Life of a Probie

The new guy (known as a "probie" for probationary) often has to put up with a lot of teasing, extra work, and sometimes downright harassment. Most of it is all in good fun, such as telling him that he has to be the first one to answer the telephone when it rings - then dashing to get there ahead of him. This trick alone has accounted for at least one "time lost" injury. Reading between the line, you will realize that the dash for the telephone is hard on carpets, furniture, and firefighter's anatomy.

The new probie at Station One is not that young, has been in the military, and is a challenge to the guys trying hard to make life entertaining while picking on the probie.

So there is a Paramedic Firefighter named Joe that does field training for the new guys. He is a church going Christian and about as nice and quiet of a guy that you would ever meet. As the probie was soon to be working with Joe, the guys at Station One decided to set thing up for sheer entertainment value.

Under the guise of giving the probie some helpful advise, they warned him about the horrible temper and anger problem that Joe exhibited on rare occasions. They then picked out a few things, like the morning paper in disarray on the table and told the probie, if Joe ever finds the paper like that...well, it just would not be good for the probie's career. Of course, then they would follow around behind the probie as he scurried to arrange the paper neatly, and promptly scatter it around the table.

After about 6 months of this, the probie finally announced to the crew when they again stressed how Joe was going have a fit of rage over some minor infraction, "I am beginning to think that this is just an elaborate ruse". Which was actually a relief to Joe and the rest of the guys, since the prank had gone on for so long, some were starting to forget their role in this charade.

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!