Day 71 & 72: Yells, Cars, and Elevators....

Day 71: It was the day...the day we put our TWO days of intense (hint of sarcasm) extrication training to the test...PIT DRILLS.

My partner and I were Bat. Leaders for the day, and before we could get started we had to gather some equipment (dummies, backboards, air cylinders, etc). We got lucky, and snuck into the Resource Building while the door was up. We gathered all our materials and our gear and staged ourselves in the classroom. After a short video on Air Bag and new vehicle safety features we got started.

Bat. B headed off on a morning field trip, while Bat. divided into three groups. Around ten, groups 1 and 3 were put into service. For the next hour and ten minutes, we sat in the class room talking to Lieutenant. Finally we were dispatched to a hit and run. Away we headed to the pit....

Let me set the scene...three squad trucks are facing a wrecked blue car. Surrounding the car are 6 firefighters more or less yelling at us. Our groups leader did his walk around, and put us to work. I gathered all the hydraulic equipment, while the others started to crib. As I hooked up the tubes, a firefighter came up, asked me if I liked my eyesight, and then slammed down my face shield. My bad....but kind of appropriate. To make a long story short, we rescued both victims in 26 minutes, while removing both doors and the roof. For the next 20 or so minutes, Squad 1 critiqued our work. While it was rough at times, their assessment was informative.

We then broke for lunch....Krystals never tasted better.....

After lunch we headed over to a local Auto Repair Shop. There we looked at wrecked cars. We also visited the Honda dealership to take a look at some Hybrid vehicles.

We ended the day swapping stories with Bat. B.

Day 72 - We started the day in the resource building for dress out drills. With both Bat. A & B combined, Lieutenant had folks running around. For the first round, Bat. A had to get dressed and walk over to one side of the building. For Round Two, Bat. B had to move. Round Three, had us all going outside in front of the building, and the final round had Bat. A getting dressed quickly and then walking across the drill ground to the other side of the drill tower, while Bat. B had to get dressed and walk outside the door....Bat A still won.

After Dress outs, we had a tough test on extrication. We then spent the rest of the morning discussing elevators and after lunch, we took a look at an elevator system at the local college.

We ended the day with a quick run and a few pull-ups. I'm up to seven. Better than the two I could barely do at the beginning of the academy.

Tomorrow is an open day....