Posts Categorized: Firesincidents
Waterways
As the radio crackled to life, sputtering forth the first clear transmission I could hear in several minutes, I stared at the black plastic clipped to my lapel in incredulity.
Shouldn't we move off this rickety-ass dock before th—
[FLOOOOSH]…
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The Best Camera.
You know what they say... the best camera is the one that's with you.
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Car vs. Tree… vs. Rescue Squad
Whap!
"Keep your head down, dammit!"
Even with my head safely turtled into the collar of my turnout gear, I could still recognize the voice of Truck 15's driver above me. He had given me a sharp smack on top of my helmet as a gentle reminder that t…
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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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Enjoying the fireworks.
We pulled up to the building on 12th street and hopped out. Taking a second to scan the street, I saw only a single truck company and Rescue 3 pulling up beside us."Uh... aren't we fourth due?""Yep. Come on, rook... let's run the …
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A refreshing viewpoint.
As paramedics, myself and my colleagues in recruit school have been hearing the same story since Day 1: "Well, just because you're a paramedic, you're going to catch flak from people in the department because they don't like EMS in gener…
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Acclimation.
"Ow, shit! Sorry, man."In the dim red light in the back of the cab, I could barely make out the "ah, it's okay" shrug that the lineman gave me. I mean, there's usually only two people being tossed around in the back of the eng…
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Evaluation.
Great news for the medics who were formerly stuck in limbo: we've been approved to stay on shift work, so we're being assigned temporary spots on engines until we complete all of our evaluations. We need a certain number of calls (and the accompa…
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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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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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Back to books.
...fortunately, it's something street-wise, not textbook-esque.Reviewing the Standard Operating Guidelines (or SOGs) for our Department was actually pretty fascinating, because never before had I been able to make sense of the seemingly-chaotic scen…
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