Weekly Scrap #241 - Mike Greco, bringing brutal honesty

Corley: Corley Moore, talking to you for a few short minutes while we're waiting for the scrap to begin. The scrap will be starting here in just a few minutes, and I'm gonna talk to you while everybody's logging in, I'm gonna talk to you about becoming a vigilante. If you are not a vigilante, why not? It is a collection of the coolest cats from across the world, firefighters from around the world getting together in a group and supporting each other. It's an amazing group to be a part of. Every Day people are posting their questions, their problems, their advice. It is powerful to belong to, one of the best collections of people, and you can be a part of it. We got stuff like the the swag. The swag is awesome. Don't get me wrong. The swag is awesome. That's not what it's about, but you got vigilante-only swag, like the custom bookmarks made by Taylor's Tins. For the vigilantes. You got stuff like the the blacked out vigilante hats and the vigilante shirts all available in the exclusive vigilante only shop, which All of that stuff is sold not I don't want to say at no markup, but like at the lowest possible price you can basically sell it for. And so And it's not even about the swag, although that's just that's just the awesome part of it. We do forums is some of the best, most gifted subject matter experts coming in and they have Conversations. It's like a scrap. Think of the scrap, but you're in it also in the call, able to ask and have conversations and talk. It's a it's an amazing time. We do I've got the fourth episode of the Fire Away Fire Away coming up this month. And in a fire away I go live and just field questions. People post questions, field questions, and we answer and discuss those questions from firefighters across the world. It's a good time. The fire away is the forums It's an amazing time. Not to mention, the every time there's a conference and vigilantes get together, we we have a vigilante meetup. We're we're forming we're in the process of forming traditions that are gonna that are gonna make and how those how those happen and what it means when you hate when you get like your vigilante coin, which is also another thing that's pretty Pretty freaking cool is the vigilante coin, the blackout coin.

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Corley: Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance. It is weekly scrap number 241, joined on this episode by the one and only Mike Greco. He is ladder one, chauffeur, city of Hackensack Fire Department for 14 years, chief of the Hasbro Heights Fire Department on the volunteer side. He has over 22 years in the fire service. He's an instructor for Eckert Fire Tactics. It is my absolute pleasure to have him on as the guest of weekly scrap number 241. Welcome to the Scrap, Chief Mike Greco. Mike Greco: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me, folks. Thank you. Corley: Brother, I'm super excited about this. Is there anything I missed? Anything you would like to add to the intro Mike Greco: I used to be in EMT also as well in Jersey City for for a few years. So that's that's kind of part of the whole Putter whole thing too. Correlates within the fire department. As much as I hate EMS with every fiber of my being, but it does correlate into the fire fire service, believe me Corley: And we're gonna we're gonna talk about it. We're gonna talk about it absolutely because I love that topic. Audience, audience, if you're chiming in, please get your questions primed and ready for Mike and myself. We are here. Sam is in the background. He is lurking. He is grabbing your questions. we're gonna have some fun. So let's get to the beautiful sponsors that make the scrap happen. The OG sponsor of the scrap, key hoes. Check them out online at Kehos. com. Follow them on Facebook. com. Firefighter safety and accountability starts with being able to quickly find and identify individual firefighters operating on the fireground. Identifier safety combines the best in photoluminescent materials for durable firefighter identification solutions that can glow for up to 20 hours with no switches or batteries, which means Being able to rapidly identify firefighters by name, unit, or assignment, even under hot fire conditions. All specifically designed and tested for the rigors of the job. Be seen on scene. com. And finally, if you love coffee like I do, check out Philo Dash Fuel. You can get your caffeine fix and support first. Responders needing mental health support. A portion of every sale goes to Nextrung, a nonprofit committed to decreasing the suicide rate amongst first responders. Go to phylofuel. com. That's f-i-lofuel. com and purchase yours today. And there we go.

Corley: Sponsors are in the books. Groundwork is done. We are ready to have a discussion. My brother, Mike Greco, are you ready for this? Mike Greco: Yes, sir. Whatever you got, brother. Corley: Let me catch you up on the chat because they say vigilante's checking in. Good evening, brothers, right here, ready for max points Monday. That comes from Preston Lions Saltiest firefighter said, this is going to be the event of the century. Corey Morin said, ready for this. Hit it off with the first time we met it, taking it to the streets. Awesome dude, passionate fireman. Let's go, Daniel. man, Daniel Kwarzinski. I hope I got it close, brother, on your name. Let's go. Finally made a live stream with my work schedule. Saltiest firefighter said, is that Jocko? He's coming at you, brother. Mike Greco: Oh, I know who that is. I know who it is. I like him. I know who that is. Corley: All right, sending it out. Alright, the iPhone boys are checking in. Thank you. Yeah, Ramrod checking in. Alright, so there we go. My brother Let's talk. Let's get right in your wheelhouse. Let's get right in your wheelhouse on the on the on the truck work.

Mike Greco: Truck work. Oh sure. Corley: We're going to fly us. Mike Greco: Let's go. Let's go. Corley: Currently a chauffeur on ladder one Have you always loved truck work? Is it something you fell into? Like talk to me about how that how yes just go. Mike Greco: I love being a fucking fireman. That's it since day one. I like going to fires there's a guy that did a podcast he's from Chicago. He said it best, I'll go to a fire in a fucking taxi cab if you need me to go to a fire in one. I don't really care so it doesn't matter, engine, truck, rescue, whatever it is. you know, I I happen to be on the ladder company, City of Hackazak. done mostly truck work my whole time as a volley. I was also on the engine company in the volleys too. So a little bit of everything, but mostly truck work, yeah. Yeah. I like truck work the best because it's definitely To me, more challenging mentally and physically. I like it. Corley: I love it, man. mentally. I've that that that's the part I I want to throw at people is like when they say truck work mentally. You know what I'm saying? Because the because the thing is knuckle dragging ma you know mongoes sure ripping down doors, tearing through walls But I do that too.

Mike Greco: That's that's me. That's 100% me. Yes. But there's gotta you gotta have a definitely have a mental, you know, there's gotta be a reason what the what the fuck you're doing for everything. Corley: Right on, right on, brother. Yeah You said you are big on being ready. What does being ready mean to you? Mike Greco: Being ready means from the second you walk through the fucking door, whether you're paid or volunteer. From the second you walk through the door, physically ready, mentally ready, when you get your gear on, every stitch of gear that you own is on and ready I'm talking about being ready. I'm not talking about getting out the rig, missing shit, losing your gloves, having a glove strap holder. I don't like glove strap holders. There's a lot of people that disagree with me on that I got two glove strap holders that are right here in my fucking hands. That's right where my gloves at. When you get out of the rig and you gotta make a fucking grab at three o'clock in the morning, I don't have time to be searching for gloves on my glove strap holder that's maybe at a bellcrown and all this other bullshit And just basically being ready, man, knowing your job, knowing your it, knowing your district, you know, ready to go. Not coming in fucking hungover or tired and this and that, being ready to go to fucking fires. And that goes for volunteer as well as as as paid No difference to me. Actually volunteer, you need to be a little in my opinion, a little bit more more ready to fucking go, to be honest. So that's a whole nother discussion altogether.

