Let it snow!

The snows a fallin' here at the Green House, looks like its starting to stick too! So far we haven't had any weather related runs today. 3 Engine fought a raging fire in a 55 gal. drum earlier in the day. Lt. Weaver and I brought the blaze under control with our water cans. Later in the day we received an alarm for a smell of electrical stuff burning, the homeowners opened all the windows and when we walked in we didn't smell a thing....another "can handle" for the Engine. Tonight the capt. treated us to his signature fried chicken, it was a hit with all. Post dinner we all waddled around like penguins holding our stomach's after eating way too much! Our friend Scooter from 7-A stopped by to visit our new house and also brought us a pizza, breadsticks, and wings! Thanks Scooter! There was also an alleged assault with a snowball within the station but that neither be confirmed or denied......Not much else to report on yet....will keep posted on any weather related happenings later tonight.

RW

Slacker

Admittedly I was a slacker and did not have my camera on hand yesterday, looks like the boys from #9 made up for it on their blog! Our day started out with an automatic alarm at O'Charleys right at shift change, nothing 3 Engine couldn't handle. As some of you loyal #9 fans may have read, the Roanoke Times is doing a 360 degree photo story showing the difference between a brand new "hotel" like station and a crusty old station like #9. We can only bash #9 so much, there's a lot of great history and memories that come with that station. Around lunch time 3 Engine ran a dumpster fire behind the NTB Tire store at Valley View(sorry, no fancy pics) where Joe finally got his turnout gear a little dirty(really, its was just a smudge).
The medic truck ran into an ambulance chaser while trying run a call at a local elementry school. Come to find out it was just Smiley riding with Capt. Bo trying to satisfy his EMT-I "extraordinaire" calls. Later in the day, Engine 2 and our medic truck were sent to a MVC at Hollins and Liberty. We arrived to find two vehicles involved in a low speed t-bone collision(still no fancy pics!). Two patients were taken to Roanoke Memorial with minimal injuries. Thanks to Engine 2, especially for Capt. Thompsons patient care "skills".
On anther note the medic truck ran a call a few weeks ago for a possible DOA with Engine 13. When we arrived 13's crew told us to watch out for a few beer cases as you walk into the apartment.......there had to be hundreds pilled to the ceiling as you enter in the kitchen. I call it Mt. Bud! The entire residence also had a lot of "clutter". It was a fine example of the unexpected hazards you may run into on any call anywhere. Here's a pic I was able to get on my phone, it was passed onto the fire marshal's office as well. Til next day....
RW

Making up for last day

The last blog entry for A shift had Engine 3 dead in the water for a majority of the tour, today however we made up for lost time.

A fire alarm began what would become a busy shift just after 0700 hours and the hits kept on coming. Medic 3 was out of service during the afternoon hours so that FF's Mulford and Bailey can hone their "advanced first aider" skills. Engine 3 was manned by the remaining 3 men, whom this day were a tad grumpier than usual as we were "fasting" in order to have blood work drawn as part of our yearly physical for the city. We were hoping to get to Station 2 quickly in order to have the nurse draw our blood so we could end our fast since midnight, which in firefighter time feels like 7 years, but it was not in the cards.

The residential box was struck for a chimney fire bringing 2 engines, a ladder, medic truck, BC and the EMS supervisor. Engine 3 arrived first with their own water supply, laddered the building and investigated the basement. The basement, first and attic divisions were clear, however the chimney definitely had some "issues." The boys from 2 ladder made the roof and deployed 2 "chimney bombs" and suppressed the blaze. After ending a thorough investigation of the residence all units cleared.

FF Barry Kincer and Lt. Jason Crouch "clean up the neighborhood."

