On a warm August evening I was assigned to the back of the Rescue Truck. That also meant my secondary assignment was to drive the Tanker Truck if it was needed. As I have mentioned in previous articles, driving the Tanker is not my favorite assignment. As luck would have it, on this night someone called for the Tanker.

The call began with a report of smoke in an industrial area. I think a motorist with a cell phone called it in. The Pumper for that district went to investigate and soon found smoke coming from the top of a hopper. A few years ago we learned a hard lesson about hopper fires so now we have a detailed protocol for dealing with them. Usually the Tanker is not required but, because there were no convenient hydrants around, the Incident Commander called for it.

The Pumper and Rescue truck from my station also responded to this call. As I prepared to go, I got two pieces of advice on how to drive the Tanker. "Just ignore the red button" and "Drive it like you stole it". The first piece of advice was very helpful. The red button controls the split axle and although I think I know how to use it, past experience shows I don't. By ignoring the red button I was able to shift it like a regular five-speed transmission and things went a lot smoother. The second piece of advice only served to give me the proper attitude toward the complaints of the transmission.

As I approached the scene, I got instructions to come around the back of a building and follow the dirt road beside the railroad tracks. After passing under the highway bridge I found the on scene Pumper.

When I arrived the Incident Commander wanted me to pump water to his truck while his crew put out the fire. There was no real hurry in all of this because the fire was well contained and it really wasn't burning very well anyway. I could see two Firefighters with a hose ready to apply water but there was some discussion going on between the Incident Commander and the workers at this hopper about what was the best way to get at the fire.

I did not pay too much attention to the result of this discussion because I had problems of my own. I couldn't get the pump on the Tanker to go into gear. As I have already said I don't drive this truck often but I was sure I knew how it should work. Just to be on the safe side I grabbed a Firefighter who works out of the Tanker's station and asked him to watch me go through the procedure. He did, and said there was nothing wrong and that the pump should be in gear. It wasn't.

Rather than waste too much time on why it didn't work we simply unloaded the portable pump and connected it to the outlet of the truck. In effect I was drafting from the Tanker to supply the Pumper. This worked fine although it was a bit unusual.

With the water supply problem solved we could again look into the problem of getting the pump in gear. Several Firefighters offered opinions and made various attempts but none were successful. We eventually conceded defeat and decided to get the mechanical division to take a look at it.

The call was wrapped up and I headed back to the station. My driving had improved but I was still bitter toward this truck that always manages to act up on me.

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FIRES These are stories about recent fires;

• House Fire
• Tanker Truck to a Garbage Bin Fire
• Tanker Trunk to a Hopper Fire
• Car Fire
• Warehouse Fire
• House Fire
• Apartment Fire
• House Fire

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS These are stories about car and truck accidents;

• Single Car Rollover
• Head-on Crash
• Rush Hour Accident
• Single Car Flip
• Car vs. Garbage Truck
• Van Rollover
• Sport Utility Vehicle Rollover
• 500m from the Dealership
• Left Turn Mistake

RESCUES These are stories about rescues we have made;

• Man Trapped in a Trailer

HAZARDOUS MATERIALS These are stories about emergencies involving Hazardous Materials;

• No Calls

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;

• Stress

OTHER Sometimes interesting things happen around the Firehall;

• Skunk in the Firehall