Golf Scrambles, Attack Pigs, and an F4: Shift Work Gets Weird

WEBVTT
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.880
Stuart Walker was like, you got it.
00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:37.359
I was like, okay.
00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.200
And I just rode around that golf cart and watched watched him take it away.
00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:42.479
I was like, this is great.
00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:42.640
Yeah.
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:42.960
Yeah.
00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:49.119
I mean the street sweepers ain't gang, but I was just watching all the trucks leave and all that start to disappear.
00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:50.000
Oh yeah.
00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:51.840
I didn't go up there one time this year.
00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:54.560
I played in a golf scramble with John Whitehead.
00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:56.960
Or uh it was a tournament.
00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:59.759
I was like, I didn't know you even golfed, John.
00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:02.479
And it was we had a ball.
00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:02.960
What's right?
00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:06.959
I thought we had I hadn't seen him in years, and it's like we never missed a beat.
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.280
So he's still doing his heat and air.
00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:09.680
Yeah.
00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:10.400
Making it.
00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:12.159
Killing, he's smarter than we are.
00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:13.920
Yeah, we're kinda dumb.
00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:15.840
Of all the people.
00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:17.359
Yeah, of all the people.
00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:22.719
The the funny part last night is uh so we have the airport truck now.
00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:23.680
Yeah, I saw that.
00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:25.519
That was and um impressive.
00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.400
It's great to break streets with.
00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:32.079
And it's a great blocker to nobody's gonna go through that.
00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:32.400
No.
00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:32.879
Well that's good.
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:34.319
When did y'all get that?
00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:36.400
Uh a year or two ago.
00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:37.519
Maybe two years.
00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:38.079
Yeah.
00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:39.680
Did it just stay out there at the airport?
00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:41.280
It's out there at the airport.
00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.319
It didn't even get a scratch on it from the tornado.
00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:45.120
I don't know how.
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:46.719
Yeah, rich weight.
00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:50.480
The three truck the three trucks that needed to get hit by something.
00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:51.359
Yeah.
00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.000
There was leaves stuck on the side of them.
00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:54.879
That was it.
00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:55.920
Wow.
00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:03.359
The so we used to have a uh airport hanger near PHI's hangar.
00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.359
Up there close to the end to the Yeah.
00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:07.840
So you go through the gate and it's right there.
00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.479
And that one got obliterated.
00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:11.919
But the trucks wasn't in it.
00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:12.240
No.
00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:13.599
They were sitting out in the open.
00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:14.719
Yeah.
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.080
Rich apparently went and moved them or something.
00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:22.319
They were having a that flying or whatever theory was.
00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:22.560
Yeah.
00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:24.319
So he had left the trucks that not.
00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:26.639
Yeah, they didn't get a script.
00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:27.280
Yeah.
00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:28.159
Wow.
00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:32.800
But uh something needing to get totaling out didn't get it.
00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:43.199
We have that old 1980s style fire truck that we always you can always hear it coming down the road with its Detroit motor.
00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:49.120
Big load of coal coming through town.
00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:53.199
So Yeah, it was.
00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:54.560
It's a big board truck.
00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:56.719
The big blue hazmat truck truck.
00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:57.680
That's awesome.
00:02:57.919 --> 00:02:59.280
Yeah, they were all three sitting out.
00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.759
Cody Evans and I walked over about 3 30 that morning and we're like, we need to check these trucks.
00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.479
Yeah, they went there was leaves stuck on them.
00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:10.240
That's awesome.
00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:10.639
Yeah.
00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:13.439
How much would an airport truck cost?
00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:18.400
That's gotta be how a regular fire engine now is costing close to a million dollars.
00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:25.280
Oh but you gotta wait about two years for it because they're in so much to make it.
00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:26.639
Some of them are up to four years.
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:27.120
Yeah.
00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:35.840
Hey, listen, speaking of, you know, million dollar trucks, we used the aerial the other day on a reconstruction to take pictures.
00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:38.400
That was I was like, that is a good idea.
00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:42.719
They brought the aerial truck and just Newport overheads.
00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:45.120
I went to Academy Class with a Newport guy.
00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:46.479
He's like, check this out.
00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.599
And I was it was aerial shots, and I was like, Man, that's great.
00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:51.599
And then he shows me this body.
00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:53.520
I'm like, where's his head?
00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.159
He said, That's that's what I was wanting to show you.
00:03:57.039 --> 00:04:06.800
This turd got he was a really bad dope dealer, and he'd changing his tire on the side of the road, and Big Rig rolled him up in between the trailer tires.
00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:12.000
His head was down his it was in his in his stomach.
00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:13.759
Pushed it straight down.
00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:18.319
I was like, he didn't show me that part.
00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:19.600
I just sound like a rig up.
00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:22.879
It was not a big goodness.
00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:24.480
Not technically.
00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:25.920
What would you call that?
00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:27.120
Inversion.
00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:29.120
I told you.
00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:35.600
But I was like, you don't know how to say that.
00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:37.360
Where's his head, man?
00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:39.199
I was like, did y'all find his head?
00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:42.000
Oh yeah, we found it finally when it went to the corner.
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:44.879
So they were actively looking for it.
00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:46.240
Like I was a connection.
00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:46.800
I had no idea.
00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:50.319
Wow.
00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:51.040
Wow.
00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:53.759
I see I 75.
00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:54.480
Yeah.
00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:56.000
It doesn't end, does it?
00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:57.360
Does not end.
00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:57.680
No.
00:04:57.920 --> 00:04:58.959
It's not just here.
00:04:59.360 --> 00:04:59.680
No.
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:01.040
Wow.
00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:06.560
Hey guys, I just want to take a moment and thank our sponsor.
00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:08.800
We've got Ascend Wellness.
00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:12.079
It's a family-owned mental health practice in London, Kentucky.
00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.759
They've got over 65 years of combined experience.
00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:24.079
They specialize in trauma-focused care, offering MDR therapy for first responders and others impacted by traumatic events.
00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:32.879
If you're not familiar with that, a lot of our guys have taken the time to do that type of therapy.
00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:39.600
And it really allows you to kind of get your mind wrapped around the trauma that you may or may not know that you're holding on to.
00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:47.199
Travis himself has done it and and swears by it.
00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:52.879
Said that he opened up to things he didn't even know that was bothering him.
00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:56.319
So definitely something you might want to check out.
00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:04.319
Services include individual marriage and family counseling.
00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:13.040
Let's be honest, as first responders, our marriages, our families sometimes take a second second seat or a back seat to the job.
00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:19.519
So I can't imagine that we would any of us would ever need marriage counseling or anything to fix the problems at home.
00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:25.920
Hopefully you don't, but if you do, they're good at what they do, so they can help you out there.
00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:41.279
Um family counseling, MAT, substance abuse counseling, parenting classes, supervised visitation, and medication management, all delivered in a supportive, client-centered environment.
00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.480
They are located at 148 Commercial Drive in London, Kentucky.
00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:50.639
And Ascend Wellness is here to help you rise.
00:06:51.759 --> 00:07:02.879
If you are interested in visiting or contacting them, you can find them at ascendwellness.org or call 606-260-8532.
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:05.040
Y'all ready?
00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:05.759
Ready?
00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:06.560
Everybody ready?
00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:07.439
Whatever you are.
00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:10.079
When the notes are out like this, it makes me so happy.
00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:13.199
Yes, we've done our homework.
00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:15.839
That's awesome.
00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.199
They've done more of much more work.
00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:18.639
It's better when our guests are doing more work.
00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:20.959
Noah's more well-versed on things than I am.
00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:24.720
See he's got I think he's just a black cloud magnet.
00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:26.399
I I can I can relate.
00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:30.560
There's a reason I want the black cloud to work three years in a row with ambulance service.
00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:38.160
So we got ambulance, we got fire, we got rescue, we got a plethora.
00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:40.160
Law enforcement kinda.
00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:41.439
That's the big word of the.
00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:42.800
I guess that's what we do.
00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:43.519
Yeah.
00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.319
Well, I mean, we don't do it very well.
00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:51.439
Who was I talking to?
00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:53.199
Oh, I was talking to John the other day.
00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:54.079
I said, John.
00:07:55.199 --> 00:08:01.040
I was like when we were when I got promoted to sergeant, every three people came up.
00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:06.160
I was like, man, John's gonna be your he's gonna just give you a part-time.
00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:10.399
I was like, so I was like, hey John, let's go out and eat.
00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:14.879
I took him to a Chinese restaurant or something.
00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:16.240
We went and sat down and ate.
00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:23.759
I said, listen, I know you didn't put in for this job, so I you can't say I got promoted over.
00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:24.639
You didn't put in.
00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:28.800
I said, but I know you're better than me at policing.
00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:29.360
I know it.
00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:30.319
You've got more time.
00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:34.639
You're gonna you're you can find dope on any anywhere, anytime.
00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:36.799
I said you're smarter than everybody at the PD.
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:37.679
I know it.
00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:39.360
I said, just don't give me a hard time.
00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:40.720
I'm gonna stay out of your way.
00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:42.000
Just work with me, man.
00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:43.440
Just work with me, man.
00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:49.360
He's like, he said, you're the only person that's ever came up and just had this conversation.
00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:51.440
He said, I got you, buddy.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.240
I said, he probably never let you down, did he?
00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:55.440
No, he never let me down.
00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:56.879
Simple communication.
00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:57.679
Just talk to people.
00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:58.480
Just talk to people.
00:08:58.559 --> 00:08:59.279
That's all you gotta do.
00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:00.320
That's right, yeah.
00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:02.320
But I learned a lot from that guy.
00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:04.480
So I I give him a hard time.
00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:06.559
He can't hit a golf ball often.
00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:10.559
He hit it, he finds the fairway like Lodge Holland used to.
00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:10.960
Every time.
00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:12.000
Boom, right in the middle.
00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:15.919
Then that second shot, it's made like a putt.
00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:16.960
How do you not?
00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:18.879
I'd be having to climb trees and everything.
00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:19.519
Horrible.
00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:20.639
I had a horrible.
00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:22.799
I'd spend more time off the fairway.
00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:25.200
Yeah, I would call golf.
00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:27.600
Golf is not for me.
00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:28.559
Did you get banned?
00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:29.919
Uh that did.
00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:31.120
That did.
00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:32.799
As long as you don't fall off.
00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:35.919
There's a reason they have them nets there.
00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:38.320
I'd do it.
00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:42.320
Alright, guys, we're back with another episode.
00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:42.879
Yeah.
00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.600
Travis is always amazed that I'm recording already.
00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:48.320
We've been rambling for a while, anyways.
00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:50.960
But we've got a couple of good guests for you today.
00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:53.759
Got uh all kinds of experience.
00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:55.759
Fire, rescue, EMS.
00:09:55.840 --> 00:10:02.000
I think this may be our first guest that has any kind of EMS experience, EMS stories.
00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.039
They are also father and son.
00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:10.080
So without further ado, our guests Mark and Noah Rudder.
00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:13.039
I guess uh we want to go we want to go young or old.
00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:15.120
Ah, whichever, but let them jump in.
00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:16.480
Let the elders go first.
00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:17.600
Oh, of course.
00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:18.080
Of course.
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:20.879
Age before getting how Mark's for sure.
00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:22.000
Mark is up.
00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:23.279
Yeah.
00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:27.279
We've known each other basically my whole policing career.
00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:34.720
I mean, of you known, you know, so it's been twenty plus years of working in some capacity together.
00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:47.120
And um we're really glad to have you on and your experience and just tell us everything that how you got into it, what all you've all the shenanigans I know that you've got to be.
00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:49.039
Well, there's there's not many shenanigans.
00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:55.600
You have to be real real calm and mundane and and not be involved in shenanigans, maybe.
00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:02.960
Now um so this year marks 35 years for me in the fire service, legally.
00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:03.840
Legally.
00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:04.480
Right.
00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:08.879
Um dad was a founding member of the Bush Fire Department.
00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.440
Uh they founded in 1975.
00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:18.080
I was born the day after Christmas in 72, so that gives you an idea of how that progressed for me.
00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:23.519
Um, so I say legally, I had to wait until I turned 18 to be a bona fide firefighter.
00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:23.840
Right.
00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:35.679
Um and so with dad being there growing up, uh, it was kind of a uh, I guess just uh a calling, something I always wanted to do.
00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:41.279
Um so at at age of 18, you kind of joined the fire department.
00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:51.120
By the time I was uh 19 and a half, we'll say, I became an EMT and started working at Amletz Incorporated.
00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:55.360
Uh so there's been a lot of part-time work there.
00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:02.799
I worked there for over 10 years, and that's where uh that's where you really get into the the meat of things.
00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:10.960
A lot has changed now that Noah's in the service and doing five basically the same things 25 years later.
00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.440
Uh there's a big difference.
00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:20.559
When I worked EMS, uh there was two crews during the daytime and basically at 4 p.m.
00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:28.879
in the afternoon everybody the the first out crew stayed on basically, and then you had backup.
00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:29.120
Right.
00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:39.519
So uh I lived about 10 minutes from the city limits and would be on backup sometimes, so uh you'd need to stay in closer to town.
00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:47.360
And um, you know, some of the partners I had, well, the first amulet run I ever transported with was Les Leatherman.
00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:47.759
Wow.
00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:50.080
And you know, we lost Les in a tornado.
00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:56.000
Um But you know, you just look back on all those things and see those people.
00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:02.960
Uh and that that was the first time I ever transported in the back of an ambulance uh was a tractor accident.
00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:04.720
And Les was driving.
00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:05.919
He said, You got it, buddy.
00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:08.639
You know, you know, I said, So yeah, I sure hope so.
00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:10.639
I hope for this patient I've got it, right?
00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:17.759
But but that's just the way uh my mom and dad both worked part-time, some for the EMS throughout the years.
00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:25.120
Uh maybe they went to school to an EMT class ten years before I did, but I went every night to the class with them.
00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:30.000
So I guess you could say I was I went through before I could certify just going to their class.
00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:31.679
I was the patient all the time, right?
00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:34.559
So it's that's how you get started into this things.
00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:46.000
And and obviously uh we look at firefighting in general, um, or emergency services in general, and a lot of times there is that family connection of some sort.
00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:49.679
Uh and we just all kind of follow down that path.
00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:53.039
It's kind of the destination, unfortunately, for Noah.
00:13:53.200 --> 00:14:03.360
He got stuck with those genes, and now he's doing a great job serving the community, but it also has the drawbacks of the first response life that we all learn to live with.
00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:04.320
I know.
00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:05.840
Hopefully.
00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.240
Now my family didn't come from that.
00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:12.399
I was kind of the oddball going into policing, which I was the oddball.
00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:21.279
I went to the Marine Corps, and my my grandfather was in the you know, in the army and served in World War II, and you know, I just looked up to him.
00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:24.240
I had some friends that went to the Marines and stuff, so that's the route I took.
00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:28.879
But I just don't see my son going that route too.
00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:32.080
I you know, I think I was just the Yeah, I don't think.
00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:34.240
I'm j it's funny.
00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:46.080
Maybe it's policing and just saw something, you know, that's like but fire seems like fire, and then you'll ask that your father, and and it's just his tradition.
00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:47.279
And I think more.
00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:48.399
And I think that's it.
00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:51.840
It is a tradition in the fire service you hear of more than anything.
00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:55.360
And I think it's just that adrenaline junkie piece in you.
00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.240
And it's no I mean, it's like law enforcement or anything else.
00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:00.240
We're all type A personalities.
00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:01.840
Now that's good and bad.
00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:02.480
Right.
00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:10.639
Uh it takes that kind of that eagerness to go forward, but we also have that edge that we tend to my way or the highway.
00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:14.240
And even with other first responders at times, right?
00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:21.600
I mean, we can we all probably have those situations where we the whole person they're helping us we fight with or whatever.
00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:26.080
That's the thing about it, is like we're gonna have to fight and get this out of the way again.
00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:36.000
That's the thing, it's the thing that you can do, is that you know, with everybody having that mentality, it's like, okay, let's have our words and then we'll shake and hug it out and we'll be done with it.
00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:37.120
And then go on.
00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:38.559
And you're good after that.
00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:44.240
Because they they're the ones who have your back on the next call, which could be right in the middle of the argument.
00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:48.720
I may be cussing you right now, but I know that you're gonna have a lot of people.
00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.039
I take my chair of blowing up almost to you.
00:15:54.320 --> 00:16:02.080
You know, we don't call you blow up, you get aggravated, you vet, because we're bad for that too.
00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:03.919
But I guess that's part of what we need to do.
00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:05.600
Yeah.
00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:13.919
Um getting it all, you know, and the people like, man, why are the police officers, why are firefighters so grumpy after or whatever?
00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:16.960
Well, we've had this pinned up aggression.
00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:19.200
Uh we've seen things that we shouldn't have seen.
00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:28.960
And sometimes letting that out doesn't because we're we're we are stubborn and we are we don't deal with it the right way sometimes.
00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:32.159
But I think that's our way of coping.
00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.080
And sometimes, you know, we may get into it with each other.
00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:42.159
However, I think all of us are adult enough to be like, I'm not gonna take too much offense to that.
00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:43.679
I can get older, I can get past it.
00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:44.399
And right.
00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:48.639
And I think that's part of the also goes with that's that sick sense of humor.
00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:54.799
Yes, guys, we truly have a sick sense of humor that you have to, and that's kind of your way of dealing with things, you know.
00:16:55.039 --> 00:17:05.119
Um when a group of people, whether it be police or fire, EMS or combination of all, go out to dinner, you're not exactly sure what the dinner topics are going to be around the table.
00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:11.839
And other people would probably just freak out at some of the things we talk about, but really that's a coping making isn't it?
00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:13.359
Yeah, funny everybody bonding.
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.039
Yeah, funny story about that one time.
00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:21.039
Me and J Mac and while I was working on um that interdiction team, memorize on that back in the day.
00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:30.799
We were sitting at Wendy's talking about going through the um psychological stuff at the going into police academy.
00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:36.160
And he was we was just talking about these stories, and I was like, it's untelling what we were saying.
00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:41.039
We we thought we were quiet, but you know how we are, we just we can't help it.
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:48.319
And these people we're getting we just start hearing them start laughing, just chuckling.
00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:56.559
And we were like, look over, she's like, You guys, that's the most fun and the most entertaining dinner we've ever like.
00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:04.000
We were just talking about the questions that were asking, like going through it in our head.
00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:07.039
This was like, Well, I'll be I'm definitely crazy.
00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:08.960
But they they laughed and carried on.
00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:12.559
I was like, I'm so glad we we didn't go down a different rabbit hole.
00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:14.640
But you know, you mentioned you mentioned that though.
00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:18.240
Uh yeah, definitely don't go down the wrong rabbit hole because they were listening too much.
00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:21.440
But but you mentioned about going out to eat as a group.
00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:23.359
That's also got its drawbacks.
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:24.559
Yeah, very much.
00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:30.880
Because many times those people working in those restaurants might have crossed your path somewhere outside of the restaurant.
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:43.920
We were we were at Frisch's and uh we were sitting there and one of the guys ordered a burger and it comes out and it's got a thumbprint right in the top of it.
00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:45.759
Right in the right in the bun.
00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:50.640
And what's in the thumbprint, just a short and curly, right in the middle of it.
00:18:50.720 --> 00:19:00.720
So somebody just plucked the pube and right then we were working EMS one night, and uh back in the day there wasn't a lot of places to eat at night.
00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:07.680
Y'all work night shift for a long time, but uh it wasn't the burger boy, uh, it was Perkins.
00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:11.279
And we we had gone out there and and that's kind of what we would do.
00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:14.400
Some we'd go one place or the other and sit back and wait, right?
00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:15.839
You know, this is 30 years ago.
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.400
Maybe it protected us that it's over with at this point.
00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:20.160
But Perkins has been gone a little while for that.
00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:21.119
A long time, yeah.
00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:27.920
So so we're sitting there and uh enjoying our meal and getting done, and we're just sitting around because that's kind of what you did.
00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:36.960
Uh we sat around and talked, and a guy walks out of the kitchen, he walks over to the person next to me and he says, You don't remember me, but I remember you.
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:40.400
This is not gonna end well.
00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:45.200
And he rattled out, said, I told you that day I'd get even.
00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:49.680
He said, I hope you enjoyed your hamburger on the cook, and he turned around and walked back to the kitchen.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:52.319
Uh at least y'all got tipped off a little.
00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:55.279
I mean, I didn't want to go puke somebody.
00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:57.279
I mean, that was just match.
00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:01.599
Even that it it makes me wonder how many, you know, logies or whatever you know.
00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:03.440
You've seen that movie Waiting?
00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:04.240
Have you ever seen it?
00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:05.039
Yes, yeah.
00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:06.880
I I'm sure that that goes on.
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:15.359
It's but we even now, like where I work now, though somebody'll come in and be like, well, it's not safe to go eat at Wendy's for a little while because you know we just arrested.
00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:19.920
So you share that with me.
00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:22.960
Just eat the customer.
00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:23.920
Just ask, yeah.
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:25.039
Just do what we do.
00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:27.200
Go all these, come back to the break room.
00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:32.880
It it's a shame though that you that you have to be alert and aware of that stuff.
00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:47.759
I mean, it it EMS or anybody, you're gonna cross these paths and you go into places that anytime you deal with public, you know, police takes away people's rights and then uh house them in you know in the jail, or what we take away their liberties, whatever.
00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:49.680
EMS, though.
00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:51.359
You didn't get there fast enough.
00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:52.559
You've it's your fault.
00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:53.200
Oh, yeah.
00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:54.559
We took your high away.
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.799
Yeah, that now we're allowed to be.
00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:01.119
That's a big yeah, we got to experience that when we started carrying our camp.
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:01.920
That was a lot of us.
00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:04.000
Are you coming up puking and fighting?
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:06.160
Or combination, yeah.
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:07.839
I mean, it's yeah.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:19.920
But now going back to the original the the history and how I got started, you know, and then um my wife, uh she also became an EMT and worked EMS.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:21.759
So she's too afraid to come on.
00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:24.480
Yeah, she's she's not a we could not talk green.
00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:25.680
I don't know how that worked.
00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:27.359
But she could have sat there and kept here.
00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:35.519
So that's you know, that even keeps it in the line of uh why Noah, now our daughter, uh, she flat out said nothing medical.
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:36.079
Nothing.
00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:38.480
No part, she's a school teacher, God help her.
00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:40.720
So uh you know I would say that worse.
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:45.759
She's an angel in her own in her own way, right there, in my mind anyway, yeah.
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:47.039
Uh getting to do that.
00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:58.240
But when when Heather was pregnant with Noah, um it was about the day before she went into the hospital to be induced, uh, we went on a rescue call.
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:03.200
It was a double fatality to teenagers, and Noah went as in the womb.
00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:07.359
Um unfortunately that was a terrible situation.
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:18.160
Noah was just a few days old and he ended up on a rescue call because some knucklehead was trying to steal Pepsi's out of a Pepsi machine and got his arm stuck.
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:24.240
So, you know, and Noah was just in in the just barely out of the womb at that point.
00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:27.759
So he he was he was glutton for punishment.
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:36.640
I mean, that's you know, and then of course, with uh our daughter being the second child, she didn't get exposed to all that, because by then Heather stayed home with Noah and her.
00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.119
So Well they're yeah, I mean they're predisposed.
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.200
I mean, you we it all it happened to all of us.
00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:45.759
You see, you see that lifestyle, you see what they do, and you look up to them and they're heroes.
00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:46.720
Yeah, I mean they're heroes.
00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:52.720
And hopefully that, you know we're law enforcement and you know, fire, and I mean not so much fire.
