#637 - FDNY Firefighter

Hey everybody, it's Theo Bond here, and I got a question. When it comes to soda, are you really picking a zero sugar cola that you actually prefer, or are you just settling for what you've always had? That's the question. And I'll say this, when it comes to taste, I find that nothing beats Pepsi Zero Sugar. But you don't just have to take my word for it, that would be ridiculous. Pepsi has been doing blind taste tests for years. No labels, no brand names, just taste. And last year, they brought back the Pepsi Challenge, and the results were clear. 66% of people agreed and said that Pepsi Zero Sugar tastes better than Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. In fact, Pepsi Zero Sugar won in every market they tested. So if you're grabbing a Zero Sugar soda, go with the one people keep choosing when taste is the only thing that matters. Go out and try Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Let your taste decide. We've got new merch. The Year of the Rat hoodies just hit the site. We have them in two colors and they're made from my favorite hoodie template. We also have the winter sale that's happening right now. 20% off some of your favorites. You can get them before they're gone at TheoVonsStore.com if you get a chance to go there. And if not, that is totally great as well. Thank you guys so much for the support. Today's guest is a retired firefighter and a veteran of the FDNY here in New York City, which is where we filmed. He spent 20 years serving with the fire department in the communities of Washington Heights and Queens and bravely served alongside many others during 9-11. I'm very grateful for his time and his service. He is what I would call a legend. Today's guest is Mr. Tony Bonfiglio. Is it too hot in here for you, Tony? No, I feel comfortable. Okay. Yeah, what kind of temperature do you guys operate at? Well, sometimes it's so hot. You know, in the summer when we're out there in like 90-degree weather and you're putting a fire out, it's hot. You lose so much body water. Yeah? Yeah, it's like when you take off your turnout coat and your gear, it's like you fell in a pool. Have you ever started a fire where you had to pee and by the end you didn't? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. You kidding me? Yeah. And then sometimes you're so thirsty. I mean, there were times I was so thirsty from pulling sealings and the plaster dust that I actually would, I look up and would take water coming off the drain pipe just right into my mouth because I can breathe. Yeah. Yeah, it gets crummy. It gets pretty crummy in there. Oh, I bet. Yeah, it's shitty. 20 years. You were Tony Bonfiglio. Yep. And that's Italian. That's Italian, man. My whole family's from East Harlem. Yeah. Yeah, we're Italian. Yeah, it's fun, huh? Yeah. Grew up in New Hyde Park. My father moved us out of the Bronx when I was about six. Yeah. And we moved to New Hyde Park. That's like a town on the Queens borderline on the suburb side. Bringing up New Hyde Park? New Hyde Park. Went to Herrick's High School. What was it like back then? Oh, it was great. It was like all blue-collar workers, you know, all the blue-collar workers' kids, you know. We had bus drivers, cops, firemen, truck drivers. So there's a nice suburb over there. Oh, it was great. Right over the city line. I mean, I had such a great childhood. We had so much fun running around, you know, doing all kinds of crazy shit back then. Hot rods, motorcycles. Mischief, huh? Yeah, mischief, rock and roll, rock clubs. Oh, in Long Island, rock clubs. listening to some Def Leppard, some ACDC. Yeah, well, back then it was Twisted Sister, and we used to go to the clubs and see Twisted Sister, OBI. There was a bunch of good bands back then, house bands, but they would play all the cover songs. You had Doors, you had Zeppelin. Oh, yeah. That was awesome. Yeah, that's a beautiful time, dude. I think that's kind of a time that a lot of people romanticize as well. I think so. I always say that when I die, I hope the heavens like the 70s, man, because that was so awesome. Kicked ass. And you were on the FDNY for 20 years? Yeah, 21. 21 years. Yeah. How did you get started? Like, what were you doing before you got into firefighting? Because things were going well. You were listening to Twisted Sister. Yeah, hanging out with the boys, getting in trouble. I did get arrested. I was at Speaks Club once in Lido Beach. And I did get arrested there for having some weed and a couple other things on us. Yeah. Yeah, we were young. We were. Yeah. So, yeah, we just, and I was going nowhere. I went to college for like maybe three weeks. Oh, yeah, that's not enough. Farmingdale University, I went for food technology. I was going to be a meat inspector. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Thank God that didn't happen. Yeah, hell yeah, dude. Well, I was working in a meat factory when I was a kid, scraping hangar room floors like Paulie and Rocky. You know, I had the white coat on. I'm freezing, scraping the blood and the fat off these floors all day. And what was that like over there? So what kind of meats did they even have going in and out of there? Just big sides of beef, big factory, like hanging rooms, big hanging rooms. And would you be alone in there? No, it'd be other people, butchers coming in, grabbing their meat. It was like a big production place, you know, big time, lots of trucks. They would give all the meat out to all the restaurants and everything. And that was right in Mineola. Oh, that's pretty cool. And Mineola, is that here in New York? Yeah, Mineola is pretty much right by New High Park. Got it. So you're over there. you're in there with the meat you know you're in there at night like rocky hitting the meat yeah i'm sure i'm sure nobody's looking because that was right around the time you know so oh yeah oh for sure yeah there we go that's what it looked like oh definitely everything turned to vlfs came out yeah that was just bro you couldn't you couldn't get something that wasn't tenderized oh it was funny because we were all kids too and you was you know all this meat after the place closed would be but we never took a an ounce of meat you know back then you got all this beautiful meet you guys there would be like big tubs of filet mignons all kinds of things you guys are in there beating room yeah yeah and then i had a uh and so what happens yeah you're in there you're beating you guys are punching the meat or whatever and uh oh yeah a common was that kind of a common future in your area no it was not at all i just got a job there my friends were all working there the whole crew was working and we were the cleanup crew so once the butchers were all done we would come in with these high pressure hoses and we would just hose this whole place down You got to just party and party. Yeah, and then we'd oil it up with vegetable oil. It was a funny job, yeah. But what was the vegetable oil for? Just make everything shiny and clean because we had online, the inspectors were there. There was two inspectors every day, and they would inspect everything. And if they didn't get their payola, then they would knock a machine down, and then they'd have to rope the whole thing off, and we would have to come in and clean the machine, and then they'd inspect it again. So it was a little bit of kind of a, was it kind of a meat mafia kind of going on a little bit? Meat mafia, yeah. Was it really? Mm-hmm. Wow. It was owned by two Jewish brothers, the Coens. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you know something. Something was afoot, you know? And so what makes you get out of there? Were your friends kind of graduating? Because I ended up working, and dude, me and like five of my buddies worked over there at, well, I think it was called Save-A-Center or something. It was a grocery or Winn-Dixie, maybe it was called. dude one of my buddies would come clock in go home and then he would wake up and he'd come clock out dude he worked there for like yeah he worked there for almost 11 months dude and the rest of us were afraid to do that so we'd actually be in there working but we would during like uh but it was so much fun just having your friend bro there was nothing better i think than that time if you were either like late years of high school or right out of high school and you got to work with like your buddies who hadn't gone all like nobody kind of figured it out yet you got to work with your friends that's what it was oh saturday morning we'd all be banged up you know from being out drinking all night we'd just be getting home yeah and we had to go in saturday morning to clean the oil the whole place oh so those were fun trips yeah we had oil fights oh get soaked in oil oh god i think we might we might pick up a A new list miss. Yeah. Oh, man, we would have some good oil fights. Really? Because you'd have these big squirt bottles, and then we'd have these 55-gallon drums of oil. What? Yeah. It was seed oil? Yeah, it was vegetable oil. Oh, Lord. We wouldn't even do the trucks in the vegetable oil. It looks like they got waxed. What? Yeah, they were all shiny. And what vegetables was it coming out of? I have no idea. Look up vegetable oil. I never even thought about that. What could even have that much oil? Maybe an eggplant? What is vegetable made of? Vegetables. You think, but what? They squish them. Vegetable is made from the oils extracted from various plant parts like seeds, fruits, nuts, and grains most commonly, soybeans, corn, canola, sunflower, and palm. Because that's kind of the oil that everybody's kind of against nowadays, you know. But I guess you guys were just using it to keep stuff shiny. Shiny. Wow. Yeah. I didn't know people used it like that. Yeah, we had these black trucks, and they would look all waxed after we were done oiling them all down. Yeah. and it stunk too you know because it was it was such a big place and there'd be a lot of like the bones and the fat and you'd had to go in the pit sometimes it was like you would puke it was so bad smelling what was the pit it was kind of like below the yeah that's where all the water would drain into there and every now and then our boss would have to go in there i'd see him reaching in he'd have like fat on his glasses and shit it was oh it was gross yeah oh yeah dude yeah You know, I didn't want to stay there. God, yeah. It was cold. It was cold in there too? And there was freezers there. And the guys that worked in the freezers, you never saw them. They looked like they were from the Antarctic. They had these hoods and these parkas and they were big boots. And you'd see them now and then. They were kind of scary. You know, you were a kid. You're like, there's the freezer, man. They never came out of the freezer. Yeah, dude. Oh, that's fucking wild, yeah. You're living in it. It's hiding from your wife and kids probably in there. Oh, God. That's when family life's bad. When you're like, I don't care how cold it is, I'll stay in there. Yeah, yeah, that's bad. That's the last job you want, working in a freezer. Yeah? Oh, I think so. That was the end of the line. And what kind of guys would do it? Was it tough guys? Was it Russians? Tough fucking guys. Yeah? Butchers, psychos. They got their own toolbox of knives. You know, big. Oh. A couple of times they would pick you up by your shirt, you know. Because we were just the kids, you know. We were running around. Any of them ever get arrested for crimes or anything like that? Like you think were any of them low-key like Dexters or like that kind of guy? Yeah, yeah. They were low-key. They were. Strange, some of them. Yeah. Dang, that's wild. And then you had the women. They were the packers. Oh, they were? Yeah, they would like pack the chickens and all that. Oh, gift wrapping? And then wrap it and everything, yeah. Women do better gift wrapping. They had like tough women, too. They were working. They were like the boss of the women was a real tough broad. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Some girl would have a tattoo of Richard Denner. Yeah, smoking. Everybody would be out smoking. Yeah, your smoke breaks. Oh, yeah. And the guy would come with the roach coach and call you out for your coffee and shit. He would? Yeah, the coffee roach. You know, there were a lot of roach coaches here. Everybody would come. You know what a roach coach is? Uh-uh. It's a coffee truck. All right. Back in the day, they would come to, like, factories. Oh, so it just pulls up and you go and get your snack. And they would be like, all right, the guy's here. And everybody would be out on a break, get their coffee, their lousy donut, whatever he had. A little bit of a break. Yeah, I like that, man. Yeah. Dude, when I was a kindergartner, they had, or I don't know what grade I was in. I wasn't even in a grade, but I'm, but they, they, it was nap time or whatever at kindergarten, but they would, uh, I wouldn't sleep, right? I would keep my eyes open because they had this, uh, they bring in this other lady to watch us. Right. And I was like, kind of curious about her. So I would just kind of lay over there. You were eyeballing her. Yeah. I was kind of eyeballing her, I guess, you know, because me and my mother were always on the outs. I was shopping around. Uh-huh. So I, uh, I remember like at a certain point she'd come over and kind of kick me. a little bit and she'd let me go outside and watch her smoke oh that's funny oh that was nice dude and she had pretty nice hair she looked a little bit like a man yeah but she was definitely she probably year was that oh this was probably 84 early 80s god yeah she looked like a fucking man but she's she's like only the third woman i'd ever seen you know that was at that point she was really good looking you don't know yeah yeah she's beautiful to me you know she was dying you You know, she was just stunning, dude. But, yeah, she let me go out there and watch her smoke, and she'd complain about stuff. Oh, that's funny. God, that was nice, man. Just getting a little break, you know? So that was like it felt like it was my break from kindergarten. Like, oh, we're on break. Oh, I remember kindergarten well. Really? Oh, yeah, nap time. That was the best. Oh, yeah. Snack and nap. And then out to the sandbox and dig a hole to China. Yeah. Dig a hole down to a fucking butcher shop. Yeah, they would always put, like, a cone in the sand. They'd be like, oh, you're almost in China. I'd be like, yeah, let's keep digging. Yeah, yeah, dude. And then some kid would get sand in his eyes and he would look like he was trying to use. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what I got. Good, dude. So, yeah, so take me out. How do you get out of the meat area into the fire? Like, take me out of the freezer into the fire, man. Well, I went, after that, I went to a plastic mold injection factory job. Did you? Unemployment sent me to. Oh, they did? They were making body parts? No, no, we were making, there was a game called Othello back then. It was like a black and white chip. Yeah, I remember that game. And we were making the chips and we made the colored beads. So it was all like these plastic mold injectors. The colored beads for like what, Mardi Gras or something? Yeah, Mardi Gras. Yeah, well, people just buy them for their crafts and stuff like that. They're like 100 different colors. Yeah. And I could never remember the color after I boxed it up. I'd get ready to send it. Get the Omeka. I'd be like, oh, Amstead, brown, green. I put something down and the guy would come back. You can't be yelling at me. You can't send these out. And I'm laughing. He's like, what are you laughing about? I mean, I'm making $3 an hour. Dude, I remember one time I ate a bunch of mushrooms or whatever after school. Yeah. And I worked at this mail center, right? My job was to mail out these insurance forms to these different companies around the country. While I'm in the mail room, dude, I'm not doing real good. Oh, I can imagine. Yeah, well, my body had gotten really hot, so I took all my clothes off. And I put all my clothes into a box, mailed them to some place. Oh, my God, that's great. Dude, my first girlfriend, her mom got me that job. Her dad, shout out Mr. Earl, he was a fire chief, actually. Oh, really? Yep. But anyway, I got laid off. And, yeah, the mother had to come. Thank God it was a day it was raining because she let me borrow a raincoat she had so I could go get in my car. yeah wow so anyway we made some tough choices over the years but uh but i did have a good time they were state they had a firehouse down there on choppa toolis in new orleans and it would be great because the mardi gras parades were down there so we go down there and the firehouse would be open on days like that and all the same an old firehouse it was beautiful yeah i think bring it right up it's right down there off of choppa toolis over there and um that was it right there to uh i see it that looks like they made it into something yeah they made it into some wow but yeah Anyway, it was a great time, man. It was a great time. We'd go over there. Everybody's cooking hot dogs and just having a great time. That was a beautiful time. Oh, the Cajun. Yeah. We had so much fun, man. I'll bet. So how do you get into there, man? How do you get out? So you're over there making jewelry and stuff. Well, the funny part is they sent me to this place called Stonewell Plastics in Mineola. And I go in, and I got this little Mexican guy. He's doing the interview with me. He's like middle-aged little guy. He's got a little pencil mustache. Oh, yeah. So I'm sitting there. I'm 18, you know, and he goes, so what's your name? And I said, Tony Bonfiglio. He writes it down. He says, and how old are you, Tony? I said, I'm 18. Writes it down. He goes, and Tony, were you born here? I said, no, I was born in New Jersey. He starts laughing. Oh, you'll do, you'll do. And when I went back there, I realized I was the only American in the place. Everybody else was foreign. Oh, damn. So you're in there learning Spanish, huh? Yeah, Spanish. What languages were they? Yeah, who was that? It was mostly Spanish. Yeah? Yeah, there was some black people, but even them I didn't understand because some of them are from Brooklyn. I had one friend, he would drive me home. I would say, yeah, I'd shake his head, he'd shake his head, and we didn't know what the hell he was saying. Dude, I still can't understand black people. I'd be like, yeah, I understand. I understand. My damn boss, I'm there. I'd be like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, dude. I mean, look, bro. I don't know what he said. It's 40 years later. something's never changed and maybe it's for the best you know um so you so you're in here are you just like this in for me or how do the winds how do the winds blow you over to the fire world well then i went my father got me into the printing union the amalgamated lithographers of america local one wow and i did that for about four years but i took the fire department test when i was 18 i was 19 like 78 and was that part of school you had to take it no my neighbor came over and he came in our back door with an application. Johnny Lalima, thank God Johnny saved my life, gives me the application. He says, you'll never get rich on this job, but it'll put a roof over your head and food on your table. So I'm sitting at my kitchen table. I'm like, okay, Johnny, thanks. I had no idea it was going to be the biggest career move of my life. What made him even come over there and do that, I wonder? I guess he knew I was going nowhere because he was my neighbor and they saw us all hanging out all the time. I figured this kid would be a fireman It would be alright So thank God he saved me Because the printing union Was going south Computers were coming in And they weren't printing anymore On these big printing presses So I got that And then about a year later I took a physical test after the written test The written test we took in a high school Somewhere in Queens And was there a lot of people taking those tests At the time? 40,000 40,000 people wanted to be firemen. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Because the job, I think, in a lot of ways, it's a very family, like it's a lineage job. It's like a lot of families do it. Definitely. And there's a lot of esteem with it, you know. Especially at that time, what was it like? Like was it a very revered position? Did you even think you could get it? Get the job? Yeah. Yeah, I think I, you know, because I was 19, I was in great shape. And the physical test is really where they separate everybody. the written test was a joke i mean it was like a third grade questions you know yeah remember any of them or no uh well i you know i saw the the sanitation guy he was saying about the dirt and the shovel or what that's exactly what it was like what would you use a garbage truck a plow or a shovel and brew but it would be ridiculous if you got your name right you know that was it so i got a 98 on the written test probably the highest i ever gotten any test in my life but what was the physical part like like my father took me to east new york to an armory in this real shit neighborhood and he parked it we parked his buick regal it was like the nicest car my dad ever had i bought him these spoke rims for it for his birthday nice so we get there and he says here you take the keys i'm running for the subway and you take the car home i'm like yeah you sure that you want to yeah don't worry about it i mean he's an east holem guy so i wasn't too worried about him So he took off. I go in this armory. It's like when you get in there, it's the size of a football field. And there's 100 guys that day that are going to take the test. And they break you up into like 10 men groups. And you go around all these different stations. And you take different tests. You had to run. One was a mile. One was an 8-foot wall. You had to jump over the 8-foot wall. That was like the separator. Like if you didn't get over the 8-foot wall, you went to the police department. Oh. Sorry, guys. Hey. That's what separated them. That's what it is, man. Sometimes you got to separate the beef from the pork, you know? Well, the funny part is I got a zero on one of them. And if you get a zero on one of those stations, you're done. You're not going to get hired. Yeah, for sure. Which one was you? I had this thing called a ledge walk. You had to put on a turnout coat, a helmet. You had to put boots on. You had to put a mask on. and you went up on a balance beam next to a wall, and you had a slide along the wall like you were shimmying along a ledge. It was called the ledge walk. I'm shimmying along this thing. I'm like, why the fuck would I be on a ledge? I mean, is this job that crazy? What, am I Batman? You know, I'm going to be out on the ledge. I went all the way down. I touched the line. I came all the way back, and the woman scoring me says, you didn't touch the line down there. Uh-uh. What? I raced all the way back, touched the line. I come back. She ran out of time. I got a zero. I was like, oh, that's it. Everything was down the drain. So come on. You think she just didn't do it correctly? I think. Yeah, I do. I don't. I think she was there to knock some of the white guys out because there was too many white guys on the job, which they were complaining about. They wanted women. They wanted minorities. I think they were told if I stepped on the line, she wasn't even anywhere near the line. No. But, you know, it's like everything happens for a reason. you know i mean right and so you you get the zero pissed and so but and there's 10 states you do fine on the rest of them you get out of there and are you then waiting for your great like do you even like yeah so now now after you get all that done everybody says they're half-assed goodbyes you know i i went back out thank god my father's regal was still there yeah found it found i got into regal i found i had a joint in my my workout bag i lit that sucker up and now i'm driving home We had no directions back then, so I'm looking for signs for the LIE. And boom, we get home. My dad was there. How did you do? I said, I think I did all right. So now the girls have a lawsuit because 40 girls took the test, the first 40 girls ever. And they didn't pass with 40,000 applicants. None of them passed? None of them passed. Were some of the women in there on that day you were there with that 100 people? No, I didn't see any women that day. But we had a couple in my battalion when I got there. So anyway, they had a lawsuit, and this lawsuit went on for six years. So from that time I took the test, I didn't get a notice that I was hired for six years. Because it was? Because of the women, because the lawsuit took so long. They usually hire about 2,500 people off the list. Now they had to go deep into the list, and because of that zero, I was like 4,300 on the list. So the women saved me. Thank you, girls. I appreciate it. Yeah, because rarely does a complaining woman save you. Oh, she saved me that day. Brenda Berkman right there. Brenda Berkman. Everybody knows Brenda. Pioneering female firefighter. She was the sole named class plaintiff. Yeah, she was a lawyer. In the federal sex discrimination lawsuit that opened a fire department in New York for women firefighters. After she won the lawsuit in 82, she and 40 other women became FDNY firefighters. Was that a time where, like, were people, like, supportive of the women? Were they against the women? What did that feel like? Did it feel like they were against the women? They were. It was an all-male place, you know. Yeah. And, you know, I guess a lot of guys, they don't feel like they didn't mind the women that really passed the test. But to just get on because you're a woman that was not, you know, today now they have girls, you know. They're so much into athletics and stuff. They could pass these tests now. But back then, you know, it wasn't like that. So some of it, they were just kind of stacking the deck, like we're just going to put some extra girls in. So that's just a liability. That's it. They went, well, yeah, life and death. Yeah. And a liability for their own life. That too, yeah. But, I mean, if your kid is trapped in a fire, you know, you want the best person going to get that kid, not, you know, somebody that didn't make it. Yeah, for sure. A hundred percent. I agree with that. But they saved me, and I'm the luckiest guy for that. So you're in, huh? I'm in. You made it in. Yeah. And do you remember, like, when you get a letter that's like, yeah, I'm in, you got it? And is it a flame? My wife came, I come pulling up in the parking lot from working at Mastercraft Litho, and I had a little Chevette. We both shared this little Chevette car that my wife bought on her own when we were kids. And I see her coming across the parking lot with a wave in the, I said, what is it? She goes, the fire department watched six years. Fire department watched it, they're going to hire you. I said, holy shit, I looked at it. Tony Bonfiglio, New York City fireman. Report to Randall's Island, 823-something, 84. Wow. I'll be there. That's pretty cool, huh? Yeah. Oh, my God. I was so happy. She was happy at some of the night. She was happy. I was happy. And where did you meet your wife, Christine? I met her. I know she's here with us today. Where did you meet your wife at? Well, on my block, I was walking up my block in a neighborhood, and her and her sister just moved in from the Bronx. They were in the Marble Hill projects. They were like the last ones out of these projects. So I'm going up the block. I'm like 14 years old. They're coming down with one of my friends, and he's like, hey, these two girls just moved in from the Bronx, Chris and Bernie. And I'm like, hey, first of all, I thought he was pulling my leg. So that was like where we met. And then we went through school. We didn't really date until we were like 18. Hey, there you go. Oh, yeah. That's a great shot. Yeah, I was like size 32 waist back then. Hey, look, I'm looking at Christine. Yeah, she's looking good. Yeah, you can say what I'm looking at your waist, buddy. Yeah, we were like 24 years old there. I was just getting out of the academy. That's graduation day. I'm graduating from there after six weeks of training. Oh, that's nice, huh? Yeah. Yeah, dude, you look pretty pleased. Well, the funny part is they give us your assignment, you know, so I get this thing, 34 truck. Now, like 150 firemen, only 10 are going to go to trucks. The other 140 are going to go to engine companies. There's an engine company. They're the water. They got the hoses. And then there's the truck. That's the ladders. And, you know, they break down the doors. The ledge walkers. The ledge walkers. So I didn't want to go to a truck. I was like real. I didn't like the heights. I didn't like the ropes. I didn't like the ladders. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Look, I got a zero on the ledge walkers. Yeah, you got the wrong guy. So why did they choose you for that then? I have no idea. My father said they saw how good I was at breaking things, that they sent him to the truck. So now I see a truck in Manhattan. I'm like, oh, man, all right. So I tell her, I says, I'm going to a 34 truck. They gave me a truck. She's like, they gave me a truck. I'm like, yeah, because most guys are in the engine for like maybe five, ten years before they get to a truck. And so in the engine means they're in the actual fire engine? They're in the engine, and they're a separate company. You know, they're Engine 8-4, and we were allowed a 3-4. It was a big 100-year-old firehouse. And so a ladder, they do different stuff than the engine does. Yeah, the engine puts the fire out. Okay. The ladder opens up, opens up the door, breaks the doors down, opens, cuts the roofs open, makes all the rescues and the searches. It's a lot more intimidating because you don't have the hose line. You're actually in there crawling around. With no water? No water. Maybe a can on your back. What? Yeah, I was a can man for quite a while. And that's heating up quick probably. So you get in a ladder, and where's the ladder at? What's that like? 161st Street in Manhattan on Offense, the damn avenue, in a place called Washington Heights. Washington Heights? Yeah. Yeah, a lot of Dominicans up there. Oh, my God. When I got there, they were just coming in. Yeah. And they took over with blood, man. They killed everybody. Really? Oh, they took over the drug business because that was the hub. You had the GW Bridge right there. You had all the parkways to head out to Brooklyn, out to Long Island. So everybody would come in and buy their crack and their cocaine. So it was badass. I mean, they would be shooting all day long. Was it exciting? It was. Oh, my God. And the place was so crowded. It was, like, full of people with these old broken-down tenement buildings, brownstones, tenements, all broken down, 100 years old. The firehouse was 100 years old. Did you feel was it exciting to go work there? Did it feel scary? Like what did it kind of become for you? The funny part I was gonna say is that I went with my wife from the Graduation I said we got to go. It's on 84th Street I told her I didn't realize that was 84 engine when I read the thing so I take her into Manhattan And I take it down 84th Street, and there's no firehouse I go all the way back up to the west side. I come all the way down There's no fire and we're saying wow this is nice look at this is all money brownstones high-end stores finally I go around 85th Street and I find a firehouse and I got my uniform on and they tell you to not always knock on the door and say pro Barry probation every firefighter bonfiglio this old guy is the door what can I do for your probing you right away I was a probie just by looking at me with the stuff on I said I'm looking for my firehouse 34 truck they said it's on 84 streets like why let me look at that he's like dude you're You're in with 84 engine and you're on 161st Street. I was like, why? Holy shit. I had to get in the car and tell my wife we got a call. And now we left the glitz and now we're in the freaking run down neighborhood. It was like, holy shit. The music's a little bit better. Oh, yeah. A lot of salsa. It's lasting in the streets. It should be known by now that PrizePix is America's number one sports picks app. and the best place to win cash while watching sports with your eyes. The app is really easy to use. That's what I love about it. You just pick more or less on two plus players and lock your picks in. That's it. That's it. Plus, for the big game, PrizePix has you hooked up with a max discount on Drake, Drake May, May. Yup, he needs just one passing yard this Sunday against Seattle to cash in. One yard. That's a no-brainer. And here's my lineup for the big game. Tell me if you want. I'm a novice. You know what that means. Not good. You can even follow my profile on PrizePix at Theovan. PrizePix will give you $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup. 