Week 3 Reflection

During week three, I spent a lot more time in Andover than in previous weeks. However, this week there was no lack of calls and no lack of work to be done. I ran on 11 calls: 8 medical and 3 fire. This week, I got to focus a lot on truck operations. The week started out with Sam and I drafting with the forestry with no one else. This is pretty cool because if it ever came down to it, Sam and I could take the forestry and set up a water supply for an outside fire or extinguish a small outside fire with no additional help. I also achieved one of my goals that I have had for a long time while I have been on this department, which is taking one of the engines out, preferably engine 1 because I wanted to get some practice down the road with a manual large truck. This along with the pump and operations I did in Franklin and New London, thanks to Greg and James, I can now pull up to a dry hydrant or a wet hydrant and be able to supply water to the deck gun or any other of the discharges. I also got some more experience doing wiring in the forestry and made the metal mount for the siren switch. I met my goal getting that truck ready to respond to a call with the exception of I need a different antenna connector. I have also gotten a lot more experience assisting on med calls doing things such as supplying people with the things they need and helping move patients from wherever they are to the ambulance. I ended with 52 hours this week and gained much experience.

Last Day

No calls again, but I still kept busy. I started out the day in the shop until the block before lunch. I got a lot of much needed boat work done, and finished my kinetic metal project and put that in the art show. I then picked up the forestry and brought it down to make a better mount for the mechanical siren switch. I made the small mount that I could mount on the existing holes in the dash. This took me about an hour and then Mansfield came over to the fire department I had him ride along while I moved the trucks around and put them back. It is all ways fun to show people around the fire station, because most times they seem to really enjoy it. What I find interesting about our forestry being from 1965 is everyone waives, looks, and comments. Its interesting how you can drive around in a brand new fire truck like 7 engine 4 or our engine 3 and no one really takes a notice, however the forestry and other older trucks get all the attention. I was also hoping to do some hydrant testing or drafting later in the day, but that didn't end up working out. Sorry for the short entry, but I had a change of plans so today ended up being pretty quiet. Thanks for reading the blog throughout the project and look for the last of the weekly reflections.

New London

Two calls today one in New London and on in the big city of Andover. Today started out with sleeping through the night at Franklin which doesn't happen all the time and I can't say I am complaining about it. I got off shift at 7 and headed up to New London only stopping to grab a different pair of boots and at Dunkins for breakfast. The day started out just like at the other departments I have ridden at and that is with a truck check. We were doing the ladder, but unlike at the other departments by 830 we were down at the smoke house playing around with the stick. James showed me what he thinks about with apparatus placement on a scene as well as where to set up the ladder for a chimney fire and a second floor escape. He let me run the ladder and let up for both these senarios. It was similar to the bucket truck I run at the farm and will toss the ladder around quite a bit if you are not smooth on the hydrolics. We next grabbed ladder belts which are like harnesses and naturally they were 4 inches to big around for me at their smallest setting. I put my bunker pants on to try and take up some of the space which ended up working pretty well. We finished with that and headed back to the station and he was mentioning some of the things he looks for and does while driving and operating the truck. Soon after we got to the station we assisted New London ambulance with a med call and then We headed out to do some pumping on bog road. We were drafting out of a dry hydrant which is what mostly happens in Andover although theirs were set up slightly differently using 5 inch suction instead of 6 inch. I got to operate a top mount pump which works functionally the same as a side mount but is a little interesting to get used to. He showed me some neat tricks with watching your intake pressure instead of your water stream to see if you are losing the prime. We also did two different ways of starting the draft, first back filling the hydrant which means flowing water down the hydrant to make it easier to prime the pump, this also will push any dirt leaves and whatever else is in the pipe or on the strainer. The next time we did it with just the primer. It didn't seem to be any harder without back flowing the hydrant but this was an easier hydrant to draft due to not much height difference between the water and the truck. I managed to get the pump primed and flowing to the deck gun and then we packed up and headed back to the station. The afternoon was pretty slow and at one point we resorted to checking out each others strobe set ups on our personal vehicles and then looking at strobes online. That was all for the shift and Tomorrow is the last day. No big plans as of yet, accept maybe some hydrant testing and making a mount for the siren switch in the forestry.

