Haz Mat conference

First day so lots of new faces and people to meet from all over the US. We went to the GoreTex factory and saw how that was made and some of their development products. They ran scenarios wearing their new chemical suits so we could see what they were like and they did measurements of body temperature etc. A fun day and I made it to another state as the factory is in Deleware so one more to the list. Tomorrow more of the lecture type lessons so n0t so much fun but should be interesting. Some of these photos are of the exercise we did in the new gas suits.

Downtown Baltimore

Took the MRT into downtown today only cost $1.60 each way so cheap but took about 40 mins with all the stops. Downtown Baltimore is similar to Auckland with a harbour front and lots of commerce. There are a few museum ships to visit one is the US Constellation which is the only navy ship left from the civil war. There is also the only coast guard ship that survived Pearl Harbour and a old Navy sub. I visited the national aquarium which was really good they had a really cool frog exhibit which I have included a few photos. I then walked uptown following the rail track and came to the famous Lexington food market (apparently). This market had every type of food you imagined for sale some weird stuff too. Baltimore is famous for its crab so everywhere you go crab cakes are for sale they all go on how you need to try their crab, they also breed special crabs to eat and the cook them just as they have shed their shell so you don't need to peel the shell off you eat all of it! One of the main differences to the west coast it instead of lots of Hispanics there lots of African Americans every where the women are so funny they sing all the time to pass the day by while they work they sing while they serve you. Anyway conference starts tomorrow so will let you know what that's like tomorrow.

East coast

Well I made it to the east coast a 4.5 hour flight to Baltimore and another 40 min taxi to the Hunt Valley where the conference is. Everything here is totally different very green & lots of trees unlike California and Arizona brown and cactus, also lots of very old buildings as this is one of the original cities of the United States. The hotel is huge with a massive conference centre attached when I arrived yesterday a high school prom was starting so about 20 limos lined up dropping off the students. Today I am going to catch the train back into the city to have a look around my part of the conference starts tomorrow today is the department of defence day which you have to be a US citizen, pity would be interesting the main focus is WMD(weapons of mass destruction!). Thanks for the comments it's nice to see that people are reading this and to have some communication with the other side of the globe hopefully will post some photos tomorrow. Scott

Spent the day with Richard a guy from station 4 and went out for breakfast then went to his house in Scottsdale which is a city next to Phoenix. We had a look around and went to a local brewery for a couple of beers, and then back to the house to flip some burgers. In the afternoon we went to his neighbours for a pool party and cooked bhores (saussages) on the bbq and swam played cards etc so was nice to spent some time relaxing with normal people.


So a great day thanks to the great hospitality of my American friends.


Another hot day and blue sky I can see the attraction of living in a place like this they get about 5 inches of rain a year and have the highest boat ownership per capita of all the states!! In the middle of the desert! There are some big lakes near by though.

Had a exciting day today again I got picked up in the ladder truck as you see in the photo and joined in some high rise training the went back to station 4 for chow (lunch).

After that I went to deer valley airport and went up in the helicopter for about 3 hours. While we were up we pursued a stolen car then we went to a shooting!! we arrived about 30 seconds after the report and flew over head and directed the squad car and kept an eye out for runners. The cops dragged one guy who was shot 3 times from the front lawn to a safe place then stood back until the SWAT team arrive and smash the door down and make entry with ballistic shields!! They had 2 cops on the neighbours roof with rifles and about15 squad cars, 3 fire engines and 4 ambulances honestly it was just like watching cops on TV. So the whole time we hovered above and kept an eye on things. This doesn't happen every day so my timing was good.

Had dinner with the guys at station 4 and then back to hotel. The guys here have been so friendly and have looked after me very well.

In the photos you can see the ladder truck I was riding with a tiller wheel at the back.

The helicopter and pilot I flew with and a photo of the scene that we hovered over. And a shot of my hotel from the air.

I guess it sounds like things are pretty violent over here but remember that greater Phoenix and surrounding cities has over 4 million people and they love guns!! But the normal people are just like us as a whole and they have been very hospitable.

First Baseball game

Tonight I went to my first baseball game at the Chase field which is only 2 blocks from here there is a picture of it from the out side. I felt sorry for the guy next to me as he had to answer a billion questions but he was cool. Had my first game hot dog and peanuts guys walk up and down selling them you yell out if you want one then every one helps pass it to you then you pass the money along the cowd and then they pass the change back!!. They all eat bags of peanuts in the shells I feel sorry for the cleaners. Was a good game to watch the Arizona Diamond backs won 13 to 3 against the Houston Astros. There was 3 home runs also so a hight scoreing game to watch. The 2 pool photos are 1 of the pool here at my hotel and the other one is at the ball park, you can win tickets to sit in the pool and watch the game and be waited on pretty col.

Phil- National Commander please! Right Honourable Minister of Internal Affairs Coutts is actually my official title over here.

Hi it's friday and I have spent another day meeting people and looking around. Tomorrow they have organised for me to go up in the police/fire helicoptor for a couple of hours on patrol and a look around so that will be cool.

As far as the photos go 1 is of the hotel I am staying in downtown Phoenix very nice place. The photo of all the engines in a row are all brand new and are waiting to be fitted out and put into service they have 10 of these being put into commission at one time and they scrap them after 6 years service. The smaller truck is their support truck that goes to every fire this has a lighting unit, drinks and a compressor that can fest fill directly to your BA set whilr you are still wearing it.

i know the photos are a bit boring but thats all I have seen so far is fire service stuff so bear with me I am sure I will get better photos tomorrow.

The temperture today has reached 100 so warming up aparently in ancouple of weeks it will get to 115 and not drop below 100 for over 100 days so glad I will be gone by then.

Thanks for your comments

scott

Phoenix

Well had my first full day here in Phoenix its about 96degrees today so nice and warm. I spent the morning observing a table top exercise involving all the local emergency departments based on a major train hazardous materials incident which was pretty interesting then i went to the local workshop where thy commission and repair all their equipment including the fleet. The Phoenix department is the 2nd largest in the US and the money and equipment they have is mind blowing!! The busy stations here will attend around 17,ooo calls a year 70% of these are medical calls though. The guys here have been very hospitable also hopefully in the weekend i might be going to watch the diamond backs ply which the baseball team. the stadium is only about 2 blocks away.

I will try and post some photos again so they will be a mix of Santa Ana and here. Having a busy but interesting time but missing my family also.

look out for my next posting!!

Hi to everyone. Wel i am in Phoenix now I had a long couple of days in Santa Ana with Survivair and then a day with santa ana fire Dept. I spent the day with Joe Vasques who is a BA technician like me then I was invited to spend the night with station 5 and ride the engine company. Alot different than us!! They had a cook up dinner and we attended 7 calls from 6pm until 7am. In that time i went to a cardiac arrest, a 5 month old baby fatality and a stabbing. so plenty of action but not much sleep. The guys here have been amazingly hospitable and have made the rookie do my laundry and make my bed etc really embarrising!! So now i am in Phoenix and wioll be spending the next few days with them wiil do a post soon to keep u updated.

Jordan & Kesia

Scott's First Blog

Testing Testing 1 2 3!