August 13, 2008
Cops and firemen
Written by Shirley Karr in Jaunty PostYou never know where your inspiration will come from. I once heard a quote that really struck home; alas I can’t remember to whom it was attributed: “A writer is someone on whom nothing is lost.”
Three years ago the guest speaker at our RWA chapter meeting was a former Navy Seal. Since I write historical fiction, you might think there was nothing in his presentation that would be of use in my writing. You’d be wrong. When he was discussing Seal training techniques, he gave me a fabulous idea for how to almost kill my Regency hero and then save his life.
When I found out the guest speakers at this month’s chapter meeting were two firemen and a police officer, I arrived early so I wouldn’t miss a thing.
Corny but true: we laughed and we cried. It gave me chills listening to their stories, how they very matter-of-factly put their lives on the line for complete strangers. Roger is former Army, now with the state troopers. Marc is a volunteer firefighter. John, a firefighter originally from Manhattan, moved to the Portland area because of his wife’s job in late summer 2001. He lost a lot of friends on September 11th. As experienced firefighters, they recognized they were going into a bad situation. Before leading his men up the stairs, one captain hugged John’s former captain, kissed him on the cheek, and said “I probably won’t see you again.” John’s friend survived to tell the tale; the other captain was working on the 80th floor when the building collapsed.
These are tough guys — they can climb 80 flights of stairs wearing/carrying 60 pounds of gear and equipment, rescue passengers from a burning vehicle, face down career criminals who would rather die than go to jail — who are also unafraid to show emotion. Choked up with emotion, Marc had to pause several times telling one of his experiences; Roger laughed often but had to dab at his eyes more than once, too. They’re the kind of heroes we write about in romance novels — the tough guy you can trust to save your life, who’s a marshmallow inside.
I’m not sure yet what I’ll use in my writing but I did take away two facts that surprised me.
First: 77 percent of the firefighters in the US are volunteers. Having spent my teen years in a small rural town, I was familiar with the fire department’s siren calling volunteers to the station to respond to an emergency — I often prayed that we’d never need them, since there was a delay in actually getting the fire truck to a fire — but I had no idea that urban and suburban fire departments heavily rely on volunteers, too.
Second: for a firefighter, the most dangerous part of responding to a call is not when he’s up on the roof chopping a vent hole, nor is it conducting a room by room search of a burning building, nor is it fighting the blaze or climbing a ladder to rescue someone from an upper story. No, the most dangerous part of responding to a call is simply getting there.
Most motorists pull off to the side when they hear the siren and see the lights flashing. As soon as the fire truck goes by, they pull back into traffic. What most motorists don’t realize is that there are usually three or more emergency vehicles responding to each call. Far too often, drivers pull back into traffic too soon, smack into the path of another emergency vehicle. In Hillsboro, for example, there are a minimum of four vehicles that respond to each 911 fire call — a fire engine, rescue vehicle, an ambulance, and a police officer. They may come from different directions but at some point they will converge.
The meeting gave me a whole new perspective on those who protect and serve. We smile and wave at firefighters, and now after hearing Roger, I’ll try to remember to smile and wave at police officers, too … with all five fingers. 
2:00 am | Share This
EmilyMcKay Says:
Sounds like an interesting talk. Somehow I’m not surprised about the number of people who cause accidents for fire trucks. I see people pulling out behind them all the time.
Margo Maguire Says:
I’d heard that the trip TO the scene was the most dangerous part … I don’t know how the firefighters manage in high-traffic cities like Chicago or NYC.