First day at School

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At o7oo hrs on the 8th of August, I reported to Brampton Fire and Emergency Services Training College, which coincidently is exactly the same as the New South Wales Fire Brigades Training College, (even down to the fact that, 203 Stn is to Brampton, what 13 Stn is to Sydney).

Fortunately for me, (unfortunately for my new found buddies), there was a recruit class that was in their last two weeks of their initial 14 week training, so I was tagged on, taking the class number to 8.


Our Instructors were Captain Larry Taylor, Captain Mike Clark & Captain Dana Brashaw who even tailored the language in the lesson plans.
Thankfully, all Captains took the time & trouble to become bi-lingual for a few days;

Station Officer = Captain
Station = Hall
Operational = On the floor
Ceiling Hook = Ceiling Pike
Breathing Apparatus = Air Pack
Rescue Appliance = Squad Truck
Spanner = Wrench
Ashes Runners up = Both of "our" ladies & Shano's Cricket
Teams.

In the same manner as our own Training College, the final couple of weeks are extremely full on, predominately spent performing practical evolutions, in order to forefill our compentencies and to hone our skills into a well rehearsed routine, so as when we're "on the floor", we hit the ground running. ( After graduating, as soon as you report to your hall for duty, you are deemed to be on the floor ).

I felt for my fellow recruits,after finishing a gruelling day at "the office", then having to go home and study the course notes for hours on end, getting their better halves to throw test questions at them, in preperation for the finals ( you remember what it was like, cooking the dinner & answering questions and explaining the differences between a primary & a secondary search & the old favorite in the add breaks of Sienfield, "can you give me 3 types of appliance braking systems" ?

This is probably as good a point as any, to mention that in Canada, the Fire Services get responded to medical emergencies, in addition to the Ambulance service, so it goes like this,

Canadian Bill is having a "walloping great chest grabber", ( see they've learnt me all the teknikel terms allready ! ), so the 911 (our 000) operator, (the person who asks you weather you want, Fire, Police or Ambulance), then notifys both services, who then respond individually to the medical emergency, the school of thought being quite simply, you're more than doubling your avaliable trained staffing levels and geographically you're doubling your Stations, leading to quicker arrival times, this is good news all round....especially if you're Billy.

As everyone is aware, for every minuite that Billy goes without a defib shock, after the walloper, he loses an additional 10% chance of recovery.

We generally turn up within a few minutes of each other, ( & hopefully from the punters point of view, within 10 !)

So, getting back on track, where was I?..... that's right! recruits studying for final exams, which now encompases Australian recruit #1, with the medical exam, which includes everything & anything to a base paramedic level, right from the D in the D.R.A.B.C. up thru defib and then turning hard right, pulling hard "G's into....wait for it.....how to deliver a baby on the run or at home no less!

I thought that Capt. Dana Bradshaw (incidently one of, if not the, head paramedic guru in North America), was joking, when he handed me the Emergency Medical Responder book (allthough at 654 pages long, I felt that it could possibly be classified as an encyclopedia !) and said, "you'll be tested on every aspect of this book both theoretically & practically, see you in a fortnight, oh and it's a full days exam".

So it was at this point in the proceedings, that I realised it was somewhat futile to even suggest that "couldn't we just cover the basics, over a cuppa tea & some Arnotts Classic creams", I can smile lots, make plenty of interested "ahh I understand" nodding type gestures, lie to you like a barstard and tell you "yeah, this is exactly the way that we do it at home boss" & you can sign me off, & it'll all be good.............apparently not !!!

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