This is the Truth Network. Welcome to "If Not for God," stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwicky. You guys work for Capital Fire, and it's kind of funny. You got the red beard going on, Jeff, and we just sat here and talked.
But you are on fire for the Lord. But what is Capital Fire? Tell tell me about that a little bit. It's just a fire extinguisher sales and service company. It's was established out of Wilmington, North Carolina, and we just are like a team that works alongside that in the local area to provide to.
Our local customers with fire extinguisher sales and service. We do building inspections. We do residential, you know, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers for people and you know residential homes. We do a slip, trip, and fall program where we can come in. You know, there's a lot of You know, people that have elderly, you know, individuals that may need just again, houses can get cluttery.
We live in the age of lithium batteries; those things start fires like you wouldn't believe. And there's a lot of people ill prepared to deal with a fire if it comes down to it. We do training; we offer that. Generally, a lot of businesses will do fire training for their staff because it's just important, especially based on what they're working on. But we've learned that just there's a A lot of vast people out there that are unaware that just because you went to Lowe's and bought a twenty-dollar fire extinguisher to protect a two or three hundred thousand-dollar investment.
Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and that's just reality. It's like anything else you get in a big box store.
So for us, we try to keep it. You know, we want to treat people kindly and fairly, and that's our really kind of our motto: is to you know love your neighbor as yourself. And so in business, you can do that too. It doesn't have to be all about I want to get as much as I can get when I can get it, but I can treat people. In a way that is going to not only glorify who God is, but will also bring about an experience where you can leave that person in a better spot.
You know, a better spot, whether they their understanding of how to work a fire extinguisher, or you know what they need for their house. Right? Not everybody. Needs you know one or but again there's just there's so many different environments out there, and that's why we have the NFPA in our country that is a you know it's called the National Fire Protection Agency and they you know kind of set the guidelines and the regulations and then you have your local fire departments and they do the best they can but again not everyone is safety conscious and I think. It's a balance.
You you don't have to be like that all the time, but it's important to know like if this were to happen, like we had a our house caught on fire one time, and and praise the Lord for you know the security cameras because I'm like, why is there smoke going by the camera? You know, and I I I had texted my wife and I was like, are you are you burning something? And you know she. You know, it took her a second, but but basically, we we we have a wood burning fireplace at our house, and so you have to get the coals out once in a while. Yeah, and so everything you know had burned down from the night before, and we put it in our little metal deal and put it in a plastic container.
Oh, sorry, we put it in a. It was put. We've learned a lot since those days. We typically had a metal container beside the fireplace for the coals, but when it fills up, we take it out for the chickens, and it makes a good dirt bath for them. But It didn't make its way back into the house, and I was cold.
Ellie was two. Tristan was a newborn, so I was postpartum. There's a little grace in this, but I found a plastic container, and I thought this will hold things.
So it's gonna hold the. The ashes and the stuff from the fireplace, and I put it on the front porch. And Jeff called me about thirty minutes later. He said, "Are you burning a fire?" I said, "Yeah, I am." How'd you know that? He said, "There's a ton of smoke in the front yard." And I opened the front door, and it hadn't caught.
It it wasn't flames, but what had happened is it was still hot enough, and the plastic melted, and then it started melting our siding, and so the whole side of our front porch siding had melted off. It was starting to burn through the plywood, and and it could have been a lot worse. And it could, it was like you need. Thank God for the security cameras, right? And it's funny, Jeff and I, we were just talking about getting security cameras.
There was something else like like a motion light and stuff like that. And you know, it's funny. I was just having this conversation with somebody else. It seems like you know, if if I want to go out like last night, I I spent a hundred and eleven dollars on a frying pan at. Law Crusade over at Mebbin Tanger Outlets or whatever because they were having a deal, right?
You know, one hundred eleven dollars for a frying pan, but it's supposed to have a lifetime warranty. We'll go out and spend money on stuff like that. We'll go out, we'll spend fifty, a hundred dollars on a meal or something like that. We won't think anything about it, but when we're a lot of times, when people are talking about taking the steps to actually potentially even save their own lives, I mean, you. You know, by having a fire, and even bigger, we many of us have children.
