Boring to roaring

Finished up another run. stopped by the store, One of the firemen needed some toothpaste at the store we were close to after completing the run. a young man fell off his bike and the chain cut a small gash in his let, why exactly we were there I am not sure.

When I was a kid if you fell down and got here you picked yourself up and got a bandaid and tryed to hide it from your mom and dad. because if you got hurt you were probably doing something wrong to get hurt in the first place. And yes they were usually right.

Now headed back to the station after stopping by the store. I look up into the sky and see black smoke, at first thought a train station close by usually put off some black some when they first start to leave the train station, but this smoke was different, it had a constant sourse and the smoke went straight up. if it were a train it would move along the tree tops as the train excellerated. No this was somthing different, something I had seen before this fire was just getting started and from the look of the color of the smoke it had a blackness to it. Yes there was some kind of patrolem product burning. Moving down the road slowly, I reach up and hit the emergency flashing lights that seem to surround the fire truck like a shield giving me the right of way, glancing at my mirrors looking out for other motorist comming up from behind me. I continue to look back off the road to try and find this fire. moving and looking finely down a dirt road behind the trees I see the flames crawling up the side of the house, as I begin to make my turn down this road the firefighter in the back begins to put on his fire gear, stepping into his boots he pulls up his fire pants and begins to put on the heavy fire coat next. about 65lbs of fire gear on what he has to put on before he dons his air tank mask and fire helmet which ands about another 45lbs of gear. now most of the time we don't think about all this stuff we have to put on. it's just another peice of equipment that we put on the fire truck when we show up in the morning.
Now easing down the dirt road we draw closer to the fire the outline of the house becomes visiable throught the smoke. fire is starting to work it's way up the wall into the easment, shingles on the roof start to smolder and smoke. flames licking at the trees that overhang the house. Pulling up along the house the firefighter finishing up putting on his safety gear. I put the fire truck in park and engauge the firepump to charge the hose line, as I reach the front of the fire truck where two 1 3/4" lines that are preconnected for fast deployment are stretch to the front of the garage where most of the fire is at. The firefighter picks up the hose and nozzle and waits for me to charge the line. as he stares at the fire almost hipnotized by it's beauty, the hose jumps in his hand's now he has the swarn enemy of the fire.

Sorry have to finish this later. still at work and have to finish night clean up duty's

Stay tuned.