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You guys are the ones that go in. So you have more of an ax than you do a hose We got a forcible entry team Okay a roof man and another guy that called the OV He vents out the outside He goes up the fire escapes Oh yeah peeping Tom probably Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the first guy in to break in the window. Yeah, or just sit there by it. I won't say nothing. So do you guys get there before an engine gets there, or does that matter? Try to get there at the same time. You never know. I mean, if we're leaving quarters together, you know, we always let the engine take off first. Hopefully they go and find a hydrant. Okay, got it. And we try to get in front of the building with the ladder. Okay, got it. So take me on your first fire. My first fire. Well, I've been in car fires, rubbish fires. We had water leaks, so many water leaks because it was such an old neighborhood. You know, when we go to a water leak, we've got to find out where it's leaking. Sometimes we've got to break into the apartment. Gas leaks. We did everything. all the utilities up there. So I do it for about three weeks, and I'm still wondering, oh, my God, what's going to happen with a job? What's it going to be like? I still have no idea. I'm a can man. The probie gets the can. Okay, and the can means what? I got a fire extinguisher with a strap on my back, and I got a hook. And I'm going to be the guy that if I can put out whatever fire I can with the can. Oh. Is it actually helpful? Is the can helpful? It'll put out, if a good can man could maybe put out a room of fire. Okay. Yeah, you get your finger over that thing and you spread it around. So it's real? It's real, yeah. Okay, got it. Do you remember the day that you get your first fire? Yeah, it was like three weeks in, and I'm doing my first 12-by watch. So you have a house watch, you know, and you've got to man it. It's got a computer in there that comes on and tells you what your alarms are, and you acknowledge them, you hit all the lights, you send the companies out. So I got to do my first 12-by. So I'd never done a watch alone yet. So the 12-by was like, you know, a little scary at first. And that's 12 hours? No, 12 to 3. You do a three-hour watch. Okay. So 12 o'clock came. I went in. I took the book over. It's midnight. And I'm sitting there. And it's like 1 o'clock in the morning. And all of a sudden, like 1.30, I start falling asleep. I'm like, I'm sleeping. Look, I've had a job before. I know how it is. I'm sacked out. All of a sudden, the alarm goes off. The computer starts ticking out this alarm. I'm like, oh, my God, I was so scared. I got up. I hit the house watch light. I'm looking at the ticket. It says engine A4, ladder 34, first two, fire on an eighth floor. So now I got to hit all the bunk room lights. I got to hit the intercom. So everybody goes. I got to hit the three bells. And then I got to acknowledge on the computer both companies, 10-4. And then I got to take the tickets and put them on the truck side. and the engine side, and then I put my gear on, and out the door we go. Let's go. Totally. Oh, man. Oh, man. So now we get there. It's 3.30, quarter to 4 in the morning, and it's like a projects building, about 11 stories. It was a pretty decent building. It was on Amsterdam Avenue. And so we're the forcible entry team, me and my lieutenant, who was this salty guy from the Bronx, Spinelli. He was like a real, I mean, he was the war days, you know, back in the 60s and the 70s. How salty. Salty means, you know, like, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes, he was salty. Yeah, gout. Early mustache, unruly hair. Gout and his smile, huh? He was all bent and burnt, you know? Yeah, dude, definitely. Great guy, though, yeah. Yeah, it's like he was raised in an ashtray. Oh, yeah. Oh, this guy, yeah. So, the sports poetry team's a can man, an irons man. He's got an ax and a halogen and the boss. And we're the three guys. So, now, we go into the lobby door and we hit all the buzzes, 3.30 in the morning. And there's people in there sleeping. Yeah, no, they're in there. So all of a sudden they start, but who is it? Who is it? You're like, fire department, open the door, open the door, fire department. So they buzz you in. Now they go in the lobby. Nothing's showing. Nobody's bailing out, you know. So I'm like, eh, I don't know. So this might not be it. Take an elevator to the seventh floor because the fire was on the eighth floor. So we get to the seventh floor, and you never take the elevator to the fire floor for obvious reasons. So we take it, and we take the stairs to the eighth floor. and we get in this hallway and now it's like a big projects hallway. I don't know if you've ever seen one of them, but they're painted green and they got like fluorescent lights and it's long. So we go to all the doors and we stick our noses in the jams trying to smell smoke. We don't smell nothing. So the boss says to my friend Jimmy the Duke, he says, go up to the next floor and check it out. Calls down the battalion, says, yeah, we got nothing showing on the eighth floor. We're going to check out the ninth floor. So with that, now we go into the hallway, and my friend is on the top of the stairs, and he says, Lou, I think we got something. So I'm like, oh, shit, this is it. I'm in this project hallway, caught at 4 in the morning. I'm running up the steps with my hook and everything, and I said, the boss says, what do we have? And the Duke opens this door, and I was like, oh, my God. If there was a gate to hell, this was it, okay? black shimmering smoke that looked like satin curtains just going in all different directions and my first thought was no way we're fucking going in there right i see these guys hey look let me see a two bedroom yeah this won't work for us yeah they're pulling their boots up and they're putting their air they're turning their bottles on and everything i'm like oh shit this is it so now we're getting down on our hands and knees and uh the duke tells me you you hold my coat okay and i'm like you're sure i'm holding your coat so you're behind him crawling behind the duke the boss goes in first like this black abyss we just crawl into on what are you what are you looking for the fire apartment oh we got to find it oh so this is just the hallway the hallway oh somebody left their door open pull up that hallway you had nick is that the one from the actual building oh this is a general one yeah i think i know what you're talking about though It's narrow hallways. Narrow hallways, long green. Yeah, look at that color, yellowish green. It looked just like that. Oh, God. So now we're on our hands and knees, and I've got his coat. I've got the can on my back. I've got my mask on, and we're in total blackness. And I'm crawling down like 100 feet, and I'm saying in my mask, I'm saying, what the fuck am I doing here? This is fucking crazy. I'm never going to do this again. I felt so helpless. And what am I going to do? It's pitch black. We're crawling in a hallway we've never been before. Yeah, dude. Oh, yeah. So we crawl up, and then all of a sudden, the Duke stops, and he says, we're at the fire door. And I'm like, oh, okay. Can't see nothing. Yeah, it almost seems like some kind of sex traffic. Anyway, whatever's going on in the town is kind of out of sorts. It's out of sorts. Anyway, so carry on. Sorry. It's something that I'm quitting in the morning. I swear to God, I was quitting. I was like, what are we going to do in here? Yeah. We can't see. I'm on the ground. So finally we crawl in, and I crawl in, and I hear the boss. He's up ahead of us in the apartment already. He says, bring the can in here. So now I crawl past the Duke. I'm on my hands and knees, and about 10 feet up, I see the boss on his knees with a glow of the fire. He goes, you see the fire? It's to the left. And I look, and there's a room on fire. It looks like cotton candy. The flames are like all over the place. And how much is it protecting you? How much is your suit protecting you at that point? Nah, nothing. What? You didn't take it off, bro. Yeah, no. They're just coats, you know, to keep you warm, basically. You got your leather helmet on. Keep you warm. And at that point, does it kind of take on, like, do you start to feel a little bit more empowered kind of or something? No, I felt scared shit. I just wanted to get out of there and get this fire over with. So I see him, and he says, do you see the fire? And I look to the left, and I say, yeah, I see the fire. I'm in this mess, you know. And he says, hit it with the can. I got the can, and I'm on my knees, and I go to hit it, and nothing comes out. I hit it again, nothing comes out. I didn't have air in the can. It's like a total fuck-up for a phobia. You should have put it in there? That's my fuck-up. Oh, my first job. So I said to the boss, I got no air in the can. I've used that excuse a lot of times. A lot of times over the years, buddy. I'll tell you that. And I want to apologize to a lot of his women out there. But, yeah, that was my excuse. I got no air in the can. That's a good analogy. I got a ladder issue. But go on. Fully extended. Fuck, you must have been embarrassed, huh? I wasn't embarrassed, but, yeah, I felt like, oh, man, I'm going to catch some shit for this. Did you even understand? Did you, like, just make a sound like you had air in? No. I didn't make no sounds. I couldn't believe it because, I mean, you always check the can. You know, you got to pressurize it, put a little water. So he says, all right, back out to the doorway. So now the fire is coming out over our heads in the hallway. And I get to the door. We came in crawling. And the elevator was right across from the apartment, the fire apartment. And the door opens, and there's the 84 engine without a mask on or anything. They took the elevator to the fire floor. And they got stuck. And they're going down on their knees, and they're trying to put their masks on. And I'm yelling in my mask. I'm like, get the fucking line in here and put the fucking bar. I'm screaming. I'm like out of my mind now. So finally, they get in. The line now, it's black again. And the line is the hose? The hose. Okay. And it's all asses and elbows now in this hallway. You know, that's what we call organized confusion. And everybody sort of bringing the line past me. I see him get up to the room, and the boy says, there's a fire to the left. He cracks. I hear the line crack. The water comes up. He cracks it, and now he hits it, and he starts pushing the fire in, and I squeeze past them because I got to search the apartment. That's my job. And you're searching for it to see if there's anybody in there. Some bodies, yeah. Wow. So now I'm searching along the wall and still can't see, and I'd get to a window and I'd smash it out with my hook, and I would stick my head out the window because this is the first time I could see again since we left that stairwell. Oh, yeah, you've got to get some fresh air. Fresh air and some view of something. So then I'd go around, and then all of a sudden they knocked it down fast, and I run into the Duke, the Irons man. He's like, yo, Proby, you broke your cherry, man. Congratulations. And I was like, wow. I took my mask off. It was kind of like still gray smoke and steamy, but it was better than the mask, you know, because that was so confined. So I said, yeah, Jimmy, I said my first fire, but this might be my last fire. I said, I don't know if I'm doing this again. And there we were. We overhauled the apartment, and we threw the mattress out the window. We took everything out, threw the street down into the street. And who's down there catching that? You're just hitting whoever. That's free. Back then, like nobody. Who gives a shit, yeah. Just hopefully nobody's down there. You yell out, look out. And then you throw the burning mattress out the window. Oh, shit. I'll throw my ex-wife out there, bitch, you know. Don't, just take that out. And then I'm looking out this window, and it's encrusted with all these embers and shit, you know, like gold and amber and everything. And it was like 530 in the morning, and the Manhattan skyline was turning purple. So I had all this beautiful thing. I was like, wow, this is some sight, you know. Excuse me. Yeah. I want kisses. Yeah, it was definitely rock and roll, man. I was like, yeah. So now I had to get back, and I put the air in the can when I got back, changed all the masks and everything. Now I had to go up and see the boss, you know. take my medicine so i walk up to the truck office and i knock on the door it's open he said yeah come in he's wiping his face down with a towel he just came out of the bathroom i said i may like puppy eyes i said uh lou i'm sorry about not having air in the can and he's like wiping his face he goes yeah don't worry about it kid shit happens and i was like oh oh wow thank you i was 23 years old you know i'm so now i'm walking out he goes hey kid and i turn around he goes you did a good job and I was like oh wow that's awesome yeah and then I'm driving home saying am I quitting this fucking job because it was like it was like nothing I've ever experienced and I growing up I did a lot of crazy things but this was the scariest they ever did but yet it was so exciting and thrilling I mean I got home and the grass was so greener the sky was so blue and the air that I was breathing was so appreciate you were alive I was alive man it made me I was like wow that was something. Of course, that wasn't my last job. I went 21 years more after that. What kind of made you decide or you said to go back to work and it just kept being like that? Yeah, we were a busy truck back then because we had a lot of fires, a lot of occupied fires, which are really, they're a lot more intense than a vacant fire or something like that. You got a lot of people bailing out and sometimes they're trapped. You got to get to them, the truck, that's their job. You know what someone said? Hearing you say this and like, thanks so much for your time, Tony, too. I appreciate it, man. Oh, thank you. This is like an honor. Oh, thanks, bro. Are you kidding me? Yeah. You guys are pioneers. You know, you're the millennial pioneers with entertainment these days. I think you changed the whole scene. Oh, well, I just, I think it's like people just, we got to find more humans that have the best stories, you know? Exactly. It was so crazy. We're coming to New York, and we just get an email from you the other day that you had seen that we put out a thing about looking for somebody that works in a fire department. And my producer actually forwards it to me. He's like, can you believe we just – this guy, we're going to be there? I was like, wow. This thing's really interesting. I think it was meant to be. Hey, I think so too. And I think I was about to say I think it was meant to be that your first fire didn't have any – nobody was in it. Yeah. Because that could have been super scary. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Take me through some of the times where there was somebody in there. How much of a different scenario is that? Is the energy different when you get there? Who lets you know if somebody's in there, or do you even know? Take me through that process of right when you get there, and then take me into a fire where it was inhabited. Well, this one fire where we lost this little girl, and that one really hurt me a lot because we got to the apartment, and my lieutenant, he was a little Irish guy, the bravest guy I've ever met, Lieutenant Maloney. And I would chase him up to the fire of the door, the caller, and he would knock on the door with his little crowbar. Fire department, open the door. You know, it sounded like some cartoon, you know, the Irish broke. So these people open the doors and we walk in and there's a card table sitting there. There's about eight people playing cards. They're eating. we're standing in the kitchen, the three of us and we're like my lieutenant says, what the hell did you call the fire department? So they're looking up they're like, yeah, I think something's burning in the back it was a big apartment so we're like looking at each other something's burning in the back, what the hell is this? So now we go down the hallway my lieutenant's cursing under his breath all these oddies motherfucking fucking shit they're playing cards cards can be fun They were, but we get into the living room, and there's, like, these French doors. I don't know if you know the French doors probably from. Is it like that kind of? They're glass paneled, and they're, like, two doors. You open to a room. Oh, yeah, yeah. They're French doors. You think there's going to be somebody French in there, but there ain't. Yeah, no French people. There never is, dude. There never is. Typical French. You'll see them in the doors. We'll be there. They're not. Typical French. So, anyway, I open the French door, and the room is on fire. like holy shit close the door we get down on our knees start putting our masks on and we're calling 1075 that means we got to work in fire he's telling the battalion you know the engine now they're coming up with the line so right before they got the line i says all right guys it's right here i put my mask on i said showtime and i went to open the uh the french doors and i get a call over the handy talkie there's a kid in the room it my friend the ov is with the mother out in the street oh so now we bust into these doors they're hitting thank god we had the water hitting them and i'm frantically looking for this kid in the dark black smoke i'm on the bed i'm feeling all over the bed i want i gotta find this kid is it mostly feeling how far can you feel anything i don't put tape over your eyes it's nothing and you're feeling with gloves on too yeah sometimes gloves sometimes you forget your gloves but yeah back then we were like less you less equipment better you want to get in you want to get in you want to get out quick too no that sounds like a guy who forgot his equipment ah yeah that's all air in the can yeah put some air in your can tony that's always that guy's excuse you know but that's a great attitude to take like nah guys if there's air in this can we're going to be here all afternoon yeah yeah we're in and out of this I could have probably put that, maybe put it out with the cam. But anyway, so the engine, I'm in there. I'm going around. And finally, I'm going around the wall. I can feel I'm, sorry, I'm under the bed feeling around trying to find this kid. And I get to a window. I break the window out. And I look out the window. And I see my Irons man that was with me. He's in the street with the kid, a limp, limp kid, you know. And they're taking the kid. They open the battalion car door. They go in there and they rush off the Columbia Presbyterian. How did the kid get out? No, he carried it. She was unconscious. Oh, he found her. She didn't make it. She didn't. The kid was dead. Unfortunately, he was burnt. They tried to revive her at the hospital, but it didn't work. So I'm overhauling now, and I see my lieutenant, and I said, I just saw Jeff in the street with the kid. He's like, oh, Anthony, the kid was right there behind the door. And I was like, oh, I was crushed, man. I shut that door. I felt like I killed that kid, you know. So we go to Presbyterian. Oh, so before we leave, now the deputy shows up because now we got a 1045, which is a body. And he's like, well, what happened here? We're in this apartment. People are still playing cards. So my lieutenant says, well, we came up to the apartment. And I said, I'll tell you what happened. And now the deputy looks at me. You know, I go, you see these motherfuckers over here? I said, they didn't bother to fucking tell us there might be a kid in that back room. and I'm throwing F-bombs at him, and the deputy says, Lieutenant, you better control your man. So the boss puts his arm around my shoulder. He says, come on, come on, Anthony. He called me Anthony. That's Anthony in a brogue. Anthony, let's go down to the street, you know, and we went down to the street, and we went and we picked up my friend Jeff at the hospital. I said, how'd they make out with the kid? He said they were trying to revive her. They were bringing her to the burn center. So that was the last we heard of her. But there's no way you could have known that, right? Because you go in and the kid was hiding behind the door. You think somebody would tell us there could be a kid back there. Oh, it's heartbreaking. Oh, man. Did you ever find out why they wouldn't let you know what was going on there? I guess there was like an SRO bid or something. They were renting out that little back room to this woman and a child, you know. So it was pretty bad. And I had a few of those. I mean, right after I was getting over with that one, I got another one where we showed up without our masks on because it was the middle of the day. Yeah. No, I get it. There was nothing showing. We'd get out, and the guy says, eh, they're working on the oil burner all day. And we had a lot of oil burners. You know, they would smoke up. So we're like, eh, 1020, he says, on the box, which means all the other companies, take your time, don't blow the red lights and shit. So now we're heading up to the stairs to the caller's apartment. It's, you know, the possible entry team, me, Lieutenant Clipper, and this guy, Jimmy Lynch. And we get to the door, and the woman opens the door, and we own the apartment, and it's like a slight smoke condition. in there, but slight. So we're like, what do we have here? So my boss says, he was a smart prime and he was from Rescue 2. He said, I think we're, we got something above us. Usually it's below us, you know. But this, I guess because the light, the smoke was so light. So now we get up, we don't have no masks or nothing. We get to the, I see smoke coming out of the doorway, you know, the locked door in the hallway. So I turn around, I donkey kick the door open, like three kicks, it kicks open and we got a black wall of smoke. We're like, holy shit. Now we got, after the 1020, we got to give a 1075, which means now we have a fire. So now we're crawling in. No masks. No masks. We're on our bellies. Was it better or worse without a mask in this? Worse. It was worse. Yeah. Did you feel the heat? Yeah. You know, back in the day when they didn't wear masks like in the 60s and the 50s, everything was wooden cotton. Then once the 60s and 70s and everything's vinyl and plastic and it's a whole different smoke, you know. It's poisonous, so it gets you quick. point right yeah yeah back then you could suck the cotton and the and the wood you know it's like yeah you're probably yeah you're like smoking a pack of cigarettes you're like hell shut up wish somebody had a couple tobacco plants and you gotta crawl around for another two minutes exactly that's what it was like and things would burn slower back then too wouldn't they well back then yeah but plastics will take off a lot faster god so anyway he crawls in and we're like oh shit we got to go in jimmy goes in ahead of him and i'm the last guy in we're like almost on our bellies crawling in and I hear the horrible words we got bodies I'm like oh my god now we got to give 1045s so we had 1020 that means don't come take it easy getting there now we went 1075 now we got two 1045s two bodies so with that I get a body a little girl come they pass it back to me and I cry like shimmy out of the apartment you don't know if he I don't know any I can't see nothing yet. I still can't see nothing until I get to the stairwell. I knew I had a kid in my arms. I see it's a little girl, you know, face is all darkened. So now I'm like, oh, shit, I'm going to run her down to the EMS is going to take her in the street. And I go running down to the street and there's nobody there. And all the people are screaming, you know, they're yelling and screaming. And I'm holding this kid and I'm looking around because we gave the 1020. We were nobody there yet. They're at the malt shop. I put the kid down i do cpr on this little girl and i you know i put it down a cup her head and i pretty much all i knew was like a 15 and 2 you know you get two breaths into her and then you give her 15 and this went on for like 10 minutes before i got relieved and the sound that she was making when the air would come out they call it machine gun breath because it's like and the smell because i had the smell of the burnt lips oh so finally somebody came over and they started taking over and then The EMS came. After 10 minutes, they let me go. So now I'm like, I'm walking around the sidewalk. All these Dominicans are very emotional. They're all screaming and yelling and crying and everything. Some of them, probably. Praying everything. Yeah, for sure. I figure, let me go back up to the floor because the other two guys were working on the mother. And when I got there, the EMS already took over. And I was like, holy shit. And it was like the first fire we had where the windows didn't break open. They were the new windows that the Gambino crime family put in in all of Manhattan. And they didn't break like the old windows, so it never got air. So it smoldered, and they died from the smoke. And that stayed with me for years. I would, like, sometimes I would smell and taste the burnt lips and everything. It was horrible. That's heartbreaking. Who do you even talk to about that kind of stuff? Do you guys go to some of the services? What is some of that like? I got back in the firehouse. The guys were listening up. They knew. I took my turnout coat off, and I just went in. I took a shower. We all took showers. And then the boss says into the office, you know, let's talk about it. So he says, you know, we did everything we could. There really wasn't nothing else we could do. I mean, not having the mask didn't hamper us at all because we still got the bodies. And so then I went home. my wife heard about it already on the news. And so when I got home, they all greeted me. And that was pretty much, you know, all I got was some nice hugs and some tears at home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you get over it. It takes a while. I mean, I had a couple of things. I had this junkie that we kept called three times. We got called to the sixth floor. He kept lighting fires to stay warm in the winter. And he was a young black kid, you know. And so we would have to climb up these vacant stairs. I had to pop a hole in the cinder block walls to get in, vacant building. And a couple times it's happened. Yeah. Oh, well, it's the first one. We go up, sixth floor, dark, cold. It's icy. It's about 30 degrees out. Nice kid? I have no idea. I got to the back, and I see my Irish lieutenant yelling at him. He's like, what the fuck are you doing? You can't light a fucking fire, blah, blah, blah. And he's sitting there, and he was in the corner, and I came in, I put my flashlight on him, and he was looking at me with these eyes, you know, and I was like, God, he had like tombstones in his eyes, you know. And he was only about 16, 17. So we put the fire out. We leave. Two hours later, we get called back again. Go up. Oh, got to climb these stairs. Six floors. No steps. Just the risers. And no lights. It's dark. So now we climb all the way up again. We go through the thing. He lit it up again. And the boy said, you know, you can't fucking do this. He's yelling at him and shit. I got the light on him. And the funny part was we just broke into an Entenmann's cake at the firehouse with the vanilla icing that we would keep in the fridge, get it nice and stiff. So as my friend Jeff in the dark, he's putting the fire out. I put the light on him, and he's still got the vanilla icing on his mustache. Somebody took a piece of the road, Jeff, huh? the boss is dealing with them this guy interrupted his three companies and a battalion are responding every time and we got chains on it's snowing it's not like no easy ride so the third time we just got back from something we went in our bunks and we get in the bunks and we're like a little pillow talk before everybody was sleeping and then before you know it boom boom same box here we go again I hear the boss yelling fuck shit i'll kill that motherfucker dude let him cook at this point we're flying down the poles this guy's trying to get to heaven you guys keep oh my god you guys keep coming in and ruining his trip third time so we're in the rig and i said to my friend uh jeff i says let's tell the boss stay on the don't even come up the stairs we'll take care of it and surprisingly he agreed so when we got to the door i says lou we'll take care of you stay down here so me and jeff go up My light, my diehard battery died on me. So I had, like, no light left. I'm trying to follow Jeff's light, and we're going up just on the risers, and then there's no platform, so you've got to, like, lean over your step to get on. And when you get to the fifth or sixth floor, you're looking down at the skeleton staircase. What? Yeah, so now we go in, go through the dark apartment again. He's in there again. Now he's got candles burning because we broke his bucket up. We smashed it all up. So we're like, holy shit. So now Jeff is like leaning into him and he says, listen, you can't fucking do this anymore. And Jeff's like the good cop, you know. I'm the bad cop. So I lean into him. I look at him. I says, we come back here again. I'm throwing you out that fucking window. And he just looked at me, you know. And that was it. That was the last time we went back. We left there. We took his candles. But years later, I would see that kid's face looking at me. It made me feel so bad, a wasted life like that, you know? Heroin. He had the works, everything. That's scary. And the fact that he kept going back to do it, it's just that power of addiction, you know? It was cold. Oh. I guess they keep you warm, huh? Yeah, he was in a vacant, yeah. Oh. Yeah. A lot of shit like that. Vacants were disgusting. Because it's just anybody could be in there doing anything, huh? Squatters. Yeah, they're shitting on the floor. drugs, needles, and you're crawling around in there because you still have to save them. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, vacant fires. Yeah, do you start to develop a certain, like, attitudes towards humanity or drug users or society? Absolutely. Call them scales. They're all scales. Yeah. To us back then, you know. And matter of fact, on my block, we had a tight block, 161st Street. Mm-hmm. And we had a bodega, a gypsy cab dispatcher, a whorehouse, and a bunch of drug apartments. And it was a busy block. And we had two guys on the block that were almost there the whole time I was there. And they were the lookouts. And one guy was bald, and we called him eight ball. And the other guy always had a hat, and we called him the hat. And the funny part was they would watch our cars for us so nobody would break into the cars and shit. But, you know, I mean, I would see every agency there is come down and radar block through the years I was there. ATF, Manhattan, Tactical North, CIA. I mean, everything. I'll tell you who was the worst ones was the FBI. Yeah. They come down with machine guns. And I've never seen anybody that. And then they clear the street. They hit all the apartments. It's amazing. I bet they were all just visiting that whorehouse. That whorehouse. I would inspect it now and then I'd go in there with my hat and they'd all be looking at me and I'd be like, what the fuck do you want? Like, I got to inspect this place. What was it like in some of those joints? Was it interesting in there? Was it just women trying to just survive? Yeah, it was just some middle-aged, young, not too young, Dominican women. I guess they took care of the cab drivers and stuff. And they had different rooms. You know, everybody had their little bed in there. And I would inspect it, you know. I got you. You got condoms. The condoms are here. Making sure the alarm works, ladies. Yeah, they would be like, come on. Some of them were the other prostitutes would be like, get the fuck out of here, man. You know, they'd be up all night. They didn't want nothing to do with me. Oh, I'm sure. Yo, fellies, fells, fellas, boys, guys, you know what time it is? 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Whether they're married or dating or single. The truth is that most of us are still figuring it out and we're finding our way. Sometimes I'll think back like, oh, these people got married right out of high school. They did it perfect. or this person moved to another country and they found a love and they did it perfect. No matter where you are in your romantic journey, therapy might be able to help you find your way. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally, and it works, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Bam, that's a lot. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash Theo. That's BetterHelp.com slash T-H-E-O. That would be the wildest thing for me would just be like the access you could see. Dude, I remember one time I'm in Kansas City, right? And I guess somebody started a fire, right? and I'd like as a comedian you go to different hotels you're always in hotels over the years and I got to the point where every now like you know every seven weeks somebody start a fire pulling alarm right and so in the middle of the night you got to go down to the outside so I finally decided for myself I'm gonna wait because yeah I'm not going out there there was never it was never a good fire right right so I was like I'm waiting out there for 45 minutes or whatever while they see if there's a fire or not right so I finally said I'm staying in the room until I smell smoke or whatever so one time i'm in there i just made this big sandwich dude it was really good it was one of the better ones i've probably ever made in my life and a guy i remember this big siren with an axe comes in just opens my door and the alarm has been going on for a while um and he's looking he's looking for me and i was like is there a fire did i miss something yeah he's like you got to get out of here i was like bro i every week they doing this shit i'm not going right i hate it all the time yeah but that's the cry wolf thing too though you know oh for sure i knew it was on me hey if it's bad come back right now right and i think he's like fuck you know you know i don't blame him yeah that's that's a fireman attitude yeah and it's true come back if i'm gonna burn you know exactly uh yeah there's just a lot of pressure yeah like immediately i was putting all the pressure on this guy um but yeah what were some of the environments you went into like did you ever just walk into an environment like oh well, this is crazy. You're like a drug den or like a – Oh, plenty of drug dens. I mean, every building had a drug apartment where they would sell drugs. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but this one fire that I went to, it was in the middle of the day. It was like the second floor. We pull up. Fire is blowing out four windows. I mean, it was going good. And so we run out. Now we're second due, which means we go to the floor above the fire. So the first due truck has the fire floor. The second dude goes to the floor above, which the floor above is really shitty. Because that's where he's going up. That's where everything's going. So now we get up the staircase, and it's starting to bank down and get dark. And I see a guy runs past me, no shirt on, no shoes. He's got like a three-year-old kid under his arm and a hefty bag. Oh, yeah, so a politician probably. So he slips by us, you know. So now we're going to take the door in the hallway above the fire apartment. And it's getting smoky, and my boss puts his mask on. but we have to take the door, so I wanted to see a little bit. So I'm hitting the, you know, the guy's got the halogen in the door jam, and I'm smashing it with an axe, and he's trying to get a bite on the jam to bust the door open. So finally, we get it, we bust the door open, we put our masks on, and we go in and we're crawling around, and the engine company did a good job. They knocked the fire down pretty fast, you know. So as we're crawling around, it's starting to, the black smoke's starting to go away, and it's getting lighter. and I'm on the floor and I bump into a dresser. I'm like, oh, now I can start to see a little bit. I put my light on the dresser. All the drawers are open. Stacks of hundreds and $50 bills. Every drawer, I mean, no 20s. It was all Coke money. Yeah. Bam. And I'm like, oh, my God. I'm still like my one year there. So I'm a junior man. You're like, I got to get something for Christine. Well, that's it. You know, I got an angel and a devil on my shoulders, and they're fighting it out. You know, I'm looking at it. We're in smoke, so, I mean, it ain't like a setup. Nobody's ever going to know. So I'm thinking, oh, my God, I could buy myself a new Harley with that money. And then I was like, the angel would be like, oh, you buy the new Harley, and you're going to crash, and you'll get paralyzed. And I'm like, oh, shit, that could happen. So now I told the senior man, I said, Eddie, come here. Look in this drawer. Yeah, bring another guy in now. Senior man, you know. And he's like, holy shit, Tony. He's like, what are we going to do here? Oh, Eddie's setting you up again. Yeah, I'm like, you're the senior man. You tell me what to do. Oh, this is a dirty tennis guy. I mean, I could have been stacking thousands in my pocket. If Eddie would have been like, hey, let's take a little, you have to. I would have, yeah. Yeah, you got to. I think just to even make sure that it is what it is, get it back home. Right. I was young. I had this, oh, it's dirty money. It'll bring me bad juju. It could have. Yeah. You never know. I mean, I think that the calm of it, who knows? Yeah. You don't know. So the boss walks in, you know, the lieutenant, and he's like, what do you got? And I was like, we got all this drawer full of my dresser full of my. He's like, oh, I don't see nothing. He was like, I don't know if you ever see Schultz on Hogan's Heroes. He's like, I see nothing. He turns around, he walks away, you know. So now we go out, and it's still a little smoky, but we could see we don't have our masks on, and there's another room with a padlock on the door. So he's like, take the door. So he puts the ads into the halogen, and I whack it with the ax. The door would bust it open, and Theo, I'm telling you, there was like half the coke in Manhattan was in there. Bricks all the way to the ceiling on all sides of the walls. A pile of cocaine about 18 inches high on the table. We were like, holy shit. So the boss gets on, tell the battalion we got a drug apartment. Send the PD up. So now we're like waiting for the PD to come. We wanted them to come before the drug dealers got back. So finally two NYPD guys show up, and they're like, here, guys, what do you got? I said, well, go in that room and go in that room. I said, that's the money room. That's the Coke room. So they both go in, and at the same time, they go, holy shit. Wow. They call a backup, you know. So now we're like, my boss is like, we're out of here, you know. We don't want to be nothing part of this whole show here. I ought to suck around, man, you know. Like Joey Diaz says every now and then. Joey. Every now and then you bump into a Colombian, you know? I love Joey. Oh, he's the best. Oh, my. He was a fireman in Colorado or some shit. Denver. Was he a fireman? Yeah, but he was selling blow. He said all they had was a pickup truck. I don't know if you ever saw it. I think it was on Rogan, maybe. Yeah, I don't know. It's not like Rogan. Yeah, he said, I was just selling. It was an easy way to sell Coke. He said, I'll go around. People call the fire department. Sorry, Joey, but you did tell that story. No, people call the fire department. He shows up in a pickup truck selling Coke. Well, he said it was a ski lodge place. There was never any fire. Oh, yeah. That's a great idea, actually. Yeah, the ski lodge was, like, perfect for him. Yes, Joey did. I've talked many times about having been a volunteer firefighter, which is really a drug dealer. In Aspen, Colorado. In the 1980s. Can you imagine him doing that? I bet if you were anywhere with Joey in the 1980s, every place was Aspen, Colorado, dude. I'd go to a restaurant he recommended in Jersey, a Chinese restaurant. Was it a good spot? Kings. Oh, he says, oh, dude, this is the real deal. This is the Chinese food. You know how he talks, right? Oh, for sure. So I go there, and the guy's name is Freddy, the Chinese guy. I'm like, Freddy, Joey Diaz sent me here. He's like, oh, yeah, Joey Diaz. He said, he's popular? I said, yeah, he's pretty fucking popular. He's like, oh, I didn't know. Food was excellent. Thank you, Joey. I love that food. Joey has the, it's like, bro, I'd be like, dude, my friend died last week in Buffalo, New York. He's like, oh, next time you're in Buffalo. It doesn't matter if your friend died. It matters. You've got to walk 11 blocks to get this prosciutto, right? Prosciutto. He's like, the only way you get there is by foot, right? Right, right. I'm like, this sounds very alarming. But, dude, he's always got the best food recommendations. Absolutely. He just loves life, man. He just always has a connection. Oh, man. What stories. He's so funny. He's one of the best. I love him. Yeah, I don't know anybody like him. But I bet in your line of work, you probably met a lot of guys not like him, but with similar energies like him. Oh, crazy people. Yes. When I got on in 83, we still had Vietnam vets that were in the fire at Army. Really? Today, it's more college kids. They came out of college, and they take the test. Yeah, a lot of guys that want to be in the calendar or whatever. It's a whole different thing. Nothing to the new guys. They're all great. But it was a different atmosphere with the vets, guys. And plus, back then, they didn't have computers. And there was no cameras. It was BC. So you got away with a lot of shit. Today, you go on YouTube. They see you fighting the fire, the OV, the roof man. Yeah. If you fuck up, a million people are seeing it right there. People in the chat are like, get rid of that guy. Like, what's he waiting for? Why doesn't he go in? Where's the hose line? What's taking him so long? Yeah, dude. All the comments. Yeah, like Caruso's a pussy, you know? Like, dude, he chased his first day on the job. Absolutely. Dude, that is crazy that that's how it's going to be. Everything's going to be streamed, and people will be able to comment at the moment. Yeah, so that's a whole bit. And the other day I was watching the chief had like some kind of iPad thing or something. And they had a drone in the air. And the thing was showing them all the roof, the holes, the fire, the back. It was like a 3D thing. It was like everything changes, you know. Yeah, there's already a real estate agent there. Yeah. Everything changes. Changes. So, you know, when I got on, the guys from the 60s and 70s, they were tough motherfuckers. So some of them had come from war, actually. Big time. And this was just another place where they at least had, like, camaraderie. They had a brotherhood. Exactly. Wow. Because it was a paramilitary organization. So, you know, you had your lieutenants and your captains and your chiefs. Did the stress of the job ever affect guys too much? Was there scenarios like that that kind of happened or not really? No, I think most guys loved the job. What made you end up kind of loving it? Like, what kind of changed for you? Like, when you look back on it? The brotherhood. Really? Oh, my God. Like, family. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I did 15 years in 34 truck from a probie. I did 15 years. I think I left there in 98. I had a lot of friends. I'm still today. We're all together, the wives, the kids. The kids are on the job. Some of them are already captains. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that's something that's so nice. That's one thing that's harder I even notice about life. As you get out of times in your life where you're either in school, where you have teams that you're on or your buddies are always around or in the college. You don't really find a lot of places where there's that much camaraderie anymore. You just don't find it. No. That was it. That was it there, big time. We'd make the meals. Yeah. See, this is the two probies that are coming off their probation. So when you come off probation, you throw a big party in the firehouse. And they all got lobsters and filet mignons, and they have a big celebration. It's a lot. I remember my probing meal. It was a lot of fun. I came off with another guy, Richie, who we both came out of the academy together. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, I know all these guys like family. A lot of them aren't even here with us anymore. Really? Oh, yeah, and that's old. A lot of them have gotten older, passed away even? Passed away, yeah. Some of them might have passed away on 9-11. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a great shot. That's awesome, dude. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you could just feel so much excitement there. Oh, my God, the fun we would have. And the meals that I would make were incredible. That's why they kept you around, huh? Oh, I was a good cook. Were you? Yeah. Yeah. The first meal I brought in, my mother made meatballs and a sausage and a whole Sunday gravy. And I bought gavadil, and I brought it all in with the bread and everything, and the guys loved it. You know, the Irish guys call it red lead. that was what they called tomato sauce make red lead tonight yeah red lead they loved it they were like man that was so good but you know what kid you gotta make it here next time so I was like ah I get it you gotta make the meal in the firehouse oh that's part of it everybody comes together because it could be all over the firehouse but that's where everybody who's chopping this who's cooking that who's sauteing things who's doing the entertainment the camaraderie I would put my Louis Primer on the stereo, and we would just be going, you know, jump jiving whale, and I'm just a gigolo, and the place would be hopping. Yeah. Oh, it was fun. Oh, that's nice. And great meals. About 11 guys would eat at the same, you know, we'd all eat at the same time. Yeah. And then everybody chips in at the end of the meal because, you know, the city doesn't pay for anything. We pay for everything. That's crazy. All our TV. All they get paid for is the firehouse. Everything else we have to buy. Really? Yeah. Is it still that way? Yeah, it's still that way. Wow. Well, when I was on the job, you bought your own turnout coat and you had a helmet. I brought some helmets here, too. And the helmet fit perfectly to your head. They made it a mold to your head. So you didn't need a chin strap. It just stayed on there. And then when Giuliani came in as mayor and we had a couple of fires where guys got killed and everything, and he couldn't believe how shabby we looked because we had nobody fixed their gear. It was, nobody gave you new gear, so you went years with this gear, and it looked like the coats were all ripped up, and, you know, I loved the way it looked, like the Blazine's Bears, huh? And all the other fire departments around the country, and they already had bunker pants and bunker coats, and they had hoods, you gotta wear these, I hated all of that, I hated the bunker pants, I hated the hoods, and so that changed right there from the uniforms, and then they gave us a new helmet, three sizes, small, medium, large. And they had to have a damn chin strap to hold it on. It was a lot heavier. I hated it. Yeah. But you get charges if you didn't wear it. You know, if you took your old helmet and you got caught with it or you got caught without your bunker pants on, because it was like the takeover, you know. It takes a few years before the old timers really give in to all the changes. Everything takes a few years to kind of seep in. Oh, especially in the fire department, it's all tradition. Yeah. Yeah, dude, that was one of the nice things, even, like, whenever I would go with my, it was my first girlfriend, her dad, whenever I'd go over there, it would just be nice to see the guys all spending time together, you know? Yeah. And they would know other fire departments around the city. It was just, like, there was, like, definitely a, it was just kind of secret society that was a little bit, it was a little hidden, kind of, because you don't really think about the fire department all the time, you know? Yeah, I didn't. But, yeah, but they're right there, dude. Yep, yep. And they're the first ones that have to get involved when things get bad. Yeah. Yeah, if it's okay to talk about what were things like during 9-11? I mean, I know kind of like what some things were like, but when you look back on it. Well, I got off work that morning. I did a 24-hour tour on the 10th, and I just got home, and I had a power washing painting business on the side. Oh, yeah. And I had my Dominican helper waiting for me at home. So I got home. We came in. I'm making coffee, and my wife calls me. She's at work, and she says, you see what happened? They flew a plane into the towers. I'm like, you're kidding me. I put a little TV on that I had in the kitchen, and