.Captain Robert Thurber
January 5, 2017 Bob Thurber is a man few words, and the ones he does utter are usually screamed directly into your face. He rose through the officer ranks of both the Rescue and Firefighting Divisions. He was at 9/11 by 10 PM that same night, and fought some of Pawtucket’s biggest fires. He taught the city’s Fire Academy where he helped break in the “new guys.” His father was Chief of Department, his brother is a current Battalion Chief, and his son is a private on Engine 1. Tradition runs deep. We sat down at Station 4 two years after his retirement, and this is what he said … TT: Why don't we start at the very beginning, in North Providence. What year did you get on with those guys? RT: Probably around 1980. I went up and joined. I had known a couple of guys that were up there, I was working Costigans at the time my partner was Russ Hayes, Tim Hayes' son. He talked me into it and it was by far the best thing I ever did. So I started at the Marieville Fire Station, and then went to Centerdale and stayed there until I got on Pawtucket in 1987. TT: Were you a Cardiac EMT at that point? RT: I was. I became an EMT in 1975, and I started for a private ambulance service that May. In 1980 I became an EMT-I. I took it at Roger Williams Hospital. Then Memorial offered a class for the Pawtucket Fire Department, so Chief Doire, the old man Chief Doire, asked me if I wanted to go. So I was able to attend the class in 1982. I became a Cardiac and didn't get on Pawtucket until '87. TT: Now, when you were (working) private ambulance in the mid-70s, what were you guys doing? Lemay says in those days (private ambulance did the) transporting, because we only had one rescue. RT: We (private ambulance) did all the transportation. Costigan's Ambulance, located at 220 Cottage Street, which is now the O'Neill Funeral Home, did all the Pawtucket rescue. So we ran rescue 24/7. Most of the guys (firefighters on Rescue 1), as soon as they got dispatched ... they would call for a private ambulance. TT: So the fire department would get to the scene, and then you guys would show up and do the transport. RT: Yup. TT: (That would free them up) for another run if it came in. RT: Yup. There was only one rescue in the City this is 1975 or 76, and of course it wasn't as busy as today's world. But we still saw a lot of bad stuff. TT: So the medical aspect of the job-- RT: There was a saying going around back in all of EMS--"you call, we haul, and that's all." I've had people get hit by cars, electrocuted, and we didn't board or collar them. We picked them up off the street, threw them on the (gurney)--if they were lucky we would put oxygen on them, transported them to the nearest hospital, usually Pawtucket Memorial. No Trauma Centers in those days. TT: So load and go. RT: Load and go. TT: So you got here in '87-- RT: I got a funny story about that. This was the private ambulance days. We get a call, meet the Rescue, Cottage Street and Angle, and we pull in. It's just a little in from Cottage street, and it's a lady in cardiac arrest. Young woman. So the rescue guys--she was driving, they're doing CPR on her sitting up. Or course you get a giggle out of that. So we get her in the back of the truck. And I'm a new kid, like seventeen years old, and I start doing CPR, and the rescue guy comes with me, lights up a cigarette, and says, "Kid, she's dead." So I'm like, all right. So he smokes, and he's sitting in the captain's chair behind the patient. I'm sitting on the bench, and he's smoking a cigarette, and (after) we get to Memorial Hospital, he puts the cigarette on the floor of the ambulance, steps on it, and goes, "All right, kid, show time." (Thurber motions like he's doing CPR as the ambulance doors open). (Laughs) TT: Jesus Christ. RT: This was the shit that happened back then. There wasn't many rules, no State Protocols and you just did your own thing. Like I said, this lady was young, probably in her 40s. TT: But back in the day, they couldn't really do anything anyway right? RT: Well, that was it. You had an ambu-bag, and a lot of times we did mouth to mouth, we didn't even use the ambu-bag, it was just basic CPR and mouth to mouth. There was no airway adjuncts. We were basic as basic could be. TT: When they brought Codes (heart attacks, pulseless people) into the hospital back then, were they using the same kind of drug set up? Like Epi? RT: You know, yes, They would use Sodium Bicarbonate and that was used as a first line cardiac drug, which it isn't today. Even when we did it in 1982, when we started getting into the drugs, it was still sodium bicarb, epi, atropine, there wasn't a time limit like today, most of the time we would do CPR in the home, and do the Cardiac procedures in the truck. TT: So it's '87. You're on the job. Where do you go first? RT: I got appointed November 17, 1987. Of course it was the happiest day in my life. Back then you (worked only) days for a couple of weeks, and then I got assigned to the 4th Battalion. D-Group. My father was the Battalion Chief, so I got lucky because of him, I rode downtown--I think it was maybe a month. (That's where they) just reacquaint you with the fire truck because my school was back in 1985. We did transfers. If the 5s needed somebody, all the young kids would take the transfer. I did Fire Alarm. We didn't have to bid in there at the time, we had civilian dispatchers, so you'd get transferred in there if someone was on vacation or out for any reason. Then my first assignment, after our six-month probation, I got assigned to Ladder 2. I was pissed at my old man for putting me there, but he wanted to keep me on his shift for the holidays (Laughs). And I go, "Well, I don't want to go to Ladder 2!" so I stayed there, maybe four months. TT: Did you catch a fire in those four months? RT: Yeah. Blackstone Landing was being converted into Condos. We had called it Bad Luck Landing? It was under construction, and we had a fire on the top floor that extended into the roof. It was put out quick by the 4s. I was on Ladder 2, so we were on the roof. I was with Dick Parent, John Buchanon, myself. So yeah, we caught a couple of fires. Explanation of bad-luck-landing. They had the fire, they had a major flood that weakened the structure so bad we had details therre 24/7, we had a kid get electrocuted while power washing the building. This is during my first few months on the job. I’m transferred to Rescue 2 with Steve Cleary, Acting Lt. Engine 2 has Jimmy Condon, Mike ZZZ, Joe Bruzzi and Joe Cordeiro. Joe is brand new like maybe a couple days on job. Out of all these guys only Joe and I are Cardiacs. Oh boy! So we pull the guy off the bucket and perform CPR, place on monitor, defibrillate, IV