Corley: Ooh, I like it. I like it. We're gonna get to that in discussion, I hope. Yes Audience, if you have questions, as you think of your questions, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, everywhere you're watching, if you have questions, send them. I'm watching Instagram. Sam is watching YouTube. We're both watching Facebook. And if anybody's actually I don't want to sell anybody short, Mark Davidson, but if anybody's on LinkedIn, we'll we'll get your questions too. There we go by Yes, just checking in, making sure. Let me ask you this, because you are on a truck right now. And we'll get to the unique you your unique space you occupy between being a ladder truck chauffeur on one side and a chief on a volunteer department on the other side. I really want to talk about that. And the challenges of that. But I want to say on the truck side and and just just as a chauffeur of the truck, what's your favorite drill? What's your go-to drill? Mike Greco: Like if V V E S. V V E S. Yeah. V E S. Honestly, you know, the the job on the truck is really is to search and rescue people. That's the job of the fire service, really You know, we we we often talk about putting fires out, you know, the best way to put a fire out, GPMs out of a nozzle, X, Y, and Z Our core mission and my core mission especially on a on a at a company is search and rescue. So BES, vent, enter, search, rescue somebody, save somebody's life. That's my favorite drill. because that's that's that's what the fuck we're really there for. You know, building get burned to the ground, people have insurance. Somebody's two year old gets killed in the fire, they ain't coming back. So really I like to train on searching and rescuing west rescuing viable victims out of out of occupied structure fires. That's really what I like to go over. You know that and then from there on fast operations rescuing down firefighter and on and on on on and on with rescuing people is is really primarily that's the primary function of the truck and then you know truck or ladder company whatever you whatever you use And then from there on out, we'll move over to, you know, ventilation, portable adders, all that type of stuff.

Corley: Love it, brother. Absolutely love it. Mike Greco: B E S B yes was number one, yeah. Corley: D E S absolutely number one, just throw it together any any place you can like throw it together. Like it Yeah Anyway, because the challenge no i'm saying the challenges are like because again I want to get into this because it's a really unique place you occupy being being the chauffeur on Ladder Trick One And then also the chief of the volunteer fire department, you know, you get you get the the gamut of training facilities that you could use. I don't know what the ex actual facilities you have at your disposal at each place. One could be better than the other. But for a lot of us, it's just trying to figure out how do we get this done? How do we how do we get a drill in when we don't even have a facility, you know, or we're building it ourselves or, you know. Right. Mike Greco: Right. You know, look where I where I work, I'm lucky enough to have a training tower that's part of the firehouse. you know, so we we we have that. We can be yes the third floor, the training tower, second floor, whatever we want to do it almost gets done every single tour now. You know, as as as we're as we're checking the rig, the 35 comes off, gets thrown up. you know, and and it gets done. We go over VES pretty regularly where I work and we also on the volunteer side as well, same same. the volunteer side we we have to go over everything. you know, it's it's just you're doing everything. In the volunteers in the volunteer service, there is no more in my opinion, you're no longer a truckier or an engine guy in the volley service. You're you're doing everything And and you know that's why I I find the volunteer service to be more challenging than ever because you gotta be good at everything. It's just there's not enough guys anymore to to be Oh, I'm not I'm not a roof guy or I'm not, you know, th those days are fucking long on in my opinion. So work a little bit easier

Corley: No, and that's what I wanted to ask you, is talk to me about the similarities and the differences between the two because you with the foot in both work. Mike Greco: So the similarities are where I work. and where I'm a volunteer is the next the next town over from the city of Hackadak is where I'm the volunteer fire chief. So the similarities there are the building construction, the popul the the people that live around here. Stuff like that. A lot of the highway, the the traffic coming through here, all of that type of shit is a little similar. but obviously the volume is less call volume, less fire But you still have to be prepared because it's a very similar district. So you got a lot going on in a really small area. So I'm giving you about And about a six-mile area between Hackenzack and Hasbrook Heights, which is where I'm a fireman at, you have Route 46. These are the highways, Route 46, Route 80, Route 17, Route 4 You have a host of lightweight wood frame buildings, every type of building construction that you can think of. Planes, trains, and automobiles, literally. We have a a large private airport in our first two districts We have again shopping malls, strip malls, everything that you can think of is going on here. And there's a we have a lot of people here. And this is like the parking lot for New York City, we call it. it's just fucking it's unbelievable how many people live here now. Compared to like when I was a kid.

Corley: Right. Mike Greco: You know, Hasbro Hasbro Heights now is where I'm a volunteer. Now there is a ton of more people here now than when when I was a kid. You even notice it like I took my kids to the playground today, you notice it then. There's just fucking people everywhere. Just more people. And there's just people everywhere with more people equals more problems. More motor vehicle accidents, more car fires, more possible building fires. When you do have building fires, you better expect people trapped. There's just more people here than ever before. Love it. And and that that's that's the biggest thing and that's why every fire you go to and really anywhere in the country, any far you any fire that you go to, you should assume that somebody is is is trapped in the place I mean really. Yeah, you know, especially around here. You know, Hasbro Kite. We went out if we went out to report a fire right now in Hasbro Kites, I would assume somebody's trapped into in the building until the fire department proves otherwise. So we prove otherwise, not until somebody else tells me Corley: No, an important thing to say if the fire does drop, if a call does drop, we're going with Mike on the call. He's taking us with him. He said that.

Mike Greco: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're going. We're gonna go. We're gonna do the whole thing. We're gonna go through the whole thing Corley: Yeah right off I'm yelling out you Instagram Instagram get your questions in I'm watching and no one from Instagram that you watch you log in you watch you gotta send a question at Mike Send me a question to throw up Mike from Instagram. I got your first one coming at you. Are you ready from Facebook? This comes from Tony Nunes. Are you ready, Mike? Mike Greco: Yes, I'll take it. Corley: He says, I know you mentioned you like truck work better, but what got you into it first? Just the job in general, or was there some event that occurred? Mike Greco: actually multiple things. my father was a truck or a ladder ladder company guy his whole career So he was thirty-seven years on Hasbrochites ladder one. This picture right here, it's the rig right here, nineteen ninety C grave RA 110, if anybody knows what the fuck that is. But They're very they were popular, New York City style spec rig. And that's kind of how I got really started getting to the truck work. I I watched my father go to fires at a truck company when I was a kid. And I got to watch him cut holes or roof and fucking put the stick through windows and stuff like that and I wanted to be like my father and that's really how it started out. you know and I've said it before like you know that's it that's that's how I that's how I grew up. You know, I was lucky enough to grow up that way. So that's that's r that's really how it started and then you know I obviously I've been on the nozzle a number of times and has perkayte in the city of Hack and Zach and it's great but to me I find the nozzle to be it's it's a great time, don't get me wrong. Putting out a lot of fire is great. But I find the truck you really gotta use your brain and your body 100 percent like there is no you have to use every bit of brain power you got and muscle power you got to be successful at the job you know it's it's if you can't do it physically And you can't do it mentally, there's really no fucking point.

