Fire's and Rescues

It's only 2 more weeks until I will have completed my first term and will be on my way home for Winter break. I can't quite believe just how quickly these 4 months have gone. I'm so excited to see everyone, but know I will miss this place a lot too. I discovered after project week (10 days) just how much I'd missed everyone, and I think Christmas will have a similar effect on me. 

The day I wrote the last post was an eventful one. Little did I know that only 4 hours after leaving the med centre, the fire alarm would go off and fire service members would get called to an emergency situation. I ran to the meeting point, extremely confused as we hadn't yet been briefed on what to do or wear. There we found a jeep waiting for us with 2 stretchers on the back. We were told that someone (unknown who, or how badly) was injured on the top of Mount Wilkinson, the mountain next to the college. There is actually a triveni called First Aid Service who are meant to deal with things like this, however they have not completed their training yet so fire service were called up instead. 10 of us jumped in the jeep and were driven to the bottom of the mountain, where we then had to run 30 minutes up the hill carrying stretchers, pillows and first aid kits. 


At the top, we found a girl who wasn't a student, but was staying in the college. She had fallen and hurt her (previously broken) ankle, and kept on passing out then fitting because of the pain she was in. We put her on the stretcher and began the trek down, in the dark over hazardous terrain. We had a few flashlights, but with 6 people carrying 1 stretcher at a time and extras holding the lights, things were very crowded. 







Eventually, we made it down at around 7:30pm after leaving campus at 4pm. The girl was so thankful to us all and we were so proud to have worked well under difficult conditions. We bonded really closely, even though we were only about a quarter of the full fire service team. 

That brings me on to my next topic; FIRE'S! After hours of tedious grass cutting using machetes in fire service, we are now actually on to burning. We are creating a 'fire wall' of burnt grass in a ring around campus which is meant to slow the fire down, giving us extra time to fight it before it reaches campus. We have to wear jeans and a hoodie, as well as balaclavas, gloves and goggles whilst running to the fires, so it's pretty hot and hard work. We have these things called beaters which are basically a small metal sheet on the end of a bamboo rod, and we have to beat all the oxygen from the flames until they die out. The grass is still a little wet from monsoon season, so the fires are still pretty small, but we've had a couple of big ones. You get such a big buzz when you're there and someone is chanting and you're rhythmically beating away at the flames with the others around you. All of the fires so far have been started by fire service members, either during our sessions to create the fire wall or as a 'drill' to test our speed and ability under pressure. No matter what you're doing when the alarm goes off, you have to drop everything and run to the meeting point to grab goggles, gloves and beaters. You pair up with the next person who arrives and it becomes your responsibility to make sure you are always with them and always know where they are. Apparently, fires happen quite often when it's dark so you have to be alert as to where your partner is and if she/he is safe all the time. 

So, here's to many exhausting, exciting and exhilarating fires of the future! I'm really looking forward to diving headfirst into this experience. (not literally).

-Kate