By: Mark Gregory
So far it has been a quiet tour. The runs have been routine emergencies and some outside fires. You are assigned as the outside vent (OV) firefighter for this tour. Your first job as the OV on a tower ladder is to assist the chauffeur with “setting up” the apparatus upon arrival. Suddenly, the tone alert goes off. The firefighter on watch shouts out “Phone alarm, first due, 683-Greene Avenue cross of Tompkins, fire in a multiple dwelling, people trapped!”
The tower ladder chauffeur wheels the mid-mount towards the scene. Additional radio reports from dispatch paint a picture of a working fire. As we turn the corner, heavy smoke is pushing from the second floor of a four story brownstone-type building. The boss radios dispatch that we have a working fire and provides a brief size up of the fire building.
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