If It Ain’t One Thing…

What’s up people? I know it’s been a while since I posted anything for you, but I will rectify that now. What can I say? There have been a couple of crazy fires since we last talked. So let’s get right into it.

We had a fatal on 5/26/2012. The worst kind of fatal… A child. This fire was our 2nd of the day. The first one that day was at a vacant. And if you know anything about Camden,N.J., there are a lot of vacants. Anyway the fatal fire came in at around 2 a.m.  I was in in the backup position so my responsibility was water supply. That particular apartment complex’s water supply is few and far between. But luckily I was able to find a good hydrant…AROUND THE CORNER!

Anyway while I was doing that my Captain and my other buddy FF. Rivera went into rescue mode, because the dispatcher reported “numerous calls.” When you hear numerous calls, you know you have a working fire in progress! Since we were one of the first on the scene, our first actions were life safety. I actually heard the mother of the child that died scream to my partner that her baby was, “…still inside.”

On that note: As humans we are quick to judge the actions of others and say what we would do in that situation. I had a couple of people say to me after this fire that ” Why would she leave her baby in there? What was she thinking?” Well let me tell you something: Fire will make you do things in the most irrational way possible. You are not thinking at 2 a.m. with fire in your apartment like you are at 2.p.m. and everything is cool! When you wake up at 2 a.m. choking, you just want to get out of there and get some air!

You don’t have the training that we as firefighters have. You don’t have the where-with-all at 2 a.m. that you do at 2 p.m. So, unless you’ve been in that situation then you can’t judge a person and say that you will do this or that. All I know is that we tried our best to save that little baby…and we failed. My buddy Gabe pulled the little kid from the crib and handed him to EMS, who immediately rushed it to the hospital. It hurts and it bothers us that we couldn’t save the baby.

Anyway we tried, and that’s all that we could do. We were out there from 2 a.m. until 6:40 a.m. until we returned to the firehouse. A long night! To say the least!

On another note, and I was debating whether or not to say this…but it’s something that almost every firefighter in this nation, even the world goes through. Dealing with the city that you work for. I might get into trouble for saying this but…it seems like to me that they don’t appreciate us…at all! Recently we were awarded a judgment from the money they owed us for contract disputes. Now on the week that we were to get paid, COINCIDENTALLY…their computer system had a glitch!

Everyone’s paycheck didn’t get the deductions that they were supposed to get! Yeah! We all got extra money in our check! Why is that a bad thing? Because the following week all of those deductions were double! I barely had enough money to pay my mortgage! ( My mortgage comes out bi-weekly!) So as of this writing I am in the negative until I can pull some money from my other account to cover it! But that’s just it! I shouldn’t have to do that!

You’re trying to tell me that your computer glitch affected every firefighter in the City of Camden on the week that you are supposed to pay us the money you owe us?! Really?! I was so disgusted! But I saw it coming so I put a little to the side to cover it and guess what happened? My alternator in my truck decides to go that weekend! That’s why I called this post: IF IT AIN’T ONE THING… So the people out there that can relate can relate to me you can finish the sentence!

But during that whole debacle I told myself that I would never be held hostage to the city’s “accounting errors” again. I have been procrastinating with this whole Internet marketing thing. I get about $100 a month from Clickbank.com Sometimes more. But now I realize that I have to increase that and get to work hard to get my family out of this “paycheck to paycheck” rut. It’s up to me and I feel personally responsible that we are in this. So I am more committed to get us out of it. No more procrastinating! So I am going to try harder to increase my Clickbank earnings. My Adsense earnings. My Paypal earnings. My Amazon earnings. All of those sources will increase within the next year so I can NEVER AGAIN be a slave to a paycheck!

A retired Chief told me just recently that he enjoyed his time on the fire department. But he wished that he would have gotten into something else. And he told me to get into something else also. I’m going to take his advice and get into I.M. I have another 14 years before I can retire from the fire department. And I don’t plan on getting another job while I’m retired. So I have to put myself in position where I want have to. And I think, no I KNOW that I.M. is going to be able to do that for me. I’ll talk to you later my friends! I got work to do!

Keep me in your prayers! Until next time!