Building community and Fire Trucks with Chief Harold Ramsey

Stephen J: (00:11)
Welcome to behind the 10, a podcast that introduces you to the heroic men and women wear the 10 while protecting our community and hearing about the extraordinary things they're doing when they're badges in their locker. I'm Steven, Jay, the good Lieutenant here, along with just the civilian producer. What's going on. I'm with you here today. What's happening here with me. All right. Oh, we got a cool guest today, guy. We know. Well, and, uh, let's get to our sponsors before we hear from him. Today's sponsors those guys print.com. Those guys for all your custom apparel needs the visit. Those guys, print.com. Also track therapeutic ranch for animals and kids, and also first responders visit track T a K tucson.org. For more information today's cocktail over conversation sponsor is Heather S from Millbrook New York. Thank you so much. Heather greatly appreciated. Once again, Hyde park brewing company has given us rough rider.

Stephen J: (01:03)
Red lager. This red lager has a smooth multi backbone fall by crisp bitterness and a ABV of 5%. That's not too shabby. And I gotta, I gotta thank Hyde park brewery because they've just been, they've been keeping this going and they are amazing once again, Hyde park brewing company or delicious rough rider, red lager. Can you say rough rider, red lager, three times a rider, red lager, rough rider, red lager, rough rider, red lager. I think I got it almost too bad. Well, speaking of red, we're gonna talk to a guy today that, you know, red is kind of the color I'm gonna push, cuz we're gonna talk about a guy that sells fire trucks. Uh, he was a chief a of uh, fire department and he did some things that I really appreciate, you know, bringing the youth into the organization. I think not only, you know, makes a difference in the organization, but the community as a whole. So, uh, absolutely. Let's let's get that discussion going with, uh, chief Harold Ramsey,

Stephen J: (02:09)
Harold, welcome to behind the 10. Thanks for having me. We are so happy to have you because I gotta tell you one of the things that you're doing might have been something that I always envision myself doing as a little kid in a coloring book, but now you're it for money, but we'll get into that a little bit. Let's talk about who you are. There's a lot of places that could go and that's the whole point. Keep him guessing Justin, right? That's what you always tell me. Yep. Yep. Leave it to the end. So let's, let's talk a little bit about Harold Ramsey, uh, who you are, how you got involved in, uh, emergency services.

Harold: (02:41)
Well, I'm, I'm been a 35 year member of a volunteer fire company. Um, I've worked for full-time. I retired literally two weeks ago. Oh, congratulations. Full-time job at that. The work I did at my full-time job led me into not just the volunteer service, but led me into the following work that I'm doing. But about 35, 40 years ago, I moved to Dutchess county from state of Michigan where I went to school and I happened to have a neighbor that was a volunteer fire member. And at the time they were looking for members, he asked me to come up and from there 35 years later, um, we are where we are now. So

Stephen J: (03:21)
You, what, how old were you when you moved to New York?

Harold: (03:24)
I was, uh, 35 years ago. It was probably about 25.

Stephen J: (03:28)
Okay. But over 25 gave your age out there a little. Yeah. Well it's a little over you. Don't Don look that old Harold, I'll give you that one, but you volunteer fire departments in Michigan though, right? There

Harold: (03:38)
Are, it's a dip different type of volunteer in Michigan. Okay. Um, I was never involved out there. I was in the, I was in the air force and then I went back to Michigan to go to school service and I never really had time. Um, in Michigan. Um, once I completed school, I got hired out here. I got recruited and hired out here. That's what brought me out here. And like I said, my neighbor up in red hook, um, talked me to join in fire company and you're right. It's something that should think of as you grow up as a kid, wanna be a fireman. Fireman's cool. I had small boys at, you never wanted to be a police

Stephen J: (04:08)
Officer.

Harold: (04:11)
Well, yeah, I, I did come, but I mean any, any of those, but I didn't have the opportunity for that. I had the opportunity to, for fire.

