Ice storm

Beginning late Thursday evening, and on into the early hours of Friday, an ice storm came through the northeast, covering everything with ice. Some areas had as much as a 1/2 inch. Everything from trees to power lines and poles were falling, creating a mess. An estimated 450,000 residents lost there power, and as of today, three days later, there are still a couple hundred thousand residents still powerless.

Between midnight and 7 a.m., battalion 2 responded to 24 bells, and when battalion 3 releived them we answered another 41 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oddly enough, there were very few mvc's. A majority of the calls were for wires down, transformers burning, and water in the basement. I think the two day total for responses from the storm are somewhere around 150. I didn't get any pictures, but WMUR 9 news has a slide show with some very impressive photos. Here is the link

http://www.wmur.com/weather/18255928/detail.html?widgetId=55963

If you have any pictures, please forward them to me, and Iwill post them on here.

Flashover demo video

This is probably one of the better flashover videos I have seen, and now tha I know how to embed videos (thanks to our resident Senator), I can now post it. Enjoy the show.

Top Secret info!!!!!!!!

SHHH!!! If you decide to read this article, you have to promise not to let anyone know what you know after you are "in the know"'. Especially the ones who know, cause' they don't know that we know. You know?

While working at the Manor station today, we were privy to a sneak peak at the future of the fire service. What we had seen will undoudtedly change the fire service forever (we think). We were kept in the dark for the most part, but were able to put our collective thinking caps on, and theorize about this "NEW and IMPROVED" way of fighting fires.

When fighting the beast the most important weapon in a firefighters arsenal is water. If that water is applied incorrectly, the thermal balance will be disrupted. But WHAT IF we were able to use cold AND hot water. The cold water being applied at the base of the fire, while simultaneously applying hot water to the ceiling. The possibilities of this new attack could be endless (or not), one of which could be a minimal agitation of the thermal layers. Now this is just our theory. After all, we were not permitted to hear the in-depth discusions between those involved with the experiment.

If this new technique somehow takes off unexpectedly, and you find yourself sitting in a classroom nodding off during a powerpoint presentation on the "Proper Techniques of Hot and Cold Water Firefighting", you can say that you saw it here first.

This is a look at the preconnects.



For those of you who can't recognize humor, or understand mine, that was my feeble attempt at it.

Second fire of the tour

At about 0200 hrs, Engine 5 was dispatched to a single engine fire. After we had left the barn, dispatch notified us of a change in address. We quickly made a u-turn, but the extended length of our response would turn out to be costly. Upon arrival we found a single family structure with heavy char markings. Lt. Robidas had me pull the 1/2" line with a smooth bore plastic tip, which turned out to be ample enough water for this particular fire. We managed to save the support members of the structure, and the home owners will be able to rebuild with little aggrevation to their daily lives. This was Lt. Robidas's first fire as an officer, and after seeing him in action, I have no doudt he will make a fine line officer. He kept his decision makings simple, and relied on his keen instincts and expertise to mitigate the incident. Keep up the good work Lieu.


They say fires typically come in three's. If true, we can expect another one during our last night on tonight. I just hope it's a little bigger than this one.

BB's anyone?

We had a fairly interesting shift today. As a whole, I think each company had at least 3 or more runs. Some of them more interesting than others obviously. I think there were a few EMS runs, four FAA (fire alarm activations), two MVA's, one being a head-on, and another on the inter-state involving a tractor trailer and a house, and last but not least, a drive by shooting.

I wasn't there for the accident on the inter-state, but I was told that the house looked like mine. Apparently a semi was taking an exit ramp a little too fast and tipped over, dumping his load in the process. The load on the semi was a modular HOME. Or at least part of one. It wasn't mine though. My house is already on a foundation, and the wheels and axels have been removed. I am hoping to get a skirt for it someday, but they are just too doggone expensive right now.
The other accident was a head-on collision with one passenger sustaining a broken arm. One of the vehicles ADMITTEDLY ran a stop sign. Imagine, someone who actually owed up to their mistake. You have to admire her for that.
The drive-by shooting in the north end involved some members of two local gangs. While members of one gang were walking along the road, members from a rival gang drove by and shot one individual in the upper lip. The weapon of choice was a BB-GUN. HA! Like I said. Some runs were more interesting than the others. I'm just not quite sure where this one fits in.

Motor vehicle fire

After taking a few weeks off because of the birth of our second child, I came back just in time to see FIRE. All the rumors I've heard about fire are true. It is still hot, smokey, and allergic to water.

A father was driving with his infant son in the back seat when he noticed the car overheating. By the time he made it to parking area the vehicle was on fire.

