Training Night At Station 52 - 9img

coldclimb

Every Tuesday night is training night at the Central Mat-Su Fire Department. Tonight we refreshed our fold-a-tank skills in the parking lot of the station by pulling the trucks out and setting things up as if we were at a fire. Early on in the evening it started to snow, and will likely continue all night, ensuring a few rescue calls early in the morning I'm sure.

As I was standing idly shooting hundreds of gallons of water into the woods with my hose, the guys opened up with the deck gun behind me, launching a needle of water over my head and into the treetops. It was pretty sweet in the pitch black with the hose stream lit up by spotlights, so when I managed to get a moment, I broke out my camera. Unfortunately, that's also the point that we stopped playing with the deck gun, so I missed that shot, but here's a few others I snuck in!

We have a couple guys training to run the trucks, so this was their night mostly.




Captain Muth, barely salvaged from the blurry darkness.




Engine 52-1, clearly the greatest engine in the fleet!




A very wet, heavy snow, making things a little bit more real.




I liked how this looked. Not quite sure yet if I like it afterwards, but it's good enough to post.




Steve and Jamie eye the Engineer's Panel.




One spotlight and the handle of the deck gun. I'm bummed I missed the good stuff!




The dark killed most of my closeups, but some turned out alright.




A section of the Engineer's Panel.




Hope you enjoy these! Wish I could get some while on the fireground, but I typically have a more important job to do then, unfortunately.

Skippy

coldclimb wrote:

Every Tuesday night is training night at the Central Mat-Su Fire Department. Tonight we refreshed our fold-a-tank skills in the parking lot of the station by pulling the trucks out and setting things up as if we were at a fire. Early on in the evening it started to snow, and will likely continue all night, ensuring a few rescue calls early in the morning I'm sure.

As I was standing idly shooting hundreds of gallons of water into the woods with my hose, the guys opened up with the deck gun behind me, launching a needle of water over my head and into the treetops. It was pretty sweet in the pitch black with the hose stream lit up by spotlights, so when I managed to get a moment, I broke out my camera. Unfortunately, that's also the point that we stopped playing with the deck gun, so I missed that shot, but here's a few others I snuck in!

We have a couple guys training to run the trucks, so this was their night mostly.

Captain Muth, barely salvaged from the blurry darkness.
Engine 52-1, clearly the greatest engine in the fleet!
A very wet, heavy snow, making things a little bit more real.
I liked how this looked. Not quite sure yet if I like it afterwards, but it's good enough to post.

Steve and Jamie eye the Engineer's Panel.
One spotlight and the handle of the deck gun. I'm bummed I missed the good stuff!

The dark killed most of my closeups, but some turned out alright.
A section of the Engineer's Panel.

Hope you enjoy these! Wish I could get some while on the fireground, but I typically have a more important job to do then, unfortunately.

Hi there Coldclimb, they could do with your services in California.
Those fires look so bad over there at the moment.

You really enjoy your job don't you, it always shows in your posts

Thanks for sharing, stay safe! ........ Skippy
.

coldclimb

Skippy wrote:

Hi there Coldclimb, they could do with your services in California.
Those fires look so bad over there at the moment.

You really enjoy your job don't you, it always shows in your posts

Thanks for sharing, stay safe! ........ Skippy
.

Yeah I've heard everybody talking today about "why aren't we in California?" Not sure of the answer there, but they definitely need at least SOME of us here on these first snowy days of the winter. We had three wrecks just this morning.

And yes, I love my job! Only job I've had in my (limited) experience that I really look forward to. I don't HAVE to go to work, I GET to! And on top of being plain fun, it helps people too. Can't beat that!

DoctorIt

coldclimb wrote:

As I was standing idly shooting hundreds of gallons of water into the woods

geez mate, don't you dare repeat that to an Aussie! We have to work up a mouthful of drool if we want to moisten our toothbrushes before brushing!

and this one is outstanding! very dark, very abstract, very cool

DaddyO

The times when you get a minute during the task you certainly find some
really nice / interesting & well taken shots.

wxwax

Some of your shots are really cool. I like the one Doc pulled, the lat one and this one.

ian408

One of my ridding buddies is a Captain in the greater Sacramento area. His
engine company is on stand-by or has been called out. They sent over a
hundred CHP officers from the Golden Gate District to SoCal to help manage
the scene. Another buddy is a Paramedic in Coronado and on the wildland
strike team. Coronado is on the other side of the bridge from San Diego.

Lots of friends down that way too.

Anyway, you've got some nice shots here John. Very nice and the low light
gives them a great feel.

I hope you're shooting with L-glass and a 1d body to keep the water from
inside the camera

coldclimb

ian408 wrote:

I hope you're shooting with L-glass and a 1d body to keep the water from
inside the camera

I wish! The snow doesn't do too bad though, just brushes off on contact if the cam is cold. Heck, I broke this thing in on a trip to the mountains, shooting in slushy sleet. But of course we don't typically get rain like down south anyway, here it's almost always ranging from light mist to heavy drizzle.

Thanks a bunch for the kind words Doc, DaddyO, wxwax, and Ian. I've said it before, but it's STILL always great to hear that people like my pictures. Thanks!