Brotherhood of Firemen

[Sierra_rider]

Respecting what your fighting goes a long ways. Like Sun Tsu said, know yourself and know your enemy. When you lose respect, you become complacent, complacency kills. Or at least leaves a mark.
Had another start today. 800+ acres, sounds like the other depts in the county got a hold on it but we’re on standby. Winds starting to get up.

Yep and you gotta prepare yourself the best you can. My crew probably gets annoyed at times with how much we PT and train, but I want us to be absolutely dialed. We're safer when prepared like that and you can better do the "cool" things on fires.

 

[Loony661]

Yep and you gotta prepare yourself the best you can. My crew probably gets annoyed at times with how much we PT and train, but I want us to be absolutely dialed. We're safer when prepared like that and you can better do the "cool" things on fires.

This in one problem area with my volunteer department: no PT training. Sure we can all show up when the tone drops and go put out a fire, but being volunteer by nature, we all come from every which direction and a variety of different work backgrounds. We all have a strongpoint, but most of the dept is technically “out of shape”. Although we use each others strongpoints to our advantage, I feel we could all benefit from being in better shape - more time on the bottles and less fatigue when it counts.

 

[Sierra_rider]

This in one problem area with my volunteer department: no PT training. Sure we can all show up when the tone drops and go put out a fire, but being volunteer by nature, we all come from every which direction and a variety of different work backgrounds. We all have a strongpoint, but most of the dept is technically “out of shape”. Although we use each others strongpoints to our advantage, I feel we could all benefit from being in better shape - more time on the bottles and less fatigue when it counts.

I was lucky in my volunteer days, in that most of the guys I worked with were in pretty good shape. Some of the paid guys would kinda make fun of the average age of that group, but there were some 60 year olds that could out-work some of the 18 year olds. Even at the volunteer level, we did the pack test every year. If you couldn't pass the pack test, you weren't cleared for working on fires. It's not the hardest test in the world, but at least it was a standard.

On the career side, it's not as easy to keep everyone in shape as I'd like. We occasionally get guys that, IMO have no business riding on a fire engine. However...they technically passed everything, so in HR's mind, they fill the role just as well as anyone else. What's made it even worse, some of the more rigorous PTs I like to do, could now be construed "hostile." Luckily, those people are truly in the minority. To borrow a corny term used frequently by some of our chiefs, most of my coworkers aim to be "industrial athletes."

 

[Headhunter1111]

Just under 1,000 acres. 50mph winds, 7-12% humidity.
Had 4 dozers, 4 graders and two counties worth of apparatus. Got it handled but unfortunately lost 3 houses. Only Gods grace it wasn’t more. Getting some rain now though.

 

[Loony661]

Just under 1,000 acres. 50mph winds, 7-12% humidity.
Had 4 dozers, 4 graders and two counties worth of apparatus. Got it handled but unfortunately lost 3 houses. Only Gods grace it wasn’t more. Getting some rain now though.

Well done!

 

[kfd518]

Going back to cancer and gear, That is now my job with my department. I know many places do not require NFPA 1851 adherence. It however does give some very good baselines for cleaning and caring for gear.
Clean your gear if possible after every exposure to products of combustion. Even if this means hand cleaning with hose and a brush wearing rubber gloves.
Do not store it in a passenger compartment of a vehicle.
Do not let your children mess with it.
Clean your head and neck as soon as you are able after doffing your gear and keep a change of clothes in a clean area of your vehicle in a sealed plastic bag.
If you have to wear those clothes that were worn on a hydrocarbon based fire(structure vehicle electrical) strip down OUTSIDE your home. Bag the clothes and take them directly to your washer. Wash twice rinse twice and then run an empty rinse of your washer.
Clean yourself well.
All of this can and should be done to ensure they safety of our loved ones at home.
Those of us that are career or have shower facilities at the station.... DO OT AT THE STATION PRIOR TO LEAVING.
Be safe guys and think about the long term not just the here and now.

 

[Loony661]

Been busy here last couple days - not my fire dept, but surrounding depts: a gas station/convenience store in Centerville, WI went up last night; a fully involved, multi alarm house fire about 30 mins south of here tonight around 7pm; a large structure (presumably a barn) fire tonight about 15 mins south of here at 10:30pm; and lastly an ATV accident in our district just before midnight with a female victim with possible 2 broken legs - my wife in an EMT for our Volunteer Ambulance and rushed out for that. I started getting dressed after hearing the traffic on the pager that they auto launched Mayo-1 heli figuring they would need a LZ, but they canceled the heli after arranging a nearby towns Paramedic staffed ambo to intercept with ours.. Lets hope the weekend goes safer/smoother after this. Stay safe gentlemen!

