NickD

If you recall the short lived television show "First In" featuring Deputy Chief Marcel Melanson of the Compton FD you might find this of interest. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-compton-firefighter-arson-20130516,0,1156786.story NickD

http://www.salon.com...leton/#comments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e26YgJG0YD0&feature=bf_prev&list=ULr7ULc9l9uk0&lf=mfu_in_order

What a blow . . . Rest in Peace, Dust!

There's only two ways you'll come out of any EMT, Paramedic, or Hospital type job interview. With your dignity or a job . . .

Only because Dust is AWOL . . . >>Besides the ambulance and stracher<< Yeah, you'll need a stracher! LOL! I think one rule that should be implemented in the, "How do I start an ambulance company," paradigm is ten years working for a moronic ambulance company owner . . .

If they get to the point where they ask if "you" have any questions ask the following . . . Are your city/fire/whatever contracts so important to you that you'll throw me overboard if I make a simple mistake, or someone complains about me? Are you the kind of company that believes EMTs are a dime a dozen and it's always better to hire new ones than nurture the current ones? Will I be supervised by family members of the company owners, or twenty something girls with big breasts, or other assorted ass kissers who don't know shit from Shinola? After you get your answers go get a job as a used car salesman. The hours are better, the pay is better, and you'll be a lot happier in the long run . . .

I was talking to my young partner the other night about what we're going to do if/when the big earthquake hits Los Angeles. His response was, "I'm just going home!" My thoughts were when the communications go down and the roads become impassible we'd have to set up shop were ever we happened to be. We'd become a little Fort Apache clinic, providing some semblance of order and infrastructure, splinting, bandaging, and caring for all we could until we ran out of supplies and raiding the local pharmacy for more stuff. We'd also, I told him, have to defend our rig against marauding hordes of drug seekers and other evil doers. He just looked at me for a minute before saying, "You're f-ing nuts!" But dirty bombs and such, I don't know. It's like contemplating how do we respond to the sun exploding, or an asteroid the size of New Jersey just hit, do we head to the scene code two or three?" I'm all about doing my duty, but I'm drawing the line if the nukes start flying. I'm just going home . . .

Something seems fishy about Righthaven LLC, the firm handling the lawsuits, and the Review Journal. Maybe a dying newspaper found a new business model. http://www.lasvegass...er-r-j-copyrig/ http://www.lasvegass...its-filed-over/ http://bloglawblog.c...?tag=righthaven

You can do anything you want . . . This fellow is a Deputy Chief with Compton Fire here in Los Angeles. You know the drill Marine, improvise, adapt, overcome! Semper Fi, NickD 1st Mar Div USMC 1971 - 1975

Hey Dust, how 'bout a radio check . . . ?

Sure, there's goofballs all over, but why do so many of them work in EMS? Not funny . . . Didn't he stop to think about the note thing? The store owner could have pulled a gun and killed an innocent Explorer.

Wow, that was a tough one, Lone Star, I'm very glad you're okay . . .

I've seen my share of auto vs motorcycle on the job. And when the opportunity presents itself I always tell the cop on scene, "I didn't see the motorcycle is no excuse." They are doing a better job, at least in So Cal, with motorcycle PSAs. But here's some good ones from the Continent and Oz (and more like the type we should be airing on TV here.) Pay Attention!

First off I have to blast a cosmic thanks into the ether to all my partners who put up with my motorcycle magazines and parts catalogs strewn all over the rig. I spent the last 18 months during my off time building myself a custom Harley. No, it's not a mid-life crisis, or watching too many of those chopper shows, I've always been a biker since the 1970s and I've always had a bike. But never one I built from the frame up. So after lot's of extra shifts to gather the funds, and coming home after work and picking up a wrench instead of some sleep her she is. I had to go easy on her the first time out as it's a fresh motor and not broke in yet, but I'm a happy boy . . . (Pronounced 9ina.)

Mine's always been, "52 come back to station!" Then me and my partner spend the next 20 minutes wondering what the "F" we did wrong and how much BS trouble we're in for. I affectionately call it the "Anthony Parallax."

Sorry to hear, Anthony. Dust had a good idea . . .

