(no subject)
I had a busy work night, last night, with all of the bad weather. It was pretty tame until the storm got really bad and all of the lightning strikes began. We were working fires in almost every part of the city. If you saw the live footage on the news, downtown with all of the sparks shooting into the air, that's where I was. It was a lightning strike to an electrical box on the roof of the Republic Bank Headquarters building, at 6th and Market. It burned through the roof and into the floor below, where it also smoldered in concealed wall spaces.
It wasn't really a lot of fire at all. It basically involved a bunch of us cutting a whole in the gravel covered roof of a tall building with axes and saws during a thunderstorm, marching lots of hoses and equipment up and down stairs, and bumbling around in the smokey darkness opening up ceilings, tearing out burned material and soaking it down. Just like most of the time we work a fire in a high-rise, it takes a long time to clear much of the smoke out. Some people believe that we can breathe out of our tanks for hours, like scuba divers. Not so. A firefighter's SCBA holds 30 minutes of air. That is, 30 minutes for the average person while at rest. The average firefighter is bigger than the average person and if he's on air, he's not at rest. He's probably working as fast as he can while carrying lots of heavy crap. An SCBA actually lasts about 15 minutes, often much less. That's why you don't go on air until you need to, especially on a high-rise. It might take you more than 15 minutes to find your way through a smokey floor of cubicles and offices. It might take a couple of hours to ventilate all of the haze out of large area. You'd never get done if everybody was going back out every 15 minutes to change bottles.
The point of me relating all of that was to set you up for something someone said to me last night. We'd been in there for about an hour and the smoke was finally beginning to get pretty thin. One of the guys I was working with said, "You know, the amount of toxins and carcinogens we absorbed just now was probably more than most people are exposed to in a lifetime."
He was absolutely right! I know that the chemicals and particulates in smoke are bad for you. I know that when black smoke is pouring out of a little car fire, most people smell it and get the fuck away from it. I get right up on it with a booster hose. You can't stand back. You have to get in there and pop the hood and get in under the dash and put it out. The insides of cars, the upholstery, the contents of a home, textiles, paints, furniture,... Do you know what all of that stuff is made of? Plastic, vinyl, polyester, formica, paint, chemical treated lumber, MDF, etc... All of that stuff is made out of the stuff carried in tanker trucks and train cars with hazardous materials placards on them, and when you burn something, it turns back into those poisons, only now it's an invisible gas. I've known these things for a long time, but the way he made that comment really resonated in a new way. In that first hour, each of us received a lifetime dosage of cancer and we were paid about $12.50 while it happened.
I enjoy my job and I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from it. How many people can say that? I don't want anyone to kiss my ass or pretend I'm heroic or give me awards and medals and shit all the time. I'm pretty happy with my pay and I feel like I have some pretty decent job benefits. A lot of people don't fair as well as me on that front. What pisses me off is the way the city's administation addresses it's public safety workers. It's a constant struggle to get things done when dealing with this city. Hiring, equipment, contracts, operating procedures, ... You wouldn't believe how political it all is. Our contract has been expired for almost 2 years now. Some unions don't work without a contract, but of course, firefighters can't do that. We've had a lawsuit against the city for years, also, because they won't pay our overtime properly. Twice a judge has found in our favor, but it keeps getting appealed and the city keeps stalling it any way they can. Eventually, enough of our retirees will die off and inflation and lawyer fees will pile up until we all wish we'd never bothered trying to get them to pay it in the first place. We have to fight and campaign for any living condition or safety stuff also. It's ridiculous sometimes. Insurance is a big issue with us too. I pay about $180 per check for Humana HMO. It's not the best plan, but I know that lots of people pay more, (or worse, they don't even have any insurance available to them). I just happen to agree with most other firefighters my job should have a better insurance deal. The cops have a great one. It's almost free family insurance. I'm glad they get it. I don't hate cops, it's just a little insulting that a cop with the same amount of time as me makes $10,000 a year more with better benefits, less hours, easier training, and in my opinion, a safer overall occupation. The city agreed to their plan as a recruitment thing. Whenever crime seems to be on the rise, the politicians like to add a few cops. They do this to make themselves look good. I think we all know that cops don't directly stop crime very often. They typically show up afterwards. If you want to prevent crime you have to address things like poverty, education, rehabilitation in prisons, sentencing guidelines, etc... Boring stuff. Putting cops on the street looks better to Joe Sixpack and the Soccer Moms (good name for a band?). I digress. The cops got awesome insurance, and of course, we tried to negotiate for the same on our next contract, but didn't have a chance. We'll never get the great insurance deal they've got, even though we need it at least as much. I think, when I was hired the city should've said, "Jon, you're going to be exposed to deadly poisons at incredible levels, contagious sick people on a daily basis that will lie to you about the level of risk you assume by treating them, chemicals that might take decades to kill you and all sorts of hazards we haven't even considered yet. Some of them you may even bring home to your family. Statistically, the occupation you are choosing will result in a much shorter life for you. Because of this, we're going to take care of the extra medical expenses you and your family will incur. We're going to hook you up with a great insurance plan for little or no cost to you." That didn't happen though. That just sounds stupid. Doesn't it?