As mentioned before, food is an essential part of firefighter life, because you never know when you will get a chance to eat, with our stomachs still on empty we returned to the fire house to get paperwork so we could finally get our blood drawn, but alas, what is that on the horizon, SMOKE SHOWING! The 3 men aboard engine 3 all noticed it at the same time, call it "firefighter instinct", or maybe because several people were jumping up and down in the middle of the street, but we just KNEW something was wrong. There it was.......a well involved "herbie!" Yes folks, a Herbie, the beloved large blue residential trash cans provided by the city for waste disposal, and this one was on fire! The Captain had faith in his crew and called control to hold engine 3 on the still alarm and not to "fill the box." Firefighter Abel emptied a 2.5 gal. water can into the can, however the stubborn inferno was still smoldering. After some quick "truck work" with a pike pole and some overhaul was done, a second water can was emptied to ensure the inferno was fully suppressed and a rekindle would not happen. Lesson to be learned here? Do not dispose of your fireplace ashes into a plastic trash can.

Alas FINALLY we had our blood drawn and could EAT! After a brief snack we headed to Kroger to get the necessary supplies for lunch and dinner. As lunch was being set at the table the "whoops" dropped yet again for a call to assist the County FD. Hypoglycemia would not deter or slow this crew down as Engine 3 was "first arriving" as the second due engine. It seems as though some folks also had food on their minds and burned some popcorn.

Things settled down for a bit in the afternoon but picked up again in the evening with Engine 3 running another chimney fire in 2's first due. Engine 3 finished the day with 9 runs, not bad for the new kid on the block.

That brings another chapter to a close. We turn the keys over to B Shift in the morning and won't be back until Sunday....to put another dent in that massive bag of pancake mix.

**As I finish this entry the bells toll yet again....make that 10 runs for the engine...good morning!

dja

A Shift back at the wheel

Take it Easy is more than just a hit song recorded by the Eagles, it has been the theme for the engine crew today. The engine only broke free from the concrete floor for a bit so the boys could go get the necessary supplies for breakfast and dinner. The medic crew however has been out there "gettin' it done!"

Speaking of breakfast, we are finally starting to put a dent in the mammoth bag of pancake batter provided by Lt. Bradbury, whom is off today celebrating his wife's birthday, Happy Birthday Tiff! Below is a picture of the 10 pound "bag of goodness" that quite possibly could feed all of Greenland, population 56,344 as of 2007.



While we are on the topic of food, with no exciting emergencies to speak of, why not show some firehouse life? In true MTV "Cribs" form, here is a pic of the A shift refrigerator. Nothing too exciting yet as we have not been stationed here long, however it is only a matter of time before some cool science experiments and penicillin supplies are being grown. Just your basic condiments, some left over pork chops from last day, moo and orange juice, Mulford made some banana pudding today that after eating has been likened to having a "crack addiction." Also noteworthy is the ridiculously large can of fried apples, also provided by Broadway and his bargain shopping skills!



Lastly, there is some controversy at Station 3. Earlier we described why the station has been dubbed the "Green House" due to it's environmentally friendly construction. However today it was noted in the parking lot there are some vehicles driven by the firefighters whom work at the green house that leave a larger than necessary "carbon footprint." How is it possible that the same folks whom strive to save mother earth for 24 hours while at work slap her in the face on their days off by driving these gas guzzlers? Yes, hard to believe I know, so in order to prove my point, photographs were taken of the "offending" vehicles. Note the "oversized" SUV tire, and the badging proudly displaying the totally unecessary number of cylinders required to move that vehicle down the road. This will be investigated further and we will report our findings.




Well that's all for now, A Shift will be back in the driver seat on Tuesday!

dja

Last day for C-shift

Last day started out nice and calm....a nice breakfast with our shiny new griddle. Did the usual washing out of the bay and discovered how easily the door sensors tripped and how much it aggravated Weev.....you can only guess how many times we tripped the door! Medic truck ran pretty steady all day, luckily Billy was able to scoop up some calls to satisfy his EMT-I stuff. As the captain was preparing to make some chili for us for dinner i snapped this shot, he was excited
to be wearing Schraders coveted apron.

