The Firefighter Academy--Day 3

I hurt this morning. Really hurt. Not like I got hit by a car hurt, but just a good over-all ache that follows a solid day of work. You wouldn't think that just getting into and out of what amounts to heavy winter clothing over and over again would do that to a person. Yet, the body was doing it's share of whining this morning. I spent some time doing yoga stretches to work the kinks out before heading back over to the fire station for another full day of training.

I was able to beat the two-minute time required for donning full turn-outs and air pack. Just beat it. In subsequent timings I did better, but forgot pieces of equipment like the Nomex or my helmet. Sometimes I would get my gloves all the way on and realize that I forgot to put on my helmet, which means that I had to back out my regulator, put the helmet on, put the regulator back onto the mask--with heavy gloves on. In the end, I was getting faster at the process.

The Captain said something today that really struck me. That during an emergency a person doesn't rise to the occasion, but rather sinks to their level of training. Looking back on my life, I could see how this idea rings true.

Gladly, we moved on to other things today. We spent more time and detail in getting into and out of the truck. Even in the big ladder truck, where there is lots of room it's a choreographed process getting four people into the back with seat belts on. Add an air pack to each of them on the way back out and it gets fun. Using a smaller truck and it's like two families of kids fighting over the available seats in the back of a 1970s station wagon.

Ladder fun was next. How to carry them, stand them, lower them. With one person. With two people. Hint: communication is key.

More knots. It felt like a Boy Scout meeting.

The afternoon was spent learning how to load 200 foot of inch and a half hose into space that allowed for it to be pulled out in a usable fashion. Load the hose. Pull it out for deploying into a structure. Open the nozzle (the most fun). Shut it down. Tear it down. And, do it again. And again. And again.

Nozzle techniques. How to advance with a charged hose. How to control the hose easily over a long period of time. A charge hose has a lot of energy and can be really dangerous if not controlled.

After a tour of the burn building, where we will be spending a lot of time learning about the dynamics of fire and how to control it, we did a short overview of the fire hydrant and how to connect feeder hose to it.

An important lesson at the end of the day was the cleaning of the firehouse. Emptying the garbage, sweeping and vacuuming the floors, making sure everything was picked up and put away. The fire station was going to be ours too and we need to take pride in it.

I gave up my "Screwed on Straight" award to another candidate at the end and was given the assignment of class lead for the following week. This new role--I'm guessing I got because I'm the next oldest on the team, because the oldest person got it for the first week--puts me at the first station in the command chain. The candidates need to come to the class lead to get permission to do anything where they are not with the rest of the group, so that someone always knows where they are at. And, they need to go in pairs: two in, two out. This is an important safety aspect, as no one is go wandering off by themselves to do something without someone knowing about it and without someone making sure that they got out.

It was a good first week.