Day 23 - A Salute to Fallen Heroes

Todays day was dominated by the memories of the fallen fire fighters and other victims in the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon and of Flight 93.

Like all fire fighters all over the United States we started the day with pulling all aparatus in front of the station and putting the lights on. At 8.58 a.m. (at that time the South Tower collapsed six years ago) the 911-Dispatch pulled a 7-1 Alarm to remember the fallen comrades. All fire fighters remained for a minute of silence in front of the flag pole.

Afterwards Captain Ponce took me to the revealment of a statue that is dedicated to the Houston Fire Fighters and located next to the fire museum. The members of the fire museum chose the date of September 11th to also remember the fire fighters who died that day six years ago. Fire Chief Boriski and Mayor Bill White held speeches of memory and the artist who created the statue explained what moved him to create the statue as it is now.

When I was back at Station 42 we went and had dinner at a Cajun Restaurant. On our way back to the station we responded on a call for a minor accident with two cars and an 18-Wheeler, but none of the drivers needed to be cut out.

Day 22 - Salute to Houston Fire Fighters

Due to a lack of car wrecks and calls today, I jumped on the pumper for a response on a car fire. Next to Station 42 a car caught fire, because it overheated. We took the redline (fast attack hose) and put it out.

In the afternoon Captain Ponce picked me up and took me to a award ceremony "Salute to Houston Fire Fighters" at the Allen Center. Many diffenrent people thanked the members of the HFD for their effort and service throughout the year. At the same time a Houston Photo Club opened an exibition about the work of the brave Houston Fire Fighters. During this event I met Than who picked me up at the airport when I arrived.

Day 17 - Station Change

Today I switched over from Station 6 to Station 42. Here I'll be riding on the Rescue Truck for a couple of days. Captain Ponce gave me a ride over and introduced me to the guys over there.

This basically is a Heavy Rescue Truck for shoring up collapsed buildings and securing them, as well as for major car accidents and height rescue. The truck they have right now is actually a replacement, because their original truck is at the shop for repairs after an accident.

We'll see which interesting things I'll see with Heavy Rescue 42.

Day 11 – A Tour round the city

In the morning we had a call for an automatic alarm at the Allen Parkway Office Building. A toast got stuck in a toaster and started burning. We ventilated the 26th floor with a fan and reset the alarm.

Later that day Captain Ponce picked me up at the station and gave me a tour round Houston with all the things a German firefighter can be interested in.
We started our tour with a reported house fire that Captain Ponce had received on his pager. He had to go there, because he is the Public Information Officer for the Hispanic community in Houston and the fire was in a Hispanic neighborhood. The AC in the attic had a short and set the entire roof on fire. The Captain had to give some interviews and took care of the family that lived in the house.

After that we continued our tour to the fire museum. The fire museum is located at old Station 7 and they show some old engines and other exhibits that relate to the Houston Fire Department, for example a part of the World Trade Center, because after 9/11 the HFD sent a rescue team to search for victims in the collapsed towers. At the fire museum I had the privilege to sign on the bay door, which is an honor for all fire fighters who are guests of the HFD. At the museum I also took the chance to take a picture with Captain Ponce who made it possible for me to come to Houston. In the gift shop of the museum I met Kevin Greene who designed nearly all logos of the different stations. I met him before at Station 6 and this nice guy invited me to pick two shirts and a bag of HFD for free.

Of course I had to have a picture of my generous patron.

On our way to the 911 Emergency Center Captain Ponce and I stopped at the Minute Maid Baseball Park to watch an inning of baseball. Due to the fact that both of us find baseball rather boring, he took me to a visitor platform at the 60th floor of an office building in Downtown Houston. The weather was clear and we had a nice view over the entire City of Houston.

The 911 Emergency Center is located outside of Houston and it’s a well secured object. The “floor” where all the dispatchers of Fire, EMS and Police are sitting is at least seven times bigger than the Kreisleitstelle Recklinghausen. The whole building is very impressive and I was given a nice tour around the Emergency Center.In the afternoon I returned to Station 6 and we made a few first responding runs and an apartment fire that turned out to be a BBQ in the backyard.