about that? But now being in the game, I I kinda I can kind of see what they were looking for when it came to the adolescence of understanding where that age bracket you kind of make a bit of a flip. That also being said, I've had young kids that I would hire instantly because they just get it. Right. They were raised correctly. They just get it. Ended up writing some tests, pass fail, pass fail. ⁓ getting some interviews, pass fail. Same thing. Ended up scoring a a job in, you know, in my hometown. The the crazy thing about it is is like they say it when it rains, it pours, I was offered a say ⁓ another job just outside the GTA within that week too. So yeah, it was a it wasn't an easy process. It ⁓ it it took me three to four to five years to to eventually crack it. ⁓ I was already a volunteer firefighter for some of those years already, kinda building like I said to you, as a as a volunteer, you kinda build your resume as you go there.
speaker-0: What was the recruit experience like?
speaker-1: Recruit experience actually for us is is way was way different. We are one of those departments that's ⁓ too big to be small and too small to be big, type of thing, right? As a part-time firefighter, like I said, my brother-in-law really helped me out. He would let me go back to calls, but he also helped me out because I ended up getting hired as a part-time dispatcher. Another job I absolutely loved. Wow. And most guys hate that right and and most guys think of me and they talk to me and they're like you liked dispatching and you know what I said to myself I I would always I I I liked the preparation of dispatch. I liked the OCD and I liked to go in and and make it my own. Is it something that let's let's say it's balls to the walls or is it something we're getting after it? No. But I'm part of the team now right I can't be at calls. I I I I this is as close as I can be to a full time f the the full time guys yet right like so
speaker-0: And there's a structure to it that you have to follow.
speaker-1: Yeah, and you know what? The cool thing about it is that again, we were a small department. So the d the the actual dispatching of it was never really the same. Each dispatcher kind of had their different take on it. For me, I was lucky because I was already kind of firebuffing at the time. And I knew that I needed to have O C D with this to be six to be decent at it because I'm a scatter brain as well, if I'm not, right? My ADD is wild. So I actually like, you know, I I made myself dispatching sheets. So like I I broke it down to as many skill sets as I could with cheat sheets as I could. So I would, you know, I'd page out every time I'd be like blah blah blah, respond to ⁓ blah, blah, blah, with blah, blah, blah. Right. And all I would have to do is write in like the where you're headed, what the call type is, and what truck you're taking. When I'd write that down quickly from the dispatcher and then like obviously a couple details and then page it out. But what I loved about it the most is developing what Some captains want to hear everything. Some captains want to hear nothing. Right. So it was understanding and developing a a a skill set of knowing who wants to hear what. Especially i in the way that I was hungry to try and get on there. So I was hungry to give those guys information. I wanted them to have comfort in me knowing that I was gonna do what I could to make it happen. I was gonna give you the information and guess what? I screwed up a bunch. And I there was times I you know, I go, ⁓ my God, right? But As you get on it though, you get better and better and better at it. And again, I was something I I chair I liked doing. I loved it. And I also actually was able to from there work a little bit at ⁓ we were doing burn permits and and front desk work. So I was actually able to work as the clerk at the front desk as well. So ⁓ developing and and you know, like burn permits and and you we were using a ⁓ a program that allowed me to kind of understand like what it's called firehouse. I think it's it's pretty much ⁓ obsolete now, but The nice thing is I could go in and look at the different things, right? I could have some mentors that were captains that I could kind of read their incident narratives and the reports and how they did it. And I could read the chatter on radio comms and I can also read what the dispatcher, you know, the the short terms they were using and things like that. I just these things I I I I just really took big pride in doing them. When I was first hired, I actually worked the first six months in dispatch. My hiring class was only four. The guys that were involved, ⁓ one ⁓ all of them were fully trained dispatchers as well. ⁓ they were part-time dispatch and they they had some skill set on it. One of them was actually my one of my best friends from high school. ⁓ you talk about mentorship and things like that. And I I think about growing up as a kid and and being around ⁓ my man, his name's Jake. I always come back to well-rounded with the fire service. And man, this he he didn't he went to school to be an engineer and stuff like that. And and I never saw him coming to be in a fireman. And well, next thing you know, we got on and whatever. And Dude, he's the type of guy that is literally unbelievable at 98 per things he does. He's probably one of the best firefighters we have. Dude, the guy can weld, the guy can he can do it all. He can do it all. So part of me was like when I got hired, I was like, we we all got hired in the same class. I'm like, man, I gotta try and keep up with that guy, right? As much as it wasn't, but you know, he he's just he man, he to this day. As a human being, that guy is the most skilled human being I probably have ever witnessed. He's just got it in in in every way. So shout out to him. But once I was completed this the six months in dispatch, I was sent right to the truck. Worked for ⁓ an awesome captain, a captain that has known my dad for longer than I've been alive. And my grandfather calls me Red. Call they call my dad ⁓ big red and they call me Little Red. So ⁓ and then I had an acting captain. that they both kind of, you know, sat me down and and they gave me what I needed to hear. Right. As a kid, there's a big difference between being cocky and being confident. Right. And I still take this lecture every day to to to different people. And you know what? It to me it's it's again another line that you straddle. The line of being cocky and being confident. Right. And confidence comes from developing skill sets and repeating that development, continuing to develop it. Right. That conversation they had with me, it shaped who I was and and how I performed, right? And the nice thing about them is that they would let me make mistakes. They'd give it to me about it, but they would let me make mistakes and they would let me hone those mistakes myself. They didn't fix them for me. They let me fix it myself, right? They knew how I carried the job. They knew how I carried myself when it came to you didn't have to tell me if I screwed up. I knew it, right? He was unbelievable, ⁓ my first captain at at at setting me straight and and putting me in a path that really helped me not not only where I work, but outside of where I work. It allowed me to really, really focus on helping people that were kind of like me, that were super into it. But rather than doing things at a hundred and ten, bring that back to ninety, because your a hundred and ten is most people's they have no idea. They they they can't even think about that, that, that rate, right?
speaker-0: You wrote about how you learned how to treat a rookie.
speaker-1: I don't necessarily think that a rookie necessarily needs to be the guy that does everything, right? And a lot of people, a lot of places think that. Like let's mop the floor or let's do this, let's do that. It wasn't like that, right? We did it as a team. Everyone had the role, right? I I knew at the end of the day if there was a few calls and you know the toilets need to be done or you know, everyone was kind of burnt out. It was my turn to step up.
speaker-0: Mm-hmm.
speaker-1: No, no, man. And and you what? And that's the cool thing about this too is I'm super into health and fitness and I go on these different runs at different times with different types of workouts and whatnot. And they really bought into actually my program in the gym. So we were working Continentals. So we weren't twenty four hours yet either. So we were working like Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday, Thursday, work Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Right. And then you're off the ne the it switches the next week. I mean, in a workout sense, it was unbelievable, right? Like we were We were getting after it. So I had guys ⁓ that were ahead of me that were only hired at one year before me, an acting captain who to this day is again another guy that has done nothing but given me opportunity to grow in he's a he's a ⁓ tree climber, one of the most again, amazing rope guys ever. And he just never stopped giving me knowledge. He knew I thrived off what he wanted to show me, right? And this is the biggest thing I always say to guys too is when you work in the fire service, the best way to be liked is to act like everyone is teaching you something. Let's face it, man. Not every action or every you've you've heard it too where someone's like, hey, move the bar a little, and you're like, I know, like just give me a second. I know I I'm headed that way, right? But there's ways to take it. ⁓ really? ⁓ okay. Right? Next thing you know. Hey, if you cut right here with the the tool, then it'll be easier for you, right? You may never cut there ever again in your career or never see that same setup or nothing like that. But if you take it like ⁓ right? Or if you take it in it like personally, this is what I'm saying. This is where I've really grown. Where, you know, I've learned now to just go, yeah, man, like, you know what, that works that that's pretty slick.
speaker-0: And not every time that the person trying to help you knows what you know or don't know. So they just they're just trying to be helpful.
speaker-1: But again, it's like anything else. You either take it with a good attitude or you take it with a bad one, right? And the the more you take it with some enthusiasm and with a positive aspect, it could be never again, it could never sh come up later on ever. But that person now goes, Man, he's teachable. Right. And especially as a rookie, these guys would be on me, on me, on me, right? And I I don't think there'll be ever anyone can tell you that I don't put in an effort and and I'm not really teachable. I I like try and always Give people the benefit of the doubt and and let them guide me. And if it makes it harder, guess what? I've learned the hardest way to do it. It's just another skill set of, okay, maybe this is how it's gonna be. And it's gonna be the hardest way ever. But guess what? C D E F G and the plans.
speaker-0: Now I got A B C Specializing in machinery rescue and forcible entry, Rescue Squad Ironworks builds world-class heirloom quality training props for your fire department. Designed and built by firefighters for firefighters, and backed by years of fire ground experience and training across North America, they are reliable, realistic, and repeatable, allowing you to train multiple students and be extremely cost efficient. Find RSI on Instagram at rescue underscore squad underscore ironworks. or via email at rescuesquadironworks at gmail.com. Let hard work be your legacy. How did you get involved with instructing, speaking of that?
speaker-1: The instructing side of things actually out of school, I was like everybody else trying to get in anywhere. Hey, where do you want me to set doors? Hey, you want me to come sweep the parking lot? Hey. The actual instructing side, ⁓ I think I first started doing large animal rescue. I did some instructing with like my my department in different ways. They'd give me some as a young, passionate kid, they'd give me a bone and be like, okay, let's do a little nozzle forward or let's do ⁓ little ⁓ tick training or whatever. I'd always raised my hand to help. And then I think though with my first actual instruction and and development was working with large animal rescue training. As my background was, I mean you everyone I always say this to people, when you get in the fire service, you'll go through some years of learning and then when you hit that limbo of five years to ten years, hone something. Make something your own. Right. So I was kind of in that spot where it was allowed to grab something and and make it kind of How I thought it should be. And that's kind of where my first type of instructing kind of came from. I was able to take a course. ⁓ there was a lady offering, ⁓ she's ⁓ a doctor out of the States, world-renowned large animal rescue. Her name is Rebecca Houston Jimenez, phenomenal instructor and and and just an unbelievable horse person. She came down and taught a class on it, got on it, got hooked on it, and then I kind of steered towards ⁓ I was doing a lot of the time. I I built a bike with Jake. Jake, ⁓ well, Jake does Jake's a f unvo unbelievable welder. So me and him put a bite together. And it's funny because that kind of brought me in brass with that as well as like my farrier work. He's obsessed with metal. So that kind of was the bringover of he had a different ⁓ name on Instagram at that time, and I was super into ⁓ force the door, right? I'm an old school fire buff. I got ⁓ all my dad's old magazines, I have them. So We could started shooting the breeze about large animal. Next thing you know, he's like, Listen, ⁓ I'm gonna be doing some stuff at Southwest Fire Academy. I know you have some skill set with grinder and, you hand tools and stuff like that. I'm wondering if you wanna come help me out with the burn cans, right? That's where literally the change of my life happened meeting Andrew Brassard. Personally think he's probably literally one of the best firefighters to walk the ground in Canada.
speaker-0: Here, here. Yeah, yeah.
speaker-1: He is he's a phenomenal guy. And the thing about Andrew is that he gives everything to everybody, man. He he is the greatest human being going. So we ended up building these cans, working on that. As I said, these things lead to things, right? So put in a good work, did some really nice work on the can, and the next thing you know, we were building the forge. And as the forge was being built, ⁓ built a kind of a relationship with Jesse, they kind of seen the the type of guy I was. They gave me opportunity and I I jumped at it. So I did a couple boot camp classes. I was lucky enough to ⁓ be involved in some tech stuff as well. Brass took me on and and we were we've been forcing doors for the last five, six years. Huge shout out to him. I always look at fire teaching as a gift to myself in this way. Like we discussed earlier. As much as I teach, I learn. I'm the first to tell you when I get there, I am skilled at this skill set, but I am no professional. I will teach you everything I have, but I I'm a big believer in enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. And you know, if you hear any of my boot clan ⁓ the classes that I was involved with with any of the boot clam classes, I'd always say this to them. I'd say enthusiasm is free. And I'd push that on them because I was driving two and a half hours to teach them how to tie a knot. So we're guess what? We're not tying knots like we're tired. We're tying knots like we're happy that we're here, right? You're spending $15,000 or whatever it is to be here. And I'm and I'm driving two hours away from my my wife and kids. Guess what? You're giving me a hundred and ten, and I'm giving you a hundred and ten. And at the end of the day, we're gonna laugh and smile, and I'm gonna remember you because you're the person that put the work in. And at the end of the day, for me, like as a as an an instructor, especially on the bare bones level of things, let's face it, we're cutting the teeth for them, right? So cutting the teeth, it it can be painful or it can be good. Why not make it good? Why not make them Hope that they work for someone or with someone in the future like that. Right. Like your career, unfortunately, has a lot of different toxicity and negative traits to it. And it's easy to it's so easy it's the easiest well to try and get some water out of. Right. But I I always wanted to recharge the batteries and be that person that would recharge or make people certain that, you know what, this is a career I want to chase. I remember how excited I was when I'd go to like do training and stuff with people and I went to the States and got my rope, some of my rope work done. Only Canadian guy there. And man, these guys, they were just, I don't know if they just had a good weekend, but it was just the way that they presented themselves, the way that they they made it real, but they made it so that you were happy to be there. And I always looked at that and I always said, you know, and I've had enough teachers and and instructors and stuff like that in my life that they have to get through the curriculum and that's all that matters, right? No, I'm not like that. I'm not like that. And I also am not the type of person that's gonna rush it either, right? I know you and I trained ⁓ there one time. I think we were doing the ⁓ fire evolution and I think we had you pumping. Those classes are some of my favorite times teaching f firefighters. Because you know what, it was it was so fun to go back to the basics, right? And guess what? We're searching in a forty-eight by eight foot can that are welded together when we're doing a simple stretch and fun and it's right, and and let's face it, like it's When you think about the the bare bones of what we're doing, but the excitement that came from the bare bones, man. It's it's hard not to just sit here and go, man, that that that's the feeling that you wanna try and keep going as long as you can. And the only way you can do it is yourself. The only way you can do it is enthusiasm and being positive, even on the down days, going to work and saying, How can I be beneficial? And how can I bring that beneficial attitude that is gonna filter to the rest of my
speaker-0: You wrote that there's weight that comes with caring deeply. Maybe expand on that for me.
speaker-1: When you love something, you know, you have a lot of haters. This job's gonna always push you to hills and valleys, man. It's it's different direction, right? It's different thoughts, it's different processes, it's different equipment. The weight of the job isn't necessarily what we go and do. Sometimes it's who we're hanging out with all day. And it's building relationships with those people that You can make it so you can trust each other and you can make it so you can realize when someone's having a day or when someone's not. And the big thing about it is when they're not, how can you help them? I know for me, it's tough, man. You get labeled as someone that's obsessed with this. And I and I'll be the first to tell you, man, I I am. I I love it, man. I I I love going to work and I love coming home and I love buying fire helmets off marketplace and I love texting my buddy about Who switched to rubber hose and why their cross lays suck now and I love comparing trucks and all that aspects. But with the super love, it comes f you know, you you hear a lot of things bad about you too, right? A lot of people don't realize that they don't really know that I love that people can turn it off too.
speaker-0: They take it personally as a reflection of them, not just an appreciation of how you are and how you see it.
