Not Just Another day on Mulberry Street.


Today I was on the phone with my best friend in the ENTIRE WORLD. She and I will someday rule this crazy land together and have a cult-like following. She is my other half and has been since Kindergarten - ever since I saw her at that movie theater, and in true Carla style, went over to say "hi" and scared the shit out of her. I, being Carla, assumed she would know who I was because we spent every morning together, and therefore I already considered her my friend.

Then one fateful afternoon I would go to her house, she would give me a tour, play me "The Rainbow Connection" on her record player, and then it was time to go home. But on that day a wonderful friendship became a bonding at the hip, and I learned how cool the record player is.

While I was on the phone with my beloved friend, complaining about boys and dance, I noticed the sound of sirens and cop cars whizzing by my place. I stood in awe. Cop cars, on my street? This never happens. And then a fire truck came. And more cop cars. And more fire trucks. In all, five cop cars and four fire trucks took residence on my street.

People piled out of their houses to see what was going on, and I, being the cool human I am, took pictures.

This is the first truck that arrived on scene. Things were tense. The firemen (no they were not firepeople - they were all men, so I am correct here) were rushing around (okay so they were moving slower than I usually move... but the photo doesn't necessarily tell you that) This is the "Heavy Rescue" truck. Is this different from regular rescue? Do they also have a "Light Rescue" for things like, cats in trees or burnt toast?
Firemen RUSHING to the burning/leaking/exploding condo across the street. We were guessing what the hell happened - and were sooo off. Why would they use cop cars to block both ends of the street and have FOUR fire tucks on hand, if the building wasn't going to explode at any second???
Here we go - what the hell is the "Air-Light Rehab" truck for? What IS "Air-Light Rehab?"
Man frantically putting on coat to go into dangerous situation!!!
Man pulling out hoses at Superman Speed! (not really, this was all painfully slow).

And when the trucks started to pull away, I got the guts to go ask the police officer sitting in his car what had happened.

And TODAY, Not Just Another Day on Mulberry Street, was caused by a sprinkler malfunction in one of the condos. FOUR FUCKING FIRE TRUCKS and FIVE COP CARS and CLOSING OFF THE STREET for a sprinkler malfunction.

What the hell would they do if the building were on the verge of explosion???

Comments

Anonymous said…
Questions answered:

Heavy rescue is used for thing such as car crashes and other incidents that need more specialized and heavier tools for the job like the jaws of life.

Air-light-rehab:
air: supplies air bottles to the firemen
light: provides light on an incident at night, often seen at car accidents
rehab: provide refreshments and such to firemen on longer incidents.
This is basically a support vehicle.

The reason for so many units on scene is because of the size of the building . The dispatcher would have gotten the call from the alarm company saying that there is a water flow alarm at the condo building at xxx Mulberry street. At that point they dispatch the police and fire. Each type of incident has a standard assignment that is dispatched. For a bigger building more units would be needed if it were a real incident. In this case it looks like they dispatched a rescue rig, rehab, i would guess an engine and a ladder truck. Police would be used for blocking roads and crowd control. other incidents would get a different assignment, car accidents would have certain units that would respond as would a medical incident. The thing with fire calls is that most of them end up being false alarms. Thats when having a scanner is really nice, but i'm a radio nerd though.

Hope that answers some questions.

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