The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
It Wasn't Funny Then, But It's Funny Now
I was reading about the high rise fire in Toronto, (great city that needs to be visisted) and that there were 2 maydays called. 1 for a FF that ran out of air and another for a lost FF. While we all know how serious both events could be, I thought the 2nd incident was kind of funny. You see the FF was lost on the 1st floor of a 30 story building when the fire on the 24th floor.
I can see this happening...MAYDAY MAYDAY....Command we have a Mayday and are activating RIT. REc'd Command, Do you have a location of the subject. Negative command. RIT is entering the building....a min later RIT sees a FF yelling for help ..walks up to him and ask whats wrong...FF says he lost and can't find his crew...RIT walks him out the front door. Total elapsed time 5 mins.
We've all had those incidents that when they happened weren't funny until maybe a couple of days or weeks later. Like the time I almost fell out of the engine when my brother took the turn too quickly (20 yrs ago so don't write about seat belts)
Or the time we found a body in the trunk of a burnt out car, I opened the trunk and thought it was a pile of trash with a bowling ball until I seen the stomach poking out. I yelled "stand back it's a body" and somehow the FF standing next to me ended up about 100 yards away in 3 seconds. Thats the closest he got after that.
Or the time we were standing by on an alarm investigation during rain storm when a transformer blew (very loudly) and everyone jumped. My brother ended up in a field (over a 3 foot fence) the chief was climbing out the other side of the cab and I jumped up on the engine. Scared the Hell out of everyone
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
-
I can see this happening...MAYDAY MAYDAY....Command we have a Mayday and are activating RIT. REc'd Command, Do you have a location of the subject. Negative command. RIT is entering the building....a min later RIT sees a FF yelling for help ..walks up to him and ask whats wrong...FF says he lost and can't find his crew...RIT walks him out the front door. Total elapsed time 5 mins.
A classic cry wolf situation that will lead to complacency in the response to a "real" mayday....
-
Permalink Reply by John Karl Ambrusch, III on
-
It is a little funny knowing now that there really wasn't any danger. But, if you think about it for a minute, whatever floor that one firefighter was lost on.... he did do the right thing. It's unfortunate though that so many other resources had to be committed to respond to the problem when they could've been available for true emergencies.
As far as running out of air, he should've been paying attention to detail and monitoring how much time he had left. It's pretty simple to do buddy checks every few minutes; even if command monitored the time also.
We all do silly things and end up in goofy situations. I think that it's the circumstances we end up in that leads to these problems that's the compelling factor. As long as we learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to be as safe and as "common-sense" oriented as possible, it's just part of the job.
-
-
"Cry Wolf" should never happen if every firefighter is properly trained to a level where they know they treat every MAYDAY as if it were real. Always, train as you fight.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
