Category Archives: Firefighting

Catching up with Bradley …

After a week in the same spot, packing up took a little bit of work and of course it was still raining as we tried to load the car. We had a great stay in our AirBnB apartment in Garfield Park and would recommend it to others.
 
FDIC was not quite over yet as the trade show still had today left and besides the weather was still bad and rather than drive through it to Illinois, the plan was to spend some time in Indianapolis to allow it to clear.
 
A last minute attendance to FDIC of “Molly the Fire Safety Dog” and her owner Dayna, who I had made acquaintance through Geocaching and Facebook but had never met was unexpected. It was good to catch up with them and see the passion that Dayna has to get the fire safety message to kids all over the road. We even have one of Molly’s Fire Safety geocaches back in Australia.
 
After bidding farewell to Molly and Dayna, we hooked up again with Billy and Teri, checking out the trade show, meeting many of Billy’s contacts along the way and spending some quality time chatting about various subjects.
 
The weather had cleared up so it was time to travel west into Illinois to catch up with Bradley. Hopefully we get the opportunity again next year to get over to Indy to stay again with Billy and Teri.
 
It was a good run through to Champaign with a phone call to Bradley to check where he was. He had taken part in a colour run of sorts or was it just a beerfest with paint. Not sure but he was covered in all sorts of colours and was at the Frat House. The party had been going on here for a while and after meeting many of his friends, we could see that having parents at the Frat House on a Saturday night was not the done thing.
 
Bradley took us back to his apartment where we met his Mexican room mates and he had a chance to clean up. His roomies seemed like good guys and the apartment wasn’t too bad for a college kid apartment.
 
It was time for the the Illinois Foodfest to start, continuing on from the Ohio Foodfest and Indiana Foodfest. We were initially going to go to the Olive Garden but with an hour and a half wait for a table, we moved onto Denny’s. They must have been having a bad night with staff issues and missing some of our order.
 
Bradley need to get some assignments done tonight and tomorrow so we dropped him off and would catch up again tomorrow afternoon.
 

Chicago Fire is very popular here …

Overnight was another wild night with thunderstorms, lightning, flooding and winds as well. There was apparently tornadoes elsewhere in the State. And for a second day in a row the I65/I70 crossover was closed due to a truck incident. This time a truck got blown over in the wind blocking the freeway. Yesterday it was a crash between 2 trucks with a fire.

Today was the last day for classes, well in the morning anyway. Once again I left Jenny in bed and headed in early with water everywhere.

My sessions this morning were “Responding to Motor Sports Incidents” by Andre Biron from Manchester FD in New Hampshire, and “Firefighter Rehab: Best practices for implementing NFPA 1584” by Captain Frank Califano from Roslyn FD in New York. Both provided some valuable information I can use back in Adelaide.

That completed the classroom sessions for this years conference. Jenny had arrived at the Conference Centre so we went in to have a look through the trade show before catching up with Billy and Teri. Billy had organised for a couple of the Chicago Fire cast to come down and do a photo and signing session. It was overwhelming the number of people that turned up for the session with many missing out as there was only a 2 hour window.

The session was to raise some funds for the Firefighters Cancer Support Network with Eamonn Walker (Chief Wallace Boden) and David Eigenberg (Christopher Herrmann) providing their time free of charge for the event. Even though we missed out on a photo with the actors, we did have a good chat with Steve Chikerotis (District Chief Walker). Steve was a District Chief with the Chicago Fire Department and is now the fire department advisor with the Chicago Fire TV show as well as playing District Chief Walker in the series.

After a bit more time looking around the trade show, we headed back to the apartment to freshen up before meeting up with Billy, Teri, Steve, Molly and Mike for dinner at the Marriott. Another good meal but without the shock of a huge check tonight.

It’s an Aussie Reunion …

It is now Day 4 of FDIC and again the day started with a couple of keynote speakers, both of which had a medical focus but were still interesting. The first was Dr Denise Smith, a cardiac researcher who has been looking at the effects of firefighting on the heart for 25 years. This definitely was close to home. I will need to chase up some of her work. The second was Mike McEvoy, a paramedic director, and his topic was “Making a Difference” and while related to the EMS field, could be used in the fire side as well. It was all about making the client experience the est you can do. A good take home was “It is not about ME, it is about WE and WE are here for THEM”.