Stephen J: (04:18)
So you come to New York, you're your new neighbors, a volunteer fireman. You're like, Hey, I want to do that. What was the draw? Was it, uh, a open bar late at night? Was it going to the calls? Was it the camaraderie? It,

Harold: (04:30)
It was a, it was a number of things. He brought me up to the firehouse. I met the people I, I got along. I, I clicked with the people that were at the firehouse. Um, and yes, those were the days back, 35 years ago, we had a beer or two, um, after a call or whatever at the firehouse, but the comradery, the brotherhood of a, of a firefighter. And, and I still look at firefighters that I've known for 35 years, as a matter of fact, uh, colleague I have in the business that we're in, um, as a 50 year firefighter, he's one of my, um, my I mentors basically when I joined the fire company. But, um, yeah, so you get along with people and it didn't hurt that as a 25 year old, somebody said, you know what? You can drive one of those big fire trucks. Yeah. And it sounds a little corny, but it, but it really is. It was kind of cool. Cool. And it draws you in.

Stephen J: (05:19)
It's cool as to sit by behind the wheel of that fire truck, way up high, because most people right. Don't get to drive big trucks all the time. Correct. But now you're sitting in this huge apparatus with lights and sirens and they're like, Hey, we're gonna train you on this. Right. like, right. You're gonna train on this, which is your buddy sits in shotgun seat. And he's like, all right, let's go drive around the neighborhood and driving a firetruck. Cuz I've got to do it in, in my, you know, when I get to play fireman, everyone waves to you and they beep and they smile. You could hit a fricking car. That's parked. And they're like, oh, it's okay. I, I remember in elementary school every year the firetruck would come once a year. We'd get prayed out into

Justin: (05:57)
The, uh, the fire prevention week. Yep. And I'd get to go through the fire truck. And I remember that to this day, it was the

Harold: (06:02)
Coolest thing. And that's part of the draw. I mean, you're, you're, you're absolutely right that the public looks at it and they put you up in a pedestal. They do. And it's not what we do it for, but it's a cool aspect of

Stephen J: (06:14)
It. No, it's very cool. And, and your intent is not that, but you know what, your admiration as a child, like Justin just mentioned once a year, most at least in this area, most places have fire prevention week. I think it's a national thing where fire departments go and they show off and they give you fire safety tips, stop, drop, and roll and pass for pull, aim, squeeze, and shoot. Right. That's for your fire extinguishers. I'm good at this Harold check this out. Right? So you, they teach you all these things and you know, Edith exit drills in the home, come on, follow me, follow

Harold: (06:44)
Here. Right. You're right.

Stephen J: (06:45)
And, but you they're leaders for that moment to a child, that guy standing usually in a uniform or even just a, a t-shirt that says the fire department on it. Those people are leaders to those kids and they look up

Harold: (06:58)
To them. I mean, we, I, I looked at it that even though you're not out fighting a fire at that time or on an emergency call, you're hopefully, um, as you're going to schools or whatever, you're hopefully teaching these kids something that may help them down road someday.

Stephen J: (07:13)
I know it does. I started a program when I was playing fireman as a young man called safe. And it was, uh, safety and fire education and what we did. And, and I would love for somebody to replicate this, cuz I think this is such a cool little thing. Uh, I was with the volunteer fire department. Um, a lot of people work shift work, and you need shift, work people in the volunteer fire department, cuz you need people to cover the daytime calls. Right. I would take the guys on sh shift work and we made a deal with a local elementary school. There's a point in time in school. And everyone probably remembers this where your teacher brings you or your a, a, a custodian comes in a parent and brings you to the lunchroom, right. And the kids eat. And then they bring you back to the classroom, but the teacher still has her lunch.

Stephen J: (07:59)
So it's a monitor in the room and it's downtime. And most of the time it's, you know, clean your desk or anything. We captured that time once a month and brought in a firefighter for fire safety tips. So for that program, it wasn't just once a year, it was throughout the year. And it gave that exposure of the fire department to the kids. And quite honestly, the monitors loved it. The teachers loved it. The children loved it. The principals loved it and the parents loved it and it cost literally nothing, but they got that little extra, uh, from their fire service and, and people appreciated. It was, it was called safe safety and fire education. It was done during that those teacher breaks. Um, but then we, we expand at certain things with that. And it it's that admiration that the kids have for the fire, uh, service, the firefighters that they see growing up because of people like you and, and the others that are doing it. And it's not for that reason, but that's what happens. And you're gonna you're racially recruiting.

