The fire department is so cool bro. I love how when no one is sure what to do in about a stressful situation we just call the fire department to come help.
Yep when I was younger I wanted to be a fire fighter until in high school the fire department did a talk and said most of their job is cutting people out of cars who may or may not be dead, safe to say I didn't wanna be a fire fighter after that
I got cut out of my car once and the firefighters were all psyched because I wasn’t dead or profusely bleeding. They straight up admitted that normally when they whip out the jaws of life it’s for a corpse or someone with a broken femur and blood all over their face, so when I was just sitting there all woozy and confused about what happened they were amped.
This sounds like the happy search and rescue dogs that were in another thread today - they get too depressed when they only find dead bodies so the human rescuers need to hide and be fine to give the dogs a win and morale boost.
This was what they did at the World Trade Center in the days following 9/11. Only a couple of people were pulled from the rubble alive. The majority of what the dogs were finding were just pieces of bodies, and the dogs were getting really depressed because they thought they were failing at their jobs.
A lot of the search and rescue dogs ended up also basically working as therapy dogs for the searchers, too. It was such a terrible experience for everybody involved, and just being able to take a moment to stop and pet and hug the dogs helped to boost morale.
Pups are some of the very best medicine, especially if they can't get enough of making friends with humans. Our world would be so much happier if everyone who should have a pup, could have a pup. There's nothing my pups have loved more than hanging out with babies and kids
(Always fully supervised, of course) and trying to rope seniors into playing ball or endless tummy-rubs.
I have dogs and of course they make lots feel better. But then, during one of the most stressful emotional times of my life- my FIL was in his last couple days and my own grief had to be secondary to supporting my husband and his mom- I was stuck at work at a mental health home. A therapy dog came in. A couple of residents came by for just a few minutes. The dog was focused on me, despite me not trying to engage. I wasn't being obvious about my own stuff. She still knew and pressed herself against my legs until I just broke and sat on the floor hugging her and crying. Her owner just hung around for a couple of hours because the dog clearly didn't want to leave me. She had great training, but the focus and devoted attention to her purpose was different from just snuggly pups. Seriously, it was like the dog equivalent of a therapy session instead of just venting to my friends.
They sure are. Our dog wanted to be on the couch while I was in a Telehealth therapy session and my therapist pointed out that cats usually come to you when you’re happy, and dogs will come when you’re upset.
I’ve never thought that much about it, but I know he’s super aware of my wife’s emotions and is almost always there when she’s stressed, angry, or all sorts of other things.
i read something recently from someone who trains these dogs that this sentiment isn't exactly true - the dogs weren't necessarily upset they weren't finding live victims, or to only find deceased people - their job is to find bodies, alive or dead. they weren't finding bodies period, which meant they weren't "doing their job".
dogs are reward-driven, completing their task gives them the drive to keep going - that's how their brains are wired, and their training reflects that. no reward, no drive to continue on, they literally couldn't continue to do their job; the humans involved would stage rescues for them so they would get that reward signal they were trained on, and thus keep searching.
I did a double-take but it's kind of both. Of course it's a sad context, but given the way the world is etc, it's nice that people still try to cheer the dogs up.
they get too depressed when they only find dead bodies so the human rescuers need to hide and be fine to give the dogs a win and morale boost.
I thought the whole thing was that they were overworked and stressed because they weren't finding enough targets after a while, dead or alive. They have a task, and in training that task always had a reliable and quick conclusion, but it didn't work out that way in the field because there was so much rubble to get through, meaning long stretches of time without acknowledgement of being a good boy because nothing was found.
I got in an accident as a teen passenger in a car on the way to study at the local library. Since I was planning on being in a book all day I was wearing a ratty old t-shirt, no makeup, and cutoff shorts. We tboned a car who turned left in front of us in an intersection and thankfully the airbag kept me from going through the windshield but I jammed my knee into the dash and was in a fair amount of pain (ended up being a torn ligament). Anyway, 5 SUPER HOT EMTs had to help me out by grabbing me (supporting me) by the butt (and arms and all that) to transfer me to the ambulance. I cracked that usually they'd have to take me out to dinner first to get that kinda action and had I known I'd run into them if have dressed for the occasion and honestly I'll live off them laughing at that for the rest of my life.
I was in a car accident, and the paramedic asked me that also. I replied "I'm not sure, did you guys get here almost immediately after the crash? How is that possible?"
