myBurbank Talks
SPECIAL: Burbank Fire and Police Service Day 2024
Discover the heartbeat of Burbank's bravest as we salute the tireless efforts of our first responders on Police and Fire Service Day 2024. Join Ross Benson, Ashley Erickson, and me, Craig Sherwood, on a journey deep into the world of emergency services, led by the compelling stories of Fire Chief Danny Alvarez. Witness Chief Alvarez's inspiring rise and the behind-the-scenes action at the Burbank Fire Department, emphasizing the critical nature of training and collaboration for citywide safety. Peek into the new recruit academy revealing our commitment to top-notch readiness, and take a moment to honor the nearing retirement of Deputy Chief Mark Hatch, whose remarkable career has left an indelible mark on our community.
Breaking barriers and sparking change, we turn the spotlight on the vital inclusion of women in firefighting, showcasing how mentorship and early engagement can ignite the aspirations of young girls. The episode sheds light on the diverse career opportunities within the fire service, celebrating the achievements of our female firefighters and examining how the needs of our evolving city are being met head-on, from EMS enhancements to studio and airport emergency protocols. Feel the pulse of Burbank's growth as we address the scaling up of services to ensure the safety and well-being of every resident.
Wrapping things up, our conversation pivots to the dreams of tomorrow's heroes as we chat with young aspiring firefighters. Their stories of hope and ambition, set against the backdrop of our vibrant community, are a testament to the power of local events in shaping our collective future. As a seasoned council member, Vice Mayor Nikki Perez shares insights into the delicate art of balancing city needs, reflecting on the impact of fostering inclusivity and addressing the diverse voices of Burbank. Tune in and experience the unity, challenges, and triumphs that define our city's spirit.
Discover the heartbeat of Burbank's bravest as we salute the tireless efforts of our first responders on Police and Fire Service Day 2024. Join Ross Benson, Ashley Erickson, and me, Craig Sherwood, on a journey deep into the world of emergency services, led by the compelling stories of Fire Chief Danny Alvarez. Witness Chief Alvarez's inspiring rise and the behind-the-scenes action at the Burbank Fire Department, emphasizing the critical nature of training and collaboration for citywide safety. Peek into the new recruit academy revealing our commitment to top-notch readiness, and take a moment to honor the nearing retirement of Deputy Chief Mark Hatch, whose remarkable career has left an indelible mark on our community.
Breaking barriers and sparking change, we turn the spotlight on the vital inclusion of women in firefighting, showcasing how mentorship and early engagement can ignite the aspirations of young girls. The episode sheds light on the diverse career opportunities within the fire service, celebrating the achievements of our female firefighters and examining how the needs of our evolving city are being met head-on, from EMS enhancements to studio and airport emergency protocols. Feel the pulse of Burbank's growth as we address the scaling up of services to ensure the safety and well-being of every resident.
Wrapping things up, our conversation pivots to the dreams of tomorrow's heroes as we chat with young aspiring firefighters. Their stories of hope and ambition, set against the backdrop of our vibrant community, are a testament to the power of local events in shaping our collective future. As a seasoned council member, Vice Mayor Nikki Perez shares insights into the delicate art of balancing city needs, reflecting on the impact of fostering inclusivity and addressing the diverse voices of Burbank. Tune in and experience the unity, challenges, and triumphs that define our city's spirit.
This special edition of my Burbank News was recorded live at Burbank Police and Fire Service Day 2024.
Speaker 2:Please enjoy some of the highlights and interviews from this year's event.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody, craig Sherwood here with you, along with Ross Benson. Hello everybody, craig Sherwood here with you, along with Ross Benson and Ashley Erickson. Ross isn't talking to you, I guess.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting. You know I'm so used to being in the studio. Yeah, when we go out and do we haven't done an outside field podcast in.
Speaker 1:Feels like a year.
Speaker 3:Ashley Erickson say hello, hello, there you are well, we have ashley, we got our podcast crew.
Speaker 1:We're gonna have uh chief danny alvarez join us momentarily it's police and fire service, day 2024 and we are here amongst how many kids? Oh man, how many people there's a lot of people here today and once again the fire department was nice enough to give us an area here on their floor of their A apparatus. Apparatus floor. So we're going to have some great guests for you. Hey Ross, we have a special guest with us. Why don't you introduce them and take it away Well?
