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Welcome to Constructing the Carolinas, a show where we explore the growth of our communities, cities, and counties across North Carolina and figure out what's on the horizon. This podcast is brought to you by Barnhill, which has been Constructing the Carolinas since 1949.
00:00:04 - Valerie Bono
Welcome back to Constructing the Carolinas, the podcast where we explore the people, projects and policies shaping the construction and infrastructure landscape across our great state. We are brought to you by Barnhill, which has been constructing the Carolinas since 1949. I'm your host, Valerie Bono, director of Business development. Today we're diving into the crucial world of fire safety, emergency response and disaster preparedness with none other than Chief Brian Taylor, North Carolina State Fire Marshal. With decades of experience in the fire service, Brian has played a pivotal role in shaping fire safety regulations, supporting local fire departments, and spearheading training initiatives that prepare first responders for the toughest challenges. In this episode, we'll discuss the challenges of firefighter recruitment and retention, the groundbreaking development of the North Carolina Emergency Training center, and how the latest advancements in fire safety technology are saving lives. We'll also get an inside look at how North Carolina prepares for and responds to natural disasters, structural fires, and large scale emergencies. It's an insightful conversation about the heroes who protect us and work being done behind the scenes to ensure our safety. So let's get into it.
00:01:24 - Chief Taylor
I have always wanted to be a firefighter since I was 8 years old. That's all I ever wanted to do. I didn't care about college. I did attend college, but I became a firefighter, a junior firefighter at 16. And then I became a career firefighter right after high school and attending community college. But I was fire marshal in Albemarle for 25 years before being appointed to this position.
00:01:50 - Valerie Bono
Well, that's incredible. Well, thank you for all of the dedication and years of service protecting our communities. I know I have a five year old son and if you ask him what he wants to be, he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. So I know a lot of folks look up to you and you're their hero.
00:02:07 - Chief Taylor
Absolutely. One thing about it that we always say is that people love children, they love animals, and they love firefighters.
00:02:16 - Valerie Bono
That's right. That's right. Well, so could you tell us a little bit about some of the greatest or the biggest challenges that your department faces, not only for first responders, but just in general?
00:02:28 - Chief Taylor
Well, some of the challenges we face today is just recruitment. But not only recruitment is retention. We just went through one of the worst natural disasters in North Carolina history. And our first responders seen some things that they thought they would never see. And that was very difficult. And we were going to see folks leaving the service because of the mental component of the response. And outside of that, you know, today what we have Determined is the only way we can recruit firefighters is to get them early as junior firefighters. Most of the chief officers, you can go around the state today and say, when did you start? They started as a junior fireman, probably before the age of 16. If we wait till 18 to 20 years old, they've already got a vehicle, they've already got a girlfriend or they've got another job. And so the ones that we have gotten, it's generally a two or three year stint and then they move on. So that's generally what we're facing today. The fire service in North Carolina and nationwide is 70% volunteer. 70% of that is volunteers. And it's going to be difficult to retain that in the coming years.
00:03:45 - Valerie Bono
Sure, that does seem like a challenge. We talk about on our industry and construction, the workforce challenge. We can't risk not having firefighters. Right. It is a critical need for the safety of everybody. And so I hope that by recruiting some of that younger talent, they'll continue to want to be a firefighter and be on the front lines.
00:04:07 - Chief Taylor
Yes.
00:04:08 - Valerie Bono
So how does your office offer support for local fire departments, especially in rural areas like Albemarle and other areas in the state?
00:04:17 - Chief Taylor
So our office is, like I spoke earlier, is that we perform the insurance rating inspections, determine what a person's homeowner insurance rate is. So we're the only state in the country that does that. ISO Insurance services offices does that. And we actually do that in North Carolina. That is huge. To local communities, Small communities, because before, fire departments weren't being rated, but every 20 years.
00:04:45 - Valerie Bono
Wow.
00:04:45 - Chief Taylor
Under our leadership with Commissioner Causey when he appointed me, and under my tenure, we've been able to get that to every five years. So people, there's a lot of savings on insurance ratings because of that. We provide grants to small, rural North Carolina departments. Those departments that are truly volunteer, that may have a very small, tight budget, can apply for grants through our office at $40,000 a grant. And some of those are matching, some of them are not. We also have rescue grants that way. Of course, when Covid hit, there were special funding through the legislature that we provided grants as well. So that's how we support our local fire departments, including the training. We provide the training for them through the community college systems.
