Every morning, after we check out our equipment and engine, we have our morning meeting. This is just on the company level and in it we discuss the plans for the day. We cover what we need to do such as inspections and drills, then go over the things that we would like to do (I set up time to do the things I need to do while I'm on probation). The other morning our meeting was interrupted by a phone call. I answered the phone and an elderly lady asked if we could come by her home to inspect it for safety. She was recently placed on home oxygen and was a little worried about the flammability issue. I took down her name, phone number and address and informed her that we would be there sometime this morning.
When we arrived at the house we met Anna. She was in her late 80's and lived alone in her house. Inside she stored everything she had collected over most of a century. She had a long tube connected to a nasal cannula that followed her around the house. My Captain sat down with her at the dining room table and talked while the other firefighter and I went and inspected her house. The only problem that we found was an abundance of electrical cords. We warned her about this but I don't think it will do much good. After spending a good 45 minutes there we excused ourselves. Up to this point I think we had done a great job of providing service. MY Captain would go above and beyond.
The next shift (2 days later) during our morning meeting, my Captain said that he wanted to go back by Anna's house and drop off some pamphlets. He was worried about her being home by herself and had looked up city information on senior services and groups. We went back over there,much to the surprise of Anna, and dropped off the pamphlets. It was a nice reminder to me that we are there to serve the public. Not just be there when they have an emergency.
