So very, very cold

Well folks, those that have been screaming global warming seem to have missed it again. It's been cold here, real cold, especially for a poor kid raised in Mississippi. Last shift we had single digit temperatures, with a wind chill that I don't care to remember. And of course yours trully was out in the best of it.

In fact, it was so cold, that my engine crew had a gentleman's agreement that, should we make a structure fire, we weren't going to put it out until we had confirmed from 2 different sources that A) rehab had been set up and B) there was some sort of warming source at it. Hot Chocolate would be acceptible.

Honestly though, what we were dreading the most were busted water lines. See, not only does it make a mess, it freezes, and we get to splash around in it to get the water cut off, then drained or squeegied away. Wet gear is no fun on a night that far south of freezing, and your boots can only do so much to keep the cold out.

Modern turnout gear is a wonderous thing; it has 2 properties that you look for when speccing it: how much heat you can keep out and how much heat you can let out. Sounds similar, but it is really different. And they function inversely. The more heat you keep out, the more you trap in. That's great in a house fire, but standing on the side of the road in July cutting up a car, that's no fun at all. Our gear kinda meets in the middle, a good mix of the two.

How does that effect you on a cold night? Well, turnout gear can tend to not be quite as warm as you'd think it would be (or like it to be for that matter!). As long as I was moving around, I was ok, but if I ever stopped for long, a chill would set in that ran bone deep and was tough to shake. The worst part is that you are pretty limited in what you wear under your gear, you hate to dress too warmly under it because then you'll wind up overheated on a serious call. But hey, that's why you keep spare clothes on the rig, get cold, add a layer, get hot, take one off.

Shucks though, it wouldn't matter if we didn't run any calls, right? So naturally we were busy. Luckily for us though, there were no busted water lines for us. We ran some medical calls, and a few fire alarms. We got to bed about 11pm, up at 12, back to bed at 4, and up again at 5:30 for a structure fire, which turned out to be nothing. Except we had to walk around the building making sure everything was cool. At that temperature, after 2 minutes outside, my fingers felt like someone had been smashing them with a hammer. My ears were so cold they didn't even hurt anymore. I've never been so happy to get back on the truck in my life. We wound up running 14 calls as a shift, and my crew went on 8 of them. I had fun though, I always prefer a busy shift to a slow one. Time goes by so much faster that way, and I love what I do.

As for the police, let's just say it was a good day to be a speeder in our little city!

But it has warmed up again now, realatively. The wind still cuts right through you. Yup. Global warming at it's finest.