Fire or Run? Run or Fire?

It was so weird. Sunday morning my dog jumps on me as if to say "time for my walk!". It’s 4:55 and the alarm goes off at 5:00. How did she know? I give in and get up instead of getting those 5 minutes back.

Down the stairs I go, Ruthie and Koda in tow. I feed both on the deck as I put on my running gear and assemble my Camelbak. After Ruthie has done her thing she wants to go back to bed. Ruthie is a six month old Miniature Schnauzer and she has had enough of the cold morning air. Up the stairs and down the hall, I open the bedroom door to put her back to bed, Jenny is holding my pager with a foul look on her face.

“Structure Fire on Johnson Road “ It is in this far off corner of Steelhead (a remote part of Mission). Should I go? I hear Sandy’s truck roar down the street. Guilt gets the better of me. I put Koda away and off I go.

I end up making Rescue 16 (third truck out). We were fourth truck on scene behind Engine 21, 25, and 15. There was enough manpower on hand that we didn’t even get out of the truck and ended up returning to station. Not before waiting around for an hour.

By 6:30 I’m back at station and on my way home where I decide to do a short long run with Koda. At 6:45 you’ve got about an hour before the kids wake up and need attention. So I run for what turns out to be 46:43 up and around the Hood. It was enough! I was back a 7:30. Isaiah got up at 8:00 and Ethan and Owen got up at 9. I probably could have run for another hour. Oh well!


Late Nite in Mission
Fully prepared to get an early start for the ferry the next day I went to bed at 10. Beep, beep, beep . . .” Structure Fire on Tunbridge”. I rolled myself out of bed and into the first truck on scene about 11. I was in a deep sleep. Single story, pitched roof older looking house probably about 50 years old was fully involved. The house had been vacant for awhile. This was arson.

Damn we’ve had quite a rash of arsons in the past month, probably 4. There was the one on 5th & Alder, Mission Central, the dumpsters, and this one. Luckily only 2 of them were fully involved structure fires.

I was tired. I’m not quite sure how this worked out when we had 4 trucks on scene but I had 3 bottle changes which is about hour and a bit on air. Some guys never even put a back on. 4 crews works out to 22 firefighters, 4 of them operators for the truck, one command, one resource sector. That leaves 16 firefighters on two lines. 3 hours to knock down and overhaul.

Famous firsts . . . First time ventilating a roof with a chainsaw. Way to cool! So cool I did it again.

I got home about 2:40 went to bed and was on the road to the ferry by 4 am. Firefighting by the way is a great core workout. My abs are on fire. Too bad its irregular