I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, what happened? Did the guy have a heart attack? I thought it was like a single plane that the guy just flew in by accident. Yeah, some guy fucking just couldn't get a radio. You didn't know the first one. You didn't know it was terrorists. So then I take you. We get to the paint store, and the guys are all around the counter with a TV. And I come in, and the guy, Tony, turns around. the he says why the fuck is they fucking terrorists flew planes into the fucking towers and i'm like holy now i see both towers going now i know you know it was an attack so i says all right we got to get out of here i got i had to paint a rabbi's house in woodmear so i got this painting truck with ladders tony's power washing and paint i raced him on the way there i hear the first tower collapses so i'm like um cursing i'm like mother fuck is my dominican guy don't speak english he He doesn't really hear, but he knows something bad. He knows the towers. So now I get another 20 minutes or 10 minutes later or whatever, and I hear the second tower come down, and I was out of light. I put my foot on the brake, and I just started crying. I was on the steering wheel because I knew how many guys just got killed, you know, from this whole deal. Oh. Oh, I was crushed. So you, like, yeah, at that point, did you know because you were privy to the information of, or you just knew how it worked? I just knew the way it works. You know, they called in everything. Once those planes hit, you know. Could you have gone back in or you weren't even allowed to go in? When? Like at that moment since you had just gotten off of a shift? No. Well, now I'm – I raced to the rabbi's house. I throw the ladders, the paint. I knock on the rabbi's door. I says, listen, rabbi, I'm a fireman from New York City. I got to go to the trade center. I knew he knew it because I could hear the TV on inside. So he was like, okay. I said, Roberto's going to take care of everything. I told Roberto, listen, I don't know when I'm going to see you again. But he's like, no worry, no problem. My boss, I take care of you. He was such a great guy. So now I'm racing with my van, and I'm going in and out of the elevator train, and I've got my hand on the horn, and I'm pedal to the metal, and everybody's probably looking like, what the fuck is with that painter? I'm in on the wrong side of traffic. I'm just bleeding like the French Connection. I'm in and out of fucking cars. I get to the firehouse, and it's chaotic. Like, everybody's running in. What are we going to do? Who's going? How are we going to get there? One guy said he was taking a boat because my firehouse in Howard Beach was on a canal. Yeah, so my friend Whipper comes in. He's got a Suburban. And my friend Bobby comes. And he was like, I'm going in with my Suburban. Whoever wants to go, I'm leaving now. And were there some guys that did not want to go, did not want to be involved? No, everybody went. Wow. Yeah, so we grabbed our gear. A lot of guys went to a staging area. they made that mistake because they got stuck at the staging area we took the we took my friend suburban right to the pile right there i mean we we were heading down woodhaven boulevard and i'm like there was no traffic it was traffic because i mean never you know the shit hit the fan already so uh the whip is driving crazy my friend the whipper and he i'm like whip don't get anybody killed or enough people already you know slow down a little so we get to the lie and And the cops have it shut off, the entrance to the Long Island Expressway. So I stick my turnout code out the window. And they move the cop cars and they wave us in, you know. That had to feel crazy. It was. I mean, obviously there's excitement, probably a ton of adrenaline. Walking adrenaline. What are we going to do when we get there? Right. So we're going to be in ambulance. We're going to take bodies and we're going to rush them to the hospital. That's what we figured. So now we're racing down there and we get to the Midtown Tunnel. and my friend Whip is the driver, man. He's the best. We're doing 100, and we're going through the Midtown Tunnel, and it's like a time warp with the lights and the yellow bricks. We're doing 100 miles an hour. We come out. We head downtown by the Midtown Tunnel. We head down. He takes us right to the rubble, and we get out of the car, and now it's dark like an eclipse, and all this stuff is coming down on us, all the paper and the ash. It was dark. The walls were standing still. Did it look something like this? It looked just like that. That's a few days, a week later or whatever maybe. But it was dark, and when we got out of the car, we couldn't breathe. So we had to rip up T-shirts, and we put them around our faces to breathe. And then I noticed there was an old hardware store right across the street with like a glass door. So I grabbed a tire iron. I went over. I smashed the door open. And we all went in. We grabbed ropes and masks and sledgehammers. all coming over the cops came in behind us everybody was grabbing shit so now we start to climb you know and it was like the top of the trade center was only about six stories high now you know and we were climbing and there was nobody around it was quiet dark eerie and we heard all the pass alarms going off that when firemen are moving makes a screechy noise and you could hear that all around you know and there was maybe one or two other firemen we were the only ones there and we were going in and out of voids, in and out of voids, calling anybody to hear us, banging on shit, and waiting to see if that happens, and nobody, nobody. Finally, we worked all the way up to the roof of the trade center, which was AstroTurf, and now you could see, and it looked like it went off for a mile, you know. It was like a movie set. It was so crazy. And on one side was the EAB bank, and it was on fire. And they had mesh, like the black mesh covering it, and all you saw was the black mesh and the flames coming out. It was like satanic. Oh, it was so creepy. And so we were climbing all around, inside and out of voids, and we did this for like maybe about 1 o'clock. We got there at 1130, and my friend Bobby says, Tony, my throat's closing up. We got to get water. So I said, Whip, we got to get water. We've got to head to the street. Now it's like 1 o'clock. People are coming in from everywhere, firemen, cops, firemen. The National Guard was coming in. So we worked our way to the street, and then we needed water. And there was a guy, a Wall Street guy with an expensive suit on covered in cement dust, and he had a bottle of water, you know, like the big bottle. and he was going around giving everybody water and, you know, trying to wash their eyes out and shit. And we were just waiting our turn to get some of that water. And as we were doing that, these four women, they come out of nowhere. They set up two barrels, a piece of plywood. They had Wonder Bread and peanut butter and jelly, and they started making sandwiches out of nowhere. It humbled. And I got a little emotional because it was like, you know, You see all these people coming together right at this time, no matter what your race, creed, color, working together. So we passed the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We had the water, and we went back. But before we got up, a deputy gets up on a car, and he yells to whoever can hear. And it was like, six truck. We just got a call. They're trapped. They're in a shaft, and we're going to find them. We're like, this is the first time we're hearing anybody's alive. we're like yeah yeah so we will everybody starts running forget gear and there's a rescue truck that was crushed and we ran over to the rescue truck and we started opening up compartments i grabbed the jackhammer we grabbed some big ass jackhammer bits bottles fair and now we start heading out to look for them you know we had a mission oh we were on a mission now you know now we're looking for it so now another two hours climbing up and down these kinds but meanwhile Building 7, which is the big building everybody talks about, was on fire from the moment we got there. Every floor. Really? Burned every floor. And what caused that fire? Just the collapse. You know, they had the two trade centers. Oh, the collapse of the other? Collapsed around in front of them, yeah. There was a lot of buildings on fire. So now we're working up and down, and I take a fall. I fall into a void, and I fall on my right shoulder, and my body comes running over. He's like, kiddo, you all right? I said, yeah, it fucking hurt my shoulder. He helps me up. I take the jackhammer. I throw it into a void. I'm like, fuck this shit. We had no radios. We didn't know if they found anybody or anything. Oh, excuse me. My pin. It was almost impossible. It was impossible. Finally, we threw all this shit down because it was a couple hours already climbing again. And when you're climbing up these big jagged pieces of concrete. Which are scary. In and out, in and out. And we made our way into a store, like a high-end store that was maybe three stories up. And we went in through the window. Three stories up what? High because the rubble was that high. So we crawled into their window. And it was a high-end women's store. And it's dusty and dark. And we're crawling around. I'm looking under all the clothes to see if there's anything. We're yelling, anybody here? Anybody here? Nobody there. So we worked our way back out. And now we went to the Marriott, which was a hotel right there. And we came in one of these big broken windows. It was right there at Ground Zero, huh? Yeah. And we climbed down the debris into the lobby of the hotel. We're the only ones there, you know. So we're like, holy shit, look at this place, you know. We're looking around. And it was kind of kept okay? It was a big lobby. There was ash and broken glass and shit, but it wasn't collapsed. Right. So I said, look over there. I see a fireman sitting at one of those little desks in the lobby. We're like, holy shit. So we go running over. First fireman we're seeing, you know. and he's covered in in shit you know no helmet he's like pale white he's in shock and he's sitting there and we're like holy shit buddy you okay okay and he turns and he looks at me and it's one of the young guys that got on rotation he just left our house and they sent them to manhattan we called him monkey man i'm like holy shit monkey what the fuck and he just he looked up at me and he and he said all my guys are dead they're all dead and we were like oh shit and i'm like kind of rubbing his shoulder my other guys were like monkey monkey you all right you all right and he he was in shock you know so we're like look monkey we gotta go man you know you're okay we're gonna leave you here it was funny because the phone was on the table with the little messenger light blink and it was the weirdest sight you know and we left him we climbed back out out the window back onto the debris it's a long day yeah we were there for until like 9 30 at night from 11 30 in the morning So we were going along. We found a hose line, believe it or not, a hose line all the way from the Hudson. And there was a big opening with like a void that had black smoke was pouring out of it. So we had the line. And for about an hour and a half, we just sat there. We're building seven about 100 yards away from us burning. And we sat there. And one guy would go around to the voids, and the other two guys would just hold the hose line, pouring it into this hole from hell. I mean, it was like, it was horrible. So all of a sudden we're doing that and we see this chief and he starts yelling at us. He's between us and building seven. And he says, drop that line. Get out of here. This building's going to come down. So we were like, holy shit. Okay. We cracked it open a little, wedged it into some rocks so the water would keep going down the hole. And we took off and we were like, hey, it was like five o'clock. We're like, we're hungry. We're thirsty. We're tired. We're covered in shit. let's go back to the rig his suburban and we'll go up town and we'll get something to eat and then we'll come back so we get off the pile like where's the car I think it's a few blocks this way so now we're heading down and there's nobody around still I mean as far as you know besides firemen coming in so I don't know if you ever heard of Penny Crone but she was like a popular reporter on Fox News she was a real tough girl Penny Crone and I don't know if she was Fox but there she is It's a very well-known New York reporter. She was out there on the street? She was in the street when we were walking, and she had a microphone and a cameraman. She came running up to us. She's like, guys, guys, can you give me some information on what it's like down there? So the three of us are standing there, and she puts this big microphone in front of me, and she goes, can you tell me? I said, oh, it's bad, really bad. She put it in front of my other friend, Bobby. Bad, he says, horrible. My other friend says the same thing. She's getting nothing out of it. And she pulls back, you know, to ask us another question. And I'm like, holy shit, look over there. And there's this Asian woman covered in dirt, bleeding from her head, and she's got a suitcase in her hand. So we run over to her. We're like, man, man, are you okay? She was in shock or whatever. And she just kept, like, looking. And my friend went to take the suitcase. She yanked it back, you know, and then she just walked away. And we were like, holy shit, that was weird. What do you think's in that suitcase? My friend said, money. The way she had the grip on that thing, it was full of money. That's a yen in there, I bet. A lot of yen. Wow. Some egg rolls. I don't know. But we got to the Suburban, and it was covered. Now it was green. It was now gray. So we'd all get in, and it was like, Theo, the seats, the leather seats were like, oh, we're squishing our backs in. We were getting comfortable. I was almost 40 at that time. I can't even imagine. And the fact is you're alive. Like you've been through this. I can't even imagine like what your body's going through. Oh, we were beat and we were covered in shit. And so it was funny because he put the car on and he started up and he put the air conditioner on and it blew smoke. It blew dust at it. Like Lily Munster's vacuum cleaner. I'm like, oh, everybody's getting a choke in. The thing's blowing smoke out all the dust. We're like, thanks, we needed that. Now we're heading uptown. Even with the windows open, the dust is flying off the rig. And we go up to 16 truck up in Midtown somewhere, and we take a break. I go in. We get a drink of water. I call my wife. What has she been thinking? I don't know. It's like 530. Oh, I forgot to say, before we got to the car, Building 7 collapsed. We just missed it. We heard a roar. My friend said, 7 just came down. So we were like, holy shit. We just missed it. But you've been near that all day down there. All day. It was burning. Because there's a lot of speculation about Building 7 over the years. I think it's all bullshit. You do? Because I was there, yeah. I mean, it kind of gets me a little, because I don't know what really happened that day. Who knows, you know, who was involved, whatever. I have no idea. Right. But all I know is Building 7 was burning all day long from first floor to the top floor, every window. So, you know, people were saying there was explosions. But you thought firsthand that it had been kind of cooking all that. The firemen that I ever talked to that were there that day, when everybody says there was no fucking explosions. And they have all these things. Like the other day, I thought I saw an AI bullshit thing about guys saying they heard explosions. Like they're putting that out on the Internet. And it looks real. You think they're really firemen. You've got to be careful today. You never know what's real. Oh, yeah. I agree with that. You can't tell anything. You can almost tell a little bit today, but imagine a few years from now with the AI, you'll never be able to tell. Yeah. You'll need like an AI detection kit. They probably will have that. Yeah. Maybe we can get in on that. We can come up with it first. Yeah. Okay. Sure. I mean, if that's what we met for today, to be able to start that and keep that out of the world. Yeah, that could have saved the world. What about over time with 9-11? There's been a lot of conspiracy theories and