This Past Weekend - #637 - FDNY Firefighter

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Starting point is 00:00:31 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 Theo Vaughn's Store.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 ever. FDNY here in New York City, which is where we filmed.

Starting point is 00:01:03 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.

Starting point is 00:01:42 Okay. Yeah, what kind of temperature do you guys operate? 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 anybody in? By the end, you didn't? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm talking. Kid me? Yeah. And then sometimes you're so thirsty. I mean, there were times I was so thirsty from pulling ceilings and the plaster dust that I actually would, I look up and would take water

Starting point is 00:02:16 coming off the drain pipe, just straight into my mouth because I can breathe. Yeah, yeah, it gets pretty crummy in there. Oh, I bet. 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 High Park. My father moved us out of the Bronx and 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. Bring it 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 have bus drivers, cops, firemen, truck drivers. So it's a nice suburb over there.

Starting point is 00:03:03 Oh, it was great. Right over the city line. Uh, I mean, I had such a great childhood. We were, 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. Listen to some deaf leperts, some ACDC? Yeah, well, back then it was Twisted Sister, and, you know, we used to go to the clubs

Starting point is 00:03:28 and see Twisted Sister, OBI. There was a bunch of good bands back then, house bands, but they would play, you know, all the cover songs. You had, like, The Doors, you had Zeppelin. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, that's a beautiful time, dude. I think that's kind of a time

Starting point is 00:03:43 that a lot of people romanticize as well, you know? 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 and Y for 20 years? Yeah, 21.

Starting point is 00:03:56 21 years. Yeah. How do you get started? Like, what were you doing before you got into firefighting? Because things are going well. You're listening to Twisted Sister. Yeah, hanging out with the boys, getting in trouble.

Starting point is 00:04:07 I did get arrested. I was at Speaks. club once in Lido Beach. And I did get arrested there for, had some weed and a couple other things on us. Yeah. Yeah, we were young. We were, so yeah, we just, and I was going nowhere. I went to college for like, uh, maybe three weeks. Oh, yeah, that's not enough. Farmingdale University, uh, 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.

Starting point is 00:04:44 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? Would you be a couple of... Nah, it'd be other people, butchers coming in, grabbing their meat.

Starting point is 00:05:03 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 Miniola. Oh, that's pretty cool. And Miniola, is that here in New York? Yeah, Miniola 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 when nobody's looking.

Starting point is 00:05:26 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 veal after this came out. Yeah. You know, that was just, bro, you couldn't, you couldn't get something that wasn't tenderized. It was funny because we were all kids too And you would, you know, all this meat After the place closed would be But we never took an ounce of meat, you know, back then

Starting point is 00:05:47 You got all this beautiful meat You got all this in there Big tubs of filet mignon's all kinds of You guys are just in there Beating it Yeah And then I had a And so what happens?

Starting point is 00:05:58 Yeah, you're in there, you're beating You guys are punching the meat or whatever And Oh yeah Was that a common future in your area? No, it was not at all Just got a job there My friends were all working there

Starting point is 00:06:08 The whole crew was working That's fun. And we were to clean up 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. Y'all were just partying probably. Yeah. And then we'd oil it up with vegetable oil.

Starting point is 00:06:21 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. That was the two inspectors every day and they would inspect everything. Oh, so it was pretty. 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

Starting point is 00:06:42 and clean the machine and then they'd inspect it again. So it was a little bit of kind of a meat, was there kind of a meat mafia kind of going on a little bit of something? Was it really? Mm-hmm. Wow.

Starting point is 00:06:50 It was owned by two Jewish brothers, the Collins. 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 a dude,

Starting point is 00:07:02 me and like five of my buddies worked over there at, well, I think it was called Save a Sense. or something. It was a gross for you. When Dixie, maybe it was cold. Dude, one of my buddies would come clock in, go home. And then he would wake up to he come clock out, dude. He worked there for like, yeah, he worked there for almost 11 months. Wow. Dude, and the rest of us were afraid to do that. So we'd actually be in there working. But we would during like, but it was so much fun as having your, bro. There was nothing better,

Starting point is 00:07:32 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. Yeah. You got to work with your friends. That's what it was. Oh. Like,

Starting point is 00:07:53 nobody's going to go in Saturday morning. We'd all be banged up, you know, from being out, drinking all night. We'd 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.

Starting point is 00:08:12 And 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, it would all shiny. And what vegetables was it coming out of?

Starting point is 00:08:24 I have no idea. Look a vegetable or what, 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,

Starting point is 00:08:43 and grains, most commonly, soil beans, 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 even know people use it like that. Yeah, we had these black trucks and they would look all waxed after we were done oil

Starting point is 00:08:59 on them all down. Yeah. And it stunk, too, you know, because it was such a big place and there'd be a lot of, like, bones and the fat and you'd had to go in the pit sometimes. It's like you would puke. It was so bad smelling. What was the pit? It was kind of like below the floor. Yeah, that's where all the water would drain into the... Oh. And every now that our boss would have to go in there. I'd see him reaching in there. He'd have

Starting point is 00:09:23 like fat on his glasses and shit. It was, oh, it was gross. Yeah. Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah, no, 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 parkers and their big boots.

Starting point is 00:09:44 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 men, you know. They never came out of the freezer. Yeah, dude. Oh, that's fucking wild. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:54 Be 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 Is working in a freezer?

Starting point is 00:10:05 Yeah? Oh, I think so. That was in the line And what kind of guys would do Was it tough guys? Was it Russians? Who was doing? Tough fucking guys?

Starting point is 00:10:12 Yeah? Butchers. Psychos. They got their own toolbox of knives, you know, big. A couple of times

Starting point is 00:10:19 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'd think

Starting point is 00:10:27 were any of them low-key, like, like, that kind of guy? Yeah, yeah. They were low-key. They were. Strange some of them.

Starting point is 00:10:32 Yeah, that's why. And then you had the women, they were the packers. Oh, they were? Yeah, they would like pack the chickens and all that. And then wrap it and everything, yeah. Women do better gift wrapping. They had like tough women, too. They were working.

Starting point is 00:10:45 They was like the boss of the women was a real tough brood. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Some girl would have tattooed Richard Dent on that. Yeah, everybody would be out smoking. Yeah, your smoke breaks. And the guy would come with the roach coach and call you out for your coffee and shit. He would?

Starting point is 00:11:00 Yeah, the coffee roach. You know, there were a roach coach is here. and everybody would come out. You know what the Roach coach is? Uh-uh. It's a coffee truck. All right. Back in the day,

Starting point is 00:11:07 they would come to, like, factories. Oh, so it just pulls up and you got to get your snap? And they would be like, all right, the coach guy's here, and everybody would be out of break, get their coffee that lousy donut, whatever he had. A little bit of a break, yeah. I like that, man. Dude, we used to, 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 they, but they, they, they, they, it was nap time or

Starting point is 00:11:27 whatever at kindergarten, but they would, I wouldn't sleep, right? I would keep my eyes open because they had this, they'd 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 your eyeballing her. Yeah, I was kind of eyeballing her, I guess, you know?

Starting point is 00:11:43 Because me and my mother were always on the outs. I was shopping around. Uh-huh. So 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.

Starting point is 00:11:58 And she had pretty nice hair. She looked a little bit like a man. Yeah. But she was definitely, she'd probably, year was that oh this was probably 84 of the early 80s god yeah she looked like a fucking man but she's like only the third woman i'd ever seen you know so at that point she was really good looking you don't oh yeah yeah she's beautiful to me you know she was dying you know she was just stunning dude but yeah she'd let me go out there and watch her smoke and she complain about

Starting point is 00:12:24 stuff oh that's funny god that was nice yeah just getting a little break you know so that was like it felt like it was my break from kindergarten like i were on break oh i remember kindergarten well. Really? Oh, yeah. Nap time. That was the best. Snack and nap.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And then out to the sandbox and dig a hole of 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. You know, I'll be like, yeah, let's keep digging.

Starting point is 00:12:50 Yeah, yeah, dude. And then some people get sand in his eyes and he would look like he was Chinese. 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 into the fire.

Starting point is 00:13:04 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? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:16 They were making, they were making, they 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.

Starting point is 00:13:29 The color beads for like, what, Mardi Gras or something? Yeah, Mardiard. 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 and get ready to send it.

Starting point is 00:13:42 Get it to mech up. I'd be like, oh, I'm sister. Brown, green, all that. I'd put something down and then the guy would come back. You can't be, you'll be yelling at me. You can't send these out. And I'm laughing. He's like, what are you laughing about?

Starting point is 00:13:54 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 a country. Well, I'm in the mail room, dude. I'm not doing real good. Oh, I could imagine.

Starting point is 00:14:13 Yeah, when my body had gotten really hot, so I took all my clothes off in it. And I mailed my, put all my clothes into a box, mailed them to some place, dude. Oh, my first girlfriend, her mom got me that job. Her dad, shut out Mr. Earl. He was a fire chief, actually. 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 every the years. But I did have a good time.