Today was the first day for the trade display to open up so the mid morning session guy was always looking at his watch to make sure he didn’t go the full time allocated for his session as most would walk out anyway to get into the trade hall at midday. The session was “The First Five Minutes: Size-up, Decision Making and Fireground Communications” by Assistant Chief Charles Ryan from Fairfax County Fire & Rescue in Virginia. He did well and finished 20 minutes early at 1155, allowing everyone to make the 12 noon door opening on the trade display.

And the trade display is huge covering 3 halls in the main Convention Centre and then the Lucas Oil Stadium which is an indoor football stadium and then the outside real estate between the two.

Jenny had already caught up with Jason and Belinda from back home. Steve and Rebecca were soon here as well. The four of them had flown in at 3 am from New York City and were a little weary. Another Aussie working here on the Darley stand was Damien and then there was Geoff our fleet manager and his wife. Quite an Aussie contingent and that was just from South Australia.

After wandering around the trade area for a couple of hours, I had an afternoon session to attend, “First Due Battalion Chief” by Battalion Chief Daniel Sheridan from New York City FD. From his presentation, you certainly respect the experience that those FDNY firefighters have with the large amount of working jobs they attend each day.

Jenny and Rebecca went to the movies (I think they are over the FDIC experience), while Jason and Steve kept checking out the trade area.

At the end of the day, we all attended the International reception and managed to catch up with Senior Station Officer Ian from NZFS as well as the Bronto crew from Finland. They drunk us well but didn’t feed us too well so it was time to head off and find some tucker for tonight.

After looking at a few of the restaurants, we decided on St Elmos Steakhouse which had been recommended to us for their shrimp cocktails with a special horseradish sauce. We had also been told chances of getting in were pretty slim. I guess they like Aussies as we were seated within 15 minutes.

We all started with the shrimp cocktail. If you had blocked sinuses, this was the dish for you. It had plenty of kick but mellowed out after the initial shock of each bite. The meals were very nice, the waiter really made the night and the check gave as much shock as the shrimp sauce. It was a good night out, being a sort of 50th celebration for Jason’s birthday in a couple of weeks.

We only had 5 seats in our car but with 6 people it wasn’t going to work without a couple of trips. It was decided we would take the Kiwi to his hotel and the Aussies would Uber.

Another Big Day at FDIC …

It is Day 3 for me at FDIC and we are finally getting to the Opening Ceremony. After 2 days of workshops, it is almost an anticlimax to have the Ceremony now. There is plenty of pomp and ceremony with a huge Pipe and Drum band, National Anthems (but only the US and Canadian – what about the other 50 countries) and some words (sometimes strained) from Bobby Halton followed by the keynote for this year, Angela Hughes.

After the morning pep up, it is back into classes for the rest of the day. Each is a couple of hours and the three I attended today were “Managing Crew Safety in the Dangerous WUI Environment” by Chief Todd McNeal from Twain Harte FD in California, “Special Operations in Small Departments” by Captain Art Bloomer from Kearny FD in New Jersey and “Thermal Imaging in 2017” by Division Chief Mike Richardson from St Matthews FD in Kentucky.

Jenny made here way in at lunchtime and we tried another of the eateries for the Indiana Foodfest. Today’s delicacy was Philly Cheesesteak and it wasn’t too bad but you could feel the arteries clogging up as we were eating it. Lucky we don’t live on this stuff.

As we headed back to the apartment, the skies were getting blacker as there were storms predicted. I decided to go for a walk through Garfield Park to work off some carbs but the temperature was still around 28C and the humidity up around 90% so I certainly worked up a sweat. Didn’t get to find too many geocaches but I did find a lot of critters with squirrels and opossums.

At one spot where there was a geocache, there was a mother opossum with about 4 young ones in the hollow where the cache was supposed to be located. She wasn’t happy with being there so no way was I going to stick my hand in to see if the cache was there.

It did eventually rain during the night but certainly not storms as predicted.

Not much ANZAC over here …

With our Facebook feeds having gone berserk with all the Anzac Day references yesterday, you would be excused in the knowledge that there is any other countries in the world. Certainly there was no mention of Anzac in the US, so we had to make do with the various online references to Dawn Services back home.

Today for me was another day of FDIC workshops, no public holiday for me.

This mornings workshop was “Training with Incident Simulations“, presented by Deputy Chief Ted Nee from Albuquerque Fire Department in New Mexico. It was an interesting presentation covering Fire Studio and SimsUShare and the process of putting together the simulations for training of crews. We use both of these programs back home.

This afternoons workshop was “Fireground Strategies: Command, Control and Accountability“, presented by Deputy Chief Anthony Avillo from North Hudson Fire Department in New Jersey. He reminded me of George from Seinfeld with his accent and mannerisms, however he also had a lot of knowledge on Command and Control as well as some experiences from the Hudson River Aircraft Incident.

