My First Real Fire

by Lee Weaver, American-Firefighter.com

I had been on the department for about four months when I went to my first "real" fire. I'd been to quite a few medical calls, chimney fires, minor M.V.A.s and of course plenty of false alarms, but nothing very serious. I was about two blocks from the station when we got toned out for an R.V. on fire. I was the first one in and the adrenaline was already pumping. Within a few seconds we had a crew of five and Engine 24 was headed to the scene code 3. Within a few seconds of leaving the apparatus bay dispatch informed us that it was a mobile home fire rather than an R.V. fire. About 30 seconds later the Chief was on scene and reported TWO mobile homes burning, one fully involved. We were about 3 blocks from the fire coming down a hill when I looked out the window and saw it. What a scene it was. Two mobile homes ablaze and Engine 22 just pulling in. We pulled in just behind 22 and I jumped out ready to go. I walked around the front of the engine and froze. The Engineer of Engine 24 looked at me and said, "What are you doing? Get in there!" I shouted back "What do I do?" Engine 22's Engineer yelled, "Get your ass in there and fight fire!" That was all I needed to hear. I grabbed a hose line to back up another firefighter and we started fighting that fire. I'm still not sure why I hesitated, but it never happened again and I took it as a learning experience.

We had to knock down the fire in the first mobile home as the winds were pushing the flames into the second. Once we had it knocked down enough we headed around to the other side of the second trailer and prepared to make entry and attempt to save as much as we could. There were two doors at a right angle to each other. First I grabbed the sliding glass door to open it and it wouldn't budge. Then I grabbed the doorknob of the second door and it was locked. I grabbed the sliding glass door again and still nothing. As we were about to break the glass one of our veteran firefighters came up. He grabbed the doorknob and nothing. Then he grabbed the sliding glass door and it opened right up. To this day I haven't been able to figure that out.

The firefighter I was with had been on the department about a year longer than I. He knew I'd never made entry before and he handed me the nozzle. I started heading into the house when he grabbed my shoulder and said "Get down!" Another mistake I never made again. Crawling on the floor I felt my way through the smoke and heat. I made my way through and soon saw that orange glow. We knocked the fire down and saved most of the house.

I learned a lot that day. The most important thing I learned was that this was definately what I wanted to do with my life. That was the day I became a fireman.