Living out your childhood dream and Nick the Fire Dog with Asst Chief Tim Dexter

Stephen J: (00:11)
Welcome to behind the 10, a podcast that introduces you to the heroic men and women who are the 10 while protecting our community and hearing about the extraordinary things they're doing when badges in their locker. I'm Steven, Jay, the good Lieutenant here, along with Justin, the civilian producer. Now's it going today? Today is going exceptionally well. My friend today's cocktail over conversation is brought to us by Chris B of Montros New York. Oh, well, thank you so much, Chris. And we, we have a special drink here brought to you by the high park brewing company. This is called simpler. Hi Justin. Uh, HDE park brewer is the best. This is a 4.8, a BV 100% New York grown, a lager that pours a golden yellow has a subtle aroma that you'll see of lemon, grass and grain. I love it. And HDE park brewing company always asks us to remember to support our local farmers cuz without our farmers, we have no beer, a couple sponsors that we have today.

Stephen J: (01:01)
Hey Justin, we have those guys print.com. Those guys print for all your custom apparel needs. Visit those guys. print.com. Also cm photography design company, go to etsy.com. Search out cm photography design company for glass prints that are ready to hang. Thanks to Chris B for his sponsorship cm photography design company@etsy.com. Yeah, absolutely beautiful prints. They're gorgeous. So Justin, we have a guy that, uh, is an unusual story. Yeah, yeah. Of why we have him here and what he's done, but what's remarkable is he's the guy, if you're a young person and you want to get into public safety, you should try to emulate. Sure. Yeah. He got really started young, right. Started young, did all the right moves, you know, got into a click of friends who all wanted to get into law enforcement or the fire service and they lived up to their goals. Yeah. And did I read that he wrote a kid's book? Well, that's why we're gonna bring him in. We're gonna bring in and talk about Nick, the fire dog and let's uh, let's welcome. Assistant chief Timothy Dexter to the show.

Stephen J: (02:16)
Tim. Welcome man. Thanks. Good. Be here. Thanks for coming into behind the ten.com with Justin, the civilian producer and, and me Steve J the goodle to, Hey, interesting story that you have, but let's go all the way back cuz I know what you did as a kid. I actually met you long ago, whether you remember it or not. I have one of those elephant memories where I don't forget a face. Where'd you start your law enforcement slash fire service slash public safety career at, uh, well I started as a, a, uh, FICO police cadet town Fishkill, and we had Alonzo Montana. Who's doing an Explorer program. Is that that's pretty similar or same thing? Uh, it was the same thing. I think they have separated from the boy Scouts at this point. Okay. Uh, in Fishkill.

Tim: (02:59)
Um, but yeah, it was basically, it was exact thing. Same thing as the, that's

Stephen J: (03:02)
Just an, an official like connection to the boy Scouts. Now, if they're separate, it's just a different organization, but the premise of it, learning about law enforcement and seeing the different, uh, duties that they perform. And that's that's you did that for a long time.

Tim: (03:14)
Absolutely. I actually got up to, uh, the rank of first Sergeant. Oh, uh, and uh, yeah, I had my own squad and, and uh, you know, my whole group of friends that we, we did that we actually instituted a lot of changes that they still run today with a color of the uniforms and the, the badges they wear. It was all my group of, uh, guys that we did.

Stephen J: (03:32)
And the guys and girls that you were involved in that group, how many of them got into public safety as a career OGs?

Tim: (03:38)
Um, a good chunk of them actually, pretty much all of my closest friends are either policemen, firemen, or uh, in the military.

Stephen J: (03:46)
That's outstanding. So you're, you're 100% behind these programs.

Tim: (03:49)
Oh, absolutely. Um, we did try to start one in Newberg, um, and it was gonna be involved with the, uh, school board and it actually wouldn't have been with the boy Scouts. We wouldn't have been to the school district and uh, unfortunately manpower issues. We, yeah. You know, we just don't have the, the manpower to run the program for now, for

Stephen J: (04:08)
Now. I, I, I see those changes coming. I think, uh, even with society's issues today, I think more people are gravitating towards law enforcement and, and the fire service, the younger people who get that itch. Mm-hmm so, uh, don't worry. I think you're gonna, you're gonna get some people that, that want to join that and I think you're gonna get the community support as well. So you did that. What was, what was the next progression?

Tim: (04:30)
Well, when I, when I turned 14, I joined the police cadets. Um, and then when I turned 15, I joined the ambulance Corps and I got my CFR at 16 and at 16 I was allowed to join the firehouse, joined the fire.

Stephen J: (04:40)
You can't drive after nine, but you're driving the ambulance.

Tim: (04:43)
Well, I, I can only ride the back of the ambulance. Okay. Just,

Stephen J: (04:46)
I'm just checking attack. Sorry. You hurt at 9 0 1. We can't help you. Yeah.

Tim: (04:50)
Right. Exactly. Which is actually, which was a big joke when I was in the fire academy cuz I got hired at 18. Oh my goodness.

Stephen J: (04:56)
So you can't go to the bar or the strip club to help somebody. You gotta wait outside. Can't wait

Tim: (05:00)
ID

Stephen J: (05:03)
Justin. The civilian producer would be the bouncer. One of those places. I'm sorry. I'd love to let you in. But the rules of the rules, someone's no

Tim: (05:09)
Follower.

Stephen J: (05:10)
can't have the cops coming in here and shut me down. Right, right. So you, you do the CFO, you're doing the ambulance, you know, you're 16, you're 18 when you get hired. Yeah.

