Well, yesterday was a decent day. We caught a few runs: a Gas Leak which turned out to be nothing; an automatic alarm, which we got held up on; a reported car fire that was bogus and then at 4:30 this morning or so we caught a working fire. The building was a 2 story coach-house (garage below with living space above) about 50x20. Near as I could tell the 1st floor was ordinary construction and the second floor was frame. We pulled up as the second engine. I went to the front and helped finish flaking out the first line. I managed to get the Lieutenant who was stretching the line to give me the pipe (nozzle) for the initial attack.
As far as I am concerned there is no better place to be on the fire ground then the pipeman on the first line. You are going in to do battle with the enemy. The enemy is two-fold though: 1st there is the fire, which is a living, breathing, eating thing that will kill you to death if you let it outsmart you. 2nd there is the building you're in. You're working inside of a structure that is being degraded and destroyed the entire time you are in it. Today I put my foot through a step at one point and nearly fell into a hole in the floor. That and of course the only thing holding the building up (it's "gravity resistance system") is being eaten away. So, there is of course some need to operate swiftly and with purpose if you're going to be headed inside one of these things.
So, I started to make the stairwell. Smoke had banked all the way down the stairs so we were on air (using our SCBA [Self Contained Breathing Apparatus] from the get go and visibility was about 6 inches or so. I just stared making my way up the stairs. I got about 6 or 8 steps up and started to see orange. The glow or heat from a fire is usually your guidepost because visibility is so bad. You don’t want to start flowing water unless you are actually hitting the fire because all you will do is disrupt the thermal balance and make things worse.
The idea behind this is that fire, smoke and the rest do follow the laws of physics and that heat and smoke rise. So, it is considerably hotter at the ceiling level then at the floor (at times 600 or 700 degree different). If you randomly apply cold water to the ceiling you cool the super heated gasses and cause them to "fall", which makes visibility even worse and pushes toxic products of combustion down to the floor level. That will cause harm to any unprotected civilians that your brothers are still searching for.
I was moving one stair at a time. Open up, darken the fire down, shut down move. It is a pretty straightforward sequence. Once I made the landing at the top of the stairs, though I had fire burning on both sides of me. I just sat at the top of the stairs for awhile working one side and then the other until finally the fire was knocked enough to be able to advance into the room to the right. We began working out way deeper into the building. There was fire continually lighting up behind us which made our advance a sort of one step forward, two steps back affair. You never allow fire to break out behind you. Things like that kill firemen.
We got a second line up on the roof outside the area we were fighting the fire in and they we able to darken down a section that we were unable to reach. It wasn't a very hot fire, but it was shitty smoke wise. Eventually I used up my first bottle (each bottle is in theory designed to last 30 minutes. When you are really working hard 17 or 18 is more typical if you’re in shape.). I beat feet outside, changed bottles and was right back in. By this point my gear is soaked, my gloves are soaked and being outside just means icing up. There was still enough fire and heat trapped in the building that it was a whole lot more comfortable in there. I was back in, pulling ceiling (which we do to expose void spaces). Between your drywall and the structural members above there is a space formed by the framing lumber. In this case it was a 2"x6" Rafter roof so every 16-24" on center there is a 2"x6" board running front to back but the ceiling was dropped about 2" below that leaving a clear open void running the entire top of the building (the rafters will run the shortest distance between outside walls, so that "orientation" changes from building to building.) Fire was running through this area pretty fiercely. We pulled ceiling through out. The bathroom was fun to operate in. The toilet was literally overflowing with shit. Abandoned buildings like this get their water shut off and other utilities disconnected, but they become shelters for squatters and the homeless, especially in weather like this. Once we found that the toilet had been... heavily used, so to speak, we started another search to make sure that we didn't have someone in the building.
Searching is a very difficult task. You can't see and then you are wearing full gear and heavy gloves. Your senses are reduced to that of a blind, deaf, half-nerve damaged moron. It's easy to mistake the body of a person as a pile of clothing or the cushions of a couch. A couple of guys started a secondary search (which is a fairly comprehensive search begun once the fire is mostly under control). We had done a primary search as we advanced the line (a primary is a RAPID search of likely areas to find someone: close to doors or windows; sleeping quarters; paths of egress. 70% of victims are found in these areas).
Three air-bottles and 2 hours later we had the fire knocked down and got into overhaul. Overhaul is a process of checking for hidden fire and extension. We pull furniture and piles of clothes apart... anything that is dense and may be hiding from view smoldering fire. We open walls and ceilings if it hasn't already been done and we wash everything down pretty thoroughly. The best way to make sure you don’t have a rekindle is to soak the living shit out of everything. By this point my first pair of gloves literally have so much water in them that I have water pooling up in the fingers. I dump those in the rig before we start overhaul because I know that my hands will start to freeze now that the building is cooling off. The building was a loss; whoever had been squatting there probably caused the fire with some kind of warming barrel, or by burning trash in the sink or tub to keep warm.
Picking up was a joy. It is now, at 9:55 CST 1, degree outside, so this morning it was probably a couple of digress below zero. The streets are covered in ice. I was one of the few guys who managed not to fall. My gear is soaked so I am turning into a popsicle just by being outside and the fingers on my second pair of now wet gloves keep freezing so I can't move them. I have to mash my hands together to force the ice on the fingers to break. We have to pick up all the hose and drain it and roll it. Normally we put the hose back on the rigs, but in weather like this everything goes back to the station to thaw first. 2nd Shift brought the pick-up out to load the frozen hose on and about 7:15 (which is 15 minutes after shift change) we all headed back. It took till 8:30 to get everything back in service. Bottles refilled with air, frozen 1-3/4" handlines thawed enough to hang in the hose tower, 5" supply line drained, thawed and cleaned to re-bed. Fortunately we had all of the 2nd shift guys and about half our shift that held over so it only took an hour or so to get the bulk of it done.
So, I am a bit tired, my fingers are still a little stiff and my back and arms are a little sore... I need a hot shower and something to eat, but I am satisfied. I love working in the ghetto. I wish there was some more politically correct term that would to justice to the town, but ghetto is it. It's falling apart and burning down. As a fireman it is a great place to go to really do the job and to continue to learn. The officers I work with are good teachers and patient. The guys are super supportive and encouraging. I've never before felt so welcome, so quickly to a new fire department. This is a group of men who I am proud to work with and touched when they call me brother. I'm very happy I made this choice. Cheers.
Is there an email address I can contact you at?
ReplyDeleteSure,
ReplyDeletethefireservicewarrior@gmail.com
Cheers