Weekly Scrap #254 - Rich Stack, Blitz Attack & Instincts

Corley: Corley Moore spending a few minutes here at the beginning to talk about the vigilante. If you know me, you know I love this group. And if you are not already a vigilante, you need to ask yourself why you are not There are so many great things about being a member. You get the first look at the behind the scenes of the scrap. You get to have input on the future direction of the scrap. There are the Vigilante meetups, the Vigilante only swag shop, the merch discounts, the fireways, the VIP forums, which are like scraps, but you get to log in and be involved on the screen talking to the person It's great, man, and all the vigilantes are invited. You get the files, you get the posts, you get the questions and the polls. But the best part, besides all of that stuff, the best part is that you get to belong to a community Like-minded souls. And when you have that, when you belong to a community of like-minded souls like that, man, it is powerful. Especially in this calling especially in this profession when you have that you are never alone so go to patreon. com slash the vigilantes And join today. It's five bucks a month. Five bucks a month. I used to say it's the price of a cup of coffee, but that's not even true anymore. Because you can't hardly get a cup of coffee for five bucks a month. It's the best value in the fire service So go to patreon. com slash the vigilantes and go sign up today. Become a member of the Cool Kids Club. Come hang out. I look forward to seeing you there. Got you. And like I said, it's been an adventure. I don't know if anybody can hear us, but it's been an adventure.

Rich Stack: Don't go away. Stay tuned. Corley: We'll be right back. Rich Stack: We got it? Corley: We're back. Ready? Go. Ready? Okay, we're gonna start this over. Here we go. Everybody. Just in case you were wondering what kind of adventure this has been. Weekly scrap. I gotta I gotta mute my YouTube. Sorry. Hold on, everybody. This is there we go. Okay Weekly scrap number 254. My guest tonight is none other than Rich Stack, and it promises to be a good one. See, as you can see, it's already been a good one. he has been in the fire service since 1995, the last 23 with the Chicago Fire Department. He has risen through the ranks and is currently the deputy district chief assigned to the Quinn Fire Academy as the director of training. Rich has been an instructor at the Chicago Fire Academy, the College of DuPage, and at the Illinois Fire Service Institute for On-Scene Training Associates and Duty Pride and Tradition. RichDAC has taught the following programs. Engine ops Truck ops, structural collapse, writ under fire, fast, fire college, smoke divers, fire ground officer school, leadership and decision making, and in the cornerstone programs As if all of that isn't enough and enough of a mouthful, he also has the college degrees, the paper. Let's let's not are we even gonna discuss the fools? I'm sure it will come up. My brother A long time to make it happen, but we made it here tonight. Welcome Rich Stack as the as the guest for weekly scrap number 254

Rich Stack: Yes. Thank you, brother. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. a long time in the making, I guess we should say, since we met in Huntley, Illinois. Yes, absolutely. We were both presenting there. awesome. I'm excited. Ready to get you know get into it. Corley: Anything I missed in the intro, any any anything you'd like because brother, it's hard to melt down everything you've done into just a short 30-second intro. So is there anything you'd like to add? Rich Stack: I would say that I'm nothing compared to most in this field and It's all just fluff. What really matters what you do on the street. So we'll get into it. Corley: Very solid. Very solid. Audience, get your questions primed and ready. Sam is watching the YouTube. He is he is fielding for your questions. If you have questions for Rich, type them in YouTube. Sam will throw them at me. Kyle is dealing with a hurricane or something that's going on in South Texas, so he is busy. I think he actually popped in to say he was busy. And I appreciate that. So, with all that being said, let's get to the sponsors so we can get to the scrap. The OG sponsor of the scrap is, of course, Keyhose. And finally, brand new sponsor tonight, first time, the Lawless Axe from Lawless Brothers Fire Tools, has double the striking face of a standard axe and is designed for easy carrying using their tool grab system. From the roof to the door to the fire room, the Lawless Axe is meticulously designed for the whole fire ground. Check them out on Instagram and at Lawless Brothers Fire Tools And they are two passionate brothers trying to make a difference with their design and their tool. And if you ever get to meet them, they are good dudes. People are telling me, people are sending me no audio, no audio. So I'm sorry, I'm gonna mute my phone real quick. Thank you for updating us, please. I I really do appreciate it. So all that being said, we're done with the sponsors. We're ready to focus on the guest. Get your questions in here. And Rich, I'm going to start off because one of my passions is leadership. Okay. I want to start off with something you sent me in our emails as we talked back and forth.

Corley: And that is leading from the front and by example and what that means to you. Rich Stack: I can't say that's my words. It's not. There are probably many people I'll reference here tonight, and if I forget some, I'll apologize. I learned that from a guy named Mac McCasslin who's on my shirt. If I can get it in there somewhere, you can see good old Mac. Yeah, he's on the arm too. We got him there. He was kind of a mentor to all of us, got us all starting teaching at IFSI and into teaching and expected more of us. He was an old Marine from Vietnam and great guy. And another guy, Bob Love. Pretty much, over the last couple years, I got to teach with Bob Loff. And that was just their example. Like lead from the front and lead by example. And I'll What I learned from then, what I try to do in the fire services, you know, our our shift change by the contracts eight o'clock. No one does that I mean, most people are there by 6. 30 or 6 o'clock. You're a scumbag if you're not. And there's plenty of scumbags. So whatever. I get there at 5. 30. As a company officer, especially as a lieutenant a captain, I got there at five thirty in the morning. Why? I wanted to be the first one in the firehouse to see how the days going. I want to see the members come in. I wanted to have that time to look at the journal from the shift before two shift before. So I wanted to You know, just see what the vibe is of fire. Does it smell like smoke and stinking? Or I walked in, then you knew they had a fire, and you're like, ah shoot, we may have missed one. Or they're they they got the lucky one. Or just what's going on? You know, just just Just to be prepared to set the tone. From that, from those examples, I learned, you know, I'll bring up a lot of people's names, but Bobby Hoff was real big at this too. You know, you got house chores, you got rig chores. You help with the chores. I'm having this fight at my new position at the Academy right now, actually, which is interesting. You start it or be a part of it.

Rich Stack: Yeah, they'll push you out of the way, but you got to be a part. Because how do you know where the deficiencies are if you aren't involved in it And the example is, yeah, we got to go test hydrogenists. You're going out there in the test hydrogenist. We got to change the hose. I'm going to help pull hose off the back and change hose. Whatever it is. You're right. They'll let me cut less, do less, but you have to lead by example. So there is to it. And that's where I learned it from. Corley: That's beautiful. I'm gonna catch you up real quick on the chat. Everybody, if you haven't been here, Sam and myself and Rich, we've kind of did a little wrestling match trying to make the internets and everything. Everything co cooperate. So that's what made it happen. So a little discombobulated, but I'm gonna read this. Chris Wolfe said, Richie, let's go, brother. Three exclamation points Steve Mauch said, yeah, there we go. Excited to hear from someone with rich stacks kind of experience. Let's go. That's from John Wallace. I'm reading some more. I'm reading some more. They said start over. No audio. Start over. No sound. We got that. So we're covered on that. But I wanted to catch you up. From Australia, Stephen Kaiser said, hell yeah, let's go. Richie Stack is the man. A single scrap is not big enough for the knowledge bombs tonight. Steve Sanguchi said he's the real cheese. And and Michael Ramirez gave three three nice flexes, he said, from Texas to Chicago. There we go Wow. No, there's a lot of hype for you. So I wanted I wanted to throw that in there. I would usually do that before I get it into it. But leading from example, and what is I I want to ask you, what's it like to be influenced and be mentored by and you you mentioned Mac. I don't know Mac, but everybody kind of knows the name Bob Haw. And for you to say Bobby Hoff and he's the person that mentored me, can you put that into words?

Rich Stack: Well, I can, and it's kind of a weird relationship in the fact that when I came through the Fire Academy on Chicago's Academy February 20th, 2001, Bob Hoff was the director of training, and a guy by the name of Steve Chickarotas was the assistant director of training training. Oh wow. And so to get to the spot I'm in to be asked to go there, I was humbled, scared, intimidated, nervous, and Like these were legends and I inspired to be in those spots and I'm there and I'm like they messed up man they made a huge colossal mistake getting me there and I think of this often You should hear the conversations I've had with my wife and some co-workers, but it's overwhelming. Now I didn't know Bob then to had more dealings with Steve Chickarodis in his role, but then I did Bob Kind of a funny story is as I go through my fire service career, one of Bob's brother-in-laws, ex-brother-in-laws, Bobby Galpa, was my officer. And his father was a legend on our job, Jack Gelpo, and he used to come to the firehouse with a bunch of other retired members, and not firemen only, police officer Chicago partner, they came to the house and I was the cook for about three years at 63. And they'd come and have lunch. And that's how the relationship started. So because of who my officer was And who his father was, which was Bob Waff's ex-father-in-law, the relationship and then teaching IFSI. He taught their friends taught there in the To now we're every week that man calls me to see how I'm doing at the academy. How's it going? You're still doing good. I mean, it it's amazing. So I guess back to that story, I can see myself the nervousness was these guys are legends. I can't fail. I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. Like How I'm in this role and these guys were there and they were like gods and these people are sending messages and listening to Richie Stack. There's gotta be people listen. Who the hell is Richie Stack? Why am I gonna listen to this jerk off? Like So it's humbling. It is humbling. It's overwhelming, but it's also a bar that's set that I have to achieve. You can't be subpar. They will not, and anyone the fouls cannot be.

Rich Stack: So I guess that's fitting a nutshell if I get even answering it right. Corley: No, no, absolutely. And I think you encapsulated it with it's a special kind of pressure. Like it it's a it's its own self-fulfilling pressure because now you have to live up to it. You have to. Are you ready for your first question from the audience? Sure, throw it out there. This one's coming from Joe Govita. Welcome back. Joe. How do you handle days on duty when you are just not 100% mentally? Do you change anything in your routine? Rich Stack: Okay. have to say I don't think I changed much. I am a very much so a regimented, very structured person. I If I don't, and I can tell stories here where when I didn't follow my routine, I got in trouble or it threw me out or I missed a step. So when I haven't felt myself, the routine actually is what helped me. Keeping busy, staying engaged, staying interactive. It's that idle time, right? I mean there's some phrase idle times the devil's work or devil's doing, you know. Yeah that's when you got in trouble. That's when you had so The structure or being involved, like the busiest worst days we ever had were some of the best days. I didn't have time to think about maybe something at home. I didn't have time to think about I got out of the house. Car didn't start this. I got to work later than I want. Relieve the other officer too late. Now I feel like a jerk off. So No, I think I don't change routine. I try not to. it's when I don't follow a routine or I skip a step is where I find myself failing a little bit. And happened me at a fire, rushed, didn't bring my box light in with me. And it really threw me off. I had one of my coat, one of my helmet. I had a light still, but I skip the steps. So I lay my stuff on the dash, specific locations in how I get dressed. That's how bad I am. Oh.

