Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Fire twucks! Fire twucks! (sic)

Transcript

Fire twucks! Fire twucks! (sic) · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works
0:04
Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Beep beep.
0:14
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Fire Chief Bryant, and
0:18
Speaker 1: there's Jerry Fired Commissioner Rolling. I'm just a Class one firefighter.
0:25
Speaker 1: But that's okay, because this is stuff you should know.
0:28
Speaker 1: The fire Truck Edition, I should say, I think every
0:32
Speaker 1: time we say fire truck, we should say fire twalk
0:36
Speaker 1: okay for the whole episode, because that's about the level
0:40
Speaker 1: of engagement that everyone can expect from us this episode,
0:44
Speaker 1: because I love fire trucks, Like my inner three year
0:48
Speaker 1: role is like, yes, let's do this and give me
0:50
Speaker 1: like a Fisher Price drum to bang on while we're
0:53
Speaker 1: talking about it could be one of those xylophones. And
0:56
Speaker 1: if you hear me sighing repeatedly, just to give you context,
0:59
Speaker 1: it's elect and day and I'm just in a bad movie.
1:04
Speaker 1: Don't get political, Chuck, I'm not. I'm just oh hard.
1:09
Speaker 1: What was it I said? I said, I'm already dreading
1:11
Speaker 1: my hangover that I'm gonna have tomorrow and I haven't.
1:14
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not going to drink for a
1:15
Speaker 1: few days. Proceeding Tuesday. Oh you're saving your liver up. Yeah,
1:20
Speaker 1: just because man, let's do let's talk about fire trucks.
1:23
Speaker 1: They're happy. Let's have you been on our our fire truck. Yeah,
1:29
Speaker 1: our company fire truck. It's the way back machine is
1:31
Speaker 1: now he tricked out fire truck. Uh. Yes. And you
1:37
Speaker 1: know what's funny to bring this full circle, we have
1:41
Speaker 1: in one of our little quiet rooms. We have little
1:43
Speaker 1: quiet rooms you can go like take a phone call sometimes. Um.
1:49
Speaker 1: And we have one of our old school illustrations that
1:52
Speaker 1: we used to blow those up and frame them a truck. Yeah,
1:55
Speaker 1: the old house stuff works website, Dempsey and it looks great.
2:00
Speaker 1: And so I was on the phone this morning. I
2:03
Speaker 1: got up early to go vote Emily. Emily texted me, um, which,
2:08
Speaker 1: by the way, is I mean, I got it out
2:10
Speaker 1: of the way, but I waited in a longer line
2:12
Speaker 1: than you know, that first rush. It's a longer line
2:16
Speaker 1: than at like nine fifteen. Emily was like, yeah, so
2:22
Speaker 1: I guess I kind of had to I go vote.
2:24
Speaker 1: Emily calls me and says that my daughter is upset
2:27
Speaker 1: because she thinks I went to vote, and she's upset
2:33
Speaker 1: because I didn't take her sailing, so she's crying. Emily's like,
2:37
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. Can you get on
2:39
Speaker 1: FaceTime at least and show her that your work. I
2:40
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, and not sailing, and they're like, let
2:43
Speaker 1: me put on my captain's head just a message. I
2:46
Speaker 1: thought about that. So I go in the quiet room,
2:48
Speaker 1: get on FaceTime, and in the background of FaceTime, is
2:52
Speaker 1: that fire twuck? And that immediately took over the conversation
2:57
Speaker 1: because she was like fire truck and all kids love
3:00
Speaker 1: fire trucks. Jerry's just talking about her her daughter loves
3:03
Speaker 1: fire trucks, and so in a weird way, Uh, it
3:07
Speaker 1: all just sort of came around. I want to get
3:10
Speaker 1: in on this too. Mama loves fire trucks as well.
3:13
Speaker 1: Most dogs hate fire trucks. Oh she loves them. Man,
3:15
Speaker 1: My dogs howl at the moon. Oh yeah, doesn't do that. Really.
3:20
Speaker 1: Sirens don't. Yeah. I does not big on thunder. Yeah,
3:25
Speaker 1: my dogs don't mind thunder, but they hate their sirens.
3:29
Speaker 1: Let's just hit there. Their hearing just right, I guess,
3:32
Speaker 1: or maybe they're singing songs of love. Yeah, They're like
3:35
Speaker 1: I didn't I've never asked, to be honest, but they
3:39
Speaker 1: howl at sirens. So I want to settle something right
3:43
Speaker 1: out of the gate that I never understood. You've heard
3:46
Speaker 1: of a fire truck, you've heard of a fire engine.
3:51
Speaker 1: You've probably heard somebody point to a fire truck and go,
3:54
Speaker 1: there's a fire truck, and then somebody else points to
3:56
Speaker 1: that same fire truck and says, there's a fire engine. Yes,
3:59
Speaker 1: it's interchange bowl. That's actually wrong. There is a difference
4:03
Speaker 1: between a fire truck and a fire engine. And the
4:06
Speaker 1: difference is yeah, but still in the practical world of
4:12
Speaker 1: just people and kids, largely semantical, but yeah, there is
4:16
Speaker 1: a difference. So people and kids who are wrong, Well,
4:19
Speaker 1: let me let me say this. We will explain to
4:21
Speaker 1: you the difference, and then it's up to you if
4:23
Speaker 1: you want to go around to people and say that's
4:25
Speaker 1: a fire truck not a fire engine. Actually, we should
4:28
Speaker 1: advise you now not to do that. Don't do it,
4:31
Speaker 1: but just hold that knowledge in your in your brain. Sure,
4:34
Speaker 1: So what's the deaf uh just saying it to yourself
4:38
Speaker 1: is if that's a big difference, Well, one actually holds
4:40
Speaker 1: water and that the main diff Yeah, if you take
4:43
Speaker 1: away the word fire right from fire truck and fire engine.
4:47
Speaker 1: You've got an engine and a truck, and if you
4:50
Speaker 1: understand the origin of fire engines, it will make total sense.
4:54
Speaker 1: Fire engines were originally just a water pump used to
4:58
Speaker 1: douse water on a fire. Wasn't on a truck, wasn't
5:01
Speaker 1: on wheels. It was on a sled that people dragged
5:04
Speaker 1: from one place to another in the seventeenth and eighteen
5:07
Speaker 1: centuries in Europe. In America, it was an engine for
5:10
Speaker 1: pumping water. Right, yes, and if today, if you are
5:15
Speaker 1: appropriately using the word fire engine, what you're talking about
5:18
Speaker 1: is a vehicle with four wheels. That is basically the
5:22
Speaker 1: point wheels. It's to five wheels, four and a half.
5:26
Speaker 1: You got a one in the center. Is to is
5:28
Speaker 1: to move a giant amount of water and pump and
5:32
Speaker 1: some hoses to a fire to douse water on the fire.
5:36
Speaker 1: Same thing as it was in the sixteen eighties, it
5:38
Speaker 1: is today. It's just updated to make it a lot
5:41
Speaker 1: more easy to get it from point A to point B. Right,
5:45
Speaker 1: that's a fire engine. What's a fire truck. Well, a
5:47
Speaker 1: fire truck doesn't have that water tank full of water, right,
5:52
Speaker 1: it has like ladders firefighters. Um. It can even be
5:56
Speaker 1: hooked up to a hydrant. Yeah, but it's it doesn't
5:59
Speaker 1: like if you live that out in the sticks and
6:01
Speaker 1: you're your little farmhouses on fire, which is super sad.
6:05
Speaker 1: But in other words, if you don't live near a
6:07
Speaker 1: fire hydrant, you can still get that fire put out
6:10
Speaker 1: if you have a fire engine nearby. Right, And usually
6:13
Speaker 1: if there's like a structure fire something, the first truck
6:16
Speaker 1: that shows up is going to be the fire engine.
