FTP Training

After finishing the Harvard Wall, I attempted to call my wife. I thought I would try her directly and if that didn’t work I would go through the Bail Bonds Company. Much to my surprise, my first attempt to call went through without incident. I was caught by surprise when she answered the phone. I asked her why the call went through today but not yesterday. She told me she paid the bill earlier in the day by calling MCI – the company who has been contracted by the prison to process the collect calls – directly since she never received a bill. Apparently with all the deregulation and now consolidation of the telephone companies collect calls no longer appear on a regular telephone bill if they are provided by a different carrier. This was the case for my wife as she had no idea when she was going to get billed for my collect calls. MCI has $100.00 threshold before they block the collect calls. The threshold was hit and that is why I was unable to connect with her the night before. My wife had to do some investigating on her own earlier in the day to see how to rectify the missing bill. She was able to contact MCI and pay the bill via the telephone and the block was taken off.

I don’t understand how a company cannot send out a bill for these collect calls in a timely manner. I wonder how much money remains uncollected from having this procedure. As my wife explained, she has to keep track herself before reaching $100.00 because once this amount is reached the collect calls from me will be blocked. There has to be a better less expensive way for me to call her direct. Long distance rates are now very inexpensive and there are low priced carriers out there; however, it appears MCI has an exclusive contract with the CDC. I have seen fliers where inmates can purchase blocks of time for the collect calls. I have passed the phone numbers onto my wife but she has not been able to speak with anyone form these companies as she has received busy signals each time she has called. I do need to limit the collect calls to my wife because each time it costs between $12.00 and $15.00 which is ridiculous. I will start using the Bail Bond Company once again to bring down the cost of calls. Once a week will have to suffice because my wife is working with a very limited budget (all because of me) and there is no need to add to her expenses.

My routine has been altered for the past week since I got assigned to the FTP class. The class hasn’t started yet and I feel as though I am in limbo. I have made the best of this past week but something is missing. I have also scaled back my reading as I have been studying the fire fighter materials. I still haven’t memorized the WATCHOUT SITUATIONS which is an acronym for the safety hazards. Here they are:

W ind increases and / or changing direction
A ttempting frontal assault on fire
T errain and fuels make escape to safety zones difficult
C annot see main fire and not in contact with anyone who can
H otter and drier weather
O n a hillside where falling material ca ignite fuel below you
U nfamiliar with weather and local factors influencing fire behavior
T aking a nap near a fireline
S pot fires across fireline
I nstructions and assignments unclear
T here is unburned fuel between you and the fire
U niformed on strategy, tactics, and hazards
A nchor point not established while construction fireline
T he fire has not been scouted or sized up
I n ??? not seen in daylight
O perating on a hill with fire below you
N o communication link with crew members
S afety zones and escape routes not identified

There were 19 of us in the fire training class and all but one of us made it out to the classroom. The one person who didn’t make it did not match his picture and he was turned back. I had to fill out at least 6 forms and then the captain entered the classroom. He is an older man with a no nonsense attitude and some inmates labeled him the “toughest” captain. I didn’t find him tough, I found him very knowledgeable and he wanted all of us to learn the material to stay safe out there which is the most important aspect of being a wild land fire fighter.

The rest of the day was spent watching very old and outdated videos on fire camps and fires. I am very fortunate to be placed in this program because only 3000 inmates out of 174,000 make it into the fire camp program. I learned more than I ever wanted to learn about the atmospheric conditions influencing fire behavior. All throughout the videos, the underlying theme is something my father told me about since he is a retired fire fighter. He told me to be very aware of my surroundings when I am fighting a wild fire and this was echoed all throughout the day.