Grease + Heat + Water = Destruction

The shift started out pretty crazy because everyone except for myself and engineer called in sick. There was the last minute shuffle to pull a crew together but everything worked out pretty fast and the day went on. Around 6:30 or so in the evening, we were dispatched to a duplex fire, which doesn't surprise me because we manage to always get a fire when people call in sick. We were first on scene with light smoke coming from the front door so I picked up the radio and said "engine xx on location, light smoke from a single story duplex, we'll be investigating". Since the smoke was pretty light, I told the crew to stay put while I went to find out what was going on from the people standing in the yard. The lady told me that she had just come home from work when her 2 kids came running out saying the house was on fire. "They tried throwing water on it but the whole wall is still on fire". I go take a peek in the front door and see black smoke banked down about 5 feet from the ceiling so I turn around and tell the crew to pull a hand line and we make our way inside. There wasn't much to this one and we had it under control before anyone else arrived so I tapped it out holding us and the next in pumper. We did some overhaul, vented out the smoke and were out of there in about an hour. Here is the end result.

Whoops

The Captain on the other pumper had talked to the resident who said her 9 year old son was allegedly cooking. The 16 year old who was supposed to be watching him, wasn't doing too good of a job and I guess the skillet caught fire. He then threw water on the fire and BOOM, no more kitchen. Something like the video below except no extinguisher.

We leave there and get sent on 3 more runs before getting back to the station. Some lady down the road was having breathing problems after arguing with her boyfriend. We pull up and there 5 police cars, broken concrete in the road, and their garage door is hanging off by a string. We go inside and wade through a mess of boxes to find this lady freaking out in a tiny little bathroom. She saw us walk in and decided she wanted to have a full on panic attack and begin hyperventilating. We leave there and go straight to a "group home" which we frequent fairly often. These group homes are all over our territory and occupied with either sick and/or crazy people, usually watched by some African lady that pays absolutely no attention to them. This time it was an old man having a gastrointestinal bleed out of his ass. He was in a hall bathroom, kind of hunched over and naked from the waste down with blood EVERYWHERE. His legs were just saturated not to mention the bathroom which was also feces. We just kind of stood there for a second trying to figure out what the hell to do with this mess. It smelled so so bad that I have no clue how to describe it. We pretty much waited until the ambulance got there, doubled up on gloves and walked him out to the stretcher. The ambulance was from another station and had someone on it we didn't know. My Engineer walks up and tells the EMT that they may want to put down some towels or something for the blood but got some black stare, so he says, "awe fuck it, it's not my stretcher" and walks off. 

By this time we were all starving and really wanted to get back to the station when the computer pops up with a motor vehicle incident a few blocks down the road. They got smashed pretty good, cars totaled but no injuries so we we out of there quick and finally got back. We did get to eat and have a little down time before getting dispatched to another house fire a good distance away. The first pumper arrived and said "nothing showing" which usually means it's nothing so we were praying for a disregard before committing to the freeway, which we got so my Engineer takes the longest and bumpiest route possible back to the station and we sleep the rest of the night. Actually no, there was one more run later on but I can't remember for the life of me what it was. 

I had to throw that extra bit in about my EO because he gets all giddy when I talk about him on here. I told him this blog would make him famous and I could make him t-shirts, although no one knows who he is. Kind of like tales of a great ninja warrior, only allergic to directions and doesn't carry a sword. 

By the way, in case you didn't know, EO means Engineer Operator (the one who drives and pumps water). Also traditionally called a Chauffeur.