Tower or Frying Pan?

Last night we had the second of 4 nights of Rolling Response in Firefighter 2. It was very tiresome. They started by doing a live burn using pallettes on the first floor. The fire got cranking and we could feel the heat from the door frame. The first evolution put me with Jack and some other kid onto the third floor, where we did a search, went down a flight, searched the second floor and came out - a little warm, not bad.

Then they sent us in teams of 2, after adding a few more pallettes to the can. The stairwells were acting as chimneys, and that was no joke as the temperature on the stairs was probably around 400 degrees. Up to the second, crawl around room, meet, back to the light, stand, up to the third, rinse lather and repeat. We did this on 4 consecutive flights, exiting the fire escape on the 5th floor.

Let's just say this took about 75% of my energy out completely. Jack was my partner for evolution number 3. Already, the tips of my boots were melted, it felt like there was fire inside my firepants, and I could NOT catch my breath. We tirelessly walked up 5 flights of fire escape stairs, stopping on every platform to rest momentarily. I ended up going in with someone else however.

Upon entering, the floor was hot - I mean really hot. As we got closer to the ground floor, the ground heated up 100x on every floor. By the third floor, it was almost unbearable on my hands and knees, and nearly burning right through my gear. I felt like I was crawling on a frying pan.

When we finally got out (a little early since the kid's bottle ran out), I nearly passed out. I hurriedly took all my gear off except for my fire pants, which I opened to let the burning hot air out. When I went to take a piss, my belt buckle, which was safely under my firepants, was even hot - very hot - to the touch.

RIT Training

Last night up at the firegrounds we had RIT training. Aside from when they made us take a charged 3 inch line up 3 rounded flights of stairs, this was the most daunting, grueling and exhausting task they've had us complete to date. This all took place in the maze in complete darkness.

The first time they had this smaller kid as the victim, Eddie and his friend Whelen from Dumont were the first team in. Jack and I, being the second team in, were waitng outside, communicating via radio. Finally, they asked for our assistance. Jack took off quick leaving me fiddling with the radio behind him. Once I finally got a response, he told me he went through the tunnel so I followed, navigated a turn and immediately got caught up in the wires, which apparently they did a good job adding to and dropping them lower. After about 3 minutes of detangling myself, I finally got to the point where we all met up. I helped hold the wires while they dragged the victim using a rope. I helped jack push the victim through the tunnel when I heard Eddie's low air alarm going off and him screaming that he was entangled in the wires.

Jack yelled at me to stay with him by the front door but I said no, and I went back. Jack followed. We found eddie panicking in the wires with his low air bell going and slowly got him detangled. The wire was snug around the back of his bottle and I probably shoulda just cut it off, an idea that DID strike me but I didn't follow up on it.

The second time I was the victim.

The third run, Jack and I were the first team in. Eddie (fatass) was the victim. My leg cramped while crawling over a mattress coil and getting the RIT pack caught up. Jack waited and when we finally got back together, we continued on to find Eddie laying on his back. I found it very difficult to get through to Jack, who looked like he was panicking a little. He was looking for Eddie's straps and NOT listening at all. After a while I stopped and screamed JACK - LISTEN TO ME. He stopped and looked at me. Finally I got my point across that he should secure Eddie's pack between his legs while I secure the RIT pack. We both got done at the same time with a smooth transition of bottles.

As we started dragging Eddie to the beams, I passed through them and started pulling Eddie when Jack's bell started going off, indicating he was out of air. Immediately I had Jack pass over Eddie and leave the building, while I replaced him. Eddie was a bitch to get out and barely helped. I shoulda punched him in the balls to get him moving. Towards the door we encountered a mattress coil which the guy in front of me held up while I pushed Eddie and his father pulled. Once I was right on the kid, I held the mattress up and told him to continue on.

The fourth and final run, I was second team with Whelen, while the kid and his father were first team, Jack was the victim. After what seemed like 10 minutes, we got called in and I helped the one kid secure Jack's pack on backwards, after slowly realizing they took his other pack completely off. This created a great grip on Jack, who now had 2 handles on his shoulders proving great leverage. To me, this was the smoothest run as we got him out in a few minutes flat.

All in all, this traning was daunting, but effective. A few times when I was out of breath, I felt dizzy and disoriented. I could tell how scary that could be in a real and dangerous environment. Also, I controlled my breathing very well and am proud to say my low air alarm never went off all nite. Others, however, had low air alarms left and right which made the situation very scary and realiastic, seeing how a rescuer can become another victim, or freak out and make things worse. Finally, the physical exhaustion made me realize my legs are not nearly powerful enough to propel me on the ground while dragging someone. They tired easily and my thigh cramped up a few times. Also, even though I polished off a bottle of water prior to the exercise, I felt very dehydrated.

Still, there's no better feeling than ripping off my mask once I'm out of there and getting a good, deep breath of cool fresh air.

John Street Fire

We got a call about 9am on a sunday morning for a basement fire - everyone's out. I got to the firehouse a little bit late and they were just about to roll out without me. I opened the door and threw my gear on then jumped on. I took off my shoes and threw them behind the jumpseats and geared up on the way. I just got finished when we arrived and everyone jumped off. I was a little slow getting off cause i was still putting a pack on.

When i got to the rear of the house, AJ yelled to me and John P to start venting the basement windows. Without gloves, i grabbed a halligan and started uppercuttingi the low windows. Little did i know that i was smashing my bare right thumb between the halligan and the cement window sill on every swing - i was too hyper to notice. In the rear of the house, I showed John my thumb which was now gushing blood and had a purple, swollen nail. Louie R asked if i was still okay to go in - of course i was, and painfully put my fire glove on.

After the (new) chief masked up and went to go in with John P, he decided to have John and I go in to back up the basement crew, which consisted of AJ, John K (nozzle) and my uncle. We followed the hoseline till we came into voice proximity of the crew - thick smoke. I had a short sheetrock pull and john had a short hook. As per AJ's request we started pulling down walls looking for extension. I hit some wires and backed off from that spot. When we rounded the corner we looked up and saw ceiling tiles that were kinda off track - and i could see dancing orange flames behind them.

Some bright soul pulled the tile right above my head and a big fireball engulfed me and John P's helmets. We pulled a way and backed off a bit till they put water on it. John K fog vented and the smoke cleared a bit. I assisted him in pointing out hot spots as he put the rest of it out. When his air ran out, I grabbed the nozzle and soaked the rest of the smouldering wood and fuel down. Holes were ripped in the cieling above our heads big enough that we could watch the truck company working.

As usual, i kept my mask on the entire time till it ran out, even though everyone else unmasked early. I just don't trust that shit.

Pete was there and got good video footage.