Corley: Right on. No, I love the answer. I love the answer because well A, it's something that people can actually implement. so many times it's just something that's that's unique to you, but that's something everybody can do is regiment, regiment I do this, this, this, and this. Rich Stack: Right. I think it helps. I think it helps. Corley: Second question coming at you from definitely not an OKC firefighter. I'd like to know the story behind the name, but not the point. What checks do you put in place to check yourself on your alignment with where you came from, especially as you've risen through the ranks? I love that question. So Rich Stack: What checks do I put in place? Hmm. I don't guess I don't never thought about myself having a check in place. I always felt like I was so overcritical of myself. Like after you come back from a fire and your second, I don't say second guess, you reanalyze everything that happens I guess that's what I do. I reanalyze what happens. I can say it now on my day. I get to the academy at 5. 30 and after the day's done, I think, all right, what we did today, what do I already got to do tomorrow? So The other thing that keeps me in check is those senior people that I don't want to disgrace that if I do believe me, someone's going to tell me, right? It's just because you have a title. Just because you have a gold eagle or gold bars, you know, that don't mean crap. It's all about your people beneath you and below you and who you work. You know, as those guys I mentioned said, it's all about the people that you work with. And every rank you get, it's less about you and more about your people. So that's just a simple fact. So guess my checks and balances, those people let me know if I'm messing up. And believe me, they'll let you know. I'm sure there'll be a post in here if someone had a problem with you and you needed to be checked. So I guess that's probably my check and balance is that evaluate yourself. You know, what are you doing? And If people are looking at you sideways or funny, if you find yourself, it's like when someone asks you, well, some new guy coming to the firehouse, hey, is Corley a good guy?

Rich Stack: And he goes, as soon as I say is that it? Great dude. He's a fireman. He's a fireman's fireman or fireman's firefighter. That's all I need to hear. But there's a out. Corley: No, that hesitation. You it's all there. It's all there Everybody, definitely not an OKC firefighter. Gotta ride, send the fire emojis so that we hope it is a job absolutely hope it's a job he's running on. Send the fiery emojis in the chat. questions still come the questions are still piling up. I hope you don't mind. I love it. I got one coming at you. and thank you. De well he's not here, but thank you for that question on a line. Assignment. When it comes to leading from the front, this one comes from Derek 8. When it comes to leading from the front, do you find the younger crew members slacking off because you are doing the work? How do you handle that if it happens? Rich Stack: Okay. That's the hardest and biggest jump from being a firefighter to company officer. I can tell you that the day I wanted to be a They got to be a member on squad five. It was probably the most humbling experience. I was at engine 72 for two years as a fireman. And then I went to engine 63 for eight years. And then I was lucky enough to get a detailed squad five. Get assigned there and got promoted lieutenant out of there. and I didn't want to take the lieutenant's promotion. There were times my wife and I sat at the kitchen table and I was gonna turn it down. And it's about a $12,000 raise back then from firefighter to lieutenant. You don't have to take the engineer promotion. We don't call it chauffeur, we call engineer, which just for the engines The driver of the trucks, a fireman, just gets a bump and pay for the day to drive. So you can skip that ring. We had talks at the kitchen table and she's listening upstairs, so she's probably laughing. dealing with all my nonsense over the years. I didn't want to take the promotion. I was going to turn it down. And yet my buddy Brian McCarrell, Gary Cooney. Thomas Zierry, Johnny Hojak, they all got promoted off the squad and they all said, you gotta take it, you gotta take it.

Rich Stack: We all had the same battle So what that's what came with that is you're used to going to work. And to answer his question, sorry, it's a long way to get to the answer, is that When you find yourself doing too much as the officer, that's when you're taken away from that young guy's experience or learning, or you see them pulling back. That is the hardest transition. Because you're a new officer and you have to learn to step back to let them operate and to give advice or direction, but let them run. When you come in and say, no, do it this way, that way, it's almost like you're micromanaging. And I shouldn't have to do that if I train on our off time. When we're not on a run. I should be training so that our people are up to speed or so that I have, you know, they need to know what my expectations are as an officer. I need to know what their expectations of me of them is right what they expect to mean what I expect of you. And you have to have that and do that. And if you don't, you'll find yourself doing more. And we see it every promotional class we do here in the city. We happen we did the officer program down in Champaign at IFSI. Now we're doing our own here in Chicago for our own lieutenants in Captain's train. We're doing our own school You see the guy being officer and he's forcing the door, forcing like time out. You got a guy behind you with a bar. You should be reading the building. You should read the smoke. You should be seeing what's going on. You should be profiling the building. So I guess that Once you learn what your role and responsibilities in that I won't do too much if we train and I get our people to where we should be or where our standard is, that kind of takes care of itself.

Corley: Oh my god, I love it. Love the answer. Love the answer. Everybody, this is how discombobulated I've been. I have that's the first timestamp I wrote down. So please, I hope you have been taking your timestamps and you will share them with me. because I've been off my game. And that was beautiful. And I can't wait. And I'll listen to it again. But thank you, Derek, for a phenomenal question. The next one's coming at you We always say, this comes from McGinn. McGinn, one of the best. We always say lead by example, but how do we make sure folks are following the right example? Rich Stack: Hmm. Well, there's a word that someone told me once, it's called trust but verify. Trust but verify. I think it was Tim Walsh's words maybe. And I Maybe off and who said it, but what I learned in officer school didn't when I went through officer school, I was a fireman, got to go through fire run officer school So myself, Gary Cooney, Cooney, McCarto, Andy Hoff, we all went together. And I just wanted to go to see what's going to be an officer. I knew I was going to be promoted down the road. And what I learned from those classes from those guys and think Lou Lake Ranit, Jeff McKay, Bob McKee. I mean, these are guys are legend by us. And people are like, who the hell are these guys? They're just People for me that you gotta know why I love listening to show because I hear people that others say that I gotta know and that gets me to get that exposure. Want to learn. So what they said there's trust but verifier. Real simple, I'll give you an example. We go to a building, you say the primary search is done, then we say the secondary search on whoever's calling out that final search, if that's my company, and this was taught to me. I walked the building myself. I trust my members did it. But I'm the one as the company officer calling in the search is final. I'm the one getting suspended I'm the one getting the right up for you know dereliction of duty or conduct on becoming or whatever. So you trust but verify You know, you look and see the ladders thrown. Awesome. They did it. Hey, I need a 35 to the rear.

Rich Stack: As you do a peek out the window, man, guys are awesome. I gotta give them an add a boy when we get back to the firehouse and thank them for a job well done. So that trust but verify also allows me to tell them thank you for doing a good job. Corley: So I like it. Now do you have to I'm gonna ask you this because this is off my own personal question. When you do verify do you have to communicate with them that look this is me just checking to make sure things are done without how do you do how do you balance that between I don't trust you because I'm checking up on you. Does that make sense what I'm asking? Rich Stack: Yeah it's like Listen, I'm sorry, Jill, if you're listening. It's like being married. You know, I don't she's gonna see me look at the girl walking across the street, but she know I look she doesn't know I looked. I'm trust but verifying. I'm watching. I don't do it in front of them, is my point, right? I'm gonna look and see it's there. It could be like Hey, did you throw that ladder right? And I look. No, that's ignorant. No. But and throughout my you know, job on the fire ground or go, you know, working on a scene or whatever, pinning. Look to see hey they throw a wedge under that front tire. They use a step truck. They get a strut out already without me asking like hey guys, let's make sure we strut the you know the back end of this car. Then you see it's done. That's my verify So, you know, it ain't like you have to rub in your face. You're doing it to make sure it was done right, or they don't need help. You could have someone do a task and be like, man, you know what? I probably should help them or they need some additional help. Oh.

Corley: Right on. All right. I love, I love it so far. And there's there's questions stacking up, but I do want to hit some of the topics. Your training philosophy because you've been heavily involved with training and instructing for a long time. But especially now in your current role you know, you've you've you've promoted into like you said earlier you you alluded to it earlier you stepped into the shoes of some some giants how have you adapted learned over time if anything best advice for people who want to train and instruct Rich Stack: I would say that training instruct. Well, I'll give you an example. I wanted to be an instructor for IFSI. And we were in our chapter, Southside Fools was our local chapter. And I remember a guy in our chapter by the name of Tom Stravino. and Mac McCassin was in it. Tom Stravino was a legend here in Oaklawn Tough little Dago, tough little Italian guy. He was an ironworker, built like a brick house. I can't say the words. My mother maybe listened. I try not to swear my mother listens even though I'm a sailor. not by really, but he would be an iron worker and he wanted to get a better workout. He would take five-pound ankle weights to his wrist and ask what they had drilling overhead all day. And they go, Tom, that's a young man's. That's the that's the Apprentices job was no, I want it. He'd tape ankle weights and drill all day just to get an extra workout. The guy was a machine. So you know, philosophy, lead by example. So training philosophy would be that What Tom told me was when I wanted to be instructor, he was you need to take some more classes first. And maybe why don't you start training on your own job first before you go elsewhere So because of Tom, I didn't go to IFSI become a teacher. I didn't go to college to page. I got was asked to go to the academy. I think I had four years on 2006, four years on five, to go teach an academy class. And I didn't think I was able to. I was like, no, no. And they pushed me to, and it was the best thing I did. So take some classes, get out and teach Another thing was Lou Lake would take me to help him teach.

Rich Stack: Someone would cancel, God, come on, do this class. I didn't get paid. I just went to help out. So you stoke for classes. There's a ton of guys listening here. Danny Bracken. Jared Birchy, I mean I'm skipping a ton of this Alex Griff, all these guys, they stoked and they didn't care if they got paid one dollar. What they learned from just being around people that were passionate. into the job it was an infectious disease that just carried over yeah and these kids are aces I mean aces so and so I guess I'd say keep taking classes don't ever stop Get involved with training, even if it's a minuscule thing as far as humping pallets, loading a victim. You have to pay your dues, in my opinion, because then you appreciate those coming up and the hard work it is and it's takes. So that's I guess my best answer to that question. Training philosophy would be be a student in the game, right? Everyone probably says that. So I guess that's cliche. It's solid. I mean I don't know. I don't like that though. Okay. Okay. I'm listening. Philosophy. I guess my philosophy is You know, don't do anything you wouldn't ask someone else to do. And if you're gonna train, make it realistic and pertinent. Drill is not to be four hours. I hate when you got these stupid nonsense drills and they're four hours long. It's about nudge and nonsense. It could have been 20 minutes. minutes. If it's a 10-minute drill and that's it, it's relative, pertinent, awesome. Some drills need to be more involved, but it needs to be relative and you got to include everybody. So make your training realistic, pertinent, and relevant

Corley: Love it. Dude, I absolutely love that. Steve, same with Doce coming at you. Steve is the man. Steve is the man. And that's what I love about it. Rich Stack: Well, Mario, Mo, Michael here. I'm probably forgetting somebody. Those guys are the best owners. Corley: I do want to say that like the sponsors of the scrap are absolutely phenomenal. Usually almost all of them are in here. Like it's not just that they sponsor it and put their products out there and they have great companies it's also that they're in the chat actually talking asking questions and so it's just i'm very proud of that so i'll break for a minute but he said love it now that you're at the fire academy what's the single best way to communicate with the new generation And are they as passionate? He froze? Hmm. Oh, he's he's back? Rich Stack: Am I still frozen? Corley: Nope, you're back. Rich Stack: Yes. So I heard part of it, what's the best way to connect with the new generation and are they passionate? Was that correct? Corley: basically, what's the single best way to communicate with the new generation and are they as passionate Rich Stack: that's been difficult, right? You think I'd be better at having daughters and while they're in college Oh my god. Yeah. Am I back? These things is gonna drive me crazy. We back?

