Big Fire on A-Shift

Today I was ending my short four day run in Bellevue. I had Chapman covering for me tonight, and he was going to cover until I got back to Pullman. I knew it was going to be a long day at the office because of what I had to get done. Around six at night I checked the Daily News website. I saw that there was a big fire in Pullman at the grain bin on the Pullman-Moscow Highway. I was disappointed because I thought I missed a fire. But I also figured it might go on long enough for me to do something at.

The View of the Fire before I left Bellevue

A view of the fire from the backside

Another daytime view of the fire

I made the trip without trying to rush it too much. When I got back to Pullman I found that the bay was empty at Station Thirty-Two. I went my house changed and back to the fire station. Upon my arrival I found the ambulance was back. I went in and spoke with Chapman. He said I could probably go to Station One and get out to the scene. My only concern was if I would be able to get back in time for Ryan’s bachelor party.

I decided to go to the station and see if I could make it out to the scene. Within a few minutes of getting to the station I was sent out with Erickson to the scene in the ambulance. I got to go into the bucket with Nick. We were using the masterstream to help keep the side grain bin remain cool. The middle bin was burning. Brown gave me a camera to take some photos. While I was up there I noticed what appeared to be smoke coming from the eves of the side grain bin. I notified Brown. Later on D-Twelve said the same thing. It was not long that we received word that we were not going to stop it from burning.

I sat in the bucket for a while by myself waiting for the side bin to really get going. I had a camera and I had been taking photos of the whole thing. We moved a propane tank away from the building and used the masterstream from the PL to help protect the PL and the propane tank from the heat of the fire. Wilson showed back up and I used a handline to keep us cool in the PL bucket.

As the fire got roaring I got some action shots.

Hot grain flows from the middle bin like hot lava.

Beginning stages of the second bin burning

Second bin is full of fire, metal siding is red hot.

As the fire got rolling it was very hot in the bucket. We were the closest for the fire. We really didn’t do anything to slow down the fire progression. Once in a while I would stop flowing the handline, which I had in a fog pattern, to see the difference in the heat. It was pretty big. Around five in the morning the small bin had burnt to the ground.

Our replacements showed up and I got to go to the station. While I was there A. Wilcox was there. We talked about the fire and the response for the rest of the night. It was just him and I on Rescue should a call have come out. But by six in the morning nothing had come out. I got home finally and in bed.

I Am Going to Kill Them

People who know me well know that I am not a violent person. However, even those of us who believe in being peaceful, friendly, and who rolls with the flow will at some time hit the final point where peace is not an option.

This is different than being defensive. Like most red-blooded Americans I reserve my second amendment right to protect myself. The only time that would be used is in a defensive posture. Sometimes when it is you or them. Fight or flight. Being judged by twelve or carried by six. You have to choose. If my choice is fight, then I have what is necessary to protect myself and get out alive.

In some cases, however, you may have to go on the offensive and take a proactive approach to protecting yourself defensively. That is to say that sometimes you have to strike first in defense of yourself.

Why might you strike first? Lets say there is a group of beings that are unwilling to negotiate and who have a different outlook on life. There is no understanding between my life, my house, my property, and what they view as their life, their property, and their house.

If they should attack you while you’re on your home turf, you might have to go to their home and wipe them all out in order to not get attacked again.

That is what happened today. I was going to BBQ in my backyard when a swarm of bees decided to use my stairs as their home. They attacked me unprovoked. I retreated. I went to the Grange and bought some bee killer. I went back to their home and killed them all.

Sorry to ruin everyone’s impression of my peaceful laid back nature. Now have seen my violent side.

While I was not getting stung by a bee, I took some photos for the photo board for the fire department and got them posted. We had fire training tonight. We went over the first part of our engineer training. The whole month we are doing engineer training.

Doing the Dunes

The Keeton’s plus one of their friends as well as Russell and I went to the river. We started out at Safeway I got fuel and water. We drove down to the river and put the boat in the water. Then we got rolling from the dock to the dunes. I figured even though the boat was leaking a fair amount while at the dunes the worst it would do would be to ground itself.

I was going to go ashore, but I spent some time trying to find my tennis ball. I brought that to have some fun with the softball bat. But I could not find it. Then the kids wanted to play with the tube. I stuck around the boat. We were there for around an hour. Then we took the boat out and started to cruise. The kids got on the tube and rode it for a while. Then I got Dan on the tube. After making him crash we took the tube back to the beach and took Russell on the water skis.

He got up on the first try. He skied for a while then wanted to stop. After resting a minute or so, he got back up for a little bit more.

After that was done we went back to clean up our beach area and head to the dock. I had to be back in Pullman by six for being on call. Russell wanted to get me some dinner for me. So he picked that up at The Emerald and met me at my house. I got my uniform on and went to the station.

I ate really fast while rig checks were going. I went out to assist with rig checks. After we were done with them for the most part, I worked with A. Wilcox on his Rescue check offs as well as talking to him about engineer related information.

We got out of there around ten-thirty. But the night was quiet and we received no calls.

Structure Fire at CCS

So there I was. Just leaving the bathroom on my way to the bay when I heard the pre-alerts saying there was a structure fire. I didn’t believe it. I looked around to see if someone was playing with a recording. But the I realized it was a real one. The tones went off and we got into our turn outs.

We were close to going to do some training in Rescue when the call came out. In fact we have A. Wilcox down with us for the training. He jumped in the Engine and Bien, Williams and I got into Rescue.

We followed the engine to the scene at CCS. I could see some light brown smoke coming from the area. It appeared we did indeed had a fire. When we got there A. Wilcox had the hose out and ready to go. Turpin had us back him up. That is when Dean Hare from the Daily News snapped this photo.