Harold: (08:58)
You're right. You're absolutely correct. I mean, and, and part of a small town and I was a small town firefighter. I am a small town firefighter is that, you know, your neighbors, the kids know who you are because you might be the neighbor right down the road and they see you throughout town. Their friends are, um, your kids. Yeah. So they get to know you and, and it just helps out. And it adds to the whole aspect of teaching them. What

Stephen J: (09:26)
Was the, uh, youngest age? You guys allowed people to join at your firehouse?

Harold: (09:30)
That's one of the things I did when I was, um, assistant chief is we brought in a junior, your firefighter program. Yes. And we brought 'em in at 16 and both my boys joined there were limitations. I mean, they weren't going to working in actual fire, inside a building, but we allowed them to do things that got the feel of what a firefighter does. We got them to come to a fire call after it was already established. If there fire stand back and maybe help pick up some of the gear, um, maybe help, uh, the EMS teams, um, check out the firefighters as they were coming out. So they, they got a feel of what it was like. But at 16, 17 year olds old, they felt they were part of it. Yeah.

Justin: (10:11)
Good. And recently we just did a podcast episode. Uh, we were, you know, someone discussed being involved in a program like that when they had gotten started and what an impact it had on leading them to a career, they started 18 years old and they were already a few years ahead of everyone else. And, and I think Steve, you said that the wave, right. You know, they, they caught that wave and it just, it took 'em their entire career.

Harold: (10:37)
It, when they come in at 18, if they started at 16, when they came in at 18, they had that leg up on everybody. Um, that background knowledge. So when they actually took the firefighter training that they had to go through, um, they knew what was going on. They knew the terminology, they knew what we did and they flew through it a lot easier. So when they actually became a full fledged firefighter, um, they were a benefit to us right away.

Stephen J: (10:59)
Let's take one step back, Harold, starting at 16 versus starting 18 is a huge difference starting at 16 and getting involved in an organization that you're passionate about, that you're welcomed into and appreciated changes the course of when that person is 18. Cause think about where you are in your life. 16, you probably a sophomore or junior in high school.

Justin: (11:20)
I know where I was at 16. And it wasn't volunteering at the

Stephen J: (11:23)
Firehouse. No, no. Justin was creating smoke in a different way, but let's not go there. Okay. Legal now it's fantastic for you. let's talk about that just for a split second. Right? They're getting the education they're involved in the training. They're learning about the apparatus and the, and all the different training aspects that you guys do and the procedures. But when they become 18, if that guy started at 16, he wants to stay there. He's appreciated. He wants to remain part of that community. That's a big deal, especially in our area, in New York where people are literally leaving in droves. So you've captured a kid that wants to stay, wants to be part of the community because he's welcomed. He's appreciated how many 18 year olds do you get to join the firehouse? I watch this stuff. I pay attention. It's not many, it's not many because they're now seniors in high school or graduated and are off to college or they're getting their job and trying to really put their efforts into making money and making themselves an adult. Right? Because then later on you get a Harold Ramsey that joins the firehouse. When he got transferred to New York and meets a neighbor, and now he's in his late twenties, early thirties, he wants to get back. He's established. So that 18 to 30 year old they're nonexistent in the fire service, unless they started in that junior fire program,

Harold: (12:39)
Check it out. You're you're correct. I mean, a lot of them, we, we were hurting when we lost the junior firefighters we had when we lost them at 18 after graduation of school. And they went off under own way, whether it be, uh, college, military, yeah. Moving outta town. But the ones you kept, the ones we kept probably something special now. Right? They are. And we've got our company right now. We're very lucky right now in our company right now that we've got a lot of young members. Um, and a lot of'em are transitioned right up through from a junior firefighter, probationary firefighter, uh, I have to Fage firefighters and it, it, it really does wonderful things for the

Stephen J: (13:19)
Company. I hope those that don't have the junior firefighter program are just listening to this and maybe opening their eyes and those that do have it, maybe those old guys that aren't so nice to the young kids that are coming in, oh, they're hooligans or trail makers. These kids are making a conscious choice to be a, a community member, part of community serviced part of public safety. Yeah. And

Justin: (13:37)
That's a big, that's a big deal for a 16 that's very deal. Yeah. I mean your average 16 year old derelict isn't, isn't, you know, showing

Harold: (13:44)
Up. Well, I mean the opposite side of that too, is if they're working with the fire companies, they're not going to be out and being a derelict because they're saying they're hurting the people that they're working with and, and you don't get that. So if they're working with the fire company, they're not gonna be setting fires.

