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.

Too nice to be here!

WOW! What a nice day. Wish we were anywhere but here on day's like this one. Most of us at #9-C sucked it up and came on in. Others (whom I wont mention...COON ) had someone else pull the tour. Special thanks to our A-shift brother Matt "Wheels" Wheeling for covering the shift while one of our members attended a tail gate, beer, wings and corn hole fest...errrrr I mean Va. Tech family oriented football game lol. I hope he enjoyed the game, he's a huge fan and the odds were that Tech would most likely win considering who they played. I think it was Craig County High School or something like that. All kidding aside, they played Marshall and dominated. Check out the details here. The "other" Va. team got spanked again (sorry Bugg). I don't even know who TCU is but they topped UVA 30-14. See their video here. And hey, since we're one the subject of football, check this out. Todd Stone, Chris Price and Richard Lipes are getting together a Public safety team to play in the North American Football League. This is the REAL DEAL guys. Not this "flag" or "adult touch" stuff we've been hearing about. Adult touch... gets me thinking more of hookers and midgets than football. This is full contact, real football. Anyways, Rhett has a post about the league and the October 20th team meeting over at his site, found here. Or you can also check out the direct link to the NAFL. Capt. Stone dropped in today to #1 get his picture on the hottest Fire Department blog in the city and #2 to drop off a flier and tell us about the league. I've already told him to count me in! I can't wait and encourage anyone who even thinks they may want to be a part of this to at least attend the team meeting Oct. 20th to get full details. Check out the link, and/or call Todd, Chris or Richard with questions etc. Here's Todd's mug shot

I said most of us made it in today and I guess 4 out of 6 ain't so bad. Coon off watching the fooz ball and Opie down waddling in the sand. I'm not real sure how he gets so much time off but somehow, he's managed to suck another cycle. The best part of his time off story is that he thinks I'll give him a day in hunting season..LMAO! After wasting this week?? Prime hay weather and he goes to the beach? He HATES sand! Hates it! The rest of us stuck here on duty LOVE the beach. Think we can get a day off? Nooooo. As close as we can get to any sand in North West Roanoke is the residue from Bugg scattering stay-dry absorbent on MVA's.Just ain't the same. Anyways, Coon I hope you enjoyed the game and Opie, I hope you didn't forget your water wings. Most of our day here was spent out in the community at Pub-ed events. We were invited up to a local Church this morning for a very nice event. We spent the time showing off our rigs to the children and adults alike. Here's a few shots.... Wheezy and Tyrone giving "Box" tours (showed em band-aids and such) and me running em through the War Wagon.


Everyone had a real god time. The only bad thing about the event was that the City's finest (RCPD) were also invited. Most firemen know that Police Officers entered the service because they couldn't pass the Fire Department test... and if you don't believe that, let me prove it. This Officer looked educated. He seemed smart. I TOLD him...watch Tyrone. There were a lot of people at this event and it's easy for him to get out of my sight. So, with his Policeman intellect, what did he do? Let him in the car! YEP, and one of those hot rod Dodges to top it off. Purchased by local drug dealers and PIMPED. I thought the wheels were 24's but I was quickly informed that they were only 22's but they keep their Sh%* clean Yo! The last time we posted about Tyrone and a cop car, he was in the back seat. If you missed that one, catch up here. This time however, he made it to the front. Check him out...

Hopefully you all know that I'm just busting balls with our brothers in blue. Here in the City, they do a heck of a job and always have our backs out on the street. That said, a little more fire vs police comedy can be found in Fireman Jake and Policeman Perry videos. Rhett has some here or if you've never seen the videos, google it and go back to episode #1.
I'll close on a more serious note today and hit Rhett's feel good piece o dung bloggie like site again. HE covered an article in today's paper concerning the closing of The Second Alarm. Todd Harris currently works at Lucky #13 with Rhett here on C-shift and Gary has been retired for some time now. The bar was been open for 30 years and has been home to many a good Jake from the Roanoke City Fire Department. We're thinking of deciding on a date and time one evening in the near future and filling the place with firefighter's so Gary and Todd can close hers doors in FD fashion. Let us know under comments here or over at Rhetts site if you think you can spare the time to throw a few beers back and give her a good send off before the 26th.
Enough for tonight... stay safe and dry. Capt. Wines