Just Hangin Around

A few weeks ago Hospers Fire Dept. was called to assist with a structure fire in the town of Grainville, 8 miles south of Hospers. As I pulled out onto the highway with #1 pumper, there was already a column of black smoke visible. When we arrived on scene, there was a large 3 stall garage fully ingulfed, just starting to involve the attached house. I scrambled to get my SCBA (air pack) on as Grainville firemen were cutting vent holes in the roof. Ready for attack, I found incident command to find out what they wanted. They had been spraying water across the attic of the house through a vent hole, and decided to try and make an interior attack through the attic. This is when my ears purk up. Taking another guy from Hospers with me, up the ladder we went. I peeked through the hole, the fire was going pretty well, but the roof had been ventilated properly, so visibility was good and the flames were not advancing very quickly. This hole in the side of the hose was not cut to be an entry point, so trying to get through it with all of my gear on was not easy by any means. I started to wonder why this was the best option. Once through the wall my mask instantly fogged over from the temperature difference, trying to keep it clear was a major pain in the butt. I walked ahead 3 rafters to make room for the next guy. At this point I thought it best to get down on my hands and knees so I would be more spread out. As I started to crouch down, a poorly timed push of the hose line from outside sent me in the wrong direction- down. I don't remeber losing my balance, but there I was, hanging by my armpits. I was held up by the charged hoseline on one side and a group of wires on the other side. My very first thought was "How do I get out of this without anyone knowing what happend?" I soon realized that I could not pull myself up out of that position, so my thoughts quickly turned to just dropping to the floor. It couldn't be more than 3 or 4 feet, could it? What are the chances of a stairwell being directly below me? After hanging there for what seemed like 10 mins. (prob only 15 sec) I decided I should just call for help. Turns out the second guy in wasn't quite in yet. Once he finally did snake in the small hole he encountered the same fogging mask problem. I was just hoping he wouldn't step on my head. By this time I have to say that I was getting pretty tired, and then I heard it over my radio- "MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN" As I started to hear all of the commotion that goes along with as statement like this, I just started yelling "west side, main floor" simple and to the point. A short time later I was grabbed and let down to the main floor by a guy that I definetly need to buy a drink or two for. While taking my manditory walk to the ambulance, I felt the need to throw any piece of gear that I could get off of me and say things that would make a childs ears explode. I quickly realized while sitting in the rig and being bombarded with questions that things could have been a lot worse. Most of the guys know what it is like to be in bad situations, and things rarely ever go as planned. It didn't take long for me to start cracking jokes and BSing with the guys. Ten minutes later I was back up on the roof picking apart the burnt spots.
After all was said and done, the guys garage was a complete loss- including a '68 Corvette, a Harley, a lot of tools (he was a contractor), and the 800-900 rounds of ammo that was going off the majority of the time. He is currently repairing the house.
All is well with me, I had a very soar back and shoulders for 3-4 days, and a little bit of hurt pride.