Speaker 3:I will. Chief Alvarez, Hi, how are you? I'm outstanding. How are you? Welcome to Fire Service Day 2024. This isn't your first rodeo, but you know you were here as you went through our hole from a rookie fireman and you were every position, I think, from a fireman, from a recruit to a fireman, EMS to, and then you departed and went to that beach community Santa Monica, Long Beach. One of those that have fishes in the sea, but you came back because you love Burbank.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, I was really fortunate, started my fire service career here in the city of Burbank, spent my first 25 years here, like you mentioned, had an opportunity to work a variety of different assignments, and left for a little while to go be the fire chief in the city of Santa Monica and the opportunity came about to come back to Burbank and be the fire chief here, and so it feels kind of a little bit like a homecoming.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say how does that feel to you coming home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's exactly how it feels, really you know the station rather well, yeah, and I know the department, but I know the community too. Right, this is a special community. I feel really fortunate to have spent so much time here and to be able to come back and serve in this capacity for the community. That really introduced me and raised me, so to speak, and the fire service is something that's been pretty special for me and a great opportunity. And, of course, getting to serve with the men and women of the Burbank Fire Department, who I think are the best in the business and just phenomenal people and phenomenal firefighters, is really really something special for me.
Speaker 3:Well, I've used their services a couple of times and you know my mother that passed away, you know, a couple years ago, and you know my mother that passed away a couple years ago called quite a bit and the guys were just. You know, I happen to know all the firemen because I shoot them from becoming rookies, but they're different. Here I've been treated by LA City and it's just. You were right. This community is different and coming back here and we have how many firefighters do you currently have Right now?
Speaker 3:we have 120 sworn and yeah, you got a couple that are just laterals. We do?
Speaker 2:We just brought in a couple, two laterals and they're doing fantastic. We're getting ready to start another recruit academy in. September and so yeah. Can you do.
Speaker 3:Burbank, you do your own. Are you doing this one at Tri-City?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Yeah, in the past we've done some joint recruit academies with Glendale and Pasadena. We work really closely with them. This will be just Burbank. It will be a Burbank recruit academy. Here at our training center we are an accredited local academy, which means that we can do all of our training in-house and get state certifications as a certified firefighter one, and we can do all that internally, which is something that's pretty special.
Speaker 3:And Burbank. I think most Burbank residents know we have our own fire department but if Burbank's busy we get that backup, that mutual aid for Pasadena, glendale. Our Verdugo dispatch system is just magnificent of how we can get a plane crash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. We have really really great automatic aid agreements with our partnering and neighboring agencies. So whenever we do have an incident that may exceed the capacity of what we have on that initial response, we have those automatic aid agreements that are automatically dispatched to support each other.
Speaker 3:And if we go vice versa, it's a pretty phenomenal system and you know, having experience listening to you guys and seeing you out there, firemen know each other, the equipment, they know where it is if they have to get it off somebody else's rig, all those things just.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really pretty seamless you can't, at two in the morning, out of a sound sleep, try to figure out where something is. You got to be ready to go, and it blows me away how firemen out of total sleep two, three in the morning, or our paramedics who go back to back their calls they are on it. I mean, you can't guess at it. You got life's on the line. You got people you know you might have to rescue.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's a really it's a really great point, you know, because a lot of our skills are perishable skills and it takes a tremendous amount of commitment with our firefighters to to maintain that high level. Proficiency requires a lot of work, a lot of continuous training, continuous education, and it's not like you go to the fire academy and you learn a skill set and then you don't revisit it anymore and then expect to use it, you know, sometime later and be proficient. So it really requires a concerted effort to maintaining that level of proficiency.
Speaker 3:And a lot of people think you know that picture they see on TV. That is totally false. That you come back, you know from a fireman. You lay in your recliner. They train. I know fireman recruits. I remember walking into Station 12 one day and there was a new recruit. After dinner he was out there with his 3x5 cards. What was in what bins? You know. You train all the time. People don't understand. You get to eat lunch and then you're out training. You're either doing something, either at tower or doing a target. What we call target is where you go into your district. So you know it. In the middle of the night, 4 in the morning, you don't have to guess where the hydrant is. You know exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, I know.
Speaker 3:Ashley wanted to ask you about female firefighters.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. I think in the city council meeting recently you guys talked about recruiting more females into the department. I just kind of want to know what that process is going to look like, what your plans are for getting more women in the department.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think what you're referencing is the empowerment camp that was discussed at council and so we're in the early stages. You talked about the partnership and working relationship we have with our neighboring agencies. So we're looking at a partnership with Glendale and Pasadena that we're going to be able to hopefully do an empowerment camp. We're in the early stages and determining kind of all the details, so we'll have a little bit more information on that over the next couple of weeks. But we looked at that partnership as an opportunity to to really have some good outreach uh throughout this region as well, and so, yeah, that's a key component to any kind of recruitment efforts is um sort of any kind of partnerships that that assist us uh in expanding that outreach yeah, and I feel like it starts with the young girls.
