Latest / The City of Frankfort Podcast / Ep 24: Fire Safety with Frankfort Fire Marshall

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Ep 24: Fire Safety with Frankfort Fire Marshall · The City of Frankfort Podcast

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From Capitol Halls to Bourbon Balls, this is the City of Frankfurt Podcast.
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For the Frankfurtians, we're swapping stories, spilling tea,
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and celebrating the quirks that make the Kentucky's capital city the best hometown around.
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Welcome to the City of Frankfurt Podcast. I'm your host, Kenton. Everybody knows me.
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Summer's here, and that means backyard cookouts, family gatherings,
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vacations, fireworks, and plenty of time spent outdoors, okay?
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But it also means some seasonal safety risks that every family should know about.
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Today, we're joined by Fire Marshal Marshall.
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It's actually Marshall Marshall. Crazy, right?
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From the Frankfurt Fire Department to talk about home fire safety,
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grilling safety, fireworks, and other important summer safety tips. Welcome, Marshall.
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Well, I appreciate you having me, Kenton.
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So I guess I'm the first representative for Frankfort Fire DMS.
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I mean, technically, yeah. I mean, I did have Jason who previously.
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He was our chief. He was on Frankfort Fire for 20 years, but he's city manager now.
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We don't claim him anymore. No, he's over here at City Hall.
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So, yeah. I got you. I got you.
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But, yeah, man, thanks for coming on and repping, you know, the fire department for sure.
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Before we get into it, let's get to know you a little better.
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Did you always know you wanted to be a firefighter when you grew up?
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Yeah, so that's a great question. Basically, growing up, like when you're little,
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you think, oh, I want to be a superhero. I want to be the police.
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I want to be a firefighter.
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But for me, like I started out working real young. I started in the workforce.
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I come from a pretty low-income family. We started working. And my brother and
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I were the first in our family to ever go to college.
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So I was like pretty determined on like, I just want to start making money and provide for my future.
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And so after that, I took a class where I had to shadow some people. And I shadowed.
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So I got from my church and a family member that were firefighters.
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And I was like, you know, I could do this. This is like blue collar work.
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It's hard, but you make a difference. So I was like, yeah, I want to be a firefighter.
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So I started applying. I got hired in Savannah, Georgia, and Georgetown, where I live.
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Okay. And I took the job back here in Georgetown, and 20 years later, I'm still doing it, but.
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Originally, I wanted to be a hypnotist. You wanted to be a hypnotist.
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I did. All right, so let's flush this out. I did.
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Like, you like therapy, like hypnotherapy, or you just wanted to, like you...
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Well, I'm really intrigued with the mind, and it was kind of like the therapy
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thing, but I wanted to kind of take that show on the road and just mess with people.
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So you wanted to do the comedy side of things. What's that guy's name that hypnotizes people?
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He does like a little show. I can't think of it. not chris angel but
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you know yeah there's a there's a couple different ones that you can see they're
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they're hilarious it's really funny they just kind of mess with people it'd be kind of good
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so that's what you okay because i didn't know because some people you know they
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want to do the hypnotherapy they want to use it yeah like help you stop smoking
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yeah yeah there was one that uh,
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they did a thing and supposedly it was supposed to help you lose weight it did
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not work i'm just kidding i didn't actually do that.
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But i have heard of these things no i mean it was cool I thought that was something
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that was really neat, but, you know, I got into firefighting. I love it. Okay.
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That's good. I mean, and I feel like that's a pretty common thing for,
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like, a young man to think about, like you said, to be a police officer,
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a superhero, a firefighter, a dinosaur.
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You know, young men want to do these things. Right. So that's awesome that,
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you know, you kind of figured that that followed your heart and you wanted to
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make a difference in your community. And you chose ultimately to stay in your
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community and continue to make a difference, which is, that's commendable.
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I appreciate that. You're welcome. You're welcome. So to kind of dive a little
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deeper now, tell us about the role of the fire marshal.
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What does a day in the life for you look like? Like what? Because people hear
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fire marshal, but I feel like nobody really knows what a fire marshal is.
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So can you enlighten us on that?
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That is, um, that is a very good question also, because it is,
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you know, when I started this.
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I was like, I started with some old guys and the fire service was different.
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And I was like, you know, I want to, I want to ride, I want to ride backwards,
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which means basically when you're in the back of a fire truck,
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you're, you're looking backwards, you're fighting fire. That's what you do.
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And I was like, I'm going to do this for 20 years. I'm going to fight fire.
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And, you know, we didn't know what a fire marshal was, didn't care.
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And I was like, that's, this is what I'm going to do. And as you get older,
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you start a family, you have kids, you start thinking about like.
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Maybe I need to prepare to advance in my career.
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I want to, you know, spend more time with my family.
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You get more educated.
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You advance a little bit. So I started, I guess, moving through the department
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and promoting different things. And so as a fire marshal, it's kind of a catch-all.
