Fire Family

There is no question that emergency personnel see a lot of horrible things. I certainly have a handful of calls and images that will never leave my head. Although I also have plenty of good ones too. We see people often on their very worst day. One of the ways we cope with that is knowing that we are the helpers. We are the ones who are trying to make it better or easier and most of the time we succeed, even if not to the level we aspire to. Even when the outcome isn't what we hoped for we know that we gave it all we could and in the aftermath continued to help in whatever way we can.

But it's not just the ones who call 9-1-1 that we see go through awful events in their lives, it's each other. Unlike any other job we live with our coworkers. A third of our lives are spent together. Our lives are often shared on a level that most won't experience in their jobs. I've seen countless divorces (including my own). I've seen guys lose spouses, parents, and even children. I've seen guys burnout and guys muster up the courage to go through rehab. I've seen guys battle cancer (including my own to a degree); I've seen guys lose that battle too. I've seen guys struggle with injuries (my own included here too) and fight to recover and come back from them. I've seen guys retired out early due to injury wonder what they will do now.

What I've never seen in my career is someone not being supported in whatever they are going through. If an effort is made to reach out for help, someone will be there to grab that hand. Guaranteed. You just have to be able to ask which may be the hardest task we will ever undertake.

The fire service is called a family and we refer to each other as brothers and sisters. And though I may not be close enough to a lot of people to mean that with all of it's literal sincerity, there are some I hold that dear. But in a time of crisis, those labels hold true, for all of us.

The issue of mental health, emotional fatigue, and ptsd in the fire service has become a much bigger topic in the last several years. In my career we have always had the option of CISD (critical incident stress debriefing) after harrowing calls if it's needed. But again, being the one to say they need help or something extra is very hard to do. Suicide rates amongst emergency service personnel are very much on the rise. But even that still seems abstract...until it hits close to home. I know the stats. I understand the whys. But I didn't know how it would feel, the questions it would raise, the hole it would leave.

Brothers. Sisters. Family.

We share a good portion of our lives, but you can never really know what someone is going through inside. No matter how close you are.
So, how do you help? That's what we do, what we chose to do with our lives, and what we want to do, help. I don't have an answer to that question unfortunately. Other than continue to check in with each other. Always say you're there to help if needed. I think we all know it, but actually say it. The more a thing is repeated the more it becomes cemented in our brain. And the simple act of caring, reaching out, can make a huge difference.

I once had a member call me out of the blue to let me know he was available to me if I needed anything because he'd heard I was going through a rough time. That's amazing. It turns out he had me and another guy mixed up but it didn't matter, I still felt so grateful that he took the time to reach out and would have been there for me if I did need help. And I know now that if I ever need to I can go to him with anything. Experiencing that in a time when I may not have needed it, as opposed to mid-crisis, boosted my spirits immensely just knowing that support was available.

I want to express my deepest thanks and admiration to all those in my department who have gone through the CISD training, peer counseling training, grief support training, our chaplains, or anyone who puts themselves out there as a go to for anyone who feels that they are struggling. Your services and time may be invaluable, so thank you.

And to anyone who is struggling please remember that you can come to ANY of us at anytime. Fire stations are staffed 24/7, you can always reach someone. And you are welcome to call me or anyone else at anytime and we will do everything we can to assist you.

You are family.

Hustle

So this post isn't really about firefighting. It's just about go getters, customer service, and a positive attitude.

I was working overtime the other day in a different district than my own. The captain was on overtime too so we decided to eat out and try a new place neither of us had been to before.
We pulled up in front of the place and noticed that there was a pretty decent line inside. We figured we'd give it a shot anyway.  The line was almost out the door and we just fit inside with the doors at our back. The place seemed pretty hoppin' which was a good sign. We got a couple "Oh hellooo firemaaan" from the ladies in front of us as they primped their hair (directed at my captain and young firefighter no doubt) and I saw my captain waving off one of the workers behind the counter. A young man with a great big smile and a lot of great energy had signaled to him to see if he could just get our order going. We had no issue with waiting in line so politely declined. As we got closer to the register the ladies in front of us offered to let us go ahead as well and we again declined. We began chatting with the young man behind the counter about how it seemed busy.
"You think this is busy?1? Oh it gets way more hoppin' than this."
We chatted a bit about the nature of having to bail on food or shopping or meals in our job and just as we stepped up to the register to order we got toned out for a medical call.
We waved and bailed out of line and headed out to the medical.

