From the WNIN Tri-State Public Media Center in downtown Evansville.

I'm David James, and this is Two Main Street.

Well, it takes a special person to raise his or her hand to volunteer.

It means you're willing to do something good for someone else, someone you may not even know.

It is a selfless act, often not fully appreciated, but certainly essential.

Without volunteers, donating their time and talents, where would we be as a society?

On this program, we salute the fire and rescue volunteers and professionals, keeping our families safe in rural communities.

Here to help us do that are my guests, John Buchman III and Tamara Carr.

John served 35 years as fire chief of the German Township Volunteer Fire Department.

I think on the department for 51 years, I believe he served 15 years as director of the Fire and Public Safety Academy.

Of the Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office and is past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

In 1996, "Fire Magazine" named John Buckman III, volunteer fire chief of the year.

Joining John is his successor at the German Township Fire Department, newly named Fire Chief Tamara Carr.

Tamara has been a volunteer firefighter for nearly 20 years and with a full time job and two children, she just might be one of the busiest women in the tri state.

I think she would agree with that.

And history being made at the German Township Fire Department as well.

Not only is Tamara Carr the new chief, but her assistant chief is Heather Bennett, making the department the first in Indiana with two women at the top leadership post.

So, Jon and Tamara, welcome to two Main Street.

Now, before we go on with the program, of course, we're recording this just days after this terrible tornado string of tornadoes that ripped across the south and middle of our country.

Of course, hitting western Kentucky like a, like a bomb really destroying Mayfield and some other communities.

So this kind of underscores the need for preparedness.

And so, Tamara, let's start with you.

Let's just kind of get across this important message that we've got to be prepared.

Absolutely.

Can't say enough about preparedness for an emergency especially a natural disaster in this.

You know, we've seen this now multiple times, unfortunately.

And so you can't can't stress enough the need for preparedness for these types of events.

I do think this one was well publicized.

We had we had weather forecasting on our side for this one.

They had told us for days almost a week, probably in advance, that this particular area was in the hot zone for, you know, potential potentially really bad storm activity.

So that was great.

It was really nice to have, you know, a heads up.

My social media account was buzzing with people talking about staying up, watching the weather, not going to bed in their beds.

So, you know, I can't speak necessarily for that western Kentucky area.

I don't have a lot of close contacts or friends in that area.

But I do know up here in southern Indiana that a lot of people that I'm connected with were very aware of the potential and and keeping an eye out for it.

So I think that's a great I think it does show that we've learned some things since the November six storm.

Well, the Evansville metro area wasn't a target zone.

I mean, we were on alert and it could have easily happened here as well.

So, John, your reaction?

Well, I think that the public, when we get all these weather alerts over time, they become complacent and they don't believe it because it doesn't happen.

And that's the problem is don't become complacent.

Take action every time we hear of a warning.

Take action.

Do what you're supposed to do.

Get get your food in order.

Get your, you know, shelter in order.

Acquire supplies, make sure your gas tank is full and the car batteries are all charged.

Those kind of things don't become complacent and take it for granted.

It just won't happen here.

Now, you have contacts in western Kentucky, John.

I have just met the Bowling Green New Bowling Green fire chief.

He was sworn in back in August, last Thursday and talked to him.

And, you know, they're doing as well as can be expected.

They talked to a fire chief just south of Owensboro who responded to the scene and helped remove some of the victims.

And the biggest challenge, that firefighter all the public safety people will have, and I should say anybody who was there will have, is how they process this mentally.

There's huge issues in the fire service and public safety with not being able to process this kind of stuff.

What the what all the people that were in Kentucky did this week are things normal people are not asked to do.

And without preparation, you see things that stick in your mind.

And if you start having problems sleeping or anger issues or a variety of behavioral changes, you need to seek help because of the volunteer fire departments.

These are friends and neighbors of these victims.

So they know these people.

Absolutely.

And that is that's what hurts even more when you know somebody and they suffer catastrophic injury or even death, that you're there to try to save their life.

And you can't or you're there to try to help them and you get them out, but you still see things that normal people are not supposed to see.

Now, you guys represent German Township.

And so, Tamara, tell us about German Township.

What's what kind of area do you cover?

So we are on the west northwest side of Evansville.

We cover excuse me from just south of New Harmony Road to I don't know how many miles north of almost almost minimal New Harmony Road.

We cover for so from from that south to north borders and then east to west.

We are west to east.

We cover from the county line to Saint Joe Avenue.

So how many people live in Germantown?

You say there's about 9000, according to the census and primarily a suburban area.

Our people like their grass.

We don't have sewer, so most houses are built on two and a half acres.

So we've had a lot of brush fires over the years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's been of common run, I guess.

So any any any major businesses or any industries in German township that you have to cover?

I would say our biggest businesses off the top of my head, not wanting to insult anybody in this, anybody, but Nunn Better Miling is right is one of our structures.

Fehrenbacher Cabinets is in.

And then we have a a large amount of businesses on the west side of Saint Joe Avenue.

There's an industrial park there in the Mill Road, St. Joe Avenue area.

So we cover all of that.

Is Darmstadt in your coverage?

And it's not.

It's not.

OK. Now, of course, you guys have made a lot of fire and emergency runs in your long career.

And John, I guess you were at the department for 51 years.

Yes, sir.

