Weekly Scrap #350 - Curt Isakson, The Passion Rolls On!

Corley: Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance. It is weekly scrap number three five zero. My guest tonight is returning for his seventh appearance on the scrap, Chief Kurt Isaacson. He is currently the Deputy Chief Bay County Fire Rescue. He is a second generation firefighter who spent decades mastering the craft on the fire ground. He's a nationally renowned public speaker. Motivator, educator, who's lit up stages, FDIC, Firehouse Expo, and conferences across the country. He is the driving force behind county fire tactics. He hosts world-class conferences and events down on the Emerald Coast and over the years has brought thousands of firefighters together for elite training in tactics, leadership, and mental toughness. You know what you are getting tonight. Straight talking, passionate, and never one to hold back. Scrappers, I hope you are ready. I hope you're buckled in and ready. Because Chief Kurt Isaacson, welcome back for episode number 350. Welcome, my brother. Chief Ike: Thanks for having me on, brother. I'm excited. Um, I think this will be a little different in the past. You know, historically, I've been a tactics person as I um got you know a decade of experience As a battalion chief, I started talking to more about strategy and strategic thought processes. And I can tell you right now, my top thought process is Coaching, leadership, you know, and just and doing the best I can to give uh the organization I'm excited to work for the best I got.

Corley: That's awesome. And I've every uh every evolution of Chief Ike has been amazing to to witness and see what's what's unfolded. So I'll be excited to see what you lay out there tonight. Is there anything you want to add from the intro? Anything you want to add? Anything I left out Chief Ike: I mean there's a lot to cover. No, just you know what I mean. I'm just excited, proud. Um, I made sure I got plenty of shirts for FDIC that say Bay County Fire Rescue I'm just, you know, Bay County Fire Rescue is a little miniature, you know, Palm Beach County or Miami Dade with us, you know, having emergency management communications. We have firefighters that do surf rescue and they're part of the 3% multiplier, the FRS. You know, and for those who know what that means, that's a big deal. We're the only fire department that's um has surf rescue people that are considered firefighters that are in the 3% high risk multiplier in the entire north gulf coast. So we're doing stuff nobody else is doing in the 850 Corley: Very very cool. Very cool. I can't wait to hear all about it. So I will get to the sponsors. We will knock those out of the park. And then we will get to scrapping. And here we go If you're a firefighter, you already know the uniform industry is broken. It's one of the things I dislike the most when I had to go and order uniforms. Effing simple is here to solve your uniform problems by creating a custom online store just for your department where you get your uniform items delivered in one week or less. Need logo design, embroidery, or custom merch, they handle that too. Reach out to their team at support at fnsimple. com or call their team directly, 571-667-4675. With F Simple, it is fast and simple. Everything in the fire service gets tested. Training, instincts, equipment. That's why SnapTight delivers fire hose that performs no matter the challenge. Durability, packability, kink resistance, every line is tested before it leaves the factory. Because when you stretch a line, there's no room for guesswork. This April, they're bringing that same mindset to FDIC. Look for Team Snaptide on the show floor and around the city. They'll be there all week to talk hose, fire ground performance, and connecting with firefighters nationwide.

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Chief Ike: Um I'm just, you know, I'm passionate about being a part of a new organization. Um, you know, I'll tell you, uh, for those who don't know it, I'm 25 days away from May 8th. 2025. If you aren't familiar with it, that would be probably the worst day of my entire life. That was my meltdown day at the Ronald Reagan Airport. Thanks to Chief Billy Goldfetter. You know, he got people there to rescue me. I'll just be blunt with you. I had significant suicidal ideations that day. I was headed the IFF COE, which saved my life. There's no doubt about it. The IFFCOE was just instrumental in me being where I am today here in Panama City. Beach, but you know, that's 25 days until a year ago. And a lot's changed in a year. So um, you know, with that, I want to just like Dina's book Hope out of darkness. You know what I mean? And um what a phenomenal book. And you know, like you know, I have a lot of friends that are atheists, but I grew up in the church, and in my world, it doesn't make us better than anybody else God has a plan for me and I'm getting to see what it is right now and it's pretty awesome. You know, historically I've always been somebody that says I'm not a I'm not a leadership person. I don't teach leadership on tactics, strategy, you know, fire ground operations, but there's no doubt that Right now in the in the in the position I'm in, the job I'm in, my job is succession planning. My job is retention. Retention, retention, retention. And I'm almost put off now when I hear about people talking about recruitment because you want to ask what I am now, my push in the American Fire Service is going to be stop talking about recruitment and start talking about retention. Now obviously I know there's you know retiring, but um don't don't blame the younger folks. Don't blame you know, all these other things. Just look at what you need to do to not be use losing those folks that have two, three, four, five, six, seven years on a job to another department. And you know, absolutely sometimes, you know, those those people that your your department's a stepping stone. And I do respect, acknowledge and value those organizations that know that hey they're lucky to get a good person for two or three, four years.

Chief Ike: And there's nothing wrong with that. Our military survives off of one tour, you know, uh assignments. Right. If you will. But you know, and and this is probably in a book somewhere because I told people all the time, man, n none of us created any of this stuff. Um so I didn't come up with this but and I didn't copy it out of a book. But I have the four C's that I'm going by And I just literally just thought about them today, about being on um scrap tonight, and it's caring, coaching, culture, creativity. Um and and that's probably somewhere in a book that I read. I don't know, but um I can tell you moving forward for me I care about the folks at Bay County Fire Rescue. Like, um, and I want them to focus on a windshield, not the rearview mirror Um, you know, I I don't want to get into numbers, but I know we've had a lot of turnover here uh in the past, and I can't fix that. I can't change it. I would hope some of those that left maybe you know apply to come back But I know that I care about each individual. And when I when I started February 23rd, you know, I had a goal in my brain that I want to make it six months without one person leaving. You know, and I didn't share that till the command staff meeting today, but I want to make it six months where nobody leaves your organization, like whatever it is. Um, and so I focused on people, not metric. And, you know, when I mean that, obviously a command staff chief has to think about metrics, but I first and foremost want to think about people. Now when whenever that person leaves because somebody's gonna leave, I I'm gonna want to talk to them, exit interview, whatever you talk about, and and I'm gonna have to get the metrics on it did they leave for a 2472 for thirty thousand dollars more a year well those metrics tell me okay no problem we did what we can do organizationally But if they were leaving because we're not going to enough fires, I really can't do nothing about that because I don't want people's stuff burning down. But if they're leaving because we're not eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a firehouse, that's something I can culturally maybe create Within, you know, a little bit of training, you know, maybe less call load, you know.

Chief Ike: Um, so when I move forward, I'm thinking about people and metrics. You know, what can I control? People-wise, caring coaching them, trying to uh strengthen the culture and then and creativity, man. Like as a leader, what's what can I bring to the organization that they didn't have because um they already figured it out. I mean business. I'm I I don't want them hiring officers and upper staff from the outside. Um you know I don't know how long I'll be here, but I can tell you this, you know, I I don't ever want them to hire a deputy chief from the outside again. You know, I want them to promote somebody to deputy chief I don't want to be hiring assistant chiefs, battalion chiefs, captains from the outside. I want the lower uh individuals regardless of their age because they made a came on the job after 20-year stint in the military, but I want the younger ranking folks to have hope and vision that they can promote up through the uh ranks. So um Those are things where caring, coaching, and creativity uh come into place. So um, you know, for me Absolutely. I I've already been I've already worn bunker gear to numerous fires and incidents. So um, you know, my buddy JJ, I didn't even realize he could see the reflection in a mirror. I was just sending him a picture of some burglar bars behind glass at a building fire. And he's like, I can see your white helmet and your bunker gear. And I didn't even realize you could see the reflection. But absolutely, um, as a deputy chief, if I go to a fire, I'm gonna put my gear on. I'm gonna have my air pack on I'm probably not going to breathe there, but if there's an explosion or building collapse, all hands on deck. You know what I mean? Depth on the bench matters. Um, and you know, I can physically still do the job. Um, I can, you know, hopefully, even if I physically can't do it, maybe just my presence. Like Chief Hoff at the collapse in Chicago, you know, 16 years ago, just my presence in bunker gear makes somebody work just a little bit harder. Everybody gives a little bit more energy in digging for the brothers and sisters that may be trapped. But You know, uh tonight um a little less strategy, a little less tactics, but you know, those that are watching, you know, I just want you to think, man, there is hope out of darkness Um and I want you to think we we all have struggles.

Chief Ike: I I mean I know Corley you've had struggles. You and I talked about being a target. Um, you know, when when when yeah, I hate the word nobody because everybody is somebody. Um and then you read Dina's book, you know, people that commit suicide just felt like nobody would care. So I don't want to get deep in the weeds on that. But When you do become somebody because in your occupation there's a lot of spotlight on you. There's a microscope because you get a lot of likes or a lot of viewers on the scrap or whatever it is, you're absolutely now in the arena and there's everybody watching. I mean, why do people hate Tom Brady? Because he won seven Super Bowls. You know what I mean? Why does somebody you know, like compete have comp competition between who's better Ronaldo, you know, Ronaldo or or Messi because they're the two best, you know, footballers, soccer in our country, around the globe. So Um, you know, we're talking about that like, you know, it's one of those things that I can tell you absolutely um Part of my, you know, bad bad times, my depression was, you know, my days of being a younger firefighter And just getting to be Ike, not Chief Ike, not Lieutenant Ike, not Captain Ike, but just Ike, man, at the Penskola Fire Department, man, or rescue 31 with Lieutenant Greg Redding going to fires, man. back of engine four in a West High with Captain Matt Phillips. Like those were like just, you know, some awesome times because I I was nobody I was really the same person I am today. I just I wasn't speaking at FDIC, county fire tactics didn't exist. I didn't have rank. You know what I mean? I wasn't scrap. And um those were so much, man, they were the great times. I mean, just getting to go to jobs, man, and going to fires and, you know, afterwards coming back and staying up late, cleaning the nozzles, literally I I I truly cleaned the nozzle, man, because when I got on the job in Pensacola, we washed the nozzle. I don't remember what it was. We washed the ladders on Saturday, but we literally took the nozzles off the hose lines, put them in a bucket and washed them. I don't know if people do that anymore, but Um, you know, those are some awesome things.

