Firefight #1

Bethany and I got our first taste of firefighting the other day. What a rush! It came in as a report of a brush fire in someone's backyard, a stump burn gone wrong somehow.

It was mid-afternoon on Saturday, I was just wrapping things up on my recycling centre shift when the pager went off. Just so happens the fire hall is only about 200 yards away, so I was the first one there. In a matter of seconds, several others arrived -- the command car went out first with two more experienced guys, then I was in the first of the trucks, three aboard including myself. With sirens wailing, we raced across the island to the northwest corner near Chikadee Lake. I saw Bethany heading the other way toward the hall, waved, but she didn't see me. En route, I was asking questions about different controls and procedures in this particular truck -- it's likely I'd be driving it myself soon enough. Also while travelling, we worked out which of us was to do which task upon arrival. One would be working the pump, and the two others each were to deploy a hose line and man a nozzle. I was one of the latter.

Once we got to the driveway, the captain on scene directed us around back. There were already several firefighters going to work on a smoldering debris pile about 30 yards towards the back woods from this fellow's intended fire pit. The pile was a wide bank of wood waste, stumps and sawdust about 5 feet high at its peak, and a long way across -- basically bordering the back end of the property. My first job was to spray water into the smoking holes that others were opening with their axes and shovels. I'd laid out my line in a zig-zag from the truck, just as I'd been shown at practice. Once the pump man looked my way, I gave him the sign for water (same as an umpire's home-run signal), and braced myself. I hadn't yet had a chance to hold a hose under pressure -- I was expecting a pretty forceful stream, and that's just what it was. Not unmanageable, but it took some pointers from the others to give me the proper over-the-shoulder technique.

So I worked that hose for a while, then handed it off to grab a drink. I was actually pretty tired already from my shift at the Bottle Depot, so the rush to start this firefight took alot out of me. I took a brief rest, downed a bottle of water, then grabbed an axe and set to digging. The fire was not an urgent matter, it was under control pretty much from our arrival and was then just a matter of turning over chunks of wood and dousing what heat was in there. It was a great turnout, being Easter weekend almost everyone was at home on the island. The chief (also our realtor) and most of the senior officers were out -- we probably had 15 of the 20 personell at this incident. It was actually a fun atmosphere, with lots of BS'ing and a bit of a waterfight going on during all the work.

Bethany arrived maybe 10 minutes after I did, and she was doing all the same stuff I've described already. It took a little while, but we eventually made eye contact and exchanged our excited looks. Mr. and Mrs. Fireland were finally getting a taste of what they'd signed up for!

The chief called in a favour from the ex-chief, who is one of the Denman backhoes-for-hire. He rolled in and made short work turning over the smouldering pile. That saved the rest of us quite a bit of digging effort. In the end, we were there about two hours from start to finish. But in my case, the best action was yet to come.

Everyone pitched in to pack up the gear, and slowly departed the scene -- all in different vehicles than they'd arrived in. Before long, I found myself alone with Truck 53 (pictured), the first-responder engine that I'd been in before. Well cool, I thought, I'll get to bring her home! Everyone has to be able to drive every vehicle, that was made clear from the start. So this seemed a perfect chance to get a bit of practice. However, the truck wouldn't start -- turning the key didn't even make a sound. I knew there was some kind of setting to disconnect the battery while parked at a job, but I had no idea which control it was. After a few minutes of fretting and fumbling, I swallowed my pride and got on the radio asking for help. The deputy chief was very clear and quick to help me get up and running. I'm sure some of the guys got a chuckle out of my mini-mayday.

So I got to cruise solo back to the hall, feeling quite cool and proud of myself and my wife. We'd done the job, got our feet wet, and now had a bit of real-life perspective on what we've been talking about and drilling on at our weekly practices for several months. I'm glad it was a relatively minor incident, not a life-or-death house fire or something (rare on Denman we're told).

It wasn't long until our second call-out, that happened just yesterday (Easter Monday). I was at the construction site, and had to race in on the putt-putt scooter. Bethany happened to be right there at the hall, preparing for a special extra practice. So this time, she was first dressed and among the first to be on the way. It turned out to be a blown transformer on a hydro pole, with the resulting blaze limited to the top of that pole. Mrs. Fireland was the one who hopped in a responding BC Hydro truck and directed them to the right location. She helped deploy some hoses and spray a bit of water on the surrounding area, just in case. The truck I was in was dismissed as soon as we'd arrived. So that turned out to be a pretty short call. Still great practice for us rookies though!