A-Shift Day 1

It was a busy last day of last cycle. So busy that we didn't have time to Blog. We ran 14 calls and had a break long enough to wish Chief Troutt a happy retirement.
It started with several flooded basements. A GSW run, vehicle fire and wrapping up the night (morning), was a working fire with the Southies. It was a crazy day with not much of a break. I gotta admit, it made the shift fly.

Today we started with a few hours of training on the "Great Gas Grill", a.k.a. the new gas fueled burn building. Thanks to Lt. Gherman, Captain Mutter and 1Lt Arrington on some decent training. E9 and M9 got to do several evolutions with our Southie friends, M7 and Ladder 7. I am not sure if we see them more during training or on working fires. Always glad to see them, either way.

I am gonna wrap this up tonight while I am listening to our friends down the road run a chimney fire. If we get anything going tonight I will try to post some pics. Have a good night and be safe out there.

Picking up the pace

It's the first day back for the C-shift Misfits and it's been a long one. Heck, it's been a long week. I don't know why, but business has definitely picked up lately here in "the Noke". Our house alone has seen 5 jobs in the last 7 days. I'm not sure about the other shifts (I don't get the City text messages) but on C-shift, the Southies have had a few others that we don't run. Caught a notable one this afternoon though. Companies were sent to our local Pet Smart for a report of a fire inside, near the rear of the building. Some companies were at the far end of their district and that led to The 12th Street Express making it in first with us right behind them. Engine 5 had smoke showing on arrival and reported heavy smoke from the interior. A cool note here is that a past Misfit was on scene and helping to evacuate the building. Mark Brown (from E5) said he was met at the door by none other than former #9 member Josh Holmes (you may also remember Josh from our dish washer chronicles). Josh had removed some animals, assisted occupants and reported to Brown the location of the fire. Brown said you could tell that Josh had been working and even wanted to go back in with them. Just like old times huh Josh?
We caught a hydrant, supported the sprinkler system and forced entry from the rear. Things got pretty busy for a minute or two. Coon is off at hunt camp and tricked an A-shift Misfit into trading some time, so Big Jerry "Beans" Franks is riding backwards for us today. I was scheduled off for vacation but Opie has been crying about not having enough time off to hunt ever since his neighbor killed the "big one" out from under him, so I gave him the day. I have to admit that with Beans being from the house, it has been just like having one of my boys with me. He makes a good fit and worked his butt off today. Above, I mentioned forcing entry and I know what some of you will say ... "that's truck work". Well, I think I've mentioned it in a much earlier post, but we carry a K12 on the War Wagon. We have alot of security bars etc in our 1st due plus, we often pull the saw for car fires (to cut and raise the hood). Anyhow, the saw came in very handy again today with no ladder truck in the rear. Battalion 1 (Chief Beckner) was chomping at the bit while we cut the roll up door and then made entry with us establishing "Interior Operations". A decent smoke condition inside while the sprinkler system kept the fire in check. Still, a LOT of work. Pet Smart is located in a 26,040 sq. foot building with an estimated value near $4 million. A lot of smoke, and a LOT LOT LOT of water. Everyone there did a bang up job. Engine 5, the "Hippies" from up at the "Green House" Engine and Medic(less Winters who missed yet another one), The Big Show's Engine 1, The "Deuce" (Ladder 2), Lucky Ladder 13, Medic 101, Ladder 7, Engine 1, Battalions 1 and 2, RS1, the service truck and Fire Marshall. All total, about 32 personnel. Here's a few pics..


Here's one of me and Beans catching a breather and the War Wagon doing her thing (sure is good to have the ole Gal back)


Another interesting story about the fire involved 2 women whom I thought were medic or nursing students. These 2 Young ladies were working their tails off helping anyway they could. One even changed my bottle. Well, apparently they were not students. Bugg got the shot and the 411. He was so impressed with their hustle, he stopped and asked their story. He didn't get their names but they are actually applicants for our Department. They have participated in our recent hiring process and wanted to come out for a ride-a-long to see what it is like here and how we operate. I believe they rode in with Battalion 1. Anyway, Bugg said they did a great job and we wanted to say good luck in the hiring process and THANKS for the effort and help today. Here's their pic.

