So yesterday was my kelly day, which most of the time means one thing: OVERTIME! I got up at 5:30a, waiting to get the call for overtime. Sure enough, a little bit before 6a, the call came...10 hours OT at Burtonsville, Station 15. That's an especially good gig for me, since Burtonsville has no ambulance. That meant 10 hours of guaranteed fire truck time...sweet! Station 15 is a little different from most stations in MoCo, because it's predominantly run by the volunteers; there are only a handful of career firefighters there each day. And usually the volunteers move the career guys around on the fire trucks to ride wherever they want them to ride. So on any given shift working there, I could ride the engine, truck and rescue squad, all at some point while I'm there. A lot of career guys hate it, but It's fine by me...I'm just happy to be here!
So I got there and I ended up (initially) riding the truck. I figured that would change, and sure enough, during the late morning, I had to ride the rescue squad for one particular call. The only annoying thing about it is you have to make sure you're familiar with all the equipment on whatever fire truck you're riding, and there is a LOT of equipment on the truck and squad...especially on the squad. I spent most of the day on the truck though, and we had to do monthly maintenance on the truck (inventory check, making sure all equipment works, cleaning the truck, etc.). So I was starting power saws, electrical lights, large fans, smoke ejectors and cleaning equipment compartments all morning.
A little after lunch time, a box alarm went out for an apartment on fire in Kensington. Burtonsville normally isn't due there, but this was a garden apartment building with heavy fire blowing out of a couple apartments, so a second alarm was immediately called. That second alarm brought our truck to scene! I was excited, because I'd actually be going to my second fire! We were initially instructed to stage at the closest fire station, but while we were enroute, command instructed us to report to the back side of the apartment building and to go to work. There was only one thought in my mind..."SWEET!"
When we got there, the building was still on fire and there was lots of smoke in the area. Police had shut down the road in the opposite direction, and fire trucks were everywhere. We got out of the truck and started putting up ladders to the third floor windows of the building. One of the guys on the truck with me, as well as myself, had a difficult time getting the ladder up. I'll admit, I had a bit of a brain freeze when trying to put the ladder up (I haven't put up a ladder since the academy!). And it didn't help that the officer on the truck company put up an equally sized ladder by himself and was already climbing it, with the intention of breaking out the windows in the apartment. One of the chiefs on the scene even had to say something to us..."focus, bring the ladder back down and put it up RIGHT." I felt really embarassed at that, but we eventually got it up. After we got it up, I climbed it and was about to break out the window, but was redirected by another chief to go inside the building and start checking the apartments inside to see if the fire had extended anywhere. So we climbed a ladder, came inside and made our way into the fray.
Inside, firefighters and hoselines were everywhere. We made our way up a flight of stairs, put our masks on and went into the apartment next to the original one that was on fire. It was pretty smokey in that apartment, and we started using our hooks to tear open the walls and ceilings. This was very tiring work, and I started to feel it right away. After busting up the place pretty bad, we went to the original fire apartment. The place was trashed...stuff was thrown everywhere and the entire place was burned and torn up. We went into the back room to ensure no one was trapped under any of the debris, but there was no one. That was pretty much all we did on this fire. I thought I did a pretty bad job with the ladder, but my officer said I did fine. That didn't console me much, to be honest. Having a chief yell at you to do something right is pretty damaging to the ol' ego.So we sat around at the truck, waiting for an assignment, but we never got one. We ended up taking our ladders down and waiting for the official word to go home.
While we waited, we heard our dispatcher ask command over the radio if some units could be released, because there was ANOTHER fire going on very close to where we were. That was all we needed to hear...we jumped onto the truck and away we went!Going down the road, we were flying...swerving in between cars pretty fast. The officer, at one point, was screaming at the driver to slow down. We got to the scene and there was a lot of smoke coming from this house. We ended up throwing more ladders to the second story of this house, and I thought, "Perfect! A chance to redeem ourselves." This time around, it went much better. We threw one ladder to the second story and I climbed the ladder and busted out the remaining pieces of the window; smoke was pouring out of that window and another one, and I was coughing pretty bad. I came down and removed the frames from some of the windows on the first floor that had already been busted out. Then we went to the back of the house, where we were instructed to go to the roof and ventilate. We put our masks on, climbed a ladder to the rough, and a couple guys were already there, cutting holes in the roof with chainsaws. I used my hook to rip open parts of the wood that still covered the holes. That was pretty tiring too, but we got it done. Our officer was really happy with the work we did, and that relieved me big time. I definitely felt vindicated!
