just another first responder

Another crazy day in my life.After a 24 hr shift at FD.. I just got toned out by FD and FEMA. I have got 2 hours to be ready to leave for flooding in North Georgia/ TN. Not sure where yet! This is the other side of my life. Have to get my mom or her mom to pick kids up or let them ride the bus and meet them here. Our gear is staged in a Conex container so that makes it easier but I am tired. My wife is an ER Nurse and will get a little pissed when I text her but she already knew with all the rain going on and dams starting to overflow there was a huge possibility. Someday I wish I had been an accountant! (lol) no way in hell! to be able to restore and work on those cars. I have 3 Jeep Cherokees and my shop is my escape! I will miss chatting! I will have a phone but it’s a FEMA phone and secure…hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay safe! And hell no! you can not drive with 6 inches of water on the road! I want to share something and its not really about me. There is a lot of tension in this country. FD, EMS, Tactical recue teams and law enforcement! You don’t have to like us but we see and do things that leave scars on us mentally that the public has no clue! I have had some physical injuries but I was spec-ops military but getting the bodies of a mom and a child out of a submerged vehicle after 5 days will always be with us! The 2 y/o boy we couldn’t find after 35 minutes of tearing the house apart was hiding in fireplace and we didn’t see until the back of house was collapsing and we were exiting is in my mind forever and the list goes on! Everyone of the above agencies all have members with similar stories! It doesn’t make the news and we don’t expect it. I refuse a pat on the back! This is my job …63% of firefighters get cancer..its my job! I am blessed with a wife that accepts and understands some. My kids have no clue what really goes on. All of us first responders are family. I didn’t write this so you can thank me! I don’t want that! A firefighters biggest fear is Failure! Our training is the best but I will see in the eyes of those who lost everything real pain! Sorry for the length

 

Welcome to the machine!

 

! Great Job!

 

Welcome to the party
Enjoy the Hip Forums

 

.....do you have any stories about dismemberment?.....

 

Nice to meet you. I have family in the Fire Department. My cousin's husband is a fire chief (I think/didn't ask). Be safe and welcome!

 

Welcome to the forum, and thank you for the work that you do.

 

Not that I would share! I have enough PTSD with out going through the memory Rolodex ..that's a strange question! Kind of asking a combat soldier did he kill anyone? I was asked that once and answer was none of their damn business. My job is about helping others! That's all!

 

I was planning to be a firemen when I was younger.

All the respect in the world for OP.

 

Hate the term firsr responder though, when did that become a thing?

A) because they are never the first responders anyway, the people that call the FD are

B) whats wrong with just saying fire department anyway? So some cop that doesnt do anything except radio for the FD is a first responder

 

no stranger than telling people you removed a childs body in the first breath of an introduction......seems like you needed that out there....having had actual doctor diagnosed ptsd treatment I know you should not open with the reason you have ptsd when meeting people....just me....I thought it inappropriate as a topic of discussion...….its like when 2 people are on a first date and one of them needs to discuss the ex....not appropriate

good luck with the ptsd

 

I think it's an equality thing

First responders are EMTs, Fire , rescue and law enforcement . It's just a term that leaves no one out. All firefighters except a few are EMTs or Paramedics. All us of have to go through 112 hours hours of training. We are all a team but some of us have certifications in different areas and have to recert every 3 years since technology is changing. All on truck are interior attack . While our face shields look normal inside my shield I have a traffic light that shows my air level. I also have a motion detector that is annoying as hell. If i am still as in holding a hose. 20secs later I guess that's not enough motion so it has an annoying sound. That is supposed to mean firefighter down. I have to shake the shit out of it . Every other firefighter has a graphic thermal imaging camera.
We also have specialities in our team! I am confined space rescue, swift water rescue, rope rescue!
I used to be on dive team but 9 ruptured ear drums so no longer. I am not a pump operator. That takes 6 more weeks at fire academy! That is high tech stress to control 4 different lines and pressure in different situations. Law enforcement may have a simple wreck on interstate but we respond to shut Down 2 lanes just to protect the scene for lookers driving into accident . You will not drive into our fire truck with 1000 gallons of water but once!
We answer a lot of accidents if they are trapped because we have equipment to cut vehicle apart to safely remove you! We also answer haz mat calls but not my specialty .
Some of us are in tact response team.. last 4 days and now still I am 142 miles from home on water rescue. They are having major flooding plus all kinds of issues.
I love what I do. I dont consider it risking my life. I do this type of work because I do!
All the people who do this work are first responders..
We are also family.. we take care of each other.. we lost a firefighter 3 months ago and there was a line of 85 vehicles including fire trucks, rescue, ambulances, police and deputies.
Hope that wasn't too much info!

