I was published in Firehouse Magazine!

There has been an ongoing issue in Firehouse Magazine when it comes to seatbelts in the cabs of fire engines and trucks. It's so damn hard to put seatbelts on when you already have the thick bunker gear and airpack on, nevermind the excitement which makes it easy to forget even the best intentioned.

I wrote Firehouse an article about my idea. All Scott Pak's, and other SCBA, are held in the jumpseat by a round bracket that makes it easy for firemen to lean forward and pop the pack out once it's strapped on their arms and waste. Yes, I say the pack is already strapped on. So why, might one ask, are we looking towards yet a 4th belt to pass over a firefighter's body, to act as restraint?


What if the SCBA's harness was actually held to that bracket? Then yes, the firefighter too would be held in restraint to the seat. Problem is, we need to get up and out, and we need to do this fast. So the easy suggestion I had was to position a quick-release button or lever right between your legs on the seat. When activated, just like a seatbelt, the SCBA's bracket would release from the seat and the Firefighter could stand up and fight another day.

Thanks to firehouse for posting this idea of mine and I hope I've inspired someone to maybe take it a step further and get it into production.

Glad I could amuse

It's been slow lately, so when we got paged out to a fire alarm at Felician college, I decided to have a little fun. We arrived and walked downstairs and followed the sound of flowing water and horrible sound until we found the source - a broken sprinkler head deep in a utility room. We had to crawl under ducts and through vertical beams until we could reach the area where the water was just pissing out. My captain immediately joked that one of us should go and try to chock it (technique used to wedge a doorstop or two in the open area to block the sprinkler's orifice.)

As I mentioned, times are slow so I volunteered. I stripped my gear of anything I didn't want to get wet, including my mask and pack, but kept my jacket on in a futile attempt to protect my clothing. So minutes later, there I was standing under a sieve of water flowing probably like 40 gallons a minute onto my head, face and hands, while I tried to jam a chock in something I couldn't even see, and barely felt with my frozen finger tips. The water was damn cold and at this point just shooting me square in the face, causing me to drop my shield down.

We stood back after I got it semi-chocked and saw there was a red wire gate covering the sprinkler head which was why I couldn't get the chock in there. All in all, the attempt was pointless but at least everyone got a good laugh about it all, even me. I stopped laughing when I walked outside into the 30 degree weather though haha.