Training on the New Engine

Saturday

14 January 2012

It was a typical winter morning in Colorado.  Bright and crisp.  We had training on the new fire truck.  The truck that I get to be captain of. I will be responsible for.  I get to put stuff on. 

It was a good turnout.  About fourteen people, mostly men, but a few women.  I tried to take a lot of notes. 

At the station, we had breakfast followed by a talk by the Chief and the training officer.  The Chief announced that I would be the truck captain for the new $360,000 truck.  The plan for the day was to drive the truck and a tender (the water truck) down to the fill site and fill both engines and do various exercises. 

Since I am the truck captain, I was drove the truck to the fill site.  It is a big truck with two mirrors.  The small, lower mirror is just to see what is happening with the tires on each side.  I was instructed to watch carefully, especially on the right side to avoid going off the road and not run into some of the rock outcroppings. The front of the truck is impossible to see from the driver’s seat.  One cannot tell how far forward it goes.   I did pretty well, only hitting some tree limbs. I backed the truck into the fill site which was a snow covered pullout across the road from a pond.  Those that had gotten there first with the tender had set up a port-a-pond and was filling it from the fill site.  Using our truck, we attached the drafting lines and filled the truck.  The new truck has a monitor on top of the truck that must be attached each time otherwise the truck is too tall for the fire station.  The monitor will shoot a stream of water over the back of the truck up to 1000 GPM (gallons per minute).  Since the truck can only hold 1000 gallons, that would drain the truck in one minute.  There is a second monitor on the front of the truck which allows water to flow while driving.  We all got training on how to attach and use the monitor and change the flow rate down to 300 GPM.  We also used one of the permanently attached hose lines to test and spray water. Finally we connected to the tender and filled the truck from the tender.

After all these exercises, walking around in the snow, it was time to break down.  We disconnected the monitor on top and secured it. The hoseline we used has its own drawer to be stored in and we re-layed it in the drawer ready to be used again. 

The truck was stuck in the snow.  It operates in all-wheel drive, but can do four-wheel drive high and low.  I didn’t want to try to drive it out of the snow so I didn’t drive it back to the station.  But I was a passenger.  I helped back it into the station. 

We had an excellent lunch of cheese sandwiches and minestrone soup before cleaning up and heading home.

Sunday

15 January 2012

I went to the fire station alone today. I looked at the truck and played with various things. I made some lists and wrote up some questions.   It was good to get hands on the truck by myself with no one else there.

It had been tense at home. The fire station was quiet and a little cold and it felt soothing. It was a sanctuary. There was beer in the fridge that I wouldn’t drink, but maybe someday would replenish.  I feel so grateful to the Chief for giving me this job so that I have a place to go to when I want to get away from home.  I wonder if he saw that need.  He seems to be pretty perceptive about people.  Sometimes people don’t know how kind they are.