speaker-1: It's easy to say, ⁓ here he goes again. Right. And you know what the thing is, is that it's not like that. A lot of the times it's not, right? I was always taught as a kid if you're gonna do something and you're gonna step up and do it, do it. If you're gonna drop the mitts in hockey, don't talk about it. Don't my dad was never the one to tell me to go after somebody, but he said when the job needs to be done, you do the job. A lot of the negativity that I have developed in my brain when it comes to not properly being able to process positive or negative criticism sometimes. You know, I have a lot of other skill sets where it's like, you know what? I can't half ass this. I can't miss the corners in the station. It's also something such as simple as this is like in the morning switching out your pack just to give you, you know, the the SLP says four thousand, but you always want forty five hundred, right? And or you know you switch your tick camera out or you put your face piece on to check your pack in or or It's kind those simple things that kind of seem to upset people too. It's knowing how to take it, right? And and as a person that, you know, I like to I don't like to mm, I don't want people to think bad of me. I mean, I don't think anyone like there's I kinda envy the people that don't care. I mean, and there's lots of those, but as in going through school and stuff like that, I was always the guy that would always didn't I didn't care what you did. I I I found it fascinating that you were unbelievable at guitar or you were good at calculus. I never wanted like to to have hate with this job. As much as you're gonna have guys that are into it, you're gonna have guys that hate the guys that are into it. I carry that because I I hate being hated for it. I signed up and I wanted to do this career and I wanted to make it I want my kids to grow up one day and say, Yeah, my dad had fire helmets laying around the house all the time. He went to conferences and my mom would get upset and be mad. And then he'd come home and then on you know, on Saturdays his phone would ring and then he'd go, Hey mom. Christmas is coming, I better get to work. And then she would roll her eyes, right? ⁓ again, for anyone listening or anyone like a fire service that loves what they do, but they feel the weight around it, you're not the
speaker-0: And it says more about the haters than it does about them.
speaker-1: You're doing something right usually, you know, as well as I do. There's some left sided of that, or there's guys that are trying their best to do things right, but they're really far off doing it right, right? As well. So it's finding that happy medium, but that's where humbling, being humble comes in, right? And I'll be the first to tell you I'll get up in front of people and I'll put on a brave face and I will do whatever it takes. And when we ever went to a fire together, I would I'd go to work. But I'm humble enough to tell you that I have lots of flaws in my game and and I love it because I want to work on them. The greatest thing that you can be called in the fire service is well-rounded. If you are well-rounded, you have an idea. I'm still a firefighter, ⁓ pursuing acting captain right now, but I crave my captain who is an absolute beauty. I got a f a few on my platoon, we flip around quite a bit. We again we have a weird, weird system, but I always love to hear what do you think? You know what I mean? It's nice to have that that thought on, hey, what do you think? Or okay, we're headed to this and it's a do we need the door taken down, right? They're gonna look over their shoulder and they're gonna say, Hey, dude, do your thing. And guess what? Like any shift though, there's gonna be guys that are good at medical. There's gonna be guys that are good at this or good at that. We all have to be good at everything, right? But that doesn't mean don't lean on the guys that are great at their skill sets too, right? And that's it. I always I I have a guy that's medically unbelievable. Unbelievable he is, right? And he's always mad because he ⁓ he's always going. You guys always put me in the car and I'm doing medical and you're cutting the car in half, right? And I'm like and I'm I feel bad for him. So, you know, the odd time when we get a little door pop or whatever, he does it. But I always look at him and say, Man, your skill set is s is so unbelievable. Sometimes medically I'm like, All right, what next?
speaker-0: Whereas if that's our loved one, that's who we want with them.
speaker-1: Exactly. Right. Exactly. I'm not saying that I'm terrible at it, but you know, I I go through the basics and then he's got some more development on the grand scheme of things.
speaker-0: Speaking of passion, let's dive into the true North Pool. So tell me how you got involved with them.
speaker-1: Yeah, the True North Fools is actually a funny one. I'm actually more of a GTA guy. Like ⁓ I'm an hour from Toronto. But the big reason why I jumped on True North Fools is because of my c connection with Lambton College and and the guys out in Windsor Way, right? Right. Brady McKenzie and and and all those guys. When the Fools came to Ontario, again, a guy that's super into all of this and on social media and always keeping an eye on stuff and you know trying to get onto the next training thing. When it came to Ontario, ⁓ the both of them opened and I said to myself, you know what, I gotta get on one. COVID, I think, crushed both the fools ⁓ quite a bit right at the beginning when it came to the momentum. I actually had signed up for the ⁓ Hogtown fool. They were doing a forced entry day at Six Nations or whatever, but COVID shut that down. I was excited because I've been doing forcible entry at that point for quite some time, but I was excited to just kind of see the direction of where they were gonna take it. But I ended up getting shut down. I actually was looking to do the event in Chatham Kent as well, and it got shut down. So yeah, all that kind of shit happened. And then next thing you know, I was like, you know what? I gotta get involved. And at the time, the fools group that was putting something forward was the True North Fools. Jumped on the True North Fools train. The first time I actually did some work with the True North Fools was at Lambton College. And that's the thing. I I got involved in it a little too soon when it came to training because Atlanton College I help was helping Brass teach Forced Entry, the ⁓ Forced Entry Academy. And then the second year at l at ⁓ we brought it to they brought Ramagus down to Southwest Fire Academy. And again, we were doing live fire forced entry. So I wasn't really able to be a member. You know, it seemed like everything that was kind of going on I was asked to help with. That went around and then ⁓ there was some grumblings of the president stepping away from it. I mean I know that there was a little bit of a pause with the true North Foosa for a while. I was bouncing it off a couple of my mentors, like Brass and Cadiz and and seeing, Hey, what do you guys think about this? Like, why don't you guys do it? Right, basically going, Hey You guys should jump on this president job and we'll we'll run it, right? They had their own past and they didn't really have they didn't really have interest in it. And I had a lot of ideas. I had a lot of thoughts. I I really sat and thought about it. My fiance at the time, you know, I discussed it with her saying, listen, like I gotta release, I gotta recharge this somehow, right? I I ⁓ I was already probably on the job for six years-ish, right? And I was still I was look kind of looking for that recharge and I I messaged ⁓ Rob T bear, who's a ⁓ an absolute legend, and Phil and said, Hey, if you need me, I'll step up and I'll try my best. Next thing you know, I I grabbed the reins and I took the presidency over of ⁓ the True North Fools. To be honest with you, it was it's one of the most amazing things I've done. I personally, selfishly love it. I eat it up, it's hard, it's not easy, it's the pay's no good. And you know what like my family I'm I'm so lucky and blessed to have ⁓ who I have around me because they they encourage me to chase this stream of ⁓ outside the four walls of my fire station. So
speaker-0: Walk me through the conference in Waterloo, how that went for ya.
speaker-1: What people don't realize is that money just doesn't grow on trees, right? And everything in this in this job and in this world is liability and insurance and ⁓ and all that. So I put my thinking cap on and I said to myself, okay, what is our main focus? Our main focus with anything is safety and liability. Well, how do we go about that? Well, safety and liability leads to insurance. So I had to come up with a game plan on how to make A decent amount of money because any everyone knows anytime you put firefighting involved with anything, it triples. Sat down with a guy, kind of got a game plan ⁓ as to what that would look like. I lean on those who who helped me, man. And again, the greatest firefighter in in Canada, he hooked me up, dude. He he said to me, Listen, you ⁓ I know what you're trying to do here. We'll make you a door, we'll give you a deal on it, you raffle it off and you put some money together and and and we'll make it happen, right? So ⁓ I put that out to the group saying, you know what, we gotta we gotta build this as a business. Business wise, we have to have a website, a Zoom account, ⁓ proper insurance. I laid it out. We're gonna our goal was to go to OAFC, sell the tickets, and put forth ⁓ what we could to to do that, right? Ended up being a huge success. I think we sold about just shy of forty tickets and that paid ultimately for the insurance and everything involved and and allowed us to put on a training day at Waterloo. Now, a training day at Waterloo, my goal with that was how can we now develop the brand? How can we put an a brand forward that represents what it's supposed to? Brotherhood, tradition, hard work, all those things, right? My thoughts were the first things first is out. We gotta put it at a price range where people can can make it happen. We were lucky enough to get the secure Waterloo. With that came the four different stations that we ended up running. So, you know, I I always wanted to to give back to the guys that kinda gave to me when it came to training. So I had used as many ⁓ outlets as I could when it came to training. And we we picked four stations that we thought would be ⁓ different, but also kind of new, like lit like let's face it, they weren't like our stations weren't too too crazy, but ⁓ they got everyone working hard and some live fire and and that's what we wanted live fire type of thing. Right. So I'm ended up running a can class. So ⁓ again, the the direction with the can class wasn't necessarily that you're gonna jump out the truck and use the can. Right. Let's face it, in Canada we like to pull a big line and put a lot of water on a little fire sometimes, right? So, but that's kind of what the direction was with that. It was getting in and doing a search with the can, being in proper position with your water supply, and understanding how you can keep a fire at bay with the right at water application. Trying to do something a little outside the box. That wasn't hasn't been seen a lot ⁓ before, right? Then we added some live fire ⁓ forcible entry, which everyone loves, little roof ops, which I mean we don't do ⁓ enough of. ⁓ we had some flat roof as well as ⁓ pitched roof, and then we had some Ven Enter search. Two out of three stations with live fire, which ⁓ and and starting from nothing and working your skill set up as you went into the live fire. So overall we had it only as one day. We would have sold the tickets out in in less than twenty four hours. So we had the opportunity to jump on day two. And so we did. Sold another twenty tickets to that. We we rocked and rolled and everything was cool and everyone was safe. It was a successful weekend that I still get messages all the time that, you know, at the this was one of the greatest I've been in the job for this long and this is one of the greatest trainings I've
speaker-0: I agree. The energy was just awesome.
speaker-1: Yeah, I think we took advantage of what we could do. And I think we took advantage big time of the Veneter Search and the Can at the same like we could do two things at the same time that were two different skill sets in the same tower. Sorry, we had three stations of Love Life Fire because we had the forcible entry as well. And then we had the ⁓ roofprof stuff kind of as a rehab, more of a laid back station, right? Because I knew that there was gonna be some work to be put in. But it just goes to show you too. I think I I think what what I also like to see is that some other people could bring it back to their fire stations and say, Hey, listen. We can run 30 of our volunteers through the tower and do it exactly like this and and get a full day of so many skills. Let's face it, the the PowerPoint only goes so far. Right? The actual skills and the actual hands-on time is what most people are craving. And I always say this with training. You go out and you do a search training or you go out and do a live fire training, and you got some guys that you know what, they're they're later in their careers and they're not necessarily working out or or working themselves where they should be. So they get out of the truck, they hone their skills working at their job, then they get back in the truck, they're sweating their butts off, and they look up and they go, I wish we did more of that. I literally hear it every year. I at search and rescue training specifically. In the grand scheme, the fire service, the number one death is is cardiac arrest and and and c and and heart problems. It's not easy. Don't get me wrong, it's not easy to put your gear on and do a search training all the time. But Maybe that one drill a month that you're doing that search might lead to someone going, Hey, I feel great. I love doing that. Or hey, I need to work on that. Right. I need to work on myself. I need to get in the gym. I need to walk a little more. I need to eat a little less. Right. Let's face it. My dad had a stroke at a couple of years ago now. And, you know, my dad was an independent dude. He didn't help help have have help from for anything. And he did everything himself. He he didn't need help. And you know what? Like now it's his life has changed completely. Does it mean that, you know, he he if he was in, you know, in the gym or did this or did that a little bit more? No. But it really makes me look at this and go, hey, my health is important too. I know this is a little off topic from the question, but it's it's crazy to think that, you know, doing our job and going and putting a wet sweat on when it comes to doing a search training and and getting it back in the rig and going, Man, that was great. I wish we did that every month. Well, we're hitting five benchmarks. Teamwork, we're getting a sweat on for our our working out, working on our skill sets. We're practicing getting in out in and out of the rig. And, you know, we're probably practicing communication while we're in there. There's never a downside of it. I think a lot of places need to focus on doing it more.
speaker-0: Yeah, I don't think there's a negative to focusing on PFAS and gear and us wanting to have safer gear, but when it comes from people that don't want to focus on the job that can kill them, that's when my perspective shifts on it, right? It's like, well, why can't we care about both? Why can't we care about the gear we wear and why can't we also worry about being good at our job?
speaker-1: You can't say it any better than that, that's for sure. I th I feel like a lot of pla l places and people, unfortunately, get that quick to reasons why not to. Right? It's easy to jump on the reasons why not to. And I think that, you know, as a any young firefighter, how to get better at this is finding the reasons why why to. And then your your impact on w the reasons finding reasons why might be the impact on and on that fifty year old Or that older guy that's kinda almost done his career, giving them a few more extra years of their life because you've pushed them to keeping up with the young guy. A lot of the times and that's all it is, right? It's that little push or that little thing of you just need to find someone that wants to do it. And once that one person does it
speaker-0: Do you think of any of it is with some of these guys that they've never had a moment in the job that's scared them where they've realized holy shit, that was bad and I wasn't prepared, and then they have that blood drain from your head kind of moment? Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah, but I gotta tell you, man, I think that's I think it's the development of hills and valleys in the career, right? Like let's face it, like even those guys that have the moment of I I think that they let those moments fade away. For example, you forgot to do something. Next few shifts, you you you set yourself up for success and you do that. And then next thing you know, you're you're you're sent to a different station. So you you don't really do that, right? And then and then that leads to Back to the regular, back to the back to where you were. I think the big thing about it is staying consistent to you. It's hard to maintain. And that's and that I mean that's that's but that's a person I I really think that's a personal thing too, right? But it's also brought on by a good leader. Right. We always go to build go to leadership. Let's talk about how like a lot of s self-motivated people are easy kind of to lead in in in ways of preparation because they're motivated to prep. If you're not motivated, now your captain's on you about setting your stuff up and now he's an ass, right? Because you know, he's telling me how to do it too. Right. So it's so hard to to find that middle line, but being well rounded, ⁓ like I said, yeah, it's is huge, but being consistent. I I'm a huge stickler on the morning check. Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, right? And to the point where, you know, again, ⁓ the the that's the weight I carry because people know and I I come in and I do that. I don't move the halligan bar to to bug you. I move it, I touch it so I can touch it, so I can go, okay, this is where it is. Okay. This is where the home safe home kit with all the smoke detectors is. And this is where the screwdriver is. So when I go in at three in the morning, I'm not going, ⁓ my God, how am I gonna put this in the roof? Right. It's it's for me. The morning check is for me and for my family, right? It's it's for me to someone's having the worst day of their life. The last thing they want me to do is get up, get there and and and not be prepared. Preparation. And I always say to my rookies, The fire truck is made to to screw you over. Let's put into consideration the way you put your pack in the bed in the in the in the seat or the way you put your mask beside you. There's gonna be one call where that mask gets caught on the seatbelt. Or there's gonna be that one time where, you know, your tick camera, the cheap carabiner on it snaps in half and it falls off and then or it won't turn on, or the battery that you put in it was only had a blip of time and stuff like that, right? But our preparation, why not take that extra minute to prep? And look for those things because there's enough other things that can go wrong, right? So I'm a stickler that I even check like the hose. I'll pull it out a little bit. I'll I know that, okay, the nozzle, we do a minute man and the nozzle sometimes, but ⁓ depending on the truck, ⁓ sometimes the nozzles are poured at the top, sometimes they're poured at the bottom. So it changes kind of the way the nozzle will be. So sometimes I have to have the nozzle on my shoulder. Sometimes I need to because if I let the nozzle fall, I'm tripping over it now. That's how I know that.
speaker-0: There's enough things that can go wrong.
speaker-1: Because I've tripped over it. Right. So again, I I like it. My guys in the morning, ⁓ you know, I'm I'm kind of I have some rookies under me now. I'll say to them, okay, where's the nozzle? And they'll go, okay, yeah, the nozzle's high. So if I'm pulling that line, I know the nozzle's got to stay on my shoulder. But if some to some trucks, it's low. So you can keep the, you can keep the you can pull it right out and put the nozzle nice and low, it'd be at your hip. Another one I go by is this is I go, our our department has bail colors. So your bail colors matches your pull nozzle on ⁓ on your pump, right? But guess what? It's only good until that bale breaks and then they put it guess what color they put on after that? Black.
