Fire fighting is a 24/7 business. It is not unusual to have a crew member show up in the morning having worked the day before at a different station. If said person has bloodshot, swollen eyes and a thousand yard stare, the rest of us know we are seeing the tell-tale signs of an “all night-er”.
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A rough call
It was a warm Sunday morning. A call came in for an “Auto Ped”. This is short for Automobile vs. Pedestrian. Guess who always loses in this equation. It ain’t the Buick. We pull up in front of a church; the congregation is on the steps, on the sidewalk, and in the street. They are swarming like bees; the energy in the crowd is high. We are directed to the front end of a car stopped in the street. A little girl, maybe two years old is lying motionlessly in front of the car. With my trauma shears, I sliced through her Sunday dress in a single stroke. Even the untrained eyes of the congregants huddled around me understood the gravity of what was revealed by my shears. The crowd wailed in a crescendo, and broke into disjointed prayer.
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By telling you this (sorry for the lack of fuzzy bunnies, Mr. R.) I’m trying to get the point across that Fire fighting can sometimes cut into a person’s reserves, both physically and mentally. Those are deficits that cannot be ignored for long. There are various ways of coping with our stress. We have a Critical Incident Stress Management Team, and some people find it very effective for getting through the tough spots. A lot of us (myself included) find the group hug, cum-by-ya methods of the CISM team to be unpalatable. We prefer the healing powers of distraction when it comes to recharging our batteries.
Let’s look at some photos to illustrate the point.
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What could be more healthful than participating in sports? Table tennis offers the proper balance of activity without interfering in our ability to respond to calls.
That’s me in the background. Scout around this image, and you will find few other ways that firefighters distract themselves.
Feeling a little less ambitious? How about a round of dominos?
Feeling a little more ambitious? Pickle ball is like playing ping pong while standing on the table. Terry isn’t really terry-fied, he just looks that way.
Our resident golfers like to practice their swing as a way to relax.
FORE!!
If you can’t take the firefighters to the soccer field, take the field to the firefighters.
Firefighters really do love the public, especially kids. Our time with people that aren’t in crisis is amazingly therapeutic.
Food is central to our personal time in the firehouse. We go to great lengths to prepare and enjoy our meals.
Food can bring a smile to even a crusty old curmudgeon like me.
When Keenan promoted to Engineer, we baked him a cake. He was being reassigned to Station 17.
I’m not proud of the fact, but even Nintendo has crept into the firehouse. This is one activity I abstain from.
My favorite theme in stress relief is silliness! It can take all sorts of forms, requires creativity, and always gets a laugh. Laughter is the best.
Take my friend Jason. What could be sillier than walking around with Smurf blue hair?
Haven’t got any hair? No problem, we can improvise.
What’s the best response if the other shift leaves their cash box unlocked? Why, fill it with concrete of course!!
Of all the practical jokes we pull, those that involve water seem to be the most popular. Water is plentiful, cheap, recyclable and readily available.
This poor fellow was set up. He was asked to pose for a picture. Little did he know that the guys were on the roof with an ice chest full of H20.
Water sport usually targets new kids as the victim, but here we see veteran Firefighter Chris bringing his freshly dried laundry upstairs.
Direct hit!! Chris put his laundry back in the drier.
Here’s a tip for you. If it is garbage night at Station 8, don’t volunteer to push the dumpster out. Most new kids know that they are obliged to perform this task. They also know by now what to expect.
Life in the firehouse has its tough side. The ability to relax, distract yourself, work up a sweat and have a little fun is how we prepare ourselves for whatever might be coming next. I like to think that there is a little girl in Heaven, laughing right along with us.
When I was a kid, there was a small glass vial in my parent’s garage that contained mercury. I would go in there from time to time, open the bottle and pour its contents into the palm of my hand. It was fun to break the grey shimmering blob into smaller parts and let them run back together again. It fascinated me to know that I was allowing molten metal to touch my skin without being hurt by it. I did not know that I was playing with a toxic substance. There was a lead bar in that garage that I would sometimes admire for its seemingly contradictory qualities of heaviness and ductility. I would dig my thumbnail into it. We had chemicals called Chlordane (an ant killer) and Creosote (a wood preservative) that are now banned as known carcinogens. I used to get that stuff all over me as I worked with it.
