As the Maryland Crab Cake Tour gets back to the streets of Baltimore in the coming weeks, we begin with a long overdue chat with Matt Coster of Baltimore Firefighters Local 734, who educates Nestor about what is important on our streets in battling blazes and providing safety for city citizens.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
firefighter, fire, crab cake, oyster, baltimore, day, thinking, union, firehouse, people, eat, years, city, put, good, north avenue, burns, cancer, lexington, week
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Damye Hahn, Matt Coster
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, tassel, Baltimore, Baltimore. Positive. We are positively Lexington market, the epicenter of awesomeness in downtown Baltimore, between Utah and packer. We’re here at fade Lee’s in Lexington market. Nancy Devine is staring at me and the tastemakers on the wall. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. I have the Gold Rush seven doublers. We’re gonna have the Ravens scratch off. We get together with Cocos on the fourth of September, Orioles doing the Dodgers thing away this week. Ravens getting ready for the chiefs. And I just got back from Ocean City. You had a Baltimore positive. You’ve seen Ben Cardin, Chris Van Hollen, Johnny. Whole bunch people we had on. This is a guy that I met last year at Mako that I’ve been 53 weeks now, saying I’m gonna have you on the program. Matt Koster is the president of local 734 of the Baltimore firefighters. A firefighter yourself. No doubt about that. You’re taller than I remember you at the beach leg. We wearing sand. Was I wearing heels, or were you wearing sandals?
Matt Coster 01:02
I was probably in the sand and secrets, yeah, little, little smaller than
Nestor Aparicio 01:07
Well, i How are you? And tell me about the firefighters. Because I, I think I said this tonight I met you. I grew up in a neighborhood. We had a lot of firefighters, and they were City firefighters in many cases, and and you represent city only or no? Yeah, only the city, okay? City firefighters paid by the city, correct? Yes, sir. Um, how long were you on the beat?
01:29
I’ve been a firefighter for 23 years now,
Nestor Aparicio 01:33
still, to this day, you are, you’re an active firefighter.
Matt Coster 01:36
I I work out of the field as a union president, but I still ride along with my crew, my shift at my station, just to keep my skills up. Always
Nestor Aparicio 01:44
a union member for the minute you became right yes. Tell me about the firefighters union and what it represents, the things you fight for, because I don’t think you got a lot of air time. My dad was a union member at the point I was a union member in the guild at the Baltimore Sun I walked the picket line when I was 17 years old.
Matt Coster 02:01
We see unions maligned in this country in many ways, and we also see unions incredibly supported, especially in a political season. Where are you union? Or are you not? If you’re not, you’re not going to get some votes in a lot of places in this not just the city, but in this country, your union and the strength of your union and what how many people you represent? So I represent about 1100 members. Consist of firefighters, emergency vehicle drivers, pump operators, dispatchers, EMTs, medics as retired as well. So inspectors, instructors at the academy. So I represent a lot of people, representing them in regard to give us some ideas of things that come to your desk from a firefighter. And God forbid, I don’t want to sit here and be morbid and talk about every time we lose a firefighter, because when that happens, that’s when you make the news. You know only time they come and see you care about you is when 911 or when there’s a tragedy. But you’re there every day, doing more than just getting cats out of trees like we saw in the Richard scary cartoon books. When I was a kid, my friends were firefighters. I know the risk that you every day, that risk is there for you exactly. We’re a huge team. And when it consists of every day, I mean, Baltimore burns, burns at twice the national average. So my guys and gals are out there doing it every day. You know, we don’t hit the news every day because, like you said, only when it’s tragic or when something’s, you know, in the news when it’s newsworthy. I guess you could say, then, then we’re in the news. But besides that, we’re just kind
Nestor Aparicio 03:36
you say, Well, only when it’s tragic and there’s a fire. Nobody dies. You come put the fire out. It’s a grease fire in the kitchen. Everybody’s happy there’s some damage or some insurance. We effed up, or they didn’t have a safety protocols, or whatever. That doesn’t make the news, but that happens every day, and when it I had a fire in my basement, White Marsh years ago with a candle, and like when the house was two minutes from burning down. I’m glad you’re there. I’m glad same thing for anyone in public service in that way, it’s
Matt Coster 04:06
definitely an insurance policy that you want to have. You know that you want us to be there when you need it. So that’s why we’re so important. You know, we’re we’re paid by the taxpayer, so it’s important to have us there. You know, Baltimore is unique at where a all union, all paid shop, as in, like Baltimore County, like you just mentioned, they’re half union, half volunteer. Harford County’s all volunteer. They do have a paid EMS service now, but Baltimore City is a all paid service that is funded by the taxpayers. Added
Nestor Aparicio 04:39
Zen of how many people were in your union, and where are you now? Because I, you know, look, I’m in a city. I’m here at Fannie’s, I know, and I talked to him, Zeke Cohen, gonna be coming on. He was invited today, and I know you spent the morning. That’s why you dress real nice. You’re down to cancel trying to get more funding, knowing that I have seen closed. Fire stations here, right? I mean, we changed a lot as a city, but a fire still a fire, and you need to be proximity is everything putting a fire out, right? Exactly
Matt Coster 05:09
time. Time is like our worst enemy. You know, when you close a firehouse, somebody has to pick up those runs. You know, it’s like I said, Time is the enemy. So if we’re out on a call, then another unit has to
Nestor Aparicio 05:25
respond. Further than six minutes is a lot different, and response time, right?
