Fire safety

  I just went in the kitchen to get a piece of cake.  I know it is 0800 hours and now you know why I am fat.  I wash it down with Coke.  Now you know why I am fat and stupid.
  I got the paper plate for the cake and put it down on the burner on the electric stove.  The burner was ON!  It had been on for about 8 hours. 
  A couple of things … don’t tell my liberal daughter that I am using paper plates.
  The other thing… Don’t tell my kids that I left it on they may want to put me in a nursing home. SMILE

  We rent an apartment and the stove is old.  You can not read the settings on the dial.  There is a red led that is very weak.  When I felt the burner I looked for the led and did not see it.  I had to lean down and look right direct into it. 
  One thing I live right behind the Fort Worth number 23 fire station.  I am not sure they would need to pull out their truck.  They could just run a hose from the truck out the door of the fire station.

  I was a volunteer firefighter almost.  I did all the training but the fire chief found out that I was a local police officer and he did not like the local police so he gave me a choice. Be a police officer or a fire firefighter.  The fire chief said I could not be both.  I asked why and he said how would he know if I showed up as a firefighter or a police officer?  I said well if I have on bunker gear then I am a firefighter and if I have a gun then I am a police officer.   
  It was an easy choice.  After the training I knew that firefighters worked their ass off even if there was no fire.  
  This was 1977.  My memory sucks so you may wonder how to I remember the date?
  I was taking my volunteer firefighter training and on eight consecutive nights there was a TV miniseries (show) called “Roots.”  This was before cable TV, as we think of it now, and before the world wide web.  Everyone was watching the show.  The last episode was on January 30 of 1977.  The fire alarm tone when out on the radio and I responded from my home.  I had blue lights and a siren on my car but I was not allowed to use them because I had not completed my training.  (I also had a red light and siren on my car but I did not use it. It was for police calls if I needed it.)
  Well because of Roots on TV only two people respond on the fire call.  I responded and the fire chief.  We took out the pumper.  Thank God it was an easy call. Some fool left a stove burner on and all we needed to do was turn it off.  They were watching Roots and forget the burner was on.  How can people be so stupid?
  When we got the pumper back to the fire station.  We heard the police radio, at the station, and the local officer asked dispatch how many firemen came out on the call?  The fire chief said something to the effect fuck him.  It is none of his business.  God dam police officers!
  The fire chief did not know I was a police officer at that time.  SMILE
  
 

  The fire chief found out that I was a police officer at the next meeting of the fire department.  He told the large group about the “fire” on January 30th and that only Jim Howard and he had showed up for the fire. 
  Then he said there was an event coming up and all of us would have to attend and do our part for the big event and no excuses.  Then he started giving out jobs.  He came to me and I told him I could not do that event as a firefighter because I would be working it as a police officer.  He face got red and he was speechless. Then I saw him get with the dispatcher and was talking to him.  The dispatcher did both police and fire calls at the time and so he knew me.
 
  Well a few days later there was a fire call and about seven us show up.  About five of us were in training.  They were all wondering why we had not got a certificate and permit for our lights and sirens.  I had a feeling I knew the reason.  The fire chief did not know what to do with me.
  It was after that that he called me in and told me that I could not be both.  It was an easy decision.

  It was not long after that I went to work as the town’s only police officer for that night.  The dispatched filled me in on the news…The news that would be in the Kansas City Times the next day.  The fire department had a house given to them that they could use for fire training.  They could set small fires and then train how to put it out.  So they decided to set a small fire in the house and do some training.  Well … they did not bring a tanker with them and they failed to make sure they had access to water and … Well the entire house burned down and put other houses next to it in danger. 
  I made sure to keep checking on the house during the night.  It flared up a few times but I took care of it.  I did not call out the fire department.  They had enough shame and did not need any more during the night.