Do you remember that very first run as a volunteer?

I do remember that.

Run it was about 2:00 in the afternoon.

We were at my mom and dad's house, which is like just a block from the fire station.

We heard the sirens go off on top of the fire station.

Right.

That's how you were alerted back in those days that you heard the sirens go off on top of the fire station.

And myself, Jim Fechtmeister, Nick Goslin, we were all together.

We were all in the fire department.

So we ran over to the fire station we could not be we didn't have a key to the station because when you're under 21, you didn't have a key.

So had to wait for a firefighter to get there who had a key.

We got on the truck and rode out to a grassfire.

OK. That was your first one.

But I'm sure it was very exciting for you guys.

It was very exciting.

Yes.

All right.

OK, Tamara, your first fire run I would say I don't probably remember my very first, but I do have a memory from very early in my career of the first time that I did CPR on somebody and it was successful and they, you know, got a pulse back and went to the hospital.

And that was an event that has stuck with me for, you know, 20 almost 20 years.

Well, tell me about that event.

You know, it was an elderly lady and she had suffered a cardiac arrest.

And we did CPR in her house.

And I can remember her family being upset as anyone would be.

And, you know, we did our job, we did CPR, we did the ventilation, all the things that you need to do.

The ambulance came in and supported us with their various medications that they can have to help restart your heart as well as the AED to to deliver the shocks.

And we were able to get a pulse back and transport it to the hospital.

And that patient, you know, we extended that patient's life.

And it was it's a very rewarding.

There's definitely not you know, there's always not great things that come with it.

But there's a lot of those nuggets that you get to be a part of.

And so that one has stuck with me for a very long time.

So what motivates you guys to become volunteer firefighters?

John?

Well, I was a student at Mater Dei High School and Jim Voelker Jr. His father who owned help and Voelker Hardware on Franklin Street for many, many years.

He was a member.

And so we knew him we thought, hey, you know, we would like to do that.

And now the challenge for us to get on the fire department was they only allowed kids, people under 21 whose parents were members so we had to break the mold and get them to change the rules that would allow us to become members if we had sponsors, an adult sponsor so I had a sponsor named Jerry Compton and Don Johann.

And Jerry, both of them served as fire chiefs and Don is still alive.

Jerry passed away about a year ago but they helped make sure I didn't get in trouble.

It sounds like a very select boys club back then, John.

It was it was a it was a boys club.

For many years.

We had our first female I want to say she probably joined in about 84'-85' Then we had another female join named Vivian Polly, who became an officer way back in those days.

It's like, again, you didn't hear that very often that you had females become officer, but she actually became what we call a division chief, which would be a third level down from the chief, the assistant chief, and then at the division chief level.

So she broke the glass ceiling there at the German Township Fire Department.

So Tamara Carr, you're the new chief now of the German Township Fire Department.

What motivated you to volunteer here?

When I was a junior in high school, one of the groups that I was a member of at Reitz High School came out for a like a tour, a visit type thing.

John Buckman was the fire chief at the time and made a presentation.

And I remember excuse me, I remember enjoying the experience.

And I had some friends that were in that high school group that were members already and deciding that I wanted to do it.

I went home and told my parents that I wanted to do it and gave them the I think there was like a basically like a permission slip type thing consent that they had to sign.

And my dad said, no, so for my birthday present, my mom signed the paper so yeah, it's it's a good story, but I just I really wanted to do it.

And then I'm the type of person sometimes if you tell me I can't do it, I want to do it even more.

So I have my dad to thank for motivating me a little bit further of really pushing me to want to make it happen.

So he finally come on board and fought you?

Yes.

Yes.

OK, well, that's good.

But David, one of the things that she told me when she joined was I usually don't do anything more than two or three years, so I may not hang out very long.

And so now she's coming up on 20 right after the first year.

She'll have her 20 years on and she's the chief now succeeding you and any other firefighter eaters in your family.

These guys really you know, you started the tradition here maybe.

OK, now John Buckman is here and you have a new book.

It's called "Fire Chief Field Notes from My Experience".

And so what prompted you to write this book, John?

Well, there's this book actually started in 2010.

I called it "Bits and Pieces" back then.

And it was about it was just notes that I had taken things that I learned things that I listened to.

Some I say something and thought, I'll do this.

Here's an example.

On Saturday, I was attending a training session at the Evansville Fire Department Training Tower and the instructor asked the students, How long is the pipe pull on your truck as a tool?

We used to pull ceilings with them, and the guys couldn't answer that question.

And so I thought, OK, now I have a test.

I created a bunch of questions that I will share with the German township training obstacle.

Do our people know this?

How much hose do we carry on the truck in the supply bed and the pre connects how long the air packs last?

Those are important thing, basic skills that people need to know.

So that's how that book happened.

Is I be somewhere and I see something or hear something and go, OK, how do I use this?

At German Township, I've written many articles over the years for various research publications and they usually come out about a year after an event and guys will come and go.

I remember when that happened, but something would happen at the fire department.

Something I was involved in that I was frustrated with and I'd go home and write about it.

I would just pound it out.

Wouldn't that make any sense?

Just use all that frustration and get it out and then, you know, you'd edit it and clean it up.

But so I've been very fortunate in being able to write things.

I don't know why my brain does that, but it takes what I experience.

That's what the book is.

