Blacks clouds, White Clouds

[hfd66truck]

In the WTC documentary the Ladder 1 firefighters talked about probies being placed into two categories. Black Clouds - the ones that get all the work and White Clouds - the ones that never seem to catch a job.

So a question. Does your department have a group a people, a shift or one person that all the bad stuff seems to follow? We could go a week without a call, and when one particular shift comes on, they'll do 24 runs for 24 hours.

Dave

[Adze39]

My whole department is deemed "White Cloud".

We started a duty officer program this year...less calls.

I joined Blue Hills FD...they now have less calls.

A third member from here got hired by AMR in Hartford. He has to be the only guy who can work an entire shift in Hartford and not get a single calls. When he was riding around with the other two guys from our FD who work for AMR, they never received calls while he was with them. No lie. One of those days, as soon as one of LT's and his partner dropped this 3rd guy off, they got called to a gunshot victim.

We should rename our FD from the Broad Brook Fire Department to the White Cloud Fire Department.

[Gooch26]

I guess I have to admit to falling into the black cloud category, at least as far as Worthington Ambulance is concerned. I work full time at one ambulance service, still on the roster for another one, a volunteer firefighter in my home town, and work weekends in Worthington. Seems like just about any time I'm near the place we get a call. Some prime examples are such as the night of the New Year's party. I just made it out of town and had to turn around for a cardiac arrest.We ended up transporting the caller of that one also. Another example was the night of the banquet. I got there late and was able to stay about twenty minutes before we got a call. We got back from that one a whopping 15 minutes and we were out again. I decided I'd better get out of there as soon as we got back. I was at work a whole 20 minutes and they got called out a third time. Stuff like that's happened countless times. Now they tell me they want me to call ahead every time I come near the place, that way they can pull the rig out and have it ready. Every time I'm there and we get a call I keep telling them, " It's not my fault!!!!", but somehow no one seems to believe me! :p

If lights, sirens and airhorns aren't enough to attract the attention of a driver, he or she is too drunk to be assisted by a paint scheme.
Randall Guntrum FF/EMT

[F52Westside]

We seem to have a rotating cloud system. For a few tours we seem to be the White Clouds, and then rotate to being the Black Clouds. Same with sleeping through the night. Sometimes we get to sleep sometimes we don't.

[CaptainGonzo]

We are an equal opportunity department...we share the cloud on a rotating basis! :D

[PuffyNPFD]

A-Group on my job. Had their first good fire in 3 years in December.
Haven't had one since either!:rolleyes:

[EastKyFF]

I was a black cloud early on here--two structure fires in one day, fatal MVC, guy stuck in utility bucket while changing bulbs at football field...I could go on and on. Put a 4-leaf clover on my helmet & it got a little better.

Right now the absence of our chief is a black cloud event. He runs a business here in our district so he's here almost 24-7...but he also does fire investigations part-time and if he goes to training, conventions, etc. overnight, we almost invariably have a structure fire. From him, the words "I'll be out of town Friday and Saturday..." strike fear in our hearts.

[firefighter26]

Hmmmm... someone who gets stuck with all the jobs....

<looks at his un-official business card>
Firefighter - SCBA Officer - Webmaster - Administrative Assistant - Assistant training officer - Assistant Engineer - Top secret Equipment Officer - Purchasing - Prefire Planning

<turns un-official business card over>
Operational Guideline Writer - Product Researcher - Head of Engine Purchasing Committee (completed that one) - Department Historian - Tours and Public Relations - Community Liaison

Lets not forget:
Studying
Training

Did I mentioned that in my spare time I:
Wash Apparatus
Sweep floors
Hang and Roll hose
Answer questions from probies

Oh wait, you mean jobs as in calls....
<looks at his personnel report>
100% attendence 4 years...
only 20 calls missed in 4 years...

Come to think of it, my two week suspension is more of a vacation!!!!

When I get back I am pretty sure I am going to resign from everything but Firefighter, Webmaster, and Tours and Public Relations, sorta go back to the "white cloud" that was mentioned.... Awww, to he a regular yellow hat.....

[Ohiovolffemtp]

When I was in medic school, the common experience was that if one of us went anywhere to do ride time, that unit would way fewer calls than normal. One student even managed to keep Cincinnati's R-14, their busiest medic unit, in the house for 12 hours straight. I even had "makes a great wheelchock" written on one of my evaluations. So much for getting calls when you actually need them for class. Guess our entire class was white clouds.

[RyanEMVFD]

at our dept we don't care about the color of the cloud as long as it brings rain with it.

[Bones42]

Last year's chief was a white cloud. If he was in town, no calls. He leaves town, structure fires. Oh well, gave the 2 deputy chiefs lots of practice...