 

I am not trying to inappropriate to you. That's not my personality. A conversation is not going to produce PTSD.. events do and different events give some people PTSD while some don't. I have one event of a 2 y/o that's imprinted in my brain but I have been involved in other rescues that had bad outcomes.
When we return from any event : fire, rescue, all the other stuff we have debriefing. Good , any bad, all the equipment back! Then it's over
We don't set around the station talking about the stuff we have been to!
What one firefighter needs to brag about another dosent want to share!
The author and combat veteran Norman Mailer stated, " all war stories are lies!" That is true! Our brain to protect us and changes the story around to an acceptable version!
Most people associate PTSD to combat veterans and law enforcement n other first responders. Rape victims, victim abuse victims, abusive relationships can also victims of PTSD
As far as my dealing with it I continue on in my job; it dosent dibilitate me! My wife is a trauma nurse. We always take time to listen to each other and support each other.
You opening statement kind of threw me off since that can be pretty traumatic and I will still not answer!
Sorry I came across wrong! I am fixing to nap in a few. The water rescue calls are slowing down and different crews are now ready to roll!

 

The traumatic effects of an incident can affect everyone differently, sometimes delivering a curve ball when you least expect it.

Our daughter discovered a guy who had been dead for several weeks on her second day, along with a dead cat and another who had probably only survived by eating the victim. Although very upset, after finding out that it was a drugs den, she took things more in her stride and got on with 6 hours work photographing and reporting the scene. A few years later, she was faced with Grenfel Tower. Having to work one shift a week for 8 months had a profound affect on her, particularly when her rota fell on nights. Alone in that creaking remains of a building, now infested with rats, she never ate the following day and woke up in the night screaming out on more than one occasion.

During my time with London Ambulance, a young paramedic was called to a house where parents were worried about their teenage daughter. He was surprised to find her doing her homework and when he chatted to her nothing appeared wrong. Her mother continued to insist that the had a terrible feeling and it took him more than an hour to convince her that his tests, ECG, Blood Pressure, Blood sugar, Lung function, all functions shown on Pulse Oximetery and temperatures showed no problems.
As he went to leave, he went over to say good night to the daughter and found hes slumped over the desk. She had flat lined, so resuscitation was impossible.
The post Morton revealed a massive brain tumor that had simply shut off the base line arrhythmia nerve pulses to her heart.
Even if sh had been in ICU, and the tumor had been suspected, neurologists would have been able to do nothing to save her.

Following the incident, the paramedic did not return to work and despite 6 months counselling he never worked in the medical profession again.

I have no connections to the fire service, but I imagine that you must have some traumatic incidents.
Several of the guys who attended Grenfel are still suffering from knowing that if they had acted sooner, more than 80 lives could have been saved.
As you probably already know, the fault that caused the sudden fire spread was in the buildings architecture during a renovation. The fire department had no reason to suspect that their was anything wrong after putting out a small fire in a kitchen.

 

they should have acted sooner....i know and have heard that from about every first responder i know including me..I am also a paramedic but its not my specialty. Yes i have seen a lot and i will see more. i saw today another law enforcement officer shot him self. They are also first responders and we are all family. All firefighters biggest fear is "We are afraid we will fail" Nobody understands the stress anyone in any job description goes through. I would freak if i was an accountant... its seems to stressful to me. I love my job despite all its issues. When i put in we go through 122 hours of training it was meant to say> we go through 112 hours of training a year in addition to the fire academy. No fire has ever been the same. i got an offer to work at 911 dispatch while i was recovering from ear surgery which took 2 months. well with my training that would seem a breeze..NO! I had to listen to domestics in progress, people trapped in fires and a person wounded after a robbery. i had to keep them on phone. When i am at fire department we are busy responding and we do have times...3 minutes after call comes in for the sensors on fire door to alert dispatch we are en-route plus we also call on radio and let them know we are unit x and are 10-8. While in 911 it seems like 30 minutes listening to the call and the clock is in front of my face. So i was so glad to get away and get back in the truck! thank you for your replay! PTSD is real but it can be dealt with!

 

Well hello again. Firerescue110 now!
I had to change to a secure phone and sent a text how to delete and they did a good job. My fault. It should have been worded when I want to delete; what's the process and then when it would be necessary so i reregisterd and changed call numbers. It's not like I am a big secret but FEMA may monitor. Who knows!

 

they should have acted sooner.
@firerescue110

What happened at Grenfel that day was a hugely complex issue that needs a lot of understanding of the history of tower blocks in the UK.

