No. 4 Year Olds Allowed

Spent last week entertaining half dozen 4 & 5 year olds at Station #4 for a birthday party. The birthday boy was concerned because when they drove by the station earlier in the week he saw a large sign that read: No. 4 and he thought four-year olds were prohibited from visiting the station.

The good news is he was turning 5 but some of his friends were still 4! Once assured that we would ‘bend’ the rules he as a happy camper.

Although you think 5 year olds would be excited they were a little intimidated at first. But after donning some gear, climbing on the trucks and throwing a little water they felt much better.

TLA…..not during EMT Class

EMT Week 3 (or four)....

Three Letter Acronyms are the least of my concerns during EMT training. The entire course is littered with MLA (Multi-Letter Acronyms) which are actually very helpful in assessing patients and performing treatment.

Lets start with the simple one:

• PPE: Personal Protective Equipment
• ABC: Airway, Breathing, Circulation
• AVPU: Alert, Vocal, Painful, Unresponsive
• DCAP-BTLS: Deformity, Contusion, Abrasion, Puncture/Penetration, Bruising, Tenderness, Laceration & Swelling
• SAMPLE: Symptoms, Allergy, Medicines, Pertinent History, Last oral intake, events leading up
• OPQRST: Onset, Provokes, Quality, Radiation, Severity & Time

That is only the first few chapters of training. So far we have managed trauma and medical assessment, airway management, vitals, scene size up and lifting.

Great class.

Time to Start Blogging EMT

EMT Training

Two weeks in and we finally started some hands on training. The first few classes have focused on the physiology & anatomy. I enjoyed back in high school and still find interesting. I think I’ll experience more medical/rescue calls than I will fire calls during my time in Eden Prairie so I am very motivated to learn it and perform it well.

Hands On tonight is not quite the same as the fire department but still very interesting.
Tonight we focused on three stations:

Chair Stair- a uniquely designed chair to transport people up/down stairs to an ambulance/stretcher. This device will certainly save backs and make life easier for patients and EMT’s.

Stretcher Operations – Operating a stretcher is more than pushing a wheeled cart from door to ambulance. It looks simple (and it is) but getting some hands on experience in lowering, raising and moving in/out of an ambulance certainly helps.

And finally, we did airway management. O2 Operations; oropharyngeal & nasopharyngeal airway; suction and artificial respiration with a Bag Valve Mask.

EMT ....

In honor of pursing my EMT license I have decided to rewrite the old classic “Dry Bones”

The Phalanges connected to the Metatarsals, The Metatarsals connected to the Tarsals,

The Tarsales, connected to the Tibia, Tibia connected to the Patella, The Patella connected to the Femur,

The Femur connected to the Pelvis, the Pelvis, connected to the Coccyx/Sacrum, Lumbar, Thoracic, Cervical

The Cervical connected to the Cranium

Oh hear the word of the Lord!

Quiet Time.....

So it has been a quiet week (or two) since the four house fires and a plane crash in Eden Prairie. Even though we did not have any fires or rescues we did support a great block party with T41. Kids got soaked from a hose line and from the tower. These opportunities are as much of being a fire fighter as fighting fires……it at least helps the community understand where their tax dollars are going.

On a side note, I was reviewing our Fire Chief’s blog on the busy week we had two weeks ago. I especially liked the comment about the ‘risk’ associated with the use of our 100’ tower during the lightening storm……we spent four hours up in the basket with lightening all around (great view) ..at least the pike poll is made of fiberglass.

Add Another One to the list.

Wow..what a week.

Sunday night lightning strike produced a mutual aid call in Chanhassen…attic fire. Thursday night we had a fully involved Eden Prairie house fire (defensive). Friday there was a mutual aid for a kitchen fire in Edina (T41 standby) and Friday night we had another Eden Prairie house fire most likely from a lightning strike. In addition to another dozen or so fire alarms and medical related calls. This was by far the busiest weekend in my first year on the department.

Before joining the EPFD I had no idea what it meant to be a volunteer. You just come to expect that when an event happens people show up. Fire, Police, Medical….it is expected. The reality of the effort that goes into getting an apparatus & crew to the scene in a timely manner is impressive. I know this weekend I have spent more hours in my stinking, wet turn out gear than sleeping in my comfy bed……and I loved every minute!

Twofer

Second Fire in less than week. Last night’s page came during our weekly training. East side was the Edina Training tower performing engine company training while the West district was out in Lake Riley practicing some water-rescue. For E41 the call came when we out in the middle of Riley Lake. It took a few minutes of controlled chaos to get the ‘victims’ in the boat and back to shore while everyone else was scrambling to get in service.

We were 3 miles out and could see the flames over the tree tops. This two storey home was fully involved…it was impressive to see police secure the neighborhood and engines running water to the crews from multiple directions and speed at which command, staging and divisions were set up. Our crew ended up getting some defensive/exposure nozzle time, assisting with fire investigation, and a lot of salvage/clean-up. The scene cleared around 0:45 and then it took only another hour to get all the trucks back in service, hoses scrubbed and bottles filled.
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