Starting point is 00:14:49 They were stayed. They had a firehouse down there on chop of Tulis in New Orleans. And it would be great because the Mardi Gras parades were down there. So we'd go down there and the firehouse would be open on days like that and all the families. Must have been an old firehouse too. It was beautiful. Yeah. I think bring it right up. It's right down there off a chop of tulis over there. And that was it right there. Oh, I see it. That's it right there.

Starting point is 00:15:08 It looks like they made it into something. Yeah, they made it into something. Wow. But anyway, it was a great time, man. It was a great time we'd go over there. Everybody's cooking hot dogs. And just, you know, just having a great time. You know, that was a beautiful time.

Starting point is 00:15:19 Oh, the Cajun. Yeah. We had so much fun, man. Oh, bet. So how do you get into there, man? How do you get, so you're over there making jewelry and stuff? Well, the funny part is they sent me to this place called Stonewell Plastics and Miniola.

Starting point is 00:15:32 and I go in and I got this little Mexican guy he's doing the interview with me. He's got, it's like middle-aged little guy. He's got a little pencil mustache, you know. 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?

Starting point is 00:15:51 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, oh, you'll do. 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 were in there learning Spanish, huh? Yeah, Spanish. What languages were they? Yeah, who was mostly Spanish? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:17 It was some black people, but even them I didn't understand because some of them from Brooklyn. I had one friend. He would drive me home. I would say, yeah, I'd shake his head and he'd shake his head. We don't know what the hell either was saying. Dude, I still can't understand black people. He'd be like, hey, miss, I was telling the show, my damn boss. I'm there. I'll be like, yeah, we're a motherfucker. Yeah, dude. I mean, look, bro.

Starting point is 00:16:36 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? Good big, yeah. So you're in there. Are you just like disson from me? No.

Starting point is 00:16:47 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 lithographies of America Local 1. Wow. And I did that for about four years. But I took the fire department test when I, when I was 18, I was 19, like 78. And was that part of school you had to take it?

Starting point is 00:17:04 No, my neighbor came over, and he came in our back door with an application. Johnny La Lima, 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, you know. I had no idea it was going to be the biggest career move of my life.

Starting point is 00:17:26 Dude, what, yeah, 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, you know. Yeah. I figured this kid would be a fireman. It'll be all right, you know? So thank God. I mean, he saved me because, I was going to, the printing union was going south. You know, computers were coming in.

Starting point is 00:17:44 Yeah. 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.

Starting point is 00:18:05 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? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:17 Yeah. 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.

Starting point is 00:18:31 The written test was a joke. I mean, it was like a third grade questions, you know. Yeah? Remember any of them or no? Well, I saw the sanitation guy. He was saying about the dirt and the shovel. That's exactly what it was like. What would you use?

Starting point is 00:18:45 A garbage truck, a plow or a shovel and broom. 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 take me do that. My father took me to East New York to an armory in this real shit neighborhood.

Starting point is 00:19:04 And we parked his Buick Regal. It was like the nicest car my dad ever had. And I bought him these spoke rims for it for his birthday. Oh, that was 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're sure dad. You want to, yeah, don't worry about it.

Starting point is 00:19:22 I mean, he's in East Harlem 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 a hundred 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 uh one was an eight-foot wall you had to jump over the eight-foot wall that was like the separator like if you didn't get over the eighth-foot wall you went to the police department oh sorry guys but hey that's what's

Starting point is 00:19:57 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, 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 code, 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

Starting point is 00:20:37 out on the ledge. I went all the way down. I touched the line. I came all the way back. And the woman's scoring me. He says, you didn't touch the line down there. Uh-uh. What? I race all the way back, touched the line. I come back. She said, you ran out of time. I got a zero. I was like, ah, that's it. Everything was down the drain. So, come on. You. You know. 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,

Starting point is 00:21:05 which they were complaining about. They wanted women, they wanted minorities. I think they were told, because 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.

Starting point is 00:21:19 And so you get the zero. Pissed. And so, but, and there's 10 stations. You do fine on the rest of them. You get out of there. And you then, waiting for your gray like do you even like yeah so now now after you get all that done everybody says they're half-ass goodbys you know i i went back out thank god my father's regal was still there yeah

Starting point is 00:21:38 found the found i 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 l ie and boom get home my dad was there how'd you do i said i think i did all right and so now it's 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, you know. None of them passed? None of them passed. Were some of the women in there on that day?

Starting point is 00:22:09 You were there with that 100 people? No, I didn't see any women that that day. But we had a couple in my battalion when I got there. But 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,

Starting point is 00:22:31 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 God. Thank you, girls. I appreciate it. Yeah, because rarely does a complaining woman save you.

Starting point is 00:22:46 Oh, she saved me that day. Brenda Birkman right there. Brenda Bergman. Everybody knows Brenda. Pioneering female firefighter. She was the sole named class plaintiff. She was a lawyer. In the federal sex discrimination lawsuit that opened the fire department in New York to women firefighters.

Starting point is 00:23:01 After she won the lawsuit in 82, she and 40 other women became FD and Y firefighters. Was that a time where like were people like supportive of the women? Were they against the women? What did that feel like? Totally against the women. They were. There's an old male place, you know. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:20 And, you know, I guess a lot of guys, they don't feel like they didn't mind the women that really passed the time. test, but to just get on because you're a woman that was not, you know, today, now they have girls, you know, there's 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 stack in the deck, like we're just going to put some extra girls in. Because some of that's just a liability. That's it. They went, well, yeah, life and death, you know. And a liability for their own life. There 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.

Starting point is 00:23:56 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, like when you do you get a letter? It's like, yeah, I'm in. You got it? And does it have flames? My wife, my wife came, I come pulling up in the parking lot from the working at Mastercraft Litho. And I had a little chivet. We both shared this little chavette card and my wife bought on our own when we were kids. And I see her coming across the parking lot with a waving. I said, what is it? She goes to fire department watch six years.

Starting point is 00:24:30 Oh, you're going to hire you. I said, holy shit, I looked at it. Tony Baum Figlio, 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.

Starting point is 00:24:45 Oh, she was happy at Santa Lime. 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 our neighborhood,

Starting point is 00:24:59 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. And so I'm going up the block. I'm like 14 years old. Yeah. 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.

Starting point is 00:25:17 And I'm like, hey, first of all, I thought he was pulling my leg. So that was like why we met. And then, you know, we went through school. we didn't really date until we were like 18. Hey, there you go. Yeah. That's a great shot. Yeah, it was like size 32 waist back then.

Starting point is 00:25:35 Hey, uh. Look, I'm looking at Christine. Yeah, yeah, she's looking good. Yeah, yeah. You can say what I'm not looking at your waist, buddy. Yeah, we were, you know, we were like 24 years old there. I was just getting out of the academy. That's graduation day.

Starting point is 00:25:49 I'm graduated from there after six weeks of training. Oh, that's nice, huh? Yeah. Yeah, you look pretty pleased. So the funny part is they give us your assignment, you know, so I get this thing, 34 truck. Now, like 155, only 10 are going to go to trucks. The other 140 are going to go to engine companies.

Starting point is 00:26:08 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 out on the doors. The ledge walkers. The ledge walkers.

Starting point is 00:26:19 So I didn't want to go to a truck. I was like real. I didn't like the heights. and like the ropes. Yeah, that's what I'm so. Look, I got a zero. On the ledge walk. Yeah, you got the wrong guy.

Starting point is 00:26:30 So, and 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 said they sent him to the truck. So now I'm going to see a truck in Manhattan. I'm like, oh, man, all right. So I tell her, I says, I got it, I'm going to a 34 truck. They gave me a truck.

Starting point is 00:26:49 She's like, they gave me a truck. I'm like, yeah, because most guys are in the engine full. 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, their engine A4, and we were at a three-four. It was a big 100-year-old firehouse. And so a ladder, they do different stuff than the engine does.

Starting point is 00:27:10 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. And you're actually in there crawling around. With no water. No water.

Starting point is 00:27:28 Maybe a can on your back. Oh, what? Yeah, I was a can man for quite a while. And that's heating up quick, probably. Yeah. So you get in a ladder, and where's the ladder at? What's that like? 161st Street in Manhattan.

Starting point is 00:27:40 And on Orphanidam Avenue in a place called Washington Heights. Washington Heights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of Dominicans up there. Oh, my God. When I got there, they were just coming in. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:49 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 North Brooklyn or out to Long Island. So everybody would come in and buy their crack and their cocaine. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:06 So it was badass. I mean, they would be shooting all day long. Was it exciting? It was. Yeah. Oh, my God. And the place was so crowded. It was like full of people with these old broken down tenement buildings.

Starting point is 00:28:18 Brownstones, tenements, all broken down, hundred years old. The firehouse. was 100 years old. Did you, was it exciting to go work there? Did it feel scary? Like, what did it kind of become for you? Well, the funny part I was going to say is that I went with my wife from the graduation. I said, we got to go.

Starting point is 00:28:35 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.

Starting point is 00:28:51 Look at this. It's 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, probatory probationary firefighter Bonfiglio. This old guy answered the door. What can I do for you, Proby?

