Catching Up with Tullahoma Fire

Members of the Tullahoma Fire Department discuss some upcoming events.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:11

It's another wonderful day here at Tennessee Road Call because I have got Telehoma's finist right here with me. It's going to be Jason Dameron and Zach Smith. Guys, thanks for joining me today. Thank you. Absolutely. Before we get into the meat and potatoes, as I always say, I always like for y'all to introduce yourselves. So uh Captain, we'll start with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

All right. My name is Jason Dameron, Deputy Fire Chief Telehoma Fire. Well, Deputy Chief. Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

I thought you were I thought you were Captain.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

No, that's okay. Deputy Fire Chief. I got into fire service in around 1995, started out with the volunteer department here in the county. Then went full time for Talahoma in 1998, started as a firefighter. Went from there to uh moved up to the next step, which is an engineer, then to lieutenant, then the captain, then the assistant chief, and now deputy chief.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Awesome. I put you as a was you a captain at one time?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yes, I was.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

When did you get promoted? Because apparently I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Let's see, I went to deputy chief in probably 2000.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Okay, so it's not been that long. Yeah. I'm not like completely.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Good, good, good, good. Uh assistant chief that I can see on your shirt, Zach Smith. Uh tell us a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Absolutely. Uh got out of the fire service in 2009, same way as with a volunteer agency in the county, and did that for several years, and then got on with the Talahoma Fire Department in 2013 and been here ever since. Started out firefighter and went through lieutenant on the on the ranks and then moved back to the assistant chief role.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

And I know you're also helping us out at the police department with the SWAT team.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Also serve as the uh SWAT medic for Teloma Police.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Which has to be a big job. You have to train with them every time they go. Absolutely. And so enjoy it. Yeah, but I mean you put you got a lot of irons in the fire now because of all that. How's everything going with the fire department today, guys?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Doing doing well. We uh uh just I'll give a little nod to Zach. He didn't he didn't nod himself enough there. We he does multiple roles, uh heads up our medical side of the fire department, uh being a paramedic. He takes care of uh training all our folks, uh keeping up with all the medicines, the equipment that we use. He's he's uh he's not tootin' his horn near enough off.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Well, I yeah, whenever he just said, Yeah, this is my one sentence, I'm like, yeah, no, we're gonna go a little bit deeper.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, he's a he's a buried.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

When he came up uh when we when he made assistant chief, it was a uh big boost for our department. He's he's helped us in a lot of ways. And I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Well, I'm glad he's with us today. I'm glad you're with us on the police department as well as the you know, the old tele versus police thing, but we can't be happier enough with our fire department. Y'all are awesome. I mean, we couldn't do it without you, it wouldn't want to do it without you. Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

That's one thing a lot of people miss, I think, is uh, you know, just see the TV shows with the police and fire always at heads, and and we do we do crack jokes with one another and I don't know what you're talking about. Play little pranks, you know, those kind of things, but but our relationship is fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

We would never do anything like that. Absolutely never. We are completely 100% professional.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

All the time. All the time. But yeah, I think that's I think that gets uh uh misconstrued a little bit uh and people don't see that side of Tullahoma. That's one of the big pluses of being here. We've always worked well together. I've been here close to 30 years now, and it's always been just like a bunch of brothers and sisters.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

Didn't we used to back in the day? Now this is before my day, didn't we used to like do a softball thing against each other at one time?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

We sure did.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

And I'm and I'm assuming we beat y'all, right? Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Probably y'all never wanted anything. I will I will have to say, year before last y'all did win the Battle of the Badges, but the blood drive.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

So we danced better than the blood drive.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

But we had there was a little caveat to that that we heard that supposedly the police department was having a training with a lot of off-duty people and a lot of outside people that help with the blood.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

I'm not going to confirm or deny that we didn't cheat our tails off, okay? But we did win that. And that's at the end of the day, all that matters. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

The citizens win, that's what matters.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

We had fun with that. And we got that we we got a little brag, but let us have something, okay? You beat us in softball, you beat us in a lot of stuff. Let us have something, even if we had to cheat. I'm not I'm not admitting to cheating.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

But no, no, we wouldn't we'll never accuse you of that.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Well, what's going new at the fire department today?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

So uh right now we're kind of working on you know the new year budget coming in and hopefully see what all we get with that.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

And that's never a stressful time.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Never. Um hopefully we're gonna few personnel and and uh maybe increase our training opportunities and maybe move from that EMR level up to the EMT basic level for all of our guys.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

