For Your Convenience

Before we go any further with this blog, I should explain why I titled it "For Your Convenience". Although fitting because we are here to serve the great public (that was sarcasm by the way), there is another meaning behind it. It was several years ago when we were dispatched to an unconscious female in an apartment. We arrived on scene with our ambulance and went inside where a man tells us that his wife drank too much and is passed out in the bathroom. At this point he's pretty pissed off at her for coming home drunk and just wants us to take her out of there before the kids wake up. So head into the bathroom and find this chubby Hispanic lady passed out on the floor near the toilet. Trying to wake her up, we give her a sternal rub and apparently open Pandora's Box. See a pattern here? Perhaps we should stop waking up drunks.

Our new friend wakes up, covered in puke, and starts yelling every obstinacy that her middle school education learned her. We grab he clothes and drag her out of the bathroom into the attached bedroom so we could try calming her down but this fish out of water had plenty of fire left in her. She starts screaming at us, "just take to me jail, get me out of here and take me to jail already". We tried explaining to her that we weren't the cops and just wanted to check her vital signs. It was then that she blurted out the infamous line "oh, for your convenience". Everything now became for our "convenience".  "M'am I need to take your blood pressure". "WHATEVER, FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE" in the drunkest way possible. Then she decided to tell us that we were racist and continued cursing at us. We tried advising her her that she most likely needed to go to the hospital and of course, it was for our convenience and wanted us to take her to jail again. Although it was funny as hell, it's times like this where I wish we could take blood pressure from the neck. At this point we realize that she is not competent enough to make her own decisions so we tell the husband that we are taking her and tightly strap her ass to the stretcher like we were going to shoot her out of a cannon. 

We get her in the ambulance and we go back in service, so the rest of this story is what was told to me by the ambulance crew. They go en route to the hospital and the guy in the back is trying to talk to her when the following conversation takes place: (imagine her speaking extremely slurred)

EMT: "Are you on anything or what did you drink?"

Drunk: "I'm not tellin you nuffin" 

EMT: "ok whatever"

Drunk: "I'm not tellin you nuffin cause your the wrong skin color"

EMT: "Oh it's going to be like that?"

Drunk: "For your convenience!"

They arrive at the hospital and the back doors swing open when she sees the brick wall behind the ambulance. "I fucking knew it! You fucking lied to me. You took me to jail" The EMT tells her "No we're just at the hospital". They get her signed in and stick her in a room, then go outside to clean the stretcher when a few minutes later, here comes ol' drunky running out of the hospital and making a b-line for the EMT. She runs up to him, puts her finger in his face and says, "FUCK YOU...I'M OUT!!!" then takes off running through the parking lot. The nurse goes chasing after while this chick is now trying to open every locked door around the building. 

So the phrase "For Your Convenience" became our new response to about everything around the station. I felt it was very fitting as the name for this blog and here we are today.

A Nostalgic Call

It was a slow and lazy Sunday around the station. Our ambulance had several runs throughout the day while we did some cleaning and watched the football game. It wasn't a very exciting shift but our next call was sure to be something I will remember for the rest of my life. We were dispatched to a medical call in one of my least favorite neighborhoods. One ridden with crime and desperation that will make any man feel sorry for the way these people live. As we pull up to the duplex it begins to look familiar. I know I've been here before but for what? We make so many runs that I can't remember what the hell I did last tour, let alone years ago. We went inside and hung out in the hallway while the ambulance crew attended to the bed ridden patient. She was in a hospital bed complaining of breathing problems and needed to go to the hospital so one of my crew members went out for the stretcher. Just then, a relative of the patient walks in the front door who I immediately recognize. He was a hefty man, wearing a light blue security guard uniform resembling a police officer. This uniform was very distinctive as it quickly brought back memories from a few short years ago.