Starting point is 00:29:09 He knew right away I was a probie just by looking at me with the stuff on it. I said, I'm looking for my firehouse, 34 truck. They said it's on 84 street. He's like, wow, let me look at that. He's like, dude, you're in with 84 engine and you're on 160. I was like, why? Holy shit. I had to get in the car and tell my wife, we got to go up to a hundred. And now we left the glitz and now we're in this freaking run-down neighborhood. It was like, holy shit. The music's a little bit better. Oh, you got a lot of salsa blasting in the streets.

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Starting point is 00:31:26 www.ncpgambling.org. So you're in there, you're in the ladder. Truck company, yeah, ladder company. You're in the truck company. You guys are the ones that go in. So you have more of an axe and you do a host. We got a forcible entry team. Okay.

Starting point is 00:31:41 A roof man. And another guy that's called the OVs. He vents out the outside. He goes up the fire escapes. Oh, yeah, peeping Tom probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the guy, the first guy in to break in the window in. Or just sitting there by it.

Starting point is 00:31:54 You know, I won't say nothing. So do you guys get there before the, like 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.

Starting point is 00:32:12 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 like car fires, rubbish fires. We had water leaks, so many water leaks, because it was such an old neighborhood.

Starting point is 00:32:27 When we go to a water leak, we 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 in about three weeks, I'm still wondering, oh, my God, what's going to happen with a job? Am I going to, what's it going to be like? I still have no idea, you know, I'm a can man. The probie gets the can. Okay, and the can means what?

Starting point is 00:32:48 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 it can helpful? It'll put out, if a good can man could maybe put out a room of fire. Okay.

Starting point is 00:33:05 Okay. You get your finger over that thing. 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 five? Yeah, it was like three weeks in.

Starting point is 00:33:16 And I'm doing my first 12-by watch. So you have a house watch, you know, and you got a man, somebody's got a man. somebody's 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've i never done a watch alone yet so the 12 by was like you know it was a little scary at first and that's 12 hours no 12 to 3 you do 3 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.

Starting point is 00:33:54 I'm like, sleeping. Look, I've had a job before. I know how it is. I'm sacked out. And all of a sudden, the alarm goes off. The computer goes, it starts ticking out this alarm. I'm like, oh, my God, I was so scared.

Starting point is 00:34:08 I got up. I hit the house watch light. I'm looking at the ticket. It says engine A4, ladder three, four, first two, fire on an eighth floor. So now I got to hit all the bunk room lights. I got to hit the intercom. Say, everybody goes.

Starting point is 00:34:20 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, Tony. I'm hamped up. Oh, man. So now we get there.

Starting point is 00:34:36 It's 3.30, quarter to 4 in the morning, and it's like a project's building, about 11 stories. It was pretty decent building. It was on Amsterdam Avenue. And so we're the forceful entry team, me, 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. Burly mustache, unruly hair. Gout and his smile. It's all bent and burnt, you know.

Starting point is 00:35:07 Yeah, dude, definitely. Great guy, though, you know. It's like he was raised in an ashtray. Oh, yeah. Oh, this guy, yeah. So, weird, the sports for entry teams, the Camman, an irons man he's got an axe and a haligan 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 sleep yeah no they're in there so all of a sudden they start who is it who is it you know like fire department open the door open the door fire department so they buzz you in now go in the lobby nothing's showing nobody's bailing out you know so i'm like eh i don't know so might not be it take an elevator to the seventh floor so fire was on the eighth floor

Starting point is 00:35:47 So we get to the seventh floor and you never take the fire, 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 project's hallway. I don't know if you 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 to 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 night floor so with that now we go into the hallway and my friend is on the top of the stairs

Starting point is 00:36:27 and he says lou i think we got something so i'm like oh shit this is it you know i'm in this project hallway caught it four in the morning i'm running up the steps with my hook and everything and there 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.

Starting point is 00:36:59 Hey, look, let me see a two-bedroom. This won't work for us. They're pulling their boots up and they're putting their air. They're turning air bottles on and everything. I'm like, oh, shit, this is it. So now we're getting down on our hands and knees. and the Duke tells me, you hold my coat, okay? And I'm like, sure I'm holding your coat.

Starting point is 00:37:19 So you're behind him crawling? I'm behind the Duke. The boss goes in first, like this black abyss we just crawl into on the floor. What are you all looking for? The fire apartment. We got to find it. Oh, so this is just the hallway. The hallway.

Starting point is 00:37:32 Oh, I thought. 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.

Starting point is 00:37:44 Yeah, oh, look at that color, yellowish green. That looked just like that. Oh, God. So now we're on our hands and knees, and I'm got his coat. I got the can on my back. I 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,

Starting point is 00:38:01 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. never been before.

Starting point is 00:38:13 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 and or something. They, whatever's going. Anyway, whatever's going on, it sounds kind of out of sorts, you know.

Starting point is 00:38:30 It's out of sorts. Anyway, so carry on. Sorry. So it's something that I never, I'm like, I'm not doing. I'm quitting in the morning. I swear to God, I was quitting. I was like, what are we going to do in here? Well, yeah.

Starting point is 00:38:39 We can't see. I'm on the ground. So finally, we call 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.

Starting point is 00:39:01 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? How much is your suit protecting you at that point? Nah, nothing.

Starting point is 00:39:15 What? No, I 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. But, and at that point, does it kind of take on it? Like, do you start to feel a little bit more empowered kind of or something?

Starting point is 00:39:31 No, I felt scared shit. I just wanted to get out of there and get this fire over with. So now I see him and he says, do you see the fire? And I look to the left and I said, yeah, I see the fire. I'm in the fire. I'm in the fire. mask, 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

Starting point is 00:39:55 total fuck up for a propeer. 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. Oh, 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, yeah. That was my excuse. I got no air in the can, you know? That's a good analogy.

Starting point is 00:40:18 Yeah, 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,

Starting point is 00:40:27 oh, man, I'm going to catch some shit for this. Did you even just make a sound like you had air in? Like, who. They didn't make no sounds. I could believe it

Starting point is 00:40:36 because, I mean, you always check the can. You know, you got to press your eyes, it put a little water. So he says, all right, back out to the doorway.

Starting point is 00:40:44 So now the fire's 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, a fire apartment. And the door opens. And there's 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.

Starting point is 00:41:05 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 five 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, the apartment, the, the room. And the boss says, there's the fire to the left. He crack. I hear the line crack, you know, get the water comes up. He cracks it. And now he hits

Starting point is 00:41:41 it, you know, 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, see if there's anybody in there. 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.

Starting point is 00:41:59 And I would stick my head out the window because this is the first time I could see again since we left that stairwell, you know. Oh, yeah, you got to get some fresh air. Fresh air and some view of something. Yeah. So then I go around and then all of a sudden, the. They knocked it down fast. And I run into the Duke, the irons man.

Starting point is 00:42:16 He's like, yo, Probe, 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 sent my first fire, but this might be in my last fire. I said, I don't know if I'm doing this again. And there we were.

Starting point is 00:42:35 We overhauled the apartment and we threw the mattress out the window. We took everything out. throw the street down into the street. And who's down there catching out of you? It's hitting whoever. That's free. Back then, like, nobody here. Who gives a shit, yeah.

Starting point is 00:42:47 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 that bitch, you know? Don't suck. Let's take that out. Let's take that out.

Starting point is 00:42:59 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 5.30 in the morning. And the Manhattan skyline was turning purple. So I had all this beautiful thing. I was learning. I was like, wow, this is some sight, you know.

Starting point is 00:43:15 Excuse me. Yeah. Well, I kiss those guys. 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.

Starting point is 00:43:30 So I walk up to the truck office and I knock on the door. It's open. He says, yeah, come in. And 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, 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.

Starting point is 00:43:52 I was 23 years old, you know, so now I'm walking out. And 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 experience. 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 appreciated. Because 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 won 21 years more after that. So what kind of like made you

Starting point is 00:44:33 decided, do you just have to go back to work and it just kept being like that or like? Yeah, no, I, you know, yeah, you know, 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, you know, something like that. You know, you got a lot of people bailing out and sometimes they're trapped and, you know, you got to get to them, the truck, that's their job. You know what someone's saying, hearing you say this and like, thanks so much for your time, Tony, too. I appreciate it, man. Thank you for the other. This is like an honor. Oh, thanks, bro. Kid 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,

Starting point is 00:45:12 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 just like we're coming in New York and we just get an email from me the other day that you had seen that we put out a thing about, about looking for somebody that works in a fire department. And my producer's ex forwards it to him. He's like, can you believe we just, this guy, we're going to be there? I was like, wow. Seems 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.

Starting point is 00:45:44 Yeah. Because that could have been super scary, huh? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Take me through, like, some of the times where there was somebody in there. Like, 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?

Starting point is 00:45:58 Like, take me through that process of, like, right when you get there and then take me into one of, like, 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, bar, bar department, opened the door, you know.

Starting point is 00:46:30 He'd sound like some cartoon, you know, the Irish broke. So these people opened 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?

Starting point is 00:46:50 So they're looking up. They're like, yeah, we think something's burning in the back. It was a big apartment. So we're like looking at each other. Something burning in the back. What the hell is this? So now we go down the hallway, my lieutenant's cursing under his breath.

Starting point is 00:47:02 You know, he's like, all these are these motherfuckers fucking fucking shit. Yeah, they're still playing cards. It's fun, though. Cards can be fun. They were. But we get it to 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?

