Welcome to Podsdale, I'm your

host Public Affairs Supervisor Holly Walter.

Reaching the highest point in the world has long

been an object of fascination for many explorers,

risk seekers, and the above average traveler.

For some it's a bucket list item, for others,

it's a physical and emotional challenge worth

taking, but for some, it serves a higher purpose.

And that was the case for Scottsdale's very own Tom Shannon,

our Fire Chief, who's joining me on the podcast today.

He's talking to us about his trek up Mount

Everest, and the special purpose behind it.

But first let's go to Stephanie

Herata for this episode's Fast Five.

Hi, I'm Public Affairs

Specialist, Stephanie Hirata with five fast

things happening around the city you need to know.

We start the list at number five by sharing a friendly

reminder to bag and tie your garbage and grass.

It's a tip that's particularly important this time of year.

Reducing spillage during the summer

heat minimizes odors and pest problems.

It's more than just a good idea, it's the law.

Get more refuse tips on our website

ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search 'solid waste'.

Number four is about post-traumatic stress disorder, something

that impacts about 8 million people in the United States.

But did you know that higher rates of PTSD are found in veterans?

You can learn more by attending the first annual Arizona

Department of Veteran Affairs Summit on post-traumatic stress.

It will be held virtually from 9:00

AM to noon, Tuesday on June 29th.

The summit is free and open to the public.

Visit ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search

'PTSD summit' for the link to register.

Alice Cooper and his Andy Warhol take our number three spot.

You can get a rare opportunity to view rockstar,

Alice Cooper's, legendary acrylic and silkscreen ink

on canvas Little Electric Chair in person from 5:30

to 7:30 PM on Thursday, June 24th at Larsen Gallery.

As part of Scottsdale Art Walk, attendees will also be

treated to a performance by indie folk, singer songwriters,

Sophie Dorsten from Cooper's Solid Rock Foundation.

Scottsdale's Legacy Quest is at number two, your

mission, should you choose to accept, it is to take

part in Scottsdale's 70th Anniversary Legacy Quest.

It starts at 6:30 PM on Friday, June 25th

in front of the Little Red School House.

You'll be tasked to follow along on a family friendly

expedition that tests your Scottsdale knowledge.

And if you're a history lover, there is a special trail just

for you that uncovers even juicier bits of Scottsdale history.

To register for this free event, visit

ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search 'legacy quest'.

Our number one Fast Five spot goes to Pride Month.

Nationally, Pride Month is celebrated annually in

June, but in Scottsdale, we take pride year round

in perpetually celebrating the LGBTQ community.

Our city has been a long time supporter of LGBTQ pride.

This includes having a fully inclusive employment policy and an

employment benefits provision for transgender health insurance.

Earlier this year, the Scottsdale City Council voted

unanimously to adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance.

Mayor Ortega issued a proclamation to recognize

pride month and the city also plans to participate

in the Phoenix Pride Parade in November.

It's all part of our continued work to support true equality

for all people, no matter who they are or who they love.

And that's our Fast Five for this episode of Podsdale.

Got something for a future Fast Five?

Tell us by emailing communications@ScottsdaleAZ.gov.

I'll turn it back over to you, Holly.

Thank you, Stephanie, before

I talk to Chief Shannon, I would like to

congratulate Police Analyst, Lance Davidson.

He's our recent Podsdale trivia question winner.

And he was correct in saying that Brad Hartig

and Reed Pryor collectively had 46 years

of city service before their retirements.

Congratulations, Lance, if you would like to be Podsdale's

next trivia question winner, listen for our question

and further instructions at the end of the episode.

I am so honored to have Chief Tom Shannon on the podcast.

In April, Chief Shannon was part of a team that

completed an 80 mile trek up and down Mount Everest

Known now as Peck's Trek in memory of someone

incredibly important to him, his nephew, Austin Peck.

So Chief Shannon has joined us today to not only share

his experience, but more importantly, share the mission

behind his journey, which is to bring awareness to the

very real risk of occupational cancer in fire service.

Chief, thank you so much for being here today.

Thanks for having me.

Let's start with Austin.

Your nephew was a firefighter for Goodyear Fire

Department who passed away in 2019 after a four

year battle with a rare form of occupational cancer.

You also referred to Austin, and I love this, as

a "firefighters firefighter, he loved the service

and love to help people" tell us more about him.

Yeah, so he was the quintessential little,

a little, a Yosemite Sam type, banty rooster, firefighter.

He's about, he barely five foot tall.

I mean, we're not very big people in my family,

but he he's about, oh, maybe five foot three, but

boy, his heart, it was that of a seven footer.

Loved the fire service, that you started out as a wild land

firefighter, but he really, really loved the fire service,

structural firefighting and love the interacting with people.

He worked out in Goodyear where oddly four firefighters about

his age came down with cancer over a period of a couple of years.

It was just odd.

It, it was, it was anomalous, if you will.

And his cancer was extremely rare form of cancer

called sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma and

SNUC is really only acquired in industrial settings.

