UFRA Extrication Class

Friday Chris and I spent the day at UFRA fire classes. His was Safety Officer and mine was Extrication. We got to pick our classes. I went for a fun one and he went for one that would give him a good certification. Both of our classes were in Garland. His class was all classroom for two days. Mine was a 1 day class. We spent about an hour in the class, took a break and headed to a junkyard. When we got there they had 5 cars lined up for us. They told us we could cut up as many cars as we wanted. WOO HOO!! This was our set of cars and tools. We had 12 people in the class so we broke into 2 groups. Our group ended up being me , Trica, 3 Ogden Fire guys and a guy from Honeyville. We had a really good group.

 We went over a lot of different things. There are a lot of ways to cut apart a car and take doors and roofs off. Its not always the same and it depends on how the car lands, rolls, how the patients are positioned etc. Trica took this pict of me taking off a roof. I love it because you can see the glass flying all over. 

 We had taken off all 4 doors separately. Taken off the roof and then we were rolling the dash. Thats when you cut the front posts by where your feet go and lift up the dash with the spreaders so you can get peoples feet free or the dash off of them.

 I actually got a lot more time on the tools than I expected. There were 6 of us and 2 tools so that meant 4 of us at any time were doing different things or watching and learning. Thats how I got to take so many pictures. We would take turns and two of us would take off one set of doors then switch. The next two take off the others. The next two take off half the roof etc. So dont think because I have picts of everyone else working that I didnt get my turn too.

Trica had never done anything like this before at all. She was so nervous but did a great job! The instructors were awesome and really thorough. 

 Airbags are a great thing but they pose a HUGE safety risk to firefighters. One thing is cars have airbags EVERYWHERE inside of them. In the trim, foot pedals, under the seats, dashes etc. When you go to extricate someone and start cutting on a car you have to look and peel off all the inside plastic and trim to make sure you dont cut an airbag or gas cylinder. They come out at such a high rate of speed it can throw your tools into you or the patient, hurt you or the patient or shoot the gas cylinders through the car. Thats why normally on any accident you will see the fire dept open the hood by any means and cut the battery cable. Cutting the cable helps prevent unexploded airbags from going off. They can still be set off by a spark from a tool but its harder to do. Before we care for a patient or get into a car with them and not all the airbags have gone off we have to cut the cables for our own safety. This seat is pushed all the way back. See how far the airbag has came out. Imagine now we are leaning our heads into the car and holding the patients neck and the airbag decides to deploy.

They set us up a little challenge on this car. I was IC (Incident Command) I had to make assignments and our job was to stabilize the car, cut the battery, peel the trim and take off two doors by taking them off separately not all together. Our team did it in just under 6 minutes which is pretty awesome for just starting.

 Clay, one of the Ogden guys, his father in law and my dad have been friends forever. The other two Ogden guys in our class didnt know who I was until Clay opened his mouth. Clay and the other two just happen to be on my dads crew so he is their big boss. From then on it was over. They kept calling me ma'am and being complete smartasses. They were opening doors for me, telling me they would hold the tools for me so my arms didnt get tired, or they didnt want me to get hurt, I could go sit down so I didnt break a nail, etc. I told them to kiss my ass and they said "Yep! She is a Barton there is that Barton temper coming out!" I kept telling them Im not a Barton Im Jess. Big difference. They were giving me a hard time and it was all in fun. 

We came back from lunch and they opened my truck door and tried to help me out. I shut the door on them. Clay hurried and layed his coat down over a dirt pile so I didnt get my boots dirty and then they tried to wipe the dirt off my boots. I told them I had to get a picture of that and send to my dad to say see how good your guys treat me. I thought it was hilarious. Our instructor for the class was also the Station 4 captain where I had both of my ambulance ride alongs. I told them then when I was in the station I am NOT Bartons daughter today. I am just Jess. It didnt do much good haha! They razzed me the whole class and I lost count of how many times I told them what they could do with their special treatment. It was all in fun though we had a great time. 

We took the front door off this truck and then learned how to take off the '3rd door' even though its not really a door. 

 Our team cut apart 3 of these 5 vehicles. We were rocking it!

 Trica got to break out her first windows in vehicles. She was hooked from then on!

The 4th vehicle we got to cut apart was on its side. We got out struts and learned how to properly secure the vehicle so it wouldn't roll back over.

We also clamshelled it (pulled off the roof on its side) then took out the passenger and drivers seats.

 and took off the passenger door

 Our accomplishment for a day.

 We flipped our car over on its roof and the other team flipped theirs on its wheels

This video shows the force of a passenger airbag. All we did was put a large orange cone on top of where the bag comes from. This is why little kids cant sit in the front seat!!

Washing Engine, LifeFlight, LifeFlight and Baby Chicks

This week was the final week of class woo hoo!! Which meant two things... 1-I was almost done and my nights were almost free and 2- I had a hell of a lot of studying to do! Monday nights class was on HazMat  (Im already Operations certified) so it was just a good refresher.

Tuesday night for drill we washed the engine since that nasty dirty rain had got it filthy. Cooper was having a little too much fun. We were laughing so hard. He was so excited to get to spray the engine. Chris being the fun hater and tellin him he can only spray the engine not people.

