One time we got called to a Cost Less warehouse fire. It was probably about a block long, and about a half-block wide. When we got there that thing was ripping, it was really burning. This was out of Station 5, and we had a pump and a truck. The truck is the one with the aerial ladder, all the rescue equipment, and the tools to break into buildings and cut holes and stuff like that. The pump is the one with the hose and the pump in it. 

Two interesting things happened at this Cost Less fire. One is that these two firefighters had a two and a half inch hose, which puts out around 250-300 gallons per minute at 100lbs pressure. That gives off a lot of back pressure, so you really have to fight it when you are using a hose that size with a nozzle attached. As a way to help you handle the hose, you put straps on it and then wrap them around your waist. But after a very short period of time, say 10 or 15 minutes, it gets very tiring. As these two firefighters were struggling with the hose line and shooting water at the fire, this other firefighter walked past them and said, “Getting tired, huh?” They replied with, “Yeah!” So he suggested, “Why don’t you just tie it to the parking meter with the straps?” Without missing a beat, one of the firefighters on the hose turned around and replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “Well we can’t do that because neither one of us has a nickel for the meter.” That went over big, and everyone had a good laugh at it. 

Right after that, the other crew from Station 5 was taking a hose line in through a side door, and the hose got hung up on the wheel of a parked car so that they couldn’t advance any further. One of the firefighters went back to pull the hose loose from the car wheel, so they could continue moving forward. Just as he was pulling that hose loose, the whole roof fell in in the area they had planned to go. If they would have been five feet farther into the building, they all probably would have been killed by the roof falling and by the fire. They came very close to dying that day, and that was a close call I’ll never forget.