The 490 with Gretchen de Becker, Matt Killam and Kevin Mullane.

Oh.

Welcome into the 419.

Powered by and presented by wealth management.

I'm Kevin mullin, Gretchen de becker, Matt killen.

Gretchen just woke up, I did.

That was interesting.

Yeah.

You were, like, fully, fully reclined.

I didn't realize that these chairs reclined.

They you can sit way back in them.

Okay.

If you want.

Yeah.

All right.

You want a chill?

Yeah.

You want to be.

If you want to be.

Chill.

Chill.

The most annoying thing.

Oh, I love it, I hate it, I thought it.

Yeah, it reeked of you.

Yeah.

There's there's so many things that my kids say.

Yeah, that I was like a thing that kids are saying now.

Oh, dad, I'm gonna shut them.

No, it's all the things.

So what I do to get them back is I. You say six, seven to them.

Know.

Well, they don't like that.

Yeah.

I use ChatGPT to say string together the most nonsensical, cringey like teen language sentence.

And then I will just find a way during dinner to work that in.

Yeah.

And my daughter, I mean you can just see it right up her spine just does not like it at all.

Do they call you bro?

No.

I have had some kids like on teams that I coach.

I tell them like to do something.

They're like, oh, bruh.

And it's not bro.

It's br.

Yeah.

And I was just like, no, we know we're cool.

Oh that's right.

I'm sorry, I am not.

I'll tell you I also hate No Worries which is not just a youthful oh, I hate that so very much because you do have worries.

Ubiquitous.

Well that's my hate.

It's like.

Remember, for the brief cultural experience of the No Fear.

Yeah.

I'm like, get this.

Those two things that linked together and I hate them both.

I had a former that was the former coworker would say no worries, but it really wasn't worried.

I'm super annoyed with you.

Yeah.

And so now whenever I say no worries.

Yeah.

You're being passive aggressive is like, I'm going to kill you.

Yeah.

Yes.

It's like, sure you don't have any worries, but now I have to worry about this.

Yeah.

No worries.

I'm like, yeah, well, that's just not Gretchen.

It is.

It's my talk about worries.

Talk about worry.

It is your mystery guest today.

It is.

Who?

Who are you bringing in?

You guys aren't going to be able to handle it.

Okay.

No worries.

Okay, so I'm going to use some letters to describe this person.

And we'll see if you guys can figure it out.

Okay.

Okay.

This is a woman I'll tell you right off the bat.

Okay okay okay.

This person is has an miss there an RN there an EMT.

Their experience with hit their their and ACLs and their an mom.

What is ACLs?

I'm not going to tell you that.

Okay.

Okay.

Those are my clues.

Well, this is a fun of you.

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, you know what?

That is sponsored by some letters.

Yeah, sure.

Right.

We're today's sponsored by the alphabet.

I got it.

Yeah, mom.

So, miss.

So, miss, you probably could have potentially added the N afterwards, right?

Or the MSM.

They're not on the network now.

No no no no.

But like master of science and medicine.

Just masters of science.

Yes.

And then later nursing degree.

Got it.

Okay.

They are not training.

Yep.

High intensity?

Nope.

Do you even know what these letters say?

Yes I do.

Okay.

What do you think height stands for?

I'm not going to tell you.

Okay.

This is.

These are the worst clues.

No, they're not.

They're good.

They're good.

The other clues you've ever been.

And this person has been doing this for 26 years.

Okay, June, spelling out doing these things.

Yep.

With all of these, with all these letters behind the names.

Let's take a break.

Okay.

When we come back, we'll figure out what all of this alphabet soup is, and we'll learn who Gretchen's mystery guest is on the 419.

We'll be right back.

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Thank you.

Introducing The Local Thread, a community news series uniting voices and storytellers from across the region in partnership with La Prensa, the Toledo Free Press, the Sojourners Truth and Toledo Public Schools.

The local thread brings you stories and conversations that connect our community here at weeknights at seven on FM 91, with early access on podcast platforms each morning.

The local thread only on.

Welcome back into the 419 powered by wheat.

It's Gretchen's mystery guest.

She gave us a handful of letters you gave us miss rn, EMT.

Mom, mom, mom, t cells.

You could have also said to really give it away, TFD, I did, I could have the chief of the Toledo Fire rescue Department.

Alison Armstrong.

Well, thank you for being here.

Yeah.

No kidding.

Yeah.

How long have you been in your role?

I just started my fifth year.

Oh my goodness.

Does it seem like ten?

Yeah, it went by fast.

Yeah, it went by both things, though.

It probably feels like the days go by sometimes an excruciating pace.

And then the years go by pretty quickly.

Yes, exactly.

So you were the first.

The first woman chief of the fire department.

Do you like hearing that or is that annoying to you, or is it both?

I really do voice.

Do you like carrying it or is it going to you or is it?

But yeah.

Yeah, I don't mind hearing it because I recognize that stepping into this role as a female means something to young women, young girls who maybe don't think they can be a firefighter.

They don't they can't be the fire chief.

And so if I'm able to provide that role model for them and that hope that they can do whatever they want to do, I'm okay with that.

And what's the data?

If, you know, across the country, the percentage of women in leadership positions in fire departments, I don't know about leadership positions, active firefighters, it's about 5% for career departments.

We're at around 12% okay in Toledo.

So tell us about your what a little bit of just a little bit of sort of data about the department, how many firefighters you know, I know you have all of that in your in your brain.

The calls that you get, the number of calls.

Sure.

You have the number of boots.

Yeah.

Right now we have 582 uniform firefighters, about 18 support staff.

We have 17 stations respond to over 64,000 incidents, with about 85% of those being EMS incidents.

So a lot of people don't understand.

And this is something that's happened during our lifetime.

And yours, Alison, is that it used to be that an ambulance would come a separate EMT, which is an emergency life support responder, would come separate from the fire department.

They would come with the police.

