Knit & Play with Fire

Townhouse Fire aka Playtime Part 3

Okay, yet another posting about fire. I warned everyone that I have been out playing this week. Monday morning, I was at work when I heard Box 1-4 go out a little after 10 am. I had a feeling that my company would be going in to the city. When I heard the chief advise on the main channel that he had a heavy column of black smoke, I started getting ready to go down to the fire hall. And for me getting ready means taking out my earrings if I am wearing dangly earrings and pulling my hair back into two ponytails (one high and one low to keep my hair off of my face when I pull on my hood.)

I was already in my truck when the second alarm was hit out and on my way to the station when my tones were hit. I was almost at the station when I heard that there were possibly up to 6 people trapped. Let's just say my comment as I walked into the station with one of the guys was something to the effect that I was going to be on the wrong truck. (Add a few swear words of your choosing here.)(And an explanation for those of you who might not understand, the first truck on the scene handles search and rescue and by the time we got there, we would either be the second or third truck. And the first truck on the scene was the truck that I ride in the city.) There were 2 rescues but they were just a matter of removing people from adjoining townhouses.

When we rolled up on scene, there were flames shooting up through the roof as evidenced by some of my photos. Actually one of the guys I ride with took the photos of the flames on the roof. A few of the guys are getting familiar with my camera and how to use its various features. And they will grab it and take pictures themselves since they now know why I am taking pictures and what the plans are for the pictures. Plus I am now known county wide for taking pictures on scene and that I do share the photos so almost everyone who takes photos shares.

My job was to make sure that command knew that I had a thermal imager camera ready as a backup for any entry crew. We didn't want to take it up on the roof and have it be needed by an entry team. So basically all I did was hang out with the command crew and take photos.

The cause of the fire was determined to be a discarded cigarette tossed into a flower pot next to the house on the rear deck. Yeah, not smart!

But in the end, everyone went home safely and played together like good little children. And the only damage was to property which can be replaced. And the best part of the whole fire call for me was getting a hug from one of my fellow fire fighters from my other company when he came out of the house after being up on the roof. Trust me, there are some advantages to being a female fire fighters. And I am the only active female fire fighter currently running at either house.

Look for knitting content to resume fairly soon.

Play Time!! - Part I

Yes, I have been out playing!!! An instructor that I am friends with had an extra night burn for his fire 1 students Friday night and I went to take photos. And I managed to get some really great shots. I will adopt the do not ask and I will not have to tell policy as to how I managed to get some of these shots since my gear was in my truck. Both sets of gear remained in the truck all night!

Play Time - Part 2

Okay, I played fire photo journalist on Friday night. And Saturday morning, bright and early, I got to play fire fighter! I was at the truck house early to ride. I wasn't even there 15 minutes before we got a call. It was a simple bells & whistles aka an automatic alarm but that is how the day started out. When we got back, the chief was there and they were trying to figure out how to get everything down to the training center for a drill. One of the 2 trucks was out of service for mechanical reasons. So that meant that the 1 truck could not take part in the drill.

Since I am not a full fledged member of the truck house, I wasn't sure if the chief would let me participate in the drill. The career guys decided to take the truck on down to see what all was going on plus this allowed one of the guys to get some driver's training time in. When we got down there, the chief came over to me and told me to pull my gear from the truck because I was going to be allowed to play. Actually, the chief and the deputy chief had decided that they wanted to evaluate my skills and those of the other fire fighter there. Okay, the reality was that there were 3 white hats from the truck house and only one black helmet; I made it 2 black helmets. But the other thing is that it meant I got to play with the boys!

Because we were working without the truck, they had to be creative in what we could do. We threw some ladders and 1 crew took the hose line in and the other crew performed search and rescue. I was search and rescue with the deputy chief.

Yes, I did save the dummy. And no, I do not mean another fire fighter but the hose dummy. I saved the victim and went back in to start the search of the next level. Except that I realized that I had one little problem; I was becoming pretty dehydrated and that I needed to get out. I passed this info on to my deputy chief and he sent me out with the chief. (We had been fully geared up and standing out outside in full turnout gear for about 30 minutes in the full sun before we even got started.) I was okay after drinking plenty of water.

We were only allowed to play during one evolution but we still had fun. And after the drill, we went to another station for lunch. After wards, my buddy Rob and I headed home to shower and change before heading back down to ride for the rest of the day. We ran a few more commercial alarms that afternoon and 1 box. The box turned out to be nothing. We never even made it to the scene before we were placed back in service. But it was a fun day. And I learned quite a bit.

 

And just to help id some of the people in the photos, the one with the 3 firefighters together without helmets are my chiefs at the truck house. And the one photo with the gentleman with the silver hair is "da boss". He is one of the head guys at the county level for the career guys. He is also a retired battalion chief from Montgomery County.

