Send me an email
Kurt’s Firefighter’s Words Blog features stories sent by firefighters, emt/paramedics, first responders, and their family members. It is important for others to know what these people do. The blog has readers around the world. Click to submit a story. Read the rest of this entry »
Monday July 11th, 2011
Blog Highlights
Wednesday May 16th, 2012
FIREFIGHTER’S WORDS -596- ONE MORE CALL
The thing that keeps me getting up at 3 a.m. to make “one more call” is the opportunity to improve my skills and to work with new firefighters learning the trade.
As a Reserve Firefighter (read volunteer) I have the opportunity to work with recruits while they are training to become paid firefighters. Many of them come with Academy and/or Explorer experience and a few like me begin as new firefighters late in life. I have been at this for 10 years so I still have some things to learn, but I learn them best when challenged to provide training, advice and some story telling to truly attentive and eager probies and peers.
This is a long lead up to say that the most memorable and satisfying part of being a firefighter is giving recommendations for background checks, providing references and attending Fire Academy Graduations for recruits being hired by fire departments all over California and out of state. My contribution to each recruit is only a small piece of their total training but if one suggestion or one stern safety warning sticks and makes them a safer, better firefighter, I have done my job.
Sunday May 13th, 2012
WORDS OF FIREFIGHTERS -595- HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM
My husband and I are both volunteers for a very active department outside the city limits of Benton, AR (Salem Fire Department). He’s been a firefighter for 4 years and I’ve been on the department just 10 months…but what an active year it’s been! In 10 months I’ve fought 10 structure fires…3 with interior attacks!
Being married and both firefighters is amazing! There’s a comaraderie between us that no one else would understand! Not only are we partners in life, but also part of a brotherhood with an amazing bond outside of our marriage as well! It’s not like husbands and wives who might work together on any other job.
When we are on a fire scene there is a common respect for the JOB AT HAND….and anything else in our lives is not relevant! Since we have 3 daughters, we decided after I joined the department that while we might work together on medical calls or car accidents that we would NOT be partners on a structure fire making an interior attack unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!! That didn’t mean we would not work the same fire….we just didn’t intend to make an entry together!
Well….July 2008, 1/2 of our department was in Maryland at a Fire Conference…we got paged out to a structure fire. Ironically, being volunteers…you can be anywhere when the page goes out. We were at the grocery store…probably 15 min away. We had just got in the truck and were headed home but had 2 weeks worth of groceries in the back. We radioed the chief to let him know we were en route…he responded saying to go direct to the scene and be ready to pack up and go in. All the way, I kept going over all my training in my head…this would be my first interior attack.
We arrived on scene…groceries in tow…grabbed two packs off the engine and packed up. We checked in with IC just as the first team in was coming out. We were instructed to be the second team in ….WHOAH…this went against everything we said we were going to do…but there’s no time to argue and we had to turn the situation over to God! Luckily…a Battalion Chief with a mutual aid department said he’d go in with us as a team of 3 since we were just arriving on scene and knew nothing about the layout of the house or where the fire was….He did not know this was my first entry….or that we were husband and wife and were not prepared to make entry together! God was with us and all went well….and we both came home to our children!
And though we still do not intend to make going in together a habit…a decision that is backed by our chief and all officers, my husband says that it was an honor to be with me on my first interior attack. He said that my eyes were as wide as saucers inside my mask, and that’s an experience he’ll ALWAYS remember!
Friday May 11th, 2012
WORDS OF FIREFIGHTERS -594- ROCKET SCIENCE
When I was taking S-339, one of the instructors made a comment to the class that “wildland fire isn’t rocket science”.
Immediately, the other instructor said, “that’s right, wildland fire isn’t rocket science. It’s way more complicated than rocket science”!
Wednesday May 9th, 2012
FIREFIGHTER’S WORDS -593- WHAT DOES THE FIRE THINK?
In the words of Stephen Pyne, a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, “Fire isn’t listening. It doesn’t feel our pain. It doesn’t care – really, really doesn’t care. It understands a language of wind, drought, woods, grass, brush and terrain, and it will ignore anything stated otherwise.”
Monday May 7th, 2012
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE HINDENBERG DISASTER WAS?
The German airship Hindenburg was destroyed by fire in Lakehurst, NJ, 75 years ago.
This is a copy of a May 6, 1937 photograph of the Hindenburg as it burst into flames over the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. One of the figures seen at right rear is Robert Buchanan of Waretown, who at 17 was a member of the civilian ground crew who survived the crash. The cause of the Hindenburg explosion was never determined
The 1920s and 1930s were the golden age of airship travel. The Germans in particular fell in love with the technology invented by their aviation pioneer, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, and affectionately called the silvery behemoths “flying cigars”.
The zeppelins became the epitome of luxury travel, shuttling the rich between Europe andNorth America. After the Nazis rose to power in Germany, the floating giants had swastikas emblazoned on their tail fins, turning their trips into propaganda missions. The 245m-long Hindenburg, which went into service in 1936, was the pride of the Third Reich’s zeppelin fleet.
