I Can't Stop Laughing

A Short time ago a co-worker IM'd me about a story he read on KSL's website.

This is how he set it up:

Hey, Huckabee is writing a "best seller" about his failed presidential bid.

Of course the best seller part of that headline is this co-workers attempt at humor, the story didn't really include that perspective.

I read that on my IM screen and I just started laughing out loud.  I have thought about it for a few minutes, and I guess I just laughed because in my opinion, that would not be a very interesting read.  I know that is my opinion and others might actually buy the book.

Here is the link to KSL's version of the story.

In my reply to this co-worker I said, "I can't stop laughing".  To which he said, "Just hearing about that book makes me want to go to sleep".

Yes, I laughed a bit more at that because I was feeling the same way.

I guess it's a good thing that I don't make decisions about stuff like that, because who knows, it just might become a "best seller".

Manipulation Instead of Satisfaction

On my way to work this morning I listened to a radio station originating from the region's largest city.  It is a 5AM - 7AM talk show format covering the local and national topics of the day.

I'm going to preface the rest of my post by saying I'm nothing more than an occasional spectator in the arena of politics.  I have tried to be a bit more aware of the issues at hand during the current election year - therefore my tuning into the program mentioned above.

But, as mentioned in other posts, I have subjected myself to the all encompassing hobby of being a volunteer firefighter.  With all the things that entails, who on earth has time for serious thoughts about such mundane things as the leadership of the free world?

Back to the radio program:  The host commented about the common "talking points" that an election cycle contains, and how they seem to be re-runs of the campaigns years before.  What's behind it, is the question he posed.  I have recognized the repetition, but because I am so centered in things not political, I never reached a decision of my own.  I will try to explain the hosts opinion on this topic.

He began: A candidate or a party will build a campaign around the issues that the candidate/party feels are important.  The candidate/party will wave the flag of these issues in front of our faces in a manner that entices us to voice our support for or against them, based on our personal views.

The host of the show indicated his perspective as this:   The candidate/party is not even slightly interested in solving the matter in hand, all they are interested in is the ability of using that issue to create a fervor - among those who agree with their position - in order to cause them to open their pocket books and donate to their campaign.

His belief in this theory stems from his perception of the history of the executive and legislative branches of the government - when these branches are aligned by party and supposedly empowered by said alignment - wouldn't we expect them to take action to resolve the things they campaigned about?

Take recent history for example.  We are still hearing that the democratic party will solve the health care debacle, but when the alignment existed in favor of the democratic party, no resolution was achieved.  That is just one example, and to be fair it's happened during the other side's alignment periods as well.

It does appear to me that effecting solutions to their list of problems doesn't really happen even when these alignments exist.  The issues that are always resurrected at campaign stops during each election cycle are not resolved and possibly little or nothing is actually done to solve the problems.

The host continued to say that if they actually solved the problems they campaigned about, then candidates and parties would not have the means to support their next campaign because we would not be inflamed into donating money and other means of support for the candidates who preach cycle after cycle about the very issues they are not really intending to solve.

I may have to consider this point of view further before I totally "buy" into the things the host was saying, but, what if it were true ....? Then, I would have to say that it's a bit embarrassing as a population to allow ourselves to be duped into hitching our wagons of support to their platforms - election after election - only to be left cleaning up after the horses ......

Baby Animal Days

There is local annual event of the same name as the title of this post, that was held in Wellsville at the American West Heritage Center last weekend. This post is not about that event, but it's about our very own baby animal days.

As you may have read from an older post, we have been hosting a few of my brothers yearlings and a soon to be mommy cow.

The soon to be part of that is no more.

I went out to feed Saturday morning and saw that the calf had arrived. The kids were so excited, they'd been waiting for this for a long time.

I'll attach a couple of photos:


Over the winter we've had those other cows with us, and the kids have been real good to come out and help feed them, with occasional lapses of interest setting in.

Now they are extremely anxious to spend time out in the backyard where they can see the new calf, they even come up with reasons to be out there.

Baby animal days are in full swing, and we didn't have to travel across the valley and pay entrance fees, either.

Why A Flashover Kills

I read recently on Firehouse.com that a firefighter in Missouri was caught in a flashover while working at a house fire and was burned quite severely.

