What I wish people knew about EMS, Firefighters,
Dispatchers, & Law Enforcement.


I wish you could know what it is like to
search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3
AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and
knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under
your weight as the kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a husband's horror at 6 in
the morning as I check his wife of 40 years for a
pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to
bring her back, knowing intuitively it is too late.
But wanting her husband and family to know everything
possible was done to try to save her life.

I wish you knew the unique smell of burning
insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the
feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear,
the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being
able to see absolutely nothing in dense
smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with.

I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a
building fire "Is this a false alarm or a working
fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards
await me? Is anyone trapped?"
Or to call, "What is wrong with the patient? Is it
minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really in
distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a
gun?"

I wish you could be in the emergency room as a
doctor pronounces dead the beautiful five-year old
girl that I have been trying to save during the past
25 minutes, who will never go on her first date or
say the words, "I love you Mommy" again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in
the cab of the engine or unit
the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the
pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air
horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at
an intersection or in traffic. When you need us
however, your first comment upon our arrival will
be, "It took you forever to get here!"

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help
extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains
of her automobile. "What if this was my daughter,
sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What is her
parent's reaction going to be when they open the
door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the
back door and greet my parents and family, not
having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not
come back from the last call.

I wish you could know how it feels dispatching
officers, firefighters and EMT's out and when we
call for them and our heart drops because no one
answers back or to here a bone chilling 911 call of
a child or wife needing assistance.

I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally,
and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what
I do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will
never happen to me."

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and
mental drain or missed meals, lost sleep and forgone
social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my
eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and
self-satisfaction of helping save a life or
preserving someone's property, or being able to be
there in time of crisis, or creating order from
total chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to
have a l ittle boy tugging at your arm and asking,
Is Mommy okay?" Not even being able to look in his
eyes without tears from your own and not knowing
what to say. Or to have to hold back a long time
friend who watches his buddy having CPR done on him
as you take him away in the Medic Unit. You know
all along he did not have his seat belt on.
A sensation that I have become too familiar with.

Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you
will never truly understand or appreciate who I am,
we are, or what our job really means to us...I wish
you could though.