I was at home when the call came out for a brush fire which a resident was unable to control and it was approaching a structure.
I checked google maps to see where it was. Yesterday I responded from my TN residence to my GA fire department in my car to another brush fire and had to stop and ask directions : "Hi, I'm a new member of the volunteer fire department. Can you tell me where Creek Road is? I have to go to a fire." LOL!
I was enroute to the Bishop Road scene today when the chief, who was already there with Tanker 41 (it carries 3000 gallons of water and a booster line for smaller fires) called for additional manpower from the station. I detoured and headed to the fire hall figuring I'd get there with others and respond with them. As I crested the hill and started down towards the fire house, Engine 4 came into view and went on the air with two personnel.
Looks like I was on my own and I first thought I'd just grab my gear and respond to the scene in my pickup when over the station radio I heard "Engine 4 to personnel at Station 4. Please respond with the tanker".
Woo-hoo!
I threw my gear into the passenger seat, unplugged the charger, started 'er up and waited for the air to build up in the brake system. Meanwhile the Chief was calling and I was uncertain if I should answer since the unit wasn't responding yet and I still had not been assigned a member number to use on the radio.
After what seemed like forever the air came up, I released the brakes, hit the lights, flipped in the siren and grabbed the mike "Tanker 4 responding, Dade".
Knowing about yesterday's event, the Chief who recognized my voice came on the air again and asked "Tanker 4, are you familiar with this address?" LOL!
"!0-4, Tanker 41. I'm enroute, status 1" (driver only) I replied.
I tried, I admit, to get my camera going as I went past the truck stop, air horn blaring, siren screaming, creeping up the long grade at 30mph with the overweight vehicle, but I must have 'double-clicked' the shutter button as the video started and stopped without my knowing it.
A flatbed 18 wheeler pulled out in front of me with a load of steel rebar and refused to pull over as we both picked up speed before making the steep grade of Hooker Hill. I was on his bumper but could not pass him and he simply would not go to the shoulder knowing it would force him to gear down and start over again. So thank you asshole trucker. Lights and siren, I had to gear down and come to a stop on the steep grade as he slowed to 5mph and I still couldn't go around him.
I let him gain a hundred yards or so and then began the slow uphill climb again. By the time I came to the turn off I was on his bumper again siren and horn blaring at him the whole way. A column of smoke was clearly visible above the treeline.
Not much of a fire - a previous fire had taken an old uninhabited trailer to its metal frame and the owner of the property simply treated the whole thing as a dump. Somehow he had started a grass fire that worked into the old debris and while he tried to control it with a garden hose, it spread across about a 1/4 acre of land next to his home and adjacent to the woods.
People, CALL 9-1-1 FIRST, then try to fight the fire if you think it is safe to do so! A fire can double in size every minute.
The main fire had been knocked down by John with a handline off Engine 4, Tanker 41 was still running a booster line into the wooded perimeter manned by a Georgia Forestry firefighter who also had responded, and the yellow 3" line hooked to my Tanker 4 to supply the masterstream with Ryan operating it.
I hooked up to the Engine and supplied its 500 gallon tank with my additional 2000 gallons as well as supplying Ryan's "blitz" line, a heavy duty master stream that can pump hundred of gallons per minute through its nozzle onto a fire.
Then a quick disconnect, a shuttle to a hydrant a block from my Lazy B property, and back to the fireground to hit the hotspots. Afterwards I refilled Tanker 4 a second time and chatted with a neighbor and by then the others had returned to the station and gone back to work.
Not much excitement, but at least I finally have my first response as an emergency driver and a pump operator under my belt - it only took a year!bigb.
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