00:05:34 - Valerie Bono
That's wonderful. Well, let's talk a little bit specifically about the firefighter training and the North Carolina Emergency Training Center. I know this is a project that you're very proud of, so I want to talk about it. I'm sure a lot of people may not Be familiar with the project that's going on in Stanley county right now. But it will be a game changer, not only for fire training, but also it'll help with the advancement for God forbid we face another terrible disaster like hurricane Helene. Right. But it'll offer the training that will be necessary. Right. To help save lives.
00:06:13 - Chief Taylor
Absolutely. Well, North Carolina has never had a state training facility. All the training goes through the community college system. The problem was is that the advanced certified training, specialized training that's required for a lot of our fire departments, light aircraft rescue, or the water rescue, urban search and rescue that the guard has been doing for years, it was very difficult to obtain that training, or we were sending our personnel out of state and it was very costly. So one of my top three priorities was to come in and try to build a state training facility based around what the air national guard was doing at the Stanley county airport. A lot of people come to me and says, well, it's just because it's your home. No, people don't realize what that area offers when it comes to training. And so I started an initiative to reach out federal funding with a partnership with air national Guard, because when you do things collaboratively and build these partnerships, you're more apt to get funding. And we, several times we approached Congress, we had some successful meetings, but it seems like when the approval got over to the Pentagon with the money to bring it down, it didn't happen. And then we had this thing called Covid hit, and North Carolina was sitting in a good place. And I built a package to go ask for state funding. And I was very successful at that. But I was only successful because of the partnership. And that partnership was with Stanley county, the air national Guard, and of course, state fire marshal's office. And by doing that, we were able to push funding to the county, build this facility to do a design build, contract for a lot less and a lot quicker time to get it built. And we're a few months out from being complete on phase one. And yeah, we're very proud of it. And I would say this will be a world class facility. I can tell you people are calling, if not monthly, weekly, want to be part of it. And I think this is just the beginning. And we're focused on, of course, the aircraft fire rescue, which is at an airport. But we were sending our firefighters to South Carolina at about $1,000 a person to get their annual certification. That's very costly to a small fire department, career fire department. And then we had the Matthew Florence disasters, and everybody Started getting water rescue boats and we weren't properly training our firefighters. So I thought it was very important that we had a facility that we could train them in a controlled environment, which wasn't figured into the original budget. So we had to really tighten up to make this fit. But there will be no other facility like this in the country that we can put motorized boats in and train our first responders in a controlled environment.
00:09:20 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, it's incredible to see if you get to drive the site. And for those listening, Barnhill has the privilege of working alongside you and for you on this project. It's incredible. We've seen the renderings and it's going to be something that people around the world will be able to utilize and train that'll help save lives. So I'm very excited to see it get complete and looking forward to seeing all the rescue missions that are trained within that facility. So how does the emergency training center improve the way firefighters and emergency personnel are trained compared to maybe traditional methods? I know you mentioned that we are sending folks out of state for some of that. So how will this controlled environment be able to better train firefighters and rescue?
00:10:12 - Chief Taylor
So it's really the realistic life scenario type training where we could put them in certain waterways, natural waterways. Now, you can only do so much to simulate a real life situation on the water rescue side. And then if, you know, if you put those in those natural environments, it could be very risky during training. By having this facility, you're able to cut the water pumps on and off and you can have it more controlled in the ARFF simulator. This will be the only facility other than, I believe there's a Air Force base in Florida that has a similar aircraft fire rescue facility. But this is the only one that you can do both. Jp which would be fuel and propane gas. Not only that, we will be able to have a burn pit that we can test the green foams. The big thing today is the PFOS foam. The concerns and the hazards of the PFOS foam. The problem that we have had with our firefighters over the past 15 years is they've not been able to train with any foam because of the scare of pfas. We will be able to go in and with the new green substitute foams, train our firefighters of how it will work in a live fire situation. They've not had that opportunity. Generally they go out back their fire station, pour soap into their truck and simulate their foam application over, you know, a fuel spill. Here at this location, they will actually be able to test Real foam that they will use on an incident in a live fire situation, which is crucial for our firefighters for safety purposes to know the reaction of it.
