What is That One Call

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Permalink Reply by Randy Bawks on April 9, 2009 at 11:14pm

Mine was my first,and only to date fatal fire. Not something I ever want to experience again,but thats part of the job. The big thing that helped me cope with something like this was that when I jumped in a truck and rolled out of the hall you could see the glow at six miles away,at least there was nothing we could have done different to change the outcome.

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Permalink Reply by Russell McLean on April 9, 2009 at 11:39pm

For me.....It was my first fatal plane crash. October 2005. Sunday morning, we get paged out to an aircraft emergency. There's a small local airport in our first due, and we had several calls there, just run out and watch the plane land. Well, this time.......I'm on my way out and my wife tells me to stop and bring some doughnuts back for the kids(we're a volunteer department). On my way to my truck, a follow up page reports plane on the ground, two confirmed DOS, car and plane on fire. Needless to say, it picked up a notch or two. We arrived on scene to discover no fire, but a plane down on a car. The victim in the car walked away. The two in the plane however, did not. It was a grandfather and his 10 year old grandson. I have a son about the same age, so that made it difficult. The roughest part, though was were our engine was staged on the north end of the road, we saw every family member come in, and their reaction when they were told the news. An extememly difficult call. It caused me to a part of the only critical stress debriefing of my career.

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Permalink Reply by Whitey on April 16, 2009 at 10:03pm

I have had a few calls where the family arrives on scene and that makes it even more difficult.

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Permalink Reply by Ken O'Brian on April 9, 2009 at 11:22pm

That would have to have been the triple fatality Motor Vehicle Accident I went to the day before I started my High School (College) exams...
Pager went off, went direct to scene as it was en route to the station, arrived on scene to find two grandparents deceased - t-boned by a young DUI driver.
Many of our young kids these days might need to see something like this in real life - it may just shock them into acting responsibly with alcohol.

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Permalink Reply by Keenan Mulvaney on April 9, 2009 at 11:25pm

My most memorable call was when I fell off of a ladder while operating at a warehouse fire. I was using a hose line putting water through a window on air and as I moved to put the hose in position I was knocked from the ladder. I fell around 12 feet and landed on my side. I have been hurt before while on the job, but up until this point I never actually thought about what could happen. Its bad to say but its almost like everyone in this job should have a similar experience where you take a step back and say, "Whoa, this stuff is really dangerous." fortunately for me, it happened early. I was lucky, not much but a few bruises. I have had many other calls that were memorable, but this one was important.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Morgan on April 9, 2009 at 11:30pm

Mine was the first LODD for our dept. in 25 years, the night Firefighters Robert Morrison and Derek Martin died in the Gravois Refrigeration Building. The whole scene was like a surreal nightmare. I hope I never have to go through that again.

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Permalink Reply by kevin on April 9, 2009 at 11:40pm

The call i cant forget, we were mutual aid company. 2nd hose team into a trailer fire. it was 3 fatalities, 2 girls and the mother. cant forget it. has been my only one to date, its as if it happened yesterday. and it has been 9 yrs.

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Permalink Reply by Aaron Spencer on April 9, 2009 at 11:41pm

Mine was one of the first calls I ever went on. It was a medical call for a man in distress. He was coming in to work and for no apparent reason (at the time), fell. He got up and made his way to his 2nd story office. A coworker noticed his labored breathing and called us. When we arrived, the man was gasping. He was bleeding from cuts on his face and neck from where he fell. His blood looked like Pepto Bismol. It was pink and foamy. All he could say was, "I can't breathe, I am so scared." Not long after, he went into cardiac arrest. We worked on him until the ambulance arrived. They continued for over 30 minutes to try and keep him alive. He died on the way to the hospital. This was my first time facing death. The look of terror on his face is something I will never forget.

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Permalink Reply by lloyd on April 9, 2009 at 11:43pm

Mine was my very first residential structure fire. My partner & I went though a second floor window with a 1 3/4 and the celing & roof collapsed on us. I was driven down to the floor by a rafter. I was speechless for a few seconds while he was yelling are you alright. That set the tone for my whole career knowing that had I not been on the parimeter of the room, it would have been a lot worse. Something I'll never forget. By the way this is the fire in my default pic!

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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd Chief Sharp on April 9, 2009 at 11:56pm

When I first began as a Captain on our Department I was asked to cover the duty for the weekend. This entails being on call to respond as IC to any calls. The other Captains were of town that particular weekend. Anyhow, as things would happen we received a call for a structure fire. In-route to the scene the dispatcher calls me back and says that Police are on-scene and says the fires in the garage. As I come around to the street I see the fire rolling out of the garage door and left side windows. I note the hydrant down the street on the corner, everyone is out of the house, and the house is attached with a covered breeze way. The first responding engine reports to me that they are in-route. I call them back and tell them to catch the hydrant on the corner and bring on a line to the scene. I see the engine coming up the street and assume that they had caught the hydrant. They arrive on-scene and I discover that I had and Engineer and 4 brand new green firefighters. I then notice that they did not catch the hydrant. by this time the fire is now rolling into the kitchen window from the garage. I tell them to pull a 1 3/4 pre-connect to the front door and direct the line towards the kitchen area with intent to put the fire out in the kitchen. within minutes the water in the tank was gone and we were standing there without any water watching the fire build. this was just minutes after arriving on-scene. The owner of the property was a former Asst Chief with our Department and was running around hollering at me that we had to get the fire out. Just then my second out truck came on the air. I requested them to catch the same hydrant and within minutes that were on-scene with a qualified crew and a line to the hydrant. We made entry into the structure and had the fire out within minutes of their arrival. Of course the house was gutted and eventually was torn down and a new house built in its place. The fire was as a result of a chest freezer in the garage had been pushed back against the wall pinching the cord against the wall. The cord shorted out and ignited the wall starting the fire. The neighbors and former fire officer all came up to me and told me I had done a good job but in my gut I felt I had been tried by fire. My first structure fire as an officer had been quite an experience. Always remember that sick feeling of running out of water and having people around you yelling at you to do something. I think Murphy was in town that night.

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Permalink Reply by Devon on April 10, 2009 at 12:06am

i am not old enough to respond to calls yet, but I remember I was driving home from a school event in the late afternoon, and we came upon a scene. I saw the engines and knew it was my dep. I looked out my window as we passed and I saw a car stuck in a tree, about 30 feet in the air (car had driven off elevated hwy into tree below) I remember seeing one of my good friends/mentor climbing the tree, while trying to talk to the patient. The car was NOT stable in the tree and she was climbing, (the only branch to the car) right underneath it. I remember thinking to myself, WOW, i have never seen something like this before and it made me realize, that when duty calls, sometimes you are gonna have to do it your own way, and texts books cant prepare you for everything.

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Permalink Reply by Cory Deaton on April 10, 2009 at 12:08am

Mine was my first call that I went on. We rolled up on a car full of teenagers that rolled there car and hit a tree. 5 kids total in the car all but one was under 13 the driver was 16. When they rolled and hit the tree the 13 year hit the tree and was dead instantly. My partner and I pulled the girl out of the car as her friends watched us. We tried to contact the parents and could get ahold of them so we loaded her up and took her to the station and waited for ME to come. 15 minutes later the parents showed up to the station to identify there daughter as we where putting the truck back together it was the hardest time to she the parents and know that there was nothign you could do to help. That was the first time I went to a stress debriefing and I still think about that call sometimes.

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