whole 9 yards. All drugs aboard, the guy lives. We save this 22 year old life. We are beyond thrilled--big save. Yes we went to the bar to celebrate after shift. TT: What'd you think about the roof? Did you love being up on the roof? RT: No, I didn't really, that's why I always stayed on an engine company. I mean the Ladder was all right but it wasn't my thing. I wanted to be inside the fire, doing fire suppression and/or search and rescue. The roof thing did not really work for me. Actually I thought it was pretty boring. but yeah, never really liked ladder work. TT: You were an engine guy RT: Yeah. TT: So ladder 2 for how long? RT: I’m guessing four months. And then the bid came up and I bid to Engine 4, B-group. At that time we had no officers, so Tommy Griffin was acting lieutenant. It was Tommy, myself, Mike Fox, and John Robin. Tommy was the veteran, the rest of us were all new guys. We came on around the same time. TT: Now there were no officers because of a promotional thing, right? RT: Yes. The union at that time was boycotting promotions because they were done by politics. So the local boycotted it for a good two, three years. And then finally a new administration came in and they agreed to outside testing, and we promoted 26 guys in one day. Most of them were lieutenants. We didn't have captains back then. So it was probably 20 lieutenants, couple Battalion Chiefs, maybe three Battalion chiefs. So finally we got the officers...and about that time we had another bid, and I bid to Engine 3 with Lieutenant Mike Carter, Tommy Moore, and Bobby Howe. I was friendly with Tommy and Bobby, so we were like the three amigos together. TT: Were you all around the same academy class? RT: We were all in the same academy. 1985 academy. Tommy was the first to go on, Bobby Howe, and then me. Tommy went right on in '85. Bobby went on in August of '87. I went on in November. And I stayed there maybe a year, maybe a little longer--I kind of lost track--and then Engine 2, 4th Battalion opened up. I think Feeley, Tom Feeley, and Dave Pizzo got promoted to rescue lieutenant, so I bid down there. I'd always wanted to be on Engine 2. I bid there, stayed there like six months, and then bid to Engine 2 with Steve Smith, Paul Keenan, Kenny Moreau, so it was a good group down there. TT: Is Steve Smith "Mean Smitty?" RT: Yeah, Mean Smitty. He was my lieutenant, and we were good friends. Oh and John McConaughey was there too. I was the fourth man on the truck. I was always going out the door, we did transfers back then, which you guys didn't have to do when you came on. Transfers--you went all the time, and they were usually for three cycles at a time. Could be Fire Alarm, Engine 5, Ladder 2--every truck had four guys on it and somebody would be on transfer. Somebody was out sick, personal day, vacation day, whatever. Back then you took three cycle vacations. There was none of this day-here day-there. TT: Now Mean Smitty, there's a couple funny stories. Like one day he walked in and was actually in a good mood, whistling,--like one of the few times--and somebody said, "What'd you do? Run over a flock of geese?" RT: There's a lot of funny stories. Everybody called him Mean Smitty and he's not. He's a pussycat, a great officer, I enjoyed working for him. TT: Just a tough dude RT: He was a tough dude. Still is. TT: Most of these guys came out of the mills, blue collar. This Pawtucket job is professional now, meaning there's a lot of guys that might have some college, the young guys, but back in the day that wasn't the case. RT: Oh no, this was definitely a blue collar job--it still is, we do get some college people here but they're all twats. (Laughs) All you College boy’s and Girls I’m only kidding. TT: So guys would have side jobs to make ends meet... RT: Everybody had to work a side job. Everybody had kids. I had two kids, so I worked painting with Joe Gildea and Johnny McConaughey and then I went to Brinks, worked for Brinks for a little while, and then I went to Quinny and painted with him for a while. You had to make ends meet. We were only making a couple hundred bucks a week back then. Maybe like $270, take home $220. TT: So you're on Engine 2 ... RT: I stayed there until 1991. Then I got promoted to Rescue Lieutenant, went to Rescue 1, West Avenue, stayed there--I was with Artie Mintsmenn, and that was awkward because I was only three years on the job, and Artie had like 15. TT: Was he on the rescue the whole time? RT: Yeah. TT: Why didn't he make officer? Just didn't take the test? RT: I don’t know, Never took the test, he was content being a chauffer on Rescue 1. I mean he took the test later but back then there was a lot of competition. TT: Guys were fighting to get over there. RT: Yeah. Tom, Not sure what your getting at here. But people were not flocking to get to Rescue. TT: So you're a lieutenant on Rescue1... RT: Yeah. And I stayed there for the next, I got close to ten years. I got out of there in like 2000. But I mean, back then we did firefighting, so I got the best of both worlds. I hate sitting in the station. I get bored. So, I want to be on Engine 2, that's what I wanted to do, but the rescue, I was content with, I was an officer working OT making money. Worked for some decent Battalion Chiefs, where they didn't bother us, we could go into the fire ... as long as we answered the radios if one of our guys got hurt, we would respond which we did of course. At that time, only the officers carried radios, and I'll get into that story in a minute. But it was just the officers, lieutenants, because that's all we had, so they would carry a portable radio. So you'd listen to it, and if they called for someone hurt, you go out and do whatever you got to do. Of course, I had the experience because of the private ambulance thing. I Saw a lot of stuff. Shootings, stabbings, auto accidents, extrications...lot of serious things. Once, maybe over a year, I had five, six kids seriously injured, they ended up sending me to a councilor...I was starting to act a little bizarre. So they thought it was the that. The Chief at the time, pulled me aside, asked me if I would go and I was like, "yeah, sure I'll go talk to them." But the incidents were very sad, one night me and Bill Quinn, Quinny was my chauffer, and we were at a fire right here on Broadway, and we worked the fire all night, it was a big three-decker, going like a son of a bitch. So it's like 6 in the morning--I forget who the chief was--that's sad, but anyways, they sent us on our way--oh it was Dick Renzi, he was our Battalion Chief. So they said you can go back in service, "Rescue's 1's back in service." FAB sends us right out, "Hey, can you head to Mineral