Anyone got marshmellows?

[Harpoon]

So I'm on my way into work and I've got my car back (the one I had wrecked last month) which means I've got my police scanner back which means I can listen in on such and such...

Call comes over, report of fire in the city, 435 Deer Street, about 4 blocks from where the newspaper office is...

I fly into the office, grab a camera and fly back out again.

Oh yeah, big fire.

Someone got hurt, I don't know if it was a firefighter or someone in the house or a bystander, minor injuries though. I know there weren't any people in the house when I got there which was about 10 minutes behind the fire department. I move quickly when I need to...

Probably one of the most intense fire scenes I've been to in a while and not only that, my fire department arrived with two engines on a mutual aid call and an assistant chief told me to go suit up to help. EEP!

No photos of me in turnout gear though. I stowed the camera away in an engine where the extra gear is kept before running off to manhandle hose lines for a while.

Got back to the office about 90 minutes later and did up the photos plus my usual workload for a Sunday night.

Here's a sample:

 

[Harpoon]

Oh yeah, the second photo, of the front porch in flames...

There were firefighters on that porch and inside just before I took the shot. They were on their way out (running) as they sounded a general "bail out" type call over the loudspeakers and with the fire engine whistles. They usually only do that if there's a firefighter down or they're trying to pull everyone back because the fire's too intense to fight up close (or the building's in danger of collapse.)

I think the alarm was sounded in this case because of the fire, it got REALLY bright for about ten minutes while they regrouped and put it down from all sides of the house at once.


Then it got DAMNED smokey.... I still reek, smell like a bonfire or maybe a barbeque grill... Gonna need a shower when I get home.

 

[Marguerite53]

Whoa

Whoa

Harpoon. Always enjoy your photos. Do they make heat protectors for cameras like they do for underwater photography? Whoa. Things look hot. I particularly like that first photo. I read recently that Sir Paul McCartney's father was a fireman and so he just recently donated some remarkable painting or photo of men in action to the firemen of NYC. I don't doubt that a few more outings like that and you'll have captured your own quite remarkable scene. Good work. Stay safe!!

Marguerite

 

[gadgetman]

Looks like one of the empty houses we burned recently (last year before all my problems started). It had caught fire almost a year ago so part of it was already burnt. The owner donated the house for us to practice. I was manning one of our pumpers outside while 7 firefighters went in to start a fire in the back side of the house. I had charged the line just in case.

After starting the fire, the Chief stayed inside showing the newbees how the heat rises and eventually flashes over. I suddenly noticed flames through the roof which meant the fire was getting hot. I blew the Air Horn (our signal to get out) and also radioed those inside that they had better exit quickly. As the last person came out the front door the entire house burst in flames much like your first picture. That fire got so hot so suddenly that we had to move our pumper (fortunantly we had our brush truck which we can move and still pump water). I was standing in front watching the control panel in full turnout gear and had to put my face shield down and turn my back it was so hot. We had to spray several guys to cool them off.

By the way, I asked my Cardio about my eventual return to Volunteer Status. He said he did not see any problem but wants to wait from 3 to 6 months to see how things are healing. He said he will even write a letter to our department returning me to full status.

Keep up the good work.

May God Bless,

Danny

 

[fyrfytr]

Hey Danny,
I am glad to hear you can go back to firefighting. My Cardiologist released me to go back also but it was the panel of three Drs. for the City that said I couldn't. They gave me a medical retirement after 24 years on the Dept.
Take Care

 

[gadgetman]

Hey Danny,
I am glad to hear you can go back to firefighting. My Cardiologist released me to go back also but it was the panel of three Drs. for the City that said I couldn't. They gave me a medical retirement after 24 years on the Dept.
Take Care

Sorry to hear about your "early" retirement. I'm sure I would have a hard time getting on as a full time fireman, primarily because of my AICD implant. As a volunteer department, as long as you are able to breath and stand upright, you are welcome. However, that may change a lot here in Georgia. In the past, we have been able to use "volunteers" that have not completed the mandatory 60 hour Firefighter Course. Some departments limit the amount of rookie time to 6 months or so without receiving the certificate, however, we only restrict our non-certified volunteers from entering a burning building. They can hump hoses, watch the pumper panel, hook up to the hydrant, and spray water outside. Georgia just recently decreed that even Volunteer Departments must use only "certified" Firefighters. Don't yet know how that is going to affect our Department.

