By Diane Feldman
Members of Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue responded to a residence on an EMS call. They were greeted at the door by a woman who told them, “Boy, I’m glad you’re here.”
“What seems to be the problem, ma’am?” the truck captain asked.
“It’s my husband. He has a Heineken,” she replied.
“He has a what?” the truck captain asked.
“He has a Heineken.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the truck captain said. “We don’t know what you mean.”
“You know, when you bend down and tear something in your stomach. He has a HEINEKEN.”
“Oh, you mean a hernia,” the captain replied.
Do you make a difference?
Chief Donald Anthony (Ret.), LA City Fire Department, speaking at a conference: “Let me issue this challenge. Can you honestly say that the fire service and especially your department are better off at the end of your shift? Did you make a difference? Don’t talk about the way it was in the good ol’ days. In 10 years, these will be the good ol’ days.”
That isn’t shuttle debris!
It had been a few weeks since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and the Lewisville (TX) Fire Department was still responding to calls of citizens reporting they have found shuttle debris. In one case, fire department members were called to the roof of one residence, only to discover the “debris” was actually bird droppings. In another call, members responded to a citizen’s backyard and were able to identify the “debris” as dog poop from the homeowner’s own dog.
Let’s view RIT in a new way
T.J. Welch, assistant chief and training officer for the Alameda County (CA) Fire Department, during a panel discussion at a fire conference: “When people get a RIT assignment, they say, ‘Damn.’ I’d like to hear them say, ‘I have brothers and sisters in there. What am I going to do to get them out?’”
Photo found on Wikimedia Commons courtesy of Snoop.
The Yenta
Diane Feldman, a 22-year veteran of PennWell Corp., is executive editor of Fire Engineering and conference director of FDIC. She has a B.A. in English communications. She has been a yenta (look it up) for most of her life. If you have a story for the Yenta, e-mail dianef@pennwell.com.