Getting ready to put out the fire.

Soon after this photo was taken the fire was out and Williams and I were sent to do a quick building search.

I tried all doors before I forced them. But I ended up having to force two of them. I paid attention to the door as I tried it. One I found the door locking system to be weak, so it only took a small hit with the shoulder. A second door was stronger so I used the halligan tool to get into that. There was no one in any of the room. After that it was pretty much over with for us, except for the clean up.

A. Wilcox took over on rescue for Williams. Bien and I took him up to the tower and worked on his engineer stuff until just after eleven o’clock. We got a ton of stuff done with A. Wilcox. I went home to get to sleep because I didn’t get a lot of sleep this morning and I had to get up for golfing in the morning. But we would get a call at three in the morning. After I got home I spent the next hour tossing and turning as I was thinking about various things.

Covering for Chapman

With all the wildland fires happening, Chapman called me up to see if I would cover for him. I told him I would. While doing rig checks I noticed we needed to fuel the engine. I called one of the guys down to the station who was not there. He was on duty. Before he got there we were called for a medical call.

We got done with that call. We got the engine and made it out the door this time. We opened the gate at the city shops only to get a second call. We went on that. It was a fire alarm. Finally, we made it back for the fuel. This time we were able to fill up the engine.

But as far as additional calls, it was dead the rest of the night.

Infectious Disease Training

I was asked to cover for Chapman for a while tonight because he was going to go play with D-Twelve on their fire.

I went to the fire station to do our daily rig checks. Then down to Station one for training. It was infectious diseases.

When it was done Chapman called to have me cover the rest of the night. I went to my place. John came over and we played poker. It was small stakes dealer’s choice. I was up and could not lose for a while. It was bad for John. They we started to play the silly games, like Acey-Deucy etc. He won back some of his losses and when he called it a night at two in the morning he was up about two bucks.

Opening of My Boating Season

It is about time! I had a day off and made plans to go to the river with my boat. Russell, Peter S, and Kevin were all coming along. I got my boat started up at the house before we even headed out. I also put the battery on the charger last night to make sure there was a full charge to it. After it was started I put the equipment I figured we would use.

Peter and Russell showed up. We went to Safeway to get water, gas, and some food. We called Kevin up and went to get him. Kevin is ten-six-seven. Very nice blue eyes and blonde hair and good looks. We got to the river and launched the boat. I found shortly after launching that there is a pretty good leak on it, so I was going to have to make sure that I kept pumping the water out. It seemed like after being out there for a little bit the leaking slowed down.

We drove toward Granite Point and then down to the dam and back past Granite Point. I was looking for a good spot to do some tubing. Finally I decided to go to the Granite Point area because compared to everything else, it looked the best. Russell was the first on the tube. I hit a big wave and Russell went flying out of the tube. The guys in the boat loved it.

I got Peter out there next and got a couple good crashes on him. Kevin also had a good wreck. He sort of racked his balls. I took Russell over to Granite Point where he went diving for lost treasures. He found a Mountain Dew and a pair of sunglasses. Peter jumped off the cliff. Then I took him over to the other side of the river where he jumped from the sixty foot cliff. That was an impressive jump.

When we were done at the river we went to Cougar Country for some dinner. I went to the fire station and then went with the guys to the training tower where we were doing some stuff with the class A foam and seeing why the foam cell was getting overfilled. It appeared water was getting pushed into it.

We found we were unable to flow foam at all. We had some hoses out and sprayed water all over the place for a while though. Following that I went home and got a couple more applications installed on my new laptop.

Physical Agility Test

The day started off with my alarm clock ringing. I got up and got ready to help with A paramedic testing. I went down to station one and wrote to the tower in the PL. I helped to set up the physical agility course. I was taking photos of the people doing the course. Three paramedics had tested. During the physical agility test only one paramedic passed. Following the paramedic testing I went to station two. While I was there I was talking to A. Wilcox.

I heard a siren in the distance I also noticed the exhaust fan in the bay was running. That meant a call had gone out. We went into the bay to get rescue we were waiting for Bien. Gribbon showed up first and we went on the call. It was just down the road. I helped to get the ambulance into the scene. Gribbon rode to the hospital. A. Wilcox and I went to get him from the hospital and then we went back to the station. Bien and I talked about bumping people. I told him how it would work. He was okay with that.

I went home and invited Bien up for some pizza. I first mowed my lawn then put the pizza in. We watched the movie The Matador. When it was over Bien left and I hung out at the house. We didn’t get any more calls.

I spent some time working on installing applications and files on my new laptop. Once I get everything off the old laptop I am going to reformat the harddrive and reinstall Windows on it. It will have a barebones install and applications on it. I will probably only have Windows, networking software, and Tournament Director on it. I am going to use it as my downstairs computer. That way if a guest needs to get online he will have a computer to use without any of my personal stuff on it.

I got a call from Pete. Patti will be on call for the coroner tomorrow so I will be able to go to the river. This will be the first time all season that I will get my boat in the water. I am excited about that.

Rescue Pump Training

Tonight I worked with a guy on my crew on getting him through the pump training on Rescue. He is new to everything so we are taking baby steps. He is doing a good job with what he is doing. While trying to do training we got pulled away on a couple EMS calls. We finally got back to the station and washed Rescue just before eleven o’clock.

Because I missed Rescue Me on Wednesday night I decided to watch it down at the station. Bien joined me for Rescue Me.

