This is the fire that you thought you would never make it home because every muscle in your body felt like it had been torn and the heat melted your helmet and you thought you were a new york firefighter because your new gear was now black
A grain bin fire at an Alfalfa processing plant. We fought it for 2 days total. It was full of alfalfa pellets and as they burned they formed an air pocket in the center of the bin as time went on it used up all the oxygen in that pocket. As we were spraying water in the bin from a lower manhole(we didnt know about the pocket and that it had used up all the air in there) we broke through that pocket and gave it a fresh shot of air, flames blew out that manhole like a torch and sent me and my back up guy diving for cover.
There was an old truck stop that caught one night just up the road. The next town over was kind enough to invite us. This was not a huge building, but over the years it had been remodeled dozens of times. Three roofs on top of each other meant that it was going to be a hot night chasing fire. This is the fire where I cut my teeth in an SCBA, too bad it was the night before the opening day of hunting season. It was a great night and I learned a lot.
Come to think of it, I think that FD still owes us for that one. They owe us some venison as well. :)
This is the fire that you thought you would never make it home
Biggest fire and a fire you never thought you would make it home can be very different things. One doesn't have to be in a big fire to have heat melt their helmet nor to feel it all over. In fact there have been some smaller fires where I was hurting moreso than sitting outside spraying water in a defensive measure.
Yeah we got out of there but I ended up with him on top of me in a snowbank, when I got up I took my SCBA off and was looking it and my helmet over there was a black scorch mark on my helmet. And Im thinking holy crap that was close.