I've always been pretty good at dealing with the public during any time of call, EMS or Fire.

However, yesterday there was an instance that threw me off balance - and it didn't even involve me personally.

One of our neighboring departments made a deal with us while their ladder is out of service - we send ours to any Fire call that they tone out for. Their area isn't a great area (in fact, it's one of the worst areas that I've seen), and is known for crime and violence. Either way, we are there to help, and I've been there before and haven't witnessed any problems.

Yesterday we got toned out for the Mutual Aid. We piled into the truck and took off. It was nothing overall, but we stood by at the scene while they checked things out (I think it was a small shed fire - we didn't even get out of the rig).

My Chief gave us the OK to go, and he drove back and blocked a side road so our truck could back up (forwards was blocked by their emergency apparatus at the time). By the time that we get back to him we see that a citizen is talking to him. We get back further and we hear yelling. When we got back to the station he hold us that the following happened:

While he was blocking traffic (he did this for less than a minute) the woman pulled up to him and rolled down her window. It was a irrate black woman (her race somewhat matters momentarily) who immediately started yelling for blocking the road. He told her he was allowing the truck to back out, to which she responded by calling him a "stupid cracker", and then exclaiming that she "pays his (our) salaries."

... We're completely volunteer when it comes to Fire...

Anyway, what stories do you have regarding dealing with the public, especially when they act in such a manner and say such irrational things? I do have more, but I'll save them for later in the thread if it takes off.