First semi-full shift on the job

Yesterday was my "first" day responding to calls as a Fire Fighter! The guys at the house are great! So far none of them have given me any crap for being the new guy and they spend a great amount of their time answering all of my questions, trying to find new questions for me, giving me repeated runs downs of the apparatus and much more.

Another cool thing was the Lt. had me perform repeated exercises in getting into my bunker gear, the fire fighter suits you see on T.V.. The average for an experienced Fire Fighter is just under one minute (Pants and boots, cowl, jacket, SCBA mask, SCBA tank, helmet, and gloves). There is a certain way it all goes on and this stuff is like putting on several thick quilts. Arm reach is significantly reduced! When I was done I had it down to a minute and 30 seconds and now I am much more confident in my ability to at least get going on the truck.