This is a new day and age. Awareness and pro-activity have replaced ignorance and unexplained tragedy. An example of this more sophisticated discipline is Oakland Fire Department’s Haz-Mat Team. Haz-Mat is a shortened phrase that really stands for “Hazardous Materials”. This is another segment of the Department which requires a higher level of certification of a person in order for them to be a participant. In addition to the pre-requisite training, there is also continuing education in the form of class room time and field exercises. The following collection of photographs are of their latest training exercise which was conducted at a little used park down by the Port of Oakland’s shipping terminal.
Here we see Firefighters Tran and Georgatos in level “A” suits, preparing to drive into the simulated “hot zone”.
They arrive at the first set of “victims”. There is a sign on our inflatable patient that describes what is ailing him or her. The team will determine what to do with that person based on what the sign says. Obviously, mouth to mouth resuscitation is out of the question.
This patient is still alive, and will be placed on a stretcher and taken to “de-con” to have the hazardous material scrubbed off by other people in level “A” suits before being sent off to the hospital. The other patients didn’t fare so well, and were placed in body bags.
The next station in our drill involves a leaking gas cylinder. The team must use their tools to stop the leak. This job is made especially hard by the level "A" suits which protect our team from the hazard. This protection comes at the expense of severely limited vision, mobility and sense of touch.
After that, our team places a leaking container into an "over-drum" that is used to contain spilled liquids or solids. Screwing on the lid is harder than it looks when you can't see or feel what you're doing.
From here, our intrepid team goes to the “shovel up the loose dry material” station to practice their use of a wheel barrow and shovel. That might seem like a basic skill, but it is better to practice now rather than on the real deal.
From here we go on to the “tip up the 55 gallon drum and haul it away” station. Again, it seems like a simple process, but now there won’t be as many surprises when we are faced with an actual incident.
Our last challenge for the day is the “squeeze through a tight spot” station. That might seem like a no-brainer, but stop to consider the claustrophobic nature of the level “A” suit. Now compound that with having to travel through a place that you don’t know for sure that you can get through. If you do make it through, there is the possibility that a sharp edge might tear your suit, exposing you to the deadly hazard. In this situation there is no consequence for failure, but in an actual setting, panic might make the difference between getting out safely or becoming part of the problem. Remember, our team members carry an air supply that will last one hour at the most. There is no way to change out the SCBA bottle without exposing them to the hazardous environment that they were sent to mitigate.
At the end of the exercise, our team members have a well deserved sense of empowerment. Let's give them a big hand for a job well done!
And please, don't forget; inside that de-humanizing plastic suit is a real live person that is putting their life on the line to accomplish a remarkable task, saving lives, the enviornment and property as they go.
Ours is known as CATF-4. There are members from various Fire Departments in the area, and some members are even private citizens. Each member has a specific skill that makes them valuable to the team. Having long lost my sense of adventure, I have never undergone the rigorous training that is required to become a member of the team.
Our team and many others from around the nation went to Louisiana just after Hurricane Katrina devastated that area. You can learn more about the hurricane by going to...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
The following set of photographs was not taken by me, in fact I'm not sure who took them, other than it was a member of the team.
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All of the Team members and equipment you will see in the subsequent photos arrived in New Orleans in the military cargo aircraft you see here.
After being unloaded at the airport, everything and everyone was re-loaded into helicopters, and moved to where the need was greatest.
And you thought riding in a Fire Engine was cool!!
Kids, don't try this at home.
Helicopters were everywhere.
Not only did the helicopters bring rescuers and equipment in, they took people out as well.
There were lots and lots of people that were trapped by the rising waters.
CATF-4 was sent in with their inflatable boats to search house by house, block by block to make sure that no one was left behind.
People WERE found, and brought to safety.
This may be the loneliest photo I've ever seen.
People were evacuated in all sorts of manners, by all sorts of agencies.
