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Highway patrol verses Firefighter
This was just resent... A car fire broke out on a turnpike here in okla. and three departments were paged out to assist with the blaze. Now where this fire was at couldn't have been in a worse place at the worse time of day, and ya heavy traffic. It took quit some time for the dept's to respond and get there for the distance and man power and the time of day but they all got there, but this single OHP office decided he was mad because the fire dept's had traffic down to one lane for over an hour fighting this blaze that had a fual tank ruptured and metals burning and took it upon himself and I quote this, this has taken entirely to much time and I assure you this will not happen again and took down every single firefighters name and unit # for there report that was on scene...Now here is the catch I seen atleast six diffent OHP cars there on the side of the road with one unit a 1/4 mile back with no lights on to the rear with orange cones down to divert traffic to one lane, and what was being told at the scene is they had a POV come close to hitting them which in turn took there aggression out on the firefighters and even the tow truck driver on scene. My question is: when is enough a enough??? I mean we all need to work together and we all serve the same public and I've heard this on so many scenes and from other depts throughout the state: You give them a gun and they walk around with a chip on there shoulder and its there way or no way at all....But I will say this not all the OHP officers are like this, but you always have a select few or you have that one that has a bad attitude and gives you a bad taste in your mouth when having to work with these guys.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justyn Boling on
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wonder if its the same one that choked the EMT a few months back?!?!?!?
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Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on
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let the State Troopers do our job for a few days so they can see what it is like. then maybe they will change. i know up in the texas panhandles around amarillo the troops and fire department works closely together. they know when we need to shut down a line and they help. in a return we work fast enough so we can reopen the line.
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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on
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I don't know if it's a state law in PA, but I've always been taught, (and this isn't firefighter propaganda, I was taught this in EMS years before getting into fire), that when it's a MVA, their are crew chiefs for each EMS/fire unit on scene, but the big man is the fire chief, or the fire OIC.
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Permalink Reply by CHIEF NORMAN on
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Kirk your right, allot of people dont see the kind-of-job we do until it deals with them directly and then it seems to change a person's whole outlook. Its pretty sad but you pretty well see that throught the entire work force industry. It takes something major to get something to change and sometimes its a life to make a law...
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Permalink Reply by cole hammons on
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Chief I was on that fire as well and we all worked as fast as we could. When you have only volunteer fire departments responding what do they expect? I can assure you if that was his wifes car he wouldn't be complaining about time! Next time I will loan him my bunker gear if he thinks he can do it faster! I would love to sit in the vehicle with the AC on hi and my radio turned up watching him sweat his butt off!
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Cole, I totally understand brother and your right the firefighters on scene did everything within there power to battle this blaze...Keep up the good job and I tilt my helmet to ya...
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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When you have only volunteer fire departments responding what do they expect?
What difference does it make? Sometimes circumstances are such that some vehicles take longer than others to put out.
The trooper was out of line, end of story. But as I commented on another well documented incident, every OHP trooper I have ever been around appears to have that attitude. "I am doing you a favor for allowing you to speak to me". I know (hope) that they all are not like that.
As far as foam on a vehicle fire goes, yes we use it, but I have also put out a lot of vehicles over the years with Plain Jane water.
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No he is taking up for himself, he is on a vol. dept. What he is saying is he did the best he could do, Note the first truck on this scene was 9 min after the first call went out.
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Well like I said in my orginal post the time and place was a factor. For Cole that you were directing your comment to, was I would say approx. 7 to 10 miles away, so ya 9 min was a good time. And just like you I to have walked in the other shoes as an officer but I can tell you this I would never have treated the guys the way this OHP officer did...There is a time and place for everything and when your on scene's like this, first objective life comes first and do our job and hash out the other crap later, you know what I mean? And as far as paid or vol, it dont make a bit of difference we all get the same training here in Okla and all serve the same public.
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Permalink Reply by Renee Palmer on
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Makes you wonder if some cross-training should be in order for all three sectors - Fire, Police, and even EMS. Then perhaps there could be more coordination of efforts as opposed to dissention among the responding parties. Making me really consider over-all Public Safety as my Bachelors major instead of just Fire Science... *sigh* At least here it seems that there's a lot of cooperation, I've never been to a scene where PD, Fire, and EMS haven't worked together like a well-oiled machine.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel J. Graham on
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First thing's first - This probably isn't the right thread for a volunteer vs. career discussion. That being said, In New York State, if it is an MVA, it is technically considered a crime scene, and the police agency having jurisdictions is the big kahuna. Light that vehicle on fire, and it's the fire chief. I have had a few run-ins on the Interstate with law enforcement officers, a few that particularly desire to show off their authority. The best way I've found to handle them from an officer's point of view is to explain to them politely, "Hey, we are working as fast as we can. I understand you have concerns with the traffic, but there's nothing I can do about that. I'm not going to compromise YOUR safety and mine to keep traffic moving." It really is a judgment call from that point forward based on how the officer proceeds. Obviously if there is still an emergency in existence, we must complete the job. If the emergency is done, and you are threatened with being arrested, leave! Trust me his fellow officers and supervisors won't be too happy when all their traffic blocking and safety teams just up and leave. And for the record, when there is an active fire of any type of limited access highway (the Interstate for my department), our protocol dictates that AT LEAST that entire side of the highway (all lanes in the direction the fire is located on) be shut down until the fire is OUT. Regardless of how bad it FUBARs traffic. The police and fire agencies must work together, and sometimes incidents like this do arise when egos butt heads (apparently more often in some places than others...). What remains of utmost importance is that as firefighters, and officers and chiefs particularly, are responsible for the safety of EVERYONE on the scene. Including the bone-headed police officer that wants to arrest you because you're taking too long. As long as you are there, he is still your responsibility (at least morally, and legally in some states). My final word on this is that whether it be a vehicle fire where you stand to save very little, or a serious motor vehicle accident where people's lives hang in the balance, PD, Fire, and all other agencies must be on the same page - not because we need to know who's right, who's wrong, who's the real boss, who has the bigger d***, but because as emergency responders we have a moral obligation to each other to make sure we all go home at the end of the day.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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We have two highways (I-495 qnd I-290), State Route 85 and US Route 20 that run through our fair city.
We have a good working relationship with the Massachusetts State Police... we see them often enough on the highway. The last time I had a trooper "flex his muscles" (he was fresh out of the SP Academy and had just completed his ride time/training period) was at a two car MVA with PI on 495 South. He came up to me in a huff and told me that "he had to get the traffic moving" and to move my command vehicle out of the way. I told him that if I moved my car, some moron on a cell phone would drive right into the back of the rigs and hit my personnel... and if he thought the traffic was "inconvienienced" now, wait until SP's accident reconstruction team came.. he would be out there all day dealing with traffic control
He gave me the look that I call "the lightbulb" moment when the brain kicks in.... then said "take your time...."
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