Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Saturday, January 11, 2014

Putting Out the Fireman

See? Easy.
Our third son, Duff, works with Special Needs adults.
An exhausting, trying, patience-testing, infinitely rewarding sort of job.
Which entails certain daily routines in and around the home and community.
As well as occasional forays into uncharted waters . . .
As part of their ongoing safety training, Duff and his clients were at a local fire station, receiving instruction in the dousing of a fire.
The obliging firemen had a controlled, but fair-sized fire going.
And each of the observers were given the . . . opportunity . . . to take one of a selection of fire extinguishers and actually use it to put out the fire.
All had gone well.
Even Duff’s clients had taken a hand at pointing and shooting.
And dousing.
It was finally Duff’s turn. The very last of the spectators.
He listened to the instructor’s careful instructions, nodded, gripped the handle of the extinguisher, and squeezed.
There was a slight ‘snap’ as the triggering mechanism broke, turning the stream of fire-retardant powder on full.
They were standing in the rain, it being Vancouver Island, and the nozzle was rain-slick.
The unexpected pressure caused it to slip from Duff’s hand.
The hose flipped around like something gone mad, spraying, first him, then his instructor with thick, white powder.
Duff got off easy. He was white from his mouth down.
But his instructor took the blast full in the face.
Full. In. The. Face.
It was like a scene out of a Laurel and Hardy film. (Google it . . .)
His coworkers, while trying to suppress their snickers, asked if he was all right.
“Yeah,” he said. “I managed to close my eyes.” He turned slowly and, blindly, made his way to the eye-washing station.
Duff, meanwhile, managed to recapture the errant hose and gradually force the valve shut.
The stream of white powder slowed. Then stopped.
Everyone surveyed the mess.
The entire area was heavily coated in white powder.
And the fire was still burning.
I don’t want you to think that anyone Duff works with is in any danger.
He can certainly handle any emergency that arises.
He also supplies the entertainment.


12 comments:

  1. What are the odds that it chose the moment he took hold of it to break. Murphy's Law .... or in this case, Duff's Law.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In college we had an auto tuneup session one morning. Being that the cars were covered in snow, there was getting to be quite a bit of water on the floor. The guys next to me managed to get a fire going on the engine of the car they were working on. One of the guys panicked and rushed to get a fire extinguisher. One the way back, he slipped and fell--right on top of the extinguisher, breaking off the valve and sending fire retardant all over the shop. The guy himself looked like the Pilsbury Dough Boy. In the meantime two of us grabbed a couple of fender pads and smothered the fire.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That was a well told story. Although kind of scary in a way; it was al a good colorful story. I can just picture it all. It is humorous that they fire was still going.
    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That sounds like one of those things that is funnier for everyone else than it is for the people involved ...!

    Enjoyed George's story, too :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heehee! Those are the best stories! :)
      And George needs to elaborate!

      Delete
  5. And the fire was still burning?
    tough flames!

    ReplyDelete

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