It's funny, we go several days without a call from time to time. Most of our calls are First Responder EMS calls or MVAs, small fires and THIS WEEK brush fires. Except that Monday afternoon we responded to a fully envolved structure fire. It was a total loss, not really a wonder considering that it was totally engulfed when we arrived on scene up a little windy, rutty dirt road. The IC called out to the water officer to send in a tanker, the truck went in, dumped his load & turned around & came back out. The trick was that the IC & the water officer had to be in sync because 2 vehicles can not pass on that road. Anyway, there are several structures in that hollow so if 1 goes the potential is there for all of them to catch if you aren't on the ball. So while everyone was working on the structure fire, a spark landed in the woods & Whalah! Now there is a forest fire burning like crazy. Which STARTED our rush of wild land fires for the week one after another after another. Even for those of us who don't normally fight brush fires, its tiring because we stay on alert for anything else that happens. So finally after many many prayers for rain & a couple of rain dances, it FINALLY rained yesterday & the temp cooled off so the brush fires are out. For now. We hope.

I took myself out of town this weekend for a well deserved respite from work, family & FD to spend some time with some friends. My son calls these little forays "instant debitchification" for his mom. When I mentioned going, they were ALL FOR IT so . . . well anyway back to the subject.

This evening not long after I returned home, I heard sirens. Pager was quiet but I had a feeling. So I checked the pager which was DEAD. Someone, grrrrr, had put the pager in the charger but hadn't clicked it all the way in to the connection so it was drained completely. So, I called my brother's house who has a scanner, pager & radio in the house to ask if we had a call. Yup, sure enough, confirmed structure with entrapment.

As it turned out, the elderly gentleman they rescued wasn't REALLY trapped. He was still in the home, in the basement watching football on TV. The fire was on the other end of the house, in the attic. He lives alone and hadn't heard the smoke alarms because he is practically deaf. We had good turnout (about 70%) & great response times. The guys made an excellent stop & used only about a 1/4 tank of water. In a little more than an hour, we had the fire out, the mess cleaned up and the hose & equipment back on the truck.

The homeowner was pleased, to say the least, as were the neighbors & family. As I was filling out the report, getting information from one of the family members she asked me if there were smoke alarms that he could actually hear. We discussed the type with the flashing lights. I alos suggested that hardwiring might be a good idea since she wasn't sure he had changed the batteries in the smoke alarm in some time & the possibility of the need for a CO2 detector. I suggested she check online @ FIRSTALERT for some possible solutions & referred her to our fire prevention officer if she needed to speak with someone again.

So, we've had a VERY busy week. In the mean time on Wednesday, we took posession of our new rescue/pumper which is just a big old naked truck at this point. Well not totally naked since it has a CAF system, ladders, hard suction & pike poles but it isn't ready to roll. We already own 2 sets of rescue tools & have enough equipment to get it in service once we "shift" stuff off the other trucks & get things bracketed in etc.

Around here structure fires happen in 3s. We had a "good" call a couple of months ago that was a lone incident but usually if we have 2, we'll have 3 before it settles down again. We've been really lucky. The fire earlier in the week was called in as entrapment X3, yet all the residents did make it out. Tonight the resident wasn't trapped YET. I hope we continue to BE lucky.