Post Season Tournament

When I woke up early this morning it was time to go play some softball. I got my uniform on and headed down to the playing fields. We had a rough ending to the regular season and this was our chance to redeem ourselves. It’s the post season tournament for the Cougar Country coed softball team. This season we have been a very strong team beating most of the competition we have faced.

Our first game we went out and killed the other team. Our defense was good our offense was good. Due to the victory we had a very long wait till our next game. Some people left to get lunch some people on around the field, I hung around the field.

We were playing pretty well over all. We were in the lead in each game. I had a chance for an inside the park homerun in a game, but the third base coach didn’t tell me to go. So when I turned and looked, after I stopped of course, I saw I could have made it. Later I hit a popup behind second base. I rounded first base. I saw no one was around second so I kept going. But the pitcher ran to second. I had to slide. I did. But I was still called out. That sucked. My chapstick in my back pocket broke open making a small mess.

We ended the day undefeated for the day. We go into tomorrow and with a couple victories we will be the post-season champions.

Another Job

Just what I needed, another job. This one is a part-time on-call basis gig with a local nursing home. My job will be to run patients from the hospital to the nursing home or visa versa. It will only be non-emergency runs. A way to save money from using an ambulance. I will get paid fifty bucks a trip. Not too bad.

While I was talking with the guy today, he asked if I have a good driving record. He asked if I was a safe driver. I smiled and said I have a good driving record.

For fire training tonight we were doing wildland operations. We used the tools for wildland line construction as well as hoselines from Rescue in order to practice pumping operations. We spent some time working the hillside behind the station.

Then we had a short break and went back out with a scenario. I was Command. Bien was the engineer. The other guys were there helping. We had two fronts on the fire. We had two crews out working it. It was a pretty laid back exercise. When it was done and we put all our stuff away, we went down to the Deuce.

I spoke for a while with Bien about the way we do our duty nights. Currently it is assigned by rig and whomever drivers on whatever call. Bien wants it where the driver remains as such for the whole night. I am going to chat with the other guys and see what their thoughts are. If that is the way they want it as well we will move to that method. I think that made him feel a little better.

Last Coed Regular Season Game of the Summer

After finally waking up I spent most of the day just watching some TV, doing the laundry, and dishes. I was on the phone with Chapman when a call came out for a sick person. I told him I would come down for it. I got into my uniform and away I went to the station.

We headed out to the scene. The call lasted less than an hour. Back at the station I got tied up on the computer and showing Chapman a photo. I got home in time to quickly change and race to the fields. I was just getting home when I would normally like to be at the fields.

Kelly was giving me crap about driving fast. He said if he were in his patrol car he would have pulled me over. I told him if he was in his patrol car I wouldn’t have been doing it.

The game did not turn out too well. We were playing Zeppoz and could not hit the ball very well. It was strange playing against a lot of the guys I play softball with normally. To not root them on was strange. Steve, who got tossed last week, couldn’t play. Last week someone on the team said the umpired sucked so he threw Steve out, because Steve was the acting captain.

When I did the toss today I was told if Steve steps on the field today he would be thrown again, and I would be thrown as well. So I called up Peter and he came down to play. He showed up while we were in the field and went straight to the outfield. He played very well for us making a lot of outs.

We still ended up losing the game after only scoring three runs. After the game I went to Cougar Country with the rest of the team. We ate and talked softball. We have the end of the season tournament coming up next weekend.

I got home to finish up my laundry and caught a couple TV shows before calling it a night.

A lucky day?

With the date being seven/seven/seven people thought it was going to be a lucky day. I wouldn’t say it was a lucky day for me, but it was a good day and I didn’t get struck by lightning, so it couldn’t have been that bad.

Starting out this morning with golf was fun. I was running late getting down to Colfax. I was pulling into the parking lot as the group was heading out to the first tee. But we had two groups and I was able to get part of the second group. I was playing with Carl, Brian, and Diane. My first tee off was very nice. But the day was about normal for my kind of golf. I got a one-thirteen on the eighteen holes. I actually did worse my second time through.

I won a prize for hitting the most trees during my round. I didn’t realize how many times I hit trees, but I counted and I hit about seven per round. That is nearly one per hole on average.

After the golfing it was off to Colfax Fire. I hung out with Ken for a while watching some TV and having lunch. We were watching Mythbusters. Around four I had to leave to get back to Pullman to be on call here. I told Ken that I was done keeping it quiet for him. I was going to be heading out.

When I got home I heard Colfax get dispatched out to a car vs motorcycle accident. That had to have been dispatched shortly after I left. I really was keeping it quiet.

I got cleaned up and went to the station for rig checks. We were talking about Rescue and being a driver. A. Wilcox asked if he could ever go on the ambulance and not be the drive all the time. I told him that because of the fact he doesn’t have all the Rescue training he shouldn’t be the driver at all.

We then went out and did some training at the tower with setting up the rig, putting water on the fire, doing pump and roll attacks and other such scenarios. We did a good two hours of training.

Afterwards Bien bought the ice cream he owed for getting into the newspaper. We went to Dissmores to get that. Back at the station we had some cake and ice cream. I went to Peter’s afterwards for poker. I was not doing too well. I had one big win, then I had a big loss where I tried to push someone off a hand when mine was weaker. But he did not get off his hand and ended up beating me. I re-bought a couple times. I was sort of up and down on my third buy-in.

When the tones went off for a call. I quickly went all-in and Kevin called me. I ended up winning that all in and left. I was only down two bucks on the night after that point. I had the best hand after the flop and took it to the river as the winner.

I went on the call followed by a second call just as the movie Desperado was starting. I was hoping to watch to the scene where the bar is shot up. But I got called out to a second call at the very beginning of the movie. That was it for calls. I went to bed around three in the morning.

