Firefighter Intern: Day 47 and 48
Nov. 30th, 2018 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grim23“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
First, thank you to the anonymous person who paid for me to have two free months of a paid subscription to Dreamwidth! I'll do my best to be an awesome EMT. *smile*
We started the shift with a long discussion of using foam for fire applications today at out 8 am meeting, and then we went out with W486 (our water tender) and Engine 481, our first-out engine, to our own parking lot for training. The engineers/pump operators practiced pulling foam from the containers and getting the right mix with the right water pressure. I practiced taking a hydrant, and connecting and laying hose, and I was lucky enough to be able to operate the MasterStream water cannon on top of Engine 481, and get used to setting it up, aiming and directing the flow of water, and used it to clean the parking lot of most of the leaves and dirt. I got some good pointers in the best way to aim, stream, and manage the water pressure. *smile*
As soon as we were mostly done with the training evolution, we were toned out to a man who was mentally ill and using substances for a courtesy transport. The substances he was on meant that we didn't perform much in the way of actual treatment, but I got to listen to almost all of the medical assessment and to all of the patient transfer at the hospital. I'm starting to put the order and rhythm of the call together, and anticipate what the paramedic is going to ask next.
In the afternoon we got toned out again for a fifteen-year-old male, seizing repeatedly, as mutual aid for a neighboring fire district. We ended up in the high school gym surrounded by a somber basketball team stabilizing and transporting the young man, and meeting the Battalion Chief from the neighboring district who took command of the scene. We transported, and I reloaded the gurney right and cleaned everything well - but I left one of our oxygen bottles in the hospital room. *sigh*
On the way back from the hospital, we got a second call - a middle-aged woman with a stabbing wound to the chest. We did everything we could, including a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) kit and compressions. We brought in all of our kits - jump kit, trauma kit, airway kit, everything. Despite all of best efforts, the Duty Officer called it. By the time we were cleared, the scene had turned into a crime scene. We were all pretty shook up. It's calls like this that remind me that Emergency Medical Services folks see some pretty ugly things sometimes.
After we were done with this call, we started to restock the Medic Unit with all of the things we used on the two calls, and we got almost done with that - and we were toned out yet again for a traffic accident. Fortunately, the driver ran away from the car wrapped around the tree and was long gone before we arrived - so we were recalled and left the Sheriff's Deputies with another crime scene. I was still cleaning the heart monitor leads in the back as we were rolling for our call. After we got back, I learned how to change the main oxygen tank onboard the Medic Unit.
We all went to bed pretty quick and slept pretty hard. As I'm upstairs in the bay bed, I got up first and showered and made coffee. Today is Firefighter Academy! We spend the day first working on Salvage and Overhaul, and Rescue/Mayday reports and then after lunch, we spent the whole rest of the day working on hose lays, including initial attack procedures, and deploying Minuteman and Speed lays and taking hydrants, and loading and reloading hose correctly in different configurations on Engine 486. We were joined by some of the other volunteers, and everyone worked on what they needed to have signed off on their taskbooks. I got my last OverHaul and Salvage sign-off in my taskbook, as well as one of my MayDay sign-offs - all I need is two MayDay signoffs, two Vertical Ventilation signoffs, and three Vehicle Fire signoffs to complete my taskbook!
After dinner, I wrote a written statement for the Sheriff's Department about the first crime scene. We were just getting ready for bed, and we got toned out for an elderly man, an amputee, who had fallen without injury. We responded, helped him up, and cleared with his and his caretaker's thanks. That's a good call. *smile*
NO more calls all night - we slept well. I got up a bit early, put away and finished washing last night's dishes, and made coffee before I went home.
The acronym LUNAR is used to help firefighters remember the important information that should be included in any Mayday call:
L-Location
U-Unit
N-Name
A-Assignment and Air Supply
R-Resources Needed
A CAN report is pretty much a situation report and can be used on arrival as well as all subsequent transmissions. After the initial report, it's a quick way to describe current conditions and operations to your Incident Commander.
C - Conditions. What you are seeing. Is it smoky, hot, etc.
A - Actions. What exactly your company is doing. Fire attack, search, etc.
N - Needs. Anything you might need to help your situation. Another line, tools, Thermal Imaging Camera, etc.
