When The Smoke Clears

Rick Triplett was born and raised in Montgomery County, specifically the Rockville/Twinbrook area.  So when he finally made his way into the fire service and started working in Rockville, his knowledge of the area served him very well.  He got the opportunity to drive a lot of different types of apparatus, so he became extremely operator for the engine, truck, and rescue squad.  As he rose through the ranks, he joine...

Troy Lipp grew up in the fire service.  His father was a volunteer firefighter and so Troy spent his childhood hanging around the firehouse and even occasionally riding with his father on calls.  After reaching adulthood, he attended college and had plans to be an engineer, but eventually decided the fire service was a much better fit.  Throughout his career, Troy did a bit of everything, but he spent a lot of his ti...

Greg Edwards grew up with his dad being a firefighter in the Washington DC Fire Department and a cousin being a volunteer firefighter, so Greg grew up with the fire service all around him.  After graduating college, the fire service finally won him over and he was hired with Montgomery County.  He spent some time assigned to Bethesda fire houses and Rockville station 3 until he transferred down to Takoma Park, where he fe...

Assistant Chief Monte Fitch (The original...not to be confused with his son) grew up on the west coast, living in national parks and seeing his father fight the occasional wild fire as part of the National Park Service.  Growing up, he became a wild land firefighter for a few years until moving east and eventually joining the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department.  From there, he got hired by the Hillandale Volunteer Fire ...

Battalion Chief Jim Resnick is our guest on the podcast as we return from a prolonged break.

Jim grew up in Bethesda and, like many of our guests, got exposed to the fire department at an early age.  After seeing many severe car accidents near the intersection by his house as a child, he vowed to be able to do more to help once he got older.  As a teenager, he joined the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad where he volunteer...

Corey Smedley was first introduced to the fire service by his sister.  She was hired as a career firefighter in Prince Georges County and Corey decided to follow in her footsteps.  Corey was eventually hired in PG County as well, and he enjoyed a full career there, rising through the ranks and eventually landing at the chief level.

From there, various opportunities came Corey's way, including an opportunity to work in the ...

Vanessa DeVries first expressed interest in the fire department at four years old.  Yes, many kids go through their "I want to be a firefighter" phase, but Vanessa never grew out of hers.  She joined a volunteer fire department in Prince Georges County as a teenager, was later hired by the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, and never looked back.

As a female in the fire service at a time when there were even fewer ...

Kevin DeVries is a second generation firefighter who was influenced early on by his father and uncle, who were both career firefighters for a time.  Kevin was another one who was hired during the corporation days and saw the department evolve into being run by the county.  Along the way, he worked in Bethesda, Takoma Park and Silver Spring, running "a couple fires along the way," as he put it.

Kevin never hesitated to tell...

Battalion Chief Mike Hamilton holds the record of having served the longest in the fire service out of all of the people we have interviewed so far...45 years!  During that time, Mike did A LOT.  From working at the 911 call center, being on the apparatus committee, working in code enforcement, and working in virtually every battalion in one position or another, Mike Hamilton had a very full career.  He was on the sc...

Derrick Anthony joins us to discuss his 30+ year fire service career.  Throughout his time in MCFRS, Derrick was involved in many things, including teaching at the training academy, helping with the Critical Incident Stress Management Team, being the In-Service Training Coordinator at the training academy, helping the department acquire accreditation, and more.

Once he retired, he continued working in a variety of jobs, being v...

Rico Shepherd never grew up with any aspirations to join the fire department.  However, when he saw an advertisement in the newspaper about MCFRS hiring, he applied, got hired, and the rest was history.

Rico spent a good part of his career in Cabin John on the swift water rescue team, and another large chunk of it in the fire code enforcement section where he eventually retired as a Master Firefighter.  After retirement, h...

When Walter Balma had his first encounter with the fire department, he knew immediately that he wanted to be a firefighter.  Growing up in Prince George's County, MD, he wanted to be a PG firefighter, so he became a PG volunteer.  However, when applying for full-time fire department jobs, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue hired him first.  Walter enjoyed a 20+ year career in Montgomery County before eventually retiri...

Stacey Jones never had any ambition to join the fire service when he was young, but through various twists and turns of life, he found himself joining  the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service as a member of Recruit Class 6.  Along the way, Stacey never had any formal mentors to teach him about the fire service, and at times he struggled.  But he ultimately forged his own path and ended up retiring as a Captain ...

"Retired" Fire Chief Scott Goldstein joins us on the show to recount his 30+ years in the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, including eight years as its Fire Chief.  We say "retired" because Chief Goldstein is actually still on the job!  He currently serves as Fire Chief of Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue in Kelso, Washington.

Chief Goldstein has lots of great insights to share about his time in Montgomery County, and e...

Division Chief Mike Love returns to share with us the rest of his story.  If you haven't listened to part one, please do yourself a favor and do that...otherwise you'll miss out on a lot!

Chief Love picks up from where he left off...getting promoted to Sergeant in the Silver Spring Fire Department.  His career then took him through the ranks all the way up to Division Chief.  Along the way, he saw the department chang...

Captain Clifford "Cliff" Billingslea joins us to talk about his career.  Growing up, Cliff met several people in high school who would eventually become his fire department colleagues in the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.  Once he got into the department, he spent his initial few years in the more rural areas of the county before transferring to Takoma Park.  From there, he spent the rest of his career wo...

Captain Pete Corte is another individual who wanted to be a firefighter from the very beginning.  He achieved his goal by becoming a volunteer firefighter at first, then getting hired by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.  Pete worked in Takoma Park, Bethesda, Glen Echo, Glenmont, and Chevy Chase, rising through the ranks.  He also spent some time as a safety officer.

After some injuries caught up with him, he...

From the time he was first introduced to the fire service in high school, Marshall Moneymaker knew this was what he wanted to do with his life.  However, the road to get there definitely was not easy.

Eventually he did manage to get hired by the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, and made his way to station six in Bethesda...working in the high rise district of southern Montgomery County.  It was there he g...

Alex Aquino has always had a heart yearning for adventure, and all of his immediate family members were the same.  So it was no surprise (kind of) that he ended up in the fire department.

After an almost 30-year career, all of his adventures, both on the job and off, caught up to him physically.  It was his desire to continue having adventures with his family that led him to hang up his turn out gear.

Alex c...