6:18
Speaker 1: They're they're gonna say, we need to get the water
6:20
Speaker 1: and usually the foam out there and start spraying this
6:24
Speaker 1: thing down. And a fire truck may not even show up,
6:28
Speaker 1: depending on how the fire engine does controlling the fire
6:31
Speaker 1: with the water or but they show because they're kind
6:34
Speaker 1: of just poured any right, they are born. They're like,
6:36
Speaker 1: we've cooked chili five times today. I'm so tired of chili. Um.
6:42
Speaker 1: But the fire truck, if it does show up, it'll
6:44
Speaker 1: show up with a bunch of firefighters who probably aren't
6:47
Speaker 1: gonna mess with any hoses. They're gonna run in there
6:49
Speaker 1: and rescue people. They're going to collapse holes into the
6:53
Speaker 1: roof to get the water, and they're they're they're like
6:55
Speaker 1: assisting the people with the hoses and we'll get much
6:59
Speaker 1: more into depth of out this, but let's let's talk
7:01
Speaker 1: about the history of fire engines a little bit. You're
7:03
Speaker 1: ready for that, yeah, because, like you said, they were
7:05
Speaker 1: pulled by people, uh, and that you know the downside
7:09
Speaker 1: of that. There are many downsides of that, but one
7:10
Speaker 1: of the biggest ones is once they get to the
7:13
Speaker 1: actual place where they need it, they're tired, Yeah, pulling
7:16
Speaker 1: like a giant metal tank of water with a pump
7:18
Speaker 1: attached to it. So they're like, we're here, but we
7:20
Speaker 1: can we're not very good uh for work right now
7:24
Speaker 1: we're here, We're tired. Eventually they started to use horses,
7:32
Speaker 1: but again, you know, these things were heavy, so even
7:34
Speaker 1: horses wore out, you know, after you know, six or
7:38
Speaker 1: seven blocks. These horses were like, now I'm tired. The
7:43
Speaker 1: people would be like, are you tired, horse, and the
7:45
Speaker 1: horse would just stomp once. Yeah, you know, so that
7:48
Speaker 1: that helps all problems. But it was really the advent
7:51
Speaker 1: of the you know, not the fire engine, but the
7:54
Speaker 1: car motor. Well yeah, first it was the steam truck
8:00
Speaker 1: exely um. But the early firefighters are like, those things
8:03
Speaker 1: blow up and they're not very reliable, so it actually
8:06
Speaker 1: didn't catch on very Well, it wasn't until like the
8:09
Speaker 1: motor powered vehicle, like a diesel powered motor engine, a
8:12
Speaker 1: combustion engine. That's what I'm looking for. Yeah, and I
8:15
Speaker 1: think about the nineteen tens when fire engine started carrying
8:18
Speaker 1: those or being moved around on those, that's when it
8:22
Speaker 1: really started. And then for a little while until like
8:25
Speaker 1: the twenties or thirties, steam and horse drawn firefighting equipment
8:30
Speaker 1: to the fire trucks, whereas like the fire engine moving
8:33
Speaker 1: this heavy, huge amount of water, that was a combustion
8:37
Speaker 1: engine that did that. Yeah, and then uh, it says
8:39
Speaker 1: here in nineteen eleven, those mac trucks started pumping out
8:44
Speaker 1: engines and motorized vehicles. That really changed things. Uh. And then,
8:49
Speaker 1: of course, if you listen to our Skyscraper's podcast the
8:53
Speaker 1: nirties building building started getting taller and taller, and or
8:56
Speaker 1: our Hotel fires podcasts, and then that became a problem.
9:00
Speaker 1: They're like, we just figured out how to get here quickly,
9:03
Speaker 1: and now you're building these tall buildings that catch on fire.
9:06
Speaker 1: So that's when these ladder ladder technology started. You know,
9:11
Speaker 1: they were kind of forced to ramp up their their
9:14
Speaker 1: game in terms of getting people higher and higher up. Yeah.
9:17
Speaker 1: So when you when you had like horses finally pulling stuff, um,
9:23
Speaker 1: you still had tired firefighters who had to run to
9:26
Speaker 1: the fire. So they put on sideboards, and then that
9:30
Speaker 1: just made it harder for the horses. So finally somebody said,
9:32
Speaker 1: let's just separate these two things. Let's come up with
9:34
Speaker 1: fire trucks and fire engines, and the fire trucks are
9:37
Speaker 1: going to move the firefighters to the fire so they
9:39
Speaker 1: won't be tired. And then somebody said, well, now we
9:41
Speaker 1: have skyscrapers, so now we need a different kind of truck,
9:44
Speaker 1: the ladder truck. So technically, and from what I can tell,
9:48
Speaker 1: you're going to find components of all these and I
9:52
Speaker 1: think all of the different kinds of fire. Let's just
9:55
Speaker 1: calm fire trucks, okay, Um, but there are also specialized chucks,
10:01
Speaker 1: Chucks that specialize in delivering water, chuck that specialized in
10:05
Speaker 1: delivering equipment, and and then chucks that specialize in ladders. Yes, okay, yes,
10:12
Speaker 1: so that's kind of you can have it all in
10:14
Speaker 1: one truck, or you can have it broken out into
10:16
Speaker 1: three specialized trucks. Yeah, and in what kind of trucks
10:19
Speaker 1: you have in your local municipality or county depends on
10:25
Speaker 1: a lot of things, how well funded, how many people
10:28
Speaker 1: live there, how rural it is, or how jam packed
10:32
Speaker 1: it is. UM And it's really, I mean, it's a
10:34
Speaker 1: science in itself in a city like New York to
10:38
Speaker 1: make sure you're covered fully, you know, like every nook
10:41
Speaker 1: and cranny of New York City is covered. What was
10:44
Speaker 1: that UM early like computer civilization simulation called I think
10:49
Speaker 1: it was called like civilization or something like that. That
10:52
Speaker 1: was it a game? Yeah? I don't know, but there
10:54
Speaker 1: was a thing where like fires would break out in
10:57
Speaker 1: your town and if you didn't think about that, did you?
10:59
Speaker 1: If you write so, you had to send out the
11:01
Speaker 1: fire brigade, and if you just neglected it, then all
11:04
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the area around it would fall into
11:06
Speaker 1: ruin and then they'd be like discontent among the population.
11:08
Speaker 1: And like, man, I was having fun building a shopping mall,
11:11
Speaker 1: and now I have to deal with this burned out building. Right. UM.
11:15
Speaker 1: I can't remember it was called I'm sure we're going
11:17
Speaker 1: to hear it wasn't the SIMS, was it. It was?
11:19
Speaker 1: It was much less sophisticated than the SIMS, but very
11:23
Speaker 1: engrossing for sure. I've never played one of those. I
11:25
Speaker 1: think that was actually the slogan the quote on the box.
11:28
Speaker 1: Much less sophisticated than SIMS, but very engrossing. Nonetheless, Uh
11:33
Speaker 1: so with World War two or post World War two
11:35
Speaker 1: is when you got these buckets? Um, I don't think
11:39
Speaker 1: we mentioned the bucket brigade. You know, you've heard that term.
