December 19th, 2000… There is a rooming house across the street from Station 1 that we went to one night to investigate a ’suicidal person’. Upon entering the unlocked apartment, we found it empty, with a note on a table indicating that “I’m going to end it all tonight”. Well, there was no one in the apartment, police were advised, and we went on our way.

2000hrs comes and police call over our frequency to respond to Faxon Park… about 1/2 a mile down the street. A police officer waves us over to the Gazebo in the center of the park where a 38 y/o male was on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head. Yup, there was our guy… still alive, combative as all hell. A .22 cal pistol at his feet… great… his brain is mush. Med flight was called and he was airlifted to the Beth Israel, where he later died of his head wound. Successfully suicidal.

December 5th, 2004… Amb 3 and Eng 1 responding for a psychiatric emergency with police. We enter a large warehouse and are directed up a long flight of stairs to a catwalk. At the end of the catwalk is a closet… now mind you, I got my BS bag (also known as the bag of concern) and my best sympathetic face for the impending psyche call… I enter the room and find two police officers doing CPR on a 40 y/o female… I noticed a noose around her neck… Police found her hanging, cut her down and began CPR. I look back to my partner, but he is now sprinting down the catwalk to get help… I thought for a second… how old is Stretch now anyway… he moves fast for a 60 y/o man…
Officer Murphy disrupts my train of thought and asks me if I may want to come in and help out… oh yeah, ok… we worked her, but it was too late… they called it at the ER… about 5 minutes after our arrival.

The police showed up at the ER and told me they knew the girl because she had attempted suicide several times before (w/pills.. booze.. etc…), because she never got over her ex husbands suicide several years before… he shot himself at the gazebo at Faxon Park and died. Can this job get any stranger?

We arrived on scene and the back of the house was fully engulfed. We set up all the trucks and started doing our jobs when am ammunition started going off in the back room. We got everyone away from the house as it continued to go off. We waited till it quit and put out the fire. Afterwards, all the guys were talking about how bad it scared them. I couldn’t help but laugh. It is funny when you are a woman and you see a group of grown men run away from the scene that you are running to. I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

As a young boy, my dad would take me to the fire station and show me all the equipment used by firefighters. As I would sit in the drivers seat of their fire engine, I would imagine getting called to a house fire. Dad would let me operate the lights and sirens every now and then.

As I got older, dad began explaining the use and purpose of all the equipment used by firefighters. I began suiting up, with the smallest bunker gear they could find. It didn’t really hit me until I wore that outfit. I remember saying to myself, “I want to go help someone”. But I wasn’t quite old enough. All I could do at this point was learn, as much as I could.

The older I got, I began asking more serious questions, about how to become a firefighter, rather than how to turn the lights and siren on. Dad knew my interest was sincere. By the time I was 16, dad taught me everything he knew about how to BE a firefighter, and how to BECOME a firefighter.

At the age of 18, I joined a local Volunteer Fire Dept.. I needed a lot more schooling to become a paid firefighter, like dad. Nevertheless, dad stayed right there with me every time I got called out. The way he managed this, was that he finally retired from the big city dept. and joined the same Volunteer Fire Dept. I showed my dad that I listened to everything he told me about being a firefighter. It was the greatest experience to this point in my life. Read the rest of this entry »

SMOKED DUCK!
Firefighters in Santa Fe, southeast of Houston came to the rescue of an unlucky duck that ended up stuck in an open-top chimney. The homeowner found the stuck duck in her chimney. After making the decision to try and remove the duck herself, she lit a fire in her chimney, hoping to scare it. The duck was rescued by firefighters, but the home suffered smoke damage.

When I was little I was deathly afraid of the sirens and whistles of fire trucks and ambulances. I would run, scream, cry and hide before my family even heard anything.

Funny enough when I turned about 8 yrs old all I wanted to do is find out what was going on and see where the fire trucks and ambulances where going. I wanted to help people.

On my 16th birthday I found out that I was accepted into my local ambulance company and January 2006 I started EMT class. In May 2007, I decided to join a fire company and start Firefighter 1 right after EMT class. Since then I have taken numerous classes (Firefighter 2, HazMat Opps., Rescue Tech Vehicle Machinery Rescue, my most rewarding Firefighter Survival and Rescue and I am in Fire Officer I class now).