A flashover is the near simultaneous ignition of all combustible material in an enclosed area.

Flashover occurs when the majority of surfaces in a space are heated to the point (known as fire point) at which they give off flammable gases that are hot enough to sustain combustion. Flashover normally occurs at 500 °C (930 °F) for ordinary household combustibles.

You might be thinking, well, firefighters wear that protective clothing that should help them be okay in a flashover .....

In part that is true.  We wear that protective clothing when we enter burning buildings so we are protected from the heat the fire is generating.  But, it's not good enough to protect us from the temperature that exists when a flashover occurs.

Through my years of firefighting I have been taught and now teach to the firefighters on our department, that our protective clothing will keep us safe for about 2 seconds at a temperature nearing 1100 degrees F.  The temperature of failure may actually be a bit higher or lower, but it's still in that range of really-stinking-hot, regardless.

In my career, I've been at several house fires where the temperature was reaching the really-stinking-hot stages.  At one in particular, we searched the ground floor of a home - looking for the fire - but all we found was smoke and a tiny spot of visible flame around a wood stove chimney where it had started the ceiling on fire as it passed through the ceiling on it's way to the roof.

The fire was burning freely in the second story, so we advanced our hose up the stairs to attempt an attack on the fire.  As we advanced the hose up the stairs the temperatures increased significantly and at the top of the stairs it was so hot that I was feeling it quite well through my protective clothing.  We backed down the stairs and went to work ventilating the upper story of the home so we could release some of that heat.

We lost that house because of the advanced fire conditions in the second story and into the attic.  No one was hurt and a bunch of the owner's belongings were saved.  You win some, you loose some.

Firefighters train in how to deal with flashover in specially designed burn rooms.  It's an amazing thing so see the snaking flames travel the length of the burn room above your head, and feel the intense heat just above you, then learn a technique that could give you a few more seconds - maybe just enough time - to escape that intense heat.

Several years ago I was in Paradise, Utah at a live fire training exercise where a home was used for training burns, and then burned to the ground.  After the training and during the destruction burn, I was able to snap a photo through an open window of what it looks like when a flashover occurs as described above, nearly every combustible thing begins burning at once:

Paradise-(43)

Fire is deadly, it kills firefighters in their protective clothing just as easily as it does civilians - given the right temperatures and conditions.  The one big thing going for the firefighter is the breathing air carried on his/her back as they enter the smoke filled building.  The public generally doesn't have that tool, and therefore smoke kills more people in a fire than flames.

Rapid notification is the key to success in getting you and your family out of a burning structure, as well as giving firefighters a chance to respond before the fire has such a strong hold in the structure that it wins the battle.

Somehow, thankfully, the firefighter from Missouri was able to escape the heat and make it out alive.  Hopefully the treatment for his severe burns will be successful and he will suffer as little as possible.

Let's all be careful out there, and remember to keep your smoke detectors working properly!

It was a dark and quiet night, until ....

*****Another flash-from-the-past entry:

When I was 12 years old I moved on to the official Boy Scout Troop in my small town. There were a lot of boys my age and we had known each other all through school and church activities, and we generally had a lot of fun.

To make it even better, we had some really good leaders. We joked and played a lot, but we also got a lot of merit badges and other advancements done as well.

Now that I'm much older than 12, it's really neat to live in the same town as these two scout leaders and still get to see them at church, at the post office, the store, etc., and keep that friendship going after all these years.

Okay, enough background, on to the story.

The bunch of us scouts had the brilliant idea that we should toilet paper the house of one of our leaders. Each of us - as discreetly as possible - gathered up the necessary item from our homes and on the appointed night we met at the appointed time and began our work.

At the time of the event, our leader was living in a single wide at the rear of the property while he was self-building a stick built home closer to the road. This worked to our advantage because there was a lot of area that was hidden from view of the trailer and we accomplished some good papering.

Soon enough we had a decision to make - should we move closer to the trailer and decorate it as well, or just call it good? 12 year old discretion won out and we decided to continue.

Another scout and myself ended up on the little porch of the trailer, winding toilet paper around the railing, etc.

At some point, being up on the steps of the trailer or by some other means, our night-time fun was discovered by our scout leader, but we did not realize it until a short time later.

