A Fun Firehouse Good-bye

Since I was promoted, I have been spending quite a few shifts at station 15 on the near east side of Columbus. If you have read my past blogs then you might recognize 15's as the station where I spent my first day as a promoted lieutenant. (See blogs here: http://epertase.blogspot.com/2011/01/last-day-first-day.html AND part 2 here: http://epertase.blogspot.com/2011/01/last-day-first-day-pt-2.html As you can see from that blog, the guys and gals can be pretty rough.

Anyway, one of the long-time station 15 firefighters (we call him Pup) has recently decided to transfer to another station. This is relatively common on Columbus Fire as firefighters decide to try new stations for one reason or another.

So, I was at 15's on the day that the newest transfer list, which revealed Pup's departure, was released. Let me say up front that everyone at 15's is going to miss Pup and no one wanted to see him go, but those aren't the feelings that firefighters express in most cases. Here is how they did express themselves.

The first thing I noticed was when I went to fill out some paperwork on totally unrelated matter. I scanned the roster to get Pup's ID number and saw that his name had been blacked out completely. The news of his leaving was less than an hour old and someone had already removed his name from the station roster. I thought it was harsh (and funny) but that was only the beginning. You see, Pup still had to work three more weeks at 15's before he started his new assignment at station 8.

A little later in the day I asked one of the guys what he thought of Pup leaving and he answered, and I quote, "Who?"

I said, "Pup."

He said, "I don't know this 'Pup' whom you are speaking of."

Meanwhile, Pup laughed along with the jokes as the crew jabbed him all day. He was called a quitter for "abandoning" the station, an idiot, and many other names that I won't put into print as to not offend anyone. But he knew it was all in fun. Firefighters are rough, I'm tellin' ya..

He didn't get much of a break from his future crew over at 8's either. A few days later, the crew at 8's sent station 15 a painted wheel chock (see pic) and was told it was part of the trade.



According to them, fifteens got a wheel chock and 8's got a Pup, hinting that all Pup was good for was being shoved under a truck tire so the truck doesn't roll backward.

But all of that was in fun. As I write this blog, we are at Pup's last day at 15's. You'd think his friends would buy him a farewell cake and a card or something, but if that is what you think, you haven't been paying attention. You see, a cake was purchased, only it was purchased by Pup for the rest of us. That's right. Pup's farewell cake was his responsibility and we ate every bite. Then we proceeded to tell him how terrible his cake tasted.

On a serious note. I won't see Pup as much anymore because he will be in a different area than I usually work. And do you know what? I'll miss him. (Even if he is a quitter and can't handle the pace here in Battalion four ;) So, I'll see you around... uh... um...

Who are we talking about again?

Fear and Relief

As I hold my first actual copy of my debut novel, "The Light of Epertase: Legends Reborn," I am struck by a couple of feelings at once. First, I have enormous relief. Relief in that the culmination of several years of hard work now rests in my hands. Relief in knowing that I have done everything I could in order to present my story in the absolute best way possible.
Now, with the actual book in my hands, I couldn't be happier with how it has turned out. Several years ago when I started imagining Epertase as a published novel, and not just something I worked on whenever I had spare time, I had but one wish. That wish had nothing to do with making money, or having people know my name, or anything like that. No, my wish was to be able to one day present my story to the world in the best way possible. I believe, with the tireless work of many people, that goal has been accomplished.

But, having said all of that, I have a new fear as well. Not really a new fear as much as a lingering fear that has suddenly rose to the forefront of my mind. Rhemalda and I have created something I am infinitely proud to have done. Whether we have, in fact, succeeded in our goal is now up to you, the reader. There comes a time in an artist's life when they must put their hard work into the public eye to be scrutinized. That time is nearing for me.

And that is what scares me. There is no way I can know how my work will be perceived until it is "out there."

Am I a good writer? Hmm. Well, for today I have to trust that I am. But come August 1st, it will be your turn to be the judge. My story will be out of our hands and at your mercy.
Rhemalda and I have done our best.

I hope you like what we have created.

I hope you will be entertained.

And I hope you decide to join us for the rest of my Epertasian journey.

Wedding Rings are Dangerous

Warning: Slightly graphic blog. Read at your own risk. (Really, does that kind of warning ever deter anyone? Heck, when I see that, it makes me want to read on. But you have been warned.)

With the title of this blog, I know you are expecting me to go into some long tirade about how being married is a dangerous proposition and how the ring is symbolic of that union, blah, blah, blah.

