Smoke was slowly billowing out of a storage
shed in Fireman's Park as I knelt just outside of the door.
I had been waiting for this moment all day. My heart pounded and sweat dripped in my face. I hoped my deodorant would hold up. The heavy gear weighed me down so much that it felt like someone was standing on my shoulders.
That wasn't the first time I put on a full firefighter suit July 23. When I was first handed a pair of pants by Capt. Matt Karpinski of emergency medical services at the Germantown Fire Department earlier in the day, my only hope was to get them over my butt. No female wants to ask a man for a bigger pair of pants.
With a little shimmying, I was able to Velcro them shut. I was fitted with every piece of firefighter gear that afternoon. I had no idea there was so much to it.
Here's how it went: One leg into the pants and a boot, then the other. Put your coat on. Latch every hook. Velcro your jacket shut. Put a face mask around your neck and hang it like an oversized necklace. Put a black fire hood over your head, leaving it sit on your neck. Next, swing the air pack onto your back, latch it tightly around your torso. Shove and fasten a helmet onto your head. Pull the hood over your helmet. Put on the air mask. Make sure it suctions to your face. Lastly, put on gloves. Once it's all in place, turn the air tank on and connect the tube from the tank to the mask.
And, do it all in two minutes. If you don't, you fail and you can't be a firefighter. Putting gear on in two minutes is a requirement.welcome to replica shoes web,best service and low prices.Shop bottega bag online and get complimentary shipping today. I failed — by about 13 minutes.
Darth Vader issues?
The face mask didn't sit well with me. Something about wearing a machine to help breathe made me uneasy. Trust issues? Perhaps. Whatever it was it made me twitchy.
Karpinski had me try the gear on in preparation for the training exercise that night, which tested me in more ways than one. The exercise was simple enough. You go up stairs, over a picnic table and through a wooden tunnel in full firefighter gear and make it through the obstacles strategically placed to slow you down. You do this blinded by smoke, requiring you to crawl on your hands and knees.
The point of the exercise was to practice falling through a weak floor and getting tangled by debris. This can happen anytime firefighters have to go inside a burning building and they have to be prepared. The exercise was meant to simulate that. The firefighters have training every Tuesday so they are ready for any scenario.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale.
The second time I put the gear on for training,Up to 40% Off bottega purses, shop farfetch today! it took 10 minutes,The latest trends and best prices on Michael Kors Bags 2013. and Karpinski still had to help me. It had to be done correctly because this time I was going to enter a smoky building.
Even though I knew what to expect because I helped set up the training exercise, I was nervous.
As I slowly crawled into the building, the smoke was so thick I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The only thing that mattered was crawling blindly one knee at a time, up each stair and across the room.
Dreading the fall
As I slowly crept forward, I knew what was coming. I was going to fall and I didn't have a choice. I had to crawl forward.
I felt the floor bend beneath. I paused. Karpinski yelled to keep moving. There was a loud snap as my weight broke the plywood and I tumbled onto the padded floor. I rolled to my right. Karpinski landed on the floor after me. I twisted back to the crawl position and felt for a wall. The only way out was through a tunnel. I thought maybe I would be small enough to continue to crawl on my knees. It was impossible and I had to army crawl on my stomach. I've never army-crawled before in my life, much less through a small tunnel.
Halfway through the smoke-filled tunnel, irrational panic began to set in. "Is that sweat in my eye? What if the air tank breaks? Will they pull me out of the tunnel in time? My neck hurts, is this helmet going to break my neck? Am I going to die in here?"
I stopped mid-tunnel and thought back to what some of the firefighters told me earlier in the day, when I was not so subtly hiding my nerves about the training exercise.
"If you feel yourself beginning to panic, stop and take a deep breath. Just control your breathing." I did just that and started moving again.
Then, I hit the wires. They were lined tightly in the way. I tried to shimmy under them. Unless I could transfigure into a mouse, it was impossible.
In the past when I have found myself in unsettling situations, my instincts were not to fight or to flee. Rather, my instinct was to just sit. I go blank. For a few seconds in that tunnel, I just laid there and had no plans to move. Karpinski snapped me out of it, handing me a pair of wire cutters, shouting at me to use them. Wire cutters never really had much significance to me before last week. To a firefighter, wire cutters can save his or her life.
At last I was free. Free from the wire, free from the tunnel, free from the smoke and back outside. I wanted nothing more than to rip my face mask off, pound my chest and yell like a wild beast. I did none of this as everything at the fire department has a routine and stringent protocol, including taking off your gear.
I was actually grateful for the protocol because there were about 20 firefighters sitting on a hill watching me and waiting for their turn to go into the building. Seeing as I had a hard time just putting my gloves on, I didn't want to embarrass myself further. For me, the exercise was physically demanding, terrifying and well out of my comfort zone. For the firefighters, it can be a normal day. I emerged from that building with a great sense of respect.