Spring Avenue. Report of a woman down in the basement." So we go with a North Providence Engine, get there, it was a was a women on crack, laying in a vacant basement of a three-decker, and she's slumped over with her heroin needle still in her arm, or whatever they did back then, it was heroin, and she had a little baby with her. She fell on the baby, and the baby smothered to death. So of course it was cold out, very cold, so we did CPR on the baby for show, or maybe for us--she didn't even know--got another rescue to take her, we did CPR on the baby, the baby lived for like half a day. But ended up dying which...the kid died because mom was a drug addict. Then we had a kid, I was with Dick Lemay, it was a Sunday, they couldn't get anybody that day for a callback, so he was in charge and I was driving. We go to the 5s district. The kid was playing in the backyard with the dog, young kid, 2,3 years old, and they had the dog on a clothesline, you know with the chain, chained to the line, and the dog got excited and wrapped the chain around the baby and the baby strangled. And then we catch a run on Lonsdale Avenue, this is like a week after, it's not Lonsdale, it's Main street, Harrison and Main there, that big three-decker we go to all the time. Well a kid fell out of the third-floor window and landed in the parking lot, so we did CPR because the engine company was doing CPR, they got there ahead of us, so we continued, went to Rhode Island, obviously it's a Trauma, the kid died. And as I'm getting the information gathered, I found out it's Dave Pizzo's nephew. Dave was relieving me that night on the Rescue. So he had to ... I had to tell him when he got in, so he had to go home, obviously, it's his brother's kid. And then shortly thereafter I had a fourteen-year-old, up in the 5s district, I forget the street, he's doing that, there's name for it, I can't think of it, but he hung himself masturbating-- TT: Auto-- RT: Auto-erotica. Yep, and he uh, died, a the family was extremely upset, they found him, so they cut him down and laid him on the porch but the cops, you know, obviously, they investigated, and that's how he died. Then I had a tragedy, right down the street from the station 1, corner of West and Randall. Our companies are out at a firecall, and I got the 3s coming, 3s are coming to help us. So we're first in, we go upstairs, I forget who I was with, and there's this big black man, naked and wet, and holding a little baby, I'm going to guess a year or two, and he's like this holding the baby (holds his arms out). So I grab the baby, and it was in cardiac arrest, so we did CPR, I ran down the stairs--you get that tunnel vision we always talk about in the fire school, so I knew the guy was naked, I knew the baby was naked, but I didn't but two and two together and think of sexual content, in my head. So we get in, and Pete O'Neill, Lieutenant O'Neill, he's in charge of the 3s, and so we're working up the kid and he notices the anal opening of the baby was widened, bizarre. Se we knew we had a child abuse case. Turns out the mom was in jail and this clown was watching the kid. So they went and got in the bathtub, he did whatever he did with the baby, and he went to jail. But he pleaded out, so none of us ended up testifying. TT: Jesus Christ. RT: That was a tough one. So, I had those runs and they all came at once, maybe within a year, maybe less than a year, so I start drinking heavily. They noticed at the station, and the chief noticed at different events that we had, and so they sent me to this councilor and all the councilor wanted to do was talk about what we're talking about--things that I've done--so I went twice, said I ain't going back. So anyways, it all worked out. I still drink heavy and life goes on. (Laughs). So that was my rescue years, my EMS years. TT: So after a while, it's enough. The toll of the body count right? You were ready to go... RT: Yeah. I had an MVA, right at the Attleboro/Pawtucket line, Prom night, We had five teenagers killed in a car accident. A few months later we had three killed in a car accident, kids, teenagers, coming this way right at Broadway, going south, So, yeah, that was tragic. One of the kids, we're working on him, trying to get him out of the car--they're dead, we know they're all dead--mass casualty incident, so we had other rescues coming in, we were the first ones there. And we're trying to extricate, and the one that we ended up taking we didn't find her until afterwards, there was a guy on top of her and she was on the floor of the frontseat, all curled up. TT: What did they hit? RT: The jersey barrier and another car, but I mean the car, we had to extricate them. Attleboro had their jaws there, Pawtucket had their jaws, and we had to cut them out of the car. It was a tough scene. TT: By this point, 2000, you've had enough.. RT: Yep. Unfortunate circumstances lead me to get off Rescue, my kids were grown didn’t need the extra money so I got off. Mean Smitty ,or as I would call him Lieutenant Smith, is in training. The Firefighter that was in there was Chief Renzi's brother Russ. He died of cancer. Young guy. So I asked the chief, "I got to get off this fucking rescue. I want to go into training." At that time, the chief assigned you to the division of training. Lt. Smith was in charge and I just wanted to get out of the Rescue. Lt. Smith was out with Injury, so I was still going to make lieutenant's pay, I was going to be the acting lieutenant of training, so he goes--this is a funny story actually--Condon, Chief Condon goes, "Oh no, I think you're good on the rescue. Stay there." (laughs). So I went to Renzi, Renzi was the assistant Chief by then, and I says, "Hey, with the death of your brother I would like to go to that spot, there's an opening, I know there's no bid, but I want to go over there." So he talked Chief Condon into putting me over there. Of course, they sent me to school to be a training officer, 1041, fire service instructor, I became a State Instructor began teaching for the Academy. So it all worked out. I stayed there, I got promoted to lieutenant in 2001, so it was a little more than a year that I was there. I talked the Department into letting me run the Fire Academy which we ended up doing a ton of Academies. Then Engine 2 open for a Lieutenant and I took the Bid. TT: So 2002 you're at Engine 2. RT: 2001 I was there. I took Joe Cordiero's spot. he went to a different shift on Engine 2. TT: Were you 4th Battalion? RT: No, C-group, Dick Meerbottt was the Battalion Chief. TT: So now you're an officer on Engine 2. Talk about some of that stuff. It's downtown, mainly manufacturing, highway, some residential... you must've caught some good