Meanwhile, in other news firefighters returned to the scene and...

[Inactive]

Texas Firefighters Comfort Grieving Widow With Act of Kindness
Aug 30, 2014

Texas firefighters finished mowing the lawn of a man who suffered a heart attack mid-mow and comforted his wife in an act of kindness that has brought together an entire community.

Firefighters from Bayton, Texas, responded to a 911 call on Tuesday for a man who suffered a heart attack while mowing his lawn, according to a statement released by the City of Bayton on its Facebook page.

After taking the man to a hospital, members of Bayton Fire Department's Station 4, A-Shift returned to the man's home to finish mowing his lawn. They then put the lawnmower away and locked the garage.

They also left behind a note with comforting words for the victim's wife.

"We felt bad that your husband didn't get to finish the yard," the firefighters said.

The firefighters also let the woman know they would be there for her in the future.

"We are very sorry that your husband became ill, we hope he has a speedy recovery," they said. "Let us know if there is anything we can do to help you out."


http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-firef...ry?id=25189652

[jdthor]

Fireman get hugs,we get cussed. Curse of that spotted dog they run around with since he cant sniff drugs and ride in a real car

[Inactive]

Fireman get hugs,we get cussed. Curse of that spotted dog they run around with since he cant sniff drugs and ride in a real car

Yeah!
That's how it goes, though a fireman's life is pretty darn tough too but in a different way- breathing in toxic smoke and chemicals, constant threats of falling thru floors, building collapses, flash fires.
I have a book "Engine 51" by Dennis Smith- remembering the title off the top of my head, he was a firefighter in the South Bronx slum and man they had a hell of job there- constant, unrelenting false alarms 24/7 was just one of the annoyances they had to endure- no sleep- gangs, theft of tools and equipment, arson and garbage fires every day, crazy armed people high on drugs, people throwing things out the windows at them, just all kinds of stuff.

About as riveting as the book was a movie titled "Ladder 49," damn that was a great movie!

http://www.amazon.com/Ladder-Full-Sc...ords=ladder+49

[JasperST]

The firefighters also let the woman know they would be there for her in the future.

Was she hot?

[RR_Security]

I have a book "Engine 51" by Dennis Smith- remembering the title off the top of my head, he was a firefighter in the South Bronx slum and man they had a hell of job there- constant, unrelenting false alarms 24/7 was just one of the annoyances they had to endure- no sleep- gangs, theft of tools and equipment, arson and garbage fires every day, crazy armed people high on drugs, people throwing things out the windows at them, just all kinds of stuff.

Report from Engine Co. 82 was Dennis Smith's first book, from 1972. (Engine 51 was the one that was housed with LA County Squad 51 on the TV show Emergency!, which ran from 1972-79.)

Back then, I think Eng. 82 was the busiest engine company in the U.S. After a bunch of buildings in the South Bronx burned down and there wasn't so much of a "fuel load," their call volume dropped somewhat. I don't know if they still run a bunch of EMS calls.

Another good fire service author who's "been there and done that" is Leo Stapleton, retired commissioner and chief of dept. from Boston. His first book was Thirty Years on the Line. I think that came out in 1987. He also wrote the foreword for Boston on Fire by Stephanie Schorow. I have a copy of that arriving sometime Tuesday.
Alan Brunacini, the retired chief from Phoenix, is also a good author, although I think his were all manuals. He spoke at a seminar in southern Maine that I attended sometime in the late Nineties, and he had lunch with us afterwards. One of his favorite sayings was something to the effect of "A fire officer should return to the station with the same number of firefighters as he had when he arrived at the call, and in the same condition." He would be absolutely tickled about those guys in TX mowing the lady's lawn. http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Fir.../dp/0879391278

Quoting myself, when I was quoting Joseph Wambaugh: "We gripe for sympathy, but most of us know that a cop's never going to be loved by people in general, and I say if you got to have lots of love, join the fire department." -- Bumper Morgan, The Blue Knight
And notice he mentions "people in general." Somebody somewhere loves ya, even if it's just your mom, your wife and kids, or your dog.

[WPD954]

Was she hot?

only question i had

[Inactive]

Was she hot?

Nah I think was old and grey, at least that's the impression I got, her husband later died of the heart attack, so I'm guessing he was in his 60s or more.

[Inactive]

Report from Engine Co. 82 was Dennis Smith's first book, from 1972. (Engine 51 was the one that was housed with LA County Squad 51 on the TV show Emergency!, which ran from 1972-79.)

There you go, you got it! and I used to watch Emergency! back then too, that's how I got the 82 and 51 mixed up

Back then, I think Eng. 82 was the busiest engine company in the U.S. After a bunch of buildings in the South Bronx burned down and there wasn't so much of a "fuel load," their call volume dropped somewhat. I don't know if they still run a bunch of EMS calls.