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I had been waiting for this moment all day. My heart pounded and sweat dripped in my face. I hoped my deodorant would hold up. The heavy gear weighed me down so much that it felt like someone was standing on my shoulders.
That wasn't the first time I put on a full firefighter suit July 23. When I was first handed a pair of pants by Capt. Matt Karpinski of emergency medical services at the Germantown Fire Department earlier in the day, my only hope was to get them over my butt. No female wants to ask a man for a bigger pair of pants.
With a little shimmying, I was able to Velcro them shut. I was fitted with every piece of firefighter gear that afternoon. I had no idea there was so much to it.
Here's how it went: One leg into the pants and a boot, then the other. Put your coat on. Latch every hook. Velcro your jacket shut. Put a face mask around your neck and hang it like an oversized necklace. Put a black fire hood over your head, leaving it sit on your neck. Next, swing the air pack onto your back, latch it tightly around your torso. Shove and fasten a helmet onto your head. Pull the hood over your helmet. Put on the air mask. Make sure it suctions to your face. Lastly, put on gloves. Once it's all in place, turn the air tank on and connect the tube from the tank to the mask.
And, do it all in two minutes. If you don't, you fail and you can't be a firefighter. Putting gear on in two minutes is a requirement.welcome to replica shoes web,best service and low prices.Shop bottega bag online and get complimentary shipping today. I failed — by about 13 minutes.
Darth Vader issues?
The face mask didn't sit well with me. Something about wearing a machine to help breathe made me uneasy. Trust issues? Perhaps. Whatever it was it made me twitchy.
Karpinski had me try the gear on in preparation for the training exercise that night, which tested me in more ways than one. The exercise was simple enough. You go up stairs, over a picnic table and through a wooden tunnel in full firefighter gear and make it through the obstacles strategically placed to slow you down. You do this blinded by smoke, requiring you to crawl on your hands and knees.
The point of the exercise was to practice falling through a weak floor and getting tangled by debris. This can happen anytime firefighters have to go inside a burning building and they have to be prepared. The exercise was meant to simulate that. The firefighters have training every Tuesday so they are ready for any scenario.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale.
The second time I put the gear on for training,Up to 40% Off bottega purses, shop farfetch today! it took 10 minutes,The latest trends and best prices on Michael Kors Bags 2013. and Karpinski still had to help me. It had to be done correctly because this time I was going to enter a smoky building.
Even though I knew what to expect because I helped set up the training exercise, I was nervous.
As I slowly crawled into the building, the smoke was so thick I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The only thing that mattered was crawling blindly one knee at a time, up each stair and across the room.
Dreading the fall
As I slowly crept forward, I knew what was coming. I was going to fall and I didn't have a choice. I had to crawl forward.
I felt the floor bend beneath. I paused. Karpinski yelled to keep moving. There was a loud snap as my weight broke the plywood and I tumbled onto the padded floor. I rolled to my right. Karpinski landed on the floor after me. I twisted back to the crawl position and felt for a wall. The only way out was through a tunnel. I thought maybe I would be small enough to continue to crawl on my knees. It was impossible and I had to army crawl on my stomach. I've never army-crawled before in my life, much less through a small tunnel.
Halfway through the smoke-filled tunnel, irrational panic began to set in. "Is that sweat in my eye? What if the air tank breaks? Will they pull me out of the tunnel in time? My neck hurts, is this helmet going to break my neck? Am I going to die in here?"
I stopped mid-tunnel and thought back to what some of the firefighters told me earlier in the day, when I was not so subtly hiding my nerves about the training exercise.
"If you feel yourself beginning to panic, stop and take a deep breath. Just control your breathing." I did just that and started moving again.
Then, I hit the wires. They were lined tightly in the way. I tried to shimmy under them. Unless I could transfigure into a mouse, it was impossible.
In the past when I have found myself in unsettling situations, my instincts were not to fight or to flee. Rather, my instinct was to just sit. I go blank. For a few seconds in that tunnel, I just laid there and had no plans to move. Karpinski snapped me out of it, handing me a pair of wire cutters, shouting at me to use them. Wire cutters never really had much significance to me before last week. To a firefighter, wire cutters can save his or her life.
At last I was free. Free from the wire, free from the tunnel, free from the smoke and back outside. I wanted nothing more than to rip my face mask off, pound my chest and yell like a wild beast. I did none of this as everything at the fire department has a routine and stringent protocol, including taking off your gear.
I was actually grateful for the protocol because there were about 20 firefighters sitting on a hill watching me and waiting for their turn to go into the building. Seeing as I had a hard time just putting my gloves on, I didn't want to embarrass myself further. For me, the exercise was physically demanding, terrifying and well out of my comfort zone. For the firefighters, it can be a normal day. I emerged from that building with a great sense of respect.
Click on their website www.pickmypumps.com for more information.
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