Crowds, Crises, and Communication: Three Volunteer Fire Chiefs and 150 Years of Service | Guests Honorary Chief Reid Whynot, Honorary Chief Wayne Thorburne, and Chief Michael Nauss of Nova Scotia’s Bridgewater Fire Department, join host Tim

00;00;03;08 - 00;00;23;15
Tim Conrad
We acknowledge and respect the indigenous people on whose ancestral territories we work and play, whether the land is unceded or ceded. Your relationship with this land and your culture is one we admire. Wherever we are, we are committed to truth and reconciliation through regular, meaningful actions.

00;00;23;17 - 00;00;44;28
Tim Conrad
It began with buckets. Eventually, a steam pump was purchased and the volunteer bucket brigade became a fire engine company. Back then, fire brigades, fire equipment, and buildings to house it came together through volunteer efforts and donations, not taxes. Canada was being led by their second Prime Minister, Alexander Mackenzie. The horrible legacy of the Indian Act began, as did the suffrage movement.

00;00;45;00 - 00;01;11;04
Tim Conrad
The intercontinental railway connecting central Canada to the Maritimes was completed, and the world's first long distance phone call was made from the Alexander Bell residents. 1876 was a historic year, and in my hometown, the Bridgewater Fire Department was established by a group of volunteers 150 years later. Volunteers remained the proud keepers of that history which preceded them, just like many other communities around the world.

00;01;11;11 - 00;01;36;09
Tim Conrad
Today's guest on the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast has nearly 150 years of experience between them. While Honorary Chief breed Whynot is the recipient of the Canadian Volunteer Service's Lifetime Achievement Award for over 50 years of service. Honorary Chief Wayne Thorburne and Chief Michael Nauss are not far behind. Audio chiefs. Well, it's an honor to be sitting here.

00;01;36;09 - 00;01;36;18
Tim Conrad
We can.

00;01;36;18 - 00;01;37;13
Tim Conrad
See it that.

00;01;37;17 - 00;01;43;13
Tim Conrad
We certainly did a lot of calls together, back in the day. We learned how to properly pack hose.

00;01;43;13 - 00;01;46;02
Tim Conrad
You and,

00;01;46;05 - 00;01;57;21
Tim Conrad
And between the four of us on this tiny little bit of service that I had. But it rounds up to about 150 years of volunteer firefighters and sitting on this front frontier pretty incredible. And about 30,000 Tolman.

00;01;57;28 - 00;02;00;16
Tim Conrad
Probably something that I believe is.

00;02;00;19 - 00;02;10;24
Tim Conrad
Incredible. So, so first question I have for you is, how were you notified of a fire call back in your early days? We'll start with you reading.

00;02;10;26 - 00;02;35;18
Reid Whynot
Well, at first there was no pagers. There's nothin like that. Yeah, we had a siren on the town hall and there eight siren, and that would go off. And also we had a big foghorn horn type of horn on top of the fire station, and that would blast like ten blasts or general alarm. And different areas of town had different sequences, like three, four would be the old Brady's building or one.

00;02;35;18 - 00;02;57;22
Reid Whynot
Two would be, your Shamrock stores something that. So that was the only communication we had. And then KBW would be called and they'd make an announcement. There was a fire call, but most of the time it was, when my case, I had my cousin call me at home on an old phone, and she let me know any time of day or night that was alarm going and that other people never call me at home as well.

00;02;57;29 - 00;03;03;11
Reid Whynot
So basically we just, But herring or by phone. Yeah. That's all we had. Yeah. And it worked.

00;03;03;12 - 00;03;06;17
Tim Conrad
Did you respond on your horse or your velociraptor?

00;03;06;20 - 00;03;21;17
Reid Whynot
Sometimes I ran from the store, but, no, I, I used to at home. My brother was a member and dad was a member, and they would make the first truck or second truck. I would make the first truck. Sometimes they'd be dragging back, but I would break some rules.

00;03;21;17 - 00;03;24;16
Tim Conrad
Maybe it's time. But, yes, we,

00;03;24;18 - 00;03;25;13
Reid Whynot
Drove cars.

00;03;25;20 - 00;03;31;05
Tim Conrad
Okay. Oh. Standard. Yes. Standard.

00;03;31;08 - 00;03;32;13
Tim Conrad
How about you, Wayne?

00;03;32;16 - 00;03;48;05
Wayne Thorburne
I think when I came in 1980, I tried to fit in from Pleasantville. I went down there for a year or two. I think the pager system was up and running. And we'd get our page on the old pager system, the all red pagers. And you get your tomes and it would give you the number.

00;03;48;08 - 00;04;10;09
Wayne Thorburne
And at that time we had a dispatcher rating the radio room. Mel Roper. Yeah. When I came in he was here for a long time custodian and dispatcher. And that's how we got call and then the sound on the roof. But I can remember one time Bob Foreman coming in, we had a fire down the south end and fully involved, and I think the truck left out the PA people who stayed in the station, but he held us.

00;04;10;10 - 00;04;13;21
Wayne Thorburne
I have an on the top of the roof, and we knew then that was going to be a bad call.

00;04;13;24 - 00;04;14;09
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;04;14;11 - 00;04;17;23
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. But that's that's how we use pagers. Yeah, basically.

00;04;17;25 - 00;04;18;25
Tim Conrad
How about you, Mike?

00;04;18;28 - 00;04;46;13
Michael Nauss
Yeah. When I came in, it was definitely a paging system that came across, Scotia Business Center was initiated within a couple of years after I had joined. Yeah. And they they're they're the ones to dispatch now. And, we could call location and with fire and and away we could go. We still have the siren on the roof, and it is tested every week.

00;04;46;16 - 00;05;04;25
Michael Nauss
On a Wednesday. And people often ask me about that siren. And I said, well, if you hear it any other day that Wednesday, you know, there's something really serious going on. Yeah. So we prepared to listen to the radio station to find out what. Yeah. We want you to do next. But, that siren still does work.

00;05;05;01 - 00;05;05;11
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;05;05;13 - 00;05;11;07
Tim Conrad
And I think I, I don't know, I don't remember if I assume it was probably when this hall got renovated to the lots of issues.

00;05;11;07 - 00;05;11;27
Tim Conrad
With that.

00;05;11;29 - 00;05;18;05
Tim Conrad
Renovation. I think we lost power one night and or something. It happened, and they actually end up using the siren. Something wasn't working. Right?

00;05;18;08 - 00;05;18;23
Tim Conrad
Right. Yeah.

00;05;18;23 - 00;05;25;27
Tim Conrad
And, I remember that. It was it was kind of late evening. All of a sudden, the sirens are starting work, and I was like, well, I better go.

00;05;25;29 - 00;05;31;18
Wayne Thorburne
If you remember that you wasn't you in charge of moving us up to the exhibition grounds doing the restoration?

00;05;31;18 - 00;05;32;04
Tim Conrad
Yeah, we.

00;05;32;04 - 00;05;32;27
Wayne Thorburne
We just wanted from the.

00;05;32;27 - 00;05;35;25
Tim Conrad
Exhibition grandeur for a few weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;05;35;25 - 00;05;41;17
Tim Conrad
And we had a member, a lot of us, we had a little thing on our turf and say, go for a burn, because if not, go to.

00;05;41;17 - 00;05;48;20
Tim Conrad
The old station. We have to be up the hill. You don't have to. Yeah. Funny back then. So. Yeah.

00;05;48;22 - 00;05;55;02
Tim Conrad
So, and, what were some of the calls that you're, you remember back then, Wayne, do you have any of that kind of come to memory that.

00;05;55;02 - 00;06;14;07
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, I have 2 or 3. I guess the worst call or the most exciting call I went to. But actually, I was deputy chief, and we'd heard his foot and we got a call up the hillside prone and point Profanely. I had to think quick because there was so much to do. We had to do an evacuation. We had to get involved.

00;06;14;07 - 00;06;34;04
Wayne Thorburne
We had to get mutual aid departments involved. Remo was involved because we had to transport the residents from there, and the apartment building is next door. I think it was 15 or 16 units here. Out of that facility, we had to call a power company to get the power shut off. And then finally we did. We did get the propane, shut off and got things back to normal.

00;06;34;04 - 00;06;38;16
Wayne Thorburne
But it was scary because one spark and we were in trouble and we all knew that.

00;06;38;18 - 00;06;39;07
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;06;39;09 - 00;06;59;26
Wayne Thorburne
And we've worked very close on that call with our partners from what? A police department are exceptional. They always had been, always will be. And, you know, it was a joint, thing, but that that's the most nervous because like I say, jumping into the fire was not and not really ever being in charge of a big scene like that.

00;06;59;26 - 00;07;02;16
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, it was scary. But yeah. Yeah.

00;07;02;18 - 00;07;06;01
Tim Conrad
I wish I was on the first truck that night. I think it's that same.

00;07;06;03 - 00;07;07;00
Wayne Thorburne
Old, same call. Yeah.

00;07;07;00 - 00;07;18;10
Tim Conrad
I remember coming around the corner on that one, seeing the propane cloud, and I can't remember who my partner was. They were a little bit behind me, my friend. At the same time, my, alarm start going crazy. That there was I was standing.

00;07;18;17 - 00;07;20;29
Tim Conrad
There in explosive environment. Yeah.

00;07;21;00 - 00;07;23;27
Tim Conrad
I remember turning red around and right back up because it was slippery. It just.

00;07;23;27 - 00;07;25;09
Wayne Thorburne
Felt was was it was.

00;07;25;09 - 00;07;32;13
Tim Conrad
Quite slippery. Not like trying to slide up the hill, grab my partner and just whip them around like.