Corley: You're back. You're back right now. We'll see how it goes. Rich Stack: Good? Corley: So far. Rich Stack: All right, good. All right. you guys just gotta communicate with him. I think communications really affected the fire service, COVID And everything that young kids don't know how to communicate. They don't give eye contact. They rely on social media and all that stuff So what I what I am finding is trying to communicate them on their level. There's some things that just doesn't work. I'm sorry. a video, Instagram, you know Facebook isn't the same as actually putting a face be sign, crawling a hallway, forcing a door. So I think that's the best way is find out how they learn. I say being an instructor is like being a coach, right? You ever coach sports? If you have What you gotta do is know the athlete. Some kids you have to coddle, some you have to push, and some it's a mix of both. And that's kind of how training is for firefighting. Some people shut down when you get into them. So Corley: Love it. Love the answer. And and no, I like the answer. Thank you for the question, Steve. I'm getting there, I'm getting the notes back up getting back in we're fighting and this is the best part of a live show like we get live audience questions but you also get the live problems with the internet so just enjoy it we're along for the ride and that's why I love the people the people that enjoy the scrap they understand what's going on Greg White wants to know what was one of the biggest things you've learned from promoting to lieutenant

Rich Stack: the biggest things I learned is that as a fireman, I never really worried about anyone else except for maybe my partner or what I was doing. I I wasn't accountable for anyone else. It sounds arrogant and stupid, and I don't mean it like that. I mean, when I worked on squad five, you know, we had each other's back. When I worked on 63, we did 72 But I wasn't in charge of anybody, right? I knew my partner was with me. I knew we were gonna do a search together. What I learned I became an officer or going through officer training or seeing it as we do it is that you spent more time in that first year or first couple months. Accountability of your crew in communications. Like poor communications, how to communicate, where my crew are. Like I want to be the first one off the rig at the door. First in, last out. People think that's a cliche. I call bull crap on that. Well, if a guy goes down behind me and I left before him How do I know? We had it happen here in the city. Also, if I'm not the first one off the rig ready to go, what happens when the firefighters are off the rig? They're gone. Now I'm playing catch up. Instead of, why did they search left or right I don't care. You better have a reason. Right. The bedrooms are on the right side. There was a window over. I thought I saw some. But if you're not there and they start to go that way, wait, why are you going that way? They can tell you. Or hey, I need you to go this way. The bedroom we're here. We got to pour some. in the bedroom. If not, they're gonna run wild. And I did the same. We just did whatever we want sometimes, right? If no one told you what to do, I'm gonna do what I want. So that was probably the biggest lesson I had to learn is that I had to be ready to go. I had to be accountable for people and think of the rig. We have we run with typically five in the city, five in an engine, five on a truck, six on the squad, which is two pieces, but we could be on a variance where you're one member down.

Rich Stack: Okay. So how many people's lives are you affecting as the officer? Just like a d operator, driver, chauffeur, everyone in the rig. Are they married? Do they have kids? I mean everyone's heard this cliche before but you're not affecting just one life you're you're affecting 20 30 40 lives and then and so on as it grows yeah so it matters what you do that that mindset brother that's a powerful mindset when you start accepting that mantle Corley: of responsibility not just for your own actions but the actions of those you're responsible for and then the spin out the ramifications of who that's going to play into yeah no Yeah, I love the I thank you for the question and thank you for the answer. Greg, great question. Rich, great answer. Next one. Zachary Pace wants to know, we get this question a lot on the fire on the scrap. And so this is I'd like I'm interested to see your answer, but he says, what advice would you give your backstep fireman Who is getting frustrated by mutts in the department? Rich Stack: Awesome. you have to Pick your battles, meaning if the mud is the officer, good luck, right? But who is that other firefighter on the crew That you can pair up with, that you can work with, right? And if it's not the officer, if there's a maybe another member that's not in the job with you, find who you can has the same drive, motivation, energy. the intuitess into the job. That's who you want to be around. And if it's not at work, then get it somewhere else. Join a fool's organization. Take some training, go to some conferences, go to hot, go out there and network, meet people. Any class you go to, you should be networking That is the best biggest resource you have is it's happening right now today. You people are texting asking me questions. You're asking an idiot here. I'm lucky I'm even on this show. Quarterly just had an opening. But you I'm I'm doing the same thing. That they're doing right now to me that I did the exact same to someone else. And you reach out and you find it. So if you ain't getting what you need there, find it somewhere else. And whether to storm, that's not a forever spot Right? No, this you're still going to work every day, get a paycheck, and you get to be a firefighter in American Fire Service.

Rich Stack: That's the win. That's the win. And if you had to look at anything else, it just made me backtrack and think about you talk about my philosophy or all this You know, something I learned from those names I mentioned of people earlier. Who do you want saving your family? Is it you? Are you the fireman you want showing up at your house? This is not my words once again. Pass to me. So look in the mirror. I'll tell you, there were names I mentioned earlier that when I was a young fireman, I thought I was a cat's ass, but I wasn't until I made many mistakes and close calls and didn't and look in that mirror. And if you're not that firefighter, you want to save your family, it's Mike Dugan. It's I don't know Johnny you know Johnny Jojo or whoever the hell it is. You know what I mean? You know, I I would want Bob McKee, Bob Hoff, Mac. I mean So that's my world. But who do you want saving your family? And if it ain't you, then you better find out. You better get there. Corley: Dude, I love that. I love the advice. I love the advice So much, man. Between our topics and the and the beautiful questions coming from the audience. Closing. Thank you for the question, Zachary. Ryan Orsa says. Oh, we'll get we'll get to blitz in a minute. We'll get to blitz in a minute, Ryan. So I'll come back to your blitz question. We're gonna get to blitz. Katie Bow Bout Katie Bout I'm if I butcher your name as that's my stand-up caveat, I'm sorry. Katie Bout, through teaching, have you noticed any common problem areas amongst students regardless of age and or experience. Is there a common theme that you've had to overcome?

Rich Stack: Problem with the students or with training or a problem with I see as a deficiency in training. I guess I'd say probably with students is keeping the interest, right? Keeping interest. Skill may not be there, but we can teach a skill it's having the the passion and drive i think what i've seen more on my job personally i'll speak of only my department is for some people it is a paycheck For some people, it's the best job or pay they ever had, right? And they're content when they get out of that academy and they go to a slow house where I would I'd be out of my mind. I mean, I'd be like, really? and they're content. And My uncle set me straight. I had six uncles and an aunt on Chicago Fire Department at one point. My dad was a volunteer fireman. I always I always mention my dad, so sorry Pop, I didn't mention yet. My biggest hero mentor in life. And so I lost my train of thought there, son of a where were they going? those who take the job just as a paycheck, slow slow houses, yes. So and it would enraged me. My uncle set me straight. My Uncle Buck actually. He's an engine guy. My Uncle Steve was a truck guy. So in the bar in the basement, just where I'm at now and the family Party for the Southside Irish Prayer. There'd be some interesting conversations because you want a duck go on a truck, sissy hook and ladder truck. I mean, it was a lot of stuff. So But he gave me grief. He's like, do you want to go to that house? I'm like, hell no. Who wants to go there? He goes, exactly. So be glad someone went there. That's a that's a detail you don't have to take.

Corley: I've never heard that. I've never heard that Rich Stack: It put in perspective, you know, I'm calling this guy this firefighter a coward or why they here and I found myself when I got promoted and I'm detailed or You're at a house and I'm like, yeah, I'm just detailed here. I found myself like justifying why I was there for the day. Like, I'm not a signed officer here, I'm just detailed, or you do because they had a reputation being a crappy company, so Yes, the hardest thing is getting people that are interested in investing in a job like you are, and you think everyone is and should be, and you quickly find out they're not. So finding out how to get them invested in the job and have the passion that you have. You can maybe get it. You maybe can't, but the challenge is trying. Corley: I love it. Love the answer. And I love this next question coming at you from Steve. Steve, same with Dolce. He wants to know, hey, what's in the cup? That's a great classic classic scrap question. Rich Stack: Since I'm maybe have to work tonight, I want to say it's T. . It would not be Kentucky Owl, but I have a selection of Kentucky Owl, Eagle Rare, Blantons, Blanton's Gold. E. H. Taylor, I'll stop there. No, the door's open.

Corley: And you're invited. Rich Stack: They're all welcome. Corley: We've all just been invited to Richie's basement. So come on. We're coming. All right. Coming at you Getting back up to the notes, high stress situations. How important is it to trust both your instincts and your training? And how do you incorporate that into your training? Rich Stack: I say it's vitally important to rely on both. training you can never You can never sacrifice training, right? And I I should say that good relevant training, right? just let's stretch the line and we do it the firehouse. We just stretch a dry line cross lay and just to say we did it, we don't even charge it. Like, no, there's no obstacles. and all debris. Like it's got to be realistic training. What was the other part of that question? Give me the second part. Corley: Coming back, instincts and training. How is it important to rely on both and how do you incorporate that? Rich Stack: Oh, instincts. So the instincts part. Anytime I got in trouble was when I wasn't maybe directly at my officer doing a task he's giving you right next to someone, and you didn't follow your instincts. You know, like Go into a building, you know, don't have your hood up. And just have that airy feeling like, ah, as you're walking up, you see the black chunky smoke and the pressure and volume, you're like, that's hot, and you you know you put it up. Or You're doing a search and it's getting hotter. It's getting hotter. Doesn't think like we're winning. Like, man, should I back up a little bit? Should I just get myself to a better position to get out of I can instead of overcommit Well, you know, Larry McCormick, a buddy of mine who's on Squad Five, phenomenal fireman, you know, he would say he feels as, you know, when he his spuddy senses starts tingling, right? It's a true statement. You get that eerie gut that gut feeling is a real thing, right? You feel it in your gut. I guess that's the best way to say it, you know. You feel that gut feeling, your gut's usually right. It usually is

Corley: Trust your gut. I like it. I like it. So yeah, there's still questions coming at you. I've got a long one coming here Okay, got it. From Michael Ramirez, Team Ramrod wants to know two-part question on the subject of leading from the front. I enjoy helping putting the truck back in service, loading hose, mopping the bays, washing the rig, cleaning the firehouse, etc. But the crew a lot of times prevent me from doing it. I know it's a respect thing, but how would you handle that besides giving them that look? I can't help but feel lazy when they do this I'm curious on your thoughts. And you've kind of touched on it, but I it's a recurring theme and it's a great problem. Rich Stack: So it is. I think if you have that problem, you're doing it right. Plain and simple. If you have the problem where the members are trying to stop you and take stuff away, they see it. And I'll let them at some point or until these kids are younger than me and I'm a fat old man now. And you know, I just can't Quite do with the guy that's six something and you know cross fitting. I tried it. It was called cross-fat when I did it. Didn't work out well. But you know, if they're actually taking the stuff away from you You're doing it right. But it's the fact you tried. It's the fact. Instead of that offset, hey, that compartment's dirty. When you're done with that, can you clean the top of the rigs? By the way, clean the outriggers and stretch the air out. We're gonna grease the aerial If my members are getting dirty, sweaty, and hot, then I should be. If my members are cold, tired, I should be. Yet I respect the fact they won't let us do as much. Got it. Yet we want to. That's part of that. respect thing but to respect your members you have to be the one involved so or start it I'll give example Jerry Cambriel retired officer from 116 He wants the windows done. He would just get up. It's windows. It's on the work schedule. They weren't doing it. What do you do? Get up. Grab the bucket. Hose mop As soon as the squeegee or the rag touched the window, the kitchen would clear out.