11:42
Speaker 1: That was pre fire engine and that's when they, you know,
11:45
Speaker 1: had long lines of men filling up buckets of water
11:48
Speaker 1: and handing them to the guy next to you. That's
11:50
Speaker 1: how they fall fire. Pretty amazing that I saw. I
11:53
Speaker 1: just want to say, real quick, I saw, I think
11:54
Speaker 1: on Twitter there was a bookstore and I believe the
11:57
Speaker 1: UK that moved locas down like down the road thanks
12:02
Speaker 1: to basically a bucket brigade of volunteers who just handed
12:05
Speaker 1: it book by book. Then they charged the guy a
12:11
Speaker 1: book burning brigade. I think I thought you were a
12:13
Speaker 1: volunteering So post World War two is when we got
12:17
Speaker 1: what we know as cherry pickers. Um, if you've ever
12:19
Speaker 1: seen these buckets on an extended arm, like maybe someone
12:24
Speaker 1: repairing the phone line or the cable guy or whatever,
12:26
Speaker 1: it's the same thing. It's um a much safer way
12:29
Speaker 1: to rescue someone than throwing them over your shoulder at
12:33
Speaker 1: the top of the ladder, which they'll still do. Yeah,
12:35
Speaker 1: there's ladders that will extend you up and buddy, you're
12:38
Speaker 1: hanging on to the top of the ladder. Man. But
12:40
Speaker 1: if you're in a bucket, no, I can't because they
12:45
Speaker 1: have ladders that go up you know, like fifteen stories.
12:48
Speaker 1: There's a hundred that's a fifteen story building. Just standing
12:51
Speaker 1: on the top of the ladder, I would literally lose
12:54
Speaker 1: my mind. Yeah, you're not cut out to be that guy. No,
12:57
Speaker 1: I'm not. Um a bucket, I would just crawled down
13:00
Speaker 1: in the bottom of and be like give me to
13:02
Speaker 1: have and just scream that the whole time. But I
13:04
Speaker 1: don't think I would lose my mind. I just you know,
13:06
Speaker 1: lose my s well. But most of those buckets are
13:09
Speaker 1: open sided anyway, so you still and they have railings
13:13
Speaker 1: and stuff. But no, it doesn't matter. I've been in
13:17
Speaker 1: one of those on a film set, like I've been
13:19
Speaker 1: pretty high up in a cherry picker um, and it's yeah,
13:23
Speaker 1: I mean there, I don't have the big heights thing.
13:26
Speaker 1: But I was still kind of like, now, if this
13:28
Speaker 1: isn't something happened, that would be in bad shape. I
13:31
Speaker 1: imagine if you actually were also afraid of heights, if
13:33
Speaker 1: you had like the rational fear and then the irrational
13:36
Speaker 1: fear combined. But yes, some of them do have this
13:40
Speaker 1: with the ladder. They the ladder will go up and
13:43
Speaker 1: then it's um usually on a turntable, which is basically
13:46
Speaker 1: a gear that moves it left and right, but with
13:49
Speaker 1: one of those cherry pickers. Usually it's an arm that
13:52
Speaker 1: has like at least one or two joints in it,
13:55
Speaker 1: so you can kind of move that thing all over
13:57
Speaker 1: like one of those robot arms. Yeah, you got litt
14:00
Speaker 1: joystick yeah, uh, and you're it's just like playing a
14:03
Speaker 1: video game. It's like a rock on socker robot, but
14:05
Speaker 1: with a fire But the nineteen sixties is where we
14:08
Speaker 1: really sort of got to where we are now with
14:12
Speaker 1: the quote unquote modern fire engine. Um, and since then
14:16
Speaker 1: it's just gotten even better. Yeah, they're not all red. Yeah.
14:21
Speaker 1: If you don't have a red fire engine, though, it's like,
14:24
Speaker 1: what are you doing those white ones do you? Yeah,
14:26
Speaker 1: that's kind of cool. I've seen communists to me, or
14:30
Speaker 1: the yellow ones? What is that? Uh? Yeah, I've seen
14:35
Speaker 1: yellow ones. I think I have to say, Charles, when
14:38
Speaker 1: I was researching this article, there is um no more
14:43
Speaker 1: guarantee of local press coverage than a city buying a
14:47
Speaker 1: new fire truck. I cannot tell you how many entries
14:51
Speaker 1: there are for different towns around the country. Look what
14:54
Speaker 1: we got the fire department debuts new fire truck. Yeah,
14:58
Speaker 1: they're all so shiny all the rome. They're like, look
15:01
Speaker 1: at how much it costs because it's tax payer owned. Yeah,
15:06
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. I think it's cute. I think we should.
15:09
Speaker 1: I mean, I would love to do another follow up
15:11
Speaker 1: at some point on like firehouses, because the whole thing.
15:15
Speaker 1: I mean, there's something about being a kid. You're just
15:17
Speaker 1: enthralled by it because you walk by. You know, there's
15:20
Speaker 1: one right there in oak Hurst behind where all the
15:22
Speaker 1: restaurants are, so people with kids are constantly walking by
15:27
Speaker 1: this thing, and the doors always open, and the firefighters
15:31
Speaker 1: are always sitting around, like I mean, obviously unless they're
15:34
Speaker 1: on an active fire. There there, they look like they're
15:38
Speaker 1: just enjoying each other, and they always smile and white
15:41
Speaker 1: the kids in and to take a look, and it
15:43
Speaker 1: just it's such a cool job. Come on and have
15:45
Speaker 1: some chili. I love it is there a cooler job
15:47
Speaker 1: where you're like putting your life on the line, but
15:49
Speaker 1: you're still you know, so just like I've been on
15:53
Speaker 1: military basis, those those people aren't just hang military basis
16:00
Speaker 1: can chili and you're back back. Yeah, I know, but
16:03
Speaker 1: you don't want that. Let's just to keep you a
16:05
Speaker 1: long sea rations something joyful about that chili? And uh,
16:09
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think you make a good point.
16:11
Speaker 1: Do you want to take a break? All right, let's
16:14
Speaker 1: take a break and we'll talk about what's on these
16:16
Speaker 1: amazing trucks? Okay, everybody, let's get down to it. What's
16:48
Speaker 1: on fire? Let's start with the fire engine? This how
16:52
Speaker 1: stuff works article? The way was it dry? It was trying. Um,
16:57
Speaker 1: there was a lot of what's it called when you conflate?
17:02
Speaker 1: I guess a lot of conflation where basically they make
17:05
Speaker 1: it sound like it's all just on one truck. And
17:07
Speaker 1: I guess it was because I think they made a
17:09
Speaker 1: visit to a North Carolina fire department to look at
17:12
Speaker 1: their truck and then base the entire article on that.
17:15
Speaker 1: But the writer it was kind of funny, It's like,
17:17
Speaker 1: and then there was this thing, and then there was
17:19
Speaker 1: this thing and this thing was cool. And then they
17:21
Speaker 1: had a thing here and they let me sit and
17:23
Speaker 1: pull the run the sirens. Uh. But you know, again,
17:28
Speaker 1: this is not they're all shapes and sizes. I think
17:32
Speaker 1: this is sort of just a standard. When you see
17:35
Speaker 1: a standard fire engine, you can count on a lot
17:38
Speaker 1: of this stuff being on it. Is that okay? Yeah,
17:42
Speaker 1: so uh, one thing that you're gonna you're gonna have
17:45
Speaker 1: on an engine is a big tank of water. Is
17:48
Speaker 1: an engine mostly right, But you also have the ability
17:52
Speaker 1: and this is really neat if there's a lake nearby
17:54
Speaker 1: or a swimming pool even or obviously fire hydrants are
17:58
Speaker 1: are handy. Um, you can suck water from those things
18:02
Speaker 1: and use it. But it's it doesn't just go straight
18:06
Speaker 1: into a hose. Um. It runs through the truck and
18:10
Speaker 1: then through the I mean there are hoses that attached
18:12
Speaker 1: to this stuff or suck it out. But but you're
18:14
Speaker 1: running it through the central engine. Um, so you can
18:18
Speaker 1: regulate all that stuff. Right. And like an engine has
18:21
Speaker 1: three components, Like every fire engine has at least three components.