Last Franklin Shift

I had been looking to get a fire call the hole time I have been here through the last three shifts I have managed to miss them all, but this finally changed at 720 this morning with a box alarm downtown in Franklin. I rode with Joni in engine 3 and it was fun to actually hear a Q siren going to a call because it is somthing that all of Andovers engines lack. We also had some quality airhorn action going through the stop light at the end of west bow street. This however was not the highlight of the day. Just after starting hose testing we heard laconia respond to a box alarm. soon after we heard them having smoke in the first floor and requesting a first alarm. We started thinking about heading to our gear because on a second alarm 7 engine 4 goes to the scene. A few minutes later the make or break for when you are waiting to go somewhere which is Lakes Region answering Laconia's Command. Sitting in Franklin you cannot hear what the person in Laconia is saying but you can hear dispatch answering them they repeated over the radio Laconia Command Requesting a Second Alarm. By this time we had already had our gear on and were heading toward the truck. SOPs of Franklin says to wait a few minutes for aditional call personal to show up and hop in the truck. No one showed up in the time we waited so we headed out. This turned out to be the longest and most fun ride to a call I have ever been on. Lots of Q siren, Airhorns and a supprising ammout of traffic enroute. We showed up on scene and helped get tools our for Captain Hicks and Joni to head up and into the building if nessesary. I stayed with Greg who was running the truck if needed which on a fire like this water supply is was not an issue with the hydrants in Laconia. This highlights one major differance about fighting a fire in Andover and fighting a fire in a city, that being that water supply is a big issue in Andover and not much of an issue in Laconia. The bulk of the fire was knocked down when we arived, but they were still cutting vent holes, overhauling and doing work on the roof. Greg and I talked placement of apparatice like Laconias tower ladder which had to deal with lots of wires and tight operating quarters. We also took many pictures. It was lunch time by the time we got back and I made my usual cup of noodles. Just as we were finishing lunch another call came in and the day was shaping up to be a busy one. After that we prepared to go tour the dam which we had been waiting to do for most of the day and as soon as joni and I got into engine 1 and were about to start it up a med call came in. After this was finished we ran out of time to tour the dam which was dissapointing because I was looking forward to seeing that, but some days you just have to run calls all day which no one complains about. We had a paremetic intercept a little later in the afternoon and then Greg showed me how to tag the hydrant out back which I mostly did by with no gidance which I was happy about and I am now confident I could do in Andover if nessesary. Dinner went well although it was a little late because I was slow at cooking but they all engjoyed it and it turned out to be a success. I am off to New London tomorow and hopefully they will take me out on their boat and or do some ladder operations.

Tuesday

Once again no calls today, but I kept busy doing some mowing work I had been waiting to get done in the morning and then I spend a good part of the afternoon. At the Andover station keeping busy cleaning both engines because they had gotten pretty dirty in the rain on monday and engine 3 went to the controlled burn in danbury on Saturday. As I was wasing engine 3 a familliar face I hadn't seen in a while came over to say hi. It was seargent Majoney who was off duty and this is the first time I had seen him in about a month. We talked for probly 20 minutes and I had to show him the forestry's new siren and hit it. He also had to add on his way back by after stopping at Greens than I should hand polish the engine. I also had a person stop to drop of a donation because we filled his pool about a month back, and a rarety in Andover I actually answered the phone which hardly ever rings while anyone is at the station. In the afternoon I had to get ready to cook dinner at Franklin for my shift on tomorow and I had decided I would make Pizza and bring toppings to put on. Maddie and I went to Hanaford and she managed to babysit me through grocery shopping somthing I don't do often. We also made brownies for the guys and that went supprizingly well after cooking for about twice as long as they should have. Sorry this post is coming late I got busy applying for summer work and then fell asleep on my computer as usual which drew probly can attest to. Sumery of today comming right up after this.

