Fire Fighting Tales from Rural Maine: Fire-Fighter Up

It was not until she was about to board the Sandia Tram that Naomi realized that she had, perhaps, neglected to ask some important questions. She had, for instance, not exactly grasped how *high* off the ground the glass container would be carrying her. And now it was too late to turn back.

900 feet above the canyon floor, is the answer, by the way. A confined space at a drastic height...her heart began to pound a little faster and, for a moment, she thought she might panic.

But then? She remembered. She can do heights. And confined spaces. If she has to.

"It's okay," she said to her friend. "I'm going to fire-fighter up."

And as she traveled up 3,819 feet in elevation over 15 minutes on the world's longest tram (a double reversible jigback aerial tramway, it turns out), she was glad once again, that she had done her fire academy training. Because it meant that she could stay calm and enjoy views like these, even when the conductor pointed out they were up so high it would take 8 seconds to hit the ground if we fell.