Pump testing complete

Congratulations to probationary F/F-Paramedic Richardson on finishing his pump qualifications on E-4. I spoke with Keith this afternoon and he informed me,(with a smile on his face), that pump qualifying was the easiest thing he has ever had to do . He also mentioned that Brother DiGeronimo's advice was the single most helpful of any he had received. That advice was, and I quote, "Just get them them the @#!*&%# water". Great advice coming from the senior firefighter/paramedic of the dept. Keith is now the MPO on E-4 until after the holidays, at which point he wil be assigned to a different station. Until than, Keith says he hopes to catch a building fire to put his new skills to work. I think we"re all hoping for that too.

More updates

There are a few more people who deserve a recognotion for reaching another anniversary date. On November 12, Capt. Whitney celebrated his 20th year with the dept., Brother Piroso made it to 19 years back on October 28th, Lt. Manning has 14 years as of October 1st, Brother Richardson hit his 8th year mark on October 21st, and Lt. Robidas had his 7th year anniv date back on August 8th. Congratulations to everyone. If I have missed anyone, please call and let me know.

On a personal note, I would like to announce the birth of daughter. Maggie Mae was born on Friday, Nov. 14th at 7:40 p.m., weighing 7 lbs, 3 ozs. Both Momma and baby are now home and doing great. Thanks to all who called to congratulate. I will be taking a few weeks off from work to spend as much time as possible with the Fam. If I miss something while I am out, I would like for someone to get in touch with me, and I will post it on the site

Anniversary dates

I am such a slacker. I failed to mention Brother Schottler in the "Batt 3 update" post. Jeff celebrated his 10th year on the job back in June. Pat Richardson just had an anniversary date on the 21st of October, giving him 8 years now. Congrats to both.

On a side note, I promised Batt 2's Lt Andrews that I would put him on this blog for a recent accomplishment of his, so here it is. While working an over-time shift on our batt, Lt. Andrews took part in one of our daily PE routines. (Actually, it's our only routine.) We take turns shooting free throws to see how many in a row we can make. Normally we can make it to 4 or 5. 8 to 9 on a good day. Yours truly (me) got lucky once and made 12 in a row (the first shot wasn't lucky, but the last 11 were). That ended up being the mark to beat for a couple of weeks. That is until MR. BASKETBALL himself showed up. He predicted that he would beat that mark by lunch-time. not only did he beat it, but he crushed it twice, and tied it once. He dropped in runs of 21 and 28 without any problems. To make this more impressive, he did this after working a building fire 5 hours earlier, and getting 4 hours of sleep prior to that. Nice job Lt. Andrews.

So long Lt. France

Due to some new promotions within the dept., Lt. france has been transferred to battalion 4. Good officers are tough to come by. We wish him the best, and hope to see him return to our battalion at some point in the future. Below are some pictures I have collected over the past few years of Lt. France at his best. If anyone has his "kitty-cat" picture, please forward it to me.











As a follow up, I would also like to say welcome to Lt. Alan Robidas to our battalion . Alan has just been promoted to Lieutenent, and will be the officer on Engine 5 . Alan has some big shoes to fill, and I mean literally. I think Lt. France wears a size 18 ski.

See ya Collins (AGAIN)

As of the 29th of this month Brother Collins will no longer be a member of battalion 3. With Lt. Holm being placed on light duty for a short period of time, FF/P DeWitt will be moved from batt1 and placed into an acting position on E-1, which gets Brother Collins a one-way ticket to batt 1. Maybe someday he'll be able to find his way back.

Congrats to Cullen

Congratulations to Brother Cullen for completing his probationary status. Sept. 22nd was his first year anniversary date. The next hurdle ahead is seeing to it that the "sophomore slump" doesn't set it.

Sorry Dumas

In the last post, I stated that Brother Dumas had just celebrated his 10th year on the job, and apparently, I need to use my reading glasses more often. Davie joined the dept on September 9, 1995, which by most folks, would add up to 13 years, not 10. Thank you to Lt. France for bringing it to my attention.

Batt 3 update

O.K. I will be the first to admit it. I am a HUGE slacker. I haven't updated this site in over 2 months. There hasn't been a whole lot going on really, with the exception of a few anniversaries that I would like to take this opportunity to recognize.



Lt. French celebrated his 25th year on September 3rd, FF/P DiGeronimo made 19 on August 26, FF Dumas has 10 years as of September 9th, and FF Freitas celebrated his 3 rd on September 9th. Congrats to all.



On a side note, Lt. Holm has injured his back, and will be out for an undetermined amount of time. I have been unable to get in touch of Ian, and so I am not sure of what he has going on and if he needs a hand with anything. I hope he recovers quickly from his injury, and doesn't hesitate to call if he needs help. I'll take his rail car out periodically if needed. I hear they tend to get flat spots in the wheels if they sit for too long.

Hidden fort under the bed

Now before you watch this video, I just want to go on record to say that I am not a professional photographer OR videographer (if that's what they are called).