00:12:13 - Valerie Bono
Wow, that's fascinating. I hadn't heard that before. I love that. Well, so what specific skills or scenarios will the trainees be able to experience that weren't available before? So it sounds like, you know, with this, I guess, pfas free foam, that's one example. Are there additional opportunities for training?
00:12:35 - Chief Taylor
I think we will grow and advance on that. So these are phase one training opportunities. There's gonna be future training opportunities here at this location. We already do our fire investigation technician training, which is one of our number one course that we offer statewide. That's for our fire investigators. That's from law enforcement, fire and insurance investigators. Of course. The Guard already does our urban search and rescue that they have done for over 20 years or close to 20 years. I think we'll grow upon that. I'm having meetings with other organizations like our manufactured housing. Our office also regulates manufactured housing in North Carolina and they're looking at a facility that they can go and train their setup companies and building inspectors. Because manufacturing housing is looked at a little different than a stick built home that they look and inspect. So we're looking at having modulars there to train on at that facility. We're looking at the gas industry, Colonial pipeline and their industry looking at doing some piping there for emergency response. Because we have the Colonial pipeline that comes through Charlotte and Greensboro and we've had instances at that location. There is a natural gas feeder line there that we could do natural gas emergencies with. And so it goes on and on and on. Matter of fact, I have a very well known car manufacturer that's electric that hopefully I have a call with this Friday that we can build a partnership with them as well. So I don't want to release any names right now, but our state does have some battery manufacturer for electric vehicles here that's coming to North Carolina. So we would need to know how to fight those fires as well.
00:14:27 - Valerie Bono
Sure. That's really fascinating. And it seems like so many opportunities for training. I'm curious because I would imagine as word gets out about this incredible facility, that'll certainly be exciting for younger folks to want to train right there. Do you think that'll help with the.
00:14:47 - Chief Taylor
Workforce challenges so uniquely or that you asked that question? Is that when I did my proposal? The North Carolina National Guard has a program for juveniles called the Tar Heel Challenge program. They have one three miles from this location in New London and they have one in Salemburg, North Carolina. And the Tar Heel Challenge program gives the youth, I'm going to call it youth juveniles that may be troubled an opportunity to go somewhere to get their life straightened out. My sales pitch was to say, is that what better location for these young men and women to come and look at a career as a firefighter or public safety? And I think it just goes hand in hand because that organization falls under the North Carolina Air National Guard. So that would be a great opportunity to provide some individuals because I can tell you the fire service saved me at age 16. My career path from that point forward, once I become a volunteer, I changed everything that I did as being a risky juvenile, not really caring about school, but I knew at the end of the day, when I was 8 years old, wanted to be a firefighter. When they allowed me to become a junior firefighter, everything changed in my course of my career.
00:16:13 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, I'm excited to see how. Continue to see how it'll impact the youth. I love that I didn't. I hadn't heard about that program before, so I think that's wonderful. And what a great opportunity, as you said, to get them to be able to see that as, you know, career option. Right. And help them realign their focus and get passionate and excited about being a firefighter.
00:16:33 - Chief Taylor
Absolutely.
00:16:34 - Valerie Bono
Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about fire safety and prevention initiatives within your office. So what statewide initiatives are currently in place to improve fire prevention and public safety education?
00:16:48 - Chief Taylor
So we have a very active, what we call community risk reduction program. It's a whole division and North Carolina has been a leader in that. It used to be called Injury Prevention Division. The tagline today is Community Risk Reduction crr and it has been a modeled agency across the country for many years. We also have an organization called Safe Kids, but we do programs like smoke alarm canvassing, smoke alarm grants for fire departments. So generally, as a state agency, we provide resources to the local communities, fire departments, churches, health departments, police departments, and provide programs. So we provide them the material, but also provide them any resource, other resources that they may need at a local level. So our initiatives. We have a fire problem. Our fire problem in North Carolina is just like the nation is number one fire. Is kitchen fires okay? With kitchen fires, how do we try to solve that? Because everybody's on the telephone, everybody gets distracted. But we have a fire death problem as well. And we monitor that very closely to see what can we do. We know the time of day, which is 3 o' clock in the morning. When most deaths occur, we know that it's over age of 50, primarily female in a manufacturer type home. So with that data, who do we need to target? And that's been very useful for us to start targeting that in the last few years.
