Fire Crew Assaulted on EMS Run

[fireflymedic]

This reminds me all too tragically of an incident here a few years ago involving a former partner of mine. In my state it is a felony to assault/kill any peace officer be it fire/pd/ems. Hope it becomes a nationwide thing soon because too many of us are getting hurt or dying. Stay safe out there people and keep your eyes open. Not all is as it seems.

[Tpage10]

I will treat them, massage them, do everything I can to make those darling ff feel better and up to doing their job again. no matter how long it takes, or what it takes..............I'm there!

[firedoc5]

There were certain parts of town that we knew that if we got a call there that there would be some kind of altercation. The most prevalent was termed "south town". It was what would be considered the "projects". Most of the time there was a police presence, but not always. Nights were always the worse. If we only went in when going by the book definition of "secure scene" we wouldn't have the chance to set one foot there. What it boiled down to was that it was anyone in uniform was a target.

[Jeepluv77]

There were certain parts of town that we knew that if we got a call there that there would be some kind of altercation. The most prevalent was termed "south town". It was what would be considered the "projects". Most of the time there was a police presence, but not always. Nights were always the worse. If we only went in when going by the book definition of "secure scene" we wouldn't have the chance to set one foot there. What it boiled down to was that it was anyone in uniform was a target.

Isn't it sad that there are elements out there that would attack someone trying to help them or one of their loved ones? I just don't understand it.

[firedoc5]

On occasion we were given difficulties or interference due to the relationship of the patient to another family member. If someone had a beef with the grandchild of an individual that needed 911 services, someone would interfere or hamper our efforts. That didn't happen very often but that's what we had to put up with.

And it didn't help that when we asked police to arrest someone doing so, they didn't always comply. I had one Sgt. more or less shrug his shoulders and said that was nothing to arrest someone over. At the time I think that Sgt. was "short timing" it anyway. But most times there were cuffed and stuffed, later to be released and made to pay a $50 fine.

[croaker260]

I will treat them, massage them, do everything I can to make those darling ff feel better and up to doing their job again. no matter how long it takes, or what it takes..............I'm there!

Shakes head and sighs.........

[wrmedic82]

In this case scenario, I don't know if I can truly fault the firefighters. If I was dispatched on the same call, with no indication of a potential for violence from dispatch. All you know is that its a medical call on a elderly. Not expecting to be met by a group of teenagers who want to start trouble. I might have done the same thing and made scene. Its easy to say Ah Ha fire just had a wake up call. And they may have. But we all do it. And do we stage on every call? HELL NO WE DON'T!!!!

I will say a couple things en light of this article. 1. extra emphasis on scene size up. Its easy to size up the patient. But what about the surroundings? If you were on scene in stead of fire ( because they are notorious for bullet proof t-shirts and bunker gear) faced with the same scenario, and saw a group of possibly angry teens walking into your general direction, would you step out of the vehicle? God I hope not, but this happens more often than its published in the media.

The second thing I would like to emphasize is don't be afraid to back out. Its kinda common sense if the scene is not safe to stage until PD secures the scene. I don't feel the need to beat that further into the ground, not saying its not important. It is not abandonment if your safety is compromised due to bystanders, family members, etc. Ask any experienced incident commander, and they will tell you that the scene is dynamic and always changing. If the scene becomes unsafe for you and your partner there is no shame in backing out for your safety. I'm not sure how much time fire had before they realized "holy crap we are on the receiving end of a beating." But lets say they had 60 seconds before they got jumped. If they saw it coming or if you saw it coming wouldnt you do something to protect yourself by getting out of the situation??

Ask yourself, if you were dispatched P3 Sick Person 123 Anyplace Dr, Anyplace, TX USA 12345 75/f conscious, breathing, CC ABD pain. Would you stage???

And yes I pulled that call out of random because this is common call we all run on. Would you stage based on this information alone?

I will treat them, massage them, do everything I can to make those darling ff feel better and up to doing their job again. no matter how long it takes, or what it takes..............I'm there!

Got something brown on your nose there bub

Edited April 3, 2009 by wrmedic82

[Doczilla]

Oxygen thieves.

'zilla