Fires

This afternoon I went to the Cougar Kids Camp to show the kids the Rescue and to talk to them about the fire department as well as answering questions. Then we let them play with the hose and spray water. They all were playing under the water stream getting wet. They had a really good time.

Later on we were going to be doing fireworks patrols around the city. Pretty much we were just being visible. We hit all four hills a couple times each. We were doing it four five hours. After two and a half hours it had been quiet. Then we got an EMS call. While waiting on that a delta – structure fire was dispatched. We were cleared by the PD from the medical call as there was no medical situation.

We went to the scene. It turned out to be a brush fire in front of the apartment building. Parrish got to pump Engine Thirty-One on that fire. It was his first fire. Williams also was command and that was his first time. I got Rescue there and we pumped that as well. Rescue mainly was just used for mop up.

We took a few minutes to get back in service and drove around some more. I had planned on staying on College Hill, but with the Engine driving there I said we would go to Pioneer Hill. I stopped at the gas station on Bishop just off of Main Street. I mentioned to A. Wilcox the last time I was there in a department vehicle we had a structure fire that night. We drove around and stopped in a couple areas briefly to chat with people lighting off fireworks.

It was getting to be past ten o’clock PM. We were going to call it a night at eleven. Just as we went up Whitman on College Hill we got dispatched to a delta response for a fire near a building. We lit up the lights and started to head that way.

Engine was on scene within seconds of the dispatch. They had seen the smoke and started that way to investigate. They were turning onto Deane where the call was. They saw the flames and then heard the dispatch. We spent more than an hour on the scene putting out the fire and overhaul. Which meant we cut away a ton of the shrubs and tree limbs to get into the fire area.

As it turned out Parrish pumped again, Williams was command again, and I pumped Rescue while there. Heston showed up on that one and just watched for the most part. He congratulated me on my position on the list. He asked if I would accept the position. I told him that if one was offered that I would take it.

It took about another hour to clean up and get both Engine and Rescue back in service and fueled up after the call. We got the Rescue washed and went home. I wasn’t home very long when we got toned out for another delta response for a wildland fire. This one turned out to be an illegal burn in a fire pit. We did go and put it out using Rescue to pump.

It was one heck of a long night.