This is John posting. I want to recount my experience today. I have been treating a man at PT who is the second in command of the Washington State Fire Academy. I have several firemen a year who come in for therapy and their job has interested me because of the physical demands they have. So I asked my patient one day if I could suit up and experience what a fireman goes through. I think most guys as little boys have dreams of being a fireman or policeman. Who wouldn't, fire, trucks, ladders, dogs, sirens, busting things up. Did I mention fire? He asked me if I was serious and I said yes. He responded to be careful what you wish for because you just might get it! It's amazing what one signed release form will get you. He gave me a schedule of events that the recruits would be going through and I could pick the day I wanted to come up. I chose zero visibility and survival techniques. Why this one? I don't know. I just wanted to experience a really hard day if I was going to make the effort to go.
When I got there I came up on everyone doing the flag salute. They then sang happy birthday to a few guys while they had to do ballerina turns. It reminded me of scout camp in a way. Working with all females I have to admit that I was excited to be having a "guy" day doing "guy" things. They don't make sense and that's what's so fun about it. No one to impress or worry about offending. I was introduced to everyone and was called "Doc" all day long. They were impressed that I would take a day to come out and see what they do. Several came up to me and told me how much physical therapy had helped them. There was mutual respect right off the bat.
I mostly shadowed a guy by the name of Barry. He said he owed his career to PT as he had a serious injury that took a couple of years to rehab so he took some pity on me and brought me up to speed and everything they were doing.
First was the gear. It weighs about 45 lbs. I got the scuba gear on and learned about the safety mechanisms on the gear itself. There is a reading for the air with a bell that rings when you have about 10-15 min left. There is also an alarm that sounds off when you are still longer than 30 seconds. If it starts to beep you just shake a little bit and it stops. This is so if you should ever go down they will be able to find you. It also blinks. Barry told me when he was watching footage of 9-11 that's all he could hear in the background were hundreds of those alarms going off from the firemen who had fallen. It was rather sobering to think about. On a more light hearted note it's kinda funny to see everyone shaking a little when we are standing around watching or listening. All gear has to be put on in 45 seconds. I failed miserably with this.
They teach recognizing fire and knowing when to get out so you never have to use survival techniques but nonetheless they teach them so you are prepared. We practiced exiting a 2 story or higher building quickly. The techniques were going headfirst out the window and swinging yourself onto the ladder and then sliding down, sliding down the hose and sliding down a small rope. I was a little nervous to jump headfirst 2 stories up onto a ladder and swing around but once you got into it, it was kinda cool.
I also never thought I could just lower myself down with a small cord.
We practiced getting victims out of a structure. We had to climb up the ladder, bust out the window (imaginative) and pick up (a dead lift) another person, load him on the ladder and bring him down. My guy was 230# naked,, as they said so with gear he was about 275. Being up high on a ladder and squeezing this guy against it and lowering him down was easier than I thought but nonetheless work. The techniques they teach really make it easy.
The afternoon was spent in the burn tower. They burn palettes all day long and OSB (press board) to make smoke. They have victims made up from old hose it looked like and they are heavy. The objective was to get in, find the fire and pull victims out. Sounds simple until it all goes down. One team would enter and if they hit a deadend another team would be right behind them while the first team backed out. They teach you to take off your glove and feel the heat. The skin can only handle about 400 degrees so if you feel extreme heat you know you are around that temperature. The height of where you feel this heat is what you are concerned with. The higher the better. As a room burns it heats everything up. Things give off heat and smoke, carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is as combustible as propane. 500 degrees is a benchmark. Once reached things start to burn twice as fast and put more smoke and combustibles which make it hotter until another benchmark is reached and the burn factor doubles again. The hotter the fire the the lower to the floor you feel the heat. Once you reach around 1400 degrees you get a flashover. When that happens you have about 5 seconds to get out. (thus the techniques above) before you literally burn up and the fire consumes you. The protective gear can only keep out about 500 degrees and the oxygen mask about 300 degrees before it starts to melt. So you can see why this sensation test of the hand becomes so important and tells you whether to stand or crouch or commando.
I was again with Barry. We entered in and started to pull hose in for the leads who were searching for the fire. It's organized chaos in there. You can't see more than 8 inches in front of you and it's hot and you are crawling on the floor hitting around for victims or walls to guide you. Radio is only used to communicate that a fire or victim is found. They want it quite so they can listen for the flames or victims. We did talk to each other when up close. Pulling a victim out while crawling on the floor with no sight and remembering which way you turned to get out while trying to conserve energy and oxygen is not an easy task. Barry taught me that when we would sit and wait to move forward to slow down my breathing to not use up all my oxygen.
We got to the fire and I thought we would put it out but he said they don't put out fires they contain them and let them put themselves out. If you spray on the fire too much it creates smoke and steam and will speed up the heating process as I mentioned before. All fires will put themselves out because eventually they will burn up whatever it is that is burning. It was cool to sit there and anchor the hose as they sprayed and I got to see the fire crawl up the wall and overhead on the ceiling. The spray hits the wall and then you. So basically you just sit in the smoke getting hit with water until the thing burns out. Very dirty job. I smell like a camp out fire times 10. This was only using wood so I can imagine what it must be like with chemicals and fabrics.
It was a great day and I have a great respect for the job the fireman do. It's high stress. You go from 0-100 in 5 seconds and time is everything for your life and the lives you are trying to save. It's heavy, dirty work but these guys eat it up and I can see why. It is very satisfying to see something accomplished and helping people and communities as well as the comradery you build with your team. I can also see why they are in my office and what I need to do to better prepare them.
Thanks Melanie for letting me take a vacation day and go do this. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I will never forget it. I'm off to bed to sleep while nursing the bruises on my leg.
The Tulips are out a little early this year, but it worked out perfectly for our schedule. My parents flew in Saturday morning and after picking them up at the airport we immediately drove 2 hours North to La Connor for lunch and then onto Mt. Vernon to take in the beautiful Splendor of the Tulip Fields.
Tate came down with a fever a couple of days earlier and for the most part just wanted to be held. He wasn't quite sure about Grandma and Grandpa at first, but Grandpa's silliness brings out the best in all of us and he couldn't help but play along.
Tate came down with a fever a couple of days earlier and for the most part just wanted to be held. He wasn't quite sure about Grandma and Grandpa at first, but Grandpa's silliness brings out the best in all of us and he couldn't help but play along.