jobs. RT: Yep. Great jobs. Obviously, mostly second due engines, or third due, but I had a few first due. Take a right out of the station, go past Fogarty Housing, first left, I forget the name of the street, we pull up, I got Stevie Small, myself and Tommy Moore. Tommy Moore's pumping. So me and Small take a line up and the fire's BLOWING out the roof! So I say to myself, "We're gonna be here all night, man, this is fucking beautiful." So me and Smally are crawling up to the third-floor stairs, we get up there, and we didn't even need a fucking mask. So we turn the water on (motions with the nozzle) and the fire's out. It had multiple-- TT: It had cooked through the roof. RT: Yeah, it had multiple sky lights, it melted them, they were all gone--so it looked like a spectacular fire and it was nothing. It was just a room and contents fire, and we put it out real quick and we just went home...The best fire I had first due downtown, the Subway shop, right on Broad Street, across from Walgreens, there was a Subway, fruit market, residental it was a huge complex. I think this was 2003. Joe Cordiero was on days, I was relieving Joe. I put my shit on the truck, the bell hits, and it's for this address, I forget the number, and Joe goes, "Ah, we just left there. It was a nuisance box."ok Joe, "All right." We get dressed and off we go to this nuisance box on Broad Street, I pull up and it's fucking well involved, Fire in the rear of a 2nd. Hand shop, smoke shooting out of every orifice in the fucking place (laughs), so we worked that and we were there all fucking night. Domino's Pizza was across the street, they sent us over some pizzas. So yeah, that was a good fire. It was me ,Dave Boisclair, and Keith Wildenhaim. TT: Was Keith just down there OT? RT: Yes. And Boislcair was with me. He was on Engine 2 C Shift. You know I busted Joe Cordeiro’s balls the rest of his career about that night. TT: What about some highway stuff? Ton of highway stuff, bodies all over the highway RT: Ton of highway stuff. Engine 2 was on that highway all the time, especially at this time of the year, with the snow and the rain. So yeah, car fires, accidents, we had a little girl, she was like 16, and she got caught on the black ice, spun out, dead on the scene. So we had to extricate. Another guy, coming northbound, at Smithfield Avenue, got ejected, and the car landed on top of him. We had to use the airbags to raise the car up. I’m still on Rescue and we respond to this, it was actually right off the highway at Newport Ave. in Attleboro near the Home Depot? There was a big trash truck making a U-turn in front of Home Depot. It tipped over and landed on the car. We didn't have enough air bags or big enough airbags to raise the truck up to get the people--there was two people trapped. Unbelievable crash the kind that keep you up at night thinking about it. TT: Were they dead? RT: Nope. they both survived with minor injuries. We worked with Attleboro FD and had to call Providence Special Hazards (truck) to come help us. TT: Don't they need a crane for that? RT: We ended up getting one, We didn’t have enough cribbing so Home Depot came over on a tow motor with a bunch of cribbing for us, and the guys on the ladder made the cribbing right there for us. Another story, we had a run for an elderly female in the elderly high rises. A still-box comes in for a mill fire in the 1s. So I said to the lady, "We gotta go now. The rescue will be here momentarily, we'll see you later, good luck." (She says), "But I'm having trouble breathing." "Well here's our oxygen." (laughs). I think I was with Ray Masse and Tim Usher. TT: Yeah, Granny, Code Red. You gotta go you gotta go, right? RT: I ain't missing a fire for someone who can't pee. Another time, we get a stillbox off Lonsdale Avenue, in the 1's district. Three-decker going like a son of a bitch. Kraweic was the Lieutenant, and I was on Engine 2. It was about a 100 degrees out. Lemay had to be there, he was on Rescue. Bobby Howe, he was a lieutenant on Engine 5. So we're crawling up there, me and Chickie, crawling up trying to get to the third-floor. It was smokey, the smoke's banked down to the floor, it was hot, we're having trouble finding the fire. we were working our balls off. Things are getting real hot on the landing, we are trying to make the push into the apartment They put a line in the window. TT: Basically blowing the fire right at you. RT: Right at us… I did some yelling and screaming, and they stopped. Chickie was able to get in there a knock the fire down. (Laughs) TT: Talk about Chickie. there's another guy who did thirty years on Engine 2. He tells stories about the sponge. The days of the sponge. RT: Yup. The old guys, according to folk lore use to keep a sponge in their turnout when Chickie came on, they probably still carried a sponge. The older fire fighters, before the SCBA's came along, they would take a sponge, put it in their turn-out pocket, they would wet it before they went in, and that's what they would breathe off of. Now whether it worked or not, I don't know, and I'm not trying it. But yeah, that's part of the folklore of firefighting before the SCBAs. Funny story with my father. He came on in '57, so let's say in 1960. And they only had one airpack and it was on the ladder. This guy, Ralph Lundgren, who retired as the Assistant Chief, was going into the building. He says to my father, "you crank the air for me." It was a crank. you had to crank it. So every time you cranked it, it pushed the air through a hose (to the mask). So my father's cranking it and his arm gets tired and just stops. (laughs). Well, the mask sucked to Ralph's face and Ralph came out, "You fucking cocksucker!" Here's another good story. They're both on Rescue 1 and Ralph's in charge. They go to call over here on Armistice Blvd. It's a DOA. So they take whatever information they get, and a little while later the police call over to Rescue 1 quarter’s on Main Street and Ralph answers the phone. He says to my father, "Hey Bobby, the police are on the phone and they want to know where the cadaver is." My father looks at him and says, "What the fuck's a cadaver?" So Ralph goes, "It's a like a thing-a-ma-jig. It's a thing-a-ma-jig. So my father goes out to the rescue and looks around. "Yeah, we got our thing-a-ma-jig, it's right here." So Ralph tells the cop, "Yeah, we got the thing-a-ma-jig, the cadaver, right here." The cop goes, "You got the fucking body there?" "Oh, that's what it is? Naw, we left it in the bedroom." TT: Let's talk about awful stuff. you already talked about the kids. The suicides-the hangings, the shootings. RT: I had a shooting at the corner of Weeden and Smithfield Ave. Kelly's Tap? It was a