Basement Fire on Chestnut

Same time as the carfire last nite, around 2 AM, we get called out to reports of an "air conditioner on fire." Fire, being one of the keywords I look for in a dispatch, got me revved up. We had a pretty full boat and every one was throwing elbows to get their shit on in the truck. Captain looked back and said he's taking the first line, and 2 guys yelled they're with him on the first line. I then yelled that me, John and Jack are on the second line.

We pulled up first due, got off and unreeled our backup line off the officer's side perfectly. Unreeling it 100% is one of our deficiencies as a company, because sometimes people get too hyped up at a fire, unreel it half way or 3/4 and just run to the door, but last nite was better.

I saw the first team go in, so my team masked up and followed them in with a smooth boor. Visibility was still pretty good so I didn't go on air right away. I saw an air conditioner unit on fire, and extension up into the wall and some of the cieling above it. I gave a few short bursts over the first team, just enough to hit the fire a bit but not enough to wet them because I know how much this pisses me off when people give me a douching because they're trigger happy.

Our big guy, Jeff, went on a rampage taking walls and cielings with his gloved hands. I guess he couldn't wait for a tool, and he started punching and pulling the sheetrock like it was tissue paper. He's a big guy and real aggressive when he's pumped up, so we sat and watched the show, laughing from time to time. My backup guy was sent into another room to do a search and we got called to bring a line upstairs for extension.

Going upstairs, we found heavy smoke condition but no visible flame. We opened up much of the walls and ceiling, moving the ton of furniture and clothing out of our way in the process. Jeez they had a ton of piles of clothes in the place.

All in all we did a text-book stop with no fuck-ups that I can remember.

Car from Fort Knox

Around 2 AM we get called out to a carfire at a local used car dealership. I know those cars to sit very close to eachother, so I pictured 2 or 3 cars involved by the time we get there. I was wrong, it was only 1. It took our captain a minute or so to cut the fence using bolt cutters to let us in. There were 5 of us, and as I mentioned in the past posts, carfires to firemen are like chum to sharks. JK immediately jumps on the first nozzle, which he's known to do at every single fire we ever get, and I grab the second. It took a few mins to get water, and the fire wasn't too crazy, mostly in the right front wheel well, extending into the engine.

I took a halligan and walked around to the driver side window and took the window down in one swift motion, then reached in and opened the door. I tried the hood release after catching some water in the face from the hose team on the other side, and the hood release was obviously burnt out. I closed the door and the gruelling task of opening a hood without a saw began.

When I was a probie I attended an extrication class behind the local Boys & Girls club using some donated cars. My friend Jack and I, joining at the same time, usually attended all the same training and paired up as often as possible. Since the drill was a free-for-all anyway, Jack and I decided to try to get into the trunk of a car using only a halligan and ax. We pried, pulled, smashed, whacked and bent the shit out of the trunk for 15 minutes before giving up. The pin and catch inside is just too strong for standard tools.

Back to the car fire last nite, we tried the Rabbit tool, which is a handheld spreader that operates like a car-jack, the front release (which was burnt away), halligans, axes...etc. We tried everything before finally I gained access to, what ended up being 3 pins under the front lip of the car with a long set of bolt-cutters.

Annoying as it was, we did a pretty good job at gaining access using nothing but the tools we had to work with.