Unfortunately, I'm not that clever. So this blog is about how the actual wedding ring itself is dangerous.

The bosses on the fire department usually recommend that firefighters don't wear wedding rings at work. In the academy they showed us pictures of some firefighter, somewhere, who put his hand too close to something electric and, well I won't go into the gory details other than to say think about a hot dog in a microwave for about ten minutes. Yeah, I know.

The only problem with my bosses' recommendation is that I have another boss at home. And she prefers that I wear that symbol of my love at all times. I was informed that taking off my ring at any point in my life was detrimental to my continued married bliss. Some guys wear their rings on necklaces but that just isn't me. So for me it becomes a game of finger roulette. Early on I had to make a decision. Do I profess my love to the world by wearing my ring or do I keep my finger in tact? To be honest, I'm rather attached to that finger or more specifically my finger is rather attached to me.

So here is a quick fire department story that'll make you think twice when you look at your incredibly dangerous, should-be-outlawed, wedding band.

I was on the medic and we were called to an office building where a woman was injured. When we arrived, we were met by some of the patient's pretty anxious co-workers. We found the patient in quite a bit of pain while holding her bloody hand in a towel. Upon further investigation we saw her ring on the floor beside the door. That would have been fine if her finger wasn't lying beside it.

I'm sure all of you are making the connection of her missing finger and her wedding ring, huh? But the question is, how did such a terrible thing happen? Well, since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you how it was explained to me.

It turns out this unfortunate woman was walking through the doorway when she slipped. Instinct told her to grab the door which she did. But her split second mistake was that she grabbed the gap between the door and the frame on the hinged side. Her weight from falling caused the door to close slightly, pinching her ring. She was already falling and couldn't stop herself, nor could she pull her hand free of the door. Pop! The ring pulled off her finger at the second knuckle. I'm not talking, cut off, I'm talking pulled off. From her second knuckle to her fingertip was laying on the floor. From that knuckle to her hand was exposed bone and overstretched ligaments.

We gave her an IV and a bunch of drugs which eased her pain and anxiety before rushing her and her finger to the ER. I wish I could tell you how it turned out for her, but we rarely hear how our patients do so you'll have to be in the dark just like I am.

I was telling my cousin, who is also a paramedic, about this blog and he told me about a call he had in which a police officer had the same thing happen to his finger while chasing a suspect. Only his finger ripped off when he jumped a fence and his ring caught on the chain link. You see, this happens more than most people realize.

Kinda makes you think, doesn't it?

Down with wedding rings, I say. They are dangerous and should be public enemy number one. Just please don't tell my wife I wrote that. She'll kill me ;)

I suppose you'd like to know what I decided for my own finger's well being. After everything I have written, and everything I have seen, I decided to continue wearing my ring. That's right. It isn't because my wife is a tyrant or anything like that. (I was mostly kidding when I wrote about her objections.) Don't get me wrong, she did object, just not so strongly. I don't think she would be too terribly upset if I chose my finger over a piece of jewelry. No, I wear my ring because I'm proud of it. If anyone asks, I tell them with pride that I have been married for 15 years come this October.

On any given day at work, I can be injured or worse in a thousand different ways. Although I see people die in car wrecks on a regular basis, I don't stop driving. Life is about choosing your risks. Sure, you want to minimize them as best you can, but you can't live in a bubble.

With all of that said, is my face going to be red if something terrible happens to my finger after writing this blog.

If it does, rest assured I'm going to keep that between me, my wife, and my plastic surgeon.

My First Blog Interview

As we approach the release of my fantasy novel, "The Light of Epertase: Legends Reborn," I will be doing a few scheduled interviews. Last week I posted my first video interview (you can see it below) and today I'm sharing my first blog interview. I want to thank Shay Fabbro for the wonderful blog and great questions. So, go check it out and follow her for other great interviews and blogs. And let me know what you think about my interview.

Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste. I'm having trouble with blogger's link feature.

http://shayfabbro.com/2011/05/22/interview-with-author-doug-brown/

My First Video Interview

So, Rhemalda asked me to do a video interview and I couldn't wait. I'm being sarcastic here. I'm not a big fan of public speaking but I figured I'd give it a shot. Here is my first video interview. I hope you enjoy it.

