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First Fire
Since all the new thread on the general discussion board are being stormed with all the name game things making young guys like myself look immature. So I want to start a discussion and see how far this goes. What was everyones first fire like, I still remember mine like it just happened yesterday. Was a friday afternoon in may of 2003 my station was alerted for the truck co transfer to a station at the south end of the county while they were operating at a 3 alarm fire. Just as we were getting the parking brakes put on the 4th alarm was struck bringing in our ladder. When we got on scene there was a city block on fire consuming every building on the block except for a church. Thier were apartment buildings, bars, book stores, a feul storage and maintenence garage, and i do believe a restraunt. My first assignment was me on the nozzle and my dad who was chief at the time backing me up, We led the hoseline in the feul storage building to start knocking that fire down. then we were pulled back to direct our streams on the apartment building. After we got that fire knocked down a little bit we were than directed to take our hoseline into a bookstore while the rest of our crew led lines into the apartment building. All in all i think close to 30 fire companies were there with over 300 firefighters and 10 alarms struck. As this was my first fire i thought it was pretty cool i could share that experience with my dad
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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I'm sitting here racking my brain trying to remember my first call....the last 22 years are a little blurred, I remember calls just not sure if it was my first. I do remember, and will put a little twist on the farther son bonding, farther daughter, and it was a semi of hogs that rolled over, 5 hours of good bonding, only lost 2, and was very thankful they were confinement hogs and not field raised.
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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I wish my dad was in the fire dept lol good story
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Permalink Reply by Timothy Crowell on
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Kinda along the same lines. First fire was a five alarm at a resturant onthe outskirts of our district (later ruled arson). I was on the second in engine. Front door was locked, I was ready to force the door when the chief (dad) grabbed the axe from my hands and smashed the glass door open. I watched my older brother go in on a handline while I was stretching more hose. The fire had gotten away from us for a little while, but eventualy with the help of other departments, got it under control and saved alot of the building. It was one of the largest fires I have been to in my nine years. As for working with family, I must say it has been a pleasure working side by side with my father (chief), mother (safety officer), older brother, younger brother, and sister-in-law at one time. I'm gonna miss it after I leave my volunteer department (went fulltime for another department on county over). Enjoy those times, they really are great.
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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on
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I remember mine! A little tarpaper shack on the north side of town on a cold-as-hell night in November. As the probie, I spent the first 30 minutes humping hose, straightening kinks and tightening couplings. Then after fetching the cooler, getting the overhaul gear set out and making sure the pump-op didn't need anything, the chief took pity on me and let me take the booster line and knock down some little auto-vents around the perimeter of the roof. Then i learned about overhaul!
The things that stick out in my mind about that night:
The lady who rented the house was quite well endowed. After we completed the o/h on her bedroom, the side yard was littered with at least 200 large, brightly-colored, bras.
As I stated, it was a particularly cold night for North Georgia, and I remember thinking that "These rubber boots are sexy as hell, but they don't keep your feet warm worth a damn!
And the last thing that stands out, about the time the attack team reached the seat of the fire, the Chief came storming out of the smoke filling the front door and tossed a stack of photo albums onto the porch. They were charred pretty good and still smoldering along the edges. The Chief locked eyes with me and said quietly, "Take care of these...". It was at that moment I realized why we were there.
TCSS,
Reg
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Permalink Reply by Ed on
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I wish my "first fire" was a bad ass story like that. 11 years ago when I first come onto my volly department, I got my gear on a Monday night. I was chomping at the bit just WAITING for that pager to go off. Well, it was the following Sunday. Call goes out for a vehicle fire inside a garage. Reports advised that the fire was spreading to the house. I lived 1/2 block away from the firehouse. I ran down to the station. Of course with me being so new, I was in more of a "watch and see" kind of position. So there I stand all geared up ready to go. Two of our older guys show up and get in the engine and go to take off. Of course I'm pissed that they were leaving without me. As they get part of the way out of the house, I hear a huge crash.. I run up front to see that someone had left a side door open and it ripped down the entire brick front of the house on top of the engine. While I'm wading through the debris to make sure everyone is ok, they've already ran around to the back of the house and were taking off in Engine 2. Again, pissed that I missed THAT truck too.. I ended up jumping in our rescue truck and got there just in time for what? You guessed it SALVAGE AND OVERHAUL... Once we got back at the house, I spent the next 12 hours working on picking up bricks, headers, parts of apparatus, etc.. That was my first fire.. How about that for a big "look how good I did" story?!
