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Chris Ferrara & Specialized Resources For A Modern Fireground · B Shifter

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you really can't get into this fight until you have everything there.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: You got to have the water source, you got to have the phone source, you got to have the techniques.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, let's size up the situation.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to tell you what's going to happen.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're going to tell you, you know, if you if that tank is so close to the other tank, the roof is going to blow off on the other one.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you that's going to happen probably in about an hour.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: You better, you better be looking up for which way you want to run if you want to stay there.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just run the opposite way when that tank comes off like a saucer, you know.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's always the balance.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to take the smoke, the toxic smoke out of the air, or do you want to put the fire out?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what what is best?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so we're surely there as an asset.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: We consider ourselves uh, you know, the experts.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when we come in, you know, we bring a team of qualified and industry experts.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not only do we have certified industrial firefighters, we have paramedics on staff, we have equipment operators on staff, we have our own radio system, own bunker gear, we have our own command posts, we have, if we're in a rural area, we have a cooking trailer, we have our own restroom trailers, we have our own bunk trailer, so we can be a city in ourselves in a remote area that we can bring all of this logistically out to uh to make this happen.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the B Shifter Podcast.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: John Vance here.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be joined by Josh Bloom, the co-host in just a few moments.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: And along with us today is Chris Ferrara of U.S.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Fire Pump.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You may have heard that name because he was also a manufacturer of fire apparatus, and he is again a manufacturer of fire apparatus, and we'll talk about that.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: But mostly today, we want to talk about industrial firefighting and his capability, especially when it comes to large facilities within your jurisdiction that will need more resources than you possibly have.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll talk about what his capabilities are.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: When do you call an industrial fire company to come out and help you take care of a large fire problem?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And when I'm talking about large fire problems, Chris has put out fires that have literally been burning a decade.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So he's gone into places where they've had recycling plant fires that have been going on for over 10 years and has putting those out, put those out.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: So he's he's got uh at his disposal probably more pumping capability than any one entity in the United States.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll talk about that with Mr.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Chris Ferrara coming up here.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's uh been with U.S.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Fire Pump, a company that he founded since 2014.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Prior to that, uh fire apparatus manufacturing, an expert on industrial firefighting, especially in the petrochemical world.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And he started as a volunteer firefighter who was a pipe fitter and just wanted to build fire apparatus for his fire department.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll get into all of that today, here on the V Shifter Podcast.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Glad you're with us.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for being here today.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: We want to learn a little bit about what U.S.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Fire Pump is.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about your company and what you're capable of doing.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, John.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Really glad to be with y'all today.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, U.S.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Fire Pump, well, let me back up a little bit.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been in this fire industry for some 45 years.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I started a small fire truck company called Ferrero Fire Apparatus many years ago and had an opportunity to exit that back in 2017 and really couldn't stay home and do nothing.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, with my firefighting background, and and so we started to to build one of the largest fire pumps ever installed on a fire apparatus, which we did in 2014.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: We won the uh Guinness Book of World Records for the largest fire pump ever stalled on an industrial fire truck.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The first one was a 5,500 gallons per minute from DRAF now.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: From a pressurized source, we can get close to 10,000 gallons a minute, and we exceeded that by introducing another model that it was a 6250 from draft, 6,250 gallons per minute from DRAF, and we can get in excess of 10,000 gallons a minute from a fire truck from a pressurized source.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just crazy numbers.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, our goal was set out uh to focus on industry that, you know, my analogy is big fires, guess what?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Takes big water, takes big water flow and big water foam solution.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, it takes a lot of technique and a lot of know-how to do this.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So back to your question about, you know, U.S.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: fire pump.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: We started some 10 years ago and and started out with a small you know, the the fire pump we we manufactured for a fire apparatus, and then one thing led to another, we we built it for industry as a mobile fire pump with a big power pack on it, and and one thing led to another, we started a big industrial firefighting company.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So today we consider ourselves one of the largest firefighting companies anywhere in the world.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people, I guess that's been one of the best kept secrets around.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people don't know exactly what we do, but you know, we we've been all across the country for the last 10 years putting out ship fires, landfill fires, lithium battery recycling facilities, a lot of industrial petrochemical fires.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: You may have seen the one that was just in Oklahoma City, or right outside Oklahoma City in Tulsa back last week.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we were contracted to go put those three tanks out that was on fire.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime you see a major incident, usually we're there on, you know, on scene.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But a little bit more about the company, you know, we started out with you know one or two fire pumps and and foam making equipment, and we always challenge ourselves to bring a lot of new technology to the industry.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I say that, it's just you know, the new advanced pumping capabilities, the way they operate, the way the way they you know function and monitor the equipment, and it just brings a new life or new dimension to the industrial fireworld and also to the municipal fireworld.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, our pumping capacity today, believe it or not, we have about 60 industrial pumps in our arsenal, you know, and they range from 2,500 and go all the way up to 20,000 GPM per minute.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we have those spread out across the country so we can strategically move, you know, very fast when one of these large-scale operations take place.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, with that, it it gives us the ability to react fast and go help out where we can, and and surely we are paid company to go out to extinguish these large-scale fires.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, we brought a new dynamic that you know a lot of people haven't seen before in the years.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, any anytime that you talk about laying 12-inch hose on the ground, you know, we keep 15 miles of that in stock.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not uncommon on a large-scale incident for us to lay five miles of 12-inch hose on the ground because we're always looking for an alternative water source.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, surely we're not pumping off of hydrants or or anything else like that.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can't get the volume that we need.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we're always looking for ponds, streams, waters, rivers to get water where we can make foam.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, some of our foam making equipment that we call a direct foam injection system that we developed many years ago.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very uh precise metering device where we take 12 inches of water in, we we calculate the flow by paddle wheels and to do the exact calculation, and we inject foam downstream.