I mean, if we have a faulty fire detector, and you know the the house starts to catch on fire, a lot of times we may not know until it's too late. Right, and that's the whole point of early detection. Whether we're talking about smoke detectors, carbon detectors, your first line of defense. If you a fire has a mind of its own, where it's burning has a lot to do with how bad it's going to be. A lot of fires in apartments.
I mean, let's take an apartment complex for example. You, if you have a fire in one apartment and it gets out of hand and it's not dealt with, well, your neighbors in jeopardy now, or the person above you, and it happens, and it happens a lot. It's just not something that always makes the news, I don't think, because there are a lot of people out there that have homes that are twenty, thirty years old, and they probably got original smoke detectors in there. And I hate to be like this, but they're not going to work. They're not going to do what they're they're they're supposed to do in the event of needing to.
So it doesn't happen to everyone, but I can't tell you the number of people over the years that have talked to me about a very scenario like that playing out. And the ones that it has happened to, I can promise and guarantee they have multiple fire extinguishers, ones for backup. You know, because once you see how it moves, how I mean, when we train people, we use. Live fire, diesel, and gasoline combination, and so that way people get to experience. There's more involved than just fire burning.
There's heat. There's wind. Right. If there's fuel, a fuel fire. If you put oxygen between you and what you're trying to put out, it can flare up in between you and the extinguisher, burning you.
So, and some people have been in house fires. I've worked. We've done a lot of ministry where. We were doing fire training for a company, and the person whose turn it is next have like a total, you know, mental breakdown because they were in a house fire as a kid, yeah. And it it was a trauma response.
So we were able to help them, you know, look. This is a tool you can use, and if you know, just like any other tool. If you learn how to use it and use it properly, it's very effective. Yeah, kind of like spiritual gifts, right? Yeah.
If you learn how to use it, it can be very effective. But if you just willy nilly with it all the time, you know, it's it's going to only have the effect that's going to have. People freak out when things happen. That's that's just how it works. Not everyone, but most people panic, and just like why we do we do AED training.
And you know AED is the same thing, right?
So, person goes out there, cardiac arrest. People freak. Even I've seen, I know of nurses that work in the hospital all the time, and something like that happens, and they just kind of. And I'm not not a shot at anybody, but like we all respond differently to different scenarios.
So having the right equipment, having things at your house, training is important. And these things may never happen to the majority of people, but they're going to happen to somebody, right? And that's the whole point: is being prepared because it may not be your house you're defending; it could be your neighbors. Yeah, and you may be the only one that has the ability to do anything about it.
So and I would rather be prepared for something that never happens versus something happen and not be prepared. Correct. Yeah. And so and I don't know about you guys, but when I and do you guys work together in this business or do you mainly watch the kids, Whitney? I do.
We homeschool, so I do that. But we also I do a lot of the paperwork side of it and the answering emails and phone calls and all that.
So typically call the work phone. You're gonna get me to answer it, and Jeff's gonna be the one to be able to answer a lot of the questions. But I'll be able to kind of get you pointed in the right direction. Yeah, and I and honestly, if you hadn't stopped by my house, Jeff, I never would have known. Because I mean, we we actually had take you know there's something that happened with the fire.
I don't even think we had it hooked up. It was missing. It was missing. That fire alarm was missing. Like you have a hole in your ceiling.
Yeah, it's like and these are things that people don't even think about. Right. I mean. You know, I never would have thought about it, but it's like now. Once I got you guys to look at it and fix it and stuff like that, I've got peace of mind.
Hey, I may have other things to concern to be concerned about, but I know that my fire smoke detectors are working, and and I know that if there's CO2 in my house, it's going to be detected. Because we've got something downstairs and we've got something upstairs. But you know, it's funny. There's days where I wake up and I'm like, man, I don't even feel like going to work. But one of the things that pushes me when I go out to work is this: is that I say I want to be of service to somebody else, and and Jesus put it like this.
He says, above all else, He says, "Do one unto others as you shall have them do unto you." For this sums up the law and the prophets. And so, for me. Yes, I've got a job to do, and yes, I make money doing it. You know, the laborer is worth as higher or is worth as you know higher, whatever you want to call it. But at the same time, I see my work as a service where I'm able to help others, and I'm sure you see that as well.
Yeah, I have a couple examples. I have a couple guys that I work with, and. I always tell them, you know, if you're if you only accomplish two things today, but you spent two hours loving on somebody, like that's why you went out today. Yeah, like it's not just about going out and building the best business or having the most money. None of that really matters.
