Fire! No really people, FIRE!!!

The things we do for writing.
This photo was taken by me on Saturday when I dressed up in fire fighting gear and went up in a bucket to the top of this 100 foot ladder. 'A day in the life' with local fire fighters was an awesome and awe inspiring experience. I think it was supposed to be a public education event for the fire department, but for me it was research. Now I know a ton about fires and car accidents.

Did you know that you can break a car window with a tiny metal spike on a plastic boomerang device? No huge spikes or crowbars necessary, just a little pressure and a tack. Did you know that airbags can go off up to 2 days after the crash? They are really annoying in the middle of trying to extricate someone from a car so the battery is the first thing disabled before cutting up a car to get someone out.

This is me using the jaws of life to kill a door on a junk practice car. The guy in the black helmet is there to make sure I don't take out me leg with the car door. I think he was also a little nervous I might drop their very expensive and heavy hydraulic life saving equipment. Huzzah! I totally didn't damage anything but the car.

Right after this the real firefighters lit the car on fire and I got to put it out again. Did you know that you can practically crawl inside a burning car when in total fire fighting gear and air mask and its not any hotter than standing in the sun 5 minutes before that? Yep, standing around waiting for the action to begin was actually hotter than being inches from the flames. Same sweat factor anyway.

The adrenaline factor is definitely higher in the inferno though.