What is that EMR and EMT?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

So EMR is emergency emergency medical responder, it's a two-week class and 16 hours every two years as uh CEU. So the EMT uh moving to that EMT level would give you a more uh knowledgeable personnel on scene.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

I can't I can't imagine y'all, because I know y'all train a lot. I've I've seen it uh countless times, y'all are always out there doing something, and so I can't imagine what you what else y'all can offer to the table, but that's gonna be good to have that extra on there. So that is so as e how many so you're an EMT paramedic, right? And is there any more EMT paramedics there on the fire department or there's no paramedics, but we do have EMTs and advanced EMTs. And y'all and y'all and y'all you do go out with ambulances when they get caught. Did you get go out with all ambulance calls or not all.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Um we have a certain criteria that uh dispatch sends us on.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Um yeah, we have about we have about sixteen that are automatic, uh what we call automatic aid. So if if one of those sixteen things happens, critical stuff, CPRs, strokes, diabetic emergencies, um allergic medicine uh allergies, just things that are uh uh more so cr what we consider critical or in the medical field considers critical. Uh and then we're also anytime an ambulance is out of zone, which means there's two ambulances in Tellahoma, one in the north, one in the south. If one of those is out of zone, like having to go to Manchester to cover, when that that side of town is out, they automatically send the fire department to cover for them to get there.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Well, that's great to have. It's great to have. I mean, I I really want everybody in Tallahoma to understand the goodness that they have here in their fire department. Y'all, you know, y'all are awesome to watch y'all do a house fire in and not a lot of people get to see this as much as we do at the police department, but to see y'all on a house fire that is just out of control, y'all get there and it's gone. I mean, it's it's you y'all have it under control in no time. It's it's it's it's really a sight to see.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

It is and a lot of that can be accredited to the to the shift officers who keep their people in check by doing trainings and and making sure that they are uh their fundamentals and you know, pulling a hose off the bed, pulling it the right way and things like that. The engineers.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Training's where it's at.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

And get getting our folks, our off-duty, a lot of people don't know this too. Our off-duty folks, if we have a structure fire, they they come back in to help us because we only have our minimum staffing is eight, so that's eight people protecting the entire city. Um our max staffing is ten, ten per shift. So when you get to a structure fire, you know, you got multiple trucks coming, multiple things that have to be done, and with ten people, that those those disappear pretty fast. Oh, absolutely. Uh anytime we send guys into a structure, um, if two guys go and two guys go in, there's got to be two guys ready to replace them. So that the you know, your 10 starts, your 10 number starts dwindling down pretty fast. Right. So so that's uh that's one of the things ISO looks at too, and that's where we're working at.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Now you all have two stations. Now is that 10 cover both stations or that's covering the entire city.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

So we s we split them up. We have uh if we're a full shift, we have six at one station, four at the other. Um, and that's only because of the station capabilities of holding those people. We you know, you get ten people in one building, obviously, you run out of room pretty fast.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

And so you get but you the one of the stations is at South Jackson Street, that's fire station one, and the other one's over on Evoka Road next to Grace Baptist. Yes, sir. And it's also where the EMS is. Yeah, they're right next door. Station to you as well. So y'all get to communicate a lot over there as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

We uh we have a really good relationship with those folks too, obviously, because we we run so many calls with them, but we you know, being next door to each other that that helps if they need something, if we need something, you know, they're pretty good camaraderie between all the folks, so that that's critical critical in our line of work, as you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

Yeah, and I guess and I see that on y'all's Facebook a lot too. You're always telling all the firemen, you know, happy birthdays. I know recently a lot of the uh kids that just graduated high school, uh, that was mentioned on Facebook, so you know that was a good that's okay. You you're good. We won't fine you too much. But I mean, as much as the face, you know, yeah uh what I see on there a lot, you know, that you can tell that camaraderie is is there.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

And so we had several graduate this year.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

And we and that's one of the things we we always try to do at the fire department. You know, it's like a big family. You know, people people use that word loosely a lot of times, I feel like, but in the fire service, you you gotta remember these guys and girls are together 24 hours every third day. Uh so they're with their they're with their fire family as much as actually more than they are with their own family because they might see them in the morning before their kids go to school, but then they won't then they do their second jobs or whatever. They may not see them, but just for a few hours in the evening. So but when they're at the station, they're with those folks 24 hours a day, every third day.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

So Well, the dependent dependability that y'all have to have with one another is is just amazing because that is the person that has your back and you have their back in life or death situations. And so I like to know that the person who has my back I didn't make mad. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

You know, and it's like a so much like a family, you know, it's if you have the you have the just like living with a spouse or your kids, you know, that everybody has their own little quirks and things they like and dislike. So you can imagine throwing all those people into one building together and you're gonna have quir I'm I'm I imagine you're gonna have quarrels from time to time.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

I mean, me and my wife don't me and my wife don't love you, honey. But uh I know everybody else, you know, that they would probably, you know, you're gonna have that. But I mean the partnership's there. That that's that's well seen 100%. That's well seen. All right, what else you got on the uh fire department coming up?

