Signs Of Trouble In The Firehouse...

[lutan1]

So, you know there could be trouble in the firehouse:-


If your department has ever had two emergency vehicles pulled over for
drag racing while going to a scene.

If you have those chrome, naked lady mud-flaps on your pumper.

If your firehouse has wheels.

If you've ever got back and found you've locked yourself out of the
firehouse.

If fire training consists of everyone standing around a fire get'n
drunk.

If you've ever let a person's house burn down because they wouldn't
let you hunt deer on their land.

If your personal vehicle has more lights on it than your house has
lights in it

If you've ever walked through a Christmas display and walked away with
at least 3 new ideas for a light scheme for your truck.

If your rescue unit can smoke the tires.

If your department name is mispelled on your equipment, in stick-on
lettering.

If the nurses and doctors turn out the lights and hide when you show
up at the hospital to get your equipment.

If fire dispatch can't mention your name without laughing.

If the local news crew won't put your department on t.v. because you
embarassed them last time.

If you've ever locked the keys in your trucks.

If you've ever referred to a light bar as "really sexy."

If your defib consists of a marine battery, a pair of jumper cables,
and a fish finder.

If you've ever taken a girl out on a date in a pumper.

If your pumper has been on fire more times than it's been to a fire.

If your pumper smokes more than the house fire you're at.

If you've ever been arrested for indecent exposure at a house fire.

If you've ever called it quits on a house fire when the beer got hot.

If you've ever been late to a house fire because you had to stop and
get the guy who fell off the truck.

If you've ever stopped en route to pick up a good road kill.

If you hand out spit cans before each company meeting.

If you have a sign out front of your station that says, "WILL FIGHT
FIRES FOR BEER."

If your fire equipment has chew stains down the sides of 'em.

If everyone on your department is related in some way or another.

If your last four fire department raffles were for a shotgun...and a
member won it each time.

If you borrowed the department's quick dump tank so you could have a
neighborhood pool party.

If your Hurst tool is on loan to the local body shop.

If your safety officer is the person who broke his arm at the last
house fire.

If you use a hanging noose knot for all your rescue operations because
it's real adjustable.

If you don't allow a person to join the department unless they own a
pickup.

If your roster has a high percentage of members named BUBBA.

If your dispatcher is the guy with the biggest & loudest CB.

[MalahatTwo7]

Weeellllll, ya know when ya live up thar in Hillbilly Country, y'all gotta expect stuff like that. There were far too many things that were not exactly far from the haahhmmmm truth....

[SilverCity4]

If your dispatcher has ever given you directions to a house fire in terms of "turn left at the old Smith house that burned down last year".

[lutan1]

Don't laugh Silver City- we shared the radio channel with a department from the country that used to do exactly that!

"On your way out Mavis, close the gate and pick up Bob at the old Smith residence!"

This was witnessed by us and many other departments when they turned out to prangs, etc.

Gotta a good laugh from it though....

Honestly though, how many people can relate situations to these or similar?

[Bones42]

Yup, locked ourselves out of the firehouse too many times. Everyone throws their keys in their lockers when they respond.

Yup, our truck caught on fire returning from a fire. Found out there was bad wiring. Was interesting to be in smoke all during the fire, sit on the truck for the ride back, close my eyes for a few minutes, start coughing, open my eyes and not see the other side of the cab due to smoke. Stopped the truck in middle of street, neighbor walks out and asks "Who do you call when a fire truck is on fire?" Answer....GhostBusters! Yes, we managed to put the fire out and get the truck back to building.

Never been convicted of the indecent exposure, but it wasn't at a fire, just a few parades....

Guy that fell off the truck was picked up by the second due truck. He was young and bounced well.


Is it a bad sign when you visit another firehouse that you are followed every step of the way?

[martinm]

The TRUTH is always stranger than FICTION.

We have almost lost the truck to a gear box fire. (Try getting the pump to work without a gearbox...)

On standbys at other stations, someone always drops by to "say hello" and almost always start looking round the engines lockers, "just out of interest"

Last standby we went on. No one had a key for the station, ended up in McDonalds car park for two hours.

[MalahatTwo7]

Bones:

Is it a bad sign when you visit another firehouse that you are followed every step of the way?

Is it equally bad when your Hosts ask that when you walk through the Apparatus Bays, you clap your hands and keep talking really loudly as well? Just so they "know where you are at all times."

And we also almost lost our old pumper due to a fire. The Chief was driving it in for its annual MOT inspection and had a small electrical fire. He "had" to use the extinguisher on is, cuz it "would have looked really bad if I had let it burn to the chassis, it being a fire truck with 100gal of water onboard and all..." Said the Chief. FF26 will have more detail on this story, it was a little before I showed up on scene.

