Cee Lo Green

  I don't even know where to begin this one.  But keeping with my tradition of my blogs having an accompanying song, this blog's song is Cee Lo Green's "Forget You!"

  I'm just gonna start this with the way it happened to me.  I went and picked up my paycheck today.

  I had 4 hours overtime, so I was expecting a good paycheck.  I was surprised to see a less than "normal" paycheck.  My 4 hours overtime in Feb of 2012 pay is $25 less than my regular pay in Dec of 2011.

  Let's rewind a bit.  I'm a firefighter.  That's my job.  On the worst day of your life, I'm expected to be on my best.  You have no idea what to do to solve your particular problem, but I'm supposed to have all the answers.  Fear not, I do have all the answers, that's why you call 911.  That's why I answer, because I have thought of all the possible problems.  If I haven't, my brothers have.  You haven't thought about any of them.  That's why we go through countless hours of training!  I signed a blank check payable up to and including my life in 1990 to do this.  I WANT to help people.  To me, it's not a job, it's not what I do.  It's who I am.  I don't expect you to understand that, but I'm grateful that I do.  I'm grateful that my brothers do.  It's just who we are.

  In October of 2011, the city told me and my brothers that there was no money.  We signed a 3 year contract, agreeing to no pay raises and no increases of any kind.  For 3 years.  The City also told us that health care costs were going up, and that it would cost us more.  Fair enough, we're here to do our part!

  In December of 2011, the Mayor and the Auditor saw it appropriate to give themselves an $11,000 and a $10,000 raise, respectively.  The auditor then had the audacity to complain that the raise would be given to her over a period of time, rather than an "all at once" raise.  Both the Mayor and Auditor, are PART TIME positions in the city.  PART TIME.

  Saving lives is NOT a part time job.  It's not a game.  It's something I and my brothers take serious.  VERY serious.

  Back to current day, I pick up my pay.  I worked 4 hours overtime, and my pay is $25 less than the normal pay I've seen for 22 years.  Saving lives for the City  is NOT a part time job.  My "slow" week is FIFTY-SIX hours.  My work weeks are 72-56-72.  So, according to my employer, my government, and YOUR governer (I didn't vote for the idiot!) my 72 hours a week is no longer enough, I have to give more.

  SEVENTY-TWO hours per week away from my family isn't enough.  So much not enough, that I have to have a part-time job in addition, another 18-20.  But today when I get my check, I realize that the 72 I put in isn't enough either, I need to do more.  More than the 4 hours overtime I already put in.  So, let's try 80 hours at my career, and another 20 at my part time job.  Maybe that will be enough.

  80 hours per week, that should do it!  But the Governor is complaining about Public - Private employee equality.  OK, fair enough.  I walk into buildings that are on fire for a living, buildings that are owned by the private sector.  I'm the voice of comfort to your wife/mother/daughter that was just in a car wreck while you were on the way to work.  No worries!  I got her!  Your son has an asthma attack while he's at school? Got him to!

  I am the comforting soul, that has heard and understood the last words countless people spoke on this earth.  I've also heard people tell me that their about to die, and I told them NOT ON MY WATCH!  I've been right, I've been wrong.  I've taught, I've learned.

  And I have done this too god damn many times.

  I have brought that anguish back to my family, laid it upon them, and cried in their arms.  And then started my 72 hour work week 2 hours later.  And the government tells me that 76 hours aren't enough, I need to put in 80 because the private worker puts in 40?

  I have NOTHING against the private sector, you all take care of my family just as I take care of yours!  That's a deal I signed up for a long time ago, and I'm gonna see it through!  You can take that to the bank!

  To all these politicians that are in it for themselves, and making it they're personal agenda?  "Forget you, and uh, forget her too!"  And also to those politician, THANK YOU!  You just reminded me why I do this!

  It's not for the paycheck I was just complaining about.  It's not for the recognition we deserve.  It's not to make long coat tails for you to ride on.

  It's for the weak, the unknowing.  It's for the timid, the fearful.  It's for those truly in need.  Something a politician will never understand.

  Not only is it for the one's in need, it's also for those of us who are deemed worthy of service to a fellow man.  By serving others, we also serve our own need to serve.  We hope our paths never cross, but if they do, you will never for get us, and we will never forget you.

   We are The Warriors.  

  I'll be there for you tomorrow if you need me.  If you DON'T need me, I'll still be there.  So will my brothers!

  THAT is who we are.

FTM-PTB-KTF

Back In The Saddle ~ Aerosmith

Have ya noticed all my blogs are titled inline with a song?