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Well, we uh like I'll touch on what Zach said a minute ago about the EMT uh moving from EMR to EMT. That's one of the things we've been trying to do for quite a few years now, and we that's one of the things we do have in the budget currently. If if we get to do that, we're gonna be sending our folks to EMT school, which in the past we've those guys have had to pay for that training. We we provide the EMR training, but not the EMT training, just because of cost, because it is a college level class, and it takes a full semester to do that.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

That is so good you're able to how many are you gonna be able to send with the budget?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

If we get what we've put in there, we're gonna have we'll be able to send 10 folks. So which will be huge.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

So the test so i it and we have you know, we we we I've spoken before on the program about the EMS shortage that's going on statewide. To have our firemen that are all, you know, that a lot of them are EMTs, that is a huge thing to be able to say.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

It'll be it'll be uh fantastic for the citizens, and really for the amount of money it is, it's it's minuscule for for what for what service they've received for that.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

And we're up and we're close. We've got one more budget reading. Yeah, so we've got we just gotta get it. We just gotta get that there. I know they're going the city are gonna do the best they can. I don't know. They always do. They do.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

And we're very fortunate that you know you talked a minute ago about the uh the city as a whole. I mean, we've we've always they've always supported police and fire as long as I've been here.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

You know, that's always been a priority, and we're blessed for that, and I hope the citizens really see that because it's well that's why we do programs like this, because you know, we don't we don't have this a whole lot, you know, out there. Uh we want we want to be as transparent as possible, as much as possible, to be able to show them, hey, this is what you have here in your community. This is what a lot of communities don't have, and this is what we're able to bring to the table. And a lot of it's because we've got a board up there that supports us.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

So well, and I think too a lot of people miss miss it with police fire and EMS. We're we're not ones that tutor our horns. Just like I said a minute ago with Zach underselling himself there a little bit, but uh that's not what we're out here to do. We're here to do a job and serve the people. Right. We love and live in these communities, so that's yeah we do it. I think we all live here, don't we? Yeah, yeah. And it's you know, when you don't have that, it's it's uh other site towns that have don't have that, you know, it's uh uh it's a travesty, really.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

We're fortunate.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Very probably so I love it.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

What else we got going on in the at the fire department?

SPEAKER_02 14:37

So I guess next coming up would be probably the uh 9-11 stair climb that it now that comes up that we put on at the Telema High School.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

So the stair climb uh we do our memorial service at the fire station that morning and after that we'll go to the track and we'll do a stair climb. And they have the option they can do it in full gear with their turnout pants, turnout jacket, SCBA helmet, and they'll do five complete up and downs on the uh station bleachers.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

And if I remember correctly, last year y'all had the news, the 9-11 news podcast that were being that was over the screen at the high school.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah, the uh Digital Arts there at the high school, they uh probably about four years ago, I guess, or maybe longer than that now. Kind of lose track of time, but uh Digital Arts stepped up and they said, Hey, let us let us do something, we'll play it on the jumbo trime while you guys are going. And they they designed all that for us, put it together, and then then the high school lets us graciously use the stadium, obviously. And one one thing that's cool about it, uh they let the students come out during their class time, certain class times, and they can walk the track, they can sit on the other side of bleachers and watch us. Uh they get to hear all that information being playing on the jumbotron because most all well, all those kids that are in school now wasn't even, you know, a lot of them not even alive when it happened.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

So you mentioned losing track of time. That that's a big wake up because you know, September 11th, we all remember where we were at. And the the students now, they weren't even alive.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, they, you know, it's kind of the way I kind of feel is like for me is uh Vietnam, you know, we I grew up, I was born after Vietnam was over, so I really didn't know much about Vietnam until I got to see a lot of the the uh veterans and stuff, family members and stuff that were in Vietnam, and now I'm like, man, they're those kids are going through the same thing, probably thinking the same way I did, you know, no, it's not it was just a war or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