First Coroners Meeting this Summer

I had to get several things done today. I needed to cash some checks. Put money from one bank to another to pay for the laptop computer. I also planned on getting the license for my boat today.

But around one in the afternoon a call came out for a tree on fire. I wasn’t going to go, but when they asked for Rescue I went to the station to find it was not even there. Bien came down and we went to the scene. We took the old Rescue. It was a pretty good sized grass fire.

It was pretty much out when we got there. But we helped with some of the overhaul. Then we helped get one of the engines back in service.

After that call I got cleaned up and did my bank runs followed by a trip to Colfax. After the licensing of my boat I went to the jail. I was there for a few minutes when a call for the fire department went out. I ran over and got in with Ken in the engine. We did not transport. I was back at the station hanging out until it was time for dinner.

I grabbed some food and went to the coroners office for our first meeting in a couple months. It was Patti’s last regular meeting as she is moving to Spokane. It was not be the same without her around. I am now going to be the senior Deputy Coroner. Pete is planning on hiring two or maybe three people. We talked about the people on the list. We gave the pros and cons of the people on the list that we knew. Pete is going to work on the decision for the final hirings.

I then went back to Pullman. My ankle was killing me and I was thinking about not responding, but I decided that I was not going to be a whimp. I did wrap it and ice it. That really helped. After about a half hour of that the pain was nearly gone.

I went to bed around midnight. The tones went off for a motorcycle accident on SR one-ninety-four. I talked to a deputy on the scene and he said he just happened on the accident. He was doing something else and he just found the motorcycle laying there and it was one fire and someone was sitting there. That was our only call of the night.

Happy Birthday America!

The fourth is a great time. I love fireworks and I love the time in the park. I still think back to the old tradition of going to Ocean Shores with the gang. We would stay down at this camp ground and we would light off fireworks and party all the time. We would drive on the beach and just have a great time. I still remember my first time there. We were staying at a state camp ground. When I showed up the Confederate flag was flying. One of the guys came up to me and said that he made sure it was put right side up. Making sure the star in the center right side up. Dave and I would always drive down the beach just after dark and helped to pull people out stuck in the sand. That was our good deed of the day we did each day out there.

Over the years the group had split up and the Oceans Shores trips are no longer. But now I go to Sunnyside Park with the fire department. We show off the fire engines. Wilcox and I went on a call together before it was time to get ready to head to the fire station for the show.

I drove the ambulance up to the park again this year. When we got up there we set everything up. Then people started to show up. We helped them try on the gear. Took photos of everyone. I climbed the ladder and got some photos of the park and the area.

A couple people I knew came down and got in the gear included Andy the poker player I met through Mike. BKoe was working for the parks department, but he stopped by to try on the stuff. Dan’s wife, Denise stopped by.

I helped a couple people on EMS things, but both were minor injuries. While I was going to one I saw Juan from Colfax. I have not seen him in a long time. But I walked by him. We made eye contact and I wanted to stay and talk to him, but I had to go and help someone who needed EMS help. When I got back he was gone. So I ended up calling him to say hello and let him know that I was sorry for missing him. I think I will invite him over to watch a movie again. He is a very nice guy.

The day went off very well. We got out of there just after eleven o’clock and got all the rigs back in service. It is weird that I have to work in the morning. It feels like I should have another day off. In the future I need to take the day after the fourth off.

The Reserve Association Hit Bumps

When I had the meeting for the reserve association to cover the constitution and the things we are trying to accomplish Chapman was critical of the overall idea and that it will drive a wedge between everyone. That having a shirt that says reserve association will drive a wedge. He wants a single unified front and that we should separate ourselves. That doing anything like that is bad. But there was no though given to the fact that we already have a reserve fund and that we have always used that separately.

I just think there are outside influences over this. It is silly. Anyone who is against what has been put together so far is doing so ignorantly. They could not have read what the goal and objectives are. They are basing everything on hearsay at best and bad assumptions at worse.

I just hope that between now and the end of next month people will have had some time to think about it some more. I need to speak with Chapman more. He pretty much derailed what was planned for the meeting.

One guy said that we should do everything that the association was going to do, but just not call it an association. Therefore making everything okay. So that would lead one to believe it is not about what the association does, it is about the word association. What is so scary about what we are trying to do.

I felt like I was left to hang last night. No one really spoke up if they were in favor of it. Even one of the most vocal people is saying that right now he has no position because he is not in Pullman. I told him that he is leaving me hanging because the thing will collapse if it appears that there is no support from the majority of the people.

I also plan to have a meeting with the union president. It seems that a lot of union members are asking why we are trying to start a union. Which goes to show the ignorance about what is happening. It also shows that they really don’t care other than to cause trouble. Because those people have been told to talk to me and none of them have. They don’t care about the truth. Maybe I am wrong about it, but come on, when people make assumptions, know where to get the correct information and refuse to get it… one word… Ignorance.

Structure Fire

The softball game for tonight was cancelled so I had the evening to do whatever. At six o’clock I went to The Deuce to talk with Bien about the association. I was wearing one of the brand new shirts that I got today. It has the association logo on it.

While I was at the station the guys got called on out a rekindle of the field fire on WSU Campus from earlier today. Then they went to an EMS call. I was waiting around the station for them to get back. I planned on going to the jail to hang out and stopped by Colfax Fire. Before they got back a call came in for a structure fire.

I went to check the map for hydrants and where to come in with the engine. I heard the responding unit request a second alarm. That is when I decided to go to the bathroom and get rid of some of the stuff in my pockets. I went back in and started to put on my turnouts.