Stephen J: (13:59)
Right. I, I, I just think that community, public safety, especially the fire service as a whole, just appreciate those kids that are 16, 17 stepping in, stepping up, wanting to learn, embrace them, cultivate them, cuz not only as a member of their fire service, but as the community, it's a big deal. So thanks for starting that program. As the assistant chief, to me, that's, it's absolutely enormous. And I've talked about my services playing firemen and all those things in past episodes, but really people like you are makes a difference in lives, man. It really does. So let's, let's move on. Now you, you join the firehouse. You found out that the bars are open after calls. You you're digging that. Right? The,

Harold: (14:38)
The, the bar, no, that's probably stretching it a little if, if we had a beer or two after a call. Correct. But, but it did the fire service and, and I don't care if you're a small town or you're a large company. I don't care if you're volunteer. If you're paid. It seems to me, one thing I liked about it, there is a brotherhood and you hear fireman call themselves brother firefighters. There is that brotherhood. And I think that comes from you're dependent on each other a hundred. You go out in certain calls, you're dependent on each other, not to say that there's not an, any working animosity at times, but you are brother firefighters. And, and you look at that. And so you hang out afterwards after a fire and you talk about the calls or, or you get together on a weekend at a picnic at somebody's house. Um, but, but the group of firefighters in a company stay together a lot

Stephen J: (15:31)
Likeminded individuals. Exactly. Yep. I agree. And it doesn't, and what's funny with the volunteer, which is different than the paid is you leave that call and you go back to your job or you go back to your family. Meanwhile, the, the paid guys are staying in, you know, they're reminiscing about what they did and, and learning. But you guys all have to go back to reality of a up and you have all walks of life that come into the volunteer fire service. You have business owners, you have students, you have just people that are, are, are working day in and day out at whatever they're doing. But that bell rings that PLR goes off. The pager goes off. The phone now sends you a text message. However you're getting notified. And you're all got that. Now we have a common goal. We have a common goal to address that emergency and to save lives and property.

Harold: (16:17)
Exactly. And, and the businesses that allow their employees, especially in a small town, allow their employees to leave work for a period of half hour, hour, eight hours to take care of an emergency. Um, you gotta, you gotta love those type of employers to

Stephen J: (16:35)
Do that. It's vital to the community. It's saving tax dollars in the end. Otherwise you're gonna have to hire a paid service, right.

Harold: (16:41)
That's not same by everybody. Yeah.

Stephen J: (16:43)
Yeah. I agree with you though, man. And it does take a special kind of business owner, a business that's being run to, to allow their employees to do it. But I think for the greater of their community, the greater good of their community, that means a lot. So you, you, you, you go up the ranks, you become the assistant chief. How did that happen fast for you? Did you take your time at

Harold: (17:01)
That? It happened fairly quick. I mean, I, I, I started within two or three years, I got talked into taking medical classes. I became a first responder. Um, and shortly thereafter I took em T class. So I became an EMT. Um, I was one of the few in our company that was an EMT and an officer in the fire company, um, at the same time. But eventually I became a chief officer. I'm gonna say within eight years I became an assistant chief and worked my way right up in chief. Yeah. Relatively quick. Yeah. So I started in 86, um, by 99 I became chief of the company. Okay. So

Stephen J: (17:40)
13 years become 13. You right. That's, that's

Harold: (17:42)
Reasonable. I would say. And, and, and that's stepping through all the different ranks learning the different steps of each rank from, from a Lieutenant up through captain, through assistant chief, understanding how to deal with the county, understanding how to deal with your own members. Um, and so on. Yeah. So by 99, I, I became chief of the

Stephen J: (18:01)
Company, big difference from being a, a Lieutenant on the line and bringing your guys in on a hose. Right. And trying to put the fire out than being the chief of war. Read more about the budget. Yeah. And it's crazy. Right. I, I always found it really strange that the person who deals with the budget, isn't a guy that ever went to a finance class. It's the guy that just, ah, I became a Lieutenant of a captain and assistant chief. I chief now you run the budget. You're like, wait a second. Not once during my fire service training, did I ever get a budgeting class?