I'm gonna wrap it up here. It's late, we're sitting on 5 or 6 including the fire and a "code blue". Business is picking up at the "club" across the street so it looks like we ain't getting much rest tonight. I will add that as far as I'm aware of, all of the animals at Pet Smart survived. Pretty amazing for the amount of smoke. We will also have an update to this post in the next day or so because we have a video of another Roanoke Fire Department invention.... a very VERY high tech squeegee... you're gonna LOVE it. Stay safe and in the house.. Captain Wines

Chief Troutt retires

Tonight Battalion 2 will be Chief Troutt for the last time. After 34 years of service, Chief Ricky Troutt is retiring. Officially he will be on vacation until his last day, today was the last in the station. We hate to see him leave. But we congratulate him and wish him the best and a long happy retirement.

Most of the city made it by station 2 after he enjoyed the steak dinner prepared at the Palace. Family and friends filled the house. Cake, gifts and more were presented to the Chief. Above note the most useful gift from the guys at #14.

Engine 9 doubled the call volume of Medic 9 today. Thanks to over 2 inches of rain and the multiple flooded basements. At last count I believe we are around 11 calls. Not bad for even taking a time out for a broken wheel stud. The rain has stopped and so have the calls. Here's to a SLOW & QUIET night.
Be safe out there. Have a great night.

Middle day for A-shift

Hey everyone, sorry for the pause. We had a decent day. We started with a working fire. We ran over to help the Southies but we got let go pretty quick. Anytime fellas. We had a MVC and some EMS fun.

Tonight we got to kick back and enjoy the rain. It helps Dixon sleep. He has had a hard day riding backwards. Bevo is off but stopped by to join us in hosting a farewell steak dinner for Battalion Chief Troutt. Last day of this cycle will be his last actual day working. He plans on doing the whole 24, so stop by the Deuce and say goodbye.
On a happier note, Engine 9 is back! John snapped a pic that captured the moment. I was so happy to get her back. She was gone too long. She understood why we left her in that cold dark place and fell into my arms for a kiss on the cheek. She runs better than ever and all is well. Life is good.

The other pic is from our gang sitting down to break bread one last time with the Chief. Goodnight folks, be safe out there.

EVERYONE NEEDS A LITTLE TYRONE!

