this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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I was originally hired as an Emergency Medical Technician by a hospital. After a few years the local Fire Department took over EMS. The only thing that changed is that the taxpayers had to pay to have our ambulances repainted and we all got new uniforms.
One day while driving my partner and I get flagged down; the man's truck had caught fire. We could see visible flames between the cab and the box. My partner grabbed the fire extinguisher on the console and I ran around to the back and got the fire extinguisher from the rear compartment. We doused the flames before the engine arrived. We made our report on the radio and went back to the station to restock.
We were later told that the fire extinguishers should only be used if our vehicle was on fire, and not for civilians.
So, we were supposed to sit in Fire uniforms, in a Fire vehicle, and not put out a fire.
I'd demand that in writing.
We didn't get written up or lose pay, so it was a wash.
But yes, it would have been funny to do that.
Missed the opportunity to watch them get chewed out by the fire department leadership.
Don't get me started.
I can go for hours about how messed up the Fire Dept management is.
When Fire took over EMS exactly one Fire Chief took the time to do some EMS ride alongs. The rest of the brass ignored and/or sabotaged EMS in order to get rid of the oldtimers so they could be replaced by lower paid newbies.
Fire Chiefs would have either sided with the EMS bosses, or, more likely, petitioned the city for more money to train EMS in how to use the extinguishers properly.
Could it have been some sort of liability thing? Like the nurses at my old work weren't allowed to do any sort of first aid stuff to colleagues unless they were the official attendants. It's like a not your job, you'll get sued if anything goes wrong kind of thing.
As EMTs we were expected to go into dangerous situations all the time. Nobody mentioned liability. I think they were just annoyed to have to replace the equipment.