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Comment by Art on December 7, 2008 at 2:33pm

Luck us people do stupid things, if they did'nt I would be delivering the mail because there would be no need to the fire department.

Comment by Beverly on December 7, 2008 at 1:25pm

People do stupid things, apparently the bright lights and siren are just an invitation to have people pull out in front of us....worst yet they pull out in front of us, finally see us and then come to a complete stop in the middle of the road...yeah your little aluminum so called car is no match for our apparatus...great now there's another call. Better yet they get indignant because you lay on the air horn!!
But hey I did get the point across on night at a fire scene...very rural, detour was about 15 miles, pissy out of stater with their weekend home was not going to wait because it was only a few miles to their house and "after all it's a holiday weekend (Memorial Day) and I have high clearance (to drive over our charged hose)"...Guess what, a mag light to their windshield (lucky for me it didn't break) changed their mind.

Comment by Brian Dumser on December 7, 2008 at 12:35pm

"For example: going to a vehicle that overturned, in an area that is bad when weather is good, get to the first intersection past the fire house and get to a red ligt and have to come to a complete stop due to someone who had a green light needed through the intersection worse than us." - Ron Maddox

I can sympathize with you Ron, but regardless of the emergency, you need to come to a stop at red lights, and proceed with caution. Failure to do so can and has resulted in firefighters being found liable for crashes and going to jail. Take care, be careful, stay safe!

Comment by PA Firefighter on December 7, 2008 at 10:54am

Anymore we are an inconvenience to people, unless they are the ones we are helping. It amazes me that people will drive around our apparatus and over our hoses so they don't have to detour.

Comment by Michael Bates on December 7, 2008 at 7:49am

I'm with you Ron....it seems as if people think we want to stop traffic or cause them unneeded delays. it has nothing to do withsomeone needing assistance of some sort. just yesterday I was doing traffic at the scene of a minor MVA, we were waiting for the tow truck driver to get the car hooked up. at least three different cars tried to go around me , one at a high rate of speed!. when the guy stopped i asked him if he saw the big trucks with red lights and i just got a blank stare, then he said come-on man gimme a break, i told him we wanted him to slow down for our safety, again another blank stare....people don't care. He also didn't seem to notice my new vest any better. People don't care, they have too many gadgets in their cars to distract them, phones, Gps, ipods, etc....they don't care about us, but if your not there quick when they need you, the first words are ...what took you so long.....

Comment by Jenny Holderby on December 7, 2008 at 4:01am

I can relate buddy! I don't know where Dry Ridge, KY is but it must be next door to Proctorville, OH. My department had 3 calls today, all MVAs. On one of them we were told that "our" squad would have an extended ETA because the one that was enroute was involved in an accident. We were lucky, we only had 3, every FD & every EMS squad in the county was out all afternoon on multiple calls. You can still see the grass under the snow.