Tuesday night I was on a ride along with OFD at Station 4 again to finish up my ride alongs for class. We werent getting shit for calls. I had been at the station almost 3 hours with nothing when I started getting texts to see if I was responding on the capsized boat/ water rescue at the bay. Chris told me he was on the way there from Farr West. So to rub it in a little more some people sent me some picts. They brought in a helicopter too. (again this is after the patient is cared for and hes in the bird)

 This was my favorite one. Kennedy was with Chris and he went POV since he was right close and would have had to pass the call to head to the station and come back. Grandpa Todd was running command at the squad so they had Kennedy go sit and wait in the squad truck where they could see her and she would be safe. Only so many people were able to go out in the boat to rescue them the rest had to wait at the dock for them to get back and take care of the patients. She stood in the truck and watched it with binoculars. She thought it was the neatest thing in the world. The helicopter came in to land and flew over the squad. She went on and on about how awesome it was. The helicopter flew RIGHT OVER ME MOM! She already has wanted to be a firefighter for years and this just makes it even better for her.

Thursday I had had my big class final test. We have a quiz every day we came into class. We had 3 big block tests and a final test. We had to pass the class with an 80% to be recommended to go test with the state. I was nervous for the big final test because it can cove a lot of material! Our book for 3 months was 2,000 pages plus a work book and skills. I spent pretty much all day studying,

 We got to class and before we could take our test we had to have LifeFlight come in for a demonstration. 

 They landed the bird, let us go through it, sit in it if we wanted. Told us all about what they do, what they can do and answered any questions we had. They always are so nice and helpful! 

 We stopped in at Cal Ranch to get some chicken food.. that was a big mistake! Kennedy and I went straight back to the chickies. I had my heart set on getting two turkeys. I really want turkeys. Kennedy and I were giving Chris the eye and he caved.. but then we went on the other side of the display and found Cornish Cross Rocks... We had been talking about buying some for a while now.  Turkeys were 7.99 a piece  (which is actually good) and these little fuzzballs were 1.39 buy 2 get one free. Cornish Cross Rocks only live for about 10 weeks total. These guys were already about 2 weeks old. In those 10 weeks they eat and eat and eat and get HUGE. They are meat birds not laying egg birds. By 10 weeks they are from 5-8 lbs and you kill them then because if you keep letting them grow they get so fat and cant move. Which means they dont eat, cant walk etc. They taste SO good. Mom and Dad wanted 40 and we bought 10. We figured we would start small since you have to pluck them or have them plucked. We have room for 10 in our freezer not 40 ha! 

So heres 50 little fuzzballs in a box on the way home from the store.

 We made them a nice warm place with a tarp over the bottom to keep heat in for them in the new coop.

 We gave them double lights and they peep all day long. (there really is a lot more room for them than it looks in there. They have laying boxes they sleep in at night) They will only stay in this coop maybe 2 weeks and then they will be way too big and go into the other chicken coop.

 Saturday was my State practical test. I passed my written in class test with 141/150. I was really happy with that! I also passed my State Practical. All I have left to do is schedule my State written and pass. Then I will officially be an EMT. I also enrolled in my Advanced class that will start in Sept.

Saturday when I got home from testing Kennedy and I celebrated by having lunch together. Just us two. Chris was in the 2nd day of his Safety Officer class in Garland. K and I haven't got to spend a lot of time together. Ive been so busy between school and work and she is miss independent. She told me we wont have much time like this together over the summer because she will be very busy teaching Yoga classes but maybe she can take a day off once in a while to spend time with me...

Cache Hardware 3D shoot

A whole bunch of the Brigham Bowmen headed to Cache Valley Archerys shoot at Hardware Ranch. I had never shot this shoot before but everyone else had and said what a fun shoot it was. Its right on the hillside by the visitors center. They have an upper harder course thats unmarked (range yardages). They also have a lower marked course. We shot the lower marked course. Mom and Dads group was two groups ahead of us. Our group was Todd, Jana, Me and Chris. Kennedy was our cheerleader.

Part of the range above us. The course goes almost to the top

 Dad changed a few things on Janas bow for her and turned up her poundage. It has made a huge difference! She shot AWESOME this time! The orange dots are worth 11 points. The inserts are 10 and anywhere else on the body is 8. This was her 1st 11 on like the 2nd target!

 There were a lot of far shots on this course. A ton from 70-88 yards. The deer hiding in the tree is actually a lot more uphill than it looks with the sun right in your eyes and just under 50 yards.

Kennedy was so excited. She loves outdoor 3D shoots. She wanted to help Chris pull arrows and count scores.

 View down the canyon

 The trucks are where we started at,

 Kennedy did so great! She didnt complain once. It was quite a hike too in some places. We packed her bag with some jerky and M&Ms (her choice) We rationed her treats. So at target 2 she got some jerky. Target 6 she got some M&Ms and so on. It really worked out well. She said it was one of the best days ever.

 Kennedy hiking ahead of us.

 Boys going to pull arrows at the 63 and 88 yard targets.

 This target was 88 yards away. Jana even shot at it which is huge for her. The arrow didnt quite make it there, it hit a clump of dirt and bounced up into the target! No lie! I laughed so hard! She totally gets points for that too.

Waiting for our turn. Kennedy HAD to sit with the boys!

 This target was a 101 yard shot. I have never shot that far in my entire life with a bow. My sights only go out to 60 yards so anything past thats a pure guess. PLUS we had serious cross winds this whole shoot about 10-15 mph. You got ONE arrow to hit it. I was the only one out of our group to hit the target and I was pretty dang excited!

After the shoot we had a big tailgate party in the parking lot. Grilled up dogs and burgers.

 The shoot was awesome! We had so much fun! AND to top it off I came out with the highest score in our shooting group. I beat Chris by 3 points :)