  This blog is entitled "Back In The Saddle" because literally, tomorrow I get to be back on the job.  The job I love, what I've been trained to do.  Who I am.

  The job I love hurt me.  I've been off work for just over a month.  Well, let me explain.

  This job ALWAYS hurts anyone that signs up for it.  It's the nature of the beast.  A child injured by a car running a stop sign.  An elderly person not able to live alone anymore.  A teenager heading down the wrong path and overdosing.  A family living in a hotel because their house caught on fire.  A middle aged father sent to a wheelchair because of a car wreck he didn't cause.  Pulling the remains of someone that was alive yesterday out of a fire in front of his family today.  Knowing I am the LAST person you will see and talk to on this earth.  Literally watching the soul leaving the person in my arms.

  I have done ALL of the above.  This job HURTS.

  About a month ago, The Job literally hurt me.  It was a "stupid" injury.  But the doctors and the MRI explained that The Job has been causing this since day 1.  I haven't been able to go back to it.  To be who I am, what I do, what WE do, what I am trained for.  According to the Doctors, the MRI, and X-Rays, I wasn't ALLOWED to got back to work.  But tomorrow my friends, I AM!

  There is an undying spirit among us, YOUR FIREFIGHTERS.  It truly is a calling, a need to help those in need.

  I truly hope, that I sit there and do NOTHING tomorrow.  That means that no one under my care needs help, and I'm OK with that.

  But if you need me, US, I'll come running with bells and whistles!  It's who I AM.

It's not something we do, IT'S WHO WE ARE.

Pulp Fiction

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. 
  And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers! And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you!"  
Ezekiel 25:17


  We do not make $12.6 Million per year because we're good at football, a game.


  We do not make $8.2 Million per year because we're good at basketball, a game.


  We do not make $6.3 Million per year because we're good at baseball, a game.


  We do not belong to the NFL, the NBA, or the MLB, all of which have striked in the past because of what they felt were unfair terms to their contracts.


  We DO belong to the IAFF.  The International Association of Fire Fighters.  We have never been on strike.  We are ALWAYS there when you need us.


  We DO make $40,000 per year because we're good at coming up with last minute desperate solutions to impossible problems that are caused by other people.  We're good at being a firefighters.  We do not do a fancy end zone touch down dance.  There are no video cameras on us when we're warming up on the "sidelines."  There are definitely no cameras on us when we're at work, because there are no camera men brave enough to follow us.


What we do IS NOT a game!






  We truly do find lost children.  And ANY Firefighter will tell you


"I AM MY BROTHER'S KEEPER."




  If you live in Ohio, PLEASE VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2!

KORN "Wake Up!"

  Actually the title of the song is "Wake The Fu*K Up."

  So much going on with YOUR governor right now, so much with training and little issues on our, and probably your, department right now.  WHAT A CONFUSING TIME!!!
  So what does The Warrior do?  

 HE WAKE'S THE FUCK UP!  That's what The Warrior does!


  We have a governor putting the screws to us, we have State, County, and Local budgets putting the screws to us.  But we still get on the rig, and do what we do.  There is NOTHING that can keep us from that, no matter how fair or not.  We are what we are.  When off duty, we hold doors for strangers, we rush in to help at the little league baseball game when someone else's kid is hurt, we don't park in handicapped spaces, we always think of others FIRST, it's not a thought, it's who we are.  We fly the flag to honor the true heroes. You call us heroes, but not one of us thinks that way, we're just "Doing what WE do!"  We KNOW who the true heroes are!

  We're not looking for a handout.  We're not looking for money from the State.  What we are looking for is a well deserved pension.  Gov Kasich compares us to the private sector employees.  When was the last time a private employee was sleeping, woke up at 02:17 AM, put on 80 lbs of extra equipment, showed up in 2 minutes, and had Grandma on oxygen within 4 minutes of the time she called 911?  Do Gov Kasich's private employees do that? If so, I was unaware.

  My whole problem with Gov Kasich being a manipulative liar, deliberately confusing tax payers by changing SB5 to issue 2, rearranging committee members to force his bill to pass, and MANY other things, is that those same actions would get you and I fired from our job, our job to protect the citizens of Ohio from unknown perils.

  That IS our job!  To protect unknown citizens from unknown perils.  I "thought" that's why we hired a governor?  To protect us, the tax paying citizens of Ohio from unknown perils.

  I guess not!

  The MOST HATED GOV IN THE USA belongs to you!  The citizen of Ohio!  Congrats!