I have found that the lights and sirens now give me a rush it almost seems like and addiction. I find it funny how most people in the fire service come into it thru other family members being involved, but for me that wasn’t true. I had to convince my parents to let me go out and put myself into an ambulance exposed to numerous scenes and illnesses and convince them to let me run into burning buildings putting my life at risk.

I have since gained the interest of my mom and dad with all the stories I have from various calls. I love being an EMT/Firefighter and hope to get my medic soon. I am 20yrs old now and can’t think of any better way for me to give back to my community.

A firefighter has been arrested after a farmer was crushed to death by stampeding cows that may have been spooked by a fire engine’s siren and flashing lights, it emerged today.

Harold Lee, of Robins Farm, in Burtle, near Bridgwater, Somerset, was fatally injured when he was trampled by his own herd last August. His family have alleged the animals were distressed by the emergency lights and sounds of the fire engine that was heading to a nearby emergency.

A spokesman for the Devon and Somerset fire and rescue service refused to comment about the arrest. Earlier the service has said the crew was on its way to a traffic collision.

Police launched an inquiry and after six months officers confirmed a 49-year old firefighter from Somerset has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by negligence.

I was involved in an ATV accident, just down the road from my house. I ended upside down in a pond, and thought I was going to drown. I don’t know how long I was in the pond before I was heard by the homeowner’s son.

I knew I was hurt bad, and I asked the homeowner to call 911 & request EMS, and my fire dept/water rescue team for assistance. My chief was the first one on the scene, and he confirmed that I was hurt quite badly. I’ve got a lot of respect for my asst chief, he was in the mud & deep water with me until ems had me boarded.

It made me proud to see “my” guys, all in the water, but wearing the right PPE for the job. I broke my back and was in the hospital & rehab for 2 months. My guys also made it so I could come home from rehab earlier, by building me a ramp for my wheelchair.

I’ve come a long way, I only use my chair if I have too, also graduated from using a walker, and now primarily use a walking stick. I am proud of the job the members of the Johnson Fire Department did for me and my family.

I started going back to the fire station a week after I got out of the hospital, and I will be running calls for them for a lot of years to come.
A 30 year member.

Now, some folks say firefighters have grown soft with wildland fire containment strategies that keep us out of harm’s way. Other say we don’t have adequate safety programs. I don’t I think they know much about firefighting. We’ve always been heat seekers. The thrill of adrenaline stimulates us. We’ve always admired smoke jumpers and hot shots, and safety is how we get the job done. The sound of “accident” is repugnant to us. We take action, but we take it decisively, and we do it safely. I wouldn’t give a damn for a firefighter that’s unsafe. We’re going to have one foot in the black, we’re going to obey the fire orders, and we’re going to directly and indirectly ATTACK, quicker than crap through a goose.

Los Angeles County is burning. A serial arsonist is setting the parched hills on fire. Plunge into the infernos, and experience the smoke, heat and danger with the men on the firelines. While NiteHeat prowls in the darkness, setting fires and taunting investigators, the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Arson Unit struggles to find the fire setter and stop the devastation. Will the pyromaniac be stopped before Malibu burns?

RED FLAG WARNING, a serial arson mystery novel will be published in June, 2010 BY ABERDEEN BAY PRESS. If you read One Foot in the Black, or are interested in RED FLAG WARNING, send your e-mail address to me at kurt@OneFootInTheBlack.com

I am a dedicated fireman /emt. I love my job and belong to 3 different fire departments. We had a rescue that took us 3 hours. A woman was trapped on the passenger side of a car, with only a 2 inch wide tree holding the car from slipping about 10 feet into a ditch. We had to call for mutual aid from another department. After they arrived, we got the lady out and they air lifted her. Glad to say she survived. I think the most satisfying thing about the job is when someone you don’t know comes up to you and thanks you for everything you do to protect and save lives. I know every one is different but I get my rush from jumping in that truck and going to the fire and throwing on the air pack and going in with fire all around you.