In the midst of the structure fire yesterday, we hit a high of 25 degrees… Driving a cardiac patient the day after an ice storm hit was a bizarre slalolem through piles of frozen branches, downed trees and tangled wires - a single lane race to the end of a maze before someone entered coming the other way, oblivious, despite flashing lights and the siren wail. We traveled around three towns to get to the hospital as the normal routes were blocked. When we arrived, the hospital staff told us (repeatedly) they were on diversion, and we couldn’t bring any more patients. We were told there was yet another patient waiting for us back in town. Each time the hospital staff would yell at us and we would patiently explain we had nowhere else to go - all of the roads to other hospitals were completely blocked. We ‘d needed chainsaws to get through on some of the calls.





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One time on a mutual aid call to Cicero, we were working a January subzero shoe store fire. The temp. was two below with a windchill of maybe fifteen below. I was assigned a single man 2 1/2 inch master stream on a six foot doughnut in the middle of the street washing the A side exposure just to keep it from becoming involved. I thought to myself, “I’m gonna freeze my butt off out here”. Nothing but my hands were moving as I sat on the hose lapover, just washing the adjoining building. The Salvation Army came by and asked if I needed some coffee and I said no. I realized that I was nice and warm. When the fire was struck & I was told to shut down, my guys had to come & pick axe me out, I was totally frozen in from the back spay. That was my saving grace keeping me warm. I knew then that an igloo can keep a person warm






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One of the worst fires was during a snow storm. There was so much snow I could not see the 12 unit apartment burning and I was operating the pumper from about 40 feet away. The pump gauges were frozen and I was trying to draft from a portable tank and did not know how much water was coming in or going out. We lost the building and almost lost a fire truck.






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Well, we are a volunteer fire department of 6 people in a town of 130 out in the middle of NOWHERE. Our EMS is all volunteer and we do the best we can with what little we have. The hairiest thing we’ve had happen in the past years is probably one of the scariest ones. We got paged out to an overturned motorhome on highway 26.

Fire and Ambulance arrived to find the motorhome upside down imbedded in the side of a hill with the driver trapped and pinned, and the propane tanks leaking severely. With the help of passers-by, we eventually extricated him, just as the frame structure (wheels and all) collapsed into nothing more than a pancake. The REAL heroine was EMT volunteer Sandra Davis, who climbed into that upside down motorhome and stayed with the driver during the entire ordeal all the while inhaling the leaking propane. She was ill for days afterward.

The motorhome driver was 'air-lifed' to Bend Oregon, and we don’t know his outcome.

 Kurt Kamm writes a blog featuring “Firefighter’s Words” which are submitted by firefighters/EMT and rescue personnel. He also writes novels about fires and firefighters. A resident of Malibu, he has lived through several wildland fires. He is a regular visitor at the fire camps, stations and training academies of L.A. County Fire Department and CalFire. To learn more about his novels, One Foot in the Black, and Red Flag Warning, visit http://www.kurtkamm.com.