week eight/ nine

finally through with the marathon that was the last two weeks. week eight was the completion of the firefighter one portion of the program. we took our written and physical test on wednesday. everyone passed with no problem. friday night was our night burn, which was a simulated propane fire. it was a lot of fun because our families and friends were able to come out and see what we have been training so hard for over the past eight weeks. beth and rob showed up to give suport , and beth documented the experience. last weekend was our RIT (rapid intervention team) training. the RIT is the team of firefighters that is standing by on scene in case a firefighter goes down on the inside. we learned a ton of cool stuff and we got to destroy some walls as well. it was another milestone in the program, and was also the bridge between ff1 and ff2. week nine was our second burn. this time we were doing a search and rescue inside two shipping containers. in one end the instructors had set up a wood pallet fire. while it was hot, there was not a ton of work to be done, at least for the first two passes. on the third pass, we had to breach a wall, chop wood for two minuites on our knees, and then complete the search and rescue. we were also given the opportunity to use a thermal imaging camera in the box. i think the hottest it got for my team in the box was around five hundred degrees. it was intense, but manageable. we also learned about vehicle extrication this week, and the instuctors turned us loose on some cars with the "jaws of life". it is amazing what those tools can do. in a matter of minuites, we were able to remove all the doors, roll back the dashboard, and remove the roof. this week was also our night senario. we were required to stay on campus thursday night, and at some point during the night, we were woken up to respond to an alarm. in my team's case, we were responding to a multiple car fire. it was a lot of fun, but because i was expecting to be woken up all night, i did not get a ton of sleep. but as the instuctors kept reminding us, that is the way it is going to be when we get on shift. next week is week ten, and we are all nervously anticipating graduation. just two more burns stand in our way. thanks for the comments and emails, keep 'em coming. hope everyone has a great weekend.

night burn

we had our night burn on friday and beth was able to take some great pictures. here is the link http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bethwangelin&target=ALBUM&id=5401342844626296593&authkey=Gv1sRgCNb_6bS_lNH15AE&invite=CILAycgB&feat=email

week six/ seven

so this post has been two weeks in the making. i apologize for the delay, the program has been gaining steam and it has been a challenge to post at the end of the week. week six was rather slow. we began the week by doing a search and rescue simulation. the instructors had us blindfolded, crawling around an apartment searching for a rescue dummy. it was a lot of fun, and my partner and i were able to locate and rescue the dummy with no issue. we also had the chance to practice different ventilation techniques, from using fans or hydraulic ventilation (using the hose stream to pull smoke and heat out of a window), to cutting holes in roofs using hand and power tools. we also had two days of HAZMAT training which was brutally boring. week seven was quite the opposite. this was what has been dubbed "hell week", and that title is very accurate. we all knew going into this week that it was going to be tough, but i dont think we realized just how taxing it would be. the week kicked off on monday with a test and lecture. on tuesday we were back in the maze, only this time it was twice as long and multi- leveled. while i have become more comfortable in gear and on air, it was just as trying as the first time. it made it very clear that i will not be the first choice when my department is looking for someone to do a confined space rescue. we also worked more on our search and rescue techniques. wednesday we learned how to properly advance a hose line up a ladder and into a window to fight fire. while not overwhelmingly difficult, it does take some effort and i found myself using more air than i would have liked. wednesday was also our "garage attack" day, which was advancing the same 2 1/2 in. hose line that we had previously worked so hard to advance on our feet, now on our knees. making this task even more difficult was the fact that the water was making the concrete floor we were on impossibly slippery. im sure it was quite comical to watch, but i can assure you, there was nothing funny about doing it. by the end of it everyone was spent, and this was only wednesday. thursaday was devoted to practicing our burn evolution that would take place on friday. in teams of three our task was to carry three 50 ft. lengths of hose into the burn tower, hook up to our interior water source, proceed up to the fire floor, perform several different kinds of attacks, drain and carry the hose, and exit the building as a team as quickly as we could. all of this was to be done in gear, on air and in the dark. the steps were easy enough as we had been practicing them individually for a while. the part that i found most difficult was controling my breathing so as to not make my teammates wait on me as i switched out bottles. we were able to get in two runs on thursday, one to the second floor and one to the third. on friday we did the real thing with flame, heat, and smoke. everyone was pretty nervous because if at any time we came off air or ripped our masks off, we we out of the program. truth be told, it was easier than on thursday. i think this was due to the fact that we did not pt on friday, and because having fire in the building gave you something to focus on besides the work itself. much to all of our surprise, we actually had fun. everyone was able to complete three runs into the building, and we only lost one due to a back injury. while it seemed very unlikely at the start of the week, i am now looking back on "hell week" with fond memories. week eight will mark the end of fire one. we will be taking our written and physical finals on wednesday to see if we will be permitted to continue to fire two. this next weekend we will be required to stay on campus for additional training, so there may be another lapse until the next riviting update. hope everyone enjoyed the game this weekend, with the exception of my georgia kin, to whom i say "there is always next year". make sure to stay updated on beth's blog if you want your mind blown with science jargon that is way beyond me. everyone have a great week and stay safe.