Personal Narrative: My First Firefighter

This interest in firefighting helped Grace out on one eventful Saturday. This day started out as any other day for the people at the 1st Street Machine Shop. Around 9:30 A.M. one of the machines exploded, due to a wiring issue. The employees did their best to evacuate the building, but when they took a head count, one person was missing. John Smith was working in the back office and could not make it to an exit.

It’s the middle of winter in Maycomb, Alabama, it’s the coldest winter since 1885 and it’s the first time it snowed in a while. Nothing seems out of the ordinary when Ms. Maudie’s house started burning. Ms. Maudie’s heroic neighbors such as Mr.Finch and Mr. Avery started taking out some of her valuable furniture from the burning house while the fire department arrived. The fire department sent 3 fire trucks over, 2 of which came from another town. Unfortunately, some of the equipment malfunctioned and they also came late, so they weren’t able to save the house, but they kept it from spreading to the other houses. Ms. Maudie’s tin roof helped put out the fire when her

On our way to Fort Laramie we camped the night and the next morning the women were cooking breakfast while we were gathering the tents and hooking up the oxen. When a stray ember shot from the fire. It hasn't rained here in a long while so the grass caught very quickly. Austyn James tries to put out the fire but her skirt caught fire too! She was screaming she dropped the ground and started rolling around, she was able to put the fire out. Soon the fire reached our wagons and caught our food supplies on fire. I started emptying our water barrel to put out the fire. It worked but, most of our food was gone by then. We spent the rest of the day putting out the fire and turning around to get more water. There is still another 60 miles to go to Fort

Mrs Perry said, “ The fire was getting out of control when the fire brigade arrived and they went straight to work.” Emergency services arrived at the blaze around 10 minutes after the call said mrs Perry.

This what happened at Storm King Mountain was that 14 Elite firefighters died trying to put it out the fire. He tried to save them, but it was too late because the fire was everywhere. Brad Hough they had 20 minutes to live they trying to escape from the fire. There’s was fire everywhere that it did not stop at all.

Firefighting had been a dream of mine for years, and I had finally made it into Fire Academy. The day I walked into the fire station I had the feeling of a kid in the candy store. I had no idea how the next six months would change me as a person. We trained our bodies both physically and emotionally. I did thousands of pushups, learned to tie knots, practiced search and rescue, and studied my textbook for long hours every night. I could feel my body tiring, and I could feel my mind getting weak. The excitement that filled me on my first day had drifted into the back

For years if not decades, firefighters have responded to a reported structure fire that turned out to be a fully involved single room. This fire scenario requires a core set of fire tactics and skills to control and extinguished the fire, but is it this simple? Perhaps twenty years it may have been, but new dangers are lurking in every scenario and may have detrimental outcomes for unsuspecting and unaware firefighters and victims. The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) agency along with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) have been conducting research to understand fire behavior and fire dynamics. This research is providing firefighters with new information about how and why

The smoke smell started to get stronger like everyone gathered around us was smoking a cigarette, but when I lifted my head back to look at the firefighters they were all ducking as more black smoke poured out of my house like a giant chimney. I waited anxiously for the firefighters to actually put out the

During the twins' welcome gathering, a fire breaks out and the fire crew springs into action. While they do put the fire out, they almost do more harm than help as the force of their exuberant hose nearly drowns some citizens. The fire crew almost never has a chance to battle a fire, especially not in front of highly anticipated guests, so they tend to show off when there is a fire.

It is ten p.m. and all the EMT’s and Fire Fighters are about to hit the beds for the night and the State Trooper that was finishing a report from a previous crash earlier in the day was getting ready to leave the fire station, when from out of nowhere tones start going off. What sounds to be the male dispatcher on this night described an unimaginable event that has taken place on the outside of town. It sounds as if a car with one passenger has pulled out in front of another vehicle with three passengers, and there will be some serious work to do to get the driver of both vehicles and one of the passengers out. Everyone at the firehouse started to go into organized chaos. Firefighters are throwing there gear on and getting in the closest truck,

