Monday Monday 1st day back for C-shift Misfits

I don't know why but it seems as though when you take a few days off and then return 9 days later, tasks which before seemed simple and routine now have become much more difficult. I usually arrive for duty first ohhh anytime between 06:30 and 06:40. My first chore is to put on a hot pot of coffee. Today... NOPE. We have a new combo lock on our food locker and guess who didn't get the memo. Result... no coffee. Next, I get my gear in shape and on the truck, do the computer work, check department e-mail then my favorite sites. As the boys arrive, they too get their gear on the trucks and begin to complete their morning checks while one of them prepares our morning egg sandwiches. This morning, 08:30 before the sandwiches were up. OK, one slow / late meal ain't so bad but we do try to maintain a schedule here..it is a firehouse you know. Lunch is at 11:30 so we catch the Price is Right showdown and the noon time local news. Dinner is at 17:30 so we don't miss Andy and then get to catch the evening news. Well tonight, as 17:30 rolled around, I was waiting for a pregnant lady to walk in. Why a pregnant lady you ask... cause this is what Wheezy had on the stove...

Enough water boiling to birth triplets but NOTHING to eat...GEEESH! I thought for a minute or two there that Wheezy has been taking lessons from the 'ol "Ninja Cook" Opie. Guess I was just a little impatient cause after throwing a weee weee weee tiny fit, tossing a few pots and pan etc. Wheezy produced a master piece... and well worth waiting for. Yard bird, stuffing with gravy, mac and cheese and a side of CROW for the Capt....lol

And, my little "I'm gonna starve" tantrum wasn't the only obstacle for Wheezy this evening. I guess the clock and my showing had him picking up the pace a little. Ok maybe turning up the heat instead of picking up the pace. The result of that... smoke. It got kinda bad at one point... so bad in fact that Coon had to take protective measures...

And again, seeing how fabtabulus the meal turned out, I guess we should have paid a little more attention to the sticker atop the Captains desk

(NO WHINING...and also note my Fire Geezer mug, I'm not sure how it manages to sneak its way into so many of our pics). So, Wheezy's cooking and riding backwards. Tyrone has been off to hunt camp since Friday and with no cell service, all we can do is pray that he has and is taking his medication. If he's not...well Highland County will never be the same. Opie is riding the box with our own little poop magnet Coon. Opie actually attended hunt camp with Tyrone Friday through Sunday. He slayed the big one from his mobile recliner, slept ON a wood stove (placed inside a tent by multiple firemen), showered outside in 30 degree weather and used a 5 gallon bucket for a toilet. Guess he had all the fun he could stand so he came on back home. A rainy / cool day here in the "NOKE", sitting on 8 runs total. Nothing too exciting, some local lumberjacks fell a tree across a service drop and didn't think enough of it to slow them from continuing their work. Downed line and all, they finished cutting the tree, loaded the wood and cleaned up debris before anyone called it in... and oh yea, the line was hot


Other news includes a HUGE date that we totally missed. Our house..station #9 located at 514 24th Street NW Roanoke, Va turned 80 years old last month. The station was completed October 2, 1929 so HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY old gal. Like a fine wine, she gets better with age. Warm in the summer, cold in winter and, the roof only leaks when it rains. No, she's a good house and we'll miss her. Here's a pic of how she looks now. I'll also add the new station. Scheduled to open in March 2010, her replacement is well under way and we managed to snap a shot from across the street today. This pic is from the front or the Orange Ave side..check it out, a "measure of progress".


I also wanted to remind everyone that our Public Safety Football team will have it's 1st official practice a week from today. I CAN'T WAIT.... PUT ME IN COACH! Check out the Roanoke Rampage site here. Thanks to Captain Todd Stone and Assistant Fire Marshall Chris Price for all their hard work and effort.
I'll close with a very special announcement. Most of you have figured it out by now but today, we (ok..more like Rhett than "we") officially completed our "RSS" feed. What that means is that whenever we post here (to this blog) we automatically feed to "Networked Blogs" which takes the post to our newly built and under construction Face Book Fan and profile pages and then on to our Twitter page. WoooHoo, now all you "picture bookers" and "Churp Churps" can follow the Melrose Misfits as well. I hope you all enjoy the ride. That's it for tonight, We've got the Monday, Wednesday, Friday tours so we'll see ya again Wednesday night. Until then, stay safe and in the house. Captain Wines

Getting back on the truck..

I'll start by saying that our Department as a whole as well as the Brown family continues to receive much needed prayer and support. For that, we are all grateful. The "Big Show" posted a thank you note on their site found here. It was discussed at our Union meeting last night that some calls are still coming in asking where you can send cards etc. The address is as follows.. (address has been removed until approved by the family, we will add it back following authorization). It should also be noted that donations can be made to Captain Brown's daughter's ( his "girls" ) college fund. Checks should be made to Stephnie Brown c/o Caroline and Hannah's college fund. Donations should be sent to the Daleville, Va. branch of SunTrust Bank 72 Kingston Drive. Daleville, Va. 24083 Phone (540) 992-6972 to the attention of Tonya Brown.
OK, in our last post I added a clip from Ladder 49 and in it, the Captain (John Travolta) told the men that getting back on the truck was the way to honor their fallen. "Brown's Hounds" down at #1C have done so and so will we with our postings. Our regular readers know I can get long winded but, I'll try to be brief tonight. I want to try to catch you up on a few of the recent happenings here at Station #9. Back on Oct. 13th our brothers from A-shift posted on a motel fire they had up Melrose. The were pretty humble with the facts though. They were 1st in to our "technically" 3rd due. Multiple companies were out of service for one reason or another. The call was received with a report of a handicap person trapped! They arrived with smoke and flame showing and WENT TO WORK! Fire knocked down, exposure doors forced and rooms searched before the 2nd due made it in. Luckily, the victim was able to self rescue just as they arrived. Reminds me of the other fire service movie Back Draft ... John Wayne time boss..