00;07;32;16 - 00;07;35;04
Tim Conrad
That was the type of worry. Yeah, yeah.

00;07;35;06 - 00;07;43;10
Tim Conrad
So that was really was a scary incident. I have to say, it was, it spooked me out, I'll tell you that. And how quickly you had to kind of make decisions.

00;07;43;13 - 00;08;03;05
Wayne Thorburne
The next one, I was actually chief at the time, and it was. This was on a Saturday evening. I was down in the Fairview in, Well, all the guys, like, on a lot of the firefighters were up there because it was a training weekend. So we had mutual aid departments from Chester to Liverpool and everywhere in between, and Lunenburg and the home base.

00;08;03;07 - 00;08;05;05
Wayne Thorburne
We were there all night when movie.

00;08;05;08 - 00;08;05;26
Reid Whynot
Night and.

00;08;06;03 - 00;08;07;12
Wayne Thorburne
You would hear them, but I mean.

00;08;07;14 - 00;08;09;09
Reid Whynot
Yeah, oh yeah, definitely. You know, like, yeah.

00;08;09;12 - 00;08;19;03
Wayne Thorburne
But when I got there actually, if I remember correctly, Andrew Richardson called me. He was over the gallows and seen the smoke, and the pager hadn't gone off yet.

00;08;19;06 - 00;08;19;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;08;19;22 - 00;08;28;28
Wayne Thorburne
So I was halfway down the hill. Oh. And, that was another one all night. But we I know we had a good team. We all got along, and mutual aid here was great.

00;08;29;01 - 00;08;30;04
Tim Conrad
And,

00;08;30;07 - 00;08;45;10
Wayne Thorburne
And I guess I can remember that everybody on that scene, was well trained. And that's one thing I give credit to the chief. Now, training has always been key, and it's important, you know. So you have to.

00;08;45;12 - 00;08;48;10
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. How about you read.

00;08;48;12 - 00;09;07;19
Reid Whynot
One of the worst fires? It wasn't a weird fire, but situation. Kind of weird. I had broken my wrist playing broom ball, and I had a cast on, and we had a call. Didn't. Where we going? No. No. Pages. And just end up fire hall and, just had a pair of shoes on because I couldn't really get my boots all broken.

00;09;07;19 - 00;09;26;20
Reid Whynot
Rest. So I put my shoes on. Had had the old bunker coat and a helmet that was it. Jumped in the back of rescue five and we going back through heaven and it was cold. It was middle of winter and, it was snowing. And I said to the guys, where are we going? Lockeport. That's weird. Lockeport.

00;09;26;22 - 00;09;27;26
Tim Conrad
And I said.

00;09;27;28 - 00;09;49;14
Reid Whynot
You know what? For all the town's on fire. And it was a big, big time fire. And we ended up going all night and we getting warmed up in the school or somewhere. Take our coat off and stand them up. It was packed with ice. But I get home that next morning and, my wife cut my cast off because then I fainted, almost fainted.

00;09;49;14 - 00;10;06;00
Reid Whynot
But it was one of the weird ones. But then the other fires was some fatality fires, which I don't like to talk about. And, Bloomberg fish plant fire. That was three days. And then the main street fire we just had. It was good one. Yeah, yeah. And other fires. But yeah, the fatality ones are the worst ones.

00;10;06;00 - 00;10;08;25
Reid Whynot
And car accidents, that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, we block it too.

00;10;08;27 - 00;10;09;08
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;10;09;12 - 00;10;12;08
Tim Conrad
Yeah I know what you might.

00;10;12;11 - 00;10;28;01
Michael Nauss
I got three, 3 or 4 that that really sticks my mind. One is, we do medical around here, and, we got a call to go to, resident. Your best friend is having a cardiac arrest. Well.

00;10;28;04 - 00;10;28;25
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;10;28;27 - 00;10;51;00
Michael Nauss
And, it was pretty stressful that day. But, you know, when we arrived, we did what the job was supposed to be done, yet kept focused on what we were dealing with, not who it was dealing with. Yeah, but, after the fact, once we got to the hospital on and stuff and, it's it was a hard week to go through.

00;10;51;02 - 00;11;20;29
Michael Nauss
If, you know, you, you get one of your best friends there and you don't know if she's going to make it or not. Thankfully, all the, check marks were in place, and, as you see, he's still here with us, and we're thankful for that. But it was, pretty, pretty stressful week. A couple of the other cars that we've had, we had the Main Street fire that, was kind of, a pretty stressful night.

00;11;21;02 - 00;11;45;12
Michael Nauss
Yeah. And I can remember arriving at the scene and my deputy chief, Andy Wentzel at the time, we start to set up and work on and mutual aid and and stuff, and he says, well, what are we going to do, Michael? How are we going to deal with this? And, standing on King Street as a sign on the sidewalk of it commemorating the 1999 town fire?

00;11;45;14 - 00;11;50;03
Michael Nauss
Yeah. And I looked at the sign, I said, I'm gonna I'm telling you one thing. My name is not.

00;11;50;03 - 00;11;51;19
Tim Conrad
Going on that side.

00;11;51;22 - 00;12;11;28
Michael Nauss
And he kind of laughed at me. And I said, if it gets to the point, we're going to cut it off here, and we got to cut it off over here, we'll bring the change and stop the fire. Yeah. Thankfully, the fire did stop. Well, he said it was going to stop. Yeah. We had fire departments from Chester to Liverpool here helping us out.

00;12;12;00 - 00;12;28;07
Michael Nauss
Three aerial ladders were on that call that night. Just, working in front from the behind the town hall and also on the main street of Bridgewater, but, a little over 24 hours, they are doing that call. And it was, quite stressful.

00;12;28;07 - 00;12;30;22
Tim Conrad
Yeah. That was the issue on fire.

00;12;30;22 - 00;12;32;06
Tim Conrad
The one that we always feared.

00;12;32;12 - 00;12;46;10
Michael Nauss
Yeah. It was. Yeah, yeah. And it seems like no matter what, every fire chief always gets that real big one. Yeah. And then everything's fine. It kind of settles down a little bit. So. Yeah. So I was glad to see that my big one was gone.

00;12;46;14 - 00;12;48;12
Tim Conrad
Yeah, I thought it was anyway.

00;12;48;15 - 00;13;16;16
Michael Nauss
But, in 23, we had some, major rains and stuff here in Bridgewater, and we had major flooding. Go on in a nine hour period. And, that was kind of interesting to do what we had to do because, we had, a 104 calls for help from residents in town looking to see what we could do for them.

00;13;16;18 - 00;13;42;27
Michael Nauss
And, really, the only thing that we could do was go to their homes, see how much water was coming into their basements or whatever. And ensure that any electrical was cut off. And just make sure that, so it was, our crew was really, really great. We had probably seven different teams that were going around.

00;13;42;29 - 00;14;05;01
Michael Nauss
And as the calls came in, Mark and Dan, where the addresses are sending 1 or 2 guys over to check the house. So if the power needed to be shut off, that's what we done. Yeah. We didn't pump a whole lot of water because you couldn't stop the water from coming in. So. Yeah, but we maintained to make sure that there was no other threat to the homes for those people.

00;14;05;07 - 00;14;06;09
Michael Nauss
Yeah.

00;14;06;12 - 00;14;09;18
Tim Conrad
An important to note that that the whole province was in the flood situation.

00;14;09;23 - 00;14;10;13
Tim Conrad
And on.

00;14;10;15 - 00;14;11;14
Tim Conrad
This end of the problem.

00;14;11;17 - 00;14;23;14
Michael Nauss
It wasn't as easy as to call in mutual aid that whole night because everybody else was busy as well. Yeah. I mean, it was a learning experience and no doubt about it. Yeah. And I learned a lot that night.

00;14;23;16 - 00;14;23;25
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;14;23;26 - 00;14;43;01
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Right. Because we, I remember when we were and we had a flood the one year, but it wasn't that bad. It was, it was going over the road and stuff. We didn't have any to major damage. I mean there were some certainly in some spots, but pretty minimal. But, yeah, that one was a doozy. And floods are, some floods since then.

00;14;43;01 - 00;15;01;16
Tim Conrad
And I always tell people I hate them because they give the wrong impression that maybe things are okay and they're not, you know, and so you think that things can be safe and they're not. So, I'm curious to know what the, what the interaction between the fire department and the public was like in your your earlier days.

00;15;01;16 - 00;15;04;00
Tim Conrad
So, red, why don't you start this one,

00;15;04;03 - 00;15;23;10
Reid Whynot
Back in the day, like the fire department, which still is good. But back in our day, the fireman was number one in the community. If you firemen, you they really respected you. So if we had any issues or any requests, the public would look after us. And there's no hardly any hassle. There's no. Yeah. None that I can mention.

00;15;23;14 - 00;15;33;10
Reid Whynot
The only conflict we might have had once in a while is if a car didn't stop right away at the scene. We had consoles and, and, you know, it hit, like, might get damaged.

00;15;33;14 - 00;15;34;26
Tim Conrad
Yeah. But, I mean.

00;15;35;02 - 00;15;46;25
Reid Whynot
Everything else was great, but we had a couple carts with a little quick and a hammer. Yeah, and a flashlight. But anyway, no, the public relations was really good. Yeah, yeah, it still is. Pretty good. Yeah, but not as good.

00;15;46;28 - 00;15;49;01
Tim Conrad
Yeah. What about you, Wayne? Back in here?

00;15;49;03 - 00;16;12;29
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. And we were well respected, by the public and our residents. And when we had our garden parties or we had our breakfast, whatever we had, we was always report it was, the residents. And I always figured, and it's probably to this day, the older part of town that knew us would all be supporters, more so than the newer part of town that didn't know us because they thought we were getting paid.

