Day 24 - Night Fire

Because of our specialized drill, we all got to sleep a little bit later on Friday. We had to report at the training center by 11 am. I killed a little bit of my morning over at Station 19. I arrived at the training center a little before 11. I had to park in the street due to the agility tests that were going on. The next recruit class had to do the physical agility test and their pushup, sit up, 440 run tests on the same day. I found out today, that some of them even did their lie detector tests. Busy day for Class 2010-1.

As for us? Due to the fact that their was so much confusion going on at the center, PT was canceled (Thanks Lieutenant!) Instead, we loaded wood into a trailer for a visiting captain.

After that, we got ready for the night drill. We even learned how to refill the Purple-K extinguishers.

At 4:00 we were ready to head over the burn ground. We had three drills to take on. The gas tree, the gas hole, and the ground fire. We divided up into our groups and got into our turn outs (thankfully because it was 32 degrees outside). Each group had a job to do. Ours was to get all the turn out bags staged by the fire apparatus (which we did) and then get dressed. After that, we were told to start over at the extinguisher refill station. We started filling extinguishers and about the time we finished one, we got called over to do our first drill.

Two of us were assigned to the fire hole, two of us on the tree. I took on the fire hole. I approached the hole, and put it out. My partner did the same. We then switched. When it was time for my shot at the tree, I was called over to the ground fire. Luckily, I was able to put it out on live television (Channel 9 and Channel 3 were doing live shots at the time). We then headed to recovery.

After recovery, we ended up back at the extinguisher refill station. Then, we were back on the grounds to take on the ground fire.





We grabbed an extinguisher. I had already done it, so I lined up fourth in line. All three of my group mates put out the ground fire, and I got another shot at it. As I approached the fire, I started putting out the flames, and as I got to the middle of the fire line, my sweeps were not quite wide enough, and the extinguisher went out. This caused the flames to wrap back around me and ignite around me (and the folks behind me). After I was pulled out of the flames, I ran over and got another extinguisher. I pressed the button to charge the cylinder, picked it up, got back in line and put out the flames.

After everyone had a turn, it was time to pack up and head back to the training center. I did get to help pack up the hose line (something I never did in O'Fallon. Lieutenant gave me instructions on how to assist loading it back on the apparatus. He approved it, and we headed home.

Later on that night, I watched the local news. Channel 12 actually did a package on us. It was good. The other stations had a brief mention of us, but nothing like 12.

It was a great night. Tomorrow is Test number 5. One more review of my notes, and I should be ready to go!!! I'm ready for Week 5.