A-shift 3 of 3 Working Fire

Just when you thought it was safe to go to bed.....Working Fire. E5, E9, Battalion Chief Troutt and Ladder 2 arrived at a residential alarm to find smoke showing and an audible alarm. Yep, we went from "just an alarm" to catching a job. Crews made a quick knock down and saved some property. I couldn't go on 4 day and not update the Blog, so here are some pics.....enjoy!

The Honor Guard needs members

Hey folks, we need your help. We need more Honor Guard personnel. I am looking for people who can make funerals with little notice. Usually we get 1-3 days notice. The Honor Guard has made a great impression on the community lately. We are requested at most retired firefighters funerals by the families. Our retirees deserve it. The families, especially the children see that their family member is a part of something special. They were a firefighter and gave many years of service in our department.
Anyone can join. We will work with you in flag folding, marching and posting as a guard at the viewings as well as graveside. You do not have to be prior military, it's not hard to learn. What we do need is dedication. We will need a commitment. Double breasted class A jackets will be issued to personnel. I am trying to make it where you will be issued a badge, white hat, etc. In the event where it is impossible to assist we would need you to get those items to us in advance of a ceremony so we can fill your spot with another person. The goal is to have a roster for a Honor Guard detail with contact numbers. We want enough members on different shifts to be able to use off duty personnel when on duty folks can not get away.
NO there is no pay. This is done voluntarily. We do it out of respect for our brothers. You will stand for along time. Sometimes it is in freezing rain, other times the KIWI is melting off of your shoes. Still we do it for their memory.
If you are interested or have any questions please e-mail Good O or Lipes through our city e-mail. Thank you for all of the support and be safe out there.

A-Shift 3 out of 3

Here we are....last day of the cycle. I am posting some pictures of E9 and L13 at Melrose Towers for the great extinguisher fight between residents. This happened first day. Plenty of dry chem for everyone that night.



Today was R.I.C. training and it was top notch. I can't give away what happens, but it really was great training. You get that Oh sh*t feeling and it makes it a little more realistic. Thanks to Lt. Gherman and 1Lt Plaza for the training. Check out Mike's site roanokefirefighters.com for pics of today. I have one pic of FF Noell showing us the plastic we used to block our view in the mask.

Lastly Dr. Dixon got farmed out to the deuce. He did get to come home for a couple of hours to fill in. Way to take one for the team John. We are out of here for 4 days in the morning, except Captain Weeks, he returns on November 1. Seems he is going Koala bear hunting in Australia or something...all I know is he is counting the hours all freaking day! He takes pleasure in knowing the pain and suffering that will be upon Lt. Good O. Happy hunting!

No more to post, so everyone be safe out there. Please keep FF/Paramedic Dave Palmer and his family in your thoughts. Get better soon.

Busy Middle Day for A Shift

It has been an interesting day at Station 9 today and we still have over 7 hours left. Lt Dan is riding the Medic Truck today so he can tutor Dr Noell on what it is like being a Paramedic since Duane will soon be one. They have been gone almost the entire day running EMS calls getting soaked due to all this well needed rain. The Engine has had our fair share of calls as well including multiple fire alarms and a small fire in the oven which Wheels was able to save the day and pull the fire right out of the oven before it got out of hand.

We shipped Senior Firefighter/Paramedic Dixon off to play with our friends at Station 2 today and hopefully he is playing nicely with others. Thanks to Captain Perry and the guys at Station 4 for saving us some barbecue for dinner tonight from the Officer Seminar yesterday.
Captain only has around 31 hours left till his month off and trust me the Captain has kept Lt Dan up to date on this number as it shortens and he will turn the adult leadership over to him. Well for now the rain has stopped, but the Medics are still going hard and looks like we all might be in for a long night so short post for tonight and hopefully we get a little rest. Tomorrow at Station 11 the guys invited everyone to stop by and have refreshments with Captain Peters between 12-4 to celebrate his retirement. On another note please keep Dave Palmer and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Last day of the Cycle for C-shift

