Interesting Week

[Dave1983]

One of the things I love most about this job, no two shifts are the same and expect the unexpected.

First off Tuesday, we get dispatched to a person stuck in an elevator. OK, no biggie. So off we go non-emergency and of course no PPE.

About a block out, we see what looks like smoke. Hmmmm, wonder what thats from. Ha, wouldnt you know it, we pull up out front of the elevator rescue and opps, fully involved carpet cleaning van, flat up againts a 12 storie condo.

So we break into a combination chianess(?) fire drill/keystone cop routine as we try and "adjust" to our new found situation. And of course, there are about, oh I dont know, 300 vacationers (all with cameras) watching this circus. I really wanted to hide, or go for the pool, one of the two.

Long story short we put out the van and the building is still standing. Then to put the finishing touches on the whole thing, the sky opened up while were trying to repack. Turned out I didnt need to head for the pool after all.

Then comes Saturday. Started off well enough. As I was walking out the door my Lt sticks his head out of the office and says "hey Dave, want OT". I answer (in a respectable tone) "thats a dumb question Lou". Im lovin this. A Saturday, 24hrs of time and a half. Nothing to do but eat, sit in front of the tube and run a couple calls. Life is good.

Then comes 4AM. A nasty storm rolls through (I just love Fla in the sumertime). We go out on an automatic alarm. Again, not a big deal except that part of the county radio system takes a lightning hit. We can hear dispatch but they cant hear us. Good thing it was a flase alarm.

We get back, start some coffee and out we go again, this time for a smoke odor. We get on scene and meet the owner of about a 6000sq ft, 2 1/2 storie house, who says they took a lightning hit about an hour ago and now she smells "something". We start pooking around and oh yeah, theres an odor all right. You know that old saying where theres smoke theres fire. No kidding. And in this case LOTS of fire. 2 alarms plus an extra engine and aerial worth.

Needless to say, we didnt make it back to the coffee.

Man I love this job...:D


Fire Story
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/25/Tampabay/Fire_from_lightning_d.shtml

[Berks2Montco84]

Originally posted by Dave1983
And of course, there are about, oh I dont know, 300 vacationers (all with cameras) watching this circus. I really wanted to hide, or go for the pool, one of the two.


Well, you know what? To them, it all looks professional. They don't realize the screwups, unless they're blatantly obvious. Just like when I was on stage crew in high school. Everyone would get so worked up over these tiny mistakes, but I'm like, did the audience notice it? Most likely not....

[paris04]

I agree with Berks on this... but they would definitely add pressure on you. Sounds like a good week.

[Berks2Montco84]

Originally posted by paris04
I agree with Berks on this... but they would definitely add pressure on you. Sounds like a good week.

Well yeah, but that's all a mental thing on our part. We notice people watching and somehow everything we're doing suddenly turns to crap in our own eyes. The thing most people in our position don't understand is, it still looks like an amazing act of prefessionalism, bravery, and compassion to the people watching. What we should really be striving for is to better ourselves to not only help the victims involved, but to keep from getting hassled from our brothers and sisters.....:D

Now, if you do something like trip over a curb, then the bystanders will probably laugh, but that's because you commited a normal human error, and they're very perceptive of those....

[SpartanGuy]

Dave, I know the feeling, but that's not as bad as my little episode live on the six o'clock news.

Fully involved motorcycle on the highway, we fight our way in. They're running us live, I didn't know. Here I am, priming the hell out of the truck because I couldn't build pressure, only to realize that I hadn't depressed the driver button on the push button gear shift hard enough. To add insult to injury, the 'good to pump' light on the pump panel had gone bad, and came on anyway!

After priming didn't help(I noticed water evacuating onto the ground), went back and checked the transmission. We only lost around 30 seconds, but hey, it makes you feel like crap. It was one of those mistakes that every pump operator will make in their lifetime, it was just painful to have it broadcast to every firefighter in the tri-state area...

[rualfire]

Originally posted by SpartanGuy
Dave, I know the feeling, but that's not as bad as my little episode live on the six o'clock news.
It was one of those mistakes that every pump operator will make in their lifetime, it was just painful to have it broadcast to every firefighter in the tri-state area...

Haha..

And you still go out in public?

;)

[SpartanGuy]

Rualfire: I can tell you haven't been around long. Everyone screws up eventually. Everyone screws up pumping once. It's better when it's something minor like that was.


Though I doubt you'll ever make a mistake in all of your perfection, I'll be waiting to laugh.

[rualfire]

SpartanGuy...

Sorry to have offended... wasn't my intention.

I found humor in your situation because as you say everyone makes mistakes. I have, I will again.

The heading of this section of the fourm is "The place for humourous posts, off-duty issues and discussion, for firefighters."

I'm sure the guys on your crew are still giving you the gears about doing it on TV...

I rubbed our zodiak rescue boat against a rusty bolt on a dock at a recovery operation and filled everyone's boots with water.. and nearly sank the sucker. You'd better believe that I'm still hearing about it.

[SpartanGuy]

Rualfire: Sorry, may have jumped the gun a little too fast.

Better than one of our mutual aid companies flipping and sinking their 'unsinkable rescue boat'....How embarassing.