Using The IPhone To Make A Post...

I know, I have not made a post since Christmas. Life has been busy with projects, family and an endless amount of overtime at work. I have not even used the DSLR since November.

Thanks to the IPhone I have managed to stay connected in some manner since then. I can use it at work during down time or when on the go. The camera is pretty good with some really cool photo apps. These four were all taken and worked up on the phone.

I am hoping to get to SNP in June and maybe even Elk County. Who knows I may be retired by then.

Being my first post from the phone and the blogger app I hope it works okay.

Water Rescue On Front Street...

I assuming the video upload worked, I have tried a few times with no luck. This was one of the calls we had on Friday last week, we were dispatched to North Front Street near the city line for a car in the water with the occupant inside. One of the most difficult things to do during a flood is determining the best route of travel because of flooded streets. On this call I drove out of the city into the township to approach the incident. With apparatus on both sides we waited for the Utility to arrive with the raft. A crew of three walked the raft in to the auto and assisted the elderly man into the raft and out to safety. Once out we placed him on the front bumper of my wagon for EMS to check him out. The last photograph is Captain Jim McHenry "B" platoon and Battalion Chief Herb Berger "C" platoon working overtime with us.

I turned out to be an 87 year old man delivering meals on wheels, had this been a younger person we would not have been very happy about the call and he more than likely would have been fined. But do to circumstances we handled this a little different.

I would like to point out that the local news paper the Patriot News Harrisburg reported on the incident, of course it was almost all wrong. They stated that River Rescue brought the man to safety, WRONG it was the HFD. They also said that in the photo caption that he was setting on the bumper of a Susq. Twp. fire engine, WRONG again, they were not even there. I did send an email to three different people at the Patriot pointing out the errors but none were corrected nor did I even get a reply. I guess it is more important to just report things even if they are not true than to report the actual news. I should be used to this by now but it just pisses me off. In the last year they have only wanted to report negatives about the fire bureau and no positives.

Second Day Light Working The Flood...

First call of the morning was for a smoke investigation, when we arrived we found the resident had fired up a grill out back to make coffee. This resident was in the area that was to evacuate the day before and PPL turned off their electric. Floyd Wise, O.T. Lieutenant on Tower 3 and the driver Eric Jenkins.

The second call of the day was for Green and Lewis Streets for a fuel odor investigation. In the first photo you can see the sheen on the water, very common during flooding. There is nothing we can do on calls like this but say yep, there it is and go home. This is a few blocks from the river in a low area.

Overtime Jeremy Saul, Jeff "Skull" Miller and our Captain Jim Mchenry on the last call of the day for reported smoke from a vacant house. We found nothing and in typical form this run came in minutes before quiting time.

Mike Souders the overtime driver on Wagon 4 does his best to hold up the tower.

There was numerous other calls during the day but only one other that I photographed and that was a water rescue on Second Street. I will post photos of that incident on Friday.

I did not work the rest of the tour as I was off sick for the first time in 13 years. What the companies got into over the weekend in unknown to me since I no longer listen once I leave the station.

Working The Harrisburg Flood...

On Thursday September 8, 2011 I reported for my first day out at the Harrisburg Fire Department. By the time we got to work the Battalion Chief's and street firemen and officers had most of the wheels in motion for the soon to be arriving flood waters. Flyer's had already been distributed by the firefighters the night before and the Paxton Fire Station No. 6 was already moving items to high ground and preparing to relocate to Station 1. By the way the last time we evacuated the building was in January 1996 and at that time I worked in that station, by the time they were ready to occupy the building again I had bid Tower 2 in station 1. There was numerous calls through out the day but nothing like the county was getting as the city had time to prepare and the river had not overflowed its banks yet.

In the morning we headed out and went door to door asking residents to evacuate the area as flood waters at that time were expected to reach 30 feet, a number that none of us on the job had ever worked before. By early afternoon we headed out again to drive a large area announcing on the public address system that residents were to evacuate the the area as soon as possible.

