May 1, 2019
"Alright," replied Kanan as she and You walked around Numazu City Fire Station 151, Uchiura's main fire station and the only one out of 6 in what was known in the department as District 15 staffed with paid firefighters. "I'm glad you came here full-time finally. Your locker will be right next to mine, right over here." In You's hand was a red bag that contained her turnout gear. Prior to graduating high school and moving with Chika into an apartment in the village, she had split her time as a student auxiliary firefighter between Station 151 in Uchiura and Station 24 in downtown Numazu. Since her graduation, she had become a full-fledged volunteer firefighter, and was now able to go inside burning buildings.
As You took first her bunker pants out and then her coat, she said to Kanan, "I'm glad, too. I'll finally get to fight fires where I spent most of my childhood." As she placed it in her locker, she yawned, as it was late at night.
"Hey," said another firefighter named Toshiki Ohori, also a volunteer. He had been in the fire department for 3 years, and had also joined as an student auxiliary firefighter while i his third year of high school. He had light brown hair and was about 20 years old. "I see You-kun moved into here full-time, eh?"
"Yep," You replied. "Yesterday, I said goodbye to the guys at Station 24, but not before we got a working apartment fire I was able to go inside for." She then remembered something. "Oh, damn it, that reminds me. I gotta wash my jacket. I only washed my pants and hood after the fire."
Kanan and Toshiki laughed. Kanan told her, "I'll grab you a spare coat from the storage room. Tear your name tag off of the Velcro and leave it in your locker." As Kanan went to grab a spare coat, You began to take her's apart, which had two thick layers designed to protect her from both heat and water and a drag rescue system built into it that had to be manually pulled out.
Toshiki then asked her, "So, was that the first fire you could go in for?"
"Aside from training, yeah," You replied. "I did pack up for two car fires, though. One was here and one was in downtown Numazu. It was fun as hell, I'll tell you."
Kanan then came back with a coat. "Alright, just put your stuff in this coat, and you'll be all set."
As You placed her gloves, her metal name tag, her back name tag, and her mask both on and in her spare coat, they all heard their pagers all go off. You said, "Medical or fire?"
The dispatcher read out over the pager, "Numazu City Fire Dispatch for all Station 154 firefighters and Station 151 for an ambulance, respond to an unconscious 57-year-old male at [ADDRESS REMOVED]. Caller reports that he is breathing, and this call will be coded as a Delta response. Your time of dispatch is 21:52 hours. Dispatcher 166."
A paid firefighter, one of two assigned to Station 151, slid down a fire pole, followed by the next paid firefighter, a Lieutenant. The Lieutenant said to Kanan, "Matsuura-san, you're going on Ambulance 151A with me. Ohori-san, you're driving."
Kanan replied, "Got it!" She then grabbed her bunker gear, but did not put it on. Instead, she threw it in the back of the ambulance, ran back to her locker, and grabbed a set of medical turnout gear to put it on. This gear was thinner than the bunker gear, and was composed of blue overalls, a white helmet, a medical mask, and a small case of rubber medical gloves. After she and Toshiki put their medical turnout gear on, they hopped aboard the ambulance, with Kanan sitting in the back, the Lieutenant up front, and Toshiki driving. If they got a fire call while on the way back to the station, they would simply put their bunker gear on over their medical gear overalls and leave their white helmet and medical mask on the ambulance.
Later that night, Chika and You slept in their bedroom. Both had separate beds, but shared a dresser and a computer desk with two computers. You placed her pager and its charging base on the computer desk, always plugged in. During the day, her pager was usually on "C" mode, which allowed her to listen to both the paging frequency as well as District 15's operations frequency. At night, she switched it to "A" mode, which was a selective call mode that would only turn on the pager if the tones of Station 151 were sent out over the paging frequency. You also hooked up a radio scanner to her computer, which was always on, and left the radio on mute. The scanner tracked all of the NFD's frequencies and streamed them over the internet on a single feed on a site called Broadcastify. She had begun her feed shortly after she moved to Chika's apartment, after doing some research, and it was one of the only Japanese scanner feeds on the site. It had been running since yesterday, and averaged a few listeners at any time.
Then, as You and Chika was sound asleep, having spent most of the day at college, You's pager rang. Chika woke up and saw You jump quickly out of bed and slip on a pair of shoes by her bed. She yawned and told her, "Be careful, You-chan..."
"See you later," You replied quickly as she ran out of the bedroom in her pajamas, which were a green t-shirt and shorts, and white sneakers, carrying her phone, her pager, and her keys to get into the firehouse. She was still in the process of becoming a driver, so she would run about 3 minutes to the station to fire calls.
