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Gearing up for Tak Response

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Over the next few weeks you’ll be hearing from me about the Tak Response Conference in San Jose coming up September 14th-16th.

Chronicles of EMS was invited to be a part of this collaborative training opportunity that will bring the best of all fields together to network and learn from each other.

This conference combines nursing, Fire, Haz-Mat, law enforcement, SWAT, EMS, public works and a number of other disciplines together, since when we all arrive on scene we have to work together.

Let’s start to train together.

Tak Response is not only a chance to learn from other disciplines where you fit in at “their” scene, but to network socially with your fellow providers before the you know what hits you know where.

Imagine a scene where the Battalion Chief, Patrol Officer and EMT all already know each other and what each agency expects from the others.  That’s a smooth running scene.

Here’s the episode of Seat at the Table where we meet the organizers of the Tak Response Conference and run the concept by paramedics, firefighters and even a cop.

Posted by Justin Schorr on August 25, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Administrative, Command & Leadership, EMS 2.0, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Fire Prevention & Education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, HazMat, Mass Casualty Incident, News, Special Operations, Technology & Communications, Training & Development, Videos, training-fire-rescue-topics

Make it stop

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please?

2 dead in Virginia

2 days earlier, 2 dead in Bridgeport



Posted by Justin Schorr on July 26, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires

Happy Hour on Firefighter Netcast

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Tuesday night at 6pm Pacific time I’ll be taking over the Firefighter Netcast show LIVE on blogtalk radio.  You can call in at  (347) 327-9920  and join the chat room at the link below.


Listen to internet radio with FirefighterNetCast on Blog Talk Radio

As is usual with the Happy Hour Show I’ve got a few things I want to talk about so I’m taking over.

Some topics discussed may include:

PPV fans

Crew size

Officer experience

Rural vs Urban and many many more.  But since it’s a live call in show, YOU can ask me about what you want to talk about.

See you on the radio!

Posted by Justin Schorr on July 5, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Prevention & Education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Funding & Staffing, Major Incidents, News, Rescues, Special Operations, Technology & Communications

SFFD – The Best in the West

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I found this video on youtube posted by SFirish06.  The title had me curious and I was looking for certain footage anyway so I watched.  This is a great video compilation featuring some neat footage.

Just a couple of points of interest before I let you watch.  At 2:10 you will see my classmate and co-worker Firefighter/Paramedic Mike Estrada fall victim to thousands of pounds of wall when trapped under a collapsing facade.  He survived and is still recovering from extensive leg injuries.  When this accident happened it was a topic of great discussion online and I was forced to remain silent since I was still anonymous.  I hope to interview Firefighter Estrada this year to get his first person account of this event.  And just another quick note, that hoseline he’s holding and moving like a garden hose is a 2 1/2″.

At 3:10 is the video I was looking for initially.  This is 1133 Mission street on the morning of December 17th, 2007.  Truck 1 has yet to stick the roof so I’m not there yet, but this is the fire I got hurt at.  Remember?

Enjoy the Best in the West, the San Francisco Fire Department:

YouTube Preview Image

Posted by Justin Schorr on June 25, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Videos

Where there’s smoke…

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blog engineI hate that saying “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” because we all know it to be false.  Don’t believe me?  Light a candle.  No smoke.  Now blow it out. Poof…smoke.  Where there’s smoke there are byproducts of combustion.

Now where did they put that darned combustion?

THE EMERGENCY

11 PM and things are winding down at the firehouse when the radio teases us the way they love to do, “Standby for the box” the voice calmly states as if settling on a choice of new carpet.

Most times the alarms hit somewhere else and we get to listen to the response, but when that tease is followed by the automatics firing on and the bells ringing, we get moving.  And fast.

“Engine 99, Engine 66, Engine 88, Truck 4, Truck 21, Battalion 5, Battalion 12, Rescue 3, Division 4 and Medic 99 respond to 123 Maple for a reported smoke in a building, alarm sounding.  Repeating…”

She went on but I was already heading for the engine, turnout pants buckling as I went, weaving in and out of the paths of the firemen descending the poles.

THE ACTION

There are folks outside of the 4 story type 3 with similar buildings on each exposure-attached and we see nothing showing.  Alarm bells are ringing and folks tell us of smoke on the third floor.

Grabbing the can and a tool I’m right behind the officer as we make entry to the lobby to an old alarm panel that simply has a light flashing next to “trouble.”  Trouble indeed, no zone, no detector, we’ll have to do the walk.