And over a period of time, it's changed where the firefighters are.

Also a certain percentage of you are EMTs.

Correct.

Right.

Okay.

So I mean, you're going way back with the police department, but they did.

They used to respond in funeral homes.

Go away.

She's talking about to respond as EMS providers.

And that's evolved over the years.

So in Toledo were an all hazards response department.

And so we respond to everything from car accidents to fires to heart attacks.

So all of our firefighters are trained to the EMT level, which is a certification that requires 150 hours of curriculum and hands on training.

And then we have approximately 267 paramedics and paramedic level training is another 18 month curriculum, I think about 1200 hours, and they're able to provide more interventions, medications, cardioversion, like if your heart goes into an arrhythmia, they can shock it out of that arrhythmia.

And so they're able to provide advanced life support treatments.

And they have all of that equipment on the on the truck when they arrive.

We do we have it on the fire trucks, the fire engines, the ambulances, which we call medic units in the fire service, the equipment standard across all of our vehicles.

Years ago, a couple of years ago, I had an incident was out running and I've got a defibrillator.

It went off while I was running, which is not a pleasant experience.

So naturally I went down my Apple Watch called 911.

Oh, that's for the person I was running with.

Could even ask do I need to call nine one?

One was immediately connected to an operator, and I mean, I'm not getting probably 90s later.

Philadelphia was there.

It was unbelievable.

I guess what I think about like that incident, I mean, clearly, you know, from the call, this person's not on fire.

But yeah, we're bringing an entire fire truck to that, to that call.

Why, why, why is that the right thing to do?

Because they're the closest apparatus with the EMTs and paramedics.

They can deliver that care and save your life.

So we have 17 engines.

Each of our fire stations houses one engine, and we have three ladder trucks throughout the city, and we have two heavy rescues.

So depending on where you're at when you make that call, dictates who responds.

So at a for a call like yours, if you have a heart problem, you'll have a minimum of a first responder.

So which is one of those fire apparatus being the ladder truck the heavy rescue or the engine.

And then in addition you'll get an ambulance with two people.

So you'll get 5 to 6 people on that incident.

Because we've decided for our effective response and treatment, that's what we require to be able to deliver the treatment and get you to the hospital.

There's a lot of there's a lot of friendly rivalry between the fire department and the police department who, when you usually arrive first, I'm sure that you would want people to know.

The fire department usually arrives first, but it depends on the scene.

I get that.

Not on a fire.

Not on a fire.

That's true.

Yes.

So who is in charge then?

Okay, hanging is the one.

Hang on a second.

Hang on.

Yeah, yeah.

Wait.

What?

What what?

So.

So if you guys are on scene, I think most of the time, but not on scene first for a fire.

So if you think about it in this way.

So police officers are in their vehicles.

So the way that they respond is they show up for shift change.

They have some sort of briefing and they get in their vehicles.

They're driving around 30 in their vehicle driving around.

So for us they're lounge station.

We're had the station.

We could be cooking, cleaning, drilling, all those things.

And so when the incident comes in, we have 90s to get in the ring and respond.

So because of that just inherent built in delay, they usually arrive first to a structure fire or maybe an injury accident.

And it depends.

It depends on the call type.

It depends on their location.

But many times they'll arrive first at a fire and then who's in charge of the scene?

What what what's the protocol?

By state law, the fire incident commander is in charge of that scene.

I know that we will some of the audience here, but it's fascinating to me.

Can you describe a little bit of the org chart of this?

You have 17 stations a year at the top of the pyramid, but this is almost 600 people that are underneath your leadership.

So how is this managed?

Yeah, sure.

So at the top of the org chart, you'd have myself as the fire chief.

And then I had what an ego.

And then you have I have an assistant chief and then I have three deputy chiefs.

Okay.

And so each of them are in charge of our bureaus or our divisions and the majority of our people.

So let's see here about 525 or so, our in-line operations, what we call 24 hour shift.

They're in the vehicles.

They're responding to incidents.

We have 117 firefighters, command staff and then supervisors working every single day.

So there's three shifts with A, B and C shift.

Okay.

And so those 525 or so people are spread across those three shifts so that we have continuous coverage.

And then we have about 55 to 60 people in the ministry positions like myself and other support positions for payroll, for ordering supplies, vehicle maintenance, all of those things that we need to do to keep that fleet up and running and keep our personnel trained, equipped and ready to respond.

Never do you ever.

I know, I bet I can guess the answer.

Do you ever miss being in the station?

I do want to lend into what I'm sure the rest of us bozos maybe overrule mantises, because you were certainly away from your family or loved ones.

But do you ever miss being in the in the field?

I mean, you you you save lives.

I'm certainly doesn't, if not the entire reason why you sign up to do this is to be in service of others.

And now, like, well, I guess I'll just keep sending these emails and having conversations with passive aggressive talk to that mayor again, how fulfilling to have to meet with more passive aggressive people for an entire day.

So I have two parts of an answer to that.

Yes, I do miss it.

One of my best assignments was when I had a bid to station 17 on Central Avenue, right next to the Tata station, houses an engine in a ladder truck, one of our busiest stations.

And I had a lot of fun there because I had a really good crew.

We went to a lot of runs, a lot of fires.

You know, we were able to help a lot of people, and most of us become firefighters because we want to go to fires.

Right.

And so that was a great time and I was there for five and a half years.

I really hated to leave that because you have that camaraderie and you have that sense of community with that crew, and it's like an extension of your family.

Right.

And so as you rise up through the ranks, you lose that, and then you become more administrative in your tasks and your role and their running.

You see your shoulders sliding down or just, well, the running joke is I don't read my emails.

I have an assistant to read my emails.

You know, because you're right, that's not really an exciting part of the job.

It's a necessary part, but it's not the most exciting.

I don't mind some of the meetings.

I don't like meetings for the sake of just meeting and talking.

But I do enjoy the things that I've been able to do with the department and lead the department towards in the last five years.