Mike Greco: You have to have both going on. I was taught that by somebody a long time. 100% mental, 100% physical on the truck. No, no fucking in-between Corley: Love it. Mike Greco: That's why I like it. It's a challenge. That's why I like it. Corley: I love it, brother. I love the answer. Thank you for a great question, Tony. Thank you for a great answer, Mike. Saltiest firefighter wants to know he coming from YouTube any tips about the dead man room? Mike Greco: The dead man room I've only to be honest with you we don't have much of them in my district. I've only encountered one out of actual building fire tips the dead man room, honestly, the the one that we caught, I was actually with my captain that's now, but this was several years ago. He was in a Six-story walk-up. Six-story walk-up ten end. We had a fire in the living room. We passed up the fire to make the to make the search of that room. There's the one window we cleared out. The biggest thing is to know where the fucking line is. No know that you got a line on the way. That that particular fire I engine company two was the first to engine it was a bread and butter fire. We popped the door, the fire was right in front of us. My captain had told the engine company officer You to come down the hallway, it's the first apartment on the right, fires to the left, bing, bang, boom. So the biggest thing is with that dead man room is if you're gonna search a room and get yourself into a bad fucking sticky spot where you can't get out I if you if you notice somebody trapped in there, obviously you're gonna make a move. We all are gonna make a move, I okay? But the biggest thing is knowing where that fucking line is Because now I'm entering that dead man room, I'm making that search, I'm getting caught up in fucking garbage and clothes and all sorts of crap is hitting my face piece and all that. But I know Engine Company 2, I know that they're coming with the line. I heard my captain tell him Now I now the biggest thing is when you're doing the search and I say this when I teach all the time when you're doing a search dead man room or not primary search shut the fuck up stop talking No talking.

Mike Greco: Slow your breathing down because we all know how loud the breathing is is is in the face piece, right? So if you're in a dead man room or any room, they're all fucking dangerous. They could call it dead man room whatever the fuck. You're in a fire, it's dangerous. Sorry. That is the way it is. So shut the fuck up and listen. Listen for noises like the classic noise of a line getting stretched. So I can hear in the back of my fucking ear, I hear the line coming down the fucking hallway I hear the motor from outside the the the outside the fire building getting revved up. I hear water cutting charging the line. I hear on the radio, engine two show for the two, which water's on the way. I'm listening. Listening, shutting the fuck up, not yelling, not Just keeping calm, trying to slow my breathing down. Every breath you take, you go deaf for a second. Remember that? So your face pieces on the biggest thing you could do is try to calm down and listen So you could be in that dead man's room, but if you turn around and you s you're looking down the barrel of the nozzle, well beautiful. I got water with me. We're good. You know, the other thing about that is if if it all depends on your department if you have enough guys for a canned man position. Well where I work We don't have enough guys for a can-man position. Some days we do, most days we don't. So if we we by us occupying multiple dwelling flyers like that, we'll bring a can, the Irons man will bring a can you know, to to protect yourself and support the search. Right. So but the biggest the biggest thing man is knowing how deep you are and if that line is on the way or not and knowing what the fuck you're doing. Being on the lotter company Any position on the truck company in my opinion, especially in this day and age, Ironsman with the search, the officer, the outside vet man, the can man, the chauffeur, should all be guys who have been to a few fires in their life, senior firefighters that know their way around an apartment Okay, if you have those kind of apartments and those kind of buildings in your district, you should be going out on building inspection and learning those layouts of those apartments Okay, you sh you should know, okay.

Mike Greco: Any any any any building construction that you got, you should be able to know. Okay, I'm gonna open a door, the door's gonna bang to the wall Off the wall, there's gonna be a bedroom on the right hand side. I'm gonna go down one more. There's gonna be a bathroom, there's gonna be another bedroom. Off to the left hand side is gonna be the kitchen. So you should know the layout of the apartments when you first do So when they're on fire, it's really not that big of a deal. You kind of have you kind of know what's going on. Especially your small you know, I don't know if you guys have them, we have them. We have senior senior housing complexes. Those are big too. There's typically studio apartments. The ones that we have, you open a door, hits the wall, you're walking straight, 10 feet. On the left or right hand side, there's going to be a bed. If it's the middle of the night and it's a fire, this bed's going to be occupied with a body. And you got you got to know, just duck in ten feet. But That goes with building familiarization and and building inspection and going to these places, getting in there at the if you have a an apartment with a dead man's room and you know you got a building with it You know, get the super. Hey bro, can I look at one of the vacant apartments? Can I just look at it really quick? Look at the shit. Map it out. So when you get there at four o'clock in the morning and it's lights out and you can't see anything, you kind of have a little bit of an idea.

Corley: You know, to help us out. Yeah. No, I want to come at you because it's coming in over and over and over and over. And I think it's regional. But definitely definition of a dead man room. Never heard that term. What is a dead man room? Hey, please explain what is the dead man room It's coming in over and over and over. So go ahead and give it your definition from up there where you're at the dead man. Mike Greco: The reason why people ask about it a lot is because they heard it the first time on a documentary called It's a Good Job, the FBNY, which was on HBO. That's the first time people heard it. And I know you I know you people listening to this know are smiling right now because you know I'm telling you the fucking truth When you when you read about it, it's railroad construction. It's a room into a room with no way out other than possibly a window on your left or right hand side So railroad construction, right? Meaning one room leading into another room. Okay, has anybody ever encountered that before? So but it's tight. Okay, so the one that I encountered was It was it was a room, but really it was like a large closet into almost another large closet with shit everywhere. There happened to be a futon that somebody was using as a bed And then it went into another little room where there was a TV that was all fucked up and everything else. There was just clothes and garbage everywhere. So it's really only one way in and one way out. And the the other thing the one way out is going back where you came or going out the window so you know that's that's the deal with that and that's why people find it so dangerous. again, you could be searching a living room of a regular house fire and it could be just as dangerous as all the The the conditions are gonna dictate what the fuck is going on, man. So a lot of people do get worried they hear they hear catchphrases they've never heard before. Dead man's room. All right, well yeah, I 10-4, dead man's room. It sounds fucking spooky It's all fucked up. You you gotta be you she gotta know every portion of this job from your regular beautiful house with flowers and all sorts of shit in the fucking driveway leading up to the front door to the shitty tenement building with a dead man's room and it's all dangerous when you were doing a primary search without water, which is that's a definition of a primary search.

Mike Greco: A real truck company primary search. No water on the fire yet. You're searching for fire and you're searching for victims. So really in my opinion everything's a fucking dead man's room. You gotta pay attention to what you're doing. And I have multiple searches that I've done in regular private dwelling houses that I have found completely fucked up real bad, you know, and in Ten Mint's as well. So it you know it is what it is. But that's a that word has been coming up I've noticed over the internet and Facebook, that man's room it's been coming up over and over and over again since that documentary came out. It's a good job. stories of the FD and Y. Steve Busemi, the actor, he had it he had a documentary come out. He was brought up in that documentary and since then it's been coming up over and over and over and over and over again And really yeah, it's it's it's really good clarification. It's railroad just just just think of railroad railroad construction. It's railroad construction, that's how I look at it. Any railroad construction is fucked up Any railroad construction is fucked up. And it doesn't matter what it doesn't matter if it's a frame, a tenement, whatever it is, it's fucked up.

