Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire CHP arrests Firefighter....

The obvious solution is to not have the FD respond to crashes unless something's on fire or somebody needs to be cut out of the car. On 98% of the crashes I've seen firefighters respond to they weren't even needed.

That's really the only acceptable outcome to this. If he shows up to something like this with a ruler and his crank out, and can't manage to work the accident scene without putting a firefighter in handcuffs then he's an idiot, that's all there is to it. I don't care that he's technically "the one in charge", use some friggin' common sense. 95% of the police out there are hard working decent guys, but the failure of law enforcement to police their own and weed out idiots like this is what causes so much hate and discontent with the public. This guy doesn't have the judgement to be doing that job, he should never have made it through the police academy.

You're as stupid as he is.

How exactly we're this guy's peers supposed to "weed him out"? Beat him up in the locker room?

One of our best happened just awhile back Pat.

We had a working residential house fire in the middle of a block. A PD officer gets there before us, blocks the end of the street , which is great, that's what they are supposed to do. But then he LEAVES his car and runs half a block to the fire scene!! So guess what happens? The first in engine and ladder cant get to the scene!! lol

After blowing the air horns repeatedly, which he didn't hear at first because he was so captivated by the big flames and smoke, he realized what he'd done. He then proceeded to run like a mad man back to his car to move it. We thought he was going to pass out or puke before he made it back. Capt on the ladder said, "he had about 10 more seconds before it got moved for him".

Our Bat. Chief had a little talk with his supervisor on scene, who rolled his eyes and said "he did WHAT??!!!".

Its only funny because it was an old meth house and luckily no one was living there at the time.

So LE where you are is medically trained to clear EMS patients? Granted a lot of them don't actually NEED emergency care, I know, but are you guys trained to determine their medical condition? And no I'm not talking about fender benders where all parties involved are out walking around, we don't even respond to those in our city.

Truth be told on those same 98% the only reason LE is needed is to fill out paperwork.

I see where your coming from, but its a really unrealistic observation.

I was captain on a FD with a bunch of highway. SOP was to roll the Jaws truck on ALL MVA (wrecks), because some of our district was 30 minutes or more away. by the time LEO arrived and saw the need for exrication or suppression, paged the FD, and got Jaws to the scene, the golden hour is toast.

if law enforcement gets on scene and finds a slide-off or minor fender-bender, the responding FD stands down and retruns to the barn.

often we would be first on scene, and in that case, the ranking officer on the first truck assumed IC. at that point IC can not be taken by someone else, but could be transitioned to either a higher ranking FD officer or LEO/medical, depending on the nature of the incident and the skill sets and/or resources available to the responders.

I always tried to give LEO the IC because of the paperwork, and resources available to them, but they never tried to micro-manage exrication or fire fighting efforts. often, they would request FD just for traffic control or the big heavy truck to block for them in the case of an accident in the traffic flow.

Maybe not all Florida firefighters know the law. We had an almost identical confrontation a few years back (OK, probably 15 or more) on the Beeline between Cocoa and Merritt Island, Florida. It is a divided 4-lane highway and, as I recall, the accident was in the right lane and the firetruck was used to also block the left lane. After refusing to move the truck, the firefighter ended up cuffed and in the back of the patrol car.

If it were up to me cops wouldn't respond either. All the cops do is civil paperwork we shouldn't be involved in and write tickets. And the folks can manage just fine without tickets.

And I don't need to be medically trained to work a wreck, there's an ambulance there.

I'm not against fireman. But on crashes they just duplicate the efforts of medics and wrecker drivers. As far as I'm concerned medics can fetch their own stretchers and wrecker drivers can scoop up their own kitty litter. My point is that there's no sense in driving the giant truck around unless you're really needed. Let the firemen chill at the station until they're needed.

My apologies to Crow Hunter. I said he's stupid and I really don't know if he is or not. He said a stupid thing, no doubt about that, but it happens to the best sometimes. Sooner or later I'm bound to say something wrong or stupid too.

I see where our misunderstanding is. We have paramedics and ALS equipment on every engine company, and we typically arrive well before the ambulance. In fact we cancel the ambulance on a lot of calls, if no transport is needed.

I've always assumed you were in Williamson/Travis County area. If you are you have to remember that in your area (and our city) it's very different from much of the country. Most FD's also operate the ems/ambulance service ,they are not separate.

I'm sure if you were completely in charge ...

From watching the video from the local news station, when it shows the firetruck parked at an angle, I can tell you that is text book apparatus placement for working a call on a highway. You block the lane, plus one additional for safety.

I can't speak to the laws in California, but there are no laws here in Ky specifying the the police are in charge of the scene.

As for FD's responding to wrecks, many FD's have paramedic and ALS equipment on their engines and ladders. I know here in my district we normally beat the ambulance to the scene (as they are normally centrally located, while the fire apparatus are stationed throughout the area).

Personally this stuff is beyond stupid, people who interfere with FF's and EMS personnel performing their duties need to be fired and charged, regardless of if it's a civilian or a police officer.

That's probably exactly what the cop thought about the firefighter "interfering" with his job. Either argument assumes that "I'm" the most important.

I'm not LEO or FD but in rural NC the Vol. FD respond to most non fender bender accidents and often are directing traffic and using the truck to shield the scene.

That's by choice, not by law, and I don't think that video showed enough to know who was being ignorant and unprofessional. It's not above any individual, in any profession, to be an ass.

Did anybody even watch the video? There was nothing there to indicate that the trooper didn't do the right thing.

I watched it yesterday and then waited for it to pop up here. All the video I saw showed the fireman getting out in handcuffs. But let's not let a lack of information get in the way of a good effigy burning or anything, lol.

IME fire departments take on extra responsibility (respond to crashes) in order to justify their existence. Then they need extra money to fulfill the new responsibilities they've taken on, then they need more people, then the new people need supervisors and guys take on special projects to set themselves apart from the crowd so they'll get promoted, then request a bigger budget and more people to make sure their pet project is a success an so it goes until you've got a giant unstoppable machine of the government that won't stop growing.

Just like police departments, parks departments, anythingunderthesun departments, an many large private organizations.

It's not a knock on firemen, it's just the way life goes.

If its my accident, I can't imagine wanting a cop there.

What are they gonna do? Write some tickets for seat belt infractions?

I'll take fire and medics. They can control the scene, traffic, medical care, and witnesses. If police are needed, they can be called.

Yes it is. For firemen it is crazy ridiculous $hit you don't need to know but it shows how smart you are, NOT. They end up with a bunch of collage pukes that couldn't breech a block wall without a block falling out and it landing on their head, or couple 2 lengths of fire hose together.