Harold: (18:28)
You you're right. I mean, it, it becomes almost a, an administrative, a political type job, um, as opposed to an emergency job, granted all the chiefs, especially in the volunteer companies and probably the paid two are still heavily involved in the emergency. Oh sure. But they've got that extra responsibility of, um, I remember right after I became chief, if you remember, 1999, we had an issue that I had to deal with Y2K and we had to work and make sure all of our computers were up. We had to make sure that all the, the alarms throughout our town, our community, our fire district were, um, were able to be handled. And that, that night that everybody was call, we were on call, just waiting for, yeah, hold your breath, hold your breath. Um, everything went great, but it, it, it's still a concern for the officers of the fire

Stephen J: (19:20)
Company. It's funny, you mentioned that in 1999, going to 2000, when you know, the bell rang and we came into the two thousands, I was actually at a, uh, new year's party at the firehouse. That's how they enticed us all to go down there to make sure we were on standby for Y TK at standby. Yeah. We were gonna have a big party and no alcohol was gonna be served, uh, until after, you know, the bell wrong 1201, right? Yeah. Let it go. So it's, it's funny. It's a, a good memory I have, cuz I had

Justin: (19:48)
A good time that night just to draw a contrast that you'd, as you know, working up the ranks and ending up in an administrative job and Steve, you talked about how, uh, not having the financial experience. I, I think in a lot of industries, you see the opposite happen where someone comes outta financial school, uh, with a finance degree and lands some finance job at an, with no concept as to what's happening in all the other positions. So I think there's something positive about kind of working your way up through all those different things and experiencing the perspectives of each one of those positions to finally get up to those higher top spots where now almost like undercover boss, right? Like, you know, sending someone back into the, into the, into the trenches to see what it's really like. Uh, but I think a lot of times in, in, in some industries, uh, especially in corporate America, you see people just leap leapfrog to the top and they have no idea what is going on.

Harold: (20:46)
I think you lose a lot, lot of, of the workers of that organization, whether it's a fire company or private organization, you lose a lot of what's actually going on. And the fire service, at least the area that I dealt with. Um, as I mentioned, moving up through the ranks, you learn the different aspects of the job. Oh yeah. And anybody that says you walk in as a firefighter, as a 25 year old or an 18 year old and you know, what's going on granite an 18 year old will tell you, they know what's going on, but you really don't. And experience means a lot. Um, I was fortunate enough when I became chief too,

Stephen J: (21:19)
As I still had people to look over my shoulder at, um, that had been there for 35, 40, 50 in a, a good way at that point in a good way. Yeah. They had your back and, and, and it was a good feeling when we had any kind of major emergency, um, I can't always look at the younger members and say, what do you think I'm doing this? But I could look over my shoulder at some of the older members and say, am I doing the right thing? And it's, it's a warm, fuzzy feeling that you get by having somebody there and you're making the decisions, but you always have that. I'm that second guess in your mind. So at some point, Harold, do you, uh, get involved in a business? Whether, and again, I mentioned in the beginning, you know, listen, I see yellow fire trucks. I see blue fire trucks out there, but I'll tell you right now, there's only one color fire truck and I'm gonna offend some people it's red fire trucks are meant to be red.

Harold: (22:13)
Most fire trucks are red. The tr uh, right now a lot of the, the idea and not the idea, uh, the trend that is going to red with black top, which is a Chicago look, it's still

Stephen J: (22:27)
Red. It's still a red fire talking. It is, it's got some flash to it. I get that. I'm cool with it. You know, the different stripings you're doing were reflective. If you're fortunate enough to have the gold leaf, that's still pretty to me. I like that. But now you are in the business of putting your arm around chief for a bunch of commissioners or whoever the decision makers are and what are you doing with them?

Harold: (22:48)
Well, that's the reasons I got into the business. I mean, part of my work outside of, um, fire service, I worked in dealing with customers and I won't be, I won't call it a salesman, but it's a semi salesmen type of type of work. And the fire service. I had a colleague that was in the business of selling fire trucks throughout the district through DUS county. And I thought to myself, as I'm getting out as fire chief, I go, I met a lot of friends. Um, I was in training associations throughout Northern Duches area, my dealt with chief's meetings. And so on, I met a lot of friends and I go, I don't wanna just drop this. I've got a lot of people. I know I enjoyed meeting them and I thought, okay, you want me to join you in a, a fire apparatus sales.

