3am Fire call...

[Mopar1973Man]

Well gang... Got woke up to a fire call in Whitebird Idaho. Man what a way to get woke up. Well jumped in my clothes hauled out the door. By the time I got the gate open I heard my crew member responding in Engine 11. Dang I thought I got to get moving. So I beat feet for the fire station in hopes to catch him. Locked up tight. So on towards Riggins, ID. I'm think I got to get to Kelly's place pick him up and hit Station 4. So outside of Riggins, ID I call him on the cell phone alerting him to meet me on the street. Well I meet him and we toss on a turn outs and listen to the radio more. Fire Chief is picking up a water tender at Station 3 and I just happen to see my crew member from Station one make it to town. Wave him down and hauled with him to Whitebird, ID. I left Kelly to ride with the Fire Chief. The reason Engine 11 was behind me is because he never called from the station house he called from at home.So now we get there and it a Shop / Studio Apartment. It leveled to the ground already and still burning. Whitebird fire was trying to fight the fire but under manned. I was first on scene for Salmon River Rural FD. Water was running out and no water point was made. I did what I had to do for water so since Whitebird was only about 3-4 miles away I ran water tender back in forth to the city hydrant for filling. Needless to say it was a very long 12 hours from 3am to nearly 3pm I now got home and settled down, eating, I'm tired, and going to get a nap at least.

[hex0rz]

Do you have POV capabilities? Do you keep your turnouts with you?Ahh, even though being a volunteer does not pay, or pays very little, its still exciting to do it. Sounds like a good day, in an ironic way... Does not sounds like there was any entrapment's, etc? Anyone home?

[Mopar1973Man]

POV? What's that?I keep my turnouts in the truck.No one was home and the the Chief made contact with some that knows where the land owner is at.

[stodg73]

POV is Personally/Privately Operated Vehicle, your truck, etc...

[hex0rz]

^Yep, what stodg said!

Seems like you guys need to get things set up to do POV and/or have a radio with you instead of a pager. Seems like it would make things a little easier. Around here we do not have POV in the city but outskirts do. If you could go POV, have a radio and your turnouts, you could respond to the incident or to the station and not have someone lagging back at the station when someone JUST took off from the station...

Our SOP's are that we are allowed to respond in an engine to an incident if there is ATLEAST 2 people. Medical requires someone with an EMT-B atleast.

...just a thought.

ALSO, I dunno if you have your hazmat awareness or ops, when I took mine, the teacher reaaaallly emphasized exposure to your turnouts. It really opened up my eyes to that fact after hearing him talk about it. If an incident don't kill you, its the exposure to all the nasty crap you can encounter in your time. He said he knew a guy that was going to retire very soon and come to find out, he has testicular cancer, IIRC.

So, keep them turnouts in your bag, not in the cab of the truck, and wash them everytime you USE them. After every fire I got off of, the moment I got back to the vehicle, I'd remove as much of my gear as possible and stow it in a compartment instead of the cab. Then when I got back to the station and got everything put away and cleaned, the turnouts were the last thing to go into the extractor before I left.

Don't wanna make it sound like I'm lecturing you and all, just thought I might pass on a good nugget of info, if you did not already know!

[MnTom]

Times have changed since I was on a small department. We kept our turnout gear (coat, boots, and helmet (that's it)) in our personal vehicle. If we got to the hall and a truck that was to go out on a call we just jumped in and took off not waiting for any other members. That was about 35 years ago...... Damn I feel old now...

[diesel4life]

Were you still in Ashtabula COunty Tom?

[MnTom]

Yep. Windsor to be exact. That was way before the 911 system was used! We had a local number to call for the Fire Dep't and I even had a fire phone in my bedroom!

[Mopar1973Man]

^Yep, what stodg said!

Seems like you guys need to get things set up to do POV and/or have a radio with you instead of a pager. Seems like it would make things a little easier. Around here we do not have POV in the city but outskirts do. If you could go POV, have a radio and your turnouts, you could respond to the incident or to the station and not have someone lagging back at the station when someone JUST took off from the station...

Our SOP's are that we are allowed to respond in an engine to an incident if there is ATLEAST 2 people. Medical requires someone with an EMT-B atleast.

...just a thought.

ALSO, I dunno if you have your hazmat awareness or ops, when I took mine, the teacher reaaaallly emphasized exposure to your turnouts. It really opened up my eyes to that fact after hearing him talk about it. If an incident don't kill you, its the exposure to all the nasty crap you can encounter in your time. He said he knew a guy that was going to retire very soon and come to find out, he has testicular cancer, IIRC.

So, keep them turnouts in your bag, not in the cab of the truck, and wash them everytime you USE them. After every fire I got off of, the moment I got back to the vehicle, I'd remove as much of my gear as possible and stow it in a compartment instead of the cab. Then when I got back to the station and got everything put away and cleaned, the turnouts were the last thing to go into the extractor before I left.

Don't wanna make it sound like I'm lecturing you and all, just thought I might pass on a good nugget of info, if you did not already know!

