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.