Smoke in the Sky over Pullman

August 24th, 2006

As I finally was able to leave Colfax for the night and descend to Pullman I noticed light-brown air filling the sky. Coming down Davis Way the brown air was so thick I could barely see across Pullman. It was pretty amazing. The smell of smoke is all about.

I made my way to Pizza Pipeline for some lunch and went directly to the office, getting to work sometime after eleven in the morning. There was some work to do. I tried to get going on it, and did accomplish a little bit, but I was tired. I have been up for more than twenty-four straight hours. I am also on call tonight so it does not look good for sleep.

After being at work for a couple hours I was dragging hard core so I went to my house and cleaned up. My bed was calling, but I decided to get ready to be on call. I got my bedding. I thought staying at the fire station would be a great idea for tonight.

I was down there for a while when James mentioned that the “Meet the Staff” link still has the old shift line ups. So I went to the computer and fixed those. Chuck called and said he would be down there for the BBQ we were going to around five o’clock. He asked me to check the rigs and see if they needed to be washed. Rescue was not bad, but I gave it a wash anyway. There was a fine layer on dust on it.

I got done in time for us to put our gear on it and drive to the Columbia Village apartments. I was told to back the Rescue into the gate. It was so tight I had about an inch between the truck and the gate post. But I made it in. I got myself some dinner. While we were eating I found out Chuck got hired by Shelton Fire. So he will not be going to Medic School, but he will be leaving for sure. So it looks like I may be a Crew Leader pretty soon.

After we were done with dinner we were showing the Rescue off. The kids were really annoying, even more than normal to me. It could have been that I was tired. I am really not sure why. The cops were there too and let the kids play with the siren. I told the captain that we needed to use the growler and let them hear a real siren. He gave me permission. I went to the PL and hit the growler. Not a lot, but it was awesome. It gave me a smile.

Once the people stopped coming over and it was winding down we started to get the rigs out and leave. It was tight making Rescue leave. We drove down Forrest Way towards Two-Seventy. Reed was the only one with me. We were listening to the police on our radio when they started to talk about a motorcycle versus a car accident in a parking lot. There was confusion about the exact location. It was thought to be CCN or CCS. But it was also said that it was on SE Olympia. There is no SE Olympia in Pullman, but there is a NE Olypmia, it is right by Stephenson. We were right by Stephenson, so I turned on Nevada which turns into Olympia. That was about the time they were dispatching it.

They put it out as a Delta response, with a possible broken leg. A broken leg is usually not something that someone will die of, so I was not too concerned. I figured it was all a low speed. But when the cops got there I heard the dispatcher come over our frequency and let us know the cop is there and holding pressure to slow the bleeding. That is when I knew there was a bit of a problem.

It was put out in the CCS parking lot and a cop was right there. So we took the scenic route to get there. It really was the scenic route, but if we had not turned to go towards Olympia we would not have had the extra couple roads to travel down. We were coming up Merman Drive as Engine Thirty-Two was coming down. I saw the police cars.

I parked across the street to leave room in the parking lot for the Ambulance. We walked across the street to the parking lot. I could see a group of people standing around and some people across the street by where I was parked. It was quite the thing to do at the time. The motorcycle was on the side and he was laying on the parking lot with a cop holding pressure. As I got closer I could see hunks of flesh with blood. I knew that was not a good sign. There was a fair amount of blood and the injury was severe.

We put on a couple trauma dressings and an air splint to stabilize the injury. He had bones showing with a hug cut area showing muscle and fat tissues. It was very bad looking. He was transported code-three. I got to the hospital and helped to clean everything up.

Reed and I stopped by station one and saw the first responders doing their testing. We were talking about the call as well as joking about other things. We were there for a little bit when we got called to the SRC for an injured ankle. But when we got on scene we were cancelled. So we went back to the Deuce. Chuck was there and we talked about house buying. He is looking at houses in Shelton on the Internet.

I sat down and watched some TV but I was so tired that I decided it would be a good idea to go to bed. But with me being up for thirty-six-plus hours and with the fact we have had very few night time calls I knew tonight would be the night for them. I went to sleep ten minutes after ten o’clock. Within thirty-five minutes we were getting dispatched to someone with chest pain.

It was out in the county. Sort of a frequent flyer. D-Twelve also came and they went with the Ambulance to the hospital with the patient. We cleared and went back to the station. Just as we were going to back it in another call for a fire alarm came in. We got changed quickly and drove to the scene. I was IC. I did the size up. We went inside and could see the smoke detector going as well as the smell of the burnt food. We spent some time trying to find the alarm panel. When Engine Thirty-Two arrived we had them come in and help with the panel. Finally we sent Keith outside to get someone from the house to show us the panel.

We got the system reset. James asked if I wanted to hand off the case to him or if I wanted to do the report. I told him I would like to do it because I have never done one. He got me started and then I wrote it up. I printed it off and set it on the log book. I went to bed. But it was not to be for very long. I got another call for a detox at a little after two in the morning. That time I was really tired. I am talking super duper tired. I said to the other guys, now I know what it is like to be a mortal and feel really tired.

We finally got back and I went right to bed, but it was after three in the morning. I decided I should get up before James leaves and talk to him about my report. My alarm clock was set for seven-forty. Way too early for my last two days.


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