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So the main roles as a fire marshal, I do inspections, pre-plans.
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I do any kind of new development, renovation. So I look over the site plans.
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You and I work together a lot on things.
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So we are all paths cross on developments.
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But then there's a lot of other things that I have to do. I am still a firefighter. I'm still an MT.
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So I still have to keep up my training for my hazardous incentive.
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So I still could call to a scene.
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I get called to the structure fires for fire investigation. I am the only arson
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and fire investigator for the department.
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I am the PIO. So you'd think they'd find a prettier face in mine to get in front
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of the camera, but that's okay.
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I do. I appreciate that.
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I do. I do the interviews. I run our social media website.
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I do a lot of our education. So I go out, I teach our department about public
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education, but also I'll go out and I teach the public. I do a lot of our events, the schools.
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I love to go out to retirement centers because we don't want to just stop at
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like elementary school or, you know, preschools and daycares.
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We want to continue on. So if we can teach in middle school and high school,
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and then we want to go to a capital activity center and go out there and continue to be in the community.
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So I go out and do all those kind of activities and events. So I don't know.
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I could continue to go on. There's a ton of stuff.
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One thing I did want to kind of get a plug is I do work with Red Cross. We are a partner.
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So I go out and I install smoke alarms for free in the community.
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That's awesome. So these are the smoke alarms. So what do people have to do
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to take advantage of that? So we've made it pretty easy.
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You can go onto our website. You can just go to frankfurt.ky.gov and then go
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and click on the Frankfurt Fire Department page.
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And it's just go to how do I, and pretty much fill out a form.
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There's a form that says, Hey, I want a free fire extinguisher.
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I get that. I work out a grant every year with the FOF so that we get free fire
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extinguishers. We basically, we pay for them ourselves as fire department members,
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with Walmart. We work on that.
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So we give those out. I go out, I teach fire extinguisher classes.
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We give those out. We get free smoke alarms. I go out and I install those if you fill out that form.
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If you want to do a fire station tour, if you want to do, you want us to come
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bring a fire truck to your event, fill out a form. We'll come take care of it.
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So it's pretty simple. We'll just fill out a form.
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Now, with the free smoke alarm, is there like, is it like a limit one per person?
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Yeah, that's a good question. So Red Cross can, I've been doing this for probably,
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um, I don't know, maybe, um,
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nine or 10 years putting in smoke alarms. I've probably installed 2,500 smoke alarms myself.
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The cool thing is there's been a couple, and it's not tooting my own horn,
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it's just fire safety in general. We have had some actual documented life saved
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because of the smoke alarms we've installed.
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Oh, I'm sure. And so there's not a limit per se.
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Red Cross asks us to put one per floor. Um, I'm not very good at following directions all the time.
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Um, so I'll come out and I'll put in, you know, I try to limit to two or three,
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maybe four if I have to, but I want to, I want to make sure that my people are safe.
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Yeah, no, and that's a very important thing. And that's a, that's a great thing
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that, you know, the citizens can take advantage of, um,
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kind of talking a little bit more about fire extinguishers or not fire extinguishers,
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but fire alarms so that people kind of know what is like the recommendation like so say you have a,
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two-story three-bedroom house like what is kind of your thought process all
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the bedrooms are on the upstairs floor like what is kind of,
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where do you need to have them no that's a good that's good point because what
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happens is new construction,
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uh you can't pass code you know wiggins will come out there and and get on them,
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so you got to make sure that you're going to have one per floor You're going
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to have one in every bedroom.
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But that's all new construction here in Frankfurt.
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We have a lot of older residents, a lot of older homes, and that's why we've
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been able to take advantage of this program because we can go out there and
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make sure that these smoke alarms are updated.
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They're added into places that may not have one.
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Code has changed over the years from the nineties to the early two thousands. Some of those houses,
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you didn't have to have but one
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per floor. You didn't have to have one but outside of the sleeping area.
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So we may go in and add one into a bedroom area or something like that.
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But they also, per manufacturer specs, they need to be re-updated.
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They need to be replaced every 10 years with the smoke alarms.
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So that's what we try to focus on, take care of.
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What's kind of crazy is when you go to sell your home or you've inherited a
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home or anything like that, you would think that in the state of Kentucky that.
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You think that you have to have an inspection done. You don't necessarily have
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to have an inspection done. Yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, yeah.
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Right. And so there's no KRS that says that you have to have working smoke detectors
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in your home when it changes possession.
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So we come across a lot of properties that have switched hands and they don't
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have working smoke detectors, or they may have one and it's really old and it
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may not be working And the inspector, even if an inspection was done,
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they came out and they just noted there was a smoke alarm.
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And so I had actually had legislation for multiple years now when I went up to the Capitol.
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And I got through the House, but I hadn't got through the Senate yet.
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I'm still working on it, but I'm trying to make sure that smoke alarms are...