Photo of the Week

Okay, we all know that I combine fire fighting and knitting somehow. But the other week I posted some photos that I took when I was fooling around with my camera at the truck house where I run. And Joe from Firewhirl has chosen one of the photos to be the photo of the week this week. So pop on over to see what he has to say. And here is the photo again. My favorite truck!!! The photo is called Waiting simply because we are always waiting for another call.

Playing Around with the Camera

After the fire Friday afternoon, I went down to the truck house to ride for he evening. And no, we didn't go anywhere while I was there. Although we did go out for dessert after dinner. But two of us were playing around with the camera and taking perspective shots and here are the results after I played around with the photo editing. And yes, the guys did end up running later that night. They ran 2 calls after 1 am.

Do You Want Fires with That?

Friday afternoon was interesting. We had already had 2 accident calls for the day but the best call was yet to come. Around 3 pm, I heard the call go out for another company at the other end of town for a mulch fire next to the building at one of the Taco Bell/KFC combos that we have around here.

Well, let's just say that what started out as a mulch fire turned into a 2 alarm fire. When the first unit arrived on scene, they found smoke showing and requested that the box be filled. The fire was put out using ladder pipes; in other words, hose lines off of the aerials were used.

My station was dispatched for the second alarm. By the time we got there, the fire was pretty much knocked. We ended up helping to boost the water pressure to another unit. And I had time to take a few pictures of one of my favorite pieces of apparatus - the truck!!! And my favorite crew was working Friday as well.

And yes, the establishment is closed and word is that they have already started demolition and the renovation process.

Who Knew & Other Fire Related Stuff

According to a national survey, firefighting is the sexiest job out there. Who knew? I mean, obviously the people answering this survey have never taken a close look not only at what we do but at the shape many of the guys are in. That is not to say that most fire fighters are not physically fit but they just don't look it. And we do a hot dirty job. You really wouldn't think we are sexy after we are done fighting a fire. Trust me, we need a shower after fighting a fire.

And on a sad note for the Maryland fire service, there are some fire fighters facing criminal charges over their actions at a fire scene. I will not go into specifics about the incident but let's just say that that type of behavior has no place on the fire grounds. The allegations are about an incident involving career and volunteer fire fighters in Prince Georges county in Maryland. PG is one of the two Maryland counties that border DC. I know that there are some issues between the career and volunteer fire fighters down there but what happened should never have happened. If you really want to know more about what happened, just do a Google search.

I hope that this type of issue never happens up here where I run or anyway else for that matter. 'nuf said.

Woods Fire

Yesterday afternoon, we were dispatched to what went out as a house fire up near my brother's house. We were already en route when it was changed from a house fire to a woods fire. That was when I was really happy that I ended up on the tanker instead of the quint for once. The quint was placed back in service and they headed back to the station. Four of the guys who were on the quint ended up heading back out on one of our brush trucks while another got out our old brush truck.

We got on scene and headed up to the fire by climbing up and riding on the back of the brush units that were already there. We got lucky and the fire was extinguished before it really took off. There was probably less than an acre burned in all. It could have been worse given that the winds were picking up yesterday.

Hopefully, we will not have woods fires today because the winds are pretty nasty outside right now.

Being Teased

I stopped by the truck house where I have been running calls at lately for a few minutes. The truck house has the benefit of being located right in between both of the yarn shops. (How convenient for me!)

I had just left one of my LYS to after picking up the replacement needle that had broken. I needed to drop off my updated training records since I finally received the transcript from last fall's class.

Well, as soon as I walked in the door, our lieutenant started picking on me because he didn't see me on a call that morning. I reminded him that he doesn't run every call and that I had just stepped into the shower when the first call went out as an automatic alarm and that I did go down to the station to staff the next piece. And that sometimes there are more important things than running a call like a nice hot shower. The guys were just teasing since they knew that I had been up most of the previous night on a different call.

And than we got done to the serious business of going through photos from last week's fire that I had to take using a disposable camera. I have had to do some playing around with the contrast and fill light in order to get these photos half way decent. I am definitely upgrading my photo editing software really soon. One of the best features that I love about my digital camera is that I can turn the flash off and use the available light and you can not do that with a disposable camera. (And there is no zoom on the disposable that I was using!) Lighting on a fire scene is really interesting since you have lights from all of the equipment plus the light bars going. And our gear has reflective striping on it. So I think you can see how tricky it can be to take a good photo on a night scene. But here are some of the photos that I promised from last week's fire. 

And yes, the house was a total loss but that sometimes happens. We try to avoid losing a whole house but sometimes a fire will burn hot and fast and all we can do is try to prevent it from spreading.

Staying Busy with Fires

We have been staying busy with fires in our next due area this week. We had a house fire that was pretty much limited to one room and its contents on Tuesday. And today, we were initially dispatched to a garage fire.By the time, we were in route, it was changed to a barn fire. The barn just happens to be located across from a garage!