Rich Stack: And they did it. Out of respect. It just took him to start it. No, either way, guys, you know the drills, you know what the schedule, you better get your butt out there. Awesome example of leadership. Corley: And I love the way you said that's a that if if if that's your problem, you're doing it right. It's a great way of stating it, man. Rich Stack: was there a part two? Corley: Man, I think that was the part two. I think I think that was the part two. He said two part question, but I think he gave the kind of the the All right. Oh. Okay. Wanna go to Jobtown? He this is wanna go to Jobtown. He says, question. My company is like my family. How would you tell your shift that you're leaving for a different department while not ruining relationships? It's a small, slow department, and I want to move to a biggie, bigger, busier department. Rich Stack: Okay, I slightly dealt with this. when I left engine 63 and luckily got the detail to squad five It was not well received by the house, but in a good way. I will say one of the best times I had in the fire service was at engine 63, truck 16. We did everything together as a shift. Like Sox games, communion parties, baptisms, graduations, the whole shift went. And the wives and husbands went So the wives and husbands knew each other. So everyone got along. So the house meant a little something more. Like it was, there was that true family bond. That's the best I've ever felt in the first. And other houses were great. So please don't take that away. Those guys maybe listen and call me Rosner. You're gonna complain if I don't say that, right? He was a seen one of the senior guys in the squad. So point is that I explained why I'm doing it. It had nothing to do with them, but what I had to do, what was right for me. And if they're truly your friends, They respect it. And the the most humbling thing is when someone in that opposite role gave you grief. and thing. I mean I'll give examples. Once I left, other guys got promoted to engineer, lieutenant. How's it leaving? So You can't sacrifice your desire and career because of friendship. You can still be friends and move on.

Rich Stack: That's my opinion. And if they're butthurt over it, I I'm sorry to be ignorant here. Oh well. Because I'm supposed to stay where I'm at when I have my own goals and things. Hey man, then come with me. You know what? Come along and come for the ride. See why I'm doing it. I don't know Corley: I love it. No, hey, I man, there's a lot of depth to that answer, and I really do appreciate it. The understanding that if they are your friends, they're gonna support you in your decision as you're bettering yourself and chasing your dreams and goals. Because you would do the same for them. I mean honestly if if you reversed it out and they were taken off to prom to better their lives or to move to a place that was their dream Like, wouldn't you support them? Because yeah, man, I love it. I absolutely love it. Michael Ramirez said two part because it was too long for YouTube. Go ahead. Rich Stack: Oh, okay. Did I step on you? I said if you're gonna call it brotherhood or sisterhood, no. Corley: Got me? I think so. I I don't sure if it's cutting off I'm trying. Go ahead. Okay, we're good. We're good? We're good. Okay, we're good.

Rich Stack: Yeah. Corley: got it. Thank you. Thank you for that. Want to go to job 10 Steve Mouch wants to know, I'm terrible at putting thoughts into words. But question: when training, how do you balance letting crews explore new different ideas and tactics? versus following a set plan. Rich Stack: what I learned from a couple of friends of mine, one is his nickname's Billy Blats, when we were doing a station, he said, you know, give him that 30-second or minute approach of what do you guys got for an idea? Let them throw out ideas, right? There may be a good one you'd even think of as the officer. And at some point you say, all right, let's try that. And if not, we're gonna do this. There are those calls and times when sorry, there ain't no negotiating, right? If you're the officer, you're in charge. Heavy's the head that wears the crown, right? That's your responsibility. So You gotta use your people to your advantage and someone may have a really good idea you haven't thought of. If you think you're the smartest person, you're not. I mean I mean, I don't know how many people are versed in EMS, hazmat, rope ops, confined space, structural collapse. Everyone's got their thing. I was I taught structural collapse and run under fire fire run officer school If we had to do a rope job when actually when I was an officer and I got to go to squad one, two, or five as the officer, the guys were phenomenal with the ropes. I was the weakest link when it came to ropes I was pretty good on structural collapse. That was kind of the the special ops or the the one discipline I gravitated to. And so that's kind of how you deal with it, I guess. I mean No, I love it.

Corley: I know it's a great answer because I love the well A, it's something people can use. Give them the first 30 seconds, the first minute, let them throw out their ideas. Let them throw and even sometimes you can be like, that one's not gonna work but hey why don't we try it let's try it we're in train well let's see how it does but you can also learn something because they give you something you didn't think of and now you look like a genius when it does so it's it's beautiful Rich Stack: And not only that, it makes that member feel like they're part of that company that value, right? If you said, no, this is my way. I worked for that one boss where he was a tyrant. Yes. Tyrant. It was miserable and you didn't have a voice and have a say. It's like, why am I even here? You know what I mean? So even if you don't go with a great idea But I see his legs stuck this way. I think this tool worked better, but I like it. If that don't work, we'll have to try that. I don't know. Corley: No, and how important is it like if you are the boss and people quit talking to you because you haven't listened And you've shut down that communication, how bad is that route to go down? And then you lose all of that, all of that knowledge. Oh yeah. Awful.

Rich Stack: Yeah, that's that's exactly what you don't want to have happen. That's the worst. Corley: The absolute worst. saying, let me let me pull it up. Thank you, Steve, for that question. It was a beautiful question. All right. Yeah, thank you Coming here, going here. Moral courage. Moral courage and calling the Mayday. Rich Stack: Okay. Hit me with your thoughts. Go. So the reason why I bring this up, this was a call that happened to me. I won't go into full length, crazy details, but the moral of the story is We were the first rig on the scene. I was on squad five at the time. I was driving the snorkel. My partner was Mike Rogers. Up front was our officer Corey Hojak. Mike Curtin was on the rig. Dave Walsh was on the rig, and I can't remember who the sixth person was. I apologize right now. Whatever. Point is two and a half story frame building. Heavy smoke, 2 30 in the morning, about 20 below zero, about a foot a half of snow on the ground. We're the first rig on the scene because of what we're going on around us Garage fire catches catches another garage, frozen hydrants, call the box. So companies around us are out. And we were part of that movement around, but never got needed, kept getting turned back. We pulled first rig on the scene. We carry no water. Right. The only hose we got is the 150 feet in the front bumper of inch three quarter and maybe the 50 footer up in the basket of the snorkel. The box red's got what maybe hand pump? Like we don't have water. So As the speaker cracks a report of babies trap. I didn't stop read the building. I didn't profile it. I just ran down the gangway with my partner to get to the rear of the building. Our job in this workout was the rear The box rig was the front. The driver would go to the roof. The ventilate rhino roof, sorry, would go to the roof to cut a hole. And Just got out of my game plan, what we talked earlier. And then from that point, things went sideways. Frozen hydrants. Bad information. Then I end up going in a building without my partner knowing it, without a line. Had it but didn't know they lost water to start a search get turned around slip and fall and when I fall I lose my orientation I went into the rear I knew my right arm was always on the Bravo Wall going towards alpha.

Rich Stack: When I slipped, I did like a I rolled in terms, so however it happened and Boltz full boots full of snow and ice tile floor it's like an ice ring. Didn't want to land the pipe the halligan whatever get my stop start searching I realize I'm lost, right? Get caught up. It's black, heavy smoke. Partner know where I'm at. Searching above an uncontrolled fire in the basement. Like every textbook thing you I did wrong. And I'd been teaching Red Under Fire since 2006. My buddy Gary Cooney took over the program, got me involved from the beginning with a bunch of other guys. I'm supposed to be a written instructor. I'm on squad five. I'm supposed to be a good fireman. I was the shittiest fireman of my life that day. And my family's heard this story before. point being is as I realize I'm in this moment And our policy says lost trap out of air, needed meet assistance, you call in Mayday. I look at my remote gauge, I got like 2800 or something. I'm not I'm not low on air. I don't know where I'm at. Caught up in the closet now, tangled in stuff. No, I gotta find my way. And for whatever reason, the way I went was a loop around where there was a double door to this room that you can go around and around and circle. I mean, so Yell out, no one answers, don't hear any fire ground sound, don't hear any fire ground noise, you know, no air break, no breaking glass, no saws running. It was the eeriest worst feeling. And call me a liar, whatever. I swear to God, my daughter splashed before my eyes and lucky I picked a way to go out. But what hopefully happened in that moment is I did not have the moral courage to call made it. I was going to embarrass my company and I was going to embarrass squad five the fire department. I was supposed to be a good fireman, maybe, on a league company, maybe. Well I didn't call him made a because I was too much of a coward.

Corley: Wow. Rich Stack: Plain of fact, I should could have died in that building. Moral of the story is I just picked a way to go. Rangle a guy in a line. His officer's out of air leaves the building says you got my guy like what's going on? They hit their horns. We got to evacuate down the building. We fall out the front door in an ice patch down the stairs. And There's my company officer waiting to bitch me out, Cory Ojak. And he was right. I mean I messed up all every way you could. But if I got any message out here, and I don't want to repeat this story because I know other viewers have probably heard it, so I'm sorry if I'm boring You're not, you're not. I did not have the moral courage. I was more worried about embarrassing myself for a company. That would have offered my my kids widowed my wife and it messed me up so much that we went back to the firehouse. I prayed we didn't get another run that day And every day I I go to work hoping for a fire every day, right? That's the group of people I run with who mentored me, taught me, and I couldn't wait to get home Put them with you home. And so call them Aday. Get over the ego, the bravada. you're not a coward. You rather call me a coward or let me go home and hug my wife and kids.

