Show: On The Town Station: KNCO File: 10:15.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-15 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 30.8 MB to 6.2 MB --- transcript --- 1133-75 degrees and it's time to head to downtown Grass Valley and visit with Tom Fitzsimmons who is On The Town at Serino's. Good morning Tom. Well good morning Moe, we're out here at Serino's at Main Street. You know what I love about Serino's Main Street, I was just saying this last time I was here a week ago, is that as you sit around and visit with my guests and stuff, this is what Serino's Jerry is your strength. It's very conducive to that atmosphere. Family restaurant, family Italian restaurant, where people do that. Whether they're gathering as a family or friends and such to enjoy a meal, enjoy a Bloody Mary at the bar. This is what this place has always been known for. Well the table kind of levels everyone and you get a chance, you know I come from a big family and at the table it doesn't matter who you were or how old you were or how well you could speak, you had a voice and everybody had to listen. You had to turn, that's right. And if I had to hear again how my parents met, you know each kid as they came along wanted that situation and they wanted it over and over and over again. But the point was, it was the table, it does level people and it's very important to bring your children and your family to that table at a particular time to where it's mandatory for everybody to join one another. It's essential for the connection and the well-being of that family, as well as the restaurant. Perfect memories with my family, how they met and you know, visitation day at Rahway State Prison, it's like one of the ways. But I don't want to bring that up here, my friend. This is your time coming here though. As the holidays start arriving here in Grass Valley, it's a big time for Serenums. It is, it is because we see people that we don't see normally during the year and they come back at particular times and they make reservations and they have their office parties and Christmas parties and friends get together and do their Christmas celebration. It's neat. We really enjoy the birthdays and the anniversaries and the family and friends celebration here because they're choosing this place to have a special time and that's an honor for us. So we really respond to it. We have some special things that we do when you call and tell the hostess that it's your special day. We have something that makes people feel good and that's our opportunity to show our hospitality. Here's the funny thing. A week from today, I'll be doing On the Town and it will be my birthday. I know that. Isn't that something? So maybe after that I can see what the special thing happens on a birthday, is that right? That's right. That's right. It'll happen on your birthday. It's not coming out of a cake or anything, is it? God, I hope not. She stays as far away from cakes as she possibly can, being the ex-cake lady. But yeah, it's really important for us. The staff loves it and it's really important for the person, the people that are with the person to let us know that it's your special time if they haven't told us. But we're here at Serino's at Main Street. Make reservations. The number is 477-6000. That's 477-6000. And you can enjoy what people have enjoyed for the last 44 years, is sincere professionalism and consistency in our food and our service. We've got people here that have been here for 25 years, lots of them, and they really care about this establishment and the customer. If you're a business owner out there, we're about two months away from the big day, from Christmas, so Christmas parties and all that. It's not too early to think about that stuff. You guys host great parties. That's right. And you really need to make reservations in advance because we fill up. We can only take so many, and we usually are maxed out. So everybody enjoy their sales. And remember, this is fire weather. I stepped out of the KNCO studio today, and I go, oh my God. It's not only warm, it's consistent wind, and they just don't stop until the wind changes in that type of an atmosphere. We've fought enough big fires up here to learn our lesson. Be careful out there, please. Tom Vallee here. We've got Daniel Ramey here from Chicago Park Fire. Yeah, we're going to be talking about that type of stuff here on the town, here at Serino's at Main Street. Jerry, thanks for hosting today. We're going to throw it back to the studios. Keep checking on Wall Street and on the town with Law Enforcement, Fire Protection Council. We'll come back. It is 1138, 76 degrees. Time to chat with Rick Fisher, Financial Advisor with Ostro Financial Consultants, LPL Financial, member SIPC. Hey, Tom mentioned that his birthday is a week from today, which I knew, but I hadn't really thought about in that perspective, but he talked about Donna maybe coming out of a cake. Do you ever have somebody do something like that, leap out of a cake for you on your birthday? No. I've seen it happen on TV and in movies, but I've never seen that, no, not live. Okay. Well, you do have at least another birthday coming up next year, right? I do in February, yes. Okay. So, yeah, we'll see. And yours is close to Chris