Like that's exciting to me, and I feel like that's just a different mission than going out and helping people and saving lives.

It's something different than I can do to benefit the community, the department, the city.

We're talking about regressions.

Mystery.

Yes.

Allison Armstrong, chief, can you walk through, like so?

You know, Matt decides to cook dinner at home.

Naturally.

Then the fire department is going to start.

What?

The moment, you know.

So Matt picks up the phone and calls 911.

Then what happens?

Like, what are all the things that that then fall into succession, you know, and Matt burns his dinner and calls 901.

So we have Lucas County nine one that takes those calls.

So that call goes in there.

They will pick up the call.

They'll start entering the information into a computer aided dispatch system that we use to provide us with the address, the hydrant locations, other information, the caller information, what the caller is saying.

They enter that all in.

And while that's being entered in, while you're on the phone with 911, that call taker sends that call over to our fire dispatcher.

So you're continuing to talk and give them information.

They're dispatching the resource, so they'll send out what we call regular alarm.

You'll get at least three engines a heavy rescue, a ladder truck, command staff and two ambulances.

So we'll be on the way.

And then we'll the call taker will ask you to provide more information.

Is there anybody in the house?

What are you seeing?

Where's the smoke?

Where's the fire?

And then that information is all related to the crews.

So they can kind of get an idea of a size up.

And what's the information in that station?

Meaning, is there a point person that receives so you know what you're going to.

So we have.

Excuse me.

Somebody on watch.

So the station gets alerted and it comes over the radio.

So the entire crew, everybody in the station can hear it over a radio in the station, and then it's pushed through that computer in their rig.

They all have computers in their rigs, and then the dispatchers should be verbalizing anything that you say.

It does have to be evolving in real time.

Right.

And that's assuming all the information is accurate, because it's a moment of overwhelming panic, to say the least.

So I'm fascinated by you.

And I are in the truck heading to the scene.

I'm, of course, cowering behind you, which is where I'll be for the remainder of this question.

But you are arriving.

The information is provided.

Is house on fire three individuals still inside, I mean, and you have to all of you have to be aware of the fact that that's what we know.

We can take this at face value or once we arrive, it could be totally different, right?

Yeah.

I mean, the information is only as good as the person providing it in there.

That's a shot at me, the ability to provide it.

Right.

But you're exactly right.

So and think of an instance where a house is on fire and you're getting ten callers.

I mean, you can have you can have multiple people calling all at the same time.

They could be providing conflicting information.

So we just do the best we can with what we have.

But we do assume that all these occupancies, the houses, the businesses are occupied.

We do assume that now that risk profile changes depending on time of day.

Yeah.

If a business is is active or in the middle of the night, we have more concern for people sleeping and people being trapped.

Do we hear smoke alarms going off?

But based on the information that we are provided, we can amend that response.

So if we're in route to a fire and dispatch now tells us, hey, there's three people trapped, there's four people trapped, our incident commanders, our crews have the ability to say, hey, send me, send me another alarm, or send me more engines or ambulances.

And we advocate for them to do that, to get those resources started sooner rather than later.

They can always cancel them.

If you could build a perfect firefighter in a lab, what would that individual be like, even from even between their years?

I mean, somebody who handles information doesn't panic.

There's certainly a physical component to this, there's no doubt about that.

But if you were to design a perfect firefighter, what would their even or their mentality would?

Would that be, I would say, somebody willing to to work hard, somebody that can be calm under pressure.

And a lot of that comes with training, right?

Because the training comes with consistency.

It comes with muscle memory.

You know, I can train anybody to be a firefighter.

As long as they're motivated, they're willing to listen.

You know, they can comprehend the information.

And we we ask people to be flexible.

This is this is a job where there's a lot of things outside of your control.

And so you have to understand that and you have to be able to kind of roll with the things and be flexible and not get too stuck on any one thing or any one way of doing something, because there's multiple ways to to rescue people, there's multiple ways to put out a fire.

We know best practices through research and training and things like that.

But many times you have multiple options to get something up and you have to think quickly, I bet, process that quickly and make a decision.

And so I need people that can make a decision to.

Right.

I need people that can make a decision with the best information they have and get it done.

If there's when I was at the city, I had the opportunity to go through some of the simulations that the fire department does when they're training firefighters and you realize how deprived you are of all of your senses, with your safety equipment on.

And a lot of times you're trying to listen to what you're hearing.

If people are in their homes.

And one of the things that stuck with me so much was the mistakes that people make, obviously out of fear if they're in a fire or they're trapped, which is that they, they, they make choices that make it more difficult for firefighters to find them.

Can you talk a little bit about some of that, and what you would want the public to know about what to do if they're in a structure that is on fire?

Absolutely.

So the biggest thing is close the door, right.

So if you're fleeing a fire, many times the door is left open.

And what that does is it allows oxygen to feed that fire.

So that's why we always advocate in schools, in apartments, even in your house, to close the door when you exit, because that will give us time to get in there and put the fire out.

Basically isolate it and it'll keep that fire from the door to any room.

Two that you leave doors, windows.

If you can close them behind you, close them.

Okay.

The other thing is many times kids will hide.

They'll hide under the bed.

They'll hide in the closet.

We've had adults hide in closets, and so that makes it challenging for us to be able to find them in a search, because it's harder to search those areas.

And if you think about it fully equipped and you have all your fire gear on, trying to crawl under a bed is is probably impossible because of your SCB and your back.

You're not going to get under there, so you have to sweep it with a tool.

Maybe there's something scuba gear every night.

It is, and it is very difficult to use my bed.

I sleep in a full bunk bed.

I bet you have a bunk bed.

It's so awesome.

You should see it's a race car.

It's awesome.

How fire retardant, I assume.

I hold it down every night in a different way, but also have working smoke alarms, right?

That's the number one thing.

Working smoke alarms.

Close your door at night when you sleep.