What really matters is there's people you're going to come into contact with that the Holy Spirit can work through you. And and a lot of times when we were going through the Ellie's diagnosis and things, there were a lot of companies that we serviced that, you know, went to war with us. People, strangers, people you don't see on all on the regular, but had immense amount of empathy, and I mean, stop what they're doing, hop off the forklift, pray with you. You build relationships with people, and once you get to know them. And your and again your character and how you carry yourself all those things matter.
Yeah, people are watching. Yeah, I mean they're always watching. They're watching how you're going to endure things, how you're going through stuff, and being consistent.
So I was a big, I was always a big fan of when I go into a business. You know, I'm looking for people to love on. I'm looking for people that hey, Jesus loves you. You know, and if you don't want to do business with me, that's fine. Like, but Jesus still loves you, and it's not.
Like a opportunity to use Jesus as a business model, it's not that. It's just who we are naturally as believers. Is we need to constantly be Christ forward.
So Lord, how can, how can you use me in this scenario, in this place? Where I can be a light into the dark world that we live in, because there's a lot of people that are in work environments where, you know, the people that run it they may not believe anything close to that, and it can be a rough environment. People are struggling out there. Yeah. So, I think hope.
We deliver hope. We try to encourage every all the guys I work with are believers.
So, and they have the same heart. They Like let's love people because we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. You're not like the word says. You're not guaranteed that, right? We have the here and now.
You know, I mean, we may be here another thirty years. We don't know, but today, what can God do today in this environment? And that's our really. It's a ministry. It is.
It is a business, but it's more of a ministry too, because that's how a lot of our business comes into play—is talking to people. Yeah, you know, and you go all the way from what Winston Salem all the way as far east as how far. Raleigh or yeah, Wake Forest area. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We go further.
We have other guys that are all the way down to Wilmington. Yeah, and then South Carolina and Virginia. We cover some stuff, but as far as me and what my little outfit for Capital is in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. No, so yeah, you know, Wake Forest, and so if if if you know, guys, I would just encourage you. And if you're any, if you're in Alamance County, you know, they'll they'll come by and they'll take a look.
Jeff will take a look at what you've got, and he'll be honest with you. He was honest with me. He was not high pressure. He said, "Look, this is what you want to do." He said, "If you want to get it done, let me know." You know, and so, but I started thinking about. I said, "It is something that I want to get done." And so, you guys have a business phone.
Can they call or? Text the business phone. You can call and text the business phone. It's three three six three eight zero three nine four nine, and we do residential, like Jeff was saying.
So residential, you typically have your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, and then you would also want to have a fire extinguisher, probably in your kitchen or out by your back porch where the grill or the fireplace might be. And then we also do commercial.
So for commercial, that's a annual NFPA ten inspection of your fire extinguisher. With your, and then we take care of the NFPA 72 and 101, which is your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and your exit lights. And then we also sell AEDs.
So yeah, and we do fire suppression systems as well. You know, restaurants. We have a hood cleaning outfit. You know, and it's it's across. We try to cover as many bases as we can.
All these things require certifications.
So you you know you can't do everything.
Well, some people. Try to. I just think the more you do, and the more you add, the more the. It's not that you can't be good in all the areas, but we really tend to focus in exit, exit emergency, carbon smoke detectors, AEDs, fire extinguishers, and then also the residential side, the slip, trip, and fall program, where we come in and we can say. You know, this is these these are danger.
Like people that have Asian parents, and maybe they haven't made any modifications to their home. One of the guys that works for me is a retired fire marshal for the area, so he has a lot of the what what he did for thirty years. You know, he he knows what to look for and how to do these things because he taught him for so long. And that's just not something that really is out there. Is for residential stuff for people to say, well, who do I call?
Because most people only have Have their insurance company to deal with, and so if insurance isn't going to make you do something, then you're less likely to pull the trigger on it.
So, but it does help to have those things.
Now, my wife was telling me I didn't even know I needed a fire extinguisher, but she was saying we may be able to get a discount if we have a fire extinguisher on our insurance.
Some insurance companies do. It's no different than the way commercial properties work. Sure, they make them have an AED on on you know on hand and. That those are there are kickbacks for that.
