Real life nightmare for firefighters

[Ivan the Butcher]

Our family is very service minded. There are a number of LEO's, several in the Army, a few Marines, and only 2 Firefighters. One is a 12-year, full time firefighter in Kentucky, and the other is a 22-year Captain of a Volunteer Company in New Jersey. The full timer always poo-pooed anything the volunteer had to say, Until the last family thanksgiving feast!

About a week and a half before Halloween, The 42-year-old captain (22 years of service) and the 56-year-old chief (34 years of service) were going over upcoming training schedules at lunch at the firehouse. The Alarm went off, and the County Dispatcher gave the address and said a fire was at one of the local nursing homes and would send 3 companies!

The two veteran firefighters put on their Turn Out Gear, grabbed a pumper truck and got to the nursing home. Smoke was pouring out of both the first and second story windows of one wing (about 16 rooms on each floor).

When they entered the lobby, they saw the staircase was engulfed in flames! They both ran to the far end of the hall and went to the second floor. They both started checking rooms closest to the fire. In the time it took for the second fire truck to arrive, they had each carried 4 residents to safety outdoors. The second truck started fighting the fire, the third truck completed the evacuation of the building. The Captain and Chief could then catch their breath.

(back to Thanksgiving dinner) The Volunteer Captain (my son-in-law) and the Fulltime Firefighter were seated at the same table. At the beginning of the story, my nephew (fulltime firefighter) kind of rolled his eyes! By the time the story got to the smoke-filled nursing home, his face was ash colored and his brow dripping with sweat!

The story ended with no injuries or deaths. The cause was a electric wheelchair being charged UNDER THE STAIRS! The lithium battery and charger had overheated and burst into flames. The fulltime firefighter asked about 20 questions, trying to piece together every detail. After the meal, I saw "Fulltime" give the "Captain" a hug, a handshake and before sitting at the game table He braced to attention!

There is no longer animosity between Fulltime service and Volunteer service!

Epilogue: The Chief and the Captain were recognized by the State of New Jersey and the County Chiefs of Firefighting with "Life Saving Medal" First Class fall of 2023 regional awards ceremony.

Ivan

 

[Doug M.]

Anyone who does not appreciate the fire service folks is a fool. When I taught college for a year (criminal justice stuff of course) I made sure that everyone understood that if one must allocate scarce resources (like taxes), put the $$ into fire/ems. The things they do require multiple people and expensive equipment to serve the function. Just about anyone can shoot the burglar and solve their own problem.

 

[Rob613]

My nephew is an assistant chief for his towns volunteer company. They just had a large fire at a pallet company. It was in the middle of the night and no one was inside so they didn’t have to try to go in. He’s been in his fair share of burning buildings though.

He started riding on fire trucks when he was a kid, my brother in law was a volunteer firefighter for the town they lived in. At 16 he became a junior firefighter and has moved up from there. Received multiple awards and citations over the years.

He lost his dad when he was 15, he would be proud of the man his kid has become.

 

[Rudi]

PTL that no one was hurt!

 

[lihpster]

I will always respect someone who runs into the danger to save others, no matter what uniform they wear.

 

[whitestang]

These are the stories most do not hear of. Congratulations to both men.

 

[Kevin J.]

Ivan that is an awesome story. I wish I could give more than one like.

Fire fighters are very under appreciated IMO, but I am biased. That rear end you see going into that window is my son. Him and his partner carried out two brothers who were unconscious. Both survived.

 

[45Smashemflat]

Mad respect…

 

[Alk8944]

I don't see the "Nightmare". What is described is just a normal day at work for firemen. Fortunately not every day!

 

[quikdraw67]

I am a volunteer FF. I have my FF1 certification. I usually don't do interior, mostly scene support and sometimes pump panel.

But we all train and work as hard as the paid departments.

And a nursing home fire would be a nightmare on so many levels. We have one in our district and one in our box. I've been to both on what turned out to be false alarms.

I pray that they never turn into the real thing.

 

[dmn57]

Got a cousin that's an Assistant Chief in a ****** IL town. It got so bad that he started wearing a ballistic vest when they went out because some of the locals liked shooting at first responders, but he never missed a call. The balls on that guy...

 

[WardenRoss]

Early in my LEO career I went through part of the Fire Academy to train for fire fighting in institutional scenarios.

Believe me, it takes balls to enter a burning building.

,

 

[ladder13]

Ivan that is an awesome story. I wish I could give more than one like.