That way, if a fire does start, you're at least isolated in that bedroom.

You got a quick closing before the segment and it's a critical one.

What is the best fire related movie, in your opinion?

As we close the first segment, Backdraft?

Hell yeah it is.

I mean, we've talked about this.

It is like so good.

Yeah, we've talked about this.

What happened to that Baldwin he, he like, fell apart.

He could have been so great.

I don't know I know he was traumatized by the fires.

Yeah.

Obviously like you know when you're watching TV and you see Chicago Fire, a firefighter in a movie or TV, I mean, what's a show that gets it right?

And what's a show that you're like?

That is not our job.

I don't watch a lot of them because, I mean, Chicago Fire.

Yet I think Chicago Fire is decent.

The problem with all of them is they pack in all these crazy incidents that may happen once in a career into one episode, and that's makes it a little bit.

Right?

Right.

I mean, generally it doesn't happen like that.

Same idea.

It's like all the murders on naval.

I think the first episode of that I watched, somebody literally ran and jumped out a window.

Yeah.

You know, and it was I dried you with my scuba gear.

It's difficult for me to go out the window.

It tough.

I love Backdraft, and Kurt Russell was the best.

Yes.

I'm gonna watch it tonight.

We're talking with Chief Allison Armstrong from this little fire and rescue department.

Gretchen's mystery guest.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, I want to dive into more of your background.

What got you interested in this?

And then let's talk about the future of Toledo Fire.

We'll take a break.

We'll be right back on the 418.

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Welcome back into the 419 powered by T. We're talking with Gretchen's mystery man, and you crushed it.

This is.

It's so fun to talk to Chief Allison Armstrong about.

Let's go through some of the letters that are behind your name.

Okay.

What is ACL?

S advanced cardiac life support?

And is that a certification?

It's it's like a training certification.

Okay.

Hit.

Health information technology EMT.

We've already done that.

Emergency medical technician.

Registered nurse.

Mom, mother.

Your mother and miss, you got your masters of science in at University of Cincinnati?

Yes, yes, in information technology.

Okay.

And so how did you did you first become an NN or did you become an RN while you were a firefighter?

Complicated.

Okay, so I graduated high school in 97, went to Central Catholic.

I always wanted to be a firefighter.

I went, I got you on 96.

Really?

Yeah.

So weird.

Yeah, that was a laser, so you don't need to worry about it.

So at that time, they were given a civil service test for the job of firefighter, and it occurred every 2 to 3 years.

Okay, so I wasn't old enough to take the test they gave in 95 or 96.

I had to wait.

So in that time, like, what am I going to do with myself?

So I started nursing school at Owens.

So you knew in high school that you wanted to be a firefighter?

I knew from probably 12 years old that I wanted.

From where?

How did.

My dad was a police officer and my brother, who's four years older, was in Fire Explorers.

So I wanted to do whatever my brother wanted to do.

And I joined the Fire Explorers when I could.

I just loved it.

I love it as a group for for school age children.

Or is it a pyromaniac?

Yeah.

My uncles and I don't think it's the school age into high school.

I don't know if it was through the Boy Scouts of America.

I don't know how many of these groups actually exist anymore.

Used to be a big thing.

Back when I was a child.

Yeah.

So?

So you knew that that early on.

You get to high school, you can't take the test.

You started Owens.

And then what?

So I started nursing school.

I take the civil service test, and I think 99, I bounced around in college as far as majors because I went to my first nursing class and the teacher says, oh, let's talk about why you're here.

And everybody, literally everybody was like, oh, I've always wanted to be a nurse.

And I'm sitting here going, I want to be a firefighter.

Remind the right place, right?

And so I questioned that.

So because of that, I kind of bounced around.

I eventually came back to nursing.

So I got hired on the fire department in 2000.

And then I finished my 2005.

I became licensed, and then it was on the fire department, went back to school for a bachelor's at mercy, became a paramedic, became a mom.

And then I really had a personal goal of finishing a master's degree.

Do you have to have an become an EMT?

No.

Okay.

They're all separate certification.

Are you?

Have you always been a good student?

I mean, this is okay.

I've always enjoyed school.

I like learning, and that's the other important part of our job is you have to be committed to lifelong education.

Learning because things change, techniques change, tactics change, health care changes.

And so you have to stay abreast of all that stuff to be a good firefighter.

But I've always enjoyed school, I've always been good at it.

And I wanted to finish a master's degree because I was the first person in my family to get a master's degree, and that was important to me as a personal goal, but I didn't know what to get it in because I wanted something that because, well, let me go back to 2001.

So in 2001, I fell through a floor in a house fire.

I was almost killed.

Oh my gosh, I fell into the fire.

Don't recommend that at all.

And so I suffered burns.

You know, I was off work for six weeks.

I had to have a skin graft.

I had some serious injuries from that.

And after that incident I thought, well, shoot, if something else happens or if I get injured, what am I going to do?

And I can't come back to work.

What am I going to do?

What is my backup plan?

You know, I had mercy just for a second.

The the that was in your first year of service.

Yes.

At the risk of putting you on the spot, a lot of people would have hung it up.

Then how?

And again, it's not live programs.

We can stop anytime.

But can you, if you don't mind, it takes an overwhelming amount of everything to get back in the truck.

Back in the station?

Well, how was that?

Just a natural fit.

You couldn't wait to get back or there was a process there?

No, there was a process.

I bet it was a traumatic incident.

I mean, think about this.

So we respond to the fire.

It's a three person engine.

At the time we only had three people on our engine.

Right now we have four, which is a national standard.

So we show up to this fire.

I'm new on the job.

I have one other person with me and then the driver of the apparatus.

You know, we go into this house and I'm in the kitchen area.

I walk in the side door which goes into the kitchen, and I can see in the house, I mean, there's a little bit of smoke, but not to the point where I can't see at all.

I can see.

And so I step into the dining, what would have been the dining room.