Speaker 4:Like I think you know, you see, this image of it's a fireman, right, there's not a lot of women in the department, and changing that perspective to the young girls in our community would be really important. I think you know reaching out to schools and bringing the fire you know the fire women that are in your department to the schools and things like that. Is that something you guys ever think about doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, you know we look at every opportunity through our recruitment and how we continue to grow and expand our outreach. As, just as someone who didn't have anyone in the fire service and didn't know anything about the fire department myself, I know and I realize the importance of informing folks on what this profession is really about. I had no idea, it wasn't even on my radar to be a firefighter until I actually had an opportunity to have a conversation with a firefighter about what they do, and so the more we can do that and the more outreach we can do, and for me that didn't happen until I was, I think, 19 years old. So you can start doing that, like you mentioned, in schools and as part of just an overall idea. That that people realize what this profession is about and and what it offers I think is a key component representation matters, like seeing themselves in like as a woman in the department, is so, I think, incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know we've had a couple of women. Kelly Norris, who has done it all, has met, she's learned it all. I think she's about to retire. She's been on a long time. I remember her rookie class. But we have Jen who a paramedic, and I hear she just passed. She'll be becoming an engineer pretty soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Kelly and I came on the job together. She was in my recruit class and she's getting ready to retire now. She's been a phenomenal, phenomenal firefighter. And yeah, jen, I actually had the opportunity to teach Jen's recruit academy as a recruit instructor, and so it's really neat to see her continue to grow in her career. And yeah, she just successfully took our most recent engineer's class. So, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 3:It's just kind of cool to see somebody go and, like you say, the fireman, you become a fireman and then you test for an engineer and then an engineer for a captain. And now I even saw in your budget that you were discussed last week at city council you're bringing in some new ems chief. Yeah, you know, it's expanding. We got hotels being built, we have, you know, all these other things going in this town, a lot more people in here and a lot more ems what you call ems runs, emergency medical runs, you know, and it requires a lot more. We now have a paramedic coordinator and also people don't understand that. You guys, those paramedics train every week, ems school every Wednesday, you know, usually it used to be.
Speaker 3:And we have our own nurse and doctor that trains.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a great point. You know you mentioned kind of the city and we serve a very dynamic and evolving community and it's really important for me and for our agency to continue to evaluate what we do and how we do it and to ensure that we're also evolving with the community to continue to meet the community needs and some of the things that you talked about right, the growth and the increased demand for service, ems-related and our ability to keep up with that demand is some of the things that we continue to look at and forecast out what the needs are going to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's pretty amazing and Burbank's growing, you know, and it just blows me away. You look at the new studios. Even in your own department, where you have inspectors. You've got to have more inspectors because now we're going to have 16 new stages, a lot more filming. Warner Brothers is going to be busy, but everywhere. We're going to have a new airport replacement terminal pretty soon. But people don't understand. You guys go from. You can go from the Warner Brothers or studio to the airport, to a train tracks, to the freeway All those in one day.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's funny because one of the things that I loved about being a firefighter in Burbank is, you know, even though it's about 17 and a half square miles, you really have a little bit of everything in this city.
Speaker 2:Right, we have the urban interface up on the hill area, you have an airport, you have a couple of major freeways. You know you really do have residential, commercial, a little bit of industrial, so you have all of those things, and so it does require, you know, a pretty robust response model to be able to support all those. And you mentioned sort of our Fire Prevention Bureau and the role that they play. And you know our mission as an organization is to provide for and look out for the health and well-being of our entire community, and that looks a lot of different ways. We tend to focus on the operations side right, the fire engines and fire trucks that are going out the door, but equally important is the prevention side right. Those folks are inspectors that are out not only doing inspections on new construction to make sure that they're meeting all the code requirements, but then ensuring that they're maintaining all the annual inspections for safety standards so that hopefully we can prevent the emergency from happening in the first place.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, that's a big thing prevention, as they say. You don't have fires. If you do prevention properly and you look at our surrounding cities and they're having fires every so often, you kind of wonder. The question comes up, comes up well, let's look at their inspections over. But burbank has a slew of inspectors you know and do plan, check.
Speaker 3:People don't understand all the things that our fire department does. It's not just that fire engine that goes down the street or the ra or paramedics, but back at the station there during monday through friday there were a ton of people doing a ton of things.
Speaker 6:Well.
Speaker 3:I want to thank you. I know you want to get out.
Speaker 2:There's a couple thousand people here today. Yeah, it's a fantastic turnout.
Speaker 4:I think it's the biggest one so far. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know we got, and how fortunate are we to be in a city where we can get a Disney character you know to post for pictures. We're real fortunate here and I want to thank you for stopping by and talking to us and you know, I know people can always talk to you, you know, call you our deputy chiefs and we have other chiefs, but thank you for coming on my my Burbank talks and talking about your favorite department Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, thanks for being here, really appreciate it.
Speaker 4:And welcome back.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:And we're back. Ross, we have another guest here. Please introduce him and let's get going.
Speaker 3:Well, we are fortunate to have Deputy Chief Mark Hatch.
Speaker 5:Hey, how are you?