I was a relativity new officer riding on a different shift at the time. It was a crazy period toward the end of the year when we had a huge spell of structure fires. I want to say we had 30 working fires within a couple months, for the most part every shift that I was on the engine. Early one evening while the sun was beginning to set, we were dispatched to a duplex on fire. We arrived first on location with light smoke coming from the front door so I have the crew pull a handline, and I go do my walk-around. There were a few people standing in the front yard who told me that no one was home so I donned my mask and we forced open the front door. Black smoke filled the entry, banked down almost to the floor so we had to crawl in on our hands and knees. I remember turning right at the door and following a couch as our only guide through the living room until we saw the orange glow coming from a back bedroom. We stopped at the bedroom door for a brief second and watched the fire roll up the wall towards the ceiling, admiring how absolutely beautiful something so deadly can be. I find it amazing that a person is able to sit and watch something like that, without being overcome with heat and smoke.

We put the fire out using an indirect attack which means we sprayed the nozzle towards the ceiling for about 3 seconds, creating a steam blanket.. This method works well with fires contained to a room because it greatly reduces the amount of water damage in a home that is salvageable. 1 cubic foot of water can convert to 1700 cubic feet of steam. The trick worked and we entered the room to open a window and let some cool air in, then proceeded to put out the remaining embers while calling for a ventilation fan to be set up in the door. I remember going through the room and into the closet where through the smoke, I could see blue uniform shirts hanging up. My first thought was that this was the home of a police officer and it was not until later that I saw the security guard patches. I remember meeting the man that day and describing what we did inside of his house. I try to make a point in talking to the homeowner and explaining why we did things the way we did, so they can have a clear understanding of the service we provided. I don't know why I remember the details of this fire so clearly but for some reason it stands out.

Back to present day, the lady with breathing problems is actually laying in the same room that the fire was in. It was strange to stand in the living room by the couch where I could remember crawling with almost zero visibility a few years ago. It is not something we get to do very often. When the security guard walked in, we began talking about the fire and what the impact was afterwards. He told me how grateful he was for what we did that day. As a person with little money, his home was saved. He also told me about the new furniture he got and that he was able to get a new air conditioner which he could not afford to buy before the fire. Hearing this and reflecting on what we did that day gave me an appreciation for the job that I've never felt before. Despite the bullshit we deal with every day, it was nice to know that we did some good in the world and were able to see an end result which frankly doesn't happen very often. Truly a great moment. 

Sunday Bloody Sunday

It was later in the evening and no one felt like cooking dinner so we decided to grab something from the local taco shack. We were heading down the highway when up ahead we saw a few wreckers hauling ass and a cop car with it's lights on coming our direction. Seeing this, I figured we were about to get sent to something and just then our computer let off it's distinct ring. It was a run for a motor vehicle incident back near the station. I think it's funny that most runs near the station tend to come in when we are out somewhere else. Well we went to make the u-turn when we saw 5 more cops coming our way in the distance. This is beginning to look like something more than a car accident unless the cops are just that bored, but they normally don't have their lights and sirens on unless it's a priority incident. We make a turn off the highway and the dispatcher tells us that we will now be going to a shooting at the local children's entertainment center (not unusual at this place) which is roughly at the same intersection as the accident. Now it's beginning to make a little more sense as to why all the cops were hauling ass over there.

As we now focus our attention on getting to the entertainment center, we roll up on a smashed up car in the median who apparently hit and knocked down a tree. So not really having any detailed information, we stopped a little before because I wasn't sure if this was two separate incidents. I needed to call dispatch to verify where we were going because we would have no choice but to commit to the accident since we had to pass it to get to the entertainment center. Of course dispatch tells us to stand by so we just decide to stop at the accident before they saw us just sitting in the road. As we pull up, a few cops are there putting someone in handcuffs so I roll down my window and ask if this was related to the shooting and he said the the shooting was at both places. To be safe, I called for a second ambulance and we got out to deal with the wreck. The driver had been shot and had a large amount of blood on his neck and back area. Being that he was shot and had hit a tree, we had multiple things to worry about but he was awake and talking fine so that was a good thing. The guy in handcuffs was the passenger who I guess was now a suspect in the shooting.

Still trying to put the pieces together, it was determined that no one was shot at the entertainment center. The first ambulance had shown up there and did not have a patient. They called us on the radio and said there was no shooting victim at that location and I disregarded the second ambulance. That ambulance made their way over to us and I see another engine company coming down the road with it's lights and sirens on so I assume they were dispatched to the entertainment center since we had stopped at the wreck. This is all turning out to be a huge cluster fuck. Just to add on to the chaos, dispatch asks me if we still need another ambulance which I have already disregarded. Frustrated I say that both places will be the same incident, we have everyone we need here and disregard anyone else who happens to be en route. I see the other engine make a u-turn and emergency lights go off so I assume they got they message. We get the victim secured and begin pulling him out of the car when what do you know, the second ambulance who has now been disregarded twice pulls up with lights flashing. I swear we all have the same radio channels but apparently no one was listening. I yelled across the road and told them to go back in service as we didn't need anymore confusion on the scene. Don't worry, it doesn't end here. Our EMS supervisor showed up out of the blue and started getting on to people for not checking out the guy in handcuffs because there was spidering on the passenger side windshield from the guy's head. I tried explaining that when we pulled up, we asked the officer if the guy needed to be checked out and we were told no so we focused our attention on the more critical shooting victim. We finally get the victim loaded in the ambulance and we go stand off to the side looking at the car. Of course despite the major drought, it began shitting rain for the next 5 minutes. None of us had our rain gear so we tried hiding under a tree until it stopped. This night just wasn't getting any better.

The story begins to piece together now. Allegedly some guy at the entertainment center is robbed by these two yahoos in the car and somehow they end up down the road shot and wrecked. The cops were thinking that the passenger shot him but looking at the car, that theory didn't make any sense. If the passenger shot him, how were there bullet holes outside the passenger door?

Their other theory was that this guy was shot back in the parking lot and drove here until he wrecked. I told the cop that the alleged robbery victim probably chased these guys down the road and shot him causing them to wreck. But the only problem was that there was no gun and no shell casings so nothing to back up any kind of theory, as none of the people involved were talking. We ended up staying for a little bit and helping the cops search for a gun. We looked in bushes, drains, grass, and everywhere else between the parking lot and where the wreck took place but didn't find anything. We we starving so told one of the cops that we were leaving so we could go eat when he asked where we were going and if we could bring him a soda back. Being that this was next to the station, we obliged and went on our way.

After dinner, we stopped back by the scene and I gave to cop his drink. As soon as I walked up, he told me  that my theory was correct and they found the gun hidden under a can at the elementary school field across the street. They also found the bullet casings which were underneath where the fire truck was originally parked. The entire ended up being a drug deal in the parking lot of the entertainment center. Something went wrong and the guys in the car took off down the road. The man chased after them and fires out of his window Bonnie and Clyde style, hitting the driver which caused him to run off the road and into the tree. The shooter makes a u-turn and gets out to hide the gun and returns to the parking lot where he calls police saying that he was robbed so he wouldn't get in trouble for the drug deal. So it turned out that the original robbery victim was now going to jail and the cluster fuck of the year was finally at a close. On to the next one.

Never Wake a Sleeping Bear

One of my favorite things about being a fireman is dealing with drunk people. Just the pure comic value makes it worth waking up at 4:00 in the morning. For some reason on this part of town we get an abnormal amount of drunks passing out behind the wheel of their car at stoplights which most of the time results in them going to jail versus the hospital. Well my last occurrence with a drunk didn't come in at the normal 2-5am hour but right after we started our shift. It was around 7am when my engine along with our ambulance were dispatched to an unconscious person on the side of the road. Like any morning call we are wide awake and ready for the day so we get out of the station pretty quick, but before our ambulance who was about a minute behind us for some reason.