We didn't do too much on the rest of this fire...it was pretty much over after we cut the holes in the roof. But I was happy and excited...two fires back to back! And while on overtime, nonetheless! Who would have thought? But I couldn't help but feel mixed emotions about the whole thing. I was happy to do my job and fight some fires, but I couldn't help but think about the families that were displaced. I think I heard a news report that 45 people were affected from the first fire. I know the Red Cross is good with that stuff, and I hope they took care of everyone that was left, literally, out in the cold.
So I got there and I ended up (initially) riding the truck. I figured that would change, and sure enough, during the late morning, I had to ride the rescue squad for one particular call. The only annoying thing about it is you have to make sure you're familiar with all the equipment on whatever fire truck you're riding, and there is a LOT of equipment on the truck and squad...especially on the squad. I spent most of the day on the truck though, and we had to do monthly maintenance on the truck (inventory check, making sure all equipment works, cleaning the truck, etc.). So I was starting power saws, electrical lights, large fans, smoke ejectors and cleaning equipment compartments all morning.
A little after lunch time, a box alarm went out for an apartment on fire in Kensington. Burtonsville normally isn't due there, but this was a garden apartment building with heavy fire blowing out of a couple apartments, so a second alarm was immediately called. That second alarm brought our truck to scene! I was excited, because I'd actually be going to my second fire! We were initially instructed to stage at the closest fire station, but while we were enroute, command instructed us to report to the back side of the apartment building and to go to work. There was only one thought in my mind..."SWEET!"
When we got there, the building was still on fire and there was lots of smoke in the area. Police had shut down the road in the opposite direction, and fire trucks were everywhere. We got out of the truck and started putting up ladders to the third floor windows of the building. One of the guys on the truck with me, as well as myself, had a difficult time getting the ladder up. I'll admit, I had a bit of a brain freeze when trying to put the ladder up (I haven't put up a ladder since the academy!). And it didn't help that the officer on the truck company put up an equally sized ladder by himself and was already climbing it, with the intention of breaking out the windows in the apartment. One of the chiefs on the scene even had to say something to us..."focus, bring the ladder back down and put it up RIGHT." I felt really embarassed at that, but we eventually got it up. After we got it up, I climbed it and was about to break out the window, but was redirected by another chief to go inside the building and start checking the apartments inside to see if the fire had extended anywhere. So we climbed a ladder, came inside and made our way into the fray.
Inside, firefighters and hoselines were everywhere. We made our way up a flight of stairs, put our masks on and went into the apartment next to the original one that was on fire. It was pretty smokey in that apartment, and we started using our hooks to tear open the walls and ceilings. This was very tiring work, and I started to feel it right away. After busting up the place pretty bad, we went to the original fire apartment. The place was trashed...stuff was thrown everywhere and the entire place was burned and torn up. We went into the back room to ensure no one was trapped under any of the debris, but there was no one. That was pretty much all we did on this fire. I thought I did a pretty bad job with the ladder, but my officer said I did fine. That didn't console me much, to be honest. Having a chief yell at you to do something right is pretty damaging to the ol' ego.So we sat around at the truck, waiting for an assignment, but we never got one. We ended up taking our ladders down and waiting for the official word to go home.
While we waited, we heard our dispatcher ask command over the radio if some units could be released, because there was ANOTHER fire going on very close to where we were. That was all we needed to hear...we jumped onto the truck and away we went!Going down the road, we were flying...swerving in between cars pretty fast. The officer, at one point, was screaming at the driver to slow down. We got to the scene and there was a lot of smoke coming from this house. We ended up throwing more ladders to the second story of this house, and I thought, "Perfect! A chance to redeem ourselves." This time around, it went much better. We threw one ladder to the second story and I climbed the ladder and busted out the remaining pieces of the window; smoke was pouring out of that window and another one, and I was coughing pretty bad. I came down and removed the frames from some of the windows on the first floor that had already been busted out. Then we went to the back of the house, where we were instructed to go to the roof and ventilate. We put our masks on, climbed a ladder to the rough, and a couple guys were already there, cutting holes in the roof with chainsaws. I used my hook to rip open parts of the wood that still covered the holes. That was pretty tiring too, but we got it done. Our officer was really happy with the work we did, and that relieved me big time. I definitely felt vindicated!
We didn't do too much on the rest of this fire...it was pretty much over after we cut the holes in the roof. But I was happy and excited...two fires back to back! And while on overtime, nonetheless! Who would have thought? But I couldn't help but feel mixed emotions about the whole thing. I was happy to do my job and fight some fires, but I couldn't help but think about the families that were displaced. I think I heard a news report that 45 people were affected from the first fire. I know the Red Cross is good with that stuff, and I hope they took care of everyone that was left, literally, out in the cold.