So like your insurance company could potentially say, well, so and so here he's you know keeps up to date with his smoke and carbon detectors. He has fire fighting equipment, fire extinguishers, escape ladders. Right? If you got a two story home, escape plan. Right?
Because if the if the hallway is on fire, how are people getting out? Because I know that in the movies you see people run through fire. Yeah. I can promise you the fire. Firemen dress up the way they do for a reason, yeah, and they are heavily outfitted.
And the only ones need to be running through fire. But if you're hopping up in the middle of the night and you're in, you know, your boxers and that's all you got to work with, that's going to be a rough hallway.
Now, look, do what you got to do, but they make escape ladders for the second floor. A lot of people don't have that stuff because we're not thinking about it, right? Just not thinking that this could happen to me, but it's happening to somebody. Yeah, you know, and just like in our our our case, you know, we just did that will never happen to me. Yeah, and it happens, right?
And it did happen, and so for us, it's more, it's knowledge, right?
So you're just passing on knowledge. These are things that could help you, maybe save your life, save your neighbor's life, or I've put fires out on the side of the interstate because I got fire extinguishers in my truck. Yeah, you know, the guy's car is on fire, burning. He's got fifteen minutes to wait for the fire department shows up. Yeah, hey man, I you know I'm I got this right here.
Well, and you know, so there's there's a thousand different ways that can be implicated, but we try to just aim for. You know, knowledge knowledge of the products. These are things you you don't have to do anything if you don't want to. Yeah, but it'd be good to know. And even experience.
I'd never used a fire extinguisher until I was twenty five years old. And you see them all the time. I mean, there's one outside the room right now. But have you ever actually pulled the pin and squeezed the trigger and aimed it and used it? And I had never done that before.
And so when we got married, and and I was like, you know, I've never even used one. And it was intimidating because when there's a, especially when there's a fire before you and you're feeling the heat, and then you do think about the scenarios that this would be involved in. And what if there's a fire between me to get to my children? You know, to be able to have had the practice, and that's something that we do with training, is that you can actually use an extinguisher, and then we'll leave you a one that doesn't have to be refilled and recharged. Exactly.
Yeah, I mean, and and you know, it's like a somebody because I do insurance, so it's very similar, you know, to kind of what you are talking about. Is that a lot of times people don't think about this stuff until it's too late. And I remember years ago, I was talking to a guy about his insurance, and he took out a policy and then he canceled it. And it may have been a cancer policy, and then a few months later, he he called me back and he said, "Hey, what about that cancer policy?" You know what I asked him? I said, "What happened?" He said, "Well, I've been diagnosed with cancer." And I didn't say this to the guy, but I I've said this before.
After you know beforehand, I'll say, you can't check the barrel of a gun to see if it's loaded after you've already pulled the trigger. Right. And you can't go out there and and and get a fire extinguisher and get your smoke detectors looked at. While you're in the middle of a fire, I mean, these are things that you have to do beforehand. And in the insurance business, there's something called adverse selection, and what that means is that the people who have the worst health are the people who want to buy insurance, and insurance companies don't want to sell insurance to people who have the worst health.
They're looking for people who have the best health, but the people who have the best health. Yeah, don't want to buy insurance because they're like, I'll get that later, right? And so that's that's kind of our job, and it kind of reminds me of sharing the gospel, right? You know, a lot of times the people who you know the people who have already died, they're in hell, they're screaming out, begging for mercy.
Well, it's too late, man. You know, it's like, but you know, it's our job right now, while we're alive and while we're talking to the living, to be able to warn them and share with them the good news of Jesus, because You guys don't just do. You're not just thinking about fires. You're not just thinking about helping people out. And it's Capital Fire, C A P I T A L.
And if they want to call you guys, the phone number is what again? Three three six three eight zero three nine four nine. And they can call or text, and you guys will come out there. But it's not just about the fire. You see your jobs, and you see homeschooling and raising children as.
Mission from the Lord. Oh, currently yes, yes. And now's a great time to call us or Texas to get us to come evaluate. You're going to start burning fires. It's getting cooler.
