This week: First off, I have realized that I don't post much. This is because I sometimes have an "off week", where I don't have any type of training or event. I also have come to the conclusion that I will have to work with just two departments, that I have gotten responses from. So for my project I will be mainly advertising for Cornatzer -Dulin Volunteer Fire Department and Advance Fire Department. I will mention that you can always ask your local fire department if they have a Jr. Firefighter program.
This week though I have gone with both my Jr. groups to the Dex plant and we did a tour/ fire plan. We got to get a feel for the place, that way if there was ever a fire we wouldn't just be going in blind, we'll have an idea for wheres what. I've also gone to the parades (Mocksville and Advance) with them. I helped direct parking and then we got to ride on the truck. This week has been very busy, with parades and trainings. Hopefully this week I will be finished with advertisement and have another training done.
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My Project Progress So a few days ago I got online and found websites and phone numbers of all the fire stations in Davie County. I called almost eleven fire departments and emailed about two. I spoke to some people who said they'll have the Jr director call me or I can call back and speak to the chief. Now that I got that out of the way I can hopefully wait a little while for their responses and then I can be able to move on to designing an announcement for the announcement boards. I haven't just been making phone calls I also have been going to training's during my time. I went yesterday to Advance and had a Jr. meeting. We practiced rappelling down the stairwell of the fire station. I have rappelled before in the parking bay; that time we had to climb up one rope and transition to another and then rappel down. (Shout out to Cheyanne Beasly for letting me use her photo and supporting me in this!) The first thing we started with was listening to our instructor, Josh Collins, explain what all we were to do up on the stairwell. He showed us a scarab (a piece of equipment used in rappelling) and how to attach it to ourselves and how to put the rope through it.
After we got the rope fixed we climbed over the railing and straightened our legs out and leaned back. We do this in order to make sure we do not hit our heads on the steps, because that would hurt a whole awful lot even with a helmet on. It was a short trip down to the ground, but it looked really far from my perspective. Even though I did not like the height or dangling by a rope, I still enjoyed the experience. I think everyone should try rappelling at least once in their lives, it is a really good experience. This Past week So this past week has been crazy busy. I've gotten a list of all the stations in Davie, I just need to contact them and ask them if they want me to help promote their Jr. Programs. I've also been going to class with my mom to get a feel of what I'll be doing in my future. Well this Saturday she had a Mobile Water Supply class at Cornatzer VFD. The class was on training firefighters how to drive the truck, filling trucks and drop-tanks, and other things like inventory. The class was from 8a.m to 5p.m and I got to help fill the trucks by connecting one line that's hooked up to a hydrant, and hooking it up to the back/ side of a truck. It's really easy (plus I had done it with them before, about a year ago). This is what it would somewhat look like when you're filling a truck. You'll have hoses connected to the hydrant and then you'll take the other end and hook it up to the truck. Last Meeting This past Jr. meeting/ training at Advance, we were going to go to a neighborhood development to learn about building and construction, but it was raining and dark so they postponed it to another time. So instead of doing that we went out to the bay (it's basically the garage for firetrucks) and they had set up a hose maze. A hose maze is where we take some hose and throw them out on the floor where they criss-cross and overlap and whatnot. Then we get all our gear on (even air packs) and get blind folded with a hood. After all that is ready one of our residents, Nathan, took us to the opposite end of the course made us dizzy then told us to get on the ground and find our way to the pump.
Basically the whole reason for this was to help us understand what we would need to do if we lost our way in the house and needed to get out. We follow this rule "smooth, bump, bump to the pump". "Smooth, bump, bump to the pump" means that when you running you gloved hand over the hose and you find a cuppling, you'll feel the smooth end first and then 2 notches (the bump, bump), and that's how you know you are going the right way. Its a little challenging, especially if you've never done it before, like our new Jr., Alex. He came last night to the meeting and was a little hesitant to try the exercise at first, but I talked to him on how he can use my gear and how it is really simple and easy. After me talking to him, Alex finally said he'd do it. He did really good for never doing anything like this before. Most people think that being a firefighter is just running into a burning building and put the fire out with some water, but it's so much more. For starters, sometimes we can't use water on certain fires. There also many positions other than just being a firefighter. There's incident command, safety, interior/exterior firefighter and then there is us Jr.'s. We do the exterior things like changing air-packs (if you've ever seen someone scuba diving with the bottles on their back it's almost the same thing). We also get tools ready for them to use, and so much more. (Above is called an SCBA or an Air-pack. The bottle is what we change out.) Last MeetingMy last two trainings I went to Cornatzer and Advance. At Cornatzer we went to Cornatzer Elementry and practiced catching the hydrant. Catching the hydrant is basically when we go and hook up a hose to a fire hydrant to fill up trucks and other purposes. I've don't it multiple times before, but I learned a new way last time, with just like a few little adjustments. This week at Advance goes to show that we do more than firefighting. Yesterday we went to the old station and helped make the slaw for the fall BBQ. Volunteers, firefighters, and Juniors, all were down there cutting the cabbage, shredding it, and mixing the recipe together. It's usually my favorite BBQ night because we get to all work together and talk while we're doing it and it's all just really fun. Below (left) is a picture of a fire hydrant (just in case some of y'all didn't know what they look like/can look like) Fire hydrants are different colors sometimes to show that there is an actual difference between them, besides the color. Also below (right) is a four inch house or sometimes called LDH (large diameter hose) it's used to hook up the truck to the hydrant and it also serves different purposes (except I couldn't find a picture of a LDH, but it sometime looks like that just bigger). Please leave a comment if you have any questions about this blog post or anything else like about a Junior program or any clarification on anything and I'll try and find out as soon as possible.
This week I have talked to 2 fire departments, Advance (station 12) and Cornatzer-Dulin V.D.F. (station 19). The Fire Chief at Cornatzer-Dulin, Michael Galliher, really enjoyed the idea of promoting the Jr. Programs in Davie and agreed to help me with my project in any way he can. I also talked to my friend who's a lieutenant at Advance, Josh Collins, about my project and he also agreed in letting me promote the Jr. Firefighter Program there as well. When I asked if it would be alright if someone video-taped and took pictures of me at trainings, he offered to do it himself. So hopefully this coming Tuesday I'll have some photos and videos to show.
Next week I'm hoping to talk to at least 2 or 3 more departments to get there approval and to start working on an announcement for the t.v. announcement boards. I'll also have more pictures of our upcoming BBQ that's this Friday, but I'll probably be helping preparing for it. I'll keep updating my blog every week to show what I've accomplished that week, with training, talking to fire departments, and working on the announcement. |
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Photos used under Creative Commons from brownpau, SurfaceWarriors