Gilbert's birthday, so maybe we can have a dual jump out of a cake situation. Yeah, I don't think Mrs. Fisher would appreciate that, so let's just do it for some single guy. Well, she might appreciate it if it was Chris Gilbert jumping out of the cake. I think we're going the wrong direction. Let's turn this around. Yeah, yeah. Let's find out what's happening on Wall Street. What do you say? Well, we're still mixed, but we're improving. Currently, we've got the Dow actually up 504 points to 52,126. S&P 500 is up a little more than seven points to 7727, and the NASDAQ is still negative, but down just 89 points to 26,603. Taking a look at commodities, we've got crude oil up $2.60 to $96.50 a barrel. Gold's up $70 and change to $4,178 an ounce, with silver up $1.37 to $57.25 an ounce. Last but not least, we've got the 10-year Treasury currently at 5.08%. So, an improving market, and hopefully we can get that one down market up before the end of the close today. And we'll find out how that all comes out when you share your information right after the 5.30 newscast this afternoon. So, until then, this has been Rick Fisher of Ostro Financial Consultants, Inc., LPL, inviting you to call us at 273-4425 and discover the difference when you think beyond investments. Have a wonderful afternoon. And welcome back down to town. Tom Fitzsimmons here at Serena's at Main Street. Tom Vallee here. Of course, he's the man, the legend, and of course, we're involved with Nevada County and Law Enforcement Fire Protection Council, but also firefighter who knows this type of weather, this type of feel at this time of year. Do you get the hairs back of your neck go up a little bit just thinking about past fires and what could happen? Yeah, whenever you have these north and northeast winds like this, people don't understand. That gets behind a fire and any kind of temperature and low humidity with that wind of push on it, you're not stopping it until the weather changes usually. And I mean, we saw that in the Oakland Hills all the way to the end of my career that, you know, people kind of go, well, what are you doing about all this? And kind of basically holding our own and waiting for the weather to change. Once it does, then you've got that upper hand a little bit and you get to work on it, you know. Fire was, I think it was right around this time in October, if I recall, right? October 19th. Yeah, that was an experience. You know, everybody supposedly is going to have a career fire. I went on to have, I don't know how many career fires because they are getting bigger, faster, much more, you know, as far as destroying and destructive for property and property owners. It's just gotten crazy. Well, that's why it's so important. And Law Enforcement Fire Protection Council, you guys have really made an impact with local fire districts on their needs, whether it's communication needs, whether it's drone needs, you know, as far as rescue needs and stuff like that. You guys have really done a lot. Yeah, as a matter of fact, Paredale Chicago Park, we just did five more radios for them. Probably right there on his hip, there it is. There's some crackling going on from Daniel. Yeah, you know, and we take a lot of pride in raising those funds and filling those needs where they're just not being met. I mean, in his jurisdiction, they run a deficit every year, a substantial deficit. And just to squeak by, if we can help out by buying five radios here, five radios there, we've bought drones, we've bought pumps, we've bought, you know, the landing pad here recently for the helicopters. So, you know, we raise money and it just goes directly back through us to whatever agencies we can help. So since 1989, we've raised about a million and a half and it's all gone back. So it's a good thing and a great honor to sit on this board. It really is. Well, the next thing you got going, right, is a red light bulb, right? That's the next thing in April, I think. Is that right? May 15th. Yeah. Yeah, you're close. What's a month? April, May. A month of here and there. As a head fan, I usually throw away April. Yeah, see, see what? Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, June's around the corner then. You know, that's how you look at it. Yeah, so we're going to be doing that in the spring this year, a little later. I think it'll be a good event. And, you know, it's our main event. But we're always happy to take donations, you know, any time you want to do that. NClawandfire.org is the website. Of course, as I mentioned, Daniel Ramey's here from Perrydale Chicago Park Fire Department. That's your home base, Daniel, but do you have a home base at this time? Because it seems like you're out of here as much as you are here. Yeah, I definitely feel like this year I've been having the opportunity to get far away from home more than I ever have. So, great opportunity, but I am very glad to be back in Nevada County, back with my great family and fire family. You have a fire family. How many kids do you have now, too? Because every time I go on Facebook or whatever, there's another one that's popped out. Yep, I have three sons right now. Three sons? Yep, three sons. It's beautiful. Did you know there was a TV show called My Three Sons? Have you ever heard