Deaf Firefighter’s Blog

… and admittedly, I haven’t. That doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy lately. Here’s a brief recap along with what I did at those fires.

12/16/07: Single Family Dwelling Kitchen Fire: Arriving on the Ladder truck, I started to open up all exterior doors as requested by the officer of Ladder 18. By that time, the fire had been extinguished for the most part and they need to ventilate the smoke.  Most of my work was geared toward overhaul.

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12/23/07: Townhome Fire: Again, arriving on Ladder 18. While enroute, we were advised that there was heavy fire and smoke and no entrapment. Upon arrival, I followed officer of Ladder 18 into the house with a can and hook. After doing a cursory search, I reported conditions back to officer and then was tasked with monitoring the side B and D exposures until additional manpower arrived. The fire was knocked fairly quickly but damage was very severe.

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1/28/08: Fully involved house fire. This was THE biggest fire I’ve been to in the 4 years I’ve been a firefighter. Originally dispatched to a kitchen fire, we were en-route when the neighboring chief said the fire was through the roof. Ladder 18 officer immediately started giving fireground tasks and we were ordered to take out windows on the second floor to reduce the potential for an explosion. We were also ordered not to enter the building.

We found out why shortly after. After we laddered the 1st floor roof and took out windows, the place basically went up in flames. Live ammo started exploding and that basically was the reason no interior attack took place (all residents got out safely). We started to set up for an exterior attack with a 2 1/2 inch line on side ‘D’ when the wall started to collapse giving us some initial excitement.  We were there for about 5 hours total just putting water on the fire.

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So yes, Virginia: Deaf firefighters can do it.  We take on different roles that contribute to the larger effort, and are (relatively) safe for us and our brother firefighters.
On a more somber note, this has been a deadly week for firefighters. Head over to Firefighter Close Calls or Firegeezer to get more information. Then take a hike over to Firegeezer’s take on how the building and construction trade is trading residents and firefighters lives in the name of greater profits. It’s compelling stuff.