Tim: (05:19)
Uh, I was a, I graduated high school in June of 2004 and by March, uh, no, 2003, uh, by March of 2004, I was on, I was hired on the job. And where was that at?

Stephen J: (05:30)
City of beacon. Okay. Nice city. Yeah. I got friends down there. I tease them because it's so nice. Uh, that I call it the village. Yeah. Yeah. The village of beacon, but it a beautiful town. I, I imagine having that, that training too, uh, prior helps you land that gig.

Tim: (05:46)
Well, absolutely. Cuz at the time they had a preferential list where they, you know, they get higher, uh, residents. And of course, if you were a volunteer there, they would give you preference. And even though it was only 18, it was basically me and my 18, 19 year old friends that scored the best. And uh, at the time they had two positions, normally they only ever hired one at a time. They had two and my academy class was the first time beacon ever sent two to the academy. Wow.

Stephen J: (06:13)
Well once again, I mean how many different times that we talked to somebody it's all of about setting yourself up for success. Yeah. Yep. You know, and you're starting at 14 you're ahead of the curve. Yeah. That's not something a lot of 14 year olds are thinking about at that point. Right? No. And I think, I think it's great. No, I wasn't. what were you thinking about Justin? Or do you wanna take that into another podcast? Leave that for later. Yeah. So now you're 18. You're working in a, a city. Yep. You know,

Tim: (06:36)
Beacon, beacon. Yeah. But it's a city. Well and it's it at the time. It wasn't as nice as it is now.

Stephen J: (06:41)
No, no, not back in 2000 4, 5, 6. I mean, it's beautiful now. Uh, I, I remember it in the nineties. Yeah. Uh, and it was bad. It was, oh yeah. You, you went there and you saw open air drug markets and you know, the stolen cars and the things we talked about, the burned out cars, you thought it was, you know, the Bronx back in the day, but yeah. Beacon has come a long way and uh, but you didn't stay there.

Tim: (07:04)
No, no. And I joke, I say that, you know, beacon got too nice. So they kicked me out and I go to Newberg. Um, beacon was a combination department. We did, we were heavy on EMS. Uh, when I got hired, they were doing a lot of fire work, but I started as they were renovating city started, you know, tapering off and you know, the, the, the manpower was low and my firehouse, I could see Newberg, uh, you know, right across river. I could see the river and I just got tired of watching all the columns of smoke while I was running, uh, bandaid calls. So I was, I said, you know what, it's time to go. Cause

Stephen J: (07:35)
Firefighters want to be fire fighters. Right. Right. The ambulance stuff is, is good. It keeps you busy. You're not sitting around, you're not sleeping with your hugging your pillow all day at night. Yeah. You know, you're out there. But when, when you become a firefighter and, and you know, I've told people a hundred times, I played firefighter when I was 16. Cuz that was the earliest thing that I could do. Right. Uh, to get into public safety, I wanted to be busy. Right. You know, I wanted to be, are fighting fires and go to car accidents and helping people. But you know, it's the, it's the nature of the beast. It's, that's what you wanna do. So you're watching the council of smoke. You're you're seeing all this stuff going on. So you say, you know what, I'm going over there.

Tim: (08:10)
Yeah, exactly. And uh, you know, also my father was on the job and he was technically my boss and I was a union rep. So sometimes, oh, that's a conversation. Sometimes dinner conversation was a little rough new bloods. Yeah,

Stephen J: (08:23)
Yeah, yeah. Right,

Tim: (08:24)
Right. Um, but you know, I have a great relationship with my father, but it was, I just kinda, I was always Tim's Tim Dexter's son, Tim Dexter, not, I didn't have my own. Were you little Tim,

Stephen J: (08:34)
Timmy junior. What'd they call

Tim: (08:35)
You, um, all those things all and then so, and then, and some other things, Tim, um, and I, I kind of wanted to get out my own and I, uh, he didn't even know I got an apartment in Newberg. Uh, they found out I was moving out Christmas day when my Christmas gift to my sisters was their own bedroom cuz I was all my stuff had moved out and I moved in with my best friend who, uh, ended up becoming a cop. Oh wow. Um, Dustin, James became a cop in, uh, Walden. He did unfortunately pass a couple years ago. I dunno if you guys know the name, but oh

Stephen J: (09:05)
Yeah. I, I, I remember him as well from uh, from your Explorer

Tim: (09:08)
Years. Yep. From the cadet program. Absolutely. Uh, so we got an apartment there and I, I applied, uh, to transfer and they took you and they took me. Yep. I actually, three days after I put my resume in the mail, I got a phone call from the chief. Wow.

Stephen J: (09:21)
A good turnaround

Tim: (09:22)
Time. Yeah. It, it worked out pretty well and

Stephen J: (09:25)
Just had to swim across the river and deliver

Tim: (09:27)
That thing. Exactly. And uh, you know, it, uh, it was definitely an eyeopener.

Stephen J: (09:32)
Well, yeah, cuz now you're not seeing the calms of from across the river, you're underneath them and inside the buildings.

Tim: (09:37)
Right. Right. And you know, it's, it is a different setup with the crews and how, you know, the department runs as a fully paid department. It was just, everything was different. And as a busy department, I mean you

Stephen J: (09:48)
Newberg. Yeah. GE still, still Newberg is not a place where there's a lot of development happening. Right. There's a lot of D buildings. Uh, it hasn't seen that resurgence that other places have started to see. It seems like it's got those little pockets. Right.

Tim: (10:02)
And then, yeah, it's, it's definitely little pieces here, there that are, it's kind of like beacon circle, like 96 when you start seeing the, the gems kind of shining through the rough,

Stephen J: (10:10)
But a lot of these buildings are abandoned that are burning, right?

