CARE Ambulance

I'm happy that I was hired with CARE Ambulance last week and have been in training as a dispatcher.

Last week I went on some ride-alongs which were fun.
There's lots to learn in the office and lots of details, but I'm enjoying it.

Red Cross Chapter Driver Training

Today I took a class at the Red Cross to learn how to operate their vehicles during activities.

The chapter has vans and trailers, a canteen vehicle for feeding, and an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) that's mostly used for national deployments.

We learned how to open up the canteen vehicle to prepare to serve food. We saw the warehouse where they store supplies, and we drove the vehicles around the block.

5th Red Cross DAT Call

My phone rang around 1am for a DAT call in Brea.

Myself and Austin Miller responded to an RV fire in a parking lot of a shopping center.

The client was starting the vehicle and he heard a noise and opened the hood and a fire had started which soon engulfed the RV.

It was unfortunate that he had lost the 'home' that he had. I hope we'll be able to find him another place to live.

I'll be back at the chapter in a few hours for a scheduled Chapter Driving Class, but back to bed!

Vehicle fire on I-5 at Culver

In the distance I saw a plume of smoke on the highway, and as I got closer, the fire department had quickly extinguished the car fire.

A OCFA twitter said that 4 patients were treated for burns. I wonder how it started and if they extent of the burns.

I saw the passengers sitting off the side of the freeway talking to the FD.

EOC Tour to Newport Beach RACES

On Wednesday this past week I helped give a tour of the Orange County Emergency Operations Center and RACES Room to members of the Newport Beach RACES unit and Nerport Beach CERT team, with my friend Randy Benicky of OCRACES.

Randy is a retired deputy and a former Control One supervisor, and he gave many interesting facts about the center.

This was the third tour I've spoken on, much to the appreciation of Ken Bourne. I'm hoping our tours can be developed into a formal training outline, but I think that's up to me!