speaker-0: Any color.
speaker-1: Right? So I'll I'll we'll get in a new a new guy in and I'll go, How'd your truck track go this morning? And they'll go, good. And I'll go, Okay. So if I pull sixty five hand line off the back of the truck and I call you to pull a white line, what goes on with that? And they'll go, Well, what do you mean? And I'll be like, Listen, you're new to this. I wanna help you. Okay. Because guess what I would do? I'd call for a white line, next thing you know, I'd charge the blitz gun that's right beside it in the bed. And guess what? Who's who's been there and done that? Me. Right. I've told it's told to charge a drop with a white line. So those little things like that just show your your you're passionate and you're and and it's just that it's to me it's those things. To me, it's knowing that, you know, I'm working with a gargantuan today. So, you know, when we put the wetsuits on, if we get a wetsuit call, he's gonna wear size fourteens and I'm gonna wear size twelves, right? But the bags don't really show which size they are. So I know, you know, if I throw it in, I'm throwing him the right handed bag, and vice versa. Right. It's just for the truck check stuff. Like that's I'm a big believer in getting there 75% when it comes to like 100% when it comes to fires, ready to go. But anything else, pretty much ready to go. Pretty much like we're jumping out of the truck. We got to put a life jacket on if it's a water call. We gotta just grab the rope bag if it's a rope call. The harnesses are right there on us and and we have them on. So when we get there, they they don't see us putting them on. And that's kind of where I'm at. And I mean, that's that's the the direction of your leader. And sometimes leaders might or might not want that. But I always thought a battle ready firefighter is one that can make a department look good. Right. Let's face it, Scott. You and I have been in some fires that we got inside, you couldn't see a thing. And if there was a video camera on what we did while we were inside, we would be they would love to see it. Because you're tripping over the hose, then you've moved that chair, then your partner moved it back in front of you, and then you drop the halligan, and then you lose and right. So I always say to my rookies, listen, let's be really good at getting to the front door and looking professional at doing that first. Okay. And then when we get there, let's take a deep breath and focus on what our job is next. Right. Get a size up. Let's let's look professional on the way there. Let's put our mask on professionally. When we get inside, if we trip over each other a little bit, that looks that's fine. No one sees it. Right. We we can trip and we can joke about it after, but let's be professional when we get there. Battle ready firefighting. Know that you're getting out of the rig and grabbing what you're grabbing.
speaker-0: you become a captain, are you gonna be one that sits the crew down initially? Obviously you have a feel for the crew and but it sets expectations. So there's a lot of captains that talk about that, like sit down like here's my expectations. Here's my expectations of me, here's my expectations of you, here's how I'd like to run things. Do you feel like feel like you'd approach things that way?
speaker-1: So I've been lucky to have an unbelievable captain in the way that he trusts. And I think ⁓ a good leader has trust in his team, right? And that's where I feel like I struggle when and you what? Some people need that. And again, everyone's a different, a different person. Everyone has a different way. You've probably sat in a fire truck with someone sitting beside you that kind of makes you drive, gripping the wheel a little tighter, right? At one point in your career. And you know, I have I can tell you straight up, I have. The thing with my captain is is that he he gives us expectations, he sat us down, he's given us a run order, he gives us he he believes in exactly kind of what I do and he trusts though, right? He he trusts our judgment, he he allows us to to adapt, but his big thing is act like we've been there before. So no matter what, if it's a play audible, act like we were gonna do that anyways. Right. And I think that's what comes down to sets a high bar of professionalism, is that But that comes from like it's from training and body language and reading each other too. I often look at him and and I can tell that he knows what I'm thinking right away. I also think that the fact that he's allowed me to anticipate what's next. And that's not a bad thing. Some people want to be in charge and they want to make the next call, where I feel like anticipation, especially we take we have a we have a short kind of a shorter staff department. So we take advantage of the driver of the primary pumper a lot. ⁓ in fact all of our drivers and it's al almost one of my favorite positions actually because it it kind of is a self-roll that allows you to focus on a few different things at once but the big thing is your play audible right like you know that they've got f water on the fire so you know you're already kind of going to the fan and or you know you got a minute so you're putting up the ladder not because you're gonna need it necessarily but it's there if you do they're having a minute At the front door and they're it's not going, they're not sure what they're gonna do yet. So throwing a 24 on the Charlie side quickly while they're waiting, but it's it's the fine line of that, right? It's it's it's knowing when to do it. And then you know, I gotta give him credit where credit's due. He allows that. And some some won't. So, you know, when it comes into my leadership and my style of what I wanna aim for is that it's it's I wanna be, I wanna be someone who sets a high standard ⁓ in myself on what I need out of call. And I want it to to to be pushed down onto my crew and to the you know the way that they move and the way that they act. But I also want them to understand that they represent not only me but themselves and and and I I will back them whether they make a good decision or a bad decision. But our bad decisions are gonna be the days that we work on making them good by by training on them. And that to me is the big thing. And and and you know, I I know that there's a lot of camaraderie with ping pong and different things like that. But I also think that, you know, going in in the morning and putting your gear on and even just doing some skill sets with it on. Right. I always loved the guys that were doing, no matter what they're doing, they they have one piece of like they have their pants on, for example, right? And they're not just flowing water. They get down on a knee or they take the opportunity while we're doing pump training to add to it as well. And I think that's gotta be encouraged. Like I said to you, I I I know that my enthusiasm might not always be high at work. But I want to try and have build a crew that when they're know I'm down, they're raising me up by their skill set. And when I when they're feeling down, they know that I got their back. And you know what? I as much as I won't be getting task oriented, which I will be, I will be right there behind them, you know, setting that tool or doing what I got to do to make it happen. I'm super excited to actually jump into I roll for actor. I'm on the list currently. I'm super excited to jump into that middle position of it. I I really wanted to actually talk to you about this and and and where I think the fire service is kind of lacking is taking advantage of the 10 to 15 year guy. That isn't necessarily, you know, my department's small, but like depending on where you work, taking advantage of the guy that's been on long enough that has has some decent skill set, that's into the job and that has been to a few different places. So for example, like you have eight years on and you say, Hey, hey, Riley. I went to a nozzle class this weekend and we were flowing a smoothbore nozzle. Okay. I know we don't have that here, but we're short staffed. And it's crazy to think how I f could flow water all day and I didn't it didn't fatigue me. I'm not saying what we have here is wrong, but this might be a better avenue. I feel like being that guy, and I'm in it right now, and you know what? It's not anytime I have conversation, even with guys outside of my department, it it's like Hey man, what do you like? Well, everyone has their own taste on stuff. I can tell you how exactly how I would like a truck laid out, or exactly how I would build a training center, or you know, and I'm into the job, so I can't help it. Right. It's my passion. But this is now where I'm starting to see how other people kind of suffer that they take it personally like I'm saying it, that they do it wrong, which it's not at all like that. I I I get into discussion with this new high rise stuff all the time, too, with brass and a couple of the guys. And it's funny, you don't know what you don't know. I'm all over listening to this high rise ⁓ and I I love it. My department currently is kind of a little bit behind on it. So I'm I've been really focusing and looking at it. And so I'm like, ⁓ two and a half. That sounds great. Big water, man. We're gonna that'd be good to hammer it, right? So then you talk to Brass and Brass knows that brass has has angles. He's got the goods and then and the bads. So he goes, Well, what does ⁓ FTNY run? And I'm like, ⁓ I'm not sure. He goes, Well, they run sixty five. He goes, What do they commit to it? I'm like, do you mean? He's like, what do they commit to? And I'm like, no idea. He goes, the first three engines. The first three engine companies are committed to one single sixty-five line because it's so big. And yes, don't get me wrong, you're flowing, you're not, you're, you're, you're flowing and you're moving. And and then that conversation happens, right? I and I I again I don't have a lot of skin in the game and I haven't necessarily been and done all of it. But when you come to think about it, it's like, ⁓ my God, that's a department with all of it. all the manpower they can get and they're they're they're putting three and three engines on it, right? How will it affect my department with three guys that could be there for 15 minutes by themselves? And again, it's it's putting the the the line in the position where it needs to be to succeed and flowing water when you're supposed to. But you know, as well as I do, we could teach, teach, teach, teach, teach that. And then the next thing you know, someone's trying to float down the hall and they say, This really sucks. Yeah. Like the big thing I I think is, you know, coming full circle with this is the guy in the middle. It's not bad to take to to listen to think of what, you know, you always say to the rookie, yeah, yeah, no, don't care. And then the senior guy kind of goes like, Yeah, like, you know, I like the truck like this because over the last few years or whatever, this, this, this, this. But then you realize the guy in the middle who's gonna be there for, you know, 20 years, his insight is a little bit different because he's like, Okay, where are we headed with this? Not necessarily what's went right or what's went wrong, but where are we headed? And and with anything. Right with anything when it when it comes to hoes, when it comes to low hard fans, when it comes all that stuff, right? It's yeah, I'm sure that you've been in a care in a part of your career where you've said something that was like, Hey, I think this is pretty cool. And then then people are like, Well, Scott thinks this is great, and everything else sucks. It's like, no, I never said that everything else sucks. I said this is kind of I have some experience with this, and this is what I felt was beneficial, and this is why I feel it's beneficial, right? So for anyone that's kind of in the service that
speaker-0: Get all the perspectives.
speaker-1: Is in that 10 year period. I I think that I can speak for a lot of people that are like, Okay, I have a I have a thought on something. And anytime I kind of bring it, I kinda get shot down on it. Right. And you know what? We have some younger guys, like a couple of guys younger than ⁓ on the service than me. And what I tell them and what I've been trying to do is document it. Build it so when it's your time, it makes sense. Right? 'Cause again, I I could say, Okay, we should smit switch to the the this nozzle, and next thing you know, they don't I I didn't know that they didn't make parts for it anymore. Right. Or the company went under. And I'm like, ⁓ I'm preaching, preaching, preaching this. And then next thing you know, someone else is right. And they're like, dude, you need to think about the big speck of this that it's more than just the nozzle. It's how can we fix it and we break it? It's it's how can we do this or how can we do that? Right. And this there's always got to be the devil's advocate. I just think that I want to shout out to the guys that have been on for kind of ten years where which have these ideas. Build those ideas as you go and and don't be afraid to say, Wow, I I was way off, or wow, this is what I found and and present it in a way that isn't isn't necessarily gonna someone's gonna rub them wrong.
speaker-0: Let's finish off by touching back to True North Fools because the smoke is showing conference is coming up, so I know it's sold out, but just let's just plug it.
speaker-1: So again, like I said to you, this fools group was pushing to year one was to to build our brand, which we successfully did, and we we were fortunate to put some money in the bank that allowed us to do what most of the guys involved wanted was to bring in the big names. When it comes to bringing in the big names, the big names aren't cheap. So and then going to the best training facility which within within the GTA, in my opinion, one of them it's not cheap either. So we came up with a plan. We got the right guys in the right positions within the executive to make this happen and and we did. So it's been put out and it was sold out within twenty-four hours. Personally, for me, I I I was so, so happy. Not for necessarily for the group, but for the Canadian Fire Service. The messages that we've received from different foods groups, one ⁓ being in Canada messaging us and basically saying, like, you guys are set in the bar, right? And I mean, that's never what we wanted to do. It's just we wanted to give opportunity. I've been lucky enough to be that guy in the role that is in charge of it. And then but like I'll be the first to tell you, just because that's that's where I am, it doesn't mean that I'm doing this by myself. The group does this. It is a group effort. And we have buy-in from everybody. Like huge shout up to VP Rosendez. I know you've talked to him. There's a guy that continues to show up and put in work and give. Back to the fire service every time he gets out. ⁓ you know, you got T Bear there as well. Another guy probably gives me a push on passion when it comes to getting things done. He gets things done, man. He gets after it. Another huge shout out to ⁓ Gary Penstone. We got him on board. He is currently taking care of all of our our new ⁓ memberships and our memberships. And that project itself is a nightmare. He is so
speaker-0: He's doing a great job.
speaker-1: good at it. And you know what? He he is a good example of someone that has grabbed something and does it professionally. And he has been the a huge game changer for us. So, you know, and we got Cam Wells and we got Hailey Green and a bunch of these other ones that are involved as well. ⁓ Lefty and ⁓ just want to say thank you to all of them. And and ⁓ if you're coming to the event make sure you guys say thank you to all those guys because it's been truly a team effort. Our goal here is to build the Brotherhood to recharge batteries. make people love the job again. Our goal here is to ⁓ let your department see that you're willing to go and make yourself better. Ultimately, like each the the cliche thing is for them, right? For for everyone else, for for them. When I think of that, I think about my family. I think about, you know, my my kids and my wife ⁓ at home that ⁓ I work my ass off for. So if I'm ever put in a situation, some of the training that we go through or do It might give me the ⁓ knowledge to be able to, you know, figure it out, right? So at the end of the day, this service is is the greatest service in the world. The fire service itself truly, truly, truly is so unbelievable that I wish everyone knew the outside walls of their fire stations and came and and saw something like this, right? If you love it just at work, you're gonna love it to see other people that love it just as much as you do. Right. And then and and there is people like that. And at these events, the cool thing about it is too, the skill sets vary. No one's there to try and be an all star. Everyone's there to pick up and learn and and develop and have fun and be safe. But ⁓ to put in a put it put in a an effort, right? I look forward to it and I look forward to the future ⁓ of it all.
speaker-0: Yeah, I talked to a few people that said they're excited to come but also nervous and I I and I made it very clear like this is the most supportive and like building up group. Right. The the day you're gonna have an amazing time. There's nothing to be nervous about. No one's there to show off. There's no egos. It's about br it's about brotherhood and sisterhood and the family and just getting better, like you said. So I'm like, get that out of your head right now and just go excited and have fun.
speaker-1: The cool thing about it is is is you step up to expectation too, right? So if you go into it with a mindset that kind of nervous, you should. I mean, I I I remember going to co courses too and and being involved and being super nervous, but getting there and and and and all I can recommend to people is is pushing themselves to to what they're working with, right? And and and and another thing too, if you're working with someone that's a little less skilled than you or whatever, you know, hone it back and and and be a be a leader to them. Right. It's easy to go forcible entry class and and find the strongest guy there and be and break through doors. Find someone that maybe is is is having a little bit of difficulty with it and do it. 'Cause guess what? That's how you get better. You're only as good as your weakest link, right? So if you're that weak link, step up and do your best, but also find someone that's gonna encourage you and stay with you and and and and everyone's gonna win at the end of the day. Yeah.
speaker-0: It's okay to have nerves about yourself and how you're gonna be, but don't have nerves about being judged by other people.
speaker-1: Absolutely. There's no there's no judgment and we're there to learn and to have fun. And at the end of the day, if you if you walk out of that place and and and all you got is ⁓ love for the fire service again, that's all that matters to us. Right. That's a step. That's it might be the only step in the right direction. You could you could hate every course we do, but if you go if you leave that place going, man, I love what I do. That's that's what we care for.
speaker-0: Awesome. Any final things you wanna throw on here before we pack up?
speaker-1: No, I just wanna thank you for ⁓ your time and for what you do. I think that you highlight some of the greatest Canadian firefighters. I think you're underrated when it comes to how much your podcast hits home for a lot of people and how much l hearing different people talk about things and their struggles and their the ways that they they've navigated this career. I think it's helped more people than you know. So from the guy on the other side, I just wanna say thank you, Scott, and I don't think you get enough credit for that. So
speaker-0: Thanks, brother. Means a lot to me. ⁓ and actually you guys are starting one.
speaker-1: There's something that jumped in my ⁓ in my direction and I am my plate is full. So they brought it up that they were going to to do some of that. And you know what? Who am I to say no? Right. So I told them I will be honest that you are you guys are going against one of my favorite podcasts ever. And then I think the fire rescue service guys got one going too, right? So
speaker-0: Plenty of ⁓ plenty of room in the pool. Yeah, the firefighter rescues Ontario, they're doing a great job and Rosendas. I just listened to his episode, it was awesome, so I'd recommend that to anybody.