Corley: Guaranteed. Coming at you from Instagram, Caleb McLaughlin wants to know Do you feel from a volunteer standpoint that the engineers should be throwing ladders? Let me get back to it. Throwing ladders to prepare for VES. How how actively involved are your engineers, your chauffeurs? As on the volunteer side he's asking. Mike Greco: Right. So the chauffeurs it depends on the situation, right? So I've I've been to a fire Where we had people trapped on the volunteer side and we were the first to engine. It depends on the situation, okay? Now on the volunteer side it's very fucking different If you have on a volunteer fire department, you roll up with an engine and it's just U3 or U4 or whatever and there's nobody else behind you On the volunteer side, pr I can pretty much speak for most of the country. You don't you don't have a stopwatch when that second dude truck's coming or the first two trucks coming. You don't fucking know. Other than some of these really good organized volunteer countywide s systems. You guys know who you are, but you don't know. So guess what? The chauffeur's gonna have to help the fuck out Because as far as I can see it, all he's gotta do is go take the pump, hit D, and pull the fucking lever. Cause help me get this ladder off the back of this engine and throw it up. I gotta pull this lady out the second floor window. And this is stuff that's actually happened to me before So the volunteer side, the engine tropher, he's doing every goddamn thing because you have no idea when that next new piece is coming. You have no clue And same thing with the fucking fire chief and everything else. You know, the volunteer end is a completely different animal. Now, paid end. First engine chauffeur, he's worried about hooking up to the hydrant, getting a getting a proper water, this, that, the other thing, but bop, because the truck is right behind you. It's coming. You know, you might have that odd ball time where he does have to help out, but Volunteer style, bro. Let me tell you something. Everybody's going to work. This day and age, everybody's going to fucking work. There is no more waiting lists for the volunteer fire department. Okay. Back in the day when my father first got on the on the volunteer fire department, there was a waiting list.

Mike Greco: You had to know somebody. To get on the volunteer fire department here. That's how it was. It ain't that way now. Ain't nobody, you know, we have people joining, but it ain't something like that. So you roll up to a dwelling in the middle of the night with people trapped. You fucking better. If you're the chauffeur, you better get the goddamn ladder off and get it up. Okay? Now, people not trapped. I'd rat much rather you'd be hooking up to a solid water supply and getting getting your shit together with getting water on the flyer. So I wouldn't I wouldn't set up for VES As an engine company right off the bat without indications of people trapped. Okay. So you know, legitimate indications of people trapped. Sure. Corley: Conditions dictate actions, especially with limited manpower. Mike Greco: Sure, and we're all limited manpower. There's about, I don't know, a dozen cities in America right now that are rolling around with heavy duty fucking manpower that they could stomp the fire out with the pro-warrantons, okay? There's only like a dozen of us. I'm dead serious. Every everybody all of every every fireman I talk to we don't have enough guys. We don't have enough guys. We don't have enough guy. Everyone I talk to from all over the country. Like on doing training, gone out to FDIC, go here, go there Everybody's got the same story. We don't have enough guys. Well guess what? We're gonna have to come up with some creative fucking shit to figure this out because you know we could complain all day long that all the you know we don't we don't have enough guys or not hiring guys where no you gotta adapt to the situation Whatever it may be. Coming at you, don't draw 35s by yourself.

Corley: Right? Yeah. No, no. Caleb, same guy. Caleb McLaughlin has another question. He said, also, do you think that the captain should stay on the ladder at the window with a tick? or search with the other firemen. Talk about window-based search. Obviously there's a, you know, we're going to go to the point where there's there's been a initiation of a window-based search. You like it? Mike Greco: It all depends on what what kind of what kind what kind of a crew are you working? Are you working like a four are you working a four firefighter crew where you could do an Irons Man and officer inside An outside a chauffeur and an outside vent, or are you just sending the whole company to that window? How's that and is it an engine or a truck? It's just an engine 'Cause it's a it's a it's it makes a difference. Right. That that it's a good question, but it makes a difference that information. Corley: Sure. And you can take it whatever direction you want while I wait for him to respond. He may or may not respond. So that's why he's whatever direction you want. Mike Greco: So so me, I I like I like the two-pronged approach where two guys are going inside because you might have somebody out the window that you know that you got a VES to make that grab, you know it You might be able to do with that one fireman. Okay? They gotta force that door and get in there. There might be two, three, four more people trapped in that fucking place that you have not seen from the outside yet. So I kind of like that two-pronged approach in the primary in the in that primary search going on You know, you might make that grab. I gotta tell you the fires that I've been to where people have been rescued, there's been more than one. It's not typically one. So you make that one grab out the window There might be somebody else coming another find might be dragging another body to that window to hand to you. Okay, so I kind of like the two-pronged approach to doing a primary search in that aspect. You know, not everybody all huddled up at one spot. I kinda like to see everything that's going on. You know, floor above the fire, all that stuff.

Mike Greco: It all depends on what you're riding on, volunteer pay Stuff like that. Corley: And he followed up. Mike Greco: Paid the party floor bob's a big thing. Corley: He did say, Caleb said, engine company with four guys showing up. That's what he said Mike Greco: Right, right, right. Edge of company four guys showing up. I would start two guys rolling through the front door with that line, searching off if you think you got people trapped and you're a volunteer fire department Two guys are going through that front door like the hammers of hell with a line, putting fire out, searching as you go. You have no choice. Other two guys outside doing what you got to do a guy can hold the camera up to the to the window. That's all well and good. You get a good rip-roaring job of people trapped. There ain't gonna be no time for that bullshit. I promise you that, cuz. Promise you, if there's somebody hanging out at that window, then I'm speaking from experience, I'm not telling you what I think, I'm telling you what I've what I've done. You're gonna go up that portable ladder, you're gonna remove that victim out that ladder. That whole thing is gonna happen in about 10 seconds It's not gonna happen. You're not gonna have all this time to get a to get a a a piece of you know technology that might or might not work and then scan it into a window and all this bullshit you're gonna have to take the window out, pull the fucking air conditioner, toss it over your shoulder or push it in, and get the lady up and over the sill and down the ladder. And then get her down the ladder And then go back up the ladder, blow out the rest of the window and and get a peek in there to see what the fuck is going on. If I have somebody else in the bed, jump into the window. And that's where we talk about VES, right? Jump into the window. There's the bed you came out of. Is there anybody else in there You know, you can barely fucking see. Let me blow a couple of windows out there. They have water on the fire now. So that's the other thing. So now we're talking about VES. He's saying all four guys go to that window, right?

Mike Greco: Well, if I'm going up into there to make rescues, I've I've already confirmed one rescue. It's called venting for life, right? So some people don't believe in ventilation or windows. I don't understand why. At that point, I already rescued one person. We're jumping in the fucking window now. I'm taking every window out Because the best search technique in the whole world is being able to see. Let me tell you something, being able to see. So we could talk about putting our foot on the wall and the hook and all of this bullshit and that's great. And I and I believe in all of it. Trust me, it's an art form The best technique I got is being able to fucking see what I'm doing. So windows are coming out. Windows are coming out means water's got to be applied to the fire. We're going to have a pretty big problem, right? So that answers the question right there Guys are coming in through that window to be yes. Well, I gotta have water on the fire. It's gotta be happening. Okay. Water on the water on the fire makes everything better, believe me Corley: And Caleb gave you a premature max points because he loves it. He said that. Max points, love it. Okay, more questions coming at you. All over the place. Corey Morin from YouTube wants to know ask Mike about the relation between cutting roofs and getting to bad baptisms on time.

