Cross Roads Podcast
Introducing Blake Hudgins, Firefighter with Little Elm Fire Department
Blake Hudgins shares with us about her life as a firefighter for Little Elm Fire Department and what an impact LEFD has on our community.
Blake Hudgins shares with us about her life as a firefighter for Little Elm Fire Department and what an impact LEFD has on our community.
Good morning Cross Roads. I'm your host, Steven Killfoil. We want to welcome to the show today from Little Elm Fire Department, Firefighter Blake Hudgins right now. All right. Yes. I want to thank you, Blake for coming on the show today. We first met you at this year's Little Elm Fire Department's Citizens Fire Academy. Would you tell us a little about yourself and what you do as a Firefighter with Little Elm Fire Department?
Blake Hudgins:Sure. Um, so I have been with Little Elm for I think it's been about 14, almost 15 months. There. They've been just the most wonderful place. I love it. Without question. Before that, I worked in the hospital for about 10 years, moved here, grew up in Texas, moved to Hawaii for three years and then moved back and then started this career and it's been man, I haven't looked back. It's been great. Awesome.
Steven Killfoil:Awesome. Well, I know recently, you've taken some training classes, because we were we had to reschedule this for today. By the way, how did you do on the test?
Blake Hudgins:You kind of got 100
Steven Killfoil:Awesome, awesome. So you just went through these classes and this testing? So what was the certification for and and how did you go about it and how to how did it transpire?
Blake Hudgins:So to start you, so there's, there's civil service departments, and there's non civil service. And so there's different requirements for each. So little elm is non civil service. And so what that means is, you basically have to go to the Fire Academy, which there's a bunch of them in the Metroplex, and you kind of pick which one you want to go to, and you apply and you get in. They have different time periods summer for months, summer, a year and a half. Like for high school kids, they offer those summer night classes summer during the day. So mine was during the day in DeSoto. And it lasted from July to I think the end of October. And then I already had my EMT, which is a requirement for little om. So you have to have the two of those. It used to be you had to have your firefighter and your paramedic, but they found a lot of cities found it was hard to find paramedics, we have kind of a shortage of them right now. And so a lot of departments have changed the hiring requirements to firefighter EMT, with the conditional understanding that when the chief says, Hey, you're going to paramedic school, then you go. And so I started that two weeks ago. So when I had to reschedule with you, we had just started and we had a very first test coming up and I was just panicked. But it passed with flying. Yeah, it went great. It went great. Hey, yeah. So that's what our department kind of requires. And so we're in our first two weeks of that which is awesome and scary but you basically don't go to work for the whole like eight months that you're in paramedic school you just you're paid to be a student basically and it kind of ups the the odds of you passing and doing well to just focus on school because it's a job requirement, you know, you have to get through paramedic school or, or then you got to go work somewhere else. So it's kind of a kind of important to focus so so that's where we're at now.
Steven Killfoil:That's amazing. Well, in in your day to day operations, could you share with us some of the challenges you face as a firefighter.
Blake Hudgins:I mean, coming from like the female perspective, my my day to day challenges are probably different than a lot of the guys that work there. You know, being a firefighter everything is extremely heavy, and it's hot and it's stressful and you don't get good sleep generally even even if you don't get a call in the night you still are kind of waiting for a call and so it takes a number of years to get to where you can get like a good sleep cycle. So day to day just between our training because we we generally do like a fire training one of the two days and then we do EMS training on the second day because we work 4896 And so fire training on a day to day is going to be you know pulling hoses to make sure that like if we go to a fire we know what the right one Need to pull a hose. So there's no kinks and your setup at the door. And, you know, houses are laid out differently as far as they can be set far back. So you need to pull a different length of hose to get into the house and have enough to fight the fire. We also do things like victim removal. So if we find someone in a house, we know how to get them out quickly and what what good ways to drag them out and a way that we can get them out safely and quickly without hurting ourselves another one, you know, so good form when doing that and different body weights they may have, they have clothes that you can grab and pull them out by or if they just gotten out of the shower and there was a fire like you need to be able to do these different kinds of things, different techniques. We also work on things like down firefighters, which is you know, all of our nightmare when that could occur. So we practice ways to change the buckling on their, on their air packs to where we can drag them easily upstairs, downstairs through a window. So we basically practice all that stuff so that when the moment comes that we have a fire and these situations occur, my captain kind of always says you don't rise to the occasion, you rise to your level of training. And so we train for all these scenarios that they can come up with. So that when that moment comes, you're like, oh, okay, I remember this, from that day that we trained it, this is what I'm going to do. When your heart rates high, and you're kind of panicking, you can kind of fall back on your training. And so it's really important. And we're really lucky that we get to do a lot of training, and let alone to make sure that we're ready for those those kinds of situations.