One thing you might want to consider is volunteering to help in a Volunteer Department. Even if they restrict your involvement, your 24 years of experience would be invaluable to the new guys.

May God Bless,

Danny

 

[Harpoon]

We have two (basically) courses for firefighters, Scene Support and Firefighter I.

FirefighterI is interior work, SCBA is done on a seperate course plus the firefighter I to enter a burning building.

Outside (I'm only going inside as a photographer, not a firefighter, that's not for me.) is considered mostly Scene Support stuff, filling tanks, running lines, manning exterior lines and the like.

I'm also thinking I should go for EMS stuff, extrication, and the like. We get more EMS calls than anything else here anyways. RARELY is there a real working fire and usually when there is, it's not in town anyways, it's a mutual aid call to go somewhere else.

I think the last "big" (as in a structure fire that was more than burning food) fire we had here was two years ago.

First fire I went to when I joined the department was a box of burning documents someone left by the side of a road... A few other firefighters (I just directed traffic) kicked some snow on the box with their feet...

 

[gadgetman]

Georgia's Firefighter Mod One course is "book learning" about the basic of Firefighting. It covers terms, SCBA use, basic search and rescue (our exercise consist of making the quys and gals put their protective hood on backwards and trying to follow a room and find a "victim" and be able to follow the hose line back outside), basic pump operation, etc. We have an "in residence" course you can take that also includes entering a live fire building (controlled enviroment) to get a taste of what it will be like. Our volunteer or part time course is usually performed by a certified instructor "after hours" until they complete the entire study manual, where an instructor from the full time school comes in and gives the written test. Above 70 score gets you a certificate of completion. Then you hook up with a volunteer department where you get your hands on training.

We've been lucky this winter. Usually winter is our "fire time" when people pull out the space heaters (gas or kerosene) and either overload the electrical system or put them too close to walls or curtains. We've had a mild winter this year so calls are down. We also get the grass fires, vehicle fires and occasional farm equipment fire. As a volunteer department we try to avoid "ambulance chasing" unless they also have a fire. Paid departments have gone to having Firefighters also basic EMT qualified.

We had a call simular to the "burning documents" fire. We got paged out for a dumpster fire next to a business that was now getting into the woods. When we pulled up our night policeman was standing there watching the fire. We got out stomped out the grass fire around the dumpster and then put a little water in the dumpster itself. One of our guys looked over at the policeman and asked "couldn't you at least stomp out the grass?". He gave us that "not my job" look, got in his car and left.

May God Bless,

Danny

 

[Harpoon]

gadgetman:

I suspect maybe a quarter of our fire department ( I don't have exact numbers but I'm gonna ask some time when I think of it) are at least at the EMT-B level. We have a fairly large and active EMS group plus all of the paid firefighters (there are seven as I recall, four are full time and our station is manned 24/7) are at least EMT-B, I know three of the paid guys are full paramedics though our rescue trucks aren't equiped for that.

One truck, the newer one, has ALS on board though. We're the only department with an ALS rig. Everything else in the northern half of the county at least is handled by a commercial ambulance service.

We back up other departments a lot too and we have more advanced equipment (espcially Tower 18 which is a nearly brand-spanking new articulated boom ladder truck that was "retired" as a demonstration model by a local vender and made available for a good price) than other departments in the area.

We also used to have a thermal imaging camera but it got smashed up somehow...


Before I joined by the way.


Just 'cause I'm bored at the office, here's another photo from Sunday's "BBQ" shot before the inferno erupted. Most of the fire was smoldering on the right side of the house (to the right of the frame) somewhere behind the firefighter standing furthest to the right in the foreground.

