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Matthew gets his first tooth.
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We had a mutual aid call from Trenton Friday night. The call came in as a structure fire with smoke and flame showing. Engine 401 (pumper) was directed to setup a water supply at a local fire pond a short distance away. Engine 404 (tanker) connected to a rural hitch at the end of the long driveway and pumped off it's water load then drove to the fire pond to refill. John Smith and I donned SCBA gear and headed to the incident command to relieve a fire crew or help out. We ended up opening a few doors and windows for ventilation, then we entered the first floor and assisted in the overhaul of the room that was the center of the fire.
As best I could tell, a free standing wood burning store started the fire, possibly the stove pipe. The room the stove was in was burned badly, burning up through the ceiling into a room on the second floor. The rest of the house suffered from smoke and water damage. In terms of fighting fire it was a successful attack.
Lets hope the owners have good insurance and can retrieve much of thier stuff.
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Wednesday around 2:00 we were toned out to a call of a dog that had broken through the ice at a local shallow bay. I was not able to make the call because I was watching the kids, being the rescue boat captain that was a bit of a disapointment, but the LVFD members that were able to show up did a great job (as always). The call also ended up being a dog and TWO women!! through the ice.
The Bangor paper has a nice write up about it.
read it here
The only thing that is not correct in the article is the distance from the shore was more like 300 yards.
It was pretty foolish for the women to try and help the dog. I know it seems like a lifetime waiting for help to arrive, but walking out onto thin ice over a salt water bay is asking for trouble.
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Just wanted to give everyone an update on stuff.
Things are good over here, winter is winter in Maine, zero to 10 below overnight and 15 to 30 during the day. Not much snow fall in the last week or so, but there is still 10 inches to a foot on the ground. We bought a used plow for the dually last weekend. It works great, I've used it to widen the driveway and push the snow piles back a bit. Next winter I want to push all the snow out past the garage so I can make a little mountain for the kids to sled down. I've started doing some spring cleaning early, we have so much crap that never gets used, it all has to go.
The kids are good, Matthew is growing well. He and I are finding a grove in our daily routine. The first two weeks after Patty going back to work were rough. Madi is also doing great. She is a huge ball of energy, I'm hoping for an early spring so she can get outside more. The plan is to buy a big trampoline for the summer and she's jonesing for it.
So I think I'm going to setup accounts on this site for friend and family, and use this site as a daily board for everyone to stay in touch.
Anyway, that's pretty much it.
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Friday April 30 around 2:30 in the afternoon we were toned out for mutual aid to the town of Hancock. There was a two car MVA with multiple injuries and both cars burning on route 1. Hancock called at least 4 other departments for mutual aid. Life flight was also called in to transport one of the injured to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. The other two were transported to (I assume) Ellsworth Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth via ambulance. By the time I arrived on the scene the cars had been put out, Life Flight had landed in the road and the injured were being treated by EMT's. Asst. Chief Stu Marcoon, John Smith and I assisted one of the EMT's helping them get the guy on a backboard and then secured to a gurney. After assisting the EMT's we were released from the scene. This accident was on a major road that run to points downeast from Ellsworth. This accident caused a large backup in both directions and forced traffic to be rerouted through a neighboring town.
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April 20 around 9:00 pm we were toned out for what was called an "Out of control field fire" that was moving into the wooded area behind it. Response was good, with at least 10 firemen responding to the call. The call was on the Buttermilk road which is across town from me, so I was one of the last on site. When I got there I was informed the owner had told Ast. Chief Stu Marcoon that he had a permit, the fire was burning as he had intended, and was indeed under control. Stu agreed with him and we all started to leave. Tanker 404 and our foresty truck 402 had pulled off the road a short distance, but 405 (a 1 ton chevy pickup) had been driven out onto the field in preparation to attack the fire. When trying to leave in 405 it became stuck in the mud in a lower part of the field. Attempts were made to pull 405 out with another 4x4 owned by Ast. Chief Joe Reynolds but failed. A wrecker was called in and pulled 405 out of the mud to high (dry) ground.
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12:00 am this morning we were toned out for a car wreck. In route I ended the life of one porcupine (I tried to miss him, I swear). I arrived after most fire fighters and saw a Ford Escort that had run off the road 30 feet or so and hit an apple tree. County Ambulance requested help lifting the driver out of the car so I crawled in the car and along with other fire fighters help County move the man to a backboard. After securing the driver on the gurney Carlton Johnson and I drove engine 401 to the Lamoine General Store to help setup a landing zone for Life Flight. Stu and Carlton messured out a landing area while myself and other fire fighters setup flood lites. Around 1:00 am Life Flight arrived and landed. While the Life Flight and County medics stabilized the driver, the pilot shut down the helicopter and was able to critique our landing zone and go over safety tips. 1:20 or so Life Flight took off for Bangor.
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Moving servers to a new network this weekend. Should be seamless. Being sick blows.
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2:20am Jan 26th. We were toned out to 603 Partridge Cove rd. Home owner claims house is filled with smoke. It's close to my house so I'm first on the scene. There is no smoke outside of the home and there is no sign of fire in the house. The home owners are in a heated out building. The owners tell me they woke up to a house full of smoke and that they've since turned the furnace off. Intering the house it smells strongly of fuel. I move to the basement to inspect the furnace it's barely warm to the touch. I go back outside to talk to the owners and shortly after other LVFD members start to arive. 401 pulls into the homes driveway and I tell Asst. Chief Stu what I've found. Fire Fighters take the Thermal Camera into the house to check for hot spots while I get an evacuation fan out of 401 and set it up. Fire Fighters opened up doors and window in the house to evacuate the smoke. Chief Smith and others inspected the furnace and basement. Chief Smith then spoke with the home owners and was told by them that they were going to stay somewere else and deal with the furnace tommorow.
P.S. It was really really really cold out. Thank god we didn't have to pump any water.
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So I'm a huge slacker. I've had this code sitting on my laptop for ages but I've never gotten around to uploading it and setting up the database. Most of the code for this site is in the backend tools, so the only front end parts that work at the moment are the main page (this part) and the weather data from my weather station on the deck. I'll most likely do the gallery and project parts next. Some day.
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