January 28th...
Test day one was unsuccessful. I didn't pass this time. DAMN! Oh well, I got to take a good look at the test and now I know a little of what to study for.
I have one more chance in 2 weeks for the test again. I will be better prepared this time.
Bummer...
- Justin
Important Day...
I don't know if I have talked much about this, but tomorrow is the day I take the written portion of my firefighters I certification test. This is a pretty big deal in my search and adventure for a paid job.
Since the beginning of the year, me and the another inters have been practicing and testing on the manipulative sections of the test. Mainly knots, ladders, pulling hose, and other technical hands on stuff. But tomorrow is a totally different beast. I don't do well on written exams.
Whatever happens tomorrow will have a major affect on the next couple years of my life.
Wish me luck.
- Justin
Santa Rosa Fire... Accident... I think not
The two articles below are pretty cool. What makes them so interesting to me is that this fire took place in my new departments district, which mean that if I was out of the volunteer academy... I would have been on this fire. DANG!
Oh well here are the articles... Pretty cool:
Article #1Followup article #2Another interesting fact that was not mentioned in either of these articles is how they happened to find out originally that this was indeed a homicide. It just so happens, that my best friend who is also a RV volunteer, was doing overhaul and helping the investigators look for clues, was the person who actually found the bullet casing only a few feet from the woman!
Creepy yes. Cool... HELL YEA! My buddy... Real life CSI himself!
- Justin
Article attacking us?
I was sent a link to this article from a friend of mine. Basically this article attacks us (firefighters) along with police and teachers. It has some good facts, but at the same time I do take offense to some of the things this guy has to say.
Check it out for yourself:
Click here for article- Justin
Wednesday night drill...
Tonight was my first Wednesday night drill, with the Rincon Valley volunteers.
It was pretty cool. For the past few weeks they have been going over swift water rescue and other related subjects. So tonight, we continued on that path. We told to take the engines out and basically drive all over to find the rivers and creeks that have major flood issues, and look at them from a rescue point of view.
Everything was going great when, to my surprise, we got a call for a structure fire! haha I didn't think I could be this lucky.
And... I wasn't. :(
It turned out to be steam. Oh well, it was pretty cool anyway, and I met a ton of new volunteers. Good night tonight.
- Justin
First day of training...
Today was my first (second, but the first day was paper work) day of training with Rincon Valley Fire. I didn't know what to expect. I had an idea that it would be boring... And... It was.
I have heard most of this stuff many times, but I will admit that it will be a nice refresher and practice on everything again. I was excited to start though and cant wait until Monday for our next training day.
I will keep you posted as things progress.
- Justin
New 2005 - 2006 Russian River Flood Pictures
Here is the link to the NEW Russian River Fire website where these pictures are located! Some of these pics are pretty cool. Some of these pics show the National Guard units that were dispatched to us for aid. Pretty freakin cool!
http://www.russianriverfire.org/images/response/mmgallery/Have fun!
- Justin
First meeting at Rincon Valley...
Well, I just got home from my first meeting with Rincon Valley Fire Dept. All it was basically, was all of the paperwork, introductions, tour, bla bla bla stuff. Not to much going on here.
We were issued out t-shirts, and each a pair of new gloves (really nice new gloves!). Pretty cool stuff. So for then next 4 months I will be going every Monday night and every Saturday morning to training and class as part of my volunteer academy.
After that there is a series of testing that lasts about 2 months. When, I pass that testing, I will be issued my pager and can begin responding to calls. YES! Cant wait for that.
So there it is... haha zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oops sorry. Fallin asleep after that meeting.
- Justin
Beginning of a new venture...
Today is the day that I start a new chapter in my life. Sounds pretty huge huh? Well for most of you it isn't but for me, becoming a Rincon Valley volunteer firefighter is a huge step. I have my first meeting with Rincon Valley today after being accepted into there academy late last year.
It has been a few long months since I was accepted but today is finally here.
Check back later for more info on how the first day goes! YAY!
- Justin
Russian River Fire Web Site Goes LIVE!
FINALLY! We are there... The Russian River Fire Dept. Web site is finally online. Not totally complete yet but I will be putting the finishing touches on in over then next couple weeks.
Plus, this is where you will be able to see all the picture of the Guernville floods that happened over New Years. I cant tell you how excited I am to finally get this project to its live state! YES!
Enjoy.
I have added a link to the site in my links section on the right side of this blog... But for those of you who cant find it here it is:
http://www.russianriverfire.org/
- Justin
Bodega Bay Fire...
I have just made contact with the current webmaster of Bodega Bay Fire's web site... I will be officially working with him on a new design for their site! Cant wait to get started! I will let you know when there are more updates on this one.
Oh yeah! And we have officially purchased the domain name and web space for the Russian River Fire web site. All I have to do now is upload it... and... BAM!, were live!
Cant wait.
- Justin
Friday, December 6th 2005...
I decided to switch my shift at the River from Sunday to Friday, so I could have some fun on New Years and not worry about my shift in the morning. So, I did. But to my surprise I ended up being in Guerneville when a major series of storms hit.
As many of you may have seen on TV, there was major flooding in many different counties, Sonoma County being one of them. Guerneville is right on the Russian River near the coast (the river runs right through the middle). So you can imagine what it was like.
Since this happened, switching my shift for the New Year didn't work out as planned, I ended up getting home on Monday night at 9pm. I worked 4 days on this flood, doing boat rescues, military aided evacuations, we responded to multiple gas related problems, and so much more.
I wont get into the details just yet because there is a lot to this story. But I will be posting a link to pictures of the incident. Keep an eye out for the updates...
- Justin
