Feels like Monday

It's been a rainy, slow day for C-shift's return. Over our 4 day, the brothers of A and B-shift have kept pretty busy though. Looks like a week for GSW's and stabbings. The brothers on B-shift also caught a smokey job on the 3rd floor of HoJo's resulting in a FD injury to one of the boys from our house. Maybe Capt. Bedwell is cracking the whip a little too much. It seems as though hydrants all morning and then a lunch time fire could result in dehydration for some of the younger firefighters. They knew something was wrong when they got back to the house and Bevo Lotti wouldn't / couldn't eat lunch. He couldn't stand without falling, couldn't sit without sliding out of the chair and couldn't even make coherent sentences. Firehouse doctoring didn't even bring him around, so it was off to the ER for brother Larry. I've searched and searched but can't find a good face pic of Rivers but here is a pic that shows his most notable feature...his shirt. Each morning at shift break with B-shift, it's always worth the wait to see what slogan he has on his shirt that day.

The good news is that he made a full recovery, was released later that day and worked his entire shift yesterday without falling out. Due largely to the fact that his ever caring Capt. and Lt. assured he had a fresh cold glass of water in front of him every 30 minutes...LOL. Come to think of it, he did look a little bloated this morning at shift change. Anyways, we're glad Larry is OK and will add this link in his honor and in hopes of educating our brothers and sisters out there in blog land with hopes of preventing future injuries of this type.
Well, as I said, it's been kind of a slow day. Only 4 runs so far, shots fired, burnt food, an EMS and another "good intent". We're gonna settle in and try to watch the big fight tonight. No exciting new pics today so I'll use some older ones that you may enjoy.


The pics above are of of service truck (aka. messenger truck)drivers. At top is Jimmy "Jimbo" Jennings. Jimbo is a retired Roanoke City Firefighter and work several years along side my dad who is also retired. The 2nd pic is of Donnie Foutz who is also a retired firefighter from Vinton. I wanted to add a pic of David Rich who served as our 3rd messenger driver after retiring from the City. Dave spent alot of years here at #9 station as Lt. on the Ladder (yes we had a ladder). Dave passed away back in March of '08 and is missed around our station daily.For some %#%^@*%@$* reason, I can't find the pic I want or get the other to work so I'll add this link to Rhett's site for a pic of Rich.
UPDATE** Here's one of the pics I wanted to use. That's Rich changing my bottle and giving me hell the whole time. I can't remember about what but you can bet he was fretting. I borrowed this picture from retired Firefighter Mikey Overacker's site which can also be viewed here. Thanks for the pic Mikey.

I'll close with a good shot of our trusted War Wagon. She's finally out of the shop and back at home where she belongs

That's all for now, we'll update if worthy. Be safe and keep em in the house. Capt. Wines

CANT TOP THE "SAW" MASK

There's noway we can top A-shifts last post so we're not even going to try! LMAO that was BEAUTIFUL! The purpose of our blog was to show everyone a little bit of firehouse life from the inside perspective and, they nailed it! (see what happens when the Captain takes a day off?) There are tons of "shenanigans" in every house. Some days more so than others but everyday, finding some sort of comedy or something to laugh at helps to ease the stress level and makes the day go by. So, C-shift is back on duty and it's been wide open since our first run @ 07:26. Our first stop was a visit to #2 station to donate a couple gallons of blood to the city nurses. Then it was back to the house for a little "spring cleaning" and a meeting with a local lawyer concerning a past incident. (we are often called to testify following shootings, stabbings vehicle accidents etc). A quick run to the store and back for lunch. The top picture shows Jimbo" Jimmy Jennings (retired and rehired as one of our 2 messenger truck drivers) breaking bread with the boys of C-shift. Jimmy and my dad worked together for several years before they both retired in October of 2004. It's always good to see Jimbo and hear some of his tales. Soon after lunch, the Engine was up against it. Here in the city, we don't see a lot of brush fires but today...well lets just say it was bad. Pictured above, you'll see Coon flaking line while Wheezy "flanked" the inferno then moved into position to cut it off at the head. If you look closely at the tree stump just off center, you'll notice she was about to crown! The good news?? All of our wildland firefighting training paid off, 2 helicopter drops, a few chain saws, a Radford (or is it Pulaski) tool and the boys were able to cut a line and snuff her out before she got out of control. Another nail bitter. Look out Roanoke County, we have our sights set on the 2010 Governor's Award. At 14:00 our guest Seth Gitner from the Roanoke Times showed up for the photo shoot. Now his equipment and skill level is not as fancy as the dig. camera we carry on E9 but he probably got some good shots regardless. LOL.. all kidding aside, Seth went to the new "green" Station 3 and then came here to take some 360 degree photos. The shoot will compare living in an old firehouse vs a new state of the art station. He has some really cool plans and we are excited to see how they turn out. We'll get a link up as soon as it's out. "Nukie" stopped in for a new badge, helmet and coloring book. The local kids love to stop in when the front doors are up. Warm days bring out more than just the kids though. Darkness is fast approaching and so it has begun. The video shows the last of about 10 Police vehicles enroute to an assault just up the street. YEP, we were the next to hit the pavement, Engine 9 and Medic 2 were dispatched to clean up the mess. Later, our Battalion dropped in for a late night visit and had us all rolling with his "Ernist T Bass" impressions.... Chief Dale Barker of C-shift..if you see him, get him to do the impressions..pay if you must, it's worth every cent. I almost forgot Tyrone's new helmet. BRAND NEW and shinny..guess we wont sleep tonight. It took some time to convince him, but after seeing how good he looked in it, he didn't want to take it off. As mentioned in an earlier post, when working under "by the book Wines" and whenever Tyrone is involved it's ALWAYS SAFETY FIRST! Taking that to heart, pictured below is Tyrone throwing together the morning's egg sandwiches.

Rhett Fleitz from #13 C has completely redone his site and put it back on line. We'll add the link to the top left of our site or check out his new look here http://www.roanokefire.com/ It's getting late and today's just the first of our cycle. C-shift will return on Saturday...B-shift in the morning. Thanks for all the hits, keep checking in.