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The Gardenator posted:For cutting plywood roofs or walls, we will start with the axe side then flip to the flat side to crush our way through. This is one of my least favorite things to do. It will kick your drat rear end. Great workout though.
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May 24, 2016 14:21
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HiroProtagonist posted:This is one of my least favorite things to do. It will kick your drat rear end. Great workout though. I nearly gave myself a trip to the hospital overexerting myself trying to manually vent a shingle roof with a flat-head axe in full gear on a hot day. I am in pretty good shape too.
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May 26, 2016 20:11
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Yup, think I put down two or three liters of fluids after the last time I did that. Then I got down, leaned my SCBA back a bit so it hits that nice reclined angle and just sat there on the ground for a while with my coat open. 
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May 26, 2016 21:00
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Just starting at a department that is on pace for well over 14000 calls this year tomorrow. The most calls/year department I've worked at so far for a lengthy period of time as a part-time firefighter is 2000. I volunteered for one that was 8-10k/year, but.... I dunno how much that counts. 
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May 30, 2016 07:30
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windshipper posted:Just starting at a department that is on pace for well over 14000 calls this year tomorrow. I guess it depends on types of calls, my department has almost 7000 so far this year, but most are medicals and miscellaneous poo poo. My district has a lot of beaches with athletes of various skill levels doing those paddleboard/kayak "downwind" runs. It's almost guaranteed that we will get at least one call for a person in distress in the ocean per shift. Inevitably, the caller will report that the person in distress is "moving too fast", "too far from shore", or my favorite "I wouldn't be out there". I know we cannot dissuade people from calling, but it does get old. The only joy I get from these false alarms is asking the caller if the person in distress was waving their arms or shouting for help because they will almost always say no.
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Jun 3, 2016 11:49
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The Gardenator posted:One of our guys got some new fancy flathead haligan combo tool called the "pig". I believe he said it cost around $300. You can gis it here (phone posting): The Pig is loving *amazing*. Got to play with one on our ventilation simulator, and loved it. We even raced it against other tools, and it was faster than everything else, even the saw. Granted, the saw is wayyyyyyy less effort. e:Flathead axes are cool too. Pick head axes are only good for looking cool as poo poo on the side of a truck. e2:and also for holding while modeling for your local IAFF calendar. e3:but really irons are the best so why even bother with anything else e4:unless we're talking about wildland in which case the pulaski is the best tool on the fireground, next to driving a dozer or being aircrew probably e5:Saw a Cat D12 or D14 (one of the comically large ones) on a fire once. Dude didn't give a poo poo about anything and was just running over trees no problem. That guy has a really cool job. invision fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jun 9, 2016 |
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Jun 9, 2016 02:18
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I try to stay far from using hand tools for cutting, chainsaw or rotary saw are my go to tools. The guy with the pig is a physical specimen, he says he hates burpies but then I'll see him doing 50 after his main workout. I think the best tool to carry in a brush fire that lots if guys forget is a large file. Nothing like a dull axe to ruin your day.
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Jun 13, 2016 23:36
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The Gardenator posted:I try to stay far from using hand tools for cutting, chainsaw or rotary saw are my go to tools. The guy with the pig is a physical specimen, he says he hates burpies but then I'll see him doing 50 after his main workout. Legit give the pig a try if you can get it on a vent sim. Also the best tool to carry in a brush fire is obviously a pillow because being handcrew is for suckers.
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Jun 15, 2016 02:05
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The Gardenator posted:I guess it depends on types of calls, my department has almost 7000 so far this year, but most are medicals and miscellaneous poo poo. My district has a lot of beaches with athletes of various skill levels doing those paddleboard/kayak "downwind" runs. It's almost guaranteed that we will get at least one call for a person in distress in the ocean per shift. Inevitably, the caller will report that the person in distress is "moving too fast", "too far from shore", or my favorite "I wouldn't be out there". I know we cannot dissuade people from calling, but it does get old. The only joy I get from these false alarms is asking the caller if the person in distress was waving their arms or shouting for help because they will almost always say no. County wide last year we had 106 deployments of intranasal narcan by BLS providers. This department had 48 of them. Like any other department, 75-80% of the calls are EMS calls - and most of them BLS. But they also see their fair share of sick people and crazy people. Enough so that during the part-time academy, we went through training for how they prefer to restrain patients as well as putting on spit-hoods (for those of us who didn't already have that experience). Opioid and meth use have gone up drastically in this area over the past 5 or so years. invision posted:Legit give the pig a try if you can get it on a vent sim. I wanted to find the "like" button for this post so much. windshipper fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jun 30, 2016 |
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Jun 30, 2016 21:09
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Never had to use a spit hood, gonna find out from our medical trainer if we can obtain/use them. Triangle bandage should work in a pinch?
