Check your Smoke Detector

The smoke is so dense that all I can see is the floor and the Firefighter that is in front of me. While this is pretty normal for a structure fire, this time it seems worse than usual. There will be a few other surprises along the way that will make this fire one to remember. As we crawl down the hallway, the heat is beginning to build. I glance toward the ceiling, looking for the tell-tale signs of a flash-over. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashover)

There is no audible beep-beep to indicate the presence of a working smoke detector. Smoke is everywhere in this multi-unit building, so there ought to be a smoke detector somewhere that works! The lack of a smoke detector explains why this fire got such a head start on us, as precious time was lost before anyone noticed the fire.

Ahead, the red glow of the open door of the apartment that is on fire projects a beacon that calls to us. It is approximately fifteen feet ahead. One of my Firefighters retreats because he forgot to cover his ears with his flaps and hood. The searing heat makes it impossible for him to get any closer to the fire. Now there are only two of us in the hallway. My second Firefighter picks up the hose line that was abandoned by his team mate, and we advance the final 15 feet. We are within three feet of the door when he too runs into a problem that forces his retreat. He has run low on air. These two problems occurred just seconds apart. For the first time since I promoted ten years before, I am on the nozzle. I also happen to be completely alone. There is a fire in front of me that is burning so fiercely that I feel pain on my face, neck, ears and wrists despite my protective equipment. I blink rapidly to protect my eyes from the radiant heat that pours through the face piece of my mask. Behind, seventy feet of smoke charged hallway stands between me and the door that leads outside to safety. As the first water enters the super-heated room, it instantly converts to steam, and I am enveloped in an invisible gas cloud that feels even hotter than the fire does. As usual, the steam bath passes quickly, and temperatures drop as the water begins to take effect. Once again, darkness fills the void as the fire abates. By this time, a second hose line has come up behind me with a full crew. They are disappointed, because there is nothing left to do, and they offer congratulations to me for getting “a good stop”. The fact that I am alone (a violation of Federal law) escapes their attention.

The October 29, 2007 post in this thread refers to “the Big One”. Greater alarm fires are spectacular but they lack intensity at a personal level because everyone just stands safely back and lobs water in with the big guns. Not so with an interior attack on a room and contents fire, especially in an interior hallway apartment building. While this is regarded as a small fire, it becomes personal when advancing the hoseline puts you within the fire’s grasp and there is no easy means of reaching a safe place. You trust your training, experience, equipment and crew. Oops, scratch that last one. Please note that I was working overtime in a different firehouse, and this was NOT my regular crew.

This is the hallway leading to the burning apartment. Most of the damage you see was caused by heat and smoke. There was little to no flame propagation in the hallway. The doorway in the foreground is an exception. The hallway had to reach 469 degrees Fahrenheit to spontaneously ignite the wooden door frame. The apartment where the fire started is the next one down, where the guys in black coats are standing.

This is NOT the apartment of origin; it is the one next door. Through no fault of her own, the elderly lady who lived here lost her life due to smoke inhalation. There were NO working smoke detectors anywhere in the building. A ten dollar investment in a smoke detector would probably have saved her life. Her front door leading into the hallway was shut and locked; the fire breached the wall to enter her apartment. That is Inspector Clemmons kneeling at the point of origin.

These electric meters are located in the hallway, about seventy feet past the burning apartment and around a corner. #’s 1 through 3 are about five feet off the floor. #’s 7 through 9 are about waist high. #8 is made of glass and the rest are plastic. The fire was to the left. The damage difference between the various meters tells a story. If you are ever in a fire, stay low and get as far away as possible. If you have a working smoke detector, you will be able to get outside while conditions are still tenable. It is my prayer that you already have several smoke detectors in your home. Please take the time to test them to make sure that they will work for you when you need them. If you don’t have any, today would be the best time to get and install some.

Be safe,

Hec @ 19

Rattlesnake-Any of various American pit vipers (not to be confused with Dodge Viper which is much better looking) of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus, having an interlocking series of horny rings at the end of the tail that produce a rattling or buzzing sound when shaken. Highly poisonous.

This week we stumbled upon a rattlesnake, one of the dangers of living in the back country of California, close to the house. Being the outdoorsy type we handled it in a calm and deliberate manner…..

When the ear piercing screams stopped, someone had the bright idea of dispatching the small but deadly varmint to the great hereafter. Well we can now tell you that it was seen somewhere outside of Memphis with Elvis and the Loch Ness monster. Here are some pictures of after the great deed.

Sara holding the deadly critter minus it’s head.


The rattle was kept to scare guests and relatives who have stayed at our house for more then three days.


After a long and deadly fight, the hunter vests the beast.


One last view.


This article I assure you is 100% true. But for the safety of the writers they are using assumed names.

By: Chicago, & Lookrightranchhand.

Don't get hurt right now...

There are two things you can do if you see an ambulance on the back of a tow-truck…

1. Avoid sudden onsets of chest pain

2. Stare, point, and laugh

I am pretty sure everybody that passed us by on the busy Highway 12 last week did exactly that.