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that gives us a very precise reading and injection of foam, uh, whatever foam we're using, whether it's uh S triple F or steel today, in some cases A triple F.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: But in today's world with the technology of changing a foam, and we can get into that in a minute, you really have to be very precise.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this equipment that we've developed over the years, we're capable of metering and flowing foam from a half a percent all the way up to 10% in this device, this system that we develop.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and all of those systems have been on every fire that we've been on across the country for the last 10 years.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have an arsenal of that piece of equipment that we have scattered out across the country, and we've been you know very successful with that.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you you cut your teeth really on petroleum firefighting.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: You you were you know by by by your firefighter that was also a pipe fitter, right?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: That that developed these these pumps.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you you kind of knew the equipment that needed to be had.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, you you built a piece of equipment for your volunteer fire department, didn't you?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So in the early days and in the early 80s, that's how my somewhat my career got started.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was a pipe fitter welder, joined the local union apprenticeship program, went to school at night, became a pipe fitter welder following my dad's footstep and worked at a lot of the petrochemical industries around Louisiana.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Louisiana and Texas is known for these large petrochemical industry facilities.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it gave me an opportunity to look, you know, what's that about and how they function.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, back to the early days, uh me and my wife got married and moved out to a small community north of Baton Rouge called Central.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in those days, as we can all appreciate with the volunteer fire department, we had didn't have any money or any tax base.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the only fundraiser we had was bingos or chicken dinner sell-offs or boot dries on the side of the street.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that was our only way to actually function the volunteer fire department I was in, and spent many years there, and and we needed a new fire truck.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So me and a couple of guys got together, and that's how the business started back in the early 80s, like 1980, 1981.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So with$1,800, believe it or not.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So only in America you could ever do something like this.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't come from a wealthy family or, you know, I worked all my life, worked through high school.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's just my philosophy is, you know, whatever you put into it, it's gonna be what you get out of it.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And but my other analogy is that, you know, it's not easy.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: If it was easy, everybody would be doing it, you know.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a lot of hard work to get where you want to be in life and and surely to try to uh to meet your goals.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of obstacles along the way, believe me, you know, from money and cash flow and running the business and hiring people.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's it's a very challenging job, but you know, I love it.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love the fire service.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Barely made it through high school.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't go to college.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, this is just a a statement that I can encourage, you know, younger people that you know there is opportunities out there if you want to take the time and and put the time in and get lucky along the way and and get things done.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we all know who Red Adair is and legendary.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: You've been called the modern day Red Adair, you've even gotten a Red Adair award.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that that, you know, he was really known for petroleum firefighting and putting out well fires, but you've moved far beyond that now.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not only we do we do well fires, but we also, like I said earlier, have done a multitude of fires.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I can, you know, take you through that.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And in the early days when I was in the volunteer fire department and just started my business, you know, one of the largest fires in Louisiana in the early days was in 1989 uh Exxon uh facility uh caught on fire, and and I was out there surely.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, even with the the local volunteer fire department, we had a lot of oil wells in our district and stuff, and we would go put out, you know, pool fires and industrial fires.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's how I got my experience with with a lot of early days of, like I said earlier, seeing what was out there and you know overcoming those obstacles.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, it's it's all about too, the people that you hire.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have an incredible staff and we have an incredible great team to to do what we do because I couldn't surely do it myself.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a big team effort, and and we've all been very successful with that.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: But even taking you through some of the incidents, you know, you may remember the, you know, start with the ship fires, you know, the golden ray in the Georgia Sound back about four years ago, that 3,000 uh ship that that handled 3,000 cars on the ship that overturned into Georgia Sound.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: We were actually contracted to go put that fire out.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then actually we did the last rescue of the last crewman that was in the back ship engine room that was in there for about two days.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he was believe me, he was a happy person when after we made the hole cuts and and and got them out.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: But same with even ship fires.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we did, like I said earlier, we did the uh ship fire for the Navy, the Bonhard Reshard in San Diego Bay that was about two and a half, three years ago that uh sailor went in and and set like three fires throughout the ship.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was going through a$500 million restoration, and right before deployment, all the hatches was open all throughout the ship.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, he went in to set up you know a lot of fires throughout the ship.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we were contracted to go out and put that one out.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then along with the uh other ship that was in New Jersey, that unfortunately two firemen perished up in New Jersey that was back about two years ago, two and a half years ago.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: After that unfortunate situation, they contracted us to go out and extinguish that ship.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, landfill fires, we've done a lot of landfill fires from tire recycling facilities to banded ship, you know, tire fire facilities that we've worked for, cities and towns, insurance companies, just all, you know, uh state agencies.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a great working relationship with just about every federal agency out there.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, usually when we show up on these large-scale fires, you know, we always have US EPA there, we have FBI there, we have ATF, you know, all the federal agencies that we've worked with before in the past and and have a great, hopefully have a great working relationship, you know, with those people.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: But staying on the fires, you know, even besides the petrochemical fires, you know, we've done battery recycling facility in in Frederickstown, Missouri, that was on fire about a year and a half ago.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the largest lithium battery recycling facilities.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the building was only two years old, and supposedly it had one of the state-of-the-art fire sprinkler systems that they guaranteed the owner that it wouldn't, uh if a fire occurred, the sprinkler system would you know take care of everything, which it didn't.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so we developed some products with a company out of Georgia for lithium battery fires that we've been very successful on.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a solution, it's a powder solution that we pre-mix with water that's very effective on lithium batteries and stopping the chemical runaway.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And been very uh we've done many car fire demonstrations.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at our website on lithium fires and even brand new uh Kia electric cars that we've done demonstrations on how effective this product is.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said earlier, we we're always trying to push the envelope of what's new out there, developing new products, uh trying to stay on the forefront of bringing new ideas to the fire service.