Speaker 3:Deputy Chief Maybe explain, because Burbank hasn't always had a Deputy Chief and you've filled that position for a while you have. Maybe I should back up a little. When you became a firefighter, you were a fireman, a engineer, a captain, a battalion chief.
Speaker 5:You've done it all a little bit of time in the fire marshal's position yeah yeah, and a good career as a paramedic as well.
Speaker 3:Wait, wait, wait, somebody, is it true? I heard some rumor that how long have you been and you're deciding to go fishing more often.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we're coming up on our 30 years here in July from class of 94 and, yeah, I'm going to retire in about six weeks.
Speaker 3:You know they talk about this. You know firemen coming and going and you've got these new guys. We've got a rookie class starting and the chief told us we have a couple of laterals that are in training and so forth. Tell us about Deputy Fire Chief.
Speaker 5:Well, the Deputy Fire Chief is a position that was established about three years ago. It used to be called the Assistant Fire Chief and it was more of a rotated position. All the battalion chiefs rotated through there about every two years, but then they made it the deputy chief spot and made it more of a permanent position. So I'm in charge of supervising all operations. I supervise all the battalion chiefs, along with all the hiring and recruiting policy, development and enforcement things like that and kind of the fire chief's right-hand man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because and there's a lot you know people, you know the old days of just going and putting the wet stuff on the red stuff. It's changed a lot. You have gotten to experience. You've been in the field, I know you, I have pictures of you as a paramedic, you know, and that whole ems has changed. In fact, craig had a question he wanted to ask you about, because now everybody's talking about mental health and you, we, these tv shows don't make it real, but we know when your paramedics go back to back to call. We hear it every night. You can be on a run and then you come back, you go to bed and 10 minutes later you're up again. Yeah, craig, you had a.
Speaker 1:Well, first time I Boy six weeks away, huh.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The first time I think we actually dealt with each other was during the shakeout years ago. Right, I think you were an interim captain at the time.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 1:And took me on Engine 11 and treated me great. Oh, thank you. So remember that great In-N-Out lunch we had.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I also found it interesting because you had a probationary firefighter at the time and how you had him come out and do a presentation on some of the apparatus and stuff and that's just part of his training. And we also. I remember we stopped in front of a restaurant and you said right now, that restaurant is on fire. How do you put out the fire in the?
Speaker 2:grill.
Speaker 1:And he asked him to explain how to do it. So when these things do come up, then there's no surprise here. They're ready to go Anyhow. Just enough of that. And we train every day, but I want to thank you, number one, for all you've always done for us and what you've done for the department.
Speaker 1:So my question is kind of this Lately, you know we just had a terrible tragedy in our city with a teacher, and firefighters and paramedics have to go in right away and deal with sometimes with children, sometimes with really bad accidents and just terrible situations. Mental health is so important. Back in the old days it was just like you're a man, don't worry about it. What has the department now done and evolved in to help firefighters and paramedics and all personnel dealing after tragic situations? What's the department have set up for them to help them out?
Speaker 5:Well, we put several pieces in place and you're right, it used to be just, hey, suck it up and move on to the next one. Well, slowly that was recognized that that wasn't the way to go, and it took a few years for the stigma to be overcome to say, hey, you know what? I do need some help, I do need to talk to somebody. It affects your home life, potentially your marriage, the way you treat your children, all those things. So, to keep it fairly simple, the biggest piece we put in play is a peer support team where we have about 15 firefighters that have gone to some training and their role is to keep an eye on each other and, uh, recognize when someone may be having some issues and recognize that, hey, that was a really bad call, maybe we should sit down and talk. Um, and we've also put a program in place that we call them potentially traumatic events ptes and so we recognize a call that rises to that level. We'll check in with our folks right away, we'll check in before they go home in the morning, we'll check in again at 7 days and again at 14 days and we'll have their captain calling them off duty just to make sure. And usually everybody's pretty good.
Speaker 5:We also have a piece in place. We've taken advantage of our EAP program within the city and so we've set up some time just for fire, where we send some of our folks over just to have a checkup just to see how we're doing where we're at. We also have a contract with another outfit that if we have an active shooter or something like that where we have to have a critical incident, stress debriefing, we have a contract with somebody that we can perform that as well. And so it's an evolution and a growth mentally just to recognize those things. And our department has grabbed it wholeheartedly and it's not a stigma anymore and we quickly overcame that. And so I think we've done some good work and it's going to continue to evolve.
Speaker 3:Well, it's funny you say that because the other day, after our situation with the teacher, yeah, and I often, you know, I've been around for many years things have changed and I've often wondered how prepared are we for something like that either a police officer getting injured or killed, a fireman and it's thank God, we have been safe and we haven't lost anybody.
Speaker 4:Matt.
Speaker 3:Pavelka 20 years ago. But nowadays, with what happened, how prepared are we? And it's nice to hear that our firefighters that are out there, that you always see they drive down the street. There's always a smile on their face and they wave, but you don't know that they just came from a gunshot call. You're right and it's good to see that. Burbank.