Try to take what I've experienced and share some of those ideas and experiences, good and bad, to help people make a better decision today.

I know you have a lot of life lessons in this book.

It's kind of like a self-help book.

John, I didn't know you were into that.

Well, yeah, I'm into that because five years ago I was asked to write a behavioral wellness report.

We brought a bunch of I called PHD'ers to Clearwater Beach, Florida, for a weekend, and I was the facilitator and I tell people all the time I was the dumbest guy in the room, and I had to take what these PHD'ers said and write it into a national report that was released about five years ago.

And we just released the update to it the 1st of November.

And during that time, I learned so much about behavioral wellness.

What how it impacts us.

And we'll use a word that is not used very often, but that is suicide.

The number one killer of firefighters today is cancer.

The number two killer of firefighters today is suicide.

The number three killer of firefighters today is cardiac arrest.

Suicide is one of those words that we don't talk about in general society.

And we definitely don't talk about it in a fire service because we are Superman.

We don't have a kryptonite.

Well, we do have a kryptonite.

Tamara Just talked about her response in doing CPR do CPR on a baby and that baby doesn't survive.

That will be with you for the rest of your life.

And so that's that's how I got into behavioral wellness.

And I've been doing things sharing with the fire service.

The new report, we hope will help firefighters do something because of people come back from a run.

They've been impact on mentally and they don't process it and we have to process it.

I was interested to hear that this list of the reasons of death of firefighters and there was not a mention of accidents on the job being killed and on a run and that's very true, David, because we actually are pretty safe on the fire ground.

And these are round figure numbers.

So I'm not going to I don't know the exact numbers off top of my head, but we will kill about ten people on a scene a year.

About 100 firefighters die anyway.

So 10% of them actually die on the scene.

25 of them will die responding to or returning from the alarm.

So it's the driving part, OK, that gets them so that pretty much I mean cardiac arrest could be about 50 so we're pretty close.

And then there's some in training every year, maybe three or four.

I mean but but those are the big numbers but when we first started studying line of duty deaths, everybody always thought that we killed so many people on a scene building collapse floor collapse.

Sure.

That sort of thing.

And it wasn't true.

That's just very rare.

It is rare.

But we get a lot of people injured with what we call close call.

That it almost happens you know German township had that in 1979 with the fire at the Silver Bell Tavern where we I sent nine firefighters to the hospital and I say I because I was the incident commander and the building collapsed and Silver Bell Tavern was rebuilt is still in business today.

And about a month ago myself and three of my friends who were at that fire went back to Silver Bell to have dinner for the first time and got got to do it good food.

I highly recommend the food now Tamara have you had any accidents involving your crew.

We have thankfully not I my tenure is still fairly new and fairly short.

But as a commanding officer in general and the years that I've been in charge and we haven't but again, like he said, it can be fairly rare.

Thankfully, but it's definitely something that is always on the radar and we're always trying to prevent.

Yeah, that's right.

The training when you go to a scene, you know what?

Not to do, right?

So that was the big thing that we this German township fire department committed to after Silver Bell.

You will be trained and committed to being a firefighter because if you're not trained, the likelihood of you being injured or killed increases exponentially.

So what went wrong at Silver Bell?

Well, what happened was the Mansard Roof, which is a decorative material that goes on the outside of the concrete block wall when we had the fire or when the fire started.

What happens when you heat up a nail?

It expands when the fire department comes in and puts water in that area, what happens to that nail?

It contracts.

Well, when a nail contracts, it's nailed into a two by 12 that sits on the top of that concrete block.

Now that nails contracting.

So now that hole is not holding that nail you get enough of those nails to contract back.

That Mansard roof fell from the center out to the sides.

And like I said, we had nine firefighters about half of them were excuse me, half of them were coming out and then the others were still in the building.

This the sad part is that we had been in there and knock the fire down.

The guy operating the truck on the on the hydrant right in front of Silver Bell said to himself, looks like we've got it.

Looks like we about got this fire now.

So he thought the worst was over.

Yep.

Thought the worst was over.

That's when accidents happen.

Usually happen.

Yeah.

When you're let your guard is down.

Well, lessons learned like you said, you learn a lesson from every run probably.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Definitely.

Now, as a firefighter, you're often obviously the first responder maybe the first on the scene.

And so you not only cover fires, but you're rescuing people from accidents and you respond to chemical spill so you prepare for about anything, aren't you?

Absolutely.

In German Township right now and this is probably a I'm going to use a kind of like John a round figure, but German township as well as I would say a large, large number of fire departments.

The our our number one response is actually emergency medical incidences German's making about 800 runs a year.

And I would say at least 90% of those calls are medical related.

So we are just as prepared for those medical runs as we are for fire and hazmat or car accidents.

But we make a lot of in-house medical runs to help people when they're having a bad day.

So along with volunteers, you have professionals.

German is staffed.

We have part time employees that staff our stations Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. the remainder of the time.

We are so from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the weekdays and 5 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday morning.

We are 100% volunteer now.

Are there trained paramedics?

Our highest level of medical personnel, medical providers, are EMTs and that's because we are a non transport service.

So we don't really have the need for repair medicine and at our level.

So either AMR or Scott Township or sometimes potentially Posey, EMS will come in to respond as well and transport the patient to the hospital or whatever location they're headed to.

So when you get there, you stabilize.