Chief Ike: You know, my oldest son Trevor did I ask him to take one of my halligans and hooks to work because he's at a scambia for 96 hours and I just wanted to kind of clean it up and he sent me a picture while I was in a staff meeting today. Um because the halligan was a little kind of like the the corners like 45 off and should he cut it off i'm like no no man don't cut it off just i'll make it work for what i'm gonna use it for um and i was jealous like Dude, there's nothing better, man, than like just being at the Vice, you know what I mean, or the wire wheel and just cleaning the tools, especially this time of year. You know, nobody wants to do that in June, July, August, but in a wintertime when you have your bunker pants on and the apparatus floor and it feels good Or this time of year when it's you know the mid-70s, humidity's 40 or 50, man, being on an apparatus for cleaning tools is is critical. But um, you know, like in my position now, I I gotta think about You know, not my past life of, you know, what I did or didn't do at a Scambi or a Pensacola or Midway or Mary Esther or any of that. I gotta think about like what I'm gonna do now Right. And and what I'm gonna do now is not gonna be what I did before. I'm not gonna try to I I don't I don't want Bay County to be a Scambia County or Pensacola anywhere else. I want Bay County to be Bay County Fire Rescue And so with that, that was that last C, that creativity. So um I spend a lot of time. I try to, you know, I spend you know maybe half the day in the office the other half the day i want to be out and about i don't want to be locked to the walls of our fire headquarters because i'm listening to the radio i'm taking in the call load who's busy who's not um i'm i'm taking in the thought process of what what's unique about Bay County. Well one thing's unique is is that we have a massive influx. We had the Thunderbirds air show, kind of like the Blue Angels.

Chief Ike: We had the Thunderbird air shows this last weekend Um we have Gulf Coast jam that's gonna be happening here uh in a few weeks. We have this huge, massive Jeep rally because the Panama City Beach is there, is is huge. And Panama City Beach has three stations, but we surround it And then we have Panama City Fire Department. We're around it. So we have we have seven phenomenal fire departments all working together operationally. We come to a fire. So I really think it's it the creativity is going to be easy to to to do something and us be proud of what we have in the Bay County area. Not just us at Bay County Fire Rescue, but the entire fire departments working together because you know I I don't know this is a factual statement, but I've had a lot of people tell me Then on a busy weekend, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, when all the condos are sold out, it's a million population because you know there's roughly a hundred high-rises and then everything seems to be like triple deckers up to six stories And then obviously, you know, all the high rises. So that's some serious urban density in the area. So, you know, I I really think that not just us, but people that are watching As you build your organization, you know, what kind of creativity are you putting into your operation? Definitely you want to go to FDIC, you want to go to these fire conferences You want to be in the trade publications. You want to be on the internet seeing what people are doing. Take all the pros, all the cons of all that stuff, but then map it out how it's going to work for your organization your demographics your response model yeah your staffing yes absolutely man i had a fire yesterday And I got there first, uh, you know, and it was one of our more rural areas. Um, and it was awesome. I was at a rural station. I was at the kitchen table having a conversation. with them only two people are on duty tones bang out and they're like hey cheap that's us I don't have a clue man I'm institutionally ignorant here like I mean I gotta f I gotta listen to what everybody's telling me to do And we have, it's pretty cool in Bay County.

Chief Ike: We have these big TVs in every firehouse countywide. It's a status board with the weather apparatus checks. I mean it's pretty impressive information. It's on that board and they could show me it literally showed our location. It showed where it was, so I was able to kind of get a head start. Still got lost, but um I get there and it's just fully involved four-door sedans going. There's two propane tanks going. There's a big drum with gas. Well, you know, our Bay County Sheriff's Department phenomenal organization. He meets me right off the bat and he says, hey, we can't get them to cooperate with us what we got burning. But I mean I got the side of a single wire mobile home house That's added on, you know, and we we talk about trailers, mobile homes, manufacturing. They're a house. People live in that place, man. Three bedrooms, two baths. The vinyl side's fallen off the side. I can see, you know what I mean, the OSV, power meter box. Is burning and then a garage in front of it, the whole front's melting off. I can see bars behind the glass. So I'm like, either there's high something high value in there or there's people living in it. Right. Um and so You know, every rig coming in's pretty much got two people on every rig. But when I stop and the fires out, I look around, I'm like, we got people, man. It's the force multiplier. The men and women came there. They got their rigs parked, did whatever they did. I don't even know. I couldn't even tell you what company. I couldn't tell you the company numbers. Even though I'm the deputy chief, they know what they're doing. They got it done And like there's a decent number of firefighters all wearing bunker gear. They got air packs on, the fire's out, the fire's under control, and they got it done. You know, if you would have told if you gave me that fire scenario. Four months ago, told me the location, told me the staffing of the organization. I've been like, well, man, a mobile home's gonna be burned down, the garage is gonna be burned down, you're gonna have a 10-acre woods fire. It wasn't the case, man. the the the firefighters they got the they they they're aggressive man like they force multiplies individuals and i think that's what's so great about the fire service is absolutely I support and I believe in NFPA staffing whether it's 14 or 15 on a residential, 28 on a on a multifamily dwelling.

Chief Ike: So I do endorse proper staffing. But man, there's something about the American Fire Service, the global worldwide fire service, is we get it done. I go back to my previous slide. You know, I go back 24 years ago. Um, um, go back, you know, in 2004, my first year as a battalion chief, I was going to fires with were four other phenomenal individuals and myself. The five of us were We're we're doing some serious damage. I used to say, man, I hope the politicians don't know how good we are because we'll never get more noticeable And I'm reliving this life all over again. And it's just, it's impressive, man. So like I don't know how people in the fire service can be so negative Um, you know, absolutely we we the standard should be four on a rig, five on a target hazard, or six on a target hazard. But dude, man, you give a firefighter and a fire truck That's that's motivated, man. Get out of their way because they're gonna make it. They're gonna get it done. They're gonna they're gonna do it. It's just it's it's what people do. And they do it, they do it more so um when they're firefighters They just, you know, they get it done.

Corley: Absolutely always impressed when I hear as I travel and hear different response models and different uh staffing levels. And I'm constantly blown away by what gets accomplished by different different staffing models in that regard Are you ready for questions coming at you from the audience? Because they're stacking up already. Sounds great. All right, here we go. First one's coming at you from a guy we both know, Rob Fisher. He says, question. Chief, when you study some of the, he says, when you study some of the best coaches in sports, you see consistency in how they build culture, develop people, and prepare teams for high-stake moments. What parallels do you see between elite coaching and leading firefighters? And what should we be taking from that? Chief Ike: Well, I mean, one is, you know, um You got to buy into the organization. And, you know, by no means, you know, I'm not, you know, obviously I read a lot of leadership books. But I've never tried to be a leadership speaker. That's not been my thing. But Abershaft, Abercraft, the guy that wrote the book on the Yeah, yeah. I wrote that as I read that as soon as it came out. I actually read it and I listened to his his audio book, you know, twice. So I just do that to quantify. There's no doubt, man. I'm a John Maxwell fan. 21 Area Feudal. I've read every John Maxwell book that exists down to the little ones. So I do study leadership, but I don't I don't try, you know, I'm a Lou Holtz fan But um to answer you know uh Fisher's question is I think about our our current coach of the Florida Gators, man You know, a couple months ago he was in a swamp and he did something they say nobody's ever done before. He brought a live alligator onto the football field in a swamp in Gainesville, the Florida Gators. That's creativity, man. That's unique. You know, Coach Summerall, um, you know what I mean? Like he's coming in after they fired Dan Mullins $32 million a year. $26 million for you know Billy Napier leaving. So this guy's coming in and you know the fan base, if you want to, the alumni, whoever you want to call it, we're all paying the bills when we go to the football games We're over $50 million to buy out two coaches.

Chief Ike: So now you're coming in as a coach. And so I'd say the parallel is You know, Coach Gruden's amazing. You know what I mean? But he can't be a coach because he's got a lawsuit against the NFL. I know a freaking lot of people out there that know me all these years that I I'm like uh into a little bit more into coaching than I used to be. But I you know I look I watch John Gruden. What's John Gruden have passion, dude? I mean it got like they had him on a show the other day and they're like it was uh the Gators and he was like bam bam bam bam bam And the only player he didn't name was the guy that took his own life, that was imprisoned. And then they were questioning because he didn't mention his name. Hernandez, Corley. And at the end of the day, he didn't say it because even John Gruden's got to do what, man? He's got to be politically correct. Aaron Hernandez. You know what I'm talking about? Oh yeah. He was a tight end of the New England Patriots. Came out of Florida. Okay, so I just want to make sure I'm standing with. So they ripped John Gruden, Coach Gruden on the on social media, a big thing, because he didn't mention Aaron Hernandez as previous players at the Gators. And I'm not in no way questioning uh Coach John Gruden, but It's a political thing, man. So, you know, I'm answering Rob's question a roundabout way is I had a few friends text me this afternoon, numerous friends. Remember, you're not a civil service battalion chief anymore. You know what I mean? You're a staff chief, meaning like tonight be a little more politically correct. And, you know, I'm not sure I'm ever going to betray or fall to being 100% politically correct. I think some of us with age can be a little bit smarter. And it's not because, you know what I mean, we want to fall to that, but if if I don't work here, I can't help those people. So if I really care about them and I want to coach them And I want to use my creativity, then I gotta have a so have to have a longing lasting life as the deputy chief of Bay County.

Chief Ike: So I am answering Fisher's question by saying that I got to be like a coach that's going in that doesn't want a $32 million buyout. I don't want a $26 million buyout. I don't want to buy out like a buyout like the guy that's chasing teenagers around that was from LSU or Ole Miss and went to LSU. I'm not even gonna mention his name for satisfaction. Um you know what I'm saying? Like, so you know, in the coaching world, some of these coaches, if they really don't care They could do whatever and they're going to get their buyout as long as they don't break their contract, right? Sure, sure. So um, but I think if you look at somebody like Coach Summerall Then I what I see so far is I want to be Coach Summer. I want to go in with some creativity. I want to go in not looking for a buyout. The guy gave up doing his um uh Uh he gave up his wife his his anniversary. Like I don't know if he like so our our coach at Florida was supposed to go on his like I don't know twenty-fifth anniversary something. He didn't do it He's staying in Gainesville because of his job, his responsibility. The guy gets paid a crazy amount of money. I don't even know what his contract is So, um, you know, like absolutely I wanna I wanna, you know, we just lost Coach Lou Holtz here, I guess about a month ago. Um, you know Like, so yes, absolutely, you know, I follow coaches. I'm uh uh um you know Fisher's got me thinking about so much stuff. Tony Dungey, man. Like I read his book about his son that committed suicide. I am a huge Huge Tony Dungey fan. And so absolutely the way I'm leading now is a lot like coaches. You know, but um I I don't I don't want to be Nick Saban and maybe leave and then leave because I think the terms have changed. But maybe I still want to coach, you know what I mean? And I think the world of Nick Saban. So I think there are you know I'll leave it at this because I I think the answer would would take me two hours because I think Fisher's question is very, very, a very good question.

