fighting the toasty fight
At the beginning of August I made a decision to join the Martinsville volunteer fire company. This is something I've considered for years, but never seriously considered due to lack of confidence and athletic ability mostly. With all the biking I've been doing as of late I'm feeling better than I ever have before. So with all this new confidence and the constant desire to do new things I went into it not knowing fully what to expect.
Martinsville itself doesn't get many calls, and considering that I'm away at work when most of them occur, I haven't experienced much yet. Hopefully at some point I can be self-employed through various means and be around for more, that's a whole different thing though. The most interesting call was alarms going off with the owner not home. Two officers went in, found nothing wrong, and let the rest of the officers in. Normally I wouldn't be allowed in, but since no fire was actually occurring I got to go in and watch. It ended up being a dead battery in one detector, and since they were all wired together, they all went off. These are fun ways to start the morning! The other calls I've responded to we end up being called back. One was a mutual aid call to a school in another township and we were not needed as nothing was wrong. And the other was just another alarm going off and the other station got there first so we went back. Two things I've noticed, getting calls in the morning is a great way to wake up; gets you ready for the day. Getting calls at night makes it impossible to sleep when you get back.
I started attending classes at the fire academy in Hillsborough two nights a week. We're starting to get into the interesting stuff, though the beginner classes are still important. Last week we learned how to use the air-packs, that was an interesting class. They had us wear the air-packs during our break (usually a 10 minute break during the 3-hour class) to get used to wearing them. The people who normally smoke on their breaks were not pleased, oh well. This week we'll be continuing our use of air-packs and putting out fires with extinguishers. Class isn't over until mid-December, quite a commitment, hopefully I make it through.
Monday I will be going to court for the initial hearing in a case where a car passed our fire truck (lights and sirens on) and stayed in front of it for a few miles. The car only pulled over after noticing a cop coming up the road after a turn. Interestingly, the cop did stop the person, but let them go since they said "they didn't see it". The cop came to the scene afterward (alarm with no one home) and we told him our story. Hopefully the guy pleads guilty and it will be over, otherwise we will be called again as witnesses. It completely blows my mind how someone would pass a fire truck. I just do not understand.
Well, that's all I have to say about this for the moment. I figured some people may be interested in this. Of course, some may not.
Martinsville itself doesn't get many calls, and considering that I'm away at work when most of them occur, I haven't experienced much yet. Hopefully at some point I can be self-employed through various means and be around for more, that's a whole different thing though. The most interesting call was alarms going off with the owner not home. Two officers went in, found nothing wrong, and let the rest of the officers in. Normally I wouldn't be allowed in, but since no fire was actually occurring I got to go in and watch. It ended up being a dead battery in one detector, and since they were all wired together, they all went off. These are fun ways to start the morning! The other calls I've responded to we end up being called back. One was a mutual aid call to a school in another township and we were not needed as nothing was wrong. And the other was just another alarm going off and the other station got there first so we went back. Two things I've noticed, getting calls in the morning is a great way to wake up; gets you ready for the day. Getting calls at night makes it impossible to sleep when you get back.
I started attending classes at the fire academy in Hillsborough two nights a week. We're starting to get into the interesting stuff, though the beginner classes are still important. Last week we learned how to use the air-packs, that was an interesting class. They had us wear the air-packs during our break (usually a 10 minute break during the 3-hour class) to get used to wearing them. The people who normally smoke on their breaks were not pleased, oh well. This week we'll be continuing our use of air-packs and putting out fires with extinguishers. Class isn't over until mid-December, quite a commitment, hopefully I make it through.
Monday I will be going to court for the initial hearing in a case where a car passed our fire truck (lights and sirens on) and stayed in front of it for a few miles. The car only pulled over after noticing a cop coming up the road after a turn. Interestingly, the cop did stop the person, but let them go since they said "they didn't see it". The cop came to the scene afterward (alarm with no one home) and we told him our story. Hopefully the guy pleads guilty and it will be over, otherwise we will be called again as witnesses. It completely blows my mind how someone would pass a fire truck. I just do not understand.
Well, that's all I have to say about this for the moment. I figured some people may be interested in this. Of course, some may not.