Additional Post 9: Mentorship

Although senior year is coming to an end, I have still continued to attend my mentorship at fire station 166 in the beautiful city of El Monte. Today the other explorers and I got the opportunity to climb up the 100 foot ladder that is located on the quint. Originally the firefighters were only conducting a routine equipment check, but as they noticed that us explorers had just finished the daily house work and were just waiting for our post adviser to finish they decided to let us have a go at walking up the huge ladder. As I started to walk up the massive ladder I was surprised to find that it was very stable and only began to shake the higher I got. Once at the top I had to get off the ladder and step onto the tower which was right next to the ladder. The firefighters reminded us to always have at least 3 point in contact with the ladder as we stepped onto the tower. We also learned how we would sound for the roof of a building in order to check for any weak points within a structure. All in all today was a very exciting day at station 166.

Additional Post 8: Station 166 Quint

During the month of April I was fortunate enough to get an in depth tour of the station's quint. A quint is a combination of a fire truck and a fire engine. It has the capability of pumping water, while still having an aerial ladder. The ladder itself is an astonishing 100 feet long. This fire apparatus was practically built to respond to multiple story structural fires. It comes equipped with a number of tools, one being the jaws of life, which is used to extract people who are trapped within cars. It also has a generator, blower, and rotary saw within its several compartments. The image below shows our stations quint parked inside the apparatus floor.

Additional Post 7: 55th Class Graduation

Two weeks into the month of March post ten and I attended L.A. County's 55th Explorer Graduate Academy. It was a great ceremony that was packed with several other explorers throughout the county. Four people from my post graduated that day. The ceremony itself lasted about two hours and afterwards there was a demonstration. During the demonstration a car was blown up and a helicopter swarmed the area. It was quite a scene! All in all that day was great and I left leaving proud to be an explorer. The picture below was taken during the demonstration.

Additional Post 6: Search and Rescue

Two weeks into the month of February I got the chance to be part of a search and rescue stimulation with the other fire explorers in my post. The firefighters on hand split all the explorers into groups of four and proceeded by putting towels inside our masks in order to insure we couldn't see anything. Aside from that, they had a smog machine running in order to represent smoke and make the stimulation feel more realistic.

The objective of the stimulation was for my group and I to stay as low as we possibly could to the ground  and follow the water hose up the stairs in order to find a life size dummy and work together as a group to pull it out. The hardest part was communicating, while still trying to extract the dummy from the building. We were all tired from dragging it across the stairs and in order to talk to one another we had to scream as loud as we could due to the masks that we were wearing. Through out the entire exercise we where using breathing apparatuses to take in air, but towards the end the instructors took us off that air supply, which ultimately made the task much harder for us. In the end it was rewarding to see that our communication skills and teamwork allowed us to successfully take the dummy out of the building. 

The video above shows the other explorer and I dragging the dummy out of the building. (Please excuse the bad quality)

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

Additional Post Four: Ladders

I've recently gotten the opportunity to learn about ladders and how one can safely throw them onto a structure. During my last explorer meeting I was shown how to effectively put a ladder against a building with the aid of a partner.

We used a 24 foot long extension ladder, as shown above, and were taught how to throw a ladder using a method known as the beam raise. There are two other ways of throwing a ladder aside from this one, but I have found this method to be very effective so far. This method is primarily used when there is a lack of surrounding space when attempting to throw the ladder.  This type of evolution is known as the beam raise because it requires the beam of the ladder, or the two supporting side sections, to be raise adjacent to the building. The video below does a good job illustrating how a proper beam raise should be done.

I was taught the exact same thing that is shown in the video above, but it is important to note that the same job can be done using just one person. In my case I used a partner for safety and strength purposes. I hope to continue to learn more about ladder and much more in the future.

Additional Post Three: Spark of Love

As time has passed I have slowly begun to learn the importance of community service and giving back to people in need. For the month of November I was fortunate enough to help run the Spark of Love toy drive, which is run by the L.A. County Fire Department. This toy drive helps give Christmas presents to many orphaned children around California.

I helped run this toy drive by giving up one of my days to help the organizers count some of the toys that had been donated. I probably spent about half my day counting and rearranging a total of 1 thousand toys, which is not much considering that in total this toy drive gets around 500,000 thousand donations.  Although the work was long and tiresome, mainly because all I did was move boxes and and count toys, in the end it was all worth it because I got to witness another side of the fire department that I really hadn't before. I'm referring to the "giving back" side of firefighting. I've learned that it's not always about your fire station and the people in it, but it's also about the people around you. This single event has changed the way I look at giving back to your community and helped me learn that if you really want to help make a difference you can. 

If you or anyone you know would like to make a donation to help make a small difference in a child's life, feel free to click on the link provided below. The smallest contributions can help make a big difference. Thank you. 

Donations Link: https://www.calfund.org/page.aspx?pid=622

Additional Post Two: Mentorship

During the month of October I did many things at my service learning in fire station 166. One of the most memorable things that I have had the opportunity to do was help during El Monte's Children Day Parade with the rest of my fire explorer post. 

My duty for the day was to put on a costume, in the blazing sun, and wave at the pedestrians during the parade. Although it was extremely tiring, the experience was well worth it because I got the be in the parade with the rest of my fellow explorers. Aside from that I later had to help clean up and put stuff away once the parade was over. 

This experience showed me that being an explorer doesn't only consist of meeting on the weekends and learning about something new, we also have to give back the the community and the people even if it means getting your hands a little dirty. 

The picture above is me prior to the parade. I only had a piece of the costume on. 

Additional Post One: S.C.B.A.

Since I have joined the fire explorers program this summer I have learned many new things. Our post tends to focus on a different topic of firefighting each month (sometimes week). For the month of September the other explorer and I focused the majority of our time learning about SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatuses).

The image above shows a firefighter wearing a SCBA.

The purpose of a SCBA is to provide compressed air to firefighters in an IDLH (immediately danger to life or health) atmosphere. I have learned the 8 major components of a SCBA, how to properly care for and inspect a SCBA, and the 3 most common ways of donning a SCBA.

There are 8 major components that make up a SCBA. These components include:

The image above shows a SCBA.

1. Air Cylinder
2. Facepiece
3. Voice Projection Unit
4. Backpack Harness and Frame
5. Integrated PASS Device
6. Air Gauge/Alarm
7. 1st Stage Regulator and hose
8. 2nd Stage Regulator 

*Firefighters are expected to inspect their SCBAs daily at the start of each shift and after each use.

• They also have to test their SCBA at least once a week to make sure that every component is properly functioning. 

Aside from learning the parts of a SCBA and when to care for it, we also had to learn how to don a SCBA. There are 3 proper methods of donning a SCBA.

1. The first method is known as the Overhead Method.
1. This method of donning the SCBA is called the overhead method because when you are initially putting the SCBA on you have to throw the bottle over your head in order for the backpack harness/frame to slide down your back. 

1. The second method is known as the Sling Method.
1. This method of donning the SCBA is called the sling method because when you are initially putting the SCBA on you have to grab a strap with one hand and sling it onto the opposite shoulder.

1. The third method is known as the Crosshand Method.
1. This method of donning the SCBA is called the crosshand method because when you are initially putting the SCBA your hands are cross over one another. 

*After learning the three methods of donning a SCBA we had to practice putting them on so that it takes no longer than 1 minute. 

Overall, an SCBA is an extremely useful piece of equipment that is used often by firefighters, which is why it is so important that firefighters know every part of it.