[bfpd36]

Let's see, we had a fire in the cab of our brush truck...poor rookie in the middle kept trying to push the driver out of the door so he could get out. When that didn't work, he pushed against me, considering the truck was still going about 50mph, I wasn't going anywhere.

When the engine in the rescue truck blew, it looked like a chinese fire drill, looking for extinguishers in the smoke!

We have combination door locks, so it's hard to lock ourselves out, unless the guy changes the combination while you are on a call...us outside, the phone ringing inside, it was the chief wanting to tell us the new code.

[Bones42]

The truck on fire was kind of funny to watch I would bet. Imagine, you see guys riding on the truck who have just been fighting a fire for 5 hours all jumping and running from a vehicle on fire. 3 story wood house burning, we run into it and put the fire out. Metal fire truck on fire, we run out of it and watch! Took a few moments for everyone to realize we needed to put the fire out....guess we were tired.

[MalahatTwo7]

RLMFAO. Who would have thunk it eh? The brave Firefighter runs into a burning building, but bails and runs from a burning fire truck. Only to realize that "Hey, that's my ride home!!", and then procedes to put the fire out.

Initially it would probably look like something from a Keystone Kops episode.

[SilverCity4]

Hehe...I forgot about this.

A local volunteer fire department had their truck catch on fire during the filming of a drunk driving video for Driver's Education classes.

It was a professional deal. Professional production company. Six mobile camera crews. One camera on a 20 foot tower over the "scene". A local TV crew. And one of the Sportcasters from ESPN to do commentary.

Lots of agencies there to participate and to tell the story to the buddies that weren't there, too. Highway Patrol. County Sheriff. EMSA (Tulsa EMS), with a supervisor. Two fire departments. Air ambulance. Wrecker service.

The director wanted it to look real. Basically, we ran it like a real incident. There were no chances for a retake. So here I am, on the rescue company, cutting away a roof, and I look up to see the "first responder" engine from the local volunteer fire department smoking from under the cab. Lots of animated firemen from that department trying to tilt the cab and get water under it. I thought it was part of the video, and so did everybody else. We just kept working.

It was after the filming was over that we learned that their truck really did catch fire! Even worse, it was their "new" (to them) engine. They had just gotten it lettered and had never used it. They wanted to show it off.

The fire was just some wiring. They had it back in service a few days later.

[Dalmatian90]

Fire?

Hehehe...we managed to catch our pump on fire during it's annual service test. I wish I could've been there when they opened the pump house door and saw flames coming from the bearing grease around the impeller shaft.

(4 weeks, $20,000, and basically a new pump later she went back in service on Sunday. Shaft had failed --> Impeller failed --> Pump all fouled up. Truck's 15 years old, so hopefully she's good for next 15 years till she gets retired!)

[CJMinick390]

We nearly burned up a Willy's jeep at a grass fire when the driver missed a gear and nearly got over run before he got it going again. We've been pretty lucky, I guess. The really old timers around here may have other stories, but I haven't heard them.

[Grit76]

Location omitted so as not to rekindle inter-state brawls:

Mini pumper respind first with a single person (career LT). He calls in trouble on the way to a location. Second pumper arrives at his location to find the mini's crew cab pretty fried up, thanks to the time it took the LT (who had a SEVERE limp) to realize he had a fire under his dash, pull over, get out, get an extinguisher, and get back to the cab. Wish I'd have seen it happen instead of just the aftermath........

[FlyingKiwi]

One of our stations down country did a scrub fire. When they had it under control, they noticed the remains of a nice big marijuana plant.

Apparently that was why they were all laughing somuch on the way back to the station.

[truck6alpha]

Years ago we had a call from the newly installed chief of a volunteer department near here asking if we wanted our equipment back. Seems a lot of the stuff on their truck had "Hilton Head" stamped, written, painted on it. Turns out one of our ex-employees (who was also an ex-employee of their department) was supplying the neighbors.

[ember]

Hmmmm, You know you're in trouble when you pull up at a fully invovled structure fire....and it happens to be your station! Glad it wasn't me who left the stove on. (Ouch)

Ember

"There are times when ignorance is bliss, indeed" Dickens

[StayBack500FT]

Okaaaaaaaaaayy.....I don't recall meeting avatar...er...ummmmmm....ember as of yet.

[ember]

Nice ta meet ya....


Avatar...ummmm...Ember I mean. *Wink*

[Temptaker]

Keep em coming guys....

If no body minds I'd like to post some of the 'you know your in trouble if..." on my website. Don't have any funny fire stuff up there yet.