Matt Coster 05:28
You’re waiting on a fire truck, and you feel that, just like holding a match to your finger, it hurts.
Nestor Aparicio 05:35
Well, there’s a reason we called it a fire drill when we were kids, right? Because fire happens fast, like, you know, and suddenly, and that’s where you come in. I mean, recruiting more members still, like the police very much. Is it hard to get people to sign up for the force? You call it a force? Is that? Am I saying the right word? Yeah.
Matt Coster 05:55
Department, Department. Okay, fair it is. We’ve had trouble in the last last go around. Usually, when I came in at fodder Barton, 23 years ago, there was 7000 people that signed up for the test. Now we’re having less than 700 people sign up for the test. And out of that 700 you make it 300 so, you know, statistics are saying it’s down. You know, after covid, we didn’t hire during covid. So we’re in, we’re technically in a staffing crisis right now. We do have recruits out at the Academy right now that we’re going to graduate in October, and then another class should come in after that. But we’re still probably 100 some firefighters short at this time, and mainly, I would say about 90 paramedics short.
Nestor Aparicio 06:40
Yeah, Don Moeller would always say, and he sat in front of Harrison, a whole bunch of police chiefs here. And as for Baltimore County, said he sat at the old faith as he said this, I hope you’re not signing up out of adventure to be a police officer. You’re signing up out of service, right? You want to carry a gun and play cops and do all that from a firefighter’s perspective. And this goes back to me being a kid with, you know, Jody gage and emergency back in the 70s, and, you know, to fire for rampart, rampart and all that stuff. I would think that if you’re thinking of entering the academy become a firefighter, what, what is that calling and what? Who are these 300 people we see that are worthy of being a part of your department?
Matt Coster 07:23
Well, we’re hoping we’re getting the best of the best. You know, with lowering standards in this day and age, just to get somebody to fill a seat is dangerous, and that’s what we as a union don’t want to see happen. We don’t want to see standards lowered to just fill a body and it makes you guys less safe. Exactly. We need somebody that is willing to do the job, that wants to help people, wants to make a difference, and is not there just for a paycheck. So
Nestor Aparicio 07:50
the recruitment part of this, and I would ask this, and don’t, please, don’t be think I’m being flippant, because I’m a journalist who’s had journalists, literally today, I had Ron Schneider on, who’s a professor over at Towson, and I’m like, is journalism a career? You know, if you had a kid and said he wants to be nasty Nestor wants to be wants to get banned by the Ravens in the Orioles and treated like garbage and thrown out on a whim, I’d say, not a great career. You know, firefighter, my kid came to me and said, I want your firefighter? I’d say, well, unions always fighting, and it’s all you’re just sort of a state job. It’s unappreciated in a way where the firefighters been kicked, kicked around and like the police forever, there’s a point of appreciation that you all seek, that everybody I’ve ever known as a firefighter to say, Adley rutman is not a hero because he plays baseball. You’re a hero because you save lives. And there’s this hero thing about sports and society where we’ve gotten away from our real heroes, doctors, medics, first responders. People went down to Key Bridge and dove in the water. You know what you do is first first line. And there is a part of pride that’s built into, I’m a firefighter,
Matt Coster 09:03
yeah, definitely. Um, you know, we kind of going off the same aspect, you know, professional teams, as in the orders of the ravens, They want to put the best team forward, just like we want to do. We want to put the best team out there to make a difference in saving somebody’s life. So we don’t want to lower those standards in order to get somebody just to fill us. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 09:23
you know what happens when you lower standards is people become a firefighter and they do something else with their that’s what I’m saying. Is it still a 2030, year, a career in that way, because the last thing you want to do is train people who do leave in fivers teachings going through that nursing school. You know, there’s so many industries where it sucks being one of us, a journalist, a firefighter, because of the other things you have to a police officer, that there’s a turnover, and that probably isn’t good, right? I mean, no, it seasoned firefighters a whole different thing. And coming to put a fire out of my house. Been in the department 15 years, then 15 minutes.
Matt Coster 10:04
Yeah, definitely. You know, again, we like to have the our best team forward. And if we have somebody that’s going to just going to come in and then say, this isn’t for me type deal. You don’t want that person responding to your house. Obviously, this is a calling. We we appreciate the term hero. We don’t like the term hero because obviously, we’re doing a job, and that’s what we’re paid to do. But it is a calling. I
Nestor Aparicio 10:30
like the calling. That’s great to call. Yeah,
Matt Coster 10:32
it’s definitely we’re kind of a journalist.
