1) Stretchin’
In Detroit, when we get a working fire, we tell central that we “are stretchin'” on whatever it is we are going to work on. So for example, when we pull up to a house fire, we’d say “Engine 30 stretchin’ on a two flat going throughout.” Or when we tell someone about our night; “Yeah man, I’m beat. We stretched three times last night.” It doesn’t mean we woke up three times to stretch our legs. It means my company responded to three fires and stretched our lines on said fires.
2) Jobs
This seems to be more of an East Coast thing, though I’ve heard it used by some guys around here. A job is a fire. “Went to four jobs last night”. This means they went to four working fires. And it is usually said in some sort of cool accent.
3) Pipe
That’s the hose. We also call it the line. It’s almost never called a hose. #wedontlovethemhose (If you don’t catch that reference you are old.)
4) Pipeman
This is one of those terms that seems to be used only by inner city firefighters. “Pipeman” is usually the guys on the engine. Or to take it a step further, the guys taking the pipe (refer to #3) into the fire to extinguish it. Yes…I said into the fire.
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