The airborne luxury liner featured a promenade with a breath-taking view of the earth and the oceans below, a lavish dining room, a specially designed lightweight piano and even a smokers’ lounge. The voyage across the Atlantic took about two-and-a-half days.
On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg left Frankfurt for its first transatlantic flight of the season. When the airship reached the US East Coast three days later, it ran into bad weather. Thunderstorms over Lakehurst delayed the landing for several hours. As the Hindenburg finally attempted to dock with the mooring mast, it suddenly burst into flames.
Saturday May 5th, 2012
FIREFIGHTER’S WORDS -592- A FIRE EXPLORER GIVES CPR
It was my second ride along as an explorer at the fire department.
The morning starts off checking inventory, cleaning engine/ambulance/truck for the new shift. Cleaned the fire house, then sat down for morning crew meetings and did introductions. Within the first 5 minutes we get a medical call, while heading over to the ambulance, heart pounding, I hear the radio dispatcher saying that the victim is a 7 year old boy who has drowned in a pool. Was pulled out by the father who says his son is currently not breathing. I put on my headset to communicate with the other two paramedics, they ask me if I heard what the call is, and what training I have, and do I know what equipment I need to grab for them as soon as we arrive on scene. At the last minute before we arrive on scene the other paramedic asked me if I am ready to give CPR.
Shocked, I say yes sir, as soon as I hear that, I go though my CPR procedures in my head and it seemed like in seconds we arrive on scene. My heart racing, I grab equipment & follow the paramedics. We go to the backyard near the pool and find the boy laying on the ground with the father attempting CPR Then the paramedic tells the father to standby so he could talk to him about the situation while the other paramedic sets up equipment. He asks me. “Are you ready Kid?”
I anxiously say, “Yes sir.”
He then replies, “Well get on it, start CPR.”
I kneel down next to the boy and begin to check for responsiveness, vitals, breathing, and get nothing. I begin compressions followed by rescue breaths and after 3 cycles the boy starts to cough up water, just like I pictured it in movies. The boy asks, “What’s going on?”
I am so happy just to hear the boy breathing and talking . The paramedic knelt down next to me, hooks up the EKG to check his heart rhythm and breathing, then tells me, “Good Job Kid!”
As I stand up, the father thanks me for saving his son’s life, after we wrap everything up and get ready to leave, boy came over to me and said, “Thank you so much!”
On the way back to the station tons of thoughts went through my head. As soon as we arrived at the station, I was told, “Good job kid,” by everybody at the station and I heard it even from my explorer post captain and fellow explorers.
This experience gave me nothing that I could buy, and I will remember it for the rest of my life as the moment that told me why I want to pursue the career of working in the Fire/EMT Field
Wednesday May 2nd, 2012
WORDS OF FIREFIGHTERS -591- MY DAD SAID IT WAS A WASTE OF TIME
I guess my start was from ‘Emergency, ‘ the tv show. When I joined my local volunteer department in 1991, I was a typical rookie. Made the top five responders for that year. Hours and hours at the hall, doing maintenance, filling extinguishers, etc., whatever needed doing
About 6 months, (just off probation) into service, we got a fire call for mutual aid to another town, and was an all nighter. Got back, went to shower, work, then back home. That evening at the supper table, my dad asked me why I was doing what I was doing. Told him I really enjoyed it. Fighting fire and starting EMS training. He just could NOT figure out why I was wasting my time doing something like that. He said I was wasting all this time, and not getting paid for any of it – I could not believe what I was hearing.
He died 2 yrs later, (COPD) and I never did forgive him or forget that night.
Sunday April 29th, 2012
WORDS OF FIREFIGHTERS -590- MY GOAL
My fire life hasn’t been that great. I was with a FD since I was 13 until 18, when I did something stupid and got arrested. The charges were dropped to a misdemeanor but the FD asked me to resign . I didn’t like it there that much anyways and most of the young guys didn’t like me and I knew it was time to leave. I made all meetings, all drills/training, all fund raisers…etc…and calls when I could.
I applied for a different FD and got in. I’m hoping the guys there like me. I have been talking to one of the older members, and he seems cool and ok with me. I have a lot of training and know a lot about fire, tools, hoses and procedures. I plan on going through fire 1 training, passing, then doing fire 2 and 3. After that, take classes called Fire Instructor, Fire Officer and one other class then apply to be paid. That is my goal.
Friday April 27th, 2012
AUSSIE FIREFIGHTERS MAKE DARING RESCUE
Australian firefighters on Thursday performed one of their most unusual rescues — freeing an woman whose fingers got stuck in a bank ATM. The fire service was called to a hospital in Sydney after security guards found the women with three of her fingers jammed in the slot that dispenses cash..
The crew pried the front panel away from the machine to free her. “I’ve been in the job 37 years and never had one of these,” firefighter Steve Webb said. “After we pried the front panel away from the whole machine, it was just enough to release her hand.” The woman was being examined by doctors at the hospital.
Thursday April 26th, 2012
NEW US FOREST SERVICE AERIAL TANKER FOR FIREFIGHTING
The USFS just released pictures of the newest weapon in the fight to stop wildfires from the air. This new hybrid tanker holds maximum water. It takes in seawater from a tear in the side!