At 1330hrs my partner and I were resting comfortably in our station playing a relaxing game of Rummy. Our tones go off and we are dispatched to take a psychiatric patient from our local hospital to a facility two hours away in the Bay Area. We responded to the hospital, and had the patient loaded up on our gurney and ready to roll about an hour later at 1430hrs. My partner and I have done dozens of these transfers before, and we were thinking this one was going to be like all the others. We were wrong.

I was driving along happy as Larry on the bumpiest highway in the nation about 45 minutes away from our destination, when all of a sudden I heard this “clankity-clank” sound from somewhere behind the dash. Then the burning rubber smell came. Guessing that something wasn’t exactly right, I pulled over, popped the hood, and discovered that one of the wheels that the fan belt turns had frozen up, which in turn was wearing the belt away (you can tell I’m not a mechanic by my lack of auto vocabulary). We were dead in the water with our 5150 patient still on board.

We immediately called for another ambulance to come and finish our transfer, and they got there in pretty good time. Only had to wait 30 minutes from the time we broke down. When they got there we transferred care and then began our long wait for the tow-truck which we found out was coming from a town 1.5 hours away. Thankfully my partner brought the deck of cards, so we resumed our interrupted game of Rummy in the back of the ambulance in the 95 degree heat. But at least we had the cards.

At 1800hrs two wonderful things happened. The first was that the tow-truck arrived. The second was that my dad’s buddy Vince who lives in the area arrived with Taco Bell!!! I think the latter was the more welcome of the two at that point. Thanks Vince!

The ambulance was loaded on the flatbed, and we were on our way at 1830hrs. Getting back into county at 2000hrs, we unloaded our “dead” ambulance and switched into a “live” ambulance. We were back in service and ready to roll at 2030hrs. So our little transfer that was supposed to take us 4 hours turned into a 7 hour ordeal. I can mark that down as the 2^nd ambulance I have killed so far…

Boldly going where no Hector has gone before....

It is with great nervousness and trepidation I am prepared to announce the biggest piece of news to hit the front page of a Hector blog, EVER. Yes, this is even bigger than the motorcycle incident. Now you are curious, aren’t you?

As our family gets older, we begin to enter uncharted waters with each successive year. At first this meant drivers licenses, then college, but now we have officially reached the next level of family development. Thomas has requested the honor of courting Miss Ashley.

When you have finished being surprised, I will give you a few details.

Most of you already know Thomas, so we can ignore him, and focus on Ashley, or Ash, as she is affectionately known.

Ashley is the third child, and oldest girl of the family, whom we know from our dance studio. She is a dancer extraordinaire, very fun to have around, and lovely both in face and spirit. Ashley is also Sara’s ballet teacher, a very good instructor, and quite skilled with kids.

You may notice the fact that Thomas is the second born in our family, which means that he is even outpacing me in this area. Someone brought up the fact that there is a Biblical precedent in this type of circumstance, and were considering a situation in which Ashley should work for our family for seven years, marry me, then work another seven years for Thomas. However, that appears to be illegal in this country, so that idea was scrapped. This was fine with me….

As you can tell this entire realm of courtship is very new for the Hector family, so we will be learning as we go. Please be in prayer for both of our families, pray for wisdom on the part of the parents, and especially be praying for Thomas and Ashley. Pray that God will give all the grace, patience, and wisdom that they will need for this journey.

Updates and insights will be posted to this blog occasionally, since this is big news, so stay tuned. Until then, here is a good photo to end with:

Welcome to CSI: Mountain Ranch. I am your host, Detective Ben “Gumshoe” Hector. A folder just crossed my desk containing a case of some notoriety. The details are not well known, and the only evidence available is a series of pictures. It is my job, to lead you, the rookies, through piecing together this important information.

First, the suspects:



A rather normal looking bunch, but one of these people may prove to be something other than they seem.

The first bit of suspicious activity appears to be evidence of information being forced out of one of the suspects:






Yes, this sweet looking girl obviously has something to hide:




What appears to be casual wading in the creek could prove to be more than that. Are they looking for stolen money, hiding a murder weapon? It could be anything.




I wish I knew the story behind this, it could be key evidence:




Caught red handed, and yes, experts have confirmed that this is blood. The trail of evidence does not look good for this individual.




This is a hard piece of the puzzle to fit in, but that is not the look of a sane individual:




Disguises will not deter the long arm of the law:




Contraband Cheez-Its. I have it from a good source that these were hidden under her pillow. Yes, very bad…




Even a Card Room, is there no end to the depths these people will go?




Covert operations, this has the look of espionage to me:




Military training exercises:




Slavery in action:




I have no idea…. But this may be important:




Checking the oil, or tampering with the engine? He has a surprised look on his face…



Many pieces, many points of view. Now it is your job to both determine the guilty party, and the crime that they committed. This is the test that moves you from a Rookie, to being a full member of CSI: Mountain Ranch.
Later!

Fitting for the Fourth....