Chief Ike: Um is I think that being a coach, let's just say college football with NIL and now in the fire service with more and more fire departments doing 401ks instead of like an Oklahoma state pension. Corley: State pension, right. Chief Ike: And we talked about the pension like and I I've talked to some people recently about that and that for us in Florida I still have the ability to opt and go from my old traditional 3% multiplier pension and just take a lump sum So I have thought about that for the first time ever my current thing is is like, you know, retention, retention, retention. It truly is my priority here in Bay County. And knowing that I have People that I'm supposed to coach make them the best. And that best might be that they're with us three to five years and then they move on, you know, to the FDNY. Because I don't expect everybody to stay here. I just want to know what What do we need to do if they do want to stay living in Northwest Florida? You know, because I have two sons that are on the FDM wild list. Like Trevor loves I'm gonna he loves a scamia. Like, I mean, he loves going to work there. Like, if anything, I gotta tell him son you just can't live at the firehouse But his ultimate goal is the FDNY. Right. No matter what a scambia does, no matter what assignment they do, no matter how much money they put, no matter what the metrics are The metrics are irrelevant. There's nothing they could do. If FDNY calls and says, can you start tomorrow for $30,000 a year? He's going to take a pay cut and go to the FDNY. And so I do think that that's what leaders need to realize is that sometimes leaders like they take things personal and it shouldn't be personal. And I'm doing what I heard somebody say a long time ago And I've been friends with a lot of fire chiefs that have made some huge mistakes. Well, I didn't make this mistake. I'm gonna make mistakes. I didn't make this one. I wrote down a lot of stuff that I said chief should never do, forget where you came from, yada, yada, yada. And it's in my desk drawer. So I gotta see it. And a lot of chiefs didn't do that.

Chief Ike: And so a year on the job, two years on the job, they started making excuses for not getting out of headquarters. for driving by a firehouse and pulling in. They'll drop by a firehouse and stop it at Starbucks for 15 minutes. Why didn't you just pull in the firehouse? See that distance Is what creates divide. And if you're taking notes right now, write this shit down. Distance creates divide. And I didn't come up with that. That's been said for a long time. And one of my things on my notes as the deputy chief is I can't have distance Because that's going to divide. And my job is to not divide everybody. It's to bring everybody together. And I'm going to go back to my four C's from earlier is caring, coaching, culture, and creativity. And we do that Then we're doing what Coach John Gruden does or Tony Dungey or Lou Holtz or whoever. And absolutely, as long as you're doing it from the bottom of your heart, you should make everybody feel special. That's not being fake You can absolutely make everybody. I'm gonna tell you something, ma'am. Um, and I promise this is all on this thing, but we just had the anniversary um on March 16th of when the great Captain Bill Gusin his life. I'm gonna tell you something, man. Anyone listening that ever had Bill Gustin make them feel special, it was genuine.

Corley: Yeah. Chief Ike: That guy truly wanted to make you feel special. It was nothing fake. That guy wasn't trying to get promoted He wasn't trying to sell you anything. Like he was gonna retire as a captain of Aerial Two out of Liberty City. So you can be caring, compassionate, and creative with your leadership and it not be for a square root purpose. And I just want society as a whole, regardless of the fire services, so many times when somebody does good for somebody or somebody's caring, it's like, what do they want? Corley: Right. What's their ulterior motive? Chief Ike: Yeah, like they're a good person. And I'll just use an analogy, man. Brent Brooks is in charge of IROC, International Uh, High Rise Operations Conference. We have This November be the biggest best H rock we've ever had. And Brent Brooks, I don't think that guy's ever been looking for a handout or for anything. He came to every HROC. And it was like after whatever it was, seven or eight, I'm like, hey, dude, you come to all of these. He'd been a student registering. He just loves the job. And You know what? So, you know, I'm so excited at FDIC. I mean, I got over there, I'm getting I don't have Class A completely put together. I'm like having one put together because I absolutely want a picture with Brooksy on stage at FDIC because that's another Bill Gustin, man. That guy wants to make now he's from Canada. He wants to make everybody feel special. I mean, we did beat their team in the Olympics. I do have to tell him that remind him. But I still like him, love him, and Brooksy, Brent Brooks Is a guy I think like Bill Gustin that truly just loves the fire service, man. If people knew how much shit he didn't do for free, he does it and it's costing him money. He's paying money to go teach people, share, and love the job. And we still have so many people like that, man. It didn't die with Captain Gustin. There's so many people that are doing A lot of phenomenal stuff in a fire server. So um I don't know how long I went, but I hope I answered Fisher's question.

Corley: Oh dude, you you you you hit it from some angles I never even thought of. I love you, Chris I'll just borrow your fourth C, the creativity, because I think you hit angles that I wasn't even thinking about when he asked the question, and it wasn't your typical answer. So I think I think this new version, I don't want to say a new version, but this new direction of Chief Ike focusing on uh caring, coaching, culture, and creativity. is going to be an interesting journey to be a part of and to watch. So I absolutely love the answer. And uh from Gruden to the to the Florida references, you brought in a uh Even talk being even in the political, not not not political like left and right, but just the navigating the modern society with like the NIL and comparing it to the the modern fire services retention issue of people leaving and going elsewhere. It was, it was a, I think you took it uh as far I'm I'm excited, but I got more questions coming. Garrett Crotty says, Chief Ike, who are some of the best fire service leaders you know if you want to give names? He gave you it out. But more importantly, what are the tangible assets you see or have learned from them that makes them the best?

Chief Ike: Um, you know, I I I I think it's Bill Love to go to job, man. Like, um, you know, Bill Gusson was Corley: Yeah. Chief Ike: If if you saw the picture I posted in my office, the first picture was my office was Bill Gusson. Um But you know, like a lot of people have impacted my life. Um Mike Lombardo You know, it's crazy, but there's a lot of people watching here that probably don't even know who Mike Lombardo is. But Mike Lombardo was just like, he's the salt of the earth, man. Like he started in the 70s here at Tyndall Air Force Base Which is in my county, which is pretty cool to me. That is cool. I did not know he started there. Corley: Yeah. Chief Ike: No, I told everybody in Bay County, don't know who Mike Lombardo is, you gotta read him or I don't know, you might get a bad station assignment. He was a part of the first Bay County Rescue Squad here in the 70s. So that's just crazy for me how God's plan is. But You know, um, Mike Lombardo's a person, man, another guy that just like Bill Gustin, man, it was never about paying his bills or whatever, you know Him and his his phenomenal wife, Sandy, you know, they they they live their life off of their job as a nurse and working for the Buffalo Fire Department And there's still people like that, you know, um today. Um Chief Hoff, you know, retired from uh Chicago. Um so um, you know, the just like so many, you know, great people. You know, and if we talk about recent times, you know, my buddy, um, you know, anybody that follows me knows that Frank Lieb, he's the guy that got me into IFF C O E. Um, he's uh, you know, the head honcho for First Responder Center for Excellence. So Like, you know, whether I'm talking about 30 years ago, you know, 25 years ago, or today, man, there's so many great leaders um that were continuing. They're continuing to exist. And the fire service, I don't want to drop names because like, you know, like I I would just the list would go on and on and on. What I will tell you, you know, is like at the COBC, the the uh one of the speakers was helped with me and helped me with the first COBC chief Eddie Robinson is about to retire from Cherokee County.

Chief Ike: You know, just another great phenomenal leader that's going out on top. And and I want people to listen, man I right now think in my career, I'm seeing more people go out on a highlight and a positive light. than a negative light. And I want to say that because a year ago I think I had a diminuted vision because my own life was screwed up. Um and I did have friends that got screwed over. Um you know what I mean? Very good close friends But right now, man, I just a lot of Chief Scott Thompson, man, the colony Texans, the functional fire company. Uh, what a phenomenal, you know, leader, impact on the fire service. I reminded him of like 26 years ago or whatever, just because he's such a big man watching him on the second floor to Hampton Inn. And uh in Ham in Salk and them they used to have the get out of lab program because I started going in the 90s. It's like my 29th Or 30th consecutive FDIC. And imagine and whatever it was, 1999, 2000, 2001. It was before 9-11. I just remember getting the opportunity to be on the second floor. I want to say like a Monday night. after the first day of hands-on. I'd rode the bus back and somehow I just got told, hey man, come to the second floor to Hampton and sit in a corner, keep your mouth shut, which they knew I was gonna keep my mouth shut. That's why I got invited And Chief Salk had bought pizza for all of them and Scott Thompson was one of the instructors. And now he's, you know, he's about to retire, man. And like he's passing the torch to somebody else. Chief Betty Robinson's passion the torch. And, you know, I could name some other people, but Um, you know, I got a couple other friends that are fire chiefs that, you know, I mean, they've already got their their their date that they're leaving on their terms And, you know, that's that's something that I'm gonna do. You know, I hope I do at least, um, is like I think it's awesome when you close the door on your own, you go out on your own terms, and there is life after the fire service and you know I don't know if you went back and impossibly and scrapped 100 or 150.

Chief Ike: I probably said I didn't know um I can tell you that I'm excited about Bay County. And if I'm here a year or if I'm here 10 years, I'm going to give them everything I got. But when I walk out the door, I want no regrets. I want to know that I made an impact. It was a positive impact. pack and I gave them all the creativity I can because we if we're gonna if we're gonna have retention not just in my department you know but in the fire service as a whole We got to start marketing positivity. And that's going to be the people leaving. We need people that are leaving. Excuse me, Corley. We need them going out with you. Like you're at a retirement party. We know it's coming. You're excited, man. My buddy Dave Dubowski, you know, one of the best fire photographers in the American Fire Service. He was on the scrap. Do we got pictures on Firehouse magazine in the 80s? Follow him on Instagram. Dabowski uh on Instagram. But you know, I got to go uh spend a week in St. Louis and go to his retirement party with him and his um awesome wife Peg and his four sons. Um, you know, just a few years ago I was in Sonomish. uh county in Washington by Seattle uh for my buddy Rob Fisher's retirement. And so, you know, those are things that I was forced to do is, and now I do them is I do more of like writing down the positive. stuff. So I say it, I write it down, I look at it because I'm gonna make no bones about it. Man, I think I have a chemical imbalance that I will fight depression for the rest of my life. I just do. I don't take any antidepressants Um, you know, but it's part of it. My mom had it. Um, I don't need anybody to feel sorry for me, but what I have to do is get sunshine and I gotta write stuff down positive. I gotta listen to positive music Um for a few years, I would just ride around. I didn't listen to podcasts, I didn't listen to music, and my brain was like off in places it shouldn't have been. So now I just try to listen to positive music.

Chief Ike: Um Jessica will send me, you know, like a Joel Olsteen podcast I'm more so now than ever. I listen to those. So, you know, whether it's talking about the fire service, talking about your personal life, or it's talking about the future The more you can subject yourself to positive stuff, the better off you are. And um, I did write this note down. I wrote a little page of notes for tonight. Beautiful. Is we all got a past life Right? We all got a past life that's in our rearview mirror. And that's nothing new, man. Like just like our actor from Roadhouse. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, he's the first guy ever heard say it as an actor. Um, but we got our past life We got today's life, what we're doing today, you know what I mean? And then we got tomorrow's life. And so focus on more today where you are in that driver's seat. And what you see through the windshield and just check that rear view mirror when you're pulling up to a red light, man. Like that's the only time you need to look at a rear view mirror. So every once in a while just stop at a red light Make sure that pass is not haunting you and then focus on the sunshine coming through the front windshield mirror and or the front you know windshield and then what tomorrow's life's gonna be because um you know go back to Dina's book, Hope Out of Darkness it man you gotta find hope within your career of promotion hope within your your relationship and then just hope in and what you're doing or where you're going Because in in one part of Dina's book, it says that most people that commit suicide, they feel pretty confident that's within a 10-minute decision, right? Oh wow. So yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And I what I love about Dina's book is there's a lot of places where she tries to say like a lot of times people want to just put a spin on it but we don't have data we don't have the main you can't ask them right no and there's a yeah we're just Yeah. Absolutely. Um, you know, did they have the people that jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge? They could interview them.