speaker-1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Rosendez and we got ⁓ Brad Gregory, his is ⁓ his is great as well.
speaker-0: Yeah, he's gonna be on here ⁓ soon too. So the more the better, man, the more the better.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's the good word is out. I just ⁓ the fools one will I believe T Bear will be running with that, Rob ⁓ T Bear. So yeah, we'll see how that goes. But stay ⁓ stay tuned for our episodes of that. I'm I'm sure I'll I'll maybe venture onto that at some point to ⁓ give some someone a hard time or ⁓ so ask some questions. But ⁓ thanks for honing my skills at podcasting.
speaker-1: So we've got three boot camps still available for 2026. Bootcamp 79, 80, and 81 are still open for registrations with limited spots available. Our 2027 bootcamp dates will be posted by mid-July. So keep an eye out if you're looking to join us in 2027. We've got a hazmat tech course. The online starts on March 30th with the in-class May 11th to the 16th. And Pump Ops is happening May 19th to May 22nd. I want to give a quick shout out to Bootcamp 74 who graduated March 12th. They were a spectacular group of individuals and really looking forward to seeing how far these guys go in their journey. I wanted to mention, we get asked quite often why would I choose Southwest Fire Academy over another? fire academy or college and I think Jesse truly as the leader of Southwest sums it up perfectly. Yeah, I think we do set our students up for success for the provincial testing and all the things that they need for certification. But more importantly than that, we try and take it up another level and set them up for the career of firefighting. And we do some extra hands-on training, you know, we really do focus a lot on search and some extra firefighter survival and writ and flash over and we really try and give a real firehouse experience. And I think a an important part of that is we're owned and operated by actual fire. firefighter. So it's important that we produce good students. We want the best of the best coming out because they may end up in the back of a truck with us one day. So we design our program intentionally to try and really instill the motivation, the passion, the mentality of continuously training in good aggressive firefighting. The biggest sellers are incredible instructors. We have some of the best instructors that you know in the world of firefighting. Scott, yourself, Riley, who this podcast is for. So it's all like minded individuals and it's a good program.
speaker-0: Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 125 of Multiple Calls. I'm Scott Hewlett. The quote comparison is the thief of joy, often credited to Theodore Roosevelt, has its merit, but comparison is also the source of admiration, inspiration, reflection, and introspection. The true power of quotes and memes is found when we pull them apart and find more meanings and perspectives. As with this quote about comparison from Corey Allen, when you're unsure about a relationship, ask yourself why? Would I be okay being more like them? Then you'll have your answer. This applies to any relationship and ties into Jim Rohn's view that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Fire crews spend a lot of time together and affect each other. Don't settle for being around people you don't admire and respect. Negativity isn't neutral. You can either choose to work every shift to try and stave it off. Or choose to put the effort into navigating to be around people who won't steal days of your career from you. Here's my chat with Riley McGilloway. You wanna kick off then?
speaker-1: Yeah, let's get after it.
speaker-0: Okay, so start off with where you grew up and tell me a bit about your family.
speaker-1: I grew up in a little town called Acton, Ontario. Small town, close knit town that everybody knows each other. Not much going on there. We were known actually for our tannery, which was called Beardmore Tannery. You'll actually probably heard the commercials before. ⁓ it's worth the drive to Acton, which was the leather factory and store. The old hot house, yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of our our slogan. Unfortunately, after a hundred and fifty years, it's recently actually closed down, but
speaker-0: Yeah, wasn't that the old Hyde House? That was in your family?
speaker-1: ⁓ nothing no. My family had to do with ⁓ working more at the beardmore tannery aspect, which was bringing in ⁓ in in cowhides and and creating the leather.
speaker-0: Okay, and then providing that to old Hide House.
speaker-1: Yeah, providing it to old Hyde House and I think they distributed all over Ontario and Canada, but their main distribution was to the old Hydehouse in Acton.
speaker-0: Your ⁓ family came over from Ireland?
speaker-1: My great grandfather actually came from Ireland in the nineteen hundreds, most likely because of the famine. He came here on a free ride because he was able to take care of the cattle on the ⁓ boat or whatever he he came here on. And it's crazy because when you do the ancestry on it, you can't really see where he left and how and kind of where he came into. And I think that's because of what he kind of did there with working the cattle and and and making that his thing. But he ultimately landed in here and made his way to Acton and that's where ⁓ my grandparents actually both my grandparents were were born and raised. So my grandpa Eddie, he'd be the ⁓ first generation Canadian in our ⁓ in our family. Yeah, I have ⁓ two sisters, awesome sisters, man. They definitely pushed me as a kid. My oldest sister, she's super, super smart. She ⁓ always was a was a good kid and she was a figure skater, very, very competitive figure skater.
speaker-0: And yet a couple sisters?
speaker-1: very well at what she did. And she she was that kid that ⁓ made my parents super proud with 90% of the stuff they did ⁓ she did. Then I had a second sister, my my middle sister Kaylin. She's a little bit more of the rebel child. She's more like my dad, I think. Kind of a short temper. She's she's not one to mess with. And then I think that when I, you know, for me I'm more, you know, I got a little bit mixed up with my mom and my dad when it comes to, you know, being a little bit more compassionate, but I I definitely don't have the biggest fuse, that's for sure. Yeah.
speaker-0: Do you guys all get along?
speaker-1: I mean we didn't, but I mean it's it's like any family time. My parents ran a tight ship. They expected us to ⁓ to behave and you know, we were a church family. We went to church on Sundays but I would test their limits, you know, as their brother, the little brother anyways. I was dragged to the arena a lot to watch their skating and you know, I'm I'm sure it was a pain in their butt just as much as they were a pain in mine and but they definitely helped me shape who I am today and I look back at growing up with them and I I can't help but think that they made my childhood so great.
speaker-0: Did mom and dad both work at the Jannery?
speaker-1: My dad worked at the tannery when he was young and he actually ended up getting his pipe fitting certificate. My grandpa was a laborer there, worked there from the start till he retired when he actually was forced retired because the tannery actually closed down. At that point, when the tannery closed down, he was already a a volunteer firefighter as well as my grandfather. They had a couple of different options, but with the family, he had to kind of chase a career that was a little bit more lucrative than the fire service at the time. So He ended up getting on with the region of Halton in the water water department. So it kind of went full circle for him because he ended up working with flushing hydrants and hydrant maintenance. So, I mean, he still to this day can tell you every hydrant in town and kind of what the flow is coming out of it. So it's pretty awesome. My teachers would always say if ⁓ he'd be a great student if he would apply himself. I was busy.
speaker-0: How was school for you?
speaker-1: I got tested there to see to see if I the A D D and the the O C D and w and all that. And you know, it turns out I I did and I still do. And it's a tough thing to have, right? I I got a busy mind, but I'm very organized in in other ways. So
speaker-0: And as long as you can focus on something you get hyper dialed in.
speaker-1: Like that's where I I know that my strength is, is that, you know, if I have a focus on on a certain task, I put my heart and soul into it. I just don't complete it. I try and complete it to above and beyond. Right. And I you know, and I'm not saying that I did that as a kid, but it's something I definitely have like developed as ⁓ as I grew up and in high school and things like that. Like the classes I liked, I I would work hard at, right? And I would I would push myself to to kinda be better. But That also being said, I I was easy to lose focus and I was easy to join the gang of chatting in the back or causing mayhem.
speaker-0: You said your sisters did figure skating. Did you do any sports?
speaker-1: Actually, funny story. ⁓ I I was super sport involved. Like my family was like ⁓ my my dad is big time into sports, my uncles, my grandfather. I grew up playing hockey, triple A hockey, my my from as young as I could get on to midget. Also played high level lacrosse as high as I could. So lots of learning curves with it. It's funny. Our lacrosse team was, you know, number one, two, three, top three every time, every year in Ontario. And my hockey team was bottom three every year in Ontario. So you'd be going into Niagara to play them in hockey and they'd beat you 10-0. And then you'd go then plead them, play them in the cross, and you'd beat them 10-0, right? So you know, I think the sports had a big way of shaping me. They talk about like how kids' brains develop and how you you I mean, you but you develop a lot of the skill sets you use in the future. When it comes to sports, I I definitely think the biggest thing that I had and the biggest problem that I had with most of it is I just needed the right motivator. We always had a different coach, it seemed like when we when it came to hockey, because we were looking for different options and different reasons to make the team better. Where, you know, we had a coach in the cross. They would ask my parents, how do you let that guy coach your like how do guys let him coach? He he was a little offside. But he knew how to to push me to to to put me in a in positions to win. Right. He didn't expect me to do things that wasn't my job. He he built systems and s and and structures that allowed us to perform as a group and a team. We're hockey, we didn't really have that. I was a half decent hockey player and I felt the weight of the world on me a lot because I was committed to the team for a long time. Right. So I definitely think when it comes to mentally and how, you know, I I take criticism, that's definitely something as I've grown up, it's been one of the biggest eye openers to me is that as a kid, I remember my grandfather always saying to me after hockey games, being like, What we're telling you is not to bring you down. They're trying to help. But that being said, my dad ran up skating school. I was on the ice every day. Right. I had no excuse not to be decent. And you know what? When I I felt a lot of pressure in hockey, where you know, in lacrosse, I felt I had to do my job and be good at it. But hockey, I had to almost do above and beyond what I needed to do ⁓ to make the team successful. But I was taking it personally, right? It's like having a craft and someone kind of getting on you about it. So if you if you if you've put some time and some skills into something and and and it's it's your passion, you know, hockey was my passion, but it I obviously didn't know how and I suffered with taking criticism. Now it's funny because now as a father, I look at this as a teacher and as a coach. I always want the guys to know, listen, I just want you to be better. I want you to be the best you can be. At the end of the day, though, I think you're a great human being, right? Yes, you should have back checked on that last goal, right? But guess what? Next time, right? Yeah, I mean, you have to straddle the line of that, obviously, especially in competitive sports, but there's ways to to get people to to excel and there's ways not to. And you know, I feel the mental side of the game is just as equally as important as as the physical and the and the you know the skill sets. And definitely even with firefighting, I feel the same way. Anytime I'm doing teaching and stuff like that, I I'm a vibrant person. I I I give you a hundred and ten. I think that my energy feeds into your energy and and and with that comes high performance. But if you screw up, yeah, I'm gonna give you a ⁓ maybe a little bit of a tough time. But guess what? As soon as you get outside, I'm gonna say, Yeah, you screwed that up, but guess what? You did this, this, this, and this right. Guess so guess what? It's a win. So we just hone this little skill here and guess what? Now you're well rounded. You got the full circle. We should be a little upset that things aren't didn't go necessarily perfect, because that means you care.
speaker-0: And no one's ever perfect.
speaker-1: No, no one's ever perfect. And it's just how you take it, right? I still struggle this day. I get help because I struggle with it. And it's the understanding that it's not who you are. It's it's something that you've done and it's something you can work on.
speaker-0: Yeah. It's awesome that you came to that self awareness though and you actually work on it 'cause some people don't.
speaker-1: It's the hardest thing ever to do. It's not it's not easy. It's not it's not easy knowing your flaws and and you know it's it's it's almost like you know, they get into I don't want to get into too much of it, but you you read about the neuroplasticity of your brains, right? The contribution of what you have from birth to over your childhood and and and the way that you're wired. And the way I was wired was to during conflict kind of shut down or take it personally. Growing up and and and trying to be a leader in that way. Wearing a captain as a hockey player or a lacrosse player, you have to lead in the way of being able to accept those things and not take them personally, right? So I suffered, man. I I I suffered greatly with it bogging me, right? So I knew, you know, especially moving into a career that's very, very on the edge of everyone kind of giving each other some words, right? Yeah, yeah. But you have to be able to take it.
speaker-0: And there's high stakes.
speaker-1: Right. And I still again I even at at the job I struggle with it sometimes too. Right. Because when you make something your baby and and and it doesn't go right, it it hurts. And and I get it.
speaker-0: What jobs did you do before the fire service?
speaker-1: I actually had a pretty awesome life when it came to having different jobs. My first job was actually for one of my best friends. ⁓ his dad ran a plastic company. Now when I look back, I'm like, ⁓ my God. I was running a big bandsaw and cutting plastic and throwing it into a grinder. So we're just recycling plastic. It was nice because my actually my mom, she was a stay at home mom. She ⁓ she she raised us during that time also. She was ⁓ babysitting my cousins, so my cousins would get dropped off in the morning and she was a she was a nanny for them type of thing. But she eventually ended up working at the same place that I did. And it was close to close to my house. I could walk there from the bus. So that was my kind of my first job. Looking back though, you know, I I built r responsibility and work ethic. And you know what? Not everyone would now when I look at it, not everyone would go and run that saw.
speaker-0: work ethic.
speaker-1: The blade would fall off sometimes and it would be terrifying. Let me just tell you that. Then from there I moved over to working at home hardware. To this day, one of probably my one of my favorite jobs I ever had. Yeah, because like home hardware typically hires your guys that had a good career at something and go there and they love just the the social aspect of it. They're there for that.
speaker-0: Honestly, wow.
speaker-1: As well as they have some skills, right? So they all have a little bit of ⁓ something that they the plumbing section or they kind of take the the each section to their to ⁓ as their baby. So that's where I kind of really dove into everything. I I wanted to kinda ⁓ get a skill set and understanding of plumbing and electrical and driveway salt and painting and and all that. It wasn't the the easiest job too. I actually had a a boss there that was she was Pretty hard ass to be honest. She she she kept it straight and narrow and she tuned ⁓ me and a couple of my buddies that worked there in a c a few times, right? But looking back now, again, I it's those things that you think about when you're older, I don't necessarily agree with how she did it. I understand why she would have done it in different ways, but it's something you add to your brain or your your your your arsenal of how you want to treat people as a leader. And you know, it shapes you. So
speaker-0: Yeah, it's interesting to look at experiences you've had through the lens of them as an adult and you start to understand, ⁓ even if you don't agree with it, you might understand, okay, I understand why you were that way.
speaker-1: Yeah, it's wild. I was working actually for a guy there, ⁓ the boss who owned the place, awesome guy, a huge, huge mentor of mine when it comes to like lifestyle. Like he was working ⁓ as a lineman for ⁓ electrical, ended up getting a hardware store and just and just grew and grew as a businessman and an entrepreneur and and and you know what he worked his butt off to get where he is and and now his life is is something I I I'm envious of. He's an awesome, awesome guy and gave me so much opportunity. Thinking back on other stuff that I did. Like I when I was working at the plastic factory, I used to go and weed eat at this guy's ⁓ this guy's house as well and run a weed eater all day, right? And get paid thirty bucks or whatever. So you think now you're like, not a shot. No way. Right. But I mean again, it's those things that, you know, you you'd sit there and you'd weed eat all day and then you'd get there and you have thirty bucks and you'd go, Okay, you know what? I need to get I need to get a good job because that sucked, right? But
speaker-0: You wrote that you did farm maintenance and you were around racehorses. Tell me about those.
speaker-1: Like I said, he owned home hardware as he grew. He ended up having a smaller farm, but then he moved into a big ⁓ racing training facility. And when that happened, that's kind of where I dug I dug deep into maintenance side of stuff. So I was already kind of involved with the hardware store, but and and liking, you know, electrical and plumbing and and and all the all the above. But then he needed me to go and work more at the at the farm. So he I mean, he was offering me hours at the farm, which was just like cutting the grass and weed eating and And doing different things around the farm. But again, I was in I was I loved it. Some days weren't the best, you know, cutting grass all day or you know, weeding all day. But you'd be like, hey, go cut that tree down. Right. I'm a 15, 16-year-old, 17-year-old kid looking back now. I'm cutting this sad, but I had to cut this willow down. And I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, I and I look back at the pictures and I'm like, figured it out. Right. Like again, ⁓ I was always envious of people that had skills that would they would figure it out. They did a bit of research. They and you know they put themselves in a situation to win. So I gotta give them credit for bringing me to the farm and and doing that because I figured it out. I I never ran a ran a nail gun. Next thing you know, I'm running a nail gun and putting all the fence posts back in. I never did shingling or siding, right? Next thing you know, he's got me driving around the barn and and putting the roof back together or or driving some some siding screws in, right? It's just those those little things now. I look at them and say how much they have impacted. who I am and what skill sets I've been able to develop.
