The Happy Medic and Motorcop are back with a look into the Washington DC idea of preventing crime using unarmed firefighters, then some tips on how to answer the dreaded oral boards question “Why do you want this job” and we finish with an exciting announcement about cancer and the month of September.

EPISODE 15

You are assigned to a three person engine company dispatched to a reported kitchen fire in a restaurant.  On arrival you have light smoke showing and a manager advises you a cutting board is on fire on the stove top and that all employees and patrons have exited and are accounted for.

The building is 3 story type 5 with the top 2 floors residential.

Conditions inside are smoky but the kitchen area is visible from outside and only 20 feet inside the front door. It is open to the dining area, only a half wall separates the kitchen from the rest of the area.  You observe flame across 8 burners climbing 2-3 feet towards the vent.

All utilities, ventilation, search and other concerns are being handled by other responders.

Your selection of suppression devices is as follows:

1)Water extinguisher

2)CO2 extinguisher

3)150′ 1 3/4″ preconnect

4)1″ booster reel

Which do you choose and why?  You Make the Call.

Rip Shear RS-1

A few weeks back I received a care package from the folks at Rip Shears.  Inside was quite the interesting little device, a removable dual blade cutter that can be attached to any standard 7 1/4″ trauma shear. From there you simply start a cut with the shears, then flip and rip. Take a look at this short YouTUBE video from Rip Shears:

This at first had me nervous.  Do I really need an open blade on my shears?  I wear a pair of shears on my duty and turnout belts and adding something so seemingly dangerous had me concerned I’d be replacing belt loops and turnout straps.

This was not the case at all.  I’ll get to the 2 issues I have with the product after I tell you why I’ll always be carrying one with me in the field from now on.

The Rip Shear seems like a simple device and it really is.  The fact that it is small and detachable means I can move it from shears to shears as needed instead of some giant device.  It also fits nearly perfectly into my existing leather pouch, since the shears fit as well.  I don’t wear BDU pants but did have a chance to test the shears snapped into a pair of Perfection pants supplied by Chronicles of EMS uniform supplier ALLMED.

AllMED Perfection EMT Pant

As you can see the gear does not hamper the ability to wear it, but the pocket just barely covers the blade, enough to likely get caught once or twice.

Drawback #1: The blades in the upward position.

When showing this tool around the ambulance yard one morning, one of the EMTs loved it.  He removed his regular shears from a lateral behind the back pouch and inserted the military green shears.  To show how easily they would deploy he pulled them out, not noticing his shirt got caught, and cut a clean rip in his shirt.  From this experience we chose to reverse the blade direction using only a screwdriver and voila, problem solved.

(l) as shipped (r)inverted

I now carry my own rip shear with the blades oriented down, took 45 seconds to switch.  There are no special tools required to remove and replace the Rip Shears, simply use a phillips screwdriver to remove the three screws, remove the blade unit and the guide unit, done.  The setup of the screws and hardware allows for the inverting of the blade and for attaching it to almost anything.

This far outweighs a single use tool that does not already incorporate itself into gear you already have.  Space in the bags and in my pouch is at a premium these days, so this little guy is more than welcome.

Another early concern was that the open blade would catch a finger.  I have to admit I was scared to handle these at first, but as shown in the photo, even little 5 year old fingers are safe from wandering into the blade area on the Rip Shears.  Fear not my thin fingered friends, you’re safe.

A 5 y/o's pinky finger does not fit

It took about 3-4 shifts to get used to having the slight extra height on my pouch and I now remove it to sit on furniture at work, mainly to discourage dirty looks when folks realize what’s on there.

The Rip Shear is available in black and a really neat glow-in-the-dark material that has been handy to have on a dark road on a night MVC.  Since EMTs can be excitable and use shears only to throw them away, I can easily track down my set and replace the Rip Shear onto another standard shear back at the station.

Drawback #2: The shears provided have a lip on the end too extreme to fit many pouches.  Again, easy fix here, just remove it and place it on a pair that does fit.  You can order your Rip Shear already attached to a set of shears, the website advises the manufacturer may change, so this may have simply been THAT particular supplier.  Yours may be different.

A perfect fit

The versatility of this product more than makes up for the out of the box issues we noticed.  When using the shears they worked exactly as advertised going through a few pairs of jeans in their time on my shears as well as the leather jacket of a very disagreeable clavicle fracture.  They cut like they look like they should.  No problems there.

I had hoped to grab an old pair of turnouts and use them to show how well they cut, but recent events here made it seem in poor taste.  Perhaps someone out there has an old set they would be willing to donate to Rip Shears?

Made in the USA and designed with Paramedic and EMT input I can’t think of a better addition to your kit for around $15.

Visit their website for more details and links to where to buy your own Rip Shears.

Thanks to the folks in the recent Santa Clara County Grand Jury, we now have positive proof that fire based EMS delivery using fire trucks is inefficient.

Phew.

I was worried we would never discover the problems draining tax payer dollars.  Did they know we’ve known this for nearly 20 years?  All they had to do was call me, or just google it even.  Instead tax dollars were used to show tax dollars are being used inefficiently.