The busiest and situated in probably the worst slum around at the time, the firehouse is still there I've seen it in Google street view recently. As I remember their big problem was all the false alarms, back then they had only the old Gamewell telegraph fire alarm pull box system, kids, drunks, addicts, gangs, criminals and losers would pull the box handles down all over the neighborhood sending the alarms in and the department had to send the engines out every time.
As a result of all that the firemen hardly ever got any sleep on the night watch, meals were constantly interrupted and it was all full of stress.
It wasn't untill later the 9/11 system was improved and those Gamewell boxes changed.

Another good fire service author who's "been there and done that" is Leo Stapleton, retired commissioner and chief of dept. from Boston. His first book was Thirty Years on the Line. I think that came out in 1987. He also wrote the foreword for Boston on Fire by Stephanie Schorow. I have a copy of that arriving sometime Tuesday.
Alan Brunacini, the retired chief from Phoenix, is also a good author, although I think his were all manuals. He spoke at a seminar in southern Maine that I attended sometime in the late Nineties, and he had lunch with us afterwards. One of his favorite sayings was something to the effect of "A fire officer should return to the station with the same number of firefighters as he had when he arrived at the call, and in the same condition." He would be absolutely tickled about those guys in TX mowing the lady's lawn. http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Fir.../dp/0879391278

That so? I'll have to check those out because I enjoy good books- the paper kind not that stupid eBook stuff!
I have a very interesting book by NYC Detective Bose and Barchesi titled "Rock Solid" and it's an excellent read, I also know the neighborhood it concerned quite well, and even the building the story zeros in on. And to think I used to ride my bike around there all the time, and never knew what was going on with that drug cartel that controlled the neighborhood.
It's where at least three officers were gunned down in broad daylight and residents even seen talking to an officer around there would usually be found dead in a vacant lot somewhere.

Quoting myself, when I was quoting Joseph Wambaugh: "We gripe for sympathy, but most of us know that a cop's never going to be loved by people in general, and I say if you got to have lots of love, join the fire department." -- Bumper Morgan, The Blue Knight
And notice he mentions "people in general." Somebody somewhere loves ya, even if it's just your mom, your wife and kids, or your dog.

That sounds like a pretty accurate thought to me from what I see written by the public on blogs, comments, youtube comments and all the rest.

PS I just ordered the "Boston on fire" book
The other one Thirty years is a bit pricey (I dont do kindle) there now so I added it to my wish list on Amazon. I always buy used unless they are not available, that one is $109.99 used, and $341.31 new!

[Rudy8116]

First off, this was a good move by the firefighters, and I don't have any ill will towards my hose dragger brethren :P

As to the firemen getting hugs, we get cussed; If I wanted throngs of fans, I would have become a firefighter, but even firefighters need heroes.

[RR_Security]

PS I just ordered the "Boston on fire" book

I misspoke; it was Stapleton's own most recent book, Firefighting Reflections, that I just ordered. I've ordered so darn much stuff through Amazon lately that I forgot what title it was. {duh}

The other one Thirty years is a bit pricey (I dont do kindle) there now so I added it to my wish list on Amazon. I always buy used unless they are not available, that one is $109.99 used, and $341.31 new!

Yow! It must be out-of-print and hard to find.
I can't recall now if I had a copy of Thirty Years, or if a friend in MA loaned me his when I lived there. I know we did go to an event in a school auditorium one night where Stapleton was the guest speaker. That was 20+ years ago, and I don't think he'd written some of his other books yet.
Thirty Years isn't listed here, but maybe they know where you could get a copy for less than "an arm and a leg."

As to the firemen getting hugs, we get cussed; If I wanted throngs of fans, I would have become a firefighter, but even firefighters need heroes.

Rudy, you were at the top of the list of readers who I thought might mention that.

Rudy's reply reminded me of back when I was on the VFD in my old town, prior to 2000. The present sheriff of our county lived in that town, and I can't remember if he was still working patrol for the S.O. or had become chief of police in a neighboring town (1998-2002) when he stopped by the fire station one night. I heard him say to our chief "I was thinking about joining your merry band, but I'm not sure. I mean, I'll take a bullet, but there's something not right about going into places that are on fire."
Yup. firehose.gif

[Inactive]

I misspoke; it was Stapleton's own most recent book, Firefighting Reflections, that I just ordered. I've ordered so darn much stuff through Amazon lately that I forgot what title it was. {duh}

Ahha! I can almost top that one, I order a LOT of Amazon, as well as used books very frequently, so when the post office handed me three packages the other day I didn't even check and opened all three, one was a real thick book and I went what the hell did I buy this title for? trying to remember what prompted me to buy this almost three inch thick book!
I searched my recent orders and found no such book, then I looked at the address label and it wasn't even for me LOL!
Oh duh, no wonder the title wasn't familiar and it looked like a boring book, so I looked the guy up (turned out to be a life insurance salesman three blocks away) and told him what happened and that if it was ok with him I'd leave it at the front desk at my work place for him.