speaker-0: Yeah, it wasn't just the thirty bucks for the day of work.
speaker-1: No, and it led to so many things. And it also brought me towards the horses, right? My family has no ties to horses. One thing leads to another. Next thing you know, you're you're out there or you're helping I was helping ⁓ my next job, which was in the barn, helping out. So working with horses, grooming horses, ⁓ training them specifically. ⁓ I was ⁓ I was what they called a a rider. So I would take the horses and exercise them ⁓ every morning, be out there on days minus forty of it on the out on the track, just freezing, putting five, six, seven, eight miles into them and getting them ready to go. And that's kind of where my work came when it came to anything with horses kind of gave me that foot in the door to eventually get into what I'm doing now is the with the farrier work. Right. So and then actually it's I got one more job that I had before I got the two more, but we'll make them we'll make them quick. The the I loved every job I really had. I mean there was one job that I I I didn't like and I didn't stay long. So but I had another job working actually as a line painter. Again, one of those things where, you know, I feel like I've always walked into places that they've given me opportunity to do more. Even with line painting. Like most guys go there and they drive what we call a blocker truck. So if you see a line painting ⁓ on the road, they usually have a couple blocker trucks, depending on the speed limit, obviously, right? And then they have their center line, which is the paint truck. Day one, I'm in the back of this thing. We're on ⁓ we're between Guelph and Kitchener. And I'm painting, I'm painting just the white line, right? But it's like I've never sat in this thing before. I have no idea. There's put out the dolly. I'm like, I don't even know what that means, right? But it's like anything else. If you just jump at it and you try, I I will I get so ⁓ as O C D as I was, I'd get so worked up, man. I would and I was working with a bunch of guys from Newfoundland. So you know, they you know how that goes, right? So so like these guys would come down and they'd put in a season, right? We would line paint. We'd leave ⁓ Sunday night and we wouldn't get we'd usually get home Friday morning, but we would eat as much time as we could. And I had an awesome crew. But you had to, you had to. You had to stay positive and happy and and get after it because it just made it go by faster. Right. Again, another job that I I I loved. I I I still go there, I bring them coffees all the time and and and and bug them. And you know, they they make fun of now, say that I'm semi retired as a fireman, but It was a job that definitely as well like got me in the rigs, man. I was driving trucks. We also did like line removal. So I was blasting lines off the road on the middle of the 407, 10 o'clock at night. And I learned traffic control. And ⁓ man, we were in some situations that ⁓ were pretty, pretty scary at some points, but we had fun, man. That's the moral of it. It was fun to go to work and do, and that's why I enjoyed it. And then my last job actually before I got on fire because I really needed to focus on finding a job that would give me flexibility, specifically with fire, because ⁓ you know, I I got fired on as a part-time firefighter. And your resume is based on how much you show up at the station, right? So being on the road all week, line painting. I couldn't I couldn't commit, right? We were in North Bay, we were in we were everywhere. I gotta give credit, you know, big time, huge. Credit where credit's due. My sister's ⁓ fiance. He builds firefighter killers. Okay. He builds roof trusses. All right. All right. We forgive him for that. Okay. The gusset plates and the wood. But that's the job I had before I got on as a firefighter. All the credit to credits due to him because he would be like, dude, that's more important. Go. Right? My page would go off. I was, you know, 11-minute drive from the station, and he'd go go, dude. Like he knew. This day and age, kind of people are getting fussy about it, right? Especially in the volunteer world. There was nothing that he would never make me feel bad. He knew that was my passion. Now, that being said, though, building roof trusses, I don't know if a lot of people know how they are built, but what happens is they're they're cut at one side of the shop, then they're put on carts and the carts are wheeled over, and then they're set up in what we call a jig. So the jig gives you your setup, right? You'd stand at one spot and you you would put your piece of wood up and you'd put your gusset plates on on this ⁓ metal pan and they'd the guy would come around and he'd crimp them into the wood. And yeah, that was your day. I'm a pretty happy guy, go lucky guy. I like to see the good thing. I love the guy too, and he's actually a really good guy, but when he's working, he doesn't say a word. I will tell you right now, as much as I love that place, I couldn't wait till it was the end of the day either because Building these trusses and doing what we did there. ⁓ my gosh, it led to some long days. When you hear the same song on the radio by the third time in the day, you know you've put in one, right? So but you know, again, that was a sacrifice that it made it all way so worth it because I was able to go and to to chase my dream. I I hold those guys huge, man. To this day I still tell them all the time. I'm like, Man, you you gave me the opportunity to be where I am today. I I I I can't thank him enough.
speaker-0: You were exposed to the fire service obviously through your family really young, but just talk to me about what that experience was like and what drew you to wanna do it.
speaker-1: cliche to say, but ever since I was a kid, I had two options. I I wanted to be a professional hockey player or lacrosse player, or I want to be a fireman. You know, you look at my yearbook for grade eight or whatever it's called, right? And it says firemen or or in the NHL.
speaker-0: What do you remember about being around the firehouse?
speaker-1: So yeah, so like I would almost always think to myself, you know, as a even as a kid, this is kind of the direction I want to go. I gotta be honest with you, it's it's it's addictive to watch the pager go off and and to watch someone change into Superman from for my whole life, and not just one person too. Acting used to be just ⁓ by itself, it eventually amalgamated to what it is now. So ⁓ my dad ⁓ my grandfather actually worked both together for Acton Fire Department originally until it was amalgamated and actually they have one thing on me as well. Within Acton with a Beardmore ⁓ tannery like we talked about, it had its own fire service. Yeah, they had Beardmore Fire Department in there. So they always would tell me all the time, ⁓ I wear two hats. I I was some ⁓ I I you know I you're you're you're you're all right, but you know what, I was a fireman twice. So ⁓
speaker-0: ⁓ no way.
speaker-1: It's like anything else, man. I think that y you're either drawn to your parents' careers or or you're not. You you want nothing to do with them, right? But w the way I see it is I always respected and I always looked at as a kid to the people that had generational stuff. I don't know if it's an Irish thing, but we love that tradition. Johnny's dad's a blacksmith, so you know, he wants to be a blacksmith. Jessica's dad's a dentist and and just so she w you like that that's the type of stuff that I love that. So I had no real pressure into it, but dude, I was The biggest thing that I regret is not being able to smell what I smell when I was a kid. You know, you walk into that fire station the first time and I'm nose blind to it kind of now. And man, as a kid playing hide and seek in those fire trucks and grandpa and dad losing their minds saying get off it type of thing, right? And them washing their vehicles there. And I was drawn to it, man. I I I loved to watch it. My uncle, three of my uncles were firefighters there. My other uncle's actually a cop. So we I mean, he he gets hammered all the time. We we give it to him, right? And his actually his son is going to be a cop too, so
speaker-0: When you wrote to me you said that you got into it initially for the general reasons, helping people, adrenaline brotherhood, but then you matured and some more stuff came out of it for you. What about that?
speaker-1: Obviously joins the fire service and they ask you that question. Why do you want to be a firefighter? And you, you know, you hammer that that answer. ⁓ you know, I want to save the community and I wanna this and I wanted that. I think that the fire service is the perfect example of you never can know enough. Like I said to you, most of these jobs that I liked and I did, I tried everything. And the fire service has never-ending tryings of everything. If that makes any sense to you, right? Like, let's face it. You can literally create or do or put yourself into a different situation pretty much every shift you go in and work. For me, it's having the the skill sets that we need to know and not necessarily honing the basics like we always do, but it's it's expanding the basics as well. Here's a good example. PPE. Yes, putting on your face mask and your helmet and your gloves and your gear and all that stuff is so important. And here's a way that I do it, but that doesn't mean that's the way you have to do it. Right. And that's a good example I always give to people is that PPE is personal protective equipment. Personal. How do you do it? Do it so you do it good, essentially. Right. And that to me, like in in in all aspects, right? Yeah, I might hold the the halligan a little bit differently than you in some variation or form, but it's how we can make those skill sets happen. I loved always learning. I loved gathering information. I loved learning other people's ideas of how to do something. To this day, I still even teaching, I'm like, that worked better than how I would do it. Right. And that to me, that's the biggest growth of all. Man, teaching is the greatest, it's the greatest, most humbling thing ever. Because sometimes you're like, Wow, this probably isn't in your head, you're, ⁓ this maybe not work. It does. And you're like, huh, wow.
speaker-0: I guess I'm doing it that way now. Yeah.
speaker-1: Well, I guess you what, there's another way I can teach it. It's the never ending skill set. If you're bored, it's your own fault. If you if you don't have passion or if you don't always something again to do. There's always something you can go and make yourself self proficient at. And the number one thing you can work against is complacency. Am I being complacent by sitting here and doing nothing? Absolutely.
speaker-0: Sure, sure. If you're bored it's your own fault.
speaker-1: Again, on the twenty four hour shift, it's it's it's I don't expect everyone to be that person that's grinding and I tell people all the time, I'm like, I don't want you to be like me. Unless you want to be, no problem. But I I have just as much respect for the people that go to work that work twenty-four hours and do their thing. They have their skill sets, they hone their skill sets, they work as a team, they work out as a team, they fill the rig up together, they eat dinner together. I hope they get a shutout. They get up in the morning, they go home and they turn it off. That is perfect. Not everyone has to want to go to work and leave work and and want to think about fire helmets and, you know, fire trucks and fire conferences and all the things that go about it, right? I still sometimes drive myself a little crazy with it, but I've noticed that as a kid, as I said to you, I learned I'd learned a lot of different skill sets, but I put all my apples and oranges and everything into this basket. So, you know, I walk with it proudly. And that's kind of where I'm at at with with this. I I like I said, I don't want everyone to be like me. And the guys that are like me, they seem to we we seem to be together. So, you know, we're gravitated towards each other. So
speaker-0: What was the hiring process like?
speaker-1: Well the hiring process for me, it I was at the time where it wasn't easy. I I still remember telling my mom I'm gonna go to firefighting school and her her kinda going, I I don't know why you'd do that. Actually it was fuel to my fire because I remember and she you know, I mean she hates this, but I remember vividly, she had someone that worked for a different municipality in the HR department. And she mentioned to them that I you I'm gonna gonna go to firefighting school and They basically said to her, he's he's better off to go try and be an astronaut than a fireman. She kind of tried to I mean, that and being with a firefighter and my grandfather and being raised in the family, and they're not as obsessed with it as I am necessarily, but they when the pager went off, it was game time. So we we missed dad and and grandpa a lot. But that drove me nuts, man. Like I have a better shot of being an astronaut than a fireman. There you go, the fixation. The you can't do this. And I still live that way. You can't do this. You you you don't deserve this yet, right? And and that's where I ended up going, you know what? I'm going to fire school and I'm going to go the farthest one away so I can do my own thing with it. So I went to fire school and then only did the pre-service program with Lambton College. So I'm a I'm a Lambton lion through and through. So, you know, there's the gut everyone kind of kind of wears their their school on their shoulder. So, you know, shout out to Lambton College, but getting out of school. So I had the the the bare minimum to do all that, right?
speaker-0: Is it the Lambton Lions? It's so funny that Lamb and Lion are in the same name.
speaker-1: Lambton Lions, yeah. Yeah, no, the Lambton Lions. Yeah. Yeah, the Lambton Lions. Yeah, yeah. Lamb and Lion, yeah, Lambton Lions. Yeah. So at the time they had like the in my opinion, they had like the greatest facility going. When ⁓ my sister ⁓ had a boyfriend that went there, no, he'd come home and show me these videos, and yeah, it's funny because you have no idea, right? So I'm looking at these big industrial fires with tankers and stuff like that, and I'm like, ⁓ my god, that's great, right?
speaker-0: Land on land. Yeah.
speaker-1: Meanwhile, ⁓ it's because of Chemical Valley and they're doing all their training on that, right? But don't regret it at all. ⁓ phenomenal burn ta ⁓ burn tower there and and facility. ⁓ we didn't have the new facility yet. We were still out in the in the can. It used to be ⁓ quantit hut, most of their training and as well as the portables for their tra like for their teaching. We were still at that aspect, but with some awesome guys. Huge shout out to my man Braden McKenzie. One of the best firefighters, man, I know. He's he's One of those guys, man, he's just well rounded. Was ra his dad, I mean, you ⁓ if you don't know Braden, his dad raised him right and he he comes from a generational of fireman, right? So he was super focused at school. He kind of kept me in line with making sure that I made good decisions. I was never as smart as him. I still am not as smart as him, but I gotta give him a huge shout out to getting me through school and helping me ⁓ develop and and and get to where I am today too. So yeah, I finished up school and that's when You sh would still have to go to either Brock or you would have to go to York. Yeah. Was chasing those. I'm not I'm a hands-on guy. Right? I struggle, man. With with testing, I will be the first to tell ya. I I am lousy, dude. Even with like to the to this to this day on but I'm a good arguer at these tests too, right? Like to this day, even writing like any of my tech level stuff, I'm like Two answers to this, right? And my brain always goes to the one that doesn't obviously make the make the right call sometimes, right? But I struggled, man. I spent like nine thousand in testing. Wow. I finally cracked a few tests. And it wasn't because of me getting smarter, it was because of me kind of knowing what was to expect. It's not looking back now, I probably could have done a little bit more help when it came to that stuff, but and what I did was put in the effort and and and put in the time to try and just
speaker-0: Head down and hammer it.
speaker-1: Down and hammer it, right? I didn't have a lot of money when it came to putting money towards getting the help at the time either, really. So head down and and do what I can and spend the money on the tests and and make it happen. And so I ended up passing a couple of times, but then failed later on in the interviews, right? And interviews getting hammered on interviews and questions. And you know, I was a kid. I didn't know. I I thought I was doing great. I sat down with someone and kind of went over their questions and mine. I was like, ⁓ man, I'm way off. The cool thing about that too was developing thick skin for an interview, right? So when you fail and fail and fail and you don't suc succeed at something, right? I was building that mental callous that what do I have to lose? Right. Like you get in there and you he eventually, you know, I always loved those people that got the job first time because good for them, man. If you got in there and you cracked the code, good for you. And but I was never that guy, you know, I I'm still not that guy. I will never be that guy. I'm not really. Wired that way, I gotta work. But interviews were more though probably my my strength than my writing of stuff. Like interviews-wise, like I can I kind of have the gift of gab when it came to especially now coming around a bit more full full circle with that. But I eventually got some interviews and ⁓ you know failed a bunch. My dad has some some friends throughout the fire service and they that have interviewed me. So I talked with them now and They kinda tell me like, you know, what I did right or what I did wrong or where I went wrong. And you know, some of them I was just young. And that's why they didn't they they said you did a great interview, but you were just you were you were a kid, right? So and you know, it's tough to hear that as a kid because you're like, what can you do about that? But now being in the game, I I kinda I can kind of see what they were looking for when it came to the adolescence of understanding where that age bracket you kind of make a bit of a flip. That also being said, I've had young kids that I would hire instantly because they just get it. Right. They were raised correctly. They just get it. Ended up writing some tests, pass fail, pass fail. ⁓ getting some interviews, pass fail. Same thing. Ended up scoring a a job in, you know, in my hometown. The the crazy thing about it is is like they say it when it rains, it pours, I was offered a say ⁓ another job just outside the GTA within that week too. So yeah, it was a it wasn't an easy process. It ⁓ it it took me three to four to five years to to eventually crack it. ⁓ I was already a volunteer firefighter for some of those years already, kinda building like I said to you, as a as a volunteer, you kinda build your resume as you go there.