Starting point is 00:47:17 They're glass paneled, and they're like two doors. You're like two doors. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you think there's going to be somebody French in there, but they're right. Yeah, no French people. It never is, dude. That never is. Typical French.

Starting point is 00:47:29 You'll send the doors. We'll be there. They're not. Typical French. So anyway, I opened 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.

Starting point is 00:47:46 That means we got a working 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 French doors and I get a call over the handy talkie. There's a kid in the room. My friend, the OV, is with the mother out in the street.

Starting point is 00:48:09 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 darn black smoke. I'm on the bed. I'm feeling all over the bed. I've got to find this kid. And is it mostly feeling?

Starting point is 00:48:23 How far can you see? You don't see anything. I can 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. What?

Starting point is 00:48:33 Yeah. You know, back then we were like, less, you know, 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 always- Yeah, put air in the can. Yeah, put some air in your can, Tony.

Starting point is 00:48:50 That's always that guy's excuse, you know? But that's a great attitude to take like, no, guys, if there's air in his can, we're going to have to be here all afternoon. Yeah, yeah. We're in and out of this deal. I could have probably put that, maybe put it out with the can, but anyway, so the engine, I'm in there. I'm going around.

Starting point is 00:49:03 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.

Starting point is 00:49:23 They go in there and they rushed off the Columbia Presbyterian. How'd the kid get out? No, he carried. She was unconscious. Oh, he found it. She didn't make it. She didn't. The kid was dead.

Starting point is 00:49:32 Unfortunately, she was burnt. They tried the reviver 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?

Starting point is 00:49:56 So we go to Presbyter. Oh, so before we leave, now the deputy shows up, because now we got a 1045, which is a body. And he's like, what happened here? And 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.

Starting point is 00:50:15 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 Omfini.

Starting point is 00:50:33 That's Anthony and a brogue. Amphany, let's go down to the street, you know. 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 it to the burn center. So that was the last we heard of.

Starting point is 00:50:50 But there's no way you could have known that, right? Because you go in and the kid was hiding behind the door? You'd think somebody would tell us there could be a kid back there. Oh, it's heartbreaking. Oh, man. Do you ever find out why they wouldn't let you know what was going on? there? I guess there was like an SRO bit 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.

Starting point is 00:51:12 I mean, right after I got over, 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 get out and the guy says, yeah, they're working on the oil burner all day. And we had a lot of oil burners, you know, they would, they would smoke up. So we're like, 1020 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 forceable entry team, me, Lieutenant Clipper and this guy, Jimmy Lynch.

Starting point is 00:51:47 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 fireman, he was from rescue two. 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.

Starting point is 00:52:10 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 kicked 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. Oh. So now we're crawling in.

Starting point is 00:52:31 No masks. No masks. We're on our bellies. Was it better or worse without a mask in this? Worse. It was worse. Yeah. Because you can feel the heat.

Starting point is 00:52:38 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 a poisonous. So it gets you quick. That's a great point, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:52:53 Yeah. Back then you could suck the cotton and the wood, you know. Yeah. It's like, yeah, you were smoking a pack of cigarettes. Yeah. You're like, hell, shut out. somebody had a couple tobacco plants and you had crawled around for another two minutes in here.

Starting point is 00:53:05 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.

Starting point is 00:53:17 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 10-45s. So we had 1020. That means don't come.

Starting point is 00:53:32 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 to pass it back to me. And I like shimmy out of the apartment. Because you don't know if she, do you know? I don't know any. I can't see nothing yet.

Starting point is 00:53:49 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. The face is all darkened. So now I'm like, oh, shit, I'm going to run her down to the, the EMS is gonna take her in the street. And I go running down to the street and there's nobody there.

Starting point is 00:54:06 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 10-20. We were- You take your time. There was nobody there yet. Yeah, they're at the malt shop. I put the kid down, I do CPR on this little girl.

Starting point is 00:54:19 And I put it down, I cup her head. And I pretty much, all I knew was like a 15 and two. You know, you get two breaths into her. And then you give a 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, eh, he, ha, ha, ha, and the smell, because I had the smell of burnt lips.

Starting point is 00:54:43 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. Pray and everything. Yeah, for sure.

Starting point is 00:55:01 I figured, 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 and all of Manhattan.

Starting point is 00:55:19 And they didn't break like the old windows, so it never got air. So it smoldered, and they died from the smoke. God. And that stayed with me. for years. I would like sometimes I would smell and taste the burnt lips and everything and it was horrible.

Starting point is 00:55:38 That's heartbreaking. Yeah. Like 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.

Starting point is 00:55:51 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. It 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.

Starting point is 00:56:12 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 with some nice hugs and some tears at home. Yeah. Yeah, you get over. It takes a while, though. I mean, I had a couple of things. I had this junkie that we kept called three times.

Starting point is 00:56:31 We got called to the sixth floor. He kept lighting fires to stay warm in the winter. Yeah. 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.

Starting point is 00:56:48 Oh, well, it's the first one. We go up, six floor, dark, cold. It's icy. It's about 30 degrees out. And nice kid? I have no idea. I got to the back and I see my Irish lieutenant yelling at him.

Starting point is 00:57:01 He's like, what the fuck you do and you can't light a fucking fire? And he was sitting there and he was in the corner and I came in and I put my flashlight on him and he was looking at me

Starting point is 00:57:11 with these eyes, you know, and I was like, I 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,

Starting point is 00:57:25 or got to climb these stairs six floors, no steps, just the risers. God. 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. Boy, says, you know, you can't fucking do this?

Starting point is 00:57:38 He's yelling out of him and shit. I got the light on him. And the funny part was we just had, we just broke into an entomins 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 still got the vanilla icing on his mustache. Somebody took a piece for the road, Jeff, huh?

Starting point is 00:58:05 The boss is yelling at him. That's why he was pissed. This guy interrupted his dessert, huh? Three companies and a battalion are responding every time. And we got chains on. It's snow and it's not like no easy ride. Right. So you get a lot to get out there.

Starting point is 00:58:18 So the third time, I hear we just got back from something. We went in our bunks and we were getting the bunks and we were like, ah, a little pillow talk before everybody was sleeping. And then before you know it, boom, same box, here we go again. I hear the boss yelling, fuck shit, I'll kill that motherfucker. Yeah, dude.

Starting point is 00:58:37 Let him cook at this point. We're sliding down the polls. This guy's trying to get to heaven and 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, Jeff, I says,

Starting point is 00:58:50 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 said, Lou, we'll take care of you. You stay down here. So me and Jeff go up. My light, 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 rises. And then there's no platform. So you got to like lean over your step to get on.

Starting point is 00:59:14 And when you get to the fifth or six floor, you're looking down at this 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,

Starting point is 00:59:56 later, I would see that kid's face looking at me. And 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 it'd keep you warm up.

Starting point is 01:00:15 Yeah, he was in a vacant, yeah. Oh. Yeah. A lot of shit like that. Vacants were disgusting. Because it's just anybody can be doing there doing anything, huh? Squatters. Yeah, they're shitting on the floor.

Starting point is 01:00:28 They're 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 skells. They're all skills.

Starting point is 01:00:47 Yeah. To us back then, you know. And matter of fact, on my block, we had a tight block, 161st Street. And we had a bodega, a gypsy cab dispatcher, a whorehouse, and a bunch of drug apartments. Yeah. 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.

Starting point is 01:01:11 And one guy was bald and we called him eight ball. And the other guy always had a hat and we called them 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 agent. there is come down and radar block through the years I was there. ATF, Manhattan Tactical North, CIA. I mean, everything. I tell you who was the worst ones was the FBI.

Starting point is 01:01:42 Yeah. They come down with machine guns. 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's a warehouse.

Starting point is 01:01:54 Yeah. I would inspect it now and then I'd go in there with my hat and that thing. And they'd all be looking at me and I'd be like, what the fuck 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?

Starting point is 01:02:09 There 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 the different rooms. You know, everybody had their little bed in there. Just trying to sit up. And I would inspect it, you know. I got you.

Starting point is 01:02:25 condoms, the condoms are here. Making sure the alarm works, ladies. Yeah, they would be like, come on. Some of them, you know, the 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.

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Starting point is 01:05:05 That would be the wildest thing for me would just be like the access you get to. 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'd start a fire, pulling an alarm. Right. And so in the middle of the night, you got to go down and be outside.

Starting point is 01:05:28 So I finally decided for myself, I'm going to wait. Yeah, I'm not going out there. There was never, it was never a good fire. Right, right. So it's 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.

Starting point is 01:05:47 It was really good. It was one of the better ones I'd probably ever made in my life. And a guy, I remember this big fireman with an axe comes in and just opens my door. And the alarm has been going on for a while. And he's looking for me

Starting point is 01:06:04 and I was like, is there a fire? You know, I lock in my house. Did I miss something? Yeah, he's like, you got to get out of here. I was like, bro, every week they do in this shit, I'm not going. Right. I eat it's all the time.

