Alexandria, VA
I left off in the fire station. It was about 9 PM, I think. Here is how I got there:
I arrived for my interview at about 3 PM. I was to meet Joe Merritt at the fire house. He is a guy I know from my time in Memphis. He and my sister in law are great friends. He and I had a great night, the night before my brothers wedding, in Memphis. Joe, myself, Caytie, Bryan, and two girlfriends of Seasons hit the town. It was one of those nights where you don’t care whose looking at you. For me, at that time in my life, it was a rarity. I was a dancing, drinking, cigarette smoking machine. It was a classic night. Classic enough that the shirt I was wearing, one of my favorites, now has a cigarette burn in the front left pocket. I am not a smoker.
I arrived at 3. Joe was on a call so he was not there. Joe is a medic/firefighter for Fairfax County. He said to meet him at the station. I rang the doorbell. “Hi, I’m here to see Joe Merritt.” “Oh, Big Joe isn’t here, he’s on a call. Come on in,” Red Dog said to me. We talked for a few and he showed me in. He led me to the common area where there were some couches, a TV, and a dry erase board with a to do list on it. There was a guy in the corner of the L of the couches, feet propped up, hat pulled low. He didn’t say much. I was given a glass of water and started to read the paper. Here I am in my khaki pants and red button down shirt and these guys in their blue fatigue like uniforms. I felt out of place.
I read for a while and got caught up on DC info. There was a lot on the Redskins and Orioles. After a while some guys came in, sat down, and started talking. They talked about this and that. Politics, other guys, some of the calls they’d been amongst other things. They didn’t talk to me. After about 30 minutes someone asked me a question. I can’t remember what, but I think it was about why I was there. I told them I was there to see Joe and I was traveling and writing and yada yada yada. I must have been deemed OK as they let me in on the conversation. I put the paper down and talked and listened.
At about 4 or 4:30 Joe made it back. We shook and gave the guy hug while handshaking. We talked for a few. He showed me around and introduced me to a few people. We were about to get set up for the interview and the alarm went off. Ring, Ring, Ring went the siren. Then a female voice came on and rattled off names and numbers. Joe looked at me. He had the OK from above. “Are you ready? Let’s go?” “What, OK.” And we were off. He opened the back of the ambulance/medic and got me situated.
What a feeling it was to be sitting in there, the sirens blaring, cars moving, off to the scene to help someone. I didn’t expect to be doing that, but there I was. The guy we went to see was having shortness of breath and some dizziness. I didn’t really gather too much as I was still soaking it all in. They had given me a vest to wear that said Fire and Rescue. How cool. I forgot to get a picture with it though. On the scene Joe rushed in. I stayed back. The captain was very cool to me and told me where to stand.
Joe and Bill (the driver and Joe’s partner for the shift) brought him out and put him in the back of our ambulance. I got in and after they did some preliminary stuff, we were off to the hospital. I sat in back and Joe introduced me to the man. And off we went. Again, the sirens are going and here I am with a guy in the back. You are always curious to know what goes on in the back of an ambulance. I will tell you that a lot is going on. This guy was not in too bad of shape and Joe was all on it. I couldn’t imagine other scenarios with people having a heart attack, a fire, or in a car accident.
We made it back to the station and I did the interview with Joe. He asked if wanted to stay and have dinner. I accepted. My plans were wide open. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was staying that night (that is a rarity). I sat down at the end of the table. To my left was Joe and 5 other guys. To my right was the captain and 5 other guys. It was awesome that they all eat together. Gump cooked chicken for everyone. Nothing against Gump but he did not do a very good job of it. Some of the guys were nuking it because it was undercooked. I ate mine as is and it tasted fine, but I would’ve cooked it longer. During dinner the captain asked about me and how I knew Joe and what I was doing. He ended up asking if I wanted to stick around and shadow Joe and stay the night. Uh, yeah! Awesome. I kept asking, “Are you sure? Is that OK?” I was like a kid. Who wouldn’t want to spend a shift following a top notch fire house?
Joe got me set up with a bunk. My thanks go to Mark who moved to another area across the hall so I could sleep in the bunk next to Joe’s. And yes, we were sleeping while on shift. Shifts run 24 hours. You have to sleep. You shut your eyes and then the alarm goes off. Your number is called and you spring up, throw on your clothes and hit the door. Maybe 60 seconds, or 90 seconds to be in and out.
We had a few other calls. I saw one lady who was having what they thought was a stroke. That was a bit weird for me, but the guys handled it so well. I was right next to her in the back telling her it was going to be OK as Joe and Bill worked on her. They grabbed another guy to drive to the hospital. I learned that if you can catch a stroke within an hour you can really reverse it. Over an hour is not as lucky. They were adept at doing their tests and everything while the ambulance was barreling down the road.
I also got to meet a local guy who appeared to be a drunk. You should’ve seen the faces on the people at the hospital when we brought him in. “He was just here last night.” I guess he gets drunk, passes out, someone calls for an ambulance, they take him in, he sleeps it off and then leaves on his own power the next day. I think everyone involved is pissed because he takes away their time and effort. I know Joe was, “45 minutes of my time for this crap. What if someone else needed us?”
What I learned from my day is that being a firefighter takes a lot of effort, training, dedication, perseverance, and caring. What seems to run through and deep in all of them is that they all want to help people. They like the rush of the different calls but it is the people that bring them to this profession.
I was about to end, but I will tell a funny one. I woke up in my bunk at 3:58 AM. My stomach was killing me. I laid there. The chicken! Crap, I have salmonella. I’m sick. Great. Now what. I contemplated if I needed to get up and go to the bathroom. “Please don’t let that alarm go off.” I laid there. “Beep, beep, beep!” the alarm blared. “Oh shit, please not us. Not us.” The ladies voice came on and Joe sprung to action. “Let’s go.” “Oh shit” is all that I could think. I got up and clothed. I didn’t come this far to stay in bed. It was 4:02 AM. We rushed out. “Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. What am I gonna do? Please no. Please no.” We got in the ambulance and locked in. My stomach was bubbling. I shut my eyes and focused. Just what I need, to crap all over the back of the ambulance. “Oh, shit.” Bill and Joe did their thing and they got on the radio. I was in another world and not paying attention to what they were saying. Then Bill said, “I guess we didn’t need to get up. The cops got it. It was just an abandoned car.” And then they got out. “Thank you god!” I rushed out, they went into the bunkhouse and I went into the outhouse. All good after that.
The night ended pretty quietly. Alarms would go off here and there, but they did not involve us. This was one of my best memories of the trip so far. I bonded with a friend, learned about what it was like to be a firefighter, and made some new friends. It’s amazing how this thing keeps rolling along. Thanks to my new friends at Station 11 for having me.