Do you know what you are sleeping on???
I do.
About 4.8 meters of Ice.
I have been in McMurdo for a week now and they have officially kicked me out of town. So I am staying the night in Ice Town. Ice Town is the small group of buildings that are setup at the Ice Runway.
The reason that we are sleeping here is because of a Kiwi C-130 that was unable to takeoff. The New Zealand C-130 taxied out to the runway and was preparing to takeoff when the #1 engine failed. So, if you were going to loose an engine, sitting on the ground is a good time for that to happen.
You can see in the following photos that the C-130 is sitting waiting for parts to arrive on Friday on the next C-17 flight. So, we will be manning Station 2 until the Kiwi plane is off the Ice.
The photos above show Station 2. I will be spending allot of time in this building this season. Actually I will be here every third shift for the entire season. The station is basically the size of a double wide trailer. We have room to sleep six and it is fairly comfortable. As you can see, we have one ambulance, three F-550 Ford ARFF vehicles, and one large beast of an ARFF vehicle.
These are the two planes that we were out here to watch while they took off. The problem was that only one did. The C-17 is a huge plane compared to the C-130. Did I mention that today's C-17 brought 7 pallets of cargo today including 'Freshies'!!!
After the C-17 took off we quickly realized that we would be spending the rest of the shift on the Ice. Take a look at the snow blown up from the engines even after the plane is off of the ground.
Well as you can see from my outfit, the temps have remained low. Most of the week has had lows of -25F and some pretty strong winds at times. But today after we got out here the temps quickly climbed up to 0F. This combined with now wind made for a nice afternoon. We actually spent a fair amount of time outs since it was so nice.
Our shift had two incidents on the last shift. First was a heat detector activation in the largest dorm on station. A common incident here and all was well. I was officer on Engine 2 and we stood by at the hydrant. Our biggest job was to notify the occupants that it was safe to return. This is actually a important job because people have to retreat to another building when the alarm goes off. Standing outside at -15F is not a fun thing to do. So we have to go to all of the official muster points and let people know that it is all clear. Later that evening we had a medical call for woman in her 60's. Since I was on E2 my crew did not respond to the dorm, instead we went next door to medical to be sure that the loading dock didn't need to be shoveled out. And then we stayed to assist the ambulance offload the patient.
The tough part about medical calls here in McMurdo is that you know almost everyone. Literally. Being from a small town it is common to know a patient, or at least know the family, but here it is a much, much smaller group of people. So it is harder to hear a medical call be dispatched. The woman was medivaced to Christchurch on yesterdays C-17 flight.
Well as usual I will leave you with some nice photos that I have stolen from a talented photographer.
Talk to everyone soon.
R.J.
About 4.8 meters of Ice.
I have been in McMurdo for a week now and they have officially kicked me out of town. So I am staying the night in Ice Town. Ice Town is the small group of buildings that are setup at the Ice Runway.
The reason that we are sleeping here is because of a Kiwi C-130 that was unable to takeoff. The New Zealand C-130 taxied out to the runway and was preparing to takeoff when the #1 engine failed. So, if you were going to loose an engine, sitting on the ground is a good time for that to happen.
You can see in the following photos that the C-130 is sitting waiting for parts to arrive on Friday on the next C-17 flight. So, we will be manning Station 2 until the Kiwi plane is off the Ice.
The photos above show Station 2. I will be spending allot of time in this building this season. Actually I will be here every third shift for the entire season. The station is basically the size of a double wide trailer. We have room to sleep six and it is fairly comfortable. As you can see, we have one ambulance, three F-550 Ford ARFF vehicles, and one large beast of an ARFF vehicle.
These are the two planes that we were out here to watch while they took off. The problem was that only one did. The C-17 is a huge plane compared to the C-130. Did I mention that today's C-17 brought 7 pallets of cargo today including 'Freshies'!!!
After the C-17 took off we quickly realized that we would be spending the rest of the shift on the Ice. Take a look at the snow blown up from the engines even after the plane is off of the ground.
Well as you can see from my outfit, the temps have remained low. Most of the week has had lows of -25F and some pretty strong winds at times. But today after we got out here the temps quickly climbed up to 0F. This combined with now wind made for a nice afternoon. We actually spent a fair amount of time outs since it was so nice.
Our shift had two incidents on the last shift. First was a heat detector activation in the largest dorm on station. A common incident here and all was well. I was officer on Engine 2 and we stood by at the hydrant. Our biggest job was to notify the occupants that it was safe to return. This is actually a important job because people have to retreat to another building when the alarm goes off. Standing outside at -15F is not a fun thing to do. So we have to go to all of the official muster points and let people know that it is all clear. Later that evening we had a medical call for woman in her 60's. Since I was on E2 my crew did not respond to the dorm, instead we went next door to medical to be sure that the loading dock didn't need to be shoveled out. And then we stayed to assist the ambulance offload the patient.
The tough part about medical calls here in McMurdo is that you know almost everyone. Literally. Being from a small town it is common to know a patient, or at least know the family, but here it is a much, much smaller group of people. So it is harder to hear a medical call be dispatched. The woman was medivaced to Christchurch on yesterdays C-17 flight.
Well as usual I will leave you with some nice photos that I have stolen from a talented photographer.
Talk to everyone soon.
R.J.
posted by R.J. at 4:21 AM
3 Comments:
Rachael had her baby! Logan is his name! He was about 4 1/2 weeks early. He weighed only 4 pounds and 11 ounces. Very tiny!
He was in ICU for about a week - but is doing good now and came home yesterday. Rach looks good and is happy that Logan is home now.
Can you believe that you are actually Great Aunt Paula and Great Uncle RJ? We knew you were good, but now you are great!
Anyhow, just wanted to let you know!! I will email some pics later. Take care!
“I have been in McMurdo for a week now and they have officially kicked me out of town.” HAHA It took them that long?
“A heat detector activation in the largest dorm on station.” Hmmm sounds kinda strangely familiar.
Stay warm & safe and keep the reports and stolen photos commin. Oh yea, nice Ford Track monster truck thing.
B
Hey dude,
Finally checked out your blog. IT'S COOL! Sounds like you are happy to be "home" I'm happy to be in 70 degree weather on october 17th. here in machias. of course, machias has been busy with Structure fires, mostly arson-type. (boy, this town is nuts. thats why I fit in so well!) As soon as the '67 comes home, i will send pics, so you can drool over it just like me!
MFD Chief 1
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