Monday in Andover

No calls today, but there was no lack of firefighting work. Today was focused on truck operations and while it was raining it is a good time to do it because then you do not have to stand out in the rain. Today started off with my usual when its a slow sunday or just a day off from working at Franklin. I was cruising around the station checking on random things on the truck that I think of and trying to think of more projects I can do on the forestry. I went to the back of the forestry and noticed the rear discharge was leaking I tried a variety of ways to get it to stop but eventually just put the nozzle right on the discharge so that it would keep it from spilling on the floor. I also decided I should make a metal mount for the switch for the mechanical siren for the time being I had zip tied it to the bottom of the dash which works but isn't the most professional job. This brought me to lunch time and as I left the station I couldn't help but wonder if any of the towns people have noticed that my truck is all ways in the parking lot, and I am all ways at the station. After lunch Sam and I asked the chief if we could go draft with the forestry down on black water lane. He said we could so we loaded up and headed down. I had originally thought we should pull up somewhere around the bridge, but when we got down there we realized that the culvert farther down would be a better option. I am all ways impressed at how fast that thing primes itself. It also will pump with a lot of pressure and we didn't even have it going all out. It will pump up to 500 gallons per minute but you need a bigger suction than we are carrying on it right now. We pumped using all the discharges mostly for me to get a handle on running the truck because hopefully next brush fire if it ever stops raining I will get to not only try out the new sirens I put on it but run the truck at the scene. I eventually had sam take a 1 3/4 inch line off the reel in the back of the truck and pumped water toward him. Originally I sent him a little more pressure than he was expecting which was only about 1/4 throttle on the truck but the pressure was a lot to handle. He was amaised by the output of the truck and I got a cool picture of this which I will put at the end of this if i can figure out how and it will be on my final poster. Latter at the Andover meeting chief left it up to us to do what we wanted to train on. Zach and I were originally going to test one of the dry hydrants on switch road, but after the chief sent us to get soda at jakes which we bought 14 12 packs of, we ran out of time. Instead I asked if Zach could show me how run engine 1 down the road. We were sent to do it on some back roads and I have had a fair amount of experience moving it around the station and the parking lots but not on the road. I did better than I thought I was going to do because last time I was driving it out of first gear I was pretty shaky on the gear changes. For a transmission it is a 5 speed with a 2 speed rear end which means it has a high and low range. I got practice shifting through all the gears with no clutch because thats the way Zach wanted me to do it and the way I drive my friends dump truck. I also got a lot of practice shifting ranges and this gave me a lot of confidence for my CDL driving tests which hopefully I will take this summer. I have no set plans for tomorrow except calling New London in the morning and maybe making a bracket for that switch to mount on.

Week 2 Reflection

Week two has been a slower week than week one. I made progress on many of my goals including studying for my CDL air brakes test and did a fair amount of operating the Fire Department's trucks. This includes fueling the tanker, and operating the forestry vehicle's pump. I have been enjoying working not only in Andover, but Franklin and Sanborton as well. I have gained a lot of experience on medical calls which is not my strong point. This includes knowing more of what is going to be needed on certain types of med calls and knowing how and where o get supplies. I am still working on this more in Franklin than in Andover mostly because I am less familiar with Franklin's ambulances. I have however been able to learn where a lot of the fire equipment is on Franklin's trucks and about some of the equipment that they carry that we do not. This includes things like high rise bags and piercing nozzles. Getting a look into the daily operation and equipment at other departments has also been a good experience. Every department not only has strengths and weaknesses, but also excels in some ways and struggles in others. For example, Sanborton is staffed during the day which helps them to achieve very fast response times, where Andover struggles during the day time, due to most of its personnel having daytime jobs or being out of town, making them unavailable to respond. What is interesting is Sanborton has at night some of the same struggles Andover does during the day. Thia is not because of a lack of commitment or energy, but rather the logistics of having people living far away from the department. Next week, I will experience cooking at the Franklin Fire house on Wednesday, as well as training in Andover Monday nights and possibly some shifts at New London Fire.

Middlebury Fire

Today my brother a 3 year member of the Middlebury fire department showed me around their station and I got a look at their all their trucks. The first thing I noticed is that Middlebury has 5 custom chassis trucks. What that means is the cab and chassis are not maid by a commercial truck company. Two of these are HMEs like East Andover's new Engine 2 and two are made by Pierce and one Sparton. Needless to say they have very nice equipment. Its interesting to see a volunteer department with such new and nice equipment. Their oldest truck is from 1999 being their ladder which they are already talking about replacing. In Andover our newest truck is from 2003 and besides our 1965 Forestry our next oldest truck is the rescue, or the bread wagon as we affectionally call it being from 1981 I believe. They also carry a lot of specialized gear for a volunteer town. This includes a lot of technical rescue gear that they carry in Middlebury utility 2 and they have a full heavy rescue similar to Franklins. Another unusual for a volunteer department in the Andover region is they have a ladder. New London is the close surrounding town to Andover that is volunteer and has a ladder. Finally in Andover and most places the trucks are plugged into electricity and air. This charges all the electronic items on the trucks such as radio's and flashlights, but the air connection keeps the tanks full because the brakes on an air braked truck wont release until there is 65 PSI of air pressure. Normally the truck will have to sit and idle up to 5 minutes to build up the air pressure. This is probably avoided in Middlebury because they have such new equipment it has not acquired any air leaks like trucks do after a while. The equipment of the department often reflects how wealthy the town is. This makes visiting many different towns fire departments very interesting to see what equipment they have and what they carry.