We got to the neighborhood relativity fast and as we pull up, see a man passed out on his face laying near a tree. Well we walk up and "carefully" shake him a little until he starts coming to until in the blink of an eye, he lunges forward and goes for the legs of the guy closest to him. He's grabbing and punching the firefighter's legs like a madman so I force him back to the ground. I've seen enough of episodes of Cops so I put my knee in his chest with most of my weight on it to hold him down while the other guys came and held his arms. About that time, one of the guys got on the radio and asked for the cops which should have already been on the way but we needed them to hurry before this guy got out of hand. Well in the midst of all that, this guy somehow squirms around enough to become loose of my knee and tries to fight again. I don't know where he thought he was going but I grabbed the back of his neck and forced him face down in the ground while another guy, I shit you not, leaps through the air like a soaring eagle and lands on the patient's back. I'm sure if you were standing there watching it that it would have looked like a Hollywood movie. It all happened in slow motion and I can still see the firefighter in mid flight.

Now I want to make it clear for you "Brutality Nazis" out there that we are allowed to subdue patients if we feel our safety is in jeopardy. Being that this guy was trying to fight us, we had every right to restrain him until the cops arrived. Here is a video of something similar I found on the internet.

After we got this guy under control, dispatch calls us back to find out what was going on. I guess they could hear the commotion in the background as we called for the police.

Dispatch: "Engine XX is your patient violent?"

Us: "NOT ANYMORE!!"

Dispatch: "Do you still need law enforcement at your location?"

Us: "THAT WOULD BE NICE"

No longer than a minute later, the dumbest cop on the face of the earth shows up. (For the record I love cops, and have many friends who are police officers but some are just absolutely stupid. Don't worry we have firemen like that too). This cop gets out of the car, sees us and gives us a big ol' good to see ya smile while casually walking up to where we are. No urgency or care in the world , it's not like we were actively restraining someone or anything. The cop makes his way over and asks what's going on so we tell him the story, all while still holding the guy down mind you. He grabs his handcuffs and holds them out in front of him like he expected us to put them on the guy. We ended up calming the patient down by explaining to him that we were there to help. At that point, I think he finally realized what was going on and snapped out of his little angry mode. He agreed to not cause anymore problems so we let him up and the cop tells him to walk over to the police car. We watch as he stumbles away with the cop not even watching but it wasn't really our problem anymore so we went back in service. 

Does it Smell Like Gas in Here?

My last day on started out pretty slow but we were all in some sort of mood as the evening went on. Not necessarily bad moods, just quiet and hungry until we were interrupted by a dispatch over the house speakers. It was what we call a "still alarm" which means it only requires one engine company for situations such as fire alarms, vehicle fires, and smells of gas which is what we were dispatched to this time around. We head out to the pumper and I take a look at our computer which as usual didn't have any important information on it. Now my Engineer, I love him to death and he is damn good at the job but has no clue where he's going half the time. I have been trying to train him on how to find out where we are going based on the address because street numbers get larger away from downtown and get larger going South. So testing him, I turn and ask which way we needed to turn out of the station and he of course, with an unsure look on his face points left. I chuckle and tell him to go right as I hit en route on the computer.

We get rolling and end up fighting traffic as we make our way across the highway into another engine companies territory. They must have been out on another run which is why we were sent that way. Unfamiliar with the neighborhoods on that side, I begin studying the map, looking at a zig zag of turns we have to make.  We find our way fairly easy and pull up to find the resident standing outside in the yard waiting for us. His family is sitting in a car on the street so i'm thinking that something must really be wrong in there. Usually when the family is outside or someone is frantically flagging us down, the call will turn out to be something decent. I guess we can give them a few merit points for safety. I get out and walk up to the resident who tells me that his house smells like gas, mainly in the kitchen area. That is not uncommon so we didn't think of anything out of the ordinary and made our way in the house. Once inside, there is definitely some sort of smell but i'm not convinced it's actually gas at this point. We've had plenty of these types of calls in the past and more times than I would like found out the smell was coming from trash or even old food in the oven.