Tim: (10:13)
Oh absolutely. We, we definitely see a lot of, of uh, the bigger fires. Usually the VA vacant ones because by the time they burn through the board up windows, right. It's well, advanced

Stephen J: (10:22)
Now are, are you thinking they're more arsons? Are they more accidentals they're vagrants, uh, their insurance jobs. What are you seeing over

Tim: (10:28)
There? It, it seems like when it comes to the, the vacant fires, it seems like it's more of the, the squatters, you know, candles and stuff like that. Just carelessness. Yeah. I mean, when you, when you hit living by candlelight, you don't really worry about the place burning down. And

Stephen J: (10:42)
To me, those are always the most dangerous because for you guys protect life and property, you know, the property it's dilapidated, it's abandoned, you don't really care. But when you understand that people are trying to live there because you have nowhere else to go, especially in the colder months, right. Then you guys are putting yourselves in danger of a building that's uninhabitable yet, you know, there potentially could be a life in there that you need to save. Right. I mean, to me, that's one of the worst things that you guys could go

Tim: (11:05)
Into. Right. And yeah, we still try to search those as best as we can because obviously the fire started somehow, especially where there's no electric or gas or any other utilities to the building. But also you have to remember, you know, in these neighborhoods they're row buildings. So right. You know, this one might be vacant and the one next might be vacant, but if we don't stop it here, it's gonna be going to the occupied buildings next door, where people are owning there or living

Stephen J: (11:26)
There. And you don't have that surrounding drown option with those,

Tim: (11:29)
Not really, uh, you know, I just had actually my first fire as an instant commander, um, beginning of the month and it was a three story, oh, four story vacant and two floors of fire and arrival. We hit it quick, you know, from outside to knock it down. But then the crews went in there with hose lines and, and, you know, went to work.

Stephen J: (11:49)
So let's back up a couple steps. You, you went over to Newberg, you surprised your dad, you say, Hey, chief, I'm outta here. And new

Justin: (11:54)
Newberg is a big place. People who aren't familiar with the geography of Newberg, it's a pretty large city.

Tim: (12:00)
Well it's size wise. The city itself is only like 3.7 square miles. Okay. But it's 28,000. And, and uh, according to the census of 28,000 in population, it it's like 8,000, uh, you know, people per square miles. It's pretty densely populated,

Justin: (12:17)
Very dense. Right. Which is even more important in those situations. You have one vacant building on fire. And like you said, all these other places are at a high risk of, of catching on fire as a result

Tim: (12:27)
Of that. Exactly. Especially, you know, the east end. It's all, they're all rowhouses. So it'll go right down. I mean, when you

Stephen J: (12:33)
Talk crime per population, Newberg is one of the most dangerous places. Not only in New York state in the country, right. The country. Yeah. You know, plenty done plenty of work in Newberg. Uh, I remember sitting on the, the street doing some surveillance and 10 minutes later we leave and there's a, a stabbing or shooting and, and that happened all the time. And it's just, it's, it's, it's

Justin: (12:54)
A shame too. It's such a beautiful, I mean, it has all the same assets that beacon has in terms of beautiful waterfront. And it's a nice area. Well, I'll tell you

Stephen J: (13:01)
If you've ever been to Nashville, Tennessee, and you stood up on Broadway up top by the Bridgestone arena and looked down that road and you have the row of bars and leads down to the stadium on the waterfront. Yep. Picture that just abandon, uh, not taken care of. And that's Newberg, Newberg said that wide Broadway, they don't have main street. They got Broadway. Broadway. Yep. Uh, but it goes down to the Hudson river mm-hmm and you could see it. I mean, if you took a picture, I remember there's a picture of, uh, Detroit, uh, during world war II and Detroit now, and a picture of hero Shima during world Wari and a picture now, and it it's like take a picture of Nashville and a picture of Newburg and that's the comparison. It really is. Absolutely. So now you you've, you've gone over there. Right. And now you're gonna start gaining rank at some point.

Tim: (13:47)
Yeah. And, and, um, I, uh, I was one of, you know, because I, in beacon, we mostly drove, SI had experience driving apparatus and that's one of the reasons that they hired me Newburg is because I had experience driving. So within six months I was qualified to drive everything, which is not, is one of the reasons I wanted to transfer is to not drive, be able to ride the back. But, but you know, it's kind of what you have to do, what you gotta do. Um, so, you know, as, as an, uh, as a show for a driver, you know, you, you learn different aspects and you kind of follow the officer on you to do that. Um, because of my transfer time, when I transferred, I wasn't able to sit for the lieutenants exam. I was like, I don't know, maybe six, eight months short of having the time. So I had to wait to the next, uh, lieutenants exam. I scored sixth. Uh, and that happened to be just a big promotion time. So I, I was promoted and I was a Lieutenant for six years. Wow. Although I was out, out on injury for one of

Stephen J: (14:39)
'em, did they call you the good Lieutenant? Uh,

Tim: (14:41)
I don't think they ever did. Oh, so that

Justin: (14:43)
That's not trademarked.

Stephen J: (14:44)
Uh, it it's gonna

Tim: (14:45)
Be, I don't, yeah, that can't right. They can't call me that anyway. Uh, I was stationed at the, for the most part at the single engine house. Basically it was first due to anything in the west end. Uh, you know, the chief was outta the downtown firehouse. So it was me for a little bit and it, you know, kind of put you in the spot. So you kind of got a little bit of experience that way, which was bad.

