A few years ago I volunteered on our local branch fire team. At the time I joined there was very little training and we had no gear, but we had a Japanese fire truck.
Since then we've had a fire marshall dedicated to getting gear donated, and we've fought a large house fire.
Today, I've been trained on the operation of the fire truck (pumps, hose maintenance, water usage), proper use of a fire hose, we have turnout gear now and they actually found some that almost fit me well, and the most recent addition to our collection of gear:
SCBA. Think SCUBA without the Underwater... Self Contained Breathing Apparatus.
Yesterday I got trained in how to connect everything, how to put it on, how to breath with it.
I've never been certified to dive, but if you have it's a similar procedure, and we're VERY glad to have this stuff now, so that we can actually enter a burning building without causing harm to ourselves.
Although we pray we never have to, we train as if we will.
Tomorrow we'll be doing a full gear exercise. We have 2 minutes to put on all our gear.
Then after that we'll be doing blacked out exercises where we have to go into a building and find a person and pull them out. We've done this before but not in full gear.
You'd be surprised at how hard it is to find a dummy, in pitch black, in a room you've never been in before, with a partner... and then pull the body out.
Sometimes I marvel at what God is doing in my life.
Who knew years ago that by 2011 I would have actually driven a fire truck and fought a fire, and been trained in all this stuff!
I had been certified in CPR, Infant CPR and AED's (difib units) years ago and found out that I can be recertified here by our clinic nurses.
I'm constantly amazed at the opportunities you have here, to serve and to learn new things... and then be able to use them to support the community.
