Well another full day of lectures some interesting and some not. One on the bird flu pandemic was really interesting but scary. Went into town last night with a group of guys from all over America lots of fun. We went to a crab restaurant as blue paddle crabs are a local speciality I had scallops as not sure if I am allergic to them as well. Closing ceremony in the morning then I fly to Charlotte at 3 not a long trip only about 1.5 hours. Getting pretty tired of eating out by now but still a great experience.

Haz Mat Conference

2nd day of the Haz Mat conference here in Baltimore. Been to 3 classes and the exhibition hall lots of really cool stuff worth lots of money that the federal government here gives the fire departments to spend on equipment.

One of the demonstrations was of a fire resistant chemical suit, they had a dummy with sensors on and simulated a 3 second flash fire with just normal clothes on and with other types of clothing I mention this for you Jordan I have lots of photos that might be good for your science project.

Also saw some of the equipment that the different agencies here have, the black truck and trailer is a FBI command unit with cameras robots etc. They have lots of decon tents etc all this equipment is new because of post 9/11 requirements.

Went to a local pub last night for dinner and a group of us might go into town tonight for a look around which will be nice to get out of the hotel for a change.

One more day of presentations the off to Charlotte North Carolina next.

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.