You're going out there to burn leaves because they're falling, and you know you've got your fire pits going to stay warm by. But if that gets out of control, are you prepared? And we can help you get prepared for this fall season. You want to put a live Christmas tree up, but those things burn so quick and fast, and if Just a small electrical fire from the Christmas lights that make it look so beautiful can turn a great holiday into just a nightmare. Unfortunately, yeah, we got a fake Christmas tree, so I guess we did that right.
So, if we put it up at all, you know, that's a whole other that's a whole other story. But, but yeah, man, I mean, and it's and it's you know, it's like t here is t here is things that I've done where I've put it off and I've put it off and I've put it off and I've put it off. And eventually, it's like I ended up doing it, just like I ended up getting my smoke detectors fixed, and and we got something put in for the gas, the CO two sensor that you helped me with, and now we're talking about getting cameras, you know, and talking about getting light detectors, whatever. And it's like there's something about it that yeah, it's kind of it's easy to put it off. You don't always do it when you want to do it, but when you do it, it makes you feel better.
And so three three six. three eight zero three nine four nine three nine four nine and call or text them and they will Jeff or Whitney they'll Jeff will come out there and he'll he'll take a look at it he won't charge you to take a look at it and like he said you don't have to do anything but he'll at least let you know what's what's going on and and you may meet somebody who has all their stuff together and you say hey you guys are set you know It's good to know. It's good always get things checked out. Just like your vehicle, you gotta have the oil changed. If you don't change the oil once in a while, what's going to happen?
You know, the engine is going to break. Yeah, eventually. You know.
So, but again, if you haven't been through an experience where it's you've been affected by a fire, you're less likely to think, oh, well, that's probably never going to happen to me. Yeah. But hey, we—it happens. It just does.
So we're out there. And he hasn't mentioned the two kitchen fires I've done either.
So, so tell me about that.
Well, early on in in cooking, and I, you know, thankfully we had a fire extinguisher under the kitchen cabinet, and he had shown me how to use it, and I just had a little grease fire, and pulled out that extinguisher and was able to thankfully extinguish it. Because you, you know, we have great first responders, we have great fire departments in our area, but it does take them time to get to you. And where we live, we're rural, very rural.
So it we're we're dependent on volunteer firefighters, and they are quick to respond, but the truck may take a long time to get there.
So we do have to be extra prepared with something. And so yeah, that was a that was fun with two little kitchen fires of just you know getting excited and all my cooking and and having to grab the extinguisher and put a little fire out. Thankfully, it didn't become a big fire.
Well. And when you mention that, it's like you know you don't think about these things, but I I remember a time we had a little fire in our. It started, you know, we didn't have a fire extinguisher. Thank God I was able to put it out. But it's like you never know, and you know it's it's the old expression.
I'd rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. And so out of all the things that I've got going on, it's like hey, I've got that taken care of, and it's one less thing to worry about. But it's capital fire. And they can call or text you guys. It's three three six three eight zero three nine four nine three three six three eight zero three nine four nine.
Call or text them today, guys, because you'll feel better once you do. And like I said, they may come out there and say, "Hey, you're good" or whatever, but it will make you feel better. And the Bible says in Romans eight twenty eight, it says, "And we know that all things work together for good." To those who love God, and for them who are called according to His purpose, and so if you're listening to this today, and you know you said, Mike, this is not usually what you talk about.
Well, maybe there's a reason you're listening to this today. Maybe there's you know you never know what could happen. I mean, I've had so many things like this happen where I heard about something and I went ahead and took care took care of it, and three months down the road or three weeks down the road, I was like, Thank God, I ended up. Taking care of that because it ended up working out really well for me. But you guys can call or text the business phone for Capital Fire, Jeff, Jeff and Whitney Sutton, and it's three three six three eight zero three nine four nine.
I tell you what, I'm gonna know this stuff better than you guys do before long because you know I've been thinking about it. But yeah, man, I want to thank you guys for coming on today, and and God is good and His mercy. Endures forever, and so, what's a Bible verse that you want to leave us with today, Jeff? I'll just go with my favorite one, Jeff. First John four four.
You know, He that is in me is greater than He that is in this world. Amen, man. I think that's that's where we all got to be today. You know, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of things that don't make sense.
It gets darker and darker, but the light's bright, and we all we are are all a city on a hill, and we are not to be covered. And we need to be out there loving on people. Amen, brother. Thank you guys for coming in again. If not for God, all right for my YouTube channel.
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