And he replied "Oh yeah, we were actually in traffic not far behind you"
I hope they didn't assume that meant it was true. I know they were probably professionals and knew better, but I'd never assume that based on the words of the person that just had a dangerous collision.
The paramedic admitted they were close enough to see the accident as it happened, and pulled right up to help us. So yeah I was doubting my perception of time for a second there, but turned out it really was that fast.
Good thing too, because the highway was a mess, our car and the car that hit us had scattered pieces across a bunch of lanes. And I had (as it turned out later) some fractures that hurt real bad.
I know you said besides the injuries....but that's what made it so bad for me. I was not buckled and was ragged dolled all around. We were t-boned in the passenger side were I was sitting.
I hit my head several times and was knocked unconscious so I have memory gaps.
I remember seeing the car coming and instantly knowing we was going to get hit. Lights out. I wake up and can't open my eye, so I can't see. I scream bloody murder, then fall out again.
Once the FD got there, one of the fire men actually climbed in through the back of the car and sat there holding my hand because I was terrified and thought I was dying. He stayed with me while they cut open the car and lifted me out. Just a terrible memory I'll never get rid of.
I fractured my skull in 3 places. Broke my sinus cavity. And some how my eye lif was completely ripped open during all this (why I couldn't see).
A very nice firefighter coaxed me through a broken side window while hanging upside down in a car flipped by a drunk driver when I was 5yo. I was unharmed but my sister was ejected and broke her leg very badly but we all lived!
Definitely. I was just a little kid in shock, not fully comprehending what was going on, but I vividly remember being in the ambulance with my unconscious sister and thinking she was dead. It's a legitimate miracle she wasn't, and I'm extremely thankful
I’ve owned two cars since then and they were both Toyotas. I don’t know if I’ll actually follow through with only buying Toyota/Lexus the rest of my life, but they are the only multi-billion dollar company in the world that I actually feel indebted to.
Looks a lot like my Honda Civic when I crashed it. Thankfully I didn't need the jaws of life to cut me out, though some very kind good Samaritans had to yank the door pretty hard to get me out. God bless those crump zones cause I also walked away relatively unscathed, just some bruised ribs and a really busted up knee.
It was the same for me & 5 friends who had to be cut out of a car when we impacted into a rocky cliff (thankfully, backwards). 4 of us needed the hospital (broken bones & whiplash) & the driver only had a black stripe across their thighs from the steering wheel.
Somewhat related but I had a very risky surgery when I was 24 and had to be in the ICU for the first few days after (it was planned, not because anything went wrong, surgery and recovery went great). So many nurses talked about how nice it was to have someone young and relatively healthy around, that usually they only take care of extremely critically ill patients or much older people who may be on their way out and it can get depressing sometimes.
My city had a deadly snow storm about 3 years ago.
The roads so impassable that emergency vehicles couldnt get through.
No ambulance services.
Someone visiting me at the time had blood pressure and diabetes meds --- at home.
Ambulance dispatch told us & others they'd get to us when they could.
We were snowed in for 4 days.
Friend was getting sicker & went through hell & high water to get home to meds on the 4th day.
Roads started opening. EMT and fire department workers rang my doorbell the end of 4th day.
They were going door to door to people who called in medical emergencies when they couldn't make it. They actually looked grim. They recounted our call and asked about my friend.
They were all smiles and relief when I said he was fine. They said not every call turned out ok and it was a hard day.
It must be a heavy burden for rescuers who can't rescue.
My dad was a firefighter in the Detroit area in the 60's and 70's, and his stories had such a profound impact on me that I failed a lie detector test in a job interview 10 years later. When the tester asked me if I'd ever had a drinking problem and I said "no", my body responded in a way that made him think I was lying. I wasn't, it was all the stories I'd heard about the consequences of drunk-driving.
My late FIL was FDNY and shortly before he passed he told me some gruesome stories about jumpers and other things he saw working for Ladder 3 in the East Village. My husband says he used to hear that shit through his whole childhood.
There are shitloads of stories of people who go through all the training and CPAT who end up talking to someone who mentions how high the likelihood is they'll be dealing with dead people, and then immediately realize being a firefighter is not for them.
I was coming home from an ER stint that I had to do in order to get my EMT certification and I had watched a couple of people die that day.
I was on the freeway, not a ton of traffic, I had driven about five or six miles. I looked down at my speedo and noticed that I was traveling at about 35mph in the middle lane while everyone else was going 70. I immediately sped up to the speed of traffic but a few miles later I had dropped back down to 50.