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and don't get me wrong, we all live in the fire service world where we've been traditional for many years, and it's hard sometimes to overcome those barriers and the old way of doing things and and trying to break those walls down to say, hey, there's another there's another way to do things very safely.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for instance, these monitors that we we manufacture, and again, I'll and and I failed to mention that all of the firefighting equipment that we use in our in our arsenal, we manufacture everything.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we manufacture all these large-scale monitors from 2,000 GPM all the way up to 18,000 GPM.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and we outfit those with actually remote control monitors, so you know we can effectively set up these large-scale monitors, and and if it becomes a hazard or safety issue, we can actually remote control these monitors a thousand feet away.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it gives us the ability to be in a very safe zone and not be, so to speak, in the heart of things.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, the jobs that we do, like any fireman, is very dangerous.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been on many jobs where we have levees and tanks, you know, explosions on us, and and it's just uh knowing what the product is, how the product is going to react to water foam solution.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you need to have water foam solution, you mean you may have to use dry powder, you may have to use, you know, dry purple K in some cases.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just knowing what you're up against, knowing what the makeup of the product is burning.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, when we go on these large-scale incidents, sometimes, you know, we don't know.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't get the truth sometimes of what's actually burning.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were in a large facility up in around Wisconsin about four years ago, and and you know, sure we they produced the MSDSC uh sheets, and but it's not everything that was in the facility, and you know, ran across a huge pile of lithium uh powder that we couldn't extinguish.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we just scratched on our heads, why, you know, why is it not going out?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And come to find out that you know it was just a large pile of of lithium that we eventually extinguished.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and but you know, you get in a lot of these incidents that you know it it's uh it's a like I said, a very dangerous job, and sometimes you don't know all the hazards.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been on several jobs that were into salvaging overhaul of the facility, you know, get into all the hot spots and and they say, oh, by the way, there's a radioactive machine, not one, but four or five of them right where you're working at.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you know, that gets real really interesting.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: You have to bring in Gaga counters and and stop the operation and and you know, see what the hazard is, but uh we've been on a lot of unique uh incidents and and and in turn we've been you know, not to brag, we've been very effective uh of doing a lot of that, you know.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, our pumping capability today with all of our equipment, you know, it's it we can pump probably about 400,000 gallons a minute if we had to.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean it's mind-blowing stuff that you know that uh you really can't, you know, wrap your head around.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's it's always neat to see because you know, a lot of these fires that we go on, you know, a lot of these firemen around the country will never see that in their lifetime, you know, and and we're fortunate and and have a business, we get to see it, you know, on a common basis and and know what we're up against.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it's always neat to see, you know, 12-inch hose on the ground flowing, you know, 10,000 gallons a minute, 30,000 gallons a minute water foam solution to extinguish all these large-scale fires.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, all these large-scale fires can be put out.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's ways and there's techniques, and and surely, you know, there's there's things you have to look for that you got to be really mindful of, and and working with all the local agencies and the state agencies, and and you know, we started our conversation, you know, a lot of fire departments, like I said, don't know what we do.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been on several incidents that, you know, we fly in, we have our own aircraft, we can get there very fast.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's the name of the game.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we go up to the fire chief and say, Yeah, we're gonna bring in a 10,000 GPM system or 30,000 GPM system, and they like look at you and say, Yeah, right.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that you know, it's just it's it's not possible.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: They've never seen that before.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and credit to them, they just don't know what really what's out there.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, like we tell a lot of customers, you know, when these large-scale incidents go on across the country, you know, call us early before it gets really bad.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean that that's the thing.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: We can always be turned around.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: We take calls all night sometimes of different agencies call us and and may just bounce something off of us saying, hey, look, we got this large-scale fire.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we got this burning, you know, how should we attack it?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: What should we look out for?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you know, those are free calls.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: We we we we do that, you know, all the time.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, it seems like these large-scale fires always happen on a weekend, on a holiday weekend, you know, when everybody's out of town and and you know, all this stuff is is going on.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, one of the things that we were talking to Shane about, Shane Ray, is that you're getting called to do these jobs where you're doing overhaul in very large buildings.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we're we're talking about buildings that municipal fire departments, I don't know how many municipal fire departments even have the capabilities to do what you're able to do.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you're getting called to to get into these buildings and help with salvage and overhaul and and extinguish it all the way.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: When is it helpful for us to call you?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh you know, uh you you and I'm I'm glad to hear that you know, you you offer that consultation and and you're open to getting a phone call from us if we're at the scene and And we're scratching our head about something, but really, uh, what's the best case scenario for us engaging with you to get you involved in a large-scale fire like that?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, first of all, call us and we'll talk you through what you know what the situation is.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, a lot of times we can pull it up on on Google Maps and see the surroundings, see the water run off, see where, you know, see if it's even feasible, you know, or see, you know, whether they let it burn or or you know, try the attempt to put it out.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of these large-scale fires, especially tank fires, you know, it's really an art because, you know, a lot of times we get into situations that, you know, somebody's already putting water on a tank that's on fire, and then, you know, what happens is if a large-scale fire is going on in a large storage tank, then you you're putting water on the side or even trying to put water on top, you know, the the actually the steel starts curling in on you.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, you're creating fire pockets that's really tough to put out because just imagine a large-scale tank, you know, and then all of a sudden the steel starts to curl in on you, and it curls and curls and curls.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you got, you know, not only one fire, you got another fire up underneath the steel area that you really can't get to.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: You got to set up some other cross monitors and and react monitors, and and but it can be put out.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, we always tell everybody, look, just wait.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can cool the other tanks and and and do whatever you need to do, but you really can't get into this fight until you have everything there.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have the water source, you've got to have the phone source, you've got to have the techniques.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a way that we tell everybody that, you know, let's size up the situation, and we're gonna tell you what's gonna happen.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're gonna tell you, you know, if you if that tank is so close to the other tank, the roof is gonna blow off on the other one.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you that's gonna happen probably in about an hour.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: You better you better be looking up for which way you want to run if you want to stay there.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just run the opposite way when that tank comes off like a saucer, you know.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we have ideas and ways and and techniques that we've seen that you know could help a lot of you know people out.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, it to call us, you know, we would have to be engaged by the owner of the facility or the insurance company, which we work for a lot of insurance companies before in the past and still do today.