Chief Ike: Yes, those people, but they're such a fraction. And um, and I do want to give a shout out, a shout-out to The search book. You know, I hope Corley, you see that when you do that, man, I share it. Like I when I travel the country, I tell everybody that like And I'm not even author in there, right? And I was invited by Corley, but Corley's got a job. He didn't meet the dun line. And I've told Corey I never once was upset. I don't need my article in there. There's so many other great articles. But There's one thing I do when I travel, man, is I talk about the 5,000, you know, grabs. And they weren't all they didn't all survive But the percentage is going up every day, man. When when my buddy, when my buddy, my buddy, my buddy, my buddy, man, and it's not because people know who he is, but Brian Brush is a phenomenal individual. Even if people didn't know who he was is when he called me like after his 90 days or so on his when he was doing his his project for his paper for his degree and it was 9. 8 and obviously I said 10 And now when I see his stuff like 11. 4 and 11. 8 and 12. 4, that with the with the great folks at Firefighter Rescue Survey, and I say that, I've said this probably in front of 5,000 students now is when I was coming up in the fire service, if I read a a chapter on search or an article on search, it was an individual's experience at one, two, or three or four grabs. My boys coming on a job can go to FDIC or anywhere and listen to a lecture. And if the instructor's smart enough, they're articulating information from 5,000. Locate, remove, resuscitate, rescues, if you will, of truly where they were. Because if somebody only had three grabs in their whole career and it was three kids and they're all in toy boxes What are they going to teach the class? Go look for the toy box.

Corley: Yeah. Chief Ike: You know, Trevor went through a fire in Escambia County. Here recently and in the end the individual was found in the garage. I've had over 50 civilian fire fatality experiences in my career. Not one person was ever in a garage But if somebody went to that and they had that fire and they had no other fire, and they had 15 years on a job and somebody told them to teach a class on search do you think f looking searching the garage is gonna come up in their class oh absolutely yes because it's their personal experience So I I, you know, I don't think people understand how awesome the fire service is right now, man. Like we're able to collaborate Not just here in the continental United States, but Hawaii, Alaska, the Caribbean, Canada, all over the world, we're able to put this information together, man. And now we got UL and FSRI. It's just, it really is a phenomenal time in a fire service for us, whether we're an instructor. Or we're a company officer to be able to articulate more factual information to the kitchen table or to the audience of 20 or 2,000 people. And that's just going to make a stronger fire service.

Corley: No, brother. That's no, and I love the the of course you said Brian Brush, of course, Brian Crush, as we affectionately call him. But every four hours, American Fire Service making a grab according to his 90 days. And I love that. I love that stat Chief Ike: Uh well I can tell you my wife would say he's in my top five crushes so like I just gotta go with what my wife says. Corley: I get it, I get it. But he absolutely is Brian the man crushed Uh no, a great answer. And you absolutely nailed it when you say this is the I'm sure that every firefighter going back every generation said this is the best time to be a firefighter. But the amount of data that is here, that is at your fingertips, is is unbelievable. Unbelievable. Chief Ike: Now I'm not going to say it's better than like when I look at my buddy Tim Clett's photos on Start Water on Instagram. Right I do want to wonder if I could like be get a Michael J. Fox vehicle and just go back in time. Um because I don't know, man. Pull up boots on a fire escape in a South Bronx or Harlem. Man, really wouldn't matter. Any borough. You know, the borough fire in New York City cities uh queens now but that's okay we'll we're gonna debate that another day but like there's no doubt that was an awesome time so you know I I do want to quantify this because this is more important to me than ever before because when you come into Bay County The sign says Bay County, the most beautiful beaches in the world. And they're beautiful. And I think Pensacola Beach is beautiful. I think Clearwater Beach is beautiful. I think Miami is beautiful. I think the Bahamas are beautiful I went to San Diego, man, and and and watch them train the Navy, you know, SEALs train over there. Um and so I've said this I think before on previous scraps and somebody else has said it before too, but Eleanor Roosevelt comparison is a thief of joy. And the older I get, man Like I don't mean to be rude to people, but I don't like it when I hear people comparing stuff. Like, you know, when I go to St. Louis, I'm going to St. Louis for St.

Chief Ike: Louis. I like St. Louis, man, baseball, you know When I go to Ohio, I think of working people in Ohio. You know what I mean? The people that did stuff to make this country great. And so uh so many times, man, when people traveled, you're traveling there to see what they have, not compare it to what you've been through to somewhere else. You know, so like I, you know, I think we're in a great time in a fire service. Um I don't want to say it's better than the other time But I definitely don't like when people say it sucks and these young people don't know whatever. It's it's a different time with more um more available information, and I think we're able to you know, capture more of the data to where we're truly not given an opinion. We're given more of a close to a factually as close to factual as we've ever been. Corley: Yeah. I could Chief Ike: So that was it. Corley: No, 100%. I love that. Next one's coming at you from True Texan 409. He wants to know, and then I know you're new at an organization, so you can be as uh as comfortable as you are answering this, but he says, Can you discuss the feeling of hiring into a new organization? as a supervisor or chief officer and creating a culture of development from within. How do you find that while at the same time being the outside guy who came in? So how is that transition? How's that feeling

Chief Ike: Um, it's uncomfortable. Um, and you know, like this is no secret to the to the phenomenal team that I get to work with. Um, I almost quit the twice the first two weeks. I get emotional about it because I'm glad I didn't Um I I was very stressed out. Like I'm still stressed out. Like, you know, like I have insecurities. Everybody has insecurities, man. Everybody, you know, people want to talk about so-and-so is arrogant. Well, they're probably not as arrogant as you think Yeah, they're trying to cover it up. So um I, you know, we we have like a four-digit number system here. And when I go to a fire, I'm so stressed out because You know, I can rattle off my head every company in Escambia County to include Pensacola, Navy Fire, DOD, Santa Rosa County Um, even Oklaosa County. I was the contract training officer for South Walton, Oklaosa Island, you know, Fort Walton, Mary S or over. I could rattle off every company in three counties And then I come over to this county and I know nothing. And um all my textbook knowledge, all my experience is irrelevant if I can't articulate or communicate on a radio. So it's very nerve-wracking. Um I don't understand the institutional history. So I don't want to try to ask them, tell them, request them to do something that's just not feasible. So I'm a learning curve. And I'll tell you, man, like, and they've heard me say this. I love when somebody Yeah, I'm gonna hit the ground running. Well, I'm right at about 60 days. I think I might be running next year after a year. You know what I mean? Right. Like I'm still walking right now. Like literally, I take a different way to work sometimes. I can't always because I don't want it to take me 90 minutes to get worked because of traffic, but I'm listening to the radio. I listen to the radio so much I get a headache from it You know, because, you know, we run EMS and I'm always thinking about our personnel that are living on an ambulance for so many hours. uh because you know what it's my job to to provide them you know um a safe place to work mentally you know physically yeah so um yeah I guess my answer would be is um I'm very handicapped And so I'm just trying to get rid of that handicap.

Chief Ike: And I'm not handicapped by two or three holes, man. I'm I'm handicapped by 18 holes times three, right? So I'm not hitting a hundred, I'm hitting about 120 or 130 on the golf course. Um And so, but but I'm I'm investing. I'm into it um and I'm gonna get there. But I would say to people, man, when you go into a new organization, like You know, you can have all the experience in the world, but if it's not from the organization you're going to, man, just slow your roll. Don't be trying to jog. Don't be trying to run Um, you know, I think I've I've done a lot more listening than I probably ever have in my whole life because I don't want to fail. You know what I'm saying? One shot at this. I got one shot to get this thing right, man. I'm not under contract. And and failing has nothing to do with, you know, getting fired or getting a pay raise. Failing is I I feel like I got a hope out of darkness. I feel like I got another chance of my career, another chance at life, another chance in the fire service. And right now I take this goal of retention. I take this goal of job satisfaction for our people very, very seriously. And, you know, so I I do a lot of a lot of thinking about it. And I think the only way that I'm gonna have the creativity is a lot of investment of just really just seeing what's going on. And what's going on is not just in a busy urban area. It's the rural areas. And people that have known me for 20, 30, or 40 years Would probably be surprised if if they knew how much time I'm spending the rural areas here. I love the beach, man. I got more flip-flops than anybody watching I would bet $10,000 I own more pairs of flip-flops than any other individual watching the scrap tonight. I'm wearing flip-flops like right now Um but when I'm at work, you know I mean it's not flip-flops. Do I want to go by to beat stations? Yeah, but uh yesterday that fire came in and I was at one of our rural stations because That's what I gotta digest. Like I know Panama City Beach, man. I grew up coming down here some, you know what I mean?

Chief Ike: I I know the area. I've come down here for different functions But I want to understand our response model, our time, distance travel, our staffing, so I can be creative to within our budget uh provide the best ideas, right? Because that's what it is. It's gonna be ideas. I still got to get input from those folks that have been here 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 uh years as we grow as an organization because um for anybody that doesn't know what we exist today is only 24 months old the consolidation of EMS like in 2013 it was under a hospital Okay. Um that the county got it. So it's only twenty twenty four that EMS emergency management Communications, uh the EOC, if you will, you know, hurricane type stuff for those that are from Florida, surf rescue, fire all came together under emergency services. So we're in the emphasis stage, man. We're still wearing diapers Um but those each departments are not wearing diapers. I mean they have their institutional history that still is relevant. It still matters. So I think it's just putting all that together. And I hope I answered the question Corley: No, no, it's a lot, lot, lot, a lot to digest there. And there's so many facets you could hit on. So I think you did well. I love this one from Derby City Fire Conference. Derby City wants to know Chief. What are your top three things that an organization can do to improve morale? And he says, besides responding to fires, this he had to take that off the table. So besides responding to fires, what can you do?

Chief Ike: Caring, coaching, and creativity. Right. I mean, I just go like, you know, that's you know, I mean, like, and if somebody finds it, man, send me an email if that's in a book, because I'd be surprised if I just came up with that. But I've been digging deep lately because, you know, historically I've come from places where You know what I mean? It was just different for me. Like, you know, um, so I I think that for morale, I I think everybody's got to care. And I and I'll just tell you, I'll share it with you I had a few weeks ago, I had a Teams meeting with the whole department, all three shifts, and I asked them, you know, for 60 to 90 days. I said for 60 to 90 days. For 60 to 90 days. I want collectively, everybody, 100% of our organization, that's hundreds of people. I want 100% of our organization, communications office, our EOC, our server, I want everybody to think positive for 60 to 90 days. If after 90 days You think it still sucks? You can hate me. But if we're gonna make this work, we need everybody together. We need that force power of energy. Everybody When you get up in the morning, you come to work, man, just be positive. Just like no negative. Just try it for 60 to 90 days. And if everybody cares, coaches, and is creative about how we think and what we do when we're at work, I think we can create a culture that's never existed in our organization. I didn't mean to make him cry. Sam's crying. I'm the only guy that can see Sam already. Right, right.