I guess all the murders, robberies and other court cases are all finished there in Santa Clara.  Good thing they don’t have a baseball doping case to worry about.

What the grand jury failed to do, perhaps it is not in their interests, is look beyond the “retirement costs” and perhaps look at the system and how to deliver what our pal Chris Kaiser dubbed EMS based EMS.  Looks like Santa Clara needs to stop and rethink things, then start from scratch.  Someone suggested that once…but I digress.

This grand jury report will be cited by every union basher come election time in an effort to privatize public safety accounts and likely not lead to any changes in the delivery of first response EMS in Santa Clara County.

The report fails to mention that the local private provider does not have enough resources to completely cover the district for first response ALS.

So now what?

Oh, I covered this topic 2 years ago.  What, you missed it?

Top 10 New Responders without the Fire Department

and then

Top 10 New Responsibilities of the Fire Department

Poking fun at a serious topic for sure, but until we get away from a fee for transport model, this thing will never work guys.  Fire based, mailman based, if we base our service on what we can get paid instead of how best to serve the community, the system will never work properly.

MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!

On a recent job at the PD Station (Looking at you MC) we were confronted with the standard clearly exaggerated complaint without clinical signs.

A man arrested for possession of a controlled substance has suddenly developed asthma, or as AmboDriver calls it, Acute Incarceritis.  Since our boys in blue have zero medical training it is thought that by calling me in it covers their bases.  What it does do is screw with 2 emergency agencies instead of 1, especially since he’ll be medically cleared by an RN at County.

But enough of that, let’s get back to Bubba.  Bubba was arrested off site and developed asthma after they searched his car.  When I assessed him and was unable to find any sign and catch him in confusion about what asthma is and how it is treated, he tried something new.  New to me at least.

Like out of a movie he scrambled, looked around the holding cell and cried out, “I left the stove on!  You have to let me go or else my house will burn down!”

I smiled, my EMT partner smiled and the cops frowned.  They knew exactly what the next 20 minutes would entail.

“Are you sure you left the stove on?” I asked him.

“Yes, let me go! Let me go!” He shouted.

So I called it in.  I then informed him that in the next 4 minutes firefighters will be breaking down the door to ensure the fire on the stove does not spread.  Then, when finished, the police will enter the house to take custody since the door will be destroyed.  They’ll likely take a look around to make sure there are no other hazards.

The color drained from his face as he likely recalled what was left in plain sight in the home.  I’m no legal expert, but I’m pretty sure he just got himself in a ton more trouble.

Minutes later we hear the first engine on scene with nothing showing, force entry and immediately call for PD.

I never did hear what they found or if there was even food on the stove or not, but if you lie to me I will call your bluff.  Then smile when it all falls apart, because in the off chance you do win, I still have to take you in, just like they made me take him in to get “checked out.”

Amazing how fast information moves these days.

We were at this fire yesterday afternoon, and while it wasn’t a “worker” or like many of the other fires recently posted about the SFFD, it brings up a good training topic:

Fires between floors.

Initial report was light smoke or steam from above a laundromat.  How many times have you been on that run?

This was one of the 1 in 100 where something is actually happening.  Light smoke is seen seeping from the paneling above one business, but more smoke is found above the nail salon, but the salon has no smoke.

This is a 4 story type 5 unprotected (3 res over 1 com).  Some notes:

The folks in the helmets with black and white checkerboards are members of the Heavy Rescue Squad, the red and white belong to the truck companies.

The sign we pulled down had another sign behind it, then wood paneling which covered some old windows.

The fellow on the nozzle out front, also helping to foot the ladder, later to turn off a pass alarm, and then finding a lost axe in the rubble, well, that’s yours truly.  Still wearing the “16″ on my shield.

The engine you see at the very beginning is our temporary rig, we were third due and were supplying the first in engine.

If you are wondering where everyone else is, the first 2 engines and truck were inside the building looking for extension.  With the voids in a type 5, we have to go farther than simply finding unburnt wood.

The quick bursts with the line were two fold.  Firstly, we had a team just on the other side of that space who had not found fire yet and my intent was to cool what was thought to be the source of the fire and directly above it the floor of the unit above.

It was a quick job and did not spread any farther than where we found it, the cause is under investigation.

I’m walking through a busy shopping center looking for someone, not sure who, and it’s stressing me out.  Panic, confusion, anticipation.  Then a loud tone strikes me from my sleep, the shopping center nothing but a dream.  The lights are bright in the dorm of the firehouse, the time is just before 2 AM and the tones finish just as I sit up to the corner of the bed awaiting the inevitable magic voice telling me where the sick people are.

“Units standby for the box!” the voice says with a tone of excitement.

A fire.

The dorm springs to life, sleepy firemen now scrambling into their turnouts and heading for the pole hole as the dispatcher rattles off the companies due.  Downstairs we dress, the doors are coming up and the rainy night awaits our response.  The dispatcher finishes reading the first alarm assignment by telling us this is a report of smoke in a building and we take that very seriously.

The engine beats the truck out the door, as we should, but not by much and I can see them following from my rear facing jump seat.  The green light on the front gives away they are a truck company, letting our driver know to let them take the block ahead of us if we’re second due.  The MDT tells me that we are first due and by the address, we’re less than 3 blocks away.  I might just be ready by the time we get there.

