Monday, December 13, 2010

Old folks

No, I don't mean seniors. I mean really old folks, in their 90's and up.

Old people calls generally fall into a couple of categories.
~Just want someone to talk to
~Are actually sick
~Family called

We had the pleasure of meeting a much older gentleman who's daughter thought he was having a stroke. Fortunately, there was nothing going on medically that was out of the norm for this gentleman. The whole call had us giggling while talking to the gentleman, his daughter shared our humor as well.

EMT: Sir, how many fingers am I holding up?

Old Guy: Yep

EMT: (Louder) How many fingers?

OG: Yep

Daughter: His cataracts are pretty bad.

EMT: So would he normally see how many?

Daughter: No

EMT: Oh.


Everything we asked him, we got a "Yep" in response. Everyone was giggling, even the old man at some point.

These are the old folks I love the most. They may not have a damn clue what's going on, but they manage to make you smile. They don't want anything, they just aren't ready to give up living just yet.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Just a little longer

Just hang tight a little bit longer folks, I should be bringing this thing back to life soon. I'm still dealing with my own demons, but I'll learn my fate in a week. I miss blogging. I miss being able to share some of my experiences.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

As is my norm lately, when things seem to be looking up I get another kick in the shins. Either an illness or a step backwards in other ways. This time it's illness. There's nothing that can ruin your day as good as waking up feeling like crap.

I swear I'll get back to normal posting some day. Time to take another dose of meds and try desperately to sleep.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Help out the Colorado's Fourmile Canyon Wildfire victims

I make it a point to keep ads and other things off this journal, but not this time. There's an artist who does some awesome work and has donated her time and effort to do something good.

I'm not gonna make you folks read my version of her info, so let me copy/paste.

Click here to be taken to the order page

I created this special sticker design to help the displaced families (animal and human alike) who are victims of Colorado's Fourmile Canyon Wildfire. You will receive this unique, vibrant and durable sticker in the mail for your five dollar donation. 50% of the proceeds will be donated the the Boulder Humane Society to help the displaced pets, and 50% will go to Northern Colorado Red Cross to help displaced families and individuals.

I'm going to put down the money to order these 2" stickers from printsess.com so that all proceeds go to fire relief. With your donation we can help the mountain communities effected rebuild from the ashes!


Each sticker will be 2" tall and only $5. The design is beautiful. I was able to catch the tail-end of watching her stream it's creation online and I'm very impressed.

So, please help spread the word. A link-back, a repost, anything is appreciated to help her sell out so we can raise more money to help the victims of this fire.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

When good ponies go bad

Just found this news story from Orlando. Their video doesn't want to imbed properly, so have a link and a copy-paste. Go check out the video though, it's pretty good.

Stuffed Pony Blown Up By Bomb Squad - Orlando News Story - WESH Orlando


ORLANDO, Fla. -- Members of the Orange County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad blew up a 2-foot-high stuffed pony on Tuesday.

Neighbors said the placement of the stuffed toy made it appear suspicious to them.

The toy was found in a cul-de-sac next to a park near Waterbridge Elementary.


"It just looked like it was placed in a really suspicious place," resident Scott Kilwein said.

"We're right by the school, and kids walk right be here every day," resident Earline Murray said.

Deputies cordoned off the neighborhood, and a robot was sent it to examine the stuffed animal. Meanwhile, residents like Kilwein were stuck in their homes as their imaginations ran wild.

"Once you see that it's a stuffed animal, your mind starts racing with all kinds of ... crazy stuff in the world," Kilwein said.

Beyond the neighborhood, the blast startled drivers on Central Florida Parkway.

"The explosion was quite tremendous. Several people squealed tires," Witness Ronni Taylor said.

Authorities said the toy is called a Furreal Pony and requires batteries and wiring to give it lifelike sounds and movement.

Monday, August 23, 2010

A bit of burnout

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I've had a fair bit of time to sit back and assess where I'm at in life, compared to where I want to be. Sure, I've got some really neat things going for me. I also am strapped pretty tightly because of those luxuries, I have been for quite a while.

As I sit back and ponder my career, I'm not sure if I'm actually happy anymore. I love being a firefighter and an EMT, don't get me wrong, I'm just not sure if my department is the right one for me anymore.

There have been a lot of changes going on. I knew they were coming, I even joined others in wishing for some of them. I'm just not so sure anymore. Morale is still tanked. There's just as much distrust among the ranks as before, except now, we have even more evidence against those we feel are incapable of their duties (or number and arrangement of bugles). Don't even get me started on how the powers that be have really screwed things up around here.