I would post some pictures of Tuesday's fire but the photos from today are much more interesting. What we were told when we got there was that the fire was in a beam. So that meant as the second truck crew, we got to do the destruction and overhaul.

There really was not that much fire there but the barn was in pretty bad shape to start with in the first place. We did a little creative re-arranging of the stall that was involved. We also shoveled out some hay. The guys from one of the other engines were finally able to get up on the second floor of the barn and move some the stuff off the beams that we were interested in. And just moving the weight helped things quite a bit. The beams moved when the weight was taken off of them.

The best part of this fire for me was that the barn was home to some pygmy goats and two llamas! Yes, I can go to a fire and find some thing fiber related. I am going to try and go up to this barn at some point and get some better photos of the goats and the llamas.

Added later - I have added the photos from this week's fire plus another one from last month to my albums. I will be adding descriptions to all of the photos slowly over the next week or so. The funny thing is that all of the fires have been in our next due's area.

And here is the description from IAFF Local 3666 website on the fire - On Thursday February 23rd 2006 just after lunch, Box alarm 22-01 was struck for the house fire accross from 11026 Hessong Bridge Road. First arriving E221 went on scene with smoke showing from a barn to the rear of the house. The crew from E221 stretched a 200' 3" leader line back the drive way and began an interior attack. Interior crews found a small fire in the alpha-bravo corner of the structure with extension into the second floor. The fire was knocked in approximately 10 minutes, and the crew from T1 checked for hot spots with a thermal imager. Units cleared in about an hour. Pictures soon

Good for 3 More Years

Well, I am good for 3 more years as an EMT-B in the state of Maryland. We had class Saturday and Sunday. Given that the MFRI policy is that classes are canceled if the snow emergency plan is in effect, the class as a whole decided that we would stay later on Saturday afternoon and get in another 3 hour segment. We also decided that we would have class on Sunday regardless of the weather. We decided to start class at 9 am instead of 8 am on Sunday though.

It had started snowing around 1 pm and it was just starting to stick to the roads when we got out of class around 4 pm. I had planed on going to Mass but I decided that I really needed to go to the grocery store. I was out of chocolate soy milk and I needed some hot chocolate to enjoy a good snow storm.

I finally made it home, ate dinner, and started studying and knitting. I have been working on my Jaywalker sock in class but it kind of helps to pay attention to the pattern.

But I first took a few pictures of the start of the snow for your vie wing. And I have some after the snow photos for your viewing as well.

We ended up with around 10 to 12 inches of snow in all. It took me almost an hour to unbury my truck. I was able to catch a ride to class with some one who has a bigger truck than my small one. And that was a good thing too. The back roads out to the highway were a little bit on the only slightly plowed side.

Class was relaxed and we did some review and played with the extrication devices that we use to get you out of a car and onto the backboards. And since I always have my camera with me, here is a photo of someone in the KED (Kendrick Extrication Device). And yes, it is as uncomfortable as it looks. (And yes, I have whited out the person's face.)

We tested after a short break. And with only 25 questions on the test, you could only miss 7 and still pass. There was one perfect score in the class. I only missed three questions and that was what I figured I had missed when I was done with the class.

And so I don't have to worry about EMT certifications for 3 more years. And by that time, hopefully MIEMSS will have figured out a way for EMTs to do most of their continuing ed through the internet.

Fatal PI - 1/25/2006

Yesterday morning, my pager went off right before my alarm clock at 7 am. I was already at the door on my way and tones were still dropping. All I heard was that it was an accident with 1 pinned and 1 trapped. I was just passing the rescue company when the first ambulance pulled out.

The traffic was already backed up to the high school when we pulled out onto the main highway. We went down (south) the highway on the wrong side but that was the only way to back it down the road. To give you an idea of distance, the fire house is located right next to the high school and it was about 4 miles down the road to the scene. Since I was facing forward, I was able to see the scene as pulled up on it. I saw an SUV up on the passenger side, a red Saturn in the ditch, and a red Mustang on the side of the road (all of them were in the southbound side.) A little bit further down there were two cars on the northbound side off on the shoulder.

Because there were other units on the way from Frederick City, we pulled up in front the 3 vehicles in the southbound lane. I immediately pulled the step chokes out their compartment on the engine and went to the Saturn in the ditch. After placing the blocks in front of the rear tires and letting my captain deal with the patient who was pinned in the vehicle, I headed to the squad to get some cribbing.

On my way there, I was told to see what condition the patient in the SUV was in. Two of the guys were already stabilizing the vehicle. Being on the short side, I was only able to reach in and verify that the patient was conscious and get a brief medical history. By that point one of the medics showed up and was figuring out how to gain access to the patient. Access was through the rear of the SUV and we ended up bringing her out that way. By the time our patient was out of her vehicle, Trooper 3 was on the ground.

It was not until after Trooper 3 had taken off with 2 patients, that any of realized that one of the patients in the 2 vehicles in the northbound lane was a fatal.

