Things from firefighters

I’m doing an English course at IOC, the leadership of firefighters has promoted, and it has reserved some places for us. Hey, we all pay the normal fees and taxes. I do not want misunderstandings.

This week we are talking about our favourite websites... this is my favourite website. This article is dedicated to my class mates.

This is my first article in English. Today I want to do two things, Firstly, an exercise of expression about firefighters and secondly, to speak about the two or three times that I've used English in my job.

I write during the week, and I finish my articles on Saturday to publish them on Monday. In my fire station I speak with my mates or I listen to them talk about their problems with materials, trucks or about their relationship with mates or other fire stations.

My station is sited in Lleida, in the west of the city, next to the jail. We have two main doors or exits. One leads directly to the city, however, this is not often used as we often need to leave by the west exit to get onto the highway or the roads that lead to Osca or Vielha.

We have a heliport, this is used to transport injured people from a mountain or road accident to Lleida Hospital or patients from this hospital to Barcelona services.

We go to many different things, from fires in houses, flats, vegetation or factories to road accidents, job accidents also to rescue lost people, to open old people's home doors when they have fallen, etc.
Throughout the summer we find people on holidays that have broken down in their car, or have had an accident and need firefighter service. But I don't thing that I have even spoken English with them, all speak some Spanish.

One time I had to speak English was when I was at Reus Airport in the summer of 1994.
I was there to work to fill up the tank of a plane used to drop water on fires, that needed 18.000 liters of water every trip. The pilots were Canadian and didn't speak Spanish.

Another time that I’ve spoken English was one winter when it was snowing all over Catalonia. We were in Mollerussa and we had gone to fill the fire engine with diesel. Some roads were closed and there were breakdowns on the highway and on the toll-road. I remember explaining to a driver the problems that were on some routes and we gave him some helpful advice.

Well, I read some information about firefighters in English. I read things from the USA talking about hazmat or some accidents that are published in newspapers or specialized publications.

And some years ago I had many emails from Germany, from a young volunteer that is now in a German School of firefighters, we spoke in English...

Well, if you have arrived to this paragraph, you are probably angry with me as I'm not a great English speaker and it's probable that your English is better than mine! This is my first text published in English though!.