00;16;12;29 - 00;16;31;17
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, yeah, we were the paid department, but we're still volunteer. And I think next year marks 150th anniversary of my memory. Right? Correctly so. And the residents were fine. And I used to love I hate it coming here to do the garden party campus. But once I get out on the street, it was fun. Yeah, yeah. And the public enjoyed that as well.

00;16;31;17 - 00;16;33;19
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. So, you know, it was great.

00;16;33;21 - 00;16;35;25
Tim Conrad
Yeah, it might.

00;16;35;28 - 00;17;06;27
Michael Nauss
Since covet, I noticed that the, the public has made the turn and started to support even more than what they ever did before, as far as I can tell. We don't do the annual fair and, annual canvasing or anything anymore, but, we do have a, a real great fundraiser through the province of Nova Scotia, Amherst Firefighters Association put on a, 5050 lotto that they do weekly.

00;17;06;28 - 00;17;40;02
Michael Nauss
And and that raises a lot of funds for all the fire departments in the province and then Scotia. And that started right after Covid came in. It's been a great thing. As far as, getting information out to the public, I find it a lot easier now. We're very lucky here in Bridgewater, we have, communication person that works for the town of Bridgewater, and they all put notices out right away when we're wrote on a call to say, avoid this area.

00;17;40;05 - 00;17;56;27
Michael Nauss
Firefighters were involved in an incident, and, I only had to call to make that arrangement. They're doing it for me automatically. So, that's that's really good. And the public do pay attention to that. Yeah. They're understanding.

00;17;56;27 - 00;17;58;17
Tim Conrad
More. Yeah, yeah.

00;17;58;17 - 00;18;15;05
Tim Conrad
So that's good. And so like any when you think back years ago we've seen some stuff in recent years where there's, you know, everything theft sabotage and, and and fights and things like that with among. Do you remember anything like that back when you started out.

00;18;15;07 - 00;18;16;19
Tim Conrad
No, no, no.

00;18;16;19 - 00;18;17;20
Reid Whynot
Not in fire. No.

00;18;17;23 - 00;18;19;04
Tim Conrad
Yeah, I don't know.

00;18;19;07 - 00;18;31;28
Wayne Thorburne
We did have a theft here once. I have a portable radio. And, We eventually did catch him by accident. He happened to be in the hall when Dave Pager went off with.

00;18;32;00 - 00;18;33;19
Tim Conrad
A portable on him. Is that right?

00;18;33;19 - 00;18;46;05
Wayne Thorburne
So we suspended him and he actually joined another fire department. We didn't proceed with it, but that's the only thing that I come across. And he was immediately relieved of his duties and. Yeah, you know.

00;18;46;08 - 00;18;47;11
Tim Conrad
Just a little too excited.

00;18;47;16 - 00;18;49;10
Tim Conrad
So, yeah.

00;18;49;12 - 00;19;10;16
Tim Conrad
Thank you, listeners and viewers for sticking with us as we navigated some difficult moments over the last year. We need our momentum back and appreciate any support that you can give us. Subscribing is huge for us. Sharing is big as well. And of course guest and topic ideas do it all at communications podcast.com, where you will see many new episodes in the coming weeks and months.

00;19;10;22 - 00;19;32;20
Tim Conrad
Hello to our viewers and listeners in Spain, as well as these communities. Chonburi, Thailand, Cudworth, Saskatchewan, Smethwick, United Kingdom, Seung Dun GU in South Korea and Thornton, Colorado, which is probably the only one I said correct. Thank you so much for listening and watching. You know, as a kid, I remember going to the fires. I mean, we were talking about radio.

00;19;32;20 - 00;19;40;09
Tim Conrad
We put it on so everybody knew right away if there was a fire. Right. And that's the way it used to be. And, I remember fires having big audiences.

00;19;40;15 - 00;19;41;09
Tim Conrad
And, you know.

00;19;41;09 - 00;19;51;14
Tim Conrad
Like, I can, you know, go to go there in the be hundreds of people there, sometimes more maybe, I don't know. But, it was the era before the internet. So that was your entertainment for.

00;19;51;17 - 00;19;53;02
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00;19;53;05 - 00;20;10;09
Tim Conrad
Evening, I suppose you could say it's that as it was, but, people came to watch, so, and they used the they heard the siren. They heard it on the street. The radio station. And that brought those big crowds. So, how did you manage those crowds back then? Like, because that was a big thing. It's.

00;20;10;09 - 00;20;13;23
Tim Conrad
You don't see that anymore unless it's a really big incident.

00;20;13;25 - 00;20;15;17
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;20;15;19 - 00;20;33;07
Reid Whynot
We kind of had people I would we had a constables at that at the time too. And they keep some people back. But yeah, a lot of times we commandeer to people if they stand around doing we got lug hose or, or do things and we kind of, you can't do that nowadays kind of liability. But yeah, years ago you could get away with it.

00;20;33;07 - 00;20;45;14
Reid Whynot
But in general people would help. And if they didn't, they back off after a while. Just get boring after a while. But yeah, unless it was good one real good. But yeah, but I have no issues with fires. Yeah. Security did nothing like that. Yeah.

00;20;45;16 - 00;20;50;23
Wayne Thorburne
Then the police were always here with us too. So if we had anything we just somebody remove. We just point to the police.

00;20;50;23 - 00;20;51;22
Reid Whynot
Now and gone.

00;20;51;23 - 00;20;52;29
Tim Conrad
Gone. Yeah. Yeah.

00;20;52;29 - 00;21;15;11
Michael Nauss
So yeah. And today the the the our police department is is awesome to work with. Yeah. And they have our back all the time and they, they're there as soon as we get there. And if we need more space, they make sure we get it. And there's no doubt, no turning back on that. Any of that.

00;21;15;14 - 00;21;39;02
Michael Nauss
I just, chuckle about it sometimes. Now, just because you mentioned about internet, Facebook and all that. Yeah, most of the time we'll see that fire. Yeah. Before we even arrive on scene. They're putting it on Facebook right away. And, sometimes they make sure that people don't come around because they're saying, okay, they got something bad.

00;21;39;04 - 00;21;49;22
Michael Nauss
They need the room to work with, but you're still getting a beat up a few people that are watching and stuff like that. But yeah, not nearly as bad as it used to be.

00;21;49;24 - 00;22;07;01
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, but I think it's chiefly said, having the fire constables and we had a bunch of them. Do you remember, if you need to do, even though they would set up and block the streets off to prevent cars from going there? And it was here when we come down with the trucks to let us in and secure the area.

00;22;07;01 - 00;22;07;27
Tim Conrad
So yeah.

00;22;07;29 - 00;22;11;27
Wayne Thorburne
They were way ahead of their time. Yeah. It's fire safety goes on the fireground.

00;22;12;00 - 00;22;14;11
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00;22;14;13 - 00;22;23;17
Tim Conrad
So on those big calls like, you mentioned the downtown fire early, we had, ice jams. Yeah. Your, anthrax scare. I remember that one. Yeah, we had a couple.

00;22;23;17 - 00;22;25;08
Tim Conrad
Of those, yeah. Yeah.

00;22;25;11 - 00;22;43;18
Tim Conrad
Dealt with airline crashes. Lunenburg church fire. They leave memories, right? Yeah. Pretty indelible memories because you've been out. You're out there for a long time. So what's an incident that you can think of that had an impact? Which had a big impact on the residents when you think about it. But you remember.

00;22;43;21 - 00;22;55;07
Reid Whynot
Because when I recall, was a mother and three sons, and I told a lot of people that using smoke detectors and I've helped a lot for years, but, that was the biggest night.

00;22;55;12 - 00;23;01;24
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah, we we was all on that call. I think, actually, Bob Graham was chief at the time.

00;23;01;27 - 00;23;02;15
Reid Whynot
The deputy.

00;23;02;15 - 00;23;03;05
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;23;03;07 - 00;23;04;18
Tim Conrad
Yeah, I was in the junior fire department.

00;23;04;20 - 00;23;05;23
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So yeah, I remember that.

00;23;05;29 - 00;23;06;13
Wayne Thorburne
That.

00;23;06;15 - 00;23;08;07
Tim Conrad
That was it. That was a tough call. But it.

00;23;08;07 - 00;23;09;10
Tim Conrad
Did.

00;23;09;12 - 00;23;09;25
Wayne Thorburne
It really.

00;23;09;25 - 00;23;14;19
Tim Conrad
Did impress upon people the importance. Yeah. Being safe around with fire and knowing that that can happen.

00;23;14;19 - 00;23;16;11
Tim Conrad
So yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00;23;16;14 - 00;23;56;05
Michael Nauss
Yeah I, I lived right across the street from that and I was the first one there on scene and like you knew there was issues and but the general public actually took heat to it and really not took notice of what was going on. Yeah. Even to the point that they help the firefighters try to deal with the issues that were there and, really gave the space and, and, and talk to one of one another to make sure that we were okay, and that just outside it was, yeah, big, big issue there.

00;23;56;10 - 00;23;57;16
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

00;23;57;18 - 00;24;21;29
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Any others that come to mind that you think that interaction with public and one stuck with you? I think back to the church fire. And I remember at one point in time, I was on the second wave of crew that came from the station to go into Lunenburg and, and, so I was there as, as nighttime became daytime and, and, couldn't really see that people that well, you know, because of the way the lights were and everything that's daytime came.

00;24;21;29 - 00;24;24;15
Tim Conrad
I remember looking over my shoulder and just seeing people crying.

00;24;24;19 - 00;24;25;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Oh, yeah.

00;24;25;15 - 00;24;33;07
Tim Conrad
You know, just crowds people. Hundreds. Thousands on that one. Probably around watching it was just. And that was, that definitely stuck with.

