...but thankfully, this one turned out okay.
I'm a volunteer firefighter. I love it, my FF1 and FF2 certificates mean more to me than my 4 yr degree (the FF ones are framed on my wall at my "real" job... I've never actually seen my diploma). Just about any firefighter with time 'on the job' can tell you the calls you never want to hear come over your pager (not that we WANT to hear any of them....)
Today was one of them. I was sitting at my desk at my 'real job' when the text came in (my office is far enough away that my pager doesn't pick up, so I rely on our text message paging system while at work). I was in the middle of helping a coworker with a problem, when I read
"<location>...ACCIDENT...INJURIES UNKNOWN. SCHOOL BUS AND SEMI"
Oh.
F#ck.
Now, my office is 27 miles from my fire station. 97% of the time, I don't respond to a call when I'm that far away - most times, they'd be on their way back to the station before I got to the scene.
Not a call like this.
Looked at my coworker, and he must have seen it in my eyes as I stood up and grabbed my coat - he just said "Looks like you've got to go." As soon as my pickup was on the road, I was calling one of my captains to let them know I was on my way, but 20 minutes out. The whole drive, I was hoping I'd hear the report come over the radio that all units were en route to the station, but no dice.
Round the last curve before the scene, and I'm greeted with a psychedelic light show. Half a dozen sheriff's cars, four ambulances, and two fire trucks. Hit the warning strobe on my truck (my work truck - amber strobe on top for survey work) and pulled into the median. First and second things I noticed were...bus is in ditch, but upright and reasonably intact...and apparently a 3/4 ton Silverado is now a semi. All of the students were gone already, either picked up by parents or loaded onto another bus, I think.
Amazingly, no serious injuries... the driver of the pickup, who basically drove right into the front tire of the bus, actually walked away from the wreck. We still made him get in the ambulance, but he got out of the pickup on his own once we got the doors off.
One of those calls that everyone slows down afterwards, and you think "Holy crap that could have been a LOT worse..."
I'm a volunteer firefighter. I love it, my FF1 and FF2 certificates mean more to me than my 4 yr degree (the FF ones are framed on my wall at my "real" job... I've never actually seen my diploma). Just about any firefighter with time 'on the job' can tell you the calls you never want to hear come over your pager (not that we WANT to hear any of them....)
Today was one of them. I was sitting at my desk at my 'real job' when the text came in (my office is far enough away that my pager doesn't pick up, so I rely on our text message paging system while at work). I was in the middle of helping a coworker with a problem, when I read
"<location>...ACCIDENT...INJURIES UNKNOWN. SCHOOL BUS AND SEMI"
Oh.
F#ck.
Now, my office is 27 miles from my fire station. 97% of the time, I don't respond to a call when I'm that far away - most times, they'd be on their way back to the station before I got to the scene.
Not a call like this.
Looked at my coworker, and he must have seen it in my eyes as I stood up and grabbed my coat - he just said "Looks like you've got to go." As soon as my pickup was on the road, I was calling one of my captains to let them know I was on my way, but 20 minutes out. The whole drive, I was hoping I'd hear the report come over the radio that all units were en route to the station, but no dice.
Round the last curve before the scene, and I'm greeted with a psychedelic light show. Half a dozen sheriff's cars, four ambulances, and two fire trucks. Hit the warning strobe on my truck (my work truck - amber strobe on top for survey work) and pulled into the median. First and second things I noticed were...bus is in ditch, but upright and reasonably intact...and apparently a 3/4 ton Silverado is now a semi. All of the students were gone already, either picked up by parents or loaded onto another bus, I think.
Amazingly, no serious injuries... the driver of the pickup, who basically drove right into the front tire of the bus, actually walked away from the wreck. We still made him get in the ambulance, but he got out of the pickup on his own once we got the doors off.
One of those calls that everyone slows down afterwards, and you think "Holy crap that could have been a LOT worse..."