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, it's always the balance.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to take the smoke, the toxic smoke out of the air, or do you want to put the fire out?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what what is best?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you see that all across the country of you know what the different opinions are, and and we're surely there as an asset.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: We consider ourselves you know the experts, and and when we come in, you know, we bring a team of qualified and and industry experts.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not only do we have certified industrial firefighters, we have paramedics on staff, we have equipment operators on staff, we have our own radio system, our own, you know, own bunker gear, we have our own command posts, we have, if we're in a rural area, we have our own rest uh uh cooking trailer, we have our own restroom trailers, we have our own bunk trailer, so we can be a city in ourselves in a remote area that uh we can bring all of this logistically out to uh to make this happen.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's so important that we're talking about this because I you know the the municipal fire department really even the largest municipal fire department we're we're we're set up for you know three to five hours, right?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: And most of the time we're back in quarters.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, most of the time 45 minutes, right?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Two rooms off in a house, and it's like we're gonna still have dinner tonight.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right, we're done, we're done, you know.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: So and I think we we're pulling up we're seeing this more and more all across the country, you know, a hundred thousand is now a million, and a million is now ten million square feet foot buildings that have you know anything and everything inside of them, and the fire department is not in any kind of if the sprinkler system doesn't stop it, the fire department's not in any kind of hasn't prepared for, really can't be prepared for, I guess, to to deal with that type of an incident.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I think like circling all of that back together too, of like what what does what does that potentially look like as far as you know, a fire in a you know, million square foot facility full of conveyor, you know, 50 foot rack storage.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody oftentimes nobody's working in those facilities, right?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's robotics.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: So like that's just a whole, you know, another challenge piece.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I know it's not the the it's it's not, you know, a tank fire and it's not a ship fire, but I think it's I think it is very similar to all of those things because they those warehouses have all that stuff in it.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: You said, you know, all there is five radiation machines or five sources of radiation in there, but we thought we were dealing with a different problem.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Josh, you know, that's a very good you know, question and and and topic.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, as firemen, and I was, you know, spent many, many years, and we we all guilty, so to speak, of we think we can handle it.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking bad about, you know, you know, the situation, you know, we all hyped up and ready to go and and we think we can handle it.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: But if you look at these, you know, large-scale fires and especially warehouse fires, you can set up an aerial that's gonna flow 1,500 gallons of mint.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: But with the thermal updraft and and the you know, the the setback of an aerial, you're not gonna, you're not gonna be effective.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not taking anything away.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on the fire, surely.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, look at some of the big fires that's been out there and look at some of the the aerial views that's going on.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the water is just being absorbed in the thermal updraft for a 1500 GPM flow, and and you're really not, you're not even hitting the building, you know.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, and it's it's it's you know, I'd look at that analogy saying, you know, try to pull all your water sources together and maybe get one big, you know, source going versus, you know, putting up 10 aerials that you're not gonna be effective, you know, and and and but again, every every case is different.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: When I say not being effective, it just depends on what the fire load is in that facility.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the only way that you're gonna put out a major facility like that is big water.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it depends if if you have some toxic and petrochemical industry uh products in the building, you're gonna have to use some type of foam.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, and that's the only way you're gonna be able to put it out, you know.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, but even if you look around these big warehouses that that are built all over the country, there's typically a big, you know, three million cubic area of water at a pond, you know, right next to the facility.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So there's always water somewhere.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, if you're in Arizona or California, remote area, you know, you're gonna have you're gonna have issues, but there's always a way to get water somewhere, somewhere.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and we've been very lucky and fortunate to do that.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: But but getting into the large-scale warehouses, you know, Josh, you you know, you're gonna have to bring tricos in.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to, you know, have equipment operators that know what they're doing to even get to some of the hot spots.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you may have an internal fire going on and you're wasting your time just squirting water on the side of the building, you know.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, you're gonna have to do a penetration and knock a concrete wall down to get to the seat of the fire, you know.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just one of those issues that you know, reading a fire and knowing what you're doing.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: So this all you know is coming about with us trying to get you on to talk about what you're talking about and what you all do, because we we we partnered with National Fire Sprinkler Association several years ago on you know, like what's the municipal fire department do with these big box fires and how they're how are we successful?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then the do's and don'ts from their perspective as far as the sprinkler system goes, because I mean if the sprinkler system gets it, you know, fantastic.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: But if it doesn't, you know, then that obviously we we we can watch one.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be there a while.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna you're gonna end up there, right?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like more than likely, right?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: But uh if people don't know, and and we bring it up in our classes, like you know, that if you're gonna be there longer than 24 hours as a municipal fire department in one of these big boxes, and it's gonna be this long drawn-out operation, your local fire department and all of your mutual aid probably can't sustain that operation.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: And the whole idea is to make it safer for the people and for us.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, so you know, what does that really look like?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we always bring up that private contractor piece.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: And Chief Brunicini used to, when he was alive, he'd bring up sometimes, you know, some folks out there that would, you know, could do just overhaul, or people who at some point or another just had like you know, giant fans, which we know now that maybe that's a water good, air bad, but you know, different sources.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why we wanted to talk with you know you, an industry expert, on this, because don't sit there for five days trying to figure it out and be like, okay, well, we lost.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: Now what are we gonna do?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Let's call somebody who knows.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: When if you can call somebody earlier that can, you know, help you and and solve the problem faster.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, throw out some ideas, okay?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, throw out some ideas of uh what you can do, you know, or what you can't do, you know.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: But in fairness to the owner of the facility, you know, I would get with them and say, hey, look, you know, not uh, you know, this takes a 30,000 GPM flow to put this fire out or 10,000.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: We just don't have the horsepower.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not to say that we're not good at what we do.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, you know, we're not set up for that.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I say that, uh just an average fire department.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: But but, you know, we contract with a lot of insurance companies and and their philosophy is is really right on if they can get us there early, number one, we can save a lot of their assets.