Pretend Firefighter

Today was an awesome day.

As usual, I biked to work this morning. As I arrived, I saw a multitude of firetrucks, engines,  van, etc parked right in front of the capitol. I was worried something horrible happened (anyone remember when the truck rammed into the capitol?). But there was no smoke, no fire, no sirens, and there were a lot of people in uniform just milling around, talking and joking. What in the world was going on?  When my fellow interns arrived at work, we decided a scouting trip was in order to discover the cause of this upheaval in the firefighting world.

It ended up being Fire Ops 101. Firefighters wanted legislators to experience what it was like to be a firefighter (lobbying opportunity, anyone?), so they created this demonstration day.  There is a chance to put out a fire, cut a hole in a roof with a chainsaw, and climb up that big tall ladder on one of those fire trucks - all of these (here comes the best part) while wearing the gear.

Now, I was more than willing to just watch all the people participating and head back to work, but my extern partner just had to find out if he could participate (should I mention he's ex-military?).  I, of course, rolled my eyes and told him he was crazy, but one of the captains heard me and spent 15 minutes convincing I should participate - so of course I did.  And it was awesome.

The biggest issue was the clothes - they didn't fit. The organizers first had me change into sweats (mediums) and a t-shirt (XL) and I looked like a whale. A very blue whale. Then came the pants (huge, but with the sweat pants on underneath, they fit), and the jacket, and the boots. The smallest size boots they had were 7 1/2 mens, I wear 3 1/2 mens. Well, what's a girl going to do? Wear more than one pair of tube socks! Good thing it wasn't 100 degrees out.

I learned the difference between trucks and engines and saw the jaws of life. Then I tried climbing up that huge ladder on the top of the truck. I only made it half way. Well, bummer. But I don't like heights and there is this weird feeling when you look down and see NOTHING supporting you - because the ladder is at an angle and it's the truck behind you, supporting you. Eek.

Then I held a chainsaw and cut a hole in a roof. In reality, it was just a straight line in a board, and a guy held on to the chainsaw with me so I didn't kill myself, but still, I was on the roof of a trailer cutting up wood. Woohoo. Finally, I entered the trailer with the fire. But before that, I got all geared up with the oxygen tank on my back, my mask on, and some training on how to turn on the hose. And then we crawled in. Fire is beautiful, did you know that? And it was an adrenaline rushing experience to be there all geared up, with three real firefighters, and spraying water all over those red flames.

Before I undressed, I had to try the ladder one more time. I almost got to the top, but about 10 steps away, there was a gust of wind that moved the ladder and I freaked out. So I went climbed back down. But I almost made it, and I will next time!

After I changed in to my clothes, I discovered I'd sweated probably 10 cups worth of water (it was a good thing I didn't wear my real clothes under all that gear) and was totally full of adrenaline. I know I didn't experience anything close to what a real firefighter does, but it was still damn cool. I couldn't concentrated for the rest of the day.

This experience was supposed to occur during lunch, it lasted 3 hours. I was a little worried about what my justice would say when we told them what we did. Well, I needn't have worried. After commenting on my windblown hair, he told us externs that he thought it was a great experience and we were smart to have taken advantage of the opportunity. Phew!

When this experience comes around again, I definitely have to participate. I'm going to get to the top of that darn ladder.