Why Firefighting is Not a Fee-based Service...

LACo FD, Fire Station 19

You ever notice some people leave their Christmas decorations up way too long?

Happy Day-After-Christmas

Got a medical call at 4 a.m. this morning.

The patient's chief complaint?

She couldn't sleep.

Now my crew has it...

Last Strike Team of 2008

There are two seasons here in So Cal: fire season and mud slide season. I finished up the former on our department’s new OES rigs.

For a couple of days, we drove up and down Topanga Canyon and Mulholland highway to recon the area in case the red flag winds stoked one last major fire for the year.

The engine is a brand new International model 34, four-wheel-drive. It’s designed for off-road driving—and let me tell you, it’s a blast.

I put a lot of miles on the rig during those two days: Fernwood, Malibou Lake, and even a quick stop on PCH to snap a picture of the crew, using the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.

Do I look fat in these pictures?

I think I know what my New Years resolution is going to be this year...

New OES Rigs

They give us introductory training (mandatory) on these new OES (California Office of Emergency Services) rigs on Monday. On Monday night they tell me I'll be assigned to it the next day--and with the unpredictability of staffing policy, that means I'm either in the middle of a 36-hour shift, or starting a 21-day stint out-of-county...

Classic...

Wish I'd paid attention in class...

Sylmar Fire Oakridge Mobile Home Park

On Wednesday, our engine toured the burned-out Oakridge Mobile Home Park, which lost about 477 homes on the night of the Sylmar fire last weekend. These were not small single-wides, but rather, large modular homes complete with brick foundations and manicured front lawns.


With us was Captain David Yonan, who has been credited with helping save the remaining 131 homes there. LA County units returned to make an incredible stand that morning. You can read his story here.

I know that after firestorms, phrases like "war zone" get thrown around a lot, but I really can't think of any other force on earth that could cause such vast destruction. Acres and acres of rubble and burned out cars sitting in driveways of now-nonexistent homes. I could only shake my head.

As we walked around, I tried to draw our boot fireman into an existential discussion of theodicy, God, and the notions of fate and luck.

But as I've said before, in the end, everything must go...

Structure Protection Sylmar Fire 2008

Guy on the left? Three months on the department...

Guy on the right? A year or two left until retirement...

What do they have in common?

Sharing a few minutes of sleep on a citizen's backyard swing before the fire front reaches our position...

Lessons learned? Sleep with one eye open, so the snarky engineer doesn't pull out his camera and blackmail you...

The Next 48

Oh man, I am so not looking forward to this weekend. High winds, high temps, and low humidity all predicted...

And after my usual 24 hour engine shift, they're making me drive this piece of junk on Saturday:

Great...

Timber!

This call came in on the morning of Labor Day: An old and very tall pine tree toppled onto this single story home, crashing right through the master bedroom, where the sole occupant was sleeping.

See if you can find the bed in this picture...Hint: It's right there under the ceiling fan!

Miraculously, she self-extricated, with only a few minor lacerations and abrasions.

An hour later, when I made a quick search of her room to recover her laptop and cell phone, the huge tree was still creaking and groaning.

But I noticed that her house now had a wonderful pine-fresh scent to it.

I Didn't Do This!

....I just happened to drive up right after another County employee operating a backhoe snapped off the hydrant. Hey, stuff happens...

Note the large crowd of County workers beginning to gather. Note the presence of cell phone cameras. Note the two hapless firemen (second and third from right) from 114's ("Serving with Pride in a Single Wide!") searching fruitlessly for the underground valve which would shut off the geyser.

Not shown: Public Works supervisor searching for blueprints indicating exact location of paved-over valve.

T-Rex

Want to know the source of my anxiety these days?

It’s a dinosaur.

A T-rex to be exact.

“T-rex” is the nickname County engineers have bestowed upon the beast pictured here: It is a 1995 KME fire engine with non-synchronous manual transmission controlled by an inconveniently located and smallish shift arm said to resemble the tiny forepaw of the legendary behemoth.

It’s tight, unforgiving shift pattern has been the downfall of many an engineer, some of whom—completely whipped and chagrinned—have surrendered the driver’s seat to a junior fireman or an annoyed captain.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks driving this thing aimlessly around downtown Lancaster, struggling to make the machine “my bitch.”

So far, it’s a draw.

And the real test—not on these flat desert stretches, but the rolling mountainsides of the Verdugo foothills—is yet to come…

Dang! Missed my downshift!

Friendliest Fire Department?

Dozer team at the ready in Lancaster. Is ours the "friendliest" fire department?

Take a closer look...

Palmdale Fire

We drove up to the fire in our Bureau-issued white Ford Taurus with the County "double nickles" fire insignia on the doors. Me and Jason, who'll replace me when I go back to the station in August.

I looked at him and said, "Welcome to Prevention, kid. It ain't the fire service...but you can see it from here!"

Late Breaking News

My bid to leave the fire prevention bureau in the desert and return to a fire station has been approved.

Some time in the next three and half months I'll be going to Fire Station 63 in La Crescenta. Ain't exactly the Taj Mahal, but it's my ticket out, baby!

Flaming Sofa

Believe it or not, I can't really think of anything to write about this picture. Maybe you all could suggest a caption--you know, sort of like a contest. I'll look around my garage or music room and find something cool to give away as a prize for the best caption.

I can tell you this: The young man seated on the far left is the son of a firefighter, and if you ask me, it looks like a cry for attention.

How about the casual, almost bored, look of the guys standing in the background, as if they did this every night at the beach. But even more priceless is the expression on the face of the kid giving us the "thumbs up"--the one who looks like Will Ferrell.

No college students were harmed in the taking of this photo...

I couldn't really think of anything to write about it, but as you know, this blog is all about the "cut back"--those odds and ends that don't get posted on my other site. So once again, "Everything Must Go."