CHEESEBURGER -tuesday 16 october

Weather: -11.c, wind chill -24.c

Volleyball in neg -28.c anyone?

They breed them tough down here.

So a bunch of us gathered together to knock a ball around for a couple of hours last night, actually i can't kid no more, we were in a heated gymnasium! but it was a blast.

Back on shift again this morning at 7.45am. I'm on engine one today, the big burly yellow machine. I love riding on these american beasts.

The day has flown by with all the training, building inspections, hydrant testing, and most importantly eating a real american cheeseburger for lunch.

Now for some housekeeping. Our shift system here runs 24hrs on 24 off, with shift change at 7.45am each day. I have what they call a kelly day once every fortnight giving me 3 consecutive days off (that's on fridays). At station one, situated in Mctown are two engines (yellow fire trucks), two abulances, and what they call a tanker which holds an unbelievable 3700 gallons of water, a rescue vehicle and a "scat" passenger people mover. Down on station 2 which is located on the sea ice runway, we have 3 rescue 550 vehicles on mat tracks, and one mighty big beast called R1 which has an agent capacity of 1000 gallons. She has personality.

Sweet as.

CHIEF TRANSLATER- monday 15 october

Weather: -20, wind chill -38.c

A very confused american buddy of mine looks my way and whispers....."Now what did he just say you'll" as we sat around listening to a debrief from a New Zealand firefighter at Scott base.

Now us kiwi folk and the americans may speak the same language but boy are the variances in vocabulary hilarious!

Today we had a training exercise over at Scott Base. The kiwi folk had set up a mass casualty drill, and McMurdo fire department was one of the response crews. There was an explosion causing fire and 10 people were unaccounted for. So in goes the brave kiwi "volunteer" crew and mcmurdo's fire crew to save the day.
Great job done by all. The medal is in the mail.

Whilst in amongst the pitch darkness accidentally knocking off tins of baked beans whilst searching for victims, i yell to my New Yorker Lieutenant,
" Yo Mike can you get your torch out" to which i received the reply "come again?" "your torch" "you want a what?" "your torch so we can see" it fell silent, then came a polite but loud "what the hell is a torch"

Note to brain, if you're in a dark environment with an american firefighter ask for a flashlight!

It was a great exercise. The kiwi firefighters did incredibly well. They are made up from domestic staff, carpenters, scientists etc.. and are only given an intensive weeks training in Christchurch before heading out here.

"Kaipai" fellow kiwis, and "great job" fellow americans!