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Jul 9, 2016 01:55
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The Gardenator posted:Never had to use a spit hood, gonna find out from our medical trainer if we can obtain/use them. Triangle bandage should work in a pinch? Non-rebreather oxygen mask (with the oxygen on!) can work as well. Also N95 mask if you have one.
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Jul 10, 2016 20:40
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:SERVICEF, F3, PUBLIC SERVICE DETAILS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SEE COMP ACROSS THE STREET--CAN SEE INSIDE THE SCHOOL AND SAID THERE IS A TURTLE UPSIDE DOWN STUCK BETWEEN TWO ROCKS....COMP IS CONCERNED ITS GOING TO DROWN
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Aug 6, 2016 20:24
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Any of y'all still rocking proper electromechanical Q sirens? My local FD does, and it'll sure are hell get the traffic out of the way. Cops and ambulances, people stop and think before pulling over, the ol' square-wave air-raid siren on the bumper is much more effective. E.g. 6th Ave, Manhattan during noon rush hour, in April 2007, stereotypical NYC traffic, and then FDNY blew the intersection with air horns and Q siren and all the cars disappeared:  Edit: I may have mentioned it before, but for two years I lived two blocks from (City FD) Engine 4's house. I don't even perk up at the firetruck siren screaming by in the middle of the night anymore. The time I needed a ride in an ambulance it took a damned half-hour to get to me, because Station 4's bus is a reserve medic, so I got the guys from the other side of town. Also lol that one time my own house was on fire and the firefighters were surprised when they asked for the owner/tenant and I stepped up -- they all knew me as the newspaper photog, they thought I was at work. Edit: this last Friday I went to Walmart. The fire alarm went off, and I waited until they made the "Please GTFO" announcement over the PA to leave. Turns out it was a minor electrical fire in the main panel. Saturday I tried again at the other Walmart across town. There was a fire truck (Truck 6, specifically) parked right up front, and I was worried that the gods had it in for me, but the firemen were just shopping and abusing their parking privilege. Chillbro Baggins fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 06:28
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Heh, you would have seen a lot more than one apparatus for any kind of nonmedical emergency at one of those big box stores.
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Aug 7, 2016 17:55
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Val Helmethead posted::SERVICEF, F3, PUBLIC SERVICE DETAILS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SEE COMP ACROSS THE STREET--CAN SEE INSIDE THE SCHOOL AND SAID THERE IS A TURTLE UPSIDE DOWN STUCK BETWEEN TWO ROCKS....COMP IS CONCERNED ITS GOING TO DROWN Was it a Squirtle? Delivery McGee posted:Edit: this last Friday I went to Walmart. The fire alarm went off, and I waited until they made the "Please GTFO" announcement over the PA to leave. Turns out it was a minor electrical fire in the main panel. I'm pretty sure you are joking about abusive parking. We always have to park our ladder either along the curb or take up 5 stalls. We had a constant call to Walmart a few years ago. There was something wrong with the flow sensor. On the last call there, the Walmart manager was "busy" and wouldn't come and talk to the Captain, so he cleared the building until we inspected every part of the store. Not surprisingly, they fixed the sensor that week.
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Aug 7, 2016 21:48
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Delivery McGee posted:Any of y'all still rocking proper electromechanical Q sirens? My local FD does, and it'll sure are hell get the traffic out of the way. Cops and ambulances, people stop and think before pulling over, the ol' square-wave air-raid siren on the bumper is much more effective. All our trucks have a mechanical q siren on the front. It's a very good tool, but sometimes a few of our members are a little over enthusiastic about using it and stand on the drat thing all the way to the scene. I try to reserve it for when we're arriving at intersections or particularly stubborn motorists. I usually just alternate the siren's pattern or yank the airhorn to encourage folks to get out of the way.
