Firefighting had been a "family affair"
in our house for many years. In November 2004 we made a "mass exodus" from the
department. All in all I had over 32 years in the fire service - the last 22 years spent
here in San Leon and Debbie put in almost 16 years. Both the boys have been helping out
ever since they were big enough to climb up on the pumpers, but officially, Mark had over
3 1/2 years when he left to attend college, and Michael had just over 3 years service
himself.
Although we left under somewhat "emotional" conditions, we enjoyed serving the
community very much.
Here are a few photos of us "in action". |
Me and Deb in front of one of our Pumpers after a fire call.
(circa 1991-92) |
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That's me in the red, working on a biker who lost an
arguement with an El Camino. We are preparing to put him in some MAST inflatable pants
(helps prevent shock) for his Life Flight (ambulance type helicopter) trip to Galveston. |
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| In 1993 our fire department was one of only thirteen
departments across the state who were recipients of a community grant which came in the
form of $15,000 worth of new hydraulic rescue tools (a.k.a. the "Jaws of Life").
Here's Deb, learning how to use the hydraulic cutters, under the direction of two AMKUS
factory representative instructors. In case you're wondering, what she's doing here is
cutting the roof off of an old car donated to us for this class. |
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Here I've just forced open the front door to the bakery
section of a restaurant complex located in a neighboring town. The back end of this
bakery, connected to the restaurant, was totally engulfed when my firefighters made entry.
This four alarm fire took approximately 40 firefighters from four different departments
over 2½ hours to get under control, and another 2 hours to extinguish and clean up.
(That's me in the white helmet by the post.) |
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Me and Deb working a car wreck.
I'm on the left, and Deb is there on the right. |
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Here's a clipping from our local paper "The Eagle
Point Press" (June 28, 2000 issue) highlighting Mark's first official FD Rescue. Mrs.
Kennedy's son (Ray Lester) was just a tad "too big" to fit into the culvert to
get to the remaining puppies which had crawled deeper into the drain line to get away from
him. |
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| Here's a shot of Mark (2nd from right) in one of his
Rookie Fire Fighter training classes. Debbie, who was our Training Coordinator, looks on
from the left. |
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Mark & Michael working a car wreck. Mark is the one
inside the car monitoring and caring for the passenger as they work to extricate
him from the wreckage. Michael, in the bunker gear, waits to receive the patient who is
now on a "backboard" being removed from the car. |
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| Michael cutting the door off his own (old) car during a
training session. A drunk driver hit Michael the previous December and our insurance
company allowed us to donate the car to the FD for training. |
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Michael (left) refilling Air Packs at our recharge
trailer during a late evening house fire. |
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Mark on Engine 2 |
Michael on Engine 2 |
| I told you they started out young! |
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