December 2008 Blog Posts (170)

on the road to take the test

Well I don't know how many people have been threw Arkansas when its snowing and cold, but we usually get just ice. I had to drive threw this crap for about 50 miles it took me 3 and half hours to go 50 miles. To take a written test for blythville fire department and i passed so yay! I was 20 minuets late getting there though but they let that slide considering there was an inch of ice on the highways. So I wonder which job I will take if Blytheville offers me one as well? Blytheville pays more… Continue

Added by Jonathan on December 17, 2008 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter

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Added by Denise Imperiale on December 17, 2008 at 2:00pm — 1 Comment

Robber Downloads Instructions from Internet

This is just too funny. Taken from KCMQ.com.

A trio of women in Bedford Heights, Ohio, wanted to rob the local Dollar Tree store. They weren’t sure how to go about it, so they went online and downloaded instructions on “How to commit armed robbery in Six Easy Steps.” Then 11 hours later, they went to the Dollar Tree wearing masks and brandishing a BB gun. They told the manager to open the safe, the manager said she could not open it, and the women… Continue

Added by Bruce C Ziebarth on December 17, 2008 at 9:21am — No Comments

Week of 12/14

So I am starting a blog out of sheer boredom (which I will explain later.)

On the fire side of things, It was pretty quiet except for monday.

We were toned out for a possible structure fire at a car dealership. When I heard the dispatcher sign on and blow out all those numbers ("Dispatching Engine 402, 404, 405, Rescue 406, Truck 422") I knew it was going to be something "good" but when he said it was a car dealership I thought to myself "oh...s***." Frankly I am not a fan… Continue

Added by Adam Box on December 17, 2008 at 7:47am — 3 Comments

Losing a Best Friend

The last week has been one of the most trying time in my life. My best friend in the whole world ( besides my wife ) passed away after he went into cardiac arrest while working out in a gym. We've been friends for over 15 yrs, I started as a snot nosied punk to a Lieutenant at a progressive dept, with his guidance and knowledge.

In 1992 when I met Louis, I knew that he was different but as we worked together and played together I found that we had more incommon that I thought. The… Continue

Added by Stephen Russell on December 17, 2008 at 12:22am — 3 Comments

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter

I passed my Practical!!!!!

Added by Denise Imperiale on December 16, 2008 at 8:20pm — 6 Comments

The Story of the Candy Cane

One Christmas in a small candy shop a candy maker decided he would share the story of Jesus with a special candy. This candy would symbolize the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ. To represent the Virgin birth, and the sinless nature of Jesus he used a solid white candy. This candy was a solid candy to represent the solid rock of God. The shape of this candy was easy to decide, he shaped this candy into the letter "J". This of course, represented Jesus. Jesus is often referred to as the… Continue

Added by Asst. Chief Bigshow on December 16, 2008 at 5:46pm — 1 Comment

It's been a while....

Sorry, it's been a while since I've been on the FFN site!!! I had my gallbladder removed a week ago (12-9-2008) and I've been revovering!! The bad thing is that I know I'm not a "patient" patient. I want to feel better yesterday!! And, what was supposed to be an outpatient procedure turned into a 2 night stay at the hospital due to the fact that the blasted thing exploded as she was removing it!!! Was doing good until the whole get up and move part of the day....and the front of my gown was… Continue

Added by Sheri Caelwaerts on December 16, 2008 at 3:32pm — No Comments

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter...December 16, 2008

I had my practical last night and I am waiting to hear if I passed. Everyone was so encouraging beforehand, telling me not to overthink like I have the habit of doing. I want to make a few observations and if you're a parent you will like these.

One is my son who is 11 has been extremely afraid of heights. I have a balcony in front of a window and the last time I asked him to clean the window and floor (quite a way up) he… Continue

Added by Denise Imperiale on December 16, 2008 at 2:22pm — 1 Comment

MyHotComments iT ISNT MERRY XMAS, AND ITS NOT HAPPY HOLIDAYS,,,,,IT IS A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

MyHotComments iT ISNT MERRY XMAS, AND ITS NOT HAPPY HOLIDAYS,,,,,IT IS A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!
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Added by Will2745 on December 16, 2008 at 1:12pm — 6 Comments

Life as a small town volunteer #2

So I just posted a discussion about the one call that got you hooked on fighting fire. I will go into a little more detail on what call got me hooked.