speaker-0: What was the recruit experience like?
speaker-1: Recruit experience actually for us is is way was way different. We are one of those departments that's ⁓ too big to be small and too small to be big, type of thing, right? As a part-time firefighter, like I said, my brother-in-law really helped me out. He would let me go back to calls, but he also helped me out because I ended up getting hired as a part-time dispatcher. Another job I absolutely loved. Wow. And most guys hate that right and and most guys think of me and they talk to me and they're like you liked dispatching and you know what I said to myself I I would always I I I liked the preparation of dispatch. I liked the OCD and I liked to go in and and make it my own. Is it something that let's let's say it's balls to the walls or is it something we're getting after it? No. But I'm part of the team now right I can't be at calls. I I I I this is as close as I can be to a full time f the the full time guys yet right like so
speaker-0: And there's a structure to it that you have to follow.
speaker-1: Yeah, and you know what? The cool thing about it is that again, we were a small department. So the d the the actual dispatching of it was never really the same. Each dispatcher kind of had their different take on it. For me, I was lucky because I was already kind of firebuffing at the time. And I knew that I needed to have O C D with this to be six to be decent at it because I'm a scatter brain as well, if I'm not, right? My ADD is wild. So I actually like, you know, I I made myself dispatching sheets. So like I I broke it down to as many skill sets as I could with cheat sheets as I could. So I would, you know, I'd page out every time I'd be like blah blah blah, respond to ⁓ blah, blah, blah, with blah, blah, blah. Right. And all I would have to do is write in like the where you're headed, what the call type is, and what truck you're taking. When I'd write that down quickly from the dispatcher and then like obviously a couple details and then page it out. But what I loved about it the most is developing what Some captains want to hear everything. Some captains want to hear nothing. Right. So it was understanding and developing a a a skill set of knowing who wants to hear what. Especially i in the way that I was hungry to try and get on there. So I was hungry to give those guys information. I wanted them to have comfort in me knowing that I was gonna do what I could to make it happen. I was gonna give you the information and guess what? I screwed up a bunch. And I there was times I you know, I go, ⁓ my God, right? But As you get on it though, you get better and better and better at it. And again, I was something I I chair I liked doing. I loved it. And I also actually was able to from there work a little bit at ⁓ we were doing burn permits and and front desk work. So I was actually able to work as the clerk at the front desk as well. So ⁓ developing and and you know, like burn permits and and you we were using a ⁓ a program that allowed me to kind of understand like what it's called firehouse. I think it's it's pretty much ⁓ obsolete now, but The nice thing is I could go in and look at the different things, right? I could have some mentors that were captains that I could kind of read their incident narratives and the reports and how they did it. And I could read the chatter on radio comms and I can also read what the dispatcher, you know, the the short terms they were using and things like that. I just these things I I I I just really took big pride in doing them. When I was first hired, I actually worked the first six months in dispatch. My hiring class was only four. The guys that were involved, ⁓ one ⁓ all of them were fully trained dispatchers as well. ⁓ they were part-time dispatch and they they had some skill set on it. One of them was actually my one of my best friends from high school. ⁓ you talk about mentorship and things like that. And I I think about growing up as a kid and and being around ⁓ my man, his name's Jake. I always come back to well-rounded with the fire service. And man, this he he didn't he went to school to be an engineer and stuff like that. And and I never saw him coming to be in a fireman. And well, next thing you know, we got on and whatever. And Dude, he's the type of guy that is literally unbelievable at 98 per things he does. He's probably one of the best firefighters we have. Dude, the guy can weld, the guy can he can do it all. He can do it all. So part of me was like when I got hired, I was like, we we all got hired in the same class. I'm like, man, I gotta try and keep up with that guy, right? As much as it wasn't, but you know, he he's just he man, he to this day. As a human being, that guy is the most skilled human being I probably have ever witnessed. He's just got it in in in every way. So shout out to him. But once I was completed this the six months in dispatch, I was sent right to the truck. Worked for ⁓ an awesome captain, a captain that has known my dad for longer than I've been alive. And my grandfather calls me Red. Call they call my dad ⁓ big red and they call me Little Red. So ⁓ and then I had an acting captain. that they both kind of, you know, sat me down and and they gave me what I needed to hear. Right. As a kid, there's a big difference between being cocky and being confident. Right. And I still take this lecture every day to to to different people. And you know what? It to me it's it's again another line that you straddle. The line of being cocky and being confident. Right. And confidence comes from developing skill sets and repeating that development, continuing to develop it. Right. That conversation they had with me, it shaped who I was and and how I performed, right? And the nice thing about them is that they would let me make mistakes. They'd give it to me about it, but they would let me make mistakes and they would let me hone those mistakes myself. They didn't fix them for me. They let me fix it myself, right? They knew how I carried the job. They knew how I carried myself when it came to you didn't have to tell me if I screwed up. I knew it, right? He was unbelievable, ⁓ my first captain at at at setting me straight and and putting me in a path that really helped me not not only where I work, but outside of where I work. It allowed me to really, really focus on helping people that were kind of like me, that were super into it. But rather than doing things at a hundred and ten, bring that back to ninety, because your a hundred and ten is most people's they have no idea. They they they can't even think about that, that, that rate, right?
speaker-0: You wrote about how you learned how to treat a rookie.
speaker-1: I don't necessarily think that a rookie necessarily needs to be the guy that does everything, right? And a lot of people, a lot of places think that. Like let's mop the floor or let's do this, let's do that. It wasn't like that, right? We did it as a team. Everyone had the role, right? I I knew at the end of the day if there was a few calls and you know the toilets need to be done or you know, everyone was kind of burnt out. It was my turn to step up.
speaker-0: Mm-hmm.
speaker-1: No, no, man. And and you what? And that's the cool thing about this too is I'm super into health and fitness and I go on these different runs at different times with different types of workouts and whatnot. And they really bought into actually my program in the gym. So we were working Continentals. So we weren't twenty four hours yet either. So we were working like Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday, Thursday, work Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Right. And then you're off the ne the it switches the next week. I mean, in a workout sense, it was unbelievable, right? Like we were We were getting after it. So I had guys ⁓ that were ahead of me that were only hired at one year before me, an acting captain who to this day is again another guy that has done nothing but given me opportunity to grow in he's a he's a ⁓ tree climber, one of the most again, amazing rope guys ever. And he just never stopped giving me knowledge. He knew I thrived off what he wanted to show me, right? And this is the biggest thing I always say to guys too is when you work in the fire service, the best way to be liked is to act like everyone is teaching you something. Let's face it, man. Not every action or every you've you've heard it too where someone's like, hey, move the bar a little, and you're like, I know, like just give me a second. I know I I'm headed that way, right? But there's ways to take it. ⁓ really? ⁓ okay. Right? Next thing you know. Hey, if you cut right here with the the tool, then it'll be easier for you, right? You may never cut there ever again in your career or never see that same setup or nothing like that. But if you take it like ⁓ right? Or if you take it in it like personally, this is what I'm saying. This is where I've really grown. Where, you know, I've learned now to just go, yeah, man, like, you know what, that works that that's pretty slick.
speaker-0: And not every time that the person trying to help you knows what you know or don't know. So they just they're just trying to be helpful.
speaker-1: But again, it's like anything else. You either take it with a good attitude or you take it with a bad one, right? And the the more you take it with some enthusiasm and with a positive aspect, it could be never again, it could never sh come up later on ever. But that person now goes, Man, he's teachable. Right. And especially as a rookie, these guys would be on me, on me, on me, right? And I I don't think there'll be ever anyone can tell you that I don't put in an effort and and I'm not really teachable. I I like try and always Give people the benefit of the doubt and and let them guide me. And if it makes it harder, guess what? I've learned the hardest way to do it. It's just another skill set of, okay, maybe this is how it's gonna be. And it's gonna be the hardest way ever. But guess what? C D E F G and the plans.
speaker-0: Now I got A B C Specializing in machinery rescue and forcible entry, Rescue Squad Ironworks builds world-class heirloom quality training props for your fire department. Designed and built by firefighters for firefighters, and backed by years of fire ground experience and training across North America, they are reliable, realistic, and repeatable, allowing you to train multiple students and be extremely cost efficient. Find RSI on Instagram at rescue underscore squad underscore ironworks. or via email at rescuesquadironworks at gmail.com. Let hard work be your legacy. How did you get involved with instructing, speaking of that?
speaker-1: The instructing side of things actually out of school, I was like everybody else trying to get in anywhere. Hey, where do you want me to set doors? Hey, you want me to come sweep the parking lot? Hey. The actual instructing side, ⁓ I think I first started doing large animal rescue. I did some instructing with like my my department in different ways. They'd give me some as a young, passionate kid, they'd give me a bone and be like, okay, let's do a little nozzle forward or let's do ⁓ little ⁓ tick training or whatever. I'd always raised my hand to help. And then I think though with my first actual instruction and and development was working with large animal rescue training. As my background was, I mean you everyone I always say this to people, when you get in the fire service, you'll go through some years of learning and then when you hit that limbo of five years to ten years, hone something. Make something your own. Right. So I was kind of in that spot where it was allowed to grab something and and make it kind of How I thought it should be. And that's kind of where my first type of instructing kind of came from. I was able to take a course. ⁓ there was a lady offering, ⁓ she's ⁓ a doctor out of the States, world-renowned large animal rescue. Her name is Rebecca Houston Jimenez, phenomenal instructor and and and just an unbelievable horse person. She came down and taught a class on it, got on it, got hooked on it, and then I kind of steered towards ⁓ I was doing a lot of the time. I I built a bike with Jake. Jake, ⁓ well, Jake does Jake's a f unvo unbelievable welder. So me and him put a bite together. And it's funny because that kind of brought me in brass with that as well as like my farrier work. He's obsessed with metal. So that kind of was the bringover of he had a different ⁓ name on Instagram at that time, and I was super into ⁓ force the door, right? I'm an old school fire buff. I got ⁓ all my dad's old magazines, I have them. So We could started shooting the breeze about large animal. Next thing you know, he's like, Listen, ⁓ I'm gonna be doing some stuff at Southwest Fire Academy. I know you have some skill set with grinder and, you hand tools and stuff like that. I'm wondering if you wanna come help me out with the burn cans, right? That's where literally the change of my life happened meeting Andrew Brassard. Personally think he's probably literally one of the best firefighters to walk the ground in Canada.
speaker-0: Here, here. Yeah, yeah.
speaker-1: He is he's a phenomenal guy. And the thing about Andrew is that he gives everything to everybody, man. He he is the greatest human being going. So we ended up building these cans, working on that. As I said, these things lead to things, right? So put in a good work, did some really nice work on the can, and the next thing you know, we were building the forge. And as the forge was being built, ⁓ built a kind of a relationship with Jesse, they kind of seen the the type of guy I was. They gave me opportunity and I I jumped at it. So I did a couple boot camp classes. I was lucky enough to ⁓ be involved in some tech stuff as well. Brass took me on and and we were we've been forcing doors for the last five, six years. Huge shout out to him. I always look at fire teaching as a gift to myself in this way. Like we discussed earlier. As much as I teach, I learn. I'm the first to tell you when I get there, I am skilled at this skill set, but I am no professional. I will teach you everything I have, but I I'm a big believer in enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. And you know, if you hear any of my boot clan ⁓ the classes that I was involved with with any of the boot clam classes, I'd always say this to them. I'd say enthusiasm is free. And I'd push that on them because I was driving two and a half hours to teach them how to tie a knot. So we're guess what? We're not tying knots like we're tired. We're tying knots like we're happy that we're here, right? You're spending $15,000 or whatever it is to be here. And I'm and I'm driving two hours away from my my wife and kids. Guess what? You're giving me a hundred and ten, and I'm giving you a hundred and ten. And at the end of the day, we're gonna laugh and smile, and I'm gonna remember you because you're the person that put the work in. And at the end of the day, for me, like as a as an an instructor, especially on the bare bones level of things, let's face it, we're cutting the teeth for them, right? So cutting the teeth, it it can be painful or it can be good. Why not make it good? Why not make them Hope that they work for someone or with someone in the future like that. Right. Like your career, unfortunately, has a lot of different toxicity and negative traits to it. And it's easy to it's so easy it's the easiest well to try and get some water out of. Right. But I I always wanted to recharge the batteries and be that person that would recharge or make people certain that, you know what, this is a career I want to chase. I remember how excited I was when I'd go to like do training and stuff with people and I went to the States and got my rope, some of my rope work done. Only Canadian guy there. And man, these guys, they were just, I don't know if they just had a good weekend, but it was just the way that they presented themselves, the way that they they made it real, but they made it so that you were happy to be there. And I always looked at that and I always said, you know, and I've had enough teachers and and instructors and stuff like that in my life that they have to get through the curriculum and that's all that matters, right? No, I'm not like that. I'm not like that. And I also am not the type of person that's gonna rush it either, right? I know you and I trained ⁓ there one time. I think we were doing the ⁓ fire evolution and I think we had you pumping. Those classes are some of my favorite times teaching f firefighters. Because you know what, it was it was so fun to go back to the basics, right? And guess what? We're searching in a forty-eight by eight foot can that are welded together when we're doing a simple stretch and fun and it's right, and and let's face it, like it's When you think about the the bare bones of what we're doing, but the excitement that came from the bare bones, man. It's it's hard not to just sit here and go, man, that that that's the feeling that you wanna try and keep going as long as you can. And the only way you can do it is yourself. The only way you can do it is enthusiasm and being positive, even on the down days, going to work and saying, How can I be beneficial? And how can I bring that beneficial attitude that is gonna filter to the rest of my
speaker-0: You wrote that there's weight that comes with caring deeply. Maybe expand on that for me.
speaker-1: When you love something, you know, you have a lot of haters. This job's gonna always push you to hills and valleys, man. It's it's different direction, right? It's different thoughts, it's different processes, it's different equipment. The weight of the job isn't necessarily what we go and do. Sometimes it's who we're hanging out with all day. And it's building relationships with those people that You can make it so you can trust each other and you can make it so you can realize when someone's having a day or when someone's not. And the big thing about it is when they're not, how can you help them? I know for me, it's tough, man. You get labeled as someone that's obsessed with this. And I and I'll be the first to tell you, man, I I am. I I love it, man. I I I love going to work and I love coming home and I love buying fire helmets off marketplace and I love texting my buddy about Who switched to rubber hose and why their cross lays suck now and I love comparing trucks and all that aspects. But with the super love, it comes f you know, you you hear a lot of things bad about you too, right? A lot of people don't realize that they don't really know that I love that people can turn it off too.
speaker-0: They take it personally as a reflection of them, not just an appreciation of how you are and how you see it.
speaker-1: It's easy to say, ⁓ here he goes again. Right. And you know what the thing is, is that it's not like that. A lot of the times it's not, right? I was always taught as a kid if you're gonna do something and you're gonna step up and do it, do it. If you're gonna drop the mitts in hockey, don't talk about it. Don't my dad was never the one to tell me to go after somebody, but he said when the job needs to be done, you do the job. A lot of the negativity that I have developed in my brain when it comes to not properly being able to process positive or negative criticism sometimes. You know, I have a lot of other skill sets where it's like, you know what? I can't half ass this. I can't miss the corners in the station. It's also something such as simple as this is like in the morning switching out your pack just to give you, you know, the the SLP says four thousand, but you always want forty five hundred, right? And or you know you switch your tick camera out or you put your face piece on to check your pack in or or It's kind those simple things that kind of seem to upset people too. It's knowing how to take it, right? And and as a person that, you know, I like to I don't like to mm, I don't want people to think bad of me. I mean, I don't think anyone like there's I kinda envy the people that don't care. I mean, and there's lots of those, but as in going through school and stuff like that, I was always the guy that would always didn't I didn't care what you did. I I I found it fascinating that you were unbelievable at guitar or you were good at calculus. I never wanted like to to have hate with this job. As much as you're gonna have guys that are into it, you're gonna have guys that hate the guys that are into it. I carry that because I I hate being hated for it. I signed up and I wanted to do this career and I wanted to make it I want my kids to grow up one day and say, Yeah, my dad had fire helmets laying around the house all the time. He went to conferences and my mom would get upset and be mad. And then he'd come home and then on you know, on Saturdays his phone would ring and then he'd go, Hey mom. Christmas is coming, I better get to work. And then she would roll her eyes, right? ⁓ again, for anyone listening or anyone like a fire service that loves what they do, but they feel the weight around it, you're not the
speaker-0: And it says more about the haters than it does about them.
speaker-1: You're doing something right usually, you know, as well as I do. There's some left sided of that, or there's guys that are trying their best to do things right, but they're really far off doing it right, right? As well. So it's finding that happy medium, but that's where humbling, being humble comes in, right? And I'll be the first to tell you I'll get up in front of people and I'll put on a brave face and I will do whatever it takes. And when we ever went to a fire together, I would I'd go to work. But I'm humble enough to tell you that I have lots of flaws in my game and and I love it because I want to work on them. The greatest thing that you can be called in the fire service is well-rounded. If you are well-rounded, you have an idea. I'm still a firefighter, ⁓ pursuing acting captain right now, but I crave my captain who is an absolute beauty. I got a f a few on my platoon, we flip around quite a bit. We again we have a weird, weird system, but I always love to hear what do you think? You know what I mean? It's nice to have that that thought on, hey, what do you think? Or okay, we're headed to this and it's a do we need the door taken down, right? They're gonna look over their shoulder and they're gonna say, Hey, dude, do your thing. And guess what? Like any shift though, there's gonna be guys that are good at medical. There's gonna be guys that are good at this or good at that. We all have to be good at everything, right? But that doesn't mean don't lean on the guys that are great at their skill sets too, right? And that's it. I always I I have a guy that's medically unbelievable. Unbelievable he is, right? And he's always mad because he ⁓ he's always going. You guys always put me in the car and I'm doing medical and you're cutting the car in half, right? And I'm like and I'm I feel bad for him. So, you know, the odd time when we get a little door pop or whatever, he does it. But I always look at him and say, Man, your skill set is s is so unbelievable. Sometimes medically I'm like, All right, what next?
speaker-0: Whereas if that's our loved one, that's who we want with them.
speaker-1: Exactly. Right. Exactly. I'm not saying that I'm terrible at it, but you know, I I go through the basics and then he's got some more development on the grand scheme of things.
speaker-0: Speaking of passion, let's dive into the true North Pool. So tell me how you got involved with them.
speaker-1: Yeah, the True North Fools is actually a funny one. I'm actually more of a GTA guy. Like ⁓ I'm an hour from Toronto. But the big reason why I jumped on True North Fools is because of my c connection with Lambton College and and the guys out in Windsor Way, right? Right. Brady McKenzie and and and all those guys. When the Fools came to Ontario, again, a guy that's super into all of this and on social media and always keeping an eye on stuff and you know trying to get onto the next training thing. When it came to Ontario, ⁓ the both of them opened and I said to myself, you know what, I gotta get on one. COVID, I think, crushed both the fools ⁓ quite a bit right at the beginning when it came to the momentum. I actually had signed up for the ⁓ Hogtown fool. They were doing a forced entry day at Six Nations or whatever, but COVID shut that down. I was excited because I've been doing forcible entry at that point for quite some time, but I was excited to just kind of see the direction of where they were gonna take it. But I ended up getting shut down. I actually was looking to do the event in Chatham Kent as well, and it got shut down. So yeah, all that kind of shit happened. And then next thing you know, I was like, you know what? I gotta get involved. And at the time, the fools group that was putting something forward was the True North Fools. Jumped on the True North Fools train. The first time I actually did some work with the True North Fools was at Lambton College. And that's the thing. I I got involved in it a little too soon when it came to training because Atlanton College I help was helping Brass teach Forced Entry, the ⁓ Forced Entry Academy. And then the second year at l at ⁓ we brought it to they brought Ramagus down to Southwest Fire Academy. And again, we were doing live fire forced entry. So I wasn't really able to be a member. You know, it seemed like everything that was kind of going on I was asked to help with. That went around and then ⁓ there was some grumblings of the president stepping away from it. I mean I know that there was a little bit of a pause with the true North Foosa for a while. I was bouncing it off a couple of my mentors, like Brass and Cadiz and and seeing, Hey, what do you guys think about this? Like, why don't you guys do it? Right, basically going, Hey You guys should jump on this president job and we'll we'll run it, right? They had their own past and they didn't really have they didn't really have interest in it. And I had a lot of ideas. I had a lot of thoughts. I I really sat and thought about it. My fiance at the time, you know, I discussed it with her saying, listen, like I gotta release, I gotta recharge this somehow, right? I I ⁓ I was already probably on the job for six years-ish, right? And I was still I was look kind of looking for that recharge and I I messaged ⁓ Rob T bear, who's a ⁓ an absolute legend, and Phil and said, Hey, if you need me, I'll step up and I'll try my best. Next thing you know, I I grabbed the reins and I took the presidency over of ⁓ the True North Fools. To be honest with you, it was it's one of the most amazing things I've done. I personally, selfishly love it. I eat it up, it's hard, it's not easy, it's the pay's no good. And you know what like my family I'm I'm so lucky and blessed to have ⁓ who I have around me because they they encourage me to chase this stream of ⁓ outside the four walls of my fire station. So
speaker-0: Walk me through the conference in Waterloo, how that went for ya.
speaker-1: What people don't realize is that money just doesn't grow on trees, right? And everything in this in this job and in this world is liability and insurance and ⁓ and all that. So I put my thinking cap on and I said to myself, okay, what is our main focus? Our main focus with anything is safety and liability. Well, how do we go about that? Well, safety and liability leads to insurance. So I had to come up with a game plan on how to make A decent amount of money because any everyone knows anytime you put firefighting involved with anything, it triples. Sat down with a guy, kind of got a game plan ⁓ as to what that would look like. I lean on those who who helped me, man. And again, the greatest firefighter in in Canada, he hooked me up, dude. He he said to me, Listen, you ⁓ I know what you're trying to do here. We'll make you a door, we'll give you a deal on it, you raffle it off and you put some money together and and and we'll make it happen, right? So ⁓ I put that out to the group saying, you know what, we gotta we gotta build this as a business. Business wise, we have to have a website, a Zoom account, ⁓ proper insurance. I laid it out. We're gonna our goal was to go to OAFC, sell the tickets, and put forth ⁓ what we could to to do that, right? Ended up being a huge success. I think we sold about just shy of forty tickets and that paid ultimately for the insurance and everything involved and and allowed us to put on a training day at Waterloo. Now, a training day at Waterloo, my goal with that was how can we now develop the brand? How can we put an a brand forward that represents what it's supposed to? Brotherhood, tradition, hard work, all those things, right? My thoughts were the first things first is out. We gotta put it at a price range where people can can make it happen. We were lucky enough to get the secure Waterloo. With that came the four different stations that we ended up running. So, you know, I I always wanted to to give back to the guys that kinda gave to me when it came to training. So I had used as many ⁓ outlets as I could when it came to training. And we we picked four stations that we thought would be ⁓ different, but also kind of new, like lit like let's face it, they weren't like our stations weren't too too crazy, but ⁓ they got everyone working hard and some live fire and and that's what we wanted live fire type of thing. Right. So I'm ended up running a can class. So ⁓ again, the the direction with the can class wasn't necessarily that you're gonna jump out the truck and use the can. Right. Let's face it, in Canada we like to pull a big line and put a lot of water on a little fire sometimes, right? So, but that's kind of what the direction was with that. It was getting in and doing a search with the can, being in proper position with your water supply, and understanding how you can keep a fire at bay with the right at water application. Trying to do something a little outside the box. That wasn't hasn't been seen a lot ⁓ before, right? Then we added some live fire ⁓ forcible entry, which everyone loves, little roof ops, which I mean we don't do ⁓ enough of. ⁓ we had some flat roof as well as ⁓ pitched roof, and then we had some Ven Enter search. Two out of three stations with live fire, which ⁓ and and starting from nothing and working your skill set up as you went into the live fire. So overall we had it only as one day. We would have sold the tickets out in in less than twenty four hours. So we had the opportunity to jump on day two. And so we did. Sold another twenty tickets to that. We we rocked and rolled and everything was cool and everyone was safe. It was a successful weekend that I still get messages all the time that, you know, at the this was one of the greatest I've been in the job for this long and this is one of the greatest trainings I've
speaker-0: I agree. The energy was just awesome.
speaker-1: Yeah, I think we took advantage of what we could do. And I think we took advantage big time of the Veneter Search and the Can at the same like we could do two things at the same time that were two different skill sets in the same tower. Sorry, we had three stations of Love Life Fire because we had the forcible entry as well. And then we had the ⁓ roofprof stuff kind of as a rehab, more of a laid back station, right? Because I knew that there was gonna be some work to be put in. But it just goes to show you too. I think I I think what what I also like to see is that some other people could bring it back to their fire stations and say, Hey, listen. We can run 30 of our volunteers through the tower and do it exactly like this and and get a full day of so many skills. Let's face it, the the PowerPoint only goes so far. Right? The actual skills and the actual hands-on time is what most people are craving. And I always say this with training. You go out and you do a search training or you go out and do a live fire training, and you got some guys that you know what, they're they're later in their careers and they're not necessarily working out or or working themselves where they should be. So they get out of the truck, they hone their skills working at their job, then they get back in the truck, they're sweating their butts off, and they look up and they go, I wish we did more of that. I literally hear it every year. I at search and rescue training specifically. In the grand scheme, the fire service, the number one death is is cardiac arrest and and and c and and heart problems. It's not easy. Don't get me wrong, it's not easy to put your gear on and do a search training all the time. But Maybe that one drill a month that you're doing that search might lead to someone going, Hey, I feel great. I love doing that. Or hey, I need to work on that. Right. I need to work on myself. I need to get in the gym. I need to walk a little more. I need to eat a little less. Right. Let's face it. My dad had a stroke at a couple of years ago now. And, you know, my dad was an independent dude. He didn't help help have have help from for anything. And he did everything himself. He he didn't need help. And you know what? Like now it's his life has changed completely. Does it mean that, you know, he he if he was in, you know, in the gym or did this or did that a little bit more? No. But it really makes me look at this and go, hey, my health is important too. I know this is a little off topic from the question, but it's it's crazy to think that, you know, doing our job and going and putting a wet sweat on when it comes to doing a search training and and getting it back in the rig and going, Man, that was great. I wish we did that every month. Well, we're hitting five benchmarks. Teamwork, we're getting a sweat on for our our working out, working on our skill sets. We're practicing getting in out in and out of the rig. And, you know, we're probably practicing communication while we're in there. There's never a downside of it. I think a lot of places need to focus on doing it more.
speaker-0: Yeah, I don't think there's a negative to focusing on PFAS and gear and us wanting to have safer gear, but when it comes from people that don't want to focus on the job that can kill them, that's when my perspective shifts on it, right? It's like, well, why can't we care about both? Why can't we care about the gear we wear and why can't we also worry about being good at our job?
speaker-1: You can't say it any better than that, that's for sure. I th I feel like a lot of pla l places and people, unfortunately, get that quick to reasons why not to. Right? It's easy to jump on the reasons why not to. And I think that, you know, as a any young firefighter, how to get better at this is finding the reasons why why to. And then your your impact on w the reasons finding reasons why might be the impact on and on that fifty year old Or that older guy that's kinda almost done his career, giving them a few more extra years of their life because you've pushed them to keeping up with the young guy. A lot of the times and that's all it is, right? It's that little push or that little thing of you just need to find someone that wants to do it. And once that one person does it
speaker-0: Do you think of any of it is with some of these guys that they've never had a moment in the job that's scared them where they've realized holy shit, that was bad and I wasn't prepared, and then they have that blood drain from your head kind of moment? Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah, but I gotta tell you, man, I think that's I think it's the development of hills and valleys in the career, right? Like let's face it, like even those guys that have the moment of I I think that they let those moments fade away. For example, you forgot to do something. Next few shifts, you you you set yourself up for success and you do that. And then next thing you know, you're you're you're sent to a different station. So you you don't really do that, right? And then and then that leads to Back to the regular, back to the back to where you were. I think the big thing about it is staying consistent to you. It's hard to maintain. And that's and that I mean that's that's but that's a person I I really think that's a personal thing too, right? But it's also brought on by a good leader. Right. We always go to build go to leadership. Let's talk about how like a lot of s self-motivated people are easy kind of to lead in in in ways of preparation because they're motivated to prep. If you're not motivated, now your captain's on you about setting your stuff up and now he's an ass, right? Because you know, he's telling me how to do it too. Right. So it's so hard to to find that middle line, but being well rounded, ⁓ like I said, yeah, it's is huge, but being consistent. I I'm a huge stickler on the morning check. Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, right? And to the point where, you know, again, ⁓ the the that's the weight I carry because people know and I I come in and I do that. I don't move the halligan bar to to bug you. I move it, I touch it so I can touch it, so I can go, okay, this is where it is. Okay. This is where the home safe home kit with all the smoke detectors is. And this is where the screwdriver is. So when I go in at three in the morning, I'm not going, ⁓ my God, how am I gonna put this in the roof? Right. It's it's for me. The morning check is for me and for my family, right? It's it's for me to someone's having the worst day of their life. The last thing they want me to do is get up, get there and and and not be prepared. Preparation. And I always say to my rookies, The fire truck is made to to screw you over. Let's put into consideration the way you put your pack in the bed in the in the in the seat or the way you put your mask beside you. There's gonna be one call where that mask gets caught on the seatbelt. Or there's gonna be that one time where, you know, your tick camera, the cheap carabiner on it snaps in half and it falls off and then or it won't turn on, or the battery that you put in it was only had a blip of time and stuff like that, right? But our preparation, why not take that extra minute to prep? And look for those things because there's enough other things that can go wrong, right? So I'm a stickler that I even check like the hose. I'll pull it out a little bit. I'll I know that, okay, the nozzle, we do a minute man and the nozzle sometimes, but ⁓ depending on the truck, ⁓ sometimes the nozzles are poured at the top, sometimes they're poured at the bottom. So it changes kind of the way the nozzle will be. So sometimes I have to have the nozzle on my shoulder. Sometimes I need to because if I let the nozzle fall, I'm tripping over it now. That's how I know that.
speaker-0: There's enough things that can go wrong.
speaker-1: Because I've tripped over it. Right. So again, I I like it. My guys in the morning, ⁓ you know, I'm I'm kind of I have some rookies under me now. I'll say to them, okay, where's the nozzle? And they'll go, okay, yeah, the nozzle's high. So if I'm pulling that line, I know the nozzle's got to stay on my shoulder. But if some to some trucks, it's low. So you can keep the, you can keep the you can pull it right out and put the nozzle nice and low, it'd be at your hip. Another one I go by is this is I go, our our department has bail colors. So your bail colors matches your pull nozzle on ⁓ on your pump, right? But guess what? It's only good until that bale breaks and then they put it guess what color they put on after that? Black.
speaker-0: Any color.