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, we can get the smoke out of the air, you know, from a toxic standpoint, and and try to save, you know, you know, lawsuits and insurance claims and everything else, because you know, all that happens.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of times you see these large-scale fires, there must have been a hundred thousand people passing in front of that building when that thing caught on fire and they got overcome with smoke, and you got a hundred thousand lawsuits, you know.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, and and that's a crazy world we live in with with lawyers, and you know, it just seemed like we're in a sue happy world now with with everybody wanting to sue everybody, you know, and and it's it's it's different times, guys.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's just really different times than what it was back 40 years ago.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: So one thing I want to uh just get out there is if in in the US, if if somebody reached out, if the fire chief or fire department reached out to to to you all for support and you all made the decision, like, yeah, we we we can help you, we should be there, and all of the back end piece was figured out, you know, with insurance or there's somebody paying for it, whatever.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: So really anywhere in the US, you're gonna be there, you could be there in 24 hours.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, Josh, we can be there in a an hour or two.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, we can't.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I wanted to get out.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted you to get that out to everybody.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not bragging.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, our main office is in Holden, Louisiana, and the airport is only 10 minutes away, and we have a jet on standby 24-7.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: That, you know, even the Oklahoma fire, I mean, we were there in in an hour or two, you know.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, it's not an it depends on where you at geographically.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we're going to California, it's gonna be five hours, you know, four hours, but but if it's something local, you know, in the center of the this, we can be there in an hour or two, you know.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's pretty fast that we can gear up to do that, you know.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: So what can the incident commander at a fire do if they know, okay, Chris's company's coming in, they're they're coming in to take care of this.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: What can they do to set you up for success?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what are you looking at from that incident commander as you guys are coming into the operation?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, John, John, you know, it's a team effort.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, that we can discuss, you know, what the reality is all about of what the fire scene is.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we do run into obstacles of personalities and stuff like that.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, when that goes on and we all hyped up, everybody's hyped up, you know, and and a lot of personalities come in.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: But to answer your question is is making sure that you know we have access, you know, we may be drafting water with a 10,000 GPM submersible out of somebody's private pond down the street.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, go get permission from them that we can come on their property and and take their water, you know, and and you know, things like that, you know, just small things like that make a difference and and you know, sizing up the the fire that you're on and and having the space when we come in to hopefully that we can coordinate with them to have their strategic attack to be successful in extinguishing that situation.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Does the fire department completely turn it over to you?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do they do they have personnel that remains on the scene?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: How does that typically go, especially when we're talking about buildings?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean the fire department surely can stay on the scene, and surely we don't want to take over the incident.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: We we don't want to step into a chief's role.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're there as an asset, you know.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the chiefs, that's the chief's fire.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's gonna be the the chief communicator with the public, you know.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like to be in the front of the news media, the public eye.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the chief's job, you know.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a team effort, and and you know, it's been very, it's worked very well.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just like the one up in Oklahoma we just came off of.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: We were working directly with the local fire chief, and and he's the forefront.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's uh he's the you know, the speaker, he's uh you know, the the expert of his community, and and we're there to support him.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: We need everybody's help.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: We it's got to be a one-team effort, you know, and and we'll we'll be there to support him anyway, and and we're not gonna be macho enough to get up there and say we did it.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was a team effort that that we got it done, you know.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I think one way maybe people could look at this and correct me if I'm looking at this wrong is is when if when you all are are contracted to come in, it's kind of like a chemical facility issue if you contracted a hazmat cleanup company almost that's right.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you know, like a big environment, like a big environmental you know, cleanup company, you know, that's you know basically, you know, they do the same thing, you know, but on a cleanup scale, you know.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: So but we're working with all of those guys.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're working with the environmental people, we're working with the you know, the managers of facility, and and you know, everybody's got to be on their their P's and Q's, so to speak, of everybody doing different things because there's a lot of things happening, you know, and there's a lot of chaotic things that's happening.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: I I haven't been on a fire yet, a major fire that it's it's not chaotic, you know.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say it, it's a good chaotic, but it's just a lot going, it's a lot of moving parts taking place, you know, whether, you know, this crew's coming in, environmental crew coming in, you know, US EPA, you know, what kind of foam can you shoot, what can we not shoot?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's just a lot of decisions that have to be made very quickly and timely.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, to join the unified command to say, hey, look, this is this is what we're gonna do.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, y'all in agreement with this, you know, and and so you know, we never like to try to take over an incident and move a fire department either way.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they've been there, that's their local town, and we're there, we're there as an asset.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're there to to help them, you know, put the fire out.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the basic, you know, things.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had a fire not too far from us.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was a 20-acre hydrocarbon fire, and and you know, the fire department called us, and you know, unified command called us, and and but you know, they knew that they didn't have the resources, you know, and but when we got there, you know, they helping us pull hoses and helping us set up, and it's it's it's really a great effort by everybody.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Probably very happy to see you guys.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's it's like calling in the Calvary, especially with your pumping capability.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: I want to circle back and talk about foam.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: You were gonna say something about foam and foam use these days and really customizing what type of foam product you're going to use.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, John, and that's a great question, you know, with foam, you know, the evolution of the foam change from ACLF to S triple F today.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, believe it or not, you know, a lot of these cities and towns and states still allows us to shoot ACLF.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like in Louisiana, under state statute, we can still shoot ACF on large petrochemical fires, you know, but it's it's up to the industry, because some industry or some industry uh may not want us to shoot ACLF.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, in my opinion, you know, ACLF still has its place today.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you have a a large-scale fire with with high vapor pressure fuels such as NAPTA, you know, it's gonna be real challenging to put it out with even the new S T foams today.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our theory is it's gonna take a third more, two-thirds more water, two-thirds more foam, two-thirds more manpower.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: It just gets in a situation that, yeah, we we can attempt to put it out, but it's gonna be very challenging.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it depends on the product.