All in a Day's work: Gearing up

Whenever the fire departments have reporters come out, one of the first questions they ask us is, do you want us to put you in the gear so you know what it's like. I'd already had this done to me once this year, but decided to put on the gear again when offered.


Here the batallion chief is making sure I can't see with the label still on (to simulate smoke conditions.


Then of course, the department has you crawl around on the ground. Here I'm trying to find "the victim" (Anthony) who is taking the photos in real life, but stopped because he thought I might follow the sounds of the shutter to him.

Finally here are some of the real heroes. I took this one. Their masks are much more realistic, they really can't see whereas I could a little out of the mask I was given.

I love that my job allows me to research and get into the shoes (or in the this case the full gear) of the people I am learning about.