Corley: Well, Sam's emotional. Sam Sam gets Sam gets emotional when you start talking about organizational uh culture and morale. Chief Ike: Shout out to Sam for what he does behind the scenes. Corley: Sam is amazing, absolutely. And the scrap wouldn't happen without him. So without a doubt. But no, Chief, you absolutely crushed it in the and now how do you think the buy-in was from that team's meeting? Like in Because, you know, you're going to have people that roll their eyes and say, oh, here comes another chief. You know, that kind of thing. Chief Ike: I've been, I've been blown away, man. Awesome. Like It's motivated me. Like I can't quit on them now. I can't quit on them now. Like it and and and and I know, you know what I mean? I don't know each and every person's story, you know what I'm saying? Um what I do know is I have we have individuals that come to work man and they're not sitting in the lazy boy They're not cooking a grilled cheese in a kitchen firehouse. You know what I mean? They're living on a fire truck. They're working. They're providing service to our taxpayers, our citizens, our visitors. And so, man, like I owe it to them I I really do believe that the synergy, the the the power of just people smiling, man. Like it's it's motivating me. I know that uh it's putting a lot of weight on my shoulders. Um, you know what I mean? I don't want to disappoint them or let them down, but I I will say, man, and I hate the word apple Like I'm just surprised, dude. I'm just I'm blown away. I'm excited. Um and I hope, you know what I mean? I hope they're like that because I hope they believe that I truly care. Like I go back to the first seat, man. I care. I do I care. You know, like I I think anybody that knows me knows I wasn't applying for jobs. I wasn't looking. I wasn't looking to move away Um, you know what I mean? I I still like I'm I'm I'm standing, you know what I mean, I'm rental house here. But um right now if I wanted to drive home it'd take me an hour and twenty-four minutes to get to my house. Um So for me, this is a godsend, man.

Chief Ike: It's a God blessing. It's a place that's still on the 850. It's on the Gulf Coast. Like I I have friends down here, man. Like, you know what I mean? Obviously Panama City Beach, Panama City. Um, you know, back in the 90s, sometimes I'd come down here to take fire officer, you know, tests and inspector tests You could come down here because it was different back then. We didn't have clear vi clear vision or versing. I don't know. So we have these places you can go test now. But back then you had to drive down here to Gulf Coast Community College And to the Panama City had a training site. And so in the 90s, I would come down here to take some of my state tests. So this place is within my region. My three kids played soccer. in the normal high school schedule in Bay County against Arnold, Mosley. Corley: So all up in that, yeah, no. Chief Ike: So I mean technically in in a in a the world of uh high school sports this is my backyard yeah the kids got on a school bus from my high school my kids high school they rode a school bus down here in a week night They played a sport, they went back home. You know, so um that that is uh that ownership, I guess, is pretty important to me

Corley: I love this one coming at you from Josh Everett's. And he basically I'll paraphrase his because he has a question in there, but he's basically saying, Chief, don't sell yourself short. BCBC's been going on and and he's been attending it. Plus, I got to take uh commanding from the sidelines. That was an earlier version, man. And brother, I'm telling you, you've been teaching leadership for a while. And he said it. He said, don't discredit yourself, but I'm excited to see the future. And basically his the germ of his question is Hey, I'm going to say this to the audience first of all, which is CF Tactics has had a huge impact on the American Fire Service. It's been a mainstay for the last 10, I mean, I don't know when the first one was But for the last decade, it's been absolutely just making an impact on the American Fire Service. So I want to say that first of all. And so if CF Tactics has had an impact on you, if you've attended and it's changed the trajectory of your career, Drop a one, two, three in the chat. Just type one, two, three and send it because I think that that it's had a huge impact. I know it has on me and then personal lives. But the question I have is everybody's kind of wondering about the future of CFT. And I know you may not even know what's going to happen with it. everything but what what what do you know? Um what can you talk about? Yeah. I I don't leave it to you like that.

Chief Ike: I I I'll just say there'll be a fire conference within w walking distance of where I'm sitting right now. Corley: Okay. Chief Ike: That's Front Beach Road, uh Panama City Beach. Um so 2027 there will absolutely be CFT fire conference. is on Panama City Beach. It'll be um, you know, obviously in the off season when you know the hotels would rather have firefighters there, like hopefully so we can get like $99 a night for the firefighters. You know, there's no need to do one here in the height of the summer, man. This place is complete gridlock. The other night I was thinking about going to our fire station down on Thomas Drive And my location was 10 miles away, like on a straight roadway. Hour and 14 minutes to get 10 miles on Front Beach Road. So like you know what I mean? Like we don't want to do it in the height of the state. And you're not even in the height. Is is April kind of getting it? Oh no, no. We're like, oh yeah, we're like this was like at the spring break. Like this is near the end of spring break. Okay, okay. Oh, the summertime it'll be worse Okay. Um and I don't want distracting make them coming here, but we don't want to do a fire converse in a hotel room. I don't know what it costs, 400 bucks a night But in the wintertime, definitely, so 2027, there'll definitely be CFT County Fire Tanics conferences on Panama City Beach. slash Bay County, slash Thomas Drive, slash near Club La Vila. And what's crazy is over 30 years ago in the early 90s I used to come down here to Bay County to compete in a firematics competition on Thomas Drive in Bay County. There's actually, I don't know if midway through them out or not, but We had trophies where we had won first place numerous times uh down here. But yeah, but um, you know, anybody that's watching or whatever, will there still be conversations on Pennsylvania BCF? We just might take a year off or so Um, or there'll be less. You know what I mean? Maybe there'll be one big conference on Piscola Beach. But I think a lot of people have been coming for a long time. I I think a change of venues will be cool, man.

Chief Ike: Panama City Beach or Pier Park, which is right here in the Gulf Beautiful hotels. There's a mall. You can almost throw a baseball from a mall. Like, I mean, it's got every store. Costa Rica or you know uh Coast of sunglasses, um, Dillard's, like every store you could imagine that you would have like an outlet mall And literally we're a couple hundred yards from the Gulf. Um, massive movie theater. So there are things that we could do with the nightlife, if you will, or if somebody brought their spouse or their family that's within walking distance of the host hotel that we can't do on Pensacola Beach. But I want to make it crystal clear I will always love Pensacola Beach. I'm retiring in Hickory Shores. I'm retiring in Midway slash golf breeze. If I ever purchased, Jessica and I ever purchased, if I ever owned the condominium, it'd be on Pensacola. Pensacola Beach. Like I will always be in love with Pensacola Beach. But let's just call it business wise. Let's call it customer service-wise. Um, I think Corley and Amanda would enjoy coming to a conference on Panama City Beach and just seeing a different place and being able to walk to the array of entertainment that is within that area just for something different. Don't misread me. I love FDIC. It's my 29th year. I know exactly every business, every place in downtown Indy. If for some reason FDIC went to another city, I wouldn't be upset, right? Because it would just be a different city, um, a different place. Uh I love when Firehouse went to um Columbus, Ohio. I thought their downtown was cool or awesome So I just want to quantify that that once again I'm not comparison. It's just two different things. It's two different places, you know, as a whole. But your to answer your question, there's no doubt, I'm excited. You know what I mean? Sure. This is the organization I'm part of. And and I want my people that that that might want to come for one day, a half a day, two days of a five-day conference They live here and they're gonna get in free. I want them to just be able to come for a day or two and night because on rush hour traffic to get to Pensacola Beach could be three hours from down Oh shit, there's a timer on.

Corley: That's Sam. Sam's just getting ready for stuff. Chief Ike: He's stressing me out, dude. Corley: He's preparing. Okay. Josh, Josh, I hope that kind of answered your question and hit on some of what you were asking. I think it did. And brother, there was a lot of one, two, threes that just spammed the channel, just so you know. I want you'll have to go back and look at it on YouTube later. Chief Ike: And just for anybody that's following on CFT 100, um we were supposed to do a conference in May. We're still gonna have the same number for the CFT 100 for this year. We might offer one or two of them in the fall on Panama City Beach But we will fulfill our obligation for the CFT 100. Um, but right now, man, I got one top priority career-wise. Sure. And that's taking care of Bay County. So I had to push some things back. I had to cancel a bunch of contract speaking gigs. Um and um I would say in my career, if there's ever been a year where I was 100% fully in and committed. Um, you know, it's it's Bay County here moving forward. You know, do I have to be off some? Do I have things I'm gonna do? Yeah. But I would say 2027 will be my lowest year of travel speaking gigs conferences that I've done in my entire speaking career. Um like I I I almost have nothing booked for 2027. Um, and I've been deferring everything. I, you know, I I think I'll probably do four total at the max um speaking engagements for 2027 because I'm a staff chief, man. I gotta be at headquarters I gotta be out and about. We got a $14 million in fire trucks that we're building. You know, and if my boss needs me to to go check on those rigs Um, I I gotta be here, man. Like I I want to leave no no stone unturned to give 100% to the organization that I'm working with.

Corley: I love it. I love it. I'm trying to see which one I want to add. There's still a ton of questions. Um I like it. I like everything you're saying here. But I'm going to go back to Rob Rob Fisher kicked us off, so I'll come back to him. He said, Chief Ike, if personal leadership sets the ceiling for everything else, how should firefighters be working on it day to day? Chief Ike: Um well me first and foremost, I would say, you know, to the younger firefighter is um you know you know manage your filing cabinet you know like um you know you know it's easier to look back is Don't rush your career. You know, um, you know, I I I no, I don't hate to, I'm just going to. Like it is, like I'm proud to say, you know, I think about Bill Guston all the time. It's 42 years, Miami Dade, his time before that with um, you know, Wheaton and Chicago um is just manage your career because it's gonna be over, but don't let it define your whole life. You know what I'm saying? Like Um you know, it's easy to say have a balance, but you know, like like you know, be Rob Fisher. You know, Rob walked out on his terms Um he was able to, you know, go down there with his beautiful wife to Las Vegas and drink some wine, hang out the pool, hang out with the grandkids. Another job came about that, you know what I mean, he wasn't necessarily nobody, he didn't plan, and now he's you know, doing some emergency management stuff in Las Vegas. Like, you know, people that are watching, man, don't don't think that your current organization is everything and defines you. Absolutely be invested in it. Um May 8th, man. We're 25 years. May 8th, man. I thought life was over. I thought, man, like a scambia was like I was a dead man if I didn't have a scambia. And I still love a scambia. You know, a shout out to everybody watching a scambia Scambia County, like that's my family forever. You know what I mean? My oldest son works here full time. My youngest, you know, he'll be riding this summer. Um Scambia will always be a part of my family, but it you know what I mean?