>>ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- An armed man who was spotted at a North Carolina airport parking lot just after Air Force One departed and said he wanted to see the president was to appear before a judge Monday. Authorities arrested Joseph Sean McVey, 23, of Coshocton, Ohio, on Sunday afternoon at the Asheville Regional Airport and charged him with going armed in terror of the public, a misdemeanor. A first appearance in court was scheduled for Monday, said Sgt. John Lutz of the Buncombe County jail, where McVey was being held on $100,000 bond. McVey told an officer in the airport parking lot he wanted to see the president and he had a car equipped with police gear, including a siren and flashing lights, though he did not work in law enforcement, authorities said. Security was heightened at the airport Sunday because President Barack Obama was leaving after spending the weekend vacationing in Asheville. At about 2 p.m., airport police saw McVey get out of a maroon car with Ohio plates and that he had a sidearm, airport police Capt. Kevan Smith said. Both airport police and the Secret Service questioned him and he was taken into custody. The suspect was nowhere near the president's plane, which had just departed, and was in a rental car return lot that is open to the public, Smith said. His car was equipped with clear LED law enforcement-style strobe lights in the front and rear dash, Smith said. The car also had a mounted digital camera in the front window, four large antennas on the trunk lid, and under the steering wheel was a working siren box. When McVey got out of the car, he was listening to a handheld scanner and radio that had a remote earpiece, Smith said. Police said he was monitoring local agencies and had formulas for rifle scopes on a note in his cup holder. Authorities did not say if McVey had a rifle or scope with him. A rifle scope formula is a set of calculations that helps a shooter adjust for distance from a target. The formulas, which estimate how much a bullet drops after it is fired, are generally in the information packet that comes with a scope purchased for hunting or recreation, said Greg A. Danas, a firearms expert based in Massachusetts. McVey gave authorities an Ohio driver's license, but a computer check failed to show the number was valid, police said. His hometown of Coshocton is about halfway between Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio. When Officer Kaleb Rice asked him what he was doing, McVey told him he heard the president was in town and wanted to see him. Rice removed the firearm and took McVey into custody. The investigation into what McVey was doing with a gun, with formulas for rifle scopes and why his car was equipped with police gear was continuing, Smith said. The Secret Service had no comment on the arrest Sunday, deferring to airport police. In Ohio, Randy Fisher, president of the Coshocton County Amateur Radio Association, said McVey was a ham radio enthusiast who had come several times to the group's monthly meetings over the last year or two. Fisher said he was shocked to hear of the arrest and said he last talked with McVey about a week ago via radio and always found him friendly and interesting to talk to. "I was impressed that he was a public-service-minded type of individual. He really enjoyed using his ham radio for emergency services and that sort of thing," Fisher said. McVey was involved in a local organization that assists the sheriff's department when it needs help controlling traffic, which may explain why he had the police gear<< -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNN seriously needs to have Dusty on a retainer for cases like this. The news heads were going on and on trying to explain this guy's motivation and really befuddling the whole thing. "He's a freaking whacker!" would have summed it all up nice and tidy . . .

Gee, I hope it works out for you Anthony. My company hands out suspensions like candy. It's one of the horrible things about this business, especially in a state with a "hired (and fired) at will" policy. One very cold and stormy night last winter we were staged out and received a call to return to station. You know how that goes. All the way there we're both wondering what the heck did we do? When we arrived our dispatcher told me to go home. And the next day I found out I was suspended until they called me back. My crime? We stopped for a cup of coffee at a convenience store and I passed a homeless guy sitting outside. He was cold, wet, and shivering. I got two cups of coffee and a cup of hot chocolate and going out the door I handed the hot chocolate to the homeless guy. I got back in the rig and we were pulling out when I said, "Wait a minute," And went into the back, grabbed a blanket (the ones we get from a hospital) and one of those waterproof yellow covers we use on gurney patients in the rain. And I gave them both to the homeless guy. But just as I was doing that another of our rigs pulled into the lot with a supervisor on board. And he reported me for giving away company equipment. I offered to pay for the waterproof blanket but suspending me was more important to them. I've never has such a love/hate relationship with a job in my life . . .

From earlier this month . . . Video - Detroit Fire Truck Hit By Train News Story Here

If it comes in sets of three I wonder what's next? Firemonkey Shows His Monkey!

