Middle day for A-Shift and we retire another 2 men.

It's a nice clear Saturday here in NW Roanoke City. We started the day off with a little breakfast, and a EMS run for a seizure. Only to find Medic 9 had a Working Code. FF/EMT-I Duanne "Just keep Dixon away and I can save him" Noell had the lead on a Code Save today. With Franks, Capt. Weeks, Dixon, Lt. Crouch (RS1), and myself on scene, Noell had all kinds of hands. They did a great job and got him back.

In other news, FF/Paramedic Hank Pfister is retiring after serving Roanoke City since 1985. He is eating his final dinner at Station #4 as we speak. Take care Hank and congratulations!


We are also saying good bye and congratulations to Lt. Leroy Edwards after serving Roanoke City since 1975. I believe he is working his whole shift tonight on Ladder #13. Both guys had plenty of visitors come by and say farewell. We hate to see them go.


Enjoy the pics, note that Hank wore his old shirt from 1985 on his last day. Nice touch. Some guys like Jerry can't even fit in their original shirts after 5 years! Good night folks and be safe out there.

P.S. FF Noell didn't retire...there was just some more free food.

50,000 and counting!

Almost forgot...we hit a milestone tonight. Our blog has reached 50,000 hits! Our first post was December 5, 2008 (A-shift) so we're just under a year old. Let us know how we're doing through our comment section here on the blog or on one of our face book pages (search Melrose Misfits or Engine9 RFD).

C-shift update

I was so caught up with Opie, I forgot to tell ya about an earlier call the Medic ran with Lucky 13. The call was a medical call, pt nausea and vomiting. The female pt was assessed and while giving her medical history and personal information, she stated that she had received both the Influenza and H1N1 (you know the Have 1 Need 1)shots this season. Well, it was about that time that Mr. "I used to be an EMT in Richmond" busted to the front(knocking Coon down)to advise the pt that these shots "only last 60-90 days". LMAO! Where did Dr. Fleitz come up with this??? He stated he researched it and found it as FACT. We figure he researched it as he did with the cut and paste job he did with or "new hire" list last day. Well, we put the Melrose Misfit's blog research department on it and have came up with the following rebuttle...FACTS...nuttin but em!
Check out sec. 2 paragraph 4 of this link.
or, simply check out this video You have to watch the entire video to get the appropriate answer. So, there you go.. proof again that Rhett is a fraud. A knock off, plagiarizer, copy cat! We just wanted to make sure our readers are up to speed on this issue and not be confused or misled on how long the shot is good for!
I also forgot to mention our 2 visitors of the day. Retired Lt. Mikey Overacker dropped by for a visit and we had a ride along on the Medic. Travis Meadow (Meadow...not Meador) is an EMT student and volunteer with Blue Ridge Vol. Fire and Rescue. Travis was hoping to see a little of what the job is and figured this was a good spot. It was good to see Mikey and as is everyone. Travis was very welcomed and we appreciate his interest in The Melrose Misfits. Here they are...


We also wanted to remind everyone of 2 A-shift retirements tomorrow. FF/Medic hank Pfister is retiring from station #4 while Lt. Leroy Edwards is retiring from Lucky 13. I have had the pleasure of working with both of these men and hold many many fond memories. Good luck and best wishes to you both! Stop by #13 between 14:00-16:00 and by #4 anytime.
Peace out...Capt. and the boys

Windy / cold night for C-shift. Meet our members..

Ok, now that we've joined the "big leagues" by feeding to Picture Book and Tweet Tweet, it has come to my attention that we should introduce our members to our followers. If you haven't caught on yet, we are firemen. This blog was designed to show a little piece of firehouse life here at station #9, the serious and the comical. Our Department has 3 shifts, A, B and C. Our Station is combination Engine and Medic. Each shift has a Captain, Lieutenant and 4 firefighter / EMT's / Medics. Here on C-shift, I'm the Captain. I give all my members nicknames and sometimes this can be confusing to those who don't know them by that name. Our Lieutenant is Rob Reid "Bugg". The senior Firefighter is FF/Medic Scott Boone "Coon". Next in seniority is Firefighter/EMT Travis Meador "Wheezy". He is followed by Firefighter/Medic Ben Obaugh "Tyrone". And our most junior member is Brad Glidden "Opie". In the next few posts, I'll give you a little closer look at the members of C-shift one by one. Tonight, I'll start with Opie...

