So, is it like on the Flintstone’s and Simpson’s where the boys go to the fire hall, play cards and drink until a call comes in, or if nothing’s doing, head home and wait for a dispatcher to call everyone? Not quite… In Ohtawara, the volunteer fireman would get in their truck and drive around the streets of the city, with a siren on.
Now I’ll be honest… I never actually saw a fire in Japan, and I never saw the fire truck wander the nameless streets… but I did hear it. Droning on at night, I was told the lights do flash as a warning that they are on the job – even if there is no fire to proceed to.
By the way… there are no street signs in Ohtawara denoting an address – so getting to where one needs to go can be frustrating.
"Uh, Fire Engine ichi-ban (#1), we have a fire at Farmer Suzuki’s residence over at the corner of three rice fields and a pachinko parlour.”
“Kso! (crap) Suzuki-san? Which one?”
“Uh, the one near the gaijin, Fire Engine ichi-ban.”
“Bakayaro! (stupid idiot) Which gaijin? The stupid Canadian one or the giant pale one?”
“Uh… let me check…”
(add elevator music of The Girl From Ipanema)
“Uh, we’re still chec---nani (what?)… uh, never mind Fire Engine ichiban… the fire has burned down the house and has put itself out.”
“Ah so ka (I see) We’re proceeding to travel aimlessly around town with our siren on and lights flashing. I’m unsure where we are now…. but we are directly under the moon… … now!”
“Ah, you are in south Ohtawara - Sakuyama district.”
That amusing incident never happened, but it could have. How do you find a fire if you don’t know where you are going? Apparently you look for smoke… because where there is smoke, there is fire.
That answer was given to me by a volunteer fireman who took a single English night school class with me as teacher. His English was actually sweller than my own.
Anyhow, chatting with him during a break, he mentioned that one time while en route to a fire, they accidentally drove the truck off a narrow goat path (road) and into a rice paddy. All of a sudden farmers appeared ninja-like out of the dark to help push the truck back up onto the sidewalk (road).
And I swear I am NOT making this up, while a line of farmers was at the scene of the blaze working a bucket line, two men were trying to put out the fire by peeing on it. Apparently they made matters worse as the sake in their urine acted like lighter fluid, adding fuel to the fire, as it were. Okay, maybe I made that part up… but it made you laugh, right?
Okay, here’s some factual stuff from the volunteer fireman – whose name I never learned. Unlike our western stereotypes, he wasn’t built like a Chippendale dancer, standing about 5’-6”, 130-lbs soaking wet and worked in a bank during the day.
He said: newer Japanese structures that are less wood-based (ie drywall and aluminum siding) tend to cause more damage than their older all-wood counterparts.
Apparently the newer structures are more airtight and tend to keep the fire contained within the house. This means that the fire burns the house interior more before it is discovered (IE, smoke doesn’t escape sooner). The flames circle inside the house and then explode outwards with the force of a detonating bomb.
In older structures, the flames could escape easier and thus the early detection meant the fire department could get there sooner. In the newer building, the fire was not discovered until the building exploded in flame.
Neat, huh? Of course, the above explanation is for nighttime fires when people are sleeping.
As a final thought: sis you know that the music from the movie Backdraft is used for the tv cooking show Iron Chef? Something’s burning.
Somewhere wondering why the Flintstone’s needed a fire department when everything was made of rock,
Andrew Joseph
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