Going Above And Beyond

A few weeks ago one of the other crews at my station got a call for a victim of a fall. When they arrived on scene they found an 80 year old woman laying on the floor covered in blood. Her house looked like a scene from a horror movie with blood trails leading to the front door. Towards the rear part of her house she had fallen and hit her head on the door jam. This split her forehead open almost from ear to ear. She also broke her neck. She had crawled from where she hit her head to the phone but couldn't reach it. She finally crawled over to the front door to try and open it to get help. There was blood everywhere.

Eventually neighbor came over and found her. She called 911. The engine crew bandaged her up and placed her in a cervical collar and on a backboard. Then they sent her on her way to the hospital.

What makes my department stand out from others is what the crew did next. After the patient had been transported to the hospital they started to clean up. They used towels and mopped up the floor. They went through and cleaned every surface up to and including the jewelry that was bloody. After getting it mostly clean they used paper towels and a little bit of bleach to make sure it was all clean. Then they took the towels they had used, and a rug that had been soaked in blood and put them in the wash before the blood could dry and ruin them.

I'm proud that I work for a department that would do the extra stuff. When questioned they said that they didn't want to make their patient come home from this traumatic event just to have to clean the house and relive it.

A week later I ran a call on the same lady. She had stitches all across her forehead and had to wear a neck brace because of the cracked vertebrae. This time she was weak and unable to stand. It was a tough assessment since all she wanted to do was thank us for the last time we were there. Today she's doing fine.

Lucid Altered Patient

We got called out just before the end of the shift. On of the things that made this call interesting is that our patient had no idea that we were coming. Our patient's son had received a call from his father at about 0730 on a Monday. His father wanted to know why he couldn't find the football game on TV. Since his father seemed confused he thought it was best to call 911.

We arrived on scene and were greeted by our patient at the door. He was a male in his late 60's and looked it. AS he sat in the chair in the front room I started to question him. He was able to answer almost all of my questions without hesitation or problems. He thought it was Tuesday morning but then said that he could be wrong and it might be Monday. I can't tell you what day of the week it is without looking at my watch first. During the questioning we noticed a full wine glass on the table.
















He explained that he had poured it last night and forgotten about it. Not likely. Then my captain found several empty wine bottles in the kitchen. We asked if he had had a party recently and he said no. I asked him about his medical history to which he replied, "You name it, I got it." Not a great answer so I started to ask more pointed questions.

Do you have heart problems? No. Breathing problems? No. High blood pressure? No. History of strokes? No. Diabetes? Diet controlled. Thyroid issues? No. Anything else? No. So much for having everything.

Next I asked about his current medications to which he responded, "I take lots of meds." We were instructed to go over to the kitchen counter to retrieve the bottles of medication. He took Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

We checked his sugar which was fine. The little voice in the back of my mind kept yelling at me that there was something wrong. Something just wasn't adding up. My patient eventually said that he didn't know what was wrong but he was confused so I started a line on him and sent him to the hospital. The son arrived at the house just as we were about to leave and explained that his father has a alcohol abuse issue and that when he drinks he doesn't eat. Quite often they have to take him into the hospital because of malnutrition. I wonder if it was the alcohol/malnutrition or if he had early onset of dementia. It seemed more like the latter to me.

I Pinch. I Pinch.

We were toned out for an allergic reaction to crab. As we jumped on the rig I was thinking that it had been a while since I had a good allergic reaction call. They are pretty straight forward to treat but ti's a call where we can make a big difference with medications we carry. As we were responding dispatch came through with more information. We were responding to one of our local markets for someone that had been pinched by a crab.

As we entered the store we were greeted by the manager. He escorted us to the front counter where the patient was sitting on some boxes. She had been trying to bag her own groceries when the incident occurred. The crab, while the victim was trying to bag him and take him home for dinner, saw his opportunity to strike and he took it. I can't blame him! He managed to catch the victim's left pinky in the meaty part of the flesh closest to the palm of the hand. It took a sizable chunk of flesh and flayed it open but there was no bleeding. My patient complained that the wound burned and was numb. Interesting combo. There wasn't even any bleeding to control. After a quick assessment we placed a band aid on her finger. Since her husband was right there I asked if she would like her husband to take her to the hospital to see if she needed stitches. She said no, and that she wanted an ambulance to take her. While this seems to me to be a complete waste of resources, no amount of prodding was going to get her to change her mind. When AMR showed up we gave them a quick run down on the situation. The patient walked to the ambulance and climbed in.