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Are forced through. Um, and it's a KRS that's saying that they have to be in homes.
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Yeah. I mean, I think that that's, that seems like a very good, safe thing to do.
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Um, kind of, this is kind of smoke emorated, but, but maybe a little different
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because I know, um, you know, I
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used to do some, some, uh, inspections on properties and stuff like that.
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And something that I found a lot of is back in the day, they didn't really require
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carbon monoxide detectors.
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And that's something that I've seen be a big thing. So do you want to kind of
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touch on that too? No, that's a good point. Like what they do,
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you know, stuff like that. Absolutely. So with that, it's funny that you bring
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that topic up because we were really trying to push.
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I didn't know how legislation works until I started pushing this a couple of years ago.
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And they were like, hey, let's not be too picky because we were,
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I was like, hey, I want smoke alarms, CO detectors, all this. though. But,
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There's no ordinance, there's no KRS, nothing that's saying that you have to
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have a CO detector. Now, what happens is when you have gas in the home,
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you're going to need a CO detector.
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When you have wood-burning fireplace, you need a CO detector.
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So right now there's nothing that's regulating saying that you have to have
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that to monitor those in your home.
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So the last session that we had here at the state capitol, we tried to present a bill.
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It didn't get through. It said CO and smoke. Yeah.
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But that's something that may be on a smaller level, smaller jurisdictions,
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even the city of Frankfurt, we could maybe get working on ordinance,
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talking about that with, we could start with rental properties.
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Like you said, you do rental inspections. You had done rental inspections.
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We could go on that level and then use that to progress to a state level.
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But those are important because of, you know, that's the silent killer. Yeah.
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So, you go into a home now, and if you're burning and you forget to close or
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open the flue on a fireplace, a wood-burning fireplace, anything like that,
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you know, you have a car running in the garage and forget to open the door.
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Yeah, Walmart, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So those things are very important.
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So if we could get to where we're checking those. Unfortunately,
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I don't have a grant. Raycross doesn't provide CO detectors.
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Okay, so it's just that. They just do smoke alarms.
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But I did get a grant from Walmart, and I'm actually working on CO detectors.
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So you're kind of letting the cat out of the bag. I haven't told anybody.
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I didn't even know that. No, I know. I hadn't told anybody. I had no idea about
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this. I just knew that, you know, CO detectors are a big thing.
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And I know it's a silent killer.
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It's one of those things that some people don't even know about.
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They aren't even aware of. I do fire extinguishers and we've been able to give
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out, I think, over 300 now within the community. Wow.
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And I wanted to kind of transition into fire extinguishers and CO detectors. Yeah.
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Because we get a big ask for it and I don't have them. Yeah.
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Yeah, absolutely. No, that's great.
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What are some of the most common causes of house fires?
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So, number one, can you guess what number one is? Probably candles.
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Candles? Yeah. You'd be like, I ain't got no electric.
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I need candles or you just like it smelling good? No, like, people just like
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it smelling good because I know, I don't know.
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I know people forget to blow their candles out. I know the candles will burn all the way down.
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You can't be burning some candles. Windows open.
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I'm going to check your office later. You go right in.
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No, so number one is cooking. Oh, well, yeah, I should have. Yeah, okay.
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Because I know you can cook. Yeah, I do be cooking. I know you can cook.
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I can be cooking the world. Not as good as me, but that's all right.
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That's fine. So cooking number one. That's over 50%.
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That makes sense. That makes sense. But here's the thing with cooking.
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Yeah. It can lead to, it's a high cost, a lot of destruction.
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And it's usually, you know, you may not lose the entirety of the home,
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but you get a lot of smoke damage. You get a lot of destruction in the kitchen
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and it's usually an open space.
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Um, but what happens is the, the cause of that is that it's complacency and
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it's, you're leaving that cooking equipment unattended.
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So, you know, we get somebody starts something on the stove,
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you know, or in the oven and then these right here.
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So you get distracted and I'm not trying
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to be that old man because I get distracted. I got two phones and, uh.
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We start something we like you know you set a timer or whatever but you don't
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pay attention and you take a phone call or you got to pay attention to the kids
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hollering in the other room or whatever,
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and you forget that you're cooking something so cooking fires it's.
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The leading cause um but then you get into you have electrical and with electrical what happens is,
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you have people that are running extension cords, people that are trying to
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do self, they're, they're self electricians, you know, people that say,
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I can run my own wires, I can do my own electrical work and I get it,
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you know, times is tight sometimes, uh,
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so you don't have a licensed electrician come in, but what happens is you may
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leave wires to where they're not tightened all the way and they get a little
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bit loose and if those are behind walls or unprotected,
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Then we've got a fire that's hiding, and it can fire. It doesn't run from you,
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but it is trying to get out.
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It's trying to vent, and it goes up. Yeah, it's trying to find out. Exactly. Okay.
