A Career First

Having been in the business for a lot of years, it is not very often that a total new experience hits me like what happened last night...

Engine 6 was dispatched to a car fire at about 3 AM. We just got on the road when we were diverted to a chest pain call. So far, this is pretty normal - but then, it became apparent that the chest pain call was two doors down from the car fire. Technically, the car fire which was spreading to the garage, was a lower priority than someone dying from a heart attack. But, as you may have gathered, dispatch information is rarely accurate, and always assumes the worst when it comes to medical conditions.

Now 5 blocks out from the call, we see a glow in the sky, a plume of smoke, and know that we have a real problem on our hands. From two blocks out, it is obvious that this is a ripping fire, in a cul-de-sac, all the neighbors were awake, and we had multiple people directing us into the fire. To bad we were supposed to park the fire truck, ignore the fire, and go check on the little old lady with chest pain.

There is something about selling confidence to the public and managing your PR that dictated what we actually did. I had the engineer put the pump in gear and by himself, keep the fire out of the garage. While he was doing that, the firefighter and I went to check on the lady. As it turns out, she was actually having indigestion/heartburn and did not want to go to the hospital. She simply had read the signs and symptoms chart on her refrigerator, determined that it said to call 911 if you had chest pain, and the rest is history.

Another engine arrived shortly, finished putting out the fire, and we all went back to quarters.