I joined the Fire Department in December 1985 right after we moved into our new place on the Prairie. The Station I joined was about a mile down the road from where I lived. I thought I would go and sweep out the bays and make coffee for the guys that fought the fires. Little did I know what I was in for. I showed up at the Monday night drill and they told me I had to go through the academy. The academy??? What is that? HA!! It is BOOTCAMP!!! Grueling hard labor!! Hot and scary, but I was not about to back out now!! They had me do exertion exercises, and all the time wearing old heavy bunker gear and a Breathing Apparatus! (heavy containers of air with hose and a face mask) All total probably weighing about 75 pounds. (I weighed about 250 pounds at the time, 36 years old & just quit a 20 year smoking habit) Then after about six weeks of the basics, I was sent to North Bend Fire Academy. We had to carry wooden pallets up 9 flights of steps to build the fire we were going to set for the Search and Rescue exercise!! SEARCH & RESCUE???!! Yep!! They smoke the place up really thick and you are to get on your hands and knees (wearing full bunkers) and keep in close touch of your partner and feel your way through the entire room searching for “victims”. They assure us if we get panicked, all we have to do is let the captain know and they will ventilate the room and let us out. I was petrified that I would not get through this, so I took baby breaths and was determined not to back out because I was an overweight older woman!! My partner ran out of air and his warning buzzer went off so we had to back out quick. One of the other guys panicked from claustrophobia, but I was fine!! YAHOO, I passed that one!! The next challenge was the 35 foot ladder. Uh, ladder?????? You want me to climb UP that ladder with all this heavy gear on and climb through that itty bitty window? ARE YOU CRAZY????!!!! They rolled their eyes like they knew I would back out of that one, so up I went!! I got as far as the window and lost my balance and couldn’t get into the window. That’s ok, I did most of it. I didn’t flunk!! Oh, by the way, I am AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!!!
The next segment was portable fire extinguishers. We were to fight a few small fires and refill the containers and fight more fires. Then there was the Warehouse fire. We crawl into a big concrete building that is HOT and put our knees on the hose to keep from burning up, (I did get burns on both my knees) and spray the nozzle in a fog spray using a clockwise circular motion. Counter clockwise would pull the fire towards you! HUH???
The last one was the Propane fire. We would all work as a team and the nozzle man would put his face close to the nozzle and the man behind would have to be close so the fire doesn’t creep around and burn you! One team did get a burn because the guy was too far back. This is serious stuff, man!!
Well I finally passed everything and went home a full fledged volunteer firefighter!! They gave me a pager and I was to go to Monday night drills and respond to fires.
I was petrified of the pager going off but ready to try it.
Next segment....FIRE!!!!
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