I've been thinking more and more about jumping ship to another department. I have no clue where I'd go. The worst part would be starting over, being *the* rookie again, no longer able to drive, unfamiliar with the territory/crew/equipment. I just don't know what I want.

I do know I need to do something to rejuvinate my love for going to work. I used to have trouble sleeping the night before shift because of excitement. Now, I still have trouble sleeping, but it's not excitement that keeps me awake. This is a large part of why I've fallen so quiet with my posting. I just don't get excited about work, and it's so hard to share stories and experiences when your attitude is crushed.

Any guys/gals out there willing to offer any advice? I'd love to hear it. I'm in a real funk right now.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Trudging along

My personal life is still stressful, work is still irritating me more often than not. I'm feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place. I just don't have the muse or subject for any interesting posts lately.

If anyone has any fire-related questions, feel free to hit me up. Anything from why we park our trucks the way we do, to what's ___ call like, to station life.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Respect

Well, it's been over a month since I went on semi-hiatus. I've been reading everyone's blogs about once a week, vs, every other day.

Life outside of work has been hectic. There's been a lot of different things going on at home that have sent me pinging between overly stressed, and relaxed to the max. I've been more on the stressed side unfortunately. I am determined to make the remainder of this month fun. There are friends coming from out of state, and other things to keep me happy and entertained.

Work has been a strange mixture of boring and crazy. There are some potentially huge changes in the works, but only time will tell. I'm trying to stay as unbiased as I can about most of these changes. I will be affected by the changes, but not as much as many other people will be. It's been an interesting ride so far.

I've somewhat developed a new pet peeve as well. Respect.

I was visiting another station for a few minutes a short time ago. Their brand new rookie was talking smack about waxing my station's floor on a house day. Offerring to help me load their floor buffer into my rig, the works. I tried to be nice, but my patience wore thin and I finally told him since he was so concerned about us having a floor buffer, he looked like a good one. So come on over and run our machine.

Why did he feel the need to pester me about the floors? Why did he think it was ok to talk trash to someone he's never even met before?

Respect is earned, not given...BUT, there is a certain amout you must display. I would never walk up to someone I'd never met and start telling him how dirty the floor of his station was. It's just not the way you should handle something like that. Especially if you don't even actually know it's an issue (I'm pretty sure he's never even visited my station).

There are also a few people about to be promoted. It's amazing to sit back and listen to some of them talk about how they plan to take over their new stations, everyone will do _____, etc.

Why would anyone want to walk into a station and immediately start "blowing his bugles"? Other than a poor reputation preceeding you, that is the fastest way to lose any respect from your new crew.

A few years ago, my station had a new (to us) captain transferred in. On the first shift, he started making major changes. He had never worked with us before and had no idea about how the station normally ran. It pissed a lot of us off. It also took a long time for him to start regaining any real respect from the crew. We all respected that he was the captain, but there wasn't much respect for the person behind the bugles.

It's going to be very interesting to watch. My crew will be changed around and all I hope for is to get equally fun and knowledgeable people that get along as well as we currently do. My biggest fear is to be part of a crew that doesn't get along, doesn't work well together, and don't know the job. My department is getting very young and there's no amount of ego that can make up for the experience the senior guys have.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Hiatus

I'm not quitting or shutting this blog down. I just have too many stressful things going on right now to be able to scrounge up the muse or the subject for an entry.

I can't go into detail without revealing too much about myself or my department.

Just have a lil faith that I will be back once my life isn't too much for me to feel I can manage. Please keep my sanity in your prayers. I need all the help I can get right now.


~Firelady

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I received this from my dad, and I had to share. The whole thing is sub-titled, in case you can't follow along easily.


Sunday, May 16, 2010

Well, I'm not too bruised or battered, but I've definately learned some things lately. I recently completed a version of defensive tactics.

Very, very good class overall. I've been attacked or been on a scene that went bad multiple times. Sadly, I can't say PD was there, or that they actually stepped in to help us fire/ems guys every time. At least now I have a better idea and some basic training to help me get out of that situation next time it happens.

When it boils down to it, I'm going home at the end of my shift. Just because I don't carry a gun doesn't mean nobody will attack me. I'm just another uniform.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

I say this happened a long time ago, when in all actuality, it was maybe 5 years ago.

