this is my first time starting a thread, so I apologize if it is too long or in the wrong spot. here is the story anyway. thanks in advance for reading!
i am a volunteer firefighter in my town and normally don't get to make the daytime calls due to my full time job. Today was different (and fortunate ) as it turned out! We were paged to help the local EMS crew with a man who had a severe wound from a chainsaw and he was still in the tree!
We arrived to see a guy tied to a tree top with a 3/8" cotton rope. he had climbed a 12 foot extension ladder and then used the rope to shimmy up the rest of the way until he got to a couple of branches to stand on. He then cut the top of the tree and the trunk evidently made the saw flip back and cut his lip nearly off and then it hit his shoulder, 1 1/4" from his neck. he was awake but bleeding profusely and could not get down.
here is where we come in, first we got a 24 foot ladder and climbed up and turned off the saw that was dangling from a rope attached to the man. then, we found a man working nearby with a skytrack and got him to raise one of the firefighters to go get the man. Just before the FF went up, the chief (who I was standing next to) told him to get his knife so that he could cut the rope. Now, the chief and this guy are our two full timers. the FF said that he did not have one. Neither did the Chief!! We looked around and out of 15 FF's no one had a knife!!!
Then they all looked at me. i was not in my bunker gear and that is where I have a modern one hand opening tactical knife. instead, I only had two knives on me (yes, I know...
) One was a Case Trapper that I use for plumbing work and the other was my Chestnut Bone SBJ. I reached for both and realized that I had not sharpened the large trapper and that the SBJ was actually sharper. I told the guys I couldn't decide which to hand over because (1) The trapper is much bigger / stouter. but (2) the SBJ is sharper. They all looked at me as if I had two heads and I decided that sharpness would win out. Then the FF went up to the victim.
Once he got up there, I watched as he cut the ropes holding the man and the saw. I thought to myself " I am going to have to buy a new knife! it is too weak for that thick of a rope!" Suddenly the man was free and coming down. After touchdown, I went to get my knife. The first thing the FF said to me when he was down was " I couldn't open this with gloves on!!" I smiled and thought to myself, "yeah, but it cut that guy down and you couldn't have done that without it!!"
Then he told me to alcohol the knife because it was covered with blood from the blood on the rope. Needless to say, I did that as soon as I got some sanitizer. Any way, that is my story about my little SBJ and now it sits in my pocket all proud of itself for being the hero of the day!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the knife is still flawless after that cutting job. It will be resharpened tonight!
i am a volunteer firefighter in my town and normally don't get to make the daytime calls due to my full time job. Today was different (and fortunate ) as it turned out! We were paged to help the local EMS crew with a man who had a severe wound from a chainsaw and he was still in the tree!
We arrived to see a guy tied to a tree top with a 3/8" cotton rope. he had climbed a 12 foot extension ladder and then used the rope to shimmy up the rest of the way until he got to a couple of branches to stand on. He then cut the top of the tree and the trunk evidently made the saw flip back and cut his lip nearly off and then it hit his shoulder, 1 1/4" from his neck. he was awake but bleeding profusely and could not get down.
here is where we come in, first we got a 24 foot ladder and climbed up and turned off the saw that was dangling from a rope attached to the man. then, we found a man working nearby with a skytrack and got him to raise one of the firefighters to go get the man. Just before the FF went up, the chief (who I was standing next to) told him to get his knife so that he could cut the rope. Now, the chief and this guy are our two full timers. the FF said that he did not have one. Neither did the Chief!! We looked around and out of 15 FF's no one had a knife!!!
Then they all looked at me. i was not in my bunker gear and that is where I have a modern one hand opening tactical knife. instead, I only had two knives on me (yes, I know...
) One was a Case Trapper that I use for plumbing work and the other was my Chestnut Bone SBJ. I reached for both and realized that I had not sharpened the large trapper and that the SBJ was actually sharper. I told the guys I couldn't decide which to hand over because (1) The trapper is much bigger / stouter. but (2) the SBJ is sharper. They all looked at me as if I had two heads and I decided that sharpness would win out. Then the FF went up to the victim.Once he got up there, I watched as he cut the ropes holding the man and the saw. I thought to myself " I am going to have to buy a new knife! it is too weak for that thick of a rope!" Suddenly the man was free and coming down. After touchdown, I went to get my knife. The first thing the FF said to me when he was down was " I couldn't open this with gloves on!!" I smiled and thought to myself, "yeah, but it cut that guy down and you couldn't have done that without it!!"
Then he told me to alcohol the knife because it was covered with blood from the blood on the rope. Needless to say, I did that as soon as I got some sanitizer. Any way, that is my story about my little SBJ and now it sits in my pocket all proud of itself for being the hero of the day!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the knife is still flawless after that cutting job. It will be resharpened tonight!
