Another Hectic Day In "The Noke"

Well, hectic for me anyway.

It’s my 3rd and final day of  “riding the car” this week. The Chief will be back to duty next cycle and I get to go back home to “Lucky #13”.

As I said, in an  earlier post  this week; riding the car isn’t  ALL  bad. Some days are better than others and for me, it’s always a little difficult in that you’re just “filling in”. You’re working with somebody else’s “system” if you will. It’s not like you come in and change everything around to how you would want / like things…. you’re not the Chief … you’re just filling in.

The good news is that I didn’t have any 2 bangers today nor have I burnt the roof off any structures. The bad news is that the tour isn’t over yet.

Today has been more of a run around day. Running around for this and that, TONS of paper work and of course a trip to the Chief’s office for a meeting …. I LOVE THOSE!

So, here it is 10:30 and I haven’t gotten a post up yet. I tried to tune in to tonight’s show on  Firefighter Netcast  but had to run. The good news there is that they put an edited version up a few days following the “live” so you can listen to their shows anytime.

So, since it’s so late; I’m gonna try for a quick post with just a few highlights etc …

photo by Mike Overacker of Roanokefirefighters.com

If ya caught Monday’s post, you know that I had a 2nd alarm fire last day. You would also know that “Fire Boy” Fleitz was working some trade time and was in the seat of the first arriving Engine. What’s more is that he also had the nozzle. He made a good knock on the fire but don’t tell him I said so … his head is big enough.

That said, EVERYONE on scene did a great job. Various things worked against us from the beginning and for what we had, the results weren’t so bad.

I mentioned in  Monday’s post  that I was first in and my next two rigs to arrive were Ladders. We had multiple Engines out of service for various reasons at the time of the incident.  The building was boarded up so I assigned the first in Ladder (Ladder 5) to open up and set to the roof for vertical ventilation.  I had to hold the 2nd truck down at the street ( a very long driveway to the fire building) until Rhett and his crew laid in from the hydrant. Once Rhett (Engine 3) got there, he was alone.  Well, as far as I ‘m concerned he was alone. You see, we run 3 man companies. We are assigned 4 but due to vacations, holidays, duty injuries, vacancies etc we end up running with 3 (never less).

So, when Rhett dropped a man at the hydrant all that was left was the driver / operator and him. I needed water on that fire and quick. I couldn’t send him alone so I had to attach the 2nd Ladder (Ladder 7). So now I’ve lost a ladder company to fire attack (of course our ladders run with 3 as well and the operator stays with the rig). 

See how this one started off on the wrong foot? 3 man companies SUCK!  Anyway, it all worked out in the end. The fire went out and we had no injuries. It just kills me knowing what “could have been” had we had enough Engines in place or 4 man rigs.

So, as you can see from the pic above; Rhett was happy to catch a little work. He probably still has that grin on his face. He posted 2 good articles on the fire .. check em out …

From Va Fire News.com   Two Virginia Fire Bloggers write about 2nd Alarm fire in Roanoke

From Fire Critic.com   I Caught a Job … Fire Critic and Ironfiremen.com on scene!

photo by Mike Overacker at Roanokefirefighters.com

The little fella has been busy with his postings today.

He has another good article over on Va Fire News concerning a Roanoke Firefighter being awarded $2,000 following an arson conviction.

I don’t know where or how the court came to the $2,000 figure nor do I believe that I’ve ever heard of a firefighter being awarded money following a conviction.

see the Va Fire News article  HERE   and read local newspaper coverage  HERE

I’m not sure about the details of how all that works. Will the money be paid directly to the firefighter? Will the money go to the City and then into the fireman’s pay check? If so, will it be taxed?

Can the convicted even afford to pay everything he was sentenced to? You would think that if he had that kind of money, he wouldn’t be setting fires to collect insurance money. I’ll be curious to see how it all works out. If you guys have even had a situation like this, drop me an e-mail or comment and let me know how it worked.

Va Fire News also has 2 articles up on the Va Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service which was held 6-4-2011.

I posted live coverage and a promotional video of the event HERE

I listed the name of some of the team from the Roanoke Valley but missed a few from Salem and Roanoke County. The two brothers from Salem that I missed were Smitty and Mike Elliston. They are picture left with the Roanoke guys. The County brothers must have slipped off somewhere because none of them are pictured but I now  know Jeff Lawson and Toby Martin were there.

See the Va Fire News articles   HERE   and  HERE   there’s even some video of the bag pipes!

ok, I’m gonna wrap it up and try to catch a little sleep. We start our 4 day break tomorrow and will back on Monday. I’ll check back before then though.

Until I do … stay safe and in house!

Captain Wines