It's so rare, but most all of this research shows that

it's related to some sort of an industrial exposure.

And so that kind of enters us into this world

of, of understanding how firefighters are cared

for and and what we can do to prevent exposures.

But Austin was, his tenacity was awesome because SNUC

victims typically only live about a year, six months to a

year if that, but that rascal fought for nearly four years.

And he, he gave it everything had, but, what it did

do, and, and it was, it was timely in that it brought

awareness to the deficiencies in how we were protecting

our firefighters in terms of workplace related cancer.

Right?

Because unfortunately, part of the battle he faced was not only

with the cancer, but obtaining coverage during that, correct?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's an expensive endeavor to treat someone with cancer.

It's not like a broken ankle that can heal over six weeks.

It's quite expensive.

And so most cities are insured.

There was immediate pushback and denial of claims and that was

really ultimately, never resolved despite its acceptance by

the Public Safety Retirement System as a work-related cancer.

But what it did bring to light is that the statutes that

protected firefighters, related to presumptive cancer.

So there's about a dozen cancers that impact firefighters that

are unquestionably and undeniably related to firefighting,

and so that statute needed some massaging and some changing.

And so senators, Boyer, and Carter both took

on that renewal and refreshing of that statute.

Well, COVID hit, at the end of that legislative

season, and it kind of postpone the vote.

Essentially, they closed the legislative session,

and so we had this year, additional year, to wait.

Well, we use that year to really garner the support of

anybody who would listen to the plight of firefighters

who now are succumbing more to cancer than we are to

heart disease or buildings fall on our heads or any of

the other things that injure firefighters substantially.

So cancer is the number one concern in the fire service now.

And it's not understand, it's not, not understandable.

It's not good grammar, but buildings are made with new products.

Those new products are made with chemicals, those

chemicals when burning produce cancer causing agents.

And so we know that we have to tactically be different.

Correct.

Yeah.

And I know you've mentioned in past interviews, you've

said firefighters are risking their lives in more

and more serious ways in contemporary fire service.

And that's what you're referring to, due to the types

of fires you encounter and the materials burned.

It sounds like.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

The traditional older homes used to burn fairly clean.

I can remember as a young firefighter, you'd

go home, smell like an ashtray, but you rarely

tasted the fire or the metals in your saliva.

Late into the 90's and early 2000's, we began

going home tasting metals and things like that.

And, and offgassing in a way that our

family would say, you smell like a chemical.

And so, we knew that something was going on there and we needed

to really engage that process in terms of how we're exposing

ourselves and what we're doing to decontaminate ourselves.

And then certainly understanding what's burning.

Cause it's a hazmat call.

Every fire now is a hazmat call.

And so that's really kind of the approach

that we've taken because this isn't all on the

insurance companies, this isn't all on cities.

We have to be smarter about how we fight fire.

It's a, it's an important

message to share with everyone all around.

Chief, when did you begin thinking about taking Austin's story

and turning that into the trek that you made with your group?

So, a former Scottsdale

firefighter named Jim Dooley came to me.

He wanted an exit interview, he was retiring.

He said, you know what?

I'm going to Mount Everest to take a prayer flag up for Austin.

He, he had befriended Austin's wife and their daughters,

and he was taking a prayer flag and he says, you should go.

And I said, okay.

And so that was it.

And the listeners may not know that we held Austin's

wake at his favorite Irish pub, the Dubliner, in Phoenix.

And the bar manager at the Dubliner was David Grefka

and David succumb to cancer a few months after Austin.

So the bar owner and some other bar folks from the Dubliner

and then Jim Dooley and myself, and a couple other folks

made this trek about memorializing those that have fallen in

public safety to not only cancer, but in the line of duty.

And that hiatus that we had during COVID provided us the

opportunity to garner like hundreds and hundreds of prayer flags.

I, the, the satchel that I carried, I think weighed 25 pounds

and it was nothing but prayer flags and those are light.

And so we, we embarked on this and, and it was, it was.

It was extremely cathartic, the whole process was, and

when we started tying them off it, it really felt like we

were kind of closing a chapter of, for so many families,

the Yarnell 19, Governor Ducey sent flags with us.

So many of our friends here at the city did, friends

in the Scottsdale community who have lost loved

ones to cancer provided us prayer flags and, and

it was just an enormously overwhelming experience.

That had to be an incredible moment.

It was, yeah.

Now also, in fact, on that day,

when you reached the base camp for the tie off.

Governor Ducey signed into law,

what you mentioned Senate bill 1451.

And that bill strengthens the presumption that a

firefighter's cancer diagnosis is work-related.

It ensures more firefighters are eligible for workers'

comp, so they can spend more time focusing on their

health and family, less time fighting for the benefits.

Yeah, it really was an important thing.

And, and I was sweating because as we were, as we were climbing

and we went to we went to about 1200 feet higher than base camp,

to a place called Kalapathar because it gives you the best view

of Mount Everest and Lhotse and Nipsey, the three peaks there.

And up until that moment he had not signed the bill.

And then we thought, oh no, is he getting cold feet or something?

