Additional Post Five: Size Up

During the month of January I was able to find lots of informative and interesting articles on firefighting. Although each and every source was useful in some way, none have been as beneficial as the most recent one that I came across while on  the website Fireengeneering.com. "Critical Components of Size Up," by Bill Gustin in an amazing 12 page article packed with an overwhelming amount of information related to my first essential question answer. This piece goes into depth about what a size up is, and it describes various components which make it up. Aside from being descriptive, this article also came with several different examples and scenarios of firemen conducting size ups. One of my favorite aspects of this piece was that it also included several different images which really helped me visualize what a firefighter might expect in the real life. All in all, I found Gustin's article to be extremely easy to understand and useful.

If you would be interested in taking a look at  "Critical Components of Size Up," by Bill Gustin click the link below: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jekC36jUAY4YMaRMwNGmXSNt916cnlThYzigUokH_r4/edit

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

1. What is the best way for a group of firefighters to limit injuries and fatalities while fighting structural fires?
2. What is an important ability that can be found to be most useful when fighting fires?
3. How can someone help protect themselves as well as their partners while on duty?
4. How do you usually handle high stress situations?
5. Can you tell me about some common injuries that firefighters tend to get?
6. How can firefighters avoid seemingly normal injuries? 
7. Have you ever been hurt while on the job? If so,what would you recommend others do in order to avoid your injury?
8. Can you explain to me some of the major safety precautions that you and everyone else in your station take when fighting fires?
9. What aspect of the fire service would you change in order to help make you feel safer while in dangerous situations? 
10. In your opinion, what's the most important skill to have, which could be used to save a life?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

 I am currently doing my mentorship at fire station 166 in the City of El Monte. The address is:

3615 Santa Anita Avenue
El Monte, CA 91731

2.   Who is your contact?

 My contact is the explorer post adviser. His name is FireFighter Cunningham and also works at station 166 were I'm doing my mentorship.

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?   

 So far I have completed 58 hours of service learning at my stations. These hours reflect my time spent at the station since the begging of the summer when I first started attending the explore program.

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

The first 10 hours that I have logged onto my mentorship log were spent basically getting introduced into the explorer programs and getting debriefed on what's expected of me as an L.A. County Explorer. I also partook in physical training the days I completed the hours and learned about the different types of fire trucks that the station has.


5.   Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number confirming who they should call to verify it.  

DONE.

Blog 10: The Holiday

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you over the break with your senior project?

This break I continued to work on my senior project by continuing to attend my fire explorer program. Although I did not continue to write my hours into my independent component log 1 since I am done already, I did attend my weekly meetings throughout the break and expanded my knowledge. In these past two meetings that I have attended my post advisory had choose to teach us about throwing ladders, which is basically how you would put a ladder onto a building. I also worked on my senior project by completing my months additional post, which I choose to write about ladders since that was the most recent subject that I had been taught about. 

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

The most important thing that I probably learned during the break would have to be how to properly throw a ladder. I only learned one method of throwing a ladder onto a building, the method I learned is called the beam raise, but none the less, this method is still very important. The source of what I learned came from my post advisory and certified explorers at my post.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

I'm thinking about asking another fellow firefighter at my station who usually helps my post advisory when he's not able to make a meeting. His name is Firefighter Abadie, and is a very respectable and knowledgeable firefighter who was once an explore like me. He is very approachable and I would asking him for help because I know that he has lots of experience in the fire service.