00:18:23 - Valerie Bono
Sure. That actually ties into another question I have. So I'm curious, how has the fire safety technology evolved over the years and what should North Carolina residents know about the latest advancements and where I was going with that, I'm curious, you have the data and you know the trends. I would, I'm curious even from you know, AI and just advanced analytics, I mean is that, will that come to fruition? Will we start being able to analyze the data at never before seen efficiencies or are there any other trends that are changing?
00:18:59 - Chief Taylor
I believe so. The technology wise, your, your smoke alarms are now 10 year lithium batteries. It used to be that you had the nine volt batteries that everybody took out to put in their remote for their, for a television and or when they were cooking popcorn, they would take that out and so you would go unprotected for that smoke alarm. The technologies have risen now where the 10 year lithium battery word about that 10 year mark, we're replacing some of those 10 year lithium batteries right now, those alarms. So that's something that everybody needs to know is that if you had those alarms when they come out, now's about the time that you need to look at replacing those. Not only that, you know, one of our concerns is carbon monoxide poisoning.
00:19:41 - Valerie Bono
Yes.
00:19:41 - Chief Taylor
You know, we have so many carbon dioxide poisoning that people think that they have the flu and they go to the hospital and don't realize what's going on. And we've had some deaths here in North Carolina with a small child in Asheville that was boom. That died in a hotel. And we changed the laws and codes on that because of that death. And so the technology for those smoke alarm CO alarms has made it more reasonable to purchase and also that those sensors don't have to be replaced as much. So it's always important to have a working smoke alarm on each level of your home and have a CO alarm and have a plan. It's always important to have a family plan.
00:20:29 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, I really appreciate having a plan and I know, you know, I've got young kids I mentioned and they're even in daycare and we've had folks say okay, do you know your emergency escape plan? Right. Do you know what you need to do in this instance? But you're never too young or never too Old to have a fire safety training plan within your home?
00:20:48 - Chief Taylor
Absolutely, yeah.
00:20:50 - Valerie Bono
So I'm curious about, are there any trends in fire related incidents that you're seeing and how's your office addressing them? I know you mentioned some of the deaths. Right. 3:00am they tend to be women in modular homes. Are there any other trends that your office has seen?
00:21:07 - Chief Taylor
Well, out of that data we've collected, and it's a nationwide trend as well, is that people home oxygen that are dying because you know people that have chronic illness, copd, they cannot give up that smoking. And there are some devices out there, they're just not UL approved yet to do it like an oxygen firebreak. But we can't really promote those because they're not tested to UL standards. There's no standard for them to be tested. But that's something that we had seen. We did not realize the amount of people that were dying from that. Now understand we only collect that that a fire department responds. That doesn't count for the ones that may had an incident, the fire didn't do much damage, but then they may die at the hospital because of the lung damage. So we miss a lot of those numbers and we miss a lot of the COs that may go and think that they have the flu and that they actually succumb to a CO poisoning.
00:22:14 - Valerie Bono
Sure, that's really scary. So how do you collaborate with schools and communities to enhance fire safety awareness? It seems like there's so many initiatives community wide and I'm sure your office has a huge impact in helping steer this. What does that look like?
00:22:31 - Chief Taylor
So there again we provide the resources to the local communities, to the fire departments. We also in their rating system for the fire department, they are rated on CRR points, community risk reduction points. So they have to verify that they are doing programs in their communities to maximize their points and or get extra points. And I can tell you every fire chief is when their paper's being graded, they want to be sure they have the best rating. So fire departments in the last five years have really stepped up and doing a lot of programs in their communities to maximize the set points, not only get their points, but to do what's right in their community.
00:23:13 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, that's wonderful. Okay, so looking at emergency response and rescue operations. So beyond firefighting, North Carolina's first responders, we talked about hurricanes, they also handle floods, other disasters. How does your office prepare departments for these large scale emergencies? You know, recently in the news we hear a lot about wildfires. I mean there's just so many disasters how does your office get involved?
