What else could have gone wrong???

[Scaramedic]

I couldn't find any photos from the accident, but I did find some photos from the Cow Castle VFD website.

Water Rescue Team in training.

Working a brush fire.

New Fireboat/Gigging Dock.

Rescue 1.

Peace,

Marty

:joker:

P.S. I'm going to get hate mail for this post.

[Just Plain Ruff]

That excuse may be good for horseshoes and hand grenades, but good god, holy crapola batman. That just tries to pawn off something terrible with a lame excuse.

Training, training, training, Dust and Rid and Ace have pounded that to death here and this is a prime example of training.

Goodness, no fuel in the hurst tool?

cancelling the helicopter and then calling it back

ambulance breaking down

This is a shame.

The litigants from our next case are entering the courtroom and Judge Wapner immediately says "Judgement for the plaintiff in the amount of 1.2 million dollars, renaming the town hall to the family name, and everyone involved gets 5 years of mandatory remedial training" If you'll see Rusty he's got some documents for you to sign.

There is no substitute for appropriate training.

[Nate]

Knowing first hand how the media can screw up the truth...I'm wondering what really happened. I've seen some pretty departments that were pretty backwoods here in Texas...but they were not that bad.

Also, it never said what the cop did wrong except he hit them. Was he driving to fast, was he drunk, did he run a red light....I'm wondering why they charged him with that.

[scfireman36]

:twisted: I am with Pine Hill Fire & Rescue in Orangeburg County, so i know first hand all about this scenario. First of all while we are talking about paid vs volunteer, the stated Santee Fire Department is combination fire. Cow Castle fire is a very back woods fire station, and now the Bowman fire department was adopted there fire coverage area. EMS i am sure had one ambulance on scene caring for two patients.

SO TO HEAR MORE ABOUT OUR WONDERFUL COUNTY EMAIL OR IM ME AND YOU CAN BE PROVIDED WITH DETAILS OF THE WHOLE COUNTY.

[FL_Medic]

:twisted: I am with Pine Hill Fire & Rescue in Orangeburg County, so i know first hand all about this scenario. First of all while we are talking about paid vs volunteer, the stated Santee Fire Department is combination fire. Cow Castle fire is a very back woods fire station, and now the Bowman fire department was adopted there fire coverage area. EMS i am sure had one ambulance on scene caring for two patients.

SO TO HEAR MORE ABOUT OUR WONDERFUL COUNTY EMAIL OR IM ME AND YOU CAN BE PROVIDED WITH DETAILS OF THE WHOLE COUNTY.

are you paid?

[scfireman36]

:shock: There are only two paid / combination departments in Orangeburg; Orangeburg City Department of Public Safety, and YES you guessed it Santee Fire District.

No I Am Not....

But my department trains the first Tuesday of every month, the second Thursday of the month, and one Saturday a month. Also my department does: auto extrication, High Angle Rope Rescue, & Dive Rescue, only one of two in the county.

:evil: Volunteers step up to the plate every time the tones sound, it is just some departments that mess up the whole volunteer name. THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD BE NEEDED IF THERE WHERE NO VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTS... DONT JUDGE EVERYONE BY HOW SOMEONE DEPARTMENTS ACT AND LOOK.

I have seen some Volunteer Departments better than Career Departments, anyways the point is aren't we all on the same TEAM.

TO PROTECT LIVES, PROPERTY AND THE OCCASIONAL CAT FROM A TREE!!!

[ToePick]

This case should bring a lot of issues to light that should be a priority in every county in the US, unfortunately a settlement will be made and this will all be forgotten like the many that never make press.

What level of care should be available in rural areas and who should pay for it. Someone may choose to live way out in the middle of no where. Should they be expected to live without reasonably rapid and advanced care? And what about people traveling on an interstate or other public road. Should they expect the same level of care and expertise they would get if they were traveling in say, NYC, or Austin, Texas or some other major city? And when something bad happens who is ultimately responsible.

There is just too many unknowns in this entire case to be judgmental. All the author uses is quotes from the legal allegations made by plaintiff, and of course they are going to sound as bad as possible. We shouldn't judge any of these departments unless we were there and had first hand knowledge of what took place.

The pt states she was talking to her husband in the van. Were they stable when the helicopter was called? Who called for it? Who canceled it? Did the patients conditions change? Injuries were listed for her, but nothing was said as to the cause of death for her husband. Why? There are just way too many unknowns. What did the vehicles look like? Was there intrusions into the passenger compartment.. ect, ect...

As far as liability is concerned (and it does look like there should be some here). I commend her for suing the highway departments. But what about local governments as well. How do we know that said Fire Dept or EMS did not at some point ask for better equipment and training and get turned down. Maybe more personnel or incentives for personnel. Any number of things that county and city governments cringe at when we ask for them. Again, its easy to say, "what a bunch of idiots", but maybe as the one person said they are doing the best they can. We just don't have enough of the facts.

We all know that there are incompetent personnel, too big egos on scenes, and rivalries between different departments and Fire and EMS, and sometimes police as well. Communications break downs, different SOP's and/or protocols. Any number of issues exist that can cause problems on calls.

But instead of jumping to conclusions and putting down these particular agencies based solely on this one reporters story (a bad one in my opinion). We should use this as an example to examine our own operating environments and see if any of these things could happen to us and what we can do to make sure that what supposedly happened doesn't happen where we work.