You just gotta love Tyrone. With him in the house, there's never a dull minute. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times it ain't so bad. Today, the boys decided to take matters into their own hands and attempt to suppress his thyroid problem by fretting him into a state of calm. That plus I think they were just trying to get a jump on him and beat him to the punch (usually Tyrone is the one doing the fretting). Anyhow, it's been Tyrones day to be the center of attention. That, along with some other happenings has made today a pretty fun tour. It started with us getting up a few leaves this morning. Tyrone had a nice big pile. I think he was planning on doing a swan dive into them from the bed of the "cowboy Cadillac" but just as he'd get em piled up, Opie would come along with the leaf blower. Just might have saved Tyrones life... or at least a few fractures.
Now, we all know that Tyrone is a little "wired" at times... ok ok.. MOST of the time and I thought we had learned to work around it. Apparently NOT! The one thing we try to avoid is letting him eat sweets. I think I've even issued an order on it. DIDN'T MATTER. The boys juiced him up today. They've done everything but shoot him up with D50. I know you've heard the "you might be a redneck if" jokes. Well, here at station #9, the joke goes a little different. "You've worked in the ghetto to long when..." ???? how about when you make Kool-aid pies. Yep... I said "Kool-aid" pies. At least they made it from our favorite flavor...RED!! So sweet your teeth hurt! Just look what happened when Bugg licked the spoon. Ok, so fretting Tyrone didn't calm him down ANY. The Kool-aid pies only jacked him up worse. So, our only option... buy a new mask and scare the crap out of him...
LMAO...He's still sitting in the corner shaking! But at least he's quiet :-) The rest of the day...just as funny. A tour full of laughs and even one unbelievable event. The well known, famous, master blogger, self proclaimed genius, author, mega web master, paterfamilias Rhett Fleitz himself was left SPEECHLESS... Yep...didn't (couldn't) utter a word! SPEECHLESS! Well after the fact anyways. You see, Todd "multi media" Harris was attempting to talk on a cell phone while utilizing the "redneck hands-free technique" (pinning the phone between his shoulder and ear). Which generally works, just not so well when you're wearing a radio strap across the same shoulder. You guessed it...the radio mic was keyed. Oh yea, and for what seemed like an eternity. Always up in someones business, looking for any hint of a story for his "feel good" "eco-friendly" piece of poo, rag blog / web site, Rhett was in close proximity and just had to add his 2 cents...it came across the air loud and clear.... here's how it went.... #%&@^%!$%*#) church $@^*#*@^^#((&&^%@*&@^% please $@#&&@%*@%#&$!&@%** yes, thank you *#&@#%$^^#(@***@^%%@$#&*$%#^@ I love my job too @*%#&^!$@*%%$#*!&@**#@* that Chief of ours..what a nice guy*#%@^$#*@&%#&^@** gonna have to buy him dinner#$@*&!%@$#(!*@&^#%!$@#**@#!HAHAHaahahahahahahahaha. Every man on the North Battalion was running for their radio or cell phone to notify them. Too late. Afterwards, when the Chief came out to bust a few balls;...errrrr I mean to investigate the matter to assure there was no radio malfunction or possible safety issues involving their portables, Rhett had no rebuttal. NOT A WORD. Quiet as a church mouse. GUILTY! The best part was that we got to witness it. They (Lucky 13) were out hose testing and, since they never get to use any of that "yellow stuff" on the back, they called and asked the Melrose Misfits if we'd come help. The chief even rolled his sleeves up and all the while kept us in tears with his antics over the open mic. (editor's note: Rhett and I are good friends and he knows I'm only poking fun in the above posting. His site is NOT eco-friendly). The shenanigans haven't been all about Tyrone and Lucky 13 today. The boys have even worked on me a little. You see, Wheezy and Coon are testing for promotion to Lieutenant. Our Lts ride the seat when the Captain is off so, in an effort for them to gain some experience, I have been letting them "ride the seat". Today, Wheezy is riding and I'm backwards. Our War Wagon is still sick so we're using a reserve piece. Yesterday, the "Q" siren quit on the reserve. Now, the engine is equipped with an electric siren as well but I CANT STAND hearing a fire truck on a run blowing an ambulance siren. Ughhhhhhhh! I'll stick my head out the window and yell for vehicles to move while blasting the air horn before turning on the "woo woo". Well, Wheezy and Bugg know how much it irks me so.... THEY BLEW IT! I guess they were thinking I can't fit over the dog house and between the seats to get to them. Blowing and laughing all the way. Then....THEN... to top it off, when he keyed the radio to clear us from the incident, he identified us as "Medic 9". See... that's why I hate those woo woo sirens, messed him up so bad he thought we were on a medic truck. Geeeeesh.
Ok, this is getting long, it's late and I'm tired so I'll try to wrap it up. Sorry we missed the post last day. Caught a small job, looked and seemed worse than what it was. I'll tell the full story another day (it's funny)...basically a mattress fire. Here's a shot just before taking up.

One last note is that Gary "Fish" Fisher is back in the States and town. We posted earlier about seeing hits on the blog from Iraq and that we figured them to be either my future son in-law or Fish. Well, he called the station tonight and let us know he's in. He's here for about a week, back to Iraq for about another week, then home for good. We're glad you're back safe and WELCOME HOME brother!
OK, I'm done. Off on 4-day in the morning, back on Saturday. Until then, stay safe and in house. Capt. Wines

Day 1, C-shift

Where does a 4 day break go? Holy cow this one flew by! Our last day was Halloween night and luckily, we didn't have any fires but did catch a bad looking MVC. Single vehicle, with major impact, and a high MOI (mechanism of injury...my Doctor term for the post). Luckily, and just as unbelievably, the driver walked away..literally walked away as in left the scene and returned later. Anyway, here's a shot of what happens when you run a Lincoln into a steel I beam.


