I volunteer in Tel Aviv fire department, and the population is normal overall. We did had some cases of stone throwing (usually by Arabs) on our trucks, firefighters and citizens
Basically as Ralph states, we are leaving the scene until it can be made safe. If this is a fire and a riot breaks out, we leave, we'll drop what we have and get out of the area until it can be secured. If the fire burns down several buildings because we left, so be it. Had there not been a reason for us to leave we would have stayed to finish the job right.
Luckily here, we don't have the same issues as you do in Israel, but there have been incidents of firefighters getting attacked on a fire scene and they have pulled back until the police got control of the situation. In Milwaukee during the riots they had there in the late 60's, police were being sent out before the fire rigs and the fire rigs staged until the scene was safe. This meant the fires grew, but we are firefighters, not law enforcement, we don't have the same training or equipment and there is no fire worth the life of a firefighter, especially from a hostile crowd.
Well said Crabby, Yes the SOP for just about every department in the USA is the same when it comes to scene safety. It doesn't matter if it is EMS, fire, hazmat, or tech resq the answer is the same...GET OUT. The number one priority is you and your team. I wanna save a life and make a difference, that is why most of us are in this service. There are enough times when we take "well calculated" risks that are backed up by our training and experiences. There are just sometimes though when you have to vacate the premises and say "let's re-evaluate or strategy and tactics."
The most important thing that I can tell you, and it gets drilled into my crew, "It is not our emergency, so don't make it ours!" If you become part of the problem then it is harder to mitigate the scene.
AHHHH but the devil's advocate in me says this to. Be ready to back up your actions. Document it, radio log, what ever you need to do to show why you did it.
Be safe and learn something new today.
And don't forget, I have a helmet color for every occasion as well.
I think I've done like 130 blogs or something like that.
I want to be like Fire Geezer. I want to rule the blog world.
TCSS.
Art
Insure our own safety....that's mine and my partner....(or our company)...things get bad....we have to back off and wait for the scene to get resonably safe(what fire is safe...?? LOL) Can't help anyone if we become a victim.....Paul