did you hear the latest news story out of Tenn? Two firefighters and a sheriff’s deputy were killed by an off duty firefighter when they responded to a house fire. The two firefighters were walking up to the house when the gunman came out of the garage and shot them with a shotgun. What the hell is up with that? Show up to fight a fire and get shot? Hell, you’d think people are happy to see you there when shit is on fire. Wait for the cops to make sure there are no gunmen are in the burning building now? Like there is any chance in hell a cop is going to get anywhere near that building until the firefighters are done with it. No where in my job description does it say anything about getting shot when responding to a house fire. Much less by one of my coworkers. Its pretty sad that fire departments are going to have to start issuing vests to firefighters. Well, thats just my little mini rant.
Never understood why, when some fucked-up little puppy decides to take out a few schoolkids, firefighters or other good guys, he doesn’t just do the responsible thing first and turn the gun on himself. No balls, I guess.
Sounds like the gunman either had major mental illness or was panicked at the idea of his female victim being discovered, or both. Obviously this is not a typical situation that the average firefighter is going to face, but is it that different from the risk they take being firefighters to begin with? Not to minimize this tragedy at all by saying this, of course.
I dont happen to recall the small arms combat training segment during my firefighter training, damn I must have been sick that day or something. No, Firefighters and EMT’s have no expetation of recieving any violent response when we are there to help someone, especally when entering a burning building. I can 100% positively say that “is there some wacked out guy in there with a gun” is the dead last thought in my mind, right next to “what did I have for lunch yesterday”
Something that the local news here (other end of the state) is reporting that didn’t seem to make it into that report is that the police had either been called to or had already responded to a domestic altercation call at that address earlier. (Soory for the run-on sentence.) I don’t know if that’s true or just speculation but I thought I’d include it.
I have a hobby. I have the world’s largest collection of seashells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you’ve seen some of it.
This is a fluke one-time event. Why would you expect to need vests on a regular basis?
I am not minimizing the shock that you may feel. Lawyers, stock brokers, and postal employees have all gone through this scenario in their minds in recent years. (And those careers should not have any expectation of danger associated with them.)
Having vented your shock, however, I would expect that in a short time you could go back to worrying more about what was in the smoldering vinyl that will chew up your lungs than whether there is a guy with a gun at the end of your run.
(Hey, you could have been working a big city 30 years ago when snipers were a real (if overstated) event.)
It would be great if this was a single isolated event, but assults on this countries emergency personel seems to be on a rise. Each year more EMT’s and Firefighter’s are assulted.
I also found this story horrific. I drive an ambulance, have not got my EMT yet, but I have 3+ years in so far. There ARE, in fact, classes given on how to respond as a medical type to a dangerous scene. I’ve been on a few suicide calls, none of which involved firearms. We had one of those last fall, but I wasn’t on for it.
It SHOULD be the last goddamned thing I ever have to consider. However, I have NO training in what to do if confronted with sheer danger. I think that's bad, bad, bad. I wanna take a class. As a volunteer, it's not like I'll be getting O.T. for it, but that's not the point anyway.
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
Yo, guys! This is not a debate about gun control or psycho 6 year olds shooting other 6 year olds. It was just me bitching about the fact that it is really fucked up when people who are there to help you get shot. They didnt have to get shot. Stabbed, beaten, druged, it dosent matter. The point is all the same, its fucked up when anything like the above happens. IF ya want to debate gun control there is a thread that will be more than willing to hear ya out, just get the hell out of mine!
This horrible event was actually a case of domestic and workplace violence - for those of you who didn’t read the link, the shooter was also a firefighter. He set the fire in order to lure his coworkers to his house so he could shoot them. He probably shot the sheriff’s deputy because he arrived on the scene before the fire truck and might have arrested him before he finished. There are all kinds of interesting rumors flying around as to why. This should be the trial of the century.
So, firefighters and other emergency personnel, this event should only cause you to feel threatened if you have a psycho coworker.
Only if we have a psycho coworker. Right, thats the only reason to be afriad. In this one instance, yes, they were killed by a coworker. However, that is the exception to the rule. The majority of the Firefighters and EMTs who are assulted each year are assulted by the patients they are assisting, or by bystanders to the scene.
I think the most recent situation is appalling, but I wasn’t aware that this type of crime was a prevelant problem. I can see EMT’s being injured because, well, they are dealing with injured and/or traumatized people (injured and/or traumatized large primates) but I had never heard of a situation like this involving a specific attack on fire-fighters. Do you have any numbers on this? Just curious because you keep saying it isn’t really an isolated incident.
Kinoons, my point was, THIS event should only make you feel threatened if you have a coworker who is a psycho. (In this case, rumor has it, a coworker who previously has made specific death threats.) If there are random assaults being committed regularly against emergency personnel, then those are certainly reasons to feel threatened.