Loaded my gear into the Captain’s SUV, like I do most mornings, and headed to Central Station. The morning crew had me check the Chief’s cars and did some misc. stuff like going through the ambulance and the engine again. There were all sorts of little things going on so the crew was in and out. I stayed busy by sweeping the upstairs, the stairs, dispatch and then mopping the kitchen, living quarters, etc… I also vacuumed. I was sweeping the apparatus bay when the Captain came down to get me and take us to Station 4.

There I went through the ambulance and the engine before jumping in the engine with the crew to go test a box alarm. We got back and it was about lunch time. I had a salad. Yay.

After lunch we talked about RIT stuff. Went through our RIT bags and became familiar with scenarios specific to how we do things in the department. The Captain then had me do SCBA drills where I removed a regulator from a “downed” firefighter and swapped it out with the regulator on the RIT bottle (with gloves on). After 3-4 successful swaps I had to do it blind. After that I did the same but this time changing out the whole face piece. Again after 3-4 successful swaps I did it blind.

The Captain had us go to the training building where we would complete RIT evolutions as a 3-man crew. The first evolution I was last in the line which meant I had to carry the RIT bag and do the regulator swap. We completed the search finding one victim, I swapped the regulators and my partner setup the harness. We then dragged him with me pushing to the exit.

The second evolution I was the middle man which meant I carried some tools and branch off from the group occasionally to search rooms. The officer found our victim in the bathroom where we secured the victim’s regulator and I put the harness together. Some trouble getting the large beaner onto the harness, but eventually did.

The third evolution was a victim on the landing partway up a staircase. The officer quickly located the victim, we moved the victim down a few stairs to the room we were in and I secured the regulator. Unfortunately the bottle was already turned on, I got confused and turned the bottle off prior to swapping the regulator. Will NEVER happen again. We secured the harness and the clipped the RIT bag to the harness and using webbing, began extricating the victim.

All really good evolutions for me in that I got to operate with new people and under the department’s RIT setup. I had never swapped people over with regulators or masks so that was very educational. We left the training building and headed to Central Station to refill bottles and gather up some equipment. After that the engine dropped me off at Station 1 where I got my stuff back in service and met with the training Captain for my end of week evaluation.

People are noticing my hard work and “stay busy” attitude and I continue to meet all expectations set forth. Next week is my last week on formal Field Training so I’ll be making the most of the 1-on-1 training I’ve been getting.

I was to report directly to Central Station this morning but stopped off at Station 1 to jump into my uniform and grab my gear. I brought donuts for Group 3 who I technically had not worked with before. I got to Central Station and checked in. The crew seemed happy to have donuts. I immediately jumped on the ambulance to start going through the truck.

I was pulled away fairly quick by the shift Captain to drive the forestry with another firefighter to pickup one of the ambulances that was out of service for repairs. When I returned, it was back on the ambulance to do inventory.

I accompanied an off-duty captain and my training lieutenant to the school next door while the ambulance headed to the grocery to pickup lunch. The engine and the ambulance got called out for a possible allergic reaction and I was told to jump on the engine to meet the ambulance on-scene. The captain had me ride with the ambulance crew that was transporting in an observation role only.

While returning we got hit for another call, this one for abdominal pain. We met the engine on-scene again for this one and once again, transported in an observation role. When we finally got back we had lunch and I went down to the bay to continue going through the ambulance. The training lieutenant had me drive the ambulance to Station 2 to drop off the other ambulance that was ready to go back in service.

We picked up the driver and headed back to Central Station taking a few different back roads. On the way back, we witnessed a 2 car MVA with the car in front of us. I positioned the ambulance to help protect the scene, turn our emergency lights on and grabbed for our vests behind the seats. The lieutenant called the accident in to fire alarm requesting an engine. They came in from the other side of the street and protected the scene from that side.

PD directed traffic and we ended up assessing and getting refusals from both parties. Back at the station I went through the ambulance some more. Throughout the day different people were quizzing me on how to use certain equipment, giving me scenarios and asking for where things were. I was able to get 3/4s of the probationary checklist complete so despite not actually doing skills, I was able to accomplish quite a few things.

A sunny start to the day ended before lunch as clouds rolled in and it started to rain again… The morning ritual continued with getting gear and equipment ready to head over to Central Station before 0830. I checked the chiefs’ cars and fueled up the Captain’s SUV. Then it was off to Station 4 where I met up with the crew there.

One of the guys on the crew quizzed me on the LifePak 15 and gave me a few pointers. The time was helpful as I was alerted that I would likely be riding the ambulance on the upcoming Monday and Tuesday. When we finished, the crew got together and we drove down to the training building where we were going to do some evolutions.

The scenario was to enter the building on the A-B corner deck with 200ft. of a 2.5″ hoseline and advance it to the second story where the fire was. We ran this like a real situation so the officer left to do a quick 360, I grabbed the nozzle and stretched the line and the pump operator did his thing until I signaled to drain the line. I got the line to the doorway on the deck with about 50ft available. The officer arrived, grabbed the nozzle and made entry. With the line charged, I started to hump load the first room. No major issues there other than that I basically came out of the gates hard and after about 5 minutes of moving hose, I was gassed. Embarrassing.

Still, I continued to move hose into the next room trying to use a hose roll method. The pump operator was setting up the rolls on the deck and with my mask blanked out, he just directed me to the roll and I moved the hose in. In the second room I made the mistake of dropping the rolls on top of the end of line we were advancing which made moving the line ridiculously exhausting. A little further into the evolution I was told to meetup with the nozzle man who at this point had made the base of the stairs and had left the building due to a medical emergency. I followed the line to the nozzle and realized he wasn’t there and then was led out of the building.

I felt bad, like I wasn’t pulling my weight and that is what brought the issue on my nozzle man. I was reassured later that it would have happened regardless. In the end, he was okay but still took a trip to the hospital. That meant it was just me and the Captain. We packed up the gear and equipment and took the apparatus to Central Station where the crews there helped us get the hose repacked and things put back in service.

There was lunch after that and some of the crew quizzed me on tool locations on E2. I got a chance to sit in dispatch some more and get a feel for the pace and what our capabilities were. Because of the medical issue, crews were shuffled and I was told to ride tailend on E2. We didn’t get a call so I continued to do some chores, go through the ambulance and the engine and try to think of questions for the Captain.

The Captain picked me up towards the end of the day and it was back to Station 1 where we went over my weekly review. I left with the goal of increasing my air management while wearing SCBA by coming in one day over the weekend and going through a modified SCBA endurance course. I also wanted to get into a routine with having uniforms stay at the station. My goal for the weekend was to followup on those, review my SOGs and also go through my probie check sheet and add dates to the items that we have gone over. It was a short week on days but certainly a busy week with other stuff.