In the first photograph we are approaching MaClay Street on Front Street (the Governors Mansion is on the left) and the water has crossed the intersection. This is one of many places it had overflowed its banks and crossed Front Street. By the time we went by this area again the water was moving up MaClay Street. In the second photograph Billy-Bob Holtzman uses the Pa system to read the prepared statement of evacuation.

I took very few photographs of the flood waters as every time we went out it was for a mission and not sight seeing. I plan to make two more posts on Fridays daylight shift before going back to wildlife photos. By the way all photos were taken with my Sony Cyber-shot.

Catching Up On The HFD...

Battalion Chief Dan Hartman on his last night and one of his last runs with Emanual Stoute (T1).

BC Hartman on his last night with retired Assistant Chief Bownaze and retired Lt. Doug Bair.

Dustin Ventresca and Mike Souder getting signatures on our petition in the uptown section of the city. Dustin resigned last month to move into a more stable job (who would have figured the job of a firefighter would not be a stable position).

December 2010 uptown B platoon crews worked this accident after arriving to find a SUV on its side with a man trapped underneath it.

"B" platoon uptown extinguishes a tan bark fire next to the Governors mansion.

"B" platoon members Billy Holtzman, Wil Turner and Deshawn Dennis take a break after working a multiple alarm house fire in the gut earlier this year. This was the second day in a row that a "Mayday" was called by one of our firefighters in trouble in a burning building. For real!, one of us could die doing this, can't be this is the sweetest job on earth (sarcasm and I will leave it go at that).

One of those busy days from bank robbery crashes, gas leaks, automatic fire alarms to car fires uptown. The city firefighters just keep getting the job done no matter what.

Nothing like rolling in at 3 a.m. to find eight vehicles involved in an accident with ejections and truck well involved with a running gasoline fire like the "D" platoon did a couple of weeks ago.

All photos were taken with my point and shoot, I may not be the best photographer but I wouldn't want you to think that this was the quality I get from my DSLR's.

The last time I left you with the HFD we were fighting for our jobs. We managed to keep them for a number of reasons but we can't leave our guard down as I am shore we will be going through this in just another few short months.

The department still dwindles down as the once proud department of 105 is now down to 78 after BC Dan Hartman (32 years), Robbie Sullivan, Lt. Andy Weaver and firefighter Steve Snoke have all retired long before they wanted to. Along with firefighter Dustin Ventresca resigning to take a job in HAZMAT in our nations Capitol after working so hard and long to get on the HFD. In all the slots and seats still need to be filled no matter how many men are on the job and overtime is the norm instead of the occasional. I remember when I hired on you took every o.t. offered to you because it only happened a few times a year. Now you can work one, two and sometimes three in just your four day break.

Through all of this the men and women of the department continue to come to work and provide the citizens and guest of the city with the best fire and ems protection possible. Calls have not decreased even thought manpower has and even with the quantity going down the quality remains the same. I just hope that the toll does not become to much that one of my brothers has to make the supreme sacrifice. This year alone we have had two mayday calls and three near misses. That is more than should occur in a lifetime.

Next post I will bring you up to date on my outside life.

Help My Brothers Out..

I need to be very careful what I type in here to insure that I am not in the unemployment line also. For those of you that live in my area you already know what is going on since it has been the main attraction in the papers and news for the last 11 plus months. For those of you that do not live in my area then I will tell you that I have been a Harrisburg Pa fireman for more than 20 years know. Because of decisions NOT MADE BY THE FIREMEN the city finds itself in debt by almost $300 million dollars. It was decided that it would be fixed on the backs of the hard working firemen so effective January 1, 2011, 10 of my brothers will be laid off. These guys worked hard to get this job, passing numerous tests waiting long periods of time, completing a fire academy and most of all uprooting their families from their homes and moving them into the city as a condition of employment. Our work schedule will also be changed to 24 hours on and 48 hours off raising our work week an additional 14 hours per week. Along with the downsizing to three platoons nine officers will be demoted. I would like to point out that this is all in violation of our contract.

