Ryan Sweeney
ENG100
Essay #1: Creative Nonfiction
609 E. Darby Road Fire
It was Wednesday March 5th , 2014. A Blistering cold day in Havertown Snow still barely on the ground. At about 15:00 hours or 3:00 pm the tones dropped. What I mean by the tones dropping is Every firefighter In the township or even the county has a pager and each company has a tone that once the county dispatch center plays that it sets off the pager. When the pager goes off its about five or ten loud beeps in a row and because I started to build an immunity to the sound I turn the pager sound up really loud. When I heard the pager go off I looked at my phone because we have an app on the iPhone Called Active 911. The app shows us where the call is what type of call it is, where the nearest fire hydrant to the scene is and it gives us notes such as “Odor of something burning” or as this one said “Roof on fire”. So I jumped up out of my bed put my socks, sweatpants and a t-shirt on and I run downstairs to my bike because I don’t drive. So I run outside dust some of the frozen snow off the seat and start biking down I get halfway down and i hear the siren go off again. That means its a working fire. Or in plain terms their is actually fire in the house.
I joined the fire house in the June after my 16th birthday which was the earliest I could join. I’ve always wanted to join ever since I was a little kid. It wasn't a matter or if I was going to it was a matter of when. My father has been Deputy chief for almost 30 years. I've gone to a couple calls as a little kid. It just secured the fact that i wanted to be a firefighter. Ive been to a couple of working fires but everyone one of those haven't been as good as this one turned out to be. We've had some close calls such as this one time we were going to Broomall for a Building fire with possible entrapment it was like four in the morning and the cops got on location an reported heavy smoke showing. We ended up being the first truck on scene and we went inside and their was negative entrapment and no fire it was food on the stove and the homeowner never woke up. We we found him and he was fast asleep we woke him up and he had no clue that he was cooking.There has been times that ill be at the fire house sitting in the clubroom talking to a couple of the other guys and you hear “delcom to 73-21” “73-21 go ahead delcom.” “fire departments being dispatch to (some random address) for a building fire”. your heart drops and you start walking to your gear and the house siren goes off. In the back of your head your hoping its a Job (another name for working fire) but you also hope nobodies property or life is getting destroyed. It usually turns out to be nothing. The fire fighters in Havertown call it “The Bubble” because nothing happens. I guess you can say that it a good thing.
I get to the fire house and i see the ladder truck is started and the lights are on and I run in and put my gear on and hear somebody yell “HURRY UP ITS WORK” so I pull my bunker pants up grab my coat and helmet and run to the other side of the truck and hop on. I get in and we speed off. On the way there the fire fighter I'm sitting across from is a senior guy. which means he has multiple years of experience. He looks at me says “You know what your doing right.” I looked at him and smirked “Of course.” His response “good”. The fires not that far from the fire house down the streets a few blocks. We get to the corner of Darby road and Manoa road I saw smoke pouring into the street. The adrenaline rush hits you like a speeding train and I hear on the radio. “34-1 to fire board copy the police report. We’ll be going inservice with an inch and three quarter first chief on location take command”. I look up front in the officers seat and I see our chief so I know were in good hands. I wasn't eighteen yet so I wasn't aloud to go inside so I did important stuff on the outside. so we pull up and I go over to Llanerch’s engine 34-1 and pull supply line off the truck and try to find the closest fire hydrant I look across the street and see one. Now Darby road in Havertown is pretty much the main artery in your body its a high traffic area. I’m pulling this heavy supply line across the street it hasn't been shut down by cops yet and a car drives over the hose and pulls it right out of my hands. Needless to say I was very lucky I was not seriously hurt. I get over to the hydrant and start hooking the adapter up and then I charge it and no water is coming out. I call to Llanerch's engine and tell them the hydrants frozen. They sent somebody over we looked at it to see if it was frozen. we shut the hydrant down then opened it and it worked. the most important job on the fire ground is getting water to the truck because without water you can not put fire out. It took a couple of hours to extinguish the fire but we put it out and there were no injuries. Thats the most important motto in the fire service.”Everybody goes home”.
