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Doing More Harm Than Good

One morning in April I was assigned to the back of the Rescue truck. My secondary responsibility was to drive the Tanker truck if it was needed. This wasn't my usual station and I hadn't driven this truck in about four years. Sure enough the law of averages caught up to me on this day and it was needed.

The pumper had been dispatched to a garbage container fire behind an industrial building. Upon arrival they found a forty foot long garbage bin right against the building and it was on fire. There were no yard hydrants nearby so the Captain called for the Tanker.

I was told to respond non-emergency (no lights or siren). That suited me just fine. The reason I was hesitant about driving this truck is that it has a manual transmission with a split axle. When I learned to drive trucks I learned on manual transmissions. That didn't bother me. It was the split axle that caused my concern. I was taught to drive it years ago but I never got much practice with it. Since then my department has bought all its trucks with automatic transmissions.

I got the truck going and even managed to make it through the gears til I had it up to road speed. I thought I understood the basic shifting pattern of the transmission but it sure made a lot of bangs and clunks and grinds as I went through it. I wasn't the safest vehicle on the road that morning as I spent more time worrying about double clutching and popping the split axle button up and down then I did watching out for other traffic.

I finally pulled into the parking lot of the building and managed to get backed up to the pumper. Now it became a simple pumping operation. The Tanker has a smaller pump than a pumper but it operates basically the same way. Then the Captain said he needed another tankful of water. He assigned a Firefighter to help me while I banged and clunked my way around to the front of the building to find a hydrant.

My helper connected the hose to the hydrant while I took the other end up on top to fill the tank. I remember reading that a tanker will fill about 25% faster through the top opening than from the bottom. This is due to there being less back pressure on the hose. I stuck about two meters of hose into the opening and signaled my helper to open the hydrant. As the hose became fully charged the reaction of the water caused it to slowly start sliding out of the opening. I told my helper to shut it down but before he got it shut off completely the coupling at the end of the hose came out of the opening and soaked me all down one side. Now I really felt like a rookie again. I was wrecking a truck with my lack of driving skills and I got myself soaked at the call.

We did eventually refill the tank (3 times in fact) and extinguish the fire. Then it was time to drive back to the station. I was 500 meters from home when another call came in. The Tanker wasn't needed but the Rescue truck got dispatched. I radioed the Captain of the Rescue truck to ask if he wanted me to follow him; of course he did. Fortunately I hadn't battered the truck too far before everyone got staged enroute (told to wait where you are). I pulled in a side street and got turned around so I could either head to the fire or the station depending on what happened. I was told I could clear and return to station.

I was the first truck back but a group of Paramedics got to laugh at me as I pummeled the transmission into reverse and backed into the station. (With a ground guide of course!)

Did you ever have one of those truck rides where you just want to kiss the ground when it's over?

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3 Firefighters

 

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MEDICAL We go to a lot of medical calls, but it is not fair to the people involved for me to describe their medical problems here. I can tell you about one incident and how it effected me;

OTHER Sometimes interesting things happen around the Firehall;