Stop this ride I want to get off.

This has been a cycle for the record books. The middle day we got zero sleep. No not one of those get up 3 or 4 time in the night for EMS runs, I really mean zero sleep. We left #7 at about 16:00 on Sunday and rolled back into the lot at 06:00 on Monday morning with bloodshot eyes, bad attitudes (At least I did) and a mess for B-shift to clean up. We spent the entire night on Poor Mountain searching for the lost 19 year old fellow that was on WSLS channel 10 this evening describing his ordeal. And the worst part about the whole deal was that the steak and shrimp dinner that Craighead was supposed to get on his last day turned into a chicken sandwich in a box on the tailgate of a pickup truck. No worries though, he left yesterday morning with a raw steak still wrapped in plastic headed for Franklin County. Sure hope you enjoyed your steak buddy.

Toady was the day for the double skidder fire. Yea, double skidder fire. When you get dispatched to a brush fire and round the corner to see a column of thick black smoke coming up from the side of the mountain you know that nothing good can come of it. I have got to give credit where credit is due. LT Altice should give up his NASCAR affliction and take up SCORE/BAJA the way he took Wagon 7 up that logging road. I actually have video of it.

One stuck skidder on its side being pulled by another skidder + wheel and tire of the stuck skidder break off and go rolling down the mountain = One big mess in the middle of the woods.

That's about all the fun I can stand for a while. I hope B and C shifts get to share in all of this excitement. We'll be back on Pasta Sunday. Be safe out there .

September 11, 2001

Please take a few minutes today to remember the 343 brother firefighters from the New York City Fire Department that gave their lives trying to help others in need. I know that it has been 9 years, but I can still see the images as clearly as if it happened yesterday.