18:24
Speaker 1: A tank filled with water that it transports to the fire,
18:28
Speaker 1: A pump that pressurizes that water from being pumped out
18:31
Speaker 1: and then lines or hoses that that they'll pumped out
18:35
Speaker 1: water shoots from onto the fire. So many hoses and
18:38
Speaker 1: a lot of different hoses. This article spelled out every
18:41
Speaker 1: single one of them. Yeah, And what I gathered to
18:44
Speaker 1: was they want options, options, options, so they can have
18:50
Speaker 1: speed speed speed, so hoses like they'll they'll have the big, huge,
18:56
Speaker 1: you know, five footer, but then in compartments they'll have
19:00
Speaker 1: footers and fifty footers because they just want to be
19:02
Speaker 1: able to get water the fastest possible way. And that's
19:06
Speaker 1: not all the times with the longest hose. Yeah, and
19:10
Speaker 1: it's also not necessarily uh, the hose with the widest
19:13
Speaker 1: diameter that's the best for the job, right right, Um,
19:16
Speaker 1: it could be a smaller fire so you don't need
19:18
Speaker 1: quite as much water. So there there is a lot
19:20
Speaker 1: of um, a lot of split second decision, but decisions
19:25
Speaker 1: in in hose selection basically, and from what I gather,
19:28
Speaker 1: the fire captain is telling the crew like, we're probably
19:31
Speaker 1: gonna need these hoses. You take this hose, you take
19:33
Speaker 1: that hose, um ready break kind of thing on the
19:37
Speaker 1: way to the fire. So it's not like the individual
19:40
Speaker 1: firefighters are necessarily deciding for themselves, although I could be wrong.
19:45
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm totally speaking out of turn, but
19:48
Speaker 1: just cobbling together separate facts. That's the impression I have. Yeah,
19:52
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think I mean, obviously, when
19:55
Speaker 1: they get there, there's an assessment period that's super fast
19:59
Speaker 1: on the way A. I think you're right. I think
20:01
Speaker 1: they have an idea because they've been radioed. We've got
20:03
Speaker 1: a you know, an apartment building that's four stories in
20:06
Speaker 1: this many units, and the fire is largely on the
20:09
Speaker 1: top floors. So on the way, the captain who sits
20:12
Speaker 1: in the passenger seat is radio ing too the firefighters
20:18
Speaker 1: in what's called the jump seat area, which is that
20:21
Speaker 1: little area behind which carries like what six people four
20:24
Speaker 1: to four to six to eight people in a fire
20:27
Speaker 1: engine from what I see. So they're radioing back and saying,
20:30
Speaker 1: all right, when we hit the ground, we're gonna need
20:32
Speaker 1: three one footers. And they're different ports on the you know,
20:36
Speaker 1: sides or the back or the top of the fire engine.
20:39
Speaker 1: It's not just like, well there's only one area where
20:42
Speaker 1: we can get this water. Uh Again, they just want
20:45
Speaker 1: all sorts of options so when they get there, they
20:48
Speaker 1: can kind of hit the ground running, right, So they
20:50
Speaker 1: literally hit the ground running when they get there. The
20:53
Speaker 1: um driver the House of Works article made it sound
20:57
Speaker 1: like the driver is invariably the pump up rader. I
21:01
Speaker 1: don't know that that's true or not, but there is
21:03
Speaker 1: somebody who's designated the motor pump operator, the MPO, and
21:08
Speaker 1: they look at you, you know, uh, they hop out
21:13
Speaker 1: and they jump up onto the truck and they start
21:16
Speaker 1: the pump. And the first thing that happens when that
21:19
Speaker 1: pump starts um. At the very least, this housetuf Works
21:23
Speaker 1: article had a truck that had an impeller water pump
21:26
Speaker 1: on it, and it uses centrifugal force like it's rotors
21:30
Speaker 1: like a turbine, basically spinning really fast, and when water
21:33
Speaker 1: hits it, it slings it outside and in doing so,
21:36
Speaker 1: the centrifugal force applied to it creates pressure, so it
21:40
Speaker 1: pressurizes the water and they open the valve in the
21:44
Speaker 1: tank because remember they've got maybe a thousand gallons of water, right,
21:50
Speaker 1: it's a ton of water. Um. They and they turned
21:53
Speaker 1: the pump on and they open the valve that dumps
21:56
Speaker 1: the tank, the water from the tank onto the pump.
21:58
Speaker 1: So that's being pressure and then the pump sends it
22:02
Speaker 1: out to the hoses. And the reason that they do
22:04
Speaker 1: this is they want to be able to start dousing
22:07
Speaker 1: this flame, this fire with water immediately. But at the
22:10
Speaker 1: same time they're also looking around for the fire hydrant
22:13
Speaker 1: to connect to for like you said, a pond to drain,
22:16
Speaker 1: to drain from a swimming pool nearby. They can drain
22:18
Speaker 1: your swimming pool if they need to to turn what
22:21
Speaker 1: are you gonna do get that out of my pool?
22:24
Speaker 1: I don't like that neighbor that much, um. But they're
22:27
Speaker 1: looking for other sources of water, and they can actually
22:29
Speaker 1: set up something called a drop tank, which is basically
22:32
Speaker 1: a collapsible portable pool above ground pool. Is that what
22:37
Speaker 1: that is? Yes? Okay, that was a little confusing. It
22:40
Speaker 1: was a little confusing, um, But yeah, it's just something
22:43
Speaker 1: that just is semi rigid that you stand up and
22:46
Speaker 1: other fire trucks can come in from other areas and
22:49
Speaker 1: dump their tanks into the pool, and then you've got
22:52
Speaker 1: the main fire truck drawing water out of it. So
22:55
Speaker 1: it's like a temporary holding facility. But you're looking for
22:58
Speaker 1: another source of water. Is if you have a thousand
23:00
Speaker 1: gallon tank and you're using one of them, the hose
23:05
Speaker 1: lines that's spewing out a thousand gallons a minute. You
23:08
Speaker 1: have one minute of water. Do the math. You need
23:11
Speaker 1: a lot more than that. So, um, that's just basically
23:14
Speaker 1: to get things started while the other firefighters on the
23:18
Speaker 1: engine hop off and start connecting to another source of water,
23:23
Speaker 1: whether it's a fire hydrant or a pond or swimming pool. Yeah,
23:26
Speaker 1: I want to I would like to hear from some
23:28
Speaker 1: fire fighters about use of the onboard water versus drawn water.
23:35
Speaker 1: But I have a feeling you're probably right, is that
23:38
Speaker 1: that's just for the immediate Like while you're getting hooked
23:41
Speaker 1: up to the hydrant, we're gonna go ahead and and
23:43
Speaker 1: douse this thing. Yeah. Time is of the essence. Time
23:46
Speaker 1: is of the essence, of course. Um, So all these lines,
23:49
Speaker 1: it's really kind of beautiful in its simplicity. These lines
23:53
Speaker 1: are color coded, so the hoses and the lines all
23:58
Speaker 1: have color, so the purse and up there doesn't have
24:01
Speaker 1: to like you know, again, with time being of the essence,
24:04
Speaker 1: it's very simple. Which, uh, because they're in control up
24:07
Speaker 1: there on that board of which hoses are being enacted
24:10
Speaker 1: at any given time, and there are you know, their
24:14
Speaker 1: relief valves built in, so if you shut off one
24:18
Speaker 1: one hose, the other one doesn't go. Whoa yeah, all
24:22
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's all the waters going to that
24:24
Speaker 1: one turns into like a cartoon fire hose, you know,
24:27
Speaker 1: like eight people. It's like that. What was that? Uh?
24:30
Speaker 1: Oh Roxanne the Steve Martin movie. Yeah, did that happened
24:34
Speaker 1: to that? Yeah? That was sort of the updated version
24:36
Speaker 1: of Cyrano diverge diversion diversia irac Oh. I'm familiar, no,
24:40
Speaker 1: but I couldn't pronounce it right. It wasn't that all right.