00:23:41 - Chief Taylor
So in the state emergency operation plan, the office of State Fire Marshal is only responsible for structural fire protection. That means that we basically have oversight of the response for structural fire protection. When it comes to wildland fire, that's responsibility of North Carolina Forestry Service. So we will supplement them in protection of structures because we are very concerned about communities during those fires. That's generally our role in a disaster. Let's talk about Helene a little bit. You know we roster fire department. So basically in a disaster we will set a rostering system up on our website. Fire departments across the state will go in and say I can send an engine or a tanker and four personnel. We put them into the system. And then when a department, a county, a department and or a county request assistance, we will then deploy them to, to that area to back them up. And so we pre deploy folks beforehand and then also during the disaster we will supplement the response and or the manpower for those areas. So that's our role. Knowing that all the emergency response, if it's rescue, water rescue, high angle rescue, things of that nature, they're all supplemented by the fire service. Even though emergency management may have oversight of that, there's still fire department assets that we train and regulate. That does the response element for that. Sure, that has a response element.
00:25:21 - Valerie Bono
What role does North Carolina play in national or regional disaster responses?
00:25:26 - Chief Taylor
So we, we received a lot of mutual aid and or FEMA response from around the country. Darren, Helene. But we also respond with our teams. There are some FEMA teams here designated which would be Raleigh, Charlotte, Wilmington, Asheville are some of the ones that will respond as a FEMA team to help other states. So there again it's our local fire department resources that are trained and mobilized to respond around the country when needed.
00:26:02 - Valerie Bono
So that's a lot of coordination, right? Working with other regions and areas and making sure we're getting the support that we need while also helping others.
00:26:12 - Chief Taylor
Absolutely.
00:26:13 - Valerie Bono
So can you share an example of a particularly challenging or high impact rescue or emergency response effort in recent years? I know we talked about Hurricane Helene, but are there others that came to mind?
00:26:25 - Chief Taylor
It's sad to say, but under my tenure over eight years, we've had some historical fires and instances. That's not something you really want to have under your belt. But we go back to. We had a QVC fire which the QVC fire was the largest dollar loss in Rocky Mount, just outside of Rocky Mount, which is Barn Hills home office. Largest dollar loss, largest square foot fire in North Carolina history. We had the fertilizer ammonium nitrate fire in Winston Salem. Largest ammonium nitrate fire in the country in Winston Salem. We were very fortunate that we didn't have anyone injured fire service and or civilians. That incident was handled very well, but that was a ticking time bomb there. So that was an incident that happened here in North Carolina. We had the downtown Raleigh fire with the building under construction. We had the Raleigh fire, which we lost. I mean, the Charlotte fire that we lost to construction workers, sadly. But we were able to make some code changes because of that fire. But those are some historical fires. And even going back into the early 90s when the North Carolina fire code came out, that was because of the Hamlet chicken fire. So, you know, that's. We've had historical fires here in North Carolina, but they are very tasking, but we learn a lot from them. We would rather prevent them, but when they happen. And we're a reactive society as well.
00:28:00 - Valerie Bono
Yes, yes, we are. That's wonderful to hear. Right. With the Winston Salem fire, with the scale of it, no lives were lost.
00:28:08 - Chief Taylor
Absolutely.
00:28:09 - Valerie Bono
So we're thankful for that response and urgency. Right. Being able to put out the fires. How is technology such as drones or we kind of hit on a little bit earlier the analytics being incorporated into emergency response strategies.
00:28:26 - Chief Taylor
So we have an aviation unit, drone unit, and we use primarily where we're using it for fire investigations and damage assessment. Because we have an engineering group that does damage assessment like during Helene, or if there's a tornado, floods or land mudslides. But the technology there we have just received since the Helene disaster, we had a donation of a payload drone. What we've seen during Helene is that drones. Were you having difficulty accessing families that they're roadway or bridges were washed away. They use these payload drones to deliver supplies to them. There were a lot of helicopter operations, air operations for that. But can you imagine the amount of area that we had to cover? So there were drone teams that came in and so we learned from that. And not only does a private industry now we have that capability. We're going through the process of getting hours online. And it could be used for hazmat scenes where we could take air monitoring equipment or supplies into an area that may be off limits for the public or very difficult for us to access.
00:29:41 - Valerie Bono
That's fascinating and amazing that we're there. Right. With that technology that seems so futuristic, but we're here where we're able to do that. So that's incredible.
00:29:52 - Chief Taylor
Yes.