Rummy has sort of become a part of our everyday activities and we discovered someone was holding back.....some might say that was me because I kicked all their a@$es....badly! Something tells me I will be wearing a bulls eye next game.

Not much to report on as far as interesting calls, engine ran a few uneventful alarms and a couple EMS runs one being a DOA. Tune it Thursday for the next episode from your friends at c-shift!

RW

St. Pattys Shirts

Per Dr. Mulford, whom was too preoccupied with his advanced street physician education to post this, the St. Pattys day shirts for Station 3 will be ordered Sat. Feb. 28th. The design is to the right at the top of the page, additionally there will be a Celtic design on the front of the shirt.

Short Sleeve Prices:
S-XL: $16.00
XXL: $18.00
Triple extra big boy: $20.00

Long Sleeve Prices:
S-XL: $18.50
XXL:$20.50
XXL: $22.50

Due to the current economic depression and in order to evade personal income tax increases with the new stimulus package recently signed into law Eric requires a CASH payment before ordering the shirt, NO EXCEPTIONS, unless you are a preceptor and exaggerate his patient care evaluations.

Any questions call Eric at 3-A.

dja

BARFF training galore!!

Don't you hate those days when you come in to work and before even having time to take a poo, you gots trainin' to do. That's what happened to the boys and girls here at the Green House this morning. At 0800 hrs we had ....ARFF training....yea! We learned all about runways, taxiways, lights, lines and of course nav points!! Good thing we had Phil Chitwood here from #13 to make iteven more fun. Don't we all look so enthused? Actually, there was really some good information in there and we learned how to get around on the other side of the fence...lol.

After hours of airport training, we were fortunate to hear the soothing sounds of acoustic guitar when Phil broke out his "axe" and played some classic rock. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to hearing his and Tim Jordan's band play when they get up and running.

Later that day we had another Brother from 13 to come fill end for the rest of the shift. Thanks Jason Gardener for coming and hanging out with us (sorry about sticking you on the gut box with Mulford but somebody's gotta do it)

As you know here at 3, alot of us are really playing up the whole "GREEN" aspect of the station.Check out Broadway's new shield for his helmet...

now before you go saying "that's gay" (especially you Stone) the lettering is actually green too, the flash from the camera gave it that blue look. Hey, there's nothing wrong with having a little fun at work right? Plus, someone's gotta start some traditions at a new station.

Well...that's about it for today. It's 2029 and we've ran 4 calls so far today. Saw a bit of smoke from some burning mulch and a chimney fire in 2's first due. Only one EMS call so far today too.

This pic is from the chimney fire...still don't know why they sent 3 engines a ladder a medic truck and Batt2 to a chimney fire but a call is a call. I know what you're thinking Good O....we should get use to seeing the back of fire engines...lol...we'll see. Should be an interesting night tonight. Lt. Broadway is on the seat of 3 Engine, Lt. Good O is on the seat of 9 Engine and 13 Engine is O.O.S. God help us!!! Goodnight all Bothers and Sisters....be safe and come back when you get a chance.

ARFF-tastic

As most of you may already know, we are being required to obtain airport badges to be able to fill in with the "elite"....ARFF. The engine and medic truck were OOS the better part of the morning doing ARFF like things. We rode around in the big green truck and Capt. Flora enlightened us with his airport know-how. With a few of us still needing to get our "driver" I'm sure we'll be coming back for more fun....We've also been doing some in-house training but by the looks of this drawing our next training we will be going back to kindergarten for a little "coloring 101"! On another note, another cut throat game of rummy ensued last night with a rematch scheduled for next day. We all looked forward to Schraders mad shuffling skills that closely resembled something out of the special olympics.....we love ya buddy! We also kept ourselves entertained with some light reading on "Ask Dixon", he's so knowledgeable! The medic truck kept pretty busy most of the afternoon but was able to sleep all night!(our sleep filled night is dedicated to our friends at #9, HA!) As far as the engine......they went to the store......end of story! One more day left for us......til next day.