The walk, as we call it, is the systematic check of all doors by opening them to check for fire conditions.  If they can not be opened we gently break the seal at the top of the door feeling for heat and looking for smoke.

As we continue our walk there is indeed a scent of burning paper on the third floor, but no visible sign of smoke.  the truck has made the roof and done a 360 of the building, (yes we do that part of the sizeup from the roof) and are now searching top down.

Minutes pass as we investigate the source of the smell of smoke.  None of the units have fireplaces, the garbage chute is clear, the grills are clean and cool, but darn it if we can’t find the source.

After making another walk through each unit I was resigned to take the apartment hose pack back downstairs when the firefighter emerged from the hallway and said, “Come take a look at this, will ya?”

Inside one of the kitchens he has a headlamp I admired at FDIC pointed towards the ceiling and said, “Do you see smoke up there or am I crazy?”

“Command Engine 99, we have smoke in unit 4.” was my traffic and we set out to discover the source.  As more bodies came into the tiny unit and the even tinier kitchen, all in full gear, I stuck my head out the kitchen windows and looked outside.  I could smell the burning paper, but where was it?

As I turned to leave the spot near the window behind a table, my axe handle rubbed against a large paper bag and the bottom fell right out of it.  The burnt bottom.  And all the trash in it was burnt.  We dug through looking for a match or a cigarette or some other source but found nothing but trash.

Where there was smoke, there had been an early stage of combustion.  but had it not been for the smoke detectors, the occupants likely would have gone to bed, not knowing they would be awoken by fire cutting off their only means of egress.

A 9v battery saves the day again.

Posted by Justin Schorr on April 29, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Prevention & Education, Firefighting Operations, Fires • Tagged:

You Make the Call…Man Hole Fire…My Call

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You Make the CallWell, shoot. When I first got hired our training Captain put up a shot of the Tokyo gas attacks and asked us the two best ways to handle such an incident.  People were running everywhere, others lying in the street.

He let us think about it for a few minutes, then let us in on the secrets to dealing with large incidents.

Option #1 is to reach over the center console while pulling out of the station, grab the steering wheel and pull.  The rig hits the door and you’re out of service in quarters, send someone else.

Option #2, if you forgot #1 and found yourself on the scene, was to calmly remove your coat and helmet and blend in with the crowd.

All kidding aside, this is a situation many firefighters will not encounter.  In my area we have large underground electrical vaults that serve as relay points for the City’s electrical systems.  More than once these have failed, caught fire, exploded etc.  hey, it’s electricity, a thousand different things could happen.

The important question, and the reason I shared this photo of an actual vault fire, was to get us all thinking about that first radio report and request for resources that can establish the tone and response over the next 30 minutes.  they say the first 3 minutes of a large incident can dictate the next 3 hours and I believe it.

My Department also has resources specifically designed and staffed to handle these incidents so I simply have to relay to the Battalion Chief that I have a vault fire and the system does what it has to do.

But, here would be my initial actions if that was not the case:

“Control, this is Engine 99, we are on the scene of what appears to be an underground fire, smoke showing.  We are staging upwind at 5th and Main, establishing 5th Street Command.  Strike a full first alarm and have them respond from the south to 5th and Main.”

You get the idea.  The point is to convey what you can without getting too wordy, but get resources rolling, including higher ranks to co-ordinate further response.

I would use the PA to get bystanders away and set up a perimeter, stretching a line part way there to protect persons who wander in if something happens.

That’s my call.

Posted by Justin Schorr on March 19, 2010 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, HazMat, Major Incidents, Wildland, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged:

He got lucky

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The following tale is of a guy who got lucky, but not for the reason you think.

THE EMERGENCY

Don’t you just love when your dinner is interrupted at work?  I do, especially when your bells are preceded by dispatch calling out for units on the air to stand by for a fire dispatch. “Stand by for the box!”

THE ACTION

It is the evening and we are first due with the truck close behind.  On arrival we have light smoke showing from the alley between two 5+ story type 5 apartment buildings, this is going to be tricky.

As we pack up the truck is already stopped and I hear the PTO kick in as the officer calls for a ready line and I pull it down and onto the nozzleman’s (woman tonight) shoulder.

She advances as I follow laying the line out, irons in my other hand.

