A Day of Carnage

After only being asleep for just over an hour my Pullman Fire pager had a second alarm sounding. It woke me up. They were looking for all available people to respond to their station. I also heard Lewiston Ambulance on the radio talking to One-Ninety-Five command. They asked where the two Lewiston ambulances should go. Command said to park behind the other ambulances. So I figured there were at least four ambulances on scene of something big. I listened in some more. I heard them talk about calling out Paul twenty-two and advising Paul sixty-four. So I figured I may be called out to something.

I got up and started to gather my coroner’s stuff. I sat around listening to the scanner and waited by the phone. By around three-twenty in the morning when nothing else was said about the coroner I went back to bed. Before I fell asleep I heard them say that sixty-four was notified and he was going to contact his deputies to respond. I got up and started to get dressed. My phone rang and Pete advised me to go to the scene and what was happening. We had two who had died at a car accident.

I got my camera from my office and got some pop and headed to the scene. When I arrived I asked Deputy Waltz where I should park. He pointed out where I should go up the road a little more. When I pulled up I was parked next to the Chaplin. A couple D-twelve firefighters, including Whetzel, came up to me and started to talk to me. They told me it was not pretty. They said there were “body parts everywhere”. I was preparing myself for a very gory scene.

My typical investigation routine is working from the outside to the inside of a scene. I started by getting my camera and tripod. I set it up and started to take photos working my way into the scene. I was taking photographs of the overall area as I got closer. It was very cold outside. In fact it was about four degrees before freezing on scene. Summer is officially over.

When I got closer to the main part of the scene, I was not hit by what everyone was saying I was see. In fact they had been exaggerating. I don’t believe it was on purpose, but it was not as bad as they would have had me believe when I was being told about it.

Pete was on his way as well. It was still very dark and I was not getting all the photos as good as I would want them due to the scene lighting. But after Pete arrived I told him what I knew about the scene and the car accident. He went up with his camera and started to take photos. By the time we were ready to do the removal of the bodies it was light enough to get some better pictures of the scene. We cleared the scene a little after six in the morning and went to the funeral home where we did a more indepth look at the bodies. We did our normal stuff at the funeral home. But it was taking a lot time because we had two bodies.

A state trooper came to do his stuff. I assisted with what he needed. But it was really starting to get later in the afternoon. I told Pete I had to call it a day. It was past ten o’clock in the morning and I had been working this whole thing for nearly eight hours.

I went to the office and worked on getting Kim’s picture for the picture board and website updated and put up. I also got the photo board at the fire station fixed.

I went back to my office and got some information for Shawn at work that he was looking for. He is working on fixing the issue with the E-mail problem. As we were getting closer to three I realized we did not have our weekly dev meeting, because we had changed it to bi-monthly. I wrote up my normal weekly update and sent it in E-mail to Chris. Then I went to the fire station again to sign my PAF for my new position and pay raise. I went to city hall to get my pay check from last month, and then I was off to the Deuce for training.

Erik, Tyson, and I were going to take out Engine Thirty-Three from some pump and drive time on it for me. I got a primer on using the pump. It is a lot easier to use than the one on Engine Thirty-One (the old green engine). We only pumped on it for about forty minutes but I think I had it figured out. It was a lot less work to run that the old green one.

We then did drive time until five-thirty. We got back to the station, lifted the cab on it and went over the places where the oil and tranny fluid dipsticks were located. Erik left, and Tyson and I each went to get something to eat. We were going to be working the Pullman high school football game.

Walker got Reed to cover for him, so Reed showed up and Tyson showed up. We did our daily check of the Rescue and we were off to the football game. Pullman High school did not dominate like last year, but they played a good game and won it. Erwin from D-Twelve was there and chatted with us for a little bit before making his way to the stands.

When the game was complete we left to go back to the Deuce. We were all staying there for the night so we could get first on-scene to some calls. We were watching some TV and trying to stay awake. I was dragging because I have been up since really early and running on a small amount of sleep.

It was almost eleven o’clock and even the cops were quiet. I was a few minutes of going to sleep when a call came out for a structure fire on Larry Street. We checked the map and took off for the scene. Engine Thirty-two rolled when we did. We were following them into the scene. When we got close to Larry I saw the flames on the building. I knew we had a real fire and we were going to be fighting it. I got out and packed up. Reed and I reported to Turpin. Wilcox was with us. Turpin had us put out a dwelling lay. I asked him if he wanted us to put some water on it from the outside as the desk and part of the outside of the building was burning. He said to lay the line around back and then come up and put water on it.

I did that and got water. I sprayed the deck and wall as other units were arriving. I got the fire on the outside put out. I could see into the attic through a couple in opening. I was able to spray water inside the opening. I knocked down the fire. Then I waited a few seconds. The glow grew a tiny bit so I hit it again. I did that a total of three times, then we were ready to go inside the building. Reed and I were made into the backup line. Gollnick and Fritzke were on the entry team. Wilcox helped up hump hose inside the building. We went back to the bedroom where the fire was and pulled down the ceiling. We found the fire was pretty much out. We found some hot embers from time to time, but I had pretty much put it out.

After we were relieved by a second crew we were assigned to find the cat that lived in that unit. We could not find it, but the homeowner did. She got her cat and I put them inside the PL at the direction of the chief. The homeowner and her friend went inside. The homeowner asked to come out for a minute. She told me she thought she knew what happened. She said her friend who was with her may have used a planter on the deck as a ashtray. She did not want to say that in front of the friend, because the friend felt really bad.

Rich got there right afterwards. I told him what I had been told and went back to the staging area. Medic Thirty-one was back in service. D-Twelve was on scene and their guys were helping out.

While things were really starting to wind down we got dispatched to a roll-over accident where the car was on fire and someone was inside. I asked James if we should go. He released us and we took off. D-twelve was go as well. We were cruising out to the scene. I was thinking of the worst. We were about three miles out Medic got on scene and said there was no fire.

D-twelve and Rescue pulled up. I parked next to D-Twelve’s rig. They had people on patient car. Erwin was pulling out hose for fire protection. I asked if he wanted help. So I got the hose and had Tyson help me flake it out so we could get water. I had them charge the line and bled the air. I was holding the line when
Reed yelled that we needed to do extrication. I told Erwin I had to get going on that and left the line. He had two of his guys get the line and got the tools with Tyson.

We got the tool set up and going. The cutting was slower on the combitool than the old cutters we had. It also has a smaller bite. I went to work cutting the A, B, and C post to roll the roof down. The guys doing EMS were yelling to hurry up. I was going as fast as the tool would let me.

After some work on it, we got Colfax’s cutters out for the final parts of the cutting because it was going to be faster than our tool. When we finally got the roof cut we rolled it down. I backed up and let the people who were ready with the backboard and other equipment to step in and do their thing. I got the cot from the ambulance with Tyson.

I also drove the ambulance to the hospital. We went in code-three. When we arrived I helped get the patient out and took C-spine. We got the patient into the ER where the trauma team was waiting for us.

We spent about twenty minutes cleaning the ambulance and equipment. We also spent some time making sure Rescue was back in service after the fire and car accident. I was surprised that it was pretty much ready to go. We needed air in the bottles and we needed to close the cutter blade on the combitool, but that was about it.

We left the hospital and got our air bottles filled and cleaned the SCBA regulators. We went back to the station. I was talking to James about my experience with the combitool when we got toned out for another call. This one turned out to be a non-transport. We cleared the scene and went back to the station. It was nearing four in the morning and we were ready to get some sleep. I made my way to the bed and conked out.