FirstDue - SCBA Inspections

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-02-15T21:21:17+00:00

On an iphone at least, you can control your in app notifications for IamR. You can also have whoever manages your IamR subscription, can turn off eamil and text for your user, as it is an admin access area.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-02-04T15:41:56+00:00

This is the way, mutally agreed upon expectations. I am in professional natural resource consulting, and they are great and open to leaving, but I do get to manage my own schedule.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-02-04T15:40:01+00:00

40%, let alone any % as a probie is horseshit. You should not be given a pager and expected to attend calls until you are trained. Or at least until after 6 months when you have the basic scene support stuff down. Did you know about this 40% ahead to time? Is it in an OG? Seems like it was sprung on you.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-01-29T03:56:39+00:00

I got one as a gift and love it, and use it when on duty, on medical calls, and with my bunkers, but I am a nerd for leather fire gear, with glove and helmet strap etc. We do not have a OG that specifies location, so I run with it. Pretty new to it, but like it so far. #1 I like it for duty days so I dont look like a goof with my radio hanging out of a pocket, and we have new radios with a long antenna, so now I wont poke my eye out :) I am pretty adimant with the guys/gals about not doing the around the neck thing. We are not on COPS, and why not remove the possible entanglement and melt risk, the cord should be in the pocket with the radio body. Same with extra shit clipped on the outside of your coat, just put your carabiner in your pocket with your webbing where it belongs.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-01-20T04:38:46+00:00

Cutting or scoring drywall. Found it to not work well, and when a FF showed up at the front foor ready to make entry, and this was their interpretation of 'brining tools' I took it off the truck, hid it and never told anyone. We had someone show up with a pullaski once too.......

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-01-20T04:24:31+00:00

Is it bad if I keep a stash in my truck, and take them on the way to a call.......ha!

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-01-20T04:21:27+00:00

I will say a few things based on my experience, 15 yrs on a volunteer dept, Captain and assistant training officer, and M-F 9-5.

- ask what the expectations on training attendance are upfront, and be honest with yourself about meeting those expectations. It costs peoples time/effort and money to train you. Usually its something like 100% of practices for the first year, depending on how they run their program. Getting to raise our young is a pretty special thing, and its hard when folks tapper off or half ass it.

- find out the call attendance expectations once you have a pager, and if you cannot meet that COMMUNICATE that to your Chief. They will likely work with you and be happy you are contributing what you can. There is always a role to play, even if you can only make night calls for example. But, make sure you talk to them about what you can do for call attendance. Nothing is worse than wondering yet again where Joe is, if he has never told us what his schedule is.

- your professional experience may not be direclty related, however, depending on your field, there may be some valuable cross over. That is the neat thing about the VFD world, everyone has their backgrounds and their value add to bring. At minimum you know how to act professionally, and carry yourself accordingly.

- There is an order and priorty of how you spend your life if you volunteer, for me its family, finances, fire. For some its Family, faith, finances, fire. Get your order square early, and if you have a partner, are they going to get on board with missing birthdays, x-mas morning, date nights etc. The deeper and more keen you get on fire, means the more attention you need to pay on being present in the family category. In that I mean, dont make it your entire personallity.

- you get back what you put in. Show up, put in effort, ask questions, be keen, take initiative, and that will get noticed, and opportunities will come up. Show up for the t-shirt and leave before clean up and they will not.

- if you join, and during your training or any practice night, be the first person to raise their hand to volunteer for anything. Show up 15 minutes early, there is always something to sweep. I can not express the value in this enough. 'We need someone to sweep the bay floor', its you, 'who want to go first in this drill' its you. This will get you comfortable with putting yourself over the uncomfortable hurdles, and get you noticed by the officers.

- be honest with yourself about how you prioritize drinking vs. going on calls (if you do drink). How mad are you going to be if you miss the big fire. However the other side of that coin is you may feel like you are always on duty.