The sound of the aerial going up is just below the shouts of people down the alley shouting and pointing at a rear garden apartment with heavy white smoke coming out.

As we set the line for entry we can see it was a small kitchen fire which has been extinguished with a small dry chem can which is now sitting in the doorway.

The doors and windows are opened up to ventilate the chemical and the offending pan is removed to the alley.

As we down shift from working fire to PR mode I notice two folks in their late teens or early twenties who appear to have been hastily dressed.  Hair tossled, faces red.

When the Battalion Chief asked them what happened there was the embarrassed smile and a look at each other.

“I should have waited to start the oil.” He says and smiles to the now dozen firefighters cleaning up and helping to open windows.

“Tough way to learn that lesson,” the Chief remarks later.

Back at the dinner table we discussed various comments that may have been made in the other room while the kitchen began to burn.

Everyone got out safe and they were able to stay there that night.  The lucky part of all of this was that their smoke detector did not go off…no battery.  Lucky guy indeed.

Posted by Justin Schorr on March 18, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Prevention & Education, Fires • Tagged:

That’s twice

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blog engineI’m walking through a busy shopping center looking for someone, not sure who, and it’s stressing me out.  Panic, confusion, anticipation.  Then a loud tone strikes me from my sleep, the shopping center nothing but a dream.  The lights are bright in the dorm of the firehouse, the time is just before 2 AM and the tones finish just as I sit up to the corner of the bed awaiting the inevitable magic voice telling me where the sick people are.

“Units standby for the box!” the voice says with a tone of excitement.

A fire.

The dorm springs to life, sleepy firemen now scrambling into their turnouts and heading for the pole hole as the dispatcher rattles off the companies due.  Downstairs we dress, the doors are coming up and the rainy night awaits our response.  The dispatcher finishes reading the first alarm assignment by telling us this is a report of smoke in a building and we take that very seriously.

The engine beats the truck out the door, as we should, but not by much and I can see them following from my rear facing jump seat.  The green light on the front gives away they are a truck company, letting our driver know to let them take the block ahead of us if we’re second due.  The MDT tells me that we are first due and by the address, we’re less than 3 blocks away.  I might just be ready by the time we get there.

Hands still tingling from waking suddenly we are on scene to the large apartment building with nothing showing but an audible alarm sounding and young people milling about in the lobby.

My walk around the engine to my airpack gives me a chance to size up the building.  If we’re going above the ground floor, we’ll need a bundle to extend a pre-connect.  The first door on the first floor (first above the garage level) has a smoke detector alarm sounding and an odor of burnt food.  Deadbolt secured, we’ll need to force the door, damaging it completely, to make entry to investigate.

The truck is laddering the fire escape when they see a haze through the window of the unit in question and the decision is quickly made to enter through the window.

From our position in the hallway outside the door, the haligan tool is just being placed in the door jamb when we hear the truck make entry through the window.  The old thick windows break loudly and we now hear our brother pushing the mini blinds aside.  Boots thunder to the floor and footsteps get louder as the lock on the door clicks and the smoke wafts out as he opens the door.

“I gave at the office,” he says as I grab the pump can and go in search of the source of the smoke.  As we converge in the kitchen we hear shouting from the back room.  Shouting about waking up.  Shouting only from our people.  Being the Paramedic, I peel away from the burning pizza making all the smoke and meet the truck in the back room with a man curled up on the couch, completely passed out asleep.

They’re shaking his feet, being polite as can be in an effort to let him know we’re there and his apartment is filled with smoke.  It’s amazing that the breaking window didn’t wake him.  The tillerman and I exchange a look and the politeness is gone as he shakes the man’s shoulders shouting “Wake up! Fire! Fire! Wake up!”

Nothing.

Down in his face. “WAKE UP!”

“Whoa! What?” He sits up defensive, most of the first alarm compliment standing in his living room.  Escorted to the hallway, he is still confused about what is happening and I make my way back to the kitchen to help remove the source of the smoke.  The pick end of the haligan has a number of uses, one of them being removing small pizzas from ovens, so out it comes onto a baking tray and it is carried outside into the rain.

Back upstairs one of the firemen from another company looked around, saw the man we awoke and cried out,

“Let me guess, pizza in the oven?”  He went to the man and held up two fingers, “That’s twice!”

Posted by Justin Schorr on January 19, 2010 • Filed under: Fire, Fire Prevention & Education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighting Operations, Fires • Tagged:

The Lost Art of Poaching?

