Stuff like that makes all the training and ice rescue exercises hit home.

We had to disband our dive team, although we had the gear and were exempt from labour laws in emergencies, we had to abide by labour laws in training, and the certifications became too much.

We sold that gear and got into ice rescue, for we never saved a life diving, but we did pull 2 or 3 every year out of our river and one large lake.

You need 4 " of 'good' ice to bear the weight of a horse, 6 inches for a team. I remember that from the logging days before firefighting.

Pizza was the bane of the firehall. Everyone thought we should have some. At times the companies would make extra and stop buy with 3 or 4. There were only 4 of us at most stations. We'd have to call in other trucks to come and get one!

I did learn that if I ordered one for me for supper to get double anchovies on it. I like them. No one else would touch it then!!!!

I never go onto the ice without dragging a substantial 20 foot pole, even on a snow machine. Gets you out of trouble quick. At work we used to snowshoe 12 feet apart with a rope between us, and they made fun of my pole.

The downside to running those exercises is...it's freaking cold!

The upside was it was good team building. We used to deck out a reporter every winter in the cold water survival suit and throw them in. See how strong you can be after 10 minutes in that water, it saps you so fast you can almost not lift your arm.

It must have been a scary scenario. Imagine if the phone didn't work? Imagine if you were in N. Canada, 30 to 100 miles from the nearest rescue team? We'd call in the Air Force rescue then, 20 minutes arrival time for a big chopper and 8 man crew. Sometimes Michigan showed up to help.

Some of the other rules,
1. be prepared, even if you went in, to have the stuff to make a fire FAST.
2. have survival blankets.
3. People know where you went, when you were coming back.

As to the first, all my kids had the exercises every year, maybe twice. In the pouring rain, or snow, get out the waterproof container, and make a fire in under 5 minutes. Sounds easy. It is if you've done it many times. We'd be walking, I'd yell fire, and they had to make one big one. And get 2 more ready, for 3 fires in a triangle that can be seen from 20,000 feet is a distress signal. And it works if there are flights going anywhere near. Pilots can be counted on to see those and respond.

A guy on our crew cut his leg very badly with a chain saw, 50 miles from the nearest road. We were a 1/2 mile from a lake, got the signal going, cut a landing spot and had him in the hospital 100 miles away in under an hour. I got fired, my boss told me he was just an indian, we could have carried him and got a float plane. I drilled him one good one in the chops, right over his desk. And fired myself.

Those 2 Cree brothers were good friends. And they could walk out, 60 miles, leave 2 days early, and be sitting in the hotel drinking beer when we got back. How did they cross 3 major rivers, no roads, and get there without a compass I've no dang idea, other than that is how they were raised. Great guys.

Here's a good one, just to hijack the thread and I can still type 120 wpm, Fred was very quiet. Never talked much. Our crew was putting in roads 5 years a head of cutting, Me, 2 students from forestry school, and the 2 Cree Indians, and one labourer. Every morning the students would as Fred what kind of weather we could get. He'd grunt,
"Rain afternoon today, cooler a lot", or some such thing.
That would be it.
One day they ask him, the great native guide, could conjure up the weather, so amazing..

"Hey Fred, what's the weather like today...?"

He reaches in his tent, pulls out a little transistor radio with an earpiece, shrugs and says,

"who knows, my batteries died."

I laughed my butt off.

Deadpan too.


John Conley
Musica est vita