Sanborton

Well today started off at 615 with a call for a motor vehicle accident in East Andover. I was kind of looking forward to a relaxing morning, but at least it waited till about 2 minutes after I got out of the shower. I packed my stuff and headed to the station where I found Andrew already in the rescue. This is a rare assurance for two reasons, one I am all most all ways the first one to the station, and secondly I almost all ways drive the rescue to car accidents. About 2 weeks ago Brooke came to the end of The fire meeting and went to plug in the rescue and chuck told her to put the cord through the steering wheel. When she asked why I said so no one can drive away with it still plugged in. Adam said well Evan is the only one who drives it, and its kind of true, but there are exceptions. Its also kind of become a joke that I all ways am messing with the forestry and when I showed up for a training a few weeks ago chief turned to me and asked if I was "going to take your forestry." This happens with other trucks like when Zach was first on the department the tanker was "his" truck. He has sense moved on to engine 1 which is his truck of choice to take. We got to East Andover station when 32 C3 which is Jake Johnson for anyone who doesn't know told Andover companies to go in service because they could handle it with just 32 engine 2 and the ambulance. We headed back and like last time Andover got a call before I was on shift I forgot my belt, maybe next time I will remember. I headed to Sanborton a little early because I was already out and showed up a half hour early cause it was a shorter drive than I thought and surprisingly I didn't get lost. Sanborton was a cool place it was like it was a combination of Franklin and Andover. It had very nice equipment like Franklin, but hanging around the station all day felt a little more like a day with the Andover guys. I am not saying I prefer Franklin or Sanborton, but they are both fun to hang out at. We only had one call and it came to us we never went out the door with lights and sirens to a call but we did manage to stay busy. The day started off with checking their utility which is a Dodge ram 2500 Magnum v8 which is the same truck I drive for work in the summer. I prefer the cummins in them, but anyway I was thinking how that truck could be very beneficial to Andover when I had my truck pulled into the Rescues bay the other day working on it I was thinking how nice it would be to have a pickup based truck there and all the extra stuff could be put onto Engine 1. it really opens the station up and with then the tanker could also be sold. We next had the med call before lunch and then we stopped to get fuel at exit 20 on the way back where I picked up a cheese burger for lunch because thats a little better than the cup of noodle I brought. We ate lunch with the police officers which is a new experience. Even though Sam and I know Sargent Mahoney pretty well and joke around with him a lot it still was fun to just hang out with some police officers. After lunch we pulled out the forestry and did some pumping up at The pond after almost getting stuck in the mud. Finally when we were done with that we got fuel in engine 3 back at the same place we had gone earlier. Diesel price there was pretty cheap at 402 cheaper than I had seen in a while and a quarter tank was 26 gallons which is a very large amount. Time seemed to fly by and that was it for the shift. Tonight I rinsed both engines, the forestry, and the rescue off and took the forestry out back to practice on the pump a little bit just to get more fermiliar with it. Tomorrow I head to VT to my brothers graduation for the weekend and I will have to have my brother show me around Middlebury Fire tomorrow.

Lakes Trip

My day started at 450 am this morning with a med call at Franklin. We got back to the station and turned on the Tv and got into the recliners. We watched the news and Greg and the captain fell asleep in the recliners while we watched the news. Needless to say I am pretty tired. After gettin off shift I headed back to proctor and caught breakfast for I think the first time over senior project I am usually busy when I get back. I got a waffle from Edna like every time I go to breakfast and it was very good as always. I then stopped by my room to change and grab my computer. I don't know why but I felt like doing my blog at the fire station this morning. This worked out very well because when I got half way through it we got a medical pre alert. Granted it is very nice when its a fire call and you are in the station, but being in the station so close to my truck its an unusual and very nice thing. I headed down to East Andover and then pulled the ambulance out on the apron and waited for someone else to show up. Jason and Sam showed up about a minute later and I moved to the back. Sence there is no drivers side window I couldn't see that greg had showed up and then he jumped in the passenger seat. On our way back from the call we stopped by New London Fire which was cool and they gave us a tour because Greg had never been there. After the call I headed back to the station to finish my blog and then I worked some on where I would mount the radio in the forestry. I might take that project on next week but I have to talk to chuck and see what he wants to do. Sam and I then called Lakes Region and set up to go visit there at one. For anyone not familiar with what Lakes Region is its our dispatch center. It was really cool to see all the screens and everything that goes in to dispatching a call. They showed us everything from when they first get the call to the button to hit to activate our pagers. It was kind of funny to sit there and I didn't immediately recognize their voices but once they got on the radio I defiantly recognized them. We had a fun ride back we made a few stops. First was Laconia's downtown station we were hoping Brad Hardie would be working but he wasn't on until tomorrow. It was really cool and houses the busiest company in our region and their ambulance is the busiest truck in our region which is pretty cool. They also have a very cool tower ladder. The next stop we couldn't help taking a cruise through Auto Serves parking lot to check out all the new Ford trucks. We looked and pulled up my truck next to its 2011 counter part and I should have taken a picture but I forgot. Next we had to pick up the food for Sam to cook for the Frankin guys tomorrow night, and last but definatly not least McDonalds. I got he usual thing and then looked over toward the window and saw will staring at me from his Tahoe window he had happend to be going to the drive through getting coffee. That was it for the days events tomorrow is Sanborton which will be very cool and hopefully it fun and its allways cool to get a look at how different departments work.

