Worst Fire department calls

[chrisklavette]

I know there are a lot of firefighters on this forum so I was just wondering what are some of the worst/most memorable calls you have been on?

All night my workout and T.V. time has been interrupted by schmucks coming in and reporting a fire at the compound where they burn pallets. To top of the night we just got back from a medical emergency where a guy had called because he "overdosed on advil" the guy had 4 advil!

Marc, I know you work in S.F. but please keep this P.G. :T:

[Scott Porter]

Those are your worst calls? That's everyday at work for me.

Consider yourself lucky then I guess....

[davebeers]

my favorites are the lower GI bleeds....or better yet the combo upper and lower GI bleed. :) Absolutely sickening smell

[Joshua Davis]

Funny, myself and some training buddies at the gym were talking about things that make us absolutely sick... and one guy says "I can't stand the smell of morbidly obese people" - the first thing I ask him "So... you must be a firefighter or a paramedic, right?" and he was surprised...

I explained to him that every practically every firefighter or paramedic I have ever met says the same thing... because they are the ones that get called when the 700lb+ couch-ridden monsters have to be moved... and they have to smell that smell of someone that hasn't bathed or used a restroom in years.

[Scott Porter]

my favorites are the lower GI bleeds....or better yet the combo upper and lower GI bleed. :) Absolutely sickening smell

I almost threw up from this. We moved someone from gurney to bed and unleashed the nastiest smell I've ever smelled. This stuff was black and tarry with red streaks and could kill a small child if smelled. I had gloves on and could not get vicks vaporub in time and started gagging.

[davebeers]

I almost threw up from this. We moved someone from gurney to bed and unleashed the nastiest smell I've ever smelled. This stuff was black and tarry with red streaks and could kill a small child if smelled. I had gloves on and could not get vicks vaporub in time and started gagging.
i've had 4 calls like this and every single time the person was in the bathroom, on the floor, covered in feces, and unable to walk. Lifting dead weight is hard, but its even worse when it hurts to breathe and you're trying to avoid Mr Hankey.
Lets just say that when i get back to the station the first thing i do is take a shower and change clothes

[Eric Zender]

i've had 4 calls like this and every single time the person was in the bathroom, on the floor, covered in feces, and unable to walk. Lifting dead weight is hard, but its even worse when it hurts to breathe and you're trying to avoid Mr Hankey.
Lets just say that when i get back to the station the first thing i do is take a shower and change clothes

The worst part is that you can shower all you want and you still smell that crap for the next couple of hours. Rotting flesh, gangarene(SP) that smell gets into everything and even feels like it gets into your skin.

[chrisklavette]

Those are your worst calls? That's everyday at work for me.

Consider yourself lucky then I guess....
I guess those were just the most annoying calls yesterday. As far as just unforgettable bad, we went on a call for an elderly lady who was moaning in pain. When we got there she was completely naked laying on the laundry room floor rolling around in her own poo, poo that I stepped in. When she rolled face up we all noticed that she had trimmed herself a landing strip. It was so weird and gross.

[Eric Zender]

As the saying goes the truth is definatly stranger than fiction!! and in many cases funny as hell to.

[Ray Barnett]

I agree with the posts about, quite frankly B.S. calls, which were I am in NY is no different. I would guess about 80 percent of our EMS call are either taxi rides (for those with no car or insurance) or silliness, like when you get called to the same person weekly (we call them frequent flyers, for an "anxiety attack" which really all the want is someone to talk to, cause when we arrive on scene they don't want to go to the hospital. Anyways funny story, we get dispached, and the dispatcher announces orver the frequency we have a male pt. w/ a rectal bleed and please enter through the back door, meaning the house obviously, but I got a kick out of it all the way to the scene. Off the subject but how many of the fireman on here are medics, and or their agency runs ALS capable?

[chrisklavette]

Off the subject but how many of the fireman on here are medics, and or their agency runs ALS capable?
We have medic rigs and medics on those rigs but I am just an EMT-B

[Ray Barnett]

Yeah I was just wondering cause I know some Depts. only run BLS, but know I think the trend is to, well at lest up north, to run all ALS and even transport (ambulance).

[chrisklavette]

Yeah, the town I am from runs only BLS because the Mayo Clinic runs the ALS. That department is all backwards though. For example Rochester, MN (the department I am talking about) just hired a convicted felon. :BB:

[Eric Zender]

Was a medic for 10 years but now work as FF emt-b, we are als capable here as well.

[davebeers]

my small departement(2 stations) runs ALS engines and we do our own transport.
Currently i'm an emt working on getting through paramedic school.