24:44
Speaker 1: But they were firefighters, But did they end up like
24:46
Speaker 1: being There were some funny scenes where Steve Martin's like
24:50
Speaker 1: on the telephone and in the background at a at
24:53
Speaker 1: a practice fire like zane nous is going on in
24:57
Speaker 1: the background. I don't remember that at all. A good movie.
25:01
Speaker 1: Block that out the whole movie, at least that part. Uh,
25:06
Speaker 1: all right, So that's that's what's going on with the water. Um.
25:10
Speaker 1: There's also foam like you were talking about. Uh, these
25:13
Speaker 1: days this this foam. Uh, fire retardants do a great
25:17
Speaker 1: job of Sometimes they'll spray it on to make sure
25:20
Speaker 1: something doesn't catch on fire. I don't get the picture
25:24
Speaker 1: that it's always to put out a fire, is that right?
25:26
Speaker 1: I think they use phone to make sure stuff doesn't reignite. Yeah,
25:30
Speaker 1: depending on the type of foam, or depending on the
25:32
Speaker 1: type of fire, you'll use a different type of foam,
25:35
Speaker 1: like one prevents. Class A I think is to prevent reignition,
25:41
Speaker 1: right of like maybe like a hot wood fire. Maybe
25:44
Speaker 1: it says here Class B is more for car fires
25:48
Speaker 1: or where if there's like gasoline that could you know, ignite. Yeah,
25:52
Speaker 1: and I was looking into very I think actually foam
25:55
Speaker 1: deserves its own podcast because apparently it's like fire for
25:59
Speaker 1: super Tixic and like routinely destroys water supplies when it
26:04
Speaker 1: gets in it. But I also saw that they make
26:07
Speaker 1: some from proteins, which is, you know, it's natural, so
26:11
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's fine. You can probably eat it after
26:13
Speaker 1: a fire or something. What does that mean? Is it
26:14
Speaker 1: like we turned a cow into foam? Probably that's what
26:19
Speaker 1: glues from. Oh in jello? Yeah, jellouh? Wait? Did we
26:31
Speaker 1: I think we did? No? That was lego? No, dude,
26:33
Speaker 1: I think we did remember jello molds? Did we? Yes? Oh?
26:38
Speaker 1: Good lord? Oh it was a good one. If I
26:40
Speaker 1: remember correctly, I have no memory of that. I really
26:43
Speaker 1: believe that we did an episode on Jello, all right,
26:46
Speaker 1: and I think it was good. See this is why
26:48
Speaker 1: when people ask us on stage, like what was your
26:51
Speaker 1: favorite episode, it's like I say Disco every single time
26:54
Speaker 1: because it's the only one I can remember routine ley.
26:58
Speaker 1: But there's so many, literally hundreds of episodes that I
27:02
Speaker 1: love that we've done, which makes me feel very proud
27:05
Speaker 1: of our work. You know, the fact that we don't
27:07
Speaker 1: look back on it and say, like, you know, just
27:11
Speaker 1: jackhammers basically, um that I think it's great. I agree
27:16
Speaker 1: not to pat ourselves on the back or break our
27:18
Speaker 1: arms doing so. I'm just saying I'm kind of proud
27:20
Speaker 1: of what we've done over the last decade. Agreed. Congratulations, congratulations?
27:25
Speaker 1: Um So the hostes, Yeah, yeah, I forgot that. She
27:30
Speaker 1: just gave you a little She's got a salad she's eating.
27:34
Speaker 1: She's not even paying attention. Um So, hoses are called blinds,
27:39
Speaker 1: I think on the job, um like on firefighters don't
27:42
Speaker 1: calm hoses now they call them line. Yeah, yeah, you're
27:45
Speaker 1: a chump if you call it a hos Hey, what
27:47
Speaker 1: kind of hoses that you'll get laughed out of fire.
27:50
Speaker 1: So cross lay hoses are hoses. Um well, I think
27:55
Speaker 1: that you are laid on the ground, is that right?
27:59
Speaker 1: I believe that they are coiled up, laying over one another,
28:03
Speaker 1: and they're easy to get to on the side of
28:04
Speaker 1: the truck. You can just grab the end of it
28:06
Speaker 1: and run. And they may even be pre connected. There's
28:10
Speaker 1: a type of hose that's it's pretty appropriately named pre preconnect.
28:16
Speaker 1: It's already connected. So if you're the pump operator and
28:19
Speaker 1: you see one of your guys running with the preconnect three,
28:22
Speaker 1: you turn on Indigo Lever three, that's right, maybe yellow four,
28:28
Speaker 1: whatever it is, and now all of a sudden they've
28:29
Speaker 1: got water coming through it. Yeah, they have booster lines.
28:33
Speaker 1: I mean again, we're not going to go through all
28:35
Speaker 1: these different lines, but it's just very easy to say.
28:38
Speaker 1: They all vary in diameter and link depending on what
28:41
Speaker 1: your needs are. Depending on the diameter, um that that
28:46
Speaker 1: will that will determine how much water can come through
28:48
Speaker 1: at a time. And some of them are up to
28:51
Speaker 1: a thousand gallons a minute. But again, that's your whole
28:55
Speaker 1: tank in a minute. And I was like, gosh, that's
28:57
Speaker 1: so fast. That's that must be like Olympic pool in
29:01
Speaker 1: in an hour or something. No, it's eleven hours. So
29:04
Speaker 1: if you're a firefighter and you are putting out a
29:07
Speaker 1: fire next to an Olympic sized pool, you're like jack, yeah,
29:12
Speaker 1: ye swimmers are bummed. Though, Yeah, it would take to
29:17
Speaker 1: fill in those things up. Uh, well, it depends on
29:19
Speaker 1: what kind of hose. I'm sorry line right. Uh. The
29:24
Speaker 1: real fun part though, like if every child an adult alike,
29:28
Speaker 1: um always wants to look at that deluge gun and
29:32
Speaker 1: that is the thing that is not a hose, but
29:35
Speaker 1: it is the thing that sits atop of the fire
29:37
Speaker 1: engine that is like uh, sort of the equivalent of
29:41
Speaker 1: the the Gatlin gun on top of the tank in warfare.
29:45
Speaker 1: That you can just point that thing and water is
29:47
Speaker 1: being sucked from the the hydrant straight through. So it's
29:52
Speaker 1: regulated an into that deluge gun and just a massive,
29:56
Speaker 1: massive amounts of water can go really really high and
29:59
Speaker 1: far up. It's kind of that simple, it is, And
30:03
Speaker 1: I imagine that's you know, I don't know if everyone
30:06
Speaker 1: I am curious to hear from firefighters, like if you
30:08
Speaker 1: have a permanent designation or if it's a tiered thing,
30:12
Speaker 1: like you work your way up to deluge gun or
30:14
Speaker 1: if that's the lowest job, because it is, because it's
30:19
Speaker 1: because you're just there on the truck, and maybe the
30:22
Speaker 1: more experienced firefighters are on that ladder going into the building,
30:25
Speaker 1: or if they just take turns or drop straws, like
30:28
Speaker 1: that's what. I don't know. I don't know either, but
30:29
Speaker 1: I would guess that if you're manning the daily or
30:32
Speaker 1: human ng the deluge gun, you are pretty experienced because
30:36
Speaker 1: you've got basically the whole truck's about the water at
30:39
Speaker 1: your fingertips or whatever water you know, all the water
30:42
Speaker 1: in the world. Sure connected, But if you haven't connected
30:44
Speaker 1: up yet, and they're like, start with the deluge gun,
30:47
Speaker 1: which from what I understand, would be something that they
30:49
Speaker 1: would do because use the day luge gun to kind
30:51
Speaker 1: of dampen down the fire that initial you can get
30:54
Speaker 1: closer to it with the lines, you know, and the personnel.