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if it's low vapor pressure like diesel or Jet A or something like that, that that's that's fairly easy to put out on a large-scale fire, you know, with even the new S triple F foams today.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we went from, you know, the education of the olden days, if if a lot of older people are listening, we went from the protein foam to the ACLFs to the AR to ACLFs, and now we have the S triple Fs, and now we seem like we're going back to the technology because as some people know and probably know with the AR-ACF foams, you know, we always had that self-healing back again.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we could actually do a what we call a type three application, go over the top of the tank, and the foam would survive coming through the fuel and coming back up, the bubble will survive.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and actually do a film forming across the top of the fire of the fuel load.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, today the S triple F foams doesn't do that.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different bubble technology.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not gonna be protected like you would be in ACLF.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I I tell firemen all the day when I teach some of these classes is that you know, just don't get used to using A triple F and then go to S triple F and think you can walk through that fuel bed and think it's gonna heal up behind you because guess what?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's it's the tricks of the trade and the application, even with S triple F foams.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: We see the best application of you know, getting it expanded.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, banking it off of a beam, banking it off of a something where it can cascade in and roll in versus interrupting interrupting your fuel bed.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that we see that's the best and most effective way using S triple F foams today of banking it and letting it roll in and cascading in around the fuel surfaces because uh you're you're gonna have an awful hard time if you interrupt interrupt that fuel bed and do a direct inject, you know, plowing into that fuel load, you know.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, but that it gets back into the techniques, you know.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even with and and we produce, you know, through our foam manufacturer, we produce great S triple F foam today.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we came out with a 3x3 uh back years ago, and then we made a 3x3 plus, and now we just introduce a 1% S triple F, you know, that's really effective, has a great, great blanket, and a very effective in low vapor pressure fuel and some high vapor pressure fuel.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just all about what's burning, you know.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just what product is burning.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what I failed to mention today, uh we're the largest foam stocking uh company in the world.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: We keep 300,000 gallons of foam in inventory.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's not uncommon for a large-scale fire that we've been on to use 100,000 gallons, 150,000 gallons, 200,000 gallons, and and you know, you have to you have to have product to have a successful extinguishment.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it just that goes back to the don't start it if you can't finish it, right?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's correct.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong, there's nothing wrong with that.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, you know, a lot of people saying, well, what wouldn't they doing?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what what what's going on?
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's just but they don't understand of what what the end goal is.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: What you know, how how can we successfully do this and and accomplish our goal, you know.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: So a couple of things we didn't hit in the uh pre-interview, but I I had my notes.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: You you're actually doing education too for industrial firefighters.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: You guys do.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: We do, John.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: We hold industrial classes from time to time across the country.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, matter of fact, we have one of them coming up in in Louisiana.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Normally we do a lot of them in Texas.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: This one we're doing in in the third week of September in uh Baton Rouge at a local large training facility there.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: That we have a lot of industrial folks that come in and we talk about tactics, techniques, foam, how foam is made, how foam reacts, you know, how to put out these large-scale fires.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and we get a we get a good crowd that comes in, and it's like I said, firemen, industrial firemen, some municipal firemen from all across the country.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds fun.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I read the description of some of the classes, and you you even have uh bunker gear available.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we can supply bunker gear that they can rent and be on site as be on site when they show up, you know, and just leave it and we we have it cleaned and and sent back to the company that uh is renting it.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: So but it's just uh networking with a lot of people, showing them how the different techniques and and Just being, like I said, an asset for you know a lot of people out there, you know.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a big chunk of of what you do, U.S.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: fire pump, and you know, the firefighting effort is tremendous.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: But then, you know, you got out of the fire truck manufacturing business, but then it suck you back in, right?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're back at it, you're building fire trucks again, aren't you?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, it it's I have so many customers and friends across the country.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've done I've built, and again, by no means of what we're talking about today, I'm not a brag, I'm just just telling you what I've done.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I've built over 6,000 fire trucks in my lifetime.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I have trucks all over the world, from Dubai to Canada, Mexico, just Turkey, just all around the world.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you get to meet so many great people along the way.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, my non-compete was up, and like I didn't have nothing else to do.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and a customer, a couple customers said, man, why won't you get back in?
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we we dove back in, and now we're full-fledged, not only you know, the largest industrial firefighting company, but we also have a large uh fire truck uh apparatus going on that we build in all types of uh fire apparatus for a lot of different customers that we've dealt with over the years.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: And speaking of some of the trucks that we delivered in my past business, I mean, all the major cities had my product from not all, just about a lot of them.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Houston's the uh San Francisco's, New York City, to really everywhere.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and and like I said, I got to meet a lot of great people along the way and made a lot of friendships and and just great friends, you know, great, great uh this industry that we're in, the fire industry is a somewhat of a brotherhood, as we all know, and and you know, we all take care of one another, and and it's it's it's really great to have, you know, that feeling that it's like one big family, you know.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I talk about that from time to time when I go out and give some speeches in in local towns and cities that, you know, any town and city that you go in around the country, around the world, your number one best person and the most liked person in that town is the fire department.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're there for every life experience that you will have, from fires to heart attacks, and they don't get enough credit, you know.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: They don't get you know enough credit that but again, you know, they're the most liked in any town.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're not carrying guns and nothing against police, but they're the heroes, man.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're the heroes in every town and city that's out there, and and there's more volunteer fire departments in the country than than paid.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great paid fire departments, and I got a lot of great friends, but you know, a lot of people don't even think there's you know, stop and think there's more volunteers in the in the United States than they are paid, you know.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: So at Fire Rescue International, you you guys had a booth, and I went over there and just took some pictures of some of the trucks you're buying.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nice low hose bed, and I mean, and then I think there was a 4,000 GPM industrial pumper you had there too, which was pretty cool to look at.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: But then I was talking to one of the guys there, and then he he was a fire department buying one of your trucks, right?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he said he said the manufacturing time blew everyone else out of the water.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: So how are how are you doing that?