Yeah, we come in because the response times for the ambulances can be potentially extended where we're at in the county, so we can come in, stabilize the incident if they're if they're having a cardiac event or an allergic reaction, something that we can quickly change the course for them.

That's, you know, one main reason why we're there.

We can pop in.

We can start CPR, we can provide epinephrine if we need to for a like a bee sting.

Like that's that's something we did this summer.

And we can get in there and provide that care ahead of, you know, what might be a, I don't know, five minute or ten minute ambulance response.

And we can make that difference in those first few minutes while we're waiting for the ambulance to get there.

That's one of the things that has changed over the years.

When you look at in the old days, we did CPR and it was it took them to the hospital.

Then the paramedics came around, were introduced here in Evansville.

And so we were able to do drugs which saved lives then.

And at that point, AMR or I'm sorry, at that point, the ambulance service had defibrillators, but the fire departments did not wasn't allowed by law.

Then the fire department got a defibrillator.

So then we had to prepare.

So we arrive three or 4 minutes before the ambulance, we can actually shock the person and hopefully restore their heart before the ambulance shows up then and we just purchase what I call thumper machines, we just purchased two thumper machines which mechanically will do CPR and take the human part out of it in the volunteer world with limited staffing.

That's great because for us to go from the West Side to Deaconess or even to Saint Vincent it would take three people to do CPR all that way.

And now we have a thumper machine that will do CPR for us.

So that's I mean, that's an example of the transition and the what the fire departments, the staff with volunteers have to keep up with progress.

We can't just go well, we're not going by defibrillator.

Well, defibrillators save lives thumpers save lives.

So what does it take to be a volunteer firefighter?

It takes I mean, the biggest thing, I think, is just the desire to to serve, to serve, the desire to help those around you, to be there in someone's time of need.

And if you have that, the rest we can, the rest we can work with, the rest we can give you.

But you've got to have that desire to help.

And I think you have to have good family support, too, don't you, to be a volunteer firefighter, because strange hours never know when these things are going to happen.

Right.

It would certainly be nice for us to schedule runs by a partnership, but that's not going to happen.

I guess the thing that I would say is you want to be a volunteer firefighter because you want to make a difference in your community because that's what it's about.

We're in the servant leadership business.

When people call, we haul, we do whatever it is that they want us to do from helping them get back in bed to fighting their house fire.

Now, we talked earlier about you had to be a very, very select group to be a volunteer firefighter, John.

You had to know somebody, somebody in the family.

Now, do we need more volunteers?

We absolutely need more volunteers, not just in the Evansville area, but all across this country.

The volunteers are experiencing a transition where used to be when Benjamin Franklin formed the first volunteer fire company in Pennsylvania.

1736 it was about fire prevention and fire suppression.

Today, we do so much more than just those two things, from emergency medical runs to a cardiac arrest to hazardous materials type of events, rope rescue kinds of things.

So are the public demands more of the fire department today than they did years ago?

So we have to prepare ourselves and prepare our people to take care of the people's business.

Is there an age limit, Tamara?

So for Germantown, Chip, Volunteer Fire Department, we will take members as a cadet starting at age 16 and then the state of Indiana in order to become certified as a firefighter.

You do have to be 18.

But we'll go ahead and bring on members as cadets starting at 16.

So what does a cadet do?

They come to training.

They start learning, they help out on.

They can do some basic things.

You know, they're not going to go into a what we call an IDLH environment, but we might have them come to a response and do what we call scene support.

It might be setting up what we call rehab, getting out water just laying out a tarp for us to have an area for firefighters coming out to switch their air bottles out, take their contaminated gear off, whatever it might be.

They kind of are to some extent, kind of a jack of all trades, not dangerous.

So it's apprenticeship really to be.

Yes, it is.

And do they become volunteer firefighters then?

Most of the cadets?

Yes, I would say we probably almost have 100% really success rate with.

Yeah.

When they join at 16 they you know our 16 year olds that join want to be there they want to do something it's ingrained in them you know whether it's because it runs in their family or whether they've been taught that servant leadership in school or church or boy scouts or whatever it is that they've been a part of they've got that drive in them and they almost 100% of the time make it from a cadet to an active firefighter at 18.

How long has that cadet program been around, John?

Well, that's that's what I joined as a back then we call them Probationary-A Members, OK, but that was the same kind of concept except back in in the old days back 50 some odd years ago it was 16 to 21.

Today it's 16 to 18.

OK, now of course, John, you've been an advocate to improve training procedures and of course training involves repetition.

I guess you've got to keep keep doing it to you could do it right.

And I think at the at the Indiana Fire Academy.

What was your your purpose there.

While I was very lucky in that had the support of Governor Mitch Daniels at the time, it was one of his campaign promises to create a state fire academy system to do to train firefighters on a consistent basis.

And Roger Johnson was the state farmers at the time.

And the joke is, I was walking by his office one day, he goes, hey, you want to be in charge of the fire academy?

Me and I said, sure, can I have a Crown Vic?

He goes, Yeah, we'll get you one.

I didn't get one for a couple of years, but that was a joke.

But which, you know, we we wrote a paper for Governor Daniels and presented that to him.

And he had a habit that I was told if he doesn't like what he's about to say, he will scratch his chin with his hand.

