Code-2

A few days ago I came back from the station after a night of firefighting drills. Unfortunately I had managed to get water all over my jeans and as such was still wearing my turnout pants when I entered the elevator to my apartment.
I was not alone.
Inside was another tenet, carrying a few groceries and [...]

Occasionally I would like to get a little glimpse of humanity while on duty. I’m sick of wives “falling over” and getting a black eye even though her husband coincidentally split his knuckles. Or how as much as we explain it to her, the six-month pregnant woman still wont stop using cocaine.
Just once I would [...]

So for all of you people who are marginally interested in what goes on at Code-2, there is a new short in the Short Stories section.
I wrote it on a whim after talking with one of my writing professors. It’s a pilot story, just something to get out and see if anyone likes where it [...]

I’m sitting in a class which is for freshman who have just left home and don’t know how to eat properly without putting on thirty pounds a quarter. It’s horribly boring and completely pointless but I have to have it for graduation.
For most of the assignments, the teacher doesn’t take into account that I might [...]

Most everybody can figure out that there are certain hardships that go along with being a firefighter. We’re taught them when we’re in training. We know that our muscles will fail while in a burning building because all the water is gone.
We know that every time we run lights and sirens, the likelihood of us [...]

Firefighter Jones carries a small figurine of the virgin Mary attached to the inside of his bunker gear for luck, even though every person in the Company already has a small, green shamrock on their helmet for that very purpose. Some say that it makes him unlucky.
When we put our turnouts on, Corey always touches [...]

It can be difficult at times to find some peace and quiet while on duty.
If you do, the moments are often fleeting; tones frequently go off at the most inopportune time.
However, there is one place that a firefighter might be able to get in a few minutes of alone time.
The bathroom.
I use the one in [...]

If a firefighter ever needs water and isn’t anywhere near a hydrant, he has several other options open to him.
He can get it from a creek or nearby river.
Or he could use someone’s pool.
What’s even better is if the person who has the pool is also the one who’s house is on fire, you have [...]

I’ve decided to carry a hack-saw with me in my rig.
That way the next time a patient bitches and moans about either how cold my hands are or how their broken arm hurts when I touch to see if it’s ACTUALLY broken, I can just casually reach into my bag and place the saw [...]

When all hell breaks loose and we as EMTs and firefighters have to turn on the lights and sirens and drive like how we learned at the arcade, we have many names for it.
Most commonly it is called “going code” with the command being “go code.”
Other variations occur. “Rock ‘n roll” is pretty [...]