30:59
Speaker 1: So yeah, it might be like the first thing you
31:01
Speaker 1: hit a fire with the pen. So maybe the most
31:03
Speaker 1: experienced firefighter because if you put the rookie back there,
31:06
Speaker 1: they're like, you're that building is not even on fire
31:10
Speaker 1: and you just in your pointing the wrong way Jackson,
31:15
Speaker 1: because they go by last name. I think somebody's there's
31:18
Speaker 1: got to be a firefire named Jackson, firefire Jackson the rookie.
31:23
Speaker 1: Uh again. More hoses. They have hoses called curb jumpers
31:29
Speaker 1: because they're on the curb. They have hoses that that
31:35
Speaker 1: are just carried up like that you can put over
31:38
Speaker 1: your shoulder. It's called a hose pack. It's like all
31:41
Speaker 1: bundled together, so you might carry that on your shoulder
31:44
Speaker 1: up the ladder in order to once you get in there,
31:47
Speaker 1: you're like, I need another fifty ft hose. Man, I'm
31:49
Speaker 1: inside and you've got one slung over your shoulder, bundled together,
31:53
Speaker 1: ready to go. They also have hoses that will run
31:56
Speaker 1: up ladders too, so there's a line that will run
31:59
Speaker 1: alongside the are usually a five inch diameter line, which
32:02
Speaker 1: I think five I d um. I think pumps two
32:08
Speaker 1: and fifty gallons a minute. It's a significant um, that's all.
32:13
Speaker 1: I mean. That's a lot of water. But they do
32:15
Speaker 1: that so that, if you know, you can shoot water
32:18
Speaker 1: down onto a fire, which can be helpful for like
32:21
Speaker 1: a roof fire or something like that. And then they
32:23
Speaker 1: also have a lot of different nozzles too. You know,
32:26
Speaker 1: a different nozzle does different jobs, like, um, if you
32:30
Speaker 1: have a piercing nozzle, I hadn't heard about one of these.
32:33
Speaker 1: They sound extremely dangerous. It can shoot right through walls
32:37
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing like drywall walls, probably not a brick wall,
32:40
Speaker 1: but who knows. I'm sure it could shoot right through
32:43
Speaker 1: a window. But if you have um a fire in
32:46
Speaker 1: another room and you can't get to it, you just
32:48
Speaker 1: use one of those piercing nozzles and it shoots right
32:51
Speaker 1: through the wall. You know what I call that? If
32:52
Speaker 1: I was a fire person a master blaster. To get
32:56
Speaker 1: the master blaster up here, you gotta shoot through some
32:58
Speaker 1: sheet rock. Wasn't that the guy with the small guy, yeah,
33:03
Speaker 1: controlling the bigger guy. And beyond the Thunderdome, right, that
33:09
Speaker 1: was the only one they appeared in, wasn't it. You
33:11
Speaker 1: just nailed all of that. Thank you. I didn't spoiled
33:15
Speaker 1: beyond the Yeah, except you have to say it like
33:18
Speaker 1: Tina Turner. You have to say massa blasta. I can't
33:22
Speaker 1: improve on what you just did. Uh. And then there's
33:25
Speaker 1: the ladders. Of course, like you said, some of these
33:28
Speaker 1: bad boys can go like a hundred and fifty feet
33:32
Speaker 1: in the air via hydraulics, which is totally frightening. If
33:37
Speaker 1: you're going that high up, the truck is going to
33:39
Speaker 1: have what are called out riggers, and those are basically
33:45
Speaker 1: just these huge, um heavy metal legs that come out
33:50
Speaker 1: from the side of the truck and land on the ground.
33:53
Speaker 1: To really stabilize that truck, they expanded center of gravity
33:56
Speaker 1: so it doesn't tip. Yeah, but there's so it's so
34:00
Speaker 1: much pressure and force. They actually have to put down
34:03
Speaker 1: pads in between the out rigger and the ground so
34:06
Speaker 1: that doesn't just go right through the ass crushed the
34:08
Speaker 1: concrete sidewalk. Ye, it's pretty pretty cool. Um, this is
34:12
Speaker 1: all cool. Yeah, it's so funny how the little kid
34:15
Speaker 1: comes out when you start talking about this stuff. Just
34:18
Speaker 1: like big heavy things. You want to take an ad break.
34:22
Speaker 1: I need to settle down. Yeah, we need to put
34:25
Speaker 1: our inner five year olds in time out. Okay, we're back.
34:58
Speaker 1: Our inner five year olds are being very quiet and
35:00
Speaker 1: and they're behaving. Yes, So we've got the fire engine done,
35:06
Speaker 1: fire or ladder truck done basically right, that ladder is
35:09
Speaker 1: telescoped up, you got the outriggers in place. It's a
35:13
Speaker 1: four alarmed fire and things are going well. So um,
35:19
Speaker 1: you're probably going to see other fire trucks show up. Yes,
35:23
Speaker 1: this is the classic literal version of the fire truck,
35:26
Speaker 1: which is basically a UM human and equipment transporter. That's
35:32
Speaker 1: what it's for. Yeah. And you know if you look
35:34
Speaker 1: at a fire truck and they've got all those compartments
35:37
Speaker 1: running along the sides, they are all full of goodies, um,
35:42
Speaker 1: all kinds of fun stuff. You're talking about the nozzles.
35:45
Speaker 1: Of course, there's something called a barrel strainer. So if
35:48
Speaker 1: you have to throw, uh, if you have to suck
35:50
Speaker 1: water out of a lake, um, you don't want to
35:52
Speaker 1: suck up fish through there. While that would be kind
35:55
Speaker 1: of funny looking, it would be mean. It would be
35:58
Speaker 1: super mean. Have you ever seen video they salmon ladder?
36:02
Speaker 1: Now I've seen that. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Fish ladders. Um,
36:05
Speaker 1: but when they when they it's not seed of stock,
36:08
Speaker 1: when they stock a lake. Oh yeah, sometimes they do
36:10
Speaker 1: it from airplanes. And have you seen the one of
36:13
Speaker 1: the close up of the fish just going like I
36:16
Speaker 1: have not? It's it's something to see. It's either animal
36:20
Speaker 1: abuse or it's a wild ride that the fish is like, Man,
36:22
Speaker 1: that's cool. I think it's both. Yeah, and now I'm
36:25
Speaker 1: in a big new home and then someone will catch
36:28
Speaker 1: me by putting a hook through my mouth, right, and
36:31
Speaker 1: they're like, you'll never really far guard here. Emily gets
36:35
Speaker 1: so sad when she sees fisher fisher people. Yeah, yeah,
36:38
Speaker 1: she just can't help. But think of the fish, even
36:40
Speaker 1: catching release. Uh yeah, and I've said that. It's like,
36:44
Speaker 1: what about catching and leash? She's like, what would you
36:46
Speaker 1: want someone to hook you, pull you out of the water,
36:49
Speaker 1: and then just remove the hook and throw you back in.
36:50
Speaker 1: She makes a good point. She does what else? There's
36:54
Speaker 1: all sorts of of tools to like bust through walls
36:57
Speaker 1: and pull down ceilings. Yeah, well that's so okay. Let's
37:01
Speaker 1: just let's put this out there. If you show up
37:03
Speaker 1: on a fire engine, your job is to run lines.
37:05
Speaker 1: You're running the pump. You're the captain being like do this,
37:08
Speaker 1: do that? Somebody light my cigar, that kind of thing.
