The Tuesday night academy seemed like we were getting the hang of things. My first night as class lead went okay even though I never felt like I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I felt for the first person assigned the role, as it seemed like a glorified hall monitor role with being the contact person for bathroom needs and making sure that we always go in pairs--two in, two out. I dropped the ball a couple myself of times tonight by leaving my partner behind, as I hurried off to try and keep up. Lead by example and do better on Friday.
Regardless of my mind telling me to keep the dinner quantities under control, I didn't. It was all so good. Pam and I went to a Rhody Club pre-meeting dinner at Ichiban's Restaurant before the academy session. I had to leave early, but not before filling up with too much food. This made everything go really slow. My body felt as though it were swimming in mud as I tried to get my gear on at the beginning of drill. I went from slow to slower. Then in my frustration with my slowness, I began forgetting pieces of the process.
Next, we split the team into two groups. One went on the truck--oops, engine (I've been told, but I can't remember how to tell the two apart)--to work on hydrant hook-ups and the rest did ladder work. I started off in the ladder group.
My ladder partner from Sunday asked me to help her with getting the 24 foot extension ladder off of Engine 7, which was a nice vote of confidence that she would want to work with me on ladders again. Low shoulder carry is the preferred method for carrying longer distances. Working in teams of two, we went through setting up the extension ladder. Who'd a guessed that there would be more to it than the usual brute force struggle method I've been using for most of my life. Let me try and explain the new approach.
The first thing you notice right away is that there are two people doing this process. This makes it easier, safer and a lot more graceful. Communication is key though. The person at the head of the ladder has the control and calls out the directions, such as how it's going to be raised (flat or beam). Both people check for aerial obstructions, such as power lines. I think most of us went with the flat raise, where the ladder is raised parallel to the building face. The beam raise is with the ladder perpendicular. Either way, the fly portion of the ladder--the part that goes up--will be facing the building when it is raised. This seems weird, but makes sense when you see the whole process. The person at the spurs, which is the part that stays on the ground, now stands on the bottom rung of the ladder and holds onto the halyard (rope that goes to the pulley and is used to pull up the fly along the bed) as the person at the top of the ladder calls out that they are raising the ladder. "RAISING LADDER." Echoed by the person at the foot of the ladder. "RAISING LADDER." Using their weight as a counter-balance, the person at the foot makes it easier for the person at the top of the ladder to lift the ladder and slide their hands down the beams pushing the ladder up to a standing position. The foot person places their right foot firmly next to the beam and the top person quickly stands on the bottom rung with their left foot while running their right foot down the beam to hold it firm. We haven't even got the ladder to the wall yet.
Next, raise the fly. Untie the halyard. Check for aerial obstructions. Pull the halyard to raise the fly. "RAISING FLY." Echoed by foot person, "RAISING FLY," so that they know to make sure their fingers are out on the beam and not where they are going to be caught between the rungs. How far up depends on the situation--window rescue, roof access, etc--which is more detail for later. Catch the dogs on the desired rung. "ROTATING ON BEAM," the top person calls out as they point to the beam that will be the pivot point and holding onto the halyard. "ROTATING ON BEAM," echoed by the foot person. The ladder is flipped, so that the fly is now away from the building. The top person now stands on the bottom rung acting as a counter balance, while the bottom person gently lowers the ladder to the wall. The top person now ties off the halyard with a clove hitch and a safety half-hitch.
You think we're done here, but not so fast. We have to make sure that the ladder is safe to climb. The top person does a safety check and calls it out as they are doing it. "TIPS SQUARE." "DOGS SET." "HALYARD SECURED." "SPURS SOLID." "CLIMBING ANGLE GOOD." The climbing angle is checked by sanding on the bottom rung and extending the arms out level to the rung while the body is vertical. This way ensures that the ladder won't be too steep even when the firefighter is climbing wearing an air pack. Now, we are ready to climb. "FIREFIGHTER CLIMBING." Echo, "FIREFIGHTER CLIMBING." As the top person is climbing, the bottom person rotates around to the front of the ladder and places their feet firmly on the beams with their hands on the beam watching the other firefighter climb. "FIREFIGHTER COMING DOWN," is call in the opposite direction. You guessed it. Echoed by, "FIREFIGHTER COMING DOWN," from the bottom person.
We got to climb the ladder to the top of the second story wall of the firehouse, which was just at the edge of the 24 foot ladder's reach, without and with the air packs. Pretty exciting stuff even though I've climbed a lot of ladders in my life.
The fire truck--correction, engine--is here to pick us up to take us to the next drill, which is hydrants.
If you ever see those little blue reflectors on the roadway, they are there to indicate where there is a fire hydrant. This is still a mystery to me as to how you are supposed to see these things or just a hydrant while racing to fire situation and know where to stop the engine so that things can be hooked up in such as way as to actually try and put out the fire. I am holding some faith in the process that this will become clear in time. For now, we are just going to learn how to set up the hose on the hydrant. In theory, the engine will stop near an acceptable hydrant that is close enough to the structure that has a fire to be useful.
A firefighter on the driver's side will get out and open the first cabinet to get the hydrant tool and the bag of fittings. As the firefighter passes the rear of the engine, they will grab the line holding the 4-inch supply line and drag it towards and past the hydrant to enable the hose to be wrapped completely around the hydrant and cross the supply line at a 90 degree angle. A foot is placed firmly on the supply line at the point where the hose crosses itself. The firefighter then signals for the driver to advance towards the fire. Once the first connection at 50 feet hits the ground, the firefighter can safely begin connecting the fittings to the hydrant because there is now enough weight of the hose on the ground to pretty much ensure that the supply line will be pulled from the engine bed.
The hydrant wrench can never--NEVER--be left on the ground. The sand will devour it and it will never be seen again.
After making sure that the two side caps are on securely, the main cap is removed. The hydrant is then flushed to make sure any sentiment is washed out. The valve is then shut again. The adapter is screwed onto the main port and then the cap closest to the fire or in the direction of the fire is removed and a secondary gate valve and adapter for a three inch hose is attached. Make sure that the gate valve is shut. Unwind the supply line and straighten it out, because once it's full of water it won't be able to be moved. The main four inch hose is then attached to the adapter on the main port.
The signal is now given to the engineer that the water is available to be turn on. This is done by hand signal or radio. Once the engineer is ready, the water is turned on at the hydrant.
It was a warm night and I was soaked through with sweat at the end of our three-hour training session.
Being class lead this week, I was given instructions to make sure that the engine and truck had full air pack set-ups with masks, that all air bottles had been filled and that all radios returned to the charger and set to the proper channel. At first, I was failing this be doing instead of making sure that it was getting done. After making sure that my air pack was cared for, I got busy making sure that my team knew what was needed to be done before we were excused. Do better next time.
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