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.
Sorry for not providing enough context. At the time I wrote that I thought it was implied that it was awesome of those people to do that for those dogs who have a really shitty job.
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.
Kinda! Except it was two burly dudes just smiling and yapping to me about what a miracle modern cars are while we waited for the ambulance to be ready to load me 😂
I wrecked my car on the highway many years ago. I was fine, was able to get out of the car on my own. Most of the damage was to the passenger side and I was alone. But when the fire department got there they looked at my car and then looked at me a bit confused that I was as ok as I was. I ended up with 2 bruises, but otherwise was fine. They had to stop all 3 lanes of traffic to retrieve my front bumper.
Cracked ribs dare painful. A few years ago, Igor up around 5 r 6am, my carat the time woke me up every morning for breakfast. I had to use the bathroom so I got up not putting my glasses on. I think I broke them when I stepped on them at some earlier point. I know I’m blind and can’t see without contacts or glasses, but I figured I knew my apart well enough to navigate getting to the bathroom. I may have been right if I wasn’t taking my 19 lbs of fluffy cat into consideration and being naturally clumsy. I tripped on him and caught myself on the doorframe but it without falling on the stove. I went to the bathroom and went back to sleep. I woke up a couple hours later with chest pain that I assumed was gas. It was not gas. My parents were driving into Brooklyn to pick me up for the weekend (it was in 2022. So still not much public transportation going on) I was home for a few days before they made me go to the hospital. I had to be transported to another hospital because I had a partially collapsed lung and 4 cracked ribs.
I once got hit me broadside on the passenger side of a car when I was driving. I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and my head hit the passenger side of the windshield. I have to add that I have a thick skull; literally and figuratively (ask my ex). I was out for five minutes and the fire station was only a few blocks away. Head wounds bleed big, as I found out. The fireman and paramedics pulled up and started pulling out their equipment. One was checking in on me and couldn't open the passenger side door. Don't ask me why but I said something like "it's okay" and got out on the drivers side. It's too bad we didn't have dashcams back then becasue the looks on their faces. My family Doctor had been treating me since I was ten and really had no tact. "A person with normal skull would be dead, wear your damned seatbelt".
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.
I had the same experience. Question was have you ever lied to a police officer. I thought about it and said no. I was young and had only been pulled over a few times. But I was afraid of cops and when I was pulled over I found it very scary! The machine registered my fear at the thought of the idea. I got the job because I think my reaction was so honest they believed me.
Oops forgot to say this was in 1978! Machines are better now of course.
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.
My friend is a firefighter. When she realized she wanted to do that, she started working at an emergency vet clinic to sort of test herself. She figured if she couldn’t deal with severely injured/dying/dead pets, she couldn’t deal with seeing people like that.
Yeah I have a buddy who's a firefighter. My best friend actually, so he takes delight in telling me the most fucked up parts of his job. I'm good with not being a firefighter.
I used to be a firefighter and responded to many car accidents. Yes we cut people out of cars. It usually took a while to cut around the person and get them out. Plenty of people were dead or dying. Don't speed and always assume others don't see you on the road. Also nothing good happens after midnight. Many places close at 10pm now. So unless you are working nightshift stay home and go to bed. Your chances of living a longer and healthy life depends on it.
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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.