One other firefighter came running in, he was a green stripe until Monday. He was excited and ready to roll. I called Chapman to see if he was coming. I wanted to see if we could get a full rig before rolling. I saw Chapman came down and more people started to show up.

This firefighter tried to jump into the front seat. I told him to get in the back. I also made sure he tagged in. Then one of the Lts came. We changed over to taking Engine thirty-two. I got tagged in. Chapman was going to drive but the Lt said he wanted one of his career guys to drive instead. Chapman got out and went to Engine thirty-one.

While we were going I got into my air pack and waited to get on scene. We stopped at Spring Street and Main street. I was facing backwards. But I looked out my window and looked forward. That is when I saw the column of smoke and the flames shooting. I knew this was going to be a real one.

The building as it was when we got there.

Another view of the fire.

We were sent up to the house. It was a long way from where we were, becuase we had to walk up the road to the driveway and then up the long driveway. When we got there we were told to take the blitz line off the PL and use it to fight the fire and protect the exposure.

My team on a blitz line.

Three handlines fighting the fire.

We threw water on the fire for a while from the front of the building then we went to the back side. It was a small area and we had a two-and-a-half inch line. So it was tough to handle it. But we got some water thrown on the back of the house.

After working both sides for a while we went to rehab. I then got assigned to rehab manager. I got the area set up, but no one was really coming over after the initial wave of fighting the fire, it clamed down and was not all the major. We stayed outside of the building and did not go on air, so we never really needed any more rehab.

Finally I did get one crew over to my location, which was about one hundred feet from the scene. While I was waiting out there Jay came and asked if I wanted to stay there for a few more hours. I said “no”. I thought he meant in rehab. He meant on scene with the engine thirty-three — The Great White Hope. I told him I would do that.

The rescue crew switched out with a couple of other guys for various reasons. We hung around on scene for a couple hours putting water on the building from time to time. It was a pretty quiet night. Gribbon got some pop and other things for us to have up there because we had to stay up there until three in the morning. We also had to fuel the engine up before taking it back to the station.

We then had to go fuel Rescue up as well. I got home and in bed around four-thirty in the morning.

The sunset through the smoke of the fire.

Teaching CPR

This evening I was teaching a CPR class. Only three people came to it, so the class went by pretty quickly. It started at six in the evening and I was done around nine-thirty, then I had the clean up and decon of the equipment so that adds more time to everything.

I got home and invited Russell over to watch Rescue Me and have some pizza with me. I also told him about what happened in the jail recently. He thought it was a pretty funny story.

Green Stripe Removal

Tonight at the training we had a green stripe removal ceremony. All the guys who just finished their training got to remove their green stripes. Then they shook the Crew Leaders’ hands and those of the Capt and Lt who were on duty. They are no able to go into burning buildings and do everything as they have completed their training.

One of the guys left his helmet at the station. I found it so I put a green stripe back on it and took it down to station two for him. I handed it to him with the green stripe facing him. When he saw it he got a big smile.

Rescue Me Night

In celebration of the Season Premiere of Rescue Me, I set up a get together at Station Two for the reserves. I had about seven of them show up to watch Rescue Me. I also had the sunglasses from Oakley that we had ordered. I gave those out to everyone as we sat around and watched Rescue Me.

It was a successful night and everyone loved the show. I would like to set up more get-togethers in the future.

Seems Like Forever

Today going to Monday night training seems like it has been forever since I have done that as part of the reserve corp. But today we did aerial operations. We spent time using the tools in the bucket of the PL as well as practiced taking people down a ladder using different carries.

Training lasted a couple hours and towards the end we started to see some lightning strikes. It was pretty cool. The wind picked up a lot as well.

I slept in today. I did not get up until after the noon hour. It felt good to sleep in, but a little later I learned about a fatal motorcycle accident. I don’t know if I was called for it, but I did turn off my cell phone because I did not want anything to wake me up.

Three Hours Later

I went to bed and only three hours later my cell phone was ringing. It was six-thirty in the morning. I was being called to an unattended death near Hooper. That is in the western-most part of Whitman County. In fact while driving there typically you drive into Adams county then South back into Whitman County. I was on scene for just under an hour. Then I went back to the funeral home and did my work there. I went to the coroner’s office following that to do my report and print everything off. By the time I was done it was after the noon hour. I went to Colfax fire and hung out for a few minutes.

David, Craig, and I were there. I was pointing out the last time it was just us and the guy on duty we got… then Craig said “don’t say it.” David and him both remembered that we got that fatal accident that I was IC of.

I went back to Pullman and down to the fire station for daily rig checks. We got those knocked off in a couple hours of time. It was very hot outside and inside the bay. We had a total of four people helping. For about a half hour of the shift neither Brian nor I could be on duty. That is why we did the rig checks early.

I went to my softball game and Brian was finishing his up. Brian left to be on duty and we took the dug out. We were playing our first regular season game after nearly three weeks off duty to a rain out and a week off for Memorial Day.

We started sort of slow, but then picked it up and hit the ball well. We went on to twelve run the other team and currently, with pre-season included we are undefeated.

I went home and got ready to be on call for the fire department. Then I went to Brandon and Peter’s to play some poker with them. At one point I lost a lot of money on one hand where I had the same hand and someone else by I got out-kicked.

I went down to under a dollar and sat around that level for quiet a while. Some people thought I would just go all-in on nothing. But I waited for my hand then I would play it. I ended up winning each time I did end up going all-in. Finally it was nearing the end of the night. I walked out only down four dollars. Not too bad for having been sitting at thirty-five cents for a little bit.