about that? On a daily, people remind me. Yep. We're tapping our shoes right now as Tom Vallee's doing that song. Okay, so when you're away from home, how tough is it to kind of do your job knowing you're missing them? All I can say is FaceTime has really been the biggest thing. FaceTime with the family at night. Sometimes we had to coordinate lunch breaks if I have a second in the truck to give them a call. But it was a challenging year. This year we were on the fires. It was not a slow fire. All the fires we were on were really getting after it, so we were able to do good work. It did put a stress on my family, and I really appreciate their support from family and friends. But yeah, it was a long, long season for a lot of us. Of course, the devastating fire up in Washington State was a massive thing for a major city up there, especially in the Northwest and stuff. You went up there, I think you called it as an incident team or something like that, or a support team. Can you explain how you ended up there? Yes, I'm part of California Interagency Incident Management Team 7. It's a big mouthful. But what that is, it's through the federal government, and they have the National Forest Service. They have these teams. CAL FIRE has them as well for our state here. But they go throughout the whole nation supporting major disasters, not just fires, but in this case it was a fire in Spokane. There were three fires burning, and we took all three fires on and managed those fires. So we basically just embed ourselves with the local fire law, EMS, and we support them in their time of crisis. I'm sure it helps that you speak their language. I mean, because I was sharing with both these guys, my memories when the fires in Spokane were first being covered, it was those local guys that had very stressed outlooks, looked like they haven't slept for like two or three days, and they were trying to communicate and stuff. It was not easy on them. No, it was not. We came in there, and amazingly, we were in a position where we were there very quickly. We were in Oregon. We were stationed to the Fox fire, signed to that, about to take over that incident. And then we got a call for our command to divert to Spokane. So instead of a two-day drive from California with our trailers and so on, we were there within three to five hours, 140 of us, taking over all those stressful situations they were being faced with and going to work. It was truly amazing. I think it was a godsend. And numerous times they broke down and just gave us hugs at the end of their rope. So I was really blessed to be part of the team and be able to support Spokane in that hard time. Let's first talk about the firefighters. You know, a lot of people, and even the nature of covering news, they talk obviously to homeowners, property owners, that have lost their things, maybe lost everything, as they say. But that means a lot to firefighters too, never mind the ones that have lost their homes as well. But that hurts the soul of firefighters, right, when people lose things. Absolutely. I talked to a couple firefighters there that actually lost their homes. They actually didn't know if their home was burned down, because we got there so early. We were still in the incipient stage. They didn't know the damage assessment. They didn't know how bad it really was. It was so smoky. It was still actively burning when we pulled up. The fire captains, fire chiefs that we spoke with, they said, we don't know how bad it is, and a lot of us don't know if we're going to be going back to a house. And that did hit hard for all of us, because we've been evacuated, a lot of us, back at our houses, and our families have impacted that. But that magnitude was hard to put into words. It was very bad. So you guys show up at that scene, and I'm picturing the smoky environment and stuff. Do you guys, how quickly are you up and running and making things happen? I mean, there has to be some type of period where you're getting set up. Do you guys get on it within hours, within a day, or what? It's a great question. In this case, everything was on fast forward. Initially, we would usually have, in a normal setting, we'd show up. We'd have some, like, shadowing time. We'd take over. We would plug in, get passwords, log in, and all those times. Well, in this case, it was very much on fast forward. We showed up, and everything was going down. They weren't sure if the command center knew where they could have an incident command post. So we found a high school. They suggested it. There was fire on numerous sides of it, but we felt safe enough, big parking lot, that that was going to be our command center. And they gave us the keys from the janitor, and we started opening up doors and started making it happen. That was an experience I've never had. That's awesome. All right. Just hearing that, that's a great visual. I can picture that. How quick does your adrenaline start pumping and stuff, right, as you step into that high school and see that fire? Yeah, we were with the command group. They had the incident commands just working with us, and they said, this is going to be our command post, and it's going to be an all-nighter. Don't expect to sleep. And they started getting coffee. I think we had one hour