Crunch Week...the breakdown

Crunch Week-A dreaded monster that relentlessly continues its barrage of mental and physical attacks for 5 days.

 Monday

First thing, THE Fire Chief comes down and fires 3 classmates. No explanation, no better-luck-next-time, just leave your issued stuff and get out-see ya tomorrow at 0900 to fill out paperwork. We were a little shell-shocked, kinda spent the day walking around without really having a purpose as to where we were going or what we were doing at the moment. The day was spent learning Haz-Mat awareness, really more like trying to stay awake through it. After class, we did a few practical stations to get ready for the state to come test us Friday. On the way home, I was rear-ended at an intersection by another car (see previous entry).

 Tuesday

The state came and tested us over Haz-Mat, we took a written and a practical test. We spent the day and a few extra hours studying and doing practicals.

 Wednesday

Again, most of the day was spent on practicals. We took a vote and went home at the normal time. The Deputy Chief had given us a test, 100 questions long, and told us to do it-look up the correct answers- and don’t bother coming to work the next day if it wasn’t done. I was up late working on it.

I also found out that my boyfriend had to go to the emergency room that morning…kidney stone. As if I didn’t have enough things to stress over LOL.

 Thursday

The state came and we took the written exam, as well as those of us that failed the Haz-Mat practical doing our re-take. The rest of the day (and a few extra hours) was more practicals.

 Friday

It took from about 0800 until 1730, but everyone made it through the practicals. We also found out our scores on the written from the day before….everyone passed. That night, I was so tired I went to bed at 2030 (8:30) and slept until 0930.

Burn, baby, Burn

 OK, I’ve been promising a big update for a couple weeks, I finally have time and energy to follow through with it. Hope I can remember everything.

 Monday 8-16-04…..car and dumpster fires

 We grabbed our gear and assembled at the car and dumpsters at the academy. Each person had a partner and took turns, one attacked the fire while the other opened the hood, or if you were on the dumpster-one attacked the fire while the other opened the doors. I must be able to really pick ‘em because my partner simply let go of the hose when he was told to go open the hood of the car. The instructor also told him NOT to prop the hood open with the Halligan bar on the wood in the engine compartment. Yep, as soon as I opened the line the hood slammed shut. Before I can shut the line down, he lets go again. Lucky for me, there was an instructor right behind me both times, and he caught me both times. It was rough, but I managed to work my way all the way around the car.

 The dumpster wasn’t as much fun as the car, simply flow water into the open doors until told to shut it down.

 Wednesday 8-18-04….Burn building

 Since we’ve been there before, we are allowed to drive directly to the state academy without the pit stop at our academy. I got there early, really, really early. I’m sitting in my car, listening to the radio and debating whether or not I should nap for a while since I was almost an hour early. Over a hill, about 150 yards away, I spot movement. A bunch of deer are having a morning breakfast of their own. Who would’ve guessed? A little bit later a few classmates show up so we sit around on our cars talking and waiting for the instructors to show up.  

 Fast forward to about 0900

 Those of us that were early had already staged the pallets and hay bales into the building, it’s now time to light it. After a few minutes, everyone gears up and the whole class plus instructors crawls into one room of the building (between 35-40 total). Everyone is on their knees, shoulder-to-shoulder with the next guy, facing the fire. It was definitely warm in there. Similar to cops getting pepper-sprayed in order to carry the stuff, we have to upset the thermal layering (heat rises-cold sinks) to help us learn what not to do and why not to do it. Water is sprayed and as the smoke literally drops slowly to the floor, the temperature skyrockets. Some genius classmate made the comment “This isn’t too bad.” Well, surprise, it can be “On your feet!” One word says it all, damn! The fun wasn’t over yet, the next order was to climb the stairs to the next level. Remember that little heat rises thing? The steel handrails of the stairway were glowing red-hot.

 A few minutes later and everyone has geared-down and is assigned a crew and instructor. My crew started off serving as the RIC (rapid intervention crew) for the basement, The RIC is stationed just outside the door with a hose line should anything go wrong inside. Our turn came and we went in as the primary team. Me and my partner did a quick search and found the adult victim and rescued it, went back inside, and had to go bring it back for the next group. Everyone then took turns flowing water in each of the different patterns we had been taught. Then we backed out so the next group could go.