The cause of the fire was faulty electrical work. Apparently the house was actually three apartments, none of the residents were injured though one firefighter sustained a shoulder injury of some kind, minor at least.

 

[gadgetman]

Harpoon

Had to do a search to find out what "ALS" was . I think they mentioned trying to certify our ambulance service to Advance Life Support (ALS). They just about do that now, maybe without some of the required equipment. We have one Ambulance in this county (can call up one of the spares if necessary) with two full time EMTs on duty (rotating shifts) 24 hours a day and mutual aid from one Ambulance in the adjoining county (also paid 24 hour). As we are a good 20 plus minutes from a Trauma Center (with red lights and siren), our guys must be able to handle just about everything. We have a small hospital here in town but their ER is limited to getting them stable for transport to the Trauma Center. We have at our call Rescue Helicopters available from nearby Ft Benning (Army). They have a copter on 24 hour standby.

Our house has three pumpers, a '65 era pumper with 750 gallons of water, a brand new (4 years ago) E-One pumper with 1000 gallons (bought with a 1 cent sales tax increase for five years). Our third engine came through a program offered by the Georgia Forestry Service. We have to furnish the vehicle (a retired Pepsi delivery truck--our Chief is also a mechanic) to which they build and mount a 1000 gallon dump valve tank and a front mounted pump. This vehicle allows us to use the pump while we are moving the truck so it is great for grass fires. No need for a ladder truck, most of our buildings are one story or mobile home (trailer--yes this is the South ). We've only got three or four 2 story buildings.

Our county seat (9 miles away) has two pumpers and houses the EMT service. They also have a rescue truck with the Jaws and other rescue equipment which comes in handy at auto accidents. We provide each other mutual aid when required. The adjoining county has (I think) three pumpers and house EMTs there. As we are less than a mile from the county line, we usually respond to fires close to us and provide mutual aid.

We've never seen the need here for a thermal imaging camera (1-too expensive for our budget, 2-our guys would destroy it in less than a week ). Probably good thing you were not there or you would have been blamed for "breaking" y'alls .

I would guess that the majority of fires here are started with electrical malfunctions, either overloads (too many things plugged into one outlet), shorts inside walls, or overloaded circuit boxes. We did have a rash of arson but after four fires they finally caught him, thank God.

This is probably more than you wanted to know, but I could probably talk all night about my experiences. I promise I won't respond so long to any other post---I've got some ocean front property for sale in Arizona by the way .

Good Night and May God Bless,

Danny

 

[Harpoon]

Hmmm... Ocean front property??? How much?

They need photographers out there?


Our department has all sorts of things. We've got a medium sized university campus, a few food processing plants, a swift creek/waterway with a number of gullies and ravines people occassionally get themselves into, plus we cover a section of the NYS Thruway (I-90.)

We have the potential to get all kinds of calls, including serious haz-mat situations (chemical, biological, and even radiological) There is a county wide HAZMAT team and dive team plus an additional dive team run by the city where those fire photos came from (they're on the shores of Lake Erie and formed a team after a kid slid his car off a pier into 20? water and drowned waiting for the county dive team to arrive.)

The articulated boom thing is nice because you can run the basket down under the level of the engine and under stuff like bridges or along ravines. It will also go straight out from the side of the engine about 120 feet so you can push it out to the second story of a house with a big front yard and pull a victim out of a window or off a roof. Very slick.

I think every engine in the department outside of the rescue vehicles has a water tank in it for pumping though we have two regular pumpers, one is a bush pumper probably like what you have. We get grass fires too...

Though they are often actually corn fields of all things! Loads of extrication gear 'cause we get a lot of car accidents. We do a LOT of EMS work too, there are at least five different "senior citizens" homes in town, plus a few more assisted living facilities for severely handicapped and one new, big retirement home/complex. Big school complex, plus the college campus, plus light industry, plus I-90 and a lot of major routes that intersect around town....

Oh yeah, and lake effect snow which caused a number of little (and not so little) accidents today...