On With The Show...

Reporting from on Scene
Incident: Residential Fire


There I was, startled awake in the middle of the night by the tones dropping... "Engines 12, 4, Truck 4, Rescue 12, Safety Officer 1, etc ... report coming in of a house fire." Threw myself from my bunk, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, making my way to the bay quickly.

Pants on, nomex, jacket now on... everything is zipped, buckled up, and tightened down leaving no room for fire to sneak through. We're rolling out, SCBA on, air on, mask, helmet and now gloves. Another report comes in "...lots of smoke in the air!"  From in front me I hear "Shit, we've got one!"

The pounding in my chest speeds up a little faster. Adrenalin starts pumping.  Finding myself making a mental check-list, because I know we're going to be the second engine on scene. Thinking to myself, gotta catch that hydrant!

Report now coming in from first engine on scene "... we have plenty of smoke and fire showing from C/D corner. I was correct, second engine to roll in. From beside me I hear a shout "You've got this Shadow ... go, go, go!"  Just as the engine rolls to a stop, I take that leap of faith. Grab the hose, hydrant bag, hydrant assist. Time to go, go, go because we gotta get the water flowing. The hydrant's on!  Back with the crew and jumped on a line. Air is flowing and I'm headed into the black unknown because it's on with the show!

Fast forward about an hour and a half later, we're rolling back to the station.  Silence in the cab. Then out from no where my ears perked up to hear "Probie gets to pick the ice-cream!" Yesssss!  The fact that I got to pick the ice-cream, made for the perfect curtain call.

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       Shadow
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There's a Reason They Don't Teach This in Boy Scouts

Reporting from on scene

Incident: Residential Structural Fire

First, get some wood. Second, go buy a bag of Lays potato chips (...other ships will work, but not as good.) Now, place your bag in the centre of your fire pit. Set up your collection of small pieces of wood around your potato chip bag but be sure to leave the corner of the bag completely exposed. Now, light the bag on fire.

This folks, is how you build one hell of a roaring fire over just a few minutes.

The saturated oils in the potato chips are very flammable.  The bag will quickly disintegrate and you will be left with a roaring fire. Lays plain potato chips do work best because they are thin and they have a high concentration of fat compared to other brands.

If you are someone that is going to try and do this because you were warned not to do this, please do so in a safe manner.... unlike a call we took where a young teen saw this video on how to start a fire with potato chips on YouTube... he decided to use a book, half a bag of cedar shavings for his hamster cage and a large bag of chips... in his basement!

Which brings us back to our number one rule: Don't play with matches/lighters!

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      Firegeezer
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