[rod johnson]

When i worked fire & recue the calls i hated the most were the drunk calls. Most of the time they just wanted a ride to detox. My worst fire call was the one were i fell through the roof. i've never been so scared in my life. I spent 11 years as a fire fighter/EMT-B. i do miss it some times but i like lawenforcement better. i just moved to a smaller community and i'm thinking of joining the vol. department there. I've got so many best and worst stories, i think we could talk forever about everyones stories.

[Scott Porter]

I agree with the posts about, quite frankly B.S. calls, which were I am in NY is no different. I would guess about 80 percent of our EMS call are either taxi rides (for those with no car or insurance) or silliness, like when you get called to the same person weekly (we call them frequent flyers, for an "anxiety attack" which really all the want is someone to talk to, cause when we arrive on scene they don't want to go to the hospital. Anyways funny story, we get dispached, and the dispatcher announces orver the frequency we have a male pt. w/ a rectal bleed and please enter through the back door, meaning the house obviously, but I got a kick out of it all the way to the scene. Off the subject but how many of the fireman on here are medics, and or their agency runs ALS capable?

Interesting how similar it is to Phoenix FD.

Some terms we throw around in addition to "frequent flier"...

MH - meaning Mexican Hysteria
HP - meaning Hispanic Panic

My favorite is the EMS rekindle that calls the FD out 3 times in one day for some BS, eventually you just have to transport.

[davebeers]

Interesting how similar it is to Phoenix FD.

Some terms we throw around in addition to "frequent flier"...

MH - meaning Mexican Hysteria
.

We call this one status hispacticus!

[MattxBurns]

Not really my own story, seeing as how I am not yet a firefighter, but here's one my EMT instructor told me:

They were called to a female patient who apparently had a nose bleed, when they get there she's face down on the table with this brown liquid coming out of her nose and mouth. Apparently she had a bowel obstruction that got so bad she backed up out of her nose and mouth, she didn't survive obviously.

As for the disgusting smells, one trick I have been told is to put your tongue behind your top front teeth and breathe through your mouth. It's supposed to shut down your sense of smell so you don't have to smell or taste the air.

[Scott Porter]

Haha Dave.

Another favorite of mine is "arrestagenic shock".

One call this guy said he had a toothache in his eye. It felt like that he said. We gave him a taxi cab voucher and my skip told him to keep an eye out for the taxi. Ha!

[chrisklavette]

We just got back from a great 2 story house fire. Sure was fun.

[John VanDemark]

Im no FF but I am an EMT-B. Never got any EMT work even! But I got some great ride alongs. I had a PE where the woman was choking and vomiting and peeing. I was soooo new I didnt know if I could handle it. She puked in the mask and it squirted all over us as it filled it up instantaneously.

This next one is from my refresher instructor....

"We go to this house expecting to find a man off his meds and having breathing trouble. We get there only to find the guy on the floor and his young daughter standing nearby. "Pills" are spilling out of a bottle on the kitchen counter with numerous others in the cabinet. They were blackish and round but the label didnt match so we asked the daughter about them. She replied, as were examining them, 'my daddy picks his nose, rolls it up into balls, and saves them.' Everyones face dropped and two guys made it for the bathroom to vomit. These things were all over the place! Must have been thousands!"

That one made me pretty sick too!

And yes, GI bleeds are nasty! I have only had the pleasure of experiencing one and opted to get out!

[Pete VanderWeele]

Heres a couple for you....
Responding to a party unseen, neighbors say they haven't seen the occupant (a diabetic) in two days and that is unusual, after PD arrive the door is forced, this smell hits you in the face, and find the man lying on the couch with agonal respirations. A quick assesment is done and he pt. is loaded. While loading the pt., his big toe which is purple/black, falls off.. you could hear everyone shiver and the two PD officers had to leave the room.

A buddy of mine made this one, (ironically he made the first run I mentioned just 4 days earlier)... He was again dispatched for a party unseen, this time the caller had not seen the pt. for 2 weeks. PD arrived and he forces the door.. the smell is so harrible he said it was undescribable. They do a search of the house and find the woman lying on her bed, however while searching the house hey noticed this sqwishy sound and it got more noticeble as they approached the bedroom, as they look down they see that the carpet is saturated with liquid, and it got thicker in the bedroom, the poor lady had passed and decomposed for 2 weeks as her body fluid leached out of her and soaked the mattress and carpet.

You have my vote for the worst smell I ever experienced as the Lower GI bleed...Break out the Vicks.

And as for images you never get rid of.... gunshot to the head, suicide by train, and the charred/or badly burnt remains of a body, which you never forget the smell either.

