Class A Fire

Scott, I don't remember Rescue 8.

BTW, my nephew tested for the EMT exam and passed. That is a prerequisite along with his college degree that will allow him to become a Fireman. He is so excited.

Mark

Mile High wrote:

FIRE UP wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
I find all the experiences and opinions from the real firefighters very interesting and educational.

Mark

Mark,
I for one, am glad to broadcast a REAL prospective on how things should, would, could, expect to happen, in real life. TV shows in just about all instances, are so degrading to a real firefighter it's not even funny. The newest fire TV shows, 911 and Station 19, should be outlawed in my opinion. If folks that know absolutely nothing about firefighter life, station routine, scene routine, hierarchy, rank structure, edicutte, RULES AND REGULATIONS, and a whole lot more, believed what they see on those two idiotic shows, firefighters would chastised beyond belief all across our nation.

But, TV is TV! A firefighters life, in the station, is in reality, NOT TV WORTHY. It's a whole lot of routine, training, education, yes-sleeping and eating, followed by shear adrenaline/excitement/nervousness/physical exertion and mental stress, ALL WRAPPED UP IN A FEW MINUTES OF AN EMERGENCY.

I don't know the actual ratio of paid vs volunteer but, I do know there's thousands and thousands of volunteer fire fighters out there. They don't get paid to take the risks but, they take them anyways. Normally or, usually, paid firemen, are much more highly trained, have better and more up to date equipment and are more adept to the ever changing times of our environment and hazards that they face, each and every day. Volunteers do everything they can to be updated and trained to try and cope with the newer issues of our environment, cars, and more.

Sorry again to the OP, get carried away once in a while.
Scott

As unreal and as silly as those TV shows are, they do wonders for getting our bond issues and mill levies passed! :)

There was a time when "Cops" TV dominated the airwaves and law enforcement got all the attention at the voting booths. 911 and some new TV has changed that a bit now. I was a volunteer 13 years and paid pro 22 years and there was a time back when "Rescue 51" went off the air and we had empty stations out west we thought about making our own TV show :)

Mark,
Remember "Rescue 8"????
Scott

FIRE UP wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
I find all the experiences and opinions from the real firefighters very interesting and educational.

Mark

Mark,
I for one, am glad to broadcast a REAL prospective on how things should, would, could, expect to happen, in real life. TV shows in just about all instances, are so degrading to a real firefighter it's not even funny. The newest fire TV shows, 911 and Station 19, should be outlawed in my opinion. If folks that know absolutely nothing about firefighter life, station routine, scene routine, hierarchy, rank structure, edicutte, RULES AND REGULATIONS, and a whole lot more, believed what they see on those two idiotic shows, firefighters would chastised beyond belief all across our nation.

But, TV is TV! A firefighters life, in the station, is in reality, NOT TV WORTHY. It's a whole lot of routine, training, education, yes-sleeping and eating, followed by shear adrenaline/excitement/nervousness/physical exertion and mental stress, ALL WRAPPED UP IN A FEW MINUTES OF AN EMERGENCY.

I don't know the actual ratio of paid vs volunteer but, I do know there's thousands and thousands of volunteer fire fighters out there. They don't get paid to take the risks but, they take them anyways. Normally or, usually, paid firemen, are much more highly trained, have better and more up to date equipment and are more adept to the ever changing times of our environment and hazards that they face, each and every day. Volunteers do everything they can to be updated and trained to try and cope with the newer issues of our environment, cars, and more.

Sorry again to the OP, get carried away once in a while.
Scott

As unreal and as silly as those TV shows are, they do wonders for getting our bond issues and mill levies passed! :)

There was a time when "Cops" TV dominated the airwaves and law enforcement got all the attention at the voting booths. 911 and some new TV has changed that a bit now. I was a volunteer 13 years and paid pro 22 years and there was a time back when "Rescue 51" went off the air and we had empty stations out west we thought about making our own TV show :)

FIRE UP wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
I find all the experiences and opinions from the real firefighters very interesting and educational.

