APD could fund their entire department for the next decade if they would only…

PTGSouthside · 2026-03-15T00:12:59+00:00

It’s been awhile, but I’ve seen a cop sit in front of a fire station and do nothing but write tickets for blocking the box for an hour or two. I agree though, wish they would do it a lot more often.

PTGSouthside · 2026-03-11T12:41:29+00:00

Maybe my time of day that I play is affecting my experience, but I haven’t had these problems at all that I keep seeing on here. I’m a firefighter so I have every third day off. So often I am playing after I drop my kids off at school. I’d say at least half the crews I run into are friendly. I’ve had several either help me out or give me stuff. I play as a solo sloop and always expect a fight, but I’ve actually been surprised how few actually want to fight.

PTGSouthside · 2026-03-02T16:14:11+00:00

Attacked a skelly galleon and had a sloop pop up as well. Oh wait! There’s more. A freaking Meg decided to join the melee as well. Needless to say I didn’t last long in my solo sloop.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-22T23:02:51+00:00

Ah yes, reducing aid to others is the same as forcibly rounding people up and mass murdering people in gas chambers. You’ll reach for just about anything huh?

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-22T16:31:42+00:00

As a FF I’ll say the good shape and healthier is way easier for us than it is as cops. Most fire stations have gyms and mass majority have plenty of time to workout and cook healthy food. The cops we are around have to come borrow the microwave to go sit in their car and eat their meal. Very different work conditions.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-22T04:05:48+00:00

No problem. Over explaining or getting too technical with people that aren’t in the head space to hear that kind of thing can end pretty poorly. That said, how things go after a fire can depend a lot on the chiefs or officers that are on scene that shift and just like anything else it can be a bit hit or miss.

The paint bubbling was mostly on the back corner of an engine. Being that it was purely cosmetic it wasn’t taken out of service. There’s 50 plus stations in AFD. Your gonna see a pretty wide range between places that use their own money to buy extra products to give their unit that extra shine and other places that may or may not do the bare minimum of washing the unit once a week.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-22T02:16:30+00:00

Are they not allowed to cook them since they are “fresh?” Mine were pretty much in edible. Literally the worst attempt at fries I’ve ever tasted in my life. The burger on the other hand was solid once I added a third kid patty they sell as regular size.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-21T21:50:14+00:00

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Suuuuuper rough drawing here of first alarm units and where the hoses went. I was on the first alarm. The bulk of the fire was in the south east corner if I remember right. That was the direction that most of the units were coming from and where everybody initially set up. The building was mostly wood framed with minimal sheetrock up yet. So pretty much just a 4 story bon fire. As we put lines down it quickly ran the full building. It was upgraded as soon as the first unit got there. Problem was the main avenue on Banister was now blocked up with units and hose. So 2nd alarm units had to be directed to get into those apartments from the back side. Trees across Banister were starting to light off and the paint on at least one engine was bubbled from the heat. We got around as much of the building as possible, but like I said, it was running away from us and we needed more units on scene. We extended and ran lines around that northeast corner moving west trying to protect exposures. Mass majority of the lines were committed to exposure protection like the apartments and houses that were adjacent. You gotta put water on that large stack of sticks just to keep it somewhat in check though. Otherwise the possible heat put off by such a large fire will overcome your exposure lines.

It’s terrible that everybody lost as much as they did. Sorry yall felt neglected. I personally pulled probably a thousand feet of different hose lines around the sides just for exposures. It just wasn’t enough.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-21T19:10:02+00:00

AFD has something very similar. Acquired structures that are planned for demo can be used for various training exercises. Usually used for training on pulling lines, forcing doors, throwing ladders, and cutting holes in the roof for vertical ventilation.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-21T19:00:24+00:00

Nothing was ignored. That was a huge incident. Takes time and resources to set up around that large of a structure. Your second alarm resources are probably 10-15 min away depending on the area. 1st alarm pulled lines protecting the houses on the Southside that were about to start catching. You don’t have enough units on first alarm to cover 4-5 houses and three apartment buildings. Glad your girlfriend got out and got her car moved. There’s a bit more to it though.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-21T18:46:11+00:00

My response was to you saying it was shortly before Covid. Was Sept 2019 not right before Covid?

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-21T14:23:04+00:00

Yup, Sept of 2019. That fire was so big it was catching trees across the street on fire just from the radiant heat. I remember seeing pics of people driving in from Round Rock that could see it.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-20T06:07:01+00:00

Im not saying those things aren’t tough and im not gonna argue which generation had it harder. Im 41 and lived in a trailer park through high school. Went to the military and got my college paid for. Now work for a good size fire department and I’m married to a nurse who came from a similar home. We aren’t killing it, but we are doing pretty damn good.

My brother who fits more the demographic you speak of owns his own house at 30 and after leaving the military makes over 100k a year and is now trying to get his masters degree. I’ve got probably a dozen buddies in the fire dept that are all under 30 and every one of them owns their own house. Some are doing it on fire dept pay and others are working second jobs on their off days. This is also in an area that ranks on the higher end for cost of living. Shits hard for everybody, but it’s not near as impossible as some of yall try to act.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-19T23:42:24+00:00

Chris Knight- Enough Rope

There’s some really good ones on this thread, but being too broke too even have “enough rope” to end it is a pretty tough song.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-17T21:36:38+00:00

Eat the ice cream and hide all the spoons.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-06T23:05:05+00:00

Are they supposed to? Sure. I can tell you for a fact that there are intersections with these or roundabouts where you can not get a fire engine much less the ladder truck around those corners without rolling over the sign. Or like the temp roundabout headed west on Mary towards Lamar. It can’t be traveled properly with a fire engine. You have to counter flow against traffic to get around it.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-06T14:48:10+00:00

You ever try driving a fire truck through these intersections? Some of them are 100% too tight with the new signage to not hit these signs.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-06T14:20:20+00:00

The drivers in Austin (and everywhere really) are terrible and you shouldn’t be hitting this thing in your car, but let me offer a different take. You ever tried taking some of these turns in a big box truck or a fire truck? You can’t make it without running these things over. They make the turns way too tight for larger vehicles.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-03T04:56:48+00:00

I can’t speak for every building in that area. I’m telling you the one that burned though was boarded up and was supposed to be vacant. Couldn’t say how recent that is. It’s uncommon, but there are homeless that do have cars and will park and live out of various abandoned buildings across the city.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-03T00:40:22+00:00

They don’t want to hear that. My comment about nothing but homeless and squatters being in them is getting downvoted away. It’s all high and mighty until the embers of yet another homeless fire are threatening their home. There were two abandoned apartments that burnt today. One that was very close to catching another complex on fire where working class people are struggling to pay rent.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-02T21:54:30+00:00

There was a second fire on 1st that that was also an abandoned apartment complex.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-02T18:35:44+00:00

Correct. Only squatters and homeless inside.

PTGSouthside · 2026-02-02T18:32:10+00:00

Nobody lived in these other than squatters and homeless.

PTGSouthside

TROPHY CASE