Yow! It must be out-of-print and hard to find.
I can't recall now if I had a copy of Thirty Years, or if a friend in MA loaned me his when I lived there. I know we did go to an event in a school auditorium one night where Stapleton was the guest speaker. That was 20+ years ago, and I don't think he'd written some of his other books yet.

Must be out of print or something, that's pretty pricey, I'll check out Firefighting Reflections.

Thirty Years isn't listed here, but maybe they know where you could get a copy for less than "an arm and a leg."

Sweet! I find Ebay often has titles I am looking for if Amazon doesn't, I've found the most obscure 19th century antiquarian and out of print books using either resource, usually finding multiple choices on format, condition and price but not always.

Rudy's reply reminded me of back when I was on the VFD in my old town, prior to 2000. The present sheriff of our county lived in that town, and I can't remember if he was still working patrol for the S.O. or had become chief of police in a neighboring town (1998-2002) when he stopped by the fire station one night. I heard him say to our chief "I was thinking about joining your merry band, but I'm not sure. I mean, I'll take a bullet, but there's something not right about going into places that are on fire."
Yup.

The age old gut fear of fire at work there I guess, the kind that causes people to panic and do stupid things trying to escape a burning building. If you haven't read "Triangle: The fire that changed America" or one of the several about it in print, it's a fascinating though tragic story, I lived around the corner from that very building in Greenwich Village, it's been a NY University owned building for many years, were it not for the bronze plaque or the books you'd never know it was the scene of this terrible fire.

Another book I recently bought after reading a web page on a totally unrelated search for a sculpture photo, the page mentioned this huge hotel fire and that there was a book about it, so the story got me interested and I took a look and bought a copy.
The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire

Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel had been billed as "fireproof", but in the predawn hours of December 7, 1946--on the fifth anniversary of Pearl Harbor--280 of its citizens awoke suddenly in hotel already burning wildly out of control. Here is the story of the catastrophe, and of the investigation that went awry. 30 photographs.

The hotel was "fireproof" like the Titanic was unsinkable, the hotel didn't burn, only the furniture and guests did.
The bungled investigation and hints of coverups are interesting, there was more than enough evidence proving it was arson and even pointed to an angry guest at a card game who was essentially "thrown out" and vowed to get revenge for that.
Evidence of an accelerant streamed all the down a hallway and up stairs didn't seem to go anywhere in the investigation.
In a way it's a police/criminal and fire/arson investigation story not just a fire dept story.
It was a very interesting read.

I took a loot at Firefighting Reflections, it looks like $23, that's not bad but I added it to the Amazon wish list to keep it in mind for when more used copies hit the search there!

Firefighting Reflections is Boston Fire Department Commissioner Leo Stapleton's eleventh book

Geez, gotta tip my hat off to someone who can author eleven books! I had enough trouble and work with my one book, can't imagine going through that ten more times LOL!

[chiefjack]

Another good book that follows the theme of the original post is "Essentials of Fire Department Customer Service" by retired Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini.

The book was so good, I made all of my Inspectors read it as part of their annual training requirements.

[RR_Security]

I tossed in a link to "Bruno's" customer service book on Amazon, toward the end of post #5. Only one of the reviews of it on Amazon was less than five stars. From one of them:

Keeping a sense of humor throughout, Brunacini says that this manual is the result of "a series of thoughts, ideas, hallucinations, and reflections relating to fire department customer service."

The view of the cover can't be enlarged on the Amazon page, but the artwork is by Harold "Poony" Pickering, a firefighter and cartoonist. It gives an idea of how Bruno's sense of humor works.

I know at least one of the VFDs around here gives the patrol deputies the combo for the cypher locks on their station, so the "road guys" can get in and use the bathroom. Not exactly "customer service," but a Good Thing. thumbup.gif

I gotta go rummage through the bookcases and see what I still have in my collection.

[Aerohead]

Of course they came back to cut the grass - they really had nothing better to do and they could show off their muscles in their t-shirts. Nap time was probably already over and it wasn't time to cook dinner yet.

[Inactive]

He also wrote the foreword for Boston on Fire by Stephanie Schorow.

I received my copy of that book in the mail the other day, taking it to work with me tomorrow to read, glancing through it it looks interesting, and the photos are as well.
Interesting thing is, my copy of the book is a signed hardcover edition that has hand written inside the first page:

"Phil: regards to a fellow writer/reporter, cheers, Stephanie Schorow"

I bought the book used on Amazon for 12 cents plus $3.99 for the postage, it's in perfect, new condition with no stains, tears, dings, scratches, writing, marks or folded over page corners.

Wonder who "Phil" the writer/reporter was.

I'm up to about page 50, this is a good read, lots of background on the fire dept and telegraph alarm system and equipment!