Busy Day in Franklin

Today held the record for the most calls for me on a shift so far. Even though I think my first shift technically had more calls 3 of them I did not go on. we had 8 calls went on 7 because one was a fire alarm activation as an additional call. We started off the day with truck checks Greg was around this time and he took showed me how he starts off the day running through the trucks that he is on for the day. He was on Engine 3, Engine 1, and the Ladder. He took the time to show me everything he went through which was cool. This included checking running and emergency lights, seat hight/positioning. mirrors, and a general check to make sure all equipment is there. We next moved into the truck check of the day which was the rescue. Every day there is one check that gets fully tested and all equipment on it gets fully tested. We started up top and he showed me all the tech rescue and water rescue gear as well as some of the hazmat. After we got done the top it was time for coffee break which is a cool time because a lot of the off duty guys and the administration all come back and we sit and talk at the break room table. We were talking about cars and trucks for a while which most people would know I love to talk about and do a lot. I got up to get a snickers bar out of the machine and right as I was taking my first bite. The pre alert went off so I turned around and headed for my gear. This was an interesting time because we were suppost to take the plow up to summer storage at 10 so we were cutting it close so Greg stayed behind with the deputy to take care of that. After coming back for about an hour our training was also had to be pushed back, and was delayed to after lunch. Finally it was lunch time which I wasn't sure what to expect because the talk of the day and even it started last night had been Captain Hicks making split pea soup. I had accutally had a message on my phone the night before from him asking me if I would like some. I said I would try it but I had never had it before. It turned out to be pretty good. In the afternoon Greg and I tested the box alarms which are the red boxes that you see on street corners and the sides of buildings that say pull lever for emergency. It is a really cool and old system. He had me calling the numbers to the station on channel 5 and filling out the sheet. We were driving along and heard on the Pd channel that they were going to be toning us to a report of smoke so we headed over and actually were on scene right as they were toning us. It turned out to be a pellet stove starting up and not an emergency. We had a fairly busy night with two med calls and only 4 hours of sleep. Mabe next time I will finally catch a fire call where I ride in a truck. Mabe off to dispatch today.

Back in Andover

Today started out at 830 with Will Ames on my phone. I wasn't really sure why he would be calling me, but he was asking me if I had the time to run him down to Bensons to drop a bus off. I said I could meet him a little later in the day, but when I showed up he had found someone else. I worked on my boat for until lunch and got my rudder epoxied and one of my spars done and got my mast step mounted. This was a good amount of progress so I spent the afternoon working on some stuff around the Andover station. I was working on Andover's mower because it had stopped raining so I figured I would mow the lawn. This did not really work out because or battery jumper doesn't work very well because it is really old and my jumper cables are in my brothers car. While I was working on it Greg one of the guys on the rescue squad and on my Franklin shift stopped in because he saw my truck outside. We talked about some of the things Franklin do and about some andover stuff. He also checked out the work I had done on the forestry. Its was fun to talk to him and its always fun to have people come by when you are working around the station its fun to show off the trucks and show people around because everyone seems to enjoy it. At about 630 we recieved a call for a tree down on Chase Hill road and I thought o what good opportunity to finally take the forestry however mac had already pulled out the rescue and Andrew said we didn't need 3 trucks for a tree down which he is very right, but still it would have been fun. The meeting tonight was truck checks and I picked the Tanker as usual. I always pick the tanker not going to lie because its the easiest but then I usually help start up all the saws and generators on the rescue which is fun. After the truck checks and talking in the break room for a while Zach said Engine 1 was in need of fuel because it was at 1/2 a tank and anything below 3/4 you are suppost to fill it. I asked chuck if he wanted me to fill the tanker because when I checked it it was between 3/4 and full, but Chuck wanted it filled because its going to the Danbury training burn saturday. That was all the events of the day and I am on at Franklin tomorrow so look for the post from that on wednesday morning.

