CERTIFIED

Three big exams, one graduation, way too many nights of celebrating our achievements and I'm finally finished the three longs months of Fire Recruit Academy. I'll just get it out of the way: It's was totally worth it.

The Captains, Instructors and even Chiefs went above and beyond for us. The Laredo Fire Department taught us like their own cadets and we're all better for it. So, thank you Captain Perez, Instructor Meyers, Ins. Rojas, Ins. Edwards, Cap. Manning, Cap. Sherwood, Chiefs Gonzalez and Hughes, Cap. Morales, Ins. Rodriguez & Ins. Lopez. I am fortunate to have met you and I've learned more than I could imagine. Eh!

The final exams for TEEX, ProBoard and The Texas Commission were all varying in difficulty but I managed to score well on each. 91.7% on the TEEX final exam. 88.5% on the ProBoard which is often considered the most difficult of the three. 93.75% on the Texas Commission which is supposed to be easy but I didn't find it that much easier than the ProBoard. Even though I did get my grades for these tests, they are ultimately a pass or fail (70%) grade resulting in certification. So I'm CERTIFIED! It feels good, real good.

A few of us celebrated in Austin on Thursday night, certified-style. You can't argue with $3 drinks, so we didn't. It was a great send off.

Before we hit Austin though I was appointed Barbecue Tour Director and my task was to find the best barbecue Texas had to offer between Laredo and Austin. Fortunately for me, three of the top five are all right around there in Luling and Lockhart. We almost went to City Market in Luling but the Program Coordinator at TEEX caught wind of this and flat out told me "You're making a damn mistake." They don't mince words down in Texas, especially when they're talking about barbecue. He redirected us to Kreuz Market, Lockhart, TX.

Kreuz Market is known for their Shoulder Clod (like a lean brisket) and defiant position on barbecue sauce - there is none, and don't ask for it. Their meat doesn't need it - oh yeah? Well, they're right. Rudy's being the benchmark, I'd say this brisket was superior. Best ever? It was. They use oak instead of mesquite, which gives it a much more mellow taste. They're gentle on the rub (salt and pepper I think, that's it) and the meat is truly tender and moist without sauce. Their Jalapeño cheese sausage was the best I've ever tasted. This place is huge, I mean it'll seat 300 people if need be. You actually order from the pit itself. Barbecue heaven.

So that's that, it's been a long journey that is far from over but this part is done. It was an experience and I highly recommend it.

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Live Fire II

It just keeps getting better and better. We've been doing scenarios, rolling up lights-and-sirens in the engine and assessing the scene, rescuing the victims and turning off the fire. It takes a lot of quick thinking, communication and team work. Each man has a job which must be preformed at the right time or everything can fall apart. One wrong move, one hesitation or a bit of tunnel vision and the whole operations spirals into failure.

Our facepieces have become part of our ensemble like a pair of sunglasses or a baseball hat. Sweat lets you know you're still alive. And when you get out and bunker down the cool 30ºC breeze is a welcome relief. Refill the tank, have a bit of water and do it all again.

I'm not sure how he knew, but Captain Sherwood called me out to assist in filming some of our burns with his iPhone. 3,000km from home and some how I'm still at work. I don't mind though, really. It means I get to go twice as often as the other guys and experience the burn from incipient to extinguishment. And it turns out that iPhones can take a lot of heat. It's also interesting that if your bunker gloves are wet they can conduct electricity from your finger to the screen - making them a $50 pair of superheat resistant iPhone gloves.

Our final experience on the fireground was with the propane and kerosene props. They were our night burns. Fireballs, thirty foot flames, ungodly screeches from steel structures - everything you could ask for. We went out with a bang, an extremely loud and incredibly awesome bang.

Live Fire

Last week we finally started live fire training. This week we'll finish it up. We put the wet stuff on the red stuff (and we're not suppose to say that because there's more to it than just water and fire.) But we did. The unfortunately thing about all this is that I can't really show what the fire looks like in there because it's over 1000ºF in the burn room and I'd rather not melt my camera. I might take the ol' iPhone in as Captain Sherwood seems to think it'd be alright for a short period of time. We'll see about that.

There's practice with water, hoses, smoke and black masks and then there's live fire. Practice like you play. We bring it all together in the burn room, 'pencil' a bit of water into the hot gas layer at the ceiling then hit the fire with a few short bursts until it 'darkens down'. There's a lot of lingo in this business but once you get to really putting out the flames it makes much more sense. What a rush! I know now that I'd be happy to do this for the rest of my life. There's nothing like it. I finally know I made the right decision coming all this way, putting everything on hold and following a dream that seemed a little less than half baked just a few months ago. This job is awesome.

Blue Suits

I thought the snowsuits we've been wearing were hot but nothing compares to being sealed up in a blue tarp spacesuit. The blue suits are chemical protective clothing designed to withstand some pretty horrendous situations. When tank cars rupture and eighteen wheelers rollover they're usually filled with some sort of pressurized and often flammable, toxic or corrosive material. That kind of mess needs the attention of a HAZMAT Technician to confine and contain the spill so it doesn't spread or negatively impact the population or environment.

It's so hot in these suits that your gloves fill up with sweat. We walked around the the training field, climbed up and down a train car and continued walking until we were out of air. I lasted 40min15sec. on my SCBA in the suit. After you run out of air, which is inherently obvious because the facepiece sucks into your face when you try to breath, you're left with the atmosphere in the suit. To get the full experience we were instructed to continue breathing the suit air. Apparently you've got another five minutes of breathable air in there. It was pretty heinous.


This is me.