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Permalink Reply by Holly on August 5, 2010 at 3:31am

My boyfriends mother takes cookies to surrounding departments and on Holidays she always makes a few plates for whoever is on duty at the ambulance base.

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Powers on August 5, 2010 at 9:36am

We spent 8 hours one night working a MA fire at an abandoned truck stop. As the sun started warming the ice sheets we laid down that night, the requesting chief sent our worn out bodies to the local diner for breakfast. This is not a requirement of our agreement but he sure bought a lot of loyalty from us that morning. It worked out well for everybody as the normal patrons of the diner got to see 12 guys in dirty turnouts from a couple of towns over. I do not believe the average citizen understands the amount of mutual aid our rural departments give and receive but for the 20 or so people in the diner that morning, it was the kind of public relations that no one could buy.

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Permalink Reply by paula beckham on August 6, 2010 at 5:40am

last year we had a 2 car mva multi fatility had being on scene for about 6 hours waiting for serious crash investigators to do their thing one of our wives drove the 45 mins to bring us coffee and our local leo's confiscated the fish and chips the tv crew showed up with and gave it to us after that he had 10 new best friends

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Permalink Reply by Jessi Ann Montgomery on August 6, 2010 at 7:22am

Last year we had a bar fire and we were there for about 15 hours. Since our engine was first on scene the fire marshall and ATF requested for us to stay. We were paged out at about 4:30 in the morning and around noon after salvage and overhaul was done we all relaxed in the rescue which stayed on scene with us. we all were debating on how we were going to get something to eat. One of the churches that was across the highway heard about the fire and sent over the biggest sub sandwich i have ever seen. That was probably the only act of kindness i had ever seen on a fire scene. And I, along with the other firefighters who were there that day, am truely grateful to the wonderful people at that church.

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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on August 7, 2010 at 12:04am

I have been thinking a lot about this question...

There have been many many acts of kindness at many many incidents I have been at. It seems that they can get lost in the heat of the moment.

Many of the greatest acts of kindness have come from my colleagues on my (or others) departments - from one of my guys offering to cover my hose line so I could go home to take my sick kid to the doctor; to one of my guys offering to pack hose on a day that I am extra tired, or the guys who daily make an extra effort to gas up the truck, wash the truck, and go through all of the gear after a call so I can make it to my parent's anniversary party or get back to my primary job.

Many of the great acts of kindness came from officers who were attentive to personal needs - such as saying: hey, I know you ran a lot of calls this week and you must be exhausted, it is ok if you skip a call or two and catch up on your sleep.

Or the general niceness of having one of the crew call and check in on my well-being... especially after an exceptionally hard event in my life or a hard call. This is above and beyond... and the kindness flows freely among the brotherhood !!!

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Permalink Reply by Jordan Bryce Wiser on August 8, 2010 at 12:03am

The strangest act of kindness I have seen...I was on an EMS Call for an old lady having chest pains...we pull up and the medic next to me ask her how long she has been feeling pain...it was already into the afternoon. She replied sense 3am but I didn't want to wake anyone. We laughed and I told her, trust me mam I can't sleep anyways I would have been glad to be here at 3am. She just smiled at me and said thank you for helping.

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