Think about the amount of work that goes into preparing a meal at church. Now multiply that effort by what you have seen here. This is just a portion of the drinking water that was distributed just so people could survive.
Our rescuers saw devastation.
Stairway to nowhere.
Mr. Reynolds was not the first to experiment with alternative parking methods.
I pray you never come home to see this.
I pray that you never consider it a good day when you merely find a photograph where your home once stood.
I pray you never find yourself in a situation where even the rescuers need to be rescued. (Its going to take a LOT of wax to bring those floors back!)
But if you are, take comfort in knowing that there are people in this great country of ours that will work so hard to protect you that even a parking lot looks like an attractive place to fall asleep.
Dec. 18, 2007 - An answer to Mr. Reynolds' question
Mr. Reynolds wants to know why the dangerous job of cutting a hole in the roof hasn't been mechanized in order to make the job of firefighting safer.
A lot of brain cells (not mine, I can't spare any) have been employed to ponder this attractive proposition, but even this first image holds a clue as to why technology hasn't caught up to Mr. Reynolds' question.
Our intrepid probationary Firefighter (You can tell he's on probation because of the yellow shield on his helmet) is cutting a hole around a roof jack. That specific decision wasn't made until the officer got up on the roof, assessed the situation, and told the new kid exactly where to cut the hole. You just can't make that kind of determination from street level.
The next photo reveals the remarkable variety of building design that exists in the world. Old Joe down at the equipment shop is a crafty fellow, but even he can't build a "one machine fits all" contraption that will be able to meet the needs of whatever roof we might need to cut a hole in.
This photo shows a very special kind of hole. Its called a trench cut. The usual type of hole is used to allow heat, flame and smoke to escape the building, but this hole has the additional task of preventing a large fire from spreading to other parts of the building.
Those parallel boards you see are called ceiling joists. When cutting a hole, it is important that you don't cut through these boards. If you do, the roof becomes a lot weaker (We're standing up there, don't forget) and the roof will be a lot more expensive to repair. The best way to protect the joists is to cut the hole by hand.
This photo presents yet another obstacle to mechanization. How are you going to get a machine past those wires to access the roof? Even if you do solve this specific problem, there are an infinite number of variations that no known technological wonder will ever be able to account for. The only fully versatile way we know to get a cutting tool to that roof is to throw a ladder from the sidewalk and climb up there with a saw.
Some fires are way in the back, far beyond the reach of any sort of boom truck. Carrying a ladder down between this row of homes is simple, fast and effective.
Let's assume that we've built the perfect cutting machine and we have a fire at a building that is perfect for the use of this splendid tool. This photo reveals that there is very often an access problem at fires that nothing short of a flying machine would ever address. The fire engines and their hoses quickly clog the street at nearly every fire, making it impossible for even the smallest of vehicles to get anywhere near the fire building. A modern problem is still best solved with Biblical aged technology. Two guys and a big ladder can negotiate these tight quarters every time.
Firefighters face the difficult challenge of saving lives and property using the simplest and most versatile tools that are available.
We train our newest people in this honorable trade.
Firefighters are proud of what they do. We consider it an honor and a privilege to serve and protect.
If you can build a device that will make our job safer, faster, better and more cost effective, we would love to put it to work.
The expression "See you at the Big One" is a common way for Firefighters to say "goodbye" to each other. We aren't refering to a fat horse, a Greyhound bus or a mountain top. We speak of a greater alarm fire. You see, even though a big fire is a tragedy to the property owner, it is an event that all worthy Firefighters look forward to.
This dandy example went to four alarms, and easily qualifies as a big one. We were there all night and into the next morning.
It was a carpet sales showroom and warehouse. The fire started after the business closed for the day. Don't ask me how it started, I rarely know the answer to that question. I just fight 'em, I don't investigate 'em.
What does it feel like to sit on top of a fire engine right next to an inferno? The answer will come in a later photo.
If you will recall, we talked about the fact that heat from a fire goes up. See that Firefighter on top of the ladder pipe? He has the best sense of everyone of just how hot the fire is. If the wind shifts, he will be enveloped in the smoke as well as the heat. The fact that his stream of water is pointed almost straight down is a good indicater of how close he is to the fire. Watching out for power lines is one of the biggest concerns when setting up a ladder pipe.