37:11
Speaker 1: If you show up on a ladder truck, you're probably
37:13
Speaker 1: working a ladder. Um. If you show up on a
37:16
Speaker 1: fire truck, you are there to work the fire. You're
37:20
Speaker 1: there to rescue people inside the fire. Same with the
37:23
Speaker 1: ladder truck, probably too. Um, you're there to manage the fire.
37:27
Speaker 1: You're tracking it to see if it's moving from one
37:30
Speaker 1: place to another or if it's starting to die down.
37:33
Speaker 1: You're in there pulling down sheet rock with a pike
37:36
Speaker 1: pole yeah, um, if you're pulling it from the ceiling
37:39
Speaker 1: or a Halligen tool. Yeah, if you're pulling the walls down,
37:43
Speaker 1: that maybe Helligan actually probably sounds irish, right um, which,
37:48
Speaker 1: by the way, I want to say, Rescue Me is
37:50
Speaker 1: probably the greatest firefire related TV show of all time.
37:55
Speaker 1: I've never seen it. The Dennis Leary Show. Oh it
37:59
Speaker 1: was really good. Really, yeah, it was bonkers, but it
38:02
Speaker 1: was very good, very and Dennis Leary does a great job.
38:06
Speaker 1: I'm surprised you watched that. It just doesn't seem like
38:08
Speaker 1: a Josh show. Yeah. I was into it for a
38:09
Speaker 1: while that and then the shield too interesting. Yeah all right,
38:14
Speaker 1: you know me that much better now, So, uh, it
38:19
Speaker 1: probably is. The Halligan tool is my point. But you're
38:21
Speaker 1: in there, if you're a firefighter who showed up on
38:23
Speaker 1: a fire truck, you're messing with the fire to make
38:25
Speaker 1: it easier for the line operators to get water onto
38:30
Speaker 1: the fire where it's needed, right, Yes, exactly. Depending on
38:36
Speaker 1: how advanced your truck or how much dough your municipality has.
38:40
Speaker 1: You might have the jaws of life on your truck,
38:42
Speaker 1: which I thought about. I even looked at that article
38:45
Speaker 1: to see if that was worth doing one on. Well, uh,
38:49
Speaker 1: it may just be thirty minutes of us talking about
38:52
Speaker 1: how the fact that it is a super high powerful,
38:55
Speaker 1: hydraulic powered uh can opener. Okay, so I think the
39:00
Speaker 1: sounding very good. It might have been like jackhammers. Okay, no,
39:03
Speaker 1: we'll steer clear that. Yeah, but the jaws of life
39:06
Speaker 1: everyone knows is that super high powered hydraulic can opener
39:11
Speaker 1: that can cut someone out of a car, which is great. Uh.
39:14
Speaker 1: Exhaust fans never really thought about that, but um, there
39:17
Speaker 1: are a couple of types of fans uh. And exhaust
39:19
Speaker 1: fan is when you would put in an entry way
39:22
Speaker 1: to suck out smoke. They also have positive pressure fans
39:25
Speaker 1: to blow air through and out the other side. And
39:29
Speaker 1: I imagine they can work in concert with one another
39:31
Speaker 1: depending on their placement. Do you remember Greg who was
39:34
Speaker 1: an illustrator for a while too. It's like illustrator day
39:38
Speaker 1: that worked with us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he had a
39:41
Speaker 1: house fire and he said, like his house is generally fine,
39:44
Speaker 1: but the insurance companies considering totaling his house just because
39:48
Speaker 1: of the smoke damage. Yeah, like it just gets everywhere forever. Yeah,
39:54
Speaker 1: and you can't do anything about it. It's actually really
39:56
Speaker 1: not good for you, yeah, to to like live with
39:59
Speaker 1: that as it's dissipating for years and years and years.
40:02
Speaker 1: You know, I never really thought about that. You always think, like,
40:05
Speaker 1: you know, the structures damaged and compromise, but right, the
40:08
Speaker 1: structure can be intact and the smoke can can total
40:12
Speaker 1: a house. I when I worked as a p A,
40:15
Speaker 1: I did an errand one time for a very uh
40:18
Speaker 1: not wealthy, but pretty rich producer to his condo in
40:22
Speaker 1: Santa Monica, which had to have caused like a couple
40:26
Speaker 1: of million bucks. And I walked in by myself. He
40:29
Speaker 1: wasn't there gaming the keys, and it was the stinkiest.
40:32
Speaker 1: He was a smoke cigarette smoker, and he had been
40:36
Speaker 1: smoking in that place with the window shut for years.
40:39
Speaker 1: And this two million dollar sweet ocean view condo was
40:44
Speaker 1: the most discuss It smelled like a bar, like the
40:48
Speaker 1: next morning was ruined, ruined, And I just can't imagine, like,
40:53
Speaker 1: I mean, do you desensitive used used to smoke? It
40:55
Speaker 1: doesn't matter was he not notice it or just not care? No,
40:58
Speaker 1: he doesn't notice it. Interesting, he has not knows it.
41:00
Speaker 1: Maybe if he comes back from a vacation or something,
41:03
Speaker 1: you might be like, oh it smells a little like
41:05
Speaker 1: vaguely smokey. I better get it going again or something. Man,
41:09
Speaker 1: it was so stale and gross man like, yeah, like
41:12
Speaker 1: for any if he wants to sell it, you would
41:14
Speaker 1: have to sell it to a smoker, because any savvy
41:16
Speaker 1: person who understands the health risks of that is like this,
41:20
Speaker 1: this place is done. You would have to pull up
41:22
Speaker 1: the floors, pull out the wall um, pull out the ceiling,
41:27
Speaker 1: just strip it to its bones. Yeah, I'm scratch remember
41:32
Speaker 1: thinking man and he had a balcony. It's like it's
41:37
Speaker 1: so lazy. Uh. What else do they have? Bolt cutter, sledgehammers, chainsaws,
41:44
Speaker 1: small ladders? You know you see him running with a
41:46
Speaker 1: ladder over their shoulder like a ten or twelve footer.
41:48
Speaker 1: They still have those little guys. Uh, And it's all
41:51
Speaker 1: very useful. They basically have everything. A lot of them
41:53
Speaker 1: have E M. S equipment or repelling rope. It's just
41:57
Speaker 1: like everything you can think of. Yeah, basically to save lives.
42:01
Speaker 1: That's why you'll see like a fire truck at the
42:03
Speaker 1: scene of like a heart attack or something like that,
42:05
Speaker 1: because the ambulance might actually not have everything they need
42:11
Speaker 1: for a medical emergency, so they'll send the fire truck out,
42:14
Speaker 1: which seems like a colossal waste of resources and money.
42:18
Speaker 1: But I think I think something you said earlier might
42:20
Speaker 1: explain it a little bit. They're a little bit bored.
42:23
Speaker 1: Maybe they're like, oh, hard attack, let's go. I'm sure
42:27
Speaker 1: it's nothing like that. Okay. What what my hope is
42:29
Speaker 1: from the show that we'll hear from firefighters that are like,
42:33
Speaker 1: you guys got kind of most of it right, and
42:34
Speaker 1: thanks for shining a light on us. It's the best
42:36
Speaker 1: we can hope for. Uh have you heard of did
42:42
Speaker 1: you look up these tiller trucks? You know that, like
42:44
Speaker 1: the coolest job is to drive the back of that thing. Yeah,
42:48
Speaker 1: those are called tiller trucks and tiller drivers, uh drive them.
42:55
Speaker 1: And it's a little cockpit, one person cockpit. I got
42:59
Speaker 1: this from Hot Odd magazine. And you have to, of course,
43:02
Speaker 1: take a certification test to make sure you can drive it.