Chief Ike: I can tell you now a year later it doesn't define. me right i'm saying i've learned a lot it does it is it a found part of my foundation absolutely um There's a lot of stuff I do in Bay County that I didn't do in Scambia County because I was wrong. You know what I mean? Like you'll learn from those mistakes. I used to wear diapers and shit in them. I don't do that anymore. I use toilet paper and I flush it down the toilet. Um I don't have to have anybody help me. Um, you know, so you're supposed to laugh at that, Corley. Corley: I would no, I it's one of my favorite iCisms. I steal it from you all the time. When people try to remind me of my past and hold you there, you know, I I steal that one all the time. It's one of my favorites, absolutely Chief Ike: You know, so um there's a lot of things, you know, uh as a whole, but you know, I would say like like life is not just your career. Life is life, you know. Um and I'm gonna go back to what I said earlier where you have a past life, you have today's life and we have tomorrow's life. Don't let your past life define today's life and definitely don't let today's life define, you know, tomorrow's life. So, you know, to answer Rob's question is is we're we're all growing all the time. Um, I don't have an answer to his question of like, you know, obviously it's great, man. Like I went to three firehouses yesterday They were outrunning calls and I could see the whiteboard was fresh from that day where they were doing like a Murph or something. You know what I mean? The squats, the runs Now these folks in Bay County are running their asses off. They're still trying to fit into PT. Do I wish every firefighter fit in PT and dieted properly And you know what I mean? Read Fire Engineering, Firehouse Magazine and watched the scrap. Like, I don't even know if five people from Bake County even know the scrap exists. But I don't care. They're still great employees. They love the job. They're providing service to our citizens. Um, you know what I mean? So the longer I get to do this job to more um I realize there's so many people that provide so much to this occupation that aren't buffs like we are.

Chief Ike: Right. Um you know, so you know, 20 years ago, if Rob asked that question, I would probably say, ah, you gotta go to FDIC. You gotta go to Firehouse Expo in Baltimore, you gotta go to Orlando Fire Conference, you gotta get you know seven magazines in the mail, and you know what I mean. I I would have my whole answer would have been different My answer today's man is just like have a balance, try to learn a little bit each day. I'll go I'm gonna throw it back at Rob. 10 pounds of pressure 100% of the time is gonna win the race. Um I hate to throw my son under the bus, um, but like uh Trevor, um, what's today, Tuesday Yes. I went home for the weekend. So Jessica, Trevor, and I uh went to Peg Legs on a boat Sunday, man. Like that was like That was uh a big thing. Um, you know what I mean? And then, you know what I mean, my buddy Dan Bender, who's watching, which don't worry, Dan. We're closing out early, Dan because he has to work in American Airlines tomorrow and I gotta go to work. But um Dan and Heather always give us like these gift cards from Peg Legs. Uh Peglex is probably my favorite place to go to by boat But we got back and and and Trevor was asking about working overtime yesterday. Well, he's already working today and tomorrow And Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday's gonna pack in the middle of the night, they're gonna leave. And uh him and uh Jake and uh Tim and some CFT guys are driving my truck up to FDIC. Nice. Well when he asked me about working overtime Monday, what do you think I told him since he was already working a 96, Corley? What would you tell your son? After a 96 No, right. Should he work? Should your son work Monday to make that 96 be a 120 to then pack your shit in a car?

Corley: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Chief Ike: Okay, that's what I told Trevor. Now he's a grown-ass man. Right, right, right. But if your son is respectful enough to ask you your opinion, even if he's 24, I'm like, son, no, no, no, no. He's like, you know, um, well, like, you know what I mean? Like, and I'm trying to come up with some bullshit of something I need him to do. Right, right. And this is exactly what Jeff said. He don't have nothing for you to do. He just don't want you working And that was the truth. No. Like, like I'm leaving. I was getting up at 4. 30 a. m. yesterday morning to drive down here to beat all the red lights, Eglin, or Herbert Air Force. And I'm like, I just want to come to work and know that my son's just chilling out of the house for a day, right? Corley: Because I Especially before a big road trip and especially as busy as a scambia can be, man, without a doubt Chief Ike: And he just got off a 96 or something. And so I share that story with the viewers. So this isn't about Corley and his son or me and my son. This is about you And I'm just telling you, man, like you like we all want to go to jobs, man. We all want to go to fires. But just let them happen when they're going to happen. Like, and I'm gonna go back with Bill Guston, man. Like when I first met Bill Guston 30 years ago, there's no doubt Bill Gustin wanted to go to every fire And I don't remember when it happened, but there was some time in my relationship with Bill Guston that was probably 15 years ago. And it was just You know, Bill and I and um you know he probably had some coke with a little bit of additive and he's like Kurt Man, I don't know. One day I just woke up And you know, if a fire is gonna happen, yeah, I would like to be at work. But I don't wish for fires. I don't want to go to a fire. I just want to be ready if a fire happens. And I don't want to say that's exactly how Captain Gustin said it But I can tell you, man, I remember him telling you because when he said shit, man, it was like the gospel to me.

Chief Ike: Right, right. Right. And but I didn't get it then. I didn't make sense, but I definitely get it now. And, you know, I'm still trying to answer Rob's question is like I want, I want firefighters that want to go to fires. Because they're gonna be better at their job. They're gonna be bet they're gonna be more in tune to the research from UL and FSRI on when to go, when not to go, survivability, the firefighter rescue survey. They're gonna be smartly aggressive But I will also want them to hear from me that they got to take care of themselves, man. You got to get sleep, man. Like last night I slept 10 hours. I had a long day at headquarters yesterday And and I and I told my boss when I came in this morning, I told her, I said, I feel a lot better today. I got 10 hours of sleep last night. You know, like I I high la yesterday I didn't drink any caffeine. Oh. Past 10 a. m. Truly didn't do that, man. I didn't. I didn't drink any caffeine after 10 a. m. yesterday. I drank a lot of water yesterday. A lot of water, a little bit of like Powerade and Gatorade. And I slept great last night Um, you know, tonight I'm hoping to go to bed by 1030, but I gotta get up at 5. 30. So tonight I'm only gonna get seven hours sleep, but I'm going to bed with no alcohol, real hydrated, and I I'm gonna I skipped today, man. I was I had a four-hour staff meeting. So at two o'clock I had a Dr. Pepper from Burger King as I was eating some double cheeseburgers headed to warehouse But um I I'm trying to live what doctors and people have been saying for a long time. Um so I'll leave it at that, man. I hope I answered, you know, I didn't really answer Rob's question, but uh you know i want to answer because i do want to try to give our younger folks you know some advice on how to do things and the really thing is this man just don't rush it um Don't try to be something overnight, man. You want to be Jerry Rice, you know what I mean? Just train year round. You know what I mean?

Chief Ike: Just don't go on vacation. And if you don't know who Jerry Rice is, then just get off the scrap right now It's beautiful. Beautiful. Corley: A lot of football references tonight, Chief. Chief Ike: Like I'm used to the I I was a little more into it than I ever led onto. My dad's from the south side of Chicago, South Shore. So I mean I grew up, man, like like the 85 Bears. Like I was, you know what I mean? Like I was a bear. If my dad had a football team, it was the Bears. So You know I mean I know a lot of shit about the 85 Bears. I actually what the only football game I really ever betted on was my buddy Jason Lombardo was the Bears. He was a Miami Dolphins fan. Um I watched a lot of Chicago Bulls uh basketball. Um You know, but I got so into the fire service. But I will tell you, so I answer this question, Rob, and Rob already knows this, but um, you know, when Trevor started going to UF six years ago Um, I was like, man, I'm gonna spend as much money for my kid to live in the games, so I'm gonna get into it. So I don't miss a Florida Gators bas football game. Now I I watch a lot of basketball So sports, man, sports is is, you know, because I don't take any antidepressants since I got back from the CLE. So sports is like my like break away from the fire service. But there's no doubt that the the the similarities, the analogies, the the comparisons um are there. But um you know, I I wish I could just lie to everybody and say I have a hobby, but I still don't really have a hobby. But if I had one, it's watching Gator.

Corley: sports okay okay and you are passionate about gator sports anybody that was at the district tap you know in that game what I think it was Marshall uh Marshall Boyd you had a yeah yeah yeah four big green ones for that one Uh but there was a lot of passion there. And I asked Trevor, I said, hey, are you I I thought you were a Florida fan. He goes, I am. He goes, I'm just not as I'm not as outwardly as my dad is. And I was like, okay, that's fair. Chief Ike: Well, because he didn't graduate high school at a one-point stick. GPA. I couldn't even get into a junior college. See, he graduated UF with a 4. 0 in biomedical engineering. So when you've already achieved Chief, stuff like that, you just walk around humble and just chilled out in quiet. See, I'm gonna buy carely trying to three kids. Corley: That's fair. That's very fair. All right, Chief, you've been on here enough, but I I did I did promise you that I would get you You to bed at a decent hour. So I'm going to start transitioning to wrapping up. And I'm going to ask you about book. And I know you're a passionate reader. We've talked about Maxwell. We've talked about Abershoff, but I want to ask you about books that you think firefighters should be reading. Especially with your new focus, I don't want to say focus, but your new bend towards leadership and these soft skills that used to not be what you talked about

Chief Ike: Um you know I I'll say this like um in this book I've I've probably mentioned before, but I think the functional fire company, but I think it it's it's um I think it's more important to me now, and and you know, anybody that knows knows Chief Scott Thompson is a big part of the CFT team. Um, you know what I mean, just a remarkable beneficial. Um, I was very happy. I drove back and forth like five hours a day driving in my car for COBC because I had to come to Bay County to work. And I was lucky enough to get to hang out a little bit with Chief Scott Thompson. But I would say the functional fire company is is so much much higher on my list right now with what I'm doing in Bay County. Um, you know, I think, you know, I think that's a big deal Um, I think you know this book, uh Dina's book is is like a big deal. Corley: So I think I'm gonna say the name just so people who listen later can hope out of darkness by Dina Ali. I just want to say it out loud. Go ahead

Chief Ike: Yeah, um, you know, um so I think that and and and I'm just gonna go back to a book I said before, man. I still think it's one of the best books out there is John Maxwell, the 21 Air Feeble Laws of Leadership. And and I don't just say that lightly, I say it in the context of like, and I don't want to be negative, but fire a lot of firefighters are not deep readers. And so the way John Maxwell wrote it in that book's 2016 27 years old now, um, is the way he breaks down the 21 things. I think it's easy for a firefighter to stand a collegiate student Not that they didn't go to college, but they just aren't into academics. Absolutely. No, he he he makes it firefighter friendly. He heard it. No, he does. Yeah. And if I did 20 scraps, I think I'm gonna probably continue to say the 20 One air feudal laws of leadership. And for those in a scambia, um, Chief Jim Sanders, man, the one of the first battalion one for a Scambia is the guy that gave me the book uh 26 years ago. Um So, you know, I would say when somebody hands you a book and they're giving you a book and they hand it to you and they say, read it, man, if you don't read, read that book So it's easy for somebody to say, hey Corey, can I borrow that book from you? Or hey Courtley, what book should I read? It's easy to go to a bookstore and buy a book. It's easy to borrow when somebody walks up to you Hands you a book and says, Hey, I'd like you to have this book. They're not loaning it to you, they're giving it to you. Well, that's what Chief Jim Sanders did. He gave me this book. I'll never forget, man. We're in this old strip mall It's before we even had a fire headquarters. We're gonna destroy. Yeah, we might have been off of damn 9th Avenue for those if anybody's watching our first office building. But I was the training captain First ever training captain for the newly formed Scambia County. And Chief Jim Sanders said, hey, Ike, man, I really think you'd like this book. I think you'd get something out of it Thank God they handed me that book, man.

