Old Man Fire

For those who don't know, my porthole to EMS fun is through the paid on call fire department I am a member of (we have our own ambulances of course. Generally the ratio of EMS calls to fire calls is about four or five for every one fire call. The majority being car and dumpster fires, looking at the stats fire prevention education is apparently quite successful. Although it is suspected that arson fire might rise as more people are forced from their homes due to rises int erst rates, yada yada yada. Since the chance to "play" in old man fire's world is very infrequent the next best thing is to attend a "live burn" training exercise. Now for those not in the business a live burn can mean anything from lighting wood pallets on fire in a concrete structure designed for fire training, to lighting old wrecked cars on fire. But my personal favorite is the old farm house that needs to be demolished or rebuilt. This is just such a case.

As soon as I sign up things starting sliding down hill though. One chief originally set to attend, backs out, as now I can drive and pump the fire truck. Great, just what I wanted to do, be strapped to the damn truck and miss all the fun. Next I find out my crew. One newbie know it all who's still in medic school and (see the newbie post below about the "pregnant women" below). The next is a relative of the chief and general kiss ass. Through constant mental beat downs he's slowly shaping into a good member. Beside the blood ties he is a solid firefighter, just young and naive in the world. Lastly the my personal newbie that I mentor, whom I talked into going and taking pictures as he is currently in his firefighter training and can not join in the fun just yet.

Now the department that has so graciously offered to make room for us is quite rural and as such has their own manner of conducting business. This is what I call a true fire department and they area as redneck as they come, god love em. Thankfully they have enlisted certified instructors to carry out the entire burn, without their guidance we mouth breathers would hurt ourselves. Like I said the house is a rural farm house, meaning there are not hydrants in sight, in fact the closest one is two miles away. So "drop tanks" are used. Picture a 12' x 12' swimming pool with a metal frame and tarp like bladder in which to pour water into. The water is "dropped" from a "water tender." A water tender is a fire truck made to haul water in large quantities, theirs holds 2700 gallons, mine 1500. It is then sucked out by another fire truck and then pushed into the fire lines and then hopefully onto the fire.

The comedy starts with my dumping my water. As I'm emptying the tank and chatting with my new found "water commander" friend, who might have been the class clown in high school and every other stage in his life. Anyways he takes the liberty of throwing a stack of road cones into the drop tank right next to me, which of course unleashes a nice splash directly onto me. At this point it was declared that "It was on." Over the course the day we shot each other with and fire hose we could find and of course had an absolute blast during.

ON TO THE FIRE:
My crew consisting of newbie, myself and golden boy prepare to enter the burning farm house. Pay in mind that there have been 10 previous fire in this house at that time, meaning she's hot, steamy and probably weakening before our eyes. The fire's lit, we do our walk around to size up the fire and check for anything really scary. After that newbie grabs the nozzle, with me right behind him, giving guidance and so forth. Golden boy will be making sure we have enough hose inside the house.

Here we go, the moment of truth, we're going into satan's living room. Not that my team knew, but I had asked the instructors for a "good fire," meaning multiple rooms on fire and to let us wait a little while longer before entering to let the fire grow. His only response was a large smile and a nod of the head. God I love this job. Newbie's at the door on his knees, I'm standing right behind him with the instructor to my left. By this time the entrance vestibule is rolling very nicely, flames licking out the door and over my head. Looking deeper into the house you see nothing but flames dancing, waiting for the battle with newbie. Right as newbie attempts to cool the ceiling of the vestibule with a quick shot of water the fire jumps out the front door, filling almost half of the door with a fireball. Apparently this had spooked the shit out of newbie as he is now laying on his back on the concrete steps as if he had lit a firecracker with to short of a fuse. I look towards the instructor and even though we still have masks on you can still see the smiles on our faces.

With a quick "get the hell in there" to the rookie we make entry, he knocks down the fire in the vestibule, which was only the heat and flames seeping out of the next room anyway. As he turns to look into the kitchen, which by this time is completely involved with fire, I mean floor to ceiling, he stops and attempts to shoot some water into the room and the ceiling. Only to find out his hit the nozzle and adjusted the spray to a huge fog pattern, it does nothing except wetting the door frame. Finally with much poking and a little shoving by me we enter the room. He does a good job of attacking the fire and for the most part I'm proud of him. Although he keeps saying, "I see fire" and "it's on fire should I spray it?" In between the laughter I inform him that yes, anything that is on fire can be sprayed with water. Including the floor as the smoldering pieces of the room are burning into my knees like red hot razor blades. We finally get to the stairs and try to climb them, the fire is quite intense and newbie tries quite hard to make headway. After about one minute the truck sirens all sound out in unison. Quick definition: Truck sirens mean get the fuck out and make it quick as the building might be fall down. We scramble out dragging our hose lines and accounting for everyone outside. While we were inside a portion of the roof had collapsed above us, from the inside we had never noticed, didn't hear it, nothing. But after throwing a little water on it the next crew went in and had their fun.

After a little sit down with the instructor regarding our attack we headed for the cooler and a refreshing drink. All in all I was happy with my fun, newbie did fairly well considering the amount of knee to ass convincing I had to do. He's just going through the growing pains of becoming a firefighter. I think when you join a fire department or think about putting out fires people overlook the fact that it is scary and hot, and usually hurts a little to a lot as well. You have to learn to push past your comfort level creating a new comfort level in the process. I have no doubt this fire made him a better firefighter, which is of course the entire purpose. I of course was sad as I didn't get to tame old man fire, I only instructed my newbie. I only hope that my sacrifice may save his ass once.

After that I went and threw the "water command" and the golden boy into the drop tank and yes it was full of water. One big swoop was all it took. Just about everyone was crying with laughter, even their chief.

God I love my rural brothers and sisters. In their native tongue, "that shit wouldn't fly at your department," and they are one hundred percent correct.