Part Ill — doing
whatever has to be done

This is the third in a series of
feature articles by Terrace
Review reporter Tod Strachan

‘about the people and workings

of the Terrace Fire Department.
Last week he accompanied fire-
fighters into a burning building
under the controlled conditions
of a fire practice. This week, he
looks at the real thing.

You "hang out with the guys"
and they talk. In a real fire, you
don’t walk blindly around. You

crawl,. dragging ‘a- heavy fire

hose and spray a fog of water

ahead of you to extinguish the
- blaze and help keep you cool.

It’s an inhuman environment,
with poisonous air that might be
as hot as 600 degrees Fahren-
heit.

You stay close to walls. You
don't know what’s under you.
The fire might have taken hold
in a basement or crawl space
and you could easily fall through
a weakened floor into the
inferno below.

There are other unknowns.
What sorts of things are stored
in that burning building? There
might be ammunition, cans of
gasoline or other inflammable

.liquids, even a tank of propane

with the capacity to destroy the
‘building.

Even more fearsome is the
possibility of finding people
inside.

One fireman relates an experi-

ence in which he was looking

for survivors. There was a lot of
smoke, and as he crawled into
one room his hand touched
something on the floor. He
peered down through his mask
and what he saw horrified him.
It was a baby, the body of a
young child. He picked it up and
it gave an odd cry... it was a
doll. A great joke in firemen’s
circles, but only to screen the

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emotions against the realization
that finding a real child is a
horrifying real possibility.
Another member of the fire
crew tells the story of battling a
blaze where the smoke was so
thick he couldn’t even be certain
his fire hose was operating
properly. The fog of spray pro-
tects the firefighter, provided the
pumper doesn’t run out of water
or someone doesn’t shut off the
wrong hose. "And you’re just

hoping your hose is working,"

he said. "You're hoping it’s
doing what it’s supposed to be
doing and your saying to your-
self, ’Make this thing work’."

Having earlier considered
becoming a volunteer firefighter,
you begin having. a few second
thoughts. You know you haven’t
even scratched the surface in
really learning all about the life
of a firefighter.

Earlier this year, two Terrace
firefighters were flown to
Stewart to help deal with the
situation there after a propane
explosion destroyed the hospital.
It was feared leaking propane
might have filled basements for
blocks around the hospital and
the area was evacuated as fire-
men went in. .

And you know the potential
power of the explosive gas.
You've seen television coverage
in recent months of a Vancouver
home that was levelled by a
leaking 25-pound tank of pro-
pane.

There was also the Incident
Command training session
earlier this summer, at which
local firefighters sweating in full
turn-out gear drag heavy fire
hoses toward simulated propane
explosions. In the name of train-
ing, these firefighters crouched
behind their only protection, a
fog of water spraying from a fire
hose. If the flow of water

AW =

Terrace Review —— Wednesday, November 27, 1991 23

MORE THAN SMOKE-EATERS |

Firefighters never know what | may be inside a burning building: ammunition,
gasoline, propane... or people.

stopped, they would be exposed
to a blast of heat measuring
1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and
balls of flame 100 feet in diam-
eter that were exploding over
their heads,

Also, there are plenty of haz-
ardous chemicals around.
They’re in practically every
home, but there is a concentra-
tion of chemicals in the down-
town CN rail yards. The destruc-
tive potential of some of those
chemicals under certain condi-
tions can be awesome.

And if a major spill ever
occurs, who do you think is
going to be called to the scene
as everyone else in the area
flees? That’s right. The trusty
firefighter, who is equipped and
trained to deal with this sort of
situation.

But the most difficult job of all
might be found in the role of the
firefighter as a first responder
and rescue worker. Dealing with
the horror of mutilated bodies
scattered about the scene of a
motor vehicle accident is part of
a firefighter’s life that not every-
one is capable of dealing with.

Training, professionalism and
having the right equipment at
hand is the key. Dealing with
this type of situation is described
graphically by a B.C. Ambulance
Service paramedic. who once

worked in Terrace.

He arrived at the scene of a
motor vehicle accident near a
northern B.C. community a few
years ago and focused directly
on his work. One accident victim
had lost much of the top of his
skull, The brain was exposed.

This is where training plays a
big role for the professional, he
explained. You are there to do a
job and you simply do it. The
paramedic worked long and hard

on his patient's apparently fatal
injury and was eventually able to
load him in the back of the
ambulance still alive. In spite of
his work, however, the man died
in the hospital a few hours later.

After the man died, the
paramedic learned his identity.
He had been so intent in his
effort to save the man’s life, he
never noticed that his patient
was his "best buddy", a friend
who was supposed to have been
best man at his wedding in a
few dayse

The firefighter who must deal
with situations like motor
vehicle accidents never knows
who the victims might be. Often
they are teenagers. One day it
could be a son or daughter of
their own.

Rescue work doesn’t always
create that kind of murderous
emotional stress, of course.

Terrace firefighters rescued a
17-year-old youth from the face
of a cliff at Kleanza Creek this.
summer. The youth was in some
difficulty, but not really in any
danger of falling. The only
injury was to his ego.

The rescue did require physical
stress, however. One firefighter
lowered another to the boy’s
location and then helped puil the
pair back up to the top. From
there, they walked back down on
a trail and everyone was safe
and happy to be going home.

Some rescue work even offers
a little humour. A little over a-
year ago, Terrace firefighters
were called out at 2:45 a.m. to
assist in the rescue of a man
who was attempting to end it all
by jumping off the Sande Over-
pass. Ladders, said the RCMP,
might be required. Before the
fire department was able to get
into position, however, the
RCMP were able to handcuff the
man to a metal standard.

The man jumped anyway. His
attempt to do himself in was
foiled, of course, when he
stopped far short of the ground,
hanging from the standard by his
wrists. Firefighters arrived, and
with the help of the RCMP were
able to get the man safely to the
ground below.