Right Place - Right Time

We seem to be starting a new trend that I hope continues for us - getting good calls en route to or returning from training.

A lot of our classes and drills take place at our headquarters training tower or the classroom at another station, both in different cities. We have to go out of service and drive out to the other location, usually about 20 plus minutes away. On this first day we were scheduled to go to a class on report writing. That didn't promise to be much fun and none of us were really looking forward to it. We were on the freeway about 4 or 5 exits away from our destination when my captain said, "Is that smoke up ahead?" Off on the right hand shoulder ahead of us we could see a growing plume of white/brown smoke. I turned on my lights and started moving over that way. As we got closer, we saw that there was a car pulled off the freeway with a growing fire in the engine compartment.


Now, we were going to class and so were dressed in our Class B uniforms (wool pants, button up shirt with badge, and station boots), so when we pulled in front of the burning car we all had to jump out and change into our turnouts. It really only takes a minute to dress but it's an awkward thing when you're used to being ready to go the minute you step off the rig. Once we were dressed, we pulled a line to the car and the firefighter went to work on the fire.


I brought the captain tools to pry into the engine compartment so the firefighter would have a more direct access to the seat of the fire. The fire didn't get a chance to really get going and was out in a matter of minutes, although it did take most of the water in our tank to do it. On the freeway, obviously, there are no hydrants, so you have to make do with the water you carry in your tank.

The best part of the call was the fact that it took place in a neighboring department's jurisdiction and by the time they showed up on scene we already had it all under control and got to send them back to their station without them getting to do anything. This particular department is known for their tough guy/cowboy attitudes and often don't play well with others, so it was nice to poach one of their calls.

The very next tour we had to do our monthly performance drill at the main tower and on our way back home to our station we watched a truck lock up it's brakes in front of us and traffic come to a halt. Off in the distance, we could see ambulance lights and just then another of our department's rigs went past us on the left hand shoulder of the freeway. They run on a different radio channel than us so we hadn't heard about the accident through dispatch. We lit it up and worked our way over to the shoulder and followed the engine in. What we found when we got there was a three car accident with one of the cars flipped on it's roof and two people trapped inside. The first crew on scene was deploying the Hurst tools (or Jaws of Life) and we took responsibility for one of the patients inside.

My firefighter crawled through the broken rear window and held c-spine on the driver who was laying flat, face down, on what was once the ceiling of the car and was now the floor. I talked to the patient through the side window while the other crew pried the doors off so we had access to the patients.


We were able to get a backboard slid under the patient and pulled her out on it. The ambulances were already on scene, so we did a quick "strip and flip" (cut the patients clothes off to check for injuries front and back) and loaded them up for transport to the trauma center. Neither patient we pulled out of that car seemed to have any obvious major injuries, which was surprising considering the condition of their car, but we don't often get to take part in a really good auto extrication.

We helped clean up leaking auto fluids and swept up debris from the wreck before being released to go back to our station. We all agreed that we need to start leaving town for training more often if these are the kind of calls we're going to get.