Day 27 and 28 - Pushed to the limit

Day 27 - It was time to put all our rescue skills to the test. After chores and a few other housekeeping items, we headed to the gym for dress out drills and a few extra rescue techniques. Right before lunch, we prepared the fire ground for our afternoon drills.

We had four stations - Carries up the drill tower (both chair and extremity), the Denver Drill, Bailouts from the Third Floor, and Large room search and rescue.

Lieutenant came around and had me pick a number 1 to 100. I picked 50, which sent my group to the Carry Station. My thought was, let's get the hardest completed first right? Out to the drill tower we went to meet up with the Captain. The first group headed up the inside of the drill tower. After running into other groups, we moved out to the much smaller outside stairs. It was finally my turn, so my group prepared for our carries. As we were deciding who to carry, a 200 pound guy with an additional 50lbs of gear sat down in the chair. It was up to my and another cadet (similar to my size) to take him up and down the stairs. We raised him off the ground and into the chair. I grabbed the feet end and step by step we headed up the stairs. Our strategy would have worked great, but the chair kept sliding through the stairs. On our way back down, we really got the chair stuck. By an act of God, the chair came loose from the stair, and we manged to get him to the bottom. My partner and I sucked our air cylinders down to the low pressure bells. It's amazing how much energy it takes to move someone who almost double my weight.

We only made it through half of our station. We were called in and sent to PT. Because it was a Wednesday, I had EMT class. That afternoon was by far the hardest day so far. Thursday would bring more of the same.

Day 28 - After chores, we set up the stations once again. We needed to complete our extremity carries up and down the tower. My partner and I had decided that we would carry a lighter person up and down. We picked up our patient and started to head up the stairs. Captain realized that we had someone different, stopped us, and made us carry the person from the day before. Luckily, this carry was easier than the chair. We managed to carry our patient up, and at the top we rotated. Someone carried me down. I would later have to carry someone else down. Station Complete.

On to the Denver Drill. Chief was our instructor for this station. What is the Denver Drill? Imagine you have a unconscious firefighter and you need to get him out quickly. Your only option is out a window, but you can't get to the sides of of the window, you can only go straight at it (the sides are blocked by filing cabinets or other large objects). The Denver Drill allows two firefighters to safely and easily get this firefighter out the window. We learned three options and tried everyone of them. As one of the lightest in my group, I was a patient several times and bent into a pretzel.

After lunch, we headed to our last two stations. The first one was with Captain. It involved heading out a third story window head first. Used as an emergency means of escaping a burning building, the head first bail out requires the firefighter to go down a ladder head first, lock an arm in the rungs, and then rotate around (facing the ladder in the correct climbing position). A little apprehensive, I started my bailout. Out the window I went, and complete the station without any pause. It was very easy and very fun. It did feel a little strange having the air cylinder and harness slide up your back during the decent. But after everything settled, it was a walk in the park. We also got to do a slide down a charged hoseline (much like a fireman's pole found on a playground).

Our last station was a warehouse search and rescue.

All in all, a great day.