3 and a half minutes later, You ran into the firehouse in the middle of the dark night just as Kanan drove into the parking lot. She quickly ran to her gear locker and began to put on her bunker gear. The call was for a fire alarm activation at a restaurant called in by an alarm company. As she got her coat on, the first engine left with a full crew of 5, consisting of both of the paid firefighters, two volunteers who were already at the station, and a volunteer who came from his house across the street.
Once she got her gear on, she grabbed her mask and helmet and ran over to the aerial ladder, known as Aerial 151. It, too, had 5 seats, and was equipped with a pump, some hose, and a ladder reaching 25 meters, or around 82 feet, with a small bucket at the end. Then, she jumped into the cab, took an air pack out, and stepped back out to put it on as Kanan and several other volunteers did the same thing. She and Kanan got on first, hopping in the back.
At the 5 and a half minute mark, Aerial 151 left with a full crew, consisting of 3 interior-certified volunteers, an older volunteer who drove, and an auxiliary volunteer. As it pulled out, You said to Kanan, "I was planning on a good night's sleep before this."
"Same here," Kanan replied. "I was dreaming of a song I listened to earlier when the pager woke me up."
Around the 7 and a half minute mark, Aerial 151 arrived. You and Kanan jumped out of the truck and immediately went over to a compartment on the driver's side to grab an axe held by You and a halligan bar held by Kanan. The firefighter in the front seat said to them, "Just stand by out here. They shouldn't be too much longer in there."
"Got it," You replied back before she yawned. She then turned to Kanan. "Woken up for another bullshit call, eh?"
May 3, 2019
As firefighters cleaned up at a small house fire that had been quickly knocked down by first-arriving crews, You and Kanan chatted with each other next to Engine 151. This time, they had managed to make the first unit, and they had put the fire out with a hose line they pulled as soon as they pulled up. It had been an hour into the fire. "So," You said to Kanan. "I heard you and Dia are doing pretty well in college."
"Yup," Kanan replied before she drank some water and wiped sweat off of her forehead. "Dia got on the President's list. I got on the Dean's list right below her. I mean, I definitely expected to see Dia on either list, but I was not expecting my name on a list." She then laughed. "I almost fucking bombed chemistry in my first semester, and here I am now, making the damn Dean's list."
"I really hope I don't do so bad in my classes," You replied. She had just started college, and was looking for advice. "Say, got any tips, sophomore?"
"Take as many notes as you can," Kanan replied before she shrugged. "That's really all the advice I can give, I guess. My note taking has improved leaps and bounds since I started."
Then, a volunteer captain called over to them from near another fire engine, "Watanabe! Matsuura! Come over here and help us with packing this hose!" He then yawned as he turned back around to the hose.
"Yes, Captain," Kanan replied back as she and You set their waters down and put their fire gloves back on.
May 4, 2019
A pig-tailed redhead looked at a poster at her high school. The poster featured several firefighters on the cover and said, "Are you a third-year or about to become a third-year in High School? Do you want to give back to your community? Are you interested in a career in firefighting or emergency medical services? Then the High School Firefighting and EMS Program is for you! Go to your local fire station today, or visit www.numazucityfd.co.jp/recruitment/volunteer/highschool for more information!"
She pondered to herself for several seconds. Then, a friend of her's with long chestnut hair said, "Ruby-chan, are you coming to class?"
"Oh," Ruby replied. "Sorry about that, Hanamaru-chan. I was looking at that poster and my mind wandered off." She then laughed. "Yeah, let's get to class."
Hanamaru then asked her as they walked, "What's the poster about?"
"Remember how You-chan became a firefighter when she was a third-year?" Ruby the paused and sighed. "I am thinking about doing it, too."
Hanamaru, surprised, asked her friend. "Ruby-chan are you sure? Firefighting sounds dangerous, and to do it for free sounds odd."
"I'll be fine," Ruby replied. "If I do sign up, I'll have You and Kanan beside me, and they won't let anything happen to me. Don't worry." They both then laughed. "I mean, I'm sure they don't want to be on the receiving end of my sister's wrath if something does happen to me." The two then laughed even harder.
"I know I wouldn't want to be in the receiving end of Dia-chan's wrath," Hanamaru replied. "I'm sure you'd do the same for her, right?"
"Of course," Ruby replied immediately. "I would drop everything for her. If anyone did hurt Dia, there would be hell to pay from me." Ruby normally was not aggressive, but when it came to her older sister, she spoke her mind about how far she would go to protect her, much like how Dia would do the same for her. "There's no doubt about it at all."