Opie was hired by Roanoke Fire/EMS on July, 31, 2006. Following Rookie School, he was assigned to station #2. After approx. 3-4 months he was moved to Station #10 and in September 2007 became a Melrose Misfit. He is 30 years old, married to his wife Kristy and has 1 son (and future firefighter) Kyler. He lives and works his days off on a farm in Bedford County. Here at 9C Opie has all the duties of a Junior member.

He is a FF/EMT which means he rotates through the Engine and Medic unit. He is currently enrolled in the EMT-I program and is scheduled to begin class in Jan. 2010. Not long into his career, he caught his 2nd working fire on Pilot Ave. He responded in riding Medic #10 and was later assigned to work with our crew. From that point on, he was destined to become a Misfit. Here's a shot taken that day (left to right:John Dixon filling in from #9A, FF/EMT Chris Franklin aka Chicken Hawk then 9C now Lt at 9B, me and Opie)

Opie has been a good fit here at 9C. I call him Opie because of his resemblance to Opie Taylor of the Andy Griffith Show.... plus he claims to have every episode on DVD ( I think he lied because we watch it every night and he never knows whats going to happen at the end of the show). At one point I thought about renaming him "Ninja". We gave him the title "ninja cook" because on his days to cook, everyone else did it for him. Meal time came, the food was prepared but you never seen Opie in the kitchen....like a little ninja cook. Anyways, he's became much better. Not only does he stay in the kitchen and prepare mouth watering meals, now, he even bakes

He remains eager and willing to learn but we've found that we have to be a little "gentle" with him while training...he can't stand the sight of his own blood...

The pic above comes from a past post here. He lived through it and made history. Opie was the last person ever transported out of Southern Manor..LMAO. He's caught some big fires and several smaller ones...regardless of the size, he was out there "DOING IT".



The boys wouldn't let me put some of the "good" pics we have of him up. A couple real good ones from his last birthday party. Anyway, that was Opie. He'll be available for autographs next cycle. We're going on 4 day tomorrow, see ya next Wednesday and allow you to meet tyrone up and close (that's scary). Until then, be safe and stay in the house. Capt.

Happy Thanksgiving from #9

Happy Thanksgiving from A-Shift. It's our first day back. We started out a little slow, but the pace is picking up. We have run a few alarms, and a ems call on the Engine. Medic 9 is doing business as usual. Keeping with the holiday spirit, Engine 9 GAVE the Hippies an opportunity to be first in. Yep in the giving spirit, we let the tree huggers turn in front of us at the intersection. P.S. only E3, we're not that nice. M3 had to wait their turn. Just kidding Broadway...we knew you had us. ;)

A special thank you to the Fellowship Community Church and Operation Turkey Drop. For quite a few years now they have been providing Roanoke Valley Public Safety with complete Thanksgiving meals, from the turkey down to the dessert. Imagine all of the Police, Fire stations, etc. in the Valley. They have volunteers delivering meals to everyone. That's very impressive and we thank them very much.

For pictures, not too much today. Here are a few with the fella's hanging out in the office, and a call at the Towers. Everyone keep it in the house tonight. Wheels, enjoy the vacation, see you next cycle. Be safe out there.

TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM

Been one of those days for the C-shift Misfits. Wheezy is a little short of run and skills for his EMT-I certification so we had to transfer him up to The Deuce to ride with a preceptor. That led to us getting a fill in from Lucky 13 who ended up being First Lt. Sam Stump. Now, this affected us in a few ways. First, next day (Friday) is Sam's last day on C-shift for a while. He is being moved to Station #8 A-shift as acting Captain taking the place of recently retired Captain Jimmy Renick. Due to the facts of him being an Officer and his leaving the shift next day, I didn't want to assign him to the Medic unit. Here's a shot of Sambo.

