fire #2

Dave, Me & Mike

Yesterday we were at the station and had just finished dinner. The Medic was out on a call when the tones dropped. I couldn't hear the dispatch so I wandered out the the Engine to go. I thought I heard someone say something about an auto accident. No big deal usually. Then I heard the word fire. Fire in The Park. And everything changed.

I quickly pulled on my bunker gear and jumped in the Engine. Usually fire calls end up being nothing, so I was not too worried at first. We turned down the street where the call was and Mike (driving) stopped and jumped out to drop the hose at the hydrant. Dave and I were sitting facing backwards with our air packs on when we heard Joel in the front seat over the headsets: "I can see it from here. It's a working fire." Oh crap.

Mike jumped back in and pulled up to the house. Fire was blowing out the upper window on the left side, maybe a little out the roof too, can't remember exactly - it was all a blur. As hopped out I could hear Company 501 right behind us. I grabbed the tools, Dave grabbed the hose and we headed to the front of the house. By the time Dave and I were done masking up, Joe (T501) had forced the door to the house so we could all go in.

I was breathing hard from the minute my SCBA face mask went on. Partially because it is a demand breather and you have to take purposeful breaths to get air and partially because I was scared. I hated the last fire I was on and was not looking forward to doing it again.

The house after the fire (L) outside and (R) inside upstairs.

As Dave and I entered the house we found ourselves in a living room with a staircase at the back of the room leading upstairs. The fire was rolling down the stairs and had made its way to the floor in the back of the room. Dave was on the nozzle (thank goodness) and I was backing him up. We went to work, putting out the fire at the base of the stairs and then working out way up towards the seat of the fire. T501 searched the first floor for victims.

I will admit that I was a little nervous to start climbing the stairs that had just been on fire, but I figured Dave would not go up them if it was not safe. Plus since he was in front of me, Dave would fall through before me and I would know not to proceed further. I know. Bad. But true.

As we reached to the top of the staircase it got pretty hot. Dave put out the major fire in front/around us and then all we could see was steam. It was still hot so we knew it wasn't out but I was surprised that we couldn't see more flames through the white steam. I honestly had no idea where we were or what was beyond the top of those stairs. As we inched up I saw a little bit of the clearing in the steam to the right of me and realized me were in some kind of an attic. I forgot that steam was so thick.

We finally made it onto the attic floor, pushing through the space and putting out flames as they were found. T501 crew finished their search upstairs, luckily no one was found. It was still really steamy but had cooled down a little. I heard a chainsaw overhead as the other half of T501's crew cut ventilation in the roof. That ventilation was the best. The steam and more of the heat was able to escape and I was finally able to understand exactly where we were. It was an attic space with a room on the end, tall enough to stand up in with room to spare. We were also able to see where there was still smoldering fire and soak those areas to assure the fire was out for good.

(T) Dave putting out a little flare up. (B) E509 crew: Joel, Me, Dave & Mike.
(R) E509 and line of fire apparatus running down the street.

With the fire out and Dave's low air alarm sounding, Joel told us to head out to rehab. We left the house into the cool air of the night. It felt nice. I pulled off my helmet, hood and mask and smiled. I felt really good. It was such a change from my first fire, which I walked out of questioning if I was in the right career. I was glad to have Dave in front of me on the line. I know that the glory is actually holding the nozzle and that is what I should have wanted to be doing, but it was nice to be in back of an experienced firefighter in a real fire to watch and learn.

The rest of the night was spent doing miscellaneous things. We didn't end up having to go back in and do overhaul (the hard work), other crews on the scene handled that (thanks guys!). The Park crew and half of T501 stayed with the house, we made sure there were no more flare-ups and waited for the Fire Marshal. The FM is a really cool job; he is like a fire detective. He looks at the damage and figures out where the fire started and how it started and what exactly happened. Our FM is really nice, he teaches and explains stuff to us as he searches.

After the FM had done what he could for the night, were were released from the scene and went back to the station dirty, tired and happy. Unfortunately the work does not stop there. We still had to clean all the gear we used, fill the SCBA, re-rack the hose and get the engine all ready, clean and pretty for the next call or the next crew that came on. When you just want a shower and bed this process is so long. Fortunately since it was freezing (literally) outside we could not wash the dirty hose and lay it out to dry, which I think is the longest most painful part of clean-up. So we finished relatively quickly.

When we were all done I took a look at myself. I was dirty. I smelled like yummy fire. I felt like yucky sweat. All in all though, I was happy. Maybe there is a chance that I could eventually like this fire stuff.

(L) Posing for a picture. Cheesy, but I need photographic evidence because my memory is horrible. (R) Dirty, happy, Me.