Meanwhile, as Kanan cleaned the SCUBA gear at her family's work, she saw an unexpected visitor. "Oh, hey, Toshiki-kun."
Toshiki replied back, "Hey. So, how's work so far?"
"Deader than a damn doornail," Kanan replied. "We're halfway through the workday, and we've had only 3 customers. I'm not kidding." She then sighed. "If we got something serious, I'd take one of the boats to the mainland and run to the station from the marina. I'm kinda hoping we do, actually. I know that sounds fucked up because that means somebody's house is burning down or they got into a really bad accident, but it would be better for me than sitting around here doing nothing."
Toshiki then laughed. "If we get something bad, I'm blaming your ass for it, considering you just jinxed us." They both laughed at the joke. "Say, after you're done with work, do you wanna hang out or something?"
Kanan thought to herself to see if she was available. "Eh... I don't know. I'll text you if I am after work. It depends on whether or not my friend Mari needs help with her father's car. It's got an engine problem, and we've been fixing it in-house. So far, it's going pretty good. If it isn't fixed soon, the car's basically gonna be a piece of metal scrap."
"That sucks," Toshiki replied. "That really does suck."
The Numazu City Fire Department protects the city of Numazu, which has a population of around 195,000. To provide fire protection, rescue, and emergency medical services, the city utilizes a combination of paid and volunteer firefighters.
The modern fire department started in what was then the Town of Numazu in 1888, following a fire that killed a family of 6. It started with just two stations located on what were then the opposite ends of the town with 40 volunteers and a paid fire chief. In 1893, following the decision by Emperor Meiji to build a villa in Numazu, a third fire station was added. By now, the town had 52 volunteers led by a paid fire chief and a paid assistant fire chief hired that same year, in addition to 2 station keepers who were assigned to Fire Station 1 due to the fact that it had horse-drawn fire engines. In 1902, a fourth fire station was added, and the department now had 70 volunteers. In 1913, a devastating fire in the town left many buildings destroyed. The fire department would experience its first line of duty death during this fire, when 8-year-veteran Volunteer Firefighter Yasuhito Kagura was killed by falling debris. Several days later, during overhaul operations, paid Fire Chief Kaoru Kobayashi, a former volunteer and charter member of the department before he was hired as the assistant chief in 1904 and then being promoted to fire chief in 1910, collapsed of a heart attack due to overwork and exhaustion, becoming the second line of duty death. Following this fire, motorized fire engines were purchased, and horse-drawn equipment was also assigned to Fire Station 2, leading to the hiring of 2 more station keepers.
In 1923, the Village of Yanagihara and its single station volunteer fire department merged with Numazu, adding a fifth station and 22 more volunteers, leaving the department with a total of 104. A paid deputy fire chief was also hired, as well as two paid fire inspectors, bringing the number of paid staff up to 9. In that same year, the Town of Numazu became the City of Numazu. In 1926, another devastating fire destroyed most of downtown Numazu. During this fire, Volunteer Firefighters Kyousuke Miki (3 years) and Takao Miki (5 years, Kyousuke's older brother), as well as Lieutenant Junsuke Koizumi (16 years, volunteer) were killed, with Kyousuke burning to death and Takao and Junsuke being killed by falling debris, with both incidents being an hour apart. They would be the third, fourth, and fifth line of duty deaths in the department's history. In 1928, the last horses were retired by the fire department. By now, all 5 fire stations had at least one motorized fire engine. In 1930, a sixth fire station was added, a third paid fire inspector, and two more station keepers were hired. By now, the city had 10 paid firefighters and 130 volunteer firefighters. In 1934, the city's paid station keepers switched to a two-shift system similar to American fire departments, leading to the hiring of 6 more station keepers, who now had their titles changed to permanent firefighters. In 1935, Permanent Firefighter Ryou Yanagida (4 years as volunteer, 1 year as permanent) fell off of the back step of a fire engine while responding to a reported car fire and died of blunt force trauma to the head upon hitting the ground, becoming the sixth line of duty death in the department's history.
In 1936, the city's fire department began providing emergency ambulance services, placing two ambulances in service at Stations 1 and 3. In that same year, two more fire stations were built, and Station 4 received paid staff, bringing the total number of paid firefighters up to 20 and the number of volunteers up to 170. In 1937, Japan went to war with China in the prelude to the Second World War, and Numazu began to experience a build-up in industry and military facilities. In 1938, two more fire stations were built, and a third and fourth ambulance were placed into service at Stations 3 and 4. In the same year, a third permanent firefighter was assigned to each of the 4 staffed stations, bringing the total number of paid staff up to 26 and the total number of volunteers up to 204 operating out of 10 fire stations. in 1944, the city grew dramatically when the Villages of Katahama, Kanaoka, Ooka and Shizuura were merged with it. This added a further 4 fire stations to the department, and the city added paid staff and ambulances to two of them as well as two more fire inspectors. The city also bumped the number of paid staff at each of the 6 staffed stations to 4 per shift, with one being either a Lieutenant or a Captain. The city now had 40 paid firefighters and 322 volunteer firefighters operating out of 14 fire stations.