43:06
Speaker 1: And as everyone knows, or maybe you may not know this,
43:09
Speaker 1: but the whole trick to those things. Is you gotta
43:11
Speaker 1: steer the You gotta get into your head that you
43:14
Speaker 1: steer opposite. So when you're making a right hand turn
43:17
Speaker 1: up front, um, you've got to turn that wheel left.
43:21
Speaker 1: I could not do this. They don't have that kind
43:23
Speaker 1: of coordination. It would be tough. Huh yeah, as you
43:26
Speaker 1: do it, yeah, I mean I think you get used
43:28
Speaker 1: to it if that's your job, Like you wouldn't want
43:30
Speaker 1: to be like right again. But when you're driving your car,
43:33
Speaker 1: you just crashing this stuff all the time. Maybe it
43:36
Speaker 1: like you gotta be able to flick that switch in
43:38
Speaker 1: your head because you know, obviously if they're turning right,
43:42
Speaker 1: you're turning that back wheel left. It makes it much
43:44
Speaker 1: more maneuverable. And apparently they are as long as they
43:47
Speaker 1: are if you've got an experience uh tiller person back there,
43:52
Speaker 1: they are really super maneuverable on city street. Well that's
43:55
Speaker 1: why they exist. Yeah, It's like it's way easier to
43:57
Speaker 1: get a very long truck that's cut into two. They
44:00
Speaker 1: can take tight corners rather than one long truck that's
44:04
Speaker 1: one you know, one long length of truck. Yeah, that's
44:07
Speaker 1: that's the whole reason they're there. I never understood that
44:09
Speaker 1: until like yesterday. Yeah, and apparently they really work well,
44:13
Speaker 1: um in in cities especially. Uh. And here's a couple
44:17
Speaker 1: of little tricks that I never thought about. There's a
44:19
Speaker 1: light on a rod at the on top of the
44:22
Speaker 1: front cab and as that's your that's there for the
44:26
Speaker 1: tiller driver tiller steerer to look at as their center point.
44:31
Speaker 1: Like that's how they center their wheels. And if they
44:34
Speaker 1: make a turn, they count because you know, you gotta
44:36
Speaker 1: straighten back out afterward. They count like two and a
44:39
Speaker 1: half rotations on the wheel for this turn, so two
44:42
Speaker 1: and a half back in the other direction to get
44:44
Speaker 1: straight again. I'm you're actually making me anxious right now.
44:48
Speaker 1: I'm imagining myself having to do this like on the
44:51
Speaker 1: way to a fire on a busy city street. Well,
44:54
Speaker 1: they're usually apparently the first person of the ladder two,
44:56
Speaker 1: So that is not the job for you, tiller driver
44:59
Speaker 1: and lader guy. I quit. Yeah. Uh. And it's funny
45:03
Speaker 1: they they interviewed and and took a like a coarse
45:06
Speaker 1: test the hot rod author and they asked, so you're like, well,
45:10
Speaker 1: what happens if if you turn it the wrong way?
45:14
Speaker 1: And they're like, well, then you're on the curb and
45:17
Speaker 1: you're knocking out cars and people. They're like, it's not good. Um,
45:22
Speaker 1: pretty cool though, Yeah, I think they said the Here
45:26
Speaker 1: here's another stat the operating angle for a ladder. Normal
45:30
Speaker 1: operating angles about six seventy degrees. And the biggest hassle
45:35
Speaker 1: of the ladders is uh wiring. Oh I could I
45:39
Speaker 1: ail bet anything about that? You don't want to get
45:41
Speaker 1: it tangled up? And no? No, good, very interesting. Don't
45:47
Speaker 1: got anything else. I'm fired twalks. No, I want to
45:50
Speaker 1: try out tiller truck. I wonder if they let civilians
45:53
Speaker 1: like us just like get out in a big, close
45:56
Speaker 1: down parking lot. It probably depends on, um, the level
45:59
Speaker 1: of corruption of the mayor of the town that the
46:01
Speaker 1: fire truck lives in. Well, they let the hot Rod
46:04
Speaker 1: magazine guy do it. Oh he's a journal Yeah that's
46:07
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Like they cooked it up for like
46:09
Speaker 1: we could probably cook up a reason. Right. Yeah, we'll
46:11
Speaker 1: be like, uh, we're doing another episode on fire trucks
46:14
Speaker 1: and we need to do this tillar tests. Yeah, and
46:17
Speaker 1: they went, don't you mean fire twalks? Like you're speaking
46:20
Speaker 1: our language, buddy. If you want to know more about
46:23
Speaker 1: fire twalks, go down to your local fire station, maybe
46:28
Speaker 1: ask them for some chili. They'll love for They'll love
46:30
Speaker 1: you to ask them for a tour. I guarantee you
46:32
Speaker 1: they'll if they're not busy, they'll say sure, come on
46:34
Speaker 1: in and they'll they'll probably give you some chili without asking. Yeah. Um,
46:38
Speaker 1: and since I said chili, it's time for a listener mail,
46:44
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this one on war Masks that I was.
46:48
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty good episode. Hot off the presses. Yes,
46:51
Speaker 1: it was a good episode, Chuck, Greetings from Dublin. Hey guys,
46:54
Speaker 1: fairly recent listener. I moved to Ireland from the UK
46:57
Speaker 1: about a year ago, and not knowing many people, you
46:59
Speaker 1: guys have kept me uh provided a real comfort for me.
47:03
Speaker 1: I just listened to the episode on war mass something
47:05
Speaker 1: already kind of knew about. I used to work for
47:07
Speaker 1: a publisher specializing in military history, and while I found
47:10
Speaker 1: the glorification of war it's sickening, it was weird. It
47:12
Speaker 1: was weirdly interesting to me, the effective injury mental and
47:16
Speaker 1: physical on the on the soldiers. We published a book
47:19
Speaker 1: called The Whistlers Room about so called uh deformed German soldiers,
47:24
Speaker 1: and she puts that in quotes as if to say,
47:27
Speaker 1: you know, it's not the proper nomenclature. Yeah, getting medical
47:31
Speaker 1: treatment at a hospital before heading back out into the wider,
47:34
Speaker 1: wider world. The men were called whistlers because due to
47:37
Speaker 1: the injury, they could not breathe through their mouths or noses,
47:39
Speaker 1: instead had holes cut in their throats, which created a
47:42
Speaker 1: whistling noise. The book, in turn led me to a
47:45
Speaker 1: film called The Officers Award. It's a French film h
47:49
Speaker 1: les Chambre the Officia based on a novel based on
47:54
Speaker 1: a true story and following a French military engineer who
47:57
Speaker 1: suffered extreme injury to his space and throat on his
47:59
Speaker 1: first day of action in World War One, and his
48:01
Speaker 1: treatment involved facial trauma, uh and a war mask. The engenuity, ingenuity, compassion,
48:08
Speaker 1: and perseverance showed by the doctors and nurses was apparently
48:11
Speaker 1: very accurate as where the treatment shown. It is utterly compelling,
48:15
Speaker 1: heartbreaking and I recommend it. That is from Hanna mc adams.
48:19
Speaker 1: Keep up the cracking work. Love that. Uh So it's
48:23
Speaker 1: called The Officer's Award French film. I'm gonna check it out,
48:25
Speaker 1: yeah for sure, or the schenbre The Office their let's
48:31
Speaker 1: try to Okay, I think you did it better, Chuck.
48:34
Speaker 1: Good work, Thanks Hannah. Great name to Hannah McAdams, kind
48:38
Speaker 1: of like rolls off the tongue like a punch. If
48:41
Speaker 1: you want to get in touch with us, like Hannah
48:42
Speaker 1: McAdams did, you can find us at stuff you Should
48:45
Speaker 1: Know dot com. All of our social links are there,
48:48
Speaker 1: or you can send us all an email to Stuff
48:50
Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com for more on
48:57
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
49:00
Speaker 1: works dot com