When I was at Station 5, we got a call at about four or five o’ clock in the morning where a semi truck tanker was completely on fire. In fact, when we left the station we could see the glow in the sky, and it was about three or four miles away down in the valley. But back to when we got the call. 

We would sit out rubber boots beside our bed, and put our pants over them so that when we got up, all we had to do was step into the boots, pull our pants up with the suspenders over our shoulders, and that’s how quick it is. A few seconds, and our turnouts were on. There was this one Captain named Barney. He was a really great guy. He was funny and kind of excitable. When the call came in, he ran out of the dormitory and jumped into the rig. He sat there for a minute before realizing that he forgot to put his turnouts on, and was sitting in the front seat in just his underwear! So he got off the rig and started back to the dormitory. By the time he got there everyone else was coming out of the dorm with their clothes on and ready to get on the rig. So he had to wait for everyone to get out before he could get back in. And to make it worse for him, everyone was yelling at him to hurry up because they were late. 

So he makes it back to the rig, and the Engineer heads in the direction of the fire. Barney got on the radio to call San Diego to let them know about the glow in the sky. Well, San Diego was not answering him. After several tries, he looked at the Engineer and said, “What’s the matter with this microphone?” The Engineer looked back at him and said, “Well you might put down the spotlight and pick up the microphone. Maybe they’ll answer you then.” So he put the spotlight down. It was one of those types with the cord that we used to look at addresses and stuff. 

So that was a bad day for Barney, but the fire was great. The gasoline in that truck burned, and the aluminum melted, so you could just watch it burn down. It was hot and big, and it was a fun fire.