What it feels for me is old. Yes, sir. We're getting there. But that but I mean the what y'all did up there, you know, climbing the stairs, having that in the background, man, it gave it I mean it's chilling the what the way you know you see it, and uh the way we remember it, of course, back then, and I'm sure that these students are able to get something out of it as well to at least kind of see maybe what it was like. Absolutely. When that happened.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

And we try we try to involve them in a lot of stuff. ROTC is huge, helping us with that. They help set up the whole uh event with us. They bring their folks out, they present the colors, they do a lot for us. And and most of all their people participate, which is even which is even cooler.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

And the reason we started doing it at the high school was because of COVID. Uh we wasn't sending them to Nashville that year, so we decided to put on our own.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

I didn't at the high school. Oh that.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah, we used to send our folks to Nashville to to one that they put on there at Nashville downtown, and uh of course COVID hit and the city sort of shut things down. We get a lot of participation from from uh some of the surrounding departments, a lot of the volunteer departments, them folks, the basins people, Manchester, Chevyville. Uh so we we we try to make it a community thing too. We we have probably the last three or four years we've had seven to ten people who have no affiliation with the fire department or EMS or or police that just say, Hey, I wanna, can I come do it with you guys? And and it's free and we won't charge for it. You get a free shirt. Give the climbers a free shirt, anybody that climbs. Uh so it's uh we've got some really good sponsors. Coca-Cola is huge, Reyes, Coca Cola here in town. They've been a huge asset for us. They supply waters and Gatorades. Chick-fil-A gives us uh breakfast stuff. Um we supply bananas and the normal things like that. But uh Chick-fil-A and Coca-Cola, Reyes, Coca-Cola have been really instrumental with that.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

A community coming together.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

It's a beautiful thing. It is. Beautiful thing. What else we got going on?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

July 4th coming up, fireworks. Y'all be down there with with us on that.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Yeah, I think so. Um we haven't actually even got anything on that yet.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

We have we have a meeting tomorrow tomorrow. Okay. So we'll have all the particulars tomorrow, but it we it's you know, it's normally on July 3rd, uh, which I think is uh Friday this year. So uh which is it's super good event.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Uh what are what all is gonna happen, or do we know yet? Sure. Does it do we normally have like a sure should have a band? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

We have multiple bands. There'll be uh all kinds of food trucks. Food trucks and vendors. I and I think the I think I did hear that the fireworks show is gonna be extended due b because it's the 250th anniversary of the United States. So it's gonna be a little longer show than normal, so that'll fire the it's always an amazing show. So I I'm kind of anxious to see that to see what else they've added to that, so that's that'll be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

That'll be coming up July the third. So for anything, if this is after July the third, just ignore what we just said. So edit button. Yeah, well we'll but this'll this will drop uh before July 3rd, but yeah, I'll have to hit the edit button after that. Uh what else you got for us?

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Uh one one exciting thing we're uh we were blessed to uh during from COVID the uh American I can't remember the actual uh the acronym for it was A ARP money. Uh we were able to receive another aerial truck, which is a truck that's got the big aerial ladder on top of it. We're getting a new one of those. It's being built as we speak. Uh we we bought it back in 2022. We did the pre-con on it, 22, 23, and they're just now it's just now in production being built, so it'll be ready. Supposedly it's gonna be ready by no in November time frame.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

A lot of work has to go in on something like that, I can imagine. How much one of those things even run?

SPEAKER_01 21:02

That one's about 1.4 million, and that was that was at the price range twenty in 2022.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

So a lot of the things that you're waiting on with that is all the departments in front of you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

And there's only so many manufacturers of those type trucks. Yeah, of course there would be. And the ladders are usually all built in Florida.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

So a lot of moving parts. There is a lot of and nothing you're gonna find down the road at a local dealership. No, we just can't run next door and buy one.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

They don't just have them sitting on a lot, and it there's a lot that goes into it. This is the first truck that I've was a part of actually having to do all the particulars on, and I had to fly to Louisiana, the chief and I did to do a pre con meeting, which is a pre construction meeting. Uh, and uh to my surprise when we got there, we had a stack of papers, probably a hundred pages, and they went line by line every single item we had to say yes. Oh that I bet that was I mean everything from nuts and bolts to light fixtures to it you name it seats to colors to everything where we wanted a particular light where we wanted a button where we wanted a switch.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

And you want you want to do that more and more, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

