Tag Archives: fire

First, Light a Fire

Posted on by
Reply

The best advice my father ever gave me was to start a fire.

My family owns a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. For nine months a year, it sits empty, and during the summer, various branches of the family take turns vacationing there. It’s beautiful, but the first family in has the responsibility of “opening” the cabin for the season — cleaning, yardwork, de-winterizing, etc. It’s a lot of work, and when you first arrive after two full days of driving, it can be pretty overwhelming.

My father would often volunteer to open the cabin. When we arrived, he made a point to always start by lighting a fire. Not because you need one right away, but because it’s a quick, simple task, and when it’s done you immediately feel like you’ve accomplished something.

When I’m doing production work on a website, there’s usually a daunting list of tasks in front of me. I need to create the page templates, populate all the content, slice up all the images, and QA every page of the site in several browsers. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed by it all, I remember my father lighting a fire, and pick a simple task to knock out of the way quickly and build momentum.

Once you get in the zone, you can plow through a giant list of tasks pretty easily. At the start of a project, your biggest challenge is motivation, so do yourself a favor and start your job by lighting a fire.

Note: This was originally posted on my work blog, and I’m re-posting it here for archival purposes.

Fire Damage

Posted on by
1

I went and checked out the aftermath of the fire that crisped an entire block of Portland today, near 12th and Salmon… It was after midnight, and the fire had abated, save for a few smoking hot spots which were being vigorously hosed down.

But aside from that, it was chilling/fascinating to stare at the wreckage of the building and take stock of all the damage the fire had caused. Windows were blown apart, rafters and girders hung about everywhere, a rolling metal door had melted and slumped. The walls were streaked and charred, and the streets flooded with smooth layers of water that flowed out of the building as the fireman did their thang.

The news said that the fire had combusted, and spread out to swallow the block in two seconds. I’ve read a little bit about that, and how fire crews in the wilderness are always wary of fires suddenly mushrooming and tearing down the mountainside, but when you see it happen to a man-made structure, on an urban scale, it’s supremely haunting.

I stood there for a long time, thinking, “If I only had a camera.”

Tom Craven Died

Posted on by
10

Some of you may have seen the story in the news about the four firefighters who died fighting a forest fire in Washington. I saw the story on the news this morning, and then opened my email to find this note from the general manager of the radio station Annie and I volunteered at in Ellensburg.

Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:48:57 -0700
From: Christopher Hull
Subject: Loss of a dear DJ and friend

Dear all,
This is to let you know, if you haven’t yet heard, that we lost Tom Craven last night (Tuesday, July 10th, 2001). Aside from being a very well-loved and respected DJ here at The ‘Burg, he was a long-time firefighter during peak fire season every year.

He was fighting a blaze that started small and erupted suddenly into a 2,500 acre nightmare. Unfortunately, Tom and 3 others were overtaken by the blaze and were killed sometime around 6pm. The fire was apparently started by an unattended campfire. I understand a national investigative task force will soon be looking further into the cause of the fire.

We at The ‘Burg are all very saddened by this news. Tom was a true friend, and many of you remember how dedicated he was to his weekly rap and hip-hop show called “Off ‘Da Hook” since he signed on board with us in the Fall of 1997.

It goes without saying that he will be greatly missed. Tom leaves behind his wife Evelyn and two young children, a daughter and a son. …The family will need time to grieve and not be overwhelmed by phone calls, which is why I am not giving out the phone number.

Thank you, and sorry for the bad news. Those of you who knew Tom, please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers.

Chris Hull
88.1 FM The ‘Burg

I wasn’t close with Tom (or Crave, as we called him at the station), but I always said hi to him, and on the occasions where we did speak, he was always very nice. Lots of people on the radio turn out to be jerks in real life, but everyone liked Crave. He was a cool guy who always seem genuinely friendly. He’ll be missed.