On July 17, 1945, Numazu was heavily bombed by American forces at the tail end of the Second World War. Volunteer Firefighters Shinji Fukawa (10 years), Shinji Ayase (2 years), Gen Mutou (5 years), Sakura Himura (1 year, female auxiliary), Heita Ishikawa (22 years), and Shigeyoshi Fukawa (36 years, father of Shinji Fukawa), as well as Volunteer Lieutenant Masanori Nakanishi (10 years), Volunteer Lieutenant Youichi Watanabe (16 years), Volunteer Captain Kamon Matsuura (20 years), Permanent Firefighter Shuichi Morita (7 years volunteer, 2 years paid), Permanent Firefighter Satoshi Ayase (12 years volunteer, 4 years paid, father of Shinji Ayase), Permanent Firefighter Heita Iizumi (2 years volunteer, 7 years paid), and Permanent Captain Tadashi Kurosawa (8 years volunteer, 7 years paid) were killed at various points during the bombing campaign against Numazu, becoming the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth line of duty deaths in the department's history.
After the Second World War, the city began to rebuild. The department split the city up into 6 service districts in 1947 as part of an expansion and restructuring that had been recommended by American occupational authorities, who found that the city's fire protection was inadequate, renumbering the city's fire stations, building more of them, hiring more paid firefighters, buying new equipment, and replacing the bells that formerly summoned volunteers to their stations with mechanical sirens that were surplus wartime air raid sirens from Tokyo. By 1950, the city had 25 fire stations, 10 staffed with paid firefighters, operating 35 pumpers, 5 aerial ladder trucks, 10 ambulances, 10 water tenders, 15 brush fire engines, 50 auxiliary fire pumps, and 2 rescue units with 80 paid firefighters, 4 fire chiefs, 12 district fire chiefs, and 14 fire inspectors on the paid side of the department for a total of 110 paid staff, and 524 volunteer firefighters on the volunteer side of the department. Bells were installed in the homes of volunteer firefighters that would ring when they were needed to respond from home. Many of the new paid and volunteer firefighters were returning veterans of the Second World War who were looking for either a good paying job and/or a place to belong to that had a paramilitary structure they were familiar with. In 1954, Volunteer Firefighter Kiyotaka Kazuno (6 years) collapsed of a heart attack at a factory fire after being overcome with smoke and died in a hospital 4 hours later, becoming the twentieth line of duty death in the department's history, and the first since the end of the Second World War.
In 1955, the city would see its largest expansion yet when the rather large Villages of Ashitaka, Oohira, Uchiura, and Nishiura merged with the city. This merger increased the number of fire stations in the city to 35, and the city decided to construct an additional 10 to provide better protection to the newly-annexed areas. The city also increased the number of fire service districts to 15. In 1958, the city switched to 24-on-48-off for permanent firefighters, adding a third shift. By 1960, there were now 50 fire stations, with 20 staffed at varying levels by paid firefighters, operated by 235 paid firefighters and 1,024 volunteer firefighters. In 1968, the Town of Hara was annexed by the city, adding five more fire stations and increasing the number of paid firefighters to 250 and the number of volunteer firefighters to 1,102. In 1969, Permanent Firefighter Byakuya Mazaki (3 years volunteer, 10 years paid) was struck and killed by a drunk driver while operating at a car accident, becoming the twenty-first line of duty death in the department's history. The same accident also crippled Volunteer Firefighter Yasushi Hirano (9 years), leading to his early retirement.
In 1971, the city placed Motorola Pageboy pagers into service and removed the bells from homes. We also began dispatching calls by radio around this time. On June 8, 1972, the department experienced a whopping 15 fires in a single day across the city at different times. Amazingly, thanks to the efforts of the city's firefighters, not a single life was lost, though several firefighters and civilians were injured. As all had been set suspiciously, it was determined that they had been set by an arsonist. Said arsonist was arrested on June 26, 1972, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison on December 8, 1972 for the fires. Around this time, the city began to place self-contained breathing apparatus in regular service, after 12 years of use on a special basis for rescues only. In 1977, the city would experience one of its darkest days since the Second World War when 15 patrons at a nightclub were killed in a devastating fire. Following this fire, the department's fire inspectors cracked down hard on fire and building code violations in places of public assembly in the city, shutting down 12 establishments for gross and egregious violations, and fining 28 others. In 1980, to better service the city, 5 new fire service districts were created. By now, the city had 60 fire stations, staffed with 300 paid firefighters and 1,272 volunteer firefighters. In that same year, use of self-contained breathing apparatus became mandatory inside burning buildings.
