kurtkamm

Well, the first day of Fire Academy was kind of what I would have expected from boot camp, if I had joined the military. Minus the yelling. Petty punishment for small mistakes, but overall very clear and to the point. I definitely knew what is expected of me during the academy. I think the younger guys may have a tough time with certain aspects of the training and eventually the job. Being accountable and taking responsibility for actions and decisions. We were pretty much told that if we... Read Full Story

The morning of February 4 was a morning that all of us got lucky due to training and experience. We were the first due on a working structure fire with flames visible on the A/B/D division of the structure. Another firefighter and I were making entry when the porch roof started going south. As we noticed this, my partner saw that the floor under us had been compromised as well. We backed out and went with plan B. While we were knocking the fire down our Chief realized three 100lb propane... Read Full Story

My wife had told me was pregnant with my first and only son on a Thursday evening. One week later while I was with the Edgewater Fire Dept. in Colorado we were sent to a structure fire in a 3rd floor apartment.. Dispatch informed us that there was a trapped party in the apartment. On our arrival, our chief stated that the trapped party was an 18 month old child. A good friend and fellow firefighter was on the search and rescue team and found the boy. Unfortunately the child succumbed to... Read Full Story

A toddler had to be cut free by firefighters – after getting a toilet seat stuck on his head. Two-year-old Joshua Cullen was playing with a potty training seat and decided to see how it looked as a hat. But it became stuck – and his mother could not get it off. His grandad was called and he tried to remove it using soap – but it wouldn’t budge. So they took the tot to the fire station, where the crew cut the seat free using an industrial-strength cutter. Fire Captain Chris Bradshaw said... Read Full Story

Fire Plug Here is the story of the fire plug. Back before even horses pulled the steamers, and a set of irons meant taking your vitamins, the term fire plug was born. In the cities, the earliest water mains were made of hollowed out logs. I have seen the remnants of these under the streets of my own city (Winston Salem, which was founded by the Moravians). The call went out for a fire, and the fire fighters rushed to the scene with their great new hand pumper. There only PPE was a helmet... Read Full Story

History of the Maltese Cross The Badge of a Fire Fighter is the Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross is a symbol of protection and a badge of honor. Its story is hundreds of years old. When a courageous band of crusaders known as The Knights of St. John fought the Saracens for possession of the holy land, they encountered a new weapon unknown to European warriors. It was a simple, but horrible device of war. It brought excruciating pain and agonizing death upon the brave fighters for the cross... Read Full Story

One of the worst fires was during a snow storm. There was so much snow I could not see the 12 unit apartment burning and I was operating the pumper from about 40 feet away. The pump gauges were frozen and I was trying to draft from a portable tank and did not know how much water was coming in or going out. We lost the building and almost lost a fire truck. In the midst of the structure fire yesterday, we hit a high of 25 degrees… Driving a cardiac patient the day after an ice storm hit was... Read Full Story

On November 29, 1990, the United States Congress established the Public Safety Officer Disability Benefit law. This is a benefit that is awarded to Police Officers, Paid Firefighters, Volunteer Firefighters, or EMTs with a total and permanent disability received in the line of duty. There is a problem with this law, it does not include any public safety officer’s injured before the date this law was created. This is why the Public Safety Officer Fairness Act of 2011 was created, and has... Read Full Story

Is truth stranger than fiction? My new novel CODE BLOOD starts with a fire paramedic responding to an accident on Pacific Coast Highway. A woman’s foot has been severed and is missing – So begins the mystery. Farfetched?? NO. Here’s a news report about severed feet which have been washing up on the shores of British Columbia. ——————– The mystery of the feet washing ashore in Canada has widened with the discovery of yet another limb that has washed ashore of a lake in the region. The... Read Full Story

Ok, so I guess the only thing I know to do is tell you a little about me. Where to begin…I am a single mom of 3 girls. My volunteering started with the Red Cross in 2005-Katrina. Since I have been active in disaster services with them working closely with firefighters. But that is not how I came into the fire service. My daughter is a junior firefighter and she always asked me to come volunteer with her, so finally I did. After I joined they were offering NPQ1 and asked me if I was interested... Read Full Story