Wednesday

[Mike Daleo]

I had planned on spending Wednesday morning at the horse farm that I help manage, because it was my day off and there is a nice bass lake there. I was gonna show up at the crack of dawn and get some topwater going. It is 6am and one of my managers calls me, he says "the roundhouse barn is on fire!". I and thinking that there is no way, but then I turn on the radio and sure enough, the entire area I am headed toward is shut down.

I call to make sure everyone is okay, I was afraid that someone I knew might be in the apartment or the office that was part of the barn. There were 20 stables but the horses were in the pasture, so that was good news.

I go to work, boat in tow, so I can get a cup of coffee. My boss is calling me constantly, he has TV cameras in his face and you could tell he needed some moral support, so finally he says the fire chief said you can come on out.

I get there behind WHAS, and WAVE 3 news trucks and call him to say there is a fire hose blocking the entrance. He says "Go over it! The news trucks did!". So I do and get this feeling like I did something stupid.

Anyway, the barn is completely gone, it was 60 X 80, now its a pile of garbage.

I am out on the lake fishing and my phone rings. It is my boss and he says he screwed up. The only police officer in Peewee Valley came over to him and says, "I am gonna have to arrest your friend out there on the boat!" My boss says, "You can't arrest him it's his day off!" Turns out it is against state law to run over a fire hose and that section of hose cost about $4500 and I am liable for damages if the pressure test is bad. Great!!! The news crews are immune to the law but ole Mike has to eat a turd sammich!

Anyway, the guy comes over and I thought about making him swim for it, but he really was a nice fela who was just doing his job, so he cuts me some slack and writes me a citation. Apoligizes the entire time and tells me he'll come to court with me. Then the fire chief says the hose tested okay and that he'll personally write a letter to the prosecutor on my behalf explaining the situation.

About that time I ask the police officer where his hat was, he left it on the floor in the house which was 300 yards away and there is an 8 month old yellow lab in there that owns that floor. Cool hat too.

That was my wednesday, I ended up catching around 50 fish.

[mikedb1972]

sorry to say anyting, but as a fireman myself i must say that what you did by driving over the firehose was very dangerous. im not bashing, but i just dont want people reading this getting the impression that they can drive over fire hose!

that fire hose is connected at the end with a nozzle, and operating that nozzle is a fireman that is most likely fighting the flames. so picture your water hose and your spraying your car, and someone crimps the line, as you did with your tires
what ya think happened. not only did you cut off their water supply, you jeoperdized the pump on the engine, possibly causing cavitation and failure.

as i said i am not bashing, i just want people to know, not only is it against the law, it is very dangerous to the firemen. we rely on the water supply, it is our lifeline and when something happens to it, we are toast. so please in the future take into account what your doing by running over that hose.

thanks for letting me vent.


sorry to hear about the loss of the barn, hope everone is safe

[Mike Daleo]

Okay, that is fine. I understand all of that. As I said, once it was done it didn't feel right. By the way. Nobody was one that hase, the fire was out and they were pretty much wrapping things up.

Also, what makes it okay for the news crews to do this?

Basically, you see fires all the time, guys like me never see them. When something close to you has burned to the ground, it is a strange feeling. When your boss who says he is standing next to the fire chief tells you to come on in and follow the news trucks, you just do it.

I can't say enough good things about the volunteers that showed up out there, and one of the nice things about it was that they came up to me and kinda giggled about the fact that I was taking the fall for what happened. Funny how the guys that were there didn't take it as hard as you?

[fishingmarlin]

I will first state that if anybody is at fault its the Police department and the fire department. I cannot remember a single fire where hoses where being ran in a place people could drive over them especially the media. If the police are on scene they should have had a staging area before you even get close to the firetrucks for media and the public.

Sounds like really poor scene management if you ask me.

Like someone else said driving over a fire hose can be very serious. Those news vans would have done more damage anyways and if anything had happened a lawyer can always state they may have damaged the hose or its components prior to you driving over.

[Sticks11]

Sorry to hear about the fire and the citation.

At least no one/animal was hurt and you pulled in 50 fish.

[jasonglh]

So whos idea was it to write you a ticket for driving over the hose? Sounds to me like it was Barney Fife not the Chief. If the Chief told your boss it was okay then I do not see you having to pay this ticket and hopefully the judge will tell the cop to get a life and stop wasting his time.

I couldnt tell you how many times I have seen the FD drive over their own damn hose or how many times I have driven an Ambulance over a hose. They make ramps to prevent damage to the hoses if someone would have taken the time to put them down.

Just curious how long did the VFD stay on the scene?

[Joe Skeeter]

Sounds like you had a pretty exciting day. Glad no one or thing got hurt. And like Eric said you still got to fish.

[Mike Daleo]

Fire dept. was there from around 5am until 10am. They did a great job and it was tough for them to run there hoses so that they would be out of the way of other trucks and stuff.

[JC25]

Just a minor bump in the road. Glad everyone and thing is safe....

[Dave Stewart]

I can certainly see why they would not want anyone running over their fire hoses...what I can't see is why it would be ok for the media to do it....sounds like it is ok for the media to do something that would risk the damage that could be done to life and property as a result of running over the hose but no anyone else...sounds like someone wants to be on tv.