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There are tales in the Fire Service of old of companies scouring the edge of their districts hoping to jump a run, beating another company to a fire on their own turf.

It was nice to see last night that art is not completely lost.

Dispatched as part of the first alarm assignment in another part of town, the first companies called for a second alarm before we were even out of the station.  Heavy fire was reported from two large homes, both 3 story type 5 ordinary balloon frame construction.

While responding quite a distance to the growing fire (Later we learned our assignment had been a dispatch error)  we heard the sirens of some of the second alarm companies.

As we passed through one district, like I said we were a ways out, we saw one of the busier trucks in the country on the side of the road, just on their border, dressed and ready to work.  They were no doubt monitoring the tactical channel and listening for command to order up a third alarm so they could be on scene before the bells even rang.

YouTube Preview Image

This video was taken from the house behind the fire building and shows the early efforts of the first in companies.  Well, it’s an orange glow and some saws, but it did go to a third alarm when the B exposure started rolling.  And no doubt that Truck we saw was the first in on that third.

The art of poaching is alive and well after all.

Posted by Justin Schorr on December 14, 2009 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus, Videos • Tagged:

You Make the Call…Restaurant…What Happened

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You Make the Call...Line UpThis was the situation I gave you on friday, standing at the top of the stairs, no smoke, no fire, only an odor of burning paper.

We had all our PPE, including air of course, and multiple companies arriving behind us, so we took our pump can and went in search of the odor.  Back under the stairs in what likely passed for a store room 100 years ago, we found a small section of charred drywall at the floor level.  Opening up the wall led us to a large section of brick which likely went all the way up the inside of the building, but all the drywall was clear.  Oddly enough the other side of the brick wall had a large amount of trapped smoke so the Truck went to work opening it up.

In the end the conditions were such that having a charged line before going down there would have gotten us knotted up for sure.  Turns out the source of the smoke may have been above us, at the street level in an alley where a man was seen smoking prior to our arrival.

If you said have a look, but be safe, you made the right call.

Posted by Justin Schorr on December 7, 2009 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Fire Prevention & Education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Training & Development, Uncategorized, You Make the Call, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged:

the Handover – Close Calls Edition

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Last call for the HandoverThis month’s handover draws from our friends across the interwebs stories of close calls. Times when they or their patients, colleagues or family almost didn’t make it. I was inspired to make this the theme not just because of the holiday weekend here in America, but to remind us all that we are fragile and put ourselves out there sometimes. Hopefully one of these links rings back when you’re in an unsafe or curious situation.


Found with the Where did the angry guy go files-

“What do we do?” asked Eric, his eyes wide.

“I don’t know about you two,” I said, “but I’m about to jump through that window over there.  I don’t know if that guy’s getting a gun or what.”

by Buckman who runs Gomerville

From the I don’t think you should be driving file-

“I was overwhelmed by the dreadful realization that I had just accepted a ride from a highly intoxicated snowmobile rider and we were hurtling through the dark northwoods at 70+ miles per hour.”

from Greg Friese of, among many, Every Day EMS Tips.


From the Thank God you’re driving category-

“This was a serious incident. This was no routine, boy, we almost had an accident. This was my death.

I don’t know if my partner would have stopped on his own if I hadn’t shouted. Maybe. Maybe he had it all under control and was already getting ready to hit the brakes.”

from Peter Canning, a new contributor to the FireEMSBlogs family, at StreetWatch:Notes of a Paramedic

In a section titled simply Gulp

“Jill and I found him lying on the floor, fully clothed and in a coat, eyes shut, but eyelids flickering. An almost certain sign of pseudo-unconsciousness. A fake. I took a step back and called out to him. Jill was still standing by the front door, uncertain how to proceed. Something still felt wrong, so I asked her to go and call for police back up. With hindsight, I should have gone with.”

writes Ben Yatzbaz, resident Insomniac Medic


Found in the Basement selection

“This moment, this intense moment, was where I made a decision the likes of which I hope I never have to make again. I knew that if I stayed more than a few moments longer, I would suffocate and burn to death right there on that floor.”

from our pal Chris Kaiser at Life Under the Lights


From the lost in the snow pile-

“Dear God, they’re working a search pattern. Please, not tonight. It’s not mutual aid to another fire department; they’re working a grid search with the police. I grab my boots, then pad to the garage to check the fluids in the IV warmer. Anyone caught in this weather without shelter will be near death, if not there already.”