Got a new Gas BBQ Grill

I have been without a gas BBQ grill since my last one was stolen when I lived on Valley Road. I will still full-time in the jail and had been sleeping. When I got up at five in the afternoon I went outside and saw it was missing. I was so mad that it was stolen. I did not have another grill until today when I finally made my way to WalMart to pick one up.

I stopped at Shopko and ACE before heading to Moscow to pick it up. I got home and hooked up the gas to run it for a while and burn off all the newness of it.

I got my haircut today as well. I was starting to look like a hippy with my inch long hair.

When I got back from running around the town I got ready for working the fire department. I was working with both Wilcox and A. Wilcox. We had the old rescue in service because the new one was damaged. We went to station one to get A. Wilcox’s check off book. Then to the training tower where we got him signed off on a couple things.

As we were finishing up we got a call for a gas leak. We went en route. On our arrival command had me pack up and go join him looking for the leak. We could smell some gas, but could not find the leak. We went through out the fraternity and could not find any gas inside. We cleared the scene.

That was it for calls. Wilcox and I went home and cooked some hamburgers on the new grill. It was so nice to have a grilled burger. It has been a long time since I have done that at home.

The Funeral and After

My other post talks about the funeral itself, so I will not go into that here. But I started out the day at six in the morning with a phone call to WSU PD. I found out I would be able to get a ride. I got dressed in my uniform from the coroners office. I went to Tidyman’s and waited for the precession.

Following the funeral I went home and worked on a problem with the events signup that Heston had found. I figured out the problem and fixed it. I went to the house that I have been looking at buying. I did some measurements of the area. I see it will fit in the room that is downstairs. I looked around the other rooms that are out there as well. I was told today that someone else is putting in an offer, possibly. I hate it when people do that. I am going to take the stance that if the real estate agent says that to me I will have the attitude that I lost all interest in the house. One of the things about the house today is that I could smell some signs of the dogs that lived there.

I also noticed that outside of the big rec room and the great room, there was not a lot of options for how to set up my furniture. Plus being only four bedrooms I would only be able to have at most two roommates as I would have to use one room as an office.

The house on Thomas street has made me realize some of the shortcomings of this house over all. I also don’t like the appliances that are at this house. Thomas street has four bedrooms plus an office. Plus a rec room, game room, and living room. Plus two dining areas. It is a nicer house over all in my view. It is the house I would like to have. The one thing that it doesn’t have is the larger driveway that Brandon street has.

Then it was time to head to the fire department for rig checks. I got to the station and talked to Pete on the phone about the funeral and the house search. I went into the station and I was talking to Morgan about some stuff while Peter and I were texting back and forth about playing some poker at my place tonight.

Morgan said he would play. I went to get some pop and got some dinner then I went home. I was going to call Phil about coming over. Just as I was calling him he sent me a text message about play at his place. When it was all said and done he ended up coming over to my place. I also got JT and his friend. Plus Brandon. So I had a seven handed table going. I was on call with Morgan. We got called out on two calls through out the night of playing cards.

When the night was over with I had won almost thirty bucks. It was a good night for me to play some cards. I went upstairs and did some stuff in my den before going to be at two in the morning.

Interesting News on the Homefront

So I get a phone call from my real estate agent. She told me the people who are trying to sell their house on Brandon were planning on renting a place on Clay Ct. But the place they were going to rent is still being rented by the previous renters. So they have no place to rent. They would like to be somewhere for the next three years. So there is a chance that they would rent my place and I would buy theirs. Don’t know if it will happen, but that is what is happening there.

I got my boat dewinterized today. I will go pick it up tomorrow.

I went to the fire station planning on doing rig checks and then heading back home to talk to my mom. But then I found out we had to do the oil changes and maintenance on the small gas engine items from the rescue. That took us a couple hours to work through all of them. So I was out and about until almost ten at night. I talked to my mom while we were working. I told her what had happened.

I went to Russell’s place after I was done with the fire department. We were talking about the Seattle Pride parade and what happened in Seattle last year. I pulled up an article that I read and I read it to him with some of the comments of the people who were there.

Once Beren showed up, we changed subjects and just hung out and had some dinner. I left around one o’clock in the morning. It was pretty quiet, except for one call at nearly four in the morning. That was hard to get out of bed for.

EMS Week at Sunnyside

It is the start of EMS week and today we were going to Sunnyside to visit with the first graders. I was going to be taking photos and moving around between the two groups. But then I was told to do the tours around the back of the ambulance. That made it so I could not take photos.

The tours went okay. I did have one group that had no interest in what was in the ambulance. They was sort of annoying. Most of the groups were good though.

We had lunch with the kids and went out to the playground to have recess with them. I played some football with the kids. I also watched a couple on the monkey bars. They all wanted me to watch them do something.

When that was done I went to home to order my toner for my printer and headed to Colfax. We got an omega call that turned into something more. I got to do patient care and do the HEAR report on the way in. When I did the BP I got a super low result. I had someone else do it and he got the same values as I did. That is why we decided to transport.

We were having the second day of our wildland fire class. I missed the first day. Today we deployed the shelters and learned about communication and some watchout situations.

A New Roommate

I now have a roommate at my house. Today Tyson and his dad worked on moving stuff into the house. I had to move my things out of the bedroom and I put it into my den and my bedroom. That may be enough to get me on the ball.

We had fire training tonight. I also set up a meeting to discuss the reserve association once again. I also set up a meeting with Bien and Stallcop to work over the constitution and bylaws. I also did a training session for the new events page plus we did the sunglasses order.