double shooting. The photographers beat us there—I don't know how the fuck that happened--I'm getting out of the rescue and there's a picture in the Times of me getting out and zipping up my pants. (laughs) Back then we wore khakis. So I had two people, shot, maybe 500 feet away from me. This kid looked like he was shot in the head. So Rescue 2 comes, Lt. Steve Parent's on Rescue 2 with Joe Pike. So we start doing CPR, go to intubate and there's nothing but brain matter. Obviously he didn't make it. Then I had this kid, coming down East Avenue and they hit the telephone pole and he lost his leg. Me and Parent, put a real bulky sterile dressing on it. Back then we weren't supposed to use tourniquets but we did. you had to loosen it like every 15 minutes. But we saved this kid's life. The arteries were cut he was bleeding heavily. We took the leg and packed in ice packs from the two rescues. Had another girl, she was riding with her feet up on the dashboard. She went through the window and it split her up pretty good. The most ugliest fucking thing you're ever gonna see. She had a nasty laceration from the A-post. Broke her femur. TT: How about-- RT: Suicides, I always hated hangings. It seems like a preferred way to go because I had a lot of hangings. TT: It's just creepy. RT: Yeah it is. TT: With the body just hanging RT: One of them, I was on Engine 2. Inside of a garage. It's just eerie TT: Just swaying in the breeze. RT: Had a couple of train accidents. People committing suicide by train... TT: Lemay was talking about those as far as vaporization. RT: Yeah. It's gross. Burn injuries are always tough. TT: Talk about some of the grabs you had. RT: I actually didn't have that many. But the few that I did, most of them were intact, so we were able to get them out. This one here, you might've been on the job, Meadow Street. TT: I was there. RT: The firebombing? TT: Oh no. The other fatal. Where Chief Jay was pulling people off the porch roof. RT: I'm sure you were on the job. This drug dealer firebombed this old man's house--except he firebombed the wrong house. The victim got burnt up pretty bad, the fire was nothing spectacular. We had trouble getting in there, the place was locked up tighter then a drum. Ray Masse and a couple of others did the search and found him, they pulled him out. Of course he was not breathing, without a pulse. We did CPR but couldn't get him back. Again on Meadow Street. I was the Captain of Engine 1 back then. We get called to the fire. There was report of people trapped. So we go up the stairway, and there's this big, huge, bull-mastiff dog. We didn't know what it was at first. I forget who I was with. We were coming down the stairs and it was just too heavy. I was on the bottom and it just took me over. We came crashing down those stairs with this large beautiful dog landing on top of me. TT: Was this the Meadow street one where McLaughlin was pulling people off the roof? I was with Cleary on Ladder 2. I was so new he didn’t even know my name. We scaled a fire escape because Keano was trying to hit the roof but it was a tough stick because of the power lines. We did search and rescue on the third-floor for that guy. It was literally like a 1000 degrees up there in blackout conditions. Couldn't see an inch in front of your face. I remember thinking if I lost contact with Cleary neither one of us was gonna have a good night. Then we went to the roof and cut two holes. We did everything you had trained us for in the academy and I used it all in one fire. I think I had like two months on the job. 2009 RT: No. I remember that fire but was not there. Meerbott was the Battalion Chief on this one. The one across the street-- TT: Lot of bad shit happens on Meadow Street, right? RT: Yeah. And for a lot of years, too. TT: Bring up Meadow street and everyone's got a story. Why do you think the 1s has so many goddamn fires. Every district has triple-deckers... RT :Meadow Street has had several incidents over the years. Station 1 is located on the west side of the city. It’s not the best area, I guess a lot of the area is considered ghetto. You know, the houses are balloon framed, they're old. It used to be a beautiful neighborhood and now it's a ghetto. The hard working people of that community live there without choice, absent landlords, indigent people all which make up these neighborhoods. For all these reasons is why Station 1 has a lot of 1st due jobs. TT: It's crazy. First due fires. District 4 is loaded with triple-deckers and huge but it's nothing like the 1s. RT: Station 4 is also the biggest district. The 1s you catch a lot of first due fires. TT: Okay, so then you went back to Training. you were my Training Officer. RT: You were in Rob's school, right? TT: Yes. It was you and Arrighie. RT: Was Bruce Burns there? Did we burn a bus? TT: No. RT: Well anyway, I was sick of shagging rescue runs with Engine 2 and I was getting into training, so I Bid back there. Then I made Captain and had to go right back out. While I was there we were able to do--I'm proud of this--we developed the Mayday program for Pawtucket and rescuing a downed firefighter--we were able to get a vacant house to do drills on how to rescue the down firefighter, proper technique for calling a MAYDAY, Roof operations, and the advantage of advancing the initial attack line for proper placement. We also acquired space in Union Wadding, built the props to simulate trapped firefighters. It was 5 different stations. including crawling up stairs and the floor gives way. Each station was set up to call a MAYDAY, and it turns out Central Falls got wind of the maze and came over to check it out and then put all their guys through it. A lot to be proud of with a lot of help from our most talented firefighters. 