Mike Greco: The baptism. Oh yeah. Yeah man. I just worried I'm always worried when I get the first thing. We had a reported house on fire over here, Lawrence Avenue in Hasbrookites. You know, people know people from around here know where Lawrence Avenue is. We had a reported house fire. I was on a ladder company. I was like a lieutenant or some shit. So I had on a full suit. my daughter was being baptized. Okay, she was a you know she was a baby, you know, so the whole family was coming over, we're getting ready to do this thing. We have, you know, everything's booked, everybody's getting dressed up and Before the house fire comes out. Well guess what? I'm not a house fire. I'm very sorry, but the baptism we I'll make the baptism, I swear to God, you know, really. So we get to this house We had it was a peak roof that came down to a flat. I was talking about this on the other on the other podcast. It was it was a pretty large house And we had fire in the attic and it was running down the peak into the flat area section. So at the time it's like a hundred fucking degrees outside and guess what we got to work a flyer in this house start a line to the attic and we we are absolutely cutting the roof off of this house it's happened no choice in the fucking matter so zip zip zip zip zip we cut the peak Pull it, we've got fire coming out the roof. There's embers falling down below and every time we cut and anybody who's cut a roof before knows when you're cutting and you keep on pulling plywood and there's still fire and it's still burnt up shit And we're just cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and we're wearing our fucking saws. It's 100 degrees outside. I'm wearing a suit, bro. Nice fucking thing. I'm not a suit wearing type of guy. I don't know if you can tell. But You know, nice suit every 10 minutes I'm on a radio, you know, ladder one, whatever it was to command. What time is it? What time is it? What time is it? What time? I asked this guy what time it was, like 20 fucking times. He's ready to kill me Because I had to get off this roof.

Mike Greco: I'm like, I I want to get a good piece of this roof done. You know, so we we fucking took the roof off of this house. Let me tell you something. Completely necessary But we removed this roof, put the fire out. I had just enough time to get off the roof and get into a radio car, a police car. And they gave me a ride back to the firehouse. I got back home Got to the church, did the baptism. I had carbon monoxide poisoning. There's a photo of me and the family. I'm holding my daughter. My whole face is beat red from the smoke. And it was it was it was great. It was a wonderful day. It worked out perfectly But that's the thing of the you know, volunteer fire service. You don't know when the fire's gonna come in, Paul. You have no you don't you don't know when it's gonna come in. But that what happened to me on Lawrence Avenue in the spring, my daughter's baptism. So from now on, the rest of her life, we'll be able to talk about her baptism and what happened right before that. Which was her father going to a working house fire and cutting the roof off of somebody's fucking house and it went out. It was a good time. I don't regret it. Great time. Absolutely. Good question for it. Yeah. Good memory. Good memory, yeah. Oh, I re I remember ever listen, I remember Anything to do with the fire service bro from the point that I was four years old buffing with my father up until now, I got it right here. No problem. No problem. Riggs, all of it

Corley: Yeah. Paul Shees coming at you. What's your favorite seat on the truck slash position? Backseat or officer and why? Mike Greco: Every seat on the truck is the best seat in the house. Doesn't matter what it is. Chauffeur, officer, OB, can, irons, and again, it goes back to that physical and mental aspect. You have to be 100%, 100% of the time, physically and mentally. Doesn't matter who you are. Everybody's working on the truck. Unless you're part of a big city, big, big city, that the office doesn't work and even they have to work Everybody has to be on their fucking game, especially low man power. You have no choice. And it is really cool to go to a fire and have to make split-second decisions And at the same time you're working really, really, really hard because there's only one of you. Okay. There's only there's only but you might come from a city where there's only one truck or two trucks and you got a lot of work to do So that's why I think every it doesn't matter where you're riding on a ladder company. I think it's a great job. And really in my opinion, it doesn't matter where you're riding altogether in the fire service altogether. The whole fucking thing is awesome. Otherwise we wouldn't be in it, right So engine company, truck company, rescue company, whatever it is. I think every seat is amazing because I love the job. I love the job. It doesn't matter what it is. I'll do anything. I love it all.

Corley: I love your answer. I love the answer. I love the enthusiasm. I love the passion. Mike Greco: Stephen McCaffrey Bull himself Stephen McCaffrey the fuck out of here backdrop fighting 17. We get that shit by me, Stephen McCaffrey. Go ahead. Corley: Go ahead. All right, 100%. He's coming at you. How are folks picked to be on the truck in your system? Mike Greco: Harold due to due to senior number one due to seniority number two due to education and how your your style of tactics and if it if you have the you know proper education wherewithal to do the job, you know, and especially truck that's both the volunteer end and and a career end here some guys don't like heights. Well, you can't be on a truck. Some guys aren't physically able to put up a portable ladder by themselves. W you know, we we run limited manpower, volunteer and paid. You know, throwing up a 35 foot ladder by yourself is exp It's not it's not a that's not something that might happen that's going to happen. So if you're a person that says well I I can't do a 35 foot ladder by myself that's made for 35 is made for three firemen Well, the truck company probably might not be the best place for you. You know, it's and and really the engine where we come from is just as challenging. Just as challenging. You know, we have very especially nowadays with the lightweight with frames, very, very long stretches. minimal manpower, you know, all of it is hard now. It's not just the truck. You know, I I I I like truck truck work, so I always talk it up But the engines are getting their ac the engines are getting their ass kicked right now, where where I work, they're getting their asses kicked with the runs because these buildings Suck. You're talking about extremely long stretches in lightweight wood frame buildings that are popping up all over the place and that's all over the country. That's not that's not specific to us. So it's it's it's flipping a little bit right now.

Corley: Love it. Kevin Cowan, Mike, talk about the no bullshit. Just fires group me page. Mike Greco: Follow the rules. No bullshit just fires. Follow the rules. You answered your own question, cuz. No bullshit just fires. Follow the rules. Working structural fires. Post Corley: Self-explanatory. I don't understand. Black Hat behavior wants to know what's the most challenging thing you found with the motivation for volunteer houses And he put it in parentheses or career with people not wanting to get out and train. How have you overcome that and how long did your solution last? Mike Greco: So what I did with that was I'll talk about the volunteer end because I could because that was the one where I had the most experience in as of the last couple of years The motivation to train, a lot of it comes from working structural fires. So you'll go to a fire and somebody will have that come to Jesus moment that something did not go right and they want to train. Also, the level of enthusiasm of the boss, not the fireman, okay? The boss. So if you're the incident commander, so so if I'm the incident commander, a regular fucking bullshit fire alarm and I talk about this all the time. You have to have that level of enthusiasm. Stop treating every run like it's bullshit. Okay. Roll up, okay, we're rolling up to a three-story frame activated fire alarm blah blah blah roll up oh shit we got smoke showing as well smoke showing for food on the stove okay temp four two engines start a line so hook hook up to the hydrant at so and so corner start a line to the front door That's training right there in the street. Right there. So when you do that repetitively on runs, that's training. And the guys or girls, whatever They get more in tune to the training and they want to do it more often because they're doing it in the street and they're doing it in real time. They're not doing it at a setup 7 o'clo 7 p. m. come to the firehouse and we're gonna do some training tonight When you roll up to a bullshit run and you tell somebody to start a line or throw a ladder or whatever when they're not expecting it, that will entice them to train. Okay, because now oh wow, this guy expects us to stretch lines.

