How I spent last Christmas

Thinking ahead to the holiday season I am reminded of how I spent the holidays last year, off work on disability. For those who didn’t know I had a decent accident last year at work. Decent enough to send me to the hospital in the ambulance. In remembering the event I came across pictures of the building I was in when I got hurt and I wanted to put something together to kind of commemorate it. So without being too dramatic, although I’m sure it will be, here is the story of how I spent last Christmas Vacation.

Early morning December 17th and I’m working on an Engine. A call comes in over the radio for a reported fire in a part of town not too far away and it sounds big. We get called not 5 minutes later to investigate smoke in the area a few blocks from the fire. We arrive downtown and the smoke is so thick the buses have stopped moving. Weaving around stopped cars we can barely see until we turn the corner and see the large old building with flames shooting a good 30 feet out 2 giant windows in the front. Old buildings in this part of town are usually wood frame structures with brick or stucco facades and this thing is cooking.

Our engine is one of the later ones to arrive and the fire is pushed back up the stairway before we aim our hose lines at pushing the fire back towards the large windows. Making our way up the stairs we turn and enter a large open room, I say open because there is a faint glow of fire far away in all directions.

Take a look at this video and you’ll have an idea of where we found ourselves. Take special note of where the man is dancing, near the middle in the bright red pants. The entrance to this room is below the camera and those big windows are where the fire was blowing out from. Remember that location in your mind.


We were all making progress, good progress. The theatre seating was getting knocked down and the ladder truck crews had made it to the roof and opened a large hole allowing the smoke to escape. We could see what was happening around us and most of the large room area was full of firemen tearing walls open to find hidden fire. We were shooting water into one of the balcony areas still smoldering when one of my co-workers asked if they could switch spots with me and use the nozzle. I happily obliged and moved back, picking up the hose about 6 feet behind her and helping to steady the heavy hose.

The next thing I remember is hearing someone shouting, “Hey are you all right over there?” I recall seeing the chinstrap to my helmet waving in front of my face, which was odd on account of I had tightened it around my chin and for it to be where it was meant I was face down. I answered, “I’m fine, give me a minute.” I felt an arm lift me from my shoulder and realized I was on my knees, looking down, surrounded by debris. “Help me get this guy out of here,” there was a lot of commotion around me. “Tell the Chief there’s a man down, the ceiling collapsed.” The next few minutes are blurry to me but a good friend was there helping me and told me the rest.

This photo from a few days later shows the section of ceiling that likely fell on me, an approx 4' by 8' section of wallboard and plywood that fell almost 30 feet. And yes that is our union hall next door. We saved that.

I was carried to the main stairwell and they lay me down to assess my injuries. I was holding the right side of my head and asking repetitive questions, a sign of a head injury. They began removing my fire coat to check for injuries when I asked them, “Is the building still on fire?” “Yeah” “Then put my coat back on.” I didn’t know that where I was had been a safe area. The ambulance ride became more real halfway through when I recognized the sweating, nervous Paramedic was one of the ones I had helped to train earlier in the year. After an hour or so at the
hospital I was released with diminished hearing in my right ear, a headache like I’ve never had before and the need to call Kim and tell her what had happened.

“Hey I’m running late,”
“There was a big fire on the news, are you there?”
“Not anymore.”
The next few weeks I was on medication in case my brain was bleeding and it meant no alcohol and no caffeine. That’s big for me. Everything seems to have turned out fine and I haven’t experienced anything that would make us worry, but it was a reminder that not all my work calls are B.S. Hopefully this Christmas break will go better.