Starting point is 01:06:14 Yeah, but that's the cry wolf thing too, though, you know. Oh, for sure. I knew it was on me. Yeah, yeah. Hey, if it's bad, come back. Right, right. And I think he's like, fuck, you know. I don't blame him.

Starting point is 01:06:25 Yeah, that's a fireman attitude. Yeah, and it should be. Hey, come back if I'm going to burn, you know? Yeah, yeah, there's just a lot of pressure. Yeah, like immediately I was putting all the pressure on this guy. But yeah, what were some of the environments you went into? Like, did you ever just walk into an environment? You're like, oh, well, this is crazy.

Starting point is 01:06:42 You're like a drug den or like a, um. 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.

Starting point is 01:07:01 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. Second due goes to the floor above, which the floor above is really shitty. Because that's where the heat's going up. That's where everything's going, you know. So now we get up the staircase, and it's starting to bank down and get dark.

Starting point is 01:07:22 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.

Starting point is 01:07:44 So I'm hitting the, you know, the guy's got the, you know, the guy's got the, Halligan and 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 could start to see a little bit. I put my light on the dresser.

Starting point is 01:08:17 All the drawers are open. Stacks are hundreds and $50 bills. Every drawer, I mean, no 20s, no, it was all Coke money. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, my God, you know. I'm still like my one year there. Oh, yeah. I'm a junior man.

Starting point is 01:08:35 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, you know.

Starting point is 01:08:53 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 can happen. So now I told the senior man, I said, Eddie, come here, look in this drawers. 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.

Starting point is 01:09:12 Yeah, I'm like, you're the senior man. You tell me what to do. Oh, this is dirty tennis you guys are playing. I could have been stacking thousands in my pocket. If Eddie would have been like, hey, let's take a little. You have to, huh? I would, yeah. Yeah, you got to.

Starting point is 01:09:23 Yeah. I think just to even make sure that it is what it is, get it back home. Right. I, you know, I was young. I had this, oh, it's dirty money. It'll bring me bad juju. It could have. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:09:34 You never know. I mean, I think that the karma 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. draw a full of mud dresser full of money he's like oh i don't see nothing he was like i don't know if

Starting point is 01:09:48 you ever see shultz 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 in of the halligan and i whack it with the axe yeah the door would bust it open and theo i'm telling it 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.

Starting point is 01:10:26 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 were like, yeah, guys, what do you got? I said, well, go in that room and go in that room. I said, that's the money room.

Starting point is 01:10:46 That's the Coke room. So they both go in at the same time, they go, holy shit. Wow. They call a backup, you know? So now we're like, my boss is like, I, we're out of here, you know? We don't want me nothing part of this whole show here. I'd have stuck around, man, you know? Like Joey Diaz says every now and then, you're bump into a Colombian, you know?

Starting point is 01:11:06 I love Joey. Oh, he's the best. Oh, 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 have a, I think it was a Rogan, maybe.

Starting point is 01:11:20 Yeah, I don't know. It sounds like, bro. Yeah, he said, I was just selling it. It was an easy way to sell Coke. He said, I would go around. People call the fire department. Sorry, Joey, but you did tell that story. No, people call the fire department.

Starting point is 01:11:30 He shows up in a pickup truck selling Coke. Well, he says it was a ski lodge place. There was never any fire. Oh, yeah. That's a great idea, actually. Yeah, the ski lodge. So it was perfect for him. Yes, Joey Diaz has talked many times about having

Starting point is 01:11:42 been a volunteer firefighter, which is really a drug dealer in Aspen, Colorado in the 1980s. Can you imagine him in doing that? I bet if you were anywhere with Joey in the 1980s, every place was Aspen, Colorado, dude. I go to a restaurant he recommended in Jersey, a Chinese restaurant. Is it a good spot? King. Oh, he says, oh, dude, this is the real deal. This is the Chinese food.

Starting point is 01:12:06 You know, he talks, right? So I go there, and the guy's name is Freddie, the Chinese guy. I'm like, Freddie, 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.

Starting point is 01:12:22 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. Your friend died. It matters. You got to walk 11 blocks to get this prosciutto, right?

Starting point is 01:12:39 Presuto. He's like, the only way you can. get theirs by foot, right? I'm like, it sounds very alarming. But dude, he's always got the best food recommendation. 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 them. 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 arm, you know? Today, it's more college kids, you know. They came out of college and they

Starting point is 01:13:11 get they take the test. Yeah, a lot of guys that want to be in the calendar or whatever now. And it's a whole different thing. You know, nothing to the new guys. You know, they're all great. But it was a different atmosphere with the vet's guys. And plus back then, you know, they didn't have computers. And, you know, there was no cameras.

Starting point is 01:13:26 It was BC. So you got away with a lot of shit. Yeah. Today you're on, you go on YouTube. They see you fighting the fire, the OV, the roof man. Yeah. If you fuck up, out, you know, people are seeing. They're right there.

Starting point is 01:13:37 People in the chat are like, get rid of this 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, yeah, dude. All the comments. Yeah, like Caruso's a pussy, you know?

Starting point is 01:13:48 Like, dude, he's 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. No.

Starting point is 01:14:07 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. Everything changed. Changes. So, you know, when I got on, the guys from the 60s and 70s, they were tough motherfuckers.

Starting point is 01:14:24 So some of them had come from, like, come from war, actually. Big time. And this was just another place where they at least had like camaraderie. They had a brotherhood. Exactly. It was a paramilitary organization. So, you know, you had your lieutenants and your captains and your chiefs. Did the stress of the judge?

Starting point is 01:14:40 job ever affect guys too much? Was there scenarios like that that kind of happened or not really? No, I think most guys love the job. What made you end up kind of loving it? Like what made, like what kind of changed for you? Like, or when you look back. The brotherhood. Really?

Starting point is 01:14:53 Oh my God. Like family. Yeah. Yeah. That's why, you know, I did 15 years in 34 truck from a probie. I did 15 years. I think I left there in 98. But, yeah, I mean, I had a lot of friends that I'm still today.

Starting point is 01:15:07 You know, 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 is just that that's one thing that's harder I even notice about life, even just like, as you get out of times in your life where you're either in school, we have like teams that you're on or like your buddies are always around or into 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 a, uh, uh, uh, uh, the two probies are coming off their probation. So when you come off probation, you throw a big party in the

Starting point is 01:15:46 firehouse and they all got lobsters and filet mignon's and, and they have a big celebration. It's a lot. I remember my probie 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. But yeah, I know all these guys like family. A lot of them aren't even here with us anymore. Really? Oh, yeah, and that pick, that's old. A lot of them who's gotten older, passed away even? Passed away, yeah. Some of them, I don't know, some of them might even passed away on 9-11. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 01:16:21 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.

Starting point is 01:16:34 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 Gavidil, 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.

Starting point is 01:16:48 That was what they call tomato sauce. I make red lead tonight. Yeah, red lead. They loved it. They were like, man, that was so good and everything. But you know what, kid, you got to make it here next time. So I was like, ah, I get it. You got to make the meal in the firehouse.

Starting point is 01:17:03 Oh, that's part of it. Everybody comes together, you know, 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. Yeah. 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-driving well.

Starting point is 01:17:24 And I'm just a jiggle-o and place would be hopping. 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. 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.

Starting point is 01:17:40 All our TV, all they pay for is the firehouse, everything else we have to buy. Really? Yeah. Is it still that way? Yeah, still that way. Wow. Well, when I was on the job,

Starting point is 01:17:48 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,

Starting point is 01:18:05 and we had a couple of fires where guys got killed, and he couldn't believe how shabby we looked because we had nobody fixed their gear. Nobody gave you new gear, so you went years with this gear, and it looked like the, the coats were all ripped up and they, you know,

Starting point is 01:18:23 I loved the way it looked. Like the Blaze News Bears, huh? And all the other fire departments around the country and there, and they already had bunker pants and bunker coats, and they had hoods that you had to wear these, I hated all of that. I hated the bunker pants. I hated the hoods.

Starting point is 01:18:38 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. Oh. I hated it. Yeah. But you get charges if you didn't wear it.

Starting point is 01:18:54 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. Yeah. Everything takes a few years to kind of seep in. Oh. Especially in the fire department's all tradition.

Starting point is 01:19:10 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.

Starting point is 01:19:21 And they would know other fire departments around the city. It was just like, there was like definitely, um, it was like this 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? I didn't.

Starting point is 01:19:34 But yeah, but they're right there, dude. Yep, yep. And they're the first. ones, they have to get involved when things get bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if it's okay to talk about what, what were things like during 9-11? Like, what was, I mean, I know kind of like what some things were like, but when you look back on it, like, I, well, I got the, 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, you know.

Starting point is 01:20:05 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 fool a plane into the towers. I'm like, you 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?

Starting point is 01:20:21 The guy has a heart attack? You know, 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 rally down or something. 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,

Starting point is 01:20:35 and I come in and the guy Tony turns around, And he says, why the fuck is they fucking terrorists flew planes into the fucking towers? And I'm like, holy shit. Now I'd see both towers going. Now I know it was an attack. So I says, all right, we got to get out of here. I got to paint a rabbi's house in woodmere. So I got this painting truck with ladders, Tony's power washing and paint.

