Author: Juan Serrano March 10, 2016

Hey everyone! Welcome. 

For those of you just visiting, my name is Juan and I will be sharing with you what it looks like to be a firefighter and what we do during the day.

This post is a second part of my firefighter shift on 12/26-27/2016. If you haven’t read the post about the first part of my shift then click here to read it.

The layout will be the same as my other posts were.

As I have said before, If this is your first time to my blog and reading this post then let me give you a little background about what this post is and who I am.

I write these posts because I want my readers to understand what exactly firefighters do while we are at work and what takes up all our time.

I will be honest in what I write without giving too much information about the people we help so I don’t break any HIPPA violations. 

When I’m at work I write down what happens throughout the day so I will be able to write them here for you guys.

We usually work 48-hour shifts in my department, which is normal for a fire station. This will be the second day of my 48-hour shift. In my station, we have a fire engine and an ambulance with 2 firefighters on each. I was working on the ambulance this shift. Enjoy!

What Keeps Firefighters busy during the Day

 

The shift starts the night we were already on shift. It starts early because this was out the first call for the morning.

0238: We get our first call for the day. It was for a bloody nose. This is a horrible time to get a call for us because it’s when we are at our most tired. When we got there the guys’ bloody nose stopped. Not much for us to do at that point. he apologized for waking us up, we obviously didn’t mind though. The patient signed the AMA (against medical advice: a paper a patient signs stating we came and they refused transport) sheet and we head back to the station.

0254: Arrive back to the station. It usually takes me about 30 min. to fall asleep when we get back to the station from a late night call.

0321: We get a call, and right when I was about to fall asleep. The call was for a patient with anxiety. We showed up and after a while of calming her down, she started feeling better. She didn’t want to go to the hospital so she signed the AMA paper and we were on our way back to the station.

0352: Arrive back to the station and go to sleep after about 30 min.

0630: Wake up. I do my normal routine of putting up the flags up, starting the coffee, and putting away the dishes that are in the dishwasher.

0710: I start to chart for the calls. A chart is something we do for every medical call we go on. It’s a legal document of every action taken by us and the patient on the call. A chart can take from 30 – 1 hr. 30 min. 

0714: Another call comes in. It’s a fire alarm for a house. Usually, these are a non-emergency type calls because there’s usually no fire threat. We still take them seriously though. This one didn’t end up having a fire problem. We figured out that one of their sprinkler pipes broke. We fixed the problem then headed back to our station.

0752: We decide to get some coffee so we can wake up a bit before returning to the station. 

0804: Arrive back to the station. 

0810: I continue my write my 3 charts from the morning and the day before. In our station, we have an area designated for writing charts called the “Medics station”. We have two computers with a printer there. I’ve spent many hours on these computers.

0952: I finish my charts. 

1015: I finally have time to take a shower for the day (good thing, I was starting to smell).

1024: We had our other ambulance crew (2 other medics) at our station at this time. We talk about a class they have to teach on our next tour and how it can be “interesting” and informative.

1057: It was a Sunday so we needed to do our “Sunday checks”. A lot of departments do the same thing. A Sunday check is when we check out all our rigs (Fire engine, Ambulance, Fire truck, etc.) and make sure everything is stocked, check the engine compartment, and any other special requirements they may need. We also take this time to clean out the bay (the area where we keep all our vehicles). This usually takes a couple of hours, but if everyone helps it goes by a lot faster.

1154: We finish the Sunday checks and help prep. lunch.  

1222: Eat lunch. I don’t remember what we had but I know there were tater tots involved. Our station crew loves tater tots.

1301: Finish lunch and clean up. 

1307: A call comes in. This time, it was for a near syncope patient (almost fainting). I remember this patient was REALLY mean to us, even before we said a single word. These patients get on our nerves, especially when we have done nothing to them. This mans’ family called us and he didn’t want them to which put us into an awkward situation. He ended up signing the AMA paper and we heading back to the station.

1339: We get back to our station. 

1342: I start to chart for the call.  

1429: I finish the chart then head to my room to make my bed and put some things away in my room. My room was a mess from the day before.

1503: As I’m heading out of my room, one of the medics from the other station was walking into my room with a huge glass of water in his hand. I don’t know what it was for, but I guarantee he was going to us it for some sort of prank. You can never trust these guys.  

1515: I talk some more about the class next tour with the medics from the other station. We try to figure out our plan for the class.

1603: The medics leave from the other station and our crew starts the clean up the station. On every second day of our shift, our district cleans up their own station (sweeps, mops, cleans bathrooms, kitchen, personal rooms, etc). We like to leave our station nice and clean for the on-coming crew.

1634: A call comes in. It was for a patient who fell and hurt his knee. He said he wasn’t hurt too bad and wanted to have his family drive him to the hospital. He signed the AMA paperwork and drove himself.

1655: Come back to the station. I immediately start to chart for that call.

1734: While I was still writing my chart we got another call. I was for this gentleman that hurt his arm hours before calling us. I really don’t know why people do this. they think we have a special medicine that we can give them and they will suddenly feel better. We’re an ambulance, we take people to the hospital. We don’t have the “magical drug” in our ambulance. Our patient refuses treatment and transport. He signs an AMA. Wow we have a lot of people not going to the hospital today.

1806: We come back to the station and guess what, I chart.

1840: We didn’t have time to get anything to eat for dinner so we head to the store. I stop charting so we can get some food.

1904: Back at the station and my partner starts to cook. I continue to chart. 

1935: Dinner is ready. We had chicken parmesan and it was delicious.

1950: As soon as I’m done with dinner I help clean up and continue to chart some more.

2054: Finish my charts…    finally.

2103: I have some free time to work on this blog a for a while. The other guys were watching a movie at this time I think.

2305: I decide it’s time to finally go to sleep. I check the coffee and start the dishwasher.

2334: I brush my teeth then lay in bed to go to sleep.

0125: A call comes in for a drunk person called in by our county’s sheriff. We are cancelled before we get there.

0134: Back to the station and straight to sleep. I was my partners call so I didn’t have to write the chart.

0630: Wake up

0635: Start the coffee and put up the flags. It was snowing the night before so I head outside to shovel the snow.

0655: Clean and check our ambulance to make sure everything is ready for the oncoming crew.

0715: Wash the ambulance and fire engine.

0740: I head to my room to clean it and get all my stuff out and get dressed into my regular clothes.

0745: Talk with the off going crew about what happened on our shift and anything important they need to know.

0805: Go home

 

There you have it, what kept me busy for my firefighter shift. As you can see there was no training today because we didn’t really have time. If you have read any of my other “shift posts” then you can start to see that the days can vary a major amount from one another.

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Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed. Comment below if you would like.