Please if you live in my area work, play, live or visit Harrisburg please sign our petition to attempt to stop this. Someone is in the Union Hall 2048 Derry Street every evening from 4 to 7 p.m. and firefighters are out walking door to door in all neighborhoods, one can also be found online at http://www.saveharrisburg.com/. Feel free to write city hall and the local rag we call a news paper. Our men did not create this problem, in fact you will see none of our names on the documents to borrow all the money that put us here. I really do not see why we need to be the only ones to feel the pain when the FOP, ASCME, and managers in city hall do not miss a beat this holiday season.

Please do not believe everything you see and hear on the television, for some reason they all appear to be on the take. We have presented cold hard facts about just who did create this mess and why our overtime is so high along with many other items to channels 43, 27, 8, 21 and the bathroom wipe my ass with it Harrisburg Patriot but for some reason the never air or print any of it. Yet just this morning (SAT.) channel ABC 27 Dennis Owens was quick to point out that we (HFD) were given a four year contract extension by Mayor Steven Reed before he left office tying the hands of Thompson and creating her more heartache. Why do they never mention that the other two unions were also given extensions or even that ours does not go into effect until January 1, 2013, so how is that effecting us now. I will not even go into the differences between the contracts and what the police get compared to us. But if you visit the cities web site the contracts are on there.

Because of my work schedule and other commitments and the lack of anyone looking at my site anymore with the exception of Sparky this will be my last post for some time. I will start posting again sometime in the future so please stop back from time to time to check.

Thanks
Tired, pissed off, confused and just plain fed up, Brad

Car Fire In Harrisburg, And A Way Of LIfe...

On the morning of November 3, 2010 as the members of "B" Platoon attempted to get some sleep the shrill of the beeps rang out around 3:15 a.m. followed by the dispatch "Box 1-3 Wagon 3, Tower 2 report of an car fire in the area of Green and Woodbine Streets". The lights came on in the bunkroom followed by five men putting on socks and pants as they headed toward the apparatus room floor. As the men reached the rigs shivering from the cold air coming through the open bay doors, wiping sleep from their eyes and shaking the cobwebs free they donned their protective clothing as the drivers started the rigs. Out the bay doors a quick left up one block and another left down Maclay Street to Green, once on Green Street the Wagons front seat rider reported to county that we were on the scene with a well involved car fire. As the riders leaped from the rig and began stretching a hose line, I set the parking break, transferred the rig to pump gear and engaged the generator. The line was quickly deployed and the back-up man waved his hand to tell me to charge the line. The line swelled with the water and the pipe man began to attack the fire. By then the Truck company arrived and began opening the car to allow for a more efficient extinguishing of the fire and insure that no one was inside.

Within a couple of minutes the fire was knocked down and overhaul had begun. Shortly after the Battalion Chief marked control and the hose line was taken up. As the last few sections of hose were being put on the rig the beeps once again went off for an automatic fire alarm in the 1700 block of Fulton Street sending the uptown and hill rigs. The call turned out to be unattended cooking and Tower 2 was held to ventilate the building. A quick stop at a hydrant to top off the booster tank and it was back to the station to clean face pieces and fill out SCBA sheets. It's now 4:30 a.m. and back to bed in hopes of getting a couple of hours sleep, 6:15 a.m. and my watch goes off telling me it is time to get up and start the coffee, empty the dishwasher and bring in the morning paper. It is to bad that I just finally fell back to sleep.

That is a night like many I have had over the last three plus decades, missed sleep, cold nights, hot days, missed holidays with the family, sad times, injuries and aches and pains. But I would never change a thing, paid or volunteer this is the best job in the world. There is the joy of helping someone, the excitement of saving a life, the brotherhood and the adrenaline of doing the job. By the way as I sat here in the firehouse kitchen typing this on night shift I had to do so in segments as we went out the door twice for calls before I could finish this post. As I near the end of my career I find myself reflecting on the good moments more and more and the things I will miss when I am gone, this job becomes more than just a job it becomes a way of life. The photos and video were all taken with a point and shoot digital camera.

