Thoughts, ideas, and narratives from a deaf firefighter
The title comes from Walt Kelly’s comic strip Pogo and it references our tendency to be our own worst enemy.
Courtesy of this blog, I received the following communique from another deaf firefighter. Identifying details have been removed to protect the innocent & guilty alike:
“I’m from a volunteer station. Since they found out for sure that [...]
… 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 [...]
Thanks, Karen for a great article: http://deafhhcareers.blogspot.com/2008/01/neil-mcdevitt-firefighter.html
Also: In my previous entry, I talked about “Whammo” moments. That article was published last Thursday by the City Paper. You can read it here: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/01/31/buzz-worthy
In some of the media articles that have covered deaf firefighters, I’ve always been pretty annoyed at how the reporters completely sidestep the issue of firefighter safety and survival especially as it relates to having a deaf person on the crew. Yes, it’s a tough question to ask but aren’t they supposed to ask [...]
(EVOC = Emergency Vehicle Operators Course)
On Saturday, my department had their EVOC class. While training is a fact of life for those of us in emergency services, this was particularly exciting because it offered me the opportunity to learn about defensive driving AND drive a fire truck for the first time. In fact, [...]
From a good friend of mine:
Came across a blurb about a team of deaf firefighters in The School Helper (GSD). Apparently, they had a team organized at the school and won a “handsome silver service said to be worth $25.” A deaf student named Mack Woodside apparently was praised for his efforts. It was [...]