by Mack505 at Notes from Mosquito Hill


From the trust your guts file-

“I give my partner the “time to leave pronto” hand gesture. “Code 3, hurry up”. I give a little oxygen and attempt the IV enroute with no success. I realize that something is not going well for this patient and I don’t have the means to diagnose or fix the problem.”

by Rescue Monkey of Paramedic:Life on the Streets


From the Old School section-

“The smoke level now was to the floor as I grasped the hose line to find my way out. The urge to rip off my mask was strong but my training had taught me this would be fatal for sure.”

by HMHQ Contributor the Angry Captain


and finally, from the Hmmm…that looks wrong category

“A back board was brought up and one of the other Paramedics on the engine teams attended to him pulling off his jacket.  Justin asked us if the building was still on fire. We we told him that yes, it was still on fire, he asked us to put his jacket back on. Not completely out of it.”

from yours truly and the event that launched me into the blogosphere.



Next month’s handover will be hosted by Ambulance Driver, theme TBD, watch his space for details as they develop and, above all else, be safe.

HM Clear.

Posted by Justin Schorr on November 27, 2009 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Line of Duty, Patient Management, Rescues, Technology & Communications, The Handover, Uncategorized, technology-communications-ems-topics, the Angry Captain, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: ,

the Angry Captain’s Close Call

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The Angry Captain is on sceneThis month’s EMS Blog Carnival, the Handover, will be hosted here and the theme is “Close Calls.”  With November in the US including Thanksgiving, I thought what better time to share an experience when we had that thought go through our mind “I/they might not make it.”

Send in your submissions about a time when you, a patient, or someone you know had a close call and I’ll put them together to share.  If just one person can use that information to make their job safer, then we’ll have succeeded.

So with that theme in mind, here is the Angry Captain’s Close Call.

8:30 pm February 1982

The call:  Structure fire, “house across the street has black smoke coming from it.”

It is a cold winter night with temperatures well below freezing; we are in a relief unit that had no inboard seats so I was belted in on the tailboard. On arrival, we found a residence with black smoke pouring from the rear.  Reportedly, no one was home.

The home is typical for the area in that the base of the home started as a house trailer with several additions around it. As the first engine to arrive, we pulled a 200’ preconnect and forced entry on a side door that appeared to be the entry. The captain and I crawled in below the smoke and worked our way through a maze of doorways to what appeared to be a fully involved kitchen area. The ceiling was flashing over as I trained the nozzle at the base of the fire. Suddenly, my air pack warning bell went off.

We could not have been on air much longer than 5-10 minutes. I patted the captain on the back to notify him that we needed to back out. He gestured for me to head out and took the nozzle from me. My training from my previous department was never to leave anyone alone in a fire. As I turned, my air pack quit entirely; no air at all.  The smoke level now was to the floor as I grasped the hose line to find my way out. The urge to rip off my mask was strong but my training had taught me this would be fatal for sure. Holding my breath was all I could do as I struggled to focus on following the line out amid my disorientation from lack of oxygen. As I moved along, I remember hearing a loud mechanical sound further confusing my strange journey through this black maze. The sound grew louder as I slowly followed the hose line hand over hand in the seemingly longest moments of my life.

Suddenly light appeared as the noise grew to a roar, but I crawled out, finally ripping off my face mask, gasping for air, and collapsing in a snow bank. My next memory was lying on the gurney in the back of the ambulance.  At the hospital, they ran blood gas tests and flooded me with plenty of O2. As my color returned to normal (apparently I was quite gray), I was told that they found me outside our entry point where the truck had hung a mechanical fan at the top of the doorway for ventilation. (The loud disorientating mechanical sound.) I am not sure how long it was that I lay there in the snow bank before I was noticed.  But Mrs. AC got the frightening call about 11 pm to pick me up at the hospital….no one likes that call.

Lessons learned:

1.       The air pack I was wearing was found to be working properly back in a warm station house and in fact still had about ½ its air. The speculation at the time was that the moisture in the diaphragm froze causing it to stop the air flow.  Had it been checked at the scene, it could have provided the exact problem.

2.       Never allow a member to leave alone or leave a member alone in a fire. This was long before 2 in 2 out.

3.       Always follow your training; i.e. following the hose line out and keeping your mask on in heavy smoke.

4.       Do not block the egress of the hose line with ventilation. Had I been on all fours coming out feeling ahead with my hands, my fingers may have been lost to the whirling fan.