Recent Fire Ground Photos...

Today's photographs come from four emergencies that occurred this month. The first one is a HAZMAT incident that occurred on Monday October 11 in Southampton Twp. Franklin County near Shippensburg. We made a trip to visit Linda's parents and I could not help but drive past to see what was happening, in doing so I caught a couple of shots from across interstate 81. The truck was leaking sulfuric acid, crews handled the situation and returned to service after spending hours on the scene. The next two photos are from an auto accident that was near my home. Shortly after getting home from work on Wednesday October 13TH local companies responded to an accident at the intersection of Church and Mulberry for a van overturned with confinement. Crews worked to remove the patient but unfortunately that person passed away. The next two photographs are of a minor house fire we had in uptown Harrisburg on Saturday October 16Th. Now that I am driving Wagon 3 it keeps me outside at the pump panel when we have handlines off working a fire. I carry a point and shoot Sony Cyber-shot camera in my pocket and capture a few photos if I have time. We arrived to find light smoke showing and found fire to be in the wall from the second to the third floor as a result of an electrical problem. In the 5Th photo Wil Turner (T2) and Dustin Ventresca (T1) fly to the roof to check for fire extension.

The last photograph was taken the same day earlier in the morning when we responded to an automatic fire alarm on Allison Hill. These two guys are my new partners now that I am on the Wagon. For the last 17 years I worked on a ladder truck the last 15-1/2 on Tower 2 but recently I moved to the Wagon and drive for these two guys. This is Deshawn Dennis and Leon Cliatt, they have worked together on this rig for a few years together. I have always respected these two as people and firemen but recently they raised that respect level enormously. Last Monday, October 18TH we responded to a reported fire with people trapped. When we arrived we found three or four homes in a row of six burning with people screaming that there was four kids still inside. Everyone there did their jobs well but what these two guys did was nothing short of heroic and spectacular. After stretching a line they knocked down the outside fire and beat their way into a burning house. Once inside Leon continued to fight the fire alone while Deshawn began searching for trapped occupants. Leon was able to keep the blaze in check allowing a search to take place, Deshawn found one of the kids and removed them to EMS workers. A total of four kids and an adult were pulled from the home, unfortunately they all perished at the hospital. These guys along with everyone else did a superb job under the worst conditions possible and I could not be more proud to call them friends and brother firemen. That guy may not think we are firemen and we do not care what the other guy thinks be we and the citizens of Harrisburg know we are true firemen (you need to be a city jake to understand the last sentence).

Recently because of bad decisions on the part of emergency services people from across the country taking photographs during an emergency has come under fire. I and many others take photographs and I see nothing wrong with it if used properly and not abused. In the first incident a woman died in the accident, you will see no photographs of that lady because I refuse to take any of that subject. You will also see no photos from me of the fatal house fire, the camera was in my pocket but this was not the type of emergency that I would photograph, in fact the only reason I removed the camera from my pocket was to put it in the cab. Photographing emergencies is done for a number of reasons, one is to help in the investigation of what happened, another is to use for training and critiquing the incident and finally to record history. I take photographs for just these reasons and will never abuse my ability to get close to an emergency to take inappropriate photographs.

Black Crowned Night Heron...

Another quick post today, man has time been in short supply lately. I am hoping to get to work on a few photos from vacation soon to post and get around to the other blogs on my list. Like yesterdays these were also photographed in Harrisburg at Wildwood Lake. This is a Black Crowned Night Heron. I realized I never mentioned that yesterday's photo was taken in Bellevue Park at one of the small ponds. The summer went by so fast I never got to Wildwood more than twice this summer.

Filling Space...

I was going to skip today's post just because I was tired and didn't feel like doing a photo, busy and just tired of blogging and only having a couple of people look. But because it is Tuesday and Shane posts today I thought I would make one real quick. The mallard was photographed earlier this summer in Harrisburg, it was one of the better reflections I got on the outing. I mentioned Shane please visit his blog today for a new post, guess what I get home from a long night at work this morning to find he didn't even make a post, oh well.

