You're Safe With Me

Today was the end, and the beginning! The end of all of our tests and the beginning of our on-site rehearsals.

Yesterday was the big test day. I know I said that other test was the big test, but this was big in that it was very physical. Hands on fire and water safety training.

We had to get into full gear (pants, boots, hood, jacket, helmet, gloves) in less than 90 seconds. From there we split into three groups. Our group went to SCBA training first. Air tanks. We had to hook up the tank  the harness, put our mask on properly, and connect the air line to the mask. Simple enough once we were shown how.

Next we had the search and rescue building. It was completely dark inside. Three people went in with one leading. The followers would keep their left hand on the wall and their right hand on the suspenders of the person in front of them. We had to stay connected and keep following the wall on our left through some low spots, dead ends, and even a ladder to a second story. One guy in our group was ESL so it took a little longer.

The last was practicing putting out a fire with a firehose. There wasn't any fire at this point but the pressure from the hose was real. I was grouped with Larrance and another guy near Larrance's height. So, I was roughly a foot taller than both. This meant I had to hold the hose lower...ouch.

From there we put out actual fires with the hose, another one with extinguishers, and then went to phase two. Water Safety.

There was a lot of jumping in an out of a pool that wasn't too warm. Mostly with life vests. All in all we were exhausted and went to bed around 8:30.

Today was a final set of lectures and a final test.

After all of this I am a little distracted as I just watched a passenger smoking from the conference room I'm in. I expected her to throw the butt overboard (which is BAD) but she one upped it and threw it into the garbage can marked "Paper-Plastic". NOW what do I do? I gotta go.