Mike Greco: Let's train our stretching lines because we know we're gonna do it whether it's bullshit or not. So you have to have that level of enthusiasm at the the boss level. You know, you can't Right now a lot of people rely on the probies to have that level of enthusiasm and I did because the way I was brought up, but you don't really see that that much anymore. Corley: Right. Mike Greco: So you you you don't that they're not The guys coming into the fire service and I'm not taking anything away from them. The guy's coming in right now, that 18, 19 year old level. You got to put that enthusiasm into her, man. You have to, okay So if you have that love for the job, show them that you have the fucking love for the job. Show them, bro. Be be the fucking 39-year-old fireman that's going to a bullshit fire alarm at the same place we go to every single night saying Start a line at the front door right now. Start a line. And then help them pack them fucking shit up too. Help them pack the line up too. Don't be a dick about it. Okay? That's show them that you still have that level of enthusiasm after 20 years doing the stupid shit Then they'll have that level of enthusiasm. You have to teach them. It's not gonna come naturally to everybody. Some people like myself came naturally because I loved the shift since I was four years old. Guys that are coming in that have no experience, no nothing towards it, it's a little difficult for them. So you gotta bring them up into it

Corley: I love it, man. No, it's absolutely a timestamp. and I want to ask you this, Mike, because it's coming. I love this question. And you could you you're basically touching on it. It right now. So it's almost repetitive. But Black Hat Behavior wants to know on the note of enthusiasm from the boss: how do you support a boss that doesn't have that enthusiasm without challenging their authority as a backseat? Mike Greco: You're gonna have you're gonna have to challenge our authority in a polite, respectable manner. Okay, and and listen, I've had that problem before. I believe we have had that problem before and you challenge their authority by saying, Hey Cap, do you think that we should start a line over here? Hey Cap, you want me to bring this? Hey Cap, you want me to pop this door? Hey Cap, should I check the elevators? Cap, hey cap, hey cap, hey cap, hey cap, hey cap You do that shit to the point that they can't handle it anymore. Just hey cap them or hey lieutenant or whatever they are. Do it. Keep on asking them questions Prompt them to do the right thing. Because at some point they're gonna have to do the right thing, I promise you that. So, hey Cap, if we had a fire in here, what line do you want? I don't know, I we don't we carry Tamilows where we're from where we're from. We carry long lines off the rear of our rigs. But wherever you're from, you go to regular fire alarm, hey, what kind of line would you want to walk? Where would the first line and make it out to be that it's their fucking idea Hey Cap, where do you want me to stretch if we have a fire here? What do you want? Hey, if we got a car fire, you want me to stretch the fog line or the smooth bore? Are we going to foam right away? Prompt them. Prompt them. Because you're gonna prompt them and then at 3 o'clock the shit's gonna pop off and then you prompt them, you put it in their head already, and then they're gonna start slowly pick picking up onto that. You're into the job and it's gonna put their ass into gear Because they're not gonna want to get shown up by some kid, number one.

Mike Greco: And number two, this is a dangerous job. At some point it's gonna click in their head. There is some guys that have completely you know you guys you have guys in the fire service that are completely checked out and I that's probably what this person is talking about guys that just don't care Don't give a shit. Whatever. That's no fucking excuse. If you're working for a shitbag officer, that's no excuse for you to be a shitbag fireman. Keep on, keep it on, bro. Have your shit ready to go We've all worked for officers we didn't want to work for. Every I bet you you have, everybody has. Have your shit together. The more that you have your shit together, the more that boss is gonna need to have their shit together. Because their job is to supervise you. Okay, so you don't have to fight with them. Ask them questions. Trust me. Just ask them basic questions. And if they don't have the answer to the basic question, they're gonna start thinking about themselves. Why don't I know what this kid knows Yes. Corley: And Black Cat Behavior followed up said, love it, brother. Thank you very much for your response. I appreciate your time. I love that answer. Prompt them, prompt them. Make it seem like it's their idea.

Mike Greco: Yeah. You don't have to be disrespectful. You don't have to be a jerk off. You don't. You don't I I I used to ask people, hey Cap, listen, if it's we got fired out the top floor, we where you want where you want me to go over here What do you want me to do with what's what are we doing? Just just cat just so I know. You know, just so I know. Even though you know what the fucking answer is, but you're you're trying to get that fire duty conversation I love talking for anyone who knows me will tell you. I love talking. I'll talk fires all fucking day in the ring. We'll talk about fires all day. I don't give a fuck who's playing football on TV or any other shit. We could drive around the city all day and talk about fires and what we're gonna do at them. I love it. I enjoy it. And it's it's a it's important to foster that amongst not just the officer, but everybody Everybody, the junior guy, everybody, everybody should should want to talk about it because it's our job. That's our job. Corley: Edwin Page yelling at you, brother. He is a paid and he is a volunteer. He is a chauffeur at Hackensack, drives truck one. He is also a chief at his volunteer department. Very near there. And he is very passionate about both. So in answer to your question, yes, he is both. Coming at you, man, and and Mike, this is not a topic that comes up a lot on the scrap, but you brought it up as a topic you wanted to discuss. And that's EMS. Yeah, let's go. Let's go.

Mike Greco: I'm down to talk about I'll talk about EMS all fucking day. I hate EMS more than any of you people watch this podcast right now. So we can talk about it all day Emergency medical service for people who are watching it and don't know what we're talking about. Right on. Corley: Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, you brought it up. Mike Greco: You said we need- I brought it up You need to know what the fuck you're doing. Okay. So if your fire department sends you for EMT and you're like, oh bro, but we don't even we don't even ride an ambulance or we don't do EMS or we don't do this and we don't. I don't want to know Let me tell you something, cuz I wrote an ambulance for a long time. Okay, one of my best friends wrote an ambulance for a very long time, too. And when I rode that ambulance I w I worked in a very urban area where we were dropping airwaves and people every fucking day, bagging people every single day, doing all of that shit. I hated EMS. EMS was my was how I paid the bills to get on the job in the city of Hackenzack, as most of us are. And you know what happened? You go into a few fires, you make some fucking grabs, guess what's gonna happen? And it happened to me about a month ago. We made a grab at a fire, we pulled the lady out of the fucking place. Guess what we did? We put an airway in her We bagged her and she's alive because I knew my EMS skills. Okay, a few years back, same thing, senior housing complex Pop the fucking door, make the grab, pull her out, she's in her respiratory arrest. Drop the airway medical bag start bagging her because I know how to bag the lady boom boom boom boom boom she starts breathing again What the fuck is the point of knowing every search technique in the entire universe? You're the best fireman in the whole fucking world, right? And we all wait years. We some of us wait our whole career to make a graph You finally make that grab of somebody's kid, and you don't know how to drop an oil airway in this kid and bag this kid. You don't know how to fucking do it So if you're on the seventh floor someplace where it's going to be a massive delay to get this person down the stairs or down the elevator or whatever you're going to use To get them to EMS, you better know your EMS skills.

Mike Greco: I'm gonna tell you right fucking now. And it's happened to me time and time again where my EMS skills from working the air mills for so many years helped me on the fire ground. Same as Your brother firefighter, sister firefighter goes down they're unconscious respiratory arrest because they collabed by something, the cordon collapse, whatever. You should know how to save them Okay, you should know your EMS skills. Every fire truck in the whole world has an EMS bag on it. You better know how to use the fucking thing. Especially You could be anywhere. You could be walking into an oxygen-deficient atmosphere. You don't even know it. Your brother fireman goes down. You don't know what's going on. You should know how to bag him You should know how to do CPR. You should know the basic EMS skills, especially airway. You should know how to do that shit. I'm telling you it's going to pay off. And this is coming from somebody I hated every split second of work in the goddamn ambulance other than the people I worked with. I love the people I worked with. I just hated doing EMS. But I learned such valuable techniques of saving people's lives. Again, what the fuck is the point of making that grab? You go you burned up your ears, you burned up your shoulders, you're going through all of this shit. You pull the lady outside And you don't now you don't know what to do. And there's no ambulance available either. You're asking a cop to get a BVM out of the trunk of his fucking car, literally. Okay? Because there's no ambulance available You better know what to do because that would make a that that that is a horrible thing that we have firemen that don't know what to fucking do on basic, basic airway, CPR, DFib, shit like that. I'm not telling you to be a fucking doctor. Just know your basic skills, whether it's EMT, certified first responder, etc.

