Call to those in the fire brigade; It's not an easy job

By Brandon Lachance, editor

I was able to do some great things through my journalism career.

I drove in a race boat. I met celebrities. I am in press boxes during professional sporting events. I am regularly in the radio and podcast waves. I wrote for Yahoo!, 15 different newspapers and six numerous magazines. I have made the scenes of great events and buildings behind. I could go on and on, you understand it.

Perhaps it is a repetition, but one of the coolest (ok, hottest) things I have ever done occurred on Sunday, March 9th, when the subette Fire Department made it possible for me to attract firefighting equipment and cadet during their training program and entered the training trailer who landed a fire with temperatures 500 plus. I literally said.

Whether you believe it or not, at a point in my life, not too long ago, I had founded an application for Mendota firefighter, but I never submitted it because the training would influence my ability to work and pay invoices.

After this was said, this was an opportunity that I would not reject or fight against it when the deputy boss Nick Dinges asked me if I wanted to be a cadet for 20 minutes.

I learned a few things.

First, the equipment is difficult. According to Dinges, the boots, the pants, the jacket, gloves, protective head equipment, safety equipment, the oxygen tank and other devices weigh between 50 and 60 pounds. With the equipment I maneuvered £ 300 through the trailer.

After Kadetten climbed the steps to enter the training trailer, you have to crawl through a hallway to get to the area in which the fire has devoured the structure. My knees didn't touch the floor during the crawl and I was already sweating. It was difficult to see how her mask takes, it is pitch black, and you do not know what way to go, at least your first time through the training. In a real fire, I suspect that firefighters can never or very rarely navigate in places without pictures.

Never wear an oxygen mask and breathed through a hose and a tank and felt this type of heat, it was sometimes difficult to breathe. I pushed myself on because I could do it if these students could do it. I am about competitive.

When I found my goal, on the side of the trailer behind thing, I had to go to the real cadets to work when they approached the fire with a hose and started to secure the flames, the heat and structure.

It was a great experience, told the least. I watched amused how these children communicated with each other and asked things about the proper procedure.

I noticed why Sublette fire chief Kevin Schultz said that a firefighter was a young man. My knees hurt back and got through the hallway. After I had removed the equipment, my back cried out for a few seconds about the additional load that I enforced. I smiled and thought to myself: 'It's worth it. And if I did this regularly, this pain would not exist. '

They went away quickly, but if I was 19 instead of 39 years old, they know.

What will hold me the most with me is the appreciation and gratitude that I have developed for what these cadets did and what firefighters do every day. Only a fool would call everything so easily, but if you have had any experience, you can really see how challenging and difficult the job is. I give everyone a big praise that has ever reported voluntarily or has worked for a fire brigade.

I thank Dinges, Schultz, deputy boss Brian Dallam, Byron fire chief Andy Politsch (a graduate of the Mendota High School from 1996) for the leadership of Lt. Brian O'malley who would have helped me prepare myself because I wouldn't have found it without him.

Maybe it's time to get back into shape and join a department …