Now that is funny!!!

Shane Duncan fries up a turkey for the guys to eat for dinner. The guys had purchased a turkey for thanksgiving, however it was not needed because of the local Church which provides a complete dinner for all the fire stations in the Roanoke Valley. So the guys enjoyed a fried turkey for dinner. You have to love Shane’s set up including two chairs and a recycling bin to keep the wind off of the burner.

Here is the new rookie at Station 13 C-shift Josh Slaughter. Josh’s first day was on Saturday and was quickly thrown in the mix of vacation sign ups. We sign up for a whole years vacation in December. Josh, like the rest of the rookies, won’t have much vacation to sign up for because they will only accrue a little bit of vacation during the year.

Josh enjoyed a very slow day, we didn’t run our first call until after midnight. However, once he was in bed around 10pm, we decided to let him know what the alarm tones sounded like. We were hoping that he would come out of the bunkroom struggling to get his turnout pants on, but it wasn’t the case.

More hi jinx in the future I am sure, we decided to be easy on him the first day.

If you guys have photos to share, just let me know.

October 6, 2007

Rhett,

With so many negative things happening around the Department this week, I thought I’d share a more positive story with you. We had a visitor at station #9 last week by Roy Lane. Roy belongs to the Kazim Temple’s Fire Brigade here in Roanoke. He told us a story of the Lexington, Va. Fire Department donating an Engine to the Temple. He said the guys of the Brigade worked endlessly to refurbish the Engine and had it in great condition. He was really excited to tell of how Captain Brown’s men ( Roanoke Fire / EMS Station #1-C ) had donated some 2 ½ hose and even went as far to load it into the bed for them. He continued to detail their work and said all they really lacked was to find some axes for the holders already mounted on the Engine. Roy and I know each other pretty well, so he knows I have a pretty large collection of Fire equipment etc. and thought I may have an axe or know where to get one. He also knows me well enough to know that my dad was once a volunteer Firefighter for Lexington (before being hired here in 1971) and knew I may have an interest in participating. Well, in particular, he was looking for a flat head axe, feeling it would be safer for the kids that often climb on and play around their equipment. Well, as my luck runs, of all the axes in my collection, none are flat head. So, I contacted Vince Stover at Fire Administration to see if he could help. Vince was happy to help and even offered to donate a new axe from our supply closet. That’s the good news, the bad? We only have fiberglass-handled axes and we just didn’t think that would be a good fit for antique apparatus. So, more calls were made. We contacted Chief Adkins at RTC to see if he had any wooden handle flat heads and as unbelievable as it is, he didn’t. Not to be stonewalled, we kept searching and were finally able to locate 2 axes on Reserve Engines (904 @ #10, and 901 @ #14). The Officers at both stations had the axes sent to # 9 where my guys worked most of the day refinishing and painting them. Lt. Richard Alley led the work and despite my opinion being biased, they turned out GREAT. Well, the timing was perfect because the Brigade was heading to Lexington this morning in that Engine to lead in a Parade. They left a few minutes early to stop by our station and thank the guys for their work and allow us to present them with the refurbished axes. The ironic thing here is that they wanted to thank us, yet they are the ones deserving the thanks for all they do! My hat is off to them and all who helped in this project (Roanoke Fire / EMS Dept., Vince Stover, Chief Teddy Adkins, Captain R.T. Flora, Lt. Stacy Booth, and the men from stations #1, and #9 C-shift).

Left to right are: Back row: Matt Wheeling, guest of Travis Meador, Travis Meador, Willie Wines Jr., Scott Boone, Ben O’Baugh. Front Row: Wheelings Guest, Randi Wines, Reba Wines, Robin Wines, Boone’s Wife, Rhett Fleitz. I apologize for not remember the guests/wives/girlfriends names.

Captain Guthrie has been a source of a lot of historic information during my quest to learn as much as possible about the Department. Thanks to FF Barry Kincer for the pictures.

Check them out here.

Thanks so much to Captain Sellers for coming out and working 2 days and getting the tile down. I am glad to say that I learned a new trade. Not that anyone would pay me to lay tile, but I know the basics now.

WSLS News Channel 10 will be out to do a story on Jeremy’s house and how the firefighters are helping to build it on either the 25th or 26th. I understand that Captain Stone is getting a group of guys to come up on the 26th and there will be a group going up on the 25th as well. Please contact me or Jeremy if you would like to help. It sounds like we will be building the garage and working on the interior and exterior trim. If the hardwood flooring is in by then, we will be laying that down as well.

Channel 10 got the idea from reading the story on the blog.

Many others have helped do things up to this point. The response has been overwhelming of people wanting to help. Jeremy is hard to get a hold of when he is working on the house. If you need to talk to him or have a message for him, just get a hold of me and I will pass along the message.

I think that we can get the stuff complete by the November 11th. However, he will need all of the help he can get. It would be great to see the numbers there on the 25th and 26th like we had for the Habitat for Humanity project (You can view that story on the blog here).