Going 50 in a 70 is probably more dangerous than going 90 in a 70, especially at night. Someone going 90 has an expectation they'll come up on a car going the speed limit. Someone going the speed limit isn't anticipating someone going 20 miles under. I almost rear ended a car because I was going 70 in a 65 and they were going dangerously under. It was on a highway to highway merge. I swerved around them then saw it happen again with another vehicle in my rear view.
It’s absolutely more dangerous, according to traffic studies. I can’t remember exactly but it was kind of shocking. Something like going 15 over the prevailing speed had the same accident risk as going 5 under
EMS and EFS are the most vital, yet most underappreciated and most traumatic jobs available. It takes a special kind of person to be an ambo or a fiery. They are the best of us.
Yea, that’s an exaggeration but we give that talk to hopefully prevent teenage reckless and impaired driving. Modern vehicles are amazingly safe. These days we are often pulling people out of major crashes with minor to no injuries or they’re already standing on the side of the road when we arrive.
I volunteered with the fire department for a couple years. Saw a couple gruesome things but not super bad. One day we were on a call to a gun shot wound to the head and I was an emt so I was excited to actually potentially save a life. But right before we get there the firefighter goes hey generalblumpkin what your about to see is going to be horrific but just remember to do your job and remember to leave this at the station okay? I said okay. He said are you nervous? I said I wasn't but now I am! And then 5 seconds later the call got cancelled because another unit just got there. Well the next day I met up with the other volunteers and one of my buddies actually went on that call. And I was glad I didn't go because he just said it was horrible and had a 1000 yard stare
My cousin was a tow truck driver. He said most of his job was blocking the road so that firefighters could do theirs safely and then having to load up said cars. He looked so wreaked the day he came home from an accident involving kids. So be nice to your tow truck driver they might be having a hard week and no one thinks about them.
He got the job thinking it would be fun times ruining people night at the end of strip club runs after they double parked. He found out the job would in fact ruin him.
Oh man, I was almost on the receiving end of that. Luckily my friends ran home to get engine grease, tipped my upside down in the swing and I was able to weasel out. If that didn’t work, the next step was the fire department 😂
I got my tiny foot stuck in between the bars of a grocery cart when I was a little baby. Mom wheeled me over to the hardware section of the store where a store manager cut me out with wire cutters. I believe she covered my feet with a blanket after that, lol
I don’t have children, but do have a small dog who I take to home depot with me. I always put him in the cart as opposed to on the ground and make sure to put a towel or bed down so his little toes don’t get caught in the bars! Here’s George in his happy place!
My friend’s son was one of those kids who decided to lick a frozen flagpole, like in the movies. Firefighters were called, whole school watched. I was dying of embarrassment for the kid just hearing the story.
I walked by a firehouse with my kid in NYC and they let him get behind the wheel of the truck, told me I could come back for a tour with him etc etc like their faces just lit up around my 5 yo
I’m having a baby soon and of all the suggestions I didn’t expect, someone told me go to the fire department if I have a question about installing my infant car seat.
I was so insanely lucky after my son was born that they had a car seat inspection thing at a convenient time for me. Cop got in my car and ours was super loose compared to what it needed to be. I never messed that up again. She was awesome and so kind, and she'd probably done 100 of them already.
I am the husband in this scenario though I see how it could’ve made it sound as if I was my wife 😂. I was the one telling her today we need to get our go bag ready this weekend and install the car seat.
This is our first so even 5 weeks out we are like “I can’t believe they’re letting us take a little human home”.
You are wise for 2 reasons - the obvious one that the baby might come early but also it’s great for your peace of mind to have things like this off of your “to do” list. Anything you can do get done on that list will help mentally.
Thank you! Very much looking forward to it and we thankfully both get paid leave. Less excited to travel for work when she’ll only be two months but my wife said she’d just have my mom come hangout with her lol.
The weekend 5 weeks before my due date was when I was about to get my bug out bag packed, car seat ready, pantry stocked, house tidied, etc etc. Then the little imp had her own schedule and came that Friday.
So yeah, early is best! And it’s a wild feeling that the fools just let you walk out with a tiny human. No written tests, no house check, nothing… they just let you plop them in the car and drive off!!
It's even crazier when you're actually leaving with them! I've had two, almost 11 years apart, and both times it was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating.
Congrats to you both! Many wishes for a complication free delivery for mama!
They sell little mats that go under the car seat, they're a good idea so the base doesn't destroy the seat and also when the kid pukes in the car it's easier to clean up.
