big house fire

So I was in gym class today doing my bench press test, and as I'm locking out the barbell above my chest with my teacher spotting me, my pager goes off... "BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEP BEEP BEEP." Shit. This is only my third class with him and I hadn't yet had a chance to give the whole "I'm on call you might hear my obnoxious pager in the middle of class and I may have to leave abruptly" speech that all my teachers get.

"Hey! Why do you have your... cell phone... pager thing? Put it away!" he is totally bewildered, because cell phones are never a problem in gym classes, and how many teenagers carry a freakin' pager?

I explain the situation to him, and he calms down quite a bit while I see what's going on.

It's a big ass house fire, and the fire dept. wants as many of us as possible. (If you're a stranger reading this, it's important to note that my search and rescue team does a ton of assists to fire depts. and law enforcement that have nothing to do with SAR). So I get home, get in uniform, get my pack, get a ride and get over there with one other member, Parker.

It was certainly a big ass fire, still active when we arrived on scene. The news was all over the place and they had a ladder up over the house to spray down on it. You know a house fire is bad when you can stand in the front yard and see the backyard without a door or window. Good thing no one was hurt.

Our headquarters are nestled in a fire station about 15 miles away from the scene in a different district. When my lieutenant swung by there to pick up radios, he said the firefighters were standing outside looking at the smoke cloud. It was a very overcast day too.... gives you an idea of how bad the smoke was.

The thing that sucks about fires when it's this freakin' cold out is all the water... it freezes and the entire scene becomes an ice rink. You can't take five steps without slipping... it's probably more hazardous than the fire itself.

So why were we there? Well to roll hose, of course!

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