 Next, we served as the RIC for the first floor, then had our turn to go inside and search. We were to be the last crew in before lunch. My partner and I did a right-hand search while the nozzle man held the flames back and the other 2 in our crew did a left-hand search. The other search crew beat us to the stairway so we returned to the hose line as they continued upstairs. They found a victim (infant dummy placed by instructors) and busted tail to get down and out. I was about to turn and leave when the instructor got my attention. I crawled over and he told me to got to the corner and set off my PASS alarm (personal alert safety system-normally goes off if you don’t move for a certain amount of time). Now I know what’s going on and I’m game for a little fun. I crawl into the corner, lay down, and hit the little red button…..No RIC team……alright now dangit, where are they?……umm, I getting a little worried now….Finally! The door busts open and here comes some of the RIC, and some of my crew. As one guy starts trying to find the straps of my SCBA to hold on to, he nearly broke the seal of my mask and almost knocked my helmet off. Meanwhile, another has grabbed my legs and starts dragging me towards the door. FYI, always extricate someone headfirst. As they got me outside, I was laughing like crazy, my butt and SCBA drug the ground the whole way out. Turns out my crew didn’t even know I was missing and the RIC forgot to count how many of us went in. At least they got me out…eventually.

 Lunchtime! Of course we goofed around, duh! Lunch is the only time we are allowed to take off all the turnout gear, normally, we have to keep the pants/boots on.

 After lunch was the final trip into the flames, and they made sure it was scorching in there. Anyone who had 3,000 psi or more in their bottle was told to gear-up. I had 2,900 but was told it was close enough. We started in the basement, again doing a right-hand search, I’m leading. Upstairs to the first floor, all clear. On to the second floor. As we’re moving and blindly sweeping (it’s pitch-black), I planted my hand into something soft…the infant. “I got one!” Now the race is on to find the stairs and get the ‘baby’ out. I passed it to my partner so I could find the stairs easier. As we went down, his bell started ringing (bell rings at 1,500 psi- facepiece starts vibrating at 1,000 psi-basically a warning to get out fast before you run out of air). On the first floor he rushed out the door and I had to stand up in the heat and wait on a new partner. OK, time to rock and roll again. We took off and went straight down to the basement, everything upstairs was clear. As we go around the room, we found the other victim, the very heavy remains of  another dummy, this time an adult. We both grabbed it and drug it out the door and up the stairs, then went back in. The instructor quickly stopped us and had us bring the dummy back in for the next group. Then we sat on the hose line awaiting orders to back out.

 The only bad things that happened all day was  when a classmate committed the cardinal sin of burn building days and an instructor was also injured. The classmate left her partner and ran out of the burn building…twice. The instructor was about to take a step (inside the burn building) and his knee popped and gave out. He normally wears a knee brace but decided to go without it.

 Once everyone was done, we put the fires out and began to overhaul, or clean everything up. All the junk from the fires had to be removed from the building and soaked to make sure the fire was out. We packed the hoses and all our gear into the van and our vehicles and headed home. Most went home to baby their knees. Thanks to all the crawling, I had half-dollar sized blisters on both knees…both had burst and the skin underneath was a bright red, and very raw.

draggin' along

Well, this is "crunch week" at the academy. Today was Haz-mat awareness, the state comes to test us tomorrow morning. We're also squeezing in a review, a final exam, and a bunch of practice for practicals before the state comes back Thursday and Friday to test us over NPQ-I.

Whenever I can think clearly again I'll do a big update on how the burn building went...overall, it was a blast (no pun intended).

Oh yeah, about 2 and a half hours ago I was on my way to visit some old friends at the next county over's fire station (I have buddies all over). Well, long story short, I was rear-ended in an intersection. I'm not hurt at all and my car has minimal damage. Just the corner of the bumper is dented in and a piece of trim between the bumper and the taillights is messed up, nothing that can't be fixed...I guess it's a good thing he was following me too closely when he hit me, his insurance will fix it (if you know me, I'm a nut about my car).

Books and study guides are a-callin my name.........

can't...feel...my...legs!!

