In 1993 I joined Miami Township Fire-Rescue, which is the local volunteer fire/rescue department in Yellow Springs.  I am currently a Safety Officer with MTFR.

MTFR serves a 24 square mile area that includes the Village of Yellow Springs, the Village of Clifton, the Glen Helen Nature Preserve (owned by Antioch University), and John Bryan State Park, and about 15 miles of the Little Miami Bike Trail.  MTFR makes about 1000 emergency calls each year.  About 80% of those calls are for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and about 20% are fire calls.

I hold the following certifications:

    Level IA Firefighter
    Level IB Firefighter
    Level II Firefighter
    Basic Rope Rescue
    Intermediate Rope Rescue
    Assistant Fire Instructor

I have also taken classes in:

    Company Safety Officer
    Managing Company Tactical Operations
    Hazmat Operations
    Vehicle Extrication.

I served as an Emergency Medical Technician from 1996-2001, but find that unless one can regularly participate in EMS calls (which I can’t due to other obligations), one’s skills cannot be kept sharp.  I was promoted to Sergeant in 1996, to Lieutenant in 1997, and to Captain in 2002.  In 2007 I reduced my contributions to the level of Safety Officer.

I am certified to drive all three fire engines, the two tanker engines, the rescue truck, the "grass truck" (for field fires), and both ambulances.  Driving is only half the job in many cases, since the driver is also the person who need to run the fire pump and get water to the firefighters at the end of the hose.  Obviously, this is an important task at a fire!

In 1996 I received the “Emergency Responder of the Year" award.

Here are some pictures of MTFR and me when I’m not playing chemistry professor...

Burndown

Occasionally, the fire department will be called upon to intentionally burn down a structure in order to destroy it.  We use these opportunities to practice the various skills that are needed in real fire situations.  Here are some images from a burndown of a fairly large, 2-story house.

Setting up and preparing to enter the partially-burning structure:
Gear on, ready to go in.  (I'm in the red helmet.)
Not all of the firefighting work is either glamorous or exciting.  Here I am just pulling hose around.
Another Lieutenant and I are discussing how best to lay the hoselines prior to fire attack.

One of the most important "first tasks" on scene at a real fire is to open a hole in the roof to allow heat and smoke to escape the structure.  This allows a greater chance for survival of any victims inside and makes is safer and easier for fire crews to operate inside.  This house had a metal roof.  Shown here is a picture of a crew cutting a large hole in that roof.  Not an easy task to do this on a pitched, sometimes slippery, roof wearing 50 pounds of gear and using a heavy saw.

This is what a house that is "fully involved" looks like.  Anyone inside would already be dead.

Here I am at another burndown; you can see the light smoke in the background as we have just started to get the fire going.

And another burndown:  Where's the fire??

Car Fires

MTFR sometimes conducts a Safety Day demonstration (at the Mills Lawn School parking lot) where we set a car on fire, and then put it out.  Cars burn more easily than you might think, although they rarely explode as they do so frequently on TV and in the movies.  (I'm glad.)  Here I am on the hoseline attacking the car fire and "knocking it down."
 

Vehicle Accidents

Also at Safety Day, we simulate a two-car collision with trapped patients.  MTFR is fully trained to dismantle cars "around the patient" so they can be safely removed for medical treatment.  Here's a picture of me starting to take off a car door with the "Jaws of Life."  The "Jaws" weigh about 60 pounds and are able to cut through just about anything and/or spread open a relcalitrant door.

Rope Rescue Team

Having a keen fear of heights, I wondered if joining the Rope Rescue Team would have an effect on this fear.  Mostly, not.  The double redundancy rope systems that we use make a fall nearly impossible, but some fears do not respond to the logic of the situation.

Most of our rope rescue work is done in John Bryan State Park where there are a number of rappeling areas.  We are trained to rappel down to someone who is trapped (either in mid-climb or at the bottom), perform a "pick-off" where the patient is transferred from their rope system to ours and then raised or lowered, and to package a patient in a Stokes basket and raise them up and over a cliff.  None of this is easy, particularly obvious, or fast.  We have also trained on removing someone "trapped" halfway up a water tower.

The images here show a variety of situations:
Here I am "tying off" so that I could work with both hands free.
This is a simulation of raising the Stokes basket, (here without a patient.)
Again, the Stokes basket, from below.
Rappeling over a 50 foot cliff.

CareFlight Helicoptor Rescue

For some medical injuries, critical care is needed quickly enough that Careflight is called from Dayton.  They are stationed at Miami Valley Hospital.  When we call for them, it takes about 3-4 minutes for the crew to respond to the helicopter pad on the roof of the hospital, a few minutes of warm-up, and then (at a top speed of 170 mph) they can be landing in the Yellow Springs areas in about 7 minutes of flying time.  I show here the back-up helicopter for Careflight as they are landing at a Safety Day demonstration.  Note the fire engine in the background.  We always have one stationed at the Landing Zone to set up flares and/or cones to designate the Landing Zone (LZ) area.  I have been in command a handful of times as Careflight landed, talking them down to the LZ.

Everyone at MTFR is wickedly impressed with the Careflight crew and the helicopters.  The pilots can land on a dime, and the medical crews are the best ER people around.

I also got to fly in Careflight at a Safety Day demo for a tour over Yellow Springs.  Neat.

Training

We have few majors fires in our response area.  In seven years, I have been on about 6 majors fires.  So, because we have relatively little "on the job" training we must train constantly for situations that we might encounter, but rarely actually see.  Lots of this is routine stuff about pulling hoses off the engine and spraying water.  Also somewhat routine is searching buildings (that layout of which is unknown to you) while blindfolded (since that simulates "heavy smoke" conditions).

We also occasionally conduct special rescue scenarios where we have to extricate ourselves from a situation gone bad.  It is possible for fire conditions to deteriorate while inside a building and collapse of walls and floors can occur.  Shown here is an exercise that we practice where a firefighter is trapped under fallen rubble and has to remove the SCBA airpack from the back and push it through a small opening (while keeping the mask on, obviously).  We simulate this by covering a firefighter with a heavy tarp and then throwing a little weight on top.  All of this must be done while also blindfolded to simulate darkness and/or heavy smoke conditions.  We also practice the need to breach a wall through wallboard and squeeze throught the 16" studs, usually needing to remove the airpack.

We also practice the task of finding a "downed firefighter" who is out of air.  In this drill, again blindfolded, we bring an airpack to the downed firefighter and place the airpack on them, also placing the mask on their face, getting a tight seal.  Getting the mask oriented on the face is more difficult than it might seem.

We are fortunate to have available to us an excellent training facility that allows us to set fires in a noncombustible building and practice firefighting and rescue work under harsh conditions.  The rescue tower shown here allows us to practice rescuing victims from second and third floor windows, and even taking a .hoseline up to an elevated window   This can also simulate taking a hoseline in the first floor and then performing firefighting in a basement, down a flight of steps.
 

Just for Fun

There is a great scene in "Backdraft" where the firefighters punch out some car windows of a car parked near a hydrant and put a supply line through the car.  Firefighters love this scene.  I came upon this on the internet:  Life mimics art!