I was riding backwards on the engine, enjoying a day of being tailboard. We were sent to a house fire in our 2nd due. I don't remember fine details, but I do remember being inside with the nozzle at some point. Much of the fire was out, but there was still a lot to be had in the walls.

I vaguely remember throwing a ladder on the C side on a balcony. There was a crew stuck there that'd run out of air. They came down the ladder before I headed up it with a hoseline in tow.

I ended up in a bedroom on the 2nd story, A side. My driver was right beside me, digging into the sheetrock with his hook, then leaning in to direct me with the nozzle. I think it was the first fire I went into, much less had some nozzle time, since the academy.

I don't know where the Captain was at that moment in time, but I preferred the driver's company more anyways. I remember being content just having the knob and my new friend there showing me what the hell I was really supposed to be doing. After all, real fire is nothing like the pallets and hay you see in the academy. You actually have to hunt for it sometimes, and there's no such thing as "pretend it's bigger, the crew before you put too much water on it."

My friend still works that area of the department. I moved to a different area not long after this fire. A different Captain was moved into that station that I just horribly clashed with personality-wise. I don't regret the move either. I've learned so much more than I think I would have if I'd stayed. Around the time I transferred, my true mentor retired, my friend was transferred, I hated the captain, and it just didn't feel like home anymore.

There's not much chance I'll be transferred from my current station right now and that's a-ok by me.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Some things are proven time and time again. The following is my new favorite quote.

"The difference between genious and stupid, is that there's no limit on stupid." -unknown

Friday, April 16, 2010

I haven't had anything really interesting lately. The calls I've run have been your average, boring, sick person and/or buttaches.

I did respond to an apartment fire a couple of weeks ago. We took care of shutting off the gas supplies, then sat around watching for weakness in the firewall. It was a hell of a fire overall, but it was a primarily defensive operation. 2 aerials were set up and put in service. Once the majority of the fire was out, crews took handlines into the safer areas to start overhaul.

We were released from the scene shortly before shift change. I'm sure the other shift just loved getting to roll and reload all that hose.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Range day-rifle side




I love going to this range. It's owned by a county police department and the range masters/firearm instructors are always nice to us.

I sometimes throw a few shots at the targets on the 200 line, but all looked pretty old so I stayed at 100 today. It's been a while since I had a good range day, so it took me a few minutes to get myself situated.

Decent groupings at 100 the size of my palm. Definately not my best day, but I'll take it. A bad day shooting always beats a great day working. I got bored with paper (as usual) so I turned my focus to the spent shotgun shells I'd set up at the bottom of the berm. Only thing that beats those is golfball hunting. Chasing those downrange is just plain fun, especially when they fly into the air after being hit.

For those wondering, I have a bone stock RRA with removable carry handle and mamba sling. I'm saving for a red dot scope, preferrably one that takes aa or aaa batteries. Also wanting the flashlight that does steady-on or high intensity rapid strobe, can't remember the details on that one cause it's 1am right now. Otherwise, I'm content with my bare bones rifle.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been busy with many other projects, had friends visiting from Australia, and other things that took up my time. I'll get back to you regularly scheduled randomness eventually.

For now, I'll add something a bit more personal.

I have a registered AQHA gelding. I bought him almost 3 years ago. After taking a couple of hard falls (one of which left me with a concussion-even with a riding helmet), I stopped cantering on him. It's been at least 2.5 years, until a week ago. I finally felt comfortable enough and asked him for a canter.

The horse was hesitant, but did just fine overall. I stayed in the saddle and had a small bruise on my hand, but no worse for wear otherwise.

I've got to get that horse to slow down and be smoother, this bouncing along thing isn't very fun/comfy. (For those wondering, yes, he was on the correct lead. He's just really fast and bouncy.)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Collyer's Mansion Conditions

There's an absolutely excellent article to be found in the Firehouse.com news. I would highly suggest reading the whole artice, it's mind-boggling in a way.

http://www.firehouse.com/news/news/collyers-mansion-conditions

The common translation of firefighter lingo to plain english for Collyer's Mansion Conditions is "firefighter's nightmare."


The basic jist of the story is the Collyer brothers lived in a large mansion in Harlem. One brother lost his vision and the other took care of him. They were recluse, and the sighted brother was very suspicious of the outside world, though he would venture out at night for supplies. He became a hermit and a hoarder. He eventually died when he accidently triggered one of his own booby traps. His blind brother died a few days later of starvation, dehydration, and other ailments.