In 1982, Volunteer Captain Makoto Magatsuchi (23 years) was killed by falling debris while at a house fire, becoming the twenty-second line of duty death in the department's history. He would be followed by Permanent District Chief Mamoru Takeda (35 years), who collapsed of a heart attack at a store fire later that year, becoming the twenty-third line of duty death in the department's history. In 1985, the city built a memorial to the department's line of duty deaths, listing their names below a marble statue of a firefighter. Just two weeks later, Volunteer Firefighter Hideo Kozuki (6 years) and Permanent Firefighter Hideo Kanagawa (7 years) became the first names to be added to the memorial after it was built when both were killed in a flashover at a house fire, becoming the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth line of duty deaths in the department's history. In 1987, the department began to improve its delivery of ambulance services by training both paid and volunteer firefighters in more advanced levels of medical care. In that same year, the Motorola Pageboy pagers were discarded and replaced with Motorola Minitor II pagers.
In 1990, the same year the department hired its first 5 female paid firefighters, the department had 80 fire stations, 325 paid firefighters, and 2,024 volunteer firefighters, operating 105 pumpers, 25 aerial ladder trucks, 15 rescue units, 35 water tenders, 35 brush fire engines, 30 ambulances, 20 districts, 2 dive rescue units, 8 boats, a haz-mat unit, and an urban search and rescue unit. In the 90s, a decline began to occur in the number of volunteer firefighters due to a variety of reasons, leading to the department beginning to recruit both women and third-years in high school into the volunteer ranks. In 1995, all 30 of the department's ambulances became paramedic-certified after 8 years of experimentation, leading to a massive increase in the survivability of cardiac arrest patients from just 10% in 1994 to 25% in 1996. In 2000, Numazu became a special city by the Japanese government. In 2005, the Village of Heda became the next municipality to merge with Numazu. Its all-volunteer fire department of 46 was easily integrated into the city department, and 9 more stations were built across the city, increasing the number of fire stations to the level of 90 operated by 350 paid firefighters and 1,832 volunteer firefighters. In 2006, former Heda Fire Chief and then Numazu Volunteer Captain Shinichi Yasuhiro (40 years) became the twenty-sixth line of duty death in the department's history when he collapsed of a heart attack at a false alarm. He was a major help in the transition process and a highly-trained and experienced firefighter, and will be deeply missed. In 2007, the decision was made to add the names of the 26 line of duty deaths (1 Yanagihara, 1 Katahame, 1 Kanaoka, 1 Ooka, 2 Shizuura, 4 Ashitaka, 4 Oohira, 6 Uchiura, 3 Nishiura, 1 Hara, and 1 Heda) that occurred in former fire departments annexed by Numazu prior to their mergers to the memorial, increasing the present number of names to 52. In 2010, the Minitor IIs were placed by the Minitor Vs, which remain in use today. In the same year, over a 5 year period, 20 new stations were built, mostly single-engine volunteer-only stations, to improve the city's fire insurance ratings.
Today, the Numazu City Fire Department operates with 450 paid firefighters and 1,804 volunteer firefighters out of 110 fire stations, operating 150 pumpers, 40 aerial ladder trucks, 20 rescue units, 40 water tenders, 40 brush fire engines, 10 foam tenders, 40 personnel vans, 50 ambulances, 20 districts, 2 dive rescue units, 12 boats, a haz-mat unit, and a USAR unit. We respond to an average of 20,000 fire calls (structure fires, fire alarm activations, car accidents, car fires, brush fires, natural gas leaks, carbon monoxide calls, haz-mat mitigation calls, special rescue calls, etc) per year in addition to 50,000 calls for emergency medical services per year, for a total of 70,000. We also provide assistance to our neighboring villages, towns, and cities, both automatically and on request, and in exchange, they provide assistance to some of our calls, both automatically an on request. For example, during the daytime, we will often dispatch firefighters to assist the Towns of Nagaizumi, Shimizu, and Kannami, all of whom either have all-volunteer or mostly-volunteer fire departments, for any structure fires or fire alarms since many of their volunteers are away at work and are unable to respond, and in exchange, they will dispatch their firefighters to some of our calls along the border for the same reason.
We are proud of what we are and how we have grown, and we will continue to strive for an even greater future.