We live in an age of innovation. An age where a computer is obsolete as soon as you turn it on, and the iPod that was the rage last month is good for naught but eBay in this. Words are constantly evolving, and I often find myself going to bed thinking I know what the words “sick” or “crib” mean, only to wake up and find that they are no longer holding the definitions set forth by Messrs Merriam or Webster; but have taken on meanings that can only be vaguely described, and then with the caveat that you “can’t think too much about what it means, you just use it”.

With this in mind, I am going to try and be progressive, and attempt to update one of our more archaic ideals, The American Dream. It seems that the current definition is quite outdated; not taking into account many of the new advances we have made as a nation and as a culture in general.

First it will be necessary to outline what the old “Dream” was, so we have an idea where to go with the new. The term “American Dream” was coined by James Adams in his 1931 work The Epic of America, a book outlining the historical heritage of America. Historical heritage is another idea that is archaic and in need of redefining, but I will stay on track.

In this book, Adams states that the American Dream is, “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement... It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable… “

No, no, no, this will never do! Not only does it use big words, but you have to concentrate to even understand what it says. Besides, most of those ideas, once you actually figure out what they mean are so early 20^th century. Yes, this surely needs a makeover.

In my new progressive definition, I will use small sentences with good description, as they help draw the eye of the un-interested:

The dream of a place where all people deserve to be rich and full, even if they do not work.

Just because someone does not want to work is no reason for them to be unhappy! In our enlightened culture we need to recognize that there are simply some people that were not meant to work, accept them as they are, and rejoice in their uniqueness.

Where a hero is not judged by merit.

What does it matter if a person stands for what is right, while others do not? Why look up to the person championing truth, when the falsehood is more popular? We should idolize people for the amount of pleasure they give to others, and by the numbers that they make comfortable. This is a land where it does not matter how many illegal substances you use, as long as you can hit home runs. A land where how many times you are arrested for drunk driving does not matter, as longs as you are cute, and say your lines correctly. A land where Tiger Woods has a Wikipedia article more than twice as long as William Tyndale.

Where opportunity is based on social demographics,

It is such an old idea that opportunity should be based on how well you do. That would not be fair to people who cannot achieve. It is a much better idea to base opportunity on how many of each kind of group there is, and then we will give everyone a shot at the dream.

And you can enter not by following rules, but by climbing over fences.

I pity those people in the early 20^th century who entered the United States through Ellis Island. It is ridiculous to think that someone would stand in line, pass a medical examination, and answer questions, simply to enter the United States. Three to five hours of their life wasted, and people saw this as a privilege! Crying at the sight of the Statue of Liberty…Bah! Now we have a much better way of looking at things. If you can climb over our fence, you prove you’re physically fit, evade our security, proves you’re smart, and not ever get caught, you have an American sense of “determination”. Then you can stay here as long as you want.

Where the dream of having big cars, big houses, big toys and high wages is a necessity.

The last one is optional, the others are rights. If you haven’t yet gotten to the high wages, you can take out a loan, or apply for a credit card to cover you until that time. There is no reason why you should be made to wait! Oh, and don’t worry about interest rates, those are 0% for quite a while, a couple of months at least! Isn’t it grand?

Finally, a place where it does not matter what you do, as long as you reach the top of the dream before anyone else.

Second place is just First Loser". In the end, there is only one thing that matters, getting as much as you can before you die. If you don’t watch your own back, no one else is going to watch it for you. Morals and stature is restricting, success is best. Be an individual, trust in yourself, and go for the gold. That is the Crown Jewel of the American Dream.

So , let’s put that all together:

…the dream of a place where all people deserve to be rich and full, even if they do not work. Where a hero is not judged by merit. Where opportunity is based on social demographics, and you can enter not by following rules, but by climbing over fences, Where the dream of having big cars, big houses, big toys and high wages is a necessity. Finally, a place where it does not matter what you do, as long as you reach the top of the dream before anyone else.

There, I think that is a much more modern description of the American Dream. As you go out and prepare for the 4^th of July, think on this, and if you are going to buy some fireworks, don’t forget your Visa!

While I’m at it, there is another document that I think could use a little revision, The Constitution of the United States. I even know how it should start, “Sup all you U.S. Peeps? We gonna lay down the line for this hood…”

New Beginnings...

Hello everyone.

It has finally happened. Each member of the Hector family has realized that they do not have the time to maintain a blog on their own. However, what one cannot do alone, an entire family should be able to do together. Hence, the new blog.

This will be a place for all of us to communicate with the world, and you may have a post by any of eleven writers. Hopefully as the various members get older, the younger will post more, and we can keep the blog going for a couple of decades.

Each of our old blogs are going to be slowly added to this one, so you will still be able to view our previous posts, if you want to get to know us. It will be fun to read from "days gone by".

All I can say is, at least we will no longer have to fight over who has the most comments!

Happy Reading!

The Hector Family
Dave, Jean, Ben, Thomas, Matthew, Nic, Anthony, Jonathan, Laura, Rebekah, & Sara