Posts Categorized: Fire Department Current Affairs
Photo Contest / Fredericks Training Days
I'm extremely pleased and quite proud to announce that my photo submission for the 2011 Andy Fredericks Training Days was selected as the winning entry!
We received dozens of submissions featuring photographs from all over the country. In the end t…
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A word of caution for the chronic Facebook addicts.
The second you hit "post" or "send," it's all out of your hands.Go back and delete it all you want, but remember: a bad decision on the internet is like herpes. That shit never goes away.
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National Fallen Firefighter’s Memorial – Live Streaming Feed!
For anyone who is unable to physically attend the memorial ceremonies in Emmitsburg, MD this weekend, Firehouse.com is offering live streaming coverage of both the candlelit vigil Saturday night and the ceremony on Sunday. More information is avail…
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Random thoughts from last tour.
Don't stick your head too far out the window to look at stuff when driving around—while wagon drivers are quite adept at avoiding obstacles, tree branches don't really count.—————Chicken gravy is a rather unprofessional thing to find …
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Expectations.
"Holy shit—she's having a baby!"I couldn't help but laugh; what is this, a bad movie? Get me some towels and hot water! And ring Doctor Swanson, immediately! The way-too-excited MPD officer went sprinting past me; admittedly, I …
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We’re everywhere…
News sites, blogs, beer, wine, art, barbeque sauce, cookbooks, workout programs...The list goes on and on. Every time I look online, there's a new product/service/business offered from, inspired by, or aimed at firefighters. It's always interest…
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The Farm: a brief introduction.
"Weren't you guys trying to grow something out here a while back?"The wagon driver turned from the engine's pump panel and rubbed a thoughtful hand on his chin."Yeah, we had tried growing corn out back of the firehouse... don't…
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Raising Ladders Photography, open for business!
Phew. Between work and a recent house guest, it's been a little crazy around here. From a writing perspective, the past two shifts have been kind of unremarkable, so I don't have any crazy stories off the top of my head. However, enough int…
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Many thanks to WeLoveDC!
My interview with WeLoveDC was posted to their website on Wednesday morning. (I'd have gotten around to this earlier, but I was working that day and spent the entirety of Thursday sleeping... it was a long night.)Lots of credit is due to Katie, the i…
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Projects.
On the way back from a call, I often think that there were certain situations/moments that would have lent themselves very nicely to a photographer's presence. It's the potential action shots, mostly; but there are of course some interesting, com…
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Details.
A page from The Writer's Block, a cube-shaped book (get it?) full of random ideas to jump-start the creative half of your brain. I was flipping through it the other day and found this page."Paramedic Engine 15 and Ambulance 15…
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WeLoveDC.com; publicity for RL!
Tom Bridge, co-founder and author of WeLoveDC.com came across Raising Ladders the other day, and he liked it so much that he posted a brief write-up in the WLDC daily feed.WeLoveDC.com is a collective blog written by a diverse population of authors who …
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A different view of D.C.
The John H. Glenn Jr., Washington, D.C.'s 70'-long flagship fireboat. It was built in 1962 for the FDNY, and was purchased by DCFD in 1977 for one dollar.All the air inside my drysuit escaped with an audible whoosh as I stretched the rubbe…
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The next hoop.
Some good news is being passed around today. I've received word that a handful of us paramedics are being pushed along into the next stage of the DCFD pipeline, starting Monday. There's some meetings, some more paperwork (I'm sure), but it at…
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Breaking: Shooting at 14th/Irving, NW.
Joe McNally, a famous National Geographic photographer, once said:"If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff."As opposed to standing, sometimes an opportunity comes along that's just so well-placed in…
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A week in the street.
After a long week, we received some great news on Friday. Starting tomorrow, we paramedics are being sent to the street to ride on an engine company with a FF/PM for a total of forty hours. We'll be on varying schedules; for instance, I'm w…
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Standing by.
(AP) WASHINGTON – An 88-year-old gunman with a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himse…
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The final burn.
Uh... either we're extremely dehydrated and exhausted, or the headless fireman from the Sleepy Hollow Fire Department is haunting the burn building. Either way, it's probably time for us to go.—————"I haven't seen …
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The last week.
It's been a long week, for sure; but we only have four more days until graduation on Friday.Attitudes range from exhausted to exasperated, but I think the common theme amongst all of us is one of excitement. You see, 74% of the class received their s…
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Burn Week, part 2: external sites.
More complicated than an 8th grade field trip; did everyone remember to bring their permission slips?
Now is the week when we do some real burns. Our Class A building yesterday was at the Loudoun County, VA Fire/Rescue Training Facility (a fun fla…
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Practice.
Our two Burn Weeks are less than seven days away, and it looks like we'll be run ragged in preparation for them. We're all itching to get into the Class A* building at the other Academy we'll be going to, so it's hard to keep the energy …
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Truck company operations.
Dammit. Just when I thought I'd comfortably accepted my role as a firefighter/paramedic, forever riding the engine (since DCFD doesn't put paramedics on the trucks), we had to go and practice truck company operations. I'm torn; yet I pine fo…
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Trust your team.
"This is a big bitch!""Ugh... you ain't lying," I grunted as I drove my body upward and pushed the weight over my head. Side-by-side, Bill and I were in the process of raising the largest extension ladder that DCFD has. A s…
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[Friday Update]
I had a very long, busy weekend, so I didn't have time to craft anything wordy regarding Friday. Hopefully everyone can just enjoy these pictures from the drills we did with auto fires.N.B. - The colors are much better when the images are viewe…
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Communications.
Yes, we did in fact play with radios—hence the picture. However, the larger issue that I discovered today relates not to communications within the Department, but rather with the civilian world.A story ran today in the Washington Post about DC Fire an…
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