Well, that’s the end of being on call without any calls… 02:49 Sunday morning my phone started it’s insistent call to get me moving towards the fire station. 169 hours and 49 minutes is what it took. Now well see how long it’ll take ’til the next call comes.

Ramin must be a white cloud. He has been on call for his first 154 hours,
without a single fire, traffic accident, first responce call etc. There was
a documentary on FDNY
probie who had been a white cloud his whole probationary period. That is,
until 9-11.

A white cloud is a probie who brings with him a period of calm, no big fires or
traffic accidents etc. A black cloud is exactly the opposite – he brings
lots and lots of work with him. Generally a white cloud only affects his own
shift though.

But now, it has been silent for too long. This morning started the third week,
in which we have had only one alarm. It has been calm for so long. And with
us – a long period of calm is a sure sign of the coming storm.

That was Anna. I’ll just provide you with some statistics
to back her up. We (our station at Ylämylly) have about 96 alarms every year.
There are 8760 hours in a year (24*365). This means that we have an alarm every
91.25 hours. In a two week period we have an average 3.7 alarms (96/26).

And yes, we are a superticious lot. We believe that all bad alarms come in
threes (countrywide). And there is always a period of calm before the storm.
And even white clouds get there moments of blackness. So, knock on wood and
hope nothing bad happens.