Scariest part was the child safety seat buckled into the passenger seat .. glad the driver was alone. Anyway, that wound up last cycle. Today is our first day of this cycle and it's been busy busy all day. Tyrone has the day off hunting so at least it's a little quieter around here at the house. We started the morning helping out a good friend of the Melrose Misfits Roy Lane. I've posted several times about Roy and his work with the Kazim Temple's Fire Brigade. Well, they recently acquired a new Ladder truck for their fleet and needed a place to temporarily house her. The truck came from Clifton Forge, Va. and is in GREAT condition. What's even better is that she's an Oren! Chief Tartaglia and our Dept. graciously agreed to let the Shriners park the truck in our Historic Station #1. I had the honor of driving her down and backing her into the station and it wasn't until we were done that we realized exactly what we did. You see, their new ladder is an Oren, station #1 also houses our Local's 1937 Oren as well as a retired piece from our City fleet, Squad 1 which is ALSO an Oren. When we finished up, Station #1 had 3 Orens in her, nose to tail. I know some old Jakes who would love to see that. Oren has a pretty rich history here in Roanoke and most any of our retirees hold fondly a few stories involving one of the "Grey Ghosts". Anyway, we didn't get a picture of all 3 together (we'll post one soon) but did manage a few shots of us getting em in. I'll add too that Rhett has been corresponding with a retired Brother from Richmond, Va. (Tommy Herman)who is just completing a book about Oren Fire trucks. He said the book contains some really good photos from Roanoke and as soon as I can steal the link, we'll get it up. So, here's a few shots of the Temple's new ladder and Old Squad 1.



Here's a pic from Tommy as well. I'm not sure if this is one that made his book or not. It's one of our Grey Ghost sitting in front of "The Deuce" aka Station #2.

I'll do more on the Orens soon and I'm sure Rhett will have a piece on one of his sites in the near future despite the fact that you heard it here first ;-)
Ok, so after taking care of Roy and our Shriner brothers, it was normal runs and house work. Later in the day we had one of our bi-annual "cluster meetings" with our Chief. No real surprises other than getting to see Chief Barker in a tie. I made the Misfits wear eye protection just in case one of those buttons cut loose LMAO

Our War Wagon is still sick...think she has that pig cold or whatever it is going around, either way, it ain't good. One of our little fretters from over at the Hippie Hotel sent me this pic of her on the operating table down at the City garage today. Them County boys done her in good...Poor girl....hope we get her back soon

That's about all for tonight. Sitting on 6 or so including a GSW and kitchen fire out on arrival. Oh yea, we check our stats pretty regular (you can too at the very bottom of the page) and we notice the hits from Iraq (click the "view my stats" then find "map" in the left hand bar). We have 2 guys over there that are close to C-shift. Gary "Fish" Fisher who resigned from the Department to go and my future son in law (David Downing)who was pulled from VMI for his 2nd tour. Here's a shot David sent me the other day of him in a Black Hawk. We wanted them to know that we see them checking in on us and that our thoughts and prayers are with all the men and women over there fighting for our freedoms. THANK YOU, keep up the good work, stay safe and hurry home guys!

I'll close with the note that we are working on adding some fancy high tech "RSS' or LMNOP feed thingy or something so that you guys can follow us on "picture book" aka Face Book and that chirp chirp thing... twitter or whatever it is. Anyway, hopefully we'll have it up soon, Coon says it's "the bomb". Stay safe and in house, we're back on Saturday.
Capt. Wines

Goodnight

A-Shift is finishing another cycle. Captain Weeks has been back from his world-wide hunt for the last 2 days. FF Noel is on a 2 cycle vacation giving a speech at Yale University on the dynamics of our National EMS system. FF Boone from C is working today so Jerry can attend the Little Debbie conference in Pittsburgh. Our company has been busy with calls, chores and a Cluster meeting. There really wasn't much to photo and post so we will say goodbye for now. Be safe out there everyone. See you in 4 days.

Goodnight.