You Win Some

Often in firefighter circles, we discuss a "good" fire. This term is used to describe one of those ripping fires where we get to use a lot of our tools, fight a lot of fire, and in general, revel in the more exciting aspects of the job.

Now, it is important to point out that we have sometimes made the mistake of discussing this so-called "good" fire and high-fiving each other within earshot of the poor family that have just lost all of their possessions. This is considered poor form, so usually this type of camaraderie is reserved for when we get back in the station.

Last week, I had the occasion to be a significant part of a truly good fire. We were dispatched to a house fire at about 2:30 AM on a cul-de-sac. We arrived to blazing fire that was rapidly burning the wooden chimney enclosure and had obviously gotten into the attic. In light generated from the fire we sawthe whole family; 3 year old girl, 5 year old boy, mom, and dad. All were wearing the barest minimum of pajamas, standing in the rain on the front lawn, and watching their house go up in flames.

Once the fire reaches the attic, it is very typical that the damage to the house is so significant that the roof will collapse and bring the fire into the interior of the house with the resulting fire and destruction. With that in mind, I knew we had no time to spare. We quickly attacked the fire from the outside and managed to squirt a bit of water up into the eaves. I moved the family into the warm firetruck to get them out of the rain so that they had ring-sided seats as we took chainsaws and cut into the attic space looking for fire.

Here is where things took a good turn. The little bit of water into the eaves had done a perfect steam conversion that spread throughout the attic and snuffed the fire. Even though there was a significant amount of charred lumber, the fire was out. We tore the wall away from the entire area behind the stone fireplace, but left the stone and the fireplace insert intact. With a little stapling and plastic covering, we repaired the roof.

Within about an hour of our arrival, mom and dad were tucking the young ones back in bed. In this whole operation, there was only one palm-sized area of the living room ceiling that showed ANY damage in the interior of the house. No smoke, no odor, no water, no wall in the living room behind the stone - no problem...

So, in this case, it truly was a GOOD fire for all.

Hero or Zero...

It is good that people in our profession are generally liked and respected. That really helps when you are confronted with a very wet and angry homeowner.

It started out as an innocent drill for a new engineer (pump operator). Since I was working an overtime shift in a different location than normal, I was not sure where to go drill because the drill field was in use with the recruit academy. With that in mind, we chose an undeveloped subdivision with nice new streets and hydrants, and started making hydrant connections, pulling lines, and flowing water. After a bit, I set up another scenario where we used our deck gun. This is a large nozzle on top of the engine that flows about 1000 gallons per minute. Needless to say, if you are on the receiving end of that, you get wet.

All was going well as we rolled up, put the deck gun in service using tank water, and carefully kept all the water on the street. As the water ran out, the engineer connected to the hydrant for the next part of the operation. I moved the nozzle back to the sideways stow position and went to assist the engineer. So with a fresh supply of water, we were back in business and proceeded to put a hand line in service. As I walked around the other side of the engine, I noticed two things...there was a lot of water flying around, and a guy on the other side of the fence was yelling.

Turns out, he had a reason for yelling. Something about thousands of gallons of water landing on his house, his deck, his backyard, his flowers, and of course...him.

We had somehow forgot to shut that master stream down when we ran out of water, and with the fresh supply, it was putting a beautiful arched stream right into the aforementioned areas.

I did my best apologies and hoped for the best. He later showed up at the fire station to complain some more, but I hope that we have heard the last of it. His only real damage complaint was that his flowers were a bit trampled looking.

Much About Nothing

Some days are just weird in theme of the calls we run. Last shift it was real fires with an appliance fire in the morning and a house fire that we fought for about 6 hours all afternoon. Then along come today with so much nothing. Not so much that we did not run calls, but in the four that we ran for the shift, not one required any real fire or medical skills.

Call#1 - dead guy, long history of seizures and drinking too much, having died sometime during the night, it was not much a code 3 response was going to impact the end result.
Call#2 - lady that had the flu, was being treated by a doctor for same, but was now tired of being sick after a few days. She was out of bed, dressed, and in general looked and acted fine, but did complain of being tired.
Call#3 - medical alarm - the famous "I have fallen and I can't get up" emergency button system that sent us dashing into an old ladies house once again to surprise her, since she had accidentally pushed the magic button that she wore on a string around her neck.
Call#4 - Car Vs Bike accident -Ok, finally we got something here...no wait, everybody left the scene before we even went enroute. Oh, and the caller heard the "accident" but did not actually see what happened.

Well, at least we were ready in case someone had a REAL emergency....

Mad Cow?

So what do you do when you have a cow to haul to town, don't have a proper trailer or sides for you truck? Apparently, as described by a crew of shocked firefighters, you simply nail the cow's hooves to the truck deck. Turns out someone alerted the police about an unusual method of cow transport. When the police arrived, being somewhat disturbed by the scene, they decided that firefighters were best equipped for pulling nails and freeing the somewhat perturbed bovine. The driver was charged with something related to his treatment of the cow (who will never again look at a hammer the same way.)

There is NOTHING to See Here...

As a firefighter, some times I feel that I have pretty much seen it all when it comes to human behavior. About the time I start feeling that way, I realize that no matter how long I am in this business, human behavior is so random that it not only entertains, but often leads some serious headaches.

For example, the other day I was dispatched to a fire alarm at a fairly large new retirement home. This is a common thing as this population group often forgets about food on the stove or burns the toast. Without fanfare, we arrive to help with resetting the alarm. As this is the middle of the afternoon the entryway and hallways were busy with the sluggish bustle of elderly people with walkers and canes. Since the alarm did not reset and the noise was annoying to those of us with regular hearing abilities, we headed down to the room indicated as the source of the fire alarm. As I got near the door, I realized that smoke and water were come out from under the door. On opening the door, I found we had an active fire. Luckily, the sprinkler system was more or less keeping it under control. It was so amazing that the staff did not evacuate or do anything to deal with the fact that the building was potentially burning down. In fact one of the biggest problems we had in dealing with the fire and subsequent water and smoke damage, was that the other occupants kept trying to get to the elevator and rooms adjoining the room that had been on fire.

Job Security

There is a recuring theme in the news about how some companies are downsizing, laying off employees, and trying to structure their workforce to match the demand. This is especially a hot topic now, as some people fear we are slipping into a recession.

In the fire service, we have a common expression about our job security. Somehow, we rarely doubt that we will be automated, downsized, or rendered obsolete in our profession. Rather than try to explain how we so quickly come to that conclusion, I thought I would insert a short video. After watching, I am sure you will agree that our jobs are secure. (Scroll down for parting comments)

Yes, he did check to see if there was gas in the tank...but used the Bic lighter to see better!

Truck Company Operation

A truck in firefighter lingo is a specialized large apparatus that typically does not have a pump, water, or much hose. It features big ladders, lots of tools, and firefighters that like to break things. In many cases, the truck or "ladder truck" takes two drivers to operate. One drives the front, and another sits in a seat on the rear and steers the trailer part. The rear driver is commonly called the "Tiller or Tillerman". This instantly creates some interesting scenarios.

In one case, a driver learning to steer the rear, made a bad turn and sideswiped a parked car. Somehow, the police that were investigating the accident wanted to cite the driver of the front of the truck. The front driver was quite certain that it was not his fault, since the rear driver caused the accident. Seems like they did not cover that particular problem in Police Academy...

On another occasion, on an older truck, there was a distinct lack of suspension for the rear driver. The department tried to help with an air-ride seat, but that basically added to the pogostick jumping action of the tillerman. My engineer, being an old-timer, had the misfortune of operating that position when the crew caught a fire call in a parking lot and headed out. Somehow the driver missed a speed bump and when the poor tillerman got launched, it was rather violent. As his head connected with the ceiling of the cab, he was knocked unconscious. In those days, the communication between driver and tillerman was primarily done with a buzzer system. As luck would have it, when he was knocked out, he landed on the buzzer and inadvertently signalled there was a problem. As my engineer tells the story, he was happy to say that he got the rest of the shift off for his troubles.

Got a Light?

How often have you seen a sign saying something about not smoking because of oxygen? Ever wonder why? Well, in the fire science world, there is something that says you need several ingredients to make a fire. An illustration called the fire triangle teaches that you need fuel, heat, and oxygen to make a fire. So, oxygen is needed to make the fire burn, but since normal air around you is about 21% oxygen and the rest is stuff that really doesn't help fire burn, adding more oxygen is interesting to say the least.


For example, if you take a cigarette and let some oxygen flow through it, when you light it, you can watch it burn up completely in a few seconds. On the same line of thought, fire resistent clothing and lots of other unexpected things burn quite happily in the presence of some extra oxygen.


So with all of that lesson behind us, once again why not smoke with oxygen around? This picture answers that question.
This is what happens to that plastic oxygen tubing when you try to smoke with a nasal canula flowing oxygen. In a recent repeat of this relatively common problem, the elderly lady was able to escape without significant burns because when her bed caught on fire, she was able to beat the flames out with her prosthetic leg.

Cats vs. Humans

It never ceases to amaze me. People seem to have the most unusual relationships with cats. For the second time in my career, I have responded with lights and siren to a situation revolving around a cat being sick and the owner thinking that they were somehow medically involved.



The latest occurred last night when an elderly gentleman made some observations and then promptly came to the wrong conclusions. He then called 911 and the call-takers continued down this misguided path and dispatched five sleep-deprived paramedic.



On arrival, we found a sick cat, a confused man, and a sleepy wife. So here is how this debacle unfolds...



The man knows his cat is sick. He then realizes that his wife is sleeping...really sleeping and does not readily wake. He then concludes that they all were poisoned, because that would explain everything. The only problem was that he thought it was 4:30 in the afternoon and it was actually 4:30 in the morning. So it was NOT unusual for the wife to try to sleep "all the time" as he described.



When the wife was finally awake enough to realize what was happening...well, she was rather embarrassed for her poor husband.