After training Bien and Stallcop came over. We started to work on hammering out some ideas for the association and I worked on getting the Eastside Fire and Rescue constitution and bylaws scanned into the computer.

I am hoping that by next month we can go before the other reserves and get this association started.

Big Shooting in Moscow

Our first game this morning was at nine o’clock am. I made my way to Moscow and to the field. We played against a team that hit the ball well, unlike us, who could not hit the ball. We got tagged for thirteen runs, nine of which were scored before we made an out. We went on to lose that game.

We hung out at the field until our next game… four hours later. I had a couple beers with the rest of the team. We were playing against the Coors Light team. Greg Frisbee, from the Palouse Thunder plays for them. I was talking to someone else there and Greg said hello to me.

In my first at bat against Coors Light, I saw Greg was playing Right-Center. But he was playing me way in. I planned on hitting it over his head. I ended up doing that, I actually went yard. Overall there was not a lot to celebrate for the team. But we would take anything we could get.

We had a total of three games today and we lost by over fifty-two runs in those game combined. I did hit very well through out. After losing the final game I hung out at the field and did some scoring for the game after mine. Our next game is again at nine o’clock in the morning.

I went home with the thought that I would get up early tomorrow, so the plan was to go to bed sort of early. But as the night wore on I watched some TV and I was talking to Jon on IM. I was about to go to bed when I heard something about fire on the scanner. It was a Latah frequency. They I heard something more, it was not fire, but it was firing of a gun at the Sheriff’s Office in Latah County. So I listened in some more as the cops were going to the scene.

As I listened in it because clear it was turning bad. I heard them trying to get to one of the cops. I was not totally clear about what was happening, but it seemed the cop was shot. They asked for five cops “heavily armed” and ready to get the downed officer. Then I heard about another person down, a civilian. Then I heard about another officer down. He was talking on the radio. I could hear how he was having a hard time talking on the radio. The ambulance was called for them. But with the scene not safe they were not able to go in.

They tracked the guy to a church near the sheriff’s office. He was inside. A bunch of shots had been fired through this whole situation. Finally they got the civilian out of there. The cops took the down officer to the hospital themselves, because they were about two blocks away.

The hospital then went on divert as they had three people with gun shot wounds there. It was a tense situation, the chief of Pullman, WSU, and the WCSO sheriff were all up and they all called a lot of officers in to help. They got the peacekeeper and the SWAT team going over there.

At one point a second call for a physical domestic goes out in Moscow. The cop said “We’re not going”. They were going to have to solve it themselves. But it turned out a couple of Pullman cops and a WCSO deputy went to it. That would have been interesting to see the reaction of the people involved to see the Washington cops there.

I was up and listening to it for about two and a half hours. Finally around two thirty in the morning it was quieting down so I went to bed.

Working Cougar Baseball

I put in a lot of work between yesterday and today to get the events something I can show off. I made an appointment to see Heston and show him what I have done. He had a couple suggestions that I put into place.

I was also working the WSU Baseball game tonight. Bien and I went to the field. The Cougs jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. They went on to beat UCLA. After the game Bien and I got some food from Jack in the Box and went to the fire station to chow.

We washed and fueled the van so the guys could take it to California for extrication training tomorrow.

I spent most of the evening at home working on the application for signing up for events. I also took some time to watch some TV.

Running calls all over

Starting with a call around eleven in the morning Wilcox and I ran a lot of calls today. We did some daytime responses. The first call we actually get on location as the ambulance went en route to the hospital. Van Ness asked us to come to station one to do some stuff with the hose on Rescue. Just as we pulled into the parking lot we went on a second call on campus.

We went to the hospital with them. Then we headed back to station one for the hose stuff. We had to pull it off and put it in the bay. Then we got all the hose from the hose tower and rolled it up. This is the stuff from Monday when we were washing it. We took it up the tower for storage.

It was pretty quiet allowing me to get some work done. I got a message that they wanted to me to do a special side project at work. I got a start on it, but ran into a small wall. So I sent an e-mail to the boss who gave me further direction much later on.

I went down to the station around five forty-five for rig checks. We did not really even get started when we were toned out to a fire alarm at Terrell Library. We got on location and started the building search. It took a while for us to make it through to where we needed to go, but we couldn’t quite get far enough because the doors were locked and we could not get through them all. The alarm was reset by command while we were still looking for the source. Because it stayed reset we called it good.

We waited for an alarm tech to come to the location for about twenty minutes. After a while command made some calls and we cleared the library. Wilcox and I talked about the greek system and some of the issue with it.

We went to station one and loaded a bunch of the hose that needed to be on Rescue. That took some time to get it all on. We went to The Deuce and started to go through the firefighter one books the guys have to do. I got them signed off as I could see they knew what they were doing. We finished off with doing scene lighting and using the different things on Rescue. We were doing different things with the lighting for about thirty minutes.

We got back into the bay do to rig checks. We found a couple problems with different things. One was the bypass value was not working on an SCBA system. We drove down to station one. Just as we were going inside I could hear the pre-tones. We got sent on an injury accident. It was on one-ninety-five at the North Pullman Bypass. We got on location. There were four people, but only one injured. We ended up not transporting anyone.

While on scene I said we need to get a fire alarm now. We headed back to the station to fill our low air bottles and put one out of service when the tones went out for a fire alarm. It turned into nothing at all.

Following the fire alarm we went to get fuel, and headed to the station. It wasn’t all that late, but Wilcox and I had put in almost ten hours at the FD today.

When I got home I saw the reply from my boss about what I should do with the task I got assigned. I spent some time before going to bed, getting the task completed and turned in.

