Fire Training
Phoenix training is AWESOME!! I am so so glad that I got picked as one of the 33 people to be on the team. It's crazy. Before I tried out for the fire team, I didn't really know what to expect. Other than I heard I could be fighting some wildfires or maybe doing some prescribed burns. It sounded cool. I like to challenge myself. I said okay. I tried out. I got picked. BAM. I'm in.
wow.
P.s. Yes I am writing in red in honor of fire that I could be working with... I know I'm cool. Be jealous.
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| Fire boots. No steel toe-so there is no extra weight and we don't burn off our toes... | A 2 inch heel so we still stand tall when we sink into the ash. And the boot is 8 inches tall to protect our ankles. |
As long as I don't get kicked off the Phoenix team I get to keep these boots.
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| Cheesy photo with Smokey. Yep. |
- hard hat
- safety glasses or sunglasses
- ear plugs (we only have to wear these if we work around engines)
- nomex pants and shirt (these are fire resistant, NOT fire proof)
- boots
- gloves
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| Our hard hats. They are part of our PPE. This is the back of my friends hat |
Fusees! These are basically road flares... We use them to light things on fire. To play with. To throw fire... etc. Yep, they were awesome.
One of our teachers, named Fred. I decided that he should be a cartoon character or be on a cereal box... He was super soft spoken but would occasionally drop vulgar things into the lessons. SO funny. It made the field exercises a riot. I can't wait for my phoenix rotation! Can it be right now??? I am READY!
Did I mention that we also carry packs that typically weigh 45 pounds when we work? Yeah, that's what Derek is modeling. Now imagine working a 14 hour day, bending over digging line which is most likely what I'll be doing. Digging line= digging into the earth to the point where fire can't burn/cross so the wildfire can't spread. Oh yeah, don't forget the heat from the fire, and I'll be doing all this while wearing long sleeves and pants.
I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!
This is a bladder bag. Basically a squirt gun on steroids that we use to spray on spot fires and hot spots. I wish I had this back in my childhood water fight days...
The drip torch... Everyones favorite tool. It is filled with a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel, then drips fire! We use it mostly with prescribed burns. I can draw a line of fire, or toss it. To extinguish the fire I have to lean forward and blow out the end, or clasp it in my hand (picture).
We walk in a line formation and have strict code that we use to pass messages up and down the line. I like it.
The tools that we learned how to use were:
- the palaski
- the council rake
- the combi (looks like a sting ray- my favorite tool)
- the mccloud rake
- the shovel
- the hoe
- the flapper
- the drip torch
- fusees
I am officially a wildland type 2 (FFT2) firefighter! I have passed all the tests, done all my field training and have my red card! I am ready for my phoenix round!! Bring it on!!
We were spoiled so soo much... We were cooked 3 hot meals a day everyday at fire camp. This is not typical AmeriCorps. Plus we didn't even have to do our own dishes. We were eating things like lasagna, ribs, thanksgiving for lunch, one day we even got steaks and grilled them ourselves over... a fire! duh. So on our travel day back up to campus, then off to all of our spike locations we got issued MRE's. I've never had one and was excited to try. I picked chicken pesto pasta. If you don't know what a MRE is, it's a "Meal Ready-to-Eat" aka it's all dehydrated, packaged with SALT and has a plastic ziplock microwave. WEIRD! It was alright. I wouldn't eat it all the time, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. It has a lotototototot of calories though, so I should of eaten it on a day when I didn't spend 10.5 hours in the car...
So now I'm here in Delaware, back with Raven 4.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Fort (Delaware State Park) at 6:20AM to clean.
P.S. The NCCC newsletter for class 18 came out, and my picture is in it...
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