Nestor Aparicio 10:35
I can’t help it. I don’t I’ve never done anything else. This is all I’ve ever done. This is all I’m going to do. I
Matt Coster 10:41
couldn’t do it. So it’s like the kind of same room as I couldn’t, you know, catch a fly ball and and came in yours. I mean, I probably could, but not as good as these guys that are making millions of dollars, or I couldn’t run up the middle, you know, so up the ratings defense either. So it’s, it’s kind of that way as just as they wouldn’t want to run into a burning building, you know, we kind of have that respect.
Nestor Aparicio 11:02
Matt Koster, here he is with the Baltimore firefighters the city side. He is a president of local 734 how many locals are there
Matt Coster 11:10
in Baltimore for fire? There’s
Nestor Aparicio 11:11
a big number through 730
Matt Coster 11:13
Oh, that’s the international number, okay, all right. There’s, I don’t know how many, but I know there’s 350,000 union members in this in the United States. So, well,
Nestor Aparicio 11:24
that’s a that’s a lobby, yeah. So why did you become a firefighter and and what’s your background? Your Baltimore
Matt Coster 11:30
guy, right? Yeah, Baltimore. East Baltimore guy, born and raised, um,
Nestor Aparicio 11:33
what does that mean? East Baltimore, we got neighborhoods here. We’re 10 of neighborhoods. I would say Highlandtown area. Well, you said it, right. So that’s perfect. You didn’t say Canton, yeah.
Matt Coster 11:43
You know, my family grew up there the whole time, and then, you know, I ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a firefighter. When we would watch, you know, firefighters go down the street, driving the trucks and everything, hitting the horns and sirens, that’s what I wanted to do. That’s a
Nestor Aparicio 11:58
beautiful story, dude. I wanted to be a baseball player. So, so you joined the four how different was it for you joining the force years ago than now, when you see young people come in now the training, dare I say, the science about putting a fire out, right? Like, I mean, I think we know a lot more about fires now, and fire safety. And even having, you know, I was out in the west coast a couple years ago, and I saw a real forest fire out there. And when you see those
Matt Coster 12:28
guys wildfire, I’d rather firefighter saying I’d rather run into a burning building than the forest fire any day of the week. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 12:35
but, but you, you get this life experience about you, that you see it. And I have incredible especially after 911 you know, my wife is a 911 survivor. She got, she got cancer there as just a worker, not as a firefighter. She was a first responder and putting Verizon, putting Wall Street back together, literally there. So let me talk so much about the firefighters. The zagroba fund was a firefighter fund. That’s the 911 fund in New York that my wife is a member of after almost dying. But I think about you signing up and saying, I want to be a firefighter because I was a little boy, and then you find out, like, it’s like people want to be a football player, and then seeing when the meetings they go in out there and saying that wasn’t what I thought being a football player was. Being a firefighter is different than probably what you thought it was. It’s probably different now than it was 30 years ago. Yeah, it’s
Matt Coster 13:20
definitely, we’re learning a lot about fire nowadays, um, you know, fire materials are a lot different than they were back in the 80s. You know, everything was made of wood and stuff like that. Now it’s all plastic polyurethane, different. Burns a lot faster, a lot hotter, so our gears having to change. We’re learning a lot about cancer nowadays. Like you said, your wife got it, you know, from 911 a lot of our firefighter, our our gear actually has chemicals in it that give us cancer. So we’re actually in fight with, you know, DC down and, you know, Annapolis and in DC with legislation to try to get our gear, PFAs free, because that’s actually what we’re wearing that protects us from fire is actually killing us. It’s causing cancer. So that’s what we’re learning after, you know, 20 some years of our
Nestor Aparicio 14:07
baseball guy, and something’s happened in the last number of years that the Philadelphia veteran stadium turf and the turf in Kansas City, a lot of those players got brain cancer. Oh, wow. Go back and Google it. Dan quisberry, Dick Houser, you’re old like me. You remember some of these guys, but a lot of the Phillies in the Kansas City, because of that turf, they believe there was something in the plastic in that turf, when the sun hit it and you’re out feeling ground balls, or you got it in your eye, your skin, that there’s something about that. So the plastics, plastics are dangerous, yeah,
Matt Coster 14:42
the it’s actually the water repellent chemical PFAs, that’s causing cancer. Okay? It’s, you know, ingesting in our thinking of
Nestor Aparicio 14:51
stuff you’re putting on war on years. Yeah, right. I mean, so you find these things out, what? What could make you all safer? What are the things you’re lobbying for? Uh, you know, just other than wages and respect and the things that you, that you but the safety part of this at every turn, the worst thing in the world we can do is lose a
Matt Coster 15:09
firefighter. We’re finding out everything causes cancer, from the exhaust, from the apparatus. When we back into the firehouse, the diesel exhaust is causing cancer. So we have, you know, we fought for health and safety wise to get you know the the need ermine system put on and exhaust so it pulls, actually out the carcinogens and blows it outside. Because they’re learning that a carcinogens stay into the firehouse for up to 24 to 48 hours after you back in. And that’s only saying you back. Incredible
Nestor Aparicio 15:38
thing, because the minute, the minute the truck goes in, they shut the door Exactly. And you know, it’s not like, you know, when you’re Jim Carrey going to the bathroom and you don’t have a fan, you know what I mean? Like, there’s no fan in there to ventilate. I had never really thought about, and
