Smoking Plane Story
Tincanfireman has an interesting story over at his blog about a smoking airplane. Here is an excerpt:
Looking out the window during a commercial, at first I wasn't even sure I had seen "something"; just a brief, light puff of smoke from the engine cowling of a Regional Jet (or RJ) that recently arrived. Amother commercial, so I keep looking out the window (since I don't need what Enzyte Bob is selling). About thirty seconds later, dang, another puff. The news is back on, but now I could care less about the NBA playoffs; this is Important Stuff happening right before my eyes. Still another wisp escapes from the cowling and now I'm at the station window, having a good look at the jet. I call towards the dayroom "Lou, (Lieutenant) have a look at this, wouldja?"
Read the whole thing.
Third Season for Rescue Me
The third season of the TV series Rescue Me is scheduled to start on May 30th (from Becoming a Firefighter).
Here is a link to the official website.
Good show!
Excerpt from Task Force 8
Over at Rescue Us!, Lou has posted an excerpt from his novel, Task Force 8.
Firing up the EKG strip, Devoe quickly interprets the gradient squiggles and informs the team leader, "He's in VT Chauncey, Ventricular Tachycardia." The old man's engine is running, but the timing is off and he needs a quick tune-up. "He's probably having an MI right now!", Williams replies.
Read the whole excerpt.
One of the Boys
Deputy Chief Kathy VanPatten is retiring from the East Lansing Fire Department and the local newspaper has a nice article about her career. Included in the article is a great story from early in her career (from the Lansing State Journal).
Retired Fire Chief Jack Gregg, who hired VanPatten, recalled an incident that truly made her "one of the boys."When it was her turn to cook shortly after joining the department, an off-duty firefighter came into the department training room to talk to another employee. His language included four-letter expletives, one of which he used just as VanPatten entered the room.
Red-faced, he apologized for his language. VanPatten shrugged and returned to the kitchen.
"Minutes later, Kathy returned to the training room and announced that their (expletive) lunch was ready and flashed a big smile to the off-duty person," Gregg said.
VanPatten said she did her best not to be different.
Hah! That is too good - it made me laugh.
Fire Horse's Prayer
Here is a nice poem that I ran across at the website of the Bonner Springs Fire Department in Kansas (via FIREFIGHTER). Here is the poem:
Fire Horse's PrayerTo thee, my Firefighter Master, I offer my prayer. Feed me, water and care for me, and, when the fire is put out, provide me with shelter, a clean, dry bed and stall wide enough for me to lie down in comfort. Always be kind to me. Your voice often means as much to me as the reins. Pet me often, so that I may serve you the more gladly and learn to love you. Do not jerk the reins, and do not whip me when going uphill.
Never strike, beat, or kick me when I do not understand what you want, but give me a chance to understand you. Teach me gently not to fear the smoke and flames and clanging of the fire bells. Watch me, and if I fail to do your bidding, see if something is not wrong with my harness or feet. Do not check me so that I cannot have free use of my head. If you insist that I wear blinders, so that I cannot see behind me as it was intended I should, I pray you be careful that the blinders stand well out of my eyes. Do not overload me, or hitch me where water will drip on me. Keep me well shod. Examine my teeth when I do not eat; I may have an ulcerated tooth, and that, you know, is very painful.
Do not tie my head in an unnatural position, or take away my best defense against flies and mosquitoes by cutting off my tail. I cannot tell you when I am thirsty, so give me clean, cool water often. Save me, by all means in your power from that fatal disease - the glanders. I cannot tell you in words when I am sick, so watch me, that by signs you may know my condition.
Give me all possible shelter from the hot sun, and put a blanket on me, not when I am working, but when I am standing in the cold. Never put a frosty bit in my mouth; first warm it by holding it a moment in your hands. I will pull the steamer or hose wagon without a murmur, and wait patiently for you long hours of the day or night as you save lives. Without the power to choose my shoes or path, I sometimes fall on hard pavement which I have often prayed might not be of wood or brick, but of such a nature as to give me safe and sure footing. Remember that I am ready at any moment to lose my life in your service, for I now am also a firefighter.