of sleep for that night. The next night was maybe two hours. All hands on deck. But you weren't really tired because you knew the urgency. You know the situation. I didn't really get tired until day three just because of the adrenaline. Okay. What I do for a living is try to calm people on a fire that breaks out, and we're getting information, say, from you, a PIO and stuff, and try to relieve people about maybe the stress that they're having. What's it like for you to kind of answer reporters' questions and maybe trying to accomplish the same thing for the people in the community? It can be challenging sometimes when you get thrown into an incident that was fast-moving and you kind of came behind the curve. You're painting a picture to the locals that know every street that's being impacted. They know the people's homes that are being lost, and sometimes you're thrown into talking for them, and that can be challenging. In this case, we were faced with that, but we also came in when it was still active, and we tied into the people that gave us a good picture of what was going on. So we were able to talk about it, I think, more comfortably and more directly, helping the community because we were there so quickly. It was actually very different for me. In my experiences, we were kind of a day or two after, and so much happens in the first 10 to 24 hours. So being able to articulate what was happening on the fire just really came. It was right in front of our faces. It was not past tense. It was current, and we were listening to the radio traffic. We were listening to the people shutting down the highways. I was getting notifications as I was driving in that roads I was on were getting shut down for evacuations. Something that really stood out to us is the notifications were on point. Law enforcement was working closely with their fire assets, so they were shutting down and evacuating people better than I've ever seen in my career. We have to take one break, and we do that right now because if I don't, I won't take a break because he's too interesting to talk to. That's Daniel Ramey from Chicago Park Fire Department, Parallel Chicago Park. So we're going to take a quick break, continue our conversation when we come back. Around here, when there's work to do, we roll up our sleeves and get it done. Rental Guys helps you do it right. Tell us what you're tackling. From a weekend property project to a full-scale construction job, our local team will find the right equipment to keep your job moving. From excavators, skid steers, and lifts, to generators, concrete equipment, and yard tools, every rental is cleaned, inspected, and ready to work. Third generation and family owned, Rental Guys has proudly served our community since 1959. We've grown to 13 locations, but our promise hasn't changed. Take care of our customers, stand behind our equipment, and help you finish strong. Visit 302 Railroad Avenue in Grass Valley or 2021 Live Oak Boulevard in Yuba City or start at RentalGuys.com. Rental Guys, rent it right the first time. Hey there, this is Diane Helms with Century 21 Cornerstone Realty in Nevada City. Hey, are you considering buying or selling now or in the future? I have the advice and the necessary resources to guide you through this process. In fact, I've been blessed to live in Nevada County and raise my family here and provide quality real estate service for 45 years. To me, real estate is about serving your needs with my experience, knowledge, and integrity. I would love the opportunity to help you. Remember, when you want to sell or buy, call us at 530-913-8598. Escape the everyday and enjoy a little more time to relax with a weeknight getaway. Because this year, Stella Rewards members of every tier can enjoy 50% off all suites and 30% off all standard rooms Sunday through Thursday. Settle in and relax in our luxurious rooms and enjoy everything the resort has to offer. From casino excitement and free live entertainment to award-winning craft beer and delicious dining at the brewery. The Lodge at Feather Falls Casino Resort. Your place to stay. Must be 21 or older. Blackout days apply. Management reserves all rights. All you can eat. Prime rib and crab legs? Oh yeah, this is not a drill. Feather Falls Casino Resort's Dream Catcher Buffet is serving up the ultimate surf and turf. Slow-roasted prime ribs, sweet buttery crab legs. Pile your plate high, then go back for seconds or thirds, maybe fourths. Hey, we don't judge. Join us Friday and Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m., just $34.99 for all-you-can-eat prime rib, crab legs, and all your buffet favorites. Dream Catcher Buffet. Come hungry. Leave impressed. Only at Feather Falls Casino. Your place to feast. Great. Now I'm hungry. And welcome back to On the Town. Tom Fitzsimmons here. Serena's at Main Street. And Tom and Daniel talking about firefights. Tom talking about the Oakland Hills fire. As you might have heard, Daniel was just up in Spokane. The latest of major fires you've covered, Daniel. Do you love this job, being a PIO and doing this? Yeah, I do find huge fulfillment out of it. There's challenges to it. You're away from home. But I do love it. It's something I feel like I get better at each time, which finding a career that