Water fights are a common thing at fire stations. This one time, we had a fight that was really fun, where we really got things wet. As it was happening, we realized that this one Engineer wasn’t there. We looked all over the station because in a water fight, everyone should participate. He had disappeared and we couldn’t find him. Finally someone said that the only place he could be was at the top of the hose tower. 

The hose tower was about 30 feet tall, and there was a rope and a pulley at the top with pegs so that we could hoist our hose up after it was used at a fire and clean it. We would leave them at the top of the tower to hang and dry. There was a catwalk up there where someone would stand, and when the hose was hoisted they would take it and hang it on the wooden peg so it could hang. 

We also had what was called a circulating nozzle. It was designed so that you could chop a hole into the floor and lower it into places like basements, and when you charge it with water it puts out about a 25-foot diameter ball of water. 

So we hooked this circulating nozzle up to a rope, and we charged that thing and started pulling it slowly up the tower. The whole tower was a big ball of water from wall to wall. The missing Engineer saw this water coming up toward him, and he started screaming that he gave up! Of course we didn’t pay any attention to that, so we raised it up there and left it for a few minutes. It’s a wonder he didn’t drown.

After that, he participated in water fights so he didn’t have to go through that again.