This Blog Post is a paper i wrote for my college english class so i thought i would put it on the FFN you guys let me know what you think. the prompt was a first time experience so naturally i wrote a paper on my first structure fire. also just for some inside information i have been at my Volunteer department for 3 years now and it took me this long to get a fire. so enjoy. this fire occurred on December 18th 2007 this is the link to the channel nine news website who was on scene taking video.
http://www.wsoctv.com/video/14884585/index.html?taf=char



“Beep! Beep! Beep! C-med attention Lenoir Base Little River Fire Monitors have a structure fire will be Woodrow Lane off of Fox road.” This is what I woke up to at 8:23am on December 18th 2007. This would be my first structure fire. One thought kept rolling through my mind. It was something one of my Lieutenants’ had told me: “Your first structure fire will make or break you.” This fire would either make me want to be at every structure fire I could, or it would scare me so much I would never want to go into another one again.
I quickly put on my clothes and shoes, grabbed my radio and ran out of my house to my truck. As I got to my truck I quickly put on my turnout pants, boots, and coat, and grabbed my helmet. I turned on my emergency dash light and quickly drove down my driveway. when I got to the end of my driveway I stopped, took a deep breath and said a quick prayer for me and my brothers as we were about to go into a fiery unknown. I turned left onto Union Baptist Road then Left onto Draco Road and drove for about a mile till I turned left onto Fox Road. As I turned onto Fox Road I looked up and saw a dark pillar of smoke rising from the house where the fire was. I knew this was going to be a hot one for my first structure fire. I continued down Fox Road until I made it to Woodrow Lane and then I turned into the driveway of the home that was on fire.
As I got out of my vehicle I immediately took in everything that was involved with the exterior of the structure that was on fire. Our fire apparatus were parked in a horse pasture directly in front of the house, which gave our attacking crews more room to maneuver hose to make the attack on the structure. This also provided plenty of room for the Fire Marshal and for the mutual aid coming from Grace Chapel Fire Department as well as Valmead Fire Department who were on their way to assist us. The structure itself was a two story log cabin style house with a porch that wrapped around one-third of the house from the left side all the way around to the front. There was a barn directly beside the house which could possibly be threatened if we did not extinguish the flames quickly. As I made my way across one of the several two by four pieces of plywood that stretched across the creek that ran in front of the house, I soon realized that they were covered in extremely slick ice as I almost fell into the creek. I finally made my way to our main attack Engine 201. One 1 1/3 inch attack line had already been pulled off of 201 and two of our firefighters were already inside making an interior attack on the fire. I grabbed an air pack and mask off of 201, put them on, turned on my bottle, and then I gave my accountability tag to my Chief. I then made my way to the front door of the structure.
This is where I made one of two mistakes on this fire. I went in without someone being with me, which was just a mistake I made considering this was my first structure fire. As I went in the door I hooked my connector from my pack to my mask and took a look around at my surroundings on the first floor. There was no fire visible on the first floor so I continued to look around for just about ten seconds. As I entered the structure I entered into the living room, which was decorated in a western style with cowboy hats hanging from the rafters as well as paintings of horses and cattle and gun racks holding Winchester rifles. To my right there was a kitchen and to my left there was a door that was shut that led to another part of the house. I then made my way up the tight black spiral stairs.
As I followed the hose line up to the second floor the heat got more and more intense. As I got to the top of the stairs I removed one of my gloves so I could turn on the flashlight on my helmet to see through the smoke. The fire was in the room right next to where the top of the stairs were. Even with a wall in between me and the fire I could feel the intense heat on my ungloved hand. Once I put my glove back on I duck walked and followed the hose line to the firefighter on the nozzle. As I got close to him he instructed me to go open a window to ventilate the room and to try to get some of the smoke out of the room so we could see better. As I got to the window I opened it and let the smoke start pouring out of the room. I then made my way back to the firefighter on the nozzle. As I got behind him to back him up he was signaling to me and screaming at the same time. At first I thought he was saying he wanted me to help him up so I grabbed his pack and tried to lift him. Then I realized, “damn it’s hot in here!” As I looked up I saw why. Fire was rolling across the top of my helmet from front to back. I then realized what my buddy was telling me. He was telling me to get down so I did so immediately. And then I backed him up as he opened the nozzle and beat the fire off of us.
Not long after we had beaten the fire off of us his mask began to vibrate, which was telling him he had five minutes of air left in his bottle. As he was going out the door two other firefighters entered the room and then we continued making the attack on the fire. As my buddy grabbed a Halligan Tool, he began to tear out a section of the wall so we could get to the seat of the fire and extinguish this fiery beast that was trying to consume not only this house but us as well. We finally realized that the Halligan Tool was not going to work, so we called on the radio for a K-12 Saw; once we got the saw we began to cut into the wall and made some progress at finding the fire. About this time mine as well as another firefighter’s mask started vibrating; however, we continued our attack.
This was not the best idea in the world. As we started making our way back down those God forsaken spiral stairs I began to start sucking my mask because I was completely out of air. Once I got to the bottom of the stairs I took off my mask and took a deep breath of half way fresh air, which felt incredible to my lungs that were screaming for air. Once I got back outside I changed my air pack bottle and sat down on the bumper of our engine and rested for about ten minutes. Once I was rested I helped carry a ladder to get up on the roof to make sure that the fire was completely out. Once this was completed we continued with our salvage and overhaul work and packed up everything. As we were leaving the channel nine eyewitness news van got stuck in the mud and one of our guys had to pull him out with his truck, which brought some much needed comic relief to our tiring situation. Once the van was free we returned to the station and got the trucks filled back up with water, put fresh dry hose on the trucks, and refilled all the air packs.
After we were done cleaning our chief told us that we all did a heck of a job in saving that family’s home from the flames, considering the fact for many of us it was our first structure fire. Only two rooms were heavily damaged by the flames and smoke while the rest of the house had some water damage. This fire had taught me one thing. It was the same thing that I been told before. “Your first fire will make or break you.” And I was 100% sure I was made to be a firefighter and that this is what I definitely wanted to do for the rest of my life.