In 2009, we moved to Eastern Washington State, north of Spokane. Since we were far from big cities, the local fire stations mostly relied on volunteers, with just a few paid staff for basic coverage and training.
Seeing that the fire stations needed more help, I decided to join in. Even though my job at the time involved traveling, I could respond to emergencies because I worked from home while I was not overseas.
I volunteered for a few years until we moved to another county.
During that time, I went to weekly training sessions, completed fire school, and helped in various emergencies. This included simple things like helping someone who fell, to more serious events like medical issues, ambulance transfers to the hospital, car accidents (where we used tools to rescue people from damaged cars), and house fires.
In one case, I was part of the first team to respond to a structure fire (house on fire) and kept the fire contained until more help arrived. It was challenging because the area was dry, and there were no hydrants nearby, so we had to manage with limited water from our own fire engine truck.
I don’t have pictures from real emergencies, but I can share below some from my training and firefighter school pictures.