RW

....Almost a no hitter

As we're all relaxin after dinner some of us were thinking......wow, it sure has been quiet today. 19:30ish and still no runs, oh gosh whats that? Fire tones! Multiple calls, flames showing! Woohoo, we got a worker, or at least those were my sentiments. As we're headin down the road Chief Barker makes it a working fire based on all the calls to control(my thoughts? sweet!). The fire was on Norton Ave NE, #2's first due. E2 arrives on scene, gives their size-up and starts making an intial attack. E3's task was water supply. We grab a hydrant and bring it up to E2, at the same time E14 had arrived on scene and assisted E2 in fire attack. Once we got to the house we performed a secondary search and vented as needed. Once that was complete we helped out with overhaul on the 2nd floor. Other units on scene were BC2, BC1, RS1, L2, E6, Bottle Truck and Investigation(sorry if I missed anyone). As far as I know, no citizens were hurt. We did have one firefighter(me) that got injured. I had an argument with a piece of glass and it won. I got a small lac to my wrist and when I showed it to Dr. Weaver he said I needed stitches and then patched me up. A visit to the ER and three stitches later I'm back on the engine ready for the next one! Thanks to Capt. Bo for "transporting" me and thanks to everyone for the well wishes.

On another note, our "hotel" recieved some fancy new entryway rugs. They sure are a shnazy addition to our little home. I hope while enjoying their royal treatment that the boys from #9 took the time to bask in the glory of our new mats. Here's a pic so everyone can enjoy them. Til next time......
RW

Sunday at the 3 house

Sunday started off with the usual apparatus checks and cleaning duties. Breakfast was on the stove when Station 3 had a familiar face stop by. Captain Riley Peters came by to check out the "Green House." Another place was set at the table and we all had a good breakfast with many great stories and memories shared between the two captains.


It was a steady day, unusual for a Sunday with several runs. An AFA was cleared in the County, food on the stove. An additional 2 alarms were run at a local hotel with a system malfunction being the culprit. Dinner was interrupted with a "washing machine on fire" at a local laundromat, which turned out to be a broken belt. Medic 3 stayed busy as well running from the county to south east city.


In the evening Lt. Bradbury kept his troops safe by killing several enemies. This of course was Call of Duty 5 and no people were harmed in the taking of this picture.


Lastly a congratulations is in order to Captain Firebaugh. The Captain let it slip that today was his 26th year on the job. A special cake was made for the Captain commemorating this great milestone. However, it only lasted a few minutes before the boys got to it. I nearly lost a hand taking this picture, it was the best I could do before the entire cake was devoured.


Well, this closes this episode of "3 A-Shift" as we are headed for 4 day break. Please tune in this Friday at 0700 for the next episode!

dja

Busy day for #3 A shift and fleet additions!

Friday the thirteenth.....ominous sounding right? Not only makes for a good movie, but for a busy day for the Station 3 A shifters. While Mulford was deep in thought at doctor school the crew of 3 engine attended a very informative IMS refresher class. ICS terminology was clarified and several scenarios using the training divisions fire simulator made for a great refresher. Thanks to Chief Beckner and Lieutenant German for their time.

After returning to our district 3 engine was kept busy on several calls ranging from a severely bleeding patient to a person with a bruise on their elbow. Many thanks to the medic units responding in while Eric dedicated himself in the ways of the jedi-
medic.