Harold: (23:35)
This is a great way to go back and meet these people again and to keep contact with them. So initially I started this out as an assistant to help out and to keep in touch with old friends, old fire chiefs from throughout DUS county and the area, um, other colleagues in fire service. So that's how I got started into, I said, yep, I can do this. I know fire trucks, um, to an extent. And, and I know the, the people that were gonna go visit. So we got together and we started doing that. Um, we dealt with the company outta Michigan at the time we, we sold trucks out of company outta Michigan. Talk

Stephen J: (24:11)
About going back to your roots a little bit.

Harold: (24:13)
It, it was, yeah. How cool was that? Um, and, and so we did that for a number of years, um, working with that company and, and putting some fire trucks out in the field, um, that company decided to reorg their whole business throughout the Northeast. And as I said, I like dealing with local fire service things. They wanted a dealer that handled all of New York state. Um, we, we said, that's not what we really wanted to do. One of their partner businesses was out of at Illinois, right. South of Chicago. And they came to us and said, look, we're looking for a new dealer just for Southern New York. So we, we listened to them, talked to them and we picked up their dealer, their manufacturer. And we've been doing those for a number of years now, about six, eight years now. Um, and who is that? It's called the company's called Lexus, um, manufacturing, access, fire equipment.

Stephen J: (25:08)
I think one of the cool thing is, um, is when you get the experience that you come with being a fire chief and, and an officer for so many years, you know, the layouts, what works and what doesn't right. You have a little bit of say from personal knowledge, then you take it and you expand it when you're working with different, whether it's through just Northern Dutches or all of Southern New York or wherever you go, and you hear their input and why they want, maybe this cabinet set up that way, or the truck set up this way or the engine we want it. And you you're able to share that with your other customers. That's very valuable thing.

Harold: (25:45)
Exactly. I mean, and, and one of, of the things that, that we play off and we say is a selling aspect for us is we, we have been in a fire service basis, my colleague and myself, um, from a small company, we understand the needs of a small company. We understand what the fire needs, the financial needs, um, what a company needs far as water sources, whether it's a hydrant district, whether it's a pond district, but a lot of the districts in, in our area, whether it be Duche county or green or Delaware or Alster, um, are in a similar type of boat. So when we walk into them, we give them an aspect of, we know where you're coming from. We know what you, that the hindrances that you have, um, a little different when we get further down towards the city and long island, right? But we still have an, a lot of companies down there even are small companies, and we can understand what they need. Well,

Stephen J: (26:41)
You have the, you have the small company aspect of it that you know about. You also have the operational part, whether it's a tanker operation, that's some run, right? Hy operation, other places are fortunate enough to have the manpower issues that people are facing. You know, do we need a cab that fits 15? Now you'll never fit 15 people on a truck. So let's get you nice four setup and get you more equipment so that you got things that are repair. And I, I find that really interesting, uh, that you guys are able to take your knowledge and work with a company, uh, you know, Alexis and, and be able to bring that to the departments.

Harold: (27:12)
I mean, one of the first things we do when we go visit a company is, is, is not sell a truck, but we need to understand their needs. What are you looking for? Are you looking for, as you mentioned, a tanker, are you looking for smaller trucker, you're looking for an aerial. Um, and we give them ideas of what we have. We lay out who we are. We lay out what our company is. Lexus is, um, wheel out the different options that they've got. Um, and let them ponder on that for a while. Then we'll go back and visit again and fine tune on exactly what they're looking for. And then we actually, we work with them, um, over a number of meetings and lay out the design of what they want for a truck. As you mentioned, cabinet space, then new things on trucks nowadays.

Harold: (27:53)
Um, and the manufacturing business is constantly changing. Like any business currently, they're looking at, um, clean and green. Um, there's a, there's a, a truck out there now. The big, um, big thing in fire service right now is cancer with firefighters. Um, a lot of fire companies, if they can afford that would like what they call a clean cab where you don't go into the cab of the fire truck with fire gear on that has been in a smoke field room for the past two hours. So they'll have other areas to put that gear. They have areas where, I mean the inside of a truck, it's easier to clean. There's better ventilation. There's other aspects of making what they call a clean truck. Green truck is, is obvious what that is, trucks are going that way with, with electric, electric trucks. We don't see much of that, but we do see a lot of, a lot of people asking about clean trucks and things like that.

