12th St. SE Working Fire

On the afternoon of 7/13 around 1500 crews from the southside battalion received a call for smoke coming from a dwelling. Initial crews responding were E6, E8, E1, L1, M6, BC1, & RS1. Arriving first was E6 who advised heavy fire showing from the Bravo side, making this a working fire. Additional units responding were E11 & M1. Initial crews entered the structure & found a kitchen fire which was quickly extinguished a few minutes later, isolating the majority of the fire damage to the kitchen area w/ heavy smoke damage to the rest of the residence. All searches revealed no one inside the home at the time the fire started & there were no injuries during the incident. Job well done!!! (photos courtesy of PIO Tiffany Bradbury).









Station 6 A-shift crew members from L-R:
Lt. Kelcey Branch, FF/PM Derek Surratt, FF/EMT Brad Creasy, FF/EMT-I Adam Troutt,
FF/EMT David Wray, (not pictured) Capt. Todd Stone.

Spring Cleaning on the First Day

Today is the first day back for A-shift & it has proven to be pretty busy so far, well, for the Medic unit that is; five runs before noon & the HTR truck almost getting out of the house on a vehicle into a house in NW earlier. And if you haven't visited the #6 firehouse recently you've missed out on "Operation: Paint our Firehouse". The painter is doing a great job & the change is very welcome. In doing so alot of the furniture had to be moved & it was discovered that certain areas of the floor needed some attention. Last cycle was fairly steady but w/ no real significant runs to report on. Last cycle on Sunday the 16th, companies on the South Side were invited to a community picnic on Highland AV here in SE. Companies included were E6, M6, E11, E8, M8, E1, L1, & M1. There was plenty of food to be eaten & City Councilman Court Rosin also attended the event. Below are some pictures of the event, including a special Texas Ranger badge presentation made by FF Andy Foley to Capt. Todd Stone. Now he has the badge to go w/ the denim jacket haha!! On our last day we had a special guest come eat w/ us for dinner. Ladies this is Roanoke's newest most eligible bachelor, "Roc" Sink. Roc has been a long time friend of many of the firemen & visits on occassion to catch up on firehouse gossip & to see how everyone is doing. Stay tuned, you never know what we will be in next.

City Councilman Court Rosin discussing politics with company officers.


"Chuck Norris doesn't need the badge, the badge needs Chuck Norris".

Roanoke's newest most eligible bachelor "ROC".

Welcome back Creasy, but you missed a spot!!!

Busy Middle Day for A-Shift

When you think of Sundays, you typicall think of a nice relaxing day where not much goes on & everything is kind of QUIET, right? Wrong, most of the time Sundays are a busy day for this department as well as the local hospitals. We see everything from people becoming overly-relaxed & stuffing themselves on good ole Sunday luch until they have made themselves sick, to people making up excuses & suddenly "coming down w/ something" to get out of work. That's right folks, people really do fake a weekend illness to not have to go to work on Monday morning. Today has been one of those busy days for us here in Southeast. Up to this point the medic unit has totaled in at nine runs & the Engine w/ five runs not including a Swiftwater Rescue Team deployment a few hours ago for a stranded boater. Thankfully, E11 personnel were able to assist the boater to the shore line w/o utilizing the SRT & cancelled the team, putting multiple pieces back in service that had to be marked out to to get the necessary bodies to #6 to deploy. And just now, the Engine had to mark out of service to take the air-bottle truck to our brothers on the Northside for a residential fire, as well as dropping off two other personnel from this station to Station 1; The Big Show, so that the Fire Investigators could respond to the fire. See folks, even after you go to bed, out of the ordinary things still happen around here & we adapt to the changes to still provide the protection that everyone here vowed to provide. I also want to congratulate the members of the Roanoke Rampage Football team that traveled to Orlando,FL this weekend to play football for charity. Even though we sustained another loss (13-23), the team was finally able to pull the offense together & put a few points on the board. I spoke to some of the team members earlier in the day & they all say they feel great & are having a blast. Our next & final battle of the season will be in June when we take on the Charlotte Cobras. This will prove to probably be the toughest challenge our team has faced thus far. Have fun & be safe down there guys. Below are some action shots caught on a MVC the Engine & Medic ran in early afternoon. The driver sustained a minor injury to the hand & did not wish to be transported. The rest of you, be safe out there tonight & stay tuned, there may be more action to unfold tonight.

What does Brad do when he's not "Chiefin" in Bedford????