Corley: Yeah, Alan Glografi said it best. Definitely not boring, brother. No, and I can tell when's when when it's good when the When the YouTube chat goes silent and everybody is just listening. There's no there's no chat and everybody's just listening to the story. Dude, believe me. Matt Carpenter said, thanks for that sharing that honesty, brother. It takes a person to say he was a coward for doing wrong. Bravo. absolutely cody ballmok i yeah that's that's perfect exact example he said 100 thank you for that story so yes you are not boring anyone with that and it's a mess, it's a message that firefighters need to hear. Rich Stack: Yes. Corley: Because I I think Almost, I mean, without fail, if you've been somewhere, you've been in a point where you should have called a man and you didn't, and you didn't do it because of your ego, because of your pride, because of insert whatever word you want to use. but you refused to do it because you didn't want to embarrass yourself or your crew or insert whatever. Rich Stack: I don't know. I have nothing else to say to it. I mean, it just it bugged me so much that I talk about it regularly. And that's why. And you know, even other things. You're afraid to call Mayday because you know they'll raz you, they'll tease you, or you know, you're afraid to make a decision on the fire ground, maybe the wrong decision. Make a decision, learn from it, own it. Own it. You gotta own it. So

Corley: No, I love it. Is there now now because especially because you're you've you've moved into a position where you affect training, is there anything you've implemented or tried to implement or plan to implement? To make this more of a to address this issue, I should say. Rich Stack: I I ironically, we did a Lieutenant promotional class in believe it was March or April, sometime in that time. And In that class, they do COFO, right? It's the old F01 they call it KOFO company officer. Fire, all right, whatever. So they do examples. They talk about and I made sure I talked at a whole lieutenant's class about a couple of my mistakes that were Could have been catastrophic. talk about where my pipe guy went down to me in an attic and had to bring him out and nothing he did wrong and a lot of things happened before we got on the scene and other companies that weren't relayed Talked about that Mayday because I don't want someone to make the mistake I did and and have the the worst possible outcome there is, right? That's the worst possible outcome where either you get hurt or you don't, you know, get back to your family. So I don't want that to happen. So we got to talk about it. And I'll give you examples. This is stupid. I was an officer on engine 47. Get called for a still alarm. And it's not far from the firehouse. I always hated the call that's like right around the corner. Because yes, if I get written up, I'm sorry on my job. But yeah, we're supposed to wear seatbelts. We're supposed to, you know, all that nonsense. Whatever. I'll tell you I was a hypocrite as an officer because I wore my seatbelt and everyone except for a still because I wanted to be fully dressed, get off the rig before my members. Yes. But I'll I won't lie to you guys here. I will tell you the guys on the truth. I get written up tomorrow. just come to my suspension party. so point point being is that We pull down the street. We have smoke showing in their three different buildings. Not a streetlight works on the block. There's no address. And I literally get on the radio. Engine 47 has seen we have a And I stopped.

Rich Stack: Now they all listened to the radio and the scanner in the firehouses and the big bosses too. You know, the first thing they did is look down the computer. Who was that Jag Off or scumbag officer there today? What an idiot. You know what I mean? But so I told guys. I didn't know what to say in that moment because I never was put in that scenario. So just like that writ or that close call, I tell the guys in Australia school, like, listen. Just say engine 40 on the 7 on the scene. We have some smoke showing. Can't tell where it's coming from. I'll get back to you. Instead of the whole 47 on the scene. We have a one-half story frame. We're at 1825, whatever. We're facing southbound. We have a fire. Okay, everyone's waiting for all that great information, but if I don't know it, don't say it. Because as soon as you start going, everyone's And then I'm like, I mean I literally think I said on the radio, I sound like the biggest moron. So my guess my answer is you have to talk about it because If not, someone else will repeat it. And if it comes from you from the heart and you have a decent reputation or you're respected. It means something because they probably think, wow, I can't believe this happened to you. Like, oh yeah, everything has because I'm an idiot sometimes. Yes

Corley: I absolutely love the authenticity and that that's a recurring theme. At some point you'll have to come back, visit the YouTube channel and see every all the comments because there's no way to read them all. It's absolutely amazing. So it is worth it is worth revisiting Rich Stack: I'll have to learn I'll have to do that. Okay. Not at work tomorrow though. Not at work tomorrow. Corley: Not at work tomorrow. And not when you're getting written up. Because we're all gonna be at your write-up party. Rich Stack: So suspension party suspension parties. We can't call them suspension parties anymore because they got in trouble. So like the one guy got suspended He's on the hockey team. They call him the MVP award party. And then for another guy it was I I forget what else they call it for someone else like his You know, new shirt, you know, whatever they they make up these crazy names now because you can't call it a suspension party. And so it's pretty unique. Fireman Right. Corley: I'm trying to think how what yours would be. It would be the seatbelt speed party or yeah we'll come over something speed drill party wait chinese fire drill party all invited for Kentucky Al and we'll all be there so Zachary Wendell wants to know when training for calling a Mayday do you prefer Lunar or the who what where and why

Rich Stack: Okay, awesome. I'm a big fan what we use in Chicago and what was implemented and what we do in a program, a company that we work with called Duty Pride Tradition Training LLC. We just literally started in we got this from IFSI from Gary Cooney from Hoff from Colemy from all those guys. We do lip Location identification problem. Now the only question that has come up with that it's exactly the same is who, what, where. The difference is, and I never realized it till recently, like you say, you're always learning. Just because I say lip location identification problem doesn't mean I do it that way. That's just a check mount for me to say those three things. Where who, what, where Makes sense in the fact that who hi this is this is firefighter stack I'm on the second floor I'm low on air. I can't find my way out. I do the same thing with lip, but it just makes sense to me. I get lost in the lunar, right? Location, unit, name, resources, like what? We need keep it simple, right? Keep it simple. Absolutely. K-I-S-S. Keep it simple, stupid, we don't really do, but I don't want to say stupid, but that's a fact.

Corley: It's a fact. No, Lunar, we use Lunar in our department and we we adopt the you know Because it was part of the the the what everybody was doing at the time. And we started doing a thing called Lunar Challenge where you could just walk up to anybody anytime and say, give me a lunar. And literally with no pressure, nothing going on, sitting in a hallway in the firehouse, you're like, lunar, lunar. L location. I'm in the hallway. I'm on engine three today. Name, name, my name. You know what? And we realized, oh, this is worthless. Yeah. This is worthless. Rich Stack: So a fan of who, what, where, or lip location identification problem. Corley: Love it. Absolutely love it. Great question, Zachary. When may I don't know I don't understand the question again. You're gonna win when Mayday do you go to names instead for numbers? re-reword the question. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe yeah, reword the question. I'm looking on there's a lot of questions, Rich. So give me a minute while I scroll through the Greg Hind, another Mayday question. In terms of Maydays, is your SOG to change tack channels or stay on the frequency? I love this question because it's it's there's it's all over. So I want to hear Rich's take

Rich Stack: I guess I'm probably an animal in my own environment and what I've done and trained. We switch channels, but we're probably a big enough department where we can. Basically, for us, our procedure is the company with the Mayday stays on fire ground. The Rick company, the Rick Chief, stay on Fireground. All their companies switch to alternate fire ground or admin channel. So That's great. Now let's talk about reality of world. What kind of department? Do you have the remote do you have the remote mic with the selector here? Or do you have to go under your coke because it's on a pouch that you can't get to What is this guy's and makeup of your department? you know, there's so many things that come in play. It makes sense for me and for us to switch. And that's how we've done it. I can't say it's wrong if you don't. because sometimes there are those companies that are close by that can help. And if you're on a volunteer department, accommodation department, you have to rely on those companies that are there. You may not have a designated team you may not have it on the scene yet. there are companies that are close by that maybe can do that grab. So I think it's tough. It makes sense to me to switch. It's what we do. And I get that. But I'm not opposed if you train in our discipline on it. I'm not opposed to anything. As long as it actually works, you train, you're just one and you prove it. You have to prove it. Just because I train on something You better beta test it. Do it for real. Do it like it's realistic and see how it works.

Corley: Right on. Dude, great answer. All I've been saying tonight is great answer. Great answer. 100% I love it. No, but it absolutely. All right. Begin fixed this question. He said, when you do a Mayday, do you go to names instead of their radio call sign or the numbers? Rich Stack: well for us if we're doing identification of for doing who, it's gonna be And I'd be like, it's a lieutenant stack, Captain Stack, or Firefox, and I'd probably say what company. And if they don't If I'm the incident commander, if I'm the company officer of received navy or whoever's in charge, you know, because we teach it in our RIT program is that then I'm gonna ask. If I get made a made a made a this is firefighter jones lost desire firefighter jones what company you're on with what company you Then I'll ask it. Ideally like to teach to give it, just kind of make it is because problem is on bigger departments, you can be detailed to another house. Right. And their company you're assigned to may never be on that scene. So you could mean I get it could be confusing. Like, hey, this is firefighter stack from truck one in truck one's downtown, and we're over in Englewood on the south side, we're over in the west side, and like Right no so I can see that, but I think it helps because there may be more than one person on the scene with that name. besides unit, could there be more than one person from that unit lost So the name and unit help narrow down that's specifically the person you're looking for. Yes. There could be two Smiths. There could be Johnson's. There could be same names. So

Corley: I love it. Rich Stack: I gotta quit saying that. Corley: Okay. great answer. Rich Stack: I mean, I'm just waiting for you to say, all right, Rich, that was a shitty answer. Corley: Rich, that was the shitty answer. No, thank you. Here's here's the deal, Rich, is I I I really am blessed in the fact that I only have badasses on the show. And I mean that. I mean that. I know that you've been self-deprecating and you said, hey, I'm an idiot and all that. And I appreciate the humility and And and everybody does. But the truth of the matter is this. The scrap has badasses on and the audience asks some questions. They absolutely crush it. So thank you. The whole that dynamic works. thank you, Greg, for that last question. Still more coming at you. Want to go to Job Town? Wants to know, how do you simulate the panic of Mayday in training? Rich Stack: How do you simulate the panic? So something we are afforded to do or allowed to do with the local state fire marshal office is we were able to use Live down members in our red scenarios. There were some very specific things we had to follow. Sure. Right? You couldn't have you couldn't go in and say you're low on air and have a low-air bottle on. Like you had to have a full tank You had to have another instructor there standing there, just as the safety right there. On top of the instructor leading the company and everything else, you had an extra person safety there. So the reality was is being realistic, right? Getting that hype, grabbing someone saying, how do I get out of here? Or grab them, say, follow me. All those things that you would do, you know, actually having the urgency on the radio, changing her voice, getting the screaming on there, like the anything I can do to get your attention to get your you know your awareness up your anxiety level up because you know we want that critical thinking to happen right you get put on those stressful situations you have to because you don't know how to react and you may react all wrong the Wrong way might not be appropriate. you know, at a fire things go bad and I just start running to get out instead of dropping to the ground, getting low, looking where I'm at, reading where I'm at, getting that close gap here, we may feel that he can just start running.

Rich Stack: You could be running further into the building. So when you do that in a drill and we can put that realism and truly mimic that That's how you do it. So I I guess the answer is adding urgency, adding tones. You know, we'll do a lot of rolling responses for our training when we do it it's like we pull up rolling response get out and go to work like you would and then from there we'll have a window pop open someone hang out the window someone throw something We'll have someone get to the door and there's a scissor gate and someone scream behind it and then grab the firefighter saying, get me out right now. Things like that. Corley: Nice. Rich Stack: Nice Corley: All right. And Rich, that sucked. That was a terrible answer. Rich Stack: Thank you. Corley: Okay. let's get to this because I really want to talk about it and there's been some questions on it. And Blitz Attack. Has there been anyone who's done more research? on blitz attack than rich stack. I'm sure there has, but I don't know of it. Sure. But let's start by I'm going to start by saying, what do we mean by blitz attack?