This was a true wake up call for me and cemented in my mind how important my training had been and how things can go wrong in a matter of seconds.

Posted by Justin Schorr on November 7, 2009 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, The Handover, Training & Development, the Angry Captain, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: , ,

A Christmas Waterfall

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Everytime I seem to be having a bad day or a tough week, the universe steps in to remind me everything is good.  When I’m frustrated my computer is on the fritz I meet a patient who has never had one.  When my kids drive me nuts or keep me awake I usually have a really sick young patient to remind me how nice a healthy family is.

One year, just before Christmas, I was down in the dumps about not doing well on a job exam.  The entire week had been about juggling my schedule to have Christmas with the family, not ever a stress free situation.  This particular employer didn’t allow shift trades outside the pa period so anthign more tha na week off meant working 4-5 days the week before.

I was burnt out and upset when we caught an automatic alarm activation at a local apartment building.  We went here almost once a shift for a faulty alarm and we had fallen into the most dangerous posture possible for a firefighter: comfort.

As the shift supervisor arrived at the alarm panel, my partner and I were stationed at the entrance to the parking lot when we heard the blaring audible alarm finally shut off.  It was then, in the cold night air, we heard the unmistakable sound of a water gong.

A water gong, for you EMS types (As AD would say) is a mechanical alarm activated by water flowing through the sprinkler system.  This alarm only activates when a sprinkler head has been activated.

We exchanged a look of panic, one that is fresh on my mind each time I see people slacking on a building alarm, and make our way with our engine to the sound of the alarm.

On the second floor, near the front of the large garden complex, was a waterfall from a patio unit.  Upstairs, Christmas cookies had been left in the oven while friends went to another house causing a small oven fire.  The sprinkler armed and was discharging a large amount of water as we arrived at the front door.

The unit had 2-3 inches of standing water in the front room, kitchen and hallway, as well as sending an inch of water out the patio and over the edge to the walkway below.

The oven fire was extinguished and we shifted to salvage.  I called for tools to build a water chute to guide the water out a window and away from the front room.  It was when I turned back into the room that I saw the packages under the tree, sitting in water, some getting sprayed by the sprinkler in the room nearby.  We decided to grab the comforter off the nearby bed and built a temporary shower curtain.  He held it while I gathered all the gifts I could and moved them out of the water and up onto the couch.  the boxes were so water logged they fell apart in my hands, held together only by the bright paper and bows.

As the tools to build the water chute arrived, so did our ladder truck which carried a sprinkler kit and we were able to plug it just as the main was shut down in another building.

The final casualty list included the oven, the microwave, carpeting and half the gifts under the tree.

The next morning my problems were nothing.

Posted by Justin Schorr on June 12, 2009 • Filed under: Fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Fires • Tagged:

…for the vehicle fire…

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blog engine

So many dangers these days with flammable bumpers, exploding pistons and a full load of cardboard…wait…say that again?

THE EMERGENCY
A passerby has noticed a pickup truck on fire on a residential street

THE ACTION
It’s late at night and we arrive to find a large pick up truck built up in the back to transport large amounts of cardboard for recycling, rolling pretty good. As the officer calls for the bumper line I look over to the firefighter on the other side of the engine and see an empty seat and an open door as the engine rolls to a slow stop. As usual, I don’t move until I hear the brake. It’s a habit.

He’s out in front struggling to free the bumper line so I decide to check the cab of the truck, more out of curiosity than anything else when I see a head, connected to a body, resting on the open window edge of the door.
“Hey!” I call to him with no response. I realized later that if the siren didn’t wake him, my voice won’t.
I open the door and pull him out into the quiet street where the boss watches over him.
The other firefighter is just beginning to stretch the line as I return to help with the layout. Looking over the driver is fine, rubbing his eyes, clearly tired, but uninjured.

It took almost an hour to pull all the cardboard out and soak it down. The fire was intense and burned a lot of cardboard but, amazingly, the truck was rather unscathed, aside from a little discoloration.
“Why so fast out of the engine?” I asked later as we were loading up.
“Wanted to beat you to the nozzle.” Was his smiling response.
“You can have it if you promise to wait until the engine stops to get out.”

He never replied and I’m sure still jumps out first chance.

Posted by Justin Schorr on January 25, 2009 • Filed under: Fire, Firefighting Operations, Fires • Tagged: