Dumb-A$$

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Permalink Reply by Ron on June 16, 2009 at 10:21pm

A firefighters father worked for the Health Dept., removing struck deer from roads. He called the station to see if we wanted a newly deceased deer. He brought it to the firehouse where we hung it on the end of to ladder at the rear of the engine to dress it out. A short time later while taking a coffee break, we received a fire call. The Lt. usually shuts the door after the rig pulls out and there is the half dressed deer swinging in the breeze. We did a quick maneuver to remove it and still made first in!

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Permalink Reply by Mike Langford on June 27, 2009 at 11:34pm

don't feel bad I called 911 for directions to a fire call!!!! LMAO
My Chief really enjoyed that one.

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Permalink Reply by NewYork Probie on July 15, 2009 at 12:38pm

First live fire training ever. We're rollin in on the training grounds, simulationg a real response, captain turnas around and says ok, hit that hydrant. Immediately the procedure goes through my mind, I jump out, grab a portable, a light, and head the the back of the engine. i grab the jaffry valve and pull some slack down on the 4", wrap the hydrant and give them the all clear, as the truck is screamin down the road layin 4" I realize, oh SH*# no hydrant box, no tools, im screwd. Luckily someone else noticed and cam runnig back with the box. In my defense tho, we always trained with 2 guys on a hydrant, one got the box and one got the valve, that night it was just me. Better to mess up in a training then the real thing tho, I will never ever forget the hydrant box again.

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Permalink Reply by Justin on July 23, 2009 at 6:06pm

on one of my first calls as an EMT with the FD in Va. we were filling the city station while they were on multi calls ( MVA with entrapment on I81 and also had a working apt fire). we got called to this apt on the 5th floor for a EMS call( elevator was out of service). it was my job to make sure we had all the equipment we needed. needless to say i thought we had everything
but come to find out i had forgotten the O2 bag. i remembered this just as we were about to knock. since i was a probie and there was another emt with us, guess who had to run back down to the rig. also did i mention this is in Va in august and it was in the high 90's out. needless to say i tend not to forget any ems stuff when hopping off the rig

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Permalink Reply by Patience Ryan on July 24, 2009 at 3:37am

got a similar one for you. thankfully it wasn't a real call just a practice run with green crews on our new medic truck. Me being one of the most experienced medical people in our station (into my 4th year as an EMT)and the lead for the scenario with a newbie crew (no exp since FR training). So we're given our 'dispatch' 47 yo F pt feeling dizzy & complaining of chest pain I believe it was. The last group had a pediatric fall scenario. I grab everyone gloves since that was the side of the truck I was on (we didn't start in the truck, just next to it), the other two were to get the gear. we get part way to the house and one of our instructors stops us. He, of course, asks me what gear we have and I look back and see one man has the backboard and the other the main jump kit. no O2, no monitor. So back to the truck we go for the right stuff. My fault as lead not to make sure my people had the right stuff, or to double check that they knew what stuff they needed to bring. We hadn't even talked about it. I just kinda assumed they knew. (the other instructor teases me to this day about it. both instructors are also our station officers, they are also the only other EMTs in our station)

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Permalink Reply by Tiffanie Pettis on July 24, 2009 at 3:54pm

i think one story i will never forget is the first big call that i went on. it wasn't exactly a mistake on my part but it was hillarious!!! . . . it was a 5 am structure fire and as the morning went on more and more people came to the scene compared to the sketeton crew we had leaving the station. after we got every thing taken care of and picked up i was assigned to pick us walk out and roll up all the hose we had out. at the time i was about 3 months into being a member but i grew up wuth all the guys so i was already kinda "one of the guys," but my gear was typical aweful probie gear that didn't fit AT ALL! expecialy my boots- i have size 6 teeny little girl feet and i was issued jigantic mens 11 1/2 monster size boots that where extremely ineffective. the point of the story is that in the process of rolling the hose the boots where givig me problems and i had to keep stopping to fix them so all the guys at the call where picking on me and i yelled over all the noise that i couldnt do it because my BOOTS where too big ...but there is an ongoing joke now because the two leutenants and a chief thought i said something other than boots.