And shame on me, I didn't check the floor like I was trained like I should have, but I stepped underneath there to get a better look in the floor claps.

So I had no time to react.

And then turns out the fire is underneath me, which we've done a lot of training since then to identify basement fires because they are such a serious hazard.

So fall into there.

By the grace of God, I had a piece of solid flooring underneath me, which is what kept me from getting killed was literally a piece of flooring because had that fluorine broke apart or not been there and shielded me from that direct flame, I would have been killed.

So lucky for me, the floor was there.

Lucky for me, there was a crew right outside who came in, was able to put some water on the fire.

But another hazard of our job is being steam burnt.

So, you know, when you're when you're in that situation and they open up the nozzle and put water on the fire, it creates a lot of steam.

So what didn't burn me from direct flame was steam.

So I had steam burns throughout.

So when you're putting when you're throwing water on the fire to put it out, it still the steam that comes off it is still hot enough to burn the firefighter or anybody that's in the presence of it.

It can.

We had to walk Gretchen through with the concept of fog was before you arrived.

So you want to blow through this as quickly as you can?

Well, I there's no downsizing, and I want to make you feel uncomfortable with the amount.

No, but to answer your question.

So, you know, during that time, I was off.

I just want to get back to work.

I was a new firefighter.

I just wanted to get back to work.

But then when I came back to work, I was very angry, you know, I was angry, I was frustrated, I ended up asking for a reassignment.

Not not because of anything my crew did wrong, but just because of the trauma associated with it.

Like, I just need to go somewhere different, right?

Get a different perspective, just a different place.

And through through the years.

Yeah.

You know, was fine.

But yeah.

Did you feel supported at that time by the department, like with with the resources that you were that we were given to you?

And if not, was that something that you wanted to change in your under your leadership?

I didn't necessarily feel supported at the time.

I felt like I was told that I did the wrong thing, which I did.

I mean, I did do the wrong thing, but I felt like we were in a different time period back then, where fast forward to now, I think we do a better job of supporting people and we do a better job with mental health and we do a better job with trauma.

And yes, those are all things that I'm passionate about.

And and having dealt with it both in my professional life and my personal life, that's important and near and dear to my heart that we provide those things and that we take people's feelings and emotions seriously.

I mean, I care about my people very much, and I make sure that they know that well, they're seeing so much despite whether or not they're they're seriously injured the way you were.

You're seeing very traumatic injuries.

You're seeing people at their very worst, probably on the worst day of their life.

People that have been shot, overdosed by drugs, whatever the case is.

And that has an effect on the people that work for you.

Yes.

And so what are the things that are available to firefighters to help them?

So we have a wellness and support program right where we can provide support.

We have critical incident team members that are trained to provide follow up because maybe a fatal fire or like a traumatic incident, like you said, maybe a child dying or some sort of violent incident.

So we have team members that can provide that peer support.

We have, you know, employee assistance program where they can get confidential treatment and therapy and things like that.

The city also has great health care benefits to where those things can be accessed.

Now virtually, you can have your appointments that way.

It kind of erases the stigma or the concern associated with going and sitting in a waiting room and maybe seeing people, you know?

Right.

There's a lot of different ways that you can do that and still remain anonymous.

And, you know, there's other programs.

There's the if Center of Excellence out in Maryland offers mental health services, addiction services specifically for firefighters and only for firefighters.

And that's something that's covered with the support of the if and then through your health care coverage, which is a big asset to the fire service.

There have been a number of incidents lately where homicides are related to arsons.

So you're putting out a fire not knowing, and then a body is uncovered and turns out that that was that was a homicide.

The fire set intentionally.

A lot of people may not know about the crossover between the detectives that are sort of what I describe as a crossover unit between the Toledo Fire Department and the Toledo Police Department.

Can you talk a little bit about those investigators played by Robert De Niro in Backdraft?

Yeah, yes.

So we have an arson unit.

And well, up until a couple of years ago, we had to police detectives in that arson unit.

They have since been reassigned, but their offices are over at the safety building.

So I have, I think, for arson investigators right now, we're trying to get a couple more trains.

So right now that unit is made of firefighters who are cross-trained as police officers.

And most recently, we've been sending them to the Toledo Police Academy to get that training.

So they're certified law enforcement officers.

They have full law enforcement powers.

And then they're also certified firefighters.

So they work with TPD, though in the case of a homicide or a death, they will work together with the police detectives to investigate that and to hopefully find the person that committed that crime, charge them and then bring them to justice.

We talked about over the last five years of your leadership, there's been some changes I want to talk about maybe one of the many things that you're the most proud of, and also the future of the fire department.

Do you mind moving into that space for us?

Yeah.

So in the last five years hiring, we've gotten hiring back on track.

So that's been exciting.

I mean, we've seen less applicants for the jobs, but we've seen more educated, more trained applicants, more diverse group of applicants, which is awesome.

We've hired, I think, about 175 people since I've been fire chief, which is huge to bolster staffing to to keep our rigs in service and reduce overtime.

Oh, let's see.

So many things.

There's so many things we've done.

So internally we got a website up and running which communication of the fire service is very difficult because think about it.

You have three different shifts.

They're on 24 hour shifts and that becomes very challenging.

So one of the things that we did develop that website internally, in-house to provide that communication and to have, you know, all of our information put in one place where people could easily access smart.

Yeah, yeah.

So what else you're doing some improvements to some of the fire stations.

Thank you.

So we've spent millions of dollars improving fire stations because we have 23 buildings I think now.

And they're older.

So they require a lot of maintenance and upkeep, put a lot of roofs and kitchens and concrete things like that.

So that's been good for the department.

Vehicle purchases.

We're always purchasing vehicles and it takes 2 to 3 years now to get a fire engine.

That's why it's just unbelievable.

And so we have to plan further out.

And they're expensive.

So expensive.

Yeah.

They're so expensive.

So they still made in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Some of them are, yes.