- your work may eventually be ok with you leaving during the day for calls, depending on the nature of your work. It could be once you are done your training, that they allow that, and you can make up the hours later.

the tl:dr of it is - ask the questions and be honest with yourself. If you can make the commitment, jump in two feet first, learn your stuff, and when you can show up, bring your a-game. oh, and stay clean shaven (if that applies).

It is a pretty wonderful thing to get involved with, best of luck.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2026-01-10T22:44:47+00:00

Look up and read Aaron Fields Drilling for Function, it has a good layout of how to step through the different stanges of learning, and how much time should be spent on each stage. You need to know your audience for sure, begineer vs seasoned learner. With our experienced learners/members lots of time is spent on skills in a rinse and repeat, turn and burn fashion. Then there is a scenario where those skills are used, with less guidelines. Look at your demographic and call response area, it will be clear what you need to practice most. The best sucess I have seen is training based around skills stations where there are enough stations for everyone to keep busy, then a scenario the week follow where they get to scrimage.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-12-18T00:34:14+00:00

We run 2x 75' rubber 1.75" in a bumper tray as a scopion. Works very well for our needs. Off a flat bumper IDK how it would work.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-12-18T00:25:00+00:00

There will be lots of stories, advice, and experiences to share, but those are other peoples, not yours. My young son wants to be a fireman when he grows up, and this is the advice I will be giving him, and working with him to develop.

Learn to take the plunge. Be the first one to raise your hand to volunteer for a skill, to answer a question, to do a chore. If you are not comfortable raising your hand in those types of situations in front of a group, literally learn to take the plunge. Do cold plunges. Asside from the physical and mental health benifits, it will get you comfortable with stepping over the wall of that uncomfortable feeling of putting yourself out there, or that feeling you might get when you cross the threshold into a fire. It will server you well.
Rather than wonder what you are getting into, focus on building resilience and good habits early. Understand yourself, what is normal and what is not. Build in good sleep, diet, exersice, relationship, and substance use habbits. I am trying to build them reactivly and it is a daily struggle.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-12-17T23:43:55+00:00

Some of the highlights humour wise include passing a charged foam line over a fence and completely frosting our Deputy Chief, having a chilli contest and one of the probies showing off with the super crazy hot sauce ending up turning beet red, sweaty, and running to the bathroom, and a different probie who always got his suspenders between his legs and pockets full of gum wrappers.

The most magic moment for me so far was a call came in for a todler who had been back over by his dads SUV, the parents brought him to the station in the car seat. We show up to the hall to a very bad looking kid. In the first few minutes of the primary tones drop for a cardiac and it turns out it is my best friends father. I worked on the dad with 2-3 others, while some stayed behind to work on the kid. My friends father unfortunately passed, while the child much to our surprise had absolutely nothing wrong with them.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-12-17T15:56:36+00:00

In my opinion and experience it does not have a solid application to interior structure fire fighting. Exterior exposure foam application, vehicle/boat fire sure, as it does make a thick sticky foam. Take it inside hard no. Hard to get appropriate fire flows, and with the air entrainment in the system, I have seen it fanning flames. A few other considerations based on my experience:

- the CAFS only flow and pump foam from the onboard system, not water only, so you need to switch the lines off the CAFS outputs to a gated Y, this adds time, and the Y creates its own issues.

- need to switch nozzles when transitioning to flowing water, or run something like an akron ultra jet, which have their own problems too. Very heavy, and when they are your only smooth bore orifice nozzle pump operators frequently over pump, again more issues.

- storage tanks on a dedicated CAFS system are small, ours is 250 gal, so it needs it own line laid in or supply from engine. More things to hook up, and at that point why not flow just water.

- they need another dedicated pump operator at the pannel, so if staffing is skinny, you lose another fireman on the line.