Greater Alarm fires are usually fought defensively. That means that everybody stays outside, and we pour water in with our largest hoses. It lacks the precision of an interior attack, but going inside just isn't an option on a fire like this.
Daybreak is almost on us; the fire is beginning to retreat. Firefighter Matthew goes to the tip of the aerial ladder to mop up a hot spot.
Do you have the courage to climb that ladder?
Once the fire is no longer a threat, we can finally go inside and look around.
Remember the Firefighters on top of the engine? This is the engine that they were perched on, and this was the side that was closest to the fire. Notice anything unusual? Look closely at the plastic parts of the engine. It got so hot that they melted! It wasn't that hot when they first got there, but after the wall of the building collapsed, the full brunt of the fire was felt by the crew.
Firefighting isn't just about running into burning buildings. One of the most painful jobs a Firefighter has to perform happens out on the street.
Most Firefighters love cars, and you may have figured out by now that cars are involved in a lot of the incidents we respond to. To add insult to injury, a lot of the cars I deal with are nicer than my 200,000 mile Subaru Legacy.
This low milage Corvette, for instance, has a new paint job. See that axe in the Firefighter's hand? If you are whimpering already, don't read any farther...
We have determined that this is an engine compartment fire. Before the axe is pressed into service, we stretch the hose line, open the driver's door, and attempt to open the hood the conventional way.
The skinny hood release cable is often one of the first things to fail in an engine fire, and that is exactly what happened here, so Firefighter Luby is going to resort to Plan B.
(Hum the theme song to the movie, The Crying Game.)
This isn't fun, trust me.
The strategy at this point is to expose enough of the engine compartment to make sure the fire is entirely out. It is really no different than overhauling a house fire. A re-kindle is to be avoided at all cost. That being the case... Let's whack on this formerly pristine beauty a little more!!!
Whack and peel, peel and whack.
OK, that's enough. Now we face the distraught owner of a car that will go down the road for the last time on the back of a flatbed tow truck (see Thomas' blog). Ironically, the owner sincerely thanks us for what we have done.
This blog entry is dedicated to my friend Kevin. Kevin and his car have had a really bad day. I'm glad to say that Kevin is OK; I only wish I could say the same for his car.
Firefighting isn't just about running into burning buildings. One of the most challenging jobs a Firefighter has to perform happens up on the roof.
These two brave souls are from Six Truck, and they are cutting a hole in the roof of a burning house. Why cut a hole, you ask? As you can imagine, things are pretty hot and smokey inside the house right now, and the Engine crew is doing their best to get the fire hose to the seat of the fire. Water doesn't put a fire out by blindly spraying it around inside the house, it has to be placed precisely on what is burning. By cutting a hole in the roof, much of the heat and smoke will be able to escape, which will make the house a LOT cooler and improve visibility for the Engine crew. That will enable them to get close enough to the fire to place their water accurately. Every Firefighter that's advancing a nozzle (on his hands and knees, if not his belly) listens for the sound of a saw running up on the roof. That is a welcome sound indeed!
Once the Engine crew has the bulk of the fire knocked down, overhaul begins. Pick head axes have been a Firefighter's favorite handtool since the days when horses pulled the fire engine. Mario is chopping away at the smouldering roof to uncover hidden hot spots. Nobody leaves until the last spark is extinguished!
Jeff is using the circular saw to cut away the eave. The whole roof is going to be replaced on this house. The fire is out now, and the first thing to come off is the breathing apparatus and our heavy coats.
As an experiment, try doing hard work ouside on a hot day while wearing your warmest winter coat. It won't take long to understand why Firefighters prefer to work in their tee-shirts.
Mario and Ryan asked me to take their picture, which I am always happy to oblige. The number on their helmets identify which apparatus they are working on that day. The four digit number is part of a state-wide numbering system. 25 means Oakland, 76 is Six Truck, and 58 is Eighteen Engine. Confused yet?
Captain Dino takes a well deserved breather. Well done, Dino!