TGIF and it's our last day. I spent most of it in training. The 2nd annual Fire Officer Seminar was held here in Roanoke today and will continue through tomorrow. This year the speakers came all the way from San Bernardino Ca. Mike Alder, a Battalion Chief, and Mat Fratus, Deputy Chief. Check out this link for their complete bios here. This years topic was a Dynamic Risk Assessment (a culture of safety). I don't have the numbers but today's attendance looked to be pretty good. Afterwards, everyone was invited to Roanoke City's Union Hall, L-1132 for food and beverage, also not sure of the attendance there because I'm on duty. The event today also had several free raffle items as well as a 50/50 drawing and a raffle for 2 UNBELIEVABLE custom fire helmets. I believe the helmets were provided by Blue Ridge Rescue and were painted by a brother from Danville, Va (hope that's the correct location) Billy Scearce. Here are some of the pics, Thanks to all of the sponsors for allowing the brothers and sisters of Southwest Va. this excellent opportunity to bring more quality training to our area.











Two were raffled today and the two remaining will go tomorrow... they looked even better in person. Other than that a pretty calm shift. See ya in 4, stay safe and in the house. Capt. Wines

A-Shift 1 of 3

Today is EMS day for #9. Listening to the radio traffic today, the whole city has been up to its ears in EMS with at last count 5 DOA's or Codes. On the other hand, there were 2 or 3 Mom's to be calling the nice folks downtown at dispatch. It's been a crazy day. No good scene pics today. Who wants to see FF/MD Franks taking temperatures? So I am throwing up a few pics of the progress with new Station #5. Enjoy and we'll be back Saturday.

P.S. Congrats to FF/EMT-I Duanne Noell on reaching second medic status in the long check off process. Don't let him fool you....he loves the band-aid! We are so proud of him we sent him to #13 for a break tonight. Sleep well Bevo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX !

Ok folks, by now everyone knows I'm long....errrr...winded yes, long winded and today's post may be a record setter. So, If you want to know what the C-shift Misfits have been up to today, go get a drink and snack, sit back and continue to follow along. If you could care less and / or don't have the time, check out these sites for a shorter, less entertaining read ... here here or here. Ok, today was kinda all about one of our beloved part-timers, Alex Helms. Today is Alex's birthday and he decided to pull a tour and spend it with us ( ain't that special??) He even brought T-bone steaks in for dinner. He brought em and wouldn't let us pay for em (his other job is as a meat cutter). All he wanted was for someone to fix em...and that we did! T-bones, baked potatos, corn on the cob and a salad. We waited, slowed things down, then sped em up trying to get everyone here between calls and, have all the food done at the same time... it worked. Everything done to perfection, on our plates, the blessing said, forks in the air and.... you guessed it "ding ding ding". Out the door they went. Poor fella. The good news is that we're keeping it warm for him and we didn't cut the "special" cake the boys made for him. Until he made it back that is...Here's a few pics (the cake blurred out...ask him about it LOL) Just like all of our part timers, Alex does a great job and we are proud to have him run out of this house. He currently has his application for full time and should take the C-PAT in a week or so. Good luck and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Alex, I hope you enjoyed the day. Well, I say I "hope" he did but actually know he did. You see, being it was a sunny and beautiful day (despite or wonderful local weathermen's forcast) we had a little pump drill. We had Medic 101 tag along and Alex and John both got a little nozzle time. Soaking wet (accidental of course) but grinning from ear to ear. Here's the pics and a short video of the boys laying in..
That's Alex in the 2nd pic from the top.. bet that's the biggest thing he'll have in his hands tonight, birthday or not LOL. I guess I should have started out with the happenings from this morning rather than jump straight into the afternoon events. We had a couple visitors first thing. Roy Layne from the Shriners stopped in (as he often does) bearing gifts. A whole box of candy bars donated from our local shriners. We've posted on Roy and the Shriners before ( a must see post here) and have a really great relationship with their fire unit. If you are not involved with or don't know what the Shriner's do for our children's burn hospitals, take the time to look it up or contact your local Shriners unit. Here's Roy and the boys We also had another nursing student. OK today was more like a ride-a-long rather than a student. And just when we thought we were on to something here... they sent a guy! Yep' the exact oppisite of last day's students. Of Course Kaylor didn't mind, he jumped in the pic just like with the gals..here or here. OK, so we're having a litle fun today. This ride along (John) was from one our local hospitals (LGH). They send their new hire nurses out for ride alongs with Fire/ EMS so that they can see the other side of the incident or where their patients come from and what we have to do to get them to the ER. John was a good sport today and Im certin he'll be an asset for all our local medic units when he begins work in the ER. Speaking of fun.... well you know us misfits, we try to squeeze in a little anywhere we can and today was no exception. Even while training, we sometimes break the tension. Today, I was able to combine the two. I've been talking alot about the development of a local FULL CONTACT football team and at least here at #9 we take these things serious. So, our training has already started, and we're working our way towards 2-a-days. We managed to toss the ol pig skin a little and Bugg even shot some video (sneaky bastard) of yours truly. They thought it was funny that I was wearing a helmet and a pink one at that, but I explained...hey, make due with what you have and practice like you play ..LMAO.. Just look at them boys...ATHELETES!