  Now on to the purpose of this blog.  I have literally 3 pages of mathematical equations for friction loss in nozzles, a bailout class planned, SCBA consumption drills planned, and a host of other things planned to be one step ahead when my, OUR, citizens need us.  You deserve the best, and if it was up to me, you shall get the best!  And trust me, you will get THE BEST.  No Governor will take that from a Warrior, EVER!

  But I can't be concerned about that "trivial" stuff right now, because I'm focused on Issue 2, and making sure MY citizens know the truth about it.  Do you want the highly trained professionals thinking about YOU, or politics and the Governor?

  Is Gov Kasich gonna show up and pull your kid out of the fire?  NO!  Not only is he trying to get his way, to benefit his corporate cronies, this whole SB5 has a trickle down effect, and is keeping the professionals from training how to save you.  YOU, the average citizen.  I hope you never call us, but we are just "911" away.  Too bad your Governor doesn't see it that way.

  In the meantime my brothers and sisters, lets not forget about training!  Let's go do what we do!!!!

  I would like to get back to the purpose of this blog, TRAINING.  But for now, I can't.

Let's keep Ohio safe from the ground up!
  VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2!!!

Duty, Pride, Tradition

  We WILL get back to the pump operations, SOON!  But this one has been bugging me, so here it is.

  Well what more is there to say about it than the title?  DUTY. PRIDE. TRADITION.  That's what we do, right?  Funny how 10 years can make a difference.  Sept 12 2001, I could do nothing wrong.  I was a hero in my public's eye.  I didn't do anything that any Warrior wouldn't have.  Just doing my job.  Working on Sept 12 2011, 10 years down the road, and I have "my" governor calling me a greedy bastard for wasting the tax payer's money.  I have citizens asking me "What took you so long to get here?"  I have citizens calling 911 for an ambulance because they have a blister.  That takes my ambulance away from the heart attack coming in 10 min from now.  So when the heart attack shows up, I have citizens asking me "Where is my ambulance?  I called the paramedics, not the firemen!"  Just because you have an EBT card, doesn't mean you no longer have to be a responsible member of society.  You still have to think about the other guy.

But, firefighters haven't changed.  Not even a little.  We still do what we did back in the 1800's.  Nothing has changed there.  What HAS changed is the way we do what we do.  New technology, new ideas, better training.  We are the best problem solvers available, PERIOD.  Have a problem you don't know how to fix, that needs fixed in a hurry?  Call 911!  Who shows up?
 Not to sound corny or cliche, but Donald Sutherland said it best in the movie "Backdraft."
"The funny thing about firemen is, night and day, they are always firemen" 


Here's my take on it.

  DUTY
  Volunteer or Paid, I don't care.  You signed a blank check payable up to and including YOUR LIFE to protect the citizens of your community.  It is your DUTY to provide the citizens with the best care that you can give them.  95% is not acceptable!  100% all the time, every time.  I don't want to hear you're tired, bored, untrained, or lazy.  Get away from me and The Warriors, this job isn't for you!  End of discussion.

  PRIDE
  You are a highly trained professional, so act like it!  Shine your boots, polish your badge.  Look like a professional when you show up on scene.  Know your job, know what to do.  You ARE the last line of defense!  That citizen called you because they didn't know what else to do.  You are supposed to show up as a HIGHLY TRAINED PROFESSIONAL and fix the problem!  If you can't, who the hell are you gonna call?  BE the part, ACT the part, LOOK the part!  If you've earned a few bugles, wear them with pride!  Learn how to be a leader, that's what those bugles mean.  If you haven't earned any bugles yet, LEARN HOW TO!  Know your first dues inside outside upside down.

  TRADITION
  The fire service started with the birth of our country.  Benjamin Franklin is called the first Fire Chief.  The first paid firefighters went to work in Cincinnati in 1853.  You think this is new?  It's not, there have been MANY brothers before you.
     The Maltese Cross was first adopted by the Fire Department of New York in 1865, according to author Gary Urbanowicz in his book "Badges of the Bravest." The symbol of the Knights of Malta was chosen because of a legend involving a battle between the knights and Saracen forces during the invasion of the Holy Land. During this battle, Saracen forces began using naphtha, a highly flammable liquid, to ignite the knights in a wave of flame. The knights who escaped the blaze quickly rushed to the aid of their brethren, and extinguished the flames. This story became a representation of the courage of firefighters in the U.S.
  I said up in the "Duty" section that you signed a blank check.  You did.  That check is also payable to the brothers that have been here before us.  I, YOU, WE, OWE it to them to learn everything we can about this job, and do the absolute best we can each and every time.  A lot of them cashed in that check with their lives.  And you get to live on the coat tails of those that came before us.  