Starting point is 01:20:57 I raced them. On the way there, I hear the first tower collapses. So I'm like, I'm cursing. I'm like, motherfucker is my Dominican guy don't speak English. He doesn't really hear. He knows something bad. He knows the towers. So now I get another 20 minutes, 10 minutes later or whatever,

Starting point is 01:21:13 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.

Starting point is 01:21:27 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? You 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?

Starting point is 01:21:42 Like at that moment since you had just gotten off of a shift? No, well, now I'm, I race 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,

Starting point is 01:22:02 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 he was such a great guy. So now I'm racing with my van. And I'm going in and out of the L out of the elevated train. And I've got my hand on the horn. And I'm pedal to the metal.

Starting point is 01:22:21 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 like the French connection. I'm in and out of fucking cars. I get to the firehouse and it's chaotic. Everybody's running in. What are we going to do?

Starting point is 01:22:35 Who's going? and how we're going to get there. One guy said he was taking a boat because my firehouse and Howard Beach was on a canal. Yeah, so my friend Whipper comes in, he's got a suburban, and my friend Bobby comes,

Starting point is 01:22:47 and it 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.

Starting point is 01:22:55 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 my friend's suburban right to the pile right there. I mean, we, we, we were heading down Woodhaven Boulevard.

Starting point is 01:23:11 And I'm like, and it was no traffic? It was traffic. I mean, never, you know, the shit hit the fan already. So the Whip is driving crazy, my friend, the Whipper. And 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 the cops have it shut off, the entrance to the Long Island Expressway. So I stick my turnout coat out the window.

Starting point is 01:23:33 And they, they moved the cop cars and they, they, wave us in, you know. That had to feel crazy. It was, man. I mean, obviously there's excitement, probably a ton of adrenaline. Fereckin adrenaline. What are we going to do when we get there? Right.

Starting point is 01:23:46 We said, we're going to be an 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 a 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,

Starting point is 01:24:07 and we're doing 100 miles an hour. We come out, we head downtown, you know, by the Midtown Tunnel, we head down. He takes us right to the rubble. And we get out of the car and it's dark, like an eclipse. And all the stuff is coming down on us, all the paper and the ash. It was dark.

Starting point is 01:24:23 That walls were standing still. Did it look something like this or it looked different? Just like that. Only that, that's a few day, 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.

Starting point is 01:24:45 So I grabbed the tire iron. I went over. I smashed the door open. And we all went in. We grabbed ropes and masks and sledgehammers. Whatever 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.

Starting point is 01:25:05 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 aren't 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 going anybody hear us banging on shit and waiting to see if that happens and nobody nobody finally we worked our 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,

Starting point is 01:25:40 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, excuse me, they had mesh, like the black mesh cover in it. And all you saw was the black mesh and the flames coming out.

Starting point is 01:25:56 It was like satanic. Oh, it was so creepy. And so when I were climbing all around, inside and out of voids. And we did this for like maybe about 1 o'clock. We got there at 11.30. And my friend Bobby says, Tony, my throat's closing up. We got to get water.

Starting point is 01:26:16 So I said, whip, we got to get water. We got to head to the street. Now it's like 1 o'clock. People are coming in from everywhere. Firemen from cops, firemen. The National Guard was coming in. So we worked our way to the street. And then we needed water.

Starting point is 01:26:33 And there was a guy. A Wall Street guy with expensive suit uncovered in cement dust, and he had a bottle of water, you know, like the big bottles? 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.

Starting point is 01:27:05 It humbled. And I got a little emotional because it was like, you know, to 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.

Starting point is 01:27:36 They're in a shaft. And we're going to find them. Like, this is the first time we're hearing anybody's alive. We're like, yeah, yeah, we're like. So everybody starts running for get gear. And there's a rescue truck that was crushed. And we ran over to the rescue truck.

Starting point is 01:27:52 And we started opening up compartments. I grabbed a jackhammer. We grabbed some bit, big-ass jackhammer, bits, bottles for air. And now we start heading out to look for them. you know at least he had a mission oh we're 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 seven which is the big building everybody talks about was on fire from the moment we got there every floor really burn every

Starting point is 01:28:18 floor and what caused that fire just the collapse you know they had the two trade centers oh the collapse of rather in front of them yeah there was a lot of buildings on fire so uh so now we uh 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 Bobby comes running over. He's like kiddo you all right. I said yeah I 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. It was 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. I'm scary in and out,

Starting point is 01:29:01 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 because that's 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 any 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?

Starting point is 01:29:37 Yeah. And we climbed down the debris into the lobby of the hotel. We're the only one's 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. You know, there was ash and broken glass and shit,

Starting point is 01:29:54 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 firemen we're seeing, you know?

Starting point is 01:30:07 And he's covered 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.

Starting point is 01:30:25 Wow. I'm like, holy shit, monkey, what the fuck? And he just, he looked up at me. 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 are like, monkey, monkey, you all right, you're all right?

Starting point is 01:30:38 And he was in shock, you know. So we're like, look, monkey, we got to go, man. You know, you're okay. We're going to leave you here. And it was funny because the phone was on the table with the little messenger light blinking. It was the weirdest sight, you know. And we left him.

Starting point is 01:30:52 We climbed back out, out the window, back onto the debris. It's a long day. Yeah, we were there to, 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 a 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 through the voids and the other two guys

Starting point is 01:31:27 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 were doing that, and we see this chief. And he starts yelling at it. He's between us and building seven. And he says, drop that line. Get out of here. This building's going to come down.

Starting point is 01:31:43 So we were like, holy shit, okay. We cracked it open a little, wedged it into some rock, 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,

Starting point is 01:32:02 and we'll go uptown 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 farming coming in. So I don't know if you ever heard of Penny Crone, but she was like a popular reporter on Fox News.

Starting point is 01:32:23 She was a real tough girl. She was a real tough girl. She was, yeah, Penny. crone and I don't know if she was Fox but there she is it's 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 and she came running up to us she's like guys guys can you give me some information what'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

Starting point is 01:32:48 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 My other friend says the same thing. She's getting nothing out of us. She's like, 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,

Starting point is 01:33:07 bleeding from her head, and she's got a suitcase in our hand. So we're like, 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. My friend went to take the suitcase. She yanked it back, you know, and then she just walked away.

Starting point is 01:33:21 And we were like, holy shit, that was weird. What do you think is in that suitcase? in that suitcase, my friend said, money. At least she had that grip on that day. It was full of money. A batch of yen in there, I bet. A lot of yen. Wow.

Starting point is 01:33:34 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, the seats, the leather seats were like, oh, we were squishing our backs in, you know,

Starting point is 01:33:50 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 the... I can't even imagine, like, what your body's going through. Oh, we were beat, covered in shit. And so it's funny because he put the car on

Starting point is 01:34:05 and he started up and he put the air conditioner on and it blew smoke, it blew dust at us. Like Lily Munster's vacuum cleaner. I think, I'm like, oh, everybody's getting to a choking. 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,

Starting point is 01:34:23 And 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, you know, 5.30. Oh, I forgot to say, before we got to the car, building seven collapsed.

Starting point is 01:34:42 Oh, we just missed it. We heard a roar. My friend said seven 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.

Starting point is 01:34:54 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. You know, who knows, you know, who was involved, whatever.

Starting point is 01:35:07 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 saw firsthand that it had been kind of cooking all that. And all the firemen that I ever talked to that were there that day, no one, everybody says there was no fucking explosions.

Starting point is 01:35:25 Yeah. 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 fire them. And you've got to be careful today. You never know what's real. Oh, yeah. I agree with that. You can't tell. 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.

Starting point is 01:35:48 They probably will have that. Maybe we can get in on that. We could 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, like, 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?

Starting point is 01:36:10 Or is it person by person? Because you guys were 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 Genevice drugstore and somewhere in Manhattan.

Starting point is 01:36:29 And we went in and we got a couple of bottles of water, about four giant Milky Ways and some batteries for our flashlights. 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 says, well, what gives you that idea? So she just like looked and grinned. She's all right, no charge for you.

Starting point is 01:36:50 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? If you had 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. That's back, you know, 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. I 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?

Starting point is 01:37:30 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.

Starting point is 01:37:46 Well, I never heard about the ground glass, but of course, the brinked. 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 troll. He was there every day looking for his body, day and night. Looking for his nephew? Nephew, yeah, for his sister. Yeah, it was. God, that's heartbreaking, huh? Yeah, he's a good guy. He's a great guy, too. Who is nephew? No, my friend, Bobby. Bobby, this is his. He's the boxing. He runs the fire department boxing team.

Starting point is 01:38:25 Bring him out. Let's get a picture of him. You see him on there. Bobby McGuire, FDNY Boxing. He's a golden glove champ. Is he a pretty interesting guy? Oh, you wouldn't. I don't know if you know the Knicks, but his uncle's are Dickie McGuire and Al McGuire and Marquette. The Knicks? Yeah. Oh, there he is. His father was John McGuire. And he was like a big guy in New York. Breslin actually called him the king of Queens because he opened the first gay bar in Queens back in the day. Oh, that's incredible, man.