Steven Killfoil:That's great. I'm going to ask an off the script question. So you could give you a chance to reiterate and talk a little bit more about what's difference between, say little m fire department and say, the Dallas Fire Department, he said, one is a civil service servicing and you're not civil. So would you tell our listeners a little bit about the differences of that? Absolutely. How it applies to you guys.
Blake Hudgins:So there's one big thing about civil service and that's the the hiring process, they basically have a list of of guidelines, they have to follow in their hiring press practice. Whereas like their their pa t has to be a physical agility test to get hired is the same every time for every group that comes through every person. So that it kind of it keeps a strict structure to make sure that everyone gets seen, everyone's judged fairly, their interview questions are exactly the same, their process is exactly the same every time. Whereas with non civil service, it gives us a little bit of wiggle room to kind of change and choose our own physical agility test choose our own length of the interview process, which ours is, ours is like two and a half hours, which is is compared to everyone in my fire school, they were mind blown when I told him how long it was. But it gives our department a chance to really find out your personality to see if you'll fit with this family because you become a family when you start working together in these long hours and these stressful situations. So they want to make sure that you're going to fit with everybody so that it's more cohesive. So that's a big difference between civil service and non civil service. But there's other differences between, you know, a small city in a big city like our when I was in fire school, I was in the interview part of the hiring process with Dallas and little elm concurrently. And the big reason that I chose little over Dallas and ended up withdrawing from Dallas, his application process was because I wanted to be, I wanted to be a face that my chief knew I didn't want to be a badge number that like, that's how they refer to me or knew who I was, in situations, I wanted to have this rapport with the people above us because you know, they're making all of the decisions that affect us on a daily basis, being cared for by a city, because when you see someone's face and you know their name, it just changes the way that you're treated. And that's just human nature. You know, like when you know somebody, it's going to change the decisions that you make that affect them. So working for a small city, not only do they know, you and city council, but your face, they recognize and there's just something there's something irreplaceable about that it's just special. So that was that's the big difference between a small city, I think in a big city.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, I'll add one more thing to that this citizens Fire Academy. I encourage everybody to enroll in it. Definitely. And I'm going to give you an opportunity later on to to go to tell everybody how to how they can do exactly just that. I'm looking so forward to the other offerings that they were telling us about in the class. But absolutely, absolutely. I think is so does little on Fire Department have a program where you visit the local schools and teach about fire safety at home, and have you ever had a chance to participate in one?
Blake Hudgins:So we have kind of two different things. We have one thing where the schools will kind of just set up like a show and tell and will come with an engine and an ambulance or a truck and an ambulance or all three and then PHSI which is the helicopter service for air flying patients places, they'll come. And the kids get to kind of funnel out and like walk through our vehicles and talk to us and ask us questions. And so there's not as much fire safety per se, like conversations occur where we talk about fire safety, but more of it comes from we do this thing. And I remember the exact name, but it's basically a clown group. And my chiefs actually part of it also. And they get to go to the schools and talk to them, they put on like a clown show. So like it kind of, it's more disarming to see them and like the clown makeup and the outfits, and it makes it more fun. And the kids like their attentions can stay up with with what's going on. They actually just went to Vegas and did the clown college. So fire. Yeah, so firefighters from all over the country go, and this big conference, and they learned basically the best ways to kind of talk to kids and teach them how important fire safety and stuff is. But one thing I really liked about the school, or when they come and do their walkthroughs at the department is they usually have us put all of our gear on, including our masks, because when you put all that on, it's a little scary to like kids to younger kids. So if they see us in a fire, you know, we look like astronauts or aliens to them. And so I put it all on and I get down on my knees. And I'm usually like, hey, like touch everything that I'm wearing. And if you see this ever just know I'm there to help you. So don't be scared and don't run, come to me because I'm a firefighter, and we're here to help you. And so it helps them to see more than what they see on TV, which is just like our big bunker gear to actually see us with the masks on makes a huge difference, because it can be a little scary to little kids. And so I love doing I love putting all my gear on letting them see it.