9/11 came, I was in Training with Lt. Smith Steve. He was still on IOD status. I was preparing the morning class of recertification for EMT’s. The TV was on the TODAY Show when the first airplane hit. It's something nobody will ever forget, the question quite often asked is where were you on 9-11-01? I’ll tell you I was riding a high because the night before we held the first organizational meeting of the RI Firefighters Pipes & Drums. That was very successful. Of course, I was glued to the TV and the guys were starting to filter in, so when the second plane hit we decided not to hold EMT training. I was back at my desk and got a call from Smithfield Fire. A guy I knew says, "Hey, did you hear they're requesting firefighters?" "No, didn't know that." "It's all over the teletype." "We don't get teletype, I'll have to go next door to the cops." So I did. Went over to the police station, got the teletype requesting firefighters. It came in from New York City Port Authority. I went and talked to Chief Condon and asked if I could bring some guys down there to help out he goes, "Ahhh, no." President of the union Tim McLaughlin talked to him and convinced him to let us do it. Finally, he says I can take ten guys. So I went back to Training and put a call out, and within--after the first couple of guys I called, people just started volunteering, I want to go, I want to go. Ton of guys. So it ended up being 17 guys. We couldn't take anymore. I made sure that we had a Battalion Chief, a Captain, three Lieutenants, and the rest was firefighters. That way we had a chain of command. TT: You guys take a bus? RT: No, they let us take fire cars and Steve Parent had a connection with Cerrone auto. Believe it or not they gave us two vans, two brand new vans, and we loaded up all our shit, SCBAs, all kinds of hand tools, ropes, we didn't know what we were getting into. Took a couple of fire cars and off we went. Left here 6 pm on September 11th, and we arrived there ten o'clock. It was very eerie once you got to the Connecticut/New York line. There was nobody on the streets. Nobody. The highway was open. No cars. You know New York City. TT: I do. Lived in the West Village. Where'd you go first? RT: Well the teletype stated report to the Meadowlands for a staging area. As we got closer we were directed to Fort Lee New Jersey, and it turned out to be a high school. There was all kinds of food there, bunks set up, so we smoked and joked for a little while and then turned in, waiting for the call. Buffalo, New York, was there, a couple of big cities, and then a lot of volunteer guys. So we woke up like 3 or 4 in the morning and said "Fuck this." We piled into the cars and drove to New York City. We stopped along where the Intrepid is, the West Side Highway, and we went into the Command Center and asked what we could do. They sent us to a fire station, took down our names--what we're certified in, rope rescue and collapsed buildings--and we ended up with this ladder company. So I went to the Captain and said we were from Pawtucket, we got 17 guys, you want us to do anything? He says, "A city bus is coming to get us, come on the bus with us, but once we get to Ground Zero you're on your own, I'm not babysitting you." So we went to Ground Zero, Vesey street, and this Battalion Chief was setting up a Command Post, and after he was done making fun of our yellow turnout gear, he asked us to set him up a base camp for his Command Post. So we broke into an office building and took out desks and chairs and set them all up, and our next task, he wanted us to gather up some hose, hook up to a hydrant, and start wetting down that dust. It was just terrible terrible dust. It's killing everybody now. So we did that. We ended up right at the collapsed towers. There was a ton of fire in the buildings--it was unbelievable. Never seen anything like it. All the buildings that were damaged...So we grabbed some hose and started putting out the fires in one of those buildings. Some of the guys were on a dig out line or bucket brigade, and then they started blowing airhorns to evacuate the area, and we actually got yelled at because we weren't running fast enough. He came up to his after, "We blow that fucking airhorn you run!" "Well, what does it mean?" "It means another building's gonna collapse!" (laughs). We stayed, we worked until like 6 that night. We came out, took a break, and a lady who lived in the area, we went up to her apartment and she made us sandwiches and gave us drinks, anything you wanted. We ate, started going back to work, and Chief Meerbott says, "I don't think we should be here." So the group of us, the officers, got together and decided it was unsafe. New York was still unorganized at that time. Of course they had just lost 343 firefighters, and they weren't really accepting us being there. They wanted to rescue--it was still a rescue mission at this time, not recovery. They wanted to rescue their own people. But what was happening, we found out later, they were sending New York companies back to their firehouses to rest and cleanup, and then come back. So they didn't like having these out of town guys working on their mission. Then the funerals that followed afterwards, I personally went to quite a few funerals, traveling back and forth to New York. I had just started the Bagpipe band here, the day before. The first anniversary of 9/11, 2002, they had a big memorial in New York City, and we were able to take the band there and it was like our first performance. It was pouring rain, but we were able to have closure to this horrific incident. Some of us knew guys that had perished. TT: So on 9/11, you worked that full day and after that Meerbottt said we shouldn't be here. RT: Yes. There was too much danger for our guys. I agreed with him. The other guys were pissed. I know Joe Cordiero was pissed off. And again, everything was unstable at that time. They thought buildings were swaying, gonna collapse, and they had their reasons. And plus, they had just lost all of their command staff. They had people in acting positions, and was still setting up or reconstructing their entire command staff. TT: The whole top of the department got decapitated. So alright, after all this, you go back to Engine 2 as a captain? RT: Engine 1. There for four or five months and I got hurt. I was on Ladder 2 overtime and went to CF for a fire and hurt my foot. I was with Bobby Burns on B-group. We were picking up and something snapped in the bottom of my foot, so I was out IOD for a few weeks. Then I bid downtown soon after. Ahh yes, I was the Captain of Engine 2 all set for the rest of my career. I will stay here until I retire. But old age came upon me. I saw the hand writing on the wall. Went to fires and they were kicking the shit out of me. We got a job on Green Street, 3rd. floor first due, so Boisclair and I hump the hose up, get to the landing, smoke is banked down. We kick 3 doors, first two were wrong. My brother Mike and his crew from Engine 4 meet us on the landing, finally we make entry, and I was just spent. I knew my days were numbered on being a fire ground officer. Fire Marshal position came open and I gave a long hard look at it. I knew I wasn’t really the guy for the job (not much for office work). Chief William Sisson asked if I'd take the job and I was like, "Naw, I'm not interested." Then I had a couple more bad nights on Engine 2 and I was like "You know what? Maybe that sounds pretty good." (laughs) I only had another year left anyway. When I got up there I liked it. It was a pretty good job. I was learning things because I'd never had any interest in inspections or