10k Islands Fire Department

[Heftig]

Are there any fire fighters in the 10000 Islands?

If so...Where are you from?

Volunteer, military, airport or regular professional?


°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Fire Fighters of the Islands unite!

[Heftig]

*BUMP*

[Crackenback]

I'm not a firefighter, but I'm close I work in the State Emergency Service and _do_ assist the firefighters in times of need. The SES have done alot of work with the fire department in Bushfire season (which is officially here now for me). The SES core responsibility, though, is for Storm damage, and some of our units actually do road rescue as well (which, thankfully, our unit does _not_ do)

to find out who I volunteer with, check out the SES Website

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

I'm trained to be an EMT-Basic. I can also agree with Crackenback that crash extrications are a pain.

[aranisland]

Am I right in thinking that's a Hanover number plate, Heftig?

I'm a fire warden at work, which doesn't mean anything more exciting than knowing not to use water extinguishers on electrical fires, and being responsible for checking the floor to see that everyone gets out.

[Heftig]

Crackenback: interesting website... I don't think we have anything corresponding the SES in Germany... or maybe the Technisches Hilfswerk which is also responisble for large scale emergencies... They mainly have heavy equipment like cranes and verhicles to move stuff... I only worked together with them once in 2002 during the Elbe floodings... Large areas of especially eastern Germany were floded including major cities like Dresden... Whe were called ( together with about 20 other fire fighter units from Hamburg) to a small town that already had been evacuated... For about 2 days we had to secure the damms...together with the military (Bundeswehr) some diver units and the Technischem Hilfswerk...
Some pictures
During the critical times we had no time to take any pictures so most of them were taken at arrival and shortly before leaving...

What exactely do you have to do during bush fire season? I met a fire fighter from Adelaide once who told me about being right in the middle of a fire storm... Not something I wanna experience!

TheSensitiveNewAge: EMT-Basic meanig Emergency Medic... ?
As a volunteer fire fighter I mostly work together with the professional emergency rescue which in Hamburg is mostly done by the professional fire fighters... they do 2 weeks of actual fire fighting and then 2 weeks of emergency response... So during an accident they know both sides and working together is perfect...

When I lived in Passau for a while there were no professional fire fighter, so we had to take care of all accidents...and we had about 20 Kilometers of Autobahn to cover... Not the most liked work!

@aran Island: It's not Hannover it is Hamburg...

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

In the States, many firefighters and some police train to be EMT-basics, but EMTs can also be their own thing. There are three levels of EMTs by federal code, basics can use AEDs, oxygen, nitroglycerin, epi-pens and such. EMT-Intermediates can do IVs while Paramedics can use a few hundred different drugs.

[Crackenback]

We mainly just help out. Some things we might do would be stuff like neighbourhood evactuations etc. While the professional fire fighters are taking care of the blaze, we try to get everyone out.


edit: Just to give you a bit of a broader idea about the SES, we're also accredited in rescue (including Vertical Rescue). All field personnel must be accredited in First Aid as well (our own first aid course is WorkCover accredited (in other words it's a high standard because it's an occupational requirement) )

(WorkCover are the ones who designate occupational safety regulations such as harnesses when on roofs etc) .

I'm studying for qualification in Storm and Water damage at the moment and General Rescue. I've only been in the unit for about 18 months, so I'm still sort of 'starting out' There's huge operational and training photo galleries on the site

[Serconea]

In the UK, our firefighters went on strike in 2002:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2002/firefighter_dispute/default.stm

What they do may be explained here:
www.fireservice.co.uk/role/index.php

[Heftig]

I just got back from my vacation... So back to fire fighting again...

I have a huge respect for all people that come / came close to a fire storm which I guess most bush fires are.

About the strike in the UK... It must be the same everywhere. They recently tried to shut down about 20 fire stations in Hamburg, including mine... The support from people all over town was tremendious, so the government gave that up, at least for now.

[Dracon Dragon]

im a firefighter, i have extensive training in terorist actions, trained emt, rock climbing ect, i currently do this within the united states

[Dracon Dragon]

i just wanted to add an extra little note in, just want to say big respect to all of you that either are full firefighters or even in assitance with them, its bravery at its upmost