Dangerous job

There's a video on the website so here's the link http://www.nbc11.com/news/9699498/detail.html

NOVATO, Calif. -- A North Bay firefighter is back on duty after an unusual attack late Thursday night that turned into a hazmat situation.

A man knocked on the door of the fire station near the corner of San Ramon Way and San Marin Drive in Novato at about 11:30 p.m.

A firefighter answered and saw a man wearing goggles and surgical gloves and holding a gallon-sized bag with a white powdery, crystal-like substance inside. The man tried to hand the firefighter the bag but the firefighter refused. The man turned and ran to a car where a second person and they drove away.

The firefighter did not handle the bag but he said he felt a burning sensation on his face.

The firefighter was hosed down and decontaminated. He was also sent to a hospital to be checked out because he still felt a burning sensation.

Hazmat crews spent about four hours testing the area and the fire station for dangerous substances, including nerve agents.

The two men were in a silver Toyota Corolla, firefighters said.

 

Who said firefighters were only in danger when fighting fire???

Just another Monday morning?

Just another Monday morning, or so it seems. I'm not quite sure why, but it just feels like a Monday. You know the type, you wake up and it takes all the motivation (and hits on the snooze button) you can muster just to roll yourself out of bed. That's definately me today.

Work has been, well, work. I've been in a few good fires lately, we've had a couple in our territory that other trucks reported seeing the smoke when they pulled out of their stations. One of the fires had heavy flames through the roof on our arrival. I had the nozzle in the garage and the fire was in the ceiling. We got tired of pulling sheetrock so I opened the nozzle all the way and let the blast knock down the rest of the sheetrock. We got a pretty good stop on the fire, 2 rooms, the patio (origin of fire), and the garage were a loss, but the bedrooms and all of downstairs survived with major to minor smoke or water damage. We took salvage covers downstairs and covered the electronics and other important or sentimental objects for the family. The only real issue we had was the heat, it was 94*F out. We set up rehab under a large tree in the neighbor's yard. Someone had the sense to pull a couple electric fans off the ladder-truck and set them up near rehab. We were all grateful for that and the nice breeze that was blowing.

I haven't been on any memorable EMS calls lately, at least not anything interesting. I've been on some legit calls, something other than a week old buttache, but nothing too interesting.

I take that back, we did have an interesting rollover a couple weeks ago during a freak rainstorm. Single car accident, the guy lost control of his car for whatever reason and rolled a couple times. Witnesses pulled him out of the car, and had him literally pinned to the ground when we arrived. The guy had a 4" gash to the side of his head with moderate blood loss. He was somewhat combative, swearing there was nothing wrong and trying to get up to leave. He complained when we bandaged his head, and was fine with being on the backboard, but he wanted out of the rain. Once he was loaded, I was helping pick up our trash and anything bloody to be put in a biohazard bag. I found the guy's license and insurance cards on the roadway (everything that was in the car was spread across the road for 100'). I showed the license to PD so they could get what they needed, then gave both cards to the guys on the ambulance.

In other news, my ferret had to be euthanized a few days ago. I gave her back to my ex-fiance more than a month ago. Turns out she was really a he. He had rapidly-growing tumors in his belly, the vet said they were probably cancerous and there was no treatment. He (my ex-fiance) thought it best to prevent any more sufferring and had the ferret put down.

Take care out there