Personality Behind The Profile: The HazMat Guys

The HazMat Guys (THMG) is a training company that provides in-house and online training for hazardous materials response, and a brand across the fire service that provides consumers podcasts, roundtables, apparel and overall knowledge about the hazmat scene.

Across LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, THMG has amassed more than 32,700 followers, with Facebook being the most popular with over 17,000 followers. They launched their Facebook account in 2015 while the others trickled in over the next couple of years.

The journey began with former FDNY firefighter Robert (Bob) Salvesen when he transferred to Hazmat Company 1 from Squad 288. Hazmat 1 was led by Mike Monaco, and Salvesen’s transfer shocked Monaco, but according to Monaco, “When Bob engrosses himself in something, he quite literally engrosses himself in every aspect.”

Salvesen asked Monaco if there were any podcasts on hazmat, because he wanted to learn as much as possible in a short period of time. About two weeks after the dialogue, Salvesen proposed the idea of starting a podcast on hazmat response. Monaco had his doubts, but Salvesen’s idea was as simple as making 10 topics, hopping on the microphone and seeing how it went.

As it stands today, THMG is nearing their 500th episode and has released an episode every week for nearly a decade.

Popularity grew for THMG, but a turning point was the COVID-19 pandemic. Around that time, the buzz on lithium-ion battery fire response was loud, and Monaco and Salvesen wondered if THMG would be a viable business venture. They decided to roll the dice with Salvesen retiring, and Monaco following him about a year later. They both focused their full-time efforts into THMG.

“Once in-person restrictions got lifted, we really started to take off. We brought on internally, a previous firefighter, and at that point, we really just pushed forward with all we had. We are just trying to grow all the different aspects of hazmat training, both as technicians and operations level, because there is definitely a void of decent, reliable training for the operations level firefighter,” said Monaco.

Monaco joined the voilunteer fire service on Long Island in 1998. In 1999, he took the FDNY test, got hired in 2002 and was told he was going into hazmat after his frist three years. Monaco began teaching hazmat in 2008 and retired two years ago.

The team looks like this:

• Bob Salvesen: CEO, HazMat Specialist and Ret. FDNY Hazmat 1
• Mike Monaco: COO, HazMat Specialist and Ret. FDNY Hazmat 1
• Jake Ryks: Online Training and Social Media Manager, HazMat Specialist and St. Paul, MN, Fire Department Rescue Squad 1 
• Brian Keyeck: Chief Sales and Marketing Officer
• Kamila Buscavage: Director of Graphic Design and Website
• Jen Briscoe: Sales Specialist
• Logan Waterman: Social Media Specialist

“Jake [Ryks] is a firefighter. He's a current hazmat technician. He's out there in the field. He brings that, I just did this yesterday experience, to every class that he teaches. All of our instructors do that. We try to create a situation in which those people can come on and do their job within their ability, because we remember what it was like to be a firefighter running around all over the place,” said Monaco.

Along with the above list, THMG has an instructor pool of more than 23 who are hand-picked and can lead the next generation of firefighters in the hazmat scene.

“We instruct a student with the goal that, eventually that student surpasses the teacher, and now they have raised the bar just a little bit more. Our hope is somebody like Jake will turn around and raise the bar higher than we did, and he will be teaching and training the next generation to be better than him,” said Monaco.

Ryks’ story started on the volunteer side of the fire service, eventually landing in St. Paul. Ryks got more into hazmat and worked with an environmental consulting company doing emergency response work, leading to his appointment of training director for the company.

He came on board at THMG in 2024 after seeing a job opening for THMG’s social media manager while sitting in one of their classes. Now, Ryks manages the company’s online learning platform, manages social media and has a heavy hand inside of its industrial services wing.

“I was in a similar situation in my career as Salvesen about how do I learn as much as I possibly can, as fast as I can, about hazmat? I came up listening to these guys talking. Now, it's weird, because they're my buddies,” said Ryks. “When I interviewed for them, I said, all I do when I teach is do a bad impression of you guys.  I wouldn't be a hazmat instructor, a hazmat technician, without the work they had done before I even knew them.”

Ryks speaks on the atmosphere at THMG, where ideas are acted upon quickly, sometimes in the same day, and how nobody is micro-managed. The Instagram numbers have quadrupled over the last year, with just 2,300 followers when he first joined the team.

THMG produce podcasts hosted by Salvesen, Monaco and Ryks, along with a roundtable for other hazmat technicians.

“The idea was, let's get together, let's talk about stuff that we've done, and maybe you've done it differently,” said Monaco. "It's really an opportunity for the people that are truly engrossed in hazmat to be able to get together and talk about stuff that they wouldn't normally be able to talk about. It's a private conversation. People can talk about things that are happening in their department.”

On top of the training, education, podcasts, and apparel, THMG has in-house grant writers to help fire departments with funding. A theme that THMG has seen is that hazmat is one of the sectors that is lacking when it comes to training in departments. The idea behind hazmat being a scary assignment to deal with, on top of the frequency of hazmat events being lower than other sectors, it gets swept under the rug.

“Hazmat always seems to be the last priority, yet it's the thing that makes guys the most squeamish when it happens,” said Monaco. “Unfortunately, these departments are tasked with the job, and unfortunately, they are not given the funds to be able to do that job properly. We see that time and time again. Do more with less.”

THMG wants to create a fun environment where people are cracking jokes, jawing at each other, but also learning at the same time. They implement that type of style whether it’s online training or in-person.

“We try to create training that engages the everyday firefighter and makes hazmat as digestible as possible, so that they can remember something when they need to in the moment they need to,” said Monaco.

They have created a community in the hazmat world that keeps growing.