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!

Day 32 - HFD gone mad

Day 31 - A Day at Captain Mobley's House

I spent the day with Captain Mobley today.

First we went to an original old fashioned American Barber and there I got my hair cut. I really like it, but judge yourself.

Afterward we drove to a shooting range to shoot skeet with shotguns. This was great fun and it isn't as easy as it looks like. But after a while I knew where to aim and I did quite well. Though it was strange to see people walking around with aimed shotguns and shooting it as self-evident. I'm simply not used to it from Germany, but after a while a got familiar with that.

For lunch Captain Mobley invited me to a Chinese restaurant and for supper we had australian food, so I guess I've to do some extra minutes on the treadmill tomorrow.

Day 30 - Automatic Alarm

Today was a pretty slow day. We only had two automatic alarms and two EMS runs for an unconscious person which turned out only to be drunk and sleeping.

The first automatic alarm was in an high rise office building and we noticed an odor of smoke, but we couldn't figure out where it came from. We checked the entire building, but couldn't find anything so we reset the alarm and made our way back to the Station.

Later that day we had an automatic alarm in a apartment complex, because of a water flow in the sprinkler system. This water flow was caused by a plumber who ripped off a sprinkler head and flooded a whole apartment on the 1st floor.

Day 29 - Four Alarm Fire Aftermath -Update!

No long entry for today. I stayed in bed after the fire for a long time, because this one really exhausted me. I'm still waiting for the Arson Investigator to bring back me camera memory card, so that I can update my last day entry.

- Update - - Update - - Update - - Update - - Update - - Update - - Update -

I finally got my memory card back and here are the pictures I took during the four alarm fire in chronlogical order.

Day 28 - Four-Alarm Fire - 1st Update [Video]

This night we made the biggest fire since I'm in Houston. I copied you the article from the website of the local TV station. Pictures are coming soon. I had to give my camere memory card to the Arson Lab, because they need it for investigating this fire. If you want to see me on TV check this link (I'm the one who tackles the guy who tries to run into the burning house) : http://www.janbeba.de/whitely12_070917.wmv available at 12.oo GMT on Sept. 18.
Alternatively check this one if it works for you! (Thanks Jan for saving it for me!)

A 49-year-old woman was killed after a four-alarm fire near downtown early Monday morning.
Firefighters arrived at West Dallas and Taft to a fully involved blaze with four homes on fire. Each home has four units in it, and they share a garage with nine other units.
The fire department isn't sure exactly how many people were in the buildings.
After a search that lasted 30 to 45 minutes, firefighters found a woman thought to have been missing. She was found dead inside one of the upper floors of the garage apartment. Her son had said she was inside and had tried to run inside the burning house.
The woman, who is from Mexico, lived at the home with her 21-year-old daughter.
"She was a really lovely lady," said Jason Hurst who knew the victim. "She worked really hard. She tried to help her children who lived with her. She's come here for a better life. What a horrible tragedy."
The woman had lived in the home for 15 years.
Firefighters said the damage to the structures is extensive and that it is a miracle no one else was hurt or killed.
A woman believed to be six months pregnant was taken to the hospital for observation.
The cause of the fire and why it spread so quickly is the center of HFD's investigation.
"These buildings are about 40 feet apart, so once you get a heavy fire going, the radiant heat is pretty hard for us to stop," HFD District Chief Tommy Dowdy said.
Crews are going to bulldoze the damaged structures as a precaution.
The American Red Cross will step in to help those displaced by the fire.
The entire area of West Dallas from Montrose east to downtown will be closed for the duration of the morning and quite possibly through lunch.

PICTURES COMING SOON!

Day 27 - Ring of Fire

Today and tonight we made some nice fire.
We first started with a run, but shortly we have been disregarded. Our second call was a pot of beans that caught fire on a stove and produced a lot of smoke, so that the smoke detector went off. We put up our fan to blow the smoke out of the house and we went home to the station. The third run we made was a real fire. The run came in as a house on fire and as we arrived on scene flames came out ot a window where the AC unit was installed. We decided for an offensive attack, because the wire wasn't that big yet. We put out the fire and searched the ceiling and walls for fervor and hot spots. We took all the furniture that caught fire out and sprayed water on it as we moved it outside. After we had finished we went back to the Station.

The other day we had a run for a highrise on fire. In a highrise apartment complex was an odour of smoke and so the security called the fire department to check for fire. There was a scent of smoke in the buliding, but it rather smelled like burned toast, than a fire.