ENG100
Essay #1: Creative Nonfiction
609 E. Darby Road Fire
It was Wednesday March 5th , 2014. A Blistering cold day in Havertown Snow still barely on the ground. At about 15:00 hours or 3:00 pm the tones dropped. What I mean by the tones dropping is Every firefighter In the township or even the county has a pager and each company has a tone that once the county dispatch center plays that it sets off the pager. When the pager goes off its about five or ten loud beeps in a row and because I started to build an immunity to the sound I turn the pager sound up really loud. When I heard the pager go off I looked at my phone because we have an app on the iPhone Called Active 911. The app shows us where the call is what type of call it is, where the nearest fire hydrant to the scene is and it gives us notes such as “Odor of something burning” or as this one said “Roof on fire”. So I jumped up out of my bed put my socks, sweatpants and a t-shirt on and I run downstairs to my bike because I don’t drive. So I run outside dust some of the frozen snow off the seat and start biking down I get halfway down and i hear the siren go off again. That means its a working fire. Or in plain terms their is actually fire in the house.
I joined the fire house in the June after my 16th birthday which was the earliest I could join. I’ve always wanted to join ever since I was a little kid. It wasn't a matter or if I was going to it was a matter of when. My father has been Deputy chief for almost 30 years. I've gone to a couple calls as a little kid. It just secured the fact that i wanted to be a firefighter. Ive been to a couple of working fires but everyone one of those haven't been as good as this one turned out to be. We've had some close calls such as this one time we were going to Broomall for a Building fire with possible entrapment it was like four in the morning and the cops got on location an reported heavy smoke showing. We ended up being the first truck on scene and we went inside and their was negative entrapment and no fire it was food on the stove and the homeowner never woke up. We we found him and he was fast asleep we woke him up and he had no clue that he was cooking.There has been times that ill be at the fire house sitting in the clubroom talking to a couple of the other guys and you hear “delcom to 73-21” “73-21 go ahead delcom.” “fire departments being dispatch to (some random address) for a building fire”. your heart drops and you start walking to your gear and the house siren goes off. In the back of your head your hoping its a Job (another name for working fire) but you also hope nobodies property or life is getting destroyed. It usually turns out to be nothing. The fire fighters in Havertown call it “The Bubble” because nothing happens. I guess you can say that it a good thing.
I get to the fire house and i see the ladder truck is started and the lights are on and I run in and put my gear on and hear somebody yell “HURRY UP ITS WORK” so I pull my bunker pants up grab my coat and helmet and run to the other side of the truck and hop on. I get in and we speed off. On the way there the fire fighter I'm sitting across from is a senior guy. which means he has multiple years of experience. He looks at me says “You know what your doing right.” I looked at him and smirked “Of course.” His response “good”. The fires not that far from the fire house down the streets a few blocks. We get to the corner of Darby road and Manoa road I saw smoke pouring into the street. The adrenaline rush hits you like a speeding train and I hear on the radio. “34-1 to fire board copy the police report. We’ll be going inservice with an inch and three quarter first chief on location take command”. I look up front in the officers seat and I see our chief so I know were in good hands. I wasn't eighteen yet so I wasn't aloud to go inside so I did important stuff on the outside. so we pull up and I go over to Llanerch’s engine 34-1 and pull supply line off the truck and try to find the closest fire hydrant I look across the street and see one. Now Darby road in Havertown is pretty much the main artery in your body its a high traffic area. I’m pulling this heavy supply line across the street it hasn't been shut down by cops yet and a car drives over the hose and pulls it right out of my hands. Needless to say I was very lucky I was not seriously hurt. I get over to the hydrant and start hooking the adapter up and then I charge it and no water is coming out. I call to Llanerch's engine and tell them the hydrants frozen. They sent somebody over we looked at it to see if it was frozen. we shut the hydrant down then opened it and it worked. the most important job on the fire ground is getting water to the truck because without water you can not put fire out. It took a couple of hours to extinguish the fire but we put it out and there were no injuries. Thats the most important motto in the fire service.”Everybody goes home”.