Losing My Ears...
So this morning I'm thinking about things that I am passionate about, and a lot comes to my mind; my focus turns to one of my passions that falls toward the top of my list: firefighting.
It's mid afternoon in Starkville, MS. I don't quite remember what I was doing - maybe sitting in class, maybe eating at the Kappa Sig house, maybe sleeping through class... who knows. My pager goes off for a structure fire at a local trailer park. Within seconds I'm practically in sprint to my truck which immediately becomes my own personal fire engine (how lucky was I...) I plug in the emergency light that sits on my dashboard, hit the gas, and get on the radio to find out who is in response to the fire, what trucks were rolling, and to see if this could possibly be a false alarm. The next thing I know I'm jumping off the back of my truck with full gear on and headed toward the "real" fire truck to put on my air pack. Within moments I'm fully suited up and standing on the steps of a mobile home that has flames shooting out the windows. I look at my partner, devise somewhat of a plan, and we fall to our knees. We enter the trailer with what we call a left-hand search pattern as we make our way to the back of the trailer where the fire is roaring. About 15 feet into the trailer I realize that my ears feel like they are on fire... now, I know they aren't with the protective gear that I have on, but they are so hot I truly think that my skin may be burning with each movement closer. I yell to my partner to see if he is ok and he is so we proceed further into the trailer. Visibility is about ZERO as we are engulfed with smoke throughout the entire trailer as well as no light. The smoke finally begins to thin out and when we can't see any more flames we regress to the door we came in from. I immediately throw off my gear and feel my ears as I was for sure that I would have some degree of burn... but I didn't. Minutes later, once the smoke had cleared out completely, I return to the room where we entered the trailer and find that the TV had melted down so far that it didn't even resemble a television anymore - it looked like a bomb had gone off inside this person's home. I go back outside and find who had entered the house with me, give him a high-five, and say... "man, it was so hot I thought I was losing my ears... when can we do it again?"
Pursue your passions...
It's mid afternoon in Starkville, MS. I don't quite remember what I was doing - maybe sitting in class, maybe eating at the Kappa Sig house, maybe sleeping through class... who knows. My pager goes off for a structure fire at a local trailer park. Within seconds I'm practically in sprint to my truck which immediately becomes my own personal fire engine (how lucky was I...) I plug in the emergency light that sits on my dashboard, hit the gas, and get on the radio to find out who is in response to the fire, what trucks were rolling, and to see if this could possibly be a false alarm. The next thing I know I'm jumping off the back of my truck with full gear on and headed toward the "real" fire truck to put on my air pack. Within moments I'm fully suited up and standing on the steps of a mobile home that has flames shooting out the windows. I look at my partner, devise somewhat of a plan, and we fall to our knees. We enter the trailer with what we call a left-hand search pattern as we make our way to the back of the trailer where the fire is roaring. About 15 feet into the trailer I realize that my ears feel like they are on fire... now, I know they aren't with the protective gear that I have on, but they are so hot I truly think that my skin may be burning with each movement closer. I yell to my partner to see if he is ok and he is so we proceed further into the trailer. Visibility is about ZERO as we are engulfed with smoke throughout the entire trailer as well as no light. The smoke finally begins to thin out and when we can't see any more flames we regress to the door we came in from. I immediately throw off my gear and feel my ears as I was for sure that I would have some degree of burn... but I didn't. Minutes later, once the smoke had cleared out completely, I return to the room where we entered the trailer and find that the TV had melted down so far that it didn't even resemble a television anymore - it looked like a bomb had gone off inside this person's home. I go back outside and find who had entered the house with me, give him a high-five, and say... "man, it was so hot I thought I was losing my ears... when can we do it again?"
Pursue your passions...
posted by Brad at 7:27 AM
1 Comments:
Where have you been? I need your posts.
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