Three Isn't a Crowd

Fire practice was pretty much the same as the week before. LOL but this time Chris and I were joined by Mike. We didn't do the smoke out because there was hardly anyone there.

So we three worked with the airtanks and gear while the other 6 guys did the rope practice. One thing that was different though was at the end, we were timed. Because I'm the newest member they went easy on me. ha ha ha

The firefighter book says we have to be able to don the airtank n gear in a minute or less. According to the old timers, this is ridiculous because you have at least 10 min in the truck to get to the fire and the RIT team has 10min to do that after the first team goes in. But Rob wanted to see how fast we could put these tanks on. So the race was on...

The first time Mike did it in 1:58, Chris did it in 1:38 and I in 2:08. The second time we did it Mike 1:32 Chris in 1:44 and I in 1:58. Then Rob says "best out of three" so we did it again. Mike did it in 1:04, Chris in 1:34 and I did it in 1:44. Yeah! I didn't do it under the 40 mark, but I'm happy that it was progressively better. Concidering Mike has been with the hall 3 years, Chris joined 5 months ago and I only 6 weeks. They had classroom time as well, I haven't had that.

Next week is halloween and so we aren't going to pull the trucks out to train on. The Captains decided that we will do the smoke out in the hall that night. We don't want to run over all the little kiddies. hee hee

Have a great day everyone! Happy Thursday:)

Put On, Tighten, Check, Take Off, Clean and Repeat

Wednesday, middle of the week breakup, Fire practice. I'd been told last week that we were doing inventory checklist and pulling christmas lights down to make sure they were ready for Dec 1 lighting. We were to also be checking the tower. Nope not even close tonight :P

Both us newbies had our fire gear training tonight. More like air tank review for the other newbie and learning for me. Putting on, tighting, check gadges, take off, clean and repeat. Full bunker gear and tank practice for 2 hours. Ok, I'm going to be sore tomorrow. LOL after an hour of putting on (over head) taking off (jacket style) my shoulders and arms were acking, then we had to change tanks and do again. Oiy! I'm going to be doing it in my sleep tonight! ha ha ha

Seriously, it really is important to know how, why and when to do things on the tanks. There really is an order to putting the gear on, tank, etc. I won't bore you with the finer details. Just be greatful that the firefighters who go in to a house fire really do take the time to do these lessons and practice, practice, practice.

Next week we are doing a complete smoke out in the hall and having to be able to find people in the dark. This is going to be interesting. Gear, tanks and systems ready.

Night all! I'm going to get a snack, drink my water and hopefully get a good night sleep:)

Up the Tower and Hauling Hoses

Meeting at the firehall tonight was all about business...clean up for the first half hour then the rest of the time was hashing out the business of running the fire hall. I was kinda glad cuz I've had a yucky headache all day and really didn't have the energy to do anything real physical. LOL 

I did climb the tower and lower all the hoses that were dry down to the guys below so they could roll them up however. That was fun. First time up there by myself...a bit freaky without my gear on and leaning over the edge of the railing to grab the rope, tie hoses on (3 at a time) and lower them down was a bit nerve-racking the first couple times. If I was afraid of heights I would have been dizzy...lol oh yeah, I was squeamish when looking that far down. The guys look really small from 75 ft up...ha ha ha no, not really.

Well, I'm off to bed now. Night all!

No Sleep, Bake Brownies in between Call Outs

Couldn't sleep again last night so got up just before 11 and played games on the computer for an hour. Just as I was thinking I should try and get some sleep at midnight my pager went off. "Oh good! A reason to NOT be sleeping!" I dressed and ran to the hall. Went on the call and got to fill out the paperwork again, Yeah!! Yes, It makes me happy. I can contribute to a first response call while observing what is going on! hee hee Multi tasking is always a good thing.

The guys at my hall are great! They're really calm, efficient and thorough. I like working with them. Each call has a different group of guys who go out. You never know who is going to get in the truck first. LOL That's pretty much how we do it. If you're in the truck, you go. We could have, like last night, 9 guys n a gal respond, but only have room for 5 in the truck. The rest stay at the hall for back up and when the truck comes back they do the checkover on it.

When I got back from the call it was almost 1...do you think I could go back to sleep again? So I made brownies...hee hee Ugh, gonna be a long day today I think.

Have a great day everyone! It's the middle of the week and I think it's a good day for chocolate and lotsa coffee... :P

Fire Hall Cleaning and Tim Hortons!

So fire practice tonight wasn't really a "fire practice" more of a house cleaning kind of night. Trucks cleaned inside, windows washed, hoses rolled and put away for future use, bays swept, etc. We also had a meeting about radio uses: how, when and what to say. I have a pager and can only listen when people are on the radios talking. "Hold, count a loooong 1 then speak, release, listen, hold down, count a looooong 1 again then speak, release." Makes logical sense. I know that there have been times when I only get half a sentence over the radio because the person on the other end was talking while pushing the button.

Much of what they were saying made complete sense to me. Especially the part about "loud and clear" or "5X5". Anyway, bottom line, I might not use a radio yet but I definitely took mental notes because one day I'll be handed a radio and told to use it. This way I won't say "errr" or "ahhhh" and freeze live on air. Kinda like stage fright. hee hee

The highlight of the boys' evening was the TimHortons donuts that got provided for our meeting tonight. The guys were double fisting, I'm sure. LOL I held out till the very end and then couldn't resist seeing if my favorite was in the box. It was! MMMMMM Apple Fritters:) Took it home to relish. Ok, it didn't make it home, but my sticky fingers did. Ha ha ha

Night all!