Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
Here is an article that I wish I would do more of. It is about my job. I typically don’t write much about what I do or about my crew. I hope to change that in the future.
Yesterday was one of those days when I wished I hadn’t come to work. It was fun, we had some laughs, but it was tiring.
My Captain was sick, so I was riding the seat…At station 5? Mind you, I work at station 3. Engine 3 was put out of service because of training staffing. It is a common theme which has been adopted by my department. Rarely will a piece be out of service for 24 hours, but 18 hours is a different story.
FF Duane Noell showing off his footy pajamas
So there we were, my driver and I, at another station on their engine. The day was spent giving a tour and preparing for a big fire prevention awards event that evening. Nothing too awful bad. It just gets tiring being at a different station and being out of your element and in another.
I must say that the event must have been a blast for the children who would be there receiving awards. Luckily, we were able to leave just before the event started and get our engine back in service at #3.
Thanksgiving
I will be working tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day). We will hopefully watch the parades and enjoy kicking back a little bit. We get to take it easy on Holidays. I will again be riding the seat as my Captain will have the day off on vacation.
If everything goes well, we will be getting a Thanksgiving meal dropped off. If everything goes bad, we will have a contingency plan. I will let you know what plan B is when I figure it out!
Me handing out helmets to the children at the tour today. Yes, I am standing up...And NO, I am not part of the class!
FF Jerry Franks and I at station 5. Notice their custom kitchen table, probably the best in the city until ours is done.
Christmas
The guys on the ambulance got the station all ready for Christmas. The lights are on the firehouse. Sorry, we don’t have a fancy system to set the lights up to flicker to the music. We might put in for one on the next budget cycle.
FF Jason Gardner and FF/PM Eric Mulford installing Christmas Lights on Firehouse #3.
#3’s Custom Kitchen Table
We are working on our kitchen table. This is a year in the works. Basically, we kicked ideas around for almost a year and last cycle we decided to act on those ideas. In the meantime, we have built a run board, refinished and customized a coffee table for the day room, built magazine racks for the bathrooms x3, a board to hold our accountability tags, a rack to hold our radio straps not in use, and a bottle rack for spare bottles. Among other things.
Our company enjoys woodworking and we have had fun setting up shop in the bay to work on this stuff. You never know what is next! I will post more pictures in the future!
The beginning of our custom kitchen table. All glued up and clamped.
What can I say? I work with an exceptional crew and we have a blast. The job gets done, we have fun, and everyone goes home. What more could I ask for? A raise…yeah we haven’t had one of those in 3 years yet everything is getting more and more expensive! We have our jobs still, so that is a plus.
