Perkins Wildland Fire...

I have been keeping an eye on the Perkins Wildland Fire, in southern California on InciWeb. It looks like there finally getting a hold of it. Check out the facts here. I hope they get it taken care of soon.

posted by Unknown at 3:04 PM | 0 comment(s)

HOT HOT HOT...

Dang... it is currently 103 in Santa Rosa, and I'm sure its gonna get hotter before the night falls. This is the second day it has climbed into the 100's. I dont like it one bit! But there is a good chance of a grass fire! We'll see!

Check the weather in your area here.

posted by Unknown at 3:30 PM | 0 comment(s)

Wildland #2...

Well last night we had our second night of wildland training. It was pretty hot yesterday, about 100 degrees! haha Needless to say it was just more training on the stuff we went over the last time... hose lays, mobile attack etc, etc.

The training got short though due to a medical aid that happened in the same park we were training in. Everything kinda got focused on that and how to deal with it, so by the time the issue was taken care of, it was time to head home for the night.

Oh well... there's always next time!

posted by Unknown at 3:23 PM | 0 comment(s)

New's article of my fire...

"Fire destroys home on Fulton Road

By DEREK J. MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A Saturday evening blaze that destroyed a Fulton Road house brought out sweat-stained firefighters and well-dressed members of a wedding party who were attending a ceremony in a Pentecostal church across the street.

By the time Rose Diamond returned to her home at 2435 Fulton Road, the street was a chaotic scene of firetrucks, swollen water hoses and one woman wearing a white dress.

Diamond said she was at a hardware store when a neighbor called her on her cell phone to report that the Egg Basket Food Market on River Road was on fire.

Diamond said she rushed back, only to find her house, which is a few doors down from the market, ablaze. Firefighters got the call at 5:04 p.m. and were already at the house when Diamond got there.

She watched helplessly as flames shot through the roof of her home.

"There goes my past," said the retired fleet service clerk for American Airlines. "My whole life is in there. My photographs and my cats."

Three kittens she was cat-sitting and two of her own felines - Pinkie Boy and Stormy - survived the blaze.

Firefighters used oxygen masks on the kittens, which were placed in a 45-gallon storage container next to a fire engine.

One kitten and two of Diamond's cats perished, however. A third was still missing late Saturday.

Animal control officers took the surviving cats to an animal shelter.

The fire broke out as Christopher Wanliss, 28, and Ericka Thompson, 19, were being married in Fulton Community Church of God in Christ across the street.

Pastor James Marchbanks said the couple had just gotten to the altar when sirens sounded. The ceremony went on, however, and by the time the wedding party filed out of the church, seven fire engines and a ladder truck were occupying the road.

Marchbanks embraced Diamond and said she could stay at his home for the next few days. She is a member of his congregation.

"I'm just hurt for Rose," Marchbanks said. "Her heart goes out to everyone. She rushed back here to put out a fire she thought wasn't hers."

Wanliss, who wore a black suit and gold tie for the ceremony, found something positive in the sight of firefighters working hard to save the home.

"It's a sign of good luck to me and my wife," he said. "We got to witness all the teamwork. With teamwork, you can get it done."

Diamond said the three-bedroom, one-bath house she has called home for about five years is about 100 years old. She was at a loss to explain how the blaze started.

Arson investigators were called out as a precaution, said Joe Giordani, a battalion chief with the Windsor Fire Department.

"I just can't believe it," Diamond said, as members of the wedding party drove off for the reception."

- THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

posted by Unknown at 10:29 AM | 0 comment(s)

Wildland training Day 1...

I just got home from tonight's drill. We just started our wildland training, to get everyone ready for the upcoming (already here) wildland season.

Where we live, everything is just starting to get pretty dry; prime status for fires. Tonight we had 4 stations set up one on mobile attack, one on hand tools, one on progressive hoselays, and the other on fire shelter deployment.

Overall, it was a good solid night of training, granted I have done most of this so none of it is really new, but it was most definitely necessary to go over everything again just as it always is.

Next Wednesday drill is more wildland, so if nothing interesting happens then, I wont write about it again...

But stay tuned for more updates!

posted by Unknown at 11:07 PM | 1 comment(s)

Inciweb.org...

Another really quick update/discovery.

While browsing some of my normal fire websites I have just found a REALLY cool website, on fire incident reposting be state. Its called Inciweb.org. I haven't really looked at it to much, but from what I have seen so far, you can get updates on your local wildfire's... And the progress being made.

This site offers detailed information on current progress... Here is an example for a fire in CA. It even has maps! You can get RSS feeds about the incidents, as well as links to other sites which may provide even more information.

Enjoy!

posted by Unknown at 10:15 PM | 1 comment(s)

Long time no update...

It's been a while since my last update on everything... So here we go.

First off, I have applied for the Oakland City Fire Department. I went at the end of June and picked up my application, and then turned it in the following week. Just this last Saturday I went back again and took the written exam.

The written exam wasn't what I expected. It was some math, some reading comprehension, and a lot of diagram and map comprehension. Overall after this test I feel pretty good... There is only one problem, I was taking the test in a gym. "So." You might say, well I was in a gym with almost 600 other guys applying for the same thing! haha Needless to say, I have some stiff competition.

So, basically if I happen to get through the written part, I move into the physical agility, then if I pass that its on to the oral boards, but for now, I am just waiting to see the results of the written. Stay tuned for updates on this.

Second, is the latest updates from the new department. Simply, since the new pager, I have been on a few calls, but for the most part there hasn't been much action. Either we get cancelled or we just don't get anything worth writing about, but keep your eyes here for stories when they come.

And last but not least, for those Rescue Me fans out there, has this season started with a bang or what?! We are now 2 episodes in and... Well... How do I say it other then, there is so much stuff going on already, that this season is shaping up to be probably the craziest yet!

And that's it!

posted by Unknown at 9:50 PM | 1 comment(s)