Once in the kitchen, I swear we took a time machine back to 1983. Wow what a place. The tile floor is cracked and the all wooden kitchen was just a sight for sore eyes. The stove in question was covered in a mix of grease and rust while the microwave above it was so old that it only had two buttons, off and on. There may have been some sort of dial timer on there but geeze. We go straight for the stove and pull it out to check the gas line in the back which looked alright but I sent one of the firefighters to shut the main gas line off to be safe. Now that we have been there a few minutes, the smell becomes more of burning than gas so we begin to investigate further and end up seeing a few embers coming from the wall area behind the stove. I go back to the engine and grab my thermal imaging camera so I can take a look inside the wall but didn't really find anything significant. At this point our mood is fading away as we start giggling at all the anomalies in this place which is truly hard to explain in words. Because of the embers, I send someone to find the breaker box in the back yard and he immediately comes back in cracking up. Apparently he saw some unknown "thing" that scuttled through the yard yard then jumped into the black nasty pool, not to be seen again. This call is just getting better and better.

Here is a look at the stove before we continue:

Yep those are bugs in there

As we continue looking for the source of the smell and embers, the floor tile i'm standing on breaks right in half. I'm no contractor but perhaps putting grout between the tiles would resolve this issue. Trying to control our laughter, I try looking behind the stove but get some sort of grease on my hands from touching the counter. This call is going downhill fast but before we went any further, we donned our medical gloves to prevent any more interactions with the grease monster. Well it turns out that there was never a gas leak, but the stove had melted wires in the back which were starting to burn and put off the odor we were smelling. This wouldn't be too bad except for the fact I had to keep explaining to the resident that his appliances are too old, not to mention a major major fire hazard which i'm not really sure he understood. I guess this kind of living is just normal to some people. I told him that the stove has to stay unplugged and he can not EVER EVER use it again. Part of that was for his own health reasons let alone the damn fire hazard. Well good news, it was time to go eat dinner!

It still baffles me why people call 911 for things like this. A year or so ago I was at my mother in law's house, sitting on the couch and began to smell something burning. 911 didn't even cross my mind as I started looking around until I found a wall outlet with black charring on the cover. Simple enough, we shut off the breaker and replaced the outlet. People lack common sense these days which is a bad sign for our future.

Band of Brothers

Ah another long tour in our shitty part of town. You know driving through it (except in a few select areas) you would never know what takes place beyond those walls. Strange though, for the last few months our call volume seems to have dropped dramatically. I work at a fairly busy station, a lot of medical runs unless we have an arsonist running around which is not unusual. Many sleepless nights and many strange experiences that for sure could not be fathomed by the wildest imagination. The part of town I work in is dubbed an "international" area which brings an interesting array of people from all over the world. We have a large population of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and a few Middle Eastern people throughout. We have houses, apartment complexes, government housing, schools, and an anomalous amount of African churches. A territory which really keeps us on our toes. I am the "Officer" of my crew, which for a technical sake means the boss although i'm not really big on throwing that around. I am only a small part in a group of men that when together, function like a well oiled machine. These men are some of the best and I am honored to lead then into battle. Without them, well I would just be some idiot wondering the depths of society looking for the unknown.

Now when I say "my crew", I am speaking of three individuals in particular although there are many other great firemen I work with on and off my shift. There are the two Firefighters, one of which is my daughter's godfather and my Engineer. The two firefighters and I have worked together for quite some time, and together we have seen the depths of hell. True moments when you realize how important we are to one another. This goes not only for firefighting, but in friendship as they have been by my side through the worst of times. My Engineer is relativity new to our crew but in that short time has proven to be a perfect fit in our small brotherhood. The four of us are what make up our shift's engine company, characterized by others as "The Super Crew". It is somewhat of a daft name but I can assure you it's used only as tongue-in-cheek. By no means in reality are we the best out there but I am willing to throw down a bet that we could stand the test of time as one of the most unified crews around. As signified by the words written inside my helmet, "walking or carried, we come out together".