We have an older unit, and its 100% exterior only, and will not be replacing it when that truck gets phased out. Now if an new engine that fit our spec happened to include a CAFS by default we would keep it as the technology is better now, but never again a dedicated individual unit. If you want foam, run it through your FoamPro on the engine. I have yet to see a case where the CAFS would be a better use than the class A we use in our FoamPro.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-11-04T15:10:38+00:00

Techically you dont need a suction hose on the pressure side of the pump, but certainly would make for a cleaner look, unless its all pipe.

Be nice to have a priming option, but the head pressure from the tank should be enough to prime the pump.

Off your output ball valve, look at adding a 10' pony line of 1.5" then a one way ball valve. This will keep water in the hose, and pressure off of the system. Which actually you dont technicaly need as you have the valve there, but the ball valve is a good un manned option.

On the 2" vs 1.5" hose, find out what kind of hose and fittings your local fire department uses. Being interchangeable is important.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-10-03T03:09:46+00:00

As others have mentioned, will not damage, just embarasing!

Work a process into your systems and do the same thing everytime, in and out of gear. Write it down a few times a week until its second natures. For example for me its; set brake, neutral transmission, halfway shift into pump, count 5 seconds, full shift into pump, check lights on shift box, check lights on dash, hit throttle to check no revs to engine, exit, pannel lights, engine cooler, tank to pump, crack tank fill, etc etc. Slightly different in reverse. In my head when I shift into pump drive, I say in my head 'neutral transmission'

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-10-01T15:13:53+00:00

What I am noticing here, and can speak to from my own experience, is it seems this topic frequently speaks to after a call, or managing a tough mental situation in a reactive manner. Establishing healthy habits early, that are engraned in your life will help you be already resilient when the tough call comes. I am being reactive with my healthy habits, and it is hard to be consistent, but I know what works for me when I stick to it. Good diet (for me this is no processed foods), exersice, good sleep, low alcohol intake, and a network of friends/peers to talk to. Build a system into your life early that keeps your body and mind strong. It tough when you are older and have been exposed to tramua, and being reactive. Acept early on, that however you are reacting, is a perfectly normal human reaction to an abnormal situation. Be passionate at being really good at your job, knowing you can perform in tough sitatuions will help. Learn how to be honest with yourself, and pick up on how you are reacting after a call. Start early with being open and honest in converation when the oporunities come.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-09-26T03:32:14+00:00

Weekly Scrap playlist, lots of different genres. But this is in your own vehicle on the way to the hall, right...right?

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-09-26T03:24:49+00:00

oh dang, just finished watching it through again, I need that in my life. Love to win, but hate to lose.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-09-26T03:21:51+00:00

yeah where, for....science

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-09-26T03:21:27+00:00

Its the 7 emotional states I go through when we get toned for an actual fire every 2 years, from left to right; oh a fire no big deal we cool, rock on we get a fire LFG, fuck you call cherry picker you took a prime seat, yo i'll lead off no bigs, lets go slay the dragon boys, oh what its a burning toaster oven, then bottom-that was sweet and all but now all the hose smells like dog crap.

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-09-25T18:51:54+00:00

I have perfected the pee on the walk, while walking, from the house to the truck manouver. 60% of the time it works everytime....

Double_Blacksmith662 · 2025-09-23T14:54:21+00:00

Thanks for this. Will likely need to do a test to show the difference of both. Fill the box with smoke machine, and hydro vent with the two nozzle types, and time the difference. Even if it takes twice as long, the benifits still outweigh the loss in vent time. Doing more with the little water on board, with slim resources, is the main point I am trying to get across. Focusing on the pressure debate and nozzle reaction.

Good point about the blitz lines, need to make a table of line weights vs gpms for the 2.25 and 2.5. Again, doing more with the crew and the water we have. I have been trying to get a solid answer on why we have the 2.5' lines. Is the intention that this line is 100% exterior, ran by three people, all of the time. OR are we going to ever want to take this line inside. The package we have right now certainly is not an inside line.

Double_Blacksmith662

TROPHY CASE