Franklin Fire B Shift Monday 5/16 Part 1

It's after dinner amd we just finished up station chores so I've sat down to write this while the guys do paperwork. Today was a little rough. I slept through my alarm clock this morning at Proctor and got to FFD late. When I arrived it was the start of truck checks and I helped Jason check the ladder truck, checking to make sure all of the equipment was there and the truck's engine was okay. After the truck checks we went into hose testing. Today we tested more 2 1/2 " hose and 1 3/4" hose off of Engine 1 and Engine 3. While we worked I was taught that Engine 1 is equipped for rural water supply and Engine 3 is equipped for water supply in the hydrant district. Thus, the hose set ups on each are slightly different. I was so intrigued that we took a break and John and Jason showed me different water supply scenarios based off of the hoseloads on each engine. Later we tested the hose on the high rise packs which are on engine 1. The idea behind a highrise pack is an interesting tool so I will explain. 75' of 1 3/4 " hose is coiled in a cleaveland load. (basically a long, narrow circle) with the nozzle in the middle of the coil and the end on the outside, so it looks backwards. However, the female end is on the outside, so if in a highrise building, you can connect it to the standpipe. Most standpipes are in stairwells, which can obviously be narrow. You can put the "circle" cleveland load in the stairwell, charge it with water, and the hose won't kink because of the circle. Now you can advance out of the stairwell without having to worry about tangled hose. Anyways, Sam Johnson, another senior at Proctor on Senior Project came to film me while we tested hose for a video he is making. We breaked for lunch, then got back to work. It had been a quiet day so far with no calls. In the afternoon Captain Goldthwaite showed me a better way to throw hose so you can chuck it and have it roll out perfectly. Dinner came around and we were eating when we got our first call, victim of an assualt. We staged for the police in the ambulance down the street, only to be told a few minutes later there was no contact with a victim. We headed back to the station and did chores, now I'm writing this. We still have have 11 hours left on shift, so a good chance we will get a call tonight. But for the first time ever, I actually hope we don't because I want to sleep. Jason was suprised to hear me say this. Tomorrow I'm on duty with Sanbornton Fire Department which should be interesting.