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So basically, then you get into colder weather, heating equipment.
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Oh, yeah. You know, fireplaces.
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You got to get those cleaned out. You got to get portable heaters.
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Again, low income.
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If I want to stay warm, I'm going to stay warm. Yeah, you're going to do anything you can. Yeah, 100%.
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It's just things like that. Those are leading causes. But you can get into,
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it kind of goes outdoors too, because then you get into fire pits and grills,
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and you got to be safe with that kind of stuff, and you got to follow ordinances.
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And I didn't write the ordinances.
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I didn't write them. They've been here a lot longer than I've been here.
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Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, let's be real. Anybody that's grilled long enough, you've probably had.
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A little flame up or something i'm not saying i'm blowing that up or nothing
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no maybe a little melted siding or something,
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so it's like i can't act like i've never been in that situation right you know
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you have some drifting to get away from you it's a little grease fire right
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there um so okay well that's that's cool um.
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Uh speaking i guess of cooking fires and stuff like that i know a common thing
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is like a grease fire or something like that say you say you have a grease fire straw.
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And everybody's first instinct when you have a fire is to throw water on it.
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Yeah. So when I do extinguisher class, if I have a big enough class and I've
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got the time, I like to do a demonstration to show that, to show that you don't
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mix water with grease fire.
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Okay. So do not put water on a grease fire. Do not do that.
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Yeah. So, what will happen, you're just basically, you're going to spill the
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grease everywhere. You're going to make a bigger fire.
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And that's how a lot of times you could have a small, you could be cooking bacon
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or something on the stove and you throw grease or water on that grease fire.
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And that's how you lose those cabinets and it gets into the cabinets.
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So, a lot of the stuff could be preventable from getting out of hand.
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But then, you know, if you react in the wrong manner, then you can make the situation much worse.
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Yeah, you're not helping that situation. Yeah. So what you want to do if you
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do have a grease fire, you're going to need to take that oxygen away, that heat source away.
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So if you can smother it. So you want to take something like if you have flour
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or baking soda or something and pour in there and you're covering it.
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Okay. If you have a thick towel right there and you cover over top of it,
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put the lid on it and then slide it off the heat source and turn the heat off.
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All those things right there.
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Now you have eliminated the oxygen and the heat source.
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So you've stopped that. And then one thing I did want to say I didn't get to touch on and, and I.
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When I do get a chance to kind of give some statistics, and I don't want to
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be bad about this, but like we had talked about cooking fires and we talk about
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structure fires, like home fires and smoke alarms, the importance of this stuff.
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Like statistically, when you talk about that, Kentucky is, we've done a good
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job on trying to educate our community and our people about this,
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but we are still behind the eight ball.
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Like we still have in 25, we had 35 reported fire fatalities and in 24,
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we had 46 reported. Those are reported.
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Unfortunately, our state fire marshal's office doesn't receive those reported
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deaths anymore and track them.
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We should, but those are reported. So, you know, close to a hundred in the last
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two years of reported fire fatalities and we're double the national average.
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But nationally, there's close to 3,000 a year people that still die.
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And with the technology we have, it's crazy.
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So to see the loss of life and then end those fire fatalities within the state
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of Kentucky, the crazy part is three out of every five of those didn't have working smoke alarms.
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Oh, man. And we can get those free for people. And that's when taking the program
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that Marshall's talking about, Have him fill out the form, have him come,
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make sure that you have work and smoke alarms in your home.
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And, and, you know, you know, that's, that's something like you said,
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that's, that's safety. That's important. That's, that's stuff that's making a difference right now.
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And that's good. I'm so glad that you all do that. That's, that's awesome. That's awesome. Um.
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So, I guess kind of moving on a little bit, do you recommend that,
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families have like a fire safety plan or like what are some things that people
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can do to plan for if the worst thing possible happens and there is a fire?
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Right. So, when we talk about like you go to work, you have or you go to a doctor's
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office or anything like that, you'll see evacuation safety plans.
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And that on the wall you see fire extinguishers you see automatic door closers
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all that stuff and then you go home and you kind of forget all about it um and
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that's where you've got to remember that just at home you can't be,
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complacent you can't forget that that is the most important thing that's where
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you have the most important things in your life your family your cherished belongings
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all that stuff so we talk about the fire safety plans we need that in our home so So,
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we teach that to the young kids.
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We continue to teach it up through middle school and high school.
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And every time I do, I go out and I teach state offices and I teach commercial
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buildings and everything.
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I talk to them, the parents, about, hey, do you pay attention to your kids when
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they come home and tell you what they learned today?
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Go over those things. So a fire safety plan, let's talk about it.
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If you can draw out a map at your home. Okay. and put it in your kid's room
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and say, hey, this is your first way out through the door. If you can't go there, here's your window.
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This is what you do. Open your window and holler for help if you can't get out,
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or if you're on the first floor and you can't get out and then set up a meeting place.