First, thank you to the anonymous person who paid for me to have two free months of a paid subscription to Dreamwidth! I'll do my best to be an awesome EMT. *smile*
We started the shift with a long discussion of using foam for fire applications today at out 8 am meeting, and then we went out with W486 (our water tender) and Engine 481, our first-out engine, to our own parking lot for training. The engineers/pump operators practiced pulling foam from the containers and getting the right mix with the right water pressure. I practiced taking a hydrant, and connecting and laying hose, and I was lucky enough to be able to operate the MasterStream water cannon on top of Engine 481, and get used to setting it up, aiming and directing the flow of water, and used it to clean the parking lot of most of the leaves and dirt. I got some good pointers in the best way to aim, stream, and manage the water pressure. *smile*
As soon as we were mostly done with the training evolution, we were toned out to a man who was mentally ill and using substances for a courtesy transport. The substances he was on meant that we didn't perform much in the way of actual treatment, but I got to listen to almost all of the medical assessment and to all of the patient transfer at the hospital. I'm starting to put the order and rhythm of the call together, and anticipate what the paramedic is going to ask next.
In the afternoon we got toned out again for a fifteen-year-old male, seizing repeatedly, as mutual aid for a neighboring fire district. We ended up in the high school gym surrounded by a somber basketball team stabilizing and transporting the young man, and meeting the Battalion Chief from the neighboring district who took command of the scene. We transported, and I reloaded the gurney right and cleaned everything well - but I left one of our oxygen bottles in the hospital room. *sigh*
On the way back from the hospital, we got a second call - a middle-aged woman with a stabbing wound to the chest. We did everything we could, including a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) kit and compressions. We brought in all of our kits - jump kit, trauma kit, airway kit, everything. Despite all of best efforts, the Duty Officer called it. By the time we were cleared, the scene had turned into a crime scene. We were all pretty shook up. It's calls like this that remind me that Emergency Medical Services folks see some pretty ugly things sometimes.
After we were done with this call, we started to restock the Medic Unit with all of the things we used on the two calls, and we got almost done with that - and we were toned out yet again for a traffic accident. Fortunately, the driver ran away from the car wrapped around the tree and was long gone before we arrived - so we were recalled and left the Sheriff's Deputies with another crime scene. I was still cleaning the heart monitor leads in the back as we were rolling for our call. After we got back, I learned how to change the main oxygen tank onboard the Medic Unit.
We all went to bed pretty quick and slept pretty hard. As I'm upstairs in the bay bed, I got up first and showered and made coffee. Today is Firefighter Academy! We spend the day first working on Salvage and Overhaul, and Rescue/Mayday reports and then after lunch, we spent the whole rest of the day working on hose lays, including initial attack procedures, and deploying Minuteman and Speed lays and taking hydrants, and loading and reloading hose correctly in different configurations on Engine 486. We were joined by some of the other volunteers, and everyone worked on what they needed to have signed off on their taskbooks. I got my last OverHaul and Salvage sign-off in my taskbook, as well as one of my MayDay sign-offs - all I need is two MayDay signoffs, two Vertical Ventilation signoffs, and three Vehicle Fire signoffs to complete my taskbook!
After dinner, I wrote a written statement for the Sheriff's Department about the first crime scene. We were just getting ready for bed, and we got toned out for an elderly man, an amputee, who had fallen without injury. We responded, helped him up, and cleared with his and his caretaker's thanks. That's a good call. *smile*
NO more calls all night - we slept well. I got up a bit early, put away and finished washing last night's dishes, and made coffee before I went home.
The acronym LUNAR is used to help firefighters remember the important information that should be included in any Mayday call:
L-Location
U-Unit
N-Name
A-Assignment and Air Supply
R-Resources Needed
A CAN report is pretty much a situation report and can be used on arrival as well as all subsequent transmissions. After the initial report, it's a quick way to describe current conditions and operations to your Incident Commander.
C - Conditions. What you are seeing. Is it smoky, hot, etc.
A - Actions. What exactly your company is doing. Fire attack, search, etc.
N - Needs. Anything you might need to help your situation. Another line, tools, Thermal Imaging Camera, etc.