Stephen J: (15:03)
So after Lieutenant comes,

Tim: (15:05)
Well, generally it comes captain, but for you, for me when right to assistant chief,

Stephen J: (15:10)
I see what I happens here. Yeah. What's that?

Tim: (15:12)
Yeah. Uh, which is funny because captain is of course where you make the most money with the overtime and the, and the pay level. And of course I skipped over that spot. So it just, it was one of those things where, uh, I, I had taken both tests because as Lieutenant, if you have extra years, because it's more assistant chiefs than our captains, the way our, our, uh, setup is, you know, I was the like number three on the captain's list, but number two on the chief's list. And that's just how it ended up working out. And, and generally, uh, in our job, you know, you promot an assistant chief, you do have to do staff for a couple years, you know, Monday through Friday job that you really wanna do, but somebody's gotta do it. And then you hope to get a group and be a group chief. And for me, it was, uh, it was a kind of stars align, kinda like getting hired in the first place. And the, you know, they're gonna promote me and gimme you right, right. Into a group and have to do no staff time. So, uh, even though I'm young and I didn't really want get off the line, it was just, if I ever want this position, I have to do it now. Yeah. I call it

Stephen J: (16:05)
Hit in the wave at the right time. Exactly. You know, some people, when they get hired their, their minimum time that they have to take the test is just be perfect. And the amount of openings is just perfect. And then that wave for them just continues. And I've seen it for a couple guys on, on my job and, and others. And then there's those poor bastards that don't hit the wave. And you're like that, guy's a great firefighter that guy's a great cop, but just when the test happens, there's no openings. Uh, when they're able to take the test, there's no openings or they had a bad day or something happened. So that wave it's like it's luck, right. To a degree a little bit. Yeah. It's a little bit of luck, man. We'll, we'll always take luck over being good any day. So even on the test days, you scored six, you said, yeah, you're in six plays there. And it's usually that top three that get picked, but

Justin: (16:48)
Hey, say they say that about hockey players. What do they say about hockey players, hockey players, years who are born certain times of the year are statistically much greater to have success in hockey than the ones that aren't, because of all those things you just said, like being a certain age just at the right time. Yeah. Where you're the youngest person who's starting in a, you know, let's say an elementary school program, then you're the youngest person because the timing, uh, and, and all the, these things and, and that compounds, you know, having all those experiences like, like for, in your instance, having all that experience before you were 18, right? It's like now you're walking into a job at 18 you're three years ahead of everybody. Else's, that's a good point. And no matter how hard they work, they're probably not gonna catch up because it just gets harder and harder. You know, when you, when you're working a full-time job, it's a lot harder to, to do something new. Then when you're in school and you have a lot of free time. Uh, and, and yeah, like you said, it's a wave. It's just a wave of momentum. That'll keep you pushing

Stephen J: (17:41)
Forward. Yeah. I've actually seen that. Not only about hockey, but other sports for those kids that are born after the school year. Exactly. Just prior to that, you know, that next group where somebody would be held a little back, like it was October, your, the parents would hold you back. So those kids born late June to September, or those kids that are a little bit behind just developmentally. Right. For everyone else, whether it's sports or school. So I have seen that, especially being a July baby. Right. Right. You know, I've recognized that in myself, but to your point also about the experience for three years now, we're in a COVID time. Mm-hmm, now we're not talking public safety here. Let's get out of that for just a second. Let's talk about business and all these people that either took a furlough or, or stepped aside and received some government assistance or lost their jobs.

Stephen J: (18:25)
Those people lost time, lost experience in their, in their jobs. But these all other people, we either really stepped up or just took a job. I'm gonna tell you, I think they're gonna Excel in their, their opportunities. Cuz just like you said, three years experience that Tim walked in with these people already know the business already. Probably gonna be managers when we start really picking up hopefully soon. So 100%. I agree with you. So now we got Tim Dex. We're calling him chief Dexter. Now that's scary. Do they, do you think they're talking to your dad when somebody says, Hey, chief Dexter?

Tim: (18:55)
Well, he was actually, uh, never had the rank of chief. Oh,

Stephen J: (18:58)
So you were outran daddy now? Yes,

Tim: (19:00)
Technically. Yes I am. I like it. Uh, he was, he had a special position cause he ran the building department in beacon and he was a career fireman and beacon only had 12 career firemen. He ended up, uh, they created a position for him called uh, I think it was building safety coordinator, which was equal to the rank of Lieutenant. Okay. Um, and he was in charge of the paid side of the fire department cuz you know, the chiefs and all the officers were volunteers was kind of how to kind of that you know that, how do you have a volunteer? Yeah. How do you have a volunteer in charge of a paid guys? It was a little rough, but yeah. So they just, I said just maybe five, six years ago that hired a paid chief, but he didn't take that position.

Stephen J: (19:37)
What does he say when you got promoted to chief?

Tim: (19:39)
I was very happy for me.

Stephen J: (19:41)
You said good move. Finally going over there. Did he actually ever admit to you that it was a good move?

Tim: (19:44)
Uh don't know if you ever just said it was a good move, but he, you know, as I've increased rank, you know, he, every time he's, you know, I'm proud of you, how well you're doing over there. And, and I, you know, I think, I think he's proud of me for how far I've come, because if I stayed in, in beacon, uh, you know, it was a good job and the guys gave good money and they have good guys over there. And I always, whenever I'm in beacon, I always stop by the firehouse and, you know, meet the guys that are new and hang out with the guys that I used to work with. Um, but you know, the opportunities and new were way, way better than in beacon.

Stephen J: (20:13)
Did you ever try get your dad transferred to Newburg?

Tim: (20:15)
Oh, that would've never happened.