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So if you have a meeting place set up, if there's a big tree at the end of the
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front yard, if there's a mailbox at the end of the driveway, how to get out quickly.
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Don't hide. Don't go looking for mom and dad. Don't go looking for your pets. get out,
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Letting them know how to call 911 if they have a phone or to go to the neighbor's
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house and call 911 and say what's going on.
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But they need to get out and meet with you and you know where to meet with them.
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Okay. And, man, I'm really glad we're doing this podcast because I'm going to be real with you.
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That's something that I'm lacking on. I've got smoking work.
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There's working smoke detectors. I've got CO detectors. I've got all that stuff.
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But as far as teaching i have a son as far as like teaching him like how do
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you get out of your room where do i want you to be at it when you get out of
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the room don't come you know all that stuff that's stuff that i hadn't yet i mean he's young
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but i hadn't yet thought about this stuff but i mean i think that you're right
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that's something that you got to start early and continue on throughout life
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and uh you know hopefully so this is this is good that's something i need to work i get,
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it i mean i'm the fire marshal and i've been a firefighter forever and you know
24:56
i I forget to go over this sometimes with my own kids in my own house because
24:59
you're tired when you go home and you forget to go over these things.
25:04
And you don't think, hey, you don't think this is going to happen to me.
25:08
And that's what happens sometimes with our profession, the public,
25:13
unless they've lived it, sometimes they don't think it's going to happen to them.
25:16
And I hate that for them because I think that same way sometimes.
25:20
But it is scary and I don't want it to ever happen to anybody.
25:23
Well, yeah, of course. So, of course, if we could avoid it at every situation,
25:27
then that would be number one. But, I mean, inevitably things are going to happen.
25:31
So, like you're saying. My job is to show up on their worst day, and I hate that for them.
25:36
So, it's important for us to teach them the best case scenario and the worst
25:41
case scenario because life is always the most important for us.
25:46
And then if we can protect property after that, we absolutely will.
25:49
But the smoke alarm, even that little thing.
25:53
Push the button, test it anyway. You should be testing it, but test it with
25:57
your, with your son there. Yeah. So he can hear it. So he can hear it and understand what it is.
26:02
Like run a fire drill. Cause you know, people will be, they,
26:07
they get thinking, oh, it's just a bad battery or it's just a false alarm.
26:11
But like, be like, Hey, you did not hear that going off. What are you supposed to do? Get out.
26:17
And that's one of those things. It's like, I mean, I feel like the world is
26:19
so loud these days and there's always something and there's something grabbing
26:22
your attention all the time, it's easy to overlook stuff like that.
26:25
Or like say you work in a building and the firearms are always going nuts in
26:29
there, but it's always a fossil arm and stuff and you get accustomed to it.
26:33
That is, you know, that complacency, like you said, you said that earlier,
26:35
complacency, that is probably one thing that makes fire so dangerous is because
26:40
we just get complacent about a lot of things.
26:42
And I have a question for you about fire safety. Okay. So I ask this usually
26:47
to the older generation. Okay. You're younger than me.
26:50
You know, I might look, you know, we know that ain't true, but,
26:56
um, do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed? I sleep with my bedroom door closed.
27:03
Does your son's bedroom door open or closed?
27:07
My man. My man. Compartmentalize, compartmentalize, compartmentalize. My man.
27:11
So, and that's why, like, I figured you probably did because most of our generation, I,
27:18
sleeps with our doors closed and we have our kids' doors closed.
27:22
But if you get older and older and older, a lot of the older generation,
27:27
they had their doors open, their kids' doors open, and they've always stayed
27:32
that way. And they were worried about, I want to hear what's going on in the
27:35
house. I want to hear if somebody's breaking in.
27:39
I want to hear my kids in another room. But what happens is if you get on Google
27:43
and you search a fire with a door open and a door closed,
27:48
even that hollow core non-fireproof door will make a huge difference you could
27:53
have a room that's completely burned up and that door closed and you open that
27:57
door that room look like somebody just got a bed,
28:00
and nothing ever happened that's that's crazy that is crazy but that's that's
28:05
a good that's a good tip right there that's a good tip i mean that's you know
28:10
and that's a that's the small things that people don't think about now a lot
28:12
of people don't think about that stuff i I mean,
28:14
I work at City Hall here with, you know, I see firefighters all the time.
28:18
So that is something that, you know, I have thought about and stuff.
28:21
And that's something that I do, like you said, in a younger generation.
28:24
But growing up, like my parents, they still, their doors open.
28:28
When we were kids, like our room doors were open because, like you said,
28:31
they wanted to be able to hear.
28:33
Like if we needed anything, they wanted us to be able to get,
28:35
you know, get there, get to them quickly, which I understand that aspect of
28:39
it. But when you talk about the worst case scenario. But they're not going to
28:42
get to you if they're smoked. Exactly. It's going to get to them.
