Fires

The busiest day of  the year for firefighters is the 4th of July. Lots of fireworks, dry brush and careless people keep us busy. I worked the 4th but didn't have any fire calls. My little grass fire was the next day.

We were dispatched for a grass fire along side the freeway. As we travelled toward the freeway we could see a small column of smoke start to rise. We followed the frontage road and came up to the fire. The only thing slowing us down was a 6 foot tall chain link fence. We threw the 10 foot roof ladder up against the fence and I scurried over. My engineer handed me the reel line and I went to work. In about 30 seconds most of the fire was knocked down. Along with another engine crew we spent the next 30 minutes mopping up and making sure that there wouldn't be a rekindle.

After getting back to the station we had just about enough time to drink a glass of water before the tones went off again. This time we were responding for a dumpster fire. Someone decided to emtpy their hot BBQ charcoals into the dumpster. All we did was flood the dumpster and call it good.

The fires were small (one wasn't really a fire) but it still is better than nothing.