After the call we debated going back and having to wait in line again but decided to give it another try. As we parked in front of the place we noticed the line was out the door this time. We decided to stick it out and had just gotten off the rig when we got banged out for a structure fire. We grabbed our gear, changed real quick, and leapt back on the engine. As we were pulling out I saw the young man with a clipboard in his hand coming out of the restaurant and calling to us. I think he was offering to take a to-go order for us. There was no time to wait though and we pulled out with lights and sirens to the fire.

The fire was in the next district over and when we were just about a block away from the scene we got cancelled by the first due company. It was just an outside fire pit. False alarm.

Decision time.

Do we try one more time or get out of dodge and back closer to our home station and grab something there? Or do we head back again? To my surprise the captain said let's give it one more shot. So we returned, got out of our gear, and headed over.
This time as we were crossing the parking lot to get in line the young man was waiting for us out in front with his clipboard ready.
"Third time's the charm!" I called out to him.
"Oh yes sir, it is. What can I get for you gentlemen?", he said with that big smile.

We placed our order and he ran it inside, brought us our drink cups and made sure we were taken care of. When my captain came back from paying he told me the kid had given him a big discount which he tried to refuse. He wound up putting about $25 in the tip jar instead and told the kid if he was ever interested in the fire service to come see us. He said, "Oh most definitely!"

We got our food and got back on the rig talking about how that kid was going to be going places and how you just don't see that kind of hustle, attitude, and joy in the workplace much anymore.
We were driving away and had got about a block from the restaurant when the captain said "Wait. Wait. Hold up!" We stopped the rig and I could see him looking back out the window and I figured something had happened or we were getting flagged down by somebody on the street. That's when I saw the kid running down the street after us calling out to us that he forgot one of our sandwiches in the bag!
He chased the fire engine down for a block and a half!!

We pulled into a parking lot and the captain walked back with him to the restaurant and got his food.
He returned even more impressed.

Needless to say we were all duly impressed. We need more of that guy in the world.

Dressed For Success

Let's revisit, for a minute that "does anybody really care what we wear" debate that comes up all the time regarding uniform policies. This tour, I responded to two separate calls in a wetsuit.

 

We were out for our weekly rescue boat training and just as we were about to launch, a medical call came in that we were in the best position to take. We had driven the engine down with us in addition to the boat so we were able to respond, but I was dressed to swim with wildland pants over my springsuit and I wasn't going to take the time to change.

The call turned out to be for a woman on the grounds of the adult school who was sans pants and masturbating in public. Hooray. When we arrived we found a woman, fully clothed, walking across the lawn who then proceeded to lie down right where she was when she saw us coming. We approached and made contact with the patient who said she was here with her father. The only man in sight was sitting at the picnic table about fifty feet away. He looked to be about twenty years younger than her so I assumed she was making that part up. The man then got up, approached us, and identified himself as her father. Turns out she was just so haggard from hard living that she looked worn far far far beyond her years. She had no medical needs and her father agreed to take her home for the day, reign her in, and keep her out of trouble. This seemed like the best solution so we were able to leave it at that.

We returned to the dock and did our boat thing for a while. We ended the training session with some victim removal exercises with me being pulled repeatedly from the water into the boat.

As soon as we were done and got back on shore we got toned out for another medical call. I threw my wildland pants back on and off we went, this time with a decidedly still wet wetsuit on underneath.

This time we responded to one of the most stubborn diabetic patients ever. Well one of them anyway. The patient was alert and oriented but with a very high blood sugar and a couple other issues going on as well.  They flat out adamantly refused to go to the hospital. Family had called 9-1-1 not the patient. Now low blood sugar is something we can treat in the field. High blood sugar requires the hospital. We could not force this person to go to the hospital or by ambulance but the family was very insistent. We stayed on scene for quite some time attempting to reason with the patient and offer all sorts of options, deals, etcetera to get them to go. All this while I slowly soaked through my shirt and pants. No one seemed to notice or care (or at least they didn't say anything) being too preoccupied with the frustrating situation at hand.

So, I am still inclined to say that, all in all, it doesn't matter what we wear on calls as long as it's the right gear for the job and we still look and behave professionally.

It just so happened that we ended the night by responding to a sheared hydrant with no shut off to be found anywhere and I wound up thoroughly soaked again by the geyser of water flowing from this thing. Kind of wish I'd been in a wetsuit then instead of turnouts.