00;24;33;07 - 00;24;47;29
Reid Whynot
Yeah. My neighbor, well operated the excavator at the time, and he still has memories about stuff he had to do that night to stop that fire. Yeah. And he talked about it quite often. So it's it's big impact.

00;24;48;02 - 00;24;50;19
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah.

00;24;50;22 - 00;25;10;03
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So, what do you, what do you remember about people's reaction when you're on. Oh they're on different calls. It could be a smaller call. It could be a bigger call. What, what kind of reactions do you remember that stick with you. You know you mentioned people help when you need help phrase. And what about other things that that have happened out there?

00;25;10;05 - 00;25;22;22
Wayne Thorburne
Well, with me, stuff happens. But one of the funniest things that happens is, I had a habit when I go in on a call of asking the driver if he knew where he was going.

00;25;22;25 - 00;25;23;27
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;25;24;00 - 00;25;24;28
Wayne Thorburne
Just to double.

00;25;24;28 - 00;25;26;19
Tim Conrad
Check. Yeah.

00;25;26;22 - 00;25;46;08
Wayne Thorburne
And for all Captain Totenberg, he was just a driver at the time. And we was going to Frank's Lane and we got in the truck. I said, you know where we're going? Yeah. So we get down to York Street lights. I expect him to go left. He was straight through. And then what do you guys feel you should see?

00;25;46;08 - 00;25;48;20
Wayne Thorburne
Did he do. He missed the.

00;25;48;20 - 00;25;49;23
Tim Conrad
Turn.

00;25;49;26 - 00;26;08;09
Wayne Thorburne
So we went up across North Park Street and and down the street. Yeah. So it it's it's kind of funny some of the some of that happened. Oh Peter guy went up with a guy one time I think Van Silver was driving. We supposed to go right. He went left. It's always good to double check. I mean, the adrenaline flows when the person.

00;26;08;11 - 00;26;09;08
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

00;26;09;10 - 00;26;18;08
Wayne Thorburne
So the chief's job is to try to be as calm as possible to prevent your firefighter from getting excited.

00;26;18;09 - 00;26;19;00
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

00;26;19;03 - 00;26;37;25
Wayne Thorburne
You know, and and they get confident in you and they trust you and they know you and they'll do anything for you. But you've got to build that trust by the things that you do and set the bar for them. Yeah. And always interact with them. Always try to coach them. Always try to help them and always challenge them to be a better.

00;26;37;26 - 00;26;40;06
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, yeah, that's what's.

00;26;40;06 - 00;26;54;06
Tim Conrad
Important. That's a little aside right now. But as you've said that I this is the guy I have told a lot of firefighters about that. He's on a dumpster call one night fire and we repacked the hose, I think three and a half times till we got it right, because I'm really not satisfied.

00;26;54;06 - 00;26;55;16
Tim Conrad
Pull it off. I like.

00;26;55;19 - 00;26;56;23
Tim Conrad
I said, I learned.

00;26;56;25 - 00;27;00;06
Tim Conrad
That. Do you play well?

00;27;00;08 - 00;27;04;10
Tim Conrad
And I'll tell you after that I never did it wrong.

00;27;04;12 - 00;27;13;08
Wayne Thorburne
Well, I always felt it was important. Especially when you're not in somebody else's truck. Yeah. To leave it better than yourself. Yeah, yeah. And that's where your pride comes from.

00;27;13;08 - 00;27;14;02
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

00;27;14;04 - 00;27;19;08
Wayne Thorburne
And yeah, a lot of people we packed house, but I even got a truck for Christmas one time.

00;27;19;14 - 00;27;22;23
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah, it there.

00;27;22;25 - 00;27;33;08
Reid Whynot
Okay. Those in the oven and they're turning nice and brown. There's a great big watermelon as the season.

00;27;33;08 - 00;27;37;15
Tim Conrad
Rolls around, rolls around.

00;27;37;18 - 00;27;47;03
Reid Whynot
In the ice icebox. Says, turkey in the smokehouse. Says I am, but I'd rather be, donkey and,

00;27;47;09 - 00;27;49;02
Tim Conrad
Poor white.

00;27;49;02 - 00;28;09;13
Reid Whynot
Man. Someone's in the kitchen with Dion. Someone's in the kitchen. I know, Sam, someone's in the kitchen with, strumming on the old banjo and saying, in 55 Italy, I'll be five Italy. I oh, we'll be fine. Italy.

00;28;09;13 - 00;28;11;10
Tim Conrad
I, I'll.

00;28;11;12 - 00;28;33;21
Reid Whynot
Strumming on the old banjo. Sly Kelly. Sly. Now case is at bat down went mega. Now, what do you think of that? Think of, the Oaken Bucket. Oh, Black Joe, oh me me me me me me.

00;28;33;23 - 00;28;37;21
Tim Conrad
Really?

00;28;37;24 - 00;28;41;16
Tim Conrad
The thing that you kind of remember. People and things like that.

00;28;41;16 - 00;29;04;06
Michael Nauss
All the things that I remember and it's it's around guys like, you know, in the fire department, I kind of chuckle about it because if my voice goes up high, you know, they got we got an issue with there and it's going to be a good fire. Yeah. If I don't say hardly anything along, they know that it's nothing serious.

00;29;04;14 - 00;29;04;27
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;29;04;29 - 00;29;25;26
Michael Nauss
Go through. Yeah, but they always torment me when, when I'm Robert or you're good and pretty excited this time I go to and stuff like that, but, I think with their membership, they're able to interact back and forth. We can pick at one another at the right time. Yeah, and and, it's good that way. Yeah.

00;29;25;27 - 00;29;47;00
Michael Nauss
And it really helps. And it's like Wayne said, you really got to be able to be. You got to be hard nosed when you need to be hard nosed with your members. Yeah. But you also got to be able to go along with them and, and have a little bit of fun at the same time. Yeah. It makes great working relationships.

00;29;47;00 - 00;29;55;14
Michael Nauss
And I really found that a lot. And, it works great. Yeah. So I, I like the way that it's been going.

00;29;55;20 - 00;29;56;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;29;56;17 - 00;30;17;11
Reid Whynot
Yeah, yeah. And and, I like that. I remember we had a oil truck license breaks coming down Dufferin Hill. Oh, yes. Rolled over and ran into a building and oil everywhere. And I come across the bridge in the car and I just called back to base and I said we had a code then of what kind of call it was, and I said, three letters, and that's all it took.

00;30;17;11 - 00;30;18;07
Reid Whynot
And everything rolled.

00;30;18;09 - 00;30;20;07
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;30;20;09 - 00;30;21;08
Reid Whynot
I can't say what it was.

00;30;21;12 - 00;30;25;02
Tim Conrad
Yeah. I think it was half and Jackson.

00;30;25;04 - 00;30;27;03
Tim Conrad
Okay. Yeah. And it work.

00;30;27;08 - 00;30;29;27
Reid Whynot
Then we had we had the Coast Guard there. We had the helicopters.

00;30;29;27 - 00;30;31;12
Tim Conrad
We had, you.

00;30;31;15 - 00;30;33;26
Reid Whynot
Know, search and rescue everything. And the Ranger.

00;30;33;26 - 00;30;34;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

00;30;34;20 - 00;30;38;01
Tim Conrad
Just to break that down, it was a holy f call.

00;30;38;03 - 00;30;43;09
Tim Conrad
So I didn't say that. And I definitely heard that one a couple times. Yeah.

00;30;43;11 - 00;30;51;20
Tim Conrad
I remember two was I got to do a little little credit to, to Johnny Wetzel. The deputy chief. And I'm sure he was the he was the calmest of all.

00;30;51;21 - 00;30;52;03
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;30;52;06 - 00;31;02;02
Tim Conrad
One time he pulls up and there's a structure fire. Everything's going and he just comes across the radio. You better do the burn.

00;31;02;04 - 00;31;10;25
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's bad. Yeah, yeah. But he was so pretty laid back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So,

00;31;10;27 - 00;31;23;13
Tim Conrad
Tell me about a memorable time working to communicate something to the public, whether it was good or bad. What happened? What did you, What did you do? That, that you were, that were, you know, kind of challenging or.

00;31;23;13 - 00;31;26;09
Tim Conrad
Oh, do I know you're going to take care of it? I'm going.

00;31;26;09 - 00;31;28;02
Reid Whynot
To. I'm going to grab this one.

00;31;28;04 - 00;31;29;08
Tim Conrad
We had an ice jam that.

00;31;29;08 - 00;31;48;18
Reid Whynot
Was really causing problems. On all Main Street was pretty good. But on the other side and Dominion stores and this kind of stuff in the mall and all that, there's a big issue about that wall caving in and this kind of stuff. And we had all kinds of media. There's CTV was there and CBC and all that.

00;31;48;21 - 00;31;59;13
Reid Whynot
And I've been known to ramble a little bit. So what I did, I delegated right off the bat, I got him to do the PR work, and communications would work great because I didn't have to say nothin rest of the day night.

00;31;59;17 - 00;32;00;10
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;32;00;13 - 00;32;13;15
Reid Whynot
But it worked out good because you delegate and that's the main thing. Yeah, because I had work to do and my deputy had work to do, and and it worked out great. But, communications was handled by somebody that knew what they were doing, and it took pressure off of me.

00;32;13;15 - 00;32;15;20
Tim Conrad
But now I do want to, since he's brought this.

00;32;15;20 - 00;32;21;11
Tim Conrad
Story up, because there's another part of this story. So you don't read it. I did, yeah, yeah, I did.

00;32;21;11 - 00;32;23;20
Tim Conrad
The best I could with what I had to work with, and that.