Oct. 17, 2007 - an Antidote to the Dukes of Hazard
Friends,
I'm feeling a little guilty for the macabre post that precedes this one, so I offer you this serene image as a visual salve.
What we have here is a bean thresher that belongs to my friend Greg. His farm is next door to where I grew up in Vernalis. Still no fuzzy bunnies, but I think it is just as effective.
Most of you oldsters will remember that great TV show called The Dukes of Hazard. The highlight of the show each and every week was watching the car go airborn in a "just in the nick of time to escape from the bad guys" sort of moment.
That sort of thing never works out in real life, as this poor fellow found out. Photo #1 shows what happens when you go straight at a high rate of speed when you should be turning right at a safe rate of speed.
The arrow points to the spot where his car clipped the top (that's right, the TOP) of the eucalyptus tree. The tree is an estimated forty feet tall, and an estimated seventy five feet from the launch point.
Things get worse very quickly. What you see here in photo #2 is the boys from Five Truck using the Hurst tool (a.k.a. the Jaws of Life) to remove our intrepid and lifeless driver from his crumpled and useless car.
Photo #3 shows how we get a person down from the side of a steep hill.
The yellow rope is called a Friction Line. That's Bruce kneeling by the tree. He is playing out the line, which twists its way through a device called a Friction Lock. Bruce is able to support the weight of six large Firefighters and their patient all by himself. The Friction Line will control their descent down to the bottom of the hill, where the Deputy Coroner awaits.
Moral of the story: Kids, your parents aren't making stuff up when they stress the importance of safe driving. Our friend here never touched the brake; everything was fine until the instant that things went completely wrong. The only warning you get comes from your own common sense and forethought, of which our friend seemed to have little or none.
Kevin: Sorry for the lack of fuzzy bunnies on this one. I won't venture into such dark territory very often.
OK, friends, life has been full of distractions. But that doesn't mean things came to a grinding halt at work. I offer this set of photos as proof. Remeber the freeway collapse in Oakland? I missed the incident (wrong shift, wrong district), but I was able to show up the next day with my camera. My crew and I climbed a 40 foot ladder to get from the ground to the intermediate deck on which the gasoline delivery truck was travelling when it crashed. Here is a very rare photo of me with my Engineer, James.
This is a photo that I find fascinating. Note the curtain-like folds in the steel beam. That steel is about an inch thick. It was the failure of four of these steel beams that caused the concrete roadway they were supporting to collapse onto the burning truck.
Look closely at this photo, and you will see what is left of the burnt out eighteen wheel truck. It is laying on its right side. Remember the melted steel that was forty feet above the seat of the fire? Here you can see what's left of the thin aluminum tank that carried the fuel. This aluminum was able to survive even though it was just inches from the inferno. The fact that it was below the fire and protected by the un-burned fuel enabled it to survive. I think there is an object lesson here somewhere.
I've got two other new fires that I will post soon.
Jul. 13, 2007 - Station 18 is Oakland's most photogenic firehouse
Welcome to Station 18. I was there for one day, and had enough time to get some shooting done, despite the fact that it is a very busy station.
It is also a very old station, and is the next one slated to be replaced. It was the first firehouse in Oakland that was designed for motorized fire engines. All the firehouses built prior to this one had horse drawn apparatus in them.
This box contains shoe polish and brushes for keeping our boots nice and shiny. Every firehouse has one, and even the old timers (I'm NOT the oldest guy here!) remember seeing them on their first day of duty.
Our chef for the evening made onion rings to go with our dinner, and two of them stuck together in the frying pan. It wouldn't have meant as much at Station 19.
Here we have another drill photo. Fire Departments from around the Bay Area gather at Camp Parks in Dublin to practice fighting grass fires. We improve our skills, and Camp Parks has less to worry about after we are done burning off hundreds of acres of dry grass.
The homes in the background weren't there two years ago. We are doing them a favor by reducing the fire danger in the area, but many of the homeowners hate the massive clouds of smoke that are generated by the burns. There is more construction going on all the time, so the dilema will get worse, not better.
