Holding My Breath... Again...

So it is cold again, not really that cold but it's snowy and we had a winter storm warning from Sunday to Today. We met at the smoke house this morning for some evolutions. Four people didn't show up so we had to change teams around a bit. We are slowly adding stuff to the mix. This class or set of classes as we divide the semester in half, will just give us the basics of what we need to know. We won't do an actual Fire Fighter I course until next fall. I don't care just because I enjoy being out at there working. But anyway, back to the story, we divided amongst ourselves which added to the general chaos of today. After spending some time trying to figure out where everyone was going to be we took some time to figure out who was all gone.

The group is fading fast. Some won't make it because they won't show up, others won't because they make poor decisions and so on. But the smoke house today was filled with smoke today. It was a good time. We did Primary Searches and threw a victim variable in there. The first time I went through I was on the initial team that found the victim, just to see how it would be with the smoke. Then I was on the RIT team. That was a hoot. The picture to the left is me in full gear waiting to be called in. Next I played the victim. I got tossed around worse than a crash test dummy but it was fun. We all had a laugh when one of the fire fighters ran in without his helmet.

Instructor: *taps guy on shoulder* Um... where is your helmet?

Fire fighter: *Feels around on his head.* Ah F%$#!

We all had a good laugh at that. The guy who I wrote about throwing a temper tantrum ended up doing it again, this time towards an instructor. After that failed attempt at a Primary Search our instructor grouped us up and started lecturing us about having a poor attitude. Then the kid started to talk back and finally after listening to it enough three of us snapped and told him to shut the heck up and listen. Seriously, attitude in this field is everything. Well attitude is a lot of it for most fields, but in a field where lives count on you, and people count on you to protect them and their belongings it's even more important. One bad attitude can mean the difference between life and death. So the rest of us were a little less than forgiving about this second tantrum.

After that we went to the school and received our shirts and hat. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of me fully outfitted up. I'll probably look dorky but that is okay. Anyway, I threw some pictures up of our training today. Enjoy!