Matt Coster 15:51
we live in that place for 24 hours, so we’re breathing all that stuff in. Like I said, our turnout gear is causing cancer, just the carcinogens when we go into a fire all the smoke that we ingest and absorb through our body, that’s obviously a cancer. That’s the biggest fire right now is a cancer, you know, presumptive stuff with the workman’s comp and then trying to get everything fixed through legislation. What’s
Nestor Aparicio 16:15
worst fire you ever put out? Tell me about it. The worst fire, I should say. I’ve always seen the plaque here, the great Baltimore fire. You know, it’s right down at the harbor. I left the harbor, I saw it. And I can’t, I can’t get my arms around that, but I can get my arms around seeing the fireball in the sky after the riots over at the church, over in East Baltimore, I saw the fire. I mean, when you right, when you see a fireball, and I speak of my time in Montana, I saw that incredible forest fire in Montana, and you feel the heat of it. I remember being near a fire when I was a young man. I covered a fire in the 80s at a furniture store in Holly bird Avenue. I tried to think of name the place, but it’s still a furniture store caught on fire. The houses in the whole neighborhood were all melted. All the siding was melted. And I think I’ve seen these little things, dude, you’re sitting in the place. They’re having a sandwich every day, waiting for that and waiting to put it out. You know, that’s off to you. But I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen worse than anything I’ve seen.
Matt Coster 17:16
Yeah, I mean the word I’ll say, the biggest fire I’ve been on went six alarms, fingers back in 2006 or seven on 20th and Barkley. We turned I was on truck 15 that day, and I was, I was tillering, so I was a guy in the back. Okay. We turned on North Avenue, and all you could see in the sky was, I mean, this calm was huge. Everybody was thinking
Nestor Aparicio 17:41
about you is like a war movie. You know, you guys are going in and, you know, you’re going into some jet, you know what I mean, like, like, literally, you see it, and you’re like, let’s go. You’re going at it. And I’m just thinking of, you know, from a hero 911 perspective. We’re all familiar with that, but I’m just thinking, okay, North Avenue, bells are ringing. Everybody’s getting hell out of the way. Whoo, whoo. You know, we’re going down and the smokes going out, we’re going in it.
Matt Coster 18:04
Yeah, everybody’s looking at the calm because it’s huge, and we’re going that way. And then why not? We were wound up being on the second alarm, I think, and it wound up going six alarms, and we had, I think the whole block was off at that point. So fire, get
Nestor Aparicio 18:18
it out. Got it out. I should ask if you got it, you got it out. Every fire in
Matt Coster 18:21
this city goes out, you know, there’s, that’s what I always tell the politicians when they’re they’re talking about budgets. I’m like, if you can tell me if a fire
Nestor Aparicio 18:29
still back down there that said it didn’t go out about 120 years ago, right? That’s 120
Matt Coster 18:34
years. I can’t say who was there for that, but I can understand that’s why we have all these, you know, building codes and everything else that came out now that actually protect Well,
Nestor Aparicio 18:44
we burn twice as more than other cities. Why is that just old, old sand and,
Matt Coster 18:50
you know, East Coast, Old City, but we still. We have arson issue in the city. We also have a band and building issue in the city. Um, well,
Nestor Aparicio 18:57
that’s trouble waiting to happen. Exactly, that’s a fire waiting to happen. Literally, it
Matt Coster 19:02
is because, you know, when you have an abandoned millions, it’s just going to mean somebody’s going to go in there, drug activity, homeless activity. It’s not vacant until we say it’s vacant, right? So that’s an issue with with Baltimore. It’s only
Nestor Aparicio 19:13
vacant until somebody for until we turn our backs, yeah, some, some cases,
Matt Coster 19:16
you know, politicians say we have vacant buildings. You know, we shouldn’t be going in there and fighting fire. But how’d the fire start? Buildings don’t spontaneous. Can bust. So somebody had to be in there to start the fire. So well, how
Nestor Aparicio 19:28
about that explosion up in Abingdon? Oh, you know, it’s incredible, right? And
Matt Coster 19:32
that’s kind of how the 20th and Barclay started Same deal gas leak and exploded. Dangerous, right? It is dangerous. You need to have, you know, if you smell gas, obviously you can call 311, and I want if you smell gas, but it is dangerous if it’s especially nowadays with the new construction, new windows, everything’s kind of sealed up. So it’s kind of just, you know, gas getting leaked out everywhere, and then a match or and. Ignition source hits it and it’s going to explode. You know that that’s that’s the dangerous part about it. But I like gas because it’s cheaper than electric. But, you know, it is dangerous, CEO poisoning everything. So I would definitely recommend, if you have gas appliances, to get a CO detector and stuff like that. I’m going
Nestor Aparicio 20:19
to get Damian. We’re going to buy crab cakes and oysters next with Matt kosters here from the Baltimore firefighters. I’ve been waiting to have you on for a year. Delighted to have you on, be part of this. Pay respect to all of our firefighters out there. But I’m gonna this is where, you know, I asked the stupid question at the end, people parking in front of fire hydrants, tell them that’s wrong. Tell them that’s wrong. That
Matt Coster 20:39
that that is wrong and it’s dangerous. You’re gonna put people’s lives in danger. It’s, uh, it makes us have to reroute and get a different hydrant. Or possibly, how
Nestor Aparicio 20:51
often does that happen? It
Matt Coster 20:52
happens a lot.