HELL OF A JOB THERE BOYS!! HELL OF A JOB!
Ok, on to C-shift, we've had several more nursing students ride along with us and I promised them a pic on the blog ( told em we'd make em famous). Sadly, this will all soon end because the part-time Medic Unit will be moving over to "The Deuce" aka Station #2. Here, Medic #101 has been parked outside and with cold weather approaching, admin felt the need to move them inside. The good news is that they'll be back when we move to our new home, hopefully sometime in March 2010. So here's our latest students Megan Caldwell and Virginia Vaughn at the top and Rebecca Dunham and Margy Bacon below.



Yea yea I know..it's a hard life here at #9 but someone has to do it. Our very own "Ninja Cook" has been making remarkable improvements. With a little guidance from yours truly, he even baked a few pies. Our old friend Officer Combs (aka "Evil Knievel" or "Awful Kanaful" now that he's assigned to a motorcycle) couldn't believe Opie was baking so he stopped in to sample the results.



You can't tell be the expression but he did have 2 slices lol. In our last post, I listed the names of the County and Salem brothers and sisters who covered our rigs during the funeral. I'd like to point out again the ones who covered here for our B-shift Misfits. They were Geoff Tuck, Ron Stone, Matt Bradshaw and Brandon Carroll all from Roanoke County Fire / Rescue. The City's own Captain R.T. "Skippy" Flora (from Lucky #13-B) also missed the funeral to cover as the Officer here. Again, I want to thank these guys before busting their balls...and you know I gotta. You see, there's always been a little friendly "competition" if you will between the City and County. Good, clean firehouse fun. Well, C-shift worked the tour the following day and at 07:30 when Lt. Bugg went out to check and prep our War Wagon, SHE WOULDN'T FIRE. The County boys worked a 1/2 day on her and she just laid down a QUIT! I don't know if they tried to take her in the woods or up in the mountains somewhere looking for brush fires or what.. but she wouldn't crank. We had to pull her out with the "Cowboy Cadillac" and call the hook. Oh the shame of it all..LOL

You guys know I'm just kidding and again want to thank you for everything you did. They actually made a few runs and caught a kitchen fire. Speaking of catching one, we did that ourselves today. Looked BIG. HEAVY black smoke from 9 blocks out. Marked it a worker from that far away. Got there (a junk yard) and there was so much fire and smoke, thick, black smoke, that I really couldn't tell what was burning. I had the boys pull the 2 1/2 and they WENT TO WORK! Man am I proud. Wheels, Tyrone and Opie did one hell of a job knocking her down. In the end, it was 2 cars, 1 van, a motor home (next to a building) 6 industrial loader tires (400 lbs each), vehicle tires, gasoline tanks, and general rubbish burning. Looked worse than what it was but a good job by everyone involved. Also on scene was E4, E5, L13, E3, L7, M9, M4, BC2, ST2 our PIO, FM1, and Chief 1 (who opened the hydrant). Here's a shot moping up..

And yes, we kept it out of the building..just melted the door a little. If you noticed, I said "Wheels" Tyrone and Opie. Wheels (an A-shift Misfit) is covering for Coon so he can attend the Va. Tech Chokey game...oops I mean Hokie, must have been thinking about the Ga. Tech game :-) Anyway, I hope the tailgating was fun cause at this point, Tech is LOOSING. Thanks to Wheels for making the trade, and "well done" today humping that 2 1/2". Wheezy's off on vaca, no doubt at Allsports catching the game. We're back on Halloween so, see ya then. Stay safe and in house, thanks again for all the support. Captain Wines.

C Shift Back at the Grind

Well, not much to share today. It's sad to say, today was a true "Grind". The day started off with the norm, kinda. Truck checks and cleaning around the house. Wheezy was off getting his learn on, Coon got the day off, so that just left Capt., Opie, Tyrone, and Bugg. Here's where the "kinda" starts, we ran a four man engine for a couple hours, until Bugg had to transfer to 5 for a bit. The other "kinda" was with Opie's injury he gets to be wheel man, while Bugg gets to ride backwards for a change.

After lunch we had some EMS CE on documentation, which basically covered things to keep in mind when writing a narrative for both EMS PPCRs and NFIRS. (Click the Icon for a link)

Back to the house for some fantastic pork chops and gravy for dinner. Prepared in the true #9 way, by the "Ninja Cook".
After a movie was interrupted by a minor MVC, we got back just in time to watch Rescue Me.

We would like to pass on some information about the Second Annual Fire Officers Seminar. It will be September 25th and 26th at the Roanoke Civic Center. If you need more information and a registration form click HERE. The first seminar was very informative and we hope the turnout for this one will surpass the first.

While we don't have any new pics or videos for you tonight, I thought I would post some older stuff. Be Safe! Until next time........