BRRRRRRRRRR! Cold and busy for A-Shift with a hat trick on structure fires!

Good day to our blog buddies. A-Shift is back for middle day and it has been eventful. With the temperature at 18 degrees this morning, I was topping off our 500 gallon tank and watching the drops of water freeze as they hit the ground. Before I was able to pull the beast back inside our first call goes out: we got us a working commercial fire. This Hotel was close to the Salem/Roanoke City line so we got some help from our buddies on Salem Engine 2. They rolled in with Ladder 13, our glorious beast (E9), E4, Battalion 2, RS1 and Medic 4. The Salem boys even got to mark a working fire! Good job fella's. Here are some pics I got to take once I brought CJ from Salem E2 some water supply and got him patched in to our communication. Again a good job by everyone on this one. Not only fighting fire and saving the hotel, but not getting hurt on the instant sheets of ice we were making.




Well, I tried to post about our hotel fire earlier, but we caught another one. This was a grease fire on the stove into the cabinets, etc. Again another large structure, a 3 story apartment building. We had 1 civilian hurt on this one. We are not allowed to post interior pics due to privacy issues and we respect that request. One request I will not grant is the one where The Hippies didn't want to hear us having fun at their expense.....well all I want to know is.....I saw you turn in front of me, but I never saw you on scene. I know its weird when you guys finally beat us into your first due, but you can at least stick around. Did you just get close to the scene, celebrate, cut your lights off and leave? If so....uh you forgot something. I don't get it. Are you guys lost? If anyone finds a truck full of confused looking hippies, please send them home. You know we are kidding. We love you guys. No one brings us water as good as you do! By the way, since you didn't get to see it, here is a picture of the building we got the call to.

Oh I know, this is like one of those C-Shift posts and I am sorry. I really do like them fella's. Hey, one day I might even be on C-shift....*hint*hint*.
Anyway, you guessed it. As I started to finish up the post....another working fire!
This time we rolled in with E5 at the door. We grabbed the guys a hydrant and established command. Captain Swecker let us know it was ok to invite more friends when he advised Captain Weeks we had a working fire. This time we had E5, E9, M7, RS1, Battalion 2, Ladder 2 and another request to the Investigation boys. Thanks again to the Southies for the fresh bottles on the service truck. Wheels got a little kidding from his buddy Lt. Good O on the first fire this morning, about how he can wrap the hydrant connection up anyway he wanted, because I wont ever have to catch the hydrant. Well I didn't hear it through his mask, but I am sure he laughed his but off when that mean old cranky Karma showed up on scene and tapped me on the shoulder then pointed at the hydrant! Yep, I got to hand lay the line and catch the hydrant. I admit it, payback sucked. After supply was established I did get to link up with FF Wheels and Captain Weeks on the basement division and do some work. All in all, another good stop. No one hurt and the house was saved, good knock down 5. Here are a few pics from this job.


Since that call, we have been canceled in route on an EMS call. We finally got to do the most important thing of the day. We got to the store and bought coffee!
With the wind-chill making it anywhere from -5 to -20 tonight, I am afraid we will need it. I hope not, but if there is more in the next half of the shift, I will try to post it. Be safe out there everyone, keep warm and lets go home in the morning.