Nestor Aparicio 20:53
I that is my that’s the reason I bring it up. Bring it up to be funny and whatever. But I’m thinking to myself, if you get to a fire, get to North Avenue and the little orange guys there, we used to paint them like Johnny united and Brooks Robinson. You know, you need to Ray Lewis ones. Need some Adley rutschman ones, right? But you get there, you can’t get there. I think about that with fire high, do they all work?
Matt Coster 21:16
Yeah, they’re all tested, right? We actually as a fire. We go out and inspect hydrants once a week. It’s our job. It’s our lobby.
Nestor Aparicio 21:26
Emergency guys. You sit around eat pizza and watch ball games. Still, something happens. No bell rings. You fly down a ball. Yeah. What? Yeah.
Matt Coster 21:34
All that mostly because it’s an old, old city, you know, it’s two story fire. I’ve
Nestor Aparicio 21:39
always wanted to do that. Firefighter to do it. Can you do it on your own? Well, reminds me of Batman The Bat poles. Yeah? Like you hit the bat pole, you go down. Oh, yeah.
Matt Coster 21:50
You really have those still? Yeah, we can figure it out. I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 21:53
get you out of the bunks
Matt Coster 21:55
right in the bunk room. Or there’s usually a bunch of them each. Kind of, I
Nestor Aparicio 22:00
haven’t been in a firehouse in a long time. The firefighters, and you’ll tell me which one this is, because I lived at the Inner Harbor forever. We would walk down to cross street, and the firefighters on light, light at wherever that is, light region two, just south of the harbor box in the harbor. Those guys, they’re all new me, and they were always nice to me and my wife. We walked by. They’re sitting outside, but I never thought to like go in and get a tour. The only firehouse I’ve ever been in in my life is the Berkshire firehouse. When I was in kindergarten, I was a little little boy. We were learning fire safety, and they took us over to firehouse. I’m talking like I was a little little boy and they had the pole. We were too little to go down it. So I haven’t been in a firehouse as a civilian since 1974 Oh,
Matt Coster 22:49
wow, yeah, some of my wood eyes. So exactly some of them are
Nestor Aparicio 22:54
not the only ones. Anybody else been in a firehouse and going down the pole. I don’t know they had poles. Now I want to
Matt Coster 22:59
go, yeah. The funny thing, some of them are still from 1974 they’re being updated slowly, but gradually. But yeah, engine two to one you’re talking about. It’s actually getting remodeled right now. So I should wait for the new pole, or, well, you should wait for the new one, because it’ll look really nice. So Well, I mean, and
Nestor Aparicio 23:15
for you getting these remodeled, it’s no different than I was at my old elementary school over Colgate. Like redoing fire high fire departments, redoing it all costs money. Oh, yeah, yeah, the budget citizens are paying for this. Yeah,
Matt Coster 23:28
luckily, you know, like we say we we had a merit. It isn’t going to bounce a budget on the firefighters back. That’s what he said. So he’s been, you know, helpful in giving us money. I know we got a bunch of money from ARPA funds to help with the rehabs of firehouse. Because some of these remodels are years decades from, you know, they should have been done decades ago, right?
Nestor Aparicio 23:53
So you take me to your worst firehouse right now that that would be, we know it needs to be changed, like schoolhouses. I mean, we were housing kids in schools and trailers because of
Matt Coster 24:05
the new standards, too, NFPA standard. You have to keep your gear separate from living quarters and everything else. And we don’t have the room. You know, you have two story fires, not enough room. That’s why I want to bring
Nestor Aparicio 24:15
you on to talk about the challenges. They’re not complaining. I mean, you’re firefighter but, but how can we better take care of you, same things you’re talking to city council about
Matt Coster 24:23
today? Oh yeah. I mean, every day is something new for me. That’s always a new day, new issue.