28:45
And that's the thing. And people, you know, now people are like,
28:48
well, my pet can't do this. And I'm like, hey, listen, your pet's not going
28:51
to be able to do that. Yeah.
28:53
Just shut the door. And I get it. Like, I understand, but I'm just trying to
28:57
look out for them. I got you.
28:59
Let's kind of switch gears a little bit here. And let's talk about some summer safety things.
29:07
Frankfort residents love backyard cookouts. What should people know about grilling safety? so,
29:15
Listen, everybody looks, likes, everybody likes a good burger and a dog. Mm-hmm. All right.
29:23
I grill out. I mean, it, it don't even, it can be wintertime when we get a 60
29:27
degree day and my kids are like, hey daddy.
29:29
Come on, throw it. Yeah, you don't grill out.
29:33
So, but we gotta, you gotta use common sense, a little bit of safety.
29:39
So, you know, we can't have that grill right up against the house.
29:43
You got to have that grill a little bit further away from the house.
29:46
Okay. So if you can, you know, it's different for me when I'm doing an inspection.
29:50
So grills can't be on patios and decks and they can't be within 10 foot of a
29:54
structure, anything like that.
29:56
That's ordinance, that's code, that's NFPA compliance. So that's the,
30:01
is that the state ordinance?
30:03
That is for commercial properties, rental properties, anything like that.
30:07
But like what about for a homeowner, a residential homeowner?
30:10
Like I would take that into consideration too, because like,
30:14
you know, you don't want to have your grill up on a deck up against the house
30:18
underneath of a covered porch and a roof awning.
30:20
Yeah. Because none of that makes any sense. You're going to,
30:23
if anything gets out of control or you're not paying attention,
30:26
you're going to, you're going to start a fire.
30:27
So if you can have your grill a little further away from the house.
30:31
Make sure you don't leave it unattended. It's just like in the kitchen,
30:35
pay attention to it. Keep it, keep, keep with it.
30:38
Yeah. You know, check grease.
30:40
Don't let kids and pets running around it.
30:43
It's still a hot surface. It could still get knocked over. So when you're grilling,
30:47
have a good time, but pay attention, keep it away from the structure and be safe with it.
30:53
So once again, complacency, it's another thing. You just say,
30:57
be mindful in what you're doing and that can, that can avoid a lot of those
31:00
accidents, I guess. Okay.
31:02
All right. And so, you know, we're, we're approaching Independence Day the 4th.
31:07
So a lot of times, you know, this time of year, you'll have a cookout and,
31:10
you know, it'll get a little dark or something and a couple of fireworks or
31:14
something here. You know, you want to kind of kind of touch on a firework safety at home and stuff.
31:20
Yeah. So fireworks can be a little a little touchy subject.
31:24
But the good thing is we are we are very blessed with a beautiful city.
31:30
We have like great landscape. We have old structures.
31:35
So, but our properties are tight and we have rules and regulations and ordinances,
31:41
on purpose. And that's to protect everything.
31:44
This beautiful city is protect people's private property. And so with that,
31:49
if we're going to grill out, we're going to have fire pits. We're going to have fireworks.
31:53
Like we should follow those rules. Yeah. And by following those rules,
31:57
basically you, you pretty much
31:58
can't have it. You can't yourself have anything that is like that flies.
32:04
So pretty much you can have anything that's on the ground or handheld,
32:09
like a sparkler or something like that.
32:11
So like a fountain, like one of those little fountains. Yeah.
32:12
That you just sit on the ground. And they just kind of, yeah, that's cool.
32:16
Yeah, that's, you're okay with stuff like that. All right.
32:19
But you're not going to go to those tents that are out in the county.
32:22
And those mortars. And you're going to have the mortars that are,
32:25
you know, three, four, six inch mortars that you're shooting off.
32:29
There is tons and tons of shows all around the bluegrass.
32:33
There's shows here in the city of Frankfurt, 4th of July weekend.
32:37
There's tons of activities that are great for the family, great for our community
32:41
that you can go to and you get to see those big firework shows.
32:45
And, you know, the VFW always puts on a fantastic show. They're partnering with,
32:53
the History Center this year. Like, all that stuff that's going on, that is a fun time.
32:58
They spend tens of thousands of dollars that you get to go for free. Yeah.
33:04
So, like, go do that stuff and leave those big fireworks to the professionals. Okay. Yeah.
33:11
That's, that's, that's the fun stuff you get to see at home,
33:15
you know, just follow the ordinances because you want to protect your property,
33:19
your neighbor's property, city landscape, all that stuff.
33:23
You know, let's just be smart and safe. Okay.
33:26
And so you kind of already touched on this, but like, since the only aerial
33:29
fireworks that are approved in the city are the ones like the,
33:33
the big shows and stuff that, that, that are approved.
33:36
And I'm sure you guys have a hand in that, like kind of what goes into,
33:39
like from y'all's aspect, like what goes into you all approving those shows
33:43
and, and like making sure that those go off in a safe manner.