I couldn't talk about my crew without mentioning a few others who in the past were just as much a part of us. They have moved on for various reasons but will always remain one of the crew. I have been privileged to work beside some wonderful people over the years and I can't wait to see what the future holds. But for now as told by the great William Shakespeare; "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

Living the Dream

Ah the dream. Every kid has one right? To be a doctor, or a fireman. Perhaps a police officer, carpenter, or even the occasional garbage man. It's not like some snot nosed little kid is running around playing pharmacy tech filling moms pretend feel good pills. They want the cool jobs, the ones with some sort of equipment and big bad ass trucks.Well that was me, I wanted to be a fireman. Pretty generic as I think every little boy wants to be one at some point. But me, I was different. I had all the latest toys, the helmets and plastic coats. I visited stations and ran outside every time I heard a siren. There was no mistaking that little ol' me was just set on becoming a fireman. No real reason why, although I believe most true firemen were born with it in their blood. Perhaps my Irish ancestry had something to do with it.

Well I got through high school, met the love of my life and started college. I was in a phase where I didn't have a clue what I wanted. Of course the passion for being a fireman was still there but as a young immature teen, I was too focused on sleeping and partying to do anything about it. Time went on and street racing became my thing. A phase i'm not entirely proud of but everyone does something stupid during their lifespan. I had no job, lived with my girlfriend and our two roommates which provided for some great memories but nothing was being done to advance my life until I eventually got enough courage to propose to my girlfriend, which was my first step in the right direction. I give her credit to this day for most of the good things that have happened in my life. Finally a short time down the road, my life changed forever as that little childhood dream was finally about to come true.

It was the day I bought my first gun. My wife and I decided to go "look around" so we headed off to the store and of course the first thing I see as we pull in the parking lot was a bright shiny red fire truck. As usual when I saw a firetruck, I looked at it and imagined what it would be like to actually ride one of those but this one was different. There was a banner attached to the back with some information about joining the department. Bam! It hit me like a home run at the hands of Babe Ruth! What the hell have I been waiting for? Lightning hit my brain and told me to get off my ass and get that dream under way so we go inside and low and behold, the firefighters are standing at the gun counter. It just had to be a sign of some sort. My wife began encouraging me to go talk to them but I didn't really want to bother the guys, plus i'll admit I was a little shy. Back then I wasn't one to just walk up to some random person and begin a conversation. She kept egging me on and I wouldn't budge until she gave up and just went over herself. I'm of course standing over by the counter like some middle school kid making a friend go talk to the new girl for me. She comes back with a phone number and a smirk, and we go about looking at guns. In case you are wondering, I ended up buying a black 12 gauge ass kicking machine. So my dream was finally coming true and I couldn't believe it was finally happening. There are few days that I hold priceless, but the one where I bought my first gun and joined the fire department is for sure at the top. Outdone only by the day my child was born.

12 years later, I'm sitting at the firehouse reflecting back on that childhood. I can't help but remember running around with my little plastic fire helmet dreaming of the day I would be right here, wearing this uniform, with a real fire helmet sitting on the front dash of a pumper. Oh and what a time it's been. I now question those childhood dreams and wonder if this is really as glorious as I made it out to be. The proverbial heroes, running in while everyone is running out or whatever they like to say. Now don't get me wrong, I love being a fireman more than anything in the world but the glory is for the birds. Sure we do our bit of good in the world but a majority of the time, we are dealing with the stupidest people you could ever imagine. It's pretty entertaining at times although the sleepless nights get old, especially when people expect the fire department to come take care of their menial tasks. Things that i'm certain are not "Emergencies". But on the other hand, it's part of the job I love and i'm willing to suffer through those sleepless nights because thick or thin, I will always love being a fireman.

So along with the good and the bad, I'm living the dream. The dream that encompassed my mind day in and day out in what seems to be only yesterday. Now, I wound like to share with the world what it's like to be a true "emergency" worker. I absolutely love to write and have said for a long time that I would write a book although I've never been able to settle on a topic. I know this isn't a book but it's the next best thing. A place where I can share my thoughts and experiences one crazy chapter at a time. This blog won't necessarily be about me but about what I do so i'll spare you the personal details and we can get down to business. This is not what you see on television, it's more than putting water on fire, and it's nothing like you've ever imagined, so sit back and enjoy your behind the scenes pass to the real fire service. Welcome, to the dark side of 911.