Your first question is probably, "What's with the big ear-phones?" and your second, "What's with the goofy outfit?" I posted a few months ago that I had been volunteered to take video of any structural fire incidents our all-volunteer dept. responds to. That was fine with me since our little community wouldn't keep me tied up doing that all the time. I haven't been to a call yet, but I did get to video a burn they did last Saturday. There is a field near the main station that had two old barns in it. One had fallen down, and the other was very rotten, but still managing to stay upright. Because we're rural and don't have fire-hydrants everywhere, they are going to build a large pond in the field for storing water. Of course, they can't have old barns floating around in their pond, so they had to burn them up. (Firefighter's solution to a problem... right?)
So I showed up at the main station with tripod and camera. After the briefing, during which my dad worked on his laptop in the next room, everyone scrambled into action. We had two other rural fire districts helping out, so it was a good sized crew. Dad said it was okay if I rode down in one of the apparatus since it was so nearby.
Do you know how tall a fire engine is? I thought I did until I stood there, supposed to get in. The first step was up past my knee! One of the firemen held my stuff while I crawled up in there. Once I got in, I couldn't find my seatbelt hiding beside all the straps on the SCBA pack (air-tank) in the back of the seat, finally found it, and strapped in. Then our Asst. Chief (aka- Mrs. B) got in the driver seat, and Joseph got in the other front seat. Mrs. B put on one of those big blue headsets that cut engine noise and make it so the firefighters can talk to one another. She said I should put one on too. I tried, but it didn't feel right; as it turns out, I had it on upside-down. Can you tell I've never ridden in one of those things before?
I thought our van was a roaring, bumpy ride! A fire truck feels like a beast. We lumbered down the road a very short way, pulled in behind the other engine, and hopped out. Okay, I didn't exactly hop. But anyway, I set up my tripod and started taking video clips of everything, to be edited together later. It was really fun to use my 60x optical zoom because, even though I was way out on the road and the burn was way down in the field, I could get up really close and look inside the barn or see the flames eating away at one particular board. Dad walked down once they had set fire to the structures and watched for awhile before going back to the station.
The goofy outfit was to keep me safe... the vest for visibility. (The rules are that anyone under 5'3" has to wear a brightly colored vest for visibility. Just kidding.) The hard hat was to protect me from exploding hoses or pumps or something. I just know that Captain D. stressed that anyone working on the scene had to wear their helmets.
When I got home and picked up