Pennsylvania Pump Primers...

These photographs were taken at the 35TH annual Pennsylvania Pump Primers along riverfront park in Harrisburg on Saturday July 11 of this year. Each year antique fire apparatus parade from the Pa. Farm Show arena to here and pump from the river for the day. It is always a good time and for me like old home week. I enjoy the rigs but the day is really a chance for me to see and talk with old friends, and talk I do. This year I had the privilege of meeting up with an old friend from Cincinnati, Bill Strite. I hope he had a good time and maybe we can do it again another year.

Okay I do not know what to expect from these. We had never calibrated our monitor and recently we had to get another one so we figured it was time to do so. At the end it gives you a chance to see the present and the way it was. I was amazed at the color cast it showed the system had. Is is right now? Beats me, I do know that when I look at photographs on my blog now I see the color cast. These are the first photographs I did since it has been calibrated, they may not be easy to tell because I applied an art filter to them. Unfortunately not all of my upcoming post are post calibration either, like tomorrows it was done before the calibration. You know the more I do this the less I seem to know and the worse I get.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

This is the Black-crowned Night Heron I photographed the same day as the Yellow-crowned Night Heron. For as much time as I spend at Wildwood Lake I had never seen this bird there. After photographing the Yellow-crowned I thought I would make a quick trip around Wildwood lake in search of a few more photographs, I guess I made the right decision for a change. I wasn't far from the truck when I spotted this bird on a log. He allowed me the chance to set up the tripod and get some photos.

Please stop by Shane's blog for a new post today.

Eastern Phoebe...

The most familiar flycatcher in eastern North America, the Eastern Phoebe nests near people on buildings and bridges. It can be recognized by its emphatic "phee-bee" call and its habit of constantly wagging it tail.

In 1804, the Eastern Phoebe became the first banded bird in North America. John James Audubon attached silvered thread to an Eastern Phoebe's leg to track its return in successive years.

It is Tuesday so please visit Shane's blog for a new post.

Harrisbur Blue Jay...

This Blue jay was photographed at Wildlood Lake in Harrisburg a couple of weeks ago. No sense in saying anything else, no one has been reading this or the other blog lately anyways.

The Heron Trifecta...

Saturday morning I pulled off a Heron trifecta in Harrisburg. I have only been photographing birds for a little over a year now so sometimes I am a little slow on local birding. That being said I finally went to a local park in Harrisburg that was said to have nesting pairs of Yellow Crowned Night Herons. I arrived and quickly began to scan the area for the Herons, I was searching trees as I was told that there was numerous nest and that you could not miss them. With all the leaves I never seen a single nest but I did locate on Yellow Crowned feeding alone in the grass. Not knowing if I would get any photos by taking my time getting out of the truck and putting the camera on the tripod I began firing aways from the window with the D90 and the 70-200 f2.8 attached. The second photograph of the heron with the worm was from that encounter. I found a place to pull over and and got the D300 with the 200-400 f4 attached out and set up. He was kind enough to allow me to get a few photographs before flying away (the first photo came from this set up). Two other times I seen the yellow crowned fly by but this area is not open and has many trees so you do not get the chance to see them soon enough to get set up for flying shots.

These birds are considered endangered here in Pa and in New Jersey. Apparently one has been nesting here for years and recently one began nesting in the Lancaster area and just this year on in the York area. I hope to try and photograph them a few more times this season.

The trifecta occurred when I photographed a green heron in a tree at this location and then later in the morning I photographed a Black Crowned Night Heron at Wildwood Lake. All in all it was a good morning for birds.

Don't forget to stop by Shane's blog for a new post today.

Good Luck Lt. Bair, You Will Be Missed...

Lt. Doug Bair at the Paxton No. 6 when we worked together on Tower 3 in 1995. By the way Elton John called he wants his glasses back.