Chief Ike: For 26 years I've been telling God the best leadership book in the world. And I wasn't even a big reader back then I mean hell I read Report from Engineer Company 84 82 four times. You know what I mean? 20,000 alarms, but I wasn't into reading leadership books. Um no absolutely. Um So I think that that's a powerful thing. So that I'm gonna leave it right there, man. Corley: No, it's beautiful because you've you've been very consistent with the 21 irrefutable laws, and I think it's Maxwell's gold standard Like I think uh unlocking the leadership potential in that one are probably my two favorite Maxwell books. Bar none, bar none, 21 irrefutable laws. Absolutely. And you've been very consistent on that because I think you've probably mentioned it on most of the scraps And and rightfully so. Uh so we have a thing we do. You've done it many times. It's a five questions for firefighters. I think you've done this version of the questions, but that doesn't matter because we'll see if any of your questions change. And they're allowed to Because you're allowed to change. So with that being said, are you ready for the five questions for firefighters? Version 5. 0, something you've answered before, but you're going to answer again. Yes. Let's do it. Number one, you can do anything in the world except be a firefighter. What would you choose to be?

Chief Ike: If I could pull it off a fire pilot. Corley: Yeah. Chief Ike: I love that. There's not, man, the Thunderbirds, the Blue Angels. Like man it it did I don't know if I was sitting on scrap before the only thing I ever wanted to be was a pilot. I mean I get like the only thing I ever wanted to be as a kid, other than that, was fly planes. Man, my mom worked at Apsock, and it didn't matter back then. It was a gunner ship out of Herlbert or it was a fighter plane, man. And one of one of one of my best chiefs I ever worked for. Very good friend. He wrote my first letter of recommendation for Bay County. Uh Chief Kenny Perkins is now a pilot. He's a pilot instructor. He's a fire chief for Scambia County. He's the longest standing fire chief in the history of Escambia County County. He was the fire chief for, I don't know, eight years at Fort Walton Beach, and now he's a pilot instructor. He's a pilot and I just get excited that he's doing what he all wanted to do forever, you know, and and and um you know he's in his upper 50s. He I hate to say that, but he is Uh I know how old he is because he's a few years older than me. And he's living his life, man. So I want to turn that into something. Chief Kenny Perkins, man, got hired in the Pensacola Fire Department in 1988. He roughly did about 11 years there in 99. He's the first deputy fire chief for the first newly formed Escambia County Fire Rescue, longest standing fire chief in Escambia County fire rescue went to Fort Wallm beach as a deputy chief then was a fire chief for a long time and now the guy's in his upper 50s getting his got his pilot's license a pilot instructor And he's gonna fly for the professional uh airlines. And I don't say that kissing his ass because he's not watching the show tonight, but he's a great example of man of like life's not over, man Man, hope out of darkness. You can have a career after a career after a career. You know, people in the military get in at 20, 21, 22, do 20 years, and at 42, 43, 44, they become a PA or a doctor or a realtor.

Corley: or whatever they you want to do so anybody's listening man that life's not over till you decide it's over in your own your own brain right on brother i love it max points out the gate fighter pilot plus Amazing story. So one for one, max points. Number two, it's job town. It's time. You're in route and responding. You got to think of the scene from backdraft where he slaps that tape into that cassette deck What song are you playing while in route? You get and and these are all on the Spotify playlist. So yours are already on there. You may have the most on there out of everybody, but I'm not sure. But you can add a new one if you want, or you can go with one of your classics. So it's up to you. Chief Ike: Well, I'm gonna just give it a different one because uh I've been listening to more of his music than ever before. And it doesn't even go with go into a fire. So like it you know, people won't even get it. My buddy Dan Bitter will, but Um, my mom coming home from Ozzy Osborne. Um, you know, and and and and that's probably just a diminuted twist because Like we're going to a fire and you know what, man, I'm gonna put this fire out, but I'm coming home and for him, you know, it's coming back to his wife, yada yada. But like, you know what I mean? I I've actually not thought thought about the scrap, but I've just thought about the parallels of life and music and you know a lot of people don't know but I listen to a lot of rock and roll at at too young of an age because my older brother Um and I was a huge Ozzy Osbourne as a young little kid, man. Black Sabbath, Dio, you know, Megadeth. But uh Ozzy Osbourne, man, mama, I'm coming home. I'm gonna put this fucking fire out. I'm gonna beat his ass, but I'm coming to the house when it's over.

Corley: I love it. I absolutely max points. The great thing about that playlist, uh I w I was actually picked up from the airport and going to teach Adam Melchair and there were songs playing and I recognized every song that was coming on, but they were all pretty much hits and they they it wasn't but then something popped up and I was like I said, is this the is this the scrap playlist? And he's like, yeah, it is. Because one of them popped up that just didn't quite fit with the others, but it was one of the scrap playlists. And so anyway, it'll be on there. And I think it fits great, brother. I absolutely love the answer. Max points. Two for two. Number three I don't know if you've had this one before, but I possible. We'll see. Cold weekend at the station. That's what cold weekend. I don't know if you have those in the 850, but it's a cold weekend at the station. Training is done, rig checks are done, you've done your PT. Everything's done. You're not being lazy, but it's a lazy day. And you're clicking through the channels on the TV. And that movie's there. And no matter where it's at in the movie, what you're you're going to finish watching it. What is that movie for you?

Chief Ike: I don't need no mustard on biscuits. I don't need no mustard on a biscuit. Corley: Okay. That enough for you? That's pretty good uh Billybob imitation. That really is. It really was, man. Oh Billy Bob. Chief Ike: Man, Billy Bob Thornton lately and let like watching him with um you know us losing one of the greatest actors of all time Uh I that's just what comes to brand my brain, man. And you know, he just he just he's you know and I don't even watch his show Landman or whatever. Right. I've never even watched it. All I've watched is the thing where he's talking about the fucking footprint of the the the turbines. We'll never pay the footprint the diesel and all the solar power and all that. That's all over Instagram. But man, that guy is just re just remarkable. Man. Corley: So No, it was a great image. I at first I was lost for a second, then I realized it what what it was and it it finally clicked that it was Sling Blade. So it took me a minute though. It really did. Not that but it was Yeah, I'm a little slow. I am a little slow. I'll I'll own that. So three for three.

Chief Ike: I'll just say this, man. For people that don't know, man, Billy Bob Thornton's IQ is fucking Einstein. Corley: Number four. This one's on the clock. Hence the reason for the clock. You get one minute to answer. You've had it before. You've put people on your Mount Rushmore, but you can put new people or you can go with what whatever you're feeling today. But you get to put four people on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service in one minute and go Chief Ike: Steve Booth, John Van Meter, Brian Hicks, Jeff Tappner. Corley: All right, you gotta give now that's that's 23 seconds or 33 23 seconds if I can do math. So phenomenal on the speed, but now you have to explain the four names because they're not I'm not I'm not connecting the dots. Chief Ike: So um I had less than 12 months on a job as the newly promoted battalion chief when I had engine 319 with um four people and we were going all the fires that everybody in Scambia now goes to on all these fire companies. was handled outside of the 45 hour work week at 74 Monday through Friday nights and weekends was basically Battalion 2 and Engine 319. And I had a fire at uh V Street and Fisher, a block away from my granddaddy lived like so like i like in pensacola i know the streets servantes north is strong de soto gonzalez bernard lloyd lee blunt marino mallory avery late And then the ones east and west are easy. They're A, B, C, D. They're alphabet streets. Right on, right. Like I knew every street, man. I had them all memorized. And so um this fire goes dispatched and I'm operating out of West Pensacola and it's volunteer firehouse, so there's nobody there. So I pull up on this job in the middle of the night by myself Um wood frame shotgun house, just like my granddaddy's house. I mean I can throw a baseball in here where my granddaddy lived that I've been going through my whole life. And my parents actually own the entire city block the next block up and my dad was a uh you know I hate the word slum lord but low income rentals my dad rented them so sure um so for me this was personal man like my aunts and uncles lived in all these neighborhoods and so Like, you know, I just started sharing this less than five years ago.

Chief Ike: But it scambi, man, all these neighborhoods, man, were my family. And so I took it very personal And I pull up and there's no cars outside and the place is blacked out. There's not really a lot of smoke. And so engine 319 pulls up and those four guys are on the rig. And uh, you know, like a long story short, man, I've told this to tens of thousands of people over the last 20-some years, is that was a game changer in my career. And how I operated that night And what I did, a lot of credit goes to Mike Lombardo and Chief Hoff and some old timers of like depth on the bench, your percentage of impact. So a lot of my articles come from my mentors and what they taught me is I didn't just do windshield command. I didn't sit at the back of my vehicle. I got out and I put all my shit on. And I was waiting for 319 to get there And so, you know, I'm like standing out front and I I could smell like, you know, the rubber. And a lady says, hey man, you know Her name wasn't Mrs. Smith, but I'm a Brunicini fan. You know, Mrs. Smith lives there. She's elderly. She's bedly. Right in the front door, the second room back, she lives in a hospital bed And so we got this report that somebody's trapped, right? You know, I've already had, I mean, so now I've already had a shitload of fire fatalities in my career. We're only about two years or so within when I had uh it was twenty-one civilian fire fatalities in like less than 18 months. Uh we're doing 595 Hero on the billboards. So my my brain is every fire I go to somebody's trapped. And so we're under an old radio system, 154430. We don't have 800 or megahertz radios or anything. And so 319 pulls up right in front of the house, chain link fence. They stretch the line up to the front door. Still no fire visible. There's zero fire visible. They stretch the lineup to the front door. And so these guys I ate dinner with them at night because I go to their firehouse. go back to my firehouse and I sleep in a damn closet basically my my office I could touch my keyboard when I was laying in bed that's how small the office was And um so I'll never forget, man, and he's still a very close personal friend of mine, uh Steve Boothie, he's a battalion chief.