Tyrone is still wandering the Highland County mountains in search of the perfect kill. That leaves Opie to ride and he's been on there for the last several days (not to mention they took a beating last night). So...the Ol Capt. bit the bullet. That's right all ye non-believers.... I'M RIDING THE MEDIC. OK, let me ellaborate... I'm out there "DOING IT". Yep, we've seen it all and in just 1/2 a tour. Heres the proof...





Now don't get excited. The box drives a lot easier than the "Cowboy Cadillac". The only reason I'm in the back of the copter is cause they wouldn't let me fly it. And, you have to admit that I look GREAT in my Doctor coat. I know, I know... I didn't have my mask on in the OR but hey, the stash makes for a pretty good filter. I mean come on guys... if it was easy, everybody would do it! Alright, the day hasn't been all about us saving lives, we always manage to squeeze in a little training as well. Today, we got to experience our newest training tool. Our regional gas grill....errr burn building. The latest and greatest. No more real fire, a brand spanking new Class B burn building. Here she is...ain't she a beaut?? More safety features than NASA and the Space Shuttle..Geesh

We basicly ran company evolutions with Ladder/Medic 7 and Battalion 4. Let me tell ya what... Woooooo. Talk about your barn burner! I mean just before those fans kicked on at 500 degrees ... OK OK so it's gonna take some getting used to. At least they have it labeled right..

LMAO...that's the actual label on the building. Anyways, we moved our riding positions around so the boys could get some training from other perspectives. Coon rode the seat and became the Incident Commander while Opie pumped the War Wagon. Both did an excellent job. Here are a few shots from the training...




You may have noticed the "bull horn" located on Coon's Command Board. Well, that's because our brand new radios work REALLY well inside that building. Communication was much better after he started using that thing. LOL. All kidding aside, we had some good hands on training (plus a little "pretend like" on the side) so helmets off to the lead instructor Lt. Tom "Bucket Head" AKA Guts Gherman (and his quality control Officer Plaza)...

Ok, enough of these shananagans, lets move on to some important stuff. New hires. We posted earlier AND FIRST on the 11 new hires for the City. Now Rhett would have you believe that he had the list first by changing his post time and date, BUT...BUT read the comments. He's a fraud....An imposter! We just may sue for copyright infringment and / or Plagiarism (that means you "stole" it PUNK). A cut and paster this guy is. And an insult to every readers intellegence by trying to cover it the way he did. An "arthur" my ASS! Anyway, regardless of where you read it, CONGRATULATIONS again to all of the new hires. And hey, just to PROVE we are the bomb and beat him to all of the "REAL" stories, here's the list of new hires for our Brothers and Sisters out in Roanoke County
Mallic, Meger*, Miller*, Martin, Campbell*, Hefflin and Googin (again, " * " denotes Medics) CONGRATULATIONS to these folks as well and "UP YOURS MIDGET BOY"...gotcha again :-) OK 2 more things real quick. Our Local's President Rodney Jordan and Lt. Steve Jordan from over at #4 A's father is in ICU up at UVA. Keep these brothers and their family in your thoughts and prayers. We also wanted to tell everyone HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We hope each of you enjoy the day and time with family. Keep the brothers and sisters all across this great country who have to pull a tour tomorrow in your thoughts as well. As for you folks out there not on the job...take a moment to stop by your local firehouse and let the guys know you're thinking of them. That's it for tonight... don't eat too much turkey. Everyone stay safe and in the House... see ya on BLACK FRIDAY... peace out! Captain Wines and the boys.

CONGRATULATIONS !!

The hiring process for the City is now complete and we have 11 new conditional employees. I'm going to give you the list now and maybe talk a little more about them / the process etc in tonight's post. Honest answer is that I wanted to get the list out before the "famed", "noted arthur", "blogger", "pod caster","mobile video caster", "mouth of the south" Rhett Fleitz got his grubby little paws on it...LOL!
Anyways, here's the list, CONGRATULATIONS, GOOD LUCK and BEST WISHES to them all.
A. Helems *
J.Kaylor
J. Dixon*
C. Walsh
J. Anuszkiewizz*
B. Wasson*
G. Crabb*
B. Hodges
J. Walker
M. Akers*
J. Lonnemann
( * denotes Medic ) Regular C-shift post this evening, catch it here or now via Face Book or Twitter. Capt.