The picture to the left is Craig Sellers installing tile in the laundry room. He related his help that day (Jeremy, Lynwood, and myself) to that of his sons helping him……..when they were 3 and 4. Just kidding. The tile looks great.

I would have posted Davids retirement sooner, but he had concocted some scheme of going out with a bang. He decided not to do the idea, so I figured I would post his retirement. Firefighter David Sexton was hired on January 15, 1985 and retired just recently (I don’t have the date). Sexy Sexton is probably the funniest and most sadistic member of our department. His demonstrative and colorful stories are a true pleasure to watch and listen to. The first time I worked with him, I learned that he had kicked everyones ass in the department.

The department will be different without these two class clowns. Best wishes. Both pictures were taken in the early 90′s.

Station 13 C-Shift on the last day of Eddie’s Career. L-R Firefighter Zak Obenchain, Firefighter Chris Elmore, Captain Eddie Fielder, Lieutenant Rhett Fleitz, Lieutenant Jeremy Bennington, 1st Lieutenant Sam Stump, Captain David Bishop (taking the helm at station 13 C-shift due to Eddie’s departure), and Firefighter Lynwood English.

Anyways…the boys at 13 on B-shift finally found a helmet that will fit Tom’s head. It may not be as safe as a conventional helmet, but it fits. It is kind of like the Coneheads meet the Garbage Pail Kids.

I met up with Greg the other day at Grace Myers’ house. Joe, her husband, was a firefighter for Roanoke for about 6 years when he suddenly went blind. The firefighters kept Joe on the books for a year until they had to let him go. Grace still has his helmet and turnout coat. The coat is more of a thick raincoat with buckles much like turnout coats. The material is almost like leather, and might have been leather. Grace also had two pictures out that were related to the fire department. One was of Fire Station 1 and the other was this missing picture of #6.

I have not had time to identify all of the firefighters in the picture but I know of several so far. Left to right they stood in line of rank, both shifts at once. Therefore the first two are Captains, then two lieutenants, then four firefighters. Again this is 1957. On the right is Captain Cox, who later died in the Line of Duty, then we think it is Captain McFarland, one of the lt.’s is Honey Vest and all the way on the right is Firefighter Joseph “Earl” Myers.

Thanks to the Myers family for allowing us to get a copy of the photo. Thanks to Greg Doss and his Father Peanuts as well. This means a lot to us and is the missing piece of the puzzle. We now have every firefighter and fire station pictured in 1957.

As for Daniel “Peanuts” Doss, he is a character. Some of the stories he told me were hilarious. Obviously a prankster, he would have fit right in nowadays as well. Although some of the stuff he got away with back in the day we would certainly be fired for now.

Peanuts worked for Roanoke City from 1958 – 1966 and decided to move on; Tommy Hogan worked here for years, being hired in 1963, and made Captain; Mike Hogan died of Leukemia after working here for a little over a year 1972 – 1973; Jerry Hogan was hired in 1964 and made Captain, you can still see him around at Union Meetings etc.; Joseph “Earl” Myers worked here from 1956 – 1962 and left because he lost his sight.

I hope to have an update for you on Dave Bishop in the next day or so. If you have heard anything, leave a comment.

If you have ever wondered how we clean the grill out at 13, check out FF Lynwood “Woody” English on the nozzle.

From the ground up, Ladder 7 has shortcomings. Here are a few of the major ones.

The ideal reach of an Aerial Ladder is at least 95′; Ladder 7 is 75′.
The ideal amount of water on an engine is at least 500 gallons; Ladder 7 holds 300 gallons.
The weight of the truck is obviously too much for the single axle design in the rear end.

From what I understand, Quint 7 will be run as an engine in its first/second due and as a ladder truck outside of that area.

The reason why I bring all this stuff up is because of what is going on in Roanoke.

Roanoke has the most aggressive Fire Department in the State! If you don’t believe me look around the State. We have had fairly safe history (knock on wood); and are very blessed by having quick response times, dedicated personnel, and hard workers.

So my question is if it isn’t broke then why fix it?

Several years ago, Engine 12 was taken out of service and replaced by Medic 4; the additional two positions were sent to Roanoke County at Clearbrook Station 7.

Now we lose Engine 7 to put another Medic truck in service.

Before you guys start screaming, I will admit that we need more ambulances. It seems like the City gets dumped daily and we are calling on other agencies to fill in and run calls for us. At what cost?

Think of it this way, if we are running more EMS calls then we are billing for more EMS calls and thus making more revenue for those EMS calls. Naturally, you would think that the additional revenue would be used to fund these additional medic trucks. Until I am proven otherwise, it is my understanding that the revenue from EMS billing is placed in the general fund of the City and not earmarked for Fire-EMS uses.

The additional Medic Trucks must come at a cost. That cost has become Engine/Ladder Companies. Our fleet of Medic trucks increases, our fleet of Fire Apparatus decreases. It seems as though we are on a crash course for potential disaster. Look around, most of the large incidents we have had in the past we have been able to handle with limited loss of life and property. But will the cost be greater in the future?