Our first 3 weeks of calls

For Colton standards, the last three weeks have been a little slow, but we’ve still had the opportunity to make it on a few calls. We arrived at the station a little too late to make the apparatus on the first few calls, but then we got organized (gear in the truck, parking nose out, etc.). The first call we both made was for an unconscious man in the middle of the road. We were shocked to have made it on the Rescue Truck before it left the station! Turns out, the guy was just drunk. Our chief was on site first and roused the guy out of his unconscious stupor, so they recalled the rescue vehicle before we made it on scene. Since then, we both made it on a call for a sick elderly woman and a non-injury fall. Brad had made a few more calls since he is always so close to home…like an older guy crushed by a lathe. Then this Saturday, Jodi made her first REAL fire call! Brad had just walked out to the back of the property to play with his new gun when the page went out for a brush fire. Jodi jumped in the little truck and was third to arrive at the station! She was on Engine 125 with Chris and Kent and, once on site, was told to pull the pre-connect hose and work the nozzle (she got to be the one to actually put out the fire!) About an acre of land was burned… click below to hear the actual page from C-Com (AKA 9-1-1).

Page:  C-Com Audio

Brad & Jodi are OFFICIAL firefighters now!!!

 

Our last step in the fire academy was to actually fight a real fire in a house. This exercise is commonly referred to as a “Burn to Learn”. Because the Colton’s Burn to Learn house burned down prematurely, we were invited to participate in Canby’s (a neigboring department) exercise. Here we are at Canby’s station getting checked out before suiting up, and Brad & Jodi ariving on the burn site.

Out of all the firefighters on scene, Jodi was the first to go in on the hose! We went in the house in teams of 3, so Colton Firefighters Chris and Vern were close to back her up. We started by venting the windows, then entering the front door and working our way back to the fire using the attack line. Once at the room, Jodi and Chris had to make their way in by crawling on the floor in order to get close enough to the fire and put it out.

Brad went in on the attack line with several of the Canby firefighters

Brad and Jodi had a second opportunity to go in, this time together on the back up hose. Then we moved outside to ‘rehab’, and took some great pictures….

Then we moved to covering exposures – the homeowners were hoping to save the surrounding trees, and we were able to do so!

And the house is nearly down..

The Colton Crew (left to right) top row: Jodi, Vern, Tim, Brad, Doug, Miranda. Bottom row: Chris & Gary (the Chief)

 

Oh yeah, Brad found out while on site that Canby wouln’t allow goatees on their firefighters – so he had to shave his if he wanted to go in! Thankfully the resuce unit had a portable razor!