Steven Killfoil:Oh, it can be a little scary for the big kids? Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely. Well tell me, the traffic and Cross Roads here, as you know, is very challenging. With all the construction going on. Could you tell our listeners how Little Elm Fire Department is dealing with that, especially with regards to response times.
Blake Hudgins:So that's a very valid concern to have with all the construction, of course. So generally, when construction is going on, we have so we have our email at work. And we're supposed to check it every day, especially on shift multiple times a day. And our city sends emails to us that tell us hey, this is the construction is going on, they tell us ahead of time, this is where it is the times it will be going on. So that we know hey, this road is closed and your captain and your driver are generally very, very good about keeping up with all those things. Because, you know, one of our number one things in being a firefighter is getting to you guys as quickly as possible, because we have this phrase that seconds turn into minutes. And that can be a difference between saving your loved one, whether it's a fire or an EMS call. That can be the difference between saving your life and not being able to and so we keep up with those road closures because we know your lives depend on it. So it's it's something we don't miss.
Steven Killfoil:That's great. I mean, the last session we had actually covered over that. They took us outside the showed us the drones and and the huge. Looks like a Winnebago.
Blake Hudgins:The big white bus. Yeah, the big white things cool. You'll see it like little on Park during the summer. And it's got the big cameras up top. Yeah, it's pretty neat.
Steven Killfoil:Wow! I was really surprised.
Unknown:Yeah, but also the other thing is, we emphasize knowing your districts. So you know, little elm has three to three stations. Right now we're building a fourth. So when that's your district, we do a lot of map and we do, what's the term that we use? Shoot it just knowing your district, basically, its familiarity, familiarity of it. And so we'll just drive around, if we look for our training on a day, that we've been really busy, and we have an hour, we'll go out and we'll all of us will just go drive the city and then we'll come back and we'll draw up the map and not label it. And then we'll sit at the table and our driver will be like hey, what city what street is this? Hey, what street is that? If that streets close? What street can you take that also connects to the street. And so district familiarity, that is what it is. And so, we do that a lot too, regardless of the road closures, but it just in case that day happens or there's a big party or a rack and we can't get there. There's always another route to get there. And we make sure that we know how to do that. And so it's kind of a team effort.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, I remember when I was 18. And I first moved to Dallas, one of the things that I did was a bought two large paper maps, Rand McNally, and I pinned them up on the wall in my apartment. And every weekend I would drive and I would mark where I'd gone. And I just started putting little landmarks so that I could familiarize,
Blake Hudgins:The same thing we do.
Steven Killfoil:I was from a real small town we had 12 whole streets down our Main Street and a lot of stoplights and that's about it. The back of your hand. Oh yeah, I could drive it blindfold like out to the metroplex, I was blown away. Yeah. So I really learn it.
Blake Hudgins:Our Captains and drivers are like that they they know their districts like the back of their hand. And then on top of that, you need to know the other districts, because we get called with if, you know, Medic, two I met and I'm at station one. So if if engine two and and Medic two are all on a call, and we get called to their district, we need to know, their streets also. So knowing the streets in the whole city, it can be a lot, and maps help a little bit on your phone and stuff. But, you know, technology fails. We found that time and time again. And so knowing your district, which I am still working on, I'm not the poster child for knowing districts. But luckily, I'm writing in the back. And so I don't necessarily need to know like the back of my hand yet. But that day is coming and working on that day is coming where I need to know like the back of my hand. And so it's yeah, it's a lot even for a small town like little town. There are a lot of cities or cities, small streets. A lot of sites. Yeah, it can be a lot.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah. that reminds me. Where on 720 is station number four going to be built?
Unknown:Oh! she asked me for that one. I honestly don't know what the cross street is. I can point it out. If we're driving on it. I can be like, that's the right there. Yeah, man, there's gonna be a ton of homes going up kind of around it and behind it. I actually couldn't tell you the cross street and I'm sure I'm gonna get chastised for that.