Hands still tingling from waking suddenly we are on scene to the large apartment building with nothing showing but an audible alarm sounding and young people milling about in the lobby.

My walk around the engine to my airpack gives me a chance to size up the building.  If we’re going above the ground floor, we’ll need a bundle to extend a pre-connect.  The first door on the first floor (first above the garage level) has a smoke detector alarm sounding and an odor of burnt food.  Deadbolt secured, we’ll need to force the door, damaging it completely, to make entry to investigate.

The truck is laddering the fire escape when they see a haze through the window of the unit in question and the decision is quickly made to enter through the window.

From our position in the hallway outside the door, the haligan tool is just being placed in the door jamb when we hear the truck make entry through the window.  The old thick windows break loudly and we now hear our brother pushing the mini blinds aside.  Boots thunder to the floor and footsteps get louder as the lock on the door clicks and the smoke wafts out as he opens the door.

“I gave at the office,” he says as I grab the pump can and go in search of the source of the smoke.  As we converge in the kitchen we hear shouting from the back room.  Shouting about waking up.  Shouting only from our people.  Being the Paramedic, I peel away from the burning pizza making all the smoke and meet the truck in the back room with a man curled up on the couch, completely passed out asleep.

They’re shaking his feet, being polite as can be in an effort to let him know we’re there and his apartment is filled with smoke.  It’s amazing that the breaking window didn’t wake him.  The tillerman and I exchange a look and the politeness is gone as he shakes the man’s shoulders shouting “Wake up! Fire! Fire! Wake up!”

Nothing.

Down in his face. “WAKE UP!”

“Whoa! What?” He sits up defensive, most of the first alarm compliment standing in his living room.  Escorted to the hallway, he is still confused about what is happening and I make my way back to the kitchen to help remove the source of the smoke.  The pick end of the haligan has a number of uses, one of them being removing small pizzas from ovens, so out it comes onto a baking tray and it is carried outside into the rain.

Back upstairs one of the firemen from another company looked around, saw the man we awoke and cried out,

“Let me guess, pizza in the oven?”  He went to the man and held up two fingers, “That’s twice!”

Halloween. All Hallow’s Eve. Samhain. Whether you practice the ancient Celtic holiday or just dress up on October 31st, there are certain things you should not do when decorating your home for the fall holiday.

THE EMERGENCY

Cell phone caller reports flames in the window of a residential building.

THE ACTION

4:30 AM. We should have had 3-4 calls since I crawled into my sleeping bag and am rather well rested when the dorm came to life for a full box alarm. The Engine, Truck and Chief are all first due and only blocks away.

We’re barely dressed when we pull up to the intersection and see flames in a window box outside a window on the fourth floor.

Airpacks go on as we see the truck get set to head for the roof and to the window in question when I see my boss do that head movement that can only be described as the RCA Dog tilt. His body language changed right then to a relaxed stance as he motioned for us to come to his side with one hand and began waving down the rising aerial ladder with the other.

As we looked, I mean really read the flames, we noticed…no smoke and the flames are neither growing nor receding, meaning the fire is not growing, moving or giving off gasses. Hmmm…

Then we looked closer at the window, noting not only no discoloration, but there are multiple paper Halloween decorations on the outside, slowly waving in the soft breeze of the early morning.

By this time the entire first alarm compliment had arrived and we can now see it is a small electric cauldron. A small fan is blowing fabric above a light, causing the appearance of fire.

Outside. In a planter box. At night. We get planter box fires often, what with discarded cigarettes and all. I just never expected someone so excited about modern Halloween celebration to put such an element outside a wooden frame building.

You need only watch the first 20-30 seconds of this for the following dispatch to make sense.

Aunt Bethany from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a favorite at HMHQ. It isn’t Christmas until Clark W. Griswald and family go through their annual disaster. I was temped to hold this post until the Christmas season approaches but I had to share this remarkably appropriate use of resources.

THE EMERGENCY

The caller states she hears a “Loud squeaking sound” from her basement.

THE ACTION

Did I mention that I am so creative I have imagined every single one of these posts? None of them is rooted in any reality whatsoever, I’m that good.
Oh I wish I made this up.

The engine and truck companies arrive on the scene, code 3 I might add, to the large apartment complex where we are led to the unit of the reporting party.
“It’s a loud squeaking sound” she tells us, causing me to smile recalling Aunt Bethany.

We head to the basement where we find a hot water circulator pump with what sounds like fried bearings. We explain that we can turn it off, but folks up on the upper floors may have to wait a while for hot water.

“I can’t sleep with that sound, turn it off.” she tells us and turn it off we did.

It was back on the sidewalk out front as the ladder came down (why not have a quick drill?) when a passerby asked me what the trouble was. When I told him what we had found he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Are you [expletive, deleted] kidding me? They called 911 for a noise? Are they retarded?”
“Sir I can make no statements as to the mental well being of our clients, what with privacy concerns and all.”

He smiled and went along his way. I, unfortunately, had 14 more calls to run before that shift was over.