I have never had to shop for children's bedroom furniture until now, so it was interesting to see what kind of cool things they are doing with the furniture. I say "cool" if you are a kid, not so "cool" if you are conducting a search of a building, and are unaware of this kind of bed. What would you think if you found a bed like this. Just one more thing to make the job that much more difficult.

A face from the past

Thank you to a couple of Hopkington Fire & rescue members (whose names will be kept secret, to protect my sources) for finding, and giving this picture of Mumfy to me. I know it took me a while to get it up here. I had to make sure this really is Mumford, because the guy in this picture has hair, and he isn't wearing a hat The date of this picture is 2001, when Mumfy became an EMT-First Responder. I noticed in the picture that he is wearing a black mourning band on his badge, and I can not verify this or not, but I believe it is in reponse to the first patient he treated. The outcome wasn't good.

We sure do miss you.

New EMS protocol

The members of Batt 3's Engine 1, 5, and Amb 4 crews should be put up for a reward for a job well done last night. They were dispatched for a 20 Y/O female pt, CPR in progress. Being the highly trained bunch of EMT's and Paramedics that they are, they knew that the typical cardiac arrest protocols were not going to be effective in this case. With the quick thinking of say, a sloth, they bipassed the oxygen, epinepherine, lidocaine, and any other medicine imaginable, and went straight for the ammonia inhalant. Voilat! (spell check wouldn't work). A SAVE!!!!!
I have no doudt that after reading the narrative from this run report, the powers to be are going to be rolling out a new cardiac arrest protocol list. I just hope they get the indications correct, which are as follows: pt must have a pulse (this one never lost hers), must be breathing on her own, and her mother must be the one to perform CPR. The only side effect will be a sore chest (probably from the compressions).

Keep up the good work guys.

Swift water training

Yesterday evening we took a trip to the river for a little swift water training with the throw ropes, as well as some different techniques for crosssing in swift water. Brother Paul is using a 6' pike to navigate with, and although it may look as if Mic is keeping Lt. Holm and travis from falling, they are trying a 3 person method for walking thru swift water. It may not look like the water is moving very fast, but it was. The water felt GREAT.

Catching up

I finally caught up with FF/P Richardson to take a picture for this site. Keith Joined the dept in March (along with a few others), and drew the lucky Batt3 assignment card. Currently , he is assigned to Amb 4 where he is completing his independent status as a CFD Medic.

Congratulations to Probationary FF Cullen for passing his city wide street exam last week.

I caught a few of our medics in a computer class the other day. I think Frito was trying to show them how to play "pac-man". I also noticed that they made him sit on the floor.

Broadways jumper

Friday morning Engine and Ambulance 4 were sent to Thompson St. for what turned out to be a man down in the street. The patient had jumped from his 8th floor apartment balcony, and came to rest in the middle of Thompson St. after clipping the power lines on his way down. He was conscious and complaining of leg pain, and in pretty bad shape.
After the pt was transported to the ER, he was than flown to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Med Center. He died 8 minutes into the flight.


He survives a jump from the 8th floor, but can't survive an 8 minute flight in a medical chopper. Now that is irony.

A Rare Group 2 Training Video

Well looky, looky, looky. I came across a rare group 2 training video that was pretty interesting.

Enjoy

Engine 1 stats

From June 21, 2007 to June 21, 2008, Engine one has respoded to 2,424 calls. 1,244 of those were in their own district, with the remaining 1,180 responses to other districts. With Enhine 1 being taken out of service for the night shifts, things are going to be getting quite a bit busier during the nights for everyone else. I guess the ladder companny will have to find and dust off their medical equipments, and start polishing up on their EMS skills.

Meet Brenden McEwen

Brenden is nine years old. He is the stepson of one of our 22 year union members. Brenden was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He is NOT a candidate for surgery, and has just recently begun his chemotherapy treatment at the Cancer Center for Pediatrics at Dartmouth Hospital.

Brenden is one of five children. Like most of us, dad works two jobs and mom works one. The intrusiveness of this treatment will require mom to take a leave of absence from her full-time job, and dad from his part-time job. With the cost of fuel prices where they are, and the length of the drive to and from the clinic, the financial burden of this alone is unimaginable.

A website has been set up to allow others to follow along with Brenden's progress. The link is : www.caringbridge.org/visit/brendenmcewen I urge you to take time out of your busy day to visit the site. Brenden's mom has been posting updates to the site daily. Having never been through a challenge such as this, it is hard to imagine what Brenden and his family are going through. Our thoughts and prayers are with them every day.

If you would like to make a donation, a couple of funds have been set up.


