Last night there was a fire in this house. Fortunately, it was not occupied and was mainly used as storage. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get to and the fire fighters had a difficult time due to its location (nestled in the trees in a tiny pie-shaped valley between two roads...) and also the heat. We're in the middle of a heat wave and even in the middle of the night, the combination of the fire, the outside temperatures and the turnout gear (see photo below), a number of fire fighters had to be treated for heat exhaustion.



Turnout gear typically weighs about 60 lbs.

As an aside, my father and my husband used to be fire fighters until they decided that it was safer left to the younger men and women.