We're off for TX in the AM

Hey guys, I know I promised I'd post a follow up to that last blog, but I haven't had much time. I'll go ahead and bang one out now real fast though. We are leaving for TX in the morning, and right now the tentative plan is to drive straight through. I'll leave work at about 7am, so hopefully by 8am we'll be on the road. It is about a 14 hour drive, so hopefully by 10pm or so we'll be there. If we get tired, we'll stop, but we are only planning/budgeting to stop once (and only then if we absolutely have to) so hopefully we'll be able to make it through on the way down in one shot. If it's too much trouble, we can leave earlier on the way home or stop both times, but that is a last resort. I'm excited to meet my newest niece, so this should be fun. It'll also be nice to see those people that are going to be taking care of her.

Anyhow, on to the fire. I had hoped to have some pictures to post with this blog, but it is not to be.

It got dispatched at 0333 (that's 03:33 am) and initially came out as a fire alarm. I remember that because I was sitting on the edge of my bed rubbing my eyes wondering what in the world the people were doing to set off their alarm at that hour of the AM. It quickly got reclassified as a structure fire, and I knew that my engine would be the first on scene. It seemed like it took forver to get there, and it was pretty much across the street. We got on scene, and went inside with no hose lines or anything because we were trying to find the fire. I remember that there was no smoke when we went in, and I thought that was wierd because my Lt. had said he could see fire when he walked around the building.

We went straight through the house, into the kitchen, and through a door. There was a big fireplace and a flat screen tv, so I figured we were in a living room. There was a pretty good sized fire right outside the door and to my left. I had all my gear on but I was not breathing out of my airpack yet because there was no smoke still. The hose got brought in, I went on air, and started spraying at the fire. When I hit it, it darkened down and steamed up alot, so I stopped spraying for a minute, waited for it to clear, and hit it again. I finally realized that we were in an outside covered patio area.

We got the fire knocked down, then went upstairs to check for fire spread. There was no visibility whatsoever upstairs, and that is where the guy got hurt. He had come up the front stairs, but at the end of the hallway those stairs led to, there was another set of stairs down. He was busy looking for attic access, so he missed the stairs and fell down. Luckily there was a landing just a few stairs down, so it could have been worse. He knocked a hole in the wall into the garage, and more smoke was coming from there. I sprayed water through that hole for a minute, then I was getting low on air and had to exit. That was pretty much it. They got the rest of the fire put out and we spent the rest of the morning tearing out drywall to make sure we got it all.

It was pretty fun, and while I don't wish bad things on people, I wouldn't mind getting to do more of that!

Anyhow, that's about it for now. I don't have anything nearly as exciting to report as Katie does, so I'll end my blog now. Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep tonight so I can have a good drive tomorrow. Maybe we'll get to blog with photos of the new kid. Talk to you later.