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how are how are you building a fire truck?
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: John, you want me to tell you my secrets then, right?
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't I don't want your secrets, but I just but what what are you looking at as far as a building?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: What I've done, you know, I I I'm fortunate to to to do this, you know.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: We went out in the first we went out and bought about 50 stock chassis, you know, of what we think would sell.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, currently today we have about 80 chassis sitting on our lot, you know, that people can choose from from Freightliners, Kent and Worst, Customs, just a wide variety.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, today we're delivering, you know, we started out delivering trucks in 60 to 90 days, and we build a lot of demos in between there.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, currently we can deliver trucks in less than six months.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on what the complexity is.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, we have the people, we have the know-how, you know, we have the relationships with our other partners of component partners, you know, that we can get stuff from very fast.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, our secret is, you know, listening to the customer, what their needs are, and and and you know, being proactive of taking a chance and buy$20 million worth of chassis and and you know, having them on the lot that we can turn them around very quickly.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we keep not only chassis in stock, tanks in stock, pumps in stock, pump modules in stock.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we just we went out on a limb and we still do it today.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of stuff in inventory that we can we can build a truck very fast.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, I I feel, if you don't know my background, I you know, I I feel that you know, I know we build one of the safest bodies in the industry, you know, the heaviest extrude aluminum body by far by anybody else in the industry.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, with the heavy twin I beams that we use, traditionally a lot of manufacturers have gone opposite ways of trying to find ways to you know lessen up the the body going with one-eighth aluminum and and just form body components that's just bolted together.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: We I have always stayed traditional and I'm a firm believer of safety in these fire trucks.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've had many fire trucks roll over where firemen walk away.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've I've gotten calls over the years saying, you know, wow, man, that truck held together, truck rolled over twice, the body stayed intact, it acted like a roll bar and and and and we walked away, you know, and and even had one talking about NFDIC back years ago.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: I had one lady, her husband was involved in a rollover, and she just wanted to come thank me that building such a tough truck, you know, that he walked away.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, and don't get me wrong, not every accident is like that.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I just feel that building this apparatus, you know, we're we're gonna build the heaviest product that's out there and the best product out there.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my strategic secret to, you know, is we can't be everything to everybody, but what we can be, we're gonna be good at.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so as we know, the tradition in the fire service today with apparatus is gone from all this electronic stuff, and you know, want to run the fire truck off my phone, and you know, I'm old school, man.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh, you know, I like point-to-point wiring.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want to I want to pull a handle to make sure that damn valve opens.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I I'm not into that, you know.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, we build some of that stuff, but you know, I'm old school.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I when I'm on a fire, I want to make sure, I want to make damn sure that my truck's gonna work, you know.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, and that's what we're about, you know.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: But so not only from an industrial firefighting fire trucks, but we also have what we didn't talk about is a pump rental division.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we offer a lot of pump rentals to a lot of industry and a lot of uh big box warehouses that we'll go out and put temporary fire pumps in.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, excuse me, if a fire pump goes down in a large building and they can't get a fire pump to replace it, we'll go in and put in a temporary fire pump.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've developed some new technology where we uh the pump is automated.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to set your pump intake pressure at 50 pounds and your standpipe at 100 pounds, and you want to have a residual of 100 pounds, that pump will automatically kick on and kick off to the residual pressure that you want.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's some pretty neat stuff that we've done, you know, and and but we've done a lot of stuff, guys.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we didn't we didn't even talk about our large submersible pumps that we developed over the years, you know, with this alternative water sources that we're looking for.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have these 5,000 GPM submersible pumps that we throw in these ponds and rivers that we can actually flow 5,000 gallons a minute through 12-inch hose.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: Those pumps will give us about 42 pounds of pressure, and we can lay about 2,000 feet to a boost pump to boost the pressure up.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a game changer in our industry, too, with these large-scale hydraulic submersible pumps, you know, and we keep you know a tremendous amount of those systems in stock when we go out on a uh emergency response.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, from a big corporate world standpoint, you know, with the assets, you know, we keep about$40 million of response equipment, you know, scattered throughout the country.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: Being a private company, if we were a large corporation, they always want to see that return.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that would happen.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you know, it's always a return on the money, and and we want to know it's gonna turn 10 times or three times, or we're not interested.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I've just chosen to do this, you know, and and but you know, that's my passion.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: My passion is this business.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: So well, great.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything, Josh?
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: Any other questions you have before we wrap up?
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for getting on because I mean I learned a bunch, you know, just from what you said today.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's important that you know, we are this podcast uh goes out to close to a hundred thousand people.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, we get you know, depending on what it's about, right?
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: All kinds of different views, but you know, our our big customer base, the municipal fire department, I think it's important that it's out there now and they can, you know, have another avenue to connect with you all and know that there's a a resource available that they don't have to sit there and say, man, we are stuck and we just don't know what to do.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe maybe if they hear this, it'll it'll help them.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what we're about, right?