Happy Mother's Day, mom

I can truly say that if it wasn't for my mother, I wouldn't be here today ;)

But seriously, today I take pride in calling myself a mama's boy. Because, if by mama's boy you mean someone who loves his mother very much, then I am guilty as charged. I did today's post as a way to tell my mother how much she means to me. A lot. In the hubbub of everyday life that sentiment can sometimes be neglected but it doesn't make it any less true. So mother, on this special day, know that your son is with you in his heart even if he isn't always nearby.

Earlier today my friend, Matt, reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite movies, "The Crow," and it is true so I'm stealing it for my post. "Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children."

Mother, thank you for being you. I love you. And Happy Mother's Day.

So Long Bin Laden

Photo from Ed Konefe

Almost ten years ago I was working at the fire department when someone told me an airplane had collided with the world trade center. I ran to a TV so I could see this horrible accident. Maybe I'm naive but my mind didn't go to evil but instead to a mistake. Even when I watched the second plane strike, for a moment, I wondered how it was possible that two planes could make the same mistake on the same day. I thought back to stories of an airplane getting lost in fog and hitting the Empire State building many years ago. I couldn't imagine someone doing something so horrible to our country.

I don't live in New York or Washington. I live in Columbus, Ohio. On that day, it didn't matter where I lived because we were all Americans. I was with my firefighter brothers and sisters and we wondered if such an attack could be coming to Columbus. In hindsight it was unlikely but for a few hours, the entire country was under attack.

In between emergency calls, we watched as the towers burned. We knew our New York brothers and sisters were in the firefight of their lives but who better to do it than the best firefighters in world. And when the towers collapsed, our first thoughts were how many people were still in there. There was no way we could have imagined 343 firefighters were among the dead. That hit me a little closer to home since those guys and gals went to work that morning to do the same job I was at work doing. There is a brotherhood among firefighters and on that day, firefighters everywhere were attacked.

Last night I turned on the news to find that justice for those firefighters and everyone who died on 911 had been given out by the greatest country in the history of the planet. I don't care if you are Republican or Democrat or Independent because this day is a victory for all of us.

It feels strange for a person who fights for people's lives such as myself to be so happy that someone died. But that someone was as evil as anyone in the world. I hope today is a day that we as a country can forget all of our differences for a little while and celebrate this monumental news.

To everyone affected by 911, I say we will never forget. To the soldiers and intelligence officials who fight for us every day, I say thank you. And to Bin Laden, I say America has brought justice to you. They say Bin Laden was shot in the left eye. To that I ask, "Hey Bin Laden, how's America look to you now?"

The Evolution of a Map

Early on in my writing of "The Light of Epertase: Legends Reborn," I was getting lost in the world. No, I mean actually getting lost. Epertase, and the smaller countries surrounding it, became too big in my mind to keep track of. And if it had become too big and complicated for me, imagine how my poor proofreaders felt. Every one of them commented on how much easier it would be to read the book if there was a map. This is a common need in fantasy novels, BTW.

Well, easy for my proofreaders to say, but what if you don't have the talent or software to create a map? That is where I was. So, I sat down with Microsoft Paint and created this gem. Hey, it worked for what I needed so stop laughing. I kept a printed copy next to my desk for my next edit and fixed whatever minor errors I came across.



Then I received a book deal from Rhemalda Publishing. (Actually, there is a lot that happened in between but I won't bore you with all of that. You know, querying, rewrites, etc.)

During the publishing stages, Rhemalda asked if I had any maps to give them as a guide for their map work. I cringed at the idea of showing this to Rhemalda president and super genius cartographer (I just learned that word), Rhett Hoffmeister.

Before I sent my map, I warned him 17 times about how bad it was but he assured me, "No worries." Easy for him to say; I was the one who was about to show the president of my new publisher that I wasn't as talented as he may have initially thought.

With much trepidation, I sent him my craptography. We discussed all of the details, including the direction my rivers needed to flow (which required a minor edit in one of my scenes), the need for connecting roads from town to town, and other important cartography stuff. (I love that word.)

So here is what Rhett came up with. I added the brownish paper background for effect though what you see in the book will be black-and-white. I can see a little difference, how 'bout you?



Pretty cool, huh?

BTW, please, no requests for me to do the map for your book. I think one masterpiece is enough.

A Day of Training

As a lieutenant, one of my responsibilities is helping train the firefighters in my charge. For a guy who doesn't particularly enjoy speaking in front of people, this prospect isn't a welcomed one. When my chief asked me the other day to train everyone in our battalion, of course, I immediately said "no." Actually, it sounded more like, "Whatever you need, chief," but you get the point.