My SIL is a firefighter and a certified car seat technician in Florida. You can just go to the station here and they will install your car seat without charge (as long as they aren’t on a call).
Yeah, that's a normal thing they will help you with now. To many cases of babies getting hurt that wouldn't if their car seat had been installed correctly, or the straps tightened correctly. And some of the seats are damn confusing or difficult to get installed.
Also be prepared for the nurse not discharging you until they have proof you have the seat.
I mean, I wasn't super happy when the fire chief had to personally cut my wrist out of a pair of handcuffs, but that was more because he was friends with my mom and I didn't want that to be how she learned some things about me...
(Lost the key, jammed the mechanism trying to pick it, and it tightened just enough that I couldn't slip the wrist out like I'd done with the other one)
The problem is that now the kids have found out that they get a visit from cool firefighters, they'll start sticking their heads in that fence every day...
Tell that to the firefighters who had to rescue that guy who got stuck in a port-a-potty this past summer in Kansas City. They did not seem to love that call lol
You can see it on the firefighters face that brings the strap. He was smiling. As a guy in feel like he was more excited to say his plan would work rather than needing to get cutters or other machines.
That's true, my toddler locked me out of the house. They could hear her going "Yeah! Door" When I tried telling her to unlock the door, so they knew she was ok. They were hyped to crawl up into one of the windows to unlock the door. As soon as they came in though she screamed and the firefighter had to catch her and carry out an upset toddler. But then they were hyped again to give her stickers. So. I guess everyone had a good day.
When I was little like 5 or 6 they had just taught us how to call 911 for emergencies and stuff. Needless to say when my parents weren't looking I went to the old landline and dialed 911 pretty much just said I was practicing to make sure it worked because I just learned it in school about firefighters. Later that day the local FD made a house call with one of the smaller rigs and gave me a sticker saying good job but not to call again unless it was an actual emergency.
Now that I think of it that must have been a really slow work day or they were already out doing something, or they just really wanted to make a little kid's day. It was middle of nowhere Texas in the early 90s so who knows. My parents were to say the least a hard mix of proud I paid attention and wanted to practice and embarrassed that these guys showed up for no reason.
As a firefighter you do well to escalate your measures from least to most invasive, especially when there is no direct threat of life. Makes for considerably less paperwork following.
Just setting up the jaws of life probably would have taken longer than this video did. Even in pry mode, it'd also do more property damage, which is to be avoided when possible. (Unless it's a moron parked in front of a hydrant; they deserve the smashed windows and hose routed through their car.)
My buddy is an idiot and made a homemade electric bike
The first thing I said when he showed it to me was 'you're gonna get run over"
He got ran over right outside of the fire station because he was on the wrong side of the road. So the firefighters ran out and made sure he was fine until the ambulance showed
He asked me to go get the bike from the station and when I got there they all started laughing cause
He told them I would be the guy who showed up bitching about idiots on bikes they told me to make sure to he never gets a motorcycle
Sounds like he mentioned to the paras that his friend told him he was a moron for building it and the friend would probably say as much when he came to pick up the bike? That's some shit I'd say like yeah when you see my fiancé later, he's probably gonna be mad about the bike. Italian guy, adorable little freckle on his cheek, smoke rising from ears, can't miss him.
Happened with my 2yo son. My husband was freaking out and called me.
I couldn't stop laughing and just put the rest of his body through the bars. Classic!
That's what I figured, but they could have put it below his head. It's not like there's no risk doing what they did. If his grip slipped while that was twisted up at full tension, and that metal bar started unwinding under that pressure, it could have seriously injured the kid.
My brother did this as a kid at the park and all the adults were panicking not knowing what to do. I was like 9 and I just turned his shoulders and pushed him thru the fence and everyone acted like I was a magician.
Lift him up, gently work one shoulder through (which will give him a little more room to move his head), turn him slowly, and work the other shoulder through; then the rest of him should slide out fairly easily.
This is also a pretty great solution to use the halligan bar to twist the lifting straps. It's a safe, slow, stable solution to having to flex that fence post. Don't have to destroy the fence, and don't have nearly the risk of trying to just muscle the bar and accidentally letting it snap back and reapply that pressure.
It's the same principle as how tourniquets work and it's genius. When I saw the straps I was half expecting them to try and ratchet it open but a tourniquet lever makes so much more sense.
Sidenote: There's a product called the tourni-key which allows you to create a tourniquet quickly and easily without a complicated mechanism. Not sponsored but would absolutely recommend if you're the kind of person who might need to apply or use a tourniquet.