33:47
Right. Yeah, those are, it's a lot more complex than just like,
33:52
hey, can we shoot off some big fireworks? Like, yeah, yeah, man, do your thing.
34:00
So it's a fairly complex process. You know, it's a lot of permitting, a lot of licensing.
34:06
That's why it's, like I said, it's tens of thousands of dollars that private
34:09
companies or VFW or whoever have to raise this money, get it, they pay for it.
34:14
So they're bringing in these companies that are, they have a licensed firework
34:19
technician that they have, they, they know what they have to do.
34:22
They have regulations and rules and distances that they have to apply for.
34:26
We have to make sure that they're a certain way from structures and trees and
34:29
roads. And then you have to fill out all this paperwork, all this permitting.
34:35
They have to get insurance liabilities.
34:38
So all these things, they have to permit through the city, through the state.
34:41
So it's a very long process, and that's why you don't pay all the fees. You don't see a lot.
34:49
That go through that. And there's only a certain amount of times that you can even do this.
34:53
So it's not something that is very easy or done very often. That's why it's
34:58
usually around the 4th of July and there's one group.
35:01
But if you go out, like I said, you can go to other shows if you wanted to see
35:05
the big fireworks, but this is our show that is held in the capital city.
35:11
Yeah. People love it. It's a great time. So I would say go to that, enjoy that.
35:14
You don't have to clean up. You don't have to be responsible for,
35:17
you know, the safety of every, You know, all that stuff, all the thinking is
35:20
done. So all you have to do is show up, sit a chair out and enjoy yourself.
35:25
And that's it. Hey, that sounds great. That sounds great. I love it.
35:28
So kind of moving along with, you know, summertime, it's getting hot and stuff.
35:33
Do you want to talk about like heat safety? Like any recommendations?
35:37
You know, it's going to be hot the next couple of days, really humid, very hot.
35:41
Any safety tips or recommendations on how to handle when it gets hot like that
35:46
outside? Yeah, absolutely. We are not just Frankfurt Fire, we're Frankfurt Fire and EMS.
35:51
So we run the ambulance service, not for the city of Frankfurt,
35:54
but for the entirety of the county.
35:56
So we aren't just coming up, instead of fire, we're coming up in case you're not feeling good.
36:03
We've had a good spring. You know, it's been kind of dry here and there.
36:07
We just got some good rain in. So I've enjoyed the spring. It's kind of been
36:10
a cooler spring, but don't worry.
36:12
Next week, summer's coming in. I was about to say, it's here today.
36:16
Summer's coming in. It's quite new. Yeah, but next week is technically summer.
36:19
Yeah, you're correct. It's technically summer. And don't worry,
36:23
I think she's coming. Yeah, I think it's going to be a hot one.
36:26
I think it's going to be a hot one, too. So July and August ain't going to play games.
36:30
And so, you know, basically it goes across the board for any age,
36:34
but really you want to focus on, um, the older generation, like the older folks, the young kids.
36:42
If, if you're going to be outside, make sure that you're, you're doing work,
36:46
um, early in the morning before the heat sets in, before the sun really is beaming
36:51
down on you late in the evening.
36:53
If you're outside playing, you know, those times take many breaks.
36:57
Okay. You know, don't, don't.
37:00
Overwork yourself. Um, but then some of the stuff that you want to do,
37:05
um, you want to kind of pay attention.
37:08
Uh, so drink plenty of water. If you start running a fever, your skin gets,
37:13
you know, dry, um, kind of hot to the touch or you get a headache,
37:19
you get a rapid heart rate, nausea, vomiting.
37:22
Um, that's when you want to let us come to our job. Okay. So all 911.
37:26
Yeah. You can start to get into, you know, a heat stroke or anything like that.
37:29
So you really want to, you want to limit how much exertion you're really doing
37:35
and just kind of, you know, take it easy, especially when we start to get into
37:38
them, them 90s and close to a hundred, those kinds of days that the heat will beat down on you.
37:43
Make sure you wear sunscreen, stuff like that. Just, just paying attention out there. Okay.
37:48
And that's good. I mean, that's a good reminder as we're, as we're approaching
37:51
summertime and it's undoubtedly going to get hot.
37:55
So, you know, that's, that's good. to, you know, just make sure everybody stays
37:59
cool, stay hydrated, and, you know, try to do that work in the morning and in
38:04
the evening. I like that. I like that.
38:08
Now to close this out, this is what I've been waiting for right here.
38:11
What is the craziest story you have from your time as a fire marshal that you
38:17
can tell on this pipeline? Well, see, that's the thing.
38:23
I told you earlier, I've been doing, I'm in my 20th year as a firefighter.
38:26
So I got like a lot of crazy stories. I'm sure. And I can't tell you them stories.