And finally, OH MY FIREFIGHTER FRIEND, when my useful strength is gone, do not turn me out to starve or freeze, or sell me to some cruel owner, to be slowly tortured and starved to death; but do thou, My Friend, take my life in the kindest way, and your God will reward you here and hereafter. You will not consider me irreverent if I ask this in the name of Him who was also born in a stable.
AMEN--Author Unknown
Do You Remember
Excellent story over at a blog called Firefighter:
SOME WERE DRIVING THEIR BIG SHINING RED FIRE ENGINES, OTHERS WERE MARCHING IN THEIR UNIFORMS OR FIRE CLOTHES AND STILL OTHERS WERE DRESSED AS FIRE CLOWNS AND WERE MAKING ALL THE CHILDREN LAUGH.YOU WAVED AT THEM HOPING THAT MAYBE ONE WOULD SEE YOU AND WAVE BACK, AT JUST YOU.
THEN ONE DID, HE SMILED , LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU AND WAVED, JUST TO YOU.
Read the whole thing.
Fire on New Years Eve
Bill at Code, Code World has another great fire story:
I remember the sound of the pager going off, and how it stopped time for a moment. How we all stopped, looked at one another, our wives knowing it would be another holiday evening without us, Larry and I knowing that this kind of call, with the Chief already on the radio calling for equipment was rarely good. Then an instant later Larry and I made for our vehicles, grabbing our gear on the way.
Bill is great writer and can really bring to life his experiences. Read the whole story.
Ramblin' On About Firefighters
Bruce Campbell writes a column in the High River Times called Ramblin' On. This installment is about firefighters. Here is an excerpt:
When you’re an eight-year-old boy dreaming of growing up to be a firefighter, you imagine it’s about running into buildings and saving some damsel in distress. What you don’t imagine is standing in the freezing cold, watching over a destroyed historical building in the middle of the night to ensure there are no more hot spots and that the site isn’t tampered with before the investigation.
Read the whole column - it isn't long. Bruce writes with humor and sheds light on the mundane but necessary firefighting tasks that the public doesn't often think about.
I Wish You Could Know
Here is a poem I saw on Roanoke Firefighters (via 43 Firefighter). I've posted the entire poem. I also did a little checking and it seems that the author of the poem is unknown.
I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns. I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 6 in the morning as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none.I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try and save his life. I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with. I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire, Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?. Or to call and ask what is wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun? I wish you could be in the emergency room, as a doctor pronounces dead, the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes, knowing she will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love you Mommy", ever again. I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine, squad, or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic.
When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you forever to get here!" I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. What if this was my daughter, sister, my wife or a friend? What were her parents reaction going to be when they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?
I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call. I wish you could know how it feels dispatching officers, firefighters and EMT's out and when we call for them and our heart drops because no one answers back or to here a bone chilling 911 call of a child or wife needing assistance. I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally and sometimes physically abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will never happen to me". I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain of missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.
I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos. I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, "Is my Mommy okay?", not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having CPR done on him as they take him away in the Medic Unit.
You know all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become too familiar with. Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to us...I wish you could though.
Bill Coupe on Emergency Services
Bill over at Code, Code World has a good post about his thoughts on people involved in emergency services. It is well worth the couple of minutes it will take to read it.
It’s rarely about ‘the money’ with these folks; they certainly aren’t going to be “livin’ large” on what they find in their paychecks. Instead they’ve chosen to take a different path than most of us would, or could. To put caring for, and protecting, the lives, needs and property of others, in front of nearly everything else, including their own well being.
Bill's First Fire
I've been keeping my eye out for firefighting blogs. Bill Coupe has a blog called Code, Code World. He is a computer programmer, but he is also a firefighter.
Here he relates the story of his first fire. It is great reading. Here is an excerpt:
As I came in the door, he starts yelling at me to jump in the front line pumper and drive it to the scene and he'll drive the tanker.Now, I remembered, from my one drill, that the chief wanted the trucks to roll fully ‘loaded’ with personnel, and with qualified operators, but Pete’s insistent, and says “There’ll be ‘somebody’ there to run the truck, just get it there”. So, in deference to his long standing in the department, and his role as a fire commissioner, I fire that truck up and head out.
Hehehe - has anyone else been in that situation?