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Aug 8, 2016 16:10
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Only one of my rigs has a proper Q, our "new" (to us anyway) 1986 FMC pumper. Everything else just uses whatever lovely electronic siren we could scrounge up. Well, I take that back, the '68 Hahn has a really crappy one, but we finally took that truck out of service permanently. We hope anyway. Being a small, poor department nothing is ever truly out of service.
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Aug 12, 2016 13:31
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One of our (soon to be reserve) Trucks and both reserve Engines have Qs on them. Newer apparatus don't, because they cost extra money. We have plenty of money, they just don't want to spend it on a Q.
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Aug 12, 2016 21:47
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I think MWAA (the National Airport administration) runs that weird European-like hi-lo electronic siren on their ambulance around here. It sticks out in a big way.
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Aug 17, 2016 21:01
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HiroProtagonist posted:I think MWAA (the National Airport administration) runs that weird European-like hi-lo electronic siren on their ambulance around here. It sticks out in a big way.
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Aug 20, 2016 23:09
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Speaking of warning devices... Do you apparatus in your part of the country drive around with their arrow sticks flashing all the time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBZemDv7l6U Where I grew up, this was only used to control and direct traffic, but in the mid atlantic region, I see most trucks have them just flashing all the time. I find it a little distracting, if not confusing and dangerous for other motorists.
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Aug 24, 2016 16:43
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dexter6 posted:Most of the rigs I've ever driven have a euro-sounding hi-lo tone built into them. In Europe, it's typically two physical horns that produce the different tones, not an electronic siren. Hmm, the latter must be what it was then. It definitely wasn't a typical hi-lo. You're more of a siren nerd than I am though, so who knows. I wish I could remember which department it was though, cause I'm still not positive it was MWAA, only pretty sure.
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Aug 24, 2016 17:01
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dexter6 posted:Speaking of warning devices... Majority of suburbs in Northern IL do.
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Aug 24, 2016 17:50
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My adventure for today: sprinting down a major highway chasing after a small dog. Had a 4 car accident and one of the cars was transporting 3 foster dogs, all in crates. Well the crates got bent pretty good so the dogs had to be leashed and stored on our rescue since it was hot as hell out. We were putting them in one at a time when one decides he wants out of the truck and the rookie inside didn't tie the leash to a seat. Cue my rear end sprinting in bunker pants and boots to catch this little fucker. Both lanes were shut down thankfully so no cars were moving. Some people got halfway out of the car and made some motions of attempting to help, but never really left their seats. I made it about a half mile before I stop since I'm about to die of heat exhaustion. Thankfully the little bugger turned around and ran past me into the arms of the other guys who came to see what the hell I was running after. So yeah, lesson learned. Tie the drat dogs up. If y'all see a youtube video in the next few days of firefighter running down a highway, that's probably me.
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Aug 31, 2016 01:08
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IronDoge posted:My adventure for today: sprinting down a major highway chasing after a small dog.  The only time I've chased down an animal was when a cat with no sense of self-preservation kept trying to run into a burning house. It was not declawed.
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Aug 31, 2016 03:31
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Looking for some new station boots and pants. Any recommendations?
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Oct 4, 2016 03:22
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I wear Red Wing 4473 boots and have for 6 years now. They are steel toed, so on the heavier side. They will need to be re-soled every couple of years. Station pants is what I'm issued.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:40
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http://imgur.com/a/EdsLS So someone thought it would be cool to tear up my IAFF sticker on my truck. I'm not a Union member, I'm just a part time Firefighter, but I display the IAFF sticker in a show of solidarity and support for all the Union guys and the amount of rear end they bust every day. The fact that someone thought it was ok to try to tear up the symbol has me heated. Notice they left the Star of Life alone.
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Nov 24, 2016 15:20
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Did you guys laugh as much as I did when you read about the private hanger in California flooding half an airport with AFFF? Good times.
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Nov 24, 2016 18:02
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bear is driving! posted:http://imgur.com/a/EdsLS Yeah, I only use the inside mount stickers for this very reason.