Student Killed in Tragic Flaming Bag Accident

Posted on by
Reply

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The world was saddened by the sudden loss of 21 year old Katherine (KT) Prew yesterday morning. While visiting San Francisco, a city she loathed, she sought comfort in the familiar confines of The Gap. After finding the “perfect black cashmere twin set” she stepped into street. While simultaneously trying to light a cigarette and look into the plastic bag, she apparently inhaled the plastic bag which became lodged in her throat. The situation was made worse when a passerby, who wishes to remain anonymous, tried to steal her cigarette and accidentally set the bag aflame. Prew, in her last moments, stumbled into traffic and was struck by a slow moving bicyclist. Her last words have been reported as being, “mmph grr mm hmm ffhrfph.”

Close friend, but not boyfriend, as he was quick to point out, Scott Vandehey, said, “This is really terrible, just horrible, I mean, she really hated San Francisco. No one ever understood why, but she would go on about it for hours, especially when she was drunk. I mean she REALLY hated that place. I don’t even know why she was there!”

Steven Havelka, another friend of the deceased, upon hearing the news, remarked, “KT who?”

Katherine Prew is survived by one manic cat, Sunshine, and her roommate Miles, who was quoted as saying, “Well, who’s going to clean the bathroom now?”

An autopsy is scheduled for later this week and funeral services will be held at the Second Act Lounge on the first floor of the Ione Plaza, Thursday, during $1 beer night. Expected to attend is the entire Community Development major from Portland State University, although any MURP (Masters of Urban and Regional Planning) students will be denied entry due to Prew’s belief that they were “all a bunch of fu*king morons.”

Katherine Dianne Prew’s final resting place will be underneath the bench across from the Parkway Manor, her former residence, where she often sat and enjoyed a late night cigarette.

Why I Hate the Fire Alarm

Posted on by
Reply

In my old building, the fire alarm wasn’t that irritating. It was out in the hallway, and the concrete walls and unusually thick door stopped most of the noise from penetrating. The downside? If you were asleep, it was easy to sleep right through it. Potentially fatal, but it kept us from having to stomp out of the building at 3am every time some drunk freshman decided it would be funny to pull the fire alarm.

In my current building, the actually just spent money to upgrade the system to make it MORE irritating, presumably to avoid exactly the problem I just described. There is now a speaker mounted directly above my door, which points directly at my bedroom. The alarm itself, aside from being deafeningly loud, is not just your standard garden-variety “whoop-whoop” alarm. Between the whoops, a poorly-recorded woman’s voice with an odd accent comes on and announces:

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! THE SIGNAL YOU HAVE JUST HEARD INDICATES THE REPORT OF A FIRE IN THIS BUILDING! PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING AT THIS TIME AND DO NOT RE-ENTER UNTIL NOTIFIED BY THE PROPER AUTHORITIES!

The message then repeats, and then whoops some more. When you step into the hallway, it’s louder, because there are multiple speakers, and the area is smaller. Plus there are strobe lights going off. You stagger down the hall, and enter the stairwell, where there is one speaker for every floor, strobe lights, and the concrete causes it to echo. By the time you reach the ground floor, you cannot hear anything, so you gesture to the man standing in the fire alarm room, and he yells something that sounds like:

“Someone up on the third floor pulled the alarm, but it looks like there’s no fire. I guess they thought it would be a funny thing to do during finals week.”

Staggering back up the stairs, the alarm mercifully off, I observe that at least if there was ever a real fire, I wouldn’t die due to my inability to hear the alarm.

And if you think I have it bad, which you probably don’t, consider the fire department, who have to not only get out of bed, but have to get all suited up and go tearing down to the building every time some idiot pulls the alarm, because it’s tied directly to the fire department. Who knows how much each false alarm is costing us in tax dollars. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the fire truck parked outside one college housing building or another. I feel a great amount of sympathy for the downtown Portland fire department for putting up with this shit.

Someday I’m going to get out of bed and find out that the Ondine building burned to the ground because the fire department assumed it was a prank call.

I’d love to catch one of these idiots who thinks it’s fun to pull the fire alarm in the act some time. Let’s see how much damage we can do to a drunken idiot! Anyone have a baseball bat?