Fighting Fire with... whatever

Trip Start Sep 09, 2008

Trip End Feb 16, 2009

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Flag of Antarctica Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
Monday, December 1, 2008

Today we had a fire drill. It was the kind of thing intended to catch everyone off-guard so that we, the Emergency Response Team, may exercise and gauge our abilities to respond to a stressful, surprising, completely unexpected situation.

As twenty volunteer firefighters arrived on scene near the Ice Cube drill camp, on sleds pulled behind snowmobiles, we realized that a total surprise would have left us better equipped to deal with the hypothetical scenario. A drill operator supposedly fell from the top of a 10-foot-high platform. Each one of us carried a forcible entry tool--axes, sledgehammers, I had a Halligan bar, my favorite--and there wasn't a building within a quarter mile of the accident.

Thankfully, we were also ready for any other eventuality clad in our Personal Protective Equipment rated to withstand 1400F temperatures. But it was 50 below, and my Self Contained Breathing Apparatus had a leak in the hose.

Have no fear, citizens of Earth; your South Pole is in good hands.