04 December 2007

Monday night


With a room full of NE Patriots fans, I was up rather late for MNF anyway and crashed in bed for about an hour before the call went out. One of the ambulances was being dispatched as part of a second alarm on a house fire. Less than 15 minutes later (0240), ZM and I were being dispatched to the same fire.

On scene, we were sent to post near the engines so there would be staff and equipment (but not the truck!!) nearby in case they found the resident still unaccounted for or in case there was a FF injury. Yesterday was also our first big snow, over 6" in the city, with temperatures dropping to the low teens overnight. While we were standing outside. Eventually, we were on 15 minute shifts with the other ambulance staff so nobody would freeze to the sidewalk.



I think the photos tell the story of the FD work better than I could, but not too much left of the house when our relief got to us at 0740. Rumor was that the 15 cords of wood in the basement made the excavator necessary to knock down enough walls so they could reach the basement. Final word on the missing resident was a fatality after he returned to the basement for something he would not leave without. All FFs were coated in a thick layer of ice and seemed to be enjoying themselves. The most helpful we were was ferrying an engine crew back to their station. Otherwise it was 5 hours of freezing boredom, and a free donut and hot chocolate from the Red Cross around 0645.

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