The Brenden McEwen Fund
c/o
Merrimack County Savings Bank
167 N. State St, Concord, NH 03301


OR


Brenden McEwen Fund
C/O
Concord Firefighters
100 Hall St.
Concord, NH 03301

Bristol Va tanker explosion

Here is an impressive video of a tanker exploding on I-81 in Bristol, Va. The driver of the tanker noticed his breaks were on fire, and notified 911. A VA State patrolman arrived on scene and caught the explossion on tape with the dash cam. My Brothers at the Bristol, VA Fire Dept arrived on scene to extinguish the fire when the tanker exploded. Members of Tower 3(Quint) were in the process of stretching a hand line when the explosion occured. Thankfully, at the time of the explosion, members of T-3 were on the opposite side of the apparatus pulling a hand-line. A nearby motel, along with cars in the parking lot, substained some damage from the explosion. I bet that one scared their mules.

Here is the link:


blast.http://www.tricitiesblogs.com/video/watch/dashcam_video_exit_7_explosion/

(copy, paste into your web browser)

Mumfy update

On April 2, Brother Mumford resigned from the CFD. He started on April 7th with the Hopkinton Fire Dept, and from what I hear, is loving it. And why shouldn't he. In the 1 week that he has been employed, he has only had to work one shift, and in that one shift, he has only had to run one call, and in that one run, he somehow found a way to have the patient drive to him at the station. Seems as though Mumfy has made a pretty good career move.

Batt 3 pic update

This group picture was taken spring of 2007. There have been quite a few changes since than with retirements and transfers.

Members who have retired : FF Giles (not in pic), Lt Wiggin (center, standing), BC Fanjoy (leaning against car), FF Moretto (back row, 2nd from left).

Members who have resigned : FF/P Reily (standing, 5th from left), FF/P Mumford (not in pic).

Members who have been transferred : Capt Whitney (kneeling, 3rd from right), FF Dumas (kneeling, 3rd from left), FF Odom (standing, 7th from left), FF Boissonneault (kneeling, 2nd from right), FF/P Collins (standing, 5th from right)

Rumor has it that Capt Whitney and FF Dumas will be returning to the group after being transferred to acting positions on Batt's 2 & 4.

A couple of other members not in the pic is FF Cullen and FF/P Richardson, both of whom have joined the dept within the past 6 months.

Mumfy moves on

Last night was Brother Doug Mumford's last night with the CFD. After 7 years on the job as a Firefighter/Paramedic, he has decided to accept the position FF/P for the neighboring town of Hoptinkon. Mumfy began his service with CFD in January of 2001. We wish Brother Mumfy the best of luck.



I hope we aren't going to need that life-raft for quite some time, but just in case, you had better push it back this way when you get out Munf.

Building fires

Sunday, March 30th, the Manor stations Engine and Ambulance 5 were sent to the neighboring town of Boscawen for a reported basement fire. Companies arrived second due, and assisted Boscawen with a quick knockdown.

Last evening, April 2, Engines 1, 4, 7, Ladder 2, Ambulance 4, 7, and BC 3 were sent to Dunklee St for a reported building fire. Companies arrived and found fire on the exterior of a residential. A second alarm was toned out, but the fire was knocked down pretty quickly. and most companies were back in service within an hour.

Sorry. No pics yet.

Moretto retires

With twenty-four years of service with the Concord fire Dept, Brother John Moretto has decided retire, and focus his time with the family, and his personal business. John began his service in September of 1983. We wish John a happy retirement.



Moretto : back row, second from the left

Hey John. Don't forget to push the life-raft back when you get out. Mumfy would like to use it next.

Oak Bridge Bldg collapse

Saturday evening Battalion 3 companies were callled out to the Oak Bridge Condominium for a building collapse. Dispatch had reported that the pool house bldg had completely collapsed with possible civilian entrapment. Engines 1, 4, & 5, Tower 1, Rescue 1, Ambulances 4, 5, and BC 4 responded. On arrival station 5's crew found that a 40 x 80 wing of the main office and recreational center had completely collapsed. It is hard to imagine a two story building collapse without a debris pile, and looking at the pictures it is hard to tell where the debris pile is. The three outer walls fell outward, and the roof fell straight down. Most of the debris from the roof section is covered by the snow, which caused it to collapse.

The property owners had noticed that the blgd was weakened due to the amount of snow load, and closed it from any use a day before its collapse. There was also an indoor surveilance camera recording the pool area at the time of the collapse. I hope to get a copy of the video and post it on here for all to see. I took some personal video, and will try to upload that as well.

New Batt 3 member

I have been slacking off pretty bad lately with this site, and I apologize to y'all, especially Freitas. Jim "freakus" Freitas has been transferred to our battalion after Brother Riley took the Dep Chief's position in Laconia. Jim was previously on batt 4, and from what I hear, he is fitting in quite nicely down at the Broadway station.

Welcome to the group Frito.