Rich Stack: Okay, I'm saying there probably is. And any work I did was not by myself. There was a crew of people helping me. Oh my God, I can't even name everybody. Dan Bracken, Muddy Waters, Bill Stripick, JJ, Jeff Johnson. Cooney, McCartell, Walsh. I mean there's there's so many. And then the founders that did it for us, like the the the guys from our job that started this process. So let's attack in a nutshell. Back in the 1950s, pre-1950s, engines didn't have water. We had no tanks in the city. After 1950s, you've heard this course of Corley knows some this from listening presentation. they're in the mid-50s. They got tanks with 250 gallon tanks because they were building the Dan Ryan and the Eisenhower Expressway. They're below grade and they needed tanks to put out machinery Basically, these really smart firemen from back in this time, mid-50s, early 60s, said, Hey, we're pulling up with 200 gallons of water. Why aren't you using it? Well, back in the day, they pull up, wrap a hydrant. Drive to the building or pull up, stretch to a hydrant and get water and stretch in the building. And you had to wait for that water to come from the hydrant to the pump or there are no tanks. Well these guys like hey you have you have water, why don't we use it So they were filling lines with water starting to go in. Or they were shooting water from the outside through a window to darken the fire down to catch up. So basically blitz's tax and pulled in front of the building Hitting it in the mouth for about 10 to 15 seconds. Hitting it with all the water you can for your deck gun and then shutting it down and stretching a line Now, there's so much more to that. Rig placement moving out of the way for the truck. If you get the truck to front of the building, how big your tank is on your apparatus? What's the tip size on your deck on? For the city, we have a 500-gallon tank. We're on an inch and three-eighths, inch and a half, inch and a quarter, two inch, five, six, eight, and a thousand. So that inch and three-eighths, we're getting five hundred gallons a minute. We have a 500-gallon tank. If I did that for a minute.

Rich Stack: I have zero water. Right. If I do it for 30 seconds, I have 250 gallons of water. We do about a 10-second, maybe a 15-second hit. Still enough water in the tank to charge the line, start stretching Hose in the building and doing your attack while we're stretching line to a hydrogen connecting a positive water source. Granted, we have hydrants on the corner in the middle of our blocks, about 330 feet apart from each other Little bit different than if you're in an area where I'm tankered on hydrogen or my hydrogen further parts. But if I got a tanker, I got 2,000 gallon tanker, huh I could do still blue buttons attack. I could hit it for 30 seconds, still have plenty of water and make aggressive interior attack. Moe Davis and I used to Didn't argue about this because he was against it. And I love Monos Houston guys. He was like, oh, that's coward. But when I told him how it was to be more aggressive to get to that live, viable, livable space in a structure to find someone, that's all it is. Be able to get me in there to get to the lives survivable space sooner. So I love it.

Corley: I love the fact just thinking of you and Moe discussing tactics almost attacked. Rich Stack: Yeah, dude, I love I love I love I love the concept of just he admitted he admitted he kind of agreed a little because he was telling a story about a fire and there's like there's one room maybe I go well now you may have two rooms you know and it was interesting Corley: So No, I can I yeah, I absolutely love I love sitting at tables when like any any firefighters who are into the job are having a good discussion about where they work and their tactics at the And they can be open about discussing them because ultimately the cool part about it is, and I know you know this, it's it's about the effectiveness for the people that were there to rescue And and when when when the people are there to discuss that, like all the rest of it goes out the window and you can discuss and have the arguments, but at the end of the day, you're like, oh, actually what you're saying Rich Stack: Yeah. We're fortunate. We're fortunate. I mean, I got to teach us some great people. I mean, worked with Aaron Heller, Bart Simpson, Pags, Matt Pag Leone, Danny McCauley, all these guys you teach with, you know, from different entities and anyone out there. You can teach with someone. They ask you to come volunteer, do it. Like I've been fortunate to teach at College of the Page on-scene training. Now with duty prior tradition. fortunate in the network and the information like the stuff I'm saying nights from it's a cumulation of everybody in my entire perverser's career

Corley: I love it. I love it. I've got some questions coming on Blizzattack, and I delayed them earlier and I promised to get to them. Ryan Orseth wants to know What are your thoughts about a single line to the blitz instead of using gated Y's with a secondary line? Rich Stack: We understand a single line to blitz in tet a instead of a secondary line with a Y. Right. Corley: That's what he asked. I don't if I need clarification, I can ask him because he's still here on block. Rich Stack: I guess I'm not a fan of a why on a line. Stretch the line you need and if you need another one, stretch another one. I mean we used to have wise on our back step in in Chicago and they've similar gone away. I'm a fan of a single line if I'm doing a blitz attack, now maybe it's a skid load where I'm hitting it with the two and a half and then attaching an inch and three quarter and going with that line, still wouldn't be using the gate of light. I'm a fan of a single line. The problem with the Y is that if you don't have the exact same leadout, the exact same pipe on both of those lines coming off the Y The friction's off, right? It's not the same. You're not getting the right flow. And until you pito it, until you test it, I am not that engine guy. I'm not Andy Plopkin. From L car brass like stupid smart or you know Jerry Herbstreet and all those guys and stretch martin bum. I've learned all that from if you're not testing your package as they call it, I don't call it a Package called O's, but if you're not testing it, how do you know? So put a Y in there and then see what you're getting from the Y, from the line, from the pumper. And I learned that from these guys. And they made me feel like the dumbest fireman ever. I learn You charge the hose if it's stiff when you step on it, it's like you're no one on prom light. I'll leave it at that, not insult anyone out there. You know it's good to go, and you can feel the water throwing it. That's what I knew. I didn't know what pipes we had and what they flow so I'm a single line guy.

Corley: There you go. Great question. I love the question. Rich's answer. I want to say it's a terrible answer each time now, just for Richard's sake. Is the King's Loop really helpful or is it a waste of time? Rich Stack: I'm not familiar with the King's Loop, so I can't I can't answer that one. Corley: I didn't know the I didn't know what it was. I didn't know if it was something I didn't understand. So now I gotta look. Rich Stack: Now I'm literally on my phone as you're saying this. Like as you're asking me the next question, what is the King's Loop? Someone's gonna say, how do you not know it? That's why you're a crappy fireman. Corley: He may clarify. We'll see. There is a delay, so I'll see if he pops up in there And I don't know, yeah, the King's Loop. I don't know what it is. I love this question coming at you from the Southern Hemisphere. This was from Stephen Kaiser. I think it's around 11 o'clock where he's at right now, 11 o'clock AM. But he wants to know. Now you're in charge of training. How do you adopt a new tactic or technique from the floor? Something that comes from the ground up that challenges the way it's always been done, tactic or technique

Rich Stack: My simple answer is do it and prove it. You know, like someone says this is a better way. I'll give you an example. They always want to change our hose beds in the city, right? Or our leadouts. our betting hose and for some companies it makes sense like 126 is running with more hose on their one cross lay i know 116 maybe was 49 instead of 200 maybe 250 or they change stuff up we got some ram xd nozzles in the city which i'm a huge huge fan of and two officers had them preset on the rigs on either the back step or the sidestep where they had the rubbish line. Like so prove it. So if you have a better way to do it Lead it out the way we're supposed to lead it out the other way. Or if you have a better way to chop, test it. Do the way you were shown in your way. And if it works Hell, nowadays video it. You know, I had a young firefighter kid in my house and she was there for a 30-day detail there. She got her assignment. We were doing leadouts And we had her building on the south side over up of Wentworth and we could get in our flow water and we were flowing water, it was a two and a half. We made her do some two and a half work as well and i was videoing her and literally she was like standing straight up she was like literally leaning back like this instead of like leaning into it right so she so wouldn't have that fire that fire stance or that fighting stance Didn't get it till I showed her a video. She could see her body position and knew she was too upright, not leaning in ready to go. So I'd video it, I would time it, and I would compare it against how we do it and say, I believe you. We've always done this, let's try it. And the facts are the facts. If it proved, do it. And if it's the same. Okay, I mean if it doesn't change, then if it doesn't make it worse, I'm still for it.

Corley: Okay. No, I brother, yeah, I love the answer Yeah, you mentioned the Ram XD, and I we're just getting these here. We're getting ready to mount them on the back of every one of our rigs. Pre-connected is how we're running them on a three-inch, I think. but what what what's your thoughts on the Ram XD Rich Stack: RAMXE, I think, is a phenomenal piece of machinery. I don't work for any manufacturer. I'm just telling you what I've learned from testing with it and doing it here. And I like it because I'll give an example. Here in the city, we have let's say we have a two and a half story bloom frame constructive building. Enclosed wooden back porches. The back porches are on fire. Maybe there's an exposure to one side, if not both. Well, first engine on the same, where do we always want to lead our line to? Yeah, the front door of the building, right? But I can't. We're first engine. I can't. Can I drop two lines Can I drop three lines? I know Bobby Smith, Brian McCartell, Brent Mahallock, all these guys at 116. I'm missing people. Rich Geditus, I mean, whole bunch of that. You know, they'd say it's an all skate. That means everyone got a line You get a line, you get a car, you get a car, right? Everyone got a line. So drop three. But my point is with the Ram XD, I can stretch that to the rear, hit the enclosed wooden back porches while another firefighter or officer can stretch a line to the front door. I've left it unmanned. We water hammered it. Mo Rodriguez was the battalion chief in the 22nd. We tried extending off it with another two and a half, just making it available. We extended off the RAM XD with an inch and three quarter so the ram xd after it was a multiversal throwing 500 gallons a minute at a building then we could take the tip off and extend what an inch and three quarter or two and a half So ain't like you're dead there either. Grab a high-rise pack.

Corley: Grab a horseshoe. Yeah. It's just a valve. Hey, we're excited. I'm excited. And I'll I'll do this in my Announced force. Elkart Brass is not a sponsor of Weekly Scrap. So but absolutely believe in it and I'm excited to see the implementation of it. So I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Rich Stack: Okay. No. I'm a fan. No, absolutely. Corley: And like you said, all the reasons you said, I won't even get into any sort of comparison. So I this is one of my favorite questions. I don't know if you're I we we we've met each other, we've laughed, we've drank together, and we're good friends. I really do consider ourselves good friends. But I don't know if you're a reader. I don't know if you're a reader, but I love this question book or books that you think firefighters should be reading. Rich Stack: Okay. I am probably one of the worst firemen ever at reading. Reading books. I think I'm partly dyslexic and ADHD. Corley: So every firefighter I know is ADHD. I I I'll just put that out there. But go ahead. Rich Stack: Yes, why we're good firefighters. absolutely Some and they're not traditional ones, right? Bob Hoff from Rick Colomate wrote a book on Firefighter Rescue and Survival and it was a I thought a really good book because I felt like For me in the fire service, I sucked at search and forceful entry, and I think we suck at it in the fire service. I want to get better. Let's say we're not terrible at leadouts and ladders and I wanted to get better at those two things because I spent a lot of my time on engines until I got through the squad. So I felt like I had to get better in it. And that book was really helpful for that. So that was one. That was Hoff and Rick Colame.