As mentioned, my position was on the front porch/step of the trailer, winding the railing. I recall looking up momentarily and seeing something cylindrical sliding out of a small window right next to the porch area that I was standing on.

Marveling at what I was seeing, it took several seconds to realize what this strange object was. When I did realize it, time for reaction had expired. The very next moment, before having a chance to sound an alarm of any sort, the relative silence of the night was shattered by a very large KABOOM!

Even though I had had a moments notice, the shock of a sudden loud noise and the accompanying bright flash caused me to loose control of my legs, and all of us - having a similar reaction - bolted away as fast as we could.

When we finally quit running we caught our breath, made sure all were accounted for, then had a bit of a laugh before we each returned to our respective homes.

The really interesting part is the conversation we had with our scout master the next time we were all together.

He described his part of the story, telling us how he had heard some slight noise outside and got up to investigate. He saw us outside, decorating his new home and yard, and he came up with his plan.

He went to his closet and pulled out his muzzle loader, opened his powder horn and he stated that he poured powder into the barrel until he was surprised that it didn't fill the whole thing up. He didn't put a bullet in, just the powder.

Then he carefully cocked the hammer, put a cap on the nipple and crept to the window just to the side of the front door. It being summer, the window was already open and he slid the barrel of the muzzle loader out of the window and pulled the trigger.

Knowing him quite well, I can only imagine the joy that filled his heart to see a group of 12 and 13 year old kids - shocked to their bones - jump and run as fast and as far as possible. If he had to clean up the toilet paper himself, might as well have something funny to think about while doing it.

You know, it's been a little while since we laughed over this memory together, I think I need to stop by soon and recollect again.

Mortimer Pallet Co. Fire

***This is a description of a fire from history, back in 2005.

It was a usual November evening. Folks everywhere were looking forward to the turkey feast that was coming up in about a week.
 
I was sitting in the front room winding down from the days events when I heard tones come across the open channel of my pager. I waited; one set, two sets, three sets (if it goes to 4 sets then I'll get really interested), four sets of tones.
 
Listening closely now I hear the dispatcher add the voice information to the call. "Fire in Smithfield" or something like that. I waited again until the first units came up on the air and gave a report of conditions on arrival.
 
What I heard was a request for a 2nd alarm and that made the decision for me, I will go and take some pictures of this. I grabbed my shoes and coat and left town, making sure my turn out bag was in the trunk.
 
Topping the little hill that obscures Newton from part of the valley, I was surprised to see an inverted cone shape of fire glaringly visible from the East in Smithfield. Yes, it is a big fire I said to myself.
 
I had only traveled about 1 more mile before a request for the 3rd alarm was transmitted, and shortly after that my pager sounded the familiar alert, my departments engine was due on the 3rd alarm for this incident.
 
I decided to continue in and meet the engine crew once they were on scene. We were directed to the West of the fire to assist crews extinguishing fire in a building and to protect the structures next to that building.
 
The rest of the narrative will best be served by a few pictures. I did not take the pictures, they were taken by another individual. I did photo shop them a little bit because they were dark, it being night-time and all.
(Above, below) The main part of the fire was in stacks of pallets in the open air at the rear of the building.

There were significant flame lengths from the well ventilated fuels involved.


For reference, the total 4 alarms at this incident brought 2 truck companies, 11 engines and command staff to manage the resources on hand.

These photos were taken from Smithfield's Main street, about 400 South by an observer who then passed them on to a North Logan firefighter who in turn sent them to me.





Truck 70 works the flames in the pallets.




Truck 120 works the flames in the pallets.

North Logan firefighters stand by at un-involved structures with hoses drawn in case the flames and heat start to threaten these exposures.

Other than the Cache Valley Dairy #2 fire in the early 90's, this is probably the biggest non-wildland fire that I have had a hand in fighting. It's a terrible event when a fire like this breaks and puts property in threat of damage and loss. Thankfully no one was injured.

2 Firefighters Lost

This morning in Ohio, 2 firefighters were killed in a house fire.

Read more in a Firehouse.com Article.

The nation's firefighters will pause and reflect once again as we take in this sad news.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the fallen firefighters.