Fire Academy Class

True story, from the "S-133" class (Class title: "Look up, Look Down, Look All Around" and yes, that's the real name of the course) at the Sacramento Mountains Wildfire Academy.

My buddy Norm, a veteran paramedic and firefighter, sends this report from his fire academy class:

Toward the end of the class today the instructor, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service as a hotshot and other wild land fire suppression efforts, said, "I don't know how you structural firefighters do what you do. As a wild land firefighter I wouldn't have the first clue how to fight a structure fire."

To which one of the volunteer structural firefighters responded, "We don't call you guys to help with a house fire because your first action would be to start a backfire in the living room."

It stopped the instructor in his tracks and brought the room down. It was almost two full minutes before we could resume class.