Harrisburg Pump Training...

No sky watch Friday again this week, I finally got a day off but now I need to make up for lost time so I do not have the time to do it properly. Today's photographs come from last weeks pump class in Harrisburg. As a firefighter progresses through his career he reaches the point when he can go for driver operator status. To do so he should have spent his last three years driver training and preparing for this time. When that time arrives they spend two weeks working daylights training on pumps, hydraulics calculations and operating ladder trucks. At the completion of the class the candidate needs to take two written and two practical test administered through the state and another test given by the Bureau of Fire. If they pass these test they become driver operators in the department. Being a driver is a huge responsibility, he is responsible for the lives of the other firefighters on the rig and the citizens on the street and in their personal vehicles. He is also responsible for operating the rig once it reaches the scene. That task can be very difficult at three in the morning after waking up from a dead sleep with fire blowing out of a building and people screaming that there is someone trapped inside. If they cannot perform these tasks the other firefighters cannot do there job either.

The center photograph is Captain Sam Clark, Sam was the lead instructor in the classes and I had the chance to assist him once again this year. Sam and I were partners on an engine company when I came on the job many years ago, I would have never imagined then that we would be training the future of the fire department now.

Hopefully you noticed that I did some different things in post processing of these photographs. After reading all the great reviews of Nik Silver Efex Pro I finally purchased it a few weeks ago and used it in the post processing of these images.