Assisting Mutual Aid Company

3:30am this morning, pager went off, "Standby in Station". The page was for engine 1, which I don't get to ride yet, but I went anyway to see what it was about. Maybe 6-8 of us made it in, and sat around talking. "Standby" means be in station, ready to run if they need us; in this case, "they" were an adjacent mutual aid comapny, at a dwelling fire.

4:00am, they call County (via radio), requests Squad for additional manpower. So we dress and respond in non-emergency mode (i.e. no sirens, no running red lights, etc). As we arrived, everything had been put out, and we were there to help with cleanup of the dwelling.

Not only do we put the fire out, but we also need to make sure that it doesn't start back up again, and we need to make at least an initial determination as to what started the fire. That process (overhaul) means pulling out anything exposed to the (now-extinguished) fire and making sure that everything else is cool enough to not re-ignite. That takes work, which is what they wanted help with. We had a couple of guys in airpacks go inside to assist, while I and others setup lights outside, then once it was deemed safe to remove the airpacks, we went inside to help ferry out bins of ash and other debris.

An ambulance was there as a precaution; apparently the residents got out safely and were uninjured. They also had water available for all of us workers, and while it wasn't that hot out, and even though we took off our turnout coats fairly soon after arriving, I was still working, walking up and down both stairs and an inclined driveway, and was still in helmet and bunker pants, so I was sweating a good bit, and the water was welcome.

I could see the practical side of safety. While all the firefighting had finished before we arrived, lots of people were going up and down both interior and exterior stairs that were shared between people, charged hoselines and electrical cables. It really pays to be attentive to surroundings, as even if you're accustomed to the environment normally (which we weren't, never having been there before), it's not normal conditions now.

An air unit was dispatched to the scene. Presumably among other many things, an air unit will recharge airpacks, and a few of us were tasked with making sure all of our airpacks were charged and put back on Squad.

We also helped bring equipment back out to the primary company's engines as they finished with it, and did some light clean-up in the residence with a Shop-Vac, then packed up and returned to station, getting back around 5:20am, and back home around 5:30am. My 2nd call.