Even though my youngest kid is 24 years old, he still asks me to take him to Camp Mather. He continues to say that it was the best vacation he ever had.

Camp Mather is situated on the road to Hetch Hetchy dam and the cabins were used as living quarters in the 1930’s for the workers who built the dam. The start of the road to Camp Mather is only a few miles from the opening gates to Yosemite National Park.

Today, as it has been from the past 4 to 5 generations, it is a family summer camp run by the City. It has many rustic cabins that can accomodate 2 to 6 people. Your weekly fee comes with 3 all-you-can-eat meals every day at the local dining hall. The food is wholesome and I never heard a complaint. Basketball, ping pong, softball, horseback riding, hayrides, campfires and outdoor movies are just a few of the daily activities enjoyed by the campers. The Little Olympics on the grass by the lake, swimming, hikes, and nature activities, along with tennis and nighttime bullfrog hunting can help fill your day. The braver campers hike to the falls or take dips in the surrounding water holes. You should always take an experienced camper with you so you don’t get lost.

A t night, the campers go star gazing at Hetch Hetchy while others take a spook walk with flashlights. Bear sightings are fairly common and you should always keep your distance if you experience one.

You know what? I think I just talked myself into signing up for next year!

For more info about Camp Mather (application, website) click here 

Cancer is a common occurrence amongst firefighters due to the toxic exposures that they are continually faced with both during and after a large fire. All firefighters need to document all exposures to heavy black smoke throughout their career.

Many household items that burn emit cancer causing agents that penetrate a firefighter’s system regardless of the precautions they take. The human body cannot take the constant bombardment of smoke laced with cancer causing agents. If a firefighter is prone, cancer will show itself usually 20 years after starting the job.

It is imparative that all firefighters document their toxic exposures either by a general form or a 3807. When a firefighter develops cancer the City will deny the claim 90% of the time. The attorney will then attempt to recreate all incidences of smoke exposure going back to the early days of the firefighter’s career.

As provided in the labor code, cancer is presumed to be job related if it manifests itself during a firefighter’s career. This is a rebuttable presumption and shifts the burden of the proof to the City. In other words, the burden falls upon the defendent to show that the cancer is not job related - a very difficult task for the City.

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It was early 1975 and I was working at Engine 27 on Howard street in San Francisco. The station was built in the late 1800’s and still had the horse stables and hay room. In the early days horses were used to pull the fire engines to the many fires around town. The house withstood the 1906 Earthquake and Fire and it felt like we were working in a museum.

The bells went off and rang in a code that gave us the location of the fire. This was before the days of the computer. We used a large peg board which we pegged to see if we were due at the alarm. The bells in each firehouse would ring for every alarm in San Francisco, even if the incident was across town.  The bells would ring which would give you a count.  Every firehouse had a different count on the bells that they would respond to. Eventually you learn to count the bells in your sleep.

We were first due and headed up Mission Street. At Mission and 5th we were met by Police Officers who pointed to an old Victorian and shouted that people were trapped inside. We put on our air packs, kicked the front door in and pulled hose up two flights of stairs. As we neared the top floor, tongues of fire was shooting down the stairs. One tongue hit me in the back of the neck. Flames continued to shot at us as if Zeus himself was throwing bolts of lightning. We finally reached the top floor and continued to spray water ahead of us to cool the atmosphere so that we could pass. The fire was everywhere, it was like being inside of a lite fireplace.

We searched the living room unable to see anything because a dark gray smoke hung in front of our eyes. The smoke was so thick it felt that we were wearing blindfolds. We slowly inched our way not knowing if we were going to fall into an abyss. Visibility was zero and only experience keeps you from freaking out. You feel like you are walking in another dimension, which you are. It is a dimension of extreme danger that alerts your senses to a much higher level.

I walked on top of a rolled up rug in the center of the room The room suddenly cleared as the truckmen on the roof were able to open up ventilation holes. The smoke rose up and went through the holes and out of the building. I looked down and saw a strange sight. The rug was a human lying in the middle of the room. We had walked on top of it thinking it was a rolled up rug. It was a woman on her back with her stomach and chest wall opened up from the intense heat. Her intestines were bloated and coiled above her.

The whole time I am telling myself that this sight cannot be real. People are not raised seeing such things, it is not a part of our normal upbringing. Since the person is dead, I blocked the scene out of my mind as quickly as possible. I had to continue the search hoping to find someone alive. The new firefighters, however, must see the body and experience this part of the job. Up to this time they have only heard about fire victims, but now they are witnesses. They have experienced death first hand. The sight is upsetting because our job is to save lives so that death becomes unacceptable. It is however, a reality that  firefighters must deal with. During training they are told about this part of the job, but this kind of negative information goes in one ear and out the other. 

After seeing such a grim sight we learned not to dwell on it. All of us must go through this part of the job. Everyone must conquer their own fears, otherwise the job becomes  a nightmare for them. We eventually learn to accept it and to put it deep into the back of our minds. We don’t forget what we have experienced, but we just bury it.

For many years Tom ”Notso” Lovely, retired member of Fire house Station 2 in San Francisco, organized overnight abalone trips to the North Coast. A favorite stay was at a beach house called Graceland at Sea Ranch California. The beach house could sleep 20 and sometimes more.

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I remember a Fire call that took place many years ago. A fire started by smoking in bed. I was a rookie at the time of the call and now after fighting fires for over 30 years only a few fires remain in your memory. You can’t remember them all because you see so many fires that they all begin to look the same. 

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Big Dog is not imaginary. His exploits were real and he was involved with matters of life and death. Batman, Spider Man, the Green Lantern are all make believe heroes. Big Dog’s actions were personally witnessed by many firefighters. At a major house fire, Big Dog was seen hanging by one hand on the edge of a peaked roof of a three story building. In his free hand he was holding a truckman’s 8 pound 28 inch axe. He then proceeded to chop huge holes in the roof to release the hot toxic smoke and gases trapped in the house so that the firefighters, fighting the fire from inside the house, would not suffocate from the 1,000 degree temperatures. Firefighters dropped their jaws as Big Dog dismantled the entire roof by himself like a giant woodpecker. Other firefighters would just get out of his was because they did not want to interfere with Big Dog’s one man ventilation act.

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