Stephen J: (20:17)
Never, I, sorry.

Tim: (20:19)
Dad's my town. I think he had 20 years on a job when I got on the job, so. Okay. Yeah. That wasn't gonna happen.

Stephen J: (20:25)
So you're doing the, the assistant chief thing. You're running your own, your group busy. Yes. Oh, but you guys have a little, like, I don't wanna say mascot. Is that the right word to call the guy?

Tim: (20:37)
Yeah, I guess, I guess you can call Nick the mascot. So let's

Stephen J: (20:40)
Talk about Nick. Well, let's talk about Barney first Barney. Yeah. Cause Barney's where it really started. Right for you guys. Yeah.

Tim: (20:46)
I mean, they've had Dalmations in the past, you know, Newberg is one of the oldest commissioned fire departments. Uh, I, I believe in the nation, it was like 13th commissioned in 1797. Oh wow. Um, and before the, the Newburg was even a village, there was the fire department. Uh, so there's big history of, of Dalmations and the horse run and stuff like that. And before I came on, they had blaze, uh, which was a dation, but nothing since I had been on there and you know, one day, you know, it was, we during the weather like today, you know, where was nice and cool in the mornings, like to roll the doors up, have a cup of coffee, sit on the bumper, you know, and wait for your relief to come in and you know, just kind of hang out. And one day we were there and there's a dog counting under one of the guy's trucks and like what with those guys.

Tim: (21:27)
So we had some leftover dinner and coaxed him in and he was nice and friendly. And uh, he was the, he was the, you know, first mascot with us. He was a, like a shepherd pit bull mix. And uh, you know, he has his own Facebook page and he became pretty famous uh, he was a little bit different than Nick where he, uh, he would had really bad at, so the bells would ring and he would run absolutely under the truck. He would launch himself into the truck. Wow. And there's a couple of times where guys had to grab him out of fires because as the guys went into the burning building, he would follow them and they had guy had to peel off off and like tie him to something. So he actually had to go to calls with you. Oh, he went to a tons of calls with us.

Tim: (22:06)
Holy he smokes. And he it's funny cuz he, he progressed in his career like the average fireman did, he rode the engine a lot, but then he moved over to the truck company and then he was tired of that and he just rode in the chief's car so he, you know, and, and he was running into burning buildings and he was running into burning buildings. And as he had older, you know, the simple ones, like the, you know, the box alarms that usually end up being false alarm, he would just lift said, man, I'm not going to this one. You guys say fine. so recognizing can, until this is gonna be born. He did, he really knew. That's great. So you had Barney? Yeah. And then unfortunately, yeah, he, he, uh, he had passed away from cancer. Okay. Um, and I tell you why I've never seen a, a bigger group of strong, brave men crying like babies.

Tim: (22:46)
Of course. And I was one of them of course stuff. Uh, I'm a huge dog. I get it. And he was, you know, he was a great dog. He never, never made a mess in the firehouses. Never ate your food. When he went out for a run, if he didn't go, he was great. Uh, so you know, we went a couple years without, uh, a dog and we actually had a big changeover in, I would say membership guys on the job. We had older guys retire. We ended up getting a grant, a safer grant and hired. Geez, I wanna say like over the next couple years, like 30 guys. Wow. So like the whole aspect of the job had changed. They never knew, uh, Barney. Um, and then, then came Nick and how did that happen? Uh, so I, I wasn't working, uh, you know, on this day, but um, I guess, you know, there again, there was, I believe it was another morning and there ship changed and someone came up to him and said, Hey, there's a dog tied to a fire hydrant down the street.

Tim: (23:41)
He's been there since yesterday. He was like barking and crying. So, uh, one of the, one of the officers, you know, went up, brought him, uh, brought him down. He was, you know, a friendly dog and he got along and everybody, you know, the guys liked him. And it's funny because Barney got his name from a captain who had just retired when we got the dog, his name was Barney. So we named the dog after the captain and his son was on the job, actually, one of my best friends and somebody said, Hey, look, it's like a skinnier younger version of Barney. We should call him Nick. So now we have the good Nick and the bad Nick. the good Nick is obviously the fire dog.

Stephen J: (24:16)
So I got some logistical questions. Mm-hmm the dog is there all day, every day. Mm-hmm you guys rotate? So you guys just take turns, taking care of them. Yeah. Uh, vets that

Tim: (24:28)
Bills, uh, all that stuff is the union takes care of that. That's outstanding. Yeah.

Stephen J: (24:33)
So you got Nick. Yep. And somewhere along the way, Tim Dexter has an idea.

Tim: (24:40)
Well, somebody gave me the idea. Okay. On the I'm giving you credit, but you can throw it credit. What credits do? Uh, actually, you know, we had the dog probably. I mean, now I didn't wanna say like, it's like five, six years now. We've had him and he was already a local celebrity. He has his own Facebook page with like 5,000 followers. Nick, the fire dog, Nick the fire dog. Yeah. If you go on Facebook and look up Nick fire dog, we we'll

Stephen J: (25:01)
Have a link to that. Yeah. Yeah. We'll

Tim: (25:02)
Definitely show notes. Um, you know, and he had a, you know, a turnout coat made somebody made it for him so that he looks like us, you know? And he loves that thing. And then we had a, a Fireman's ball a couple years ago and somebody made him dress blue uniform. So

Stephen J: (25:15)
Firemen have balls. Yep. interesting. The police don't have those.

