AlistairMacilherron

Change the name from Firestarter log to compressed sawdust log. Firestarter sticks to compressed sawdust sticks. Matches to single use illuminating devices. It is really just that simple. People do this all the time such as dish washer “Hydro Ceramic Technician.” Pizza Deliver, “Professional food transporter.” Garbage man, “Sanitation Engineer.” Just Bulls#it the name so it is descriptive of what it really is but the curtain is pulled over the reviewers eyes.

I am on the fire department in my area. When I go out caching I usually wear one of my fire shirts and carry a clip board. When people ask me what I am doing I just tell them, "I'm looking at the area for defensible space, checking fuel lodes in certain areas and checking fuel moistures. Also I am scouting out areas, if there is a fire, to park our engine." If I am in a neighbor hood I tell the people that we are mapping the exact location of the hydrants so when we get our new map books they will be in the correct positions. Now I don't have problems with cops because I work with all of them and know all of them. They also see the fire sticker on the back of my car and wave. If I am down on my knees looking for something in a park or somewhere where I cant have a fire related issue I tell them that I lost a bet and had to look for something that someone hid and I have a x amount of time to do it.

Jaws, Spreaders, Hallagan…. Oh wait that’s what I use in my job as a Firefighter. Usually I use a metal coat hanger that I can bend to do whatever I want.

Complete over reaction. 1st anything can potentially be a bomb encasement. 2 examples. 1. 3 years ago outside our county building one of the people who worked there had been eating lunch in a corner outside in an area that was semi secluded during the summer, it was also by a rarely used door. He was called to do something and forgot he had left the bag in the corner. Later that day around 4:00 someone had decided to walk in the building through that rarely used door and saw it and freaked out. The bomb squad was called. They X-Rayed it and found out it was a bag with part of a lunch in it. 2. 4 weeks ago a case was found outside a police station in one of our towns. The whole street was closed off and so on and so forth. It ended up being a professional photographers film case to hold lots of film. Don’t just overreact and say oh my you should get rid of all pipe caches and make strict rules against using them. Today anybody can set anything down and to someone it looks suspicious. Those people freak out and call the cops. If it is done legally and it is a good hide I wouldn’t think anything of it. If it was a pipe lying in the middle of the sidewalk or a gutter then I would be suspicious but hidden under a pier or with other pipes or anything where the blast wouldn’t be directed to hurt someone then I wouldn’t worry.

I have a couple hobbies. 1. Bagpipes The good ones range from $600-4000. Bagpipe bag $130 Kilt, mines 6 yards $535 Prince Charlie Jacket $587 Glengarry $80 Hose (socks) $45 Flashes $25 Gillie Brogues (shoes) $180 Hackle(s) $40-60 Sporran $50-300 Nice Tuxedo French cuff shirt $95 Cufflinks that go with theme on Prince Charlie Jacket $80 2. RC Airplanes I can't count how many I have had all of them range from $150-400 You crash a lot when you are first learning and when you are racing you crash. RC Controller a good one $150-2000 All the nick knacks that you need to go with flying. I can't remember all of them $? a lot When I go to buy stuff for flying I usually walk out of the hobby store after paying $100-500 3. Private Pilot This I am just getting into Used Plane $10,000-40,000 New Plane $35,000 and up AV Gas in my area is right around $4.40 You burn usually any where from 10-15 gallons an hour. If you rent a plane a one hour flight in a wet (fueled) plane $100 Instructor (ha ha I have it cheap) $25 How much money they tell you that you will spend $4,000-5,000. What you actually spend $10,000- 12,000 just to get your private pilot license. Renting a hanger $depends on where you live and who you know. Renting a spot to tie down on tarmac $dahh I can feel the money draining just thinking about it. Shall I go on? 4. Backpacking I have spent way more on backpacking than all the things I have done on geocaching. All I have spent on Geocaching is $80 for my GPS. And about $10 in cache containers. Will be buying more to place tomorrow. $maybe 10 and knickknacks to put in them. When I cache I don't trade. To me the sport is finding them not trying to trade Mickey D's happy meal toys. Yes if I do see something good I will trade but that’s it.

I always wear my Whites Lace-To-Toe Wildland boots. They are comfortable, have a 10'' upper, have great traction, and most of all have high arches, The White Bite. I love high arches. Also these allow me to be ready to go on a call for my fire department.

I agree with everyone that placing a cache in a standpipe is a bad idea. Yes if not checked properly it could get lodged and severely reduce water flow. But I also have to comment that as a FF/EMT myself that I was always taught that when I am connecting my engine to the standpipe system or for that mater any hydrant that I have to take off the cap and make sure that there are no obstructions in the way to block the system from working properly. Every time that I hook up to a standpipe system I do exactly that. Now don’t get me wrong, I am completely against the idea of placing a cache in a standpipe system but everyone on this post makes it sound like you don’t check for obstructions you just hook up and charge.

I'm 20 years old and a FF/EMT. This summer I am going to be a seasonal with the forest service as a hotshot/handcrew. Hope to get my FF 1 cert this fall and my Fire Science AA within 2 years. Didn't know there were this few EMS cachers here, or they just don't post that they are on Forums. As soon as I get a picture of me on one of my engines I will post that picture. What I am starting to do in my county is to place caches at all of the Fire Stations. They are going to be a series called, oddly enough, "Fire Station (then the station #)".