Extreme Home Makeover-Southeast Edition

On Saturday August 15, 2009, A-Shift revealed it's talent for replacing our very own Lt. McFall's roof on his house. The crew began around 0800 & by the time it was over at 1800, we all realized how great of a job we have now, & also how we all have no desire to be roofers for a career. Beverages and food were provided by the McFall's & a big thanks goes out to all who provided their services. Capt. Todd Stone, FF David Wray, FF Rusty aka "Slim" Zimmerman, FF/PM Derek Surratt, FF Brad Creasy, FF/EMT-I George Harris, & our brother from C-Shift FF Adam Flemming.

A-Shift "Doin' Work"

It's now 1800, & we are finally able to sit down & take a break. Here in the great East, we started the day on a project that was projected to be done at 1500, quitin' time. A wall mounted rack was built & mounted for our collapse shoring. Leading the way on welding the stuctural components of the rack was FF Zimmerman, with the rest of the crew doing their part as well w/ assembly & mounting. This rack is being built in response to a recent call on C-shift where the City was called for mutual aid in Vinton for a car in to a structure. This rack will help to better organize, store, & keep track of inventory of shoring lumber. Monday, a full load of lumber will be delivered here to fully supply our stock for future collapse runs. Unfortunately as we all know though, if you have a project you need done, you will constantly be pulled away on runs. Speaking of runs, we recently returned from car into a house w/ a child in the vehicle. When crews of E6 & M6 arrived, it was discovered that an SUV had rolled down a hill, striking the B/C corner of another house & finally coming to a rest against a large tree which prevented the vehicle from going down another small embankment & into the middle of another house. Fortunately the child escaped w/o injury & no significant structural damage that would compromise the safety of the occupants who lived there was found. A little over 13hrs left folks, stay tuned...

5 for 5, will the streak continue?

Well folks, we reached a milestone on A-Shift last cycle; 5 fires in 5 cycles. The first was in NE at1322 Johnsburry Ct., the second being 1929 Wise AV SE, the third being at Abbots store on the Boulevard, the forth at 532 Highland AV SE, & finally the second fire of last cycle being on Wayland in the NE sector of the city where one patient was transported, no word of his condition. So far it's been a pretty quiet first day of the cycle w/ the Engine running three, & the Medic unit totaling seven thus far. Have a good night brothers & check back to see if we continue our 6-cycle stretch of battling the beast.

Multi-tasking

First order of business, congrats to David Wray & his wife Mindy on the birth of there daughter. Madelin Grace Wray was born between 10PM & 11PM on June 2, 2009. Both mom & baby are at home doing great & The Good Son hasn't lost that proud papas grin. We also want to congratulate Lt. Brian Wray of #8 A-Shift who is now a proud uncle. On to todays business...

lawn was cut, 28 hydrants flowed, both the Engine & Medic both switched out units, & oh yeah by the way, the working house fire at 532 Highland AV SE. Photos are below, and folks, it's only 5'oclock.

Middle Day for A-Shift

The middle day for the crew of E6 proved to be fairly steady for the medic unit but slow for they guys on the engine. However good use was made of the down time. Early morning duties were done around the house, then we attempted to make our 1991 model war wagon a little more presentable. All of the equipment was taken out of the compartments & the compartments were cleaned, the Capt. & ever so loud firefighter removed the water cooler holder & sanded/repainted that, & also placed a fresh coat of wax over the area that the water cooler covered. Other than that the Engine only ran one EMS run to which it was cancelled on before we arrived, & the medic unit ran a total of six runs. I'm proud to say that both trucks slept all night, & for those of you that have been assigned to Southeast, you know that this occurance is a very rare thing. Until next time, be safe out there!!

A-Shift back on the board

Alot has gone on since our last post from us here on A-Shift but in most recent history it seems that War Wagon 6 is back in business. Over the past three cycles for A-Shift E6 has been on three working fires & the Medic unit has been on two of those three. And as best as I can remember, B-Shift has had good working fires over the past couple of cycles, so it seems that the reputation of Firehouse #6 being a good house to catch a fire at is coming back. In other recent events, A-shift had some good quality training for our Swiftwater Rescue Team (SRT) which you can see by the pics & a couple video clips below. And the other clips were of our car seat installment day. We would like to give a big thanks to our own PIO Tiffany Bradbury & her team from Carilion & the Roanoke City Police Office on a fine job. And as always, it's been a busy day & night for us here. Stay tuned for more updates.

SWIFTWATER TRAINING DAY

Mike Peay getting some use out of the rope gun.

"Hey look, it's a chicken".

Awaiting deployment of the rope gun on river left.

I'm no swiftwater expert but I believe they were establishing a high tension line.

CAR SEAT DAY

Our very own making sure that he & his wife are ready for there soon to be new arrival.

C-SHIFT cycle update to come.