investigations. I would get a pay bump to Battalion Chief, so I took it. TT: The arson training must've been killer ... RT: Right, the arson training, learning how to do inspections. Even the (building) code stuff wasn't as bad as I thought. I'm glad I did it now, because now in the chief's position on Prudence, I am responsible for Fire Marshal agenda on the Island. TT: Do you have to do continuing ED for the certificates? RT: Yeah, they do, The State of RI Fire Marshal office trains all of its Deputies. They send us to the required lectures and training. The biggest fire I ever went to was across the street from here. TT: Is this Greenhalgh Mill? RT: Yup. I was on Engine 2. I was working that day, C-group. I was the first due Engine on the second alarm. They told us to go down Kenyon Avenue and protect the exposures. So we get here and I see Engine 4, Ladder 2, Engine 3, over here fighting the main body of fire, and we're on the back side, and it don't look bad, it don't look too fucking bad at all. So I go, "Keep going." So we get down just past Baxter Street. We stopped because that's where the mill ends. Dave Reed laid his own feeder line (from the hydrant to our truck). Me and Al McVay were on the truck. I said, "Al, grab the deuce-and-a-half, and we'll take an inch-and-three-quarter line." And by the time we reached up to grab the nozzles on the truck, the fire was blowing--and they were all cinder block windows? Now it's just blowing these block windows out, from where we were, all the way down to Cottage Street. It was un-fucking-believable TT: Holy shit. It sounds just like a movie. Boom boom boom--Windows just exploding in sequence down the line. RT: It was. And we had this three-decker that we're gonna protect, and this garage. The garage was huge. I tell Al to put the deuce-and-a-half on the mill, I'll take the garage. And that's what we did. Then the waves--that's the only way I can describe it--waves of flames start coming over our head. By this time, Timmy McLaughlin, he was the Fire Marshal, Billy Cullinan, they met us in the back yard. The waves of flame were coming right over us. We had to hit the ground and crawled to side 4 and hid behind the three-decker and took the deuce-and-a-half and pointed it up into the sky to rain on us so we wouldn't melt. TT: Holy shit. RT: And I'm talking just waves and waves of fire rolling over us and we are outside. TT: This was in the afternoon, right? RT: Yeah, three o'clock. So now the mill collapses. So I go, "Okay, time for a breather." I light up a cigarette and then look around the neighborhood and every house from where we are towards Cottage Street is on fire. (Laughs) I go, "What the fuck happened! I thought we were doing a good job!" (Incredulous. laughs and laughs). Then Dave Reed's calling me, "Hey the house across the street, there's fire in the basement." So I'm like, okay, I still got my Scott on. The only one I can see is Tommy Andrew from the 5s but he doesn’t have a Scott on. I go, "Tommy, we got to get in there. If we lose this house, we're losing all of Baxter street." So he goes to get an airpack. So I put my mask on, I start to go down, I fall down the fucking stairs and the fucking cellar's in flames. So I got an inch-and-three-quarter line and I'm spraying it everywhere, make my way into this room and that joint's fully involved, and I just started knocking down fire. Everyone came down, started helping after that. That was fucking scary. You can hear me on the radio telling Chief Meerbott, "I got a helluva basement fire here, I need help!" TT: Jesus. There wasn't even enough people. RT: 31 of us fighting 17 houses and a mill. But then the Calvary came. TT: So talk about that day, because as the day went on, we're talking like 100 engine and ladder companies came from surrounding states, right? RT: Yeah, I forget the exact numbers but something like 26 ladders, 60 engines, 20 rescues... TT: From everywhere. Connecticut, Massachusetts, every town in Rhode Island. RT: Massachusetts sent their big, communications command truck, and that's where Ronnie Doire ran the fire from. That was a scary day. We got there at 3, our first break was like 9 at night, so we were exhausted. Being across from station 4 we had our rehab set up there. Stop and Shop, they started up like a food buffet for us. Huge spread of food. We were able to eat, drink fluids, and rest for a bit. As we come into (station 4) and there's a ton of people here. My mother, father, Dave Boisclair's mother father, everybody who was anybody was here.They were serving us. It was a pretty neat site. So there was no place for us to sit, some of the guys just needed to relax. So they came in here (The TV room) and we just ruined the furniture. Sweat and soot and stink. TT: This shut down the electrical and gas to this entire side of the city. I remember hearing they were afraid this thing might take out the whole east side RT: Well, there was 17 houses well-involved, houses on Darlingdale, Cottage, Kenyon...Kenyon Avenue was like a sea of flames. I told you. At one point that's what they were telling the incoming companies. "Just find a house and put the fire out." (laugh) That was Doire's orders. "Find a fucking house, set up, and put it out." TT: How long did this go for? RT: Two days. The next day, we got relieved at like 3 or 4 in the morning, and I had to be back at 7. So I went home, showered, took a cat nap, and came back. I was downtown, so they sent us back to the scene picking up miles of hose. TT: What other giant fires were you part of. Schoolhouse Candy? RT: Oh yeah, that was a good one. Building behind School House Candy, that was a good fire, Capt. Al Krawic first due gives a code red, calls for a 2nd. Right away. TT: Any CF (Central Falls) stories? RT: Ton of fire in CF. They show up with their seven guys, man... TT: Crazy. What's the closest to death you ever got? RT: Oh, man. There was a union meeting one night and they (guys on his truck) didn't want to go. So I brought my gear. Mike Levesque was a lieutenant on Engine 3. So I throw on with them. The meeting barely starts and bam, still-box comes in. Off Columbus. We're first due. It's a cellar fire in a single-story wood frame. So me and Mike go into the basement. We had an inch and three-quarter line. We're having trouble finding the fire. It was hot, smoky, and it's a divided cellar, lot of partitions. So we're in and out of rooms and the hoseline is all over. Mike runs out of air--back then we didn't leave as a team--he went and changed his airpack. While he's gone, I run out of air. So I go, "Okay, I got to get the fuck out of here." My bell's actually ticking. I knew I waited too long. So I follow the hoseline and I'm in this room, and now I'm sucking face, I can't get no air at all. I start to panic. I can't find my way out, I can't find the stairs. I can't find the fucking stairs and I end up in this other room. I'm in panic mode. I rip my fucking mask off and I knew this was it. I ain't coming out of this basement. I bump into somebody--Thank GOD--it's Dave Farris, and I tell him I'm fucking lost. So he grabs me by my coat and gets me out of the basement, guiding me out of the basement. TT: Sheesh. Good thing you ran into him RT: Yeah. Since then I hate basement fires. TT: You said there was another story about the radio, only the officers had radios... RT: Oh yeah. All you guys now carry radios. Because of the Hargreaves incident. 