Fire Testing

St George City Fire fighter Recruit Academy Skills testing day. A day that 15 of us recruits have been looking forward to and at the same time wondering if we were ready for it. The morning started at 0800 on Easter morning. Chief Guard gave us a pep talk and reviewed what we could possibly be tested on. All of us were worried about our knots so we were all tying knots for the first 30 mins. From Thursday till the day of the testing I kept preparing myself mentally and saying to myself, "You have done this kind of testing before and being stressed and having anxiety is not going to help, so just relax and have fun with the test you know what you are doing." That is exactly what I did.

The test begins, they called out about half the class for individual skills while the other half waited inside wondering what we are going to be tested on. Right when I heard the air of the SCBA's I knew, and the rest of the class knew, that we had an SCBA test. When it was my turn with the rest of the class, I treated it like every other class time we put them on. The tester said go and off we went. I turned on my air and said all the words that needed to be said as we turned the air pack on. I threw the air pack over my shoulders and tightened the shoulder straps and buckled my waist strap. The next thing was the air mask; I threw it over my head and tightened both top and bottom straps. I put my nomex hood over my face mask, and clipped the helmet in place. Now it was time to go on air; I made sure to check my exhalation valve before. Last but not least, I threw on my gloves and clapped my hands and I was finished in 46 sec. The instructors told us if they do not say anything it is a good thing and the instructor said nothing. Yes, one down seven to go.

After we got done with the first test, they had us go sit and wait at the front of the station until our names where called. I sat and waited and waited as I saw everyone else get there name called. I was laughing inside and saying to my class mates well I guess they forgot me, but they didn't. They finally called my name and I went back. From there they put me through the last seven skills. As you can see from the pictures, about half were two Fire Fighter skills. They had us simulate cutting off a window of a car, advance a charged hose line up a ladder and lie it off, going from beginning to end on how to apply foam on a fire. One of the funniest skills that my classmate and I did was the catchall with a tarp. We had to make a make shift little pool with a tarp they gave us. At first we were confused because we have trained with a big tarp and they gave us what is call a hall way runner which is about 3' by 12'. We tried to make it work at first , but then we thought we misunderstood so we made a chute with the pike poles which looked like crap because of the small tarp. The instructor stopped us and informed us again he wanted a catchall made. My classmate told the instructor that we are use to a bigger tarp, he just looked and said nothing, so I told Chris just verbalize everything. We started to roll the sides and tuck the corners and of course it looked like crap again. The instructor came over and saw that we were struggling and touched the tarp to show us that we did not let the tarp out all the way, but needless to say the joke was on the instructor because he noticed then that we were not kidding that we had a small tarp. He took that one and went and got a bigger tarp.We asked him if we needed to do it again, he said no you guys know what you are doing.

One of the skills that I almost did not pass was the tool hoist. The easiest skill of the whole thing. I was tying my clove hitch around the axe head and then I tied my half hitch at the top of the handle and was about to clap my hands to finish when I said OH CRAP I forgot to wrap the rope around the axe head. The instructor John Miller said get it done you have time. Off I went to fix it and I made it by the skin of my teeth. WOW I thought to myself I glad that I caught that one.

         The whole testing day was great. Our instructors for the class prepared us well, we were all really nervous about how we were going to do, but I can say this for the whole class, it was a lot easier than they said it was going to be. We finished with the last skill and the testing instructors told us if they saying nothing to us then you passed the skills. Chris and I had passed we were so excited. Chief Guard told us before we went that he would also tell us our scores for the written part. The test got done around one in the afternoon and we had all passed the skills. Now it was time for Chief to hand out the written, I was so nervous I kept praying in my head and hoping I passed. The paper was laid on my desk I flipped it around and the fire one test said pass. YES  I thought, now turn the page for the Fire two, PASSED, YESSSSS. I am Fire one and two certified. What I big relief and an answered prayer. Now I had the rest of the day to spend with my family on Easter and not be bummed that I did not pass. Thank goodness for a loving Heavenly Father who answers prays and Faith on my end to make it happen. Now bring on the Hazmat class.