Colorado cries Uncle! I believe I am not alone in asking why so much tragedy has fallen on Colorado? I watched my city burn just a few weeks ago and have dozens of friends trying to find a way back to a normal life after losing everything they owned.

I was directly affected by the Waldo Canyon fire in many ways and am still involved with efforts to help my home town recovery from this event. Then I heard about the shootings in Denver and thought what the hell…

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I have had quite a few friends ask me if I wanted to be involved in the most destructive fire in the History of Colorado and the short answer is hell yeah I wanted to be involved.

I think the feelings I had were mixed. Did I want to be working 16 hour shifts swinging a Polaski? No, I did not. Did I want to sleep in a sleeping bag on an asphalt parking lot? No once again. Did I want to choke on dirt and smoke…

So can you believe this one? Criminals are targeting the homes of firefighters fighting the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs CO. for break-ins and robberies.

Is there a lower form of life than a scumbag that would rob the house of a firefighter fighting to keep them safe? This news makes me sick to my stomach. Should these dirt bags be apprehended I am struggling with ideas for a fitting punishment.

The notion of…

My home town Colorado Springs, Colorado is on fire. The beast known as the Waldo Canyon fire took three days to get here, but get here it did. Yesterday afternoon I stood in front of my house and watched as this beast clawed its way over a mountain ridge and then charged down the foothills and in to virgin territory.

It looked like a volcanic eruption the colors were intense black and brilliant orange, a true hell storm. I have seen many fires in…

The Fire Chief of my home town has had a YouTube video made about him. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the format; it has been used hundreds of times on YouTube. It is the famous Hitler rant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYJNoicuGeA&feature=player_embedded

Hitler sits at his desk surrounded by his staff of officers, all the…

Firefighters are by nature natural problem solvers. If you think about it we get called for everything nobody else knows what to do with. A citizen calls 911 because something in their life has exceeded their ability to handle it.

The call takers and dispatchers are highly trained professionals that spend many hours in educational classes and are constantly being given new techniques in how to help the general…

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NBC announced its fall TV schedule and one show in particular that I have been tracking is called Chicago Fire http://www.nbc.com/chicago-fire/. Chicago Fire is being produced by legendary producer Dick Wolf http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0937725/of the Law and Order franchise.

I have meet Mr. Wolf on the lot a couple of times…

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The fire chief of my old department has ventured forward with a new mission for the fire service. He is trying out a notion of using fire stations and firefighters as neighborhood health clinics.

The idea is that in some neighborhoods during specific and limited hours citizens can come by their local firehouse and have some simple health checks preformed by a combination of firefighters and volunteer health…

So Sauza Tequila wants you to “Make it with a Fireman” have you seen this ad heating up Youtube? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0hq4bBnYIM&feature=player_embedded#!

The internet is all a buzz over it. I’ll try and fit all of my complaints into a single post here, but that may be very hard.

First off SHAME ON SAUZA TEQUILA! You desperate soul…

When the weakness of a firefighter is discovered, it is exploited by some for the entertainment of the rest. I was an exploiter. I worked with many unusual people myself counted in that statement.

Some had strange behaviors around the way they ate, slept, exercised, read, talked, you name it there was someone on the job with a different way of doing it, a way most would describe as not normal.

Here is another uniqueness…

Firefighters have to be cautious about how they show weakness in the fire house. I don’t mean physical weakness, although that will become self evident after awhile, I mean weakness of mind, body, or spirit.

Any weakness will be exploited by your co-workers as a tool for torment, entertainment, and sabotage. Firefighters will pry, dig, and investigate your defenses over and over until they find that “thing” that one little defect in your character…

“This is weird Tommy; the wound looks like it’s still fresh.”

Tommy joined me on the floor and gave it a look.

“You know what I think? I think the dog’s been licking this thing the whole time, you know trying to take care of his master.”

Made sense, I could just see the dog staying by his friend’s side and taking care of him.

“Makes sense to me Tommy. Look around the house and see if we can figure out what…

The guy must have been down for days, the report from dispatch asked us to check the welfare and that the reporting party hadn’t been able to get a hold of the patient for the past four days, and it looked like it had been a few days for sure.

There was a line of blood down every wall at almost the exact same height, around 2 to 2 ½ feet. I figured this was the height of the patient’s head when he was on his hands and…

We lined up like a SWAT team at the door; I was first in line and held a CO2 extinguisher like a gun. I thought if nothing else I could discharge the extinguisher and make a smoke screen effect to blind her.

Behind me was Tommy, and like me he had put on all his firefighting gear. We had on our big coats, gloves and helmets just in case she actually got a swing of the knife in, we might be protected a little. At the back of the stack was Pizza, and…

We knew Florence well. She was what we like to call a frequent flier. Florence had numerous problems and some of them were real. She had some sort of mental disorder bipolar or schizophrenia something that made her mind go off the rails from time to time.

She was never the one who called 911, that was generally the function of friends or neighbors. Flo would go off her meds or have an episode of whatever it was that she did and we would get the call…

I looked at Stormy.

“Go get the pump can and a carryall.” Stormy hurried away as I turned my attention back to the man.

“Hey mister… I’m sorry I never got your name. What is your name?”

“Ronald, Ronald Jackson.”

“Well Mr. Jackson, can I ask you a question?” The screams now were combined with rough coughing and gagging as the fire began to grow. I edged closer.

“You stay put son.”

“Okay Mr. Jackson…

I’ve been a little heavy as of late so today I’m gonna tell a funny story about alcohol.

Drunks find inspiration while under the influence sometimes helpful and sometimes not so much. One chilly winter night a few weeks before Christmas we were hanging out late in the evening at station number 8.

We had decided it would be fun to decorate the BRT with Christmas lights and other festive elements. Our officer Captain Tubby…

People ask we is firefighting today really any different than it was in the past? After all fire hasn’t changed much since a lightning bolt first slammed into a tree and set it on fire and some lucky Neanderthal stumbled upon it. Has firefighting changed much since that same Neanderthal set his furry apparel on fire after getting too close to the same fire?

Well yes and no. Our primary tool in fire suppression is still water; put the wet…

My experience with Billy-Bob left me even more apprehensive about my up-coming meeting with the “Big”. The Big Chief was an outsider, he hadn’t come up through the ranks of my department, he had been imported from of all places California.

Even though he had been on my job for at least ten years at this point, he was still an outsider, which had the possibility of being an advantage or disadvantage. He had formed his opinion of me all by himself…

So the day came to meet the “Big” Chief. I figured this would be much like all the other meetings with all the other chiefs. In a conference room with a big table and at least half a dozen white shirts and gold badges. Meetings with me were always a team sport, TimO on one team and then a real team.

I don’t think the other team was assembled because they feared it would get violent or crazy in some way. I think they all knew I was a clever drunk, as…