In the fire service there is a series of trainings that we call, "Save Your Own” training. Basically, these lessons are exactly what the title says. Over the years firefighters have found we spend most of our time training on how to save you, the public, from whatever hazard you may find yourself in. That's great, that's what we're expected to do, but we were neglecting ourselves in the process. If one of us becomes trapped while looking for you, then who will save you?

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. With firefighters in the most hazardous conditions you can imagine, think about how much harder it would be to get one of our members out of our predicament. After all, that member was where he or she was because it was dangerous. Now, add 70-100 pounds of equipment and you see how impossible it can become.

Trainings have been developed over the last 20 years or so in an effort to teach us how to get ourselves or our brethren out of precarious situations… Like bailing out of an upper floor window without falling to our deaths if the room suddenly engulfs us in flames. Or how to best carry a fellow firefighter down a ladder if they become unconscious. That might sound easy at first but let me tell you, the simple act of getting an unconscious firefighter (complete with their gear and heavy SCBA) just from the floor to the window sill with fire licking at our necks, well that's enough of a challenge. Add that we still have to get them down a ladder and you begin to understand the difficulty. But there are techniques that can make this task a tad smoother though no less labor intensive. And that's what we work on.

In years past, it was in these life-or-death situations that the firefighters on the scene began thinking about how to best accomplish their rescue. By that point, thinking was too late. So you see the importance of preparing for the what-if’s?

The training I had to simulate this week involved a firefighter with zero visibility getting lost in a warehouse full of smoke (hence the zero visibility). To make this more difficult, we bled the air in his or her air tank down to 1000PSI (about 5-10 minutes depending on the individual's ability to remain calm and his or her own fitness levels). The reason we drain the air supply is to simulate a firefighter who had been working hard previous to becoming lost. We cover the individual's mask so he/she is completely blind. Then, one at a time, we lead the firefighter into the simulated warehouse and get him or her "lost."

The idea of this exercise is to test a firefighter's abilities to call for help, locate the hoseline he or she was using before becoming lost, and get out before that firefighter "dies."

Here is a sobering stat from the exercise. Out of the 26 experienced firefighters who attempted this training, around ten of them ran out of air before they escaped. They essentially "died."

There were a number of factors that contributed to these results. Though we created the exercise so every firefighter would find the hoseline right away, they needed to recognize when they came to a coupling (where two sections of hose join together) and how to tell by gloved feel only which way leads to the truck and freedom and which way leads to the nozzle. It is not a guess, there is a way, but it can be tricky to remember when the something hits the fan. It's a boring technique so I won't go into it here.

Some of the firefighters found the coupling, misread it, and went deeper into the warehouse. By the time they reached the nozzle, they had 200' feet of hose behind them to navigate along in the other direction to escape. A lot of precious air had been used to get to that point. Other members were on their way out when the hose did a circle and crossed itself beneath debris and the firefighter accidentally followed the hoseline in the direction from which they had just come. Trust me, it is easy to do.

Out of the 26 firefighters, one firefighter's microphone on his radio broke and, by no fault of his own, he was unable to call for help. Mind you, he called for help as he had no idea his words weren't going anywhere, but no one would have heard him. Imagine being in your last chance at life and an equipment failure prevents anyone from knowing until it's too late.
There were other minor errors here and there, which is to be expected in such hazardous conditions, but overall the firefighters did a great job. The members who didn't make it out never stopped trying. Even in training, there is a moment when every firefighter, exhausted and sucking that last breath of survivable air, has to decide whether to give up on the training or fight until they are told it is over. It is easy to say, "I quit. I guess I didn't make it." But if you quit now, what happens when it is for real? These guys and gals didn't give up. And I think they learned something. For that I am elated with how the training went.
These deadly situations happen around the country all of the time. You just don't hear about them unless they happens in your community. This training was developed because this exact scenario has happened many times over the years. It'll likely happen again. Here's a boring nugget for you. Firefighters die in commercial structures 4 times more often per incident than in occupied residential structures.

So, hopefully, the firefighters were able to take something away from this training that could help them if, God forbid, they ever find themselves in such a situation. And, hopefully, by reading this, you have a little better understanding of what it's like to be a firefighter.
Even when we're not fighting fires.

I promise to try and crack a joke or two in my next blog to make it more bearable.

Thanks for reading.