February 25, 2009
Testing…Testing Comments Off
This is what studying for a senior captain promotions test looks like. The books are bigger than they appear in the photo and I think John dreads looking at them, everytime he passes by them. I do have to say that he has been looking forward to this test for a while now. The pay raise would be very nice now that we have a little one and even though he loves the airport, I think he is itching to get out of the gates and onto the streets. While I like the fact that he would be away from the airport, and therefore I won’t have to hear about airplane crashes and such, it scares the heck out of my to think about him on a ladder truck full time. Since I work mostly with firefighter fatalities in my job, I am way more paranoid about what could happen to him…not taking into account that I was almost a fatality, it’s the other close calls and fatality cases that make me worried.
Speaking of firefighter fatalities, a lot of people ask about the work that I do with the families and department of firefighters who have been killed in the line of duty and what that exactly entails. Here in Texas amongst the fire service groups, I am endearingly known as the death lady or the angel of death. I’m not sure that’s such an accurate portrayal of me as I am not the one that takes the person from this life like what the angel of death would do. But I continue to smile or chuckle a little when I hear the term (which I hear often) because I have a serious phobia about death and dead people…but we will get into that later. Needless to say, I am working on a blog series titled, ‘Anatomy of a Firefighter Fatality,’ to give a glimpse into this very tragic line of work that I do and yet love so much. For my fire service readers, I hope it gives them pause and gives them a chance to rethink how important our safety and survival is. For my lay readers, I hope it gives them a better understanding of the type of sacrafice that is made in order to protect the lives of community members.
I hope the series will be a powerful series. I am still thinking it through because I want to do it justice and yet I want to be respectful of the families and departments that I have worked with and continue to work with. Stay tuned though because it will be coming soon.
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