What is it that our firefighters do? It’s what YOU can do too.
Here is a first hand account from a rookie firefighter’s first fire. It was written 10 years ago by FF Mike Shaw, and it is a brilliant example of what happens when ordinary citizens make the extraordinary decision to become a On-Call Carver Firefighter.
If this is something that you’ve pictured yourself doing, complete your application today.
I thought I would sit down and write a “note” since I never do that about the events that occurred today. I wanted to write from the time the tone went off until the time I finally got home spanning a little over 5 hours. For those 5 hours, I will attempt to recall in writing the events that I can recall so I can learn from what I did right and what I might have done wrong or could do better. So if you read this, enjoy the story of my first big fire.
September 16, 2009
Time: 16:38….(that’s 4:38 in case you don’t know the military time)
I’m sitting on my bed after a day off for once and the tone goes off. “Oh it’s another CO 1 & 2 call”
Nope, not this time. All three companies are responding to a reported structure fire on Rogers St. I fly down the stairs and get into my car. As I arrive at the station I can hear 301 calling the fire alarm reporting heavy smoke showing from the structure. The adrenaline begins to rise as I grab my gear bag from my trunk and run into the bay where Matt Nye is starting the truck and getting his gear. I begin to get my gear on and yell over to Matt to make sure he heard the report. We jump in the truck and pull out of the bay. No one seemed to be coming so we left a bit early. We begin to head to the scene, luckily I have to know all the streets and tell Matt where to go. The excitement is on as I begin to Scott up and get ready for the unknown. As we pull onto Rogers st the Chief directs us in. I can see thick smoke coming from the building as I exit the cab not knowing what the hell to do. Capt. Sears yells at me to grab the Inch and 3/4 line off the truck. I’m still fumbling around with my helmet so it can fit my head with my mask on. I grab the line and run towards the door forgetting to grab the nozzle. As I do that I head to the door with 301, C3 is already at the door. With no tools and limited time and manpower, C3 kicks the door in with his foot. “Holy s—t” I’m thinking, I’m going to be the first one into this building. All the training and evolutions we’ve done is kicking in. I put my regulator on and head in, forgetting to get my accountability tag to C3. (Shhh don’t tell Safety.) 301 is right behind me as we attempt to advance forward, getting hung up with something in our way. We later found it was a couch and coffee table. The visibility was absolutely Zero. I forget to put my flashlight on so I did, that didn’t help much at all. I could hear the fire crackling in what we later found out was another room. I then saw the fire come over our heads so I hit it with water and knocked it down some. 301 then took over as I made my way out of the building.
I then went around to the backside to find where the fire actually was. The fire was pouring out of the backside of the window. Someone managed to get the door open, but it opened from the inside. C3 had me take it down with the ax right off the hinges.
I was then able to assist FF Danny Wilcox with getting the 2″ around back in case we needed it. This was a sight to see, the fire so big coming out of the windows. Eventually the interior crew made progress and knocked the fire down. I was then able to go back in to check out everything. Was crazy the amount of damage that had occurred. Everything was burnt, plastic was melted so badly on the tv that the screen was pointing up in the air. I then began to overhaul the living room checking for hot spots and anything still smoldering. We used the thermal imaging camera to check the other rooms, hitting them with the booster line. There wasn’t much left in the center of the home where the fire seemed to have originated from.
The State Fire Marshall arrived and I along with LT Vincent, FF Tony Perez, and FF Matt Nye, assisted in finding out where the fire started. This was interesting task and took forever. We were then able to finish overhauling and managed to salvage some items with the homeowner. It makes you think about what it would be like if this happened to you when you are with the homeowner. I feel their loss, mostly everything in the house was gone. But you are glad that it wasn’t a whole lot worse. Someone could have been inside at the time, or the place could have burned to the ground if it wasn’t reported sooner, making anything salvageable.
After making sure everything was completely out it was time to head back and realize what had just occurred. All in all, it was a great experience and a good job by all the firefighters, but a tragic loss for someone. I will never forget my first “Big One” for a long time. I will walk away with a better realization of what it is like and what I could do better the next time. The experience of it all will stay with me forever.