Recruit Check Offs

Wilcox and I responded on one daytime call, but we didn’t get a chance to do anything on it. By the time we got on location we were being cleared. For training tonight we were having the guys doing check offs for their firefighter one training books. I had a group of guys. We were washing and hanging hose. We got the washer out and used that. We also pulled out some ground ladders to use those.

The other guys were using the power tools. They also went to the tower to run through an evolution. Other than that it was a quiet night for calls.

When I was at home I spent a lot of time really nailing down the events login. I had met with Heston and showed him what I have done so far. He liked where I was going with it, so he kept me working on it.

Strange Coroner’s Case

I spent several hours today working on the softball stats Excel workbook. There are a lot of little changes I was making. I added some new columns. I also added in some new calculations. It took a while to get it done, I am happy now that it is done. As I was working I would make a change, save everything, then I would find something small that was messed up, so I would have to fix that, but every little small detail had to be duplicated time and time again, so even small changes were actually large changes.

I also responded to fire calls. We had two nearly back to back. On the second one Wilcox joined Dearth and I on it. We went code through town. They took Wilcox with them to the hospital. Dearth was closest to the door of the ambulance, but he deferred to Wilcox saying he didn’t have the correct shirt on. I told Dearth that if he was going to not do the work he has to do, because of wearing the wrong shirt, he should not respond on the call.

I got home and finished up my stats sheet. I was going to get some dinner when Pete called about a case in Colfax. I told him I would respond down to it. I got to the hospital parking lot. I talked to the RP and Colfax Officer. Then I took my photos and had the funeral home come for the removal.

I went to Paul’s Place afterwords. I went through the deceased’s room looking for information and things that could explain what happened. Following Paul’s Place I went to the funeral home and checked the body. I did not find anything of note. We are going to have an autopsy due to the fact that the man is pretty young to just die.

Plus, the interesting part is that he was in a van coming back from Spokane. He was with several other people. He threw up. Then later on the driver asked another passenger if the deceased was okay. The passenger said, “yeah, he is just sleeping”. It wasn’t another half hour until the death was discovered.

When that was all done, I didn’t get home until after midnight. I didn’t have plans for the evening, but that didn’t give me a choice.

Making Measurements

Today I went to the NW Brandon house again and made measurements of the house. The big room is over twenty-seven feet squared. It is a lot of money so I really have some thinking to do.

I went to the fire training tower for about an hour to watch the guys do some of their training check offs. I spent some time taking over two hundred photos. When I got home I put fifty-seven of them on facebook.

I took my rental agreement to Summit Realty. They are going to try to rent out my place. They came over to take some photos and put it on the website. A little bit after leaving I got a call that someone would be looking at it tomorrow. I guess depending if they want this place or not could be a big factor in me getting the new house.

I called up Ross to talk to him about some worst-case scenarios. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that if things went really bad it could be sold. I have money in reserves that would allow me to buy some time before the payments would be late. Plus if things went down the tubes, I could always move back to my current house and just keep-on-keeping-on there. So it is not as bad as it sounds.

I called and talked to my mom on my way to My Office. I was telling her about the place. She thought seemed like a nice place, but she reminded me that I have a very nice place already.

I went into My Office. We hung out until it was time to head to the field. We were playing PSPT. Their pitcher was having a hard time getting the ball across the plate. It was so bad that we had a lot of walks on our side of the line up. I had a double plus two walks. We went on to twelve run the other team in the fifth inning. As we were leaving it was starting to look ugly outside. A lightning storm was moving in. We got out in time.

I went home and started to work on a .Net application. I am building a sign-up system for the fire department. It has been slow going. I finally decided to jump in feet first and just build it as a first version that will be throw away.

More Houses

I went to look at a couple more houses today. They were both on NW Ventura. One had a three car garage, but it was not very deep. I would not be able to park in it with my vehicles. So that wasn’t going to do anything. The other house on NW Ventura had a decent layout, but I did not like it too much. So I have pretty much marked all the NW Ventura houses off my list. I am back to the NW Brandon address and maybe the Grand Ave address. But I don’t like the size of the Grand Ave house. I am going to have to think about it some more.

We had the recruit academy tonight. It was the main written test tonight. I helped to administer the test and correct them when it was done. Everyone passed the written tests.

Starting of Coed Softball Season

I went to help Chapman’s dad and their family with a computer problem. Chapman’s mom had died the other day and they could not get a computer to boot that she used. They wanted to see if there was anything on there that they needed to take care of. I was there for about two hours.

We had our first game today. We were playing Dental Pain. We had a good first inning batting around. Then in the fourth we went crazy and scored sixteen runs. We were up by so much I finally told everyone that we were going to go station-to-station meaning we were not going to run the bases aggressively.

For the last inning, Matt our shortstop, who totally reminds me of Brandon and is a big ten-six-seven, let me play shortstop. I said something to him and then went to tap him. I hit his stomach, and it was hard as a rock. Holy smokes! I had one play at shortstop and made it. That made me feel good.

After the game I met Pam to look at a place on NW Ventura. It has a wonderful view of the Palouse and sunsets. It has really small bedrooms however. I am going to look at a couple others on NW Ventura tomorrow.

I went to the fire station. While I was there talking with the guys doing their weekly rig checks a fire alarm came out. Within about one minute of that call a second call for a structure fire come out. Chapman came down. We took Engine Thirty-One to the scene. But it turned into nothing. While we were getting ready to clear an EMS call came out. We drove to the scene and were first there.

It turned out that Loren from the WSU football team saw this lady in need of help, helped her out and called for us. When that call was done we went back to the station and that was all for that.