Universidad
Central de Venezuela
Fire Department
Back in 1980, I
joined the fire department of the Universidad Central de
Venezuela. At the age of 16, I was the younger fireman that
ever served there. My experience in the fire
Department can better be described as total sensory overload. I
found my self learning so many thing, not only the syllabus of the
different course that my training involved but also much about the
world, life, and people around me. I took up the opportunities to
learn scuba diving, rock climbing and all other sort of outdoors,
adventurous activities that I was eager to live. Being an
adrenaline junky, had just landed on heaven!! The rest of my life
will not
suffice to match what I learned and lived in the time I served as a
fireman at Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Other than the labors of fire fighting and
save and rescue that we did we have a strong involvement educating the
community how to act in cases of emergencies. We taught classes
of first aids, prevention of accident, fire prevention and combat,
ophidiology among others. My passion for teaching lead me to work
harder in this field and at the third year I was working heavily in
teaching and training not only the community but developing courses and
classes for other firemen in the station.
My time in the fire department was
not without accidents. On my second year I had a bad fall from a
second story over pavement and broke all my four limbs. Luckily,
nothing more than my limbs suffer damaged and I recovered fully from
the wounds. Thanks for the helmet, I recall vividly the loud bang
of the helmet on the pavement when I hit the ground!! A few more
months later I was back on business more decided to continue my work as
a fireman. A few more years later, something when wrong on
a drill and I saw myself wrapped in flames. By the time I ran out
of the fire and dropped to the ground to put my self out I had suffered
relatively serious burns that had me out of circulation for a good
while
more. Unlike the former time I was not wearing the protective
gear that I should have had! I learned my lessons and continued
my work as a firemen but I had already matured from being and
adrenaline junky to a more serious and responsible firemen. The
rest of my 7 years working actively at the fire department when without
more accidents and I manage to draw from my experience in my teaching
to other younger firemen.
A rather common emergency in Caracas (a large city
with abundant patches of tropical forest and natural vegetation) was
the appearance of an "unknown" snake in the houses or gardens of the
city. It was here where I could develop my passion for snake
since I often was summoned to capture and restrain a snake that had
been found too close to comfort! I had the opportunity to learn
more about snakes and to keep some of them in captivity. I often
had a fer-der-lance and a rattle snake in the head quarters of the fire
department that I used to give lectures and train other firemen how to
control and subdue the snake in a manner that was safe for the snake
and
the handler.
A friend of mine once brought me
a "baby" anaconda that he received from the jungle. With time I learned more about anacondas and now
I know that it was not a baby but a full grown male, they just do not
grow to be too big (click here for details).
It was
2 meters long and extremely short tempered. It bit me every
single time I handled!! It bit me so many times that I learned not to
withdraw my hand when in bites and instead hold it steady or push it
farther into his mouth which often makes him open up. This pieces
of learning proved invaluable after I started handling larger more
dangerous animals. Tire of
being bitten and fearing that the cage that I had was too small for
him,
I gave it to the local zoo where I heard he nailed all the keepers as
well!!!