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Nov 24, 2016 23:00
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bear is driving! posted:http://imgur.com/a/EdsLS Interesting that you seem to think it was union hater. When you mentioned that you're not a union member, I assumed it was a union member getting pissed at a non-union member displaying the logo. I've seen union members get pissed at non union folks displaying the logo in the past, like they're poseurs or something. Anyway, sorry, that's sucky.
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Nov 25, 2016 23:03
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windshipper posted:PM me a link please? Cross posting this here for any of our FF/PM members. Currently, I'm a part timer at two departments. One of whom serves ~20k people with roughly 2000 calls/year, the other serves a population of 75k people with roughly 13-14k calls/year. Any advice as to how to help prepare myself, my wife, or make myself a more attractive candidate is appreciated. I'm pretty sure I'm on my way to being a more attractive candidate within this department, as I've made it known to those who I work with that I want to tech all calls unless they're blatantly ALS or until it's seems that this might be out of my scope (or they have other questions that they want to ask that I haven't thought of). However, anything that anyone can give me advice on or any way to prepare for this would be appreciated. I've hit the point where even if I don't make it as a FF/PM candidate within this department, I still want to find my way to the paramedicine side, so it'd be advice that I'd want to know or have to prepare for in the next year or two anyways. Anything you can think of is appreciated.
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Dec 6, 2016 21:50
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So I currently work as an RN. Been doing this job for a little over two years. While I enjoy working in a hospital I sometimes miss my job back when I was a EMT-B. Recently I ran into one of the paramedics that use to work in the ER, he's working at the local firehouse. He was telling me that their probies can't pass the NR for paramedics and since I've kept up my EMT B qualifications I can challenge the paramedic exam. He was also stating that his department is so low on recruits they are hiring paramedics and paying them to go through fire school. Additionaly he told me that the state of Florida has been having statewide issues with this and said that it only requires them to pass the Florida paramedic exam not the NR. I was wondering what book I should buy to study, whether if it should be a NR paramedic test, or if anyone else had any ideas.
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Dec 27, 2016 16:17
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all states will accept a NR and give you a state cert. having only a state cert just means if you move you may have to test again for that state it doesnt really matter unless you leave FL. i got my nremt-b from the Army, when i got home i got my state cert automagically
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Dec 28, 2016 02:32
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Nostalgia4Butts posted:all states will accept a NR and give you a state cert. having only a state cert just means if you move you may have to test again for that state Not all states do NR. Most do though. SirDrinksAlot, you might get more help in the EMS thread in The Goon Doctor forum.
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Dec 31, 2016 03:53
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Firefighters in Dubai get some pretty cool toys: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/jan/23/dubai-firefighters-aided-by-water-jetpacks-video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99P9GlqLDec I'm not a firefighter and while that looks awesome, it seems wildly impractical in practice.
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Jan 24, 2017 19:46
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Good luck getting under the hood with that. Considering that's where you really need to attack, I can't see this being much help unless it's a motorcycle on fire. Still that'd be a  position to have.
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Jan 24, 2017 20:10
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We operate Jet Skis and have to wear a floatation vest and helmet which I think is a standard requirement in the USA, which would be complicated by also wearing FF PPE. When I was a recruit, we did a water survival course that included jumping into a pool while wearing full FF PPE (its easy to drown). Despite the risk of drowning, the idea is not too crazy. Instead of that water suit, you could get a safer and more reliable design by sticking a valve on the jetski that could output into a 1" line. Then you could have a hoseman and a jet ski operator.
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Feb 6, 2017 22:03
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The Gardenator posted:We operate Jet Skis and have to wear a floatation vest and helmet which I think is a standard requirement in the USA, which would be complicated by also wearing FF PPE. When I was a recruit, we did a water survival course that included jumping into a pool while wearing full FF PPE (its easy to drown). Despite the risk of drowning, the idea is not too crazy. Instead of that water suit, you could get a safer and more reliable design by sticking a valve on the jetski that could output into a 1" line. Then you could have a hoseman and a jet ski operator. Wanna watch that operator punch the gas without warning and have the water pressure on the line suddenly knock the hose an off the back.
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Feb 16, 2017 08:02
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windshipper posted:Wanna watch that operator punch the gas without warning and have the water pressure on the line suddenly knock the hose an off the back. Anything can be forgiven as long as the guy on the hose doesn't let go of his nozzle.
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Feb 17, 2017 19:50
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