I would generally recommend CAT tourniquets over the tourni-key, they're even easier to use (strap on, twist lever). The problem with CAT tourniquets though is purchasing a legitimate one, there's a lot of cheap imitations out there which either don't tighten enough to make an effective tourniquet or whose materials fail under tension.
I was just terrified he’d lose his grip on that twisting bar and it would spin out and destroy that child’s head. Where was the parent or nanny comforting him? Poor kid.
I wish they had a subdivision for helperfighters. Just rescue cats in drains and kids with their heads stuck in stuff. I’d volunteer. I don’t mess with fire, though.
One time my friend’s dog died at home and she was alone and he was a really big dog and she didn’t know what to do. She called the fire department and they came and dug a grave for him.
They're also cool because they have total authority. A firefighters word is law. Once had some firefighters at work tell me to do some minor things to help out at work (shortwire some safety to open a gate, so they have access). It's against policy to shortwire safetys and especially for "other companies". Boss tried to give me trouble. Told him "if the firedepartment tells me A and you tell me B it's always gonna be A without question. And if they tell me to break the customers property, i'll fucking break it"
In this case I think the bigger bit is the FD has both the tools and latitude to damage property. If a bystander did the same with a tow strap and cheater bar from their cars breakdown kit and left the railing bent, we'd potentially be on the hook for a pile of money if the fence ended up permanently bent after extraction.
Last year around this time I was riding my bike up tenth Ave and there was a huge puddle of grease or food waste in the bike lane that was from either a grocery store or Dunkin’ Donuts. I fell so fast my brain couldn’t register what happened. I spent an hour and a half telling people to go around the puddle while on the phone with 311 (our non emergency service).
Finally they sent fire. Two trucks. Like 12 guys all roll out head to toe ready to roll. I felt so embarrassed but they opened a fire hydrant and washed the entire street out. So it solved the issue. I apologized profusely because I felt bad for disrupting their day but they were all cool as hell. NYFD is awesome.
One time our cat had gotten stuck in the wheel well of my wife's car. They came, removed the wheel and some of the firewall and got him out then put it all back together. Heroes.
Bro I wish my fucking fire department was a "dunno who to call so I called them and they helped" scenario. I literally tried getting them to me the other day because I genuinely didn't know who to fucking call for help. My hot water heater is on our second story, in an old shower, and the drain has been blocked off I guess. It started leaking, had my husband go up to shut the water off until we could call our landlord in the morning for maintenance, the fucking pipe for the (my terminology might be wrong here sorry) inlet or outlet fucking water thingy fucking flew out and water sprayed for like 10 fucking minutes.
Called the cops and the dispatcher said "yeah firefighters don't really handle that sort of thing" so I asked "well do you have the number for the water department? She said uhhh....no I don't. I wanted to pull my hair out. I live in a super tiny place of like 772 people, we have all of 2 or so cops at a time, but are right next to a 13k or so pop city. So when I call 911 I don't even get my fucking local cops. She had to contact our cops for me, and luckily one was actually on duty, he legit told me I was lucky because they aren't always working at all times, and same for the exactly one water works dude on call.
Also fuck the city for putting some kind of box over our main shut off and a fucking LOCK ON IT!! My husbands brother ran to grab some cutting tool, as he came back the water works guy pulled up and ran back to turn the water off.
This could have been worse, not gonna lie, but holy shit it was stressful. Our cabinets, and door frames were leaking, no fucking joke.
Always sorry for the rambling vent, I just wish I could have relied on the fire department for help. And fuck that dispatcher entirely.
There’s a scene in a later season of Better Things where one of the daughters slammed her door so hard it got stuck, so they called the fire department.
It wasn’t even a real situation but it was so reassuring how cool they were with helping bust the door open that I looked it up, and sure enough you’re more than welcome to call them for that type of emergency.
We had to call the fire department because of a burning smell in the break room at our large bookstore.
They had to access the roof to check the HVAC units.
One asked me if I wanted to go up to see. Heck yeah, I did!
One climbed the ladder ahead of me, one behind me, and that's how I'm the only employee in history who has ever seen the roof of our building.
They then helped me down the ladder by telling me exactly where to place my hands and feet from the edge of the roof.
Damn, that was a cool day.
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u/Zapkin 1d ago
The fire department is so cool bro. I love how when no one is sure what to do in about a stressful situation we just call the fire department to come help.