3rd of July- Set up, Dumptruck fire, boat fire and Firemans ball

 Tammy had asked if she could have Kennedy over night Thursday night since she knew how swamped we would be with the upcoming 3rd and 4th preparations. Her and Kennedy went to the patriotic program and out to breakfast the next morning. They stopped by the station to say hi and tell us they were going shopping. Chris and I started working at the fire station at 9. Getting everything set up and ready. Everyone else showed up around 10. We worked like crazy. By 1:30 we were dead tired and starving. I ran to Calls to get us some food. I was almost to Maverick when the pager went off for a car fire. I hurried and turned around. Of course I was the only one not at the station and all my gear was on the truck since I was supposed to be on the medical truck. I made it back in time to get the 2nd engine. 

It was a garbage truck packed full of cardboard boxes. I didnt take most of these pictures.

Since I had all my gear on the truck I had to go in my wildland clothes until I had a minute to change. 

Thats Chris on top 

We were the water engine so we had to hurry and go fill up with water. I hurried and put on my turnouts then. We came back we relayed water to the ladder which was up on top of the truck. We had two huge water tenders from Whitaker Construction that volunteered to come help. We set up a relay to double feed the engine to keep up with the output. I had to sit on top of the engine and hold one of the lines in. You can see my helmet on top of the engine in this pict. The diamond plate was so hot it was burning my butt through my turnouts! It was over 100 degrees outside.

While we were there I was pulled off the engine to go on a boat fire we had on Willard Bay. The boat was on the far west end. We had a construction worker jump in with us to guide us through the construction and onto the dike around the bay. We had our squad going into the north marina to get one person on the patrol boat. There was a huge crowd of boats and jet skis surrounding the boat on fire. The jetskis were actually splashing water up onto the boat to help put the fire out. By the time we started going around the bay closer to the west end the majority of the flames were out.

 We were several hundred yards from the boat on the west end. 

The patrol boat wasnt much behind us.

 The boat was completely burned

As soon as we were done there we had to go back to the car fire. The had hauled it off the freeway but it was still smoking. We needed to get inside and take the contents out so it wouldnt light on fire being towed.

 The problem is the cab and all the hydraulic hoses caught on fire..which control it

 Whitakers was awesome enough to let us take it to a big open pit they had where nothing could catch on fire and dump it. It didnt hurt that one of our members on the dept is the main mechanic for Whitakers. He hopped in a track hoe and we started figuring out how to open the back end.

They were able to climb inside and get the remaining cardboard out. At this time its 4:30. Our Firemans dinner starts at 5. Half of us are cut loose to get the pig and potatoes out of the pit and drop them at the dinner. Thankfully we had spent all morning before the fire getting everything set up and organized. We got the food there just in time. I hurried and ran home to shower. I was SOAKED head to toe in sweat. My clothes were drenched. I showered and got redressed in 20 minutes and was back over there to help Jana sell dinner tickets and raffle tickets. I was exhausted and so sunburned. 

We had cute Briggs keep us company

Dinner went great. We sold a lot of raffle tickets too! Next was the dance. Jana and I were selling raffle tickets at the dance too. Kennedy had a few little friends there and they ran around like crazy. She loves the dance. Dad loves to dance. I hate dancing. Ashley loves to dance and Derek hates dancing. It worked out perfect we made Ash and Dad go dance!

Chris announced the raffle at 10pm. Then we lit a few fireworks

 Grandpa Todd watching fireworks with Kennedy, Briggs and Rylee.

By this point I was exhausted. Kennedy had thrown up from running around so much and being hot, got 'firework ash' in her eye and was dying (she thought) so her and I called it a night and left Chris there to help and we went home at 11.