00:29:53 - Valerie Bono
So talking about the future of fire and emergency services, what do you see as the future, both as firefighters and emergency response in North Carolina just over the next decade, maybe 25 years from now. If you had a crystal ball, what would you say?
00:30:09 - Chief Taylor
Well, I would say we would see the volunteerism really dissipate just because of the trends. We're going to see a lot more of the AI automotive type of equipment going in and being able to, I wouldn't say supplement. You'll never supplement the human factor, but you know, we've got these robots that are going in and doing your bomb work. You're going to see some of that same type of technology even in drone technology, you know, water supply, aircraft, unusually. I'm asking for a helicopter for our use. We've never had a helicopter, but because of the amount of damage in Helene, we're not going to be able to fight fire traditionally because the amount of damage that happened up there. They lost all their infrastructure, road infrastructure, water infrastructure that's got to be rebuilt. The forests, the woodlands are so heavily damaged that the forestry service cannot really fight fire like they traditionally have, even though that's their responsibility. My biggest concern is we got to protect communities. Look at what happened in Florida. They've lost their water infrastructure. You know, they had a weather component that really fueled that fire. But we have to be prepared to protect communities and or rescue people out of communities because I think at some point in time and the people that are decision makers on scenes are going to have to say, are we going to lose this community or not?
00:31:44 - Valerie Bono
Yes. Yeah. Time is of the essence for sure. Are there any policy or funding challenges that need to be addressed to ensure first responders have the resources that they need?
00:31:58 - Chief Taylor
There's always funding needs because anytime you attach the word fire to goes up dramatically and you're looking at a million dollar fire truck that's taken two to three years to be able to be built. Access to the equipment. Now we have the turnout gear. There's a debate now because of the turnout gear has pfas in it. And so is that a hazard to the fire service just because it's in it? We all have pfas in our clothing that we have right now. If you have a repellent on yours like your Gore Tex or any type of repellent and or some of the type of clothing that you don't have to iron that has it in there already. The concern is, is that it's lessening the protection on the gear for the firefighters and we're doing some of that testing. NC State is a very well known school that's doing a lot of this testing and looking at the data itself. Is that what they have discovered is that the public, some of the public, has more pfas in their system than firefighters. Even though we're very concerned of what our firefighters have to deal with, I think we're rushing a lot of times to make some of these changes when we don't want to lessen our gear and what we use to fight fire.
00:33:29 - Valerie Bono
Sure, yeah. It seems really startling when you read these studies and you hear about these documentaries talking about the damage that's already been done by pfas. The Forever Chemical. Right. And it's been in drinking water. It's everywhere. I had no idea it was in wrinkle resistant clothing and some of these other measures that you talked about. It's pretty alarming and terrifying at the same time.
00:33:56 - Chief Taylor
Yes.
00:33:57 - Valerie Bono
Well, I'm curious from a. You're doing so much across the state and I'm really curious. I'm sure our listeners are curious. How can the private sector help the office of the state Fire Marshal? What can we do to get involved? Is there any way to support the initiatives that you're working on through your office?
00:34:18 - Chief Taylor
I think what we have learned here recently and what I have been preaching is the public private partnership is the only way we can survive, especially during the disaster. We experienced that through Helene. The federal government, the state government or local government can't react as quickly as the private sector. We cut out the red tape and bureaucracy. We had, you know, any. We had a private firm that was called Operation Hilo that provided over 50 helicopters every day from private citizens all over the country coming and just providing their aircraft and their time to go and help folks. I spent 11 straight days with that organization, flying in, seeing fire chiefs to see what their needs were. And I was very fortunate to fly in the first Starlink from Elon Musk to the first fire department. I pulled it off the truck, got on the aircraft and flew it. That was a game changer during that disaster because we had lost all communications there. So until the Starlinks came in and we delivered from what Elon provided was about 230, but we delivered, along with Samaritan's Purse, about 500 Starlinks in that timeframe.
00:35:41 - Valerie Bono
That's incredible.