stuff like that. Has any of that grown in the world of the fire department culture or anything like that Or is it person by person Because you guys are one of the most affected groups you know Yeah 343 men we lost that day It's hard to even get over that number. Yeah, it was a lot, and we knew it was a lot. When we left 16 truck, we stopped at a Genovese drugstore somewhere in Manhattan, and we went in and we got a couple of bottles of water, about four giant Milky Ways, and some batteries for our flashlight. So now we're covered in shit, you know. We're up at the counter, and the young girl's ringing us up, and she goes, you guys come from the Trade Center? So my friend Bobby said, well, what gives you that idea? So she just like looked and grinned. She's like, no charge for you guys. So we took off. We ate our Milky Ways. We had our water, and then we went back to the pile. Is there a picture from that day, Nick? Do you have it where we're going to? If you have that, just pull it up. Don't even wait for me to see that. That's my two buddies. That was like a couple weeks later. That's Whip and the other guy? That's my friend Andrew and Marty. You would have to go down and work at the Trade Center. Yeah. And it was very unhealthy. A lot of guys got cancer. A lot of guys died after the Trade Center. We just had a breathing expert in the other day, this guy James Nestor, and he has a New York Times bestseller, a book called Breath. And he talks about, is it ground zero? Ground zero. Ground zero lung? Ground glass lung. Oh, okay. He talks about ground glass lung. Yeah, the glass. It's a condition that happened to a lot of people who were first responders at Ground Zero. Have you heard about this? Yeah. Well, I never heard about the ground glass, but, of course, the breathing. Everybody was in, you know. If you were there for like a month or two, some guys were there two, three, four months. My friend Bobby was there the whole time, you know. He just got his nephew on the job. It was his nephew's first job, and he was in the trolley. He was there every day looking for his body, day and night. Looking for his nephew? Nephew, yeah, or his sister. Yeah, it was. God, that's heartbreaking, huh? Yeah, he's a good guy. He's a great guy, too. Who, his nephew? No, my friend Bobby. This is his. He's the boxing. He runs the fire department boxing. He is? Bring him on. Let's get a picture of him. Bobby McGuire. You see him on there. Bobby McGuire, FDNY Boxing. He's a Golden Glove champ. is he a pretty interesting guy oh oh you wouldn't i don't know if you know the knicks but his uncles are dickie mcguire and al mcguire and marquette and the knicks yeah oh there he is his father was john mcguire and uh he was like a big guy in new york uh jimmy breslin actually called him the uh the king of queens because he opened the first gay bar in queens back in the day oh that's incredible man oh yeah he sounds like an interesting guy yeah i bet he's got some great stories too just from the boxing history of it you know joey diaz um used to uh he used to shovel ice out of james day braddock's driveway over in jersey yeah yeah i heard him say that that's pretty wild he'd give him like a couple of bucks yeah he'd give him a couple of bucks and joey's like this guy's been punched in the head so many times he thought he gave me a five he gave me a ten but that's just a wild story right yeah yes oh go back and show the guy that's marty right there that's bobby that's bobby mcguire bobby mcguire and what was his nephew's name do you remember um no i don't remember my wife might but i don't alan right alan he was a uh a lifeguard in rock away the kid his last name was alan he just started on the uh he just started it was like his first this job and bobby was there and i know his breathing is you know he's had a lot of breathing problems once you're there too long so anyway they're having a fight in madison square garden in march they we fight the cops every year yeah it's called the battle of the badges who's won over time over the years who's won the most you think well you know the cops are double the the amount of pool that they can get they're twice as big an organization as us you know we're like We're like 30,000. They're like 60,000. But we still, we get some good fighters, and we beat them quite a few times. They fight everywhere. They fight in England. They fight in Ireland. Oh, really? Yeah, they'll fight any fire department, any cops. So Bobby and his gang, this is like a thing they do all year. All year, yeah. Oh, he's so busy. So he runs this, the FDNY Boxing Club. Yeah. Oh, wow. They raise like hundreds of thousands for Tunnels to Towers every year. And what is Tunnels to Towers? That's with the World Trade Center Foundation where the guy's brother ran through from Staten Island. He ran through the tunnel to get to the Trade Center, and he passed away. And so they started this organization, and it's huge. Oh, that's beautiful, man. We'll make a donation to him. Oh, that'd be great. Yeah, right here. Born from the tragedy of an element, the Tunnels of Towers Foundation carries out its mission to do good by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responders, families with young children, and building specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Wow. They ran through the tunnel with their gear on to get to Manhattan. The FDNY Boxing Club is comprised of active duty members of FDNY and EMS who train on their own time established in 1982. FDNY Boxing has spent 40 years raising funds for worthwhile charities through spirited competition. Yeah, man, we'll make a donation to them. Yeah, I'm going. Bravest Boxing Team will defend the Big Apple in the second international battle of the badges, huh? The funny thing is the best fights are in the crowd. The cops and the firemen going at it. Holy shit, the brawls. One time I was there and this girl cop, you know, she was bad-mouthing some firemen and she threw a soda at the guy, and the one fireman says, hey, you know, I don't hit firemen. The other fireman said, I do, and he clocked her. Oh, yeah. Boom, she went flying over the thing. The whole fight broke out. It was crazy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, why don't you throw a soda at you? Yeah, and with all the people getting sex changes now, you don't know who's got what on them. Exactly. You know, I'm not frisking you first to find out. Yeah, what are you packing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How has the department changed since you got involved in now? Well, from when I got on and then in the late 90s, mid-90s, computers came in. And that changed a lot. Computers and now digital things. We had fax machines and computers. And that changed a lot of things. Before it was just writing in a book. Now more things are more digital. So they had a little more eyes on you. You couldn't get away with as much. Right, a lot more technology. Back in the day, the bosses ran the firehouse. there was nobody else that knew what was going on. Whatever they put in the book is what it was. In fact, when I bought my house, it was a funny story. I was 24, and I told my boss, I told the bank, yeah, this is where I work if you want to check on my employment. And I gave him the number to the truck office. So I said, yeah, this is what I make, you know, and it was like twice what I was making. He's like, ah, you can't say that. I said, just tell the bank, don't worry about it. And it worked. what um yeah what did christine say when you called her that it must have been crazy oh yeah well her her sister answered the phone bernie and i was like bernie and she's like tony how the fuck are you what's going on i said oh my god we just got uh firehouse we're taking a break uh we're all okay and uh and i'll talk to my wife tell her you know i love her and i'll see you in a bit i'll call her later so i hung up and we went back to the we went back to the pile so now we get back on the pile it's like what do we want we first we're walking along and guys are like seeing other guys that you know you're hugging so my friend bobby sees a guy they're hugging and i'm standing there like on a plateau and this guy hits me another fireman he goes buddy you're standing on somebody and i was like oh shit i looked down and this guy in his three-piece suit he's like part of the ground he's looking up at me and i'm like oh my god that was the first body I saw her all day. Ah. Yeah, so now we're like, okay, so now we're moving along. What do you want to do? They started a bucket brigade. I don't know. We must have had 1,000 Home Depot buckets. And you would pass the bucket and take a bucket. You had some water along. For, like, hours we were doing that, you know. It was a start major. Yeah, it was getting dark out. You know, the day was getting, it was, like, around 7.30, 8 o'clock. And so now we're doing this for hours. My back is killing me. and all of a sudden we hear all this yelling and everybody's yelling and cheering. It's 9.30 at night, you know, at 9 o'clock. We're like, what is that? What is that? And my friend Bobby goes, look, look over there, down there. And we look down and here comes a parade of iron workers with heavy machinery, cranes. They got their hard hats on, cut off shirts. Everybody's got their fists in the air. They're all hanging off the machines. Everybody's cheering like we won the Super Bowl. It was a drop in the bucket, but they got right to work, started taking off all the heavy shit. I mean, it had months, almost a year to go, but it was just a start. Yeah. And it just felt so good. Like we had a chance. Yeah, and then finally we were like, you know, let's start heading home. And I met a few guys heading home, and I was thinking in the back of my mind, all the guys that got killed, we had no idea how many yet. Can you imagine? And I run into a friend of mine, and he was off in a rescue company. And I said, hey, John. He said, Tony, how you doing? He goes, you know, Tony, Jerry was working. Jerry was like one of my best friends. And I was like, oh, God, I just like stepped back. Because I knew he was in Rescue 1. I was devastated. My friend whipped sore, and he put his arm around me. He said, come on, who knew? Let's go. Let's leave. and I was like, I'm still emotional. It's heartbreaking. What was his name? Jerry what? Jerry Nevins. Jerry Nevins. Look at your picture of him. Funny story, when he told me he was going to leave to go to rescue, I was like, you motherfucker, are you fucking kidding me? It was like everybody was leaving. I was there 15 years. I was losing guys left and right. They were getting made, lieutenant. He wanted to go to a rescue company. We used to bash rescue all the time. Rescue is like a special company. You know, when a truckie or a fireman gets in trouble, they send a rescue guy to get them. They're like expertise. They're like the Marines or whatever kind of? Well, the Marines, but they're like specialists. Is that Jerry? Yeah, that's Jerry. Oh, there he is. And they were on 42nd Street, Rescue 1. So they're right in the middle of Times Square. Oh, they were there. Oh, he made so many rescues. It was amazing. Wow, so he enjoyed it once he got over there. Oh, I used to go to some metal days, and he'd be there, and, you know, two, three metals, hanging off of buildings, scaffoldings. He'd say a lot of times in Midtown the scaffoldings would break and they'd have to go over ropes and get these guys. And, yeah, he was just a great find. But when he told me he was going to rescue, I was crushed. I was like, you've got to be kidding me. He told me in the middle of a box we were checking out a building. So now I get back in the rig and we're going down the St. Nicholas Avenue and I turn the ladder all the way out. So now it looks like a square, you know. And I'm like this way, looking at him. He's looking. He's like, what the fuck? I'm like, fuck you. And we straighten it out. Now we're crossing over Amsterdam Avenue, and I see them put the lights on. Like, okay, we're getting a run. I see the boss on the phone, you know, and he's taking down the information, puts his arm out. Like, we've got to run. Sounds like a job. Numerous calls. Numerous calls means you're going to work. That means people are calling. You know, I see a fire. I see a fire. I see a fire. Not just some weirdo with a Ouija board. Yeah, no Ouija boards, no fake alarms. You hear numerous calls, you know you're going to work. So now we go around Broadway, and I see we come up, and it's the second floor. It's blowing out like four windows. And there's an awning. We're off the fire escape on the second floor, and it's still not fire out. I got to get in there. I'm the OV. That's my job. So now I'm getting a ladder out. I'm putting the ladder up. The Dominican guys in the street, they're helping me place the ladder into the thing. I climb up the ladder. I smash the window out. I put my mask on, and I drop in. Now it's blowing all the other rooms. This room is getting ready to blow. You know, it gets hot. So now I'm in there, and I'm searching around, and I get lost. I get a little, I get pumped into a bureau on my knees, and I get disorientated. And I'm getting scared because my ears are starting to burn. I know it's going to light up, which is crazy. I got caught in a closet. You never think, how did you get caught in a closet, right? But I'm crawling in thinking it's an opening, and I turned in there, and I'm in this closet. Now I can't get out of the closet. I'm going around in a circle. My ears are burning, and all of a sudden I hear Jerry. He came in behind me. Jerry had a bite bar, which was like totally illegal. Instead of having a mask with a net on, it was like you had a little bite bar in the mask, so you didn't need that. You just held it with your teeth, which was totally outlawed, but it made it easier to take it on and off. So I hear him say, Tony. I'm like, Jerry. He's like, you've got to get out of here. It's going to light up. I'm like, I can't find my way out. I was like taking my mask off, calling for my mother. I thought I was a dead man. And then all of a sudden, I heard the engine at the door, and I heard this guy McCarthy yelling, kick its ass, kick its ass, hit it, hit it. I heard the water coming in, and I was like, oh, it was music to my ears. I was going to live again. And then after that, when I was in the street, I was like a zombie, you know, and Jerry was like, yo, what the fuck's wrong with you? I said, dude, that was fucking close. He just laughed, you know, but that was it. He went to rescue the next day. I never even thanked him for coming in after me that day. Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, even the stories are so exhilarating. I can imagine. I can't even imagine what it's like, really. We were putting a fire out, and I made a cover of a magazine. I think you could bring it up. It was called Fire Command. I didn't know what it was. It was like one of these buff magazines. Yeah, that's me in the middle. In a neck brace? Yeah. I look like an Italian organ grinded monkey man. I thought you were going to show me how you made the calendar. I got the little ringlets in my hair. I got the bow ties on. and a friend next to me, Kenny, he was a probie. It's a funny story. We had to take this line up, the fire escape, because we got called in as an extra engine. It was a lot of fire. People were trapped. They were having a hard time putting the fire out from the inside. So we're taking the line up the fire. Now I'm in the engine. I'm detailed. I'm never hardly in the engine. But when they need a guy and you've got an extra guy, you go across the floor. Now I'm in the engine, and we're taking this line up the fire escape to the fifth floor, and the boss is yelling, this boss is, but there's Joe McLaughlin, he's yelling, Richie, get in there, hit it, hit it. Finally, they charge the line. We tie it off to the fire escape. I mean, there's a lot of water going up that high. He's hitting the water, the guy right here, Richie, that's squinting his eyes. And he's hitting the water and we're pushing our way in. We made it up to the fire floor escape. We pushed the fire in and now we're crawling in. We're climbing in through the window. The boss is yelling, they're looking at us, Richie. They're looking at us because we're outside. the fire escape we get in the ceiling comes down on our heads all this hot plaster and shit's fucking burned my neck so now we're getting in we get to like the engine on the other side is coming and they're making a good push they're putting the fire out we're putting the fire out so now we're at this like wall with a window and i'm i'm on top of something me and another guy were like kneeling i thought it was a pillow from uh the couch so the boss tells the probe he take the line and shoot the water out the window and it'll take a lot of smoke so we could start to see what's going on here and as they're doing now you can start to see a little the boss takes his mask off and he goes holy shit look what you're kneeling on i looked down and we're kneeling on a corpse with no head no legs and no arms and he's all like a crispy burnt we're like ah we all jump off we're like holy shit i thought it was a couch piece you know it was just that's what happened they killed this guy they cut him up and then they lit him on they lit the place on fire that's why there's so much fire you get a lot of fire in the middle of the day it's usually awesome somebody poured gasoline or something oh yeah that was a murder huh it was a murder so anyway before that the kenny's a probie he's probably about 21 years old and uh he was in softball and he hurt his legs sliding in the second base so we were on inspection i said kenny what happened to your leg he said oh I caught it on softball I said oh that looks fucking terrible then we got that run to the fire so now we're leaving the fire we're going down the steps I said we're all going sick we're tapping out right so I said we're gonna go with our necks from the ceiling coming down I said Kenny take that bandage off and tell him you got burnt on your leg right so we get in the street the street's busy he's all fire department cops there's reporters in the street and everything and the fire department doctor comes running over to us and I said yeah The ceiling came down on our heads, and he's like, oh. And I says, and this guy got burned on his leg, and he looks at his leg up. He looks at the softball injury, and he goes, third-degree burns. Patch this man right off. So I look at Kenny. He goes, you didn't know. It was his first take. So now they take us. We're on the wall, like on Malcolm X Boulevard, and they take us. We said, where's the boss? We don't know where Joe McLaughlin is. So we see a bunch of people, like, standing around. Somebody's on the ground. They're taking pictures. And we go over there and we see the boss. He's on the stretcher getting his head taped down. And they're all taking pictures of him. We're like, Lou, Lou, you okay? You okay? And he looks up. He goes, get the fuck out of my pictures, he says. We're like, he's okay. So they put us in the bus. There he is. Ah, the best. Joe McLaughlin. CPO Joe. He was in the 17 truck in the Bronx in the war years. So he was like, he was a well-rounded fireman. tough as nails. Wow. Yeah, so he says, get the fuck out of my pictures. So we're laughing. Everybody's taking pictures of him. So now they take us to the hospital, you know. So we're in the emergency room in Columbia Press, and the young nurses are patching up on, and they're laughing with us, you know, and it's a busy emergency room. And Kenny's got his thing on, and so all of a sudden this, like, middle-aged head nurse comes in, you know, good-looking woman probably 40 or so and so she goes to kenny's leg and she moves the bandage she makes a face you know she's like when did this happen and the kid he's sitting there you know he's like oh we're all looking at him laughing you know and she just like patches it up she goes you're lucky we love you guys we're like oh we love you too busted so about a week or two a couple of weeks later i come into the firehouse and this guy says hey here's one of the superstars i'm like I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, you made the cover of a magazine. So I'm like, holy shit, you're kidding. So now I go in the kitchen and everybody's clapping and everything. They already have the picture in a frame, right? But they changed it from report on firefighters injuries. They put report on firefighters faking injuries. So they put captions on everybody. So you see the woman with her arms crossed and the bandana. Her caption said, I know those motherfuckers are faking. and then there's a cop like walking here and he goes yeah chief i got those fakers right here and then this salty hot uh harlem fireman is looking at us and his thing says you guys disgust me look at that sad face oh my god those that ringlet hair i love how you guys already have your neck braces oh yeah i kept that in my bag pocket well we had a prop prop closet at home you know canes and braces oh that's hilarious yeah so that's that was that we made that uh cover i still have that hanging today oh it's just just you had to go down to some memory lane man just to think about different things and just to hear about the camaraderie of what like the lifestyle was like um bring up the part about the ground glass lung is that what it's called i just wanted to make sure that we that i mentioned it on here so that people know about it let me see Ground glass lungs refers to a radiological finding on CT scans showing hazy opacities in the lungs, often linked to inflammation or fibrosis from inhaling toxic dust at ground zero. Yeah, pulverized. After the 9-11 attacks, the dust cloud contained over 2,500 contaminants, 50% construction debris, 40% glass fibers, 9% cellulose. and inhaling the dust led to World Trade Center lung injury, with firefighters losing up to 12 years of lung function. 70% of workers saw respiratory decline. The longer you worked down there, the worse it was. Yeah. Because the dust really never settled for months. Yeah, it's so crazy to think that it created a new disease. Yeah, probably. Well, you know, think about all those offices, all those fluorescent lights, all those computers, they just got pulverized to a dust. That's why everybody was covered between that and the cement. It's a lot. Tony, yeah, there's so many more things I want to talk to you about. Maybe we could have you come back sometime. Anytime. And talk about other stuff. Sure. Maybe I'll bring Bobby McGuire with me. Very interesting, man. Is he? Oh, my God. No, he seems very interesting. And I want to get a picture up, too. Is this Richard Allen? Yeah, that's his nephew. That's his nephew right there. He's his son. Of Richie Allen. Yeah. That's awesome, man. We'd love to maybe get him. Every year they acknowledge him in Rockaway. They have a big thing with the lifeguards. Oh, they do? He was a big surfer. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh. Yeah, I got plenty more stories there. What was the murder? That was a good story. You know what? I think I want to say that because there's even some basic questions. Like somebody leaving a candle on. Is that like the number one cause of a house fire? Maybe house fires. Probably bad electrical work and a lot of off fires. Arson. Yeah. Big time. There's space heaters. Space heaters. I don't know if you ever heard of the Happy Lands Social Club. I don't know. It depends on which one you're talking about. It was in the Bronx. Yeah, it wasn't that kind of happy land. It is a lot of different. Well, sad story, but I think, like, I'm not sure the number, but you can look it up. Eighty-seven people died from a gallon of gas in a match. Oh. Yeah, it was horrible. You didn't respond to that? I didn't respond, but my friend Sully did. He was detailed out to the Bronx, and they were one of the first trucks there. And when they got in, they were crawling up the stairs, and they didn't know what they were crawling over. And when they finally found out, it was all bodies. It was, like, crazy. you had happy lands and so a lot of times you don't know what's going on or it used to be you didn't know what's going on until you got in there no probably not you don't know who's who said it you just you just the adrenaline is running man oh my god your hearts are pumping and thought you never get it never gets like gold you know oh my dad uh how many years like they would say we get there and be a top floor fire now you got to carry that mask all your gear everything by the time you get to that sixth floor and you got to put a mask on you're sucking air you're like now you got to put this little man the mask is like the man breathing so you only get air and i'd be in my mask like i'm getting out of this fucking city i'm going to queens i thought queens would be an easier job for me westchester send me to west anywhere you know i'm getting out of this fucking ghetto wow well um yeah tony thanks so much for your service man yeah i would love to just have you come back sometime and just be able to just go down like there's some other roads i want to go down and learn more about it um and just uh but yeah i think today we just got a really good idea of just kind of the brotherhood of um yeah just what your your journey has been like kind of getting involved with fire departmenting um oh what did your wife end up getting a job in my wife yeah she was uh worked for a printer and then she worked for a dentist oh yeah yeah dentalist like dental assistant and kind of stuff she was she ran the whole like you know yeah I took the phone calls. Oh, yeah. All the billing. Keeping everything organized. Yeah, she ran it. Yeah, yeah. You know, my wife was a hard worker. Yeah, that's nice. Like I said, she bought her first car when, you know, we were 17 with her own money. Four grand. She bought a Chevette. Ooh. Red Chevette. Oh. Dude, if I saw a girl with a car, yeah, I'm going with her. Yeah, I was like, wow, this girl's got her own car. Yeah. Her own money. No, mom didn't buy it, you know. That's my, I think, the number one thing I'm looking for in a spouse is hard working. Yeah. Oh. because life's hard work yeah you can't try you can't do the door lock anymore right because now the rule that you always is to say if the girl don't open gets in the car don't open your door she's out yeah so there's all these little tests but yes my wife was a hard worker and a great mother yeah it's a nice thing too yeah it's funny because you know all them years of being in the fire if I come home sometimes say oh my god I had a fire top floor was burning I'm telling them all this stuff. And then she'll be like, did you remember that we have to go to school tomorrow? And I'll be like, I just told you this whole story. It seemed like it went right over your head. You're like, blah, blah, blah. We get it. Yeah, yeah. Any fires you've been to. Matches. Go spit that black tar in the sink again like you always do. Oh, yeah. Behind every good fireman, huh? Oh, yeah. It's the wives. I got some pictures of the fire department wives. Well, look, you can show me that. As long as they're appropriate, you can show me that. They're appropriate. Good girls. A lot of them are Bronx girls. Well, look, these days, oh, yeah, tough women over there. Yes. That's what you need in the world. You need a good, strong lady. This is your book right here, Tales from the Tiller. Yes. I didn't even know you had written this. Yeah, I wrote this. It just came out last September. Really? Yeah, great book. Dude, congratulations. Yeah. A lot of good stories in there. and I got recipes in there. Oh, for sure. Clam Sauce Casino. I think you might like that. Well, I'll tell you this. I took a gal out the other night, went to a place that had clams and white wine sauce. That's kind of like, oh, you would love the Clam Sauce Casino. Really? Well, you know Clam's Casino? You know, they put the peppers and the onions and a little bacon on it, and then they bake them. No, never had that. Louisiana didn't have Clam Sauce Casinos. They might have had it. We had macaroni. There it is. oh yeah that looks good so I make it this guy that got in trouble and was sent to our firehouse and it was one of his meals and I took it from him and we make it with the spaghetti so we put it over with the peppers the bacon, the onions bread crumb and the clams I want that I'm a clam guy have you seen that kid that says that? no bring up that clam kid I love this kid but of course that a fireman's book would have fires with recipes thrown in. Yeah, it's funny because some of the stories are like tragedy and then it goes right into the recipe. It's like, it's a little weird, but no. No, that kid that does the Italian words. No, no, no. I'm looking for the kid. Yeah, this kid's hilarious, but the, what did I just ask for a minute? Clam guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a clam guy. Kid, have you seen this little kid? No, I'd see. This kid, they interviewed him. We'll finish on him. All right. I'm a guy who only basically likes It's clams, really. I'm a clam guy. Yeah, I like that, kids. It's all I do. All they eat, she looks like it. Clams are awesome. This is crazy. I hate it, or it's good. It's good. It's good. Kid's getting a little bit weird. But yeah, that guy's a clam guy, you know? It's getting a little weird. But I could see you guys just like, you guys show up at a fire, but you also brought, like, but you also brought dinner that has to be preheat, that has to be heated up. So you're, like, taking it up to the fire with you, leaving it on the ledge. As soon as you sit down to eat, the tone alarm goes off. Oh, every time, huh? And what happens is we have a big thing of foil paper, and one guy just starts cutting the foil papers off, and the other guys start wrapping this. Taking it to go? Otherwise, the cockroaches will walk away. We had so many cockroaches in the firehouse. Oh, my God. You can never get rid of them. Oh, God. Yeah. We'll have to hear about it next time. You have a book, Tales from the Tiller, the true story of heroism, heartbreak, and humor, the luckiest guy alive in his journey in the FDNY. That's awesome. Yeah, it starts with some of my jobs before that and then right through the academy and right up to retirement. Who got you put it together? Just me and my son. Oh, yeah? And my wife, yeah. Oh, that's excellent. Yeah, it was all in-house. And my brother-in-law, who was in Seattle, he worked for Microsoft, and he did all the proofreading. Did he? Funny story is that he threw his shoulder out working the mouse doing all my corrections because every chapter had like 1,000 corrections on it. Well, that sounds like an insurance scam. But that'll be the next book, you know. People are already telling me, when are you going to write another book? I'm like, well, I'm just trying to get this one out now. I go on the Instagram. That helps. And there's always some ass. So you write one book. He's like, when's your next book coming out? He can't even read. There's always people that can't read. What's my next one going to be? Like, more Tales from the Teller? There you go. Hey, if it sells. You never know, man. I've enjoyed your time today, man. Thanks for thinking about that. Me too. And just kind of taking us on a little bit of a journey. Yeah. We had so many questions for today, so I'd love to be able to get to Morgan. Yeah, I can't believe how fast it went. Another time. I know. When you're having fun. Hey. You're the man. I'm just glad we're not on fire in here today, man. I really am, dude. Checking this lobby out over here. It's about 1,000 years old over here. I know. This place is pretty cool, man. Yeah, it's cool. If you get to go to this, like a bar over there and a restaurant just at each end. I went and I looked at them. Yeah, it's just cool. It's funny because I've been in big hotels in Manhattan before, and the lobbies are tremendous. There's stores and restaurants. So I thought it was going to be – I've never been to the Chelsea. Yeah, this is a nice place to come if you just come for a meal or something. They went to the bar last night. It's nice in there, huh? It's the suite. Yeah, this is one of the suites. But, yeah, it just feels like – I don't know. To me, it just feels like a lot more chill here. Yeah, definitely. And relaxed. But thank you for your service. I want to say that. Thank you for coming today and helping us share memories of some of your comrades that have fallen over the years and that have also served. And we appreciate it. And we appreciate your wife and son, Dominic. We'll have to put a picture of all of them together at the end of the episode. And thanks again, man. Thank you. Yep. We had a good time. It was a pleasure, man, and an honor. Well, I appreciate it, Tony. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it in my bones But it's gonna tell you