Stephen J: (28:46)
Now your, your small business apparatus plus that correct that you're in. Um, how are, how minute of the details are you involved in when you go to these departments and say, Hey, you're gonna buy a truck from us. Are you there? You're their guy.

Harold: (29:02)
We, we lay out what they want. And if, if they're off on something or something cannot be done, that we see right off the bat, we'll let them know, but we start off by asking them, what type of chassis would you like? Would you rather have 'em I, I, a commercial chassis like a, a Freightliner or Peterbilt, or would you rather have a custom made chassis? We deal with spart and chassis a lot. Um, the square front trucks are the more, the custom made regular trucks that you see over the road or your, your commercial trucks. And they just, they have an idea of what they want for that based on their drivers and so on. And maybe a smaller truck. It may be a four to five 50. That's a smaller truck, which is become prevalent nowadays. But once we get down what they want in the truck, then we start laying out in detail, what they want on the rest of the truck, the size of the cabinets, where they want the cabinets, the type of pump, the size of the pump, how much water or, um, where they want things like the ladders.

Harold: (30:03)
Do they want extra lighting? Do they want generators? So yeah, we do get into the minutia to an extent we'll spec that out based on what they want, go over it with them. If they're agreeable to that, it goes back to our manufacturer. Who's got a set of engineers working there, um, the real Radics, right. They, they go over that to make sure that we're not breaking any, um, D O T rules. I mean, for example, we're not too high on a truck or we're not overweight or anything like that. And they'll modify that, come back with actual spec drawings. Um, and they'll come back with an, with an approximate price of the customer. First thing they always wanna know is how, how much is this gonna cost? So we'll be able to go back to them at that, let them ponder on that, make any changes and, and, and a, a give and take and go back and forth.

Stephen J: (30:54)
Have you, have you ever worked with a customer and they had an idea or they, they wanted to do something you're like, that's fricking cool. Yep.

Harold: (31:01)
What was that? So, um, you caught me at a loss right now. I remember it. Remember some company just recently came to us with something. Um, oh, I know one, we just had a company that, that just bought a brush truck, a smaller brush truck and a 5 54, 5 50. Um, but the whole outside of the back, it's gonna go offroad. So it it's a four wheel drive raised up super singles, but the whole outside of the back of it. And it's funny that you mentioned red fire trucks, because the back of their truck is black and it was diamond plate, but it was coated in Linux. Are you familiar with what Lennox is? I'm not, Lennox is basically the, the coat that you put in the back of a pickup truck to keep it from chipping away and resting or whatever. I looked

Stephen J: (31:47)
At that, yeah, that texture eyes.

Harold: (31:50)
Yeah. So the back of their truck, other than the doors in the cabinet, the whole back of their truck was that kind of coat. We'd never seen that before. Initially. I thought it it's gonna be an odd truck. It came out, it looks great. I it's suffices their purposes because if they go off road, it's not getting scratched up like a paint job would. Sure. So that, that's an idea of something that was different that we saw, um, that we're able to put into

Stephen J: (32:15)
Place for and opposite of that. Have you ever worked with a customer like this guy? Stupid. Yeah. , we're not putting a blow torch on top of the truck. I mean, is there anything that is like really crazy?

Harold: (32:25)
There's UN understand a lot of the companies we deal with volunteer companies, they don't understand trucks. They don't understand fire trucks in that much detail. They know what they want. So yeah. They're gonna come in with ideas. Can we do this? Can we do that? Um, I don't look at that as so, but I look at that

Stephen J: (32:42)
Crazy stuff. Like, yeah, we want a keg on the back of the tap, you know, on the back of the truck, like Justin would ask

Harold: (32:47)
For , there's some things that, that they've come to us with that. We're just saying we just can't do that. Um, you're

Stephen J: (32:53)
Not gonna give it up right. For the record. I'm not give,

Harold: (32:55)
He's

Stephen J: (32:56)
Not gonna give it up. I'm not, there's one department out there to ask for a app on the side of their truck. I get it. It's fine, Harold, if you could talk to somebody who's, you know, 20, 21 years old, whether it be, you know, Harold at 20 or 21 or somebody now who, who wants to kind of like follow your path, what would you tell 'em? What kind of advice would you give?

