My First Call

Of course, it's Murphy's Law. As soon as I get my pager (Tue night), no calls come in for days. Mind you, no calls mean a peaceful district, but I've still been wondering when I get to go out.

Well, 3am this morning, the pager goes off. An "investigation" at a nearby convenience store. The shock of jumping out of bed had my heart pumping more than anything else, but I got quickly dressed and was out the door. By the time I got to my car, I was mostly calmed down, and drove (quickly but safely!) to the station. The store was actually closer to my house than the station, but you go to the station and suit up first.

I was maybe 4th or 5th out of a total of 12-15 FFs who responded. Had I been qualified, I would have easily made the 1st engine out, but I rode the squad as instructed, with the driver and one other guy. (The call was for both engines and the squad.) I didn't time it, but I'm fairly certain I had my gear on in less than 60 secs, (which is one of the things to get checked off for training).

By the time the squad was ready to go, the chief(s) were already on-scene, and had determined that we didn't need engine 2, and squad was instructed to come in non-emergency (which means no sirens for me this call).

Turns out, an oven got turned on with some paper in it, and was generating some smoke. We put a large fan at the back door, propped open the front, and ventilated; the chiefs then checked things out to make sure all was well. Then we rode back to the station, signed the call book, and went home. I was back in bed by 4am.

Of course, when I say "we" above, I simply watched as others did the doing. Completely expected.

A neat, uneventful first call.