Since in my last post I gave you a flavor of what a day at work was like I thought I would follow it up with what the second day of the cycle was like.
I came in early, on overtime, to cover for the Capt at the station who had taken 2 hours of vacation to leave early: he was taking a child to swimming practice and his wife did not like driving in snowy conditions. So it was up at 0430 to make sure I left plenty of time should I also hit snowy conditions. I arrived at the Station around 0540 and parked my vehicle in front of our 3rd bay to avoid making noise in the lot right next to where the bedrooms are.
I switched over at 0600 and did a little work on some personal projects. Around 0730 the other two members of the crew came in and around 0745 we had a call. It was snowing by now and that always makes driving a bit of an adventure. We transported to a local free-standing ER and then got back to quarters around 0900.
Shortly after getting the report completed I got a phone call from dispatch. He was reporting that dispatch had received a call from a woman who was complaining about a crew that had transported her son the previous night. He was giving me the name and phone number saying she wanted contact. I took the information and then had the crew gather because it was our crew that had transported. We suspected there may be further issues from that transport as the Mom had tried to direct the paramedic to administer certain drugs on her time frame and was angered when the paramedic refused to do so. So we made contact with our MSO (medical services officer) to let him know what was going on and he asked that we all write statements regarding our contact in this case.
All the while we were dealing with this pleasant little nugget I was watching it snow harder and harder. Not long into our little meeting I asked the engine driver to get the chains 'staged', that is ready to apply immediately. We weren't at the snow depth yet, but if it kept on dumping, we would be. Shortly after this task was completed we received our first call of the day, a residential fire alarm for E-13. So now, we have to decide if we put on the chains or respond. I decided to respond.
This call was about 6 blocks from the Station, right off the main street. We arrived and soon discovered that a child had tripped the alarm and there was no problem. So, since this was a cul-de-sac we had to turn around. We decided to just nose into another 'lobe' of the cul-de-sac and back around. So the driver just nosed in and when he put it in reverse to back out the rear tires just spun and polished the section on which they were sitting! Crap! So out came the shovels and we removed snow from behind the tires about 4 or 5 feet, then removed snow from in front of the tires so the truck could go just a bit forward and then back up. All the while, of course, I am hoping that we don't get another call! Just as hoped the engine eased a bit forward and then came back without trouble. We were able to get back to the station without further incident and immediately put on the chains!
We then decided we needed to go to the store as it was around noon. We had invited a neighboring station (from another district) over for dinner to celebrate their company officer's retirement at the end of January. So we needed to pick up a few things. This included a cake. In icing on the top of the cake we had this written: "Happy Retirement, about freaking time!"
Once back at the station we noticed that it had stopped snowing but not before dumping 7 - 8 inches! This isn't much for places that get snow all the time but it is a whole lot of snow for Western Washington! The main reason is that there aren't too many snow plows and so the snow on the roads gets compacted into about 2 inches of pure ice. Any more snow on this layer and ... you get the picture!
About 3 p.m. we got a call for a 16 YOA female with an asthma problem at the local high school. We surmised that there was a tournament there and that it was a player. We were right. She had run out of her medicine and so we gave her a breathing treatment. As we were clearing this call a late teens or early 20's male came up to us and said he had just lacerated his thumb pretty bad. We checked him out and found that he had lacerated himself down to the bone! So we used sterile dressings to replace the ragged t-shirt he was using to staunch the blood and then his buddy drove him to the local hospital for stitches.
Around 5 p.m. the visiting station arrived for dinner. We had a great time laughing about past incidents, telling great stories and just generally having a nice dinner together. We had Thai Coconut-Curry Chicken over rice with salad and, of course, the cake. Finally around 1920 hrs (subtract 12 to get normal time - we function on military time to avoid having to specify am or pm) they mounted up to leave. Our Battalion Chief had called in sick for the day and while he was covered on overtime during the day I was going to be moving up to Acting BC to cover the night. I had to wait for a firefighter to come from another station and so expected him around 2015 or so. But as one might expect we got a call at 1945 hrs for a power line down. After we got back from that (it wasn't a line down but was a line being impacted by a tree limb laden with snow) I packed up my stuff for the drive to Station 11.
It was slick everywhere but I made the drive in just a little longer than the usual time. I tied in with the overtime BC and then settled in to catch up on some reports, paperwork and e-mails. I called my wife around 2130 and noticed that I was getting pretty tired...(up at 0430 - I wonder why). So I finished up what needed to be done and hit the sack. No calls for me during the night! I was happy about that. Got up around 0700 and began to get ready for tie-in and shift change.
Another full, rich day at work.
No comments:
Post a Comment