Corley: That on At all. Which takes me to one of my favorite questions. I don't know if you read books. I don't know if you like books, but I'd love to ask, is there book or books that you think firefighters should be reading? Doesn't have to be a firefighter book, just books that you want other firefighters to read. Mike Greco: Yes, Collapse of Burning Buildings by Vincent Dunn. Read it. Read it. Then read it again. And then read it a third time. Read it three times Read that book three times. The book is written at a I believe it was like a seventh grade level or an eighth grade level reading. I'm a horrible reader. I was horrible in school and everything else That book is written perfectly. It goes over each building construction. He gives you the original version, a 1980, I think it's 86 or 87 version. It's a small book. That version that you know the all of them do, but that version I liked a lot. It gave you a little story before each building construction. Okay, so they you know he would go over whatever. Or ordinary, and then he'd give you a story about the Tarrazz floor collapse, and he'd give you a story about how a fireman got hurt or killed. And then they we it would go into the lesson. So it would want you would read that story about some guy getting hurt or killed So we would want you would wanna read about what the fuck was about to be talked about. You weren't gonna be bored on that chapter at at at any point. And that that's the book I that I I stress all the time, collapse of collapse of burning buildings. I tell everybody to read that book. That should be in that sh that book should you should not be able to get out of fire one without reading that motherfucker and having to do a book report. I can't believe that that's not part of You know, that's not a national standard to know that material. You know, like front to back, back to front, give a book give a fucking book report You know, you know what's fucked up, bro? Back in the day in high school, I saw from my year junior year of high school, we're reading like Shakespeare and Macbeth and all this other bullshit that I didn't want to be bothered with and I would have to go in the front of the class and give a presentation Why the fuck is that not going on in the fire service today?

Mike Greco: You should be in fire one reading that book go in front of the class of 30 students and I want you to tell the class everything you know about lightweight wood frame. I want you to tell the class really like I don't I don't understand what I I don't get it. I don't that's one of my pet peeves with the with the fire service is the lack of you know basic building construction knowledge. Corley: Oh without a doubt, brother. Mike Greco: Without a doubt, I'm no fucking s I'm no scientist, believe me Corley: I'm with you. I'm with you. And it's not like it's not like the kids that were higher and have any have have more knowledge than I did. It's going downhill from my lack of knowledge. Does that make sense? Mike Greco: Sure, sure. Again, I'm no scientist. There's a lot. Believe me, I learn new shit every single day. There's a lot smarter people out there on my job than me. But I believe it starts at that national standard of the training where there is certain things that need to be covered, and that's one of them. You know, building construction, especially now where everything you're going up is lightweight wood frame. Every building is lightweight wood frame.

Corley: No, without a doubt, and and yeah, in a version of it Which takes me to one of my favorite parts of the scrap. It is the five questions for firefighters. This has been going on for 220 episodes or so. It is five questions. There are no right answers. They are only your opinions And the points are arbitrary. They're passed out by me with the help of the studio audience. So my question for you, Mike Greco, is are you ready for the five questions for firefighters version 3. 3? Mike Greco: Absolutely. Corley: 100%. Here we go. I love this, man. So what is the skill? Number one, what is the skill that has carried you through your fire service career? Mike Greco: The skill or skills? Just a regular skill? Corley: Just one you get to pick one skill, attribute, trait, whatever you want to call it, one skill that carried you through your firefighter service career. Mike Greco: having my personal protective equipment squared away and on properly. That's the skill. And quickly too Having my shit on squared away quickly and properly. Have your shit on everybody. Don't fuck around. Because I'll take the nozzle from you You have no glove? Okay. That's the skill. You learn that one real quick. Oh that is. Oh, you're missing a glove? All right.

Corley: Waiting to see the response. Waiting to see the response because I know my answer. I'm just waiting to see the response. There we go. Max points. Max points on number one, leading it off. PPE squared away put on properly and quickly. Number two I'm looking. Yeah, there we go. It blew up. 10 out of 10. Max points. Love it. Max points for Donning. No glove, no love. From Joe Lack. Cody Brooks said max points. Okay. Making sure. I was waiting for the explosion. All right, number two, Mike, here we go. It's Jobtown. It's time. You're in route and responding. You already referenced backdraft. We talked about Stephen McCaffrey You gotta think of that scene. He knows he's running to the rig. He's getting in there. They slap that tape in the cassette deck. Into the tape deck. What song are you playing in route? Mike Greco: Domination by Pantera. That's an easy question. Domination by Pantera. Corley: That's an easy one. This as a quick answer too, by the way. But I think this might be the second Pantera song. I'm not sure 100%. Mike Greco: It's my son my son's name and then Dom. It's right here for everybody. Domination by Pantera.

Corley: I love it, brother. Mike Greco: That's a very easy one. You gotta come up with some harder shit Corley: No, no, no, no. There's nothing. It's not supposed to be hard. The thing is we got we got a there's a spot. There's a Pandora playlist out there with all the answers So yours just gets added yours gets added to the playlist and people love it. Mike Greco: That's a song. Corley: That's the song. Domination by Pantera. Correct. Number three, I love this. I love this question. I love asking it. I love the answers. What is your favorite fire service tradition? And we have to take the firehouse kitchen table out of the equation because everybody says it over and over. So besides the firehouse kitchen table. Favorite. Firehouse tradition. Mike Greco: My new we've actually just started it recently and it's my new favorite one. A lot of firehouse traditions, but it's my new favorite one. In my volley house here, when we go to a fire, we come back here, right? Corley: Okay. Mike Greco: And we do our little critique. But it when we're done with our little critique, we go over who the fucking MVPs are, bro So if if you if you hit the fucking if you hit it out the park with the truck chauffeur spot like you were able to get down an alleyway with the ladder truck and spin the aerial ladder around and get the fucking roof cut the roof off the place you were the engine chauffeur you got the hydrant 600 foot tenement load stretch. We're picking out the MVPs, bro. Bro, this guy did a fucking fantastic job, dude. Holy shit. You're the MVP. Let's go Have a beer for this guy, have a shop for this guy, make him stand up on the chair and fucking and praise the fucking guy. We are so quick in the fire service to motherfuck one another, bro Have the guy stand up on a chair, give him a round of applause and say you're the MVP of the day, bro. You put this fire out. You did what you had to do, man. That's what it's about. That's my favorite condition that we got going on here in Hasbro Kites right now Make the kid stand up on a chair, give him credit for what he did. Dan Wixon Jr. I know you're watching this. Make him stand up on a chair, give him credit for a good job that he did.