Well, no, he was just being masterful

about the timing of his signing.

And they were literally watching us and preparing

for us to be ready to tie off the flags.

And as we were tying them off, he signed the bill.

Oh that's exciting.

So it was, the timing was perfect.

And we were, we were so excited to do that.

And then I sent out all the videos of each flag, strand being

tied off to, to everyone, including the Governor's office.

Wow.

Yeah, it was cool.

That's really cool.

Now, how did you physically prepare for this?

I'm sure that took some work before you even left.

It did.

Yeah, it did.

And It's a funny story because Johnny O'Connell who owns

Dubliner not only had cancer, has cancer and is fighting it

himself, but he had climbed out of the hospital bed 30 days

before we left, after having COVID and being on chemotherapy.

And we had been training for a year and a half, half

climbing up Mount Humphreys all summer long and just,

well, I think I spent most of my time in the preserve

just getting aerobically fit and that rascal got to

the same heights we did after training for 30 days.

So I'd like to say that all the training

really paid off and it did, I'm quite sure.

But if, Johnny O' could do it after climbing out of

a hospital bed, I don't have much to complain about.

That's some inspiration.

It was!

While we were, we were just shaking our head.

I mean, I don't know what he was fueled by, but he got up there.

You mentioned COVID-19 delaying

some of your efforts and the trip itself.

Did it also impact any other portions of this journey?

It did.

So getting into, Katmandu and Nepal was difficult.

Certainly all of the testing was required.

We were all vaccinated and when we went, but

just about the time that we arriving the Asian

variant in India and China was kicking up.

One of our members actually contracted COVID

prior to us starting our Trek while in Katmandu.

And we didn't know it, he got sick and had to be sent home.

Well, when we all got back to Katmandu to fly back, four

of the seven of us tested positive, I was not one of them,

but on the day that I left Katmandu, I began feeling ill.

And by the time I landed, in Arizona, I was sick with COVID.

So we all pretty much got COVID.

We got the Asian variant of it, despite being vaccinated.

And that's, you know, that happens, you know, you,

you still get the flu, even with flu vaccine, it's

just a different strain, but I guarantee you, it would

have been a lot worse, had I not been vaccinated.

Wow.

Yeah.

And right now, Mount Everest is essentially closed

to anyone who is not permitted to summit and pretty

much the summiting season is pretty much closed.

Anyway, what's crazy about that whole region

is the window to climb is very brief because

of the volatility of the ice flow there.

And that was never more real than

when we were standing at base camp.

And you, you could hear and feel thunder under your

feet because you're standing on a moving glacier.

It was crazy.

Any other memorable portions of

the trip you'd like to share to the listeners?

Well not to be a braggart,

but I am the only person who ever has played

bagpipes at the highest pub on the planet.

There you go.

And it was very, it was terrible sound

that came out, but I did play 'em.

And you know, just the comradery, really, the last thing

is, is, you know, and I said it in another interview, you

don't need to go to Mount Everest to memorialize the folks

you've lost, but Is important to, particularly for public

safety folks, to be aware of what the hazards are to think

about those folks who have been lost before and then change

what we do either on the prevention side or in, or in

the supportive care side so that we don't lose any more.

And that was really what this trek was about.

And then, kind of put into bed the, the pain of losing Austin.

Sure.

I think this trip really does hit home for

so many who have lost loved ones to cancer.

I hope so.

You know, what are the next steps in terms of

bringing awareness to occupational cancers in the fire service?

Well, thank you for that.

There's, we have certainly been

awakened, so it's clean buildings.

We help, we have a lot of information on how to

keep fire stations clean, and fire trucks clean.

We, how to exchange turnouts in a way that keeps

as much of the toxins off of them all the time.

Firefighting, tactics and strategy have changed.

Once we determined that there's no live person

in that house and there are no live pets.

We are going to really treat that,

that location, as a hazmat call.

Whereas before years in in the past, I know you

have family in the fire service, we used to,

we used to hang out in there for a long time.

And now we know that, that's we are now the exposure.

So we've gotta be smarter about how we fight fire.

And that's probably the biggest change in the

fire service really in the last five to 10 years.

Because it's an epidemic, I mean, every

department has been touched by cancer.

Well, thank you for bringing

awareness to a very important topic.

I do want to read a quote, another quote of yours.

I came across as I was gathering some information for this

interview, because I think it's a great way to sum this up,

but you said "I would encourage everyone to do difficult

things to help heal yourself and others from the pain of

loss, it doesn't have to be Everest, but as they say, we

can either lose ourselves in the loss of others, or we

can leverage the experiences of the loss to help others.

I say we do the latter."

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we got to keep living, right?

Absolutely.

For sure.

Chief, thank you so much for joining

us today and sharing Austin's story.

My pleasure.

Thanks.

And that's it for this episode of Podsdale,

but before I go, here's this week's trivia question.

What is the name of Alice Cooper's Warhol?

Email your answer to communications@scottsdaleAZ.gov

for your chance to win and be sure to join