Starting point is 01:39:01 Oh, yeah. He sounds like an interesting guy. Oh, he's a great guy. Yeah. I bet he's got some great stories, too, just from the boxing history of it. You know, Joey Diaz used to, he used to shovel ice out of James Jay Braddock's driveway over in Jersey. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 01:39:18 I heard him say that. That's pretty wild. He'd give him a side of like a couple of bucks. Yeah, he'd give him a couple of bucks. And Joey, 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 there.

Starting point is 01:39:33 Yeah, yeah. Oh, go back and show the guys. That's Marty right there? That's Bobby. Bobby McGuire. Bobby McGuire. And what was his nephew's name? Do you remember?

Starting point is 01:39:41 No, I don't remember. My wife might, but I don't know. Alan. Right. Alan. He was a lifeguard in Ron. The kid. His last name was Alan and he just started on the ah.

Starting point is 01:39:53 He just started. It was like his first job and Bobby was there and 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. We fight the cops every year. It's called the Battle of the Badgers. Who's won over time?

Starting point is 01:40:11 Over the years, who's won the most, do you think? Well, you know, the cops are double the amount of pool that they can get. They're twice as big an organization as us. You know, 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. We fight, they fight everywhere. They fight in England.

Starting point is 01:40:30 They fight in Ireland. Oh, really? Yeah, they'll fight any fire department, any cops. So Bobby and his gang, they kind of, this is like a thing they do all year. All year. Yeah, oh, he's so busy. So he runs this, the FDMI Boxing Club. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:40:43 Oh, wow. They raise like hundreds of thousands for tunnels to towers every year. And what is tunnel? The Tuncel 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.

Starting point is 01:41:08 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, Nine-Eleven, the Tunnels of the Towers Foundation carries out its mission to do good by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and Fallen First Responder, families with the young children and building,

Starting point is 01:41:24 especially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Wow. They ran through the tunnel with their gear on to get to Manhattan. Oh, the FDNY Boxing Club is comprised of active duty members, FDNY and EMS, who train on their own time established in 1982.

Starting point is 01:41:43 FDNY boxing has spent 40 years raising funds for worthwhile charities through spirit of it, through spirited competition. Yeah, man, we'll make a donation to them. Yeah, I'm going. Bravest boxing team will defend the Big Apple and the second international battle of the badges, huh? The funny thing is the best fights are in the crowd.

Starting point is 01:42:01 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-mouthed 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.

Starting point is 01:42:19 Boom, she went flying over the day. The whole fight broke out. It was crazy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, once 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.

Starting point is 01:42:31 You know, I'm not frisking your first to find out. Yeah, what are you packing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How is the department changed since you got involved in now? Well, from when I got on and then, like, in the early, late 90s, mid-90s, computers came in. And that changed a lot. Computers and now digital things.

Starting point is 01:42:53 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 know. You couldn't get away with as much. Right, a lot more technology stuff like that. Back in the day, you know, the bosses ran the firehouse. There was nobody else that knew what was going on.

Starting point is 01:43:12 Whatever they put in the book is what it was. Yeah. Matter of fact, when I bought my house, it was a funny story. I was 24. And I told my boss, I said, 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, this is what I make, you know. And it was like twice what I was making.

Starting point is 01:43:33 He's like, ah, you can't say that. I said, just tell the bank. Don't worry about it. And it worked. What, yeah, what did Christine say when you called her that? It must have been crazy. Oh, yeah. Well, her sister answered the phone, Bernie.

Starting point is 01:43:45 And I was like, Bernie. And she's like, Tony, how to fuck all you? What's going on? I said, oh, my God, we just got a firehouse. We're taking a break. And we're all okay. And I'll talk to my wife, tell her, you know, I love her, and I'll see her in a bit. I'll call her later.

Starting point is 01:44:00 So I hung up and we went back to the pile. So now we get back on the pile. It's like, what do we want? 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 that 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.

Starting point is 01:44:23 And I looked down and this guy in this 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. Yeah. So now we're like, okay, so now we're moving along. What do you want to do? They started a bucket brigade.

Starting point is 01:44:39 I don't know. We must have a thousand Home Depot buckets. And you would pass a bucket and take a bucket. Just moving water along. For like hours. hours we were doing that, you know. And it was starting. Yeah, it was getting dark out.

Starting point is 01:44:51 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?

Starting point is 01:45:07 What is that? My friend Bobby goes, look, look over there, down there. And we look down. And here comes a parade of ironworkers 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 like, it was a drop in the bucket, but they got right to work, start taking off all the heavy shit. I mean, it had months, almost a year to go, but it was just a start.

Starting point is 01:45:37 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, you know. And I met a few guys heading home. And I was thinking in the back of my mind, all the guys, you know, 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, and Jerry was like one of my best friends. And I was like, oh, God, I just, like, stepped back. Because I knew he was, he was in Rescue One. I was devastated. My friend Whipsore. And he put his arm around me.

Starting point is 01:46:16 He said, come on, who knew? Let's go. Let's leave. And I was like, oh, I was, I'm still emotional over it. It's heartbreaking. What was his name? Jerry what? Jerry Nevins.

Starting point is 01:46:28 Jerry Nevins. Let's see a picture of him, huh? 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, because everybody was leaving. I was there 15 years. I was losing guys left them right.

Starting point is 01:46:41 They were getting made, lieutenant. He wanted to go to a rescue car. And we used to bass rescue all the time. Rescues 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 or no?

Starting point is 01:46:57 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.

Starting point is 01:47:08 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 medals, you know, hanging off of buildings, scaffoldings. He'd say, you know, it was a lot of times in Midtown, the scafflings 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.

Starting point is 01:47:31 I was like, you 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 turned 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?

Starting point is 01:47:50 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.

Starting point is 01:48:06 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. Right, it's not just some weirdo with a Ouija board. Yeah, no Ouija boards, no fake alarms.

Starting point is 01:48:20 You hear numerous calls, you know you're going to work. So now we go around Broadway and I see it. We come up and it's the second floor. It's blowing out like four windows. And there's an awning where 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.

Starting point is 01:48:37 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.

Starting point is 01:48:50 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 bure on my knees and I get disorientated. And I'm getting scared because my ears are starting to burn.

Starting point is 01:49:10 I know it's going to light up. So, which is crazy, I got caught in a closet. You never think, how'd 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.

Starting point is 01:49:32 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. He 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 got to get out of here. It's going to light up. I'm like, I can't find my way out.

Starting point is 01:49:54 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, McCarty 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.

Starting point is 01:50:17 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, it's just, even the stories are so, like, exhilarating.

Starting point is 01:50:36 I can't even imagine what it's like, really. We were putting a fire out. I made a cover of a magazine. I think he could bring it up. It was called Fire Command. I don't know what it was. You know, it was like one of these buff magazines. Yeah, that's me in the middle.

Starting point is 01:50:50 In a neck brace? Yeah. I look like an Italian organ grinder, Monkey Man, right? I thought you're going to assume that you made the calendar. Yeah, 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.

Starting point is 01:51:06 We had to take it, this lineup, 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 to fire. Now I'm in the engine.

Starting point is 01:51:18 I'm detailed. I'm never hardly in the engine. But when they need a guy and you got an extra guy, you go across the floor. So now I'm in the engine. And we're taking this line up, the fire escape to the fifth floor.

Starting point is 01:51:29 And the boss is yelling. This boss is 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, it's a lot of,

Starting point is 01:51:40 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 on the fire escape. We get in. The ceiling comes down on our heads. All this hot plaster and shit's fucking burn 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.

Starting point is 01:52:13 We're putting the fire out. So now we're at this like wall with a window and I'm on top of something. Me and another guy were like kneeling. I thought it was a pillow from the couch. So the boss tells the probe, you take the line and shoot the water out the window and it'll take a lot of smoke

Starting point is 01:52:30 so we could start to see what's going on here. And as they're doing that, 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 look 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.

Starting point is 01:52:48 We're like, holy shit. I thought it was a couch piece, you know? And it was this, that's what happened. They killed this guy. They cut him up. And then they lit them 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.

Starting point is 01:53:01 It's usually arson. Somebody poured gasoline or something. Oh. Yeah. So that was a murder, huh? It was a murder. So anyway. Damn.

Starting point is 01:53:08 Before that, Kenny, he's a probe. He's probably about 21 years old. And he was in softball and he heard his leg sliding into 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.

Starting point is 01:53:27 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 going to 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.

Starting point is 01:53:42 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, I said, and this guy got burned on his leg. And he looks, he closed Kenny's leg up. He looks at the softball injury. And he goes, third degree burns.

Starting point is 01:54:01 Patch this man right up. So I look at Kenny because he didn't know. He was his first take. So now we, they take us. we're on the wall, like on Malcolm X Boulevard, and they take us to, we said, where's the boss? We don't know where Joe McLaughlin is. So we see a bunch of people like standing around.

Starting point is 01:54:19 Somebody's on the ground. They're taking pictures. We go over there when 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're okay? And he looks up. He goes, get the fuck out of my pictures, he says.

Starting point is 01:54:34 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, you know, he was in the 17 truck in the Bronx in the war years. So he was like, he was a well-rounded fireman and tough as nails. Wow.