It wasn't really a lot of fire at all. It basically involved a bunch of us cutting a whole in the gravel covered roof of a tall building with axes and saws during a thunderstorm, marching lots of hoses and equipment up and down stairs, and bumbling around in the smokey darkness opening up ceilings, tearing out burned material and soaking it down. Just like most of the time we work a fire in a high-rise, it takes a long time to clear much of the smoke out. Some people believe that we can breathe out of our tanks for hours, like scuba divers. Not so. A firefighter's SCBA holds 30 minutes of air. That is, 30 minutes for the average person while at rest. The average firefighter is bigger than the average person and if he's on air, he's not at rest. He's probably working as fast as he can while carrying lots of heavy crap. An SCBA actually lasts about 15 minutes, often much less. That's why you don't go on air until you need to, especially on a high-rise. It might take you more than 15 minutes to find your way through a smokey floor of cubicles and offices. It might take a couple of hours to ventilate all of the haze out of large area. You'd never get done if everybody was going back out every 15 minutes to change bottles.
The point of me relating all of that was to set you up for something someone said to me last night. We'd been in there for about an hour and the smoke was finally beginning to get pretty thin. One of the guys I was working with said, "You know, the amount of toxins and carcinogens we absorbed just now was probably more than most people are exposed to in a lifetime."
He was absolutely right! I know that the chemicals and particulates in smoke are bad for you. I know that when black smoke is pouring out of a little car fire, most people smell it and get the fuck away from it. I get right up on it with a booster hose. You can't stand back. You have to get in there and pop the hood and get in under the dash and put it out. The insides of cars, the upholstery, the contents of a home, textiles, paints, furniture,... Do you know what all of that stuff is made of? Plastic, vinyl, polyester, formica, paint, chemical treated lumber, MDF, etc... All of that stuff is made out of the stuff carried in tanker trucks and train cars with hazardous materials placards on them, and when you burn something, it turns back into those poisons, only now it's an invisible gas. I've known these things for a long time, but the way he made that comment really resonated in a new way. In that first hour, each of us received a lifetime dosage of cancer and we were paid about $12.50 while it happened.
I enjoy my job and I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from it. How many people can say that? I don't want anyone to kiss my ass or pretend I'm heroic or give me awards and medals and shit all the time. I'm pretty happy with my pay and I feel like I have some pretty decent job benefits. A lot of people don't fair as well as me on that front. What pisses me off is the way the city's administation addresses it's public safety workers. It's a constant struggle to get things done when dealing with this city. Hiring, equipment, contracts, operating procedures, ... You wouldn't believe how political it all is. Our contract has been expired for almost 2 years now. Some unions don't work without a contract, but of course, firefighters can't do that. We've had a lawsuit against the city for years, also, because they won't pay our overtime properly. Twice a judge has found in our favor, but it keeps getting appealed and the city keeps stalling it any way they can. Eventually, enough of our retirees will die off and inflation and lawyer fees will pile up until we all wish we'd never bothered trying to get them to pay it in the first place. We have to fight and campaign for any living condition or safety stuff also. It's ridiculous sometimes. Insurance is a big issue with us too. I pay about $180 per check for Humana HMO. It's not the best plan, but I know that lots of people pay more, (or worse, they don't even have any insurance available to them). I just happen to agree with most other firefighters my job should have a better insurance deal. The cops have a great one. It's almost free family insurance. I'm glad they get it. I don't hate cops, it's just a little insulting that a cop with the same amount of time as me makes $10,000 a year more with better benefits, less hours, easier training, and in my opinion, a safer overall occupation. The city agreed to their plan as a recruitment thing. Whenever crime seems to be on the rise, the politicians like to add a few cops. They do this to make themselves look good. I think we all know that cops don't directly stop crime very often. They typically show up afterwards. If you want to prevent crime you have to address things like poverty, education, rehabilitation in prisons, sentencing guidelines, etc... Boring stuff. Putting cops on the street looks better to Joe Sixpack and the Soccer Moms (good name for a band?). I digress. The cops got awesome insurance, and of course, we tried to negotiate for the same on our next contract, but didn't have a chance. We'll never get the great insurance deal they've got, even though we need it at least as much. I think, when I was hired the city should've said, "Jon, you're going to be exposed to deadly poisons at incredible levels, contagious sick people on a daily basis that will lie to you about the level of risk you assume by treating them, chemicals that might take decades to kill you and all sorts of hazards we haven't even considered yet. Some of them you may even bring home to your family. Statistically, the occupation you are choosing will result in a much shorter life for you. Because of this, we're going to take care of the extra medical expenses you and your family will incur. We're going to hook you up with a great insurance plan for little or no cost to you." That didn't happen though. That just sounds stupid. Doesn't it?