The four we just received are made up in Michigan.

So there's a handful of manufacturers impressed by my knowledge.

No.

Yeah.

Have you been.

Is it also a backdrop?

Yeah, I don't think so.

But probably.

What's the average length of service of a firefighter if you know, how long did you length of service.

So you can get a full retirement at 25 years.

You can and then you can get into deferred retirement program for another a I would say average is probably 27 years.

And why are so many male firefighters so handsome?

What is the what is the deal?

Chief?

That was actually my question on texture.

Was an answer to that question was I am curious like so 2020 four hour shifts.

What does a typical shift look like?

Right?

Like what is that 24 hour period?

What what makes that what makes up that time?

After you answer my other question first, just write it down.

Y'all ready?

Down.

Okay, so our shifts start at 7 a.m.

starting in at 7:00 in the morning.

So you come in, you have a roll call where you get information from your officer.

Make sure that you have whatever you need for the day.

If there's like detailing or training.

We have community events.

So they go over the schedule and then they'll check the rigs out, check their rigs, check their equipment, make sure everything's in good working order.

And then we have training scheduled pretty much every day.

So depending on what that training is, maybe they're going to the training.

Maybe they're filling in at another station because they're going to the training.

Generally they'll do shopping at some point during the day.

They pay for those meals.

The city does not pay for those.

We they put money together, go shopping, plan meals, and then if they're not going to some sort of administratively scheduled training, then we expect the company officers, which is our lieutenants, our captains, to conduct in-house training on something, you know, whether it's a new piece of equipment or whether it's EMS skill or topic, we expect them to lead that training, document it, and then the company officers are the ones responsible for checking emails and putting in repair requests for things.

And then we they take runs.

They're very busy.

This is such a small point.

But one of the things that we, Kevin, that we've talked about before is people that complain to the city, they reach out to engage Toledo or whatever, because an entire firehouse is at a grocery store shopping, and they want to know why they're all there, wasting time.

Can you explain whether or not why why they would be, why the entire firehouse would be there in a firetruck doing grocery shopping.

So like I said earlier, we have minimum staffing on our apparatus too.

We have minimum staffing on the shift.

And then so each engine has to have four people on it.

Each ladder, truck and heavy rescue has to have three people on it.

Ambulances have to have two.

Right.

So therefore if they're going to the store, they all have to go because they have to have minimum staffing on that apparatus.

We don't just let somebody leave to go to the store.

That was a thing in the in the past.

We don't allow that because we want them ready to respond.

Yeah, right.

So they have to eat, right.

They would also respond from the store.

Right.

Like so many times you're shopping and you get a run, you leave, you give the cart to one of the employees, ask them to store it for you.

You'll be back and you take that run and then you come back.

And even if you don't have a grocery store in your district, so there's some areas that have limited access to grocery stores, they'll be out of district.

They'll go take runs in that district because we're dispatched by AVL, which as close as apparatus logged on to that computer that I was telling you about in the rig, closest apparatus will respond.

It doesn't care where you're at if it's your district or not.

One of my favorite things to go into the store in my full scuba gear, like I sleep in and I fill up a full cart and I just run out because you said you'd go to a fire.

Yeah, yeah, there's a Metroparks emergency and that has got to get it right is loose.

We're talking with Chief Armstrong from Toledo Fire and Rescue Department mystery guests, which means it's now time for Gretchen's wacky quiz.

Our chief, this is the most interesting today.

This is the most pressure you're going to feel.

You're not getting your.

Was difficult.

That was tough test.

I'm going to ask for rapid fire questions.

Gretchen is going to ask you to describe Toledo in one word.

And you and Matt will list the nine best things in Toledo.

All right.

Question number one.

Where do you go when you want to be alone to the Metroparks?

God bless you.

What's a song that you've listened to the most in the last week?

Oh, boy.

So so good.

Phil Wickham I don't know what this song is.

Is that a country Christian?

Christian?

You sing a little bit.

I just know I cannot.

Yeah.

Good for you.

That's right.

That's.

I'm not going to change that.

If you had to swap lives with anyone for a week, who would it be?

Swap lives?

Anybody?

I think Tom cruise, I'm a big Top Gun fan.

And if you remember the the Thunderbirds let me go up in that jet.

And so I've been watching Top Gun because it's going to be the anniversary and they're showing it back in the theaters.

You want to hang off a helicopter?

Yeah, yeah.

Mission impossible.

I remember I first saw the first Top Gun in the theater in seeker, and the other room of the curtains were on the side, and the curtains were just moved over like this to start, I was like, this is going to be amazing.

I didn't mean that.

I need more room.

What's the best gift you've ever received?

The best gift?

Wow.

My son probably.

I mean, it wasn't a gift from somebody, but.

How old?

He's.

He'll be 18 in July.

Oh my goodness.

I believe 18.

Okay.

What's the one word you would use to describe the city of Toledo?

Amazing.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

All right.

We got some work to do here.

Nine of your favorite things in the city and or region.

So you already said Metroparks will put that at the very top where it belongs.

You have a theory of Metropark.

I like do I have a favorite metro park?

I think I like Wildwood because that's where I grew up.

Please say out of a park.

I can't believe I grew up there too.

All right.

Two.

Yeah.

Auto Park is a great park.

Toledo.

Walleye.

Walleye.

Okay.

Good start.

Keep going, keep going.

Gotta have the hands, man.

If you see the wall.

I don't know.

Downtown Toledo.

Downtown like downtown.

Yep.

All right.

But where do you like to eat?

Some place that has gluten free menu.

I like Migos.

Yeah, recently.

Absolutely, a cool place.

Nice vibe.

Yeah.

How many things I need?

Three more.

What's your son's name?

Nicholas.

Nicholas.

All right.

I only have two more.

92.

Is that like a required?

All the Toledo firefighters.

How about that?

Okay, good.

That's good.

I'm gonna give you both.

