It Runs In My Blood

When The Tones Drop

Firefighting runs in my blood. My dad, my uncle, my grandfather, my cousins, and many more family members are in a fire department. I've been around fire trucks since I was born. My dad would take my siblings and I to the fire department to hang out and play on the trucks. He'd let us sit in the driver's seat, pretending that we were rushing to the scene of a fire. I've grown up hearing the sirens of the fire trucks as they rush past my house on the way to an emergency. I've grown up hearing the air horn blare so that other cars won't try to get in front of the fire truck. I've grown up around a community of brothers and sisters that would risk their life to save another.

I originally wanted to be in the Ladies Auxiliary with my mom. She was the president and always let me help out at the meetings by handing things out and making food for after. The Ladies Auxiliary would help out the firefighters while on the scene of a big accident, like a plane crash. They make food and bring water to firefighters who are working on the scene. I've always wanted to help the firefighters, but I was too afraid to become one.

After we moved to Granville, my dad joined a fire company that was right down the road from us. He was welcomed with open arms by everyone. My sister joined as well, but she's never been one for hard work so it didn't last long. After a year, once I turned sixteen, my dad convinced me to join the fire department. I remember the excitement of handing in the application, meeting with the chief to go over the basics. In the fire department that I'm involved with, school comes first. If I'm failing any classes in school, I will not be allowed to participate in training or go to a call.
I got the call in April, four months after I applied there. I was nervous. What if they didn't want me in the fire department? I was so excited to hear that I was voted in. I can follow in my father's footsteps and be a firefighter! It took a while to get used to all the different tools at the fire department. Ranging from the different ladders to the Indian tanks, it was a lot more to learn. How do I have room for all this information!? I'm learning in high school, at BOCES, and now I need to learn a bunch of new things for the fire department. Jeez, it was going to be hard.

But I psyched myself out. It wasn't as hard to balance everything as I thought it would be. Everyone at the fire department helped me ease into the new life of firefighting. We have training on Tuesday nights, so I learned a lot in a short amount of time. I'd do my homework, eat dinner, and rush to the firehouse to be able to be at training. It felt great to put on the firefighting gear, to put on the gloves and helmet and get ready to help the community out.

I remember my first call. It happened over the summer after sophomore year. I was hanging out with my family and we were getting ready to eat dinner. Right before we started eating, we heard the tones drop for our fire department. My dad kissed my mom and I told everyone I loved them as we ran out the door and got into the car. I turned on the blue lights and we sped off to the firehouse. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins, making all my senses sharper than normal.

It was a grass and brush fire up on a mountain. We took the brush truck and went up the mountain. It was really hot that day, so we wore only our bunker pants, gloves, and helmet. We would have had heat stroke if we had our jackets on. My dad was worrying about me the whole time, he told me later. I'm his baby girl, of course he's going to worry. Since it was my first call, I was nervous. Especially because it was on a mountain. What if I fell down and rolled down the mountain? What if we couldn't put the fire out?

My dad took a few other firefighters with him and he went down the side of the mountain with a hose, spraying any fire that he saw. He told me to stay on the top of the mountain because he didn't want me to get hurt. The boots had grip, but there was still a good possibility that someone could slip and fall. So I kept watch, giving them more hose when they needed it, watching out for any fire. The smell of smoke was everywhere, the sky turning gray from it. When we finally got home, I was almost too tired to eat dinner. It was a tiring call. My mom said that we smelt like smoke and to my surprise, my hair and shirt did smell like smoke.

I've grown a lot since first joining the department. I'm more responsible and mature when it comes to dealing with stressful situations. Through the courses that I have taken while in the fire department, I've learned how to save someone's life and I've learned how to protect the community as best as I possibly can.

Now, after being in the fire department for a little over a year, I still get an adrenaline rush when the tones drop. If I'm in a dead sleep, the tones will go off and I'll wake up quickly in the middle of the night. I'll search around for socks in the dark quickly, running out to meet my dad at the car. I've been involved in the fire department my entire life. I've been surrounded by amazing people and have joined them to help protect my community. I've been surrounded by my heros.