Speaker 1:And thank God we don't have a lot of those either. We don't have a lot.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know we have a pretty safe community and also.
Speaker 3:I think the other Burbank. We're very fortunate you don't have. You work on the ra with rescue ambulance, but you could also if you're you have to be a fireman to work here. You can say I need to get off for a shift or two yeah, yeah, you know, and that's what's really. Some departments don't have that and we're very fortunate that you guys can tell when it's time to yeah we have.
Speaker 5:We have our goal of staffing uh, a certain number of paramedics. That allows for paramedics to rotate on an engine or a truck and not ride the ambulance every day. It's just not healthy. It's not a good work-life balance. It's tiring and you don't get a rest when you're on the other rigs, but it's not the same, as you know, transporting EMS patients to the hospital over and over. So we do have a goal to create that balance and we're pretty successful at it.
Speaker 3:Okay, now it's in the back of my mind. You said July is coming around real quick. Yeah, you've been on some good fires here in Burbank. You've been 30 years.
Speaker 6:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:You know, I know you're going to say you're going to miss the guys. Yeah, wow, you know, I know you're going to say you're going to miss the guys, but I guarantee now I know, being the deputy chief, you're not on the line as much, but when you were getting woken up at 3 in the morning, when you've been around for 25, 27,.
Speaker 3:it starts to get to you, but I bet you'd be real nice to be able to sleep in past 730 in the morning. Yeah, you know, because I know you had to work. You live out of town yeah and you leave home real early to get in here. Most people don't understand. The bell goes off for waking up at seven and it's the day starts, yeah so you're looking forward to that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for sure. I'm gonna kick my feet up for a little bit and decide what my next step is, and uh yeah it's exciting but, as you said, I'm absolutely going to miss it. It's in my blood, it always has been, and hard to walk away, there's no doubt about it for Craig and I.
Speaker 3:We talk about you quite a bit because you have been exceptional to us. You have helped us. I go down California Street, I take my daughter to swimming at Verdugo and there was a house fire right off the alley. You might remember it was a pack rat condition and I was shooting pictures. Some lady said you can't be there. You came up and said he's shooting with us.
Speaker 5:It's okay.
Speaker 3:You saved my bacon, then You've saved my bacon many times, mark, I'm going to miss you.
Speaker 5:Same here, my friend, you've been a great partner.
Speaker 3:It has. We've had a great relationship. And the guys coming behind you, you know they look around the walls and they see my pictures. We have them here. I've done this fire service day for ages. You know I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 5:You're part of the fabric of our family. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 3:Well, I appreciate that you guys have taken me on.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you once again, and you know what You've left it better than you found it.
Speaker 5:Oh, I hope so A little bit.
Speaker 1:And that's something that you know. That's a credit to you, thank you.
Speaker 5:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:And Ross, we always enjoyed listening to you as the IC. You know when you were on the scene always calm, always. You know descriptive so you can sit back in our radios and, okay, we know what's going on here. But thank you for all you've done for our city, my pleasure. We hope you have a great retirement. Thank you, I'm sure we'll see you around here and there. You'll just walk away from it.
Speaker 3:Oh, you'll be back next fire service day in your civilian clothes. Oh yeah, looking wow.
Speaker 5:There's nothing better than seeing retirees come back. I tell you that it really is cool when you're sitting here at one of our functions and you look up and some of our tires are here.
Speaker 3:Doesn't it. It makes you feel good, it does you know you were just talking, Craig was talking about old firemen when he was talking, when you used to go on a bad call, I'm thinking Joe Tracini. Yeah, you know he'd be a good one to slap you on the back and say we're going on a call and when you say you're available you might go on another call. She says it's how you guys do your job. That one's done. You're ready for the next Yep. You know, and.
Speaker 5:Just have to compartmentalize it and move on.
Speaker 3:you know, yeah, again, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Deputy, departmentalize it and move on. You know? Yeah, Again, thank you. Thank you, Deputy Chief Mark Hatch. Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 5:We really appreciate it and have a great retirement. Thank you, gentlemen, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you. So we're here. We've got three potential firefighters all trying out their new hats. What's your name?
Speaker 6:My name is Mark Naeem. I am second captain in command.
Speaker 1:Second captain in command.
Speaker 6:Yep, and you are. My name is Gavin Azizian, and, and, and firefighter. All right, and who are you? My name is Christian Masudi and I'm really just a servant to all three of these people.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, you guys live in Burbank here.
Speaker 6:Yeah, we live in Burbank.
Speaker 1:Okay, and any potential firefighters out of you three I mean his stepdad's a firefighter, so you know might leave the past my mom's boyfriend, mom's boyfriend.
