Back home again

Ran some errands in town and reported to a local fire station for live fire training for the CERT class -- we missed this two weeks ago. They used a very cool propane burner -- it was a stainless steel pan filled with a couple inches of water. There was some stainless steel pipe below the surface of the water with small holes drilled every couple of inches. An igniter and burner was at one end of the pan a few inches above the water surface. When we were ready, the fireman operating the device would push a button, a valve clicked and in a few seconds, there was a yard-square inferno with dense flames reaching up a couple feet. A team of two would go in, fight the fire, back out and be done. A lot of fun! Tonight's class dealt with setting up treatment areas for the triaged victims and some rudimentary diagnosis, first aid, splinting, controlling bleeding, treating hypothermia and heat shock as well as records keeping. Planning to get a first aid certification in a few months so this will dovetail nicely. For the ten years that I have lived here, there have been a few large vehicle accidents, a major landslide cutting off the main highway for a week and the Nooksack River shifted course and badly damaged the road to the next town toward Mt. Baker -- there are about 3,000 people that live past where the damage was. I am already pretty anal about stockpiling and rotating through a couple weeks worth of food and medical supplies. This just adds to my level of training and benefits the community at large. There are a couple other CERT qualified people out here (a couple Doctors and First Aiders too) and the Water Board is now in the old Town Hall so we have a rendezvous point whenever the SHTF. Actually have to head into town again tomorrow morning and then a Friday court date. Fun week. I'll be taking the next week off and take care of some projects at home...