Tim: (25:21)
That's why they're police. That's right. Not

Stephen J: (25:23)
Firemen. We don't like to get dressed up. Ants silly. anyway. Oh, I thought you were talking about something else. I know you

Tim: (25:31)
Were Justin. So he was already kind of a celebrity and uh, you know, I made a TikTok just kind of going over the story and it was, you know, I'm not a big talker. I just figured it'd be fun to make a video cuz why not?

Stephen J: (25:43)
Because everyone loves firemen. Right. And

Tim: (25:45)
Everybody loves dogs. Exactly. So I've figure they, why not? And everyone loves

Stephen J: (25:48)
TikTok. Yeah.

Tim: (25:49)
, that's, it's a big thing. So I, up having like 86,000 views on that one video and somebody had commented that, you know, this would make a good children's book. So I, you know, I was like, yeah, why not? So I, I kind of put pen to paper and kind of jotted down the story. And it was like 1800 words. It was way too big for a children's book. So I , I, I had left it for a while until, uh, I saw another tick tag that showed you how to basically publish your own children's book. I was like, eh, what do you think? So I, I went to my girlfriend at the time and says, Hey, I, I wrote this a while ago, read it. You know, what do you think? And she's like, this is good. Why, why don't you do this? I'm like, all right, sold.

Tim: (26:23)
So I kind of dumbed it down, I guess, which is the first time I've ever had to do that with anything I've written, usually goes the other direction. I sent it over to my sisters who, uh, my sister, you know, has two kids. And my younger sister usually watches them. They're better with the kids. So I was like, what do you think? And they gave me some notes and I changed some things around and went on fiber, found an illustrator, had an interview, a couple, found a guy I liked and said, Hey, this is what I'm looking for. And worked back and forth and made the book amazing.

Justin: (26:46)
Now, did you have any type of writing background prior to that? No.

Tim: (26:49)
No. And that's why I wrote a children's book cuz that's my reading level. So as far as I can, I can go,

Justin: (26:54)
No, that's still, that's a big accomplishment. It's not easy to put it all

Stephen J: (26:57)
Together. So I mean to get the illustrator you went out and you, you searched and, and you found a guy, you gave him the story. Did you sent him pictures of Nick? Yeah. I sent

Tim: (27:05)
Pictures of, of uh, Nick, like the actual firehouse, the actual fire HYT that we, we picked him up at and obviously, you know, it, it it's a children's book. It looks cartoony. It's not like an actual dis uh, you know, uh, but, um, yeah, I, I, I think it came out pretty good. Um, and you know, we, through some changes originally, it was just the words on the page with the picture. And I was like, okay, this is only 12 pages long. This is not long enough. And then what we ended up doing is we redid it and we extended the background to the other page. So as you look at it, both pages once that has the words, so you can read it and then the other side has pretty much what's going on in the picture so that the, when you're reading it to your child, you know, it works out so they can look at the pictures while you read. Very cool.

Stephen J: (27:45)
Very cool. It's just another way to just pad that book, make it look a little thicker pretty much. Yeah. Right. You learn that one in school.

Tim: (27:51)
Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's like double spacing, you know, shrink the margins,

Stephen J: (27:54)
Increase the font. Yeah. Yeah. I've been there just

Justin: (27:57)
Very, very, very, very, very, very good

Stephen J: (28:02)
So, so you get the illustrator doing the pictures replicates in cartoon world, uh, Nick and the firehouse and the fire HT and the streets. Uh, and, but what's the process of getting it actually made into that physical book?

Tim: (28:16)
Well, uh, you know, somebody who knows what they're doing, probably would've found a publisher and, and, and been very successful with it. I only knew how to do it. You can, self-publish on Amazon's KDP, uh, Kindle self-publish or Kindle direct publishing. And, uh, you know, I saw how you do it. So he formatted the book for me, the illustrator, and then through the process of, you know, signing up for Amazon publishing and stuff like that, they will basically make the book and it's print on demand. Okay. You know, I can, I can order, uh, author copies at what it call us to print and then, or, and they sell it, you know, at, at full market value on, on their site.

Stephen J: (28:49)
So somebody who wants to actually buy the book that may be listening can go right to Amazon and search Nick, the fire dog. Yep. And

Tim: (28:55)
Buy the book and then actually should pop right up and, and, uh, and yeah, they can purchase it there. Uh, if they're

Justin: (29:01)
Local, we'll put a link to that in the, uh, show notes as well. Absolutely.

Stephen J: (29:04)
There's one, one better Justin people who may be in this area in Hudson valley, who may wanna pick this book up with a little bit extra. Right.

Tim: (29:11)
Right. So we have a, uh, signed copies available at, uh, Oliver and Chatfield at 42 Liberty street in Newburg. That's like a, kind of like a, a gift shop if you would. Um, they have signed copies there and then you have the option. It's the same price as, as, um, Amazon, but you have the option also to add $5, which to donate to, uh, the Newburg animal shelter.

Stephen J: (29:31)
That's just awesome. Yeah. That's great. Wow.

Tim: (29:33)
And there is a stamp with, uh, Nick's paw print is also, so it's my signature and Nick's signature.

Stephen J: (29:38)
Well, I, I'm more cool AP to get the one with Nick's signature on it. Yeah. Yeah. So here, here's what we're gonna do. I, I know I'm buying a few books, uh, for some, from family and friends, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna say we wanna give one away if that's all right. Absolutely I'll buy it, but we're gonna give it away. So, uh, when, when this gets released and we put this out there, the first person that, that sends us, uh, Hey, we want the book. We're gonna make that happen.

Tim: (30:01)
That'd be wonderful. That's great. Very

Stephen J: (30:02)
Good. So now, now you're a published

Tim: (30:04)
Author, technically. Yes. Yeah.

