.....Grease Monkeys!!

I've realized that the titles are boring.....and at some point reading "In the field: Shift 123" will be pretty unoriginal. I'll try to spice things up a bit and come up with something a little more fitting. Since the fire department isn't always glamorous (as evidenced by the last two shifts of no calls), there may be some shifts where I choose not to post. Rather than keep track of everything I do, I'd rather keep people interested......and in some cases keep them thinking I'm actually doing something.

I spent a better part of the day working around the station completing projects that the Captain wanted me to do. I took some of the wipe boards that we had sitting against the wall in our training facility at the station and moved the to the main section to be mounted (one in the kitchen and one in the apparatus bay). I assume they will be used for daily notes, as well as messages to other shifts regarding household items, equipment issues, etc.

I also mounted a large "drug box" inside of our EMS storage closet.



The "drug box" is a large locking box where all of the good stuff is stored.....morphine, tetracaine, etc...all stuff that the medics administer and is tightly controlled and monitored. Everything is kept under lock and key. In order to mount it inside of the EMS closet, I had to first rip out a shelving unit, and then adjust shelving and relocate items onto other storage units.

We finally got called out for a brush fire along the interstate. We had a new officer riding on the Engine and along the way he mistakenly told the driver to go west on I-66 when we needed to go EAST. Fortunately, I had been listening to the entire call and what he was saying and quickly stated the way to go, narrowly making our turn to head in the right direction. When we arrived on scene, Virginia State PD was already on scene and had used their portable extinguishers to try and contain the fire from spreading. We pulled off 2 water extinguishers from the Engine and got to work until the Brush Truck pulled up. The crew split up and another FF from our Engine drove the Brush Truck to the scene.



(Disclaimer: This is only an example, it is NOT our Brush Truck).

The brush truck is a lifted 4x4 pickup that carries rakes, shovels, 250 gallons of water, and some smaller, lighter hoses to allow better maneuverability through brush and forestry. Once he arrived, I pulled the line and continued to wet down the entire area. Our ignition source appeared to be rolls of toilet paper, mixed in with some other shopping goods. After looking at the scene, we assumed someone was smoking and threw a cigarette accidentally into the backseat or bed of a truck, lighting the bag on fire and then just throwing it onto the side of the road.

As soon as we were finished, we received another brush fire call about a mile down the road at an exit ramp. It seems that our flame throwing vehicle left a trail for us.....we quickly put out the small fire and found evidence of some illegal activity: a target bag FILLED with ink tags and electronic theft deterrent sensors. We brought them over to the cops to see if they wanted them, who said "We didnt' see anything, that's a lot of unnecessary paperwork."

We didn't see another call for the rest of the night, but at least another day didn't pass without any calls.

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Since the Super Bowl, there has been an ongoing joke with one of the guys on our crew. During the commercials, Castrol aired a commercial with the "Grease Monkeys."



At the end of the commercial, the character kisses one of the monkeys. The guy on our crew say the commercial and said "Man that is weird, I'm never kissing a monkey again." We all looked at each other and at him in amazement. AGAIN?!? He now claims that he never used the word "again," but we know better. This is how he was greeted when he went searching for dinner.....