I I would love to do it again. Uh it's a little hard to to get uh that that funding, but uh it's uh very neat for me coming from suppression side, which which is the guys that being on the 24-hour shifts going into administration and being able to be a part of that is is is cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

I'm sure you're forgiven. And if not, we'll put his address on the end of this so you can throw tomatoes or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Um I know we talked uh briefly about the uh Christmas thing coming up, believe it or not, we're getting a little closer to that. We are so um I know a lot we see y'all a lot going and buying presents and stuff like that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Sure. Uh so the Telemetry Drive, uh we are accepting toys and donations already. Um and uh what it is we accept donations up until December, usually a couple weeks in December. By December 14th or 15th, usually we'll go do some shopping and then once we get all the shopping, we'll get all the toys divvied out and put in boxes and what's the process of that?

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Like if uh is there a tree or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 23:44

No, no, it's uh sign-ups.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Okay. We do sign-ups generally uh it's usually around the first week of December, right after Thanksgiving. Um and we only do it for two days. Um it's normally a Friday and a Saturday, and we do it uh uh here at DW Wilson is where we have them come to to sign up. So the citizens come in, sign up. There's a little bit of criteria, they have to be citizens of Tullahoma. Um so they bring in their birth certificates or social security cards for their children to sign up. They have to have a uh two forms of ID, you know, um or two forms of residency like uh light bill, uh rental lease or uh uh mail, you know, some type of mail that that will cover that. Uh and then their ID, and they come sign their children up. Uh they get a card, and on that it's just a business card, you know, normal business card with a number on it, and that'll be their box number. And they have to have that card to pick those toys up. So you guys are always gracious helping us buy, and then also you're there when we hand out toys, help us with that. Do you do do you remember about how many families is last year? We had about 336 families, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Wow. So 336 families got to have. Coming Telehoma coming together.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Yeah, and it's and we get a lot of help uh from the local vendors, Walmart, uh in the past, big lots that was here, they always were a big help. Ollie's, they they help us. Um and they're they're so gracious that when we go in, we'll tell them what day we're coming to buy, and they'll have employees there helping us because we you can imagine when ten guys go into ten guys and girls go into shop for their their allotted amount of kids that we wipe the shelves out pretty fast. So I can yeah, they they they we kind of give them those dates and they they pre-order for toys, uh not specif specific toys, excuse me, but uh they'll they'll have extra trucks come in with toys uh so that we don't just wipe out for the public so they don't, you know. Yeah. One one thing that brought that up too is many years ago you remember the tickle meelmo thing where everybody that was the toy to have. Um so we didn't want to go in and buy all those and nobody else get one. So uh we we try to make it uh fair to everyone.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

So I did not know that. I didn't know that tickle me. I mean I r I remember the tickle me elmoes. I just didn't realize they were the big product.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Oh yeah, that was that was a big thing, so I might be dating myself too a little bit there.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

But back in 1974. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

But just to keep just to keep things uh that's one of the things the the vendors do, Walmart, and those guys we let them know and they'll they buy extra toys, so we don't because because we have been in there and people kind of look at you like you just bought every one of those. I was gonna get one for my kid, but you know, why Walmart's right behind us stocking the shelf back. That's a good deal. So that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

A lot goes on behind the scenes of that. It's not just y'all showing up one day and buying a bunch of toys. It's a lot of uh lot more work than what a lot of people probably realize.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Yeah, one one thing too, I've meant to met uh another people I should have mentioned was Rock Ten. They've they've all uh not Rock Ten, but uh Wisco Envelope here in town. They give us all the cardboard boxes to make our boxes for the each family, so that's that's a huge savings.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

You probably wouldn't even I wouldn't have even thought of that.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

So I mean a lot of stuff going into that and and lot of a lot of big players in town help us with that, and that's that's huge. And we and we've been doing this program since the early 50s. We can't we can't nail down the exact date, but sometime in 1950 early is when we started that program.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

When we when we were all in college. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

It was just getting started.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Guys, thank y'all so much for uh joining us for the program today. I know uh a lot of people enjoyed seeing, you know, kind of getting to know their uh public service people and knowing their fire department. And I really wanted to get y'all on as quick as possible because again, uh it's awesome what y'all do every single day for this community. And I know we owe y'all a lot and our hats are off to you.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Well, we appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity to come in.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

And the police are and the police are still better. Anyway, thank you all for joining us here at Tellahoma Road call. Thank you for the firemen that come out here, and y'all have a great rest of the day.