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My first EMS Call was to an elederly man dying of Esophogeal Cancer. He couldn't eat or drink anything and had been in pain for a number of years. I guess he decided that it was time to go. His wife was taking a shower and he attempted to use a 22 pistol on himself and missed the target. Instead the bullet went through his mouth and jaw. At first none of us at the scene knew what had happened till we were moving him and found the pistol. He was alert on the entire ride to the hospital where he unexpectedly died on the operating room table. My first Fire Call was to a chimney fire. My department being kind of a redneck department decided that putting the fire out was not the best choice, since the fire would just happen again. Instead in true tradition they made the fire hotter. Well we did have someone in the attic with a 2 1/2" and a guy on the roof with a chimney nozzle but, the unlucky fellow (me) at the fire place putting even more cedar planks into the fire and using an air nozzle to push more oxygen into the fire. The theory was to get the fire so hot that it would burn the creosote out of the chimney. Well it worked, but we managed to melt the pipe (which wasn't lined with brick). The County Fire Marshal was not to happy with us.

My first call was a difficult one.

I was voted into the LFD on Jan 12th of this year. I got my gear on the 17th at about 6:30pm. I was just getting ready for bed when my husband told me we had a call. I never heard my pager go off so I wasn't sure if he was serious or not. So I headed down to the fire hall anyway. Well, it turned out that there was a bad house fire in the neighboring district and there were people trapped inside. So I geared up and my brother Steve and I headed out. The 10 mile ride seemed like 100 miles. When we got there, a firefighter from another district came running by us yelling " The kids burned up...The kids burned up."  I was devastated. But I had a job to do so I would deal with my feelings later. So our Captain told my brother, another rookie and myself to go man a hose by the front of the house. My brother took the nozzle. I looked to my left and saw a white sheet and thought nothing of it. We just kept putting water on the fire. Our Chief asked my brother and myself ( because was also VP of the fire dept auxiliary) to go to the fire hall and let another company in so they could stand by at our station. It was then I found out the white sheet was covering the mother and daughters' bodies. Here I sat not 10 feet away from the first 2 victims. As we walked to the side of the house, I saw a blue tarp on the ground. Again I thought nothing of it, until a fire investigator raised the tarp and there was grandma's body. I got a nose and mouth full of the smell of burned flesh. It is a smell I will never forget. At that point, we found out they still had not found the boy who was Autistic. They found him early the next morning under some debris behind the very door we were spraying water into. It broke my heart.

The coroner could not say wether any of them suffered or not but I later found out that the grandmother had told the boy who did get out to go get everyone else out. She was trying to put on her leg. She at some point in time had a leg removed. And they figured the boy that had died was trying to get out the front door and got scared so he hid behind it. (Of course this is speculation.)

The cause of the fire : a night light plugged into a power strip which was covered by books and clothes.

Here is a link to the local newspaper story :  http://www.journal-register.com/archivesearch/local_story_020212317.html

My first call as a 2 story apartment fire on thanksgiving morning...2AM i believe it started. i think it displaced maybe 20 familys or so, but it was memorable as well. fire raged for at least 2 hours. finaly fell asleep around 7 AM

3 mile hike into the woods to remove a body from the bottom of a waterfall.

Warefire1166 says ...

Went to a women that layed down on a cement floor,stuck a .22 pistol to her chest and shot herself.The bullett went through her,bounced off the floor and come back through.She walked out to the street to meet us.

That's kind of crazy. It's always wierd to have someone walking toward you with holes in their chest.

Captain 50 Funny to hear you say that you rode Tailboard I posted a Topic If any one still rode Tailboard.

Submitted by tsmith 1.

 I ran an assault call once. We ended up meeting the patient between the scene and the hospital. The guy had five holes in his chest (9mm). He walked to the med unit. We got him to the hospital alive. He lived long enough to tell the cops who had shot him.

Can't remember my very 1st call, as that was back in 1982 or 83.  My 1st 3 medicals were 1. 3rd degree burn 75%. 2. 27 yr old code. 3. prolonged extrication with 3rd degree burns on lower extremities.  Only the first one survived.  I think my first fire call was a grass fire ( we had lots of those) & maybe watched a two story house burn into the basement. 

Since I grew up watching my dad go to fires, it's hard to say when MY first one was. 

My first call on the medical side of things was everyone's favorite the good old reliable difficulty breathing at one of our frequent fliers houses. My first fire was a 22 acre grass fire moving towards a structure.

god it feels like for ever since my first call.  my first EMS call was for a lady who made a call to a friend and said that she was going to kill herself because she wasnt worth living! when we go there police were on the scene,  she lived in one of those apartments above the stores. so we went up stiars and i cant even tell you how nuts this lady was. well lets put it this way she was bi polar, had HTN and was completly udderly drunk. she had this cabbniet then when you opened it was just full of pills bottles that were new that were empty and old bottles that were full so we didnt know what she tok if she took it or if she took to much..... she kept reaching for this drawer saying she needed her kit she needs her kit well i pushed my leg upagainst the drawer and when we got her out of the room we looked in the drwaer to see what it was and it was kit of su-knives! we got to the house around 930 pm and left the house around 1015pm,  after we carried her down the stairs!!!!! she was beyond nuts,  all the way to the hospital she would be qiute and then loud back and forth.  she even said sexual things. we restrained her X4 and that never stopped her from kicking and screaming. well about i think 4 weeks later we got a call for fire at the same address and she litl her hallway on fire because the landlord would not take her garbage when fir trucks got there she came running out waving a knife at firefighters and so one knocked her out and took her back to the hospital and arrested. so yeah that was my first call!!! crazy

My very first call was boring and uneventful. It was a CO Alarm. I just stood outside in the freezing rain/sleet one February morning with command while the crews went inside because I wasn't qualified...

My first fire was a one story single family wood frame, heavy smoke and fire from the C side of the structure possible entrapment. Usually we wouldn't have such an inexperienced person on a crew for a call with entrapment but every one was out of town at a party so we had minimal crew members. We went in and since we only had our Engineer, Command, and two people to go in we kind of had to search and advance the hose line at the same time(I know not good practice but you have to do what you have to do with what ya' got). We knocked down some of the fire then found a dog. Pulled the line back brought the dog out, we we're going to go back in but then the CD corner collapsed and the "missing" person showed up at the residence and confirmed all occupants out so we just protected the one room that hadn't experienced any fire damage yet and went to exterior operations until the fire was under control. It was a reeeeaaaallly long night.