Steven Killfoil:That's fine. I put you on the spot. I'll I've still got I guess when I go to the class tomorrow. I'll ask him again. Hey, can someone point out? Yeah, because we were all kind of like wondering, okay, well, we know what's going in on 720. Well, do you know is it going on the east side? West?
Blake Hudgins:It's going in on the if you're headed north? It's so it's going on the west side? On the west side? Yeah. 720. I know that for sure. Oh, and like I said, if we were driving, I could point at the plot of land.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, yeah. Well, I have a good idea where it's at, but I just wasn't quite sure. So now my next question is, would you recommend that our citizens get more involved with the little fire department in the community by signing up for the Citizens Fire Academy? And how exactly does a person go about doing just that?
Blake Hudgins:So the second part, I actually don't know what that process is, as far as signing up. I'm sure that I can easily get you an email that you basically probably send it to, and then they send you the information. But as far as doing it, yeah, absolutely. Like, I kind of wish that my parents even would get involved in something like that. I'm from Rockwall. And I wish they would do it. Because even Honestly, even as a firefighter, I didn't really know what I was signing up for, like even going through fire school, that kind of opened those doors a little bit as far as understanding. But citizens Fire Academy really gives you an idea of why we do what we do. Because even before I was a firefighter, I didn't understand why you had to have an engine blocking lanes of traffic on a highway. And then once they get to school, it's like, oh, well, obviously, it's protecting us because we do get hit by cars, often more at wrecks. So people get annoyed by that. Because they're like, gosh, they're causing so much extra traffic that could have just taken one lane, why'd they take three and there's a there's a method behind the madness with everything that we do. And it's genuinely because something bad has happened. And then that got put into place to protect us, which is unfortunate that it's retroactive. But that's the way the world works. So yeah, I would suggest anybody sign up for me. Not only is it I've helped be a part of it in the last year, it's fun, because everyone's kind of, you know, laughing and talking, getting to know each other and going through these things. But also, you're learning what it is exactly that we do. Because there's so much more behind what we do than I think people even realize. And like I said, even when I started, I didn't even realize how many things that we do that they don't talk about because you don't see it on TV. Obviously, it's pretty unrealistic on there. But yeah, you finally get to see you get to see the weight of the hoses that we use. Once water is in them. You get to see what how heavy our ladders are. You get to do our pa t tests that we had to do to get hired. There's just so many things you get to do that you're like, oh my gosh, like I had no idea I thought you guys just grocery shopped and slept at night and you know occasionally went out there and your gear you get to put our gear on and feel how hot it is and how heavy everything is. And it's just it's it's a great experience to gain kind of understanding and respect for something that you didn't know about whether it would be because we do also for police. So to to kind of see another world that you aren't familiar with. It's it's always a good thing. You know? Oh, absolutely.
Steven Killfoil:And I hadn't if it hadn't been for this Academy, I would have never met you. I know who you are.
Blake Hudgins:It was meant to be absolutely.
