Day 3 –  Union City Fire Department Captain, Ricky Hurtado ran this evenings class and packed our heads full of information on the topic of fire behavior.  I can’t begin to transcribe all the notes I took that night, but I can comment that Capt. Hurtado was an excellent instructor and knows how to lecture so that you don’t fall asleep.  He’s interesting, full of knowledge, but grounded and effective in connecting with his students.  I look forward to seeing more of him in the academy.

Day 4 –  Here was a biggie.  Day 4 was a Saturday and retired Chief Joe Robinson was with us for 10 hours (not counting breaks and an hour lunch) of fire prevention and investigation education.  Whooooo, it was a long day at information station!  The most amazing thing about it is how Chief Robinson can pull it off.  Anybody who can effectively lecture on a single topic for such a substantial amount of time is a dedicated man in my book.

As an instructor Joe Robinson (who I’ve discussed in other parts of this blog) is a downright wealth of information packed into a single human being.  He gave us such a massive information dump, there would be no way to retain it all, had it not been for his extremely organized and to the point Powerpoint presentations.  Chief is also a very courteous and laid back guy with a subtle sense of humor.  It seemed obvious to me that he enjoys teaching and appears to be doing a good job of keeping busy while loving retirement.

Day 5 –   Another of my previous fire instructors, San Jose FD Captain, Don Torres, ran Tuesday’s lecture covering ICS (Incident Command System) in a through and to the point manner.  He had to as there was a ton of information to cover in only 4 hours.  Taking notes was a challenge, but my approach was write down key words and points and review them later.  Most of all I wanted to make sure I was hearing what Mr. Torres was saying.

If you happen to be a student at Los Medanos College, I highly recommend taking ‘Building and Construction for Fire Protection’ with Captain Torres.  He’s a fun teacher who appears to me to be at the top of his game.  He also let us know that we could earn our ICS-100 certification through FEMA online.   FEMA offers a study at home course and certification for this and other progams.  If you haven’t done it, you might want to spend some time on that.

Day 6 –  Communications was the topic and Dave Watson (also known as “The Punisher”) of Walnut Creeks Engine 1, was the instructor.  This was an interesting night because unlike all the previous days, this evening was broken up by groups of us going to the 911 dispatch center in Pleasant Hill.  Dave had Firefighter Nick Grillo assisting him that night.  Grillo (Captain Mike Grillo’s son) accompanied us to the dispatch center while Watson stayed back and lectured/Q&A’ed with the remaining cadets.

At the 911 center, the very friendly (for some reason I expected them to be grouchy) dispatchers explained what all the bells and whistles did, and details about how dispatchers work.  I was amazed to learn that their schedule is just like the firefighters.  They’re currently working 48/96′s which basically means they’re on for 48 hours straight and off for 4 days afterwards.  Some love it, other hate it.  Either way, it’s pretty amazing.  When we were there, there were only 3 dispatchers working (and I assume there was one sleeping somewhere).  Very interesting experience.

Listening to the calls come in, you get a better understanding for why firefighters struggle with the information they’re given by dispatch.  It’s simple – dispatch is essentially relaying the information they’re given from whatever panicked Joe calls in, and often they have to relay that information super fast in order to get to the plethora of other calls that may be flooding their lines.  It’s a tough job and one I hope to become more acquainted with in the future.

Before I conclude Day 6′s wrap-up, I should do my own relay job and tell you what Firefighter Dave Watson told us about his “Punisher” nickname.  The story is a simple one, and not so focused on the nickname itself.  Apparently during the last LMC academy, Watson must have been pretty hard on the group because that night they dubbed him “The Punisher”.  The next morning Dave showed up for work at the fire station and everybody there knew all about his new nickname.  Not even 24 hours had passed and he was getting phone calls from others in the service joking with him about his new tag.