It was not until this morning that I found out that the patient I dealt with was the person responsible for the accident.

All in all, there were 5 fire and rescue companies on the scene. They were Walkersville Volunteer Fire Company #11, Walkersville Volunteer Rescue Company #24, Juniors Fire Company #2, United Hose Company #3, and Fort Detrick Fire Company #50. The staffing was a combination of volunteers and career firefighters who work as one team in this county.

I forgot to grab my camera on my way out the door yesterday morning, so the photos in this post are courtesy of the Frederick News Post. And here is a link to the story.

 

New Year's Eve

I hope your New Year's Eve was fun. I know I did. To illustrate how my New Year's Eve was spent I am just going to post the pictures.

The call is Box 10-1 Thurmont Farmer's Co-op. The call was dispatched at 10:37 pm December 31, 2005. The first unit on scene advised that this was a working fire. We were the second due truck on the call. The call quickly went to a second alarm which meant that we had another ladder truck showing up. The bulk of the fire was contained to the office area but there was plenty of smoke through out the building. We got home around 1:50 am.   

Box Last Night

There are two types of fires that fire fighters never really want to hear about and we had one last night. The first type is at either your own fire house or someone else's but that is not what we had.  The second type of fire is at a nursing home. Yeah, lots of mostly elderly people who are already in poor health and their building is on fire.

Last night at 8:30 we were dispatched to a box at one of the two nursing homes in our first due. A total of 7 companies were dispatched on the initial call including us. I was on the first engine arriving from my company and we were the second engine in. The boys from United Fire Company were there a few seconds ahead of us somehow.

The fire was already out when we got there. The fire was in a laundry room and the sprinkler system did its job. There was water everywhere. The residents in that wing were already being moved into another wing or were in a central location. After verifying that the fire was out and repacking the attack line, I ended up helping with EMS. We needed to move several of the patients into the back of ambulances to keep them warm and get them checked out.

After patient care and putting all of the tools away, it was stand around and wait for the fire marshal to finish up. What could have been a very scary night turned out to be not so scary.

And just as a public service message, please make sure that you clean out your dryer lint traps each and every time you use it!

Map Time

Okay, I was just volunteered to do quite a bit of data entry for the fire company. We are in the process of updating our map books and running routes and the guy doing the updates needs some help with the data entry and I was volunteered. Okay, I was asked to do it but as any one who has spent any time in the fire service knows, you do not tell the chief no without a really good reason. So I am going to be busy for the next few weeks entering the data into the data base. So if my posting is sporadic, I hope you understand.

Yesterday's Fire

Okay, as promised, I have a few pictures of yesterday's house. The house was in an old farmhouse back down a long dirt farm lane. And yes, we took the engines and the truck back down this lane. Let's just say, we did not get stuck and it was a nice fun mini roller coaster ride back down the lane.

But to give you a clue as to the lane's condition, brush trucks were being used to bring fire fighters back to the house. And we picked up some extra people at the top of the lane.

The fire was out by the time we got there. (We had about a 10 minute drive.) But we still  had to overhaul the fire room and the next room. And overhaul is just another word to say that we had the dirty work of cleaning out the burnt stuff and trying to save what we could.

While the guys shoveled the debris out, I was going through the clothing and the toys in both rooms seeing what could be saved and would had to be tossed out. There were quite a few small stuffed animals in the room and I had to make the decision to toss them. I also had to toss the bedsheets off the beds.

Once the smell of smoke from a house fire gets into textiles, you will never get it out no matter what you do. I really wished that I could have saved some of the kids stuffed animals but there was just no way.

If you have kids at home and they have quite a few stuffed animals and toys that they do not play with, I am going to suggest that the kids themselves go through their toys and set some of them aside. Talk to your kids and tell them what happens to kids toys after a house fire and see if they would like to donate them to a family in your area who has had a fire in their house. This is also a good time to go through the kids clothing and pull out what they do not wear or have outgrown. The easiest way to donate the clothing is to contact your local Red Cross chapter and tell them that you have kids clothing and toys that you would like to donate to families that have been displaced by a house fire. They will work with you. The Red Cross provides the families a place to stay and some money to replace to some of what is lost. But kids do not always understand the money and want toys. This is just a suggestion but it does make a difference to the kids.

And just so you know, it is my niece who came up with this idea. She is 9 years old and one of the things on her Christmas list is $100 to use to buy warm clothes for kids whose parents can not afford to buy them warm clothes. This idea is entirely her own. And when I questioned her that she would not be upset if I bought warm clothes and donated them to a family that needed them and that would be her present. Her answer was that was what she wanted for Christmas. (And I did make her a present.) My SIL has been cleaning out the toys that are not played with and we have been getting the toys to families that need them at my niece's urging.

Knitting will resume shortly.

Yet More FIre Stuff

Okay this is an article from a Canadian newspaper but it is very true. People seem to fall in love with the glamorous picture of being a fire fighter as seen on tv and in the movies. But it is far from glamourous. It is dirty, cold, and hard work. What this reporter didn't get to see is us blowing our noses and having black snot coming out. Or coming home from a middle of the night call to go right back out and you still have to go to the job that pays your bills in the morning without any sleep.

Firefighting not all glamour
Bruce Campbell
Ramlbin’ On

Wednesday December 07, 2005 High River Times — When you’re an eight-year-old boy dreaming of growing up to be a firefighter, you imagine it’s about running into buildings and saving some damsel in distress.

 

What you don’t imagine is standing in the freezing cold, watching over a destroyed historical building in the middle of the night to ensure there are no more hot spots and that the site isn’t tampered with before the investigation.

 

The High River fire department once again went beyond the call of duty during the fire at Smiley’s Gateway Hotel in Nov. 28.

When Fire Chief Len Zebedee was fighting the fire, directing his men and women and coming up with his successful strategy to ensure the fire didn’t spread, I was on the sidelines, asking a paramedic on stand-by, if “Hey, can you go bug Len and tell him I need a quote? Tell Len to hurry. I’m on deadline -- this is an emergency.”

 

I was rightfully told to go to the media centre at the town office. I’m sure the paramedic was thinking of all sorts of places to tell me where to go.

 

The following night, I popped in on firefighters Curtis Doell and Mike Pearl at the Gateway site, who were standing guard.

 

While the spectacular fire drew hundreds of spectators, watching a burned-out hotel at 9:30 at night has all the appeal of knitting as a spectator sport.

 

I wasn’t about to mistake Curtis with Kurt Russell in Backdraft at that exact moment.

 

So after a few minutes of chitchat, I took a picture (which didn’t turn out --hey, man, it was cold out) and left.

Boy it’s tough being a reporter.

Meanwhile, these guys had to stay up until 1 a.m in polar bear-type weather. Oh, yeah, they are volunteers, so they were getting paid exactly the same as I was while I drank warm milk and read Huck Finn --nothing.

 

Just for good measure there were other firefighters who were going to take their place at 1 a.m for the “bad shift.”

 

Sadly, my illusions of being a firefighter have been shattered -- it’s too much work.

 

But I sleep easier knowing there are folks out there who are putting in the effort to make my community and myself safer.

 

What our firefighters do, is something the community, myself included, take for granted.

 

I guess, now I wanna be a cowboy

What It Is Like...

This is an anonymous poem that is making it's way around the fire fighting blogs.  II really think it because it does pretty much sum up what I see and do every day. And keep in mind that I do not get paid for doing what I do.

I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns. I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 6 in the morning as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none.

I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try and save his life. I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with. I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire, Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?. Or to call and ask what is wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun? I wish you could be in the emergency room, as a doctor pronounces dead, the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes, knowing she will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love you Mommy", ever again. I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine, squad, or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic.

When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you forever to get here!" I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. What if this was my daughter, sister, my wife or a friend? What were her parents reaction going to be when they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call. I wish you could know how it feels dispatching officers, firefighters and EMT's out and when we call for them and our heart drops because no one answers back or to here a bone chilling 911 call of a child or wife needing assistance. I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally and sometimes physically abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will never happen to me". I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain of missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos. I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, "Is my Mommy okay?", not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having CPR done on him as they take him away in the Medic Unit.

You know all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become too familiar with. Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to us...I wish you could though.

Regular Kknit blogging will resume in the next day or so...

Fire Fighting Blogs

Can you believe that there are blogs about firefighting? Yes, just like knitting blogs there are blogs about firefighting!! I found this one by accident when I was checking the stats for my blog. And remember the firefighting game I mentioned last week? Well, I must have hit the big time because I was mentioned in this post!!!

Regular bloggin should resume tomorrow.

Quick Note

Just a quick note to tell everyone about a nice phone call I received this morning. My nephew called me at work to tell me that he saw me riding the quint up his street on the way to a fire call near his house. Of course, I didn't personally get to talk to him since I was on the call. But he called his grandfather to tell him that he saw me.

The fire call was about a mile up the street from his bus stop. He lives in a different fire district but we run up there all the time. I will be calling my nephew later this afternoon when he gets home from school to talk to him. He is only 11 but he can't wait until he is old enough to join my fire company. He will tell you that blue fire trucks are his favorite.

There was very little damage to the store where the fire was located. And it was a chance to learn how to use some of the more specialized tools on the quint. But it really makes me happy to know that he is looking for me whenever he sees blue fire trucks.

Quick Late Night Post

Just a quick late night post. I just got back from the tractor pull. I am tired; I am hot; I am dirty. It is 11:20 at night and I am planning on taking a quick shower and falling in bed. Keep your fingers crossed that there are no calls tonight because I really do not want to run any more call today. I have not picked up my needles at all today. Since midnight, I have run or received credit for 6 calls. I have actually been on 4 calls starting at 3 am. Two of the calls were back to back and they were major incidents. There will be more tomorrow when I will have had a chance to sleep and actually eat something. And I will hopefully will be able to pick up my needles. Oh yeah, I will also be able to actually get my real job done. I was not able to get a lick of my work done today. Thankfully my boss understands.

