Call the Fire Department

Everyone does. All the time, for all kinds of things. Last night was no exception.

It's getting colder now and people are finally starting to turn on their furnaces. A women called and said that her smoke detector went off after she turned on the furnace. Then it stopped and so did the furnace. So, what should she do? Of course, I am not allowed to give advice, but I can tell her what her options are. Then she confesses, "well, it's not really for me, it's my friends house and she was to scared to call, I'll let her know and she can call if she wants."

I love that people are scared to call the people that are the best qualified to offer help. And in some cases the only people that can help. Take a minute and think about all the neat tools that the fire department must have. A fire truck is like a giant rolling tool box. Not to mention the hours of training required to know how to use the tools. And just for laughs, how about all the times they use them for real calls. Then throw in the fact that they do this for a living...

Phone rings a little while later, and sure enough it's the friend and she decides to have the fire department come and check out her house just in case and also says that it smells like something is burning. She describes the smell as, "old furnace smell." Naturally, and with a smile, I drop tones for the fire department and say just what my caller told me, "fire unit 1234, be advised there is a smell of old furnace in the residence." Turns out it was just dust burning off the vents.

That time I didn't make it through the whole call without laughing. Then later when I was answering a fire unit, I was laughing about something else entirely and got in a little trouble for laughing on the air.. Oh well, sometimes I just can't help it, I really love my life and have fun with it. And the Sgt was cool about it.

Tonight I have done nothing but page out the fire department, 3 calls back to back! 2 were real calls and one was an alarm.

No song for the post, but a movie instead inspired by my night with all the fire calls...
Firehouse Dog!