[chrisklavette]

And as for images you never get rid of.... gunshot to the head, suicide by train, and the charred/or badly burnt remains of a body, which you never forget the smell either.
About a month ago I worked a guy for about half an hour who had shot himself in the temple. Funny thing is I don't even remember much about him. It was a pretty good experience just to get the feel of doing CPR on someone. He ended up dying of course.

After yesterdays second workout (the working house fire we responded to) I was ready to get a good nights sleep. We didn't have a single medical call all day...until 10:30 P.M. and than it was every other hour at least. One for a baby wheezing. When we get there the baby was just fine. The house reeks of cigarette smoke and we ask the mother when the baby ate last, why is the baby hooked up to a breathing machine, blah blah blah. The baby had just gotten back from the hospital from the last time we took the baby there. She also doesn't know what the babies normal heart is or when the baby ate last. She says that her cousin has been watching the baby while she was watching TV. The baby was fine when we checked her out. Than it was off to a sprained ankle, a lady who didn't feel good. This lady told us she was gonna call a cab but thought she'd call us instead. Than it was a false alarm from a medical alert company and on and on the night went.
So I went home and slept until 2:30 in the afternoon.

[ADAMBAUER]

I am not a fireman/EMT/or police officer but I do want to say thanks for all you folks do.
IMHO :YR:

[MarkSikora]

It is pretty amazing that it's the same old stuff all over, just in different degrees.

I will second (thrid) what everyone said: gi bleeds, people who have been living in their own vomit/urine/fecal matter for days on end (cracking the seal on that smell never gets old!!)

Some that stand out: one guy, dead in his tub for who knows how long. Water did not really drain out, so he turned into a gray/green minestrone soup looking thing. Nasty smell, got back to the station and sent the new guy back, just so he could see/smell it.

Guy stabbed on Market St, we get there, he is literally holding his guts in his hand.

Jumpers, of course.

Great story from another house about a lady w/ a prolapsed colon in a McDonalds bathroom.

Floaters- for some reason (we were new) they put me and another guy in a skiff off the fireboat to get a body. Then they made us cruise back to the fireboat house in the skiff instead of picking us back onto the fireboat. I didn't eat crabs for awhile after that one.

Homeless dude w/ maggots literally eating on his leg. Not to mention all the other creepy crawlies that get on/in those guys.

Cockroaches in the tenement apartments that drop on you when you are there to help--that always makes me itch for hours.

(PG-13 alert)
Scary, but not on a call: standing outside the firehouse watching the show. Stud in a jacked up 4x4 slows down across the street, chatting up the "ladies". Picks up a tranny, drives about 40 feet and stops instead of going around the corner into an alley like the "normal" guys do. After a few mintues, a car pulls up behind them. The undercover cops light up the guy and his date. They pull them out of the car. The tranny is adjusting her mini skirt as she gets out. We all stand there watching trying to figure out what the heck we just witnessed. Cops come over. Yep. The guy in the truck, picked up the tranny, then proceeded to, uhhhhhhhhh, pleasure the tranny instead of vice versa. Still, to this day, one of the strangest, most bizarre things I have actually witnessed. :disgust:

First burned body I saw still icks me out.

You know what still gives me the willies once in awhile, but isn't really sick? Doing chest compressions on the elderly and hearing those ribs crack.

I'll remember some more later. Be safe.

see ya

Mark

[chrisklavette]

Weird.

Anyways, what creeps me out is old peoples skin. It's so flaky like some kind of pastry. Every time you touch them dust shoots off.
Here is a gross one,
There was a check up on a person who had not been heard from for while. When the crew arrives this old lady is dead in the tub. One guy sees this and for some reason realizes he has to crap right now. So he pushes everyone out and closes the door. The arm of the old lady was resting on the toilet and he pushes it off, so he can push one out. I guess the arm swung back and touched him the whole time he was dropping the kids off. When the cops get there he was finished and the cops go check the bathroom not knowing what had just happened. One cop walks in and walks right back out saying "how long has she been dead? That is the worst smell ever!"

[rod johnson]

I haven't fought fire in many years but last night i was heading home and saw smoke in the air. As i turned to corner to the truck by-pass i saw flame shooting about 200 feet or more in the air. I stopped to help with traffic and as i walked up to ask where they need the help, there was 6 firefighter waiting to have there air packs changed. So i stepped out of my shoes as a lawenforcement officer and started changing tanks and handing out water and protien bar in the rehab area. This was a large wood framed garage with all kinds of hazardous material in it. There were a few small explosions but the big concern was the 200 lb propane tank in the structer next door just 10 feet from the fire. Seems this guy was working on a gas tank in a bronco and gas spelled out onto a trouble light and busted the light bulb which touched of the gas fumes and beings that the hole place was wood including the floor it went up quick. The guy got out with only minor burns to his hands and face. Makes me miss being a fire fighter.