This is a partial list of the valuables removed from the Collyer home, they include:
136 tons of debris
14 Grand pianos
2 organs
1 clavichord
Human medicine specimens (in glass jars)
Model-T Ford chassis
Approx 15,00 medical and engineering books
Weapons
6 US flags
1 Union jack
1 x-ray machine
34 bank deposit books: balance $3007.18
Baby carriages
Plaster statues and chandeliers
Gardner baskets and picture frames
Old Christmas trees and press makers dummies
Bundles of sheet music
Newspapers: Langley collected every newspaper published in New York City since the years 1918. He did this in the hope that Homer would someday regain his sight. Langley once stated that he did that "so when Homer regains his sight he can catch up on the news".


The irony of this is that a few weeks ago my Captain was asking us about Collyer's Mansion Conditions. Nobody knew what it was, but google helped fix that problem, and I educated myself. It was entertaining to a degree to have just learned about this, then experience it firsthand.

I'll be making a seperate post later on about the actual call, I need to walk away from the keyboard for a while and find some food.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Real Fireman's Prayer

Oh God of the bell that hangs on the wall
We pray to you to give us a call.
We don't want to see anyone hurt or in pain
We just want to see wall to wall flames.

We hate to have anyone lose their possessions
But if it happens, remember, we're tops in our profession.

So God of the bell that dispatches the call
We pray to you, KNOCK THAT SUCKER OFF THE WALL!!!!!!!!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's nothing better to lift the spirits of one melancholy Firelady than responding to a rockin house fire and getting my fill of nozzle time. More info to come later, for now, a homework assignment.

What is a "Collyer's Mansion"?

No cheating and using google, if you don't know, just say so. I'll be posting more about this soon anyways.
Ever had one of those days that started out great and then just took nosedive after nosedive? I hate days like that.


~"Can't get right"
A.K.A.
~Firelady

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I'm sporadic and impatient.

I went to the mountain yesterday in the new shoes. I limited myself by only going to the halfway point though. I walked up and jogged down. The shoes are awesome.

I had 1 person stop me and ask about the shoes, saying he was considering buying a pair. I told him the truth........

It's been 3 days (at this point) and that's the first thing I've really done other than walking around the house and driveway. The only problem I've had is while jogging down the mountain and jumping around on the rocks, the material between your toes can push back pretty hard and is pretty annoying. They're really nice so far though.

Today, my calves are a bit sore, but my feet feel fine. I also went to the barn and rode my horse for almost an hour, so that didn't help any. My legs were extremely tight when I got out of the car after the hour's drive back home.

So far, I'm loving them though.

Monday, March 8, 2010


This made me laugh so hard this morning. It shouldn't be nearly as funny as I thought it was.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Mama's got a new pair of shoes


I was turned on to these very very recently, but I love the idea so I jumped on the bandwagon tonight.


I'll be wearing these around as much as I can and seeing how they work out. I already don't have any issues rolling my ankles or stumbling, I just enjoy toe-socks and being barefoot. I just got home with them a few minutes ago and I've been wearing them about 45 minutes so far and they're really comfortable. It's weird feeling them, but not the least bit uncomfortable.
I walked up the driveway and into the house, and feeling the bumps in the concrete and other things was so cool. I'm excited to go try them out running or hiking. The style I bought is one of the more all-around styles.
I'm just curious how well the tread will last. That's my only real question.
I'll be keeping ya'll updated.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Ya know what 1 thing can make a 2-alarm structure fire even more fun?
(other than nobody being hurt, of course)






Getting said structure fire 1 hour before shift change. We get to have all the fun, the oncoming shift gets to pick up all the hose.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Firelady: Hey man, when's your birthday?

Co-worker: In a couple months, why?

Firelady: I just needed to know so I could go to the bowling alley and stock up on some polish for ya.

**5 second delay**

Co-worker: Oh damn.






Yeah, I'm still around. I just haven't had anything overly interesting that I felt like sharing lately. Hopefully things will pick up soon.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I learned just how heavy these suits are today, and how to extricate the tech from his suit. Wow. What an awesome experience.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Sorry for the lack of posts folks. There just hasn't been anything interesting enough to post here lately. Plenty is going on in my life, but I'm afraid that I'd come closer to giving myself away if I wrote about things.