Nestor Aparicio 24:29
But why’d you take this on? Union president,
Matt Coster 24:32
I felt that I wanted to move the fire department and our members were getting, I guess, the way that our members were getting treated by the command staff. I wanted to make it better, so that I wanted to push my the way that I felt it needed to be done. How
Nestor Aparicio 24:48
many years you’ve been doing it?
Matt Coster 24:50
I feel like I moved two steps forward and six steps back every day. Well, as
Nestor Aparicio 24:54
long as you get those two forward and you’ll get there, yeah, eventually we’re getting there. You
Matt Coster 24:58
know? I’m getting stressed and angry. And stuff like that, where I’m making really good friends with people and stuff so but it’s definitely a hard job. And everybody said, I don’t wish that on anybody, but I took it on. I wanted to be the union president. I want to represent the members of my union and put my best foot forward and try to make things better.
Nestor Aparicio 25:19
How can the public help? You. Y’all parking for the fire. Hijinx, noble heads, well,
Matt Coster 25:24
that, you know, obviously we’re, Baltimore City’s busy, you know. So just kind of give my members the benefit of the doubt. You know, we’re, they’re being run constantly in and out, you know, Medic, our medics are being treated badly when they go on runs, because it’s taking them forever to get there. Because they’re, they’re just running non stop, you know, right? Public education on when to call 911, will be, would be great. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 25:47
every time Brandon comes on, he talks about that, don’t call nine. Don’t call the police when you don’t need the police. Exactly, you know, don’t make that call. It’s an emergency call. We have other resources to help people. Yeah, there’s not a fire don’t call the fire department. How about that?
Matt Coster 26:02
If you’re having an emergency medical situation or a fire, that’s when you cause but we, you know, it’s tough for us to get to the all these calls that come out for every little thing, from stubbed toes to to, you know, belly aches to shootings. You know, we go on everything when somebody calls, we’re going Key Bridge. Go there one of the first people on scene. So well, keep up the
Nestor Aparicio 26:24
great work, man. I know you got to get back into what you’re doing, but thanks for coming down to families and being apart and sorry, took me a year nowhere. I tell the guys down at number two, I’m sorry I don’t live in a neighborhood anymore to walk by, but those guys are always great.
Matt Coster 26:37
We’ll get you out of fire somewhere you can slide down the pole. Buddy. Pete Hellion, will
Nestor Aparicio 26:42
appreciate that, because I grew up with the Baltimore City firefighters. Matt kosters here, he’s the president of local 734 and it’s sort of like emergency was back in the 70s, but a little bit more hardcore to be a real firefighter. Davey, coming in with a credit get a crab cake for you. Oh no. Let me see this here. Get in here, Dave, put your headset on. We’re gonna we’re gonna do a whole segment here. Dami Hahn is here. She is with fadelies. And, you know, I just asked Matt, I said, What? What was the worst fire you’ve ever seen? And within 30 seconds, he’s telling me this story about turning the corner at North Avenue and the place is on. And I’m thinking, these are real heroes, not the baseball players, right? That’s right, that’s right. You got to hope you never see him again. That’s what you really hope when you use firefighters here, right?
Damye Hahn 27:28
Even, even in Lexington market, we lost a building, you know, in the in 19 four. It was the fire at 48 Okay, the big fire took out 10 blocks, you know, and it disrupted Lexington market, and it was a whole year before anybody could do business. My My grandmother had a cart out on the on the parking lot. Oh, wow. For a year, my grandfather went to work for General Motors for that year, and they had to stop the seafood business, you know. And I
Nestor Aparicio 28:01
did not know fadelies was disrupted after the war. It was
Damye Hahn 28:04
after the fire. After the fire,
Nestor Aparicio 28:06
there’s a 48 Yeah, yeah. It was fire. Baltimore. Fire was like, you know, water 1904,
Damye Hahn 28:15
okay, I know it was a long time that was one, and then there was another one that took 10 blocks. It was a, you know, where they sold wood, you know, up here, up packa Street. And,
Matt Coster 28:26
oh, you to pack a,
Damye Hahn 28:29
the lumber yard, the lumber yard fire, and it took everything all the way down. And Lexington market was wood. It was the lumber yard, right? Yes, it was shaped like this market. And fireplace set. There were seven buildings, and they all burned to the ground. And my grandmother then went, and she’s the one that kept it going off of a cart. She sold fish off of a car. She have
Nestor Aparicio 28:54
devil eggs on her cart.
Damye Hahn 28:55
No, she did not
Nestor Aparicio 28:56
do eat devil eggs. Take those damn things. I smell them. I don’t even want them. She knows how I feel. But now the crab cake I would take, but I’ve already had one. So Dami, we’re doing this tour this oyster. Do you eat oysters? Yes. How do you eat them? Raw? That’s it.
