Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
First Person Shooters (Games)

Journal intermodal's Journal: How to make 105 degree heat feel good 8

Journal by intermodal

Fight a grassfire in it, and then take off your turnout coat. You'll feel a lot cooler then than you did while you were using a pike to pull bales of hay further away from a propane tank.

Fought my first grassfire on thursday afternoon. Heard sirens, went down to the station, and we spent the next 5 minutes getting the notorious B73 to start with a jury-rigged setup of a battery charger and a set of jumper cables attatched to my wife's old honda. Then we were off and running to the fire. After maybe 15 minutes of actual firefighting, we stalled. Let me say for the record that 73 does this a lot. So me and Kevin sat on the back of the truck for a good hour while our friendly mutual-aid grassfire trucks took care of most of the fire.

We later learned that our radio wasn't transmitting, hence the lack of responses to our calls for a tow. Upon returning, we went to said propane tank and bales of hay, before coming back to the main setup area and cooling off and getting some rest. While sitting and drinking water, one of the officers told me, "So you want to be a volunteer firefighter."

I immediately responded "Yes, sir." in a sure voice.

After that, they told me that the first grassfire usually causes people to quit. I found it way too satisfying to have done what we did to think that way about it. It just convinced me even more that it was what I wanted to do.

After blowing apart some more smoldering haybales with a 2 inch hose, we headed to a call at an old folks' home, to check out a hot flourescent fixture, where the ballast was heating up to high temperatures, so we disconnected it and upon finding no fire, we left a few guys behind to complete the check once it was assured no power was still running through it. It wasn't exactly a 15-man, 4-truck job (we had all come straight from the grassfire).

There's my first day of firefighter duty. After that I got my fire pager, which I haven't been called out with yet.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

How to make 105 degree heat feel good More

How to make 105 degree heat feel good

Comments Filter:
  • Congratulations and thanks for becoming a firefighter. A friend of mine encouraged me to apply here in Austin when he saw an ad for it, but I decided not to. Allergies, asthma, and burning to a crisp all weighed heavily in the decision.
    • yeah...I had asthma as a child but it seems only to be triggered by some specific plants just north of the San Francisco Bay. I've never had it hit me elsewhere. Even in that heavy smoke from the grassfire I was no worse off than anyone else, save for my lesser heat tolerance from not having been through it as many times as them. Allergies don't tend to hit me unless i have a virus or cold of some sort, but then it's not really allergy i think. As far as burned to a crisp goes, well, that risk comes wit
  • I've been doing it for 14 years now and still love it.

    Wait till you get a barn fire and have to pull all the hay apart to make sure its completely out.

    I caught a minor house fire the other night, got to go in and break the walls out in a kitchen to get at the fire.

    You can see my department on-line at http://www.mcfd.org
  • A few friends of mine up in a more rural area of Idaho are EMTs and have a foundness for HAMing. Apparently EMTs like to have lots of heavy stuff hanging off their belts / shirts / jumpsuits.

    I couldn't exactly complain because I think it would be dam cool to be an EMT and actually save lives, or pull people from car wrecks, or get cats out of trees (ok . . may be not). And getting my HAM cert would be cool too.

    robi
    • that'd be fun. I think I'll eventually go do that. That, and I'd like to get a class A or B license so I can drive the trucks if need be.
      • Have you gotten a light bar yet? My friends each got one. I got to ride along on a call where he got to go code to the scene.

        They were thinking of building a 4 cig adaptor mounting with seperate fuses for each. He had a truck HAM radio, the light bar, cd player, and a scanner.

        robi
        • I'm going to be installing that once I have a job since i'll own it. The equipping plan:

          Push bumper (easy mod. its a police edition crown vic)
          PA
          HAM Radio once I get a license
          red and white lights behind the grille
          black Police Interceptor honeycomb grille
          wig wags
          scanner
          red/whites in the rear window with a trafic director
          new speakers

          Mods already done before joining:

          Replaced full wheel covers with center caps
          added CD player

          Factory options already on the Police Interceptor:
          spotlight
          stock police alternator

Slashdot Top Deals

Without life, Biology itself would be impossible.

Close