I will say that I had fun driving the engine last shift. There weren't any great calls, but we were hot on the heels on another engine company while heading to a fire call. The caller advised flames seen from the street, so everyone was moving on out. Turned out to be someone burning wood. Oh well.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

car fires and cardiac issues

The lack of posts lately actually has a pretty good excuse this time, other than me being lazy. A car wreck I was involved in back in 2008 has been haunting me. The past week or so has been beyond stressful and I've had to get myself an attorney. The other driver was at fault, and her insurance company has not paid my medical bills as promised. It's just a huge headache and I'm tired of catching that insurance rep. in lie after lie.


In other news, work has been nothing short of interesting lately.

I got to fight a car fire that fought back almost as hard. We arrived onscene and it was fully involved, save for part of the engine compartment. The fuel line had ruptured, so burning gasoline was under the car and kept rolling down the hill towards a storm drain.

While I was getting off the engine, masking up the rest of the way, and waiting on water, 2 tires blew. I had a fun time trying to overcome the gasoline's affinity for burning. Every time I would just about have the passenger compartment nearly out, the gas would light it all off again. I'm not quite sure what the captain was doing, but he was just standing around behind me, not helping hump hose or anything, just standing there. After scrambling to knock down the flames as the gasoline got within 3 feet of the sewer access, I asked him to grab the dry chemical extinguisher. He returned with it and it helped some, but the car wasn't going out without a fight.

As I worked my way around to the passenger's side, I was standing at the front door, putting water into the car, when the rear tire blew on that side. I won't say I was expecting it, but I'm proud to say it didn't startle me much or scare me at all. My brain finally recognized the difference between a tire and a gunshot.

Once the car was pretty much out, the driver brought me the K12 so we could open the hood. The cable had already burnt out under the dash, and the car's design prevented us from accessing it near the latch. I made the cuts and only had to go back for a small, 3" section of the frame below the skin that I somehow missed. I'll get it all the first try next time though. At least I kept the saw moving enough to not let the blade bind this time (I've had trouble with that in the past).

Once the fire was out and the car had been soaked down a few more times for good measure, we refilled the tank on the engine, put fresh bottles into our SCBAs, and returned to service.

Earlier that day, we ran a gas odor call. A rear window had been broken and more than likely, copper lines were cut and stolen from inside. I cut the gas off at the meter and the captain had dispatch notify the gas company.

The neighbor that called us was afraid the house was going to explode. I'm not a hazmat tech, but I'm pretty sure the house had too much gas inside to allow an explosion. The smell of the mercaptan could knock you down.


Back at my home station a different shift, I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while. I needed that, more than the guys knew, or than I'd let them in on. When someone would fart, SCBA masks with our hoods would go on, just for laughs. When he's not doing paperwork, the captain joins in on the joking around sometimes. One person might get ragged for cooking, but another will get it for snoring, while another gets it about their moustache, and somebody else might catch a joke for something else. There's no telling what silly thing someone will blurt out next some days. I don't want it any other way.

There's no doubt the captain is the boss, nor is there that the senior guys are senior guys, and etc. It's just nice to be in a place where we don't have to be 100% serious all the time, even when at the station and out of the public's view/earshot.


As for medical calls, we transported a 5 year old in bigeminy/trigeminy. Yes, I wrote 5, and no, it's not a typo. The little guy was brave during the IV stick, and since the hospital didn't give orders for lidocane or anything else, the IV, oxygen, and diesel drip were all we could do.

It was definitely freaky and a bit scary to see such a young person having this heart condition. I've only seen it in the elderly, or in those with known heart conditions.

Another medical call had us transporting an elderly lady after a dizziness and weakness spell. On the way to the hospital, I could hear my partner talking to her as he put the defibrillation pads on her and was explaining what would happen by pacing her. He set the monitor to pace and had a good capture at 40miliamps. Her heart was beating too slow (in the 40's) and it needed to be sped up a bit.

As we were nearing the hospital, her respirations slowed and became agonal. I opened the rear doors to find my partner bagging her. I knew she was still kicking because she would move her feet occasionally (no pun intended).

The ER staff did a great job having enough hands ready to handle her in case she crashed, respiratory was even ready for her. When we left the hospital, she was still alive and being paced. My only complaint about that call is that the ER's monitor wasn't compatible with our pads. This was the first time I'd ever seen the style connector they used. Nothing we have will fit it, and the nurse had trouble figuring out how to disconnect it to check if ours would fit. It makes me think it must be new to them as well.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Answers to keyword searches

I'm in a writing mood tonight. Since I don't seem to get much email, but plenty of google hits are returning my blog, I'm thinking about occasionally pulling interesting search criteria and answering those to the best of my ability.

