Firefighters interact with law enforcement at calls. Our interactions with our compatriots in blue and brown were good. There were some issues with Highway Patrol about closing freeways but even then very professional people.

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?

In the movie Dirty Harry, he carried a 44 magnum. He shot a bunch of people with it but until one night I never understood what it really did.

We were called to a local motel on a shooting call. On arrival we entered a room and saw one hysterical young woman cuffed on the bed, a couple of blue suits, two scruffy looking guys, and two guys shot and cuffed on the floor. The guys on the floor looked like undercover cops with waistband holsters under sport jackets, so I was a bit confused but took one victim and my partner took the other. My guy had been shot by one of the scruffy guys, now showing a badge and a 44 magnum. I started my primary survey and noticed all this weird crinkly stuff on the floor. I determined the victim was gone and realized the crinkly stuff was lungs. The 44 had blown the guy's lungs out. The other perp was also dead, shot with a 357. Dead but not as gruesome.This was before automatics came into style. The deal was a drug bust gone bad. The perps had set up a sale to the undercovers for a small amount of coke but had been watching too much Miami Vice and had come armed. When the bust went down they went for the door and guns showed and stuff happened. Afterwords the shooter with the 44 started carrying a 357 and the other guy retired out.

NO CONFIDENCE

Over the years I also assisted in subduing some perps with the cops and sometimes before they arrived. We were dispatched to a retail store alarm sounding. On arrival we saw a guy inside and when he saw us he tried to hide: dumb move. We would have figured him for an employee and left. We called for PD but before they came he got to the roof and jumped to the street and took off. Our engineer who weighed about 325 took off after him and to my horror started gaining on the guy. I had on my turnout boots and started plodding after them. I got him in 1/2 block and took him down and got him subdued. The reason we caught him was he broke his ankle when he jumped. In retrospect it was a dump thing to do, the guy could have been armed, but at the time it was fun. The end of the story is he had a handcuff key "kestered" in case he was caught and when he was booked they found it and he got an extra charge of attempted jail break.