Week 1 Reflection

During the first week, I have learned many of the customs and duties that go along with being on a full time fire department. I got to work with two different shifts and see the contrasting ways in how the captains run their shifts and their different work habits and how the group interacts. There are many differences between Franklin being a full time department and Andover being a volunteer-based organization. First, Franklin is much more professional looking for most medical calls because in Andover you respond in pretty much any clothing you are wearing unless you are at home and can see if you were in sweat pants or whatever put on a pair of jeans. I personally have responded in just about everything from a GS suit under my fire gear and in my full ski stuff to medical calls to going to responding covered in grease and anti freeze after replacing the thermostat in my truck. In Franklin, however, you respond in your work uniform, which consists of blue pants, blue fire department shirt, and dark colored boots. In addition to wearing your work uniform you must also wear a high visibility vest and safety glasses. In Andover, my vest stays permanently on my fire jacket unless I am dealing with an actual fire such as a structure fire or car fire. This is because the vest would melt to your jacket, which is slightly problematic.

I have liked the change for the most part and have really been enjoying the Franklin shifts. I do hope to catch a fire call because I have not been on one yet in my two shifts. Fire calls are where I feel much more comfortable because I know much more about what to do and usually do participate more. One thing I was surprised with was how much I miss moving trucks around the station. One of my next big goals, along with getting Firefighter 1 and EMT basic certified, is becoming an engine operator. During next week, I think I will benefit from spending one more day at a totally new department with the chance of being called on the interstate. I will also benefit from being back with Captain Hick’s shift at Franklin, and finally returning to the Andover meeting which I missed last week.

Sherborn Meeting

Today I got off shift at Franklin at about 730 because I was hanging around talking with the guys. I was pretty tired. I was planning on heading home fairly early but had to call my mom back who called me yestereday but I didn't get a chance to call her back. She I needed to pick up my grandpa to bring him back to his house to get a cable box. Its allways interesting because I have to pick up my 1969 Volkswagon Squareback because he can't get into my truck because its to high. I set out To do that and then we went out to lunch. I got a much later start home than I would have liked to. My big plan for the day was the sherborn meeting at 7 which I hoped would be some type of training caues they usually invite me to join. I started on my list of about 30 things my mom allways has for me to do while I am home, like power wash a bunch of stuff or fix other things which I don't mind cause it keeps me busy. I turned my brothers old pager on and hopefully soon to be mine if they deside to take me which I think they are. Just like every night the nightly equipment test went off at 645 and said there was a dinner meeting at station 1 so I headed down. Josh Buckler let me in the door and I think a bunch of the guys recognized me which is allways good. I talked to the Cheif and Josh about my application and they showed me the one signature I forgot which was a witness signature on one of the 10 pages I had to fill out. This is very different from the 1 page Andover fire application. So I drove home and got my mom to sign that and headed back. Jeff Hancock who is the Ems captain had showed up which was who I was waiting to talk to and was hoping he could interview me then but I guess he was waiting for that last signature. So I am waiting and hoping they will hire me cause it is payed per call so that is very nice, not that I mind volenteering, but a little compensation for all the fuel I burn going to calls would be nice.