you can get better at is nice because you don't feel like you're just spinning your wheels. I feel like every year I learn something new. The technology, we're always embracing technology and bringing it in when we can. So I feel challenged every time I get deployed with the teams, and that's what I love about it. I was just listening to Tom tell his story about trying to figure out logistics of the firefight in the Oakland Hills and things working out. They think it's like hell on earth, but sometimes I always think that maybe God's even more present, especially with firefighters and stuff, because putting words in your mouth that are appropriate. Do you ever feel that, that sometimes you're getting some messages that you're able to communicate in very stressful times clearly? Oh, absolutely. I'm a believer in Christ, and I believe for me, there were many times I was just like, man, get us through this time because it was challenging. We had people come in and asking for prayer, asking for hugs, because they were majorly impacted so quickly. People lost everything. So, yeah, you have to be in perspective every day when you're out there. One thing you shared with me off the air I want to share with the listeners is that you did, I guess for lack of a better term, a pre-briefing, not really a debriefing, maybe a pre-briefing with the press to kind of get those that are certainly out of the area trying to cover a major event up to speed about what a wildfire is. Yeah, we had Fox News, CNN, some of these major global coverage, and they weren't your local, nonstop local news out of Seattle, these guys that maybe had covered fire before, and they were coming in just looking for the story. And so we did a lot of off the air, hey, this is how bad it is. This is, you know, we're not going to be interviewing people that just lost everything without their permission, kind of coaching them. And it was actually a successful time on our end of it, if you will, because we were able to say, hey, this is so severe. We're going to tread lightly and take care of these people. We're not going to run this over as a big news line. This is something that you have to think gravity to this whole situation. All right. And then coming back from those experiences, what's it bring back to you personally and what's it bring back to your department out there in Paredale? So, yeah, for my department, I would almost say, you know, I always bring back tips and tricks, if you will, for our department. But almost for the county, I learned more about, you know, the camaraderie we have with our public information officers here in the county, from, you know, Grass Valley, Higgins Fire, Nevada County Consolidated, Cal Fire, North San Juan, all these fire departments alike. We have been working closer together, and seeing how they worked close in Spokane and how it paid off, it just made me want to push harder to get to know our partners better, do more trainings, work with law enforcement, work with Grass Valley PD, Nevada City, Nevada County Sheriff's Office, all of those search and rescue, because that's what happened in Spokane. They had a successful plan at work. They got everyone out. We didn't have anyone unaccounted for. When we first got there, we had like 1,000 roughly missing. But after a couple days, they found full accountability. Look at the Paradise Fire. They lost numerous. It was close to 100 people. Then you go down and, you know, SoCal, we had, you know, the horrible incidents there. Those were all bad, but looking, it was actually a success in a lot of ways. Spokane was a success because they didn't have loss of life directly from that fire. They worked well with the law enforcement. They worked well with fire and all their partners. And so they actually took our fires in California and learned and actually did preemptive getting ahead of their water problems, and that actually paid off. They had no water issues for fighting that fire. So I learned a ton about the benefit of working with your local government and your officials. All right. We only have about a minute or so left. So is the hair up in the back of your neck with the weather out here? I started that with Tom. Is it the same way for you? Oh, absolutely. We have someone on a preposition, our water tender, our brush engines. We're assisting with that preposition of more resources in the county right now because, yeah, the wind's supposed to come in and tomorrow morning it's still supposed to be here pushing on us. Don't screw around outside. That's all I can tell you. All right? Just postpone any work you're going to do. Hunker down. Be safe. Be prepared for blackouts as well. You know what? Because rolling blackouts, the power safety shutoffs, are out there in some areas of Northern California. It could be here as well. So just be prepared. Be safe. Take care of your neighbors. Take care of each other. And appreciate what Daniel does, Tom, as well as firefighters and also Law Enforcement Fire Protection Council helping out these agencies as well. And, again, our thanks to Jerry Cirino hosting us here from the town. It's Cirino's at Main Street. That does it for us. We've got ABC News coming up right now. For more information, visit www.fema.gov --- end of transcript ---