Day 39 & Day 40 – I’m going home

After saying goodbye to the B-Shift and leaving Station 6, Captain Ponce took me to Houston International Airport where I took my plane to Atlanta and from there to Duesseldorf.

I arrived safely at Duesseldorf where my mum and my sweetheart waited for me and took me back home.

I had the best time ever when I was in Houston with the HFD and with all the nice and friendly people I've met there. Thanks to everybody who made this possible for me. It was a great experience!

THANK Y'ALL!

And I'll be back!!!

I'd like to close with a mottoe of the HFD: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." St.John 15:13

And this is where my blog ends...

...or maybe not?

Day 38 – Cy Fair Volunteer Fire Department and my last Day with the A-Shift

Kenny from the B-Shift took me to the Cy Fair Volunteer Fire Department where he works on his side job. Cy Fair is a community in the outskirts of Houston, but still is much bigger than my hometown. He works there as an EMS Supervisor and he showed me some of their apparatus and stations and the dispatch center which is about the size I know from Recklinghausen.

Back at the station I took a last picture with the guys of the A-Shift.

The rest of the day I spent with getting my thing together and packing my bag and I’m ready to leave tomorrow. I’ll finish my blog on the plan and when I’m back home and that will be my last entry then.

Day 37 – A Last Tour through the City and goodbye D-Shift

Today Captain Ponce picked me up for a last tour round the city of Houston. First he took me to the Val Jahnke Training Facility which is the Fire Academy of the City of Houston. He showed me the ventilation building where the cadets can practice cutting holes into roof and watch their affects. In this building they don’t use real fire, but fake smoke. Then he showed me the burn building where a class was introduced into the first steps of interior fire fighting. The burn building is operated with burning pallets, so it gets really hot and it produces a lot of smoke.

Afterwards Captain Ponce took me to his old fire station which is located at the Houston Hobby Airport. The guys showed me their station and apparatus and took me for a ride on the airfield to show me the airport which is a bit smaller than Houston International Airport where I’ll be leaving in two days from now.

When I was back at the Station Fire Chief Phil Boriskie came by to say goodbye (nah, just kiddin’ but he came to talk to the District Chief and he took the chance to say goodbye). I also took a picture with me and the complete D-Shift.

Day 36 - Last Day with the C-Shift

No long entry for today.

I'm preparing to head back home and today I spent my last day with the C-Shift. We haven't done much this day, but to give you an impression what apperatus dispatch will send for a chest pain call, Ill give you that picture. They'll send an engine for first respondig, an ambulace for basic life support and a squad unit for advanced life support. That's a crew of at least eight persons.


Don't forget my guestbook eventhough I'll leave in three days.

http://www.gaestebuch.com/gb-extern/zusammen.asp?GUID=99D0A984-E012-4C93-9D77-3ECD5112A8D1

Day 35 – A day with the Mobleys and Shopping at the Mall

I’ve spent another day at the Mobleys house who invited me other to go shopping with them. We went to the Woodland Mall and I got some really nice things there. We had lunch at a place called the “Cheesecake Factory”, but I didn’t have one of their famous cheesecakes, but a good Caesars Salad with chicken. The rest of the day we spent at their home, making hamburgers for supper and watching DVD.

Day 34 - Training

Today we had a class on a new tool that's on Tower 6. This tool is for opening cars without force and damaging it when the keys are locked in the car.

It takes a small airbag that is put between the car door and the frame and pumped up to create a gap. Then you can manoeuvre a gripper through the gap and try to push the door unlock button or try to reach for the handle to open the door.

One call we made this day was an automatic alarm in a high rise office building. A alarm lever was pulled accidentally and we checked and reset it.

Day 33 - No Entry

Sorry, no entry for today!