Starting point is 01:54:53 Yeah, so he says, get the fuck out of my pictures. So we're laughing. Everybody's taking pictures of them. 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.

Starting point is 01:55:12 And so all of a sudden this middle-aged head nurse comes in, you know, good-looking woman, probably 40 or so. So she goes to Kenny's leg and she moves the bandage. She makes a face, you know, and she's like, when did this happen? And the kiddie'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. And we're like, oh, we love you too, you know.

Starting point is 01:55:36 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, 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. Yeah, I was going to say, huh? So they put cats. So they put cats. Captions on everybody. So you see the woman with her arms crossed and the bandana.

Starting point is 01:56:11 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 Harlem fireman, he's looking at us and his thing says, you guys disgust me. Look at that sad face. Oh, my God. That ringlet hair.

Starting point is 01:56:34 I love how you guys already have your neck braces. Yeah, you got the braces on. Oh, yeah, I kept that in my bag pocket. Well, we had a prop, pop closet at home, you know, canes and braces. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, so that's, that was that we made that cover. I still have that hanging today. Oh, it's just, you had to go down to some memory lane, man.

Starting point is 01:56:55 Just to think about different things. And just to hear about the camaraderie of what, like, the lifestyle was like. Bring up the part about the ground glass lung. You know what it's called? I just wanted to make sure that we, that I see. mention 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, the pulverized. After the 9-11 attacks,

Starting point is 01:57:24 the dust cloud contained over 2,500 contaminants, 50% construction debris, 40% glass fibers, 9% cellulose. Inhaling the dust led to World Trade Center lung injury, with firefighters losing up to 12 years of lung function, 70% of workers should respiratory decline. Yeah, the longer you worked down there, the worse it was. Yeah. Because the dust really never settled for months. Yeah, it's just, it's so crazy to think that it created a new disease.

Starting point is 01:57:55 Yeah, you know? 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, and between that and the cement. It's a lot.

Starting point is 01:58:10 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. Dude. Very interesting, man.

Starting point is 01:58:21 Is he? Oh, my God. No, he seems very interesting. And I want to get a picture up too. Is this his, is this, Richard Allen? Yeah, that's his nephew. That's his nephew right there. Get a picture.

Starting point is 01:58:31 His sister's son. Of Richie Allen. Yeah. That's awesome, man. We'd love to maybe get a... Every year to acknowledge him in Rockaway to have a big thing with the lifeguards. Oh, they do?

Starting point is 01:58:40 Yeah, surfer. 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.

Starting point is 01:58:50 You know what? I think I want to save it because there's even some basic, there's like basic questions. Like is our can't, 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.

Starting point is 01:59:10 Arson, big time. Those space heaters. Space heaters. I don't know if you ever heard of the Happy Land Social Club. I don't know. It depends on which one you're talking about. Well, it was in the Bronx. Yeah, it wasn't that kind of happy.

Starting point is 01:59:25 There's a lot of different versions. But a sad story, but I think like, I'm not sure the number, but you can look it up. 87 people died. from a gallon of gas and a match. Yeah, it was horrible. You had to respond to that? I didn't respond, but my friend Sully did.

Starting point is 01:59:42 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. So a lot of times you don't know what's going on,

Starting point is 01:59:59 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's, who's sad? at it. You're just, you're just, the adrenaline is running, man. Oh, my God. Your hearts are pumping. And I thought you never get, it never gets like gold, you know? Oh, my bad. How many years like they would say, we'd get there and be a top floor fire. Now you've got to carry that mask, all your gear, everything. By the time you get to that six floor and you've got to put a mask on, you're sucking air. You're like, ha! Now you've got to put this little man,

Starting point is 02:00:32 the mask is like the man breathing. So you only get a, you're going to put a mask. And you're like, the man breathing. So you're 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 Westchester. You know, I'm getting out of this fucking ghetto. Wow. Well, yeah, Tony, thanks so much for your service, man.

Starting point is 02:00:53 Yeah, I would love to just have you come back some time and just be able to just go down. Like, there's some other roads I want to go down and learn more about it. Oh, that would be great. And just, but yeah, I think today we just got a really good idea of just kind of the brotherhood. Great. Yeah, just what your journey has been like, kind of getting involved with fire departmenting.

Starting point is 02:01:11 Oh, what did your wife end up getting a job in? My wife? Yeah. She worked for a printer and then she worked for a dentist. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like dental assistant and kind of stuff? She ran the whole, like, you know, yeah, took the phone calls.

Starting point is 02:01:24 Oh, yeah. Keeping everything organized. Yeah, she ran it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 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.

Starting point is 02:01:36 She bought a chevette, 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 on 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 hardworking. Yeah, oh. Because life's hard work. Yeah, you can't try, you can't do the door lock anymore, right?

Starting point is 02:01:57 Because it's not an electric. Right, you always just say, if the girl gets in the car and don't open your door, she's out, you know? 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. Oh, yeah. It was funny because, you know, all them years of being in the fire. I'd come home sometimes and say, oh, my God, I had a fire.

Starting point is 02:02:19 Top floor was burning it. It's and I'm telling them all this stuff. For sure. Did you remember that we have to go to school tomorrow? And I'd 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.

Starting point is 02:02:34 Yeah, every fire as 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.

Starting point is 02:02:53 Oh, they're appropriate. Okay. Good girls. Okay. Wild, you know, 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.

Starting point is 02:03:04 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 in September. Really? Yeah, great book.

Starting point is 02:03:15 Dude, congratulations. Yeah. A lot of good stories in there, and I got recipes in there. A lot of good meals. Clam sauce casino. I think you might like that. Bro, I'll tell you this. I took a gal out the other night, went to a place.

Starting point is 02:03:29 They had clams and white wine sauce. I'm a claim guy. That's kind of like, oh, you would like. loved clam sauce casino. Really? Well, you know, clams casino? You know, they put the peppers and the onions and a little baking on it, and then they bake them. No, I've never had that.

Starting point is 02:03:42 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.

Starting point is 02:03:59 So we put it over with the peppers, the bacon, the onions. breadcrumb and the clams. Oh, 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.

Starting point is 02:04:13 But of course, that a fireman's book would have fires with recipes thrown in. Yeah, you know, so 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.

Starting point is 02:04:28 No, no, I'm looking for the kid. Yeah, this kid's hilarious, but the, um, What did I just ask you for a night? Yeah, yeah, I'm a clam guy. Kid, have you seen this little kid? No, I'd see it. This kid, they interviewed him.

Starting point is 02:04:42 We'll finish on him. All right. I'm a guy who only basically likes clams, really. I'm a clam guy. Yeah, I like that, kids. It's all I do. All they eat, it looks like it. Clams are awesome.

Starting point is 02:04:56 He's just crazy. I hated oysters. Oysters. Kids getting a little bit weird. But yeah, that guy's a clam guy, you know? He'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,

Starting point is 02:05:09 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 they have a big thing of foil paper, and one guy just starts cutting the foil papers off, and the other guys start wrapping.

Starting point is 02:05:27 Taking it to go? Otherwise, the cockroaches walk away. We had so many cockroaches in the firehouse. I 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,

Starting point is 02:05:39 The True Stories of Hair. True Stories of Heroism, Heartbreak, and Humor, the luckiest guy alive in his journey in the FDMI. That's awesome. Starts with some of my jobs before that, and then right through the academy and right up to retirement. Who helped you put it together?

Starting point is 02:05:51 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 Utah in Seattle, he worked for Microsoft. off to you. And he did all the proofreading.

Starting point is 02:06:02 So funny story is it, you know, he threw his shoulder out working the mouse doing all my corrections because every chapter had like a thousand corrections on it. Well, that sounds like an insurance scam. But that'll be the next book, you know. But no, this is awesome. 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. It's hard.

Starting point is 02:06:25 I go on the Instagram. That helps. And there's always some ass where you write one book. He's like, when's your next book coming out? That guy, he can't even read. It's all the people that can't read. Yeah, I wonder what's my next one going to be? Like, more tales from the till?

Starting point is 02:06:36 There you go. Hey, hey, if it sells. You never know, man. I've enjoyed your time today, man. Thanks for thinking with us 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 more. Yeah, I can't believe how fast it went. Another time.

Starting point is 02:06:51 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 line. lobby out over here, too. It's about a thousand years old over here.

Starting point is 02:07:02 I know. This place is pretty cool, man. Yeah, it's cool. If you get to go to there's 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 like big hotels in Manhattan before and the lobbies are like tremendous. You know, I mean, there's stores and restaurants. So I thought it was going to be like I've never been to the Chelsea. Yeah, this is a nice place to come. If you just come for a meal or something like they went to the bar last night, it's nice in there, huh? Yeah. This is the sweet. Yeah, this is one of the sweets, but yeah, it just feels like, I don't know, to me, it just feels like a lot more

Starting point is 02:07:33 chill here. Yeah, definitely. And relax. But thank you for your service. I want to say that. Thank you for coming today and helping to 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 it. And we have to put a picture of all of them together at the end of the episode. And thanks again, man. Thank you. Yep, what a good time. It was a pleasure, man, in an honor. Well, I appreciate it, Tony. Thank you very much.

This Past Weekend - #637 - FDNY Firefighter

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