Tuesday night at FDIC is Comedy Night. The Firefighters Cancer Support Network has been putting on a fundraiser comedy night for a number of years now and it has been getting bigger each year. We attended with Billy and Teri tonight and it was a great night out, even if we ended up at the wrong Marriott Hotel initially. Who would think there would be two Marriott’s a block apart.

One of the fundraising raffle items was a leather helmet signed by the cast of Chicago Fire. I bought a few tickets and we will see if I am taking it home at the end of the week. The other prize is a trip to the set of Chicago Fire.

The Ohio Foodfest continues …

An easy day today compared to yesterday but the foodfest was still in full swing.

This morning started with brunch at Sleepy Bee Cafe which proved to be very popular with a 45 minute wait to get in. It was worth it as I have now found a new favourite pancake with bacon mixed in the batter. Needless to say, I failed to get through the stack of 3 large pancakes. The game needs a lift.

On the way back to the house, a visit to Billy’s mum at the 5 star nursing home and we think she may have remembered me from yesterday but at least she got to chat with Jenny this time.

There were a couple of hours before our next meal, so Jenny want to check out the local Walmart. It was pretty disappointing as far as Walmarts go as the customers were almost normal and the range was light on to what we normally see. Even though, Jenny still managed 45 minutes wandering around and only coming out with a half a dozen items.

I needed to get a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad and with Walmart having nothing suitable, there was a Best Buy down the road. They also had the Samsung S8 in stock, but unfortunately the unlocked versions are not available for another month. It looked alright with a bit more screen real estate than the Samsung S7 and no physical home button for around the same size.

After arriving back at the house a bit later than we had planned it was time to leave for the next feast at the best Pizza place in the Greater Cincinnati area – Two Cities Pizza Co. They specialise in New York and Chicago style pizza and the place was packed with people queued up. Luckily we had pre-booked and having Billy and Teri’s kids and grand kids meant we got the board room almost to ourselves. The restaurant is located in the old Mason Town Hall. Another great meal and again I failed to get through it. I guess that is lunch for tomorrow.

Billy’s daughter Amy had just completed their McMansion not far from the pizza joint, so we headed over to be impressed and impressed we were. Thomas and Amy had done an amazing job building their dream home. You probably could fit at least 3 of our homes in theirs.

It was bed time for the grand kids, so time to hit another fire station. This time it was one of Billy’s stations – Loveland Symmes Station 61. I think we may have surprised the guys. They weren’t expecting their Chief to turn up on a Saturday night but they were very accommodating. As well as getting photos of the trucks, they managed a call so we chased them to the call which ended up being a false alarm.

Back home everyone was getting a little sleepy so an early night to bed was in order.

 

August 12 of 12 ….

Another day when I nearly forgot. You would think that I would have put it in my calendar by now. 🙂

This month I am doing a stint back on shift work as the Metropolitan Commander North on C Shift. I spent 17 years on C Shift as a firefighter and senior firefighter so it is good to get back to my roots but gee I don’t recognise a lot of faces. I guess that is understandable as we have hired over 1000 personnel in the last 28 years.

The day started out in my office overlooking the Engine Room of Adelaide Fire Station but I wasn’t there long as I was due out at my northern office at Golden Grove Fire Station.

After completing a formal visit with the crew at the Station, there was time to grab a cache on the way through to our Engineering Workshops.

During August there is a Geocaching Challenge to find at least one geocache a day. So far I have found one on every day so far. Today’s find was GC2JRQ0 – the Wreck Centre. 31 days should be a breeze as I have had a streak of 333 days a few years ago. 🙂

It was time to head back to my Adelaide Office to get a new rechargeable light fitted to the Command Car (always like new toys).

Lunch today was a “dog roll” which is our name for a Vietnamese roll as you never know what the meat really is. 🙂

And there goes another 12 of 12 ….

July 12 of 12 …

This month is certainly a contrast to last month.

Firstly, I am at work (I know many of you are shocked – I do have to work some times 😉 ).

Secondly, the temperature was about half of what it was last month when I was in the Northern Territory. Today was around 15C whereas a month ago I was enjoying 28C.

Not only was I at work but also “On Call”, and it didn’t take long before getting my first callout for a 2nd Alarm house fire out north in the “Badlands”, but never made it there as the alarm was downgraded before arriving.

Overnight, our IT Department decided to roll out Windows 7 (we have been using XP forever). It didn’t go all that well with only one IT Guru left today to assist with getting things back to normal. I finally got email by lunchtime and printing around 3:00 pm.