And as he was walking from his desk to the big conference table in his office, he starts scratching his chin and I'm thinking, Oh, my gosh, this kid from Evansville is going to try to convince the governor that it's the thing to do.

Well, he read my report, but he took my request for $4 million.

And multiply that times ten and we sit down, he goes, John, I'm not sure I wasn't sure that this was going to cost this much money.

When I asked you to do this.

I said, Sir, $4 million is a lot of money, but it's not that much money.

He said, $4 million.

And, you know, the story went on.

And so he accepted the paper in the concept so we started building a system.

There was not a system before that.

So it was, again, one of those things that I've been very lucky and able to be able to start the fire academy training system and fortunate to be able to serve in that role for 15 years.

So, Tamara Carr, you're the fire chief now.

Are there many female fire chiefs and volunteer fire departments across the state?

Not that I know of.

Like John had said in the previous segment, that's how we we do believe that myself and Heather are the first female Adam I and Adam II pair, but I don't believe there are a ton.

There definitely are not a lot either.

I mean, in the grand scheme of the number of fire chiefs, I don't know what the percentage would be, but I would say it's probably unfortunately still a little low.

So would you do you encourage women to get involved?

Absolutely.

You know, I with with a daughter at home especially.

But I think that, you know, women have a place anywhere, a man has a place.

So I also think that we bring a different perspective to the table that is needed, especially in a fire service that is promoting mental health and wellness and a fire service that's promoting general health and wellness, encouraging people to get their physicals and take care of themselves and not to be overly overly pushing gender roles.

But typically, in a lot of instances, I think women are are better about taking care of their physical health in a lot of instances, as well as definitely being more cognizant of their their mental health and wellness in a lot of aspects.

So I think that we bring that awareness to the table.

We bring a nurturing you know, it's it's more of a female's role to take care of the family historically.

And so we come in with the fire service and we do some of those things in the fire service.

As well.

And we do bring a different perspective, I think, than then kind of historically that the man's perspective might be.

Now you have a full time job as well.

I do.

And you have family at home.

You and you're the fire chief.

I am.

How do you balance all that?

So yeah, so I am a mechanical engineer, graduated from the University of Evansville, and I work for Reckitt, which is a former Mead Johnson Nutrition I've been lucky that the part of what's helping me balance is that, you know, with with everything that's happened with COVID, my professional career has gone to a portion of work from home which has helped balance priorities in the household.

But additionally, I mean, it's it's just being very busy.

So, you know, working all day, covering the things that are needed for the fire department and then additionally making sure kids get to their activities and and things.

It's just a very, very busy season of life right now.

What do the kids think about mom being a fire chief?

They love it.

They love it.

They they get to ride in a car with lights on it.

Yeah, well, you didn't want to do that.

Did they get to the fire station?

They do.

They climb on the equipment.

They absolutely do.

And they know all the firefighters and when we go to there, my daughter attends Cynthia Heights.

And when we go and my son attends Resurrection, and when we go to their schools for outreach, they are the superstars you know, moms here.

I you know, I usually always try to come, but additionally, my guys are they my guys or girls are there.

They all know who she is.

They all seek her out you know, give her hugs, give her high fives or whatever it is.

So, yes, she is.

She's been picked up once.

The guys convinced me one time last school year, to pick her up from school in a fire truck at like just normal pick up.

We got a lot of dirty looks that day in the parking lot with a fire truck taking up a lot of space.

But yeah, she's she's super spoiled to the stardom life of having the mom as the fire chief.

So, yes, they think it's pretty cool.

Well, it is pretty cool.

I mean, it's it's one of those professions that well, there's a lot of activity there.

Of course, there's a lot of downtime, too.

But boy, when that siren goes off and everything gets into action now, response time, of course, crucial life and property on the line.

And every minute counts, so what's the response time been like?

Have you tried to improve that or is it something that just happens?

Well, a German I would say that we're always keeping an eye on our response.

Time.

If we see that it's trending longer, then that'd be something I'd be taking to my either A trying to figure out from an operational level.

And if it's something that requires funding I'd be taking to my board of directors, which John is actually the president currently of our board of directors.

So I'd be taking that with, you know, potentially a proposal saying, hey, response times are trending in the wrong direction.

This is what we've done.

This is, you know, maybe my idea, whatever it is right now, we looked at it recently what was our like six and a half minutes?

I say something like that.

Yeah, yeah.

So right now our average response time is around six and a half, 7 minutes from initial call to having someone on scene.

So tell me, David, one of the things that we have done is we had it some years ago, but in the last couple of years, we've actually improved the program is we have beds at the Carson dry fire station with firefighters asleep on station.

So we can have two or three people.

And then about two years ago, we implemented where we will pay them a $50 stipend to come in at 10 p.m. at night, stay till 6 a.m.

So we got two or three people on station to be able to respond quickly because that's the hardest time when you got to get up out of your bed at home, get dressed, get in the car and drive to the station, get on the truck.

That could be four or five.

Add four or 5 minutes of that response time.

So that's one of the things we've done in transitioning for the response time to take me to that from that first call and what goes out after that when that first call comes in and we need help.

Well, our our most frequent flier calls go from a place called Leisure Living There, Saint Joe Avenue and Allen's Lane, an older community where we have a lot of elderly people that get sick that fall, that got to go to the hospital that sort of thing.

So what happens when someone dies?

