What was your first fire like? We you scared or nerves? Was it tougher or easier getting it out then you thought?

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 It sucked, it was a fully involved structure fire with two small children trapped. I blistered my turnouts and nearly passed out from the intense heat and ran out of water before the tender arrived. I'll never forget it till the day I die. The memory of that particular day is what drives me to train when I don't feel like it,to improve our response time when nobody else does. And most of all look forward to going to the school for fire prevention week and teaching kids the importance of having an escape plan with two ways out and a working smoke detector even when I get bombarded with all the "What if" questions...

I remember my first fire I went to. We were called for mutual aid. I was greener than the grass in Paradise, so my job was to hang with the chief or dep.chief and do whatever they asked and basically, just observe. I had absolutely no idea what it would be like to be that close to a house on fire. I remember as a kid, trying to get as close as possible to see what was going on, but the police and fire crews had the way pretty much blocked from view. So this, to me. was very exciting. Standing with a Fire chief, close enough to feel the warmth of the fire, but in no danger at all. Listening to the constant "crackle" of a thousand camp fires. Watching teams of two or more hauling hose, climbing ladders, using power tools. Watching people walking into the burning house and coming out later to have their cylinders changed. Hearing the radio traffic from the chiefs radio. Hearing the communication between teams and team members. I remember thinking how smoothly things seemed to be going.

It's amazing how much can be learned from standing by the chief, observing and asking questions when the opportunity presented itself. I did manage to get my gloves dirty from helping set up a portable tank, and grab a ladder from a truck. And it was a privilage to do it. I was simply amazed at everything that was going on. I wanted to be a part of that. Doing whatever possible to try and save someone's personal belongings.

In the end, the home was lost. Fire had won the battle into the walls and took over command of the old house.

From that day on, I grabbed every training opportunity and learning course that was offered, and still do to this day. I learned on my first day, by observing, that in order for me to be doing what those guys were doing, I will have to be as good as them, or better. So I took it upon myself to be as good as I can be. This was my first lesson in the fire service. 

My First fire was a car fire in the middle of the night as a Vol.F.F.  Was ordered to go and open the passenger door from inside.  Once inside the car I saw small amout of flame showing from the engine compartment.  Unlocked the passenger door and exited just before the hood of the car was opened and the flames shot into the passenger compartment.  Lesson learned, if told to open the passenger door just bust out the window and unlock the door!

A 4000 acre brush fire in Southern California that was roaring like a fright train,

My first fire. hmm. I had just joined the dept. I was 16. The call came in at 12:30 am. and It was cold.. very cold. it was and Arson fire.There were 2 building fully engulfed with flames. I ran hose lines out and changed air packs, and helped with clean up. It was so cold that the hoses were freezing to the road and black ice was forming.

sick scared nerves!  it was a house fire ,e 74 tk 62! 1325 time  it was hell to me . but we out it out  ! thank god !ill never foget it !!!! be safe out there

! god bless

 

My first fire was crazzzzzy to say the least! It toned out as structure fire smoke seen. When we arrived on sceen it turned out to be a double wide mobile home fully involed with intrapment. When I say fully involved it is kind of an understatement. There was no chance of a survivor inside the structer. Emoitions were kinda high and we quickly put it out as we were pulling and rolling hot spots in the mop up stage my probie partner and I rolled a body threw the ash. Wow realy this sucked felling prety bad about what just transpired off to a debrife we go. Stuck hard in our minds a lot of diffrent emoitions ran threw the Dept. Now what is crazy is how fast an emoitions can change. That night the crew was called back in for yet another debrief by our chief and it was explainded that it was a suicide, he had set the fire crawled into bed and shot himself. I went from realy sad and kinda of depressed to realy pissed off. I think you will understand were that emoition comes from. That scene realy stood me up and made me ask the question. Do I realy want to do this. Well its is obvious what my choice was and have not regreted. With hundreds of peapole helped and some saved scince I made that decision I can honestly say it is the best decision I have ever made.My only fear now is that one of my crew would ever get hurt. We and I as a dept take great messures to insure that it does not happen. So for all who read this remember saftey is no accident And I hope you all stay safe. train hard and help those who dont get to get it.

 FF/ Training Officer D.Huntley II Salkum Fire Dept- Lewis Dist #8

We have some kids here that mysteriously always calling us and  they are putting the fire out theirself when we arrive.. The first fire i ever put out. those same kids were there and even showed us where the fire was in the house and i know we wet the whole  structure where the fire was and in two hours they same kids were there again but this time it was caught on fire in the whole  house  and it was an empty house and four other buildings burned. the fire was so hot i could barely work in the alley that day. a few months later. we get another call and guess who is there . the same two kids... I dont know what the authorities are doing about it because they never tell us anything and they are probably not doing anything..  We  the firefighters could have been hurt !, ugh!!i told those kids at the last fire that there better not be another one!! Knock on wood!

If these same 2 kids were at all the fire's. Has your arson investigator or Fire Prevention Officer gotten photo's of this kids at the fire scene and started into investigating into these 2 kids to get them arrested for arson?  Just asking?

My first was a confirmed working structure fire that turned out to be an ammo shed. Not much to brag about except that i was untrained in anything, part of a volunteer company, and this was my first call at all. When the engine got on scene i was told to run the hoses by the chief, so not knowing anything it all end up on the ground with me trying to pull 150 feet of hose by the nozzle myself. needless to say not so easy. But it was a learning experience and i can now say that its alot better having actual training to fall back on.

It was a fully involved residential. I remember riding backwards in our OES engine going as fast as I possibly could to don my gear. I actually threw my mask bag into the front and hit the engineer haha. Don't ask me why. As we pulled up (2nd engine in) I was nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I walked up to the front door and met another engineer. He said "You ready? We still got some fire in the back room. Follow me." The tone of his voice and the confidence he had put me completely at ease. We crawled to the back room, him in front, me right behind smiling from ear to ear. I was beyond excited at this point. I finally got a taste of what a real fire was like. He gave me the nozzle and I put out the rest of the fire. It wasn't much at this point. Part of a mattress and a nightstand, but I put it out by God. It wasn't much, but it was my first fire, and I had a blast. 

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