I'll admit it, today was rougher than usual to me. PT consisted of a nice 5(?) mile run with 6 stops for pushups and other exercises along the way. We had 30 minutes to hydrate and get all our gear up by the old burn building so we could set up and burn a car and a dumpster. The car fire is probably why my legs hurt so much, I was braced against the nozzle pressure and moving the line around was tough. I think I'm going to start working with a different partner next time, the guy I worked with today kept letting go of the hose to do other things before I had time to shut the line down (he did it twice!)...Lets just say its a good thing one of the instructors was standing right behind me and caught my back as I started to lose it. You can imagine it would take a while to run 20+ people through each position, we did it and cleaned up before 12:00. Went to lunch and took showers, then I realized I had a major problem, I left my uniform belt at home. Uh-oh. Finally got a hold of Mom and she got it to me just a minute or 2 after formation, luckily the instructor was talking to someone- and Mom was close enough to the academy where I was only without it a couple minutes (before class actually started the only time that really counts....whew!).

Today was kinda funny also, the new EMT class started this morning. It was so nice to see someone else with that "oh shit, now what" deer-in-headlights look on their faces. We had a lot of fun laughing at how many almost fell trying to do left- right face maneuvers and a lot of other things. I'm sure we looked just as stupid way back on day 1, but that was a while ago now. The funniest thing is hearing them shout E-804 when they call to attention, it sounds awful. Almost like they're rushing to spit it out fast enough. They got their uniforms today and will start PT tomorrow morning but will be separate from us. Not only are we PT-ing on a more advanced level, but they can't afford to length of time out of the classroom...neither could we when we were in EMT school, that's why we had to split off.

Well, I have a long way to go in my workbooks before tomorrow and not a lot of time to get there, take care.

I love weekends!

Well, I'm glad to say another week is finally behind me- its been a long one. The ladders I mentioned in my last entry were even heavier than I could've imagined. Each ladder is a different length and weight, therefore each has a different number of people it takes to carry it. There was a 28-ft for 3 to carry, 2 35-ft for 4 to carry, then there were the 2 40-ft bangor ladders that need 6 idiots to drag. Any guesses as to which one I was under? Oh yeah, I outta mention we were in full turnout gear and carried the ladders in a flat-shoulder carry. We made it to our destination, about a half mile, and everyone was supposed to switch ladders. If you carried a small ladder, go to the large one for the return trip and vice-versus. Here's where the problems started. Myself and 2 others that carried the bangor ladder had to carry it back, with only one other person. Math lesson, 4 of us under a 6-man ladder...6=4? WRONG!!! We were having major problems and struggling to make it back with the ladder. We made it about halfway back before the instructors figured out the problem. While they went to hunt down the needed help, we were allowed to do what is normally a major no-no, we set the ladder down for a minute. Once we had the needed manpower, the rest of the way wasn't too bad...considering. My classmates saw how spent I was and had me stay between 2 tall people, I did what I could to help. As we neared the tower/finish line, a bunch of the class came to cheer us on, some tried to help with the ladder but the instructors made them back off. Setting that ladder down and getting out of my gear was sweet relief! The rest of the day and a good portion of Wednesday and Thursday was passed doing practicals. If we really get into the practicals (is there any other way?) we are allowed to skip PT that morning, and sometimes we can skip the hourly pushups.

Yesterday morning, the weather was awful, cars were hydroplaning, and the lady who sits next to me got into an accident. Her truck hit a large puddle on the interstate and started to hydroplane, then she lost all control and the truck flipped onto its side and slid. Luckily, she is fine and the truck is repairable.

Today we did the first normal PT in about a week and a half. We did some calisthenics then ran 2.5-3 miles around the academy. (5 laps+change= 1.5 miles) We did 7 laps total, the last 2 were indian runs-the last people in each line sprint to the front, then the next people, and so on. As soon as we finished our laps, we ran straight to and up the 7-story tower, 6 times.

Next week has earned the nickname of "hell week". Monday will be car and dumpster burning, Tuesday-ventilation, Wednesday and Thursday- back to the state fire academy to use the burn building. Fire control is now the name of the game, and I have a feeling the burns will be scorching-especially when we upset the thermal layering. I'm taking some aloe vera with me just in case my ears get blistered.

I'm going to try and get ahead in my workbook and drop my rapid-dress times this weekend, as well as catch up on some sleep. We only get 2 minutes for rapid-dress, I'm at 1:25 as of earlier this week, my goal is 1:15 or better. I made a bet with an instructor and I intend to hold to it.

Too tired to continue...till next time

you want ME to lift THAT?

