...And when they were actually going on a fire fighting mission, there was really nothing else we (dosimetricians) could do for them. Our job was to approach the site of the fire, quickly “check” - take measurements of the background radiation levels – and then provide them with some information, just to reduce the exposure, reduce the time people spend in unfavorable places. That is, one can do the same kind of work, there's nothing new about it – just standing and playing hose, i.e. throwing water on it – but one can stand on the spot where there's 500 roentgens-per-hour or one can stand where there's 5 roentgens-per-hour. For the amount of water thrown, it doesn't make any difference, but for the man exposed to radiation – it does.