Cooking , Cleaning and Pumping
My job makes me feel like a janitor sometimes. When theres no fire or medical calls, the station needs to be cleaned. Toilets need to be scrubbed, floors mopped, dishes washed. My last 96 hours of work have been devoid of calls. The preceeding shifts often quiping that they have done all the calls for us as their shift had nine or ten calls.
I have become intimately familar with Comet.
My dreams are haunted by mildewed dish racks and greasy pans.
Fournately my cooking prowess has improved. I've baked chicken with lemon peppercorn dressing (made from scratch), portobello mushroom burgers with pesto mayonaise and spicy pico de gaullo.
While the shifts have been devoid of calls I did start my driver operator training. Last night was spent learning the ins and outs of centrifugal fire pumps as presented by New Hampshire Fire Academy instructors on an overhead projector.
Theres a good deal of abstraction in the whole pumping process. Different pressures are acheived at various levels by cycling the water threw the pump a certain amount of times. As we serve a town with no pressurized hydrants, we need to create all the pressure ourselves through drafting. Pumps need to be set at certain pressures on the pump end so the guys on the nozzle have a consistent pressure high enough to knock down the fire.
The pump is basically another gear on the transmission of the engine. You put the truck into neutral and set the pump brake, and wait for the truck to idle down and then flip the switch to push the drive shaft up into the pump. It should catch with minimal grinding of gears. Then you get out and place wheel chocks and set your suction. Handlines or feeder lines are run off the truck or it is attatched to anothe engine or a tanker. Then you get to follow a bunch of gauges and listen for noises, monitor pressures and flow water for the guys in the fire actually enjoying themselves.
I chose to get involved in the driver operator program because, one I wanted to be able to drive the engines (what kid big or small doesn't want to drive the engine and toot the big airhorn?) but I also want to get a broader understanding of all the roles involved in the fire service. I worked for a while as a firefighter/EMT down in Mass. and I always had someone else driving the truck and running the pump. I spent a lot of time honing my rescue skills through the MFA's Rescue Technician program and eventually I went to paramedic school. I studied rural and urban search and rescue. Basically I spent alot of time learning all of the specialty skills of the fire service and I decided to take the driver operator program as a sort of return to the basics. I have found, however, that the intricacies of running a pump efficently are not all that basic, in fact its pretty challenging as there are a lot of numbers to keep track of.
Once we start the practicals, I'm told, everything will make a lot more sense. And I believe it, I always learn best by having the machine or equipment infront of me and playing with it until I figgure it out. Its just that Engine 2 is very expensive and I'm afraid my learning process will damage it.
And pumps are only half of the fun, next I get to learn to drive E 2 in all sorts of weather and conditions.
While all this is going on, I'm still working on getting myself in the best possible shape for the Wildland Academy. My body is constantly stiff from pack hikes, woodspliting, weightlifting, snow shoveling and stair climbing. A persistant ache in my left ankle has me smelling of IcyHot for most of the time.
But the pain is very focusing. Its like when I used to wear a fire academy ball cap at the gym so that everytime I passed the mirror I had a reminder of my goal. Eevrytime my ankle aches I have brief fantasies about carrying a Stihl with a 24 inch bar on a long hike into the backwoods. A crew of tired, aching firefighters treks behind me lugging shovels and axes, rakes and saws.
For years I did landscaping work with my father and it was great to be outside, working with my hands and, in all honesty, wearing a set of ear phones to drone out the din of the machines and the nagging customers requesting we "leave the lawn a bit shaggy" or "weed the garden and plant my turnups" or any one of a million other tasks that eighty something year old Italian men feel absolutely must be accomplished at noon in 90 some odd degree weather. While I love working as a fire/medic, people can sometimes get to me. 911 calls at 0400 for a toothache lasting six months try my patience.
But trees won't complain if the ride is bumpy, wildlife will be smart enough to flee once they smell smoke. Doing seasonal work in the wildland arena will recharge my batteries, so to speak.
I have become intimately familar with Comet.
My dreams are haunted by mildewed dish racks and greasy pans.
Fournately my cooking prowess has improved. I've baked chicken with lemon peppercorn dressing (made from scratch), portobello mushroom burgers with pesto mayonaise and spicy pico de gaullo.
While the shifts have been devoid of calls I did start my driver operator training. Last night was spent learning the ins and outs of centrifugal fire pumps as presented by New Hampshire Fire Academy instructors on an overhead projector.
Theres a good deal of abstraction in the whole pumping process. Different pressures are acheived at various levels by cycling the water threw the pump a certain amount of times. As we serve a town with no pressurized hydrants, we need to create all the pressure ourselves through drafting. Pumps need to be set at certain pressures on the pump end so the guys on the nozzle have a consistent pressure high enough to knock down the fire.
The pump is basically another gear on the transmission of the engine. You put the truck into neutral and set the pump brake, and wait for the truck to idle down and then flip the switch to push the drive shaft up into the pump. It should catch with minimal grinding of gears. Then you get out and place wheel chocks and set your suction. Handlines or feeder lines are run off the truck or it is attatched to anothe engine or a tanker. Then you get to follow a bunch of gauges and listen for noises, monitor pressures and flow water for the guys in the fire actually enjoying themselves.
I chose to get involved in the driver operator program because, one I wanted to be able to drive the engines (what kid big or small doesn't want to drive the engine and toot the big airhorn?) but I also want to get a broader understanding of all the roles involved in the fire service. I worked for a while as a firefighter/EMT down in Mass. and I always had someone else driving the truck and running the pump. I spent a lot of time honing my rescue skills through the MFA's Rescue Technician program and eventually I went to paramedic school. I studied rural and urban search and rescue. Basically I spent alot of time learning all of the specialty skills of the fire service and I decided to take the driver operator program as a sort of return to the basics. I have found, however, that the intricacies of running a pump efficently are not all that basic, in fact its pretty challenging as there are a lot of numbers to keep track of.
Once we start the practicals, I'm told, everything will make a lot more sense. And I believe it, I always learn best by having the machine or equipment infront of me and playing with it until I figgure it out. Its just that Engine 2 is very expensive and I'm afraid my learning process will damage it.
And pumps are only half of the fun, next I get to learn to drive E 2 in all sorts of weather and conditions.
While all this is going on, I'm still working on getting myself in the best possible shape for the Wildland Academy. My body is constantly stiff from pack hikes, woodspliting, weightlifting, snow shoveling and stair climbing. A persistant ache in my left ankle has me smelling of IcyHot for most of the time.
But the pain is very focusing. Its like when I used to wear a fire academy ball cap at the gym so that everytime I passed the mirror I had a reminder of my goal. Eevrytime my ankle aches I have brief fantasies about carrying a Stihl with a 24 inch bar on a long hike into the backwoods. A crew of tired, aching firefighters treks behind me lugging shovels and axes, rakes and saws.
For years I did landscaping work with my father and it was great to be outside, working with my hands and, in all honesty, wearing a set of ear phones to drone out the din of the machines and the nagging customers requesting we "leave the lawn a bit shaggy" or "weed the garden and plant my turnups" or any one of a million other tasks that eighty something year old Italian men feel absolutely must be accomplished at noon in 90 some odd degree weather. While I love working as a fire/medic, people can sometimes get to me. 911 calls at 0400 for a toothache lasting six months try my patience.
But trees won't complain if the ride is bumpy, wildlife will be smart enough to flee once they smell smoke. Doing seasonal work in the wildland arena will recharge my batteries, so to speak.
posted by Nick Stabile at 9:34 AM
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