Be Safe Gentlemen (and ladies)..
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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Great Topic!!! my first fire was when i was with the Manhasset Lakeville FD Co3. i was 18 years old. We went to a basement fire in a row of stores on Great Neck Rd, west of Middle neck road. After wanting to do this since i was 5, here i was on the tailboard of Engine 34 (a 1968 Hann) and we were flying through town to this call with Neil Hicks at the wheel. When we got there the black smoke pouring out of this building was thick...And i was scared you know what-less. As a tailboard probie, my job was to hook up the hydrant. I did the wrap and signaled for the truck to take off. it went about 200 ft and stopped. Everybody got off and went to work. I began to do the hookup. I promptly began to "tighten" the caps to get them off when i realized I was going the wrong way. I got them off and put the "wye tword the fire and a single gate away" I closed the valves and opened the hydrant. While standing there I couldnt take my eyes off the fire. When the engineer signaled for water, I forgot to open the valve slowly and jerked it open. I walked up to the truck and stood by the passinger door like my Captain told me. i was shaking like a leaf with fear watching this place burn. The captain came over to me and told me to get an scott pack on. i did then we took off for the building. we made entry at through the sidewalk to the basement where Co4 was alredt working. At this time my brain was telling me "DONT GO IN THERE". My captain got down on all fours and I followed. we went down the stairs and at the bottom the smoke was to the floor and it was hot. We followed a 2-1/2. It was so hot. Every bone in my body told me to get out, but i stayed. eventually we go to the guys on the nozzle and they got the fire out. i helped the guys locate the windows and the truck guys began to vent the smoke. When it was over, and we were back at the firehouse, my captain wanted to know how it was for me? As much as i wanted to give the macho "piece of cake cap" reply i told him the truth, i was scared. He laughed because i had done all of the "big probie talk" when i came on so after all that he said he was glad i said that. if i had given the macho answer, he would have had real concerns....Thank you for posting this topic, that was 24 years ago for me and a it was a nice stroll down memory lane...Special thanks to Capt. McGrath for what he did for me that day
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Johnson on
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My first fire was two days after I received my used and worn out gear. The call came out that a residence was on fire and unknown if someone was still inside. You can see that my adrenaline was pumping so hard that I felt like i would pass out before we even got to the fire. At the time, it was only myself and one other firefighter that was old enough to go into a fire. He had a few years of knowledge, but I was as green as they got. We bunkered out and the medic crew driver pumped the engine. We approached the porch and front door and could see that this was going to get out of control quickly if we did not act fast enough. We made entry and within about 12 feet, the nozzle man had a problem with his SCBA. Unable to see or hear him, even though I was holding onto the hose and had my left hand on his shoulder, he decided to pull back and fix the SCBA and give it another shot. When he turned around and told me to follow him out, his hose or something on his gear grabbed and pulled the lanyard to my mask and pulled it completely off. It did not take me long to find the door. He did not realize that I was having problems until after we got outside. We regrouped and then attacked again. We fought the fire for about 4 minutes and still had no backup yet. I used up 2500 lbs. of air in about 10 minutes. We did not have control of the fire, but thankfully, another engine arrived with three firemen on board. Once the fire was out, we started overhaul. During the overhaul I was accudentally hit with a straight stream right in my eye. I thought that it had dislodged my eyeball when it hit me. So in a matter of minutes, I was nearly suffocated by smoke and blinded by water. Two lessons that I have learned since that day,"Never leave your mask lanyard dangling and never try to get anyones attention that has a hose in their hand while overhauling.
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Permalink Reply by Douglas Crowell, Jr. on
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Don't forget after the knock down, we left there to go to a barn fire about a mile down the road. And who took you there? Your big brother, again!!
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