Now I've tried to explain that I will be a running back and NOT a receiver but they still don't seem to understand. They laugh, giggle, mumble something about me in a hospital bed and things like that. The most recient jokes are because I've found some of my old High School equipment. Like they've never seen high top Puma cleats! They snicker and mumble something about a leather helmet and even made a new screen saver for our computer...
I still don't see what's so funny and look damn good with that head of hair. Wait till we hit the field next year...THEN we'll see who's laughing ;-) OK, to wind it up here..and oh yea, thanks for hanging in. We check our blog stats fairly often (click "view my stats" at the very bottom of the page, just below the stat counter) and have noticed several regular out of town, state and even country readers. Now, the out of country comes from Iraq and we figure that to be one of our previous firefighters Gary "Fish" Fisher or my soon to be son in law "Little Dave". The others, we're not sure who they are but are glad they're reading. Anyways, we wanted to say THANKS to ALL of you and ask if you have any requests or if there is something you'd like us to post about. You know, a loyal reader pic, a link for your personal or dept. blog, a practical joke video that we'd need to top, if there's something about the station, our department or members in particular you'd like to know about or see. I guess in short I'd say, give us some imput and feedback.
To close (I know...make it quick) we posted here on Charlie "Chuck" Fotchmans retirment and although he's WAYYYY behind, Rhett has added something on his "feel good" site here. We wanted to update you on Palmer in that he made it through some more surgery but is still not able to receive visitors. Keep Dave, BJ and the kids in your thoughts and prayers. And, it's with regret that we'll add the passing of William G. "Stick" Walters. Rhett also has a post on Sticks death here. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as well.
I would think that's enough for tonight, thanks again for looking in on us. Stay safe and in the house. Capt. Wines

C-shift returns for Mon, Wed, Fri cycle.

Ah Mondays! Gotta love em. Been a so so day thus far. Opie made it home from the beach but was farmed out to Lucky #13 today. Opie returns and Wheezy heads for sand. Popping tops and drowning worms no doubt. He traded some time so he could be off and somehow tricked little Sweeney into working. Both of the Sweeney boys work in the Department following their father's footsteps ( John Sweeney, now retired ). Ben has worked with the Melrose Misfits before and did a fine job other than darn near eating us out of house and home. Brad on the other hand has been a mess. I assigned him 1 task today...ONE and well..he failed! All he had to do was keep an eye on Tyrone. Keep and eye on him and keep him out of trouble and / or harm. I had no more than assigned the order than Tyrone was up to shenanigans. The good news was that Brad didn't eat us into the poor house. I'm not sure if it was because he just doesn't eat like his brother or due to the meatloaf fiasco that yours truly ruined. It was bad. All kidding aside, Brad did a fine job today and is welcome back. Here's his mug shot