Mark

Mark,
I for one, am glad to broadcast a REAL prospective on how things should, would, could, expect to happen, in real life. TV shows in just about all instances, are so degrading to a real firefighter it's not even funny. The newest fire TV shows, 911 and Station 19, should be outlawed in my opinion. If folks that know absolutely nothing about firefighter life, station routine, scene routine, hierarchy, rank structure, edicutte, RULES AND REGULATIONS, and a whole lot more, believed what they see on those two idiotic shows, firefighters would chastised beyond belief all across our nation.

But, TV is TV! A firefighters life, in the station, is in reality, NOT TV WORTHY. It's a whole lot of routine, training, education, yes-sleeping and eating, followed by shear adrenaline/excitement/nervousness/physical exertion and mental stress, ALL WRAPPED UP IN A FEW MINUTES OF AN EMERGENCY.

I don't know the actual ratio of paid vs volunteer but, I do know there's thousands and thousands of volunteer fire fighters out there. They don't get paid to take the risks but, they take them anyways. Normally or, usually, paid firemen, are much more highly trained, have better and more up to date equipment and are more adept to the ever changing times of our environment and hazards that they face, each and every day. Volunteers do everything they can to be updated and trained to try and cope with the newer issues of our environment, cars, and more.

Sorry again to the OP, get carried away once in a while.
Scott

Well said.

Here in PA most Fire Depts away from the larger urban areas are volunteer. Little if any funding from the state or local municipality if any, but thats slowly changing. An active volunteer will spend more time working bingos, selling hoagies on Saturday along a road somewhere, or working a gun bash or other fundraiser than most people have time to devote just to keep the station open. That's all on top of the never ending maintenance.

FIRE UP wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
I find all the experiences and opinions from the real firefighters very interesting and educational.

Mark

Mark,
I for one, am glad to broadcast a REAL prospective on how things should, would, could, expect to happen, in real life. TV shows in just about all instances, are so degrading to a real firefighter it's not even funny. The newest fire TV shows, 911 and Station 19, should be outlawed in my opinion. If folks that know absolutely nothing about firefighter life, station routine, scene routine, hierarchy, rank structure, edicutte, RULES AND REGULATIONS, and a whole lot more, believed what they see on those two idiotic shows, firefighters would chastised beyond belief all across our nation.

But, TV is TV! A firefighters life, in the station, is in reality, NOT TV WORTHY. It's a whole lot of routine, training, education, yes-sleeping and eating, followed by shear adrenaline/excitement/nervousness/physical exertion and mental stress, ALL WRAPPED UP IN A FEW MINUTES OF AN EMERGENCY.

I don't know the actual ratio of paid vs volunteer but, I do know there's thousands and thousands of volunteer fire fighters out there. They don't get paid to take the risks but, they take them anyways. Normally or, usually, paid firemen, are much more highly trained, have better and more up to date equipment and are more adept to the ever changing times of our environment and hazards that they face, each and every day. Volunteers do everything they can to be updated and trained to try and cope with the newer issues of our environment, cars, and more.

Sorry again to the OP, get carried away once in a while.
Scott

Your passion is showing Scott.... ;)

Mr.Mark wrote:
I find all the experiences and opinions from the real firefighters very interesting and educational.

Mark

Mark,
I for one, am glad to broadcast a REAL prospective on how things should, would, could, expect to happen, in real life. TV shows in just about all instances, are so degrading to a real firefighter it's not even funny. The newest fire TV shows, 911 and Station 19, should be outlawed in my opinion. If folks that know absolutely nothing about firefighter life, station routine, scene routine, hierarchy, rank structure, edicutte, RULES AND REGULATIONS, and a whole lot more, believed what they see on those two idiotic shows, firefighters would chastised beyond belief all across our nation.

But, TV is TV! A firefighters life, in the station, is in reality, NOT TV WORTHY. It's a whole lot of routine, training, education, yes-sleeping and eating, followed by shear adrenaline/excitement/nervousness/physical exertion and mental stress, ALL WRAPPED UP IN A FEW MINUTES OF AN EMERGENCY.

