Personal Narrative: Stressed Out

The firefighter’s barricade of water and firefighting was not enough. The fire was scorching hot. You could get burned by standing by it. The firefighters had an idea of one firefighter holding a door in between a firefighter and the fire while he sprayed it. This plan worked well until the door burst into flames. Soon the little barricade of fire trucks and firefighters was broken and they were forced back.

Smoke and flames were spewing out of gaping holes bored by American Airlines’ Boeing 767 that crashed between the 93 and 99 floors on the North face of the 110- story building. Each of the North Tower floors were roughly an acre. The top 20 floors engulfed in flames, he was staring at a 20- acre fire raging 90 stories above. He thought in his head that, This is the most unbelievable sight I’ve ever seen. Meldrum parked the fire truck on the West Street in front of the

“Seriously, just get over it” That was the phrase that had been assaulting my ears for the last half an hour. Although it wasn’t odd that someone was telling me that specific phrase, this time it was different. My grandmother, whom I thought had understood my problems, had just proven to me that she actually didn’t. At the age of 12, I was heartbroken.

One man saw the fire and tried to get someone to use the fire box to get the fire department to send a fire truck. Sadly he had no such luck in notifying them. Fire boxes were boxes located on the street corner for people to use to alert the closest fire department, because telephones were not commonly available at that time. The other man just insisted that a fire truck had probably already been called and was on its way. The fire was so destructive because there were many mistakes and dangerous

Does it seem fair to go to jail for something that their was no part planned in, that ignited 20 houses ablaze? On the day of July 4th, 2013 in Woodsterville, Ohio, which has many beautiful trees, with their beautiful green leaves, and the blossoming of the flowers with the

It was a cold January morning. The smell of fire was strong throughout the air and smoke filled the room. There was a strong, loud beeping sound throughout the house. It wasn’t just coming from one place, it was coming from multiple. My family hurries to find our animals as we call 911. I can’t be dreaming, is this real life?

The night before, a fire tore through four city blocks before the fire department could bring it to bear.

Bye Bye Train Tracks The roaring fire ripped through Sherwood one August afternoon and steadily continued until the next morning. The dry grass and blazing heat were several factors that contributed to this catastrophe. There was physical damage from the surrounding wildlife. The heat from the blaze was like

The smoke smell started to get stronger like everyone gathered around us was smoking a cigarette, but when I lifted my head back to look at the firefighters they were all ducking as more black smoke poured out of my house like a giant chimney. I waited anxiously for the firefighters to actually put out the

There are many different fourth of July celebrations throughout Gaston County. This summer, I celebrated the fourth of July in Ranlo, observing fireworks the small town presented. There was food and beverage sales before the fireworks as well as music to get the community pumped and to promote the

A bushfire broke out on the side of the road just outside charters towers yesterday afternoon. The fire started around 3pm on the Clermont Highway, 15 kilometers from the town. The highway got blocked off to all motor vehicles which did not see truck drivers very happy. Fallon Perry, 27, was driving

I’ve been trudging along for what seems like hours. I lost count of my steps sometime after my car broke down. When I look around all I see is an almost tangible grey curtain hiding everything except for a small segment of the highway. As I look forward the dark grey of the asphalt blends into the fog. I have no Idea what time it is when the fog rolled in my phone died. Without a clock, any length of time seems to go on forever, especially when the sun is hiding behind the fog. I just something I don’t understand about my situation, there has been no change in light since the fog rolled in. Same brightness the whole time. It’s almost like it’s not that I can’t tell time is passing. It’s that time isn’t passing, but that’s impossible.

Burning Desire Sirens were screaming through the air as every firefighter in the station jumped to their feet to see what was going on. One firefighter, Jacoby, was looking frantically for any clue to what was going on, because ever since Jacoby became a firefighter about one year ago there hasn't

After the incident, there were multiple Acute Critical Stress Symptoms that have occurred. Upon discovering the hole on the fuel truck, I froze and slowly climbed down the truck, myself and the driver of the truck assumed that the mortar round was inside the truck (it turned out, the mortar round hit the tank and ricochet and hit the ground, leaving an 8 inches hole). I have been thinking about the incident and the what if scenario kept playing on my head. There were a great deal of questions, such as, exposing my team to danger, to include the considerable amount of what could have gone wrong that could have loss many lives that night. I woke up several times with a cold sweat, nightmares, difficulty sleeping and fear of event repetition.

Stress has always been an extremely interesting and complicated part of my life. I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder, which also results in anxiety and depression at times. During my teenage years, I self medicated frequently. I didn't want to put in the work and the time to figure out what was wrong with me and how to make it better. Drinking and experimenting with drugs was my way of processing any conflict that arose in my life. Over the past five years, I've been attending therapy, I've started hiking and camping and the birth of my child had since changed my enthusiasm for getting better. I've been baby carrying him since he was born. We've summited mountains, visited hidden, cascading waterfalls and hiked for miles into old growth forests to visit hot springs and lakes. My OCD will never be cured, but I truly work as hard as I possibly can now for myself and for my family to be strong and present and level-headed. I have a bag of emotional tools that I've become accustomed to using now and I am able to process and deal with stress in healthy and productive ways.