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Permalink Reply by Justin on August 3, 2009 at 11:39pm

LOL

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Permalink Reply by Tiffanie Pettis on August 4, 2009 at 1:22pm

ooooooh yea! they have ALOT of fun with that one

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Permalink Reply by Kevin R. Marlin on August 15, 2009 at 4:11pm

At my old vollie dept. the SOP was 2nd engine in would grab the nearest hydrant with one guy jumping off to wrap the hose and turn it on and then the driver, upon arriving on scene, would first clamp the hose in the street behind the engine before making any connections. It was a timing thing. Sooooo, at a 2am house fire, I'm driving the 2nd in. Stop a block away so my passenger could grab the hydrant. Then I proceed to lay a lot of LDH down the street where I stop, get off the rig, and start trying to pack out. I suddenly hear a guy near me curse, grab two hand-fulls of LDH, folding it over on itself and sitting on it. As the expanding 4" tries to throw him off of it, he calmly looks at me and sez, "Have the hydrant guy turn it off." Since we vollies didn't have our own portables to converse, I take off like a scalded dog in my bunker gear down the (thankfully) dark street yelling, "Turn off the hydrant! Turn off the hydrant!" I think they abandoned the whole timing SOP thing after that.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas McBride on November 13, 2009 at 8:47pm

Well I have done dumb a$$ stuf but this week had to be the best. I have had an attraction to holes this week. Let me explain.

Last saturday at FF1 we were training in the maze (our masks covered in saran wrap so we can see light but nothing else), well there is one part wher we come up to a ladder going down then a ramp giong back up. I was using the ax handle like a blind person cane to feel obsticles, it glides over the stairway and I don't feel it so there I am thinking the way was clear and picked up speed. Then all of a sudden I fall head first down the ladder (about 4 feet), as I lay crumpled up in a ball with SCBA on I hear people yelling you ok? I was ok and got up feeling about 3" tall.

Well I put this behind me and we got a call at 3:45 AM the other morning, It was a grain dryer on fire. I was able to make the second engine, at the scene I pulled both hand lines, and got the roof ladder for my captain, and was bringing it to him to place on the dryer. We got it up and I was moving out of his way. I stepped to the right and fell over like a bowling pin into a 3' deep pit for the millings.

Again it is dark, I can't see, i'm lying in a hole and people are yelling are you ok. Again I get up, tell them I am and fine and feel 3" tall.

So I told my girlfriend she doesn't have to worry about me getting burned or having smoke inhilation just falling into holes.

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Permalink Reply by Ron McRae on November 14, 2009 at 6:37am

I just got hired about 4 months ago and, luckily, I haven't done TOO many stupid things. Some are pretty funny. Our city is proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World" so there's huge events and parades the week of Halloween. Well, the first parade I didn't have a department jacket so the Asst. Chief tossed me his jacket to wear since it was about 30 degrees out. Couldn't help but feel about 8 inches tall having the "Blackhats" call me "Chief" all night. Another lesson learned, DONT RESPOND TO CALLS WEARING YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUME... Especially one that does not look right without the mullet wig. People just wont understand and you end up looking like a total goon in the wrong decade.

My favorite "dumb a$$ moment, however, is after my first fire 3 weeks onto the job. I came into the dept with my fire 1,2 and EMT but I was completely shocked to make an engine at 3 weeks. Go to do quite a bit but when we got back to the station we started cleaning the trucks and recovery etc... Well, nobody told me that cleaning our personal gear waited until EVERYTHING was done. So I finished my tasks and started cleaning my pumpkin orange helmet before all of the hose got reloaded. One of the blackhats yelled SO LOUD that all 20 people in the station heard him. Needless to say I dropped my helmet and grabbed a towel to wipe the truck some more. Lesson learned.

When I tell non-firefighters all the goofy and funny things that happen they really dont laugh. They looked more puzzled. Guess it's all in perspective.

Stay safe!

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