for a stroke/heart attack, you are going to need 2 medics on scene. since there arent any rescues that run with 2 medics on them, that is why we run an engine and a rescue to most of our calls. There are many times that you are going to need more then just the 2 people on the rescue at a scene. If the scene is something small, then they just dispatch a rescue. (that is how my department and many other departments run)

Im pretty sure firefighters save lives on a regular basis. and yes medical calls are no big deal. its not like you need help when youre having a heart attack. just drink some water. And FIVE firetrucks, I can gaurnetee that is not a medical call

out of the 85% of medical calls, to the person calling, they are ALL emergencies. are they all life threatening? maybe not, but we wont know that until we are on scene. when we get on scene, that is when we can make such a determination. in our line of work, every time that alarm goes off, it is because someone has an emergency, whether YOU think it is or not. The other 15% of the calls, those are the fires and the car wrecks. last shift we were called out to an automatic fire alarm, just routine right? halfway to the call it was upgraded to a full fledged house fire, good thing we were not just diking around and were treating it like a real emergency.

do you live near an intersection? if so, that is why they need to run with their sirens near your house. They need to have their sirens on any time that they need to "run" a light.

Um they actually do not have any sort of "immunity" in those situations. it's a little known fact that the only vehicle that does not have to follow the speed limits/traffic lights/and other traffic laws is not an ambulance, police car, or fire truck (or at least not in nh). i know i'm silly for posting this without knowing my facts entirely, because for the life of me i can not remember what vehicle it is - something totally random and not at all an emergency services vehicle - but if you see a cruiser just blatantly popping on a siren purely to run a red light out of leisure, you are more than in the right to call and complain. same thing for when cops don't use blinkers, are speeding, etc. it's ridiculous to me how many people will complain about police in general, soiling the reputation of the upstanding and law-abiding officers (the majority), just because a small group thinks they're above the law. any officer who can't explain the reason for their reckless driving when questioned would be reprimanded accordingly - a cop in nh was just recently fired for recklessly speeding unnecessarily. if it bothers you that much, i think you'd at least look into these situations to know your rights as a tax-paying citizen all that being said, i highly doubt that they just randomly decide to pop on the sirens because they know where you reside and live to torture you. as another poster said, it's more likely that you live by an intersection and i'd bet that it's rare that they're running the light for anything other than a legitimate reason

#90 has it right. and yeah cops doing that is way different than firefighters doing it. gah dont get me started on cops haha

i don't really understand why you're sitting here, ******** all over anyone who dares to imply anything negative about the firefighters, and you have the audacity to speak down to the police? don't get me wrong - i have a lot of respect for you and what you do; my husband and brother are in the military and my father is the fire chief of my town and has been for about 10 years now (i saw your later post boasting your credentials), but i would think that you would try and at least publicly create an image of partnerships with the police. my father has plenty of frustrations with our local PD, i'm sure, but he would never trash them in a public forum. and please - i'm sure them rushing off to handle a domestic abuse call, or a burglary, or reports of gunfire are just as important and urgent as your rescue calls. and lets factor in that while police are on scene for pretty much every call that fire departments go to, that most certainly does not work the other way around; so especially in small towns where departments only have a dozen or less officers - the cops are getting just as little, if not much less, sleep than the firefighters are. i've seen plenty of rescue workers bullying others off the road with the lights on their personal vehicles, and i'm sure that the occurrence of them abusing their authority is at least proportionate to the few police officers that do.

i didnt say the cops did anything wrong. all i said is that i'm not a big fan of cops. and that much is true. i appreciate what all they do, and there are several in my family. it's just that some of them need to come down off their pedestal, and it gives the rest of them a bad name. specifically.... there is a sheriff in my town who likes to ticket firefighters for speeding while responding to structure fires. we had a guy get a ticket for doing ten over on a road where EVERYBODY does at least 15 over. it left a bad taste in my mouth as you might imagine. and the cops almost never come to our calls. it's just a general frustration. and i appreciate yall's service as well. i'm just saying i get frustrated with the high-and-mighty cops. and you're right i shouldn't be calling them out in public.

plus we're pretty well-regulated with our lights and whatnot. anybody reported of abusing them in any way gets a ten-day suspension.