Harold: (33:13)
I'd say, if you're in a fire service right now, understand what you have, understand your trucks inside and out. I mean, people look at a truck and they see a red fire truck and they see water coming off of it. But understanding your truck, understanding how it's made, understanding, um, about the water aspects of it, how the pumps work, um, understanding a number of different issues of it and learn that from all of your trucks, because they're all a little bit different. Um, once you learn that, then any manufacturer you go to, you have a heads up. If you wanna get into it, if you're looking to get into it, just, there's a number of manufacturers out there throughout the country, um, check 'em out online, see which one you think are like, see which ones, um, work with a customer. I believe that a, a truck manufacturer be there all unique fire air trucks. You're not gonna find too many fire trucks are the same. Um, find a manufacturer, that'll work with the fire companies and that'll give them what they need.

Stephen J: (34:12)
Harold. We ask every guest that we have on here. Uh, what do you define a hero? As

Harold: (34:19)
You know, I, I, I see on TV heroes, a lot, the word hero lot, and I see role models a lot. I mean, personally, I look at somebody and it doesn't matter to me. If it's a guy that helped an accident, seen pulling somebody out, or if it's somebody in the military, it's somebody that goes above and beyond to help somebody else without looking for any kind of accolades with themselves, financial or otherwise going out there doing the right thing for somebody at the right time with no, um, no one, no one number reward.

Stephen J: (34:56)
I like that. Harold. I, I gotta tell you, man, uh, as a person who lived it as a 16 year old, I think that Proger Ram alone. You introducing that to your firehouse made you a hero. Then I think your continued service makes you a hero. And I think just the advice that you give people who might be listening to this, who may wanna be in your shoes, that makes you continue to be a hero. So I want to thank you for that man and your leadership that, that you've given to a bunch of bunch of youth. And of course your service in the air force. Thank you for that. Absolutely. If they wanna get ahold of you, how can we, we find out about, uh, apparatus plus,

Harold: (35:29)
Uh, look up Lexus fire equipment, um, Lexus fire.com is the manufacturer apparatus.com is our local dealer. Um, they can contact me directly. My ID email ID is Mia, Landon, M I a L a N D O N my first two grandchildren.com. Um, and, and I'll, I'll give them any information they may need, whether it be on, on a truck or whether it be on getting into the business. That's

Stephen J: (35:59)
Awesome, man. Thank you so much, Harold. Thank you again. We'll put all those links into the show notes as well. So if you're looking for that, you can find that there. Awesome.

Harold: (36:06)
Well thank you guys for having me and thanks for doing this. Appreciate

Stephen J: (36:09)
That. Thank you, Harold. Appreciate it.

Stephen J: (36:17)
It's almost like such a simple idea can make such a big impact in some people's lives. Yeah, definitely. And I think Harold's a great, great example of that. He's a great example of making sure that he includes the young people in his community, gets him involved. And to me that grows the community makes 'em stronger. It does. And we've heard from other guests in the past how important it was to get started early on and feel welcomed into that environment. I mean, Tim Dexter ends up being an assistant chief. He started, uh, I think it was an Explorer, a cadet program at 14 years old and right. Became a firefighter young and you know, roasted the ranks. So there's and he had even said he had the opportunity to spend time with his dad as a child growing up in the firehouse. Yeah, I, I think it's exceptional.

Stephen J: (36:59)
Well again, thank you for listening to behind the 10 and hearing about how our heroes are heroes with the 10 on and off, please make sure you'd like share, follow, subscribe to us@behindtheten.com. Do all of those things in that order. And then do some more go to our Facebook page, leave us a review. We love seeing the reviews. Yeah, love the feedback. If you have someone that should be on our, our show, send us an email, know behind the ten@gmail.com or simply send us a message on Facebook. If you wanna buy the crew around or just buy the guest to drink, there's also those links on Facebook as well. I certainly wouldn't object to that and we're always looking for more sponsors. We appreciate everybody. If you wanna be a sponsor, visit behind the 10, uh, dot com or send us an email behind the ten@gmail.com. Once again