911 is answered at Central Dispatch on Harmony Way, of which my wife Leslie is the director there oh, there you go.

Get a plug in there for her.

Yeah.

And they manage all the calls that come in through the 911 system.

And so then once they set off the tones set off the pagers that the firefighters wear on their belts and the firefighters then respond to the station, or if it's like during the day or in the evening, we have people on station two people during the day, during the week, and maybe as many as three people during the evenings.

If and so, then they get in the truck and respond to the scene.

If it's a basic medical run, they'll take in a trauma bag.

They'll be taking vitals, getting patient history, getting medication history, that sort of thing.

AMR will then show up and AMR will then take over the advanced life support thing.

Then they will start an IV and do some other maybe monitoring, put a cardiac monitor on them so we'll see what's going on with their heart.

And then a AMR would then put them in the ambulance and transport them to an hospital.

Of course, there are several volunteer fire departments in this area and what's the relationship between German Township and the other volunteer fire departments?

Tamara, I'd say we have a positive relationship with the other volunteer fire departments in the community.

We actually have a an organization in Vanderburgh County called the Suburban Fire Chiefs Association, and we meet bi-monthly and it's it's at least a chief officer from every department that includes the city Evansville Fire Department.

Chief Connelly usually attends or someone in his place, as well as someone from the sheriff's department normally attends someone from the EMA, someone from AMR and someone from Ohio Valley Search and Rescue.

And we meet bi-monthly and we talk about what's going on in the county.

What are we doing on our departments, what do we need to be doing from a county level?

And so we have a really good working relationship throughout the county between both the other volunteer departments, as well as, I would say, the city of Evansville as well.

So I know when you have a big scene or something like that, you call for help and then it's almost immediate.

The other departments will arrive.

Now, John, you're also a photographer, the official photographer for the Evansville Fire Department.

Yeah, that's a little odd there, David.

No, it's not odd.

I've been taking pictures since high school.

I got hooked taking pictures in high school.

When I got a picture of a pie in the face at point of impact, it was lit and it was in focus and that hooked me.

I said, OK, so started taking pictures back then.

I've been taking pictures ever since and I've been taking pictures of fires.

And when I was working in Indianapolis, I would go to Indianapolis fires, take pictures there, take pictures all over the country where it seemed like wherever I go, you know, something would happen that I could get to go take pictures.

But Chief Connelly had asked me, what would you say about a year ago?

Said, you know, and I wasn't getting close or anything like I said, but we need to have you like formally identified.

And I, like Chief Connelly said, I'd like to make you the official Evansville Fire Department photographer.

Now, what that does is I get a vest and I get a a shirt that's got, you know, EFD photographer, which can get me past the crowd, so to speak.

I don't go, you know, like a crime scene.

I don't go past the yellow tape.

I'm just like anybody else except I'm not needed on the other side of that yellow tape.

And we're firefighters or law enforcement or EMS are.

But it's the I know the relationship between the Evansville Fire Department and all the fire departments, this area where, you know, we can go a 50 mile circumference from Evansville, including Henderson and Illinois, is very, very good.

Now, memorable photographs that you've taken besides the pie in the face.

Well, I have I have several, but I guess one of them is a fire on Waggoner Avenue where there have been laying the roof.

And as soon as they get the ventilation occurred, flames start leaking out that roof at about six foot four filling up the hole.

And there's a firefighter on the ladder right there.

So that's that's one of my good pictures.

Now, you have a lot of pictures in your book.

Yes.

Are those ones you've taken?

They're all ones.

Well, there is one in there that my wife took, OK?

I had to leave our living fire chiefs north at the time and assigned me a command position so I couldn't take pictures.

So my wife got my camera out and took that picture.

And John, also, I kind of overlook this part.

You were installed as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and that was around the time of 9/11, the terrorist attacks.

Yeah, I was installed about 20 days before 9/11, of course, September 11th, September nine, 2001 to September 11th 2001.

I'll get that right.

20 years ago.

And I was, I don't want to say I was lucky, but I was lucky in that I was actually getting ready to get on an airplane to go to Delaware, sit in with my feet up on my desk at home and talk to a fire chief.

Rich Marinucci in Fort Hills, Michigan, and he said, Turn on the TV.

And I said, How does a fire get that big in New York City in daylight hours?

And about a minute or two later, the second plane hit the second tower I went to ground zero on numerous occasions, talk with firefighters and know some of the firefighters that died.

Andy Jacobs was one of them that died.

Good guy.

I met him in Indianapolis as FDIC.

But I think, you know, I got to go to the Pentagon and stand in the hole.

That was one of the things I want to do.

I want to stand in the hole of how that plane how you could convince somebody to fly a plane into that building and could do that at New York City.

But I could do that there, but the.

I say this in a bragging way, but it is.

Rodney Coleman, state former state fire marshal in California, told me, if you did it, it's not bragging.

It's a fact.

But what I was most proud of is I testified before Congress five times.

I had seven opportunities.

I gave two away to somebody else to do that.

And no other fire chief in the United States has ever got to testify before the United States Congress five times.

So what did you talk about?

We talked about need for equipment, training we need money to hire firefighters.

And we created the safer grant program to which departments can hire firefighters are today we have a recruitment and retention program as part of that program at that grant program.