Stephen J: (30:06)
A chief of a department. If you could go and talk to somebody who either maybe wants to write a book or wants to be a chief, what do you go back and tell those kids cuz listen, man, you did it like you started at 14, you walked the line

Justin: (30:19)
Actually, if, if we can back up for, just had of care at what at 14, what inspired you to get involved right. At that point? Was it because your, your father's role?

Tim: (30:28)
Yeah, I, I, I think, um, uh, my, you know, my fathers, a fire Sur, you know, he was a farmer before I was born. So I grew up in the firehouse and smells the firehouse and just going to visit him. And so you, you were

Justin: (30:38)
Exposed to your whole life anyway, you knew that's what I want to do.

Tim: (30:41)
Absolutely. And, and you know, the friends I grew up with were guys that he worked with kids and, and you know, the kids down the street who, because I like firefighting. They like firefighting and law enforce emergency services. And my whole friend group, you know, even in high school, we were all either volunteer firemen or police cadets or ambulance Corps members, or that's just what we did as our, my friend group. So very cool.

Justin: (31:00)
Yeah. So yeah. Now you look back at someone else who is a teenager. What do you tell

Tim: (31:08)
'em? I, I think first off, if you want to be any, any, you know, anything in, in the fire, in, uh, police, uh, EMS world, uh, take the civil service exam, take every exam, corrections, police, fire, take every test. Because even if you don't want the job, you have to be in it to win it. You can always say no once you're on the list, but you can't say yes, if you're not on the list. And plus it gives you that experience of taking civil service exams. You know, I, I took the New York city police department exam and FD and Y and, and I, I would've absolutely done FD and Y if I hadn't already been on the, when they offered me to come over, right. Uh, for like three years. But, uh, you know, I had no interest in being an N Y P D cop, but you know what? You gotta take the test. Yeah. I can decide that later.

Stephen J: (31:52)
Yeah. But I think it's one step beyond that because the tests get basic knowledge and I'm with you. I tell the people the exact same thing, but I also say, when you do take that test and you do well, and you're one of those top three people, hopefully what's gonna make you stand out and you've done that, man. You did that. You continue to do it. That's the stuff that I think the young people need to know is make sure you're getting an education. Make sure you're, you're already getting prior knowledge to the job. Right? Your CFR, your EMT, uh, your Explorer, cadet programs to be part of,

Tim: (32:24)
I, I think if you really truly like, this is what you want, you wanna be a firefighter. You wanna be a, like, this is, there was no, I'd like to be a fireman, but I could be an electrician or I could be a plumber, which are great jobs. But, uh, no, I was gonna be a firefighter. That, that was it. I don't care what I have to do. What's gonna happen if that's what you really wanna do then. Yeah, absolutely. Get your EMT, uh, your CFR join, you know, a volunteer agency where they can get you those classes for free mm-hmm um, there are a number of guys in my job that did not have to go to the fire academy because as volunteers, they had gotten pretty much all of their training through the volunteer and met their certification level. So for us, those guys, especially in a poor department where it costs, you know, 12 grand to send a guy to an academy, this guy who is already ACEs experienced enough, I don't have to send him to school. I gotta put 'em right on the line. Or maybe, you know, a couple weeks in house training. Those guys definitely were, uh, legal above others. Yep. So, absolutely do that kind of stuff too. I

Stephen J: (33:22)
Think it's a big deal. I think it's a really big deal for people to jump in there and not to mention while your way to get hired if you're taking those classes, especially through the fire service, uh, you're getting college credit for a lot of those classes now.

Tim: (33:33)
Yeah. Certain programs definitely do. I, uh, I was one of the first people to graduate, uh, Dr. Colleges, fire science program. And I got the, uh, associates in fire protection technology, which was the associates in applied sciences. I got hired actually after my first semester in college, I had basically an entire semester worth of credits from my fire academy and my EMT class. That definitely helped me towards that. And I, now I have my associates degree and you know, that, all that, all that kind of stuff helps.

Stephen J: (33:59)
We mention, uh, a kid, um, that's no longer with us and he is a good friend of you, his best friend, Dustin. Yeah. And you guys started a couple things to keep his memory alive. I, I, I think we should talk about that just for a second.

Tim: (34:13)
Just a little background, Dustin. And I grew up in beacon together. Uh, his mother and my father worked together and we've been probably best friends since eighth grade. Um, it was pretty much the Dustin and Dexter show, you know, we were always together and people would ask us, you guys brothers be like, yeah, we are. And he, you know, first, uh, first apartment together, you know, he went the police route. And unfortunately, you know, he, he passed in a tragic motorcycle accident. I've never seen such a outpouring of love for one person. Uh, even people that he had arrested were crying over casket. I just kinda give the, the what kind of a person he was, what kind of copy he was. Obviously we can't let you know his memory die. So we started the, uh, dust and James Fullen officer, uh, Memorial scholarship fund. Every year we have, uh, a golf out and it's usually an absolutely wonderful turnout at they have, we have it at the west Hills where him and his in his, uh, wife were married. We give, uh, scholarships to, uh, high school students graduating from either valley central, where his wife works or beacon, where we went, uh, they're looking to get into law enforcement. So we, we can give them a, uh, scholarship towards their college for that. That's great.

Stephen J: (35:16)
And is there a place that people could go to donate to that outside of the events?