Corley: That's my that's our new favorite tradition here in Hasbro Kites. I had sorry I had to timestamp. I have to timestamp certain things so I can find them later. Easy max points for MVP. Max points, max points, timestamp, hell yeah from Jimmy McAllister. Nice giving props Yeah. And Dan Bender also said dime bag for max points. Because you gotta throw in that. Mike Greco: Dimebag Daryl, bro, Dimebag Daryl, so on the clock. Corley: Okay, we had to put this one on the clock because It takes too long to answer that people give their honorable mentions and they explain everything. So this one is on the clock. You get one minute to answer, and it is who are The four people you would put on the Mount Rushmore of your Mike Greco's Mount Rushmore of the fire service and go. Mike Greco: my s myself, because you better believe in yourself. Bobby Eckert, John Davis, that's three I need one more for my crew. I'm gonna give you two more. I'm sorry. I'll take myself out. Take myself out. Mike Thomasy Hackizak New Jersey Fire Department. Mike Rainville, Hackenzack, New Jersey Fire Department. Mike Rainville is the strongest man alive. Mike Thomas is the smartest man alive. John Davis, strong as fuck Also mentally, mentally smart as fuck. Bobby Eckert, very smart, psychopath, able to do whatever you need him to do out of work and fire. That's easy, bro. We're not even what are you, 30? How many seconds are you there?

Corley: Take myself out of it. 39 seconds here. 21. I think he got it done in 21 seconds. Mike Greco: No problem. No problem. Corley: Yeah. That's the first time everybody put put their cells on the on the on. Mike Greco: Bing bang boom, bro. You because you should know you want to go to fire. Like that's Bing bang boom bing bang boom. I got guys who are mental you need mental as I said before, mentally strong, physically strong. Corley: Fair enough. Mike Greco: Answerity, everything. Corley: You said it. You said Davis Strongest mental guy you knew. You said I think you said Tonzi was the strongest dude you knew. But 100% Bobby Ecker. Rainbow. Psychopath. Mike Greco: Yeah. Tant. Tom dude, I need I need a psychopath. I need a guy who's unbelievably smart, Mike Thomasy. I need a guy who's unbelievably strong, Mike Greenville. I need everybody, I need all the shit in my pocket of guys that I could that I need that are the best at what they do And believe me, I could give you 30 guys' names. I get it. I work with Gray Feynman. Corley: It's not a fair question. It's never been a fair question. I like your answer. Oh, it's a fair, it's a fair question It was the like the fastest I've ever heard somebody put themselves up and the fastest I've heard her take them down. So I love it.

Mike Greco: I do I do. Bing bang boom. Yeah. Give yours you gotta give yourself credit and then give it and then and then and be try to be a little bit modest but I'm not really a modest person. I'm I'm I'm a cocky fuck and I really don't care. But you should believe in yourself You should be out there like, yeah, bro, I'm here. I want to do the job. I'm good at the job. I want to be about it. Let's go. You should want, you should, you should have confidence in yourself, bro. Don't be timid. This ain't no place to be timid. We're going to fires. Corley: All right? All right, number five, heavy fire, searchable space. Would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES? Mike Greco: BES hands down 110% BES. 100% much rather I'm down to feel like I'm getting stung by 100 Ps on the back of my fucking ears looking for somebody's kid 100%. Absolutely. There's nothing there is nothing more proud that you're ever gonna do in your fucking life other than having your own babies And making a grab out of a structure fire. Okay? I am telling you, there is nothing more rewarding in the motherfucking world than saving somebody's life from a structure fire. Nothing more. Other than other than watching your own kids. I have three kids, watching them be born, nothing else more rewarding than saving somebody from a building fire. By far. By far VES. By far. And I and that's That's the job, as I said before.

Corley: That is. Hey, and it's very consistent because when I asked you about your favorite drill, instantly you said VES, which which is the consistency in place. And that officially makes it the answers for the five questions for firefighters, according to Mike Greco. And that officially makes it 241 scraps in the books. Chief, Mike Greco, if someone wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way to do so? Mike Greco: Instagram, Mike Greco152 on Instagram. you guys could DM me. I'm I I'm exceptionally busy right now running a fundraiser. I just want to make a quick shout out, running a huge fundraiser on Saturday. 420 on Saturday, I'm running a huge fundraiser for my nephew. His name is John Bankabick. He has cancer. He's five years old. So we're running it. It's all over Instagram. If you guys look So I just want to make a shout out about that. We're on our fundraiser for them. We're having bailout training. We're having door force training. You know, all sorts of shit here at Hasbro Heights. But reach out to me, MikeRecco152, on Instagram. You'll see it. You'll be able to you can make a donation if you'd like. If you don't want to, but fuck yourself. It is what it is But yeah, that's that's how you reach out to me. DM me. and people DM me from well, I had a guy when I I when I did National Fire Radio, I I was talking with a guy from New Zealand for quite a while about tactics and what he does in his firehouse and stuff like that. I love it. If you love the fire service, you'll love talking to anybody from anywhere about anything. It doesn't really matter. So yeah, anybody can reach out to me and DM me or a friend of me or whatever you want to you know, whatever it is that you want to do on the thing.

Corley: And for and for the fundraiser, it's Mike Greco what did you say one Mike Greco one give me the number? Mike Greco: It's my it's Mike Greco one five two. That's my badge number. And you'll see it you'll see my Instagram pop up. I I it's right now it's not restricted. Anybody could follow it. So you'll see the fundraiser pop up and my volunteer fire department, you'll see it. And Richard's trying to raise money for my nephew right now. He's stage two cancer he had it he had he had his actually had his whole kidney removed at this point. he's actually having a blood transfusion right now as we speak at CHOP in Philadelphia, Children's Hospital Philadelphia So yeah, that's what we're going through. And that's hey guys, that's part of the fire service too. Okay? Doing the right fucking thing. It doesn't matter who you are doing the right thing for your brother fireman. That's part of the fire service. I'm just going to fires Okay, you see your brother needs help something bad is going on in their life and they need help and I brought this up in the other podcast I was in help them out help each other out we are so quick to hate on one another in the fire service it's fucking unbelievable help each other out

Corley: Boom. That officially puts it in the books. Go to firehousevigilance. com. Become a vigilante. Five bucks a month. You can sign up for a year. I'll be posting the link for the scrap after party. Vigilanians will be meeting with Mike and they'll get the unscripted. Because this is the scripted. This was the, this was the, yeah, whatever. This is one of the. This is what it is, man. I a hundred percent. I hope people are catching the sarcasm. everybody says they're gonna bust the guy's chops when we get in the after party they never do in fact the guest usually ends up busting the vigilance shops but it's a good time if you want to be a part of it go to firehousevigiles. com sign up coming up man we got fdic this week and then instantly out of FDIC. Ian Bennett is hitting us up on Monday next week as soon as we are back. Ian Bennett, West Coast Fire Training. So much to talk about about live fire training. So you do not want to miss it. I'm going to try when I get done here to get everything posted. So all that being said, yeah, I love it, man. Thank you for spending your evening with us, Mike Greco.

Mike Greco: Oh, thank you for having me, man. I love talking about fires anytime. More about fires all fucking day. Corley: It was a good time. We're gonna continue it here thank you for being such a phenomenal guest. audience, you are the ones that make the scrap magical. Thank you for tuning in each and every week. Without your questions, it would just be me and Mike talking. And don't get me wrong, I would love that, but your questions are really I'm down Yeah, the questions really drive everything. So all that being said, I love you all. I hope the tones stay silent unless it is burning. Everybody, stay safe out there. Mike Greco: Agreed.