By now, I'm sure that you've heard of the infamous Mountain Lion sighting in our back yard. Anthony's quick thinking saved the day (not to mention his health and well being).
It's sad to say, but over-grown felines aren't the only disagreeable creatures to roam around Calaveras County. Case in point; I present to you the contents of our swimming pool skimmer!!
This is a centipede. None of us have ever been face to face with one that still had its wits about it, but this is not the first one I've pulled out of the swimming pool, post mortem. Apparently they get thirsty at night, or they are just bashful swimmers. In either case, let this be a lesson to you; Never swim alone!! Incidentally, the dime was added for a reference. FDR has never been swimming at the Hector's.
To learn more about these creatures of God, go to:
Here are a couple of recruits, which are even NEWER than New Kids. A recruit isn't even a Firefighter yet, they are students that are in a twelve week academy, learning the skills that are needed to become Firefighters. These recruits are practicing their ladder throws. This is a fairly short ladder, at a mere 20 feet long. The longest ground ladder is 40 feet, but the "40" is a two section ladder. Our longest single section ladder is 24 feet long. I had to wait until both recruits were looking straight up in order to capture the profiles of their helmets.
Here is a shot of a water shut-off. Cars or trucks will occasionally hit a fire hydrant. This is the result. Sometimes that column of water comes straight down on the street valve. It feels like gravel pouring down on you as you fight to shut it off.
This photo was taken by my good friend, Danny. I've got a few shots of hydrant shut-offs, but nothing that communicates the way a Firefighter feels about getting that close to so much fast moving water as this one does.
People like the fire shots, so let's take a look at this one from the Drill Tower. This is the propane prop. The objective is to shut off the gas with out getting scorched. You do it by pushing back the heat and flames with two teams, each staffing a fire hose. This is Anthony, and he has just "lit off" the prop for the next group of students.
This is Sean. He is doing the dirty job that we call "overhaul". Before we leave a house that has been burning, we chop, cut and scrape away any burnt material that might harbor a smouldering ember. That ember could grow into what is called a "re-kindle". A re-kindle is a second fire that comes back to do even more damage to the house. No Firefighter wants the shame of being responsible for a re-kindle, so we work as a team to remove all the debris that might shelter such an ember. It is the longest, slowest and least glamorous part of fighting a fire. Sean is working to clear the area between two houses. I am shooting straight down on him from the second floor of the house.
May. 21, 2007 - And now, for something completely different!
This is Bear. He spends a lot of time in the woods.
We rolled out of bed a little after 4:00 am to fight this fire. It was daylight by the time we stripped the roof completely off the house. Firefighting is very dirty business. By the look on Bear's face, you can also tell that it is exhausting.
This is Javan and a probationary Firefighter. Every probie is called "New kid".
Javan and the new kid are about to head to the fourth floor to combat a working fire. For whatever reason, the Chief held things up for a moment and that set the stage for me to get this shot. Javan is confident and relaxed. New kid's face tells a different story.
For those of you that noticed my departure, it is my prayer that you will also notice my return. This time I've brought photos with me.
This was a carport fire. A carport is nice and open, which means there is plenty of air to fuel a fire. When you store an assortment of flammable goodies (including a Buick) under there, all it takes is an ignition source to start a fast growing, brightly burning fire.
This was a case of me being in the right place at the right time. The fire was "knocked" seconds after the shot was taken. I was on the third due Engine, which is a standby position. That gives me the luxury of carrying the camera up to the fire scene, which is something that the first or second Engine crew cannot do. The order in which the various Engines are due is determined by their proximity (when in quarters) to the address of the fire.
Here is the aforementioned Buick. The crew is working to open the hood, which becomes problematic once the release cable burns off. This photo was taken within 30 seconds of the first one.
This may be the 
be safe, 
Some fires are way in the back, far beyond the reach of any sort of boom truck. Carrying a ladder down between this row of homes is simple, fast and effective.
Firefighters face the difficult challenge of saving lives and property using the simplest and most versatile tools that are available.
What we have here is a bean thresher that belongs to my friend Greg. His farm is next door to where I grew up in Vernalis. Still no fuzzy bunnies, but I think it is just as effective.