1993. it was August 22, 1993. The lawyers' building over there on 100 Cottage Street. McBierny Law office. Typical fire, but it was a tough building. Bullet proof glass. No smoke showing except for whatever was coming out of the chimney. John Buchanon was in charge of Engine 2. He's with Bobby Howe and Steve Parent. He goes, "On the scene. Just smoke coming from the chimney. We're gonna investigate." They get down into the basement and obviously have a working fire. He calls the code red, second alarm, third alarm, and Engine 6 comes in on that third alarm. The lieutenant, Kurt Richards, and Mike Fox report to command for assignment. Hargreaves was driving, he stays with the truck. So they cross the street and head in and again, it was just smoke from the chimney, It looked like nothing was going on. I guess at some point he (Hargreaves) decides to meet up with his crew. He makes entry, makes his way into the basement, and at some point gets loss. Acting BC Al Jack called for a roll call, dumps the whole building. They do a roll call and think it's Greg Brule who's missing but he was at his truck switching bottles. TT: Backup. Why did they pull people out? RT: Well back then no real SOP’s were established, not everyone had radios, crews would have a tendency to wander off and work independently. Get everybody out, regroup and do a roll call. Hargreaves ain't there. So now they're going on a mission, we got a team together. At that time we didn't have RIT teams. Only the officers had radios so they couldn't even call John on the radio. So they're getting ready to enter and search, and Hargreaves finds a door on the opposite side of where he went in. Today we would call it side 4. He came out the full staircase and walks out on his own power. You can see, there's pictures from the Times, him coming out, burnt, and they're undressing him. It's mostly inhalation burns, he ran out of air-- TT: Ripped off his mask... RT: Yeah I guess, he gets inhalation burns and that's what ends up killing him thirty days later. Up in Boston. Al Jack and I were the Protocol Officers for the department. We planned and executed the funeral for John. We had a lot of tremendous help during this period, guys really stepped up to the plate. I can name everyone that helped out, but I’ll spare you that. 147 members of the Pawtucket Fire Department made it happen. So anyways, we had a Safety Committee at that time, so we pushed for the radios so everybody'd have a radio. We knew it was gonna cost a lot of money, ($2,000 per radio) so we compromised with the city. Made them buy us all cell phones. So we had cell phones on the truck, so at least the back-step guy would have a cell phone. The officer would have a radio. And that's how we did it until the city was able to muster up the funds. That was a helluva fire. I went there at night, I was on nights Engine 1 , and the fire was still fucking roaring. The fire came in at two in the afternoon. It was roaring. It was because of the construction. We spent hours trying to take out those windows. We ended up taking out the brick underneath it because it was easier to pull the brick than take out the window. The Ladder crews had a rough time trying to open the roof. TT: Holy shit. RT: So that place was basically a kiln. A heated box, just roaring inside and there was no way for anything to get out of it. TT: Was there another near miss story? Where you almost got whacked? RT: Yeah. Another cellar fire. It was the day after the Fireman's Ball. I was hungover, laying on the couch. The bell hits for Patt Street. I was with Bobby Ogle, one of the best firefighters I could have learned from, on the 1s, and we get there, again, the place was fucking roaring, the cellar was packed with shit. And I got lost in there again, I knew I had to get out. I kept an eye--I learnt--I kept an eye on my tank, not waiting for the bell to vibrate, and so I go to Bobby, "I got to get the fuck out of here." So I'm trying to find my way out again, I get lost, start sucking face and I pull my mask off. Finally found the stairs and got out. Both cellar fires, and then that Greenhalgh Mill fire where I fell down the stairs--cellars blow. TT: There's only one way out RT: Usually there is only one way out, but sometimes there are bulkheads This is why these young guys have to go out into the districts and learn what’s there. I can’t stress training enough. It must be constant and structured. Last funny story. We had a funeral home fire, I was on the 6s, so we went on like the twentieth alarm (joking because the 6s are the slowest truck in the city)--the Girl Scouts got there before us--So I'm on the 6s, Jay McLaughlin was the acting lieutenant, Gordon Duquenoy on the backstep. We get there--it's Bellows Funeral Home going good--I'm driving. Now Duquenoy's on the back step and I’m begging him to pump so that I can go in with Jay. Of course, I end up pumping--our instructions are to pick up a hydrant and lay into ladder 2. My Father was the BC that night. So I naturally set the truck up and pump to ladder 2, but I keep sneaking in the building to see what I can do. Rick Slater's pulling out a cadaver, and by this time dad knew what a cadaver was. Engine 6 crew was stretching a line into the building, and I here this loud scream THURBER GET BACK AND PUMP THAT TRUCK…FEW OTHER CHOOSEN WORDS. It’s old man Parent, he grabs me and starts yelling at me for leaving the pump. I know he is right. (laughs) Fuck you, Dick. TT: Right? The only thing worse than pumping is not being there at all.
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AuthorTom Trabulsi was born in the Midwest, attended high school in Rhode Island, and graduated from Boston University with a degree in American History. He was a bike courier in Boston and New York City, worked construction in the mountain west and east coast, and is currently a firefighter in a northeast city. Archives
August 2022
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