There have been a couple new additions to the fleet at 4803 Williamson Road. First, our KME and front line engine suffered a cardiac event and required transport to the city garage. Currently her "heart" (Detroit 60 series) is grotesquely strewn about the floor of on of the mechanics bays, they didn't even bother to cover it with a sheet! After briefly talking to one of the surgeons (mechanics) our KME will indeed make a full recovery, however her stay in the ICU will be lenghty, please keep her in your prayers for a speedy recovery. In the meantime Reserve Engine 905, formerly known as Engine 7 in a prior life is proudly serving in place of the KME. One of the several Grumman engines that were purchased some time ago. It is indeed refreshing to ride in the Grumman, the roar of the diesel, no fancy climate controlled cabs or TAC 4 suspensions, just a fire engine and the open road, good times.



We also had the return of an old friend and the newest addition to the Station 3 family, Lawn Tractor 10, soon to be re-stickered as Lawn and Garden 3, or LG-3 for short. After our departure from Station 10 the old girl was sent out for an overhaul in order to convert it from ARFF to a city suppression unit to prepare it for the dog days of summer that are hopefully on the horizon. LG-3 will not be manned, staffing will need to be made up from engine 3 or medic 3 when it is requested. We welcome her back to the family and even saw that it got its own Nederman exhaust hook up!



Speaking of old friends, anybody that has worked or filled in at Station 10 are no stranger to our good friend Glen. Glen is a super guy who loves listening to his scanner and being "in the know" about what is going on in the city. Station 3 is much closer to Glen's house so he hopes to be a more frequent visitor. Glen came in and shared a cup of joe with the guys before heading out to Radio Shack and purchasing a new cable to program his scanner.



Well, its almost bed time, better get one last pot of coffee on, this could be a rough night.

dja

A Windy Day in the Neighborhood

Greetings from #3 C-shift! Most everyone in the city noticed all that wind blowing around today. So far it's caused a few false alarms for us. Not sure if this was a result of the wind or the skilled drivers that frequent our beautiful city but we also ran a two-car MVA at the intersection of Thirlane and Aviation. There was moderate damage to both vehicles, took one person with minimal injuries to Roanoke Memorial. The Engine Company had some car pieces to sweep up, boy did they do a great job! We hope to start carrying a digital camera around with us to be able to catch all the action. In addition to all these calls, the weave intiated a game of Rummy after dinner........looks like a pretty shady game with shady people! We hope to keep this thing updated on a regular basis if not only to keep #9 on their toes!

RW

Our Home

Welcome all to our home on the internet! Pictured above is our "real home." Earlier this month Roanoke Fire-EMS Station #3 officially opened its doors at 4803 Williamson Road NE, proudly serving the "north side" of Roanoke City.

So some of you may ask "what's the deal with the green house?" In the City of Roanoke's Clean and Green initiative this fire station was designed to be environmentally friendly and to be "LEED Certified." This certification is the bench mark for building construction that has little impact on the environment. Some of the "green" features of this station include a gray water collection system and a food composter!

In the future we hope to have a "virtual tour" of the fire station online in addition to pictures of the apparatus housed here and the folks that ride in them. In the meantime if you would like a tour of the station, please call Tiffany Bradbury at (540) 853-5785 and she will be happy schedule one. We hope to be updating this blog regularly so please stop by and see what's going on!

dja

Well, some of us here have picked The Incredible Hulk as our official unofficial mascot. It was between Captain Planet(you remember him from the 80's), Kermit the Frog or the Hulk. Of course, we are going with our "GREEN" theme here being we work at the Green station and all. Obviously we decided to go with the Hulk. He's mean, green and super strong and of course "Hulk smash fire!!"...lol. Now to get a decal for the truck.....

The Station 3 Blog

Welcome all to 3's blog. We were asked by some of the guys @ 9 to start a blog too. I think it's a great idea. I see that 6 has started one as well. I think this will be a great moral boost for the department. Nothing wrong with having a little light hearted fun right? Our plan is to keep this blog goofy and fun with a bit of info on some of the calls and training going on here (plus we have friendly competition thing going on with 9....at least on A shift....lol.) So, hopefully in the next few days will have it going pretty good and start posting some stuff wether or not it will be interesting is yet to be determined. Keep coming by and visiting us.

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