 

[Powerstroke Cowboy]

Sounds like yall have been busy. I hate wrecks.

Just got back from a fire call. Storm nocked a tree into the power lines. We were there as ground control incase the sparks lit something up.

 

[Loony661]

Sounds like yall have been busy. I hate wrecks.

Just got back from a fire call. Storm nocked a tree into the power lines. We were there as ground control incase the sparks lit something up.

Powerline calls can be fun, but the waiting for the power company guys seems to take hours some events.

 

[Powerstroke Cowboy]

Powerline calls can be fun, but the waiting for the power company guys seems to take hours some events.

Almost an hour for us in this case. So not as bad as it could be.

 

[FederalQ]

With extremely dry conditions here there has been a flurry of smaller ground cover fires that have been extinguished in short order and a few home fires that were taken care of without much damage. Nothing major. I can recall in the past that every building that was saved was done so with the water carried on the trucks. No hydrants here. It seems as though despite the massive water shuttle operations during larger incidents the property always usually ends up a total loss.

 

[Headhunter1111]

Powerline calls can be fun, but the waiting for the power company guys seems to take hours some events.

Sometimes those linemen forget they are first responders too

 

[kfd518]

Honestly in my experience if it takes more than the 500-700 gallons that the initial truck carries to get the initial knockdown and under control in a residential fire what is left is many times not worth saving after smoke heat and water damage. Back when I first started this stuff as a volunteer we hammered water shuttling. That was in the county not in town. The city I work for requires hydrants 1x300’ second due engine hits a hydrant and it’s hooked and flowing but same thing applies as the first pet of this, if it takes much more than the on board water to get the initial knockdown there’s not much left worth saving. It our department also has a fairly young battalion chief officer corps that is very progressive and aggressive with fire attack. We have seen some really amazing stops lately with one in particular that I can think of. Having gone admin now I hear the radio traffic and can’t help but notice the short times I hear lately from dispatch to fire under control.

With extremely dry conditions here there has been a flurry of smaller ground cover fires that have been extinguished in short order and a few home fires that were taken care of without much damage. Nothing major. I can recall in the past that every building that was saved was done so with the water carried on the trucks. No hydrants here. It seems as though despite the massive water shuttle operations during larger incidents the property always usually ends up a total loss.

 

[Loony661]

Honestly in my experience if it takes more than the 500-700 gallons that the initial truck carries to get the initial knockdown and under control in a residential fire what is left is many times not worth saving after smoke heat and water damage. Back when I first started this stuff as a volunteer we hammered water shuttling. That was in the county not in town. The city I work for requires hydrants 1x300’ second due engine hits a hydrant and it’s hooked and flowing but same thing applies as the first pet of this, if it takes much more than the on board water to get the initial knockdown there’s not much left worth saving. It our department also has a fairly young battalion chief officer corps that is very progressive and aggressive with fire attack. We have seen some really amazing stops lately with one in particular that I can think of. Having gone admin now I hear the radio traffic and can’t help but notice the short times I hear lately from dispatch to fire under control.

I have always been a proponent of the Blitz type of fire attack. Put the water you got on the fire as fast as you can and knock it back - if you need more water, you at least just bought yourself time.

 

[Headhunter1111]

Chainsaws aren’t just for hobby.

 

[Loony661]

Tonight we did hose testing on all our hose except for our newest truck. Found 1 bad hose. I don’t mind it, but it takes so much time to do. I spent 5 hours after work tonight with most of the dept members coming and going to help as they could.

 

[redneckhillbilly]

I've seen some pretty slick chainsaw scabbards made from jacketed structure hose, we did hose test a few months ago and a couple of 2 1/2 hoses were seperating from the ends.

 

[Loony661]

I've seen some pretty slick chainsaw scabbards made from jacketed structure hose, we did hose test a few months ago and a couple of 2 1/2 hoses were seperating from the ends.

Any pictures of mentioned chainsaw scabbards?

 

[Powerstroke Cowboy]

Hose testing is a pain. But, it's nice when there's no surprises on scene.

 

[redneckhillbilly]

I dont have any pics, I will try to get one