00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:59.279
I mean, fire can your house can burn down and you're still a hero, but it doesn't depend, you know.
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:05.279
You know, that's why police officers try to go in and do the firefighters' jobs before they get there.
00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:05.920
That's true.
00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:07.119
Because you want to be one.
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:08.000
That's exactly right.
00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:10.000
I I question my constituents.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:11.359
Firefighters pass the test.
00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:12.480
That's exactly right.
00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:22.319
What wasn't that uh they said the civil life.
00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:25.279
Yeah.
00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:31.680
But yeah, you you see it and you the I mean these kids see heroes, which I mean the media portrays a lot of different things.
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:37.680
But now it's a lot different than it was, you know, when I started, like I said, over thirty years ago.
00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.480
No one has to deal with and you all still active.
00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:48.559
I mean, as far as there's nothing you're gonna do that's gonna make all the public happy.
00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:50.960
No, you can't make everybody starters.
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.440
I pick up my phone with a camera and a video camera.
00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:55.680
Yeah.
00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:00.960
You know, uh it's portrayed as something it isn't a lot of times now.
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:13.680
When you've got a 10-second clip that doesn't show context of anything, you could it's but they show the cop or the the EMS worker smacking the person across the head to get them off of 'em because they're going to kill them if they don't, you know.
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:15.359
You don't get all that other part.
00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:19.599
Yeah, you you you miss the the the whole lead up to that.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:36.319
It it's so it's so tough because you all know that you're arriving on a scene where somebody may have drug problems, they may have all kinds of medical problems, they may have mental health issues, and we show up and we don't know these people.
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:44.319
And we're making all these decisions or trying to make, you know, come to a good um reasoning at that coffee pot back there.
00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:48.319
Uh just randomly goes all the way into the coming on.
00:24:50.160 --> 00:25:00.400
But they had well, you know, we go to these things, we're making these split second decisions with people's lives, and the and we don't know their family history of everything going on.
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:05.519
And we're trying to s solve this mysteries of that they can't get figured out.
00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:06.640
Basically.
00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:09.599
Seconds and minutes that's taken them years to get it.
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:10.160
Yes.
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:10.640
Yeah.
00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:18.799
And it's just a tough and you've got to fight being, you know, getting complacent because this may be your fifteenth call of the same thing that day.
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:21.359
Or you'll be the same person you go to a whole time.
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:28.079
But you've got to try and fight that and keep in mind that this is the worst, you know, maybe the worst day that they've ever had.
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:33.119
So it's you know, it's it's just Tuesday for us, but it's the worst, worst day they've ever had.
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:48.240
I remember going I don't know if I was in class or what it was, or somebody reminded me one time that little parking lot wreck, the one that we've worked thousands of, might be that person's first and the worst thing that's ever happened to them.
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:49.519
And they're over there freaking out.
00:25:50.160 --> 00:26:04.400
And their family as well, when they come screeching in to us you know we're over there like registration and all it's like same singing out the same song out of the songbook every time or whatever, you know.
00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:12.880
So that empathy and that's learning to deal and to show like some grace to people is so so hard.
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:13.680
It's hard.
00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:14.960
But yeah, you have to.
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:25.680
But you know, and I'll add that that was something that uh that I could learn a lot from my dad because uh anybody that knew dad knew he kind of w went above and beyond with people.
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:30.000
He very rarely did you ever see him get frustrated with people.
00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:33.359
I, on the other hand, normally start out frustrated.
00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:40.880
You know I'm ready to be frustrated.
00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:45.839
Well, he had all kinds of different things in his well, that's right.
00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:50.319
That's right, you know, and you know, being a school teacher and then a school principal.
00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:53.119
He was my assistant principal in high school.
00:26:53.359 --> 00:27:04.319
So that was uh I didn't do a whole lot of bad stuff in high school because he could have done anything to me in school that would have rival rivaled what he would have done at home.
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:14.799
So, you know, but uh, you know, you look at that and and people have spoken a lot about him that that was something that he he made a positive impact in their life.
00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:17.920
And I guess every one of us should strive to be more like that every day.
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:24.400
I saw on Facebook, did he have a birthday here or something that last Thursday was the fourth anniversary of his day.
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:37.759
Okay, so I saw him out, you know, you just remember those four how good he was, not you know legendary fire, you know, you know, police, all that stuff.
00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:44.000
Not to mention legendary, you know, with the school system here, and just it's man.
00:27:44.319 --> 00:27:48.319
We've lost he when he left, when he died, he he left a big holes.
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:52.559
He did, he did, and you don't realize what all somebody does until they're gone.
00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:53.440
Right.
00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:54.640
Oh, yeah.
00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:57.599
Everybody was like, hey, we need to do so and so.
00:27:57.759 --> 00:27:59.200
And they're like, well, he already took care of that.
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:01.519
Well, all right, we have to figure out how to do it now.
00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:05.039
So you know that's you take those things for granted while they're here.
00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:18.880
Well, while we were at our old church, Providence, when he passed away, everybody realized how much he'd done for the money and the attendance and the bulletins and the sound system.
00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:19.440
Yeah.
00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:31.440
And he did all that at church and he did equal with the fire department, you know, and it was like, uh now it takes two or three people to do each job that he did, you know, and I understand.
00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:35.279
Uh but no we talk about how good of a guy he was.
00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:42.000
Noah's got a video or an audio clip of him uh almost losing his religion on a f on a fire one night.
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:51.119
He drove in, and you know, uh it Terry Wattenberger's always the one to capture these good moments or bring out the best in us or something like that.
00:28:51.359 --> 00:29:05.119
Of course, Booger would I think Booger uh fed Noah with a an audio right here that this is dad pulling up on a fire scene, uh and just a lot of excitement occurs while he's trying to talk on the radio.
00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:14.319
So it And he's normally cool, calm, and collected, but backstory car fire about ten o'clock at night.
00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:15.680
In the middle of nowhere.
00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:18.559
Yeah, so probably stolen.
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:19.759
Probably, yeah.
00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:30.240
Well, little did we know this stolen vehicle quotation marks had about four or five propane tanks in the middle of the truck.
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:31.279
So no.
00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:37.440
You go up this little gravel road to a cemetery, and there's a vehicle fully involved.
00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:40.000
And you're walking up to an IED.
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:49.759
I've never heard him.
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:51.440
Yeah, he almost got him.
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:59.519
Everybody at the fire department or the rescue squad heard that.
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:02.960
And they were like, Did he already cuss on the radio?
00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:03.519
I said, No.
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:06.640
No, no, but he uh he lost his train of thought.
00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:07.519
You know what I mean?
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:09.920
Saying that we treat the best of us that did.
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:13.920
We got there and I said, You good?
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:17.119
And he said, buddy, I thought that thing was gonna blow up on me.
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:22.319
And then I said, Well, here's your core break, these propane things blowing up.
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:22.799
Yeah.
00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:24.480
Oh my gosh.
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:41.839
There was when he was working at the SO, he'd always do school traffic at Bush Elementary, and he was so OCD, and he would say, Well, I'm so CDO because he had to put it in alphabetical order.
00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:43.920
That's how he was.
00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:46.079
Is Troy like that too?
00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:46.640
I don't know.
00:30:49.519 --> 00:31:01.039
But every day you would know when he goes on scene at the school and when he's leaving, because an exact point is when he would go 9798.
00:31:01.279 --> 00:31:01.599
Yep.
00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:02.160
Always.
00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:02.960
Didn't miss that.
00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:05.200
And then it was like Phil Bernard took over.
00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:11.200
And it would be like on the like at least if I try to do something like that, it'd be on every five minutes.
00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:14.079
His would be like 723 or something.
00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:15.759
Because that's just that's him.
00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:16.880
That's what he did.
00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:18.160
That's the way he did it.
00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:20.319
I'm like, no, no, I can't do it.
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:22.480
Wow.
00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:23.599
Yeah.
00:31:23.759 --> 00:31:24.559
I'm missing.
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:27.359
I know how you almost it must be.
00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:28.319
Absolutely.
00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:47.440
But uh, you know, that's one of those things anytime you lose somebody that's important to you and has had an influence on your life, you just have to sit back and there's times you just have to relax and and those answers are in you, you know, it and and you've got those embedded in you, and that's just how you get through those things, you know.
00:31:47.519 --> 00:32:04.400
And and obviously he's a he was a very religious man, so I know that uh he's not suffering anymore, and that's the best way to think about that, to know that uh I could be selfish and wishing by care, but his rewards are a lot more than anything on this cruel world.
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:04.960
I know.
00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:10.160
So that's that's honestly what you have to that's how you have to get through the loss of somebody like that.
00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:10.880
Absolutely.
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:13.039
He's with his daddy and Susan.
00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:13.599
Yeah.
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:15.039
Yeah, that's right.
00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:15.359
Yeah.
00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:19.599
That was his girl, Susie Susie Q is Q.
00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:21.119
Yeah, man.
00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:25.920
I think that's something that we don't talk about enough is in this line of profession.
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:28.079
I mean, it just is is your faith.
00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:33.279
I mean, it's uh how important it is to have to have some kind of a faith.
00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:48.240
I mean you know, yeah, we we talk a lot and we're sponsored by great, you know, great company about with mental health, but really if you could tie the two, uh more importantly than anything is our faith.
00:32:48.400 --> 00:33:03.359
And not not just you know, with with everything that's happened this last couple weeks with Charlie and all this stuff, you start awakening you see these things, you're like, wow we need revival really badly.
00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:07.279
Absolutely, absolutely maybe happening, and it's really neat to see.
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:07.599
Yeah.
00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:11.839
You have to hope so anyway, and and you have to stay focused on those positives.
00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:23.039
And that was one of the things that um when dad first retired, he uh would transport prisoners, you know, to either to take them to prison or go pick them up somewhere or whatever.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:28.400
And uh he always listened to gospel music, so they got to listen to gospel music.
00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:30.319
So that was his ministry to them sometimes.
00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:31.599
But I bet he prayed for them.
00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:32.640
Oh, you know he did.
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:39.359
You know, and he would stop and I there's times I know he stopped and bought them cheeseburgers to feed them before he took them to prison.
00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:43.759
Here, enjoy your McDonald's cheeseburger before you go into prison or whatever.
00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:48.640
And those those are the things that I mean we can all have a little bit of ER in us and do a lot better.
00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:51.440
But he had people come back and tell him, Thank you.
00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:53.039
You're treated me like a human.
00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:53.359
Yeah.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:53.519
Right.
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:56.559
And um, I think sometimes we all kind of forget that.
00:33:56.960 --> 00:33:58.160
Yeah, we fall short a lot.
00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:04.160
I think we forget about we want justice a lot of time, we forget about the mercy side of it.
00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:16.559
And um it's easy to get jaded and not and not realize what type of opportunity you have and how many opportunities that you've had to to witness or do or do something in that that aspect.
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:28.719
And it's a really good spot when they're sitting in the back, you know, unless they're fighting to carry on, but in the back of that car, turning on the you know, the Christian music, the Kalos or whatever, and or just saying, Hey man, I'm I'm praying for you.
00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:30.159
Is there anything, you know, I've done it?
00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:33.199
And then there's times to feel that you can treat them like a human and then they'll work.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:33.519
Yeah.
00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:39.199
There's so many times though that you have to have that you've got to be that firm.
00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:50.960
And then we all get rough because it is that like Noah said you go to the same place over and over, or you get the same call over and over, but we don't know what they're going through at the time.
00:34:51.039 --> 00:34:56.400
And sometimes you can make a difference because they have no hope any other way of getting out of there and changing their ways.
00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:06.000
So maybe maybe w each time we can make a positive light, but we also tend to stop anymore.
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:11.119
And I guess that's the the bad part about being a first responder, is we put up those barriers.
00:35:11.679 --> 00:35:22.559
And we don't we almost you hate to say you don't care, but it's almost to the point that we put up those barriers so thick that we don't want in their mass.
00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:24.559
Yeah, we don't want to.
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:30.079
We don't need to show that personal side of us to them or vice versa.
00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:30.480
Yeah.
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:47.360
I and and you you know when you look at the stuff that we see and the stuff that we deal with, you you almost at the moment you can't live into that you know, that craziness that's occurring because it'll make you go eat nuts.
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:57.199
The walls we build because we've been we've seen the worst, we've seen people humanity it it's all you know, it's it's brokenness.
00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:03.599
And the walls we build a lot of times not just to protect us, but to keep you out.
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:09.760
And um those walls then transfer into our family.
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:16.480
Um and how many times um I got to hear you know Dan's testimony yesterday.
00:36:17.679 --> 00:36:18.719
I listened to it afterwards.
00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:29.599
And I was just like broken because I was sitting there listening to a man who, you know, and I'm like a lot of it hit home.
00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:30.400
Yeah, you're gonna be able to do that.
00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:32.639
You know, hit home.
00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:42.320
And and that's what I guess honestly to me that's one of the things that is the hardest for me is seeing Noah go right into the same stuff.
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:50.239
And you know, Noah's got several just calls that stand out that especially being on the rescue squad.
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:52.480
Because he's there with those things.
00:36:52.559 --> 00:37:00.960
He he works EMS, he's worked fire, he's still a volunteer firefighter, and then he's a volunteer rescue man, and he's going on those calls all the time.
00:37:01.119 --> 00:37:03.840
And just I mean, that stuff takes a toll on you, man.
00:37:03.920 --> 00:37:07.440
It Noah has seen stuff that No, no young man.
00:37:08.159 --> 00:37:08.800
How old are you now?
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:09.440
26.
00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:10.159
Yeah.
00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:10.800
You know?
00:37:11.039 --> 00:37:22.239
That's when I started, and he's already seen well, he's already but I mean the things that you've seen no young man should see, really, honestly.
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:26.960
You've seen more things than people that's been in some bad combat zones have seen.
00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:38.159
So you we And I think we're saying all this to make sure that you're trying to make sure that make sure it doesn't lay up on you, and you know, you've always got people to talk to.
00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:45.440
And I mean, I I think back as it even before I became a a full-fledged firefighter and responding.
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:50.639
And, you know, um one call that really sticks out to me was a girl that I went to school with.
00:37:50.719 --> 00:38:00.320
She was a couple years older than me, and it was her 16th birthday, and uh she was out with some friends and the car rolled over and she was trapped under it, and all that you could see was her feet.
00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:04.960
And I recognized her shoes because I rode the bus with her.
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:10.960
You know, and you see those things, and it's like those those things never disappear, right?
00:38:11.039 --> 00:38:12.079
They never disappear.
00:38:12.559 --> 00:38:13.360
We all have them.
00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:19.760
Uh, and and but you have to also think of the blessings that we've we've made a difference somewhere along the line.
00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:23.039
Um of the things we never know, the outcomes.
00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:28.960
I mean, Noah is like the king of finding bad stuff and putting them on helicopters, it seems like.
00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:33.440
But we think we don't know the difference we've made in those calls.
00:38:33.599 --> 00:38:36.079
You know, he never hears the the positive outcomes.
00:38:36.159 --> 00:38:39.440
Unfortunately, we hear the bad ones because they end up at the funeral home or something right now.
00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:43.599
That's the tough part of our line.
00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:46.880
You look, you know, you start looking at obituaries and be like, did they make it?
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:52.079
or or then you just become jaded and you don't even look.
00:38:52.159 --> 00:38:52.800
You don't even care.
00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:57.440
You know, it's not that you don't care, you just you don't want that constant reminder of things.
00:38:57.840 --> 00:38:58.239
Yeah.
00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:04.159
You know, Noah may not have it written down there or not, but Noah was the ambulance that responded when Logan got hit.
00:39:04.320 --> 00:39:04.800
Yeah.
00:39:05.039 --> 00:39:09.760
You know, those are those are times that we'll never forget.
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:16.400
Uh I'll never forget Noah calling me, telling me, and uh me looking at Heather and saying, I'll be back.
00:39:16.639 --> 00:39:20.639
I mean, you just leave and go to help him or help anybody else.
00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:23.039
Um, you're not prepared for those things.
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:23.199
No.
00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:24.480
None of us are.
00:39:24.880 --> 00:39:26.320
Because he's about your age, right?
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:27.760
I mean, just a little older.
00:39:28.079 --> 00:39:32.320
He's he was a couple years older than me, but we went to school together.
00:39:33.679 --> 00:39:37.840
I was so thankful that I was not working that night.
00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:42.400
That that I wasn't there, that I didn't see what everybody else saw.
00:39:43.360 --> 00:39:49.360
I it's like I tell everybody I said besides the tornado, I said that was the worst call I'd been on.
00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:49.599
Yeah.
00:39:49.760 --> 00:40:01.039
That's that's because really you want to help 'em, but in my line of work You also know that you know that there's really nothing you can do.
00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:08.079
And that was the hardest time telling your friends that he's gone.
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:08.800
Right.
00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:12.800
And I can still see everybody's faces.
00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:21.519
And some of them did get angry, but you know, but that's the response knew was coming.
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:28.960
Because a couple of them knew he was gone and some of them just couldn't accept it.
00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:36.719
And then later on, a couple of days later, even at his funeral, I had people come up to me saying, Dude, I'm so sorry for yelling at you.
00:40:37.039 --> 00:40:38.880
I'm like, dude, I it's fine.
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:42.639
And I'm sorry that we couldn't do nothing.
00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:43.679
I wanted to do something.
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:46.559
Grief and shock.
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:57.760
When it's a when it's a colleague and a friend or probably the worst thing that you can go through now.
00:40:58.159 --> 00:41:08.719
And it's hard on on our side as far as law enforcement to show up to something like that and not go straight into anger and then allow that to override.
00:41:13.039 --> 00:41:21.039
Then you've got to sit and wait and say, well, if we do something, something happens and we we ruin the investigation.
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:22.239
We ruin, you know.
00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:25.440
And that that one was that one was handled very professionally.
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:26.000
It was.
00:41:26.079 --> 00:41:26.239
I was.
00:41:26.559 --> 00:41:28.880
I mean, it could have been it could have gone a lot of other ways.
00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:30.719
I mean, there's there's no other way of putting it.
00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:32.559
No, yeah, it's there's no other way of putting it.
00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:33.119
It could have been a good thing.
00:41:33.280 --> 00:41:34.000
But it was handled well.
00:41:36.079 --> 00:41:38.639
And our justice has been searched, you know, because of that.
00:41:39.599 --> 00:41:42.960
Well, we yeah, it wasn't because I didn't want to.
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:43.519
No.
00:41:43.679 --> 00:41:44.960
I and that's understandable.
00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:51.760
And the hate and the um the anger was I mean, I could feel it.
00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:55.280
And I've never been that upset.
00:41:55.840 --> 00:41:57.679
I mean, I still had to go to counseling over it.
00:41:58.000 --> 00:41:59.199
And that's understandable.
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:07.360
Um but and it all, I mean, it started for me that year as far as a lot of things coming back.
00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:18.239
You know, you know, and I'm I talked about Dan already, but when Dan Smoot was telling this story, you know, and and everybody needs to listen to that at uh uh it was on Facebook in London, Kentucky.
00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:20.079
It's on their Facebook page.
00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:21.360
Absolutely.
00:42:21.440 --> 00:42:25.360
If you listen to our podcast, you definitely need to listen to his story.
00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:30.000
But when he was talking about some of the things in the car wreck in Breathett County.
00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:30.559
Yes.
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:33.039
Um right off the bat.
00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:50.320
But how many times have you closed your eyes at night and seen that that body, that person and I mean I've had I've had a 24-week gestation baby in my hands and done CPR on it that was born at home.
00:42:50.639 --> 00:42:54.880
And I'm talking from my wrist to my fingertips long.
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:59.599
And for people to say that, you know, these babies aren't humans is just ridiculous.
00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:00.719
I've seen those things.
00:43:00.800 --> 00:43:04.400
And those are things that are embedded in your mind that you can't forget.
00:43:04.719 --> 00:43:11.039
Um, you know, we lost when we lost dad, it was a a medical uh line of duty death.
00:43:11.119 --> 00:43:15.280
He's classified as a national line of duty death in fire and EMS.
00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:18.480
And um, you know, Travis in the same way.
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:24.880
You all had to deal with two line of duty deaths within a year in the PD.
00:43:25.920 --> 00:43:32.239
Totally different circumstances, but each one leaves a void that is just it you can't replace those people.
00:43:32.480 --> 00:43:43.519
I tell you this, and I I don't know if I've talked about this on on on this, but I'll tell you when I was when I was in the therapy session, Logan's devastated me.
00:43:43.599 --> 00:43:44.559
Don't get me wrong.
00:43:46.400 --> 00:43:52.159
But I kept going, I couldn't get past my grief with Travis because I hadn't dealt with it right.
00:43:53.039 --> 00:43:59.760
So I had to get through that hours worth before I could even talk about Logan because I kept I kept going here.
00:43:59.920 --> 00:44:01.840
I was not a good friend that I should have been.
00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:05.039
I was a lot of this guilt that had built up in me.
00:44:05.760 --> 00:44:08.159
And realistically, there was absolutely nothing.
00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:11.360
And I mean, we went through that, you know, we went through that with dad.
00:44:11.599 --> 00:44:14.480
The night mom called me and said, Your dad's having breathing trouble.
00:44:14.559 --> 00:44:15.760
We knew he was COVID positive.
00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:16.719
I was too at the time.
00:44:16.880 --> 00:44:19.280
Heather had locked me in the bedroom for a week.
00:44:19.519 --> 00:44:25.199
Uh and I had actually gone out to mow dad's yard that day, and I walked in his house and he looked at me and he said, What are you doing here?
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:26.639
And I said, I had to get out of the house.
00:44:26.719 --> 00:44:27.280
I'm feeling better.
00:44:27.440 --> 00:44:28.159
He said, Are you sure?
00:44:28.239 --> 00:44:30.159
And I said, Yeah, I think I could walk to Manchester.
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:32.559
They live about halfway between London and Manchester.
00:44:33.039 --> 00:44:34.559
He said, Well, I don't think you need to do that.
00:44:34.719 --> 00:44:36.239
I said, No, but I think I'll mow your yard.
00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:39.119
And he said, Well, you won't do it to suit me, don't do it.
00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:40.480
I told you.
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:45.840
I still mowing the yard today, and I know every time I'm mowing, I'm not doing it to suit him.
00:44:46.239 --> 00:44:51.119
But you know, so when mom called me that night and said, Hey, your dad's having trouble breathing.
00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:53.199
Um, I said, I'm on my way.
00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:54.400
Noah's working.
00:44:54.559 --> 00:44:56.239
Noah transported him to the hospital.
00:44:57.119 --> 00:45:00.960
So, you know, I mean, those are just things, like I said, Noah's had some blows.
00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:01.760
I mean, he really has.
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:06.960
He hauled dad his last trip to the hospital and he worked the the accident involving Logan.
00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:10.719
I mean, those are just things realistically that will lay.
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:14.559
And he's 26 years old, and I'm thinking, you know, I'm an old man.
00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:17.039
But uh those things lay on you.
00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:18.559
Uh you're not that old.
00:45:18.719 --> 00:45:35.360
Come on, but it's something nobody should go through because three o'clock in the morning I'm asleep at work and my phone starts ringing, and you see dad pop up, and you're like, that's not good.
00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:39.840
And the first thing he says is, Come get your pa right now.
00:45:40.639 --> 00:45:41.519
I said, What's wrong?
00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:46.880
And he said, His oxygen levels are critically low, and you need to come out here.
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:56.320
So, you know, I mean that's and then the the the deal with with Travis, I know exactly I mean, we went through that, and you think, man, what could I have done differently?
