Well, just thought I would update you on my academy progress, we just completed week 9 of 12 so almost made it, whew... 3 weeks to go but next weekend is being called hell week, I guess we are in for a real ball buster. Anyways, this last weekend we had our training in the actual terrain we will be working in, it was an overnight camp out followed by 8 hours of intensive drills, boy was I tired at the end of the day. Packing around 20 pounds of sand plus water really starts to hurt the back after a full day of work. I thought I would share some photos from my weekend of fun.
The first 3 photos are what we call a
progressive hose lay it may look easy but running up steep terrain with 900 feet of hose filled with water is quite challenging.
The next photo with the green bags is a simulated fire shelter drill, actual fire shelters are made of aluminum foil to reflect heat, they are used as a last resort if you are overrun by fire. We had to boogie up a hill, exhausted we had to deploy our shelters and get inside.May sound easy but try breathing your own air in hot weather for 20 mins.
Final pic is what we call a mobile attack, probably the toughest of all our drills thus far, we have to run in front of the engine laying down water all on tough terrain.
It was a grueling weekend but hell week is supposed to make this one seem like a picnic. Almost done...
Almost forgot to mention, in the fire shelter drill, the guy in the red helmet is one of the instructors, a real impressive fellow, he is like a ninja jedi Navy seal of firefighters. He is a member of the helitack crew. What they do is repel out of helicopters into the fire, very dangerous and you have to be the best of the best.