Latest / MyRye.com Conversations with Doug French / Rye Fire Department with Clyde Pitts

Transcript

Rye Fire Department with Clyde Pitts · MyRye.com Conversations with Doug French

• MyRye.com, Doug French: Welcome to the MyRye.com podcast, Conversations with Doug French. I'm your host, Doug French, former mayor of the City of Rye. And this podcast is about the issues and the people that impact Rye and our surrounding region. Our aim is to inform so you can engage on the local and regional issues that matter most to you. And we're here every week. Each and every week we have a topic about the city and the local. This weekend conversation is fire safety. What to know, how to prevent and prepare, and how the Rye Fire Department keeps us safe. Joining me is Clyde Pitts, longtime captain of the City of Rye Fire Department. Captain, welcome to MyRye.com Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Good afternoon, Doug. Thank you for having us and taking interest in what we're doing here at the fire department. MyRye.com, Doug French: Absolutely, absolutely. So so to open things up, and I'll call you Captain. most people only know fire emergencies for what they see on TV. So can you paint a picture for the audience about what what's it like to be in a fire, the heat, the visibility, the noise, those types of things? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so probably the most chaotic part is the is the first few minutes, the arrival, and hopefully it looks more organized than maybe what it appears. but that's really the most chaotic because that's where you're trying to gather all the unknown information and you have, the homeowners coming at you with more information. you're dealing with where's the smoke coming from, where is it going, flames. You're you're trying to coordinate your resources. same time the radio is going off with additional resources. trying to get in touch with you. So that's that's really the most chaotic part. when you mentioned the heat, the smoke, you know, obviously those are things that we train for. we try to train in the most realistic conditions. You can circumvent the heat a little bit, obviously by by supplying water to the fire or just in a thermal layer to to kinda change the environment. and then obviously sometimes if the heat is just that much, you know you're too deep and you gotta reposition yourself to where even our gear can only take so much. So you reposition yourself to a position that you're comfortable enough to be in, but you can still affect the need MyRye.com, Doug French: So what are some of the misconceptions that people have about fire? Because I mean you've been in and you've got the equipment, but if you're a resident and you're in fire, what are some of the misconceptions people have? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: about the fire department or fire itself. MyRye.com, Doug French: Fire itself. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: So the fire itself, I think what most people don't understand is fire doubles every thirty seconds. And in today's world, we live with a lot of synthetic materials in our homes, our couches, our decorations. They're they're not what used to be considered book legacy furniture. And so they burn hotter, they burn faster. And so planning for that potential incident is really key to a successful outcome. MyRye.com, Doug French: And what are some of the leading leading causes of residential fires these days Yep. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: electrical issues, cooking issues. they're usually very ordinary things that happen. and so, you know, you're still seeing candles that get left unattended. We are starting to see an uptick in lithium ion batteries, and how they are charged and stored and those are creating hazards these days as well. MyRye.com, Doug French: there are also a lot of applications for outdoor burning fireplaces, wood burning fireplaces. Have you seen any issues with that? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, I mean, you know, an unmaintained chimney obviously could create creosote build up, it will create chimney fires. and then just having the proper a cover, screen cover, glass cover in the front to keep popping embers and things from popping out. You know, if I was to look at call logs of of just fire incidents alone, it's probably been a while since we've had fireplace related incidents that weren't, quickly resolved just by taking the logs out of the fireplace. You know, nothing that created extinction. So but you know not as much as you see in the past. A lot of people switch into gas. So you have a little more cleaner burning fuel there, which reduces those types of incidents. MyRye.com, Doug French: So with the the rise in the lithium ion batteries and people doing a lot more cooking these days, it looks like everybody's got something going on in the kitchen and candles and space heaters. I mean, any practical advice for residents when it comes to dealing with those types of appliances? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so when it comes to the lithium ion batteries, you know, charging and storage are are the two main topics, charging with the proper cables that are recommended by the manufacturer. how you store them, don't charge things on you know combustible, soft surfaces, try to keep them on a hard surface. A lot of people like to charge their phones, their iPads, and lay them in the beds, and that's where when things are charging, they're heating up and then that's where sometimes those reactions happen. And then when the batteries get too hot and they they go and you know, maybe to a potential fire, they're gonna burn very hot. So things around it are gonna burn significantly quicker. And then when it comes MyRye.com, Doug French: Yeah. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: to cooking, you know, the biggest thing is always having a fire extinguisher that you know where it is. and also just don't leave it unattended. You know, if you're cooking, adult, child, whatnot, you're not gonna be cooking and leaving things unattended without You know, it in a contained pot or something like that. MyRye.com, Doug French: So let's let's pivot to to prevention and preparation. You mentioned fire extinguishers. You know, what other types of household items should people have in place? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: So everybody should always have working smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, working includes testing them regularly. like I said, a a fire extinguisher or even a fire blanket, having them, knowing where they are, knowing how to use them, and then a an evacuation plan is a key thing to have as well. MyRye.com, Doug French: Does it matter if they're wired or battery? Is there a difference? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: A any detection is better than no detection. so anytime you can have them hardwired or what's considered interconnected to where if one goes off, they all go off, you have a better chance of hearing that, especially in the middle of the night. and then anytime it can be tied back into a monitoring service also allows for if you're not home, we're gonna get the call faster and then we can get there and you know, mitigate that situation much quicker. MyRye.com, Doug French: so I mean y you're essentially talking about smartphone and smarthome technology, right? Are you seeing more and more residents applying those? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: We do, yeah. I mean a lot of things are a lot more user friendly, less manual interaction with switches and program the timers and things like that. So you are seeing a a lot more of that kind of stuff. MyRye.com, Doug French: So what are the some of the common mistakes that people make, just probably not replacing the batteries or testing? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: When it comes to detectors? MyRye.com, Doug French: Yeah. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah. So yeah, I mean a lot of things, you know, it chirps in the middle of the night, you take the battery out or you take it down and you just be kinda out of sight now, out of mind, you forget about it. and then just also, following the manufacturer's replacement guidelines. Typically smoke detectors that are solely smoke detectors, the sensors are only good for ten years. And if it's detecting carbon monoxide, that sensor is usually only good for five years. So a lot of times you'll see, even though They're changing batteries or hitting the test button, it doesn't mean that the sensor is as you know sensitive as it should be. and this therefore regular replacement under the manufacturer's specifications is also well good to do. MyRye.com, Doug French: Okay. you mentioned it briefly, but I'd like to go through some of the practical steps that that families should be doing to kind of reduce some of the risk, just simple habits. You mentioned, you know, creating a family escape. Can you kind of walk through what a what a plan would look like? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so a family should plan both, how their escape routes, but where they're gonna meet. so, a bedroom has a window and a door typically to meet code. So if you can't get out the door to the hallway, you know what you're doing at the window. you have back doors, front doors. If you can't get out one, you know how to go to the other. And then that way you know where a central meeting point is, and also how to alert the fire department. If you know if you're getting out hastily and you can't grab your phone, you go to a neighbor's house, you alert the fire department, police department, EMS, depending on what your emergency is, and and get that ball rolling as well. MyRye.com, Doug French: what about fire ladders out the window? I mean, is that recommended as well if you're a second story? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, I mean you definitely. I mean, I remember growing up we had one you know, in my parents' room because their particular room location, that would be the best secondary egress for them. So if somebody has the ability to have an egress ladder that they could keep stored under their bed, easily usable, obviously knowing how to use it is key. and potentially even practicing with it, maybe on a lower window just for setup and ease of getting out and getting out safely. MyRye.com, Doug French: You know, there's the rise of of seniors aging in place, huge trend in Rye and the surrounding areas. what if you live alone? same type of process, but should you have a kind of a contact, a neighbor or somebody to to align with? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, especially when you're speaking about, like you said, seniors, always having that person that checks in on you, whatnot. I remember again, growing up, my my grandmother used to let her neighbors know if everything was okay by which window shade was supposed to be open by a certain time. MyRye.com, Doug French: Nice Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: you know, today's technology that's that's definitely old school, but having that kind of setup to where, you know, people are checking in on you. You know, you live alone, however you can alert in the need for help quickly is gonna be great. And then, you know, we do we do preach in the in the service that if you can sleep with your bedroom door closed, it it just buys you so much extra time for both if to escape or the need to shelter in place until you know the fire department comes and can assist you out of a window or something. So again for seniors, if they're sleeping with their bedroom doors closed and something happens, essentially they can shelter in place there. And then we're gonna be coming to assist. we we talk about technology, we have with our software that we've invested into the last couple years. You do have the ability to get into our software, it's called Community Connect. and unfortunately I don't have the exact website to to share, but it's easiest to go to the RyeNY.gov and under the government fire department page, you'll be able to access it quickly. and you can put in information in there that's going to be tied to your address, which gives us very crucial pre plan information so we kind of know in route what we're what we're dealing with. so not just only could it be a senior that lives alone, but they're also telling us, you know, how many bedrooms they have, where specific shutoffs are, things like that, all these things that we don't really get to go into residential properties and and pre plan, they can give us on their own. MyRye.com, Doug French: I love that. So when I was in office we had Ida which basically actually no, I there's so many names, so many storms. But anyway, we had a huge storm, I think it was Irene, that knocked out so much of our Sandy, knocked out so much of our infrastructure. Had we had that information in advance, it would have helped the outreach in the emergency response. I think we need to promote this more. I'm gonna have a council person coming up in next couple weeks. We really need to promote that because that is a great asset and it takes out the noise and confusion you talked about once you get on site. If you have that information in advance, Isn't that gonna help knowing a lot of information going in? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, I mean it's it's really crucial when we get it. we we always utilize it for commercial buildings 'cause they're obviously bigger, higher hazards. But in today's world of technology, which we've been speaking about so much already, it's such a tool to have that doesn't it doesn't cost an extra body, you know, personnel wise, it's not an extra piece of apparatus, it's all built into a database. It pops up every every rig has an iPad in it, they can see this information. And it's like anything, the more you put into it, the more you're gonna get out of it. MyRye.com, Doug French: And especially with flooding in Rye, right? So if you know seniors are living alone, if you know that they're on medication or anything that they need to know, you have that information as it's called Community Connect. So it it has those that type of information as well? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Correct, yeah. You could put a lot of things in there. There's there's even just room for just general notes. So all good stuff that can be put in there. MyRye.com, Doug French: Excellent, that's great idea. what about multi story apartments, that that kind of thing? Is there you know, any advice for for folks that live in apartments or condos? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: yeah, I mean we do regular inspections in anything that's a a multiple dwelling, which is three dwellings or above. So we're gonna be inspecting the common spaces for all the things that fall under the the general fire code. but yeah, and the same thing, like just knowing your exits and knowing knowing that path out. a lot of times a dwelling like that, the alarm system tied to a monitoring service. It's gonna be in the common spaces and then individual apartments are gonna be local. So they're only gonna be sounding in that apartment itself. That way if you're cooking and you you set it off, it's not. But if you're hearing it, you should basically be looking to get out and then let us figure out what the cause was. And the more people that are obviously out of the building, the easy it is for us to affect and mitigate whatever the the root cause was. MyRye.com, Doug French: Okay. Great. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: instead of having to worry about additionally finding staffing to get the the general population out of the building. MyRye.com, Doug French: Okay. Let's take just a quick pause here, and I just want to remind our audience if you have a topic or person you'd like to hear on the MyRye.com podcast Conversations with Doug French, simply email me at French at MyRye.com or just let me know around town. We're here once a week, and you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and YouTube Weekly. You can also find us at MyRye.com with links to all of those formats. So please share, like, subscribe, and leave a comment about the podcast. We are growing, so spread the word. conversations are timeless. So listening to past podcasts on topics of interest really get you up to date with experts on those local and regional issues. And we're getting great feedback. some of the feedback is is the weekly images that come out of the podcast. those will improve if I talk to the crack staff. if you watch this on YouTube, you'll see that the Just it's a great podcast, but some some of the imagery get some comments from time to time. also I want to mention this the MyRye.com studio. So fireman Peter Kennedy, about 15, 20 years ago, painted this original room before it became a studio. So kudos to Peter for that. little did he know it would be on YouTube one of these days. so let's pivot to the organization our operation. Let's talk about how the fire department keeps us safe. Can you just walk us through the structure and the operation terms of the staffing and and the number of companies, that kind of thing? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so the the the department is what's considered a combination department, which is made up of of career firefighters and volunteer firefighters. On on the volunteer side, you have four companies, so two engine companies, a ladder company, and a patrol company. additionally have the ladies auxiliary. So I guess you could consider five companies. on the on the career side, it's not really made up of companies, but we run two engines and one ladder truck. as first due to most calls, most incidents. so staffing for a general day is usually is with if you don't consider my myself is five, which is gonna be an officer and four firefighters. if you're on if you have a vacation, you're gonna be down to one officer and three firefighters. And then myself Monday through Friday or kind of on call as needed when the incidents are larger. and so that's that's basically how we run. the four to five career firefighters are staffed 24/7. we go to each and every incident and then we're supplemented by the volunteers when they're available. And then typically, if it's a structure fire or kind of an extended operation type of event, you will get you know two to three always pretty much the volunteer chief Dan Bochicchio makes a ton of calls every year. and and that's what makes up the initial response from us. we do have mutual aid, auto aid agreements with other departments as well. MyRye.com, Doug French: So how's that model working? I mean it years and years and years ago it was more of a volunteer and and a smaller paid staff. We've shifted now to more paid staff and and fewer volunteers, is that right? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah. you know, going back, it it used to be more volunteer driven and there was definitely less the career side, and the career side was usually driving the rigs and volunteers were jumping on. but in today's world, I was a volunteer for five years before I got hired. the demand for the certificates and training to to get to that level is just tough. So and it's not Rye driven, it's nationwide. but I remember, from September to December, I took my initial classes and I got, firefighter one, firefighter two, and what was called survival. So basically three classes in the time from September to December, which made me just ready to go. And then in today's criteria and structure that has to happen with New York State, you're gonna get one of those classes in that time frame. So, the demand on somebody to have a job. have a family, put in that kind of time, it's tough. So the numbers dwindle down. but it still works. we get guys and girls all the time that join. not in alarming numbers, but you know, here and there. And then they're they're as active as they can be. And like I said, when it's something major, you'll see them pop up and you know they're listening. So if it's a automatic alarm and they can hearly hear quickly that it was just food on the stove. Then you know, you might not see them. But as soon as they know it's something, you will see, you know, a lot of the same active members, very often. MyRye.com, Doug French: Yeah, we saw the same transition with EMS where it used to be heavy volunteer. But as you say, with the certifications and the specialized knowledge, you need you need more paid personnel to handle these incidents. how do you so how do you balance all the work? Yeah, fire suppression, inspections, preventative work. I mean, what is how do you balance it as a captain? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so we you know, we kind of treat that as it's one mission, right? So they all work together. if we're doing inspections, we're being preventative. We're also planning because we're getting in the buildings. the all five lieutenants and myself are are code enforcement we're code officials, different levels of that. So we all have the ability to do inspections. They bring out their crews, the crews have the ability to see the building, plan the building, put it in that program that we were speaking of earlier. which globally is called First Due Community Connect is just a piece that interacts with the community for the their feedback and their input. you know and then it's in a way that's training, but then there's the other physical training of all the different disciplines. our training officer does a great job laying out weekly topics as well as full department classes throughout the year. So the schedule's kind of built and you know exactly what you can work on each and every week. And then, you get into house duty chores. we have other stretch assignments that we give each lieutenant as we're trying to continue to grow and and build the department. all the different disciplines we pick up, the technology that's advancing, all those different areas we continue to grow. MyRye.com, Doug French: That's great. So let's get let's get into the data a little bit. and if I didn't have this on my initial notes, but how heavy is all the equipment? If I have all the equipment on for as a fire person, how much is it? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so just our our bunker pants and coats, the air bottle that people would see, helmets, you're looking at about seventy five additional pounds. And then if you start bringing tools and hose and things like that, it's it it gets on up there. MyRye.com, Doug French: Yeah, so the training's pretty rigorous, I would imagine. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, I mean it's you gotta create that muscle memory so that when it does happen it's just second nature. And then you can just worry about the different variables that happen at the different incidents 'cause obviously not no one is the exact same. So certain things like where things are, what this person's gonna do when they step off the truck, all those things are pre done, pre practised and it's just it's second nature when you get there. MyRye.com, Doug French: Right. So so what about the the numbers? how many calls does the department handle what's the volume over time? Has that changed? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so we are historically increasing year over year. we did fourteen hundred calls last year. So you're looking at a hundred and fifteen to a hundred and twenty calls a month on average, some months just heavier than others. But if you look at it on an average basis, that's what we're doing and we're already on pace to do more than that this year. you know, the fire service people tend to think is you know keyword fire, but we're you know, nowadays it's an all hazards. service. So we're doing anything from you know fires, accidents, technical rescue type things, flooding, so many different like I said, disciplines that we have to to know and do. And you know, basically we always joke is it's like, you know you need a plumber, you need a plumber electrical when somebody doesn't know who to call, who they call, they're calling the fire department. So we do our MyRye.com, Doug French: Right. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: best to mitigate it if we can or at least point them in the right direction if it's not something that's should be handled in the fire department's purview. So it's a lot of different things. But yeah, so 1400 plus calls growing every year. and the trucks are out on the roads even more doing training than they used to be in the past. So definitely a lot going on. MyRye.com, Doug French: So you using drone technology at all to to maybe go out in advance and see what an incident is, if it's just a smoke alarm gone awry or what? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so the public safety commissioner invested in the first the drones or first responders program. we just put our second building mounted drone onto the Milton firehouse. So you have one at the police department and one at the Milton Firehouse, giving you pretty much full coverage of the city. and so we can utilize that to it can, just take the highway for example. When we get dispatched to the highway, people are usually telling by the last mile marker or exit they passed. So it's not usually an exact location all the time. That drone can pop up, figure out exactly where it is, and then they they can radio to us where they found it and then our response can be more direct instead of sending people in different directions and kind of converging onto one point from different directions. So you can find it, it's already found you can use it for search and rescue But even like a house fire, it could get out, pop out there, and at least start to give us a visual while we're driving out. You know, do we see smoke? Do we see fire? Do we not? and start to give you you know, if we give you a street view to say, Hey, there's vehicles parked in the way, we're not gonna get around those, we've got to come in a different direction which is just gonna speed up, the response we see. MyRye.com, Doug French: And and what about like nine one one? So th I mean show you you mentioned the front desk also is kind of a central part for the police station. Should we call nine six seven one two three four? Or sometimes your cell phone will pick up a different agency, correct? when you call nine one one? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, I mean yeah, it does depend on if it's landline cell phone and your and where MyRye.com, Doug French: Right. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: you happen to be. I mean nine one one is just the easiest because it's gonna go it's just gonna go to the whatever the fastest route is. if you're calling the nine six seven one two three four straight to the police desk, also is totally okay. as they start they they have to then call sixty control, which is the dispatch for the our fire service. so there could sometimes be a little bit of a lag there where nine one one might go directly to sixty control. But at the MyRye.com, Doug French: Got it. Yep. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: same time the police will be dispatching, you know, a PD unit and we can hear that. so we can also just start responding they'll be like, you know, car twelve can get over here, you know, reports of a structure fire. And we'll hear that we could start going while they're already, calling sixty control. But I just feel like nine one one is always the safest bet. It's gonna get you to the operator that that cell phone tower or that landline's gonna triangulate too fastest. MyRye.com, Doug French: Okay. And as a resident, if you have an incident, how best should you work with the fire department? when you say you show up you've got residents, I mean what's the best what what's a good practical guide for residents dealing with emergency and when the fire department shows up? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, if if if we get there and and there are residents, if there's one that can just give us the pertinent information, is the building evacuated? they kind of know where the incident started. if it's a fire, they know where it started, giving us a good accurate location of where that is. staying they are in the bedroom doesn't, in a four, five, six bedroom house doesn't narrow down exactly where that could be because nowadays you can have first floor masters. and you could have all your secondary bedrooms, on the second floor. And even in Rye, you get third floor. So having them there to give us accurate information. and it's gonna be specific, but that's our job to make sure we narrow down the question exactly. if somebody's still in there trying to get an exact location from them is what we're gonna try to do. Like instead of just telling us they're the bedroom, we'll try to start narrowing down where that bedroom is. Point to it, show me. And then getting everybody else as far away from the scene because there's gonna be a lot of big, pieces of equipment rolling in. We just there's gonna be hoses going everywhere if need be. So if we get that one person that can give us good information quickly, then we'll take it from there. MyRye.com, Doug French: Okay. so we don't operate in isolation obviously, there's mutual aid. Can you talk a little bit who we coordinate with? Is it Harrison, Port Chester and how that all works? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so we have working relationships with pretty much anybody that touches the city or Rye So we again we do work with just about everybody touches us, but every good plan A needs a plan B, right? So we have leveled calls So we can build off of that. We can get resources off of you know, first of alarm. The first alarm and then if the incident grows, we go to second alarm, third alarm So those are all pre-built and everybody we know exactly what resources we're getting and from where we're getting it. They're planned based on location, so the proximity, and then also what that department can provide us. A ladder, an engine, both. so we've recently started working with Greenwich, which is somebody we hadn't been working with in the past. so we have pretty much like I said, everybody that touches us down to New Rochelle, Pelham, White Plains, Greenwich, we're going to people more than we used to in the past because we can not only give them an apparatus and a driver, but we can give them a full complement of firefighters on that rig as well. so all those things work out. But any type of call that's what we call a stru call or structure call. That smoke in the structure, things like that. We get automatic aid from Larchmont and Rye Brook. those are two career departments. so they're fully staffed all the time. and we reciprocate the same kind of automatic aid with them. that increases, or I shouldn't say increases, but benefits our ISO rating because they're staffed and in-house and not looking to respond to the firehouse for the call and then get in the ring. It counts towards our like numbers responding. So all those things, not only to make sure we have the right personnel, but to strategically make sure we're benefiting in all the areas that we can by setting it up properly, we're making sure we're doing. MyRye.com, Doug French: All right, and and so what do you think are your biggest pressures when it comes to your operation? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: So I mean the biggest pressure is really just the like I said, just the initial arrival. that's when you're all your unknown. MyRye.com, Doug French: no, I I just mean the organization, the resources that you have, the operation. Staffing, equipment, Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: I mean s is staffing and equipment as always. again, we're doing we're we're doing more complex disciplines now. So you have to have the right staffing for that, the right training for that. we have to be staffed to a level that not so much that we can handle all large incidents, but we can handle, most and at least from the start to just we'll get there. the apparatus, again, you gotta have the right apparatus, the right equipment. So those are probably two of the biggest things we we do day in and day out, making sure we have things are gonna break, things are gonna need to get fixed. What's the backup plan for that? What's the backup plan for that? it's essentially what we are, right? We're an insurance plan, and it's being prepared when we're needed. So it's the same thing. So we've run into some different obstacles in the last, couple of years and we put some Again, more contingency plans in place so that if one fails, the next one's right there. and they're working out for us. MyRye.com, Doug French: All right, so I know you guys have done a great job in community outreach with fundraising and training and all kinds of outreach of the community. Can you just give us summarize that for us, what you guys are doing? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so I mean obviously community outreach is something we truly love to do. from a union standpoint. the union has chosen to really increase their fundraising ability. So we now do an annual fundraiser. and both fire prevention education and the fundraisers are there so that people can, get to know us and talk to us when it's not an incident or their worst day and they need and need our help, they can get to know us beforehand, know what we do, how they can support us, and then how we can support them as well too. So so the fundraising committee has really just done a fantastic job doing those things where it allows us to give back to the community, also take care of firefighters or any kind of first responder that may need something going on in their own lives. and then from an education standpoint, We tried to revamp our program a few years ago, making it more twenty six now, for the kids in the schools, give them more things to do that are more interactive instead of just like a sit down and kind of lecture. MyRye.com, Doug French: Right. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: we brought back the open house in October, MyRye.com, Doug French: That's a great idea. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: which is a free event. and it's just, you know, come hang out with us, learn some fire prevention stuff. do some fun things, some giveaways. that's been for the last three years now is just been bigger every year than we we planned for. so it's just growing and we do it in the heart of town here and people are might not even MyRye.com, Doug French: Is that the night of the inspection where where the mayor inspects the the department? Is that the same night? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: No, no, that's a yeah, that's a totally separate event. this is just like a Sunday afternoon from like you MyRye.com, Doug French: Okay, okay. Right. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: know, usually ten to one, eleven to two, something like that. We can set the time based off of everybody's schedules. But you know, it's just a fun event. It's almost like a touch of truck in a way, but it's it's F D driven. We will have the cops come with their one of their cars. but it's just you know like I said free event. So I think that's key. Come in. We do giveaways, we do food. you get to see the tools we do. We do some live demonstrations and they're all fun. They're fun events, like I said, to get out, meet the meet our public, those that support us, see how we can support them educate the kids and and just and get our name out there. MyRye.com, Doug French: Sounds great. Sounds great. Alright, so let's just let's wrap it up with a lightning round. One word or very short answers, but let's try to keep the one word. So what's the one word that best describes the the most intense part of of working a fire? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: I think I said earlier, arrival, right? The MyRye.com, Doug French: Rival. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: the if you want me to expand the arrival is just it's the biggest unknown and you gotta put it all together. MyRye.com, Doug French: Yeah. How about a word that describes the culture of the Rye Fire Department Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: I think progressive. MyRye.com, Doug French: Progressive what keeps you up at night? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: readiness. So if if I expand on that, that's things we already talked about, right? Are we trained enough? Do we have the right equipment? is staffing in place? Are all of our mutual aid partners are they still operationally sound? Do they lose a piece of equipment? Same thing, so that if something happens, it hopefully just goes off like clockwork. MyRye.com, Doug French: so looking back at your career, was there one lesson that really shapes how you approach your job today? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Wow. I don't know if there was one instance, but we in the fire service like to talk about the incidents after they're done. so you know you're always you're always your biggest critic. So I just think looking back at, calls I've been on, whether it was as a firefighter or now conducting the orchestra and putting people in their in the right place. It's just learning from from those I don't say mistakes, but learning from those incidents. What did I do right? What did I miss? What can I do better? those kind of things. So you know there's definitely calls that we're like, I could have parked the rig in a better spot or I should have gotten to this task sooner and you you just try to make that checklist. And then as a group here, the officers the firefighters, we try to then figure out a way to put that in play ahead of time. So it just like I said before it's like it's second nature. So when that call happens again, that's been taken care of and we can worry about something different the next time. MyRye.com, Doug French: Great. And and where can people go for more information? About the fire department? Is it on the city website? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Yeah, so under the RyeNY dot Gov and under government you have the fire department. There's everything from scheduling inspections. you'll find out calls that have been going on that we put out briefings on, and and then any other kind of thing we want to get shouted out will be right there. MyRye.com, Doug French: and is there a final message you'd like to leave with the audience? Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: sure, yeah. I mean we just we're grateful for the community that we work in. this city staff, the managers, council have just been very receptive to us. So we're grateful for the support. we love the job that we do and we just look forward to getting out there and and doing what we do every day with them. MyRye.com, Doug French: Captain, thank you very much. it was great to speak with you and get your insights. great information for the audience. thank you for your long service to the community. To our listeners, you can find full episode transcripts of this episode and others at MyRye.com along with local news and more, as well as all the archives of the past issues. If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Also, there is a new song and video out. It's about Rye. It's called I'm in Rye and It's Alright. By Dogs on the Run. Again, I'm in Rye, and it's all right by Dogs on the Run. Check it out, it's a great listen. And thank you all for listening to the MyRye.com podcast, Conversations with Doug French. We are here weekly, so we will see you next week. Thanks again, Clyde. Much appreciated. Clyde Pitts, Rye Fire Department: Thank you, sir. Have a great day.