38:30
I'm sure there's something. In the firehouse, I can tell a bunch of stories. Yeah.
38:35
But I can't tell you a lot of stories. Now, as a fire marshal,
38:39
like I don't see, I mean, I see some crazy stuff.
38:43
And I still see some crazy stuff. But like still some stuff I can't really tell
38:47
all them stories. So I don't, like I've been some cool places.
38:51
I've seen some cool stuff. Like I get some behind the scenes things.
38:56
Um, but you know, I,
39:01
I don't know. I just, them stories, those are my stories. Okay.
39:06
What about, what's a, can you tell me this?
39:10
I tell my wife stories and she gets those stories.
39:14
So, so can you, how about this? Since we can't, you know, get all these juicy
39:18
stories, what is the, maybe the most interesting or weirdest fire,
39:23
like way a fire has started or, or something like that?
39:26
Something people wouldn't expect that started a fire or, or something like that.
39:29
Could you, you have anything like that? Maybe you could let us know.
39:34
So, I mean, we've had.
39:38
I've had fires that have started just because you normally, you'll get your
39:45
electrical fires. You'll get your lightning strike fires.
39:49
You'll get, you've even had some, I've had some arson fires and,
39:54
you know, crazy things like that.
39:57
But, you know, as a fire marshal, the craziest stuff that I deal with,
40:01
and I'm not calling anybody out, I'm not going to say anything,
40:04
but the crazy stuff that I get are some of the phone calls I get.
40:08
And it's not from our community, okay?
40:12
It's not from my people here in Frankfurt. Okay. A lot of people think that
40:17
the fire marshal for Frankfurt Fire and EMS is the state fire marshal's office. And I am not. Okay.
40:25
And so I'll just leave it at the craziest thing since I've been the fire marshal
40:31
here from Frankfurt is people think, because we're the capital,
40:33
that I am the state fire marshal.
40:35
And I call and some people tell some crazy stories trying to get me to come help them.
40:43
And it's some crazy stuff. Oh, gosh. Crazy stuff.
40:47
Okay. So not a whole lot that you can, you know, let us know about that.
40:53
That's fine. That's good. Um, but, you know, man, Marshall Marshall,
40:58
we just thank you for coming and joining us today and for the important role
41:02
you play in our community. We really appreciate that.
41:05
Um, and, uh, so one more quick thing that I like, this is, this is something I like.
41:11
We like to end each of our shows with a Frankfurt rapid fire.
41:16
So, uh, as a fellow Frankfurtian, we want to hear some of your takes on our town.
41:23
You say the first thing that comes to your mind no explanation needed are you ready,
41:28
yeah all right let's go okay all right east or west side Kroger oh west side
41:34
because my boy Donald okay I don't,
41:37
he's the manager he used to be east side now he's on west side okay fair enough
41:41
hey fair enough all right best Mexican restaurant in town Casa Casa okay classic
41:48
classic love it safest building in Frankfurt,
41:51
oh that's Currently is the old governor's mansion because they got Andy in there.
41:58
That's a good answer. I've been in there and that's a safe place.
42:03
You're not getting in there. They got it tight.
42:06
I do agree with that. What is your favorite Frankfurt event?
42:11
Oh, that would have to be Frankfurt Fire Safety Night at the hospital.
42:15
Okay. That's my event. All right.
42:18
October, Thursday night, I'll have the date.
42:21
Y'all come on in. Shameless pocket. I love it. I love it. And this is another good one right here.
42:27
What is your favorite Frankfurt landmark?
42:30
So it would have to be like, I love the, I love the Capitol building,
42:36
but it's the old state Capitol building because I just, I love coming down to St.
42:40
Clair, all the activities that go on on the front lawn, that building.
42:47
Even before I came to be the fire marshal, I know there's no explanation,
42:51
but like my My wife is a huge ghost lover and all this stuff.
42:59
And we took a tour inside there to see an old haunted chest of drawers that they had in there.
43:09
Yeah. It's like, it's number three haunted object in the world. What? Yeah.
43:14
They don't have it in the old state capital right now. It's in the archives. Really? Yeah.
43:20
So you can move haunted stuff around? Yeah, you just can't take the owl feathers
43:24
out of the drawer. Oh, God. Okay.
43:26
That sounds... I'll have to tell you about it. Yeah, that sounds kind of wild.
43:29
Yeah. That sounds kind of wild. Mm-hmm.
43:33
Okay. Well, hey, that's... Thank you. That's... You know, that's a popular spot.
43:38
And I wouldn't thank him for that reason, but hey... No, I mean,
43:40
I have a perspective. I love that building. It's a cool building.
43:42
That's a different perspective. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
43:44
Well, thanks for joining us this week, fellow Frankfortians.
43:48
We'll catch you again next week On the City of Frankfort podcast Don't forget
43:52
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43:55
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44:01
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44:04
Thank you Free talk over Show out From your neighbor To City Hall Free talk over.