00;32;23;20 - 00;32;26;11
Tim Conrad
Included him.

00;32;26;14 - 00;32;28;19
Tim Conrad
Right to the heart rate. So excited.

00;32;28;21 - 00;32;46;13
Tim Conrad
And so the we were the this is this back at the time where there was, you know, multiple satellite trucks across across the world. Really what very popular story across Canada. And there it was with us for a couple of days. And, and the first night I remember I was like, okay, they really want to interview you, chief.

00;32;46;15 - 00;32;58;27
Tim Conrad
The incident commander. And he was he was. No, no, you can do it. You can do it. I was like, no, they really, really want to. So so I finally I get on my convince them, I get him up there, I get him in front of the camera, he's got the mic on and everything, and it was really cold.

00;32;58;27 - 00;33;14;17
Tim Conrad
So I went inside and was, was inside and warming up in there. And they're satellite truckers. It was nice and toasty in there. And we're inside. We're watching the screen. He's out there and he's got the camera and just himself with this mic on, and he puts on a heck of a performance.

00;33;14;20 - 00;33;16;02
Tim Conrad
So okay.

00;33;16;05 - 00;33;17;23
Tim Conrad
So somewhere out there there's a tape of.

00;33;17;23 - 00;33;18;27
Tim Conrad
I might see somebody.

00;33;18;27 - 00;33;19;29
Tim Conrad
I haven't seen it again.

00;33;20;00 - 00;33;20;25
Reid Whynot
No. No proof.

00;33;20;28 - 00;33;23;23
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah. So, thanks to.

00;33;23;23 - 00;33;25;22
Tim Conrad
That, the reporter, Liz Rigby, is.

00;33;25;22 - 00;33;27;11
Tim Conrad
Still a friend today because I.

00;33;27;11 - 00;33;28;11
Tim Conrad
Was like, please don't play.

00;33;28;11 - 00;33;32;28
Tim Conrad
That.

00;33;33;00 - 00;33;36;03
Tim Conrad
You put on a good show. So how about you.

00;33;36;03 - 00;33;37;18
Tim Conrad
Might think that, actually.

00;33;37;25 - 00;33;38;17
Tim Conrad


00;33;38;19 - 00;34;00;14
Michael Nauss
The when we had King Street fire, the following morning, I had, some of the reporters come in and they wanted to do interviews and stuff, and, I was working with, the guy from the town of Bridgewater as well. And I found that the reporters were very, very good to deal with.

00;34;00;18 - 00;34;02;05
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;34;02;08 - 00;34;27;24
Michael Nauss
I, I remember saying it, and one of them, I do have some report that I will give you. You just got to give me a little bit of time to get myself together and make sure everything's fine here in the Saint. And, she went up in the at the corner of, behind the town hall, sat on the wall and waited and Denver pressured me to come along and get things done.

00;34;27;28 - 00;34;55;19
Michael Nauss
Yeah. And then, when I finally said that I was ready, I nodded to her, but she came down and it was really easy to do the interview because she didn't pressure me the way I thought that was going to happen. Yeah. So now what? Basically what we do now today is, I'll do a little bit of a blurb, and then I let, the, the guy in town do the rest of it.

00;34;55;22 - 00;35;00;28
Michael Nauss
Yeah. Because there's more stuff that I have to continue to do or.

00;35;01;00 - 00;35;01;10
Tim Conrad
Or our.

00;35;01;10 - 00;35;12;18
Michael Nauss
Members. So. Yeah. It's easier to have somebody really do a lot of your press release, but, yeah, no matter what, the big guy has to make an announcement some from time to time.

00;35;12;19 - 00;35;13;10
Tim Conrad
They still looking for.

00;35;13;10 - 00;35;14;08
Michael Nauss
That to do that?

00;35;14;13 - 00;35;20;16
Tim Conrad
Yeah. They always want that statement from you. It's just a quote that they're going to put on the air or whatever. And. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What about you? When.

00;35;20;18 - 00;35;41;07
Wayne Thorburne
Well I have to go back to the hillside plant one. We had a joint conference there. I didn't have any public information officer at that point in time, but one thing I learned that, was to be honest and be patient and answer the question to the best of your ability. And, there's nothing that's off the record.

00;35;41;07 - 00;36;02;18
Wayne Thorburne
So what you're going to say be truthful, be honest, and don't say off the record, this happened to me, but it was good. I mean, but, I always spent special time with the reporters with Keith Conklin was one of them once when I was chief, and and I trusted him and he trusted me. And we had a good working relationship.

00;36;02;20 - 00;36;05;19
Wayne Thorburne
And those guys can help you?

00;36;05;22 - 00;36;06;22
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;36;06;24 - 00;36;11;00
Wayne Thorburne
Big time if you let them. But you've got to be honest and fair with him.

00;36;11;03 - 00;36;11;22
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;36;11;24 - 00;36;18;22
Tim Conrad
Yeah I remember when Keith came he was a heart. He wasn't, he wasn't as easy to work with you know. And I remember we had some good discussions about that.

00;36;18;23 - 00;36;19;12
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;36;19;14 - 00;36;29;08
Tim Conrad
Yeah. There and yeah I was like let's let me give you know I worked with Keith and it was just I learned after all, you just like most reporters, they just want more information. They want what they want. And I.

00;36;29;08 - 00;36;31;09
Tim Conrad
Was like, yeah, I'd give you that, you know, like.

00;36;31;15 - 00;36;33;07
Tim Conrad
Bull rings that won't make it happen. So.

00;36;33;07 - 00;36;35;01
Wayne Thorburne
But just answer their questions.

00;36;35;04 - 00;36;36;09
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

00;36;36;12 - 00;36;37;06
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Stick to that.

00;36;37;09 - 00;36;38;07
Wayne Thorburne
Stick to the topic. Yeah.

00;36;38;07 - 00;36;39;15
Tim Conrad
You don't have to wonder too much.

00;36;39;15 - 00;36;41;18
Tim Conrad
That's one thing. Know yourself in trouble.

00;36;41;21 - 00;36;42;23
Tim Conrad
When you become a politician.

00;36;42;23 - 00;36;43;02
Tim Conrad
Right?

00;36;43;02 - 00;36;45;07
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, I've been there, done that.

00;36;45;14 - 00;36;51;06
Tim Conrad
Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. Two of them sitting there. Yeah.

00;36;51;12 - 00;36;55;29
Tim Conrad
They were. They sort of retired from firefighting and went on to be politicians.

00;36;56;01 - 00;36;58;00
Tim Conrad
I'm not dead yet. Yeah.

00;36;58;02 - 00;37;16;12
Tim Conrad
So what, what piece of information would you like to share with residents on how how can they make them themselves, their home, their next drive or fun activity? Safer? You know, knowing all this, you got 150 years of experience and almost. And what what do you, all those lessons over the years? What are you going to tell people?

00;37;16;12 - 00;37;42;18
Reid Whynot
So best thing is common sense. Pay attention. And smoke detectors do save lives. And that's it's repetitious. But it's true. Like we don't get near the fatalities nowadays because everybody's got a smoke detector pretty well now. They don't maintain it like they should, but it's helping. It definitely is. But on the road, pay attention and try not get distracted and all that kind of stuff.

00;37;42;18 - 00;37;55;03
Reid Whynot
But a lot of car accidents shouldn't happen. And again, come back to common sense and that's the biggest plus right now. Try to get people to use a common sense with them. Anyway. That's it.

00;37;55;05 - 00;38;26;07
Michael Nauss
Yeah, I find especially, before you go out to do anything, prepare yourself before you go. Yeah, no matter what you're doing, any activity or anything, think of what make happen. Yeah, you're out there. Think about it, and maybe it won't happen. That. Yeah. And if you're on the highways and you do see emergency personnel that are alongside road, give them some leeway.

00;38;26;07 - 00;38;36;16
Michael Nauss
Move over, slow down when you go by. Yeah. They're out there trying to to make it safe for you. So you should make it safe for them as well.

00;38;36;18 - 00;38;58;12
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. Wait. Yeah. No, I certainly legislation is help big time. In my time where you started it, we wasn't wearing seatbelts. And that that helped quite a bit. And you hear me drinking and driving and that's. It's been curtailed a fair amount. Now we have some drugs to deal with. But like we said, you can't beat common sense.

00;38;58;12 - 00;39;10;08
Wayne Thorburne
And there's so many things you can do in research. On the internet. But fire prevention is key 365 days a year, not just during fire prevention.

00;39;10;10 - 00;39;11;03
Tim Conrad
Yep.

00;39;11;06 - 00;39;23;05
Wayne Thorburne
And this helps it to design with the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and things to make your home safer. So that's what I would say. Yeah. Fire prevention 365.

00;39;23;13 - 00;39;24;10
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;39;24;12 - 00;39;43;12
Tim Conrad
Yeah. And I'll add like it's it's use. I think people need to think about things a little bit differently when they're going to do something. It's like what could actually happen. Whatever. What's the what is the worst case scenario? Maybe. Should I try to avoid that possible worst case scenario? You know, we we tend to be pretty optimistic on that won't happen to me, but it happens to.

00;39;43;12 - 00;39;44;16
Tim Conrad
Somebody because these.

00;39;44;17 - 00;40;03;10
Tim Conrad
Vehicles I got to roll out quite often and they're going for somebody. Right. So yeah. So yeah. And carbon dioxide. Really glad you brought that one up. That's an important I lost a firefighter that I worked with and his wife's too. Carbon monoxide. I messed and and, it's just, see that those those moments. Are.

00;40;03;11 - 00;40;05;20
Tim Conrad
You got a moment there that you can save a life.