Today, we entered the fun, fun world of ladders. We spent way too much time in the ice-cold classroom trying to survive the super-dull videos of how to lift, transport, and set up a ladder...properly. Finally, we escaped to the outside, where it was warm enough to wake us all up. We messed around with the ladders a while and went to lunch. Later, we continued lifting the ladders to be carried different ways and tried raising a few. I wasn't the only one who needed more than a little help. We had a 40-ft extension ladder with staypoles that we were "playing" with. I was able to pick it up and managed to get it chest high, but needed help from some buddies to get it over my head and lift enough weight off so I could have a snowballs-chance-in-hell of actually getting it vertical. A bit after that, we were all getting bored and started creating things to do. My buddy, who I've mentioned many times, wants a shoutout so here it comes... While some other folks heeled the ladder, (10 or 14 foot, I don't remember) Eddie lifted the tip chest high and I climbed up so my feet were on the top rung and my hands were covering the tops of the beams. Then he raised me and the ladder over his head multiple times, I was having fun trying not to let my feet slip. It was fun hanging on. Keep in mind, Eddie has military-pressed me over his head while he was standing (all because I said "I'd like to see that") and can bench-press a whopping 405 pounds. I'm going to be a brat and mention that he can sing as good as, if not better than, Edith Bunker. Everyone dies with laughter, including Eddie.

Tomorrow should be...well...interesting. We're going to have to hump the (35 or 40 foot) ladders up to the station and back to the academy (about a mile round-trip), probably in full turnouts. We're going to be outside all day, in the heat, in turnouts mostly, doing practicals. However, one of the instructors said they might bring the big aerial ladder -110 feet- down for us to climb, I hope so. I have no problem with heights or confined spaces, normally 2 big problems for rookies. Whenever we climb the aerial, we will have to lock-in at the top, take both hands off the ladder, and lean back. I want a picture of myself leaned back that high off the ground.

Wish me luck for tomorrow

What a week so far...

**special notice- I was just at the end of a awesome entry, and AO-hell decided to loose the connection for no apparent reason. I gotta get this piece-o-crap computer running right before I go nuts**

OK, now where was I????

What a week this has been, and there's still 2 days left!

Monday was spent at the state academy's burn building. The Instructors set 2 fires, one upstairs and one ground floor, and made sure the building stayed as smoky as possible. We went through multiple times doing search patterns and learning what to do if we ever become disoriented. We only spent a few hours at the burn building, but man did we make them count! And I must say, as I sat on a nozzle just feet from one of the fires waiting my turn to find the way out, fire is an amazingly beautiful thing.

Tuesday we learned all the bookwork for any and all hoses and hose appliances. We had to read over and memorize (duh! what do we read that doesn't have to be memorized) all the different hose lays and rolls, how to inspect hose, cleaning, and the list goes on. PT was also a killer. In the middle of the run, we had to stop for calisthenics and ended up doing 100 pushups without any break.

Ahh, yes, today. We didn't do any PT so-to-speak, our practicals were going to be plenty for the day...be afraid, be very afraid. All the seemingly useless junk we learned yesterday had to be put into use. The hose we were working with was a section of 3 inch that was 50 feet long (about 40 pounds). We rolled and unrolled hose all the way up and around one of the buildings then back to the tower, about 1/6 mile. I'll admit it, I don't have the upper body strength to swing the hose and throw it. I had to get the roll up onto my shoulder and throw it from that height. If this sounds like an easy task, try it! Once everyone finished and rehydrated, we packed the hoses onto our shoulder in an accordion fold and climbed the tower 3 times. Before and after lunch, we practiced other ways to roll the hose. Once our instructors joined us, we switched gears for a while. We learned how to extend a charged hoseline and how to replace a busted section. Then, for what seemed like the instructors amusement, we were allowed to pair up and open the nozzle. The purpose was to let us feel the difference between a fog and straight stream. Let's just say I'm glad I had a big partner or that hose would've pushed my 150 pound butt all over the place! Next thing we knew, it was time to clean up and go home...yaay!!

In all seriousness, I know the instructors are there to help us and I'm grateful they put up with us...But I wish some of my classmates could grasp the idea of when to shut up and to remember the "sir or ma'am" when they speak to the instructors. They are NOT going to be our friends as long as we are in training!!! Yeah, they may joke around with us and laugh some, but don't think they won't turn face in a heartbeat and PT us until we drop. Get that idea out of your thick skull because it ain't gonna happen.

OK, I've had my schpeel, and it's time to eat something and call it a night...Till next time