PD at a fire scene.

What is the role of local police on a fire scene. Traffic control, Crowd control, or what.

This officer parked in the driveway of the house that was reported to be on fire. Is that a bad thing? What should he have done?

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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on February 2, 2011 at 2:08pm

Davin, the Police should do what their policy dictates. And from State to State or City to City their roles differ considerably. Ultimately their role at a fire scene is to block traffic and isolate the area to allow us to do our jobs. However, that being said I have seen this same type a picture in my area from time to time and I have made it very clear to them that that Police Cruiser isnt going anywhere an therefore they are stuck till we let them out which wont be for a while. Many Police agencies would dispatch a Police Officer to a call such as this an their role would be to ascertain the circumstances before arriving Fire gets there. However, its best if they are parked out of the way. Hey! maybe this cruiser belongs to the Police Officer who lives there? Obviously the whole circumstances are the interest and responsibility of your Chief and Fire Authority. You being a JR Firefighter may not understand all the issues related to fire authority an inter-workings with Police agencies.

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Permalink Reply by joemac on February 2, 2011 at 8:46pm

"d" key not working?

Cops bring the donuts.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on February 2, 2011 at 8:55pm

At least he parked in the driveway and not blocking the road so that fire rigs couldn't get through.

As Chief Sharp mentions each depts does have their policies, but best place for cops would be either scene control or blocking off traffic from a fire scene.

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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on February 2, 2011 at 9:23pm

Any cop who parks in the driveway and not in the hydrant's way (like the nitwits in Philly do) is okay by me.

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Permalink Reply by walt on February 2, 2011 at 9:35pm

We had a officer 1 time park in front of a hydrant we layed 1200' of 5'' hose was not a good conversation after we saw what he had done.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Watson on February 2, 2011 at 9:44pm

my favorite is when they pop flares at a flammable liquid/gas call for traffic control....learn real quick that if you drop a flare lit side down on concrete from a height of about 3ft it usually goes out with a loud pop and scares the crap out of the cop...

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Permalink Reply by Moose on February 2, 2011 at 9:54pm

Sometimes police get on scene quicker and there are rescues made by them. Should we care? We all do the same thing, help people. The local village police in my old dept responded with us all the time to ensure the scene was safe than provide crowd and traffic control. They replenished our flare supplies for us and got us an early size up being that most of the LEO's in our area are also volunteer firefighters. Its nice to have a PD unit on scene within minutes to let us know "Flame showing from second floor" or even "Nothing showing, advize FD." so we can tone down our response. We all help each other, the way it should be.
There was one time I was working my FT EMS gig and we had a station 30 seconds away from the local SUNY Campus. We just sat down for dinner (Pizza!) when the scanner came on and we heard a campus cop yelling on the radio for back up, there was a riot at the campus quad and he was being chased. We jumped up and drove the 30 seconds with our sirens BLARING and air horn going, hoping to make the kids think the cavalry was coming. We got there and the officer was stumbling around holding his eyes, he had gotten sprayed by his own pepper spray and was just starting to get beaten by the kids when we pulled up. We scared the kids off long enough for the cop to jump in the rig and we pulled away until the other units got there. The cop couldnt thank us enough and he brought us a pizza that next shift to make up for the one that we had and went cold on us!! lol

We work together.

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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on February 3, 2011 at 12:11am

As we do too Brian. The Chief an I are in each others office at least once a week. If there is an issue it is resolved very quickly.

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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on February 3, 2011 at 1:30am

He should have parked at the corner at the end of the block or at the nearest donut shop, whichever is closest. In the driveway? A little too close for comfort.

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Permalink Reply by Katina L Phalen on February 3, 2011 at 1:31am

Jump in his car and move it! I have before, he left it unlocked and running so I moved it, it was in my way! What are they going to do arrest you? Cops have no clue sometimes how they can really get in the way. There great to have there sometimes, but they can get in the way.