The boys downstairs were pretty busy with a number of Motor Vehicle Accidents due to the wet weather but it slowed down by afternoon.

As is usual on a Friday afternoon, there is always a late email that requires action before walking out the door and today was no different. After poring through the last 5 years of Annual Reports, I soon had the answers and was on my way.

We are currently getting one our bathrooms remodelled and it always exciting to see how far the builder has got each day. By the time he left tonight, the walls and ceilings were in and we are now awaiting the gyprock flusher tomorrow.

Until next month when I will be back “On Shift”.

April 12 of 12 …. Last Day in the US

Lucky I was still in the US this month as it gave me an extra day before having to remember the 12 of 12 as I forgot last month.

Today was my last day after a month flitting around the US from Reno, Los Angeles, Orange County, Oxnard, San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and San Antonio.

Not a lot on the agenda today which started with a couple of LPC (Lamp Post Caches) geocache finds around Anaheim before heading over to Signal Hill near Long Beach.

My visit to Signal hill was to see the private Fire Collection of Chan Brenard. Chan has been collecting fire related material for a long time and it is an impressive collection from helmets, fire truck models, books and a large amounts of fire equipment catalogs from over the last 50 years.

Another interesting thing about Signal Hill is that it is a small city of around 3 square miles that has refused to be annexed into the much larger City of Long Beach that surrounds it because of oil. There is a huge amount of oil underneath the hill providing good revenues to the city.

There are bobbing oil pumps everywhere including backyards of houses and even the drive thru of the local McDonalds. After having lunch at the Black Bear Diner at the bottom of the hill with Chan and Gill it was back to check out more of Chan’s stuff.

Time was getting on and I had a hour or so to drive up to LAX for one last time. Traffic wasn’t too bad so there was time for a meal at In ‘n Out Burger and watch a few planes land as the sun set on Los Angeles.

Dropped off the car then headed to the Qantas check-in with no issues regard to weight. I might have been saved as I upgraded the Melbourne-Adelaide leg to business which gave me extra privileges here as well. 🙂

Still had some time to wait so went outside and walked the terminals grabbing around 20 Munzee’s that were located here.

Managed to get through the TSA checkpoint OK and it was off to the gate which of course was the furthest away. It was fairly quiet here and it wasn’t long before it was announced that we were going to another gate – which was the one with the plane parked alongside I had passed on the way to this one.

We were all on board when the power started doing weird stuff with drop outs and the screens resetting and all this before the push back from the gate. An announcement came that there were issues – I guess we already knew that. Supposedly it was some sensors on the doors were not working properly and engineers were working on it.

An hour later and we were pushing back but it wasn’t for a further 30 minutes that we joined the queue to take off. At this point we were 1.5 hours late from taking off. It was going to be interesting at the other end with connecting flights if they don’t make up the time over the pond but that is another story …….

October 12 of 12 – Alice Springs fires …

One thing with my life, it is like a magical mystery tour – you never know where I will be.

This week I am in Alice Springs as part of the South Australian deployment assisting Bushfires NT with their current bushfire situation.

With some incredible rainfalls over the past couple of years, there has been amazing growth of both mulga and grasses in the Far North of South Australia and the south and central Northern Territory.

With the warming weather curing this massive growth and a lot of dry lightning storms there have been some large fires threatening townships and station homesteads.

Assistance was offered to Northern Territory and accepted with an ongoing deployment for the past 2 weeks from South Australia.

The role of the SA crew has been to burn strategic breaks around Alice Springs and provide a rapid response to nearby fires.

My role has been that of a Planning Officer within the Incident Management Team. The amazing thing about these fires is the sheer size of them (e.g. 4000 square km just for a single fire) and the small amount of resources managing these fires.

Today started early with lightning heading through Central Australia starting a number of new fires. So apart from chasing up information on existing fires, it was a case of chase up on the new ones as well.

The temps were high today with 35 degrees and some good winds so fires were moving well. The main fires giving more interest were east and west of Alice Springs.

The day flew by quickly and I got to deploy Alice Springs first Munzee as well.

We were starting to wind down when I starting doing a scan of the latest satellite data and spotted some new fires south west near Yulara and on the Stuart Highway north of Ti Tree. Another flurry of work then it was time to head back to the hotel.

It was only 5 minutes back at the hotel and a fire started directly across the road. Our crews were out working north of town so we rang the local crew and watched them get to work.

Time for an ice cold beer to finish the day 🙂