We've kept him semi-busy today, wires down over an occupied vehicle, an MVA, a few fire alarms, a dumpster fire and stabbing (with a fork). Here are a few pics from today's action



We had a few other visitors today as well...well kind of. Battalion Chief Dave Bishop came out to ride on our part time Medic Unit #101. Back before gold badges and take home vehicles, Dave was once assigned here at #9. He's got a little age on him now, but he handled himself very well today and fit right back into the mix. Kaylor was his partner and they had the task of precepting 2 nursing students for the tour. I didn't get a pic of the Chief, but we did catch one of Kaylor and the students

Other news for the C-shift Mis-fits is that Coon sold his house. Now starts the task of buying land and building a new home...WooHoooo. The bad news is that he needs somewhere to live until he can build. Well, all you loyal readers know that all of us here at #9 are givers SO, the boys have been hard at it searching for the perfect temporary nest for Coon and the family. I think they found some pretty good options, here's our 2nd and 3rd choices..


BUT...as good as these two choices are, we found one even better. The only problem here is that the previous owner is included in the sale... they could always put him on the fold out sofa LMAO!

We can't wait to be invited over for our annual fall cookout,cornhole and horseshoe tournament..

OK OK that's enough for tonight. I'll end on a serious note. We have several Brother's out on sick leave and at least one in very critical condition. We want Dave and his family to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers. Rhett has a short post listing most of the men off (add Capt. Mutter from #6-C), check it out here
Here's to hopes for a quiet night, be safe and stay in da house. Captain Wines

A-Shift double post

Well we are back....we have been. This is our 2nd day and my sick/lazy ass didn't have the energy to post. So I am gonna play a little catch up. 1st day we were short FF/EMT-I Noell who is out for some b.s. illness he can't even spell. I am not so compassionate because I saw his 2nd job as a prison Paramedic on the news after he called in sick, and I knew he was there. I posted the picture of the headline....nice try Noell!

E9 and M9 woke for a 0400 Code Blue and it all went down hill from there. As we picked up personnel from RMH we caught a working fire on Salem Ave SW with E5,L7-M7, L1 and some others I am sorry if I missed. E9 got to pull R.I.C. duty and shortly after we were cleared, thanks to the boys at 5-A getting in there first and making a quick knock down. It was nice to see the new Ladder 7 on scene doing some work. No, she isn't just another pretty truck....it's a hell of a work truck. Here are a few pics of that scene.


Today has been pretty good. Well, until I screwed up tonight and looked out of the bay window. That's when I saw some light smoke that I almost blew off as fog on a already foggy night. Just a few puffs traveling across Melrose Ave. I couldn't let it go, so I opened the bay and walked out on the pool, talked to the neighbors walking by and just scanned the area. Not even an odor in the air. The thing that tipped me off that my concerns were for good reason was the man across the street pointing behind the restaurant yelling "There's a Fire!!!" at me. That's when it happened. I got to tell you, when the printer and tones go off, you go through your routine. It is usually smooth. When you have a fire across the street..and you find it...you are screwed. Murphy was waiting outside and ready for us. I ran to the Red Phone (our Bat Phone) that rings dispatch as it is picked up. I forgot that about an hour before, we found it wasn't working. Oh sh*t! Well after no response to my yell through the 24 inch thick steel and plaster floor, I ran up the stairs and got every ones attention. Finally we were on the way. We arrive and ladder the building for a small fire on the roof. A quick knock down and all is well. Nope! As Lt. Good O (me) is laughing at the 50 foot stream of water shooting out of the broken steamer cap when I refilled E9, the hydrant wrench does a slow motion fall from the stem and makes its way into the nastiest urine smelling, rat infested, cootie coated storm drain in NW Roanoke. I swore it was 100' deep. It took so long to make the impact sound at the bottom. Just as FF Fulton from 5 and I finished laughing at my luck, I prepared to make entry. I wish this part on no man! The wrench was recovered, no one was hurt and I no longer look out of the windows as I walk by. Enjoy the night, be safe out there. Goodnight from House #9!