Crazy and Busy Day

This morning my pager, which was on second alarm mode, started to make noise. The page said “Pullman Fire, Delta Response for a Structure Fire”. I quickly got up and started my way downstairs. I heard the address and knew it was close to my place.

I opened the door and saw snow. I thought to myself “Am I more shocked over the fire or the snow?”. Then I looked up and saw heavy brown smoke coming from the south-east area behind my house. On the way to the station the guys leaving Station Two quickly called or a second alarm. I drove by the scene and saw the whole front of the building involved in fire.

I got to the station and got ready for the call. Two others showed up and went headed to the scene. We were the second rig on scene with the PL and ambulance right behind us. I backed up the guy on the handline and we worked to put out the fire and protect the exposure. We worked that line until the PL started to put water on the fire from above us.

Once the PL started to put water on the fire we started to get ahead. Up until then we were only maintaining, maybe gaining a little ground. Soon we didn’t need to use our handline anymore. We set it down waiting for our next task.

The snow was still falling and it was starting to stick. We were sent into the apartment where the fire got started. We checked it looking for more fire and making sure there was no one in it.

After going through that building we went into the upstairs apartment to back up the team doing some overhaul in the two upper buildings. After we got out we got dispatched to a car accident. By this time there was about an inch of snow on the ground in June! We locked our hubs and went to the wreck. It was non-injury. On the way back to the structure fire we got toned out to a fall.

We were first on scene only to find our EMS kit was at the fire being used for rehab. So we went in with our other equipment to help the patient until the ambulance got on scene. Once we cleared there we went back to the apartment.

We helped to get things broken down and started to head back to the station to get the rig back in service. But we got called back to help with taking care of a water flowing problem. We turned off the water and then went to the next call that had been toned out. We were getting called to a lot of tree limbs falling due to the weight of the snow.

We were cancelled before we got on scene. We got to station one and there was a lot of food for breakfast that Carl from the PD cooked for us. I had some food and made sure Rescue was back in service.

We got back to the Deuce and washed the rig before heading out. It was a long morning.

This evening our softball game was cancelled due to the snow getting the field really wet. I went to HazMat training instead. We had a fake call that we worked and spent time putting together an action plan including research on the chemical involved. I was put in charge of the research team because of my computer skills.