Lt. Bair in 2006 teaching vehicle rescue at Station No. 2.

Lt. Bair and the Skin man working a Hazmat call on Commonwealth Avenue in 2008, gotta love those ears.

The Lt. being himself at HACC in 2007.

The Lt. doing what he really enjoyed, working a job on Labor Day 2008.

Always the class clown, after rowing his boat to shore on the ice covered Italian Lake, training in 2009.

On Tuesday May 25, 2010 Lieutenant Doug Bair retired from the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire. Doug worked for the Bureau for over 31 years, most spent on "B" Shift. He was promoted to Lt. in 1990 and was assigned to Tower 3 "B" at the Paxton before moving to the Squad on "B" shift. He was one of the best firefighters you could ever work with. If you were in trouble you wanted him to be working because if he couldn't get you no one could. Highly decorated the Lt. made many rescues in his career from burning buildings to the Susquehanna river.

On the personal side where do I begin? Doug was that young skinny Lt. that ran marathons when I hired on. He was assigned to my class for three weeks and had us running most days. Boy did I ever curse him out under my breath when we ran up the hills at Reservoir Park, and did I ever laugh when he got struck with a softball right between the legs. We ended up being partners on Tower 3 in the early 90's and took in many memorable jobs together. I remember being the last one with you at the Penndot fire and being along with you when we wanted to close down City Towers one day. We got the last laugh on that one when they had to do it in the dark in below zero weather. We suffered some pain also, like the glass in your back side, to me pulling the board out of you foot after the nail went between the web of your toes that was a classic, you sure could scream. Of course you got to laugh at me like the night I showed up after getting the tooth pulled and we ran all night including two working fires, boy did I scream every time I put that face piece on. There was many other great times like calling Headhog, or the time that the last thing I said to you was just don't wreck my truck, it wasn't long before the building shook and the pole had paint all over it. Sometimes I loved when you jumped calls like the garage fire one daylight on Regina Street leaving the multiple houses off on Catherine Street all to myself, other times I was just annoyed that you would get the fire and I would not .

Not all the funny stories were from work, I remember when we moved you into your new house, with a washing machine full of wet laundry, man was that heavy. And I will never forget you setting at Riverside Stadium with mayflies all over you and in your beer scared to death. For those of you that do not know Doug was scared of all bugs.

I could go on for days about you Doug but I will stop before I get one or both of us in trouble. You leaving leaves me as the last on B shift from the time I came on, I never thought I would see this day come. I felt like I was kicked in the gut when you read us your letter on Monday. We had great times together, I will miss you as a fireman and a friend. Good luck Doug, it will never be the same. I guess you will never call for another second alarm at the incinerator, LOL.

On another note, please stop by Shane's blog for a new post today.

Stephen Strasburg The Hitter...

Stephen fouls off a pitch in his second home appearance.

In the same game Stephen lays down an effective bunt in the early innings.

Playing in the National league means a pitcher has to hit. That may be one of the reasons I like the American league, like anyone else I want to see runs scored not an inning coming to end because of the pitcher striking out. In the games Stephen has pitched in this year he has gone 2 for 6 with a run scored, a double and two RBI's for a batting average of .333 pretty good for a pitcher. Update from Monday's post, Stephen pitched Sunday at home and suffered his first loss. I also found out while attending Tuesday's game that he has been promoted to the Nats. class "AAA" team.

I like baseball but have lost a lot of interest in the sport the last few years. Between liking a team that has finished under .500 the last twelve straight years and are on a record to stink even more this year to the high paid salaries of the players it has become harder for me to show an interest. This player is no different, he will not sign autographs and has an escort where ever he goes. Don't these over paid players know who pays there salaries? Without the fans they are nothing. Kids idolize them and that is a shame. This guy has never pitched in the big leagues and he is already set for life unless he does stupid things like many other athletes. I work every day like most Americans and still take time on the fire ground to talk with the kids that come around. Okay that took an unexpected turn, really I didn't see it coming when I started typing.