Chief Ike: Um hella shit, he's working today. Um, but uh He um is at the front door and he was a corpsman in the Navy. And I gotta say that, man, because you're asking about leadership, man. You're asking about, you know People need to know their people, where they're from, how they were raised, what their thought process is. And I'm not saying the military military is everything, but our military, our military, it's okay to be proud to be an American Our military does a great job training young men and women that it's okay to take orders from other people, regardless of their color, their skin, whether they're male, female, regardless of their sexual orientation. Our our military, I think, just does a phenomenal job. And anytime I have a friend It tells me one of their kids is going to military. I get excited. Man, I was so excited when Dave Dabowski told me his son was going to the Air Force. My buddy Jake knows his son serving in the Navy. And I could just go on and on and on. And I don't want to get on a tangent. But nobody's ever going to go wrong serving our military. 18 years old at a high school or going in at 28. I don't care. But anyways, we're at the front porch. And I woke up to Lieutenant Booth and I checked my radio, man. I can remember it like it's yesterday. And back then we were like on we have our channel was called Rescue and it was called Civil Defense. So we were on channel two Civil Defense. It was a sign thing. Now we have what's called a scam via fire and we have tack channels. channels, right? Right. And that's a good thing. Everybody progresses. It doesn't make it bad back then. So it's good. And so he's there. And um Brian Hicks is on a nozzle. He's now the assistant pastor at First Baptist Church in Pensacola and moved to Alaska. And then Jeff Tavner is the door guy. And then John Van Meer is the pump operator. One of the best pump operators ended up being one of my lieutenants, one of my top lieutenants I ever was fortunate enough to work with. But I leave because there's nobody else coming. So I can't do like, I can't do back of the rig command.

Chief Ike: I can't look to a windshield. What am I doing like? Okay, I'm gonna like I could like I'm gonna do it here. I could literally name those four people's kids, right? Right. One's got a son One's got two daughters, you know what I mean? Another one's got two daughters. Like, I know their kids. Like, and you only talk about leadership. Let's go back to my four C's, caring. I give a shit about these people going home to their kids, right? And so I checked the radio and so now there's gonna be nobody outside and Van Meter's got the rig because there's no ladder company coming, so he's blocking the house and the pump panel, the rig's blocking the house, so he can't see the house. And I didn't think about this until afterwards, hindsight. Well I'm going down a D-delta side and I got my goofy ass four foot hook. I know Champo I should have had a six-foot, but I had a four-foot hook And I go down the D delta side and I get about halfway. I call it the 50-yard line. I mean it's halfway between the A-alpha and the C Charlie side of the house. And out of corner of my eye, I see a little flicker of fire Now the windows are intact. There's no smoke showing. You know what I mean? You can smell the smoke and it's coming things. And so I walk, you know, I don't know what I walk, five more feet, six more feet, and I see another flicker of fire Well, in my brain, my Rolodeck is doing 100 miles an hour, probably thinking about Chief Vincent Dunn's 1988, 1989 smoke explosion, backdraft videos, rollover, flash, whatever it was. All of a sudden my brain goes, holy. Shit. And and this, I wasn't thinking this this night, but this is what my brain was thinking, and I wasn't thinking it. The front doors open And I do remember when the front door opened, this black smoke was to the floor. Now this is 2004. This is for UL and FSRI. Sure, sure. So the house the fire was oxygen limited because it was eating all that plastic. You know it was a hundred-year-old house that had a hospital bed and it's eating all that plastic The smoke is to the floor pushing out. Well as I'm going down the deed outside of the house, that smoke is pressures like lowering.

Chief Ike: What's following my boys in? Corley: Yeah, that air's coming. Chief Ike: That oxygen's coming. Corley: That oxygen's coming. Chief Ike: I see that flicker of fire. Well, I have my radio hanging out and I don't do this whole, you know, green card, red card, purple card operation and then go uh V Street Command, the Division I uh coordinator, and then wait for him to reply. Uh I need the operations section to do a organized retreat. No, I did exactly what the fuck we should do today, tomorrow, next week, and next year. I grabbed the radio and said, get out, get out, get out I'm screaming. I'm not trying to sound good for the buffs listening to the fire scanner that aren't listening. I'm screaming, get out, get out, get out And I turn and I'm running down the D-Delta side of the house to the Alpha Delta corner. Thank God, Lieutenant Booth, who's cheap booth now It wasn't about, you know, hey, he don't know what he's doing. He's squirreling out. He just took a command. That was a Navy corpsman. He tells an Osman, we gotta go. We're going right now. And Osman, you know, probably thinks, and and at one time Brian Hicks is a personal friend of mine. He did admit. He's like, chief, man, I was like, what the hell is the problem, right? Because they don't have thermal assault yet. They can't feel the heat, right? They've they literally broke the threshold. They don't even know it's hot yet. And so thank God, man, I give all the credit to Chief Booth that night he just got out and I come to the front and they're coming out the front door, the whole place flashes Almost self-extinguishes to this day, I've told this story to tens of thousands, literally tens of thousands of firefighters is I don't ever remember us extinguishing a fire. Because I think it's almost like Stephen Solomon's fire off engine 16 in Atlanta where the mattress, but there was more than a mattress in there. But I think it just it burnt up the fire combustibles, the gases. I mean obviously they probably had to go there with something. But this is the truth on my life, my family's life. I don't remember after coming around and I just saw Brix, Steve Booth, Jeff Tavner, Van Meter's at the pump. Everybody's okay I'm like a young kid, 30 years old.

Chief Ike: I'm a newly promoted battalion chief, and I almost got some guys killed. And that's been with me my whole career knock on wood, right? Um and so that night, man, was a game changer for me studying fire behavior. Chief Clark's book, um, you know, like why I'm so indulged in and and and so saturated with the fire triangle, not just heat, not just fuel, not just oxygen. They all manner 33. 333333 and the point zero zero zero one is just a luck factor That's what it comes down to, man. Of like when they come when they come together, you know, we'd all like to take, you know, Dave Dotson or Bachman's class a thousand times, but a lot of times it's a guessing game, man. Man. But you know what? Guess on the side of safety, guess on the side of flowing water, firefighters are more likely to burn up than they are to drown inside of a burning building. So um my route Mount Rushmore is those four guys that night all coming together. to avert tragedy that would have changed my projectory more than November 25th, 2000, because I can't handle another November 25th, 2000.

Corley: That answered the question? Yeah, I think I think so. I think so, Chief. And then Max points four for four. Without a doubt. Final question. It's never changed. You've answered it six times. This will be your seventh time to hear it Heavy fire and searchable space, would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES? Nazil all day long. Chief Ike: There's plenty of people that want to go vent, enter and search. Man, like, you know what I mean? If if if I could do my career and go back to the 70s and 80s. I would want to be a little Tim Clett and be the best nozzle firefighter I could be. Man, like, you know, I just tell you a man like and trust me, like, like anybody that's known my career knows I've been on a shitload of roofs, man. I've pretended to be Santa Claus for a long time. Um, and I've cut a shit shitload of roofs man I've been on some pretty awesome vent jobs um and and I don't want to talk about I pulled out a lot of dead bodies man I've had skin on my gloves. I've had skin on my body. I've pulled a lot of people out. You know what I mean? But I I never pulled on anybody successfully. You know what I'm saying? Um, and that's why I'm so passionate about firefighter rescue survey. Um, that's why I'm so passionate about when smoke detectors fail, we cannot fail. And I'm passionate about smoke detectors, right? Um so um you know what let me have the nozzle I'll go put out the fire and then if I put out the fire we can break all the windows lift the smoke and you take care of getting them out but here's all I'm gonna ask you if you're gonna vent inner search Finish the job by providing BLS care and do compressions on their chest and resuscitate them. Because locating and removing don't mean shit. If you don't provide BLS care or advanced medical care and bring them back to life and get Rosk.

Corley: Right on. Boom EMT, baby. After 30 some years, if I can go get it, your ass can get it. That's awesome. That is awesome. And that officially makes it five for five, max points. Once again, as expected. I expect you to like if you don't get max points, I would be, I would be. Has anybody ever not got max points? Oh yeah, there's been. I I don't make a big deal out of it. I just don't announce max points points. It's just we kind of just move on. And if you if you know, you know. That's that kind of thing. But I don't say like, well, you just well sometimes I tell them they screwed the pooch, but it's very, very rare. But I will say this because I get my chops busted. I gotta say it through I get my chops busted quite a bit for always giving out max points. But the truth of the matter is this. Chief Ike: And I say this We have high caliber people on the very high caliber people come on the scrap. Corley: And so I expect them to get to have good answers. So it's actually surprised me when they don't So anyway, uh that's beautiful. You just put the bow on 350 episodes of the scrap. Chief, uh, I can't tell you. I talked to you while we was in Pensacola and I told you it to your face how how personally uh you've impacted my life. No, 100%. I can't wait. Uh, so thank you so much for coming on the scrap and sharing your evening with us, even with your new duties and everything like that. And look, it is 9. 46. We are wrapping up. We're gonna get you to work in the morning. So with all that being said, housekeeping, go to patreon. com slash the vigilantees. The vigilantes are amazing. The Discord is so, I mean, it is like all the good parts of social media without all the spam and out all the AI articles. It's amazing. It's just firefighters talking to firefighters. It's awesome. If you're not a part, you should be. Go sign up. Next week on Thursday night at Indianapolis. There is the Vigilante Get Together. It's the it's the fifth year in a row, I believe, the fourth year where it's going to be at And it's always the biggest get together of the vigilantes every year.

Corley: We're going to give out the awards. There's going to be toast. There will be creed that is shouted. And it will be all the like-minded souls getting together. So Thursday night, remember that. It's going to be the biggest one yet. Coming up now and listen everybody listening, you do not have to be a vigilante to go to it. You can come and see what we're all about. Have fun. Meet the like-minded souls because it's an amazing group of people. So all that being said, coming up next week on the scrap Special night, Monday night because of FDIC. I'm traveling on Tuesday to get up there. So it the scrap next week will be on Monday night. I try not to ever move it, but next week it is Monday night because of FDIC. It's the editor-in-chief of Firefighter Nation, Stephanie White, coming on to talk about FDIC. And then two weeks from today, it's stickers. Himself, Mr. Nozzletov, Michael Goldstein, the CAN Report. He is coming on. I'm excited. And that is enough jabbering from me. Thank you, audience. Every week you show up. You make the scrap magical. Without you and your awesome questions, the scrap would not exist. So thank you. I love you all. Chief. I can't ever tell you thank you enough for for spending your evening and coming on.

Chief Ike: And I, you know what, I'd love to go till midnight, man, but I mean I got to get up at 5. 30 and we're doing a hurricane drill through the Florida Emergency Operations Center at headquarters. So um I I gotta get eight hours sleep so I can be my best tomorrow at work. Corley: Hey we made a deal. We made a deal. You you you yeah absolutely I thought I said I'm gonna get you out of here by 10 and we're doing it. We're doing it. Chief Ike: And I'll stay on for the after thing I'm still gonna work on it. Corley: I was gonna tell I told everybody you weren't invited. You were not inviting you because you have a job to do. But no, no, I'm good. I'll send you an invite. Okay, I'll send you a little bit. I'll unwind at it. Okay, that's fair Everybody, thank you. Remember, mutts don't scrap. I hope the tone stays silent. Unless it is burning. This job will never be safe. So stay smart out there.