Second Franklin Shift

I know I am writing this entry kind of late but that is because I had a very eventfull morning trying to get home and this is The first time I have had a chance to get on my computer today. But back to yesterday. Yesterday was my first shift with B shift the one Sam is normally going to be riding with. I started the day at 520 with a pre alert for andover rescue which means 911 is recieving a call and know its for Andover. There is actually a small chance it is not but thats only if someone say a relative were calling from and andover based phone for say a friends house burning in salisbury, but as you can probly guess thats pretty rare. I got dressed and being pretty close to 7 relatively speeking and not wanting to be late for my second shift I quickly jumped out of bed and put my clothes on for Franklin and grabbed my bag and everything else I could remember I needed. I thought sam would be already in his truck by the time I got out the door but actually on my jog to my truck I heard his keys clinging behind me. I yelled to him I would take my own truck just in case I would be late and then pulled out right behind him. I had to stop in the andover station to grab my gear so I wouldn't forget it again. As I went through the door I saw andrews truck go buy with his lights on. I thought to myself he probly is thinking what the heck is Evan doing. I started toward the scene because knew I would not make the ambulance which took a minute or two longer to respond than I expected. I heard 32 C10 sign on scene so I countinued to the scene. Where I pulled up behind his truck which happens to be a 1999-03 F350 powerstroke. After the call I walked out with some of the guys and commented to andrew that we had the powerstroke idling club out front. We then because we had enouph people we did the car shuddle back to the station I would have loved to drive Jeffs truck the other powerstroke but andrew sadly beet me to it. I then realized I forgot my belt and pulled up at my dorm. By the way sorry to whoever is in that down stairs room in ives because they probly got an awakening when I pulled up my truck next to her open window. I headed to franklin after that and ended up passing the ambulance at 740 so its probly a good thing I didn't transport. Franklin was a slow day we did some truck checks and then there was a CFA meeting that I sat in and listened to. Next we did a little more work on the trucks and I helped one of the franklin explorers quiz on different fire department tools. She new alot and suprising more of the technical stuff than the in my mind easier things. After lunch there was a meeting with the deputy which gave me a very good idea of how Franklin operates. There was only one call during the day about 3 for wires down. Jason and I took the pick up and put some cones out. Over night there was the second call abominal pains which was rather interesting to watch and was my first night call at franklin. I missed the pager going off which is supprising because I am pretty used to it happening, and I thought I would be very behind the guys getting up but I seemed to keep up so that was good. I left at 7 and actaully passed jeff in his truck on my way home. My interview for Sherborn Fire hopefully and I will tell about the says events tonight.

Slow Tuesday

This morning I got off shift at 7 after sleeping through the night which was pretty nice after a busy day shift yesterday. I left the station and made my way back to Andover. I didn't quite know what my plan was for the day but I knew I would find some thing to do down at the station or maybe sam would come up with some thing. I got back and wrote that last blog entry and took a shower. I found my way down to maintenance. I saw Jeff working in the shop and asked him if he would mind if i finished up mounting the switch and siren that I was working on the other day. He said sure so I told him I would be back in about 20 minutes with the truck. After running into Martin and helping him a little bit it was a a little later. When I got to the station I did the usual pull out East Andovers old engine 3, which I might add is the safe thing to call it because after inhereting it from East Andover everyone seemes to call it a different thing. I originally thought it would be no question Engine 2 which is the number of the truck that was in its place before it. This would mean the antique was Engine 1 and we have an Engine 3. However the officers started calling it Engine 1. Sam and Andrew wanted to call it Engine 4 which also makes alot of sence because East Andover has Engine 1, and 2 so we would have 3 and 4, and how cool would it be to have 32 engine 1 32 engine 2 31 engine 3 and then 31 engine 4 respond in order. However this would never happen because although probly on average East Andover is mabe a minute faster out the door due to its people living a little closer Andover has been making a comeback lately. it would probably go 32E2 then 31E3,32E1, and finally 31E4, but in reality if I am around if there is no one on scene or no one going to be on scene by when I pull up 31Rescue1 or 31Tanker1 would respond at the same time as engine3 cause I usually wait being uncertified. This sparked a very funny conversation at the meeting when Andrew and Sam finally suggested it to the officers Mark jumped in and said well why don't you just connect the ends of 3 and make it engine 8. Rene replied you know are dealing with a used cars sales man cause he is thinking like that. But back to my day I brought the forestry down to maintenance and finished up drilling the hole for the electric siren box which is quite badly designed in my opinion because you have to loosen the bolts to get the cover on but then the hole box is lose because head spins inside when you try to tighten them so anyway and zip tied the switch for the mechanical siren so both the driver and the passenger could hit it. This took me about and hour and I messed with some other stuff on it till lunch so overall about two hours. later after lunch I put in another half hour washing engine 3 after I washed my truck which was turning a different shade of green with the pollen. I didn't make the rescue meeting cause I had a haircut appointment that Maddie made for me cause she insisted I go to the lady that cuts her hair I don't know but anyway at least it came out like I like it. On our drive back we got toned to the say care for a fire alarm activation which was just the sprinkler low pressure alarm going off which happens every time we test the hydrant in front of mac house. I called Andrew knowing he set it off after he canceled everyone about a minute after the tone, and congradulated him for causing trouble and said I would join him testing hydrants now that I was back so we did the rest of North street and Observitory and Field house lanes. Thats all for todays events pretty slow, but I kept busy I'm back at Franklin at 7 tomorrow morning hopefully I wont forget anything this time and be late.