Corley: Calamay. Rich Stack: Yep. Corley: I might be mispronouncing it. I hope I didn't. Sorry, I didn't know. No, okay. Rich Stack: Bob Moss, Rick Colame. two other books I had to read for an assignment I was giving. When I worked for IFSI, that old timer Mac, he made me be on a committee to develop leadership for the fire service. And I was the firefighter ranking. the time my buddy Lou Lake was the officer or chief officer and we got a chance to go to Quantico to learn how do Marines teach leadership Oh wow. And when I was what's that? I said oh wow. I was yeah yeah. Our Mac was a retired chief officer of Oaklawn, Orland Park and Homer Glen He was like huge instrumental in the state of Illinois and it I just can't explain it. But he was a Marine. And our boss at the institute was a former Marine. The one before him was a former Marine Marine. So the directors. So they had the idea where the fire service in O was complaining that we lack leadership and they were gonna develop a program. So start this program, go to Quantico, go to the Basic school, expeditionary warfare school, command and general staff school. And there's an awesome story at the end if you want to hear about this restaurant event, which is phenomenal and changed my life

Corley: Please, please, please tell me the story. And everybody wants to hear it already. So just go straight into the story. No, no, no. This is so you can't go too long. Rich Stack: All right. So I want to get roasted at you. I'm excited. Okay. So point being is we go there and when we're there, we get a coin from each school. They gave us a copy of the U. S. Constitution. Like We went to learn how they teach leadership and when I got out of this, gonna sidebar her in the Marines or in the military You either move up or you move out. And there is an exit ramp. There is an off ramp. They don't have to accept shit. They don't have to accept subpar. We just had to accept it in our fire academy. And I'm sorry if I get in trouble for this tomorrow and I'm at the academy. Oh well We had to accept subpar. I'm sorry. When I came on, you had two chances to pass your firefighter two in emt and if you didn't get the F out. That don't happen today. You get a third time, then you maybe get a fourth time. I'm sorry, not everyone gets a trophy, not everyone gets a medal. Is that the person you want saving your family? All right, sorry. Digress. So we go there and we were given Warfighting and leading marines. It's a small paper pamphlet book. I read them both. And when I heard leading marines, and everyone's a rifleman It just equated to me, and I was never in the service, so I didn't I didn't have that honor, leading firefighters. Everyone's a rifleman, everyone's a firefighter. Like it just Resonated to me. And then when you're reading Warfare and they talk the fog of war, right? The the fog of smoke, right? Or the blindness of the smoke in the fire ground, or smoke on the fire ground. It just it made sense to me. And in that trip to Quantico, to be part of a team, I did not want to be a part of to help develop a program I want to know part of it got me to go to school and get my degree. I lucky I got out of high school. I was not a smart person per se wrestling luckily saved my life in high school and gave me direction.

Rich Stack: I needed direction. whatever. And I'm lucky I got out. Not that I'm an idiot, but it just wasn't for me. And My parents begged me to go, didn't go. Now I got daughters, right? They're both in college now. one at Michigan State, one at Marquette. A fifth year at Michigan State. Please be done next year, your sister. She had to do extra stuff, just damn COVID. needless to say, I want my kids to go to college. And I grew up in a neighborhood on the south side called Canaryville. My cousin Danny Brack is probably listening. Justin, they're from there. And when we grew up, I never heard the word college. I heard trade school military. That's it. The girls, beautician school, or like a secretary. Right. Right. It just It just didn't happen. So it wasn't a word in my vocabulary. It wasn't until my dad remarried. My stepma, my mother passed, I was real young. Me and my brother. My dad raised me and my brother himself for a couple years He's a great man. And my dad remarried my stepma is a wonderful lady. Have another brother, two sisters, but she went to college. You know, she Education was important. Not that it wasn't to my father, but different backgrounds. So as I get older, I realize this trip just made me realize to be an officer in the Marines, you have to be educated And I wasn't a lieutenant yet. And I thought, these kids are 18, 19 year olds. And they're thanking me for my service as I'm walking by being a fireman. Right? Like, are you shitting me? Right. Right. You're 19 years old putting your life online like what? And that trip got me to go to school to get my bachelor's and I didn't have an associate's even So me and my buddy Gary Cooney, I make Gary go with me. He probably hates me this day if he's listening. He probably is. And I still threaten we should do a master's, and I don't think he'll talk to me if I make him. But We went and got our bachelor's degree or did the bachelor's program like, well, you idiots, you have none of your gen eds because you didn't have an associate's degree. So then we had to backtrack to get our gen eds to get an associate's degree.

Rich Stack: So yes, I luckily graduated with a with a bachelor's. But this is how smart I am. And my wife slips on upstairs. We go to the graduation down in southern Illinois. I have no trades left. I have no time I can trade off for work because I I'm spent. Use up whatever the next class. Corley: Use it all. Use it all. Rich Stack: Right. And I don't want to go. My wife's like, you need to go. I'm like, I'm not going. I don't need to walk. I ain't walk for anyone else. Screw that. My mother parents want me to go. My wife's like, gotta do it for your parents. Like, I don't gotta do nothing. I get ignorant and stubborn, right? So Le used to say I'm gonna go, but I can't trade off work. So a buddy of mine stash owes me a day and he goes out work for I owe you today. I go I can't trade. Mo was the battalion chief like Mo tell him he goes you gotta go so I go into work in the morning punch in do all the paperwork whatever then stash comes in and covers and he's got a heavy accent he's from Croatia Tough dude, good dude. And he goes, and he I can't even mimic his action like you can't talk on the radio. He said, Why go, you can't talk in the radio. They'll know it's not me. You can't talk So the engineer was doing the radio communications. The battalion chief knew and I went. Yeah, I'll probably get fired tomorrow. ID is going to knock on my door. It was many years ago in front of a different department. So these are say we go to graduate, the program comes out, there's my name, Rich Stack. Next to it says Summa Calauti. And I'm like, Jill, what the hell does that mean? She's like, means you graduated honors, you idiot. So there you go. True story

Corley: I absolutely love it. We'll all be what? No, we're all gonna be at your termination party. We're it's gonna be great. It's gonna be awesome. Rich Stack: Yeah, be great. Tell my wife. Sorry, Jill. So back to Quantico, we get done with our day, change my life. We go to leave and we're going, we think we're going out the wrong exit, meaning that there's an exit and there's this restaurant called the Globe and Laurel, and it's Marine named Rick Spooner was the owner. He was a major I think he's a major and his son was awesome. And I apologize, Mr. Spooner. Gotta rest your soul if I said the wrong rank. His son was awesome. Rain was a major. And so We're there, they're like oh if you go by here, you gotta go to this restaurant. They got patches and challenge coins and all memorabilia and this guy's phenomenal and blah blah blah. All right, well they go, Oh, you're here, you're not, you're going out the wrong exit. Well, whatever we we we screw up when we go out the right exit And we go right past the restaurant like, holy shit, there it is. Let's stop. We go in and it's Lou Lake, myself, Brian Brower, and Roger Lunt and two of our bosses. And we go in, hey, we only have half the restaurant open, you know kind of crowded there's seats at the bar you want to sit at the bar I'm like yeah so we go to the bar sit and talk with the bartender we eat having a great time and There's some books. There's some cigars. I guess Mr. Spooner's cigar. He's the owner. So we heard about Mr. Spooner. And literally like oh he had a book. I bought the book I have yet to read the book. I bought two books because they were in Max possession and God rest Max soul. They're probably still his house somewhere. so they're like, well, Mr. Spooner's out back in the patio. Smoking a cigar and drinking his wine, his own blend of wine, his own cigar. So we go out back. We start talking with him. This guy was such a cool, interesting guy. And he was like, Why are you why are you here? Why are you firefighters here? What are you doing? We tell him he's like Like, no better place to learn than from the Marines than how we do it.

Rich Stack: They do, they show you how to make the bed. There's only one way to make the bed. There isn't 50 different fire academies, right? There isn't a thousand fire academies. There is one way the Marines do it through the whole state of US. If we can do that for the fire service and every fire academy taught the exact same thing the exact same way, then we'd be getting somewhere, brother. But we don't have that luxury. So that's what we do. And Mr. Spooner, we're telling him he pulls out of his three-piece suit, best coat pocket, his copy of the U. S. Constitution he was given when he first came in Marine. The constitution we got today. I mean, it was the coolest time experience and it changed my life and got me to go to school. And wow. Really got me be more invested in education. Because yeah, you said I have the papers, I have a degree. Piece of paper, never crawl the hallway, never put out a flare. You know, so it's you know, Bobby Hoff was one of the ones. His other guys, training should be 70% hands-on, maybe 30 Education, you know, hands-on still education, still training. You know, maybe it's 80-20. 80% hands-on, and maybe 20% of that classroom stuff. But you need to feel it, do it, and touch it

Corley: Mm. Brother, I love the fact that you you you brought it full circle back to that constitution that you got. And then you brought it back full circle to the beginning and the paper. I say he has the papers. Dude, absolutely. Everybody's like That's a timestamp. Timestamp that. There it is. There it is. Okay. This is the weekly scrap. And on the weekly scrap, we do a thing called the five questions for firefighters. The five questions for firefighters been around for a long time now. Actually, it's crazy how long it's been around. It blows my mind. But this is the the version 3. 2. It's the third iteration with a few modifications Over the history of the scrap. I ask you the questions. There is no right or wrong answer. It's just your opinions. And then I assign the points arbitrarily with the help of the audience So my first question for you is, Mr. Richard Stack, are you ready for the five questions for firefighters? Ready. All right, here we go. Number one, what is the skill that has carried you through your fire service career? Rich Stack: A skill. I guess I would say wearing all your stuff, doing it right all the time. Wearing your waistbelt, getting dressed with your gloves on, doing it the right way every time, all the time.

Corley: I'm writing. I'm writing. I'm gonna say A worst question ever and max points. But actually I love I love it. I really do. So I'm trying. I'm trying to bust your chops, but I'm not good at it. So and I'm a sensitive guy, so wearing your stuff, getting it right, the the little things, the little things, just getting it right No, I can't knock it. I can yeah, there it comes. Max points, max points, 100. I won't do that again. I'm sorry. I'm terrible at it. It's Job Town. It's Jobtown. It's Toptown. It's time. You're in route and responding. Think of the scene from backdraft. He's slapping that tape in there when McCaffrey's jumping on the rig. There's a song that's playing. But what song are you playing while you're in route and responding? Rich Stack: Man, there's so many. You could be like nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. I'm a huge fan of Steve Rivon. So the houses are rocking or crossfire. I like the vibe of Thunderstruck though as you're pulling up. Like I need that boom, boom. Like I even I mean there's some probably good food fighters and nickelbacks like I'm doing Thunderstruck ACDC Thunderstruck I like it It was cold in the middle of the night and the attack gone done. Yeah.

