In the latest installment of Firefighters in Fire Trucks Getting Ice Cream, I’m hanging out with Billy Goldfeder, deputy chief for the Loveland-Symmes (Ohio) Fire Department.
I pick up “The Stache” in a 1991 Sutphen Deluge painted in bubble gum pink. The fire engine is from the Gwinnett County, Georgia, chapter of Pink Heals, an organization that drives pink rigs all over the country to visit people who are battling with cancer. It is owned by Michael Sayles, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma while in college and had a mini-parade of a pink police car and a pink fire engine come visit him in the hospital with his family riding along. Once he completed his cancer treatment, he changed career paths and decided he wanted to be a firefighter. He was hired by the Gwinnett County Fire Department and soon after began raising funds to have a Pink Heals fire engine of his own. It was an honor to drive it for this episode.
As we cruise through the streets of Atlanta, Billy and I discuss FirefighterCloseCalls.com and how it all started originally as The Secret List. This led to talks about fire service culture and that we need to speak up when things are going wrong. Billy has always been outspoken and passionate about the fire service. He still gives it to you straight, whether you like it or not. When I ask him about when he is going to retire from the job, he quickly replies, “If I start drooling during this interview and my left hand doesn’t work.” I guess we would be rolling a pink fire engine to the hospital code 3 if that was the case.
Once we get to Sweet Stack Creamery, there are some great moments of the staff signing the pink fire engine in memory of friends or family struggling with or lost to cancer.
We then face the first major issue involving the difficulties associated with eating an ice cream sandwich made from two donuts filled with ice cream – with such an epic mustache. You’ll have to watch to see how it turns out.
Watch the full conversation below.
Part 1
Part 2
A new episode will be published at the beginning of every month at FireIceCream.com.