Drive-Thru Service

The last two days of the cycle here have been fairly quiet. The first day after the daily checks & morning duties both units, well I guess I should say the medic unit had a few runs w/ two minor MVC's back to back in northeast w/ our neighbors from #14 firehouse. After a wonderful meal of homemade tuna salad provided by the Good Son the medic unit ran a few more runs. While on one of the nine runs we had in the afternoon, companies on the northside were called to the 7-11 on Williamson Rd for a car that had ran through the building. Upon arrival of E5 they found what you will see below. HTR6 was requested for collapse hazard & crews went to work stabilizing the support beams, installing two T-spot shores. After returning to quarters, dinner was a little delayed but nevertheless, delicious & much needed. Believe it or not, both units slept all night; a rare occasion here in Southeast. The last day has been a nice break from training all day on the first day & a busy second half of the day on Friday. As of now only seven for the "box" & only two for the engine. Folks, please take this advice; if you call 911 from your cell phone when passing by what you think could be an emergency, stay put until help arrives!! I think I speak for everyone in this business when I say that it is very frustrating & could potentially cause someone their life if you call 911 reporting an emergency & don't stay to show us where it is. Time after time we have seen it where we are dispatched to a location, sometime a full compliment (engines, ladders, battalions, ems supervisors, medic units), only to find that there is either no emergency found or the wrong location was given by the caller; think about it. Stay safe out there!!!

T-Spots placed by members of the HTR team.

View From The High Life

Yes folks, we're back!!! I know it's about time since we haven't put anything on here in about 2-3 months but really, how many of you want to hear about how many times we go out for "man-down" calls, or how many times we get called to respond w/ PD & disgregarded?? Don't get me wrong, we do run our fair share of legitiment runs but the majority of them do require more PD intervention rather than a trip to the hospital. We haven't built a table to keep track of like or fellow brethern of the Melrose Misfits , and since dispatch isn't in our first due territory we can't really go down there & hang out. By the way, I know it's a little late, but I would like to thank our dispatchers for all they do. They do a great job & w/o them what would we do. I like to give you the more interesting stuff we do here at #6, not just the everyday same old ordinary runs. Such as today, we had Division 6 HTR (Heavy & Tactical Rescue) training w/ our neighbors from Salem. Along w/ their personnel we were given four different scenarios w/ trapped victims that required movement of the body using different haul systems w/ live rescue personnel tethered to the stokes. This was excellent training that gave us real possible scenarios where anchor points may be limited. Special thanks to the training division for putting this together. Below you will see some of the pictures of todays training excersises. I did have one video that has been giving me a hard time getting it loaded, but I will keep trying to get it on here. Have a great day & stay safe out there.


Making the final adjustments before our dummy takes to the air

Charles Wilkins of Salem FD



The HAUL Team

We Be Rowin'!

Today is the first day back for A-Shift & vacation sign-up day but it has been a typical unpredictable day. As I'm sure most of you know by following the news & local media, a 2 y/o child was reported abducted last week from a local residence. Area & federal officials have worked around the clock to try & locate him & today the Swiftwater Rescue Team took part in those efforts. We joined teams from around the state including many state, local, & federal police agencies, both urban & wilderness search & rescue organizations, & K9 SAR groups. The swiftwater rescue team was privlaged enough to be able to spend time w/ K9 SAR team that specialized in cadaver searches. Thanks alot to handlers Bidwell & Shrewsberry & K9 Petra from Powhatan,VA for not only assisting in the search but educating the team on operating w/ a K9 in the boat. After operations had ceased we returned to clean all the gear & finally go get some grub. If you haven't eaten at Blues BBQ down on the market, you need to visit this establishment. You won't be dissapointed with the food & an overall good atmosphere. Below you will find some shots captured today of the swiftwater operation. Stay safe out there!!

A New Group In the East

Starting tomorrow, each shift will have at least one new person to join their individual crews. Below is a list of the individuals per shift that will be assigned to The Pride Of Southeast.

A-Shift
Capt. Todd Stone
Lt. Kelcey Branch
FF/EMT David Wray
FF/EMT Brad Creasy
FF/EMT-I Adam Troutt
FF/PM Derek Surratt

B-Shift
Capt. Alan Austin
Lt. Jeff Peay
FF/EMT Kevin Taylor
FF/EMT-I Zach Slayton
FF/EMT-I Brad Dinwiddie
FF/EMT James "Red" Williams

C-Shift
Capt. Scott Mutter
Lt. Baron "Smurf" Gibson
FF/EMT-I Davel Muse
FF/EMT-I Josh Compton
FF/EMT Joseph Boswell
FF/EMT Jarod Tryal

"Y'all be safe" (Lt. Todd McFall)