From the 1930's council blocks were constructed from brick with concrete floors and fire was never an issue. They had walkways on the exterior at all levels, so so one could ever get trapped inside, the stair wells were also completely constructed from concrete and fully open to the atmosphere.
A few years ago, their was a fire where a few people were injured, but this was caused when an idiot guy took a motorbike with a full tank of fuel inside his flat and it caught alight. However this did highlight the fact that the original metal window frames had been replaced with PVC. This allowed one of the passageways to get blocked and a few people needed to be rescued by ladder.

Things changed in the 1960's when much taller buildings were constructed entirely from concrete with internal staircases and lift shafts. All apartments had fireproof front doors and the construction was tested and certified to have one hour fire separation.
However, smoke entering the stairwells and lift-shafts was a potential problem, so the rule was to retain residents in the safety of their concrete boxes. This worked with hundreds of buildings (including Grenfel) for more than 55 years.

A few of these blocks had unitary precast construction and in the 70's when natural gas was introduced, an explosion ripped part of the side out of one of these buildings (Ronan Point). Miraculously no one was killed or seriously injured.
The government acted quickly and all similar buildings were converted to fully electric.

At Grenfel, a small kitchen fire was quickly extinguished by the fire department. As they were leaving, smoke was reported outside the building and they investigated. Some of this smoke was at roof level, which confused them and they at first thought that the modern condensing boilers were simply producing vapor.
Then suddenly all hell started to erupt.
The kitchen fire had crept under the window lintel and ignited the INSIDE of the exterior cladding and we all know what followed.
Rescue was near impossible, since due to security, all the apartments had heavy security doors, Firefighters had no idea which ones had people behind more than 100 doors. As they managed to break the first few down, thick acrid smoke from the fire that had entered the apartment through the PVC windows filled the stairwell and their was no way of blocking the smashed door openings.
It was ultimately, breaking these doors down that trapped people above and caused most of the deaths, although several people escaping in the early stages also left their door open.

Throughout all this, the original building remained intact and it would be possible to renovate it today, although for obvious reasons this will not happen.

The problem started when due to government austerity the building was sold to a private developer to renovate. That same austerity reduced government building inspectors to the level where developers were allowed to appoint their own surveyors, clearly a conflict of interest.
If correctly fitted, the cladding would have had more than 300 in-tumescent barriers fitted behind lintels and following the fire separation lines on the outside of the building, NOT ONE WAS FITTED.

The whole thing is a national disgrace. Needless to say all those involved are wriggling like worms and blaming each other and needless to say, a few of them are trying to pass blame onto the firefighters.
Their are many points that I have not mentioned for fear that the worms may decide to attempt to put me behind bars. It could also affect Jane and our daughter, both who are covered by the official secrets act as a government official and a police officer.

 

I have sent you a reply under your new name.

 

What happened was an atrocity! I am going to research this tragedy through fire service magazines which focus on safety and training. Whether the US or U.K. We are all firefighter family!
This country is good at covering up also. Laws are different now. A simple sprinkler system now would have been a huge life saver! We can go through metal doors quickly. We have power equipment! I will do some research on that fire.. the cancer rate is unbelievable for firefighters over 20 yrs because we cut corners back then. Couple of months ago I had to attend a class named. Cancer and Firefighters. Ok we know things aren't good but this woke us up if any drowsiness was with us. It's not about us as firefighters. It's about our families. All material in couches and mattresses and carpeting has fire retardant in it. They also mentioned children's car seats. It supposed to take greater amount of heat before combustion. Now the kicker.. once combustion occurs it can turn into cyanide gas also. Damn! After we left meeting and were driving home we talked not about the cyanide gas. We have air tanks and the heat it takes to turn into gas is past what we can endure. I think 250 degrees for 10 minutes and we are toast. That's the reason we crawl a lot. The lower of 3 thermal layers is maybe 160 degrees.
The issue we have is in ten years is the furniture we and our kids sit on plus our beds going to show up as cancer in us! The kids car seat is outrageous. If kids car seat is on fire. The child is gone!
I haven't googled this because I don't need anymore stress. The mentality of those with a Fire Science degree have saved many lives and I am thankful but those scientists and fire retardant material mentality needs to be looked into. As firefighters our lives are safer; we use baby wipes to remove any smudges from our face. We shower after each fire call. We wash our uniforms in a special washer once every 2 weeks! Our jobs is to save lives and my wife and I accept there is a good chance I will get cancer but I would not trade my job for any job in the world. Thanks for your reply!

 

Do you ever get tired of telling people you're a hero?