Essentials, 1st Night (and a call)

Went to the fire company after work, and rode up with four other FFs for the first night of the Essentials class. (Actually, the official name of the class is Introduction to the Fire Service.) It's the 16-hr first of four classes that end up being 160+ hours of instruction, with the later classes being much more hands-on than this first.

The instructor (whose name I forget) is pretty likable and seemed quite knowledgeable, and I'm thinking I'll like the class. We got materials: 1 course book and 1 workbook, both of which are pretty thick, and will be used for all four classes. We went through about an hour of history, and a couple hours of safety. Apparently it's easy to be unsafe when you're in a hurry; most on-scene injuries happen at the beginning (when you're rushing around and not sure what's where) and at the end (when you're not paying as much attention and/or fatigued from the call). Also of interest, fully half of FF deaths are from heart attacks, many preventable simply by not over-exerting while being in full gear.

Anyway, after class I went home, went to bed, then got paged at 4am. Got to the station, but while Squad got dispatched, it didn't go out, (perhaps just because of no driver?), so I sat around for a few minutes, just to be sure, then went back home. Apparently it was a truck fire that was easily contained. Again, had I not been new and hence not allowed on the engines, I would have easily made either engine out. So I guess I'm still waiting for my 2nd call.