Freq Of Nature

Pierre firefighter learns lesson from LAFD
[Source: Pierre Capital Journal]

The County of Los Angeles Fire Department has 158 stations with firefighters who work 24-hour shifts, responding to more than 230,000 calls annually. Recently Pierre volunteer firefighter Perry Munyon did a week-long active ride-along, picking up the jargon of the place as well as experience. In LA, an engine is an engine but a ladder truck is just "truck" and the rescue squad becomes "squad."

The Pierre Volunteer Fire Department is one of the best-equipped fire departments in the state, but not as well-equipped as the fire department one Pierre firefighter recently visited.

Perry Munyon spent a week doing an active ride-along with the County of Los Angeles Fire Department.

"They put me with the squad because they go to everything," Munyon said, using the LA department's jargon as easily as if he were one of their trained and seasoned firefighters.

The squad he referred to was the rescue squad, which includes paramedics and responds to every call, from medical emergencies and automobile accidents to actual fires. In LA, the ambulance team is a transport team, not an emergency medical response team as it is in Pierre, according to Munyon.

As a ride-along member of the rescue squad at four different stations - West Covena, Baldwin Park, Inglewood and West Hollywood - he had a variety of experiences that he has not had while working as a volunteer in Pierre.

"Our first call was a shooting," Munyon said.

When the rescue squad arrived on the scene, they were not allowed to treat the wounded until the sheriff's department had cleared the area, he said. The rescue truck, with fire and rescue equipment on one side and medical equipment on the other, parked a block away from the incident, and those entering the area were issued bulletproof vests, also known as flak jackets, according to Munyon.

At that call, working with a man who had been "clubbed to the ground" and "busted his head wide open," Munyon realized that his aversion to responding to medical emergencies was more imagined than real.

"At first I thought, this isn't my niche," he said. "When you get there, you don't think about that."

On the scene, Munyon said he was focused on providing the emergency care needed. During the week, responding to a stabbing and another shooting as well as routine calls, he assisted with a variety of procedures.

Later in the week, while responding to a medical call in a gay district of West Hollywood, Munyon realized that emergency personnel in other parts of the country face dangers that he hadn't previously considered, like AIDS.

"Here you'd walk up to someone and wouldn't think about rubber gloves," he said.

In LA, his squad was called to a gay couple's residence twice in one day. Early in the day, the two had had an altercation resulting in an injury to one. When asked if either was HIV positive, they told responders neither was.

Later, responders returned when the uninjured party attempted suicide. When asked again if he was HIV positive, the man told responders he was.

"In the morning they weren't. In the afternoon they were. How did that happen?" Munyon said, shaking his head in disbelief.

A routine part of the rescue squad's day is responding to automobile accidents, according to Munyon. At those scenes, the firefighters and paramedics have to take care of themselves as well as the injured parties.

"A lot of the time, people are gawking at the lights instead of driving, and you can end up as the next victim," Munyon said.

The heavy traffic - busier at 4:30 a.m. than Pierre is all day, he said - and the speed of the vehicles, which may exceed 80 mph, contribute to the hazardous nature of responding to accidents.

While in LA, Munyon only fought one fire, a garage fire that appeared to be arson. However, his company was called out for a fire on the 18th floor of a high-rise.

When they arrived, another company had already taken care of the problem, a shorted-out electrical system. However, if his company had gone into the building, Munyon said he would have had to climb 18 flights of stairs in bunker gear, carrying a high-rise pack - more than 100 pounds altogether.

"You're taking your hose up to hook it to a hydrant in the building," he said, explaining what he meant by "high-rise pack."

The LA County fire department is the second or third busiest in the country, according to Munyon, responding to more than 230,000 calls per year. In addition to rescue trucks, engines and ladder trucks, the department has a variety of other equipment including two Black Hawk helicopters.

However, the small things, as well as the big things, made the experience rewarding for him.

"They had the fire poles actually in use," Munyon said with a wide grin.

When a call came in at night, firefighters who were sleeping on the third floor of the station house would slide down the pole, don their bunker gear and head for the trucks.

Munyon said his thought when he had the chance to do this was, "This is a kid's dream."
©Pierre Capital Journal, South Dakota newspapers 2002

posted by Tracy Justus at 5/24/2002