Corley: Oh wow Wow, wow, wow. Okay. Yeah, we'll get we'll get a we'll get a sing-along going here. There we go. Lfg max points. Sam said 100. And Sam's a huge fan of Stevie Ravon. It might be his favorite. So I love Stevie Rave. He said that. He threw up the rocker horns. I could see it Rich Stack: Caught up in the crossfire? Love it. Oh. Corley: Lala said max points from AC. Yeah, max points, ACDC, LFG, max points, throwing up there. Cody Belmont. No. easy, easy max points one and two. Number three, what is your favorite fire service tradition? Rich Stack: Tradition for fire service that we did. I mean, my favorite tradition in the fire service or what I miss is three-quarter boots and and long coats, but we can't go there. So, I mean, that's a tradition I love. Hello is red. I mean the hand pump, the hand bring the can. That's a good tradition. I guess I'd have to say going back to my time in the first I was Family and firehouse, like doing things together as a family and incorporating them. And I'll give you an example. It was a holiday and we worked. We did a brunch and everyone came to the firehouse. Grandparents, kids, everyone came to the firehouse and we fed them. We cooked out and it was awesome. We're getting away from that tradition and we don't care about each other as much and we need to.

Corley: No, dude, you I'm telling you, hey, I love the answer. Max points, firehouse and family, making them the one and the same and including the family family in the firehouse and we are getting away from it. We're getting away from including the community in the firehouse. But even more importantly, we're getting away from including the family in the firehouse. house and Rich is an excited guy but when you tap your when you're tap in your desk it sounds like a sledgehammer hitting your computer just so you know So I'm doing this? Rich Stack: Yeah. Well, that's my drink. Yeah, that's my that's my fidgetness. Thank you. Corley: No, no, no. You're good. You're good, but it's very loud for the listeners later. Sorry guys. I'm giving you a heads up. And again, I it actually emphasized your passion. So I hope you I hope the listeners appreciated it. But brother, I'm telling you right now, that's one that's near and dear to my heart. Man, we have to include our family in the fire service life, in the firehouse. I really love that. Easy max points. And of course, there's so many people throwing up rocker horns and max points. So love family time at the firehouse. There it is. There it is. Absolutely crushing it. Number four. This one is on the clock. You can see the clock. One minute to answer the following question. One minute. No, no honorable mentions, no fifth places. I mean you can if you can fit them in the minute, but you got one minute to you.

Rich Stack: I can't just rattle off names and then in the last time I can't just rattle off names in the last 10 seconds, give them four names. Corley: We'll see how people score it. We'll see how people score it. So 100%. Who are the four people you would put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service? Rich Stack: Real simple. My father, Pat Stack, Mac McCasslan, Bob Hoff, and Stuart Stone. Oh my father, because he's my biggest hero, mentor, and role model. I wouldn't be a fireman if it wasn't for him. I volunteered with my father. And if you want to volunteer a story of kicking me off the rig, it's a funny one Mac McCassin because he was the mentor to all of us and got us there. Mac's gone. Bob's probably off now, that guy I lean on and talk to for advice that I used to do to Mac And Stuart Stone was my first fire chief and I was a volunteer fire at my fireman. He was like John Wayne, mean, tough son of a bitch. And he kicked us in the ass and was all over and he was the best man I could have worked for as a young man. I needed that. And the coolest thing my father ever did for me when I started in the fire service He says, I'm a volunteer. And there were young guys around the department that worked and on other jobs. He said, you go learn from them. Like my father wanted me to learn from the best, even though I wanted to learn from my father, but my father. So Stuart Stone was that guy and he was scary and intimidating, but he made you better.

Corley: Easy, easy max points, especially when you throw a father. Everything personal, a great story, but I will tell you this: you just set the record for the fastest four ever at seven seconds. Rich Stack: I I want my second attack. Corley: Yeah, Sam Sam's talking to it. I don't know if the I don't know Sam, can they hear you or no? Okay, yeah, the people can't hear, but Sam's telling us in the headset that he actually hit the the button a little slow. So yeah. Now you said there was a story. Was it is there you said there's a story Rich Stack: Well my dad volunteering. So my father and I become my father's a volunteer fireman. We moved from the city to suburbs and become as a volunteer fireman I want to join. And you couldn't come on until you're 21. Well Downtown Glenown, everything happens in the town, right? It's a little small neighbor small town. Downtown's where it is, and everyone holding downtown and The wrestling team we'd stop up there and see my dad when he was working on Monday night drill night where there was drill night on Monday nights. We'd stop and see him. So I want to join. Turn 21. He's like, nope. You just turned 21. Go be stupid and ignorant. So I didn't come on at 21. Came on a couple years later. And I'm still living at home. Call comes in in the middle of my now, dad, you've heard this story a thousand times. I know you're listening. I still mean every word I'm saying here. So middle of the night house fire comes in call for house fire. Well I had a Ford Bronco the real Bronco, not the new ones, not the piece of crap Bronco 2. Real Ford Bronco lifted tinted windows, big Delahunt number three stickers in the window, the old man. And it was had a loud exhaust. Well I got the truck running. I'm dressed ready to go. I'm waking him up still We go flying about Mach 2 to the firehouse. He's sliding all over the leather seats. The truck's rocking and rolling. He's yelling at me to slow down. We get to the parking lot. And the way it worked for my volunteer world when I was a volunteer is First one there was the driver. He rolled the rig. We had a car there.

Rich Stack: We had a driver. My father and I had lockers right next to each other. He was number 42 and I was number 24. We had opposite opposite shields number. You can't see, so whatever. Opposite numbers on our shield. We're getting dressed together right next to each other. An officer shows up. Awesome. We got a driver. We got an officer. We got two back step people, right? Awesome. Unbeknownst to me, another firefighter came in the building, got dressed, and you couldn't see see him where his locker was, he gets in on the officer side. So my father and I go to get in. He gets in behind the engineer and I let him go first being the gentleman i am i am like he raised me he looks back so sorry because there he had four he wouldn't take more than four people puts his foot out pushes me closes the door out the rig goes to house where and i stand on the paper holding all my shit going are you kidding me And he pull out. This is a true story, mind you. They pull up, hold back the house, fully involved. My dad's on the nozzle putting out the fire. We're on the second engine out of the firehouse, and it's a house fire for a volunteer fire. Everyone shows up Up, you know, some of their cars, whatever. If it's nothing, you'll look you get one or two people. Everyone's showing up with a second engine out relaying water to the first engine. Never woke my father for another run again. True story. Wow. Yep.

Corley: I love it. I absolutely love it. Which takes us to the final question. Okay. It's the question that's been around. It's never changing. I don't plan to ever change it. It'll be on the scrap forever. As long as we do five questions. It is heavy fire. There is searchable space Would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES? Rich Stack: Oh, you already gave me an easy answer. You said first in. You didn't say first in on the Nile, so you said first in on VS. So first off, I want to be first in. So that just changes everything for me. if you had first in for both, up for debate. Now, first in, yes. First in on VS, yes. With the caveat, that engine better be digging doing a blitz attack or dropping two. Corley: to make that place as viable as I can free but i'm going b e s first in there you go there you go absolutely yeah, McGinn said I wish you could timestamp that whole story. absolutely, and that makes it five for five. Max point, easy max points, brother. Thank you for letting me try to bust your chop I absolutely love it. And that officially makes it five for five max points. Rich stack. That officially makes 254 scraps in the books. My brother, thank you for sharing your evening with

Rich Stack: us if someone wants to get a hold of you what's the best way to do thank you best you could always email me i'll give my personal not my work it's our And then my last name, Stack S-T-A-C-K, C-F D at Gmail. com. My cell, I'll throw my cell out there. I don't care. 773. 988-0259. I'll leave it to my personal stuff, not work. So those are probably the two best ways. Corley: Boom. There you go. You can you can contact Rich and pick his brain. Which takes us to housekeeping. Go to firehousevigilance. com, become a vigilante. This just in. You can now join the vigilante annually. So if you don't like monthly subscriptions, go sign up. coming up, we just scheduled this July 31st. We're having our next forum. It's been a while since we had a forum But forum number 15 is coming up. Our guest is Frank Lieb. He's going to come in there. It's the VIP guest on our next forum. It shall be July 31st. Go become a vigilante if you want to be a part. One of the cool parts about being a vigilante Is you get invited to the after party of the scrap, which is where we show up and bust the chops of the guest. Rich Stack said, bring it on. That was actually his quote. He said, bring it on. I'm ready for it. So that's happening here in about a few minutes. Sam's going to be posting the link for the after party, and we're going to bust Rich's chops. So that being said, he said, I'm from Chicago. You think I can't handle it handle? That's what he's that was a quote. Right. They're killing everyone every day here. We're good. There's massive shootings. We're fine. Everything's fine. keeping up on the scrap. Next week, Mr. well not next week. Next week is I'm actually going up to Richie's Stacks area, I'm gonna be up there for firemanship.

Rich Stack: Yep. Corley: You're gonna be at firemanship. Rich Stack: See you there. Corley: I'll be there with Drive Tradition training. We'll be up there. It'll be a good time, man. If you're gonna be at firemanship, please, please, please look us both up Look us both up, get pictures, hang out with us. But after that, Mr. Smoke Oklahoma, Brian Lloyd, he is coming on the scrap. And here's the thing: he's coming on the scrap on Monday. On Tuesday And I scheduled the scraps a long time in advance, okay? So I want everybody to understand this. But Dave McGrill, Chief Dave McGrill called me and said, hey, I'd like to do a scrap with my father And I'm like, what do you say to that? You know what I'm saying? But I but I would but I would yeah, that's exactly what you say. But I was booked for the rest of the year. So here's the deal: it's gonna be Brian Lloyd on Monday And then Tuesday, the day after, is gonna be Dave McGrill and his dad, who did I don't know how many years at the Denver Fire Department But you're talking about a hundred years of fire service. So it's the double header. I've never tried to do it before. It's back to back Monday, Tuesday. So that's coming up at the end of July. So I wanted to, this is the first time I'm announcing it. So I want everybody to know about it. And then there is something else coming up in August that's never happened on the scrap in five years. And I'm going to put out a teaser video probably after firemanship because I got too much on my plate. But all that being said. Enough jabbering from me. Everybody, thank Rich for being here and spending his time with us. Thank you, Rich.

Rich Stack: Thank you. It's truly my honor and pleasure. Thank you so much to everyone. Corley: Brother, you absolutely killed it. It was a it was a pleasure. And then I will say this audience, every week, you guys tune in. You ask the best question You send nice hard like straight down the pipe so that the guest can crush it. And I appreciate you. The scrap would not exist without you. You put up with our internet issues. Everything. You make the scrap magical. And I thank you for tuning in live each and every week. I love you all. Remember, mutts don't scrap. I hope the tones stay silent Unless it's burning. Everybody stay safe out there.