fire tech

On February 8th, 2013 I visited fire station #6 located in Costa Mesa, California. I called the station prior to my visit and spoke with a fire fighter named Story. He said it would be alright to stop by around two o’clock. Upon arrival I came up with ten questions to ask him that I thought would provide me with a better understanding of what it takes to be a fire fighter. During my visit to the fire station I wanted to identify what it takes to be a firefighter, the day to day operations at the fire station, and see the type of equipment they use on fires and medical calls. When I arrived Mr. Story gave me a tour of the station, and explained that his station was an EMT station only, meaning that if their station went on a call they would have to also call a paramedic unit if it was needed. We sat down for 30 minutes and went over the questions I prepared and talked about his journey to become a fire fighter.
During the meeting we engaged in conversation about the department. He told me that the department is comprised of six stations with 676 firefighters currently working in Costa Mesa. I learned that their station averages three to four calls per day, and this past year the department had around 10,600 calls. Calls consist of occurrences such as structure fires, gas leaks, medical related emergencies and traffic incidents. Mr. Story said that his station has the lowest calls per day in the city. This is due to where there station is located in the city. Being near high rise apartments and industrial buildings, calls tend to not happen as frequently. Stations located in residential neighborhoods or near downtown areas of the city receive the highest number of calls per day. He said the demographic of the city has about 108,000 thousand people living in the city of Costa Mesa. The city is comprised of mostly Hispanic, Mexican, and white people. The largest age group that lives in Costa Mesa ranges from 25-35 years old. The next matter I wanted to talk about was