00:35:43 - Chief Taylor
And so that was how we were able to really start communicating. And my goal was to go in and be sure that we got every fire department, which is the center of every community, up and operational and then work at your local churches, because this is the Bible Belt. If you could stand up those in any community, you could rebuild your community. And that was what our efforts, efforts were. We could not do that because of FEMA or the state government or your local fire department. That was done by private organizations coming in and helping. So that's a proven fact. Proven fact. That why we're so successful with this training center. We wouldn't be able to do this if we went through the traditional steps because it had been three times the cost and three times the amount of time to do it if we'd have went through the normal red tape, bureaucracy.
00:36:39 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That's eye opening for sure. So I'm curious, what advice would you give to young men and women that are considering a career in firefighting or emergency services? Maybe think back to, you know, your 16 year old self. Would there be any advice that you would give?
00:36:59 - Chief Taylor
It's the most rewarding thing that you'll ever do in your life. Sometimes you put yourself in situations which are very taskful, but walking away knowing that you were able to help somebody, help your neighbor is so rewarding. You can't feel that in any other way. I tell people, because we are a very rich military community and when I go out and speak to groups is that, you know, people always say you should serve your country. I say you can either serve your country or serve your community in some way, shape or form by volunteering in your community. If it's with the local fire department or become an EMT or paramedic or 911, you know, you're spend some time in serving your community. If you're not able to serve your country, I think is really important.
00:37:50 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, no, I love that I've seen you speak and you could tell it's from your heart. Right. You love what you do and you just emulate that. It's contagious. So I think, you know, if any young person out there has the opportunity to meet you, I think they're going to feel it. They're going to say, I want to be just like you and have that. I don't know, it gives me chills thinking that. But you're incredible at serving the communities and it is contagious. So thank you for your selflessness and.
00:38:17 - Chief Taylor
Well, thank you.
00:38:18 - Valerie Bono
Yeah, doing all of that. So if North Carolina residents want to better support local fire departments. Right. These are just everyday residents. Is there anything that they can do to support. Maybe it's the local fire departments or is there anything that people within communities can do to support the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
00:38:38 - Chief Taylor
Well, there's very few departments today now have what we call the barbecues. For those that do have the barbecues, please go by and buy a plate. If it's not to buy a plate, go buy and leave a $20 bill for them because that helps them operate their organization. The fire service in North Carolina is so diverse that we have multimillion dollar fire trucks in the bays of the stations. There are still departments in this state that fire chiefs go and put gas in their own vehicles, in their own trucks. They have less than $50,000 budgets. They still operate to this day, believe it or not, in rural North Carolina. So I say anytime you see a fundraiser going on, a local fire department, go buy, buy a plate. Tell them thank you. If you see those individuals out at the grocery store and or out to eat, thank them for their service. It goes a long way. Sometimes you feel like it's redundant, but show that they are appreciated. And I think it's the same way with our law enforcement. Our law enforcement has had a very difficult time in the last few years. But, you know, it's very hard to recruit those folks because of what's took place. But thanking them and just going by and providing that assistance when needed goes a long way.
00:40:04 - Valerie Bono
Sure, yeah. I appreciate you saying that. Okay, so I've got one last question for you before we let you go.
00:40:10 - Chief Taylor
Okay.
00:40:11 - Valerie Bono
This is Constructing the Carolinas podcast. And so I'm dying to know if there could be any one project that you would love to see built in North Carolina, and it could be anything at all, what would that be?
00:40:23 - Chief Taylor
Wow, that is a difficult question. But you know how proud I am of the emergency training center and it being a world class facility. I could say it's being built now. It truly is. And then the partnership and all the organizations part of that, you know, because I live it every day and I see it every day, and what we're able to provide there is like no other. And I would say so it's being built right now and it's. It's going to be something very special.
00:40:56 - Valerie Bono
Yes. Thank you for sharing and this has been absolutely wonderful. I appreciate your time, appreciate your service, and thank you for everything that you do each and every day to keep our community safe.
00:41:09 - Chief Taylor
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me and allowing me to speak about this great state.
00:41:19 - Valerie Bono
That wraps up another episode of Constructing the Carolinas. A huge thank you to Chief Brian Taylor for sharing his expertise and giving us a deeper understanding of what it takes to keep North Carolina's community safe. From firefighter training and emergency preparedness to fire safety technology and disaster response, his leadership is making a real impact across the state. If you've enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review or share this episode with anyone interested in in fire safety, emergency response or the future of our state's fire service. Stay safe out there and we'll catch you next time on Constructing the Carolinas.