Fire School - Show and Tell

Last night was the introduction to hose and appliances (not the beer fridge kind - the flows 1000 gal/min through it kind). I arrived at the training center early to help setup.

Imagine surprise and delight when The Chief was roaming around the pad around 15 minutes before class started. And when I mean The Chief, I'm referring to the Chief of [my home county] Fire Rescue, not my station Chief (who is usually a good source of Starbucks, wit and repartee).

This can't be good.

As a general rule, The Chief makes an appearance when things have gone horribly, horribly wrong for someone. Horribly wrong.

Horribly wrong like someone filed a suit, went to the hospital or the instructors/students completely fornicated superior so much that he was called.

It gets worse.

There is a video crew with him.

*shudder*

As the more senior instructors automagically vanished, it was left up to me to see what The Chief was up to.

"Hey Chief, what brings you down here tonight"

"Evening ," (I really really really hate he knows me by name - nothing good will come of that) "We're just making a child safety seat video. You guys carry on."

* P H E W *

I then discreetly wandered over to the various pockets of students to let them know The Chief was on the pad, so please, for *all* our sakes - behave well.

I should interject that this really isn't a problem with the class. They're actually pretty respectful, courteous and organized. All except for the ones I've know from before class, they haven't really learned that the roles and interactions are a little different. Still, hasn't been an issue so not worth mentioning.

Imagine the delight to all the instructors when 5 minutes before class was to begin, the students are all lines up, gear setup and ready to go.

And right at 1900...

"GO!" shouted The Chief.

And so class began.