00;40;05;22 - 00;40;06;24
Wayne Thorburne
And and.

00;40;06;26 - 00;40;27;12
Tim Conrad
And so. And smoke detectors. I'll say I'll add in case anybody who's listening have in your bedroom and then out in your, outside your, in your hallways. Mental well-being is something we all have a responsibility to ourselves to be aware of and to look for ways to improve through intentional actions, such as getting outside or seeking professional help.

00;40;27;14 - 00;40;51;28
Tim Conrad
As a responder, consider taking mental health first aid, which has been very important for the work I do interacting with people during large emergencies from residents to responders. If you are in urgent need of help in Canada, dial or text 988. You deserve to be heard. They are there to listen. It is a safe spot to talk 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

00;40;52;00 - 00;41;13;10
Tim Conrad
When you're looking at mental well-being and, this could be a challenging experience as a volunteer. I mean, this is, I think one of the things that always stuck with me as a volunteer, you're you're at home, you're sound asleep, and you get this call that comes in, has a profound impact on your mental well-being when you're done right and life doesn't start, stop right.

00;41;13;10 - 00;41;30;09
Tim Conrad
You go home. And I can remember going home sometimes, and it was breakfast or it was a meal, and I'm supposed to sit there and be normal and, and after, you know, go on through whatever it was. And so you've got, you got to return home to be a spouse, a parent to work or whatever you are.

00;41;30;09 - 00;41;54;07
Tim Conrad
So, the Bridgewater Fire Department had that back when I was in place. Lots of supports for after events. And that include a critical incident, stress debriefings, and, good support for, amongst our crew. We did lots of things, with each other to, to support each other. So what are your thoughts on the importance of mental well-being?

00;41;54;10 - 00;42;04;04
Tim Conrad
And, what would you like? Friends and family of emergency workers and responders to know?

00;42;04;07 - 00;42;29;03
Michael Nauss
One of the things that really strikes to me and it's all right to be sad about it. And so, all right to say you're not okay, admit that part of it and seek the help that you really need. Talk to a friend. You might have a friend that you that you really close to, that you can talk to, to tell stuff.

00;42;29;10 - 00;43;02;02
Michael Nauss
They don't ever talk anywhere else about it. It really helps. And and admitting that. Yes, something did bother me. Yeah. Confronting it head on. Then you have way to deal with those emotions and you can balance them. One of the big things that I often do is. And I say it's a call came in there walking from my house.

00;43;02;04 - 00;43;24;22
Michael Nauss
I had no control. What happened to get to that point? I can sort of control my take to it. As I'm doing the emergency. However, I still have no control of the outcome at the end of the day. All I'm doing is doing the best that I can to help make the outcome better. If you. Yeah.

00;43;24;25 - 00;43;44;07
Michael Nauss
Yeah. And that, that really helps the thought process of going through it. Yeah. Admitting that you, you do have a problem from time to time. Get through it. That's the big that's the big key right. Yeah. You have to admit it. And it's all right to admit that it's not that you have a problem.

00;43;44;12 - 00;43;45;03
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;43;45;05 - 00;43;46;09
Michael Nauss
And had to be ashamed.

00;43;46;13 - 00;43;50;11
Tim Conrad
This is at least the second time I've heard that device from your migraines.

00;43;50;13 - 00;43;52;02
Tim Conrad
You know, and it's so.

00;43;52;05 - 00;43;52;14
Tim Conrad
Right.

00;43;52;14 - 00;44;09;22
Reid Whynot
So, yeah, back in our day, like the old days, the 70s and 80s, whatever. There was no help. And if you had an issue, you had to suck it up and you expected suck it up and didn't talk about it. And that was the worst thing we could have done. So yeah, nowadays is so much better. Like like that.

00;44;09;25 - 00;44;22;28
Reid Whynot
Yeah. It's so much better because I get old issues in the back of my mind that I keep blocking out. Yeah, but someday one of them is going to pop out and say, yeah, but it's it's changed, which is good. Yeah. Which is definitely good.

00;44;23;01 - 00;44;51;08
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, yeah. They never go away. We've all seen stuff and we've all done stuff, but the thing I used to tell my crew and members is a lot of times what was going to happen was determined before we got paged and there was nothing we could do. Yeah, but do the best we can. Yeah. And. Actually, I go out there on some of those calls and I really focus on what I'm doing.

00;44;51;08 - 00;45;15;17
Wayne Thorburne
I try to block out stuff around me and just focus on what I have to do at that particular time to get the job done. Yeah. And, one time I can remember no kills with car accidents. I was holding a woman's hand in the front seat of a car. Her husband was dead on the driver's side, and all I did was her to hold her hand, talk to her, and we got through it together.

00;45;15;19 - 00;45;27;29
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. So, you know. But it's hard. And I still got days we didn't have a name for what it was, but we all lived through it. Yeah. And we continue to live through it.

00;45;27;29 - 00;45;28;26
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;45;28;28 - 00;45;32;14
Wayne Thorburne
But, talk to somebody. Yeah. Get help.

00;45;32;16 - 00;45;57;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah, I had one of those that from here that got me. And it was really. It was interesting unpacking. So it kind of came out during the Covid time and, and it was after I had done some pretty gnarly wildfires. So we weren't sure what was like when I started. I went into counseling and they kind of walked me through and teaching me what and taking me back in time and it took a lot of digging.

00;45;57;15 - 00;46;17;12
Tim Conrad
Yeah, but it actually was it's called Mike. You'll remember this 1 in 280, but highway 103 and, we had, two dead, two two alive and one trapped. Yeah. And you came up over that bank. I'll never forget the look on your face that day. I grabbed your hand and you came up, and it was.

00;46;17;14 - 00;46;34;06
Tim Conrad
But it was that night. When it came down to. It was really. It was a ugly, ugly call. But with some good in it. I will say, I always thought there was some good in it, but what got me was you walking up the back of the rescue. I was on the rescue and we had to stop.

00;46;34;06 - 00;46;43;09
Tim Conrad
And you had to tell everybody that was on truck to call home. Yeah, see if the where the kids were because you didn't know who was in the vehicle. And we was that marker 109.

00;46;43;14 - 00;46;44;25
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00;46;44;28 - 00;46;57;23
Wayne Thorburne
I remember that we had some young firefighters on, on the rescue truck and I wouldn't let them go, by the way. Yeah, I knew the people there and I knew who could handle it and I wouldn't let them go. But I still every time I drive past marker 109.

00;46;57;24 - 00;46;59;24
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. Yeah.

00;46;59;29 - 00;47;16;15
Tim Conrad
And it was that. Yeah. That's it. Right. It was that moment is it was the effect that, that, that it had on the other guys got me and it stuck. That stuck the other stuff didn't stand it was it was fascinating. But it was the they get triggered by heat and gasoline and stuff like that. The smells that we had that, that night.

00;47;16;15 - 00;47;23;27
Tim Conrad
So that was, kind of thing. So but it's, you know, all those years later, I don't know how many years it was. Well over 15 years.

00;47;23;27 - 00;47;25;25
Reid Whynot
That's 20. That's much 20.

00;47;25;28 - 00;47;27;00
Tim Conrad
I'm not. So yeah.

00;47;27;02 - 00;47;28;26
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;47;28;29 - 00;47;47;10
Tim Conrad
So yeah, it's really important stuff to talk about and it's, it's. Yeah. It's good. And I since then I've, you know, I never just talked to, my spouse about it. And since then, I've told her some of the stuff she, she's actually like, she's gone. And she had memories of me coming back, and she's like, what happened on that night or this time?

00;47;47;13 - 00;48;03;06
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So I tell her the story and it's like, you know, and she'd be wondering if I'm okay. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's that's fine. Like it worked through that one, right. But so on that we're going to flip to the other side. But humor is a big part of the race. And this is a department that really taught.

00;48;03;06 - 00;48;08;03
Tim Conrad
Me I know that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

00;48;08;03 - 00;48;10;00
Tim Conrad
You never knew what you were going to hear across.

00;48;10;00 - 00;48;10;13
Tim Conrad
The radio.

00;48;10;13 - 00;48;12;14
Tim Conrad
From read sometimes.

00;48;12;16 - 00;48;13;16
Tim Conrad


00;48;13;18 - 00;48;27;11
Tim Conrad
And so, you know, humor is a big part of the fire service. It's a big part of of all emergency services. Do you have a story you can tell about how humor broke through a tough moment?

00;48;27;13 - 00;48;45;13
Reid Whynot
You had to laugh and joke and make make different stuff and. Yeah, yeah, you had to keep talking. Don't keep it inside. Just. So humor was big. Yeah. And, we did. We got away with murder. You can't get away with that now. But as much. But years ago, you could say stuff and do stuff.

00;48;45;15 - 00;48;46;05
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah.

00;48;46;08 - 00;48;48;21
Reid Whynot
And appropriate. Yeah. And that's all I can say.

00;48;48;23 - 00;48;49;27
Wayne Thorburne
Todd was a good one for that.

00;48;49;27 - 00;48;53;06
Tim Conrad
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

00;48;53;09 - 00;48;55;29
Wayne Thorburne
You used to say some stuff.

00;48;56;02 - 00;49;03;15
Michael Nauss
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely had to have a little bit of humor. When you're out there, it sort of breaks the ice. It takes a little bit of the pressure off it.

00;49;03;18 - 00;49;06;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah.

00;49;06;17 - 00;49;17;04
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Well that's the end. It's little jokes right. Like sometimes it's little stuff like sometimes the guy will walk by, he's like what's going on here. Fire.

00;49;17;07 - 00;49;21;12
Tim Conrad
How did it start. Yeah. No really. No really. No.

00;49;21;14 - 00;49;24;22
Tim Conrad
You got a seen a firefighter anywhere.

00;49;24;24 - 00;49;27;29
Reid Whynot
No. You got it. You got to. Yeah. You got to get release it.

00;49;28;01 - 00;49;29;04
Tim Conrad
Yeah yeah, yeah.

00;49;29;08 - 00;49;45;20
Tim Conrad
I remember on some of our tougher calls, I mean that was one thing we would try to do, in the week or two after, there would be some moment where we could get together and have some good laughs. We got a games room upstairs. We get together and just have some fun together and and enjoy each other's company in a different way.

00;49;45;20 - 00;49;47;04
Tim Conrad
So yeah,

00;49;47;07 - 00;49;49;01
Tim Conrad
That was a big one for me.

00;49;49;03 - 00;49;52;00
Reid Whynot
A lot of pranks. Yeah, a lot of pranks on them days. Like.

00;49;52;01 - 00;49;53;00
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;49;53;03 - 00;49;54;20
Reid Whynot
Yeah. You wouldn't get away with it today, but.

00;49;54;20 - 00;49;55;17
Wayne Thorburne
A lot of rubber ducky.

00;49;55;23 - 00;49;57;20
Tim Conrad
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

00;49;57;22 - 00;50;03;08
Tim Conrad
All right. Read. I got to pull your pull a little bit on you. So talk about pranks. Let's talk about a guy like Dave when I'm sure there's something.

00;50;03;08 - 00;50;04;22
Reid Whynot
Oh, Dave, I owe him big time.

00;50;04;22 - 00;50;06;09
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So, Dave, he's not.

00;50;06;09 - 00;50;38;14
Reid Whynot
He's not on my books yet because you get so many pranks behind the scenes that I didn't realize until after you went into the Manny's. Yeah, but he. He got away with murder with me because he. They wrapped my van one night behind a vial with shrink wrap all the way around and underneath and all wicked. And then the worst one, he probably initiated this and I was here at the meeting, and I drove home past the mountain station with my little Chevy truck backed into my garage.

00;50;38;19 - 00;50;48;02
Reid Whynot
Next morning, I pulled out of my garage, drove down by the mountain station, made a big U-turn around Home Hardware parking lot, and I was dragging a dummy behind me.

00;50;48;04 - 00;50;49;15
Tim Conrad
The six foot.

00;50;49;18 - 00;50;54;18
Reid Whynot
Dummy made out of firehose weighing ton, and I went all out. This dragging, this dump.

00;50;54;20 - 00;50;58;19
Tim Conrad
And I know that son of a gun and so well.

00;50;58;21 - 00;51;04;25
Reid Whynot
And probably some of you guys do but I they went that was on there somewhere. But he was slick. He was you know, he was.

00;51;04;27 - 00;51;05;12
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;51;05;14 - 00;51;15;16
Reid Whynot
Oh what a bastard. You got me so many times. I got him back a couple times now. Maybe it was a repeat I don't know, not repeat, but revenge. Yeah, but he was good. But I still own.

00;51;15;19 - 00;51;18;09
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think we all do. Yeah.

00;51;18;16 - 00;51;23;21
Tim Conrad
He was the worst. Yeah. He would, he would take, paramedic gel or peanut butter and put it up on the door handle.

00;51;23;21 - 00;51;25;06
Tim Conrad
Oh like that.

00;51;25;09 - 00;51;26;27
Reid Whynot
Funny every day that. But it it.

00;51;26;29 - 00;51;27;09
Tim Conrad
The.

00;51;27;12 - 00;51;37;06
Tim Conrad
I remember a call over on, Dufferin, I think and I moved your vehicle, and then you come and you were like, where'd you put my vehicle? I was like, it's over there. And it.

00;51;37;06 - 00;51;39;14
Tim Conrad
Wasn't. He moved it way up the street. It was just sitting.

00;51;39;14 - 00;51;40;12
Tim Conrad
Randomly in the middle of.

00;51;40;12 - 00;51;51;08
Tim Conrad
The road, lights flashing. So it's like it was like when I was here. Yeah. You there? Oh, he was, he was. It was,

00;51;51;11 - 00;51;52;08
Tim Conrad
He was relentless.

00;51;52;11 - 00;51;53;19
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah. You know.

00;51;53;22 - 00;51;55;13
Tim Conrad
I was I never trusted him when it was.

00;51;55;13 - 00;51;56;16
Tim Conrad
Like you now.

00;51;56;18 - 00;52;00;29
Tim Conrad
So I have to bring up one other one. Do you remember anything about a fish in your vehicle?

00;52;01;01 - 00;52;02;04
Reid Whynot
Know what one.

00;52;02;11 - 00;52;06;02
Tim Conrad
Wonders? Which made me think.

00;52;06;04 - 00;52;06;18
Reid Whynot
Oh, yeah.

00;52;06;20 - 00;52;10;06
Tim Conrad
Read yourself a little problem with fish ending up inside this vehicle.

00;52;10;07 - 00;52;11;01
Reid Whynot
Manifold would.

00;52;11;01 - 00;52;34;15
Tim Conrad
Not be found on snowy. Yeah, yeah. Not. Not oh

00;52;34;17 - 00;52;43;20
Unknown
No no no no no no no

00;52;43;23 - 00;52;44;03
Tim Conrad
You have a.

00;52;44;03 - 00;52;55;03
Tim Conrad
Book or documentary or a resource that you recommend, for someone that wants to learn about what we do and what you do and what you've done. So any thoughts or.

00;52;55;05 - 00;53;21;05
Wayne Thorburne
To me, I always try. I know we have OGs. That's OG, you know. Peas. Yeah. But if you follow the NFPA standard that's a good document and it helps you through qualifications. What required. How many men are required on the scene. And that's a great document. And that's the minimum standards. It's not the maximum. But if you can follow that the NFPA then that that's a good guideline.

00;53;21;08 - 00;53;22;03
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. Especially in the fire.

00;53;22;03 - 00;53;24;29
Tim Conrad
So yeah. Good.

00;53;25;01 - 00;53;26;06
Reid Whynot
There is no.

00;53;26;09 - 00;53;26;20
Tim Conrad
Real.

00;53;26;27 - 00;53;45;02
Reid Whynot
Book. Good book for that uncommon sense. And that's unfortunate this time of day and age. But if there was, that would help a lot. But common sense will be your best friend. Yeah. And, in the history books, it's it's nice to have history books so you can go back and learn about what happened years ago.

00;53;45;02 - 00;53;56;21
Reid Whynot
Because once you know your history, you can you can determine your future. So you look back, see what happened, yada, yada, yada. And then, okay, this could happen again. So try to study all history books in know history. Yeah.

00;53;56;23 - 00;53;59;09
Tim Conrad
Yeah. And on that note you're working on an update.

00;53;59;09 - 00;54;04;13
Reid Whynot
Yeah. And it's all pretty. You're all done. Yeah. It's 150 anniversary. And you got some pictures for me. Yeah.

00;54;04;13 - 00;54;10;23
Tim Conrad
So. And, so they'll be, that that's, it's really good to look at the wisdom of that history life and. Yeah.

00;54;10;25 - 00;54;11;01
Reid Whynot
Yeah.

00;54;11;03 - 00;54;12;01
Tim Conrad
How about you, like.

00;54;12;04 - 00;54;13;01
Tim Conrad


00;54;13;03 - 00;54;21;25
Michael Nauss
Me being and building construction and whatnot? Phoenix chief library say you're not. You know who I'm.

00;54;21;27 - 00;54;22;20
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;54;22;22 - 00;54;37;06
Michael Nauss
He, did building construction as a firefighter. And that really impressed me quite a bit on what they had put in there for. And it was real good learning experience, even though I am a contractor.

00;54;37;09 - 00;54;37;27
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;54;38;00 - 00;54;46;04
Michael Nauss
I never thought of some of the things that were in that for me to think about. When you're up there fighting fire or something. Yeah. It's really yeah.

00;54;46;07 - 00;54;53;05
Tim Conrad
Yeah yeah yeah. That's it. No one building construction. Ultimately you need it when it's deconstruction.

00;54;53;07 - 00;54;54;01
Tim Conrad
When it when we're.

00;54;54;01 - 00;54;58;01
Tim Conrad
There. So. Yeah. And yeah, the buildings are, there's so many different types of buildings.

00;54;58;08 - 00;54;59;15
Tim Conrad
So.

00;54;59;18 - 00;55;13;01
Tim Conrad
The interesting thing and I tell people when they come to Nova Scotia for firefighters and stuff like, said, pay to the buildings, you'll see buildings here they don't see in a lot of the rest of the country because it's older here. And yeah, you get to see some neat construction and but also dangerous.

00;55;13;01 - 00;55;15;11
Tim Conrad
So yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00;55;15;14 - 00;55;31;24
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So what other what advice would you give or to other information officers, communicators managing a crisis. Or emergencies that, would help them to perform their job more effectively.

00;55;31;26 - 00;55;51;13
Reid Whynot
My main job now as an older guy is to tell the young people what to do and what not to do, to make sure they get old, like me. Yeah, and it's hard because I broke all the rules. I know the good and the bad, but pass it on to the young people. It it's a little tricky sometimes because they, they read stuff in the books, yada yada yada.

00;55;51;13 - 00;56;02;08
Reid Whynot
But again, common sense, they don't think about that too much. Yeah, as much as we used to years ago. But, yeah, it's, it's it's different. Yeah. Different attitude.

00;56;02;10 - 00;56;03;06
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;56;03;08 - 00;56;38;12
Michael Nauss
I just think that, the younger firefighters coming in, don't be scared to take the training. I really impress on. That's very, very important. Yeah. Take the training that you're required to take. And then, take a little bit of advice from the older members on how things are done. Not everything is always the right way to do it, but, get both sides, and try to work it out on your own and, and follow it that way.

00;56;38;18 - 00;56;39;17
Tim Conrad
But, yeah, yeah.

00;56;39;20 - 00;56;41;08
Michael Nauss
Take advice from your, you know, all.

00;56;41;08 - 00;56;46;24
Tim Conrad
About what's amazing about this department was that we we really did bring in the old farts like.

00;56;46;24 - 00;56;48;15
Tim Conrad
You guys right now.

00;56;48;17 - 00;56;50;14
Tim Conrad
Hey, I mean, I guess.

00;56;50;17 - 00;56;50;27
Tim Conrad
You brought.

00;56;50;27 - 00;57;12;20
Tim Conrad
In the old farts that they would tell their stories. Yeah, and you'd hear. And I love that. I mean, I absolutely, I just soak that all up as a young guy and, and, and, and just all the training, just, go out there and to learn all the time. It was something I really enjoyed. Always learning something new and something new and putting myself outside of my comfort zone and, doing things I never thought I'd ever do.

00;57;12;20 - 00;57;16;10
Tim Conrad
And it's. Yeah, it took me places and allowed me to do really interesting things.

00;57;16;10 - 00;57;18;08
Tim Conrad
So yeah.

00;57;18;10 - 00;57;26;09
Tim Conrad
My last question to you is how do you maintain your mental well-being during the most intense moments? Of response.

00;57;26;11 - 00;57;46;10
Wayne Thorburne
Me personally, what I do is look at the situation and make sure I can protect my fellow firefighters. Yeah, give them all the help and the knowledge I can to do their job. And this is where training is key. And I think if you're going to be an effective officer, effective chief, or even a firefighter, you have to know your people.

00;57;46;12 - 00;58;01;12
Wayne Thorburne
You have to know their limitations. You have to know what you do. So it's critical that you know what training they have, so you don't put them in a place where they're going to fail. Yeah, you got to know your people and know their training, because you should never send anybody to do anything that they're not trained to do.

00;58;01;12 - 00;58;03;04
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, that's the biggest thing.

00;58;03;09 - 00;58;03;29
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;58;04;02 - 00;58;05;20
Wayne Thorburne
We want everybody to go home at the end of the day.

00;58;05;20 - 00;58;08;13
Tim Conrad
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

00;58;08;15 - 00;58;10;08
Michael Nauss
And that really is big.

00;58;10;08 - 00;58;12;14
Tim Conrad
Yeah. You can't, you can't prove that.

00;58;12;17 - 00;58;16;19
Michael Nauss
Your crew is, is knowledgeable and, fast. You want to give them.

00;58;16;24 - 00;58;17;22
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

00;58;17;24 - 00;58;20;00
Michael Nauss
Because at the end of the day, we all want to come.

00;58;20;02 - 00;58;20;16
Tim Conrad
Yep yep.

00;58;20;16 - 00;58;45;20
Michael Nauss
Yep. The last thing that we as the hierarchy are key here. Is to be sitting back here and having to go knocking on a door to say I'm sorry, but so and so. Yeah. Past. Yeah. Anything with that that be the worst thing that we have to do. Yeah. So it's focus on the task of hand making sure that the right people are doing the task.

00;58;45;22 - 00;58;46;17
Michael Nauss
Yeah.

00;58;46;19 - 00;58;48;16
Tim Conrad
Yeah yeah.

00;58;48;19 - 00;59;10;08
Reid Whynot
Yeah. Last week we had a call and one of our guys that'd be on would have quite a bit of beard on. So I took him aside. Not officially. I took him aside and kicked him into. But I told him no, no. And he respected it. And he he's going to show you. Yeah, but yeah, he, he, he had a BA on and shouldn't have, but I unofficially I had no right to kick him in the back.

00;59;10;08 - 00;59;22;02
Reid Whynot
But I did. Yeah. And he liked it and he deserved it and we were too good. But that's where our guys are now. If you screw up you're going to pay. But and let's do a real good job of that because you line up.

00;59;22;04 - 00;59;23;06
Tim Conrad
Oh yeah.

00;59;23;08 - 00;59;26;14
Reid Whynot
And when it gets really wound up we got to give him Snickers bar.

00;59;26;21 - 00;59;29;00
Tim Conrad
The.

00;59;29;03 - 00;59;30;09
Tim Conrad
Snickers Snickers.

00;59;30;09 - 00;59;35;09
Reid Whynot
Yeah. Not even a marriage by argument. Marriage by a while ago didn't work.

00;59;35;11 - 00;59;36;22
Tim Conrad
No.

00;59;36;25 - 00;59;39;13
Reid Whynot
But now it's good. I'm glad you, Yeah. Pull it off.

00;59;39;13 - 00;59;42;24
Tim Conrad
Retired guys are busy than the ones I swear. So we.

00;59;42;24 - 01;00;01;29
Tim Conrad
Have. And, Yeah. I really appreciate you joining me for this. It's been a journey for me, you know that. I've come from here and gone across the country and now doing this to share information, really, with the world. We have a global audience on here. And so I appreciate you guys sitting down with me. It's, it's a, a heck of a group.

01;00;02;02 - 01;00;21;08
Tim Conrad
And I wish that the audience knew what it was like to work with you on, calls and stuff like that. And the fun we would have. Yeah. And, just the, the work that we did was it was good work and intense and we did it well. And I tell you, I learned so much from you, and I really appreciate the time with you.

01;00;21;11 - 01;00;22;03
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah. Okay.

01;00;22;06 - 01;00;22;16
Tim Conrad
Yeah.

01;00;22;16 - 01;00;37;29
Tim Conrad
So thanks very much, guys. Thank you for joining me on, the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast. So, and great it in this time together again and, and, thank you for over a century of service. You got to keep working on that. I'll come back when you guys get 200 years.

01;00;37;29 - 01;00;45;15
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Let's get there. You can mess around us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And,

01;00;45;17 - 01;00;49;13
Tim Conrad
Yeah, this this home feels like call to me. Home to me that.

01;00;49;15 - 01;00;53;15
Tim Conrad
If I could talk about. Oh, man, like that. Like, oh, the whole thing.

01;00;53;15 - 01;01;04;18
Tim Conrad
Is, like, home. And, that's the beauty of when you're a firefighter. This is the spot that is home. And, and you always, when you come back in, it still feels like home. So it's great to be back.

01;01;04;18 - 01;01;11;26
Reid Whynot
And one good thing is, Tim's like Santa Claus. You're only comes here once a year.

01;01;11;29 - 01;01;23;27
Wayne Thorburne
But the one thing that is important as a firefighter and probably as a volunteer is that wherever you go now, you always can ask. The fire department stopped by and they will always help you because you're always a brother.

01;01;23;29 - 01;01;25;07
Tim Conrad
Brother always.

01;01;25;10 - 01;01;29;26
Wayne Thorburne
So if you ever need anything, just go to the nearest fire station. Yeah, they're there for you.

01;01;29;29 - 01;01;30;29
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So yeah.

01;01;31;01 - 01;01;46;25
Tim Conrad
And it's a, it's a neat thing I've got tattoos for my, two fire also was in my back, my legs. And every once in a while it just happened before I left on this trip that one of you come up to me that started chatting with me and come to find out that we not only had been on calls together once, but twice.

01;01;46;29 - 01;01;48;05
Tim Conrad
Yeah, right.

01;01;48;07 - 01;01;56;20
Tim Conrad
No, no. And I worked with literally sat in the emergency operations center next to him for, for a weekend one time and I forgot and I was like it took me a moment. I was like.

01;01;56;22 - 01;01;59;29
Tim Conrad
I do remember you well, but it was great.

01;02;00;06 - 01;02;04;19
Tim Conrad
To get those great conversations and it happens all over the place. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter where you go.

01;02;04;21 - 01;02;05;13
Wayne Thorburne
Absolutely.

01;02;05;13 - 01;02;11;18
Tim Conrad
Yeah. So I can't if you want to get in the fire service, it's a wonderful thing to do. And, you know.

01;02;11;20 - 01;02;16;04
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you gentlemen. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

01;02;16;07 - 01;02;19;19
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah, yeah. Nine minutes.

01;02;19;19 - 01;02;24;25
Tim Conrad
Over. Oh, time and a half. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not. But I'm not at all. No.

01;02;24;27 - 01;02;26;24
Wayne Thorburne
Yeah I mean intuitively.

01;02;26;27 - 01;02;35;05
Tim Conrad
Right. That was really. Oh God bless I had a paper towel, but, but,

01;02;35;07 - 01;02;58;21
Tim Conrad
When I started this podcast back in 2024, I hope to do this episode. I'm thankful for my lifelong friends and brothers who took the time to sit down with me. I was a proud member of crews one, three, and four during my junior and senior years in the Bridgewater Fire Department, and it was chief Reed Weiner who gave me my first role as a public information officer during a disaster on an icy cold February morning over 20 years ago.

01;02;58;23 - 01;03;21;26
Tim Conrad
Head over to communications podcast.com for everything guest information and links and scripts and images, show notes, video and audio photos. And you can send us reviews and guest ideas if you like. This episode, take a listen to any of our episodes from season one, where we unpack our wild experience with the 2023 wildfires in Columbia. Shuswap. Well, I'm just a little wet and caribou regions of British Columbia.

01;03;21;29 - 01;03;34;13
Tim Conrad
Thank you for joining the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast, a production of Butterfly Effect Communications. Copyright 2026. We are masters of doom and gloom, bringing calm to chaos. Goodbye. You're a later.