The entire call I couldn't get the commercial for the Honda Element out of my head that has a crab in it that wants to pinch.

Full Response, Structure Fire

At 0530, the tones went off, "Full response, structure fire." Such a fun phrase (at least to firefighters). Even better, it was in my district! I quickly put on my socks and shook the sleep out of my head, then headed for the apparatus bay. I quickly donned my turnouts and jumped into the seat with the SCBA. At this point I have a chance to relax, double check all my gear, and enjoy the ride.

I knew that the house in question was close so I as a little disappointed not to hear a smoke showing call from my captain. I figured it was just another false alarm.



This is what I wanted to see.

As we pulled up there was nothing showing (no fire or smoke). Just a couple of cops (really wishing they were firefighters) pointing to the house. As we dismounted we were met by the residents. I heard them explain to my captain that the fire was in the bedroom on the second floor. Before my captain could tell me I was on the way to the engine to grab a line. I pulled 200 feet of 1 3/4 line to the front door. There my captain and I masked up and called for water. As we opened the door we realized a couple of things. First, that it was partially blocked and the door wouldn't open all the way. That could be a problem if we had to make a hasty exit. Second, we noticed that the entire house was charged with smoke. Visibility was down to nothing.

My captain decided to go in first with the TIC to see if he could quickly find the fire. Once inside we could tell that the place was completely covered in trash. As we ascended the stairs we had to be very careful of our footing. My captain soon realized that the TIC wasn't working. Everything was coming up the same temperature. While we weren't able to see anything we were able to feel heat. It was warm but nothing like a good roaring structure fire. We also couldn't hear it. If you don't know, fires make a lot of noise. Next time you're near a wood fire, listen to it. Once my captain realized that the TIC wasn't going to be of much help he let me go first. I moved along the right wall of the stairs. As I got to the top of the stairs I found that there was some obstacle about the size of a small file cabinet blocking the top. I climbed over it and continued my search. I found what I thought was a closest on the right at the top of the stairs. Through the doorway straight ahead I was able to feel tile flooring, a bath tub and a sink. I kept going along the same wall (a right hand search). As I entered the bedroom I tripped on a step ladder. I ended up picking it up and tossing it across the room. It was warmer in this room but there was still no fire. I turned off my light in hopes of seeing the orange glow of the fire but nothing.


Fire crew doing vertical ventilation.

Finally a crew outside went around and busted out the window in the bedroom. The smoke poured out and fresh air came rushing in. This cleared things up and gave the fire the precious oxygen it needed to flare up. I was almost standing on top of it. I moved a couple of small book cases and asked for more hose. My captain gave me a couple more feet of hose and I extinguished the small fire. At this point my captain was low on air so we headed out to switch our bottles.

After the smoke had cleared I was amazed at what I found inside. Picture everything in the photo below spread around in the living room.

I couldn't see the floor except on the stairs where we had cleared the area. The front door was partially blocked with trash. The upstairs closet that I had found actually was open. The door from the closet was blocking the doorway to the second bedroom and had 3 feet of debris in front of it. It's no wonder it felt like a wall. The door was wedged open with garbage. We had to use several shovels and rubbish hooks just to clear the area and start on overhaul. Lots of stuff went out the second story window. I'm glad that the windows didn't crack because of the heat or else we would have had a hard time stopping it from taking the neighbors house as it went up in smoke. I found out later that my captain had moved whatever was blocking the top of the stairs. While he was doing this he slid down the stairs on his butt on all the trash. Luckily he was uninjured. The frustrating thing is that people that live like this have no idea that they are literally putting my life at risk.

Job Diversity

This is a video I found about CalFire but it shows the amazing amount of job diversity within the fire service. I love this job!