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Brickleberried t1_jeenhp5 wrote

I'm always a bit confused when I see first responders casually walking to a person or a fire. I get that a few seconds or a couple of minutes usually doesn't, but it obviously can matter, especially for their job.

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Formergr t1_jef67g5 wrote

I was an EMT-B back in the day, and one of the first things they drilled into our heads during training was to never run at a scene. There were numerous reasons, all very practical, including:

  • If you run, you're more likely to trip and fall, or drop something, or bump into another first responder also running around, which of course can get you hurt, and endangers the patient due to delaying their care and transport if you do get hurt
  • You really should never be so rushed or panicked to even want to run. Staying controlled and calm is important to make sure you can provide thorough care, versus frantic and scatterbrained
  • If you are running at a scene, bystanders and even worse loved ones of the patient, are going to freak out more because they'll think "oh shit it must be really bad if the EMT is running". Which then gets them spun up and in your way, a lot of the time.

But all of that aside, if these guys really did interrupt responding to an ALS call, they are awful and deserve to be fired ASAP.

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713ryan713 t1_jefpulx wrote

Fox's 9-1-1 is my guilty pleasure, and I've noticed they almost never run on that show, which seems surprising for the "first responder" genre. I guess they had someone consulting who really understood this.

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DeliMcPickles t1_jeezm0o wrote

TV is not real life, and when you see people running, its usually rookies.

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LeektheGeek t1_jeeoh8e wrote

Once you start doing it everyday all day, the sense of urgency to run naturally diminishes because of routine.

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Brickleberried t1_jeey13w wrote

Still, they are emergencies. They should be urgent.

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DeliMcPickles t1_jeeztnl wrote

They're not emergencies though. They're 911 calls and it's a totally different thing.

Source: I'm a guy who responded to a 911 call because a man said his "Jumbo shrimp weren't big enough."

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Brickleberried t1_jef084s wrote

I've seen them respond to reports of fire at my building extremely casually. They didn't know that there wasn't an emergency yet.

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[deleted] t1_jeftxx9 wrote

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Brickleberried t1_jeg7qxe wrote

> The process has been explained several times above. You're either not reading it or just don't care enough to listen to people who know what they are talking about.

No, none of you can distinguish between the scenarios that I'm talking about.

> Also, there's a difference between a fire alarm going off and a report of an actual fire.

A fire alarm going off can be a serious emergency though. I know that it's less likely to be an actual emergency, but it can be. They should act with urgency until they know that it's not an actual emergency.

I have no fucking clue why you and so many other people here seem to not understand the basic fact.

Until emergency services know that an emergency call isn't an actual emergency, they should act with urgency.

Edit: So apparently, nobody thinks that emergency responders should act with urgency when they receive emergency calls, so I'm not sure why anybody is mad at the story in the OP. They're doing exactly what you all want: not acting with urgency.

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capcityff918 t1_jegbjha wrote

Again… running around in circles doesn’t make it more urgent to us. We have extra information that you do not have. We are strategic on how things are done.

What do I know though? I’ve been a firefighter isn’t he city for years but I’m sure you can do a better job. Maybe just leave this job to those of us who have dedicated our lives to it.

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DeliMcPickles t1_jeg081y wrote

Is it an automatic fire alarm? Yeah, those are really routine. you know what gets blood pumping? When you get dispatched for an AFA and then you get 2 follow on-calls for a fire at the location.

That's the shit.

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LeektheGeek t1_jef0cwi wrote

Not everything EMT and firefighters respond to is an emergency though. You’d be surprised how many causal and bs calls they respond to.

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Brickleberried t1_jef2l2c wrote

Yes, but when the call is for a claimed actual emergency, I expect urgency, not casualness.

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[deleted] t1_jefu0vi wrote

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Brickleberried t1_jeg7asp wrote

Again, I know that not all calls to emergency services are actual emergencies, but when the call is claimed to be a real emergency, I expect urgency.

If someone called 911 and said that their dad was having a stroke, I would expect sirens and quickness and not casual walking up to the door.

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thebarkingdog t1_jegca1t wrote

Generally speaking, the incident has already occurred or won't get much worse than it already is. So approaching with a calm attitude will do more than speed will.

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