Wednesday, Jul. 06, 2011

Oxygen, please

Reporter steps into a fire

Most people run as fast as they can out of a burning building. Firefighters go in the opposite direction, and they do it with 75 pounds of gear strapped to their bodies.

Recently, I got a firsthand glimpse into the lives of firefighters. The Garner Volunteer Fire-Rescue department was burning an old house on Garner Road as a training exercise, and I tagged along. So did Garner Town Councilman Ken Marshburn.

It's no secret that firefighters have tough, hot jobs. But until someone experiences a firefight up close and personal, it's hard to imagine.

Marshburn and I stepped into the fire-resistant suits, strapped on the air tanks that would pump oxygen into our lungs for up to 20 minutes and headed into the small house.

As it turned out, we didn't last 20 minutes. We were probably inside about two minutes, and I gotta say - that was plenty long.

Garner Fire Chief Matt Poole escorted us into a room in the house while a fire was sparked in a nearby room. Within seconds, firefighters were right there, dousing the flames with a fire hose.

But there's nothing like the sight of a ball of fire coming right at you. Even with $7,000 worth of fire gear designed to keep me safe, the fear set in. When Poole took us into the room that had just burned, the smoke was so thick we couldn't see an inch in front of our faces.

It still amazes me - people actually choose to do this for a living. And thank the heavens for that.

Hollywood romanticizes firefighters. Well-known actors become heroes when their characters bust into burning homes and rescue victims.

But as I learned, there's a whole lot more to it than that.

"The glamour of it soon fades off after you get out here and sweat," Marshburn said.

That's for sure.

Poole said people are always telling him they want to become firefighters. "I tell them they like the idea of being a fireman," he said.

A veteran Garner firefighter, Poole has seen some bad infernos. In 2009, two children were trapped in a burning duplex on Timber Drive. They made it out alive.

But three kids weren't so lucky in a 1996 fire on Old Garner Road. Firefighters pulled them out of the home, but it was too late.

"You question what you could have done differently," Poole said.

Matt Spivey, 25, has been with the Garner fire department for about a year. He said he still gets an adrenaline rush when he goes to a fire. But it gets easier.

"Through practice, a lot of it becomes second nature," Spivey said. "You just do what you're trained to do."

For now, at least, I'll stick with the newspaper gig and leave the firefights to the professionals. But Poole said he hopes some women will join the ranks at the Garner fire department. Its 50 employees are all men.