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: We're about the our end customer, which is really the the community, and it's just a pass-through that we provide training to the fire department.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, thank you so much for being on.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh glad to do it, guys.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: And again, hopefully I I've been helpful and and you know, some suggestions and and again, but you know, call us, call us in a style.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we answer our phone 24 hours 24 hours a day.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my business cards have my cell phone number.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not scared or taking any call from anybody, you know, it's it's crazy, but you know, that's what we're all about.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all of our guys that you know we we do what we can to make things happen and we can do it very effectively, but give us a call, give us a call early too, because you know, don't let it get out of hand.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: Don't all, you know, don't let it get you know get worse than it is because you reach that point of no no return, you know.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, just real quick, one thing.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: So the whole water supply thing I think is a huge deal, just if if nothing else, then then the how to the municipal water supply is down, and how are we gonna get water because this thing's still burning?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, we hear that in these big box buildings all the time that the the infrastructure just can't support the draw on the system or or whatever it is.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, well, we were making some progress, but well, now we have zero water supply.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, well, that's you're not gonna fix it by just thinking about it.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: You have to take some sort of action.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you know, Josh, too, real quick, you know, we make a 3,000 GPM small, compact, you know, submersible pump that's on a little small trailer.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can actually, you know, reload tankers or you know, supply three fire trucks at 10,000 gallons a minute, you know, through eight-inch hose and do it through a manifold.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've done that.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can go on our website and and and look at a lot of that.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to use your imagination.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's other ways.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've even developed a 3,000 GPM submersible pump that actually works off of a skid steer.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the hydraulics of the skid steer.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're in a remote area, we can't get to a pond, we can take the skid steer, run it through the woods or whatever, and throw that submersible in and and relay 3,000 gallons a minute, however far we want to relay it, you know, up the road, you know, so up the forest that we're on or wherever we're at, you know.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just different ideas, guys.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just there's a lot of options out there, you know.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: So well, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a real education, like Josh said, and we we appreciate it.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and again, you know, people can see our website at usfirepump.com.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a lot of great videos.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if they want to see some of the pumps in action and water flows, and you know, it it when you see you can throw 9,000 gallons a minute, you know, 580 feet is crazy.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just you know, but it's always good, you know, that that you can do that, you know.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, we all, especially firemen, love to see that, you know, big water flow.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_01: So well, that was fun.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_01: Talking to Chris Ferrara.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: Both of us are kind of geeked out, I think.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean the the the fire buff in me definitely would love to see one of these high capacity pumpers in action at a fire.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_01: It would be really cool or even to go to the fire school.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_01: But what a what a fascinating business.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh from a person that's so passionate and connected to you know, from a volunteer fireman to a large corporate company, really, like delivering that service around the world.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: And like he said, you know, uh a Fortune 500 company is not gonna buy it because they can't service the shareholders and make the kind of money they want to.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's a privately held business.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, what when he was mentioning that, it's like, yeah, that's why fire departments don't make money or don't make money for, but you know, when that's your passion and that's what you're good at, you know, he's he's gonna put the money into it because he's he's paying the bills, I'm sure, but he's just not turning over the profit that a big company would want to see.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: And really connecting connect connecting the dots, right?
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right from one thing, you know.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: He it was funny.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm glad my mic wasn't on because I laughed out loud, I think.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: But he he said you you have to do size up and evaluate the factors, and it's like, whoa, easy.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_02: Imagine that's part of it.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think that might be part of a system.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, he's he's got the system before we go.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_01: Timeless tactical truth.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_01: Timeless tactical truth from Alan Brunacini.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: The book is available at b shifter.com.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_01: And this one is don't fall in love with a plan just because you made it.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_01: Don't fall in love with a plan just because you made it.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, typically we have a plan when we go into even a large-scale fire or a fire at a facility, whether it's a petrochemical facility, a uh transfer station, a fuel terminal, or a big uh big box industrial fire, but we've got to be able to pivot and use resources out there that are available to us and trying to find out what those resources are.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think the whole having a plan thing, I I talk about this in I was doing many more classes than I do now.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_02: I would say it a lot.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like the whole plan is changing every second.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_02: I've never been to a any emergency incident that almost every second isn't getting better or worse.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_02: And how we engage in that, you know, often you know, is how the outcome's gonna turn out, right?
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: And in this case, the we got here, we got to this big box building and we thought we were gonna get it, but it's not gonna happen.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that, you know, we just kind of talked about that.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, calling for that resource early.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: If you got Chris Ferraro said it, if you got a big fire, it's gonna take a big whole lot of big water, not not your a thousand or fifteen hundred gallons coming out of a single ladder pipe, obviously, depending on conditions, what's going on.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: But some of these big fires we see, yeah, you're the the water's not getting anywhere to what is actually burning.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's getting lost in the in the hot gas and smoke, unburned fuel that's you know, leaving the building.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, you should always have plan A, B, C, D, and you can keep going if you want.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like if it gets better, what are we gonna do?
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: If it gets worse, what are we gonna do?
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, what is what is that next step?
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: And have that in your head before something happens, and then you're reacting to it.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, and and I think that just how how you do that, I think ties back to the importance of the system of we evaluate it when we first get there, what's going on now, and in a short period of time, if it's not getting better, then we we should do something different.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and in a short period of time, if it's getting better, then we're gonna do something different.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're switching from the fires, you know, knockdown, and now we're doing overhaul, and we have all clears inside the building.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: So every time one of those transmissions comes out or we meet an objective, you know, we're also changing the incident action plan.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_02: And people would, you know, maybe argue that, but if you're looking at a 30,000-foot view incident action plan, that's all good, but you really have a 30,000-foot incident action plan that you have a hundred other plans that just fit into that bigger picture incident action plan, which really I guess you could tie back to two strategies of just offensive and defensive and and where that fits.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, we should always be ready to do something different.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: And the really only way we know to do that is you you you have to know what's available and what's not available to you, but to to to support the plan that you're that you have or the plan that you're you that you want to have.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_01: Never fall in love with plan A.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_01: That that's always been my my thought.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's like yeah, plan A might be what you start with, but chances are it's not going to be what you finish with.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that wraps up this B Shifter podcast.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to thank Chris Ferrara for being our special guest today.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you're interested in what U.S.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: Fire Pump does, all of that information will be in the show notes.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget Fire Command 3rd edition.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's available now at the B Shifter store.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we will talk to you next week on the B Shifter Podcast.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.