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Clyde Gordon

Clyde Gordon

Retired Houston Fire Department district chief and fire service leadership instructor, guest on The Weekly Scrap, Firefighter Podcast

Sep 15, 2026

MichaelHOST
35:17
Do you believe in that? Oh, absolutely.
35:21
Some of the things like I consciously changed was one.
35:26
I needed relationships with the crews.
35:30
Um, you know, downtown's different, especially in a big department like this.
35:35
You know, you got the downtown clowns, you got the Southwest Rangers, you got the, they called the North side guys, long wallets.
35:41
Cause you know, they were all rednecks carried them big, long leather wallets back in the day.
35:46
You know what I mean? And, uh, I was one of those guys for a long time, but, um, uh, downtown the chiefs i always say that you know they kind of flew in on angel's wings and you know they made their plate and you know and uh they would eat and then they would fly off into their little hidey hole for the next four or five hours and you know and as long as the chief was out there that the guys were top notch as soon as he left you know they were just wild as indians you know so Um, I called myself a kitchen table chief.

6 MINS LATER

MichaelHOST
42:45
So that started
39:22
This
39:24
isn't my intention, but I'm here to, I want to share things that mean something to me that it may help you, right? And so these guys are in trouble, right? And they're lost.
39:38
And they need you to take control of that.
39:40
70% of them are found by somebody inside that building, whether it's himself or his own crew or somebody that goes, oh, shit, man, I was lost in that closet too.
39:50
That idiot's right over here, okay? And that's why we stay on the same channel, but I'll tell you from running a couple Maydays that it gets crazy, right? So those guys got to understand that there's a time where we're buddies and there's a time when I'm a boss.
40:07
And when I key that mic to you to shut your mouth, shut your mouth.
40:10
Okay, because now I'm gonna tell him and I'm gonna figure out who that kid is.

28 MINS LATER

68:26
Yeah.

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