So in Indiana, about a year ago, we received a grant through the Indiana Fire Chiefs Association of almost $1,000,000 to help recruit and retain volunteer firefighters in this state.

Of course, that event, 9/11, put something else on your guys plate.

You have to worry about terrorist attacks, too.

I mean, that's another thing that you have to have in the back of your mind.

The world the world is different today, even in a suburban area.

The world is different.

And that and we have to be aware of those terrorist like activities because it can happen and we have to be prepared.

So you're dealing with all kinds of scenarios, Tamara.

You have to have an impact your mind.

Anything can happen.

Yeah, we call it situational awareness.

And it's just it's oversimplified.

It's just being aware of your surroundings.

It's taking it all in.

It's for me, you know, I can cite I show up to a house.

I'm the only one there.

It's for a medical run.

Someone is very ill I cracked the door open.

I'm yelling fire department.

No answer.

Hmm.

My spidey sense goes off.

This isn't right.

It's that kind of response of just being aware and making smart decisions that are we're there to help somebody, but you can't get yourself hurt.

Or killed in the process.

So it's that we call like so we call it situational awareness, but it's that when the hair on your arm stands up is that gut feeling, that gut feel wrong arm.

It's it's just it's and sometimes it's, like I said, the gut feeling, it's making those reactions.

And sometimes it is being overly cautious and thankfully nothing happens.

But it's that response in today's day and age, both for domestic terrorism as well as sometimes just unfortunately unsafe things that, you know, someone just wants to hurt somebody.

Unfortunately, Have you ever really been frightened at a scene, John?

Or are just your instincts just kick in and just you're training?

Well, I'm not say frightened.

But again, the situational awareness issue is that I feel the anger in that room from the people that are there, OK, not the public safe.

People are responding, but something went on here for this to happen.

It could be a traumatic event, could have hit somebody with a baseball bat, so on and so forth.

I mean, that's the kind of runs that we're talking about.

And so I would be aware of that.

And the big thing is we have to control the situation.

We've got to get those people out of that room because the temperature in that room is rising and something else might happen again.

They may decide to attack a firefighter.

Right.

Chief Carr just mentioned it is I've told firefighters for years, volunteer firefighters specifically don't go in a house by yourself.

And if you go in a house and you have two people, one of them needs to be looking at your back, OK, the other ways because you have no idea what's going to go on outside there.

And then they come into that room and they're angry or they hear, you know, you're treating their mother and their mother screams out because you hurt her.

We didn't hurt her on intentionally.

But the reaction is, what are you doing to my mom?

And that that is one of the that.

So that's the awareness, situational awareness that you have to be aware of that not everybody is happy that the firefighters are there.

OK, so guys, what hazards do you see over and over again that really frustrates you?

That people aren't doing?

Are they should be doing I'm thinking maybe smoke detectors.

Would that be one thing that you just people don't do that?

Are they reluctant to do that?

Yeah, I think Tamara and I are both going through our head with so many things to answer.

It's like, why don't we pick?

So I'll I'll pick I'll pick kitchen fires, OK, cooking, OK and starting some starting something on the stove, not paying attention to it, going in some other part of the house.

And you boil the water out of it, you boil the grease out of it.

Now you have a kitchen fire.

We at German Township do not seem to have very many kitchen fires, but that is a large number of kitchen fires that occur anywhere in this country because people just don't pay attention or they go in, sit down on the couch to watch TV for 10 minutes.

They fall asleep.

Next thing you know, their kitchen is on fire.

Tamara any pet peeves that you have?

I think for me, it's and we thankfully, to John's point, don't have a ton of these, but I know that you know, you read the news and they're happening all over is safe sleep practices for infants, you know, not, you know, not sleeping with your child directly in your bed, et cetera, because those are from a firefighter perspective, those are some in EMS and law enforcement.

Those are some really traumatic ones to make on a, you know, nonresponsive infant.

So, so, so preventable.

And very and that would be frustrating, especially nowadays.

There's been so many sleep devices developed that you can still allow your child to sleep in your room or next to your bed.

So it's about using that.

It's also about and it's you know, drug use and, you know, intoxication and being safe around your your young children.

With with those unfortunately, the opioid epidemic is still raging.

And we we don't see a ton of children affected by those situations, at least not in Germantownship.

But we do see a lot of overdose situations even in German Township.

And so combining safe sleep with, you know, not being intoxicated while sleeping with your children is is probably my biggest pet peeve.

OK, somebody out there listening or watching this program and there they want to be a volunteer firefighter.

So what's the first step, guys?

The first step would be to contact your local volunteer fire department if you're close to German to either in or close to German township.

For us, the best way to get in touch with us would be to go to our Web site, which is WWW-dot-German-fire-dot-org and there's a join link at the top of the page.

And there is a Google form that it takes you out to for you to submit your information.

And then a recruiting officer will get back in touch with you for other departments.

I can't speak to their information directly.

I would say here locally you could check out McCutchenville's website or Scott Township's website outside of that, John would say, go to the fire department, knock on the door, look for cars in the driveway.

If there's cars in the parking lot, go knock on the door and tell them you're interested in joining and they will point you in the right direction.

So how many people do you have on your force right now?

We're about 40.

40 to 45 is our membership roster.

Currently about 20 to 25 of those are very super active.

They're the ones that I see day in and day out making calls and we are always interested in taking on additional volunteers.