[FDirish]

we call guys who attract bad calls "**** magnets". I am a captain on our C-Shift and things are pretty even out, I recently transfered over from A-Shift where the Batt Chief and I, if we were assigne don same alarm were a pair of "**** magnets". If it was F'd Up, big pysch ems alarm, 20 car pile-up- we got it.

[superchef]

Firefighter26


You work way too hard. Come to San Fran, I'll hide you for a few weeks and you'll be well fed. :D

[firefighter26]

San Fran, eh.... a couple weeks, eh....

It just so happens that I have been suspended.... Errrr, I mean I have a 2 week, unscheduled vacation....

It sounds tempting.....

[superchef]

Firefighter26

Those "unscheduled vacations" can sometimes be the best ones. What better place to spend it than the city by the bay.

;)

take care.

[firefighter26]

What better place to spend it than the city by the bay.

How about drinking in the city by the bay? That sounds just a wee bit better....:D \=/ :p

[superchef]

:D Since I don't drink you can have mine. One of us has to be sober. I promise to protect you and keep you safe from hmmm.... ;)

[firefighter26]

I agree, it would be best if one of us stays sober... may as well be you because I would have to go back to last week in order to do so....

That "Hmmmmmm" sounds like it could lead to some fun..... should I be afraid or interested? Just a non-related side note, I can tie 15 different kinds of knots... most of them in the dark :D

[hfd66truck]

After the last couple of posts I have come to the determination that the IACOJ BMI may have to form a censor division to keep this in the "family" nature that was originally intended.......

:D

Dave

[Temptaker]

hfd66truck... I'm on it ;)

26... DOWN BOY. You are on the verge of giving us WAY too much information. :D

I kinda wanna know if you can untie them too though...

[superchef]

Firefighter26

Only 15? Is that after the pints or before? Afraid of me? You're a trained professional. A fireball like me should not scare you.
:D


Hfd66truck

Wasn't this thread about clouds? I apologize for getting it off track. I'll behave myself and go work on the next dinner for the I.A.C.O.J. ;) :D

[firefighter26]

Come to think of it, I don't think I have recieved my I.A.C.O.J membership. It was talked about, but I was never really assigned to any divison... heard rumours about the BMI because of my small explosive fetish.... but then again, I guess I am not allowed to talk about fetishes...

To answer question, yes, I can untie those 15 different types of knots just as well as I can tie them... but I have to ask: why would I want to untie them????? :p :p :cool:

[superchef]

Firefighter26

why would I want to untie them?????

:D :D :D :D :D ;)

Happy Monday.

[firefighter26]

:p :D ;) :cool: :eek: :)

too many emotions......

>:-)

Note: those are my devil horns

[superchef]

too many emotions......


Is that good or bad?

[firefighter26]

Depends, are you supplying the rope or am I?

[Temptaker]

26... careful...you don't want to get 1875Wayne jealous now do you. He did after all ask superchef to marry him. :)

I don't remember if you are BMI or entertainment. You could be both, seems to me, I am the patch committee, and BMI. There was also some discussion about keeping us apart at meetings after the two songs I posted.

Go check the website ;) Mowtown has done a great job.

I'm a white cloud...

[superchef]

26

"At his mobile command post planning the assault on the henhouse"

Does this mean you wont' be coming here? :(

Take care.

:D

[firefighter26]

Maybe my plans require a trip to San Fran... you never know....:D

[superchef]

FF26

Congrats on the upcoming nuptials. :)

You can still come visit but you'll probably have to bring a chaparone (maybe Kiwi?)


:D

[firefighter26]

chaparone? I don't need no chaparone!... you think I can't look after myself?

Ya, you are probably right.....:rolleyes:

Superchef, thanks for the good words, I will pass them along (provided she has not already read them... she keeps rather quiet on the forums....)

[firespec35]

I guess I'm a black cloud. I went back to my old special events EMS company and have worked 2 gigs. One of them we had 2 stabbings the other one was the Detroit Fireworks I think y'all know what happened there. My boss said that they haven't had anything good in a while

[0ptical42]

Holy Thread Resurrection Batman! :eek:

Anyways, I'm mostly a white cloud except for one thing: extrication calls. The winter and spring after I entered into the department in September of 2002 our department had a large amount of really bad MVA's that required extrication and even into the summer and fall we had a bunch. I go back to school to finish up this past spring, and our departments gets almost no MVA calls. I come back in May and all of a sudden we get an extrication call a week. It's crazy. :shakes head:

[Resq14]

http://www.alexisfire.com/FireEquipment/NewDeliveries/WhiteCloud1809.html

:D