DAT week is over now. It was a really busy week for us. For some reason, our team does not get as many calls as the other teams. Some weeks we don’t even get called out at all. Which is a good thing for us and those who are NOT having a fire! Fires are not the only thing we help out with, we also have flooding issues or trees on houses, we help with anything that is emergency disaster related. When I first joined the team, my first week of calls, I was so excited to get out there. I slept in my clothes! When that first call came through, I jumped right up and beat the captains to the fire! It was an extra busy week for our team that year and I got the required 3 calls that made me an official DAT (Disaster Action Team) member all that first week. Before that we are called MITs (Member in Training). The week started out with a fire on Friday night at 2 am. I am relief leader on our team. The team lead gets the call from the Red Cross dispatch or directly from the Fire Dept or client seeking assistance. Then he calls me after he verifies the information with the Fire Dept . I then make all the calls to get a team out there. (I just hate waking people up!) Either he or I will usually meet the team out there, depending on which of us lives closest to the fire. Then the other will wait home to take the call in case another fire call comes in. So on Friday, I met up with a new MIT to our team and took care of the first fire. He was so excited to get out on his first call. (he actually got his 3 calls in too and is official DAT now) Saturday, we had another fire, but the captain went out on it and I stayed home to be ready to take calls. Nothing on Sunday and then there were two daytime calls that were handled by daytime people at the office, two fires outside the Portland area which their teams took care of and we didn’t get anymore night calls until 3am Thursday. It was a big one. A 4 unit apartment fire. Three families were there, and one was at work when it happened. We assisted the 3 and just as we finished up, the 4th got home. Can you imagine coming home to that? Here is a middle of the night look at what we see when we arrive. I normally don't take pictures, but I thought it would be a good thing to show participants in the classes I teach about what they will see when they get out there. We are not allowed to take pictures with clients in them and also don't like to look like tourists out there enjoying their suffering, so I was really careful to take them when no clients were present. I have a picture here of the apartment when I first arrived and then one later on when it got light out. There is the burnt door, and the upper deck, always there is a huge pile of debris that the firemen remove to assure the fire won't reignite, usually it includes the remains of a bed. One of these pictures you can see the sky through the burnt boards. That is taken from the ground level looking up through then burnt deck...the sky is coming through the roof of the second floor. The holes were cut by the firemen to allow the fire to escape and help put it out without losing the whole building. The second floor apartment lost everything.