We Will Never Forget

Hurricane Update

It turns out that I knew some one who was one of the first wave of fire fighters from the Montgomery County, Maryland, Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR) that was sent out to the hardest hit areas. His team just returned from Mississippi Tuesday.

His team was in an area where the eye wall came ashore. What I can say about what he saw is that there is nothing left. They did find a few survivors. Based on what they saw, they estimate that the storm surge was 25 to 30 feet. Everything is gone. They did not find any bodies. They believe that the bodies were washed back out into the Gulf when the storm surge retreated. The exact number of dead from this storm may never be known in some areas.

Fustration

First of all, yes, I am still knitting. I was knitting at the firehouse on Sunday night while we talked about the trails our brothers and sisters are going through in New Orleans.

My primary fire company is an all volunteer station in a county that has a combination system. (A combination system is one that has both career and all volunteer houses and we work together as one.) The county, in its infinite wisdom, has stated that we can not go down to New Orleans to help out even though the help has been asked for by the New Orleans Fire Department. The NOFD does not know where all of their fire fighters are and the fire fighters who were on duty at the time the hurricane hit have been working 24/7 since than. Many of the fire houses are gone and they need the help but yet we can not help them. I do understand why my county has made this statement and it is for a valid point. Many of the fire companies have enough problems getting out on calls as it is and if you send your best to help out elsewhere, who will get the engines and ambulances out?

Our solution is to create a food drive at the local fire houses that will be taken directly to where it is needed. A local food distributor is donating the storage space and the tractor trailers needed to take the food where it is needed. This food drive is being organized by one of the local fire companies but we are all doing what we can.

The career house where I volunteer in a different county has some one who should be in New Orleans as I write this. The Department of Fire and Rescue Services in Montgomery County had already sent down to the region 2 separate deployments of the Urban Search and Rescue teams. Sunday afternoon, an e-mail was sent out to the station asking for volunteers from the career staff. The firefighters were going to be going down to New Orleans to help back fill the fire houses and relieve the personnel of the NOFD. The list had to be in the the co-coordinator by 6 pm. The people chosen would be leaving Monday morning at 7 am. You also had to pass a fast medical exam and understand that you would be down there for 2 to 3 weeks living under very harsh conditions. Personnel chosen would be working on a 12-on/12-off schedule. Sleeping arrangements were still unknown. And you can believe that there were plenty of volunteers.

How bad is it for first responders who have been on duty since the hurricane hit? There have been at least 2 confirmed suicides by first responders in New Orleans. Things are bad. And fire fighters who have been sent down to help out and are already back home are frustrated. Rather than post a lot of links here, I am just going to suggest that you check out Firehouse.com for the stories. This is where I spend a lot of my computer time right now reading about what is going on and trying to find ways to help.

One way that I am able to help right now is going down as often as I can to the career house and riding with my favorite crew. Plus, I take over cooking dinner when I am down there. My cooking means that who ever on the shift was supposed to be cooking can do something else. (I normally end up helping to cook anyhow.) So the next chance I have to go back down and ride with them is Saturday.

So if you have any favorite recipes for dishes like lasagna and baked pasta dishes that can be made ahead of time and frozen, please let me know! I am going to try and get some things like this made up so that we can throw them in the freezer at the station. Everyone is either pulling quite a bit of overtime right now or will be pulling extra overtime while people are out. Having something in the freezer that can be pulled out means that you don't have worry about dinner. People are tired and they don't always feel like cooking.

I will return to knitting blogging tomorrow or the next day.

Parade Time

Last night was the final carnival parade of the season. Now normally I do not do parades but I rode in last night's parade.

So the really fun part was first having to hurry up and iron a pair of duty pants which wasn't a problem. But than I had to find a fire company shirt. Now I could find every a shirt for every fire company but my own!! Yes, I did finally find the one that I did one that I needed. And more important to all of you, I remembered to take my camera with me.

When I got to the station, we had enough people that we were able to staff the quint with active fire fighters so we did not have to place the unit out of service. The other engine was staffed with the daughters of one of the members who also drove the engine. We also took the antique and our very own special unit.

The drive up was pretty. And for those you who have ever wondered what the view looks like from inside a fire truck, I took a picture for you. And I also took a picture out the window, but it is hard to get a picture out of a moving vehicle. But Rocky Ridge is a very pretty little town.

I think that there were more pieces in the parade than the town is big. I saw front loaders, tractors, dump trucks, all sorts of fire apparatus, the Shriners' little cars, and and antique Cub Cadet tractor in the line up. The worst part of the parade was lining up and waiting for the parade to start.