I don't know the actual ratio of paid vs volunteer but, I do know there's thousands and thousands of volunteer fire fighters out there. They don't get paid to take the risks but, they take them anyways. Normally or, usually, paid firemen, are much more highly trained, have better and more up to date equipment and are more adept to the ever changing times of our environment and hazards that they face, each and every day. Volunteers do everything they can to be updated and trained to try and cope with the newer issues of our environment, cars, and more.

Sorry again to the OP, get carried away once in a while.
Scott

I find all the experiences and opinions from the real firefighters very interesting and educational.

Mark

Mr.Mark wrote:
Looking at the video, it seemed like there was a good bit of delay time for the firefighters to start pumping water on the fire.

I know virtually nothing about firefighting but seeing that video is a very good example not to pass a burning vehicle, especially, a RV with propane. That was amazing to see the flames shoot out the side.

I'm also surprised that the fuel tank didn't explode (if it did, I didn't notice it).

Safe travels!
MM.

MM,
Your point about "not to pass a burning vehicle", well, an experienced officer and engineer take into consideration, all kinds of factors as they approach a vehicle fire scene. One of the very important factors IS the slope of the road and angles of attack. If, there's a slope down hill from the burning vehicle and that's the approach direction, (heading UPHILL towards the burn) a very, very large percentage of the time, the officer and engineer would agree to pass that buring vehicle right up and setup fire fighting ops from the UPHILL side.

The main reason is, if the fuel tank ruptures, especially gas but, diesel too, which way is that fuel, and quite possibly ensuing fire, gonna flow? DOWN HILL!!!! And you sure as heck don't want to have your rig right in the path of flowing fuel and flowing fuel that's ON FIRE with a whole bunch of spaghetti (that's what we all call hose spread out all over the place) right in it's path.

So, based on conditions, clearances (so the rig can get by without danger to it or it's personnel) and more, the proper judgement is to fight that fire from an uphill approach and, as has been stated, don't rush, take time but, not an OVER AMOUNT of time to get setup and go to work.

Sometimes, looky-loos (pain in the a$$) drivers will stop right in the way of approaching fire engines just to see what's going on. I have pulled up on those folks, WAAAAAAAAAY MORE TIMES than I care to admit and just LAY ON THE AIR HORN AND MECHANICAL SIREN, about a foot off their bumper in order to WAKE THEM UP and get them the he.. out of the way.

Anyway, this thread was not supposed to turn into a fire fighting operations school. Mine and good other firemen here just contributed to maybe how that situation the OP presented might have gone down or, maybe improved on this or that. Again, without knowing a whole bunch of particulars, (age and experience of all those ff personnel, general conditions, information passed to the first in company BEFORE they arrived at the scene) and a whole lot more, pretty tough to make an accurate judgment of what we see there.
Scott

Tvov wrote:
As to the engine being too close... yea, he could have stopped farther away. I think if the propane tank hadn't popped off it would have looked better. Of course, the driver should be thinking of that - or at least the officer.

I'm not a firefighter nor do I play one on TV, but I think camera angle had a lot to do with it. I think the fire truck was pulled up a bit more in front of the RV flambe than the angle shows. Watching it I was confused as to how the grass on the other side of the highway could have caught fire - looking at the camera angle it looks like those flames would be hitting the fire truck but in reality they were behind it.

The firemen weren't completely unphased. The big guy without the gear on decided to get on the other side of the fire truck when the propane tank first popped off. He was casual about it but clearly did not want to remain standing where he was. I know I wouldn't want to be standing there.

Several moths ago we came upon a semi on fire on I24. There was nothing left except the left front tire and wheel. A very hot fire in the right rear corner of what had been the trailer box. THP had people passing it in the left lane. The semi was on the shoulder. It was so hot wife, who was driving thought it burned the hair. If we had set there for a few moments it would have scorched the paint and us. No engine was evident and nothing but some frame work of the box was evident and it was on the ground. No rear wheels axles, no evidence of body or sides of box. I think there was a bit of the front bumper. On tremendously hot fire to consume wheels tires axles, evidently the engine, entire body minus some framework, glass, everything. Several days later we drove by and nothing but burned pavement the size and shape of the entire semi.