03 November 2007
Just Another Saturday
Station 2...yet again. This shift I get to spend 28 glorious hours sitting in a 15 by 30 foot trailer. The shitty part is it's not like it's been nice outside like it has been for the past 2 weeks. I woke up to -20 degree weather and a -30 wind chill. After showing up at station 1 to pick up our gear, we headed down to the runway to begin our shift in the ice town. We spent an hour checking out the apparatus, 20 minutes going over what needed to be done today, maybe 20 minutes doing training, and the rest of the day and evening gaffing off. Despite doing anything remotely close to being Antarctic Fire Department related, I did manage to get a lot done online that I had been meaning to do for a while. I spent a lot of my time looking at different schools and programs regarding fire science and EMS. I also had been looking at jobs in other parts of the world. My friend's wife from back home at one point in time helped with the hiring of firefighters who were stationed in Russia at an aerospace testing facility. Despite our current relationship with mother Russia, that still sparks an interest in me for a possible summer or winter job. I've also been looking at hazardous materials training, hazardous materials response jobs at chemical or industrial plants, paramedic training, ARFF training, etc. Needless to say, in all of my boredom, I managed to spend a lot of time online without falling asleep unlike half of my crew. We had a good group of people down here today which really helps pass the time. I can honestly say I don't have a problem with a single person in our department. I like all of the officers on my crew as well as the firefighters. Another thing that happened today that got me really excited is that I received an email in my USAP account telling me that I had been selected for the SAR team tryouts and my tryout date is this coming Monday. What's even better is that I found out that the fire department is willing to revolve my schedule around my SAR tryouts and, if I make the team, training and deployments should I get deployed with the primary team. For a pretty lackadaisical day, I managed to get what I consider a lot done.
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2 comments:
Do you get many fires in that area? I cant imagine too many, but I figured I'd ask.
And what do you use to put the fire out? Water would just freeze in a mater of seconds, right?
Anyway, I just stumbled across your blog and thought I'd say hello.
Take care,
Daniel
The potential exists but we don't get a whole lot of fire. We deal with a lot of military aircraft so every once in a while we'll deal with smoke investigations on inbound or outbound planes, hydraulic spills, fuel spills, and every once in a while an engine fire but other than that, not a whole lot else. As far as in the town, we'll deal with hazmat, confined space rescue, a lot of EMS, and basic smells and bells but rarely do we have a true structure fire. As far as putting the fire out, we just use water, foam, or dry chem. Water freezes, but it's not right away...10-15 seconds is the fastest I've seen it freeze out here. All of our ARFF (Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting) rigs cary foam, dry-chem, or both and they do a better job in the cold. But for the most part, we still use water. If you have any other questions, by all means, let me know and I'll be more than happy to answer them!
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