It's your responsibility to take that tradition and leave some long coat tails for the next generation to stand on.


Done with my rant.


Stay safe gang!  It's a jungle out there!

PDP, FL. NP, GPM. You ARE the engineer, figure it out!

  This blog is directed at the engineers.  Do you know what those initials above mean?  You should.  Do you know what nozzles your department utilizes?  Automatic? Manual?  You should.  Do you know what PDP you, as the engineer, should be supplying on each of those lines?  You should!

  I did a TON of math last shift.  Although it gave me a headache, it was also like a cool breeze in the face.  Because of our new Chief, I'm not afraid to propose this kind of stuff anymore.  Yes, I'm still a little gun shy.  Had the "I'm the god damn Fire Chief!" mentality for 21 years, so it's understandable.  But halfway through it, Chief Mudryk was "YES YES YES!!!  Go with it!"  So, I did!  And my research results surprised me!

  Do you know what your crew is flowing at the end of the line that you are in control of?  I bet you think you do, and I'd double the odds that you really don't know.  Nothing personal. But you're probably wrong.  If you got it right, I apologize! But, I'm here to tell you that my FD has been doing it WRONG as long as I can remember.

  This blog is just an introductory.  We'll get into the math, algebra, and physics later. And I hope a discussion!  This is important stuff.  For example, I discovered that even though my FD has our nozzles set at 125 GPM, we were flowing MUCH less.  Like in the 92 GPM range!  There have been times when we were down in the 45 GPM range!  My friggin garden hose will flow 20 GPM!  Think about that for a second.

  Watering my flowers is NOT the same as protecting my crew when things go south.  What the hell are you gonna do in a flashover, a SPLIT SECOND DECISION, with 45 GPM?

  You're gonna die, and take your crew with you, that's what your gonna do.

  We're gonna get in to GPM vs BTU in the next blog, and all kinds of other cool hydraulics.  But it all boils down to doing the best we can do, taking your crew to Hell to do what they're trained to do, then bringing them home!

  I'm excited about this one, look for the next blog later this week!

Stay safe out there gang, it's a jungle!

PDP -  Pump Discharge Pressure
FL - Friction Loss
NP - Nozzle Pressure
GPM - Gallons Per Minute

Give them the best chance!

  I read an article the other day written by Brian Brush.  Never met the man, he's in Colorado, I'm in Ohio.  But I was fortunate enough to talk to him via Fire Engineering's webcast radio show a few months ago.  Super nice guy, and he's a Warrior.
  I guess the best way to go about blogging what's on my mind right now is to share the article first. It's short and sweet.
Go read this:
Fire Engineering, Brian Brush

OK. Welcome back! Kinda harsh reading, but it hits home don't it?  I posted earlier in this blog about most of the time our citizens only call 911 once in their lives.  Don't we owe it to them to give them the best chance?  I think we do.

  The big TONKA truck you ride on, your salary (if you get one), all the cool tools you get to play with, the fuel in the rig, the station itself, all of it.  That costs a bundle!  Where does the money come from?  That person calling 911, for the first time of their life, at 03:00 in the morning.  They pay for all of that shit.

  And all they ask in return, is the best chance at getting out of their particular problem.

  I've found myself in a sort of a funk lately.  Getting up in the middle of the night because someone else has a problem, and bitching about it the whole way there.  I know how to fix the problem (training!) why don't you?  Why are you calling 911 because you smell something funny?  Why are you calling 911 because your wife has "poop cramps"?  Why are you calling 911 because you got really drunk and did something stupid?  Then we get there, and find and fix the problem, and our citizen is overjoyed, and thanking us.  Then I fell like a piece of shit for bitching on the way there.  NOT cool!

  The answer is simple.  Because they don't know what else to do but call us, the problem solvers!  And we owe it to them to show up and solve the problem.  No matter how small or trivial it may seem to us.  To them, it's HUGE, that's why they called 911!  Not saying they are stupid, or substandard citizens, but saying we have more training and better tools.  They have thought of absolutely everything they could have, and as a last resort they call us to fix the problem.

  How friggin cool is that?  That's an honor that shouldn't be taken lightly.  Like I've been doing.  Like Brian Brush was doing.  Yes, the mutts get you down, and the job becomes a job.  But we all need to take a step back sometimes and think about what it is we're doing, and why we're at the fire station instead of at home with our families.

  We're there because we're Warriors.  And we're the best chance they have.

Write that down!