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Firefighter Intern: Day 21 and 22
Aug. 3rd, 2018 08:23 pm"If everyone showed up at fires naked, I guarantee no one would get hurt ... (instead) they give us helmets on our first day. Our job is risky, sometimes we need to accept that and do our job." (Anonymous)
This week we hit the ground running - within about three sips of coffee at our morning meeting, we were toned out for a vehicle accident where we brought Engine 481 and Medic 481 - and ended up needing Medic 483 so that we could transport two patients in each Medic unit. All day long we ended up needing our first-out and second-out Medic Units at the same time usually for different calls all over the district. I ended up driving or riding in (and responding in) just about every vehicle we have in the fleet, including Engine 481, the command vehicle C48 (with the Chief), C4802 (with the Assistant Chief), all three of our Medic Units, and our brand-new Heavy Brush Engine HB481 for an Illegal Burn call at 8pm at night. After the uninterrupted flurry of calls all day, we had a peaceful night - and we were all asleep by 10:30pm. *smile*
Once we were up and going Friday morning, we were assigned to go to a Fire Department Water Access (where we can go and draft water when we need it) and clear out the weeds and blackberries. Once a year or so, we go through all of our Water Access points and clean them out so the Water Tender, the Engine, and the Brush Rigs can draft water and refill their tanks in a hurry. With the partial help of the ODF, and some of the brush tools on HB482, we spend the morning practicing some of the skills we'd use on the fire line - clearing out brush and chainsawing and lopping off tree limbs. No calls for me today until after 9pm, with a breathing issue that turned out to be an anxiety/panic attack. We all went to bed fairly early, and woke up to a structure fire tone-out at about 12:30am - but there were five of us, and only four seats in Engine 481, so I stayed behind in case they needed to crew Engine 488. It turned out to be a very small fire in a dryer, so I ended up just waiting at the station in my turnouts. Once the Engine was back, we refilled and pressurized out water fire extinguisher and replaced our air bottles. We were toned out again at about 3:30am for a medical call, but again I didn't go. We were toned out again just at 8am, but the incoming Intern took that call so I could go off duty.
This week we hit the ground running - within about three sips of coffee at our morning meeting, we were toned out for a vehicle accident where we brought Engine 481 and Medic 481 - and ended up needing Medic 483 so that we could transport two patients in each Medic unit. All day long we ended up needing our first-out and second-out Medic Units at the same time usually for different calls all over the district. I ended up driving or riding in (and responding in) just about every vehicle we have in the fleet, including Engine 481, the command vehicle C48 (with the Chief), C4802 (with the Assistant Chief), all three of our Medic Units, and our brand-new Heavy Brush Engine HB481 for an Illegal Burn call at 8pm at night. After the uninterrupted flurry of calls all day, we had a peaceful night - and we were all asleep by 10:30pm. *smile*
Once we were up and going Friday morning, we were assigned to go to a Fire Department Water Access (where we can go and draft water when we need it) and clear out the weeds and blackberries. Once a year or so, we go through all of our Water Access points and clean them out so the Water Tender, the Engine, and the Brush Rigs can draft water and refill their tanks in a hurry. With the partial help of the ODF, and some of the brush tools on HB482, we spend the morning practicing some of the skills we'd use on the fire line - clearing out brush and chainsawing and lopping off tree limbs. No calls for me today until after 9pm, with a breathing issue that turned out to be an anxiety/panic attack. We all went to bed fairly early, and woke up to a structure fire tone-out at about 12:30am - but there were five of us, and only four seats in Engine 481, so I stayed behind in case they needed to crew Engine 488. It turned out to be a very small fire in a dryer, so I ended up just waiting at the station in my turnouts. Once the Engine was back, we refilled and pressurized out water fire extinguisher and replaced our air bottles. We were toned out again at about 3:30am for a medical call, but again I didn't go. We were toned out again just at 8am, but the incoming Intern took that call so I could go off duty.