First Fanklin Shift

The morning started out well I left my dorm at 620 got to jakes soon after got my usual jakes breakfast of bacon egg and cheese on an english muffin and a small hot chocolate. I left jakes at 630 with a half hour to get to Franklin way over plenty of time. As I was driving through East Andover Just after passing valley road something made me think of my gear. This made me realize I had forgotten my gear at our station. This was a problem because at Hoyt Road which is about a mile from the Franklin line I hopped I could make it back to the Andover station on time but with only 20 minutes to do it I knew it wouldnt happen. Two school busses and lots of slow moving cars later I arived at the Franklin station 5 minutes late. As I walked into the break room Captain Hicks who loves to make jokes and is the captain on C shift, turned to me and said "have you ever had a job before." I said yes. He said "well if you ever want to keep one you should know to show up on time." I thought it was pretty funny and explained why I was late. We started the day with eating maple syrup donuts that Captain Hicks mom had made. After that we stared truck checks. As we were working Tilton had an additional call and requested our ambulance to respond. We put the air packs we were testing away and headed out. I turned out to be not as much an emergency just a direct admit to the hospital. Our next call came in the middle of hose testing around 10 it was for a diabetic problem. When we arived on scene we loaded the and transported her to the hospital. We continued testing hose till about 3 when we got another call for breathing difficulty. As I was putting my gear in the ambulance when a box alarm struck. I was really hoping Captain hicks would tell me to go to that, but we went to the med call. At about 530 I was told I was going to the Gilford water training drill. Sadly I missed two more fire calls while I was gone which are the ones I really like going to but there will be more next time. The final call of the day We were just pulling up about 10 to the station when we hear Franklin PD over the head sets in engine 4 that they were going to be toneing an ambulance. So dinner had to wait a little longer. We pulled onto the apron just as the tones were going off and I hopped off the engine and walked over to the captain and asked he said I could ride in the pick up with him so I could get back a little faster after about another 20 minutes I finally got dinner at 1020. The final thing was watching Trick My Truck which they were doing a tow truck it was pretty awesome. There were no calls during the night that was about it for that shift. Todays project is probly some boat work in the afternoon and finish mounting the switch and siren box of the two sirens I put in the towns forestry truck recently.

May 7th/8th

This first post is about my first two days of senior project. On saturday Zach asked me if I would like to help him fill some pools at about noon. I thought it would be a great opportunity to do some pump operations. Sam called me just as I was getting to the station and so I said he should come along. Zach showed up with one of his friends so there were the four of us which doesn't really work in the three seater truck. Zach said I should call the Chief and see if I can take the tanker. He said yes so it really worked out in my favor. It is all ways good to get in more driving practice just incase I take that to a Scene or are just moving it around. We were out about 3 hours and filled two loads of water in one of the pools and one load in the other. Then we took the tanker over to Proctor to test if the dump gates were working after sitting all winter they tend to rust shut. Also it is good to change the water in the tank because it gets quite gross after a while. When we went to open the first gate it would open a small amount with someone pulling really hard on it so we opened the other two and were letting them drain and got the rubber mallet out and with a little force got the rust broken off.

Today after a week of no calls we had a med call in the afternoon. It was an unknown type medical problem. With a little trouble finding the actual patient i helped get some information while he was packaged and with a full crew in the ambulance I didn't ride to the hospital. Later about 8 I met up with Andrew and he had picked up the wire to mount the Mechanical siren his dad had donated to for our new 1965 International forestry truck. I have kind of made that truck my little project in my spare time. About a week ago I mounted an electrical siren in it so tonight I took on the project of mounting this siren. It was supprisingly simple. just power two wires to run and one hole to drill. I got it done in about an hour after doing my usual mistakes of butt connecting things and then realizing it is wrong or I put it on the wrong side of the hole i got it done and could not stop playing with the thing. Now I just can't wait to try it out going to the next outside fire. It still hasnt been out all season yet which is good but it will be fun to test it. The Next project in it is mounting the Radio but I might need some help with that one so we will see I'm sure there will be a description of it later in this blog. Tomarrow is the first shift at Franklin hope it goes well.