Ahh... POV's yes. I've got the 02 setup with red lights and I do carry a radio. But the problem is in my area the radio signal it very weak and can't be heard. I got to travel at least about 5 miles to get out on my handheld where a truck radio is much more power. By the time I go 5 miles to get radio signal I'm 4 miles past my fire house. So I kept trucking for the next fire house with a engine I can get to which is about 25 miles away in Lucile, ID.

As for the turn out I keep them in there bag in the bed of the truck. As for them being washed we do have turnout cleaner but I sure not going to put them in our washing machine. I've got to get time and take them into town or something. I normal take the outer shell and just use good old water and hose them down and let the dry.

As for structure fires its extremely rare to go to them. 99% of our calls are wildland grass fires and vehicle accidents. 99.9% of vehicle accidents normal have no fire but we are on scene because of leaking fuels safety issue. So for the most part my turnouts are rather virgin yet to a real structure fire where you actually crawled into a burning building. 99% of all structure fires are typically already on the ground and a full loss. Personally myself only see one call where a small shop the saved. (I'm sure the had a few others but I wasn't there).

[hex0rz]

Ahh... POV's yes. I've got the 02 setup with red lights and I do carry a radio. But the problem is in my area the radio signal it very weak and can't be heard. I got to travel at least about 5 miles to get out on my handheld where a truck radio is much more power. By the time I go 5 miles to get radio signal I'm 4 miles past my fire house. So I kept trucking for the next fire house with a engine I can get to which is about 25 miles away in Lucile, ID. As for the turn out I keep them in there bag in the bed of the truck. As for them being washed we do have turnout cleaner but I sure not going to put them in our washing machine. I've got to get time and take them into town or something. I normal take the outer shell and just use good old water and hose them down and let the dry. As for structure fires its extremely rare to go to them. 99% of our calls are wildland grass fires and vehicle accidents. 99.9% of vehicle accidents normal have no fire but we are on scene because of leaking fuels safety issue. So for the most part my turnouts are rather virgin yet to a real structure fire where you actually crawled into a burning building. 99% of all structure fires are typically already on the ground and a full loss. Personally myself only see one call where a small shop the saved. (I'm sure the had a few others but I wasn't there).

Dang buddy! If I had to drive 25 miles to the next station, I probably would end up getting called off by the time I get half way to it, lol. Man, that is also alot of driving on your dime as well. I hope you get fairly reimbursed for it. Wow, I can tell you realize the full scope of the area then, having your pond and pump. I don't remember how many gallons you said it was though. Never enough, anyways, lol. I sure hope you never have to experience a primary search, its very stressful. But, when duty calls, duty calls!

[Mopar1973Man]

Dang buddy! If I had to drive 25 miles to the next station, I probably would end up getting called off by the time I get half way to it, lol. Man, that is also alot of driving on your dime as well. I hope you get fairly reimbursed for it. Wow, I can tell you realize the full scope of the area then, having your pond and pump. I don't remember how many gallons you said it was though. Never enough, anyways, lol. I sure hope you never have to experience a primary search, its very stressful. But, when duty calls, duty calls!

The fire was over 45-48 miles from me. I still made it there and worked 12 hours. I just drove to Riggins, ID tonight again for more work on fire trucks and getting another truck back in quarters after being repaired. As for being reimbursed I don't see anything at all. Nothing... I get a very small bonus check every year for attending all meetings and calls. but never see any funds for fuel. Solely my responsibility. I cover from top of WhiteBird grade to the top of Smokey Boulder Grade which is roughly 63 miles of highway and then 5 miles on either side, then include all side roads the same way so roughly 630 square miles of highway. Here is roughly the highway coverage. http://goo.gl/maps/PcTqz Our response time is so slow I never had a call where we got to enter a building. I've done all the training for doing searches and crawling. We still do the training for it. But back to actual calls we do most like wildland grass fires and vehicle accidents.

[hex0rz]

Yikes! Thats nuts... I'd go broke if I had to do that much driving for calls.You have a buttload of area to cover as well! Dang.The closest I have every ended up to you would be Grangeville. Took hwy 13 between there and Kamiah. My wifes uncle drove it and he is crazy. I know them roads are nuts to drive. Can't imagine what winter driving would be like.

[Mopar1973Man]

Day in and day out I manage to scratch funds to together with odd jobs, and truck work to keep fuel in the rigs. Now you know exactly why I'm a MPG Guru and hunting for ever ounce of MPG I can get. Do you think I drive speed limit every where I go for SRRFD (Salmon River Rural FD) or personal business? Heck no... I drive with MPG in mind because in one day I can drive at least 200 miles easy without think doing work for SRRFD. If I make a mistake and forget something it might cost me dearly in fuel to go back and get it or it doesn't get done at all. Think about it every Tuesday I got to I got to leave early around 2-3pm for work at the FD. Now I hook up with Chief and we are cleaning, fixing, repairing, etc. Then after that leave the station and head into town and from 7pm till 9-10pm do more training in town. By the time I get done with the training and getting everything cleaned up with the Chief I get home by 11:30pm. Kelly and myself hold the most amount of volunteer hours in the entire dept.Dennis McCullom (Old Fire Chief), Myself, James Clark, Kelly Hinkley