Matt Coster 29:10
I eat them any Well, really, anyway, but this was
Nestor Aparicio 29:13
the problem I had with Da about a year and a I’ve been doing a show here all the time. Dami and I got to talking about something, something, something. And I said, I want to try something new. So she brought me some fish of this, and fish of that. They got raccoon in season and muskrat in season. She brought me raccoon. Yeah, I mean, I’m out on so she’s trying to make me more hillbilly. You never have a city guy, Dundalk guy, Devil eggs, not so much for me. It’s not my thing. But he loves the fried oysters. But oysters, she brought me fried oysters about a year and a half ago. And I’m thinking to myself, have I ever had a fried oyster? Because, like, they’re always on a menu. You don’t have to hold that the whole time, even though it’s you look good holding it firefighters, but it’s gonna be your dinner here. Oh, but we’ll get he’s all dressed up. He came from city council. He represents people. Man. Does. So she brings me the oyster. I ate it. And I’m thinking, what other things have I eaten? Like it like I like oysters, but I’ve never taken the time to fry them. I’ve never, you know she she rolls them, and they’re there. They explode in your mouth when they’re hot. They’re like, they’re delicate, they’re like, fried chicken, but better. And I’m thinking, all right, I had Rockefellers before, and then I went down to New Orleans for the Super Bowl 12 years ago, and I had the char and acne
Matt Coster 30:28
waster. Oh, butter, garlic, the whole deal, cheese. So
Nestor Aparicio 30:32
in the last year and a half, I’ve been doing a crab cakes. I’ve had crab cakes everywhere, much to her chagrin, because she has the best one, just ask her. And so I go all over town, all over the state, and keeps coming back every time I talk to her. She’s my educational resource. And she’s like, you know, you don’t have any crabs without the oysters. I’m doing a good day. That’s pretty good day me. So I have a sponsor. You’re gonna love this sponsor for my oyster tour is Liberty, pure solutions, my friend Doug. They keep my water clean in my house. They do my well water. They’re my oyster. Exactly what they are. They’re your now, have you ever seen the thing they do where they bring a glass aquarium with muddy river water? Oh, yeah, and they put oysters in the bottom, and they have a cocktail party, and in a couple of hours, it’s the water’s clean, uh huh. Makes me not want to eat the oysters, but I you know, but the oysters flavor from well, the oysters are, you had to say that to me, then you have to have that eat oyster every day for the next month. But you are the reason that I am eating an oyster a day every day for the next month, 26 oyster 26 days. Good. Give me some ways you’ve eaten an oyster that I need, because I am. I’m gonna go on some menus here. I’m gonna find this menu in Ocean City, oyster shooter. I oyster shooters, definitely. Oyster stew, oyster stew. And then there’s a lot of ways to grill them, right? I mean, with you can put in bacon, you know, spinach,
Damye Hahn 32:06
I gave you some the last time you were here, we did all the grilled oysters.
Nestor Aparicio 32:09
I had a place doing an oyster in Ocean City, because we’re doing
Damye Hahn 32:12
grilled oysters here. You can get, you can get them all tops, yeah, so you can go to the raw bar and you can get the grilled oyster.
Nestor Aparicio 32:17
I’m gonna be here on the 23rd of the month because you’re closed on a six don’t come down here Labor Day week. Don’t
Damye Hahn 32:23
make my mistake, we get the whole staff off for a week. An hour ago,
Nestor Aparicio 32:27
I thought I was going to be here September 6. I’m not going to be here September 6. Cal Ripken day, September 6, by the way. So there’s a place down in Ocean City that’s doing this oyster. And I looked at it and I’m thinking it had lime cilantro, some sort of, Oh, I gotta, I gotta look it up. But they’re, they’re, they’re finding creative ways above and beyond, like a little bit of cheese and a little bit of spinach. And that’s why I’m saying to you, I want to get creative in what I can do with an oyster. Because I think I, I I never order oysters in a restaurant. I just, I never get around to it. I owe there’s always shrimp. There’s always fish. If I came in here and you said, Pick anything you want for the next 10 days, I probably would be on day 11, and I would say, Well, I have to crab soup, a lobster bisque. I’ll do that. Um, you had rockfish on special here? Yes, up here. Oh, my God, I would do that in a minute, right? I would do all of them before I get, like, a fried oyster or clam fried oysters, but it’s always in a restaurant, there’s something else in line in front of it. And for the next month, what I’m gonna do, and I’m going a lot of different places, I’m gonna I’m not having a dozen oysters every day for a month. I’m just not, but I’m gonna try to eat other foods, but also incorporate there’s places in Hamden doing oysters out of there, three places there with oysters on their menu. I’m like, I didn’t even know you do that with an oyster, but they’re getting creative with them, like you’re trying to get creative a cat with a catfish here, right? Absolutely,
Damye Hahn 33:58
absolutely. That’s another one we gotta, we gotta get more of it out of the bay. So we’re pushing the catfish. You know, more catfish. You’re
Nestor Aparicio 34:06
doing a great job. Because everywhere I went last week at Mako, I didn’t see you at Mako, but everywhere I went, people know, I’m the crab cake guy, and I had a couple of politicians say to me, you know, the catfish are eating. And I’m like, Yeah, I know that because I do a shot my Palmer positive. I do things, you know, but you have educated me. You’re sending me out on this oyster. She’s the one that got me going with the crab cake tour as well, because her crab cakes the only you have you ever had a faithless crab cake. No, here, here you go, right? You eat, and we’re here. You eat a while, and we’re I’ll let you get out of here. But this crab cake here, you
Damye Hahn 34:41
might have to take it to go. Well, you got to take a bite.