One of the companies had to leave because they had a call. They were close enough to respond to their first due but that meant that they had to miss out on the parade. Our pieces were always stand out because well blue stands out next to red, slime yellow, and all of the other colors that fire apparatus comes in.

There was a guy flying around on a motorized hang glider thingie. I have several photos but I am going to spread them out over several days since several of them are nature photos. And as usual, the farm girls were picking on me about taking pictures of what they call weeds and saying that people who have blogs are losers. But the truth is that they have no clue what a blog is nor do they have any concept have how to use a weed as something beneficial. And although they bitch and moan about my camera, they certainly like playing with it.

And only a little bit of knitting on the sock. The sock really needs to visit the fire hall so it can sit in the officer's seat.

Fire, Fire Everwhere

Okay, I swear to you, I did try to knit this past weekend. I honestly tried. But everything conspired against me knitting.

I did go down to my other station and ride Friday night. We had exactly one call after my sister and I got there. But that was okay. There were still housekeeping chores to be done and we managed to get everything done. And than we got to play. The day had been busy with some really nasty calls so it was a chance to unwind and relax in the traditional firehouse manner - pranks!!! We just had fun and every one had fun.

The next morning, we were up bright and early to head home. I had apparatus check which translated into cleaning everything on all of the engines and the quint and my sister was supposed to be in a class.

I spent four hours cleaning fire apparatus. And I mean cleaning. We took everything out of each and every compartment and cleaned it and the compartment. Plus we cleaned the cabs. Everything was dirty.

And we also did a little of drilling on the operation of the panel on the bucket of the quint. Since that is something that I have never had the chance to operate, I am happy that we did it. Basically it is idiot proof. We also did some pump panel training. That was aimed at the drivers but every one needs to know it. (The pump panel is where the driver monitors the water flow on the side of the engine - both the intake and the out flow.)

Afterwards, my sister and I went down to visit our other "sister" at another fire house where she was working some overtime. The real reason we went down was to deliver some newspapers for her kids' guinea pigs that we had forgot the night before. We went to church and dinner after we spend some time with her even though we had been together the previous 12 hours. We were trying to decide what to do that evening as we headed out to her grandmother's house when her fire company got an ambulance call. Since we were really close, I dropped her off and headed home.

I got home when my fire company got hit out for a fire in the neighboring town. The tanker had already pulled out when I got to the station and the quint was already full. But since we could see the smoke from the station and the house was a good four miles away, we knew that we were probably going to get called in for another piece so I stayed. Sure enough, they called the heavy duty squad in as soon as it started to get dark.

Riding the squad when you are called in for lighting is the easiest job on the fire ground. Here is exactly what you do when you are the manpower on it - nothing!!!!! That is right, nothing. Everyone else is working hard and you get to stand next to the squad doing nothing except provide lighting. The best part of the evening was when my fire chief finally saw me and wanted to know if I had my gear with me and I told him yes. He than tried to tell me to gear up because he wanted to put me in and I had to tell him that he had to clear it with the driver of the squad who also happens to be the assistant chief of the rescue company. He was told that I was manpower for the squad and that I was there for the RIT team if needed. (The RIT team is the rescue team and you basically can not do anything on the fire ground because you have to stay rested in case you have to go in to perform a rescue.)

The house was saved but the garage was lost.

Sunday was spent catching up on laundry and various other chores like shopping. I will taking my knitting to a meeting with me tonight. And I will have photos tomorrow of some new sock yarns.

Update on the Big Fire

There was an update on the cause of the big fire the we fought on Monday night in today's local paper. One of the town house's that burned was owned by a couple who had just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary and are expecting a child in two months. The husband had purchased a ring for his wife as a present and it survived the fire. They lived in the end unit of the row of town houses.

The cause of the fire has been determined to be caused by a child playing with a lighter on the back deck of the town house next to the end unit.

According the article in the newspaper, the unit next to the fire origin was supposed to go on the market yesterday. This unit had quite a bit of smoke and water damage.

There were 4 town houses facing the end unit that had siding melt on their rear side. The damage estimates in the end unit alone are $700,000. The damage estimates will probably end up going over 1.5 million or high when everything is done.

The total number of fire fighters on scene was over 80 even though the newspaper reports it was 80 exactly. There were a total of 10 different fire companies on the scene.

I know that we did try and salvage everything that we could. I was in the unit we the fire started and we found a picture that survived the heat in the master bedroom. Anything that survived such as pictures, I was charged with placing on the couch and covering with a tarp to protect it. The ceiling above was soaked and dripping when we left it. There were wedding pictures that were sitting out in the living room there untouched. I gathered everything and placed it on the couch on top of everything that was already there and covered with a tarp. Another fire fighter helped me with covering it. He said that it wouldn't protect it too much if the ceiling fell but that help some. I like to think we helped save some this family's memories.

Weekend Happings

It is officially carnival time!!! It is time for fun. It is time for making money. It is also time for the bitching to start from the guys.

