Good afternoon, here's a special announcement about two
Continuing Education classes that just listed. PLEASE READ THIS NOW, and decide
whether or not you want to participate. Note that sign-up for the first
CE is embargoed until 20 November, so it is a "mark Your Calendar"
item for now.
Collapse Survival Awareness— Saturday, 1 December
2012, 9:00am—Noon. YOU CANNOT SIGN UP FOR THIS ONE UNTIL MIDNIGHT, 19
NOVEMBER. The Beach Team is sponsoring it, so they have priority until
then. This is basically what it says it is, instruction on how to survive
when the roof falls in on you. That should never happen to CERT, but
never is a very long time, and in a catastrophe we may find ourselves someplace
where we are not supposed to be. There is a lot of important information
for this one:
·
FULL PPE IS REQUIRED (Personal protective
equipment). By that I mean helmet, gloves, dust mask, long sturdy pants,
very solid footwear such as work or hiking boots, long sleeve shirt and jacket
and gloves. If ANY exposed skin is showing, you will not be able to
participate. A limited number of helmets and vests are available for
those who don't have them yet. If you want to sign up for this, and were
planning to get your PPE but have not yet, sign up and drop me a note, I'll
help you get fixed up.
·
You will be blindfolded for the exercise.
It's actually a bare substitute for the real thing, those of you who have
experienced absolute blackness know what I'm talking about.
·
You will be required to crawl on your belly in a
confined space. No, I'm not joking. That means elbow pads and knee
pads are a REALLY good idea. I personally don't think I'd do without
them.
I'm going to say what you new people need to understand and
our Veterans already know; not all of our drills are fun, or easy, or
comfortable. Those same drills are the ones that can save your life
if/when the really bad news goes down. If you have any issues with tight
spaces, this is not your drill. Back problems, knee problems, recent
sprains etc., not your drill.
Sign up here:
Remember, no signup for us until 20 November. Those of
you married to Outlook or Exchange will want to create a reminder task.
Hose Loading—Sunday, 2 December 2012,
9:00am—2:00pm. Yup, it's a long one, they really pack a lot into this
drill. Bring lots of water and something to snack on. Basically you
will be taught to pack hose on a fire engine (or pumper). You'll
most likely be working with the Fire Academy's training engines. As San
Diego will (finally) be starting a new fire academy soon, I have no clue how
this was pulled off, but let's take the gift for what it is. There are
three different kinds of hoses used by SDF&R, packed in six different bins
on the engine, each packed a special way according to its use. It's
complicated. You will learn how by doing, this is a totally hands on
course.
Why are we doing this? Basically, so we might be in a
position to help if/when we have wildfires as we did in 2003 and 2007.
SDF&R is organized into three different shifts, or lists. Schedules
are organized so that each Firefighter has a certain number of days off in a
row. In a wildfire disaster situation, the City mobilizes its entire
First Responder system to help with the effort. Clearly there are not
enough engines and trucks in the standing fleet for every Firefighter, and as
Engines are needed most in this situation, the City maintains a Reserve
fleet. This Fleet is brought together, usually at Station 28, the large
station just West of Montgomery Field that you can see from S-163. The
ready engines are fueled and provisioned, and they need to be packed with hose
rather quickly. This would normally take a large number of Firefighters
who are of course not available, that's where we come in. I have heard
some talk that we might also be deployed to the field to pack hose while
Firefighters go through required field rehab following direct contact with the
fire. That's just talk as far as I know. We don't really know
how we will be used when the time comes, but as always, if we're needed, we'll
want to be ready.
I took this CE last Summer and attended the next one to
document it. The course was extremely interesting, to me at least.
There is a lot of technology, technique and tradition involved. I highly
recommend it.
Sign up at the link above. This course is open NOW for
all registrants, if you want to do this get in now, seats won't last.
New Graduates, you are eligible for both CE's. They
are both on the same weekend, but nothing stops you from signing up for both if
you are in good shape. If you don't have gear yet, sign up, then get in
touch with me.
-Steve
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