Fire Academy

Well it has been three weeks now and my training at the North Bend Fire Academy is going well. The program is a 12 week intensive study of fire behaviour, extinguishing techniques, equipment training and use and para-military indoctrination.

It is very overwhelming both mentally and physically.

I am doing well with my studies and the physical training, and the food is great. Pat, our cook, keeps us happy with an amazing menu.

We spend one day a week in the classroom for lecture and testing and the other three days are a mixture of "lab" and firemanship training.

Here we are prepping for a sofa fire scenario in the burn building. The instructors stage the fires to simulate real life allowing us to view the growth and development stages. Here we will be allowing a 20 square foot pallet fire to develop in a corner of "the lab", a 30x50 room in the burn building, so that we can practice knocking it back and controlling the development.

As the fire develops the temperature in the lab increases. the thermal layer at the ceiling begins to drop an we experience 400 degrees at mid wall. The floor is still at around 150 degrees. We learn this type of fire is still very controllable with very little water if applied correctly.

If you look closely a recruit on the right sprays a solid stream of water on the ceiling while the instructor directs his application. The water stream hits the ceiling cooling the upper layer and knocking back the flames. The water that doesn't convert to steam bounces off and lands on the fire seat, at least that is the goal.

Later on we complete an evolution on a smaller"fire box lab" outside on the burn pad. The remaining images are from last week; dragging charged hoses through mazes, spraying at max capacity of 200 gallons per minute, playing with water patterns and then re-entering the lab for a fire twice the size as the previous couch fire.

Thanks for all your love, prayers and support. Keep them coming especially for Cheryl and the boys as I am away from home four days a week. I found my phsical limit in the lab and reached the edge of heat exhaughestion last week. Nothing a little time outside 300 degrees and a lot of water couldn't fix. The training resumes tomorrow with week four. I'll keep ya'll posted with more pictures and stories.

Tony

Boys, Sports and Family Updates.

In a view of what things will be like for Cheryl and I in the future, Jon and Gabe have been very busy with their sports. Gabe chose to play basketball this winter and had a blast with his team.

They played a bunch of games around the area in the YMCA system. It was fun to see him try something ENTIRELY new, and have fun at it. He took to the sport well and has voiced interest in continuing next season.

Now we are on to baseball season. Gabe is on the Defenders this year with a bunch of his buddies, his first year in machine-pitch. He is still Gabe and at times lives in his own little world out there in right field. But he loves the socializing and the sunflower seeds.

His skills are improving a lot and his game is getting better. His throws are more accurate and he is hitting and catching. Not to mention cheering his team on with appropriate rally cap poses. Jon is full on in kid-pitch with a great team of boys who he has played ball with for a couple seasons. The Coaches are familiar too so the team atmosphere is really fun, with a flavor of seriousness. This season marks the true beginning of real baseball with hits, plays, outs, base stealing and a small measure of strategy. The games are very exciting and so very much fun towatch. The last game was a momentous victory over an undefeated team with a spectacular game winning steal of home. Jon is one of the faster runners and does a gret job on base. He also has a great arm and has made some fantastic throws from center field.

Cheryl's photo season has ramped up as she is scheduling senior and family portraits like crazy. The good weather reminds folks it's time and the procrastinating seniors are scrambling. Her work is still steady at Summit Rehab., in Sultan.

I started my new job at Edmonds Fire Department reporting for duty last Friday morning at 0800. I will spend next week in orientation and gear fitting and then be off to the Academy Wednesday night. The two other probational firefighters are a bit younger than me (both 23) but we are getting to know each other well and the fit is good. The academy is in North Bend, WA near my folks house. The official start date is May 11 but we are getting a jump on it with a few days of orientation. Beau and Kyle, my fellow probys, are both ripe out of the Marines with four years of duty. They will be able to help me with the para-military atmosphere of the academy and I will be able to help them with the copious amount of firefighting material we will be ingesting in the 12 week process. Kyle has no fire experience and Beau has aircraft "crash" fire training, both are already certified EMTs. It is going to be very difficult and, oh, so much fun.

I will be doing as much photography at the academy as possible and posting as such. I pray this wonderful SUNNY western Washington day finds you all well.

Tony