00:45:56.880 --> 00:46:12.480
You know Should uh you know all the missed opportunities of calling and the the what you know when we was patrolling together and the going over to this house, watching football games to you know, we got our family started getting you know older and we you know life happens.
00:46:12.719 --> 00:46:13.280
Life happens.
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:14.320
Absolutely.
00:46:14.639 --> 00:46:19.199
Go from being buddies all the time to just work buddies when you're working together and you're like, man.
00:46:19.679 --> 00:46:31.280
You know, you feel what missed opportunities about you miss a lot of those things, but but we have to dwell on the good times that we had, not right, not the missed opportunities, but we hope to fix those with other people.
00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:31.760
Yeah.
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:33.440
And that's that's where we're at.
00:46:33.519 --> 00:46:38.000
And and you know, Dylan, you mentioned the the faith.
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:42.719
Um the faith side of it is something that a lot of hard shell people just don't want to deal with, right?
00:46:42.880 --> 00:46:54.239
I mean, we again we put up those barriers and you don't want to seem weak or whatever, but uh I'll be honest, uh, I don't know how anybody without faith could have made it through some of these things that we've made it through.
00:46:54.880 --> 00:46:59.679
We joke a lot and say that you know there's some things that only me and Jesus know, but I mean that's true.
00:46:59.920 --> 00:47:00.320
That's very true.
00:47:00.559 --> 00:47:01.840
That's truly true, you know.
00:47:02.159 --> 00:47:13.920
And and you hope that you have that close enough relationship to get that peace and comfort because otherwise I I I'm not strong enough, I'll admit it, to make make it through this old cruel world on my own.
00:47:14.079 --> 00:47:15.760
I mean I need help.
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:16.400
Yeah.
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:37.199
I'm just I'm just one of the things I've learned I lost a buddy I was in the Marines with, and then with Travis, and with Logan, with with different people that we we we know that have gone on, is if somebody crosses your mind, reach out.
00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:38.480
That's what I've learned.
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:39.119
I will call.
00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:40.320
I don't even text anymore.
00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:44.400
I'm uh you Dylan knows I'm not a I'm not much a texture because I'm usually riding around.
00:47:44.480 --> 00:47:44.639
Yeah.
00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:48.559
And I will call if that you know, if I'm like, I need to check on.
00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:55.840
And it's I'm like, so if you get random phone calls you cross my mind, and I just I just want to say hello.
00:47:56.159 --> 00:47:59.840
But you don't know you don't know what put that thought in your mind, you know.
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:01.679
And that's that's the thing, Spook.
00:48:01.920 --> 00:48:07.280
Because I I too too many missed opportunities to call my buddy Todd, you know.
00:48:07.360 --> 00:48:10.719
I'm like, you know, it crossed my mind, I didn't call Todd.
00:48:10.800 --> 00:48:12.159
It's close to the Marine Corps birthday.
00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:14.239
I need to give him a shout or something, and then not.
00:48:14.400 --> 00:48:17.599
And then you get a weird phone call from Flint, Michigan.
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:18.800
You're like, I better take that.
00:48:18.880 --> 00:48:20.079
That's because that's where you live.
00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:28.000
And then you know, his sister's like, hey, he got killed in a car wreck, and I'm like, ah I mean that one you know, and we only knew it's weird.
00:48:28.239 --> 00:48:29.280
Knew each other.
00:48:29.679 --> 00:48:32.239
We'll we lived together for about two and a half years is it.
00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:34.880
But lifelong friend.
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:37.119
You know, it's just something that's brotherhood.
00:48:37.280 --> 00:48:44.559
Yeah, it is in in states and mileage and distance does not you know once that brotherhood's made, it's there.
00:48:45.519 --> 00:48:51.440
I was in Canada last week and uh at a firefighter conference.
00:48:51.599 --> 00:48:56.960
Um and uh part of my job I'm the the state training director for the fire service.
00:48:57.360 --> 00:49:10.159
And um this conference was you know, the 50 states, there's 49 uh participating states, and then uh we have membership from I think five of the 13 provinces in Canada.
00:49:10.400 --> 00:49:16.719
And so several of those people were there, but you know, we see each other maybe twice a year.
00:49:17.039 --> 00:49:27.039
You know, we talk or we do a a Zoom meeting once a month or something, and it's a lot of the same stuff, but there was a lot of hugs exchanged before we left, you know.
00:49:27.119 --> 00:49:28.639
I mean, and that's that's what you do.
00:49:28.719 --> 00:49:38.480
That's it's that it's that family that's not blood that you have, and those are the things that, like you said, when you think about those people, you gotta reach out to them.
00:49:39.039 --> 00:49:43.440
Uh it's a common bond that brings you together, and and it's so important.
00:49:43.760 --> 00:49:45.119
I know what you got now.
00:49:45.199 --> 00:49:46.559
I'm gonna switch gears just a second.
00:49:46.719 --> 00:49:47.119
Let's go.
00:49:47.679 --> 00:49:49.840
The fire, you remember me and you had to do this.
00:49:50.159 --> 00:49:51.440
I went up with Buddy Blair.
00:49:51.760 --> 00:49:58.639
Well, they had it at the model, at model, some not model, some magnet school in Lexington.
00:49:59.199 --> 00:50:04.880
They had this fire show, like with this training from I I think I think it was y'all's organization.
00:50:05.280 --> 00:50:06.000
The state fire school.
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:07.119
We had the guard though.
00:50:07.280 --> 00:50:12.480
Yeah, we had the guard that contracted out, and we was up there guarding, and me and Buddy was out there all night long.
00:50:14.079 --> 00:50:17.440
That was a billing goes, and it wasn't quite the same night for real.
00:50:17.840 --> 00:50:18.000
No.
00:50:18.800 --> 00:50:27.760
So I'm sitting there and I'm I'm in their little L4 car, and this is an armed, you know, dude, because there's four six hours worth of equipment.
00:50:28.159 --> 00:50:29.199
It's not a real good neighborhood.
00:50:29.440 --> 00:50:30.480
No, it's a terrible neighborhood.
00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:32.079
I know that's going to be a good thing.
00:50:32.239 --> 00:50:35.280
But it was me and Buddy, so we we had we had two good engines.
00:50:36.639 --> 00:50:37.760
I'm sitting here by myself.
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:41.440
It's like, you know, dark for me, whatever, whatever time it was.
00:50:41.599 --> 00:50:45.760
I've got the windows down, the lights are off, I'm just, you know, watching my YouTube, you know.
00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:48.239
So there I see a car comes by.
00:50:48.400 --> 00:50:50.159
I said, huh, well, that's odd.
00:50:50.400 --> 00:50:53.679
And then it comes back by and turns down the lane.
00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:58.639
Well, I'm backed in to a dead end right next to the to the dumpsters.
00:50:58.880 --> 00:51:03.280
So it keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming, and noses right up to me.
00:51:03.519 --> 00:51:05.280
I can't see because their lights are on.
00:51:05.360 --> 00:51:08.880
I can't see how you know how many times it's occupied or anything or who's in it.
00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:13.199
And at this point, you're you're policing goes in the phone with a standard security guy.
00:51:13.519 --> 00:51:15.280
I'm like, this is this is odd.
00:51:15.440 --> 00:51:20.079
So I so I just sit there and nobody gets out yet.
00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:23.679
So I lean out, nothing say, hey.
00:51:24.239 --> 00:51:25.519
Nobody says anything.
00:51:25.679 --> 00:51:38.159
So I was like, all right, so I just draw down, step out the car, and they so I don't know if they seen that car and thought that you know maybe it'd be something easy to break into with no lights on, but it was I still don't know.
00:51:38.880 --> 00:51:39.920
You was about to get robbed.
00:51:40.400 --> 00:51:41.920
Yeah, I was about to get kidnapped.
00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:45.280
I appreciate your due diligence of protecting assets.
00:51:47.039 --> 00:51:53.840
You're one of the I knew that was not a not a real good neighborhood, though.
00:51:54.239 --> 00:52:03.920
If you went in bound a little bit into Lexington, I think when we when we actually started talking about iron them, but they said, yeah, this probably should be an iron detail.
00:52:04.559 --> 00:52:04.800
Yeah.
00:52:05.360 --> 00:52:05.760
Good thing.
00:52:05.920 --> 00:52:07.039
It's just not the same.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:08.719
Now me and Buddy had no problems.
00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:12.480
We sit there and walked around and watched you know Netflix.
00:52:13.039 --> 00:52:18.159
Now it it very well could have been somebody coming in there to just tell it he and she in over there.
00:52:21.360 --> 00:52:23.199
I was like, I ain't taking no chances on this.
00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:25.119
But there's some crazy guys.
00:52:26.239 --> 00:52:26.960
What's it got?
00:52:27.840 --> 00:52:29.920
Oh, Crystal Mantheny coming out of that.
00:52:32.400 --> 00:52:36.000
Yeah, that's that's just uh that's you never know what's next.
00:52:36.239 --> 00:52:36.400
Yeah.
00:52:37.119 --> 00:52:39.519
How long have you been with been with the fire service?
00:52:39.760 --> 00:52:43.519
I worked with the fire commission since uh 06 full time.
00:52:43.679 --> 00:52:43.840
Yeah.
00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:51.599
And then I've been the director since uh well, it's 10 years and uh it'll be 10 years Wednesday that I've been the director.
00:52:51.679 --> 00:52:58.480
So uh I joke our main office is in Paris, so I joke with everybody that I commute from London to Paris.
00:52:59.360 --> 00:53:02.800
So that's kind of my that's kind of my joke of things.
00:53:03.119 --> 00:53:06.960
I'll be talking with Noah and he'll say he's getting ready to go out of town.
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:11.440
I say, well, the traffic will back up here and there because you know I drive it every day.
00:53:11.599 --> 00:53:15.119
So those are handy.
00:53:15.360 --> 00:53:17.599
Yeah, but it's bad for me.
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:20.079
We know what time not to leave.
00:53:20.639 --> 00:53:30.079
Uh if you if you're trying to get to Danville from London, there's only one real good way, and it's you might get behind a tractor.
00:53:30.320 --> 00:53:31.519
Yes, or an ometry.
00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:33.360
I mean, yeah, you just don't know.
00:53:33.519 --> 00:53:36.719
And but so you kinda gotta know you gotta get there before.
00:53:37.280 --> 00:53:43.119
There's a there's a five or ten minute window that can make all the difference in the world on those type of commutes, you know.
00:53:43.360 --> 00:53:44.239
Uh when you drive.
00:53:44.320 --> 00:53:47.519
But uh but you know, driving, you get a lot of time to reflect and think.
00:53:47.679 --> 00:53:49.599
And I listen to a lot of podcasts.
00:53:49.920 --> 00:53:51.840
Yeah, we're glad to help you on that.
00:53:53.039 --> 00:53:53.920
I I do too.
00:53:54.159 --> 00:53:56.480
Listen to a lot of podcasts, listen a lot of books now.
00:53:57.199 --> 00:54:01.039
I mean, I've I I'm like, I've left listen to every song on the radio, the ones I like.
00:54:01.519 --> 00:54:01.679
Yeah.
00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:04.639
Uh I have discovered I really like Jackson Brown now.
00:54:04.880 --> 00:54:07.039
And I'm like, I didn't know.
00:54:07.920 --> 00:54:08.559
You never know.
00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:09.119
There you go.
00:54:09.280 --> 00:54:11.440
No, it's another trying to we got there, though.
00:54:11.599 --> 00:54:12.719
Well, I know you got a lot.
00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:14.960
Uh three three pages here.
00:54:15.199 --> 00:54:22.639
Uh well, so I joined the Bush Fire Department in 2013 as a junior.
00:54:22.960 --> 00:54:25.840
So was it 15 now?
00:54:25.920 --> 00:54:26.159
Yeah.
00:54:26.400 --> 00:54:28.239
Instead of 14 when I started.
00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:29.119
Yep.
00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:34.880
Um started in 2013, stayed all the way up until I turned 18.
00:54:35.039 --> 00:54:39.920
And uh I was his SRO at the time.
00:54:40.559 --> 00:54:41.679
You didn't want me to say old.
00:54:45.039 --> 00:54:48.719
Uh so stayed on it.
00:54:48.880 --> 00:54:50.239
I'm still on it, Bush.
00:54:50.719 --> 00:54:59.920
Uh my first fire department job was part-time at London, not long after I graduated.
00:55:00.480 --> 00:55:03.599
And joined the rescue squad about the same time.
00:55:03.920 --> 00:55:06.159
No, I even worked part-time at Danville for a little while.
00:55:06.239 --> 00:55:07.280
So worked at Danville.
00:55:07.440 --> 00:55:07.519
Yeah.
00:55:07.679 --> 00:55:09.199
I don't know what to do with all of you.
00:55:09.280 --> 00:55:10.400
These London people in Danville.
00:55:10.639 --> 00:55:11.440
Hey, they're good to us.
00:55:13.199 --> 00:55:15.119
I just wish we could just get a little closer.
00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:36.480
We uh and then uh so I joined I went full-time at London in 2019, but due to some politic and stuff, I technically was full-time in 2018 and stayed at London till 2020 full-time.
00:55:36.559 --> 00:55:38.719
And then I started EMS.
00:55:39.840 --> 00:55:40.559
Been there since.
00:55:40.880 --> 00:55:46.960
Was you on the first, you know, when the when London started doing the full-time fire?
00:55:47.199 --> 00:55:48.320
Was that was you in that class?
00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:56.880
I was uh I think I was a junior or sophomore in high school when uh all them guys got hired for the first shift.
00:55:57.199 --> 00:55:57.760
Joey and all them.
00:55:58.000 --> 00:55:58.159
Yeah.
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:01.039
But now you were one of the first ones on the third shift, right?
00:56:02.960 --> 00:56:04.400
When I got hired, the third one.
00:56:04.719 --> 00:56:14.880
They originally they used to have an A and B shift, and then C shift would be well, you can stay the night and run fire calls, which was what I would do.
00:56:15.679 --> 00:56:22.800
And four of us got hired, and only two of 'em are still there now.
00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:24.800
That happens.
00:56:25.039 --> 00:56:25.599
Yeah.
00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:35.119
But um just things have changed in the last couple years for good and bad.
00:56:35.760 --> 00:56:36.639
But that's everywhere.
00:56:36.960 --> 00:56:37.679
But it's different.
00:56:38.480 --> 00:56:45.119
With having experience in both fire and EMS, which profession do you prefer?
00:56:47.519 --> 00:56:48.159
Neither.
00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:59.519
I'm crazy enough that I like EMS better, but I s I can go fight fire all the time if I want to, volunteer-wise.
00:57:00.639 --> 00:57:05.920
And some people don't want to do EMS, and I understand why.
00:57:06.239 --> 00:57:08.400
Because I've seen on both perspectives.
00:57:09.840 --> 00:57:12.079
To me, that's a lot of responsibility, EMS.
00:57:12.159 --> 00:57:17.920
I don't know it's something that I would want to do because you're you're responsible for a life at that at that point in time.
00:57:18.079 --> 00:57:19.920
I mean, that's that's a lot of responsibility.
00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:26.719
I mean, as law enforcement, I'm just responsible for I mean, I can be responsible for lives, but it's not directly.
00:57:30.960 --> 00:57:32.480
Somebody get us an ambulance.
00:57:33.039 --> 00:57:33.679
Yeah.
00:57:34.159 --> 00:57:37.840
And it's like working EMS with you all.
00:57:38.719 --> 00:57:46.559
You can hear the I can listen to the P D and SO on my radio and be like, well, uh, that's gonna be incarceratis.
00:57:46.800 --> 00:57:52.239
The shoplifter at Walmart or Oh, you would be yeah, you would be surprised how often that happens, but you all know.
00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:56.559
I mean, that or the the homeless guy that we've talked into having chest pains.
00:57:57.119 --> 00:58:02.239
Yeah, and it seems like if you let Burger King at three o'clock in the morning have chest pains for some reason.
00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:08.159
It just so happens that law enforcement got called because he was hanging out because he missed his bus or something.
00:58:08.960 --> 00:58:10.800
Then all of a sudden he has chest pains.
00:58:11.039 --> 00:58:11.360
Yeah.
00:58:11.679 --> 00:58:13.679
Allergic to allergic to brace feeds.
00:58:14.639 --> 00:58:15.440
That's yeah.
00:58:15.760 --> 00:58:16.320
Happens.
00:58:16.559 --> 00:58:17.199
Yeah.
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:25.039
Um when I was working at Danville, we had a fire at one of the plants on the parkway or the bypass.
00:58:26.320 --> 00:58:26.960
Yeah.
00:58:27.199 --> 00:58:30.719
Uh it was where they printed newspapers or something.
00:58:31.119 --> 00:58:39.599
And uh one of the assembly lines, the oil caught on fire, so the whole thing was burning.
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:48.000
And when I was still doing my recruit class, they said they got a big fire down here at one of the plants, and we're going.
00:58:48.079 --> 00:58:50.079
So I was like, oh, okay, get there.
00:58:50.159 --> 00:58:52.239
And they're like, go in there and relieve them.
00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:52.800
All right.
00:58:53.119 --> 00:58:53.519
Wow.
00:58:55.280 --> 00:58:56.559
I was like, seriously.
00:58:57.360 --> 00:58:58.960
That is seriously trial by fire.
00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:02.880
I mean the firefighter long, so this is like whoa.
00:59:03.599 --> 00:59:06.000
Didn't we just have didn't Bordens just have something?
00:59:06.320 --> 00:59:09.679
So I was actually going into work when that happened.
00:59:09.920 --> 00:59:14.960
That's always good when you're breaking eight.
00:59:16.239 --> 00:59:23.599
So I live off 5th Street, and I'm just a rock throw over the hill to the ambulance service.
00:59:23.760 --> 00:59:25.760
So I take my time going to work.
00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:28.719
And whoever's listening, you know this.
00:59:30.400 --> 00:59:31.840
When you wake up, you're 10 8.
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:32.400
I mean you're right.
00:59:32.719 --> 00:59:34.480
He's gonna do his 24 hours, so yeah.
00:59:36.480 --> 00:59:46.880
So I was getting ready and my radio went off, and we have the active 911, and my phone starts going nuts, and I was like, oh, it's probably a 46 or something.
00:59:47.039 --> 00:59:53.199
Well, I see explosion, and I noticed the address, and I was like, Borden's just blew up.
00:59:53.679 --> 00:59:56.079
And everybody's going by signal nine.
00:59:56.239 --> 00:59:59.679
Well, I get to work and I start listening to the radio, and they're like, Yeah.
01:00:00.159 --> 01:00:06.559
We got about four patients over here burned and we got one that's leg's broke and I'm like what happened?
01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:10.800
Well the crews that went didn't come back.
01:00:11.440 --> 01:00:15.199
They got exposed to the acid.
01:00:15.840 --> 01:00:16.400
Oh no.
01:00:16.639 --> 01:00:17.280
Yes.
01:00:17.599 --> 01:00:21.440
So there was there was things going on.
01:00:21.679 --> 01:00:33.920
Um apparently some contractors were working on some barrels, moving them, and it had acid in it, and some of the chemicals that you don't mix with acid were right next to it.
01:00:34.079 --> 01:00:37.280
So one plus one equals explosion.
01:00:38.320 --> 01:00:42.639
And I'm glad none of that happened while we were doing their access control.
01:00:44.239 --> 01:00:48.079
But that's that just shows you how quickly things can change, you know.
01:00:48.239 --> 01:00:48.639
Yeah.
01:00:48.960 --> 01:00:50.239
Because what else do you?
01:00:50.320 --> 01:00:51.519
I mean, you have growth.
01:00:52.480 --> 01:00:53.119
Oh Lord.
01:00:54.880 --> 01:00:56.079
So you got the rescue.
01:00:56.239 --> 01:01:01.119
I mean, you got I could imagine at 26 years old the closet.
01:01:01.280 --> 01:01:02.239
You've had to go a little bit.
01:01:02.480 --> 01:01:02.880
Oh man.
01:01:02.960 --> 01:01:04.800
So yeah, let's let's get into some.
01:01:05.039 --> 01:01:06.320
We've got the background down.
01:01:06.559 --> 01:01:09.519
Let's get into some some of the good stuff here.
01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:19.840
So before I became a junior, I was with dad, and they patched out a 46 on Tomcat Trail.
01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:26.400
So we went to this wreck, not knowing what was going on, pulled up.
01:01:26.639 --> 01:01:30.000
There's a guy dead laying outside of this pickup truck.
01:01:30.480 --> 01:01:36.960
And come to find out, these two boys have been drinking, been raining, terrible combination.
01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:40.800
They ran off the side of the road and one of them had his window down.
01:01:41.039 --> 01:01:45.679
He went right out the window and his head made contact with the tree, killed him.
01:01:46.639 --> 01:01:47.519
Jeez, OP.
01:01:47.840 --> 01:01:53.280
So that was my first experience being old enough to understand it.
01:01:55.920 --> 01:01:56.800
No, it was for Bush.
01:01:56.960 --> 01:01:57.440
For Bush.
01:01:57.760 --> 01:01:58.400
Yeah.
01:01:58.800 --> 01:02:02.400
I remember my very first 46 I ever worked.
01:02:02.639 --> 01:02:14.880
Because it was weird because I spent this whole time on night shift and uh, you know, training and like I had Josh Gaylor and Mike Holiday and Hoghead were my training, you know, pretty much the whole time.
01:02:14.960 --> 01:02:19.119
And somehow I kept avoiding or not getting 46s.
01:02:19.679 --> 01:02:22.000
I was like, yeah, I don't know how to work one.
01:02:22.079 --> 01:02:25.119
You know, it happens when you don't answer the record.
01:02:26.639 --> 01:02:28.159
I was gonna start this one time.
01:02:28.559 --> 01:02:29.119
No, no, no, no.
01:02:29.360 --> 01:02:30.239
I was like, oh, okay.
01:02:31.360 --> 01:02:36.480
But they said uh they were like uh doing my first one was a fatal.
01:02:36.559 --> 01:02:38.480
You know, it was uh out there past the middle school.
01:02:38.559 --> 01:02:40.559
We went out to help the sheriff's office on.
01:02:40.719 --> 01:02:42.960
We was right there at it.
01:02:43.519 --> 01:02:55.519
And um I think it was Joe Smith, which was another sergeant, but uh, we went out there and and I started taking all my because they were upside down in the creek, and I was like, I'm not gonna get my leather y'all.
01:02:55.760 --> 01:02:57.360
Yeah, I start seeing people just jump in.
01:02:57.760 --> 01:02:59.360
I was like, man, I'm such a jerk.
01:03:01.599 --> 01:03:02.880
It's like, oh my gosh.
01:03:03.039 --> 01:03:05.519
But that was my first one, was a was a fatal.
01:03:05.679 --> 01:03:09.599
And um I it's you still see them.
01:03:09.840 --> 01:03:10.239
It's weird.
01:03:10.559 --> 01:03:10.880
Yeah.
01:03:11.119 --> 01:03:12.800
And those are the things that you don't forget.
01:03:13.519 --> 01:03:17.119
No, my first extrication was uh fatal.
01:03:17.280 --> 01:03:17.519
Yeah.
01:03:17.760 --> 01:03:23.599
We had a drunk driver on East 80 go into the wrong lane and hit a coal truck head on.
01:03:23.840 --> 01:03:24.559
Oh gosh.
01:03:24.719 --> 01:03:25.280
Yeah.
01:03:25.599 --> 01:03:27.760
I I I used to get so nervous.
01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:32.480
East 80s, them straight stretches and stuff just freaked me out down there.
01:03:32.719 --> 01:03:39.679
And I remember I used to deliver packages for FedEx going to going out to Somerset, so West 80.
01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:48.719
And about the time I was delivering about that, one of them crossed the trying to pass and hit somebody head on right there, and got split a car in half.
01:03:48.800 --> 01:03:52.719
And I'm like, it just freaked me out to drive, you know, that road still.
01:03:52.880 --> 01:04:00.800
And I I mean I was I wasn't even involved, never even seen it, but uh, you know, I worked uh I worked a partial decapitation on West 80 early one morning.
01:04:01.119 --> 01:04:04.880
I mean, just just the things, you know, those are the things you remember.
01:04:05.119 --> 01:04:05.280
Yeah.
01:04:05.440 --> 01:04:08.639
It's like Noah standing out here in the parking lot going, I've been to that house.
01:04:09.679 --> 01:04:14.079
I mean I was gonna ask you, you know, you're young enough to remember all these calls.
01:04:14.320 --> 01:04:16.400
We've we've answered so many I forget them.
01:04:16.880 --> 01:04:32.960
But I mean, you can drive from from London up here to East Bernstead, and you can be like, that was a 46 year, I remember this, you know, right here at this intersection at you know 490 and and unfortunately it's you don't get rid of.
01:04:33.039 --> 01:04:37.920
I mean, there's there's more places that you remember having a response to than not.
01:04:39.679 --> 01:04:44.480
And you know addresses now that they're just burned into your memory.
01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:49.360
I can't remember phone numbers anymore, but I know I write spite off certain addresses, you know.
01:04:49.920 --> 01:04:52.079
Well that that's what I was telling Travis today.
01:04:52.239 --> 01:04:56.559
I said I was a much better officer here because I knew all the stuff, all the little stuff.
01:04:56.800 --> 01:05:01.599
Up up where I'm at now, it's kind of like I'm kind of like a ball lost in high weeds.
01:05:01.760 --> 01:05:02.880
I just go where they tell me to go.
01:05:02.960 --> 01:05:03.440
I don't really know.
01:05:04.159 --> 01:05:09.119
Don't you think there's a benefit to not absolutely responding to your community every day?
01:05:10.159 --> 01:05:10.880
That's a good point.
01:05:11.199 --> 01:05:12.719
Noah talks about all that stuff.
01:05:12.960 --> 01:05:26.559
He hogged, you know, he hauled his grandpa, but over there, you can detach detached and completely impartial, and I can hand you know handle a call there a lot differently than I might.
01:05:26.639 --> 01:05:28.639
There's things that aren't going on in the back of my head.
01:05:28.719 --> 01:05:34.960
Like what's you know I've talked to a lot of what are the political dangers of responders over that, and they they they talk about that.
01:05:35.039 --> 01:05:43.840
That there's a lot of difference because you know you mentioned you get called to a car wreck and it's the area you live in, you're thinking the whole way there, is it somebody I know?
01:05:45.039 --> 01:05:45.199
Yeah.
01:05:45.360 --> 01:05:51.840
When you start checking my three cents, it's Navy or Lexington or wherever, there's a whole lot less likelihood that it's being somebody you know.
01:05:52.159 --> 01:05:53.840
It's a lot easier to provide my job.
01:05:54.159 --> 01:05:55.760
There's some advantages to that.
01:05:56.079 --> 01:05:56.400
Yep.
01:05:56.639 --> 01:05:57.280
Yeah.
01:05:58.159 --> 01:05:59.360
Let's hear some more.
01:05:59.599 --> 01:06:00.320
You got them.
01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:01.360
Oh boy.
01:06:01.599 --> 01:06:04.159
Um, let me think here.
01:06:05.199 --> 01:06:07.519
I got so many calls.
01:06:07.760 --> 01:06:13.280
Um, I'm trying trying to keep the bad ones to a minimum.
01:06:13.440 --> 01:06:14.800
I'm trying to think of some funny ones.
01:06:15.039 --> 01:06:18.960
It's easy for us to remember the bad ones, but it's it's really hard.
01:06:19.119 --> 01:06:24.559
Like I was asking people the other day, I was like, do y'all have any funny stories if you're with me?
01:06:25.039 --> 01:06:28.719
Well, that's they sound like you've just been had a lot of tragedies.
01:06:29.199 --> 01:06:29.519
Oh man.
01:06:29.760 --> 01:06:35.360
Luckily, when I first started in the you know, law enforcement, everybody told me they said, keep a journal, keep a journal.
01:06:35.519 --> 01:06:36.400
I was like, Well, that's silly.
01:06:36.559 --> 01:06:38.960
Well, now I'm kind of glad that I did write some of the stuff down.
01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:41.679
I think everybody started a new job show.
01:06:41.840 --> 01:06:42.480
Yeah, absolutely.
01:06:42.639 --> 01:06:44.320
Keep a journal of crazy stuff to see.
01:06:44.639 --> 01:06:47.119
Somebody's like, well, keep a journal though, indict you'll know though.
01:06:48.239 --> 01:06:54.400
But really, you you you can write down a couple little things to remind you of of something that happened.
01:06:54.559 --> 01:06:58.079
And I wish, and I probably was one that told you, like, hey, make sure you write some stuff down.
01:06:58.320 --> 01:06:59.199
Because it's not all bad.
01:07:00.400 --> 01:07:04.239
We've talked about some depressing things, but it's not all bad.
01:07:04.320 --> 01:07:19.920
Yeah, you the you know, you have those instances where you make a difference, but now I I'm there I was working EMS and carrying a I worked back before we had these electric stretches, you know, when we had to be real people and lift a stretcher.
01:07:20.159 --> 01:07:23.840
I went through some of it on both sides.
01:07:23.920 --> 01:07:35.119
I mean, I didn't push a button like Noah does, but no, um, we brought an elderly lady out of her house and her pig started chasing us and snapping at us.
01:07:41.519 --> 01:07:48.320
Um people make reference that to law enforcement, but no, this was a porky pig, Wilbur pig, you know.
01:07:48.559 --> 01:07:57.760
Uh it was a potbelly pig, and he was very, very upset that we were taking Granny or whoever she was to the to the ambulance, you know.
01:07:57.840 --> 01:08:02.719
And I mean, man, that pig, he was snapping the whole way at us, and I'm like, what do you do?
01:08:02.960 --> 01:08:04.719
You can't take the person's pig.
01:08:05.280 --> 01:08:13.599
You know, I mean, that's you know, you're like the very first ever attack pick.
01:08:14.719 --> 01:08:17.439
Apparently they're good uh guard dogs or whatever.
01:08:17.920 --> 01:08:19.840
You know, I've been bit by dogs.
01:08:19.920 --> 01:08:23.279
I got bit by a dog off North Hill Street one day.
01:08:24.079 --> 01:08:37.119
I I realized it was chained, but I underestimated the distance of the chain, the length of the chain to where I was standing, and it snapped and got me twice, but luckily it grabbed my pants and my wallet.
01:08:37.199 --> 01:08:41.119
So there's nothing worse than going up trying to help somebody.
01:08:41.199 --> 01:08:51.119
And I did a lot of home visits for the school system, and you go up and you'd be like, Man, and the principal or whoever be like, well, we we gotta go get this kid, he's not been schooled.
01:08:51.279 --> 01:08:53.600
I'm like, I don't, that's not my problem.
01:08:54.079 --> 01:08:55.840
That sounds like a different problem to me.
01:08:56.079 --> 01:08:59.119
Yeah, and sure enough, they always have some kind of vicious dog.
01:08:59.199 --> 01:08:59.920
Oh, yeah.
01:09:00.159 --> 01:09:10.640
And for whatever reason, they they must just smell bacon on the cop because they're they running, you know, the principal gets out and the dogs right there, and they come right over to me.
01:09:10.960 --> 01:09:11.920
I can't even get out of my.
01:09:12.079 --> 01:09:13.680
It's like, you're on the wrong.
01:09:14.720 --> 01:09:14.960
Good luck.
01:09:15.680 --> 01:09:16.479
I'll guard you out.
01:09:16.720 --> 01:09:18.560
You don't know what to expect on that.
01:09:19.119 --> 01:09:36.319
It's every, it seems like every call that I went on on a home visit, like a well check or something like that, with students not showing up school or sick or whether they're trying to get get a hold of a parent, there was always some kind of crazy dog up some holler that I'd never even heard of.
01:09:37.199 --> 01:09:38.399
And I was surprised.
01:09:38.560 --> 01:09:44.000
You all you all probably know this more, but there's a lot of homestead stuff in Laurel County.
01:09:44.159 --> 01:09:46.000
I was very shocked on that.
01:09:46.239 --> 01:09:49.359
And I I just thought maybe I live in the city too much.
01:09:49.680 --> 01:09:52.640
Noah's in Noah's in those homes more now than I.
01:09:53.279 --> 01:09:58.159
They got these camps and stuff, these homesteading places now that they just live off the land.
01:09:58.479 --> 01:09:58.880
Yes.
01:09:59.119 --> 01:09:59.279
Yeah.
01:09:59.600 --> 01:10:00.079
It's crazy.
01:10:00.319 --> 01:10:12.720
And then the I guess working EMS, you realize how lucky you have it because you have a home that isn't falling in, or and some people choose to live that way.
01:10:13.359 --> 01:10:18.479
You know, and I mean, I always thought garbage went in a garbage can.
01:10:19.039 --> 01:10:19.119
Right.
01:10:19.359 --> 01:10:26.960
They not just everywhere in the house, and some of these homes that we go into are just a walking path cut through them and it just smells.
01:10:27.119 --> 01:10:27.439
I mean, man.
01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:31.359
Uncle Mike says cleaning is free.
01:10:31.520 --> 01:10:36.319
There is nothing expensive about going up and picking your trash up out of the yard.
01:10:36.560 --> 01:10:37.359
It's it's easy.
01:10:37.600 --> 01:10:39.119
It's like taking a bath, man.
01:10:39.199 --> 01:10:40.159
It rains every so often.
01:10:40.720 --> 01:10:42.000
Stand out in the rain or something.
01:10:42.079 --> 01:10:43.840
I mean, wash yourself.
01:10:44.560 --> 01:10:53.279
I've been in houses with dirt floors, and the kids be sitting in the dirt playing with their matchbox cars, and you're like, and granny over there sweeping the dirt.
01:10:53.600 --> 01:11:04.800
I've I've served search warrants in houses that had snakes inside from the dirt dirt, you know, just open stuff, and they'd come right in there in the closets, you're digging stuff, and you're like, oh my gosh.
01:11:05.119 --> 01:11:06.640
Yeah, it might have been done.
01:11:06.800 --> 01:11:09.840
You remember when you remember Jerry's restaurant, right?
01:11:10.239 --> 01:11:11.119
Love that place.
01:11:11.279 --> 01:11:13.840
Right before they're in the parish, by the way.
01:11:14.000 --> 01:11:14.319
Oh.
01:11:17.520 --> 01:11:18.239
I knew.
01:11:18.800 --> 01:11:19.920
Is it French food there?
01:11:20.319 --> 01:11:22.479
It's it's it's like French fry.
01:11:24.960 --> 01:11:32.560
So the like right as that place was closing up, they were going to, you know, everybody knew it, nobody really going there.
01:11:32.720 --> 01:11:39.199
And they call it like, hey, we got we got snakes underneath the like in the front lobby.
01:11:39.359 --> 01:11:41.359
There they had like a machine or something.
01:11:41.600 --> 01:11:45.520
I was like, you called, you have called the wrong person for this.
01:11:46.079 --> 01:11:48.720
I was like, I will shoot them.
01:11:52.319 --> 01:11:53.439
I was so I was like, I'm out.
01:11:54.239 --> 01:11:54.479
Yeah.
01:11:54.640 --> 01:11:55.680
I'm out on that.
01:11:56.000 --> 01:12:03.279
But I've seen, you know, I was telling this guy was like, I I work with, and he's a school teacher and great guy.
01:12:03.520 --> 01:12:12.479
And he was driving, he's man, it's he said, I was helping this guy out tired, you know, and he was like, let me go get you some money.
01:12:12.560 --> 01:12:14.000
He said, No, I'll just help you out.
01:12:14.079 --> 01:12:19.359
And and um he said, I got this huge basket for Christmas from that guy.
01:12:19.439 --> 01:12:21.520
He's some kind of doctor didn't know how to change a tire.
01:12:21.600 --> 01:12:24.079
I said, You know how many tires I've changed and never.
01:12:24.640 --> 01:12:25.760
Never got anything after.
01:12:26.079 --> 01:12:27.760
I was being a little like, yeah, good.
01:12:28.159 --> 01:12:28.319
Okay.
01:12:28.720 --> 01:12:39.760
But I was I was like, You know how many how many houses we've been in, got calls to, and just to turn the thermostat over from cold to heat, or run possums and raccoons and stuff.
01:12:39.840 --> 01:12:43.600
And and and those are the I'd I love going to those calls.
01:12:43.760 --> 01:12:46.079
I don't mind that a bit to help out our community.
01:12:46.560 --> 01:12:56.000
The elderly that don't, you know, they're just the people that won't take care of themselves or that wants to help anymore that put that bitterness in your life.
01:12:56.319 --> 01:12:58.079
You know, that bitter taste, so to speak.
01:12:58.319 --> 01:12:58.479
Yeah.
01:12:58.640 --> 01:13:05.199
And I think I got a lot of that back in the early 2000s, right after Noah was born, uh, cleaning up meth labs.
01:13:05.279 --> 01:13:05.359
Yeah.
01:13:05.520 --> 01:13:06.239
When O started.
01:13:06.479 --> 01:13:06.720
Yeah.
01:13:07.039 --> 01:13:08.640
I just some of the things.
01:13:08.720 --> 01:13:12.399
I mean Well, that changed this whole It changed the world.
01:13:12.560 --> 01:13:12.960
Yeah.
01:13:13.279 --> 01:13:15.279
Noah don't know life without that.
01:13:15.520 --> 01:13:17.039
Dylan barely does, you know.
01:13:17.520 --> 01:13:19.920
Uh and here we went through that stuff.
01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:22.159
I mean, it was that was unreal.
01:13:22.319 --> 01:13:26.159
Uh, the changes in the the evolution of the people.
01:13:26.479 --> 01:13:35.119
When we were young men, you know, high school age, if somebody smoked a little weed or you know, did a you know, took a pill or something.
01:13:35.359 --> 01:13:37.199
When I went to high school, there was a smoke in the area.
01:13:37.680 --> 01:13:38.239
Yeah.
01:13:38.479 --> 01:13:40.079
But with the bad ass was.
01:13:40.479 --> 01:13:41.520
We thought they were rebels, man.
01:13:41.760 --> 01:13:42.239
We had smoke.
01:13:42.720 --> 01:13:43.279
They were bad people.
01:13:43.520 --> 01:13:47.279
Yeah, you know, dad, you you don't hang out with them, you know.
01:13:47.520 --> 01:13:51.279
Um, but just the the way our world just it's fallen.
01:13:51.520 --> 01:13:59.039
We're it's a fallen world and it's gonna get, you know, without without Jesus, without our faith, it's just gonna it's gonna continue to get bad.
01:13:59.279 --> 01:14:07.199
We just got you're you're you know, Noah, you're we're telling you a lot of stories tonight as much as anything.
01:14:07.359 --> 01:14:08.880
Just guard your heart.
01:14:09.199 --> 01:14:20.960
I became such a cynical person, so bitter, because you know, you'd stop somebody and they'd be a deacon, somebody you knew, some church going guy, and you just man, I was so mad.
01:14:21.039 --> 01:14:30.800
I was like, there is no you know, I remember thinking it, you're like, ah, these people are just this whole town, and you know, and just this bitterness that came over me.
01:14:31.119 --> 01:14:56.079
I remember being broken, like, you know, I've if I'm going to do this, I've either got to just learn how to love people and know that everybody's got problems because a lot of that inward, like I've obviously got some problems too that people, you know, so just know that that hey, and you've done it in that five, I mean ten years already, ten, twelve, fourteen years already.
01:14:56.479 --> 01:15:05.039
But still, I'm like 26 is young, and you're gonna go the ups and downs and the ebbs and flows with with first responding.
01:15:05.520 --> 01:15:12.640
Um ride those ways, but remember that it can take you right down under, so be careful.
01:15:12.880 --> 01:15:18.239
And it's like what they always taught us in training, it's not your emergency, it's theirs.
01:15:18.399 --> 01:15:18.640
Yeah.
01:15:18.880 --> 01:15:20.960
So always understand that.
01:15:21.199 --> 01:15:36.800
And luckily, me being senior enough now, telling all these new people, treat them, treat your patient or whoever you come in contact with like they're your grandma or your grandpa or your family.
01:15:36.960 --> 01:15:37.279
Yeah.
01:15:38.399 --> 01:15:39.439
That's a great attitude to have.
01:15:39.840 --> 01:15:50.399
And that that brings up a good point, because I hate I hate dealing with like crisis, like CIT type stuff, like your your mental calls and things like that.
01:15:50.640 --> 01:15:52.159
I absolutely hate them.
01:15:52.640 --> 01:15:59.840
And uh I was talking to to mom, you know, Vent and being like, Man, they've got because Danville's got a lot of that going on.
01:15:59.920 --> 01:16:04.399
I was like, man, that's the worst, you know, doing MDOs and transports and stuff like that.
01:16:04.640 --> 01:16:07.760
Well, my grandma suffered from the same thing.
01:16:07.840 --> 01:16:11.359
She was bipolar and she had to be transported once.
01:16:11.439 --> 01:16:15.680
And and mom was like, Well, you know, you brought that up, treat them like you're they're your grandma.
01:16:15.760 --> 01:16:33.920
And she's like, Why don't you keep that mentality and treat them as like and that's kind of changed my okay, well, you know, if they get the help, because after she was transported, it took getting to that rock bottom for her to get the help that she needed and be, you know, mental health warrant and all that, get transported.
01:16:34.079 --> 01:16:36.079
And then after that, good as gold.
01:16:36.239 --> 01:16:39.840
But before that, so I mean, you gotta keep that mentality.
01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:43.520
We get it's easy to get jaded and not not see that that side of that.
01:16:43.760 --> 01:16:44.960
Yeah, I'm sure you've already been.
01:16:45.520 --> 01:16:51.039
The difference I think that I didn't have that.
01:16:52.560 --> 01:17:10.880
My father's a pastor and love him, but we I don't want to say we're different sides of the thing, but I was dealing, you know, he was dealing with way probably worse things as far as p humanity too, and I think I just didn't relate those together and see mine as a mission as well.
01:17:12.159 --> 01:17:20.239
So I was just like I'm the PK, I'm a preacher's kid, and this, you know, and I was just like, why am I why am I so mad?
01:17:20.319 --> 01:17:26.399
You know, I go to try to go to church and fake it and stuff, then all of a sudden, man, that he preached something and it broke me.
01:17:26.479 --> 01:17:30.159
And I was like, oh no, just like Dan's thing, I was like, man, I needed to hear that too.
01:17:30.239 --> 01:17:31.760
And a lot of people need to hear that.
01:17:31.920 --> 01:17:39.359
But I was like, How do we get past, how do you get past hurt and anger?
01:17:39.600 --> 01:17:45.920
And you don't, you don't really, you're always gonna be set up for some kind of f fall or somebody's gonna hurt you.
01:17:46.079 --> 01:18:01.119
It's how we deal with with our internal and how we can cope with with our own lack, you know, our own shortcomings is what helps us all be better in our jobs.
01:18:01.600 --> 01:18:03.039
Um yeah.
01:18:03.359 --> 01:18:10.560
You know, Noah, when I worked EMS, we would uh generally work a few calls a day or whatever.
01:18:10.720 --> 01:18:12.720
No, they work a few calls an hour.
01:18:13.039 --> 01:18:13.600
You know what I mean?
01:18:13.920 --> 01:18:14.159
Yeah.
01:18:14.640 --> 01:18:19.840
They you know, they'll have 12,000 or 13,000 runs this year.
01:18:20.399 --> 01:18:24.720
And uh I remember when we had like 6,000 or 8,000.
01:18:24.800 --> 01:18:44.960
I mean, you know, I'm dating myself, but still you've got to have that time to unwind a little and and but every call, you know, Alan Brunicini was the chief of fe uh Phoenix Fire Department, and he kind of started a lot of the incident command stuff and all that, but but he he talked about the neighbor, Mrs.
01:18:45.119 --> 01:18:45.760
Smith.
01:18:46.880 --> 01:18:51.520
And he he put a customer service model into the fire service.
01:18:52.079 --> 01:18:57.840
He's been gone a few years, but that is still talked about today, and a lot of his speeches are still out there.
01:18:58.159 --> 01:19:00.079
That when Mrs.
01:19:00.159 --> 01:19:03.760
Smith calls for help, it's her worst day of her life.
01:19:04.000 --> 01:19:04.239
Right.
01:19:04.880 --> 01:19:07.439
And you have to remember that when you go.
01:19:07.680 --> 01:19:08.720
Man, that's hard.
01:19:08.960 --> 01:19:10.479
It is so hard.
01:19:10.720 --> 01:19:12.000
I think he was in Books class.
01:19:12.239 --> 01:19:14.960
It great when 300 or whatever.
01:19:15.439 --> 01:19:15.920
ICS.
01:19:16.640 --> 01:19:17.520
I was in ICS.
01:19:17.600 --> 01:19:17.760
Yeah.
01:19:17.920 --> 01:19:19.199
And he was talking about that.
01:19:19.359 --> 01:19:19.600
Yep.
01:19:20.079 --> 01:19:20.319
Mrs.
01:19:20.479 --> 01:19:20.800
Smith.
01:19:21.199 --> 01:19:21.439
Mrs.
01:19:21.600 --> 01:19:22.800
Smith still moves on today.
01:19:25.279 --> 01:19:28.479
Yeah, I was in uh Broad, uh, what's it called?
01:19:28.800 --> 01:19:30.399
Baldrock or something, way down there.
01:19:30.479 --> 01:19:32.239
That's where I did mine, one of them.
01:19:32.560 --> 01:19:34.319
But it's it's it's that Mrs.
01:19:34.479 --> 01:19:39.760
Smith was his personal the worst day of their life is when they call.
01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:41.439
And to us it's not.
01:19:41.840 --> 01:19:46.800
But it's so hard because we put up those barriers where we become so bitter.
01:19:47.039 --> 01:19:55.199
Uh, but you know, Noah, Noah's 26, but he's telling people that are coming into the service now that are his rookie or whatever.
01:19:55.520 --> 01:19:56.560
Don't forget that.
01:19:56.640 --> 01:19:58.720
You know, uh that is so hard.
01:19:59.039 --> 01:20:13.279
It's hard to, you know, the difference, I think, what I was gonna say, you know, part of what with dad is there was just you know a different relate relating with what I did for a living, what he did.
01:20:13.359 --> 01:20:15.680
Once I mesh them together, it was different.
01:20:15.840 --> 01:20:19.920
Like, oh, you're you're at the bad side of human humanity too.
01:20:20.159 --> 01:20:39.680
But you uh you already know what your father has done, and your grandfather and your mother and your your aunt and your I mean there's all kinds of things that that um that you can rely on and you're already probably supervising and doing things, you know, running it won't be long.
01:20:42.159 --> 01:20:43.119
Mentoring, I guess.
01:20:43.520 --> 01:20:55.199
Like that's the and that to me is if you can fall back and you have somebody to you're you know, you're kind of a legacy type in this field.
01:20:55.439 --> 01:21:00.560
So if you can learn from ER, if you can learn from you know all these things, don't forget them.
01:21:01.920 --> 01:21:09.920
Even though old school stuff, the way you're the way they treated people will always relate to the in the future.
01:21:10.079 --> 01:21:14.479
So I think that's a great great way to be and look at things.
01:21:14.800 --> 01:21:19.600
It's like every time I have a bad call, you get a phone call or a text, you and mom.
01:21:19.920 --> 01:21:27.760
Yep, and occasionally I would call Pa, ER, and he'd be like, Yeah, I heard you had a rough day today.
01:21:27.840 --> 01:21:28.319
Yeah.
01:21:28.800 --> 01:21:29.520
You okay?
01:21:29.760 --> 01:21:31.359
Yeah, I'm doing all right.
01:21:31.760 --> 01:21:33.359
You gotta have a sounding board.
01:21:33.520 --> 01:21:43.439
I mean, you gotta have some somebody, I mean, whether it be a a fellow first responder, you know, somebody that you can just go and be like, let me tell you about this.
01:21:43.600 --> 01:21:48.079
And then they know and they're not gonna sit there and try and go, oh my gosh, or they're gonna, you know.
01:21:48.960 --> 01:21:50.640
A lot of times like, that ain't nothing.
01:21:51.119 --> 01:21:51.279
Yeah.
01:21:51.439 --> 01:21:52.159
Let me tell you about this.
01:21:52.399 --> 01:21:53.920
Then you start one-up and each other.
01:21:54.560 --> 01:22:07.840
You know But I I made the comment on May the 17th uh of this year that you know, my job's to train first responders and to see that they have appropriate training all over the state.
01:22:08.079 --> 01:22:16.880
There was no level of training at all that ever prepared me for what that night and day was to bring.
01:22:17.199 --> 01:22:26.079
Um there we you just don't prepare for a tornado to go through a one of the most dense subdivisions.
01:22:26.239 --> 01:22:35.279
Uh, you know, and and I'm on I was over by the airport, Noah was in Sunshine Hills, and that's as a father, that was a terrible feeling.
01:22:35.680 --> 01:22:46.640
You know, I was there doing things I needed to be doing, but knowing that your son is on another end of this same he's doing what he had to do, and he's you're you know what you're seeing.
01:22:46.720 --> 01:22:48.960
Yeah, and you know he's seeing that and worse.
01:22:49.199 --> 01:22:49.520
Yep.
01:22:49.680 --> 01:22:57.840
And then, you know, that morning, um as the sun started coming up, I had stayed over and off Court Road that whole night in the airport area.
01:22:58.000 --> 01:23:04.079
And as the sun started coming up, I got in my truck and I thought I'm going over to the to that side to a command post.
01:23:04.239 --> 01:23:05.600
There was at Wine Pine.
01:23:06.319 --> 01:23:09.520
And uh I didn't realize how bad I looked at that point.
01:23:09.680 --> 01:23:16.319
I mean, I was soaking wet and mud up to my waist, and you know, I mean, just from what all we had been going through that night.
01:23:16.560 --> 01:23:22.319
And uh it it was a pretty good feeling for me to look over and see him over there, you know.
01:23:22.960 --> 01:23:26.079
And then other people as as certain ones had come in.
01:23:26.640 --> 01:23:33.760
Um we mentioned Booger when we heard Booger on the radio that night, but when he walked in that school, you just wanted to walk over and give him a bitch a hug.
01:23:33.840 --> 01:23:38.000
I mean, because um we had all made a difference that night.
01:23:38.159 --> 01:23:58.079
And that's that's as bad as that was, and as terrible as it was for the people that lost their homes and their families, as a first responder, what we pulled off that night, as I say we as a team, what everybody, and trust me, we saw things that you just can't imagine.
01:23:58.319 --> 01:24:13.680
But what we were able to pull off that night, and the lives that were probably saved, by the time the the trained, more heavily trained and equipped crews got in there and started taking off, there was no more rescues.
01:24:13.840 --> 01:24:15.840
Those people had already been found through the night.
01:24:16.399 --> 01:24:24.960
I mean, it was a team effort of police and fire and EMS and citizens, uh, just in general, that what went on that night was amazing.
01:24:25.039 --> 01:24:36.239
But those are times that, you know, Noah said he'd call me or other and text, but that night it was just like I we talked a couple of times through the night when we tried phone service, you know.
01:24:36.960 --> 01:24:38.880
It's like, hey, you all right, what's going on?
01:24:39.199 --> 01:24:40.560
I've never seen anything.
01:24:42.000 --> 01:24:49.520
Let's talk about the tornado because we haven't yet on this, and it's a good uh I mean, what you can, what you feel like doing.
01:24:49.760 --> 01:24:51.439
But I I'll tell you this.
01:24:51.680 --> 01:24:53.520
It's good to talk about stuff like this.
01:24:54.319 --> 01:24:59.359
In 20 all right, so at on that day, May 16th, right?
01:24:59.439 --> 01:25:00.640
It's the day of the tornado.
01:25:01.680 --> 01:25:03.119
We're I'm sitting there.
01:25:03.520 --> 01:25:08.640
There's a huge front at about what one o'clock that day, 12 30.
01:25:08.720 --> 01:25:11.119
There was a there was a big storm that came through.
01:25:11.439 --> 01:25:13.359
There was a storm that had come through first.
01:25:13.840 --> 01:25:14.079
Yeah.
01:25:14.399 --> 01:25:16.079
I had gotten off work that morning.
01:25:16.319 --> 01:25:20.079
It had blown down a tree over by my house on a property owner.
01:25:20.239 --> 01:25:22.880
You all probably was over there, the one that went across Whitley Street.
01:25:23.359 --> 01:25:24.319
Yeah, I remember that.
01:25:24.640 --> 01:25:24.880
Right.
01:25:25.119 --> 01:25:40.399
So we were I was asleep, just worked my 24-hour shift the day before, and they paged um damage to um a white lily or something like that, where Lowe's used to be.
01:25:40.800 --> 01:25:41.039
Yeah.
01:25:41.279 --> 01:25:53.439
So the whole roof on one section got blown off into the parking lot, the back parking lot, and I went to it, and some of them were talking, hey, this ain't the worst yet.
01:25:53.520 --> 01:25:54.960
They said I couldn't believe it.
01:25:55.279 --> 01:25:56.960
Tonight it's gonna be worse.
01:25:57.359 --> 01:25:58.479
It was bad enough, earlier.
01:25:58.880 --> 01:26:04.800
That that that I thought they were because that tree that fell over and then it blew that roof off.
01:26:05.279 --> 01:26:09.680
There I was down at Johnson Elementary, and I've never heard anything like that.
01:26:09.760 --> 01:26:12.720
You're like, ooh, that was scary.
01:26:12.960 --> 01:26:23.039
And then when well they were over there on that crew cutting up that tree trying to get that line across, and they were like, Well, be careful, it's kind of at about 10 or 11 tonight, it's gonna get worse.
01:26:23.760 --> 01:26:24.800
I was like, huh.
01:26:25.119 --> 01:26:36.560
So typically, if we hear bad weather at the rescue squad, we kind of hang around the building, just you know, pre-planting and everything.
01:26:37.760 --> 01:26:44.159
So that night dad called me and he was like, hey, um, turn on Ryan Hall.
01:26:44.319 --> 01:26:51.199
And for all you people that don't know, the Ryan Hall, y'all, is probably one of the best weather people to watch.
01:26:52.560 --> 01:26:53.840
Yeah, it's a popular.
01:26:54.079 --> 01:26:54.399
Yeah.
01:26:54.960 --> 01:27:03.680
And I'd watched tornadoes, what was it, a couple days before that in Arkansas and Tennessee and all that.
01:27:03.920 --> 01:27:04.960
Missouri, yeah.
01:27:06.000 --> 01:27:11.840
And the way he was acting, we were kind of like, ooh, this ain't gonna be good.
01:27:12.159 --> 01:27:18.960
And me being me, you know, I've always wanted to work a tornado because, you know, you don't really get to work a massive.
01:27:19.279 --> 01:27:20.479
Twister's one of your favorite movies.
01:27:20.800 --> 01:27:22.960
Yeah, I'd love that movie any day.
01:27:24.319 --> 01:27:35.359
But we were sitting around the rescue squad and there was people coming in with their families that night, and you could tell just the way it felt that night.
01:27:35.520 --> 01:27:38.079
I don't know, I can't I can't describe it.
01:27:38.560 --> 01:27:43.920
You just had this uneasy feeling and you knew something was coming.
01:27:44.319 --> 01:27:57.279
Well, quarter till eleven, we heard on post um a trooper say he is looking at a very large violent tornado on the ground in Russell County, Pulaski County.
01:27:58.560 --> 01:27:58.880
Yeah.
01:27:59.119 --> 01:28:01.520
So he was like, that ain't good.
01:28:02.079 --> 01:28:07.760
And you could hear another trooper, he's like, London, get us help.
01:28:08.079 --> 01:28:12.800
There is way too much damage for us to be able to handle it by ourselves.
01:28:13.600 --> 01:28:18.319
And not many people knew that it was coming towards London.
01:28:18.720 --> 01:28:23.520
Who would think it was gonna stay on the ground for 50-something miles, you know, in Australia?
01:28:24.800 --> 01:28:24.880
Yeah.
01:28:25.279 --> 01:28:28.720
Well, we're at, you gotta go uphill to get to London.
01:28:29.600 --> 01:28:35.359
I mean, it's we're what around two fifteen hundred feet above twelve hundred or so.
01:28:35.520 --> 01:28:36.000
Yes, yeah.
01:28:36.560 --> 01:28:37.199
Yeah.
01:28:37.920 --> 01:28:45.840
But just the way that they were talking on post post channel, that you could tell it was bad.
01:28:46.239 --> 01:28:53.840
And me and one of the guys, we went and just stocked up on drinks, you know, because we knew it was gonna be a long night.
01:28:54.000 --> 01:28:56.319
Just if it came, it came.
01:28:56.479 --> 01:28:58.000
If it didn't, it didn't.
01:28:58.479 --> 01:29:02.720
And dad called me and he was like, Hey, you all need to get ready.
01:29:02.800 --> 01:29:03.840
I said, How bad is it?
01:29:03.920 --> 01:29:05.119
He says, It's coming.
01:29:05.520 --> 01:29:07.439
They they say it's not letting up.
01:29:07.920 --> 01:29:09.439
Is this when it hit Somerset by the night?
01:29:12.800 --> 01:29:16.960
When it went through the forest, it was about it actually was a mile wide.
01:29:17.039 --> 01:29:17.199
Yeah.
01:29:18.159 --> 01:29:26.800
And we were at the squad, and we had the haunted house, you know, the rent house that we had.
01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:29.119
We had the basement.
01:29:29.359 --> 01:29:37.199
And John Allen was like, hey, if y'all need to come to my house, come to the house and get in the basement.
01:29:38.000 --> 01:29:42.000
So John went with Drew Allen, his son.
01:29:42.159 --> 01:29:46.319
They went and checked everything and made sure the families were alright.
01:29:46.960 --> 01:29:54.079
And about eleven o'clock, that's when it started getting real bad in London.
01:29:54.239 --> 01:29:55.840
The lightning, the thunder.
01:29:56.479 --> 01:29:59.359
It wasn't it rained pretty bad for a while.
01:29:59.600 --> 01:30:04.239
And And I'd say about eleven twenty it just stopped.
01:30:04.399 --> 01:30:04.720
Yep.
01:30:05.039 --> 01:30:07.600
It just sucked up the calm before that.
01:30:08.399 --> 01:30:10.399
It got so weird feeling outside.
01:30:12.640 --> 01:30:16.159
Well, and that's and that's also something else that first responders do.
01:30:16.560 --> 01:30:18.479
We kind of go outside and look.
01:30:18.720 --> 01:30:19.199
Oh yeah.
01:30:19.359 --> 01:30:20.560
We're outside during the storm.
01:30:25.760 --> 01:30:38.319
But I was standing outside the rescue squad with Tyson Baker, and where the rescue squad is, you've got downtown to your left, and you've got Carnby Square to your right.
01:30:39.840 --> 01:30:40.960
Right around A.R.
01:30:41.119 --> 01:30:47.760
Dyke Cemetery, I counted five lightning bolts come down in the same spot and just boom.
01:30:48.239 --> 01:30:50.000
And I said, Oh, this ain't good.
01:30:50.159 --> 01:30:50.640
Yep.
01:30:51.119 --> 01:30:56.239
And uh that's when the tornado siren started going off in London.
01:30:56.479 --> 01:31:01.680
And we had I'd say about 30 people at the squad at this point.
01:31:01.760 --> 01:31:05.279
So I was like, get in get in the basement.
01:31:05.760 --> 01:31:11.199
Well, as I'm walking back into the bay, a minivan pulls up up front.
01:31:11.439 --> 01:31:12.800
No idea who these people were.
01:31:12.880 --> 01:31:16.159
And they was like, Do y'all have anywhere we can take shelter?
01:31:16.399 --> 01:31:17.520
We're not from here.
01:31:17.760 --> 01:31:20.079
We we just moved into Laurel County.
01:31:20.479 --> 01:31:21.600
Spark people down there.
01:31:21.840 --> 01:31:25.520
I was like, well, I'm not gonna tell these people no.
01:31:25.760 --> 01:31:26.399
No, yeah.
01:31:26.640 --> 01:31:28.159
I said, we got a basement over here.
01:31:28.239 --> 01:31:36.800
I said, just go park your car right over next to the fire department because the rescue squad and the fire department, for all the people that don't know, they're literally in the same parking lot.
01:31:36.960 --> 01:31:37.600
Yeah.
01:31:37.920 --> 01:31:42.640
And they come walking in, and I said, I'm gonna take you all over.
01:31:42.800 --> 01:31:45.359
And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we got our family coming.
01:31:45.439 --> 01:31:47.119
I said, This ain't your family.
01:31:47.279 --> 01:31:49.359
They're like, Yeah, this is it, but there's more of us.
01:31:49.439 --> 01:31:54.239
And I look towards the fire department, there's about 12 people walking over here.
01:31:55.279 --> 01:31:57.520
Meanwhile, uh, we could barely walk.
01:31:57.760 --> 01:32:00.399
I was like, Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
01:32:01.119 --> 01:32:04.800
So still brilliant people, you know.
01:32:04.880 --> 01:32:05.680
Hey, go for help.
01:32:08.239 --> 01:32:11.600
You know, you go through the basement and you know how small it is.
01:32:12.479 --> 01:32:14.960
There were 50 people in that basement at one point.
01:32:15.199 --> 01:32:15.359
Wow.
01:32:15.680 --> 01:32:16.720
I'm glad it didn't come that way.
01:32:17.600 --> 01:32:25.680
Well, before we went outside and started looking around, that's when it made that shift and it was coming straight for downtown.
01:32:26.000 --> 01:32:28.079
Yeah, they they um I freaked out.
01:32:28.159 --> 01:32:34.560
I was in the basement at this time, and my daughter looks over, and we're she's like, Are we gonna be okay?
01:32:34.720 --> 01:32:37.680
I'm like, I don't, I'm like, I don't, I don't know.
01:32:38.239 --> 01:32:40.720
I like I said, we're all we're here together.
01:32:42.319 --> 01:32:43.680
She still gives me hard times like that.
01:32:43.920 --> 01:32:49.279
Heather and I were in our basement when when it started going, I I had been looking at her and saying, you know, I have to leave.
01:32:49.439 --> 01:32:49.680
Yeah.
01:32:49.920 --> 01:32:52.800
I mean, that's a hard, that's a hard situation to be in.
01:32:54.159 --> 01:33:01.199
And John had told all of us, he said, don't just get in the truck and go somewhere when the tones drop.
01:33:01.279 --> 01:33:08.239
He says, We don't know where this thing's gonna be at, and I don't want you all driving straight into this and y'all get hit by this.
01:33:08.479 --> 01:33:12.800
Now, when the tornado came through, it was rain wrapped.
01:33:13.039 --> 01:33:15.119
So you couldn't see nothing.
01:33:15.520 --> 01:33:34.720
Well a firefighter on Laurel County screamed on the radio that Sunshine Hills had been hit and do an all page for Sunshine Hills, which which means they page every f emergency responder and everything to this one incident.
01:33:35.840 --> 01:33:45.600
So I'm in the first out truck, and me being the senior guy at the squad at the time, I had all these new people.
01:33:46.239 --> 01:33:52.880
So you're trying to figure out who can you trust to be the first response.
01:33:53.439 --> 01:34:00.159
Because direct path on that, when they probably dropped tones on that, it probably was still towards the airport at this time.
01:34:01.119 --> 01:34:02.960
It was just going out of Sunshine Hills.
01:34:04.640 --> 01:34:11.279
I think by the time we got to Phil Pot Road on 363, because originally we were going to Hart Church Road.
01:34:11.359 --> 01:34:13.760
That was the first 911 call.
01:34:14.319 --> 01:34:16.800
And then they had to wreck on the interstate.
01:34:17.039 --> 01:34:17.199
Yes.
01:34:17.359 --> 01:34:18.880
We had a car get blown off the interstate.
01:34:19.439 --> 01:34:20.079
See, I've not heard that.
01:34:20.239 --> 01:34:20.800
I didn't know that.
01:34:21.199 --> 01:34:27.119
So they paged, yeah, so they paged Hart Church Road for people trapped in a collapsed house.
01:34:28.399 --> 01:34:32.960
Then they paged a 46 with entrapment on the interstate car got hit by a tornado.
01:34:33.199 --> 01:34:37.359
Was that in the same area as the where it went across from?
01:34:38.159 --> 01:34:46.319
So a couple of the guys, they were in the second out crash truck, which goes to all the crashes and everything.
01:34:46.479 --> 01:34:48.399
They went down Philpot Road.
01:34:48.640 --> 01:34:53.760
I kept going down 363 towards Hart Church Road because I didn't know where this thing was.
01:34:53.840 --> 01:34:55.520
I knew it was coming down 192.
01:34:55.600 --> 01:34:55.840
Yeah.
01:34:56.560 --> 01:34:56.800
Yeah.
01:34:58.399 --> 01:34:59.039
Yeah.
01:34:59.600 --> 01:35:06.560
So I'm literally turning right there, heading towards saddle road, you know, right straight stretch.
01:35:06.960 --> 01:35:10.560
There's a piece of wood and the power lines down in the road.
01:35:10.720 --> 01:35:14.560
And the guy in the backseat, all I heard was, oh my God.
01:35:14.880 --> 01:35:17.600
And I look over to my right, and there's nothing.
01:35:17.760 --> 01:35:18.079
Yeah.
01:35:18.239 --> 01:35:20.319
The neighborhood was destroyed.
01:35:20.720 --> 01:35:23.279
And I put the truck in the park and I said, Boys, get out and go.
01:35:23.600 --> 01:35:24.560
It's still white care.
01:35:24.720 --> 01:35:25.760
Look at driving down there.
01:35:26.479 --> 01:35:30.079
And they rebuilt quite a bit, but it's still an amazing recovery.
01:35:32.319 --> 01:35:33.760
I'm down in my basement.
01:35:34.000 --> 01:35:34.800
We're looking.
01:35:34.960 --> 01:35:38.000
I was watching Ryan and I'm looking.
01:35:38.239 --> 01:35:39.920
You know, my wife's like, Can you turn it down?
01:35:40.000 --> 01:35:41.520
Because I have my radio on.
01:35:41.680 --> 01:35:42.399
I've got this.
01:35:42.560 --> 01:35:47.600
I'm like, and she's like looking at somehow.
01:35:47.840 --> 01:35:52.079
My message came across from our my first cousin.
01:35:52.239 --> 01:35:53.439
It's like on Facebook.
01:35:53.760 --> 01:35:55.600
Like, is anybody mom?
01:35:55.920 --> 01:36:00.560
I was talking to mom on and she's all I can hear screaming.
01:36:01.039 --> 01:36:06.239
And and they, you know, sadly they give out this second tornado coming.
01:36:06.560 --> 01:36:09.359
Um so my wife's like, you're not leaving yet.
01:36:09.520 --> 01:36:17.119
And I know y'all probably like freeze everybody from Lexington and Frankfurt that was like, hey, y'all got another one coming the same path.
01:36:18.239 --> 01:36:23.840
That's when we had them start checking, and uh I yelled a dispatcher and I said, Hey, we're getting reports of a second one on us.
01:36:24.000 --> 01:36:24.560
Can you find out?
01:36:24.640 --> 01:36:26.640
And that's when they dropped the tones again.
01:36:26.880 --> 01:36:30.159
And I was talking to people on the scene going, I've got people everywhere.
01:36:30.319 --> 01:36:37.039
What you did find out what the weather's gonna do because they didn't know at that point if it was gonna come down the same path.
01:36:37.439 --> 01:36:41.920
Because that's happened up in Ohio or somewhere like twenty like one and a couple hours later, another.
01:36:42.960 --> 01:36:49.920
In our response district in Bush, I told our guys, go to the station if you want to, but don't leave the district because there is another one coming.
01:36:50.159 --> 01:36:55.760
And we were, you know, yeah, it basically went airborne through our fire district and hit a couple of houses.
01:36:55.840 --> 01:36:56.159
Yeah.
01:36:56.319 --> 01:37:02.319
Um, but one hour after the initial call is when we were notified to go to Cricket Creek.
01:37:02.560 --> 01:37:04.079
I'll let you figure that one out yourself.
01:37:04.399 --> 01:37:06.960
That's that's in an hour later.
01:37:07.279 --> 01:37:07.840
Wow.
01:37:08.319 --> 01:37:10.000
Because I was just out there.
01:37:10.399 --> 01:37:10.800
Uh-huh.
01:37:11.039 --> 01:37:12.560
You figure that one out.
01:37:13.279 --> 01:37:19.439
So where I was, you could not see everything.
01:37:19.840 --> 01:37:23.439
I didn't know what was going on on the other side of the town.
01:37:24.079 --> 01:37:32.880
And that I was expecting like one I two to be destroyed, everybody be going out there, you know, it lifted somewhere close to where we were.
01:37:33.439 --> 01:37:39.840
Well, somebody come running up to us and they said, Have you all heard about the airport and 1006?
01:37:39.920 --> 01:37:42.880
And I was like, No, they said, It's gone.
01:37:43.520 --> 01:37:56.560
You don't think about what a straight line when you're over, say it's Sunshine Hills area, wine road, you know, that due west, basically, oh yeah is the park.
01:37:56.720 --> 01:37:58.159
The air or the airport, the park.
01:37:58.720 --> 01:37:58.960
Right.
01:37:59.039 --> 01:37:59.199
Yeah.
01:37:59.520 --> 01:38:04.640
You know, um and now that the trees are gone, you can kind of sit in the park and see all that now.
01:38:05.760 --> 01:38:10.960
You know, thinking about it in your head, I've got to go way around, you know, all this back to this road to get to the house.
01:38:11.119 --> 01:38:12.880
No, I mentioned Tyson being with him.
01:38:13.039 --> 01:38:13.359
Yeah.
01:38:13.600 --> 01:38:14.000
Tough.
01:38:14.800 --> 01:38:19.680
So Tyson Tyson and me went and checked the house.
01:38:20.000 --> 01:38:21.520
And the tree had fell on it.
01:38:21.600 --> 01:38:23.600
And this guy's like, hey, my wife's in here.
01:38:23.680 --> 01:38:24.800
And I said, Is she hurt?
01:38:24.880 --> 01:38:25.760
And he said, No.
01:38:25.920 --> 01:38:29.119
I said, Well, we'll get to her when we can.
01:38:29.600 --> 01:38:30.640
She's not hurt.
01:38:30.800 --> 01:38:32.800
That's a good thing, but she can't get out.
01:38:33.920 --> 01:38:38.000
Somebody yelled at me and they was like, Hey, come come down here, I need you.
01:38:38.319 --> 01:38:43.600
And I had the BLS bag, which has all our medical stuff in it, and I ran down.
01:38:44.960 --> 01:38:47.359
I had a guy that he was hurt really bad.
01:38:47.600 --> 01:38:51.600
And about this time's when they were saying second tornado's coming.
01:38:51.760 --> 01:38:51.920
Yeah.
01:38:52.319 --> 01:38:53.760
I said, I'm not leaving this guy.
01:38:53.920 --> 01:38:56.800
And his wife is sitting in the rubble going, I can't get down.
01:38:57.039 --> 01:38:57.920
I said, Are you hurt?
01:38:58.079 --> 01:39:00.079
She's like, No, I just can't get down.
01:39:00.319 --> 01:39:04.720
Well, Tyson comes up to me and he just had this look on his face.
01:39:05.359 --> 01:39:06.399
I said, What's wrong?
01:39:06.560 --> 01:39:08.880
He said, I think my house is gone.
01:39:09.520 --> 01:39:11.600
And I said, Where's your wife and kid?
01:39:11.840 --> 01:39:16.800
He said, Luckily, before all this, I told him to go to my mom and dad's and they lived on East 80.
01:39:18.159 --> 01:39:24.159
And he called his wife, and somebody had called him and said, Yeah, your house is gone.
01:39:24.239 --> 01:39:25.199
They went and checked it.
01:39:25.920 --> 01:39:29.119
He lived right in that curve right there by the airport.
01:39:30.159 --> 01:39:30.960
So the straight line?
01:39:31.119 --> 01:39:31.279
Yes.
01:39:31.359 --> 01:39:32.000
Yeah, it went right in the room.
01:39:32.159 --> 01:39:33.039
You don't even think about that.
01:39:33.520 --> 01:39:38.000
He probably was out there in Sunshine Hills thinking that's it.
01:39:38.079 --> 01:39:40.319
But he's working and working and working in his house.
01:39:40.640 --> 01:39:41.119
He's a victim.
01:39:41.439 --> 01:39:42.079
He's a victim.
01:39:42.239 --> 01:39:42.560
Yeah.
01:39:42.800 --> 01:39:47.359
We we recovered a couple bodies and helped a couple people out.
01:39:47.520 --> 01:39:48.880
And Tyson looked at me.
01:39:49.039 --> 01:39:49.920
He says, I gotta go.
01:39:50.159 --> 01:39:51.359
I said, I'll walk with you.
01:39:51.600 --> 01:39:53.439
Because I was really worried about him.
01:39:53.520 --> 01:39:56.880
He started getting pale and you know, you just lost your house.
01:39:57.439 --> 01:39:59.279
Yeah, you l I mean you've lost everything.
01:39:59.840 --> 01:40:00.479
Everything.
01:40:00.800 --> 01:40:04.720
And I said, Tyson, there's a there's a good thing about this.
01:40:04.800 --> 01:40:07.520
I said, Your wife and kids are safe.
01:40:08.000 --> 01:40:09.279
I said, That's on you.
01:40:09.439 --> 01:40:10.319
You did a good job.
01:40:10.479 --> 01:40:12.079
And he was like, you know what, you're right.
01:40:12.159 --> 01:40:13.279
And I said, I still got them.
01:40:13.680 --> 01:40:17.600
Tyson Tyson said after the fact, he said, uh, always trust your gut.
01:40:17.680 --> 01:40:21.920
And he had a gut feeling that he needed to call his wife and tell her to go to his mom and dad's.
01:40:22.000 --> 01:40:32.479
And you know, I mean, how many times in our life have we trusted our gut or sometimes we question it or whatever, but it always works out.
01:40:32.720 --> 01:40:41.279
The one I I want to question myself on on gut on my gut is like these burns to tornado in 2012.
01:40:42.399 --> 01:40:45.359
I decided not far from where we have it, right?
01:40:46.560 --> 01:40:46.720
Yeah.
01:40:47.119 --> 01:40:52.800
And um my wife went to Atlanta with my daughter to the American girl.
01:40:52.960 --> 01:40:54.239
You know, she's little.
01:40:54.640 --> 01:40:59.359
And me and my son, he was uh two or three, I mean little little guy.
01:40:59.439 --> 01:41:02.640
And I'm like, let's go down to mom and dad's house.
01:41:02.800 --> 01:41:05.600
And they're right down here on a filter plant road.
01:41:06.079 --> 01:41:06.880
You can hear that thing.
01:41:07.039 --> 01:41:11.119
I was like, maybe my gut wasn't right unless we take it down from that one.
01:41:11.199 --> 01:41:13.039
But but I just wanted to be with them.
01:41:13.119 --> 01:41:14.399
And I, you know, you know how it is.
01:41:14.479 --> 01:41:24.319
You're like, Well am I gonna do with this little guy if I had to run out and go help, if it comes, you know, because we they were given some crazy things I never heard of, like Torcons and stuff like that.
01:41:24.800 --> 01:41:26.479
It's like magnetic was new ones.
01:41:26.720 --> 01:41:27.840
Yeah, I was like, what is this?
01:41:27.920 --> 01:41:29.520
It's like polar vortexes here.
01:41:30.000 --> 01:41:31.520
What is all this made up stuff?
01:41:31.760 --> 01:41:38.239
They were like, Yeah, we're at a Torcon 3, and I'm like, that's still not good, but there's there's five levels.
01:41:39.199 --> 01:41:42.399
And the night it hit in May, it was a Torcon 3.
01:41:42.479 --> 01:41:42.880
Yeah.
01:41:43.199 --> 01:41:49.439
But um he he would try calling me, and I'd be like, Hey, you okay?
01:41:49.520 --> 01:41:52.880
And it'd be it I can't hear you, I gotta go.
01:41:53.039 --> 01:41:54.319
Yeah, like that.
01:41:54.479 --> 01:41:58.479
I've never seen a community come together like that.
01:41:58.560 --> 01:42:02.880
And then I was impressed with some out of them them cage navy guys.
01:42:03.039 --> 01:42:05.279
And some of these came in from all over, yeah.
01:42:05.520 --> 01:42:14.640
Yeah, it was it was beautiful to see the help and now they're you know, there's there's certain groups, the Mennonites are one example, are built, or they're framing up houses for people right now.
01:42:14.800 --> 01:42:19.119
That's the thing that's that's the thing about this after you're like, well, how can we help now?
01:42:19.279 --> 01:42:25.920
You know, uh now that all the you know the big name, the Red Cross, and all these people are gone, they're still they're still dealing with things.
01:42:26.000 --> 01:42:32.640
The school, you know, kids are still homeless some on it, some of them, and and smart.
01:42:33.199 --> 01:42:35.680
They canceled they they ended school that night.
01:42:35.840 --> 01:42:38.640
Yeah, and it was not supposed to end until like the next week.
01:42:38.960 --> 01:42:41.920
Yeah, we had about a week and something left to graduate, you know.
01:42:42.000 --> 01:42:44.319
It was it was just a strange, hard time.
01:42:44.399 --> 01:42:48.720
We've it kind of felt like well, the way they did it was it felt like COVID again.
01:42:48.880 --> 01:42:49.199
Yeah, right.
01:42:49.520 --> 01:42:50.880
Like we just abruptly ended.
01:42:52.000 --> 01:42:53.520
Yeah, and there's no closure.
01:42:53.840 --> 01:43:05.039
I mean, a lot of times you think if they would allow people to go back, because restoring to somewhat normal is how we recover from things, and that's that's kind of like us, you know.
01:43:05.279 --> 01:43:08.399
It was it was hard to want to get back in a saddle, so to speak.
01:43:08.720 --> 01:43:22.399
I I would say in just in uh Sunshine Hills and and Westland and across over there at on Court Road and stuff, I'm gonna say probably 10 to 15 teachers just at South South Middle and Wine Pine that were.
01:43:22.800 --> 01:43:27.199
Well, I think when Wine Pine got opened, it was by a teacher that walked over there and opened it to try to.
01:43:28.640 --> 01:43:30.000
We were already making the phone connection.
01:43:31.119 --> 01:43:34.000
I'm not sure we were making the phone calls to get it opened.
01:43:34.880 --> 01:43:37.920
He called me and he says, Are you around John Allen?
01:43:38.000 --> 01:43:48.159
And I said, Well, I'm like half a mile from him because the neighborhood I was in, it was a half a mile from the beginning of 363 to the end.
01:43:48.960 --> 01:43:51.680
And we carried one guy half a mile.
01:43:51.760 --> 01:43:52.159
Yeah.
01:43:52.399 --> 01:43:58.800
But he said, try to get John to get the command post set up at Wine Pine, get a hold of everybody.
01:43:59.119 --> 01:44:01.359
We were working to try to at least have somewhere to get people.
01:44:01.520 --> 01:44:02.159
And the problem.
01:44:02.479 --> 01:44:08.880
And then it jammed up 360 because I came out there, me and Danny Robbins, you couldn't get turned around, you couldn't get ambulances out.
01:44:09.199 --> 01:44:22.159
It was I was like, let's go back over here to to and help out on Wine Road because everybody's congregated right here, and they needed to be, but it was just like there's more, and I had no idea.
01:44:22.239 --> 01:44:23.920
You you know, like Cold Hill.
01:44:24.159 --> 01:44:24.800
Oh, yeah.
01:44:24.960 --> 01:44:25.279
Yeah.
01:44:25.439 --> 01:44:32.079
Just in this now, you think about this Cold Hill students and people in that school district.
01:44:32.479 --> 01:44:35.039
I didn't mess Cold Hill school up by much when you think about it.
01:44:35.600 --> 01:44:36.640
People got damaged there.
01:44:36.800 --> 01:44:37.279
Yeah.
01:44:37.600 --> 01:44:39.439
Winepine, Drick.
01:44:39.840 --> 01:44:41.359
You didn't know they were so close.
01:44:41.680 --> 01:44:41.840
Oh.
01:44:42.239 --> 01:44:42.960
Sublimity.
01:44:43.199 --> 01:44:43.920
Sublimity.
01:44:44.079 --> 01:44:49.600
South Laurel High School and middle school, right there, real close, and they're then right over to Bush.
01:44:49.680 --> 01:44:49.920
Yeah.
01:44:50.239 --> 01:44:54.640
I mean, you're like, this these schools take 15, 20 minutes to get to.
01:44:55.119 --> 01:44:55.439
Oh, yeah.
01:44:56.319 --> 01:44:58.159
And it was it was there in a matter of minutes.
01:44:58.720 --> 01:45:02.560
And I mean, I guess that just proves the power of mother nature that we don't know.
01:45:02.960 --> 01:45:18.960
Um So after after all this was said and done, um we had some people stay at the rescue squad that were helping some of the victims' families and everything out, trying to recover stuff and help them build back up.
01:45:19.279 --> 01:45:30.479
And one of the guys, he said, you know, just going out and looking at the damage, he said, if it had not gone through the forest like it did, we would have probably been hit by an F5.
01:45:30.720 --> 01:45:33.760
And that is the worst tornado that you can possibly get hit by.
01:45:34.079 --> 01:45:35.199
Did he just slow it down?
01:45:35.600 --> 01:45:45.840
So we kind of slowed it down a little bit, and it lifted there at 192 near West Sline Creek and all that.
01:45:46.079 --> 01:45:46.720
Yeah.
01:45:47.039 --> 01:45:48.960
And it sat back down.
01:45:49.600 --> 01:45:54.319
He said, You all got very lucky not to get hit by an F5.
01:45:54.640 --> 01:45:59.039
Now, when they first said it was an F3, we were all like, Oh God, no.
01:45:59.199 --> 01:46:00.640
No, this is an F4.
01:46:00.960 --> 01:46:02.319
I'd hate to see more than F five.
01:46:04.479 --> 01:46:07.439
Like Moore, Oklahoma, and Joplin.
01:46:08.640 --> 01:46:13.760
Moore, Oklahoma in 2013 is the last F five tornado in the United States.
01:46:14.079 --> 01:46:14.479
Wow.
01:46:14.800 --> 01:46:18.960
So good people, you know, Les and his uh heartbroken.
01:46:20.239 --> 01:46:24.960
And how many people in London ended up being 18.
01:46:25.359 --> 01:46:30.720
18 here and there was 17 the night of, and then one passed away later on, and then one in the last time.
01:46:32.880 --> 01:46:33.279
Twenty total.
01:46:33.840 --> 01:46:36.720
Twenty people, and it could have been hundreds.
01:46:37.039 --> 01:46:37.680
Absolutely.
01:46:38.560 --> 01:46:39.760
We're blessed that it wasn't.
01:46:39.840 --> 01:46:40.399
I mean it.
01:46:41.039 --> 01:46:48.000
And that's a credit to well quick response, I think, and just grace.
01:46:48.159 --> 01:46:49.039
I don't know.
01:46:49.359 --> 01:46:49.520
Absolutely.
01:46:49.840 --> 01:47:00.479
But you know, it's hard to say either like why them not the you know my aunt was in that house on one on on right there when it came across.
01:47:00.720 --> 01:47:08.640
If you look at her house, she she must have been right in the middle because it went over the hill into Sunshine Hills.
01:47:09.520 --> 01:47:15.359
And her car how her car was still in the garage, that was it.
01:47:15.760 --> 01:47:19.119
There was another house from across the road over there sitting sideways in it.
01:47:19.359 --> 01:47:20.720
She's in a pile of rubble.
01:47:20.880 --> 01:47:21.920
She she was fine.
01:47:22.079 --> 01:47:31.680
They found her and under a pile of rubble, probably 30 yards from the house, subflooring sucked out of this, out of there.
01:47:31.760 --> 01:47:32.159
Yeah.
01:47:32.399 --> 01:47:35.600
And her red ball bottle in the basement.
01:47:37.520 --> 01:47:38.800
No, and I was surprised.
01:47:39.199 --> 01:47:40.239
That's what scares you about it.
01:47:41.119 --> 01:47:42.720
People died in basements in this.
01:47:43.359 --> 01:47:53.760
So I'll tell you a funny story about that night, and this is probably the only good thing that I could think of from that night.
01:47:54.079 --> 01:48:03.199
We were checking houses, and you know, you'd walk down and there'd be a house barely touched, and then right across the street there'd be one obliterated.
01:48:03.520 --> 01:48:03.920
Yeah.
01:48:04.239 --> 01:48:09.439
We went and checked the basement of a house, and we forced the garage door up.
01:48:09.680 --> 01:48:12.560
There were 21 people sit standing in this basement.
01:48:12.880 --> 01:48:17.279
And they looked at us and they said, Oh, thank goodness, we were trapped in here.
01:48:17.520 --> 01:48:19.600
And the top of their house was destroyed.
01:48:21.439 --> 01:48:23.760
They said, Is it bad?
01:48:24.000 --> 01:48:25.920
And I said, Y'all don't know.
01:48:26.079 --> 01:48:27.600
And they was like, No, we heard it.
01:48:27.760 --> 01:48:28.239
Come over.
01:48:28.319 --> 01:48:31.359
And I said, Well, I'm just gonna tell you, be prepared.
01:48:31.439 --> 01:48:33.039
It's terrible.
01:48:33.279 --> 01:48:40.239
And I said, When you get out of here, walk straight down the road towards 363 where all the emergency vehicles are.
01:48:40.479 --> 01:48:44.399
But 21 people in this basement, and they were not hurt.
01:48:44.640 --> 01:48:46.239
They were like, Yeah, we've been praying.
01:48:49.840 --> 01:48:50.399
It worked.
01:48:50.720 --> 01:48:55.039
I I was just I've never seen anything like that.
01:48:55.199 --> 01:49:00.239
You I and I watch YouTube videos of Moore and Joplin.
01:49:00.479 --> 01:49:04.239
That there was a good Netflix series uh documentary that came out on Joplin.
01:49:04.399 --> 01:49:29.439
You're just like But to see what the devastation actually that of that night when it's still raining and getting flat tires in your you know in your car just trying to get you're like, Yeah, I've never seen pictures that we recover from probably the people like, hey, is this you know from Crooke in Crooke Creek and stuff that were at you know, way over here in Plasky or something crazy?
01:49:29.600 --> 01:49:33.680
I mean, just uh weren't they finding people's stuff in hazard?
01:49:34.079 --> 01:49:35.680
So there was some found in Pike County.
01:49:36.640 --> 01:49:41.359
Um Tyson told us one of his wedding pictures was found in Perry County.
01:49:41.439 --> 01:49:41.600
Yeah.
01:49:41.840 --> 01:49:42.479
Wow.
01:49:43.359 --> 01:49:44.479
That's amazing.
01:49:44.880 --> 01:49:53.600
So that's so that cell for for those that don't know and for in the future people that started off, that super cell started off in Missouri.
01:49:53.760 --> 01:50:02.319
It wasn't a tornado all the uh by the way, but it but when it hit that thing stayed together for f I forget a hundred something miles.
01:50:02.560 --> 01:50:08.159
Oh, I mean, it was like a mile wide that whole cell though was five years.
01:50:08.319 --> 01:50:09.600
Yeah, from way in Missouri.
01:50:09.840 --> 01:50:14.800
If we drive to the Mississippi River, it's gonna take us five and a half hours.
01:50:15.039 --> 01:50:15.359
Yeah.
01:50:15.600 --> 01:50:17.039
And it and it came from there.
01:50:17.199 --> 01:50:18.079
Oh from further.
01:50:18.800 --> 01:50:20.319
I think it came over like from those arcs.
01:50:20.880 --> 01:50:22.000
So I mean, that's crazy.
01:50:22.560 --> 01:50:29.279
I've I've never I didn't know that, you know, you see these little pop-up supercells and they dissipate.
01:50:29.600 --> 01:50:36.239
For it to stay that tight and then drop a tornado in in Southeast Kentucky where we don't get we get them.
01:50:36.880 --> 01:50:39.359
Pulaski County and Laurel County get plenty of tornadoes.
01:50:39.439 --> 01:50:40.159
We have some.
01:50:40.880 --> 01:50:41.840
But not that extended.
01:50:42.079 --> 01:50:45.600
Usually the ones that we get, they pop down, they do a little damage, they go right back up.
01:50:45.760 --> 01:50:48.880
I mean, that's because I was in the one at Carnegie Square.
01:50:49.439 --> 01:50:51.119
I was living on Morgan Street.
01:50:51.439 --> 01:50:52.479
I just can't get away from it.
01:50:52.720 --> 01:50:54.319
Yeah, coming towards you.
01:50:54.800 --> 01:50:56.399
Yeah, that was a chase state thing.
01:50:56.560 --> 01:50:58.720
Yeah, we're all that story is Don't Live by Travis.
01:50:59.119 --> 01:51:00.239
Meet me two years old.
01:51:00.319 --> 01:51:04.399
He's taking me tornado chasing through the downtown Carnival Square tornado.
01:51:05.199 --> 01:51:05.279
Right.
01:51:05.439 --> 01:51:08.880
Hey, listen, that one right there was sunshining.
01:51:09.439 --> 01:51:13.199
It was, I heard I heard it tinging off our door.
01:51:13.279 --> 01:51:14.159
I was like, what in the world?
01:51:14.239 --> 01:51:16.479
I said, get in the get in the bathroom.
01:51:16.560 --> 01:51:21.199
And I'm sitting in the bathroom, and Lisa had made some kind of blueberry pie.
01:51:21.359 --> 01:51:22.479
And I'm sitting on the toilet.
01:51:23.760 --> 01:51:25.039
She's loving letting it find out.
01:51:25.279 --> 01:51:27.920
No, just in case the electric went out, it did.
01:51:28.319 --> 01:51:32.079
She's holding a dog, and I'm sitting there eating a pie on a toilet like an idiot.
01:51:32.239 --> 01:51:43.840
And um, we pop our heads out when it's over, and Lodge Holland was building his house, and and you know, the police chief, and he pops his head out, looks around, he's like, in typical Lodge, he points around to everybody.
01:51:44.000 --> 01:51:44.560
Is everybody good?
01:51:46.000 --> 01:51:49.439
And um and the next thing you know, he'd owned that store.
01:51:49.520 --> 01:51:51.680
Uh the quick, I think he bought the quick stop.
01:51:52.479 --> 01:51:57.760
Quick stop or whatever from Danny Fisher and them, and they they pop around, it's gone.
01:51:58.640 --> 01:51:59.840
What we talking about.
01:52:00.000 --> 01:52:09.119
Somebody came down from the store, I guess we're all the you know, Carnegie Square and then Bossinger, and you know it it turned over cars and uh sucked up black talk.
01:52:09.279 --> 01:52:10.000
Yeah, that's right.
01:52:10.239 --> 01:52:16.800
I'm like, how is you know that that one was it was sunshine outside when that thing it was weird.
01:52:17.119 --> 01:52:28.079
The the first tornado I experienced that I can actually say I remember um Livia's third birthday in 2006.
01:52:28.479 --> 01:52:33.119
There was a storm that came through and tornado dropped down in bush.
01:52:33.600 --> 01:52:35.439
It took the roof off of Lola's.
01:52:36.800 --> 01:52:37.199
Remember that?
01:52:37.439 --> 01:52:40.479
I remember watching dad get sucked out the front door.
01:52:40.720 --> 01:52:41.039
What?
01:52:41.359 --> 01:52:43.600
Opened the front door and it pulled me out of my knee.
01:52:46.159 --> 01:52:46.880
There he goes.
01:52:47.119 --> 01:52:48.159
And mom's going over.
01:52:49.039 --> 01:52:49.600
What am I doing?
01:52:49.760 --> 01:52:50.560
I'm going below.
01:52:51.760 --> 01:52:52.960
He's been abducted.
01:52:53.680 --> 01:52:54.319
Where'd he go?
01:52:54.399 --> 01:52:55.119
He's in awesome.
01:52:56.239 --> 01:52:56.880
That's it.
01:52:59.199 --> 01:53:03.520
But that day, May 16, 2025.
01:53:06.720 --> 01:53:09.600
I've never seen anything like that in my life.
01:53:09.840 --> 01:53:15.119
The response was awesome, but the devastation, I would never get that out of my mind.
01:53:15.439 --> 01:53:23.359
And going there and you're like, I couldn't find what's weird is how many times you've driven these roads and you could not recognize where we were.
01:53:23.760 --> 01:53:24.479
That's exactly.
01:53:24.560 --> 01:53:25.680
And there's no road signs.
01:53:26.399 --> 01:53:34.079
I mean, even if you because they were saying they were giving us like an address and a and a street, and I'm like, there's no numbers.
01:53:34.319 --> 01:53:37.600
Or there's no mailboxes, no load marks, there's no porches.
01:53:37.920 --> 01:53:42.960
I mean, you know, you couldn't tell anything, and and you don't realize how dark dark is, do you?
01:53:44.159 --> 01:53:58.960
Until you're standing out in the middle of something like that, uh with no you have a flashlight or whatever, but maybe it's a weird feeling, and I know y'all were out there doing what you had to do, but when you were going around with, you know, I'm a I was a school police.
01:53:59.039 --> 01:54:01.119
We, you know, we were just out there trying to do our best.
01:54:01.279 --> 01:54:04.159
Me and Danny Robinson, I think Jesse Williams were out.
01:54:04.399 --> 01:54:10.399
And at the this time, and it's so dark, and your flashlights are you're like, I'm not made for this anymore.
01:54:10.560 --> 01:54:10.800
I know.
01:54:10.960 --> 01:54:15.199
And you're like, All right, my aunt's gone, she's at the hospital.
01:54:15.279 --> 01:54:17.119
I can't get out of here in a trooper.
01:54:17.359 --> 01:54:21.439
I think, you know, Scotty Penny, or somebody was like, hey, can you help us?
01:54:21.600 --> 01:54:23.359
We're gonna go over here and look for bodies.
01:54:23.520 --> 01:54:25.199
I'm like, oh yeah.
01:54:25.359 --> 01:54:37.279
You know, I'm about I'm my mission focused on finding my ahmed turns into uh recovery in and look for still people trapped because we was out there probably an hour after it, you know, it was done.
01:54:37.359 --> 01:54:38.640
And I'm like, oh.
01:54:39.119 --> 01:54:46.159
And I'll tell you how we don't know who if there's anything that would be a trigger for me after that, is smoke detectors.
01:54:46.399 --> 01:54:47.680
Oh yeah, you could hear them all.
01:54:48.960 --> 01:54:50.800
I mean, yeah, I just wouldn't shut up.
01:54:50.960 --> 01:54:55.359
It was every house that had one, they were going off, and it was from the dust.
01:54:55.600 --> 01:54:55.840
Right.
01:54:56.239 --> 01:55:02.239
You know, and I said, if I hear smoke detectors, I can honestly see that being a trigger.
01:55:02.319 --> 01:55:11.359
If there is the smoke detectors and gas lines, just the smell, the the lime carrying on.
01:55:11.439 --> 01:55:12.880
Yeah, I was like everywhere.
01:55:13.119 --> 01:55:15.600
I could that one freaked me out because it was sucking, you know.
01:55:15.680 --> 01:55:18.880
I mean, and you know, as a firefighter, we're trying to go shut those off.
01:55:19.039 --> 01:55:19.680
Well, there wasn't a lot of things.
01:55:19.760 --> 01:55:20.960
We're gonna go shut them off.
01:55:21.279 --> 01:55:24.399
I mean they broke off, and that was crazy.
01:55:24.640 --> 01:55:27.359
Every time you'd be like, is it safe to start my car right now?
01:55:27.520 --> 01:55:28.319
You know, you know what I'm saying?
01:55:28.399 --> 01:55:29.920
I was like talking on your radio, yeah.
01:55:30.079 --> 01:55:32.239
That that can trigger it, and people don't know that.
01:55:32.479 --> 01:55:50.880
I was uh luckily it's probably dissipated when right out, but you were like I I remember thinking I'm the smell of natural gas and the sound of uh smoke detectors was just it was and you were out there over debris and nails every day.
01:55:51.520 --> 01:55:55.920
How many nail injuries did y'all I mean I honestly I didn't hear of that many?
01:55:56.399 --> 01:55:58.800
I stepped on three that they didn't go into my foot.
01:55:59.039 --> 01:56:02.640
Yeah, I heard the belt put my shoe off three times flat tires, but that's right.
01:56:02.720 --> 01:56:03.359
We found a diary.
01:56:03.920 --> 01:56:06.000
The rescue squad has their six by six.
01:56:06.640 --> 01:56:13.119
We blew every tire on that thing, and still we had patients in the back, and we were driving on the flat tires.
01:56:13.840 --> 01:56:16.000
But we do what we gotta do, yeah.
01:56:16.479 --> 01:56:18.960
But I I found my aunt, I went to the hospital.
01:56:19.039 --> 01:56:20.079
Luckily, she didn't go to wine.
01:56:20.399 --> 01:56:28.319
They could they were going to take her to Wine Pine and couldn't get up there, so he just took her to the hospital and got checked out.
01:56:28.399 --> 01:56:36.239
And I remember going in there and she really she was like, you know, glad to see me, but still in total shock.
01:56:36.560 --> 01:56:38.880
Oh, I don't want you know, oh, you don't see me like this.
01:56:39.039 --> 01:56:39.840
I'm like, oh yeah.
01:56:40.079 --> 01:56:42.000
I'm just glad you're intact.
01:56:44.640 --> 01:56:54.079
You you you don't need to go there for a little while at us and going through those things and seeing old pictures of you know, you're like, oh my gosh.
01:56:54.159 --> 01:56:54.319
Yeah.
01:56:54.479 --> 01:57:02.319
It it makes you realize that we we s it's just stuff that we we hoard and keep and stuff.
01:57:02.640 --> 01:57:05.199
The memories of the pictures and stuff are so important.
01:57:05.520 --> 01:57:08.079
But that other stuff is just stuff.
01:57:08.479 --> 01:57:17.920
You know, I I took a picture and actually posted on Facebook that morning of the 17th, and it was of uh Raggedy Andy or whatever laying out in the field.
01:57:18.159 --> 01:57:20.800
And it was just like, this brings it together out here.
01:57:20.960 --> 01:57:21.760
You know, yeah.
01:57:21.920 --> 01:57:28.319
There was no house anywhere around well, but there's this doll just laying there that was some kid's toy or whatever, you know.
01:57:28.479 --> 01:57:32.239
And that's just how in a matter of seconds your life can be just torn apart.
01:57:32.880 --> 01:57:47.279
And things that we think sometimes are not that important to us, or to but you don't know what that is to somebody else or whatever, and how that when it's all gone, I mean, I couldn't imagine starting over and having to build a house.
01:57:47.600 --> 01:57:48.319
No, absolutely not.
01:57:48.479 --> 01:57:51.359
And I sure don't think I could build back where a tornado.
01:57:51.600 --> 01:57:53.039
I mean, I don't know that I could live there.
01:57:53.680 --> 01:57:59.680
No, after that, my my wife's aunt was was in Sunshine Hills, and they were super lucky.
01:57:59.760 --> 01:58:06.079
I mean, they they said when it started coming over, they jumped in the bathtub and threw the, you know, threw a cushion over top of them.
01:58:06.399 --> 01:58:16.159
Said it for about two minutes they heard, you know, it's just a god awful sound every and then they got out, and then the only thing was standing was the wall that the bathtub was on, and then everything else was.
01:58:16.560 --> 01:58:17.520
And you've always heard that.
01:58:17.760 --> 01:58:19.840
And I thought, well, yeah, all right, go to the bathtub.
01:58:19.920 --> 01:58:22.079
Hey, bathtub saved a lot of people's lives.
01:58:23.039 --> 01:58:24.720
Yeah, they absolutely did.
01:58:24.960 --> 01:58:31.760
And that is all that just the whole front of the house gone, the sides gone, and there's just those center interior rooms.
01:58:31.840 --> 01:58:38.880
I mean, we always hear go to an interior room, you mentioned going to the bathroom in 20 or 20 years ago.
01:58:39.199 --> 01:58:42.960
They decided to rebuild there, but they really they really questioned it there for a little bit.
01:58:43.279 --> 01:58:44.880
My aunt's home, right?
01:58:45.119 --> 01:58:45.760
Yeah, exactly.
01:58:46.000 --> 01:58:53.039
My my aunt sold her place, you know, and and that that's gonna there's gonna be some that build, some that that sell.
01:58:53.680 --> 01:58:54.960
And it's not gonna look the same.
01:58:55.279 --> 01:58:56.319
You know, I mean that.
01:58:56.800 --> 01:59:01.920
And then and then for the kids, which there was not a lot of kids in that area.
01:59:02.319 --> 01:59:02.640
Thank God.
01:59:03.279 --> 01:59:04.000
Not like some areas.
01:59:04.720 --> 01:59:05.840
I mean, it was older.
01:59:06.239 --> 01:59:08.000
Primarily an elderly population.
01:59:08.560 --> 01:59:12.560
If this would have happened 15 years ago, their kids, you know, they would have been kids, yeah.
01:59:12.800 --> 01:59:14.239
Yeah, they would have, and they've moved off.
01:59:14.800 --> 01:59:19.920
You know, you think though that if there are kids there and they're used to their community, that's the bad thing, though.
01:59:20.239 --> 01:59:23.039
If they build back, then other people's kids aren't there.
01:59:23.119 --> 01:59:27.199
And I mean, it's just it's it's strange how it can change so fast.
01:59:27.439 --> 01:59:31.680
You know, Sunshine Hills was you know, I include Wesland with it.
01:59:32.000 --> 01:59:32.880
The Westland State.
01:59:32.960 --> 01:59:36.000
I mean, it's kind of it's probably a different subdivision.
01:59:36.319 --> 01:59:40.479
It is, but that thing was that whole area is Sunshine Hills to me.
01:59:40.640 --> 01:59:40.960
Yeah.
01:59:41.520 --> 01:59:43.680
But it was gone.
01:59:43.760 --> 01:59:49.520
And then Yeah, we're I went to a wedding over there at that venue next to the airport over there.
01:59:52.239 --> 01:59:54.000
And I was talking to Ben.
01:59:54.319 --> 01:59:57.439
We he was, you know, Ben Webb was he's a city police.
01:59:57.520 --> 02:00:09.680
I think he was working at ten, eight that night and That afternoon and and he said it's just hard for me to sit here at this wedding and not see know what I saw over here and here and here.
02:00:14.560 --> 02:00:17.760
And um you know Yeah.
02:00:18.079 --> 02:00:19.039
It j it was just tough.
02:00:19.600 --> 02:00:20.479
It is, it is tough.
02:00:20.560 --> 02:00:21.600
And it it's already done.
02:00:21.680 --> 02:00:23.600
I mean even drive back through there now.
02:00:23.840 --> 02:00:24.239
Oh yeah.
02:00:24.399 --> 02:00:27.680
Uh you know, you're excited to see people rebuilding their lives.
02:00:27.920 --> 02:01:07.439
But man of life, I it just uh those memories I can still see things that I saw that night or whatever, you know what just coming from where I was I saw more dead people on one call than I ever have combined probably and there was people hurt everywhere, but the one thing that really still gets to me is just watching the people walk towards you.
02:01:07.520 --> 02:01:07.680
Yeah.
02:01:07.920 --> 02:01:10.000
It looked like the walking dead coming towards you.
02:01:11.680 --> 02:01:21.199
And the one kid that I saw that night, and he was just like, Our house is gone.
02:01:21.439 --> 02:01:25.520
I was like, Yeah, I mean, but you still got your family.
02:01:25.760 --> 02:01:26.000
Yeah.
02:01:26.239 --> 02:01:29.119
He's like, Yeah, I still got them, but we're we're gonna be okay.
02:01:29.359 --> 02:01:29.760
Yeah.
02:01:30.000 --> 02:01:32.800
I was like, that's the mentality to have, young man.
02:01:33.520 --> 02:01:34.640
It's tough.
02:01:35.039 --> 02:01:45.039
It's um it's gonna be years and years of of of trauma and shock, you know.
02:01:45.439 --> 02:01:52.960
I couldn't imagine what next spring well, the tornadoes that hit in it was December 10th.
02:01:53.279 --> 02:01:54.319
Yeah, in 21.
02:01:54.880 --> 02:01:56.239
21 in Mayfell.
02:01:56.319 --> 02:01:56.640
Mm-hmm.
02:01:56.880 --> 02:01:58.399
I mean that went through downtown.
02:01:58.479 --> 02:01:58.640
Yeah.
02:01:58.960 --> 02:02:01.199
That was that was unbelievable as well.
02:02:01.439 --> 02:02:03.199
But I you know, that's my dad's birthday.
02:02:03.359 --> 02:02:03.600
Oh, yeah.
02:02:03.920 --> 02:02:08.239
We're talking about the first snow usually year is around his birthday.
02:02:08.479 --> 02:02:18.720
And um for a tornado, you know, so you just never know, but I couldn't imagine the spring and of of big storms coming into the cloud rolls in, you're gonna get worried.
02:02:19.039 --> 02:02:30.079
I still look at them now and you like you know, and I know you see that stuff too, and you hear the people they'll take pictures of these clouds, and you're like, yeah, it's gonna be tough to get through for a while.
02:02:30.239 --> 02:02:36.479
And and I don't blame nobody because um I know I'll look at it differently, you know.
02:02:36.800 --> 02:02:37.600
Oh, absolutely.
02:02:37.920 --> 02:02:38.720
It's it's scary.
02:02:39.119 --> 02:02:51.680
I I just can't say good things uh all the time, but seventy-six people got transported to the hospital that night.
02:02:52.239 --> 02:02:53.359
Seventy-six.
02:02:54.079 --> 02:02:57.760
That's how many people we were found and recovered.
02:02:58.479 --> 02:03:12.640
And the teams that came from other parts of the state, I they they had to go through the area because they were relieving all of the Law County crews.
02:03:13.520 --> 02:03:20.319
Um they wanted some people from home to go with them and try to look at the area.
02:03:20.640 --> 02:03:28.159
And the group I was with, they they looked at me and they said, There's we can't there's nothing for us to do.
02:03:28.399 --> 02:03:29.600
You all done it.
02:03:30.319 --> 02:03:32.800
By the morning, everybody had been found.
02:03:33.760 --> 02:03:34.159
That's awesome.
02:03:34.319 --> 02:03:36.079
Nobody that's best case scenario.
02:03:36.800 --> 02:03:37.680
It is, it is.
02:03:38.079 --> 02:03:39.359
That's dedication.
02:03:39.520 --> 02:03:48.239
You all have some very professional folks, and what they, you know, not every you know, you got new guys.
02:03:48.319 --> 02:03:54.640
What they lack in experience and that, they have the gumption and the grit to go after it, and that's good.
02:03:54.960 --> 02:04:03.920
And people being in it for the right reasons and not and there was there was like I said, there was a lot of new people on the rescue squad that were there that night.
02:04:04.239 --> 02:04:09.600
And it's hard to tell tell them, hey, we can't we can't help this person.
02:04:09.760 --> 02:04:11.600
And they're like, Well, they're right here.
02:04:11.760 --> 02:04:13.279
I said, Yeah, but they're dead.
02:04:13.600 --> 02:04:14.640
We we can't do nothing.
02:04:14.720 --> 02:04:16.319
We there's people over here that need our help.
02:04:16.880 --> 02:04:24.560
Triaging is make a bad call or not.
02:04:25.520 --> 02:04:27.760
That that'll haunt me forever.
02:04:29.520 --> 02:04:34.960
Because they teach you triage in the EMT class and they're like black tag.
02:04:35.359 --> 02:04:35.840
Yeah.
02:04:36.079 --> 02:04:46.000
And people could still be alive, but you know they're not gonna be alive, and you can't waste your time trying to help this person that's way too much.
02:04:46.640 --> 02:04:54.319
You've got to help you've got to help somebody whose likelihood of survival is is greater than so it's it's hard to hear and it's hard to to do.
02:04:54.640 --> 02:04:58.560
It's it's kind of when you're in this line of business, you want to help everybody.
02:04:59.119 --> 02:04:59.920
Oh, yeah.
02:05:00.319 --> 02:05:06.960
And um It's kind of like with active shooter training with with law enforcement.
02:05:07.600 --> 02:05:14.159
You're trained if you've got bodies on the floor, you've got people yelling that are shot, screaming out that need help.
02:05:14.319 --> 02:05:18.800
It's hard to go past that without but that's not your job at the time.
02:05:18.960 --> 02:05:20.800
You've got to step and you've got to stop.
02:05:21.039 --> 02:05:24.079
You've got to stop the threat in order to help these people.
02:05:24.479 --> 02:05:26.640
So it's the same with that, you know, with triage.
02:05:26.880 --> 02:05:32.319
You've got to you've got to stop, you know, you've got to help who you can and who you know that you you can actually save.
02:05:32.560 --> 02:05:39.119
And it's like that night, state police, my goodness, they helped us a lot.
02:05:39.279 --> 02:05:39.600
Yep.
02:05:39.840 --> 02:05:41.039
It was great.
02:05:41.520 --> 02:05:46.640
And they were trying to help somebody, and I said, hey, we we gotta get going.
02:05:46.960 --> 02:05:47.520
It's tough.
02:05:47.600 --> 02:05:48.720
It's it's tough stuff.
02:05:49.119 --> 02:05:50.000
Oh, yeah.
02:05:50.319 --> 02:05:58.399
Well, you've got a notebook full of stuff that we've uh we've been, you know, we've we've kind of derailed some, so let's let's lighten up a little bit.
02:06:00.319 --> 02:06:02.399
So we'll get the fun and stuff now.
02:06:03.920 --> 02:06:05.199
Hey, this stuff's great, though.
02:06:05.279 --> 02:06:12.720
I mean, it's it's stuff that needs to be talked about about the tornado because it's well, it's been four months, five months, four months.
02:06:13.039 --> 02:06:20.800
And sometimes the best therapy is to get it, you know, just talk so I it's gonna affect us for years and years.
02:06:20.880 --> 02:06:23.439
And and I don't know when I both maybe talked about it.
02:06:23.600 --> 02:06:33.199
Uh you know, you you think after what you saw and what's it did you know we talk about this about every episode with about each guest is that's kind of the reason we started this podcast.
02:06:33.439 --> 02:06:43.840
I mean, it's partially for entertainment and then it's partially, you know, it helps us to bounce these things off, these stories, these horrible calls that we've had off of each other.
02:06:44.000 --> 02:06:45.920
You get it off, you get it out into the open out.
02:06:46.479 --> 02:06:54.399
Sometimes talking like this will allow you to let your guard down a little bit, even though this mic's in front.
02:06:54.560 --> 02:07:03.600
But me asking a question about it and talking about it, may you may you two might talk about it, but maybe, maybe not.
02:07:03.760 --> 02:07:04.239
Right.
02:07:04.640 --> 02:07:08.880
But people need to hear, and you need to get it's a way to decompress too.
02:07:08.960 --> 02:07:11.520
So it's good for your soul, really.
02:07:11.760 --> 02:07:15.279
Um, so I know you all went to the floods in 2022.
02:07:15.439 --> 02:07:15.680
Absolutely.
02:07:16.319 --> 02:07:16.880
I went to that.
02:07:17.119 --> 02:07:19.119
One of the greatest experiences of my life.
02:07:19.359 --> 02:07:24.399
So it was terrible, but it was uh it was an awesome and humbling experience.
02:07:25.439 --> 02:07:31.199
So the day it hit, I was supposed to be at work at eight o'clock.
02:07:32.640 --> 02:07:38.399
Now, being a swift water tech, those are the big things.
02:07:38.640 --> 02:07:39.039
Yeah.
02:07:39.359 --> 02:07:48.159
Um, we get called to Clay County for mutual aid, and Onita, they said Onita's underwater, we need help, and there's somebody trapped.
02:07:48.399 --> 02:07:48.720
Okay.
02:07:49.520 --> 02:07:50.960
So we meet up.
02:07:52.800 --> 02:07:52.880
Yeah.
02:07:53.920 --> 02:07:58.479
So we went to 421 and 11, and we start going down.
02:07:58.640 --> 02:08:00.720
You see the floods and everything.
02:08:01.840 --> 02:08:10.640
We get maybe about five miles down highway 11, and the Clay County boys were like, uh we're stuck.
02:08:10.960 --> 02:08:12.079
How are we stuck?
02:08:12.319 --> 02:08:14.399
There's a landslide up ahead.
02:08:14.640 --> 02:08:16.560
Oh, you got somebody coming?
02:08:16.640 --> 02:08:18.479
Yeah, they're gonna be here in about two hours.
02:08:18.640 --> 02:08:21.439
And I'm like, boy, I gotta be at work.
02:08:22.399 --> 02:08:31.840
But so where we were, there was no self-service, so I'm freaking out because I'm like, I'm probably gonna have a job when I get back.
02:08:32.319 --> 02:08:32.640
Okay.
02:08:33.760 --> 02:08:36.079
And they cleared it out.
02:08:36.319 --> 02:08:38.640
Well, there's another one, yeah.
02:08:38.880 --> 02:08:41.920
And it's bigger, so they clear that one.
02:08:42.159 --> 02:08:47.279
Well, we go up the road a little bit, and they're like, uh, there's an even bigger one.
02:08:47.920 --> 02:08:51.840
Half the mountain had come down, and there was trees standing straight up.
02:08:52.239 --> 02:08:52.880
Wow.
02:08:53.119 --> 02:08:57.359
It took us six hours to get to Onita on Highway 11.
02:08:57.600 --> 02:08:57.920
Jeez.
02:08:58.399 --> 02:09:00.560
And we were about faster on horseback.
02:09:00.800 --> 02:09:05.840
Yeah, we were probably about three, four miles past Laurel Creek Nursing Home, if you know where that is.
02:09:10.720 --> 02:09:18.720
From downtown Manchester to over there is probably what 15 minutes if you're if everything's going good.
02:09:19.199 --> 02:09:19.840
Maybe a little longer.
02:09:21.520 --> 02:09:23.600
Or you're in the fire truck down there.
02:09:23.840 --> 02:09:25.119
Oh yeah, we've done that too.
02:09:25.520 --> 02:09:26.319
Way later.
02:09:27.039 --> 02:09:32.239
But it's a it's a good little haul from but still, it shouldn't be a six-hour ordeal.
02:09:32.560 --> 02:09:40.399
No and so we get to Onita, and obviously it it had flooded really bad.
02:09:40.640 --> 02:09:43.359
And they was like, Well, boys, we already got her.
02:09:44.479 --> 02:09:45.840
That'd been nice to have known.
02:09:46.079 --> 02:09:46.880
Yeah, yeah.
02:09:47.119 --> 02:09:48.960
But thanks for the thanks for the heads up.
02:09:49.199 --> 02:09:50.479
Thanks for the heads up.
02:09:50.720 --> 02:09:54.800
Well, we get turned around, we go to the Burger King there by Pizza Pro.
02:09:55.039 --> 02:09:55.439
Mm-hmm.
02:09:55.760 --> 02:10:00.319
And my boss or my captain calls me and he's like, Are you coming to work?
02:10:00.479 --> 02:10:03.039
I said, Um, well, no.
02:10:03.680 --> 02:10:05.039
And he's like, What do you mean no?
02:10:05.119 --> 02:10:10.800
I said, I'm in Clay County rescuing people, and not be like, Well, we just wasted our time.
02:10:10.960 --> 02:10:11.600
Yeah.
02:10:11.920 --> 02:10:18.479
But this is about the time they were needing help in Perry County, and they asked us to go.
02:10:18.560 --> 02:10:22.960
So I said, Well, I'm getting deployed to Perry County, so you're gonna have to call somebody in.
02:10:23.199 --> 02:10:27.760
And we get over there, not realizing how bad it was.
02:10:27.920 --> 02:10:35.199
We had heard helicopters were doing rooftop rescues, and there was boats getting people.
02:10:36.720 --> 02:10:44.239
We go down a road, and you're just looking around and you're like, oh my goodness, everything's gone.
02:10:45.199 --> 02:10:46.960
And I got pictures of it.
02:10:47.119 --> 02:10:50.479
There's a fire hydrant sucked out of the ground.
02:10:50.720 --> 02:10:51.119
Gosh.
02:10:51.359 --> 02:10:52.640
And it's just sitting there like this.
02:10:52.720 --> 02:10:55.760
And I said, just imagine how fast that water was going.
02:10:56.720 --> 02:11:04.960
And later that night, the first night that we were there, we had to go down this Bob's Road.
02:11:05.039 --> 02:11:10.000
I don't know where it was, but there's like a hundred-foot drop right next to you.
02:11:10.079 --> 02:11:14.159
And we're in the dive bus, if y'all know what our dive bus is.
02:11:14.800 --> 02:11:19.279
Ricky George looked at me and he said, Put your seatbelt on, I'm gonna get us out of here.
02:11:19.439 --> 02:11:25.039
And he backed up this road, and he's like, just don't let me get off.
02:11:25.279 --> 02:11:27.039
I said, if we get off, we're gone.
02:11:27.279 --> 02:11:31.199
I said, You'll know it if you hit up it.
02:11:31.760 --> 02:11:33.199
It'll be the last thing you remember.
02:11:33.439 --> 02:11:34.960
It's gonna be smooth for just a second.
02:11:35.359 --> 02:11:43.279
Being over there and just seeing the devastation and seeing how some of these people were living, you're like, we're blessed.
02:11:43.439 --> 02:11:44.239
Yeah, absolutely.
02:11:44.399 --> 02:11:48.319
That's why you know we've taught the natural disaster stuff.
02:11:48.640 --> 02:11:55.359
Man, it's it's it's the power of water, of wind, fire.
02:11:55.520 --> 02:12:00.079
Y'all I it's worse than any.
02:12:00.720 --> 02:12:03.840
I remember driving up on the way up.
02:12:04.000 --> 02:12:11.039
I think Cody was driving, I was on the passenger side, and we went well just going through the town, it looked like you know, like Fallujah or something like a battle.
02:12:11.520 --> 02:12:12.159
Which town was it?
02:12:12.479 --> 02:12:13.119
Fleming.
02:12:13.439 --> 02:12:13.760
Yeah.
02:12:14.000 --> 02:12:18.399
And then, but on the way there, I'll never forget, I've got a picture of it.
02:12:18.640 --> 02:12:31.279
There was a trailer up on the hill on the side, and you had the you know, the river, how they all had bridges over to but there was a trailer over there, and I'm looking at like you just kind of at a glance, you see the car in the driveway.
02:12:31.439 --> 02:12:36.479
Well, the car's not in the driveway, the car is parked on the porch.
02:12:36.560 --> 02:12:37.279
It's in the porch.
02:12:37.520 --> 02:12:42.880
It had picked it up, flipped it upside down and parked inside and it's uh picked it up and put it on the porch.
02:12:43.039 --> 02:12:43.279
Yep.
02:12:43.439 --> 02:12:44.800
And I was like, that's the wildest thing.
02:12:45.039 --> 02:12:48.319
I remember I remember thinking it dried up by the time we got up there.
02:12:48.720 --> 02:12:51.199
But nobody had came to there was a lot of mud left there.
02:12:51.439 --> 02:12:59.520
Fleming was was, you know, we was walking down, it dried up, you know, and it was like dirt and weird.
02:12:59.680 --> 02:13:03.520
It felt like we was walking in a like a ghost town.
02:13:04.720 --> 02:13:07.840
You know, you they'd hit they'd already marked the big X's and stuff like that.
02:13:08.000 --> 02:13:08.319
Female.
02:13:09.199 --> 02:13:09.520
Yeah.
02:13:09.760 --> 02:13:18.159
And but I remember looking and seeing like this is how high the water, you know, six feet up, the mud line on the floor.
02:13:18.319 --> 02:13:20.079
Yeah, the pharmacy was six and a half feet.
02:13:20.239 --> 02:13:24.159
Yeah, and you're like, how in the world did all this stuff.
02:13:24.560 --> 02:13:26.159
And that's you know, the flash flooding.
02:13:26.399 --> 02:13:30.800
I mean, that happens over in a matter of an hour or something, you know, and then it's gone.
02:13:31.039 --> 02:13:31.680
Yeah.
02:13:36.000 --> 02:13:38.079
We've definitely had our share in in the last few years.
02:13:38.479 --> 02:13:38.960
Absolutely.
02:13:39.279 --> 02:13:51.199
So we uh we went back a couple weeks afterwards, and they're like, Yeah, we just need you all to go search because at this time they hadn't found one person.
02:13:52.560 --> 02:13:59.039
And the place we went to was in Knock County, just over the line from Barrie County.
02:13:59.359 --> 02:14:12.479
And we had to you either go with this team, you search a nice straight flat land, and then you're on this side that's nothing but cliffs and riverbank.
02:14:13.600 --> 02:14:16.800
So I got blessed to be on the cliff side.
02:14:17.119 --> 02:14:17.279
Of course.
02:14:18.079 --> 02:14:18.720
Yep.
02:14:19.039 --> 02:14:26.880
So we go searching, and immediately there's a smell, and you're like, Well, we know that smell, you know that smell.
02:14:27.439 --> 02:14:32.560
The team behind us was canines with cadaver dogs, and they recovered a dog.
02:14:32.960 --> 02:14:35.840
Yeah, but there was a whole house under this bridge.
02:14:37.199 --> 02:14:45.600
And we get probably about five, six miles down this god-awful cliffside.
02:14:46.000 --> 02:14:48.640
You have to go up and down, up and down.
02:14:49.279 --> 02:14:53.920
We're scaling the rock face, and I have my radio clicked on my hip.
02:14:54.640 --> 02:15:00.560
And we're going down this rock face, and I hear click, and I look down, and there goes my radio.
02:15:00.720 --> 02:15:02.159
Boom, boom, bloop.
02:15:03.520 --> 02:15:05.439
I about cried.
02:15:05.760 --> 02:15:08.960
I tried to jump after it, and I was like, you idiot, there's floodwater.
02:15:09.680 --> 02:15:12.560
Literally, the water is swift water right below you.
02:15:12.800 --> 02:15:13.680
Yep, gone.
02:15:13.920 --> 02:15:22.000
That that was what was you start hearing about flooding part of you know, in in Perry County, in Clay County.
02:15:22.159 --> 02:15:24.159
So we're driving, we don't see nothing.
02:15:24.239 --> 02:15:25.359
We don't we get to hazard.
02:15:25.520 --> 02:15:30.239
Still, you're like, well, you know how Hazard's got the river, whatever runs right through the middle.
02:15:30.319 --> 02:15:32.399
You're like, nothing there, was it?
02:15:32.640 --> 02:15:34.399
Nothing there, no problem.
02:15:34.800 --> 02:15:40.720
Get down to you start to see a little bit of like uh some you know, some toilet paper trees and stuff like that.
02:15:41.840 --> 02:15:43.199
And you're like, that's not that bad.
02:15:43.359 --> 02:15:44.720
And then you get to Whites.
02:15:44.880 --> 02:15:50.640
Well, we went to Whitesburg first, and you're like coming in out of hazard was rough up when you pass the lake.
02:15:51.439 --> 02:15:53.760
Yeah, you got to the lake, man, we got bad.
02:15:54.800 --> 02:15:56.560
But we were like, okay.
02:15:56.640 --> 02:16:03.840
I because I for you know, hazard's down kind of in the whole part of that right there, those homes on the it just it went a different direction or whatever.
02:16:04.159 --> 02:16:04.800
It's so weird.
02:16:04.960 --> 02:16:05.520
Yeah.
02:16:06.079 --> 02:16:09.600
But down there, and they're like, they caught what the upper bottom or something.
02:16:09.760 --> 02:16:11.119
I don't know, you have an upper bottom.
02:16:11.199 --> 02:16:12.079
Yeah, I don't know what's up.
02:16:12.159 --> 02:16:17.520
Um it's just the neighborhood, and you're like, it got up to this high here, and you know, you're like, wow.
02:16:17.760 --> 02:16:26.880
And then the other side, and then it, you know, my buddy Nathan, he lived over there, he was from London, moved over there, and he was like, I need to show you something.
02:16:27.119 --> 02:16:29.279
He said, You you've not seen anything yet.
02:16:29.439 --> 02:16:34.479
So we go over there and meet with this chief of Fleming or Neon, whichever one.
02:16:35.040 --> 02:16:36.639
He said, Oh, I'm okay.
02:16:36.799 --> 02:16:38.639
I only had about an inch of mud in my house.
02:16:38.799 --> 02:16:39.600
I said, Go home.
02:16:39.840 --> 02:16:40.639
How do you get to the jail?
02:16:40.719 --> 02:16:42.000
He said, Gotta go pipe ball.
02:16:42.079 --> 02:16:42.639
I was like, eh.
02:16:43.520 --> 02:16:44.799
Don't arrest me, buddy.
02:16:45.120 --> 02:16:46.000
Yeah, we guess.
02:16:46.479 --> 02:16:49.040
And and you know, you start hearing the people.
02:16:49.280 --> 02:17:00.319
I got a chance to meet with um, I did an interview with because we ran ran to a fire call, and they were all like following, they were like, Oh, you all ran out of here on a call.
02:17:00.399 --> 02:17:01.120
What was going on?
02:17:01.280 --> 02:17:04.159
And it was uh national weather, it was Fox weather.
02:17:04.239 --> 02:17:06.799
I'd never I didn't even know about them at the time.
02:17:07.120 --> 02:17:15.280
And I did an interview with them, and we we went off, we was live, and I was like, Oh, they was like, Oh, we need somebody who's doing it, and everybody's like, You're the chief dude.
02:17:15.360 --> 02:17:15.920
Yeah, you get it.
02:17:16.319 --> 02:17:22.479
And um, but I started talking to that guy and I was like, You've not seen it neon yet.
02:17:22.559 --> 02:17:23.120
He's a what?
02:17:23.280 --> 02:17:26.639
I said, You need to go and you need to get some help here.
02:17:27.200 --> 02:17:35.120
And um people were bringing, you know, because Whitzberg did a really good job saying, hey, we need help, we need this and this and this.
02:17:35.440 --> 02:17:39.680
And little town like Fleming and Neon, and they don't have that resources of that.
02:17:39.920 --> 02:17:48.959
You know, you were talking about a couple hundred people who live there, but we started kidnapping and stealing these cars that all these people had brought in.
02:17:49.120 --> 02:17:50.799
We we was carjacking them.
02:17:51.280 --> 02:17:53.280
It was like you don't need all those, they need them.
02:17:53.520 --> 02:17:59.440
I mean, they was running, they was running F-150 through floodwaters and run them.
02:17:59.840 --> 02:18:01.040
They had nothing over there.
02:18:01.440 --> 02:18:02.399
You can't imagine.
02:18:02.639 --> 02:18:03.360
It was crazy.
02:18:03.680 --> 02:18:04.879
Craziest things I've ever seen.
02:18:05.200 --> 02:18:16.879
Seeing the roads destroyed, like there was roads waving and seeing all the oil from the cars in the water and just nasty propane tanks floating down the water.
02:18:17.200 --> 02:18:17.920
Like that was nice.
02:18:18.159 --> 02:18:19.520
The residential propane tanks.
02:18:19.760 --> 02:18:26.319
I think I saw about three or four like the big thousand gallon propane tanks just floating down the water.
02:18:26.879 --> 02:18:30.000
I'm hoping they get get get it all.
02:18:30.079 --> 02:18:31.840
I mean, it's still gonna be there again.
02:18:32.239 --> 02:18:34.719
Years of that's been three years ago now.
02:18:34.959 --> 02:18:37.520
Yeah, they're still rebuilding homes over there too.
02:18:37.680 --> 02:18:41.440
So none of it gets in done and dealt with fast.
02:18:42.159 --> 02:18:45.360
It happens in a minute and it's got takes years to recover.
02:18:45.520 --> 02:18:46.159
Yeah.
02:18:47.920 --> 02:18:52.000
Did did I ever work any calls with you boys that you can think of?
02:18:52.479 --> 02:18:55.680
I've I've seen you out on wrecks, I've seen you on a great bunch.
02:18:55.760 --> 02:19:02.799
So but um And I'm sure I've sent many of uh overdose or something.
02:19:03.040 --> 02:19:03.840
Oh yeah.
02:19:04.799 --> 02:19:05.680
Oh yeah.
02:19:06.239 --> 02:19:08.719
Uh when when they're fighting after your Nord can't be.
02:19:08.959 --> 02:19:16.319
So speaking of overdose, so I was working one night, we get a call for possible overdose at the cookie factory.
02:19:17.040 --> 02:19:21.760
So we go down there and uh Drew Jackson was there.
02:19:22.239 --> 02:19:27.600
And we walk over to this car and I said, Where's the patient?
02:19:28.079 --> 02:19:30.399
And Drew goes, Oh, there he is.
02:19:30.479 --> 02:19:32.239
He's under the car, overdosed.
02:19:32.559 --> 02:19:36.000
Wow, completely unresponsive, barely breathing.
02:19:36.159 --> 02:19:38.079
And I'm like, Drew, we gotta get him out.
02:19:38.799 --> 02:19:42.079
So me and Drew are dragging this guy out from under this car.
02:19:42.399 --> 02:19:43.120
Him gurgling.
02:19:43.280 --> 02:19:43.760
Oh, yeah.
02:19:44.319 --> 02:19:48.239
And we get him loaded in the truck, and I'm not with the paramedic.
02:19:48.479 --> 02:19:50.479
So it's EMT and EMT.
02:19:50.719 --> 02:19:52.559
There really ain't much I can do.
02:19:52.719 --> 02:19:55.760
I mean, I could give him narkin up his nose.
02:19:56.159 --> 02:20:01.360
We we did that, and uh, I look down, oh boy quit breathing.
02:20:01.600 --> 02:20:03.040
I was like, oh no.
02:20:03.760 --> 02:20:08.879
Well, about two seconds later, he goes and opens his eyes and he looked at me.
02:20:09.200 --> 02:20:11.520
He goes, Where am I at?
02:20:12.159 --> 02:20:14.959
I said, buddy, uh, you you died.
02:20:15.120 --> 02:20:18.159
And he said, No, no.
02:20:18.799 --> 02:20:21.520
I said, Listen, you're not in trouble.
02:20:22.079 --> 02:20:25.760
Like, we have to ask him, like, what'd you take?
02:20:25.840 --> 02:20:28.079
And he's like, buddy, I didn't take nothing.
02:20:28.319 --> 02:20:30.159
Yeah, no, don't want to answer.
02:20:30.799 --> 02:20:32.000
And oh no.
02:20:37.920 --> 02:20:41.040
I mean, you probably used to at some point in time, but you don't.
02:20:41.440 --> 02:20:43.760
They're having a medical merch in there's a way of thinking.
02:20:44.399 --> 02:20:47.200
But they don't think uh fentanyl.
02:20:47.440 --> 02:20:48.079
Yeah, fentanyl.
02:20:48.319 --> 02:20:49.200
Fentanyl.
02:20:49.520 --> 02:20:54.000
And Jerry was like, Well, it's a scourge.
02:20:54.159 --> 02:21:06.479
I mean, that when that hit, I remember you're talking about when meth hit, and the pills hit hard, you know, the oxycontins and and we still didn't have the overdose oxyfentanol.
02:21:06.799 --> 02:21:07.040
No.
02:21:07.280 --> 02:21:18.879
When we went with the pills, yeah, when the oxycontin went away, when they made it harder to get than than heroin and just straight up fentanyl stuff started hitting, and that was the worst thing.
02:21:19.040 --> 02:21:35.760
I mean the opioid you know, the pandemic it was really ruined generations of it, especially in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee and wherever, but Ohio, that's south.
02:21:36.000 --> 02:21:41.360
But when when uh they couldn't get it so easy, it got worse.
02:21:41.520 --> 02:21:41.840
Yeah.
02:21:42.079 --> 02:21:42.959
It got way worse.
02:21:43.280 --> 02:21:45.200
Well, they were they were cutting everything with fentanyl.
02:21:45.280 --> 02:21:48.719
I mean, we had guys with meth cut with fentanyl, which I mean I don't know how that works.
02:21:48.879 --> 02:21:49.920
I mean totally opposite.
02:21:50.079 --> 02:21:51.280
Yeah, you got it up and down.
02:21:51.440 --> 02:21:52.879
I mean, split in half.
02:21:54.959 --> 02:22:02.559
Then we had a bad batch of uh Xanax bars that they were pressing, and it was straight fentanyl.
02:22:02.639 --> 02:22:03.920
Yeah, it wasn't so it was.
02:22:04.799 --> 02:22:10.159
We had like 30 some overdoses in a week or two in the city, not to mention Ford County.
02:22:10.319 --> 02:22:10.479
Right.
02:22:10.799 --> 02:22:11.280
That's crazy.
02:22:11.520 --> 02:22:13.680
And get more Narcan than you ever thought.
02:22:14.239 --> 02:22:14.799
Yeah, I know.
02:22:15.040 --> 02:22:28.479
You know, when they first gave us Narcan and uh the pharmacist came in, gave us a little quick talk about it, and um we're like, we'll never have to use this.
02:22:30.799 --> 02:22:32.719
I was like, we'll save that just in case we get it spotted.
02:22:34.399 --> 02:22:34.799
Oh my gosh.
02:22:35.040 --> 02:22:36.559
I had to narcate a guy just the other day.
02:22:36.719 --> 02:22:37.840
It was a goat roping.
02:22:38.159 --> 02:22:38.799
It gets awful.
02:22:39.120 --> 02:22:42.639
Went from foot pursuit to taking him to jail.
02:22:42.799 --> 02:22:44.239
He ate whatever he had.
02:22:44.399 --> 02:22:47.600
I guess it was fentanyl or what heroin or whatever he had.
02:22:47.840 --> 02:22:50.239
During the foot pursuit, get him to the jail.
02:22:50.319 --> 02:22:51.920
He's starting to all of a sudden.
02:22:52.319 --> 02:22:56.000
Yeah, he's he's starting to nod and he's like, I was like crap.
02:22:56.079 --> 02:22:58.399
I was like, I gotta get him in here, get him in there.
02:22:58.639 --> 02:23:00.879
OD's right in the middle of processing him.
02:23:01.600 --> 02:23:03.760
So it's it it turned into a goat rubbing.
02:23:03.920 --> 02:23:07.440
But he took eight milligrams of Narcan to get him back.
02:23:07.600 --> 02:23:07.920
Get him back.
02:23:08.239 --> 02:23:09.280
Y'all remember Flocca?
02:23:09.440 --> 02:23:10.159
Yeah, Floca.
02:23:10.639 --> 02:23:12.159
Oh buddy, I got a story about Flocca.
02:23:12.399 --> 02:23:13.360
Oh, let's hear it.
02:23:13.680 --> 02:23:20.159
So I went it was about three o'clock in the morning, and we have two stations, you know.
02:23:20.719 --> 02:23:25.200
We get a call in the south end, uh, Appaloosa Trail.
02:23:25.440 --> 02:23:25.840
Mm-hmm.
02:23:26.000 --> 02:23:26.479
Yep.
02:23:27.360 --> 02:23:28.879
Possible overdose.
02:23:29.440 --> 02:23:29.760
Okay.
02:23:30.959 --> 02:23:37.040
Well, we stood by an area, and SO gets down there, and they're like, Yeah, send him on in London.
02:23:37.280 --> 02:23:37.520
Okay.
02:23:38.079 --> 02:23:41.120
I walked in and deputy's like, he's right back there.
02:23:41.440 --> 02:23:44.799
So I walked back, I had my little flashlight, and I'm like, hello.
02:23:45.520 --> 02:23:48.000
Well, this dude just comes out like this.
02:23:49.120 --> 02:23:51.200
Just ready to go.
02:23:51.520 --> 02:23:53.040
And I said, Oh Lord.
02:23:54.559 --> 02:23:55.600
And I said, hi.
02:23:56.000 --> 02:23:58.239
And he just he comes right at me.
02:23:58.559 --> 02:24:01.200
And I was like, Well, here it is.
02:24:01.520 --> 02:24:07.600
So obviously I'm in my defense stage, and he takes a swing at me.
02:24:07.840 --> 02:24:12.879
Luckily, I just put my arm up and caught him, and the fight was on after that.
02:24:13.040 --> 02:24:18.719
And let me tell you, if you've never fought somebody on Flocca, it's like fighting 400 Mike Tysons at once.
02:24:18.879 --> 02:24:21.520
It's wild how str how how stare they get.
02:24:21.680 --> 02:24:21.840
Yep.
02:24:22.000 --> 02:24:24.799
And a taser will not affect you can't, they don't feel pain.
02:24:24.879 --> 02:24:25.520
They don't, you can't.
02:24:25.920 --> 02:24:37.360
Meth was that way for a while, you know, and uh I think Flocca, all this stuff is stimul uh like they get this ungodly strength.
02:24:37.600 --> 02:24:42.479
So I could imagine I could imagine finding somebody on the what that angel what's that stuff?
02:24:42.559 --> 02:24:48.559
Uh PCP 70s and I reckon they was way on the hard.
02:24:48.879 --> 02:24:52.959
You've got Molly now and all that MDMT or whatever it is.
02:24:53.440 --> 02:24:54.479
I'll tell you a story.
02:24:54.559 --> 02:24:57.600
One of our instructors told us in the academy.
02:24:57.920 --> 02:25:04.879
He worked, I think it was the Lexington Metro and worked narcotics that he's out on a guy.
02:25:05.040 --> 02:25:09.920
This this guy's blowed out of his mind on meth or flocca or something.
02:25:10.000 --> 02:25:12.239
One of those one of those hallucinogens.
02:25:12.799 --> 02:25:14.399
Can't get him a pain compliance.
02:25:15.280 --> 02:25:16.239
He's naked.
02:25:17.280 --> 02:25:22.239
In the middle of downtown Lexington, and he's chasing this guy around.
02:25:22.319 --> 02:25:26.879
He said, at some point in time, he said it kind of felt like this guy was chasing me around the car.
02:25:28.559 --> 02:25:31.440
He said he finally gets him down on the ground and cannot get him.
02:25:31.680 --> 02:25:34.799
And he said, he said, you know, it might not have been the best thing for me to do.
02:25:34.879 --> 02:25:38.879
He said, but I just happened to look down and he said, I seen that old little flaccid thing.
02:25:39.040 --> 02:25:40.879
He said, I just drove my knee right into it.
02:25:41.760 --> 02:25:43.920
He said, That pain compliance works.
02:25:46.719 --> 02:25:47.040
Oh.
02:25:48.479 --> 02:25:48.799
Oh.
02:25:49.360 --> 02:25:50.319
It's fun.
02:25:50.479 --> 02:25:52.319
I know you got a bunch more.
02:25:52.959 --> 02:25:55.520
We can come back and do something because we've been at it.
02:25:55.680 --> 02:25:56.000
Yeah.
02:25:56.399 --> 02:25:58.959
We're going on two and a half hours.
02:26:00.239 --> 02:26:01.600
Time flies when it when we're having a lot of things.
02:26:01.680 --> 02:26:06.719
So y'all want to adjourn and redo name later.
02:26:06.959 --> 02:26:07.600
Yeah.
02:26:08.079 --> 02:26:09.840
This was this is so much fun.
02:26:09.920 --> 02:26:11.440
It's good for the soul.
02:26:11.760 --> 02:26:15.920
Um I've I've really enjoyed you guys.
02:26:16.479 --> 02:26:19.440
It's fun to be around guys I've not got to see you no more.
02:26:19.600 --> 02:26:20.719
Honestly, I missed you guys.
02:26:21.040 --> 02:26:22.399
Appreciate y'all having us.
02:26:22.559 --> 02:26:22.959
Yeah.
02:26:24.479 --> 02:26:24.799
Definitely.
02:26:24.879 --> 02:26:26.479
It's been a it's been real.
02:26:26.799 --> 02:26:27.440
Absolutely.
02:26:27.680 --> 02:26:30.159
It's been real, it's been fun, but it ain't been real for days.
02:26:34.639 --> 02:26:35.440
All right, guys.
02:26:35.520 --> 02:26:36.239
Thanks for coming.
02:26:36.639 --> 02:26:37.840
We'll catch you on the next one.