Here goes.

"How do they do CPR in an ambulance?"

The smart-aleck in me wants to answer with just "very carefully", but I'll try to elaborate. The biggest help we can have while doing CPR is having a driver that is actually mindful that while they need to get to the ER fast, they have to slow down to an extent. The folks in the back are standing, and won't appreciate any sudden turns or braking. Every ambulance I've seen or worked in, has a metal bar mounted to the ceiling. Common slang for it is the O.S. Bar (use your colorful imagination).

My experience with adult CPR has been standing with legs spread wide for better balance, one hand firmly gripping the OS bar, the other on the patient's chest for compressions. Sometimes, I've been known to slide open the nearest cabinet door and grab the sill instead for better balance.

For a pediatric patient, I'll sit on the stretcher with the baby.

Some ambulances have what we call center-mount stretchers, meaning it's not against a wall, and has a CPR seat. I've yet to try using a CPR seat, but I'm just not quite sure how to wrap my brain around effective compressions when I'm sitting down and having to reach over to the patient.

What's fun (to me at least), is being the one to "surf the stretcher" at the ER. Basically, you stand on the lower part of the stretcher's frame and do compressions while you and the patient are wheeled into the ER. Lowering the stretcher from it's highest level (which they all seem to be at by default when unloading), will help considerably in making compressions easier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Comparisons of private cars to ER and ambulances to ER"

Let me preface this by saying that I do not have exact figures, nor do I advocate taking off in your own car instead of calling 911 for that heart attack, or using 911 to "be seen faster" for your stumped toe.

I'm going to address this one by taking what seems to me as the most unbiased opinion I can give. Keep in mind though, this is MY opinion. If you've been here a while, you've surely noticed I'm biased, opinionated, and I give my version of what happened. The following has plenty of truth to it, but is NOT to be taken as the be-all, end-all answer.

Every single person that walks, hops, limps, crawls, or is rolled into a hospital is triaged. That means the sickest person gets seen first. Period.

The nurses don't care if you've been there 3 hours or 3 days, the acute MI (heart attack) will be seen long before the sprained ankle.

I've had plenty of people that wanted to be transported by emergency ambulance so they would be seen quicker. Imagine their disappointment when we rolled them past the ER and out to triage, lowered the stretcher, and helped them sign in for their 5 day-old, non-medicated headache.



911, is supposed to be for emergencies. If you have an emergency, I'll be more than happy to do everything I can to help you and get you to an ER. However, I am not a taxi service, that's why we have a public transportation system. You can pay them less than $2, or pay me over $500 and possibly cost someone having a real emergency their life.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

One day a firefighter and a cop die saving a life. They both went to heaven and at the gates they are told that they each get a pair of wings, but if they have one dirty thought then they lose their wings.

Everything was going along wonderfully until about 3 weeks later. One day, a really good looking angel walks by and the firefighter turns his head and grins. Of course, all of a sudden, his wings fall off. Well, when he bent over to pick them up, the cops wings fell off.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Pet peeves

People that don't do their job.

People that don't stand up to supervisors when given orders that directly contradict doing the right thing. Especially if doing the right thing would only take 5 more minutes (and you're already out of service anyways).

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Close call

Last night was another reminder of how so many little things can go wrong and create a dangerous situation for everyone.

There were problems with water supply, nozzle placement, communication, equipment, and more.

We were lucky. We were extremely lucky.

The crew assigned to water supply was not the crew that completed the assignment. Another unit said they'd dress the hydrant and the original crew moved on to a new assignment. Because of what I personally feel was a poor decision, the crew that dressed the hydrant slowed the process. They chose to flush the hydrant before attaching the 2 1/2" to Stortz, and never put a ball valve on the other side. The hydrant had to be flushed, closed, dressed, and charged. It felt a lot longer than it actually was I'm sure, but it still took a long time.

The 2nd line off the pumping engine ended up in a dead end, at the opposite end of the hallway from where it needed to be. Too many firefighters were cramming into the space and communication deteriorated. We think the crews outside were flowing water and pushed the fire onto the crews with the 2nd line. The flames rolled over 2 times, and both times I was on my knees because of the heat (most of us were pretty low) and the flames were near eye-level.

