In case you haven't noticed, I love sharing stories about my new chapter of life here at SFD. I love hearing stories from other people who have been in the Fire/EMS career field much longer than I have. And hey, maybe you're reading this and thinking about following that same path. I hope maybe some of my stories can give you just a tiny glimpse at the things that set our work apart--namely unpredictable work environments and "clients", long hours sometimes, lack of sleep, lack of or absence of social life outside of your station family, work that is hot, sweaty physically demanding and sometimes exhausting, the pranks, the stress, the frustration, the smells, the blood, the guts 'n' gore...
The list could go on a while longer, but I'll stop there.
So today I want to share about the new kind of crazy that has become part of my life this week.
Two little words.
Fire Academy
I've been looking forward to beginning my fire training in earnest for a while now. This week kicked off our Yamhill County Fire Academy, which consists of reading from our Fire Essentials book, watching online videos, and then all day skills sessions a handful of times over the course of the next few months.
But I had no idea how demanding and exhausting it would be.
Our home departments are supposed to help us recruits with drills throughout the week to practice before our class days.
So yesterday morning, after daily duties were squared away, out I went with my shift paramedic, my shift partner and my fellow recruit, Cody.
Out came our gear.
All of it.
Turnout pants, coat, boots, hood, helmet, gloves, facepiece and air pack.
Have you ever seen the new Karate Kid?
"Put your jacket on...now take it off. Hang it up...take it down...put it on...Now take it off..."
No joke.
Our shift paramedic knows that muscle memory is built by repetition, repetition, repetition...
Seven times we put our pants and boots on and took them off again.
Seven times we put our hood and bunker jacket on and took it off again.
Seven times we put our facepiece on, pulled our hoods up, attached the regulator and took it all off again.
Seven times we donned our air packs and doffed them.
Does this make you think of the Israelites, or what?
We then moved on to putting on the whole of our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), starting right next to our locker, then starting from our dorms, from our cars, from halfway up the stairs...
Hurry, hurry!
Doesn't matter what you were in the middle of--drop everything and go get your gear on!
We were stood in a room by ourselves with in air pack that had some sort of problem that we had to troubleshoot--in the dark. I figured it out after much fumbling--one of the waist straps was lodged between the bottle and the frame--but it took several more minutes of fumbling to get my mask on and regulator attached, realize I hadn't put my hood on, taking it all off and correcting my mistakes.
By the time we finished these drills we still had about 15 minutes of air in our bottles.
The rules of the next drill were simple--keep going until your air pack starts chiming.
Start by picking up the sledge hammer and hitting the tire 10 times. Move to the next tire and flip it twice. Pick up the two containers of motor oil and carry them to the orange cone and back. Go back to where you started, drag your partner all the way down the hall, and then repeat.
It doesn't sound like much...but it was.
I know I need to work on my cardio fitness.
Heavy breathing is painfully obvious when you're on air and sound like Darth Vader in the calmer moments. I was breathing hard and sucking down my air bottle. I could feel my face getting hot and red inside my mask and sweat oozing from every pore.
I am probably not in the best shape for this job.
We're working on--don't worry!
I made it two and a half rounds before I finally heard the blessed chimes!
After removing the 75 Lbs. of gear, I found that each layer of clothing I was wearing was completely soaked in sweat.
Now as if this wasn't crazy enough for one day, I had my three month review that day, went to Subway to help investigate a possible electrical fire ran 10 or 11 calls (I have never, EVER ran that many calls in a single day before!!), wrote my first chart, took 2 patients for the first time as an official EMT, finally ate dinner at 11 PM and crawled into bed at 2:47 AM. Less than 3 hours later it was time to get up and go.
There are about 15 of us recruits, coming from Amity, Sheridan, West Valley, Carlton and Dayton.
Such bright, shining faces.
Not for long.
All I could think of was Mulan, and getting down to business to defeat the huns.
"I'm never gonna catch my breath/Say Goodbye to those who knew me!/Boy was a fool in school for cutting gym!"
Ladders, hoses, hydrants, PPE...
All.Day.Long.
If you've never worn full bunker gear, I assure you, it heats up quickly.
However exhausting our day was, I enjoyed it.
I can don my turnouts in about 50 seconds. I can get all of my gear on in about a minute and 10 seconds, as long as I'm not using the high-pressure SCBA's from West Valley and have a mask that actually fits my face. My mask was too large and I no matter how much I reefed on those straps, I always felt air rushing around the seal.
I learned how to open a hydrant, lay a hoseline and hook it up to a hydrant, restore the hose in the hose bed,, ladder operations, how to use the "buddy breather system" if you or your partner get too low on air...
And more.