As much as I've always liked Jack Webb it is he, more than anyone else, that was the causation of fire based EMS. In episode one of Emergency! Johnny's Chief tells him, "I'm supposed to encourage all our young rescue men to attend the next class for new paramedics." It would be interesting to know what the nexus of that line was? There is nothing in the original Wedworth-Townsend Paramedic Act that mentions the fire department. In fact the act supposes EMS would be purely hospital based. So either someone in the fire department got to Jack Webb or he came up with the notion on his own. Johnny's reply? "Well sir, I guess I'm just too stupid to take advantage of such an opportunity." But the Captain continues, "Yes, it's work, and no raise in pay, but it just might be worthwhile." And here's where Johnny delivered his most famous line, "That would be all right if I wanted to be an ambulance attendant, but I don't. Chief, I'm a rescue man, I trained to be a rescue man and I like being a rescue man, why should I strive for improvements?" Wedworth-Townsend Paramedic Act An act to add Article 3 (commencing with Section 1480) to Chapter 2.5, Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to paramedics, and declaring the urgency, to take effect immediately. [Approved by Governor July 14, 1970. Filed with Secretary of State July 14, 1970.] The people of the State of California do enact as follows: Section 1, Article 3 (commencing with Section 1480) is added to Chapter 2.5, Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: Article 3. Mobile Intensive Care Paramedics 1480. Any hospital operated by, or contracting with, a county with a population of over 6,000,000 may conduct a pilot program utilizing mobile intensive care paramedics for the delivery of emergency medical care to the sick and injured at the scene of an emergency, and during transport to a hospital, while in the hospital emergency department, and until care responsibility is assumed by the regular hospital staff. 1481. (a) As used in this article "mobile intensive care paramedics" means personnel who have been specially trained in emergency cardiac and noncardiac care in a training program certified by the county health officer or the director of hospitals designated by the board of supervisors and who are certified by the officer as qualified to render the services enumerated in this article. As used in this article "mobile intensive care nurse" means a registered nurse who has been certified by a county officer designated by the board of supervisors as qualified in emergency cardiac care. 1482. Notwithstanding any other provision of law mobile intensive care paramedics may do any of the following: (1) Render rescue, first-aid and resuscitation services. (2) During training at the hospital and while caring for patients in the hospital administer parenteral medications under the direct supervision of a registered nurse. (3) Perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation in a pulseless, nonbreathing patient. (4) Where voice contact or a telemetered electrocardiogram is monitored by a physician or a certified mobile intensive care nurse where authorized by a physician, and direct communication is maintained, may upon order of such physician or such nurse do any of the following: (a)Administer intravenous saline or glucose solutions. (b)Perform gastric suction by intubation. Administer parenteral injections of any of the following classes of drugs: (i)Antiarrhythmic agents. (ii)Vagolytic agents. (iii) Chronotropic agents. (iv) Alkalinizing agents. (v) Alkalinizing agents. (vi) Vasopressor agents. 1483. No physician or nurse, who in good faith gives emergency instructions to a paramedic at the scene of an emergency, shall be liable for any civil damages as a result of issuing the instructions. 1484. This article shall remain in effect only until the 91st day after final adjournment of the 1972 Regular Session of the Legislature and shall have no force or effect after that date. 1485. This article shall be known and may be cited as the Wedworth-Townsend Paramedic Act. Sec. 2. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting such necessity are: There is a critical shortage of professionally trained medical and nursing personnel for the delivery of fast, efficient emergency medical care for the sick and injured at the scene and during transport to a health care facility. Improved emergency service is required to reduce the mortality rate during the first critical minutes immediately following an accident, or the onset of a serious physical condition such as an acute myocardial infarction. Pilot project of the type provided for in this act are required in order to develop and evaluate a program for the provision of the best and most economical delivery of emergency medical care. Emergency! premiered in 1972 the year the above act expired and at a time when another vote was needed to extend or make it permanent. Senator Alan Cranston wrote to Jack Webb after Emergency! was on the air thanking him for giving the program so much public support. But he went on to say he envisioned EMS as a way to make use of the many returning Vietnam Nam vets who had some amount of medical training. But he didn't balk about fire getting involved either. So the interesting part is how did EMS go from what was proposed as hospital based to being fire based? Jack Webb could have scripted the show as hospital based but he didn't. But I don't think there was any ulterior motive. I simply think Jack Webb thought the show would be flashier and more exciting with fire engines in it. And his close ties with the LA police department from his earlier show Dragnet meant getting fire cooperation probably wouldn't be an issue. In fact the two stars from another Jack Webb show Adam-12 appeared in the first episode of Emergency!. And I also believe the fire department didn't see EMS as a budget builder until some years later. So it was the power of the television more than anything else that started fire based EMS. But I can't hold it against old Jack. I mean you just gotta love a guy who can deliver a speech like this:

Danny Boy, The Pipes, The Pipes . . .

Anything for a buck Roy sold out and will be appearing in an upcoming episode of "Trauma." So he's out of the running. Johnny, was also asked, but he told NBC to go "F" themselves. (I made that last part up, but I like to think that's how it went down.)

Tonight's exciting episode . . . "Tunnel Vision" "Nancy is forced to confront one of her greatest fears; Marisa and Rabbit are called to the scene of a bank robbery; Boone must make a tough decision. (Should be a barn burner!) LOL . . .