Speaker 6:Okay, here in Burbank. Yeah, fantastic Actually. No, he's in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, la, Los Angeles. Oh okay, lafd, okay, yep. So what do you think about this thing? Are you happy?
Speaker 6:It looks really cool. I mean, my dad told me about it and we just like showed up. Have you watched any of the events or anything no. So far we've looked at the trains. We like the trains. Yeah, it's sick.
Speaker 1:I kind of like the shirt too. Well, Cut open a car and the whole thing.
Speaker 6:How many cars do they have? How can they cut that?
Speaker 1:Well, I think they cut it up a couple different ways. You got four doors in the car. You got four different tries. You know that's nice.
Speaker 5:We really got to check that out. Are you a?
Speaker 1:firefighter? No, I'm not a firefighter. No, I'm not. So where do you guys go to school?
Speaker 6:John Muir Middle School. John John Muir Middle School, john Muir.
Speaker 1:Middle School. Yeah, so you know, coach Doug Nickel.
Speaker 6:Oh yes, oh yeah, he's my PE teacher. Is he really? Yeah, he loves me? Does he really? Yeah, he's my favorite.
Speaker 1:Him and I coached together for a long time, many, many years ago. Really, that's sick. I actually coached his son when he was at Burroughs.
Speaker 6:Seriously, oh, that's cool, you do PE or PE. No, I was a baseball coach. Oh, baseball coach, I broke you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this son played for me and we got him a scholarship to CSUN.
Speaker 6:Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty good. So what's up guys? What about Burbank? You like it here. You like the city?
Speaker 6:Are you happy here? Yeah, we play football, so we're already on the BHS football team. We're big football kids. We love the Syriots. I love the community. I live near the fire department up there 16.
Speaker 1:I love that place.
Speaker 6:I go walk by it every time I ride my bike on the dirt jumps next to the fire.
Speaker 1:What's that place called the dam up there? Lucky, something or other. Gavin has no clue, it used to have a name back in the day. Back above the oh, it has graffiti.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, it's called the. I forgot what it's called. It's called the.
Speaker 1:Wash, yeah, wash, it was actually called Lucky something at one time back in the day For us old people who lived in Burbank our whole lives.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's called the Wash now. Well, what do you know about that place?
Speaker 1:Oh, I just remember the kids used to go up there all the time and do BMX and the whole thing, and that's back when they used to do that kind of thing.
Speaker 6:Now kids are going up there with their Surons. Yeah yeah, electric dirt bikes and stuff. All that Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, not good to have dirt bikes up in the brush area though.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's yeah. We're doing a, we are doing a fire department podcast here. So, we want to make sure we're saying the right thing.
Speaker 6:Yeah Well, we, we like wear helmets and stuff, so we're safe.
Speaker 1:Okay, there you go. I mean we're firefighters ourselves. I can see it. Yeah, I can see.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's where it is. So what do you do for fun here in Burbank guys?
Speaker 6:I go to the mall. Yeah, really, I'm a gym rat, so he goes to the gym a lot.
Speaker 1:yeah, which gym do you go to?
Speaker 6:24-Hour Fitness in the Empire Center.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 6:I go in the morning. I don't like going in the afternoon.
Speaker 1:You're a morning person.
Speaker 6:I go in the evening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have an evening guy too, I could.
Speaker 6:Weeks about 4.30 just to go to the gym, then the school With Diego, with Diego, our quarterback.
Speaker 1:Okay, always be good to your quarterback.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the guy who decides who gets the ball.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly what position of football do you play?
Speaker 6:I play edge rusher.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, very good.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so and quick, yeah. What about you?
Speaker 6:I play receiver, linebacker and corner.
Speaker 1:Really yeah, Linebacker inside or middle Outside. Okay, then you have to have speed.
Speaker 6:Yeah, what about you? I'm a lineman, you can't tell.
Speaker 1:No, and I wouldn't tell either.
Speaker 6:Funny. Oh, where did Jeremy go? Jeremy's gone, our buddy's gone, the captain's gone.
Speaker 1:The captain's gone. The captain's gone, and he's also a lineman too. Is he yeah Okay.
Speaker 6:He's one of those sneakily ones.
Speaker 1:Well, guys, thanks for stopping by we appreciate it.
Speaker 6:Thank you, it was good talking to you guys. Thank you Thank you Peace out.
Speaker 1:Bubba Ross, we have a very special guest with us, our vice mayor. Please introduce her and start us off.
Speaker 3:Nikki Perez. Vice mayor. Nikki Perez, so glad that you stopped by. We haven't been out in the field too much. We do normally in the studio. Are you blown away by the people here today?
Speaker 7:Ross, I am blown away. I'm so happy to be here with y'all today and happy to be here at the Fire and Police Service Day.
Speaker 3:You see all these kids. How fortunate are we to have Mickey Mouse join us for pictures.
