Rookie Firefighters Get Their Feet Wet

Once a year, every hose in the Wauwatosa Fire Department's service has to be pressure-tested – and guess who gets to do the grunt work? Thursday was Conor Quinlevan's one-year anniversary with the Wauwatosa Fire Department, which means it was also his first day off probation – a full-fledged Tosa firefighter at last.You'd think he'd get a party or some kind of ceremony. Instead, they sent him out to test hoses, on the wet end.

He did rate an assistant, though, now that he's ranked – Christopher Sandoval, who's been on the job all of three months, got to help.I stepped out of my house Thursday afternoon to find Quinlevan, Accessories,Sandoval and a host of other firefighters hemming me in with a pumper truck and a massive firehose snaking down my street in long loops.

With all the utility excavation that's been going on for weeks on my street and throughout the neighborhood – fuel hose suppliers,the concrete saws and backhoes were hard at it again Friday morning – I was sure something seriously bad had happened to my nearest fire hydrant or the water main itself.Nope, said Lt. Barbara Kadrich. "We're just testing our hoses."It seemed worth a picture or two, anyway, and since I couldn't leave my driveway until they were finished, I got the whole scoop on hose-testing.