Mistakes made

We've got the forget your helmet thread, and we have the forget anything thread. So how about another 'be honest' thread?

What mistake have you made? Let's keep it light-hearted, talk about silly things.

Me? I once read out loud the incident address from my pager while on route. Problem being I read the address from a previous call and that's where we went... Thankfully we were the third vehicle out and it was a false alarm. Still, very embarrasing and not something I intend to do ever again! To make sure it doesn't happen again I now delete messages from my pager as soon as the incident is over!

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Permalink Reply by James Hawk on August 28, 2009 at 6:35pm

i was helping fill a truck after a call today, and our pump wasn't working. I was told to take the hose off of the truck. i didn't realize until after the hose was off that i forgot to close the valve. chalk it up to being a rookie. it would have been less embarasing if there hadn't been a 30 year veteran watching.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on August 28, 2009 at 7:02pm

I had something like that a winter or 2 ago. It was about 13 degrees out side. We had a 10-70 trailor fire. The fire was commin from the kitchen. I went POV to the hall and got my gear. My Sgt went POV to the scene. And our engine came status 2. Well it was early morning so I just went to the hall in what I had on....T-shirt and shorts. My Sgt didnt have his gear when he got on scene. I ran up to him and asked for an assigment...He told me to strip my gear and give it to him. Because at the time I was not trained to go in. Well I followed orders and striped my gear. Underneath I had on like I said T-shirt, shorts, and well no shoes I had left them at the hall. Well needless to say I sat in the Engine with the heat on and took over command.

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on August 28, 2009 at 10:46pm

I heard a call just like yours not that long ago! The laughter in the background at the dispatch centre was also very easy to hear... That sort of little mistake has (nearly) everybody relaxing a bit :)

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on August 28, 2009 at 10:51pm

I can laugh at that one - I like laughing. But I know what would happen if anyone told me to take off my PPE and give it to them to wear! I won't put it here because some readers might be offended. Nobody but me wears my gear, nobody.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on August 28, 2009 at 10:55pm

LOL. Now yeah theres no way I would but back then..I was really just starting and he was my Sgt. so I followed orders. I was a lil pissed to be honest but I talked to Chief about it and he told me he was proud of me for following orders with no question. But I had a laugh too because my boots are 13 double wides and his were like size 6.

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on August 28, 2009 at 11:00pm

Isn't it nice tro know that most of us are human? That we can make silly little mistakes and laugh about them afterwards? I'm enjoying reading this thread :)

Chris? Down here we call our equivalant to that truck a '3.4C Tanker' and leave it at that (sometimes known as a 'heavy tanker'). The '3' is for the water tank (3000 litres), the '4' is for 4WD and the 'C' for crew cab. If they are in a station without a pumper, they can carry BA, otherwise usuallly not and are the second vehicle out for structure fires. Oh, and as with you, our summer weather forcast isn't looking too good.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on August 28, 2009 at 11:42pm

I didnt relize my reds in my back window were on the other day...I was woundering why no one was really driving behind me.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on August 29, 2009 at 3:56am

All our tankers carry BA but are not usually responded to a structure fire except to carry extra crew. We have 2 pumpers in my station (2009 scania class 3 metro rescue pumper, 2001 Izuzu class 2 metro rescue pumper) and a tanker but we are getting a new tanker in "rescue" configuration, the same as our pumpers fully stowed in primary config. so we can respond rescue to remote areas (we cover primary rescue for about a 65km radius) I hope we don't see a repeat of last season, either here or in your state, it would be devastating for everyone. I know the bushies here have been doing a bit of hazard reduction, but the Blue mountains near Sydney is a worry, so heavily populated and so much fuel its a disaster waiting to happen. Fingers crossed for all of us this season mate

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Permalink Reply by Doug on August 29, 2009 at 7:06am

Back when I was a rookie firefighter in the Air Force, 9 years ago now, we were dispatched to a brush fire at the edge of the base. The call came in from the city FD our base we located next to, as they were the ones originally dispatched to the call. We roll on scene and the city FD is on the edge of the base outside the security fence using their deck gun to put out as much as they can and to keep it from spreading. Well, silly me, instead of waiting for orders from my civilian lieutenant, and to see how he wants to approach it, I just immediately pull the cross lay and stretch it out. Needless to say, we weren't positioned very well and the cross lay didn't even come close enough to the fire. And there were the city boys just leaning up against their engine laughing their asses off at me. Thankfully, it was nothing too serious, we all had a good laugh over it and I learned my lesson.

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Permalink Reply by CHRIS PUYLARA on August 29, 2009 at 3:25pm

Put this one on another thread in here,but I'll share it here.One night ,when I lived in sleepy little Conklin N.Y.,the pager went off 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning,back then,used to sleep in the buff.....had my bunker pants next to the bed,sciviies closeby.Jumped out of bed and put my underwear on backwards....my wife rolled out of bed laughing...and all I could do was cuss her out....because I had to go out the door....we laugh about it now...Don't have that problem now..underwear is securely in place at night...LOL.....Chris

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on August 30, 2009 at 11:19pm

Underwear? Underwear? Oh yes, that stuff I wear during the day...

Just an hour or so ago I had a year 4 class rolling around laughing when I told them that one! Came about when one of them asked, when I had told them that the only thing we want them to do if there was a fire was to get out of the building quickly, 'what if we haven't got any clothes on'. I said 'what's better, naked or dead? Of course they all said 'dead'!