We know that life is busy, just like I have a very busy life.

And so nowadays it takes more volunteers than it used to because we're all so much busier and we have less time to give probably than maybe when John-John joined the fire service and so when it might have been, it used to take 20 volunteers, it may take 40 volunteers now to, to provide the same level of coverage to our citizens.

So we are always recruiting so John, you've seen that need grow over the years then, from when you first started.

Sure.

And when you look at it and I just got this from one of the young guys the other day as he was talking, we're at the station he's talking about how much he works.

I said, well, why don't you why do you work so much?

And he said, I have dreams.

I want a new truck.

I want to pull Barnhouse I want to get married.

I, you know, all these things.

Well, back in the days when I first joined, a fireman was like, I just want a car.

That was the biggest thing is I get a car well, so today we're in competition for you to make your choice, whether you go to your you know, to your basketball game that you're playing as a young adult or join the volunteer fire department.

So.

And so that point is we have to make the are the we have to entice you.

We have to sort of bring you in open that door, make sure that you're welcome, make sure that you feel good about being coming a member, a volunteer firefighter and that you understand the commitment.

This is not something that you decide to do.

And an hour later, you're out fighting a house fire.

You're going to have to go through probably about 150 hours of training before you can be released under state law to be an interior structural firefighter.

So what kind of training are we talking about?

We're talking about all kinds of training from hoses, ladders, water operating equipment, wearing a CBA search and rescue, forcible entry or climbing ladders, all those kind of things.

That's part of that, what we call basic training program.

It is a commitment, isn't it?

It absolutely is.

It's anything that you see like a, you know, a professional city fire department.

Do we as volunteers are also expected to do, but we do it with unpaid members.

So it's a it's certainly a challenge, but it's also very rewarding.

Yeah.

The rewarding part of it, I think, is what you want to get across to people.

It's very rewarding.

Like I said, if you are driven by that sense of help and sense of helping someone and then additionally, it's a family the you know, we just had our holiday gathering last night and there was almost 40 of us in the room, you know, ranging from folks like John who have been around for 50 years or who have served in the eighties to, you know, guys that are 17 years old, 17, 18 years old, and we can all get together and talk about the things that we have in common because we have a lot of things in common on the fire department and it is an absolute like second family that you get in addition to those rewarding moments from helping those around you.

So how can a person who can't put on a uniform or do all that training support their local volunteer fire department?

Well, there are lots of ways to do that from an administrative standpoint, might be able to help get the mail, help process the mail of people, firearms that do fund, drive, get checks in the mail.

You got to open those things.

You can do computer work, you can help with keeping records, maybe even be financial records.

But we have to maintain an inventory of all the apparatus equipment on the apparatus.

We have to maintain an inventory of all the protective clothing that we give them out because it has to be inspected every six months to make sure it's still wearable inside a burning building is has not deteriorated.

So there are lots of administrative ways to do as well as you could also respond to calls.

And Chief Carr mentioned this earlier in a non-emergency type of area, helped change air bottles, start generators, get equipment off trucks and carry it up to the hot zone.

That would be the most dangerous area.

So there are lots of things to do.

It's just not about being an interior structural firefighter.

And you can also send a check.

Absolutely.

Donations are always welcome and put to good use fire.

Running a fire department is probably more costly than most constituents would would guess.

We typically have tried to have an open house annually and set our price tags on our equipment.

That's a good idea.

The awareness of, oh, a set of coat and pants that's required to go into a structure fire is, I don't know, 45, I would say close to $5,000 for that set is eye opening to an air pack is $7,000.

So that's one, that's one person.

$4500.

And the air tank on your back is $7,000.

That's not counting your boots, it's not counting your boots or $300 your helmet.

$300.

It's, it's an expensive business to run.

So yes, your tax money goes to benefit your volunteer fire departments in many instances, but we need additional donations to provide the high level of services that you expect.

And the price tag for these fire trucks is incredible.

Oh David, you know, fire Evansville just put an aerial out of service in the last year I think the cost was over $800,000.

We put a rescue squad engine rescue in service about two years ago and it was like $750,000 trucks that we bought 20 years ago cost for $50,000.

So the price went up that much, but it has went up significantly.

And any time you're talking about buying an aerial ladder, which German township doesn't have one, but Perry has one because you have to as Scott has one, you're talking over $1,000,000 for one truck and the other thing about the the cost, we just had a large commercial fire.

That gear was damaged over ten sets of gear was chemically damaged.

And so we had fortunately have insurance to help us pay for that, to have it professionally cleaned and fresh inspected.

So that we're not allowing those members to wear gear that is contaminated with some kind of hazardous materials.

So that's something else that we didn't do ten years ago.

We probably have only been doing that for five years.

We wash our gear.

We have what's called an extractor at the fire station so we can extract all the poisons out of the gear that you contracted while you're inside a burning building.

Lot, lot to take in there.

Well, guys, guys, this has been very informative.

My guests have been two dedicated firefighters.

Tamara Carr, and John Buckman, III.

John has a new book about his many years as this called Fire Chief is a field notes.

You might want to check that out.

Guys, thanks for your service to this community and encouraging others to get involved.

I'm David James, and this is Two Main Street presented by Jeffrey Berger.

Berger Wealth Services at Baird Private Wealth Management.

Again, thanks a lot.