Speaker 7:You know we are so lucky to have Mickey Mouse and all his friends, the volunteers with Disney. They come by every year and the best part is a lot of them are community members and friends who live here in Burbank, work here in Burbank, so we love to see it. One of my neighbors is here actually volunteering.
Speaker 3:She comes every year. Well, you just said neighbor, you know. I always say you know, we're fortunate to have somebody sitting on the dais that grew up here went to good old John Burroughs. We were both alumni of John Burroughs.
Speaker 7:We love Burroughs.
Speaker 3:I saw that the other day. There was somebody, one of those scholars, kids getting a scholarship. A little smile on your face. She was wearing a red dress. You could tell where she was from.
Speaker 7:Oh yeah, we had two actually.
Speaker 3:We did Two Matt.
Speaker 7:Pavelka scholars, so we were really happy to see that.
Speaker 3:This is a little different than sitting up on the dais where you have to make decisions of budgets I mean how many millions and just. But you look at our fire service, our police service today, look at the people that have come out to see. We're a little different here in Burbank, as you know, growing up you grew up in Magnolia Park. You know the city probably better than well. I've been doing a couple more years.
Speaker 7:Definitely not better than you, ross. Definitely not better than well, I've been doing it a couple more years. Definitely not better than you, ross. Definitely not better than you.
Speaker 3:I know all the secrets, I know all the secrets. Isn't this just magnificent? You know, fire Service Day. We open it up to the community and you talk to the policemen and they just are so happy to be out here. How great are we. I'm glad you came out today and I know Nick is busy, busy, busy. So you're filling in, you're doing that role, you know, and you love sitting on council. What's your?
Speaker 7:You know I love it, ross, and I love these events the most because this is where our families come out. This is where community really is. I run into so many people I know, and not from maybe you know the work that I do or from the organizations but I run into people I know because they're my neighbors, because I see them at the grocery store, because their kids go to school where my mom works, and so that's the part I love, because this event is for them. I was actually just talking to our chief about the cost and all of this and he was like it's worth it.
Speaker 3:And it really is.
Speaker 3:This is one of those events that it's worth the cost. Well, last week at council you brought up you wanted a note, you want to look into having a female fire class or recruit class. And we ask them and there's a lot of stuff they're thinking about doing with Glendale but we haven't done that. We only have one current female firefighter and we need to have more. And it's kind of different. The other role you know. I applaud you so much. You're bilingual. You speak Spanish quite well. You've sat on that dais and there's people that get up there and it's scary to get up there and talk and you have translated for them. I know a couple weeks ago we had betty porto. How many people can say you have betty porto standing up translating for somebody, but you, you speak both languages fluently and you it just helps, we're all one and we really are.
Speaker 7:And then I have to say shout out to betty, because on that particular issue, the woman she was translating for was on the opposite side of the issue than she was and she just said no, you know what, we're still community, I'm getting up and I'm helping you, and that's burbank, so I love that it's burbank.
Speaker 7:And yes, back to your question about the Fire Academy for Girls. That's actually something I've been working on with Senator Caroline Menjivar, so she brought up the fact that she's looking to do this throughout her district and Burbank currently doesn't have that kind of a fire academy. So whatever we can do to push that forward and really highlight the fact that we'd love to see some female firefighters I know our police chief has done miles and miles of effort to get some females in the force and we do have a good amount of females in our police force and we have sergeant females in our police force, so they are the strongest officers you'll find out there. But we've got to focus on both our police and fire in that sense, and our chief is really open to it. So he said I'm open to the challenge and give me I know Craig and I are very happy.
Speaker 3:We have supported fair pay for our police and fire. They retain them and so forth. And you know budget's no fun. But we are in a city that it's a little different here and this last year you guys the EMS, craig and I were talking about it. Look at all the new buildings we're getting. We're getting the Fries Project, we're getting the one on Front Street, we're getting I Can Continue the one at Pass and Riverside and our emergency runs are building and they're around emergency calls. So now we're upgrading, maybe to another RA, which you guys approved, and all those things that the fire department has needed that we know they haven't kept up on board and it was nice to see that you know those budget items. You guys are thinking out of the box.
Speaker 1:Let me ask a question, if it's okay, one question. So you ran for city council, you wanted to be on city council, I want to make decisions, and I know it. Now you're there. You're dealing with legal matters in closed session, of course. You're dealing with the gun ordinance coming up. You're dealing with housing. These are all decisions, now that you're making that are going to set the direction of our city for decades. Do you feel the weight of that and the pressure that I really need to make a good decision here? I've really got to look at the overall picture. I mean, how does that change from being the candidate when to be on city council, thinking, oh, I can do this to. All of a sudden, now you are doing it and you are the last line oh correct, believe me, I think about that every single day.
