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.

Have a HAPPY and SAFE Halloween !!

The Melrose Misfits want to wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween. We've got our "firemanzzz" pumpkin out and have gotten to see many trick or treaters thus far. I think I'll just post a bunch of the pics instead of my usual ramblings. It's gonna be a long post either way. Oh, and by the way, Lt. Bugg was the artist who carved our pumpkin...great job huh? And let me back up a and explain just a little about the first pics I'll post. Everyone knows that the FD is loaded with traditions. More often than not; for the men and women on the job, traditions are carried over into our family life, job related or not. Well, in my life, I have always helped my girls carve the pumpkin. This year is the 1st Halloween for my 1st grandson (the Buckaroo) but I've been on duty for 3 days straight. So, my daughter (Reba) brought him by the station yesterday so I could carve his 1st pumpkin with him ...



BOO! Ok so today, the Buckaroo came back by to show off his costume...and to get some CANDY! Tyrone's wife and boys (Jackson and Noah) also came by to show off their costumes...some great family pics at the station.



There's 3 future members for the Melrose Misfits.. (L-R) Jackson, Noah and Wesley (Buckaroo).And hey, Halloween isn't just for kids... we've had some adults stop by in costume... and NO, not the usual drag queens but just as scary... here's Raggedy Ann/Clown

And who needs the Million Dollar Man Steve Austin when you have the Hundred Dollar Girl? You know..."it takes a $100 dollars to make me holler, I get paid..." ok ok but it was a good song LOL WILD THANNNNGGG!

A couple of witches (non-firefighter wife types...WITCHES...with a "W")



and just a good, all around collection of goons, goblins, cheerleaders etc. we even had Micheal Jackson (back row, far left).



All in all, a good night so far. Wheezy's still on vaca and Bugg tricked Lt. Crouch into riding the night tour so he could take his daughter out trick or treating. Thanks Jason for filling in from #7-A. You know though..I think we could have gotten by and allowed Jason to spend Halloween at home with his family as well. Think I've found a pretty good fill in driver... really doesn't look much different than Bugg either.


LMAO!! Just kidding Bugg, enjoy the night off with Cora. I'll close with saying that tonight is fun and special for alot of kids but others use the occasion for mischief and shenanigans. Our brothers and sisters all across the country are often put in harms way several times a shift on Halloween night and for no good reason. None more so than our brothers and sisters in Detroit where "devil's night" has become famous for raging fires. To our brothers and sisters out there, wherever you may be pulling your tour, STAY SAFE!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!
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.