Behind the Uniform

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Written by Klipsun Magazine

A day in the life of a firefighter and what it takes to serve the community.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KYRA BRUCE

Nine-year firefighting veteran John McDonald – left – and Acting Captain Richard Dowdy – right – exit a fire truck as if they were arriving at the scene of a fire while training at the Bellingham Fire Department Training grounds on Tuesday, April 26.

A the top of a three-story tower at the Bellingham Fire Department training grounds, McDonald and Dowdy use a fire hose to spray 300 gallons of water per minute over the parking lot below. Firefighters will often use a “hotel pack,” a shorter hose that can is folded up and can be connected to pipes in stairwells of hotels or apartment buildings, instead of dragging a long hose connected to the fire truck up a high-rise building.

Dowdy feeds a fire hose to firefighter Bob Coston who lays the hose back into place on top of the fire truck. “The worst part about training is you get 45 minutes of cleanup for 15 minutes of training,” Dowdy says as he works to put away fire hose.

McDonald rummages through a Basic Life Support pack as he starts his 24-hour shift at Bellingham Fire Station 2 on Tuesday, April 26. At the start of every shift, firefighters go through checks on all of their equipment and vehicles to make sure all necessary supplies and tools are up to date and where they belong. This bag contains everything from a tourniquet to clotting agents for gunshot and stab wounds to Narcan, an opiate antidote commonly used to treat heroine overdoses.

Dowdy takes an early-afternoon break to Face Time with his youngest daughter. “The hardest part of this job is the long hours away from home,” Dowdy said. In the event of an earthquake such as the anticipated “big one,” firefighters on duty will not have contact with their families. They will be expected to drive a certain route and check on specified locations such as Bellingham’s St. Joseph Hospital and not stop for anything or anyone.

Firefighter Bob Coston slips off his shoes before changing into his bunker gear and boots at the Bellingham Fire Department training grounds on the corner or Alabama and Iron Street, Tuesday, April 26. Many firefighters will strip down to their underwear before changing into their flame-resistant bunker gear to avoid overheating and sweating through their uniform. “He’s been here since the [fire] department started [in 1904],” McDonald jokes about Coston who has been with the Bellingham Fire Department for 22 years.

Fully dressed in bunker gear, McDonald helps 4-year- old Jonah Hawthorne operate a fire hose at his birthday party at Fairhaven Park on Saturday, May 7. The firefighters took this opportunity to interact and educate Jonah and his friends on fire safety. “Firefighter John” slowly changed into his bunker gear, reminding the kids that he is still Firefighter John even though he looks like a scary monster. “A lot of the time, in a fire, kids get scared of us and hide,” McDonald explains. “Can we all practice yelling ‘help, help, I’m over here!’ like you’d do if you were in trouble?”

McDonald opens the cab of the ladder truck works on inspecting the engine on Saturday, May 7. On the first Saturday of each month, firefighters go through inventory, run all of the tools and equipment and inspect the trucks.

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