Speaker 7:I think a lot of us on council lose sleep over these things because we do care right. And then I've seen it with myself and my colleagues, especially on issues like you know it's no secret the elephant in the room, the rent control question. We have both sides who come to us and we care because both of those folks live here. I worry just as much about the mom and pop landlord as the renter that's coming to us with concerns and I want to make sure that both of those people are able to live here comfortably.
Speaker 3:And so I also.
Speaker 7:you're a renter, I am a renter and I'm a really good friend with my landlord. He's a good guy I just saw him this morning, you know, and I want to make sure we're both able to. I mean, at the end of the day, the way I see it and this is how I talked to I believe I was talking to some friends at the realtor's office about this the other day we're all the little guy right. My landlord is not a big corporation I don't talk to. He's somebody and I drink coffee with on my porch and we both complain and complain and basically, like you know, put our fists up in the air about the growing insurance costs. It's affecting both of us.
Speaker 1:This is the toughest issue and there is no really right or wrong side, exactly Because both sides have great you know things on their side, going for them and against them. So I don't know how you're ever going to do it. You know, I know you're trying and I think putting some teeth into the Landlord and Tenant Commission is the first real start you can go and get real help instead of just advice.
Speaker 7:And so the thing for us is really tackling this in piecemeal right, because a percentage cap is not the same thing as anti-retaliation laws, which is not the same thing as-retaliation laws, which is not the same thing as eviction laws it's all a little different. So I think we've handled it in the smartest way in going piece by piece and also bringing out each piece we do to the community, like we've done this. What do you all feel? Is it working? Is it not working? We're doing this now. What do you all feel? And that'll be more of what we're doing throughout the summer and through the rest of the year, because this is not an easy issue and I know some people want to see us decide now. It takes time. These things are difficult to your point and definitely I do think about them. Craig and I got to tell you.
Speaker 7:Before I was on council, I worked for the state legislature. I was making a lot of these decisions already and advising my boss on these things, and I will tell you, even though the knowledge is there, that was, you know, a lot easier for me to do to say, okay, this is what we're doing statewide, this is what we're doing on this policy item, because I have the background, the information. Now I have to take that and apply it to my hometown, where there's a lot of emotion, you know, and I want to make sure I do it right. So that's always there too, because I'm thinking about the fact that my decisions are affecting my neighbors, my friends, my family who still lives here.
Speaker 1:These are absolutely. These are very tough times, but I think you know we're going in the right direction. I'm not, you know, and I really hope that you decide to come on and continue our Ask the Mayor show once Nick moves on to the assembly and you get the job next year, and we'd love to have you on the show each month and talk issues.
Speaker 7:Oh, I'd love that. That sounds fun.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, again, I saw you walking through thousands of people today. I appreciate you sitting down with us for a couple of minutes and sharing your thoughts. Fire Service Day, another 2024. I mean, what a turnout, fantastic.
Speaker 7:We have a great turnout. It's great weather. I hope more folks come by, and if you don't get to come by today, we do this every year, every year. So I just want to thank you both for being here too and doing the interviews myself, our young people, our firefighters, our police officers, and just always being there at the community events to cover them. I love watching your reels, the coverage you all do.
Speaker 1:Thank goodness for Ross, he's everywhere.
Speaker 3:We do get around, don't we? You do Again, thank you. Thank you for stopping by.
Speaker 1:Vice Mayor Nikki Perez. Thank you very much for stopping by. We appreciate it. Okay, we are back with our youngest guest so far. We are with Hannah. Hannah, how are you doing today? Good, yes. So what did you like to see? What was fun to watch?
Speaker 6:Coloring, coloring.
Speaker 1:Oh, the coloring. And how about the fire trucks? You want to go to the fire trucks? Yes, you want the firefighters to. And how about the fire trucks? Do you like to look at the fire trucks? Yes, do you watch the firefighters do their things? Yes, yeah, do you want to be a firefighter someday? Yes, yes, okay. Do you live here in Burbank? Yes, fantastic. What school do you go to? Preschool, preschool, really, yeah. I thought you were in third or fourth grade already, only in preschool. Huh, yeah, you've got a big future ahead of you. Oh, okay, hannah, thank you very much for coming on our show. We appreciate it and we will talk to you later. Okay, okay, all righty, goodbye. Well, ross, that's it for another Fire Service Day 2024. I want to thank our guests for stopping by. A couple of members of the public Got a chance to get on the air with us. So what did you think? Any reactions? What a day.
Speaker 3:You know everybody's saying there's more people here. This year I saw lots of smiling kids' faces, you know, and the fire. I just came back from the PD. I mean the helicopter and everything else that people could climb on and it just what a great day.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I'm glad my Burbank Talks was able to go out into the field and do a remote show. And yeah, like you said, fire Service Day 2024 looks like it's in the can.
Speaker 1:There we go. Well, thanks very much for checking in with us and listening. We appreciate it and we will talk to you next time. Goodbye you.