It was in October of 2005 that the rural department that i was on got paged out for a mutual aid for a grass fire. It was a clear warm day but the wind was steadily up around 20 -25 mph with some gusts of up to 40 mph. It was perfect weather for a grass fire to get out of hand in a hurry. We took two brush trucks and one engine for… Continue

Added by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on December 16, 2008 at 12:30am — No Comments

I have been busy

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days I have been busy around the house and trying to stay busy with the Department (Which has been slow, but is good and bad, good cause noone is having problems , bad cause I don't make any pay) It has been a rough couple of days trying to get everything in order for the holidays. I will try and get on when I have some time.
Until then everyone have a safe and Happy Holiday.
Merry Christmas an God Bless all.

Added by John on December 15, 2008 at 8:02am — 2 Comments

FYI

FYII wanted to let everyone know that I recently added the audio from the Annapolis, MD 5 alarm fire to my videos portion of my page. Take a listen. Here is a prime example of when everything goes wrong. Be safe. Patrick

Added by Patrick Mullen on December 15, 2008 at 6:17am — No Comments

Life as a small town volunteer #1

So I am new to FFN and still "wet behind the ears" relatively in the fire service. I live and go to school in a small town of about 6000. I guess you could say that I had always thought of being a firefighter but I had never pursued the idea until moving here for college. I am what some would call an adrenaline junky ( snow skiing, water skiing, riding ATVs,would like to skydive and bungee jump). I go to a college with a rodeo team and I had always wanted to try to ride a bull. Mom would never… Continue

Added by Gordon "Gopher" Runer on December 15, 2008 at 3:04am — 3 Comments

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter

Well, here it is, the night before my practical. I am writing this Notes from a Rookie Firefighter post after our very successful pancake breakfast at our firehouse this morning. Yesterday I spent the day with my captain practicing my knots on some tools, trying to aim my regulator in just the exact spot with my gloves on and my eyes closed. I was out in the bay for awhile and in came one of our newest rookies, who is going to the Academy in a few months. So he hung out with me for about an… Continue

Added by Denise Imperiale on December 14, 2008 at 8:59pm — 3 Comments

Brother Firefighter/Clown passed away Sunday evening

Our McKinney Texas Brother Firefighter/Clown Richard Smith passed away this evening after suffering injuries from falling while installing Christmas Decorations while off duty. Richard Smith was critically injured while hanging Christmas lights on the roof of his Little Elm home.

Please keep Richard's wife Misty and their 2 children in your prayers during this Christmas season.

Fellow firefighters of Smith's from Station Five say he was a guy who always had a smile on his face… Continue

Added by Jeff Christenson on December 14, 2008 at 8:00pm — 8 Comments

Barbados Fire Service At The Cross Roads

BARBADOS, Dec 13, 2008 - The Barbados Fire Service is at the cross roads in terms of its development, but there are several issues standing in the way of such development.

That was the view put forward by the Chairman of the Barbados Fire Service Association (BFSA), Clarence Hinds. Giving the opening remarks at the start of the annual general meeting of the association, Hinds lamented the fact that there have been no promotions within the Service since 2004 and that no appointments… Continue

Added by Glyne Alleyne on December 14, 2008 at 7:54pm — 1 Comment

The end of a LONG difficult year

Last night my Fire Department held our annual Holiday dinner. It is the one time of the year when we get together away from the station. In the past few years we have had all kinds of issues with people being people and things not working out the way they should and some people going away with hurt feelings, angry or just didn't show up for the event at all.

As with many volunteer fire departments from time to time, we have had "cliques" or groups of members not always working with… Continue

Added by Jenny Holderby on December 14, 2008 at 7:49pm — 2 Comments

Black Ice, The Great Equalizer: Take Two

In light of the current weather conditions here in Melbany, I thought it would be prudent to re-post this piece. I wrote it right around this time of year last year (the big tipoff was the reference to reindeer jammie pants, like my candy cane antlers, I only wear those in December).

We're having one hell of an ice storm in Albany right now, and according to the weather report on the news, it's not just us. Snow, sleet and ice are piling up from Poughkeepsie to the Adirondacks. With… Continue

Added by Mary Ellen Shea on December 14, 2008 at 6:40pm — 17 Comments

The Continuing Chronicles of the FNG (irl): Fire and Ice …Hot Dogs and Chainsaws

My title kind of sounds like a country song, doesn’t it? All that’s missing is the broken-hearted horse, a ten gallon hat, and the kitchen sink.

We had a pretty damaging and intense ice storm in Albany that started up on Thursday, Dec. 11 at mid-day and finally finished at around noon on the following day. And it didn’t affect just my area either; there was storm damage, cataclysmic power loss and ice and snow buildup all the way from Poughkeepsie to New Hampshire.…

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Added by Mary Ellen Shea on December 14, 2008 at 6:39pm — 12 Comments