After the rollovers, the nozzle finally got moving in the right direction and we got water on the fire.

1 person experienced a major malfunction of their SCBA and was breathing hot smoke. He is doing fine now, but a rookie from his station was scared to death that he was seriously hurt. I'm unclear right now as to the finer details of the malfunction. I heard something about the facepiece may have cracked, or the regulator wasn't locked in all the way, or whatever. I'm not going to speculate because I don't know the real answer. I'm just glad he wasn't seriously hurt.

At some point or another, pretty much everyone was some degree of disoriented. I know of at least 2 guys that lost the hoseline and weren't sure exactly where they were or where the hose went.

After a short scare, all occupants were located and accounted for.

The fire was stopped and the majority of the house escaped fire and water damage. The roof was intact, the occupants are alive and unscathed, their property can be cleaned, rebuilt, or replaced.

We all went home at the end of the shift.


I'm still tired, even though I came home and slept roughly 9 hours. I'm sore, I'm sooty, and I smell like a BBQ pit. Yet, I'm content. I'm extremely dissatisfied with how the fire went, but everyone did do a good job overall, and just getting to go into a fire makes my day.

I hope we are able to get some of the crews together next shift and go over what happened and see the different perspectives. It doesn't seem to be done as much lately and this call definately needs a field-level review. I know the powers-that-be review every fire, but so should we.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

My Office

Part of my job for the last few years has been to cram my brain full of as much information about the engine as I can. This will continue for the rest of my career.

I take a lot of pride in trying to know as much about my truck as I can, and I have a lot of information still to learn. I want to know everything from how many GPM's my truck will pump, to how many discharges of each size it has, to how many lugnuts are on the wheels. It's part of being a good driver in my opinion.



Welcome to my office
**note- image is from photobucket, not my truck**

I have not had the fortune of working for any captains that were what's now considered "Old School." I've taken part in some training that I believe is tradition, but nothing I've seen many folks put through regularly.

My first shift out of the academy, I brought donuts, set them on the table, and sat back out of the way. Once the shift started and I was shown where to put my gear and how to work the SCBA release in the seats, I was told I was not allowed to enter any part of the station other than the bay until I knew where everything was at on my engine.

I opened every compartment and spent some time going around and around that truck. When I finally felt comfortable enough, I entered the day room and was immediately quizzed by the guys. Since I answered everything correctly, I was allowed to stay, and sit down. I understood the reasoning then, and I'm thankful for the lesson it taught me. To this day, I can walk around an engine and really look at the compartments 1 time, and I'll remember where things are. It doesn't even take 5 minutes of my time.

Once I started learning about friction loss and other driver-specific duties, I had a very difficult time getting help. I was in a different crew, and the man I once looked to as my mentor had already retired. My shifts were spent on the ambulance, every shift that passed, I was on the ambulance. The truck was extremely busy, and I rarely was able to eat a warm dinner, much less study friction loss or practice pumping the engine at my station. For this, I blame that captain.

I took my personal time and attended a fireground hydraulics class offered by the state academy. I purchased and read, cover to cover, the IFSTA manual on Engine Operator. I took more time on my days off to go drive reserve engines around the academy, under the supervision of the instructors, to help build enough hours to meet the requirements to even take the test for pump school.

I felt the need to do all of these things because I wasn't getting the experience or help I felt I needed at the station-level.

When I took the entrance test for pump school, I passed, and few have ever matched or beat my score (so I've been told). The practicals testing was nerve-wracking, you know they are looking at everything. I had to repeat 1 part. You have to flow a 1 3/4" crosslay wide open, and you better get your own water supply before you cavitate. Oh, and make sure the TPM is set, a spike of more than 30psi on the line is grounds for failure. My first attempt, I was just a bit too slow and cavitated (no harm was done to the truck, the instructor stands by the pump panel to shut it down if needed, and the firefighter on the nozzle also closes the bale when he hears the engine over-rev).

I do not have the luxury of having the experience of pumping many many fires, but I do my best at every opportunity and the guys manning my hoselines have never brought any complaints to me. I look forward to pumping more fires, it's hard work, but it's a blast. The only bad thing about pumping, is having to stay outside with the truck.

I don't want to be a 2/20 firefighter, but I'm not afraid to share what information I do know. I managed to teach a veteran guy how to pressurize a watercan by backflowing the air up the nozzle. I can't begin to list the things I've been taught.