Tomorrow will be even more information download.
We'll see if I survive.
I'm honestly not sure how I'm even still coherent right now.
I'll be honest, I don't do well with that little sleep, all my major muscle groups are sore, and I get grouchy when I'm tired.
Crazy?
Yes.
Worth it?
Absolutely.
The list could go on a while longer, but I'll stop there.
So today I want to share about the new kind of crazy that has become part of my life this week.
Two little words.
Fire Academy
I've been looking forward to beginning my fire training in earnest for a while now. This week kicked off our Yamhill County Fire Academy, which consists of reading from our Fire Essentials book, watching online videos, and then all day skills sessions a handful of times over the course of the next few months.
But I had no idea how demanding and exhausting it would be.
Our home departments are supposed to help us recruits with drills throughout the week to practice before our class days.
So yesterday morning, after daily duties were squared away, out I went with my shift paramedic, my shift partner and my fellow recruit, Cody.
Out came our gear.
All of it.
Turnout pants, coat, boots, hood, helmet, gloves, facepiece and air pack.
Have you ever seen the new Karate Kid?
"Put your jacket on...now take it off. Hang it up...take it down...put it on...Now take it off..."
No joke.
Our shift paramedic knows that muscle memory is built by repetition, repetition, repetition...
Seven times we put our pants and boots on and took them off again.
Seven times we put our hood and bunker jacket on and took it off again.
Seven times we put our facepiece on, pulled our hoods up, attached the regulator and took it all off again.
Seven times we donned our air packs and doffed them.
Does this make you think of the Israelites, or what?
We then moved on to putting on the whole of our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), starting right next to our locker, then starting from our dorms, from our cars, from halfway up the stairs...
Hurry, hurry!
Doesn't matter what you were in the middle of--drop everything and go get your gear on!
We were stood in a room by ourselves with in air pack that had some sort of problem that we had to troubleshoot--in the dark. I figured it out after much fumbling--one of the waist straps was lodged between the bottle and the frame--but it took several more minutes of fumbling to get my mask on and regulator attached, realize I hadn't put my hood on, taking it all off and correcting my mistakes.
By the time we finished these drills we still had about 15 minutes of air in our bottles.
The rules of the next drill were simple--keep going until your air pack starts chiming.
Start by picking up the sledge hammer and hitting the tire 10 times. Move to the next tire and flip it twice. Pick up the two containers of motor oil and carry them to the orange cone and back. Go back to where you started, drag your partner all the way down the hall, and then repeat.
It doesn't sound like much...but it was.
I know I need to work on my cardio fitness.
Heavy breathing is painfully obvious when you're on air and sound like Darth Vader in the calmer moments. I was breathing hard and sucking down my air bottle. I could feel my face getting hot and red inside my mask and sweat oozing from every pore.
I am probably not in the best shape for this job.
We're working on--don't worry!
I made it two and a half rounds before I finally heard the blessed chimes!
After removing the 75 Lbs. of gear, I found that each layer of clothing I was wearing was completely soaked in sweat.
Now as if this wasn't crazy enough for one day, I had my three month review that day, went to Subway to help investigate a possible electrical fire ran 10 or 11 calls (I have never, EVER ran that many calls in a single day before!!), wrote my first chart, took 2 patients for the first time as an official EMT, finally ate dinner at 11 PM and crawled into bed at 2:47 AM. Less than 3 hours later it was time to get up and go.
There are about 15 of us recruits, coming from Amity, Sheridan, West Valley, Carlton and Dayton.
Such bright, shining faces.
Not for long.
All I could think of was Mulan, and getting down to business to defeat the huns.
"I'm never gonna catch my breath/Say Goodbye to those who knew me!/Boy was a fool in school for cutting gym!"
Ladders, hoses, hydrants, PPE...
All.Day.Long.
If you've never worn full bunker gear, I assure you, it heats up quickly.
However exhausting our day was, I enjoyed it.
I can don my turnouts in about 50 seconds. I can get all of my gear on in about a minute and 10 seconds, as long as I'm not using the high-pressure SCBA's from West Valley and have a mask that actually fits my face. My mask was too large and I no matter how much I reefed on those straps, I always felt air rushing around the seal.
I learned how to open a hydrant, lay a hoseline and hook it up to a hydrant, restore the hose in the hose bed,, ladder operations, how to use the "buddy breather system" if you or your partner get too low on air...
And more.
Tomorrow will be even more information download.
We'll see if I survive.
I'm honestly not sure how I'm even still coherent right now.
I'll be honest, I don't do well with that little sleep, all my major muscle groups are sore, and I get grouchy when I'm tired.
Crazy?
Yes.
Worth it?
Absolutely.
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