Photos from Yesterday

Here are some of the photos (taken by Louis Manglass of WVFD) that go with yesterday's post on the vehicle overturn on US 78. Click on a photo for a larger image in a new page.

All the metal you see here was part of the truck. The cab is in the center background, behind the group of rescuers. Note that everyone there is taller than the cab is now. There were at least three generators running most of the time, for supplying electricity for the implements of destruction used in the extrication.

WVFD pumper ("Margaritaville") on the left. We used it for fire protection during helicopter landing and takeoff. The very fine field is on the right, and as The Unknown Firefighter noted, it had no fireant hills! Not shown is the sweep we did prior to the landing to make sure there were no objects that could get sucked into the copter blades.

Wolfskin and Arnoldsville are on the hoses, just in case, but the landing was uneventful (except that it was very cool). The driver is being carried to the helicopter by Crawford VFD, Oglethorpe Rescue, and Oglethorpe EMS.

Tuesday Morning Callout

Wolfskin VFD was paged out early in the morning this morning for an overturned vehicle accident on US 78 at the infamously dangerous Cherokee Corners going into town.

That particular stretch of 78 has been the scene of many bad accidents. Going into town you approach the danger zone after climbing a steep hill, cresting, and then starting down a steep hill on the other side, there is a rather sharp near-90 degree curve to the right. While the speed limit on this stretch is 45 mph, traffic invariably travels at 60 mph. It is a very busy two lane road and it is heavily travelled by all kinds of heavy haulers.

This one was a large truck carrying 5200 chickens, as I discovered after parking on the side and starting down the side of 78. Dead and stunned chickens everywhere.

Fortunately there was no fire involved, for the driver was pinned inside the twisted cab and had to be extricated. I didn't get involved with that other than to observe and learn a few things from a distance. Vehicle accidents always require fire assistance, just in case, which is why we were there. In our county, Oglethorpe Rescue generally does the extrications, and in this case was assisted by Crawford and Arnoldsville VFD. All the VFDs are assisting on backup in the event of fire, and that's what went on for the first hour. And all the while Oglethorpe EMS was working with the pinned driver.

In the second hour it was decided to order a helicopter brought in to convey the driver to Atlanta. A helicopter has to be able to land and there was a fine field without even fire anthills just a coupla hundred feet downhill.

There always has to be fire control presence at a helicopter landing and takeoff. So WVFD along with Arnoldsville VFD, scanned that nearby field for landing, got the handsome WVFD pumper into position, connected up the hoses, charged them, and waited. The helicopter landed at about the same time the driver of the truck was freed, and that was fun to watch from up close, waiting with charged hose, just in case.

And then the stretcher was loaded into the helicopter, it took off, and that was it. Someone else gets to clean up the chickens.

Of course, with a two lane highway, at rush hour, traffic was backed up one way and then the other for at least a mile. Glenn reports that a lot of drivers had their cell phones out videorecording as they drove past. So at least they had something to do, which probably explained their generally good behavior.

We ended up with eight from Wolfskin showing up and assisting and that was a very good turnout for us. Crawford and Arnoldsville VFD helped Oglethorpe Rescue with the extrication and fire protection at the immediate scene while Oglethorpe EMS did the crucial medical assist, and Arnoldsville VFD and Wolfskin VFD worked together on backup there and at the helipad site.

The Knocker, Or How to Fit a Big Truck Into An Incredibly Small Space

This is Truck #3, the stepchild, some might think, compared to the new tanker. It's actually our oldest truck, and with its peculiarities and difficult driving, it's not surprising that we would call it #3. Nonetheless, and especially in our rural county, it's one of our most important and flexible tools. In keeping with the season, Mike and Ed organized the training session last night (and probably for a good many Thursdays to come) around using and operating it, and generally becoming reacquainted after the winter.

We were supposed to dress for the occasion. The season is wildland fire season, of course, as plants grow and temperatures climb and rain doesn't fall. Ed is in proper uniform - our lightweight wildland fire yellows and greens, with helmet. Glenn is protecting his eyes. They're messing with the generator, which is supposed to operate the krieg lighting, which some of us contemplate may actually have seen use in World War II.

The open compartment behind the cab is storage of various implements of destruction - McLeod rakes, shovels, fire rakes, and ...flappers. I should have taken a photo of the flappers. You've seen old photographs of pioneer women beating out a prairie fire with the household broom? That's sort of what a flapper is like. As TUF says, we have the entire free world's supply of flappers cornered right here in WVFD.

Back of the storage compartment is that trapezoidal part of the truck that Ed and Glenn are sitting on. That's the water tank, and it holds a respectable 900 gallons of water. That's another reason you don't make sharp turns.


The truck is usually referred to as the "knocker", I guess because it's used to "knock down" brush fires, and we also refer to it as the "brush truck", if we can't remember its ordinal. It's a joy to drive - it has no power steering. As FC Mike says, you don't make sharp turns in this baby, you *can't* make sharp turns. However it will go places we wouldn't want to take the other two trucks, and it does hold a complement of tools that we wouldn't ordinarily have at a structure fire.

That round thing at the back is a hose reel, for booster hose, which is sort of like super duper garden hose. We put another 50 feet on last night, as well as another 100 feet of conventional firehose for those hard to get places.

Unseen to the left of the hose reel is the pump itself. It's external, puts out quite a good stream, and a lot of noise. We emptied the entire tank last night practicing with it. Then refilled it from the tanker (since no one wanted to drive the knocker over the county line to fill it from a hydrant).


The knocker doesn't live in the spacious bay to the right in this photo. That's for the tanker. The knocker lives in the space you can barely see to the left of the open bay, in what we used to refer to as our kitchen.


I think I'll repost a photo from over a year ago, just to be sure everyone knows - we used to have a kitchen, but gave it up because we needed the space to shelter a truck. I think that even in Oglethorpe County, there can't be many who would be able to claim this.