Tim: (35:20)
Uh, we use, uh, community for foundation of, uh, orange and ster. Perfect. And yeah, you can donate to that with the Dustin James Memorial fund, uh, you know, and the memo or, you know, however they, they, yeah. We

Stephen J: (35:30)
Can put links to that in the show notes as well. And like, we've talked about before. I mean, those foundations that set those scholarships up, those never die, man. Yeah. Yeah. And that is so valuable, not only to the family, but to the community and to everyone who was close to Dustin. Yeah. I knew him so kudos to you. Cheers. My friend to that. Thank you. Yeah. I think that was definitely something that we wanted to mention. So we've talked about, you know, going back and talked to the youth. One of the questions Tim, that we always ask everybody is how do you define hero?

Tim: (36:02)
Oh, that's a tough one. People think of a hero. A lot of times I think of the, the big strong person that kind of comes and saves the day. But I, I don't think you necessarily have to be that to be a hero. I think you just have to do, I think you have to be a person that does the right thing when it's the hard thing to do. Uh, and when it's not expect w you know, sometimes people expect you to, to do a certain way, even though you should do something else, whether it's, you know, stepping in, in a fight or, or, you know, defending somebody who's being bullied, it could be simple as that. It just doing the hard thing when it, when it's, you know, the right thing to do is what makes a hero for me.

Stephen J: (36:35)
Well, I think you've done that you continue to do that, um, you know, starting at 14 and being on that right path and, and really living that straight life, you know, good job to your parents. Yeah. Thank you. You know, the, the influence that they had on you. Good job to you. Uh, I think you're, you're an absolute inspiration to a lot of young people. You know, I, I was a, I was one of those young people who looked up to people like you and what you've done and what you've accomplished, especially at your young age. Um, I'm, I'm proud of people like you, I'm proud of you, um, because there's not many people that can walk the line from a teenager all the way to the chief, uh, assistant chief of a department and say, man, I made a lot of right decisions cuz the right decision, like you just said is not, not always the easy one.

Stephen J: (37:19)
Usually it's the hard one. Mm-hmm especially as a teenager. Um, so great job. I, I think what you've done to keep Dustin's name alive is just amazing. Um, and you know, we're gonna help out with that as much as we can. Mm-hmm and then what you've done with the children's book, you know, nothing cooler than down with, with a little guy who's just learning to read or a little girl and read going over the book and making him smile, uh, and introducing him to the fire service and, and Nick, the fire dog, I think it's great. Yeah. And it's

Justin: (37:51)
An impressive accomplishment. I mean, you know, a lot of people have an idea, oh, I'm gonna write a book and you think about it. And then you, you stop thinking about it. You kind of put it in the back of your head and you don't get to it. So to see it from beginning, see it through, find the illustrator, get it published, deal with that's. That's very, uh, very

Tim: (38:05)
Cool. And, and I think one of the things with that is I think a lot of people have great ideas that they don't follow through. And, and this took me 18 months to do. And it wasn't because it took 18 months worth of work. Is I self doubted myself a lot and it was actually published on Amazon before I even told anybody at work. I was worried that they were gonna, you laugh at me and, and, and uh, you know, make fun of me for, for doing this. But, uh, I actually got a lot of support from the guys and they were very impressed. Um, just that I could actually write, I think, but ,

Stephen J: (38:32)
But we should be impressed.

Tim: (38:34)
I think that, you know, if anybody does want to do it, just do it, don't doubt yourself. Cause I think that was my biggest enemy was me.

Stephen J: (38:41)
Well, Tim, thanks. And again, we're gonna have, uh, this release and uh, somebody who's gonna say, Hey, I want that book and we're gonna, we're not gonna send it to the first person, like I said before, but we're gonna send it to the right person. I like that. That sounds good. All right. So Tim, thanks for joining us by, uh, thanks for having me. Appreciate

Justin: (38:55)
It. Yeah. And thank you for your service, Tim. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Stephen J: (39:03)
There we go. Again, another guest that doesn't fail to surprise us with his stories, with his knowledge, with his life's path and uh, just another remarkable guest.

Justin: (39:12)
Yeah. It still just blows my mind. He starts at 14 years old and goes down that path and becomes an author. The things he's doing for the community. It's just absolutely

Stephen J: (39:21)
Incredible. Well, like we mentioned, I have a signed copy of Nick, the fire dog. What are we gonna do with that? Well, you know, we've gone back and forth and if somebody wants Nick, the fire dog and they want this copy sent to them, get on Facebook page comment. We're gonna pick somebody. Who's got the best reason that we should send it out. It's not gonna put the first, the second. No, no, call it number five. Like we're a radio show cuz right. We're a podcast. This is

Justin: (39:47)
Who deserves it

Stephen J: (39:48)
The most. This is more let, let's get a little story and see who wants it more. So that's what we're gonna do. I think

Justin: (39:52)
It's a great idea. Well, this book will get into the right hands and we make sure of it

Stephen J: (39:57)
Signed first edition

Justin: (39:58)
Signed first edition.

Stephen J: (40:00)
Well, once again, thank you for listening to behind the 10 and hearing about how our heroes are heroes with the 10 on and off. Uh, be sure to like follow, share and subscribe to us. Uh, if you know someone that should be on the show, please send us email@behindthetenatgmail.com or just message us through Facebook

Justin: (40:16)
And why not share it with a friend, right? You, you get off the job tonight. You go out, you're having a drink with your buddies, let your friends know that they should be listening to this podcast.

Stephen J: (40:25)
If your business would like to be a sponsor of the show, you can reach out to us@behindthetentedgmail.com or if you'd like to be one of our cocktails over conversation sponsors, buy the crew a drink or buy the crew around. You could go to our Facebook page or again, just email us@behindthetengmail.com. Well, once again, thank you so much. Look out for one another and stay safe.