It is 2 AM when the radio rings out, “Raymond Fire call, Raymond Fire call, a structure fire with confirmed party trapped.” In an instant men from all walks of life spring into action. The only common thread they share is that of a desire to serve their community. All knowing what they might face, yet none prepared for the task they are about to undertake. For as the first units are making ready and racing towards the scene, the radio again rings out, “Be advised, confirmed structure fire with an 8 year old trapped inside”. Hearts race, motors rev, and vision tunnels as the worst is confirmed. Upon arrival to the scene, the facts somehow change the course of reality. For the house is fully involved and in any other case it would be obvious that no safe entry would be made. Yet this instance calls for something different. Doesn’t it? As the reality sets in that there is nothing to be done and that no possible safe rescue can be made, a silence falls over the men feverishly trying to extinguish the blaze. Nevertheless, while the job is done when the flames are out, the heroic task lay upon the men to recover the boy. Two young men both white, from similar upbringings, that happen to be roommates find the boy and are tasked with baring his remains from the structure. The rest of the crew stands guard in the form of a human wall to block the views of onlookers and news cameras as the two carry the boy from the charred remnants of the home.

It is 2 AM when the radio rings out, “Raymond Fire call, Raymond Fire call, a structure fire with confirmed party trapped.” In an instant men from all walks of life spring into action. The only common thread they share is that of a desire to serve their community. All knowing what they might face, yet none prepared for the task they are about to undertake. For as the first units are making ready and racing towards the scene, the radio again rings out, “Be advised, confirmed structure fire with an 8 year old trapped inside”. Hearts race, motors rev, and vision tunnels as the worst is confirmed. Upon arrival to the scene, the facts somehow change the course of reality. For the house is fully involved and in any other case it would be obvious that no safe entry would be made. Yet this instance calls for something different. Doesn’t it? As the reality sets in that there is nothing to be done and that no possible safe rescue can be made, a silence falls over the men feverishly trying to extinguish the blaze. Nevertheless, while the job is done when the flames are out, the heroic task lay upon the men to recover the boy. Two young men both white, from similar upbringings, that happen to be roommates find the boy and are tasked with baring his remains from the structure. The rest of the crew stands guard in the form of a human wall to block the views of onlookers and news cameras as the two carry the boy from the charred remnants of the home.

Encountering a fire-related scenario is not only tragic, but stressful as well. Immiedately after the event, your mind is still in shock with what happened. Pulling yourself out of this disaster is not going to be easy. With so many unanswered questions and very little means, you can be stuck at the bottom for a very long time. Luckily, Dreyer’s DKI can raise you on your feet by helping you file for a fire insurance claim.

The door was locked and I heard faint screams over the sounds of the fire spreading throughout the house. The air was hot and humid. Part of my team and I tried to break into the room. The people inside couldn’t of heard us over their screaming… especially since they might have been frantically wondering what to do at the moment. We finally broke into the room and three people were huddled up in the corner of the room. One was laying down. It appeared to be a man. The father maybe? He looked unconscious. The other two (supposedly a mother and a daughter) were bawling their eyes out. It looked as if the mother tried speaking to us, but she couldn't get any words out of her mouth. She just pointed down to the man lying on the ground. She didn't know what to do. We immediately helped the man and took care of the mother and the child. They were fine, but the father was definitely not. There was an ambulance waiting outside and we carried the man onto a stretcher. We helped pull the stretcher inside the ambulance with the mother and daughter and they were carried

My life’s vocation has been one of search and rescue. If it weren’t cattle, it was people from all walks of life who had lost their way or did not know there was a better alternative than the lifestyle they felt fate had dealt to them. It was logical that sooner or later searching and a passion for flying would come together. I vividly remember my first flying experience. During spring break in my high school years, I happened to stop by the local hanger located on a hill that overlooked the cemetery in Russell. The approach for landing was a good reminder that one needs to be intentional about all life’s decisions because each decision brings with it either more “life” or more “death.” Decisions are never neutral. The decision to fly that day at the invitation of a local private pilot was not right or wrong in itself; it is just that I was not dressed appropriately for what turned out to be our actual destination and mission. What originally was planned as a flip around the town in a little two passenger J3 Piper Cub on a warm spring day turned into an unfiled excursion into the Riding Mountain National Park south of Dauphin, Manitoba looking for moose. It was winter in the park, and as we circled a small lake both of us caught sight of what seemed like a trapper in distress. His hand waving appeared much more urgent than a friendly acknowledgement. In