I swear men bitch more than women. Men say women gossip but  I honestly think they are the worst gossips. But that is a whole other story.

I Had planned to spend Saturday running around doing errands but my plans changed fast. I stopped by the firehouse to see what was needed for carnival set-up for my booth. I worked for about an hour and than headed for my LYS. I was there for a bit before heading home to pick up something.

On my way back into town, we got a fire call so I stopped at the fire house in case we got a second call. (It happens all the time.) We actually did get a second call but we had enough people there for a third call and I was told to hang back for the third call. We were expected a third piece to go out because things were hopping.

To give you an idea of how busy things were consider that there were 3 ambulances out on this call, 1 engine tanker, 1 engine, 1 brush truck, and the utility. That left us with the quint which is the big ladder truck and the other big ladder truck in the city was already out on a working fire. So that meant if anything at all went out for the next 2 hours, the quint was going.

And we did get a call. But luckily it was an EMS call. And the patient came to us. A simple injury that we were able to take care of and have the patient ready to transport by the time the ambulance got back to the station.

I was able to finish my errands after wards which included going back to my LYS.

I spent Sunday riding the engine in the next county down where I have been riding. I did run into my chief at the hospital on my way down though. My friend was working and she had called me to bring her lunch. Well, we met out at the ambulance entrance and he had just delivered a patient. (He is a career firefighter.) My chief just gave me one of his famous looks on his way in and than stopped to talk to me one his way out for a few minutes.

I was kept busy once I got down to the other station because people were shooting off fireworks. It is legal in some counties in Maryland to have certain types of fireworks. But other counties make it illegal to have any type of fireworks including sparklers. For once the engine was busier than the medic unit. It was close to midnight when we finally got back from the last call and I left. I had planned to leave around 10:30 since I knew that I would be busy on Monday. I should have just spent the night.

Monday was spent finishing up any last minute prep needed for carnival. and that for me meant helping out at the pit beef booth since they needed the help. Plus I had to run in to town and pick up some last minute supplies for my booth.

Carnival started up right on time with decent crowds. The pizza booth were I work was a little short handed for help this year but we are used to working together as team so we can get by with as few as 4 people if we have to. We have even done it with 3 at some points. When we are really busy we really need 7 to 8 people. Last night, we had a total of 9 people working for the whole night and that included 3 junior members and the junior members were all under the age of 13!!!!

I was too busy to take any pictures but I will try to take some pictures tonight. I will be down there by 5 tonight and I will take some pictures early of the lawn chairs that will be set up for tonight's band. Tonight's band is the Fabulous Hubcaps and they are popular. Most places you have to pay to get in to see them but we don't charge for parking or to get into our carnival so people come in from all over to hear this band.

And all this week, except for tomorrow tonight, there will be very little knitting getting done in the evenings since I will be at carnival. And I can't knit there because I am working when I am there. But the best part of carnival this year for me is that I had only signed to ride the brush truck for 2 nights and the chief assigned me a riding position on a piece of apparatus every night except tomorrow night when he knew I had a meeting that I had to attend. And if for some reason, some one fails to show up for their seat if  we get a call tomorrow night and I am back from my meeting, I can fill the seat.

Okay, I know it is hard to understand how this can be exciting but it is to me. It means that he is sure that my foot is healed. Plus he is taking a situation that is occurring at the fire house under control. (The is another female fire fighter who has some issues with me and she has been causing some problems. And no, I have done nothing to her other than ignore her.) And I love riding the engine.

So if posts are spotty this week, it is because of carnival. I will post photos of our parade on Saturday at some point. I am trying to make sure that I do not have to ride in it since I would rather watch it.

Can You Believe

I saw this on Firehouse and had to post it here. Can you believe it that this guy is suing because the porta-john exploded when he lit a cigarette????

     Firehouse.com - Printable Article The Web's Source for Fire, Rescue & EMS Click Here to Print This Page Man Sues for $10 Million in West Virginia Toilet Explosion ............ ASSOCIATED PRESS MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence. John Jenkins, 53, and his wife, Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pa., filed the suite Tuesday in county circuit court seeking $10 million in damages from Chisler Inc. and Eastern Associated Coal Corp. The lawsuit claims Jenkins' face, neck, arms, torso and legs were severely burned last July after the cigarette ignited methane gas leaking from a pipe underneath the toilet unit. ''When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated _ the whole top blew off,'' said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. ''I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out.'' Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler Inc. ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak. A call to the Charleston office of Peabody Energy, the parent company of Eastern Associated Coal, was not returned. A man who answered the phone at Chisler's office in Fairview said the company would have no comment. Printable version may be for personal use only. Content many not be duplicated, re-used or otherwise replicated without expressed, written consent from Firehouse.com and/or the original author/source

Does It Matter?

This is this month's editorial cartoon from Firehouse.com and it says the truth. When you call 9-1-1, you don't care who comes to your house so long as we come.