Gaining a new admiration for firefighters
The old saying goes that you never know what another person goes through until you’ve walked a while in their shoes, and last Thursday evening I feel like I got a little closer to understanding that phrase when I went to cover the fire training at the Russellville Fire Department.
When you think about firefighters and what they do, if you’re like me, you probably think of a scenario you’ve seen on TV – something you’ve watched from the comfort of your air-conditioned home.
See, I’ve always known firefighting was tough job, but it just got filed away in my brain at some point as a tough job and I’ve never really given it any more thought than that. Even when I started working with the fire department and covering different things for them as a reporter, I still didn’t really grasp what these people go through when they’re just “doing their job.” (And notice I said “people” because there are several ladies right here in this county who fight fires as well.)
When Russellville Fire Chief Joe Mansell called to tell me the Alabama Fire College had brought their trailer to Russellville for training, I figured I would just snap a couple of pictures, get a short story from Chief Mansell and be on my way.
But after I got there and talked to Chief Mansell about what was going on, he, John James and Justin Green took me out to the trailer to see how it worked and said they’d turn it on and let me get a few pictures of a couple of the guys bringing the water hose in and fighting the fire at the back of the trailer.
Now, I almost had a panic attack because I am terrified of fire. I don’t even light a match because I’m that scared of it. But I finally agreed to let John show me how the fire (managed by a set of controls he had… that was the only way I’d stay in there) came out of two different areas in the trailer.
I still had one foot sticking out the door of the trailer as he started his demonstration (to show me it wouldn’t be scary while I was in there). He had barely turned up the heat when I felt like my eyelashes were melting and my cheeks were on fire so I quickly hopped (literally hopped) back out the door to safety, flinging the camera at Chief Mansell in the process and telling him he’d have to take the pictures of the guys coming down the stairs to fight the fire at the opposite end.
In reality, the trailer had barely gotten hot. Chief Mansell, John and Justin all seemed to be fine, but it scared me half to death and I just couldn’t stand the heat. But when those people who were there for training are faced with a real fire in real life, they don’t have the option of hopping out the door. They have to get in there because someone’s life could be at stake.
The firefighters in the training went into that trailer in their turnout gear after the doors had been shut, smoke had built up and the temperature had reached 700 degrees. They battled their way through the smoke to put out the fire, and after I left, Chief Mansell said they practiced exercises in search and rescue that would help them learn how to save people like you and me in the event of a fire.
Needless to say, I was pretty impressed at what all goes in to the training firefighters go through. It’s definitely not a walk in the park, and I know that’s it’s something I would never be able to do.
Even though it was a controlled situation, it was just as scary because it was still real smoke, real fire and real heat, and it makes me feel safer to know the firefighters in this county have been through this kind of training to make sure they know exactly how to perform their life-saving job.
