#9 – Technology Challenges on the Fire Ground

Firefighters come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, genders and colors. Our abilities and skills other than firefighting range from building construction to floral arranging. Some of us are real techies and others (like me) have difficulty turning a computer on and off. This story is about my good friend and co-Operations Section Chief on an Incident Management Team in the Pacific Northwest who is a bit like me…. technologically challenged. In a previous story titled “North to Alaska” he was affectionately referred to as “Knucklehead Number 2”. During many emergency incidents with our team, my good friend Knucklehead Number 2, said and did many things that caused me and those around us to laugh. Often times he did so without meaning to be funny. I was often the brunt of his behavior and that was just fine with me. He was like the brother I always wished I had. So when I had the opportunity to provide some payback to my buddy knucklehead… I pounced.

For those of you who might not have read “North to Alaska” in a previous episode, I went into more detail about how the Incident Management Teams work. This story is about that same group of team members. It’s not a particularly important or critical story. But it illustrates that when the business of saving lives, protecting property and managing our nations wildlands, those professional “heroes” that everyone loves can behave like children. And those are the times I cherish many years later. I hope you enjoy the story.