The moral of the story Watson explained goes like this…. “Telegraph, Telephone, Tell-a-firefighter”  The point here being, news travels fast; really fast!  Especially in the small world of the fire service so think before you act or speak.  He joked that firefighters are worse than high school girls when it comes to gossip and if you make a mistake, everybody will know within hours if not minutes.  Fortunately for Watson, being nicknamed “The Punisher” is pretty cool, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

To begin the orientation, Captain Grillo gave us a brief intro to the names, departments and specialties of the many firefighters (with a wide variety of titles and roles) who will be instructing us over the course of the semester.  He also introduced us to Brittany Sylvia who is a previous LMC Fire Academy graduate, and now helps run the physical training aspect of the academy.  She claims anything she’ll be having us do, she’ll be doing right along side us.  I believe her.

Aside from getting the obvious certificate of achievement for completing the fire academy, and the likely achievement of earning our Firefighter 1 cert. (3 fire courses and the academy), we’ll also be getting two other significant certifications.  The first is a State Fire Marshal certification in Wildland Interface, which is highly valuable in California.  Second Captain Ed Macumber will be certifying us as HazMat FRO (Hazardous Materials – First Responder Operations), which is also huge!

We reviewed our textbook (BIG, Expensive, and the origin of my blunder) and it was explained that anything less than a minimum of 70% fails the academy.  That’s referring to the 10 quizzes we’ll be taking plus the midterm and final.  Also, there about 400 hours of class time of which we may miss a maximum of 18.  More than that and we’re out.

We reviewed a lot more “little details” and then headed outside to learn how to march.  Only 2 or 3 people in this academy have prior military experience which is surpising, and it made learning how to march all the more exciting and new.  I have to say, aside from the 90° sun beating on my bald head, it was actually a lot of fun.  Also, I now know where my boots are going to be giving me blisters.

Before the marching actually began we learned about grouping our battalion into formations and different stances.  At one point during Capt. Grillo’s explanation of standing “At Ease”, he called me a “short-cutter”.  I was completely bewildered at why he would call me this, except that at times he picks on random people to tease them.  Still, this seemed a little harsh for teasing.  I decided I would ask him at the end of the day.

The marching can be tricky at times.  If for a moment you lose your cadence with the other cadets, it can be very hard to get back into it without being spotted.  The key as I see it, is to keep a strong focus on the beat of the feet, while maintaining a comfortable awareness of where your surrounding cadets are.  Once that’s in place you’re better off if you just fall into the zone and rhythm of the march.  That’s when it becomes fun.

Fortunately, we were a worthwhile troop and without too much trouble, our marching convinced Captain Grillo to let us conclude before the heat caused us to completely sweat stain our brand new uniforms.  Back in the sweetness of air conditioning, we got a quick lesson on how to shine our boots, which it sounds like we’ll want to do before every day of the academy.  Finally, Brittany concluded class with some candid Q&A and were excused.

Once we were excused, I approached Capt. Grillo and asked him “Sir, do you really think of me as a ‘short-cutter’ or was that just a joke?”  His lack of immediate response was telling and crushing, and finally he replied.  He told me he got a call from “a bookstore” telling him that “one of his students was trying to take a shortcut”.  Again, I was baffled, but quickly realized what he must be referring to.

A week prior to this, I had gotten on our textbook publishers website and filled out a form for a “review copy”.  Doing this same thing for my EMT class, I connected with that publishing companies sales people who told me about a student price I was able to get through them.  This saved me a lot of money, and I was hoping to repeat the experience.  As it is, I am currently dirt poor.

Unfortunately what happened, was rather than informing me about money-saving options for purchasing their textbook, the salesgirl called Capt. Grillo and told him that one of his students was trying to take shortcuts.  The salesgirl did email me asking if I was employed by the school.   I responded telling her that I wasn’t an employee.  I told her I was a student, and a very poor one at that.   Lastly, I explained that I was simply hoping she may be able to help me out with the cost of the book.

I don’t think this is the message she delivered to Capt. Grillo.  I told the Captain that I was looking for a student discount and that the last thing I’d want him to think of me as was a “short-cutter”.  He told me “OK, prove me wrong” and walked away.  I hate this.  I hate that a misunderstanding or a lack of knowing the whole story has now reduced my reputation to that of a short-cutter, and on the very first day!!  I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.

I ordered my text book on Amazon and am worried it won’t be here soon enough.  We have our first quiz in less than a week and I need to study!