New Tower Ladder

The new Tower Ladder 4015 is in NJ at Fire and Safety. Currently it is scheduled to be delivered to us next Friday, February 13, 2009.

DID YOU KNOW?

1835 – December 16. Great Fire in New York City. Over 650 buildings, including most of the Wall Street financial area are destroyed and results in $20-$40 million property loss. Following the conflagration, private patrols were appointed to cover the city in event of second fire.

Don’t Just Stand There! By Lt Jim Ford

Stating the obvious, it’s February. You know what that means, RESOLUTIONS. Everybody makes them, and everybody breaks them. Have you broken yours?! It is my sincere hope that you have not. However, I personally experienced (as I do every year) the phenomena of overwhelming crowds at the gym in the beginning of January and cricket audible quiet at the end. Have you broken the promise you made to yourself and your health? Did you start strong and fizzle out quick? Maybe you didn’t try the right workout plan. Maybe you need some education, well in the words of Billy Swan…”I can help.”
Last month we started a new round of FireFit classes. FireFit I is a an educational classroom course that will teach you what you need to know to set the foundation for your future fitness endeavors and nutritional planning. Hopefully, as Sir Francis Bacon penned, “knowledge is power” and you can increase yours. FireFit has started and will meet once a month subject to increase based on participation. The scheduled training time will be split between classroom training, student question period, and activity time.
When is the last time you were on the fire ground, or at an MVA, or a parrot in the tree call for that matter; where you simply lifted something 8 to 10 times and stopped and took a break to talk to your partner before eventually deciding to maybe give it another shot and do some more work. Hopefully, you answered never. Otherwise you’re killing my whole set-up for this article.
The point is firefighting is not a stand still job. It involves constant movement and constant changes in movement. You go from stand still to running into the station to put on your gear, to climbing steps into the truck, to walking around with an extra 40lbs. or so added to your body weight, to carrying a water can, to swinging and ax, to popping a door, and then maybe squatting down and assisting with a lift of patient on a stretcher. This is the reality for most of us on the scene, not short bursts of activity followed by long bouts of rest. If you truly are concerned about the quality of the job you can do as a firefighter, then you need to train in such a way to prepare you for that type of dynamic activity. Circuit training can and will accomplish this for you.
Circuit training involves continuous movement from one station or exercise to another with little to no rest in between stations. This type of workout encourages and incorporates all of the components of good physical fitness into one workout. The two main components included are muscular strength and cardiovascular improvement. However, muscular endurance and flexibility are also enhanced by this type of training. Its constant movement and changing of activities directly parallels emergency response activities while still incorporating the principles of big to small and FIT. Other benefits of this type of workout plan include its convenience to accomplish in a time crunch, and its ability to vary the exercises and stay within its structure. The workout routine, if properly planned, can be completed in 45minutes to an hour and you will probably accomplish more physically than you have been with your standard separation of weights and cardio. After twelve weeks, there is no need to change out of the circuit training; you can simply change the exercises within the routine to accomplish the same variety. We haven’t even begun to talk about how it is a great workout organization for both beginners and advanced exercisers. Don’t even get me started.
Because I am limited in space in this newsletter, and the fact that an article longer than a page is merely an ego stroke, I cannot include an actual copy of the workout for your reading. However, I will gladly get copies of a circuit that I prefer, as well as some varieties to anyone who is interested in exploring this type of routine further. Simply contact me through the department email system, and I will email you a copy. You can also refer questions to Fire Official Mullen who has been used this type of workout in the past.
So next time you are deciding on your next workout plan, don’t just stand there…circuit train!

Just an ambulance driver… amazing…

Standing in chest deep water, freezing rain falling and stinging as it hits the exposed parts of my body. Holding her head above water to keep her from drowning until rescue could get there to cut her free—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

comforting a 89 year old woman who just watch me and my partner cover the face of her husband of 64 years as he lay dead in their bathroom floor—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

on scene at an mva with mom trapped upside down in her car and her dead sons body laying on top of her without a second thought for my own safety I crawl into the wreckage to take C-spine control and calm the frantic lady—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

called away from my just prepared meal to respond to the middle of B.F.E to a house with no numbers, no porch light, nobody waiting to signal us in and they curse because we took too long only to find out the patient left P.O.V ten minutes ago…so we smile and walk away from the verbal lashing only because we are
JUST AMBULANCE DRIVERS

standing in the middle of the street at midnight on the wrong side of town trying to patch the holes and stop the bleeding of a 19 year old shooting victim with the occasional bullet wizzing past our heads we never break stride because this kids life is in our hands—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULNCE DRIVER

doing chest compressions on a 16 year old girl who decided this life was more than she could take. Her family screaming at us to help as though we are the ones who did this to her. Her lifeless body flailing about as the tube goes in and IV’s being started, my arms and back burning from the pain of 30 minutes of CPR never once giving up, hoping she would make it through and over come whatever lead her to this bad decision—-
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

death is all around me and still I go home to live my life
I get kicked, hit, spit on, bled on, puked on…
I look into the eyes of a lifeless child at 7am and by 8 am I’m holding my child a little tighter.
I have hundreds of hours of classroom time and years of field experience
I have challenged death and won
I’ve helped the helpless
I’ve neglected my family for yours
I find comfort in complete chaos
I eat cold meals if I eat at all
I work with no sleep for days at a time
I miss birthdays, holidays and school functions
I put myself in harms way for a total stranger on a daily basis
ALL BECAUSE I AM JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

I AM AN AMBULANCE DRIVER!!! I DRIVE 90 MPH THROUGH CONJESTED TRAFFIC FULL OF PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO YEILD RIGHT OF WAY WHILE MY PARTNER STANDS UNRESTRAINED IN THE BACK OF THIS SCREAMING LAND MISSLE SAVING YOUR LOVED ONES LIFE!! NEVER ONCE DOES HE QUESTION MY DRIVING HE KNOWS THAT AT THE END OF THIS SHIFT HE WILL GO HOME TO HIS FAMILY SAFELY BECAUSE I AM AN AMBULANCE DRIVER….

Goodbye to an old Friend

On Thursday February 5, 2009 our departments 89 LTI 75’ Ladder left the building for the final time. It is headed for the Richfield Rural Fire Department in Marshfield WI. The ladder served our department well over the past twenty years and we are sure it will continue to be a reliable piece of equipment for Richfield. See inside the media section for additional photographs.