PotashRLS Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 I have a serious case of dragbutt this morning. We have several families who are members of our ambulance service. Last night around 9:00 pm one farming family had a barn fire. It started in the older part where they stored sawdust for bedding. Luckily it was contained to the old part as it was connected to the rest of the barns. 4 large Harvester Silos stand on the side where the fire was and one actually blew out. Another is charred pretty bad. All their newly calved and freshening cows were under that barn and by God's Mercy the floor held the fire and the cows were able to be let out even after the barn was fully engulfed. They probably will have some smoke inhalation issues today but wow is that a miracle or what. We pulled standby on scene till nearly 1:00 am and only had one firefighter need to be checked out. Not bad considering 4 departments responded, 3 being full assist. Makes for a long week and with the Turkey Learn To Hunt starting EARLY this weekend, I will need some ZZZZZZZZs tonight. It is ashame a guy has to go to his real job in order to relax a bit:rolleyes:. So anyway.........how's your day going? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJR Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 A fire is horrible! At least there were some good results! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adjam5 Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 Good job on the fire and handling the emergency. Get as much rest as you can and stay off the computer until you rest up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowtech_archer07 Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Sounds terrible Tracy, but glad everything turned out ok. We had a fire a year and half ago that burned for over 40 hrs and we were on scene for about 36 of them. Call came in at 9pm and we were on scene until 6 pm the following day. Made for a long day, then 3 rekindles after that. Like you said, things could have been a lot worse, and I'm glad no people or animals were seriously injured. You can always replace barns and even animals, but you can't replace human life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOYTnMUZZYboy Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Nice job bro! We had a barn fire 3 years ago that was about 5 miles outside of town, rural water supply, and over 100 firefighters there for 24 hours. 3 barns were blazeing and it happend to be on my shift. Glad everyone went home and animals were not harmed. Do you guys run a rehab station? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike13candace Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Not good news... glad it all worked out...I have a 200-year old three story barn..I'm always concerned:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Hope you get some rest Tracy. Good the animals got out ok, shame the barn and silo was lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkneck Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Yeah, we had a huge haybarn burn one night. Took about 50 firemen, 4 pumpers, and a 3K tanker hours to get enough water on it. Probably put 20k Gallons on it at least. Good training, but was bad for the family that made their livelihood there, but nobody got hurt, so the rest can be rebuilt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PotashRLS Posted April 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Do you guys run a rehab station? Kinda:rolleyes:............... We stage near the scene and are primarily the "just in case" squad. We check out anyone who needs it but few rural departments locally have SOPs for such a thing. We usually deal with the injuries more than the fatique/severe dehydration/smoke inhalation issues. Mutual Aid generally keeps firefighters from getting too wore out. We always keep cases of bottled water at the Ambulance Garage for such incidents and will help coordinate food and beverage for the prolonged scenes. On a side note.......here's a story you fire guys will chuckle at, eventhough it was potentially serious. Our city fire department was one of the mutual aid departments that came with a full response minus their frontline pumper (Never leaves the city). Our idiot mayor was driving (acts as though it is his private firetruck) the 100' aerial out to the scene which is rural, at night and raining. The incident was on a farm on a short, narrow dead end paved road. The idiot mayor (who was partially responsible for getting the nearly useless aerial truck) was driving too fast for weather and night conditions and nearly ran the truck into the ditch trying to make the corner onto the dead end leading to the farm. We are talking screeching tires and everything. The huge trucks driverside front tire was inches from going off the shoulder and burying the frontend of the truck in the saturated ditch. Not only would he have been stuck and needed a very large tow truck to get him out, he would have plugged up the only access for the tankers/tenders to get water to the farm. He is such an idiot. He has the "Little Big Man Syndrome". If he would have made it to the farm he would have plugged up the working part of the scene and not been able to get it turned around. The Fire Chief for the Town Fire Department got on the radio and said "don't you bring that big thing in here". It was good to block traffic and that was about it. Did I mention the mayor is an idiot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowtech_archer07 Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 I gotta admit, I got a chuckle out of that Tracy... and yes, it definitely sounds like your mayor is an idiot! We have a couple of people like that on our local volunteer department. One kid is my age and thinks he is the holy grail of firefighters and he knows all. 2 quick stories: 1st: he wants to get an aerial for our small department, we live in a town of 1500 people with a fire coverage of approx 75 square miles, not counting mutual aid. We don't need a dang aerial. 2nd: We were on scene at a house fire and he and another guy were on the roof trying to open it up to get into the attic. He walks off the roof, leaving his partner behind, and doesn't say a word to him!! Luckily we had a guy packed up at the base of the ladder and sent him up FAST. I couldn't believe my eyes. He said his air was running low, but his bell wasn't ringing, and even if it was, YOU NEVER LEAVE SOMEONE ALONE ON A ROOF OR IN A HOUSE!!! Needless to say, he got a royal butt-chewing from the chief on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm23494 Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 A fire is horrible! That makes me think of a line from a famous firefighting movie: It's a fire mister,and all fires are bad. Glad to hear things went well. Sometimes, although it sounds bad, it is quicker and easier to just let it burn once salvageable property is secured and then protect exposures. It keeps from tying up resources for days and in the end is less material that the farmer has to clean up since usually what hay is in the barn is useless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkneck Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 You get all kinds. Our dept is in a town of 250, and we cover most of the west side of the county and a few miles of interstate. Just got a 250K custom pumper that has 5 jump seats in it. Not a dang thing wrong with the old '90 model but when it's grant money involved, idiots can make a wish list fast. We had the thing delivered before Christmas and havent rolled it yet, still the old pumper. The ppl that we got it from havent been there to train us yet on the new pump. It's gotten to be a joke at fires we go to. I just tell them we only take the new truck out to parades nowdays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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