Give it to you for that.

Yeah.

Armstrong.

Thank you so much.

It was so nice to talk to you.

Thank you.

Good to take a break when we come back.

How did we.

Oh my gosh.

Yes.

This is a big deal.

This is.

This is cool.

This is very cool.

So Gretchen asked me to bring something to put on the bookshelf, and my helmet was way too big, right?

So I took the front off of it, and I had this handmade when I became the chief.

You're kidding.

You see the back of it?

It's been in a fire, so we can't do.

We can't take.

I just wanted to.

So I wanted to show it to you.

Yeah.

For your viewers.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

This is like a cultural thing in the fire department where people get these.

This is like leather.

Right.

And they get them made for their custom.

Made for their helmets, leather helmets, leather radio straps.

We have.

That is amazing.

That is cool.

What is the 111 stand for in the front row?

So it's my unit ideas, chief.

I love it.

So thank you so much.

Thank you so much for coming.

All right, we're gonna take a break.

We come back.

Kate French, we'll be talking about the great Perrysburg treasure hunt.

That's right.

I get that right.

Yes.

She did.

All right, we'll find out how the break and all the flammable items in it.

Yeah.

That's it.

Well, you know what?

Armstrong has got us covered.

We'll be right back on the 418.

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Welcome back into the 419.

Powered by what?

We are about to embark on a treasure hunt.

Yes, we are the great Perrysburg.

Treasure hunt is coming.

We're joined now by Kate French and Lacey Zimmer.

What in the world is the great Perrysburg treasure hunt?

Do you want to start?

Oh, I don't know, but no.

Well, this is going to be a great, great start.

If you guys don't know what it is.

We certainly.

Yeah.

It's a treasure hunt that's going to last all summer long.

It's going to take people to every corner of Perrysburg.

I think we have.

How many corners are there?

There are.

In this hunt, there's about 100.

Yeah.

Little elements all over the place.

Puzzles, clues, ciphers.

Just it's going to take you every part of the town.

What is it?

Origin of this fun madness.

Well, I just grew up.

You know, my parents would throw for birthday parties and things like that.

And then I started doing it and loved it.

And I'm on the committee to plan the America 250 celebration.

And Perrysburg, I said, well, why don't we throw a treasure hunt?

And then I knew I needed a partner and this is the most creative, brilliant person I know.

Now, how do you two know each other?

We were Perrysburg moms together.

Our kids went to the same elementary school.

Okay.

There were a few years apart.

The worst kid.

Who's the worst one?

Who's the.

I'm just kidding.

I. I do like the idea.

Yeah.

I mean, we all have it.

We all know.

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't need to be.

It doesn't need to.

Said.

There's a committee that's working in Perrysburg to.

And actually across the state and country to, to put things on for the 250th assuming we get there.

So Perrysburg wanted to do something special and and you too came up with this idea, and it's just been going nuts.

I mean, people are really excited.

You have thousands of people that have signed up already.

Yes, yes, we have 1500 registrations, but families are registering maybe like for their kids.

So I think we have about 3000 people actively looking forward to this.

Tell us how than half the town.

Yeah.

So starting on Friday, Friday and Saturday, we're going to be at the Rotary Park behind the why.

And people can come who've registered or they can register on the spot and you'll pick up your opening materials.

And this once you have this in your hands, your hunt begins and you're holding up just for our radio listener audience, you're holding up a little brochure that has the logo and stuff on the front, the logo and stuff on the front.

It's like a little by fold booklet.

And on the inside there are 12 clues.

How cute is that?

People can do in any order that they want.

This is stage one of the hunt.

They'll pick a clue, follow it down its path.

Each one leads down its own path.

These ones like it's own mini treasure hunt.

And at the end there is a stamp location.

They can stamp that they've proved their clue, or that they prove that they've solved their clue.

If they get all 12, they can mov to stage two.

Can I tell them about stage two?

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

And so on.

Here.

Well, for the first 12, each one is totally different.

And we kind of set it up so that these ones were almost like a training, you know, like kind of get your brain training ground from the mindset for the different like puzzles and challenges that you're going to counter, but you're just meeting.

Gretchen, what do you think stage one would be for her?

Yeah.

And how much electricity we have into it?

Well, we have a handy guide on the back that tells you which of the clues is tricky and which is not so tricky because, like, you know, a family, a family can do this, or, you know, someone with younger kids at their own rate spend all summer kind of just using this as a way to explore Perrysburg in a new way, not necessarily race for the treasure, but be like, hey, let's do a simple question.

Like something about.

Yes.

Yeah, I have to live in Perrysburg to do this.

Not at all.

You can.

It's if you do live in Perrysburg, you're closer to everything, and that's good.

You might know a little bit more about, like, the secret places, but I think there's a lot of secret places that even long time periods talking about this conceptually, how long did it take for you to create this?

How many people are involved?

Is it the two of you and someone in their basements with red yarn and madness?

I would say like we started in October and since early November we have been going like we spent a month, like coming up with the the framework and the scope and structure.

What what's something that didn't make the cut, right?

What's a clue or location that you put on the board to say like, oh, we want to make something and you're like, this just isn't going to work.

I really wanted to like, publish like a big 500 piece jigsaw puzzle with like a map that you'd have to go to the library and, like, check out for a time, but it just didn't work out.

So what's the second level?

Oh, yeah.

So before we get to have you struggled with your energy level and excitement?

Is it difficult for you?

I feel like it's a struggle.

Yeah.

So hard not to be excited about this treasure hunt.

When I. When I presented this to the.

What is your sleep schedule and caffeine regimen out of?

Because we want to get on board.

Yeah.

No.

We'll get lucky if I don't cry.

Like by the end when I talk about like how much is how means to me and like, what an amazing place it is.

I mean, Perrysburg itself is the treasure.

Yeah.

We're born and raised there.

I grew up in the Toledo area, left in 97 for college and didn't come back until 2020.