Steven Killfoil:Well at the firehouse you told us a little about your work schedule. Would you share with the listeners? How your life at the firehouse runs the hours, your days off how the firehouse is very much like one big happy family
Blake Hudgins:it is, you know, sometimes happy, sometimes little less happy when you spend so many hours together you get on each other's nerves, but we work 48-96. So that's two days on with four days off. And something unusual about little home is we do a 10am shift change, whereas most places do a 7am shift change. And the reason that we did that it was kind of for a trial year to see if there were benefits to to that side of it, having that leadership change. And our chief found that there was a bunch of benefits, things like if we have calls all night, you get to sleep in a little bit later before you have to get up and get going for you just start the day and stuff. And so you know of the things that are important for the human body. Mental health, nutrition, physical health, sleep, sleep is the number one like most important thing about your day to day life it is if you get rid of all the other things which you shouldn't. As long as you have good sleep, you are going to stop so many different bad things from occurring in your body, whether it be Alzheimer's or you know your hormones, because in sleep you you process through your stress hormones, hormones, your your muscles can can regenerate. Like there's just so many things that occur in sleep. So our chief did that to see if there was a great benefit. And there was everyone loved it so so we get there, you always get there an hour early before your shift change. So for us, we get there at nine, some of us get there at eight so we can work out before shift. So we're not having to do a 5am kind of thing or six and like most apartments and so it's been awesome. But yeah, it's like a little house. I mean we have, we have our own beds in there. The officers sleep on one in one area and we sleep in another area. We have our own rooms with curtains. We have a kitchen we have kind of like a media type room with recliners so that we can relax at night and like watch TV or watch football, whatever it is. We have a gym which is really cool. We've got a computer room for doing charting or whatever kind of stuff we need to do online have a computer in front of us. So we really just we have everything we need. I mean it's a home away from home and you have your own lockers for your own food which is which is great because that way no one's stealing from you on the other shifts, which is always a fun little battle we have with each other the doors are locked, showers, bathrooms. It's it's great. We're very, very, very fortunate in little home to have a facilities that we have. That's awesome. Well,
Steven Killfoil:you heard it from Little Elm Fire Department Blake Huggins today, thank you again for coming on Cross Roads Podcast Blake and we wish you the best of luck as you and your fellow Firefighters and EMTs work hard making Cross Roads a safe place to live. For questions and comments. Email us at Crossroads podcast 2020 three@gmail.com Or if you want to get on the show, call me direct 469-230-5956 Make sure to check on the town website www.crossroadstx.org for local meeting times. Here are some upcoming events to mark on your calendar. April 20th, Town Council will be meeting at 6pm Cross Roads meeting hall, March 30th, The Eggstravaganza at the town park Tune in next week is we'll have more amazing guests on that show. For local meetings starting tomorrow, or I'm sorry starting on March 4 Town Council will meet at 6pm at the Cross Roads Police Department meeting room. Tuesday March 5th, Planning and Zoning will meet at 7pm. At the same meeting room Wednesday, March 6th, Parks and Recreation will meet at 6pm at the Cross Roads Police Department meeting room. Don't forget to mark your calendars like I said for Wednesday, March 13th to Tuesday, March 19th. between the hours of nine to three, you want to come out and watch an artist at work. Come out and watch Kevin Roach, who is a chainsaw artist, Turn an old dead oak tree into a wonderful memorial of artwork depicting our local woodland creatures. So that'll be at the Cross Roads Town Park between March 13 to march 19, between 9am and 3pm. So you want to come out and watch that that's going to be an amazing thing to watch. And it's going to be pretty cool. We'll have the only one of those in the parks in our whole area that I know of. Hey, cool. So he he's a master carver and does it with Chainsaw
Blake Hudgins:and I've seen videos on it and it's it's pretty cool. Yeah, so
Steven Killfoil:he's gonna probably give us an eagle. Oh, that's
Blake Hudgins:gonna be awesome cute little creatures.
Steven Killfoil:It was a live oak tree. It was an old one had been been here a long time and you know that that cold snap just kind of killed it. So we're going to turn it into something really beautiful out of it.
Blake Hudgins:Yeah, absolutely.
Steven Killfoil:Quick traffic reminder for those traveling on the 380 corridor as 720 Oak Grove lane, read your traffic announcement. That's still going to be closed. Doesn't look like traffic's opening up yet. It was supposed to tomorrow but we'll see knock on wood. Easter's coming around the corner so don't forget. Saturday, March 30 at the park in Cross Roads between 9am and 12pm. They Eggstravaganza sign up for your kids on signup genius. Come to the Parks and Rec meeting for more information on March 6th. For events around the town, the Brass Tap here in Cross Roads this week, February 28th, Is Music Bingo at 7pm come on out and have some fun. Thursday, February 29th, 7pm at the Brass Tap here in Cross Roads, Trivia Night. Or go and see my buddy Jimerson up at the Pilot Point Coffee House Tuesday, February 27th at 6pm Coffee House Sessions. If you're a musician and you want to get out and jam with some over the local musicians, bring your guitar, your fiddle or whatever you got out there and strike it up with them. I know I plan on being there. Soon as I get the new set of strings put on my 12 string Thursday February 29 Coffee House Game Night go up there challenge Jimerson to game a chess he loves playing chess. So until next week, I'll see you at the topC! Cross Roads Podcast! For those who want to be in the know who's your daddy!?