Fire fighters are very under appreciated IMO, but I am biased. That rear end you see going into that window is my son. Him and his partner carried out two brothers who were unconscious. Both survived.

Underappreciated often,but, not to be deterred, nothing better than having someone you pulled out of a fire, cut out of a serious wreck, brought back with CPR, calming a frantic parent with a choking child, etc etc, coming to the firehouse days later and personally thanking the crew.

 

[charlie sherrill]

During my 40+ year career as a LEO I spent a lot of time with firemen. I worked with a city with full time paid firefighters and counties with volunteer firefighters. I didn't see any difference in the way they worked. I ate many free lunches and meals at a lot of fire halls. I especially enjoyed the wild game and fish they cooked. I had several firemen tell me they would not want to go into a house after a criminal. My usual response was "I would not want to go into a house and fight a fire". The city firemen were ready to fight a fire when they rolled up with the first truck and crew. I mostly directed traffic and kept morons from driving over the fire hoses. On several occasions with the county the firetruck would arrive with only a driver. I would be the nozzle man until other volunteers arrived. After doing this for the first time I went and trained with them. I had to go home and change wet uniforms several times. I found out one night what a single blast on a firetruck air horn means. I was standing inches away when it went off. I have the greatest respect for all firefighters.

 

[Golddollar]

Underappreciated often,but, not to be deterred, nothing better than having someone you pulled out of a fire, cut out of a serious wreck, brought back with CPR, calming a frantic parent with a choking child, etc etc, coming to the firehouse days later and personally thanking the crew.

My brother is one of the people brought back from the dead by a fire company. Back in 2001 my brother was at home and was stricken by a massive heart attack. On the run to the hospital my brother's heart stopped and the EMT person used the paddles on my brother and his heart was restarted. My brother was taken to a hospital that, if memory serves me, did 1000 bypasses a year, and underwent a quintuple bypass procedure. That was the first time I ever heard of ANYBODY having a quintuple bypass. My brother was 46 at the time.

About a month later, I went down to visit my brother. He made up a bunch of chocolate mousse pies and we took them to the firehouse. It was heartwarming to see one of the firemen and my brother hug each other out of joy and gratitude.

And what has happened to my brother? I just saw him over Thanksgiving.

 

[cballman]

My son was a Paramedic i our county for Quite a while. A few years ago he and his team went to a moped accident in the far reaches of our county. When they got there it was no only a moped accident BUT the young man had a bad head injury. They called for a helicopter but the closest one was 30 minutes out. My sons boss looked at him and said can you do it?? He said load him up. The normal time from our courthouse to the accident area was about a 35-45 minute drive doing the normal driving. My son boss ask him when he got to the hospital how fast was he driving. My son being the smartaleck that he is said only 85 cause that is what the speedometer pegged out to. The boss said she couldnt keep up with him and was just watching him disappear. He made it to the hospital in 23 minutes which in normal traffic would would take around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours to make it. Then about a year and a half later the mother brought her son to meet the boys that saved him. He had to relearn how to walk and had to do a little speech therapy but he was good. Now yes over the years we feed a lot of his friends, coworkers and sometimes the whole crew. Jus to show our suport for him and what they do!!

 

[bgrafsr]

I always got along with our fire fighters and was assigned to the arson detail.
One night a call came in that a house was on fire. My partner and I were close and arrived on scene before the fire dept. got there. Found out there were two young girls in the house, so I attempted to enter the house to find them. The flames and heat prevented me from entering, and firefighters went in and got the two girls, but they were badly burned.
I always felt bad that I couldn't get the girls out.

 

[raljr1]

Years ago we lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh that had a full time department. On those days if they needed an additional department to support them they would only call a department with a full time crew. The nearest besides the Pittsburgh department was 20 miles away.

After several years of this, one day they called for assistance and the Capt of the full time dept told the other captain that there were 4 or 5 excellent volunteer departments within a mile or two. Call one of them.

Nowadays that mentality seems to have gone away as I saw the full time and vol depts together at a recent call

Robert

 

[Doug M.]

We have one Fire District here that is full time; the City combined with a rural district some years back. The rest, as far as I know, are volunteer/part time. A significant issue is wild land stuff, which can be a bear. There are places here that are not really accessible for fire equipment.

As a small town cop in Illinois, my main utility for the fire/ems folks was at medical calls I would grab a family member and get the patient's meds for the ER folks, then sometimes help with moving the gurney with the patient on it.