Nestor Aparicio 34:46
This is a mustard forward if you eat a bite, if you make sure I don’t eat all Maryland, all Maryland crab meat. We’re in season here. That’s gonna be as good a crab cake you ever had in your life. I’m not touching those double eggs. But, oh,
Matt Coster 34:58
that’s all around. That’s awesome. So people
Nestor Aparicio 35:01
would always say to me, who is the best crab cake? You do this and you and you. I said, You know what I’m gonna do? I can’t say this is the best crab cake until I’ve had all of them. You know? I mean, you can’t, so I have to go everywhere. But I will say this her crab cake. There’s no other place that makes it like this. There’s no doubt about it. There’s a lot of lump crab meat. That’s a lot of lump crab meat. Her mom advanced. Her mom staring at you right here. Nancy Devine, we’re down here, babies. Damien, sending me out. Do you have any oyster recommendations for me? In any way you’re your friend. Janet, you have friends on the Eastern Shore? I’m gonna try to see all of them. Oh,
Damye Hahn 35:34
you’re going down to Tillman, aren’t you? I am. Oh, good, good.
Nestor Aparicio 35:37
I’m gonna go to hoopers. I’m going to Tillman. They’re down in St Mary’s and Charles County. Well, you don’t think of that as oysters, right? Because you think Easter tourists, your east or chicken tank, whatever. And all
Damye Hahn 35:49
the farms on the Rappahannock, I mean, there’s, there’s a load of them down there. You really got to go to all the farms. And because the aquaculture program is is a huge piece of why our bay is getting better. Well, in
Nestor Aparicio 35:59
St Mary’s and Charles County, that Southern Maryland, peace down there. Solomon’s, lot of oysters down that way I went. I saw my first ever horseshoe crab last week in the wild, right? Like, I don’t know why I’ve never seen one. My wife and I were hoofing at Mako. Had a couple knocks in us on the Wednesday night, and we’re going across the bridge at fagers Island, you know, that little, little bridge where there’s a marshland. And my wife looked down horseshoe crab at the size of a helmet, you know, baseball helmet, black, moving along in the marsh. And we looked down at my wife’s video, and she’s like, Ah, it’s a horseshoe crab. And I don’t even feel tender foot, like people haven’t seen a crab or whatever, but I’m watching it. And I looked on top of it, and there were oysters all over the top of it, living right on the horseshoe crab on the shelf. And I thought, oh, that’s meant, it’s meant that I’m supposed to learn about oysters. So you learned a little bit about oyster? Yeah, I did. And I learned about firefighters. And I learned that we don’t want to know you, we don’t want you to come by, but we’re glad you’re there Absolutely. All right, Matt, good scene. Thank you so much. I promised him he come by a year ago. He told me he’d be nervous and look nice and smell nice next time I’m gonna shave it for you. All right, Dami, you’re close two weeks from now. Tell everybody don’t order crab cakes on Labor Day, but you’ll be back after it time for football season. Yep, we
Damye Hahn 37:15
will be back that that following Monday, and we’ll be we’ll be good to go.
Nestor Aparicio 37:20
You are a real small business, you have to close down because, I mean all of my local businesses, pizza, John’s, my dear friend, Marcella over Coco, she shut down three weeks here. Y’all pick your week because your staff and you’ve had the same employees here for years and years and years. You let them know we’re closing right after first of the year. We’re closing in August.
Damye Hahn 37:39
There’s two two weeks that we shut down completely, and everybody goes on vacation same time. So
Matt Coster 37:44
that’s good. Enjoy
Nestor Aparicio 37:46
your vacation. Thank you. I will you know what I’m doing right now. I’m going on vacation. This is my last segment for a couple days. I’ll be back next week. Luke’s gonna be around keeping you company between now and next week. All the politicians from last week, folks like you have had some great guests coming your way. I am Nestor, signing off from failies, our friends at the Maryland lottery, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions and Jiffy Lube. Doing it with friends of ours like the Han and the divine family. Do it down here. Get down here to fetals in Lexington market. It is beautiful. It’s perfect place. Stop by before a ball game. Get yourself crab cake and some shrimp salad. I’m gonna go do that right now. You.
