I never saw myself as a hero, never believed I would have one of those magazine cover moments. I just wanted to help. Not everyone can do what we do, and I always figured - if I could; I should. And I like the stuff that comes with it - fire prevention, talking with the cub scouts, doing community events, musters, public relations, parades, town committees. There’s no cape flying from my shoulders. When I come round the corner and the kid hit by the car looks at me, smiles and says, “Hi, Ms. Fish” it rends my heart. It makes me more determined to do my job and do it to the absolute best of my ability. And if even just doing first aid at a soccer game gives that child the slightest bit of comfort….well, then all of it was worthwhile.

The morning of February 4 2009 was a morning that all of us got lucky due to training and experience. We were the first due on a working structure fire with flames visible on the A/B/D division of the structure. Another firefighter and I were making entry when the porch roof started going south. As we noticed this, my partner saw that the floor under us had been compromised as well.

We backed out and went with plan B. While we were knocking the fire down our Chief realized three 100lb propane tanks on the side of the house were intact and beginning to vent. This changed the scenario completely. Two other firefighters were advancing a line to cool the tanks when the order to evacuate the scene was given.

Had it not been for the quick actions by our Chief, this could have resulted in a major LODD for our department. Thankfully the tanks didn’t explode. After the fire was out in the early morning hours, we noticed that the basement of the house contained three kerosene heaters and four “gas grill” size LPG tanks. All of this and the age of the house contributed to the heavy fire that we encountered. All occupants of the home had escaped unharmed except for one dog.

Had the porch and floor not been compromised, forcing us to pull back, this could have turned ugly real fast. It just goes to show that what you can’t see WILL kill you.

The Chief and his Deputy went golfing together one Saturday morning, as they have done since they were cadets 24 years ago. You might say these guys were fanatics about their golfing.

That afternoon the Deputy returned home exhausted, and plopped down dejectedly in his easy chair. His wife, concerned by his appearance, asks if something went wrong with his game.
“No, no,” he replied, “I had the best game I had in years! As a matter of fact, I started out the first three holes at 4 under par, including a hole-in-two on the 3rd.”

“So why are you so beat?” his wife asked.

“Well, the Chief had a heart attack and died on the 4th hole,” he said.

“What?!? And you’re so exhausted from trying to save him, huh?”

“No, It was very quick and there was nothing anyone could’ve done. But after that, it was just hit the ball, drag the Chief, hit the ball, drag the Chief….”

I’m sure some others can relate, I was in a house fire, when we were ordered to evacuate, to make a long story short I ended up yelling at myself in the mirror, “what the hell are you still doing in here”…LOL

The most memorable training experience was in paramedic school doing my clinical at a local hospital.

Under the direction of the doctors and nurses I was charged with the supervision of a patient on life support - starting of the IV , monitoring the progress, preparing and pushing the meds ordered by the doctor. After a while the Dr. ordered the disconnect of the life support and pronounced the patient dead and issued a time. The doctor then said to all in the trauma room that it was done, and asked me to disconnect the IV’s, cardiac monitors, and all other ancillary hookups

All personnel left the room. It was at this time I observed a pulse in the carotid artery of the patient and immediately requested the doctor come back into the room . The doctor returned and began to palpate the carotid artery, and promptly found a pulse. He then exclaimed “YOU HAVE JUST SAVED THIS LADY’S LIFE, CONGRATULATIONS”!

Following my rotation, walking out of the hospital I met with a long time ham radio friend I have known for 15 years. He mentioned that his mother was in the very same room I was working in and thanked the staff for saving his mother’s life.

I didn’t let him know that I was the one who observed her pulsing carotid and brought it to the doctor’s attention, but thanked God that I did what I did.

Some say you have to be crazy to jump out of an airplane into a forest fire, but smokejumpers can’t wait for the next fire call

Smokejumping was first proposed in 1934 by T.V. Pearson, the Forest Service Intermountain Regional Forester, as a means to quickly provide initial attack on forest fires. By parachuting in, self-sufficient firefighters could arrive fresh and ready for the strenuous work of fighting fires in rugged terrain. The smokejumper program began in 1939 as an experiment in the Pacific Northwest Region, and the first fire jump was made in 1940 on Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest in the Northern Region. In 1981, the first woman smokejumper in the nation successfully completed the training program at the McCall Smokejumper Base in Idaho.

Today, Smokejumpers are a national resource. Jumpers travel all over the country, including Alaska, to provide highly-trained, experienced firefighters and leadership for quick initial attack on wildland fires in remote areas. Fire fighting tools, food and water are dropped by parachute to the firefighters after they land near the fire, making them self-sufficient for the first 48 hours. Smokejumpers work from about June 1 through October.

Over 270 smokejumpers are working from Forest Service smokejumper bases located in McCall and Grangeville, Idaho, Redding, California, West Yellowstone and Missoula, Montana, Winthrop, Washington, and Redmond, Oregon. There are also two Bureau of Land Management smokejumper bases - one in Boise, Idaho and the other in Fairbanks, Alaska. Read the rest of this entry »

As firemen prepare for wildfire season this summer, they will reach for their trusty Pulaski ax, the century-old tool used to hack ditches between flames and the rest of the forest. But they will have some new, high-tech help as well. Mini tree-mounted weather stations and airborne infrared sensors will provide the clearest picture yet of where fires are and where they’re headed.

Traditionally, when trying to identify a blaze early and predict its next move, firefighters must wait for dial-up modems that deliver hours-old information. But wildfires feed off hot, dry air, and billowing winds generated within the fire can shift its direction in an instant. And with no way to monitor these conditions in real time, firefighters end up reacting to raging fires rather than putting them out before they spread.

Delayed information is especially dangerous in the Western states, where earlier snowmelt and longer dry seasons have driven a sixfold increase in scorched earth since 1970. Last year, fires wiped out 1.6 million acres in California and ran up $1.3 billion in suppression costs. “In the past, our philosophy was to put a line around every fire,” says Tom Zimmerman, the program manager at the National Interagency Fire Center. “We have longer, larger, more intense fires now, and we don’t have the resources to do that.” Read the rest of this entry »

There is a flame, a flame that burns inside of us. Most of the time, we as firefighters try not to fight it, it keeps us going, from house to house or wreck to wreck, we know that once we put that gear on, we are stronger than superman. The flame that burns eternally inside of us pushes us to achieve better things not only for ourselves but for others as well, we risk our lives for others, not because they call us firefighters, but because of that ember. We bust ours to save theirs, it’s what we do, it’s how we do it. Not every one has that flame, we are a few select, we face the devil inside every house, but some how we always come out with wings, we love it, if we didn’t, why would we do it? Always remember, WE LIVE TO FIGHT AND FIGHT TO LIVE. and I represent Huntsville Fire Department In Scott County Tennessee

To Everyone on the lines Watch out! This is when things go bad! You are all tired, some are exhausted. Relief is on the way. Some have been stuck in staging for an eternity(Long way to go yet roll-up your gear and get ready).The Incident Commanders are starting get a handle on things it seems(Good Job!), The firelines are starting to come together. No critical injuries (Thank God! To the four in the burnover “Get well quick”) a handful of minor to moderate injuries.
Please do not get hurt now..

Why doesn’t a fire chief look out the window in the morning???

Because then he wouldn’t have anything to do in the afternoon.