Like I said, I take a lot of pride in the things I've learned. Any of you folks out there that are fire guys, please feel free to share random bits of info that might be helpful, or rack my brain to see what I know. Non-fire folks, send me any questions you have about the things we do, why, or how we do them. If I don't have a good answer for you, I'll do my best to find one.

Friday, January 8, 2010

A rare sight




Yup, that's what it looks like outside my bedroom.

I love the snow, but that may be because I don't see it very often. Of course, everyone in town has lost their damn minds. There was a 27 or 29 car pileup, and a deputy that spun out and the off-duty officer that stopped to help had to jump off a 20 ft high bridge when another car lost control and came at them. The news is saying they'll both be ok, but no idea about their actual injuries.

I just got back from heading to the bank to make a deposit and get food, and the roads look decent. I didn't have any issues, and the only ice I crossed was in the shopping center parking lot. A roughly 250' long stretch of road that was covered. I jut let the car idle forward and didn't have any problems. My backyard is another story though. It's 22*F now, and once the sun drops, it's going to freeze solid very quickly. The ice will be over 1" thick.

I'm praying for all the guys and gals that have to work in this junk.

I was evil this morning though. I was able to make ice cream from the snow. It was awesome, very tasty. If the snow doesn't get that crunchy layer of ice on it, I might make more in the morning. I have to get my fix while the snow lasts, because it may not snow for another year around here.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Never thread a tiny needle with big yarn

...Or try to thread a Crown Vic between a poured concrete wall and a telephone pole where the gap between them is between 6 and 12 inches less than the width of the vehicle.

Amazingly, these idiots were fairly unscathed. Their car will probably be totalled, since the engine dropped and was sitting at a weird angle.

The call came in as an entrapment, but all occupants of the vehicle were able to crawl out through the windows before any units arrived onscene. 2 of the 3 ended up on backboards and in C-collars since they had complaints, the other guy refused care.

I thought the driver's cell phone was going to have to be surgically removed, he interfered with his own care by ignoring our orders to stop making calls so we could assess him, and finished calling everyone in his phone book. The refusal guy just kept getting into the back of the ambulance and was pretty much just in the dang way the whole time. I finally made a smartassed comment to one of the engine guys and he got the guy out of my way.

As soon as I got in the cab to drive to the ER, refusal guy made some comment to me along the lines of "you gonna drive *this* truck?" I turned and looked at him and the filter between my brain and mouth failed (hey, it was 0230), "I've been driving it longer than you."

He said some other rude comment and I replied that I got paid to drive that truck, and he was quiet the rest of the ride.

At the hospital, the nursing staff commented about the hispanic gang that had arrived in the waiting room. I told them about the cell phone issues. They had their hands full trying to keep the driver in his room (and not walking around on the ankle he was supposed to have X-ray'd), and keeping the other visitors from sneaking into the rooms with the guys.




In other news, it's actually snowing! The ground here has a light dusting of snow and it's still falling. I'm so glad I'm off work for a couple of days, folks around here don't know how to drive even on dry roads.

I just hope enough falls so I can make ice cream. I have sugar, milk, and vanilla extract ready and waiting!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Exactly how it's supposed to work

Rarely, there are times where the calls I run restore my faith in the system, even if only temporarily.

We arrived onscene and found our patient looking pretty crappy. He was complaining of chest discomfort and nausea, among other things. We didn't waste any time in getting him on the stretcher and into the ambulance. He was placed on the monitor, and a 12-lead was also run as soon as we were able. His nausea got the better of him and he vomitted. As quickly as we could manage, he got a diesel drip to the hospital. Our onscene time was between 5-10 minutes total.

On arrival at the hospital, we spent just long enough in the ER to have a STEMI chart grabbed, timer started, and for a nurse to come show us the way to the cath lab.

I kid you not when I say that we moved the patient from our stretcher onto the cath lab table, and were kicked out of the room.

I made a comment to my partner about wishing we could stay an watch, because it had to be a interesting procedure. Well, one of the nurses said to just go into the observation room and watch, stating that it's only a 15 minute procedure. Don't have to tell me twice, we moved our stretcher to an out of the way place, and went to watch.

All I can say is wow. It's so very neat to watch. Our guy had a right inferior block. The stint was placed and he converted back to a normal rhythm right before I left to go put my truck back in order.

Total time from initiation of 911 to stint placement was at or just shy of an hour. I'd have to pull the report to be sure, since we don't track arrival to the ER in our station logs.