speaker-1: Right? So I'll I'll we'll get in a new a new guy in and I'll go, How'd your truck track go this morning? And they'll go, good. And I'll go, Okay. So if I pull sixty five hand line off the back of the truck and I call you to pull a white line, what goes on with that? And they'll go, Well, what do you mean? And I'll be like, Listen, you're new to this. I wanna help you. Okay. Because guess what I would do? I'd call for a white line, next thing you know, I'd charge the blitz gun that's right beside it in the bed. And guess what? Who's who's been there and done that? Me. Right. I've told it's told to charge a drop with a white line. So those little things like that just show your your you're passionate and you're and and it's just that it's to me it's those things. To me, it's knowing that, you know, I'm working with a gargantuan today. So, you know, when we put the wetsuits on, if we get a wetsuit call, he's gonna wear size fourteens and I'm gonna wear size twelves, right? But the bags don't really show which size they are. So I know, you know, if I throw it in, I'm throwing him the right handed bag, and vice versa. Right. It's just for the truck check stuff. Like that's I'm a big believer in getting there 75% when it comes to like 100% when it comes to fires, ready to go. But anything else, pretty much ready to go. Pretty much like we're jumping out of the truck. We got to put a life jacket on if it's a water call. We gotta just grab the rope bag if it's a rope call. The harnesses are right there on us and and we have them on. So when we get there, they they don't see us putting them on. And that's kind of where I'm at. And I mean, that's that's the the direction of your leader. And sometimes leaders might or might not want that. But I always thought a battle ready firefighter is one that can make a department look good. Right. Let's face it, Scott. You and I have been in some fires that we got inside, you couldn't see a thing. And if there was a video camera on what we did while we were inside, we would be they would love to see it. Because you're tripping over the hose, then you've moved that chair, then your partner moved it back in front of you, and then you drop the halligan, and then you lose and right. So I always say to my rookies, listen, let's be really good at getting to the front door and looking professional at doing that first. Okay. And then when we get there, let's take a deep breath and focus on what our job is next. Right. Get a size up. Let's let's look professional on the way there. Let's put our mask on professionally. When we get inside, if we trip over each other a little bit, that looks that's fine. No one sees it. Right. We we can trip and we can joke about it after, but let's be professional when we get there. Battle ready firefighting. Know that you're getting out of the rig and grabbing what you're grabbing.
speaker-0: you become a captain, are you gonna be one that sits the crew down initially? Obviously you have a feel for the crew and but it sets expectations. So there's a lot of captains that talk about that, like sit down like here's my expectations. Here's my expectations of me, here's my expectations of you, here's how I'd like to run things. Do you feel like feel like you'd approach things that way?
speaker-1: So I've been lucky to have an unbelievable captain in the way that he trusts. And I think ⁓ a good leader has trust in his team, right? And that's where I feel like I struggle when and you what? Some people need that. And again, everyone's a different, a different person. Everyone has a different way. You've probably sat in a fire truck with someone sitting beside you that kind of makes you drive, gripping the wheel a little tighter, right? At one point in your career. And you know, I have I can tell you straight up, I have. The thing with my captain is is that he he gives us expectations, he sat us down, he's given us a run order, he gives us he he believes in exactly kind of what I do and he trusts though, right? He he trusts our judgment, he he allows us to to adapt, but his big thing is act like we've been there before. So no matter what, if it's a play audible, act like we were gonna do that anyways. Right. And I think that's what comes down to sets a high bar of professionalism, is that But that comes from like it's from training and body language and reading each other too. I often look at him and and I can tell that he knows what I'm thinking right away. I also think that the fact that he's allowed me to anticipate what's next. And that's not a bad thing. Some people want to be in charge and they want to make the next call, where I feel like anticipation, especially we take we have a we have a short kind of a shorter staff department. So we take advantage of the driver of the primary pumper a lot. ⁓ in fact all of our drivers and it's al almost one of my favorite positions actually because it it kind of is a self-roll that allows you to focus on a few different things at once but the big thing is your play audible right like you know that they've got f water on the fire so you know you're already kind of going to the fan and or you know you got a minute so you're putting up the ladder not because you're gonna need it necessarily but it's there if you do they're having a minute At the front door and they're it's not going, they're not sure what they're gonna do yet. So throwing a 24 on the Charlie side quickly while they're waiting, but it's it's the fine line of that, right? It's it's it's knowing when to do it. And then you know, I gotta give him credit where credit's due. He allows that. And some some won't. So, you know, when it comes into my leadership and my style of what I wanna aim for is that it's it's I wanna be, I wanna be someone who sets a high standard ⁓ in myself on what I need out of call. And I want it to to to be pushed down onto my crew and to the you know the way that they move and the way that they act. But I also want them to understand that they represent not only me but themselves and and and I I will back them whether they make a good decision or a bad decision. But our bad decisions are gonna be the days that we work on making them good by by training on them. And that to me is the big thing. And and and you know, I I know that there's a lot of camaraderie with ping pong and different things like that. But I also think that, you know, going in in the morning and putting your gear on and even just doing some skill sets with it on. Right. I always loved the guys that were doing, no matter what they're doing, they they have one piece of like they have their pants on, for example, right? And they're not just flowing water. They get down on a knee or they take the opportunity while we're doing pump training to add to it as well. And I think that's gotta be encouraged. Like I said to you, I I I know that my enthusiasm might not always be high at work. But I want to try and have build a crew that when they're know I'm down, they're raising me up by their skill set. And when I when they're feeling down, they know that I got their back. And you know what? I as much as I won't be getting task oriented, which I will be, I will be right there behind them, you know, setting that tool or doing what I got to do to make it happen. I'm super excited to actually jump into I roll for actor. I'm on the list currently. I'm super excited to jump into that middle position of it. I I really wanted to actually talk to you about this and and and where I think the fire service is kind of lacking is taking advantage of the 10 to 15 year guy. That isn't necessarily, you know, my department's small, but like depending on where you work, taking advantage of the guy that's been on long enough that has has some decent skill set, that's into the job and that has been to a few different places. So for example, like you have eight years on and you say, Hey, hey, Riley. I went to a nozzle class this weekend and we were flowing a smoothbore nozzle. Okay. I know we don't have that here, but we're short staffed. And it's crazy to think how I f could flow water all day and I didn't it didn't fatigue me. I'm not saying what we have here is wrong, but this might be a better avenue. I feel like being that guy, and I'm in it right now, and you know what? It's not anytime I have conversation, even with guys outside of my department, it it's like Hey man, what do you like? Well, everyone has their own taste on stuff. I can tell you how exactly how I would like a truck laid out, or exactly how I would build a training center, or you know, and I'm into the job, so I can't help it. Right. It's my passion. But this is now where I'm starting to see how other people kind of suffer that they take it personally like I'm saying it, that they do it wrong, which it's not at all like that. I I I get into discussion with this new high rise stuff all the time, too, with brass and a couple of the guys. And it's funny, you don't know what you don't know. I'm all over listening to this high rise ⁓ and I I love it. My department currently is kind of a little bit behind on it. So I'm I've been really focusing and looking at it. And so I'm like, ⁓ two and a half. That sounds great. Big water, man. We're gonna that'd be good to hammer it, right? So then you talk to Brass and Brass knows that brass has has angles. He's got the goods and then and the bads. So he goes, Well, what does ⁓ FTNY run? And I'm like, ⁓ I'm not sure. He goes, Well, they run sixty five. He goes, What do they commit to it? I'm like, do you mean? He's like, what do they commit to? And I'm like, no idea. He goes, the first three engines. The first three engine companies are committed to one single sixty-five line because it's so big. And yes, don't get me wrong, you're flowing, you're not, you're, you're, you're flowing and you're moving. And and then that conversation happens, right? I and I I again I don't have a lot of skin in the game and I haven't necessarily been and done all of it. But when you come to think about it, it's like, ⁓ my God, that's a department with all of it. all the manpower they can get and they're they're they're putting three and three engines on it, right? How will it affect my department with three guys that could be there for 15 minutes by themselves? And again, it's it's putting the the the line in the position where it needs to be to succeed and flowing water when you're supposed to. But you know, as well as I do, we could teach, teach, teach, teach, teach that. And then the next thing you know, someone's trying to float down the hall and they say, This really sucks. Yeah. Like the big thing I I think is, you know, coming full circle with this is the guy in the middle. It's not bad to take to to listen to think of what, you know, you always say to the rookie, yeah, yeah, no, don't care. And then the senior guy kind of goes like, Yeah, like, you know, I like the truck like this because over the last few years or whatever, this, this, this, this. But then you realize the guy in the middle who's gonna be there for, you know, 20 years, his insight is a little bit different because he's like, Okay, where are we headed with this? Not necessarily what's went right or what's went wrong, but where are we headed? And and with anything. Right with anything when it when it comes to hoes, when it comes to low hard fans, when it comes all that stuff, right? It's yeah, I'm sure that you've been in a care in a part of your career where you've said something that was like, Hey, I think this is pretty cool. And then then people are like, Well, Scott thinks this is great, and everything else sucks. It's like, no, I never said that everything else sucks. I said this is kind of I have some experience with this, and this is what I felt was beneficial, and this is why I feel it's beneficial, right? So for anyone that's kind of in the service that
speaker-0: Get all the perspectives.
speaker-1: Is in that 10 year period. I I think that I can speak for a lot of people that are like, Okay, I have a I have a thought on something. And anytime I kind of bring it, I kinda get shot down on it. Right. And you know what? We have some younger guys, like a couple of guys younger than ⁓ on the service than me. And what I tell them and what I've been trying to do is document it. Build it so when it's your time, it makes sense. Right? 'Cause again, I I could say, Okay, we should smit switch to the the this nozzle, and next thing you know, they don't I I didn't know that they didn't make parts for it anymore. Right. Or the company went under. And I'm like, ⁓ I'm preaching, preaching, preaching this. And then next thing you know, someone else is right. And they're like, dude, you need to think about the big speck of this that it's more than just the nozzle. It's how can we fix it and we break it? It's it's how can we do this or how can we do that? Right. And this there's always got to be the devil's advocate. I just think that I want to shout out to the guys that have been on for kind of ten years where which have these ideas. Build those ideas as you go and and don't be afraid to say, Wow, I I was way off, or wow, this is what I found and and present it in a way that isn't isn't necessarily gonna someone's gonna rub them wrong.
speaker-0: Let's finish off by touching back to True North Fools because the smoke is showing conference is coming up, so I know it's sold out, but just let's just plug it.
speaker-1: So again, like I said to you, this fools group was pushing to year one was to to build our brand, which we successfully did, and we we were fortunate to put some money in the bank that allowed us to do what most of the guys involved wanted was to bring in the big names. When it comes to bringing in the big names, the big names aren't cheap. So and then going to the best training facility which within within the GTA, in my opinion, one of them it's not cheap either. So we came up with a plan. We got the right guys in the right positions within the executive to make this happen and and we did. So it's been put out and it was sold out within twenty-four hours. Personally, for me, I I I was so, so happy. Not for necessarily for the group, but for the Canadian Fire Service. The messages that we've received from different foods groups, one ⁓ being in Canada messaging us and basically saying, like, you guys are set in the bar, right? And I mean, that's never what we wanted to do. It's just we wanted to give opportunity. I've been lucky enough to be that guy in the role that is in charge of it. And then but like I'll be the first to tell you, just because that's that's where I am, it doesn't mean that I'm doing this by myself. The group does this. It is a group effort. And we have buy-in from everybody. Like huge shout up to VP Rosendez. I know you've talked to him. There's a guy that continues to show up and put in work and give. Back to the fire service every time he gets out. ⁓ you know, you got T Bear there as well. Another guy probably gives me a push on passion when it comes to getting things done. He gets things done, man. He gets after it. Another huge shout out to ⁓ Gary Penstone. We got him on board. He is currently taking care of all of our our new ⁓ memberships and our memberships. And that project itself is a nightmare. He is so
speaker-0: He's doing a great job.
speaker-1: good at it. And you know what? He he is a good example of someone that has grabbed something and does it professionally. And he has been the a huge game changer for us. So, you know, and we got Cam Wells and we got Hailey Green and a bunch of these other ones that are involved as well. ⁓ Lefty and ⁓ just want to say thank you to all of them. And and ⁓ if you're coming to the event make sure you guys say thank you to all those guys because it's been truly a team effort. Our goal here is to build the Brotherhood to recharge batteries. make people love the job again. Our goal here is to ⁓ let your department see that you're willing to go and make yourself better. Ultimately, like each the the cliche thing is for them, right? For for everyone else, for for them. When I think of that, I think about my family. I think about, you know, my my kids and my wife ⁓ at home that ⁓ I work my ass off for. So if I'm ever put in a situation, some of the training that we go through or do It might give me the ⁓ knowledge to be able to, you know, figure it out, right? So at the end of the day, this service is is the greatest service in the world. The fire service itself truly, truly, truly is so unbelievable that I wish everyone knew the outside walls of their fire stations and came and and saw something like this, right? If you love it just at work, you're gonna love it to see other people that love it just as much as you do. Right. And then and and there is people like that. And at these events, the cool thing about it is too, the skill sets vary. No one's there to try and be an all star. Everyone's there to pick up and learn and and develop and have fun and be safe. But ⁓ to put in a put it put in a an effort, right? I look forward to it and I look forward to the future ⁓ of it all.
speaker-0: Yeah, I talked to a few people that said they're excited to come but also nervous and I I and I made it very clear like this is the most supportive and like building up group. Right. The the day you're gonna have an amazing time. There's nothing to be nervous about. No one's there to show off. There's no egos. It's about br it's about brotherhood and sisterhood and the family and just getting better, like you said. So I'm like, get that out of your head right now and just go excited and have fun.
speaker-1: The cool thing about it is is is you step up to expectation too, right? So if you go into it with a mindset that kind of nervous, you should. I mean, I I I remember going to co courses too and and being involved and being super nervous, but getting there and and and and all I can recommend to people is is pushing themselves to to what they're working with, right? And and and and another thing too, if you're working with someone that's a little less skilled than you or whatever, you know, hone it back and and and be a be a leader to them. Right. It's easy to go forcible entry class and and find the strongest guy there and be and break through doors. Find someone that maybe is is is having a little bit of difficulty with it and do it. 'Cause guess what? That's how you get better. You're only as good as your weakest link, right? So if you're that weak link, step up and do your best, but also find someone that's gonna encourage you and stay with you and and and and everyone's gonna win at the end of the day. Yeah.
speaker-0: It's okay to have nerves about yourself and how you're gonna be, but don't have nerves about being judged by other people.
speaker-1: Absolutely. There's no there's no judgment and we're there to learn and to have fun. And at the end of the day, if you if you walk out of that place and and and all you got is ⁓ love for the fire service again, that's all that matters to us. Right. That's a step. That's it might be the only step in the right direction. You could you could hate every course we do, but if you go if you leave that place going, man, I love what I do. That's that's what we care for.
speaker-0: Awesome. Any final things you wanna throw on here before we pack up?
speaker-1: No, I just wanna thank you for ⁓ your time and for what you do. I think that you highlight some of the greatest Canadian firefighters. I think you're underrated when it comes to how much your podcast hits home for a lot of people and how much l hearing different people talk about things and their struggles and their the ways that they they've navigated this career. I think it's helped more people than you know. So from the guy on the other side, I just wanna say thank you, Scott, and I don't think you get enough credit for that. So
speaker-0: Thanks, brother. Means a lot to me. ⁓ and actually you guys are starting one.
speaker-1: There's something that jumped in my ⁓ in my direction and I am my plate is full. So they brought it up that they were going to to do some of that. And you know what? Who am I to say no? Right. So I told them I will be honest that you are you guys are going against one of my favorite podcasts ever. And then I think the fire rescue service guys got one going too, right? So
speaker-0: Plenty of ⁓ plenty of room in the pool. Yeah, the firefighter rescues Ontario, they're doing a great job and Rosendas. I just listened to his episode, it was awesome, so I'd recommend that to anybody.
speaker-1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Rosendez and we got ⁓ Brad Gregory, his is ⁓ his is great as well.
speaker-0: Yeah, he's gonna be on here ⁓ soon too. So the more the better, man, the more the better.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's the good word is out. I just ⁓ the fools one will I believe T Bear will be running with that, Rob ⁓ T Bear. So yeah, we'll see how that goes. But stay ⁓ stay tuned for our episodes of that. I'm I'm sure I'll I'll maybe venture onto that at some point to ⁓ give some someone a hard time or ⁓ so ask some questions. But ⁓ thanks for honing my skills at podcasting.
