On July 4th 2014, the most memorable firecall happened. The morning of Fourth of July did not start out the way it would for most families. I was a career firefighter and at that time my shift was over at noon. My crew woke up early in the morning to get our house duties done so we can train later in the day. Our duties consist of cleaning the apparatus and the bay, wash the bathrooms, put away dishes, and inspect all the supplies and gear on the apparatus. Everything was normal except for one thing, one of the toilets were clogged. I found this very strange because we have the high pressure toilets at my fire station so the toilets should never get clogged. It was an unusual thing to deal with, but I did it and then moved onto the next duty. After all the duties were finished, we started our training. Our training for that day was to practice different ladder climbing techniques. While we were climbing ladders, one of my new firefighters fell off the ladder and broke his arm. We have not had an accident here for over three years and thats pretty good considering we are firefighters.  Our morning at Station 51 has started off very differently than how it normally does.

As we were all sitting around the breakfast table the tones wrang. They said that there was a fire alarm going off at a house just a few blocks south of Station 51. We put on our gear and got to the address as quick as possible. When we got there, we walked into the house and were met by an older women. The women came up to us and asked, “ Why are you guys in my house?” My chief said, “ We were called to this address for a fire alarm that was going off.” The lady said, “ Well its about time, it has been going off for five hours.” The lady was not very happy that the alarm was going off for five hours, but we are here to just make sure that there is no fire. So we load up our smoke detectors and tools and head back to the station. Now that we are back at the station, it was 10:30 a.m and my shift is over in just a little over an hour. As we take off our gear and go sit down by the t.v to watch the news, the tones go off again. They said that there were two vehicles that rolled off an embankment and there was heavy entrapment. This sounds like a serious call. We all rushed down to the apparatus room and put on our gear. As we got into the truck, the lady that sounded the tones came over the radio and told us to expedite. That means to get there faster than normal because it is really bad. The ride to the address was very intense and long.
As we got onto scene, we noticed that the vehicles did not roll down the embankment. The soil underneath the paved road had washed out while there were cars driving over top of it and two vehicles were on the road when it washed out. Once we got out of the fire truck we heard screaming and crying and people calling for “help.” We rushed down to where the cars were and noticed how bad it was. It was one of the worst car wrecks I have ever seen, but we had a job to do and that job was to save the people in the vehicles. As firefighters, we used the term extrication. Extrication means to extricate or remove a patient from a vehicle. We use the spreaders, otherwise known as the “Jaws of Life” to get the doors to pop open. After that, we used the cutters to cut the door hinges so we could remove the door from the car. One by one we extricated all seven patients. Four patients were in the first car and three were in the other. All of the patients except for one was considered to have moderate injury. The one that was not moderate was listed as serious. The patient that was listed as serious was a thirty-three year old male. He sustained serious injuries to his head, neck, and back. From the moment we stepped out of the truck, we knew that we had our work cut out for us.

When we got back to the firehouse, we still had work to get done. Since it was practically a mudslide, we had to wash our turnout pants and coat. Then we had to wipe down all the tools, fill the generators up with gas, and clean the truck. This took most of the day. By now, my shift was way past being over, so I took a shower and decided to go home. On my way home, I drove past the hospital where they had taken the patient that was listed as serious. I decided to stop by and see how he was doing. When I walked in, I saw that they had him hooked up to many machines and that he had a little girl and a wife looking over him, waiting for him to wake up. I knocked on the door and asked if I could come in, but the lady looked at me with a confused facial expression. She came up to me and asked who I was. I told her that I was the captain of Truck 51 and that we were the ones that pulled her husband out of the car. She looked at me for a minute and started to cry and then gave me a huge hug . She did nothing but thank me while I was visiting. When we walked back into the room, her daughter asked who I was and she told her that I was the man that helped save her dad. As I sat there and talked to the lady and her daughter they had told me that he should be waking up anytime soon. When I was about ready to leave the room, family members of the patients family started to show up to visit. As I said goodbye and walked out of the room, I heard the wife say that she had just met the fireman that saved her husband. When I sat down in my car, I took the moment in. I realized the real reason why I became a firefighter. Its not just for the helmet and the firetruck, its for the fact that I can make a difference in someone’s life.

Call 197 on July 4th, 2014 changed my life forever. It was a memorable call because of the fact that I helped make an impact on not only someones life, but someone’s family. It made me feel like I saved the life of a husband and father. It impacted me forever, it made me humble. Not too many get the chance to do, but I am glad I got the chance to be a firefighter.