Okay.

And you are a member of an iconic Toledo family.

I am so when you say that your family through treasure hunts and things like that, I mean, it's.

You are in Anderson.

Yeah.

And yeah, we.

Yeah.

Knew how to have fun growing up.

Like we knew how to work this and we knew how to work, but we knew how to have fun.

Did you grow up on.

I didn't we just.

But you grew up nearby, didn't you?

We lived just about a mile away, but we'd ride our bikes to the farm and.

Yeah, just had so many.

You can't not have fun with that many cousins.

I'll be on the farm today.

Yeah.

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh, we're so excited.

What you guys are doing has never the person to.

Let's talk about this idea of this.

I'm.

So you get through level one which is that brochure.

What happens level two.

Well you you bring your your completed stamped card to our headquarters hours which are we'll be hosting them at the libraries a couple days a week.

And at the farmer's market every Thursday night.

I love the farmer's market.

Me too.

And the library headquarters.

I love it so good.

And we give you a top secret stage two envelope.

It's a nine by 12 envelope.

That's perfect.

Full of good stuff, filled with everything.

You'll need to get started for stage two maps.

And stage two is so much harder than stage one.

It's really was sort of.

I mean, like, I'm not a Perrysburg resident, right?

But I'm like, this is such a cool idea.

Like, this would be a fun thing.

Now because of stage two, I want to do this so badly.

See, we wanted to get to know what's inside, that we wanted to make it for everybody and for, like the first, like three meetings or so.

We're just like, how do we make it?

So, like, kids can have so much fun, but also people like you, like the nerds out there who love puzzles.

I mean, that's an essay.

It is.

No, no, no, people like that for sure.

Like, we want to make it for absolutely everybody.

So we've got a board game that my brother got for the kids that is a like, murder mystery board game that has different clues and envelopes and like an escape room board game sort of thing.

Yeah, but, like, you got to, like, there's all these things that happened.

I don't know, I don't remember the name of it, but it's similar.

All these different clues, you were through it, and the kids have so much fun with it, trying to scab it.

And so I just think, like, this would be a fun way.

So fun this summer.

Even stage one though, like, we don't want to like, you know, knock stage one.

It's not not challenging.

Like we're definitely cool.

Where can people get information?

How do they sign up?

When does it start?

When does it start?

May 22nd Friday, 10 a.m.. You can pick up the opening materials at the park, so it'll be there for two days for like the rush of people starting from.

You can register online in advance.

Perrysburg treasure hunt okay, easy.

Go to our registration page.

$5 to register at last with.

So May 22nd is our first day of summer vacation for all of Perrysburg schools.

And as 10th is the last day.

So all summer long and you can pick up the opening materials at any time during then.

So we'll be at the farmer's market 4 to 8 on Thursdays, the library and the lower level Saturday mornings 10 to 2 and Monday evening 4 to 8.

And did people find out about this in July?

They can still jump on.

They can still jump on or like if like your family is like visiting from out of town and you're like, hey, let's explore.

It's just such a fun, you know, like after just a way to like, get out there.

And why are things like this important?

I just think we need more magic in the world.

And I just think like, something like, truly like the little treasure hunts my mom would send me through her apartment building when we were young.

Like, all they were were just like arrows following it around.

And it's like talking about core memories, you know?

And I just think, like, I'm going to cry about this.

Like, I think this can change somebody and, you know, like something fun and beautiful, like, and yeah, what's the prize?

So I, I can be revealed day one and I power through this I get it.

I finished stage one, I finished stage two, I win the treasure hunt.

What do I totally he's trying to get it, obviously.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm competitive.

Yeah.

Take a few days off.

We think it'll take about four days or so to do all of it, but I'm taking off.

Let's go.

I knew it, nerd, I knew it, but top prize is $1,500 in Perrysburg area.

Restaurant gift certificate.

Nice.

Second prize is 1500.

500.

Yeah.

The top 25 finishers will get a t shirt.

I found the treasure t shirt.

Love it.

In a custom color.

And then everybody else who finds it after that could be, you know, everybody could get to the end of, you know.

Yeah, they'll get a code for a different colored t shirt, same logo.

I found the treasurer and they can purchase that online I love it.

Yeah.

Such a great thing.

Are you hearing from other cities and communities already that want you to do this in their towns?

Not yet, because we've really just kind of started, but we're getting excited.

You want to give it fun out.

Now if you know what we do.

Yeah that's right, that's right.

This is great.

And I don't want to blow past the fact that the quartet of this show is bringing on two people just like you.

So thank you for making our area better.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I think that's I mean, what we the stories we set out to tell when we started this program was awesome to talk about people that care about and love their community that are making it better.

There's no question that both of those apply to you guys.

You know, thank you for what you're doing one more time.

People want more information work.

Where can they find more information on the great Perrysburg treasure hunt?

Perrysburg treasure hunt.

Com done May 20th 2nd to August 10th.

Thank you so much.

All right, we're gonna take a break.

We'll wrap up this mystery guest edition of the 419.

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Welcome back into the 419 powered by GTA as we wrap up a mystery guest edition.

Good show everybody.

Man, that your first guest was on fire.

That Chief Armstrong knows what she's doing.

Oh, good.

One knows what she's doing.

Yeah.

She's cool.

Yeah.

And I appreciate her answer.

The question about, you know, being reminded that she's the first female chief.

She seemed somewhat kind of like.

Yes, she sees the the significance of it, but that's not right.

Defining.

Yeah.

That's right.

She's she's a firefighter first.

And then of course, I mean Kate and Lacey, what they're doing is they're so fun.

They're celebrating their community there.

We always say that, you know, you could also just be a resident.

You don't have to do all of this work.

Right.

But yet time and time again people do it.

Yeah.

So great episode.

Thanks to all of our guests for joining us.

And thanks to you for joining us as well.

If you missed any part of the show, you can catch at 7 a.m.

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